Thanksgiving: Three (four?) guests...

[Will Stanton]

"And I'm getting better--I could do Onyx if I wanted to," he smiled. "All a matter of practice."
"You shouldn't be imitating girls, dear."

[Onyx]

Onyx cocks her head slightly, listening.

[Will Stanton]

"She's saying I like to goof around and things like that; that I might pretend to be someone else for a laugh. You ever use your powers for a joke or anything, Onyx?"

[Onyx]

Onyx nods, "Once, my previous Master ordered me to meet a man who was selling information and ask him to come home with me. Once he was naked, I pulled him through the shadows with me."

"I dropped him in a pit filled with broken glass and medical waste. Everyone laughed."

[Will Stanton]

"Eesh..."
"Degenerate..." Max's mother grumbled under her breath as she ate. "Disgusting, the lot of 'em."

[Sara Stanton]

Sara almost chokes on her food and only barely manages not to spew it out.

[Onyx]

"I don't think I got the joke though," Onyx continues, "But these things usually escape me, ma'am."

[Will Stanton]

"I think that was a 'laughing AT them' situation, not a 'laughing WITH them'," Will smiled, reassuringly. "Future reference: popping out of drawers to startle someone, funny, injuring them severely, not funny."

[Sara Stanton]

"The 'joke' is that your previous master and his ilk are a disgusting excuse for a human being."

[Onyx]

"Oh, he wasn't injured," Onyx assures Will, "He died after a week in there."

Onyx nods as if she agrees with Sara, but doesn't actually respond.

[Will Stanton]

"Excuse ME!" Will's grandmother said, throwing her napkin on her plate and standing up. "I WILL NOT eat with these...disgusting...THINGS anymore," she said, storming out, followed shortly thereafter by Will's grandfather.

[Onyx]

Onyx bows her head in apology.

[Will Stanton]

Max and Rita also looked a bit uncomfortable, and the remaining set of grandparents looked at each other dubiously, but no one said anything.

[Sara Stanton]

Sara frowns, although she looks more hurt than downright angry. Glancing around she tries to defuse the situation a bit. "Well it's not like we never heard things like that before. You get used to it after a while." she forces a nervous chuckle.

[Will Stanton]

"Um...I apologize for them..." Max mumbled briefly.
"Extraordinarily rude of them. You can't help what you've become. Though, that's not exactly polite dinner conversation, young lady," Will's grandmother said towards Onyx.

[Onyx]

"I'm very sorry, ma'am," Onyx says, bowing her head a bit deeper, "I was not aware. I will remember to hold my tongue about such matters in the future."

[Will Stanton]

"It's alright, you've obviously come from some uncultured backwater," she said, though she smiled warmly. "Poor thing. Just trying to correct, not to critique."

[Will Stanton]

And so forth and so on. Dinner ended without any more...MAJOR incidents, and though the Stanton grandparents had to leave right away for some reason, the rest of the day was spent relatively happily and calmly.

The next day, with a big hug for all three of them, they left scenic Buffalo, New York and, after a quick detour or two, came back to Xaviers University.