Sebastian

Backstory

Both of his parents disappeared (at different times) when Sebastian was young, leaving him to grow up with his grandparents. For years, he waited by the phone for his mother to call him and tell him that she was okay, and that he could go back home. Even as he was bullied for his femininity (before he stopped expressing himself in that way because of the bullying) and being physically smaller than the other kids, he held tightly onto the hope that his mother would come back. She never did.

His grandparents were very supportive of him growing up, though not always helpful in dealing with problems he had with other kids. His grandfather tried to keep active with Sebastian, even though Seb himself was not as keen on sports as his grandpa. Still, when he wasn't reading or playing old school videogames, he would go outside and explore the suburb on his bike. 

This was usually fine. But one day, while he was out, something happened. Even now, he still isn't sure of what it was. From what he can remember, he was out on his bike as usual, and encountered a strange person whose entire being seemed to shift and shimmer before his eyes. They spoke in a way that hurt his head, and after a minute or two of feeling dizzy and nauseous, his vision went white. When he returned to his senses, the figure was gone. Since then, strange things have happened to him.

It started out small. A little extra luck in his everyday life. Bullies would leave him alone, his favorite candy would be on sale, he could fall and not twist an ankle like he should. Then, it became chaotic. Moments of incredible good luck were upstaged by the extremely unnatural things that would come with it. His teachers and classmates would just smile and stare at him for most of the class period, a classmate would hand over their most prized possession and walk out into traffic, and much more. For a while, the roads around the suburb were empty around the times Sebastian would bike around the area. When he went a little early one day and a little beyond his usual limits, he saw his neighbors' cars all parked around the area like blockades.

Then, as quickly as all of it started, it stopped. Around Sebastian's senior year of high school (with the incidents starting while he was in middle school), everything suddenly became completely normal. He wasn't bullied, but his classmates weren't handing over their life savings to him anymore either. If he bumped into someone, they would cuss him out like they did anyone else, and cars wouldn't suddenly stop if he stepped foot on a road. He loved this. After all of his time researching supernatural occurrences and what might be "wrong" with him, things were finally settling down.

And then his grandparents disappeared.

Even while the mysterious luck was going on, the only real change in his grandparents were that they became surprisingly healthy and active. No more bad backs or aching knees; they felt better than they had in years, and used it on various hobbies and activities. His grandmother would still scold him about bedtimes, and his grandfather would still try to teach him baseball, and overall, they didn't change like everyone else seemed to.

Sebastian wasn't worried when they weren't home - they would often go out to the farmers' markets and museum visits on Tuesdays anyway (and Sebastian's collection of life savings from his fake "job" certainly afforded them the museum visit life style). He was a little anxious over them not answering his calls at first, but he brushed it off and worked on his appropriately-assigned homework. But they never answered his calls, and they never came home.

Rumors about him being cursed, or even a serial killer, started to surface, but he paid them no mind. He didn't have the time to worry about idiots at school when his only family was gone without a trace. Jeremiah stepped into the picture when Sebastian was desperately keeping in contact with police officers. The man claimed to be a relative of Sebastian's, and offered him a place to stay until he graduated. Although certainly seeming suspicious, Jeremiah provided papers that, at the very least, allowed 17-year-old Sebastian to spend the rest of his senior year in a cramped apartment with the man.

In the rare moments that Jeremiah wasn't bedridden with some illness, he was conspicuously absent from the apartment and very difficult to get in contact with. The first few times, Sebastian was convinced that Jeremiah had disappeared as well, but he always showed back up, hacking and sneezing with yet another cold. The two spent a lot of time in silence together, existing in the same space physically, but in wildly different worlds mentally. When they did speak more than just pleasantries, it was when Jeremiah was trying to teach Sebastian chess. He never quite picked it up, and it didn't help that Jeremiah was not the best teacher. Still, his voice was calming, enough to chase away Sebastian's loud thoughts for a little while. 

Just before graduating, Sebastian was approached by a strange person who offered him a valuable position in a mysterious organization. When he mentioned the offer to Jeremiah, the man made some calls, and then boisterously encouraged Sebastian to accept. It took time for him to weight the options on his own, and make his own choice for his own reasons, but Sebastian did agree, and was thus introduced to the Hub and life as a traveler.

Just two days after graduating, Sebastian came to the apartment to find all of his stuff packed up, and a note from Jeremiah saying, essentially, "good luck out there." An hour later, the person appeared in the apartment, and the two left to go train Sebastian.

During training, Sebastian met Xanie, a charismatic doofus that never seemed to sit still. The two became classmate acquaintances, then friends, and, much more recently, romantic partners. In the meantime, Sebastian aced his training in the hope of getting out in the multiverse and discover just what happened to his family, and figure out what happened to him as a teenager.

Although still technically in training, Sebastian is now a low-level traveler working part-time for the Hub. (There is no obligation to work for the Hub once training is completed, but a job offer is automatically available to everyone who graduates a certain level. The training is primarily to prepare travelers for what they may face in the multiverse, since finding out on their own can be traumatic and life-threatening.) He uses this position to record information about other worlds in the hopes that it will help him in his personal investigations.

Occasionally, Jeremiah checks in to make sure that he's okay, but is very tight-lipped about his own job, what he's doing, or where he's been since Sebastian left. Jeremiah always seems to show up just at the right times, though, particularly when Sebastian is in physical danger. Sometimes, it seems as though the danger catches Jeremiah off-guard, with him crashing in out-of-breath as though he had to run across the world to stop Seb from getting hurt. Sebastian wonders if maybe he's being tracked by the man somehow, but he hasn't found any physical evidence of such.

Additional Info:

Amount of arts: 6
Spent so far and Worth (based on commission prices, which may vary): $7.30 (730 DA Points)
Status (sale/trade):
Rules from the designer/Previous Owner: none that I am aware of!

♪ ♫ Theme ♫ ♪ 

1. .... Baby Hotline by Jack Stauber
2. .... "Ghosts" by Mystery Skulls
3. .... The Boys Are Back In Town (to kill you) by JerryTerry
4. ....
5. ....

♩ Voice Actor ♩ ... I'm Just Your Problem (Ashe cover)