Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lady's concern about her shoes went completely over Lucas' head, his expression vaguely unimpressed. Leila was Eve's wife. Eve had his trust. That seemed like a natural selection, especially when the other options were Zac's Guardian, a person he'd never heard of and someone he'd only heard whispers of as a witch.

He really didn't like his options. Leila would be his first go-to.

His reserved gaze flickered from her face to her hand. "What's your role? In the Otherworld?" he asked, tired and quiet. "Are you going to look like you? Are we -- going to look like ourselves? Or should I be prepared to face a hoard of creatures?"

"Then -- then what's the point?" Lucas was frustrated and it wasn't all that surprising, his cheek ticking with his quirked lips. "Just a reason to drag us into that place? What a joke."

He turned to lean his back against the counter, rubbing his metal hand over his cheek, glancing over to her at the last bit. "Aleksy mentioned that. What is it?" He lifted his other hand, using air quotes for emphasis. "The Enemy?"

That gave him pause, looking at Lady heavily. Autumn's voice sounded in his memory, a man that wanted everything normal.

Everything with a place, and everything in its place.

"And you -- " No. " -- we -- " NO. " -- we're pawns? Of who? Him?"

Lucas groaned and ran a hand over his face, exasperated. "It's like everything in this town is allergic to answers. It's all riddles and what if's and who knows."

He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, lips set in a scowl. "How is this not just some strange, mutated version of Telephone? No one knows what's going on, no one knows how to fight it, no one even knows which side can actually save our existence."

Why did he always think he was finally going to get answers, this time? "What does this have to do with anything? With Autumn missing, with it touching everyone here, with werewolves? I'm a two limbed man for cryin' out loud, the hell does it need me for?"

"I want to live," he replied, terse and threaded with the heat of frustration. Doing the same thing fifteen times? What did that even mean? "I want the option that allows us to live and not have to deal with this hocus pocus bullshit. I choose life. I choose peace."

Lucas had given up. Lady couldn't help him, Aleksy couldn't help him, there was no one who was actually in the game that knew the controls or how to get to the end. Just some garbled tutorial that could be bugged, for all he knew.

"If it was ever your choice, then you've failed as many times as we have, whatever that means." He exhaled sharply, almost a laugh. "So what I have to determine is why you're actually here -- for my want to live, or your want to destroy? There's no way I can know if those go hand in hand. You can't even tell me."

"If life is stagnation, then yeah, that's what I chose. If your growth means the death of everyone I love? I'm not interested."

Lucas waved a tired, dismissive hand. "Red, if you decide you can give me what I need, we can talk. Otherwise, Aleksy was more helpful." He shrugged, adding curtly, "Sorry."