Post by Ross Willamette on Mar 22, 2008 6:54:56 GMT -5
Personal Info
[/b][/center]Nickname: Benji
Age: 18
Experience: About 2 and a half years of constant RP and many, many, many RP boards
Contact Info: PM, IM, E-mail it’s all on my miniprofile
Other Characters or Staff Position? Benjiboy180 (Admin)
Basics
[/b][/center]Character Name: Ross Benjamin Willamette
Nicknames: N/A
Gender: Male
Age: Eighteen
Birth Date: May 16
Grade: Senior (Twelfth)
Relationship Status: Single (for now)
Appearance
[/b][/center]Looks like: Cody Linley
Height: 5 Feet 11 Inches
Weight: 149 Pounds
Build: Slim, but athletic
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Blonde
Style: Preppy sometimes, farmer others, but he really only dressed how he wants and not to fulfill a style
Over All: Ross stands about five feet eleven inches tall. He appears to be taller than he really is due to his elongated upper body. His legs are relatively short in comparison to his height, but it isn’t always apparent upon the first sight of him. He has strangely short fingers, and because of his knuckle-cracking habit, Ross’s knuckles are rather large. His feet in comparison to the rest of his body are awkward, and his toes, like his fingers, are short and stubby.
Ross has a very full head of blonde hair. The blonde is not simply one color, but many. It has shades from light brown, to strawberry-blonde, to almost white, though each of these colors is natural and blends very nicely to make some rather becoming hair. Ross’s hair is normally shaken dry in the morning and left on it’s own to dry, giving it the ‘stylishly unkempt’ look. He doesn’t try to appear that way, but it is the only thing that works. His hair sits atop a rather normal face. Ross’s ears and nose are both regularly sized and unobtrusive. His eyes sport a becoming dark brown color which compliments his blonde hair rather nicely. Ross is usually seen with a few days of beard on his face. He isn’t so much trying to grow anything as much as he is simply lazy and doesn’t wish to take the time to shave.
Ross weighs a measly 150 pounds and, when put next to his height, shows that he has a very light frame. He doesn’t have very large bones, nor does he have very much muscle. The muscle that is there, however, is all dense, which casts the illusion that he is weaker then he looks. His build is one of a track runner and his endurance shows it. Ross tends surprise people who think that he is a weakling. Sure, he isn’t as buff as some of the jocks, but he has muscle.
Ross enjoys dressing his own way. His style is normally causal. His clothes are usually colored with earthy tones, such as dark greens, oranges, browns, and even at times blue. Jeans are Ross’s usual style of pants. Only the dark blue ones, but not so dark that they sometimes look black. The most dressing up that Ross will do is a collard polo and khakis. Because he hates shoes, Ross tends to wear flip-flops on a regular basis, but during the cold months he settles with his slip on AE shoes or converse. When possible, he will simply kick off his shoes and go barefoot.
Personality
[/b][/center]Likes: The color orange, warmth, laughing, talking, good music, theatre, climbing trees, not wearing shoes, fire, Cheese-Its, God, scarves, mangos, cheesecake, turtles, making noises, surprises, Science Fiction/Fantasy, bass guitar, reading/writing, computers, singing, animals, movies, dancing, hugs, and girls
Dislikes: Spiders, slime, sadness, stress, making decisions, rain, deep water, heights, crowds of strange people, confrontation, phones, shoes, zucchini, squash, fish, his step-father, arrogance, hypocrites, turmoil, anger, rap, screamo, and pain
Strengths: Ross is a very friendly person. He makes friends very easy because he such an amiable demeanor. He also is a very hard worker. When asked to do something, he will work at it with all his might and make it as perfect as possible. He is also a perfectionist and will not settle with something until it is perfect. Toward his friends, he is very loyal. Almost to a fault. He listens well to people and can hold a conversation with just about anyone. Ross is also a very intelligent guy, though he hides it very well. People find him to be a very funny guy, though he hardly tries to be so, sometimes he is just so random that they can’t help but laugh. Finally, Ross is very easy-going and hardly ever stresses about anything.
Weaknesses: Ross cannot stand confrontation. He would rather a situation drag on in all of its horridness before he will confront anyone about it. He is also very fearful though it doesn’t show on the outside. He lives in a world of fear, though his easy-going nature often allows him to forget those fears. Ross procrastinates considerably, which keeps things from getting done, and once he does start, his perfectionism makes it take longer than needed. Ross is also very susceptible to romantic notions and will easily become enthralled with a girl. When this happens, his mind can hardly stay in one place. He is also slightly ADD, so he gets distracted very easily. In class, his teachers will constantly nag at him for talking too much.
Hopes and Dreams: Ross wants to go to college, just like every other good American boy and he wants to study theatre, much to his parent’s chagrin. They think that it is a waste of his intelligence to do something like theatre. However, to make his parents happy, he decided to also study Biology, which he enjoys for the most part.
Fears: Failure, spiders, heights, drowning, crowds of strangers, talking to strangers, talking on the phone, confrontation, letting people down, inadequacy, old people, going outside his comfort zone, fish, losing people, hurting people, and the future
Habits: Ross has the habit of biting his nails, which causes his poor fingers considerable pain. He also tends to play with the scruff on his face, which grosses people out sometimes. When he is tired, Ross tends to get a bit of a lisp.
Activities: Track, theatre, dance, playing guitar and work
General Personality: On the outside, Ross is what people like to call a social butterfly. He is the friend that everyone would love to have. He always seems to have something funny to say or do and will never fail in making someone laugh. He exudes friendship and openness. If someone is down, Ross will be the first person there trying to help them feel a bit better. Optimism seems to pour from him. Often his friends describe him as a golden retriever, always happy and insanely loyal. Once you get him talking, there is hardly anything you can do to get him to stop. Ross will get so excited about something that he will literally bounce in place just to contain his amazing amounts of energy. Of course, this energy causes him to get sidetracked too easily. He was never actually diagnosed with ADD, but he sure expressed some of the symptoms. Luckily for him, he could easily pay attention to things even while doing something else.
Ross is more or less a perfectionist, which really doesn’t fit with his personality. He cannot stand it when things are out of order or messy. Of course if you looked at his room, you would never be able to tell. His laziness outweighs his OCD by a considerable amount, but when he does get to cleaning, he won’t stop until the room is spotless. This causes some problems since Ross is also slightly Dyslexic. He can read just fine, but he gets his b’s and d’s mixed up and cannot tell which way an L or J should point. Sometimes. This has gotten much better as he has gotten older, but sometimes, when he is very tired, he will fall into it again.
This, however, in only the outside. Inside, Ross is a much different person. He simply uses his happiness as a front to cover his vulnerable heart. Because he spent so many years on the back burner, Ross learned to pretend that nothing was wrong. In fact, this was a technique that he learned from an extremely young age. He found that it was better to hide what he felt rather than have people pretend that they cared about him. This all caused Ross to become a very insecure person. He does all sorts of crazy things and is a very talkative person just to cover up the fact that he is insecure. Ross is, however, a very humble person. He isn’t amazing at too much, but he refuses to let the things that he is good at go to his head.
Ross has a very artistic eye, but he cannot draw or pain or sculpt. He appreciates artsy things very much, but he cannot create them no matter how hard he tries. This bugs him to no end because he gets a lot of good ideas in his head, but doesn’t have the artistic flare to get them out of his mind and onto paper. Ross also really loves music, but he suffers from the same fate here. He is a decent singer, but is far from good and can really only play the bass. This doesn’t bug him as much as it does with art simply because he has such a wide variety of music to choose from and doesn’t get bored with it very easily. The one area of the arts that Ross does excel at is theatre. He has been in theatre since his eighth grade year and cannot dream of a day without it. Sadly, theatre has had its negative effects on Ross. He has learned to adopt a personality that is not his own. This has aided him even more in hiding his true personality.
Because of the circumstances that Ross grew up in, he is rather inept at showing people that he cares. His family never showed him how to truly do so, so the only thing he knows is fake. This has caused him many hardships, especially when it comes to girls. Whenever he tries to show someone that he cares, it ends up looking as though it is forced or fake. Because of this, people have gotten hurt by getting too attached to him. Because people always seem to get hurt because of him, Ross has lost trust in people all together. On the surface he can trust them very easily, but in reality, he cannot trust them with anything. This has caused Ross to become very independent. He cannot let people help him, not because he thinks that he can do it better, but because if he fails no one else will have to take the fall with him. Ross also keeps people at arms length in order to protect them from himself. He feels that if he doesn’t let anyone get close to him, they won’t get hurt by him. He knows that it brings him pain and loneliness, but in his mind it is worth it so long as others don’t experience that pain and suffering. Sadly, people normally do, due to the fact that they simply cannot get close to him.
Ross’s life is dominated by fear. Fear of failure, fear of getting hurt, fear of inadequacy. He doesn’t show it very much, but it is there. He is mortally afraid of any situation that falls outside of his comfort zone. All of his character flaws can be summed up in this one, overarching, flaw. Fear. It is the reason Ross is determined to wear his mask. He has, in the past, allowed people to see the man behind the mask, but each time, he had been let down. No one seemed to care what was going on behind the mask so long as they had their daily fill of happiness. It became apparent that people just wanted him around to boost their self-esteem and distract themselves from their own crappy lives. In short, Ross was being used by the people he thought were so close to him. So he hid himself behind the mask and never let people see behind it. Only through indirect conversation such as e-mail could people get a true glimpse at the real Ross, but as soon as they interacts in person, the mask is up again.
One fear in particular gives Ross considerable trouble. The fear of confrontation. Ross cannot stand feeling as though he is being mean or obtrusive. Even if he knows that a person will take no offense in his asking them something, he is still scared of asking. He is too scared that they will say no, or be offended. And offending someone is something that Ross cannot live with. This also causes Ross to follow along with things, even if he doesn’t agree with them. He doesn’t wish to risk offending anyone or being a burden. Ross has strict control of his emotions. In fact, he hardly ever cries. This is simply part of his mask that sticks with him even when no one is around. He can bite down his anger and hold it inside as long as he needs. The same thing goes for every negative emotion. He simply stuffs them way down inside and forgets about them. Or tries to. They are, however, always there. Plaguing his very existence. The only time that Ross loses his control is when he is tried. Whether it be emotionally or physically, Ross is much more prone to give in to his emotions then.
Background
[/b][/center]Birthplace: South, Indiana
Financial Status: Upper end of the lower class
Parents: Jean Beverly Shedd [52]; Gregory Marc Willamette [52]
Siblings: Paul Gregory Willamette [26]; Wesley Patrick Willamette[21]; Tyler Matthew Willamette [9] [Adopted, American]; Chan-Soo “Chang” Kim Willamette[10] [Adopted, Korean]
Other Relatives: Stephen Michael Shedd [54] (Step Father)
Pets: A turtle named Kurt and a cat named Ajax
Transportation: Jeep Wrangler
History: Ross was born in South Bend, Indiana to Gregory and Jean Willamette on May 16th. He grew up for the first few years living contentedly with his brothers and parents. Though Ross didn’t know it at the time, something was missing from his life. Something big.
Just before Ross was to enroll in school, his parents decided to move to Ohio and get a little bit of the country life. They had some family that lived there and went to visit one summer. Greg and Jean were instantly enraptured by the beauty. Not even a year later, the whole family had moved to Kennington Ohio. This is where Ross spent the majority of his life, and is likewise the town that he calls home. Though he has wanted to leave for quite some time, he knows that he will be back.
As Ross went through school, he experienced a normal childhood. Mostly. He had friends, they grew apart. He made new friends. Normal childhood experiences. It wasn’t until later that he realized what was so abnormal about his childhood. It lacked love. His whole life he got conflicting expressions of love. His friends and teachers showed him one thing, but his family showed him another. He chose to take his cues from his family and suffered the consequences. You see, his family, though normal enough, was rotten in the inside. His parents didn’t truly care for each other, and his brothers didn’t truly look out for him like brothers should. Ross’s parents were always too busy with Paul and Wesley to pay much attention to him. Paul was perfect and the apple of his parents eye, while Wesley, jealous of Paul’s fortune, acted out to get attention. Between these two extremes fell Ross. He wasn’t nearly as talented as Paul, nor was he as bad as Wesley. This meant that he was put on the back burner and left for later. Because of this negligence, Ross learned to entertain himself and became vastly involved in make-believe. He could spend hours pretending different scenarios where he was loved and heroic. Ross’s parents tried to show him that they loved him, but it was so fake and, even as a child, Ross could tell there was something wrong.
This horrible defect in the family was first brought out when Jean and Gregory divorced when Ross was fifteen. Ross never asked Jean why she had divorced his dad, nor did he care very much. The only thing that mattered was the fact that he had been right the whole time. Something wasn’t there. Now, with Gregory gone, Ross got loads of attention from his mother. This made him uncomfortable because he wasn’t used to it at all. He began, after realizing that his dad truly was a good person, to resent his mother. She still seemed just as fake as she had been all those years earlier. Because of this rift Jean had created, Paul and Wesley had broken off virtually all contact with her. Wesley more so then Paul. Wesley had stopped talking to Jean altogether, while Paul took a more subtle approach and moved to Massachusetts. Each of the boys still spent time with their dad, who they all loved very much. It had been easy to forgive him because he showed genuine regret for what had happened and actually made the attempt to be a part of their lives.
A little over a month after the divorce, Jean began to date a man named Stephen Shedd. At first, Ross accepted Stephen, giving him the benefit of the doubt, but after a while, he became very judgmental of the man. As much as Ross was openly against the marriage, it still proceeded. Ross saw something in the man that Jean refused to see. He saw a monster. It wasn’t long after the marriage that Stephen began to prove Ross correct. He was tyrannical, juvenile, angry, and irritable. He had no sense of “give and take” and would not suffer things that weren’t the way he liked. As much as Jean tried to be the mediator, Stephen reigned the house that wasn’t even his. The kids weren’t his, the house wasn’t his, and the lives weren’t his, though he acted as though they were. Ross was, for the most part, left alone because Jean couldn’t handle another one of her biological sons deserting her. Stephen found a particular enjoyment in terrorizing Tyler and Chang. He was on the edge of abuse, though always careful never to step over lest Ross retaliate. Stephens temper was out of check. He had never had a family and knew nothing about raising children. The only thing he knew was what he wanted. And that was Jean. And all that Jean had. He had no interest in the children or the family.
As the years dragged by, Ross came to hate the man. At times he would lock himself in his room and turn up his music just to drown out the sounds of the man’s yells. Ross, being who he was, refused to do anything about it. He was scared of confrontation and had strict control of his anger. Ross soon loathed the idea of his home. He would do everything possible to keep his friends from coming over and seeing what his life was like. He lived in “The Village” though it was the Upper Loop. Not only was he ashamed of the physical portion of his home, but also the portion that was made up of his “family.” His overwhelming dislike for these people caused him to stop talking at home. His conversations were saved for the dinner table and no where else. Ross’s love for theatre helped him mask his real feelings as to avoid any conversations about them.
Finally, on the brink of leaving for college, Ross has gotten antsy. He doesn’t want to leave the friends that he has made, but he is ready to leave his house. He also doesn’t want to leave the good job that he has working at a local farm. Not only is the job a well paying fun one, but he has a certain fancy for the farmer’s daughter who goes to school with him. His final summer in high school has begun and he is determined to make the best of this last year at home.
Miscellaneous
[/b][/center]RP Sample:
Ross sat in his room listening to his step dad. The tyrant. Oh, he was fine as long as there was someone besides Ross, his little brothers, or his mom around. He just didn’t have the experience or patience to be a step-father. In fact Ross refused to call him such. He was either Steve or his mom’s husband. All he could hear was yelling from the man that had screwed up his entire life. Luckily Ross was not required to do any socializing away from the ten minutes he sometimes spent at the dinner table. Once again his unruly little brother, who also turned out to be a bit slow, was being a little snot again. Ross would constantly get annoyed with him, but it didn’t condone the things that this man did.
To say the least, Ross was perturbed. He put his computer into hibernate and stalked out of his room, muttering his latter whereabouts to his mother. He just had to get out of the smelly, noisy, cat-infested house in the Village. No one had ever held his poverty against him. He didn’t live in a trailer, but that was a minor detail. The neighborhood was as nice as one could get there, but the house he lived in wasn’t much of a home. Nowadays there was very little that happened at home that didn’t put him into a reclusive mood. He needed to get out and relief some of the stress.
It was rather chilly outside, so Ross hugged his arms tight. In his anger, he had forgotten a jacket. Sadly he would just have to go without. There was no way he would go back to that house! As usual, he made his way out of the neighborhood and began to walk down the long winding country roads. It was a bright starry night, but that only repressed a portion of his mood.
Walks down this particular road had become more and more common lately. As often as he could, he wandered down that road. It helped clear his mind of everything that plagued it so. He never expected to meet anyone coming down the road as well, but deep inside, he wished that he would. He wished that someone would appear and take it all away.
To say the least, Ross was perturbed. He put his computer into hibernate and stalked out of his room, muttering his latter whereabouts to his mother. He just had to get out of the smelly, noisy, cat-infested house in the Village. No one had ever held his poverty against him. He didn’t live in a trailer, but that was a minor detail. The neighborhood was as nice as one could get there, but the house he lived in wasn’t much of a home. Nowadays there was very little that happened at home that didn’t put him into a reclusive mood. He needed to get out and relief some of the stress.
It was rather chilly outside, so Ross hugged his arms tight. In his anger, he had forgotten a jacket. Sadly he would just have to go without. There was no way he would go back to that house! As usual, he made his way out of the neighborhood and began to walk down the long winding country roads. It was a bright starry night, but that only repressed a portion of his mood.
Walks down this particular road had become more and more common lately. As often as he could, he wandered down that road. It helped clear his mind of everything that plagued it so. He never expected to meet anyone coming down the road as well, but deep inside, he wished that he would. He wished that someone would appear and take it all away.
Activity Level: Very high
Anything else you need to say? Not everyone’s application needs to be so long, but I got into a spree.
Oh, finally, what is king of all that is cheese? Admin Locked
