duke_of_illusions

"We'll ask him when he wakes. Gently."

He shakes his head.

"You should do it. Maybe. He doesn't know you. I don't know. He might trust me more because Gilbert told him he could and I helped him at first. He clung to my sleeve when I picked him up and put him on the sink."

Break leans back in his chair and removes his glasses in favor of putting his face in his hands for a moment. This has been hard on him and he's not bothering to hide it.

Barma notices.

"Have you slept?"

"Yes, but not much. It's -- I lost me own eye to very similar injuries, and the way Gilbert's reacting --"

"Take a break from them tonight."

He suggests, quietly.

"Tell me about- something else. Gilbertine. Children's books."

"That's why I was --"

He gestures vaguely at his sewing mess.

"Gilbertine. She got her Chain back recently and had the usual high from it. I caught her before she could get into trouble and got her to teach me how to make chicken parmesan and she was bright and happy and laughing and I wish -- I could take her back to my world where women wear pants as they please, and give her a do-over."

So she could be like that all the time.

"Pants, specifically?"

He arches an eyebrow.

"It seems like a strange thing to fixate on."

"From what I understand of her and a female Break I've met, dressing as a man in this world means you give up being what society sees as a "woman" entirely. That's why they're so different, as counterparts go; they had that additional fight, growing up."

He shrugs, and adds, "Near as I can figger, anyway."

"No. I just meant that of all the benefits of female emancipation and the feminist revolution, gender neutral clothing is comparatively insignificant. It's true that Gilbertine doesn't particularly conform to standards of femininity, but actually wearing pants compared to voting, equal pay legislation, universalized health and government subsidized childcare? Not to mention sexual assault legislature."

Sipping his tea, delicately.

Break blinks at him for a moment, then chortles.

"The clothes are a symbol, though. A lot of the fighting for the rest of it has begun wiv a denial of looking the way a woman is supposed to look. Even at home there's still all sorts of fuss going on about what a woman should and shouldn't wear, and the rest of it is all stuff we're really still working on. It's not perfect yet.

"All the same, at her age, she'd have been brought up in the midst of all this women's rights business. She wouldn't be so on her own, and unsupported."

"I suppose so. Gender expressions seem lees rigid in your time."

He smiles.

"At least the very ideas are being challenged. I have grown quite fond of searching for feminist writers in the library here. Simone De Beauvoir is particularly engaging."

"I've not read up much on it. I've just -- been surrounded by it."

Break gestures vaguely.

"I lived wiv the Rainsworths, too. You know what they're like. You can imagine how extra-feisty they are at home."

That gets a genuine smile out of him. Like all Breaks, he loves him some Rainsworth women.

"I'll recommend a few titles. Particularly the texts centered on parenting."

He nods.

"They have been immensely helpful with the children. Class oppression and sexism have many parallels."

"That'd be good, thank you. I could use some new books; I'm about to run out of Holy Knight."

He sips his tea. It's started to cool a bit, but he's used to cold tea.

"Their attitudes really bother you."

He guesses, quietly.

"You should really meet my Liam. He makes the ones I've met here look like they're constantly half asleep."

And that's just the beginning.

"No, I meant, the boys. Their 'master' this 'master' that business."

"That's what I meant, too. The Liams here all have it just as bad, from where I'm standing. The little one -- I don't want him or the ovver boys to grow up finking they don't -- belong to themselves."

"And we will have to begin working on that all over again with Vincent."

He sighs.

Break's eye narrows.

"No. No, we won't. When I said I'd help he started parroting a 'thank you for your kindness' speech at me, and when I told him Canterbury was a doctor he said they didn't have the money for one.

"Barma, I fink this one's fresh off the street. He won't even know who Jack is."

"Lord help us."

Barma sighs.

"And- this is important- we can't let his older counterpart feel forgotten."

"And we've only got one tiny Gilbert between them."

Face in hands again.

"He's already mad enough 'cause I won't let him have any stupid scissors."

"We'll just have to plan a few events with him in particular in mind. Continue the morning cooking whenever possible, read to him diligently."

He nods.

"Jack will help. I nominate that he not meet the new Vincent- not yet, at least. Let him keep his complete attention on the older version."

"Gilbertine seems inclined to cling to him for the moment and she said he mistook her for his mum, so the younger one certainly won't lack for attention. I figger he'll be spending a lot of time wiv me, too, as I'm familiar wiv the injury."

The ferret in the button bucket finally awakens, disturbed by the voices. She leans her head out to sniff at the tea, and Break idly moves to scratch behind her ears.

"I don't know if he noticed me eye's red or not."

"-you have some sort of rodent in your room."

More importantly.

"This," Break says, with immense dignity, "is the Lady Buttercup von Fuzzbutt."

Gently, he picks her up out of the bucket. Less rodent, more weasel. She sniffs at the tray, but when there isn't any food to be found, she snubs it in favor of running up Break's arm to settle on his shoulder.

"She belongs to Hatter, but visits me often."

"That's unsanitary."

It must be. He's from a time where rats are... something different. A harbinger of plague and sorrow.

"Oh, but she's not. She's very well-trained, never makes a mess where she shouldn't. The worst problem she could have is fleas, same as any dog or cat, and we check her daily."

He's petting her more actively now, and she's snuffling around at his hair, confused because it's in a ponytail today.

"It's best to wash hands before eating if you've been handling her, but it's best to wash hands before eating anyhow."

"Dogs and cats aren't sanitary either."

He points out. Barma is from rather a different time, and he's eyeing her with distaste.

"Neiver are small children or frogs, if you want to be upfront about it," says Break dryly. "In all cases, it's only a matter of keeping fings clean. It's fings like poor handling and parasites that cause disease, not the animals themselves."

"You'll notice I have neither small children nor frogs in my hair at this point in time?"

He points out, still leaning back.

"You've never just -- sat wiv a purring cat on your lap on a cold night, have you? Or seen the little Elliot around here wiv his dog."

Break is still petting the ferret, quite content. After a few more moments, she hops down to curl up in the crook of his elbow, feeling dozy.

"The value an animal can add to your life is worf it. It's not just responsibility, like Liam wiv his frog. You're interacting wiv anovver living creature, and that always means somefing."

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