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yesssssssss

[fade_away]

[Cole is already in the gardens. The green is familiar. He likes it there, the way it hums with life and warmth, breathes like lungs for the Tranquility. People come here to feel better, so Cole likes to lurk here as well. It's easier to help and vanish here.

He is listening, always listening, humming with the low song that he used to think was the ship itself before he met Death. It's a comforting ancient song too big to understand but none the less present.

He doesn't see Solas, but he feels him, hears him, the familiar notes of song, the way the he moves through the harmonies. Cole pauses, listening further, because - because he wants to see his friend so badly he thinks maybe he might be hearing things, maybe this is someone else who sounds like him. His feet find the paths on their own, picking through the twisting walkways towards -

Yes, it's him. First Rhys and Evangeline, now Solas, this place might be unfamiliar and strange but all the people he loves are arriving and he couldn't be happier.]

Solas!

Re: yesssssssss

[harillen]

[The cry surprises Solas.

He stiffens before turning, both brows raised.] Cole? [The tension melts out of him a moment later.

Having met the Inquisitor - an Inquisitor - he understands that this likely isn't his Cole. But a Cole is better than no Cole, and the face is still familiar even if the history is not.

Smiling, he rises from where he sits, sliding off the boulder.]

It is good to see you, Cole. Any familiar face is always welcome.

[fade_away]

[Different points in the timeline Cole is used to now. Different universes, well... that will take some getting used to still.

Still.

It is his friend, and Cole is so happy.]

It is good to see you too. [He's still learning how to talk like a person. The right things to say, which results in a lot of parroting. When he is from they just arrived in Skyhold, after all. But Solas was never unkind, always gently guiding, always patient in the event of mistakes. For him, anyway.] You weren't here, but now you are.

[harillen]

Now I am.

[Solas pads closer, his toes kicking up dirt as he approaches. He's never had any use for shoes.]

You have no medallion. [Tact, what tact? He gestures toward Cole's shoulder, and when he speaks, his words are gentle and a little sad.] Have you taken Varric's advice, then?

[fade_away]

[Cole is unsure about how necessary shoes are. His laces are problematic. They cannot be reasoned with. Thankfully Cullen and Dorian help him with them.

He tilts his head to the side, curious.]

Medallion?

Walls around me not to hold me in to keep other things out, keep me safe, but the shape is wrong? It hurts and I cry out why won't it work - What are you doing to the kid?

... Solas, I don't remember that.

[harillen]

[He looks taken aback for a moment and then immediately puts up walls around his thoughts. It's not hard for him to draw the right conclusion: not just a different world but a different time.]

Then let us not dwell on it. There's no point in dwelling on things that have not happened, and you are safe here.

[He has no way of knowing how untrue that is, but he means it. He also means that he will do what is necessary to keep Cole safe.]

How long have you been here, Cole?

[fade_away]

[It's always a little startling when Solas does that, because no one else does, but while Cole clearly does startle he otherwise simply continues on. It's just something Solas does.]

Two months... I think? Time blurs at the edges no sunrise no sunset just fields of stars.

[harillen]

A ship that sails the skies instead of water. To think that humans have managed to achieve this much.

[He glances away, expression slightly drawn. The ground beneath them hums, but not the way Thedas does. Not with life. Not with magic.] To exist without day or night... How disquieting.

[fade_away]

The name is wrong. It isn't muted like the tranquil. Old songs hum inside of it. There's spirits here I've made friends with. [Oh my gosh he will get to introduce Solas to his new spirit friends best. day. ever.]

[harillen]

[For a moment, he's confused. And then he remembers: the Tranquility. He manages to keep his lip from curling with disdain, but only just barely.

Then Cole mentions spirits.]

There are other spirits here? How did you meet them?

[fade_away]

I found Ai in the gardens making butterflies. She's sad inside because people hurt her. We're friends now though. [She's ... kind of similar to a spirit of Vengeance probably you know nothing to worry about.] There's Death, too. Two of them, they are married. One helped me with making this device talk at me so I could understand it - [He holds up the communicator so Solas can see. Cole is literate... barely... so a text-to-audio function was a lifesaver.] The other has a cat named Rincewind they were in the gardens too he let me play with his cat who is named after his friend back home.

[harillen]

I'm glad to hear it. [Solas reaches out, placing a casual, friendly touch on Cole's shoulder. He is glad, very glad, that Cole is making friends.

A perverse part of him is pleased those friends are spirits. Some of that satisfaction, a certain smugness that Varric has been thwarted in this way, slips through the mental barriers he keeps up to keep Cole out.] And I would like to meet them, should you like.

[fade_away]

[Cole feels Solas, what he lets slip, but he does not understand why it is. Incomplete, because he is still incomplete. Neither spirit nor human, his nature has not yet come into conflict with itself, still balancing on the tightrope of middle ground.

Someone else might be suspicious, but Cole trusts Solas, completely and wholly. Solas is his friend. Solas is gentle with his mistakes, and understands him.]

I would like. Ai doesn't trust people because they often hurt spirits if they know they're there where she is from. I told her you were good and kind. She needs friends that understand.

[harillen]

I would be happy to be her friend. [He tips his head to one side in consideration.] Where is she from that they do not understand? A world unlike Thedas?

[fade_away]

[Cole nods.] There's only humans there. Humans and spirits. And... most humans don't remember spirits exist, so they think there's only humans.

[harillen]

[The very concept of a world like that is not only unnerving to Solas but abhorrent as well. His face flickers with both expressions, jaw tightening with disdain.] That sounds unpleasant. And lonely. [For a second, he looks very sad, but then his expression is neutral again.

The mask comes easy now.]

If you want to introduce us, that would make me happy, Cole.

[fade_away]

It would make me happy, too. [Cole has yet to learn the 'your friends won't always be friends with each other' thing, though he's fairly confident in Solas' ability to get along with Ai. Solas understands spirits, and he is kind.]

[harillen]

Then we shall see it done. I am always happy to help you, Cole.

[And it's true. Solas might push everyone else away with backhanded compliments and the damnation of faint praise, but not Cole. Never Cole.]

When she's inclined to meet, you shall use this device? [He taps the comms device, eyes crinkling at the corner.] I will attempt to answer in kind.

[fade_away]

You are very smart Solas, I don't think you'll have troubles with it. But if you do I can help. Didi - one of the Death spirits - she showed me. [Oh, he said that already. Still, spirit boy is very excited to have one of his best friends back.]

[harillen]

[His chuckle is dry, his expression wan.] And you are kind, but my knowledge doesn't extend to devices such as these. I am no dwarf. [Remarkably, he says those words without much bite.]

You said the Death spirits are married? [This obviously intrigues him - there's a hungry expression on his face, almost greedy. He wears the look of a man starved.] These spirits affect mortal behavior? [He's absolutely fascinated by the idea, his eyes glittering. He still hasn't quite wrapped his mind around the idea that these spirits won't behave like the ones he has known.]

[fade_away]

They are both the only deaths in their worlds. Maybe that's why they married? They seem very happy. Didi always seems happy though. I can hear them but I can't understand them, their songs are too loud and vast. Mister Door said he had a granddaughter though.