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"A new job?" Cordelia asked as she and her guardian rode the elevator up to businesses unknown to the Frei. "What's wrong with your old one?" She inquired more, given she didn't really know in any great detail what it was Ebby held as a career until then, yet the basilisk figured it was good since it allowed them a more than comfortable style of life. Wasn't that all that matter?

Ebony sighed, forefinger and thumb held to the bridge of her nose as she closed her eyes, trying desperately to ward off a brewing headache. "Nothing persay, just...some things have come up and I just can't keep it all right?" To this Delia merely nodded in response, sensing the tension in her woman.

In truth Ebony did not want to be here at all, applying for a job she held little to no interest in. Yet there was no way she could have gotten out of it. Earlier that morning her father had made a big show of how the three of them should get out of the house and have a family outing. Somehow he'd gotten Cordelia excited about visiting Barton for the day and seeing as it wasn't as far as Durem or Aekea, Ebony couldn't find reason to refuse. Besides, some fresh air could do them all good.

She should have sensed something was up when Adrian made all those snide comments about the clothes she was wearing and hadn't been satisfied until she'd come down the stairs in a short sleeved fuchsia blouse and white skirt, complete with matching heels. At the time Ebony had merely figured the man's flair for showmanship was acting up, as he himself like to go out dressed nicely as well. Keeping up appearances as it were.

It wasn't until they were mere feet away from the bright pink building in Barton, that her father conveniently pointed out a job posting in a newspaper. Ebony tried her best to shove him off of it, saying it wasn't the right time for this as they were suppose to be having quality family time. He in turn merely brushed her off by saying it was nonsense, that they could spare an hour or two for something important like this. It wasn't until she'd agreed and Adrian had elected to wait outside, waving from a bench with a cup of coffee he'd purchased at a nearby vendor, did Ebony realize the ad in the paper had been circled.

The purple haired woman couldn't help but look to her wide-eyed ward suspiciously as they got off the elevator and made their way down the hall. She knew the Frei was completely innocent in the part she played right then, but Ebony was positive her father had planned for Cordelia to accompany her to this meeting so she couldn't just pretend she'd gone or what have you. Of course the talkative girl would report back everything she saw and heard to the elder Shade. Ebony sighed, this time in defeat. Honestly she had to hand it to him, Adrian was the master after all.

Hand on the door handle, the British woman gave her smokey Raevan a steely look that said, 'Behave.' To this Delia merely sighed and rolled her own silver eyes in an equal response of, 'I know! Like I've ever done anything bad anywhere...' As quick as that silent exchange had occurred did the knob turn and the door swing open, Ebony giving a quick knock at the same time.

"Ello? I've come about the open position?"

At the sound of her name as the elder woman addressed her boss, Ebony couldn't help the slight frown of annoyance that came onto her face then. Honestly, her father was absolutely out of line with this one now. It was one thing to harp on and on to her about getting a new job, it was a complete other to call in an interview for her! When this thing was done, she would surely have some words with him about boundaries.

Face smoothing back out to a more professional manner, "Ah no, that's quite all right. Thank you." The British woman was just about to sit down and wait when the black haired wedding planner came bumbling out the door. She looked a bit frazzled and pale to say the least. Was her job really that demanding?

While Ebony had been speaking with the elder woman at the desk, Cordelia had been slowly circling about the room, looking at all the framed pictures of happy brides. She was just about to join her guardian for a seat, hand already on a magazine to flip through when another woman rushed out of the other room. Straightening up, they waited for some sort of introduction, but was met with a bit of silenced awe. It was then that Delia realized the woman was gawking at her. Giving a small cough of embarrassment and perhaps nervousness, the snake slide a little closer to her woman then.

Sensing the awkward silence might go on Ebony opened her mouth to speak, but luckily Axel beat her to the punch. Taking her hand briefly, "No problem, it's...nice to meet you." She'd paused a moment because she wasn't really sure if it was a pleasure or not to meet this woman. After all her father had set this all up and she really wasn't interested, she sort of felt bad for the woman, wasting her valuable time and all.

That was until Axel began spewing excitedly about guardians and Raevans. The name of Zeke had really caught her attention then. Perhaps she was a bit more interested in this position now since she was currently curious about the nature of the wedding planner's Raevan-to-be. Taking a seat, "Oh so you know about them? Great then I don't have to explain. This is Cordelia by the way, I hope you don't mind that she tagged along."

"I didn't tag along! Granddad said I should come!" Delia huffed in that smokey voice of hers, obviously insulted. She wasn't an annoying little sister after all. Suddenly realizing she was being rather rude in front of Ebony's possible future employer, the snake's pride deflated a bit and she sat down in the chair next to her guardian. "I'm sorry, that was very rude. Thank you for having me Miss Axel."

As Cordelia and Axel finished their handshake, Ebony tried her very best to hide the twitch that occurred at the corner of her right eye then. She was curious to what exactly her father had claimed on her resume. It seemed now the violaceous woman was caught between a rock and a hard place so to speak. Thus it was all in thanks to Adrian that she had now to decide whether she needed to lie to this nice fellow guardian or not. Honestly, her father...

Sighing Ebony decided to be honest, to an extent of course. "Actually I must admit that I owe you an apology first and foremost. You see my father has been rather adamant about my switching careers lately. Currently I work on a contract to contract basis and some of my clients are rather...unsavory to say the least."

Cordelia blinked slow, taking in what exactly her guardian was saying. So that's what the two of them had been fighting about all this time? It seemed so utterly dull and stupid. Of course she should change her job if Adrian thought it best! Most especially if her clients were as bad as she was making them out to be. But what would she know, her guardian never talked about her job in front of her until today. Maybe she didn't want her worrying or something.

Noticing the way that both Axel and her ward were looking, Ebony quickly added, "Please don't take it the wrong way, I do believe his heart was in the right place, yet I may not be the assistant you are looking for to be perfectly honest. Though to compensate for taking your valuable time today, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you have about Raevans."

"Don't you think I'm more qualified to answer Raevan questions Ebby? You know, being a Raevan and all." Cordelia asked.

"Uh well yes, I suppose you are Cordelia. So then either of us really Miss Axel."

Axel's first question about the Raevans was one she probably should have expected, yet it still caught her off guard again. Had Cordelia not been with her, she would have been more than willing to be as open as possible about the girl's beginnings. Yet with the smokey girl seated right beside her, Ebony found herself very nervous about opening her mouth. If she wasn't careful with the way she answered, a lot of s**t could hit the fan then.

Sensing her guardian's hesitation, Cordelia saw this as her opportunity to give this soon to be Raevan mother the real 411 on her kind. Speaking up quickly, "People who know about the Lab are always curious about that and asking. Some guardians don't like talking about it in front of their younger Freis. Oh! Yeah a Frei is someone like me with only the chest up." The snake motioned with her hands to herself and then downward to where her waist would be in the future as she continued, "There are older ones than me who have grown physically and have a body that's longer with a waist and stomach and all that. They're called Sigels."

Cordelia giggled for no real reason except for how fun this was and how awesome it felt to be the expert on something for once. "Anyway, the essence and soul thing depend on the person really. Most Raevans I know of don't really care, they're proud of what they are. I was made from smoke and a snake soul." The girl's chest puffed up a bit, proving that she was one of those proud Raevans she was speaking of.

"Oooo, can I really?! Yes please! I'd love to see them!" Silver eyes sparkling the girl leaned in on the planner's desk, barely able to contain her excitement. Delia couldn't ever remember seeing the two things that made up a Raevan before it was one. Trying to reel herself back in again, the basilisk remembered the woman still had other questions that needed to be answered. "Oh um, from what I can gather most Raevans feed on things related to their essences really. Like I feed on smoke and one of my friends, Riven, since he was made of the night sky he feeds by just sitting outside at night. Though he said he much prefers a really clear night cause stars are really crunchy and delicious, hee." Cordelia gave a big, bright smile at that. Rivener was one of her favorite Raevans, something akin to a big brother if you would, and like any good little sister she was more than happy to chat about him and how great he was all day long. "As for powers...I'm not too sure about how it works for everyone else. Doesn't really come up as much as you'd think, but um, well I can talk to snakes in their language and I kinda have this other ability that's smoke related, but...I've not really messed with it much to be honest. Though I've never really met any other Raevans with the exact same abilities as mine. Well except maybe the snake thing, but he's a snake Raevan too, so yeah."

While the other two chatted (mostly Cordelia it seemed), Ebony took the time to mull things over. (While in the inside hoping that Axel did not probe too much about Cordelia's snake soul.) She had been wanting to quit the Shadow Bandit gig for a long time, even before her father resurfaced and began nagging her to quit. Axel seemed nice enough and she'd said the job wasn't that hard. Though interactions with other people were somewhat tricky sometimes for her, being in a setting such as this where professionalism was key might not be so bad for her. Yet having to take orders from another person(s) though could be a potential problem since Ebony was quite use to doing things her own way and being her own boss.

Though Axel was less than likely to hire her right on the spot like this, the Brit was a little curious to see how things might work out if she was accepted. Thus when she finally got a chance, Ebony proposed a plan to the dark haired woman. "Well how about a little trial run? You seemed a bit frazzled earlier which I assume means you have a lot of work piling up right now and having to interview a bunch of people at the same time must be just dreadful. I can start immediately on a temporary basis for a couple weeks and try to help bring your workload down. Meanwhile you can keep interviewing people and at the end of the trial period should we find it not a good fit and you have someone else more qualified you'd like to hire instead, I'd be fine with stepping aside."

Cordelia had been pretty excited when the wedding planner dug around in her drawer, but after it only produced a book her excitement had deflated. The smokey Frei couldn't recall ever seeing a fel essence or filled soul bottle in person so she'd been sort of hoping that Axel still had hers. And as a side thought she found it kinda weird how several guardians, her own included, seemed to feel compelled to take pictures of a glass vial (jar in Axel's case) and bottle. Seriously, wasn't that weird? Well she guessed it was sort of akin to taking baby pictures, yet she still found it a little odd.

Flipping idly through the album, Cordelia also wondered how Axel's Raevan would look and what sort of things it'd be capable of. Maybe they could be friends. "Umm...I dunno. I heard that Laz is the oldest out of us and he's only a Sigel. I guess if he grows soon maybe he'll have legs then. It's the only thing that makes sense to me anyway. Oh Laz is the Doctor's Raevan by the way. They're both super nice."

Though Cordelia had taken the bulk of the Q&A session upon herself, Ebony thought maybe it best the woman finally hear something from a fellow guardian. Peering over her own ward's shoulder to take a look at the pictures, Ebony couldn't help thinking how lovely the flowers were, "You shouldn't worry too much about feeding. It comes naturally to them. They'll let you know one way or another what it is they need. Or if it's something easily attained they'll just take care of it themselves. Powers on the other hand..." The Brit gave a bit of a nervous laugh since she knew these could be troublesome (or even dangerous) depending on the nature of the Raevan. In the end she just shrugged since she didn't want to scare the woman into thinking she'd made a big mistake. Besides, all the Raevans were different and how harmful could a flower and chameleon mix be?

Ebony was sort of surprised that Axel was going for the whole trial period thing though. In fact it almost sounded like the woman had pretty much already set her decision on having the purple haired female as her new employee. The Brit wasn't sure whether she'd just did herself a great service or created a nightmare of sorts. Guess they'd all find out soon enough. "A month seems fair enough to me. Just let me know when you'd like for me to start."

Cordelia looked to her guardian a little shocked, Ebony mirrored a similar yet somewhat less exaggerated version of the basilisk's expression. She didn't know. How could Axel not know? How could any guardian not know?! Frowning slightly in a way that suggested that the Frei didn't believe what she was hearing, "Doctor Kyou created us, the Raevans that is. I can't believe you don't know about him. I mean, I can understand you having not met him cause well I hear he is usually really wrapped up in his research for the most part, but not even knowing about him? Just wow..."

Attend a wedding? The thought made her a bit nervous. Ebony never kept friends long enough or was ever really close enough to them to actually be invited to such an event. The thought of marriage wasn't something she'd ever put much thought into given how she'd been raised and what her occupation was up until then, but it wasn't like she'd never thought about it. Just like most women, there was a little part of her DNA that called for her to think about it, if only once in a blue moon. Guess if she was to be working here from now on, Ebony would have to get use to thinking about it more often than she was use to. That made the lavender haired female sigh just a tiny bit.

"Sounds good to me. Is there anything else? About the work I should know or anything else Raevan related you'd like to discuss?"

"Zeke!" The Shade girls said in unison with a knowing smile and nod before Ebony replied, "That actually makes a lot of sense. I heard it's rare when Kyou does a pickup or drop off himself nowadays. He usually has one of the other Lab staff, Zeke being one of them, take care of those duties. Or Lazarus if need be."

"Though the Doctor is usually busy with research, he often finds time to drag himself away from it long enough to join in on parties the Lab conducts throughout the year. So I'm sure you'll have your chance to meet him. Can't be missed; tall, black hair, devil horns and tail." Cordelia gave a bit of a laugh, trying to imagine how Axel was envisioning her dear creator just then.

At Axel's request, Ebony stood with Cordelia following soon after, realizing the meeting was coming to an end. "Ah, yes, sorry for taking up so much of your time already. It was nice meeting you and thank you for the interview."

"Bye Miss Axel! Can't wait to meet your Raevan!" Delia crowed happily as she was guided out the door by her guardian, Ebony in a rush now because she didn't want to take up anymore of the woman's time than she already had.