(no subject)

[colecomfort]

WHO: Cole & Several (includes OPEN THREAD for Rifters)
WHAT: Compassion returns to Skyhold.
WHEN: Early-Mid Haring
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Cole works best with individualized threads rather than completely open ones. Please don't be afraid to contact me (Plurk or PM) if you'd like to set something up! Prompts will be posted in comments.

Comments

[Open to Rifters] Prose setup, but brackets welcome

[colecomfort]

The song is scattered around Skyhold now, and parts of it linger in other places — places it is needed. The fragmented tunes concerned him at first, but for now, it's good that they are here. Better a broken song than none at all.

He seeks them out. It's harder to know them as well as he knew Her — there's so many of them. But he can try.

He appears in front of them, a shy figure coalescing from a puff of smoke.

"You're still alive. That's good."

[demonicbeauty]

She recognized him by the hat. But recognizing something and feeling comfortable with it were two very different things. And when he appeared in front of her, the spike of fear wasn't so much at him materializing. Elves did that in Valeria all the time. It was that, as far as she knew, he was the only person in Skyhold who knew.

Who knew that she was dangerous.

Ariadne had gone about the place as best she could, given the circumstances. She'd managed to make herself useful here and there, whether it was cleaning up blood in the healers' tents or fetching and carrying wood. And of course, playing her flute for the children.

To all appearances, she was completely innocuous.

But Cole knew better. Cole had seen her talons. And seen her rip through a demon like tissue paper. And after going so long without seeing him, she'd sort of hoped it would all be forgotten.

Evidently not.

"Alive," she said, eyes going so wide that the whites could be seen all around the gray. "Yes."

[colecomfort]

"If it breaks again, it might not come back." Or it might not be strong enough. Was it, even now? So many things were still uncertain.

She was scared of him. Like a lot of people were, and yet not. Not because of what he was.

"You're Ariadne." They hadn't had time for names before. By now, it was easy enough to find out. "I'm Cole."

[demonicbeauty]

The way he spoke reminded her of River. Which reminded her of home and her own people. It was strange, trying to adjust to those patterns again. Like easing into cold water. Ariadne had been trained far too long and too hard on the right way to use humanoid language.

Still. It was nice to do away with certain pleasantries. She appreciated not having to tell him it was a pleasure to see him again and oh, how did he know her name?

None of that matter.

She dipped into a small curtsy, belying her power. "You can call me 'Airy' if you like. Everyone else does."

[colecomfort]

"Airy," he repeated, trying out the name, hearing it and everything it meant. "Flying and flitting, slipping and shifting, a wind between the walls. The music makes their eyes light up."

He smiled at her from under the hat. "It's a different name. A nicer name. It makes you lighter, so they don't have to see."

[demonicbeauty]

The nickname wasn't her invention, exactly. But it was well-placed. Ariadne had all of those qualities. And a tendency to rub off on people, much to their annoyance. Even Aunt Lysia wasn't immune to her charms. And Lysia, more than anyone else, knew the real Ariadne.

That Cole talked like he did too was unnerving. A pity his scent wasn't Alastrian. It would have explained so much.

"Coal is fire and brimstone and hardness," she replied. "I'm not sure it suits you."

[motherfucking_ghost]

Eventually, eventually, Church is going to start getting used to this magic bullshit. Today is not that day. Despite the super pale kid who needs a haircut and, like, some god damn sunlight looking all meek and shy, that he appears out of nowhere has Church jumping almost out of his shiny new skin.

"Oh my god you people and your god damn magic are going to give a guy a heart attack!" He grips his chest, only partly for dramatic purposes. "And then I won't be alive, which is pretty bad."

[colecomfort]

Cole stays still when the man jumps, not wanting to spook him any more. Some of the words he uses don't make sense... heart attack? But he can ask about that later.

"You're a new one," he notes. "Recently drawn through the rift. Sorry. I didn't mean to frighten."

He stands up, then. Tall, but still shy, his fingers idly playing with one another in front of himself.

"I'm Cole."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"...Hi." Church still looks the guy up and down kind of warily. "Church. I'm Church. And yeah, I'm still really new to the whole..." He waves a hand around to encompass Skyhold. And...well, everything. "This. You always pop up in a cloud of smoke like a stage magician?"

[colecomfort]

"No." Sometimes he just appears with no fanfare at all. He isn't certain that would be any better.

"People don't always see me until they need to." There's a note of apology there. He really is sorry for being so startling. "Not even She did."

There was a subtle flutter of one hand on She, in the direction of Church's mark.

[motherfucking_ghost]

"...It's okay, dude, just...a little warning might be nice is all I'm saying." Man but did that ever sound like some mystic mumbo prophecy stuff.

He flexes his hand with the everpresent glow. Definitely a marking, or shard of the rift of the fade, something something words and concepts he can't say he understands. Definitely not a miniature pocket dimension in his hand, ow, maybe he shouldn't have tried poking it with a needle first. "Who's 'she'?"

[foxsays]

Thanks to the 'borrowed' whetstone, the sudden appearance of a person almost has her losing fingers when she jumps and curses, knife clattering to her feet as she tries to catch her breath. She bends to retrieve it, staring so long it's probably verging on rude but usually people disappear into smoke, not the other way around.

"Amico," her voice is too high, shaky like she might laugh, "I appreciate the...the sentiment? Though perhaps not so abruptly."

The last time anything did that, it was falling through the rift as something tall and spindly screamed and raked down with claws, and it's an effort to flick the blade closed and tuck it back in her pocket.

[colecomfort]

He reaches for the knife at first, but draws his hand back when she bends, when he feels the weight of her staring. Another one from another world. It's hard enough when he frightens people from this one.

At least she does appreciate the meaning behind his words.

"I wanted to make sure. The song's scattered now, and we can't afford to lose it again." A small smile creeps in as he continues. "But there's even more here. That's good, too."

Oh. Has he met this one yet? He doesn't think so. "I'm Cole."

[foxsays]

“Song? What song? I don’t hear anyone singing.” Is there a joke she’s not in on or something? He’s smiling but that could mean a lot of things when someone just appears from seemingly nowhere and she’s glad Lux is off asleep somewhere or he’d be snapping and yowling. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m afraid, you may need to start at the beginning.”

But for the sake of not being rude, she dips her head before she takes a seat. “Araceli Bonaventura, at your service.”

[colecomfort]

"You don't have to be." At his service, that is. He sounds — he is — mildly uncomfortable at the prospect. But moving on.

"You came from somewhere else. Like most of them." Most of the people who fell through the rift. He tries to listen, to pluck out some facts about her past, her world... it's difficult. So foreign and far away. "Does you world have spirits?"

[foxsays]

Again, she's flummoxed because this is her normal greeting to anyone but the question is more important and she can always ask again later, besides, it feels safer, to allow the conversation to be steered into more charted waters.

"Si, my home is sort of like Antiva. Just with less murder and backstabbing as the national sport and much more romance and wonder, if you're curious." Blues and silvers, old figureheads salvaged, the smell of fish and brine and always noise and bustle, enough that Skyhold seems too quiet to her most days. She considers the question carefully though, managing a more sincere smile this time. "Not like this place. When you die there's nothing to possess you, nothing like them or the demons, and demons are just a story, or they are in my country. Beliefs differ very greatly, country to country, we care about the storm hags out at sea, the great whales who know so much, and mermaids of course."

Thankfully she's not from the place with the legend of a demon fooled by twins who might not have been twins, by clever words and masks and a soul split in two.

[fayth]

"Ah," the sudden appearance was surprising to say the least, almost enough for the bundle of firewood Yuna had been carrying to jump from her arms -- though she managed to keep a hold on it. "It's you..." she hadn't seen him since that first excursion, since she'd arrived in this world... How long ago was that now?

"Um, yes," she paused, letting his observation sink in. She hadn't really ventured outside of Skyhold since they'd arrived back then, the loss of her aeons dealing quite the blow to her means of protecting herself in the face of demons. But whether or not it was good that she was still here... that remained to be seen.

"You... you're all right, too?"

[colecomfort]

"Yes," he answered simply. "I made it back from the Mire."

He looked up at the firewood in her arms. "You're bringing wood to the tavern -- I could help." He stood, then, preparing to follow her.

[fayth]

Something about this young man captivated Yuna, enough so that she had to look down at the bundle in her arms before finally answering. "Oh, yes," hadn't she just said that? "Please, thank you," she halved its weight, offering a few logs over Cole's way, and starting out again.

"Do you -- often go out when there are Rifts that large? The party that left -- came back with new people from otherworlds, didn't it..."

[colecomfort]

He accepted the offer, and walked at a pace with her when she started off, staying right at her side.

"I wasn't there this time. But I know there are new ones. So many shards, scattered through the Fade..." No telling how many there would be, all told.

[laurenande]

It was not something widely known, even in Arda, but a resting elf, even one stood upright and staring into the distance, was a creature quite easily taken unawares. True, it was something of a challenge to sneak up on one of the Eldar, but it was not unheard of, especially if their rest was peaceful and they were at ease.

Galadriel had partaken in sleep and dreaming since she had come to Thedas but both were new, in practice and concept. They were unusual activities, by their very nature, and she often forgot they were even options. When she tired in Skyhold, her first inclination was not to seek out a bed or slumber. As she was wont, she found something of beauty and allowed her mind to rest as she watched it. Thus far, she found that she preferred standing on the walls of the fortress. The distance beyond Skyhold was calming and ageless, no matter the time of day; she found great beauty in the colors of the winter weather above the Frostbacks, and it was a simple thing to lose herself in the quiet majesty of them.

As it was, she was stood on the battlements, tall and unmoving. It would have been easy to mistake her for a statue, if not for the gentle, listless swirl of her light gowns or the occasional shuffling of the heavy, plain cloak she wore atop them. She was not at the edge of the battlement, but her gaze was set outward, locked on the distant, misty horizon. Cole's quiet arrival was not enough to stir her from her waking trance, even as he obscured the view, but his words managed it quickly enough.

Galadriel's gaze had not been unfocused, not exactly, but it had lacked a certain presence of mind. She blinked quickly as she came back to herself, like a daydreamer caught in the act. With a speed that belied her surprise, she drew herself up just a bit taller and her gaze snapped to Cole. There was a moment of silence as her faculties returned to her, like someone roused from a nap and thrown immediately into an urgent task, but her politely startled expression didn't darken.

In fact, despite her surprise at being woken (insofar as it counted as waking), she seemed nearly delighted. A confused but honest smile quirked her lips upward and she tilted her head forward to better peer beneath the brim of his wide hat.

"A fine sentiment," Galadriel said, at last, "and something I continue to be glad of, myself."

There was something about him that felt almost...familiar, but she could not place it.

Curiously, she had a great deal of trouble placing him.

She knew she had seen him before. She could recall the shape of him, in passing if nothing more, but only just. Memories of individual moments, of instants where he stood starkly against the stones of Skyhold or the scenery of Thedas? Those eluded her grasp like shapes in fog.

It should have been worrisome, that.

There were precious few creatures who could evade her sight, and fewer still who could conceal themselves from her so utterly, but she couldn't quite muster any actual concern.

It was odd to think it, much less experience it, but he felt like an old friend.

"Have we met before, mellon nin?" The question was, perhaps, more blunt than it ought to have been. She was certain the answer was 'no,' but something in her refused to agree.

[colecomfort]

He had caught glimpses of her that first day, on the field near Haven. White light, not obscuring the light of the mark but glowing alongside it, gentle and steady and strong. That day had been chaos, no time to stop and admire. Barely enough time to question.

He'd been hesitant to approach her since then. Too bright, so beautiful it almost hurt. He knew the light wasn't meant for him, but he still felt it. The same way he felt the meaning of those words, though his ears didn't understand them: mellon nin. Friend.

It actually didn't hurt to look at her. Not his eyes. He felt the pull more in his heart.

"We haven't spoken," he clarified, "but — I see. I was there when the sky brought you here. I helped send the demons back to the Fade."

He didn't know whether she had managed to see him in turn. He should be so lucky.

[laurenande]

It would have been a simple matter to accept his answer, to simply allow the incongruity of him to slide past her and forget that it had ever been. She had seen him in combat, while disoriented from her fall, and Skyhold was far too vibrant and lively for her to have picked him out of the crowd. The logic seemed to fill itself in; words welled up in her mind and tried to carry him off, to steal the very idea of him away.

He was a reflection in a river; if she grasped for him, she would achieve nothing. The waters would simply flow through her fingers, unhindered by her efforts, and she would be left with little more than distorted shapes of shifting light.

He was not the first of the ainur that she had met, but it had been a very, very long time since her last introduction.

Galadriel's expression relaxed, her surprise ebbed quickly and her smile eased as she considered him. If one was still and patient, even reflections on rolling water became clear. She didn't strain to place him and, without the distraction of it, he was far easier to see.

"Then I owe you thanks," Galadriel said after a long pause. "Had our company been less fit, we would have been overcome. I would not have survived that place...and, as you might guess, I am quite fond of living."

Her smile was polite.

"Tell me, what is your name?"

[colecomfort]

He sensed the thought of ainur more abstractly than the words she spoke earlier. It sounded holy, reverent, and like something that should have felt more familiar than it was. As if he'd dreamed it, once. A second later, he saw the way that word seemed to fall over him, in her eyes.

He looked down toward the stones in something that could be taken for a nod of greeting, but conveniently hid his blush.

"Cole," he said. "I'm Cole."

[laurenande]

"Cole," Galadriel repeated as he ducked his head. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

She pressed a hand over her heart and, though they were stood quite close, hazarded a short bow as she introduced herself.

"I am called Galadriel," she replied in kind. "Did you require something of me, mellon nin, or did you simply wish to congratulate me for my continued survival?"

It was asked with good humor, if nothing else, and Galadriel watched the wide brim of his hat as she awaited her answer.