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(no subject)

Who: Cole to everyone
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Pathstone
When: Now

[Cole is actually looking at the camera, which is a minor miracle for those familiar with his habit of leaving his communicator next to him and pointing at the ceiling.]

How do mortals know what you're feeling? Varric used to tell me what it was, or Jove, or Solas, but they're gone and now I don't know what these feelings are. I can tell how to help other people and how to navigate their hurts but I can't do it with my own.

[He gives a small sigh and looks off somewhere. A fluff slug climbs over the communicator screen.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He loves the idea of their romance. She's married. She married for power, whatever that means.

Corypheus was getting his red lyrium from the thaig. That Thaig. And Bianca told us about it and we went to stop it, close it, seal it and then she was caught lying. She sold the location of the thaig to a warden. She promised to never tell and she sold the secret.

I don't like Bianca. She's not a good person.

She sold the location of th-- How did she even know?!

[No. Wait. Of course. There's only one way she could know. Adalwolfe lowers his head into one hand, resting there for a moment as he groans a lament.]

Varric...

[He drags his hand down his face, then looks at the screen again.]

It seems like there are a lot of not very good people that get love anyway, doesn't it.

She betrayed him. Again.

Cadash was very kind to Varric, because he needed consoling, not anger. Then she went and hit The Iron Bull with a stick for a while and got drunk with the Chargers.

No, he wouldn't need anger. Getting mad at Varric never actually accomplishes anything.

[He's fairly certain Varric might have a lower opinion of himself in general than Anders has.]

Doesn't mean I wouldn't lay out Bianca.

[He snorts in irritation.]

Sounds like your Cadash ended up laying herself out if she was drinking with the Chargers. That would definitely make you forget your troubles at least for awhile.

Not angry at Varric. Getting angry for Varric.

[Cole hums absently.]

She's Carta. She can match most of the Chargers for drinks.

Makes sense. And as for getting angry for him, it's not really something I can help.

[That sounded sort of disapproving, Cole. He feels a little defensive, even if he's trying to be patient with it.]

He won't do it for himself. And yes I know he wouldn't want me to. Or anyone. But it's just.

[He runs out of words, too stuck on how Bianca had hurt Varric, how impossible it was to protect people from themselves, much less terrible former flames.]

Like I said, I can't help it.

She was angry for him, but she didn't show it. Because it would've upset him more. You both want to protect him because you love him.

[Cole hums some more, thoughtful and not able to pick up social cues very well without the person being there.]

I wanted to ask Sera to prank her, but I didn't.

Prank her? Oh that would have been good. Perfect, even. What would you have asked her to do?

[A little bit of vicarious imaginary revenge is fine, right?]

I wouldn't know what to ask. I don't know how to prank someone. But Sera does. Sera understands it.

[Cole literally doesn't understand pranking, but he knows it's a reasonable level of retaliation.]

I'd have put a little bit of rashvine in her boots.

[Cole gasps.]

That would... make her feet itchy!

Yes, that's the point.

[Oh my god Cole you're precious.]

Oh!

[He covers his mouth with his hands, seemingly torn between being a little horrified (he is Compassion) and amusement (she betrayed Varric).]

Oh.

Is that a prank?

Yes, that's a prank. It's something that doesn't ruin the victim's life, but the person doing it gets a laugh at the person who was pranked's expense. A light revenge.

[It's better than Bianca deserves.]

Oooh, I get it.

[He might. He thinks he does, that's the important thing.]

Like putting a snake in Vivienne's sleeping bag.

[Adalwolfe chuckles at that. He wasn't much a fan of the Orlesian woman when they'd met briefly.]

Exactly. So long as it's not a very bitey snake.

She gave it lots of legs and put it in Sera's sleeping bag.

[Their back and forth pranking had baffled him at the time.]

What? Really? That wasn't beneath her?

[Well well, that is interesting. If he hadn't had Anders to get back to and Weisshaupt to inform, he might have tried to stick around the Inquisition a bit longer and seen some of the things they got up to. He gets the feeling they were a lot like his friends in Kirkwall. Thrown together by circumstance, but forging lasting bonds.]

No.

Sera tried to scandalise Vivinene by mooning her, but Vivienne always said it would take more than Sera's pale, skinny bottom to shock her.

Well then. I may have misjudged that woman.

[At least a little, anyway. She's still a loyalist, which isn't going to fly in his book without some major reform. Not that he'll have his say way out here.

He pauses, then gives a gentle smile.]

Are you feeling any better, Cole?

Maybe. Maybe not. She's stopped trying to find excuses to kill me, which is nice.

[He pauses and then blinks and smiles a little.]

I am.

[He doesn't say anything more about Vivienne. He knows the Circle line about spirits and demons. A spirit does anything entirely unexpected and it's not a spirit, it's a demon, and must be destroyed. It makes sense for what he knows of her, though it's encouraging that she stopped. Maybe even a staunch loyalist can change.]

I'm glad. It won't do to have my friends upset.

She used to tell me the Mage war was my fault, that everyone died because of me. She wanted me to Despair. Solas would yell at her and then Cadash would send one of them back to camp and take someone else with us.

[Well. There goes any chance of his opinion inching towards positive.]

What a ghastly person. The mage war isn't your fault, how could it be? That blame lies on a lot of things, but not least of all me and Anders.

[And Justice. But he really doesn't much like to talk about Justice.]

Because I killed Lord Seeker Lambert. She said that was why the war happened and it was my fault.

[The war happened in a lot of places at once, because it wasn't about individuals. It was about rebelling against injustice and cruelty, about being more scared of the norm than the punishment.]

I don't know a lot about... vast consequences. I only know people. The immediate. It's what Compassion needs to be.