The time of our great undoing

[fallingbackup]

When Kevin woke up alone for the first time in months, he knew almost immediately that Glen was gone. If he were still human, he'd have looked everywhere for the man until he'd at least tracked down one of his Chains, and gotten confirmation from them that he was no longer in the world with them. But as it was, he could smell that the very spot he was laying on was the spot where Glen's trail had gone cold. The duke had vanished from the bed they shared as the knight slept.

That was well over a week ago now and in his head, Kevin's been lost ever since. He's done the best he can to take over Glen's duties around the house, and the Jabberwock, for whatever reason, has let him do it. But no matter how he tells himself that he's only minding things until Glen returns, and that he will, the atmosphere in the house rankles against him. Young Gilbert doesn't accept him -- not like this. The little Lacie pities him for the depth of his sadness; Lottie scoffs at him for thinking he can even attempt to fill Glen's shoes, even if he knows perfectly well he's only providing a poor substitute. With every day that passes, he feels more and more withdrawn, and so, when he can, Kevin escapes. He can be found wandering the city, now and again, letting the noise of it drown out his own thoughts. Or he can be found patrolling the fences around the farmlands as usual, perhaps in the hopes that the familiar solitude of it will help keep him in his right mind. But the truth is that Kevin hasn't felt this out of place and unsettled in at least a year, since he'd come to live in Glen's house in the first place. He'd thought he was home at last, that he'd found a new family and even a little peace. Now, it seems that all of that peace was in Glen all along, and Kevin has no idea when or if the duke will return.

But the most upsetting part of it all is what he does know. If Glen has really gone home, he's no doubt living through the Tragedy. Right now, somewhere, Kevin's Oswald is staring at the man who's broken his heart, there are swords raised between them, and the duke is maybe just realizing that he's going to die on that blade because Jack Vessalius never did love him enough.

And Kevin can't do anything about it.

Comments

[retraced]

If he could find his voice he'd explain the situation, but it looks like they're both caught. He winces and steps forward, mouthing a very quiet, "thank you," to Kevin as he walks past. As soon as he's settled, he'll have to find the man again, thank him properly and inquire on a patrol schedule that they might be able to work out.

For now, though, he's got more people to greet.

[almost_elderly]

Break, meanwhile, waits patiently inside, half his attention on the door and the other half on Caroline. She's been grumbly lately, fussing in the night often, and that's why Break has her now -- he's giving her mother and twin a chance to nap a little, and catch up on their rest. Like most everyone else who cares for Xerxes Break, Caroline is as indignant about his general existence as always, but it would irritate her even more if the familiar presence she's come to expect was not there. To that end, she's willing to cling to him, so long as he sings pretty and lets her chew on his hair. She rests with her head on his shoulder at the moment, the end of his ponytail in her mouth.

Then Gilbert walks in, Break stops the little swaying dance he was doing to soothe her, and Caroline comes alive, shrieking for her father. Whether she's happy about him or not is debatable, but she certainly wants him, sitting up in Break's arms with her own outstretched to Gil, leaning so far that Break is obliged to lean back to keep them both from overbalancing.

Break sighs in relief, eye closing, blocking out everything but the sounds of the child in his arms expressing her opinions. Good. Very good.

[retraced]

Gilbert watches Break's reaction from the doorway, eyes darting between him and Caroline. He looks tired, shaken, he's mussed and damp and decidedly out of his element. But seeing his child reach for him, he finally finds the courage to step forward and reach out his one hand for her. He doesn't offer to take her from Break's arms, he only lets her grasp his finger and jerk it back and forth in fussy frustration.

"Sorry, Break. I was late again."

[almost_elderly]

"I'll say you were. And I see you didn't even have the decency to stop at Starbuck's on the way."

This homeworld joke of his that Gilbert won't even understand is about all the energy Break has for pretending he doesn't really care. With another sigh, Break closes the distance between them, allowing Caroline to latch her little hands on to Gil's shoulders with a gurgling coo. Shifting her easily to one arm, Break reaches out to lift Gilbert's empty sleeve, feeling it thoughtfully.

"But you've been busy in the meantime, haven't you."

[retraced]

Maybe Starbucks is a Thing in this world. He makes a note to ask someone later where he can find it. It does sound familiar, now that he thinks about it...

(Frappuccinos with impenetrable perforated plastic.)

It's still tough to tell if Caroline is pleased or angry with her father and she slams her tiny hands into his shoulder muttering "da da da da da da!" but Gilbert is taking it as the scolding that he deserves for taking so long to get back here.

"...A lot of things happened. I remember everything now."

[almost_elderly]

"Do you? You've a bit more direction then now, I hope."

He would dearly love to know, of course, just what happened to Gilbert's arm. Unlike his younger counterpart -- who was too preoccupied to wonder long, and too considerate anyway to pry into Gilbert's affairs if he wasn't going to offer the explanation on his own -- Break likes to know exactly what sort of trouble his young people are getting into. But just now, it must be said, his concern is fighting a losing battle with relief.

A lot of things happened. But Gilbert is standing here in front of him now, and really, that's probably enough.

[retraced]

"You could say that."

It might be a strange sight to see a man smile after saying such a thing, but he does. The loss of the limb was clearly an important part of learning that direction, and it's obvious that he doesn't find it a burden at all. Except, of course, in this case where he feels unable to take his own child into his grasp for fear of losing his balance. He gestures towards the couch with his head.

"Let's sit down. Where's Gilbertine?"

[almost_elderly]

"Napping wiv Edgar. Little Miss here is sprouting anovver toof, we fink. She's been up a lot at night."

Break lets Gilbert sit first, so he can put Caroline in his lap for him. The girl is making a wide variety of burbling noises now, clearly ranting in her little baby way. But once she has her father in her clutches as desired, she immediately leans against his shoulder and stuffs the end of his cravat in her mouth.

This seems to pacify her for the moment. Papa's cravat is far superior to Uncle Rake's ponytail. B(

"Good place to be stuck if we're gonna be stuck anywhere, though," Break adds. Relieved of his tiny rage-filled burden, he flops down next to Gilbert, going so far as to lean against his other shoulder. Kevin isn't the only cuddly Break-shaped creature around and this one is without his husband and lover from the last world, with only his tiny not-grandkids for snuggles. "The boarding house is safe. I've not really found anyfing here to worry about properly."

[retraced]

He's quick to wrap his arm all the way around his little girl and let her fuss all she likes. The cravat probably isn't the cleanest thing in the world right now...not after the trip beneath Lutwidge and the journey to Sablier that took place right afterwards. But she's a Baskerville too; her body can deal with a little dirt for the sake of calming her gums.

Gilbert glances down at Break as he leans against his other shoulder, the one that has finally stopped aching. He can't imagine that it's very comfortable to lean on, but Break doesn't seem to be complaining.

"No one from the city has ever broken in? Caused any trouble?"

[almost_elderly]

"There were clockwork zombie monsters last month. Swarmed the city, but they couldn't come past the fence," Break says quietly, to provide an example with his explanation. "So long as you can get to the boarding house, you'll be safe, I fink. And, there's a Shelly here wiv an Eques. I'd make friends, if I were you."

A pause.

"She's got a proper Break what lives wiv her, one from a world like yours. So, I imagine he'll be looking out for you."

[retraced]

Zombie monsters. Well. That sounds promising.

Gilbert is frowning by the time Break is done speaking, but hearing that there's a Break who knows Shelly snaps him back into reality.

"Break is here?"

They haven't spoken much, not since everything had happened. In between Break, Miss Sheryl and Sharon arriving back from Pandora and almost immediately leaving again for Sablier, there hadn't been much time for a heart to heart discussion. Maybe now they'd finally have the chance.

[almost_elderly]

"Mm. I don't know much about him. He and Shelly are literally attached at the hip, so I've let them be."

Let's play "Will Gilbert Finally Get the Innuendo" again. If he's figured out all that much since he's been home, maybe he'll finally catch this, too.

[retraced]

Gilbert has learned a good deal since being home, but this is another one of those things that goes right over his head, flies out the window and lands on Mars.

"I was just with him..."

He sighs, and Caroline tugs away at his cravat.

"At Sablier."

[almost_elderly]

"...I'm not sure if this one can see or not," Break admits, hearing the unspoken question even if he doesn't know the significance of where they were in the old world at any given time. "Even I can't tell wivout getting close."

He's harder to fool now than he was when the first Break pulled it on him, but still.

[retraced]

"I was the last one to figure it out," he admits, though maybe it was already obvious. "That he was blind."

[almost_elderly]

"He didn't want to burden you wiv it," he answers. "Or so the one I fought wiv about it said."

[retraced]

Likewise, Gilbert had kept plenty of things from Break, not just to not burden him with them, but to keep the burden on himself. All of the pieces of himself that he doesn't deny any longer, but are still painful to remember.

"We were both idiots."

[almost_elderly]

"You don't say."

Break is older than crap at this point. He can be snide about his younger self and all the people associated with him if he likes. Finally, though, he seems to have copped enough of a sort of cuddle to satisfy him. He sits up and adjusts his glasses, giving Caroline one of his fingers to latch onto.

"So what happened to your poor cravat?" Not the arm. The cravat.

[retraced]

Caroline seems to have finally begun to calm down, but as soon as Gilbert tenses at the question she replies to her father's stress by fussing and babbling loudly.

"Oz tied it for me!" he snaps defensively. "I-I thought he did a good job!"

It was tied with love, okay.

[almost_elderly]

"Remind me and I'll make you one you can do up yourself," Break teases in reply, giving Caroline a finger to try and snap. "I'm sure if I tear the whole city apart I can find some velcro~"

Unless Gil and Gillie intend to start a tender and loving morning ritual involving a cravat, which Break doesn't really want to know about anyway.

[retraced]

"Velcro...?"

He has a feeling it's just another one of Break's "modern day" inventions, but it's good to know just what he can find in this city. Maybe it'll even have those little coffee bottles with the plastic covers.

[almost_elderly]

"Useful stuff, velcro," Break explains. "It's a fastener. Fuzzy strip on one side and scratchy strip on the ovver; they connect, but you can yank 'em back apart wiv enough force."

He gestures to illustrate what he's talking about, but mostly this is to antagonize the toddler, who follows his hands back and forth and tries to grab a hold of him again. As usual, his antics distract her completely from her fussing. She's still unhappy, but now she's unhappy with Break, a ploy Gilbert can likely see through now after all these years of getting trolled away from his anxieties.

But hey, at least this Break doesn't use cigarettes to get his point across.

[retraced]

Fuzzy and scratchy, what do they make them out of, animals? Modern inventions are weird.

"That doesn't sound like anything useful to wear," he answers, but mostly because he just can't picture it properly from Break's description. Or at least, he doesn't see how it can apply to something like a cravat.

[almost_elderly]

"It's meant to replace more difficult fasteners. You've got a kid what can't tie their shoes yet, get some wiv velcro straps instead of laces. Strip of velcro instead of buttons, if you can't fiddle wiv little fings."

Either Gilbert will get it eventually or he'll chalk it up to the old man rambling nonsensically and shrug it all off. Break is actually more accustomed to the latter now than Gil might realize. Well. He always did natter on like a looney, anyway.

[retraced]

At the moment he's more inclined to shrug it all off until he can see it for himself. Just like the TV and the plastic coffee containers.

"It sounds like it would help," he mumbles, glancing down at his empty sleeve. "There are still some things that I haven't relearned yet."