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Bastien came to Arx as a young man in his early twenties with far more pride and attitude than the silver in his pockets warranted and with ambition of great artistry. Surprisingly -- to Bastien, at least -- these ambitions were not /immediately/ fulfilled by wild success and acclaim. He's been toiling away, mostly in the underbelly of the city, but eventually towards more of the mediocre middle once he found enough steady work over the past decade. The focus of his work is in playwrighting, and he became known -- at least within a small community of arts lovers -- for having a particular affection for plays of political and cultural commentary with a taste for the avant garde. Of course, sometimes he just needs to write a comedy where everyone gets married in the end, if for no other reason than to pay the bills. But he doesn't do it /gladly/.

Bastien is all long limbs and graceful hands and lean, whippet lines to his frame. He can move with surprising grace and dexterity, and his carriage holds a certain hauteur that he hasn't exactly earned. He has an even, well-bred handsomeness to him, strong-jawed and straight-nosed, but it's often distracted by a sense of harried unkemptness from too many long nights at work. His hair is dark, his eyes a clear blue flecked with green, and he can vary widely from stubble to a full beard, depending on his current obsession level.

Bastien is a creature of extremes. He can be, at turns, laconic and morose or vibrant and energized. He feels his convictions -- which generally center on the hypocrisy of pretty much everyone in the world -- with a raging fire of passion. He is capable of great wit and eloquence, which often shows up in his work, and can sway an audience through words to either adore something or loathe it, but he lacks a sense of responsibility or practicality to make good use of his talents. He is prone to obsessiveness that tends to show up in a hunger-pang frame. The fact that he is forced to sometimes write work less than grand artistry or scathing satire -- for entertainment's sake, darling, please just take a break from all of those /feelings/ -- is a source of continual despair.