Basil Howard

He always managed to get himself into these sorts of situations, but he was never quite sure why. It was as if he had two selves, one that told him it was a stupid idea, that he wasn’t allowed to do it, and that he had no plan of how to deal with the aftermath, and another that told him to look into those cute little eyes and just try to say no.

That’s what got him into this situation. That’s what got him an entire box of squirming, mewling, tumbling kittens. He told himself he wouldn’t do it again. And this is what happened anyway.

He’d be wandering around town for an hour now. His legs were killing him, the kitties were hungry, and he was still miles from home. Didn’t anyone else in this town have a fucking heart? How could you turn down such innocent little creatures? His rational self told him to leave the box on the street and forget about it, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. These little babes trusted him!

Sighing, he turned up yet another path to yet another house for yet another sales pitch to fall on deaf ears. Hoping maybe he’d have better luck this time, but nonetheless bracing himself for more disappointment, he awkwardly knocked on the front door around the squirmy box.

Basil Howard | 31 | Art Teacher | Dorian Gray | Reincarnation of Basil Hallward | Benedict Cumberbatch

“Art’s all I have.”

+ creative, sweet, clever

- naive, doormat, shy

Bio: Basil has always been quite shy, and didn’t have a lot of friends growing up. He was nice enough, sometimes too nice for his own good, and was perfectly happy to eat lunch in the library alone, where he wouldn’t be disturbed. From his earliest childhood, Basil had an incredible talent for art, and practiced sketching and painting whenever he could. Always a bit sickly and fragile, easy to overwhelm physically and emotionally, Basil retreats from the world in his art, feeling much more comfortable when he’s alone painting than when he’s with people, even people he likes. However, he still needs to make a living, so he teaches art at Pageson High, and is known for being one of the nicest teachers there; students always feel comfortable approaching him for help when they need it, and many eat lunch in the art room with him if they don’t want to face the crowd. While he likes teaching, and finds most of the students to be quite nice, Basil is still a major introvert, and has a habit of shutting himself up in his house during vacations, having all his food delivered so he doesn’t have to be away from his paintings. One summer, he didn’t leave his house at all, leading to a few of his students popping by just to make sure he wasn’t dead. Almost completely isolated from his family after he came out of the closet, Basil was content to live a quiet life alone with his work. That was when he met David Gray.

Relationships:

David Gray: David is a wealthy young man whose donations are the only reason Pageson High has an art class at all, and when Basil was hired, David wanted to make sure they hired someone competent. Though he was used to having his work critiqued before, David’s opinion mattered more to Basil than anyone else’s. Basil was instantly head-over-heels for David, and doesn’t have eyes for anyone else, though he’s far too shy to say anything about it. The two are friends, David often having to drag Basil out of his apartment by the ear, but aren’t exactly equals, Basil generally going along with anything David says and giving in quickly on the rare occasions he does protest. David’s become Basil’s muse and main source of inspiration, and Basil has a rather unfortunate tendency to look over David’s less-than-savory qualities, of which he has no shortage. Basil would do anything to make David happy, even if it means his own suffering.

Harrison Lord: Basil’s other friend. Sort of. Well, he and Harrison can interact civilly, anyway. They’re both constantly with David, and have had to sort of learn how to put up with each other, regardless of whether they actually like each other or not. Harrison is cynical, jaded, and mean, and all of David’s nastier qualities are only magnified when Harrison’s around. For some reason, David is fascinated by Harrison, and Basil can’t help but resent the fact that Harrison is the object of David’s affections. Basil sees Harrison as a bad influence, which he is, and worries that he may be exploiting David for his money, which he most definitely is. Although his paranoia is well-founded, he can’t bring himself to say something, both because Harrison scares him a bit, and because he doesn’t want to come off as jealous and risk isolating David.