I may edit a couple times to expand on this, depending on how many ideas I get.
I would like to adopt!
Number: 12
Picture:
Name: Ajax – derived from the Greek aiastes, “mourner.” In Greek mythology, Ajax is a hero of the Trojan War, described as having abundant strength and courage. He dueled twice with Hector, and twice risked life and limb to give his fellow soldiers a proper burial. Ajax kills himself after losing a competition with Odysseus and, under the spell of Athena, slaughtering a flock of sheep. When he dies, a red flower sprouts from his blood - like many flowers associated with Greek Mythology, a symbol of his lasting impact.
Species: Anatolian Shepherd mix - Anatolian Shepherds are an exceptionally old breed, having guarded Turkish livestock for over 6000 years. It's important to note that, though they are shepherds, they are not herding dogs - they were bred to protect, not to herd. Working Anatolians are not house pets, and are usually left with the flock for their entire lives, excluding veterinary care.
Personality: An eternally wary soul, Ajax is seen by many as stand-offish and arrogant. He dislikes large groups, preferring to take his own path, going where he pleases and generally ignoring anyone that tells him differently. He is by no stretch of the imagination a team player, which probably explains why he’s not, you know, in Turkey doing his job as a shepherd dog. Known for being lazy and rebellious to a fault, he only does what he wants, and utterly refuses to do something he is told to do. For this reason, he also strongly dislikes most humans, as they try to order him around (to no avail). Because of his overall personality, he is for the most part a stray, though he prefers the term “gainfully unemployed.”
This is of course a funny term to use, as Ajax is an eternal pessimist. The glass is always half empty, and if it’s not half empty, it soon will be. It’s ironic, then, that he seems to have an almost unending supply of good luck. Aside from coming back from the dead three times, he always seems to get out of whatever pickle he’s in.
Distrusted and distrusting, Ajax rarely puts his faith in anyone or anything, having the philosophy that the best thing to get something done right is to do it yourself. He has hardly ever accepted any sort of aid, no matter how much he needed it, and he has even more rarely given aid. Probably the best way to describe this aspect of him is an indifferent, dreamy wanderer, seeing the world but not caring what he sees.
It may then seem odd how focused he is when he gets fixed on something – he won’t stop until he has what he wants. When he has the drive to complete something, nothing stands in his way as he presents a surprisingly organized front against all that oppose him.
Ajax is completely disinterested in any sort of relationship – he thinks it would just tie him down and be one more obstacle to his freedom. He doesn’t even like companionship, and his idea of hell on earth is cuddling. When he has attempted to be in a relationship, the other party almost always left just out of his sheer neglect of their wishes and needs. Outwardly, he is an insensitive prick who is probably better off alone, anyway.
His temper can be startling at times, since usually his emotions stay bottled up inside. When they do bubble over, it is a veritable eruption – truly frightening to whoever bears the brunt of his anger. Even when his temper doesn’t bubble over, Ajax is a champion grudge holder. Thanks to being a severe pessimist, he remembers all of the wrongs and none of the rights. Things even out, though, as he doesn’t expect forgiveness for himself, either – he remembers not only others’ wrongs, but his own.
Likes: Ajax mostly just likes to be left alone – if you don’t bother him, he won’t bother you. He also has a fondness for history, which has ultimately been his downfall – in seeking history, he becomes a part of it.
Dislikes: He dislikes most social interaction, and unquestioning loyalty; his rebellious streak dictates that leaders should earn their title, not just be given it. He has extremely high standards, to the point that only a select few have met them. To these, he is a hard, if stubborn, worker. He also dislikes anything resembling cold weather – which is probably why he left the rather temperate fields of Turkey for the sweltering heat of north Africa.
Background: The first time Ajax died was in the fires at Alexandria.
As a puppy, he was the odd one out. A runt (at least by massive Anatolian Shepherd standards), it was immediately clear that he wasn’t anything like his litter mates. His mother was a purebred, just as his brothers and sisters seemed to be, but apparently his mother had been consorting with a mutt, and Ajax was the evidence. The shepherds who owned his mother saw the difference; this was the start of Ajax’s distrustful nature.
While his brothers and sisters trained to be part of the elite and honored guards for the livestock, the governor’s prized shepherds, Ajax was left to fend for himself. It was assumed that he could never be a great shepherd, simply because his bloodline was now poisoned by garbage-eating filth. His mother was the only thing that kept him from leaving right away, as she doted on him more than any of his siblings. Then, in a freak accident, she was killed in a livestock stampede. The next day, the then adolescent Ajax stowed away in the cargo hold of a ship bound for Africa.
They landed in the dead of night, and Ajax was able to steal away into the empty streets without being seen. This new land frightened him – it was dark and cool and the buildings seemed to go on forever. That night, he slept on the expansive steps of a large building.
It turned out that this building was the library at Alexandria – a building that captivated Ajax from that very first morning. He grew up dozing in the shade of her giant pillars and listening to scholars reading from her scrolls. As he got better and better at listening, he grew more and more interested, until some of the scholars, somehow understanding his interest, would see him daydreaming nearby and immediately begin to read out loud for him.
Just months after he had fully matured, Caesar’s army struck Alexandria. The library was burned to the ground, with Ajax still sleeping inside.
He died, only to be faced with a black jackal, decked in gold and precious gems. The jackal, Anubis, told Ajax he would live, on the condition that he bear a mark in honor of his savior. Like any sane being, Ajax agreed, and was reborn with the mark of the ankh on his back leg.
The second time Ajax died was after being attacked by a leopard on the very edge of the African plains.
He had hitched a ride on a river boat heading inland, trying to escape the horrors of his first destination. These particular sailors didn't much care that he had come along for the ride - they even provided him with scraps of food, and counted on him to guard their cargo. This he put himself to with gusto, as he enjoyed the needed but not overbearing comfort they afforded him.
They had stopped on a tributary of the Nile in Kenya, and the sailors let Ajax onto the shore so he could explore the dark African night. He had exited the forest onto the edge of the vast savanna when the sounds of the night stopped abruptly. The ink-black form of the leopard came out of nowhere.
Anubis appeared to him a second time, this time bring him back with monkey skull around his tail and a slashed eye – the only visible scar of his run in with the leopard.
The third time Ajax died was on a south Pacific island, after being chased off a cliff by hungry villagers.
Having been abandoned by the river sailors who had left him for dead, Ajax somehow, in a feat of his ongoing luck, manage to catch a ship departing from east Africa. This was not a short, easy trip like the others had been, though - he was at sea for the better part of three months, surviving only on scraps slipped to him by some other kind sailors. Thinking they would soon be dropping off the edge of the world, one night Ajax abandoned ship in the middle of the south Pacific.
He came ashore on what was probably a small part of the Solomons. The locals here, though, were not so understanding of his plight. Having never seen a dog, they first assumed he was an evil spirit. Then they remembered how hungry they were, and decided it might be okay to try to eat the evil spirit. Ajax, obviously, was not one to agree.
From this Ajax got his necklace – a tribal design, vaguely in the shape of a star. His memory is a little misty though on how he got back to civilization, but more than likely he either got lucky again or Anubis worked his magic.
He now makes his home on busy Mediterranean streets, catching boats and going wherever the trade winds take him. He has all the street smarts to survive in these fast-paced cities, and all the demons to fit in with the locals. Who knows where he’ll die next, and who knows which death will be his last.
Due to all of his experiences, Ajax considers himself a bit of a Buddhist – life is suffering until we recognize that nothing is permanent, that everything eventually falls apart. Some things just come back together more often than others.
~*~*
