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

[save_the_souls]

...I understand. It's just something I could never bring myself to do.

[Sure. He's tried a few times. Sometimes they were even completely justified. But...he always backed down in the end. He'd end up thinking of the people who might mourn them and suffer. It'd always make him waver. ]

[killedwithlove]

Sometimes, I can't think about it. They'll kill you if you don't stop them, you can only stop them with a knife in the ribs, a blade across the throat.

I thought a long time before I killed Lambert. He was evil. Really evil. He liked hurting mages, wanted to hurt them and never stop, so I stopped him.

[The finality of that statement if driven in with the dead tone of voice he uses when he says it. It wasn't killing a person. It was stopping hurts and harms and horror at that man's hands. Stopped.]

[save_the_souls]

[The poor kid. He'll reach up and put a hand on Cole's shoulder as a gesture of comfort]

I'm sure you saved a lot of lives.

[killedwithlove]

I did. And a lot more suffering. That's more important than saving lives. Stopping suffering.

[He looks to Allen's hand, then his face and gives a very small, uncertain smile.] You like helping people too.

[save_the_souls]

[He considers that. He's seen a lot of evils done just for the sake of "saving lives". Atrocities that should have never occurred.] I...haven't heard that before, but...you may be right.

[he gives a smile and nods] I do, yes.

[killedwithlove]

When Cole died, it was a relief for him. The suffering ended. There's worse things than dying.

[save_the_souls]

When Cole died...?

[He blinks]

Ah- but aren't you Cole?

[killedwithlove]

Yes. But I'm not the same Cole.

[save_the_souls]

You're not?

So it was another person with the same name?

[killedwithlove]

No. I was Compassion, but he was dying and I came through to try and comfort him. I took on his memories and shape without meaning to.

[save_the_souls]

[....]

Ah. Now I'm confused. What do you mean you were Compassion...?

[killedwithlove]

... I was Compassion. A spirit of Compassion.

[save_the_souls]

...Oh! You're a spirit! I didn't know there were spirits of compassion!

So you're a spirit that went to help a dying boy, and you accidentally took his form? [Which is...weird. He looks up and down. He can usually sense when some spirit or soul is attached to a body it shouldn't be, but...he's not sensing anything here]

[killedwithlove]

Of course there are. We're considered very weak compared to most spirits, but we help healers heal with magic. I don't think I can do it on my own, but I could help a spirit healer heal someone else.

[He nods.] Yes. I sat with him while he died and when he died, he rushed out through me and I felt who he was and I became him. I slipped out when someone found his body.

[save_the_souls]

Really? That could be useful for any magic healers if people ever get hurt here.

That's...quite a story. I can't say I've ever heard of that happening. Do you...like being him?

[killedwithlove]

I don't understand what you mean by like it. It is.

[save_the_souls]

I mean...do you like...being human? Or something to it. Since I'd imagine it's quite a change from being just a spirit.

[killedwithlove]

I'm not human.

It's different. But it's easier to help people like this. Spirits can't do things to help people, people can.

[save_the_souls]

Something close to it then.

But...I can see that. That is a benefit of having a physical presence.

[killedwithlove]

Closer than most spirits are.

Yes. I like being able to help people. And I'm starting to understand inside and outside.

[save_the_souls]

Understand inside and outside..? You mean how people work?

[killedwithlove]

People... have an inside and an outside. Spirits don't. Spirits just are. But people have things inside and things outside and they're not always the same.

[This is imparted like a great secret and revelation.]