Stable isn't the same as doing well, but Ben's happy to hear that he's at least managing and found a way to live with the situation. It passes through his mind, a fleeting and involuntary thought, that his own situation with the creatures on the other side of the portal isn't dissimilar - stable, but not ideal. The best that can be hoped for.
From the sound of it, the identity of the spirit called Compassion is somewhat malleable, influenced by the people around it. Him? Pronouns are hard. But Ben focuses on what matters in this moment - that Cole could become Despair. That it's something he avoids actively. The potential is there, and he works against it.
And Ben might not be a spirit joined with a dying human, but he still feels compassion. So when Cole hugs himself like that, Ben does what he thinks might help: he reaches over and rubs his hand up and down Cole's spine, a soothing gesture that used to work wonders when he was still alive and Klaus was crying over some new awful thing that had happened to him.
"We all could be worse versions of ourselves. It's okay to be afraid of that, and- and to need help, steering you away from it, and reminding you of the you that you want to be."
Okay, maybe the consequences of someone like Cole letting himself become Despair are worse than if a normal human started behaving in a pattern they didn't mean to adopt. But Ben sees it as a question of severity, not difference.
"Is there anything else I can do? Like, to help, I mean..."
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From the sound of it, the identity of the spirit called Compassion is somewhat malleable, influenced by the people around it. Him? Pronouns are hard. But Ben focuses on what matters in this moment - that Cole could become Despair. That it's something he avoids actively. The potential is there, and he works against it.
And Ben might not be a spirit joined with a dying human, but he still feels compassion. So when Cole hugs himself like that, Ben does what he thinks might help: he reaches over and rubs his hand up and down Cole's spine, a soothing gesture that used to work wonders when he was still alive and Klaus was crying over some new awful thing that had happened to him.
"We all could be worse versions of ourselves. It's okay to be afraid of that, and- and to need help, steering you away from it, and reminding you of the you that you want to be."
Okay, maybe the consequences of someone like Cole letting himself become Despair are worse than if a normal human started behaving in a pattern they didn't mean to adopt. But Ben sees it as a question of severity, not difference.
"Is there anything else I can do? Like, to help, I mean..."