[ jack wouldn't understand the implications of the first tattoo Erik was sporting regardless. but what he talks about - that kind of aggressive segregation, the over-zealous believing they're their god's champions. even just desputes between two sides of a border, unable to accept that the other exists in their God's world. Willing to send their sons to war and death over whispers in their heads.

and then jack, and all that he was that his world wouldn't accept him to be, because of what he was created as. it wasn't even that his father thought he'd chosen something wrong - the words were what God made you. Meaning, God made you wrong. Made you wrong, on purpose, and you will not leave behind the scorn he similarly bore on you for it. ]

Faith's a killer. [ jack mutters, a bit distantly, numbly. religion's always been at the center of every dispute in his world. he's never seen so much pain and suffering come from something that claims to mean salvation. it's like a farce, but jack's the only one laughing. he swallows, listening on to the rest of what erik says - about the powers, about the same looks he'd been given, regardless of the supposed cause. ] It doesn't matter what makes you different. Just that you are, and anything that isn't them is wrong.

Reasoning applied in the aftermath. Excuses are easy to churn up from nothing.