Welcome to Gaia! ::

All things considered, Ebony was feeling rather content lately. If she were to face facts (which she most likely wouldn't, at least not to another), she'd been pretty grumpy for quite sometime and most of that had to do with being trapped in this odd half, floating form. It wasn't easy adjusting to not having legs and even harder to feed on smoke, but she'd do it to survive and for Cordelia. Another "minor" inconvenience that she'd "happily" stumbled upon was experiencing what it meant to be part reptile during winter. She had known that cold and Cordelia had never gone together, but what she hadn't realized was how difficult it was to keep warm when the temperature was constantly fluxing between near and below freezing while yourself didn't create any heat to begin with. She knew exactly what it felt like now, how the cold creeps in and quickly begins to drain away your energy.

Sighing lightly, Ebony snuggled herself further into the depths of the thick warmth of the blankets she was wrapped in. Silver orbs fluttered sleepily as she watched the dancing of the bright flames of the hearth nearby. She gave a tiny yawn as she wondered if it was incredibly lazy of her to doze off again. She hadn't decided when the doorbell rang, yet groaned heavily while trying to hide within her warm nest. She didn't have to get up, Cordelia could get it. Or...at least she thought she would.

After a few minutes went by without the sound of skittering feet or any movements towards addressing the guest at the door, the bell rang again, urging the residents inside to answer. Ebony's brow raised some, pondering where her charge had gotten off to. The girl was probably practicing or studying again, a most strange turnabout, but something Ebony wasn't about to question. Thus with much effort she managed to float off the sofa and to the door.

Plaid blanket hanging loosely about her, Ebony stifled a yawn as she opened the door, cringing greatly as the cold air bit into her exposed skin. "Can I hel-" she began but was cut short by the vision of the person whom was standing on her porch then. With a tiny gasp of surprise, "M-M-Mister Lekabel?! W-what are you doing here?!"

"Miss Shade..." she murmured low, her heart sinking with this totally innocent on his part request. She should have been flattered he was looking for her, yet to be in another's form right in front of him then and hearing this only made her sad.

"Of course. Please do come in." she replied flatly, floating far enough to allow him entrance. In her disheartened state, Fathle's kind gesture barely registered in her mind.

Quickly and silently, Ebony escorted the handsome man to the couch. "If you would please wait here, I'll go...find her." The last of her speech far less eloquent and kind than her previous ones as she floated away and upstairs.

Not even bothering to knock, the Raevan grouchily marched into Cordelia's room with a slight bang to the door as it bounced off the wall. "Cordelia!" she hissed.

Wide-eyed from her guardian's explosive entrance into her room, Delia slowly removed the earbuds of her ipod from her ears, a trill of musical strings being briefly heard before she shut the machine off. "W-what?" she stuttered nervously, pretty sure she hadn't done anything wrong to gain such an unsavory glare from her woman.

"What? WHAT?!" Ebony shouted unable to contain her growing frustration. "Fathle Lekabel is downstairs right now! That's what! Looking for me, aka YOU!"

"Ohhhhh kay." she rolled her eyes at her guardian's overreaction. Delia quietly slid off the bed and made her way for the stairs, grabbing something from her desk as she did. Ebony noted this as curious, but didn't bother to verbalize it in her current emotional state. Merely she followed her youthful ward as she bounded down the stairs like a gleeful child, the juvenile behavior making Ebony sigh and worry about how Cordelia would act around Fathle now.

The Brit physically cringed as Delia merrily greeted the man, even managing to bestow Fathle with one of her patented hugs. Could the girl even pretend to remember whom she was suppose to be then? Ebony had a reputation to uphold after all.

"Fathle!" Cordelia cooed with a bright smile that didn't really seem to belong on the face that was beaming it. "It's so good to see you! How are you?"

The way the corners of his mouth raised in a soft amused expression only served to boil her blood more, the Raevan huffing darkly with crossed arms. Ebony was starting to wonder how Cordelia did that. Was it perhaps one of her Raevan abilities? Nooo, the woman quickly thought, shaking the idea from her head. If it were, Cordelia would not have been able to use it given the obvious nature of her not being a Raevan then. Unwrapping her arms and giving a light sigh, she came to the realization that it was a natural talent of the girl's. Highly fascinating in fact, a snake that could charm others. Huh, who would have thought?

Cordelia gave him one last gleeful squeeze, for she had long since gotten past that strange aura that always surrounded the man, the one that urgently told others to beware and tread carefully before him. She was nodding merrily to whatever he was saying, really not caring of it much, just wanting to get to what she wanted of him. Then he mentioned his charge's well being and Delia could not help but get a little side tracked. It'd been so long since she'd seen her friend.

"Dayo..." the girl uttered longingly, absentmindedly accepting his basket of gifts. "I'm...glad she's well. Thank you for the basket." Just as blankly as before, Delia set the gift on the coffee table without looking through it. At this Ebony raised a brow in question. Surely something really was on the snake's mind, the girl loved gifts! Even if they weren't for her. "Can I get you anything? A cup of coffee perhaps?"

Nope too late Mister Lekabel, both females had caught that strangeness that seemed to cross your features then and was still somewhat lingering on there as you tried desperately to cover it up with pleasantry. As it was, both women did that unusual twin thing where both raised the exact same brow in suspicious question before turning towards one another to share their questioning silver gaze with the other. What had that expression been about?

Before anything else could be said or done, Cordelia suddenly yelped and dropped the thing she'd been gripping in her hand as if it were hot. The sun ring that they'd found in Ebony's father's belongings seemed to fall in slow motion as the three watched its descent to the wooden floor below. Oddly it hit the floor with no sound at all. Why that seemed to bother anyone was beyond anything, but everyone seemed to just stand still for a moment, almost as if expecting the ring to do something.

Finally Cordelia came to her senses and bent to pick the object up, yet as her fingers was just about to place a hold on the warm metal of its surface, a strong energy exploded from within the relic and flooded the room in light.

Cordelia being the closest to the ring when it set off, had given a quick scream of pain as she pawed at her eyes and fell back into the sofa, managing to knock it slight from it's current position in the living room. Ebony had simply gasped and quickly braced herself from the explosion by covering her face with her arm and closing her eyes. Dear lord what now?

One moment Delia was on the ground, shielding her eyes from anymore painfully blinding light and the next she felt the pull of gravity lessen on her being. Suddenly she couldn't feel the ground with her feet anymore and the scent of smoke thick in the room was enough to make her mouth water. Head snapping up with a knowing wide-eyed expression, the girl quickly assessed herself, olive toned hands roaming over nearly every inch of her ashened self.

Twisting and turning in mid-air, Delia giddily began shuffling her wings, twirling her ribbon, all the while laughing with childish glee. Oh how she'd missed them! "I'm me again!"

Ebony was not so lucky. She felt the same dramatic change in gravity as her dark ward, and though it was a pleasant sensation to finally have legs again, she could not help but feel something was not right. The first clear indication was a dull throbbing in her jaw that eventually erupted into a full blown searing in the whole of her mouth. Somehow it felt so full, like her mouth wasn't big enough for her teeth.

Breathing heavily, the Brit tried to get to her feet. A new pain was added as she opened her eyes and everything seemed so sharp and too in focus. Wincing, Ebony quickly took note of the overly joyful Frei swimming in her field of vision. But the patch of violet next to Cordelia she hadn't been expecting since Cordelia had announced she was herself again. Funny she'd been able to pick up on that even in this amount of pain. And then she saw the way her own silver eyes stared back, full of confusion and expectation.

"DAMNIT! NOT AGAIN!" Ebony roared before her new hands smashed into the coffee table, splintering the wood into a million tiny pieces. This was enough to make the pain move to the back of her mind as she quietly assessed the mess she'd created and the hands that had done them. Such strength she had never known before now. What was Fathle?

Slowly, carefully, and deliberately, Ebony opened and closed Fathle's hands. Hands she found all the more larger and dangerous than she could had foreseen prior. When addressed, the Brit snapped her head back up and dropped the hands she was so deeply scrutinizing with a bit of an embarrassed expression. Memory of a burning blush registered in her mind, yet the literal act wasn't as easy a thing to conjure in such a body, perhaps something she would come to appreciate later.

"Yes..." Ebony had to pause a moment at the sound of her words being verbalized with this voice. It hadn't taken all that long to get use to hearing Cordelia's as it was one she heard nearly everyday. Yet this one was surely going to take much longer to get use to being it a man's. Clearing her throat merely on habit of what one would do when their voice wasn't sounding right, "At least that's how it seems now. I can't believe it was the ring after all this time. It hadn't even occurred to me." Sighing, Ebony continued, "Had I known I would have certainly taken it away from Cordelia."

Speaking of Delia, after her bout of gleeful basking of finally being herself again, she had also realized the degree of discomfort it came with being said self. Having not had to deal with such inconveniences for several months, the snake felt the bitter bite of cold penetrate her body even more harshly than she'd remembered. Quickly, the dark damsel took residence among the numerous blankets her guardian had earlier vacated.

Thus the girl was quite content with the world, thinking everything was right back where it should be. That was until her name was so bitterly uttered. Looking towards the source she found Fathle giving her such a dissatisfied expression that seemed to be bordering on annoyed. Cordelia frowned as she peered at him from behind the sofa's armrest. Why was he so grumpy looking all of a sudden? And why was he directing it towards her?! She hadn't done anything! That little light show wasn't her fault!

Again Ebony sighed. The look her ward was throwing her then was one of complete and utter innocence. She hadn't known it was the ring, neither of them did. They'd simply woken up the next day in one another's bodies. So why had it taken so long then (overnight in fact) for the switch to occur and yet now it had happened in mere seconds? Strange thing this ring was.

Stranger still were they to learn as Fathle came closer to her then. Ebony immediately froze up, not just from the closeness, but because for some reason her body seemed to be giving off the most intoxicating of perfumes. Had Cordelia put something on earlier? It wasn't one of her scents that she could recollect then, but her mind was muddle with so many things at the moment. Whatever it was it was simply...delicious.

Unconsciously, Ebony had glided closer to Fathle as he so desperately tried to figure out the ring he possessed and the unfortunate circumstances it had caused for them. Piercing red eyes stared transfixed upon her lush, sun-kissed neck as if expecting something, of what she hadn't a clue. It wasn't until Fathle addressed her once more did she snap out of it. What was that?

Embarrassed yet again and with her voice breaking slight, Ebony quickly tried to place some space between them, "I-I'm fine! Well okay, not completely fine. I am stuck in yet another person's body after all. A man's body no less." As if to hit the nail home, she crossed her arms over her chest for emphasis of her discontent. It was flat and hard with muscular strength, another thing she'd have to get use to if she were to have to stay in this body for any extended period of time. Hopefully she wouldn't have to though.

Ebony turned a worried glance back at the other, far too much stimuli swarming her brain at the moment she addressed him on a far less prim and proper level than before without realizing it. "Fathle...what are we going to do?"

There was the faint recognition of fluttering excitement at Fathle actually speaking her first name so casually then, but it was overpowered by all the new sensations of this body of his. His vision was so crisp and clear that she could almost make out each individual pore on her face, not to mention the telltale signs of wrinkles etching themselves into certain parts as well. It made her cringe somewhat to know this is how he saw her. To herself with these eyes, Ebony felt herself a total fright to look at.

And then there was the man's incredible ability for smell. She could smell not only the smokey ash of the fireplace, but that of her ward. The two in her own body were not noticeably different, but in Fathle's body they were distinct. The normal smoke was dry and somehow spicy while Cordelia's scent was sweet and alluring. For whatever reasons, it was making her mouth water.

Ebony shook her head to clear the unusual fog settling there. What was wrong with her? First she was being entranced by her own scent and now that of her own Raevan? Seriously, what the hell was going on?! Was this how it was for Fathle when around them? Was this the reason he kept his distance all the time? What was it?

She gave a shaky sigh before replying (funny how she managed to keep up with the conversation despite everything), "I will trust you Fathle." The words should have set so many alarms off in her head then. Trust was not something Ebony gave so easily, especially to ones she barely knew. But the earnestness in his eyes, err her eyes, made the Brit think this was very important and that he would not have asked otherwise if there was another way or something.

Getting up unevenly, staggering a bit before standing up straight, "Cordelia, put the fire out. We're to leave at once."

This whole time the Frei had been monitoring the two, but with little avail. She wasn't really sure what they were talking about. The conversation seemed not right as she'd listened. They had referred to one another as the other and spoke like they were such. And before Delia knew it, Mister Lekabel was standing and ordering her around. To this the basilisk did not like and it only served to make her huff and hiss her response. "I'm not going anywhere with you. You're not the boss of me."

That Ebony had not expected as Cordelia was normally fine with most things her woman told her to do and did so with little sassing back. Trying to control the bubbling anger that was rising for having been talked back to, Ebony rubbed her face furiously and tried to remember she wasn't in her own body then. "Cordelia Shade...I am in no mood for this. I am your guardian. I am Ebony Shade, not Fathle Lekabel. Do you understand?"

"Wha...?" Delia responded as she cocked her head to the side in confusion. He was saying he was Ebony and not Mister Lekabel? But then that would mean..."OH!" Cupping her face in total embarrassment, the cold must really be doing a number on her thought processes then if she couldn't even piece this together so easily. Giving a little nervous laughter the Frei began to do as she'd been told. "Everything makes so much more sense now! I'm sooo sorry Ebby! I guess I'd forgotten how slow I can be when it's so cold. Sorry!"

Ebony simply shook her head and made to turn for the living room closet. She gasped when the turn found her at the closet door sooner than she'd anticipated. Fearful that she was starting to lose her mind or something, Ebony hesitantly touched the door handle before opening it. It was there, but how? How'd she get to the closet nearly the same moment she'd had the thought?

Again she shook the thought off and hastily grabbed Delia's winter coat as well as her own. Obviously she wouldn't be wearing it, but there was no way she'd allow Fathle to end up getting her body sick somehow. Nano tech or not, Ebony was still human.