(Untitled)

[ringbearing]

Only two days after which Frodo Baggins would have said he felt comfortable navigating the compound and the island country around it, everything changed. The world itself went from lovely and blue and warm to some strange and complex city. The very clothes on his back had changed. To his utter dismay, the streets were now oddly cobbled

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[ringwinner]

In all honesty, the presence of the other hobbit was both a blessing and a trial to Bilbo. On the one hand he now had another one of his own kind to simply be a hobbit with, something he had not experienced since he had left his home, but at the same time Frodo's very existence was a puzzlement. In the end, Bilbo simply continued on being his normal self, hoping that eventually all would turn out for the best.

"Hello there, Frodo! I don't suppose I might convince you to lend me some pipeweed? Of course, I usually have my own supply on me, but I seem to have left home without it today. Dreadfully careless of me, I know."

[ringbearing]

"Bilbo," said Frodo, trying to compose himself. It wouldn't do to frighten Bilbo with his strange needs. "I, ah. Oh! I don't have any actual pipeweed, I'm afraid. It's tobacco that I bought at one of the stores, only I didn't buy it because they won't take money."

Though it wasn't as if he had money, either.

Frodo held out the little box. "Here, though."

[ringwinner]

"Thank you very much," Bilbo said, sitting himself down on the bench (but not too close to Frodo, mind, for it was quite a large bench for only two hobbits) and filling his pipe. "It isn't really the same as some good Old Toby, is it?"

After a moment or so of distracted smoke ring blowing, Bilbo looked over at his nephew or cousin, the exact nature of their relation still rather confused him, and attempted to come to the point. "I have been thinking of building a sort of version of home here. Well, not here of course, but when it sets itself back to rights, or as right as it ever can be. And not exactly like Bag End naturally! That wouldn't do at all. My parents had rather grand tastes after all, and it wouldn't suit for just me living in it, except it won't be just me living in it if all goes well, and I am hoping that it does. Though that does rather depend on..."

Bilbo paused, realizing that he had made quite a muddle of what he had originally meant to say.

[ringbearing]

Just when Frodo thought he couldn't be any more surprised by the place, Bilbo announced a possible construction project. For him and another-- surely the old bachelor hadn't taken a wife? It seemed the lot of all Baggins to live queerly and alone.

A few moments later, Frodo realized that Bilbo must mean him.

"Oh," he said, pleasantly surprised. "I suppose, well, yes. How do you plan to approach the builders here about it? Have you picked out any land?"

[ringwinner]

"Not exactly, no. You see, that's my main trouble at the moment. I was doing a fair bit of surveying for it before the dratted snow came and mixed everything up. But when it changes back I fully intend to get the project started," he said with a nod, trying to feel more decided about the whole thing than he really was. After all, it was largely his own inability to decide upon a location that had delayed the process thus far.

"Of course, I didn't know if you would agree, what with our being from different times and all that. But we hobbits must stick together. I won't pretend to know what you went through before coming here and I won't ask if you don't want me to, but the Bagginses have a responsibility to each other." But Bilbo paused a minute, then revised his speech. "Excepting the Sackville-Bagginses, naturally."

[ringbearing]

"Excepting them," Frodo repeated, and it was a strangely warming truth. "I suppose in my absence that they've taken over the real bag End." The words came out of him before he could really think about what he was saying; he'd not meant to speak any more of his mission, of the likely destruction of the Shire.

No, that was not worth thinking.

"Surely you do not mean to build it yourself?"

[ringwinner]

"Well, naturally I don't mean to build it myself, though I daresay I could help.  After my adventure I'm much more willing to get  my hands dirty and--"  He paused, only just then noticing what Frodo had said earlier in the conversation.

"The Sackville-Bagginses have Bag End?" Bilbo exclaimed, his expression turning steadily more mortified the longer that he thought of it. "Of course, they are due to inherit it at some point if I don't produce an heir (and it does seem rather unlikely now), but I always thought something would happen to spoil their plans."