I10DT - They don't have a prayer

by **Nailah Weaver** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 2:35 pm

"If you don't mind... I don't quite see how the two are contradicting. Even the Bible acknowledges the existence of other gods and you call what I do pagan rituals but when it's someone parting the Red Sea it's a miracle?"

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 2:36 pm

"Well, yes," Will blinked. "That's different."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 2:52 pm

"Why? The ones I call gods are powerful beings connected to the Astral, worshiped millennial ago. Religion is just the attempt to understand and name the more esoteric ways in which the world works. You're right, it is a theme. But the fact that some gods exist in a more tangible way doesn't feel like it invalidates your god to me."

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:01 pm

"That's the thing, right there---it's not MY god, it's God. Capital G. Other people or things CALLING themselves gods just...I mean, it's not right."

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:05 pm

"I'm not asking for worship, Will. I'm not trying to put myself above anyone."

"I've just... swam against the current for quite some time. I've tried life that way, and the friction was palpable towards the end."

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:28 pm

"Well, that's, you know, life sometimes. We all have to keep ourselves in check sometimes..."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:30 pm

That earned him bit of a death-stare from Nailah though she keeps her mouth shut.

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:58 pm

"The God I came to know wouldn't want me to suffer for denying what I am."

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:28 pm

"How can you be sure that IS what you are? I mean, why shouldn't, I dunno, I declare myself so and so of the whatchamacallits or something?"

by **Nailah Weaver** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:31 pm

"How are you so sure about God? You feel it."

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:37 pm

"And I've had a head full of birds and strangeness for too long. The alternatives are... bleak."

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:42 pm

"What does that say for the state of MY head," Will said, trying to joke weakly again.

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:27 pm

"I don't mean to belittle what you've been through, Will. I just think at some point I passed a threshold of sorts."

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:31 pm

"Alright, if you're certain, I'm just gonna go down to the XUB now..."

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:59 pm

"I'm sorry I couldn't... put words to it better, Will." She sighed.

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 6:02 pm

"It's OK. Surely, mere mortals could not understand.

...Sorry.

I'll...I'll just go now."

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 6:41 pm

"Not what I meant," she said as she shook her head.

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 6:55 pm

"I know, but...what do you THINK people are gonna think? People have looked up to you as one thing, and now..."

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:06 pm

"And now I've let you down... I understand."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:21 pm

"This doesn't change who she is." Nailah objects. "She's still the same person you've looked up to. She didn't abandon her morals or values for this and frankly, you're being rather ignorant. We can stand here arguing semantics over the word 'god' all day but in the end it's something you don't understand and that scares you. That there's something out there even beyond the scope of the impossible things that you see every day. You obsess about your physical and mental capabilities but to accept something like this would mean to accept that there's something you might not be able to protect yourself against. A higher power that's not necessarily quiet and peaceful but could cast fire from the skies and turn people to salt."

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:36 pm

"It DOES change who she is, though -- at least, it changes who she interacts with the world as," Will objected. "All our roles in life do -- I have responsibilities as an X-Man that I didn't have as a high school student. Some of these responsibilities are safe and strong, and good for character growth, and some are farther out.

Yes it's something I don't understand -- how could anyone mortal understand this? It's a step beyond things that Man was meant to know. Once you start interacting with the divine, yes, that scares me. How could it not?"

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:54 pm

"It scared me too, Will. It scared me for years."

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:04 pm

"And you just decided, what, hell with it?"

by **Nailah Weaver** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:06 pm

"I showed her that it doesn't have to be scary."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:14 am

Will glanced at Nailah. "Is that right."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:07 am

"If you have to then go ahead and blame this on me but at least try to keep an open mind that faith can move mountains and that includes personifications of some of those beliefs."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:44 am

Will just shook his head.

"I don't understand any of this."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 7:44 am

"Alright, so, there's the Astral. Sort of a... collective consciousness if you will. Ideas, concepts, thoughts, everything can take shape in it with a strong enough will or a lot of people behind it. Some gods took shape that way, others were just connected to it and became empowered when people started believing in them."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 7:54 am

"So, it's NOT divine then, it's just a bunch of people deciding on one thing?" Will asked, dubiously

by **Nailah Weaver** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:09 am

"It's... a little more complicated than that. No one is deciding anything. It doesn't have a mind on it's own but there's flows and currents to it. Sometimes it even contradicts itself across pantheons. But you have to understand that the Christian God doesn't appear to be part of it. Whether that means he doesn't exist or stands above it I believe is part of the blind faith he asks for."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:10 am

Will just frowned. "I don't know about all that..."

by **Samantha McManus** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:42 pm

"I haven't stopped believing in Him. I don't deny that He exists. I've seen too much to say that. I just... there had to be another path for me, or I'd go mad."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:51 pm

Will looked at Sam's relatively new choice in outfits.

"...go?"

by **Samantha McManus** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:21 pm

"Oh believe me, there's... places this could have gone."

"One of which I think we're well aware of."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:58 pm

"I'm sorry, I've never been very good at implied things."

by **Samantha McManus** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:08 pm

"You didn't see what I might one day do at Wundagore?"

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:19 pm

"Ah. Yeah, that...that was something. That whole thing."

by **Samantha McManus** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:44 pm

"So I'm very aware that it can get worse."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 7:04 pm

"Yeah...I suppose so," Will said, dubiously.

by **Samantha McManus** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:59 pm

"But I suppose I can see that to you, this is the mad thing..."

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