if it weren't for second chances — open , dog .

[EDMUND.]

[align=center][div style="width: 430px; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 6pt; letter-spacing: 2.5px; word-spacing: 0px; line-height: 12px; color: #000"]Following the fight between Bluestem Prairie in which Flintlock Lodge succeeded in debilitating them, and prior to the vulnerable and caretakers returning to Flintlock Lodge once more, Eddie wanted to be certain that he did everything in his power to ensure that, once his children returned, they’d be safe. After all, little Charlotte and Thomas were nearing their third birthdays, far too young to defend themselves from the harsh reality of their situation. Thrust between political tensions, Eddie had no way of assuring that this would be the last of their troubles with Bluestem Prairie. But, for now the Lodge had managed to exhaust the Ranchers to the point of rendering them weak. They’d not be bothering Flintlock Lodge any time soon.

But, Eddie liked to prepare far in advance for the inevitable. After all, a lack of preparation had always been what let Eddie down. Little did he know, it was impossible to predict all of life’s miseries.

Upon the group’s return to Flintlock Lodge, the atmosphere was grave and depressing. Many people had lost their lives, and the Lodge grieved for each and every person whose life had come to an end during these last several months. Many thanked Eddie for his deeply pragmatic ways of commanding the group, whilst others despised him for the collateral damage involved in such a high risk battle. But, Eddie knew that he had done the very best he could in protecting the lodge and, one day, the people would be safer for it.

With a stricter and more rigid schedule of patrols set out by Frederick, weapons upgraded and boundaries reinforced by Tommy, and Eddie as quietly observant as ever as he recalled each and every pattern within the treeline of the surrounding forest, everything was finally coming together again in preparation for the return from Northstar. Cleaning up Charlotte and Tommy’s bedroom, lips twitching at the anticipation of having them return home again, Eddie stood in the doorway before he'd add one last touch. Stepping to the corner of the room, Eddie dropped a dog bed onto the floor before he left, shutting the door with a soft click.

Wandering back to the living room, Eddie stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets as he quietly watched Tommy leaning down, fussing a giant brown dog. Breath heavy and jowls dragging his face down, the dog’s mass alone was intimidating enough, especially for a first-time pet owner. But, Tom would guide Eddie through it all; after all, this dog was not a pet for Eddie, it was in order to protect his family. Stepping further into the living room, Eddie nodded his head slowly as he watched the dog, brows bunching slightly at the higher-than-usual pitch of Tommy’s ❛ dog talk ❜ before his older brother lifted his head to look at Eddie. ❝ He’s a good one. ❞  Tom explained, scratching the dog behind the ear.

Eddie was quiet for a moment before he pointed out, ❝ He looks happy for a neglected dog. ❞ Tommy pursed his lips, pointer finger wagging Ed’s way before he said, ❝ Well that’s because he ain’t no neglected dog no more, is he? He’s got a new home here. A second chance at life. ❞ The dog lumbered over towards Eddie, claws tapping against the floorboards as he panted contently. Eddie would not move from his position, gazing down at the dog awkwardly before slowly removing his hand from his pocket to pet the dog on the head. ❝ A second chance, ‘ey? ❞ Eddie huffed softly beneath his breath, looking down as the dog wagged his tail.

Eddie supposed that everyone here had a second chance at life now, hadn’t they? If it weren't for second chances, then they'd all be dead or worse, alone. And, Eddie wasn't alone yet.

[COLT MADISON.]

[align=center][div style="width: 370px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.4; color: black;"]— Colt had never had a 'family,' in any sense of the word. For one, he quite literally did not know a single person that he was related to; hell, he didn't even know his own mom's name, or what she might look like. She'd either abandoned him or lost him at some point during his early infancy, and he ended up with the Ring. Though the mercenaries of the Ring had taken him in, Colt wouldn't consider them to be his family, either. They were always cold, distant, even when he was a child; he wouldn't exactly say he'd been 'raised,' by any means. No, he was simply 'trained' - nothing more.

It felt stupid to think about, but as a kid, Colt had always dreamt of having a 'regular' family. He'd only ever heard about that sort of thing from the books he was allowed to read in his minimal spare time between combat training sessions, but his fantasy was always the same - two parents, a brother and a sister - one older than Colt, one younger - and a dog. It would be a big, huge, cuddly dog, that he and his siblings could play with in their yard while their parents made them food. It had been a while since Colt had actually sat down and daydreamed about a life like that - he was a bit old now, after all - but the thought still crossed his mind from time to time.

When Colt walked into the living room, coffee in hand, to see what the fuss was about and saw the giant canine, he was immediately reminded of those childhood daydreams. This was exactly the kind of dog that he'd always pictured his little family having. He immediately grinned, dropping to his knees and scooting over to the animal, letting it sniff his hand so it knew he was friendly. Colt gave a childlike laugh, looking up at Eddie and Tommy as he started petting the dog's flank. "He's huge! Where did you guys find him? He's gonna stick around, right? Does he like snacks?"

[blake k.]

Her and dogs were never something that got along, one scared her when she was little and now she was not a fan of them. She also hadn't interacted with a dog since then, which probably wasn't any help. So you can imagine the shot of fear when she saw a dog in the lodge. She wasn't aware of the dog bed in Tommy and Lottie's room, but that was definitely for the better.

"It's...staying?" her voice was usually dull and emotionless as of late, but it was hard to not hear the caution or even fear in her voice. Yes, not all dogs were mean, most weren't, but Blake hadn't been blessed with learning otherwise. So she made sure to stand away from the men that surrounded the dog, clearly excited for it to be sticking around. No surprise she'd be in the minority here. 

Part of her wanted to say to keep the dog away from the kids - because she definitely didn't want it scaring them - but she doubted that would be even a possibility. Instead, she went with the more reasonable request "Can you...keep him away from me? I-I'm...I don't have a good history with...dogs..." a dog, but it was her only experience.

[spoiler=TAGS 3/12]
Sick of all these people talking, sick of all this noise — general
▪ Blake Adrian Kegan | Blake, Blakie | open to nicknames
▪ AFAB | Identifies as Genderfluid | she/they
▪ 23 | Born July 26th | ages real time
▪ combat | member of Flintlock Lodge

Tired of all these cameras flashing, sick of being poised — physical
♦ Health: 100%
— They stand at 5'9" with semi-long wavy ginger hair. She has a rose tattoo and a few scars from past events. She's closer to an athletic build and is on the thinner side. She has an Australian accent as she's originally from Adelaide, Australia.
— minor injuries: n/a
— major injuries: n/a

Now my neck is open wide, begging for a fist around it — important events
— 12/05/40 Lost her best friend, Alfie
— 7/26/40 Celebrated her 23rd birthday
— 5/31/40 Had Keiron and Louis; The "Hell Twins"
— 4/26/40 Thomas and Charlotte turned 2

Already choking on my pride, so there's no use crying about it — personality
— I like to think Blake is a good example of the whole "strong, independent woman" thing even if she doesn't identify as a woman. She has a short temper and what I gently put as homicidal tendencies. She will gladly fight someone, regardless if they're bigger than her or not. However, she's also rather maternal and is more likely to protect a child than anything. Her maternal side has massively shown itself since the twins were born, though that leaves her more violent side to be overlooked or forgotten.
— Maternal, "Strong Independent Woman", Protective
— Violent, Homicidal Tendencies, Short Tempered

I'm headed straight for the castle — relationships
▪ Ryan Kegan x Katherine Kegan
▪ Pansexual | Panromantic | Polyamorous
▪ It's complicated | Crushing on one | Maybe Crushing on no one
    ↳ Involved with Danny Hargrove
▪ Ex-wife of Edmund Moray
    ↳ cheated on her
▪ Mother of six
    ↳ Thomas and Charlotte Moray (2yrs)
    ↳ Louis and Keiron Stirling-Kegan (10m)
    ↳ Currently pregnant, due in April
    ↳ Guardian to Danny's son, Cade (8yrs)

They wanna make me their queen — interaction
— Physically very hard | Mentally intermediate
— Uses compound bow and arrows
— Also skilled in hand to hand combat
— No killing and ask before major injuries or major interactions
— To attack, [member=9567]Noccy[/member] & attack in #B34600
[/spoiler]

[MINSUH.]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 7.3pt; color: #333; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.5px; word-spading: 3px;"]following the fight with bluestem, minsuh despised being at the lodge. 

solemn faces, tears, and heavy-hearts. minsuh couldn't relate to the emotions that came with grief, especially to those she barely knew. for awhile she observes it all. she's forced to sometimes help assist her brother with the injured, although she isn't very ecstatic about that, either. they're forced to listen as some recount their experiences, seething their opinions about the war itself. haneul feigns compassion , as always , listens to their stories as he patches them up , while minus's mind is elsewhere, distracted by the boy she keeps hidden in one of the cabins. she wonders if they found them yet. maybe if her brother allowed her to go, if she were able to see those deaths first hand she'd be able to do as he did; pretend to be better at caring. but he didn't, so she can't. it's all his fault, not hers. still, he continues to look at her with concern, questioning on whether he's okay: both of them know she is. and to him, that's a problem.

she doesn't care what haneul thinks though, not lately. she has other things to tend to that doesn't involve him, or them for once. minsuh excuses herself from her brother, saying that she has a patrol, and heads off to go see cassius.  she stays there for awhile, would stay forever if she could, but knows eventually her brother would ask about her. he'd notice she's away and asks eddie questions, in turn raising concern to him. that's the last thing she needed. for eddie to punish her as if he were her father; she didn't consider him that, much less a leader. he was worse than haneul. had he been less forgiving to bluestem, maybe less people would have died. maybe sebastian van doren would have still been alive. a good leader wouldn't have allowed for one of their own to die on their property. it was all pathetic, really.

she opens the door , forced to face her reality once again. as minsuh enters the lodge, she strips herself from her peacoat, and is expecting to be drowned in the familiar, dispiriting energy but instead she heard something completely different. minsuh walks into the living room where she sees eddie, tommy, colt, and blake. they surround a dog, or so she thinks. she doesn't think she's ever seen that breed before, but is smart enough to pick up on the characteristics that would associate it with that species. the lee family never owned animals , amma didn't like their shedding, and maybe it was better they didn't. usually at the hands of minsuh, they ended up as target practice rather than friends. but if she had to choose, she was more of a cat person, anyway. they required less attention.

[size=9pt]" aw, how cute." she says flippantly. walking over to the dog , she reaches her hand out , allowing it to sniff her. glancing at colt , she raised an eyebrow. [size=9pt]"i don't think i ever took you for a dog person." but then again, didn’t he have a raccoon named exactly that ? but look at him , he looked so happy with the thing. much more expression than the two she's ever seen him with.

[EDMUND.]

[align=center][div style="width: 430px; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 6pt; letter-spacing: 2.5px; word-spacing: 0px; line-height: 12px; color: #000"]People were in awe as they came to greet the rather large hound. Eddie couldn’t blame them; he’d barely seen a dog of this size before, either. Tommy informed him that it was likely a mastiff breed of some sort, powerful and muscular dogs that would fight to the death in order to maintain its utmost loyalty to its master. Eddie took a step away from the dog, the dog soon trudging around the living room once more to greet every new face in the room. Huh, some guard dog.

The dog greeted Colt, Eddie watching on fondly before quickly looking over towards his brother as Colt glanced his way. ❝ Well, ❞ Eddie began, ❝ good question. ❞ Or three. Slowly, Eddie leaned back to rest against the arm of the couch as he watched Tommy match Colt’s animated expression, seemingly pleased to see someone as interested in dogs as he was. ❝ Don't matter where he came from now. ❞ Tom avoided, mainly due to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the dog’s retrieval. Tommy would just say that it was a rescue mission, bringing the dog home. No details needed.

❝ Eddie said he’d keep the guy for Lottie and little Tommy. You ain’t met ‘em yet, they’re my niece ‘n’ nephew. Nephew was named after me. Me? I know right, Eddie ain’t got no points for creativity— ❞  ❝ Hey...❞ ❝ But it’s a good name. ❞ Tom held a dismissive hand up, Eddie rolling his eyes with feigned frustration as Tom explained, ❝ It’s a good name for good fellers. ❞

Eddie glanced over to the side as Blake and Minsuh wandered into the room, soon lifting his hand to gnaw at his thumbnail as he quietly observed their reactions to the dog. Whilst Minsuh seemed relaxed, talking to Colt, Blake appeared unnerved by the new, gigantic arrival. He glanced at the dog, too in awe with the attention from Colt and Minsuh to pay Blake too much attention at the moment, before looking over towards his ex-wife. ❝ A gift for when the children return. ❞ He stated carefully, as if worried about her response.

Soon, he straightened, slowly wandering over before he stopped nearby, glancing back over towards the dog. ❝ Look… he’s a safe dog. Around for peace of mind. Nobody would dare approach the children with him around. ❞ He cleared his throat before glancing back towards Blake. ❝ I’m trying… really trying to make sure they’ll always be safe here. I don’t want uncertainty in their lives for a day longer. ❞