strangetrip | Winter's Crest Snow Day [GP]

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Winter's Crest Snow Day [GP]

The Inn was decorated in, if possible, an even more outlandish style than usual. Garlands of evergreens and bright berries competed with gold angels and cheerful small grinning creatures with pointed ears and shoes. A large fir tree had appeared seemingly from nowhere and was now draped with lights and hung with colored glass balls. At the top perched a figure in white robes with wings.

It was, Percy mused, probably for whatever the local holiday was, but it was also close enough to Winter's Crest decorations for him to feel a bit homesick for Whitestone. After all, it was only a year ago that he'd been able to celebrate Winter's Crest in his home city for the first time in years.

Something was still missing - or rather, many things were missing but one thing that he could solve for. Winter's Crest called for snow, and better snow in abundance. To solve for that last problem, he turned to a gnome of exceptional talent. While he didn't know how Sarenrae's power worked, he did have complete faith in her cleric. And thus, together, they concocted a plan: to turn the weather to a more appropriate clime.

The morning of December 20th dawned as it often did in this place - heavy with clouds that would burn off before noon. The clouds were important. They would make the spell casting easier, and Pike knew that she needed all the help she could get. Weather magic was not her forte. Like all clerics with powers as advanced as hers, she knew the right spell but when you had a druid around, there hadn't been much need for her to use it.

Dressed in a warm coat and a big floppy, knit cap, she sat on the ground with her legs crossed. Holding her holy symbol in both hands, she concentrated on the sky. As the Celestial incantation took root, golden rays of light encircled her and rose into the air. With each heartbeat, she could feel Sarenrae's power drawing warmth from the clouds above and into her body.

It took ten minutes to cast the spell and another twenty minutes for it to take effect. The spell would fade if she didn't maintain concentration all day, but it was a small price to pay.

And that's how, before the sun had completely finished rising, it was snowing on the Madonna Inn.

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"So you were livin' where progress was happenin', huh?" Jackson figured, smiling a little at the thought. He'd rather not picture her in a backwards country, if it was all the same, so he liked that narrative.

"I guess so? At least technologically." The word didn't come easily, as though each syllable was a test as she was saying it. But it sounded right at the end, so Corbie went on. "Felix always told me we were completely backward about women and in any other country I wouldn't get half as much shit for wanting to learn magic."

Jackson made a face at that. "I ain't ever met a woman less capable then a man - but many men less capable than a woman."

"Most of the warlocks in Caloxa were women," Corbie explained, shrugging like it wasn't a big deal. Even if it was, and it had made her life one of endless subtle knifing. "And it left a mark. That war was forty indictions ago, and even so no Corambin man's gonna trust a woman with power until more old people die off."

She blew on her hands again, maybe for the sake of hiding a little behind her fingers. "But go south, there are women on the Curia in Marathat and leading institutions in Troia. There are women writing scholarly works in Tibernia and Kekropia... I wanted to be like that someday."

"You still can be," Jackson pointed out, now holding her to him a little more for comfort than for warmth. "It doesn't matter where you are. How are things goin' with Regina?"

Corbie snuggled a little closer. "Good, I guess. She does her best by me." Regina could only give her so much, though, because her half-feral daughter needed so much. Corbie didn't resent this, but it was the reality of what she was working with. "Though I think I'm just gonna have to lean on people's boredom until I get past any idea that a tiny wizard is too much work." Someone else had to be willing to teach her, too, she was sure. Or she hoped anyway. She adored Regina, but Regina simply didn't have enough left over for Corbie's hungry mind.

"Now, keep in mind I don't know anything about magic, other than how good you make it look," Jackson prefaced his question, and looked down at her by his side. "But can't you figure things out on your own? You've got the skills, and God knows you've got the mind."

The girl blushed a little. She knew she wasn't dumb, but it still made her shy to hear it. "Some, sure, just." Corbie shrugged. "Would you know everything you know if somebody didn't bother to sit you down and teach you anything?" She hoped the answer to that was no. Self-taught doctors sounded like a nightmare, even if go back far enough and it had to have been that way at some point.

"I wouldn't give up on my man Butters for the world," Jackson replied, making his answer more current than the question had been. And yes, of course he would give Butters up for a good few things - okay, for one person in particular - but there was no use going there. "But if there ain't anyone to teach you yet, you might as well rely on your own self in the meantime."

"I am," she said. "I've been exploring wards all on my own. I've got a bunch of experiments going with trying to soundproof my room." Corbie smirked at him. "I'm not sure why I'm so fixed on that idea."

Jackson smirked right back, absolutely shameless. "How are those experiments goin'?"

Corbie couldn't help it; she started to laugh. By and large she was confident in herself, but with how shy she could be around her magic, there was still something very appealing, almost irresistible, about people who had no shame. "I'm almost there, I think," she said.

Edited 2017-12-24 20:42 (UTC)

Now that laugh always felt like a balm on his soul, and Jackson's smirk became a little less smirky for it. Still, he had to offer, because he wanted to, "We could put it to the test, and it would serve to warm you up some?"

He was still hoping to get away scotch free, or really, snow-free. He would take cold hands on his skin over snowballs in his face any day.

When Corbie saw him soften like that, she knew she had at least a tiny bit of leverage. Probably not enough to get her way, but she did have to try. Her already wide blue eyes went very big. "Play with me?"

"You know I'm always up for that," he told her, after taking one last drag on his cigarette. He smirked at her all over again. "Preferably in your room. Testin' your soundproofin'."

"You know what I meant," she said, her pout so exaggerated that it could only be in play.

Jackson dropped his cigarette butt in the snow, then gently thumbed her pouting bottom lip. "And you know I ain't one for snowball fights."

At first, Corbie parted her lips and took the tip of that thumb between her teeth. She liked his hands; he had beautiful hands. But she wasn't giving in that easily. And just like that she switched back from tease to excited girl.

"No I don't know that," she answered cheerfully. She slipped out from under his arm to hug him around the waist, grinning up into his face. "Pleeeease?" She wasn't arguing in earnest, nor did she actually think she'd win. In fact she was probably deliberately sabotaging her own efforts with the way she was pressing her body up against his. She just enjoyed being cheeky.

Edited 2017-12-25 00:51 (UTC)

The promise of that mouth on his thumb hardly did the thought of playing in the snow any favors by Jackson's mind, let alone the feeling of her against him. "You ain't doin' a great job makin' me wanna do anything that don't involve a hell of a lot less clothing, darlin'," he pointed out, amused, hands on her back. "Besides, you need to get some warmth back into you now and again, you wanna avoid catchin' your death out here." He managed to keep a straight face as he added, "Doctor's orders."

Well, he managed to keep a straight face for exactly as long as he wanted, and then broke into a warm smile. "How about it?"

Corbie had been about to toss in 'I'll blow you' as incentive, but honestly that smile won him the non-argument. "Well... if it's doctor's orders that I gotta warm myself up, I dunno how I can say no," she said, trying to keep a straight face of her own, but it was so ridiculous that the giggle started before the sentence was all the way out.

"Smart thing to do," Jackson confirmed with a chuckle, and gave her lips a quick kiss (well, she was right there, looking up at him with a smile and sparkling eyes, how was he supposed to resist?) before drawing her in the direction of her building.

He should have known her better than that.

At first, Corbie was entirely compliant. She kissed him back, she followed when led. But yes, while she wanted him, the truth of the matter was that there was a lot of time for sex and not a lot of time for snow. If it took the tiny woman Pike working so hard to make it happen, this wasn't going to happen again any time soon.

So after a bit when she was sure she'd made the impression that she'd be good, she darted ahead, scooped up some snow and very quickly had it rolled and thrown.

Her face was all sweetness.

"Don't tell me you're that eager," Jackson called out when she darted ahead. He half suspected what was coming, but was hoping he was wrong. It was that hope that led to him eating a faceful of snow when he was too slow to bring his hand up to protect himself.

He shook his head to clear most of the snow off, then wiped his hand over his face to do away with the rest of it. "That's it," he warned her, opening his jacket to unbuckle his holster and set it aside. (Never bring a gun to a snow fight was a basic principle., even in his day). Then he adjusted his hat and rushed her.

Corbie of course hadn't been idle in the time it had taken him to get his gun off, and there was more snow at the ready. All the same, she shrieked when he came at her and started throwing, taking advantage of her smaller size to scramble to one side and out of the way.

This time, Jackson put his hands up in time to stop most of the snow from reaching him, and he laughed as she scampered, then took cover behind a tree, gathering snow to pack a tight ball. "Did I ever tell you I have an older brother?" he called out to her, his back to the tree, listening out for her answer, or any sign of her approach.

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