strangetrip | [EP] Progress (OTA, Corbie or Curnen)

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[EP] Progress (OTA, Corbie or Curnen)

It was almost December, but the day was still more than warm enough to spend outdoors. So two girls were out in the sunshine, one fair, one dark, aware and amused with each other’s efforts but not particularly paying attention to each other.

Curnen’s fingers were starting to remember what to do with a guitar, though they were still incapable of being fancy. Sitting on the lawn with Rob’s guitar in her lap, she played anything that came to mind. Her sixth fingers were a bit lost, but it did sound like music at least. It would be some time yet before she could really play again, though that didn’t bother her much. If it meant she was scraping herself back together, becoming a Tufa again, it didn’t matter. And besides, the singing was always the best part. She wasn’t sure why this song, since there was no wind and rain, but in many versions of this same song there were two girls colored rather like the two of them.

There were two sisters came walkin' down the stream
Oh the wind and rain
The one behind pushed the other one in
Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain

Johnny gave the youngest a gay gold ring
Oh the wind and rain
Didn't give the oldest one anything
Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain

Corbie meanwhile was busy setting things on fire again, but this was different fire. Or at least it was for her. She and Regina had been practicing creating fire and putting it out. She set a circle of protection around a small stone, using what she understood of Cabaline theory to keep the spell literally grounded. And then she proceeded to do her best to destroy the shit out of that rock by throwing fireballs at it. It gave her something to aim at, gave her more than one thing to practice at a time. She was getting better at aiming and her ward was holding.

She stopped only to take the ward down and set another one, larger this time, on her knees in the road with a piece of chalk.

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"Show me," Regina challenged.

She knew Corbie's magic needed metaphors and often serious consideration. This was good because Corbie was unlikely to accidentally unravel whatever curse, spell or scientific phenomenon was holding them here. Bad, because it meant she would have trouble defending herself or someone else spontaneously. So when instruction was informal instead of formal, she tried to throw situations at her to see how quickly she could adapt.

This, for once, was something Corbie could imagine without thinking of very hard, and she almost just went for it.

Then she thought of something and went back down on the ground, changing her circle in a small but significant way. Rather than keeping things out, now it would keep anything in.

She closed her eyes to concentrate, and brought down the hardest blow she dared. It wasn't quite enough, but she'd felt something happen in there. A crack inside. She did it again and the rock shattered, chips of it flying out and bouncing off of the invisible walls of her ward.

Really, she was probably more pleased that she'd contained the mess and potential projectile weapons. Corbie beamed.

"Very nice," Regina said and sounded genuinely pleased. She looked it as well, especially given what she'd been considering asking Corbie to assist her with.

"Will your circle contain anyone's mess or just yours?" Because that would be important.

"Should contain anybody's, but I haven't tested that," Corbie answered with a shrug.

"Shall we?" Regina's fingertips glowed with a pinkish light that was neither lightning nor fire.

Corbie straightened. "What d'you want me to do?"

"The same circle again, another rock. We'll see if my magic can pass through it, and whether it can contain the damage if it does." She still didn't know enough about the foundation of Corbie's magical system to know whether specific allowances would have to be made for her magic to pass the threshold. Now was a good time to learn.

Corbie nodded and set to work, opening the circle just enough to set another rock inside. She honestly didn't know if it would work for Regina as it had for her, but she was a little more confident since Bonesville and even if it didn't work out, she'd be all right.

She set the ward again, facing inward to contain rather than out to guard. "Okay," she said.

Since the ward didn't face outward, Regina didn't anticipate her magic would have trouble crossing it. They'd woven wards together in Gotham. Even so, she channeled the force blast carefully, making it small and weak, in case it hit the ward and exploded outward.

She sent it at the rock and watched to see what would happen.

It actually did as intended. It actually fucking did what she wanted it to! The weak blast wasn't enough to break the rock, but the blast did pass through.

Regina suppressed a laugh at Corbie's obvious pleasure. "All right. Let's see if it will hold," she said and then sent a force blast through sufficient to shatter the rock into smithereens.

Regina's blast, being more confident than Corbie's had been shattered the rock in and instant. And as before, it kept the mess completely contained.

Corbie jumped up and down and squealed.

At that, Regina laughed outright. How could she not? "Yes, very well done." It did pose an additional possibility for the reason she'd been looking for Corbie in the first place.

"When you've celebrated sufficiently, I have another trial I'd like to do."

Corbie stopped immediately, standing straight and eager as a puppy. "What's that?"

"Can you draw a ward within the ward, one that contains the damage to a ring? Obviously the force would have to occur within the ring, but could you do it?" If not, she would have to begin working out how to teleport the blast away from the blast site. They might be able to work that out together.

Corbie frowned, trying to visualize just what it was that Regina wanted. "What for?"

"A problem I'm trying to solve."

Fortunately, Regina happened to be wearing a bracelet. She pushed her cuff back to reveal it and then held her arm out to Corbie.

"Imagine this bracelet would explode if you tried to remove it. How would you protect my hand from the blast?"

"Oh..." Corbie chewed her lip. "I've never worked magic directly on a body."

"Technically, we'd need to work on the surface of the bracelet, I think," Regina countered, arms crossing but one finger tapping against her lips. "Although that might trigger the explosive device. Hm."

"Maybe..." The girl shifted from foot to foot uncertainly, "if you describe what it is you're trying to do, I'd have a better idea of what I could do to help."

"Have you met Miss Rasputin yet? The young woman with the rather impressive restraints?"

Corbie might be more inclined to want to keep her bound than Regina, but only if she thought Illyana were a danger to people who couldn't protect themselves. Regina caught herself thinking as though this were Gotham's Corbie, and re-set her own expectations.

"They are explosive and potentially unstable. Miss Pryde is working on the mechanical devices, but magic will be required to protect Miss Rasputin if the devices are triggered in the process."

No, they had not met exactly, but Corbie knew exactly who Regina was talking about and the woman kind of scared the shit out of her. Even so, explosive and unstable didn't sound good for anybody. "Oh..." her brow furrowed. "I'd like to help if I can. I'm pretty sure I can set a ward within a ward." She just wasn't sure exactly what they would look like at this moment.

"The question is whether you can set a ward within a ward, around a human on one side and a mechanical device on the other." That was, Regina decided, a ridiculously complicated way to put it. "Essentially, we need a blast shield, an arcane channel to direct the explosion away from the body, or devise a spell to prevent the mechanism from noting it is being tampered with."

At the word 'mechanism' Corbie perked up. If she was confident about anything, it was that when it came to the mixing of magic and machines, she knew a thing or two about a thing or two. "When d'you need it?"

"The sooner the better," Regina replied, and then elaborated, "If you can do it yourself, that's fine, but in Gotham, we worked together to build protective wards. I thought we might be able to do better together."

Re: For Corbie

st_rikingblueeyes - 2017-12-10 06:35 (UTC) - Expand

Re: For Corbie

st_oriedqueen - 2017-12-11 07:27 (UTC) - Expand

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