ACTION! Meeting people!

[killedwithlove]

Who: Cole and anyone who stands still long enough to be talked to
Broadcast: No.
Action: One ALL fleet ships except The Tourist and The Three Twins
When: During the week.

Cole doesn't like the communicators. He finds it too disorientating to talk to people and have that vast distance between them.

Instead, he's setting out to visit each of the ships and meet the people on board. He likes people and he likes meeting and talking with people and he'd far rather do that face to face.

Don't worry. He doesn't take up much space and he takes up no supplies. He just wants to meet people.

But... he gives The Tourist and The Three Twins a wide berth. Fenris had been very clear that he was not to see Cole again and Cole will respect that by avoiding the places he seems to be.

Anyone from those ships will have to be visitors somewhere else to run into Cole.

Comments

[killedwithlove]

[For a long moment, it's very clear that Cole isn't sure who she is, staring blankly at her from the door of the lock.]

Old songs, whisper, cajole, fade into nothing... Warden!

You're a Grey Warden. Stephanie?

[howcanihelp]

[ She smiles, but it's more absent than anything, as she tilts her head slightly, trying to figure him out. What was that about, she wonders? ]

Yes, that's me. We spoke when you arrived, remember? I told you about Arrow.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole nods enthusiastically. He remembers talking about Arrow.]

Yes. And you didn't know about the blood magic. It made your face angry.

[howcanihelp]

[ She huffs a little laugh ]

Yes, it did at that. Are you here to look at the library? It's not totally set up yet, but you can still look at the books.

[killedwithlove]

No. I didn't know there was a library. Dorian and Solas like libraries. I don't understand why.

[howcanihelp]

For the books, probably. Things to learn, stories to enjoy... I love reading about people I'll never meet and places I'll never go.

[killedwithlove]

I don't read.

[Don't, can't, it's hard to say which.]

Solas tells me stories. So did Cadash.

[howcanihelp]

[ Other people telling him stories, he asked for stories about Arrow... ]

You like it when people tell you stories, huh? You'd get on well with Varric, from what I can tell he loves to tell them.

[killedwithlove]

[There's a brief expression, not quite a crumple but the suggestion of it.]

I like Varric a lot. But he doesn't remember me.

[His voice is very soft when he says it.]

[howcanihelp]

[ She's not a spirit of Compassion, but compassion is a huge part of who she is, wanting to help however she can. She reaches out and tentatively puts a hand on his shoulder, as she's not sure if he wants to be touched. ]

I'm so sorry. That must be very hard, I'm sorry I brought it up.

[killedwithlove]

[He allows touching with no sign of protest.]

It's all right. It's my hurt, so I don't mind as much.

[howcanihelp]

Well, it's still a hurt, so I'm sorry.

[ She can't imagine how much it would hurt if Zevran or Natalia or Leliana or (Maker forbid) Morrigan arrived and didn't know her. ]

Well, onto something else. If you're not here for the library, are you here to see someone? I wouldn't want to keep you if someone's expecting you.

[killedwithlove]

You're... welcome? No. Maker's... no. What do I say to 'I'm sorry'?

[It hasn't come up before.]

I came to see people. Meet people. I can't see over the communications, so I came to see them. Like you. I can see you now.

[howcanihelp]

[ Gosh, wow, he's like the most precious sheltered baby ever, how does a person get to be this odd? ]

Oh, well, let's see... 'Thank you', if you're grateful for the sentiment. 'It's all right' if they've done something and you don't want them to feel bad because you're not bothered or they didn't mean to. 'I forgive you' if they did something big that they're apologizing for. If you do, of course. If you don't forgive them, you don't have to say that you do.

Does that help?

[killedwithlove]

Hm. I can try and remember all those.

What about if you don't think they need to apologise to you? What do you say then?

If someone's sorry, of course I'd forgive them.

[howcanihelp]

If you don't think they need to apologize you could say... 'you don't need to apologize, but thank you'. Because sometimes even if you don't think someone needs to apologize, they think they do, so it's important to them to say it.

Well that's very good of you. Though sometimes... people do things that hurt so badly it's hard to forgive them.

[ She hasn't entirely forgiven Jowan for what he did to escape the Circle (for what he convinced her to do, for lying to her), and she definitely hasn't forgiven Alistair for abandoning her at the landsmeet for making the best choice she could.

Maybe one day she'll manage it, but she's not sure. ]

You're... you haven't been around people very much, have you? You seem very sheltered.

[killedwithlove]

Okay.

You don't need to apologise, but thank you.

[That simple. She's forgiven. She didn't mean to hurt him, so his forgiveness is unreserved.]

I'm around people, but I don't interact with them a lot. Most people couldn't see me and didn't remember me, so I didn't interact with them except to help them.

In White Spire, people couldn't see me, even if I tried to make them see me. Once I found out what I was, I got better at letting people see me, but it was only after Varric helped me that people started to actually see me and remember me.

It was frightening, but... good.

[howcanihelp]

[ ....That is oddly endearing, that he needed to know just the right thing to say to her. True, he'll be able to use that information in other situations, but... still. ]

Come on, let's go sit instead of standing about in the hallway.

[ If he'll let her, she'll take his hand and lead him to the library. There are chairs there at least. ]

What do you mean once you found out what you were? Do you mean a mage?

[killedwithlove]

[He lets her, following after her, quiet and calm and with no signs of objecting to holding hands with a strange lady.]

No. Cole was a mage. An apostate. I'm not. I'm a spirit.

[howcanihelp]

[ Steffa starts a little, and pauses with her hand on the door to the library, though to her credit she doesn't drop his hand. ]

A spirit? That...

[ she pauses, thinking about Justice. Cole is nothing like Justice, but then again... he's clearly not a spirit of Justice. She shakes her head a little and pushes the door open. It makes her nervous, but he seems to be doing all right, not showing any signs of wanting to kill people or anything. ]

Well, that explains a lot of things.

[killedwithlove]

I'm Compassion, not Justice.

[He also reads minds. Which can be incredibly frustrating, embarrassing and painful. Or outright hilarious.]

And I'm not in a borrowed body. This body is mine. Spirits shouldn't get in bodies, it's not good for them. Too many emotions, histories, feelings.

[howcanihelp]

[ Well, that's... unsettling.

She's sure she'll get used to it eventually, but gosh. ]

Well, then we can avoid the difficulties Justice ran into, can't we?

[ She drops his hand and sits, tucking her legs up under her ]

So, you're a spirit of Compassion, who... somehow has managed to get your own body? How does that work?

[killedwithlove]

Probably. I've been in the world for a few years now, I think. And I'm in my own body.

I don't know how it happened.

[He curled up, hugging his knees to his chest in a gesture that could seem defensive, but was just habit.] When Cole died, he rushed out and it made me real. Like him.

[howcanihelp]

[ He shouldn't exist. By everything they know about spirits and the fade, he should not exist. And yet... here he is. Against all odds.

It's kind of a miracle. ]

He sounds like an amazing man. And a skilled mage on top of that. Do you remember how you met him?

[ Curiosity almost always wins out over tact when it comes to things like this. ]

[killedwithlove]

He wasn't a man. He was a boy. He was a boy, and when they found him, they put a sack on his head and cuffs on his wrists and ankles and hit him when he protested.

[He doesn't look at her as he says it.]

I met him when he was dying. Pain, pinching, pulling, pressing up, hollow and hurting. They put him in a cell and they forgot him. He died slowly, over many weeks. I tried to comfort him when he slept, stayed with him and kept Despair from wriggling into him.

He wasn't a skilled mage. He was a young apostate. He died alone and scared and starving because the Templars forgot they had put him down in the Pit.

[For the horror of his words, there's little emotion in his voice. He stays quiet and calm, though he hugs his knees a bit harder.]