This city's ripped right to the core...

[torchwoodsheart]

The Doctor is just about through with people hurting his friends. True, it's not targeted attacks this time, just random wanderers, whoever they can find, but... he's actually not sure if that's better or worse. So he's made his way to a hospital where there are, in theory, three men who aren't entirely in touch with the world or, in fact, their

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[changingtheodds]

There is a massive, woolly dog patrolling the streets between the Conrad and the Kashtta, wearing a leather collar and tags that say 'Adelaide'. She's got a constant, low rumble of a growl going and looks distinctly unfriendly--and now she's standing squarely in Sam's path, glaring up at him with a challenge in her eyes.

[definitivestep]

Sam slows to a stop as the dog paces out in front of him, and gives her a look that's almost pained. Did he really need this today? Really? Thank you very much, universe, Sam hates you too.

"Easy," he says slowly, hands held up in front of him. "I'm not going to hurt you or... whatever. Are you a person?" Always polite to ask, in this city.

[changingtheodds]

She tenses and the growl ratchets up a notch at the question, because... well. Ruvin is a bit beyond the point of trusting anyone she doesn't know, and he is familiar with the idea of shapeshifters. That could mean he's one of them, of course, a wanderer too, but after the park and Raziel she's in a less than agreeable state of mind. She snuffles at the air and smells--the rather familiar scent of angel. She can't really describe it better, but after being around so many in the Conrad while doggish, there's something--a trace, a whiff--that makes them smell just fractionally different.

Thank you guardian angel for smelling funny, Sam.

[riversodeep]

Andy hasn't been trailing right at Sam's elbow, under the assumption that he's not a child and doesn't need a constant reminder that he has an armed escort. She's got her wings out under her coat and her Guardian senses are working just fine, so if there's a threat, she'll know about it and be able to get to him before anything unpleasant happens.

And right now? She's picking up on a threat.

She ducks through the sidewalk crowd and appears by Sam's side, homing in on Ruvin as the source of the threat. Big dog, okay. Wanderer. Not attacking just yet.

"Easy now," she says, unconsciously echoing Sam. "We're all having enough trouble in this city without picking on each other."

She's not going to come out and say that they're both Wanderers. Not on a street packed with people, any one of which might be CLF or driven to desperation by them.

[definitivestep]

Sam's generally good with animals. Animals that are actually humans... well, whether he's good with them or not is debatable, but they at least seem drawn to him. He kind of wishes that would stop.

He glances over at Andy, and then back to Ruvin. "This is my..." He thinks better of saying 'guardian angel' right out on the street. "Friend. Neither of us is going to hurt you. We're friendly, honestly." On the bright side, the way his days tend to go when they get bad, a dog bite wouldn't be that bad, relatively speaking... That doesn't make it better at all.

[changingtheodds]

Ruvin hesitates, stalks closer to get a better look at/smell of Sam. She snuffles the back of his hand, sneezing at the powerful scent of spices--spices she knows, for once. There's ink there, too, the smell of paper he rubbed the ink off of. Grease, cooking oil, iron and chemical-cleaned water. He smells almost familiar--almost like home.

She licks his fingers and sits down so she can lean against his leg.

[definitivestep]

Sam blinks. Several times. And then reaches down, slowly and very cautiously, to scratch behind her ears. Right. Straight from the growling and bristling to friendly and practically cuddly. He glances to Andy with a raised-eyebrow expression possibly meant to ask if she knows why animals are drawn to him. Maybe it's something they share with guardian angels.

...or maybe not.