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

[armd]

"... Why?"

He is not at all forgettable. On the contrary, Abby hasn't seen anybody like him up until this point. That white gleam of his eyes... that's going to stick with her, at the very least, "Will it happen to me?"

[helpinghidinghaunting]

Oh. That question, too. It twists, twinges, tears him up inside, even now, and he bites his chapped lip a moment before he replies.

"...I don't know. I can't...I can never be sure," he stumbles in that small rasp of his. "I've never really known why. I think it's...because I'm not meant to be here. Faded by the fade." A beat.

"I'm a Spirit. I'm not all person."

[armd]

The question appears to upset him, but Abby doesn't understand. She wonders why he cares, if she forgets him. He doesn't even know her.

His explanation doesn't really clear anything up, either. It only serves to make her more confused. "But- you look like a person."

Aside from those eyes of his. "How did you get here?"

[helpinghidinghaunting]

The upset doesn't linger for long, languishing away to leave the longer-lived weariness that seems to permeate the Spirit's soul. Feeling flinchy still standing in the corner, he instead moves over towards the desk, hopping up to sit atop it and crossing his legs under him.

He hesitates before answering.

"...Here?"

[armd]

To be fair, that is a distinctly unhumanlike move, the way that he perches like a bird on top of the desk. Abby is briefly reminded of Lev. It seems like something that he would do: a weird, fish-out-of-water type thing. She misses him.

"Yeah, to... the land of the living. If you're a spirit."

[helpinghidinghaunting]

It is, and he knows it - but Cole is completely comfortable with the creature-like contours of his movements. He watches Abby from his perch, head tilted just a little bit to one side.

It's a...difficult question to answer. His shoulders sink, head lowering to obscure his eyes beyond the over-wide brim of his hat.

"...I...tried to save someone. I couldn't. And now I am...him."

[armd]

Abby digests that with no small amount of confusion. There are more questions that she would like to ask about it, but what stops her is Cole's hesitance, the slump of his shoulders, how he curls over his crossed legs like he's trying to shield himself from something.

Instead, "I'm sorry you lost him."

Because she understands loss, if nothing else.

[helpinghidinghaunting]

It's a strange situation to try and understand, especially when put so shortly - and it's not something that Cole talks about very often, because it hurts. It hurts HIM, and his own hurts are still so strange, stilted, stinging-

Her words pull him from his reverie, head raising just a little, at least enough that his whole face is no longer hidden.

"...I don't want it to happen again. That's why I'm here."

[armd]

Abby digests this in silence, thinking of her own hurts, and the tangle of grief that still sits like a weighted stone in her stomach. She doesn't want anything like that to happen again to her, either. Privately, she doesn't know if she could bear it.

"I'm glad," she says, shortly. Holds up her book, "Otherwise I wouldn't have a bookmark."

Disarming a moment with humour is a bad habit, perhaps, but it's how she makes it through.

[helpinghidinghaunting]

For a long, long moment, Cole says nothing, watching her, lips pursing just a little at the humor as he struggles to understand it...but finally, he seems to sense that it's a joke, and he relaxes a little, picking his head back up. She doesn't need to harbor his hurts. She has enough of her own.

"I'm just glad to help. However I can. Even bookmarks."