so we'll just take it back to my place`? [Rory]

[CHERITH REILY]

Cherith sighed as she drove home. She'd have to get her car cleaned... Not that there was anything wrong with having a man eight years older than her spread out over the backseat, but when that man was also part mythical lion who'd just been soaked in the rain then collapsed on the muddy ground of a cemetery, there was just a bit of a smell. And she was sure she had a smell too, since she'd fallen even before he had, but she didn't care. This was HER car, and now a lion man was passed out in the back seat.

She groaned slightly as she pulled up to her house, already anticipating hauling him out of her car and into her house with twice as much difficulty as she had hauling him into the car. Her arms were tired and, though the rain had let up, her driveway was always slippery. Her house didn't have a garage, so she simply parked on the driveway and stepped out of her door and to his, shutting one to open another on the way. Cherith grimaced as she dragged him out of the seats, struggling to stand him up. It was about 5:30AM now, and she was afraid that some of her early-riser neighbors were going to come out and see her trying to haul a passed out man into her home. She was trying to lay low, and Rory WAS NOT HELPNG!

So she pulled him out and quickly across the concrete and up the steps of her porch. Setting him down on a deck chair, she raced back to shut the car door and lock the car then ran back and unlocked the front door before dragging him through the front room and into the living room with a half-wall separating it from her kitchen and finally laid him out on the couch. She'd felt gross before she'd had to sweat, and as she wiped her her forehead, she decided that he probably wouldn't wake up for a while. She might as well take a shower, right?

Cherith sighed as she stepped into the shower. She needed something stress-relieving right now. The lion had seemed pretty damn tired... Surely another ten minutes or so of relaxation wouldn't hurt anything(except her furniture) right?

[RORY O'CONNELL]

As always, his eyes remained shut for a short period, allowing Rory to soak up what few remaining moments of sleep he had left before he was forced to get up and start the masquerade of humanity all over again for another long day. Once again, as always, he cursed the fact that these naps couldn't last forever so he wouldn't be forced to get up and actually work.

Stretching out, his hands hit onto a piece of cloth that refused to give....something unfamiliar.

Eyes snapping open Rory took in the surroundings he was in, alien as they were. He had never seen this place before and... he had no idea how he could have gotten there. The very last thing he remembered was....the fate.

NO! He had let the Fate get away and now he was being held hostage in this tacky prison! He had to get out of here and find that fate otherwise....Rory didn't want to think what y'Usha would do if he showed up empty handed when there was a fate of untold importance running loose in the city, easily influenced by any number of Gods and Goddesses.

He had to get out. Letting instinct take over, his unfortunately all-together human hands went to work ripping apart anything they came in contact with, which mainly consisted of the plush, pillowy block of bed-imitation he currently rested on. Every snatch revealed a puff of white .... cloud?

Rolling over, he got to his knees still on the strange, relatively bouncy object, scanning the surroundings for the first time and realizing that it actually looked quite a bit like his own flat and that he had just successfully ripped up a-

"Oh,lord...."

[CHERITH REILY]

Cherith had just turning off the water when she heard the noise. It was a curious noise that she'd never heard before, but it sounding almost like when an old cat had brought in a bird and let it fly loose in the house. Rory wasn't one of those, though, right? He wouldn't be the kind of cat to do such a stupid thing, right? I mean, he'd been living as a human so he should understand that NO humans would NOT be proud of an animal you'd caught or killed. Hopefully... Crap! She couldn't relax now! She groaned as she put on a towel. He was a cat, he shouldn't really care how much she was wearing, and he was at least five years older than her, so he could be considered a pedo... sort of... Even though he was actually five or six period... What was it again? She shook her head. This wasn't important!

She walked into the living room and her mouth popped open. Her couch... What had he done to her couch!? "GODDAMNIT, RORY!" she yelled, already fuming. She stormed over to the boy and grabbed him by his shirt collar, carrying over to the wall and pinning him against it. "What the hell!? That was a brand new couch! I got that THREE days ago!" she continued yelling, then dropped him on the ground, turning around an staring at the destroyed piece of furniture. "It was so comfortable..." she mumbled in mourning, then sighed and turned back around to run a hand through her hair and glare in menacing annoyance at Rory.

"Rory.... JUST WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" Cherith started yelling again. "I could've LEFT you there, passed out in the middle of a cemetery, but NO! I brought you to my HOUSE! And I barely KNOW YOU! Then, after I've been SO kind to you and not left you to die or get arrested, you decide to RIP UP my BRAND NEW FUCKING COUCH!" she finished, crossing her arms.

"WELL? EXPLAIN YOURSELF OR I SWEAR TO GOD, RORY, I'LL PULL OUT THE SCISSORS!"

[RORY O'CONNELL]

Rory gulped, taking in the scene of his carnage. This was....this was not good. This was almost as bad as that time he accidentally tried to go after iris when she was headed into nemea. It was on level with THAT. He woul be lucky if Typhon didn't try to eat him again like last time.

He tried to weight his options. What could he do, what could he do? It was still just a human house, right? If he left now then it wouldn't really be his problem anymore....right? He had just wound up in this strange house randomly, they weren't going to be able to track him down, especially not if he tried to go into hiding and keep himself away from the cameras that plagued the city as much as possible. he would go underground, be a totally different person. he had done it before, right? They still hadn't pegged him as the lion that had escaped from the zoo. he would be saf-

"GODDAMNIT, RORY!"What the hell!? That was a brand new couch! I got that THREE days ago!"

Rory's head whipped around, not only because he suddenly found his shirt being wrenched backward but also because there could only be one person that could emit such a screech...

...Atropos, the moratllic fate-creature. Rory's eyes widened in fear as her seething face was shoved into his own. He wondered if this was the last ting people saw before they were dragged off to the teeming bowels of tartarus.

"Rory.... JUST WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?I could've LEFT you there, passed out in the middle of a cemetery, but NO! I brought you to my HOUSE! And I barely KNOW YOU! Then, after I've been SO kind to you and not left you to die or get arrested, you decide to RIP UP my BRAND NEW FUCKING COUCH! WELL? EXPLAIN YOURSELF OR I SWEAR TO GOD, RORY, I'LL PULL OUT THE SCISSORS!"

Rory fell backwards onto the carpeted floor yet again, his body no longer being forcibly dragged upwards by the sheer power of vehement fury. He audibly gulped, desperatley trying to come up with an excuse for his rampant behavior. He had to figure out somethiing that would keep him alive, at least for a little while longer.

"I'M SORRY! I don't know what I was thinking! It was....it was strange!Y'know.....I know what it was. I was...I was captured in one of the mad throws of Mania! Yes! It's true! I've met her, prowling about here in this city! She must have cursed me, cursed me to forever destroy the fluffy ones that grace homes and houses! Please.... let me live?"