STATISTICS

Benjamin Derek Carmichael

FULL NAME

Ben, Benny

AKA

AGE

4th May 1971

BIRTHDAY

Pansexual

SEXUALITY

Complicated ?

RELATIONSHIP STATUS

Human

SPECIES

TBD

RESIDENCE

Real estate broker

OCCUPATION

PERSONALITY

In normal circumstances Benny is a competent, charming, and friendly guy who likes to flirt and have a laugh. He's also a touch sarcastic and can become flustered and mildly clumsy from time to time.
Right as he moves back to Tarrytown he is understandably stressed and out of sorts. He finds himself overwhelmed with the amount of work he has to unexpectedly take on along with the increase in responsibility. As much as he has trained for and done all of the jobs he is in charge of he has never had to be both manager and lead for an entire agency.

He very much enjoys a party and a bar (even better if they are queer flavoured), and plans to take advantage of the fact he now lives so much closer to NYC, Rochester was great but a more concentrated gay village is very helpful. He likes to be a little irresponsible with his time off, although he has been known to answer his work phone at the wrong time in a misplaced sense of duty. It's a habit he is actively trying to break now he's in charge.

APPEARANCE

Ben is a tall-ish slim-ish man who has a tendency to look several years younger than his actual age. People tend to read him as early to mid twenties rather than late twenties. This can be both useful and frustrating depending on the situation.

His dark hair has a slight curl and a natural swoop that he mostly tames with plenty of product. It's important to him to look good and he enjoys a good suit in both traditional and more fashion-forward combinations. Outside of work he tends to relax his options a little, but he's aware of making a good impression in any situation.

There's something in his deportment and manner that tends to read as gay to anyone attuned to that kind of thing, and he's largely okay with that, but it does tend to confuse people when he flirts with women and means it. PB: Thomas Doherty

HISTORY

Benjamin Derek Carmichael is the second-born child of Sarah Carmichael. And while his older sibling has always been part of his life, his father is someone he doesn't remember. He has asked his mom about him multiple times but he still feels like he only has the sketchiest idea of the man. Even his sibling can only fill in the barest of gaps given that they were also under 5 when their dad left. Ben knows that his parents were never married, despite what they had told people, and that his mom immediately returned to her maiden name. He suspects the relationship was abusive, even though the fact his dad was definitively the one who left seems to disprove this.

Growing up in Rochester, Northern New York State was a relatively happy time for for Ben. Things were tight but not impossible financially. His mom always had a steady admin job with a salary which had them scraping by, as well as a host of part-time and tutoring type jobs which boosted her income. Despite working hard she was still a great, fun, mom who worked hard to give her family little treats. She was somewhat stigmatised for being a single mother, but having previously lived with a man helped her out in the world of respectability politics. She had a love of music she passed on to her kids, and in particular a love of Elton John. Bennie and the Jets became a favourite and tiny Ben was convinced it was about him (since he didn't understand the song) and the family adopted it as a bit of an anthem and Ben also became Benny.

Ben's family has always been spread out over New York State, but it meant he got to visit his various aunts, uncles, and cousins on family trips. Visiting his Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ted in Tarrytown was one of the most regular trips and he got on pretty well with his cousin(s) there. He thought Tarrytown, as such a difference from Rochester, was a nice break but not somewhere he wanted to be long term.

As a teenager there was a special visit to Tarrytown arranged and he was told of the family inheritance. He knew his Aunt Ruth sold houses and that she had taken on the business from someone else in the family, but he hadn't realised there was a figure behind it. For the first time he met Ms Eaves, known to the family as Auntie, a slightly mysterious supernatural being who had done a deal with their family a long time ago that one person per generation would run a property business for her. She had an instinct for land and property, but preferred to keep secluded and to herself. She would give tips about supernatural clients (far back before the coming out) and upcoming property availability that would help run the business, along with footing certain costs and having her choice of inheritor each generation. Rarely was the inheritor the child of the current incumbent.

What followed the discovery that he was to be his generation's heir was something of a rebellious stage. This ran the gamut of everything from punk and emo clothes and make up, to drinking, drugs and eventually sex. The fact that he came out to his mom as gay during this time probably played into her worries. She never rejected him, but it certainly wasn't an open-armed welcome. Eventually his behaviour caught up with him around age 17, when he was arrested for being at a house party where lots of drugs were present (along with under-age drinking). Given that he was entirely sober (mostly because he'd only been there ten minutes when the raid took place) no charges against him were brought. It was more than enough to shock him away from his riskier behaviours. His tanking school grades crept back up and an extended summer trip to Tarrytown to partly shadow his Aunt convinced him that he might enjoy real estate after all. That and the proximity to NYC. Although his perpetually baby face did rather limit the possibilities he had during that trip.

After High School Ben didn't jump into real estate quite immediately, instead working the clothing sales job he'd picked up after his rude awakening. However he knew that Auntie wouldn't wait forever, and she was only willing to subsidise activities directly relating to his upcoming career. So he began studying for his pre-license requirements. He would later realise that either Aunt Ruth or Ms Eaves had made phone calls on his behalf to encourage real estate firms to at least interview or trial him. He passed his final exam not long before his 20th birthday and joined a mid-sized firm in Rochester.

Ben is good at his job and has made steady progress at the firm. His boss, Jim, was even willing to back his move to Real Estate Broker after about five years of work. He found the job overall interesting and rewarding, and he particularly enjoyed the freedoms the adult income gave him. Despite calming down he still very much enjoys a party, a night out, and a hook up. It was in this time he realised it wasn't just men he was interested in and began also seeing women. Given the HIV/AIDS crisis his mom worries about his behaviour, but he is both as careful as possible (with a few slip-ups) and keeps up to date with testing for all STDs.

None of his hook-ups, dates, and holiday flings really seemed to last until relatively recently. About three years ago (end of 1996) he met Leo, who after the initial date they went on being only mildly successful kept showing up in his life in ways that could only be accidental. Eventually they got past the awkwardness and started to accidentally develop a friendship of sorts, and then fell into bed together. Several times. They bowed to the inevitable and started to date. It turned out that Ben felt a little antsy in a monogamous situation and after a few months of actual dating they began to explore polyamory. They both enjoy casual and slightly more intense partners on the side, or sometimes together, but consider each other the primary relationship. Even though they have talked about it a little they hadn't moved in together by the time Ben's world changed.

In March 2000 Ben got an unexpected phone call from his mom to tell him his Aunt Ruth had passed away unexpectedly from a massive stroke. He was obviously devastated, but didn't initially realise the implications, nor were any other family members in a state to remind him. The following day he received a phone call from Auntie telling him he had now come into his inheritance, and although she could keep the agency ticking over in the short term he should make moving plans as soon as possible. This has thrown everything in his life into chaos, from his job, to his family, to his relationships.

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