Xerxes Break (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
almost_elderly) wrote2024-05-26 11:59 am
almost_elderly) wrote2024-05-26 11:59 am
Info Post
All of Break's previous information can be found here.
Name: Xerxes Break, though in some cases, he is once again willing to hear his old name.
Age: Fifty-six upon arrival, with his fifty-seventh birthday shortly after.
Appearance: Break still dresses much the same way as he did a decade ago -- dress shirts and vests with his jeans when he wants to look respectable, t-shirts and jeans when he doesn't care so much, hoodies in the cold weather that he (still) steals from Liam, and his big evil boots to go with everything. The old ponytail from days long since past is back, and when it's down, his hair reaches his mid-back again. He still wears his glasses and armwarmers, though the armwarmers are more because he likes to have his hands warm than because he feels the need to hide anything. They often disappear entirely in the summer.
The most noticeable difference is that Break's body has begun to take on a wiry appearance. He's still in excellent shape and strong as ever, but he's been alive for quite a long time and it's starting to show. In a way, he looks like a weathered old house -- more than capable of standing tall and offering warmth and protection, but the shiny paint job is long gone, and in places, it's maybe gone a little warped.
There are crow's feet lines at his eye, always. The lines around his mouth are most obvious when he smiles. Over the next five years or so, the wrinkles will start to become more and more obvious.
Personality: Break retains his nasty habit of trolling the shit out of everybody, but in many ways, he's calmed down considerably over the past decade -- he no longer goes out of his way to harass people, and his demeanor is gentler overall. Those who knew him well when he was younger may think that he seems tired. That's because he is. The sheer weight of his own life has slowed him down, even if the jokes and teasing will never stop entirely.
This new calmness isn't weariness alone, however. He's also steadier than he once was -- perhaps steadier than he's ever been in his life -- and more at peace. Though he can't run around so much anymore, he never misses an opportunity to play with the kids in his life, and Break is well satisfied with the way he's now able to support the people he cares about. It took him half a century to really get it down, but he's a happy man.
History: For many years after his battle with cancer, Break floated aimlessly, allowing life to happen as it would. The illness had essentially uprooted him. All of his same loved ones were there and he still enjoyed many of the same things, but while he'd been essentially out of commission, the younger members of his group of friends grew up and -- to his mind -- left him behind. Life became quiet and rather dull, days spent reading and knitting and enjoying Liam's company, occasionally venturing to Pandora or Rainsworth to harass whoever was available.
During this time, Break became rather painfully aware of just how little by way of planning he'd ever put into himself. With virtually no obligations, he was suddenly free to do whatever he liked, but he had no idea just what he wanted most. Whatever dreams he'd had as a boy had been long ago derailed by the death of his father, when he dropped out of school to support the rest of his family. After the deaths of the Sinclairs, for the most part, he'd been focused on his own grief; finally pulling out of it, he'd done whatever the Rainsworths had asked of him. How was he supposed to find a direction on his own after forty years of drifting in and out of service to other people?
When Break was around forty-seven years old, his Sharon married her long term boyfriend, putting Break in charge of altering Shelly's wedding dress on her behalf. This did not help his situation; he hated the boyfriend simply because the man was a man who was dating the woman Break had come to see as his "little girl", and he resisted the notion of her growing up for good. The sulk he'd been working on as everyone drifted away became an outright snit at that time, a case of empty-nest syndrome that colored everything he did. Even his Shelly told him to find something constructive to do at this time, but no one had any ideas that seemed to fit. He could volunteer for causes he liked, but that always became hard in the winter when the weather turned foul. He could knit for charity, but he already did that. None of the kids who'd grown up on him had their own yet for him to spoil. He was at a loss, and that loss lasted for several years.
As it happened, life intervened for him again not long after Sharon's marriage. In one of life's random connections, Break and Liam found themselves helping out Ada Nightray by picking her up and driving her home after work -- she'd broken an ankle and needed help getting around, and Break and Liam were the car owners closest to her school. Waiting around after hours to bring her home, they wound up meeting two young girls, Jessie and Molly, whose foster family often neglected to pick them up from school on time. Over the course of a few short weeks, as they became loose friends with the two girls, they discovered accidentally that the system had failed yet again and the girls' foster mother was an alcoholic canon waiting to go off. The father wasn't much better, doing nothing about his wife's behavior and cracking down on any and all attempts to protest an almost military rule over the household. When the shit hit the fan, Break and Liam were around to hear about it, and stepped forward to offer the girls a safe space. They ultimately wound up deciding to foster them themselves, and in the span of only a few days, Break and Liam admitted they were married and found themselves to be parents.
While they were at it, Break admitted he was English, too.
As it so often does, sudden parenthood brought about a lot of changes. Break had always been convinced that he was terrible with children and didn't trust himself to be a decent parental figure. In the end, however, he was underestimating himself. His time with the youngest Sinclair daughter, Sharon Rainsworth as she went through her teenage years, and Liam's nieces every Christmas had given him experience with kids that he hadn't realized he had. They went on the hunt for a house and Liam surprised him by snatching up the house that had always been Break's favorite in the neighborhood that Barma and the Rainsworths lived in -- an old gray Victorian that looked haunted in every sense of the word -- and the four of them (and the cat) settled down to be a strange little family. A year or two later, Sharon gave birth to little Shelby Rainsworth, and Break promptly forgave her husband for existing. Provided with new kids to look after, Break began to settle down.
Though he was happy, it wasn't quite enough. He still wanted to have his nose in everyone's business, and had little to do with himself when other people weren't around. Finally, Liam began to get more pushy about his occasional suggestions that Break go back to school, and successfully bullied him into taking the SAT. His high marks were a surprise only to Break. Liam's attempts to get him to go to college where met with protests that he still had no idea what he would actually study, but the allure of the degree he's always felt a little inferior for not having led him to tentatively apply, if nothing else. He applied to Boston University, Boston College, and just for laughs, Harvard. Harvard was the only one to reject him. While he kept the applications mostly secret, once he was accepted, Liam promptly snitched on him, and every single person in the group ganged up on him to press him into going back to school. So it was that at the age of fifty-five, Break found himself enrolled at Boston College, working towards a degree in history with a concentration in medieval studies. What he's going to do with it after, he has no idea, but he admits that the diploma will look nice on the wall.
There was one more change that his acceptance to BC brought about. The more family oriented Break became, the more his thoughts began to turn toward the family he'd left behind, when he ceased to be Kevin and became Xerxes instead. After his enrollment, Break finally found it within himself to get into contact with his mother so that he could tell her that he was finally returning to school, just as she'd always wanted. Within the month he was back in England for a proper visit, catching up with the Regnards, surprised to find that his remaining family not only accepted him back but snatched him into their fold so quickly it left him disoriented. His brother was grown and widowed and came with a couple of children who latched onto their new uncle almost immediately. His circus-performer cousin heard he was around and drifted by, cackling at him just as he always had. And before the next six months had passed, Break's mother was visiting him in Boston, meeting the family her son had been building for himself in his decades away from her. She and Shelly Rainsworth hit it off in an almost horrifying fashion, and there's no longer a week that goes by without correspondence of some kind. More visits are planned as Break and his family work to expose their children to both sides of the pond.
Now, closer to sixty than not, the more Break thinks about it the more settled he feels. One by one, every loose end he can think of is being tied off, and the more they disappear the better he's able to accept the bits of his past that he'll never be able to change. The mistakes he's made in the past are only regrets now, rather than weights to be crippled by, and he's able to mourn them now and again without wallowing in it. For the first time in his life, Xerxes Break -- Kevin Regnard -- feels like a properly whole person, and the next decade is shaping up to be the best of his life.
Tattoos: Break no longer bothers to hide his tattoos -- after all, he has finally completed the sleeve on his left arm. Along with the Regnard crest that was always on his shoulder, his tattoos on that arm now include the head of a lion, celtic knotwork, another sword, a skull or two, bats, and some teapots, among other things. It's as weird and chaotic as the rest of him, and suits him well. Some of his older tattoos have had touch-ups, as well, and Break's body is in many ways a splash of color now.
There is one more tattoo planned. Kevin Regnard wanted a dragon on his chest; Xerxes Break got a firebird instead. After Break graduates, he plans to get his dragon at last, letting it curve around his back in a way that will let it fly onto the other side of his chest -- coming around full circle to meet the firebird. It will be the tie of his very last loose end, a symbol of the fact that he is both Xerxes Break and Kevin Regnard all at once, and that no matter what name he goes by he's going to be the same person underneath.
Scars: The scars from his previous time in the DR -- the clawmarks on his leg, the scar on the back of his knee, and the one to his side -- have vanished. All of his other scars remain the same, and though there are a few more small ones here and there, no other significant scars have been added.
Accessories: Break wears the ring Liam gave him openly now, assuming he doesn't have his armwarmers on. He keeps a purple stud in his old ear piercing just for fun, but his hair hides it. The necklace Liam gave him in the DR has somehow appeared in their own world, too, and he wears it every day. When his collar shifts enough, it can be seen easily.
Name: Xerxes Break, though in some cases, he is once again willing to hear his old name.
Age: Fifty-six upon arrival, with his fifty-seventh birthday shortly after.
Appearance: Break still dresses much the same way as he did a decade ago -- dress shirts and vests with his jeans when he wants to look respectable, t-shirts and jeans when he doesn't care so much, hoodies in the cold weather that he (still) steals from Liam, and his big evil boots to go with everything. The old ponytail from days long since past is back, and when it's down, his hair reaches his mid-back again. He still wears his glasses and armwarmers, though the armwarmers are more because he likes to have his hands warm than because he feels the need to hide anything. They often disappear entirely in the summer.
The most noticeable difference is that Break's body has begun to take on a wiry appearance. He's still in excellent shape and strong as ever, but he's been alive for quite a long time and it's starting to show. In a way, he looks like a weathered old house -- more than capable of standing tall and offering warmth and protection, but the shiny paint job is long gone, and in places, it's maybe gone a little warped.
There are crow's feet lines at his eye, always. The lines around his mouth are most obvious when he smiles. Over the next five years or so, the wrinkles will start to become more and more obvious.
Personality: Break retains his nasty habit of trolling the shit out of everybody, but in many ways, he's calmed down considerably over the past decade -- he no longer goes out of his way to harass people, and his demeanor is gentler overall. Those who knew him well when he was younger may think that he seems tired. That's because he is. The sheer weight of his own life has slowed him down, even if the jokes and teasing will never stop entirely.
This new calmness isn't weariness alone, however. He's also steadier than he once was -- perhaps steadier than he's ever been in his life -- and more at peace. Though he can't run around so much anymore, he never misses an opportunity to play with the kids in his life, and Break is well satisfied with the way he's now able to support the people he cares about. It took him half a century to really get it down, but he's a happy man.
History: For many years after his battle with cancer, Break floated aimlessly, allowing life to happen as it would. The illness had essentially uprooted him. All of his same loved ones were there and he still enjoyed many of the same things, but while he'd been essentially out of commission, the younger members of his group of friends grew up and -- to his mind -- left him behind. Life became quiet and rather dull, days spent reading and knitting and enjoying Liam's company, occasionally venturing to Pandora or Rainsworth to harass whoever was available.
During this time, Break became rather painfully aware of just how little by way of planning he'd ever put into himself. With virtually no obligations, he was suddenly free to do whatever he liked, but he had no idea just what he wanted most. Whatever dreams he'd had as a boy had been long ago derailed by the death of his father, when he dropped out of school to support the rest of his family. After the deaths of the Sinclairs, for the most part, he'd been focused on his own grief; finally pulling out of it, he'd done whatever the Rainsworths had asked of him. How was he supposed to find a direction on his own after forty years of drifting in and out of service to other people?
When Break was around forty-seven years old, his Sharon married her long term boyfriend, putting Break in charge of altering Shelly's wedding dress on her behalf. This did not help his situation; he hated the boyfriend simply because the man was a man who was dating the woman Break had come to see as his "little girl", and he resisted the notion of her growing up for good. The sulk he'd been working on as everyone drifted away became an outright snit at that time, a case of empty-nest syndrome that colored everything he did. Even his Shelly told him to find something constructive to do at this time, but no one had any ideas that seemed to fit. He could volunteer for causes he liked, but that always became hard in the winter when the weather turned foul. He could knit for charity, but he already did that. None of the kids who'd grown up on him had their own yet for him to spoil. He was at a loss, and that loss lasted for several years.
As it happened, life intervened for him again not long after Sharon's marriage. In one of life's random connections, Break and Liam found themselves helping out Ada Nightray by picking her up and driving her home after work -- she'd broken an ankle and needed help getting around, and Break and Liam were the car owners closest to her school. Waiting around after hours to bring her home, they wound up meeting two young girls, Jessie and Molly, whose foster family often neglected to pick them up from school on time. Over the course of a few short weeks, as they became loose friends with the two girls, they discovered accidentally that the system had failed yet again and the girls' foster mother was an alcoholic canon waiting to go off. The father wasn't much better, doing nothing about his wife's behavior and cracking down on any and all attempts to protest an almost military rule over the household. When the shit hit the fan, Break and Liam were around to hear about it, and stepped forward to offer the girls a safe space. They ultimately wound up deciding to foster them themselves, and in the span of only a few days, Break and Liam admitted they were married and found themselves to be parents.
While they were at it, Break admitted he was English, too.
As it so often does, sudden parenthood brought about a lot of changes. Break had always been convinced that he was terrible with children and didn't trust himself to be a decent parental figure. In the end, however, he was underestimating himself. His time with the youngest Sinclair daughter, Sharon Rainsworth as she went through her teenage years, and Liam's nieces every Christmas had given him experience with kids that he hadn't realized he had. They went on the hunt for a house and Liam surprised him by snatching up the house that had always been Break's favorite in the neighborhood that Barma and the Rainsworths lived in -- an old gray Victorian that looked haunted in every sense of the word -- and the four of them (and the cat) settled down to be a strange little family. A year or two later, Sharon gave birth to little Shelby Rainsworth, and Break promptly forgave her husband for existing. Provided with new kids to look after, Break began to settle down.
Though he was happy, it wasn't quite enough. He still wanted to have his nose in everyone's business, and had little to do with himself when other people weren't around. Finally, Liam began to get more pushy about his occasional suggestions that Break go back to school, and successfully bullied him into taking the SAT. His high marks were a surprise only to Break. Liam's attempts to get him to go to college where met with protests that he still had no idea what he would actually study, but the allure of the degree he's always felt a little inferior for not having led him to tentatively apply, if nothing else. He applied to Boston University, Boston College, and just for laughs, Harvard. Harvard was the only one to reject him. While he kept the applications mostly secret, once he was accepted, Liam promptly snitched on him, and every single person in the group ganged up on him to press him into going back to school. So it was that at the age of fifty-five, Break found himself enrolled at Boston College, working towards a degree in history with a concentration in medieval studies. What he's going to do with it after, he has no idea, but he admits that the diploma will look nice on the wall.
There was one more change that his acceptance to BC brought about. The more family oriented Break became, the more his thoughts began to turn toward the family he'd left behind, when he ceased to be Kevin and became Xerxes instead. After his enrollment, Break finally found it within himself to get into contact with his mother so that he could tell her that he was finally returning to school, just as she'd always wanted. Within the month he was back in England for a proper visit, catching up with the Regnards, surprised to find that his remaining family not only accepted him back but snatched him into their fold so quickly it left him disoriented. His brother was grown and widowed and came with a couple of children who latched onto their new uncle almost immediately. His circus-performer cousin heard he was around and drifted by, cackling at him just as he always had. And before the next six months had passed, Break's mother was visiting him in Boston, meeting the family her son had been building for himself in his decades away from her. She and Shelly Rainsworth hit it off in an almost horrifying fashion, and there's no longer a week that goes by without correspondence of some kind. More visits are planned as Break and his family work to expose their children to both sides of the pond.
Now, closer to sixty than not, the more Break thinks about it the more settled he feels. One by one, every loose end he can think of is being tied off, and the more they disappear the better he's able to accept the bits of his past that he'll never be able to change. The mistakes he's made in the past are only regrets now, rather than weights to be crippled by, and he's able to mourn them now and again without wallowing in it. For the first time in his life, Xerxes Break -- Kevin Regnard -- feels like a properly whole person, and the next decade is shaping up to be the best of his life.
Tattoos: Break no longer bothers to hide his tattoos -- after all, he has finally completed the sleeve on his left arm. Along with the Regnard crest that was always on his shoulder, his tattoos on that arm now include the head of a lion, celtic knotwork, another sword, a skull or two, bats, and some teapots, among other things. It's as weird and chaotic as the rest of him, and suits him well. Some of his older tattoos have had touch-ups, as well, and Break's body is in many ways a splash of color now.
There is one more tattoo planned. Kevin Regnard wanted a dragon on his chest; Xerxes Break got a firebird instead. After Break graduates, he plans to get his dragon at last, letting it curve around his back in a way that will let it fly onto the other side of his chest -- coming around full circle to meet the firebird. It will be the tie of his very last loose end, a symbol of the fact that he is both Xerxes Break and Kevin Regnard all at once, and that no matter what name he goes by he's going to be the same person underneath.
Scars: The scars from his previous time in the DR -- the clawmarks on his leg, the scar on the back of his knee, and the one to his side -- have vanished. All of his other scars remain the same, and though there are a few more small ones here and there, no other significant scars have been added.
Accessories: Break wears the ring Liam gave him openly now, assuming he doesn't have his armwarmers on. He keeps a purple stud in his old ear piercing just for fun, but his hair hides it. The necklace Liam gave him in the DR has somehow appeared in their own world, too, and he wears it every day. When his collar shifts enough, it can be seen easily.
