Bastien Prayon

OOC Info
Username/Nickname: Marashar
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Character Info
Canon/Original: Original
First Name(s): Bastien Michel
Surname: Prayon
Nicknames: Casse(-cou)
Age: 21
Sex: male
Place of Birth: Felsberg near Saarlouis
Occupation: Lieutenant de l'Infanterie, 17ème Régiment d'Infanterie légère
Family:

• Father: Bertram Prayon, owner of a stone quarry
  
• Mother: Cathrine, died when he was four
  
• Stepmother: Marie Sabine, a locally renowned painter, second wife of his father. His stepmother is only five years older than his older sister, but all the children have taken to her very well.
  
• Brother: Robert (26), serves as a surgeon in the 5th corps, now under Marmont, in Austria
  
• Sisters: Therese (25), married to a local farmer; Stephanie (17), has just started working as a teacher; Annabelle (11), crippled at birth, has inherited her mother's talent.
  
• Several more distant relations.

Description:

• Bastien is rather good looking in a slightly unkempt way. He is a bit smaller than average, but well proportioned.
  
• He has dark brown hair that he does not seem to be able to keep in any kind of order. Usually it's just a bit too long for any recognizable cut.
  
• His eyes have nearly the same dark colour and are shaded by long lashes. He has a trick of making them huge and mournful if he wants something - even if it is only to poke some fun.
  
• His nose is long, straight and classic, and one of his secret fears is that it might get broken one day.
  
• His mouth is broad and thin-lipped and most of the day framed by a five o'clock shadow. He had tried growing a beard once, but was forced to abandon it because he looked like some kind of gnome with it.
  
• Thanks to an accident in his father's quarry, his left hand is missing the distal phalanges of ring finger and pinky.
  
• He usually wears at least most of his uniform, but not necessarily with the proper decorum

Strengths and Weaknesses:

• As a trained accountant, he has a head for figures, can read and writes a beautiful clear copperplate. A preferred way of punishment or under his commander's eye is to make him attend to some paperwork. He can do it very well, but he hates it. In this capacity he has also held several short-term staff appointments as assistant paymaster.
  
• He is quite reckless. This is of course on the one hand an advantage, because he will cheerfully go into any danger. Unfortunately it also means that he is willing to take risks or actions no sane man would take and that sometimes he starts to think only after he has gotten into trouble.
  
• He is very easy-going and often prone to over-indulgence. It can also be rather difficult to get him to take something seriously.
  
• He has the devil's own luck - at least until now.
  
• He is often rather thoughtless and tents to forget or misplace things. His Capitaine had to address this at several previous occasions.
  
• He can be very charismatic and charming. This usually keeps him out of more severe punishment.
  
• He's no big disciplinarian. Rules are something to be used only when convenient. He usually ignores anything his men do as long as they take care that a) he can't be blamed for it, and b) that they are in fighting order when he needs them.
  
• He has an inborn knack for strategy and analysis of a situation. Unfortunately this trait seems only to appear after he has managed to get into some scrape. It has enabled him to lead his men out of some rather tight corners relatively unharmed; the men cheer him for it and follow him into anything, believing that he will get them through alive. His superiors think a bit differently, because some thinking beforehand might have avoided the tight corners altogether.
  
• He is a good fighter and generally good in most soldierly things if he wants to do them.
  
• He knows his failings (most of the times), although he seldom admits this, and stands by any errors he makes.
  
• If a rule or order does not fit a situation as Bastien sees it, he will try to work around it. He reacts very well to personal responsibility, however. If his Capitaine or Chef de battalion personally tells him to do something, then Bastien will use any means in his power to do it.
  
• He does not easily give his word or commit himself to anything , because once he has done so, there's no way back for him.
  

Background: Bastien has grown up as part of a respectable family. When he was little, his father had only just started the quarry, and had not much time for his family. His mother was nearly always at home and quite spoiled her youngest son. She died giving birth when he was four. Bastien was inconsolable, but also deeply disappointed. His mother had promised that she would always be there for him, and now she had died. His older brother and sister took charge of him and his baby sister and practically raised them until his father remarried. By now the mill was quite successful and the family could afford to finance his oldest brother's wish to study and become a doctor. When his stepsister Annabelle was born, it soon became clear that her hip was damaged and that she would never properly walk. Both he and Robert declared themselves champions of the little girl. Robert applied himself to his studies to help her, Bastien applied his fists, made jokes and fetched and carried.

Bastien began to learn his father's trait, but soon found that he didn't like the regular, unexciting daily work. He joined the army as soon as he turned 16 as a volunteer in the ranks. By virtue of great bravery and even greater luck he has risen through the ranks to his present one. He has just been promoted lieutenant. He was close to demotion a couple of times before, but has always either managed to do something splendid in the nick of time or talk his superiors into a more forgiving mindset.

His secret ambition is of course to follow in Michel Ney's footsteps and carry a marshal's baton. The most important woman in his life is still Annabelle; he writes to her regularly and sends her gifts. The letters he receives in return he keeps always close to him, in part because she often sends him sketches of their parents, siblings or home. It is generally presumed that his many letters must be from a lover, and he does nothing to correct this impression.
Anything Else:
Writing Sample/Past Roleplay: --/--
Code Phrase: Staff Edit

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