I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_archive, @ 2006-07-03 13:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | bigby wolf, prince charming, snow white |
i_atetheapple Case of the Ex [Open to Bigby]
Usually it wasn't a good idea to leave injured people alone, but Bigby was a grown man- or wolf, which would probably sound better in an argument- and he could definitely take care of himself. There was food in the fridge, wood on the fire and a first aid kit Charming had managed to dig out lying on the sofa. Whoever said the Prince didn't take good care of his guests?
Charming wanted to explore The City, find out as much as he could about it. It was definitely, unabashedly American; it had a lot of Starbucks, where horrible American popular music was played very loudly.
He had wandered for an hour, not looking for anything in particular, just observing. There were definitely some interesting people around here, but it seemed a civilised city. A casual walk around a park, and he was ready to head back home. Passing a small diner, he thought he saw someone familiar sitting at the window, but the glint was too strong to make out who it was.
Oh well, Charming thought with a shrug, and walked straight onto a wad on gum.
Oh yes, an unabashedly American city.
Sometimes you just couldn't say no. When you were as hungry and as low on energy as Snow was, polite manners eventually went their way out the window, and standards such as "always insisting on paying for your meal" were lowered, just a little. Still. She'd only ordered a small meal of pancakes with fruit-salad, but it was tasty enough, and by the time she was halfway through the meal, she was already feeling better, and more energised, and was almost ready to go searching once again for her car.
Smiling positively, she looked out the window, and that was when her eyes popped right out of her skull. Literally.
Or maybe not so literally, but when she saw her ex-husband picking gum off his shoe, she didn't know whether she should laugh or cry. Eventually, she did neither, and satisfied herself with frantically tapping her nails against the window and saying "Charming!" loudly through the glass, in order to get his attention.
These were expensive shoes! Nice expensive shoes! And gum never came out of anything. Charming was trying his darndest to pick the gum out with a small stick, heard someone call his name, turned around, and promptly dropped that stick. Snow? He mouthed, because banged on the glass and yelling loudly was just so undignified.
The glare from the sun was a lot less harsh from this angle. It was definitely Snow.
Gum forgotten- well, not quite forgotten, as his foot stuck to the ground every time he tried to take a step- he was sliding into the chair opposite her 20 seconds later. "How?" Was the first thing he said.
"I was driving out to the farm and ended up here." Snow said quietly, pushing her plate a little away from her so she could concentrate. "Then I lost my car, and this nice girl Kaylee helped me out and got me some pancakes"-- nod to the food. "Where are we? Is it a spell? Last time I talked to Frau Totenkinder she seemed happy enough..."
So sure, she could've picked a better person to meet in this situation besides her ex, but really, she was just terribly glad to see a familiar face.
"I can't imagine Frau Totenkinder going to all this trouble. There are other people, like us, who arrived here unexplained." Charming surveyed their surroundings, and wrinkled his nose as one of the waitresses sneezed dangerously close to the chip fryer.
He wad glad that Snow was here. He didn't know what was going on in Fabletown, and it was good to know that she was safe, at least, all things considered. Snow, of course, wasn't to know this; Charming wasn't exactly sure of the feeling himself.
Snow did her best not to sigh too loudly, or let her hands shake. She could deal with having a Fable turn bad. It happened all the time. Red. Goldilocks, Jack. Or at least, she had to deal with Jack misbehaving all the time which was pretty much the same thing as having a fable go bad, but un-fable related problems, she wasn't so sure on how to handle. She ran a hand through her dark hair and blinked hard.
"Anyone else I'd know?" She asked. "I tried calling Boy Blue before, the number wouldn't go through."
"The Woodlands is different. Bluebeard's and my apartment were there, but your office wasn't. I don't think Boy Blue is here, otherwise Bigby would've tracked him instead."
Charming shrugged. "Bigby was hurt before he got here. Some kind of magical trap."
"Is he OK?" She asked, concern in her voice. Bigby wasn't someone who Snow had ever really seen hurt before. He was a tough fellow. Sturdy, was also a nice word one could use to describe him. If he'd gotten a few scratches on his knee cos he'd tripped and fallen on the sidewalk, Charming wouldn't've mentioned it, and therefore Bigby must be hurt pretty bad.
Also, she hadn't ever heard of Bigby getting caught in any traps before. It just didn't seem natural.
"He's fine. Dignity's a little bruised-" smirk here, because Charming just could not resist- "and he'll need some time to recover."
The smirk was gone, replaced by what he considered to be a calming smile. "Don't worry about him; he's been through worse."
And Snow should trust these reassurances, because they were a rare case of Charming being genuine. He was actually kind of fond of bickering with Bigby- life would be a lot more boring if something was to happen to him.
Snow would always, always take everything Charming said with a grain of salt. But she'd trust him for now, and she'd check Bigby out when Charming took her back to the Woodlands.
Speaking of.
"You said my office was gone?" Maybe that meant her apartment was gone too. If that was gone, then all her stuff would be as well, which would mean she'd have to stay with Charming, who of course, would be obligated to give her a nice bed, clean sheets and three meals a day because he had that lovely trait called Chivalry and she was the jilted, disabled first wife that he'd cheated on years ago and still felt a little guilty about somewhere deep down inside. Snow was not above abusing what her intuition as a red-blooded girl told her.
But she'd of course wait until she knew exactly what the situation was. "And if it isn't within two minutes walking distance, please tell me you have the money for a taxi."
"Your office, your apartment, any sign that Fabletown even existed." Well, obviously except for his and Bluebeard's apartments. Strange, now that he thought about it. "They're not gone, per se, just occupied by different people."
Charming would, of course, be more than happy to let Snow stay. Deep-seated guilt and all that.
He stood up, offered a hand to Snow. "I would have thought you might enjoy a walk. I hear simple exercise is beneficial for the health of pregnant women and the unborn child," he said, a smirk playing at his lips.
Snow White stared.
"What?" She asked
Charming looked at her blankly.
"What?" He countered with a frown.
"What did you say?" Snow asked. "Because I could've sworn you'd said something about me being pregnant."
She hadn't know Charming to be the practical joker, but then again. He'd shocked her before.
Charming would never be as juvenile as to play practical jokes on someone. That was more Jack's department.
"I-" From this angle, he could get a good look at Snow's abdomen, and the tell-tale sign of pregnancy was definitely not there. For the first time in his life, perhaps, he had to struggle for words.
"What- what happened to the kid?"
Snow blinked. Hard. He really was serious about this. Or at least incredibly invested in whatever joke he was trying to pull. Maybe Jack had figured out some way to body-switch, and had taken over Charming's admittedly better-looking body.
"Charming. I don't see how this could surprise you, but I'm not pregnant. I have never been pregnant. I have no plans to become pregnant. And as embarrassing as this is to admit, especially to you, I haven't slept with anyone since I married you, and since we both know how that ended..." She trailed off, after realising exactly what she'd admitted just now. She quickly added. "I'm not pregnant."
She was so smacking him with her cane when she stood up.
As much as the revelation about Snow's non-existent sex life threw him, Charming was still a mite concerned about how a foetus can just vanish from a human body- without the mother having given birth- and that Snow doesn't remember any of it.
"You were pregnant, and... really? No one else?"
Okay, so the revelation threw him a little.
Snow glared.
Glares can usually speak a thousand words. Snow's, in particular, made him feel slightly shorter, like a child being told off by his mother.
Charming cleared his throat. "If you don't believe me, you can go and ask Bigby. He should remember; it's his, after all."
Snow's glare, if possible, intensified to a dull, pulsating, deadly glower. Once she felt that Charming had felt her wrath enough, she buried her head in her hands, letting her hair shield her face, and if you listened to her close enough, you'd hear her mumbling something along the lines of: "It's all a bad dream. I'm hallucinating, and Charming is really just Reynard the Fox, and Kaylee was just Rose being nice, and I'm going to wake up any second now and this is all going to be a very very bad dream."
Charming caught a couple of words, "bad dream" among them.
He pinched Snow's shoulder.
Snow's hand shot out far quicker than expected, to smack Charming's hand quite hard. "What are you pinching me for?" She snapped.
Ouch. Did she really have to do that?
With a sigh, he came down to Snow's level to he could meet her eyes. "Snow. This is not a dream. Everything I've told you up to this point was the truth . I don't know what is happening, but there is nothing to stop me from finding out. And... you really didn't have to hit me so hard."
"Yes I did." Snow said matter-of-factly. "And when we stand up, I'm going to thump you with my cane so hard you'll think you're back in last Tuesday, and I'd like you to stop and imagine to yourself if your ex-husband just told you that you're pregnant when you know that it is physically impossible."
She stopped her little rant, closed her eyes, thought of a nice, clear, calm green field, took a breath in and out, and calmed down. When she felt saner, and slightly less irate, she opened her eyes again.
"Charming." She said, and then pointed to a small, red scar she had just above her right eyebrow. "This is where Goldilocks shot me in the head. I just got out of rehab, and Bigby only just let me back to work. I'm positive that if I were pregnant, Dr Swineheart probably would've mentioned it to me alongside the permanent physical disability I have to live with for the rest of my life. I'm not pregnant."
"I know all that happened, and it is quite obvious that you are not pregnant at the moment, but there's really nothing that can explain exactly how-"
Charming paused. He was having a Thought.
Standing up, he moved slightly so he could avoid Snow's cane. "You know that I am going to defeat King Cole in the election, don't you?"
"OK." Snow said quite sharply. "I'm not the one who's dreaming. It's you." And her cane was quite long, and she still could reach. She'd get his knees a good one when she got the chance.
"There is no election, Charming. And if this is another crooked way for you to try and get your fortune back, I'll have Bigby go to town with you..."
And then she'd hit him with her cane again.
Snow was not the best person to go to about matters such as sex, but when it came to the politics of Fabletown, she was on top of it all, and there was no way in hell she would've forgotten something like the election when, in Charming's memory, she's been quite verbal about her dissatisfaction and the fact that she will resign if he did indeed come to office.
"What was the date before you got here?" Charming asked quietly.
"May 7th." She said, without really caring why he asked. Snow was on a roll with the threats. "I'm serious about this, Charming. If you're trying to get your fortune back again? I will have words. And I might get Frau Totenkinder to turn you into a pig, because then at least your outsides would match your insides."
Did she really have to keep bringing that up? Charming was trying very hard not to roll his eyes.
"Snow, that doesn't matter now; we're not in Fabletown, and Frau Totenkinder is not here." He massaged his temple lightly with his thumb- this was starting to give him a headache. "The reason I asked you the date is because things that should've happened to you... haven't. It was winter in New York before I woke up here. December."
Snow stopped just as she was about to pour out another few choice words comparing Charming to the sewerage.
"That makes no sense." She said, with a bit of a scoff, but at least it would explain why Charming thought those ridiculous thoughts about her being pregnant. "You're saying that within the next five months, Bigby and I would sleep together and I'd get pregnant."
It wouldn't happen. She'd have to be brainwashed.
"Well, yes."
Charming considered. "Actually, in the next few weeks, I think. You were pretty far along by December."
Notice how he carefully neglected to mention Bluebeard.
Snow didn't say anything for a while. Instead, she grabbed her glass and took a sip of the water. She was the one getting the headache now.
"Is Bigby going to think I should be pregnant too?" She asked wearily. It was bad enough having to fend off Bigby's advances now, when he just had a serious crush on her. Snow could barely imagine what he'd be like if he thought that he'd 'made his mark' on her. She wasn't sure beating him off with a cane would work quite so well against a huge wolf-creature.
"I don't know," Charming confessed, "it didn't come up."
He hoped Bigby knew. Otherwise it was going to be very frustrating.
Sighing, Snow placed her now empty glass back down on the table. "Do you have any money?" She asked, nodding to the table. "My purse is in the car,"
She slowly began to slip out of the booth, gripping her walking-cane hard as she used it to help her stand up properly. Snow was quite frail currently, but she did her best to not let it show. "And we'll need a taxi, like I said."
Charming had a lot of money right now. Rooms full of it and various things that could be exchanged for more money. It was a wonderful feeling.
"Of course," he said as he slipped a twenty dollar note partially under a plate, and offered a hand to Snow. He didn't know if she was going to take it.
Snow was proud, but she was also practical. Sure, at least now she had a meal in her stomach, or part of a meal anyway, but she was still a little weak and tired from having walked around looking for her car. She took his hand lightly and impersonally, using it and her cane equally to keep her balance. She trusted that her ex-husband would catch her if she was about to fall, but despite feeling weak, she had no intention of collapsing, and having him there was simply a practical precaution.
"How far away is the Woodlands?" She asked, as they walked towards the door, slow enough for her to keep pace.
Charming kept an eye out just in case Snow fell. Whoever said he couldn't be considerate?
"About half an hour's walk." He hailed a cab and opened the door, waiting for her to get in. Some habits were hard to shake.
Snow could say many things about Charming, but she would still freely admit that his chivalrous streak was alive and well, and occasionally came out to shine and impress his newest conquest. She declined saying anything more than a polite "Thank you." And slipped into the taxi, making sure that she didn't knock her head on the way in.
The ride to the Woodlands was unusually quiet. Charming was taking note of the landmarks, and he could only assume that Snow was thinking about the things he'd just told her. The driver talked enough for all three of them, anyway.
At least it was a relatively short drive, not much traffic or anything. When the car stopped, Charming got out first and held the door for Snow again.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/02/2006 21:06:13
When he heard the door open again, Bigby's first thought was that it was the housekeeper who he'd asked very politely to make a fire. She'd run away screaming and since then Bigby had worried about the posibility of her coming back and with friends.
He just sometimes forgot just how well talking animals went over with the Mundanes.
A quick sniff told him it wasn't her though, it was Charming. Almost just as bad in the scheme of things, but preferable to a mob of scared Mundies.
Along with Charming was another extremely familiar scent, one that mad Bigby's ears perk before he jerked his head around, looking towards the main room. He got up as quickly as he could and walked slowly out.
"...Snow?" Was it really possible that Charming had worked some sort of miracle?
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/02/2006 21:12:41
"Hello Bigby." Snow said calmly, as business-like as possible. She leant heavily on her cane and surveyed the cavenous apartment around them. How Charming had managed to secure Bluebeard's apartment, Snow was not sure. She also wasn't sure whether she'd be truly comfortable living in a house that had once belonged to that man. He gave her the willies.
"It seems we've gotten ourselves into a mess." She said, eyeing his broken and bandaged paw carefully. She couldn't recall ever seeing Bigby hurt since she'd met him however many hundreds of years ago.
From: i_charm Date: 07/02/2006 21:26:09
"I hope that's just an expression, because I'm not particularly convinced that it was our fault for this." Charming said as he closed the door behind them.
He had noted the exchanged between Snow and Bigby with some amusement. It would be interesting to see how it all turns out.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/02/2006 21:36:28
"I doubt it was, unless Baba Yaga managed to pull a fast one on us." That woman was living (well... sort of) proof that it sometimes was perfectly okay to eat people. Some of them just needed it.
And those were thoughts, he was aware, that it was best not to have in front of Snow. Especially not now, not newly reunited.
Bigby found himself looking at her again, running his eyes up and down her body trying to determine if she was alright. She was uninjured, he couldn't smell any blood, but there was something not quite right.
"Where--" he hesitated, glancing at Charming and wondering if he knew the answer to the question he was about to ask. "What happened to the... are you alright?"
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/02/2006 21:40:24
Oh great. He thought it too. "No I'm not pregnant. I've never been pregnant." Saying that she had no plans to become pregnant probably would hurt the man's feelings, so she didn't say that. Instead, she looked up at Charming, all while adjusting her stance so that she could easily smack someone with her cane.
"Maybe you should explain. I still don't understand it." And she still thought someone around here was a little crazy.
From: i_charm Date: 07/02/2006 21:52:31
It was going to take some time to explain this- Charming didn't entirely understand it himself; it was all kind of fuzzy because none of it made logical sense. Still, everyone should sit down and that cane should be put somewhere Snow couldn't reach.
He breifly explained how he ran into Snow, and how apparently a lot of things haven't happened to her yet, like the whole being pregnant thing, and the differences in the dates.
After that he went to get himself a cool, non-alcoholic drink, and planned to stay in the kitchen for a while; the two probably had things they needed to talk about.
Charming was not above eavesdropping, but he could kind of predict where their conversation would be headed.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/02/2006 21:58:00
Bigby couldn't decide whether Charming's leaving showed a great deal of tact or a great deal of cowardness.
Either way, it was probably for the best.
"Do you want to sit down?" His attentions turned back to Snow. This... quite possibly wasn't the best discussion to have with her standing up and so far from anything to lean on.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/02/2006 22:18:34
Snow ran her free hand through her hair, brushing the knots that she found quickly out of it. She leant heavily on her cane, before toddling over to the nearest sofa, one that was clearly designed for its looks, and not for its comfort, to sit down. She let the cane drop to the floor carefully, before crossing her ankles, and tucking them back beneath the seat, in a nice demonstration of the fact that she was born a Princess, and would die a Princess.
"I'm not her." She said. "I appreciate that you and her must've been close, If she was pregnant..." Snow failed to see how she would've been comfortable enough to let her guard down around Bigby, but apparently it'd happened, and she wasn't quite ready for answers to those questions. Not yet, anyway. "But I'm not her. I haven't had the same experiences she has had, so don't expect me to jump head-long into a relationship I'm not ready for."
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/02/2006 23:05:43
He was confused, to say the least. Charming hadn't been missing chunks of memory, or, chunks of time as it seemed to be in this instance. Nine months of time that she honestly didn't remember. Bigby was just going to assume she was sincere, firstly because it was Snow and secondly, because being pregnant wasn't an experience he thought a woman could block from her mind, no matter how painful.
Bigby considered moving closer, but he stopped and sat back. It was so weird being around her now and only hearing one heart beating instead of the seven he'd become used to.
Another sentiment he didn't share aloud.
"You have had the same experiences you just..." 'It's fate' wasn't going to cut it here. Nor was, 'we're mated and we're supposed to be together'. It was possible that this discussion might have come easier to him had he not been in this wolf form for so long now.
Bigby stared at her again. "I can't believe this."
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/02/2006 23:22:14
"It's not easy for me either, Bigby." Snow said, eyes glancing towards the kitchen, where she knew Charming was listening in. She couldn't be bothered making him leave just yet.
It was the strangest thing she'd ever had to talk about in her entire life. Explaining how she wasn't actually herself, and that she hadn't had the experiences she'd had becuase she hadn't gotten to that point in her life yet.
It was also vaguely creepy to know that if she hadn't landed up in this City, then she would've been pregnant in a month's time. It was like a fortune teller gone wrong by being far too accurate.
Snow looked down at her hands. She couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't make this situation more awkward, or that wouldn't give Bigby false hopes, or the wrong impression. And despite Bigby being annoyingly forward with his intentions, sometimes, Snow White knew how precious and fragile hearts were and had no desire to smash his into a thousand little pieces.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/03/2006 11:05:38
He was screwing this up. He assumed he was, she wasn't even looking at him.
He could remeber her initial reaction to the news perfectly, especially what she'd said to him. 'Don't you dare be happy about this.' If that was the way she'd be looking at it just a few weeks from her time, then there was no way she wanted to hear now that he was disappointed.
Sad, even. Possibly not the appropriate response for the situation, but he couldn't help what he was feeling, and that was sadness. Somehow he'd managed to lose the children he'd never even known. Not to mention the woman he had.
"I'm sorry..." Bigby shook his head. This really was completely buggered. He had no clue how to actually continue it without it continuing down the path of awkward.
"Are you going to stay here?" Ah, a change of subject. Very smooth, really.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/03/2006 15:45:35
Snow kept staring at her hands, her nails were in perfect condition, and had been painted red by her Sister when she'd visited the Woodlands on business a week and a half ago.
"I think so. At least for a little while, until I can investigate my own apartment situation." Her office might be gone, but her apartment was seperate to her work, proving that despite popular theory, Snow did not live for her work.
But she was still tired now, despite having a meal in her belly, and the sooner she got a little bit of rest, the quicker she could go about getting her life back in order, and figuring out what exactly this City was all about.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/03/2006 16:11:21
"Oh." It meant that this situation was not going to be getting easier at any point in the near future. In fact, it could only continue to move into the wrealm of awkward.
Bigby wished that his paw would hurry up and heal. Not that he felt comfortable leaving Snow (his Snow) staying alone in an apartment with Charming, but it was possibly the better option than all three of them trying to co-inhabit.
"I could help you look once..." he gestured down his paw. It was still wrapped all proper like, which was the only reason he wasn't licking it. "If you want."
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/03/2006 16:17:28
"Mmm." Snow nodded vaguely, wiping her face with her hands, and taking a big deep breath in and out. She blinked, and put on her best Everything-Is-Fine face. She could face an army of a thousand with this face on, and she wouldn't break a sweat.
"What did you do to your paw?" She asked. "Charming said something about a magical trap."
There was concern in her voice. Bigby was her sheriff, and she reluctantly considered him a friend, even despite all of the complications that this City had piled on top of them.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/03/2006 16:27:39
It seemed they were going to become experts in subject changes tonight. "I don't know if it was magical or not, but it could've been. It was a beartrap. I was dropped into some forest I didn't recognise, and this happened on about the second step I took," he said.
"I probably hurt it more running out of there like I did, but there was a Wooden Soldier chasing me. I think. So I had to run. Ended up jumping through a hole in a wall and ending up in the park."
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/03/2006 16:42:25
"A Wooden Soldier?" Snow repeated, frowning. "I thought the Nutcracker was in our stores."
This made no sense. The Nutcracker had been shut away for years, and besides, he was about five inches high and was probably one of the nicest little toys you'd ever meet.
Snow needed an explanation.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/03/2006 18:20:34
"Oh, right, I'm sorry..." No, she wouldn't know, she wasn't there yet. This was going to take some getting used to.
"We found out who the Adversary is, Snow." Bigby shifted positions, moving to lay down. There was too much preasure on his paw to keep sitting up the way he had been.
It was important, though, that he keep looking at her. He wasn't sure how she'd take this news elseways. "Geppetto. Pinocchio's father. He's the one who ran us out, and he's the one who built the wooden soldiers. You have to think of full grown Pinocchios, thousands of them."
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/03/2006 20:05:23
"Oh." Snow said, blinking hard, as she took in the new information. Yet another interesting development from This Is Your Future Life!
Wheels began to click in her mind, as now she knew the answer, other clues that had previously eluded her began to make sense. "We should've figured that out." She said, clenching a fist in frustration.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/05/2006 23:27:58
"No... no, we can't look at it like that. It won't help anything," Bigby said firmly. "You can't, not now while we're stuck here. We should be focused on the here and now. If the soldiers are here... we'll deal with it then."
He was hoping that what he'd seen in those woods would stay there. Wherever 'there' had been.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/05/2006 23:37:53
Snow would berate herself about it later, when Bigby wasn't around to comment on it, as he had a bad habit of interfering with her life.
"So what's our plan of attack?" She asked. "Personally, I'd rather get out of here than go searching for the henchmen of the Adversary. I tried calling Boy Blue, but didn't get through, but if we all got in here somehow, there must be some way out."
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/06/2006 00:05:13
"According to the woman I met in the park the other day, there is no way out." Not that he was settled on believing that yet, but she wasn't the only person he'd heard it from since arriving.
That couldn't be a good sign by any measure. "Calling anyone from the Farmlands most likely isn't going to work. I think the three of us are the only ones here. Right now, anyway."
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/06/2006 00:21:36
"Well it won't hurt to try." Snow insisted anyway. She wouldn't be giving up until all hope was lost, and Snow wasn't one who gave up hope easily.
"We're going to need to keep a weather-eye out for any other fables who might wander into this City." She said, as she began to organise her thoughts out loud. Dealing with administration and their situation at hand meant that she didn't have to think about the fact that in a few weeks time she was supposed to be pregnant with Bigby's kids. "We'll also have to decide on some rules of engagement, since the three of us aren't going to be self-sufficient enough to survive here without having any contact with the Mundies, and despite the fact that Charming has appropriated Bluebeard's apartment for himself, I do not want to be living off that man's charity, whether he knows it or not. We might have to investigate Mundy employment."
Snow also had every intention of researching The City as much as possible. The more she knew about this place, the more chance she had of understanding how they'd been pulled here, why they'd all been pulled from different times... Her mind was running at a thousand miles per hour.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/07/2006 09:39:15
"The Mundies here aren't all that mundane, as far as I can tell. They're not us, but they're not the ones we live around in New York. The woman in the park who fixed up my paw was living out of some shell of a spaceship that looked like it'd come out of a science fiction movie. And," she was probably going to think he was crazy, but what the hell. "I could have sworn I saw someone glowing and flying on my way over here."
But other than that, he thought Snow made sense for the most part. Unless they were all going to stay holed up in this apartment until something came to them they would accomplish nothing. And possibly drive each other crazy in the process.
"Employment should come after we figure more things out. Such as why Charming, of all people, was able to find 'his' apartment and I couldn't sniff out mine. This place is technically his, by the way, you wouldn't know that yet though." Bigby growled softly under his throat, thinking about those exact circumstances that had given this apartment to Charming, almost wishing the dead pirate would come back to life and stick a sword through the prince. Just to teach him a lesson.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/07/2006 19:00:59
Charming owned this place? Snow frowned a little. Ok. She could deal with staying here a little while longer, but she still wanted to find her own place where she could live in peace and quiet away from him. Charming was her ex-husband for a fairly significant reason.
"Well we'll watch out for the Mundies as well. Like I said. If we can't find our apartments, we'll have to look for new places to stay. Preferably somewhere here in the Woodlands."
She'd take Charming along so that he could haggle for her. He was much more accomplished at getting what he wanted than Snow was, and he owed her still.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/09/2006 18:57:22
"Charming knows the girl at the front desk well. He could probably convince her to find us an apartment here." It was better not think of the many possible reasons that Charming knew the girl so well, as that verged into unsavory territory. "Who knows, she could probably tell us where we are. She was here when Charming got the place."
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/09/2006 19:01:47
Snow nodded, looking up towards the door that Charming had exited through. "Charming!" She called out, using her best Vice-Mayor voice. "You can stop pretending you're not listening anymore!"
She waited for a second, before calling out again. "And since you're in the kitchen, can you get me a glass of water, please?"
From: i_charm Date: 07/09/2006 19:22:23
First of all, Charming just talked to the girl. Talked. There was nothing wrong with talking, was there? Secondly, there was no need for him to pretend he wasn't listening, because they couldn't see him. Petty, Charming? Never.
He poured two glasses of water- it was ambiguous who the second one was for, after all, he could be thirsty too- and sauntered into the living area.
"Snow, you wound me," he said, referring to the accusation of eavesdropping.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/09/2006 19:26:30
"Oh, please Charming." Snow rolled her eyes, knowing that he'd only gone defensive because she'd been spot on, as always.
"Your act doesn't work on me." She said clearly, looking at the glass of water in her ex's hands. She held her hand out, waiting for him to pass it to her.
"What did you learn from the girl at the front desk?"
From: i_charm Date: 07/09/2006 19:36:30
Charming handed Snow a glass, and set the other one down on the coffee table. His face was one of innocence. What act?
"What do you want to know?"
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/09/2006 19:56:31
"If there's an apartment that's free in the building," Bigby said. "Possibly how long she's been here if you can get her to spill her life story, which I'm sure you could. What she knows about the place. If she's been here a while we'll know there're natrualised citizens and not just people like us and the woman I met in the park."
He pushed himself up and turned, limping over to the windows that over looked the City. Trust Charming to have the best view money could buy. "Basically, do whatever you have to do to find out where we are and why we're here." For once, he female poweress would come in handy.
From: i_charm Date: 07/09/2006 20:10:42
"I checked- a couple of rooms free here-" not as good as this one, of course, Charming had made sure, "-Kristy, the one at the front desk, she says she's lived here her whole life. Never tried to leave." Which could be bad.
As for why they were here? Well, that should be a job for the great detective Bigby. Personally, Charming was fond of the City. He wanted to get back to Fabletown, of course, but there was something about unexplored territory that was just... exciting.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/09/2006 20:25:50
Snow took a sip of the water, and took in the info that Charming had shared with her and Bigby. "I think we should start finding out how many others are like us, and how they all got here." Snow added. "Bigby and I both got here through entirely different methods, I assume you did too, Charming. If we detect a pattern, it might be easier for us to monitor if any new Fables show up in town."
She sat up a little, before reaching down to fetch her cane. "Charming. I'd also like you to help me find a suitable apartment. If my office is gone, then chances are my apartment will be as well. I don't want to live off your charity forever."
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/10/2006 15:07:12
"The apartment across the hall is taken, but in the intrests of staying close by we'll take the rooms here. I think I already know the answer to this, but are you paying rent?" Bigby suspected not, if only because Charming technically owned the rooms. But he and Snow might get stuck with tabs, bringing them once again, back to the subject of Mundy jobs.
From: i_charm Date: 07/12/2006 16:54:02
In his head, Charming was going "HAHAHAHAHA" at the very idea of paying rent. Prince Charming paid no rent to no man/woman; he could talk his way out of rent. And if that didn't work, then a friendly romp in the hay- figureatively, of course, because hay makes you itchy in all the wrong places- would fix that right up.
He avoided the question. "I will ask the superintendent about the rooming situation, but I'm sure it'll be no problem." Because he'd already dealt with her once before, and she was a lovely, obliging girl.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 07/12/2006 17:24:42
"Good." So the rooming situation was fixed, or at least there were plans in the works to fix it sometime in the near future.
"How long until you think you'll be healed, Bigby?" She asked, impersonally. There was a little concern there, but it was concern for her sheriff, or a friend. At the moment, Snow cared most about whether he would be healed soon enough for them to get working. Charming was the only one of the three who was at full health, and Snow couldn't trust him to keep on the job all day, without taking off with some pretty leggy creature.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 07/12/2006 18:08:57
"Give it a week," Bigby said gruffly. He hoped it would be no more than a week. If he forced himself to sit still for a week the healing would go by much faster. Sitting still, though, was a task unto itself when it came to Bigby. "Once the bandaging can come off, I can go around as human." Which would be better for all of them, really.
From: i_charm Date: 07/12/2006 19:33:50
Fantastic. Everything was settled, then. There was something for everyone, and Charming was helping them out of the goodness of his heart, obviously. It was tiring, this helping people thing. He yawned, covering his mouth as he did so because it was the polite thing to do.
"Great, in the meantime, you should get some rest." What he really meant was that he wanted some rest.
He nodded at Snow. "You must be exhausted too, I'll show you to your room."
Charming led the way, unconcerned with whether Snow was actually following him. She could pick any room she wanted to, really, and she might've wanted to say goodnight to Bigby in private.
The Prince smirked to himself. It was kind of sweet.