strangetrip | [GP] Food for the soul

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[GP] Food for the soul

Carlos hated being back at the hotel. He had begun by trying to access the Nevernever but that had totally failed, then caught up with Buffy to go and visit both London and Edinburgh, for varying reasons, and the rest of the time he had headed to Spain - he may have been well travelled, but rarely got time to be a tourist - but his time relaxing and finding out about Spain had been unceremoniously cut short when he woke up and found himself back at the hotel. For a few moments he lay there, utterly fed up, and just feeling incredibly homesick.

That only lasted a few minutes; after that he was a man on a mission.

He hunted out Caroline, and had a long chat with her. Plans were set. Time to cook up a storm. They'd missed 4th July, this could serve as a belated celebration, as well as a 'things ain't all bad here' event. Posters went up throughout the hotel, giving notice of a cook out. Everyone was encouraged to attend. What could be bad about this?

Grills were set up outside to cook up as much meat as they could hold; non-meat options were there as well for variety; salads prepared... a vast array of food to try and cheer up anyone who needed it. Carlos took his place at the grills, brandishing tools, turning the meat over just at the right point.

All that was needed now was people to attend.

[ooc: Use as a general gathering post - if you want Carlos specifically, tag him in the subject line]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"If it doesn't get used." Molly nodded, "at least that was the explanation from Harry of why I'm the only one in my family that has it. Mom didn't use it for a very long time." She had to think about it, it was when her parents met. "A couple of years anyway and it was a conscious decision. I'm not sure if it would go away if someone was forced to not use it, but she sort of willed it away." That was the closest explanation that Molly could come up with of her mother determined to be 'normal' after everything that had happened to her when she was younger.

She and her mother were opposite in that way. After everything that had happened to Molly in Actis Tor when she'd first used her magic, she was determined to keep it.

"Huh." Corbie didn't really know what to do with this idea. She couldn't imagine wishing her magic gone, not really, no matter the trouble she'd had with it.

"I don't think it works like that where I'm from. My gran'd've killed her magic a long time ago."

"She didn't want to be a witch?" Molly asked her with curiosity. "Or because it was dangerous to be one?"

"Both," Corbie answered without needing to think about it. "Though I guess the first one because of the second one."

"It's funny how people react differently to something. I went through a time when I first got my magic and instead of wishing it away, I clung to it even harder." Sure part of it was because of her crush on Harry and it was a connection to him, but that was only part of the reason.

Corbie shrugged. "Gran grew up in Caloxa, back when people in charge of magic there was the warlocks. Not that nobody thrived learning magic back then, but... y'know, not many of 'em did."

Molly nodded solemnly, not just because she felt what Corbie was feeling and knew the seriousness of the words, but she actually understood that sentiment. Her death sentence was different because of being seen as a warlock, but it was still a death sentence because of how she'd used her magic. Or rather how the Council thought she'd used her magic.

"Was magic practiced in secret back then?"

"No," Corbie said, shaking her head. "You didn't want a warlock snatching you up, you didn't practice at all. Took drugs to hide it, even. 'Less you knew how to hide it yourself, like Gran did. Like she taught me to do."

"Damn, that's hard core." Molly breathed out the words with a soft whistle. "Is it still that hardcore where you're from?" She knew that Corbie had a mentor like Harry - Felix if Molly remembered the name right - so she was learning the skills. But Molly just assumed that it was a different place than where she'd lived with her Gran.

Corbie shook her head again. "No. Warlocks all died in the war 'bout forty indictions back. But I still hid for a while anyway, yeah, because Gran would've wanted me to. She never believed it was over."

Molly nodded, "I can understand that." She thought of her own, battles, with vampires and others from the Unseelie Accords. "Sometimes when you're mind is still in survival mode, even when the danger has passed, it's a hard habit to break." She smiled slightly, "even after a long time."

"Ain't that the truth," Corbie agreed. She hadn't thought about it before, but Gran hadn't been unlike a lot of the soldier boys she'd met later during the Insurgence. "But then she was gone and I met Felix and I didn't want to hide no more."

"How did you meet Felix? If you don't mind answering that." Molly knew that some things were hard to talk about even if they had a good result. How Harry had become her mentor wasn't the best time of her life, but the end result was.

"He and Mildmay were traveling through Bernatha. That's the city I'd lived in my whole life to that point. They needed to rest there for a while, and..." Corbie knew she couldn't tell the entire truth, but she could omit things without really changing the essence of what happened, "well, they needed a local guide, I wanted to learn about magic. It was a good trade."

"Very cool." Molly said, "that's nice that he was okay with trading skills for skills and take you along with them. I mean, I'm guessing that you traveled with them and they didn't stay in your city." Molly was pretty sure if Harry had asked her to travel with him like Felix had with Corbie, she would have gone in a heartbeat.

"And the beginning of a beautiful friendship." She smiled over at her.

Corbie nodded. "I wasn't gonna get other chances to get out of there. So when Felix came for me... Couldn't not go."

"I hear ya." Molly nodded, "not that I left Chicago, but if Harry had said let's hit the road, I would have, to learn all I could from him."

Corbie shrugged. "Well, the learning, definitely, but also I didn't want to be a hooker no more." Once you fell into that life it was harder to get out than moralizing prudes wanted to think.

"New life, new start." Molly got that. "That's not something you could walk away from easily. Especially if you were a money maker for your handler. Could you have moved up and been a Madam or was the sex trade ruled by men in your world?"

"Me? Nah. I ain't got that in me," Corbie said, shaking her head. "My friend Emily'd've done well at that, but not me. Though in theory? Yeah, I guess. But most girls just dead-end where they are."

"Yeah, I can see how that could happen. It can be easier to just keep on keeping on instead of taking a different path." Molly thought about it and then added, "especially if there aren't a lot of opportunities to choose from."

"So yeah. When they went on to Esmer, I went with," Corbie said with a one-shouldered shrug. "Enrolled as a student at the Grevillian Institution--which meant the Women's College, which is full of shit--and I been trying to do the studying magic thing since. Most of my classes were shit, but Felix used his powers of persuasion to get other professors to give me private instruction, so I learned in spite of 'em."

"Oh, so Felix can manipulate minds, too."

Molly understood using it to help others. She knew that Harry still got his britches in a bunch about that, but she honestly didn't see the harm now that she knew what she was doing. If it had helped Corbie get opportunities she wouldn't have, then what's the harm in that?

Yeah, yeah, it's slippery slope where you could get in trouble. Molly got that, but it didn't mean she agreed with it.

"Good for him." A beat, "and you."

Corbie blinked in confusion, then shook her head. "I don't mean literally. He's just..." What was the word she wanted? "Charismatic." She paused. "And sometimes he's kind of a bully, but he's good at either talking people into things or arguing 'em down." She loved the man to death, but she couldn't ignore that he could be a dick.

"OH!" Molly laughed at the misunderstanding, "okay, I get that. That kind of persuasion. I usually let my low cut tops and boobs do the convincing. If that doesn't work, I let Harry do the arguing them down part."

[GP] Food for the soul

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