"Joy, sweetie, don't take too long in the shower."

I jerked my head up at Steffie's call from the kitchen, then shook my head as some of the water from the shower got in my eyes. Water splashed around the room before I came back to my senses enough to realize what I was doing, then I stopped shaking my head and twitched my frills in a grimace. "S-sowwie! I'm finishing up nao!"

My body had gotten mostly clean of dirt while I had been drifting off, and I rushed to clean off what little remained. Stretch out one wing... stretch out the other... roll over and wiggle on my back so the water reaches my belly and under my elbows, tilt my head back and forth so water gets beneath the frills on my neck, roll my tail through the water pooling near the drain... then I was clean! I rolled back onto my legs, leaned up to turn the knob back the other way until the water stopped, then tapped the small button in between the two knobs.

A sudden blast of hot air came down from the ceiling and tickled the frills around my neck as the blow-dryer installed there kicked in, and I settled back to the ground to wait for it to finish. Originally Steffie had tried giving me towels to dry off with after a shower... but they all ended up getting torn by my horns or the spikes on my tail. So one day some workers had come and done a lot of work to the ceiling, and ever since then I only needed to push the button to dry off. I didn't really mind if I was a little wet after a shower, but Steffie said the water would cause mold to grow, so I made sure to press the button each time I finished a shower.

I shifted my wings to make sure the hot air could get as much of the water off me as possible, then shook off one last time as the blow-dryer cycled off. I twisted my neck back to make sure I was as clean as possible, and then once I was sure, I hopped back over the lip of the shower and ducked through the curtain of beads to rejoin Steffie in the living room.

Steffie was still working at the stove and moving something around in a pan on top of one of the burners. I couldn't make it out from my angle on the ground, but I already knew what it was just from the smell – Steffie would cook a steak for me each night for my dinner, and it smelled delicious. Sometimes Steffie would have a steak too, but most days she would make something else for herself. I couldn't spot any other pots or pans on the stove today, and I didn't smell anything else besides the smell of cooking meat, so today seemed like it was going to be a steak day for her.

"Did you have a nice shower, sweetie?" Steffie glanced up at the sound the beads made as I brushed through them... then she looked over at the table and grinned.

I followed her gaze, and my wings spread a little as I spotted my sippy cup on my side of the table, right beside a delicious-looking slice of cake. I skipped over to the table and sat up beside it, already reaching for the dumb fork next to the plate. "Uh-huh!"

The cake smelled just as good as it had this morning... and the fork was still just as dumb as it had been this morning. I dropped the fork a few times before I managed to break off a piece of the cake, but I did manage it. And the cake tasted just as yummy as it had this morning, too.

I thought about picking the cake up and eating it without the fork, but Steffie was watching me too closely while she cooked the steaks. I huffed and kept struggling with the fork. "Will Dok Tor Jean come back tomorrow?"

"Probably not. She has a lot of work to do, and you won't need another checkup until next week. Why?" Steffie glanced at the fork in my hand before frowning a little. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Uh-huh!" I nodded up at her, even as I stabbed the fork through more of the cake. "It was just fun. The 'bloon game, I mean, with the two clumps. I didn't like it at fiwst, but I did at the end. I'd like to do that again."

Steffie grinned as she moved the steaks around in the pan, then leaned over them to turn the knobs on the oven. "We'll play it again the next time she comes to visit. You can keep practicing with one clump of balloons until then."

"'Kay." I fanned my wings out a little, happy at the idea of getting to play the game again either way, then chomped down on the piece of cake I had speared.

Steffie moved the steaks from the pan to a board beside the oven and began cutting them up. The smell and sight of the cooked steaks made my tummy rumble as I kept fighting with the fork. The cake was yummy, but it was fluffy and light, and didn't really fill me up. I had really pushed myself flying, and I wanted dinner...

I had finished the slice of cake and was clutching my sippy cup close to drink from it by the time Steffie finished cutting up the steaks. She slid a new plate filled with neatly chopped chunks of fried meat on the table in front of me. I put my cup back down and leaned forward, already reaching out with my hands...

"Ah-ah-ah!" Steffie reached from where she had been settling into her own chair and tapped my hand away. "Fork."

"Do I have to...? I awready did with the cake." I pouted back at Steffie and flexed my hand a little to try and get rid of the cramped feeling the fork had already given me. An idea occurred to me, and I lowered my head a little so I would be looking up at her. "And it's my birfday?"

My caretaker eyed me for a long moment, then sighed. "At least try and use it until I'm finished eating. If you haven't finished by then, then you can use your claws."

"Yay!" My wings fanned out at my side in excitement, and I picked the dumb fork back up.

Steffie ate through her pieces of cooked steak much too slowly, pausing to dip it in some brown goopey stuff she had piled on one side of her plate... but she still finished way before I did. I had only made it through four pieces of steak by the time her plate was cleared, and still had a lot of food left to eat.

But as soon as I saw that she was done, I dropped the fork and just used my claws to stuff the steak in my mouth. It was only a matter of chewing after that, and in no time my plate was empty.

My tummy rumbled happily as I sipped some more water from my sippy cup. That had almost been as yummy as the cake, in its own way, and I already felt nice and full. And maybe a little drowsy, even though I didn't think it was quite time for bed yet. My tail swished a little behind me as I looked back up at Steffie and smiled. "Thank you fow dinner! And the cake!"

Steffie smiled and shook her head at me. She added my empty plate – and the dumb fork – to hers and carried both off to the trashcan. "You're welcome, sweetie. Thank you for at least trying to use the fork for me. I'll finish cleaning up here, and then we can watch some TV. What would you like to watch tonight?"

I thought for a second, but nothing came to mind. "I can't think of anything. I can draw while you watch a detective show?" Steffie had been watching those shows lately, about people in blue uniforms or fancy black robes catching people who had done bad things, but I thought they were boring. It was easy to ignore them as background noise and focus on playing with a toy or coloring in a book instead.

Steffie hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Okay." She watched me for a moment with an odd look that started to make me feel worried... then she turned back to the sink and began washing off the pan she had cooked the steaks in. I watched for a moment just to make sure Steffie was okay, but she seemed to be fine, so I dropped back to all fours. I waddled to the living room, then set my sippy cup down and stretched out on the rug in between the television and Steffie's couch.

The rug bunched up just like it always did, but after a bit of wiggling I managed to find a comfortable position. I reached out with a wing to scoop up one of the coloring books lying nearby, then began hunting down the crayons I had been coloring with. Most of them were still in the yellow box that they went in... but those were all the boring colors. The interesting colors were all scattered across the floor. The yellow crayon had even rolled underneath the couch!

"Joy, what are you doing?"

I jerked at Steffie's amused tone, and tried not to grin as I curled my neck around to look at her. She was staring down at me with a stern expression, but I could see the edges of her mouth tugging in the start of a smile. I pulled my wing slowly back out from under the couch, carefully rolling the crayon along with it. "Nothiiiing..."

"Uh-huhhh." Steffie continued to stare at me like she wasn't amused... then she shook her head and reached down to pat me on the back. "This is why I tell you to clean up when you're done drawing, sweetie. You're going to lose a crayon one day if you aren't careful."

I ducked my head a little as the yellow crayon came out from the couch, and I picked it up. Steffie hopped onto the couch and grabbed the remote, and a few seconds later the television started making noise. I ignored it and started flipping open the coloring book. I found the last page I had been coloring – a picture of a pretty farm with lots of clouds and a blimp floating over it – and I stretched out against the couch and began coloring.

Crayons were a little hard to hold in my hands, but they weren't anywhere near as dumb as forks were. And my coloring books tended to have big drawings to fill in, so it didn't matter as much if the crayon slipped. I still managed to get most of the colors inside the lines. The pictures I had colored in at the start of the book seemed neater than the ones I had worked on lately, but I didn't let that bother me. Coloring was a lot of fun, and Steffie always said she liked the pictures I colored even if they did come out messy.

The sound from the television changed a few times before Steffie settled on a show to watch. I paid a little attention at first, enough to understand the premise of the show – it wasn't a detective show, but one of the other types of shows Steffie liked, with a group of people that kept getting into weird situations that caused the audience to laugh – but I quickly lost interest. Steffie smiled occasionally at some of the funny moments, which made me happy to see... but I didn't really understand most of the things that were supposed to be funny.

Coloring was relaxing and a lot of fun, though. And the sound from the television was nice in the background, even if I wasn't paying attention to it.

After a few minutes Steffie put the remote to the side and stretched out on the couch. She set her tablet up on the cushion and began tapping on it while the television show played. That usually meant she was reading up on boring stuff from school. She spent another minute or so focused on the tablet... then her other hand draped over the side of the couch to begin petting slowly along my neck.

I smiled and swished my tail as I kept coloring in the book. This was a really nice way to end my birthday.

The show ended and another episode began, though I didn't really understand the jokes in that episode any better. I had finished coloring in the picture of the farm and moved to the next page – a picture of really big buildings, the kind I had only seen before in television shows, with blimps floating between the buildings – but it was getting harder to focus.

Dinner usually made me feel sleepy, and tonight was no different. My wings started to droop at my sides and slump against the floor, and it started getting harder and harder to keep the crayon angled right in my claws. I tried to stay focused on running the light blue crayon over the part of the picture that was supposed to be the sky – I had a crayon that was called 'sky blue', but I always thought the crayon called 'light blue' looked prettier for the sky – but despite myself, I ended up yawning.

Steffie heard me and moved her hand up to bump against one of my horns. "Sounds like somebody is getting sleepy."

"Nuh-uh..." I shook my head a little and frowned as I tried to color in more of the sky, but even I didn't believe me. My voice sounded tired and grumpy.

A giggle came from the couch as Steffie reached to pat my head. "You had a big day today, sweetie, but I think it's time for you to get to bed now. Your coloring book will still be here tomorrow."

I grumbled again, but I let go of the crayon right as my mouth decided to let out another yawn. I pulled my wings back in, annoyed at how tired I was, but nodded. "Okay. Ninii." I pushed myself up to my feet, then looked up at the couch. "Thank you again fow the pwesent."

"You're welcome." A bright smile lit up Steffie's face, and I felt some of the sleepiness fade at the happy feeling that gave me. "Happy birthday again, Joy. Have sweet dreams tonight. And remember to brush your teeth."

I ducked my head a little in embarrassment, then turned it into a nod. "Nini."

The sound from the television got a little quieter as I stumbled off to my room, brushing against the beads as I left the living room. I stopped at the sink for a few minutes to brush my teeth – the toothbrush was dumb just like forks were, and I bumped my hand with my teeth a few times before I managed to finish – then I stumbled over to the cool flat stone of my bed.

I stretched my tail out to flick the switch on the wall just past the edge of my bed, and the room plunged into darkness, with a comforting faint glow coming in from the television still playing a show in the living room. I shifted a little on the bed until I was comfortable, then began drifting back off to sleep.

Today had been such a wonderful day...

A room full of strangers. All of them angry.

The overwhelming desperation and fear from before was gone. The strangers were still scary, still mean, but there was no urgency anymore. There was nothing else that could be changed, nothing that could be done about the strangers. Just a terrible feeling.

Resignation. Despair.

The strangers were all sitting in the wooden benches, but they were all staring. Stares of hate.

Mumbles were coming from them, too. The words were too soft to make out, but at the same time, it was clear what was being said:

"Murderer."

A sharp crack came from the front of the room, as the man in the black robe hit his gavel on the raised portion of his desk. "Order."

The murmurs died down. Some of the hateful stares continued, but most of the faces turned to look at the man in the black robes. The man waited another moment, then glanced down at the sheet of paper he had been handed.

"The jury finds the defendant guilty of all charges."

An explosion of noise filled the room again. Shouts, cheers, insults, as the angry strangers all yelled angry words. There was a feeling of shock, horror, disbelief, anger, betrayal... but the feelings were all faded, as if they had already been felt a hundred times over. The main feeling was just one of numbness all over, as if it was too hard to keep feeling.

"ORDER!" Another slam of the heavy wood against the desk. "Order!"

The room slowly grew quiet again.

"Mister Donnelly, if it were up to me we would issue a true death penalty for this case." Hatred filled the voice of the man in the black robes as he spoke. "The DNA evidence alone leaves no doubt you are a murderer and a rapist, not to mention the testimony of witnesses and coworkers, and this has now been confirmed in a court of law by a jury of your peers. Unfortunately, any full death penalties have been outlawed and are no longer available, even for as horrific a murderer as yourself, so you will not be joining your victims in death quite yet. But you have shown no guilt or remorse for these vile crimes you have committed, and as such I see no reason to give you anything other than the closest sentence to a death penalty still allowable by law."

The man in the black robes glanced toward the nearby man in the fancy suit. "The defense attorney has agreed all of your rights have been upheld in this trial and that there are no grounds for appeal. Therefore I am ordering that you be delivered to the Pandora facility by this time tomorrow and placed under the direction of Doctor Jean Richards – a woman whose sister I believe you are familiar with, given that you murdered her in cold blood – to have a sentence of experimental reconstruction carried out."

Another short slap of the gavel against the desk.

"Court adjourned."