Sebastian blushed lightly and hung his head for just a moment, before he shrugged. "It's just that... we're seen as pious and those of us - even the mortals who find themselves in higher positions - who deviate from that piety, we are shamed by the world. And that's what was so difficult for me to understand the last time I came back because when I was alive it wasn't anything like that at all. I mean," he laughed, "I was in the Roman army, the things that we did would scandalize people these days."
He placed his hand on top of hers, smiling back at her. "It's not so much that I'm ashamed, but that I'm remembering. When I was first alive there was... someone who wanted me to belong to him - not as slave; he had plenty of slaves, plenty of boys willing to cater to his every need. But I belong to only one person. His jealousy was cruel and dark and I suffered for denying him, for refusing his advances." He bit his lip, looking more coy than anything, "But my devotion was rewarded and the pain I endured was sweet; it was... ecstasy. And though I was shamed and I was beaten and I was killed... twice, I felt closer to him in those moments than I have before or since. That's where you come from. And now, like the general, the others are trying to bastardize the love and the beauty that you're supposed to represent. That we're supposed to represent. And my shame comes from the fact that I allowed it to occur."
He took a deep breath, "France, the turn of the eighteenth century... that's where I failed. That's where people think they can justify malicious acts against the unwilling. And I'm not sure it can be fixed, by either of us."