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CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Vincent Nightray
Canon: Pandora Hearts
Point taken from canon: The end of Chapter 33, after talking to Gilbert and before Echo comes back from the festival. Right after telling Gilbert he needs to kill Alice and anyone else standing between him and his young master~
Age: Physically 23, though there’s some complexity here. Vincent was dragged out of his own world into ‘the abyss’ at a young age, and then popped out of that world almost 100 years later. Since he didn’t age during that time in the abyss, however, we’ll go with 23.
Gender: Male (don’t let the dress fool you!)
Appearance:
Obviously, the most striking parts of Vincent’s appearance are his mismatched eyes, his long blond hair, and his interesting fashion sense. The eyes themselves are a rather major part of his character; his being cursed as a ‘child of misfortune’ because of them influences much of his life and behaviors.
His mannerisms can be quite dramatic, and he’s hardly one to go unnoticed in any room. His 5’10” stature, his aristocratic features, and his noble air make it rather hard to imagine him as the pauper he was as a child, considering his current social status.
Vincent nearly always smiling, although that smile can go from smooth and flirty to secretive and scheming to downright insane and scary in a matter of seconds.
(The PH cast has insisted I point out there’s nothing under that mandress.)
Also included an image of Vincent’s chain, Dormouse, since it’d be with him and might show up occasionally!
Background: http://pandorahearts.wikia.com/wiki/Vincent_Nightray
To say that Vincent’s life has had a rocky start is to put it quite mildly. The initial reaction to his rather unique form of heterochromia was a declaration that he was a ‘child of misfortune’, which led to his mother sending himself and his older brother off with a freakshow.
Life on the street is never easy, and less so when others are afraid of you, so Vincent found himself often bullied, attacked, and abused. But always, always, there was his older brother Gilbert, just one year his senior, standing over him with small fists clenched and a determination to keep his younger sibling safe no matter what.
That influence was going to stay with him the rest of his life. And though he knew that his older brother sometimes considered leaving him behind, the fact that Gilbert never did so created a devotion beyond everything else in the abandoned child’s heart.
Gilbert became the motivation for every crime Vincent would ever commit.
While they were still quite young, the two brothers were taken in my Jack Vessalius, the third son of a minor noble family. He made them his servants, and yet also treated them quite kindly, even going as far as to tell Vincent that he loved his red eye, and cut the boy’s hair so that it could be seen. He earned enough of Vincent’s respect that the boy insisted on calling him ‘Master’ just as Gilbert did, despite the fact that Jack had never asked such of him. His kind manner promised great things for the future of Gilbert and Vincent... but there were a few things that got in the way.
Just because Jack wasn’t superstitious didn’t mean that no one else around was, and the first meeting between the brothers and Alice (a girl who Jack spent much time with) did not go well. When she commented on Vincent’s eye, Gilbert immediately reacted with his usual protectiveness, and a feud was born.
Eventually, the feud went so far that Vincent carved out the eyes of Alice’s cat Cheshire and threw the corpse at her... an event which would have far-reaching consequences for others later. Vincent is also a prime suspect in Alice’s later murder, but the details of that event haven’t been revealed as of yet.
This setback in becoming a ‘normal child’ in his newfound home was nothing next to the one that would follow. Jack’s best friend Glen Baskerville made the mistake of choosing Gilbert to be the next container for his spirit - the body that he would inhabit once his current one needed to be replaced - and despite Jack’s protests against this, the series of events that would lead to the Tragedy of Sablier began to unfold.
Taking over Gilbert’s body was supposed to be a multi-step process, and the very first step was to be binding him with the ‘Chain’ Raven. The ceremony to do so was scheduled, and it looked as if Gilbert’s fate was sealed.
Vincent found out about the plan to make use of his brother from Alice, and went into a complete state of panic. As a child himself, there was only so much that he could do, and simply physically attacking Glen Baskerville wasn’t exactly an option. The boy fell apart emotionally over the danger his beloved brother was in, and didn’t snap out of it until...
He was offered a way to stop the ritual that would lead to his brother’s body being taken over. And despite the fact that the ‘way’ was opening a gate to the Abyss, Vincent would stop at nothing to save Gilbert. He learned from the sorceress Miranda Barma how to open the gate, and when the time of the ceremony came, acted the perfect little pawn and opened the door to the destruction that would come to be called ‘The Tragedy of Sablier’.
Of course, once the gate was opened, Chains (the twisted beings of the Abyss) came rushing out, slaughtering everyone in their way, and Vincent’s only priority amongst the chaos was to find his brother.Once he did, he made every effort to get his brother to a safe place... except that because of his actions, there were no safe places left to go.
Somewhere amidst the chaos, Vincent’s mind cracked. Late, in Alice’s memory of the events, he’s seen running through the carnage, taking scissors to the corpses and laughing over how it’s ‘not his fault’, blood covers his hands, his clothing, his hair... bathed in blood and madness, the child of misfortune indeed. It’s also implied that he might have killed Alice in this time, given the scissors lying near her dead body.
In the end, the entire capital city was dragged straight into the Abyss by the combination of Vincent’s actions and those of Glen Baskerville, whose part in the entire mess included murder of his own people as well. Vincent and Gilbert’s master, Jack, would come of the Tragedy a hero... the two boys, however, didn’t come out at all. For a very long time.
The Abyss itself is a realm where time has no meaning, and the the entire landscape there is horrific, a demented toybox with ruined creatures, many of whom were once human. The two brothers wandered through this realm aimlessly, Vincent carrying his older brother, and eventually stumbled over the Alice that lived in the Abyss - the Will of the Abyss.
This little encounter caused him to meet an illegal contractor (one who made a deal with a Chain without permission and thus gave up themselves to the Abyss) named Kevin who would later become Break, a coworker and colleague of Vincent’s. The cat Cheshire, who Vincent had murdered, was also present; in the form of a Chain who still remained eyeless, until one of Kevin’s eyes was handed over.
How much of this madness Vincent truly understands and remembers is questionable, but it’s known that he remembers quite a bit more than Gilbert, and he makes a conscious effort to keep others from finding out his role in the Tragedy of Sablier, later. My personal headcanon says that the fog of Gilbert-obsession through which he sees the world has created a rather thick cloud over many of the details... or at least over the idea of himself ever having been at fault for anything. Totally used the words ‘Gil-colored glasses’ in the first version of this paragraph...
The return of the two brothers to the world of the living happened in what was arguably the best way for Gilbert and the worst way for Vincent - separately. They each were taken in by separate families - Vincent was given refuge by the Nightrays and Gilbert by the Vessalius family (descendants of their old mast Jack!). Both of these families, at this point, were part of the highest nobility of the land, and in their households, Gilbert and Vincent lived rather different lives. While Vincent was adopted into the Nightray family, he didn’t create close ties with them; whereas Gilbert as a servant of Oz Vessalius became strongly attrached to his Master and was treated as part of the family by Oz’s uncle Oscar.
Vincent’s driving goal, of course, was to be reunited with his brother. Rather than forgetting the trauma of the Tragedy of Sablier as Gilbert had, his own memory remained, and he waited for a chance to be reunited. That chance didn’t come until Gilbert was a teenager, and his young master’s coming of age ceremony was interrupted by none other than the Baskervilles... starting a chain of events that would end with the Vessalius heir being sent into the Abyss himself.
At this point, Gilbert’s loyalty to Oz and Vincent’s desire for his brother in his life again lined up perfectly; the knowledge that he had a brother waiting for him in the Nightray house and the suggestion that he attempt to make a contract with the chain of the Nightray family (Raven, ironically) both led Vincent to become adopted into the same family his younger brother had been.
Life with the Nightrays in some ways mirrored Vincent and Gilbert’s early life, in that they developed a sort of ‘them against the world’ dynamic again. Despite having been brought into the family first and being quite adept at certain skills they prized (including marksmanship), the creepy blond boy with the red-and-gold eyes who left piles of torn-open stuffed toys in his wake wasn’t exactly well-loved. Despite Gilbert’s own initial adverse reaction to Vincent’s strangeness, he quickly fell back into the role of protective older brother, strengthening the younger brother’s obsession with him even more.
When Gilbert eventually reached his goal to contract with Raven, the blood children of the Nightray household protested, but Vincent supported his brother and pointed out quite boldly that Gilbert possessed qualities that the others didn’t, and that the result was inevitable.
At some point during the time between joining the Nightray family and the beginning of the series, Vincent creates quite a few affiliations for himself. He works for Pandora, an organization which has several goals, but is largely tasked with unravelling the mysteries of the Abyss and policing the contracts made between humans and Chains. Since illegal contractors of Chains often kill in order to feed their Chains and delay their own inevitable descent into the Abyss as a result of their contract, the ‘legal’ contractors of the Pandora organization are often sent to stop them.
While outwardly Vincent portrays himself as a proper member of the aristocracy, a part of the Nightray family, and a loyal servant of Pandora, his shady dealings are known to quite a few. The family he was adopted into itself is known to be ‘darker’ than others, and at some point along the way Vincent also aligned himself with the Baskervilles themselves, taking as his servant Zwei (who had been part of the incident that sent Gilbert’s master Oz into the Abyss) and keeping her with him when she is not actively pursuing the Baskerville’s goals. His relationship with Zwei can be seen as rather complex; she presents an alternate personality known as Echo, and Vincent’s treatment of Echo is quite abusive.
He also at some point contracted with a Chain known as the Dormouse.
In more recent times, his actions behind the scenes have included releasing an illegal contractor (who then winds up fighting Gilbert, Oz, and Alice) and then killing him (using protecting Oz as an excuse) before he can be brought back to Pandora and kidnapping Sharon Rainsworth, also a contractor of Pandora and a figure close to Oz and Gilbert. When the memories of one hundred years ago resurfaced in the form of a bell held by the Cheshire Cat, Vincent was determined to get his hands on it, and willing to stop at nothing to make that happen.
Of course, he couldn’t allow Gilbert to find out what happened at that time, since his brother didn’t remember it himself, and so his goal became to destroy the bell, and thus keep the details of his own history lost to time.
His ruthlessness in doing so was evidenced by his poisoning of both his own servant Echo and of Sharon, and the withholding of the antidote even after the bell was destroyed. It was only through Echo’s actions that Sharon was able to be saved. The threat to Vincent that the knowledge of the Tragedy of Sablier would come out didn’t end there, however; Gilbert himself came to visit his brother unexpectedly to ask questions about it.
Vincent, of course, claimed ignorance. And in the course of the conversation between them, tried to exert his own influence over Gilbert in order to convince him to kill Alice (now a Chain contracted to his master). Directly after this conversation is pretty much the canon point he’s coming into Kannagara from.
Takes deep breath. Holy fuck. And I still feel like I should have expanded on bits. >>
Personality: Vincent’s first reaction to those he feels he has something to gain from is usually fairly polite and friendly, complete with plenty of smiling and mild tones. Despite his origins, he acts the part of the nobleman as if he were born to it, plays the games of politics and chess (both figurative and literal) adeptly, and knows just how to push everyone’s buttons in the most seemingly benign ways. This useful facade aside, however, there seem to be quite a few who know the madman within.
At times, Vincent is every bit the stereotypical flamboyant villain, especially when he is doing his best to press someone’s buttons. (For an example of this, check the quotes section~!)
Let’s get the most obvious excuse out of the way first. Vincent’s early life was hardly easy, despite having his older brother to look out for him. From the initial being thrown out by his family to the events that led up to being cast into the abyss to his strained relations with the other Nightrays, his life has been quite the mess. Shunned, abandoned, and abused, he developed an early view of Gilbert and himself vs. the world, and has held to this view, living his life as if it were a war on all creation outside of those two beings.
The biggest problem with this view (aside from being unhealthy and obsessive) is that it leads him to behave in ways that cause harm not just to those around him, but also to Gilbert himself. It’s not what Gilbert wants that is most important, it’s what Vincent feels is best for Gilbert, most of the time.
Thus there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Vincent using everything around him to get closer to his brother, drive others away from him, keep him safe, get him whatever Vincent in the moment feels like he needs. His schemes are often quite elaborate, and he’s willing to hurt anyone who gets in his way... especially if that person happens to be his old enemy Alice, but he’s perfectly happy with harming his allies and servants as well.
His lack of respect for others extends even further when those others are women; he thinks of them as stupid and pointless, and is certainly not a gentleman toward them unless it can gain him something. His servant Echo complains about his insistence that she sit in his lap, he’s shown improperly touching coworkers, and just in general is a creeper as far as that goes. And his willingness to poison Sharon and Echo rather obviously shows that he doesn’t feel a need to protect females. (Of course, this could easily stem from the memory of his mother sending him and Gilbert to a freakshow, but wherever it came from, it’s obviously part of him now.)
As far as quirks go, the most obvious one he has is his habit of tearing up stuffed animals and dolls (often rabbits) with scissors and then leaving them everywhere... and then complaining when they’re cleaned up.
Another quirk actually is a result of his contract with his Chain; he has incomplete control over Dormouse, and thus at times the Chain’s power works on him. What this means is that he’s liable to fall asleep anywhere, anytime.
Overall, Vincent is a study in contrasts, both capable of big-picture planning and petty whims, deceptively polite and explosively violent, obsessively loyal and willing to betray everyone and everything else. Do we have any good shrinks at Kanna?
Abilities/Strengths: Intelligence and a head for politics are the first things that come to mind here. Vincent is adept at sizing up situations, deciding where the most benefit is to be gained and from whom, and making the right connections to make it happen. His lack of moral scruples can be seen as a strength here too, technically, in that he’s willing to do whatever is necessary to get what he needs to further his own goals. He’s a master manipulator, a charmer, and a whiz at chess.
His contract with Dormouse could be considered another strength. His Chain has the power to put people to sleep, though it does require that dormouse be in contact with their head, so the range is limited. No other abilities have been shown for Dormouse; Vincent is rarely seen using it.
He has a natural talent with guns, and outstripped his older brother in those skills despite his brother having more training. The Nightray household carries out assassinations and other dirty work, and thus Vincent has overall fighting skills conducive to that work. He’s also shown to be skilled in torture.
Weaknesses: Does insanity count? When confronted (later in the series, but the trigger is there already) with massive bloodshed, he goes into a flashback to one hundred years ago, and seems not to even see what’s happening around him.
His obsession with Gilbert will always be a weakness, because he will absolutely do anything he can to take care of his older brother, at least as his twisted mind understands it. Meaning that his logic might sometimes take a lot of effort to figure out from the outside, he will without fail do whatever he feels is best for Gilbert, no matter what that means for himself or anyone else around him.
A more physical weakness would be the Chain-induced narcolepsy. Sleeping in random places isn’t exactly safe, especially in a world where he doesn’t have his servant Echo to look after him!
Defining Quote(s): [OPTIONAL]
“It's okay. From now on, no matter who you kill with your own hands, only I will stand by your side!” - to Gil
“I am always thinking about Gil, you see?...Yes that was a joke... After the ‘Grim’ incident, Gil firmly told me to keep quiet. Pandora is important to me, but.. Gil’s request even more so. If nii-san so wishes, I’ll be as silent as the grave.” - to Oz’s uncle about the knowledge that Oz is alive
“Now that we’ve confirmed Miss Sharon’s safety, let’s start to trade - At last, the princess is in the arms of her knight! But her life is still in the hands of the creator of the darkness! Ah such grief. Pandora’s soldier is terribly anxious. The princess’s life is in great danger. If his blade pierces through Nightray, and ends his life, blood is pouring out, and yet the antidote is already gone. What do you say, Mr. Mad Hatter? Are you willing to... listen to my request?” - To Break while holding the antidote to cure Sharon out over the rail of a balcony.
Other: There’s a huge discrepancy between what Vincent says and what he thinks or does at times, and therefore there’s a bit of a question about how much he really does remember, I think. I headcanon that he knows a lot more than he says, which I don’t think is that strange, considering his personality and behavior.
It’s been insisted I headcanon he molested Gilbert in his sleep as a kid. As far as some of his interactions go with other characters in canon go, there are a lot of things left to interpretation, so there was some discussion among muns as to how to work those things out. Break will likely kill Vincent if the headcanoned behavior during Sharon’s kidnapping ever comes out.
My mention of him as having PTSD as related to the Tragedy of Sablier will probably be something that comes out in-game, since while I’m taking him from a canon point BEFORE that reaction, the trigger itself would already be there. So expect some seriousness in terms of how that’s dealt with, as well as the rest of his obvious mental trauma.
Action Writing Sample: [Video]
[The aristocratic blond with mismatched eyes stands a little away from the device, making sure it gets a good full-length shot of him, now that he’s figured it out enough to tell what it’s going to be seeing, sort of. He’s posed rather carefully, one ruffle-sleeved arm crossed over the other in front of his chest, leaned back against a tree ‘casually.’]
I do believe I’ve run out of bullets.
[This is a major problem, really. It’s also not true; he’s got plenty left, but he wants to find out where to get more before he runs out. Wouldn’t do to be actually vulnerable if someone decided he was easy prey with this post. Not that he’s entirely useless without a weapon, but it’s still better not to give anything away if he can help it...]
Is there any way to rectify this situation, in this world?
[After all, the technology isn’t what he’s familiar with, at all.]
I would so hate to have to kill things with my bare hands...
[And then the camera pans down to a dead deer, being processed fairly normally for such a thing, skinned and gutted, except... well, okay, it probably wasn’t necessary to gouge the things eyes out.]
Third Person Writing Sample:
The passage between one town and another is supposed to be quite dangerous, he’s been warned, but Vincent doesn’t encounter anything particularly dangerous on his first attempt at it on his own.
He’s almost disappointed. He’s almost wishing he could have seen something of the challenges that this world had to offer. After all, he has to learn sometime, how things work here.
It’s downright distressing, if he’s honest with himself, being outside of his own sphere of influence. Without the influence of the Nightray family, without the Baskervilles, without any secrets to hold over anyone’s head.
It just won’t do. He contemplates his options as he walks, fumbling with the strange piece of technology in his hands and watching, eyes sharp for the weaknesses of any of these strangers. He’s already putting together a picture in his head, of who is related to who, which people can be used against which.
That’s always the most important thing to know. There are so few human beings who aren’t affected more by a threat to a loved one than to themselves.
He sidesteps a little just as he comes into town, automatically shifting to slide through the crowd, frowning a little as he nearly steps on a passed-out drunk in the street. A slight shift backward, and his heel grinds into the man’s hand, before a few quick steps take him away, before his victim has time to quite realize what happened, if he’s even conscious. A few broken fingers, that’s all.
There we go. He feels a little better already. Now, to business, and he stands in the middle of Yomisato, mismatched eyes taking in each detail, and brushes his hair back out of his eyes, chooses the most disreputable-looking of the pubs in sight.
It’s time to go find out who you need to be in bed with to not just survive but be someone around here.