...Would you guys like a dog?
Very random post from an inactive author I know. (Well, inactive in posting ask's I mean; I have been working on the story a lot in recent days. and we are projected to reach 100k by next update. Yeah. Wasn't kidding, grief does wonders for my productivity as you will soon see why.)
But um, to put it simply—I am distraught.
In recent weeks my beloved childhood dog, Kiba, has had numerous visits to the vet due to a constant bleeding and a growth forming in his mouth. We were told it is cancer and that it has reached his jaw bone, this was all very sudden and we had no clue until it was way too late to save him.
I just said goodbye to him right now, I don't have the heart to see him fully go; so thankfully my parents were willing to take him for me to the animal hospital one last time to put him to sleep.
He was my first dog and has been with me from elementary all the way to college, I am happy I got this much time with him but it just hurts really bad to say goodbye.
But trauma dumping aside, I don't know if everyone knows this but this story was made because of the passing of my Uncle Chris; he was my dad's best friend that I considered family and was extremely close to. When he died my little sister Brianna passed a week later, the grief I felt led me to writing this story and finding catharsis in the hellish cycle of creative writing.
I love this story and writing it brings me a lot of healing, I always find ways to reference and honor my loved ones in it's world building and it is extremely likely I will find a way to channel my grief for Kiba into this story too.
So before I go off and make big changes, I wanted to include you all. Would you like MC to have a dog themselves or have traveler own the dog? Because I am immortalizing Kiba one way or another tbh (sorry if that comes off rude, I am just hurting a lot right now).
I was originally going to have MC pick up the dog as a stray and nurse it back to health under June's guidance (don't you love parallels?). But I kind of see a potential plot hole if your MC choses to see Sombra as competition for June's affection (although I could explain that it's different because Sombra is June's animal and this dog would be MC's); I also don't want to force too much of a self insert on you guys. So I want to give you guys the choice before I just went ahead with my plan B.
The other idea I was going to go with is just have Traveler own the dog, MC camps and travels with her often enough in the story that I could write for the dog to be present along side you both as you travel while keep the interactions controlled and limited. I am partial to this idea but I wanted your guy's opinion.
Do you guys want MC to have the dog or have the traveler own the dog and MC gets optional petting privileges?
Dog belongs to MC
Dog belongs to Traveler
Voting ended onJul 16, 2025
And yeah this is a one day poll because I need to write ASAP, for my own sake. Thank you all for your input and understanding, I am sorry for the depressing post.
I hope everyone else is doing better than I currently am right now, literally crying as I type this lol. I just want to leave this collage of my good boy on this post as well, just to mark this date of his passing on this blog and honor him.
Good God, I am going to miss him.
