Sheet:Gabriel Agreste

Hawkmoth's Sheet

Background

Gabriel Agreste was born Gabi Grassette, the working class son of two cooks running a bodega. He wanted nothing more than to be a fashion designer, and worked as a tailor's apprentice, and then later a tailor, in the hopes of achieving his dreams as a fashion designer. Gabi Grassette was a helpful young man who wanted to make the kinds of clothes that made people's dreams come true - he tailored the kind of suit that could help a young man impress the love of his life, designed an outfit to match a rising comedian's energy and launch him to the next stage, of his career, and he -

Fell in love with a Duke's daughter, Lady Emilie Graham de Vanily, who had been sent away by her family to study in Paris. They grew close, and then they fell in love, and then, because Emilie's family was furious with her for daring to choose an ordinary man as her love. Emilie had always been willful and stubborn and hated the restrictions on her life that her birth as a noble placed on her. Given the choice between all of that and a future with Gabriel? It was a simple choice: Emilie renounced her title, her wealth, and her rank in British society to be with Gabriel. As a parting shot and a sop to their pride, her family provided a mansion in Paris, a family estate for Emilie and Gabriel to start a life in, as they couldn't stand to see her living in an attic apartment like an ordinary woman.

Gabriel's star was rising, though. He gained the attention of famous, important people with his tailoring, and he devoted himself to pursuing success and fame, all the better to support Emilie in the lifestyle she'd been used to. He tore himself apart to make himself better, to make himself worthy, of everything he saw her losing.

And he succeeded. He established his own Fashion Label, Gabriel, and he renamed himself as well. Gabriel began to top the Paris Fashion scene in both senses - as a man and a company, and he and Emilie became incredibly rich.

They were happy, they were in love, they were rich and famous and well-admired, and then - Emilie wanted a child.

And they tried.

And they tried.

And they tried, in as many ways as they could, with all the money they had, fertility treatments, boosters, planning, but none of it worked. Emilie was infertile, the bloodline her father had been so derisively proud of ruining the one thing she wanted even more than the freedom to marry Gabriel: her ability to have a child of her own.

Gabriel was willing to do anything to get Emilie the child she wanted. Anything at all. There was no cost too high, no procedure too strange, if she felt it was helpful, they would pursue it. But there was nothing that science or money could do to solve her infertility and adoption was not an option for Emilie. She wanted a child of her own blood and Gabriel, who saw his own lowly status as having cost her everything, wasn't going to press the issue. Not when he could pit his energy to solving the problem for her.

It was Emilie who first learned of the Miraculous, and Emilie who encouraged the pursuit of them. Gabriel didn't believe in magic; his only flights of fancy revolver around the creation of clothing. But Emilie was insistent, and they began to search, with the assistance of an artifact procurer named Nathalie Sancour. The search took years - but eventually, in the Tibetan mountains, they found two items of power: The Butterfly Miraculous and the Peacock Miraculous. they had heard rumors of the items, but until that moment of discovery truly been more the desperate hope than a belief that guided the search. The Miraculous were to be the resolution of Emilie's desperate desire for a way to have a baby of her own and Gabriel's need to provide for his wife what she wanted, more than anything.

There was a catch, though. As adults beginning their thirties, Gabriel and Emilie were simply too old to utilize magic. They were beyond the age of the Fade, and rainbow magic, untouched by Dark Energy was beyond them. The Miraculous that they had finally found were useless to them, and they fell into the cycles of grief - rage, despair, bargaining, denial - but they never reached acceptance. Dark Energy responded well to rage, to despair, to the desperate deal making of a bargaining spirit, to the obstinence of denial. Dark Energy flowed into them, and the Miraculous began to work.

They didn't know the Peacock Miraculous was broken. When they first began, Gabriel had no idea that by helping Emilie find the miracle she sought, he'd signed her death warrant. Adrien was created, a sentimonster made from the love his parents shared, implanted within Emilie's womb, a pregnancy formed with a crafted child. He was born, and his mother loved him. His father, loved him.

Gabriel had never really wanted children, but Adrien was different. Adrien was Emilie's child, even more than he was his own, and he loved him.

And then Emilie began to waste away. Consumed by the broken Miraculous, her energy left her in fits and bursts.

By the time Adrien was seven years old, Emilie could no longer walk. By the time he was thirteen, she could no longer maneuver herself in her own wheelchair, requiring close care and supervision. By the time he was fourteen -

Gabriel spent much of Adrien's youth searching for a cure for Emilie's wasting, a way to fix the Peacock, a way to restore the love of his life. The only solution he could find lay within the Miraculous - within the details of what could happen of the Ladybug Miraculous and Cat Miraculous were combined - the ability to make a Wish, any wish.

The year Adrien turned fourteen, Gabriel faked Emilie's disappearance and hid her comatose body, kept alive in a machine far too similar to a glass coffin for comfort, and began to finally use the Butterfly Miraculous for more than just its passive empathy powers. He became Hawkmoth, and attacked Paris - and finally, finally, drew the Ladybug and Cat into the open.

Gabriel is determined to retrieve the Miraculous, make his Wish, and restore his family. In doing so, he neglects his son, isolates himself, and delves deeper into Dark Energy. He moves the family to Tokyo, following his enemies (being followed by his enemies?), and joins Obsidian.

Personality

Gabriel has two sides to him - the civilian Gabriel Agreste and the supervillain Hawkmoth. As a civilian, Gabriel Agreste is cold-hearted, formal, and distant, even with the only family he still acknowledges: his son, Adrien. Gabriel is an introvert to the core and dislikes spending time with any people except for those he's personally acknowledged - and actually, even the people he acknowledges, he doesn't often like to spend time around; his wife, Emilie, is one of the only people he ever felt comfortable spending extensive amounts of time with. 

(As a father, this isn't great, by the way.)

On the inside, Gabriel is an intensely dramatic and goofy person, not the most emotionally intelligent, but very good at designing to meet people's inner selves - even when he doesn't really understand them. But that's on the inside. That's buried deep, to the point that those who know him in his civilian life would be astonished to hear him described as such. These things are buried deep because Gabriel learned in his early 20s that if he wanted to make it as a fashion designer - to be discovered - then he needed to appeal to the masses. He needed to appeal to those who could critique and acknowledge his talents - and he needed to fit in, and to be a man 'worth' respecting and being acknowledged.

On the outside, though, again, he's a coldfish. He's uninterested in the emotions of others, moves through the world and only truly cares about his obsessions.

Hawkmoth though, he manifests all those dramatic and goofy moments, all that passion that broils under the surface. He's a malicious empath in the sense that he enjoys manipulating people at their worst, he invades their privacy with his empathy without a care in the world, and no regrets. He pokes, prods, and uses people. But he also runs around flapping his arms like wings, slides down bannisters, makes punny names for his akumatized minions, and gets genuinely angry that he can't stop a group of teenagers.

When it comes to interacting with people, Gabriel tends to be cold and professional, and interacts chiefly with people he works with, either for his brand or for Obsidian. When talking about fashion, about work, all of that - he's fine, if cold. He can pretend to be warmer, but he's not ... good at it, so the best he can do is acknowledge hard work and excellent performance. He's not a complimentary person, but he's not going to fail to acknowledge good work when he sees it, either. When it comes to interacting as Hawkmoth, it's much the same, but with a bit more... puns and sadism. If he focuses his empathy on a single person, he can read their emotions in real time, and he does like to play into that, a touch, whether it be for mocking or for (rarely) consoling people.

When it comes to his family, Gabriel was always the most warm with his wife, Emilie, who he loves dearly. He's a wife guy and he would do anything for her except leave her dead. Anything else, beloved. He seems himself as fundamentally owing it to Emilie to give her everything she wants, needs, and deserves, because in loving him, Emilie lost everything she had prior - her relationship with her parents, her place in society, her wealth, her privileges - and therefore he needs to be worth all of that. It's one of the reasons he grew Gabriel as a brand suited to the popular masses, the things that everyone could look at and acknowledge as beautiful, interesting, desirous to wear. Highly personalized designs suited to a single person are for tailors - fashion designers create that which everyone can admire and hope to pull off. At least, in his mind.

With Adrien, on the other hand? Gabriel never wanted children for himself - he recognized that he was not paternal in any regards. But Emilie wanted children so, so much, and Gabriel would do anything for Emilie, including have a child. Including raise a child, even though he doesn't understand a thing about children - even as a child, he'd had very little in the way of companionship. Gabriel's formal with Adrien, preferring Father to Papa, and he's very strict in his parenting, filling Adrien's schedule with additional classes and activities to ensure he grows into the perfect heir. Of course - part of this is because Emilie wanted Adrien to grow up well. Part of this is because as Emilie grew sicker, she wanted Adrien at home, with her, where he was homeschooled. But most of it is because Gabriel does not know what to do with his child without Emilie, and it leaves him emotionally abusive at times, and overly distant.

Focus

Gabriel's focus is the Butterfly Miraculous, which in its camouflaged form resembles a purple locket broach (usually kept pinned to the throat of his suits). In it's active form, it resembles a butterfly with narrow lavender wings. The Butterfly is powered by the Kwami of Transmission, Nooroo, a bald fairy looking creature entirely in purple, with four wings and a swirl on his head. Nooroo is softhearted and kind and hates that his Miraculous is being used for evil, but can't stop his master, Gabriel.

Style

See: Miraculous Users.

Powers

Enhanced durability, speed, agility, and healing. The classic Mahou package, which allows him to run around on rooftops without falling in the crack between buildings and going splat. And keeping him from dying instantly when he does go splat.

Sword Cane. Hawkmoth's transformation creates a cane as his primary weapon/item, and within that cane is secretly... a sword! It's rarely used.

Empathy! Utilizing the Butterfly Miraculous allows Hawkmoth to sense the negative emotions of an entire city's worth of people all at once (no that's not good for him), which is how he can find victims for his Akuma to latch onto. Alternatively, Hawkmoth can focus his attention down to a single person, allowing him to read all of their emotions, negative and positive. It's a very all or nothing situation, and most of the time, Hawkmoth is on the all setting, scanning for those with strong and useful negative emotions to empower with his akuma. When his attention is spread out, he has a general awareness of the negative emotions of everyone near him, but not the reasons for those emotions - just that they exist, and their relative strength level. By focusing on a single person he can read their full emotional rollercoaster in real time.

Akuma creation/akumatization. The main power of the Butterfly miraculous is the ability to create an akuma - an initially pure white butterfly construct quickly tainted by Dark Energy when cradled in Hawkmoth's hands. Akumas transmit Hawkmoth's intent, energy, and words to another person by landing on them and infiltrating a meaningful object in their possession. When someone is chosen by an akuma, they are empowered into an alternative, super villain persona, with powers, costumes, and even identity created based on their emotional distress - the strong negative emotion which first drew Hawkmoth to them.

While an akumatized person does not have to listen to Hawkmoth, they are in a suggestive state which typically drops their guard and leaves them ruled by negativity and more likely to listen to him. Hawkmoth typically promises these Akumatized citizens the guarantee of keeping their powers if they will retrieve for him the miraculous or obey another objective that he offers. The butterfly Miraculous can akumatize anyone in a negative mindset, and it is nearly impossible to gather the force of will necessary to forcibly break the connection. If someone were to calm down and reduce their negativity quickly enough, they could lose the interest of an Akuma, and which would then navigate to the nearest source of negative energy.

Hawkmoth can telepathically communicate with anyone he akumatizes during the akumatization, see through their eyes, and read their surface thoughts (enough to know and manipulate the reasons for their negative emotions).