Electric Dreams Haven't Lost Me Any Sleep [Lukas/BG-X]

CITY OF LIGHTS
"You hear about that weird girl? Some crazy spiritual pressure coming off this spacey chick I ran into, not the kinda thing you see much around here." Rattled out of the bartender, Lukas sitting in mild discomfort across the man.

"What're we talking?"

"You remember that arrancar that showed up?"

"No shit, you're fucking with me."

"Hey, I ever lie to you before? it was like that, just, y'know, not a hollow." The man shrugged at the quincy, motioning to the other side of the bar.

"New in town, I think. Hadn't seen her before. Look, that's what I got. Other customers are paying, but good seeing you moving around."

Lukas frowned with a nod, standing up stiffly.

His clothes were obviously wrinkled, half of them unwashed. The short remains of his hair sat haphazardly cropped, skin still showing faint scarring, but healing nonetheless. Latest treatment having all but put him together, everything left was internal, or soon-to-fade cosmetic. The pain would linger for a while longer as he moved, left arm jostling in its sling as he exited the bar.

Tired eyes met the streets as he shuffled against the nearest wall, back bracing him to stand tall. Slowly breathing, in and out. Okay. This shouldn't be hard - just focus. Reach out.

As his lungs expanded, the his spiritual pressure reached out, the touch of reishi filling his mind. Feelers stretching into the stadt, a muscle stretching in ways it hadn't for a long time. Sweat slick on his neck, the needling pain racking against his skin - a spike of pressure, a pillar amongst valleys. There.

Wiping off his neck, the quincy made his way through the crowds with a slight limp, towards the woman.

As he approached BG-X, Lukas cracked his neck with a shift of his shoulder. "Hey! Who the hell are you?"

Someone was calling her. Hm. That was odd. People usually didn't talk to her much. If they did, it was hardly in such an aggressive way. BG-X wondered briefly if this was some sort of abnormal creature that had been let loose from the Master's laboratory, but brushed that thought aside. She would know about that. It seemed this was just a Quincy. This brief interaction had reassured her that the Master had made a good decision.

"Belle Greyfield, Sternritter operative."

BG-X gave a polite, if strangely formal, curtsy to Lukas as she answered, her eyes closing in a demure gesture as she did so. Of course, once it had ended, she simply stood straight again, her eyes boring into the man with seemingly no interest in a single thing other than their conversation.

"Is there concern with my presence?"

CITY OF LIGHTS
Lukas' glare sliced up and down the woman, his extrasensory like steel wool. "Sternritter, maybe that's why I've never seen you before." He managed to half mumble, half say aloud. Doesn't really act... normal. Kind of like Freyja, huh?

Ignoring that he was not considered particularly sane, Lukas' glare turned back to Belle's face, looking for something familiar. "Sure, call it concern. Where have you been, with that crazy spiritual pressure?" His eyes shifting from hostility to curiosity.

"Could've use someone like you when the arrancar showed up."

"So I have heard. I only joined after he came to the City of Lights. My apologies."

Her apology didn't have much in the way of a different tone of voice to make it seem overly genuine. Not that it seemed like a lie, either, she was simply saying it without any emotion in her voice. A formality, rather than a heartfelt need for forgiveness.

"I don't intend to let something like that happen again."

CITY OF LIGHTS
"A-huh." The cynicism was fairly apparent in Lukas' response, looking for something he could recognize in the woman's eyes. He would not be so lucky.

"You've definitely got enough kick in the tank to do something, but what's your specialty?" His tone failed to shift away from cynic, but the search hadn't been for nothing so far. For that, he felt a small amount of relief - whatever he could feel under the faint, constant pain.

"Specialty?"

BG-X's head cocked to one side as she studied the man before her, a seemingly hollow gesture given there was no actual sense of curiosity in her eyes. Was he asking about her status as a quincy, or something else? Both were relatively expected, given prior inquiries from others.

"I am an expert in all Quincy arts, well above the rank and file, and I excel in instruction, breakfast preparation, and what I have been told is referred to as the 'cowgirl position.'"

That just about summed up the big ones.

CITY OF LIGHTS
Lukas was, admittedly, curious as she began to reply. Shifting quickly into a moment of incredulity, confused eyes locked to the woman's lack of expression. As the moment ended, he'd find himself pushed over, holding onto his stomach with a wheezing laugh.

It had been a long time since he laughed that hard, or that long.

"Yeah, I'm familiar." He'd laugh again, fighting to catch his breath for the moment as he turned away. Collecting him composure, Lukas turned back to face the woman, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.

"Look, if you're good with everything," shifting to regain eye contact, "Looking for some, what'd you say, instruction? Instruction with gebet."

"Very well. I would be thrilled to offer my knowledge in gebet to a fellow member of the Vandenreich."

Despite the ostensible "thrill" that she was claiming, BG-X's voice hardly seemed to change any from the same flat tone that she'd had through the conversation so far. Naturally, she wasn't someone capable of being "thrilled" by anything, but the Master had sent her here for a reason, and this, she acknowledged, was that reason.

"Lead the way to your learning facility of choice, and I will follow."

CITY OF LIGHTS
"Follow me." With a wave of his hand, they'd make their way.

The training hall had seen better days. Scorch marks, gouges in the floor, even a rather massive chunk torn from one of the walls. Silver eyes traced it, a vaguely proud glimmer in the quincy's stare. The lights shone as bright as ever, bare and clean. Lukas would walk to the center, facing the woman.

"Ignore the damage. Had this place on loan for the last week or two, figure do the repairs when it's all said and done." Helped that the room was almost entirely constructed from reishi, and could be formed back to cleanliness with a snap. But the smell of lingering sweat, blood, ash, it made Lukas' heart beat a little easier.

"Cuttin' to the chase, my gebet has always been... Okay." His arm slid easily from it's sling, reaching into his jacket to produce a ginto canister, The sling flew to an opposite corner, Lukas shaking the canister by his ear, listening to the sound of the liquid within. "Useful on operations, not so much in direct combat."

With a flick of his thumb, the canister popped open. "So, where to start?"