InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Proud"

Derek Hale (iamthealpha) wrote in portland_logs,
@ 2014-08-11 08:55:00

Entry tags:

derek hale, sam winchester

Who: Derek Hale and Sam Winchester
What: Finally meeting
When: Monday (or bendytime to whenever is convenient, really)
Where: The library
Warnings: Don't think so? Will update if necessary

Peter was gone. While that in general was a cause for relief, considering the danger his uncle represented, Derek was anything but calm. He was on edge ever since his arrival, because he kept remembering his words. About how Kate was alive back home. About how his eyes were back to being gold, and he was growing weaker as each day passed. Which...he didn't understand. Derek had killed an innocent, and therefore his eyes in wolf form had changed to an ice cold blue that he had learned to live with ever since he was sixteen. Yet Kate, of all people, had found a way to switch them back?

Between that and the whole bullshit on the network, Derek had been moodier and quieter than usual. A few people had managed to break him out of his shell, but his mind kept working a million miles a minute. He couldn't help it. Despite the nogitsune and the havoc it had created, Derek's life lately had been relatively calm in Portland. He had gotten used to it in his own way, that routine that to so many seemed boring but that was so foreign and new to him to he loved it. He'd work, go back home and just enjoy doing whatever the hell he wanted to do. Reading, cooking, watching television. It was so disgustingly normal, but for him it was just new altogether. He had lost count how many years had been since he had such an easy time, and now...

Well, Kate wasn't there physically but he still kept thinking about her despite his best efforts not to. It would be stupid to not at least be mentally prepared for anything, though, and that had been proven by his surprise to see Peter. If there was one good thing about his brief stay in Portland it was the fact that now they knew Kate was alive and they had to be ready for anything.

Since he still had a few hours to go before his shift started, Derek headed out in the morning to the library. He doubted that they had a lot, if any, books on the supernatural but he at least had to try. Portland seemed to have so many supernatural beings that maybe there would be something, anything, about his kind of werewolf. Or maybe something about what kind of magic could shift someone back to what Peter had told him. Because, if Kate ever decided to come by, then he wanted to at least be prepared for anything.

And, even if she never went to Portland, then at least he still wanted to know. People underestimated his curiosity and general thirst for knowledge, but that was fine. Right now he just wanted to do research, and even if he didn't find anything about the changes he was going through back home, maybe he'd just pick up on something else. He had a feeling the library wouldn't really have a lot for him to pick over as far as werewolves were concerned, but whatever. Even if he worked around books on a daily basis, he liked them enough to be alright with this being a way to pass the time until he had to go to work.

Walking into the library, he browsed through some books, taking his time in some aisles even if he wasn't picking up on anything just yet. As he rounded the corner to one, though, and he noticed a guy that was already there restocking some books and Derek vaguely recognized him from the network.

...wasn't he the hunter that wanted to help them out with Stiles?

Realizing he was probably staring a a little, Derek straightened a bit. "Uh, sorry. You're Sam, right?"

(Post a new comment)

bornunder
2014-08-11 04:33 pm UTC (link)

Since Zeppelin had arrived, Sam had explored a lot more of the city with her, the parks and the streets, but the library was still one of his favorite places. He had protected it during the invasion and helped to repair it when it had been damaged, and it was the place he spent the most time in except for his own home. There was something calming about the tasks involved, the organizing and shelving, and for the most part he didn't mind the customer service aspect, either. Talking to other people about books or research projects could be really interesting, and he often ended up learning a lot. And he had time sometimes, in between, to do his own research, or at least to keep tabs on books that might be of use to him in the future.

He tended to find a sort of calm zen in shelving books, because concentrating on the order of them emptied his mind of everything else, and it took him a moment to realize he was being watched. He paused with a book in hand, halfway to putting it on the shelf, and looked over at the other man. He seemed familiar, one of his fellow refugees, and a second later he put two and two together.

He nodded, and set the book in its proper place before turning towards him. "Yeah. And you're-- Derek?" He was pretty certain, but there was no harm in making sure. "Can I help you with something?"

It was a professional question, but not entirely. He'd offered his help before, in a different context. If Derek was in the library, he didn't figure it was an emergency situation that would force him to leave work, but he didn't really know what concerned the other man, aside from the obvious times when his friends were endangered or possessed.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

iamthealpha
2014-08-12 02:27 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, I'm Derek." For a second he was tempted to just book it out of there, but that was mainly instinct over everything else. Throughout his life Derek had grown up with the notion that he couldn't trust hunters, and that had been proven when he had trusted the wrong one and she had killed his family, and those instincts were hard to fight. Even with Allison, there were days when he found it hard to really erase the animosity that existed between their families, but they were a work in progress.

Sam had offered to help before, though, and while Derek hadn't really been sure what to think, he had still offered. That was more than some hunters had done in the past, and t counted for something. Hell, he hadn't hunted any of them down as far as he knew, so that was something, right?

But, it was that initial instinct that made him shake his head when Sam offered his assistance now. "No, thanks. I'm just browsing. Figured I'd introduce myself instead of just...you know. The other way."

Besides, he thought, it would have been too weird to stare at the guy while trying to figure out if he was who he thought he was and not say anything. Not that Derek wasn't used to that, but still.

"...well, actually," he added almost as an afterthought. "Does this place have any material on the supernatural?"

This library, Portland. It didn't matter. He'd go around the city if he had to.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

bornunder
2014-08-12 04:18 pm UTC (link)

It was a good sign, Sam thought, that he had introduced himself. He knew trust didn't come easily amongst hunters and supernatural creatures-- it didn't come easily on his part either, for that matter, and he was also normally opposed to such a thing because of the times he'd been betrayed and let down-- but even without trust, they could at least be friendly to each other.

And at the question, he smiled a little. He was the right person to ask; he'd been in this library for long enough to have done his own mental cataloguing of the lore available here, and where to find it. He'd even made a point of ordering a few other books for their collection that they hadn't had before. "Yes," he said. And, after glancing around briefly to make sure no one else was within earshot, he added, "It's all this world's lore, so far as I can tell-- at least, there's none from mine that I've been able to find. But maybe that's what you're looking for, or maybe your world is more similar to this one than mine is."

He set aside the cart of books and gave Derek his full attention. He was, truthfully, behaving exactly the way he would have done with any other customer--except that he might not have pointed the average Joe towards the real lore books. Having some understanding of who Derek was and the world he came from, he took the request seriously. And "It's all a bit scattered, depending on the subject. Is there something in particular you're looking for, or just trying to brush up on what might hit us next?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

iamthealpha
2014-08-13 11:34 pm UTC (link)

There was a small sense of relief at the fact that Sam at least knew where he could find the books he might be able to use, but then there was that factor of might. There were no guarantees if he'd find what he was looking for. He still wasn't sure if Beacon Hills, the one he knew, existed in this dimension, and if it didn't then none of these pseudo preparations would work. Whatever Kate had done would go by without him knowing what it was, even if it wasn't affecting him directly here, and it made something gnaw at his stomach at just the thought.

Derek tried to not show that part, though. He hadn't even told Cora yet about what Peter had told him, and technically there was no real reason to be concerned anyway. But, Kate Argent had scarred Derek in more ways than one, and the fact that she wasn't dead as he had initially thought, and that she had done something to change him and make him weaker... He couldn't help but take the overall threat of it seriously. Derek had been born as a werewolf, he didn't know a thing about just being a regular human being. The idea of it was a little disconcerting, and considering it was Kate, his paranoia felt almost warranted.

"Werewolves," he finally answered, scratching the back of his neck as he glanced around. With his senses he knew for a fact that no one was really listening, but it was a little embarrassing to admit to a hunter that he was looking up information on his own kind. It was to him, anyway.

Then again, maybe what Kate had done could be done to any werewolf. Was it possible? Just take away what made them a werewolf?

"I know there's other kinds here, not just my own. Information in general would be great." He hesitated briefly, mentally weighing whether or not to bring this up to Sam. He was a hunter, which made him knowledgeable in these matters, so he could help. Technically he could even go to Allison and see if she was familiar at all with this, but Kate was her aunt. Hales and Argents already had a mucked up history as it was, and here they were actually managing to get along; Derek really didn't feel like breaking that.

With a sigh under his breath, his voice lowered. "Hypothetically speaking, do you know if it's possible for a werewolf to lose...a piece of themselves? Their abilities, or anything like that?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

bornunder
2014-08-14 06:02 pm UTC (link)

Sam didn't so much as blink at the word werewolves. He simply nodded, eyes narrowing thoughtfully as he went through the books that were available to them. It didn't strike him as embarrassing, but then, he had a thirst for information on everything, and the more personal it was to him, the more motivation he had.

He was about to gesture for Derek to follow him, but noticed the hesitation, and waited it out. His patience was rewarded when he got more of a glimpse of what the other man was actually looking into, and it was a question he'd wondered himself. Though, not quite in the same way.

"...No," he said, after a moment. "There are cures, in my world, for certain creatures. Cures to make them human, I mean. But I've never heard of one for werewolves." There was a hint of sadness in his eyes at the admission; it genuinely bothered him that werewolves couldn't be cured, especially when they were usually far more innocent than demons or vampires. Though finding one now, when it was far too late for the werewolf he'd been forced to put down when he couldn't save her... it would be bittersweet. But he'd still be glad to have it, so that he could save the next person he'd met in a similar position to Madison.

Pushing that away, he added, "Well, technically, I've heard of a cure. Some people in my world thought that killing the werewolf that had turned them in the first place would break the bloodline and the wolf they'd bitten would become human again. But we tried it once, and it didn't work." He paused. "It doesn't sound like that's what you're talking about, though."

(Reply to this) (Parent)