@naughtyimps / @moxxietude from x.
PALM COVERS NEARLY THE WHOLE BREADTH OF THE IMP'S CHEST,
a vast weight pressed lightly upon a tiny body that shakes as though awaiting lashings of fire; but beneath his fingers he feels it: the frantic hammer of a small, defiant heart; a rhythm not unlike a sparrow battering itself against glass - he trembles as though michael is to erase him, yet what he feels there is not corruption, but PULSE, will, fragile continuity; and it fascinates him.
(how strange, that such a small vessel can hold so much - fear, determination, even LOVE. perhaps the answer to his questions lays not in the cosmos, falling on his father's deaf ears, but the BOWELS of hell itself.)
the archangel's intensely curious gaze lowers, fathomless dark hues glowing with something unsettling, perilously close to amusement; the corner of his mouth curves in an expression that for him, usually donning a mien solemn with iron discipline, is nearly riotous.
"not in trouble - well, not more than you were before."
he murmurs, voice softened to warmth, though it still reverberates through the room like the chime of a bell. his head inclines, almost conspiratorial, locks of his mane of curls spilling upon the imp beneath him.
"you have made a career of mischief and meddling, yes - but you may rest easy. you have not yet earned my punishment."
his hand lingers, thumb shifting faintly over the imp's ribs and his rapid beat.
"besides âĻ" the prince of the host allows the faintest trace of humour to colour his tone, "âĻ it would be unseemly to crush you when you are so helpless."
(here he is, measuring the frail percussion of a hellborn's heart as if it were music; perhaps that is the greater HERESY - that the pulse of even this fragile imp is more company than silence has given him in eons.)