- █ █ B A S I C S
█ NAME ▬ Benjamin St. Jude
█ AGE ▬ 32.
█ NICKNAME ▬ Ben. Never "Benny." NEVER "Benji."
█ GENDER ▬ Male.
█ RACE ▬ Metal Mage.
█ ORIENTATION ▬ Straight. [Extremely Closeted.]
█ OCCUPATION ▬ Investments. "Overseeing family businesses."
█ PARTNER ▬ Married to Charlotte St. Jude [NPC]
█ STATUS ▬ The many slaves of the St. Jude family. [NPCs]
█ █ A P P E A R A N C E
█ HAIR ▬ Medium brown.
█ EYES ▬ Amber gold.
█ BUILD ▬ Muscular, athletic. Middle-height. [5'11"]
█ TATTOOS ▬ None.
█ SCARS ▬ Does an amputation count?
█ BIRTHMARKS ▬ A "stork bite" at the back of his neck, under his hair.
█ █ P E R S O N A L I T Y
█ THEME SONGS
█ ▬ WAIT FOR IT
█ ▬ STARS
█ ▬ SECRET
█ ▬ OVER THE RAINBOW
█ ▬ SON OF A PREACHER MAN
█ ▬ IF I HAD A HEART
█ ▬ TWO OUT OF THREE AINT BAD
█ ▬ RIBCAGE
█ ▬ LYING TO MYSELF
█ ▬ ILL BE GOOD
█ ▬ FORGET WHAT I SAID
█ ▬ MOONDUST
█ ▬ ATTENTION
█ LIKES
█ ▬ His son and daughter, the stars in his sky.
█ ▬ Having his father's trust.
█ ▬ Competing with his brothers. And winning.
█ DISLIKES
█ ▬ His wife, Charlotte.
█ ▬ Being the family bogeyman.
█ ▬ His left arm.
█ ▬ His youngest "brother."
█ PERSONALITY TRAITS
█ ▬ Two-faced. Closeted. Also a fence-rider.
█ ▬ Warm, fuzzy outside. Father of two.
█ ▬ Hard, steely inside. Ruthless family enforcer.
█ ▬ Or is it the other way around..?
█ ▬ Thirty-two year old daddy's boy.
█ ▬ Definitely not gay. Look, he has a wife!
█ █ H I S T O R Y
█ BACKGROUND
Niccola. His mother's name was Niccola. The beloved first wife, mother of four
sons, pride of the St Jude family. She gave him the gift for metal. She gave
him the brown hair. She gave him three older brothers. And when Ben was
four, she took a short walk off the roof. She's the reason the building has the
suicide fences along the top floor, but of course those were installed after she
was already splattered on the pavement.
He doesn't remember her, but will pretend he does.
The person he remembers best in that time of his life is his father. The man
who holds things together. The man who makes the tough decisions about
what is best for all of them. He replaced Niccola as soon as he got the
chance, and Benjamin doesn't fault him for that. Ben can't fault the man for
anything. Father was just looking out for the family. And the new woman--
Adelaide-- was nice to him. Nice to all of his brothers. And hell, she added two
more for him to get along with just fine before she died in childbirth, taking
what would have been the only St. Jude daughter with her.
So at seven, he was pretty well used to the idea that mothers died all the time.
They were the dandelion fluffs of the world. Make a wish, and poof. Father,
though-- Father was eternal. And when he laid out the plan for Benjamin, told
the boy what was expected of the man he'd become, little Ben drank long and
deep of the proverbial Kool Aid. Of course he'd overachieve. Of course he'd
make Father proud. Be bartered like a stud horse into an arranged marriage.
Secure alliances. Enforce the mandates that came from on high. He would be
one of the many hands of the family patriarch. A knight on his chessboard.
Gladly.
Except.
The next year, a new mother. Wèn Nhu Linh. And she is cold, and she is
remote, and she is hearing everything they think and seeing everything that
they see, and she doesn't pretend like the other women of the family. She
doesn't even hold her baby after it's ripped out of her; just lies still for
weeks, letting him nurse from slaves. Maybe because even then she knew
that her little boy wasn't what her pedigree had promised. Maybe she'd
reached for his infant mind and been disappointed to feel him incapable of
reaching back. Maybe it was just postpartum. Who the ******** knew? And Ben,
he felt sorry for the kid, really. Because honestly, his baby brother was a freak.
White like a blank canvas and weak enough that he barely crawled. A pitiful
specimen, really, but a twig on the family tree nonetheless. It's Ben who takes
his brother's weird, alien name and turns it into "Julian." It's Ben who lets the
kid play with his toys, and pats his back when the moron tries to choke himself
to death with a lego. On second thought, maybe babies weren't meant for that
kind of thing. All the brothers took turns looking out for the little runt, taking
things he liked and putting them across the room to make him crawl. Build
muscle. Get stronger, so he wasn't such a weakling. They'd roll him onto his
face so he learned to turn over. As he got bigger, the toys they'd tossed across
the room started to get placed up high, so the baby had to learn to stand up.
Had to learn to reach. And then to walk. To climb. When he cried at night, it
was Ben who kept the slaves from running in to pick him up. Nobody got
anywhere by expecting other people to soothe them all the time. Ben had
barely had a mother at all, and look how well he turned out! Everything he
ever did was for Julian's own good. For the good of the family. It got so that
when the toddler whined too much, Ben would swat his little moon face to
toughen him up. And eventually, Julian stopped crying over every little thing.
He stopped being so selfish and let people sleep through the night.
Ben did a good job. Ben was a good big brother. He carried the kid around,
dangled him upside down so he wouldn't be scared of heights. Put a spider on
his face once so he wouldn't be a girl about them, either. Julian was one of
Father's sons, and he needed to not be afraid of anything-- because how else
was a puny ink mage going to make the family proud?
And despite all that-- after everything Ben did for Julian's betterment..
He's thirteen. It's Julian's first day for kindergarten, and he won't let go of the
door when Ben tells him it's time to go downstairs. Julian wants to stay with
Maple and Willow. Julian wants to read stories. Julian is being a selfish little
s**t, and Ben has taught him better than this. He's disappointed that his little
brother is already five and doesn't seem to understand his responsibility to
their family-- to their Father. Already five, and still Julian doesn't have any
respect for the path that's laid out for him. So Ben gives him a shove. It's just a
little one. Barely even a push, but the boy is so light and tiny, and his head
collides with the frame of the door, and the sharp angle of it bites into his
scalp, and suddenly he's bleeding ******** buckets.
But it's black.
The stuff that oozes down Julian's face and into his eyes and makes him cry is
dark and glossy, like crude oil, and Ben takes the kid by the shoulders to yank
him around. Give him a hard shake that makes his teeth rattle. Because it's
his job to look out for Julian, so he has to make sure his brother knows these
things.
It's supposed to be red. People bleed red, Jules. So fix it! ******** fix it!
He knows the kid can do that much. Julian isn't that useless, surely. But
that isn't what happens. Instead, the whole world goes black as the Ink fills
Ben's eyes and mouth and nose. Instead, there's tension as something wet
wraps around the arm he's using to hold Julian still. It's binding tighter and
tighter, a thick cord that bites into his flesh, but Ben can't see, and he's
screaming through the metallic tang that fills his mouth, and the sound is
only a gurgle because he's drowning, so he thrashes backward in the dark.
And the cord goes tight. A slick tendriltentaclerivuletofblackblood that
tears the arm from its socket. And like a fly short one wing, Ben collapses,
spasming, struggling on the carpet of the landing, sure that he will die here.
But he doesn't.
He wakes with the left side of his body in bandages, an IV pumping someone
else's blood into his veins. His first word on waking is "Father" and then
"Julian", but neither of them are there in the hospital room. Only her. The
psychic. The third wife. Wèn Nhu Linh.
She already knows what he's thinking, but her mouth doesn't move. She drops
the knowledge into his head, and Ben hates her for it. Because what she's
promising is that she can make it an accident. She can make him forget. She
can take away the pain. It would be so easy. It would be a gift. He doesn't
have to be afraid. She's taken care of it. Julian can never do that again. He is
full of do-no-harm. He is full of turn-the-other-cheek. She has made her son
less and least, neutered him even further in the eyes of his Father. She will
move him to another floor. She will keep him far apart from the rest of them.
All these things she offers, if--
If Ben will ask his Father for leniency. Ask that Julian not be punished. Ask
that Julian only be kept away.
And he does it. Not because he wants to forget; Ben refuses. But because
Julian is his family, and Ben might kill him if he has to look into that stupid face
and hear his whiny little brother ask what happened to his arm. Julian is weak
and Julian is spoiled and Julian gets to forget. But Benjamin never will.
Every day of his life is rehabilitative exercise. Every day of his life is gaining
experience with the prosthetic he forms with metalmancy. And every day, he
gets a little more like the titanium limb-- warm and normal to look at, but hard
and cold to touch. Even with the false flesh, painted to match his real skin,
people know. Ben is popular in high school and college. He's hail-fellow-
well-met, but he takes no s**t, and his family has money. It's the perfect
combination, but there's the added draw of dumb curiosity. Girls want to know
how his metal hand feels, so they giggle and they cup it to their curves and it
isn't just the lack of nerve endings that keeps Ben from feeling anything, but
he doesn't mention that. Never thinks about it. What's the point, when he's
already engaged at sixteen-- wife all picked out for him by his Father, whom
he trusts implicitly.
Being a f** isn't in Father's plan, so Ben isn't one.
He takes Muay Thai and he goes out for basketball and he gets in fist fights
where he's almost always the winner because-- c'mon-- who else is working
with titanium knuckles? He half-heartedly ******** the girls he dates in his teens--
always careful, no bastards for Ben-- and can have his pick, really, because
his aloofness makes them want to give chase. And if he bullies Julian at
school, it's just part of being a big brother. He's just messing around.
Toughening the kid up. If the arm he uses to shove little boy blue into lockers
is the metal one, no one seems to notice, because it's not like he lets anyone
else do it. No. Julian is his responsibility. If anyone deserves to beat the
s**t out of the kid, it's definitely Ben.
Eighteen, and he gets married according to plan. Charlotte is never going to
be the love of his life, but that's just how it goes in his family, and he puts on a
decent show for outsiders. She has fire in her blood, and it isn't long before
they have two kids, and the kids are where Ben doesn't need to pretend. He
looks at Zoe and Nicolas and they're his world, from the second they're born
into it. He's a much better father than he ever was a brother, but maybe that's
because his children are perfect. Metalborn, both of them. Not pale or weak or
useless. When they scrape their knees, the blood is always red.
He works for the family. For his Father. Making deals and enforcing orders.
Collecting rent, on time. There isn't a business in the world that can run on
second chances, and Ben's job is to make that abundantly clear to the people
asking for them. Part of him doesn't like how this changes things within his
family-- how people look at him now, like he's some mindless thug just
because he does what Father tells him to do, when Father says to do it. ..
Well. But mostly, it gives him a sense of being strong. Being capable.
Powerful. And Ben enjoys that feeling, because it counter-balances the sense
that he's actually really ********, missing an arm and all.
When Julian moves out of the family nest, Ben only notices because Father
disapproves. Ben only cares because it's a disgrace to the family for one of
their own to go live in some hovel and work part-time. It isn't like Ben even
pays attention to Julian anymore, or has any interest in what the kid does.
When Julian goes, Ben's already twenty-six. He's got his own s**t going on.
And it's dumb to still hate the little monster after so many years, right? Jules
doesn't even remember, really. The kid's a ******** pacifist now, for all
the good it does him.
Ben still loathes his ******** guts. And when it turns out the moron is in prison--
counterfeiting currency, when he comes from a family that could have bought
their own ******** island-- it's enough for the metalmancer to see red. The
blotch on their name. That inky, dark splotch. That was Julian. The worst thing
to happen to him. To any of them. It's Ben who goes to Father. Ben who says
that it's better for the family, really, to disassociate themselves from a bad
element like that. Julian isn't one of them anymore, hasn't been for a long
time. And then Father disowns his baby brother, and Ben should feel
vindicated. Ben should feel triumphant. The little freak took his arm, and now,
all these years later, Ben had finally won. Ripped the safety net out from
under him.
But Ben isn't happy. Not really.
He's followed Father's plan to the letter, has earned the pride of his patriarch,
fulfills the role he's been given. This is the life he was made for. The life he
was groomed for. He's fit for it. Able. More than able. So why does he feel like
all of it is one big mistake?
█ ABILITIES
▬ TINMAN
Ben's left arm, from the shoulder socket down is actually a titanium prosthetic
that he manipulates with his metalmancy. It moves like a regular arm because
he likes to give the appearance of being "normal", but if he isn't worried about
tearing through the false skin that covers it he can alter the shape in any way
he sees fit. This means that what typically looks like a normal human
appendage might rip through "flesh" to become a shield or blade in situations
that grow desperate. Most of the time, though, Ben tends to hammer through
opponents using blunt force trauma. So just make sure to get out of the way if
he throws a left hook.
▬ METAL DETECTOR
Benjamin is really good at picking up sources of metal around his person (say
a radius of forty feet). This can come in handy when it comes to knowing
whether someone is carrying a weapon.. as long as the weapon is made of
metal. And just a word of advice from an old pro: you really don't want to bring
a gun or a knife to a fight with a metalmancer.
▬ MUAY THAI
"This physical and mental discipline which includes combat on shins is known
as "the art of eight limbs" because it is characterized by the combined use of
fists, elbows, knees, shins, being associated with a good physical preparation
that makes a full-contact fighter very efficient." That's what Wikipedia has to
say about the martial art Ben's been working at since he was a teenager.
Basically what this means is that he'll if he needs to.
▬ FAMILY TREE
Ben has a ******** of fairly wealthy people at his back, and as long as he stays
in his father's good graces it'll stay that way. This means he isn't prone to
money problems, and can solve a lot of other problems with dollar signs if
he absolutely has to. More often, he'd rather settle it with his fists.
▬ DADDY
Ben is one. Literally and figuratively. He knows how to make with the stern-
but-tender. He also knows how to make with the a**-whooping if you don't do
what you're supposed to. So keep your ******** room clean and eat your
veggies.
▬ HEART MADE OF ARMOR
Less an ability than a character trait, it should be mentioned that Benjamin is a
severely closeted bisexual with a preference for men. However, because of
the expectations of his family, he has been married to a woman for the last
fourteen years, and he isn't going to be leaving her. He may-- under
extraordinary circumstances-- have an illicit affair with a man, but don't expect
Ben to be hearts and flowers about it. Benjamin will never, at any point,
entertain a public relationship with another man, because this would entail
defying his father.. who is basically God to him. If your character pursues Ben
(and manages to get him interested), be ready to be a guilty pleasure and a
shameful secret.
█ EXTRA
Benjamin is the older half-brother of Julian St. Jude, and is the fourth son of
the family. As such, he's technically the "middle child."
Benjamin resents and envies Julian, and does not have a good relationship
with him, but considers it his exclusive right to ruin Julian's life as
compensation for what Julian has taken from him. As such, he's likely to
actually defend Julian if someone else goes overboard with him, but is
likely to condone light bullying or "scrapping."
Benjamin's speaking voice is somewhere between Darren Criss and Brendon Urie.
This is as ridiculous as it sounds when he needs to intimidate people.
Benjamin's face claim is Teppei Kiyoshi from Kuroko No Basuke.
