Todd opened the large wooden door and peeked in. It was off one of the side passages on the corridor to the Chapel. He saw a large, wood-paneled room, heard someone speaking, and entered. Lisa followed behind him, wearing the outfit they had picked out for her: a pink, close-fitting dress with frilly ruffles along the hem and a short enough skirt to let her diaper peek out when she bent over.
"Can I help you?" asked a cold voice. Todd turned and saw Elyssa standing in front of a large, oval table towards one side of the room. She was setting out chairs. Behind her, Brutus was setting chairs on the other side of the table. He looked up.
"Todd!" Brutus called, and waved. "I lost track of you! Snappy outfit."
Todd coughed. "I've been hanging around with Lisa. She wanted to show me the dining room." Brutus pushed a chair in, wiping his forehead, and went to the edge of the room to get another. "Want to lend a hand?" he called.
Todd followed Brutus and picked up a chair. It was solid oak and very heavy. His diaper made working feel strange; when his thighs tensed he could feel its thickness. "What's going on?" he asked.
"Feast night! It's going to be tons of fun," Brutus said. He seemed genuinely excited.
"What's the occasion?" Todd placed the chair and went to get another.
"Oh, no occasion. Geraden declares feast night pretty much whenever he wants to. Usually happens a couple times a week."
"I wish he'd let up on it," Elyssa said. "It's a lot of work for everyone."
"It's good work, and good food," Brutus replied, setting down another chair.
Todd's stomach grumbled, and he realized he hadn't eaten since breakfast. "When does the feast start?"
"Well, not technically until six, but there will be appetizers and small dishes coming out of the kitchen soon. People generally graze for a while before the feast proper starts. This is why I didn't offer you lunch."
"I've certainly worked up an appetite," Todd said, and put his paws on his knees, leaning over. That gave him too good a view of his padded crotch over his naked legs, though, and he stood back up.
"You guys can finish this up, right?" Brutus asked. "I need to go help out in the kitchen."
"Sure, go ahead," said Elyssa.
"Oh, can I come too? I love being in the kitchen on feast nights!" Lisa said, and followed the Rabbit.
"Right, come on then." Brutus walked through a set of heavy oaken double doors on the far wall of the dining room. While they were open, Todd saw an orange glow on the stone floor. He heard the clatter of dishes and shouting voices - loud, but merry - and a smell so delicious that he went weak in the knees drifted into the dining room.
"Back in a bit, Todd!" Lisa called and slipped through the doors, and she was gone, along with the smell and the sound and the light.
Todd turned to get another chair and noticed Elyssa was next to him. He heard a crinkle and realized she was also diapered under her conservative tan skirt. He gave her a weak smile, barely remembering the impression he must have made on her last night. She didn't respond.
"Hey, um..." he began, putting a paw behind his head.
"What?" Sharp and tactless.
"Whoa, sorry. Nothing."
"Good." She shoved a chair under the table.
"Hey, what did I do?" For some reason, this caused Elyssa to snort and roll her eyes. "No, seriously, I barely know you. Why the attitude?"
Elyssa spun on Todd and jabbed a finger into his chest, disheveling his baby-blue bow. "You know what you've done. I can't believe you have the gall to ask that!"
Todd stumbled back a little. "Is this about last night? Look, I know I looked like hell, but-"
"YOU looked like hell? You think YOU looked bad? What do you think Lisa looked like when she got here?"
That caught Todd off-guard. He said nothing for a moment. He didn't know what she'd looked like when she showed up at Corwin Hall's door that night, but he remembered what she'd looked like when he left her. The image filled his mind. "Oh."
"Yeah, 'oh.'" Elyssa turned her back on Todd and gave the chair another shove, unnecessarily.
"Come on, look. That was just a whole messed up situation. I know I shouldn't have left her. I'm - I know it was wrong."
"Now you do. Now that you've got no friends, no job, and soon no house. Is that all it took?"
"Hey!"
"Fuck you, 'hey.' You might have her fooled right now, and just about everyone else here, too. Even Pops. But I see right through you, you manipulative creep. You're not even allowed to be here according to the rules, and you know what? Pops doesn't have the last say. There are others. So you better watch your powdered ass, lanky, cause I'm gonna make sure you get thrown out on it so hard it breaks under that diaper." With that, she kicked the chair, turned around, and stalked out of the dining room. On her way out the door, she walked right into Geraden, who was coming inside.
"Ooph! Elyssa!"
"Hi, Pops. Bye, Pops." She continued out the door. Geraden stared after her for a moment, blinking and recovering his breath. Todd was frozen, leaning against the chair. Slowly, he slid down until he was sitting in it.
Geraden stepped towards the table. He was wearing a long, flowing silk robe tied at the waist, and crinkled as he walked. "Todd..." Todd's expression must have told the entire story, or at least the interesting bits. Geraden took a deep breath, let it out in a sigh, and sat in the chair next to him. "Todd, I'm sorry. For her." He put his paw on Todd's shoulder.
"I was just... She just..." Incredulous, Todd realized that there was actually a tear on his cheek, and he wiped it away quickly. "She just tore into me out of nowhere!"
"She is not one to hold back when she doesn't have a mind to."
"But why me? I don't even know her!"
Geraden looked at the ceiling for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "Todd, your... personal attributes are exactly wrong for Elyssa."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"I will ask you to watch your language while you're sitting at my table." Geraden's voice was authoritative, but not angry. "Though I imagine you've had a poor influence from my granddaughter. It means that she's had a bad time with someone who had a bad time with alcohol."
There was a long pause. "I'm not an alcoholic," Todd said flatly.
"That is beside the point, whether it's true or not. Also, it's not the only thing she's reacting to."
"Yeah? What else is wrong with me?"
"Elyssa's parents were at Sandleford."
"Oh... oh!" Todd put a paw to his mouth. "Your..."
"My daughter and my son-in-law."
Todd lowered his head. Sandleford Warren... he had been very young, but he vaguely remembered the news broadcasts and his parents' G-rated explanations. It was the last major pred supremacist incident. A group of Ferrets and Weasels, calling itself the Red Fang, came on Sandleford Warren in the night. It was one of the old-style warrens, with round halls and narrow, earthen passages. The Red Fang broke in through every entrance at once. The Rabbits in the outer rooms died first, shot and stabbed. The last Rabbits to die were in the center of the warren, trapped, blinded, and gassed.
"She couldn't have been more than... three." Todd said into his lap.
"Two."
"I'm sorry."
Geraden squeezed Todd's shoulder. "There is, in this case, no reason for you to be. After all, I knew Lithe as my daughter longer than Elyssa knew her as her mother, but you don't see me using you as a proxy for blame because of your species."
"Can I do anything?"
"Probably not. However, there is one thing you should keep in mind: Elyssa is Lisa's friend. She won't talk to Lisa directly about you, and if you can avoid putting a strain on your relationship with Lisa at this point, that would be for the best."
"You mean... lie to her about what just happened?"
"No, no, of course not," said Geraden, shaking his head. "But unless Elyssa involves Lisa, this is not her conflict." Todd thought about this, then nodded.
At that moment, the kitchen doors opened. Lisa came through, holding a plate high, causing her skirt to lift and show her diaper. She didn't seem to mind. "Appetizers!" she called, and several others followed her out from the kitchen holding more plates. She walked by Todd with the plate, and the smell made his stomach roar.
"Brought these out just for you, Todd." Lisa put the plate on the table. Pan-fried jalapenos stuffed with chicken and cream cheese! Todd nearly melted in his chair. He rubbed his face to make sure he wasn't disheveled from the argument, and popped a pepper in his mouth.
"Not too much, now," said Geraden. "You'll spoil your appetite."
Over the next hour, other small dishes began to show up. Mozzarela sticks, beef strips, chicken wings, onion rings, a bunch of vegetarian salad dishes Todd didn't pay any attention to, and some unidentifiable dishes made for various species began to line the edges of the table in front of him. People also began to trickle in. He understood why the warren had seemed mostly empty through the afternoon; probably two dozen people were helping in the kitchen. Slowly, they began to gather and take seats at the oval table.
Lisa sat across from Todd and smiled at him. Todd returned it weakly, wondering if she had any idea what Elyssa thought of him. Geraden sat down to Todd's right, and Arvetis sat across from him, next to Lisa. Todd looked at Geraden, chewing on a Buffalo wing.
"So, not enough wood for a real round table, huh?" he asked.
"Hah! No, actually, it's purely a matter of convenience," Geraden explained. "Ever tried passing the salt on a round table set for thirty-five? It's more an exercise in pitching than etiquette. I think we've kept the idea, though. No head or foot of the table, since all the chairs are along the length of the oval, and this way you can talk to more people than those who happen to be sitting next to you."
Todd nodded, returning to the buffalo wings. Some more people came in through the main entrance carrying a small, square table. There was a large cream-colored Mare, wearing a skirt and diaper but no top, the white Fox Todd recognized as Night from his earlier encounter, wearing a white shirt and slacks with an obvious diaper bulge, and a few more. They placed the table in the far corner, and pulled up chairs.
"Why are they sitting over there?" Todd asked.
"Ah, that's a bit of an unfortunate situation," Geraden said. "I really would prefer everyone eat together at the same table, but there really isn't a better solution."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you see, for the sake of everyone's appetites, we have a 'no diaper-messing at the dinner table' rule. The people over there, however, are actually incontinent, and cannot guarantee that they will follow the rule, so they've volunteered to eat separately."
Night noticed the attention from Geraden and Todd, and gave them a smile and a wave. Geraden waved back. "They understand, of course, that it's entirely out of necessity," he said. "But look out, here comes the real food!" Geraden smoothed his robe and put his napkin in his lap, and Todd followed suit. From the kitchen, a line of residents came carrying dishes larger than the ones set out around the periphery of the table. There were magnificent plates of food, probably eleven or twelve main courses in total. Todd's stomach growled loudly as a plate of fresh sushi rolls landed near him, and Lisa gave a little squeak at a pot of Swiss fondue.
Todd noticed that Lisa and some others were digging right in, filling their plates, while Arvetis and a few others were waiting, and seemed to be saying grace. Confused about the etiquette, he waited for Arvetis to finish, then leaned over and asked him whether grace was expected.
"If you have no desire to say it, what good would it do?" the elderly Wolf replied. This did not leave Todd any less confused, but he shrugged and put some sushi rolls on his plate, along with some meatballs in a brown sauce and a hunk of crisp, crackly bread. A plate full of brown, tender-looking meat strips caught his eye, and he speared one with his fork. He drew it close to put it on his plate, then caught the scent of it.
Mortified, he froze. He'd smelled that once or twice before, at protests organized by the weak and fading pred supremacist movement. Someone, usually a lanky Wolf with patchy fur, would bring along a grill and cook up some rabbit meat. Dumb rabbit, of course, but the symbol was there.
Todd slowly replaced the rabbit meat on the platter, then coughed, trying to disguise the movement. He felt a prickling on the back of his neck, and turned to see Geraden looking right at him.
"I- I swear, I had no idea what it was," he stammered. Geraden gave him a little smile.
"Go ahead, try some."
"But... it's rabbit meat." Todd's voice was hushed, as if he were talking about something lewd.
"Dumb rabbit, Todd. It's no more an abomination than your meatballs."
"But even so! The supremacists - because of what the Wolves did - they..." As soon as he said it, though, he realized who was sitting across the table from him. He shut his mouth and looked over to Arvetis, who was staring intently at his plate of meatballs and fondue-dipped bread. His face was expressionless, but the marks underneath his eyes were flushed bright red. Todd didn't know what that represented. Was it anger? Shame? Regardless, he felt like curling up in his chair and never saying anything again for the rest of his life. Geraden sighed and reached a paw across the table, putting it on Arvetis's.
"Yes, it is true that the supremacists have tried to turn rabbit meat into an anathema, because some Wolves preyed on sentient Lapines in the wars. Unfortunately, society has largely played along, treating dumb rabbit meat as some kind of horror. That only gives the symbol power. We've kept alive the memory of an abomination that should have died a century ago. We are also teaching ourselves to fetishize our dumb animal characteristics. These traits divide us, while the traits we inherit from the Progenitors unite us. We are as different from the dumb animals as we are from stones. So go on, try some. Our resident carnivores say it's very good."
Todd listened through this speech, dumbstruck, then nervously returned the strip of meat to his plate. He ignored it at first, starting with the sushi. It was as good as it looked - fresh and crisp. He noticed Arvetis becoming more animated, leaving the unpleasant conversation behind and talking with Geraden about redecorating the reception room as he ate. Todd speared a meatball, ate it, and looked down the length of the table, trying to find Brutus and Elyssa. He was interrupted by a sharp jab in his paw.
"Ow!" He looked down. Lisa had prodded him with her fork.
"Eat your abomination, dear." She had a suppressed smirk on her stout muzzle.
"OK! OK! I'll try it." He picked up the strip with his fingers and smelled it. Its scent was amazing - savory and smoky. He put it in his mouth, and instantly his eyes half-closed. The meat practically melted on his tongue. He chewed it for a long time, extracting every particle of flavor he could. He felt almost as if he had been born to eat this, and realized that, to some extent, he had been.
"Good, huh?" Lisa was still smirking, but she had a curious look, as well. Breaking taboos was almost a hobby for her; she had to find this intensely fascinating.
"Very." Todd took another piece and put it on his plate, but no more. He still had some guilt about it, no matter what Geraden said. After all, anything that good couldn't possibly be innocent.
Half an hour into the meal, the Tiger Todd had seen in the main hall walked down the table, stopping at every seat. She was wearing a brightly-colored sari, with greens and purples and gold trim, and as she drew closer, Todd saw she was holding a large decanter of wine, serving it to every guest. As she approached Todd's seat, he found himself looking up imploringly at Lisa. He flushed a little when he realized he was, essentially, asking for permission, but steadfastly maintained his unspoken request. Lisa saw what he was asking and immediately shook her head. "No."
"Please?"
"Absolutely not." She crossed her arms and stuck her whiskers forward.
"Just one glass?"
"Ask Geraden," she said with a sigh, but Todd got the feeling she knew the old Rabbit would back her up. He felt like a child asking for a toy, but turned to Geraden, who had been watching the exchange. He was half-smiling, but his eyes were grave.
"Todd, you know what you were like when you showed up here. That was less than twenty-four hours ago." Geraden crossed his arms, the wide silk sleeves of his robe draping in his lap.
"I swear, as long as you don't have any Canadian Mist, I'll behave."
"I don't think so. Lisa is right, we need to know more about what took you to that point before we can risk-"
"One glass will not, I think, harm him," a low rumble interrupted Geraden from behind Todd. Todd turned and saw the Tiger extending the pitcher. Geraden sighed, nodded, and looked over to Lisa. Lisa groaned a little and leaned on a paw, but nodded also.
"Please pour our guest one glass of your excellent wine, Raakhi," Geraden said.
"If he gets drunk, I'm gonna kick your ass, Stripes," Lisa mumbled, only half joking.
"And if he does, and you kick my ass, I will tear your former husband into shreds. Thus, life is a river: sweet as wine at the source, and mostly shit by the end." The Tiger had a wide grin on her face, and she moved on down the table, serving Geraden and the people sitting to his right.
Todd smelled the wine, unsure what to make of this series of events. He remembered Elyssa's claim that Geraden did not always have the final say, and wondered what this Tiger's role in the warren was. He drank lightly of the wine, then deeper as its sweet taste drew him in. He'd never tasted this kind of wine, and he loved it. He saw Raakhi pouring it at the square table in the corner. She held her nose as she served Night, and the fox put a dollar in a small jar in the center of the table, blushing.
The familiar alcoholic buzz rose in the back of Todd's head, but never became the roar he'd heard so many nights now. He felt a little looser, and a little happier, but not drunk. He ate and joked and listened to the stories of the people around him, and began to accept for the first time that night that he was dressed like a diapered sailor. Lisa's apparent dread at the wine seemed to lift as she saw Todd smiling and talking with her friends.
About an hour into the feast, Todd stood up and said "Excuse me, I've got to go-" then blinked, sat down, and said "never mind." Lisa gave a long laugh, spontaneous and unguarded. It was the first wholly mirthful moment he'd seen from her since that awful night, and he put his paw over hers, joining in and laughing as he wet his diaper. She squeezed his paw and stroked it, and in their time together after that, Todd never told her he'd performed the whole scene on purpose. She knew anyway, and that's what made her happy.
