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

[hadengineered.livejournal.com]

He'll find Knave in one of the music rooms, playing a slow version of Canon in D by Pachelbel. He's found the sheet music inside one of the piano stools, and is now trying to see how many variations he can make out of it.

"..."

He tilts his head towards the door, curiously, when he hears footsteps nearby.

[retraced]

Gilbert is wandering through the hall on his daily patrol. Nose and cheeks a little red where he failed to put on enough sun blocking lotion the last few days, but otherwise looking the same as always.

"Break?" he calls out from across the hallway as he turns a corner and spots the man.

[smallkindnesses.livejournal.com]

[of-murder.livejournal.com]

[Gil is in the kitchen as usual, putting something into the oven.]

[candycoated]

*it's been quite some time -- well over a month, in fact -- since the photo album first showed up in the mansion. In that time, the Break who occasionally and grudgingly goes by "Stuffy" has largely kept to himself. When he wasn't laid up resting in his bedroom, he was dutifully avoiding everyone he could manage during his visits around the manor, trying to relearn the place's layout without his sight -- in particular while staying clear of one especially nosy older self always ready to get him into embarrassing hijinks, who, he has to admit, is probably the most likely to see right through him.

By now, though, he's feeling much improved and much more knowledgeable, and starting to get back into his regular routine again. He can't help but wonder just a little bit how his older counterpart and Liam are getting on after the latter's recent arrival; hence he's been making sure to put himself in public places for the last few days -- such as today, which finds him sprawled on a couch in one of the parlors with a pot of tea, curtains thrown open to enjoy the sunshine's warmth as he cleans his sword.

(Of course, he couldn't just go find them and ask how they're doing or anything -- that would imply a rather unseemly level of caring on his part. ......not that he actually cares about the state of other-Break's romantic relationship or anything. It's more like... an idle curiosity. Yes.)*