Age: 35; born November 12, 157
Race: Human
Height: 5'10"
Weight:160lbs
Physical Description: Sebastian's always been a man of average height. He has a lean, athletic build with a focus more on tone than muscle growth. He keeps his dark hair cut sort, his narrow face clean shaven and he bathes every evening with harsh castile soap; which can leave his skin feeling raw and occasionally cause a rash. In order to sooth out a number aches and pains, prevent sunburns and ease an irritating itch (caused by too much lye in his soap) he generously applies a number of herbal creams and lotions.
He's a sharp dresser, making a point to regularly shine the brass buttons on his coat and polish his boots. His shirt will always be found tucked into his pants and he makes sure to hang his clothing each night to prevent wrinkles from forming. His uniform is kept in perfect order, which is one of the only lessons from his father that he still stands by.
Personality: To the outside world Sebastian appears to be a calm, cool, collected individual with a firm grasp over his emotions. He can at times come across as cold or distant, but the truth is that Sebastian is involved in the constant struggle of trying to control his anger. For far too long Sebastian has been angry at the world; angry at Stephan for his lies, angry at Amillari for abandoning their family, and angry at the Guard for ruining their way of life and destroying his reputation.
Occasionally, and without intent, he sometimes takes his anger out on the children, not physically, but by raising his voice and yelling at them when he's tired or feeling stressed. He immediately regrets his actions and tries his hardest to apologize. But lately he's had trouble connecting with anyone, to the point were he feels distanced even from his own children. He feels guilty about lying to them about what happened, but at the same time he can't bring himself to tell them the truth.
Chances are he would never openly admit it, but Sebastian feels lonely and doesn't know where to turn for help. What makes matters worse is that he is also too proud to ask anyone for help, thinking that doing so would somehow make him appear to be less of a man; which is another lesson passed down by his father.
Beyond that, he hates being compared to "his old man." Ever since that first day he put on a uniform and took up a position among the guard, he has been compared to his father. How far ahead his father had gotten by the time he was Sebastian's age. How many arrests he had made. How he tended to succeed at everything he did and how everyone loved him. The worst had to be the comments about how lucky Sebastian was to have grown up in a household with such a wonderful man to teach him everything he knew.
Possessions:
Sebastian own a modest two bedroom house in the Residential District of Marn. Only a few short years ago it felt like such a cozy dwelling full of laughter and love, now he just can't help but feel trapped in a daily reminder of what he once had. Though the paint on the walls and some of the furniture has changed, he was unable to part with a number of personal items belonging to Stephan and Amillari.
Very few possessions remain of the time before, as in before his family was split up. Most items of value wee stolen in the raid, but he was able to hold on to more sentimental belongings like Stephan's favorite tea cup and a night gown that belonged to Amillari. These things he holds dear to him, to the point where he has washed neither of them since returning home.
One of his most treasured possessions however is a rather extensive library that luckily went untouched in the raid. Sebastian has always had a love for learning and as such he has books written on a number of topics from history, geology, foreign languages and cultures, advanced mathematics, poetry and of course the Tomes of The First Settlers. Each night Sebastian sits alone in his study and falls asleep with a book in his lap before dragging himself to an otherwise empty bed.
Among his possessions is standard issue Guard equipment; he prefers a sword to other weapons but has received basic training in a number of weapons. He carries a silver-tipped mace for close combat and a pair of silver cuffs for handling pesky shifters.
Strengths:
Highly Educated: Sebastian is highly educated. In addition to receiving a basic education offered to all children in Marn, Sebastian was privately tutored in a number of subjects, went on to complete militia training, graduated from the university finishing a program in business finances and he spends several hours each night reading books on a number of varying topics.
Trained Guard: From a very young age he has trained for the life of a guardsman. He leaned how to handle himself with a sword, take down a wanted criminal and enforce the laws of Marn. His father, his militia instructors and the Guard recruiters have all helped him to fine tune his skills and keep him at the top of his game. It would take a truly well trained warrior, a strong magic user or powerful shifter to best him in a combat situation.
Remains Calm Under Pressure: Over the years he has trained himself to remain calm under stressful situations. It helps him to do his job better when he can keep a cool head and focus on the task at hand. He's a serious, work oriented, individual who does anything in his power to push all of his emotions to the wayside or bottle them up so that they won't interfere with what he has to do. It also helps him remain some level of control over the situation when he is gathering important information to relay back to the Paragon.
Makes for a Good Paragon Informant: His family background and training coupled with his bad run in with the Guard and his ability to control his emotions makes him a proficient spy for the rebellion. While he is still working to gain the trust of both the Guard and Paragon, the information he has relayed is still on the small scale and nothing that could necessarily be traced back to him. This includes but is not limited to things such as shift changes, patrol routes, which officers might be willing to look the other way or be sympathetic to the rebellion's goals.
Perceptive and Good at Reading Others: Growing up in a Synevive family, Sebastian had to learn how to read other people in order to survive. In the world of the wealthy and the privileged, no one was as they appeared; Sebastian had to learn how to see through the facade that his so-called friends put up if he wanted to make it through all the pointless dinner parties and galas that were oh so important.
Obsessive Record Keeper and Fiscally Responsible: Sebastian can be described as more than a little bit obsessive over his record keeping and accounting for the families expenses. He knows exactly how much he makes each and every month and he records where every 1/4 bishan goes. He pays all his bills on time and tracts the dates as well as the amounts so that he can compare how much he has spent and account for inflation.
With all the accounting classes he took at the university and working as the bookkeeper at his store, before he lost it, he is more than experienced to run a family on his modest income and still put away enough bishani to take care of the children when they are older and pay for his eventual retirement, should he live that long.
Some Apothecary Knowledge: He remembers a few things from his now-ex apothecary partner; nothing of any importance though just a minor sleep aid, something to settle an upset stomach and a salve that eases sore muscles and temporarily relives itchiness. All of these are made with all natural, non-magical, ingredients that for the most part he has to buy because Sebastian has the hardest time trying to keep everything but an olive tree in his backyard alive.
Helpful around the House: Among his many skills, he is an expert at overturning furniture to look for lost button eyes and sewing them back on a beloved ragdoll. His daughter cherishes a homemade doll her mother made for her before she disappeared, but she has had the awful habit of pulling off the loose buttons and losing them.
Weaknesses:
Sleep Deprived: Sebastian has trouble sleeping at night, he tosses and turns, and lays awake staring at the ceiling. He has tried to fill the empty space with pillows but it doesn't help. It just isn't the same trying to sleep alone in a bed that once held three.
Has Trouble Trusting Others: After Stephan lied to him and Amillari abandoned the family, Sebastian has had trouble completely trusting anyone. If his own family could betray his trust like that, what would stop a stranger from doing the same thing or worse? He fears being hurt like that again and as such he won't expose himself to anyone or let anyone get that close to him again. He doesn't even fully trust the Paragon or believe in their message, but for now he sees them as the best option.
Can't or Won't Move on with his Life: For whatever reason, Sebastian can't or won't move on with his life. He holds on to the anger he had when he first found out Stephan was hiding magic from his family and the anger he felt at the Guards who did nothing but blame Stephan for the riot. He clings to the pain and the sadness that came at the realization that Amillari had abandoned them and wasn't coming home.
Strained Relationships: What few relationships he still has are strained at best, especially those with his family. His mother has chosen to privately cut all ties with him, his sister and her family will no longer speak with him and his father would declare that he has no son if not for the social stigma that would come from publicly declaring such a statement. Lately his son has started acting out in school and his daughter cries at night after the sitter leaves, which has only reinforced the idea in his mind that he has failed as a father and that his children might have been better off had their mother taken them with her or had he never been released from his holding cell.
Guilt: Sebastian feels guilty about lying to his children. Other times he feels as if he may be expecting too much of his children, like his father did to him when he was a boy, but he doesn't know what to do differently. And then there are times when he blames himself for not realizing that Stephan had a problem with magic sooner and stepping in to stop him.
Terrible Cook: Try as he might, Sebastian is a terrible cook. He overcooks vegetables to the point that they turn mushy, he has burned oatmeal and porridge a number of times and too often he tries to mask his lack of kitchen knowledge with generous handfuls of whatever spices he has on hand, which can turn a bland dish into something nearly inedible.
Plant Killer: At one point there was a very lovely vegetable and herb garden in his backyard that supplied an assortment of ingredients both to the kitchen table and to the shop, but now the vast majority of it is dead, dying or overgrown with weeds. Part of the neglect has come from the fact that Sebastian just doesn't have the time to regularly water or weed the garden with his duties as a guardsman as well as the fact that he never seemed to grasp the ability to nurture plants the way Stephan could.
Paragon: Each and every day he struggles to hide his involvement with the Paragon from his children. They are far too young to even begin to understand what the family has been through and what he has to do to fight the wrongs that have been done to them. He can't tell them about Paragon or what it is he does for them, fearing in doing so he would put them at risk as children often times can't keep secrets and if they broke this one there is a good chance he could end up behind bars for the rest of his life. So instead he must make up lies as to where he goes at night.
Anger: He struggles to find an outlet for his anger. He has tried his hardest to bottle up all his emotions and disregard them, but when he finds himself tired or stressed at the end of a hard day he needs some way of letting it all out without loosing his temper when one of the children accidentally spills their milk on the floor or attempting to put his fist through a wall when he stubs his toe on the corner of the bed frame. So far he has tried drinking and whores as a possible outlet, but neither of these is any kind of long term solution.
High Blood Pressure: Due to all the anger, stress, lack of a regular sleep schedule and poor diet; Sebastian has high blood pressure but he doesn't realize just how bad it could be if he doesn't treat it. All he knows is that when he is very stressed, not sleeping and physically exerting himself that he can feel a mild pain in his chest and experience an irregular heartbeat.
Little on job experience: While Sebastian has years of experience going through training drills, hitting dummies with sticks and reading over an assortment of proper procedure; he is still rather new to the job and has limited experience as a Guard. He has a had few run ins with local drunks or rowdy vagrants that have on occasion attempted to take a swing at him, but he has yet to face an opponent who was armed and trained in combat. Let alone one that won't yield when he tells them to.
Overly rough at times and quick to judge: Though not something Sebastian does intentionally, he can at times be a bit overly rough and quick to judge. This can come in the form of snapping the cuffs on a suspected magic user just a little too tight or getting a little handy with a working girl or drawing a conclusion of his own as to who is and isn't guilty.
History: Sebastian was born into a well-to-do middle-class, Synevive family. His father, who came from a long line of Guardsmen, served as a lieutenant within the Marnian Guard; which allowed his mother to stay at home and raise both Sebastian and his older sister. He lived a relatively happy childhood, never knowing a need to go unfulfilled and hardly going without a want.
In addition to basic schooling, his father insisted on hiring a tutor to instruct Sebastian in reading, writing, learning a number of languages as well as mathematics and geography. His father sought to groom his son from a very early age into the Guard he would one day be. Each night, after the family had finished their dinner, his father would take him out into the courtyard behind their house and teach him the very basics of how to handle himself in a combat situation. Armed with nothing more than a tree branch, Sebastian was taught how to handle a sword. He was taught to strike only when necessary and to focus on disarming his foes rather than trying to kill. Most importantly though, Sebastian was taught how to protect himself and those that would come to depend on him.
Throughout his childhood and into his adolescence, Sebastian admired his father. He wanted to be his father. He wanted to pass his classes with top grades, outshine his peers during militia training and march into the recruitment office the morning of his eighteenth birthday to become an official guardsmen. It was what he dreamed of. Growing up, it was all he talked about.
But things changed.
Sebastian was encouraged to seek out higher education to give him that extra edge over the standard recruit. He was expected to be nothing short of the best and in order to make sure that his career would take him all the way to the top, he needed to be a learned man as well as someone who could hold his own with a sword.
During his time at the university, Sebastian was exposed to all sorts of new people, new ideas and new ways of looking at things that he had never thought of before. Suddenly, life was full of all these choices. Did he really want to follow in his father's footsteps or was he taking the easy way out by doing what was expected of him? Did he really want to dedicate his life to a career of long hours, dangerous situations and dealing with common thugs and drunks when he could instead find real passion in his life?
For the first time in his life he made real friends, he made plans of his own and he fell in love. It was a feeling unlike any he had felt before. Stephan was a bright young man with a thirst for knowledge; he was dedicated to his work and wanted nothing more than to help others. Science was his passion, he was convinced that he could unlock the secrets of the natural world and with them treat the various ailments that plagued everyday life. At the time, Sebastian had no idea Stephan was even capable of using magic. And then there was Amillari, she had the most beautiful eyes and a smile that could light up a room. She was kind and loving. She had this way about her, he couldn't describe it in words, but she was what held them together.
The three of them became inseparable. Not a moment went by that he wanted to be apart from them. Together they made plans for the future. They spoke of all the many things they would accomplish together, all the places they would go and all the things they would do.
After graduation, they opened an apothecary shop downtown. Stephan handled the production part of the business, Amillari was great with the customers and Sebastian used some of his family's wealth to fund the shop and manage their finances. Of course, his father wasn't too happy about his decision to turn his back on all those years of hard training, but it was his sister who cut him the loan. They never made much bishan off of selling their ointments, creams and elixirs, but they made enough to get by and set aside a small savings.
Together they bought a small house in the Residential District. It was cozy and with Amillari's domestic touch, they were able to make it their home. It wasn't long afterwords that they added to their little family with the birth of their son. A few years later and they welcomed a daughter into the world. Life was good, everyone was happy, but it wasn't meant to last.
Stephan had been secretly practicing magic behind their backs. It was Sebastian who caught him in the act, magically tampering with their products. He had claimed that he had to do it, there were customers coming to the shop, really sick individuals, they needed real help and something stronger than the basic salves they were legally allowed to carry. He was only trying to help, but Sebastian was furious.
How could Stephan do that to them? How could he be so selfish as to risk their reputation and freedoms over such a way?
Amillari pleaded with Stephan to go down to Justice Hall and register himself as a magic user, but he refused to do so. Stephan had come from a very strict puradyne family and they were already cross with him over living with an elf, there was no way that he could let it come out that he used magic. If they ever found out, his family would have disowned him. So he promised, then and there, that he would not be tempted by magic ever again.
But it was already too late. The damage had been done.
Word had spread that a sympathetic apothecary could be bought with a well enough sob story and soon enough they had more than their fair share of woes when rich and poor alike, those not afraid of magic, came crawling into their shop seeking cures they could not sell. Stephan was heartbroken at the thought of turning away such needy people. Amillari lost her pleasant smile. And Sebastian, he found himself acting the part of bouncer, kicking would-be customers out of the store for even implying that they might sell magically-tainted goods.
Needless to say, business was suffering at that point.
Then, came that fateful night when it all fell apart. Sebastian had stood in the doorway as he watched Amillari tuck the children into bed. He had brushed the hair from her face, kissed her good night and told her that he would be back with Stephan within the hour, they just needed to close up shop for the night. Everything seemed normal at first, just as every other night, but as he drew closer to the shop he heard loud noises out in the street.
A crowd had gathered outside the shop and by the time Sebastian was close enough to take in the full scope of the scene, things had already gotten out of hand. He could barely make out Stephan standing in the doorway as an older man attempted to grab his clothing and take a swing at him. People in the street were throwing bottles, cursing magic users and threatening to burn the shop down. A couple of Guards were already there, but their presence only seemed to make matters worse. Rather than protecting Stephan, they were attacking the crowd, making them angrier.
Sebastian feared for Stephan's life. He tried to push his way through the crowd, but there was too many bodies, he just couldn't make it through. Then, the unthinkable happened, he lost sight of Stephan. He pushed harder and was met with a painful jab to his gut. The crowd had turned on each other and fists were flying from every direction. Something hard smacked him across the back.
It was utter chaos until the reinforcements showed up. As soon as a heavy Guard presence arrived on scene, the crowd began to dissipate. Sebastian was finally able to make it to the doorway where he found Stephen beaten, bloody and bruised, but still alive. He knelt down and pulled him into a tight embrace, praying to Theodinus or any Changer that would listen. His heart was still racing, he was still trying to clear from his mind all the terrible thoughts of what he would have done had Stephan been killed by the mob that it didn't even register what was happening when a pair of cuffs clicked onto his wrists.
Sebastian and Stephan were arrested that night on suspicion of magic use and selling illegal goods. They were separated and individually interrogated for hours. Had it not been for Sebastian's father and his connections within the Guard, they may have kept him in a cell much longer, even though the scyers cleared him of all charges. Had it not been for his family's wealth and reputation, his arrest may have made the front page of the Tattler, forever ruining his good name.
When Sebastian was finally able to return home, what he found both shocked and saddened him. Amillari was nowhere to be found; apparently word had gotten back to her sometime in the night about their arrest and rather than sticking around, she disappeared into the night. An elderly neighbor had taken in the children, watching over them while he was gone. Meanwhile, the front door to his house had been left open and several of his belongings had been stolen. Racial slurs, partial quotes from the Tomes and open threats were painted on the walls. Some of the furniture had been tipped over and broken in what looked to be a robbery born out of convenience.
That night Sebastian sat in silence, unable to do anything other than stare at the mess. A week passed before the paint was washed away. It took a month or more to replace the broken furniture and some of the missing items, but it just wasn't the same.
He tried drinking for a while to help numb the pain, but it only managed to dull his senses and bring out his anger. Drugs had never been an answer. And while the occasional whore could act as a distraction, he could never bring himself to take a woman, or man, home. He just couldn't do that to his children.
Old friends and family members no longer came around. Neighbors who used to wave to him in the street and exchange friendly "hellos," now averted their gaze and quickened their pace each time they saw him. They spoke in hushed tones of rumors that had spread concerning Sebastian and his family, most of which held little to no truth, but it was no use trying to disprove them.
One night he just wanted to just get away from it all. Sebastian went down to the Historic District and found the first shady tavern he could find, plopped himself down on a stool and ordered whatever ale they had to offer. Rather than sipping his drink, Sebastian merely spun the glass in alternating clockwise and counter clockwise circles using only his index fingers. He wasn't so much looking to drink as he was simply trying to seek a moments peace in a place where he could disappear into the crowd.
Other than the bartender who didn't look too pleased with Sebastian's lack of consumption, the tavern patrons didn't seem to really notice or care about the lone man slumped over at the counter. That was, until a well dressed Eyropean man sat down next to him. At first, the man said nothing. Every so often he would glance over, as if to say something, but he remained silent for a long time. Finally, Sebastian had to ask what the man wanted.
"Nothing," he replied. He wanted nothing, or so he claimed. He said that he thought that he recognized Sebastian from somewhere, but he couldn't quite place him. Over the course of the next few hours the two of them entered into a long conversation of everything from the off-key singing of a nearby drunk to the current state of local politics. The more they talked, the more he drank, without even realizing it Sebastian started to open up to this man and tell him things that he had yet to vocalize.
By the time he found himself caught up in a drunken stupor, stumbling through the streets, trying to find his way home, he held a torn piece of paper in his hand with a time and a location of where he was to meet this man and some of his friends on a later occasion. Little did he know at the time that this meeting would change the direction in which his life was headed. Before he knew it he had fallen in with a group known as The Paragon; they played off his family connections and distrust of the Guard to infiltrate their ranks and relay information back to them.
Sebastian proved to be both a reliable agent for the Paragon and a capable guardsman, who for all intent and purposes seemed to be completely dedicated to the job. He was good at flying below the radar and followed every order he was given. He took whatever beat he was given, arrested every sorry excuse of a criminal he was told to and never once did he question his superiors. If he was going to help bring down the guard, he was going to have to bide his time and do it right. They would pay for what they let happen to Stephan.
