scorched | Xerxes Break

[break_onthru]

Out of Character Information

player name: Het!
player livejournal: heatherizcool
playing here: Sebastian Michaelis, Kuroshitsuji
where did you find us? MI
are you 16 years of age or older?: Yep.

In Character Information

character name: Xerxes Break
Fandom: Pandora Hearts
Timeline: Post-chapter 56. Break has just killed a Baskerville with Gil's help, but is seriously wounded in the abdomen.
character's age: YOU’D THINK THIS WOULD BE AN EASY QUESTION. According to the official character guide, he fell into the Abyss when he was 24. He spent 30 years in Abyss, which felt like a very long and crazy afternoon at the longest, and then another 15 serving the Rainsworth house and as a member of Pandora until the current point in canon. SO IF WE DO MATH, he should be 69, have lived out 39, and LOOKS 24 years old. I THINK?

powers, skills, pets and equipment:

Powers (Canon): Break is a legal contracter with a Chain. Chains are beings from Abyss; former humans who were transformed into mindless weapons that wield tremendous power. His Chain is called Mad Hatter, which is a fearsome thing that looks like this. So like a... giant evil top hat and cape with one huge scary eye. Surrounded by blackness. Once summoned, Mad Hatter is the only Chain with the ability to destroy other Chains, making it one of the most powerful in existence. It also gives him the ability to sense other Chains in a specific area. (Note: Since Chains are very specific beings, this ability does not extend to any other supernatural creatures outside of Break's own canon.)

Unfortunately, using Mad Hatter has a serious downside for Break. It puts an unbearable strain on his body due to the fact that he has already contracted, illegally, with another Chain before Mad Hatter. (I'll go more into that in the history section.) As a result, it is slowly killing him every time he uses it. Typically Break receives a surge of power from Mad Hatter, but belatedly he will cough up blood and then lose consciousness.

The most recent time he used Mad Hatter, he was unconscious for three days, and when he woke up he was almost completely blind. He has accepted the condition is irreversible and even believes the little vision he still has will fade with time.

Powers (Non-Canon): See here.

Skills: Break is supremely adept at sword-fighting. It's likely been a lifelong skill, since he apprenticed to be a knight for a noble family from childhood onward. Also, his Chain allows him to focus added power into his fighting. As a result he can move faster than a regular human, and the concentrated Chain power in his blade can reduce a fellow Contractor to dust. This technique does not overuse Mad Hatter's power, and so thankfully does not result in the lovely coughing and fainting spell described above.

Break also had the uncanny ability to just appear and disappear from the most unlikely of spaces (i.e. from under tables or in a cabinet). It's never quite stated if he can do this as a result of Mad Hatter, or Sharon's Chain, which allows teleportation if "implanted" in a person's shadow, or it's just some kind of magic-tricky illusion he does to throw people off-guard. It should also be noted he hasn't done it since he's gone blind, which to me suggests one of the latter options, and without his sight he can't pull it off effectively.

It's mentioned in the character guide that Break is not good with guns. ... I assume this was true even before he lost his sight, but it's certainly true now!

Pets: None.

Equipment: His standard array of clothing, his sword cane, and the pendant that allows him to keep his contract with Mad Hatter. Plus his doll, Emily, featured here on his shoulder.

canon history: First, a brief overview of the Pandora Hearts universe. Pandora Hearts takes place in an alternate world, in a European-ish country with technology and fashion reminiscent of the early 1800s. Most of the town names are French, the characters' names English, and everyone speaks Japanese.

Yeah. I don't get it either.

To make things more confusing, it's never mentioned what year it is, nor if we're running parallel to actual world history or in an entirely new timeline. In fact, there's only one historical event from which we can estimate the timeline of everything that happens after: The Tragedy of Sablier.

Sablier was once the capital of the (completely unnamed) country, but 100 years before the main action of the series, a horrific and mysterious phenomenon happened. This caused the entire city proper to get dragged underground and disappear into a mysterious alternate dimension known only as Abyss. This event was brought about by a man named Glen Baskerville, and his cronies are known as the Baskervilles. They are the main antagonists of the series and will come into play later. Meantime... after the Tragedy of Sablier, Abyss becomes an urban myth, described as a terrible prison, and the aforementioned Chains begin escaping Abyss and wreaking havoc on the goodly citizens of the country.

So. About twenty years A.S. (After Sablier), a white-haired, red-eyed boy named Kevin Regnard was born. The Regnards came from a long line of knights serving noble families, and Kevin was no exception. From a young age, he served the Sinclairs, aristocrats caught in increasingly hostile political times. After the Tragedy of Sablier, many nobles scrambled to secure new positions of power for themselves. When Kevin was in his early twenties, on a night when he happened to be away from the house (it's never stated why he wasn't there), someone from a rival family stole into the Sinclair manor and murdered everyone except the youngest daughter.

Kevin was absolutely devastated by grief and guilt. He became obsessed with bringing back the family he had pledged undying loyalty to and failed to protect. He even abandoned the youngest daughter to complete this quest, ignoring her pleas not to leave her alone. Good going, Kev

Luckily - or, actually, rather unluckily - for Kevin, the Chains that escape Abyss can contract with humans. There are two methods to obtaining a Chain contract. The first is a very complicated process that only the Four Main Houses and Pandora organization (more on them soon) know how to do, plus the receiver of the contract must be prepared in mind and body to "accept" the Chain, or it'll never take. The second, far more common, alas, is what is known as illegal contracting. The person accepts a deal with the Chain, becomes inscribed with a clockwork seal on his chest, and has a finite number of time to aid the Chain in seeking its goal before he is dragged away to Abyss. The Chain wants to eat. The human is infused with the Chain's power to help him achieve this. As the legend goes, if a person provides the Chain with enough souls before time runs out, he is given a chance to change the past.

This is what Kevin banked on when he became an illegal contractor himself.

Thus began a dark time, for the country as well as Kevin. Ever an efficient knight, and aided by the supernatural Chain's power, Kevin killed one hundred and sixteen (count 'em, 116) people in the name of his goal. He became known as the Red-Eyed Ghost. People lived in fear of seeing him because they knew they'd never live to tell the tale. Arthur Barma, one of the Four Dukes, tried and failed to capture him.

In the end, even the sheer volume of bodies sacrificed could not save Kevin Regnard. He was dragged into Abyss, just like every illegal contractor before him.

Which was when things got really fucked up.

Abyss was not a giant prison, as in the fable. It is, in Kevin's own words, "a broken toy box." Upon falling into Abyss, Kevin was greeted by that strange sight, and very strange inhabitants: a young girl with white hair, and a blindfolded boy who seemed to be part cat. The girl was called Alice, although Kevin soon learned she was also the Intention of the Abyss, the core being that created and controls the Abyss. The boy was named Cheshire.

Kevin learned the dimension he had been dragged into was, in a word, madness. Everything was absurd and nothing made sense... and that he, as a result of his actions, was no better. The Intention of Abyss told him that he too would be made into a Chain... as soon as she extracted his eyes.

...And proceeded to pluck one right out of his skull.

Blood, horror and screaming ensued. Alice gave his eye to Cheshire, who had none of his own. She was about to take the other when they were interrupted by an earthquake... which Alice explained was, in actuality, Sablier sinking into the depths of Abyss. (Time really goes wonky in Abyss, since in Kevin's time, the Tragedy of Sablier had already happened about 50 years prior.) Then, two young boys entered, looking a bit worse for wear. One recognized the Intention and said, "How funny, Alice's hair is white."

Amid the confusion, Kevin pleaded to the Intention of the Abyss: that she could take his limbs or his eyes or his life, just as long as she granted him his desire to change the past and save the Sinclairs. She agreed, on the condition that he would grant her one wish. He agreed... although to date in the series it has not been revealed what that wish is. >_>

Kevin was then cast out of Abyss and awoke in the Garden of the Rainsworth household. He was found and taken in by the family, although no one recognized him as the Red-Eyed Ghost. Soon he found this was because due to the nature of Abyss, which can bend time, he had been there for thirty years. Immediately he asked about the Sinclair family. Cheryl Rainsworth, the matriarch, told him they were dead. He had changed the past, and the assassination had never happened. However, four years later, another assassination attempted killed the oldest daughter, which drove the youngest, out of grief, to become an illegal contractor. She sacrificed the last of her family and succumbed to the Abyss herself.

It took Kevin a long time to recover from this news. He had meddled with the fabric of time but it resulted in nothing but more heartache and ruin. He was angry, depressed and violent, and it took the kindness of Cheryl's daughter, Shelly, and young granddaughter, Sharon (I know, their names all sound the same, s-sob), to pull him out of it. In time he became, in his words, like a father to Sharon, although she said she viewed him like an older brother. He renamed himself Xerxes Break so that no one would connect him to the infamous Kevin Regnard of ages past.

One day, the still recovering and newly renamed Break ran into a small boy who looked identical to one of the two who had entered the Abyss with Sablier. The boy revealed his name was Vincent and he'd been adopted by the Nightray family, the black sheep of the Four Dukedoms. He was also looking for his missing brother, Gilbert. Break was struck by the boy, who at first did not seem to remember that they met in the Abyss with Alice and Cheshire. Then, Vincent passive aggressively let Break know that he did remember. The shock of it prompted Break to approach Shelly. He implored he be allowed to join the Pandora organization along with the other Rainsworths. Only then could he be able to discover the truth about the Tragedy of Sablier, Vincent's involvement, and even be able to grant the Intention of Abyss's wish. He needs this, he said, to give himself a reason to keep living.

How can you deny that request?

And so, Break went to work for the Rainsworth family as a knight, in order to repay them for their kindness, as well as an agent for Pandora.

Then five years pass.

Right, then. Before we get to what actually happens IN the series itself (sob), a bit about Pandora and the Four Dukedoms. Ever since the Tragedy of Sablier, the four houses who defeated Glen Baskerville, the man responsible, have been ruling the country. These are the houses of Rainsworth, Nightray, Vessalius and Barma. All four houses have obtained Doors to the Abyss, which are home to four different Chains. Each Chain is passed down through these families as the generations go. The Pandora organization was instituted by the Four Dukedoms to study, research, and attempt to control the Abyss, and police any incidents directly related to them. Their main goal is to obtain the Intention of the Abyss, that is, the white-haired girl named Alice that Break met when he was dragged there. They would like to control her power, since she makes everything about the Abyss possible. Of course, no one knows that Break is Kevin Regnard, so they don't know he's privy to this vital information.

Break uses this to his advantage. Much of his investigation technique includes keeping people in the dark and using them as bait while he watches the results. Add this to his clownish behavior and creepy moments and he almost seems like a villain in the early chapters. But it's not so much that as he's trying to further his own agenda without involving anyone in his personal baggage, which, uh, is PLENTIFUL. He even manages to obtain a legal contract with the Chain Mad Hatter, on top of his previous illegal contract, to help him along. As previously described, holding the legal contract on top of the expired illegal one is deadly for him, but he doesn't care. If it helps him achieve his goal, rotting away under the physical demand of Mad Hatter doesn't bother him. (Or so he claims.)

The five years pass uneventfully, for the most part. Sharon grows into a lovely maiden of thirteen and Break is assigned as her bodyguard. Then, Oz Vessalius, the heir to the Vessalius house, turns 15 and has a coming of age ceremony. Unfortunately, things go pretty wrong, because some evil people in red robes (later revealed to be the Baskervilles) show up, ruin the fun, and use their own Chains to cast the boy into the Abyss. This creates discord and horror.

No one takes the incident harder than Oz's dedicated young servant, Gilbert. Yes, Gilbert, remember that name? So does Break. He investigates and finds out that Gilbert awoke in the Vessalius's yard five years prior without any memory of anything except his first name. Upon meeting Gil, Break finds the same boy he met in the Abyss with Vincent, except Gil really doesn't remember anything, unlike Vincent. Break decides to use this to his advantage. He makes a deal with young Gilbert: he explains the Nightrays have adopted Vincent and Vincent's looking for his brother. If Gil infiltrates the Nightray house, notorious for being suspicious jerks, Gil can obtain the power of the Nightray Chain and use it to rescue Oz from the Abyss. Break will even assist him with it. In return, Break would like Gil to spy on the Nightrays, since he suspects their involvement with the Sablier tragedy. Gil accepts, and allows himself to be adopted by the Nightrays.

Ten years pass.

Gilbert grows into a strapping young lad of 24, obtains the power of the Chain called Raven, and reports back to Break regularly. They have an odd sort of alliance. Gil thinks Break is kind of a crazy jerk, and Break, well... he teases Gil mercilessly (he is an easy target), but Break shows moments of tenderness toward Gil. He warns Gil not to be too blindly loyal to Oz, because sacrificing everything to save someone has a tendency to end in heartbreak for everyone involved. Gil doesn't understand, not knowing about Break's past, but tries to keep it in mind.

Both Break and Sharon don't age during this timeskip because obtaining Chains sometimes causes a body to stop aging. Therefore, Break will forever look 24 and Sharon will look 13, although she is, in actuality, 23. She and Break have grown closer as well. Now they are dedicated partners in uncovering the truth about Sablier. Break, however, has become super loyal to Sharon in his own right and goes out of his way to protect her from harm.

They are all set to rescue Oz from Abyss, mainly because they believe he is the "key" to getting to the Intention of Abyss, when Oz... magically appears by himself. But he's not alone. He brings along a Chain called the Blood-stained Black Rabbit (B-Rabbit for short), which can also take the form of a girl... named Alice. This Alice is identical to the Intention of Abyss, except her hair is black. She has no memories of her time as a human, but illegally contracted with Oz to get them both out of Abyss so that she could find out who she really is.

All of this is really interesting to Break, considering his knowledge about the Intention of Abyss. But he doesn't say anything. Instead, he "offers" them a job as his subordinates at Pandora. If they work for him, they can also search for Alice's memories, since both are linked to Abyss. Thus the dream team forms.

This begins a series of events that bring Alice closer to her past, Gil to his, and Oz closer to his... destiny? Strangely enough, all three seem oddly linked to the Tragedy of Sablier. Oz has the hero of that age, Jack Vessalius, sealed inside his soul somehow. Gil was Jack's servant originally, it seems, and Alice was a girl locked up by Glen Baskerville. Break finds all of this fascinating as he tries to put the pieces together.

The next important segment comes for Break when he uses Alice as bait to lure Cheshire into a trap. Yeah, the cat-boy with Break's eye, remember him? Well, turns out he's also a Chain, and somehow, he ended up in his own dimension, created by Alice's memories. He now tries to guard them from anyone trying to obtain them. He also wants to kill Alice, because she is the other side to the Intention of Abyss. Break more or less tags along with Alice to confront Cheshire, unleashes Mad Hatter, and destroys him in a fit of badassery. The piece of Alice's memory is encased in Cheshire's red ribbon, which Break winds around his wrist before leaving.

Unfortunately, there's still Vincent Nightray. He's grown up now too, and even more twisted than he was when he was a kid. He's also a member of Pandora and heard about Break's mission to obtain Alice's memories from Cheshire. Fearing Break would be able to expose Vincent's own involvement with the Tragedy of Sablier -- since everyone thinks Vincent is an amnesiac like Gil -- Vincent has Sharon kidnapped when Break is away and poisons her. He leaves a message to Break by... ransacking his room and leaving black flower petals all over it. He then waits in the Nightray garden where only black roses bloom. Pretty poetic, right?

Break doesn't want to make a fuss because if it gets out a Nightray kidnapped Sharon, it could spell unrest for the four houses and shit's already pretty fucked up as it is. So he just changes into his Pandora uniform because he means business and stalks on down to confront Vincent himself. Vincent makes a big stink about keeping the past as the past and he'll only hand over the antidote to save Sharon if Break destroys the fragment of Alice's memory. This is the first blatant show of how much Break loves Sharon, because without hesitating -- and even against her wishes -- he uses Mad Hatter to turn Cheshire's ribbon into dust. Sharon gives him hell for it later when she's cured: slapping him, beating him with pillows, throwing water from a vase over his head. He tells her he only did it because he valued his own life -- if something happened to Sharon, her mother would surely kill Break -- but the way he embraces and comforts her when she breaks down into tears suggests the truth of his feelings toward her. They are so in love omg

Then comes a plot arc that involves Oz, his long lost sister, Ada, the Nightray's heir, Elliot, a boarding school, and the return of the Baskervilles... again. Except Break's not in it at all, so I'm skipping it.

Then comes the dream team's audience with Rufus Barma, the elusive duke of the fourth main house. He's kind of a bastard. He also specializes in information gathering, which is good because the Pandora Hearts world has the SHITTIEST record-keeping system I have ever seen.... but it's also bad for Break because Rufus figures out he's Kevin Regnard and exposes him to the group. I already explained all that backstory, so I'm skipping that too. Rufus is also a bit ticked because his grandfather was the one who failed to capture Kevin Regard back in the day. Rufus interrogates Break about his encounter with the Intention, Break shares all he knows, and is fully ready to except abandonment from everyone because, uh, he was just exposed as a horrific serial killer. But the rest realize they actually kinda like Break since he subtly takes care of them all. Also he's not as big of a bastard as Rufus Barma, so they're going to keep him around. Break angsts a bit on the way out, and Oz observes something about him which I consider to be the crux of Break's character: "You are far weaker than you pretend to be, but you are much stronger than you think you are." TRUFAX, MY FRIENDS. TRUFAX.

Then Oz, Gil and Alice return to Ground Zero to search for Alice's memories: the ruins of Sablier. Which is kind of a terrible thing to do, because going in the ruins where the power of Abyss is particularly strong creates all kinds of hallucinations of lost memories and crap. Which happens to them. So Break runs after them mostly because he has a feeling that's where the Baskervilles will target Oz again and he has something so very important to ask them... And he might be showing up to save the dream team's hides if he has to.

So Break finds two of the Baskervilles, properly hands their asses to them, and then has a nice little chat with one named Lotti. He... asks her to be his friend. >_> Since the Baskervilles and Pandora have the same goal, Break thinks it would be a great idea to team up. ... Lotti thinks he is a crazy bastard because he kind of is, and doesn't give him an answer.

This is all well and good. However, because it turns out Break DOES have to save someone's hide in the ruins: Gil's. See, while the dream team was exploring the ruins, Oz's giant bastard of a father, Zai Vessalius, showed up. Zai has a long history of thinking his son is an abomination. Gil was the sole witness at the coming of age ceremony to see a Baskerville shove Oz into the Abyss. It was, in fact, Oz's own father. So now upon seeing Zai, Gil goes on a rampage and tries to kill him. Unfortunately, Zai has a strong Chain of his own and is set to obliterate Gil... that is, until Break steps in. He sics Mad Hatter on Zai's Chain, banishing it. Then Break literally drags Gil away and tries to knock some sense into his skull. You see, he happened to notice Gil's behavior was a little off, even for Gil. He suspects -- correctly -- that Gil's mind has been tampered with. (By who, why and how are still not exactly known.) Break is able to talk Gil out of the mind control. Unfortunately, soon thereafter Break collapses from using Mad Hatter's powers.

He is unconscious for three days, and when he wakes up he can no longer see.

This is a major turning point for Break's character. Finally, although he's been well aware that using Mad Hatter would put an unbearable strain on him, he's suffered an irreversible consequence for his actions. Although not fully blind -- yet, although he thinks the time is coming -- his goal now is not only getting to the Intention of Abyss, but keeping the truth about his sight secret. This is no small task, especially considering the possible consequences: if Pandora were to find out, he'd be taken off the mission, but it would raise the inevitable question of how this happened in the first place. And there's no way to properly explain that without revealing his true identity.

Suddenly, the stakes become unbearably high for Break. Luckily, he has the help of Oz, who figured out there was an issue with his sight right away, and Liam, a minorish character who's been steadily growing more prevalent in the series. Liam has been a good friend of Break's for quite some time, and when he figures out Break has gone blind, he agrees to take over all Break's paperwork so the Pandora officials won't find out about him. Break to says to give him "three more days" and he'll have assimilated entirely, and that "being blind is nothing." ... Then he collapses onto his bed in a woe-be-gone state thinking of how he'll never see Sharon's face again.

Right, Break. Keep telling yourself that.

True to his word, however, the casual observer never guesses that Break has near complete vision loss. He even spars with Oz and beats him in no time flat, prompting Oz to wonder if Break's really blind after all. But there are definite signs: for instance, he'll never look anyone in the eye and is less physically interactive with people and objects. But he staunchly keeps the secret from everyone except Cheryl Rainsworth, who either figured it out or he confessed, but she advises Break to tell Sharon. Break, however, is scared of how Sharon will react and doesn't want to make her sad, so he keeps it to himself.

Then comes the current plot arc with Isla Yura. The name should strike fear into your heart, because Michael Jackson at his very worst cannot hold a candle to Isla Yura in terms of horrifyingness. I mean, just look at him. NIGHTMARES.

Anyay. This fucker runs a religious cult, unsurprisingly. The dream team decide they need to investigate him because he may have possible ties to their overall goal, which now includes keeping the soul of Glen Baskerville from being reassembled... it's a long story involving broken seals, a Chain known as the "Headhunter" that is systematically destroying the Nightray family, and a bunch of other stuff that is a REALLY LONG STORY and not so relevant to Break. Except that Duke Barma, remember him? Basically blackmails Break into looking into Isla Yura for Barma's own gain. This forces Break to have his own agenda instead of coinciding with the dream team's.

Luckily -- or unluckily, depending on how you look at it -- Isla Yura has an unhealthy obsession with Jack Vessalius and, by extension, Oz. Being delighted that Oz has returned from Abyss, Isla Yura decides to throw the boy a second coming of age party in order to properly celebrate. The dream team take this as the perfect opportunity to do some investigating... in fancy suits and dresses, of course.

The night of this ceremony contains three major revelations for Break, all in rapid succession. First, he FINALLY acknowledges his feelings for Sharon. This comes after much coaxing from Liam about telling her about his sight, even though Break said he can't stand to see children cry; he he never knows how to handle it. Liam just punches Break in the head and calls in an idiot. Later, when Break's with Sharon, she asks him to dance, and he panics because he can't see the steps to be able to follow them. He finally blurts out the truth, and Sharon only takes his hand and tells him she'll have to teach hims step by step. Break realizes what Liam was trying to tell him... that Sharon's no longer a child and in fact grew into a lovely adult. SO IN LOVE /S-SOB

Directly after this idyllic moment, however, shit starts to get REAL. The Baskervilles show up and so do a bunch of brainwashed children from an orphanage, and it's revealed they ALL have illegal contracts with the Headhunter. Not only that, but Isla Yura's goal this whole time was to RECREATE the Tragedy of Sablier for no good reason I can discern. Break runs off on his own to confront the Baskervilles, which is kind of a terrible idea, given his condition. Despite offering to join forces with the Baskervilles back at Sablier, there's one glaring fact standing in the way now: they have murdered Liam. Break abandons all his former plans and vows to cut every one of them down in order to avenge his friend. (That would be revelation #2.)

... Unfortunately that's easier said than done. They have a massively epic sword fight in the woods, but although Break is still badass enough to fight, he'd not good enough to win against three Baskervilles. One gets a good blow in at his side and Break prepares to die. But first he tries to summon Mad Hatter so he can take all of them out with him...

Which is when Gil appears and kicks Break's sorry ass to the ground. Break is utterly stunned; Gil figured out Break's handicap and came to his aid. Gil gives him an amazing verbal smackdown, telling him that he fought and gave up without ever asking for help, and that he has people who he can rely on in all kinds of situations if he can just swallow his pride and let them. (Revelation #3!) This moves Break quite a bit, and with renewed resolve, he and Gil plan a way to defeat the enemy.

In the end, they are able to work together to kill one Baskerville and cause the others to retreat. And even better news: Liam is still alive! A very weakened Break comments on how grateful he is that Liam lived and hopefully this is a turning point for Break so that he won't be so much of a self-destructive idiot. Gil stays by Break's side to make sure he will get proper medical attention, and waits for Sharon to arrive.

Aaaaaand here we are. /collapses

personality:

To people who don't know him well, Break is an enigma. ... An unhinged and often aggravating enigma. Even his close friends have had to learn to decipher his behavior in order to understand his true feelings and goals. And even then, sometimes they're still kept in the dark.

Break, in essence, has two "personalities." (I use the term loosely because this is a deliberate choice on Break's part rather than split personalities as a result of a disorder.) The "first" is the persona of Xerxes Break. This is an act he puts on for a number of reasons: One, to keep others at a distance because he fears relying on anyone after that little Sinclair family incident... and also because he doesn't feel himself worthy of being loved. Two, as a technique to test others around him based on their reaction to his behavior. There's a lot to be learned from someone if you catch them off-guard by acting insane or creepy. Many times he has been able to work this to his advantage, but in the case of those who have caught on to his game (such as Vincent), it doesn't always produce the effect he's hoping for.

This persona is described rather accurately by Alice as "the clowny bastard." Break will act goofy and unbalanced, exaggerating his speech and body language to match. He will often draw out certain words and give them a sing-song quality, or chirp everything in an inappropriately cheerful tone. He will swagger or skip, lay on tables and sofas, kick his feet in the air, balance objects on his head, steal food and other sorts of irritating behavior. He even includes Emily in the act sometimes, speaking for her in a falsetto. Emily usually has something caustic to say, and although Break admonishes her it's likely that he shares her sentiment. (Or at least would like someone to believe that he does.)

Even Break's clothing reflects this act. His main outfit is slovenly put-together, with a long white coat that he wears off his shoulders, so that the sleeves over his hands. He wears breeches that aren't properly fastened (so that they just look like the much more modern cargo pants) and boots with only the lowest buckle fastened. The overall effect is quite clownish.

Break's "second" personality is his true personality, which inevitably filters through his clown routine. This is the real person underneath the act, the remnants of Kevin Regnard. The truth is that Break cares about people far more than he would like to admit. His moments of compassion shine through often. Break is a man wracked with guilt and self-loathing, and in reality every action he makes is a penance for his past misdeeds. He is willing to kill himself with Mad Hatter if it uncovers the truth about the Tragedy of Sablier and keeps Sharon safe. (While he has stated fulfilling the wish of the Intention of the Abyss has been his reason to keep living, in the face of death in recent chaters he thinks that he doesn't really care if she got her wish or not... indicating he's acting more out of love and loyalty to his friends than the mission the Intention sent him on.)

When Break drops the act, his speech will lose the jocular quality and be straightforward and serious, or even wistful and sad. He's intelligent and shrewd, despite what he seems from acting like a clown. He reads people and situations well and his theories are often correct. (This is probably why the Pandora organization has put up with his weirdness and unconventional methods... he gets the job done.) As sloppy as his main outfit is, if Break is wearing his Pandora uniform or other formal attire, he looks impeccable.

Additionally, Break has changed quite a bit since he lost his sight, although it was only a few weeks prior in canon time. He claims being blind is "nothing" and he doesn't need his sight to function properly, but it's put a strain on him both physically and mentally. He states that "this punishment is indeed redemption," suggesting that he feels he deserved to be given this affliction as a result of his prior sins.

Also, his clown routine has shifted out of necessity. His main outfit is the same, but he is no longer quite so invasive with his tactics. He spends a lot of time on the outskirts of a room in most scenes, near large objects he can use for a point of reference. His other outfits remain as pristine as ever, and in the latest arc he even pins his hair back for the coming of age ceremony... suggesting that he is trying very hard to be self-sufficient.

Even Emily, while still present, has been silent for quite some time.

why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting?

Break is unfazed by most horror elements the game could throw at him. Unless someone he cared about was threatened by them, and then he'd run headlong into danger. >_> He's also from a world not terribly unlike Anatole's, with old world elements but a definite presence of the supernatural. The technology will stump him for a bit, but he's getting good at assimilation. On many levels.

Writing Samples

Network Post Sample:

Sample 1: Friendly sparring with a purple-skinned gentleman.

Sample 2: Break runs into Beyond Birthday, who can see his real name. An interesting confrontation ensues.

Third Person Sample:

Awake.

Flat on his back, a dull ache in his side, and - yes, the world was still a series of vague blurs, like a watercolor that would never come into focus. The space beneath him felt like a mattress. Break tried to move, and the ache intensified into a searing pain across his abdomen. Ah, yes, a gift courtesy of the Baskervilles. At least he'd been able to take out one of them before he'd...

Before he'd what? He couldn't remember anything past the end of the fight.

"Gilbert?" he called out tentatively. Silence. "Liam-san?" It felt good to use his name, to consider him back among the living. But Liam didn't answer. Break paused, imagining the beating he was bound to get. "Lady Sharon?" But she didn't stomp in either.

He tried to reach out to feel the presence of their Chains. Or any Chains.

Nothing. He was completely alone.

Leave it to give to Gil to dump him somewhere and then go running back to Oz. But where? Surely he wasn't still at Isla Yura's mansion. The place had been set aflame. With effort, Break slid into a sitting position. He was weak, although not as badly off as he would be if he'd used Mad Hatter to its full extent. But maybe if he had, he could have been able to eliminate more than one Baskerville.

Coulda woulda shoulda.

The bedframe against his back was metal, not like the plush wooden four posters at the Rainsworth residence or Pandora Headquarters. Break tilted his head, straining to hear any sound, but it was all so eerily quiet.

He could sit here and wait like an invalid for someone to return, or he could take charge of the situation. Gil's admonishment was still fresh in his mind, about asking for help when it was warranted. Break had listened, and it had saved his life. But that didn't mean he had to become dependent on anyone. Just know his limits.

The dark mass beside the bed was, he guessed, a side table. Break reached out, grazed his fingers over it in search of anything that might give him a clue about his location.

CLATTER.

His breath caught -- he'd hit something solid and sent it to the floor. Stupid. Clumsy. If anyone had seen that...

He groaned softly in pain, leaning over the side of the bed. He swept his hand over the area where he'd heard it fall. His nails scraped the floor once, twice... nothing. He'd have to find it later.

Break struggled to his feet and held onto the frame at the foot of the bed for support. He was still in his formal clothes from the coming of age ceremony. The makeshift bandage Gil had given him felt damp to the touch. Not good. He'd have to do something about that. He wasn't quite ready to die yet, thank you very much.

He searched the room for more clues. He quickly learned an unsettling fact -- it was no room he was familiar with. Throughout the last few weeks, he'd been practicing: counting steps as he walked through rooms. That way, when his sight was completely gone, he would be able to navigate familiar places without being obvious. This place matched none of his mental maps. It didn't help that the whole room was washed in gray, creating a nearly opaque monochrome for him to deal with.

Wouldn't the others have come to check on him by now?

Unless things had not gone as hoped.

Break ran his hands over the surface of a bureau and hit something -- finally -- that he recognized. Felt skin, dead hair, the silk bow on her dress.

Emily? But he'd left her at the Rainsworth residence. If the Baskervilles had captured him, why would they have gone to the trouble of bringing him a simple doll?

Break drew her close to his chest. His side hurt. He limped back to the bed, sat on the edge of the mattress, and held the doll in his lap.

"What's happened, Emily? Where have they taken us?"

Emily was stubbornly quiet. That was the problem with dolls. Their words were just reflections of yours.

And so they remained in the dark together.

Anything else?

Some notes I've gathered from canon examples on just how impaired Break's vision is:

- He can see the shapes of large objects, but not faces. He won't be walking into walls or anything of that sort. At least not yet.
- He cannot see anything that is the size of a human head or smaller, although this depends a bit on his distance from it. (If it's more than a couple feet, he's screwed.)
- He has at least some trouble with color recognition. (Although this could also be because he was in a dimly lit hallway; he could tell that his opponents were wearing robes, but not what color.)
- His peripheral vision is limited. Granted he's lived the last fifteen years with one eye, so that was true already. However, both Gil and Liam are able to punch him on the side of his head without Break dodging. This is what clues Gil in to his blindness, so I think it's fair to say it's even worse than before.

Also, a note on language: As previously stated, although Break hails from a Europeanish country, even the official translation leaves in the Japanese honorifics and words like "shinigami" and "shota." I have no explanation for this but I've opted to keep these quirks in Break's speech. Anyone is free to notice this and think it is as weird as I do!