Wouldn't be surprised if they chose to distance themselves.
[ Humanity hasn't necessarily become better, over time. In some things, maybe, but so much of it has become a matter of possession, power, entitlement. Then again, he could be wrong, and the gods in Julia's world withdrew for altogether different reasons.
Personally, Erik has never cared much. Belief in a god, any god, has never brought him any sense of peace. For a long time, he even distanced himself from the faith he grew up with, the memory of it all too painful to even want it anymore. He's opened up to more of it recently, but it's difficult. Less so with people who understand to some degree, but still.
When she says it openly, Erik shows no surprise; he had figured as much, from the way she'd said it. Still, it means something that she can bring herself to say it out loud. And as for what she might have done, had she had these powers then—
That, especially, rings so very close to his own experiences. Because that's what happened to him, in a sense. The access to his abilities led to immediate reaction, and his first instinct was always to destroy anything in his path. Whether it was the loss of his mother, the pain of torture, the death of his wife and child; each time, grief and pain exploded from him in incredibly destructive ways, and not just because he wanted revenge.
He wanted to feel something else.
He closes his eyes, just to stop the emotion from welling, spilling from him again. The ways in which they're similar and yet diverging into such different paths will never cease to catch him by surprise. Sometimes, when she talks, it's like he can imagine another way his life could have gone. ]
You're not broken, Julia. Believe me, of all the ways your life could have gone after something like that, you are— perfection.
[ It's not a word he uses often, or lightly. But he knows what it means to be broken, and she is nothing close. ]
no subject
[ Humanity hasn't necessarily become better, over time. In some things, maybe, but so much of it has become a matter of possession, power, entitlement. Then again, he could be wrong, and the gods in Julia's world withdrew for altogether different reasons.
Personally, Erik has never cared much. Belief in a god, any god, has never brought him any sense of peace. For a long time, he even distanced himself from the faith he grew up with, the memory of it all too painful to even want it anymore. He's opened up to more of it recently, but it's difficult. Less so with people who understand to some degree, but still.
When she says it openly, Erik shows no surprise; he had figured as much, from the way she'd said it. Still, it means something that she can bring herself to say it out loud. And as for what she might have done, had she had these powers then—
That, especially, rings so very close to his own experiences. Because that's what happened to him, in a sense. The access to his abilities led to immediate reaction, and his first instinct was always to destroy anything in his path. Whether it was the loss of his mother, the pain of torture, the death of his wife and child; each time, grief and pain exploded from him in incredibly destructive ways, and not just because he wanted revenge.
He wanted to feel something else.
He closes his eyes, just to stop the emotion from welling, spilling from him again. The ways in which they're similar and yet diverging into such different paths will never cease to catch him by surprise. Sometimes, when she talks, it's like he can imagine another way his life could have gone. ]
You're not broken, Julia. Believe me, of all the ways your life could have gone after something like that, you are— perfection.
[ It's not a word he uses often, or lightly. But he knows what it means to be broken, and she is nothing close. ]