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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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.

"Shit." Corbie's eyes went huge. "Is Peter okay?"

"Yeah." He paused, figuring she'd might hear about Liz and be angry at him if he didn't include her. It wasn't like he didn't care if Liz got hurt, Peter was just higher on the priority for him. "Liz too. The moron Quill was trying to convince Liz she could be a superhero or some shit and that went as well as you might imagine." He hadn't punched Quill in the face, though. He had been too busy to do it at the time, but Alec still regarded the other man as dangerous for Peter and apparently Liz as well. In fact, Alec pretty much thought Quill shouldn't talk to the under-18.

That was so horrifyingly irresponsible and stupid on both sides that Corbie's mouth just fell open. "How's Liz?"

"She's fine." He tried not to roll his eyes, but maybe the sound of his voice did communicated his desire anyway. "She's lucky Peter did the whole hero thing and that we have healers here."

Maybe he should go punch Quill for good measure.

"I don't know how people deal with teenagers and their special brand of stupid." Or Quill's, but that guy didn't have an excuse.

Corbie shook her head and closed her eyes for a second. "She's... really sheltered. I don't know about him." She hadn't had any meaningful time with Peter since he'd arrived, and that was a long time ago now.

Alec wasn't sure that was a good excuse, but then again, he didn't place most of the blame on either kid. He placed it on Quill. "For the record, even though I wanted to, I did punch that moron in his face." Even though it wasn't off the table even now. And he had definitely adopted Thor's nickname for Quill.

If he was expecting Corbie to give the pacifistic answer here, he'd be disappointed. She pulled a face. "Sounds like he deserves to be punched in the face."

Corbie was not a violent person by nature, but putting kids in unnecessary danger was pretty fucking terrible.

Alec was actually surprised. Surprised because of her answer and because apparently there were different rules for different things and it was confusing.

"Well good. then you're one less person I have to worry about when I eventually end up doing it." It was hard for Quill to open his mouth and Alec not to want to punch him in his face. "But I'd pay money to see you do it. I bet you have a surprisingly good hook."

Corbie snorted. "Not really. But..." And now she did make an effort to say the right thing, "good for you, keeping yourself from doing it. That can't have been easy."

"It was only easy because I had other people to take care of." Had they been alone, it would have been a different story. Had one or both of them died - Quill would probably not be alive.

"You speak girl. Can you tell Liz to -" He made a vague gesture. He didn't actually get what she was trying to do, not really. It didn't strike him like someone trying to prove themselves capable. "- I don't know. Accept she's who she is or whatever it is she's doing."

Corbie scrunched her face, though she wasn't sure what it was that bothered her about 'speak girl.' "I... don't know. What does it look like she's doing?"

"I don't know." He gestured vaguely with his hands. "Being a superhero? Being not a nerdy teenage girl?"

Alec didn't understand women, let alone teenage girls.

"You want me to tell her off," Corbie said slowly, as if attempting to clarify or just process how this made her feel, "for being a teenage girl?"

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

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