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[likeawritingdesk]

CHARACTER INFO
NAME: Gilbert Nightray/Raven
CANON: Pandora Hearts
REFERENCE LINKS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_Hearts

CHARACTER INFO: Gilbert Nightray, or Gil/Raven, is a completely useless seaweed-head who's no good for anything but crying and being bullied - or so he's always introduced. In truth, actually, plenty of that is true, but Gilbert is the incredibly loyal personal servant and best friend of Oz Vessalius, and a member of Pandora, a secret organization devoted to opening the doors to a mysterious other world called the Abyss, where time has its own rules and beasts called Chains that bind themselves to humans thrive. Form a contract with one of these Chains and you may be granted enormous power, and if you shed enough blood in tribute, the Will of the Abyss may change your past. If you don't go completely mad in the process and reach the end of your time limit, that is - once you do, you're devoured by the Abyss completely.

Found horribly injured as a young boy with no memory of his past but his name, Gil was taken in by Oz's noble Vessalius family. He was claimed by Oz then, who swore as his master to take care of him, and that's how he became Oz's personal target for horrific tormenting and domination, as well as his most precious and loyal friend. Though timid, tearful, and always feeling unworthy and cautious of his own position, Gilbert loved Oz terribly and always acted out for his happiness, staying close to his side and resenting Oz's unloving father. However, tragedy struck when a group of conspirators possessed Gil's body to use him for a specific set of parameters involving stabbing best friends, and Oz was cast into the Abyss, leaving Gil horrified, wounded, and alone.

Oz does not return to the world for ten years. When he does, thanks to the Abyss, he has not aged at all. Gilbert, however, has grown up -- but all of Gil's actions, for ten years, stemmed from his efforts to rescue Oz one day. These actions all started the day Gil met Xerxes Break. Break gave him a proposition: become his missing eye, and together they would see the truth of what happened to Oz Vessalius. Gil agreed. So Break made him a vital spy, reuniting him with his long lost little brother Vincent, who had also been found covered in blood and amnesiac and was adopted -- into the notorious Nightray family, the enemy of the Vessalius family. Break taught Gilbert how to use everything and everyone at his disposal to reach his goal, as well as inflicted constant suffering and teasing and harassment on him, until after ten years of this Gil grew up TOTALLY BADASS!! with a severe tsundere strain. Despite Gil's brother being twenty levels of incestuously, stuffed-animal-stabbingly crazy and the Nightrays being his master's enemy, Gil threw himself into that world, became a killer, and gained the Nightray's most vital power, the Chain Raven.

Granted, all that badass flew out the window when Gil's most precious person returned, and Gil immediately regrew his moe, bitchowned, lovingly loyal side of his personality. Aside from his resolve to sacrifice anything to protect Oz, he is a fabulous cook, he's terrified of cats, he can't quit smoking despite eight attempts, and when he drinks he reverts completely to an insecure crybaby. He is afraid that as Oz grows, he will be left behind, and lose his purpose for existing. But Gil has deeper complications, not the least of which is his amnesia, and just how obsessively protective and loyal Gil is - to the point where, sometimes, he has crippling pain from the very thought that he is not murdering the shit out of any threat to Oz's happiness right now. Targets include Oz's father (who deserves it) and their adorable lolita friend and his LOVE RIVAL, Alice (she's Oz's chain, which means Oz could be dragged into the abyss thanks to their contract, and the way to keep that from happening is to kill the Chain and sever the contract). While this urge totally gets Vincent super hot, it freaks Gil and everyone else the fuck out.

It's all buried in Gil's forgotten past, which was long ago - long, long ago, a hundred years ago, when he and his brother lived on the streets. He was a beaten, raped, starved little boy just as unbalanced as Vincent, but they were saved and taken in by the kind Jack Vessalius, now known as the great hero of the age, and Oz's ancestor. Gil adored Jack then as he adores Oz now. Unfortunately, a Total Creeper took advantage of that and literally brainwashed Gilbert into blind, murderous devotion, turning him into a weapon that would slay all of Jack Vessalius' enemies. In the end, Gil was stabbed in the back protecting his master, and to save Gil from EVEN MORE creeper body snatching, Vincent - taken advantage of by a DIFFERENT Creeper - opened the doors to the Abyss, marking the great Tragedy of Sablier. They stumbled out of the Abyss to a world a hundred years later.

Though Gil is struggling with many things, the greatest of which being his own growth as someone utterly devoted to his most precious person, he is beginning to take small but vital steps. His connection with Break is one that has become a truly deep relationship, and though it would probably pain him to look at it in such clear terms, Gil's care for the man he's been with for ten years is so strong that it's giving him a certain level of independence to acknowledge how important Break is to him. Even when he was in the deepest throes of tsundere rage against him, any sign of actual connection or care would touch him. His relationship with his adoptive brother, Elliot Nightray, is another part of him that shows just how much of a failure Gil is when it comes to being loved and owned. He is more than able to see that Elliot is a truly good person despite his ridiculous temper, and is deeply protective of him. Gil only ends up flustering himself when he is particularly overcome with big brotherly feelings for Elliot or frustration at not being closer to Break, but sometimes, just sometimes, he can be cool about it and truly support them.

CONSIDERATIONS: Because he has so many incidents of dramatic growth and amnesia of his own in canon, Gil's amnesia will have a few levels. Though Gil does not remember his brainwashing in canon and it is still in place, I will slot it as something that must be regained, though he will not realize what has happened when he regains it except for the KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL part. He is already capable of protecting someone with incredibly bitter prejudice without that, but this was a result of the severe life he was living, which he will no longer remember - though that, and his resolve to kill for Oz's sake, show his potential to become whatever it takes should he grow very attached to someone. Which has also been proven to not take much, and he will be easily emotionally topped, hurt, and needy - with no memory of Oz or Jack, he will bond very closely with, uh, whoever gets him first really. Considering the happy devotion he had for Jack even when he was struggling most, the devotion he has for Oz now, and the fact that his protective desire to be important, dependable, and needed are consistent through every single relationship he has, those traits are all absolutely going to stick. That desire to be needed is also the general source of his consistent insecurity - he is most confident (and healthy) when he is in a relationship where he does not need perpetual approval, or he believes the other person is being an idiot, which may take a while considering it took FOREVER in canon. Though he is naturally very loyal and bias, he is also kind enough to be frightened by the idea that he would be too cruel for his loyalty's sake, though that cruelty only surfaces once he loves someone and they have enemies. Otherwise he'll remain quite kind; despite heavy biases (Nightray), heavy abuse (Break), or even direct conflict with his brainwashing (Alice), he still grows genuinely attached to people he has reason not to be, and often sees what is sympathetic or good.

SKILLS: Gil has a giant ass raven chained to his soul and it's very big and cool and powerful!! But exhausting. He is also an expert marksman and a powerful fighter in his own right. SO COOL! Also he is a fab cook.


WRITING SAMPLE:

Gil was sucking on an unlit cigarette. He didn't want to fix that, lest the smoke disturb Oz, who was curled up close to the fire under a pile of blankets and an overly cuddly Alice, who'd complained about the cold. Gil was with them in their cozy corner of the large, dim room, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside their heads. There was a red cloth spread in his lap with metallic pieces resting on it, and his hands moved quietly as he went through the insomniac task of cleaning his gun with as little noise as possible. He didn't have to clean his gun tonight, but it was there, so he'd reached for it. He could take it apart and put it together again as unthinkingly as if he was cracking his knuckles, if he wanted to - he used to do it several times in a row, over and over.

The habits had built up over the years. He cleaned his room and his things himself sometimes several times a day, he smoked, he cleaned his gun, he quit smoking, he practiced his marksmanship, he smoked. He cleaned his gun with the same click and clack rhythm each time, a composition he'd settled on without thinking. Break had pointed it out to him, while sucking on candy - habits are a sign of someone who needs to be distracted, he'd said with a smile. Gil supposed that was true. Though Oz was always echoing in his mind, always in his thoughts, he had to teach himself how to live again when Oz was gone.

Habits weren't so simple though, he realized now with a small sigh and smile. Though with Oz here, his golden hair falling in his face, he was so much slower at his task that he wondered why he'd even bothered starting. Gil reached to brush it from his eyes every now and then, tuck it behind his ear -- or straighten a stray strand-- or simply run his fingers through it just to touch him. He could stop his restlessness like this, come to a still with Oz's warmth beside him. He was here.

There was a tiny hum and groan of sleepy stretching as Alice gave a stir, and Gil watched as a long, dark coil of hair draped over Oz's lips and throat as she settled down again.

He frowned, his eyes fixing on the curve of dark, his body going still. He stared at it until it looked like a black rope in the darkness, and then simply reached to remove it, dropping it backwards on Alice's own face. It slithered before coming to a still, and every muscle in Gilbert's body tensed. Alice slept on, her small features scrunching briefly under Gil's hovering hand.

Gil took his hand back. He paused, then slid the magazine into the completed piece. He swallowed as it clicked into place.

Then he took it apart again, and started again.