Open Action: Fleet Wide

[killedwithlove]

Who: Cole and anyone who isn't fast enough to get away
Broadcast: n/a
Action: Any ship, though he won't venture onto the Three Twins or Tourist still. He will park next to them, now!
When: First half of the month?


[Cole does this thing. He does this thing where he goes everywhere and sticks his large nose into everything and meets people. He hasn't done it for a while, so clearly, it's time again.

The Pathstone comes in next to a ship, docks and then they spend a while there. There's no pattern to which ship it is. But he'll bring them around to your ship eventually.]

Comments

[killedwithlove]

Vima. Veeee-maaaa.

[He tries to name a few times and looks confused.]

That's not a spirit name. But you feel like, are you a mage? You don't feel like a mage, either.

[tobeajedi]

I'm a Jedi--I'm strong in the Force. It's not magic but it's probably what you're getting. [She's gotten the idea by now that the Force seems like magic to people who don't know it, and truthfully enough people in the Galaxy think of it like that.] Are you magic? You--don't feel like a physical being, but you look like one.

[killedwithlove]

Jedi. Vima the Jedi.

[The word means nothing to him, but it buzzes lively across his tongue and fingers when he says it.]

I'm a spirit. I'm Cole. I was Compassion, then Despair, then Mercy? But always Compassion. And now I'm Cole.

[Yup. That's his explanation.]

[tobeajedi]

[She nods. Vima the fairly new Jedi who admittedly still needs a lot of practice, but a Jedi all the same.

He was... Compassion? The noun, the concept... how can one individual being encompass that?] Sounds like a rough ride. "Cole" doesn't sound so bad, but I've never head of anyone being all Mercy, all at once.

[killedwithlove]

Spirits... are all they are, with all their being. I was Compassion. I didn't have space for anything else. But now I'm more like a person than a spirit should be and I have space for other things.

People shouldn't be all one thing. It isn't right.

[tobeajedi]

[A spirit? Well, that clears some things up. Not that Vima's met a spirit of this nature before (just her dead Jedi dad) but it still clears things up.]

I don't think a person can be all one thing. We're so many thoughts and feelings, we contradict ourselves... [She looks at him with interest.] If you started as pure Compassion and then filled up with Despair, and then Mercy... is that how you became person-like?

[killedwithlove]

No. I became a person by accident. I had to, to help Cole, when he was dying. And then I got lost and confused and I learned Despair from him.

I don't really know when I became more person. Maybe it was when Cole died and I became Cole.

[tobeajedi]

[Oh. Wow.

So he got the name Cole from someone he tried to save. Someone who was close to being all Despair?]

I've seen despair. Bad enough to feel it, much less be it. [Compassion plus despair plus mercy plus Cole. A spirit of compassion could get mixed up in one person's suffering, maybe. But maybe she should ease up on the questions since it seems like they're getting into unhappy territory.] Sorry, am I getting too personal? I've never met a spirit-person like you before.

[granted she did pry into Ulic's angst but she was his student and had previously known him.]

[killedwithlove]

I don't know if you're being too personal. I'm very bad at... personal boundaries? I ask things I shouldn't, but I ask because I don't know and I want to understand and you're doing the same. Your questions don't upset me or hurt me, if that is what you mean?

[He rocks on his feet, long, pale fingers pulling at the frayed edges of his sleeves and the cloth wrapped around his hands.]

No one has. Solas say I'm unique. Dorian agreed with him, and Madam de Fer told them to stop sounding so proud that the demon had learned to pretend to be people.

[Welcome to the world of conversation with Cole. It's a confusing place and there's no map.]

[tobeajedi]

[Vima nods.] Yeah, that's what I mean. [That's good to know. She tends to be good at knowing how far is too far, but he's trickier to read.]

[It is an interesting world, but yes, very strange--she has no idea about the people he's talking about, either.]

You're one of a kind, huh? [Alone might be another word, but one-of-a-knd is better.] Never met Madam de Fer, but maybe she should meet more people if she thinks you're just pretending. I don't like the sound of 'demon' either.

[killedwithlove]

I am a demon. Spirit, demon, not quite person. I did awful things. I did wonderful things too, according to Rhys.

I didn't mean to start the war. All the threads were there, pulling, knotting, drawing into inevitable chaos. I didn't know. I only know now because she told me.

Are you unique as well?

[tobeajedi]

[Vima sits down on a nearby crate. Ulic did that too--awful and wonderful.]

I knew a man who could say the same thing, but he was flesh and blood. [She doesn't know much about demons except that they're... generically evil? Which doesn't seem like Cole. Doesn't seem right for him to call himself that, even if he started a war. when you pick an ex-Sith for your master a sentence like that doesn't faze you as much as it might] Strange how little things--tiny actions lead to a lot.

I'm unique here. I was raised by the whole Jedi Order, more or less, but I'm the only one in the Fleet.

[And it's a little evident that she's not 100% happy with the change--she feels a little at sea, sometimes.]

[killedwithlove]

Yes. Little actions, make bigger actions. I'm not very good at seeing bigger actions. People see those. Wisdom might see them, but Compassion doesn't. Compassion only knows to be kind and make the suffering ease.

I killed them because they were sad and scared and wanted me to. I killed him, because he was a monster. I don't understand who these things led to a war. Vivienne says they did. Solas says it wasn't my fault, that everything was already spiraling inevitably to that point.

[He seems to almost thin for a moment, reaching and around him with senses people don't have, but he does.]

I don't understand. How can there be no emotion? Emotion is what makes people... people.

[tobeajedi]

[Hm. That's interesting. It's been said that compassion is the most important quality for a Jedi to have, and Vima agrees with that--how can you help people if you don't care for them?--but Jedi wisdom is basically a watchword. And she's not from a part of the EU that says it sarcastically. Can one without the other really be that dangerous? Maybe if you don't have the capacity for anyone else. A spirit of wisdom might not be moved to help.]

So you killed them... out of compassion? [It's not impossible. Life could be that painful. But her master chose to live...] Is that where Mercy comes in?

[As for how it could start a war. Maybe Cole and his "them" companions were high-ranking, or important to people who were rebels, or...

Cole's visible change and sudden question catches her off-guard before she can ask for details, though. Hello, that's the Jedi Code.]

There is no emotion, there is peace... is that what you're asking about?