Your regularly scheduled creepy visitor

[killedwithlove]

Who: Cole and anyone who needs him... or wants to chat to him
Broadcast: No
Action: On any ship except Marsiva, Tourist or Red Fish because he avoids visiting two and can't visit the third.
When: While the fleet is moving and probably a bit after

[There is this thing Cole does.

He visits other ships. Sometimes he put the Pathstone alongside to visit and sometimes he takes a shuttle, but he's constantly wandering all over the fleet, being with people, circulating.

He hasn't done it in a while. He got a nasty fright and went into hiding for a while.

But the creepy psychic being is back! Sticking his large nose into all the business.]

Comments

[killedwithlove]

[Cole has been drawn by the obvious thing.

People suffering.

He watches her approach.]

You don't have to smile for me. I know.

[bryces_pup]

Doesn't mean I don't want to give you a smile. I am glad to see you, and seemingly all right.

[killedwithlove]

I feel less scared. Much less.

We have a new captain on the Pathstone. His name is Tony. He's a tight knot of pain and less and grief but he wants so badly to be better than he has been. Do better.

Winter hurts, sometimes. The cold in the joints, stiff and sticking like needles.

[bryces_pup]

Good. You seem to be much calmer.

[That conversation with Cole in the shuttle is the only thing that feels like she's done right in awhile. She's relieved he seems okay and that the right call was made.]

Sounds like you'll have your work cut out for you. Hopefully they'll be receptive to your health.

[killedwithlove]

You did do it right. You helped. No ifs or buts or anything else. You helped.

[He hesitates and then leans in and hugs her. It's a bit awkward.]

[bryces_pup]

[She very much did not expect that hug. For a moment she freezes, flabbergasted by the gesture. Quickly enough, when the surprise passes, she returns the gesture.]

Thank you. I'm glad I was able to help.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole is improving on the hugging front. Contact is less alien to him than it was for a while.

And once she returns it, he squeezed slightly, shifts and it somehow manages to be a perfect hug, full of affection and warmth.]

Thank you.

[bryces_pup]

I'm just glad you're all right. I was worried.

[And oddly, the hug lifts her spirits a little bit. The contact is not unwelcome, and something about a hug just helps feel like everything might turn out okay. Even if it doesn't seem clear just how.

After a long moment, she pulls back.]

Forgive my manners, I didn't even ask who you came here to see.

[killedwithlove]

[He lets her go, but he's glad that she aches a little less inside.]

I didn't come to see anyone. I came to see. Visit you!

[bryces_pup]

Me? [She laughs lightly.] Well, I'm glad you came by. Any particular reason you stopped in, or did you just come to say hello?

[killedwithlove]

Just to say hello.

See if I can help. I feel better when I help.

[bryces_pup]

Help? With-

[Suddenly she sighs.]

Oh, who am I kidding?

[Her first reaction is to try and deny anything is wrong with her these days. However, that doesn't exactly work with an empath/psychic like Cole. She realizes it's quite pointless.]

I suppose I haven't been a ray of sunshine lately. And you could... feel that? All the way from your ship?

[killedwithlove]

No. Yes. It's complicated. I like to visit ships, see if I can help, but when I came near- Our threads have touched. You helped me. I can find you easier now. I know you, because you tried to know me. You gave me Compassion.

[And anyone kind to a Compassion spirit tends to get them hanging around. Returning what was given to them.]

I know what hurts you now. In my world, my Thedas, I went to Adamant. Into the Fade. I faced the nightmare with them.

[bryces_pup]

[The ship has seen no shortage of pain and suffering. And so much of it was beyond anyone's control. The helplessness worsened it, at least for Riona.

The mention of Adamant wraps around and hangs on her heart like lead. She's so afraid to ask him, to press for details. Last time she did that... well, she found out about what's hurting her now.]

Are you from his Thedas? Adalwolfe's? [The name tastes bitter on her tongue.]

[killedwithlove]

No.

[That simple. He isn't.]

Adamant was different for me. We went with a Marian Hawke and Warden Stroud. My Inquisitor is different from everyone else's I've met. Most are a Lavellan. Jove was here a long time. But mine was Cadash.

[bryces_pup]

[She's mostly relieved at that, although a part of her almost hoped he was, so maybe he could offer more of an explanation. Fill in the holes of that odd scenario in which this tragedy happened.]

Cadash? As in House Cadash? Of the dwarves? [Shale's family. So one of her descendants was Inquisitor? She almost smiles at imagining the golem's reaction to that.]

Leliana tells me the Inquisitor - the one she knows - goes by Trevelyan. She was with Hawke, who was a woman, and this Warden Stroud as well. [Her brow furrows.] I do not know who Adalwolfe's Inquisitor is. I do not care. [Elf, human, dwarf... it didn't matter. She would have her answers from them. She, or whatever version of Riona Adalwolfe had in his Thedas.]

[killedwithlove]

Yes. She was from Dust Town.

I haven't met anyone else who knows a Cadash.

... it's not his fault, Riona. Blame Corypheus, or Nightmare. Blame the Wardens who listened to desperation. There was no good outcome.

[bryces_pup]

I know a Cadash, just not one that became Inquisitor.

[She assumes he means Hawke. If so, then he's somewhat right.]

The brunt of the blame does not fall to Hawke, no, though he's complicit in that he allowed it to happen. I blame the Inquisitor for picking him. [She sighs.] And I know. I don't lightly say that it should have been Hawke, I really don't, but his death isn't going to send a country spiraling into civil strife. He doesn't have a whole kingdom on his shoulders.

[Maker, so much about what Hawke said still doesn't make sense.]

Alistair should never have been there to begin with.

[killedwithlove]

Alistair shouldn't have volunteered. And no, your Inquisitor shouldn't have let him. But maybe he couldn't bear to hurt Varric

[Because losing Hawke would shatter Varric inside and Varric had had so much pain. So much.]

I don't think anyone could carry an entire country. Unless it was a very little country. For fleas, maybe.

[bryces_pup]

It doesn't make sense. So many people would have stood in his way to stop him.

[Her brother being one of them. He swore to her he would keep an eye on Alistair when she went to Amaranthine. And she knows he would do the same when she went to search for a cure to the Calling, as Leliana said she would be doing.]

I meant it metaphorically. [Still, she huffs out a small laugh.]

[killedwithlove]

I want to be able to give you answers, but I can't because it didn't happen where I'm from. Alistair wasn't there, he was back in Denerim.

He hums and nods. Because he helped lighten her mood a little with that comment.

Did you know Wynne and Shale?

[bryces_pup]

It's all right. I do not think anyone can provide me the answers I want.

[Besides, perhaps, Adalwolfe. And she certainly wasn't keen on speaking with him any time soon.]

I did. They traveled with me during the Blight.

[killedwithlove]

I knew Wynne and Shale. For a little while.

Tell me about the Wynne you knew? I don't want to be angry with her.

[bryces_pup]

Because of how she treated her son? I remember you telling me that she did not reach out to him and talk to him like she should have.

[killedwithlove]

Yes. Other things. Mostly that. She hurt Rhys a lot and she didn't regret that. So I want to know more about her, so I understand better.