OOC: Benton Fraser fact sheet.
All information is for player knowledge only.
General Information
Name: Benton Fraser. Fraser, for the record, rhymes with razor, not... uh, a word that would rhyme with the name of Kelsey Grammer's character from "Cheers". Except very nearly everyone (including Ray Vecchio) calls him Frasier. Seriously -- everyone. And he never corrects them, even though he really, really, understandably doesn't care for it. The fact that Ray Kowalski pronounces his last name correctly makes him pathetically happy. It gives him big warm Canadian fuzzies.
Nicknames: Almost everyone he knew prior to Chicago called him Ben. Ray Vecchio calls him Benny.
Age: 35. Which is dicking around with canon timelines all over the place, so, sue me.
Psychology
IQ: Um, high. I'm not even going to go there. Scary-high.
Phobias/Fears: Caligynephobia (fear of beautiful women), atychiphobia (fear of failure), soteriophobia (fear of dependence on others), enosiophobia (fear of having committed an unpardonable sin), lutraphobia (fear of otters). And cabbage. Cabbagephobia. Fear of cabbage. Except not really, what he's really afraid of is his father's voice in his head telling him he's going to end up a grade-A nutjob like Uncle Tiberius (the skeleton in the Fraser family closet, who was obsessed with cabbage and died wrapped in cabbage leaves).
Religious Beliefs: Um... inclusive? Bits and pieces of Christianity for the discipline and the guilt, the blanks filled in with shamanism/mysticism/zen kinda inner-spirity stuff that makes for good allegory and pisses off his father with its touchy-feeliness. In a darkest hour kind of moment he went and spoke with the priest at Ray Vecchio's church in the confessional, but he's not Catholic himself, nor was he raised attending services of any kind.
Intolerances/Annoyances: Injustice, immorality, lawlessness, people (not kids, the kids don't really bother him) who fuck around with him or with the uniform while he's standing guard duty, unwelcome advances (being cornered, especially), laziness, pessimism, incompetence, people with no sense of duty or responsibility to their community.
Quirks/Habits: Hahahahaha, um. He uses the same introduction speech with everyone he meets ("I first came to Chicago...") and it's kind of a preemptive strike, like, "This is who I am, this is what I'm about, don't bullshit me, just tell me what I want to know." He's unflaggingly polite and although he really does value good manners and civility that's also a defense mechanism in its own right, another way of keeping people at arm's length. In all honesty "thank you kindly" pretty often means "fuck you sideways." He sees dead people (or he did, when his father was resting not so peacefully) and he carries on full conversations with his deaf wolf -- in front of people. He has several discomfort tics -- when he's, like, mildly discomfited he'll lick his lips, when he wants to dig himself a hole in the floor he scratches his eyebrow and when he cracks his neck he's basically trying not to kill himself. He has an eidetic memory and he's read pretty much every book in existence -- he knows everything about everything, so don't even start. He also has Tales From North Yucktuckfuck for every occasion, his favourite being the one about the spooked caribou on the cliff who kept backing up every time he tried to get near it -- he tells that story all the time. He doesn't carry a gun in the States (he claims it's too much paperwork, but how much could it possibly be and what better stuff does he have to do?) and he has a disconcerting habit of stepping in front of heavily armed criminals and asking them to consider the consequences of their actions and kindly lower their weapons. He has basically no possessions. Spartan is not even the term for Fraser, homeless is the term. He does his best not to get attached to things, places or people. And above the first floor, in a pinch? He will always be going out the window.
Family
Parents: His father was Sergeant Robert Fraser, a legendary Mountie. In Chicago Ben is "The Mountie" -- in the Territories he's still "The Mountie's son." As good as he was a policeman, Fraser Sr was a pretty lousy father and husband. He was rigid and remote and undemonstrative with his feelings -- more than that he was simply never there. Fraser Sr was convinced even after his death that the RCMP motto is "We always get our man," and his pursuits would often keep him away from home for months. According to Ben, even when he was home, he would sometimes sleep out with the dogs, and he once accused his father (well, the ghost of his father) of never really knowing his mother and never being there for her. Fraser Sr was murdered five years ago. In case you missed it, Ben first came to Chicago on the trail of his killers. He also came into possession of his father's journals, and through them he really got to know his father for the first time, and came to depend on them for advice about his work and life in general. After a few months in Chicago, around Christmastime, Ben received his first visit from his dead father, who just showed up in the back seat of Ray Vecchio's car, calmly as anything. From then on, Fraser Sr was pretty much a fixture, whether Ben wanted him to be or not -- he'd pop in at every inopportune moment to offer "advice" or "encouragement" and in any way possible drive Ben out of his mind. Admittedly a short trip. Ben often spoke directly to his father -- who no one else could see -- in public and got a reputation for talking to himself. Fraser Sr built himself an office in the closet of Ben's office at the Consulate, a very cozy cabin-y looking deal that looked out on a huge white Yukon landscape, but if someone opened the door while Ben was in there, they'd just see him standing alone in the plain old tiny closet, talking to himself. Fraser Sr finally went on to his final rest when the murderer of Ben's mother was brought to justice. His mother was Caroline Pinsent-Fraser, and she was killed when Ben was six years old. His father lost it for a few months after that but finally went back to work, and Ben was handed off to his paternal grandparents, George and Martha Fraser-- travelling librarians who were never in one place for long. Ben's grandmother appears to Fraser Sr on one occasion (Ben can't see her) and disapproves of Fraser Sr's "babying" Ben by allowing him to stay in his hospital bed after he's sustained a serious gunshot wound. So, yeah, grandparents, not the easiest-going people, either. Ben found a mentor/father figure in Quinn, a guide who taught him about tracking and hunting, and also about respecting the land and the community and his place in it. It's Quinn's fault that Ben licks things in his tracking. Another father figure is Sergeant Buck Frobisher, Fraser Sr's former partner. They were very close, like Fraser and Ray (um, not exactly like Fraser and Ray) and Buck could also see the ghost or spirit or whatever of Fraser Sr.
Siblings: One recently discovered half-sister, Maggie McKenzie, who Fraser met when she came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of her husband. She's also a Mountie, the total female version of Fraser, except little and cute and blonde, and Fraser and Ray got into a pissing match over her pretty much instantly. But Fraser eventually backed off because of the shared DNA and everything. She's several (um, more than six) years younger than Fraser. Maggie's mother had never told Fraser Sr that she had a daughter, so it came as a surprise to both him and Fraser. Maggie could also see Fraser Sr.
Spouse/Serious Lover: Ray Kowalski. Partner, boyfriend, reason for living, et cetera.
Children: He used to be spooked by the idea of children because his father (post-death) was very keen on the idea of grandchildren and liked to point out suitable, "sturdy" women. But he genuinely would like kids someday, it's just, you know, the process that freaks him out. Fortunately there are alternatives.
Pets: Diefenbaker is not a pet -- he's Fraser's partner as much as Ray is. Um, in the professional sense of the word. Once upon a time, they rescued each other from an abandoned mine shaft in the Yukon and since then Dief has chosen to stay with Fraser of his own free will. Several years ago Fraser nearly drowned in Prince Rupert Sound and Dief jumped off an ice floe to pull him out, and the plunge into icy water caused Dief's eardrums to burst. So he's deaf, although at times it seems to be selective, but he can read lips in several languages. The fact that city living has softened Dief is a point of frequent bitchiness from Fraser -- he doesn't approve of Dief's laziness or how much junk food he eats. Dief's still pretty tough, though -- if he sets out after a car, for instance, he won't stop until he catches it or he'll die trying. He's technically only half wolf, and the other half is never explicitly described, but, I guess, some kind of husky or something? He's not, like, half poodle.
Present Background
Occupation: Constable First Class, Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He's the acting liaison officer at the Canadian Consulate in Chicago, but his formal duties there are basically just guard duty (you know, standing like a statue in front of the building, like those British dudes with the big hats) and paperwork and whatever other menial crap Inspector Thatcher can throw at him. His unofficial partnership with Ray is his real job, so he's pretty much a CPD detective without a badge or a gun or any jurisdiction or, like, reason to be there. He's a professional nosy parker.
Education: Very little formal education. He was home-schooled for the most part by his grandparents, because they moved around so much, and he studied voraciously on his own. He did at least attend grade four in an actual school, and maybe a handful of others, but he mostly just got ridiculously high scores on national equivalency exams, and ridiculously high scores at the Depot (Mountie training academy).
Major: Um, justice?
Activities: Fighting crime.
Home: Ray Kowalski's apartment. Formerly a cot in his office at the Consulate, and before that a decrepit apartment in a lousy neighborhood downtown (his building was burned down by a performance arsonist). And before that, you know, Canada. All of it. Mostly the top part.
Friends: Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski. Various other friends and friendly acquaintances, and he's not one to make light of that, but the Rays are the ones that really matter.
Finances: Decent. His salary is pretty modest and he is way charitable but he's got a fairly-sized nest egg socked away. Probably in a literal sock.
Appearance
Height: 6'1 without the boots and hat.
Eyes: Blue.
Hair: Dark brown, frequently disobedient. That's what the hat'll do for you.
Face & Complexion: Fair skin, pretty baby-faced. He'll let himself get a bit scruffy when he's up North, but it takes a while to really get it going.
Build: Big and solid. Muscular but not really cut -- it's out of necessity, for work, for freakin' wrestling bears and climbing mountains, it's not showy gym-muscle.
Defining Marks: Scars aplenty, though the little scar on his right cheek from a tempered glass door is the only usually visible one. He's got a pretty awful scar on his lower back from when Ray Vecchio shot him, he was also shot and stabbed in the right thigh (separate occasions) and of course there's the otter scar on his right shoulder. Those are the biggies but he's had a rough life, so there's more here and there. Also, the fact that he's deadly fucking gorgeous. That's pretty defining.
Dress Style: Red serge, pretty much constantly, neat and pressed and perfect. He used to wear the less dressy brown uniform a lot, too, but he hasn't trucked it out in a while. When he's off-duty -- except, okay, he's never really off-duty, so when he's not in uniform, he wears jeans (really, really tight jeans, seriously, man), red or blue flannel shirts, his brown leather jacket and hiking boots. Very lumberjack. And he always wears the Stetson. It may get knocked off here and there but if you see him totally without the Stetson, then he is dead and probably moving into your closet.
Manner of Speech: Formal.
Manner of Movement: Purposeful. He runs like a freakin' freight train. One of the things I love most about Fraser is, okay, you know how usually in a movie or whatever, if someone tries to run after a car? They'll like jog halfheartedly for a couple meters, if that, and then give up? Fraser will catch the car.
Romantic
Marital Status: Taken.
Sexual Preference: Bisexual.
Past Relationships: Victoria Metcalf. He also had feelings for his commanding officer at the Consulate, Inspector Meg Thatcher, mutual feelings as a matter of fact, and they kissed once but after that she totally shut him down when he even tried to talk about it, and he got over it. Unrequited feelings (he's also more or less over them) and unresolved issues all over the place where Ray Vecchio is concerned, though he'll always be one of Benny's dearest friends (one of, you know, all two of them).
Present Relationships: Taken by/cohabitating with Ray.
General Information
Name: Benton Fraser. Fraser, for the record, rhymes with razor, not... uh, a word that would rhyme with the name of Kelsey Grammer's character from "Cheers". Except very nearly everyone (including Ray Vecchio) calls him Frasier. Seriously -- everyone. And he never corrects them, even though he really, really, understandably doesn't care for it. The fact that Ray Kowalski pronounces his last name correctly makes him pathetically happy. It gives him big warm Canadian fuzzies.
Nicknames: Almost everyone he knew prior to Chicago called him Ben. Ray Vecchio calls him Benny.
Age: 35. Which is dicking around with canon timelines all over the place, so, sue me.
Psychology
IQ: Um, high. I'm not even going to go there. Scary-high.
Phobias/Fears: Caligynephobia (fear of beautiful women), atychiphobia (fear of failure), soteriophobia (fear of dependence on others), enosiophobia (fear of having committed an unpardonable sin), lutraphobia (fear of otters). And cabbage. Cabbagephobia. Fear of cabbage. Except not really, what he's really afraid of is his father's voice in his head telling him he's going to end up a grade-A nutjob like Uncle Tiberius (the skeleton in the Fraser family closet, who was obsessed with cabbage and died wrapped in cabbage leaves).
Religious Beliefs: Um... inclusive? Bits and pieces of Christianity for the discipline and the guilt, the blanks filled in with shamanism/mysticism/zen kinda inner-spirity stuff that makes for good allegory and pisses off his father with its touchy-feeliness. In a darkest hour kind of moment he went and spoke with the priest at Ray Vecchio's church in the confessional, but he's not Catholic himself, nor was he raised attending services of any kind.
Intolerances/Annoyances: Injustice, immorality, lawlessness, people (not kids, the kids don't really bother him) who fuck around with him or with the uniform while he's standing guard duty, unwelcome advances (being cornered, especially), laziness, pessimism, incompetence, people with no sense of duty or responsibility to their community.
Quirks/Habits: Hahahahaha, um. He uses the same introduction speech with everyone he meets ("I first came to Chicago...") and it's kind of a preemptive strike, like, "This is who I am, this is what I'm about, don't bullshit me, just tell me what I want to know." He's unflaggingly polite and although he really does value good manners and civility that's also a defense mechanism in its own right, another way of keeping people at arm's length. In all honesty "thank you kindly" pretty often means "fuck you sideways." He sees dead people (or he did, when his father was resting not so peacefully) and he carries on full conversations with his deaf wolf -- in front of people. He has several discomfort tics -- when he's, like, mildly discomfited he'll lick his lips, when he wants to dig himself a hole in the floor he scratches his eyebrow and when he cracks his neck he's basically trying not to kill himself. He has an eidetic memory and he's read pretty much every book in existence -- he knows everything about everything, so don't even start. He also has Tales From North Yucktuckfuck for every occasion, his favourite being the one about the spooked caribou on the cliff who kept backing up every time he tried to get near it -- he tells that story all the time. He doesn't carry a gun in the States (he claims it's too much paperwork, but how much could it possibly be and what better stuff does he have to do?) and he has a disconcerting habit of stepping in front of heavily armed criminals and asking them to consider the consequences of their actions and kindly lower their weapons. He has basically no possessions. Spartan is not even the term for Fraser, homeless is the term. He does his best not to get attached to things, places or people. And above the first floor, in a pinch? He will always be going out the window.
Family
Parents: His father was Sergeant Robert Fraser, a legendary Mountie. In Chicago Ben is "The Mountie" -- in the Territories he's still "The Mountie's son." As good as he was a policeman, Fraser Sr was a pretty lousy father and husband. He was rigid and remote and undemonstrative with his feelings -- more than that he was simply never there. Fraser Sr was convinced even after his death that the RCMP motto is "We always get our man," and his pursuits would often keep him away from home for months. According to Ben, even when he was home, he would sometimes sleep out with the dogs, and he once accused his father (well, the ghost of his father) of never really knowing his mother and never being there for her. Fraser Sr was murdered five years ago. In case you missed it, Ben first came to Chicago on the trail of his killers. He also came into possession of his father's journals, and through them he really got to know his father for the first time, and came to depend on them for advice about his work and life in general. After a few months in Chicago, around Christmastime, Ben received his first visit from his dead father, who just showed up in the back seat of Ray Vecchio's car, calmly as anything. From then on, Fraser Sr was pretty much a fixture, whether Ben wanted him to be or not -- he'd pop in at every inopportune moment to offer "advice" or "encouragement" and in any way possible drive Ben out of his mind. Admittedly a short trip. Ben often spoke directly to his father -- who no one else could see -- in public and got a reputation for talking to himself. Fraser Sr built himself an office in the closet of Ben's office at the Consulate, a very cozy cabin-y looking deal that looked out on a huge white Yukon landscape, but if someone opened the door while Ben was in there, they'd just see him standing alone in the plain old tiny closet, talking to himself. Fraser Sr finally went on to his final rest when the murderer of Ben's mother was brought to justice. His mother was Caroline Pinsent-Fraser, and she was killed when Ben was six years old. His father lost it for a few months after that but finally went back to work, and Ben was handed off to his paternal grandparents, George and Martha Fraser-- travelling librarians who were never in one place for long. Ben's grandmother appears to Fraser Sr on one occasion (Ben can't see her) and disapproves of Fraser Sr's "babying" Ben by allowing him to stay in his hospital bed after he's sustained a serious gunshot wound. So, yeah, grandparents, not the easiest-going people, either. Ben found a mentor/father figure in Quinn, a guide who taught him about tracking and hunting, and also about respecting the land and the community and his place in it. It's Quinn's fault that Ben licks things in his tracking. Another father figure is Sergeant Buck Frobisher, Fraser Sr's former partner. They were very close, like Fraser and Ray (um, not exactly like Fraser and Ray) and Buck could also see the ghost or spirit or whatever of Fraser Sr.
Siblings: One recently discovered half-sister, Maggie McKenzie, who Fraser met when she came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of her husband. She's also a Mountie, the total female version of Fraser, except little and cute and blonde, and Fraser and Ray got into a pissing match over her pretty much instantly. But Fraser eventually backed off because of the shared DNA and everything. She's several (um, more than six) years younger than Fraser. Maggie's mother had never told Fraser Sr that she had a daughter, so it came as a surprise to both him and Fraser. Maggie could also see Fraser Sr.
Spouse/Serious Lover: Ray Kowalski. Partner, boyfriend, reason for living, et cetera.
Children: He used to be spooked by the idea of children because his father (post-death) was very keen on the idea of grandchildren and liked to point out suitable, "sturdy" women. But he genuinely would like kids someday, it's just, you know, the process that freaks him out. Fortunately there are alternatives.
Pets: Diefenbaker is not a pet -- he's Fraser's partner as much as Ray is. Um, in the professional sense of the word. Once upon a time, they rescued each other from an abandoned mine shaft in the Yukon and since then Dief has chosen to stay with Fraser of his own free will. Several years ago Fraser nearly drowned in Prince Rupert Sound and Dief jumped off an ice floe to pull him out, and the plunge into icy water caused Dief's eardrums to burst. So he's deaf, although at times it seems to be selective, but he can read lips in several languages. The fact that city living has softened Dief is a point of frequent bitchiness from Fraser -- he doesn't approve of Dief's laziness or how much junk food he eats. Dief's still pretty tough, though -- if he sets out after a car, for instance, he won't stop until he catches it or he'll die trying. He's technically only half wolf, and the other half is never explicitly described, but, I guess, some kind of husky or something? He's not, like, half poodle.
Present Background
Occupation: Constable First Class, Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He's the acting liaison officer at the Canadian Consulate in Chicago, but his formal duties there are basically just guard duty (you know, standing like a statue in front of the building, like those British dudes with the big hats) and paperwork and whatever other menial crap Inspector Thatcher can throw at him. His unofficial partnership with Ray is his real job, so he's pretty much a CPD detective without a badge or a gun or any jurisdiction or, like, reason to be there. He's a professional nosy parker.
Education: Very little formal education. He was home-schooled for the most part by his grandparents, because they moved around so much, and he studied voraciously on his own. He did at least attend grade four in an actual school, and maybe a handful of others, but he mostly just got ridiculously high scores on national equivalency exams, and ridiculously high scores at the Depot (Mountie training academy).
Major: Um, justice?
Activities: Fighting crime.
Home: Ray Kowalski's apartment. Formerly a cot in his office at the Consulate, and before that a decrepit apartment in a lousy neighborhood downtown (his building was burned down by a performance arsonist). And before that, you know, Canada. All of it. Mostly the top part.
Friends: Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski. Various other friends and friendly acquaintances, and he's not one to make light of that, but the Rays are the ones that really matter.
Finances: Decent. His salary is pretty modest and he is way charitable but he's got a fairly-sized nest egg socked away. Probably in a literal sock.
Appearance
Height: 6'1 without the boots and hat.
Eyes: Blue.
Hair: Dark brown, frequently disobedient. That's what the hat'll do for you.
Face & Complexion: Fair skin, pretty baby-faced. He'll let himself get a bit scruffy when he's up North, but it takes a while to really get it going.
Build: Big and solid. Muscular but not really cut -- it's out of necessity, for work, for freakin' wrestling bears and climbing mountains, it's not showy gym-muscle.
Defining Marks: Scars aplenty, though the little scar on his right cheek from a tempered glass door is the only usually visible one. He's got a pretty awful scar on his lower back from when Ray Vecchio shot him, he was also shot and stabbed in the right thigh (separate occasions) and of course there's the otter scar on his right shoulder. Those are the biggies but he's had a rough life, so there's more here and there. Also, the fact that he's deadly fucking gorgeous. That's pretty defining.
Dress Style: Red serge, pretty much constantly, neat and pressed and perfect. He used to wear the less dressy brown uniform a lot, too, but he hasn't trucked it out in a while. When he's off-duty -- except, okay, he's never really off-duty, so when he's not in uniform, he wears jeans (really, really tight jeans, seriously, man), red or blue flannel shirts, his brown leather jacket and hiking boots. Very lumberjack. And he always wears the Stetson. It may get knocked off here and there but if you see him totally without the Stetson, then he is dead and probably moving into your closet.
Manner of Speech: Formal.
Manner of Movement: Purposeful. He runs like a freakin' freight train. One of the things I love most about Fraser is, okay, you know how usually in a movie or whatever, if someone tries to run after a car? They'll like jog halfheartedly for a couple meters, if that, and then give up? Fraser will catch the car.
Romantic
Marital Status: Taken.
Sexual Preference: Bisexual.
Past Relationships: Victoria Metcalf. He also had feelings for his commanding officer at the Consulate, Inspector Meg Thatcher, mutual feelings as a matter of fact, and they kissed once but after that she totally shut him down when he even tried to talk about it, and he got over it. Unrequited feelings (he's also more or less over them) and unresolved issues all over the place where Ray Vecchio is concerned, though he'll always be one of Benny's dearest friends (one of, you know, all two of them).
Present Relationships: Taken by/cohabitating with Ray.