OPEN

[fadeling]

Who: fadeling & Whoever
When: IC 8/1
Where: Shopping district
What: Cole has been avoiding people, if you want to talk to him now's probably the best time for an ambush
Rating/Warning:G/PG - No warnings so far

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It isn't hard for him to avoid people--they don't see him if he doesn't want them to. And it was easier for everyone if he did for a while. He couldn't help and if he tried he might have put his hurt on them. Then he would be worse than what they'd already said he was.

And that circular logic ran itself around in his head until he was dizzy. He can't hurt anyone or it wouldn't be him. He's still him so he can't have hurt anyone.

But what if he had? He helped and he left them healed behind him, he thought, but...

But.

But he can't stay to see, there are too many others who need help. And if he hindered instead of healed, that was hurting them too. He was supposed to help people. Was he helping people? He couldn't tell anymore. It was all cluttered, unclear and clouded, cloying and clawing and clutching coy at clinging. It was hard to see through, hard to think through, hard to see, hard to hear. It hurt to look at but he couldn't look anywhere else.

He's not the one who's supposed to hurt, to be conflicted. He was only one thing, how could he do that wrong?

He crouched in the middle of the street, passersby flowing around him, not noticing that they even moved around him, but not seeing him either. That was part of it, too, and he didn't want to be noticed. He could still hear the hurting, but he hesitated, trying not to listen, trying to lose himself in the sounds of it. Maybe if there was too much to listen to, he could forget himself for a moment. Maybe if he couldn't pull it apart, he wouldn't have to try and then he wouldn't hurt anyone.

It really wasn't working.

"Touch and try and hurt or don't touch and don't try and don't hurt. Or touch and don't hurt. Too many threads, tied together tight in tiny tangles."

But they'd caught him in them, too when he was supposed to be clean. He couldn't even tell if he was that anymore.

Comments

[bheidh]

It was easy to know where to look if you knew what you were doing. It was difficult to know where to look if there was something stopping you from seeing, but that didn't stop Leliana from hearing. She'd been heading to one of the cafes when she'd heard the voice - an unmistakable voice that, when she saw no one there, told her who it was - and that Cole hadn't fully left this place. Her birds (her new CYbuddies) had been unable to find him, but now she had.

It's only a guess that lands Leliana in front of him - trusting her hearing to carry her steps towards him until, she hopes, she's just a hand's reach away. Though his words could often be confusing these sounded more worrying, as if something had - or would happen.

"Then let us un-weave them." It wouldn't be easy, not if he could feel or sense something greater, but whatever would come was not something he would be alone in.

[faithfulflame]

It's honestly hard to miss someone like Cole, at least for Rei. Her senses are rather keenly attuned to the world he truly inhabits, and moreover he has an extremely distinctive hat. Picking him out of the crowd, she glided closer, a pair of large crows perched on her shoulders. She fixed Cole with a look and crouched down beside him, just letting him speak and taking it in silently until he finished.

"There's a lot of strands all tied together, yes, Cole-san. But that doesn't mean that you're going to have to undo them all alone."

[makigumo]

"Oh look at this, there's a statue game going on!"

It's not clear that she's talking about him. Shihoudou has this ability where she notices people that doesn't want to be noticed simply because they don't want to be noticed, because she loves to meddle, and, well.

Being the annoyance that she is, she decides to play this imaginary game as well. And she flops down, her back on his, and makes a dramatic pose. She needs to learn how personal space works but at her high age she's not going to do that.

[neverexpected]

Friends disappearing left and right make for a panicky Inquisitor as she realizes that she hasn't seen Cole in quite some time. It's not an unusual habit for the spirit to fade out of her and others' notice for extended periods of time, but recent circumstances have her on edge more than usual.

Which is why Lavellan finds herself wandering the streets of the colony, eyes darting to and fro for any sign of Cole. Hopefully, he's around and willing to be discovered.