Benji Ryans, Jr.

Active Cast » Benji Ryans, Jr.

Chesterfield Act Registry of the Expressive Database

File #15 Feb 2018 10:47

Name	Benji Ryans, Jr.	Aliases	Benjamin Foster, Joshua Kincaid, Jasmine
Status	Unregistered Expressive	Ability	Dream Manipulation

Gender	Female
Birthdate	February 18	Age	33

Height	5'9"	Build	Slender
Eyes	Blue	Hair	Black

Residence	Ruins of the Bronx
Employment	In dreaming

Parents

Delia Ryans
Nick Ruskin

Siblings

None

Marital Status

Unmarried

Children

None

First Scene

Round The Hangin' Tree

Last Scene

Profile

Originally a time traveler from the future who helped changed to course of history, Benji now continues to fight a war that is, by the grand majority of people, considered to be over and won. She aids and abets the unsanctioned murder of war criminals and anti-Evo extremists, and occasionally just does the murder her own self.

portrayed by

Cillian Murphy

Once upon a time, in an alternate future timeline, a plucky group of youths travelled back in time to save the world. It went not super smoothly due to conflicting interests and a lack of leadership and the fact that redirecting the course of history is messy work, but in the grand scheme of things, it could have been worse.

Benji was among this group, born of Delia Ryans and Nick Ruskin, and inheriting her mother's dreamwalking ability. Before her time travel adventure, she grew up among the Ferrymen, a concept that tied closely into her ideas of family and community and something to fight for, as opposed to viewing the Ferrymen as an entity that fought for other people. She was a citizen of this community and a freedom fighter both, inseparable identities that made imagining a better world harder than she realised when it came time to do just that. As an adult, she turned her attention towards assisting on the level of intelligence-gathering via dreams, and likely would never have gone anywhere in the past if not for the fact they realised her ability could come in useful for convincing the people of the past to course-correct their present.

So she went back, and grew into a fiercer, more responsible agent of action as a result.

After the downfall of the Ferrymen as the kind of recognisable institution that Benji knows it to be, she found herself in something of a free fall from the beginning of 2012 and onwards. War came, despite every effort, even if it wasn't the same global catastrophe of her timeline, and she had already lost some of those she loved in the process. It seemed to her that they had created a different kind of bad, or a mediocre kind of better that some of the people who mattered to her would never get to see, but rather than accept failure, she continued to fight throughout.

Her version of fighting, anyway, which was primarily one of information. By targeting persons of interest, she could use her dreamwalking to sift through their minds of pertinent information, such as tactical intelligence or knowing when their own sensitive information had gotten into their hands or a general understanding of the psychological profiles of the enemy or evidence/blackmail locating, and then distribute this information to allies, waking or asleep, warning safehouses and refugee colonies, or arming the Special Activities group of the Ferrymen with leads. Otherwise, she sowed suspicion and created false gut feelings that would lead to mistakes on the part of the enemy through demoralising, torturous nightmares. These only created small, minor weaknesses in the war machine, but it killed time. She also operated on the ground, mostly in stealth operations and smaller targets. She developed a tactic in which she could administer a dose of sedatives and other activating drugs on someone taken captive, and, through a sort of meditative state, extract information (pass codes, interior layouts, specific locations of people, etc.) from that person's sleeping mind in a matter of minutes. This allowed for recon and quiet approaches if needed.

Specifically speaking, she would have involved herself in the failed assassination attempt on Mitchell, and the final stand at Raven Rock, likely with support class function of providing recon and intelligence collecting.

By the time the government had changed guard and was issuing apologies come 2014, Benji did not consider her work done, unable to adjust to the future they created. She fell in with those who felt the same way, maintaining a closer partnership with Calvin Sheridan in particular, and focused on hunting down and killing those that committed crimes against Evolved that had not yet been dragged into justice, and then targeting the pockets of extreme anti-Evo cells.

Benji has connections and allies in the likes of Wolfhound as well as the new government order, particularly those that rose up out of the rebellion and war effort, but is currently untethered. With increasingly frequency, her actions with Calvin tend to run counter to the actions of the government, and even Wolfhound, and hasn't been able to enter the Safe Zone for some time without extreme care. She operates out of New York City, still, due to necessary connections and the occasional need for safety, and has made it common practice to amplify her dream range and potency through a considered use of amphodynamine. (After striking a deal with Bella Sheridan sometime during the Civil War years, Benji and Calvin obtained the formula to create this particular drug — thanks to Calvin's own scientific background — and consequently uses it to her advantage to get one up on the enemy when necessary.)

By habit and circumstance, she is an elusive quality, but has a habit of visiting people when they sleep. Except when they get too worried about her. Then she avoids her problems by stalking bad guys instead, more or less surprised to have survived this long, but dedicated towards making that worth something.

Superficially and in the day to day, Benji shares a lot of traits with her mother, Delia Ryans. Both are apparently shy, and wordier than necessary when nervous, and generally presenting a kind-hearted and charitable sort of personality that may imply, to some, a bit of gullibility or naivete. It would be quite difficult, though, for Benji to be especially naive; her power has given her many glimpses of the human soul. That said, she generally trusts that people are fundamentally good, and that life is precious.

She carries some superficial habits from her aunt as well; Eileen was rather known for being aloof in the way the English are infamous for, sometimes condescending, and a little icy in her affect. Benji defaults to this when she's on the defense, talented at putting up an icy wall if someone crosses her too many times. As a teenager, she tended to get flustered or upset and apologetic if met with bullying or confrontation, but in the later years, she's developed more of a spine, although this can fail if caught off-guard. It's a work in progress.

Being a trans woman in the world she grew up in is somewhat different to being a trans woman in a world that resembles contemporary society more. She was never, really, exposed to global/nationally informed societal pressure to be a certain way as per her gender (there were no institutions, no careers, no walking down a crowded city street), and the Ferrymen was an amalgamation of all walks of life and sexualities. That said, there were still assumptions and performances of gender within that contained group, and an insular one at that, and what mass media she was exposed to certainly reflected that. She has never identified with the more masculine end of the gender spectrum and never will, and she 'performs' her gender through mannerisms that are just as habitual and ingrained as anyone else's. She does not tend to dress extremely feminine, but does trend towards that end of the scale, and she rarely asserts her gender (through pronouns, and such) with people who resist. Her restraint has to do with never really desiring to be noticed or labeled as 'weird' or indulgent, as well as the situation of the time calling for practicality over expression. She mostly just erases performances of masculinity from her manner, wardrobe, and whatever else she can, and does so only somewhat consciously.

Neither leader nor follower, particularly, Benji is reasonably independent. Her allegiance to the Ferry is more birthright than choice - they are her family, for better and for worse. It also instills in her some values: sympathy for those in need, sympathy for the bullied, and an instinct to help if she can.

Her ability was another influence on her as well, giving her a kind of second-hand wisdom. Seeing as her dreams draw people in, sometimes against her and their own will, Benji is exposed to many uncomfortable truths and memories of strangers and peers alike. It also seems to kind of 'store' these memories, and though she finds it difficult to call them up during consciousness, she has a sort of intuition around the people who she's dreamed about that makes her seem like she knows too much. Which is true.

This also made her somewhat nosy and meddlesome in the business of others.

And then, there's her ruthlessness. It is difficult to grow up in the world she did without inheriting an ability to make difficult decisions, without cutting losses, without shutting down friendships and alliances that turn bad. Sometimes, she can't change anyone's mind, and she will cut them out of her life as necessary. Sometimes, someone has to die for something bigger to be achieved, and you are allowed to mourn for them while recognising their sacrifice. For all that she may come across as a softer sort of personality, she wouldn't be able to withstand the world she was raised in if one couldn't find a spine of steel hidden below.

In the interim years between 2011 and 2018, much of the above holds as true as it ever did, but after the deaths of certain loved ones and the destruction of the Ferry, she has leaned hard into more ruthless methods, experiencing an ideological shift that views non-Evos with more distrust, and governmental structures as being innately prejudiced against Evolved, as opposed to only having been corrupted by specific individuals. Power corrupts absolutely.

The lingering problem is that before timelines diverged completely by the end of 2011, she had an idea about what she wanted, what she wanted the world to be, and what she could do to achieve that. Now, these imperatives are a lot less clear to her in any long term capacity, but while there are still those that are in opposition to her kind, she has something to focus on and fight.

Dream walking

There are two modes of control with Benji's dream manipulation. One is entering the sleeping mind of a person, and the other is drawing that person into her own sleeping mind.

By entering someone's mind, Benji has access to their more of their memories, but less control over what she can do there. In order to get to these memories, she nudges that person's subconscious along to see what turns up. For example, say Sleeping Victim is dreaming about taking the train to work. Through gentle nudges (sensory, conversational, etc.), they step off the train and into a recent memory of the prison compound they're currently behind held, for example, and Benji can follow along to see roughly where they are located. Memories tend to blend together seamlessly, or intrude upon one another, and the weirder it gets, the more lucid that person threatens to become. (On the other hand, making things weird immediately is a good way to get them to talk to her in a lucid way.) She can re-immerse people back into their dream state by stabilising the landscape with less interference. Benji's control is limited mainly to her own avatar, and helping guide the sleeper between memory elements, peacefully or violently.

By bringing someone into her own mind, Benji has greater control over the landscape of the dream, and less access to the other dreamer's memories. It's usually restricted to what she already knows about them or has accessed before. (This is what she was doing when she went back in time and people played out the memories of their future selves. In that case, she tended to passively let it play out as it was remembered and stayed hidden.)

There is no difference in ease between either mode, but she must pick one. Trying to change arena mid-game (such as if she decides to assert control and drag them into her mind, or if she needs more information and tries to push into their mind) has a 50 percent chance of both she and the dreamer suddenly waking up, and if she manages it, she only gets away with it once.

Inception

With a radius of 150 miles, and with the help of amphodynamine, Benji can build triggers into a target's psyche over a few dream visits. Preferably, she would have taken some time already to figure out a psychological profile and become comfortable in this person's head.

As an example, say the aim is to get a second-in-command of a terrorist unit to attack the commander. First, she creates a dream (using a collage of memories) where the second-in-command is beaten to near death by the commander. This instills some fear and humiliation. In the next dream, he sees the commander do the same to a loved one, and this instills the desire to stop him. In the third dream, the second-in-command attacks the commander. All the while, a 'trigger' is placed, usually in the form of a piece of music. In real life, when the second-in-command hears that trigger, he will feel powerfully compelled to attack the commander.

This is borrowing a little from Inception and also Hannibal-style logics of implanted commands, and requires this closer range and use of amphodynamine to be effective. It also kind of wears against Benji's natural alignment of chaotic good, but many of the memories she uses to create these traumatic triggers are from her own experiences and the experiences of people close to her, and so there is a reassuring catharsis to it that helps guard against it.

Range, limitations, drawbacks

Her range is within 3000 miles, enough to cover off North America. Dream travelling to the very limits of her range takes approximately half an hour to settle into the connection upon being fully asleep, and will mean that the time she spends asleep does not have sleep-like benefits for her — she will wake up mentally exhausted, but physically wired, and achieving a balance that allows for her to have normal sleep might take a day, like trying to reset your circadian rhythm. The severity of this cost gradually diminishes the closer her target is, and within 500 miles, she regains rest while dreaming.

Sometime during 2012, Benji learned that when she makes skin-to-skin contact with a sleeping person, she can access their memories while she remains awake, and do a very watered down version of what she does when she dreamwalks into someone's sleeping mind, i.e., sift around for information. She doesn't appear in their dreams, just receives an echo of what they are dreaming about in her own mind.

The use of amphodynamine generally helps this waking-lucid skill, and she can also use it for greater ease in locating her targets when they are at further range, diminishing the time it takes to forge a connection, and giving her more power to keep someone asleep while she rifles through their brain.

Her power and her exploitation of it, along with her use of amphodynamine, means her normal sleep patterns are almost non-existent. She is reliant on pharmaceuticals to induce actual sleep and to wake up again, and the possibility of long-term physiological/neurological side effects are very real and present. Insomnia and other symptoms of sleep deprivation tend to interfere with her day to day life when her careful balance between ability use and medical assistance slips one way or the other

Appendices

Availability

The below is a very rough outline of my general availability, and doesn't factor in such occurrences like a social life or homework. This may change in the future as school begins and I designate some study periods for myself.

These are American days/evenings.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Available	Nocturnal	Sporadic	Nocturnal	Available	Available	Sporadic

If you need to get in touch, please @mail Brooklyn.

Facts

Known to Most

Benji Ryans has very little publicly known about her, but in circles that care to, she is most known for her involvement in the war and having chased it in its retreat towards the west with Calvin Sheridan. She is one half of an infamous duo that exercise little to no mercy against the anti-Evo aligned.
And they have not yet finished with the war. There are most certainly warrants for her arrest.

Known to Some

She is from the future, or a future. Along with others of her generation, she arrived from the year 2040, from a world ravaged by disease and war, in the hopes of preventing this disastrous outcome. She carried with her an extensive bank of memories and recollections from the future, passively distributing them via dreams in the hopes of generating course correction.
She is the daughter of Nick Ruskin and Delia Ryans.
She and Calvin remain in contact with government officials and Wolfhound, both to supply information as well as covertly act on it.
When on the east coast, she can be found in the Bronx.
In dreams, she goes by an avatar called 'Jasmine'.

Known to Few

Thanks to the fickle nature of her ability, Benji has an extensive knowledge of pharmaceuticals with regards to maintaining and disrupting sleep cycles, and rendering people unconscious or conscious quickly. She often has a few loaded syringes on her.
Her false ID for moving through civilisation society is 'Joshua Kincaid', in honour of dead friends.

Unfinished Poems

Some written, some remembered.

she led me through a window before it could close like an eye
and into the first room.
"this is the coffin room," she said, and sighed; "look how this church light
dances with dust." she was right,
for the door was boarded as if to seal the bodies
within, without. we would have to leave by
kicking our way through.

next came the hallway, and we held hands.
"to the left," she said, "is the rain room." and here were the silver
dragonfly pools and tile, although all that came running through
the open roof was moonlight, after a while.

we found the garden room with the moss growing
up through the carpet and the fine hairs like hackles raised of rust and the
black spackles in its corners. room of flies, the room of the
blackened wall and broken glass, and we peeked into
the room with the eyes of fifty years.
"there are newborn kittens crying beneath the bed," she said,
"and i slept in the attic instead and wept."
the room of tears, i said.

our footsteps creaked and our shadows touched the walls
and halls of the house without home. take one thing, she said,
and then never come back. but she was lost with the others
who had left long ago, but i'd hate to admit
that i came here alone.