So much Lucifer can be a hissing cat when touched wrong that he's likely risking similar when he clicks his tongue and turns in his spot of the floor to face Istredd, folding his legs before reaching out both hands to clasp hands on Istredd's shoulders. They're both so great at running away and putting distance and then itching at each other's boundaries.

"'It's necessary.' Do you know how many times those words have been used... for so many things? My Father testing his subjects in a petty fight against lesser gods. My Father flooding the planet in an act of divine retribution. It's necessary." His tone is still carefully soft but there is an underlying, almost desperate, knowing edge of 'I know you're not this stupid.'

"It sounds like you're defending them because you are. Like I defend my family, Istredd. That's what you sound like. Because you have to. Because it's where you came from." They are not talking about Lucifer and humanity anymore. "Because they made you--but it does not make how they went about things just. It does not mean they shouldn't have changed. How much is your world violent and cruel because every aspect of it has sunk into its ways out of necessity, to push back at each other institutions?"