Sebastian Sykes
you know what they say about bassists -

cw for drug use mention

The bassist in the popular alt-rock/pop band LunaVarga, Sebastian is the main character in my story, Ghost Harem. He has a huge ego, and treats the people around him like they are not worth his time. One night while he was on tour with his band, he sneaks out of the hotel room in the middle of the night to get high off the ecstacy he snuck with him (his bandmates were under the impression he was going to stop using - he lied). As he wanders towards an abandoned house in a quiet neighborhood, it begins to rain heavily. Rushing inside, afraid of the coming storm, he ends up staying the night. The storm did a lot of damage to the surrounding area - with no way for any of his bandmates or management to retrieve him, he's ordered to stay put until they can get to him. Just as a heads up, I do plan on making this a fully fledged thing you can read/consume. If you don't want spoilers, don't read ahead too much.

Pronouns	he/him (post-harem adds it/its)
Age	25
Birthday	January 10, 1980
Height	5'8"
Hair color	Green and blonde
Eye color	Light Brown - wears color contacts that show just his pupil.

Pre-Harem

As was mentioned before, Sebastian has this attitude about him, that he feels he's better than everyone else around him. This is entirely a front. He, in reality, hates himself deeply - believing himself to be an inherently bad person for a great number of things both arbitrary and real. Part of that manifests in his attitude, which he uses as a shield to prevent people from getting too close to him. Paradoxically, he desperately seeks some real connection, which he finds in Artie and Ted. Another aspect of his self-hatred is his inner conflict with his sexuality. Because Ghost Harem takes place in the early 2000s, Sebastian is subject to the underlying yet apparent homophobia that plagued that era. This homophobia was particularly present within the social circles that he found himself in, as well as from his family in more milder forms. What he would tell you though is that the last thing he needs or wants is to be exposed for being something that is at the point of a lot of contention and ire, so instead of confronting those feelings, he pushes them down and away.

To briefly ~~and vaguely~~ summarize Sebastian's adolescence, it was very chaotic. The only positive things he would attribute to his family would be keeping a roof over his head, giving him food to eat (when they felt like it), and introducing him to rock 'n' roll. He was an absolute menace to the people around him - the exception being his parents. Generally, he would attempt to impose himself as the "leader" of whatever friend group he found himself in, which also fluctuated for a few years until he found one person to stay with him consistently. This individual would go on to be in Sebastian's band (LunaVarga) as the guitarist.

Intra-Harem

If it wasn't already apparent - Sebastian is not a happy person. This is expressed in a multitude of ways in the time he spends at the house but the first and most apparent manifestation of this is in his substance abuse and general disregard for his wellbeing, followed by his treatment of the people around him and his environment. If one were to ask him - at this point - why he behaves the way he does, his answer would be something along the lines of "It's my life, so why do you give a fuck?". Outside of the recording studio, one would most likely find Sebastian wasting away in his bedroom, surrounded by piles of his dirty clothes and empty fast food bags. When he is with his band, he tends to be very particular with how they are performing and demands absolute perfection no matter what. This inevitably leads to aggression - it's uncommon for any given practice or recording session to go entirely smoothly.

When we first join Sebastian, the cracks in his façade have been forming for a very long time - he desperately tries to keep up the carefree tough-guy act, but it falters pretty quickly. This is mostly due in part to the fact that neither Ted nor Artie buy into it. They've already seen him at a weak point when he was panicking over the thunderstorm from the first evening he spent there. To avoid discussing everything that happens before I've even released a page of this story, I'll very briefly summarize his arc.

Sebastian, with the assistance of Ted and Artie, begins to unpack his behavior. He starts to learn that the actions he takes to keep others at a distance have done much more harm than good. Understanding that he has hurt people, accepting it, and wanting to be better - in conjunction with understanding which things he has arbitrarily deemed as "negative qualities" and learning to love and accept those parts of himself as well - he starts to make amends with himself and others.

Post-Harem

After the events of Ghost Harem Sebastian continued to play with his band for a few more years, still visiting Artie and Ted. Eventually, he split off to do his own solo work where he did a complete overhaul of his style. He cut off his longer hair, opting for a buzz cut in the back, adding a lot more color to his looks. This was mostly inspired by the '60s psychedelic music that Artie enjoyed listening to. His makeup got a bit more heavy as well, and he also started including more feminine pieces in his looks. While the negative attention he receives for being open about his sexuality is still hurtful, he now figures that it's much more hurtful to try and hide that aspect of himself.

He becomes much more outspoken in favor of LGBTQ+ rights. Sebastian starts to put his energy and money towards it, and despite the way he viewed his own sexuality at first, he puts a lot of effort into being a good advocate and role model.

Though his visits with his non-corporeal lovers are much more sporadic, he still takes the time to visit them when he can since they still mean a lot to him. He spends the first hours of his visits catching up with Artie and Ted about his goings-on, followed by doing general cleaning around the house. Initially, when he cut his hair off, Artie was very distraught while Ted only mourned the fact that he continued to dye it. Typically though, he uses his time at Artie and Ted's to unwind from his generally busy life.