Oh...That Plan (Nike)

[Ryan Simons]

Ryan just continued following the goddess. Acting slightly nice was so weird, did he mention that? Nike was still trying to put up with him, and he actually gave her a lot of credit for that. He guessed that was one of the reasons he was trying to be nice again, but he couldn't really be sure. Ryan didn't really think of his being negative as abnormal since it was just him all of the time, but lately, from what he had been picking up at camp, it was sort of abnormal. He still didn't care about that, it was just starting to make him think a bit more, if anything. Nike could get annoying, yes, but it had been a long time since he had met someone who hadn't been fully mean to him back when he got on their case. It had been like that with Edmund, both he and Nike had just sort of accepted him for what he was and managed to maintain their own personality. They also had made him sort of soften up, Ryan was as near to softening up now as then, but as much as he resented it, he could see it happening. Very slowly. "What?" he asked, making a face. "Oh," he said, giving a shrug. "I guess I just did then," he muttered. All would of been fine, if she hadn't patted him on the head. He hesitated slightly before he lashed at her arm though, slightly confused at what she had just said. Proud of him? He gave it a moment's hesitation of thought, then was him and lashed at her arm. Since he had hesitated, her arm was already away and he missed. "Don't push it," he said, a bit of a growl coming back into his voice.

"Whatever," Ryan said, shrugging. He really didn't mind, he didn't really think it was a loss from anyone since they had nothing to gain from him. Just misery, really. He watched her and couldn't help rolling his eyes slightly. Girls and their hair. It was just better having it short and not really worrying it about it that much. He gave a slight shrug. "Thought so," he said, smirking slightly. He stared at her slightly, tilting his head again as she burst into a fit of giggles. "Glad you found that amusing..." he said, his voice slightly hesitant. Wait, had he just made a joke or something? Her eyebrows had shot up. Okay, what did he do this time? "What?" he asked, keeping his head titled slightly. He really had no idea what she found so hilarious about this whole thing. Oh gods, he was breaking. He wanted to stop, but he had agreed to this, so, being stupid him, he wasn't backing out.

"Nope," Ryan said, shaking his head. Never heard of any of that stuff. "Should of been expecting that," he said rolling his eyes slightly. She started explaining and Ryan tried to follow along. "Okay..." he said as she finished. "That was sort of stupid of them, but okay," he said, shrugging. Weird how the human mind worked when it was in love. His mind kept processing it. Two people who weren't supposed to like eachother, fell in love, one killed the other's cousin, one drank a poison to look like she was dead to avoid her family. The guy thought she was dead, drank a poison and died. The girl woke up, saw the guy was dead and stabbed herself. "Real bright of them," he snarled, rolling his eyes. Now he hoped he would never fall in love. Having love or friends just made your emotions cloud your judgement.

He rolled his eyes. Great, so the first thing he had complemented in a very very long time was a dog. "Uh...okay?" he more asked. "What are those things...?" he asked, looking at her as she ranted off a list. He exhaled, now he was sort of getting annoyed at himself because he didn't know what all of these things were and it seemed like common knowledge to everyone. He was half thinking that Nike was getting a bit annoyed at his obliviousness to everything as well. It'd annoy the Hades out of him. "Er...alright..." he said uncertainly, just following Nike. "What does that do?" he asked, looking at the object that Nike had called a 'collar'. He looked at the colors. "Uh, I don't know," he muttered. He casted his mind around. What had been her favorite color? He hesitated a slight second before shrugging. "Gold? Or a yellowish?" He looked around at the shelves. He wouldn't know what to grab for a dog versus a hamster. "I don't think me picking the necessities would work that well."

[*nike*]

"We're going to be the best dog-owners ever!" Nike claimed, dodging Ryan's attempted hit easily. She was too excited now for his no-physical-contact policy to get her down. They owned a dog! Okay, well technically they didn't own Lila yet, but they would in about twenty minutes give or take. "Sorry," She shrugged, no sincerity in her voice that time. She wasn't really sorry about patting his head. It really wasn't that big of a deal, but of course Ryan thought it was since he was a crazy-angry guy. Well actually he wasn't being too bad currently. He was actually bareable at the moment.

"Aww, that was so close to a smile!" The immortal complained as Ryan smirked, her laughter remaining incessent. It was a wonder how she could talk during her laughing fit. "Aren't you just adorable when you're clueless?" She smiled, waiting for the inevident 'I'm not adorable' or something along those lines. Did he even realize that he made a joke? Because it certainly didn't look like it to Nike. "You were actually teasing too, as in making a joke!" She clapped her hands together twice in her excitement. Progress! Was the first word that popped into her mind. She could actually sort of picture him with a teasing personality now that he had made some sort of effort at being humurous. Nike, of course, would have really preferred that side.

"Yeah, I suppose I should have been expecting it," She nodded her head, tucking her hands into her front pockets absentmindedly. "Romantic, yes, but you're right it's also stupid." Nike shrugged, wishing just a little bit that she had her own Romeo. Well except she didn't want him to kill himself at the end, nor her, kill herself. Not that she could really. "And I know, 'It's not romantic, it's just stupid' or 'Romance is stupid and love is pointless,'" She mimicked his voice perfectly, just attempting a guess at what he would say. It probably wasn't too far off anyway. "But, it's not..It's nice to feel loved," The goddess smiled, her eyes staring off into the distance for a moment.

"You'll see!" She called out, literally skipping down the ailse. Coming to a halt in front of the dog beds, she paused, scratching her head as though it was a really important decision. A dark blue bed, ended up being her choice. "Carry this!" Nike requested, picking up the fluffy blue bed and tossing it gently at Ryan. Not bothering to see if he caught the bed, she continued on, pulling a golden collar off of the shelves. "Good point, I'll just pick everything out myself." She shrugged, making another pause at the dry dog food. "You think a 40 pound bag is good? Oh, nevermind. Let's just go with that." Nike decided, easily hefting the bag up onto her shoulder. "Would you mind grabbing that little package?" She turned to him, her hands preoccupied with the basket and the dog food so she used her head to gesture to a medium sized pack of dog toys.

[/blockquote]

[Ryan Simons]

"Oh, I'm sure," Ryan said, rolling his eyes only very slightly. This would be weird, having a dog. He had never really owned anything alive or knew how to take care of things. It would be weird, yeah, but he was sure he'd get used to it in a few weeks, give or take. Nike, of course, had already removed her hand and dodged his easily. He shrugged. "Whatever," he growled. He still hated that she had patted his head.

Ryan narrowed his eyes really. "Uh-huh...." he said, looking at her, his head still tilted slightly. Gosh she was in a huge laughter fit, he still had no idea what she had found so funny about this whole thing. He glared at her and opened his mouth, shut it then rolled his eyes. "Well, you know what I'm going to say, no reason in wasting my breath," he snarled. He still sincerely had no idea that he had just joked or whatever. Nike wasted no time in clarifying it. He looked at her oddly. "Okay..." he muttered, now feeling sort of weird. Was he really cracking that much?

He snorted. "Yeah, full on," he said, rolling his eyes. "Don't know why someone would write something like that just to have everyone die at the end," he growled. He never had fallen in love and never wanted to. He didn't like anyone beyond a slight friend (if anyone ever got that far) his hand fell onto his pocket where he still had the knife Nike had given him. "Yeah, exactly," he muttered as she mimicked him. Weird, he was going to say one of those. "Well, I think it is," he growled. He had tried loving, and it never landed him anywhere good.

"Okay then," Ryan grumbled, still following her down the aisles. He looked oddly at the beds she had stopped infront of. "Are these in what she sleeps in?" he asked. He just heard the word catch, he managed to grab it before it hit the floor. Well, at least it wasn't a dagger. He continued after her. "Yeah, that'd be safest," he said. He'd probably get some stuff for the entire different species and he wouldn't know the difference. He watched her carry the bag, slightly confused, but then he remembered that she was a goddess. He almost forgot that sometimes. "Okay..." he said, picking up the bag she had indicated to him.

[*nike*]

"Okay I'm not completely sure that we will, but we'll do our best! Okay nevermind, I'll do my best and I'll drag you along while doing so," Nike nodded her head, as though this was a very important decision. Well in some ways it was. She didn't want the dog to die of course, although she wasn't sure about Ryan's opinion on that matter. He was probably hoping that Lila would run away and get hit by a car or something similar to that. "Oh I was thinking when we're driving, Lila can sit in your lap. That way she doesn't have to be stuck in the dog cage, and I don't want her to run away. Plus, it's an oppurtunity for you two to bond," She smiled encouragingly, unsure if he would object to that as well. It was highly likely that'd he'd agree, but him complimenting the dog was also highly unlikely and he had done that.

"Yeah, I do. You're negativity is just a tad predictable," Though, a tad happened to be an understatement. She was, honestly, always expecting the next growl, or insult. "You know, laughing is a good thing too. Just like crying. It's normal...not a sign of weakness," The goddess pointed out, breathing in deeply until she stopped laughing. Apparently he had even forgot what making a joke was because he didn't even seem to know that he had made one. To her, Ryan looked more confused then anything.

"I don't know, I quite like a story where everyone dies at they end. The characters were stupid and shallow anyway so they deserved it," She pointed out, aware of how morbid that sounded. Nike honestly found that most of the characters in a movie/play where everyone died at the end, really deserved it anyways. Especially in the slasher films. There were always those annoying girls who screamed throughout the entire movie and Nike was glad when they got stabbed. "Well that's probably because you've never been in a relationship, nor loved any girl ever in your life," She shrugged, her voice sounding not too concerned about it. It wasn't her problem, though sometimes she did enjoy playing matchmaker.

"Yep, hence the dog bed," Nike emphasized the word bed. It was sort of self-explanatory in her opinion. "I think that's it," She mumbled, going over the list she had compiled in her head and comparing it to what they had. Perfect, She decided, leading the way back to the counter where Lila was already bouncing around in a dog cage. Setting the dog food and the basket down on the counter, she reached for a pen and started filling out the paperwork, chuckling to herself as she did so. "Two hundred cover it?" She asked, pushing the forms back to the employee. He nodded so she pulled out two hundreds out of her purse and dropped them on the counter. "Keep the change," Nike picked the bag of dog food back up along with the bag of toys which she held in the same hand as the food so that she could pick up Lila's cage as well. "So Rye-pie, where to next? The park or do you want to get lunch?"

[/blockquote]

[Ryan Simons]

Ryan snorted. "Yeah, probably," he muttered. She'd probably be the way better owner than he'd ever be. He still sort of hoped it would be more Nike's dog than his. He rolled his eyes. "Great," he growled. "Joy me," he hissed. There he went back to his usual self. Ryan was sort of trying, not as hard as before though, so he had begun to slip back into his old self. He was going to try and be nice again though, it hadn't been horrible, besides, he he agreed to it. "So, you're driving then?" he asked, looking at her and hoping she'd say yes. He couldn't drive with a dog in his lap, right? Besides, driving had been weird and nerve wracking, he was still amazed that he hadn't gotten them killed. "Okay, fine," he grumbled. Bonding, bleh, but he had agreed to try and nice. In a cage? He didn't much like that idea either.

He nodded and rolled his eyes. He knew he was getting predictable with his negativity and comebacks and all. After you figured out that he was negative about anything, you could pretty much assume his response to everything or anything. "Yeah, I bet," he growled. He looked at her and gave a slight shrug. That was what Alex had said, he had said it about crying more than laughing though because Ryan had laughed at one point in time. He was still very confused though. He thought and sort of remembered about teasing and such, but not much.

"Oooookay," he said, looking a bit oddly at her. Sure he was a I Hate The World sort of person, but to have everyone die at the end was a bit...harsh. Sure, if they were asking for it and everything, fine, but still, it sort of disturbed him a bit. He looked at her. "True," he said, shrugging. He never had loved a girl or been in a relationship or whatever. The only girl he had known his childhood was his aunt, and he didn't really have a lot of positive feelings about her. He still didn't know if he ever did want to love. It just clouded your judgement and everything. Its what seemed to happen in that Romeo and Juliet story.

"Oh, right," he muttered, looking at the dog bed. Yeah, he really felt dumb around Camp sometimes because people kept ranting off about things that was all common knowledge to everyone but him. "Alright," he said, shrugging. Yes! They were getting out of there, being in this store thing still sort of made him sort of nervous. He wasn't used to it, he hoped he could be back in the times one day, but it wasn't going to happen soon. He rolled his eyes. Rye-Pie, lovely nicknames. The next thing took him off. Get lunch, he was fine with, park, he had no idea. This was probably just another common knowledge thing. He sighed and inhaled, "You know what I'm going to ask..." he grumbled, then looked at her. "What's a park?" he asked, feeling sort of stupid. Now Ryan was sort of hating that his aunt had kept him in the dark. He looked at everything she was carrying. "Want me to carry anything?" he asked.

[*nike*]

Nike frowned, upset with Ryan's step back to growling and mumbling and hissing. Couldn't he just be nice and happy for five minutes? Or at least neutral? Apparently not, because it definately hadn't been five minutes since he met Lila. "Could you please be nice? Just a little bit?" She pleaded, the twinkle fading from her eyes. Maybe she should have gotten a dog with someone more willing and enthusiastic. "Sure," She sighed,  clear on the fact that Ryan wasn't comfortable with driving the car. It was pretty obvious from the moment she had handed him the keys. Apparently he wasn't too fond of trying new things.  "Wow don't act too excited about it," The goddess spoke up, light sarcasm lining her voice. "You're going to hurt little Lila's feelings," She put on a small smile trying not to let the demigod see that his negativity and pessimism was bothering her.

Blowing her bangs out of her face, Nike glanced over at the Ares boy who was nodding his head. So apparently he knew he was overly predictable. And it was obvious that he also wasn't buying her statement about laughing and crying. Seriously she laughed all of the time and never had a problem with it. Other gods laughed, demigods laughed, mortals laughed...Everyone she had ever met had laughed at least once. Everyone except for the boy she was now dragging around the city. "You probably haven't laughed in so long that your laugh sounds like a scary wheezing cackle," The girl teased, that twinkle slowly reappearing in her eyes.

"Okay you don't get to judge me," The goddess declared. Yes, her point of view there was a little twisted, but he had his flaws too so she wasn't going to stand him judging her. "Maybe I should have a little conversation with my friend Eros." She waggled her eyebrows flirtatiously. "Also known as Cupid, in case you didn't know," Nike informed him, simply because he didn't seem like the type to keep up with the gods and goddesses. And she was probably accurate in that area.

"Yea..." She trailed off pointlessly, shifting the dog food bag which was resting uncomfortably on her shoulder. Laughing to herself at Ryan's annoyance with the nickname, she nudged open the door. The demigod's question about what a park was earned an are-you-stupid look from the cashier. "Got a problem?" She glared at the employee who just stared blankly back at her. "I wouldn't be judging there, sweetheart. You're working in a pet adoption agency and you should be educated and have a college degree, so screw off," Nike managed to say the whole thing in a sweet, innocent voice before she walked out of the door. "Anyways, how about we just go get lunch. We can go into a restaurant, where you sit at a table and they serve you food, or we can just pick something up and eat in the car with Lila. Your choice. Another thing that is your choice is what you would like to eat," She explained what she figured needed an explanation so as not to confuse Ryan even more. "No, but thanks for offering," Nike smiled happily at his semi-attempt at chivalry. Well she didn't actually think that he was trying to be chivalrous, but she was going to pretend for her benefit that he was.

        

[Ryan Simons]

Ryan gritted his teeth, he was back to his growling self and he knew it. Epic fail, couldn't even maintain at least a neutral attitude for five seconds. He looked at the goddess and considered it. Could he try, sure, he could try, but that would just put him in a bad position. Whenever he said he would try something, he would always do his best to stick with it. Take darn archery for an example. Him starting to be nice to Nike could mean him starting to be nice to everyone else. Bleh, mental fight again and he was sort of sick of it. It didn't really hurt him when he had been nice for like, two seconds, but still, he had his doubts. He partially opened his mouth. "N-yeah, fine," he grumbled, changing his mind for the billionth time. The fifteen year old exhaled. "I'll try," he said, slightly flat. Yeah, fine...it was sort of good...right? Nike hadn't killed him or anything yet, although she could if she wanted to at any given time, so he guessed he sort of owed her in that aspect. He gave a slight nod as she said yes that she'd drive. Driving had been very scary for him. Almost as scary as entering Camp, and that had to be the second most scary thing in his life. He tried not to roll his eyes. "I'll try not to," he grumbled, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "Okay, okay, gee," he grumbled.

By now, Ryan knew he was predictable. If you got your head around that he was negative about almost anything, then you could pretty much figure out what would come out of his mouth next. The laughing and crying thing, he sort of remembered Alex telling him. It was more about crying than laughing, though, in that part of his life. He had laughed, used to laugh a while ago. He looked at the goddess. "Yeah, you're probably right," he said with a shrug. If he couldn't even remember how to smile or joke around, then how on earth would he remember how to laugh? He could tell that Nike was teasing him again, but he didn't snap at her as he usually would of; he was getting used to the way she humored him and all, half of him didn't really mind it anymore, the other half still wanted to snap her arm off. Yeah, good luck with that one Ryan. Snapping a goddess' arm off... real smart.

"Fine by me," the fifteen year old said. He wasn't really judging Nike just because of her views on one story, as he knew her now she was a very caring person... goddess. He had to give her a lot of credit for putting up with him. Eros...? He searched his mind. "Oh joy," he muttered. Eros, it finally came to him. He hated that god. Dealt with people falling in love, ugh. "Yeah, I know," he muttered, not sarcastically or anything, just a statement. As much as he seemed the type that didn't know the times or didn't seem to care about anything at all, Ryan had sort of taken up an interest to the gods and their spheres of control. "I don't think that's necessary," he said. Far far far away from it.

He looked at the other objects in the shop. One day he just needed to be taken around and showed almost everything, it was crazy and weird, but he had no idea what anything in here was. He gritted his teeth and tried not to stay angry at her long about calling him by his nicknames. They were going to be used, so he'd just better get used to it. The person with the thing that shot out red streaks of lights was looking at them a bit oddly. A look that he associated with his aunt after he asked a question. His stomach sank. Another stupid common knowledge thing. Of course. "Okay," he muttered, following her out. Yes! Thank the gods they were out, it was starting to freak him out in there. "Sounds fine," he said. "I'll take it in the car," he grumbled. He wasn't really liking these shop places... to many people in one cramped space for him. "Alright," he said, continuing to the car. He looked at her. "But seriously, what's a park?" he asked. Then added as an after thought: "I know, its probably just another common knowledge thing..." he muttered, looking down slightly.

[*nike*]

"Yay!" Nike exclaimed, about to clap her hands, but then realizing that would cause all of her perfectly balanced dog toys would fall on the cement. Her mood was upgraded to a bubbly excitement. Although her mood could be made better if she actually got to eat something. Not that she really needed to, but hey, she liked food. Nothing wrong with that. "I feel like the dog is your favorite out of her and me." She nodded, pursing her lips. It was most definately true, she was sure of it. "Don't comment," She requested, not really wanting to hear that someone thought a dog was better compared to her. It wasn't exactly a self confidence builder. Nor was it good for a good mood.

"I'm right a lot, in case you didn't guess that." She shrugged, it was more of a simple statement of fact than bragging. She wasn't trying to be snobby about anything, it was just kind of true. She was the goddess of victory for Pete's sake, if she wasn't right a lot of the time then there wouldn't be much to feel victorious about. "I think you're just saying that so that'll I'll shut up about it. Which I guess I will, because you're not going to laugh nor cry anytime soon I assume." The goddess replied, her mind flashing briefly back to this morning. His tears had been an unwelcomed surprise. She didn't really like it when people cried, and she really didn't like that Ryan cried. He was like a rock pretty much, and rocks didn't exactly cry. That'd be really strange if they did..

"Ah, fine. I suppose I should leave that matter alone for now," Nike waved it away, not too concerned about it. Knowing Ryan, if she actually contacted Eros the demigod would probably find out a way to kill immortals just so that he could kill her. "Maybe we could talk to Aphrodite then," She winked, her voice teasing. "Just joking," She added, so that he wouldn't get all mad and huffy and puffy again. She was really hoping that he wouldn't revert back to his old ways immediately. Nike was quite enjoying the neutral Ryan.

"Figures..You're seriously antisocial, boy. But it's okay because I'm not going to try and force you to be social too!" Nike nodded, figuring that trying to get him to be nice was far enough. Plus, she figured he would just get ticked off at that suggestion and would quit on being her bestie altogether. Which, if she admitted it which she never would to him, would honestly make her really lonely. She considered Ryan like a leech, it grew on you, but you didn't always like it. "It's alright," She mumbled, dropping her handfuls of stuff into the back seat of the car they had taken. "It's a stretch of grass with benches, just basically for people to go play with their dogs, kids and the such. It's fun! We could play frisbee..Where you throw this disk around and catch it..or Lila could catch it."

[/blockquote]

[Ryan Simons]

For a second Ryan thought that Nike may drop everything, she sounded so excited. Gee, he had only agreed to try and trial being somewhat neutral. He continued along, still half thinking he was crazy for agreeing to this. Great, so now they had a dog and yeah...really weird to him. He looked at her and opened his mouth to say 'No' but then he shut it. "Fine," he said, shrugging. Technically if it hadn't been for her, he wouldn't of been getting the dog in the first place. Still, with his attitude, that could of been a 'Yes', not the best way to build confidence or keep her in a good mood.

"Yeah, I think I've figured it out," the son of Ares said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice and rolling his eyes slightly. She was the goddess of victory, after all. If she wasn't right about a lot of stuff, why have the title? The freaking thing was she had been the very person to sort of figure him out, or a crucial part of it, anyway. He gritted his teeth slightly, this 'becoming nice' thing was not going to happen very fast. He'd give it a few months to really kick in, if he was still going to do it. He probably was going to, he had agreed to it, so he wasn't giving it up easily. "Eh," he shrugged. "Never know," he muttered. He had cried infront of Aria, now Nike; he wasn't going to become a basket full of emotions anytime soon. For now, he was just a rock. A rock with a lot of mixed emotions, but they'd have better luck getting water from a rock then to get him to admit it.

Ryan shrugged. "Fine by me," he muttered. He'd seriously kill her if she went talking to Eros. He half rolled his eyes. "You mean the mother of the girls and guys who are always looking in the mirror?" he snorted. He had met one on the Hill; that girl had been way to obsessed with herself. Yeah, he knew she was teasing. He could sort of pick her teasing out, but that was just because she humored him quite often. Ryan didn't care, he was made fun of quite a lot, it didn't bother him anymore.

"I know," he said, shrugging. "I'm just not used to a lot of people at once, I guess," he muttered. She'd probably say that she knew that too. Goddess of victory fit her quite well. "Okay, fine," he said indifferently, he wouldn't of minded either way...that much. He got on the side opposite the wheel, something poked him in his pocket and he remembered that he still had the knife Nike gave him in there. He sort of liked having her around, it was annoying sometimes, maybe a lot of the time, but if he was seriously honest with himself, he'd be sort of upset if she stopped talking to him or whatever. It'd be easier to get water out of a rock than for him to tell her that. "Oh...alright," he said, trying to think about what it would look like. "Sounds interesting," he muttered.

[*nike*]

"Thank you," She mumbled, her mind drifting to where they could get lunch from. Did Ryan like seafood? Or did he even know what that was? Because Nike was personally a big fan of crab and lobster, oh and those delicious cheese biscuits from Red Lobster. And they did carry-out!! Or maybe the demigod preferred fast food, like a Whopper from Burger King. Since it was probably his first day out of the camp since he had been there though, the goddess was determined to make the day exciting. And exciting included a delicious lunch, and maybe dinner depending on how long they stayed out of camp. Oh, maybe shopping as well! "How do you feel about shopping?" She asked, eyeing his chosen apparel which in her opinion was a little dirty and ratty. Of course he spent all day at the camp and probably only trained so it was expected. "Because I think you could do with some new clothes, nothing fancy just new," Nike suggested, not meaning that she was going to force him to get a suit or anything close to that. Just a newer version of what he was currently wearing. "I won't even pester you while you're shopping, I swear!"

"The heavy sarcasm in your voice gives me a sense you're kidding," The goddess raised an eyebrow, turning around to look at him. He didn't exactly look happy, but on the bright side, he wasn't trying to kill her with a knife. Not that he could, but Nike could picture him trying. Probably with the sword she had given him. "Maybe Lila's sheer cuteness alone could make you cry," She smiled teasingly, before glancing at the puppy sitting anxiously in her cage. "Ain't that right, gorgeous?"

"That would be her," Nike replied with a distasteful look. They could actually be really nice, but they were a little too self-obsessed for her taste. "But I  don't think that would really be a good idea either, she's a little...self-involved shall we say?" She offered,clicking her tongue. Not to mention she was probably very judgemental about looks. And Nike wasn't exactly up to date with Gucci or Prada. In her opinion, most designer outfits were ugly! "Fashion my ass," She mumbled under her breath. Kohl's worked just fine for her.

"That's fine, nothing wrong with being antisocial. I'm extremely antisocial when it involves any gods," She shrugged, and it was completely the truth. Nike didn't like associating with any of them, really not even minor ones like herself. She always felt like she was being judged when she was around them. "So which first? And do you like seafood? Like crab and lobster and that stuff?" Nike asked, unlatching the lock on Lila's cage. Gently lifting the puppy up, she leaned over her seat and set Lila on Ryan's lap. "Make sure she doesn't jump out of the car or anything. Also, dogs are more sensitive then hellhounds. So no kicking, punching, stabbing, none of that. Playful wrestling? Yes. Petting? Yes." The goddess demonstrated what petting was before she gave Lila a little kiss on the forehead and turned the key in the ignition.

[Ryan Simons]

Ryan gave a slight shrug. "No problem," he muttered. Being away from camp was pretty alright. He could just...yeah, that thing again. What would he do out here? That was the question, sure he wanted out all the time, but he had no idea what to do with himself after he was out. Ryan wondered what sort of food she had in mind when she had suggested to go out to eat. The pizza she had had looked weird, or that had just been him. It was probably just him. He looked at her for a second. Shopping? "Fine I guess," he said with a shrug. He had heard his aunt mention it once or twice. Like you pick things out from a... oh, great, another store shop places. He gritted his teeth slightly, he guessed he would just need to suck it up and bear it. Learn to live with it; he had learned how to live with plenty of things, why not a place packed full of people, sure he could of tried at Camp, but he had decided not to for the longest time. "Okay," he muttered. Sounded okay with him, he had didn't really know what anything fancy was since he had never gotten anything fancy really. Usually his aunt just bought him jeans, black pants and t-shirts.

Kidding...wasn't that the same as teasing? Or was it different, he blanked out for a second, so he decided to be just straightforward again. "Well, you are the goddess of victory," he said in an undertone in case mortals were around. Even if they did hear him, they'd think he was crazy, which he didn't mind. A lot of demigods thought he was crazy. He looked at her, stating quite the obvious. "If you weren't right a majority amount of the time, what would there be to be victorious about?" he asked, shrugging a bit. The weirdness about going around with a goddess had worn off a while ago, almost five minutes after they met. "I'd love to be alive when that day comes," the son of Ares muttered, rolling his eyes slightly. He shook his head slightly, this was going to be a long journey.

Great, the obsessed with the looks goddess. "I met one on the Hill," Ryan said, rolling his eyes. Thank the gods that Nike didn't think it was a good idea. That would be two goddess he would be ticking off. Not that he cared, he just didn't want the mother of the mirror obsessed kids of camp to be near him. "Eh, well. Not my problem," he said, shrugging. If she was to self absorbed or involved, not his concern. He wondered how she could have so many kids running all over the place if she was just so busy with herself all the time. Ryan didn't really mind what other people looked like, it was them, so whatever. He wasn't to well kept when he was at his aunt's. Everyone had a different look and that was fine with him.

"Eh," Ryan said, shrugging slightly. It was slightly a problem for him when he was in a Camp full of kids almost twenty four seven. "Oh," he said, nodding slightly as Nike said that she was sort of antisocial when it came to the gods. He wasn't one to judge, he was antisocial around other humans and demigods, she was antisocial with other gods; fine by him. Ryan felt that when he was around demigods he was being judge. Almost always analyzed since he was always in the arena. He had gotten used to it, and he didn't care what people thought about him any longer. He shrugged. Seafood was oaky. "Fine," he said. Ryan watched Nike take Lila out of the cage. "Uh...okay," he said, sort of feeling weird. So make sure she doesn't go out the window, seemed okay enough. This was so weird...

[*nike*]

"Exciting!" Nike smiled in another burst of excitement. She loved shopping! What girl didn't? Well actually a lot of girls didn't, but Nike wasn't one of them. She practically liked shopping for everything, especially dresses and shoes. They were the most fun, even though she usually picked something comfortable and simple over a dress. Occasionally she decided to wear a dress, and it never hurt to have an extra one. "Okay now that we've added that to our list, where should we go? Shopping. Food. Park. Or maybe park, food, shopping. Or food, shopping, then park. Oh and how long do you want to stay in town for? A long time, just a little? What are we thinking?"

"I think we've established that," The goddess pointed out, recalling that they had probably said it more than a couple of times in the two times that they had spent together. "Well we could celebrate my awesomeness," She suggested with a shrug, her eyes twinkling yet again. Suprisingly, she didn't need to be right to be victorious. Winning a game, for example didn't require you to be right about everything. You just had to win. Easy enough.

"And I assume you didn't like that, not one bit," Nike laughed, closing her car door behind her. "Not really mine either," She shrugged, twisting the wheel to the left while she pulled out of the parking lot. She wasn't exactly clear on where she was going, but she headed in the general vicinity of the restaurant, keeping at a slow speed as she waited for a changed opinion. Fortunately the park was pretty close to red lobster and shopping was practically everywhere around here. So it wasn't exactly a big deal except for the fact that traffic could get a little crazy.

"Awesome, because I have serious food craving for Red Lobster," Nike mumbled, flipping her blinker on before making a left. Glancing over at Ryan, she noticed that the position was a little more than awkward. "You can pet her, you know. Dogs like that," She suggested, flipping the radio off with her right hand. "They like a lot of attention, so get used to giving her some attention," The goddess reached out, petting Lila a couple of times on the head.

[/blockquote]

[Ryan Simons]

Oh great, she was excited again. Ryan wondered how he had come from always trying to make her angry, to agreeing with her and making her excited; oh, gods he was going soft. He had never gone shopping, but his aunt said that you picked things out and bought them and that was pretty much it. Sounded sort of simple, but from what Ryan had been learning the past few hours, almost nothing was simple. He sort of stared at her as she ranted off possibilities. It honestly didn't matter what order they went in to him. "Whatever you think is best," the fifteen year old demigod said with a shrug. He really didn't have an opinion in his as he had never done this before. Anything sounded fine to him.

"And probably the only one thing we agree on as well," Ryan grumbled in an undertone. He guessed it was good that she was immortal, because if she got on his nerves (which she did sort of frequently) he could never really kill her. Plus, if he did decide that she could become a friend (okay, wait, not happening) then he wouldn't have to worry about her leaving him. That was only a possibility though. He was not going to become that nice that fast. Ryan just being nice to her took effort, if he tried with every human he met, it wouldn't go that well. He gave her a slight eye roll. "Joy us," he grumbled with mild enthusiasm and only slight sarcasm.

Ryan nodded. "You've assumed correctly," he said. He hated that girl, then again, he hated everyone at that living Hades excuse for a Camp. She had said something about a Musical High School, which he had no idea what she was talking about. As normal for him, it ended up in a fight; this time, with her it was more verbal than physical, but a fight none the less. He was sort of glad that Nike had said she would drive, as he sort of hated it.But then again, it was something new, and he wasn't always the most open one for new ideas and concepts and such. Nike seemed like a good driver, much better than his aunt had been when she pulled up to Camp. Part of the reason Ryan didn't want to drive in the first place, was because he was sort of afraid that he'd be as bad as his aunt. She had rubbed off on him more than he would of ever thought.

"They named a restaurant after an animal?" Ryan asked, half skeptical, half curious. To him that sounded slightly dumb, but then again, who was he to judge when he was so out of the times? He wondered how many strange names places were given. The son of Ares glanced at the dog again. This was just sort of...well, weird to him. A few hours ago, his aunt had told him that Alex was dead, now he was sitting in a car, with Nike, in the city with a dog. Lovely how fast your life can change. He looked at her, wondering if this would be part of the trying to be nice promise. Why the heck did he say yes to that again? Ryan just hoped it limited it to her, he'd start going crazy (possibly) and other people who had known him before would think he was crazy if he started acting nice. Besides, he thought he had already become soft enough when he agreed to it. Part of him wanted to ask if he had to, the other half just told him to suck it up and deal. He took the second half; Ryan took his hand and started petting Lila's back. "She's soft," he observed flatly, tilting his head slightly.

[*nike*]

"I'm indecisive!" Nike complained, hitting her head against the headrest in annoyance. It took her twenty minutes to pick out a candy bar. This morning, it had taken her thirty minutes to decide on a Sprite and a Coke for her and Ryan. She had literally sat her butt down in the drink section of a gas station and stared at the drinks comparing different selections. She had even calculated the amount of possible options she had to choose from. There was Fuze, Mountain Dew, Orange Juice, Chocolate Milk, Coffee, Mochas. In other words, it was no easy task for her. "Okay..Um shopping! No. Okay, okay, food! No." She titled her head back and forth, changing her mind every time. "The park! OKAY! I'm not changing my mind!" She exclaimed, changing course to the park before she could change her mind again.

The goddess shook her head, disagreeing with his statement. "We both think Lila is cute," She offered, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. "I knew you would be excited about that one," She winked, taking a right and adjusting her speed to match the speed limit. Well actually it was quite a ways below the limit because of all of the traffic. "Gods, I hate people. Stupid mortals," She growled, honking her horn twice just to annoy the person in front of her. Which it was clear that she had succeeded in annoying him, because the man instantly turned around and gave her the finger. "I forgot just how idiotic they all are,"

"So I've determined that we're going to one of those kind of out of the way parks." She informed him, as they drove down one of the side streets. "Less people there so I think that'll work fine for you," Nike nodded, taking another turn so that they could finally see a stretch of gorgeous green grass ahead of them. Slowing down, she slid into an open parking spot and switched the car off. "This fine with you?"

"Yes, but don't worry there are a lot weirder names than that. Is weirder a word?" Nike titled her head, looking at him questioningly. "Huh...Oh nevermind," She shook her head, deciding that the status of the word wasn't exactly important. And she wasn't exactly expecting Ryan to know the answer anyways. "That's a good thing in your opinion, right?" She asked, biting her lip. Nike personally thought that it was a good thing, but Ryan's voice never really gave anything away. Well it did if he was mad, but that was the extent of it.

[/blockquote]

[Ryan Simons]

Ryan shrugged, he had no idea what to pick either. He guessed he was alright at making decisions; he had to make quick ones while fighting, but if he had no idea about the topic, then he wouldn't pick. "Anything you pick is fine with me," he said, shrugging and not really caring. All of them would be new to him, so he didn't know what to choose or in what order. New things to him didn't go down well; Ryan was stubborn and it took long for him to adjust, in that aspect, he was sort of closed minded. "Sounds fine," he said indifferently as she finally landed on something. He started to watch things go by as Nike set a course for the park.

"You think Lila's cute," Ryan rebuked, trying to keep the growl out of his voice. As he thought, becoming nice wasn't going to happen very fast. He snorted and rolled his eyes. This becoming nice thing wasn't going along very well. Ryan continued to watch the things they passed. It all looked... interesting. Ryan rolled his eyes half agreeing with her. Half of the time, people weren't bad, the other half of time, they were just stupid and dumb. The son of Ares just shrugged. "That's mortals," he said in half a snarl.

The demigod looked at her. "Whatever, fine," he said. He actually sort of appreciated it that she was doing that... He gave himself a mental kick, he was going soft. "Yeah, probably," he muttered. He watched them go to sort of an isolated spot. This was more his type. He looked around. "Yeah, fine," he said, giving a slight shrug. Ryan seriously needed to give himself a slap into being himself again. He was going soft, and worse, he was actually starting to be nice. Well, more neutral than anything, but still.

Lots of weirder names, huh? "The city's weird," Ryan muttered, trying to keep the snarl out of his voice. Yup, there went his nice effort; another mental slap. The son of Ares shrugged. "Dunno," he said. He hadn't been brought up with the best vocabulary or word structure or anything. Ryan kept looking at Lila. "I guess it's good," he grumbled, his voice was still indifferent. He wondered if he was good at hiding his emotions; he thought he was when he had met Harper, but that had been such a long time ago, well not really, but in his mind.