For a second, Balthazar thinks he literally means the crown is meant to be shaped like a bird, and squints at it trying to see it. Then he realizes there's a metaphor there and looks sheepish. "Well...bit futile then, I'm sure. You seem to be the embodiment of 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'."
He hesitates at the protest, wincing inwardly. He forgot who he was talking to. You can't be dishonest with Lucifer. Even in his world that holds true. "Sorry, I suppose you're right. The thing is, I'm not sure, and if I tell you what I guess, I don't want you losing your temper."
He smooths back the other angel's hair, cleaning blood from it with a wisp of his Grace. "All I know is I get a little pain behind that eye now and then, which translates directly to one of my largest eyes in trueform. The last time I saw Annabiel, she was going into prison for re-education and something she said made me think...well, I know I've been re-indoctrinated twice at least, but it's hard to remember what exactly happened after you've been there. It's just a vague horror and a sense of you don't want to come back here, and sometimes lingering aches that last a few weeks and then go. I assume it's a scar of some kind but the less thought given to it the better. They'll never get their hands on me again, anyway."
He's trying to couch this in terms as delicate as possible, speaking as lightly as he dares without cracking jokes. There was almost certainly torture involved in re-education, judging from the pain, the aches, but Lucifer doesn't need to be thinking about that, and frankly neither does Balthazar.
"I'm never going back there," he says. "Not to my world's Heaven. So it won't happen to me again."
He pulls him into a winged embrace, his cinnamon-and-incense scent flaring up around the two of them to cover up blood and fire. "Penthouses are replaceable, darling. You are not. I want you forever."
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He hesitates at the protest, wincing inwardly. He forgot who he was talking to. You can't be dishonest with Lucifer. Even in his world that holds true. "Sorry, I suppose you're right. The thing is, I'm not sure, and if I tell you what I guess, I don't want you losing your temper."
He smooths back the other angel's hair, cleaning blood from it with a wisp of his Grace. "All I know is I get a little pain behind that eye now and then, which translates directly to one of my largest eyes in trueform. The last time I saw Annabiel, she was going into prison for re-education and something she said made me think...well, I know I've been re-indoctrinated twice at least, but it's hard to remember what exactly happened after you've been there. It's just a vague horror and a sense of you don't want to come back here, and sometimes lingering aches that last a few weeks and then go. I assume it's a scar of some kind but the less thought given to it the better. They'll never get their hands on me again, anyway."
He's trying to couch this in terms as delicate as possible, speaking as lightly as he dares without cracking jokes. There was almost certainly torture involved in re-education, judging from the pain, the aches, but Lucifer doesn't need to be thinking about that, and frankly neither does Balthazar.
"I'm never going back there," he says. "Not to my world's Heaven. So it won't happen to me again."
He pulls him into a winged embrace, his cinnamon-and-incense scent flaring up around the two of them to cover up blood and fire. "Penthouses are replaceable, darling. You are not. I want you forever."