Welcome to Gaia! ::

There is absolutely nothing that Dani wants more than to go home, soak in the bath for a half an hour, and then curl up under her blankets for at least six hours. The sun is already up -- one of the hazards of working graveyard, though something she's grown accustomed to, being the new girl on the floor -- and that will make it a little more difficult for her to sleep, but she's gotten through worse.

As long as her mother doesn't get up and start cleaning house at a** o'clock again she'll probably be fine.

She pulls into the driveway with a happy sigh, letting the engine idle for a few minutes as she listens to the last few lines of the catchy tune she doesn't know the name of, and lets her gaze idly rove over the yard. Needs to be mowed, she thinks, and wonders if she can bribe one of the neighbor boys to do it for her before it gets well and truly wild. She and Tristan hadn't even had a yard, and she --

-- really needs to stop thinking of her life in terms of with Tristan, because that chapter is behind her and she's working on a fresh start. The biggest part of a fresh start is moving on, right?

Killing the engine, she grabs her purse from the passenger seat and hops out, locking her Lexus behind her with a cheerful beep. Her hair's been in a bun so long that she's halfway to a headache, and it's begun to droop, heavy and a little bit frazzled after her long night at work. She's really not looking forward to braiding it after her bath, but it's better than the alternative.

She's so caught up fantasizing about soaking all the stiffness out of her joints that she almost misses the package, unassuming and tucked around the corner and out of sight. For a moment, she actually considers leaving it -- it's big, and she's very tired -- but she has no idea when her mother will actually go out to the front of the house, and she doesn't want to risk it getting lifted. Dani lives in a nice neighborhood, but you never know.

Dropping her purse to the porch with a heavy thump, she shuffles over, hiding a yawn behind her palm as she bends to inspect it. There's only one line of writing, up in the top left corner, but the words make her heart skip a beat when she reads them.

Without another moment's hesitation, she kneels next to the package and opens it right on her front porch.



"Oh wow," she breathes, dropping heavily and cradling the glass jar in her hands. Inside the glass, brilliant colors shift and shimmer, very clearly floating despite being contained. She tests the lid and finds it firmly on, and shakes it once, though the mist inside is hardly disturbed.

There are days she feels like she's barely got her feet back under her after everything -- Tristan, moving, changing jobs, reconnecting with old friends -- but this, this is a good sign. This is a positive step firmly into her new life, the life that she's chosen to build on her own terms, and she almost can't believe that it's coming together so quickly. Dani had known she would make a good guardian, a good mother when it comes down to it, but there'd still been that doubt in the back of her mind, an insidious whisper of if you couldn't even make your marriage work, how will you be able to handle this?

But that voice can shove it, because clearly she can handle this, and she will.

Excitement floods her, chasing the aches out of her tired muscles and punching up her mood until the thought of going to bed is almost unbearable. She has too much to do, she needs to go over the paperwork and make personal copies of it, she needs to talk to her mother about getting the spare bedroom set up for the Raevan -- God, she needs to talk to her mother about the fact that she's been approved for this, and explain it in terms she'll understand -- and she needs to start thinking about the soul.

That's the one part of this entire process that gives her pause, gaze cutting to the large, smooth glass still resting in the briefcase. It looks completely innocent, polished and pristine with a red cloth tucked up underneath the lid, and she reaches out to run a finger over the swell of the glass, brow pinching.

The letter said that the soul could belong to many things, things that Dani had never even properly considered could have a soul -- minerals? metals? -- and despite her knee-jerk reaction to the entire concept of it, she's sure it's not as sinister as she'd initially believed. Couldn't have gone through with this and applied if it had been, honestly, and though she still has her reservations, she has a lot more information to work with now, and an entire packet full of people she can call and get firsthand accounts of the process from.

Enthusiasm wins over her personal discomfort, and she digs in her pocket for her cell phone, ignoring the time as she punches in a short text to Yves. He may not appreciate being woken at the early hour, but she figures she can make it up to him with coffee and the good news --

She's going to be a guardian, too, just like he is.

Even after the last dregs of the soul are captured inside the glass, swirling fitfully and coiling around one another, Dani isn't quite ready to get up and leave yet. There's a surreal quality to the entire experience that's left her a bit shaken, if she's honest, and though her grip on the soul glass is tight enough that she swears it should be fracturing, her hands are trembling, too.

"I don't know what you were, but I'll find out," she promises, her voice unnaturally small in the still of the night. Lifting the glass up, Dani all but presses her nose to it, trying to discern the color. "Thank you. I... this means a lot to me."

She has no idea if the soul of the -- whatever it was -- can even hear her, but her eyes sting with the promise of tears anyway, and she presses a light kiss to the glass. Whatever it was, it had looked terrifying, but it had also spoken to her, and it had seemed young. She's watched enough horror movies to know how this kind of exchange normally goes, and walking away with her life intact and the promise of a child sometime in the future is not par for the course.

"Oh," she breathes, eyes going wide, as she digs in her back pocket for a cell phone. A child. A child. "I think it's hitting me all at once, okay, this is -- this is --"

Clutching the soul glass in one hand and her phone in the other, Dani whoops, her nervous energy bubbling over into an exuberant and graceless dance. There's no one around to bear witness to it, and even if there had been, she wouldn't care; until this very moment, the entire process hasn't been quite real to her.

Oh, she'd known that she would eventually get here -- she'd made a commitment, and Dani didn't take those lightly, no matter what her mother had to say about the matter. It was just, until just now, there had always been the knowledge hovering that she was missing one of the pieces necessary to move forward. Now there was nothing holding her back except the time it took to make a miracle, and the realization was as thrilling as it was daunting.

Cradling the filled glass in the crook of one arm, she pulled out her phone and fired off a quick series of texts to Yves, unconcerned that it was the middle of the night.

Satisfied, she shoved her phone into her pocket once more and cupped the glass between her hands, wondering if the warmth was just from her holding it, or from the soul within.

***

Dani didn't sleep. She couldn't; it was too early in the morning by the time she got home, and she was still riding too high on the cocktail of adrenaline and excitement to even bother trying to sleep. At heart, she was a productive woman; she took the time to carefully nestle the filled soul bottle beside the fel essence, admiring the way they looked beside each other, and then set to work on her notes.

She had a binder full of notes.

First things first, she wrote a detailed account of her encounter with the mystery creature that had agreed to come along with her. Dani wasn't particularly great at sketching, but she doodled an image of it too, making notes for the particularly extraordinary features -- the teeth, which stood out to her very much, and the wings -- as well as the quality of its voice, and what she could remember of the conversation. When she met with Yves for lunch, she'd bring her binder with her, and have him take a look at it with her.

Turning to a fresh page, she titled it POSSIBLE SOUL IDEAS, and booted up her laptop.

An hour's worth of searching held a few ideas, but nothing that really stood out to her as being the one. She was sure that they'd know what they were working with at the Lab, but for her own peace of mind and in the interest of preparing the best possible way she could, Dani wanted to know.

As the morning stretched on, she heard her mother puttering around in the house, and Dani hesitated. She knew she'd have to have this conversation with her someday, but between Camila's traditional views on marriage and children and the fact that Dani had captured this soul near a graveyard, she knew she'd need a bulletproof battle plan before she even began to broach the subject. There'd be time before the Raevan arrived, anyway; she could focus on gathering all the information, and then tell her mother exactly what she could expect. Or, well, as close as Dani knew, anyway.

"It's not like we haven't discussed it," she murmurs to herself, biting her lip. And it's true; her mother is aware that she'll be adopting a child, and that it won't be human, but beyond that, Dani hadn't gone into the technical details. For Camila Romero, less was likely more in that regard.

Sighing, Dani rubs her forehead. No, she won't let her mother's idea of what she should be doing run her life; she knows that Camila's heart is in the right place, but Dani also knows, down to her bones, that this is what she's meant to do. As much as she'd hated to hear it from well-meaning friends while she and Tristan were going through their divorce, things did happen for a reason. Maybe the two of them would have never gotten together if they hadn't rushed into things -- maybe they would have, if they'd taken more time to get to know each other before they got married. She doesn't know.

What she does know is that she has prepared more for the Raevan, for this child, than almost anything else in her life, and every time she glances at the filled soul bottle, joy rises up in her chest and she can't stop smiling. Maybe it's not the way she would have imagined it when she was young, and maybe it's not what her mother wants for her, but Dani is excited. She's building a family, and she's always known that was something she wanted -- and she's always been the kind of girl who gets what she wants, one way or another, if she works hard enough at it.

"Daniela? Do you want breakfast?"

The door cracks open and Dani smiles, folding her arms over the binder in front of her. Camila's gaze flicks across her daughter's disheveled appearance, the open laptop, and the stack of notes, and she just shakes her head.

"Please. I'll be down in a few minutes; I'm researching something."

Camila frowns at the soul glass and the fel essence, but doesn't comment beside saying, "All right. Wash your face; you look dirty. And your hair is a mess."

Exhaling in annoyance, Dani replies. "I'll shower. Good morning to you too." and waits until her mother slips away to shake her head.

She finishes typing up an e-mail describing what she knows and asking for guidance from paranormal experts, and sends it off, smiling in satisfaction. After breakfast, Dani will make sure that the fel essence and soul are packaged up securely and mailed off, and then she'll get to work on the next phase of preparations.

Pressing a hand to her jumping stomach, she grins and whispers, "Full steam ahead."

Who: Dani (Derivative) and Henry (NeonMace)
When: Early June, early afternoon
Where: Deli in Gambino

*This RP took place on Skype.

There's something both intensely freeing and terribly sad about having her fel essence and the captured soul sent off to the Lab. Dani's more excited than she can properly express at the prospect of meeting her future child -- son or daughter, it doesn't matter -- but she's also becoming nervous now. It's out of her hands, and Dani doesn't like not having a finger in such an important pie,
but she also knows that there's literally nothing useful she can contribute anymore.

Capturing a soul is pretty significant, anyway. And hopefully one of her sources will get back to her and shed some light on what exactly the creature had been. She's not sure how much it will affect anything down the line, but she assumes her Raevan will one day want to know where they came from, and Dani would like to have more than an educated guess.

All that is being set aside for the time being, though. Of the people she'd messaged, only one had responded in time to make plans for lunch, and Dani is looking forward to getting to know him better. Aside from the fact that she needs to know other guardians for her own support group and so that her Raevan will have friends, Dani just needs more friends, period.

She slides back into the seat opposite Henry, flashing him a brief smile, and is pleased to see that her salad has arrived.

"Oh, this looks good. Anyway, like I was saying, I'm not sure what the soul is yet, but I have some people looking into it." Hopefully looking into it, anyway. She spears a piece of cucumber and dunks it in dressing, glancing back up to him. "Sorry, you just -- look really familiar. I swear I know you from somewhere."

There aren't a whole lot of options for where Dani could have met people. She'd been very focused on her work for a long time, and school before that, so --

Wait! School!

"Did we go to school together?" She lifts a hand, snapping her fingers. "We had A&P together, didn't we?"

---

Henry had never been opposed to meeting others, especially fellow guardians, but the text had come as a surprise. He'd never really kept the memory of having his phone number available for others despite having used the list for his own purposes when Ethiriel came into his care.

The thought of bringing Ethiriel along was high, but for the time being the nurse figured that first meetings for a guardian-to-be, especially one so close to their Raevan being born, perhaps that introduction was best for a second meeting.

"I never had to capture a soul but I'm sure that was stressful! I bet you're really excited to hear back!"

Henry had distracted himself by dressing a salad before glancing back up to Dani when she mentioned familiarity. Squinting, he assessed her face just as much as she had -- and it hit him. Eyes and grin widening, he put down his fork to snap his fingers. "Holy cow, yeah! We had nursing courses together! ...D...aaaaani, right? You took charge of some of our study groups!"

---

"I absolutely did," she laughs, not even an ounce of embarrassment in her tone. Dani has been accused of many things in her lifetime, bossy not being the least of which, but she has always gotten results. With something as important as her education? Damn right she'd take charge of study groups. "That feels like forever ago. I'm so glad to figure that out; it was driving me a little crazy."

It seems silly in the moment, but it makes her feel a lot better to know that two people she knows -- people who went to school with her, people who hadn't had particularly different upbringings from her own, as far as she knows -- have opted to adopt from the lab. Dani is comfortable in her decision and doesn't feel like she needs to justify it to anyone, but it's still reassuring to know that she's not quite as alone as she thought she was.

Though she hadn't been tense before by any means, Dani's demeanor warms as she replies, "I just sent off my fel essence and soul glass today and I'm already ready to meet them. So, your Raevan was already born?"

She hadn't heard of those kinds of circumstances before. Someone with more tact might have tried to wheedle the information out of him, but Dani is nothing if not direct. Besides, he'd offered it up himself. "That's interesting. I ran into some kind of... demon creature in the middle of the night, and talked to it. It was less of a capture and more of a conversation, honestly."

---

With a large grin, Henry offered a nod in agreement to Dani's sentiments and immediately started back to fixing his salad.

He perked at the news, his smile somehow even wider. "Oh, wow! That's super exciting! Hopefully it doesn't take them long to pop 'em out!" The man took a bite, a decent size but not impolite. "I'm Ethiriel's second guardian, actually. I met her original through work... He was a photographer and he was doing a shoot about the hospital. I guess he was impressed with me? It was the only time we met, but I must have made a good impression.

"A demon, huh? I wonder if your Raevan will be like Zul -- he's got a demon soul, too. Haven't seen him around in a long time and Ethiriel hasn't said anything so he might be kind of hard to meet if that turns out to be the case..." Henry gave a hum in thought. "I can't imagine Eth's soul capture having been very... thrilling. She's a tea plant. I'm sure she'll love to meet you and your ward when they come around!"

---

"I honestly haven't thought about it," Dani returns between bites, crossing her legs at the ankle beneath the table. "I don't want to put any kind of expectation on them before they're born. I'm trying to be patient and just wait to be surprised."

God, it's hard, though. She'd been the child who crept into her parents' room and snooped for Christmas presents, who gave them detailed lists on what she wanted for her birthday... patience and surprises both are not high on Dani's list of favorite things. She supposes this is a good lesson for her, then, because she knows she's going to need a lot of patience when it comes to parenting.

The idea's kind of thrilling, honestly.

She grinds fresh pepper over her salad and continues to tuck in, gesturing at him with her fork to punctuate as she does. "I'm going to hold you to that. Socialization is so important, and I... really want to do this right."

She will do this right. Maybe not everything in her life has gone according to plan lately, but she refuses to allow herself to be discourage before she even begins.

"It was really important to me not to try to take the soul of a living thing," she adds, spearing a few vegetables. "You get it, of course. We're all about taking care of people, giving them those second chances, right?"

---

"Yeah, honestly... I don't think I could have captured a living soul. I mean, yours agreed so that's a little different! But... animals can't really do that so some of the other guardians are a little stronger than me," Henry laughed, taking another healthy bite.

Dani's intentions definitely eased the man, leaning against his knuckles on one cheek. He knew the feeling of wanting to do things correctly -- something he was still trying to do. He and Ethiriel definitely had some things they needed to clear up, some issues having come up in conversation even, but Henry was going to do his best to clear it up.

He punctuated with his own fork as he directed himself back into the conversation. "Maybe we can help each other out with that. I haven't heard from a few other guardians lately due to them being busy, so maybe since we have common ground with work, when your Raevan is born we can possibly allow Ethiriel to take care of them during the day?"

---

"I'll think about it," she says, not unkindly, but honestly. "I'll be taking some personal time when they first arrive so that we can get them settled and adjusted, but after that, I'll definitely need to arrange something when I'm working. My mother is an option, and my friend Yves as well, but I do want to network with as many people as possible."

Her voice brightens as she considers the idea. She'll have to meet Ethiriel and see if the Raevan even wants babysitting duty, of course, and also determine whether or not Dani is comfortable with that, but that can be done in due time. She wants to take a very hands-on approach to parenting, like her own parents had, but she knows that'll be more difficult by herself.

Well, she's never shied away from a challenge before. Now's not the time to start.

Tucking a loose curl behind her ear, she asks, "Have you had any pushback from people? It's not exactly a standard adoption, so I've been trying to plan for everything."

Someone else might have said as much with a laugh or a sigh, but Dani is completely serious. As much as she can, she's going to try to have a strategy for everything -- or at least, most of the major hurdles she anticipates.

---

Henry paused to meet Dani's eye, brows raised. "Pushback? No, everyone in my life has been more than accepting and supportive!" he said with confidence, smiling. "They're living, breathing beings... if anyone had been negative about it, I probably would have had to make hard decisions..."

---

"That's great," she says, smiling brightly. Her expression dims slightly as she admits, "I haven't had outright pushback, exactly, but my mother is having a hard time understanding why I want to adopt -- and why I want to adopt a non-human child. If you'd dealt with it, I wanted to pick your brain a little."

If it were anyone but her mother, it would be obvious what she needed to do, but this is her mother. Camila's heart is in the right place, and it's more a lack of understanding and a desire to see her daughter settled and happy than it is anything malicious.

Dani waves a hand, dismissing the topic. "You know how mothers are. Once the Raeven is born, she'll be happy to have a grandchild."

---

Henry gave another sound in thought, his expression falling just a tad. He'd heard about other Raevan families that had similar faults... perhaps he'd have to introduce Dani to some others soon. Before he could respond, she quickly changed the subject.

"Of course!" the nurse laughed, digging back into his food. "Even if she finds it strange now, time changes everything. I'm sure she'll just need to adjust. Have you already set up a room for your Raevan?"

---

Here is an easy topic, and she straightens in her chair, nodding enthusiastically. "All the basics are ready, and have been since... well, pretty shortly after I got selected. I figure once they arrive we can go shopping together to personalize the room."

Dani would have killed for that kind of freedom to decorate when she was a teenager, but money had been too tight to waste on too many frivolous things. By the time she'd started part time work, she knew the value of having a savings, and what money she did spend she did so sparingly, on things that would last.

Well, and make-up. But hey, that was a necessity in her books.

She wasn't going to spoil her child by any means, but she had the means to at least make sure that their bedroom belonged to them, and she figures that because they're going to come half-grown anyway, it only makes sense.

"Tell me about Ethiriel," she requests, though it comes across a little more like a demand for her brisk delivery. "I need to know about this prospective babysitter so I can add her to my file."

---

Very pleased, Henry nodded along. "Great! That's definitely a welcoming touch! I'm sure they'd appreciate getting to learn to express themselves!"

Then, the topic was moved to Ethiriel -- something he definitely wasn't against. Gently pushing his plate to the side, Henry rested his elbows on the table, chin against his knuckles.

"Ethiriel is... very, very mature, I think. Almost an old soul. Soft spoken, intellectual, kind. She used to regularly babysit one of the younger appearing Raevans a while back. If it helps, she has this... natural ability to calm people." He could go on and on, but without a specific topic request, Henry wasn't sure exactly how to continue.

---

Dani mimics his move, setting her plate aside for the waitress to grab on her next pass by the table. She folds her arms against the tabletop, nodding along as he speaks.

"So she enjoys babysitting? I used to make spending money in the summers doing that." Part of why she'd known she wanted to be a nurse, aside from the decent pay, was her desire to take care of people. As a child, she'd been called bossy. Now, she's just good at her job. "What does she do for fun? And is she in school?"

---

"She enjoys spending time with other Raevans, definitely. Especially one on one when possible." He was sure to meet his companion's eyes as they spoke. Henry had a similar reasoning for becoming a nurse, though it was taking care of his brother rather than other kids for money. "She reads-- or, rather, she listens to books and music. She's blind, but she works around it amazingly... you wouldn't even think she was for the most part. It sounds kinda odd out of context, but she also enjoys touching things -- almost to the point of it being a hobby. I know some of her friends had gifted her textured things in particular over time."

---

It sounds like Ethiriel would be a decent choice in the event that Dani needed a babysitter, and she makes a mental note to add the prospect to her binder when she gets home. She won't make any decisions until she meets the Raevan face-to-face, of course, and then it'll also be a question of whether she gets along with Dani's child, but it's nice to have options. If it were a small child being put in someone's care, of course she wouldn't consider having a blind person babysit them, but her understanding is that Raevans are born quite a bit more developed, and it shouldn't be an issue.

"It makes sense that she'd like to touch things," Dani says, shrugging one shoulder. "In the absence of one sense, we come to rely more on the others. You didn't answer my question about school."

She leans forward slightly, brows furrowed. Did other guardians not enroll their Raevans in school? Was that even legal?

"I've considered homeschooling, if I can arrange it with my schedule," and if she needs to, she'll brutally twist her schedule until it fits, "but I'm curious to see what other guardians are doing for their Raevans' education."

---

"Oh!" Henry exclaimed, face reddening as he laughed it off. "I'm so sorry! No, she's not enrolled. I know a few Raevans that are, but... I guess you'd have to meet her! As long as she's been in my care, she's been, well, very intelligent!"

For a moment, he pondered.

"If... hmm. I guess I'd consider college courses for her if it weren't for the need of a diploma or GED... I should maybe see if she wants..." Henry trailed off for a moment, considering the options before snapping back into reality. "Anyway! Yeah, there are a few Raevans in school, I think! I know Aina is -- Duncan Clarke's little Frei!"

---

Dani nods, the faint frown line that had begun to form between her brows smoothing away. She'll have to reach out to Duncan and see how Aina had adjusted to being in school, and take a good look at the local districts -- but that'll also depend on her Raevan's assessment scores. She'll want to socialize them a bit before she tosses them into school, anyway, so that's a little further ahead on her plan.

"She sounds like a good influence for younger kids," Dani says, taking a sip of her water and smiling as the waitress clears their plates. "Do you have any other children, or just Ethiriel?"

Then, after a pause, she tilts her head and asks, "Most people consider Raevans their children, don't they? I will, but maybe that's just the impression I got."

---

Henry smiled warmly at the compliment towards his ward, nodding in agreement. "She also works with me in the pediatrics ward with children and they love her."

"O-oh--" he then stammered, laughing away an awkward blush. "Well... I want children... My, uh... ex left me a while back when things were getting serious. Ethiriel's the closest thing to a daughter that I have." At Dani's second question, Henry couldn't help but shrug. "I know a lot of guardians do. I see Ethiriel as family, but I'm not sure that I see her as an actual daughter. I know she's having some... difficulty understanding familial relationships. I'm trying to help her with that."

Expression softening, he grinned lightly at his friend. "It'll make me pleased as punch if you and your Raevan see each other as family!"

---

She's put her foot in it a little bit, probably, but Dani isn't one to dwell on how awkward a moment is. If anything, she knows from personal experience that there's little worse than struggling through the sympathy and well-meaning platitudes that come with a relationship ending; God knows when she and Tristan had finally called it quits, she had to run through the same story over and over again -- and receive the same condolences just as many times. It about drove her insane.

So instead, she nods and says briskly, "I got a divorce not long ago. I know how difficult that is. If you ever need to talk to someone, you can call me up."

For some, it might be an empty offer, but Dani is perfectly serious. Whether or not Henry takes her up on it is his decision, but the offer is there.

She hoists her purse onto the table and it settles with a loud thump. "This has been great, Henry. I'm really glad we took the time to talk. I was already feeling good about this," she adds, glancing up with a quick smile, "But now I'm even more confident. Do you have any advice outside of what we've covered?"

---

At that confession, the nurse deflated in his seat as empathy washed over him. So Dani had been in a somewhat similar situation... That was unfortunate, but at least they came from the same place. "I'm really doing much better now... but thank you. If I'm ever feeling down about it, I'll talk to you!"

When the purse hit the table and context hit, Henry stood from the booth and grinned, extending out a hand habitually. "I'm really glad we could reconnect! Now that you're part of lab, we have plenty of reasons to catch up!" He grinned, placing his hands at his hips in an almost super heroic pose.

"Honestly, just keep reaching out! A lot of stuff is out of your hands until they're born!"

---

Dani rises as well, shaking his hand firmly and nodding along as he speaks. His over-the-top pose does make her stare for a moment, but she decides not to comment on it in the interest of ending on a good note. (She seems to miss a lot of jokes, and other people's humor doesn't always make sense to her. This might be one of those times.)

"You've been a huge help," she says honestly, wallet in hand so that she can settle her tab. "And yeah, I know, but you know me: I like to be over-prepared if at all possible."