NO LIGHT, NO LIGHT // JOINING?

[DANYLA]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 9.4pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Danyla wasn't certain he'd ever had doubts about the duplicitous nature of the people he served, in that for as long as he could remember, he was compelled more by the lingering hint of darkness than the blinding front of gentleness. They rarely punished him psychically, at least, not with scars; rebelliousness meant having sleep denied to him, meant they fed him food past its time. They couldn't wound him. A trophy with scratches marring a perfect surface was useless, and his purpose was to be very useful. His resistance died down as he grew older, and he took...solace in small acts of disobedience, ridiculous things that his master couldn't notice. He upheld responding to Danyla among his fellows, when the opportunity arose, and he chipped the backs of his earrings, where the missing pieces weren't seen. They were barely anything, but for him, with so little of his spark left, they were everything.

But he still obeyed. Played the empty-headed, untarnished decoration his master wanted him to be, because what the master wanted was a slave's earth to their moon, the object of their revolution. If they wanted a killer, they got one. A pretty piece at their side was even easier, and sometimes, Danyla wished he had been the former, that he could have at least known something to do beyond running.

Something beyond cowering when the silence fell beneath audible steps, that were far too close, and a prod to his side had him recoiling, body stiff. "Up." He leaped to his paws, the motion smooth yet hurried, and he turned to face the stranger, a lion with eyes that had Danyla's head lowering. He instead watched as more bits of glitter drifted to the dirt. "Mihi dolet, obsĕcro mihi ignoscas," tumbled out before he could rein it in, and his shoulders rose. "I- I am sorry. What do you want? Please don't send me away."