Sebastian Rowe | 24 | selkie | taken | John Boyega
"Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."
Sebastian Rowe was born the youngest of four siblings, with three older sisters. Outnumbered from birth, Bastian learned to hold his own and fit in amongst his sisters, always more inclined to do things with them than go out with his father to do stereotypically “masculine” things. His father, a fisherman by trade on the Massachusetts coast, was glad to have a son to pass on the family name and loved all his children fiercely. Bastian’s mother worked in the thriving tourism industry of Cape Cod as a travel agent, helping families vacation in the beautiful place they called home. The Rowe siblings always knew they were different, special. Other children couldn’t speak to sea creatures, or turn into seals when getting in the water. To the Rowe children, their nature made life a fantasy, a fairy tale full of curiosity and adventure. The family lived much of their lives on land, comfortable in their human forms as they blended in with the humans. They were given strict rules by their parents to never tell anyone their secret, the protection of each other and their skins was of upmost importance. The Rowes did not mingle with other seafolk, even other selkies; their parents were too protective of their children to risk exposing them to potential dangers.
All the rules in the world, however, couldn’t have prepared the small group of selkies for what happened next. Bastian, at age twenty and curious about the world, told a close friend the truth about himself. This friend told his father, who was part of a group of humans who hunted and poached supernatural beings. Knowing a group of selkies could lead to a big pay day, and hoping to snag a skin if they were lucky, the hunters waited until the entire family was in the cove where they went to catch fish one moonless night. The selkies were trapped in a net, but not without a fight and a struggle, and in the end all five of them had been harpooned. Bastian had been some distance away exploring when the attack happened, but he watched it all with horror, knowing his mistake had cost his family their lives. Part of him wanted to shed his skin and get on land, to try and take the hunters out however unlikely that would be to work in his favor. But his parents’ words rung in his ears, to not expose himself when attacked, to hide and swim away, to never shed his skin in front of strangers. Knowing it was his own fault, that not heeding his parents’ rules had caused the massacre, this time Bastian listened.
Heartbroken, he set out on his own for the first time, drifting up the coast but never staying in one place for long. His usually bubbly demeanor became one more secretive, and Bastian stopped letting people get close. He spent more time in his seal form than ever before, choosing the relative safety of life at sea rather than risk the kind of duel-life he had been living with his family. He lived like this for years, mourning his family in his seal form and not finding the same joy in the sea that he used to. He kept to himself, frightened of hunters and always looking over his shoulder. Until one day, near the coast of Maine, a friendly mermaid approached him. There was a place nearby, a safe haven for seafolk like them and other supernatural beings. A place where hunters can not tread, where Bastian could live amongst his own kind in safety. At first he thought it was too good to be true, but as soon as he entered Sumner he knew she had been right. Bastian has been in Sumner for three months now. He is ecstatic for the opportunity to attend the Academy, since he never got more than a high school education. Naturally curious about the world, Bastian loves learning about all the supernatural beings that he knew next to nothing about before coming to Sumner. He is learning as he goes, still a little cautious of others but finally feeling as though he can let his guard down. He lives in the seafolk dorms of the campus, and at the urging of his professors has gotten a part time job in town as a barista in a coffee shop. He can’t help but find the town and all its people interesting, though sometimes he still finds himself confused or out of his element when it comes to understanding all the different species around him.
+ Outgoing, enthusiastic, unselfish
- Naive, impulsive, soft-hearted
