Welcome to Gaia! ::

Though her arms were crossed tight across her chest and her expression was stern, Ebony was open in her listening. She would hear what excuses were thrown her way and then react accordingly. Yet it would be noted she wasn't particularly patient or happy in her waiting as seen by the rapid tapping of one of her feet.

Completely forgetting her former fear of punishment for wandering off again, the smoke Raevan dashed to her woman with great excitement. Practically bouncing in her floating stance, Cordelia exclaimed, "Ebby! Ebby! We just saw a deer! Isn't that great?!" Given what she'd seen was only the white blur of what could have been pretty much anything really and she still wasn't anywhere near knowing what a deer actually was, to Delia it was all still pretty fascinating. Simple pleasures for simple minds.

A slender brow arched slow at the visual of a soul bottle (it'd been so long it seemed since she had seen one face to face) suddenly brought to her attention before both brows raised higher at the half-formed body buzzing around her. What was she going on about? A deer?

Ebony sighed loudly and dropped her arms, it was too hard to be upset when Cordelia was so explicitly overjoyed with her close encounter with something new. And she was okay after all, so it wouldn't due to put her in a sulky mood with a lecture now. Especially in front of this stranger. She'd just have to remember to talk with her again later about running off.

"Ebony." she corrected with another sigh. "Cordelia refuses to call me that obviously. A pleasure to meet you though Vivi. I apologize for whatever trouble my charge has been causing you."

"Oh! So you're name is Vivi? Hi Vivi!" Cordelia giggled floating back over to the French woman. Pointing to the bottle in her hand, "Hey, what's that? It's pretty." As the dark femme curiously viewed the glass object, Ebony visibly stiffened.

The other woman's response gave way to the tension melting in Ebony's body, yet doing little to quiet the tension in her mind. What if Cordelia got mad at not getting an explanation, the basilisk's curiosity never quite quenched until she got the answers she was looking for? What then? Perhaps a diversion tactic was best used here.

"I see...well maybe you should try and see if the deer is still nearby Cordelia? Vivi and I could search some too, but I think you'd be faster what with your floating and all." Giving an encouraging smile, Ebony hoped the girl wasn't too smart just yet to see through her ploys. "But not too far okay? I don't want to lose sight of you for a second time today."

Distracted from the bottle's odd beauty, Delia's grey eyes lifted to view her guardian curiously. She was being given actual permission to run off? It sounded rather suspicious to the Frei until she heard the all too familiar warning. Now that sounded right. Smiling and nodding, the snake slithered off once again. "Not far this time. Promise!"

Once Ebony was positive the Raevan was far out enough not to hear them, the Brit turned back to the guardian-to-be. "Thank you Vivi. Though I am sorry to have put you into such a tight spot. It's not that I don't want her to know her origins, it's just that I think she's still far too young to hear it."

She breathed deeply and closed her eyes to help push back the wave of emotions that always threatened to bowl over every time she thought back to the soul capture, after all it had been quite an emotional moment for both her and Aphismet. Every now and then she could still hear the high pitched shrill, feel the rumbling of the ground that the giant snake had created when Ebony wounded it with that sword. Til this day she wasn't quite sure how they'd been lucky enough to survive such an ordeal, but she was still very grateful to have survived it at all.

"It's not been an issue at all really." Feeling as if Delia could see that they were not looking for the deer, Ebony at least began to head back towards the field she'd initially come from. Surely they could "look" on the way. "Like I said, Cordelia's quite young still, several months short of a year in fact. So her mindset is very...toddler-ish in most aspects. And as such, she's more fascinated with learning about the world she lives in rather than pondering upon life's mysteries."

The Brit stopped briefly to step up and over a fallen tree trunk that laid decaying in their path. Offering a helpful hand to the French woman, Ebony lit up a tad in pride at the praise even though her voice carried reason and logic in its tone. "Thank you, though brave probably isn't the correct word. More like...instinctual? Snakes are all about preservation, most especially self preservation. Though I find my ward is quite clingy to those she comes to like, so it makes sense she'd want to protect you as well."

"Your Raevan?" she questioned automatically without thought. Somehow with her unscheduled trip down memory lane, Ebony had totally forgotten about the empty soul bottle Vivi had been showing off just a few moments ago. "Oh right! Terribly sorry, I was off in my own little world I guess." A light chuckle left her as a means to cover up her slight embarrassment for having so quickly forgotten about something so pivotal to their blossoming relations. "Congratulations by the way. I'm sure your Raevan will be well met by Cordelia. Despite her looks, she's rather friendly and keen on making new acquaintances."

Once they had reached the clearing, Ebony had immediately been scanning for any signs of her dark ward. One would think it easy to pick out a completely black half-formed person from the other park goers, but one would be surprised how well Delia could blend in when she wanted to. "Hmm?" Her slated orbs turned back to the baker curiously. Yes, if it weren't for the scales, the wings and the glaring obvious missing lower half, Cordelia and her guardian could almost be mistaken for biological mother and daughter. Or at the very least, sisters. Ebony was still in partial denial of her role, still trying to argue to herself that she was far too young to be anyone's mother. Surely the way she acted towards the smokey Frei wouldn't give anyone else doubt of what her real role was.

Tapping her chin in thought, "Ah yes, it is quite striking. You're not the first to mention it and surely not the last. I've been wondering about it on and off myself, though I haven't had a chance to ask Kyou about it." She gave a tender smile at the memory of the horned male who'd helped watch over Delia during her virus cure induced coma several months past now. He'd been just as worried as she'd been when the basilisk had taken much longer to wake than Rivener. "I wonder if my near constant contact with the bottle had some sort of influence over that. Do you think it possible for a bottle to take a piece of someone's soul without them knowing it?" The idea sounded absolutely ludicrous once spoken aloud, but how else could Ebony explain it? It was too much of a coincidence for their looks to be chance.

It was hard to miss the slight note of hysteria hitching in Vivi's laugh and how her brown eyes seemed to shift with weariness towards the bag around her arm. Ebony could have kicked herself for doing something so stupid as sharing these sort of thoughts with the woman. The last thing a guardian-to-be needs to hear is how their soul bottle might be able to suck their very own soul out given the chance. Hell no one wanted to hear that!

"My apologizes Vivi. We've only just met and I shouldn't scare you with my personal pondering like this. Discussion such as this is probably best suited for Doctor Kyou or another Lab staff member. Please, don't think anymore on the matter. I'm most likely wrong anyhow."

The British woman smiled as genuinely as possible in hopes that Vivi would be comforted, but it wasn't like Ebony had a mirror stuck to her face at all times. If anything she hoped it just looked tired at best and wouldn't cause the other any more distress than she already had. Looking around and sighing, "Cordelia's most likely gotten distracted by something interesting, or at least interesting to her. Probably best if we just stay in one place for now in hopes she'll show back up in a few minutes."

Spying a fairly okay looking rock to sit on, Ebony plopped herself down to wait and motioned Vivi to join her. At least she wouldn't be bored until the Frei got back. And she sure hoped she came back this time or else Delia was in major trouble since she promised not to wander far this time. "By the way Vivi, if you don't mind, what kind of essence were you given?"

If it had done any harm, Ebony was unaware of it. The more she thought about, the more she thought she ought to talk with a staff member about it. Doctor Kyou was the obvious choice of course, but he was always so busy with his research and creating new Raevans such as Vivi's soon to be. Maybe Alex then? She did enjoy the Italian's company and Cordelia would surely love to see Zul again, perhaps show off her newest ability of speech finally. The demon would surely pop a horn in pride and this image made her smile a real smile.

The tiny smile broke into a bigger, more amused one when Vivi brought out the cigar holder. She kept the essence in there? How odd? It fit though and she supposed it was a good safeguard as no one would think twice to look for a fel essence there. And somehow...it seemed so like Vivi even though she didn't know much of her yet. It made the lilac female appreciate the Frenchwoman even more now.

"Nice hiding spot. I use to wear mine like a necklace. So I can understand not wanting to be apart from it." Ebony chuckled light, but was soon gasping instead. Her grey eyes sparkled in awe at the magnificent display before her. Gently, one well manicured finger dared to touch the delicate vial. It was warm! And it gave off this amazing, calming feeling that Ebony could feel trying to travel up the rest of her arm.

"It's...it's beautiful! Wow...I just...just wow! I'm sorry for gushing, but I think...I think I have to be a tad jealous of you now! I mean, I love Cordelia and what she is, but having smoke as an essence didn't quite help her much in the color department. And I'm fairly pro-color as you could have guessed by my hair." She laughed again as the peace the essence was bestowing her now made for a more relaxed encounter with the newest Lab member. "Whatever soul is paired with it is sure to turn out wonderful."

"Thank you, but alas Cordelia only loves one color right now. Green." She made a face like it was the worst possible color to have liked in the world, but then laughed again. "And I'm afraid she's not gotten into that bit of girliness just yet. The only jewelry she allows near her is some that were given to her by another Raevan. Hell, she barely allows me to brush her hair when it gets all sorts of unruly."

"Funny? Perish the thought." replied the woman in an amused manner. "And I was merely paranoid about losing it somehow. I kept the soul bottle with me at all times too. But that was also because I wasn't sure what soul I wanted to catch. Much like you, I figured the bottle would just attract the right soul." And fate sure had a funny way of attracting said soul. Why couldn't it have just had a regular snake cross her path? At least then she wouldn't have her fears. Though all did end up all right for the most part she supposed. All right for now at least.

Just off the side from them, there was slight rustling in the foliage at the forest's edge. Ebony hitched a brow at it, most especially when a faint giggle slipped from one of the bushes. Since when did bushes giggle? With a knowing smile, the woman silently gestured to Vivi to look at the trees. Cordelia thought she was being sneaky, how cute! Yet a part of Ebony, the thief, sighed with her charge's idea of stealth.

"Some of us don't outgrow it unfortunately." She laughed, referring to herself of course with her slight obsession with the color purple. But at least she appreciated other colors and tried to pair it with said color. Cordelia on the other hand...she just wanted green, green EVERYTHING.

"Hmmm, I don't know Vivi. I certainly hope not as well. I don't know how I'd explain it to the Lab that I'd need a new Raevan." A true grin was developing upon Ebony's face as the human enjoyed this game just as much as her Frei was.

Or had been that was until her violet haired woman said that! Bursting from the foliage of her hiding spot, Cordelia bristled greatly, her wings spread wide in anger. "What do you mean 'new Raevan'? I'm your Raevan! Me! Cordelia!"