Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Name: I'm known as Gawain around here.
Gender: Hopefully you didn't think I was female.
Age: Three and a half summers, I think? I don't keep track of time very well.
Breed: I'm a German Shepherd, even if my pelt color does not suggest that.
Pack: The very noble Levitas pack.
Rank: The amazing king.
Mate: None yet, but Guineviere looks nice.
Pups: None yet, but I would make a great father.
Role Played By: Crow (rebel_crow)

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

I am a German Shepherd, even if I do not quite look like one at first. That, you see, is because I do not sport the color of an average German Shepherd. Instead of being mostly tan with a black back, I am instead 99% black, the other one percent being a very dark shade of gray that looks almost black. I don't measure well, so that might not be an exact measure. My eyes are a dark, tree-bark-colored brown, although I haven't seen that many trees, so I would not know if there are others that have different-colored bark. My nose and my paw pads are the same color as my fur. I have no birthmarks, and I have an average amount of scars because of my past.

I have a pretty nice build when it comes to fighting, running and jumping, I would say. My legs are long but also have some muscle on them, but I'm no crazed mutant dog with super strength. I am a big dog like all German Shepherds, but I am average-sized for a German Shepherd, so once again I am no crazed mutant dog. My claws are chipped and cracked. Every time they grow back they chip and crack again, and there's nothing that I can do about it. That's just the life on the streets. My fur is pretty fluffy around my torso and neck, but when it comes to my head and hair, it's rather short. My ears point up and then form a rounded point. What's left of my tail is ragged pieces from my fight with the Archos Trigger.

All your life

For the majority of my time here on this planet, I believed that I was a rather brave and noble dog because of my past with the humans. After all, I protected life on Earth; the life of dogs, the life of humans, and even some cats I believe. Not to mention the thousands of bugs that would have been stepped on if I hadn't wrestled those people to the ground in time.

If you haven't figured out by that last sentence, I'm also pretty sarcastic when it comes down to it. If I have something satirical or sarcastic to say, I'll say it, but only if it's making fun of me or somebody who I know enjoys it. Like, I would never be satirical when talking about Artemis. I don't even know Artemis, but he is my emporer, so I know that until I know that he can take a joke, I'll hold my tongue about it.

I've never really been good when it comes to romance. If I have a crush on a dog, I can't stop thinking about them for a long time, but then I can never get the courage up to actually tell them that, and then they just end up slipping away from me. Or, if I do tell them, I end up telling them in a funny way or something, because they just look really, really confused.

I have an alternate personality that is known as Agravain. Agravain doesn't really have a rank in my mind because I can control him a lot. When he does come out, though, he's crazy. He's the total opposite of me. He only knows how to kill and insult with ease and would pick a fight over a persuasive talk any day. So... I'm warning you now to watch out for him. He's only bad news.

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

You want to know my history? Nobody has really asked me about that before, but I suppose that I could tell you if you really are interested. Let me begin.

I was born in a human home. It was average for humans. It was not the equivalent of owning the whole city, but it was not the human equivalent of a single alley, either. It was pretty much just the same size as the regular territory of a loner. I ate the food that regular human owners give their dogs and would snuggle up next to my mother night after night when I was tired. I knew little about the family. All I knew was that the two girls carried something on their backs when they left and came home five days a week, that the mother rarely left the house, and that the father came home in the dead of night, tired and occasionally bloody.

When I was about half a summer old, the father was just about to leave and I was just about to settle down for my mid-morning nap when all of a sudden he grabbed a rope, wrapped it around me, and yanked me over. I followed him the whole way over to where he worked. There were other men that had different faces but looked identical to him. He took me over to a room with other German Shepherds that were all my age. They were different colors, but they were all my breed. We were taught commands for several weeks, but it all paid off. Two moons later we got to do some interesting things. We learned "weapons" that we needed to get rid of if we found them in somebody's hand. We learned several scents that would help us. We had to do physical labor to test our endurance. After about a moon of that we were let into the room past the training room. Only about half of us made it through; the others were either exhausted or forgot the commands.

When we were let into the other rooms, they put things on us with words and assigned us all a human. I was lucky enough to get my previous owner to work with. That was when we entered the battlefield. We worked from dawn until the middle of the night. Some days were peaceful and we only had to chase down a couple of people, but others they sent out a whole pack of people and dogs to investigate. All of us were tired after those days and eager to get home.

One night was the worst night of all. We had to find and bring back several people with "weapons" that were hiding in the woods and probably camouflaged. They sent out three humans and their dogs to investigate. Eventually we found them and the humans started to attack, but the others were ready and started attacking back. Their aim wasn't very good and the two other dogs died. Forgetting everything I learned about loyalty, I ran away past the woods and back into the city where I would be a loner. My mother Morgana would miss me, but I knew what I needed to do. I knew how to fight humans and dogs couldn't be too different. I needed to be a loner.

At one point, the thing that they stuck me in when I was working snagged on something and broke off, because I'm not wearing it anymore. I was a loner for some time, that's when I really lost track of time, but then I heard a loner talking about these packs: the Levitas, the Vicuses, the Cruors, and Archos. I demanded to know more and he told me about all of them. When I was finished, I chose the Levitas.

There was this old dog by the name of Finn that was King when I first got there. Something happened to him and he just dropped off of the face of the Earth, and there was an opening, and I got to be the king. Soon it was too much for me. That's where Agravain comes in, my alternate personality.

Once when Agravain was in charge I followed a trail of blood to this crazy Archos wolf-dog by the name of Trigger. I was trying to be as friendly as my split personality could be and he insulted me and my pack. Naturally we got into a fight, and I attacked his ear and gave him a forked tongue, but he ripped my tail in half. I killed an innocent dog in my fury. What monster have I become?

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

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