Jigano sipped his tea quietly, studying Oliver as the young man spoke. He was coming across as impatient and strangely desperate, and the bard still couldn't figure out why he wanted to serve gods that he was so angry at and resentful towards. It made no sense to him, but he his his confusion as the words continued to tumble out, making less and less sense as they did. "How will being Attuned make people more forgiving?" he asked gently. "Because you won't lose your magic. Half of you will still be Abandoned, even if the gods accept your petition. People will always judge you, just as you judge the gods and those around you. As you're judging them even now, assuming that they lack patience and kindness, or that they won't like you." He tilted his head, hiding a smile at the younger man's existential worries because he didn't want to seem like he was mocking him. On the contrary, he remembered being a teenager and having so many insecurities and earth-shattering worries, and he wanted to tell Oliver that he'd be all right, that time would make a lot of those seeming-mountains into molehills...
But there was no way to do so without coming across as a condescending old fuddy duddy, and he kept his mouth shut on it, asking only: "What did Sunjata do?" The tall man had his own problems to deal with at the moment, Jigano knew, with Lusea missing. He had never seen the Korofi man anything but somber and wounded, even when in his panther shift after becoming Attuned - covered in mud, trudging hopelessly along as he rolled balls of mud and let it dirty his fur, too lost in his anxious worrying to care about his appearance or his new shapes.
"And if you have no memories, how do you know that people don't like the real you?" he asked gently again, this time with an encouraging smile. "How do you even know the real you? You're still learning who you are and who you want to be. Don't let others pressure you into becoming something just because they like it or want it - or because you think they'll like you better if you change." It felt strange to be telling someone to slow down when he usually strongly encouraged people to become Attuned, but Oliver's conflicting feelings on the gods were worrisome, and potentially dangerous if they took offense at it when he went to them. Jigano didn't want to see the nice young man hurt just because he was still figuring himself out. He'd help if that was what Oliver really wanted... but the blond youth had been giving very mixed signals so far.
Assurances were easy to make in the heat of the moment, Jigano knew. They were much harder to follow through on, especially when people changed. Oliver as he was now might not hurt anyone or try to Ascend to godhood, but an Oliver ten years from now? An angry, frustrated Oliver who was tired of being ignored by the gods and decided to take things into his own hands, thinking that he would do things better, be less judgmental, or more welcoming than the current gods? "You don't trust other people, it sounds like," he pointed out mildly. "You're judging the people of the Hollowed Grounds as impatient and unkind the same way the gods are judging you, lumping everyone in the same boat and writing them off without giving them a chance, either. But you aren't even from here. You aren't one of the people of Caido, who grew up with the gods, nor they with you. Why do you expect them to give you the benefit of the doubt when you were brought here by their enemy?" He asked with genuine curiosity, hoping that Oliver could see why the gods had no reason to trust him - and every reason to be wary of him, especially with all the anger and hate he admitted to having in his heart for them.
It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair, but they couldn't change the gods, after all, only try to come to terms with them.
But there was no way to do so without coming across as a condescending old fuddy duddy, and he kept his mouth shut on it, asking only: "What did Sunjata do?" The tall man had his own problems to deal with at the moment, Jigano knew, with Lusea missing. He had never seen the Korofi man anything but somber and wounded, even when in his panther shift after becoming Attuned - covered in mud, trudging hopelessly along as he rolled balls of mud and let it dirty his fur, too lost in his anxious worrying to care about his appearance or his new shapes.
"And if you have no memories, how do you know that people don't like the real you?" he asked gently again, this time with an encouraging smile. "How do you even know the real you? You're still learning who you are and who you want to be. Don't let others pressure you into becoming something just because they like it or want it - or because you think they'll like you better if you change." It felt strange to be telling someone to slow down when he usually strongly encouraged people to become Attuned, but Oliver's conflicting feelings on the gods were worrisome, and potentially dangerous if they took offense at it when he went to them. Jigano didn't want to see the nice young man hurt just because he was still figuring himself out. He'd help if that was what Oliver really wanted... but the blond youth had been giving very mixed signals so far.
Assurances were easy to make in the heat of the moment, Jigano knew. They were much harder to follow through on, especially when people changed. Oliver as he was now might not hurt anyone or try to Ascend to godhood, but an Oliver ten years from now? An angry, frustrated Oliver who was tired of being ignored by the gods and decided to take things into his own hands, thinking that he would do things better, be less judgmental, or more welcoming than the current gods? "You don't trust other people, it sounds like," he pointed out mildly. "You're judging the people of the Hollowed Grounds as impatient and unkind the same way the gods are judging you, lumping everyone in the same boat and writing them off without giving them a chance, either. But you aren't even from here. You aren't one of the people of Caido, who grew up with the gods, nor they with you. Why do you expect them to give you the benefit of the doubt when you were brought here by their enemy?" He asked with genuine curiosity, hoping that Oliver could see why the gods had no reason to trust him - and every reason to be wary of him, especially with all the anger and hate he admitted to having in his heart for them.
It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair, but they couldn't change the gods, after all, only try to come to terms with them.
