WILL IT EVER COME BACK // JOINING?

[BOYWONDER]

[align=center][div style="width:500px; maxheight:; text-align: justify; font-size:9.5pt; line-height:1.3"]It wasn't an astounding epiphany or even a moderately novel one that nothing could last forever, but it had been far too easy to settle in and get comfortable, to arrange a routine and fall into a false sense of security. He had been a child when the circus took him in, so he had falsely believed that there was some permanence in their makeshift family, but any family had its issues. He hadn't understood that when he was younger, eager and bright-eyed as he'd been, though when he grew older, he came to recognize details he hadn't paid attention to as a boy. He'd been too quick to forgive then, but self-awareness was a helluva bitter pill to swallow, and when he had, certain mistreatments became incredibly apparent. B saw more than he did, like the almost surreptitious sips one of the dancers would take between acts, and how much effort one of the musicians took to disguise terrible bruises from brawling behind the tents with the six-legged tiger.

It became more apparent how hard his mentor pressed him, how she kept him on the ropes for hours on end, expecting nothing short of perfection. As a child he had been desperate to impress, and when he grew older, watching her frown at every flourish had hollowed him out to make room for the scalding rage. It came to a head when she nearly killed him by slackening the rope as he walked on it, and he couldn't allow more second chances. No more extending his hand only for her to slap it away, and he'd thought going to the ringmaster might have straightened out that problem, but he'd taken her side, called B their least-attractive act. He may as well have spat on everything he'd ever done.

So he left. B still wasn't certain if it was the best choice, kept thinking that maybe if he'd just negotiated they could have worked something out, but- no. His passion had been devoured by expectation, and out here, there was no one to kick him while he was down. Just the sand and the ocean, and he'd never really had a chance to look at it before, too much time spent under a striped tent.

The charcoal lion exhaled, sifting his paws through the grains, curling his toes. The sun, while not especially kind to darker colors, was a comfortable warmth at his back, and B didn't know what to do with all of this peace.

[GRIMNYTE]

[align=center][div style=" background-color: transparent; border: 0px solid black; width: 550px; min-height: 9px; font-family:arial; line-height: 110%; text-align: justify; color:; padding: 20px"]Fortunately Stellamaris had been saved from being under the wings of disappointing parental figures in her life. Her own mother had driven her and her siblings away from their den when they were too young to remember her; since then, Stella had been on her own. She'd hung with prides of lions, cliques of monkeys, all underneath a harsh, unforgiving sun that she eventually ran away from in pursuit of a place to truly call home. That place ended up being Sunhaven.

Sunhaven was nice. It wasn't too hot, and there was everything she could've wanted here: trees, fields of flowers to run amok in, and stability. She had a feeling this place wouldn't be going away soon.

Oddly enough, she was never on the beach despite it being a prized part of the group. The clouded leopard had just... never been a fan of the ocean, even if it was pretty. Just looking at it for too long made her uneasy. What could be in there, she would wonder - how far did it go? Was it as endless as everyone said? So she stayed away, unless it was to go out for a very brief wade in the waters, or to poke at the coconuts in a futile attempt to see what was inside. In fact, she was going to do it after bounding over from the mountainside when she smelled - and spotted something - unfamiliar.

Stellamaris didn't know every single animal in the group, but they all carried the same scent. The lion she looked at from afar, however, did not.

"Hey!" the leopardess called out, making her way over. "You're not from around here. What's up? Why're you in Sunhaven territory?"

[Mama]

[align=center][div style="width:400px; font-size:8pt;line-height:1.1;color:#000;font-family:arial;margin-top:3px;margin-bottom:3px;letter-spacing:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify;"]Though their lives had found different paths both had been contained to tents. She had been nothing more than a solider for the first few years of her life, had found the copper tang of blood too often upon her tongue, be it from a lip split as a back handed slap had come when least expected or that of her fellows, driven to kill for the pleasure of others. A plaything to them was all she had been, a toy to be paraded about until she had simply snapped one day, had dared to lash out at them as they had at her every day of her life.

Too quickly had she learnt the harsh lesson life was not touched by rainbows and butterflies for beneath the harsh desert sun she was made a weapon within their claws until she was able to drag herself away, given a second chance within the heat of a forge. It was a hard road to walk, one which leaves scars deep upon soul and mind alike, but it had seemed better than the life she had been forced into once, given no choice even to be herself, called a name which had never fit and deemed a boy for it what they saw.

It had been around a week since she had found this place, had tread upon the beach with no purpose but had found within an odd creature a friend and the offer of something more, yet still it lacked something, her heart longing for the desert heat. For a time she found enjoyment in a forge of her own making, buried within the mountains to be of no harm to any others but quickly Ishayu had grown restless, found a want to move for the craft held little when those she had once learnt from and beside were no more.

Upon the wind voices rose and slowly so did her head, lifting from where she had rested it upon the surface of a cool stone, curious for it seemed Stella was always the first to each new person as though she were drawn to them. Or might it be she had some magnet within her, calling to the lost no matter where they hide, drawing them in until she might confront them. Bracing herself against the rock the albino cougar was slow to lift herself, lips parting with a hiss as she pressed too hard upon the stone with her stump. Her own progress towards the lion was much slower though she seemed to have been somewhat lucky, the stranger silent within the wake of the other bearer's questions, and so she waited, deciding to stay back some, a bystander this time.

[BOYWONDER]

[align=center][div style="width:500px; maxheight:; text-align: justify; font-size:9.5pt; line-height:1.3"] Thinking of a life beyond the circus had never gone beyond brief flights of fancy, and he'd never truly considered leaving until it happened. It usually irked him to stray far without the slightest idea of what he was doing, and he could admit he hadn't thought this out as well as he could have, so he wasn't sure how to respond when he saw the leopard approach him. B figured it'd been too much to hope that this place lacked people, because at the moment, he could use some solitude to pull his thoughts together and decide what the hell he was doing. But, if there was one thing he picked up from his time as a performer, it was winging it, and the dark lion's features slid into an easy grin, shifting on the sand to face her fully. At least she wasn't hostile- that really wouldn't improve his day.

[color=#2f87af]"Hey, sorry, got caught up in the view." Boy didn't think he needed to explain that one. Anyone could see how beautiful this place was, and he didn't think it was possible to get used to it. At least, not from where he was standing. [color=#2f87af]"I'm Boywonder. More of a stage name, though, so just call me B." Rarely did people outside the circus like addressing him as boy, though B could differentiate between "Boy" and "boy" fairly easily at this point. He'd been called both often enough. [color=#2f87af]"This is Sunhaven? You guys take in outsiders? I can clean up after myself, pull my own weight. Plus," his smile twisted wryly, [color=#2f87af]"I'm plenty useful for talking off ears, if you know anybody who needs it." Cobalt eyes looked beyond the leopard to the mountain lion nearby, though she didn't say anything. Wouldn't keep B from being friendly.

[color=#2f87af]"Do I get to learn your names, or can I guess? I'm better at it than you might think."

[GRIMNYTE]

[align=center][div style=" background-color: transparent; border: 0px solid black; width: 550px; min-height: 9px; font-family:arial; line-height: 110%; text-align: justify; color:; padding: 20px"]Stellamaris didn't blame him for getting distracted. Oddly enough, she'd done the same when she first joined, after seeing the mountains freckled here and there with colorful arrays of flowers that she now loved to roll around in when nobody was around. "B." it was weird being informal with someone she barely knew, especially with a nickname like that, but she supposed that she could get used to it. "Yeah, alright. You're in." she was tempted to tell him that he would've been in even if he was a lazy bugger that couldn't pull his own weight, but she refrained. Stellamaris was more poised than that. Sometimes, sometimes she'd indulge herself in a little snap-back, but this was business.

"I'm Stellamaris. That's ... Mama, I think, or at least that's what everyone calls her. You want me to walk you over to town? It's not too far from here, unless you wanted to go out and discover everything for yourself."

Fortunately, she wasn't too bothered with him - most joiners tended to be far more annoying than he, even if Boywonder was convinced otherwise.