Trench Rats

The basis for this storyline (the oldest, yet, until recently, the least developed of them all) was childhood interest in my seamstress mother making colored caps and capes for a WWI-related organization called "The Trench Rats." I knew little about WWI and so changed the setting of my budding story idea, featuring anthropomorphic rodents (wearing colored capes) and dogs, to WWII Nazi Germany. Over time, the originally goofy/comedic plot with bumbling Nazis such as "Woofwoof Hitler" and Inspector Dobermann slowly grew darker and more serious; for example, "Woofwoof" was dropped entirely, some characters were renamed or repurposed, and Dobermann shifted from a bungling Nazi to a much murkier character with unknown intentions, though still intended as an antagonist. Several brief attempts were made starting around the early 1990s to put the story in writing (including versions of sequels called "The Trench Rats--On Leave!" and "Inspector Dobermann To The Core"), but none got very far. The storyline went dormant for a long period due to lack of interest.

In the early 2000s, shortly after coming online, a reboot of the series was attempted. It went through a further, more serious incarnation, featuring revamps of a few existing characters, and a handful of new characters. Major points of the main plot, especially Project Doomsday, and at least three of the four now-existing story arcs--"Genesis," "Reborn," and "Reunion"--were developed a bit better. "Tough Love," a novella based on a subplot, was started but not completed. The storyline again went dormant and remained so until around November 2021. An adult scene was started, which led to several more; apart from this, however, new characters--and large swathes of new plot (including the previously nonexistent prequel arc, "Weltuntergang")--abruptly began to emerge. This continued at a steady pace and has been ongoing for almost two years now. During this period, I finally attempted making portraits of the characters, and intend to continue until I've gone through them all.

Most startling of all was the change that overcame many of the existing characters, especially "Inspector Dobermann," who by now has mostly dropped that title and become known by his Junker title of Freiherr. After nearly two decades of dormancy, I at last discovered his genuine personality, loyalties, and motivations, and found that he's a much different character from all his previous, misunderstood incarnations. I learned also he has some things in common with me, which was unexpected. Unfortunately...and I have to give a major plot spoiler here...another thing I learned was that he doesn't survive past the final story arc. "The Trench Rats" has become much darker and more devastating in its current incarnation, featuring the misfortune and deaths of many major characters, Dobermann among them, and considering how close I get to my characters, this has hit me quite hard; I've spent quite a few nights crying over it. It feels almost like being cheated to finally learn who somebody really is, only for them to be taken away just as this has happened. Yet this is what the new plot calls for, and unless there's another major change, I have to go with it.

As I'm in the middle of still brainstorming "The Trench Rats," I developed an interest in trying to finally determine the origin of my family surname, which I'd been told came from the Pennsylvania Dutch and thus was German in origin. (Concurrent interests often make their way into my creative work, so you can see traces of genealogical influences in the character profiles, such as Klemper and Ratdog, as a result. Klemper's farmer father Georg, for example, took the first name of the previous earliest ancestor of my surname I was able to trace--also a farmer; the name of the final earliest ancestor I've since traced, Hans, was already coincidentally in use--as the name of Ratdog's deceased toddler son.) Working with only the name of my paternal grandfather to go on, I managed in a single night to definitively trace my surname and paternal ancestry back through 1700s Pennsylvania Dutch country to 1500s Hesse, Germany. Yes...Hesse. Another complete coincidence (Gunter Hesse's name was inspired by author Hermann Hesse, whose "Siddhartha" and "Steppenwolf" I'd read in high school). I believe my renewed interest in this storyline directly led to this development and though there are still many gaps, especially on my father's side, I've learned quite a lot about my previously unknown roots (including maternal ties to nobility and royalty, such as much of the House of Wessex, and the Saxon leader Widukind).

Also, not long after this, my father suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. He did suffer, and I'm left not just in sorrow but in anger regarding his decision to forego medical care that might have saved him; again, I feel cheated. Only my mother and I know all the details, so with the unique circumstances of his passing, I don't have anyone to help me work through my feelings. I can't help but wonder, however, if this storyline, which went neglected for so long that I had written it off as dead for good, reemerged when it did as the universe's way of trying to help me prepare, however inadequately, for the pain and loss I would soon experience myself. I have no way of knowing, though as this is my one storyline with at least a somewhat concrete beginning and end, I intend to continue exploring it and its newly emerged plot and characters until the well finally runs dry. Maybe I can find some meaning in things.