The line of discussion continued for a short time after, moving back to normal chatter until their meals arrived. Adrian's grandfather led the table in a prayer soon after, Adrian quietly adding that he hoped the data thief would be caught soon. As his burger was dressed with condiments, Adrian tilted his phone up to allow Raven to see what the full table now looked like.
“Everything Looks Very Pleasant,” the AI replied in text. “This One Thanks Adrian Ritter For Bringing This One Along For This Event.” Raven's smile icon was posted next.
“You're welcome.” Adrian then set the phone down and went back to eating. Raven didn't update him on further access attempts, leaving him to assume the AI no longer needed to. After fifteen minutes however, a thought began poking at him. “Raven?”
“Yes?”
“Have you noticed any further access attempts?”
“This One Has Not.”
Hmm. “You think that message we sent scared the data thief off?”
“This One Assumes So.”
Adrian hummed to himself, and began questioning his earlier decision, before remembering it wasn't until they'd been seated that the access attempts had begun.
“This One Will Retain Records Of Device That Attempted Access.”
“Alright.” Adrian relaxed his worry over the following minutes, finishing off his meal as he did so. Before long, he was in need of a real bathroom break, though did a second check of the tables where he'd seen anyone using a laptop on the way there and back. The one he'd suspected before was still there, now joined by two others. The other four had also not done much.
As the rest of the night went on, his parents got to work placing and wrapping the last of the presents, Adrian taking care of the ones he'd bought along with them. When all of them were placed, he took a picture of the Christmas tree, its lights lit while the room it was in was dark.
“Adrian Ritter Will Allow This One To View Tomorrow's Activity?” Raven asked after saying the setting was very pleasant.
“Yeah, I will.” A moment later, he added, “Since everyone already knows you're around, you should be able to speak too.”
Raven responded with its smile icon. “This One Looks Forward To It.”

December 25th, 2016

When Adrian woke the next morning, he could tell Emma and his parents were up by the sounds coming from the kitchen; it was barely past seven am, and already there were breakfast scents in the air.
When he checked on Raven, the AI informed him that it had been reading for most of the night. “This One Kept Watch Through All Cameras For Suspicious Activity.”
“I figured. No animals came along?”
“Unfortunately.”
Adrian began freshening up soon after, heading for the kitchen once he was done. Right away, Emma told him, “Merry Christmas.” His parents did the same shortly after.
“Merry Christmas.” Adrian said. “Need an extra hand?” With breakfast mostly done by then, all he was given to do was setting the tables and getting glasses ready. He got a picture of the spread for Raven soon after, the AI responding that everything looked tasty.
Once the rest of his family woke up and got themselves ready for the day, breakfast was served. Emma and Ben sat at the second table with Adrian, along with his grandparents. “I helped with the waffles,” Emma said as Ben readied for a bite of his.
“Did Dad show you how to mix everything?” Ben asked after his first taste.
“Yep.”
Ben nodded in response. “Thought so.”
Shortly after, Raven spoke up. “Merry Christmas, Emma.”
“You too. Thanks for warning us about that hack attempt yesterday, by the way.”
“This One Was Happy To Help, Though Regrets We Could Not Figure Out The Source.”
“That's the job of the police. They'll figure it out.” Ben replied.
“Hopefully.” Emma replied.
Adrian meanwhile was focused on the eggs and bacon he'd lumped onto his plate. He'd taken at least two of each, and finished them quickly. What room he had left he let the sweeter things, and two glasses of milk, fill up.
“That's enough for me for now,” his grandfather said after his own plate was done. Adrian offered to take it along with his own, to which his grandmother asked him to do the same with hers. Once the plates were in the sink and rinsed, Adrian glanced outside towards the garage. He then gathered a few peanuts and headed outside to retrieve the camera. With the sun unhindered by clouds, he was forced to squint and shield his eyes from its rays reflecting off the snow. In the distance, he heard something akin to a toy rocket being fired off, but no voices to go along with it.
When he'd rounded the corner to the back of the garage, two crows who'd been playing in the snow flew back a few feet, then looked at him. “They're learning fast,” Adrian said after getting his phone out and turning its camera on. He retrieved the stationary camera after the crows flew away with one peanut apiece, heading back inside shortly after.
Once breakfast was over, his family gathered in the front room to begin opening presents. As he'd promised Raven, Adrian set up his phone to allow the AI to see what was going on.
When it came to opening gifts, they went in the same order every year: cards, then stockings, then smallest gifts to largest. After what had happened over the last few days, Adrian was looking forward to when Emma and his aunt and uncle got their present from him.
“I'm hearing lots of...stuff in here,” his aunt said when they got to it.
“There's a reason for that,” Adrian replied.
“Oh, I think I know what this is.” Emma said.
“I wouldn't doubt it.” When the box was opened, and his aunt reacted with a smile and a 'Thank you', Adrian did the same. “You're welcome.”
“I knew it.”
“Figured it was about time you guys had one of your own, since you like it so much.”
“Good thinking,” his uncle said. “Thank you.”
“We can play it again tonight, right?” Emma asked.
“Sure. I'll show you one of the expansions for it this time. Pretty sure you'll like that too.”
“Expansions? How many of those exist?” his uncle asked.
“Six so far. Think there's two more coming next year, a double box with Italy and Japan. The one I've got is based on Germany.”
“Ooh, that sounds interesting.”
Adrian nodded just before Raven spoke up. “This One Will Challenge Emma Again If Allowed.”
“We broke even before. We'll see who wins next.” Emma replied.
“Indeed.”
Adrian chuckled at that.
His father and mother were next to get a present, that one from Ben. His grandparents were next, then himself. His present was a set of books he'd had his eyes on several months before, all in paperback and in a similar medieval cover style. “Nice. Been meaning to start a collection of these.”
“There's twenty-two of those, right?” his mother asked.
“Yeah. They're never sold all in one collection, though. Just in packs of five like these.”
Emma was next to open a present. She also got a set of books, one which Adrian didn't recognize.
“I loved that series when I was younger,” his mother said as Emma handed Adrian the first book from the slipcase to look at; her parents got one apiece as well. The cover he got showed two boys hiding from a searchlight being aimed out of an abandoned looking building.
“What's this series about?” Emma asked as she handed a book apiece to her parents.
“Two boys who get involved in criminal cases and mysteries. All kinds of them.”
“Oh, so it's like Scooby-Doo.”
“In a way, yes.”
At that, Adrian checked something on the first few pages. “Now that you say that, this could be where that show got its influence. The original publication date for this one was in the nineteen-twenties.”
“That long ago?” Emma asked.
Adrian nodded in response, then flipped to a random page. “I like the prose so far,” he said after a moment. “Might read this myself before you guys head out.” He handed back the book shortly after, and the gift opening continued.
By the end, a large ball of discarded wrapping had built up on the couch, discarded boxes and envelopes sitting beside it. Everyone had gotten at least three things, and as the room was cleaned up, his family went back to doing their own things.
Raven texted him before the clean-up was finished; his father and mother heard the message sound, then what the AI said shortly after. “This One Enjoyed Watching The Presents Being Opened.”
“Glad to hear it,” Adrian said once he'd managed to get his phone near his face.
“This One Also Has A Request.”
“Alright.”
“Can Adrian Ritter Allow This One Back Into The Desktop?”
“Sure. Just let us finish this clean-up real fast.”
Raven agreed to wait, and as Adrian and his father went outside, his father said, “What do you think it wants to do in there?”
Adrian responded with a hum, while Raven responded aloud. “This One Has Ideas It Desires To See Come To Life.”
“Ideas? Like what?”
“Things Related To This One's Face.”
“'This one's face'? What's that mean?” his father asked.
“That means the images it made to use in texts with me.” Adrian answered. Once his hands were empty, he showed his father the three images.
“Oh, interesting.”
“Yeah. Raven, are you wanting to make more of these?”
“Yes. This One Desires To Make More, And This One Found A Style It Believes Adrian Ritter Will Recognize And Appreciate.”
Adrian and his father glanced at each other at that. “Alright. Looking forward to it.” Once they were back inside, he brought the phone back to his room and booted up his desktop. “Do you need the ethernet cable plugged in?”
“No. This One Has What It Needs On The Desktop.”
Once the desktop was loaded, and the on-start programs were running, Adrian plugged the phone in. Raven texted him a second later.
“This One Will Need Several Minutes.”
Adrian acknowledged the wait, then returned to the living room to gather his new books. His grandparents were testing out their new heated seat covers on the couch, his grandfather looking as though he'd fallen asleep on his already. His grandmother meanwhile smiled at him; he returned the gesture and hung around for a moment.
After fifteen minutes, he returned to his room to check on Raven. The AI hadn't updated the file by then, though when he came back the second time, there was an update and a link to the folder with the images.
“This One Is Finished With New Faces.”
When Adrian followed the link, he found the images had changed from 2-bit style to 16-bit style. Raven had chosen a dark blue color for the body, and a lighter blue beak, with red highlights on the beak and white highlights on the three standing feathers on its head. Three more 'emotions' had been added to the set as well. One that he guessed was for intent with the eyes narrowed and the head slightly forward; another indicating sleep with Zs hovering over a slouching head with closed eyes; and the last one showing Raven pecking at a holographic screen.
“These look really good,” Adrian said. “I'm impressed.”
“This One Is Happy To Hear It. This One Will Design The Rest Of Its Body If Adrian Ritter Wishes To See It.”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
It took Raven only a few minutes for the rest of its body to be drawn. Its chest it depicted with a plume of red; its legs were falcon-like in design and matching its beak in color. Its tail was made up of both a fan of feathers, those tipped in red, and two much longer lengths of what he figured was hair or fur, those tipped in white. Its wingtips, despite being folded up, were also tipped in white.
Raven then sent a text with one of the new images. It was much larger than the old one, and Adrian was quick to imagine an animated version with the eyes blinking and looking around. Stowing the idea for later, he replied to the text with, “You want me to show these to Emma?”
“This One Would Enjoy That.”

=================

As Christmas Day arrives, Raven observes the morning festivities and eventually returns to Adrian's desktop to work on something.

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Raven's Voice Lines = https://1drv.ms/f/c/0cc1a5ef5f1d85e.....c7MvA?e=oJS5l9