Where's Your Pride? [Lukas/Freyja]

THE CITY OF LIGHT
"You start with about two dozen Quincy, pretty young. Bind'em with a ridiculous hant, and then toss'em in an environment where they're forced to fight to survive." The afore mentioned wrap in gesture. "Pump in a ton of reishi through whatever means possible, you create a pressure cooker for potential. Unfortunately, with how those abilities tend to...

His voice became markedly more dower, a shift in the light of his eyes. "Manifest, it's really, REALLY, hard for no one to die. The man had no idea how the woman might react at this point, but it wasn't enough to consider for him to stop, if anything, he'd barrel through the remainder.

"Sometimes it can be a clean process but others it's.... Well, it's not very popular for a reason. The results are there, though. Life or death, in an environment surrounded by other quincy? It's the most capable learning experience any of them will ever have. The ideas you come up with when you're pushed are -" Fingers tightened, digging nails into his own palm at the memories. A sudden quietness, gaze piercing through the woman to nowhere.

"Pretty big."

No words exited her lips in response to his explanation. A palpable silence was all that filled the air. To be certain, the name alone had given her pause - survival. She had heard of countless methods, studied various texts, trained under some of the finest warriors her race had to offer---yet not a single one of them had ever involved trials by fire where those who proved inferior had to pay for their error with their lives. Azure eyes now regarded the man with disbelief.

The mere concept sounded so preposterous that Freyja had sincerely wondered if he was making humor at her expense, but that piercing gaze told her otherwise. What environment had he been raised in? Though her outward expression appeared relatively neutral as a whole during this entire conversation, her countenance now held a semblance of repulsion.

It was by no means directed at Lukas, but every time she reflected on the sheer madness of the idea, she felt her soul brimming with exasperation. Even so, she maintained some semblance of composure, posing a question to the man in response. Surely he couldn't be suggesting what she thought he was...

"Where are you going with this, Lukas?"

THE CITY OF LIGHT
"Going?" Lukas questioned aloud, confusion sprouting across his face. "That's it. There's no moral of the story, it just is. Or, was." Silver slipped back to his arm for a moment, a shake of the head returning him to form as he sighed.

"As for the now, even the most coddled version of that wouldn't pass any of the brass' particularities. You sand down the edges, make things more palatable and still." A biting disappointment filled the last word as he turned to the plate of his food; stripping it of more meat. Lukas took a bite, chewing in silence with closed eyes. He half expected some similar response from Freyja, but at this point?

They're all gonna get themselves killed. Why should I care? Not like I haven't been responsible for killing Quincy before. A cold reality for the man raised by the sword.

Lukas' half-expectation regarding her reaction was undoubtedly correct, a precise conjecture with no error to be found. As the silver-haired man finished his blunt statement on how this outdated process ended, Freyja's azure eyes radiated a glacial intensity displaying her utter disgust at where this conversation had traveled. To be certain, Freyja was no fool - she knew as well as anyone that in a collective army of warriors, desperate times often called for desperate measures. Increasing the training regimens, denying food and water until their objective for the day had been accomplished in full, rewarding those who emerged from these stringent methods with a vastly improved mind, a firm heart built for the unforgiving perils of war. Even so, that was the but the furthest extent of how far her family's training had gone. No more, no less.

Most Solheim women and men emerged victorious, those who proved lesser were simply relegated to a role more suited to their capability. In other words, it was a scenario where everyone walked away with their lives. The alien idea, however, of imagining even one of her peers proving inferior and losing their lives among a group of others - until only a few survivors remained - was terrifying beyond measure. It sickened her. It disgusted her. Rising from her chair to fix any wrinkles in her graceful dress, Freyja sighed exasperatedly. Maintaining her composure in spite of her visible disdain, she cast her azure gaze toward him with disappointment.

"Of course not. None of our superiors would ever agree to such a ludicrous method of improving our kind's capabilities, no matter how promising the results may be. Even if a select few of those warriors emerged successfully, the guilt of survival would follow them for the rest of their lives. I, for one, would never abide such a suggestion. Do you mean to tell me that you have concluded that this method is the only option left to us? If so, I will humor this conversation no longer, Lukas."

THE CITY OF LIGHT
"Oh, I'm sorry, were you there?" Lukas snapped back at Freyja, his gaze turning from ice to daggers. "Did you see an arrancar walk into the stadt? Do whatever the hell it wanted while we threw everything we had at it?"

The man's voice becoming increasingly bitter, his face shifted into anger. "It's not some fucking idea I came up with to try and "solve" a problem." Thick quotes filled the air with his hands, elbows shifting to the table. "It's part of my life that I suggested we use so that we aren't killed at the mercy of monsters we aren't equipped to handle. So that the state built by Quincy hands isn't turned into a mausoleum. But you, the rest of the goddamn Vandenreich would rather die lying down than stand up and do something worthwhile for it."

Standing up and away from the booth, he threw some crumpled bills onto the table, a vein present on the side of his neck in anger. "Survivor's guilt? You should already be feeling it, because you're in a city of dead men."

Each harsh word that exited his lips cut through the composed expression she had maintained throughout this conversation. A tranquil gleam no longer resided in those azure eyes. No, for a moment, her gaze contained within it such a cold air of contempt that she briefly entertained the idea of materializing her blade right here and now.

Second by second, suppressed memories of that fateful day assaulted her mind all at once. Lukas was correct. She hadn't been present when Ichigo Kurosaki left destruction in his wake. There was a genuine desire to enter that hellish battlefield, of course, but the sheer tumult of destruction overwhelmed her without mercy, eliminating any possibility of her making to that battlefield. A single flash of light thundered through the city, cleaving a path of ruin that cut her and the civilians down indiscriminately.

Blaring signals occupied the ringing in her ears, the bloodcurdling screams of innocent men and women crying out for someone to help them. And then... A fade to black. At that time, she truly believed those would be her last moments. A pitiful death where she offered zero influence in changing the course of battle, a miserable end where she wouldn't be able to embody the title she wore so proudly as a coordinator of the Vandenreich.

For what it was worth, she truly respected and even valued the lives of everyone here, Lukas included. Now, at this moment, she could barely stand to look at him without suppressing the vehement urge to strike him where he stood. Part of him was correct in a sense, and she bitterly acknowledged that despite his words. There was no longer a purpose in hosting a conversation with him now. A single second more would only wear away at her spirit.

"...We're done here."

Their conversation concluded, Freyja turned around to walk through the door, her fists clenched tight in anger. There had been no greater waste of her time today than this. Even so, she couldn't let him see the effect his words had on her. And so, the meeting concluded with nothing to be gained but hurtful words on both sides. Walking into the distance, she hoped she would find an answer that ran counter to his own, an answer that equaled a benefit for all.