[OPEN] Kindness is a light in Kirkwall

[killedwithlove]

WHO: Cole; anyone who needs him
WHAT: Cole's been convinced to come to Kirkwall to help people so he is going to help the hell out of them.
WHEN: Covering the month of Bloomingtide
WHERE: Anywhere BUT the Gallows
NOTES: Will probably end up dealing with lots of the awful from the Gallows. PM this journal or jemisard for an individual starter

Cole never wanted to come here. He wanted to leave, to go elsewhere, but he was convinced that here he is most needed and thus, here he is.

Kirkwall scares him. Deeply scares him, so much that he barely goes into the city at first, but he slowly starts picking out the individuals among the screaming horror of the city, the people who he can help, who still be touched and brought back.

Comments

[killedwithlove]

"Yes."

Her glance is what provokes the comment. The Gallows is stained with so much suffering and misery and Despair that nothing will ever lift it while it holds that shape.

"The stones remember. The wood stains with Despair and warps under the pressure. The Veil shudders and the other side weeps all the tears that were ever shed there. I can't go in there. I don't think all those people should be there."

[aceso]

His words paint such a vivid picture that Christine shudders and pulls her cloak a bit tighter around herself.

"Well, lucky you. After hearing that, now I definitely do not want to go back there, but I am forced to be there." Not completely forced, but her choices are between working there and leaving the Inquisition, which she's seriously considered. If the Inquisition is so cruel as to force people -- especially mages -- into the location where up to a few years ago mages and Tranquil were tortured and killed, then perhaps it isn't the organization for her anymore. She's here to help people as a healer and to research red lyrium to stop its spread. Why she can't do that on the docks is beyond her.

[killedwithlove]

"They can't make me stay there. And no one wants to risk it, that I might Despair and make a whole lot of people hurt themselves." He rocks back and forth, an oddly childlike comfort mannerism.

"You have to have Faith that you do right by you. You need to look after you to look after others. Your must have very strong faith though, if She's with you."

[aceso]

Christine squints at him, trying to work out what he means. Because it sounds like he'll go on a rampage if he goes to the Gallows. It almost sounds like... but no, he can't be. He's a human, sitting right here, right? But then how does he know about Faith?

"Who are you?" she asks, her voice a mixture of curiosity and wariness.

[killedwithlove]

He's a pale young man, of not more than twenty, with an unfortunate nose and weak chin. If not for his hat, he'd be completely unremarkable.

"Cole. I'm Cole. But you don't really mean who, you mean what."

Which he promptly doesn't explain.

[aceso]

It's at this time that Faith pushes gently against Christine's consciousness to let the mage know she's there. She's always right there across the Veil, but it's been many months since Christine sought out her help in the Fade and the two have been partnered for spirit healing, and Faith doesn't load Christine down with endless questions about the living world anymore. She's simply there, observing. But now she comes forward to confirm that what Christine is thinking is true. Spirits can tell who other spirits are.

"I have never... seen one of you like this before," she says, slightly puzzled.

[killedwithlove]

Mortals think he's mortal.

Spirits know he's one of them.

"No one has," he replies. "I'm... unique. According to Solas. And everyone else. My manifestation is as Cole. Hello, Faith. I know you're there, but I can't see or hear you. I know because of how you affect Christine."

[aceso]

"So even though you are here, and flesh and blood, you can hear my thoughts?" She's not sure how she feels about that. It seems rather invasive, but on the other hand, it's what spirits do. It's simply strange to see him as a solid mass in front of her. Faith doesn't push Christine to feel all right about it. In the end, it's her decision. But what Faith does do is whisper one thought to Christine.

"Compassion." She knows a spirit healer who works with a spirit of Compassion. It really is one of the best spirits to assist in the healing of others, but in the end, a mage is reached out to by the spirit who is most intrigued by them in the Fade.

[killedwithlove]

"No. Yes. Not exactly?"

He looks at her as she says his name, eyes wide and soft and then nodding slowly. "Yes. I was. Am. Was. I'm not a spirit of Compassion anymore. But I'm not- not Compassion. I'm more. I'm still Compassion, but I'm also Cole."

[aceso]

Christine regards him curiously as he struggles to name what he is. He seems very indecisive about it.

"All right, Cole. I can very well understand why you do not want to go to the Gallows." Faith had been overwhelmed too, and she's one of the strongest types of spirits there is. Eventually, she'll do better with the location and will be able to help Christine too.

[killedwithlove]

Whereas Compassion is, by all common convention, one of the weakest spirits. "Faith still existed in that place. But Compassion... I don't think Compassion had ever been known there enough to touch a single stone."

[aceso]

"I do not disagree, but you are making me feel even worse about having to go back there again." Day after day, hour and hour, stuck on that island trying to do her work and not have another panic attack this time.

[killedwithlove]

"Don't."

He feels bad about making her feel scared. He didn't want to. "Stay somewhere else. Somewhere less... the Gallows. Anders is. So is Fenris."

[aceso]

Christine lets out a scoffing sound and looks away, speaking under her breath. "Like I want to be within fifty feet of Anders." She will never be motivated to do anything based on the likes of him.

"I work at the Gallows," she says, turning back to address Cole. "I sleep here in a warehouse. Believe me when I say I spend as few hours there at the Gallows as I am allowed."

[killedwithlove]

Her disdain cuts sharply, partly just for the emotion and partly because Anders is one of the only people who has been genuine kind and thoughtful to Cole for his own sake in this place. "Mortals are quick to judge, but not good at it," he murmurs.

"Why do you work there?" That's said louder, clearer.

[aceso]

"I am primarily a healer, but I study red lyrium as well." Her hand gestures vaguely in the direction of that horrible place. "My team came up with the cleansing runes that will prevent the red lyrium from growing there again, but there is still more work to be done."

[killedwithlove]

"It sings a song that echoes through the world," Cole comments, almost absently. "Have you ever wondered what makes a Grey Warden Grey?"

He's mortal looking, but still a spirit. The leap in the conversation makes sense to him, in some fashion, but probably not anyone else.

[aceso]

Definitely not to anyone else. If anything, she thinks he's bringing up Anders again, and she's not going down that road.

"I have always wondered what makes the rifts in the Fade green. Why not red, or purple, or black? And what is turning this blue lyrium red? Colors are strange that way."

[killedwithlove]

"The Fade makes Rifts green."

He doesn't know why. But he's fairly sure that's the case.

"Why doesn't the lyrium go grey...? Maybe it's too angry, burns too hot."

[aceso]

"I know, but why green? That is the question." But one she doesn't expect an answer to. "Maybe. Maybe it is originally blue to mirror the sky above while it grows far below. But when it becomes red, it burns like red hot fire. I intend to at least find out what makes it red."

[killedwithlove]

Cole's expression twists briefly, because he's trying to tell her things, but it's not working and he doesn't know how else to say it. "The colour doesn't matter. Blue, red, grey, green, it's the inside. Sight seems strong but it's simple surrogacy of soul."

He makes a pained noise and flickers away in a curl of black green smoke, facing away from her and hugging himself. "Working webs and dusty drudgery... Why is this world so difficult? Why do mortals have inside and outside? It makes it hard to communicate."

[aceso]

Christine blinks and shifts back a step at Cole's reaction. It doesn't seem like anyone else had seen that, and a good thing too. Not everyone would be able to just brush it off, and would want something done about him. Sighing softly, she comes closer.

"We are saying the same thing, Cole. No, the color does not matter. It is the why that matters to me. The color is... just the sight. The reasoning behind is the soul. What is the soul of red lyrium? If I find out, perhaps I can save people."

[killedwithlove]

No. They're not. But he can't explain.

"It sings. The soul of red lyrium sings and the song is beguiling the longer you hear it." He wrinkles his nose and shakes his head. "But I don't know it mortals hear it."

[aceso]

Oh, well. She gave it her best shot.

"Of course we can hear it. It is why working with it is so dangerous, and restricted to certain times; so we do not latch on to the song.

[killedwithlove]

He shakes his head sadly.

Whatever it is he knows, or thinks he knows, he needs to find another way to express it.

"People say Faith is the most powerful spirit and Compassion is the weakest. But I don't know what people they are."