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]

No. Sometimes, all you can do it making it fast and clean, stop the suffering.

[He ducks his head.]

It wasn't like that. He's not dying.

[monolike]

He just wanted to. [Yeah. It might be something hard for Sorey to understand, but it's not unheard of.] And he was hurting, so you wanted to help him the way he wanted?

[killedwithlove]

Sometimes, the only help is ending it. Like Cole. Sometimes, suffering can't be fixed, only stopped.

I'm Compassion. Usually. I make suffering stop.

[monolike]

Someone I know thinks of death as a kind of salvation for some people. I'm not sure how I feel about it myself, but I'm not exactly wise or worldly so I'm afraid I can't help.

But you were going to do it, right? As an act of compassion. What made you stop?

[killedwithlove]

Sometimes, the only say to stop suffering is to make it quick and clean. A gut wound, no healer, slow, seeping sickness, fevered and frantic and frightened. A knife makes it easier, stops the lingering.

[Dying a slow and lingering and painful death is horrific. He knows. He died that way.]

He wanted to suffer more than he wanted it to end.

[monolike]

[It clicks then, sudden and jarring.] He was trying to use you to punish himself.

[Sorey flares with a little more anger than he usually would as he grabs for Cole's hand without thinking.] Cole, I'm so sorry. That shouldn't- no matter how he was hurting, that was cruel of him.

[killedwithlove]

No. Yes. No, he wants people to hurt him, but I can't hurt people.

[Cole curls his hand in Sorey's. It had been overwhelming and terrifying for the fact that in the moment, his mind had been overwhelmed by Coil's emotions. His other hand comes up slowly, gripping onto Sorey, sinking into his concern, his care. His compassion.]

He didn't mean to.

[monolike]

[Despite the righteous anger still simmering in there (for someone he's never met, someone whose story he's never even heard), there's still a wellspring of worry and consideration for Cole. He wraps Cole up easily in his arms and pulls him into a hug.]

Sometimes people are cruelest when they don't mean to be. [It's a hard truth Sorey's had to learn. Coming from a place where everyone is family and nobody wants for anything to suddenly being thrust into a tumultuous political climate, in a world where people are starving and murdering and just trying to survive? Yeah. He's learned a thing or two about intentional and unintentional cruelty.

Maybe the person doesn't know what Cole is, but even so...asking someone to punish you, to kill you so that you feel absolved of whatever pain or hurts you suffer from...that's not acceptable. It's not right.]

You shouldn't feel guilt over that, Cole. It wasn't your fault.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole's getting a hug and he folds into it so easily, like he's been hugging Sorey for years, tucking in against him, hat knocked slightly to the side so he can hide his face at his neck.

Which is impressive; Cole's a tall boy, but he folds up very small and neat.]

Thank you.

[It's a whisper and he means it. Every person who says it helps him believe it a bit more.]

[monolike]

[Cole's thinner but taller, and somehow he manages to tuck up against Sorey's 5'9" frame like a child. Sorey rubs his back, shifting his head up under the brim of Cole's askew hat so they both fit. This is nice. This is something he's wanted since coming here; helping. Offering comfort to someone who needs it. Looking after the people he considers his friends, looking after people who want his help.

Cole's always so eager to help other people, too. They'd had the discussion of whether or not someone should be praised for obeying their nature, and Sorey had told him that it didn't matter if he was meant to do something. All that mattered was that he was.]

You're welcome, Cole, [Sorey murmurs, spreading his hands across his back.] I'll say it as many times as you need to hear it, too.

[killedwithlove]

[Sorey enjoys doing it and it could be easy to miss, but Cole is definitely getting warmer, a comfortable, basking sort of warmth. There's a soft, rosy glow to him that he naturally lacks; not a flush of the skin but an actual tiny, soft glow as his spirit nature is pulled more closely to the fore from someone who is almost perfectly his mortal counterpart. A mortal compassion.]

I don't need to hear it. But I like it.

[monolike]

That's reason enough for me to say it, then. [rubs Cole's back, this is really nice and comfortable actually. and. glowy, is that normal? well, he is a spirit, after all.] I was going to head over to the Iskaulit to see if there was anything new in the library. Want to come with? Unless you were headed somewhere.

[killedwithlove]

[Normal, no, but not bad and not dangerous. Just part of what he is.]

Okay. I don't read, though. I can, but it's hard, because the ink and the paper say different things than the words.

[He's also not letting go.]

[monolike]

[Books talk? That is literally the coolest thing ever.

...but Cole's still clinging to him. Sorey doesn't want to make him let go so he'll just lean back just a bit to get a good look at his face.] Hey Cole, I gotta let go if we're going to walk though. But if you want to keep contact, we could hold hands?

[killedwithlove]

Mm. Okay.

[He untangles and then slides his hand into Sorey's, lacing their fingers together to not accidentally lose track of him. As if he can't just sense where he is so easily.]

[monolike]

[swings their hands a little] Does it work out better if someone reads to you? Or do you still get images and feelings from that?

[killedwithlove]

It works better. It's when I touch things that I get the most information from them. Listening to people, I only hear them.

[monolike]

Would it be okay if I read aloud then? Sometimes Mikleo would do it for me if I was too sick to concentrate. It's soothing.

[killedwithlove]

Yes, that's good. I like listening, Varric tells me stories, and The Iron Bull, but his stories really happened, Varric's only sometimes did.

[monolike]

Do you like nonfiction better? [or, actually:] I could tell you some stories I know too. Not just, y'know, reading.

[killedwithlove]

No. Not better.

But I'd like to hear any stories you want to tell. I like people's stories.

[monolike]

I've got a lot of 'em for you then, Cole. [hopefully cole is successfully distracted now. probably not forever, but. for the time being.

it's the best he can do for now.]

[killedwithlove]

[Cole is in fact distracted for now, his distress eased away in the face of genuine compassion and friendship.]