Marcus pulled a face - exaggerated, but as overboard as his tone was, there was definitely a spark of truth in it too, “Nope, no, nu-uh, we don’t deal with magic outside of emergencies. It’s a good way to end up on fire. And that would be the lucky option.” All joking aside, he’d loved that jacket. But the arm burning was a small price to pay to avoid whatever that very pissed off witch had thrown at him hitting him in the chest. Really, he couldn’t blame her - at the time, or later. He’d have been pissed too at the situation. But still. Fire. Fur. It didn’t mix. And the stink of singed leather hadn’t been great either. “And that’s before we even get into trying to avoid other people,” he added.
“You know, you could be. But then, the types I’m thinking about? Would be critiquing my flower choices right now, and how they’re awful, on top of yelling about almost hitting them. So, no, think you’re at at least a semi-decent level of calm. I have no opinion about the rest of your flaws, whatever they may be.” He said, flipping his hand with a crooked grin. Way too many ways Dante’s implications could go, and honestly, Marcus was not about to poke that bear with a stick anytime soon.
He wasn’t ashamed of being a wolf. Far from it. But it also wasn’t something he was about to go around advertising unprompted - not with his family several states away and only just finding his feet in the area. He’d met way too many people, both here and back home, that had just...flipped, when learning that about him. And it was even worse when it happened while he was in uniform. He liked Dante so far, and kind of wanted to keep liking him. So, he wasn’t about to dive through that hole, and he was kind of hoping Dante would do the same.
“That does make me feel a little better, yeah. Though, I mean, who really ever meets all their neighbors in a building?” Besides really old, really nosy neighbors. At work, he loved them. Made his job a hell of a lot easier when he could find that one busybody that knew everybody and everything. At his own place...not so much. “They are, they are. Though I think I might’ve mortally offended the lady at the end of the hall in another life? I don’t know. She glares at me from the doorway, and that’s about it.”
He snorted when Dante brought up his sister. “Yeah, wherever she is, Victoria just started laughing. She’s nosy. Loving, but nosy.” He could bitch all he want, but he loved her, and the smile on his face even as he tried to complain about it gave that away way too easily. Whatever he wanted to say about her, he knew everything she did came from a place of wanting to help - just lacking the fine tuning to make it seem useful. Soon as she got that down, he knew she’d make a good Beta, if they let her. Hell, maybe an Alpha, if she worked on her temper. He knew that wasn’t going to fly, at all, in the family, but still. Times change.
Shaking his head slightly, he visibly came back to the moment, “Oh, so it’s not just me. Good to know. Also, the traffic thing is an epidemic, ‘cross the states. Wouldn’t get your hopes up about that. At least here you can actually fit two cars down the streets.” He paused, then laughed slightly, “Whether or not they’re moving is a completely different problem of course. And nah, I came down from Chicago. Same city feel, but colder. And 26 years huh? Never lived anywhere else?”