strangetrip | [For Hurley] Big Damn Magic

Mildmay would have come with her if she'd asked. Which was why Corbie didn't ask. Of course she wasn't already tired of his company or anything, but for the first couple of weeks since he'd showed up they'd barely spent any time apart. While there were some ways Corbie very much wanted to emulate Felix, getting into the habit of treating Mildmay as her guard dog was not on that list.

And she had an idea.

When she had been traveling to Esmer with Felix and Mildmay they'd had something of an adventure in the Forest of Nauleverer with the Automaton of Corybant. She'd never forget that bolt of green lightning. And she thought that now, she knew how she could replicate it.

She'd found a bare patch of earth far enough from the hotel where she wouldn't accidentally wreck anything, but close enough that she could easily see which way home--oh, that was a dangerous word, when did she start thinking that?--was. She took up a stick and started drawing in the dirt, various sigils and signs that would contain the damage to this spot in case things got messy.

As she thought about it, though, she began to lose her nerve. Maybe she should get Mildmay. Or perhaps another wizard. Maybe this wasn't something she should do unsupervised by one of her teachers. Then again, she didn't want to be a baby forever, and she'd been building toward this for the better part of a year, if she couldn't do it now, how would she ever feel worthy of those rings?

She ran her hands back through her curls, a very Felix-like gesture if were paying attention. Though the "Fuck" that followed was not.

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Sure that she was steady enough on her feet to walk, Corbie jerked her head and started back for the hotel. "Could be used for anything where you need to generate power, really. Though most common thing is train engines."

Hurley follows her back to the hotel, trying to match his pace to hers.

Train engines sound a lot more complicated than car engines. But Hurley doesn't exactly know enough about train engines to know either way. Magic engines were probably more complicated than either one of them, Hurley decides.

"Was that like, what you did for a living? Or was that just like, a for-fun thing?"

Corbie shook her head. "It's what I was learning about in school. Hutch--Virtuer Hutchence--specializes in engines. He took me under his wing when my mentor had to leave. Was a hooker before that." A bit of information she'd tried to keep buried at home, but most people here seemed not to care. Either that or their reaction told her something about them.

"I worked at a Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack," Hurley offers, apparently undisturbed by Corbie's previous occupation. "Sounds like you learned a lot more useful stuff in school than I did."

Hurley continues forward, closing the distance between them and the Inn entrance.

"I never made grades good enough to do anything. Just barely graduated high school. My Ma never let me hear the end of it."

"Gran didn't let me go to school at all," Corbie answered with a shrugged shoulder. "She pulled me out when I was eight. Said it wasn't right for girls. Wasn't 'til I met Felix that going to school at all seemed possible, let alone a thing I'd actually do."

Hurley's thick brows furrow for not the first time today -- and probably not the last.

"That... seems... weird," he says slowly. "Was your gran old-fashioned or something?"

"Kinda?" Corbie said with a shrug. "It was a practical thing, too. It was just us. If we were gonna stay fed and clothed and keep a roof over our heads, I couldn't be at school all day."

"Huh," Hurley says. "So your family wasn't well off."

For once, it's not a question.

"Was there just like, your gran? No ma, dad, gramps?"

"Just me and Gran," Corbie confirmed with a nod. "We dunno who my daddy was. And my momma... Gran said she took off when I was little. I don't remember her." None of this bothered her. Her parents may as well never have existed as far as she was concerned. Gran had been the only mother she'd ever known, and the only mother she'd needed.

"I know it's not really the same, but my dad ran off on us when I was like, eight."

Definitely not the same.

"My ma was around though, and my grandpa for awhile."

Hurley shrugs. "So what do you do around here, anyway? Other than make magic happen and stuff?"

No. It wasn't the same, when you remembered. But as Hurley didn't seem to be inviting questions about that, Corbie didn't ask any.

"Learn magic from other wizards around here. Do what Illyana needs me to do in the library. Sew. Repairs and alterations, mostly." She was best at those; it was a requirement when you had to make one dress last as long as humanly possible. "You found a thing to do 'round here yet?"

"Nah, not really," he says. "Like I said, I used to work at a Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack. I could fry chicken, but I get the feeling everyone's tired of that now."

A beat and then:

"What, you have any ideas?"

"Nah, sorry, just asking," Corbie admitted with a shake of her head. "I mean maybe if I let it stew some? After a while you just gotta get creative."

"Yeah, I sure I am," Hurley says. "I mean, I kinda helped with the whole gathering food thing until I ended up being in charge of rationing. None of those are really problems here."

Thankfully. Hurley wasn't good at the former, and he didn't like the latter. It caused a lot of problems, and he was thankful to be out of it. Even if it meant that they were back to doing stuff like gathering fruit or hunting boar or whatever.

"I kinda was the unofficial morale officer. Made a golf course and dragged a bunch of people into fixing that van I was talking about. But you guys have a lot more entertainment than we did there."

They start to close in on the main entrance of the Inn.

"If you think of anything, let me know. I'm over in Room 111."

"Distractions from the fact that there ain't anywhere to go and no people but us still ain't unwelcome," Corbie pointed out.

"I'll do that. For now, I think I need to go lie down a while."

"Thanks," Hurley says, smiling. "Hope you feel better. And you're doing good with the whole magic thing. Don't get yourself down on it."

At least Hurley thought so.

And with a wave, Hurley departs, letting Corbie get back to her room, and hopefully, back to some much-needed rest.

[For Hurley] Big Damn Magic

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