The Sight

Cooper feels a bit rueful at the fact that surprise was so apparent on Oliver's face, something that was incredibly impacted by his own relentless gaslighting. Leaving an unwelcomely heavy burden on his conscious, further reminding him of why he didn’t work well with humans or any other creatures in general. “Oh, that seems plausible...” He muses out loud, a thick knot clotting uncomfortably inside his throat making his voice strangely quavery. It scratches unpleasant against his ears, feeling as scratchy and rough against his eardrums as sandpaper against a surface, and it pulls involuntarily at the tips of his lips. Cooper was becoming more and more agitated at the sudden shift in character, he wasn’t usually one who had too many mishaps or had trouble keeping his thoughts together and his emotions well buried. This year was further proving to be much more tiresome than his first impression. “How has your grandmother been doing?” He asks, hoping that the change in subject will help the air between the two to be comparatively cleared.
 
Charlie didn't mean to look so visibly surprised but he was genuinely surprised that Cooper offered to look into it. The past few weeks had just been him bringing it up and the other denying anything was wrong. It had put quite the damper mood on everything when they hung out, which he didn't like. He ate his cookie in silence as he looked out into the clearing in front of them. When cooper asked about his grandma he tilted his head a bit back and forth. "Uhh well she's doing good physically considering it all, but mentally...not as good," he sighed a tiny bit,"She doesn't remember much of anything, including who I am, which the doctor said is normal. She'll slowly lose her memories until she passes probably." It was a bit sad, having to explain who he was to her each time he saw her. He knew she didn't have alot of time left so he tried to make the best of it.
 
Cooper finds that as the seconds pass and Oliver's voice fills the otherwise quiet clearing, that the change in the subject seemed to turn the sour stiffer. He can't even begin to understand how one would be able to handle watching someone they love slowly lose themselves in their own head, until inevitably they were ultimately just a shell of a human, no memories, nothing. "I'm sorry.." He says as softly as he can manage, and while he isn't entirely sure what he's apologizing for, whether it be his aggressively bi-polar behavior the past week or the fact that he was useless in helping the older woman. He did not know, but he knows that remorse stores uncomfortably hot in his stomach.
 
Oliver could tell that cooper felt bad for asking about his grandma. Most people did, the few friends he spoke to from the city has asked about her. And all of them got awkward immediately after he told them what was all going on. "No need to be sorry," he gave him a small smile,"You were just asking how she's doing there's no harm in that. I've mostly come to terms with how she's doing, just still hard sometimes to be in a house with someone who doesn't know who you are or even that you're in the house with them." None of the townsfolk even bothered to visit her or send her anything, they just acted as if she wasn't there. Which pissed Oliver off, his grandparents lived in the town for decades and still got treated at strangers. Fiddling with his hands he got curious about something. "Do you have any family in the area?" he realized that they didn't talk about the other's family very much so he didn't even know if he had any.
 
For a split and very fleeting second, Cooper stiffens incredibly tight, before he relaxes back into a more slumped position. It was not so much of a bewildering question, but more so that he had unpleasantly been reminded of a certain member of his family that he wished not to bring up anywhere near their conversation. "Ah, yes, I have a few distant relatives that live a little way outside of Warlington, of walking distance actually.. But they're quite a bit of the secluded bunch, so I don't see them very often.." His lip quirks up slightly, while he wasn't by any means close to many of his relatives, they were relatively accepting of his situation from what he could recall of his childhood and he felt a familial obligation to them. "But my Grandmother and Father are elsewhere on… Business matters." Briefly he wonders if humans found it odd for someone of a somewhat older generation to have living and functioning grandparents, they were ordinarily fickle creatures who rarely lived past eighty years old. But he dismisses the thought the moment it crosses his mind, it wasn't too odd, he would just take a bit more care to blur the lines of age, as not to invite any curiosity in subjects he was not furloughed to give.
 
Oliver noticed that stiffen, it was quite hard to not notice to be honest. The other reacted as if he just asked some massively taboo question. He was confused as he nibbled on his cookie, nodding as he explained his family. "Well at least they're close by even if they're a hermit type of people," he finished his cookie but was reluctant to grab another one just yet. "I don't have any family in the states left beside my grandma, she and my grandpa only had one kid which was my mom. I probably have distant relatives here but I've never met any of them,"his only living family left he knew was back in Sweden but he hadn't seen them for years. He was curious to here the other's grandma was alive and still out and about. "Good to hear your grandma is doing well, not many people are lucky to have that," grandmas tended to live longer than grandpa's but even then they were usually frail by that age.
 
"Yes, I am quite lucky…" The softly tense silence that follows after including the way his brows pull together in question, he had much going on in his life that many humans deemed lucky or something that should be grateful that he quite frankly did not. But it was expected of such different cultures clashing, in his world many of his kind and others lived far more years than the fickle lives of many of the mundane. So he did not entirely see the luckiness of having most of his ancient relatives alive, but he does not voice this, instead he forces his face into a more placidly sympathetic look.. Cooper was moderately aware that their familial situations were completely opposites of each other, and he was not one to entertain the thought of rubbing his own families incredible into Oliver's face. "Are you an only child?" He asks, after a curious second of stewing his thoughts.
 
"Are you close to your grandma?" he knew most of the people that did have grandparents alive weren't very close to them. The only reason he was so close to his is because they literally raised him. Most people thought it was weird how close he was to his grandparents. The other's question about if he was an only child threw him off but he nodded quietly with a small laugh. "I probably reek of only child don't I? Yeah I'm an only child, my mom had me shortly after she moved to Sweden and met my father. They didn't really want kids though, so after sending me to live with my grandparents they never had any more kids, which I guess I'm glad because it would be weird,"he shrugged," They pretty much ignore me, but I do have a bank account they always put money into. My dad apparently is pretty wealthy, not that I would know much about what he does. I only lived in Sweden for a couple years not old enough to learn what he does over there."
 
"She raised me for some time, so I'd say I'm somewhat close to her.." He says, after a small moment of contemplation, during his time with the older woman, He had never given thought to their relationship, all he knew was that he respected her and was thankful that she had turned an ignorant eye to his half-blooded nature instead of fanning the prejudiced flames as many of the older generations did. "That doesn't make you dislike them?" Cooper asks, genuine curiosity flashing through his vaguely revolted features. He wasn't quite intail with how the normality would react to being cut off from their kin, but he felt that it was expected for it to be a little displeasing and hurtful. They were blood, and while families that were made up of people that were not related had an equal amount of loyalty for their relatives, he assumed that blood made such loyalty stronger. But that could just be because of his own biased views of the world.
 
"Its nice to be close to your grandparents, not many people understand that. Most people I've met either didn't know their grandparents or barely visited them," he always felt like the odd man out when friends talked about their family. Because his own situation was just so weird to most people, but he didn't judge them for finding it weird. When he asked if he disliked his parents he was quiet for a long time. "I don't really know how I feel anymore. I hated them growing up, because I felt like some shameful secret they shipped off to another country. I resented them everytime I visited, they didn't do anything with me when I visited, mostly kept me in the house or had a nanny take me out to do stuff,"he sighed quietly," But as I got older I just accepted that's how they are. I'm disappointed in them but at least they acknowledge me in some way even if it's a monetary thing." He was pretty much being paid to stay out of their lives and at this point he didn't care. At least if they were going to ignore him, he could live his own life peacefully. "It's funny, I have slowly forgotten what they look like, I have a few pictures of them but they're older now," he commented,"I miss Sweden though, I miss visiting it, more than I miss my parents."
 
The moment the answer to his quite rude and blunt question has been provided, he feels a sharp sting of guilt and a bit of pity twist it's petty nails into his stomach. He feels terrible, like the question simply had no right to even be thought, yet at the same.. Cooper is silently thoughtful, stemming in the heavy weight that comes swiftly into his soul with the answer. He had imagined at the forefront of the situation there would be much resentment, disappointment, and even anger, but he had assumed the anger would be poured outwards. But from the way Oliver speaks of his parents in the light of present and past happenings, that perhaps at some point in time there may have been resentment poured inwards. He does not speak up about it though, preferring to flit his eyes elsewhere to stomp out the harsh feelings of pity that threaten to show on his physical features, and as to not cause anymore exposures of far too personal feelings he chomps down into another cookie. The sweet flavor washing over his taste buds pleasantly, lighting up his mood many notches higher.
 
Oliver hadn't really had anyone ask about his parents before. Most of the people in town liked to gossip about or insult his parents. They didn't care how the situation was affecting him as a kid. So he just grew up getting used to the fact that that's how some people are. "At least it taught me about disappointment, I don't expect much of of people anymore. If you don't expect anything than you won't be disappointed," probably not the best way to cope with his childhood but it was his way of coping. He didn't see the point in trying to fight for his parents to acknowledge him, he just didn't care. If they wanted to pay him to stay away then so be it, he was happy with the situation. Oliver didn't have high opinions of people in general hence why he tended to avoid them naturally. He didn't like getting close to people because deep down he was worried they would leave him eventually just like everyone else. Cooper was the first person in awhile he allowed himself to get close to, and actually make something like cookies for. It was nice though, to make something for someone that was nice to him.
 
“Possibly, but at the same, a negative onlook created by the shorthand given to you by bad parents may make any future interactions unpleasant for you and any other.. It’s conceivable that instead of seeing only the bad in people, an even viewing would be more beneficial..” Cooper voices, partly wondering as he speaks if his words were too harsh, but he felt that from his own experiences only ever seeing the bad in people would end miserably. Twisting a sugar cookie designs to resemble the human interpretation of a ghost, a winsome expression drawn in black icing atop the body color of white. It was undeniably cute, and in some way a bit humorous at the way humans intrepid small bits of truths. “Simply though, that is only my own opinion, a second view of sorts..” He hastily adds as he softly clears his throat, a nervous rasp in his otherwise placid tone. “I share a similar situation,” Cooper pauses before ultimately deciding to continue, “With my mother, her negligence was the least of my concerns during the time in which I was under her care.. Howbeit my aloof-like way of coping following this time only caused a negative effect to most around me…” Biting down
onto the soft flesh of the inside of his cheek, he wills himself to stop, fearing that he had overshared.