A Thousand Words (open)

[strix]

When Seth looked up from his book, he was surprised to find the sky had darkened to a deep blue. Didn't think he spent that much time in the library. It wasn't unwelcome, however--he'd been on edge and impatient the last few days, though he still couldn't figure out why. Almost felt like he was waiting for something. Ridiculous, of course. Seth was sure he'd get bored of Cardiff in a few days, and move on. Maybe to London. On the other hand, the hostel he'd been staying at was charming. He was running low on money, but had no doubt he could find some work to do. On that note, he'd have to pick up a newspaper. Later, though. Right now the library was ideal--quiet enough to satisfy his increasing irritability, and large enough to satisfy his curiosity. There was the book smell, too--familiar and comforting. This was certainly better than touristing it up.

The stack of books next to Seth's chair was varied and a bit eclectic. There was a birding book and one on Cardiff's landmarks, a history of Egypt, and an advanced calculus textbook he had picked up on a whim. Opened on his lap was an alien conspiracy theorist's ramblings, which he was finding deliciously off the mark. Seth checked the time and, assured he had a while left before the library would kick him out, went back to reading. Some back part of his mind nagged at him to eat something, but he wasn't particularly hungry yet. A cup of tea would be nice, though. Perhaps a biscuit to go with it? Okay, so maybe he was getting hungry after all.

Seth scratched the nape of his neck absently, and went cold when he found something familiar. What the--? He pulled his hand away, examining the all-too-familiar feather in it. It was a small one, for him--only the size of his palm. But even if it had gone unnoticed, it was still a serious problem. He hadn't shifted since the day before; it was unlikely the feather had been stuck to his neck that long. No, he'd gotten it since then. Seth rolled the soft grey feather between his fingers. Losing control wasn't exactly something to be taken lightly. Not even realizing he was shifting...was a bad thing. He glanced up quickly, gaze flicking around the room. Crap, several people were close enough to have seen it. Seth dropped the feather to the floor, and hurriedly packed his bag up. Someone else could deal with the books he left behind. It was time to get out of here.

[Elizabeth Wright]

Elizabeth had been wandering up and down the rows of old books in an old library she visited every so often. She'd not made it here lately, with everything that had been going on with Torchwood, and it was good to be back in the quiet surrounds. There was just something so calming about librarys. It was probably the familiarity of them, and the solidarity. She's spent so much time in them throughout her life already. She picked a random book of the shepf infront of, reading a few sentences into the blurb before putting it back. A space- themed sci-fi. Just what she didn't need right now. As she moved along again, and reached the end of the aisle, she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Her gaze instinctively flicked towards it, and she was, well, suprised at what she saw. An alien sitting it a chair reading. But before she could blink, it was a human again. Well, that was odd, but she'd definietley not imagined it. She wasn't all too sure what to do either, but she thought she should at least go over and find out what was going on.

She walked over, and sat in the chair next to him, sinking slightly into the cushions. "Interesting trick you had going there a minute ago." she said to him in a low but cheerful voice.

[jaxie]

He felt rather naked without his dogs. They were usually always by his side, but with Ruth being almost completely unreasonable when it came to behaving in public ( and in private ), he couldn’t take the dogs into the library. Uhaku… now that dog could go anywhere; practically bomb-proof. Jaxie smiled as he closed the book of his with a satisfying snap. Balto; father of the Iditarod. Of course, some of the facts were skewed, but that didn’t stop it from being a fun read. Jax smiled and ran his hand gently down the book’s cover, feeling the engravings on the hard, protective front.

His eyes lazily glanced back over at the stack of books he should have been reading for his entrance exams into Cardiff University… books on mathematical formulas… animal anatomy… chemistry… the works. And they were all really boring. So Jax had gone back to his home roots – sled dogs. They really were his passion. Once again that day his heart panged with his choice to come down to England from his wintery and dog infested home in Alaska.

He was about to start trying to read the anatomy book once more when his spine suddenly went ridged and the hairs on the back of his neck sprang upright. A growl slipped through his lips before he could stop himself and he got to his feet. Jax’s instincts were to find whatever it was that had caused such a strange reaction in his body and question it. As he came round a corner he had to scramble to avoid a blonde talking to a…

Jaxie’s spine went ridge again. HIM. THAT THING. He tried to start growling, but it came out as a whimper of submission. What the hell? Since when did he submit to anyone!?

[[ FYI ; he’s submitting because is DNA recognizes the stronger DNA of Seth. XD ]]

[strix]

Seth was still gathering his things when he heard someone approach him from behind. That was worrying in itself--he shouldn't have been able to hear it, had he been entirely human the last few hours. Now that he thought about it, the library's cheerfully bright lighting was just a touch painful to his eyes, where it hadn't been before. Crap, had he shifted completely? Seth generally didn't get the sensitivity otherwise. Oh, this was not good. Not good at all. Then the person behind him spoke, and things suddenly got much worse. He'd been seen. Seth froze for a second, then continued his work, searching for a stray pencil. Had to act normal, maybe she'd think she imagined it. Inside, he was freaking out. This was exactly the sort of thing he'd been dreading most of his life.

"Beg pardon?" he asked, turning to the woman. Although Seth's expression and voice carried only mild curiosity, his gaze was piercing and heated. He needed to know exactly how much she saw. Not that he knew what to do with it. A thousand possibilities whirled in his mind, each more terrifying than the last. Would she call him on it? Worse, would she call someone else over? Take pictures? What was he willing to do to stop her? The insidious voice that had been present the last few days told him to get rid of her by any means necessary. No. This time, though, it took some effort to force it down. Nor did he manage to get rid of it entirely--the madness was still there.

He probably would have been fine, if it hadn't been for the second newcomer. At the sight of him, Seth lost his entire train of thought.~What...the hell is that?~. Looked human, smelled human--and something else that he couldn't identify--but felt wrong. Not entirely wrong, just...off. Just a little bit Xiodan. Seth's expression went blank, almost comically so. "What--?" he choked out, unable to complete the thought. Jesus. The world was going as crazy as he.

((Sounds good to me. Along the same lines, figured Jaxie'd be harder for Seth to detect, so he wouldn't notice him 'till up close.))

[The Doctor]

Smiling to himself the Doctor rocked back and forth on his feet. He was browsing the library. Donna would be good at this sort of thing, she knew the dewy decimal system, he could use her amazing temping skills right now to help him look though the sea of books. Oh well, he could cope just fine in a Library. Just fine as he was a library person after all and adored biographies. Besides he was a Doctor of everything and knew his way around books better than most people. Okay maybe not Donna who had a natural knack for these sorts of things but the library was much smaller than his TARDIS so it couldn’t be too bad. Running a hand though his chestnut locks he found himself looking over at an alien who produced a feather. At first he thought nothing of it until he noticed a blond haired woman going over to him. As a fellow alien himself, he decided to go over and take a looksy. Why not give the guy a hand?

The first thing he thought was it was Rose. But as he walked closer the hair was too long, and too curly. So it couldn’t be Rose. Besides Rose had dark roots and this woman was 100% blond. So she defiantly was not his Rose. Thought she somehow looked semi familiar, but he might just be imagining things as he did meet a lot of people, especially blond ones. Without thinking he bent down and picked up one of the physics books in front of the man and said, “Physics, physics, physics, physics…. Physics eh? Good stuff physics are. Can’t do much of anything without good old Newton. Met him once, and explained gravity to the man, didn’t know what knocked his head over. Apples. Good old apples…like they say an apple a day keeps the ah….never mind.” The Doctor shrugged and let the book open between his hands as he sat down in one of the chairs. After all he was the Doctor and apples did not really keep him away. More on the terms of Daleks, hated them but had to deal with them as he was a Time Lord and they were a problem. “That’s what I told him, and then we just laughed right over dinner.” He winked over at the alien. Then he dropped the book back to the pile and beamed boyishly. The Doctor had yet to figure out the species of the alien as his ability narrowed it down, several star systems. Xiodan would fit but it just wasn’t too clear at the moment.

Pulling out his glasses he pushed them on his volmer bone. They sat contently on his nose and he looked around properly. “As for this chemistry book, it’s horribly written. Trust me. Horrible. Now if you want good chemistry and I mean good chemistry try --- oh lets go with Marie Curie. She snogs good, didn’t exactly work out….” He noticed the blond haired man of to the side. The Doctor didn’t say a word about it as he feared he might scare the man in front of him. He didn’t want to do that. That would be cruel and the Doctor didn’t work like that. Picking up another book he skimmed it and put it back down. It wasn’t that good either. Human textbooks were disappointing, then again he did come from a place where science was at the peak of defying the basic laws of physics, time travel, black holes, you name it cos a Time Lord could do it. "So where in Mutter's Sprial are you lot from?"

[]

[Elizabeth Wright]

"Beg pardon?"

Liz raised an eyebrow.
"Give me a break. You're not very obvious, but I'm good. Your not human. I can kind of tell. It's in the job description." She grinned wryly. "Don't worry, I'm not going to rat you out or anything." she added.

She was cut short from further conversation as first a blonde guy standing not far away began to growl then whimper, and then another man in a suit and glasses came up and sat down next to her and the alien guy and began rattling on about physics and chemistry. He didn't look familiar, not in the oh my god, it's you sense, but she felt that she knew him from somewhere. God, where though? She hated this feeling, where the information you wanted was there, just at the back of a filing cabinet somewhere, and you had to sort through them all, without any idea of the size, colour or shape of the package.
Then, bullseye. She found the package.

"So where in Mutter's Sprial are you lot from?"

"Elizabeth Wright. I'm from all over, but in general, only planet earth. You woludn't happne to be the Doctor would you?" She'd seen pictures of him on the computer. And the way Jack talked about him. Not so much Ianto though. Ianto didn't seem so impressed by the man of ledgends.

[jaxie]

Jaxie looked at the human shaped thing as it startled and tried to say something. The hair on Jax’s neck was standing straight upright now and his hair had taken on a fuzzier, whiter sheen to it. His eyes were solid brown now instead of the happy green they were most of the time. He stood stock-still, staring at the male in front of him, mesmerized and filled with dread.

Then the connection was broken as a strange man stepped over to them, looked through several books and proceeded to tell them things about physics. Jaxie wrinkled his nose at the thought of all that hard math and chuckled. Something about this man reminded him of Ally – a male he’d only just met in the park several hours ago but was convinced that he loved. Jaxie’s eyes traveled over the well-dressed male’s impossible chestnut shock of hair and grinned. He had the same sort of knowledge thirsty vibe that that Tour Guide man had had. Ianto, wasn’t it?

Anyway, Jax was about to respond when the blonde hair female chirped to life suddenly. He smiled at her, trying his damnest not to look at Seth because he could see feel the pull to throw himself on the ground and offer his throat. He growled again, softer this time. Then he shook his head and looked over at the Doctor, “Hooper Bay, Alaska.” He said slowly, not entirely sure why he was telling this math-crazed fool.

[strix]

Seth stared at the other shifter for what seemed like an eternity. What he was sensing just wasn't possible. At least the almost-human seemed as startled as he was. And...fearful? That was interesting. Then he noticed a slight change in smell, and the darkening of his eyes. Oh hell, he was changing. Into what, Seth wasn't quite sure, and that made him just a wee bit nervous. He had made enough of a scene already; didn't need help from an upset--bear, that was what he was smelling. Not something he wanted to cross.

More footsteps from behind them broke off Seth's trance, and his head swiveled around to find another man approaching. He tensed up again. How many people had seen him? The alien watched, calculating, as the other man sat down and...began spouting nonsense. Seth's knowledge of human history wasn't as good as it should be, but he was pretty sure Isaac Newton was long-dead. Right then. Tall, dark, and crazy. Harmless. Then came the wink, and Seth froze again. He knew.

That made three, as the pretty girl had called his bluff and the bear-man was still making funny noises. Seth was effectively trapped--he might have been able to quiet one, or slip past two, but with three people staring at him, there was no quick way out. He didn't like attention at the best of times, and, well, this wasn't. At all. It was, in fact, enough to put him on the verge of shifting again. Seth sunk back into his chair, accepting that he wasn't going anywhere. Hopefully the lowered position would put Bear-Man at ease, as well. They were both obviously close to losing control, and that wouldn't end well at all.

Seth tuned out the crazy guy's ramblings, focusing on getting rid of the scales that had started to form under his clothing. His senses were still preternaturally acute, a sure sign he was on edge. There was a short lull, and Seth was suddenly able to hear everyone else's breathing, and, more faintly, heartbeats. Bear-Man was, unsurprisingly, fast and nervous, where the girl was remarkably calm. And then there was Crazy. Seth blinked, and gave him an odd stare. Was that a second heartbeat? Another alien? Crazy asked another question then, confirming it. Mutter's Spiral. Now there was a name he hadn't heard for a while. Honestly, was he trying to get them caught?

"Canada. Toronto." Seth replied dryly. His soft accent could easily be Canadian, after all. Or Chinese, or something entirely different. Besides, he had spent a good deal of time there, so it wasn't entirely false. Truer than saying his home planet, even, considering how little time he had spent there. Seth gave the Doctor a hard look, almost daring him to ask something else. "And if you're going to do any more questioning, I suggest you keep your voice down," he added, almost as an afterthought. True, Seth couldn't see anyone else within range of hearing, but look how far being secluded had gotten him.

[The Doctor]

Ah, apparently the blond chick was not so dumb after all. It seemed she knew the little secret about aliens existing. It didn’t take much because there were all those odd events during the past Christmas, the Sontarons and a bunch of other oddities about Cardiff, Wales itself. Oh and there was that little blue box parked right outside a few blocks away. Sure it had a perception filter, and if anyone saw the TARDIS no one would think much of it. They just walked away, unless they happened to know it belonged to the Doctor and wanted to chat with him over a cuppa that is.

“Did you say job description? That would narrow it down to two organizations, or independent researcher. What exactly do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?” Those organizations would be Torchwood or UNIT. The Doctor himself used to work for UNIT back in the seventies as their scientific advisor. Now some other bloke took up his old job and for the better or worse of the Earth, they better be bloody good at it. His eyes wandered back to the alien. The guy seemed tense, for a moment. There was really no reason for that, the Doctor was harmless. Wouldn’t hurt a fly, sure he was the destroyer of Gallifrey but that was because of the Daleks. It was the planet or the pesky tin cans ruling the world as well as all of time and space which would be a bad thing. So the Doctor pushed the little red button and Gallifrey went KABOOM and was no more. The Time Lord was homeless and it was his entire fault. He still blamed himself for it. But the Daleks kept coming back, popping up like roses as if they were trying to insult him.

“Earth’s a pretty big planet, though judging by your accident you’re not from Wales…. Void nether am I. But that’s not the point. If I was to guess, I would go with Australia?” He questioned as he thought hard about her accent. He loved accents. He loved everything about Humans. So venerable about the world and knew hardly anything about anything at all. Poor soles. At least they had him to keep everything straight. “Nice to meet you Elizabeth Wright. And yes I am the Doctor, the one the only, and the best.” He beamed and then looked at the alien and to the other man in the room. “So who might you be then?” he inquired openly. It was to the both of them. To Elizabeth he added, “I see you’ve read my files. It’s practically a novel or so UNIT tells me.”

Nodding the Doctor made a mental note. Hooper Bay, Alaska. The alien claimed to be from Toronto, Canada in the Ontario Province. Yeah right, there had to be some sort of mistake about that unless his parents cultivated the poor child light years away from home. To test this possibility the Doctor mused, “That’s a classic. Everyone seems to be from Canada these days.” Everyone expect for himself as he seemed to have adopted England as his Earth home away from home. The accent proved it. Thought in his last regeneration it was from the North. Rose questioned it, and he just told her that every planet had a north. As they did. No matter where or when you go there would always be a north. “I’m not stupid you know. Humans just don’t pay attention to these sorts of things. Take the past Christmases. That was all me. Well not all me as other people and things were there, but I was there and then. Oh goody! This makes my life easier. So what species are you then? Xiodan? Amphilain? Fallecodeanain?” The Doctor was too curious for his own good.

[Elizabeth Wright]

“Did you say job description? That would narrow it down to two organizations, or independent researcher. What exactly do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Liz grinned. Jack had been right. The man was certainly likable. The way he babbled at a hundred miles and hour was a little daunting, but his obvious enthusiasm for, well, she wasn't sure exactly what for, but it was catching all the same. "I'm sure you can work it out." she said with a teasing grin.

If I was to guess, I would go with Australia?”

"Very good. Not many people pick it up. The american r's throw them off track." she said, her smile bright again. Few people realised she was australian, despite the fairly prominent accent.

:::Sorry. Muse has officially fled.:::