Gwen had a serious amount of hate for people who thought it was okay to take advantage of the homeless. Sure they were down on their luck and desperate in most cases but that didn’t mean that they weren’t people. That didn’t mean that you could take advantage of them and use them for your personal gains in life and give them no respect at all. This was actually why Gwen didn’t believe in organized religion. She wasn’t an atheist by any means. She had lived through too much to not believe in some higher power lending a hand in keeping her alive over the years. What she didn’t believe in was organized religion. She actually found the entire concept to be a bit of a joke. To her religion was something that was hugely personal and going to church kind of crushed that idea. Going into a building and praying and singing and listening to a so called expert who is probably more of a sinner then his parishioners, while he lined his pockets you’re your ‘donations to the church’ all the while didn’t really seem like a useful way to spend ones time. Actually it sounded like a terrible way to spend your time as far as Gwen saw it. She would rather pray alone in an ally when she needed guidance or yell at god when she was pissed off or had a bad day then even set foot in a church, but on occasion one must suck it up for the greater good of all. That was why she now stood in a large empty church yelling her head off trying to get someone’s attention.

“Um Hello!! I know there has got to be someone here otherwise it wouldn’t be open to the public. Come out and face me you coward. Come out and face your judgment.” Yeah sure it was silly but she wasn’t much for fire and brim stone and may have gotten more then a few jollies in throwing their own crap back in their terrible advantage taking faces. Her voice echoed off the empty pews and vacant space of the room. “Hellooooooo!!! I’m just going to keep yelling until someone comes out here. I am not going to stand idly by while you take advantage of these poor people. Churches like yours make me sick. Just cause someone is homeless and down on their luck doesn’t mean that you can use the promise of food to convert them to your crazy cult beliefs.” Gwen moved to stand on a pew near the center of the room and looked up at the ceiling hoping that it would echo so loud they couldn't ignore her laments, "Come out come out wherever you are Mr. Unicorn Man."

Sebastian could hear her all the way from his office, through several walls and a thick door. She sounded like another raving lunatic at first, which was why he grabbed his swords before sprinting to the sanctuary. Something about the phrase “Come out and face your judgement,” made him a little more than nervous.

Mentally he ran through the list of the day's events, trying to remember without stopping to look at the calendar, who would be in the building today? Who it was that might be in danger from a stark raving church hater? Who else might be in the building that might take matters into their own hands and be left with permanent stains on their hands? He thought there was a youth group meeting later in the afternoon. There might also be a group meeting at some point today to plan for a mission trip. He ran faster, drawing one of his swords as he sprinted around the second to last corner.

By the time he got to the room where the girl was shouting at the top of her lungs, it was sounding more like she was simply mad and not stark raving mad. For one thing, she wasn't waving weapons around. That was always a good sign, but it didn't by any means mean she wasn't dangerous. The unicorn man slid his own blade back into its sheath, but kept his hand on the handle. He had gotten here first, before any of his more impulsive parishioners. That was a good thing. He took a deep breath to help slow his heart rate back to a more normal pace, then cleared his throat.

“Excuse me, but can I help you with anything?” He tried to keep his tone even and calm. His expression was a pleasant and welcoming smile, the same he would use to greet any stranger who came in through the door, whether they were shouting or not.

Gwen was pulled out of her yelling by the arrival of exactly who she was looking for. Vinny, one of her street friends who was more then a little naive about kindness from strangers, had told her about the leader god of the church and she knew him to be a tall man with a unicorn horn on his head. Vinny had told her he was immortal and kind and good and just wanted to help, but they always seemed good and kind and just wanted to help before the forced you to join them or do something for them in order to get their help. It was a vicious cycle of taking advantage and she was done with it.

She jumped off of the pew with a loud thump on the stone floor and waltzed over to the shorter man. “Actually yes you can help me. You can stop taking advantage of my friends thank you.” Gwen's tone was more then a little filled with daggers as she smirked and crossed her arms on her chest her attitude was her best defense when it came to be intimidating after all. Her hip was cocked to the side and she looked up at the unicorn man as if he was much much smaller then she was. Though, as far as she was concerned, people like him were smaller. "People like you make me sick." She cut him off before he could speak and try to explain himself, "I may be homeless but that doesn't mean that I am helpless and can be taken advantage of and that goes double for my friends. Stop using food to convert the less fortunate you a-hole."

This young woman seemed full of ire and hate. He didn't try to speak until she seemed to be finished speaking her mind. It wasn't clear quite what she was so upset about until she got to the end of her speech, when she blamed him for forcing people to convert.

“Ah.” He could see where she may have been misled or confused. He took a step closer, closing the large gap between them. He didn't get angry, or respond to her insults at all. He didn't want to make things worse. Instead, he kept his demeanor as calm as possible.

“I am sorry you feel slighted, my lady. Though, I think you perhaps have misinterpreted our intentions. We don't feed people to convert them. We feed people because they are hungry.”

He tilted his head, waiting a moment to see if the woman was the type that was willing to listen further, or they type that had already made up her mind and nothing he could say would change her views. So far, so good. The immortal continued.

“We don't force anyone to do anything here. No one is forced to come eat. No one is forced to convert. If someone was hungry, they could come eat for free as often as they wanted and never join the church if they didn't want to.”

He looked her in the eye, catching her eyes in his kind, blue gaze, trying to show how serious he was about this.

“This isn't about converting people. It's about making this world a better place.”

Gwen’s tapped her heel and filled the room around her with sound as she gave the man before her a look almost warning him to give her more of a reason to punch him. She knew she shouldn’t punch someone in a church there had to be something about condemning your eternal soul there right, but she really really hated people like this. They were all so entitled. Religion seemed to make people idiots who thought they could do whatever they wanted in the name of God and she really didn’t get it.

Gwen almost wanted to chuckle as he did exactly what she expected of a ‘man of God’. He stayed calm and tried to get close to her so he could talk her out of being angry and talk her into loving his church, but guess what she wasn’t buying what he was selling. She had had enough people try to talk her into things over the years thinking that the poor little homeless girl or the poor little orphaned mutant would just follow along with anything they said that she had built up a constitution stupid.

Gwen lifted an eyebrow at his use of the term young lady. She wasn’t what she would call young and she was most certainly not a lady. This guy had to be s#*ting her. “That is what they all say. They want to feed us cause we are hungry but while we are here they start talking to us about the word of God and how he can help the desperate and what you say starts to make sense and all of a sudden you get a crazy homeless guy standing on the side of the street with a God Will Judge All sign or some s***. I’m sorry if I just so happen to not believe you. Even people with the best intentions can do the most horrible of things. You may not even realize the ramifications of what you are doing. People are lemmings and you put them in desperation they just get worse.”

Sebastian shook his head, just slightly. More at himself than anything else. Had he really expected his words to sink in so quickly? Did he think that once he started calling himself a god that he could defeat human nature so easily?

This woman was clearly upset. Upset people didn't listen. In all likelihood, there was nothing he could say to change her mind. She was bound and determined to hate everything about their church and everything it did.

Still, it rankled him, that he couldn't make her believe that they were only trying to good. It was almost as if a challenge had been issued: convince this woman and you can convince anyone.

“For someone who is trying to defend the homeless, it doesn't sound as though you have a very high opinion of their ability to make decisions for themselves.”

She was leaning back on an awful lot of stereotypes, there. Stereotypes of what a church was like, and stereotypes of what homeless people were like.

“If you came to one of our dinners, do you think you would leave it ready to wave a cardboard sign that said those things on it? How about if you came to a hundred dinners?”

The questions were rhetorical, but she could answer them if she liked.

“If you wouldn't do anything I asked you, just because I gave you a meal, then perhaps you shouldn't assume that everyone else who comes here for food is gullible, stupid, helpless, and incapable of making decisions for themselves.”

He tried to keep anger out of his voice, likewise condescension. He ended up with quiet and calm, devoid of any real emotions.

“If you were running a church in this neighborhood, how would you do it? How would you deal with the fact that people are starving right outside your doors when you had plenty to eat for yourself?”

This question wasn't rhetorical. He did want her honest answer to this one. He waited quietly for her response.

“You act as if I speak for all homeless people. Honestly the homeless are more resorcful then anyone gives them credit for but there are those that I try to look out for that havn’t really gotten the resourceful thing yet or will never. There are so many who aren’t like me and didn’t choose this and they don’t deserve what they get. Not all of them anyway.” Gwen was acutally quite offended that he would assume such a thing. Sure she was using generalizations but most poepel only really understood the stereotype and really there were stereotypes because there was someone somewhere who had seen them done. Gwen had to actually stop herself form screaming at him.

She didn’t want to have anything to do with this man. He like all the others didn't get it. Desperation does crazy crazy things to people. Gwen’s hands clenched into fists at her sides as she narrowed her stare. “Honestly I have enough resources to find my own food thank you. Unlike most I’m not living in desperation. You see, it has nothing to do with decision making you moron. When you’re desperate, and I mean really desperate, you will do anything to eat. I’ve seen people lower themselves to the darkest depths for the most miniscule scraps. So, I’m sorry Mister ‘I have a horn on my head’ but it isn’t a huge leap to assume that some of these people will gladly preach your good word all over Manhattan if you promise them a meal and as far as I am concerned that is taking advantage of the homeless.” Gwen looked away from him with a chuckling release of air and took a step back, “You may think that I’m judgy and rude. Those aren’t anything new for me, I’ve been called both before. In fact I have even been called crazy on occasion but there is one thing I care about more than my own survival and that is the survival of the people who didn’t choose to be out there. A number that is actually rising every day and that scares me. ” Gwen’s tone was different. It was calm but determined. She was no longer yelling and waving her arms about to make her point but was instead very quiet. “Sure they need food, but if I were in your shoes I would take it to them. I wouldn’t tell them I was part of a church or an organization. I would just show up and hand them hot meals. No words. No,” Gwen gestured all around her, “this. Nothing but food and a smile. They can make the choice to take it or not and if they asked all I would say is it came from a helping hand. Just because you have a building doesn’t mean they should have to come to it to get fed.”

“You're right about another thing; these people are resourceful. They can find food. I'm just trying to make that job a little easier. If I can prevent one man from having to eat scraps from a dumpster or one woman from having to sell drugs, weapons, or even her body to earn enough money to buy food, if I can prevent one boy having to steal bread or keep one little girl from going hungry at dinner time, then I will do it. Furthermore, if I can do that for anyone in the city who needs it, then I will.”

“If I had a way of finding every single person that was in desperate need of food and enough time to deliver meals to every starving person in the city, that is exactly what I would do.”

He looked down, saddened, “Unfortunately, I don't have a way of doing that. The next best thing is to make a centralized location where people know they can count on getting a meal if they need one. It makes it easier for them, knowing one place they can trust where people won't look down on them. We don't discriminate. Anyone can eat here whether they are princes or paupers, homeless or not. It doesn't matter.”

He looked up again, “Now I don't know what stories you've heard about other churches or other religions, but here, we have no requirements of those who come in our doors. If people want food, all they have to do is come and get it. There is no favors or debts for such a thing. We don't preach all through dinner or force anyone to convert. I wouldn't ask that of anyone.”

Sebastian shrugged, “Then again, if you don't believe me, perhaps you should come to one of our dinners and see for yourself what it is like before you start judging.”

Gwen’s defensive stance faded as she listened to the conviction in his voice. For once she found herself wondering if such a man was doing good for the good of doing good and with no ideas of personal gain what so ever. Such a concept was more then a little hard for her to wrap her mind around. She had seen the darkest most greedy sides of some of the nicest people, as far as she was concerned everyone had some kind of thought of themselves deep down in their hearts. And no one did things without expecting something in return even if it was just to make themselves feel better. In her experience there really was no such thing as a truly good person. Not even herself. Yet somehow as she listened to this freak of a man before her she could see something in him she had never seen before. She saw true selflessness to the level that she tried to have for the people out there. Sure she was far from ungreedy, but she tried her best to put those people before herself if she could. If she had to go hungry so they could eat she would and something told her this man would too.

“I would take you up on that but I would never want to take a meal away from someone that needed it more then I ever do. I am resourceful and I can take care of myself. And besides if I have to go hungry so someone else can eat I would prefer that.” Her tone was different, calmer, and her hands were no longer crossed over her chest protectively. She no longer stood as a crusader on a mission but instead just a girl standing in front of a man listening to him tell her the truth. “Like I said I made this choice and most of them didn’t. I refuse to take things from those who have no other choice but to have nothing.”