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break seeking redemption for the deaths he caused and ultimately finding solace in sharon/reim/the other leads. oz searching for a way to kill himself to absolve his guilt over existing and ultimately finding self-actualization through his bonds with his loved ones. vincent convinced he needs to erase himself because he cannot stand to exist as a person who causes suffering by just being alive, and ada (an outsider) forgiving him for being. AND THEN. paradoxically first and last, lacie asking her brother (and, in a way, the reader) to forgive her for what she’s done. because pandora hearts is about how nothing is ever going to change until the children of ill omen are absolved of their ‘crime’. it’s okay that they were alive. they did not deserve their oppression. they did not deserve to suffer.

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Every day is a great day for jack vessalius to explode

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PANDORA HEARTS NENDOROIDS ANNOUNCED IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2023????????

What's going on, what prompted this

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Happy birthday, Xerxes Break! ❤️🤍 (30.09)

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someone: why are you crying?

me: right after Break heard Fang say that Reim was dead he decided to hunt down the Baskervilles and was nearly killed by his chain as a result because he was willing to die avenging his best friend. And right after Break died Reim didn’t cry like Sharon but instead handed his gun to Lily and told her to kill him with it instead of having the Baskervilles take the body. These two men were so willing to follow each other to the grave and gave up countless plans and protocol just to watch each other’s backs.

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spreading @nunaco’s earring break propaganda 😌 (go read pandora hearts)

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he smile!!

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His name is Kevin. Kevin.

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YOU. YOU WROTE HARD CANDIES????? I READ IT AND LOVED IT AND??? IT WAS YOU???? BRB FANBOYING RN

!!!!!!!!!! WAHH THANK YOU SO MUCH IM SO GLAD YOU LOVED IT THIS ASK MEANS THE WORLD TO ME

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…. I drew the blorbo

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quicky breaks :)

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🐰🍖💗 / twitter version

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If Everything Breaks

Fandom: Pandora Hearts

Summary: Break doesn't like to dance…but maybe just this once || A tale of Break as he grows accustomed to his life with the Rainsworths. My fic for the Chained Pandora Hearts Zine! Written to go alongside @paraffinegg’s art!! ^^ (Sorry I couldn't find a better picture of it!)

When Kevin opened his eyes, the light was too bright. No…not eye-s. Just the one. The other’s empty socket throbbed like mad.

As said eye adjusted, vague shapes became clearer: the bed he was on, the tables and chairs around him—(too lavish a room for him)—and finally a person.

“My name...is Alice.” 

He shot up, knocking his head against the headboard.

She laughed...an oddly bright sound.

Framed in sunlight, a woman was smiling at him.

“Where am I?” he demanded, voice hoarse.

She raised an eyebrow. “It’s rude to address a duchess’ daughter so informally, you know.”

His eye widened. This unassuming lady was a duchess’ daughter?

“I am Shelly Rainsworth. ...You showed up at our door covered in blood. ...Quite an entrance, I must say.”

The Rainsworths? He searched his brain but couldn’t find record of the name.

“And you are?”

No one had asked his name in a long time. And if he had told them, well…he would’ve had to kill them.

No one had asked his name in a long time. And if he had told them, well…he would’ve had to kill them.

“You killed so many people! What a fool you were!”

Best not pronounce his identity just yet. For her sake.

“You don’t want to tell me.” There was no question, nor distrust there. “That’s fine. But I need something to call you.”

Her smile was not wicked, nor pitying.

It had been a long time since anyone treated him like more than a monster to be feared, or a toy to plucked and prodded—his important parts ripped out; broken like all the promises of a better world—

“...keep breaking just like that…

If all the people break, and the world breaks…

and everyone and everything goes mad…

Then I can be normal...right?”

He looked away, reaching for his left eye, finding bandages and blossoming pain where sight was supposed to be. He grimaced before answering softly:

“Break. Just…Break.”

********

A world bathed in golden light, music coiling in the atmosphere. With its cues feet glided, hands entwined, and dresses fluttered just above the ground like broken butterflies’ wings.

A cacophony of meaningless noise.

It’s all mad. 

Kevin stood by the stairs as if painted there.

It wasn’t that he disliked balls…okay, no, he did; balls, banquets…gatherings of any kind, really. But, this was the Rainsworth’s party, so attendance was mandatory.

Too bright lights, too loud music, gossip picking at his skull, and, well…people. It all blended together to create a painful buzzing in his head.

The crippled butterflies flew in the other direction around their cage.

“Come on, Cheshire, let’s dance!”

The dancing was the worst part. All those moves to remember, so much to get wrong...and for what? A good show? He had no talent for it, but hopping around, without stepping on anyone's toes—a trained monkey to someone else’s tune, and an uncompromising paradigm—held no appeal for him anyways.

Count the seconds. How many left?—

What do I have left to lose?

“Be it my arms, my legs…I grant you whatever your heart desires!

So please…change the past for me!”

Count the steps. Trace the sequence.

So many wasted moments in pursuits of stillborn dreams, the pattern already predetermined.

“It’s that man.” The hiss came from the side of the room.

He knew who they were talking about; whispers were his loyal familiar.

Kevin wasn’t looking, but he could feel her eyes burning holes in him, like she was trying to snuff out a cigarette.

“The one the Rainsworths took in.”

A second burning hole. His thoughts would surely catch fire.

He shut his eye, his knuckles white on the staircase railing.

“Have you seen his eyes?”

He silently refuted her statement: Nope. Just the one, Dear. The other was stolen away. Apparently they’re a precious commodity to little lunatics in the center of the universe.

“I know right? Red.”

Fingers shoved into his eye socket, pain boring through the hole left…

Screaming rending the air—was it his voice? His throat was burning—

“Fu-fu It’s beautiful.”

“They make him so creepy!”

“I still don’t understand why they took him in.”

“Don’t they know how to take out the trash?” Laughter like venom.

He leaned back, putting his hand on his forehead, trying not to let it travel to his socket.

The words wove around his inner works, pulling taut. He tried not to think of death—(theirs, or his own)—as an excuse, or escape. But too often his mind drifted to a darkened room full of coffins, and a little girl begging him to stay.

Was it his fault, then? Was all of this…inevitable?

“Break!”

The word was a crack in reality. Another, better world, reaching out to him.

If there is such a thing.

He looked up, as if at the bottom of a mineshaft, to see Shelly on the staircase above him.

The thing about being in a high position is one gains the luxury of indifference; those in power rarely care for those below them. They can afford not to.

She caught his eye and motioned for him to come up to her.

...The Rainsworths were different.

“Come quickly, there’s a man covered in blood!”

Dare he? Surely he must stay against the wall, he was plastered there after all.

This room shone gold. Yet the Rainsworths were brighter; they were a kind of light those in the room knew nothing of. So bright were they that those in the dark dare not touch them, for fear of being shown in the sun for what they really were.

She put her hands on her hips.

...He dare not disobey.

And what was becoming of him? He didn’t feel brighter since meeting them. What if it was the other way around? With each step closer he swore he could hear the pieces of his shattered heart jangling in his chest, and wondered if instead he’d leave them all bleeding on those sharp edges.

A blur went by, closely followed with—

“Dance with me, Reim!” Little Sharon came pelting after.

Reim hid behind Sheryl’s chair on the floor below, and Rufus proceeded to scold them.

Laughter like sunshine breaking after rain.

He looked at Shelly, who raised an eyebrow.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile in perhaps…ever.”

He was smiling? Better wipe it off.

“So…something tells me you don’t feel like dancing.”

“I never cared for it, Shelly-sama.”

“Let’s see, you don’t care for;”—She counted on her fingers—“people talking to you, people looking at you, people…aaand dancing now.”

He rolled his eye. “I mean it. I really can’t.”

“What do you say to a lesson?” She held out her hand.

He stumbled back.

Was this some punishment? He tried to think of anything he’d done to deserve this.

“It would disgrace a lady such as yourself to be seen dancing with a servant.”

“We could use a good scandal.”

“I—” he looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’d step on your toes.” He was running out of excuses.

“I don’t doubt it.”

What wasn’t she getting about this?

Shelly bounced her hand persistently.

No. He couldn’t. Shouldn’t. Wouldn’t. Dare touch her. Surely he’d infect her. Why was she bothering with him? Pestering him, like she always did. Like everyone always did. Treating him like a lost puppy, when they should just leave him in the rain to die.

The request was soft: “Please dance with me, Xerxes.”

He raised an eyebrow. “…What did you call me?”

He never spoke of his past, but he knew those whispers, ever at his heel, were indication enough of something dark in his ill-conceived adulthood.

“Well, I figured if you’re keeping a fake name, you’ll need a second. Or, in this case a first—Break sounds better as a surname, don’t you think? And I thought Xerxes was rather fitting.”

“How?” He snorted. “Isn’t it a name for ancient kings and heroes? I fail to see how I fit that.”

How could a knight wear the name of a king? How could a villain bear the name of a hero?

“That’s why I picked it.”

He backed up, his eye widening.

He didn’t understand what she was, or why she ever spoke to him. All that light was sickening...yet…

This woman saw him, not as a monster, or a toy…but as some sort of hero. How was that possible?

The name didn’t fit right. But she smiled at him, and though the light was sickening... it was oddly warm.

“Break might not like to dance, but tonight we are not Break and Shelly. I am the Queen of Hearts, and you are my Mad Hatter.”

“...Who said I was mad?”

She grinned.

“You must be, or you wouldn’t have come here.”

He could choose to turn away, leave this place, believe the whispers snaking through him. Reject the name, her kindness, her light.

He sighed, averted his eye—

Just this one. 

And took her hand.

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I got the surge of Pandora hearts love in me today. Y’all don’t understand how badly I need this reboot. I need more people to find this series. If a studio who really cares adapts ph, it will be big. Not the next mainstream shonen but considering it will be at least 80 episodes, it’ll do better than vnc. Idk how successful the vnc anime was in Japan but I’d say its performance was decent. Now while as a bones adaptation, the vnc anime is overall good imo, I’d like to have another studio. I think bones should focus on the shows it’s dumped in limbo bc mha won’t be around long. I’ve said it before, I think Shaft would be perfect but apparently it isn’t in the best position right now, at least staff wise.

It’s so hard to have this series that’s dear to you, a series THAT IS SO FUCKING GOOD, a series that could be pretty successful, not get the treatment it deserves. Meanwhile we’re given season 3 of Rent-A-Girlfriend and I wail every time. Like you know all the praise, for instance, Memories of the Future from AOT got. Rightfully so, I think that was peak AOT. Chapters 59, 65, and 70 of PH are on that level of peak fiction. And honestly ch. 70 surpasses it imo. Like that is the best chapter of anything I’ve ever read. Needless to say I love ph very much. And even if a reboot mean a bigger fanbase and thus, more exposure to bad takes, I don’t care. Mochijun isn’t perfect but she deserves her due flowers for that story. And in my eyes, she hasn’t gotten that yet. It upsets me sometimes honestly, like when people bring up the best MCs in manga 9 times outta 10 Oz isn’t on that list. Because people don’t know who he is and they should, he’s incredible.

In conclusion, I’m begging studios to give ph a chance. The fans will be there, I can guarantee you that after all the thousands of qrts and replies they’ve given crunchyroll. TRUST WE WILL BE THERE. Plus when more ppl find it’s the same creator as vnc, you can bring an audience from vnc anime onlys. And of course, Vnc fans in general will be there (bc it’s majority of ph fans but hey). And please please please....you haven’t read Pandora hearts please do. It may be slow or chaotic in the beginning but the payoff is a masterpiece.

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