I've seen your flag on the marble arch

[tryingitall]

Balthazar, when seen around the Nexus, is usually obnoxiously upbeat and cheerful. Downright perky, even. He's a gregarious angel, a little mouthy, but quick to joke and slow to judge. His reward for being peculiar by his kind's standards has been spectacular: the love of his life, a built-in family, and a number of like-minded friends, some angelic and some not. If he just stayed in the Nexus and ignored his own world forever, he'd easily be content with what he has.

The multiverse isn't that simple, though. He's still in contact with his home and at least one of his brothers, and there's still a war going on there. As much as he wishes he could stay on the sidelines of it completely, he knows, rationally, that that isn't a possibility. Not forever.

Right now, he's seated at a cafe table with the dregs of a bottle of Glenmorangie, which he is classlessly swigging straight out of the bottle. There's a bag from a pet store beside him, but in his lap there's a notebook, and he's scribbling in it, with a fine sepia pen. No one save another angel is likely to be able to read his notes; they're in Enochian.

"I have too many questions to ask, I think," he says, adding a flourish to one of the sigils on his page. "What would you do if your family was divided, violently, and at war? How can you reassure a brother with the weight of the world on his shoulders? Why does history repeat itself?"

He takes another gulp of Scotch. "At what point does remaining a neutral party in a war become just...irresponsibly letting shit happen to the innocent?"

"There are dozens of people I could ask for help, but what exactly would I ask them to help me with?" Pause. "Well, that one's rhetorical, I suppose."

"Would someone like to bring me another bottle of liquor? This one's almost out."

Comments

[tryingitall]

He can feel what she's doing, and he doesn't mind it, though it's likely to be far less effective on him than it would be on a mortal being. He blinks at her and gives her an oddly soft smile. "Careful...I don't know how compatible or incompatible our natures are. I'm a celestial being, not as I appear; I don't want to harm you."

A human empath could easily fry their own brain like that, but she's clearly not human, so he'll have to trust she knows her own skills and limits.

He sobers, listening to her. "That's a sad story. Especially what it did to your planet itself. There's always collateral damage in a war, isn't there? We were always taught it was worth it, but I wonder now."

It sounds as if her species evolved involuntarily. He was hoping she'd have some advice as to how to make angels do the same...but maybe that's the kind of thing that can only be achieved through suffering.

"I'm an angel. We were created as...agents of our Father. Messengers, extensions of His will, to create and enforce order as He saw fit. Often through violence. It's written into our very being." He rubs the back of his neck, frowning as if he's struggling to reason through this and then translate it into words that can be audibly spoken. "Except our Father abandoned us, and no one really knows why. But when you create a species to be soldiers, what do they do when the war ends?"

[sordiddetails]

"In my universe we are Earth's reason for believing there is a celestial heaven." She's not worried about whatever he might be. Age gave her confidence, and she was ancient by most mortal standards, though unlikely by an angel's.

"Humans believe it is, but we learned long ago that war isn't worth the cost." She shook her head thinking of her child and how he alone was charged with stopping wars. Sadness flickers through her presence before she can push it away.

"I know of angels. My husband is a human Christian." Though a mostly non-practicing one since learning of aliens. "My father disowned me so I can sympathize, but humans are trained to the point of believing they are made for war. Maybe they would have some insight. My husband left war to become an explorer when he was still young. War still exists on Earth but he confronts it without violence. I almost wish he were her to talk to you."

[tryingitall]

"It's different for humans, I think, at least where I'm from. They only fight wars against other humans, because that's all they know that's out there to fight. We had demons, monsters, various types of eldritch beings that were not friendly to any other form of life...and we fought them like we were told to."

And maybe there were some they didn't have to fight, but...he can't go back and re-fight those battles in his head in the hopes of justifying them. He just can't. With the weight of millions of year of Past behind him, he'll drown if he doesn't live in the Present.

"I almost feel I should apologize," he says wryly when she mentions her husband. "I'm always worried I'll break some poor religious person's heart if they meet me here."

[sordiddetails]

"What you fought may differ but the concept of fighting as you're told is universal in my experience." Limited as it was.

She just starts giggling. "You will be nothing. I had to tell him my family, maybe even my cousin, was what made humans create God. An actual angel is probably more satisfying than the God is an advanced alien cliche in human media."

She reaches out and pats his forearm. "He's seen enough to take everything in stride."

[tryingitall]

"That's fair, and probably accurate. So many of us just following orders. Perhaps Lucifer has the right ideas after all. Rebellion does less damage than conformity, from what I've seen."

He's a little too drunk to continue with that train of philosophical thought, luckily, and smiles at her giggle. "All right, you've got me beat, there, then. I've had to tell people my elder brother announced the birth of Jesus, but 'my cousin might have been God' is a step above that."

"You made me think of my sister Annabiel, though, when I first saw you."

[sordiddetails]

"Aside from his love of space, I think his inability to do as he was told made him dislike his military service." Her presence turns curious. "Is this the Lucifer that looks like he belongs in my family?"

She shakes her head at the memory. "My people taught early humans language before they evolved into Homo sapiens."

"She is a good woman?" She pauses. "I didn't realize angels consider each other siblings. I don't know much about Christianity. My own species is spiritual but we haven't had gods or divinity in a long time, millions of years."