wip

Bastian will always be my favorite companion 💕

I absolutely love how this piece came out!! Look at their expressions & stances, and the armor, & Eztli's fang!! It's all so good. This is the vibe I picture them with whenever they interact. Tysm @jroahn for drawing them so amazingly.

“It’s never a mistake to help others. One of the most important things you can do in this life is to let other people know they’re not alone.”

–Bastian Hallix

today i learned that companions react to polymorphs

Thanks to @the-ink-kettle for the tag! honestly at this point I don't know which of my mutuals writes regularly, so I'm going to take the coward's way out and tag @jiubilant and any TESblr who wants to do this off me - show us what you're working on, or signpost some other WIP!

anyway here's something I've been toying with for a while but only got the impetus to start once I was tagged :D so legit tysm for the kick in the ass!

Bastian kept his face pleasant as the third noble of the afternoon cornered him. It wasn’t as if he was a stranger to glittering high-society soirees, and the one being hosted by Lady Silane was very normal so far as those were concerned, but it had apparently gotten out that his absence from the Silvelle’s most recent trip to Daggerfall was because he was, in fact, on the other side of High Rock.

“Did you enjoy the cooler weather down in Evermore?” this particular noble drawled, swirling the wine in his long-stemmed tasting glass. Bastian made a bow.

“Of course.” He tried very hard not to be more curt than could be expected. He wasn’t sure he did a good job of it.

“It must have been very exciting for you. To be out of your family’s generous patronage for the first time.”

He was probing for information, Bastian knew it. The glint in his dark eyes was too pronounced to miss. Damn it, nobody was even supposed to know he’d been gone - it certainly wasn’t supposed to be common knowledge that he’d been hunting down an errant factor of Lord Silvelle’s, one skimming far too much off the top of the shipments she was supposed to safeguard.

“Quite dull, actually,” was his curt response. Even saying that it was a matter of business seemed too dangerous. Then people would know that Quistley wasn’t taking on his fair share of the family name - that Lord Silvelle had to turn to a Hallix to deal with family matters.

The noble’s brows rose. “Really? Gracious, how unique. Your foster brother, the Heir Silvelle, gave my daughter to understand that it was quite a milestone for you.”

The heir Silv-

Quistley.

Bastian hardly knew how he responded through the rushing in his ears. Quistley. Of course the information had leaked because of that idiot young man. His daughter, he’d mentioned - probably trying to flirt, to win some young woman’s favor, just as usual.

If Lord Silvelle heard the gossip, it wasn’t Quistley that was going to get in trouble.

Bastian bowed out of the conversation as soon as could be called polite, stopped a passing servant to ask if she might know where the young Silvelle was, and headed to the gardens with a quick step, doing his absolute best to hold back the simmering heat in his chest as he went.

this is more of an observation than a headcanon but like. headcanon that bastian actually has anger issues that he hides under his gentlemanly demeanor. these issues most definitely stem from his childhood with quistley and the rest of the silvelles. it used to be worse when he was younger, but he has since learned to internalize it. sometimes, though, he still slips up.

it's also why he's a dragonknight rather than, say, a templar. now this is definitely more of a headcanon, but i think that fire magic comes more naturally to him because it's a somewhat better way of venting than exploding and taking it out on others.

some in-game things where i picked on this "headcanon"/observation

the way he hesitates when speaking over the course of his intro quest Multiple Times, implying he was about to say something much worse.

his ultimate, where it's building up rage and exploding in a much more literal sense. the rest of his skills align with existing ones available to the player, but his ultimate being different from other player dk skills is interesting because. they could have given him his own variation of standard or something. but they specifically chose a Different Ult with this specific wording.

this counts as "bastian holding back before he says something he'll regret," but it's also a little glimpse into the way the other silvelles treated him. this is most likely the reason why he's come to hold himself back.

and of course, there's the iconic "bastian knocks quistley tf out" that i screenshotted in a different post. he seems like he's been wanting to do that for a long, long time.

agreed!

dragonknight magic (and by extension, basitan’s fire magic) is really interesting because it seems to come from passion.  Anger is just one form of expressing passion.  Anger (and passion in general) is a sign of caring, and anger specifically is your brain telling you something is wrong and needs to be fixed.  What the silvelles did “raising” Bastian could have worn him down into a husk of a person, but it’s apparent in his commentary that he’s a person who deeply cares about the world and other people.  He’s extremely passionate, and I’d say the issues with the relationship he has with anger alluded to in his dialogue and skill descriptions centers on the fact that he holds it all in, rather than he’s violent or explosive or anything.

The silvelles (and any abuser) don’t want resistance so of course it makes sense they’d hammer it in to bastian that anger = bad, and no one will respect you if you let it show.  The explosion ultimate feels like a breakthrough has been made, where he’s allowing the energy to show and be felt.

(plus i really like how it’s similar to the ‘inhale’ skill players get, where you take a deep breath and after a few moments fire explodes around you. feels satisfying and potentially theraputic but i might just be gushing over dragonknights so don’t mind me).

A Short Film in Three Parts

"Bastian it's a door, you can just... Bastian? ...Bastian?"

Visually, this is where the quest-relevant companion rapport thresholds are in ESO.

I took these screenshots immediately after Mirri's quests initiated. I am sharing this because I was annoyed that I could not find this information on google. Feel free to repost

Buckwild companions shit:

Necromancy? Fine

Making cheese fries in front of Bastian? Rapport loss

my canadian ass: but... it’s poutine... it’s eso poutine

bastian: >:c

hey do you think bastian gets annoyed if you kill bugs/mice/helpless things because he saw rich bastard Breton kids doing that like all the time for entertainment

Vestige: hey Bastian, put this on.

Bastian: *nervous laughter*

Posting this for the @theelderscrollsonline‘s TESOctober challenge and the prompt “Companion”!

I love Bastian but he is always so crushed when I die on purpose, trying to reach a survey because I am lazy to go around cliffs and other high places, like your heart is in the right place but when will you learn that I am the Vestige, I cannot die!