strangetrip | [EP] I feel the best and most precious part of me leap

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

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.]

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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?"

"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.

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.

"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."

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 nodded, and the lights skittered and danced. It was only now that one of them caught her attention and she laughed at the silliness of the thing. But she didn't put them out. Only changed the color of one of them. The light shifted to blue and from there to green. "Sort of. Sunny had them printed in London." Indeed, Sunny was in a few of the pictures. "They were friends. And she and Mildmay figured out there was a connection and..."

She grinned, bright as a star. Stars, like the metaphor Felix had taught her to use for her witchlights.

There seemed to be a few people at the inn who knew each other from various other places like the Inn. He was pretty sure if he left the Inn for another place like this, he'd want to shoot himself.

"And these are...?" He gestured to the lights. "I mean, cool, sure, but they're new." And pretty, though Alec didn't usually admit to things being pretty.

"Witchlight," Corbie said as the little green light floated into her cupped hands. "It's one of the first things he ever taught me. The first... real magic I did, was how I thought of it." She tipped her head slightly. "Did I really never show you?"

Which brought back a memory unbidden of when she'd shown this spell to Jackson, the wonder in his face.

"No, but that's okay, I'm seeing them now." Plus magic and Alec were still sort of strange. Magic, to some degree, creeped him out because it seemed unstoppable or uncontrollable. His eyes trailed over them. "Different colours mean different things?"

Corbie shook her head. "Spells that get used a lot, you develop kind of... shortcuts for. Mine just makes my lights purple." And when they floated close to her face, they lit her eyes in such a way that they went from dark blue to a vivid violet. "But I can make them whatever color I like. Whatever shape I like. It just takes a bit more work to do it."

The single green light winked. "Felix's lights were green. I always thought mine'd be the same because I did just what he said, but... My mind don't work the same or somesuch."

"I think your colour suits you." He was biased though. "Do the lights do anything, or just... light up the room?" He wondered if he could touch it or if he'd suddenly find himself a frog or something.

This was a common question, and Corbie smiled before she sent one of her lights to circle around his head, teasing him to find out. The spell as it was was only light, and like light it didn't feel like anything to the touch. She could invest it with heat and other properties, but that was not part of the shortcut spell. "Different wizards think about this spell in different ways. When I first learned to do it, I thought of it as a candle."

His curiosity got the better of him and he lifted his hand, index finger out, and trying to poke the light. He wasn't surprised when it went through the light, but it was weird it didn't feel like anything. Weird, but interesting. His attention turned back to Corbie. "Do you still think of your magic like that?"

Corbie shook her head. "When I use a candle as my metaphor, the light looks like this." And the light she'd sent his way flickered, becoming both larger and dimmer. "It was fine to start with, 'cause I was going from lighting candles to this. But," and the light shifted back, "now I think of them like... well. Tiny stars, I guess." She looked a little shy of saying so, but she'd held back to that image.

"They suit you." Alec did not have a lot of experience with magic, but he knew that much - or at least that was his opinion, anyways. "And.. I'm glad you got photos of Felix."

As much as he'd like to be jealous, Alec knew despite how he felt about Corbie, it would never be a thing and if a picture of this guy made her happy, then...

"Awww." And in her good mood, Corbie bounced over to him and hugged Alec around the waist, grinning up into his face. "Look at you being sweet for a change."

"Hey." He offered a mock expression of disdain, but took a chance at putting his hands lightly on her shoulders. Eyes that probably said they wanted to kiss her despite himself. "I'm always sweet." Except he knew that wasn't true, even if Peter kept hounding him.

Corbie likewise couldn't exactly hide that she'd noticed that look, or that she wasn't sure what to do with it. If it were just desire, she'd know what to do. She'd had a lot of practice with men wanting her. This was... something softer and warmer and sweeter than that. Not many men had looked at her that way.

She didn't know what to do with it, but she wasn't about to definitely make it worse by pulling back. "You're getting better," she agreed. It wasn't like she could forget that he'd played piano just for her when she'd been so sad.

There was a smile on his lips - genuine and weightless - but it was only there for a moment before his regular one came back. He leaned down and kissed her on her cheek before he chose to pull away.

"You know, I've never asked you what you can do with all your magic skills."

Corbie felt her face getting warm and she knew she was turning pink, though she couldn't for the life of her say why.

"Well," she said, and started counting things off on her fingers. "Light and fire, obviously. I figured out lightning not long ago." It was close enough to lightning that just calling it lightning was the easiest way to put it. "Warding. Veils. Very basic illusions. Um... Engines. Laying ghosts. Cleansing spaces. Some dream stuff."

There were a lot he understood and a few he didn't. Meeting Molly meant he understood veils now. "Engines? and dream stuff, huh? Sounds like you're becoming pretty powerful." He wondered what kind of 'dream stuff'. Seeing as he rarely dreamed, and when he did, they were nightmares, he wondered why anyone would want anything to do with dreams. But he knew his dreams weren't other people's dreams.

"Thaumaturgical engines," Corbie explained, looking up from her hands. "Engines that are powered by magic. And the dream things... well. That's harder to explain. Oneiromancy hasn't been much of a thing for a while, so most of what I know how to do there ain't technically magic. It's more... meditation techniques. Organizing my mind, warding it from shit that shouldn't get in. I know the ideas behind dreamwalking, though Felix always told me not to unless I really had to. And I can ward other people's dreams, though I ain't had anybody ask me to do that for them yet."

There would always be something about the world of magic Alec never quite grasped, even when he understood everything she said. What he did know was that Corbie new a lot of stuff and even if she wasn't always sure of herself, he was pretty sure she'd be spectacular at whatever magic she wanted to do.

"Sounds like you've got a lot under your belt already."

This time when Corbie blushed it had everything to do with sudden shyness and nothing to do with any odd feelings she wasn't sure of. She looked down at her feet. "I'm still not ready to do much without supervision, though."

"Somehow I don't believe that." He meant it, though maybe that was because he'd been sent on missions as a child and expected to survive or die.

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