most of my sweet memories were buried in the sand

[asunders]

Who| cole + OPEN
What| making friends with stray cats + figuring out how food tastes
Where| a random alleyway in the capitol, the tribute center restaurant
When| after the latest arena
Warnings/Notes| none yet



CAPITOL ALLEYWAY.

Everyone can see him. It doesn't matter what he does, because he can feel the weight of their eyes on him. Everyone can see him, and he can't slip away like he used to. Once, the weight of their eyes would have made him panic. But he's a little more used to being seen by now. Varric has been helping him. Instead, he tugs his hat back down over his eyes to obscure his face and makes his way around a city that seems too clean after being in Thedas for so long.

The people here are untouchable. Their thoughts are shrouded from him. He's left with the noise his own mind makes inside of his head, which is different and a little strange. He probably makes a strange sight, crouched at the end of a small alleyway with a loaf of bread in his hands. Murmuring quietly to the stray cats congregated there.

I'm not going to hurt you. You must be hungry.

It's harder to help, without those thoughts at his fingertips. But this is one small way that he can. The cats of Skyhold used to bat their paws at him even when they couldn't see him. These ones approach tentatively, spurred on by his gentle coaxing an the bread in his hands.

He can help the hungry cats. He can help.

TRIBUTE CENTER

He's never had to eat before. Back in the Spire, before he knew what he was, Cole vaguely remembers the feeling of hunger that had appeared only because he'd thought it's what he might feel. He thought he was human, back then. Or -- something else. Something more real, and more substantial than he felt, slipping through the cracks and into the darkness. But he had never actually eaten anything, even back then. He wasn't even really sure that he could.

Now the feeling is back, that odd gnawing sensation. But he doesn't really know what to eat, so he goes to the restaurant at the bottom of the tribute center and orders something at random off the menu. Or, it's more like he closes his eyes and picks at random.

The avoxes make his heart ache. They can't speak, and he can't hear them the way he would have been able to, once. They scurry away from him like scared mice as soon as he tries to speak to them. Leaving him with assorted oddities. Pickles, peanut butter. An apple and fish. Cole bites into a pickle and immediately shudders at the taste.

No, no pickles. No, they're not for him.

Unless he dipped them in peanut butter?

Someone please stop him.

Comments

Tribute Center

[burnedbrighter]

Azula watches from a distance and has some mild horror at watching him and his intentions of dipping the pickles in peanut butter.

Somehow despite the strange food behavior she's witnessed being Mentor for District Five, it never ceases to amaze her what people will put in their mouths.

Finally as she decides she can standy no more she moves to the table and takes a seat at it watching him with sharp focused eyes.

She is pale and beautiful by her own standards, manicured and brushed to perfection. Her clothes are warm and comfortable in dark crimson but with trails of gold along the cuffs and collar to add some flair. The stylist informed her it was a balance between business and beauty. All that mattered to her was she was positive she struck a powerful figure in it when entering a room.

"Enjoying yourself?"

[asunders]

He realizes it was a mistake almost as soon as he bites into it. The peanut butter does not do anything to help the taste of the pickles. In fact, the sweetness of it makes the pickle even worse. It makes him want to gag for the first time, but he finishes the mouthful he's got before pushing it away, mumbling apologies to the avoxes.

Cole looks up as she approaches. She can see him, she's talking to him without him talking to her first. It's a feeling that he's still not exactly used to.

"No, I don't think so," he mumbles, looking mournfully back at the pile of random food in front of him. "I'm not sure I like eating very much."

[burnedbrighter]

Well that is a curious way to put it. She helps herself to a chair sitting at the table with him and glancing over his selection of items.

"I've heard of people who feel that way but I've never actually encountered one. What do you find disagreeable about it?" She presses gesturing to a server to come and take her order. A glass of wine should taste just about right this time of day.

Then again after over a year of living in the Capitol, Azula was hard pressed to find a time of day she couldn't have a glass of wine.