Character Sheet for Charles Bennin
Character Description
Young-middle aged tanuki, likes to wear casual clothes and uses more civilian casual dress to better relate to his teenage/young adult patients. He can be somewhat stocky, but is a lot less heavy set than he once was because of his health traditions.
Personality
Chip is openly friendly and has a laid-back approach which Mark and Tom appreciate. He is however reserved with his rationale, as he also has Morley to deal with, who has a habit of lying to him, which he doesn't fall for. Chip was once an overly-anxious hypertensive when he was a kid, and as a result has developed certain calming and relaxing, logic-driven coping mechanisms: Mr. Bennin can go into seemingly deep tranquility trances and 'meditations', where he spends part of his off-time just frozen in a blank stare--this is not a 'deer in the headlights' in the face of danger, so much as it is calming thought process which he uses to rationally think through his daily life.
Likes/Dislikes
Likes: meditation, light ambient music, reading, his office
Dislikes: Rain, anxiety, people yelling at him, violence
Favorite foods: sushi, humus, prune juice, chow mein (avoids, trying to keep weight down)
Background/History
Charles Bennin is a councilor at Tempered Trails, and a somewhat "new" member of the staff-as in, he was hired less than ten years ago. As such, he gets left out of a lot of the administrative discussion at the school, and some of the other staffers privately look down on him. This is more due to his casual nature than lack of tenure, as Mr. Price believes that Mr. Bennin's civilian dress and informal interaction with the students is going to cause a lack of discipline in the student body.
Mr. Bennin was also once a student at Tempered Trails when he was a teenager: far from the calm, collected, assertive man he is today, 'Chip' was a virtually useless bundle of nerves constantly stymied by hypertensive anxiety and fearful attachment. It took years of reform for Chip to develop his own coping mechanisms to his anxiety disorder-- behaviors he still engages today to remain well-adjusted enough to help other people who aren't so much.
Today, Mr. Bennin is Mark and Tom's councilor and therapist. As their guide to emotional wellness, Chip uses his calm rationale to help Mark cut through his own self-disparaging avoidant social disfunction and trust issues, and seeks to help Tom realize more value in his life.
Relatives/Family
Geophrey Bennin - father
Rachael Benjamine-Browne- mother
Alex Bennin - older brother
Sheila Walker - sister
Asche Bennin - younger brother
Body
Somewhat middle sized. As a Tanuki, he has a minor tendency towards being heavy-set, but he keeps his weight in check with diet and exercise. He is also somewhat shorter than normal, and although stocky, somewhat smaller than the likes of Mr. Price.
Clothing
Chip may be an adult, but he has a tendency to dress highly casually and very loosely--as Mr. Price puts it, he 'looks like a big kid'. Though this is a somewhat ignorant presumption, it is not entirely wrong--dressing in heavy, baggy clothes that look like something Mark would wear, Chip's casual attire and demeanor often do help him relate to his students.
