[Introduction: Jack Benjamin] Escape from the living death

[true_n_the_dark]

[Spoiler (click to open)]He'd done it. Jack had asked his own father to kill him, to order his execution. Thomasina had said, "Your father wants for you a living death, to brick you into a wall with someone who loves you - who you can't stand the sight of... until you produce an heir, which Silas will take, and raise right this time

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[danielshadow]

Daniel is sitting in a common room, humming to himself while he draws with crayons and eats a sandwich Uncle Tony had made for him as a snack.

[true_n_the_dark]

It's one day later. Still alive (much to his chagrin), Jack is out and eating pancakes that someone left out in the kitchen. He'll be damned if he ever has eggs again for breakfast.

Damn you, Silas, ruining perfectly good breakfast food by association.

He's eating and staring at the kid, a bit.

He's wondering what a child is doing here, in Exile.

[danielshadow]

Daniel knows he's being watched, but he's not worried. After a bit, he turns to look up and smiles. "Hi. Want to sit with me?"

[true_n_the_dark]

That completely destabilizes Jack, who blinks, and stares harder.

"... no," he says eventually, but very slowly, like it was a difficult question.

Pause.

"... who're you?"

Seriously, this kid is normal, why's he here? (Told, not told, Jack is going to need a lot of framework, for a while.)

[danielshadow]

"I'm Daniel." He doesn't seem bothered by the curt behavior and turns back to his paper. "What's your name?"

[true_n_the_dark]

"Jack," he says.

He doesn't expect the kid to know who he is. Children sometimes do need to be told, and this one's pretty young.

He doesn't bother with the last name.

"... what're you doing, kiddo?"

[danielshadow]

"Nice to meet you Mr. Jack." Daniel looks up and smiles again.

"I'm making pictures for my friends and stuff." He holds one up, a picture of people-shapes playing in what might be a body of water or maybe jello. There are a few other completed pictures around him, some with names written carefully on them. 'Carol', 'Tony', TJ', 'Sophia'...

[true_n_the_dark]

Daniel, you're so adorable, we can't believe we wanted you to deal with Jack. But maybe your adorable is a super-power or something.

Anyhow, Jack blinks.

"Huh. My sister would love that," he hears himself say.

He hasn't thought much of her, lately.

Suddenly he wonders what happened to her.

[danielshadow]

Daniel brightens up. "You have a sister? Me too! My sisters are twins and they're really annoying." He looks down at his drawing. "They're not here. None of my family's here..." Daniel is quick to speak up though and he turns back to Jack.

"But! But, I have new family here! My Uncles and Aunt and stuff, so I'm not all alone. Want me to draw you a picture?"

[true_n_the_dark]

I'm her twin.

And I used to steal her stuff, and she used to think we were friends.

Jack doesn't speak for a bit, as if all Daniel's babbling was making things boil up inside him.

So his eyes are wet, and all he can do is shrug, stiff-lipped.

[danielshadow]

Daniel watches Jack for a moment, then points to the cushioned chair beside him. "You can still come sit with me. You don't have to color or anything, but it's nice to sit with people sometimes."

[true_n_the_dark]

Jack has honestly no idea why he's doing this - standing, walking over, sitting next to the kid.

He's still quiet.

He kind of wants to say, you shouldn't sit with me, I'm a bad man.

[danielshadow]

Daniel moves to make room for Jack to sit and he pulls out a fresh sheet of paper to color on. "It's nice here most of the time," the little boys says, mostly to fill the silence and so that Jack doesn't feel like he has to talk. Daniel's seen people that just want to be quiet before and while he doesn't understand, he doesn't need a conversation to have fun.

"Like, in the winter time there's snow and you can go outside and play in it. And there's a whole big lake that's got a lot of frogs and fish and stuff. Sometimes it rains and sometimes there's storms, but usually it's safe inside. The forest is bad; I'm not allowed to go in without Uncle TJ or Aunt Anita or an adult because I could get hurt and then I'd get into trouble."

While he speaks, he's carefully drawing a few shapes that are starting to look like possibly people, or maybe trees.

[true_n_the_dark]

Jack listens only half-heartedly - he's kind of droning it, using the kid's chatter like one does white noise. It's soothing, in a way.

And you can't really... no, you can't really fault a kid.

"You're a very nice boy," he informs the kid. "And you should be careful talking to strangers."

[danielshadow]

"Well, if you don't talk to strangers, it's hard to make new friends." Daniel pauses in his coloring and turns to face the man, smiling again.

"And we're not strangers. We exchanged names and everything!"

[true_n_the_dark]

"Look kid," Jack says, surprisingly assertively for someone so despondent, "For all you know, I might be a bad man."

I am a bad man.