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Sebastian was standing very still in a thicket outside of the camps. He had been there for quite awhile, waiting for something to happen. He fairly sure that the group of individuals he had spoken with would be arriving at the camp site fairly soon, probably some time that day, based on the impatience of the youths in question. A day was not a long time to wait, at least not from Sebastian’s perspective.

He couldn’t believe that he had dragged himself all the way out here just for a bunch of scruffy foals. While he still intended not to get involved in fighting the flying tin cans he’d previously heard about and more recently spotted from the cover of his bushy hideout, he feel some compulsion to make sure that the headstrong colts didn’t get themselves killed.

At least it was a nice day, outside the camp walls. The sun was shining and it was quiet and peaceful. The air was still cold and there were still large patches of snow on the ground, but in his Qilin form, Sebastian was quite warm enough. The leaves were just beginning to bud on the trees and the bushes surrounding Sebastian’s hiding place, though they weren’t yet large enough that he would want to try eating them yet. Too much work for such a small snack.

Sebastian’s pointed ears could pick up some sounds drifting from over the distant wall, across the barren plain that surrounded as though things inside of the wall were not as pleasant as they were outside of the wall. Sebastian contemplated the stupidity of humanity (he included mutants in his definition of humanity) at allowing history to repeat itself over and over again. One didn’t have to be as old as Sebastian to be able to learn from the past. They even wrote history down nowadays, and it seemed that people were repeating their mistakes even more frequently than before. There were wars all over the globe, almost endlessly now. Mutants and humans alike were dying because they couldn’t see past their differences, continuing a millennia long tradition of genocide against those that were different. And now, two separate instances of concentration camps less than a century apart, those horrible institutions that existed solely to bring misery and death to minorities, to those who were feared as different, defiled, or dangerous.

People must think that since history is recorded now and they can look it up any time they want, they don’t have to bother to learn it anymore. People have forgotten what peace is like. They know no means other than violence, and one cannot gain peace using violence.

Sebastian continued to watch, to listen, and to meditate as he waited for something to happen.

“Tell me a story,” requested Everett as Sebastian tucked him into bed.

“What kind of story?” Sebastian asked smiling down at the sandy blonde haired boy, knowing full well what the answer would be.

“A true story.” Everett snuggled against the pillow and smiled a dimpled, sleepy smile that could melt any father’s heart. Sebastian smiled knowingly and began his tale.

“Once there was a boy…”

“Was the boy you?” interrupted Everett.

“Now this was a very long time ago, and the boy’s name was Pan,” continued Sebastian without directly answering the boy’s question. “The boy was a goatherd who lived in polis called Troy.”

“What’s a polis?”

Sebastian sighed with pretended exasperation, “I’ll never finish the story if I keep getting interrupted. A polis is a city kingdom. Anyway, the boy had a friend called Syrinx. She often came to visit Pan out in the fields as he was tending the herd of goats. Herding goats was not very fun for Pan. All he had to do was watch them to make sure they didn’t wander away or get eaten by wolves.”

“This isn’t the tale of the boy who called wolf is it?”

“No.”

“It isn’t a love story is it?”

“It’s a true story,” Sebastian assured him. “Now, Pan was not a goatherd by birth. In fact, he was born into a warrior family, but when he was six he started growing a horn on his head. Just like me,” Sebastian added, anticipating the young boy’s question. “His uncle (for his parents were dead) took this as a sign that Pan was special, but the polis leaders took it as a sign from the gods that he should work with goats.”

“By the time he was ten, Pan was very tired of watching goats. They never did anything interesting. They ate… they slept… they ate some more… they did what all animals do after they eat… and if Pan was lucky they didn’t get attacked by wolves. If he was really lucky, his friend Syrinx would come down to the field to play with him.

Syrinx was a beautiful girl. She had raven black hair and brown eyes so deep you could fall into them and drown. But Pan was too young to appreciate those kinds of features. What he appreciated was her stories. Syrinx didn’t just tell a story, she spun a story into a poem so vivid you could almost see it shimmering in the air. Sometimes Pan would turn the stories into songs to sing to the goats, but he was too nervous to ever sing them in front of people.

One day Pan was singing to the goats, when he realized there was someone singing along. He looked around, but could not find the source of the beautiful voice who was singing along. It sounded like it was coming from the center of the herd of goats, but that was impossible, unless one of the goats had learned to sing. Stranger things had happened, so Pan decided to investigate. He waded through the goats still singing, using his staff to push the goats out of the way until he came to the source of the voice.

It was Syrinx, down on her hands and knees, wearing an old goatskin on her back pretending to be a goat. Pan wasn’t upset that she would try to sneak up on him that way, but she had heard him singing! He was so embarrassed that he turned bright red. He was about to yell when she realized what was about to happen and leapt up more nimbly that even the goats could and ran away.

Pan chased after her. It took him longer to wade through the goats, but once they were both in the open, he was much faster than she and he soon overtook her. Right before she was caught, Syrinx threw herself into the reeds at the riverbank to hide and Pan was left with only a handful of broken reeds. Naturally he jumped in after her and crawled around until he found her by the sound of her giggling. By that time he was too tired to be angry and he too was laughing. They lay in the reeds laughing until their stomachs hurt, and then waiting until they caught their breath again.

When at last she could speak again, Syrinx held up one of the reeds she had broken off, ‘Did you know that these make a sound when you blow on the end?’ Pan shook his head and Syinx demonstrated for him.” Sebastian whistled through his teeth to imitate the sound of the reed.

“‘Let me try,’ Pan said and broke off a piece of his own. Pan’s sounded a little different, a little higher.” Sebastian demonstrated by whistling again.

“The two of them tested several different lengths of reeds when suddenly Syrinx motioned for him to be quiet.” Sebastian held his own finger to his lips to indicate a dramatic pause.

“There was a growling noise. It was a wolf! It had heard the whistling and came to investigate! Pan pulled Syrinx up and the two of them ran toward where the rest of the goatherds were, yelling all the way. Pan, again, was faster than Syrinx, but the wolf was faster yet. It snipped at Syrinx’ heel and she tripped. Pan turned on his heel to try to help her. He kicked the wolf’s snout as it tried to bite Syrinx’s leg, losing his own balance in the process. He saw a flash of grey, heard shouting, felt a pain in his shoulder, then he fainted.”

Everett’s eyes were wide.

“They were all safe,” Sebastian assured him quickly, realizing he had gotten a little too caught up in his story.

A woman standing in the doorway gently cleared her throat, letting Sebastian know that she did not approve of this type of bed time story.

“Well, it turns out that the other goatherds got there in time to save the children from the wolf. Neither of the children were even injured, because of Pan’s newfound healing ability,” Sebastian finished lamely.

“What happened next?” Everett asked innocently, his hazel eyes reflecting the light from the candle flickering on the nightstand.

Sebastian shook his head, but at the same time leaned forward and kissed his forehead, masking a whispered, “Later.”

The woman, too, came to kiss the boy good night.

After they had left the room, she whispered to Sebastian, “If he has nightmares, it’s all on your head.”

Character's real name: Unknown
Alias: Sebastian Csendes (<- Greek for venerable, Hungarian for peaceful)
Nickname: He prefers "Zeb" or "Seb" as a young man, but once he gets older prefers to use his full name.

Gender: Male
Age: Ageless and all ages
Nationality/Ethnicity: Greek
Birthplace: Greece

Hair color and style: White. It is short when he is a child and grows longer as he shifts older through the years. Rather than getting bald, his hair gets thinker and actually spreads down his back, similar to a horse's mane. Facial hair similarly grows longer as he ages.
Eye color: Light blue
Height: 5'6'' (He used to be considered very tall, but humans have
grown larger over the years.)
Build: Thin, lanky
Visible mutations: Even in human form, Sebastian has a white lion's tail and a white spiral horn growing from his forehead. The horn grows with age, first appearing in childhood and growing to be about seven inches by old age.
Scars/ Tatoos/ Piercings: none

Personality: Open minded and eager to learn new things, he's rather laid back and not much phases him. He loves puns in all languages, but the rest of his humor is a bit out of date.

Hobbies: Over the years he has collected a lot of hobbies. His interests include astronomy, playing the pan flute, dancing, martial arts (which he learned because the moves were similar to dancing), studying the religions (all of them- he is slightly obsessed with trying to figure out what happens to people when they die), and learning new languages.

Allegiance: Peaceful

Everyday clothing: He enjoys wearing a range of styles of dress from all different eras and locations. Usually he wears whatever seems normal for wherever he is, such as a white or gray suit, but occasionally he gets bored and wears authentic period clothing from one of the places and times in which he has previously lived.
Uniform: none
Pajamas: He wears a dark and light blue striped night suit with a long night cap. He also sleeps as a young child, for he finds that he sleeps best as a child and also doesn't have to worry about his horn poking holes in his pillow (Since his horn grows with age, appearing at the equivalent of about age six).

Description of abilities:
FP: Sebastian's abilities do not change from the present to the future plot.
Transformation through human and unicorn life cycles:
Sebastian can transform through the entire life cycle of a human form and a unicorn form. Each form has the equivalent of a one hundred year life cycle, and he crosses over from one species to the next at the end of one life cycle and the beginning of the other. As an old man, he could transform into a unicorn foal, as a baby he could transform into an old unicorn. Transformation is not instantaneous; rather, it takes about ten seconds to change through a one year's equivalent of each of the life cycles. He can move both backwards and forwards through his ages.

Human Life Cycle
Sebastian always has a white lion tail, even in his human form. As a young child he has no horn, but after the equivalent of age six, it gradually grows throughout the life cycle until it reaches its maximum length of about seven inches. His hair and facial hair also grow
longer as he advances in years. In middle age the hair grows thicker and begins to grow down his back in a line, similar to a horse's mane. As a young adult, he begins to grow facial hair, and by old age has a very handsome beard in the style of Gandolph and Dumbledore (though he would claim that he had the style first).

Unicorn Life Cycle
The unicorn life cycle goes through three main stages. As a young unicorn, Sebastian resembles a white horse with a lion's tail and a spiral horn, and later, a goatee. As he nears the second stage, his mane grows thicker and spreads to cover his entire body, his body grows thinner, lighter, and more goat like. His strength decreases, but agility increases. As he nears the third stage, the unicorn equivalent of old age, his hair begins to fall out everywhere except his mane, which now resembles a lion's mane, the tip of his tail, and around his feet. Replacing the hair is iridescent scales, shine as if they are on fire when the light hits them. His hair, too, gains an iridescent luster, which can at times seem to glow. In his unicorn form, Sebastian's horn also grows with age, but it is much longer than in his human form, reaching lengths of 80 cm.

Healing/ Regeneration:
Sebastian heals from wounds very quickly, taking seconds to automatically heal from most wounds. He can also regenerate missing body parts, but this takes much longer; a day for a finger, three for a hand, a week for a whole arm. His horn can also be regenerated, but it takes a year to grow back to its normal length.

Sebastian can also heal others, through touch. It works fastest when his horn makes contact with the wound, but he can heal using any physical contact with the person in need of healing. His blood neutralizes poison and toxins in his own body and can be used as an antidote for others who are poisoned, either through injection or drinking. His blood's ability to deal with foreign substances has a similar effect on viruses and bacteria, allowing it to cure some illnesses, but he cannot cure diseases that are the body's own creation, such as cancer. Sebastian cannot regenerate others' lost limbs or bring people back from the dead.

Immortality:
Because he shifts to his opposite form at the end of his life cycle rather than dying of old age and is constantly healing himself, Sebastian is immortal.

Weaknesses and cons of abilities:
Transformation through human and unicorn life cycles:
It takes time to transfer from one form to the other; ten seconds per year in the life cycle. Since he must switch over at the ends of the life cycles, it leaves him very vulnerable since he must go through an ancient and frail stage and a baby stage to get from one form to the other.

Healing/ Regeneration:
Healing takes a lot of energy, so it requires him to sleep a lot to catch up on the energy lost. Regeneration, in particular requires that he be asleep while he is regenerating.

Immortality:
All the people he ever grows to care for eventually grow old and die, leaving him alone.

Additional Weakness:
He is weak to virgins. He can sense them and gets easily distracted by them. Their voices also have a unique power over him, allowing them to persuade him easily. Their singing makes him sleepy as well. This weakness is most potent when Sebastian is in his teenaged and young adult forms, when he is highly influenced by hormones ( giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "horny teenager").

Fighting style (if any): He knows many different martial arts styles, but learned them for the purpose of practicing the beautiful dancelike moves and not for the purpose of hurting others. Through centuries of practice, he has developed super reflexes and gracefulness. He prefers to avoid fights and settle conflicts peacefully.

History of your character: He originates in ancient Greece where he was once called Pan as a boy. He has spent lifetimes in both human and unicorn form in different parts of the world, including the forests of Germany and the mountains of China in his unicorn form. Once, when he was living in England, he even tried living a human lifetime backwards
and met a young boy called Wart.

FP History:
In the midst of the Haywire Epidemic, Sebastian purchased an abandoned Church of Humanity building in order to provide a base of operations for a group of individuals devoted to helping Haywire victims and their families. No one was turned away. Sebastian was able to enlist the help of local churches, temples, and mosques to help run the shelter. When the crisis was over, the congregations decided to transform the building into a community center so it could continue to serve its' purpose of helping the community and bringing people of all religious, racial, and genetic heritages together. After a short period of remodeling, Pax Community Center was up and running. The congregations continue to use the sanctuary to hold different religious meetings each night of the week. It is still known as a place where people can go for help- no matter how dire their situation may be.

In 2015 Sebastian founded and became the headmaster of Pax academy for K-9th grade students, a school offering mostly online classes in an effort to reach both mutant and human students who cannot travel easily from their homes as well as a way to keep students safe from extremist groups and other threats. The school has grown and now offers classes for every grade level as well as community education classes. Pax academy is now in its fourth year and its first class of high school seniors will graduate next Spring- if they can make it through their final exams!

Sample RP:
see Kat's posts!

An excellent idea Sonya! I'm afraid that Sebastian won't be able to participate because it would be out of character for him to rush into anything. I wish you the best!

Things change so fast these days, Sebastian mused as he packed his knapsack with traveling clothing. He looked around at his small monastery room one last time to see if there was anything he had forgotten. Possessions were not especially important to him, and aside from his flute he didn’t carry anything other than clothing when he traveled.

He got halfway across the grounds of the monastery before realizing that there was still something important that he needed before leaving Siam. Passport. He returned to his room and dug the document out of the envelope in which it had arrived. Honestly, there never used to be such a hubbub about traveling. Stupid things expire every ten years. And I thought the Romans liked red tape.

As he walked along the road leading away from the monastery, he admired the beautiful scenery of rice patties and jungle. Sebastian mused that a person could spend a lifetime here and never grow sick of the scenery. Or several lifetimes, he joked to himself.

His current visit to Siam had been shorter than any of his previous visits, only about 11 years. It had been just long enough for his passport to expire. Again. He had been attempting to learn the art of Thai boxing, not because he wanted to fight anyone, but because the moves could be so beautiful and graceful when executed properly. Unfortunately he had only had time to get the basics learned. The grace that came with mastery had yet to be perfected. It irked Sebastian to leave such a thing unfinished, but he had more important things to take care of.

He had been following the news, as he always did, and read that the United States of America had passed a mutant registration law. It was a bed situation all around. Sebastian could remember other situations where minorities had to be registered. It never turned out well for the minorities. Two infamous names came to mind. Herod and Hitler. Sometimes it seemed that names that started with the an H sound had an affinity with the slaughter of innocents. Sebastian was not at all surprised when he heard only days later that the US had also built concentration camps to control mutants who were dangerous to society.

Sebastian had snorted, in a very horsey way, when he had read that. It meant the camp or camps, the paper hadn’t been clear on which, had already been built before the law had even been passed. Which meant someone had been very sure that the law would pass.

The United States was one of the world leaders, and if they decided to do something like this, it was probably only a matter of time before other countries followed in the wake. The government of Siam… Thailand, Sebastian reminded himself of the new name… had been considering something similar, until certain leaders had been assassinated unexpectedly and the idea lost support.

Unless a more peaceful resolution was found, it probably wouldn’t be long until someone tried something similar in the US. There was a certain individual, who had been making headlines for years, that was likely to be in the US currently and would be a prime suspect for that sort of thing. With all the recent mutant activity in that country, any one of the more violent ones could attempt assassination. No matter how strong the suspicions were, there was no need to go suspecting someone who might very well be innocent. Right. Innocent. Ha.

>>>"My sister's in there. I've got to get her out"
>>>“We will get her out.”

Sebastian heard them. Apparently they were still planning on their suicide mission to attack the camps. He might have to follow them, just to make sure they didn’t get themselves killed. Only part of Sebastian’s brain was thinking that though. Another part was focused intently on what the woman in the green coat was saying.

>>>“Sebastian. My name is Kit." She smiled up at him and the cat, "It's true that cats own themselves, especially the ones that hold themselves so majestically."
Her eyes were so beautiful. Sebastian reached for her hand to kiss it, the way gentlemen used to do when they greated a lady. But the lady got caught up in the conversation of the others, turning away from Sebastian for a moment. He dropped his hand back down. He was being silly and he knew it.

>>>"It's unfortunate about your sister being in the camps. If I guess correctly that is. But I wouldn't be so hasty as to go in by yourself."
She had some common sense, this woman. Sebastian admired her for a moment before a new voice interrupted from behind him. Another newcomer!

>>>“Hello chaps! Lovely mornin’ for a stroll in the park, eh?”

Suddenly this gathering was getting a little too noticeable. That and there was a lot of hormones running through Sebastian’s veins at the moment. stupid twenty-year old body. It was time to go before he did something really stupid. He knew his weaknesses and he knew that he should leave now before he got dragged into something he really didn’t want to be dragged into.

“Lovely to meet you, but I must be going.” Sebastian did catch the girls’ hand this time and kiss the back in farewell. Then he gathered up his newspaper and extracted himself from the group. “Good luck,” he said as he walked away.

It was time for his lunch and the cat’s too. He walked to the deli just across the street and got a tuna sandwich and a veggie sandwich. Then he walked back to his car that was parked in the hotel parking lot. No one was around, so he addressed the furry feline on his shoulder in a quiet voice.

“Well, Sinatra, it looks like they are going to be getting themselves into trouble. What do you say we go and make sure they don’t get themselves killed?” He opened the car door and looked inside, he really didn’t want to get in the car again after just having arrived that morning. “We’ll only drive to the edge of the city, okay? Then we’ll be hoofing it the rest of the way.”

(Continued in Transformation and Tailing)