Thank you for your hard work

Raphael felt like he could have deserved a medal after the work he put in during the epidemic. He worked double shifts with what everyone thought could have been an incurable terminal disease. He was even on the clock when he went to the doctor, putting his life on the line again to sniff for bombs in quarantine.

As far as the station was concerned, his case was "sub-clinical" before stage 3. That was his story and he was sticking to it. Really, he just couldn't sit in a hospital or at home while the station was woefully understaffed - so he hid the symptoms.

Ah, well. At least now that it was over he was able to catch up on his shut-eye.

Raphael sat directly across from Angelo. He had a piece of chocolate fudge in his furred paw. Looking Angelo dead in the eyes, he ate the whole thing. "Yeah I just wolfed down a piece of chocolate," he announced. "I live dangerously." He'd keep a straight face until the groans started. Not that most people could tell when he was trying to hold back a giggle. His lupine facial expressions were hard for most humans to read.

Weeks of having her mind floating groom place to place unable to focus on much of anything had passed Shiariel off the most. She was better now and back at work. True every now and then she'd sneeze a little to hard or her mind would wander but it was so much better now to think for herself.

But here she was at work and there was a group consensus to have a celebration now that it all had passed. From what she heard from office talk no officers were killed by the viruses. That was a relief to hear, agree was starting to become attached to her co-workers. But here she was now walking into the break room with a folder in her arms.

Shiariel had been out for nearly a month so she had done catch up work needing doing but she figured she could do some of that while at the party. It was a simple thing to grab side easy finger foods while balancing the folder lien in the crook of her arm before suiting down on one of the couches. Not even looking up from whay she was reading she heard Raphael say something about eating chocolate. "I do hope that you aren't going to need your stomach pumped because of living so dangerously." She took a bite of a chip while continuing to read.

"It would be a terrible shame to celebrate many of us getting out of the hospital only to have one of us go back in." though her tone was nonchalant the was the edge of a friendly poke to it. This was a celebration after all and she refused to become the downer of the party when it was only just beginning.

Parties were not Ceidwen's place. They had been, once, when she was a child. But that was so long ago now. They reminded her of bad things; debts to be paid. She'd decided to come last minute on a whim and brought her daughter Ravina along.

"Stay in me line o' sight," Ceidwen had told her daughter before they entered the building.

It was a bunch of law enforcement, by that logic Ravina should have been fine, but Ceidwen knew that wasn't how the world worked and she took no chances where her daughter was concerned.

The room had an easy energy, the kind that came of office parties. To Ceidwen, it was uncomfortable, and she wondered why people put themselves through these silly meet and greets. Places of business didn't need friendly interaction. So long as someone did their work and did it well, who cared whether they were your friend or not?

♠♠♠

Ravina nodded as her mam told her to stick close. She knew her mam was tense to be in a crowd, although Ravina didn't know why. People, she'd learned, were quite fun!

Every true to her young age of ten, Ravina immediately made way toward the snack table once they'd entered the building. She waved at her mam and told her where she was going before skipping to the table to investigate any delicious treats.

Once she had gathered a handful of salty snacks, things like meat and fish, with bits of candy, Ravina crawled under the table and sat to eat her meal peacefully.

♠♠♠

Raphael just laughed. "I actually wouldn't be eating it if it bothered me. But I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a dumb joke."

Soon, Angelo was leaving the table to speak to the new detective, effectively leaving Raphael alone with Shiariel. He didn't feel very comfortable around the angel. She kind of felt like a robot - ok, well, he probably shouldn't think about it like that. There were robots who could express emotions and who had good personalities, but he didn't get that as much from Shiariel. He could never tell if she was being serious, either. She was hard to read.

"Are you seriously still doing paperwork, though? We're at a party." Raphael had worked ahead on his paperwork so it wouldn't be hanging over him here.

Someone brought their kid here, and that kid was hiding under the snack table. Hiding! That was precious. Raphael decided to stare at the kid until she noticed him, and once he had her attention, he would make a funny face. He wanted to see how she would react to being noticed by one of the big, scary grown-ups.

It wasn't like Shiariel was making eye contact with him. She might not even notice.

"Well it's good that no harm shall come to you then. I have heard of human who would be allergic to chocolate and they refused to not eat it on certain holidays." She gave a wry chuckle as she continued to read over her documents. "I think their reason was because it was a 'tradition' at that point."

As Shiariel examined a line in the document she raised an eyebrow before moving a hand partly to her side and spread her fingers. A glowing gold flowing angelic script appeared in a small frame and she began to read. Comparing the two she thought she might have found something odd but it didn't add anything to the case. It was about here that Raphael brought up that she had brought work with her.

Looking up she blinked a few times and recalled what he said. "Oh! Well I'm kinda back logged from being taken out of commission for a month and I'm trying to cram as much as I can into everything while I'm here..."

Shiariel felt a little odd then, like she was being caught unaware by something. Looking fully up from what she was doing she caught the man making funny faces, true not at her of course but it prompted her to look in the direction the mischief was being directed. Looking over she saw a child under the snack table watching everyone.

Shiariel's eyes for a brief moment went solid shining gold as her power shoved basic information about Ravina into her mind. Once that was done her eyes drifted back to a mixed silver and gold. But Shiariel face softened as she looked at Ravina and she gave the girl a smile and a soft friendly wave. "Hope the poor dear doesn't get bored being stuck in a room full of adults." She said more to the air then to Raphael.

@Kait @Foxy

When Angelo approached Reagan, she put her notebook back into her pocket and put her tea down to properly shake his hand.

“Reagan Riley,” she said. “And yes, I did. It was a hell of a month to be introduced to this place.”

She was sure she had seen Angelo in passing a few times—who could forget all that hair, after all? But this was the first time they actually a proper introduction.

But Reagan soon got distracted as a blonde-haired child made her way to the snack table and crawled underneath to enjoy a few treats. The tall woman bent down a bit to get a quick look at the child, before rising back up and turning her attention back to Angelo.

“Whose child is that?” she asked.

"Mine," Ceidwen supplied as she slid beside Angelo and Reagan. She held a hand out to the woman, eyes never leaving hers even to greet Angelo. "Ceidwen Evans."

There was something... She got the hint of salt and sea. Mermaid? Not quite Fae but similar and definitely close to the Finfolk.

Once her inspection was complete, Ceidwen looked at Angelo and nodded. "Angelo Genovese, a pleasure to finally speak to you."

♠♠♠

Ravina felt eyes on her. Lots of them. The child was sensitive to such things due to her old home life. She paused and peeked at the man who was staring at her.

At first, Ravina wondered why an adult was staring at her. If she could have hidden more without being suspicious, she would have. But once Raphael made a silly face at her, Ravina stifled an obvious giggle and made an equally goofy face in return.

The little girl pulled her nose up to mimic that of a pig or bat snout and stuck the tip of her tongue out from between her teeth as she made something between a half snort and a chitter.

♠♠♠