THE PLANET MINGLE

[princessia]

Who: EVERYONE!
Broadcast: Maybe, if you want?!
Action: The Planet
When: From May 11th until the end of the month

[ Willing to venture away from the casinos and investigate the nearby green planet? Here's your chance, now that it's in range!

THIS IS A MINGLE. GET HERE. ]

[ Make your own prompts, explore the planet, spend a night there, piss it off by taking its plants, whatever! MAY STAR SYSTEM OOC POST for your reference on getting through the orbit, what's on the planet, etc.! ]

Comments

[openhands]

[Cassandra shakes her head. It's not so much that she doesn't trust Cole or even necessarily question his capability in helping Mal seeing as how helping is what he does. But it's her promise to Mal. She will do what is necessary if it is called for. That responsibility should not and cannot fall to anyone else, not even Cole.]

I appreciate that, Cole, but it's something that I have to do.

[killedwithlove]

No.

[Firm like Cole rarely is. Compassion is more confident in what he is than Cole can be.]

You can't. Not won't. Not, not allowed.

You can't. The world cannot have you here. You cannot be in that world, the night world.

I can. And I'll look out for her. I promise. I will do what you would, if it comes to that. It won't.

[openhands]

[Cassandra frowns a little. His urgency isn't anything new in the face of danger, but the firmness is something quite new and different. Even when he disagrees, even when he's urgent, it's more often than not that Cole understands that people will do as they feel is best.]

Cole, are you feeling alright?

[killedwithlove]

I'm feeling a lot of things. Mostly from other people.

Please. Don't stay. [He reaches for her hand, to plead.] Please. I like you. I don't want you hurt.

[openhands]

[She lets him take her hand, but she frowns. That's not the answer she was looking for and his urgency seems odd.]

Cole, I will be fine. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself.

[killedwithlove]

[He looks down, shaking his head slightly.]

You're not ready. But I'll be here.

[openhands]

Then it will be fine, Cole. You have nothing to worry about.

[killedwithlove]

[His look says he's going to keep worrying anyway, but he lets her hand go.]

[openhands]

[There is only so much that Cassandra can do to convince Cole. She cannot make him worry less or not at all and it probably wouldn't be in his nature to stop worrying altogether in the first place. They are at somewhat of an impasse however, so both simply need to accept and let be.]

Just keep a close watch on Mal if you happen to find her. She may not be entirely within her right mind.

[Whether due to the transfer or the planet's influence, anyway, Cassandra isn't fully expecting to find Mal completely herself. Just so long as she can hold onto control will be more than enough. Then perhaps they can put this behind them and see what happens.]

[killedwithlove]

I will. I promise. I'll look out for her.

And I can not be where she is, so she won't hurt me. I know she'd be upset if she hurt someone and wasn't in her usual way of thinking.

[openhands]

She would never forgive herself. I believe you two have that much in common.

[killedwithlove]

I don't really know anything about forgiveness.

[openhands]

Compassion and forgiveness are often quite similar, Cole.

[killedwithlove]

Are they?

[For a moment, Cole almost flickers, paler, gaunter, something more like a ghost of a starved man.

But then it's just Compassion with her.]

Maybe they are. Rhys empathised and forgave.

[openhands]

Not everything is forgivable, but some pain cannot be relieved until you learn to forgive.

[Naturally, she thinks acutely of Anthony. For so long she held nothing but anger and hatred in her heart towards all mages, and fear of blood mages. It wasn't until she could learn to forgive while never forgetting what happened to Anthony that she could heal from the loss.]

[killedwithlove]

[Compassion reads her and considers it. Cole did not forgive. Cole had not been pushed to forgive, but he also never thought to blame all templars for those that hurt Cole.]

Solas told me to forgive the templar who killed me. But Cadash and Varric showed me how to just feel without having to act instead.

[openhands]

And you are at peace with it? [she asks slowly.]

[killedwithlove]

Right now? Yes.

Normally? No. Dying of starvation is a terrible death. Weeks alone, hungry, trying to make it one more hour by eating the moss and lichen on the walls, sipping the dribbles of water that turn to small waterfalls when the rain soaks the city above.

[For all that he remembers, in that moment, a bit less Cole than usual, he can just recite it like any of the hundreds of other horrors he knows.]

[openhands]

[Cassandra will never fully understand how it is that Compassion is able to take on that pain, to feel it as its own without going insane and yet be able to speak of it like a near well-practiced speech of some other, less disturbing topic. There is a part of her that thinks Cadash and Varric were both wrong. He's not a person and feeling that way does no one any favors. But what's done is done and there is something more striking in what he says than his holding onto the anger and pain.]

What's different between right now and normally?

[killedwithlove]

[He hums softly, thinking about it.]

I think, right now, I'm more Compassion than Cole. I remember being Cole, but it's a bit more distant. I feel for what he went through.

Usually, being Cole is closer, cloying, calming, comforting and...

It doesn't hurt as much at the moment. That... peopleness is there, but not here.

[openhands]

[That's...new. Cole's always seemed quite permanent in his impermanence with an inextricable bond between Cole and Compassion.]

Does that have something to do with the planet, Cole?

[killedwithlove]

Yes. Probably.

It's almost like the edges of the Fade. It sings here.

[openhands]

It sounds as though you should also be careful while you're here, Cole.

[killedwithlove]

All right. I will be careful.