Photo album spread out on my bedroom floor...

[almost_knightly]

There was nothing remarkable about the day when Break got up this morning. There was nothing remarkable lying in wait in his bathroom, and nothing remarkable between himself and the kitchen, and nothing remarkable between the kitchen and the library.

The library, however, held something new today. It was lurking on the bottom shelf, easily missed but for Break's habit of crawling around on the floor -- a large binder, sedate red leather and several inches wide.

Break knows that binder.

Fingers shaking, he snatches it up out of the shelf. He fumbles it, and it falls open, and the first thing he sees is Faneuil Hall at Christmas, covered in snow. Below that is a photograph of Shelly, his own Shelly, dressed in winter clothes and laughing with Sharon when she was still small, and there's his ponytail in the photograph next to it because no one could ever get him to look at the camera that first year and he's seen these pictures a thousand times --

He slams the book shut, suddenly unable to look. A cruel gift, in a way; there are days that he wonders if he'll ever see this place and these people again. But on the other hand, now -- now he can show people, he can let them see things he's only described. It's as precious as it is mean.

Gathering the photo album up close to his chest and clutching it as though he's afraid it'll vanish, Break leaves the library, in search of some of the people he trusts most.


[ooc: Locked to hadengineered, retraced, of_murder, standstilltime, smallkindnesses, info_barma]

Comments

[almost_knightly]

[Break toddles by in the hallway and almost misses them entirely at first; then, having caught sight of a couple of poofy dresses, he backtracks and pokes his head out onto the balcony. The photo album is still clutched in his arms.]

Who wants to see pictures of my Shelly and Sharon?

[He sounds just an eensy bit hopeful, and is making that cute face he makes when he wants something.]

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

I would love to see! Won't you join us?

[almost_knightly]

[That's all he needs. Moving forward, Break sets the book on the table and picks Sharon up instead, scooting her chair closer to Shelly's and setting her on his lap so she'll be able to see better. (He also quietly snatches a cookie and stuffs it into his mouth as he clears room for the album in front of them.]

This one has all my Shelly's favorite pictures in it, over years and years. It starts just as I came to live wiv 'em.

[He'll let Shelly open the book herself. The very first picture on the very first page is an 8x10 of the three Rainsworth women -- Sheryl in her chair, Sharon on her lap, and Shelly smiling vibrantly behind them. They're wearing modern dresses, and from the 90's, no less; but they are just as ladylike and beautiful as the ones Break has seen around the mansion in their fancy frilly numbers.

Obviously, they're born with it.]

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

Sharon...! Look--it's us!

[bittyrainsworth.livejournal.com]

[Sharon settles comfortably in his lap before leaning over to look at the picture, her eyes widening for a moment as she stared at her own face before looking at her mother and grandmother in the picture.]

Did someone paint it?

[almost_knightly]

[Break can't help but grin a bit at their reactions.]

This was taken wiv a fing called a camera. It takes what it sees and puts the image on film, and then you transfer it to paper from the film. [He thinks.] There's a Liam here who takes pictures for a living in his world; he'll be able to explain how it works, and he's got a room downstairs that's especially for making these sorts of prints.

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

The colors are so perfect...!

It's like a little slice of your world...

[almost_knightly]

[The very first photo on the next page is of a large, beautiful house surrounded by lush trees and flowers. Break points to it immediately.]

That's the Rainsworth house.

[The next several photos are of the area around the house -- Sheryl sitting on the porch with a book, Shelly laughing in the garden as she tries to keep her straw hat from blowing off. Later, the porch is surrounded by sunflowers, and there's a picture of Liam and Sharon smiling among them as the blossoms loom over their heads. Liam is still small then, just about to turn twelve.]

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

It's so lovely!



It's so different...

[almost_knightly]

[Break props Sharon up a bit so she can see better, and waits patiently for her to continue through the next page or two of photos. There's cookie-baking in the kitchen, Rufus Barma joining Sheryl on the porch for tea and looking a bit out of place there in his fancy suit and tie, and the kids in a pumpkin patch, among other things.

At last, the first picture of Break shows up, more or less. He and Liam are on opposite sides of the couch and the boy is scowling at him. Break is curled up and holding up a decorative pillow to hide his face from the camera, but the long white ponytail is showing, and -- if one knows Break -- the way he's gripping the couch cushion with his bare toes is unmistakable.]

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

So, there you are… You never did like to be the center of attention, at first…

[almost_knightly]

I hadn't been there very long, then. I didn't know yet that my Shelly gets camera-happy on occasion.

[He flips another page. In the very first one, Liam is smiling with a resigned sort of tolerance that would come to be a very common expression for him later on, and Break's ponytail can be seen as a bit of a blur as he exits the frame entirely.]

See? After that, there's a lot of pictures of me running off.

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

I suspect I would be the same, if I possessed such technology.

[almost_knightly]

Yyyyyyyyyeeeah. You, uh. You would be.

[Hatter has told him aaaaall about what all Eques can do, there, Shelly.]

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose the fascination with collecting information runs in the family even in other worlds...

[almost_knightly]

In my world they call that gossip.

[It's said with nothing but affection, and if Sharon wasn't in his lap and still quietly eyeing the photos, he'd lean over to kiss her cheek. As it is, he only reaches out to turn another page, revealing one of Break perched on the back of one of the dining room chairs with his booted feet planted firmly on the seat.

He's not running away, but he's glaring at the camera like he could melt the lens off with his one remaining unbandaged eye. Break points accusingly at it.]

I have no idea why she kept that one but she laughs every time she sees it.

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

It's only gossip if you share what you find out, Mr. Break.





I remember that glare! The you in our world used to make the servants so unsettled by it...!

[almost_knightly]

[Obviously this is what happens to a Shelly in a world with no television to watch one's soaps on.]

That's probably what he was going for. I certainly did it on purpose. [Not even remotely sheepish.] But we didn't have any servants to unsettle and it never actually bovvered my Rainsworths, so eventually I gave up.

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it would have helped him, if we hadn't had servants for him to terrorize. Or, for that matter to terrorize him... They didn't all welcome him, you know, though they tried to be discreet...

Keywords relevant?

[almost_knightly]

Ehh, there were people what spoke against me, too. I was some homeless vagrant from anovver country altogevver, after all. Liam and Sharon found me delirious under a tree.

[This admittedly sad fact of his past is forgotten immediately when the page is turned.]

Ah! That's the Boston Public Library. [There are photos of the interior in addition to the main building, and Break points to one room in particular, obviously excited now.] This room -- the paintings up at the top here illustrate a story about one of King Arthur's knights. The King Arthur stories are my favorites, always have been.

That's Sir Galahad. [He points now to a red-robed figure in one of the paintings.] He was the purest of all the knights, and so he went on a quest to find the Holy Grail. I named my kitten after him.

delightfully so! X-D

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

It's beautiful! It sounds rather like one of our own stories...

[almost_knightly]

[That's why he'll probably never leave Boston. It takes such pride in its history that there will always be old things for him to enjoy, just like in Europe. It's comforting to him, too.]

Really? What story's that?

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

In our stories, there is a Lord Galeas who searches for the Crystal Chalice.



My husband was rather fond of his tales...

[almost_knightly]

Ohhh. I should try to find those, in the library here.

[The whole mansion might explode of his geeking if he manages it. Analyzing certain bits of folklore is about the closest Break ever gets to anything resembling academia, and he exults in it.

The next page, in keeping with the library theme, has one photograph each of everyone reading. Sharon indulges in a picture book called "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"; the front is graced with an image of several beautiful girls in ornate ballgowns and there are childish sketches of similar dresses scattered around her. Break is curled up on the couch, hiding behind a copy of The Black Cauldron. Shelly reads a murder mystery by Agatha Christie, one of the Miss Marple books, and Sheryl beams unapologetically at the camera over a romance novel with some Fabio-looking character and a random beautiful woman with her bosoms about to pop out of her bodice on the cover.

Liam, at the dining room table, appears to be engrossed in an earth science textbook. Behind his back and quite some ways off, Break is giving him a faintly disgusted look.]

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

Such a face, Mr. Break! Whatever did he do to earn that?