weird old men

[madhatted]

Name: Christy
Contact Info: swagu
Other Characters Played: Diva (madamemoiselle) and Lucifer Morningstar (apostatises)
Preferred Apartment: #1.007

Character Name: Xerxes Break, formerly Kevin Regnard
Canon: Pandora Hearts
Canon Point: Retrace 40
Background/History: A combo of wikipedia and the Pandora Hearts wiki should suffice!
Personality:

“You're not some hero who can do everything by himself.
You're a middle-aged man who's deluded himself into
thinking he can do everything alone!”
Technically speaking, a character in Pandora Hearts basically wrote this section for me. Not only does she say the above, but she also goes on to say: "In your arrogance, you're always making fun of others. You're always acting like you know everything, and yet you never reveal anything! You pose as an adult, but you're a perfectionist who can't accept defeat. You're always meddling in other people's affairs, but god forbid someone should dare do the same with you!" And these are all 100% accurate statements and I could end the app there. But of course, there needs to be a bit of elaboration on why these things are true.

Break is a strange person that has a habit of picking on others, delving into their private affairs and wouldn't hesitate to call them useless or point out to them how their life would be easier if someone were dead. He has no problems with manipulating others to achieve his own goals. And yet, underneath all of that, Break is a good person, though he would loathe to admit it. He was once a Kevin Regnard, after all, and a very proud and loyal knight. But after his master was killed, he essentially made a deal with the devil, taking on a terrible power for the sake of reversing that reality, but ends up staining his hands with even more blood and regret than simply accepting that he couldn't be there to protect his master.

This event fundamentally changed Kevin, and after the horrors he committed and losing his eye to the abyss, he took on a new name as if to symbolize his new life. Xerxes Break is someone that shouldn't look on his past with anything but indifference and should have no qualms with doing whatever it takes to achieve his ultimate goal of fulfilling the Will of the Abyss's wish. He'll manipulate people, put them in grave danger, and will happily tell them so!

It's all a very deliberate choice on his part, because Break likes to exert control, so to speak. His rather eccentric (and sometimes abrasive) personality and distant way of interacting with others is a way for him to control how people feel about him. After the despair of failing as a knight not once, but twice, Break doesn't necessarily want to get closer to other people for fear of losing them or failing them. This was more of a concern after he returned from the Abyss and has softened some in the years since, though he's still reluctant to form relationships. He does clearly care for Shelly and Sharon Rainsworth, and throughout the course of the manga, does grow to care for the other main characters, albeit rather reluctantly and slowly.

In another aspect, he's also very controlling in other aspects of his life, as noted by Sharon. He's "a perfectionist who can't accept defeat," and when that smiling facade drops, it's often when he's being beaten or something doesn't go according to his plans. He's a very intelligent and astute person who is overconfident in his abilities, so when things don't work out as planned, it's a great shock to him. It's also one of the few things to make him angry. He takes control of conversations to get them flow in the way he wants, as evidenced by his use of humor to distract or deflect. Break's use of control is almost a way for him to feel more comfortable in his new life after returning from the Abyss, since it was a loss of control over events that sent him there in the first place.

But these are the more serious points of his personality. So let's get into his eccentricity, since Break is also just a really strange individual.

Break's appearance, first of all, clues pretty much anyone into what an eccentric person he is. With one eye completely hidden by silver hair and the other being red, he's already a weirdo, but he also wears a rather bizarre outfit. The his coat always off his shoulders, making the sleeves too long and partially obscuring his hands. There's also a good chance that he'll be eating candies or sweets at any time too, since Break has a terrible sweet tooth.

But even more than that, there's a strange little doll nearly always perched on his shoulder, which he has affectionately named Emily. Emily is rather rude and prone to insulting people, by which I mean Xerxes will use ventriloquism to speak through Emily and then criticize her for being too harsh! Clearly Emily is the real problem here, as he would say to anyone that would raise a complaint.

He does have a penchant for messing with people just for the fun of messing with them too. The most often target is Gilbert, who essentially grew up with Break bullying him. He's a convincing liar and will use this to his advantage to get people to believe things that are obviously untrue or otherwise just make fools of themselves. He'll behave childishly or whimsically to catch people off guard, and has a nasty habit of latching onto gullible people and tormenting them for fun. Though it's worth noting that he would never progress beyond playful teasing or bullying unless it were directly useful to him to do so.

Overall, what most people will see of Break is a rather childish adult. He's perpetually smiling and often straight-up annoying with his eccentric quirks, but still manages to be rather entertaining. But if someone manages to spend enough time with him, it's easy to notice that he says and reveals very little about himself. Those kind of details have to be (sometimes literally) pulled out of him, and even when they are, he doesn't deal with them well. He's a person that doesn't believe in friends or allies, so he creates a comfortable distance to avoid it. He's a person very heavily driven by a singular purpose in life, but given time, Break can slowly open up to others and allow himself to form true bonds with others.

Abilities/Powers:
Most notable of Break's abilities is his Chain, Mad Hatter. Break is able to summon it at will, but it puts a great strain on him to do so, and at his canonpoint, would probably render him blind and put him out of commission for several days. Mad Hatter's basic power is to reject and destroy the Abyss's power, which effectively kills other Chains.

In addition, Break has very vaguely defined magical ability, though it's rarely used. The biggest example is his creation of a magic circle to trap Oz, but other than that, there's not a lot... Though out of his abilities, the one he's most likely to use is his abilities as a swordsman. Break is very skilled with a sword despite his appearance, and has an impressive amount of dexterity and strength, which makes him a pretty fearsome fighter with a sword in his hand. As proof of this, it's worth noting that his Chain is his last resort, and he'll more often try to beat an opponent with his swordsmanship.
Items/Weapons:

1. A not at all creepy doll
2. A cane with a sword inside it
3. A small stash of sweets like little candies and lollipops

Sample Entry:
[This is one of the few times that Break is thankful that he's a little more technologically inclined than people might think. That wasn't to say that the process was easy, but through careful trial and error and figuring out how the strange little phone worked, he had managed to understand the basics. He can't help but wonder exactly who his message would go to, but he'll just have to err on the side of caution with that. So the broadcast is only his voice, though it's light and cheerful! And there's the distinct sound of the candy in his mouth...]

Here we go~! It's a bit curious to have a phone without a wire, but ah, that's the least of my questions here...

[There's a brief pause for a discontent noise before he continues] Though in honesty, I'm a bit unsure of how to address the other end of this line! Haha, would it be Ms., Mr. or something else that I'm talking to? I'm quite curious to find out.

So I'm hoping that the mysterious person on the end of the line would be able to answer some questions I have! Hmm, though I suppose it would be the best to start with the most basic problem. Just where have I managed to wake up~?

[A beat, and there's even the sound like he's about to hang up, but then he seems to remember something, and adds:]

—Oh, and I might as well also ask, where might I be able to find some sweets? It seems I've not brought too much to keep my diabetes under control. ♥

[break that's not even how diabetes works get out]

Sample Entry Two:
When he wakes, there's a deep, very strong pang of fear. The alarm is just background noise, a far away hum as his wide eye observes the strange room he's found himself in. For a moment, while his mind is still clouded by the shock of waking up somewhere familiar, he thinks he's there again.

But it's short-lived. No, it wasn't anything quite that grand, as evidenced by the lack of tacky and twisted decor. It wasn't her style. It's just a cruddy bedroom, like something that could be found in the slums. Break nearly sighs in relief, but a laugh only comes out, even through his cold sweat. He brushes his forehead to wipe it away.

It wasn't quite time to go back to the Abyss yet. It was ridiculous to even have that doubt for a moment.

Break makes a light sound of surprise as his bangs fall over his face again, looking towards the alarm clock as if he's just heard the persistent beeping. It's easily turned off as he gets out of the bed to look toward the window.

...Ha.

"My, what an ominous sight," he murmurs to himself with amusement in his voice, "I somehow feel inclined to believe otherwise."

But contrary to what he says, the message on the billboard makes a small amount of worry well up in the pit of his stomach. This was hardly the Abyss, he was sure of that now, but...

What exactly was this supposed to be otherwise?