Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2015 5:53:13 GMT
[PTabbedContent][PTab=GENERAL INFORMATION] CHARACTER INFO: NAME: Benjamin Jacob Grimm ALIAS: Ben, Reaper (by air force buddies) , soon to be The Thing AGE: 38 OCCUPATION: Air Force Experimental Test Pilot, soon-to-be NASA recruit MEMBER GROUP: Fantastic Four POWERS AND ABILITIES: After the fateful space flight, Ben will acquire the following powers: Enhanced Strength Ben's new physical build, along with abilities granted to him by the cosmic rays, allow him to lift great weights. Having just recently been transformed, Ben's max lift potential is currently peaked at 50 tons, but there is room for much improvement in that area. He can charge through the hardiest of brick or even cement walls in New York's various districts, and can even tear up parts of the street under his own two feet if he wants something else to throw. Enhanced Physical Endurance Ben's skin is now layered - a viscous layer lies beneath a superior, rocky skin, segmented in all the right places to allow for as much ease of movement as when he was human. Of course, this doesn't mean that Ben is vulnerable - the rocks that now make up the upper layer of his skin are extremely resistant to damage, allowing him to take onslaughts of gunfire without so much as blinking, and even fall from great heights without being injured. His new form is even resistant to extreme environments, including temperatures ranging from -75 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. He can even survive on the ocean floor, due to a combination of being able to withstand the extreme pressures and being able to hold his breath for upwards of six hours. His enhanced stamina allows him to push himself to his maximum effort for upwards of an hour before experience any sort of fatigue. Military Training/Fight Skills Ben was trained as an air force pilot, but he had to pass several physical fitness tests before this. He is skilled in military hand-to-hand combat, not that the sort of agility that factors into his fighting now. Ben, having been a football player in high school, and having taken up boxing and wrestling for fun, is also well-versed in other methods of close-combat, and in subduing enemies that are strong enough to go toe-to-toe with him. His time, short though it was, in the Yancy Street Gang, also contributed to his fighting skills, teaching him several dirty tricks to trip up his opponents. Also falling under his military training is Ben's flight skills, but these are very minor on the list of his skills, due to his new incompatibility with most machinery. Playby: Michael Chiklis OOC INFO: PLAYER NAME: Sam AGE: 19 GENDER: Male TIMEZONE: EST OTHER CHARACTERS: None! [/PTab] [PTab=PERSONNEL ASSESSMENT] PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT: LIKES: Sports Ben is, of course, an avid sports fan. He played football all throughout high school and college, and played baseball with his friends when he had free time. Of course, as a Manhattan native, Ben's favorite teams include the Giants and the Yankees. (After his transformation, Ben continues to follow sports, although he tends to avoid going to any games in-person, not wanting to distract from the actual fun.) People Ben has always been a people person, and he's always liked all people. His being part of the sports crowd didn't mean he avoided the nerds - he actually found a lot of the things they knew that he didn't rather interesting, which probably factors greatly into his friendship with Reed. Home Ben has always been most comfortable in the places where he grew up - New York City is home for him, and leaving it for any reason is always something he tries to avoid. Of course, if the reason is important enough, he's willing - but he's always eager to get back. Of course, home is really wherever Ben's family is. This used to mean his parents and his brother, before it became his Uncle Jake and Aunt Petunia; now, of course, his family is his closest friends: Suzie, Reed, and even Suzie's kid brother, Johnny. As long as these people are nearby, Ben is home. Drinks Ben is far from being an alcoholic, but the occasional drink every now and then is relaxing. Plus, there's something nice about the bar atmosphere that just feels right - like he's back on Yancy Street. People can be crude, they speak their minds, and they won't hesitate from throwing a punch. (Post-transformation, these bars are also one of the few places Ben can go without feeling like the ugliest guy on the planet - or, at the very least, being called it. Plus, his new form makes it more difficult to get drunk - he tends to get pitchers instead of pints.) Flying Ben wouldn't be much of an Air Force pilot if he hated heights - in fact, being high up in the air is one of his favorite things. He loves having the opportunity to test new crafts, pushing them to their limits to see just how much fancy maneuvering they can take. Family Being raised in a close-knit Jewish home, Ben has a great appreciation for family. He speaks with his Aunt and Uncle often, despite being so far away, and he hardly ever spends time alone when his three best pals are up for some time with the ever-lovin' Ben Grimm. His love for his Aunt Petunia is hardly a secret - Ben constantly references her, and has a seemingly endless supply of stories with her in them. Food Ben was raised in a home that believed food wasn't food unless it was home-cooked. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all made from scratch by his mother, and that was just the way Ben liked it. To this day, one of Ben's favorite snacks is a foot-long submarine sandwich with all the fixings. (His love for food only grows with his transformation into The Thing, as his eating habits no longer have an impact on his physical appearance or fitness.) Poker Sometimes, it's nice to spend some free time doing something a little less active, but just as competitive. Ben is a sucker for poker, and will have friends over often to play - sometimes for money, and sometimes not. He loves a good game - it's one of the few things that he needs to be particularly strategic about; when to fold, when to call, when to bluff. In a strange way, cards can be pretty exhilarating for him. DISLIKES: Bullies Having spent a lot of time around some less-friendly jocks, Ben has grown tired of the bad attitudes of people who think they're better than everybody else. What really gets on his nerves, is when someone big and strong thinks that strength gives them the right to push people around - being a big and strong guy himself, he doesn't like people like that giving him a bad rep. Know-It-Alls Ben did well in school, but he did well for an average person. His scholarship to Empire State was based solely on his football performance. He's not exactly a braniac, so he doesn't like when people throw their intelligence in his face. This is one of the reasons he likes Reed - Reed was never snobby about how smart he was, it was just one of the things that made him himself. Inactivity As an athlete, Ben doesn't like down-time spent just laying around. He feels like he has to be doing something with his body or he'll turn into a piece of flab overnight. To this end, he works out whenever he can. (Even post-transformation he can't help but try and see how much he can improve his physical prowess.) Junk Food Much as he enjoys a good meal, it just seems wrong to eat something that came out of a window in the side of a building, or a cardboard box with grease stains. If Ben's going to eat pizza, it's going to be oven-cooked, and if he's going to eat burgers, he's going to grill it himself. Processed food just doesn't do it for him, plain and simple. Pranks In many ways, Ben has always been a more mature person than others his age. One of those ways was his lack of fondness for pranks or practical jokes. He's always thought they were lazy, irritating, mean, and just plain immature, especially into high school. The idea of a senior prank never appealed to him, and people fooling around were just an annoying distraction. Gangs There was a time when Ben was all for gangs and the gang lifestyle - but that was before he was actually a part of it, and saw what it could do to a family. Now, he takes opportunities to speak at schools in New York to try and discourage that kind of lifestyle - and he doesn't shy away from interjecting in any sort of gang activity he sees going on. He knows just the right way to speak to those kinds of people to try and get through to them, and he's for sure going to try. Clubs Ben likes a good dive bar, but he has absolutely no love for clubs. The bright lights and loud music, endless floods of good-looking people who think that's all that matters, and just the exclusiveness of most of the higher-end clubs; it all disagrees with him, and practically makes him feel sick inside. (Post-Transformation, Ben's dislike for clubs has only increased - he never liked the people who thought that being attractive got them whatever they wanted, but now that he has the looks only a blind person could appreciate, he's even less fond of the pretty crowd.) STRENGTHS: Brave Ben doesn't shy away from dangerous situations. As stated before, he doesn't hesitate to put himself in between two rival gangs about to go at it, especially if it could mean the difference between someone leaving on their feet or in the back of an ambulance. It's his job to be brave, testing new types of aircraft that may drop out of the air at a moment's notice, and as a result, Ben is not only no stranger to danger, he considers danger a very close friend. Street Smart Ben grew up in a poor area, in a poor family, and spent years in a gang. He's from the streets, and he doesn't hide it - he knows how to talk to people because he knew real people. He knows trouble because trouble is all he had when he was growing up. In a way, he and Reed balance each other - Reed is brilliant and can do anything he sets his mind to, but Ben is weathered, and more experienced, despite their similar age. Adaptable Being an Air Force pilot, Ben had to learn to make sudden, snap decisions. Any situation he manages to get himself into, Ben is more than capable of finding his way out of it. Even if it means getting into a new, possibly worse situation, he's confident that he'll figure it out - and more often than not, he does. Heart Ben always trusts his gut - it's never steered him wrong in the past, and he doubts it will in the future. When it comes to making tough decisions, he just listens to his heart - because he knows if he would regret making a decision after it's done, then that probably isn't the right decision to begin with. WEAKNESSES: Self-conscious Despite his relative good looks, Ben has always been a bit self-conscious about himself. He worries that he isn't intelligent enough to truly be friends with people like Reed or Sue, and that he'll always come off as their body guard rather than an actual equal. (This is amplified once Ben becomes the Thing - of all the Fantastic Four, he's clearly the muscle, and people tend to assume he has brains inversely proportional to his muscle.) Brutish Ben has held onto a lot of his mannerisms from Yancy Street. If someone starts messing with him or his family, he responds in kind rather than trying to talk the person down. He'll puff out his chest, straighten himself to try and stand tall and scare them off rather than negotiate. On Yancy Street, the only sort of diplomacy was shotgun diplomacy. Outspoken Ben's always spoken his mind, and with his job, he has to. He can't pull any punches when it comes to talking about what's wrong with an experimental aircraft, and he doesn't pull his punches anywhere else. When he has something to say, he says it - loud, proud, and without much consideration for someone's feelings in the heat of the moment. Temper Ben has some restraint, but a constant barrage of idiocy or insults lobbed his way, or towards someone he cares about, sets him off in an instant. He can be rather hard to calm down when he goes off - but his loved ones have managed to do it. Of course, as he gets older, and people around him get more immature, calming him down on one of his rages is increasingly difficult. GOALS: NASA Pilot - Ben's heard rumors that his name's been tossed back and forth as a recommendation for training as a NASA space pilot. This would be the height of his career as an air force pilot - Ben Grimm, the gang banger from Yancy Street, an Astronaut. It would mean the world to him to be able to go to space, and be the one flying the shuttle. Family - Ben hopes to have a family of his own someday, but for now, he just wants to make the family he has happy. From the moment they met, Ben could tell Reed was a man with big plans - plans that Ben wanted to help make realities, in any way he could. They even joked in school about Ben piloting a shuttle to space someday - not that Ben thought this would ever really come up again. Ben is also determined to get some part of Reed's big brain to acknowledge Sue's feelings for him - but that might require more effort. FEARS: Losing Family - Ben's experienced enough loss in his life - he isn't interested in any more. He's always afraid of something happening to his family, and Reed, Sue, and Johnny are no exception. When it comes down to it, Ben would trade his own life for any one of their's - he's determined to make sure he never loses anybody, ever again. Being Alone - Ben is a people person, and always will be. He loves people, because people are the lifeblood of a city and of the world itself. More-so, he loves the people in his life, and always worries that someday they'll get sick of him and just move on. He already hardly sees Reed any more, now that they're both done with school, but he knows that that's just how Reed is. People like Sue and Johnny are important to him - as much as Johnny may get on his nerves - and he can't imagine his life without them. (This fear is somewhat more crippling with Ben's transformation - it was misplaced before when he had no problem socializing, but now that he's hesitant to even show his face in public, it's become a real possibility for him.) Anonymity - Ben's made a lot of progress lately actually making something of himself. He's a skilled pilot, an up-and-coming NASA astronaut, and proud as all heck about all of that. He's never been a 'go quietly' kind of person - he often worries about someday being gone, with nobody truly noticing his absence. OVERALL PERSONALITY: Ben is, as he often calls himself, ever-loving. He's a man of the people, for the people - all people, no matter w hat background. He knew all kinds of people with all kinds of troubles growing up, and he knows that there's always another layer to people - he even acknowledges his own layers. He's always been good at connecting with people of different backgrounds, because he came from a diverse area of New York. Of course, his connection with people also stems from the fact that he doesn't pull punches with his personality - he's one of the 'keep it real' crowd; he's proud of who he is, and isn't about to start acting a certain way to impress others. He's a street wise, sports-loving, tough guy, and that's just how he likes it. Of course, despite his tough exterior, he has many, many soft spots. When it comes to his friends and family, Ben can get quite emotional - whether that emotion be joy, sadness, or even anger, he wears his heart on his sleeve. He hates to see anyone get hurt, but he's absolutely devastated when someone he loves gets hurt - physically or otherwise. When someone messes with the people he loves, Ben has been known to tear a vengeful path right to that person to give them a piece of his mind. He protects the people closest to him with his life, because they are his life, and he makes no effort to keep that a secret. He is loyal to a fault - he'll never abandon his friends, and will always be right behind them, through thick and thin. Deep down, Ben longs to be more of an intellectual - but it never really took. He's smart when it comes to things like flying planes, and figuring out how different sorts of aircraft work. The moving parts are simple - this pushes that, and therefore this happens. It's something he can wrap his head around, and that's part of the reason he loves his job so much. His job also makes him feel like there's something that he's particularly good at, that some of the more intellectual people in his life aren't better at than him - it helps alleviate some of his fears of inferiority. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: BIRTHPLACE: Yancy Street, Hell's Kitchen, New York City. RESIDENCE: Manhattan, New York - a studio apartment in the Upper West Side. PARENTS: Daniel Grimm Sr. (father, deceased), Elsie Grimm (mother, deceased) SIBLINGS: Daniel Grimm Jr. (older brother, deceased) IMPORTANT RELATIVES: Jake Grimm (Uncle, legal-guardian since adolescence), Alyce Grimm (aunt, deceased), Sophie Grimm (Aunt, deceased), Petunia Grimm (Aunt, very much alive and much referenced by Ben) IMPORTANT PERSON: None, currently! OVERALL HISTORY: Ben was born to a Jewish family living in poverty in Hell's Kitchen - specifically, he was born on his much-beloved Yancy Street. This is where Ben spent his childhood, among the rough-and-tough of the Yancy Street Gang. His brother was in the gang for a few years before inviting Ben to be 'beaten in.' Ben spent two years as part of the Yancy Street gang before his brother was killed in a fight with a rival gang. After that, Ben got out of the gang lifestyle - though getting much gruff for it by those left in the Yancy Street gang. Only a year later, his parents were both killed in a car accident, and Ben - at the age of fourteen - was sent to live with his Uncle Jake in Arizona. All-in-all, the move to Arizona was probably the best thing that could have happened to Ben. Now far away from the rough areas of New York, Ben did rather well in school. Though in his time there, his Uncle Jake outlived two wives, Ben found a motherly figure in his Aunt Petunia. He finally felt like he had a family again - he felt normal again. He still had a lot of anger as a result of the tragedies in his life, but he channeled that anger into playing high school football - it was a good outlet for him, and it taught him a lot about doing something productive with his anger. Eventually, this outlet turned into a brand new opportunity to him - he was offered a full scholarship to Empire State University based on his football, and he more than gladly accepted, soon after shipping back off to New York City. His time at Empire State was most likely the most important time in Ben's life - because it was here that he met Reed Richards. Paired off as roommates, they were somewhat of an odd couple - Reed seemed somewhat absorbed in his work, which was leagues ahead of anything Ben could even hope to understand; and Ben was a jock, with a new interest in enlisting in the Air Force, having spoken to some recruiters at the school. Nevertheless, the two got along well, and formed - what Ben, at least, considers - a lasting friendship. Through Reed, Ben also met Victor Von Doom, albeit briefly. Ben, not usually one to take first impressions to heart, simply didn't like Victor's attitude - the way he and Reed always argued, Ben knew that they had to be of different mindsets, and he had no doubt in his mind that the blame Victor placed on Reed for his accident was misplaced. The boy from Yancy Street was much more glad to meet Sue Storm - now a very close friend - and, to a somewhat lesser degree, her younger brother, Johnny. Sue came off as being just as intellectual as Reed, but a bit better at interacting with people. Johnny was the kind of person that Ben had always distanced himself from - arrogant, party animal, center-of-attention pretty boy; but, somehow, the kid had a certain charm about him that even Ben couldn't deny - though deny it he did, on the surface. Sure, Ben can get set off by some of the kid's jokes and pranks targeted at him - but at the end of the day, he knows it's all in good fun, and that it's probably his fault for being such an easy target. After graduating, Ben quickly went off to training at Mitchel Air Force Base - where he is now employed as a test pilot for experimental aircraft, and earned the handle of the "Grimm Reaper." His rise in the ranks was nothing spectacular, but it was above average - he always tested well in flight simulations, thanks to his snap decision making, and he always seemed to understand the inner-workings of aircraft rather quickly. These factors contributed to his promotion to being a test pilot - he was the kind of person who could push a craft to its limits, and - if worse came to worse - get himself out of a bad situation if/when things went wrong. This has been his life up to this point - he's still a test pilot for the Air Force, although he's in talks to possibly start working as a pilot for NASA. He's kept up a close relationship with Sue Storm, and through her, her brother Johnny. He talks to Reed occasionally, so they keep up their friendship - as much as Reed is able to keep up a friendship, of course. Other than this, Ben is just going through life - waiting for each next big break to come his way. 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