onlyhymns: (Default)
Cade Harimann ([personal profile] onlyhymns) wrote in [community profile] faderift2015-12-13 02:35 pm

[open] where I go

WHO: Knight-Lieutenant Cade Harimann and you
WHAT: A jumpy templar is out of the dungeon and getting his bearings on Skyhold. What horrors will he face? (by horrors I mean other people)
WHEN: Early Haring
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES:If your character met him during speed dating, feel free to assume that conversation happened IC (except Nerva) and that they're already acquainted.




Finally unleashed upon his new home, and wearing his traveling leathers with the unmistakeable flaming Templar sword emblazoned on the chest, Cade made his way around Skyhold with the intention of finding a purpose for himself.

1. The battlements. Cade was unnerved by crowds and limited sightlines, so he had taken to spending a good chunk of time up in the battlements. It gave him an opportunity to watch, listen, and grow accustomed to life below, which was so very different than how he'd come to understand the world.

2. The training grounds. Although he had first been seen in his heavy Templar plate, wielding a sword, left to his own devices Cade was more likely to use the archery range. He was an exceptionally good shot, and spent hours shooting targets with the single-minded concentration of one who was trying not to think about anything at all.

3. The chapel. He could often be found alone in the small chamber just off the cloistered garden, on his knees and with his head bowed to the altar of Andraste.

4. Anywhere! Give me a place and I'll find a reason that he'd be there.

girlinthebox: (feeling naked)

[personal profile] girlinthebox 2015-12-21 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
He'd hear. The noise frightened him, the song gnawed at him, and she remembers what it meant when he commanded silence.

There was a reflexive little shudder, and she fell further behind Cole's shadow. Her eyes trailed upwards from the praying templar to the statue above him, Andraste in cold stone with arms stretched outward.

"Pain. Shame. Coward. He fears fearing, the things the shadow holds. Monsters with men's faces," she hissed quietly, words meant for Cole alone. "He won't want us here."
colecomfort: (finding the words)

[personal profile] colecomfort 2015-12-21 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
She was hiding, but the man — even if he'd been angry before — was just tired. Fearful, yes, uncertain of them both, and yet there was room to speak here.

"You don't have to be afraid," Cole assured him. "But I can see why you are. You think it's secret, silent, something to suffer on your own." Why, he wondered, when there were other Templars around?
girlinthebox: (paths yet to tred)

[personal profile] girlinthebox 2015-12-21 10:48 pm (UTC)(link)
River stayed silent, for her part. Her eyes stayed trained on Cade, even as that flicker of recognition passed through him. She'd watched until they came for him and took him away, so very tired and certain he was going to die.

It's no wonder he's exhausted. Being terrified constantly drains you.

Finally, there's a faint tip of her head, inquisitive. Curious. Not afraid.
colecomfort: (it doesn't sound right)

[personal profile] colecomfort 2015-12-22 12:51 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm Cole." And with a nod over his shoulder: "This is River. But you'll remember her. So do lots of other people. You can ask them."

About River. He'd have less luck asking about the boy in the hat.
girlinthebox: (it's hard for you)

[personal profile] girlinthebox 2015-12-22 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
"You needed help," she offered quietly from just behind Cole's shoulder, still peering at him from the safety of cover. But now he was afraid of them, that they weren't real, that he was still losing his grip on reality.

Never a fun feeling.
colecomfort: (it doesn't sound right)

[personal profile] colecomfort 2015-12-23 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
"River's — real," Cole responded. A short hitch between the two words, as if he knew the description was inadequate. "She hears the songs, but she's more like you. She can dream."

He was dancing around the point. "You don't have to be afraid of us." Repeating it, hoping it got across this time. "You're already exhausted. You can put it down."
girlinthebox: (watching it burn)

[personal profile] girlinthebox 2015-12-23 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Real. Not a phantom of his mind, as he feared. Not a hallucination.

Slowly she edged out from behind Cole's shadow, her feet cold against the stone of the sanctuary. "You thought you were going to die. Waited for it, too tired for anything but an end. Afraid of blood magic and abominations, striking out blindly. She knows too much."

Her head shook slowly. "I'm not those things. I'm not angry. I want to help. We both do."
colecomfort: (finding the words)

[personal profile] colecomfort 2015-12-27 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm not that kind of spirit." The kind that could tell the future. Cole wasn't even certain those existed.

He was willing to try again. He stepped forward, and so long as Cade didn't run, he would join him at the alter, sitting crosslegged rather than kneeling.

"You're worried about the Commander."
girlinthebox: (starlight to remember you by)

[personal profile] girlinthebox 2015-12-29 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Meanwhile, River's attention had been drawn by the statue of Andraste that overwhelmed most of the tiny chapel. Stone arms. They should have been enough to protect him, but they cast shadows instead. How could you feel anything but small?

Cole's voice echoed softly in the room, warmer against the stone than the brief flicker of candlelight that sputtered at the statue's feet. She still lingered back some distance, eyes on Cade almost wistfully.

Maybe she could learn to help them better, if she watched. All she seemed to do was unnerve him.
colecomfort: (you killed me)

[personal profile] colecomfort 2015-12-30 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"Who am I when the rules don't matter? What are we? Knuckles white, throat burning, Maker watches over me." Oh. That was... oh.

That same revulsion rose in him: a reflection of the man's emotions, but also a reaction to what Cole had seen before the door to those memories had been quickly shut. Not enough to see it all, to know the whole shape of things, but enough to feel the horror. To know that something — someone — had ruptured his trust this thoroughly.

"He got it wrong." The words were pulled out of him: hushed, but soaked through with his sudden conviction. This was the most important thing that could be said. "He only spoke the words. The rest was hollow."
girlinthebox: (wounds to tend)

[personal profile] girlinthebox 2015-12-31 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
When--

The terror is familiar, closing at the throat, the sense of you were supposed to help me, and River feels her skin crawl all over again without knowing fully why. He'd believed the words, hidden in them like armor, a light to banish the darkness. But light guttered, faltered with his fear.

Would Cole's words find the mark? Some hurts went too deep, too buried beneath scars to be healed easily.
colecomfort: (you look familiar)

[personal profile] colecomfort 2016-01-05 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
The words hadn't worked. If old hurts were scars, Cole had torn one open that was only ever half-healed, barely sutured and sometimes, still bleeding. It was burning in the man's mind, seeping into every corner. Unclean.

"I tugged, and it tore. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry." Perhaps the words were worth something. To himself, if not to the templar, because:

"Forget." Cole spoke the word with a wave of his hand, creating a hole in the man's memory and allowing the past few minutes to slip into it, and disappear. He stood, and walked toward the door without looking back. He only paused to speak, briefly, to River:

"We should go."