[There is a long and lengthy pause before Henry bothers to reply. One that runs so long that it's a wonder if he will at all. The pain of those experiences has probably cut you deeply to the core.

She's not wrong about a lot of things. That, probably, is just as accurate as the rest, his time spent in HNL cementing many of his current character traits, good and bad. All the sharp, broken edges in him made even keener in those twenty years.

Just as she's right about psychics being born with a burden that's difficult to carry. How would life had turned out differently for Henry Creel if his powers hadn't manifested when he was twelve, if he could not delve into the minds of others and learn just how hypocritical so many were? How many masks they wore? Maybe his discontent would not have spiraled as it did; maybe he would have been able to carry through life, perhaps not always happy, but with the potential to grow. To meet people who would help him.

But so much of that is too... vulnerable to admit. For a man like him to even be aware of, having to turn that self-awareness inward, and that is not something that Henry is good at. He refuses to be.

And so-]

Really? I think that's strange.

[The way he says it, it sounds like he believes it.]

I've always thought of my powers as an advantage. A gift. The ability to see what people are really like. And maybe that led to others taking advantage of that power, but I'd still not trade it for anything.