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Luke Garroway ([personal profile] notaretriever) wrote2017-06-10 11:01 am
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It doesn't happen often, not in Darrow, but every once in awhile Luke can pick up the scent of an unfamiliar werewolf coming around.

Most of the other werewolves in Darrow are either people he already knows and knows well, or those who simply keep their distance. He knows not all the Downworlders in Darrow are like him and Derek, he knows there's bound to be trouble once in awhile and that's why he's glad for people like Alec and Isabelle, but because his scent is all over the store, most of those who want to cause trouble don't come around here. They know better.

It's interesting to him, but he does tend to keep his distance. After being a pack leader in Idris for such a long time, Luke has a tendency to shy away from other wolves, not because they've done anything wrong, but because the idea of a pack is something he equates with war. Wolves in packs fight for territory, they fight for anything they need to, and Luke is done with that. He's done with war, done with fighting, and he's done with being an alpha.

But at the scent of a wolf he's never met before, he pauses in the midst of his shelving and turns toward the front of the store. Whoever it is, they may not come in here, but the scent is getting stronger and Luke can't pretend he isn't just a little bit interested in who might walk through that door.
consummate_beta: ([pb] observing and not speaking)

[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-06-27 02:51 am (UTC)(link)
It was only a matter of time until Lyall stopped in the bookstore. Not because it positively soaks in the scent of another werewolf -- and by Biffy's score, the only one he knows whom Lyall hasn't met. Simply because it is a home for knowledge, and if there's one thing Randolph Lyall can depend on to find comforting, no matter when, it's more of that.

The former, however, does make it a shop of particular interest.

He pushes open the door with a little jangle of bells and takes in the other smells, those of ink and wood and paper. It's refreshing, in a world that seems to be mostly inhabited by text on lit screens, to put himself in places like this.

Lyall pauses, realizing very quickly that he's being observed, and tilts his head to find the man watching him. "Good afternoon," he says, mildly, pausing at a front shelf.
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[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-06-30 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
There's a slight tenseness to the other werewolf's tone, and Lyall tugs at his collar reflexively, exposing his neck in a very slight show of submission, just enough for politeness back in his own home. Though he'd be in his right not to consider a public space someone's territory, he wants no mistake made about his intentions.

Which are to peruse books, mostly, and certainly nothing more aggressive than that regarding their seller.

"Specifically, no," he says, "but I have an interest in science and technology and rather a long period of history to catch up with, so anything you've found of interest lately is welcome."

He adds, politely, "I suppose you can tell I had this store pointed out to me. I don't know how well you know Biffy?"
consummate_beta: ([pb] cheers)

[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-07-06 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
Lyall nods with a small smile and feels a little more relaxed; he knows Biffy well enough to know that if they hadn't formally met, he might have still known who Luke was and about his business. Biffy will always be quite a spy.

It's relieving, then, to know there's been polite talk between them. Even if just brushing elbows.

"We're -- packmates, from back home," he says, and though he doesn't get the impression that the other wolf would disapprove of their arrangement, it's still difficult for him to find a term for it that fits. For one thing, because it's not something he's used to discussing in polite society. But also because it's less important: the reason he was so keen to live with Biffy was, after all, at least as much because they're family, regardless of their status as lovers. "I was very lucky to find him here when I arrived."

"I'm rather the one of us who'll be insatiably in need of books, though, I think," he adds. "Randolph Lyall," he introduces himself with an offered hand.
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[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-07-09 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
Even in his own world, there are those who don't have the same sort of pack structure that Lyall does; here, he's finding very quickly that there are all sorts of worlds people come from. It'd be incredibly rude to inquire after Luke's own situation; at home, introductions would likely be made by someone else, would either way include relevant status, and if they did not, it wouldn't be polite to push.

To be fair, Lyall would probably already have intelligence on who they were, anyway, but that's an entirely different thing.

"It's a pleasure, Luke," he says back genuinely, and smiles at the idea of an unlimited supply of reading material. "I won't try to fathom where you import books from, here," he says in a wry way that suggests that he has already put some thought to the matter of imported goods. He runs a thumb over the spine of a volume purporting to teach history they , and wonders how it might differ here from his own.

"Were you a bookseller where you're from, as well?"
consummate_beta: ([pb] smile)

[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-07-14 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
Lyall chuckles softly at that. "I'm finding very quickly that there's quite a bit that people from here don't speak about. It's driving me a bit mad, to tell you the truth. I'm not the sort that easily accepts not knowing. But I suspect they don't know either, whatever it is that makes this place the way it is, and it's easier not to acknowledge it."

There are many people in the world who are like that about everything. Lyall's professions and stations don't really allow him to become complacent, and he'd be hard-pressed to tell you how much of that is training and how much is just his choice.

His eyes go wide and a little professorially excited at Luke's clarification, so perhaps it is just him. "That sounds wonderful," he says. "I'm sure I'd have been a patron there as well. I suppose it'd be very hard to find first editions and rare texts from any given universe, here that's for certain. Though I suppose sometimes people bring unique texts from their own worlds."

"Manhattan, that's -- New York, yes?" He likes to keep up with the goings-on of the States, but in his world the United States are so very puritanical and dangerous for those like him, it isn't as though he's planned a visit.
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[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-07-23 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ah," he says with a tone satisfied to have gotten it right. "I'd like to hope, in the world I'm from, that a werewolf living in New York might be able to declare it openly sometime in the next several hundred years between my time and this one. In Britain, we're full citizens, but the Americas are much less friendly."

He nods, understanding that best of all; it's only been a short time since he left London and, much as he loves what -- or who -- he has here, Darrow is certainly not London. "It certainly is something. I haven't been here very long, granted, but it hasn't stopped surprising me."
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[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-08-01 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
Lyall takes that in with a carefully reserved expression, though a little sigh and a work of his jaw. "I fear that is the case more places than not, even in the -- myriad of what seem like multiple universes it seems that this place collects. Where Biffy and I are from, werewolves and vampires are likely to be among the aristocracy, due to, primarily, lifespan and living collectively, which accrues wealth rather well. But it seems as though some of the others I've met here had hunters to fear, or simply the idea of no one believing them. It seems rather lonely."

"You weren't born in New York, then?"
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[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-08-13 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"Idris," he says, taking that in; he hadn't recognized the accent. It wasn't American, he'd been able to tell that, but that doesn't mean much as to one's birth. "How did a whole country manage to stay hidden?" That sounds like quite a feat, and by whether unnatural or mundane sciences, one that intrigues Lyall.

Lyall can't help grinning back. "Well, I'd assumed," he laughs softly, then realizes he might not be able to make that assumption. "Is anyone born a werewolf where you're from? Werewolves can't reproduce, in my world. Well --" He pauses, thinking of Prudence and the drama surrounding her birth. He can't think of her without imagining a small child suddenly turning into a wolf cub. It had been chaos, but cute chaos. "Under very rare circumstance," he amends.
Edited 2017-08-13 16:47 (UTC)
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[personal profile] consummate_beta 2017-08-17 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Lyall blinks back, startled, and then chuckles wryly at the two of them, owlishly stunned by each other's worlds.

"How very fascinating," he muses, trying to imagine families of werewolves living as separatists rather than found packs in relative concordance with human society. He has to imagine it's quite different politically. There's something about the idea of playful werewolf pup toddlers and their parents running around after them that tugs at his heart in a way he dismisses promptly as over-sentimentality.

"Transferring the curse is rather hard to survive where I'm from as well, and it requires a very specific process, but it is something that some humans want. And you can look for certain sorts of traits, as well, that might indicate a resilience. An excess of soul, we call it, though there's always quite a bit of research going on as to the science of it all. But I have to say, I've only ever met one werewolf with a child born after he was turned. I -- it's something to try and imagine whole families. Especially as female weres are quite rare where I'm from."

He pauses. "The Clave. Is that a sort of governing body for the supernatural, then?"
Edited 2017-08-17 21:57 (UTC)