[attr="class","rostername"]@ben

[attr="class","rostersub"]a TWENTY-TWO year old ASPIRING ARTIST from CASTELIA CITY

[attr="class","rostercat"]BENNETT GRAHAM MILTON COOMBS-LIVINGSTONE THE THIRD

[attr="class","rostercat"]22

[attr="class","rostercat"]MALE

[attr="class","rostercat"]PANSEXUAL

[attr="class","rostercat"]RESEARCHER

[attr="class","rostercat"]GHOST

[attr="class","rostercat2"]For someone with at least five names, Ben is actually surprisingly easygoing.  He takes both the good and bad in life in stride, celebrating the former with a small smile and shrugging off the latter as rather unimportant.  After all, he has a lot of days left in him.  Why dwell on the bad ones when he has so many better to look forward to?  However, this easygoing nature can be taken by some to represent a complete lack of ambition. Ben never really wants for anything thanks to his "what happens happens" philosophy.  He'll try his hardest, sure, but he doesn't have the drive that it takes to go from 100% to 110%.  He tends to go with the flow and follow others' suggestions, but in his own quiet way he can be surprisingly stubborn.  If Ben has his heart set on doing something he'll do it, no matter what the others in his life may have to say about it.  In some ways, this passive disregard can be even more frustrating than actual resistance, because how can you put up a fight against someone who just isn't fighting back?

Ben is a very sense-driven person.  He tends to zone out when admiring something particularly serene, like a starry night or the sound of running water.  Loud or distracting inputs tend to distract him even during the most important tasks, and if subject to too many of them at the same time he can be hit with an awful case of sensory overload.  He tends to try and share this fixation with aesthetics with others, especially if he deems it helpful.  In particular, he tries to get to the root of color associations in order to help calm worried Pokemon or pump up Pokemon that are about to get ready for training.  He's the type of person to have five times as many Pokeball Seals on hand as he does Pokemon, changing them constantly to suit his mood and account for his Pokemon's favorites.

Overall, Ben could be described as nice.  There is a very slight plastic quality to his niceness, worn down by more genuine experience in his life but still inexorably attached to him.  This was ingrained in him by dozens of etiquette classes, designed to leave him as polite and perfect as possible.  Even though he has mostly grown past this, he still finds himself unconsciously keeping the majority of his emotions in check.  After all, an outburst wouldn't be very proper, would it?  He tends to look for other outlets to calm himself than letting his emotions run wild, but occasionally this leaves the smile on his face rather apparently strained.  The difference between the smile he shows the world and the genuine one he lets those close to him see may be subtle, but it makes a world of difference.

Finally, Ben is an optimist at heart.  He tends to look for the best in everyone he meets, and even a bad first impression is just a chance to get a second or third one right the next time.  He doesn't ignore others' flaws.  In fact, if ever asked about them, he'd quite gleefully tell every last detail of what he thinks.  However, rather than harp on these flaws, he sees them as the bad that's important to take with the good.  In fact, he sometimes tries to paint the flaws of others in the best light possible to help them see value in every part of themselves.  When it comes to his own flaws, he's a little bit harder on himself.  He can be a perfectionist in both art and life, and often finds himself chastising himself over even the smallest of mistakes.  He won't let anyone listen in on this internal (or at times, external) monologue, of course, but it has an irritating tendency to be the constant backing track of his life.

[attr="class","rostercatsub2"]PERSONALITY

[attr="class","rostercat2"]The marriage of the Coombs and Livingstone families was the talk of the town in Castelia City since the day of the engagement.  It had to be.  Matilda Coombs and Ignatius Livingstone spared no expense to ensure that such was the case.  As two families who could potentially be considered nouveau riche, this was an all-too-important stepping stone from them both.  It marked the transition from rich with frivolities to building a legacy of their own, and was sure to make them both the talk and the envy of the city.  Or, at least, their magnificent wedding was just step one of such a process.

Step two of the process was Bennett, the heir to the Coombs-Livingstone dynasty.  Since his birth, his parents made sure that they would do everything in order to ensure the boy's upbringing was perfect.  They spared no expense on toys, games, and various lessons, chasing after their son's every fancy.  They hired the best maids to take care of him, ordered in the finest recipes from Kalos and Alola, and ensured his room would be downright luxurious. they made sure to shower him in adoration and affection, but especially when there were people around to see what they were doing.  He was even given the names of both of his grandfathers to reflect both families' eternal support of him.  After all, they may have always been able to have children, but they could only have one first child.  Bennett would be the foundation of their legacy, and for this reason everything had to be perfect.

That also meant that Bennett had his own end of the social contract to hold up.  He always had to excel, because any slip-up reflected badly on both his parents, his name, and himself.  The lessons that they granted him as gifts needed to be past with the highest of marks, all while he had to continue making his way through school.  Any time his grades sank below A level, a gaggle of tutors practically pounced on him to be the first ones correcting the issue.  He could never leave the house without looking perfect. In fact, he couldn't even stay in the house without looking perfect! The many security cameras that lined the house were primarily for making sure nothing was stolen or damaged, but ensuring that their son never slouched or untucked his shirt were rather nice bonuses.  Every day of Bennett's life was tightly regimented and monitored like this, and for this reason the boy started to become quite passive.  After all, this was how his life played out.  Why fight it?  Even when his brother, Oswald, was born five years later, his life played out in much the same way.  His parents had the power to strictly control one child's life.  Why not two? 

Once Bennett was age (the age to make friends, that is), he started being used as a social bargaining chip.  After all, the Coombs-Livingstones loved going to the various parties around Castelia and reminding everyone that they were the toast of the town.  That meant that Bennett was often brought along to these, along with the unfortunate children of Castelia's other rich and fabulous. None of them really wanted to be there, but if they weren't there how else could their parents coo about how well they were getting along? These parties were obviously the arenas where future partnerships, networks, and even marriages between wealthy individuals would occur, and certainly not just a bunch of bored 8 to 13 year olds locked together in a room.  This was the majority of Bennett's social outlet, due to how restricted the rest of his life was.  In a way, the fact that his parents were busy dancing the night away meant that for a few scant hours he was truly free.

True freedom would come when he turned 18 and was powering through pleas from various top universities to become a future high-paying donor.  Rather than take any of his opportunities, he shocked and appalled his parents by expressing interest in an art school in the Inset region.  They tried wowing Bennett with college tours and bribing him with all sorts of gifts, but he remained unmoved.  This was what he truly wanted to do.  At one point Ignatius lost his temper, insisting that he would stop financially supporting Bennett if he dared "throw his life away" in such fashion. Helena talked him down, but the damage was done.  Not only would Bennett insist twice as strongly on going to art school, but the second he got there he silently cut ties with his father entirely. He still kept in touch with his mother, but there was now always a slight chill between the two.  In addition, he gently yet staunchly refused any financial support from her.  

Art school represented the escape that Bennett never knew he needed.  At first, his extravagant name, naivete, and rigidity made him somewhat of a laughingstock, but slowly he started to worm his way out of the shell that his parents had painstakingly erected around him.  Bennett was gone, and in his place Ben was born. He started experimenting with both his outfit and his classes, began speaking his mind somewhat more often, and even attended parties with music that was written after 1900.  While he started out somewhat of a friendless weirdo, he started falling in with others who found his earnest, relaxed nature charming rather than odd. He may not have been a straight-A student anymore, but that was never him.  That was his litany of tutors.  Now he was doing work that he genuinely struggled with, and the challenge helped him feel alive.

Now it's been a year since Bennett has graduated, and once more he finds himself lost.  He moved from the structure of home to the structure of college, and now he was well and truly left to determine his own fate.  No longer sure where the wind would blow him, Bennett decided to take the ultimate gamble.  He would embark on his own Pokemon adventure, letting the spirit of adventure be his guide from that day forward.  He'd have plenty of Pokemon to sketch, new friends to meet, and who knows?  Maybe he'd be able to make a name for himself, rather than for the Coombs-Livingstone dynasty.

[attr="class","rostercatsub2"]HISTORY