Ashley Tanner

[Ohm]

Name: Ashley Tanner
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Baseball, track, drawing, partying, basketball, tattoos.

Appearance: Ashley is slightly taller than the average for his age, standing at 6'1" and weighing in at 175 lbs. He has an athletes body, and as such is fairly slim in general body weight, having toned arms and legs and having a fairly well developed abdomen. He is a fairly tanned Caucasian, due to frequent time spent outside, and his face is somewhat rigid, being generally square in shape and sporting a blunt nose, fairly small lips, and sky blue eyes. His hair is chestnut brown in colour, slightly spiky, and fairly messy in style, going down past his ears at the front with a fringe going down the centre of his forehead, and going to the nape of his neck at the back. Due to standard cleaning practices, his skin is fairly clean and smooth, and he doesn't have any acne or other signs of puberty on his face.

Dress wise, Ashley is fairly lazy. He doesn't really see the point in buying expensive clothes and as such mostly goes for cheap clothing, such as t-shirts—although these sometimes may have logos on them—jeans, and plain jackets whenever he goes clothes shopping. On his 18th birthday, however, he was allowed to receive a tattoo going down and around his right arm in the style of a red and green Asian dragon, and now mostly dresses in order to work around it, putting on long sleeve shirts in places where he wouldn't be allowed to have it and putting on short sleeve shirts in places where he would want to show it off. On the day of the abduction, Ashley was wearing a blank white t-shirt, a black gillet on top, blue denim jeans, and black running shoes. Due to the short sleeves on his t-shirt, his tattoo was visible on his arm.

Biography: Ashley Jordan Tanner was born on the 14th of August, 1999 at the local hospital to parents Sarah and Ian Tanner. The two at this point in time were not very rich, with Ian working as a plumber while Sarah worked as a librarian. This, along with the five other children—Colin born in 1989, Sierra born in 1992, Jackson born in 1994, Nicole born in 1996, and Isabella born in early 1998—born partially due to poor decisions in regards to birth control meant that the family at this point was very poor, and often only had barely enough money to get by. Despite the harrowing economical situation, however, Ashley likes and cares for the rest of his family, the situation his family was in leading Ashley to try and help and in turn rely on the rest of his family when he couldn't do something himself, despite issues that have emerged within the family dynamic. In the current day, these feelings haven't changed, and although the relationship with Colin in particular is slightly strained Ashley still generally likes and cares for the rest of the family, despite their escape from their particular situation.

Despite the family's lack of money, Ashley was still able to access both pre and elementary schooling, due to the family having explicitly saved up for it and due to the low cost of schooling in the area. Ashley—his parents making him aware of how important schooling would be for him—at this point was fairly serious about school, paying heavy attention in class and making sure he learned everything he could have. On the playground, however, Ashley was considerably more outgoing. Lessons drilled into him by Sarah essentially told him that kindness was an ideal way for him to try and get by with other people, just taking what he could get given his family situation he was in and treating others with as much kindness and respect as he possibly could as that would allow him to peacefully co-exist and ideally make bonds with other people. This resulted in Ashley trying to be as kind to others as he possibly could, although anti-bullying teachings tended to have him try and assist or protect other students who he felt needed it, causing slight animosity between him and the bullies during this time.

At Ashley's elementary school, baseball was a game frequently played on the school playground, and, wanting to join in with his friends and wanting to know why everyone liked to play it so much, Ashley began to spend some of his lunchtimes playing the sport. Through playing it, Ashley began to grow fond of the sport, and as his main friends began to play with him he began to spend the majority of his lunchtimes playing baseball on the school oval. This liking of the sport carried over to both middle school and high school, and he is currently on the basketball team for George Hunter High, functioning as the third baseman. To him, he likes the sport due to the adrenaline rush it gives him, and due to the fact that it allows him to work with a team, with him liking the social opportunities being on this team gives him.

Although Ashley tended to have a fairly good time at elementary school, partially because it gave him the chance to play baseball and interact with many of the other students at this school, his home life began to rapidly deteriorate during this time. Colin, hating the family situation and having been initially pushed into it by his friends, began to take crystal meth. He soon became addicted to the drug, and once his personal funds ran out, he soon resorted to having to steal from the rest of the family in order to fuel this addiction. Ian, frustrated with the financial situation and beginning to hear about bullying Sierra was receiving in high school, began to blame himself for the situation, and began to spend more time away from the home, going to bars and heavily drinking upwards of three times a week. Sarah would also take from family funds, and in what she perceived as a last ditch effort to save the family began to spend upwards of $300 on lottery tickets, just hoping she would get lucky and bring the family riches she perceived she needed.

This eventually coalesced into an argument between Ian and Colin in front of the family's home, when Ashley was eight. While cleaning the house for the rest of the family, Nicole found a syringe under Colin's bed. Confused, she showed it to her parents, not knowing what it was. When her father saw it, he figured out what it was fairly quickly, and made a connection between the drugs and the family's disappearing funds. Ian attempted to confront Colin about this, but this eventually devolved into a screaming match between Ian and Colin watched by the family and surrounding neighbours, resulting in the latter leaving the house and with increased tensions within the family, many of the children being scared of Ian because of how he had conducted himself during the argument and worried that his rage would turn on them. Ashley was no exception to this, and he began to like school and baseball more to the point where they were the only things he looked forward to on a particular day.

However, near the end of elementary school, things suddenly changed for the Tanner family. After two years of spending money on lottery tickets, one of the lottery tickets that Sarah had bought turned out to be a winner. This caused the family to be in possession of over 30 million dollars, and although taxes deducted a considerable amount of this they still had tens of millions leftover, causing a sudden change in their economic standing. Now having the money, Sarah made a call for the Tanners to move to a higher class area, putting the family into a home that was able to adequately house each member. Other needed items for the family that they were not able to get before were bought soon after that, and the family was now able to live a comfortable high class life. Problems still exist, however. Ian's nights of heavy drinking have persisted, with him being unable to shake off his addiction to alcohol. Colin was still excised from the house, and at this point would not see his family again for several years.

At this point, the school holidays between elementary school and middle school ended, and Ashley was soon enrolled into the local middle school. Despite the change in house and economic standing, not a lot had changed for Ashley's school life, and he was able to pick up friends, do his school work, and play baseball like he always did. One notable change however happened when the coach for the middle school baseball team recommended Ashley also pick up some other exercises, so that he could use and train the skills in baseball. One of these exercises was running, which Ashley participated in by regularly jogging and by joining the track team in both middle and high school. To him, the reason he likes it is mostly due to the idea of competition, trying to see if he can outrun others or beat his own records, getting a sense of adrenaline as he does so.

Another hobby picked up during this time period was drawing. Middle school brought on mandatory art classes for Ashley, and through drawing and painting exercises Ashley became fond of landscape drawing, and elected to draw in his free time, eventually developing a talent for it and being able to show off his art to his friends if they want to see it. He tends to draw things or people he sees that he finds aesthetically pleasing, and mostly likes to draw because it allows him to take inspiration from what's around him to create something that he thinks others might like. Due to his talent and liking of drawing, Ashley wishes to pursue a future in it, although knows that becoming a professional artist is a gamble and intends to pick up part-time jobs in order to make an income before he potentially makes it big with his artwork.

As Ashley continued through middle school, he became fairly popular, mostly due to his liking of sports and due to his social nature. Due to this, he was asked to parties by other people, and although he was initially hesitant about them he found out that he liked them, due to the fact that he could just have fun and hang out with other people without anything to worry about. Because of this, Ashley decided that he was going to give back by hosting parties himself, and to this day hosts parties for his fellow students, making his home a venue and setting up by himself important aspects such as hiring a DJ, getting food, and making sure those on the fringes of the party are still having a good time. His immediate family is fine with this so long as these parties are non-destructive and in moderation—with Nicole and Isabella having set up parties at the home before—and generally vacate to a motel for the night whenever one is on, although some of the younger children have participated in the past.

High school arrived at this point, and the transition for him gave him two new hobbies. Basketball was the first of these two, as that was the game most frequently played on the Chattanooga grounds. Although he doesn't like it as much as he does baseball, Ashley doesn't mind playing basketball, as it gives him an adrenaline rush to play and allows him to work with a team. He, in addition to this, is part of the school's basketball team, with his role being a backup point guard. This, in addition to being on the baseball and track teams, gives Ashley his main social output, with his closer friends being those who happen to do sports with him.

It was at this point where Colin was able to become a part of the family again. Jackson while out clubbing found him in an alleyway, and was able to strike up a conversation with him. While they talked and caught up with each other's lives, Colin found out about the family's newfound riches, and Jackson used this to convince Colin to try and come back to the family. The rest of the family was okay with this, but Ian and Sarah ruled that Colin had to go through rehab first. Despite this, Ashley was still allowed to visit his older brother, and at visits to the rehab home both Ashley and Colin were able to bond with each other over tattoos - Ashley liking the tattoos that Colin had and Colin being willing to show them to him. This sparked up Ashley's interest in tattoos, and he began doing research on them, trying to see if there were any ones he could find that were cool and trying to see what it would take for him to become a tattoo artist—an occupation that he is growing more and more interested in, as a compromise between being a professional artist and having a job that isn't a gamble. On his 18th birthday, Ashley was allowed to get a tattoo, and he is fairly happy with it, showing it to other people and talking to others about tattoos, if they want to hear about it.

Ashley, due to his status as a party host and due to his family's riches, is fairly popular. The lessons taught to him in elementary school still hold today, and this has resulted in Ashley trying to be nice to as many people in school as possible. He also has a fairly naturally laid-back nature, believing that he doesn't have to worry too much because if all else fails he still has other areas he can fall back on - which allows him to be approachable by other people. In addition to this, Ashley is fairly flirtatious. A tendency to notice a lot of the world around him—an element that appears in his drawing—also tends to appear in his interactions with other people, noting their physical appearance and tending to draw a liking for it. Due to this, and his laid-back nature, he tends to flirt with any girl he grows attraction for, which has landed him a few casual dates. If he is rejected, or the girl tells him to stop flirting, he does so and tries to stop himself from feeling attracted to them, as it seems fairly clear to him that they don't like it and he doesn't want to make them dislike him.

Academically, Ashley does fairly okay, with his grades ranging around Bs and Cs with consistent As in Art, his best and favourite subject. His worst subject is History, due to his having trouble remembering sources and aspects of U.S and Ancient History, and his least favourite subject is Math, which he finds boring. Socially, Ashley tends to hang out on the sports fields, mostly being friends with the people who hang there but also talking to and being friendly to people outside of that circle. Although people have picked on him due to his family's former social standing and the random nature of their riches, Ashley generally tends to shrug it off, being more confused than anything as to why they pick on him for that and believing that if he doesn't give them a reaction they'll stop bothering him about it.

Advantages: Ashley, due to years playing baseball, basketball, and being on the track team, is very physically strong, and should the situation call for it he can excel in any physical activity with ease. In addition, Ashley's niceness and laid-back nature has given him friends across the school, which will allow him to gain allies on the island easily.
Disadvantages: Ashley believes that kindness and respect even to those being antagonistic towards him is the ideal way to solve a problem, which might prove a problem if someone is fixated in killing or harming him. In addition, Ashley's fairly laid-back nature might make it more difficult for him to take the island seriously, his belief that his life was set out for him possibly being challenged, and possibly making it hard to adjust to sudden change.

[Latin For Dragula]

Hey Ohm, I'll be handling Ashley's critique. He's temporarily DENIED; let's get into why.

Near the top of Ashley's appearance "athletes" should be "athlete's."

Ashley's family issues kick off all at once and could use some more expansion. Colin jumps from no history of drug use to being a meth addict seemingly overnight, with the main motivator being peer pressure from his friends. Was he friends with a lot of meth addicts? Crystal meth is not an easy addiction to hide, and according to the timeline Colin should be 16 at the time. A small crowd of meth addicts is going to throw up some red flags well before he gets busted by his parents two years later, even ignoring the rampant theft. This is especially true given that what tips his family off is a syringe; crystal meth is not typically injected, and when it is it rapidly speeds up addiction as well as negative health effects, including an increased chance of overdoses. This is because the high from shooting meth is extremely potent but also extremely short, lasting only a few minutes. If this is Colin's primary method of consumption he's going to be taking a lot of meth very frequently in a very dangerous manner, and I feel that's not reflected here.

On the stealing rather than the drugs themselves, you say that Colin is robbing the rest of his family, that Ian turns to alcohol due to the financial situation, and that Sarah develops an obsession with lottery tickets, spending upwards of $300. How is Colin robbing the family of enough money to buy crystal meth without getting caught? Meth averages about $20 a hit and if he's shooting up he's going to be going through multiple hits just in one session, with addiction demanding he get high multiple times a week. We're looking at probably a bare minimum of $300-400 dollars a week, and that's being conservative. If money is already tight enough to turn both of his parents to their own addictions, I don't see how he's getting away with this.

What causes Ian to crash after 16 years of the family's financial situation being largely the same? You mention bullying targeted at Sierra but that's not expanded on, and the only major shift in their finances since Ashley's birth is Colin's theft. Did he have any sort of drinking problem before? This would feel more organic if it developed over time.

How frequently is Sarah spending $300 on lottery tickets? That's a generous month's worth of groceries at the minimum, so there's a big difference between her spending it over several months and spending it every single week.

All in all this section needs a lot of timeline clarification and to pump the brakes on its acceleration. I would advise you to find a less intense addiction for Colin if you want to stretch it out over his teenage years, or ramp up from something milder to crystal meth for a few months near the end of his senior year. Similarly Ian's alcoholism either needs more details or to be stretched over a longer period of time. If his sister's bullying is a significant contribution to his father's drinking, that needs to be expanded further too. If not, it can be cut.

Most families who win the lottery and dramatically upscale their lives, especially those with a history of destructive spending habits, find themselves running out of money very quickly even with hundreds of millions of dollars. Do the Tanners have any assistance with their finances? Is Sarah still afraid of financial ruin? How does she cope now? Do either Sarah or Ian still work?

I'd like for Ashley to have one more advantage, and I'm having trouble understanding his second. From the sound of it he'll have trouble taking the island seriously due to his laid back nature, but it could also shatter his belief that his life is laid out for him? These two thoughts don't get along, because he'd have to take the island seriously for him to see it as a threat to his planned out life. I also think Ashley has seen enough hardship in his developmental years that it's hard for me to believe he'd blow the risks of the island off; while his life has improved he's very close with his brother who was until recently a homeless meth addict, so he's not been sheltered from the harsh realities of the world.

That's what I have on this pass. Post here when you've gone through these notes and I'll give him another look!

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