OPEN - Follow me home, if you dare to

[helpinghidinghaunting]

WHO: Cole and YOU!
WHAT: Catch-all for Cole's first month!
WHEN: September
WHERE: Various - the Gallows, Kirkwall, possibly TBD
NOTES: Astarion thread: CW - Mentions of abuse, torture, murder, and starving

If you want something special, let me know and I will write us a starter! And a reminder, you can fill out Cole's permissions HERE if you would like him to read your character's pain/past!

Starters in comments.

Comments

[arkitect]

There doesn't need to be anything else, he says, and something buried inside what he's been picking up from Emet-Selch shifts. Sharpens and digs in a little, an unintentional step onto broken glass; he does listen, though, to what else Cole has to say, his expression impassive as he decides his own response.

"If you're going to be here, and be anyone at all-- then you're going to have to find yourself a better answer."

[helpinghidinghaunting]

The shift is palpable to the Spirit - the crunch and crack of shards, needling, pushing. He doesn't back down, doesn't look away.

"Why?"

The question is simple, and would feel naive, innocent...but there's something else behind it, just out of reach.

[arkitect]

"Because if you are going to exist outside of your Fade, and to be someone, as you said-- there will have to be more to your life and identity than simply your purpose."

Said as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, at least to him-- but there's a slight hint of forced casualness to it that might be identifiable to him.

[helpinghidinghaunting]

"Why does what I am bother you?"

Still wide eyed, still childlike, still...otherworldly. His face is hard to read.

"I am...happy, helping people. That is what I am. That is what keeps me here. If I am happy...why isn't that enough?"

[arkitect]

Something about that stings.

But he says nothing of it, just exhales a long-suffering sigh. "Exist that way, then, if it is all you care to do. It hardly affects me if you remain incapable of properly existing within the world."

[helpinghidinghaunting]

The Spirit listens to this...standing there, head tilting to one side...and then, all at once upon hearing Emet's reply, his chin drops, the brim of that over-large hat shadowing his face.

"...But it does affect you," he rasps, softly, in a tone that vaguely mirrors Emet's. "And that's why you can't give me a reason."

He strides forward the step that he had taken backward before, ignoring the crunch of the glass below, the way the icy water resists him, bites at his skin. "Maybe...you're not ready for me yet."

[arkitect]

"It is not for you to decide," he snaps in response; anyone might find the spirit's current demeanor unsettling, but that doesn't affect him. There's just a spark of more open irritation than he's allowed to show thus far. "I have told you once already that there is naught for you to offer, and I suggest you remember this; I am disinclined to keep repeating myself."

[helpinghidinghaunting]

Another stride forward. Another. Cole has made up his mind, and the broken glass is inside him now, tumbling out in his voice when he replies. This is for the best. He will try again later.

"I will remember," he hisses, holding out a spindly, grimy hand glowing with a smoky, wispy energy.

"But you won't."

In a flash, the Spirit vanishes from view...but he is still standing there, watching carefully what happens when Emet begins to feel his memories of this whole conversation uncontrollably slip away from him, like water through a sieve.

[arkitect]

His own demeanor remains unchanged as Cole steps closer-- the annoyance is allowed to show, now, distaste clear in the twist of his mouth as he looks down on him. But the spirit holds out a hand and speaks, and those words do spark something.

Shadow answers his reflexive call, a dark glow flaring around one hand with the sharp intent to lash out; there is somehow nothing there to strike, though. And then when things begin to slip further-

It's not fear, not really. More like a sudden desperate disbelief-- if Cole thought the vibes were bad before, they are crushingly so now, a whirlpool in that dark, empty water. There's the sense of determined attachment, of clinging to this with as strong a grip as he can manage, and in that there is the distinct, jagged impression of the utter unwillingness to let anything be lost. (There is also, oddly, the exact sensation that had sharpened not long ago in their conversation, but it's so entangled in everything else that it's difficult to identify.)

The one thing that will be clear in all of this, though, is that this is maybe one of the more painful things that could be done to him. If he still had an impression of his presence, Emet-Selch would have attempted to kill him without a thought.

...so it's for the best that it continues to slip and fade, taking with it that lingering sense of disbelief and the impression that this shouldn't, couldn't happen.

He's still left unsettled by its end, frowning down at the purple-black magic gathered around an open hand, and dismisses it with a sharp flick of his wrist. He may not know why he feels uneasy, but he longer wishes to be here, quickly turning to stalk away.

[helpinghidinghaunting]

Cole is a kindhearted thing - he dislikes causing further pain, and he watches the struggling Rifter from his hidden place with pity on his face. Standing there, he frowns deeply, letting the whirlpool wash over him. As each feeling spikes up, he notes it, letting it pass.

He takes no pleasure in this, watching Emet cling fast and slowly lose his grip. If he ever did take pleasure in it, it would mean something he doesn't want to so much as consider.

It really just makes him sad.

When the thing is done and Emet turns away, Cole simply lets him go, watching after him.

Another time.