Open Action: Fleet Wide

[killedwithlove]

Who: Cole and EVERYONE
Broadcast: No
Action: EVERY ship in the Fleet, bar Marsiva, Three Twins and Tourist (Though you can easily find him on another ship if you're from one of those)
When: First week of the month?

[This is a thing Cole does.

He travels the Fleet a lot, from ship to ship, meeting people, talking to people, hanging out. He sees people he knows and meets new ones, or ones he just didn't encounter before

He wants to help everyone. Which means meeting them first. Or finding them. Doing that might involve poking through the ships, even if he really shouldn't. Or going through personal belongings. Sorry about that. He's curious.

And armed. It is worth mentioning he's got a pair of wickedly sharp fighting knives on his back. Sorry about that as well.]

Comments

[poetontheinside]

Seems like you're doin' a lot of considering. [And he acted like a complete dick. Great.

He breathes a sigh of relief when Cole says that-- if he knew Fraser was in pain or in trouble, and he couldn't do anything about it- his worry would be tangible for anyone, let alone Cole. He tries not to think too hard on what it means that Fraser's absence is, apparently, keen.]

He's my best friend. The best one I ever had.

[killedwithlove]

I try to help people. Heal the hurt, save the small. Sometimes I get it wrong. Sometimes, the only way I can help is by not being there. Letting my existence be ignored into willful forgetfulness.

[He nods, agreeing.]

Yes. It's why you miss him so deeply.

[poetontheinside]

Did you, uh, did you learn how to do that? Someone tell you to? [Because that sounds difficult, to him, and maybe not completely healthy.]

[killedwithlove]

No one taught me. I've always been able to make people forget me. The difficult bit, in the beginning, was convincing them to see me at all. But people don't forget me like they used to.

I don't know if that's good or not. It's different.

[poetontheinside]

Do you like it? That they see you?

[killedwithlove]

I don't know. It's different. It's not as... lonely.

[poetontheinside]

[He tries to get a few peeks of Cole from underneath his hat, but for once he's subtle about it. It doesn't really matter if he can't.]

That's good, right? 'Cause I been there. You go undercover, you try not to stand out, try not to get noticed all that much, and you come home and you think- no one really saw me today. It's not a good feeling. [He licks his lips, then rubs at his mouth. He's pretty sure their experiences aren't the same at all, but he has to say something.]

Right? So it's good when someone breaks that.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole doesn't try to stop him.

He's a young man, no more than twenty. He's very pale and very thin, with wispy white blond hair that hangs in front of his too large, pale blue eyes. He'll never be handsome, but he's not malformed in any way.]

People didn't see me. I tried. I screamed and threw things, but they couldn't see me. Not unless they wanted to die. Unless they despaired.

It's not like that now. People see me and hear me. They remember.

[poetontheinside]

[He keeps having to change gears on this one- not Canadian, not magic, but something else. Something Ray doesn't really get, not yet. So he goes ahead and puts it in neutral, takes whatever Cole is saying at face value.]

But you still try to help 'em out if they despair, or if they're gonna die?

[killedwithlove]

Yes. I always tried to help. In the beginning, I thought killing them was helping them, but I know better now. I should have tried to help them escape the cells. Get into the city and away from the Chantry.

I do better now. I try to make things better for them. And if they're dying, I try to make sure they don't suffer.

[poetontheinside]

[He flinches at that, has to remind himself that he doesn't have any jurisdiction here, has to force himself to keep his gear stick in neutral. The Chantry, though- that sounds familiar. Cassandra had talked about that, but she had made it sound good, like a worthy cause or something.

It's a lot of information to take in, and he has to examine that, later, mull it over.]

But people here aren't locked up, and I didn't see anyone dying.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole felt the disapproval and looked away.] The Templars were going to kill them. Or make them Tranquil, so they couldn't say no and cause problems. They wanted to die and I thought I was helping them.

I was wrong.

[He nods slightly and looks up.]

No. Here is nice like that. No one is in a cell, no one starves or gets hurt for saying the wrong thing.

[poetontheinside]

[He pushes down the instinct to backtrack, defend himself, but his reaction at least gotten him something of an explanation- even if it's still confusing. He offers Cole a half-smile, hoping it looks encouraging.]

That kinda stuff doesn't happen where I'm from. Gotta be nice to get outta there, huh?

[killedwithlove]

It's nice to not be soothing that hurt in people. There are hurts, but people aren't scared for their lives.

Thedas is a hard world.

[poetontheinside]

Yeah, I bet. [His voice is soft, and he remembers all the cases he'd had where he'd been able to help out people who were scared for their lives; all the cases where he hadn't been in time to help them.]

I met a couple people from Thedas, I think. [Cassandra, Isabela- others, too, maybe. He isn't sure.] Makes me glad to be from Chicago.

[killedwithlove]

There's quite a few of us. Jove, Solas, Dorian, Fenris, Varric, but he's gone again, Cassandra, Anders, but not Justice, he didn't come, others...

[He looks off somewhere, distant but focused, and back to Ray.]

What is Chicago like?

[poetontheinside]

[He listens to the names, only recognizes a few. Still, he's distantly happy that a guy like Cole has so many people from his home. He sounds like he needs it.

He looks at Cole for a second, then shrugs.]

Big. Busy. A lotta tall buildings, and a lotta crooks, but nothing like what you said. It can be a piece of shit, but it's still home.

[killedwithlove]

How tall is tall? Skyhold had spires, but...

I don't think it's the same.

[poetontheinside]

[He racks his brain for details, and somewhere in there there's all the half-remembered school trips downtown.] Sears tower's about 1500 feet, I guess? That's the tallest one. Pretty big, huh?

[killedwithlove]

How long a foot?

[He looks to his own feet, which give a vague impression that he might not have grown into them yet.]

[poetontheinside]

Uh... [He holds his hands about a foot apart] That long a foot. I dunno what that is in meters.

[killedwithlove]

Okay.

[He pauses and think about this, trying to work out how many feet Skyhold is.

Eventually, those pale blue eyes go wide and he looks to Ray.]

That big?

[poetontheinside]

[Ray leaves him to imagine that for as long as it takes, and grins when Cole looks up at him, all proud city kid.]

Pretty impressive, huh?

[killedwithlove]

How?

Why doesn't it collapse?

[poetontheinside]

Hey, man, I'm no eng-- [He stops himself, because actually, he is, kinda. But not a civil engineer. He shakes his head with a grin.]

A lotta steel, I guess, and making sure the foundation's stable and sturdy.