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[dawnwillcome]

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action: the pathstone

[killedwithlove]

[Compassion comes to find Jove after he's stayed on the planet a couple of days.

He's brought up a single potted plant. The world wasn't happy about that, but it grudgingly let him take the one plant without too much fuss.

He slips into her room and sits and waits, stroking one of the snapped shut traps. It doesn't need insects to eat if the soil is good, but he caught a fly for it anyway.]

[dawnwillcome]

[It isn't much of a surprise to find Cole in her room while she hadn't been in it herself, not when Jove had hoped from the beginning that he would find it to be a comforting place to stay when the fleet became too much for him. It was very reminiscent of home after all, with the plants and Solas' murals decorating the walls.

He's never brought her a plant, though, so that catches her by surprise when she steps inside and sees him waiting.]

What have you got there, Cole?

[killedwithlove]

[He's already looking when she comes in. It's not entirely Cole there, something more like Compassion but the hard spirit reality of him is fading now he's away from the planet.

He holds up the pot.]

It's a plant. The world grumbled about letting me take it, but I promised to only take the one. It can eat insects. I brought it up so it can live in the garden here.

[dawnwillcome]

It eats insects? How very odd.

[She comes over to sit beside him and get a better look at the plant, resting a hand on Cole's shoulder as she leans in to inspect it.]

I've never seen anything like it. And the, ah... the world, did it tell you what it is?

[killedwithlove]

No. We didn't talk like that. Not word talk.

[He reaches up and touches her hand, fingertip tracing over it.]

Jove... you can't have both of them. I don't know not, but I know you can't.

[dawnwillcome]

[While Jove does feel proud to say she's learned the ins and outs of speaking with Cole, there are still times when he leaps from one conversation to the next and she doesn't quite catch on right away. Now is one of those times, and Jove raises an eyebrow before she looks around the room, confused.]

Both of them? Is there another new plant?

[killedwithlove]

[Cole looks off somewhere else, and then snaps his head to look to Solas' room.]

Cullen and Solas. I don't understand it, but I know you can't have them both, because wanting doesn't make things possible. I'm sorry.

[dawnwillcome]

Cullen and...

[She's trying, really, to find the threads to this and figure out what Cole means. Something about her and Cullen and Solas, obviously, but the context is still completely eluding her.]

I'm sorry, Cole, I'm not sure what you mean. Cullen and Solas are my friends, just like you are.

[There are some differences, complexities that are too great to have a real way to describe them, but the baseline is the same.]

[killedwithlove]

No.

Not like me.

The clan stays together, looks after the younger ones together, he's so young and childlike at times, I know he's not, but he needs the same guidance.

They aren't like that to you. You feel warm and hot when you're with Solas, fingers long and elegant, ink stained under the nail. Cullen flushes when you're mentioned, twist of pain when I talk of you and Solas.

[He rubs his face and pulls on his shaggy bangs.]

The word friends hides a multitude of meaning. Rhys said that.

[dawnwillcome]

[Jove really has no idea what to say to that. Her feelings for Solas and for Cullen are things she's taken great care not to think too much on, not wanting to come to any conclusions that might make whatever she may have to do in the future more difficult. The task ahead of her already seems nearly impossible, the complications of being strongly attached to someone are not something she wanted.

It was one thing to warm up to Cassandra and find a brother in Dorian and another entirely to fall in love. She'd done her best not to do exactly that when there was no way of knowing if she would return from a fight with Corypheus. Hurting anyone in that way would be selfish and horrible and she had refused to, had joked and flirted with everyone to keep the chance of any one person from getting too close.

And yet here she is, being lectured by Cole. She rubs at her temple to try to ward of a growing headache, but at least one thing is easy to agree with.]

Rhys was on to something, then.

[killedwithlove]

[Not lectured and not by Cole. His eyes are a bit too bright in a not quite right way, his skin almost ethereally pale.

His expression is one full of empathy. Full of Compassion, because he cannot do anything but understand her dilemma. But he has to protect Cullen as well, because Solas will stand at arm's reach and Cullen will fall and not know how to catch himself before he hits the ground.

He reaches to her temple, and he can't heal, he's not a mage, but his presence is soothing, like the spirits that healers pull through the Veil to help their patients.]

And a multitude of sins. I don't understand that bit.

You don't have to let yourself act on it. I think it'll make you sad to hold them both away, he smiles like a younger man when he picks up the little girl, she doesn't know what father is, but she knows the feeling in her chest when she's safe with him. I want to help. I don't think I can. I'm sorry, Jove.

[dawnwillcome]

[The word friends hides a multitude of sins, does it? That's an interesting thought, one that Jove can see the meaning behind a little better than Cole. Should she even bother to explain such a bleak outlook, though? Wouldn't it be better to do her best to leave Cole with pleasant thoughts and memories of his friend?

With his hand at her temple, such a small and loving gesture, keeping anything from Cole seems wrong. Her eyes close and she leans into that touch just a little, taking comfort from it even if it doesn't immediately fix her headache.]

Perhaps he meant only that we hide our dark sides from our friends in the hope they'll think highly of us. It's a bid misguided, that way of thinking. A true friend would love you no matter your faults.

[And she'd rather not think about acting on anything, let alone talk about it. Cullen and Elize are the easier topic here even when they're not actually the topic, so they're something Jove is more than happy to focus on rather than any feelings beyond a close kinship with any of her companions.]

They're lucky to have found each other. I know that all of us being collected here isn't an ideal situation, but it's hard to hate it when it gives us all such wonderful opportunities to meet people we never would have otherwise.

[killedwithlove]

No... I think he meant that the word friend can be used when you don't want to use others words. He called Red Hair 'friend' and she wanted to hear 'lover' or 'beloved' but friend was a word that kept her from pushing harder.

He called me friend, but he meant a lot of other things. I don't know what. I haven't see Rhys since I found out what I am.

[He's distracted briefly, stroking her temple softly.]

I never hated being here. Was I meant to?