Cryptic comments and misunderstandings hurrah

[helpthehurt]

"The uniforms...sing. Supplication and sundering, stout and steady...many hearts come through these halls but they all turn the same way in the end. The learning is less important than the feeling."

...Is the kind of thing Cole mutters as he wanders the halls, following people around with a look on his face like he's about to spill a really personal secret about whoever he's looking at. Someone should probably collect him.

((OOC: Cole has a form of limited mind-reading which basically amounts to him saying extremely vague things about someone's personal pain because he wants to help heal it. Let me know if you ain't cool with that!))

Comments

[helpthehurt]

There was so much hurt here, and yet everyone seems to want to help Cole. He doesn't know how to handle this exactly, even if it makes him happy that the people here can be helped.

"Yes, I am. Are you?"

[golonghorns]

Joel couldn't tell if the kid was being genuine or trying to be a smart ass. He'd play it off like it was the former until he had a clear indication it was the latter. Then he'd get firmer.

"I'm fine. You want me to take you to the nurses station? Get you some water or somethin'?"

That was one of his jobs as a member of faculty, right? Trying to make sure that the students weren't tripping balls out in public?

[helpthehurt]

Cole tilts his head so that his hat covers his eyes.

"Thank you, but I don't need to drink, and...I don't think I get sick. Just like she didn't even when she showed you the infection, remember?"

It's the only way he knows to make Joel understand what he's telling him.

[golonghorns]

"The hell are you talkin' about, boy? I--"

Wait a second. 'When she showed you the infection...'

Was he reading Joel's mind, somehow? Rifling through his memories? Joel's breathing became heavy and he was immediately defensive.

"You better not be snooping around inside my head, kid."

This is a stab in the psychological dark here

[helpthehurt]

"It's hurt! It glows, glares, glowers, it tangles around your arms and bends your back! It's...just that most can't see."

Cole considers making Joel forget, but it's too early. He can still make this work.

"You didn't replace her. There was room for both Ellie and Sarah. The edges were softened, supple, not sharpened, even as you tried to make it hurt again..."

I think you pretty much nailed it

[golonghorns]

Joel was taken aback. Angry, but taken aback. He'd shared one memory - One! - with Henry during the cursed mistletoe event and that had been more than he ever wanted to share. Now this guy was fooling around inside his head like it was the junk drawer in the kitchen, pulling stuff out that didn't need to see the light of day...

"...You don't know what you're talkin' about, boy, and you're treadin' a mighty fine line with me." he growled. His voice was low. Dangerous. If he was a person able to step back a little and think about it rationally, he'd understand he was mostly angry because Cole was right. Smacking the nail on the head.

[helpthehurt]

Oh, now Cole made him angry! It was always so much harder when people got angry. Cole briefly considers making Joel forget Cole was ever here, but...

"...I don't understand. Why are you angry? It's true! You owe her memory nothing, but that you keep it, care for it!" He takes a half step back, trying to be ready. It was easy to see pain, but hard to predict what it was going to make people do.

[golonghorns]

See, even doing that much was hard for Joel. He had only just started to even try and work through those issues towards the end of his time in his own world. Remembering Sarah became less hurtful the more time he spent with Ellie. He was less closed off about it, even telling Ellie he thought she and Sarah might be friends.

But that was Ellie and this was some guy he'd never met before.

"I'm mad because you're fishin' around inside my head, bringing out private stuff that don't belong to you." he said, advancing a full step to counter the half step Cole had taken. "What gives you the right to fool around in another man's memories?"

[helpthehurt]

"I don't dig! I look and I see, just like anyone. Only I see more. It comes to me unbidden, uncontrollable but not unwanted. I'm a spirit. Demon, some say, but I like spirit better. Once I was called Compassion, but most other times I am called Cole."

[golonghorns]

The spirit of compassion. That was an interesting proposition. And strangely enough, one he could believe of this place. There was a Sun God here, after all. He just wandered around on fire all day. He'd even heard rumors of some sort of Pokémon God attending here. Maybe more than one. So, OK, the living embodiment of compassion? Sure. He'd buy that.

"If you're some kind've... embodiment of compassion, you don't want anythin' to do with me. I don't got a whole lot of that."

He'd had a normal amount of it once, but it had been thrashed out of him. Blown away. Now even amongst the scraggly and violent remnants of the Human population, he was known as ruthless and cold. He'd accepted and even used that reputation to get by. It had its uses, and it had been earned.