Alpha (PG-13)

[ImaginiteDragonites]

Warning: Parts of this writing are depressing, violence will occur, and swearing will happen but not commonly.

This is based on my own struggle with depression that I'm still going through, I have, in fact failed to kill myself 2 weeks ago. My depression has gotten better but it still continues, this is one of the many stories I've written to help me deal with it. Thank you.

~ Chloe, the Imaginative Dragonite

***

Look at me, just look at me. Based on the fact that I am able to type you just assume I'm human. You're wrong. I'm a german shepherd. I was once like you, my life was so much greater back then. You probably just thing being a dog is great, well, I hate to admit it but you're wrong. I look at myself and think, "this isn't who I am. Why is my reflection someone I don't know?" But it's better in away, because if I were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart.

I want to share my story with you. Not a story about adventures and action, but the story of my true feelings, something I rarely share. I was never an emotional person but I still do have feelings. I'm not that weird. It's just hard to get on my emotional side, that's all.

Most people look at life in a positive way. They pretend nothing bothers them and they try to be optimistic, even when it's hard. They laugh at their mistakes and learn from them too, they like to live life to the fullest. I like that version of life as much as the next guy, maybe even more. It's just not the truth. Some people lie to themselves to make them feel better about their life, my problem is lying only hurts me more.

So here I am, with my paws at the keyboard, typing away. By the time you read this, it may be too late to do anything, and it may not. Either way I don't care if you read this or not, I need someone to listen to me for once, someone that cares about me. I have several books and papers of intense poetry sitting beside me. I've always been into poetry of this sort, I don't know why but I love gruesome poetry.

Anyways now that you made it this far, there's no turning back. Read on, or not, I don't care. As long as you decided to read this far, I'm happy.

[ImaginiteDragonites]

It all started one day in a cliché dark and creepy forest setting. It was night and it had just stopped raining. Now, I love forests, nature and the smell after it rains and I had no plans so it seemed like a good idea.

I was walking through the forest, listening to Nirvana. Judge me all you want, I don't care, I'm a sucker for rock and metal music. Anyways that's not the point. I saw something weird, so being curious, I followed it. It looked like a purple human. I followed it into a hollow tree where I watched it from a bush.

"Finally, figured it out" it was a male, that looked like a purple-wearing Dumbledore. He saw me and shouted "hey you!" I lowered my head and slowly crept further from him. "I can see you!" Then I sighed and went back to my original position.

He used some sort of magic to pull me towards him "you trespasser! As punishment I transform you into your spirit animal" I was scared but I couldn't move. Then I felt myself getting warmer and furrier. It felt weird but it didn't hurt much at all. I looked at my reflection in a puddle and realized what I had become. "Hmm" muttered the figure "I expected a different animal but alright then."

I ran away, I ran away from my life. I was found by a man and taken in by him. Life as a dog was harder than I thought. I lost all my friends and family, I lost my only chance for true love, and I lost my entire life. But I did gain a loving owner and a job, I was now a police dog under the name Alpha. I didn't want this, I never asked for it, I had to learn how to walk and run and jump and sniff things out. Even with a caring owner I got abused many times. And for the first time I realized what it was like to lose everything besides the one thing I wanted to lose, being bullied and pushed around against my will. Only thing now is I can't stand up for myself, and I have to let it happen.



Also I forgot to mention this, but feel free to PM me with any feedback.

[ImaginiteDragonites]

So it was just a normal day of training for half the day. You know, sniff out the drugs, attack the guy on the protective suit on command, fo stuff right and get a tennis ball, do stuff wrong and get verbally assaulted. So it sucks because I'm not a real dog and I wasn't meant to do this. And it gets worse, today I had to go on a mission with my master. I mean, it wasn't life threatening but I was in unfamiliar territory and not knowing what was going on at all. Turns out I just had to find some drugs in a school. What is with teenagers these days? Honestly, I wasn't like that when I was a teenager, actually I still was a teenager when I was transformed, I was turned when I was 16. That was three years ago so I'm 19, but you probably figured that out with basic math.

On the mission I did find something very interesting, yeah, I'm starting to hate society even more now. People are terrible sometimes, I don't know how I've dealt with them for this long. I mean, I've been told it gets better but it really doesn't seem like it. I just don't know what to do. Life is ok with my master, I guess. I'm treated like a dog though, oh yeah, that's right. Sometimes I forget I'm a dog, like when I remember there's skeleton in me and then I remember and get freaked out.

Anyways now I'm home, reading dark and gruesome poetry but on the laptop because he doesn't read poetry. I'm also listening to old rock and metal music, it cheers me up when I'm sad. Listening to German music soothes me when I'm mad. So I guess German rock, I'll try it and see how it works.
Note to self: It does not work.

I'm tired, I need sleep and I haven't gotten it much. You know those nights where you can't sleep because you have too much on your mind? This has been going on for years now. I did end up passing out in the middle of the night but I still didn't get much sleep. I'm going to bed, I have to get up early anyways. And I probably won't write for a few months or so either.

[Suicune's Fire]

Hey there, Chloe. :] Firstly I'd like to say that it brings a smile to my face to know that you find writing to be a good outlet for your depression. I've too have suffered from it, although only in minor bouts. I can definitely recognise that I am one of the luckier ones. I've had friends who have suffered greatly from it as well, and it's definitely never anything to be taken lightly. I don't know what to think about your confession of attempted suicide in an open forum like this, as it's open to literally everyone who has internet access. However, how much exposure your personal journey gets is nothing for me to express my opinion on, as clearly sharing it is your choice. :] You have my sympathy on the matter and I truly hope you can overcome this enormous obstacle in your path. It's definitely possible, so try not to give up hope. PXR is a great community full of support if you need us. :]

However! I am also here to critique your story. xD I'll focus on grammar first and then give you an overview of my opinion on the story itself and its writing.

Look at me, just look at me.

This is a good opening statement to make. However, for both visual impact and grammatical correctness, that comma should be either a period or a semicolon. Technically those two sentences are not joined by any joining word, and therefore a sentence separator such as a period or semicolon is required. Even if it's a small sentence. ;]

I'm a german shepherd.

"German Shepherd" needs to have capital letters.

I was once like you, my life was so much greater back then. You probably just thing being a dog is great, well, I hate to admit it but you're wrong. I look at myself and think, "this isn't who I am. Why is my reflection someone I don't know?"

Again, in a few spots, the commas should be either semicolons or periods. In every place that sounds like the two sentence halves could stand as their own sentences, you'll likely need semicolons. Because in that case, they're separate sentences that you're trying to incorrectly join with a comma. At the start of those quotations, the t in "this" needs to be a capital. I'm not going to quote every instance of this because it'll be too tedious for both you and I, so I'll let you work it out. :]

"Finally, figured it out" it was a male, that looked like a purple-wearing Dumbledore. He saw me and shouted "hey you!"

With speech, you need to use punctuation as much as you would in normal sentences. I'm not sure if "Finally, figured it out" is meant to be saying "you finally figured it out" or if it's him saying to himself that he's figured it out. In which case, the comma doesn't need to be there. Also, you need a full stop at the end of "out" because quotations need punctuation. In this case, the "i" of "it" needs to be a capital, because you're establishing that the speech and what follows the speech are two separate sentences. Also, before you mention speech if it's in the middle of a sentence, you need a comma. As well as that, because you're talking about a person, "who" might be a better word to use than "that." Also, before addressing characters (or in this case, something that references the character, which is "you"), there needs to be a comma. So with all those adjustments, those two sentences should read like this:

"Finally figured it out." It was a male who looked like a purple-wearing Dumbledore. He saw me and shouted, "Hey, you!"

He used some sort of magic to pull me towards him "you trespasser! As punishment I transform you into your spirit animal" I was scared but I couldn't move. Then I felt myself getting warmer and furrier. It felt weird but it didn't hurt much at all. I looked at my reflection in a puddle and realized what I had become. "Hmm" muttered the figure "I expected a different animal but alright then."

As well as all the grammatical errors, I found myself confused here. The first post says that the character is a German Shepherd, but now they're a human being turned into a dog? It wasn't clear that the character was human at the start of the second post.

Even with a caring owner I got abused many times.

I'm struggling to understand how a caring owner could be abusive. My definition of a caring owner is someone who wouldn't abuse their animals... Maybe if this was worded differently it would make more sense. x)

You know, sniff out the drugs, attack the guy on the protective suit on command, fo stuff right and get a tennis ball, do stuff wrong and get verbally assaulted.

'fo' should be 'do.'

Life is ok with my master, I guess.

'ok' is technically incorrect, I believe, and I read it as "ock." It's more correct to write it as "okay" or "OK" in capital letters, just not "ok" in lowercase letters.

That's it for the corrections, although as I said, there were ones I didn't go over because they were repeats of previous errors. Mostly the comma thing, which I'm sure you'll get better with through practice. I understand this is a story based on your experiences, which I think is great for inspiration material and actually retelling your story, but it seems more like a recap or a diary entry than an actual story. I'd like to actually be taken through the journey as a story would take you, rather than be given an overview. It makes it a lot harder to understand the ins and outs of what the character is going through.

I like the idea of being turned into a dog. It's a whole new world, experience, and it's overall out of the character's depths. It's a great metaphor. I think there's a lot that could be done with that. The last thing I wanted to mention was that all these posts are ridiculously short. If all three of these posts were just one, I'd still think it was extremely short. I'd suggest building up actual chapters and making them a lot longer. :]

Anyway, nice work so far, and I'm looking forward to improvements and reading more!


~SF.

[ImaginiteDragonites]

I'm going to be perfectly honest, critiques scare me, I didn't expect to get one this early too. It wasn't as bad as I thought but I was staring at my screen for a while. I don't know why, they just do, even though I don't get offended too easily and I usually use it as a way to improve. In fact I was literally asking for it. I just get jumpy.

I need to proofread, let's just say that. My phone hates me. I wrote this a little while back and decided to post it now, or a few days ago, I should say. My writing style has changed a bit since then and I'm working on editing some stuff, I just didn't edit this first part for dome reason. My grammar isn't exactly the best and I have no excuse for that considering English is my first language. As for commas, o either use way too many or not enough, there's not too much of an in between.

The confusing things will be resolved, because like you said the chapters are very very short, they do get longer at one point. It's only the beginning after all. I plan to edit it so I have an excuse to change my writing style into the one I mainly use now. The owner thing is another metaphor, it's all a huge metaphor surrounded by more metaphors. I just love metaphors. Anyways the owner has a mixed personality and get kind of violent when angered, but besides that he still cares about Alpha. Part of me wants to create a section explaining all the metaphors, it's my life so I'm pretty much the only one that understands every one of them.

Anyways thanks for the feedback, I plan to update it next sonetime tomorrow.

[Suicune's Fire]

I'm going to be perfectly honest, critiques scare me, I didn't expect to get one this early too. It wasn't as bad as I thought but I was staring at my screen for a while. I don't know why, they just do, even though I don't get offended too easily and I usually use it as a way to improve. In fact I was literally asking for it. I just get jumpy.

I need to proofread, let's just say that. My phone hates me. I wrote this a little while back and decided to post it now, or a few days ago, I should say. My writing style has changed a bit since then and I'm working on editing some stuff, I just didn't edit this first part for dome reason. My grammar isn't exactly the best and I have no excuse for that considering English is my first language. As for commas, o either use way too many or not enough, there's not too much of an in between.

The confusing things will be resolved, because like you said the chapters are very very short, they do get longer at one point. It's only the beginning after all. I plan to edit it so I have an excuse to change my writing style into the one I mainly use now. The owner thing is another metaphor, it's all a huge metaphor surrounded by more metaphors. I just love metaphors. Anyways the owner has a mixed personality and get kind of violent when angered, but besides that he still cares about Alpha. Part of me wants to create a section explaining all the metaphors, it's my life so I'm pretty much the only one that understands every one of them.

Anyways thanks for the feedback, I plan to update it next sonetime tomorrow.

I hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable. :] Usually my goals revolve around reviewing in a friendly way whilst giving some help here and there! Writing isn't always easy, and grammar is certainly a pain in most people's butts. So I understand. x) Grammar isn't what makes a story anyway. Don't worry--many people whose first language is English don't have grammar nearly as good as you do. xD Mostly it's just punctuation so I'm sure you'll be able to learn a few things along the way!

Ah okay, well that's good to hear! 8D Lol an "excuse." You don't need an excuse, guuuurl! Just write how you feel. I think styles are subject to change anyway so don't feel pressured to have a certain way you write. Mine is all over the place usually. xD Ahaha oh my. Well it sounds like metaphor-central, which I too have a fondness for! And metaphors used in the context of struggles and challenges are always great. That makes sense. Maybe if you put that into the story, it would help readers like me to understand. It's not the metaphors that are confusing, but more like the delivery of information. I'm guilty of it too, but sometimes what happens is that the author forgets that the readers don't have as much context as they do, as the writers, so they'll skip some information that they thought may not have needed to be touched on.

No worries. x) Awesomesauce. By the way, your username is awesome. xD


~SF.

EDIT: Ahahahaha I had to edit this and tell you: I just woke up, and last night I had a dream where Alpha was a movie about a German Shepherd who was a police dog. XD In the dream, I'd seen a random poster for it as I was on my way somewhere, and I remember thinking, "Oh, I didn't know they made a movie about it!" XD SO GO YOU!