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OOC

NAME: Taylor
AGE: 30+
CONTACT: @portolan.plurk
CHARACTER(S): Tifa, Basch

IC

NAME: Basch fon Ronsenburg
AGE: 36
SUITABILITY: NEW Basch is the honorable knight incarnate, and life has tested that time and time again. His home country was invaded and conquered when he was a teen, prompting him to go to the neighboring country of Dalmasca to train to hopefully stop the advance of the enemy and liberate his home. He was completely dedicated to his adoptive home, and his commitment to a better future led him to take on sensitive missions and rise through the ranks until he was in the King’s most trusted men. Basch, however, was never motivated by power, only creating peace and safety for others that was taken from his family and thousands of other.

While things look to be improving for a time, Basch is set up by his twin brother – whom he believed to be deceased – and framed for killing the King. This leads him to be labeled kingslayer and reported executed, though in reality he’s held in prison for two years while Dalmasca is slowly broken down and subjugated. He still holds onto hope and a belief he will somehow get out and right this wrong, facing ridicule from other prisoners and his own brother for his unrealistic, heroic fantasy. Basch privately starts to waver, but clamps down his own emotions as a means for survival.

When a pirate passes through speaking of the lost princess and doubtful that Basch killed the king, Basch seizes the opportunity and begs them to break him out. When they do, he reveals the truth. The princess does not believe him and hates him. He accepts deserving this, but pledges himself to restoring her crown and freeing Dalmasca. Still, his resolve is rattled again and again, forcing him to risk working with pirates, facing former members of the close guard betraying him, and perhaps the worst, starting to be tempted by the life of freedom, indulgence, and quiet days with friends the pirate peddles. He doesn’t feel he deserves to even dream of this, and that even if they succeed, he needs to atone for the pain and death his failure caused Dalmasca and her people.
CANON: FFXII
CANON POINT: End-game 12, pre-epilogue

ABILITIES:
-SWORSMANDSHIP, STAFF FIGHTING, UNARMED COMBAT: As a longstanding military man, Basch is particularly accomplished at swords and staves. He is also very strong at unarmed combat. This makes him, in general, physically capable.
-ENDURANCE: Physically and emotionally, Basch can withstand a large amount of punishment. He’s also good at rationing resources.
-MILITARY CAPTAIN: He may not want attention, but he is an extremely just and capable leader who will take care of his team. He also has strong tactical thinking.
-BATTLEFIELD MEDIC, BASIC: Basch can set injuries, knows what to do for basic injuries and illnesses, and can identify basic plant-based medicine.
-MIST USAGE: He has not figured out how to tap this here (and may not – I usually limit it to an item usage or an event) but can use basic combat spells and basic healing spells.

VICES:
-LOW SELF WORTH: Basch thinks very lowly of himself, to the point of often believing he deserves poor treatment. When he does receive positive treatment (which is often, given how kind and respectable he is), he struggles to receive it. This can lead to self-sabotage, or alienating people who would be his friends and confidants.
-REPRESSED: As a result of the above along with his taking some of his morals too far, Basch is out of touch with his own wants and needs and often stuffs down his feelings. On top of that, he has a good deal of trauma he has not processed other than to take responsibility for it. On top of having repressed wants, he feels immense shame for wanting things that aren’t strictly necessary, which causes him to repress further. He also tends to abstain from any sort of luxury, which can sometimes include things as simple as enough food or fresh clothes.
-NAÏVE: With his goodness and repression comes a naivety that sometimes leaves him vulnerable to manipulation or abuse, or can make him rigid. He is also weak in social interactions and often takes things literally.
VIRTUES:
-PURE OF HEART: He’s generally a Good Person: loyal, just, dependable. He hates cruelty and would fall on his sword for another rather than see them suffer. He’s the first one in and the last one out, and he’ll take secrets to his grave. People tend to like and trust him immediately, and his squadrons would follow him anywhere. He didn’t really understand why, and would always reflect it back as having good men and defending a good county.
-GENTLE: Despite being a warrior, he is extremely tender, whether it’s dressing a wound or receiving someone’s confession of their wrongdoing. This is a man who fights to defend, so someone else doesn’t have to.
-STRAIGHFORWARD: Basch is not beholden to social expectations or any desire for social power. He is straightforward and rarely lies, and also is slow to judge others.

SURVEY

I REGULARLY MAKE NEW FRIENDS.
▷ 4 Basch is an excellent, father- or brother-like leader who makes others feel secure. However, he struggles outside a strict social hierarchy, in part because he sees all of his relationships as service. Most of his relationships have grown naturally out of work situations. Without that, he can be socially awkward, and he is very inexperienced at having any sort of peer relationship for the sake of having one. Traveling with Fran and Balthier has made him more curious about this, but it’s a desire he’s been trying to stamp down.

SEEING OTHER PEOPLE CRY MAKES ME WANT TO CRY TOO.
▷ 2 He always been a little embarrassed at how easy it is to sway his heart. Still, he prefers this to losing empathy, and thinks he deserves to feel pain for others when he failed to protect his country, twice. He probably won’t cry, but he probably won’t entirely hide it either. He tends to have a melancholic disposition and to self-flagellate as is.

I OFTEN MAKE A BACKUP PLAN FOR A BACKUP PLAN.
▷ 2 Basch is a Captain, and he’s lost a lot of people. He will always have an idea what he can do if something goes wrong. That said, he’s also able to seize on better ideas or adjust for circumstances. He is much better in danger or battle than in the social realm, and will freeze up entirely in the latter, especially if he is put in an embarrassing situation.

I USUALLY STAY CALM, EVEN WHEN UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE.
▷ 1/4 On the battlefield, absolutely. He will be the last to break, to the point he is emotionally repressed and much of his world-crushing trauma has not been processed. Socially, he will crack very quickly. Despite knowing this makes him a target, he’s never gotten a real handle on it past trying to present neutrally. This place is going to make a mess of him.

I AM VERY SENTIMENTAL.
▷ 2 Basch is extremely moral, but he is also prone to an ends justify the means mindset for himself, along with a tendency to make excuses for people he loves. This means that he can be talked into dangerous or morally questionable situations if he thinks it contributes to the greater good, and that he can become blind to someone’s manipulative or problematic behavior when he cares for them. This makes him open to seeing the good in people, but also to missing the bad.

EVEN A SMALL MISTAKE CAN CAUSE ME TO DOUBT MY OVERALL ABILITIES AND KNOWLEDGE.
▷ 2 As a soldier serving a cause, he is extremely high confidence. However, seeing the way close loved ones in the military and his own brother betrayed him, as well as the way Ashe nearly wavers into punitive revenge, has rattled him. He wonders where he has gone wrong that he did not lead these people well enough, or more terrifyingly, perhaps misjudged them. He deeply believes in the good of anyone he cares for or is loyal to, and this can blind him to evaluating they have crossed a line and maybe even need to be abandoned. When he does not have a cause or a purpose to hide behind, his anxiety and social awkwardness flares. He does not understand who he is outside of fighting for his country, and has not developed a sense that he deserves love or happiness or indulgence or just a regular life if he is not serving others. Having no clear purpose here is going to cause a lot of existential struggle. This will likely include trying to help figure out how to protect people from the game and get them home, which will cause him more and more self-doubt as parts of him enjoy his time here and he wants to stay. He’s so tired of fighting and losing people, and he’s nostalgic for the more family-like parts of his life, and he feels extremely guilty about this.

I AM MORE INCLINED TO FOLLOW MY HEAD THAN MY HEART.
▷ 3 His head and his heart work in pretty good unison. The issue is that his heart is only geared toward others; he has a hard time following it when the subject is himself, and will talk himself out of things simply because he avoids anything that looks like selfishness.

I AM PRONE TO WORRYING THAT THINGS WILL TAKE A TURN FOR THE WORSE.
▷ 2/4 Basch is hopeful to a fault, and often counsels others to keep their chin up. However, as his world is unraveling and the Golden Peacock keeps tempting him with the fulfillment of his own repressed desires, his anxiety starts to blossom, and he can’t stop worrying about home or that he’s missed something here and it’s going to be a trap, or that he’s somehow cursing himself to stay ensnared here or somehow make things at home worse.

I ENJOY WATCHING PEOPLE ARGUE.
▷ 4 For the most part, no, but if it’s harmless, and especially if someone obnoxious is getting put in their place, he’ll grin into his cup and say nothing.

I TEND TO AVOID DRAWING ATTENTION TO MYSELF.
▷ 1 As far as Basch is concerned, he exists to protect others, protect the peace, and create a better world. He doesn’t matter. He makes no effort to draw attention to himself, and even tries to fade into the background. Being put in the spotlight or having attention drawn to him makes him extremely uncomfortable. Similarly, drawing any attention to his personal desires is not only difficult for him, but something he feels guilt for.

I OFTEN DO THINGS AT THE LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT.
▷ 4 He’s a planner and he’s dependable. He can manage time well and knows what’s important, so some tasks may be dropped or done at the last minute, but it’s out of calculation not habit.

I FIND IT EASY TO EMPATHIZE WITH A PERSON WHOSE EXPERIENCES ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM MINE.
▷ 2 He’s very empathetic and has had a broad range of experiences and comrades at arms, but his own rigid moral compass means that he has a hard time understanding anyone who truly operates on different morals than he does. Which is almost everyone. Basch has an almost autistic/childlike fixation on behaving Correctly and this can make him easy to tease, or worse, torment.

I BECOME BORED OR LOSE INTEREST WHEN THE DISCUSSION GETS HIGHLY THEORETICAL.
▷ 2 He’s not really one to ponder the great meanings of the world. If it contributes to something he’s trying to do or figure out, he’s on board, but if it’s talking in circles, he’s going to bow out. If it’s vital to a mission, he’ll figure out what’s needed of him and his team, but if there’s someone he trusts who can handle the intellectual and theoretical components, he’ll gladly defer.

I RARELY FEEL INSECURE.
▷ 2 He is confident in his abilities as a soldier and a leader, but he has not spent much time considering what he likes outside what makes him able to do his best work. He would say he is secure and confident, but when he is asked about his own wants (whether that a food order or what clothes he likes or sexual desire) he has no idea how to answer or how to even access what he likes. He also tends to fret that he will disappoint in new situations and thus overachieves. Finally, he is aware he is awkward socially and at the mercy of who likes the way he is and who finds him too serious, and that feels much worse in social settings than it did in the field.

I AM STILL BOTHERED BY MISTAKES I MADE A LONG TIME AGO.
▷ 1 Deep down, Basch feels like somehow the fates of Landis and Dalmasca were his fault. He truly believes that, until his people are safe and there is not a battle to be fought, he should be giving his life to fight for others, and thus has never developed a real sense of self or permission for his desires to exist alongside his work. Being in a setting like Peacock where there is not a clear political battle to be fought will give him more time to stew with less distraction, as well as leave him wondering who he is. I am interested in him oscillating between this being a hero’s reward for a life well-lived, forcing him to engage the pleasures hero’s dream of, or if it is punishment for failing and going to corrupt him and force him to suffer in the way most aligned to his values and personality.

SUIT REQUESTS: I would prefer not Diamond.
RANK REQUESTS: High Rank
SAMPLES: Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3