Personality: Charles is childlike in appearance, and he's worlds more eerie for it; it doesn't quite match up with his demeanor, and it makes him seem precocious in a way that's easily unsettling. He's clearly an intelligent boy - well-spoken, elegant at his leisure - but devilish excitement tends to bring bursts of profanity, which he likes to use as an intimidation tactic by way of humiliation. Really, Charles does strive to intimidate— he assumes that he's frightening and seeks to play that up that as necessary (or on a whim). This intent to terrify, combined with what certainly appears to be a lack of conscience, makes him seem disturbingly removed from the childhood he should, apparently, be living. So, he’s not a child... but at the same time he is a child: he loves candy, he’s frightened of moths and other flying insects— irrationally so. If something doesn’t go his way, he’ll throw a tantrum: of the members of his kind, the Chevalier, he truly is the ‘baby brother,’ and they never hesitate to mock or punish him accordingly. His acquired wisdom - his sense of being aged - it exists, but it’s an underlying thing. Charles is crabby, Charles is crass, Charles adores goading— or, he did, but he was so thoroughly humbled by the time his death comes at him (that is, by the time I pull him from canon), that he will have moments and moods of resignation: he is a thing that lives, but shouldn’t, but does anyway. Life is very unfair, Charles feels. And life is undeserved by the weak (human beings, and perhaps himself).
Even so, he’s crushingly learned that certain soft and weak things deserve life after all, especially when it's swiftly taken away.
It’s really a testament to his twisted emotional development, that he’s only recently realized such a thing. Despite having long since passed the age of adulthood, Charles is such a child because he has been kept a child. The reason he was recreated as a Chevalier, in fact, was to be the playmate for a very childlike individual in the first place. His body stayed young, he was treated by the other Chevalier as though he was young, and so he acts young. Just— there’s a sense that he’s weathered, at the same time. His circumstances have left him stunted, and his days are spent reading and scheming, often alone. Charles has lasted the past fifty years or so, in fact, in relative isolation from the rest of his kind, keeping mostly with the men to whom he can give orders and taunt. It’s a chain of command, after all, and as he’s the lowest of the low when it comes to his ‘comrades,’ he can only flaunt himself to those insignificant creatures he does outrank. He'll give airy orders, he'll pull harshly on a man's necktie to bring them to the same level, and he'll also keep his great age a secret in order to make underlings feel belittled by someone more than half their age.
Charles has a great love for retribution and dramatics; he sings boldly during battle, quoting Hamlet and imitating Ophelia’s madness with a wild, reckless, cruel joy. He also weeps while giving himself a private reading of The Bible of all things, feeling very sorry for himself and commenting that 'even God makes things difficult,' explaining later on, "I was just feeling sorry for my loss." At one point, Charles likens stealing the innocent Riku Miyagusuku away from his family to kidnapping a princess, which makes it 'interesting' for him. As for his fondness for dishing out punishments— Saya Otonashi is the protagonist of the story, and she is also the only person able to kill Charles; she’d nearly done so, during the Vietnam War, but succeeded only in severing an arm while rendering him unable to regenerate it. This character-defining, life-altering incident has led Charles to be driven by one sick goal: an eye for an eye. Though she, during Charles’ first appearance in the story proper, has no memory of this, Charles is quite eager to exact revenge; he wants to make her suffer, and he wants to make her remember, and—
Well, it seems her wants her to die, but as she makes to kill him, he’s really very relieved.
Humans are lowly. This is a natural fact to Charles, and he fancies himself quite grand for the species he’s become; he tells a boy, You [...] are nothing more than a bag filled with blood. We live in different worlds. It’s perhaps unfortunate that he’d become irrevocably attached to this boy, Riku Miyagusuku, then; Charles’ firm and frightened belief that they could not coexist ultimately lead to his own death, and nearly to Riku’s. Charles’ ‘carektaker,’ a human man called Van Argeno, easily manipulated Charles into this belief, using Charles’ own dependency on him. The littlest Chevalier has, in his own words, always been alone, yet he begs for Van to stay at his side, offering his heart (literally— as in, the organ, tearing it out and offering it in his palm, so that Van might attain immortality himself) and weeping. (Charles is, in fact, surprisingly prone to crying.) Weeping leads to rage; rage leads to exhaustion; exhaustion leads to irritability, and this seems to be a pretty consistent cycle for such a scary monster. Basically, he’s in constant need of a nap. But he has his bright moments, his joyful noise, though it’s generally borne of some sort of sadism or juvenile whimsy. He enjoys spilling blood, he enjoys hunting games— so long as he has the higher ground, of course. Things are like toys, or mice, or dogs to be ordered about: he takes pleasure in teasing, taunting, and lording himself coyly.
It's interesting, however, how exactly that pleasure may choose to manifest itself at any given time. Higher levels of excitement bring a sicker sort of glee, filled with profanity and childish cruelty, but other cases have him enjoying himself while being very refined. He acts and is treated as a Lord, as nobility (and it seems implied that he was perhaps of noble blood, before his turning), and surrounds himself with wealth and taste. His manor, his clothing, and... well, most of what he keeps, in fact— they're largely outdated, and this, along with his obsession with Saya, and other instances of laser-guided focus, points to him fixating on the past: he finds something prominent and will hold onto it for years and years.
His pining after days gone by is the only steady relationship he's been able to keep with anything, in fact. Relationships and ties in general are a problem for Charles. Cast down by his previous peers, he holds for them fear rather than faith, and humankind as a whole is unworthy of his trust. This is what he says, at least: the boy Riku Miyagusuku had earned that trust, by the end, and it made Charles cry and cry - "I never even wanted to trust humans!" Another Chevalier, Solomon, comments that Riku brings out Charles' 'shy side' - he interacts awkwardly with Riku, trying and failing to frighten the boy and blushing furiously when offered such simple yet genuine kindness and companionship. Though the two spent only a small amount of time near each other, most of that was spent with each other; they read together, sat together, and Charles (re-?)learned the sweetness of a human boy. Then, of course, aforementioned disaster did strike, so Charles is either proven right or fate is just incredibly cruel to him. (He's absolutely the type to claim the latter, and sulk about his hard existence. If Saya hadn't been the one to kill him, he'd have ended up drowning in his own self-pity.)
More easily summed up, Charles is a very small terror who's caught between personality traits attributed to both his age and the youth of his face. Demanding, vindictive, and somehow endearingly awkward if you catch him just right, Charles is in a place emotionally where he does realize the value of life—
But it still doesn't mean his respect can be earned so easily.
Abilites: Charles is no longer a human boy: he is a Chevalier, ‘the noblest and highest life to walk on Earth’ (which is a self-proclaimed boast, but one that may hold water). More accurately, he’s what’s called a Chiropteran, more thoroughly described here. Though he was ‘removed from the line of Chevaliers’ due to his own shortcomings, it’s still essentially his species, and so it grants him a great deal: his body naturally comes with enhanced speed, strength, and senses.
He’s immortal— or, he can regenerate nearly instantaneously, but it’s theorized that if you barrage a Chevalier too quickly for it to be able to pull itself together, and then ‘kill’ it, it will actually die. (The only proven way to kill any Chiropteran is to inject it with the blood of a certain Queen Chiropteran.) As a note: The wikia link sent regarding Chiropterans states that Chevaliers can be killed by decapitation. This is apparently not factual in the manga version. Furthermore, he states that his own blood can grant a human immortality. This is never demonstrated, however, so the details are unclear.
His body has ceased aging and will never begin again; his hands, when he had them both, were able to shift into extremely large, monstrous claws. Now that he’s left with only one arm, his remaining hand is still able to do so, as pictured. Its skin is remarkably thick, impenetrable by something so simple as bullets or blades, and its claws can effortlessly cleave through bone and then some.
Brashness aside, Charles is very intelligent (even capable of strategizing when he's in the mood for it), as well as multilingual, ranging from at least proficient to fluent in, at minimum, French, Vietnamese, Japanese, English, and German. He's also got a wicked lovely voice, be it for opera or recitations (and that's when he's not singing at a tone too high for humankind to hear, similar to bat-like pitches, in order to draw out or lead the lowest creatures of the chiropteran family). And, he's well-read, with a quick memory, spouting Biblical and Shakespearean verse with ease.
Other: Of course, please let me know if any clarifications are needed!
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charles / blood+ / reserved (3/4)
Even so, he’s crushingly learned that certain soft and weak things deserve life after all, especially when it's swiftly taken away.
It’s really a testament to his twisted emotional development, that he’s only recently realized such a thing. Despite having long since passed the age of adulthood, Charles is such a child because he has been kept a child. The reason he was recreated as a Chevalier, in fact, was to be the playmate for a very childlike individual in the first place. His body stayed young, he was treated by the other Chevalier as though he was young, and so he acts young. Just— there’s a sense that he’s weathered, at the same time. His circumstances have left him stunted, and his days are spent reading and scheming, often alone. Charles has lasted the past fifty years or so, in fact, in relative isolation from the rest of his kind, keeping mostly with the men to whom he can give orders and taunt. It’s a chain of command, after all, and as he’s the lowest of the low when it comes to his ‘comrades,’ he can only flaunt himself to those insignificant creatures he does outrank. He'll give airy orders, he'll pull harshly on a man's necktie to bring them to the same level, and he'll also keep his great age a secret in order to make underlings feel belittled by someone more than half their age.
Charles has a great love for retribution and dramatics; he sings boldly during battle, quoting Hamlet and imitating Ophelia’s madness with a wild, reckless, cruel joy. He also weeps while giving himself a private reading of The Bible of all things, feeling very sorry for himself and commenting that 'even God makes things difficult,' explaining later on, "I was just feeling sorry for my loss." At one point, Charles likens stealing the innocent Riku Miyagusuku away from his family to kidnapping a princess, which makes it 'interesting' for him. As for his fondness for dishing out punishments— Saya Otonashi is the protagonist of the story, and she is also the only person able to kill Charles; she’d nearly done so, during the Vietnam War, but succeeded only in severing an arm while rendering him unable to regenerate it. This character-defining, life-altering incident has led Charles to be driven by one sick goal: an eye for an eye. Though she, during Charles’ first appearance in the story proper, has no memory of this, Charles is quite eager to exact revenge; he wants to make her suffer, and he wants to make her remember, and—
Well, it seems her wants her to die, but as she makes to kill him, he’s really very relieved.
Humans are lowly. This is a natural fact to Charles, and he fancies himself quite grand for the species he’s become; he tells a boy, You [...] are nothing more than a bag filled with blood. We live in different worlds. It’s perhaps unfortunate that he’d become irrevocably attached to this boy, Riku Miyagusuku, then; Charles’ firm and frightened belief that they could not coexist ultimately lead to his own death, and nearly to Riku’s. Charles’ ‘carektaker,’ a human man called Van Argeno, easily manipulated Charles into this belief, using Charles’ own dependency on him. The littlest Chevalier has, in his own words, always been alone, yet he begs for Van to stay at his side, offering his heart (literally— as in, the organ, tearing it out and offering it in his palm, so that Van might attain immortality himself) and weeping. (Charles is, in fact, surprisingly prone to crying.) Weeping leads to rage; rage leads to exhaustion; exhaustion leads to irritability, and this seems to be a pretty consistent cycle for such a scary monster. Basically, he’s in constant need of a nap. But he has his bright moments, his joyful noise, though it’s generally borne of some sort of sadism or juvenile whimsy. He enjoys spilling blood, he enjoys hunting games— so long as he has the higher ground, of course. Things are like toys, or mice, or dogs to be ordered about: he takes pleasure in teasing, taunting, and lording himself coyly.
It's interesting, however, how exactly that pleasure may choose to manifest itself at any given time. Higher levels of excitement bring a sicker sort of glee, filled with profanity and childish cruelty, but other cases have him enjoying himself while being very refined. He acts and is treated as a Lord, as nobility (and it seems implied that he was perhaps of noble blood, before his turning), and surrounds himself with wealth and taste. His manor, his clothing, and... well, most of what he keeps, in fact— they're largely outdated, and this, along with his obsession with Saya, and other instances of laser-guided focus, points to him fixating on the past: he finds something prominent and will hold onto it for years and years.
His pining after days gone by is the only steady relationship he's been able to keep with anything, in fact. Relationships and ties in general are a problem for Charles. Cast down by his previous peers, he holds for them fear rather than faith, and humankind as a whole is unworthy of his trust. This is what he says, at least: the boy Riku Miyagusuku had earned that trust, by the end, and it made Charles cry and cry - "I never even wanted to trust humans!" Another Chevalier, Solomon, comments that Riku brings out Charles' 'shy side' - he interacts awkwardly with Riku, trying and failing to frighten the boy and blushing furiously when offered such simple yet genuine kindness and companionship. Though the two spent only a small amount of time near each other, most of that was spent with each other; they read together, sat together, and Charles (re-?)learned the sweetness of a human boy. Then, of course, aforementioned disaster did strike, so Charles is either proven right or fate is just incredibly cruel to him. (He's absolutely the type to claim the latter, and sulk about his hard existence. If Saya hadn't been the one to kill him, he'd have ended up drowning in his own self-pity.)
More easily summed up, Charles is a very small terror who's caught between personality traits attributed to both his age and the youth of his face. Demanding, vindictive, and somehow endearingly awkward if you catch him just right, Charles is in a place emotionally where he does realize the value of life—
But it still doesn't mean his respect can be earned so easily.
Abilites: Charles is no longer a human boy: he is a Chevalier, ‘the noblest and highest life to walk on Earth’ (which is a self-proclaimed boast, but one that may hold water). More accurately, he’s what’s called a Chiropteran, more thoroughly described here. Though he was ‘removed from the line of Chevaliers’ due to his own shortcomings, it’s still essentially his species, and so it grants him a great deal: his body naturally comes with enhanced speed, strength, and senses.
He’s immortal— or, he can regenerate nearly instantaneously, but it’s theorized that if you barrage a Chevalier too quickly for it to be able to pull itself together, and then ‘kill’ it, it will actually die. (The only proven way to kill any Chiropteran is to inject it with the blood of a certain Queen Chiropteran.) As a note: The wikia link sent regarding Chiropterans states that Chevaliers can be killed by decapitation. This is apparently not factual in the manga version. Furthermore, he states that his own blood can grant a human immortality. This is never demonstrated, however, so the details are unclear.
His body has ceased aging and will never begin again; his hands, when he had them both, were able to shift into extremely large, monstrous claws. Now that he’s left with only one arm, his remaining hand is still able to do so, as pictured. Its skin is remarkably thick, impenetrable by something so simple as bullets or blades, and its claws can effortlessly cleave through bone and then some.
Brashness aside, Charles is very intelligent (even capable of strategizing when he's in the mood for it), as well as multilingual, ranging from at least proficient to fluent in, at minimum, French, Vietnamese, Japanese, English, and German. He's also got a wicked lovely voice, be it for opera or recitations (and that's when he's not singing at a tone too high for humankind to hear, similar to bat-like pitches, in order to draw out or lead the lowest creatures of the chiropteran family). And, he's well-read, with a quick memory, spouting Biblical and Shakespearean verse with ease.
Other: Of course, please let me know if any clarifications are needed!