I COULD NEVER REST MY MIND | JOINING

[GARRETT]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 1.4;letter-spacing:.1px"]/ idk what's going on but uh. basically he has a lot of poorly healed injuries, the largest being a bite on the back of his neck near his shoulders.

He should never have left this place. People had made him ache, nervous and thrumming and separate, different, but he had been safer here. There were enough strangers that he could fade into the background, as much as he hated that same thought. Safety hadn't been a pleasant thing since he lost home. For a while, the dog had managed to hold some hope in his chest. They could still be alive, they could be looking for him, he could make it back there. Lately, though, not even birdsong had managed to tip him back towards optimism. What were you supposed to do when everything you cared for slowly crumbled underneath your touch?

There's no answer for that question, even though it's the first and last thing he thinks every day. He wakes up on a quiet, semi-peaceful morning, a grey sky hanging over his head, and simply stays there to think. But twigs and stones press at him through thick fur; it doesn't take long for discomfort to force Garrett to his feet again. His muscles twinge and he feels sick to his stomach. Something is poisoning him in parts, tar spreading through his veins and making him sluggish. There are half-healed wounds all over his body, some scabbed over and some still red and open as the edges of his skin try to reach towards each other. Everything is hot around the edges and maybe that's where that feeling comes from, but whatever crawls through his body feels like it's alive.

He walks mindlessly, paws tracing the familiar path down the tracks, sometimes wincing as the bag strapped to his side bounces heavily. Water laps at worn, scraped paws, until he reaches the gate. Dull green, unfocused eyes catch on the bell, but he doesn't reach up to ring it. Someone will be here soon.

[PEPPINO]

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He hadn't been around very much, but then, some of the people he interacted the most with were gone. First it was Garrett, and then it was Bakugou; most recently, it was his father, who Pip always worried over but rarely had a chance to speak to. That...wasn't going to change much, all things considered. He could seek out his sister, because she was warm and friendly, wouldn't turn him away, but after the deal he made- he knew what would happen, whenever that person came back for his side of the exchange. Maybe the distance was for the best. Maybe it would make it easier than it would have been if Pip spoke with her frequently, if he learned more of what she did and didn't like. Pip convinced himself it was better this way.

But he couldn't stop helping people, so when he smelled blood, the young canine didn't hesitate to follow it, all the way to the gate. No one had rung the bells, which, paired with the blood, meant they could be incapacitated severely, and his pace increased, bringing him closer to find- Garrett? He looked dreadful, covered in puffy wounds, clearly infected. And he looked sad, or hollow, as though he hadn't found what he'd been searching for.

Pip's heart lurched, and with it, his paws, springing back into movement. "Garrett! It will be all right, I'm here. Let me help." He dropped his bag carefully, rummaging through for the saline, for cloth and bandages and ointment. "Please, sit before you fall. I'll get you cleaned up."
[align=right][i]INFORMATION

[bubblegum]