[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.

[danielshadow]

"Lots of people are bad here," Daniel says, going back to his drawing. "And lots of people here think they're bad, but they really aren't. I don't think you're a bad man."

He's been wrong before, but the pup isn't worried. "Besides, if you were a bad person, why would you tell me?"

[true_n_the_dark]

"Because I'm bigger and stronger than you, so telling you and giving you fair warning wouldn't change the odds," Jack replies.

"I mean it."

Whether it's a warning or a threat is hard to tell. (Though typist is 100% positive he would not hurt a child. Even Jack's indecency has its limits.)

[danielshadow]

"I'm seven. There's a lot of people bigger and stronger than me here," Daniel points out. "And there's even people bigger and stronger than my Aunt Anita and she's really super strong. So, being scared of you just 'cause you're big and stuff, well, I'd have to be scared of everybody. And I'm not scared of you."

He reaches to change out some colors and it's a bit clearer now that he's drawing someone that looks a bit like Jack sitting in a room with what probably is supposed to be Daniel and also a big black .... smudge. Maybe a dog?

[true_n_the_dark]

Well, good on you, kid, calling Jack on his bullshit.

You probably should be, he doesn't say, because hurting children is something he hasn't done yet, and he realizes he can still avoid stooping any lower by, well, trying to treat this kid right.

"... what the hell is that?"

He's pointing the smudge, but.

[danielshadow]

"That's Shadow. He's a dog that lives here too sometimes. Sometimes you can even play games with him, since he's super smart, but he's not here right now, but he's still cool enough to be in the picture."

Daniel points to the other figures. "That's you, see? There's your hair and that's your kind of grumpy face, but it's the kind of grumpy my Uncle TJ gets when Uncle Tony does something he's not supposed to.

"Like sad-grumpy, not his laughing-grumpy face. And that's me!"

[true_n_the_dark]

This kid is so cute - and smart, too. Jack kind of feels like he should do something in return - weird, maybe it's because Daniel is being so gratuitous.

"I'm not grumpy, kiddo," he says, and tries to hunt down a smile. "See? I'm fine."

[danielshadow]

"No you're not," Daniel says. "Because you're new and nobody that's new is fine. Not right away. Because it's like coming to a new school or something where you don't know anybody and you don't know who's going to be your friend and who wants to beat you up after school, you know?"

He shrugs. "I was super scared when I got here," he admits, lowering his voice a little as though it were secret. "But I learned, and I met people, and even if I really wanna go home, I know that I can't and I have to look for stuff that's good. Right?"

[true_n_the_dark]

Jack is quiet for a while.

And then he says, into his hands, "It's fine. I think I can't go home anyway."

Because really, there is absolutely nothing left there for him.

[danielshadow]

"Then you can stay here and make new friends. I'll be your friend." Daniel is totally innocent of the horrors in Jack's past and mind; to him, Jack is a new young man, clearly lonely.

Humans are so strange.

"Okay? I'm a really good friend. You can ask anyone."

[true_n_the_dark]

"I'm sure you are, kid," Jack replies. He sighs, though.

"But I won't be able to return the favor."

This is a bit too much - he might stand, then, and try to leave.

[danielshadow]

"That's okay." Daniel writes down his name on the picture and turns to hand it to Jack before he goes.

"Here. You don't have to be my friend, but I'll still be yours. Because that's how friends work."

[true_n_the_dark]

And this is how Jack Benjamin, fallen Prince of Gilboa, traitor, conspirator and felon, ended up standing in the lobby of the Mansion with a little boy's painting in his hands.

He's utterly bemused.