YOU'VE MADE ME MISERABLE, MISERABLE ☆ rats

[michael t.]

It wouldn't have made sense, for Michael to just expect that he would be left alone to his own devices with his new pet rats. After all, it wasn't as if he was hidden away within the privacy and safety of the building behind him. No, instead he had chosen to sit out on the porch with his container of rats, somewhere that was very much public and visible. Despite this, the bobcat still found himself jumping slightly when Octane approached, hurriedly taking an uncomfortable looking seat on the porch nearby. Half of this was because of Michael's focus on his new companions, and half of it was because of his lack of warning systems from the left side, his blindness and accompanying deafness on that side of his body making it difficult to tell when others were coming, especially through the sand. One of his front paws instinctively shot out protectively around the container of rodents, his short tail twitching apprehensively behind him as well, before the criminal actively forced himself to calm down. Octane's voice was high and excited, and he seemingly provided little threat in his current state. Michael was just so used to needing to constantly be on guard over anything that he treasured or cared about that his first instinct was that the cheetah was coming to yank his new children away from him. It was a silly instinct, but his body stubbornly clung to it, screeching that he would lose everything if he ever fully let his guard down.

Taking a deep breath inward, Michael forced his fur to flatten and his paw to pull back, allowing Octane to see the container fully once again. In order to ignore the rish of anxiety that came with the action, he focused fully on what the cheetah was saying, both ears perked forward although only one could truly process any of what was being said. However, the bobcat soon found himself freezing up when he heard the words falling from Octane's lips. Octavio? Like, the Octavio that Caustic had spoken about on Valentine's day? The idea that he would encounter Caustuc's "lab partner" here seemed so laughably farfetched that he just found himself staring with startled blue eyes at Octane, silent. The tension in his body skyrocketed, as if he were petrified that Caustic was going to step out from the shadows and drag him away. However, he once again forced himself to relax, hastily shaking his head before he spoke, "I... what? No! I wasn't tryin' to set the house on fire, I was tryin' to bake a cake. And I'm... I'm, uh, Michael. Michael De Santa." Looking down at the container he had sitting in front of him, he followed up dryly, "And yeah, these are my rats. It's kind of a jew development, but... they're real fuckin' cute."

It was at this point that Roxanne came over, his sister a bit slow in her step thanks to the children.that were rapidly approaching their birth date. Just her presence was enough to make him settle further, returning to his usual casual state. He gave her a little smile before he chuckled, nodding his head at the both of them, "Yeah, I did. They were livin' in the house I was lookin' at and it just seemed a little rude to evict 'em and throw 'em out..." He then continued, lifting up one of his bandaged front limbs to start pointing at each of them, "The two of you can say hello to Kenny, Cocoa, Princess, Wade, Splash, and Trevor, Version 2. Er, do either of you know what rats eat...?" Michael knew full well that rats could survive on pretty much anything they decided to scavenge, but he wanted to know what to feed them if he wanted them to actually be happy and healthy.

[glow=#75603C,1,000]" oh, it's a setup, no, no, we won't fall. "[/glow]