no man is an island, this i know.
OUT of CHARACTER
Name: Juli
Other characters: Natasha Romanoff / Beth Greene
IN CHARACTER
Name: Cole
Alias: N/A
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Canon point/AU: Right after the “Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts” story mission
Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
asunders
PB: I’ll be using icons from the game.
Age: It’s a little complicated. He appears to be a young man, and described as looking no older than 20 years old. Mentally, it’s difficult to state an exact age or even an approximation because he’s a spirit and time applies differently to him than it would to a regular human. There are instances where his lack of understanding of human customs makes him act in ways that are perceived as more childlike, even if he appears to be an adult.
History: Cole at the dragon age wiki. Dragon Age: Inquisition is a game where the outcomes are largely based on player choice. Here’s a brief summary of the choices I’m using to play Cole:
Cole is unnerving. That’s what a lot of people would say about him, and they are not without reason to believe that. There’s something in the way he carries himself that’s a little odd, that subtly marks him as not quite right. Maybe it’s his uncanny ability to appear out of thin air at the most opportune times, or his strange way of speaking. More likely, it's his habit of blurting out the most painful thoughts and memories of those around him without understanding how others might not appreciate it.
He is a spirit of compassion who has taken physical form - more specifically, he took the form of a trapped mage, left in a prison cell and forgotten as he starved to death. Cole wears his likeness and his name, and therefore appears to the world as a young man with ragged blonde hair and dirty clothes. He speaks in a quiet, haunting tone and keeps to himself without drawing attention unless it's absolutely necessary. He resides in dark corners, content to watch and listen and take everything in. For the most part, he understands that many of the servants and others who work for the Inquisition are frightened of him. He makes them forget his presence, or he keeps himself invisible to them.
Cole doesn't always understand people, even if his telepathic abilities make him privy to their innermost thoughts and feelings. During a casual conversation, Dorian gives him permission ask questions about him. Cole automatically asks about his estranged father, an incredibly sensitive topic that Dorian is rightfully upset by. But Cole's response is a bewildered one: you said I could ask questions. He doesn't understand why it's uncomfortable to talk about, especially not in the middle of their group. All he understands is that he wants to help. In the same vein, he openly recites thoughts about the Inquisitor's private romances, among a whole host of other inappropriate topics.
He's also difficult to understand. He speaks in riddles - or at least, it appears that way. To some, his words might seem frustratingly nonsensical, but there's sense to be found for those who look closer. Upon arriving at Skyhold, Cole begins exhibiting some odd behaviours. Namely: burning turnips, leaving peeled plums by the windowsills, and hoarding templar daggers. It turns out that he was burning turnips in an attempt to make a dying soldier's favorite stew, the one his mother used to make for him. He wanted the soldier to believe that he was dying at home. The plums attracted flies, which led to spiderwebs accumulating on the windowsills - he knew that the healers used them as an effective bandage. He stole templar daggers to stop the escalation of fights around the castle. A lot of what Cole has to say makes sense, it's just that most people don't take the time to pick apart the riddles to find the meaning inside.
Motivations:
His central motivation is that he wants to help people. It's his purpose in life, the reason why he keeps going - although it wasn't always. As the "ghost of the Spire", he was a lost spirit who roamed the tunnels underneath the building. Terrified of the templars who had killed him, and even more terrified of fading away into the darkness and slipping through the cracks in reality. He murdered several young mages because of this - the ones who were about to become tranquil, or had just recently been brought into the circle. Partially, because he heard their pain and wanted to make it end, but mostly because he wanted to be important. By killing them, he became the most important person in the world to them. And being important somehow made him more real. He understands now that this was wrong, and he'd do anything to keep himself from going back to what he used to be.
Cassandra: If you are to fight alongside us, Cole, I expect you to follow orders. The Inquisitor believes you wish to help, but I will not allow you to threaten innocents.
Cole:Yes. Help the hurt, save the small. If I become a demon, cut me down.
Truthfully, Cole understands that there's a darkness in himself, and he's terrified of it. He makes several of his allies promise to cut him down if he ever becomes a demon or starts to hurt people again. In desperation, he asks Solas to magically bind him to his will so that no other mage could force him to hurt others against his will. His stubborn and constant insistence that he isn't a demon reflects this - it's what he's afraid of becoming. What he guards himself against at all times.
Cole wants to help, and he does. In some ways, he's very good at it. Small, personal hurts - he can fix those with a few whispered words of encouragement. He tells people that the bad things that happen to them are not their fault. He tells them exactly what they need to hear. He tells Cassandra that she won't fall like everyone else in her order. He encourages Blackwall to stop carrying around his guilt and grief for his past actions. He tells Vivienne that she doesn't have to be afraid. In this, Cole helps to heal those around him from their past hurts. When left to his own devices, he can often be found comforting the wounded and the dying in ways that the healers would not be able to.
But he lacks an understanding of complexity and that sometimes means his effort to help end in disaster. When he killed Lord Seeker Lambert, he thought he was doing a good deed. Lambert was a tyrant who used his influence to terrorize those under him. But by killing him, he unknowingly sparked tensions between the mages and the templars, who believed that he was assassinated. In the same way that his habit of blurting out painful memories alienates him from people at times, this subtlety is part of something he's only now beginning to learn.
Cole is intensely lonely, even as he happens to be nervous around people at the same time. He has the tendency to latch onto the few individuals who show him kindness. Rhys is a really good example of this - for a long time, the mage was his only friend in the whole world. The other side of this is that he's also incredibly loyal. As he fought his way through multiple guards to rescue Rhys from jail, Cole declared that he'd hunt every last one of them down if they had killed him. In the same way, he fights to protect the allies he's gained in the Inquisition.
Later in the game, he is given the opportunity to confront the templar who killed the real Cole. Varric hands him his crossbow and tells him to kill the man, but he chooses to spare him instead with the understanding that murdering him would solve nothing. It wouldn't make him more whole. But the act of confronting made Cole more human in the process, and it changes the way he interacts with the world. He's still a spirit, but a few of his attributes have changed. People can see him easily, because he's more substantial. More like a real person. He says that he wants to hit people more than he used to, and that everything is painful sometimes, but that's part of being human. It's new, and it's exciting and he's still learning because of it. He remembers the actions he committed in the past where he wouldn't before, and he learns from his mistakes.
Cole began his existence as a spirit who had forgotten what he was and struggled to understand if he was real or not. He killed for selfish reasons and craved human contact, along with everything else he couldn't have. Like an outsider, looking in. He's come a long way since then. He knows who he is, and he knows his purpose. He has his friends in the Inquisition to guide him on the right path.
It's all he really needs.
Setting: Cole would be horrified at the setting presented to him by the games. Even without his powers, he’s acutely empathetic and hyper aware of everyone else’s pain. He would do his best to comfort and help his fellow tributes as best as he could despite the limited resources. When it comes to the actual games themselves, he would seek out and kill the more sadistic tributes without hesitation - especially if it came down to protecting his friends and allies. He would also protect those tributes who are less equipped to protect themselves.
SAMPLES
First Person Thread:
( he has watched the life drain out of countless people, remembering the feeling of their pain fading away. that bright light behind their eyes beginning to dull. it is always the same, and always unforgettable. he hears their thoughts so loud and clear, reverberating through his mind like a siren’s call. when people need him, he’s drawn there. their grief and sadness acting as a beacon for him to return.
red, cracked lips. dry and parched. thirsty, so thirsty. it hurts, oh maker, why won’t it stop hurting?
smell of my daughter’s hair as I kiss her goodnight --
please, mother. please help me --
gone.
everything’s silent once again.
cole understands. death is a part of being human, and he is human now. he never expected the surprising pain as the knife carved into him, the bite of its edge merciless and cold. or his last, gasping breaths. it’s different when you feel it from someone else, magnified until the pain radiates into every part of you.
he sits there in the room, holding the communicator for the longest time. but they won’t let him out until he speaks. it’s just not their way. )
You hurt people, and you laugh about it. Ugly, unbecoming, it’s cruel. You play with blood and grief because you think it’s fun, holding power over others to watch them twist and turn at your bidding.
( his anger is quiet as he sits there, his hair and the shadows obscuring most of his face. he fidgets with his hands, though. fingers twitching, as if wanting to grasp a knife. he wants to set it right. but he doesn't know how.
it's complicated. the seeker, cassandra, would tell him that. it's politics, and it's complicated, and it can't be fixed with a few simple words or the slash of a knife. )
One day, it'll stop.
( his gaze is ominous as he reaches to turn the communicator off. )
Prose:
He feels wrong. That's the first thing that Cole recognizes. He feels wrong, he can feel the intensity of their eyes on him and wishes that he could disappear again. Sink into the shadows again unseen and alone where no one could hurt him. It isn't the same as being in the Spire. He's different now. They can see him, and he can't make them forget. He can't hear them, either. The only noise in the room is their raucous laughter that hurts his ears.
Cole looks up at them and remembers very little of what was said to him before he was shoved into this room. Something about a fight to the death. Something about impressing these people. He was too preoccupied by how heavy his feet feel, like he might as well be anchored to the ground.
"What have you done?" he asks, but they don't answer him. They sit there and they laugh amongst themselves as if he's beneath their notice. Cole finds the knives on the rack of shiny weapons and takes two of them, feeling the weight of them in his hands. He throws them with expert precision, each knife swinging in a perfect arc. Aiming for the wall behind the game makers, intending to get their attention. Instead, the knives clash with the force field in front of them, like one of Solas' barriers. They clatter to the ground.
It's one way to get their attention. They're all looking at him now, and they're angry. He can't hear their thoughts but he can read it in their faces as clear as day. Cole fidgets, shifts his weight uncomfortably as he stares back at them. Fighting the urge to slink away.
"You wouldn't listen. You put me here, and you made me different. Not myself. Heavy and out of place, everything's so quiet.
Take me back. I won't be part of your game."
What is your character scored:
With his powers, he would probably be about a 10.
In his home setting, Cole is a rogue who uses the fact that he’s a spirit to his advantage. It’s this quality that makes him harder to hit, makes him almost completely silent and gives him the ability to disguise his presence on the battlefield. This evasion is his best defense - successful attacks hurt him more than they would in comparison to a warrior.
Being a spirit of compassion gives him the ability to read minds when it comes to thoughts and memories that are painful and personal. As of his current canon point, he can choose who he listens to and what he hears, as opposed to hearing everything at once. He can no longer make people forget about him.
Without these abilities, he’d probably be knocked down to an 8 or a 9? He has no formal training, but he’s killed a number of people, demons, and all manner of creatures in-between during his time with the Inquisitor. He’s a talented rogue who knows how to wield knives with precision, as well as hand-to-hand combat techniques. He's quick and nimble and knows how to exploit weaknesses in defences in a way that's almost instinctive.
Token: His huge, floppy hat. He likes his hats.
Name: Juli
Other characters: Natasha Romanoff / Beth Greene
IN CHARACTER
Name: Cole
Alias: N/A
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Canon point/AU: Right after the “Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts” story mission
Journal:
asundersPB: I’ll be using icons from the game.
Age: It’s a little complicated. He appears to be a young man, and described as looking no older than 20 years old. Mentally, it’s difficult to state an exact age or even an approximation because he’s a spirit and time applies differently to him than it would to a regular human. There are instances where his lack of understanding of human customs makes him act in ways that are perceived as more childlike, even if he appears to be an adult.
History: Cole at the dragon age wiki. Dragon Age: Inquisition is a game where the outcomes are largely based on player choice. Here’s a brief summary of the choices I’m using to play Cole:
female noble inquisitor who sided with the templars for help with closing the breach. Cole rescues her from the Envy demonPresentation:
Cole is recruited at Haven
The Gray Wardens are recruited into the inquisition
Cole and Varric confront the templar who killed him, and he chooses to spare him - making him “more human”.
Cole is unnerving. That’s what a lot of people would say about him, and they are not without reason to believe that. There’s something in the way he carries himself that’s a little odd, that subtly marks him as not quite right. Maybe it’s his uncanny ability to appear out of thin air at the most opportune times, or his strange way of speaking. More likely, it's his habit of blurting out the most painful thoughts and memories of those around him without understanding how others might not appreciate it.
He is a spirit of compassion who has taken physical form - more specifically, he took the form of a trapped mage, left in a prison cell and forgotten as he starved to death. Cole wears his likeness and his name, and therefore appears to the world as a young man with ragged blonde hair and dirty clothes. He speaks in a quiet, haunting tone and keeps to himself without drawing attention unless it's absolutely necessary. He resides in dark corners, content to watch and listen and take everything in. For the most part, he understands that many of the servants and others who work for the Inquisition are frightened of him. He makes them forget his presence, or he keeps himself invisible to them.
Cole doesn't always understand people, even if his telepathic abilities make him privy to their innermost thoughts and feelings. During a casual conversation, Dorian gives him permission ask questions about him. Cole automatically asks about his estranged father, an incredibly sensitive topic that Dorian is rightfully upset by. But Cole's response is a bewildered one: you said I could ask questions. He doesn't understand why it's uncomfortable to talk about, especially not in the middle of their group. All he understands is that he wants to help. In the same vein, he openly recites thoughts about the Inquisitor's private romances, among a whole host of other inappropriate topics.
He's also difficult to understand. He speaks in riddles - or at least, it appears that way. To some, his words might seem frustratingly nonsensical, but there's sense to be found for those who look closer. Upon arriving at Skyhold, Cole begins exhibiting some odd behaviours. Namely: burning turnips, leaving peeled plums by the windowsills, and hoarding templar daggers. It turns out that he was burning turnips in an attempt to make a dying soldier's favorite stew, the one his mother used to make for him. He wanted the soldier to believe that he was dying at home. The plums attracted flies, which led to spiderwebs accumulating on the windowsills - he knew that the healers used them as an effective bandage. He stole templar daggers to stop the escalation of fights around the castle. A lot of what Cole has to say makes sense, it's just that most people don't take the time to pick apart the riddles to find the meaning inside.
Motivations:
His central motivation is that he wants to help people. It's his purpose in life, the reason why he keeps going - although it wasn't always. As the "ghost of the Spire", he was a lost spirit who roamed the tunnels underneath the building. Terrified of the templars who had killed him, and even more terrified of fading away into the darkness and slipping through the cracks in reality. He murdered several young mages because of this - the ones who were about to become tranquil, or had just recently been brought into the circle. Partially, because he heard their pain and wanted to make it end, but mostly because he wanted to be important. By killing them, he became the most important person in the world to them. And being important somehow made him more real. He understands now that this was wrong, and he'd do anything to keep himself from going back to what he used to be.
Cole:Yes. Help the hurt, save the small. If I become a demon, cut me down.
Truthfully, Cole understands that there's a darkness in himself, and he's terrified of it. He makes several of his allies promise to cut him down if he ever becomes a demon or starts to hurt people again. In desperation, he asks Solas to magically bind him to his will so that no other mage could force him to hurt others against his will. His stubborn and constant insistence that he isn't a demon reflects this - it's what he's afraid of becoming. What he guards himself against at all times.
Cole wants to help, and he does. In some ways, he's very good at it. Small, personal hurts - he can fix those with a few whispered words of encouragement. He tells people that the bad things that happen to them are not their fault. He tells them exactly what they need to hear. He tells Cassandra that she won't fall like everyone else in her order. He encourages Blackwall to stop carrying around his guilt and grief for his past actions. He tells Vivienne that she doesn't have to be afraid. In this, Cole helps to heal those around him from their past hurts. When left to his own devices, he can often be found comforting the wounded and the dying in ways that the healers would not be able to.
But he lacks an understanding of complexity and that sometimes means his effort to help end in disaster. When he killed Lord Seeker Lambert, he thought he was doing a good deed. Lambert was a tyrant who used his influence to terrorize those under him. But by killing him, he unknowingly sparked tensions between the mages and the templars, who believed that he was assassinated. In the same way that his habit of blurting out painful memories alienates him from people at times, this subtlety is part of something he's only now beginning to learn.
Cole is intensely lonely, even as he happens to be nervous around people at the same time. He has the tendency to latch onto the few individuals who show him kindness. Rhys is a really good example of this - for a long time, the mage was his only friend in the whole world. The other side of this is that he's also incredibly loyal. As he fought his way through multiple guards to rescue Rhys from jail, Cole declared that he'd hunt every last one of them down if they had killed him. In the same way, he fights to protect the allies he's gained in the Inquisition.
Later in the game, he is given the opportunity to confront the templar who killed the real Cole. Varric hands him his crossbow and tells him to kill the man, but he chooses to spare him instead with the understanding that murdering him would solve nothing. It wouldn't make him more whole. But the act of confronting made Cole more human in the process, and it changes the way he interacts with the world. He's still a spirit, but a few of his attributes have changed. People can see him easily, because he's more substantial. More like a real person. He says that he wants to hit people more than he used to, and that everything is painful sometimes, but that's part of being human. It's new, and it's exciting and he's still learning because of it. He remembers the actions he committed in the past where he wouldn't before, and he learns from his mistakes.
Cole began his existence as a spirit who had forgotten what he was and struggled to understand if he was real or not. He killed for selfish reasons and craved human contact, along with everything else he couldn't have. Like an outsider, looking in. He's come a long way since then. He knows who he is, and he knows his purpose. He has his friends in the Inquisition to guide him on the right path.
It's all he really needs.
Setting: Cole would be horrified at the setting presented to him by the games. Even without his powers, he’s acutely empathetic and hyper aware of everyone else’s pain. He would do his best to comfort and help his fellow tributes as best as he could despite the limited resources. When it comes to the actual games themselves, he would seek out and kill the more sadistic tributes without hesitation - especially if it came down to protecting his friends and allies. He would also protect those tributes who are less equipped to protect themselves.
SAMPLES
First Person Thread:
( he has watched the life drain out of countless people, remembering the feeling of their pain fading away. that bright light behind their eyes beginning to dull. it is always the same, and always unforgettable. he hears their thoughts so loud and clear, reverberating through his mind like a siren’s call. when people need him, he’s drawn there. their grief and sadness acting as a beacon for him to return.
red, cracked lips. dry and parched. thirsty, so thirsty. it hurts, oh maker, why won’t it stop hurting?
smell of my daughter’s hair as I kiss her goodnight --
please, mother. please help me --
gone.
everything’s silent once again.
cole understands. death is a part of being human, and he is human now. he never expected the surprising pain as the knife carved into him, the bite of its edge merciless and cold. or his last, gasping breaths. it’s different when you feel it from someone else, magnified until the pain radiates into every part of you.
he sits there in the room, holding the communicator for the longest time. but they won’t let him out until he speaks. it’s just not their way. )
You hurt people, and you laugh about it. Ugly, unbecoming, it’s cruel. You play with blood and grief because you think it’s fun, holding power over others to watch them twist and turn at your bidding.
( his anger is quiet as he sits there, his hair and the shadows obscuring most of his face. he fidgets with his hands, though. fingers twitching, as if wanting to grasp a knife. he wants to set it right. but he doesn't know how.
it's complicated. the seeker, cassandra, would tell him that. it's politics, and it's complicated, and it can't be fixed with a few simple words or the slash of a knife. )
One day, it'll stop.
( his gaze is ominous as he reaches to turn the communicator off. )
Prose:
He feels wrong. That's the first thing that Cole recognizes. He feels wrong, he can feel the intensity of their eyes on him and wishes that he could disappear again. Sink into the shadows again unseen and alone where no one could hurt him. It isn't the same as being in the Spire. He's different now. They can see him, and he can't make them forget. He can't hear them, either. The only noise in the room is their raucous laughter that hurts his ears.
Cole looks up at them and remembers very little of what was said to him before he was shoved into this room. Something about a fight to the death. Something about impressing these people. He was too preoccupied by how heavy his feet feel, like he might as well be anchored to the ground.
"What have you done?" he asks, but they don't answer him. They sit there and they laugh amongst themselves as if he's beneath their notice. Cole finds the knives on the rack of shiny weapons and takes two of them, feeling the weight of them in his hands. He throws them with expert precision, each knife swinging in a perfect arc. Aiming for the wall behind the game makers, intending to get their attention. Instead, the knives clash with the force field in front of them, like one of Solas' barriers. They clatter to the ground.
It's one way to get their attention. They're all looking at him now, and they're angry. He can't hear their thoughts but he can read it in their faces as clear as day. Cole fidgets, shifts his weight uncomfortably as he stares back at them. Fighting the urge to slink away.
"You wouldn't listen. You put me here, and you made me different. Not myself. Heavy and out of place, everything's so quiet.
Take me back. I won't be part of your game."
What is your character scored:
With his powers, he would probably be about a 10.
In his home setting, Cole is a rogue who uses the fact that he’s a spirit to his advantage. It’s this quality that makes him harder to hit, makes him almost completely silent and gives him the ability to disguise his presence on the battlefield. This evasion is his best defense - successful attacks hurt him more than they would in comparison to a warrior.
Being a spirit of compassion gives him the ability to read minds when it comes to thoughts and memories that are painful and personal. As of his current canon point, he can choose who he listens to and what he hears, as opposed to hearing everything at once. He can no longer make people forget about him.
Without these abilities, he’d probably be knocked down to an 8 or a 9? He has no formal training, but he’s killed a number of people, demons, and all manner of creatures in-between during his time with the Inquisitor. He’s a talented rogue who knows how to wield knives with precision, as well as hand-to-hand combat techniques. He's quick and nimble and knows how to exploit weaknesses in defences in a way that's almost instinctive.
Token: His huge, floppy hat. He likes his hats.
