Born to a middle-class family in Koppai, Sebastian was the youngest of three siblings. She was quite the late child, having a 14/15 year age gap with them, but that just meant that Sebastian had a good amount of caretakers as her older siblings doted over her just as much as their parents did. When Sebastian was 5, her siblings had left home to pursue other careers, leaving the young koppaite alone. Unbeknownst to them, it was a relief for their parents who no longer had two extra mouths to feed, a food shortage hitting their area.
As Sebastian grew up, she still found ways to keep in contact with her siblings. The eldest was a studious resident scientist while the middle was an eccentric traveling engineer, the two making it clear that they would always be there for Sebastian. Although she aspired to be like one of them, their school excellence pointed them in the direction of the explorer. She had no problem with this, taking it as a sign to combat the threat of famine that most koppaites were blissfully unaware of at the time.
Newly graduated at the ripe age of 18, Sebastian's status as a prodigial student helped her get accepted and began working for one of Koppai's many explorer's guilds.
With a stable job and income, Sebastian was able to move out of her parent's house and into a comfy apartment that wasn't far fron their base of operations. The explorers' crew they worked for was rather small, most explorers (Sebastian included) opting for solo missions to cover more ground. During a crew meeting, one of the members suggested venturing to uncharted planets to further any astronomical research (and by astronomical research, they meant to possibly inhabit if the looming famine can't be combatted). Their captain agreed, but under one condition: Only the most experienced would conduct the search since these were unknown planets. Sebastian was able to meet the captain's requirement, and was tasked with finding a planet that was yet to be explored. They were able to find the mysterious PNF-404, and passed it on to the captain that she would be the one to explore it. Her request was approved, and soon she was saying goodbye to her family for the 3-month-long exploration.
Taking her ship, the S.S. Owlet, the 27-year-old Sebastian was able to successfully land on PNF-404 with little to no complications. her explorer's training led her to this moment, and they had a plan: Chart the planet and bring back anything that could be deemed edible. Lucky for her, this planet was abundant with fruits that could be collected and were, in fact, edible AND tasty. While doing one of her rounds, Sebastian stumbled upon a blue pikmin that was about to be eaten by a giant bulborb. Sebastian reacted immediately, rushing over and swooping the pikmin in her arms before the bulborb could bite down. The pikmin itself was stunned from the sudden movement, wondering why it wasn't devoured by the predator. Looking up at Sebastian and recognizing her as its savior, the pikmin nuzzled into her while wildly looking around. Sebastian followed the pikmin's gaze only to spot a hideout filled with other pikmin of several shapes, colors, and sizes. She got the idea from there, but there was one issue: The bulborb that Sebastian had cheated out of a meal. Holding the pikmin securely in her arms, she began to divert the attention of the beast. With the bulborb's back to the hiding pikmin, they were able to leap into action to take down the monster. While some of them began to take the bulborb to their onion, others stayed behind with Sebastian. They looked up at her expectantly, almost as if pledging their alliegance to her.
It was one week before the expedition's end date. Two months and three weeks have been spent on PNF-404, and Sebastian was making quite the progress. Fruits have been tasted and harvested, the seeds kept in a secure location within the S.S. Owlet. Of course, none of this could have been accomplished without the help of her pikmin companions, whose numbers had grown a lot since then. Since they already had an abundance of fruits, Sebastian decided to take this last week to venture out and explore. She and their pikmin began to wander the vast forests, Sebastian taking note of where they were to be able to backtrack once sundown came. They were enticed by an open area, a clearning amongst the terrain. Wandering in, Sebastian couldn't help but admire the beauty of it all, the tall trees providing a nice, lush shade.
It started with a rumble, a vibration that Sebastian could feel under their feet. It seemed like they weren't the only one who felt it, as their pikmin began to look at her in concern. Not being able to do much, Sebastian merely returned the look as they took a step back. She was getting ready to run back to the opening, but was stopped when a snagret burrowed its way out of the ground, blocking her only exit. She had never encountered a snagret until now, and the beast took her hesitance as an opening. Panicked, Sebastian was barely able to dodge the snagret's beak, but three of her pikmin weren't so lucky. The rest of the colony took action, swarming the snagret in order to protect their leader and avenge their fallen folk. The ground began to rumble again. Then a second beak. A third. Fourth. Fifth. In seconds, Sebastian and her pikmin were surrounded by these monsters. Not wanting to see her alien allies suffer, they took initiative and began to attack the snagrets themselves. It was a clash of flowers and feathers, pikmin getting devoured left and right. Sebastian herself was barely able to dodge the snagrets' attacks when the shine of a blue pikmin diverted her attention. In this moment of weakness, she was forcefully knocked to the side, the beak of a snagret coming in contact with her. This knocked the wind right out of Sebastian, and as she attempted to recover the rest of the pikmin were able to take down the last remaining snagret.
When they managed to recover, they took a glance at the remaining pikmin. What was once a vibrant field of leaves and flowers became a barren patch of no more than 8- wait, here comes the pikmin that ran away- 9 survivors. The damage was assessed: One pikmin had a torn leaf, the othere scratches scattered across their stem. Sebastian couldn't help but let the guilt fall upon them; they knew what they had done. Unknowingly, they had sent their cheerful allies to their deaths. With a heavy heart, she began to backtrack out of the nest and to the S.S. Owlet, each step taken with a labored breath. Halfway through their backtracking journey, Sebastian reached up at the back of their helmet to soothe a headache only to feel a hole. She thought her labored breaths were from exhaustion, not from an oxygen leak. Falling into a panic, Sebastian tried to rush towards the ship, but that simply made matter worse. The air was becoming too thick and heavy, becoming too painful to breathe. Her pikmin could only watch in concern as their leader buckled under their own weight. With more than a fourth of the journey left, Sebastian knew that they wouldn't be able to make it in time. She used the last of her strength to pick her head up and regard the pikmin who had helped her in this journey. With one final breath, Sebastian had accepted her fate.
Back on Koppai, an explorer was deemed Missing In Action after their ship had not returned two weeks after the exploration's end date, not a single SOS signal being recorded.
The last thing Sebastian could feel was their body being lifted. Now, they were planted safely in...the ground? Feeling the dirt around them, she began to claw her way out, which was surprisingly easy. Looking out into the vast expanse in front of her, Sebastian was caught off guard when her pikmin came and tackled her to the ground, hugging her and expressing their joy that their leader had returned. As confused as Sebastian was, their panic began to set in once they realized that they weren't wearing their helmet. Her pikmin, noticing the explorer's turmoil, began to try and comfort her. This only set Sebastian into a deeper spiral, why could they understand the pikmin? It wasn't until they took a deep breath did they realize something was off. Looking down at her hands, it saw that they were no longer regular hands, but rather claws that tore through her brown gloves. Her shoes were beginning to feel tight, so she took them off to reveal large claws underneath. Their arms and legs faded a gradient black-to-gray, the limbs as hard and rough as rocks. The cherry on top? A large stem potruding from its head with a large green leaf at its tip. Realizing what this meant, Sebastian could only look out in despair:
Sebastian had died on this planet, and in a desperate attempt to save their leader, the pikmin had taken them to an onion and revived it as one of their own.
Sebastian couldn't help but mourn the loss of who they were. The memories of being back on Koppai, of being with her crew, her family, now out of reach. They had no choice but to accept that their life was on this planet now, her body adapting to the new environment. Casting aside their past life, Sebastian shed their name and became Bast. No longer was it a Koppaite explorer who drove the S.S. Owlet, but rather the leader of the pikmin's Owlet colony on PNF-404. Repurposing her old ship, Bast took the area in which it landed as territory for both her and their colony. The Koppai air was filtered out (and with it, the last remnants of Sebastian), and is now used as a home for Bast.
It took Bast weeks to adjust to life on PNF-404, figuring out how to navigate as a hybrid and all. Unable to find a reason to continue other than protecting its pikmin, Bast would often wander aimlessly during this time with no set destination. Sure, she was innovative, creating things such as a flute and spear to help with her pikmin, but that innovation wasn't enough. She would constantly make trips to the Snagrets' Nest, uprooting all the old ground in favor of planting what would soon be akin to a memorial garden. It was during one of these trips that they finally decided to divert towards a different path, to explore a little and distract themselves from the dread the nest gave them. That's when it stumbled upon a large object, one Bast could identify as an enlarged book titled 'Encyclopedia'. With the help of their pikmin, Bast was able to prop up the book and have it open to a random page. Immediately, the images piqued their interest. The page had a depiction of a bipedal creature, the depiction having a background that was eerily similar to the trees on PNF-404. Except those trees were smaller... which must've meant that these organisms (or Sapiens, as the book had called them) were massive in size. Everything pointed to these creatures being the planet's former dominant life form, and Bast was willing to figure out more.
It started with decoding their language. Bast was able to see a resemblance between the Sapiens' words and the words she used, coming up with ways to easily read the pages. They began to take random inventions and craft them, seeing if she could put them to use. One of these sapien inventions was called a 'Snaffle', and Bast concluded that it was used to tame other larger beasts that the sapiens had managed to tame. This gave them an interesting yet dangerous idea: if the sapiens had managed to get other creatures under control, then perhaps Bast could do the same. Building a snaffle to the best of her ability, Bast would attempt to wrangle a bulborb into submission. It was a process of trial and error, one that left Bast scuffed up more often than not, but eventually it suceeded in dragging one particularly large bulborb to the ground. Though that was only step 1. Step 2 was gaining its trust (and teaching it that the colony was NOT food), and it was done at the bulborb's pace. Bast did manage to win it over eventually, using "treats" that were pieces of fruits that Bast had cultivated. Granting the now-tamed bulborb the name "Castor", Bast had a new addition to the colony.
Bast had fully adjusted to life on PNF-404 by now, using her explorative spirit to further any research on Sapiens. It was during one of these exploration trips did something catch their eye: Something was plummeting down to earth. Taking a detour, Bast, Castor, and their three loyal pikmin ventured out in the direction of the falling object. It took days, but eventually the five of them found the site where the object landed. Getting off of Castor, Bast masked itself and approached the machine. It was a small ship, smaller than her home, and they could tell the pilot was ejected. After a quick scan of the area, Bast could tell that the pilot wasn't nearby and used this as an excuse to see the ship closer. It wasn't until something, or rather someone, moved towards it did Bast's attention get taken off the ship. Nearby was another hybrid, a Hocotatian by the looks of it. Their suspicion was confirmed when the other hybrid introduced herself as Frankie, a Hocotate captain of the S.S. North. The two were at a standstill until Frankie called a truce, Bast accepting it and even giving her a hint on how to find them if she ever wishes to reach out. After leaving the crash site, Bast couldn't believe that they weren't the only hybrid out there, but that joy was cut short when it heard Frankie open the hull of her ship. Unable to be the bearer of bad news, Bast had refused to warn her of the inability to breathe their old worlds' air and pressed forwards.
After their encounter, Frankie was able to find Bast, and the two of them formed a bond. During this time, Olimar and Louie had also returned to PNF-404 to collect more treasure, and the two duos were able to meet. From the start, Bast had a suspicion of Louie, but let it slide as Olimar ended up leaving a decent first impression on the hybrids. When he and his companion ended up with enough treasure, Bast was there the day before their ship took off. Time passed and Bast found herself forgetting the names of Louie and Olimar, only recognizing them as some workers that landed on the planet. Unaware that the hocotatians had returned at some point, they were caught off guard when they saw one of them stealing from their fruits. Bast had scared the person off, but unable to shake off the familiarity Bast couldn't help but pursue him in a blind rage. That's when she came into contact with the three Koppaite explorers, the (now unconscious) Hocotatian with them. Bast could vaguely hear their names; The one in green was Charlie, the one in pink Brittany, the one in blue Alph, and the Hocotatian whose safety they were ensuring was none other than Olimar (except it was actually Louie). Challenging Charlie to a battle, Bast had leapt into action in order to get her claws on "Olimar". She ended up losing, the two calling a truce before meeting up again sometime after Louie expresses his gratitude by stealing the Koppaite's food. From there, she was able to ally themselves with the other Koppaite captains while keeping her true identity (for the most part) hidden.
Following the departure of both the Koppaites and Hocotatians, Bast couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like to be able to go back to who they once were, but the thought was shrugged off. Bast had no path to take but the path onwards, to further her research and explore the rest of these lands.
