Username: SergeantWinter
Name: Nate
Meaning: Nate is actually short for Nathan, which is named after Nathan Drake from Uncharted, as well as the fact that the pitsky seems to be in love with hot dogs. But the pitsky took a liking to the nickname “Nate” and responds better to it. He believes that the name “Nathan” brings bad luck.
Gender: Male
Collar: Pac Man
Past to Present: In the beginning, Nate had a wonderful home. His family loved him and fed him tons of treats, gave him boatloads of affection, and an endless supply of toys. He couldn’t ask for anything more. But then as time passed and he grew from puppy to adult, he received less treats, less affection, and next to no toys. The toys were either thrown out or never replaced once broken. The family had lost interest in the pitsky since he was no longer a puppy. He only ever got let out three times a day to use the bathroom for 10 minutes, and he got fed cheap dry dog food. There was no one to play with, no exercise, and most of all no love. It wasn’t Nate’s fault and yet the dog always blamed himself for it. He believed that he did something wrong that made the family ashamed of him. So he always tried to be on best behaviour and to prove himself to them, that he was worthy of their affection. But things only got worse, they started calling him names such as worthless and stupid whenever he appeared in their sight. Nate wasn’t stupid, he understood the human language fairly well, and as a result the words stung his heart deep. He began to withdraw himself and sit in the corner of a room to not even move. He was seen like an object and nothing more. This went on for a couple years until the family moved, Nate was left behind. He still had his collar which bore the name “Nathan”, his name, and the address of his owners. Although the address was to the house that they had put on the market and moved away from. Due to being told he was worth nothing more than a piece of trash, the dog didn’t believe he could be anything more. He learned how to live on the streets, but he wasn’t good at it. He was a pushover and other street dogs would take his meal and rough him up, while he sat there and just took it. The collar never left Nate’s neck, deep in his heart he hoped that his family would return for him. He even returned to the house daily to see if they had came home, but there was nothing every time.
One day it all changed for the pitsky when he was visiting the house. The neighbours, a sweet old couple, had called him over. They knew his name due to hearing his family call it in past years. Nate went over to greet the couple and they fed him, a nice warm heaping dish of scraps from dinner. From that day forward Nate would visit the couple’s house in the morning and at night. Thanks to them he was back to being healthy and fit as a fiddle again. He survived on the streets with their help, which he would always be grateful for. Although his luck had only lasted so long, as soon the elderly couple had passed away from what could only be amused as old age. Nate didn’t realize it until three days later with a grumbling stomach, as well as when a new person appeared to be staying at the old couples house now. The person looked like a relative of the couple, perhaps she was their daughter. After a few days of Nate showing up at the house, the lady had called up the local shelter, Second Chance Shelter, and told them of Nate. It wasn’t long before a car came to take the pitsky away to be treated and cared for, to be given a new home.
Comically enough, the daughter’s friend ended up adopting Nate from the shelter once he was cured from the illness that the pitsky had received from being on the streets. The friend had a son, quite the rebellious little boy, that needed to learn responsibility. Nate was perfect for him as the pitsky kept the boy busy from causing trouble, as well as helping the boy from the recent loss of his father. Obviously the dog was not solely the boys responsibility as the friend had happily took care of Nate as well. Through the friend and the boy, the pitsky was able to feel loved once more. And Nate had found his passion for videogames with the boy.
Personality: Nate is a gamer fanatic. You may wonder how is this possible, he’s a dog so logically he can’t game. But it is just like when someone says they have a “tv dog”, a dog who sits and watches tv. Except Nate doesn’t watch tv, he watches people game. Preferably a video game over a sports game, because he likes to witness a sports game live, in person. There is no game that he does not like, and he even likes to watch a superhero movie on occasion. But he won’t watch any tv or anything else. Nate isn’t the type of gamer that lives in his mother's basement at the age of 41 and overweight, nor that overactive, unhealthily skinny athlete. He is actually very healthily fit, and plays soccer with his human on warm sunny days. While on the gloomy and rainy days, he plays fetch indoors because he’ll retrieve the video games from the shelf, and bring it to his human to play. On top of that, once a week at the minimum, he and his human meet up with other humans to do this thing they call “LARP”. Live Action Role Play. Now Nate has no idea what the fus is about, but it’s great because all he has to do is dress up and pretend to be dead when he is “shot” with a nerf bullet, and then he can run around like a maniac with his tongue out flopping in the wind. Those are the highlight moments of his week.
All his toys are based off of a video game characters and he gets very jealous when someone touches his toy. It’s the only time he ever gets jealous, and generally he’ll play with whatever toys were touched for the next hour. The toys all come from boxes, Nate doesn’t understand it, but they are from sponsors. See the pitsky is also a mascot for a gaming conference as well as having a youtube channel that he features in on occasion, his human’s youtube channel. So the pitsky has no idea what a big deal that is, he just enjoys the toys. Enjoys the simple things in life.
Despite being a gamer fanatic, he isn’t competitive and actually has good sportsmanship. Nate is extremely responsive to his human, although it can be difficult to get him to listen in crowded or busy areas. This is because the pitsky is a bit of social awkward dork, he doesn’t seem to get the concept of sniffing other dog’s butts to greet them. So he freaks out whenever a dog comes up and sniffs him there. He has this “what the heck, bro” moment. With that said, Nate isn’t as socially awkward with people as he’ll just have to sniff the person’s hand before they pet him. Now he does try to be a ladies dog, but it hasn’t worked out for him yet. Nate truly tries to flirt with the women and to get some action, or even just a decent conversation, but they always just giggle and walk away. It leaves the poor pitsky confuzzled.
Nate has a bad relationship with confidence. It is always slacking off and no wheres to be found. However it is ironic that he doesn’t have confidence and yet he is a mascot for a gaming conference. You would think you’d have confidence there, except this is normal life for Nate. He doesn’t see it as extraordinary to be a mascot for something so big. Not too mention the fact that he often compares his average life to a superhero’s, like in the movies, that is why he views his life as ordinary and average. He fails to recognize that movies are movies, and he needs to get out of that concept to look at things for a “reality” perspective. We know it won’t ever happen, so it is sort of like his confidence is MIA, like it’s there but hidden. To some it may be a charming trait, that Nate can have his confidence without knowing during gaming conferences and videos, but have zero confidence doing anything else.
Just like how humans have dreams, the pitsky does as well. However these aren’t the iconic doggy dream where the dog is chasing a cat or something. It’s more of a nightmare where an antagonist from the latest game is chasing poor ol’ Nate. It could be anything from zombies to a patient escapee in outlast. Nate also has a fear of the dark because his vision is distorted. A pile of clothes, or a tv stand may look like one of these antagonists. In which his human had to go out and buy night lights to place all over the house for Nate to not wake the whole house up by howling in fright.
Outside of it all, Nate is a very happy dog and loving dog. He absolutely loves affection, can't get enough of it to be honest, and he is a big family dog. Although he isn't much of a guard dog since he can have a bit of blind loyalty, and over trusting. But that don't mean Nate isn't intelligent, because in an emergency he can tell real fast who's the bad guy and who's the good guy. Such as who has the gunpowder and who doesn't. Nate is infamous for his excellent sniffer, whether it's sniffing our criminals or if its sniffing out hotdogs. More often it's the hotdogs. He is also smart in the way of stopping his human from crossing the street when it's clear the car isn't going to stop. Although these situations don't happen often, they do appear on the rare occasion. The pitsky would make a great hunting dog, if it weren't for the fact that he didn't want to hurt the poor woodland critters. He'd hunt them down but never harm them. Just a giant soft teddy bear, he is. Hence why he loves to curl up on the couch beside his human while his human plays video games, the entire time during cut scenes he always gets a rub on the back or a scratch behind the ears. Nate's a big dorky baby really, as how his human likes to refer to him as.
Quirks: The pitsky loves video games of all sorts, but he doesn’t like his human playing on the computer. Mainly because he is unable to sit beside his human and watch, as the computer is usually setting on a desk or table and the human sits in a chair. Nate can’t watch while sitting on the floor, and he finds it extremely irritating. So whenever his human is looking to play a video game, Nate will either sit on top of the laptop, or sit in the chair that is at the computer desk to stop his human from going on it. It all depends on whether or not the laptop is in an area he is able to sit on.
Nate has this thing with collecting video games. Whenever his human goes to throw out a game because it’s trash and no longer works, the pitsky will go fishing it out. He takes the game and hides it under the human’s bed, where he has an ever growing collection. And that is simply all he does with it. He just likes to look at them and remember all the good times they had with it, playing it. It helps him pass time, and to not go into such a melancholy state when his human leaves at home alone.
Good ol' young'un Nate is also infamous for digging holes. It is like a minefield out there whether you are walking or trying to mow the lawn, you gotta be extra careful not to twist your ankle when running through it. But those holes serve a purpose. See any treat given to the pitsky is brought to the hole and buried. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bone, a scrap from dinner, it could be anything that was awarded or given to him and is editable. There is one exception though, he will not bury a hotdog. He takes the hotdog and eats it on his bed. But it has to be a hotdog, so even a if he’s given a piece of a sausage. The sausage’s fate is to be buried in a hole. The buried editable treasure ends up being a snack for later on when he gets put outside for a period of time.
Theme Song: Chainsmokers & Coldplay - Something Just Like ThisNate lacks confidence to be something great but instead of pushing himself to be bigger and better, he accepts himself for how he is. He tries to find people that are like him, on the same playing field as him, and equal to him that can help him as he helps them in return.
What secret are they sharing with 325?: It was one of those times where Delphi needed a distraction. Nate was quick to tell her a story of when he was visiting with the old couple. By now Delphi has already learned about Nate’s past since he has the tendency to be open, and he leaks information fairly easily once you have his trust.
The pitsky was yammering on about when he was eating some gourmet dog food that the wife in the couple had made, she was an amazing chef, and it was the best food he had ever tasted in his life. Nate went into such drastic measures to describe this food that he gained a few giggles out of the saluki and mudi mix. Because seriously, it was like eating in heaven. It even left his stomach growling in lust to taste that wonderfully delicious food once more.
Then he proceeded to make mention of this yellow canary, because the old couple had owned this supposedly friendly bird. It was apparently loose within the house, but the old couple didn’t seem bothered. This bird had actually flew out of the house once it had noticed the door was open for Nate, but it didn’t go far. Instead of flying off, the bird landed on Nate’s back.
Now the pitsky was absolutely petrified, this yellow canary had it talons digging into his back. He dared not to move a single muscle, with the little pricks of the deathly nails pinching his beloved and precious skin. What was even more bewildering, the old couple still didn’t seem alarmed! They stood there trying to figure out how to use the camera and bickering back and forth. All because they wanted a picture of this sweet little moment with their bird and Nate bonding. Well, Nate clearly didn’t think this wasn’t a sweet little bird, this was a bird sent from the pits of hell by the devil himself. Birds were not to be trusted and to be avoided at all costs.
It had to have been at the very least, a century before the old couple removed the yellow canary, and placed the pretty bird back into it’s cage. Nate would never forget that traumatic event in his life, he almost died you know. It was life changing for him. He even had nightmares for the next year over the encounter with that wretched thing.
Of course the story was blown out of portion and greatly exaggerated, but it was all in the name of relieving Delphi from her troublesome worries. The secret being, that birds are evil. Because believe it or not, not all dogs knew this. Some were so crazy and insane as to chase after them! Nothing more and nothing less. By the end of it Delphi was howling with laughter, more so with her eyes than with her actual voice. Although the smile plastered on the pitsky’s muzzle would leave you wondering if he was afraid of birds, or was this just for show.
Needless to say, once upon a time a yellow canary did actually land on his back.
Relationship with Delphi: Nate is a loner, but that isn’t because he wants to be. No one has ever shown any interest in him before, let alone actually having any honest interest in him. Constantly for his entire life, he has been casted away and forgotten about. So when Delphi came into his life, he wasn’t expecting her to pay any notice to him.
See Delphi and Nate have a few traits in common, although it’s not in the same sense. Nate has been told he is useless, and helpless, he can’t do anything for himself. Which has been drilled into his head since a young age, but this is not true and it has gotten to the point that he believes it is true.
Delphi knew that it is good to make an ally when you are in an unfamiliar area, so being her manipulative and intelligent self, she noticed this right away.
It was like magic. She influenced Nate into believing it he is not useless or worthless, and he needs to prove it, he is worthy of having people’s interests. She also recognized that he doesn’t fit in with the rest of the crowd. He is different and is far from your generic dog. This helped her to even farther influence Nate, and to even successfully gain an ally. Which meant she had him wrapped around her finger.
Nate may have been manipulated by Delphi but that isn’t to say he didn’t know what she was doing. He didn’t object because it made him feel good about himself. He liked that feeling and never wanted it go away, but this left him with the want to repay Delphi. It hadn’t been long for him to notice that she was claustrophobic as she was hesitant to enter the kennel or any small closed in area. It lead to Nate helping her cope in the little area they had, and trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Maybe even sharing a little joke with her to make her laugh and loosen up about their situation. He had her back like she had his.
Sure this made the two dogs even, and it wasn’t like they knew each other. They could easily walk their separate ways after this was over and they got adopted, but that didn’t seem entirely right to Nate. They were more than acquaintances, they helped each other through their darkest times. They were friends. Delphi is Nate’s first friend and he is eager to make more, which he feels he can now thanks to her. And maybe, just maybe Nate feels a little something special since Delphi is his first.
Best friend: Colby is a domestic shorthair who was already living with the people who had adopted Nate. The two pets became fast friends as Colby was quick on his feet, more often than not, Nate found himself trying to keep up with the little guy rather than the other way around. The cat was spontaneous and Nate found it addicting, as well as the fact that the cat had a big heart. What’s not to love?
Now Colby absolutely loved Nate, but he also loved to cause a ruckus or commotion. There is simply no better way to keep the house alive and interesting. With that said, Nate would go to Colboy for some girl advice and the orange feline would always give him terrible advice. The pitsky hadn’t known right from wrong in these situations, so he blindly followed Colby’s wisdom. Over the numerous times this has happened and the poor dog still hasn’t figured it out. He trusts the devious lunatic that much.
It is even said that a certain chow chow and gsd mix helped to egg on these scenarios.
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