And I am done with my graceless heart

Previous info post can be found here. This Kevin was taken from canon in between the murder of the Sinclair family and their funeral. In the manga, Kevin is seen standing at a grave site when Albus approaches him to form a Contract; therefore, he had to have suffered through the days spent organizing the burial before he was able to secure his Chain. I gave him the few days of suffering, but I did not give him the opportunity to Contract the White Knight.

Because he did not make the snap decision that he makes in canon that led him to become a prolific serial killer, he was given time to grieve and be angry and try to find closure instead. He spent a solid year in the PHDR before he was spoiled about his own future by arriving too late to help save Lady Shelly from one of his own counterparts -- one who did have Albus and was in the process of systematically murdering people for his wish. In this way, he was provided with an opportunity to grow and mature and let his feelings stabilize before he was forced to confront the ruthless violence in himself that would lead him to kill over a hundred people for the sake of his own selfishness. This journal picks him up one or two months after his discovery, as he wrestles with coming to terms with his own faults and attempting to set himself apart from the other Kevins -- and Breaks -- in the PHDR.

In a way, this Kevin will be becoming a Break of his very own. In canon, Kevin became a murderer, traveled through the Abyss and lost his eye to the Will there, pledged himself to serve the Will, and was spat out into the Rainsworth household. At Rainsworth he was essentially adopted into a family of bossy women who liked to dress him up in dresses on occasion, wound up being the adopted elder brother of a young girl, and took on a new persona after he discovered that the murders had been for nothing and all he had done was bring about the death of the youngest Sinclair daughter, who would have survived. This Kevin is doing much the same, in his own way. His own traumatic event after the death of the Sinclairs was witnessing Lady Shelly's death at, essentially, his own hands. Now -- living in the Baskerville House with his dearest friend in the mansion, Glen Baskerville redstainedking and his family of sisters and Chains -- he is struggling to find his own new identity. He is wearing his hair differently to make himself easy to recognize, has his very own tiny Sharon of sorts in the form of the tiny Lacie bittybratty, and will slowly be opening up as a snarky prankster as his frustrations lead him to heckle people and some of them heckle him right back.

As with all Kevins, the potential to become Xerxes Break has always been there; after all, they are the same man. My goal with this Kevin is to allow him to find these traits within himself without entirely clamping down upon who he is as Kevin. His journal name -- fallingbackup -- reflects his canon destiny of sorts as a fallen knight, and the way this Kevin has caught himself and is scrambling to keep himself from fulfilling his own worst potential. Whether he succeeds will depend on his own stubbornness, but also the support he finds in the PHDR from people that his life would never have granted him in canon.

Light Affection: Less inclined to panic at this than he was as heart_beatings, thanks to having certain women putting their boobs on him at every opportunity and a few rounds under the mistletoe and in the kissing closet. Will not initiate unless you are Glen.

Sexytimez: More or less not a virgin, but will not pursue anything with anyone he does not have a firm relationship with. Kevin is not at all the sort to engage in casual sex; not in this particular incarnation, anyway. Destined for a long, slow ship with his Glen, in which he will be absolutely monogamous. I am open for the occasional shared and remembered sex dream just to mess with him a little, but only with lots of CR and discussion beforehand.

Fighting: Not as good as a Break, but that's because Break has a good 15 years more experience than he does. Has a nasty temper and will totally whip that sword right out on you if you don't leave him alone, though he won't strike to kill unless forced.

With the Ouching and the Hurting: Talk to me first!

Done:

Glen Baskerville and the Sparkling Chicken
A mutual love of quiet
The first night at Glen's
Little sister wants to know of your intentions toward her brother
Halloween: Kevin as a vampire's bride, sulking at Lacie about it, and wanting to hide from Jack over it
FIC: Property of Mister Glen Baskerville>
Surpassing the awkward
Too late yet again, Kevin runs to his safe place
In which Lacie totally knows where this is going
In which Shelly is glad that Kevin has a frieeeeeeend
Unfinished: Mistletoe
Kevin. What are you doing. Why is there a pug.
St. Bridget's: Telling Gilbert off and bringing Glen home
Is that a bunny in your pocket or are you just -- ehhhh.
The best not!boyfriend ever, obviously

To do: Exact order to be determined

Bandagey angsty funtimes
Werewolfing: Giving the puppies their collars
Revolution: In which Kevin gets shot in the head
Shot-in-head recovery times (cutey hammock snuggletimes?!)
Escape to FV
FV: Rescuing Kevin from himself and also Lacie, oops
Get Glen hurt somehow so Kevin finally gives up and jumps him
Werewolfing: In which Kevin decides to see whether Glen will protest being chewed on
Werewolfing: SQUIRREL
In which Glen and Kevin discover that close to wolftimes every month, amazing aggressive sex happens
Potential crack!wedding organized by bored Chains who want to have a party and are tired of waiting?

When Kevin woke up alone for the first time in months, he knew almost immediately that Glen was gone. If he were still human, he'd have looked everywhere for the man until he'd at least tracked down one of his Chains, and gotten confirmation from them that he was no longer in the world with them. But as it was, he could smell that the very spot he was laying on was the spot where Glen's trail had gone cold. The duke had vanished from the bed they shared as the knight slept.

That was well over a week ago now and in his head, Kevin's been lost ever since. He's done the best he can to take over Glen's duties around the house, and the Jabberwock, for whatever reason, has let him do it. But no matter how he tells himself that he's only minding things until Glen returns, and that he will, the atmosphere in the house rankles against him. Young Gilbert doesn't accept him -- not like this. The little Lacie pities him for the depth of his sadness; Lottie scoffs at him for thinking he can even attempt to fill Glen's shoes, even if he knows perfectly well he's only providing a poor substitute. With every day that passes, he feels more and more withdrawn, and so, when he can, Kevin escapes. He can be found wandering the city, now and again, letting the noise of it drown out his own thoughts. Or he can be found patrolling the fences around the farmlands as usual, perhaps in the hopes that the familiar solitude of it will help keep him in his right mind. But the truth is that Kevin hasn't felt this out of place and unsettled in at least a year, since he'd come to live in Glen's house in the first place. He'd thought he was home at last, that he'd found a new family and even a little peace. Now, it seems that all of that peace was in Glen all along, and Kevin has no idea when or if the duke will return.

But the most upsetting part of it all is what he does know. If Glen has really gone home, he's no doubt living through the Tragedy. Right now, somewhere, Kevin's Oswald is staring at the man who's broken his heart, there are swords raised between them, and the duke is maybe just realizing that he's going to die on that blade because Jack Vessalius never did love him enough.

And Kevin can't do anything about it.

Kevin had been absolutely alright with the idea that Oswald needed a vacation from being scary, and was totally glad to go along with him. He hadn't realized at all that he himself really needed the vacation, too. At home -- is it really home now...? -- he's only been off the Baskerville House's grounds once or twice since he recovered enough from his injury. That had been enough to discover that he was followed by whispers wherever he went. He was recognized. He lived with the demon duke. He shouldn't have been alive. No one dared to mess with him, and in a way he'd been glad to be given such a wide berth. Still, it had been weird, and left him feeling unsettled with his position in the world.

Now, he and the Duke of Baskerville are two guys walking down a street the same as everybody else, and he isn't even fully aware yet of the way he's unfolding.

They've been out in town since midmorning and had a wonderful lunch in some riverfront restaurant and now they're approaching the downtown area, and the longer they're out, the chattier Kevin gets. This doesn't mean much on a Kevin -- at his worst he gets up to one short sentence every few minutes, unprovoked -- but after the silence that accompanied getting shot, he's practically blabbing his head right off. He's alert and engaged and interested in what's going on around him. It isn't only that this world is entirely new to him, or that he's starting to get close to turning again and it's perking him up. It's that the stress of being known is off and it's just him and the man he considers to be his dearest friend today. If he were any more relaxed, he'd be half asleep.

Which is why when he catches a sugary sweet scent upon the wind, he thinks nothing of announcing, "I smell maple sugar," and turning on his heel to follow it without any warning whatsoever.

The Baskerville House has not fared well during recent events. When the local commoners took it into their heads to stage some sort of revolution against the nobles -- the rich aristocrats they were sure had to be hiding food away from them, but who weren't any better off at all -- the home of Glen Baskerville and his family was one of their first targets. People remembered seeing people leaving the house with a giant chicken, walking it like a pet. The two black-haired females routinely played in the dirt despite their expensive dresses, and the reclusive head of household was supposedly some sort of duke. Surely, surely --

Because the Chains had been out hunting at the time in a desperate attempt to find food, and because Glen hesitated to tarnish his already dubious reputation by striking back, they actually managed to pull it off. The children were abducted, but not before they heard the gunshot that should have killed Kevin, and almost did. Glen himself was taken, with the intention that an example would be made of him in the town square. When Lacie and the Chains discovered what had happened, the ensuing tantrum was terrible in its vengeance, and they utterly ruined Glen's attempts to keep his name unsullied. The demon duke, they're calling him now. Immortal, impervious to real injury, with terrible monsters answering his beck and call.

At least they've been cowed enough that the family is left alone, now.

They need the time. Glen's injuries would have killed a human being several times over; Kevin's brain is literally knitting itself back together piece by piece, and though he retains his human shape for the moment, his mind is more wolf than man. Gilbert and the little Lacie are back where they ought to be, but though neither were harmed in the attacks, the knowledge of what happened sits heavy on them, forcing them to acknowledge their powerlessness. The Chains are unsettled and angry. Big Lacie has hardly stopped growling.

The attack was a violation. People came into the house with the intent to murder and steal. That's how the whole house feels now -- shaken, mourning, at a loss. Now, everyone must comes to terms with it, and try to heal at the same time, and it isn't going to be an easy thing. Especially not with everyone holding so much private anger and pain...




[Recovery mingle log for after the revolution event, forward dated so we can get a headstart on it. Closed to the Baskerville House and their allies.]