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lyall

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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.

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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.

"Afternoon," Luke answers and he knows it isn't fair, he knows his inherent worry about other werewolves hasn't once been reflected in Darrow, but there's still a moment when he's on edge. In Darrow, he's never once been challenged, but old habits do truly seem to die hard.

In Manhattan, he'd been challenged too many times. Too many wolves had wanted to be a leader and they'd been unable to leave Luke alone, sensing that he'd been an alpha at one time. It doesn't happen here and he still hopes that wariness will fade.

He smiles then, forcing his way past it. "Are you looking for something in particular that I can help you find?"

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?"

At the mention of Biffy's name, Luke smiles slightly, and it's interesting, because in New York, he knows he wouldn't have liked having a werewolf show up in his store, saying another wolf had recommended it. In New York, it would have felt a little like a threat, but in Darrow he has to acknowledge that the dynamics aren't the same at all. No one is here to challenge him or take his territory.

It's comfortable in a way New York had never been for him.

"He and I have met and spoken a few times," he says. "We're not extremely close, but we know one another." And he likes Biffy. It's not Biffy's fault Luke has had strange experiences with other werewolves in New York and even in Idris where he had been the leader of the pack. "You're friends?"

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.

Luke steps closer and takes the offered hand with another smile and although he introduces himself and mentions being a packmate with someone, there's not that immediate assumption that Luke must also have a pack somewhere. It's the sort of thing he knows still bothers Derek in some ways and while he wishes it didn't, he also knows any issues he has with the idea of pack are ones that he needs to work out on his own.

It's an odd thing, going from being a Shadowhunter to a Downworlder, and even though he'd been the pack leader in Idris, it had always felt more like an army than a family.

"Luke Garroway," he answers, shaking Lyall's hand. "It's nice to meet you. And if it's books you want, well, I have plenty and can usually manage to track down something in particular if you're looking and I don't already have it."

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?"

"To be fair, I don't have the slightest idea where they come from," Luke admits with a laugh. "When I request them, I have to do so through other traders and sellers and if they get them from somewhere outside of the city, it's nothing they ever talk about." And yet he's never really had a problem finding anything. There are parts of Darrow Luke simply doesn't question because he knows the life he has here is a good one, one he doesn't want to lose because he asks too many questions or looks into the wrong thing. No one seems to know why people disappear, but Luke doesn't want to tempt fate by being too inquisitive.

"And I was, yes," he said. "I owned a store in Manhattan where I sold books. I specialized in first editions and hard to find texts, which was difficult, but still easier than it is in a place like Darrow. Here it's mostly just whatever books I can get my hands on."

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.

"That's New York," Luke agrees with a nod. Having been in Darrow for as long as he has now, he's not surprised by people who don't know much about New York, especially given that where he grew up was a hidden city in Europe, one that no one knew about unless they were Shadowhunters or Downworlders.

The world and all the realities and dimensions in between are far more vast than most people understand.

"I miss the city sometimes. The store." Then he looks at what he's built here and smiles, giving a slow shrug. "But this city is something else in its own right, isn't it?"

"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."

While Luke has never been considered less than a full citizen, he's still a little surprised to hear that where Lyall is from, it's acceptable for people to just know and he shakes his head in response.

"No," he says. "We're hidden in New York, in most places, as far as I know. Including Britain. The city I was born in is... somewhere in there and I've never been able to tell anyone outside of those who were already in the know, as it were."

Other Downworlders, people like him, and sometimes Shadowhunters.

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?"

"No," Luke says. His accent is hard to place, he knows that, because no one really knows what an Idris accent sounds like. When he speaks, it's not quite Irish, but that tends to be what people assume. "I was born in a country called Idris. It was hidden, so even in my world most people didn't know about it."

He grins then, still a little amused by the way his life has changed from the course he always imagined it would take.

"But then, I wasn't born a werewolf either. That happened later." And until then, he'd been part of the law that told werewolves what they could and couldn't do. With Valentine, he'd been worse still than that.

"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)

That surprises Luke a little and he blinks, stunned by that revelation. Vampires can't reproduce where he's from and neither can warlocks, but werewolves and the fae are the same as any human in that regard.

"More people are born werewolves than infected," he answers. "Most wolves where I'm from are happy to live separate from the human world or, if they exist around humans, follow the laws of the Clave. Human attacks happen, but they're extremely rare, the infection rate is only around seventy percent and even if someone is infected, they'll often die before they're able to recover. Made werewolves are far more rare where I'm from than born werewolves are."

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)

There are so many questions Luke wants to ask when he hears everything Lyall has to say, from why female werewolves are so uncommon to what sort of scientists there are who look into things like this. It's an obvious difference in their worlds, the very idea that there might be someone to study it, and it speaks to an openness Luke has really never known.

Even in Darrow, he's not comfortable being that open with it.

There will be time for his questions, though, and so instead he nods in response to Lyall's question.

"Of a sorts," he says. "They have a tendency to be unfair and to impose rules that really only benefit them rather than the society as a whole. They refer to us as Downworlders, which should give you an idea of how they view supernatural creatures."

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