Name: Ashton

Gender: Male

Breed: Norwegian Elkhound

Age: Little over two years.

Personality: The main defense going for Ashton is that his emotion always ends up getting the better of him. While he’s passionate about revenge and impulsive upon impact, it goes without saying that he does contain some level of emotion. Often Ashton’s greatest weakness is that he bottles up all the terribly raw things he feels until they end up exploding. He may be sly and cunning, but it isn’t as if he was never conned himself. Another problem that Ashton often is faced with is the ability to be easily influenced. As a puppy he felt easily lost and was never truly a leader although he had the potential to be one. He is rebellious no matter what and that may very well be just another disfigurement about him. He’s confused easily if a grip is let go, which is a key role in his development: without a head to look onto, his actions have the potential to careen out of control, becoming even more unpredictable than they already are. Usually, you’ll never see his soft side unless you extract it carefully. Ashton doesn’t like to feel weak or inferior which is often why he bottles everything up. By the same token, feeling this way heightens his need to release all the hurt, guilt, and frustration. Even though Ashton is smarter than his years, it would take a miracle for him to recognize his true problems never mind how to fix them.

Strong Points: He is clever, sly, and cunning. Almost nothing gets by him, except the fact he is easily influenced. His build allows for a lot of muscles, leading most to believe he is exceptionally strong; this is true. His teeth are sharp and his claws are remarkably durable. It’s hard to get a grip on him, but he’s not truly invincible. He does have weak spots such as his neck and ruff line.

Weak Points: His emotions always get the best of him and being easily influenced doesn’t help in the least. Ashton is blind when it comes to seeing his own problems, and often he bottles up his passionate aggressions in order to try and hide his weaknesses. He is highly unpredictable and while most may see this as a strength, it’s truly one of his highest weak spots. He himself never knows what he will do next and his actions are more than likely always dictated by what’s either happening around him or in him. His need for being independent is masked by his following capabilities. While he likes to believe he’d rather be a follower, Ashton knows somewhere deep down that he hates taking orders even if he’d have nowhere to turn to without else as a head.

History:

Ashton never spent much time with his mother, as much as he’d like to have admitted otherwise. He doesn’t even remember his father other than the fact he was a dark black that exceeded space. Stories constantly drift through his head of times he was playing with his siblings – all gray or black or even with white markings. This becomes blurry after a while, because most of Ashton’s childhood was spent alone. A natural curiosity overcame him and it turns out that even then, Ashton’s own thoughts prevailed over the warnings he was given.

Thinking only of what may lie ahead from him, Ashton became separated from his mother, finding a home with humans not too long after that. He was about two months and therefore perfect pickings for a family with children. He grew to love his family, but when the parents began to grow tired of him, they kicked him out of the house without any rhyme or reason. Ashton never knew what became of the children – the boy and girl he had come to love so dearly, but in the end his own betrayal hurt him further than anything else ever could. This blind want for a revenge he could never obtain left an important door right open.

He was around five months old when Carface found him scrounging around for food near the Fleabite. Carface gave him a home and introduced him to two other dogs whom he came to know as family. For the first time, Ashton felt he belonged somewhere and that from now he’d have unconditional love. An overcoming feeling of happiness drew him to trust Carface a lot more than he should have, and the older dog took this as an opportunity.

Week after week Carface began to fill Ashton’s head with lies. He replaced the elkhound’s want for revenge against his old human family as a growing hunger for any type of pain inflicted towards others. Carface did this to Bane and Philip too, Ashton’s new companions and ‘partners in crime’, but as Bane and Ashton’s heads began to fill blindly, especially Ashton’s, Philip saw past it eventually. Another feeling of betrayal hit him as he began to feel that Philip may not have been entirely loyal.

When they came of age, Carface asked the dogs to do a small task for him. He wanted them to kill Charlie, an age old rival of his that had apparently come back from the dead. What they didn’t know was that Carface had been in the same place as Charlie for many years too. They had both died and gone to heaven for some reason, but Carface neglected to mention that detail, caring only about the dirty work he had assigned his new play toys.

Ashton didn’t question this and while he’d never tried killing another dog before, he’d been in plenty of fights around Carface’s place to be beyond it. He actually couldn’t wait. Before they could get to Charlie, though, Carface died unexpectantly. He’d been working for an evil force and wanted to take Charlie up himself but didn’t mention that to the trio either. Feeling enraged and coming to the conclusion that it was Charlie who killed their adoptive father, Ashton, Bane, and Philip began devising a plan.

At the dead of night a while later, they carried it out. Ashton and Bane went full out against one of Charlie’s granddaughters, Mel. They believed her to be dead by the time they left the scene, but what Ashton and Bane didn’t realize was that Mel had been breathing – if not just barely – while they stepped away from the alley they left her in. Philip knew it, and from the weeks that came to be, Ashton began feeling more and more hurt as he and Bane discovered Philip’s new crush on Mel.

This tore apart any remaining stability he had, and he condemned the akita by telling his father of the situation.  When this happened, a new dog was sent to take Philip’s place, in a way. This dog, Matthew, happened to be a stray descendent of Charlie’s family tree. Well, more like a half brother to Mel and her siblings, but it was a good enough reason for him to feel hesitant about the entire situation. Ashton’s trust grew more fragile after that, and eventually he only trusted Bane, his adoptive sibling.

Philip’s actions had confused Ashton, as much as he’d hate to admit it. A part of him that was still trying to hold on told him that it hadn’t been such a bad thing, but another part told him that Philip was a traitor – and above all, Ashton never accepted traitors. This battle went on for what seemed like forever in Ashton as he desperately tried to sort out what was right and what was wrong. Years of his life had been wasted away being a toy to Carface and he had been unaware of it until Philip decided to take a step back from the trio.

It was during this time that the most devastating event ever foreseen came to happen to Ashton. The already paranoid dog was diagnosed with a minor but incurable case of schizophrenia. He’d begun to start having illusions as to what was real and what was not, and the instability and lack of structure inside Ashton was devastating. Because of his new state, he began to get sympathy from the few dogs who thought they knew him, but Ashton would always end up snapping at them in return, saying that he wasn’t weak and didn’t need anyone to feel sorry for him.

His illness was not terribly degrading and does not deem him as insane or crazy, but the illusions seem endless. Often he is seen biting or snapping at the air, yelling a curse at something nonexistent. This looks like the only real tests of his schizophrenia, but could others be wondering the same as he constantly does – is there more to his madness than meets the eye?

Crush: None

Siblings: [Adoptive] Bane, Philip

Parents: [Real] Unknown; [Adoptive] Carface

Other: He has an extremely minor case of paranoid schizophrenia.

*headshot © Saske (: