full name
vasily wolfgang benzin
role
the enemy
age
twenty-one
gender
male
kingdom
khaserin
faceclaim
benjamin wadsworth
personality
vasily is a very different person from the one he used to be. he's cold and formal. it's difficult to get him to interact non-procedurally. he almost seems cordial in this stage. he'll press a smile onto his face, kiss your hand, and tell you what you need to know, but he expects it to end there. he's quite proper, it seems. however, he gets uncomfortable by people trying to get too close to him. he's forceful and aggressive, mostly because he has no self-confidence. he's critical of others, he seems to have a temper he puts no work into inhibiting, and he'll do things like slam a table with his open hand or break a glass. vasily is defensive and has control issues. he gets anxious if he's not in control of a situation. he hates people walking behind him. he hates people approaching him without knowing what they want. he hates people surprising him. he is fearful in this regard, which most people wouldn't expect. he doesn't like to be touched, because he does expect pain from that. however, he is also touch-starved and desperately longs to be touched and held. he craves affection deeply to his bones. he just doesn't know it. he has serious trust issues. he can never fully rely on a person. he doesn't tell people anything about himself, much less about the battle. unless he wants to make someone shut up, in which case, he'll provide gory details to stun them into silence. vasily is hostile in that regard. he tries to fire first. he comes across as antisocial, avoiding people and lacking his usual sense of humor. in reality, vasily was a complete charmer, before the battle. he has an amazing laugh, and he includes everyone. he was known for his close relationship with the servants, who he never treated as less-than. he always included the servants rather than excluding them. he wrote bad poetry and laughed at himself about it. he did dares on a dime's turn, and was tremendously close to his horse. he was good with all animals, he'd have to say. he has a certain tenderness and intuitive nature with them. he put a lot of responsibility on his shoulders to be a good future king and to make his family proud, and so he always hid his feelings if they were negative. and he masked them tremendously well. these days, he can't manage that as much. he comes across as perfect in some regards. he's well-spoken, tremendously so. he's well-read. he has perfect posture. he's known as a vigorous warrior. he follows royal procedure as he's supposed to. all the surface is exactly as it's supposed to be. but the inside... something is missing there, and it becomes more and more obvious every day. he deeply craves validation from others, especially his father. he struggles with being honest with himself. he's constantly exhausted due to lack of sleep, and this shows frequently. he falls asleep out of turn at times, and he has deep under-eye circles. he's very ritualistic. he needs to be doing the same thing at the same time every day, or else he doesn't know what to do with himself. throwing off his routine makes him upset easily. vasily is very mature for his age, and is often called an old soul. he thinks he's just seen too much. that may be true.
backstory
vasily, born the first son of the benzin dynasty that had previously only one daughter, was the joy of the kingdom from the moment he was born. his father literally dangled him over a balcony soon after he was born for the people to see his infant son. vasily, the new heir. a kindly old nurse essentially raised him, as his father was both very busy and not particularly caring to begin with. this began his camaraderie with the servants, which continued throughout his life. he's found himself the victim of many a prank from them, all of which he's laughed off. vasily began instruction at a young age. this was, however, not the typical instruction for a prince. yes, there were the standard lessons— his language, other languages, public speaking, literature, history, mathematics, and more. but there were also intensive lessons on fighting, both hand-to-hand (wrestling and boxing) and with weapons. there were intensive horse-riding lessons. there was archery. there were mentality training lessons. vasily would sit with his father for hours, and neither his sister nor his nanny truly knew what they were doing. his father was trying to strengthen his mentality and build him into a man. however, the way his father tried to do this involved quite a bit of abuse. he used to hit vasily, but in ways that wouldn't show outwardly. he's broken his ribs before, though, although vasily had to hide that. when he was ten years old, he began travelling. around the country and others, he would go with his father to barracks, to foreign dignitaries, to anywhere. this was to train his mentality as well. he would go off for weeks, and then return. when he was fourteen, he began sitting in on council meetings. his father encouraged him to be forceful, to share his opinion, to harshly criticize anyone who dared to disagree with him. vasily's talent for fighting became well-known. he was a strong and brilliant warrior, even if his capabilities at more school subjects were less legendary. he was fast, strong, capable of handling himself on a horse with grace and agility, and clever with a sword. he was a vigorous young man. he still held some humor too. he would smile at his nanny and at his sister when he was in council meetings, even if he caught a back-hand for it later. he would write his sister letters while he was away. he would talk to his horse when he was alone (vasily has always been brilliant with animals). he winked at random servants to make them laugh. he left his shirt untucked, snuck in bottles of rum and mead for his sister and himself late at night, wrote awful poetry, and would take on any dare, no matter how difficult. he could always be found sparring with the guards and giving them hell, and when he'd return, the whole castle would be delighted to see him once again. he'd smiled through many a broken rib, a crushed finger, a lashed back. that changed when he was eighteen. he'd been in barracks before. he'd trained with the men, lived with the men, but the nation hadn't yet been to war. he hadn't yet fought like one of them. that was until the war. when it came time to battle sohan, lord benzin sent his own son out to fight. to be a man, he had to be christened in the blood of battle. he had to fight, and he had to come home victorious. vasily left and fought in the war against sohan. an easy overpowering and defeat later, he'd returned home. it wasn't as easy for the prince, however. he'd returned home victorious, propped up, smiling and waving— but the truth was that the enemy, as his father had said, had "taken a taste of his liver." he'd been slashed in battle. badly. he carried on his victory tour, wrapped in bandages, sipping from a flask of mead to stay present enough. the truth was that when he returned home, he passed out the moment he passed through the doors. he had to be treated, and survived, of course. his fever came down in a few days, and soon, he could sit up and stand up too. his father was furious he'd been wounded. he broke the stitches in his rage, and vasily had to get the stitches redone. he has since fully recovered, although he has a nasty scar along the left side of his torso. but something was different when he returned. he didn't just take his father's abuse like before. he'd lunged after him and smashed a bottle that was on the table. he'd never done that before. his father clapped him on the back, laughed, and said he was proud. vasily is different after the battle. some don't think he liked what he saw. they would be right. what he saw was a massacre. what he saw was something he wished he had no part in. what he saw haunts him. he hates himself for his participation in it. but he also knows it's what's best for his nation, and it's what he himself must one day uphold. he hates himself for knowing that. he hates his father for it. he's in emotional turmoil over it. but he was there. he can't admit it was wrong. because he fought, he battled, and afterwards, he sat there and let a nation admire him for his victory. vasily has struggled with nightmares since the battle. he woke up in the middle of the night consistently, and at a certain point, decided to stop sleeping. he went over two days before his nanny started slipping him mead to help. it does help. but he still wakes up in the morning in cold sweats sometimes, or at night, panting and looking around wildly. he doesn't laugh as much anymore. he asks the servants to leave things outside his door, and when he does see them, he doesn't wink or joke with them. he spars the guards and hurts them, sometimes badly. he hasn't touched his horse. he trains for hours a day, far, far too much until his muscles feel like they're tearing. he's aggressive during council meetings, slamming his fist on the table. he spends much of his day alone. his father has never been more proud of him. he hasn't had to wrap his torso up in bandages to keep his ribs from aching too badly to move since the battle now. he hasn't had to cover up bruises. things are different now. vasily is different now. he heard about the selection. he wasn't thrilled to be behind enemy lines. his father said this could be an opportunity for him to scope out his enemies. he agreed blankly and looked into an empty glass. he doesn't want to face his enemies. he doesn't want to fight again. he doesn't know how to think about falling in love. soon, vasily will leave once again. no one knows how he will return this time.
likes
animals, his horse, the servants, mead, red wine, his sister, chess, sparring, swords, his sword (dubbed the devil's edge and worn at his side at all times), piano music, alone time, sealing letters, hot drinks, sailing, public speaking, surprises (used to).
dislikes
writing, touching, council meetings, being around his father, travelling, dancing with others (he used to like this), night-time, those from sohan, interacting with the public, being seen in private moments, sugary foods.
fears
— others finding out about his father's abuse.
— failing his legacy and angering his father.
— facing himself after what he did in sohan.
— becoming like his father.
— being sent off to war again.
other
— since returning, he has a pronounced tendency to stare off into space. vasily's eyes will often glaze over, and he loses focus on the scene at hand.
— vasily's most embarrassing moment was when the servants pranked him by putting red wine vinegar in his glass while foreign dignitaries were visiting. his father beat him afterwards for his reaction, but he never told the servants. he didn't want them to feel bad.
— vasily is left-handed, and so keeps his sword at his left side at all times.
— vasily is tremendously close with his sibling. or was, he'd suppose. things are different now. but for a long time, she was his best friend. those things don't change easily.
— vasily's horse is named holy smoke. he used to talk to him frequently. often he'd even sleep in the stable next to him. holy smoke is a black mustang. vasily hasn't ridden him for a while.
— vasily was rather unorganized prior to returning. he's now quite organized, and despises anyone touching his things. even the servants.
— vasily may or may not drink a little too much mead and rely on it a little too much.
— vasily has a scar on his nose. it is from his father, although he used to have a very amusing fake story about his horse kicking him in the face. it was always a crowd-pleaser.