( Introduction--HIGHLY RECCOMENDED READING IF YOU PLAN TO PROCEED )

( our cast of characters and the major arcs )

Dawn. It isn't exactly a picturesque time of day, dim and dusky and cold in the morning dew. A small figure waits on the corner with a threadbare cap clutched in two hands, upside down, imploring.

"Please sir, spare a penny?"

The men stumbling late out of the bar rarely turn or stop, but the child knows better than to call any louder--better to go ( Read more... )

Victoria closed the door to the powder room and, after a moment's hesitation, stuffed a chair up against it.

The face in the mirror was pale under the layers of fine makeup, but the kohl did not hide the red rim around the eyes. She pinched her arm, hard. "Get a hold of yourself," she told her reflection. So she didn't know which fork went with ( Read more... )

When his mother dies, Kevin grieves. He misses her smile, her careful hands as she cleaned a scraped knee, her passion for her calling in life. "You've been born to privilege, Kevin," she'd tell him sometimes.

"You have a home and and education and enough to eat and a family that loves you. You've been given so many gifts. That is why we travel, to ( Read more... )

The parents were actors. Decent, competent if not inspired, but as committed to their work as to the traveling lifestyle. In a way, their only son hardly stood a chance. He grew into a kind of an odd kid, someone who never really knew anyone his own age, was usually brushed off by adults, but occasionally allowed to help behind the scenes. ( Read more... )

The spring festival is always something of a disaster, which is why when he thinks back on it, Nate will never be able to pinpoint what, exactly, changed that one year, when everything had felt so hopeless that the only thing to do had seemed to be to drink himself stupid in the company of a couple of peripheral acquaintences, young actors from ( Read more... )

Kevin is mostly used to living in small spaces, growing up, though he doesn't like it. His childhood memories can be summed up by a blur of poky little caravans stuffed full of the Jonas boys, their parents, and all their worldly belongings, and the customary tents or huts of undeveloped areas they visited, or tiny apartments in the cities. The ( Read more... )

A lot of things happened to Kevin without him intending. He didn't set out to be a streetwalker; he'd been clearing glasses at some hole of an alehouse for pennies and as many scraps as he could steal, and sometime a customer would flash some coin and make a suggestion that made Kevin's cheeks flush. But as the weeks wore on, and Nick got skinner ( Read more... )

Sometimes she hears the engineers talking, about taking apart watches when they were five, or going to an airshow and being enthralled, some genesis moment that set them on their path to becoming engineers at the most prestigious works in the country.

Greta didn't even really know what an engineer did until she was 19. She came here because it ( Read more... )