Biography:
Sebastian Alexander Smythe was born October 31, Halloween, to Richard Alexander Smythe and Marie-Eve Angelique Toussaint. His birthday makes him a classic Scorpio if you believe in that stuff (which he does, although it’s not something he advertises). His parents both come from money, his mother’s more old school and established, as are her ties to Europe. Richard and Marie-Eve met when he was on a trip to Europe after he finished Law School. When he met Marie-Eve he was 27 years old, while she was just 18. Richard was quickly attracted to her youthful beauty, grace, and culture while she found the older American intelligent, charming, and handsome. [more to add later]
Sebastian was born in France, against his father’s wishes, but with an American father, and a French citizen mother, Sebastian was born with dual citizenship. The Smythes kept homes in both countries and as a small child the family was back and forth a lot. However, Richard’s job became more time demanding, as he moved up the ladder chasing power, which meant less time for Marie-Eve and a young Sebastian. Marie-Eve didn’t take well to America but she put up with it for the sake of her husband’s career. But as their marriage started to crumble, she found herself and Sebastian, spending more and more time in France, with her family, alone.
Sebastian loved France, his mother, and her family. It wasn’t long before he began to realize that his father was the reason he sometimes left France. Was the reason he sometimes visited the United States. And as he grew up, Richard was almost a stranger to his young son. Richard and Marie-Eve divorced when Sebastian was ten years old. Richard agreed to give Marie-Eve full custody, and a very generous settlement, despite the money her family already had. Marie-Eve in return, never kept Sebastian from Richard when he requested a visit or arrived in France.
Sebastian enjoyed having his mother’s attention all to himself. However, as he approached his teen years, Marie-Eve began to date. Sebastian did not like that his mother was dating, and worse, he hated the way these other men thought they could slip into the roll of his “new” father. He began acting out. Sebastian started hanging out with older boys, and confirmed something he’d suspected for a while, boys were much more interesting to him than girls.
Marie-Eve continued to try and support Sebastian as best as she could, even through his acting out. Richard on the other hand, was very disappointed in his son and voiced his opinion whenever possible. And in return, Sebastian acted out more, to prove he didn’t care what his “father” thought. By the time he was 15, Sebastian was regularly partying with an older crowd, drinking, sneaking into clubs, having sex, and sometimes exploring mild drugs like weed and molly.
Marie-Eve accepted Sebastian’s rebellion, but was feeling her patience unravel. Richard however forced an ultimatum on all of them; either Sebastian changed his ways, or Richard would take custody of Sebastian. Sebastian thought it was just a threat; he didn’t believe his mother would hand him over. However, after one particularly out of control party celebrating France’s Independance Day and summer, Sebastian’s world was sent spinning out of his control.
In hindsight, Sebastian should have known better. But he’d been partaking in party favors of various kinds. Everyone seemed happy and carefree. So while he knew he shouldn’t be driving his new sporty car, it didn’t occur to him that the man he was casually sleeping with, Étienne, shouldn’t be either. In some ways it happened so quickly, and in other ways time seemed to slow right down to a crawl in the moments before the accident. There are times when Sebastian can picture every single detail, and second, again. Étienne jerked the wheel to avoid something in the road, Sebastian isn’t even sure what it was, the movement was to sharp and they skidded off the road. The shoulder wasn’t wide, and there was quite a dip, and Sebastian remembered thinking the car was going to roll, when the car swerved again, and they headed straight down into the ditch, and hit a fence post. Physically, Sebastian escaped easily with just cuts, bruises, a couple of stitches. But the hospital had to run a tox screen and the information was shared with his mother, and then his father. Étienne was not quite so lucky, with a couple off broken bones, including ribs and a punctured lung. And the car even less so, being an almost complete write-off, not that it mattered once Richard arrived in France and dragged Sebastian back to the US with him.
Sebastian was furious with his father for making good on his threat, furious with his mother for not fighting for him, and furious with Étienne for doing this to him. It didn’t help that Étienne tried to blame this on Sebastian. It hadn’t even been his car that had been wrecked. Things didn’t improve when he arrived in the US. Richard decided what Sebastian needed was a strict boarding school in the middle of no where. The only two things in it’s favor, at first, was that it was a prestigious school, and that it was an all boys school. When he arrived at Dalton Academy, Sebastian discovered the biggest thing in it’s favor had just transferred to a public school; Blaine Anderson.
Sebastian isn’t a romantic. So he won’t say it was something dopey like love at first sight. In fact, the first picture he saw of Blaine Anderson wasn’t really anything all that special. After all, how much can one person stand out when they’re wearing the same uniform as everyone else? But there was no denying Blaine Anderson was revered at Dalton. The more he heard, the more he wanted to hear. And then there were the videos. Once Sebastian saw his first performance video of the Dalton Academy Warblers, and their lead soloist, Blaine Anderson, he knew he wanted to meet the other. (It was Raise Your Glass)
Meeting Blaine had happened far differently than Sebastian would have thought, and was almost serendipitous. Blaine arrived at Dalton. He walked into the senior commons, the Warblers preferred meet and practice location, like he owned the place, hands tucked into his pockets, head held high, and definitely standing out in his patterned grey pants and stripped sweater. How someone could stand out in a boring color like grey is still surprising, but Blaine was like a ray of sunshine that spilled into the already well lit room. Sebastian noticed him immediately, and after watching Blaine take them in, he couldn’t help but approach and encourage the other to join them. And to say Blaine fit in almost seamlessly would be an understatement.
Blaine Anderson turned out being even more interesting in person. There was, is, something about him that Sebastian just can’t put into words, but it kept drawing him back in for more. And the conversation flowed between the two in a natural way that Sebastian had never really experienced before. The two struck up a perhaps unlikely friendship. Unlikely in the sense that Sebastian was more than obviously attracted to Blaine and not at all used to taking no for an answer, and Blaine on the other hand had a boyfriend and was very committed to him and by default kept saying No to Sebastian. But the boyfriend, and Sebastian’s obvious attraction did not deter Blaine from seeking friendship with Sebastian. On Sebastian’s part, his friendship with Blaine was something new for him, and perhaps it made it easier for him to befriend some of the other Warblers, most notably, Jeff Sterling, and Nick Duval almost by default.
Sebastian kept a friendship going with Blaine. Even though he would like it if Blaine were single, he doesn’t exactly want to be the one to break up the relationship. Partly because he doesn’t want to be the reason why Blaine is sad and he knew that Blaine would be sad. The other part is because Sebastian wasn’t a relationship guy and he had the feeling that Blaine was nothing but a relationship guy. Sebastain wasn’t sure he could do that; even for Blaine; especially when Sebastian had zero boyfriend experience, zero dating experience. But he kept close, all the same.
The thing was though, Sebastian was used to winning. And while he couldn’t win Blaine, there were things he could win. And he wasn’t afraid to play dirty to win. First there was blackmail. And after that Sebastian decided to try to get to Kurt and the New Directions by giving them a taste of the medicine they already got at school--- a slushie. Only this one had rock salt in it, to ruin Kurt’s prissy clothes. What Sebastian, and the other Warblers-- hadn’t been expecting, was for Blaine to step in the way and take the slushie to the face.
Richard and Marie-Eve both were furious when they found out. Sebastian had called his mother immediately in a panic, not even thinking how disappointed she would be, but because he was terrified of what he’d done to Blaine. Sebastian had gone ahead and done exactly what he’d been trying for months not to do; hurt Blaine. It was his mother that told his father, concerned for her son and knowing he needed more support than she could give from Paris. Unbeknownst to Sebastian, Richard Smythe went to the Andersons and offered them a settlement, the payment of the medical bills and then some. Mr. Anderson wanted to see Sebastian pay for what he’d done to Blaine, but it had been Blaine in the end who wanted to put it behind him and convinced his parents to settle with Mr. Smythe and he assumed, Sebastian. Sebastian was wracked with guilt but had to hold up his head at Dalton, with the Warblers, and told himself maybe this was for the best. There was no doubt in his mind that his friendship with Blaine was over. Which was probably for the best. More surprising to Sebastian was the lengths the New Directions went to in order to get a confession from him, only to give him the tape. He could only assume Blaine had some sort of hand in it, and the fact that he was absent was because he couldn’t stand the sight of Sebastian anymore. Sebastian is still not convinced there isn’t another tape.
Then there was David Karofsky. David started coming to Scandals and somehow ended up recognizing Sebastian as a prep school student. When Sebastian realized David was a high school student as well; they agreed to keep each others secrets. David must have thought that made them friends and he started trying to strike up conversations, flirt, and asked Sebastian to dance. Looking back, Sebastian knows he was brutal in his response to David. And he could have been kinder and more understanding. [more details to come]
