LJ sat up when he was joined and offered the guy a smile. He didn't know all of the Arcanists yet and since he knew all the Protectors, he had to figure this guy was one of the Arcanists that he hadn't met yet. He looked like he might be from either the Vargas or Giambrone families, but he wasn't about to say that out loud in case he was wrong. Offering the guy a small smile, he patted the ground to indicate that the guy - who looked nervous - could join him if he wanted to.
LJ wasn't a fan of making people feel uncomfortable and the newcomer certainly looked that. Though opening the conversation with a question about his dogs was a pretty sure fire way to get LJ talking and he smiled.
"The white one is Bonnie," he said, waving a hand in the general direction the white Alsatian had run off in, "and the other one is Clyde." It was clear from the way he spoke about them that he was very fond of them. As he should be: Bonnie had been the runt of her litter and she'd needed hand-rearing and so LJ had done that, reared her from the day she was born, by hand. These two, the dogs he'd had for four and a half years, sometimes came out on hunts with him too, shedding their affectionate personalities in aggressive defence of their human. He owed his lives to them. It was one of the many reasons that he'd refused to leave them behind when he moved to the mansion. He suddenly wished that he had Tank with him too, at least the little pug would have been sat between his legs with his stomach bared to the world for attention.
He shifted, making sure he was sitting upright before reaching a hand up to offer it to the other man to shake. "Liam," he introduced himself, "but most people call me LJ." He added a second or so later, "They'll be back in a minute if you wanted to say hi to them."