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Hands, over her mouth. Earako's furious screaming was quickly muffled, then cut off as the pre-teen dealt with this new development. For a second, she was very still, the urge to lash out in some way at conflict with her usual kind persona. She could bite him, she had the fangs to make her point, but that wouldn't look very good in front of Da' or the teacher. And she didn't want to get in trouble!

Finally, she simply dropped, going from standing position to kneeling on the floor, in an attempt to escape the hands on her mouth. She appeared to be done screaming, and from her new spot she found a whole new view. Legs. Anoki. And shoes. Shoes? Why were shoes under the table?

Madeline was besides herself in all of the confusion. Wha-what? Nothing registered. Ruined, everything had been ruined...a once perfect eveing now a disaster, and the culprit behind it all? Why, it was her own "son". Large distraught blue eyes seeked the other end of the table landing on the abomination staring with glee at the scene which lay before him. This...this couldn't be her child. No, D-corp had made a mistake. Send it back, send it back! No, her child had to be that sweet little thing back at home locked up in their apartment, Revon.


A few drops of soup splashed onto her clothes, but it only faintly came to mind the cost of getting this dry cleaned. See, she was rather caught up no in the screatching and crashing of expensive China. Hands covered her ears, and there Madeline remained hunkered down until all was silent...only Chat's whispering cut through the air.


Oh....oh-oh-oh! How wonderful this was. What a kind and dreamy delight. Everywhere along his dark body, black feathers pricked with a shiver of wonderment. The ugly absence it was gone now...it was noisy, movement, sound...even the screaming was lovely. Not to say it didn't hurt, but beauty always brought pain. That lovely white thing made such an awful noise, it stung the inside of his head, but that was to be expected, the moment he had laid eyes on her that night he had flinched. The only thing that caused Keivlos to frown slightly was the smile of the man at the other end. Why was he--? A look from mother brought the raven grinning back at her.

"THE END!" He shouted. It was something that he had his mother often say . 'Whys it ssay the END?' Keivlos had asked more than once after the evenings bed time story, and Madeline would patiently explain, 'Because it means everything is over with...it's finished Keilvos, nothing more to do or say.' Yet, Keivlos being so young still didn't understand the idea. He had given it is own definition, 'The end' it was dead, if there was nothing left to do or say, the thing must be dead. It must be empty, it must be silent...and well if it was dead and silent, he would have nothing more to do here. Impish grin on his face Keivlos grabbed the stake knife on his plate and fled from the room. He would go find his own food…


What to do now? The teacher didn't know if she could face the party guests...this was so--However, she was a lady...and no matter how poor or embarrassing the circumstances, she would not run away. Timidly she stood up, "My...my apologies everyone...Earako, Raven...there is a bathroom down the hallway should you like to clean your clothes."

If it weren't for a lifetime spent around her 'Aunt' Lithle, Earako might not have understood the dangerous edge in Anoki's mom's voice. As it was, she knew it rather well, though, as it wasn't directed at her, she didn't worry much. She did feel bad for teacher, though. It wasn't teacher's fault that her son was kinda... weird.

But there wasn't anything she could do. And her dress was still stained, and Chath was talking to her, and 'noki looked all sliced up and miserable. This wasn't turning out all that well after all.

Taking the offered napkin from Chath, she rubbed absently at her dress. "It's... It's okay," She murmured, her voice even lower than usual. Screaming had hurt her throat, a bit. "I've got lots of dresses."

That said, she reached out to squeeze the hand that had so recently been covering her mouth. Setting the napkin down, she reached her other hand out toward Anoki. "C'mere 'noki."

Her mannerisms were surprisingly childish, as, for the first time in awhile, she forgot to try and be a lady.

Michael had continued to watch the raven through the chaos, he'd been around Earako long enough to tune out her screams. Or, if not tune out, then grit his teeth and bear it. He watched the boy's strange announcement, and watched him flee his little scene, knife in hand.

Not that it was a particularly sharp knife, but Michael still moved as if to follow him.

Until Raven started talking.

He found him staring at her, reminded, not for the first time, of Lithle. Except, of course, that he liked Lithle.

"Oh, shut up," he told the woman, the earlier mask of civility removed. After all, Earako had messed up. That meant he could too. "Just shut up. I think her nights been rough enough without you pulling the offended ice b***h act."

Turning to Madeline, he offered what appeared to be a genuine smile. But then, he'd just shown he was quite capible of taking on and removing personas without much difficulty. "No offense, but do you usually let the kid run around with knives?

"He doesn't seem like the type that'd use em for whittling."

Chath listened with chargin, he hated it when people were angry, it always made him feel very shakey inside. Then he felt Earoko's hand squeeze his and he felt better, well at lest she wasn't angery at him for making a mess of her dress. BUt suddenly the hand was tugged away and Earoko was being dragged off by the teacher. He was left alone with alone with Anoki on the floor.

NOt sure what to do he noticed that both his feet and the young boys ebside him were bare...they better gather their shoes up quickly. "You took a nasty hit there." Chath said turning to Anoki. "You ok?"

Earako did not want to be led. She wanted to stay and help her friends and make sure that they were ok. What if they needed her? The teacher had her hand though, and she wasn't allowed to argue. At least, not beyond a half whispered, "But..." as she was lead to be cleaned up.

And she did want to get her dress clean.

For the first time since he'd arrived at the dinner Michael felt awake. It had felt so good to snap at Raven, and almost as good to hear the prim and proper teacher to speak up for herself. Madeline set him off balance in the same way Earako did. She seemed... delicate. And he didn't know what to do with that.

So he did the only thing he could do. He obeyed. Kneeling beside the boys, he frowned. Anoki was bloody, and Chath looked more than a little shocky. Earako did that to people, sometimes. "Ok kids, what's the damage?"

Chath looked up at Michael and then shook his head looknig back to where the girls had ben led off to. "Eh? I....i am doing...ok." he stuttered feeling a bit nervous all of a sudden and he felt a weight settle on his shoulders. Plopping entirely onto the floor he felt very tired. His mother had gotten up now, as if she had been too afriad to move while the teacher was around and approached. She had a napkin in her hand.

"Chath your not hurt are you?" she asked and upon seeing her son shake his head turned her attention to Anoki. She kneeled and then reaching for the closest glass of water dipped her napkin in it.

"Do you mind if i clean you up a bit?" She asked not wanting to frighten the kid. She looked to Michael feeling a bit lost. "thank you for looking after my son." she stated, looking a bit detressed.