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

[shenunigans]

When the Avox seems to heed Cole's request and disappears, Dave takes it as a chance to invite himself to sit across from him. In a normal place, this would be weird. You don't just rock up to some guy at the mall and touch his food and sit with him, but maybe you could get away with it at the school cafeteria. Everything here feels a lot more like an aggressive, violent, celebrity school, sometimes you can just wander up to someone and have enough in common to fuel a conversation.

Most of the time, everyone here looks like they could use someone to talk to.

When the Avox returns, he resists the urge to invite himself to eat this guy's food as well. He watches him try the combo, assuming he's from a past where peanut butter wasn't a thing. "Most of the time, sure. But then you get stuff that doesn't, like Sweet and Sour pork, and it blows your mind." He even does the jazz hands to illustrate his point. "Why're you asking that, anyway? Are you a survivor of a tragic taste bud accident from an early age or something?"

[asunders]

It's a good thing that Cole doesn't really understand concepts like space in the same way that other people might. And he's done his fair share of intruding, what with the fact that he used to dip into other people's heads and pull out all of their most painful thoughts and memories. Dave reaching out and touching his food isn't something that bothers him. It's not even something that he registers as being forward. Instead, he perceives it as someone helping him.

Which is...a little strange. Someone helping him, when he's supposed to be the one helping everyone else.

"No, I've...never had to eat before," he admits, without pausing to consider how strange that sounds. "It's very strange."

Like almost putting pickles into peanut butter wasn't strange.

[shenunigans]

Since Cole doesn't seem particularly perturbed, Dave doesn't let himself worry too much about it. Maybe it says more about Cole than it does him, but there are more important things to worry about. Like Murder Games and the fact that he's never had to eat before.

"No kidding." He retorts, helping himself to an apple slice and barely waiting to chew it down before he continues. "I'll clue you in on something, though. You're talking to a kid who ascended to immortality with his mad time travel powers, so I'm probably going to believe whatever crazy-ass answer you've got for me, Shiloh."

[asunders]

A lot of people tell him that the way he talks is confusing, but the truth is that Cole doesn't really understand half of what Dave is saying right now. And he probably makes it obvious, too, with the way he tilts his head a little at him.

"My name isn't Shiloh, it's Cole," he takes another bite of apple and decides that he likes apples very much. "Are you really immortal? You don't seem like a spirit."

[shenunigans]

Similarly, Dave is used to being renowned for being confusing. He babbles, he uses metaphors and he peppers in references that most people wouldn't get. This is primarily because he's an uncompromising hipster and also because he's awkward.

"I know- Well. I dunno your name. I do now, but it's a joke. Shiloh is a dog and. Never mind." He waves off that tangent and moves on to the next thing. "I'm not a spirit, I'm a Knight. It's very strange." He parrots Cole's words, just to drive that point home. "So I'll probably believe whatever reason you had for your eternal hunger strike."

[asunders]

People have tried to explain jokes to him. Varric made a valiant attempt in teaching him something called knock-knock jokes, but he never seemed to get the hang of it. Apparently, you're not just supposed to state facts in a deadpan voice. Apparently, that's not how you tell a joke.

"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Cole."
"Cole who?"
"That's my name. Cole."

It's a work in progress.

"But Knights aren't immortal. Some of them tried, they defied nature. They were all twisted and wrong and red inside. But they fell like anyone else."

He slides some of the food over to Dave. Sharing is part of compassion.

"I...used to be a spirit, I think. I don't know what I am now."

[shenunigans]

Fortunately, Dave is used to people not really getting what he's trying to say. He over references popculture and has no intention of stopping, so it's no wonder people who aren't from America in 2009 specifically don't really understand him.

Of course, he's becoming increasingly aware of the fact that Cole is very...literal. As evidenced by that response. Dave can't help crinkling his nose, because he doesn't much like to think about what colour his insides are.

"I'm not your average Knight. Things are different in my world." He nods appreciatively when he's offered food, taking another slice of apple and scooping more peanut butter onto it. "You're a normie. A human, I guess. When you say spirit do you mean like Jesus- Uh. A prophetic, spiritual savior or like boo, a ghost? Like Casper. You don't know Casper." But he's a lot like Casper.