nothing is perfect, but your imperfections are quaint

[diomedea]

Who: AN ENTIRE BLOODSPORT AND ANY VISITORS
Broadcast: Nope!
Action: On the Bloodsport!
When: 6/14-6/21

[WELCOME TO THE BLOODSPORT HICCUP don't mind the crew. They're. Uhh. Unique.

Enjoy your pudding! What's the crew up to this week?]

Comments

No, he really doesn't live here.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole's back.

He spends a chunk of time here because it has people he adores and loves being near. But when he first came on board, River was having troubles and Simon was with her, so he wandered the ship, waiting for them to be free. Or to find someone else to chat to.]

[pompous_today]

[Simon had been expecting Cole to visit once they were docked- when he heard the other man's footsteps, he poked his head out of the kitchen and nodded once he affirmed the visitor's identity.]

I've made some rice. It's not much, but would you like to join me?

[killedwithlove]

[Cole sniffs, doesn't recognise the smell off hand but that doesn't mean much.]

I don't eat...

[pompous_today]

[Simon smiled.]

Probably for the best here, admittedly, when all we have to eat comes in cube and gel form. Are you doing well?

[killedwithlove]

Other people said that too. I think I'm glad I don't have to eat if the food is really awful.

Yes. I liked the place we went to with the trees, but I'm glad we're not there anymore.

[pompous_today]

It is made for sustenance and nothing more- for those who need to eat, it keeps us alive, so I suppose it serves its purpose.

[He nodded.]

I never did get the urge to go to that planet. Was there something wrong with it?

[killedwithlove]

No. Not wrong. It was different from most places.

It was alive and vibrant, surging with magic and power and intent. It was beautiful.

[pompous_today]

[Simon smiled.]

That sounds wonderful- I thought about going down, but with our communications jammed, I wasn't sure I wanted to risk it, just in case we ran into something dangerous. I am sure you know by now I'm not a warrior.

[killedwithlove]

Cadash said I'm not a warrior. I'm not very good with swords and I don't like heavy armour. I can't move right in it.

[pompous_today]

And I would much rather fix people than put new holes in them, so to speak. The few times I have tried to fire a gun, I do not think I hit a single thing. I am not sure if that is a good thing if we're going to run into danger here, though...

[killedwithlove]

I don't know what a gun is.

I mean, Personnel Augment shows me things, but I don't understand them. I don't have the context, I think.

Solas taught me that word.

[wordmiser]

[It's that guy she doesn't like again.

Jinx glares at him when she meanders into the same room he's wandering through.]

[killedwithlove]

[Cole shrinks away from her again, flickering slightly into smoke and drawing back into the shadows.]

[wordmiser]

[She sneers at him, and even goes so far as to flick her fingers threateningly in her direction.

Get off her ship, little man of smoke.]

[killedwithlove]

[She thinks threat and his hand reaches up and draws a wickedly sharp knife from a sheath on his back, pale eyes watching her from the shadow of his hat.

Then, he fades away from sight, not in smoke, just just... gone.

He won't attack her. But he wants her to know, he's not helpless.]

[wordmiser]

[Her sneer flashes into a more feral smile that isn't so much her, but more her Silent Friend. She doesn't even know when his animalistic qualities rubbed off on her.

She keeps her teeth bared as he fades from sight.]</small.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[when Robin feels the (semi-)familiar presence show up on the ship again, he actually seeks him out this time. Robin himself seems to have gained a couple of threads. and lost a couple. things have shifted. actually, maybe it's hard to tell if anything has changed at all. the universe continues to turn.

anyway, he's here with a thought--]

Hey, Cole. You been around the ship yet? This big one? [he points up. he means the thing they're sitting in now, the one full of bugs.]

[killedwithlove]

[Cole isn't surprised when Robin finds him. He doesn't look up, because he's busy picking at threads on his clothing, but he nods and hums.]

Yes. I make them not see me so I can have a look. They have no souls, empty, moving, echoing, there's suffering in the metal and in the dark. I haven't found it.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

I wondered.

[Cole knows things. they may be different things than what Robin knows and what Tek told him--but that's why he wanted to ask. they're empty, but moving? but not magical...]

It feels like this ship is haunted, but I haven't found any ghosts. [...] I don't like it.

[killedwithlove]

If there are ghosts, I can find them.

It's hard to focus on the source of the suffering and keep them from noticing me. They're very busy, but I don't know what they're doing, because they just do it.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

I see.

[he doesn't know what it means. he brings his fingers up in front of his mouth to think. hopefully Cole doesn't start wander off, because it'll take him a moment to get to his next bit--]

Unrelated question, how old are you?

[killedwithlove]

[Cole stays put, waiting. He knows Robin wants to say more, so he lingers to hear it.]

I don't know. Cole was... sixteen? I don't know how long I was in the Pit by myself. But it's been... a couple of years? I think. I'm not very good with linear time, but I notice when celebrations happen. There were two celebrations for the end of the Fifth Blight since I left White Spire.

I don't know how long I was in the Fade. We don't have time there. Solas said I could be hundreds of years old, but that was as a spirit, which isn't the same.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[he listens to this carefully, genuinely interested...]

I understand. I was just curious...

[while he's still not sure what to think of Cole, he has at least adapted a stance of being totally honest around him. it saves him the trouble of wondering just how much Cole would see past him anyway, if he were to lie.]

I've met very few people who've lived as long as I have. I was the oldest thing back home, if you don't count the ones who can't hold a conversation anymore. [the truly eldest beings on his world tend to get kind of formless or sluggish at about half his age.] And even here, it's not easy to find someone with that particular shared life experience, so. I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, since we have other similarities.

[killedwithlove]

Solas says I am young in this form and ageless in what I am.

[He knows ages of suffering and is still learning the basics of how to be human, of how they interact and think.]

Suffering is ancient. So is Compassion. Maybe, I'm more like you than anything else here is.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Mm... You may be right.

[something about that pulls the edge of a smirk onto his face, if nothing else.]

Theory has it that my soul is older than I am. This body was human once, too.