[EP] I feel the best and most precious part of me leap - OTA

[st_rikingblueeyes]

When Sunny had arrived to take over in the library, she passed an envelope to Corbie explaining, "For you and Mildmay. I had these printed the last time we were let out."

Corbie had been confused of course, but she'd taken her surprise down with her to the cafe before she opened it. Immediately, the whole world just stopped. It felt like a star leaping in her belly. Like, at least just for that one moment, nothing would ever be wrong again. Because while most of the faces in the pictures she was looking at were unfamiliar--later she might realize that Coby was in the background of one, wearing a completely idiotic sweater--each picture had one person in common. A tall, thin man with long red curls and mismatched yellow and blue eyes, beautiful as daylight, proud as a peacock, and bearing a striking resemblance to Mildmay.

Felix.

She had talked about this with Coby before, but it had not truly seemed real, not at the time. Hell, it didn't seem real now. He was not... well, for lack of a better way to put it, he was not her Felix. This man was younger, of an age with Mildmay, whereas she knew the brothers had something like six or so years between them. There was also no white in his hair (and it was not as long), which she knew he'd gotten on his travels and he was less than proud of it. But that smile, that stance, that affected boredom, that teasing, that was Felix. That was Felix.

She had, she realized, been afraid. Been so very afraid of forgetting his face. And oh, the memories that rushed to her then, sitting together on that rickety cot for her first lessons, the light and almost breathless way he spoke, the way she felt like she'd had sunlight poured directly into her when he'd told her, 'You've made excellent progress. I'm proud of you.'

Her heart raced and her stomach fluttered and her hands shook and Corbie laughed and cried all at once. Her witchlights, little glowing purple chrysanthemums, bloomed all around her. She hardly took notice.

[ooc: So Corbie got photographs of an AU!Felix from another game because RP is weird. Her crush is showing.]

Comments

[st_x5_494]

"Alright, that's a new look." He meant it in a good way as he noticed Corbie enter the cafe and had followed a little, at a distance. It was clear whatever she was looking at - photos, it looked like from his vantage point - were good photographs. She looked like she was in a good mood. Those glowing things were pretty noticeable.

Corbie & Alec

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie had put the photos down on the table she was standing by and put her hands over her mouth in an attempt both to still them and to quiet herself. But it didn't work. The motion just transferred from her to the witchlights, which swirled and spun in the air about her body like giddy fireflies.

She hadn't noticed Alec at all until he'd spoken, and she turned to look at him. Her eyes were full of tears and, even behind her hands, her mouth was grinning fit to split her face. "Dunno what you mean."

Re: Corbie & Alec

[st_x5_494]

"uh huh." He couldn't help but smile a little because she looked happier than he had seen her probably ever.

"Did someone just give you a pony or something?" That's what girls liked right? Ponies.

Re: Corbie & Alec

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie only looked confused at that question, even if the joyful energy in her didn't dim in the slightest. She bounced on the balls of her feet, and it made her curly hair bounce, too. "Why would I want a pony? I can't ride, and there's a stable full of horses already."

Re: Corbie & Alec

[st_x5_494]

His smile warmed a little. He might normally be annoyed, but her enthusiasm for whatever it was, was infectious. "Most people like ponies. You just seem, really happy."

Alec closed the distance and his eyes scanned the photos from where he stood - he had really good eye sight, after all. "Who's the one who looks like your brooding red-head friend?"

Re: Corbie & Alec

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Mildmay ain't brooding," was her first reflexive answer. Because like hell she was going to let him say shit about her friend. And he had a name. "And that," she glanced back down at the picture nearest her, "is his brother. He's not... not our Felix exactly, but it is Felix. I don't get it at all, but." She grinned again and shrugged, wiping tears away with the back of her hand.

Re: Corbie & Alec

[st_x5_494]

Alec, of course, knew Mildmay's name. He couldn't forget anything and that included names.

He looked at the photograph a little better now. They were definitely brothers, than much was obvious, and now Alec had a face for the name Felix. He wasn't sure he'd react in the same way if someone gave him a photo of someone like that, but he was glad it seemed to make Corbie happy.. though the crying part was still freaking him out a little.

"But you're happy, right? Those are happy tears?" Alec didn't have a lot of first-hand experience with happy tears. Sad tears, angry tears, and even drunk tears were familiar, but happy tears were on Hallmark movies from the 90s he sometimes got to watch parts of back home when the airwaves were working and the tv wasn't too fuzzy.

Re: Corbie & Alec

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Yeah, I just... Felix is..." Corbie sniffled and continued to wipe at her face. Her eyes were still red, but there was nothing to be done about that.

"It's been an indiction and two months on top of that since I got here. Since I saw him. And ain't nothing's scared me more than thinking I might forget his face."

Re: Corbie & Alec

[st_x5_494]

He nodded. Alec had learned how long an indiction was and he already knew how Corbie felt about being here so long. He never had to worry about forgetting a face - there were some he thought he'd like to forget.

"Now you can make sure you don't." He felt the urge to take a step forward and gently wipe her cheek of any access tears, but didn't. "I'm guessing this came from Europe somehow?"

Corbie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

Mildmay was never gonna be a real cook, but helping out in the kitchen gave him something to do, even if a lot of it was washing dishes. Sometimes Emma came up with other things he could do, though. Like today, when he'd seen her throwing dough up in the air. She must've read the confusion in his eyes, 'cause she offered to show him what she was doing. While they tossed – she said it was tossing, not throwing, like it mattered somehow – the dough, stretching it into bigger and bigger circles, she told him about what she was making. Something called New York-style pizza. He knew about New York from talking to Sunny and studying the atlas he'd gotten from the library, but he'd had no idea the people there could be so particular about their food. When the dough was in big enough circles, she showed him how to cover it in a tomato sauce and a mild salty cheese, not too much, not too little. She explained people would put other stuff on top of the cheese sometimes, but if he was gonna eat this 'pizza' for the first time might as well eat it the way she was having hers, right? After the pies – were they pies or pizza? kinda confusing – were out of the oven, she'd cut 'em in wedges, and leaned against the counter to eat a 'slice', folding it in the middle so it didn't go limp, and then insisted Mildmay take the one he'd made. And since she knew he hadn't had lunch any more than she had, being busy with other people getting fed, he couldn't exactly say no, could he?

He took the pizza into the cafe, stopping short at the sight of Corbie about to shake apart, her witchlights glowing and dancing around her. When was the last time he'd seen her that fucking happy? Not here anyway.

"What is it?" he asked as he sat down across from her, setting the pizza down carefully away from the papers in front of her.

Re: Corbie & Mildmay

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie tried to calm herself down, but the more she tried the more she cried and the more she grinned. She pushed one of the photographs across the table so he could see.

Any other people in the picture didn't matter. She'd barely seen them. She'd only seen one face. "Sunny said we can keep these."

Re: Corbie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

The picture she slid across the table wasn't the one Sunny had shown Mildmay on her... laptop thing. But it hit just the same way. Felix.

Mildmay's hand hovered over the page, hesitant, until he pulled his eyes away from the image of his brother from another world, to look up at Corbie. Her eyes were shining with happy tears, and if she smiled any bigger it was like to break her face. Mildmay's looked stonier than usual in comparison, but the jade green of his eyes was bright, and the feeling in his gut was like riding one of those fancy lifts.

"Nice of her."

Re: Corbie & Mildmay

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Mildmay was by a kind of necessity not an expressive man, not in any way that was easy for most people to see. Even for Corbie, it had taken time to learn to read his eyes. He could keep everything else perfectly still, she'd never so much as seen him twitch a smile, but he could not keep all those feelings out of his eyes.

She came around the table and bent down to press a soft kiss to his temple. "I know it ain't..." the same? Not him? She didn't finish that. "But fuck it's good to see his face."

Re: Corbie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

The Felix in the pictures looked about the same age as the day Mildmay first met his brother. Only a fuckton less crazy. That was good. Mildmay never wanted to see that look in Felix's mismatched eyes again. Any Felix's.

"And he ain't got himself lost or killed or nothing." Without a Mildmay to look out for him. It hurt and was a relief at the same time. He'd always suspected Felix didn't really need him, and look, he was right. But it also meant Felix'd probably be okay back at Grimglass, with Mildmay stuck here.

Re: Corbie & Mildmay

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Or eaten by bears," Corbie added. That day on the train to Esmer was something she'd never forget, and that line that had sent Felix into a fit of hysterical giggling was among the most memorable parts.

"It's a different world," she said, even though all she had was stories and a couple of weeks of exposure to it. "If Jackson managed not to get killed, it's gotta be a lot harder to do."

Re: Corbie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

There were more bears here at the inn than Mildmay'd seen when they went to Europe. But he remembered the moment on the train. And Felix hadn't got eaten by bears. He'd even magic zapped the automaton.

He shook his head. "Run over by one of them 'cars'." That was how it would happen in a world like that. 'Cause powers knew he wouldn't fuckin' look, too busy thinking about architectural thaumaturgy or metaphors or something, or catching a glimpse of his reflection in those huge windows and glass walls that was everywhere, and step right out in front of traffic.

Re: Corbie & Mildmay

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie smiled and pulled up a chair so she could sit next to him. "Ain't saying it's impossible. Just really, really hard. Though if there's anything Felix can do, it's take a challenge and win, even if he fucks himself over to do it."

[st_abby]

To be fair, Vax had come along later, after she'd had some while to get out the most of her face-aching smiles and rivulets of tears, or he wouldn't have done the thing at all. But Corbie had, so he did, and didn't think overmuch about it either. All he saw when he first spotted her in the room was Corbie looking rather lost in thought, in a pleasant way, and it had been too long since he'd had a bit of fun with somebody...

Which was how the silver-gray snake was urged to slither her direction, Vax telling him in Thieves' Cant (because of course he taught his snake the handsigns ne'er-do-wells at work used whilst slinking about to do crimes, or Simon seemed to get the gist at least) to slip under her chair and see how high he could climb Mount Corbie before he got made. Simon was a very brave snake, and not too scared of getting squashed to risk a bit of danger in the name of a bit of fun. He leaned and looped his skinny, ropy body to coil around the base of the leg on Corbie's chair as first, then tried to slide up her ankle to her calf...

Vax simply watched from the shadows with a gleam in his eyes and goofy mischief in his twist of a smile.

Corbie & Vax

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie really didn't notice at first, her mind a whole world away as she looked at the pictures spread over the table. Something had tickled her ankle, but she didn't pay any particular attention to it.

It wasn't until she felt a little head resting on her knee that she had a moment of clarity and calm where she looked down into the snake's eyes and thought, Mildmay would have noticed this immediately.

Then she screamed and scrambled out of the chair.

Re: Corbie & Vax

[st_abby]

For that one instant where she looked at him, Simon leaned in Corbie's direction, the shape of his mouth curved in what Vax would've insisted was a smile - and then he was flung, flying, falling, not far but he did wriggle quickly for under the table where he couldn't as easily get stomped.

Vax helpfully appeared to meet Corbie as she jumped clear of her seat, trying very hard and almost succeeding to conceal his outright amusement. "Corbie! Are you alright? What is it?"

Re: Corbie & Vax

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie was still rather too shaken up to notice that there were layers to what was happening here, wrapping her arms around herself so she wouldn't uselessly bat at her legs when there was nothing there. "There's a snake under the table!"

Re: Corbie & Vax

[st_abby]

"Not a snake," Vax groaned sympathetically. "Here - Vex taught me a few things - I'll just-"

He crouched low to get under the surface of the table, and Simon readily shimmied to safety up Vax's forearm. "Ah! He's got my arm now! Ooh!"

All of which would have been more concerning if Vax didn't turn around and smile at her, eyes dancing.

Re: Corbie & Vax

[st_rikingblueeyes]

That shit-eating smile was about all Corbie needed in order to pull herself together. "You complete dick!" She hadn't been hurt or anything so she wasn't exactly angry, but it was hard not to be a little annoyed when someone was laughing at launching your heart straight into your throat.

Re: Corbie & Vax

[st_abby]

Maybe he should've felt a twinge guilty, but Vax was honestly too tickled by his own joke. What had been the harm, really? She'd calm down in a few, he suspected. Besides, he had a cute little animal to hide behind, and who could resist that?

"I've come to accept it," Vax owned. "Corbie, this... Is Simon," he held out his arm, the snake watching her intently from its round, unblinking eyes. "He's perfectly friendly." So long as he didn't have cause to be otherwise. "And his feelings are only a little bit hurt that you don't seem to like him."

Re: Corbie & Vax

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie took a deep, calming breath and stepped forward. "Hello, Simon," she said, entirely sincerely. "It's nice to meet you. Properly," she said with a pointed glance at Vax.