(closed)

[bigbaddy]

Who: Bigby and Snow White
What: A talk about recent events!
When: During June
Where: In their house in Milton

Content Warnings: Probably nothing, will edit if that changes.

Connor's loss still stings - but Bigby figures that's just going to be a constant hurt now. Even if it's less of one than it was when the boy first disappeared, it's still somewhere in the back of his mind, even months after the fact. (It's mostly the fact that he can't be sure the other is alright, really. If he just knew Connor went back to their world, to their future, that's fine, but..)

He still tries to put it out of his mind a little. They have to keep going in this place, after all, and the constant danger and odd things happening here are a good reminder of the fact that Bigby can't slack off, and can't allow his thoughts to be drawn anywhere else for too long. Especially if they're going to have a repeat this summer of what happened during the last one.

But his mind is also on some recent events. The journey out to Silverpoint, what they found there, going back here..

While he's sitting together on the couch with Snow on a June evening, he's thinking about it enough to bring it up.

"You know-- I didn't expect to actually see people out there in that other town. Seemed like every person here died a while ago, but they were perfectly fine out there." It's a bit of an idle thought, but-- it's still a deep thought about this place and its nature in a way he knows he can only share with Snow.

Most people in this place have never traveled to a different world before, after all. Unlike them.

"I thought this empty place was all there was to this world. Like it's the Darkwalker's freaky little pocket realm, or something like that. But it seems like there's more to it than that."

Comments

[bigbaddy]

Bigby slowly turns his head to look over at her. "Yeah?"

Really, it's not like he's very surprised. Between the two of them Snow is certainly the more sociable one of them. If this sort of situation had happened back home, he's pretty sure she would have suggested talking to some new unknown group of people too, whereas Bigby would be fine staying away from them as long as they wouldn't be making trouble for them.

Maybe some stuff just doesn't change, he thinks, even across worlds.

Still-- It may not be surprising, but it is a good moment to learn even more about Snow, right? By asking, for example--

"What sort of stuff would you want to talk about with them?"

[powersuited]

Snow pushes out a breath, thoughtfulness visibly filtering over her expression. If halfway given the chance, there may not be any end to the number of questions she would ask — but she’s also not the kind of person who lets personal apprehension get in the way of potentially learning things. If there’s anything she can glean from the people in Silverpoint to take back, isn’t it worth asking questions?

“Exactly what you brought up. How they’ve learned to survive here, even knowing what lurks out there. How they’ve carved out a place that offers an inviting light from a distance, if anyone happens to wander close enough to see it.”

Even though she knows Milton isn’t their permanent home, that they’ll end up back in Fabletown eventually, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been trying to make it feel like a home, of sorts — especially now that it’s the both of them under one roof.

“Couple tips wouldn’t hurt,” she adds, with the idle shrug of one shoulder.

[bigbaddy]

Though the man slowly nods, seemingly agreeing with what she's saying - especially since it's not like it's something that can hurt - there does seem to be a little bit more on his mind. Not just from the way he's contemplatively quiet for a moment after that nod, but also by the way she stares off at the wall again, seeming to think about it.

"We've been surviving so far though." Granted, they have still been losing people, but Bigby is trying really hard to not actively think of that in this moment, thanks. That's a thought he's pushing down, trying to instead focus on his current line of thought, on Snow's presence next to him on the couch, even when he isn't watching her.

"Even with all the shit this place throws at us. We've made it through so far."

[powersuited]

It’s something Snow wouldn’t exactly expect to hear from Bigby — not because a sentiment like that is unwelcome, but because, out of the two of them, she’s usually the person trying to keep him thinking on the bright side. So she blinks, in surprise, but the reaction is very quickly replaced by a small, warm smile.

“We have,” she murmurs, not wanting to dismiss all that they’ve achieved so far — and instinctively, she stretches out a hand to curl fingers around his, even though they’re already sitting side by side.

“Sometimes I think we might be a little more adjusted to knowing how to survive in difficult circumstances.” Not because of what they’ve been through, but where they were before — and that’s not even counting the time he was here without her, which she doesn’t like to think about. Snow’s expression turns more inquisitive then, as she looks up into Bigby’s gaze.

“Something else on your mind?”

[bigbaddy]

When she takes a hold of his hand, Bigby actually does turn back to look at Snow again. Something softens a little bit in his gaze as he looks at her, though he doesn't answer her question right away.

Not with words, anyway - instead he just lets out a slight huff.

Honestly, there's so much on his mind. And it's not that he minds sharing with Snow, but sometimes it's still not all that easy. Some habits are difficult to break, especially when you've had them for long enough.

Still-- Even if there are many things he may not be able to say here, he still tries to find something he can say.

Because it's her. And because she makes him want to at least try.

"I was just thinking it's been a while. That I've been here. And even that you've been here." Sure, she arrived after he had already been in this place for quite some time - but maybe that just makes the time he has spent here feel even longer. "Not that I miss the assholes back in Fabletown."

Don't worry, Snow, that's 'assholes' with that very faint Bigby fondness in it. There are people he likes there, even if there's also people he wishes would just get lost. He's just bad at admitting the former compared to the latter.

"It just feels weird to have been away from there for so long now." Especially since it's involuntary. They didn't choose to leave.

Yet here they are.

"Who knows what kind of shit is going down over there by now."

[powersuited]

When Bigby doesn’t answer right away, Snow doesn’t press the issue or reiterate the question; what she’s come to learn, both through as many years as she’s known him and the time they’ve been forced to endure against different odds here, is that he’ll talk when he’s ready, and rarely a moment before then. Besides, the silence that so often falls between them these days is a comfortable one, his hand a warm certainty beneath her own as she gives it a reassuring squeeze.

“It… is strange,” she admits, with a soft chuckle. “Sometimes I forget how long it’s been, and then something happens to remind me.” The fact that they’re living together, for one; the fact that she has the ability to turn into a wolf now, for another. She still feels like herself, but it’d be a lie to say that nothing has changed.

“What’s going down without Sheriff Bigby around to keep an eye on things, you mean?” She’s teasing, but there’s a note of sincerity behind it too; she hadn’t considered just how much this all might be weighing on him, and whether it’s even more of a weight after so much time.

“I think about it too. Whether they’ve realized what’s happened to us. Whether it’s been this long back home, or if we’ll go back and it’ll be like we never lost a single day.”

[bigbaddy]

If it wasn't obvious she was teasing, he would consider giving more of an answer to the part about him not being around to keep an eye on things - that she keeps an eye on things too, for one - but Bigby can tell the intention behind her tone, so he doesn't.

Instead he focuses on the more serious part of this. It's not like he hasn't spoken with many people here about their situation, drilled it into the heads of the local idiots to take it seriously, but Snow just understands it on a level that the others here wouldn't. With Connor now being gone, they're the only Fables here.

"Someone must have realized. We're not in the same situation as all those mundies here. People would know."

Not that people back home might not care about the other people now trapped here - but it's just that Fables have a little bit more reason to assume that it might not just be a regular disappearance. That they know about inter-dimensional travel.

"Yet no one's managed to reach us." Bigby doesn't fully sound concerned, but that might just be because it's Bigby, because that tone doesn't come naturally to him. Instead he just seems very serious as he speaks to her.

(He's still not pulling his hand away from her own though, all the same.)

[powersuited]

There have been times, here and there, when Snow has considered whether it might be good for the Interlopers to elect some form of leadership — not out of a desire to control everything herself, but because even Fabletown, eventually, had found itself in need of someone to oversee things, to listen to concerns, to be an advocate. Granted, the Fable who had initially been elected mayor had been more concerned with lining his own pockets than helping the less fortunate among them, but he also isn't mayor anymore for that reason, among others.

Either way, maybe it's something that she should propose, once everyone is in a position to have a meeting about it — a council, rather than one person at the head of their group. Something more democratic, and reflective of who the Interlopers are as a community.

"No, they haven't gotten through. Or they have, and it somehow hasn't made its way to us." She's pulled from her brief reverie by Bigby's musing, and now can't make up her mind about which would be worse — not hearing from them at all, or knowing that they'd tried to reach out and been met with something blocking their efforts.

"I can't decide if I'd rather they knew we were gone," she adds, with a sigh, and after another moment, she shifts in her seat so that she can rest her head on his shoulder, nuzzling there before she overthinks the initiation. "Maybe it has something to do with the Aurora?"

[bigbaddy]

"Wouldn't surprise me," Bigby replies - though he's also adjusting the way they're sitting a little bit to accommodate for the way Snow leans against him. It takes a moment, but then he even moves his arm over her shoulders until he can rest his hand on her arm on the opposite side, drawing her a little bit closer against him.

"Whatever that force is, it's something powerful. It's not like just anything can take away everything that makes us Fables from us. A lot of powerful forces back home wouldn't have been able to do that just like this."

[powersuited]

Bigby's outward observation prompts a visible frown from Snow's side, and she shifts her head along his shoulder until she's able to look at him more directly, chin lifted, her brow sporting a deep furrow.

"Do you think that means we're... aging here, like everyone else?" Without the very thing that makes them Fables, there's a possibility that could include their longevity, and while she doesn't expect to suddenly start seeing grey hairs in the mirror tomorrow, it's also something she's considered ever since discovering that Bigby hadn't been able to transform previously.

They're both wolves now, but in a way that only exists because of the Aurora, and she certainly runs much warmer than she used to, to say nothing of the heightened senses that make his scent that much more overwhelming to her than it once was, but that doesn't mean she's invincible. Neither is he, although he'd readily put himself between her and danger exactly like he had before the change.