Welcome to Gaia! ::

If he had not managed to find anything particularly useful to do around the Prytaneum, Lukas thought, at least they gave him a high quality gym in which to waste time. He had not had regular access to such high quality equipment in a few years - not since he left the Rangers. That was a point in this gig's favor, he reflected. Otherwise, it was a pretty weird situation.

A soft grunt escaped his pursed lips as he brought the single dumb-bell up in a slow curl towards his shoulder. His feet planted and his butt on the bench, his base was rock steady. However, even that could only do so much when you were on your fifth rep of ten with a weight that was probably a shade more than you should be doing multiples with. He shrugged mentally. He was bored and working out kept him out of trouble.

If they refused to let him explore the surrounding woods, they would have to deal with him getting creative. He had yet to meet many people and, frankly, he was not much of a social butterfly anyway. Thus his day settled into a bit of a pattern. Up early for a run or gym time. Breakfast. A swim. A shower. Time with a book or his typewriter. Lunch. Weapon-work. Dinner.

Goddamn, he was losing his mind with boredom.

Lukas heard the door open and barely flicked his eyes towards the sound. A new face could be interesting. Distracting, at least. However, he was not about to become all Suzy Welcome Wagon at the appearance of someone new.



WC: 268

Lukas suppressed a smirk that probably would have given the wrong impression and finished his current round of reps. Geez, some of the others around here were young, he thought, but it was good to see others at the gym. If some of the stuff Lex had told him happened again, he would rather not be pulling all the weight.

He lowered the dumb-bell and stood, rolling his own shoulders and stretching his arm across his chest with a smooth pull. Then he returned the nod. "Hey."

"Yep." Lukas nodded again. Then he sat, adjusted his position, and picked up the dumb-bell with his other hand. He did not lift it immediately, though. "Volkov," he added, figuring it was best to be somewhat polite. "Lukas Volkov. You?"



WC: 395

"Huh. Haven't met any of you yet." Lukas shrugged with his off-shoulder. He devoted another handful of moments to studying Asher. He reckoned the kid was early twenties at most. Looked more to be built for speed than strength. That made sense, given his god. Lukas remembered some shady stories about the god of messengers and he bit back a snicker, ducking his head to focus on the floor in front of him. If he got picked by a god that failed at anger management, he wondered if a sneaky son of a b***h like Hermes went for equally shifty types.

Snorting under his breath, he started to lift his weight in slow, practiced swings. Nothing showy. Just steady workman-like movements. "How long have you been here?"



WC: 522

"Yeah." Lukas cast only the very briefest glance back towards Asher again; he seemed to have already resigned himself to never quite decoding the other man's expressions. Either that or he had already lost interest and was choosing to take everything at face value. "Not too much but they pushed me through with that Lex kid to deal with a haunted house."

His voice remained low and dead-pan. "That was fun. For certain definitions of fun." He paused for the duration of another three reps. "I guess you're a pro at that thing?"



WC: 615

"Yep. A regular lady of the lake." Lukas raised and lowered his weight again, methodical and slow. His head count kept ticking even as he devoted some part of his attention towards the other man. "Anyone have any clue how we get picked?" he suddenly asked, casting a shrewd sideways look at Asher.

He had his own suspicions about himself and Ares. After all, he was an ex-Army grunt with deep-seated anger issues, a past drinking problem, and impulse control problems. Made sense to him that the hot-head of the Olympians would zero in on him.



WC: 711

"Greedy god." Still the same total dead-pan delivery. Lukas considered Asher's words, though, with more seriousness than his manner indicated. Good at something the God likes, huh? Well, he had the violence down. The war and bloodshed and all that lovely stuff. Greek myths were weird things, though.

Lukas gave his head a little shake and then offered a one-shouldered shrug again. "Did you do any reading up on it?" he asked suddenly. "The mythologies, I mean. The Odyssey, Bullfinch, all that."



WC: 793

A short, dry laugh escaped Lukas before he could quite catch it and Asher gained a flash of smile that completely altered the other man's hang-dog grump-face. It was gone in the next instant, replaced by a customary smirk, but it had indeed been there. "That's an idea," he answered. "Cliff Notes for this job. The gods ought to come up with a nice little FAQ for us all before we signed away our lives."

He sent a keen-eyed sideways look at the younger man. "Where was your previous life, anyway?" he asked suddenly. "East coast?"