ye olde mingle of the pathstone variety

[openhands]

Who: crew of the pathstone & you!!!
Broadcast: ??
Action: aboard the pathstone, yo
When: 11/25 & beyond

[So how about that longer hallway? Weird, right? Or you know the new antiquated look in the interior is kinda nice...right? Right.]

[...GET IN HERE, IT'S A MINGLE]

Comments

[openhands]

You would know the answer better than me to that question, Cole. But no. That wouldn't make you a demon.

[killedwithlove]

[He seems uncomfortable, but then he looks at her, silent, trying to read off her, what will make her feel better, what he can do or say to make her happiest and hurt least.]

[openhands]

[Cassandra, herself, is not in that much pain currently. She finds much of what's transpired aboard the Marsiva disturbing to say the least, but they are at least safely aboard their own ships once more. The return to normalcy is a comfort. But she is quietly worried about sleeping again. As Cole said, it was in some ways too much like the Fade, but closer to physically being there than just dreaming for her tastes. She'd rather not experience that again.]

[killedwithlove]

It wasn't the Fade. It won't happen anymore.

[It's all he can offer. He knows it won't happen, not for some time, at any rate.]

[openhands]

[Cassandra looks up from the storage locker she is inspecting to Cole.]

I...I hope you are right, Cole. I don't understand what the purpose of all that was exactly, but who knows what might have happened had it persisted any longer than that.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole draws his knees up, perching in a nearly impossibly small space, knees and hat hiding him very effectively from her gaze.]

That's sort of what life is always like for me. Knowing things, living them, seeing them, touching and taking and feeling and echoing. But only with the unhappy things.

[openhands]

I do not envy you that, Cole.

[That's a difficult existence to say the least. And yet he perseveres through it all, not allowing himself to be taken by temptations. He's perhaps stronger than all of them.]

[killedwithlove]

You don't envy. I know that. You quash anything you think is unbecoming or unfitting a Seeker with the same determination you use to quash demons.

[openhands]

[Oh, Cole. Bless your literal little heart. You're almost as bad as her sometimes. Cassandra shakes her head some.]

That isn't quite what I meant, Cole. What you see in other people, I know it is part of your nature, but it is difficult to imagine that ever being...[hm, what's the right word] ...easy to endure.

[killedwithlove]

I've always been like this.

[Aware of the fear, anger, hurts, hurts and hurts. The White Spire was a nightmare near the end.]

Sometimes it hurts a lot. But where it hurts most is where I can do the most good, so it's where I go.

It wasn't good, like Vivienne says it was. It wasn't bad like Anders went through, but it wasn't good.

... Fenris reminds me of the templars there.

[openhands]

How so?

[killedwithlove]

He visited me. In the dark place. He watched Cole die and felt nothing but contempt. Like the templars who threw him away.

[He doesn't look at Cassandra as he says it, very distinctly looking at something in the other direction.]

[openhands]

[This doesn't line up with what Cassandra knows of Fenris, which is to say she doesn't know much. They read similar books and he was with Dorian before...but she knows little else beyond that.]

...Are you sure?

[killedwithlove]

[Cole is silent a long time. This isn't because he's thinking about his answer, but because he's wondering if he could Cassandra forget this conversation.

But he can't make people forget easily anymore and Cassandra isn't just people. She's Faith.]

Yes.

[Before, he avoided Fenris because he hurt him. Now he's avoiding him because Fenris scares him.]

[openhands]

[Cassandra waits patiently through his silence for his answer, not prodding or prompting him to give it any quicker than he is. She's not foolish enough to think he's contemplating his answer. Cole doesn't quite work like that in normal conversation. Well, normal conversation with Cole at any rate. Something is keeping him from giving his answer instead and he will either push past it or not. There's little that Cassandra can do about that.]

[His answer is...disappointing. She thought better of Fenris than that.]

I'm sorry, Cole. Would you like me to speak with him about this?

[killedwithlove]

[He shakes his head immediately.]

No. I shouldn't have said anything. I'd take it back if I could.

[It's still his default, but with Cassandra at least, it isn't an option. It makes talking to her exhilarating and frightening.]

[openhands]

Cole...

[It may be his default answer, but from her tone? Not the correct one. It'd have been alright if he said now, but the idea that he shouldn't have said anything? That's not okay. Communication is important.]

[killedwithlove]

[He hides more under his hat. But he hasn't banished in smoke and he hasn't made himself invisible. Or tried to.]

Yes?

[openhands]

You can't simply sweep something like that under the rug and not tell anyone.

[killedwithlove]

Why?

[It made her unhappy to hear it, why shouldn't he just have said nothing?]

[openhands]

You know why. Sometimes the truth is unpleasant, but it needs to be known.

[Lies only lend themselves to misguidance at best, corruption at worst.]

[killedwithlove]

But it's only me he feels that way about. And it upset you, hearing me say it.

[openhands]

Of course it upset me, Cole, you are my friend. It matters to me how others treat you.

[killedwithlove]

[And that finally makes him look up in surprise, eyes wide and lips slightly parted.]

I... am?

It does?

[openhands]

Of course. [She cants her head a little.] Did you think otherwise?