Bottles of Red and White Pt. 3 (Corrie in this World)

"Here we are" Octavia tells Corrie. She can detect a hint of pride in her voice at the building before them. A few wide wooden stairs leading up to a long porch, off white paint matching the rest of the house, trim was all done in a darker shade of blue for the windows and door frames. Two stories tall, inviting and not the least imposing.

Some kind of bench suspended to the roof of the covered porch by little chains and hooks in the ceiling. The glow of little crystal lanterns from inside the house gave it a cozy looking glow through the windows. A small crystal in a frosted glass sphere hung just over the doorway radiating the same inviting light. Say what you will about all this patchwork science and magic, the lighting on this world was so much easier on the eyes then her old one.

She follows Octavia up the stairs and to the doorway. A moment of nervous blushing and feet and hoof shuffling from the pair made them both realize they didn't want their date night to end just yet. Octavia nods her head at the bench swing and They both amble over to it.

Octavia hops on, and settles in while the swing adjusts itself in motion. Corrie times the rhythm of the swing and turns to sit on it when it comes back her way. Realizing this was a lot like learning how to fall again after her Balance Augmenter implant. Just enough to tip over and land.

After a crazy careening moment where Octavia scooted over to the human while holding her still, Corrie froze. She wasn't sure if it was the unintentional hug, or her Augmenter was trying to make her fall out of the damn thing to regain her orientation. A few moments and the ride subsided a bit. Octavia would tap the ground with a hoof every now and again to keep the swing going at a leisurely pace. Tap, swing, tap, swing. She didn't move away from the human she snuggled next to.

Moving her arm around the little grey mare Octavia moves in closer. "Hey, Octavia?" Corrie asks her grey companion on the swing.

"Hmmm...Yes?" Comes the quiet response from the mare who decided that she'll borrow some of Corrie's body heat by snuggling close to her.

"I don't really know that much about you at all, come to think of it." Grinning she places her head on top of that well groomed mane. "Just that you've got an odd taste in girls, err mares, and you have a good head on your shoulders. What do you do?"

She can feel a smile creep on to Octavia's face. "You've seen my cutie mark right?" Corrie nods her head, well just rubbing her cheek back and forth slowly on her head in acknowledgement. The floral sent wafting off her main while she did so was intoxicating. She turns her head and gives her a quick kiss on the head, watching her left ear twitch adorably at the contact.

"Well I've just started second year at Uni in town for musical studies, and I'm in between semesters right now so I've moved back in with my family for a time. Saves on Bits, and I can help out mum and dad when they need it, so I can work for Bits too when I'm running low . I study the cello, you see."

Corrie, chagrined at herself has to look up what a cello is in her headware books. Pictures, descriptions, audio samples, and long history of the device swims in her vision while she picks and chooses what bits of info to save to read for later. At least now if it comes up in conversation, she wouldn't look like a total idiot. Just a regular every day garden variety one.

Octavia points a hoof towards the porch window. Corrie can see the curtain ripple, but she missed who was peeking out a moment ago at the pair. "Dad there works hard. Maybe a little too hard. He's always been that way, though. Mum's kind of a homepony but don't let that fool you. She could go back to teaching mathematics full time at University if she wanted to, but for now she's happy taking care of the house and working part time at the local middle school teaching fillies and colts."

"Uni huh?" Corrie says feeling wildly inadequate. Thinking of her block letter handwriting, a freshly learned and laborious task when she first starting training how to do in Canterlot, she was pretty sure she was swimming out of her depths with this adorable grey shark with purple eyes eyeing her hungrily in the pool.

Sure she could read just fine, but everything was electronic in her world. Groups of symbols and imagery replacing old fashioned words, sentences, and paragraphs. Everything presented quickly in digestible chunks for the augmented and A.R. enabled eyeballs. University was for CorpKiddies and the wealthy. No time for that in the Barrens when your just trying to get through day by day.

Being SIN-less also didn't help that a bit, either. Public schooling required you to be stamped and numbered, and in the system. To which she was not. And her fake SIN for work wouldn't get her into one in the first place, even if she tried. It was a pretty flimsy disguise. All it needed to be was a work visa so she could get paid. It did what it was supposed to do, and no more.

And even then anything written out like they do here, would have been scanned and added to public databases ages ago. Writing was becoming a lost art in her world, in the old fashioned sense of pen and paper. It was too slow for the modern age she lived in. It couldn't convey it's messages fast enough to keep up. And that was that.

"So what does your dad do, then?" Corrie asks her. Trying to change the topic to anything but 'proper education', something she had very little first hand experience with.

"He owns a hotel here in town. Four stories tall, large convention center, and a giant heated indoor pool and spa. I may be biased, but I think it's the best one in town. It's also a kind of a family business affair. His two brother's run their own hotels in different cities."

Looking up at Corrie and giving her a warm smile "You should see the one in the Crystal Empire! Don't get me wrong, our hotel is wonderful, but that place is made of almost entirely magical crystal grown right from the ground." Giggling to herself "Dad's always been a bit jealous, but he keeps it in check. He knows he has a great place here, but he's always been fond of the Crystal Empire. Our whole family hails from that area".

"I've heard of the Crystal Empire, haven't been out there yet." Frowning and bringing her right hand around to place on Octavia's right hoof she gives it a gentle squeeze. "I'll have to go out there someday and set up a new branch of the office one of these days." Giving the grey pony a little squeeze with her left arm "Since you've got family there, maybe you'd like to go with me when I do?" It's going to be a mess, I can feel it. Would be nice to have a friendly face there."

Apparently the people that popped up around there were a better class of the human specimen. Minimal troubles. A lot of them however were casters, and large groups of those made Corrie nervous. From her reports a lot mages ended up heading towards the place. Drawn to some kind of magics she had no concept of, she's sure. But so far they've all registered their I.D.'s, paid their taxes and stayed the hell out of the way of history. That bullet she couldn't dodge she thinks with only a little jealousy. Maybe they were her kind of people after all, she considers.

She's brought out of her ruminations when she's forced to lean forward a bit to allow Octavia's foreleg to go around her middle and give her a squeeze in return. "I'd like that. I can't really travel during semester, but if you do go when I'm out on break I'd like that. A lot" She finishes looking up a the human.

Leaning her head now on Corrie's little chest they stay together for a while. Just the sounds of the oncoming night keeping them company along with Octavia's rhythmic tapping of her hoof keeping the swing going. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Like a slow, steady heartbeat shared between the two.

A little while later Octavia stirs. "Corrie, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, fire away" Corrie answers, nudging her lightly.

Octavia takes a deep breath. " I don't mean to offend you, but I am curious and I have to know." Turning her head sideways a little she looks up at Corrie with one purple eye.

"I'll answer if I can. Best I can do" The redhead tells her. A little smile on her lips. It didn't quite reach her eyes though, Octavia notices.

"What makes you so comfortable with this? Us?" Placing her hooves on Corrie's legs, she uses them for balance while she sits up. "I've seen a lot of ponies and humans as friends, but aside from the pair in the diner earlier, I can't think of a single other human and pony who have tried dating yet." Frowning to herself Octavia inhales slowly through her nose. "I know were different species and all, but are we all that strange to you?"

"That is a deep question, Octavia. Many, many wells deep" Corrie sighs. "Look, I can't speak for any of the other people here on your world but I can say this for myself. Okay?"

The grey mare nods, looking apprehensive and excited in equal measure. She was leaned forward in anticipation of hearing what Corrie had to say.

"I've fucked a Yeti. What can I say, I like hairy girls." Corrie tells her trying to keep a straight face.

Corrie found herself in the odd position of trying to laugh while at the same time doubled over from the sucker punch to the gut from the now irritated mare next to her. She could have sworn she heard a bark of a laugh through the window as well, but she wasn't one hundred percent sure with her being hunched over and all trying to regain her breath and laugh at the same time.

"Corrie" Octavia looks at her sternly "I'm serious. I really want to know." Compromising with herself she helps Corrie lean back in the swing again before starting it up and placing her head back on the humans chest.

Corrie returns her arm around the little mare. "I won't lie, it does feel a little odd at times. Like when I look over to respond to someone talking I still look head level to where a humans head would be, before looking down." Resting her head gently on Octavia's head once again "It was a little strange when your marefriend kissed me. Not sure what to think of her lips. Little furrier around the edges then I'm used to. But ya know, some hair in the teeth does happen. Comes with the territory."

The little grey mare gives of something in the mix of a giggle and a groan. Corrie idly brings her left hand up and starts scratching Octavia's cheek gently. "People on my world changed, Octavia. And not in the metaphoric sense either. Literally something happened with their genes and they changed. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't quick, and there were very, very few people who didn't freak out or react in a really bad way." Calling up an old Newsie file about the Night of Rage, she shivers. "I can't imagine something like that happening here. The reaction, that is."

"After things settled down a bit and we all got back to the daily routines, it just kind of was out there. We're all different. We could be changed at the drop of the hat. What matter is it that your friend couldn't find a decent hat because the horns on his Troll head made it a pain to shop. Or has tusks. Or pointed ears and cat slit pupils?" Tapping her metal fingers lightly on Octavia's cheek gently "That doesn't even cover what we do to ourselves with our machines, Awakening or no."

Sighing the human adjust herself on the seat again, gently placing Octavia from her side to her lap so she could they could be face when they talked. "I don't know? Maybe I don't have the answer that you are looking for. You're nice, you're smart. A hell of a lot smarter than me. You've got a great laugh when you choose to share it. And you have the most beautiful eyes i've seen on two worlds." Taking her hoof again in her hand and placing it on her own chest by her heart. "Hoof, hand. Don't care."

Octavia's eyes turn heavy lidded for a moment and she leans in towards the human. "Smooth talker, you" she says breathlessly.

Using her right hand Corrie places it gently on the face about to encroach into her territory. "However you need to understand something." Corrie almost laughs, the look of the mare denied something so close was priceless. Like an adorable form of petulance.

"Honestly Octavia, I don't know what I can offer you as a partner. Or even what I could offer in a herd. I can't give you all the intellectual conversation I think you crave." Giving her a little smile before removing her hand from the soft velvet nose she gives it a gentle boop. "I'm not learned as you are. I have libraries, literal libraries of information stored in my head. And sure, I use it for reference in dealing with people, ponies, but it's not my intelligence. I never learned these things. It's just efficient bookmarking really. Index following. None of that is mine."

Feeling wildly self conscious for a moment, Corrie looks down. "I don't even know why they wanted me for the job. I'm guessing they really didn't know what to do with me, Octavia." Nervously wringing her hands now placed in her lap "I've hurt a lot of before you know." she tells the grey mare quietly. "Before my job, and during. And yet I'm not a soldier. And I'd do it again with no reservation to protect my friends and family." Biting her lower lip she pauses.

"I thought about trying school here so I could ditch the whole 'diplomat' gig and going back to just being a paramedic. But those skills are all really for combat. Extracting people from deadly situations. I'm so lacking in everything traditional that would have to start so far back in it, that I'm pretty sure your mom would be teaching me math. Can't really practice medicine without a licence here."

The occasional creaking of the swing and the breathing of the two beings on it were the only sounds in the night for a while.

"No." Octavia breaks the silence. Voice heavy with emotion. "I'm sure you've had your reasons to do what you did over there. We will talk about them in time." Octavia says to the woman. Using her hoof to gently lift Corrie's head with that tiny little chin she moves closer until the human is forced to make eye contact with her. "I think we've had a good date. Let's not end tonight like this okay?"

Corrie nods, grateful for an exit. Impulsively Octavia reaches out and hugs her. Corrie returns the embrace, before Octavia wiggles out of her grasp and jumps daintily down to the floor. Corrie takes the hint and stands up. She walks the grey mare the few feet to the door and they share a small smile. Corrie leans down while Octavia lifts her head and stretches her neck just a little. Enough to let their lips meet in a warm kiss.

"Good... Good night" Octavia stammers after the kiss, almost missing the door handle to open it. A little nervous giggle and a look over her shoulder. "See you tomorrow?"

"Anytime. I've got a full day of work. Stop by for lunch or dinner if you like. I'll make the time" Corrie tells her.

A few more nervous goodbyes and Corrie watches her enter her house, door closing with a quiet click. She makes it down a few of the stairs before she hears the door open again behind her.

"Corrie, a minute please?" She hears in a deep male voice.