Bigby Wolf

With 'working hours' and 'time off', Bigby was a bit less snappish than he used to be. He was stressed, but he got the occasional period where he could walk away and forget about it for a while.

And with that, he was starting to turn his massive, predator brain towards hunting a different target entirely. The Adversary, whatever it was, whatever it had become, it had to have an origin. And if something like himself wasn't completely unkillable...

And tangentially related to that, one of the residents of Floor 13 had just woken up. She normally slept for weeks, months on end, the energy she needed to live trickling through the Between so slowly that she could only manage small bouts of activity. She sat guarded by her loyal retune, who took turns to keep her company, to read to her and speak to her while she slept, because she was asleep, but her mind was still faintly active.

But she was awake, for now, and she made her way down to the source of death, knocking on his door. "Sascha? I need to speak to you."

Her voice was rich and pleasant. She was dressed in a simple robe of white linen, her feet bare, and a crown of carved wood and poppies shaped from red coral settled among her dark, shoulder length curls.

Her eyes were a pale, pale green, once brilliant and vibrant, but faded like they'd been bleached by time.

A compromise has been reached.

Bigby was given the run of the third valley, deepest into the property, away from the town stead and away from the public. The Farm residents had agreed that he could be allowed into the built up area so long as he kept his human shape while there and those who wished to have nothing to do with him could.

Bigby frankly thought more of them were interested in him than he was in them, so he agreed instantly and packed up him and Sascha to leave with the morning run.

Blue took them to the cabin that had been provided. It was big enough for even Bigby's shape to fit through and the bedroom was completely light proof. Ozma was generously working on a spell to protect Sascha's eyes from the sun, but a pair of well fitted goggles had been located and bullied out of Bluebeard's vast resources.

It was all a surprise for Sascha. Bigby sat in the bed, contentedly naked, letting the sheol sleep on his lap and slowly teasing him towards wakefulness. He'd have no idea where they were or what it meant, but Bigby wanted to spend some time just them in this place making ti smell right before he let Sascha out amongst the others.

A few days after Snow had babysat Sascha, Bigby came home early from work with company.

Company that Sascha had actually met, briefly. With cascades of blonde curls, soft eyes and what were often called rose petal lips, Beauty was a gem amongst the already improbably beautiful women of the Fable community.

Beauty had a trait that Bigby needed right now.

Beauty loved books. Words, writing, reading, Beauty had a passion for stories.

"Sascha! Up, sun's been down for half an hour and we got company!"

One day, Bigby woke up and he was on his couch, listening to Colin snore on the floor.

He was in the wrong shape, surrounded by the wrong smells. Scotch and old chinese take out, the sounds of the city filtering in from the open window.

He reached up and softly touched behind his ear, but he felt nothing unusual there. No sense of how he managed to make the technology work.

He thought he wasn't meant to remember, but he did. He remembered it all with razor sharp clarity.

"Bigby?"

He looked to Colin, who regarded him with something akin to worry.

"You okay?"

"No. Not really." He tapped out a cigarette, lighting up. "Fuck. I haven't been anywhere, have I?"

"Not unless you count the good old land of Nod." Colin gestured Bigby's chest. "That's still healing."

He looked and realise that dull ache was the scars of the silver bullets still closing up in his chest. Like it had been the night he had woken up in the Fleet.

Not months. "Not even hours," he murmured.

"Have you gone mad, at last? Can I have your radio?"

"Shut up, Colin." He groaned and gave Colin the cigarette when he started nosing at the packet. "I ned to go out for a bit. Tell Snow I'll be back when I've sorted something out."

"Tell Snow?" Colin staggered to his feet as Bigby started getting ready to head off. "Where are you going? Bigby? How long is "out for a bit"?"

"Don't know. Brain was stolen for a while, need to go and check some stuff. I'll be back when I can. Definitely before the turn of the century."

"Bigby! I can't tell Snow that! I'm not even meant to be in the city!"

Bigby tossed the keys to Colin and stepped out. He wasn't going to need the place for a while. Fabletown would just have to survive without him.

*~*~*

Bigby shoved his way through the exit of Between, shifting to his smaller form to get in. He dressed himself in a hurry and set off towards the smell of industry and civilisation. This world smelt closer to others he had walked through, free of the Adversary and his people, heavy with age and the curl of undeath sitting on the roof of his mouth and the back of his throat.

This could be it. He had beaten the information out of a Muerta pixie that had been fleeing the Adversary to find somewhere with cleaner death it could feed on. It mentioned this place, an unsuitable home for it with the presence of undying creatures.

He needed to find high ground, but already he was whispering to the winds, explaining who he was and what he needed from them. He needed information. He needed the dead thing that was unlike the rest. He was looking for his dead thing.

Bigby had decided to give something new a go.

Something new was taking on his in between form. Beyond the not at all tolerated term "beard mode", where his fur covered his body, giving him a sense of not being naked but he could move comfortably between two legs and four, snout filling out his face.

He abandoned his clothing. Didn't need it, didn't want it. Went prowling the ship like that, small enough to fit through doorways on all fours, mobile fingers on his front paws letting him work door handles.

This is by far the weirdest permissions post I've ever put up.

Bigby has a hyper acute sense of smell. He can't stop it, but it's up to you to tell me what, if anything, he will smell about your character.

Things he can tell:

• What you are (human, elf, dragon, he might not recognise the scent if he hasn't encountered the creature before, but he will be able to smell that you're different)
• Where you spend your time and doing what (Likes to hang out on another ship, plays with ship guts a lot, cooks all the time)
• Basic emotions (especially fear, he is really good at smelling fear. He can only tell basic things like fear, anxious, angry, lusty)
• Health (injured, sick, again, basic things)

Bigby CANNOT smell magic as an inherent thing. If your character is a fire elemental, yeah, he could smell the fire and smoke about you, but not the magicalness of being. He might be able to tell a witch by the smell of the things she uses for magic.

So, leave me anything you think might be relevant for Bigby and I to know!