(closed) may catch-all

[bigbaddy]

Who: Bigby (bigbaddy), Billy (notarat) and various other people.
What: A collection of various non-event things for May!
When: During all of May.
Where: Around Milton.

Content Warnings: Discussion of murder, discussion of homophobia, drinking, smoking

( I'm putting down some closed starters in this log, but if you also want a closed starter or want to do something with either of them outside of the event, just let me know and I'll gladly throw up a starter! Contact me either through a PM to my journals or over on Plurk at queeningsquare. )

Comments

[bigbaddy]

There's another big drag on that cigarette before he exhales.

".. okay."

Well, that's one good thing, he supposes. Connor even seems a little bit relaxed about the answer, so maybe they even found a way to get around the problem in the first place? Bigby sure hopes so, though he can imagine it must have been a pain either way..

The man goes quiet for a moment, seeming to take a moment to himself to process all of this. It's a lot, and that's even without him having all the information just yet.

He seems to reach some thought after a few moments though, frowning to himself as he slowly admit: "I just-- I hope you kids are all alright. I, uh.."

.. I never imagined myself being a father, he wants to say, but that absolutely does not feel like the right thing to say to your very much existing kid sitting right here at the table with you. Even Bigby realises that. It's not even a matter of Connor not being wanted or anything. The problem is entirely within Bigby himself, and he knows it.

It's like he told Louis. He doesn't think he'd be a very good father, and that's very worrying when there are apparently actual future children involved now. And not even what anyone might think to be regular kids. A wolf, a zephyr..

"I know stuff tends to get kinda wild within our circles," he instead says. It's not like it's not an actual worry he also has - not just having to raise kids, but having to raise them when there's a very active threat to their community somewhere out there - but it's definitely not his main worry.

This one is easier to admit to though. You can't just tell your kid that you're worried you're a shitty dad to them.

[wolf_lover]

Bigby looked like it was entirely possible he was going to keel over and/or smoke about six more cigarettes if Connor told him anything else, so the wolf boy decided to just keep anything else he knew just to himself for the moment. Things like the prophecy, Winter's ascension to becoming King, and what had happened with Therese and Dare could all come later on. Though he was beginning to get the feeling no matter how much he prepared Bigby for what was to come, it still wasn't going to be enough for his dad to fully comprehend just what was to come with his family.

"Yeah, I know," Connor said. "It was never a dull day growing up." Even before magic had been revealed to Earth at large, the lives of the cubs had taken a lot of twists and turns that no one could have foreseen.

At least there was one humorous incident he could mention that Bigby might find more interesting to hear instead of shocking. "Once, you took us to visit Grandfather at his castle. Turns out your brothers were there in the forest below and they tried to eat Ambrose. He's one of the cubs. So you beat them all up instead when you found out and made them shapeshift into six goldfish we could keep as pets once you'd proven you were the strongest of all of them." Connor was near laughing by the time he'd finished telling that. Sure, it had been a little scary at the time, but even Ambrose had soon gotten over the fear of the experience and were instead impressed by how badass their father was.

[bigbaddy]

Well. This number of cubs is.. steadily growing with every single thing Connor tells him, huh. Bigby is kind of scared to ask just how many of them there are.. Maybe it's better to save himself that piece of information for a little bit more. At least until he's already processed everything that's come so far, since it's a lot by itself.

And at least this story is also.. good? Sure, it underlines the danger of raising the cubs in the first place, but it sounds like Bigby was actually able to protect them. At least he'll be able to do that part right then.

"No surprise to hear that," he says after a slight moment of processing. (Less processing than all the previous facts, thankfully.) "Those guys are a bunch of assholes."

In fact, the idea that they would go ahead and try to eat one of his cubs only makes him even more annoyed at them. As if he didn't already have reason enough to be annoyed with them in the first place.

"It sounds like you and your siblings get along better than me and my brothers ever did." Or rather, he figures that Connor would've told him if there were huge problems within the family, considering he's been forthcoming about a lot of other stuff.. "You're not giving them too much trouble, are you?"

Look, even without having met a single one of the other siblings or having an idea what they're like, Bigby can tell Connor has to be one of the most energetic and outgoing ones. And not always necessarily in a good way.

[wolf_lover]

"Yeah, they still kind of are. But they made for excellent pets." The cubs had been quite indignant the day Bigby finally gave them permission to change back because he needed their help with the war effort. At least they'd learned their lesson by then and had thoroughly been humbled by the youngest brother they'd once mocked for being the runt of the litter.

At the question of how much trouble he had been causing for his siblings, Connor shifted a little bit on his chair. "Oh, um, not too much." That was clearly a lie. He'd been enough of a pain that his mom and had had been forced to look for a proper outlet for the amount of excess energy the loudest of their middle cubs had possessed.

Seeing the look on Bigby's face, Connor felt almost guilty despite the fact he had nothing to be guilty about. "Look, I'm sorry, this is probably a lot to take in. That's why I haven't told you a lot, I was worried you were gonna freak out even if I gave you the cliffnotes version of my life."

[bigbaddy]

.. okay, Connor is definitely the troublemaker of the group. That's the information Bigby is getting out of the other's hesitant answer. Not that he has any time to address it, or to even really think about it in the moment, since Connor continues on with something that feels a little more important to address in the moment.

"You don't have to apologize to me. This isn't your fault."

Sure, Bigby can get pissy over things real quickly. And it's not like this entire Connor situation is exactly ideal. But he's not going to blame a kid for something this place caused to happen, let alone blame him for existing at all.

(Let alone when it's his kid.)

"I mean-- Yes, it's overwhelming." That's so obvious that Bigby isn't going to deny it, no matter how much he hates to admit to vulnerability. But if Connor is picking up on it so easily, then it must be showing up on his face enough that denying it is just going to make him look silly. "But you can't change who you are, or your life. And I'm going to have to deal with all of this at some point anyway, or you wouldn't be existing right now."

He exhales. "Just didn't expect it to be happening so soon, or in a place this dangerous."

Couldn't he at least get all this news somewhere where it didn't come with a side of very possible death?

[wolf_lover]

He tried not to take it to heart that Bigby was having to take this step-by-step. It was a lot all to digest even with Connor just giving him bite-sized pieces and revealing even just casual information at a slow pace.

"Hey, I mean at least you'll probably have a few decades to come to terms with it once we get back," Connor tried to console him in an optimistic tone. He assumed that they'd both be sent back to their proper time periods once they got out of Milton but beyond what would happen after that was one big question mark in his mind. If this was some sort of stable time loop, did that mean the Bigby of his current present had already gone through all this and had just never mentioned it to his son because he already knew this was all supposed to happen? Or was it only going to occur now that Connor had come here himself the way time was only changed in Back To The Future once Marty had actually gone back and then come to the present again?

Such thoughts made Connor's head hurt and he was afraid he might start second-guessing himself or go crazy if he mulled it over too much.

[bigbaddy]

"Yeah, I imagine."

Especially with the entire mother situation. Bigby truly can't think of any woman he's close enough in that sort of way to actually have pups with her. Not to mention that Connor is definitely making it sound like he stuck around and they were a real family. Not that Bigby would ever want to abandon kids even if they happened to be an accident rather than something planned. The thought of turning into a copy of his own father is enough to make his blood run cold.

Still, unless they were really good at hiding it from the kids, this definitely sounds like it was built on a solid foundation. With someone he was actually in love with.

.. not to mention he'd like to have a few more decades to process this. Please? He needs it.

"But if this place is capable of dragging you here, then it could do the same to your mother or any of your siblings." A possibility Bigby didn't consider before now, but.. it's a pretty concerning one. "Which means we'll have to keep a good eye out whenever new people show up. It's really easy to get lost out in there woods where people are usually dropped off. And your siblings could be younger than you are."

If they can take Connor from Bigby's future, then that proves they can take anyone from any time. Not that kids often show up here, but Bigby has definitely seen some people quite a bit younger than him.

"I need you to also take responsibility for the pack, alright? Keep an eye out for them. Let me know right away if one shows up." He huffs. "Though if that'd happen, we'd probably have to move to a bigger place."

Which implies that, yes, of course Bigby would also let any of Connor's siblings stay with them. They're his pups. He needs to look after them.

[wolf_lover]

He was very tempted at that moment to tell Bigby his mother was already here, what with this serious talk of watching out for the members of his family going on. But he was worried this wasn't the right time to be mentioning Snow was his mother and Bigby's future wife. He felt a touch guilty about not saying anything but he'd also seen how often Bigby was around Snow. He was already protecting her even if they hadn't realized their feelings for one another yet.

So he nodded, looking unusually serious as his father told him to watch out for any members of the pack that might show up. "I can do that," he reassured Bigby. "I'll keep an eye out for anyone new showing up." There was a moment where he realized if people could be brought in from any point in time, there was a possibility that Darien could be brought to this place. It was a thought that both made Connor happy and alarmed at the same time. But he'd cross that bridge if such a time came. For right now, he needed to focus on the present rather than what the future might bring.