Snowbound in the Embassy Pt.2 (Corrie in this World)

Corries' attempt a seductive walk turned more into a flailing slide towards the tub instead. Slick tile finally living up to it's name, she slides right into Octavia's arms, and the grey mare helps her regain her balance while giggling and the boggle-eyed human.

"S'thanks" Corrie tells her, placing her hands on Octavia's shoulders. After a moment of setting their hooves and feet the pair come together in a long embrace. "I think I'm going to clean up this mess before someone dies." Corrie says. Staring into the mare's eyes she brings her face closer and rubs her tiny, crooked nose on the larger, and much softer grey nose.

Octavia gives her a little smile and they rub noses, giggling to themselves. With a sigh, Octavia disengages from the hug to return to all fours. Corrie steps out of the room to grab the mop out of the kitchen pantry. Octavia pulls the stopper from the tub and retrieves her wet collar, hanging it up on the sink faucet to dry.

A little time later the Corrie and Octavia are back on the couch. The quilt draped over their legs, Corrie in her PJ's, and Octavia in a borrowed t-shirt from the guest closet. Corrie wasn't sure how the bright pink shirt with a strange green unblinking creature on it got in there in the first place, but there it was. One of the refugees might have left it there, but none came upstairs to her recollection.

Octavia leans into the woman and sighs contentedly. Looking sideways at her she asks "Hot cocoa?" hope in her voice.

"Oh, sure. I'll..." Corrie starts before a hoof is gently pressed onto her lips.

Octavia with a mild case of panic in her eyes stops her. "No. No no. I'll get it" She jumps off the couch quickly and trots into the kitchen. 'Cute, yes. A good kisser, without a doubt. Major fire hazard in the kitchen, doubly more than the first two' she thinks to herself.

Corrie can hear the clattering of one without hands in her kitchen. It's an odd thing that, knowing she's in their using her mouth to grab all the pots and ingredients. Sitting for a minute she realizes she's absentmindedly shaking her leg with nervous energy. Moving around will help, she decides. Standing up and taking the quilt off the couch she proceeds to slide it across the floor rotating it, to face window instead of the living room.

"What are you doing in there?" Octavia calls out from the kitchen.

Going into her bedroom she grabs the four pillows off the bed, and a second blanket. "Nothing" Corrie responds in a singsong voice. Using the blankets she makes an enclosure with them on the cushions. The pillows she uses two on each side with the armrests. Placing one of the lamps gently on the floor she moves the coffee table in front of the couch to have a place to rest their mugs. Turning off all but two small crystal bulbs for lighting leaves the majority of the light coming in from behind them as to not obstruct the view outside of the softly falling snow.

"Mrftfls-drnn" She hears from the kitchen. Octavia walking out with the two hot cocoas on a tray in her mouth. Setting the tray on the table she eyes the couch appreciatively and jumps on. Corrie joins her and they settle themselves in. Sitting in the middle of the couch wrapped in blankets, the pony and the human woman quietly enjoy their cocoa as well as each others company.

"So what do you think? Your first snow on a new world." Octavia asks her human companion on the couch, pointing with a hoof to the view outside of the swirling flakes.

"It's amazing. It looks clean enough to eat. Who knew snow could actually be this white" Corrie tells her, studying dancing snowflakes in the air. Corrie notices the mare giving her a strange look out of the corner of her eye. "Hmm.?"

"I'm sorry. I though you were joking there for a moment. About the snow, that is." Octavia tells her.

Nodding head absentmindedly she responds "Grey more than anything. Seattle was always a mess at the first snowfall. Grounded planes and angry drivers. One of the best and worse times to work DocWagon." Smiling to herself she continues "They always tested the upgrades for the Rigger systems when it snowed. So many Doc driver's pukin' and passing out when their rigs would slide out and crash. " Surprising herself with a laugh " Last year we had so many drones drop out of the sky from bad conditions, white outs, limited visibility, that sort of thing," Waving her left hand in the air with a wobble for emphasis then crashing it down on her knee "We started calling the Advanced Death From Above Team instead of the usual 'AirSayfe' drek. 'Security at your shoulder', my tatas."

"I was told a lot about what happened in the offices, I only saw the tail end myself. But they said the puke was so bad in the drone station they had to scrub half their drives clean before they could roll 'em out. And we had 30 Wheelers at that station alone, sans helicopters." Looking down at her lap and fidgeting with her fingers with a sigh. " When we rolled in after a call just a tail twitch later, there were EMT's treating the EMT's. There were so many bloody noses. People just jacked in 'net looking poleaxed, flopped over their decks just wheezing away."

Corrie glances over at Octavia out of the corner of her eye. With a hint of pride in her voice "We only lost six Riggers last year. And four drivers. Recovery teams don't count in it, obviously. We're a disposable asset up until about the High Threat response levels." Picking at a fingernail now, nervously. She never really had people to talk to about work. It felt kind of nice. It really didn't make polite dinner conversation usually, telling people how you had to reattach some poor fool's arm in a firefight at night in the Barrens.

Corrie pulls her legs up and rests her chin on her knees, still looking outside at the cold wind making the pristine snow dance to it's unseen designs. "I had a friend, Richard. Big. Big Troll. Had these awesome tusks" Holding out her hands about six inches apart "Always kept them shined and crack free. Which is hard, since they never stop growing. LIke sharks teeth." Shrugging her shoulder. "We hit it off really well. I could stand on one of hands and he could lift me to the ceiling."

Chuckling lightly " We got wrote up once, changing lightbulbs in the station that way. Made it to fourteen though first. We're out there getting shot at and nearly getting killed on a daily basis and they're worried about how we were changing lightbulbs on a lark." Laughing again to herself, the only world she now could see was her old one, in her mind. "We just kind of ducked out of work after that. Full of stupid indignation. A big ol' Troll with a chip on his shoulder, and a redheaded girl just big enough to be the size of that chip." A quick shrug.

"So, what happened then?" Octavia quietly asks, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

Corrie jumps a little at the contact of her hoof, but still keeps her gauze out at the snowfall. "We got drunk. So much gin and this awakened vodka. Tasted like Ghouls ass but boy did it kick." A little shudder at the memory of that foul liquid. "Ended up singing Karaoke at this dive for the Hallow's Gang. The end of the night, he walks me home. All old fashioned Trido gentleman drek. I kept trying to think if I'd led him on, or he'd be expecting something at the end of the night. But when we got back to Momma's house, I still was trying to figure out to tell this mountain of a a metahuman i'm not into Samurai swords, so to speak. I'm standing there stammering and he brings up this huge hand, time and again as big as my head. Puts a giant finger on my mouth to shut me up and says something like 'moya mladshaya sestra'. And he tips his head and waits till i'm in the house. He only leaves after he hears the door lock click." She can feel the corners of her eyes moisten.

"He sounds like a good friend then. But what was that, he said?" She asks Corrie, who was now looking visibly disturbed at something in her mind's eye.

"He is. Was. Whatever. We started hanging out a lot. As for what he said, I just chalked it up to him just mumbling something drunkenly." Her breath hitching in her chest again. "About two weeks later we were called in for a retrieval. Some idiot near us decided he'd rather shoot than pay his dealer's tab." Making the 'futile gesture' sign with her hand. "Anyway he had a wristband, we had to go. It was chaos."

"Those BTL slash drug dens were just about the worst places to go. Like two, three story fortresses. All plastisteel and metal barriers on the windows. Reinforced doors. Sometimes Mages. Fucking finger wagglers out here with a pair of binoculars on the room waiting to geek you, you'd never see it coming." Shivering a little she feels Octavia rest her head on her shoulder.

"Our luck held for once, the guy somehow made it out of the doorway before we got there. He's holding his hand with one hand, the severed one was holding his intestines in his abdomen. His eyes are glowing, and he looks hopped up on gods know what, his eyes were going this odd silver color. Magic sparks and shit were coming off him. He's chanting away and turning back before the building about to unleash god knows what, when like magic his left arm just comes off. Slides off."

Turning her head she looks at Octavia "you know how sometimes you get a carrot piece stuck on a knife? When your chopping them, that moisture just holding it onto the surface? And it slowly starts to slide off?" Corrie watches the understanding dawn in her eyes. Giving her a small nod. "Yeah his arm does that."

"This Razorgirl just appears. All chrome and promises of death. And I mean appears a split second after his arm starts to separate from his body. Before you can even see the top of his bone. Perfectly clean cut. She's just standing there, chromed unblinking eyes just staring at us. She's retracing this little wire back into her fingernail. She gives us this small smirk and she's gone."

"I've never been more grateful for not having to go after someone. She was on a level all her own. Not even sure why she was there. Serious tech. I'm fast, Octavia. Unnaturally fast when I need to be, even. But that." Waving a hand "That was on a level High Threat responders would get into. And some of those were just like her." Well, most really, Corrie finishes that line of thought, keeping it to herself.

"So the Rigger pops open the rear doors and we go spilling out like we do. A four squad out, two wait by the doors, 'Pizza Time' we called it. Never did figure out why." Turning her head back to rest it on her knees, she continues to talk, looking outside at the pristine snowfall. Feeling anything but that herself. She feels Octavia straighten up and lean back on the pillows instead of leaning back on her. Sadly she knew that would happen. It's going to be too much, and she should have kept her mouth shut, Corrie berates herself. But she can't make herself stop.

"And then what happenes?" Octavia asks her in a small voice, sounding very far away.

"I make it to our target. By that time he's bleeding out something fierce, face down on the ground. We have these patches, trauma kit stuff. We can seal up the hole with some NewSkin, most of the stuff we have in our crash carts is useless. "Can't cure magic with tech, they tell you in training.' So I kneel down next to him. Rodger is standing over me while I work on this guy. And the next thing I know I'm on the ground. Some rat fuck had this giant sniper rife on the roof. Looked like an anti-tank gun when I was finally able to see it, after. Hit me in the right shoulder. The shock plates held. The underarmor I had held too surprisingly. Even more surprisingly was my karma held. This shell was implanted into the plate on my shoulder. Flattened out the size of at tea cup tray. Should have went right through me."

"I should have died, that impact alone was so hard I broke some of the client's ribs when I landed on him. Cracked my head so hard I chipped some of my skull over my left eye. Broke my nose, Again. Shoulders busted. I can't breath. I can't even imagine trying to move my arm, much less anything else and then I hear it. This horrible, guttural roar. Richard was a Bear Shaman. He'd thought I'd been killed, and I think he flipped a little." She could feel the tears starting to slide down her face in little hot trails.

"He casts something. I can't hear what it is. This horrible ringing in my ears. My headsets all fucked up, stats and numbers and klaxons going off. The whole world was tilting in this crazy way. But I remember looking up at the building. There was this Bear Shaman on the street chanting and pointing. These two clouds come together above where this guy with the rifle is, and it starts to rain. Large green drops of drek knows what and he starts screaming. LIke a broken leg kinda scream. Except it goes on and on. He leans over the side of the building and I can see part of his face melting. Some of the plastisteel is now melting too. There's a loud clatter from behind me. Before I pass out feel his hands on me, linking our systems, checking my vitals, that sort of thing. I can see his smile when he realizes I'm alive".

"Almost the best smile I've ever seen" She tells Octavia quietly. "He knows I'm recording since I can't hear anything, he mouths some words slowly, and picks me up so gently in his arms. He leans down again and starts to make a pile, handing me the arm and the hand that fell off him earlier.

"Hold these, please" He tells me. He stands, turns around and grabs something else. Slings it over his shoulder, then retrieves the client.

"We all get back in the van, hook him up to the carts, and the run is done. As they say."

Corrie sees his timid face in her memory, peeking in through the recovery door. A somehow gentle knock with those huge knuckles. He dips his head, looks around for some troll sized furniture. Seeing none, he sighs in weary resignation and sits on the floor next to her bed. He's still tall enough that he still has to look down to look at her eye to eye. He gives her a warm grin. She holds out her left hand and he grasps it in his huge one. She can see the scabs on the tops of his hands bandaged up. He was so worried for her he was picking them off in the waiting room. She gives his hand a gentle squeeze.

He knows, that she knows. He blushes a little. And honest to goodness Troll blushing! Sheepishly, he shrugs his shoulder and says" I was worried for you." His accent thick. "I was so afraid that he'd killed you. That I'd have to live through that again. And I snapped."

Corrie remembers the pain of trying to sit up. The Chemdispenser hisses at her aggressively, trying to remind her to sit still. She wanted to tell him she understood. Cat was the same way. Momma Cat Mojo would flay a man alive if she ever saw one of her kittens being hurt. He gently helps her forward and engulfs her in a giant, gentle bear hug.

"He said I reminded him of someone he lost long ago. Said I reminded him of his little sister."

Eyes widening in fear at what she just said to the grey mare she sits stalk still. Well, job one great, that. "Ah hells" she breathes out. "I'm sorry." She whispers. Wiping the tears away with the sides of her hands.

A strange silence fills the room. For a time the only sounds were the odd gust of wind outside, or of a deep inhale, a sigh given when lost in the memory of the moment.

Leaning forward Octavia gives Corrie a quick peck on the cheek. "Thank you for sharing all of this with me." Holding up a hoof "Please understand however, I have a lot. A lot of questions about what you all just said. I think I get the general idea, but there is so much there to unpack." Hopping down from the couch she turns and puts her blanket and pillows into a bundle. "I think I need some time to process all this." With that she uses her mouth to transfer the bundle to her back. I'm going to lay down on the bed and process."

Corrie nods slowly. "I understand. Good night Octavia. Sleep well." She tells the mare.

Hoof-falls slow and stop. "Just give me a little time, okay? Then come to bed." Octavia says quietly, then resumes her walk into the bedroom.