Benji
Benji (pronounced behn-HEE, j is pronounced as h in Spanish) is a calm and polite young man, preferring to avoid fights and settle conflicts peacefully. Though if it can't be avoided, he does know how to defend himself
He became a Janitor for the Janitor Menagerie at some point as a young adult, though he prefers not to discuss the specifics of what happened.
Appearance
The closest one-word description for Benji is probably "monster", though certainly not a scary one. His appearance can be described as an anthropomorphic deer, with some characteristics of a lizard or dragon, such as his tail and horns. He has longer 'fur' in some spots, such as on his shoulders, but for the rest of his body it's almost like very short, peach-fuzzy fur.
He has wraps around his hands and legs, which are specifically to help protect him if he ever needs to fight (not magical protection, just similar to how boxers will sometimes wrap their hands for protection). He wears a pair of purple shorts for the sake of modesty.
Personality
Benji tends to come off as shy to most people, but it’s more that he tends to be very untrusting and suspicious of strangers. He's polite by default for the sake of staying out of trouble, but he hates when people take his 'shyness' as a sign that he's weak. He especially hates when people use it as an excuse to treat him like a child!
Once he starts to trust someone, he’s very sweet and kind, especially once he considers someone his friend. Thought sometimes he tends to worry about his friends a little too much.
He's very much the kind of person with a big connection to nature. Respecting plants and animals, even making sure not to step on bugs if he can avoid it. Gardening is a big hobby of his, and he enjoys being able to share fruits and veggies from his garden with his friends and coworkers.
Abilities
Benji is very much a pacifist, preferring to talk things out, run away, or get on the defensive than to directly fight. He could very much fight and defeat most people who pick a fight with him, but he sees this an unfair or unneeded most of the time. Hence his focus on self-defense in such situations.
He has exceptions to this though. If someone really does deserve to be brought to justice, Benji will focus on disarming/disabling them, or otherwise defeating them without killing them. Afterwards, he makes sure they’re handed over to whoever should be exacting justice. To him, it’s only fair that the people who were hurt should be the ones to decide how that person is ultimately punished.
When he does fight, he fights with a sort of martial arts style that has a focus on blocking and redirecting an opponent's attacks. He learned this from someone who's been dead for a long time now, but this person had helped take care of Benji and his two siblings for some time.
He knows magic, but pretty much every spell he uses are meant for enhancement or defense. He can also craft potions, carry out divinations, draw sigils, create wards, carry out rituals, and has extensive knowledge on magical uses for pretty much any herbs/crystals/etc.
Mythology
He was made using the DNA of several mythological entities, which has affected his appearance and magical abilities.
- His designers used DNA from a Furfur (deer demon), Peryton (mythological/cryptid creature that is basically a deer with bird wings and bird hind legs), and dragons. This is the basis for his other two existing siblings as well.
- Benji himself also has elven DNA, fae DNA, and (supposedly) DNA from Circe, the Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft. This gives Benji greater magical abilities than his siblings.
- He originally had fairy/insect-like wings (basically like a cross between butterfly and dragonfly wings, see reference images), but Benji 'lost' them at one point. Judging by the burn marks on his back, it was a terrible experience, and Benji himself absolutely refuses to go into detail about what exactly happened. He misses his wings sometimes, but overall he's become well-adjusted to not having them anymore.
- Benji also has a more lizard-like tail and dragon-like horns (i.e. they do not shed at all like deer antlers), both likely due to his dragon ancestry.
Magic
Benji is highly skilled in magic, and knows several spells, although all of them are non-attacking.
- Float (Make an object or person float)
- Listen (Sharper hearing)
- Understand (Understand other languages)
- Watch (Sharper vision, notice smaller details)
- Aura (See auras of living beings, as well as sources of magic such as spellwells)
- Scent (Better sense of smell)
- Strength (Be able to carry and move heavy objects)
- Illusion (Cast an illusion to confuse enemies and allow for escape)
- Jump (Jump very far and very higher without harm)
- Dash (Run faster for a short period of time)
- Mute (Mute the sounds something makes for a limited time)
- Deaf (Causes something/someone to not hear anything for a while)
- Block (Protective shield)
- He can also craft potions, perform divinations (scrying, tarot, tea reading, etc), draw sigils, create wards, and carry out rituals. He has very extensive knowledge of the magical applications of herbs, plants, mushrooms, gemstones, and other ingredients and objects related to magic.
- His glasses are a special kind of Magifact that he made for himself. They are composed of a magic gemstone which 'generates' the lens, sort of like a hologram. They are attuned to Benji's energy, and thus are at the perfect prescription for him. Benji has to occasionally recharge his glasses with his own magic energy to keep the glasses active.
Gemstones
Benji also has his own magical gemstone that he uses for protection. The way it works is that the gemstone is actually more like multiple gemstones in one, with each gemstone offering a particular type of protection. He can switch out the gemstones as needed by tapping them while thinking of a particular stone, so in essence it's one stone with different 'modes'. They also contain different animals, like bugs trapped in sap. They can protect against something bad, but do not always guarantee it. They simply improve the chances of being protected.
- Ruby + tortoise – Red, protection from unwanted attention
- Garnet + lizard - Orange, protection from getting lost
- Topaz + snake – Yellow, protection from poison/venom
- Emerald + mouse – Green, protection from hunger/thirst
- Aquamarine + seahorse - Cyan, protection from accidents/bad luck
- Sapphire + betta - Blue, protection from negativity
- Tanzanite + octopus - Indigo, protection from confusion
- Amethyst + butterfly – Purple, protection from curses/hexes (This is the one he usually wears)
- Spinel + spider – Pink, protection from lies/deception
- Diamond + hummingbird - White, protection from failure
- Benji's gemstone can also be used to store large amounts of magical energy, as well as store seemingly infinite amount of objects. So essentially it act like Zach’s Hammerspace, except it requires the use of magic.
- Besides knowledge on the magical applications of gemstones, Benji also has a lot of non-magical knowledge on gemstones. In general, he has a great interest in geology and ecology. He has what he calls a nature collection, with various rocks, crystals, shells, and other nature items that he collects throughout his work as a Janitor.
History
He was made as part of a project somewhere in Mexico to artificially create a magical being for some purpose. Unfortunately for the people behind the project, an accident occurred at their lab, compromising several of their experiments and killing many of the employees. Benji and two of his siblings escaped (they had other siblings, but those others had long since died or were in the process of dying at the time). The project itself was shut down shortly after that. Benji and his siblings do not like to go into detail about what exactly happened, though apparently this incident is also what led to Benji losing his wings.
Benji speaks both Spanish and English, although English is definitely his second language. He has a bit of difficulty pronouncing English words sometimes, mostly with words that are the same or similar in Spanish. In those cases he sometimes ends up using the Spanish pronunciation by accident instead of the English one. He also has a bit of a stutter, though it's usually only noticeable when he's nervous or upset.
Gallery
The following is a gallery of major images featuring Benji.
Full image of Benji.
Notes on Benji's design.
Benji's gemstones, mainly used for passive protection on himself.
Benji with his boyfriend Mesha.
Trivia
- The exact inspirations for Benji's creation have been forgotten by now. He may have started out as a fan character for an indie fighting game project, but the name of that project has long since been forgotten as well. He also may have started out as either a half-robot or full-robot anthro deer. The idea was that he was an experiment in creating an artificial being with magical abilities, but this resulted in a person/robot who had difficulties in properly channeling magic. It was to the point of sometimes losing control of those abilities from time to time, and he set out on a quest to gain control of them.
- The use of a gemstone to store vast amounts of magical energy was inspired by a plot point in the Eragon books (a.k.a. The Inheritance Cycle), where a ring is used for the same purpose.
- If Benji had his own theme music, it would sound something like the song 'Path of Goddess Claire', from Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil.
- He goes by the name Benji because it was a nickname given to him by Mesha, once they became friends (before the two eventually became boyfriends). He's grown quite attached to it since then.