Re: Down: Lucifer / Misha
Being told things was often secondary to actually seeing or experiencing them, and that was something that Lucifer had known for a very long time. Because he'd seen it. Some could learn from books or from reading, some could learn from hearing, and some from just seeing. But everyone learned from doing, and it was an effective (if sometimes harsh) teacher. And on top of all of that, it wasn't an easy thing to fit together all of the strange parts that made up belief and faith. So much of it was different and personal, and what rang true for one would fall flat for another. So in the end, it truly was experience that had to carry the lion's share of teaching. Which meant that the younger were more prone to a lack of knowing.
It was true that Below wasn't affected much by the differing personal beliefs of people. There were enough similarities that fed into a general faith - one that kept His father in charge, kept the realm in existence, and kept Lucifer the overseer of it. He ruled as a sort of landlord/jailer/house-sitter combination, no matter how often he tried to steal some of his own time away. But though he wandered to Earth and had some power there as well, he still had rule over everyone and everything Below. It meant that as he watched Misha fidget and pull that pillow close, he was able to reach down to the far side of his armchair again, this time picking up a thick ceramic mug and leaning forward to hold it out to Misha. If the boy took it, inside was a thick hot chocolate (with whipped cream or marshmallows or both, whichever was Misha's preference), and the perfect temperature to still be hot enough but not to burn the drinker.
"Sticking to what you know means you don't ever grow or change. It means you stagnate." He didn't give a particular judgement on that, but it was fairly obvious to see his opinion of stagnation. From what he knew, and from what Misha had even told him, Above was particularly prone to that problem. "You can still learn and still experience. Even if you were human, those would be good choices to make." He listened to the rest of Misha's ramble, staying very still again and letting the spill of words wash over him. From his own point of view, Misha had a few things that hit a little wide of the mark and a few things that were dead-on. "Everyone gets tired of feeling bad," was his first reply, and a quiet one at that. "I know that the stories they tell, on Earth and Above, are different than who you are. It's always that I've impregnated some innocent virgin by seducing her against her will, and the result is some evil, soulless child who will never have any sense of right or wrong, and that foretells of end times." His mouth curved, as if he was smiling, but there was no amusement or even much life to the expression, and he shook his head once. "That's not what happened, and that's not you. I'm not saying that Above isn't shitting their collective pants over things, but not because you fit whatever 'tradition' has held for so long." It wasn't easy to address every bit of Misha's ramble, and it felt very strange to be sitting down to talk about serious things like this, but he did make an effort to say what he thought could be one of the most important parts. "You have the freedom to decide who you're going to be, the freedom to take your time with the decision, and the freedom to change your mind at any time."