Michael had been doing fairly well as of late. His sister was doing great and was well on her way to delivering what would probably be some adorable little kits, he was making friends in the Typhoon without his past crimes coming to haunt him, and he even had his... well. His Trevor back. In addition to all of this, he also had the added blessing of some other additions to the family. Namely, the presence of his little new mischief of rats. He had found them when he had first moved into his home, and had been taking care of them for several weeks now, giving them affection and feeding them often. He had really never expected that he would get so attached to a group of rats of all things, but he had, and he thought that Trevor liked them as well, even if the coyote would never admit it. He'd seen the canine throwing them a few scraps of prey every once in a while, and he seemed to be genuinely charmed by just the sight of Princess, so Michael was fairly confident he wouldn't have to be worried about them getting run out anytime soon.

The entire mischief of rats had been let loose in the hut for the day, mainly due to the fact that they liked being outside of their little container, and they never really seemed all that keen on running away. Besides, Princess was beginning to get so plump that Michael was fairly sure she couldn't run away, even if she wanted to. Roxie seemed to think she was pregnant, but Michael wasn't sure about that yet, unaware of what the signs of a rat pregnancy were. The bobcat allowed his eyes to linger on the little orange and white rat as he sat within the tiny "kitchen" of his hut, having been zoned out for several minutes now. He was broken from his trance by two things. One, he felt Splash run directly over his paw, and two, his stomach gave an angry growl of hunger that was nearly impossible to miss. Blinking in surprise at his own sudden hunger – which really wasn't that sudden, seeing as he hadn't eaten yet – the thief quickly turned, beginning to search around for something to eat. What he eventually produced were... cheetos. Cheeto puffs, to be exact. The snack food had been kindly donated by Roxie one of the times that she had been over, his sister having noticed his proclivity towards junk food. The sight of the bag immediately made him smile.

Grasping the bag carefully in his jaws, the black feline moved over to the front of his hut, nudging the door wide open so that he could get some fresh air. He then laid down inside, pulling open the bag of puffs and reaching a paw inside. He began to eat happily, only to notice something strange. The usual skittering of the rats had gone silent. Glancing around, Michael found himself surprised to see the most of the rats were staring at him, their little noses twitching rapidly. The bobcat just stared back at them for a moment before they charged, a startled squeak leaving him in surprise. The bag was knocked from his paws as rats began to climb all over him, Splash and Trevor V2 gnawing at his ears while Princess and Kenny climbed all over his paws, scrambling for cheeto puffs. Michael squeaked loudly, squirming about as his pets swarmed him, "Wh... no, hey, stop it! Stop that! Hey! C'mon guys, that was my fuckin' snack for today! Don't take it!" His protests and predicament probably wouldn't have been all that embarrassing, had it not been for the fact that his door was wide open, and all of this could be both seen and heard by anyone nearby.

Octane hadn't made a friend since arriving here, enough aquaintences though. The cheetah just did not attract friends easily. Well, no, that wasn't quite correct. He attracted plenty of people, as Octane's persona required him to be the center of attention, putting his life on the line daily. The rush was better than the fans though, and maybe that was fine with him. People only left Octavio, friends never stuck, they blocked him or just stopped inviting him to things entirely. The only person he considered his "hermana" at one point blocked him too.
Stupid Ajay.
He didn't need anyone, he just needed Caustic.
The cheetah was walking now, at least. He had a small limp as of right now, as Octavio kept weight off his bad hip. Being inside was boring and made him feel fucking awful. Solitude brought irritation and irritation led him to snapping at the wrong people. Sometimes those wrong people was Caustic and when he was already kicked to shit like this, the scientist elected for the cold shoulder method. It only made him feel more awful, as he didn't have any games to play and the bird he sent to pester the wolf constantly could only fly for so long. Octane is pulled from his thoughts at the sound of Michael's yelling, and he can't help the grin that spreads across his face under his mask. Something to distract him, at least.
The cheetah wears only his running mask at the moment, ears perked up. A chuckle leave him through the hole in the mask, a wiry chirp that was half laugh, half cheetah noises. "Amigo," he strains, pulling himself up to the front of Michael's hut. "I think many mistakes that led you here."

When Michael had originally started thrashing about, desperately calling out for help from any sort of source to get away from the rats currently assaulting him, he certainly hadn't been looking for people to make fun of his unfortunate situation. Sadly, the thief had managed to attract over the two people who were probably the most likely in the world to do so, as demonstrated by their words immediately after coming over. At the very least, Roxie was able to get the attention of the rats long enough for him to push himself up into a sitting position, letting out a gruff little huff from the back of his throat. Taking the bag back when it was passed over to him, he quickly tossed a few more puffs out, just to keep the rats away as he mumbled, "I didn't think they would just attack me like that! I thought we were formin' a bond." An expression somewhat akin to a frustrated pout came to his muzzle as he glanced around at the rats, most of whom were still staring up at him in fascination while also glancing at Roxie and Octane – whom the fugitive fixed with a hard glare when he remembered his little mocking comment. Not feeling especially hungry anymore, the bobcat tossed the bag of puffs straight at Octane's mask, watching as the rats swarmed him instead.

Turning his attention back to his sister, who had immediately latched back onto Princess the moment she had seen her, Michael found himself chuckling softly. He mumbled as he shook his head, the smile on his face accompanied by a thorough shaking out of his ruffled pelt, "I still don't know if she's actually pregnant or not. She does keep gettin' bigger though, so it seems like it. I even set up a little neat for her to give birth in." He knew how excited Roxie was for Princess to finally deliver, considering she wanted someone to share in her experiences with, and also just wanted to see the adorable tiny rat babies. Michael had to admit that, he too was extremely excited to see what the babies would look like, wondering which of his little gang of rats was the father to Princess's mother. Nearly all of the other rats were male, which meant that it could've been any one of them – or perhaps even a rat that had fled the house before he arrived.

Octane's vision flashes for a moment, as the bag of Cheetos becomes a grenade and he recoils, flipping back to let the rats swarm the food. He lands on his hip, inhaling a hiss through his teeth and pulling himself back up. Octane carefully pads around the rats, watching them feast. "Uh, probably shouldn't let them have that, but whatever. Your pets." He muses, turning back to face Michael. Octane moves closer, inspecting the rat (Princess?) with them, tapping his paws against the wood. "Don't rats normally have a lot of babies? You think you can handle them?"