YOU COULD CALL THIS THE FUNERAL | joining

"Get your shit together Wakescott. This is fine. You're fine. Shut the fuck up."

Pacing the decrepit walls directly surrounding the castle the Knights of Eden called home was a thin smooth collie, head hung low as he quietly murmured countless sentences to himself. The sable canidae wasn't even hiking a course around the entire bastion, but rather wearing a precise line into the earth as he paced compulsively. Icy blue eyes stared down unblinkingly at dirtied white paws as Wakescott wasted his time until a member of the Knights of Eden happened upon him. No, he was not going to call attention to himself: the canine had hiked miles to happen upon this group, accustomed to roaming human-infested streets where calling attention to yourself meant strays that had formed packs would outnumber and pounce you to make a quick meal out of the lone wolf. Wakescott knew how to fight- in fact the expensive purebred was littered with scars, canine teeth supposed to be sharp at his age dulled from heavy use starting the moment he knew how to bite back. Once fresh wounds had closed but remained scabbed and sore to the eye, red with budding infections. But the war-torn fledgling held no other sign of his extensive history of fighting, his gait smooth and regal: an expectation of his breed. Wakescott was the victim of child abduction, forced into the underground circle of fighting under the assumption the pup bred for show rather than fighting would wither away beneath his first attacker. Pumped full of drugs as he aged, when the humans realized he would not go down quietly. When he bested new fighters, felt the life drain from their body as he held their throat between his teeth. Weeded out the weak. Those not worth the money to put in the ring. But fighting prowess and aggression would spell his death on the streets of strays and ferals, so Wakescott ran. Ran and ran until he physically could not anymore. His paws ached horribly as he paced at the wall of the castle, but he would not stop moving. Could not stop moving.

"You got this. Just fucking relax. Take your God damn meds."