Ben doesn't understand the nuances of how a spirit could absorb a human's memories and emotions, but that is to be expected. He didn't grow up being taught about spirits and what they could do, and what they should (or apparently shouldn't) do. There had been Compassion (who possibly verged on Mercy and Despair - could spirits on their own shift between identities like that?) who became Cole or absorbed Cole, a human, while he was dying. And now, the Cole he's met is an imperfect mesh of the two. A combination that maybe wasn't meant to exist.
A small furrow forming between his dark brows, Ben asks:
"Is it still hard to be both? Like, are you - are you okay?"
Obviously the encounter with Despair had rattled them both, but Ben's question is clearly in reference to Cole's more general well-being, with reference to his identity. Ben has experienced maybe a hundredth of what Cole is talking about; he could hear the things on the other side of the portal whispering, could feel some bleedthrough of their thoughts and feelings while he was using his powers, and just after. He tries to imagine that, cranked up to 11.
"But you're not that." And Ben gestures in the way they'd come. "The thing we saw back there? You aren't that. Take my word for it."
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A small furrow forming between his dark brows, Ben asks:
"Is it still hard to be both? Like, are you - are you okay?"
Obviously the encounter with Despair had rattled them both, but Ben's question is clearly in reference to Cole's more general well-being, with reference to his identity. Ben has experienced maybe a hundredth of what Cole is talking about; he could hear the things on the other side of the portal whispering, could feel some bleedthrough of their thoughts and feelings while he was using his powers, and just after. He tries to imagine that, cranked up to 11.
"But you're not that." And Ben gestures in the way they'd come. "The thing we saw back there? You aren't that. Take my word for it."