Post by Ben Buchanan on Aug 21, 2016 20:38:05 GMT -5
*BenjaminOliverBuchanan!
••
••
}if i only could
make a deal with God
and get Him to swap our places~
make a deal with God
and get Him to swap our places~
*whoyoucontrol!
full name: Benjamin Oliver Buchanan
nicknames: Ben
age: 31
birthday: March 31st
sexual orientation: hetero
occupation: Junior High Art Teacher
living arrangement: Ben lives in a modest-sized 3 bedroom house that he's renting-to-own from his cousin Tyler
vehicle: Black 2007 Chevy Suburban
*lookscankill!
appearance: Standing at six feet, four inches and weighing 180 pounds, Ben towers over many of the other members of his family. Having inherited the tall and slender Buchanan stature from his father--along with the dark Buchanan hair and chiseled features--Ben carries a deep physical resemblance to his father, Connor. His gentle, blue-green eyes, however, were inherited from his mother and are often his most marked feature
style:Being rather conservative, Ben’s wardrobe is limited to the affordable and he veers away from the flashy, preferring t-shirts and a hoodie to ties and suit jackets, and worn, weathered jeans when he's lounging around or on his free time. since he's an art teacher, Ben usually opts for as casual of clothes as he possibly can such as dark trousers and colored button-up shirts, staying away from the stain-magnetic white.
play by: Jared Padalecki
*removethatmask!
general personality: Ben is an amalgamation of the personalities of both his parents. While his father, Connor, is a strongly opinionated, stubborn, over-bearing, cold and detached man, his mother, Amber, was polite, thoughtful, considerate, and deeply affectionate. Thus, resulting in Ben being a mixture of all those things, with his politeness, consideration, affection, and strongly-opinionated stubbornness out-weighing all the others.
As a result of his parents divorce, Ben has strong feelings on what commitment is and holds the concept of family in high-regard. He isn't one to "play the field" just for the sake of having someone around and is more inclined to committed relationships.
Having spent the ten years following his mother’s death under his over-bearing father’s care, Ben developed deeply seeded self-confidence issues and doubts about his own worth that, while being the direct source of all his insecurities, he keeps veiled behind an easy-going demeanor.
*homesweethome!
spouse: n/a•n/a
children: Margaret "Maggie" Amber Behr-Buchanan•daughter, Student
mother: Amber Buchanan•Deceased
father: Connor Buchanan•US Army (retired)
siblings: n/a•n/a
other: Lila Buchanan•grandmother, Deceased
Aidan Buchanan•uncle, Museum Curator
Charlotte Buchanan•aunt, Attorney
Tyler Buchanan•cousin, Doctor
Kristen Buchanan Buchanan•cousin-in-law, Business Investment
Jacob Buchanan•2nd cousin, Student
Eli Buchanan•2nd cousin, Student
Van Buchanan•2nd cousin, Student
Lila Buchanan•2nd cousin, Pre-school
hometown:Warrenton, OR
*waybackwhen!
history: Ben was born the only son of a career Army officer--a doctor-- and spent most of his childhood being moved around the country, not to mention the world, from one base to another as his father moved up in rank.
As Lt. Col. Connor Buchanan’s only child, Ben grew up feeling that he himself had been pressed into the service of the United States Army since Connor ran his household, and dealt with his family, much like he did the men and women under his command--issuing orders, and demanding unwavering obedience and excellence from both his wife and his son.
As a young child, Ben often splayed himself out on the living room floor with a cheap tablet of paper and a pencil, sketching the things he saw around him. The enjoyment he received from drawing pictures rapidly developed into an obsession which was exhibited each time Ben purchased with his allowance a new notebook every couple of weeks in which he would etch in graphite the events of his day that he thought were important at the time.
Following his parents’ divorce, the re-marriage of his father to a much younger woman, and his mother’s slow and gradual death from cancer, Ben withdrew into himself, focusing on his schoolwork and avoiding his father and step-mother at every turn. The hint of disappointment in Connor’s eyes every time he looked at his son was not lost on Ben and served to push Ben even further from the man he called ‘Dad.‘
Shortly after moving in with his father, Ben met Nate Armstrong--the lively youngest child of one of Connor’s fellow officers. Nate’s honest and care-free--though admittedly mischievous, at times--nature proved to be the perfect distraction to Ben’s unhappy home life. Over time, the two boys developed a strong bond of friendship and began to rely more on one another rather than their families.
Eventually, Ben’s dedication to his school work paid off and he graduated from high school a semester early. However, the freedom he thought would be waiting for him after graduation was quickly threatened when Connor began pushing for his son to follow in his footsteps and pursue a career in the military.
Growing tired of his father’s bullying and disappointment and to avoid the plan Connor had laid out for his son’s life, Ben disappeared with only his bike and a small backpack with him. Two weeks later, he showed up at his grandmother Lila’s door-step and found himself being ‘coerced’ into staying with her for a time.
However, Ben eventually learned that his grandmother could be just as manipulative as his father had been--although in a much more benign way. Barely in town a week, Ben found himself being set up with Allison Whitney, one of the waitresses at his grandmother’s restaurant.
Despite the obviousness of Lila’s matchmaking, an attraction between Ben and Allison developed quickly and the two dated briefly, until Jackson Reeves--the guy with whom Allison had spent the past six months fighting a mutual attraction--re-entered the picture, leaving Ben standing on the sidelines as Allison re-kindled her feelings for Jackson.
Still feeling the sting of the swift beginning and end to his and Ally’s “relationship”, Ben had a chance meeting with Grace Behr, an intelligent, cute (yet humble) and intriguing girl--who also happened to Allison’s roommate at the private school they both attended--at the art gallery where Ben was working as an assistant to the core curator, his uncle Aidan.
After several rather unconventional outings with Miss Behr--including one where Ben found himself being thrown against the wall of the museum by a misunderstanding federal agent assigned to protect Grace, and another resulting in Ben being arrested for breaking the nose of man who had been propositioning Grace--Ben began to feel a growing attraction to her.
After being “just friends” for a little over a month, Ben finally gathered up the courage to ask her out. As with most relationships, the initial stages went practically problem-free. However, Ben’s job at the gallery--and his community service for the assault charge--coupled with the long and irregular hours Grace pulled working as Jagger St. Croix’s personal assistant began to wear on the couple. Feelings of hurt, anger, jealousy, resentment began to seep into the relationship. Ben even began to get the strong feeling that Grace’s boss, Jagger, had more than professional designs on Ben’s girlfriend.
Grace, afraid of Ben’s reaction--as well as losing him--if he discovered that she had, in fact, had a one-night-stand with Jagger months before meeting Ben, dismissed her boyfriend’s concerns as nothing more than his “crazy insecurity.”
Following a brief separation, Ben and Grace resumed their relationship, deciding to keep all discussion about Jagger out of their relationship, with Grace agreeing to arrange for a less spontaneous work schedule and Ben agreeing to work on accepting that there would be times it couldn’t be avoided.
Shortly thereafter, Ben’s world came crashing in around him. That autumn, he discovered that his grandmother, Lila, had been fighting cancer in silence for over a year and had been diagnosed as terminal. With the safety and security of his grandmother gone, Ben held onto his girlfriend for support only to lose that too. While helping his aunt Charlie and cousin Ben arrange Lila’s funeral, Tyler Buchanan let it slip that Grace had sex with Jagger the prior year and proved it to a disbelieving Ben by showing him the tabloid story online.
Ben held onto the information, burying it deep inside him, as he focused on trying to get through Gram’s funeral. Once she was buried, while he and Grace were still standing next to Lila’s grave, Ben confronted his girlfriend.
Caught off-guard, Grace, surprisingly, didn’t deny her boyfriend’s accusations. However, feeling unworthy of him and unable to meet his expectations, Grace lied to him, telling him that she didn’t love him, that she’d never loved him, and that her only interest in him was because, at the time, he’d belonged to her roommate Allison.
Feeling his heart being ripped out of his chest by the girl he loved, Ben withdrew from his family and work. He took up drinking alone, collecting cases upon cases of empty beer cans along the way. In his haze of self-doubt, he started skipping work, preferring to sit in his Gram’s empty house, feeling sorry for himself, and drinking himself into a stupor.
Eventually, he ran into his best friend from back in Oregon, Nate, and the two quickly became inseparable again. Nate stood by his friend as Ben’s aunt Charlie, angry at the mess Ben had made of her mother’s house, threw him out and his uncle Aidan fired him. With no where else to go, Ben moved into his best friend’s cheap, loft apartment and has now--with Nate’s rather unconventional assistance--begun to pick himself back up.
After losing his grandmother, his girlfriend, and his job, Ben spent much of the next year in a veritable state of limbo. He got a job working as the personal assistant of Caroline Corwin, delayed enrolling into school, and limited his social engagements to the few times that Nate and Dean Reyne dragged him out with them.
Following a series of heated misunderstandings, mishaps, and failed machinations by Tami Cartwright, Ben and Grace finally realized that their shared belief that the other had moved on was wrong. But with Grace currently 'dating' her boss, Ian O'Shea, a rapid reunion was out of the cards no matter how much they both may have wanted one. Meanwhile, the conflict and insecurities left over from their earlier relationship still lingered.
However, the question of what kind of future Ben and Grace could have together came to a head the night of the wrap party for Grace's show, Walk of Fame. Secretly invited by Tami--who was still attempting to play matchmaker--showed up at the event as the young blond's 'date' while Grace showed up on Ian's arm as his 'date.' Events would rapidly spiral out of control when Ben, Tami and Nate realized that Ian had drugged Grace in an attempt to get her to sleep with him and then sneaked off with her.
After stumbling upon O'Shea in the alley with his hands all over an incoherent and confused Grace, Ben and Ian had a violent confrontation which eventually resulted in Ben beating the older producer to death. Charged with the man's murder, Ben is now awaiting trial, hoping that his Aunt Charlie can somehow convince a jury not to send him to prison for the rest of his life.
Granted a reprieve from a life behind bars when the jury acquitted him of Ian's murder, Ben--deciding life was too short--threw himself fully into reclaiming his relationship with Grace, leading to the two making love for the first time on Grace's kitchen floor. The couple spent the next few months in blissful abandon, making up for all the time they'd lost when they'd been apart, only to be torn apart again by external forces when Ben was suddenly kidnapped by a serial killer that had been plaguing Los Angeles.
Held captive for two weeks, Ben was interrogated by the murderer, wherein Ben revealed that he felt guilty and responsible for Ian's death and that he probably should have been sent to prison, as well as deeply-seeded sense of remorse for the death of Grace's boss. This remorse, it seems, may have been his saving grace.
Ben's captor released him, but not before giving him a severe blow to the head that, later, it was learned had caused Ben brain damage that had deprived him of his memory of the past four years of his life. He woke up in the hospital to find Grace--a complete stranger to him now--kissing him on the lips and Ben lashed out at her since he believed he was still dating Nate's sister, Natasha.
The next few days and weeks found Ben dealing with learning about his lost memory, about all the changes his life had undergone that he no longer remembered--breaking up with Natasha, Lila's death, and his relationship with Grace--along with Ben resisting the efforts of his Aunt Charlie, cousin Tyler, and Nate to get Ben to get involved with Grace again. Determined to live *his* life the way *he* wanted, Ben avoided Grace at all costs and, with his relationship with Natasha over (again), struck out as a single man and began to date again...a lot.
Since waking up, Ben has been the veritable single playboy, dating as many women as he can--even sleeping with a few of them--all the while frustrating all those who care about him by his strange and utterly un-Ben-like behavior.
With Grace out of his heart and out of his mind, save when someone else brought her up, Ben pursued his own kind of "happiness" in a carefree lifestyle uninhibited by everyone else's expectations and living for the moment, until, that is, he discovered Grace was carrying his baby. Faced with the truth that he was going to be a father, Ben had to step up and be a man or risk becoming just like his own father, a man he still despised.
Falling in love with the baby girl named Maggie Amber Behr made the decision all the more easy for Ben. Thrown into fatherhood and sharing a child with a woman he didn't ever remember having a relationship with, Ben stumbled from time to time but, determined to be the father his own had not been, he refused to give up. He refused to run away. He refused to leave Maggie without a dad. Over time, and with some encouragement from his friends and family and the help of some therapy from Dr. Matthews, Ben's relationship with Grace even began to improve. They would, though, remain friends only.
With fatherhood also came a determination to improve himself and his life. Ben buckled down, finally enrolled in college and majored in art with a minor in education. He came out of school a few years later and soon found himself a job teaching art for junior high students, a job he has held for the past 3 years. Moving out of his apartment and into a house came next when his cousin Tyler, fortuitously, decided to buy their grandmother's house and offered Ben a rent-to-buy arrangement on their current house.
*thepuppetmaster!
name: Brandon