driftfleet | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Cole
Broadcast: No
Action: EVERY SHIP EXCEPT THE MARSIVA
When: The first half of the month

[See, the problem is, now Cole's augment is a pilot one.

He's lost the room he wasn't aware as his, but he's gained a whole new lot of knowledge. Such as how to move the ship, how to dock it to other ships and that makes his constant wandering from ship to ship much easier.

And it means he can park the Pathstone with the Three Twins and Tourist without ever going on board either of them. He can bring the Pathstone to them, and still give Fenris his safe space and people form those ships and visit the Pathstone without having to take a shuttle!

So, Cole's doing his rounds again. Visiting. Parking. Shoving the Pathstone wherever he feels like going.]

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[ He's sitting patiently, but alert. Not everyone likes being close to another person, and he's ready to move away at even the most minute sign of discomfort. ]

No, he shouldn't. None of them should've. [ he exhales, soft, and weighed down ] But I guess we only really die when no one remembers us anymore.

[Cole doesn't really get uncomfortable easily. It can be it's own problem.]

Hm. No. They die. In this world. They exist in the Fade still. The spirits remember.

But you're not dead. And neither is he. You're both just changed.

[ Changed — not Bucky anymore. Barely even a James. Someone. And the same for Steve. He purses his lips.]

You're being kind. [ he finds this amusing, to a degree, and his mouth quirks up at the side ] Bucky's been dead a long time.

[ never shall it be said he sometimes doesn't share Steve's flair for the dramatic. ]

No.

[Cole reached over to point at Bucky's chest.]

Bucky's there. With Stevie.

[ His fingers curl in mid-air, not sure whether he wants to keep Cole's hand there or push it away. ]

Locked away.

[ Which is not that different from dead, to him. ]

Like a precious jewel in a safe. They're safe in there. You locked them in there so they'd survive.

[ So he'd survive the maw of Captain America. There's newsreels, academic papers, quotes attributed to Steve he never said, things he never did, all because it's a good story. The perfect story. And it's nowhere near the truth, or the truth has become so muddled that nobody knows where to look for it and wouldn't know if they found it. ]

Yeah. It's all that's left.

But they are left. You have them. They're safe. You kept them safe and you can start to learn to let them out again.

Bucky's not dead.

You're not dead.

Steve isn't dead.

[ There's a long silence, the kind that should stifle a soul, but Bucky smiles at him. ]

You sound like a friend of mine.

[ Sam would say, one step at a time. ]

[Cole doesn't get uncomfortable with silences. He waits.]

Is that good?

Yes.

[ He's radiating a soft warmth: contentment. ]

I seem t'have forgotten my manners. You want something to eat?

[And again, Cole is quiet, enjoying the feelings.]

No. I don't eat. Even since becoming more human. Cadash said that never starving was part of Cole's wishes he impressed on me.

You can eat.

It'd be a shame for me to eat and for you to watch... [ he shrugs, instead ] do you want a tour of the ship? I don't know how different it might be from yours.

I don't mind not eating.

If you'd like to show me.

[ Except it feels wrong, to have someone who's known starvation to just -- ah well. He waves Cole over to the offices with the nameplates, the bridge, and the kitchen. ]

Does it look like your ship, or are the rooms different?

[This Cole feels no hunger or thirst. Make of that what you will.

He takes it in and actually... no, they're not that alike.]

Pathstone is different. She has more rooms. A lot more rooms. We have individual rooms for the beds, and there's some rooms with desks, but one of those went and then another...

I don't know why. We have a garden. In Jove's room. Away from Tekhetsio.

[ He gives Cole a soft, searching look. ]

You know Jove?

[ He's only just met her and spent time clearing the bug ship, but he likes her. there's an earthy quality to her, sensible and warm. ]

Yes. She knew me back in Thedas, but my Inquisitor was different. I like Jove just as much. They're different, but both kind.

She doesn't mind that sometimes my head goes back to the dark places and I can't read anything but the past and be frightened. She just holds me and talks to me until it stops consuming my mind.

And we're both on the Pathstone. She heals the Pathstone. Repairs her.

Yeah, she and I have the same augment.

[ Healing the ship is a curious turn of phrase for it, he puts that down to Cole having been a spirit Before. ]

What does your Inquisitor do?

I have Pilot Augment. I had Personnel Augment before, but now I have Pilot Augment and Pathstone has controls for me. I like driving Pathstone, I can visit other ships easier.

[Cole's odd. Just accepting it is by far easiest.]

Help people. Lots of people.

And sometimes break people's jaws with her shield, by slamming it up. She's a dwarf.

A shield's useful like that, huh.

[ So the augments can change. he files that away for later and smiles at Cole. ]

You're free to come here anytime. [ playfully, ] I'm the captain, what I say goes.

I suppose. I find them too heavy. I like my knives.

Thank you! I will. It was nice talking to you. Most people... don't want to know details about Cole's life and death. They ask, but when they start to hear, they don't want to know. Not really. It hurts and scares and aches but...

You know horrible things. Like I do. It aches, but not in the gut, not nauseous with anxiety, just quiet, accepting aching.

It's polite t'ask, but most folks [ he shakes his head ] they like things clear-cut. Proper stories, with endings they can live with. Senseless death ain't one.

[ He's pensively quiet, for a moment. ]

Sometimes all you need is somebody who'll listen and remember. It's not much, but it can be worth the whole world.

There is no moral to the story of Cole's life and death. No meaning. It was. That must be enough.

[He rocks on his feet, back and forth and thinking.]

You saw war. What people do. To women and children, to people who are helpless. I'm not... confirming anything you didn't know about people. What they do. We know people can be awful and selfish.

And we know some people shine so bright, that they make all that okay.

It was. Unfair, but [ he shrugs ] we can't raise the dead or fix all the cruelty in the world.

[ He comes to a stop, and his fingers curl over his chest, where his heart is. Locked away, safely, is Steve. He's barely even told Sam about what he was like. Seventy years of image management have turned Captain America into something completely unrecognisable. Nothing better than a dancing monkey. Steve would hate that. ]

Yes, some people still shine despite that. He did.

[ A long silence, then, quietly, ]

It's my last chance to keep him safe.