InsaneJournal

It had been next to impossible to avoid hearing about what was going on at the high school, everyone was talking about it, it was all over the news and when the military had turned up they'd made enough noise to make sure everyone knew something was up. Zach hadn't intended to go anywhere near the school but sometimes when he took Sampson out for a walk he lost himself in his thoughts and wound up in places he hadn't meant to. It was possibly a bad thing to do but he was fairly confident in his ability to take care of himself and if he was too absent minded to realise he was about to walk into danger he knew Sampson would alert him in time.

This evening he'd ended up near the school, he'd been in his own little world turning things over in his mind when he'd looked up and seen the scores of people spread across the area he'd wandered into. Zach wasn't big on crowds, he preferred to steer clear of large gatherings if he could but now he found himself faced with one. If he walked straight through he'd probably be stopped by people who thought he was also a concerned relative of someone stuck inside or thought he might know something about what was going on. He only had one option that he could see and that was to cross the street and give the masses a wide berth.

He managed to navigate through the edges of the crowd and cross the street without anyone stopping him, he was home and clear. It was then that an unfamiliar scent reached him, there was another wolf not too far away. Zach didn't want to turn back the way he'd just come so he carried on, if he did turn around he'd potentially be sending a sign of submission to the other wolf and he couldn't do that. His eyes scanned the area ahead in search of the owner of the scent. It didn't take long for him to spot him, it looked as if he was looking for Zach as well. As he carried on walking he sized up the stranger. He appeared to be alone but that didn't mean that he was. He nodded his head slightly at the other man, a signal that he'd caught his scent and he wasn't out to cause trouble. Hopefully this guy wasn't out to make trouble either. A gentle bump against his leg from Sampson told him his dog had moved closer to him which didn't surprise him, Sampson was no stranger to the scent of wolves and knew how to behave around strangers. He stopped a respectable distance from the guy, all the while watching for signs in body language that would warn him of any aggression or anything else. "Nice night for a walk," he said by way of greeting, he wasn't going to give too much away until he knew more about what he was dealing with.

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Almost in the same instant that the other wolf spotted him, Jackson pinpointed the location of the new arrival, locking his gaze -- and therefore his focus -- on the other male. The nod was a little unexpected and at first Jackson didn't return it, weighing it in his mind, only dipping his own head in response when he was absolutely certain there was nothing to it other than simple acknowledgement. Jackson had had a few encounters with other wolves since arriving in town but only one of them had been violent, and that had been his sole encounter with a fellow male. That was bound to make him uncomfortable, not that he showed it on the surface and he kept his breathing and heart rate under control as much as possible so the other wolf wouldn't have anything to pick up on. The fact that there were so many other people milling around would help to disguise any discomfort on his part.

"At least it's not raining, for a change," he said, though he suddenly couldn't remember for the life of him just how frequently it had rained recently. He remembered that it had rained recently, just not how much. Though he was aware of the dog down at the other wolf's side he made no move to avert his gaze to take it in, keeping his attention on his fellow were. "It'd be even nicer if this wasn't going on," he went on to add, tilting his head a little, briefly, towards the school.

If the other wolf had any aggressive intentions then he was doing a good job of masking them, Jackson couldn't read any signs that he intended to attack but then perhaps he was just playing it smart. It would be stupid to start a fight here, with so many onlookers. Never mind that Jackson had engaged in a physical fight on the street not longer after arriving, this was a much bigger crowd and they were much more riled up than those people had been on that street that night almost a whole month ago.

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Zach hadn't come across too many other wolves since moving to Scarlet Oak but he knew there were plenty around the area, he'd just been lucky not to run into many yet. This was the first male he'd come across and he had no idea if this male was part of a pack or not, that fact alone wouldn't really make too much of a difference. What really mattered was how dominant this individual was and if he perceived Zach as any sort of threat to that dominance. Hopefully this other male wouldn't start anything with so many people in the area but there was no telling if that would stop him or not. All Zach could do was watch carefully for any signs of trouble.

"This place has seen its fair share of rain recently." The rain seemed like an odd thing to comment on but he wasn't about to say as much. He felt a pressure against his leg and knew without looking that Sampson had sat down and was now leaning against him. "Things certainly seem to be getting a little odd around here." First the tree in his store, now the school, he didn't dare think what might happen next.

Zach certainly didn't have aggression in mind, they weren't anywhere near what he might perceive as his territory and so far this other male showed no signs of aggression. Of course he could just be biding his time and really good at masking his true intentions. Zach knew he had to be careful, he had no help that he could call on if anything happened and for all he knew this other wolf had a pack close by. Small talk seemed like a safe bet for the moment. "Do you know anyone inside?" he asked gesturing towards the school without taking his eyes of the other male.

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Were they really talking about the weather, of all things? Jackson supposed there weren't many other things they could talk about, as out in the open as they were, where people could overhear any conversation related to the supernatural and werewolves in particular. They each knew what the other was, there was no escaping that, they didn't particularly need to comment on it, but the fact that they couldn't made things a little awkward. Two lone males crossing paths was always going to be tense, no matter where and when they met.

At the end of the day there was no sense in making a scene, so long as they both kept their distance from one another things didn't need to get complicated. Or violent. Jackson wasn't here to make trouble. Curiosity had drawn him here, and a kind of concern that he couldn't pin down. Shaking his head he answered the other male's question, before going on to say, "No, I don't." He paused for only a moment, before asking, "Do you?" Jackson was aware of the presence of the dog but saw no need to make a big deal out of it. So long as the dog kept close to its owner and didn't invade his personal space, it didn't pose any kind of problem.

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Zach didn't like running into other wolves, especially not other males and being surrounded by so many other people just made the whole situation a little more tense. They couldn't talk about anything that would help them size the other one up without rousing suspicion from anyone within earshot. And given that a lot of people in the area were freaked out by what was going on at the school it was better to avoid any mention of the supernatural completely.

Zach had no intention of making a scene, he didn't know who this wolf was or if he had anyone to back him up close by. All he did know was that there was no one he could rely on for help if things did get violent. He really hoped they wouldn't. He hadn't even meant to come this way but now he was here there was no denying the whole thing was strange. "Not really," he began, "I met someone a few days ago and I think she goes here but I don't know if she's inside or not." Zach didn't need to look at Sampson, he knew the dog would stick right by him and would only move if he told him to or if he sensed a threat.

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Zach tried to avoid violence wherever possible, especially when surrounded by other people. It wasn't that he couldn't fight because he could, it was just that he had nothing left to fight for apart from his own life and when it came down to it there was a part of him that didn't really see that his life was worth fighting for anymore. He had no one to go home to, no one to share his life with, if it wasn't for Sampson he'd possibly go around picking fights with other wolves hoping that eventually one of them would kill him. Maybe that was a bit morbid but at the end of the day Zach had little left that he cared about. He knew any time he crossed paths with another male there was always a risk of a fight, especially if that male was out to prove something by beating another dominant wolf and that was one of the reasons he tried to avoid other wolves if he could help it. Maybe sticking to harmless subjects with this wolf was a blessing in disguise.

"Student," he said with his hand coming to rest on top of Sampson's head, his mind flicking back to his coffee the other morning where the student in question had invited herself to sit with him. "It seems like schools have more dances than anything else these days." The comment about the teachers seemed a little out of place but then the whole conversation was a little odd when he really thought about it. It might have been easier to end the conversation and leave but there was a part of Zach that thought that might seem like submission in some way and while he didn't think he had much to live for he wasn't about to relinquish dominance to another wolf without good reason.

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If there was one thing Jackson had learned since coming to Scarlet Oak it was that females could be just as deadly as males, especially in this place. True he had known that before coming here, his mate had been ferocious when provoked and more than once she had proven just how formidable she could be as an opponent but the she-wolves he had encountered here in this town hadn't been the aggressive ones. The one female that sprung to mind when he thought of dangerous women was a certain vampire and the less he thought about her the better, especially since their last encounter had been so dissatisfying.

"Hm." It wasn't a particularly thoughtful sound on Jackson's part, it was non-committal without being dismissive and he looked the other wolf's way just briefly, grateful that his fellow were's eyes were elsewhere at the time so they wouldn't have some kind of challenge on their hands. "I hope they get out okay," he said not only because it seemed like the right thing to say but also because he meant it. Whatever was going on here just felt wrong and at the end of the day no one deserved to be trapped by any kind of power, magical or otherwise.

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It wasn't that Zach thought females weren't dangerous, he knew they could be every bit as deadly as males. Victoria had been proof of that, she hadn't been a wolf but she'd always been willing to fight for what she believed in, Zach had admired that about her. Zach wasn't one to underestimate anyone but he'd thankfully not had any encounters with women that had turned violent, at least not yet.

"Yeah, me too," he said without much thought. Zach had no clue what was going on but like the other wolf he got that feeling of wrongness. "I just hope it doesn't take them too long to figure out what's going on here." Someone out there had to be able to shed some light on the situation after all, barriers didn't just randomly appear out of thin air without some sort of external influence so someone had to have an idea about this one and how to make it disappear.

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Glancing in the other wolf's direction when he said what he did Jackson gave a nod, quiet and slow. Time was always an important factor, and if he understood anything about magic -- and there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that magic was involved here somehow, that it was responsible somehow -- it was that. Time meant everything. Granted he didn't know much about magic but what he did know he felt he could rely on.

"How long have you been in town?" he found himself asking then, perhaps because it was inevitable and their previous train of conversation had felt forced, a little fake. Put on, like a show. They might as well address the real issue here, that they were both wolves, both clearly dominant wolves, and that they needed to come to some sort of understanding on that front. Jackson didn't want any trouble if he could avoid it but that didn't mean he wasn't going to stand his ground, either.

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Zach knew next to nothing about magic, he'd never really met anyone that used magic or at least they'd never told him they had. Like the other wolf though he knew that magic had to be involved with this, like it had been involved in the tree that had sprouted in the middle of his store. It really was beginning to look like magic was running amok in Scarlet Oak.

"A couple of months now," he said in response, "What about you?" The conversation was now turning to what they couldn't really avoid any longer. It always came down to dominance when wolves met. Zach just hoped it wouldn't turn to violence but if it did he wasn't going to back down. Hopefully the other wolf felt the same. It was then that he realised neither of them had introduced themselves, they'd been too busy sizing each other up to deal with pleasantries. "I'm Zach by the way." He thought for a second about offering his hand to the other wolf before dismissing the idea completely. It could have been interpreted as an act of aggression or even become a contest to see who had the firmer handshake. If the other man offered his hand then Zach would respond but for the time being his hands remained at his sides.

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Magic had been a presence in this town for some time, Jackson was coming to believe, and given how many magically-inclined creatures there were here that was no surprise, really. Perhaps they all had their own kind of magic, supernaturals, from weres to witches. For a man to transform into a wolf was a magic of a sort, when you really boiled it down to its simplest, and Jackson wondered if that was really what it was at the core. It was entirely possible and something he'd never considered before coming to Scarlet Oak but now that he was here his eyes were being opened to a whole other world of possibilities.

"About a month," he said in response to the returned conversation. There was a part of him that resented giving an answer that was in some way less than the other wolf's but that was ridiculous, he realised, and after he came to that realisation that voice was much easier to silence. He hesitated for a few moments before giving his own name, saying in a level voice, "Jackson." A small trace of a smile touched his face then before he said, "You missed someone in your introductions." The dog, obviously. Jackson didn't believe for a second that the animal didn't have a name.

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Magic was such an unknown element for Zach, he had no idea how half of it worked and he doubted he ever would. It never even occurred to him that what he was had some degree of magic involved, it made sense if you thought about it though because how else could you explain being able to transform into a wolf at will. If he wanted to learn anything about magic this place certainly seemed to be the place for it but it was a question of if he really wanted to know much more than he did.

Zach nodded his head as he listened to the other wolf, so they were both new in town. There really wasn't much in it but to some that month difference would be enough to claim dominance or at least attempt to but Zach wasn't the kind of guy to pull that sort of crap. "It seems I did, didn't I," he said with a smile and a quick pat on the head for Sampson, it wasn't like him to not offer the dog's name along with his own. "This is Sampson," he offered, "And he's probably not happy with me for forgetting him."

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Knowledge was one of those things that developed over time and if nothing else Jackson was in a fairly good position to learn. The Rogers siblings seemed to have their finger on the pulse, so to speak, as far as the range of supernaturals that could be found in Scarlet Oak went, and in the conversations he had had with the pair he had been able to tell that they were fairly knowledgeable as to how certain things worked, certainly more than he was himself. That wasn't saying much, though, there was a lot about this big bad world of the supernatural post the Light of May that Jackson didn't understand. There was a part of him that didn't want to understand but at the same time he knew that ignorance most certainly was not bliss. Ignorance could get you killed.

"I'd say he's less happy for being as close as he is to an unfamiliar wolf," Jackson said, admitting out loud for the first time what they both knew without needing to say a word. Neither of them had acknowledged it aloud yet but there was no need to dance around the subject anymore. "I'll give him credit, though, he's a lot more tolerant than some dogs I've met."

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It wasn't that Zach was oblivious to the other supernaturals that existed but more that he'd never really gone out of his way to learn more about what else was out there. He'd always had other things on his mind but maybe he would start trying to learn more seeing that he'd ended up in a place that attracted every type of supernatural that walked the earth. If nothing else it was a good idea to have at least a basic understanding of what else was out there.

"He's usually okay," he said with a slight nod of his head as the other man spoke. "He's been around me since he was a puppy. I think that has a lot to do with it. As long as he doesn't perceive a threat he's usually quite happy to just sit there."

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There was more to learn in this world than Jackson could really think about all at once and he had been trying to inch his way into it one step at a time ever since the Light of May. It hadn't been easy, not with everything else that had been going on, but he had found himself thinking more than once that the ignorance he had been living in back in Canada had been anything but blissful. Maybe if the Pack had been more informed on the greater supernatural world that existed beyond their town things might have been different. Probably not but Jackson couldn't help but consider things like that sometimes.

Jackson glanced down at the dog again, wondering what that must be like, to have a companion like that at every hour of the day. Reassuring, most likely, comforting in a way he couldn't really grasp nowadays. "No threats here," Jackson said, addressing the other wolf and regarding him properly once again, making sure the message was clear. This wasn't anything remotely like territory to him, he didn't want any trouble, and hopefully the feeling was mutual.

There was nothing more for him to see here at the school, nothing else he could learn, not that he had learned much in the first place. "Here's hoping it stays that way." With that he fought against instinct, against his growing dominant nature, and stepped back. "It was nice meeting you." As much as it pained him to be the one to back away it was probably for the best that they go their separate ways. It was possible nothing would have happened but Jackson knew another loner when he faced one, there was no mistaking another potential dominant, and cutting their losses was probably the smartest thing they could do. So he backed up for a while and then turned to walk away, leaving the other loner to his thoughts and observations.

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