Leopards, demons and tabloids, oh my! [Take 2]

[Roxy St. James]

It was with a flurry of movement that Roxy found herself drowning in sensation. There was something strange going on with her brain, as if every single touch were enough to send her into combustible range, but she couldn’t seem to latch onto the thought for her life. All she could do was feel, to cause feeling, and she went with it with gusto. She found herself absently wondering if those shadow sock puppets could do anything for sound, because hell if she wasn’t bringing the trees down around them with her incessant purring…

And then the final moments came, and all thought evaporated. White hot heat blew through her, yet another feline sound echoed around her, and she was, at last, content. Dimly aware of her body rolling to the damp ground and the soft grunt that sounded, she couldn’t help but wonder absently how she ever could have been so stupid as to take that vow with her sister.

Curling lazily against the heated thing next to her, she sighed, feeling the strange urge to sleep. Something smelled nice, and she nuzzled closer to whatever it was, a yawn pulling at her lips—

And reality came crashing down like a freight train come off its tracks, as he nose met damp skin. What…oh Jesus Christ, WHAT?

For a few minutes there- minutes, hours, who the hell knew how long?- her brain had been wiped out by the ‘let go’ command that Eryle had given her. Now that she had, however, and her unconscious was doing a happy dance, reality started to seep in. First came the fact that she was lying mostly naked in a public part- not that she cared, given the fact that naked came with the animal territory, but still. Then came the fact that there was someone else who was also half naked lying beside her. THEN, and most importantly, came those nagging thoughts from before; all it took was Mr. Shadow Puppet’s coming close to her, to have her turning into Roxanne the Wonder Slut.

Slowly, she turned her head to look at the man next to her, willing her eyes to focus. Once she could manage that, she slowly began to tense.
“Just so you know,” She said slowly, clearing her throat when it came out as a garbled growl. “When I get the strength back in my legs…I’m gonna fucking KILL you!”

[Eryle Darlusk]

How long had it been since he'd done that with someone that wasn't a timid little girl? Whatever the case, it hadn't been hard for him to be lost to the sensation, to be so entwined with someone after what was admittedly quite a long while. He had lost control of whatever magic had sprung up quite quickly, so heck if he knew if it properly shielded the sound form the surrounding area, and while he himself tended to be fairly quiet, obviously the shifter hadn't been the same.

Still, when it was finally finished, it all seemed to burn away in a blaze, releasing both of them from the hold of his aura at the same time in a sudden flash. The half-demon almost seemed to partially phase a bit out of corporeality for just a moment, perhaps his own loss of inhibition, since it came at about the same time Roxy had let out her own feline yowl.

His arm idley wrapped around the girl laying next to him, holding her for the little bit of time before she had seemed to come into realization of what had happened, though he himself was merely staring up at the sky now, eyes frozen as some guilt came over him.

There were those thoughts again. How he'd manipulated someone like some common incubus or vampiric tempter. No doubt about his lineage now; the demon within his mind had shone through. He let out a sigh, looking over to the woman as he heard her speak up, frowning a little. Even though he knew both of them really likely needed that, he still had no right to force it upon her, regardless of his own excuse about it affecting him as well.

"You can go ahead and do so now. I likely am not going anywhere anytime soon either", he said, switching to a light smirk, "Regardless...", he begins, sighing as he forces himself to finish the thought, "I shouldn't have let my ability flare out of control like that...I apologize.", he says, sounding sincerely enough.

There was definitely nothing left of the magic currently active, at least not past any natural attraction she'd have. Nothing clouding her mind, and at the moment he didn't even seem to be trying to read her emotional state. He was being sincere, if nothing else. Whether or not that'd be enough, though, was yet to be seen, so he looked to her a bit apprehensively.

[Roxy St. James]

Well, didn’t THAT just take all the menace out of her threat. Scooting away from him once the feeling in her arms and legs returned, she proceeded to scrabble around, snatching up her clothing. Movements jerky, she shoved her shirt over her head and stuffed her bra into her back pocket, sniffing around for the pair of underwear she was sure she’d been wearing.

“Apologize…what the fuck did you do to me, Eryle? I mean, there was this buzz in my head, and then bam, I was all over your ass. I’ve never, NEVER done anything like that…well, okay, maybe I have, but I was much younger and stupid, and there might have been alcohol involved at the time!”

Oh good lord, there she went again. Whenever she got particularly anxious or all around neurotic, words tended to spill out of her mouth like a waterfall, and there was nothing she could do about it. Shoving her fingers through her hair, she let loose yet another animal-like growl, and felt the need to shift, if only to let off some of the tension inside her.

She really, really wanted to go to her special place and jump into the lake. Damn, how did she always manage to find the guys who screwed with her head? And literally, with this one! Frick, she felt the insane urge to crawl back to him and demand a hug for making her crazy.

No more late night walks for her butt; NEVER again!

Taking a deep, calming breath, she leaned back on her haunches, watching him warily. “Tell me, Eryle, what just happened? I mean, I know what happened, but…crap, you know what I mean.”
---

((GAH, sorry about the shortness. My brain kinda crapped out on me for some reason. XD ))

[Eryle Darlusk]

When she moved to start getting dressed, he did the same. Of course, he had to cheat, his clothing seeming to transform from the ground and leak into darkness that then reformed on him as he phased form corporeality a moment; given that it was still night (right?) the shadows were plentiful so he didn't need to strain himself to work his magic like he might need to do during the day.

His head tilted a bit as she went over her explanation of how and when she may or may not have done this sort of thing before and...well, frankly, he got lost in the quick flow of words, blinking slowly and just watching her with a curious stare as she rambled it out.

"Ca-....don't worry about it, I understand you wouldn't normally", he says, realizing quite quickly not to tell her to calm down, was always a mistake to say that to a female that was worked up. Even a half demon that had just unleashed a potent magical ability on said woman knew that.

He moved towards her and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her; even if she might flinch at fist, she's realize his touch was no longer exuding the emotional triggers, and it hopefully could be comforting as such. Honestly, if she didn't calm down a little bit he'd have trouble getting out the explanation. Not that he had one that wasn't going to piss her off.

As she finally lets out a coherent question, he sighs slowly, gathering his words before starting to explain it, "What happened was that I utilized a natural ability of my kid to appear somewhat....hard to resist, just minimally at first for...amusement, really. But then I also combined it with energy I've not yet learned to control, and then unfortunately let it snowball on itself as I was caught in my own aura. Yes, being half demon I am actually prone to my own powers if I am not careful to develop and practice them a certain way", he explains to her with a light chuckle at the end of that.

"As such, I forced myself to project it on you further and, well...you know what happened", he says, shrugging a little and scratching his neck idly, "Though in all fairness...you can't deny that you really needed that", he adds a little quietly, though still audible.

At least he was being honest. That was worth something, right? Not like he was lying, saying he did it out of pure benevolence when secretly tryign to eat her soul or something. After all, what demon would humiliate themselves with a lie about losing control of their own ability, right? He looked to her a little hesitantly, unsure if she'd accept this all.

((Quite alright))

[Roxy St. James]

As he spoke, Roxy did her best to curb the urge to take a chunk out of his hand, instead focusing on trying to pull out her panties from under his butt. That succeeded, she shoved them into her empty pocket and crossed her arms over her chest. Okay, so he’d said he was sorry, and she hadn’t exactly been…coerced into sleeping with him. Not to mention that she was feeling like she could sleep for a WEEK, and her cat was purring in her brain, despite its sometime growling.

But still, she felt…weirded out, in a way. As if she’d lost control over her body, her feelings, and for a woman who’d been independent for most of her natural born life? NOT cool, man! Definitely not frigging cool!

Holding her hand up like a cop directing traffic, she closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. “So you’re telling me that you used magics that you don’t know how to control…because it was FUN?”

Though she had done her best to not eat his face off, the burning in her eyes probably meant that the darn things were glowing and her irises becoming feline slits. Smacking a hand over them, she counted to ten and focused on the impending Del Lecture tomorrow. ANYTHING but the urge to freak out again.

“It doesn’t matter if that was mind blowing sex or not,” She growled, peeking out at him from between her fingers. “You deliberately used magic on me so I would sleep with you! Jesus, man…do I look like a cheap ho? I feel like I should be charging you an extra hundred for being a test bunny or something…”

Rubbing at her face, she sighed. The magic thing was a bit hard to handle, but this wasn’t exactly the first one nighter that she’d had in her life. Hell if she’d let him get anywhere near her for the next two years, though. Pointedly taking a step back from him, so his hand was nowhere near her shoulder, she sighed. “Don’t do that again,” She grumbled, raking a hand through her choppy hair. “And I won’t end you. Next time, go after a normal woman, okay? I think you just made all my hormones explode in one freaking hour.”

[Eryle Darlusk]

He had pretty much expected this sort of reaction from her, and he sighed to himself as he tried to figure out how to do some damage control. Of course, there wasn't much he could do since he fully admitted to the fact that he was just toying with her to begin with, not exactly noble intent.

It was a little surprising when her eyes changed suddenly, becoming the feline slits; he made a mental note of that, the fact that under anger and perhaps some other circumstances she might partially change against her will; at least he assumed against her will since she was going through the effort to cover them up, "There's nobody around, and you needn't worry about shielding your eyes from me..", he quickly points out.

He did seem a little upset at her next accusation though. "I want this made clear to you: It was not my initial intent to sleep with you", he says fairly sternly, but then smirks, "And you do realize if you asked me to pay you what that'd more or less label you as, right?", he adds, chuckling and turning away a moment as he scratched his arm a bit.

Really, he did feel quite guilty right now. Sure, it wasn't a good thing to toy with people's emotion, but letting that sort of ability run at a low level was almost instinct for him sometimes. But whatever the case, still no excuse for not keeping it in check.

"Look, as I said, I am very sorry, it will not happen again, and if there's any way I can make up for it, you can ask me. Of course, if you'd rather just run off and never see me again, I can understand that and I wouldn't follow you. But I do hope you realize I wasn't exactly acting from negative intention, though admittedly they weren't exactly noble either", he rambles a bit after turning back towards her. Of course, he knew she might also ask to publish the article, even if he did already destroy the pictures she'd taken.

[Roxy St. James]

Oh, well score one for her feminine mystique, man. He didn’t originally want to sleep with her, and was forced to under magical duress. Jeeze, could there be ANYTHING ELSE that could make her ego whimper tonight? C’mon, just one more thing! Then she could commit suicide and have absolutely no regrets!

With an inward roll of her eyes Roxy, took a deep breath, counted to ten, then sighed in relief when the burning around her eyeballs ceased. Forget hiding what she was to demon-boy over there; she really wasn’t much of a fan of her ‘other half’ to begin with. Doing the whole leopard thing was something she did in privacy, in her special place, where she could pretend that everything was just a dream.

And the fact that the growling need to taste Eryle’s blood was also just a dream. A fluke from the whole ‘magical urge to bump uglies’ thing.

“Damn straight, it won’t happen again,” She said with a snort, his ho comment making her lips twitch. Man, it was just flipping weird, but she was starting to forgive the guy…even if he couldn’t hold his magic. “Didn’t even have dinner first, y’know? Wrong on so many levels.”

With a little sigh, she shoved her hands through her hair and shook her head, stomping her feet a bit to get circulation moving toward her toes. If she recalled some of those positions she’d tried correctly, she was more limber than she’d thought. Yay, no more gym!

But really now, she should want to tear this guy limb from limb for making her so batshit crazy. Then again, given the less-than-snarly disposition, thanks to some much needed horizontal tangoing…not to mention the feeling that she could sleep for a week…

She just had to give the guy some credit. Not to mention that a biker in some seedy bar downtown would’ve replaced him, if she’d made it across the park without getting stopped. So, alright, she’d save the demon-eating for later.

“So, tell me, Eryle…why in all that’s holy did you use a piece of magic that you can’t control?”

[Eryle Darlusk]

She seemed to be calming down a little, easing up to him, which meant his atrocious behavior hadn't entirely burnt a b ridge or made her hate him, which of course would mean a possibility of a shifter as an enemy, even a pack if ones like her had them. He didn't really know. He could tell what he said seemed to shake her ego a bit, though

"Don't get me wrong, if I were the type to manipulate people that way on purpose for that reason, you definitely would have caught my eye", he reassures her with an odd sort of compliment, but reassurance nonetheless.

He actually chuckled a bit at her first comment, the bit of humor in her words easing him up a bit, further proof she was starting to forgive him, or at least that's what he figured was the case. There was still a possibility of hidden resentment that'd come back to bite him in the ass, literally or figuratively.

"Of course, my mistake in that regard. Of course if you really wanted to, we could still go get that coffee that was suggested however long ago that might have been", he says, shrugging and grinning a bit.

Her next question, though, made him feel like he was repeating himself, even if he'd yet to answer it. The thoughts recycled themselves in his mind, though, so that was enough, and a slight frown crossed his features as he tried to figure out what to tell her.

"Why? It's instinctual of me to try to utilize power such as that, and it is often integrated into my day to day life as a part of me. It is why the shadows thicken around me. It is why I sense peoples' emotions. And if that worked properly, it would be an instinctive part of how I acted as well, although usually not exuding that type of aura, rather it'd likely be more of a calming one considering my usual frightening presence", he explains to her, sighing a bit afterward and looking back to her, once again wondering if she'd accept that.

[Roxy St. James]

Roxy eyed the demon with a raised brow and a droll look on her face as she hitched her purse up higher. “And for some reason, that scares the crap out of me,” She couldn’t help but remark, frowning at his comment. What, was she some kind of magnet for weirdoes and guys with half-holds on their magical abilities? She would have caught his eye? Gah, talk about some random shivering right there.

And SO not in a good way.

With a grumble, she just nodded and started forward, knowing that he would be close behind. Coffee with a demon who’d just turned off all her inhibitions and sated the animal inside her; right, definitely normal! What if he tried something in freaking public? She already had a really nice record with the US police, she really didn’t need ‘public nudity’ to add to it.

Well, if anything, now she knew what it felt like to get brain-owned by a demon warlock, right? If she started feeling all those warm tinglies again, she’d just kick him in the nuts and run away.

…Or eat him. Damn, now that the leopard wasn’t looking for a roll in the grass, she was hungry. Awesome. She could just add cannibalism to her list of quirks. Yet…at the same time, while the human in her wanted to take a two-by-four to his skull, all her cat was doing was wanting to cuddle. How fucked up was she?

Grudgingly, she nodded. “Okay, sure, so doing the warpy-emotions thing does have its upsides if you wanted to talk to me, ‘cause on first glance, you were freaking bad ass scary. But next time, Eryle, if you feel like things are getting out of control? Please just tell me to run away screaming, or something, ‘cause I definitely will. Not that having sex with you wasn’t a good time or anything, but a girl likes to be in control of her actions, you know? And…frick, I’m babbling. Jesus Christ, the café’s just across the street.”

With a groan, Roxy crossed her arms over her chest and marched toward the quaint little brown brick, doing her best not to look at the darker aura beside her.

[Eryle Darlusk]

He grins a bit at her response, a slight tinge of darkness in his expression for a moment before it turns to something a bit more harmless in appearance, "As I said, my dear....if. You needn't worry. And I was merely reassuring you since you had seemed to take offense. Make up your mind which you'd prefer", he says, lightly chuckling afterwards.

As she grumbled and began to walk, he kept that grin on his face and began walking after her, figuring out easily enough that she was heading to a coffee place. His mind had opened and once again he was reading the impulses running through her head in vague terms. For some reason he was....sensing both a desire or readiness for violence and...some hidden urge for affection of some sort? That couldn't be right. Then again, that'd mean he had to be reading her wrong, and his arrogance was too much to allow for that. So he opened his mouth.

"Am I mispercieving something or is there an internal part of you that perhaps wished we had cuddled afterwards?", he asks her with a teasing smirk, walking alongside her.

Another chuckle escaped him as she began rambling about the ordeal, "You do realize that it would come across quite odd to tell someone to run away screaming,and odder still for observers of that situation that would likely assume I was mugging or otherwise harming you, right?", he asks, shaking his head and sighing.

He looks across to the cafe, observing it and checking his wallet to make sure he had remembered to keep some money with him. He found a small roll of bills and counted them a moment before placing them back in his pocket.

[Roxy St. James]

"For one, don't call me 'dear,' if you want to keep your manly parts intact. And, for another...you are aware that what you just did could be considered rape, right?" She couldn't help but whirl around and growl the question before they could enter the cafe. "So excuse me if I'm a bit confused about how I should treat you right now."

With that, she stomped in and planted herself on line, immediately picking up a few sugar packets from a nearby booth to toy with. The human side of her was practically climbing the walls at what had just happened; the fact that her ever-loved sense of control had been taken away with one little 'spell.' She'd had one nighters, sure...but she'd always chosen with who, when, and where they happened. The little romp in the grass was so...so...spontaneous! Ack, she couldn't stand it!

...And, at the same time, her animal side just sighed and rolled its eyes. She had gotten what she'd needed, so what the hell was the big deal? She was relaxed, sated, content. According to the leopard, her human half should just shut the hell up and do the cuddling thing. Ah, she loved the cuddling thing...

No! No, she would not cuddle! ARGH, HER BRAIN!

And damn him for picking up on it! "No,I don't feeling like cuddling," She grumbled, not noticing that she was slowly gravitating toward his side. Crossing her arms over her chest, she paused, chewed on her lip, then muttered a curse, keeping her voice low. "And okay, I'm sorry about the 'rape' comment. You might've been toying with my emotions, but I always found that I could have walked away. Takes two to tango. But...gah, this has never happened before, so I'm just a BIT wound up, okay? So, if you could just, you know...not play word games with me?"

Her voice clipped, she ordered a coffee that was liable to add a few pounds to her butt in the next half hour and locked her eyes on the sugar packets in her hand.

All the while, leaning into his side slightly. Goddammit...bad, kitty! Very bad kitty!

[Eryle Darlusk]

He frowns a bit at the sudden touch of hostility on her part, and for the moment avoided responding to the comment, rather than risk further provoking her since it seemed that nothing he said could possibly be the right thing to say in the situation for the moment. So it was best to shut up for now, he figured, as he got into line, hands at his sides and unlike hers, kept completely still.

Despite this, it was still amusing feeling the internal struggle and argument within her, even without knowing the specifics, considering he knew full well what it was about, after all. Her feelings were easily as mixed as his about what happened, or even more-so.

Still, despite the amusement, he did feel guilty still, considering she was right; while he'd never use the word rape himself, he DID cause her to have sex against her initial will. No matter how much she needed or enjoyed and no matter how much he was a victim of his own magic as well. That thought caused a frown to appear on his face, which eased up a bit as he noticed her starting to get a little closer to him.

"Yes, please, please don't call it that....I did mention I do feel guilty as it is. But yes, I'm sorry, I'll be a bit more...careful with my words, alright?", he says to her, sighing a bit.

HE ordered a black coffee, just figuring he'd partake of some raw caffeine for now, not exactly wanting a bunch of sugar to deal with, and as she continued leaning in to him, he somewhat reflexively put an arm around her waist, lightly, giving her a half hug and then moving to lead the two of them to a table.

((If you still wanna do a time jump of some sort liek we discussed, feel free. Or not. Im good either way))