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Information
Name/Nickname: Teal Rat (NOTE that this is his Trench Rats codename); Aaron NN (his first name is known but not his last name); Erin NN (pseudonym)
Gender: Cisgender male
Birthdate/Age/Sign: NA; thirties/forties; Pisces
Orientation: Heteroromantic heterosexual
Relationship Status: Single
Race/Ethnicity/Nationality: Caucasian; European descent/Ashkenazi Jew (half Jewish); American
Class: Middle
Religion: None
Profession: Original member of Alpha Squad; Trench Rat; test subject/petty servant to Dr. Kammler
Birthplace/Residence: United States/Germany (deceased during the main story)
Personality/Characteristics
[Coming soon.]
Appearance
Teal is of average height; with a slender body type bordering on thin; has teal eyes; and has light cool gray and medium cool gray fur.
While in the Trench Rats, Teal dresses in the standard Trench Rat attire of a modified Pickelhaube and Prussian-style uniform, teal cape, and armband with lance corporal's stripe; during his captivity with Dr. Kammler, he wears a striped prisoner's uniform with an upright red triangle badge denoting him as a "Sonderhäftling," or special detainee. He keeps to himself and doesn't tend to speak his mind, so he comes across as cold, taciturn, closed off, and vaguely hostile, which isn't far from the truth; during his captivity, his demeanor is anxious, submissive, and servile.
Family & Relationships
Unnamed Mother
[Coming soon.]
Unnamed Half-Sister
[Coming soon.]
Unnamed Uncle
[Coming soon.]
Unnamed Father
[Coming soon.]
History
[Coming soon.]
Teal In Heaven
[Coming soon.]
Trivia
*Teal is instrumental in the belated yet ultimately successful effort to hold Sergeant Major Revell responsible for his crimes during the Great War. Major DeVries gives him a file folder of evidence to hide away before he heads overseas with the rest of Alpha Squad; Teal is unaware of its contents, yet keeps hold of it until he's able to safely conceal it in his room in Trench Rat Headquarters. Mahogany discovers it after his suicide and it's later used to bring charges against Revell. In effect, Teal helps convict Revell from beyond the grave.
*In Nazi captivity, he wears an upright red triangle, which marks him as a political prisoner or enemy POW, technically a Sonderhäftling (special detainee), a designation also given to Doomsday and Camo. The majority of prisoners with this designation were treated relatively well and survived the war. Dr. Kammler mistreats Teal badly enough that he's rebuked and warned by Captain Himmel that this is in violation of how POWs are to be treated; Major Jäger reiterates the warning, though he's more interested in keeping Projekt Weltuntergang running than in checking on a prisoner's wellbeing. (Camo is considered a far more important prisoner who should be handled carefully.) Kammler's treatment of Teal does vastly improve after Teal alerts guards to Silver Rat's presence.
*He adopts the name "Erin," despite its traditionally feminine spelling, to help conceal his Jewish ancestry when joining the armed forces. He nearly slips up when telling Dr. Kammler and Captain Himmel his name, saying, "Aaron: A-A...E-R-I-N."
*He and Anna Julian compare and contrast in that both are antisemitic yet Teal is able to keep his feelings out of his work, while Corporal Julian's hatred drives her official actions. Ironically, Teal is wrongly blamed for Julian's betrayal.
*He's one of Kaspar Lange's victims; this is the act that breaks him and leads him to ask Himmel to tell Dr. Kammler he'll do anything he asks. This also leads to him betraying Silver even though Silver plans to rescue him; as he explains after he's liberated, "Better him than me," hinting that he gave up Silver in hopes of avoiding another rape. He never recovers from his guilt over this, however, asking Burgundy to convey his apology to Silver before he kills himself.
*He develops Stockholm syndrome for Dr. Kammler, though it's more of a survival effort than genuine affection. Kammler praises and begins to treat him far more humanely, and grants him certain liberties, after his betrayal of Silver; desperate to avoid further punishment, Teal fawns over him, runs petty errands, and calls him Doktor-Vater (Doctor-Father). Following Kammler's capture and Teal's liberation, he stuns the Trench Rats by embracing Dr. Kammler and sobbing uncontrollably; yet as soon as it's made clear that he isn't Kammler's captive anymore, he pulls out a concealed knife and stabs Kammler to death. The presence of this weapon, and the pure rage he displays, indicate that he's had plans to try to kill Kammler for a long time.
*I consider him to be the character with the most tragic story so far (with Ratdog/Adel von NN being a close second). He goes his entire life being unloved and unwanted by absolutely everyone, including his own family; even his comrades in the Trench Rats ultimately fail him, by wrongly blaming him for betraying them and never following through on trying to rescue him. He never makes any friends, never has any loving relationship, and is abused, tortured, and manipulated. The only genuine kindness he ever experiences is the minimal attention shown him in captivity by Captain Himmel, though even Himmel (looking out for his and Kolten's wellbeing, and uncertain if Teal can be trusted) tells him at one point when he tries to appeal to him, "You and I are not friends." Although his guilt over Silver's capture and torture is the driving force behind his decision to take his own life, there's also the fact that, with Kammler now dead, he feels he has absolutely no one, and no reason left to continue living. He simply gives up. (Himmel rightfully rebukes Camo and the other Rats for turning their backs on "that poor Sonderhäftling.")
The sole silver lining to his story (aside from his role in convicting Revell) is his birth father, who learns of his existence only after Teal has gone overseas. Even after learning that his mother's and father's affair had been consensual, Teal assumes, incorrectly, that his father will reject him just as his mother did, and so never attempts to contact him, and the two never meet. Teal is dead by the time his father can make it overseas to find him, and he requests to visit his grave. Wishing to learn more about his son, he's directed to Otto Himmel, who's been stripped of his military rank and honors and set free by a military tribunal and now lives in the country near his son; Himmel is the lone surviving witness to know much about Teal's experiences. Himmel offers what little he knows, expressing his own guilt over being unable to help Teal; Teal's father thanks him for trying, as it meant at least Teal experienced some kindness in his life. Kolten offers Teal's father a drawing he made of Teal from memory.
*Teal was originally intended to be an antagonist, his betrayal of the Trench Rats genuine; the only thing preventing him from revealing the location of HQ to the Nazis was that he had some sort of amnesia or couldn't recall the exact place, so his status as a captive was always precarious. In the current reboot, I decided to explore the dynamic of "good guy" Anna Julian being the actual traitor while Teal is innocent, yet their personalities unreliably point toward Julian being innocent and Teal being complicit; Julian's outward appearance is sweet and saintly, while Teal's is standoffish and cold, yet Julian is the true monster. In a tragic twist, their fellow Trench Rats reach the completely wrong conclusions about them both, with devastating consequences for Teal.
*[Coming soon.]
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