Not me making the umpteenth post about this very panel, but, bc I have only so much to go by here ;_; this panel has some funny underlying subtext because at the first glance, this seems like a very normal, very formal conversation between two people who are more or less strangers but--
1.] Break knows her name now?
interesting that Break addresses her as Miss Lottie here, and not little miss (flirty (derogatory)) like in the Sablier arc.
so, my guess is that he really did not know her name then, because he simply followed Oz (eye of the cyclone lmao) hoping to find some Baskervilles targeting him as they did in the Lutwidge. In fact, Oz himself wanted to do the same, put himself out there as bait for the Baskervilles before deciding to venture into Sablier.
(Funny how Break shoots down Oz's idea of meeting the Baskervilles with the excuse that they might be following absolute orders and hence, useless to negotiate with. and then..... proceeds to do the same lol)
[more under the cut cuz I can't shut up about these two lol]
Also, in the same chapter, Oz lets slip Zwei's name in their conversation which Break silently registers--
all in all, the most names among the Baskervilles he would have known by the time of Sablier arc is Zwei's.
meaning, after returning from his meet-cute meeting with Lottie, he must have set about trying to find out her name. Since they don't have internet in those times, only way to get information is to manually dig around.
but... of course, that is not possible just like that, right? Break cannot ask around a Baskerville's name without raising a bunch of questions, facing trouble from the Pandora (which is why he even hid the Intention's desire from them), ntm, nobody even knew any of the Baskervilles, much less their names.
Well, nobody except Oz. Oz did get to meet the Baskervilles and see and hear them interacting. during which time, Fang and Doug did call out Lottie's name a bunch of times. so obvs Oz should know her name. however, it's up in the air whether he would remember, rather want to remember the name of the girl who stomped all over his chest?
so this means Break really went that extra mile to manipulate this information out of Oz without rousing his suspicions. Oz is too smart for his own good, mind you. The slightest misstep, he is going to figure out what Break was planning:
and from this panel, it appears he didn't want anyone (including Oz and Gil) to know what he had been planning with the Baskervilles. and now even we, the readers, will never know lol
He must have asked Oz to recount his experiences from Lutwidge for him again and got him to slip up her name, the way Oz did for Zwei. Sneaky, so sneaky!
sooooo, while everyone was busy putting together two and two about the Tragedy of Sablier and whatnot, Break here was trying to squeeze out the name of the girl he met in a dungeon someday before he went fully blind (he was fated to see her just once, he can never see her again.) lmaooo what kind of shoujo manga plot was he playing out here?
2.] Lottie expected to meet him again?
This is a little more obvious but funny (to me) nevertheless. when Break puts his sword at her throat, Lottie doesn't even blink or get startled, merely sighs and goes: oh yeah I was wondering why the hell you didn't show up?
But for some reason I felt you'd show your face here.
So, I don't think she means Break making an appearance at Yura's party. That's way too obvious. Rainsworths, and by extension, Break their important valet, are invited and are going to be present here.
No, this means she had a feeling Break would slip out of there and come out here to have a tête-à-tête with her which is just... ??? How was she so sure? Was she looking forward to it? Waiting for him to write her a letter to her hiding place in Sablier or something? Waiting for him to come there just as her lion knocked down Yura? She wasn't in the least fazed! just goes, oh yeah I was waiting for you >_>
Because logically, Break surely went radio silent the whole of the month(?), right? Owing to his untimely blindness, whatever plans he might have had for her also must have cut off. Unless he got help from another person which he didn't seem to want, esp. not in this case, which, for whatever reason, he wanted to keep a complete secret. And in spite of this radio silence, Lottie doesn't think he was bluffing or stood her up at Sablier. She actually seems quite prepared to meet him here? I wonder how many times she turned the scenario over and over in her mind since they met and parted, and got more irritated what the hell did he mean and if he did mean something, why can't he contact her again?
because, the very first thing she demands of him is an explanation of what he meant by his words at Sablier
and surprisingly, this.... surprises him? at least enough to sheathe his sword and start talking properly to her??? (a huge thing bc Break never gives a straight answer; he is always talking in riddles and annoying everyone on purpose)
just popped by to say that I really like your Pandora Hearts related stuff! Not many people still involved in this fandom and even less in that ship ;)
BTW, I haven't seen it anywhere in your analyses so I wonder whether you know about the existence of this older official card deck. It has rather interesting choice of colours for certain characters ;)
Have a nice day!
DEAR ANON I am so sorry I am answering this ask so late (but like I couldn't have answered it earlier even if I wanted to 😭)
But,,,, BUT..... ahhhh this is one rare ask about my favorite ship that has been living rent-free in my head for months and I couldn't see it before now (it's a month late I am really sorry orz)
//even less in that ship ;)// lolol there is me and only me involved in this ship *sad lonely rarepair noises* but I just can't help but ship them cuz they click so well in my head ghfjksl
ahfjkl I confess I had no idea about the existence of the older official card deck until you tell me now! annnnd //rather interesting choice of colours for certain characters ;)// SCREAMINFhsjgk whaaaatt wdym "interesting choice"???? omggg why is this so tantalizing??? anon, dear anon please come back i beg you come back and give me that small piece of canon(? maybe?) content for my ship I am literally in tears lol 😭😭😭 (until then, I am going to be here making up all sorts of scenarios for whatever might be in the card deck ghfjfk)
Really thank you so much for this ask ❤❤!! It was a pleasant surprise when I opened my inbox today (and found this is actually, really about my fav ship!!! I am screaming rn 🥺😭)
Have a nice rest of the day you too!! And a very happy new year ahead!!!
So, I was trying to figure out a bit of the timeline for a fic and found this interesting (to me) something here: (this is a fun analysis and probs won't go in the direction you expect lol)
The events between Retrace 42 to Retrace 45 happen over one and a half day at the most. Something in this order:
Break wakes up after being bedridden for three days, finds that he is almost fully blind,
Oz and gang have a discussion in his bedroom,
They prepare to find the second seal at Rytas' place, Sharon insists on joining them
They arrive at the village as per Duke Barma's orders and meet up with Gruner
Next day: The fight between Marie and Oz goes down, Rytas acknowledges his right to be shown the seal
Finally the Head Hunter attacks, kills every one present and destroys the Seal.
Next, in Retrace 45, we find Vincent and Ada on a date and they discuss the Head Hunter as well. (which is being discussed at around the same time by Leo and Elliot)
He asks her to tell everything about herself, her father, her uncle Oscar whom he is targeting for the Key to the Door of the Abyss. And this, if you remember, he mentions as part of his plan to obtain the Key in his discussions with the Baskervilles in Retrace 46.
Which means... the Vince-Baskervilles discussion happened before his date with Ada, or let's say, sometime after the Head Hunter attacked Rytas Mansion. Or, maybe, even on the same day cuz, of course, news spreads fast, you know.
Same day, the day the Seal got destroyed, which if you keep count of, is 3/3.5/4 days after the Sablier Arc, the day after Break woke up.
So here, the second seal has already been destroyed and Lottie is questioning why the chain Head Hunter, having some involvement with the Nightrays, is destroying the seals (supposed to be the Baskervilles' job)
Well, we know the answer to this, but that's not the interesting thing I wanted to point out.
It's that Lottie was mad af right from the start of this conversation. She is so grumpy here and even slams the seat to silence the group, which.... is so unlike her.
Because, she is usually the noisy and talkative one in this group. Back in the Lutwidge arc, Fang was struggling to keep her under control when they kidnapped Oz. (It's only after Fang died, she became full-on depressed.) But here, Fang, who is the voice of reason in this little ragtag group, is carefree and chatty and playing with Lily. Even the silent Doug is playing chess with Vincent.
It's strange that only Lottie should be so serious and frustrated here.
On reading this for the first time, I assumed this conversation is happening a week after the Seal was broken. annnnd, so, it didn't make any sense to me why she should be mad for so long either. She generally gives me the impression of being cool headed over most things.
But this is just utmost four days after Sablier.
So, my (not so) secret headcanon is that she is still mad, not at the Baskervilles for not getting to the second seal fast enough, not at the Head Hunter for breaking the seal either..... but at Break (lmao) cuz she is still not over what happened to her. As in, she is still confused frustrated because she couldn't get why and what the guy was aiming at?
As I said, this is interesting to me cuz I wanted to see her reaction after Sablier. I thought we never see it cuz the next time we see Break and Lottie interact again is at Isla Yura's place. They never ever openly react to anything nor openly give their inner thoughts that I have to pick up from small things like this.
Anyway, to continue, I imagined the Vince-Ada date in Retrace 46 and the dungeon scene happens as a continuity to the one in Retrace 45. that is, Vince and Ada roamed around the park for some time, visited the opera following which she takes him home.
But, their clothes are different in both? I suppose these are different dates they went on.
So no clear timeline of when the Opera Hall date happens. But the one in the park is definitely after he discusses his problem and solution of targeting Uncle Oscar through Ada with the Baskervilles.
This isn't a parallel or anything; just me crying and laughing and essentially delighted over the fact that mochijun is taking time to let Vanitas and Domi relax and bond over tea, a complete fabulous makeover and Noe
while Break and Lottie just ran out of time for anything 😭
I think if we had a intermission episode where Break and Lottie ever met secretly, grudgingly (on Lottie's part) and interestedly (on Break's) and once they got over their initial ice-break, and suddenly finding out that they had tons of similarities; I think they'd have sat all day at the cafe like this and gossiped and roasted the hell out of everything and everyone in town. the most powerful and unstoppable duo in the whole of Sablier and Reveil ✌
Thinking about it, I find tons of similarities between Break and Lottie—
(yes this is yeeeet another of my break/lottie posts but please hear me out!!)
Both of them are:
Valets in their respective houses
Too loyal to their masters and went to the extent of killing hundreds of people for their master
Lost so many family members to an outsider (directly/indirectly because of Sablier)
Fell into the Abyss in the process of trying to keep their word to their master
Returned to the real world after a long time skip, not to their present but many years into the future
[Look at their matching expressions on emerging into the present and realizing the ramifications of their deeds i am crying they are just so precious to me ;_;]
Intent on finding out the Truth of what happened a hundred years ago (adding here: both of them are Seekers in the story. Break might hang out with the kids but he is not exactly the mentor/teacher character. Uncle Oscar is the Mentor/Teacher; Break is a Seeker)
Assumed a fake persona (in case of Break: a fake name as well) for the sake of their mission
Tend to put on the creepiest faces when others are watching and only reveal their true emotions when they think nobody is looking at them
Ruthless getting to their objective; ready to torture and force what they want out of the other party; maybe, even kill
Intelligent and perceptive and easily see through people on multiple occasions (mostly Oz (twice or thrice) and separately? They are reading through and keeping an eye on either of the brothers in their custody lol)
(Also I find it sweet that after Break passed away, Lottie took in Gil as well, Gil-Lottie were the best bros i bet,, ig after Noise's death, Lottie was the lone big sister kinda figure for the boys)
Other tidbits:
Both of them are fond of dolls! Break and Emily yes! and... remember how Echo offered that doll as a 'bribe' to Lottie to give her a few minutes to talk with Oz lol
Oh man they sure know to clean up well (how can I not add this when both of them rocked in their Head Hunter Arc attire :_: I wish we had a clear full shot of Lottie's dress; it was so gorgeous <3)
their real ages are... ambiguous. They could be anything from 20s to 90s depending on how you start, perceived age, experienced age, chronological age, technical age etc. etc. All I know is that these are old ageless people. annnnd Break is definitely younger than her, no matter how you see it lol. So him calling her "little miss/little lady" is....(ik he is flirting with her) but if they ever had a civil conversation, her reaction was gonna be something like this ahjhjgjskl
(unrelated but I love these three 💔)
ah yes this panel but make it Lottie, Break who is laughing HA HA HA HA and Lily in his arms; post-canon, nobody dies/everybody lives au that never happened ;_;
I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO THESE GUYS ARE BUT WHY DO THEY LOOK SO MUCH LIKE BREAK AND LOTTIE WHAT THE JGKSJGHSKKGK *SCREAMING WITH MY LIL DELULU SHIPPING HEART*
art belongs to mochijun | Rolan The Forgotten King
LIKE it's easy to see Lottie she looks exactly the same except with blond hair
with this dark-haired Break, he has the same same, I repeat, same red eye, same eye shape too!! (he has both eyes now!!!) plus there is that little, characteristic-of-his-eye, darkened dip in his bottom eyelid!!!! even that small puff in the side of his hair and the front bangs too are choppy sorta (tho the dark-haired guy has more separately falling hair strands ig?)???? hello???? ok you might say he looks like a bit of gil + break tbvh but for me this is 100% break I don't need anything now my life is fulfilled i saw how my ship would look side by side like some mom matchmaking her kid with her crush ghshgjjsk
ALSO *SCREAMING INTENSIFIES*
(okay he looks a bit more like Vanitas here but, um, could be because he was flustered??? now i know how break would look if he gets kissed all of a sudden hahajshgjjjgkkkl)
