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

Entry tags:

[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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.

He wasn't the first person to say something like that, nor was he the first non-magical person to say that. Corbie wasn't going to try to correct him, but she did smile. "Glad to have the vote of confidence." Because that much certainly was true.

"You'll always have mine." Which was true. "Even if you accidentally burn the Inn to the ground. I'll know you had a reason for it." He winked.

Corbie made a face at that idea. "I dunno, if I burn the inn down I think I may be a fucking monster."

He cocked his head to the side a littl. "I was thinking more along the lines of there was a massive spider in the inn. Or a whole army. You know, justifiable things."

Corbie snorted and clapped her hands over her mouth. When she lowered them after a moment she said, "Well. I think it might still make me a monster, but glad you trust me to take on something like that." She thought of Felix taking on the Automaton of Corybant, and while it was interesting to think of herself doing such things, she couldn't really imagine it.

Edited 2018-08-01 08:24 (UTC)

"I'd trust you with a lot of things." It came out easily and maybe too easily. He felt himself tense and he took a slight step back and offered a faint smile - too open was too dangerous. Alec closed back up again. "Anyways, I'm glad you got some photos. Memories are important. The good ones, anyways."

Noting the way he retreated, even if it was only a step, Corbie decided not to push the point. "Yeah," she said, glancing back at the pictures. "Mildmay's gonna be happy to have them, too. He misses Felix like a limb." Whether he looked it or not, he did. Their stormy little world of two, which she'd never been able to penetrate no matter how close she'd gotten to them.

Edited 2018-08-02 04:07 (UTC)

He almost said he couldn't care less about how Mildmay would be happy, it was there on his tongue, but he bit it back. "You're not going to keep the for yourself?"

Corbie blinked at him, the answer to that so obvious to her that she was momentarily baffled that it wasn't obvious to other people. "I couldn't do that to him. We'll share."

Alec, though, was still genuinely confused. "But you miss him. Don't you want to keep the photos for yourself?" Manticore did not have classes on sharing.

Corbie stared, trying to figure out... how in the world she could or should explain this. And eventually when she opened her mouth she spoke slowly, as though feeling out the idea even as she put it into words. "I miss Felix like a pain in the pit of my stomach. Every day. But I know Mildmay misses him even worse than I do. And Mildmay's very dear to me. If I can give him this relief too by sharing with him... I can't not share."

He listened, he really did, but a part of him still felt like since Sunny gave her the pictures and she missed Felix a lot, then she should keep it to make herself feel better. Still, this was another reason why Corbie was a much better person than Alec and he knew it.

He paused for a moment. "Well... he's lucky to have you as a friend."

Corbie's face softened into a fond smile. "I don't know what I'd do without him. So I gotta take care of him."

He might not be overly fond of the guy, but if him being in the inn made Corbie happy, then that was something. At the end of the day, that was really all that mattered when it came to her for Alec.

"I'll let you get to finding him then and giving him the good news... I need to check in an overly optimistic idiot teenager." Despite his best efforts, he sounded more like a fond brother than annoyed adult. "Almost got himself killed the other day." He rolled his eyes.

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec

Re: Corbie & Alec