Ben Rosemore

"'It was your fault, Bill! You tell him!'"

Past
Ben and his twin brother, Bill, were born in Cornwall, England and taken from their biological parents when they were babies. He doesn't remember much about them. The two were kept together in the foster care system and eventually relocated to Birmingham, where they spent a majority of their childhood being shuffled from home to home. Ben and his brother have always been mischievous and though never truly harmful, the foster care system had a difficult time finding someone who could handle the boys. At age 12, they were taken in by a married couple on Sodor: a policeman and a corner shop clerk, both claiming to be able to handle even the most ill-behaved children. They'd been approved to foster the twins for long term.

In a way, the couple technically could handle them but the disciplinary methods they used were far from humane. Ben's foster parents never accepted his brother as male; that is, they never accepted or respected him being trans. They only referred to him by his birth name and with feminine pronouns. At first the abuse only verbal, though still very damaging. Then Ben and his brother got identical haircuts so they’d be practically indistinguishable and that's when the couple became physical in their "discipline." Ben has always been fiercely protective of his twin and to protect him from this physical harm, he started pretending to be Bill when he was to be punished. Bill objected at first but Ben insisted and so took double the abuse. Though Ben was protecting Bill from physical harm, the incidents were still very traumatizing to both brothers. Sometimes his foster parents would send him and Bill to separate rooms on opposite sides of the house and leave the two in isolation for hours at a time with no way of knowing if their twin was safe. This left Ben and his brother with a deep separation anxiety that still exists in the present day: both become severely distressed if unwillingly parted from each other.

Despite what they were going through at home, the twins managed to keep each other's spirits lifted when away from their foster parents. They'd become friends with Edward Rosemore- whom they initially met when exploring railway yards. They'd already liked him for not reporting them to authorities for trespassing but they really took a liking to him when he let them watch him shunt trucks- as long as they kept a safe distance. Ben and his brother kept coming back to see him, and started finding him outside of the yard as well.They spent more and more time with him over the years and grew very fond of him. Though they never let on how bad their situation really was, Edward could guess they didn't come from the best home. He'd grown fond of them himself and would occasionally invite the twins over for dinner. As this became more commonplace, he started taking them to the cinema, to restaurants, and other outings.

At home, their foster father eventually found out Ben had been impersonating Bill, so his solution was for the twins to remove their shirts so he could tell them apart by their chests. He'd also started taking Bill aside and punishing him independently, letting his wife deal with Ben. After his foster father had started taking Bill off on his own, Ben noticed his brother had started to change, seeming depressed and deeply shaken even when they were alone together- which is usually when they could be happy and make each other laugh to forget their situation. The "spark" had left his eyes, so to speak. Bill insisted that nothing had changed.

One night, their foster father forgot to make Ben and his brother remove their shirts and, for the first time in months, Ben was able to take Bill's place again. He'd volunteered himself as Bill before his twin had the chance, though Bill, still going along with it and pretending to be Ben, seemed particularly distressed at seeing his brother hauled off this time. Once again, Ben sensed something was different but couldn't tell what it was. He will never forget the horror he felt when he realized why Bill had been acting so strangely, what his foster father intended to do to him and what that meant he'd been doing to Bill all this time.

Through some twisted logic, his foster father been punishing Bill by trying to "prove" he was "actually" female by molesting him, and had been doing so every time he'd taken Bill off by himself. Ben had thought it was the same punishment they'd always received; he'd have done something if he'd known what was really happening. He blames himself for not being able to protect his brother.

At the same time Ben realized what was going on, his foster father realized Ben had impersonated his brother again. Ben had never seen him so angry and it was at that moment that Bill, who'd broken away from their foster mother and locked her in another room, burst through the door and attacked his foster father- just enough to debilitate him so the two to flee. Ben didn't have much of a plan besides "escape" and bolted from the house before their foster parents could recover. Both brothers knew this time was different and that they were literally running for their lives.

Ben he led his brother around the outskirts of Wellsworth to reach Suddery Junction. The next plan was to get a train off the island, but neither of them had any money. They knew Suddery Junction was a station Edward stopped at, so they waited in hopes that he hadn't gone home for the day. Relief flooded the two when they eventually saw Edward's engine pull into the station. Ben and his brother, both of which had been hiding behind the main station building, didn't want to be out in the open in case their foster parents showed up. They stayed in the shadows as they got as close as they could and called out to Edward in harsh whispers.

Edward laughed when he saw them huddled by the side of the building, but when he got closer Ben could see his expression change dramatically. Understandable, as the twins were extremely dishevelled from their escape and visibly terrified. Ben had been forcing himself to maintain his composure for his brother's sake and managed to keep his voice low, though very shaky, when he asked Edward to buy them a ticket off the island. When Edward seemed as though he wouldn't and started asking them why they were trying to get off the island and why they were in such a state and what in the world had happened to them, he tried to be as vague as possible and claim they "just needed to leave." Ben was still trying to convince Edward when Bill saw headlights approaching in the distance and started to panic, whispering to his brother, "they're coming." Unable to contain his fear anymore, Ben burst into tears and frantically tried to explain their situation. Ben's outburst caused a similar reaction in Bill and once both twins were sobbing, they stopped trying explain themselves- instead desperately begging Edward to save them.

Edward had a hard time understanding what either were saying but he could tell from how they were acting, and what little he could make out from their incoherent pleas, the twins were in legitimate danger from their foster parents. He glanced at the approaching headlights and back at the twins and told them to come with him. He quickly brought them into his engine's cab with himself and instructed them to crouch down against the wall. Edward waited for the stationmaster's whistle and, upon hearing it, started his engine out of the station- slowly, so as not to jolt the twins. Just as he was leaving the platform, the headlights briefly shone against Edward's engine as a car pulled up to the station. Though they had no way of knowing who it was and were already hidden from outside view, Ben and his brother huddled closer together in the corner. Edward recognized the couple as their foster parents but said nothing.

Edward had finished his last job for the day and was only going to put his engine away in the shed and said so to the twins, but left them be when they didn't respond. At the shed, he offered to take them home with him and they accepted without hesitation.

At his house, Edward was arranging their beds in his guest room when there was a knock at the door. Ben and his brother hid while Edward went to answer. It was the twins' foster father, asking if they were in- as he knew they liked going to Edward's. When Edward claimed not to have seen them at all that day, he asked if he could come in. Edward politely but firmly denied him admission and turned him away. Once he saw the car pull away from the driveway, Edward called the police and explained the situation- making sure to mention that the man he was reporting was an officer, as he knew it likely he'd try to interfere somehow. Edward let the brothers sleep in his room that night so as not to leave them alone.

Ben and his brother were later removed from custody of the couple, who were then tried for child abuse and neglect. They stayed with Edward, who had agreed to house them until another foster home could be found, but within a week he'd decided to apply to foster them himself. Within a year, he'd been approved to legally adopt them as his sons- just in time for their 15th birthday.

Present
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Future
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Past jobs
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Current job
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Familial
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Platonic
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Romantic
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Negative
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Personality
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Interests
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Physical
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Uniform
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Trivia

 * Ben's middle name is a reference to Alfred and Judy: the real life counterparts of canon Bill and Ben