Welcome to Gaia! ::

He got to the agreed shop a half hour early, in part because he was already awake then, in part because he didn't have much else planned for the day before he'd have to work. Lucas sat with a distant expression and a half empty cup of black coffee, tapping his fingers in a slow, idle motion along the sleeve that protected from the scalding heat, watching the door.

His eyes sharpened when Shun walked in, nodding slightly in return and waiting patiently. Lucas offered a smile when the other came to sit with him, a tight expression that spoke of being glad to see him, but perhaps circumstance was going to make it business each time.

"Morning," he returned just as quiet. "Thanks for meeting with me. I wont take too much of your time, I promise -- this type of s**t is too heavy, let alone this early." Nevermind he'd been up since six. "You doin' okay? Work and otherwise?" The werewolf wasn't much for small talk, but he was polite, at least.

The smile he wore thinned. "I've been better, thanks."

Both sets of fingers idly turned the cup between them, considering how to begin. "Have you heard of the witch on the beach?" Lucas asked, curious more than anything. It was as good a place to start as any.

A faint smile formed at his tone. He'd never had difficulty with her, but he remembered her words upon their first meeting. Apparently, a lot of people were not so lucky with her mannerisms.

"I went to her, after the full moon. She'd been mentioned twice and I figured - why not? What could it hurt?" Lucas shrugged, eyes lowered, recalling the cool day on the beach almost fondly. "She's who told me about the Moonwalkers."

Pale eyes returned to Shun, voice soft to keep the conversation from passing ears. "We are, apparently, some sort of police force of the Otherworld. We're supposed to keep what's there leaking into this realm." And oh, how spectacularly they were failing that.

"It's what the stag on the other side called us. His name was The Prideful One. But yeah, I guess Moonwalkers has a better sound to it than weres, more...official, less monstrous, or something." Lucas laughed softly under his breath. The whole thing was utter crazy and nonsense and here they were, talking about it casually over coffee and tea.

"That, my friend, I have not yet figured out." He smiled again, crooked with having asked himself that exact thing a thousand times. "We aren't powerful, we aren't special, we just look ridiculous for a few days of the month and are animals in the other place. She said we 'hold back the dark,' but how? We barely survived Blackfriar's. Two of us are kids still. I -- I don't know how, but..."

He chewed the inside of his lip, contemplative. "I'm going to try and figure it out. If that means going back, if it means breaking bread with things of nightmares, there has to be more." His grey eyes were wild with speculation that had robbed him of sleep many nights, knowing he'd have to reach out to the things that scared him the most. "What other choice do I have? Do any of us have?"

His smile was small and tight. "It's not a choice for me, Sarge. I have people I want to protect, and blithely going around in ignorance and pretending nothing happened...I can't do that. It's not in my blood." Lucas sighed softly, pausing to take a sip of the bitter liquid in his cup.

"I don't know how much time we have, to be honest. It could all end tomorrow. And while I can't singularly - or even with the Pack - hold it all back, knowing where to go from here would be a boon to us all." He leaned back, tapping the lip of the cup. "There's been a history of people being able to change their shape, with magic, and weres became the guardians to get away from the stigma of fear." Lucas shook his head, remembering Sunny's words. Why breed fear now? Until it happened, they hadn't even existed...

"Someone is changing how this story plays out, Sergeant, and I doubt it's going to end here." Lucas looked at the other, expression drawn and a touch dark. "I don't want to doom-and-gloom everything, but I think we were just the start of something."

"August," he echoed, but it didn't ring any bells. "You know, I still don't really know what this war is. Who the good guys really are, if there are good entities in this at all. I've been told I'm on the bad side because I choose happiness for my friends and loved ones."

Lucas slowly shook his head to himself, tucking a stray lock of black hair behind his ear. "The end for me is only if the bad guy gets free from their prison. The end of the war...is that individual's death. So you can see where my confusion is on what I'm actually supposed to do." The chuckle that fell from his lips was humorless.

"Either way, people are going to die, Sarge. All we can hope to do is mitigate the damages."

He did smile then, a bit more earnest. "It's never that easy, but I still want to be comfortable in my role in it. I can only be a good soldier if I believe in what I'm doing." And quite frankly, Lucas had no such belief, in himself or the cause.

"Hey." Lucas gave Shun a sharp look. "Just because you can't get there doesn't mean you're useless, Sarge. You're the law here, and you're imperative to making sure we succeed. If I'm the best we have for law over there, you can bet your bullets we need you badly here." His grin returned, slight, but more like himself.

"People wake up over there from here, all the time. It's good to know we have someone reliable on this side." He shrugged, his grin tempering into a smile again. "Who knows, you may yet join the ranks. For what it's worth? I hope you never do. But if you should, know you've got an ally who will help you the best he can."