The Second Kind [Valentine/Lyza]

Well, wasn't Valentine just the busiest bee in the hive these days? It seemed as though Lux Orior was in rather desperate need of both motivation and willpower, and given the current state of affairs, and of course his position as the head of public relations, it fell to the Wizard of Mars to handle such things. He could only do so much when it came to internal motivation, but when it came to recruitment, Valentine did that rather exceptionally well.

Having had a great many Drones scour the former Vanguard databases for anyone who may have proven valuable to their numbers, the man found one who stood out despite what was, by all accounts, a fairly mundane profile. An occasional contractor, little history on record for them to speak of. But Valentine new quite well that having little history to speak of, particularly in a world so interconnected and filled with records, was something all too noteworthy in itself.

So, now, here he was, standing in front of what he assumed would be considered a modest apartment by Karakura's standards. It was impossible to say, given both his own lens of what qualified as acceptable living standards and simply because of Karakura's rather drastically different standard of living from most places on Earth. Nevertheless, he knocked on the door, his eternal small smile firmly in place even as he spoke to, quite possibly, no one at all. He had no idea if she was even home, after all. He thought about offering some voiced announcement of his name and his reason for being here, but decided against it. That was, Valentine had found, actually a rather unusual and slightly odd thing to do. Better to simply wait and see if she even answered at all.

Knock knock.

Lyza looked up from her hunched over position on the side of her bed and towards her door. A visitor? At a respectable hour of the day? Who the fu- No, why the fuck? Someone here to remind her they were going to be doing construction next week? She already knew that, they had knocked on her door, called her, left letters in her junk-mail stuffed mailbox, and now they were here again? That couldn't be right. They weren't that retarded were they?

That entire train of thought cut itself off completely as Lyza blinked twice and remembered that she was still deadass tired from having woken up... two, three hours ago? Only now did she actually decide to get up and get some caffeine. Another one of her near-lethal cups of coffee to help her stay awake and actually do some chores so her apartment wasn't a shithole. Unfortunately though, whoever was at her door seemed to have other ideas.

Lyza was already dressed in the same attire she had been since a few hours before she had went to bed. A tank top and shorts. Simple, like the way all things should be. How she managed to find the strength to stand up, however, wasn't quite that. The sheer willpower it took for her to get up in the morning was unbelievable, so intense, so frustratingly difficult to muster up that-

She was already at her door by the time she even got halfway through that thought. Valentine would simply see the door creak open just a tad, enough for Lyza to peer through the sliver and at the man standing there. If he was quick enough, he could see her wince from being exposed to the light of the outdoors. "I don't want your pamphlets, nor do I want to buy whatever you're selling." Her tone of voice was less than thrilled, to put it lightly. Comically lightly.

"Ahh, no, Miss, I'm not selling anything. Well, other than ideals, I suppose, but those don't cost much, do they? I dare say they're free."

Idly using his psychic force to create a bit of a stopgap in the opening, Valentine ensured that the opening wouldn't be shut any time soon. Not that he made such a thing obvious, of course. He didn't want to seem threatening to the poor woman.

"I've come on behalf of Lux Orior. It's my understanding that you've done work with the Vanguard in the past, Miss, and though I'm admittedly quite sorry to come directly to your abode in order to make this request, I'd like to ask if you might consider joining our organization full time."

The Martian's smile stayed in place, though whether it was genuine or affected was quite impossible to say. It was simply such a constant presence on his face that it would be nearly impossible to discern how honest it was.

"I'm not sure if you follow the most current events, or even if the news has quite picked up on these yet, but the war has picked up again in no small way. Europe and America both attacked, and in extreme measure. I'd hoped you might be willing to help us on either front."

The moment that this man mentioned ideals Lyza almost immediately had to cut herself off from saying something along the lines of 'I don't want your ideals you Jehovah's Witness lookin' ass'. Honestly, with that smile on his face that was so obscure in its intent this man might as well have been that. But she stopped herself regardless and kept listening, only growing more and more mentally exhausted as he kept speaking.

"Lux Orior?" she pondered softly to herself. "You want me in Lux Orior?" It sounded so inane, felt that way too. She had spent so little time in the Vanguard and now here they were asking for her to be in their little clusterfuck coaliton too? A part of her wanted to shut the door on this stranger and just go back to bed, and to an extent she actually did try. Lyza actively started to push the door closed, only to open it once she started to wonder if she should be empathetic, only to try and shut the door for real and have it simply refuse to close. Even with her fairly inhuman strength, it just simply wouldn't shut all the way. It wasn't that she was trying to slam it shut either, just that she put more and more pressure behind it as she realized there was something stopping it from shutting, only to eventually stop as she realized there was no point.

"..."

Lyza wasn't too terribly sure what to do, but after almost a full minute of silence and her half-glaring at the man at her door, she finally just caved and opened it fully. "If you're just going to stop me from closing the door then fine, come in. We can talk about this over some drinks." she said amidst a deep sigh. It didn't matter if it was the morning, she was going to need at least a little something to get her through this conversation.

Lyza's apartment was a decently sized studio apartment that was surprisingly well furnished and well kept despite how lazy she was. This guy didn't know, though. Yet. "Make yourself comfortable. If you want something to drink tell me while I'm still standing." Lyza speaking with a hand waving over to her dining table as she was already rummaging in her fridge for alcohol.

"I do indeed. I don't think it's too terribly surprising, personally."

Valentine's smile was unflinching throughout Lyza's attempts to shut the door on him, and he found the whole effort actually rather amusing. He supposed he could have been more polite about this recruitment, or more discreet, but what little of a dossier he could assemble on this woman, between prior intelligence and his own surveillance, told him that this would likely be his best option. At her invitation, he entered into the apartment, glancing around carefully and idly wishing he had brought a small beetle or two in from outside to scout the place. Well, no matter.

"Ah, a drink? Simply water, please."

It was hard to say that Valentine would be getting 'comfortable' in this abode, simply because he was almost never 'comfortable' in any typical sense. Truth be told, simply seeing the sky over his head gave the man a sense of near-constant unease that he had to outsource constantly to a Drone designed specifically for that purpose. Nevertheless, he took a seat at the dining room table, readying himself for any hypothetical dangers she might throw his way. He didn't expect it, but one could never be too careful.

Lyza fished a can of hard cider out of her fridge which seemed to be full of the stuff and almost nothing else. Afterwards she retrieved a glass and filled it up with water before sitting down across the table from Valentine and sliding him his drink. "What's your name again?" Lyza asked as she cracked open her drink and downed half the can in literally three seconds. The chill hit her throat hard and she shivered in response. Now she was just waiting for the alcohol to hit her brain...

Truth be told Lyza was extremely suspicious when she heard that Lux Orior of all things wanted her to get involved. "What makes you even think I'm a good candidate? I was in the Vanguard for a month at most. Your files on me can't be too detailed." The woman was slouched in her chair, one arm over the back as she gently swirled the can around for her own amusement.

"Of all the people you could be recruiting, you choose to come to me? You're that desperate, huh?" That's what Lyza suspected this was, at the very least. An act of desperation, Lux Orior needing more fodder for the slaughter or something like that. "You wanna talk about ideals, tell me what ideals led you to be here, asking someone like me to fight."

Well, Valentine had not particularly expected such a proclivity toward alcohol, necessarily, but he understood such a thing was rather common, all things considered. He didn't exactly condone the idea of using such a dulling thing for the sake of relaxation, but it was not his place to say.

"Ah, my apologies. Valentine Ransom Carter. As for your candidacy, Miss, I'll be quite honest with you. I've had a rather exceptional degree of difficulty in tracking you down, and your dossier was impressively lacking in information. Such a thing is impressive in this day and age, especially when one considers the spread of technology."

Leaning onto the dining room table as he steepled his fingers, Valentine simply continued to speak with that same inscrutable smile of his. It, of course, did not help that he exuded none of the spiritual energy that any other Chairman of Lux Orior might. He was simply an enigma.

"I'll be quite honest with you, we are indeed quite low in our numbers. But that's not why I came here, for simple numbers are far more easily bolstered simply by hiring mercenaries. No, I've come here because your records, or rather your lack thereof, quite fascinate me. They paint a picture that no words possibly could, and it is that absence which I find very curious. I do hope you don't mind my honesty."

Her lack of documentation, huh? "Well, that lack of documentation was because I was extremely active during my time at the Vanguard. I ended up doing a whole lot of undocumented work because I never bothered referring to my superiors, I just kind of did it. They'd find something done or a problem solved out of nowhere and had no idea who did it. Sure it caused a lot of problems with the record keeping but I was in a particularly... motivated headspace at the time."

Lyza took another swig of cider and set her can aside for the moment as she took the damn to mentally curse Valentine's damned smile. That plus his lack of any real spiritual presence painted this picture of mystery that made Lyza worry. About what, she didnt know. Just being in the presence of this strange stranger was starting to make her a little suspicious, but again, she didn't know about what.

"Those days are long gone though. I can't remember the last time I felt the actual need to get up out of bed in a timely manner, let alone fight of all things. You can try and persuade me, you definitely seem like the guy who'd try, but it's going to take a lot to get me off my ass and onto a fuckin' battlefield of all places." Lyza said flatly, right before finishing the last of her drink. It had been maybe two or three minutes and it was already gone, emptied and tossed effortlessly over her shoulder and right into the trash can.

"Aha, and so I'm still correct, then. That it's indeed a mark of something far more noteworthy than just poor bookkeeping. Activity is worth far more to me than record of accomplishments, miss, and I'd call that a very good indicator of just that."

Taking a small drink of the water he'd been offered, Valentine idly had a Drone assigned to the task of analyzing the makeup of its contents. If anything was out of order (or even if there was something offhandedly interesting about it), he would hear back.

"I don't imagine you relish the idea of dying, do you, Miss? Do you recall the battle between Lux Orior and Shadow Fall which occurred in this very city? Catastrophic. Lives lost in scores. And now we see much the same happening again, as war returns. In Europe, in America. You may not see need to fight, but the world may turn into your tomb before you even realize. You won't even have a bed to get out of by the end."

Lyza sighed to herself and shook her head. She knew why Valentine was here, why he thought to be impressed with her achievements, but he didn't know the full story and she wasn't exactly keen on explaining her entire life's history either. "Just stifle your expectations for me, will you? I'm not nearly worth as much as you think I might be." Her tone was still flat, but sounded a tad more tired all of a sudden, like she was almost disappointed to be letting this guy down.

And then of course he had to bring up her own motivation, or rather, indirectly inquire about it. How was she to truly introduce herself to this man, then? Tell him that dying meant nothing to her? That getting out of bed at all wasn't on her list of things to do half the time? In his eyes he was being persuasive, but to Lyza he was just reinforcing her shitty life decisions.

"It's not that I don't see a need to fight." Lyza started her response cautiously and was clearly putting a lot of thought into what to say next, as indicated by her half glazed stare down at the table. "You... It's not that I'm unsympathetic. I get it. People are probably gonna die, it's just... I don't exactly care for myself much. I won't get much stronger out there, so I don't know what you really expect me to do at this point. On top of that, all of the main faces in this war are infinitely stronger than the rest of the planet's population, you know that. Just look at that motherfucker who blew up Washington D.C. and the White House. I don't even know if it was the entire city or just a chunk of it, but regardless I can't do much if those fighting in the war can do shit like that. News didn't really say."

Already Lyza wanted another drink, but her limbs felt too heavy with apathy and lethargy to really fulfill her desire. Perhaps when she saw Valentine out she would remedy that. "Give me another reason to join Lux Orior and maybe I will, but so far you're being pretty unconvincing."