Є002

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Who: Elena Gilbert and YOOUUU!!!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: SS Starstruck if you wanna??
When: rite meow!!!

I just want to say that I really appreciate everyone's who's answered my questions about this place, but now that I've had a little time to get settled, [and stop silently panicking] I'm curious about what home is like for everyone.

And since you've been here, have you seen anything like home?

[And since she doesn't really expect to be able to ask and not give an answer herself,]

My world's nothing all that special probably in comparison to some of yours. It's 2012, Earth, with modern-day technology that's nowhere near as advanced as all of this. I live in Mystic Falls, Virginia in a country called the United States.

We do have magic, but I can't do any of it. I only know about it because my best friend was a witch. [And it's invaded every part of her life for the past couple of years, but ssshhh.] Magic where I come from has a balance, it's rooted in nature and spirits of ancestors. So the further down the line of witches you are, the more power you can have. But you have to maintain the balance of nature or the spirits of your ancestors will cut you off.

There are other kinds of magic, but they're bad news and not something you want to mess with. It has some really bad consequences for the user since it ignores maintaining the balance.

[And she leaves it there. She's not willing to out herself as a vampire or acknowledge the existence of other supernatural beings beyond witches and spirits.]

Comments

[forgetyourusedtobe]

[She's not really sure what he means by he's Cole now or how to ask and arrive at any sort of meaningful answer. So, she decides to work backwards, trying to start from some sort of beginning.]

Who were you before?

[killedwithlove]

[He hums and rocks for a moment.]

I was Compassion. But Cole needed me, so I went to him and when he died, I became Cole. It was all I could do for him.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

So are you still Compassion or are you just Cole?

[It can't be that simple. ...Can it?]

[killedwithlove]

I'm both. Compassion. Cole. I use the name Cole now. That's a person's name.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Do you want to be a person?

[killedwithlove]

I am what I am. That is enough. I can help people.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

How do you help people? Has that changed since you became Cole?

[killedwithlove]

I ease their hurts.

I can do much more now I'm Cole. Compassion could only help if mages needed to heal. But now I can do things myself. Bring them things, say words that help, make the harm hurt less.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Is that all you see with people? What hurts them?

[killedwithlove]

I see their bodies with my eyes. I hear their voices with my ears. I see their hurts with my self, so I can help them. I know what causes it, usually what will make it better. If I can help it.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

[She shakes her head a little.]

Sorry, that just... [Elena worries her lower lip a little, not sure if she should say it. But she does.] That just sounds so...sad. To see that all the time in everyone.

[killedwithlove]

I've never been any other way.

If I didn't see it, I couldn't help. So, it's sad, but it means I can help people.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

And you don't get tired of it. [She meant it more as a question, but it comes out a little more solid and like a statement than intended.] Do you ever need help? I know you're not a person, but you've got feelings of your own, right?

[killedwithlove]

[When she says he's not a person, it stings, but he understands what she means.] I'm... more person than not? I think. I don't know.

Sometimes, it's easier to help people if someone else helps, yes. And I do feel things, like a person! I'm angry about them killing me, but even though I'm angry, I can live with it.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

[She squints a little, trying to make some sense of what he's saying. Angry about who killing him? Isn't he alive right now? Or does he mean Cole? He did say that Cole died and was a little vague on the details. Then that means he adopted Cole's anger? Or was he angry on behalf of Cole?]

[Her head's about to start spinning with this whole spirit/person state of being and trying to figure out what's Compassion and what's Cole. Maybe it's just easier to think what he does and that there's no difference, there's no divide anymore.]

[At the very least, she understands what it's like to be angry about being killed. It's not something she's going to publicly broadcast here and now though because that raises far, far too many questions about someone trying to fly under the radar. So, she just nods and instead says:]

I'd probably be angry, too. I'm sorry that happened to you, Cole.

[Whether it's Cole's feelings or Compassion's doesn't matter. If she sets all of that aside and zeroes in on what matters, it's that piece.]

[killedwithlove]

[With the distance between them, he doesn't know what she feels, but her face makes a couple of interesting expressions before settling into something neutral again.]

A lot of people died in the circles. Cole's death was just slower and more pointless.

[He rubs his face with his hands.]

Most people don't live after dying.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Not in the sense of having a physical form, no.

[But their spirits definitely go somewhere. Where the supernatural ones goes without the Other Side anymore is anyone's guess though.]

[killedwithlove]

Spirits die, but their energies become new spirits. Wisdom died, but it might help a new Wisdom emerge into the Fade.

People go to the Fade and then somewhere else when they die. But their bodies just stay where they were.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

What's the Fade exactly?

[She can at least guess it's where spirits are from how he's talking about it, but that doesn't provide her with a whole lot.]

[killedwithlove]

The Fade is where magic and dreams and spirits are. Dreamers shape the Fade, spirits shape the Fade from what they see from dreamers and mages draw on the Fade, pull magic and spirits to them to shape little pieces of reality.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Dreamers?

[She can figure out what a mage is, but a dreamer? Is that a metaphor?]

Do you mean people who are asleep?

[killedwithlove]

Yes. Dreamers. People when asleep, their minds reach the Fade.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

It sounds...[She shakes her head a little, feeling the word falls a little short.] Incredible.

[killedwithlove]

[He blinks, clearly not understanding why it might be incredible.]

That's how Thedas has always been.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

It's not like that where I'm from. When people go to sleep, their dreams are parts of their brain firing off. It's just a weird mix of memories.

Like they say people you see in your dreams are actually just faces of strangers you've seen in real life. You just don't know who they are because you passed them on the street.