He is hardly fooled by her. Not for a moment. He remembered Carolina. Oh yes. He forgot many things but this woman was not one of them. He remembered that threat to throw her overboard all that time ago. She worked for them now. For Tetradore. For him. Tobias, for all his inability to process the world around him in so many ways, seemed to have no trouble understanding his own position and the position of those beneath him. That younger barmaid, the one very near reduced to tears, was all but ignored by the man if only because he could ignore her. Because she, like so many others outside of Tetradore himself, rarely questioned the often volatile Leopards authority. Carolina was a different creature though. One he had not tested yet. One he had not decided where to place upon that mental ladder of hierarchy that existed within his mind. Tetradore, of course, lingered eternally at the top. His brothers position unquestionable and utterly unchanging. Tobias so fell next on that ladder with Raven directly beneath him. The rest of that pack lingering below them. The staff below that in the order Tobias liked them the most. All but Carolina. The leopard so needing to be placed. Tonight, it seemed, Tobias had decided (in his own bizarre fashion) to test her. To see just where she belonged. The woman surely having little idea of just how precarious that exchange was so set to be. This the first time the pair had interacted with each other since that fateful day. How she handled this very task, a set up from the beginning, would surely deem whether or not she was even worthy to be in their pack.

That softly uttered greeting from the young woman prompted that glance towards her, Tobias meeting her gaze with the dark of his own eyes. Her voice was pleasant, sweet, calm and as such the boy offered the courtesy off his attention- even if only briefly- he name near sung from his own lips. That strange little smile abruptly disappearing near the moment those syllables had passed his lips. Tobias never truly having mastered smiling, or at least, understanding for how long he should hold that smile. Carolina moved to usher the barmaid off in those moments that followed, Tobias returning his own attention to his phone and that task of repeatedly opening and closing apps for seemingly no purpose at all save the joy he took from that very task. That sudden, stuttered question that left his lips, however, so indicated he was, in fact, far more aware of the woman then he pretended to be. Tobias curious of just what she wanted from him, even if he knew just exactly what that was. The gangly young man the very image of a petulant child in that moment. Her answer distinctly unanticipated all the same as she insisted she wanted......things he hardly understood. Rain. he knew the word rain. He did not know the words 'sugar free brownie'. Sugar-free anything most surely having failed to exist in the Ark for long. Tetradore and himself near demonically demanding those daily doses of sugar as it was. There was no place for sugar-free things here. This use of new words however so momentarily seemed to ensnare his attention once more, his head tilting slightly to the side before that sudden, abrupt scowl seemed to find him. A distinct huff leaving his lips.

"I am....not....Honey. I am....Tobi."

That he had mistaken her term of endearment for her belief it was his name was surely clear. Tobias fixing her with a hard, serious look as if that alone might prompt her not to make this error again. Tobias, after all, was very serious about his name. It was fortunate perhaps, that his momentary irritation over his name so hardly seemed to last. The lanky leopard so seeming to enjoy the very tone of Carolina's voice. Those accented words nothing short of pleasing to him right along with that playful wink he was afforded and the insistence that she would tell him a secret in exchange for his own. A trade. A secret trade. He liked to trade. Tobias remained distinctly upon that bar surface, his position hardly yielding just yet. His gaze however, now rested firmly upon the woman as she leaned agianst the bar a short distance away. His mind rapidly turning over and over. A secret. He would share a secret.

"Tobi knows."

His head nodded firmly in time with this declaration. As if this, alone, was enough to explain. To have her understand. That....lack of immediate understanding on her features seeming to prompt a further scowl from the boy. Tobias offering that elaboration in those same garbled words.

"Tobi knows....that Tetra asks Caroliiiiiiina to hide....cookies from Tobi. Tobi....knows."

This, it seemed, was the secret he was willing to share today. A secret that implicated her in the same fashion as it did Tetradore. His dark eyes narrowing on her once more. Her 'secret' in helping Tetradore so essentially called out. Tobias readily watching for that reaction once more.

"Where did....Caroliiiiina hide....them?"

His gaze hardly wavers from her own then. Tobias so seeking to play his own sort of game now. To test her loyalty, perhaps, to Tetradore himself. Perhaps to test her own lying skills in turn. Tobias, after all, knew so exactly where those cookies where. His affinity made it impossible for anything to remain hidden from him and yet, it seemed, it was her answer he desired. Though for exactly what purpose was hardly clear. The boy oblivious to the notion that Raven had, to some extent, already coached the young blonde in speaking to him. The woman so sneakily having avoided asking him for anything directly. That conversation kept casual, light and relatively easy between them. A sudden, bizarre compliment falling from his lips in regards to her accent then. Before those words seemed to make no sense at all.....

"I like....your words. I do...not like his though.....the other. No. His words....like.....Caroliiiina but not....no. Tobi does not like him. Why are....your words....like that?"

Her southern twang, it seemed, had intrigued him.