Norman "Ben" Gerst

[Norman "Ben" Gerst]

The Basics

Name: Norman Benjamin Gerst
Nicknames: Goes rather exclusively by Ben or Benny
Age: 38
Orientation: Bisexual, but has never had a serious relationship with another man.
Desired Rank/Job: Economics/Mathematics Teacher
Powers: None
Play By: Idris Elba

The Details

Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Any Piercings? None
Any Tattoos? None
Any Scars? One from his appendectomy and a burn mark on the back of his right hand from where he dropped an iron.
General Appearance: When he was in high school, Ben was encouraged to join the football team because of his size, though he never really possessed any athletic ability. At 6'3" and 220 pounds, he has a bit of an imposing figure that always made shopping for well fitted clothes difficult. He's very proportionate for his size which he's always been grateful for. Growing up it was hard enough being a large black man in a predominantly white neighborhood. If something in his appearance had been even a little unusual - legs too long, hands too big, ears too protruding - things might have been a million times harder. He's jokingly commented among his friends that "I may be black, but at least I'm attractive."

He keeps his slightly graying hair cut close to his head with a beard and mustache of the same length. Facial hair upkeep is one of his favorite hobbies and he's been caught several times murmuring words of encouragement to himself as he meticulously shaves and shapes his beard. He has wild nostrils that flare when he's thinking too hard, callouses all over his hands from working problems over and over again, and wrinkles across his forehead from dealing with obnoxious people.

When Ben first started working toward his PhD in Applied Mathematics, his adviser told him he would have to start wearing a lot of tweed. A few years later when he began working on his PhD in Economics, the same person told him he needed to wear ties practically every day. Ben is usually seen in just that - a tweed jacket, collared shirt, and a tie. It's unknown how many ties he really has, but it seems like one for every day of the year.
Personality: Ben finds himself in the awkward position between a leader and a follower. He's not the most charismatic or likable person, but sometimes he just knows he's the best person to take the lead on things. When he does end up in the leader position, he's very dedicated and almost always successful, though he has the tendency to take most of the responsibility onto himself instead of relying on his group. If he's following, he'll quietly sit back and accept what's assigned to him with little question.

He's a friendly guy for the most part - easy to talk to, a bit funny, and always ready with a relevant anecdote from his college days. He smiles easily and laughs loudly. In fact, he's rather self-conscious about the sound of his laugh, but he can't stop finding things funny. Ben is rather introverted compared to some of his peers. He tries not to let it stop him from going out to get a beer or grab dinner with friends; he rarely turns down invitations to hang out, but he's known to sometimes not show up, or just sit in the corner quietly and observe. Despite his introversion, he has a very loud, boisterous voice and when he gets in his groove - whether teaching or talking about soccer - can't bring himself to shut up.

Oftentimes Ben would describe himself as awkward, particularly when speaking and writing. From a young age he's thought primarily in numbers and doesn't have the strongest grasp on words. He'll mumble a word if he's not sure how it's pronounced, completely rearrange a sentence if he thinks there are too many words starting with the same letter in it, then fumble while he's speaking and tell his waiter happy birthday instead of thank you. He takes it all in stride, though, and smooths over his blunders with a quick smile. His father taught him it was important to be able to laugh at yourself and he takes that to heart.

Ben is full of passions from sailing to films to novice chemistry. When he enjoys something he gives it everything he has. Above all is teaching, something he knew he wanted to do from a young age. He's better with his students than he is with people his age and wants nothing more than to make sure his students succeed. That being said, he's repeatedly been told he assigns too much work, grades too toughly, and expects too much of students that have other classes to deal with. He tries to balance out how much he assigns, but he works best under pressure and has fallen into the belief that so does everyone else.

Your Vices

Likes: Professional soccer (FC Barcelona is his favorite), films (old, new, good, bad, he doesn't care), white chocolate, black coffee, green tea, indian cuisine, tabloids, npr news, planning on investing in stocks but never actually investing, and poetry.
Dislikes: Coffee that isn't black or isn't ridiculously sweet, students who don't try, parents who invade their kid's privacy, serious conversation in social/public spaces, his office desk, socks with holes in them, people who can't take a hint, and ayn rand.
Strengths: Math, economics, basic sciences, politics, cooking, finding good deals on high end clothing, following through on goals, and reading half a book and never finishing.
Weaknesses: Mediating, making small decisions (like what to make for dinner), spending too much money on scarves, randomly dropping plans, not responding to phone calls, taking criticism. 
Fears: Losing his family and friends is his biggest fear. Stemming from that is the thought that the world might turn on Meta-Humans and attempt genocide. He's also afraid of falling, but not of heights, and of water too deep for light to penetrate. He thinks he would be afraid of space if he ever went up there, but he has no plans on doing that.
Secret: He's right handed, so normally he would wear his ring on the left hand, but he moved the band to his right hand middle finger so people wouldn't think he was once engaged or married.

Family Ties

Father: Devon Gerst
Mother: Natasha Gerst
Siblings: Olivia Munson (sister, 40); Martin Gerst (brother, 29)
Any Other Important People: Alice Munson (niece, 16), Avery Tien (ex-fiancee, 35), Nasir Khaleed (former academic adviser and close friend, 64)

History

Ben was named after his maternal grandfather, Norman Tate, and his paternal grandfather, Benjamin Gerst. His father, Devon, moved to America from Belgium with his father to finish high school and enroll into an American college. Devon met his future wife, Natasha, while attending George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. They moved to Vienna, Virginia (a suburb right outside Washington, DC) after they had their first child, Olivia. A few years later, Norman Benjamin Gerst was born.

If you ask him, Ben will say he had a normal childhood, attending local elementary and middle schools. However, as a black child in a predominantly white neighborhood, Ben experienced racially charged bullying from a young age that never really left him until he entered college. Even after beginning his higher education, Ben still experienced racism in his academic place, making him work twice as hard just to receive the same amount of recognition as his white peers.

His skill in mathematics was noticed during sixth grade and he started advanced math courses in middle school, always a few levels above his peers. He was gifted in other areas of academics as well, particularly the sciences and business classes, but was never anything more than average in English classes. Ben attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which propelled him forward in his study of mathematics. He attended the University of Chicago for his undergraduate studies and obtained his BS in Mathematics with a focus in both Applied Mathematics and Mathematics with a focus in Economics. He continued his studies at the university's graduate school and obtained his PhD in Applied Mathematics.

Throughout his schooling at University of Chicago, Ben receiving academic advice and guidance from Nasir Khaleed, a Mathematics professor who was known to have a few loose screws. Their relationship proved beneficial for both, as Ben helped Khaleed finish some of his life-long research topics, and Khaleed helped Ben succeed in his graduate program, coming out of school with more academic honors than he could count.

While at college, Ben met Avery Tien, a physics and chemistry double major who had more ambition than anyone he ever met. The two were close friends for their four years of undergrad study and began dating when they realized they would both stay at their school for the doctorate program. At 26, four years after their first date, Ben proposed to Avery and the two promised to get married after receiving not one, but two doctorate degrees. To them, it was like a challenge.

Just before starting his graduate work, Ben became an uncle. His sister gave birth to a baby girl named Alice, but they lived back in the DC area and Ben rarely found time to visit. After receiving his PhD in Applied Mathematics at 26 years old, Ben moved back to Fairfax County, Virginia and enrolled in his parents' Alma Mater, George Mason University, to work on his PhD in Economics. Avery moved in with him shortly after and the two began making wedding plans. During this time, Ben was working with the United States Geological Survey as a financial specialist. His nights were dedicated to PhD work at George Mason. The long, stressful hours, as well as his fiancee's various jobs, put strain on their relationship and in the end the two decided to call off the engagement. While their relationship is rocky now, the two remain friends and keep in fairly close contact.

After getting his PhD in Economics, Ben turned his attention toward teaching. He started as a professor at George Mason when he was 32, moved to New York to teach at SUNY Albany when he was 34, then moved to teach at Hammel just under a year ago. He was attracted to the school after getting an email from Avery explaining that one of her friend's son developed Meta-Human abilities, then shortly after learned from his sister that she had been hiding a secret - Alice, Ben's niece, was a Meta-Human and had been attending Hammel since she turned 12. From that point, Ben knew he wanted to teach at Hammel to be closer to his niece, and to work with students who experienced discrimination much like he did.

Roleplay Example

It was normal for Ben to have at least three laptops open on his desk when he was doing research. Behind him was a large blackboard, half scribbled on in white chalk that made little sense to him, let alone his students who walked in for help on the latest problem set. Luckily, the advanced math on the board behind him was his own personal project - an equation to predict the rise and fall of stocks based on their initial and current values. He thought it was impossible. His colleagues thought it was impossible. Everyone thought it was impossible. So he was doing it anyway.

Of course, he was having very little luck. At one point he ended up looking into current investment trends and predicting (with very little proof) how the market would go. It was intuition, mostly, but he wrote it down in a notebook anyway. The notebook was filled with previous market guesses and predictions which aided slightly in his current research, even if all they did was prove that the market was unpredictable. Still, there was a noticeable trend in his guesses - they were getting better.

Ben looked up at the knock on his door. "Office hours don't start for another two minutes," he called out, a playful grin on his face that the student couldn't see. There was no response, then, two minutes later, the knock came again. "You're good now."

"Being a hard ass again, Norman?" Ben turned around in his chair faster than he thought sound could move. Only one person in the world referred to him as Norman, and it definitely wasn't a person he thought would show up in his office.

"Dr. Khaleed," Ben said as he put his pencil down. "What a surprise."

"Let's not waste time with small talk. What's that in chalk?"

"My usual order from the local Chinese place."

What About You?

Name: craig
Age: 20
Experience: oh gosh, about eight years now? a little less, maybe? i started on forums, moved to email and one/ones, and now im slowly coming back to forums!
How Did You Find Us? i was looking around for an active, fun place to start rp-ing on forums again and i stumbled across yall!
Ready To Play? ready as ill ever be B)

[Kallisti*]

Accepted!


Welcome to Hammel, Craig! Ben looks absolutely wonderful, and I can't wait to see him teach a high school Economics course to this band of ruffians. Please fill out your CLAIMS (staff can help you if you're not sure where to start or post), and feel free to introduce yourself around the school!