YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME [joining]

[Soleil]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; border-width:0; width: 70%; text-align: justify; line-height: 1.5; font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;"]The ground was muddy and wet beneath her hooves. Sometimes it was mushy enough for her to sink up to her ankles, staining caramel fur a darker shade of brown. She had never been too bothered by dirt. Muddy fur was fixed easily with a nice warm bath, but that didn't mean that she found the trek pleasant. The squelching of the mud beneath her took away any stealth that she would have otherwise had, leaving her presence known and body vulnerable. Perhaps it was her past as a theif, but there was something unsettling about not having the upper hand. At any moment some crazy animals could leap from the shadows and ambush her, and without the powers she had grown accustomed to, she would be completely at their mercy. A huff left her at the thought, long ears falling defeatedly around her neck. It didn't help her nerves that she was comprised of prey animals, surely someone would see her as a snack (and not even in the flattering way).

It was many minutes of sticky mud and and dark thoughts before she finally came across a border, or at least what she assumed was the border. The directions she had received a day or two ago had all but faded completely from her mind. Her brain wasnt one for retaining information, but its not like she could write the instructions down. No, that would require a pen and paper and opposible thumbs, none of which she had. Stars, how she envied monkeys, with their funky little hands and strange tools. She wished she had the opportunity to draw or write or... whatever else they did with their creepy little fingers. Still, she doubted hands would look flattering on a form like hers, very little did. She knew she shouldn't wish to become even more of a mismatched mutant. Soleil huffed and sank to her haunches, rabbit nose twitching in a futile attempt to pick up any animalian scents. Impossible with all the mud stench that hung in the air. Her face crinkled up a bit, and she decided to call out, breaking all her rules of subtlety and suprise.

"Hello?"

[beck.]

    If he received a dollar for every time a strange new face strolled right through the uninviting swamp and called out for attention, Beck would be a rich bastard instead of a thieving one. He didn't need to identify the approaching creature's scent to know they weren't indigenous -- their audible footsteps told enough, sinking into mud that the wetland's inhabitants learned to spread their toes out over like redneck snowshoes. An amused grin threatened to split his muzzle at the thought of the disturbance drowning themselves in their territory's sludge, yet his sneer dissipated as a thin voice reminded him that new blood to the ranks was desperately needed. Rolling shoulders back with a bony pop, the mangy cat slipped from his tupelo perch of a watchtower, neglecting to shake the forest debris from his pelt before creeping through the mangrove roots after the trespasser.

    Blurred eyes glimpsed coffee-colored fur through the reeds, although the poltergeist flinched at the creature's movement before realizing the softer shade of brown wasn't simply another patch of the mud that plagued the landscape. Only a breathy rasp escaped at his brief surprise, punctured and coarse. As the near creature spoke to unseen listeners, his glare weakened slightly as he recognized the soprano tones of a female, albeit not for longer than a nonexistent heartbeat. There weren't too many girls in Tanglewood as far as he could remember... in fact, the only ones he could remember clearly were Arrow and Delilah. Shuffling out of his stalking crouch to his full, unimpressive height, Beck slunk from the cattail thicket behind the demoness, owlishly tilting his head to the side in observance of her features as he responded to her greeting. "Hi?" His lonely word was a scratchy murmur, edged with uncertainty and hanging in the air as his ugly yellow eyes stared at Soleil. Momentarily forgetting what the standard protocol for persuading joiners, his disfigured jaw fell slack on half-exposed hinges, gaping like a beached fish as sheeny blue chemicals threatened to spill over his bloodless lip. The boy hadn't approached a possible newcomer alone before, save for the ones ensnared in his vicious creations. What exactly was he supposed to say again? Something welcoming, something clever. He could do that, right? After all, his wits were sharper than his razor-blade bite. "I like your no-ose," he blurted, scrunching up his freckles in immediate regret as bitter embarrassment flared in his tightening chest and tied his guts in a sloppy bow. It wasn't one of his common lies; as a matter of fact, he thought her twitching rabbit nose was somewhat cute, but cute in the way one looks upon a helpless pup: filled with pity. In an attempt to recover from his blunder, he cracked his head to the side and wheezed, glancing off to the side to avoid her gaze, "Um, I'm Beck, a-a medic, I guess. And -- and you're tre-espassin'." Hostility wormed back into his shrill voice as instinct coiled around his mind, baring his sharkish teeth towards the cute-nosed stranger deemed as a possible danger.

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[aya]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; width: 55%; font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"] Since her return, Aya had been somewhat... Weird... Weirder than usual, really. Her brain was a little fuzzy - at the moment she was struggling to make ideas connect, despite the fact she was very much a scientist. The tortoiseshell emerged from the mud, which was about the most normal thing she had done all day, and grinned up at the sheep (???). "Hi! I'm Aya. Are you joining?" Her nose wrinkled as something in her brain jolted that she had muddled her words, but when she tried to think back a few seconds to decide if she actually had she couldn't remember what she'd said. "Did I tell you my name? Oh, what's yours?" The cat glanced down at her paws as she stepped out of the mud, having a blank moment where she wondered how she'd gotten all of this mud on her before connecting the fact that she had literally just been standing in mud to the mud in her coat. "Where are you from?" Wait, did she ask that already?

tags | updated 20/11:

GENERAL
- Aya (♀)
- 16 moons
- Tortoiseshell cat
- Lives in Tanglewood, local goth nerd
- Storage thread (X)

PHYSICAL
- Tortoiseshell domestic cat with yellow eyes
- Medium difficulty, tag if attacking
- Currently injured (lost the tip of her tail, rip in her left ear, miscellaneous scratches and bumps)

PERSONALITY
- Will start and finish fights
- Friendly, protective, jealous
- Tropes: Nightmare Fetishist, Mad Scientist

RECENT EVENTS
- Had a bout of inactivity due to overworking
- Accidentally destroyed her lab and injured herself in the process

[arcy]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; width: 65%; font-family: timesnewroman; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"]Jim was finding it a little off-putting just how unsurprised he was at the stranger's appearance. He'd seen weirder, and he'd only been here ... uh, fuck. Jim didn't have a calendar or anything. He'd been a little despondent about his whole situation to keep track of day and night, either. He'd been here for ... two meetings? Nearly two weeks? meetings were good for keeping track of time, apparently. Well! Either way.
"Pretty cool look," Jim, personally, appreciated the 'freak of nature' sort of looks. This was not anything against said interesting looking creatures he'd encountered -- listen, they were freaks, but that wasn't a bad thing. Listen, Jim was a freak too, it just wasn't obvious. "Lucky you didn't run into anything yet, honestly," He adds with a huff. A trap? An alligator? They seemed pretty common, but Jim had shitty luck. However nice their occupants were, Tanglewood's territory was, quite simply, the worst. Not that it did anything to ward people off.

[glow=black,2,300]— ✰ —[/glow]