This was the worst day of his life. Jupiter felt like trash. He probably hadn't opened his eyes more than a handful of times on the way back to Fireside. He'd slipped on the harness to his cart, turned it towards home, and off he went. It struck him as odd that the damn thing was still so heavy, but he chalked it up to just how shitty he was feeling and kept pulling with nary a further thought given.

He'd known this was coming and in truth, wanted it. Finally his body matched his mental state. All he needed now was to lay down somewhere and wait for death or marriage, whichever came first. Hopefully death if he were being honest. In all honesty it wasn't the woman who worried him. Chaos was right, she was probably a looker and at the very least he'd enjoy fucking her. What he didn't like was the commitment. To her, to Tyrian, to everyone who was counting on this deal working. He just wanted to do what he wanted, when he wanted. Was that too much to ask?

After reaching a stand of trees in the Knolls, Jupiter shimmied out of his harness, drug himself over to a bush, flopped down underneath it and waited for death.

-exit Jup via sleep-

The party had been glorious, and when it was all over she had crawled into the carrage and curled up with her sister. Her larger form fitted nicely around the little one of her sister. Truth be told, Lorikeet did not like to sleep extended times with strangers. As much as she loved to enjoy them. She could truly relax with her siblings, her trust for them was immense. For little Cic? Even more so. She slept comfortable, content, and well.

Certainly she did not notice the disturbance of movement, and she woke entirely too early with natures call lurring her outside. She sighed, rubbing red eyes and knew she had drunk too much and stated up too late. All the things that were good at the time, and terribly later.

She staggered outside of the blanket cover, momentarily blinded by the bright light of day. She waited a moment for her eyes to adjust, confused by the scent of sheep and hills, and the lack of ocean air. When she could see clearly, she understood why. They had been accidentally kidnapped. She groaned, and debated waking her sister up, but perhaps she could solve this whole mess without Cic having to deal too much with strangers. She rolled her shoulders forward, her protective nature over her sister driving her forward.

She took a few steps forward, and almost tripped over the prone form in the bushes. She opened her mouth with a frown, before pausing. Admiring the brilliant of his coat and the exotic, lightly blue swirls that embraced it. She reached forward, disregarding proprietary as she placed a paw on his back, and traced it gently down one of the markings. "How delightful" she murmured softly.

A grumbling growl was given as sound invaded the star spattered nebulas glorious sleep. The gentle, rocking sway had lulled her into sweet oblivion and had kept her there for God's knew how long. Now her sweet dreams had ceased, cut off abruptly by the lack of sway followed by the careful shuffling of her sister. Keet was trying to be careful but Cicero was a very light sleeper. One silver eye cracked and she saw her giant bluebird of a sister creep from the cart.

A whisper of words brought Ciceros head up. "Eh?" She couldn't hear Lorikeet if she was indeed taking to her. Ciceros mind was still a little muddled. She'd eaten a lot of mushrooms last night. A looooot of mushrooms. The whales had been singing directions to the stars above. They had been trying to teach her how to fly. They would be her guides, her navigators. Right before they sy6ng their final secret of flight, Keet had plucked her from the sand and deposited her in the cart where they'd both promptly fallen asleep.

Silver eyes narrowed slightly as she inspected her surroundings. This definitely wasn't the beach. Warily, the small wolf dropped down from the cart and picked her way to her sister's side. "I don't think we're at the beach anymore, " she said dryly. Cicero wrinkled her nose as she saw Keet touching a blue, sleeping brute. "Well don't touch it. You don't know where he's been. He could have fleas." She was just being snarky because she should still be asleep. The small fae knew somewhat who the man was. It had been his party. She hoped that her aphrodisiacs had been a hit.

Valentine had not been invited to the party, but now that it was over he was aware of its existence thanks to the steady trickle of returning drunks. In truth he was a bit put out by the lack of an invite. It sounded like the sort of thing that would have been right up his alley. Damn those kids and their inability to see him as anything other than a crotchety old man. But, perhaps it was for the better. If given half the chance he'd have stolen all the pretty young women out from under their woefully inadequate partners and it would be frustrated, cock blocked grumps dragging themselves home now. Age had neither grayed him nor stricken him and while he technically fit under the label of 'wizened' Valentine liked to think he pulled it off as 'wiry' instead of the standard old person 'shriveled'. It would have been a shame to upstage his youngsters. That was the thought he was trying to mollify himself with, anyway.

Since he had nothing better to do, Valentine had decided to be a good little old sage and shepherd any fallen drunks he'd found home. He'd found Tyrian first. Poor thing had made it over the border but not far beyond that so Valentine, being the good dad he was, had taken him to his den and tucked him in. Kinda. He'd woken his son with a booming 'good morning!' and then pitched him into his den with a promise to wake him soon to take care of the sheep. He'd done it out of love, honest. The cruel satisfaction at seeing his son flinch awake had just been a bonus.

"Well," he purred as he came upon the scene. Valentine planted his feet wide, his stance lackadaisical and his expression mild as he regarded the women. "What have we here?" He rolled his head to the side and fixed his attention on the paw that was touching Jupiter, who appeared to be out cold. "I've seen a great many things but I can't say I've ever interrupted the molestation of a grandson before."