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User:

weallfalldown (339039)

Ashes, ashes...
...we all fall down.

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Name:

Katie

E-mail:

verbalasphyxiation@yahoo.com

Bio:

Name: Katriane Ashby, though mostly goes by Katie. In college, her friends called her Ashes.

Age: 30

D.O.B.: March 14, 1979

Hometown: Though born and raised in North London, she has lived in New York, NY for over a decade.

Physical Description: A natural blonde, Katie keeps her hair short and straight, rarely letting it get long enough to touch her shoulders. She is often told that her best features are her eyes, which are a pale blue/green. Though she takes pride in her appearance, her style is best described as casual; she's most comfortable in a comfy sweater in complimentary colors. She likes to be seen at her best at all times, even if she's just wearing an old pair of jeans.

Personality: Though friendly, she is definitely the introvert, and has mastered the art of great conversation without actually giving anything away. When on the subject of simple matters - books, music, travel - she's happy to engage in very lively conversation, but if things take a personal turn, she takes the first exit out. She doesn't like for anyone to know too much of her. That kind of connection is, what she refers to as 'out of my comfort zone.'

Additionally, Katie cares deeply for children, and tends to be easily swayed where they're involved. She claims to prefer children and animals to adults, for many different reasons. Though adults may see her as cold - or at times, just a bitch, with children she is very nurturing, kind, and slow to anger.

Sexuality: Straight

Passenger or Staff: Passenger

Traveling With: Solo

Contest Entry: Involuntary

Career/Job: Art Therapist

History: Katie was born into an extremely comfortable lifestyle, her father being a very successful architect, her mother a happy socialite and heiress to a considerable fortune of her own. They lived in an area of North London that was home to celebrities and old money, and were by all standards, a very happy family. Even if Katie's brother, Colin, was ten years older than she was, they grew up very close. By all rights, it should have been a very happy childhood for Katie. And it probably would have been, if not for one life-changing day, when she was five.

Mr. Ashby had taken Colin on a father-son trip to Greece, Mrs. Ashby had gone to a luncheon, and Katie was left with her nanny, Fiona. This was nothing rare, and that day, Fiona took Katie and a playmate to a nearby park to play - a weekly tradition that no one thought twice about. But on that visit to the park, Fiona, Katie, and Katie's friend Rosie were approached - and abducted - by two adult men.

Bags were put over their heads as they were loaded into a van, and once the bag was removed again, they were an hour out of London, and Fiona was dead. Upon arriving at a small house in the country, the two young girls were tied up, and lead into the backyard. There, they were placed in a small, home-made pine box (something very much like a makeshift coffin) that had a tube at the top. The box was buried several feet underground, the small tube to the surface the only means of oxygen for the girls.

A ransom of ten thousand pounds was demanded, and even paid by Katie's parents. But once the men had their money, they abandoned the house - and the two little girls buried in the back yard. For two days the girls stayed there, until the police followed their leads to the house, and luckily, found the small grave.

Though found unconscious and weak, and dangerously dehydrated, Katie survived the experience. Rosie did not. Panic brought on a severe asthma attack, and she died within hours of being buried. The experience changed Katie's life forever. Even once she was let out from the hospital, even once she returned home with her family, it was weeks before Katie would speak a single word. All that she could be enticed into doing was drawing or playing at the piano, but mostly, she sat silently in front of the television.

Her parents had her in and out of different methods of therapy, several times a week she met with different doctors and shrinks, and even as time passed and Katie began to slowly deal with the trauma, the Ashby's had no idea how to even act around their daughter anymore. They were quite obviously nervous wrecks around her, and as she grew up, Katie learned that it was much easier to act in a way that would please them, even if it was a complete act. Before she even reached highschool, she had mastered living without feeling. Her parents were endlessly pleased with their daughter's apparent success, and spoiled her rotten. Even once they had their third child - a daughter, Veronica, when Katie was seven - Katie always received special treatment and attention over her siblings, even if it was very unwanted attention. Katie supposes this is why she and her sister have never gotten along.

Upon graduating high school, Katie applied and was accepted to an art school in New York, and even though her mother was terrified of the idea of Katie being so far away, they continued to provide for her and allowed her to go. Once in the states, Katie was allowed to start living life again - at least, live it her way. There were the occasional weeks where Katie ditched all her classes and refused to get out of bed, but at least she was allowing herself to feel for a change. She began to come out of her shell then, and even though she didn't need the money, she attempted working as a model and dancer through-out her college years. It never went anywhere, but was somehow still very healthy.

Though it had been her plan to study music, her room-mate kept talking about the classes she had been going to about art therapy, and once Katie started researching the practice, she became very passionate about it - often thinking that if she had had that sort of help as a child, things might have been different. Through graduating and beginning her work as an art therapist to children, Katie was the closest to happy she thought she would ever be in her life - even if she couldn't hold a relationship with a man for longer than a month.

Recently, she was contacted about winning a ticket on a cruise. Once Katie tried to explain that she hadn't entered any contest, it was explained that a friend had entered her anonymously, thinking that it would be a good challenge to her claustrophobia. In reality, Katie was massively offended. But the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to go - just to prove that she could.

Special Skills/Abilities: Katie is naturally very good with children. In college, she earned her masters degree in art therapy, a field that somehow became very personal to her. She now works as an art therapist to children - she understands all too well that it is sometimes much easier for children to draw and write through their emotions, than it is to explain them. She is also a classically trained pianist, as music was originally her chosen field. As far as languages go, her parents were very set on having 'cultured' children, and Katie speaks French and German fluently, and is passable in Italian and Spanish.

Personal Weaknesses: Crippling claustrophobia, to very extreme points. Any sort of closely enclosed space freezes her completely up, and induces panic attacks. She will avoid - by all means necessary - elevators, basements, windowless rooms, walk-in closets, cramped rooms or storage units, garages, walk-in showers, and other areas of that nature.

Stemming from this, she also has a fear of water - while a nice bath or shower is fine, swimming pools or lakes are not. She has never learned to swim because of it, and couldn't be dragged into the deep end of a pool for a million dollars. This makes going on a cruise a huge leap for Katie - she's agreed to do it mainly because she wants to prove to herself that she can.

If things become too much for her - stress, relationships, commitments - she tends to bail out rather quickly. For this reason alone, no one, not even her own parents, believed she would graduate from college. She is very weak emotionally, and very closed off to relationships and partners.

Katie still deals with a large deal of guilt from Rosie dying. From time to time she occasionally feels the girl's presence - or thinks she does.

Personal Strengths: Aside from the art of smiling when she is miserable? Nothing notable enough to be considered a unique strength.

Family: Both parents are alive and well, and still live in the home in London that Katie grew up in. Her older brother, Colin, travels a lot, and tends not to stick with any address (or even time zone) for very long periods. Katie also has a younger sister, Veronica, but the two have never gotten along well.

PB: Sienna Guillory

Friends:

	36:	_intherough_, abecedarian, anotherleftturn, aria_of_hope, army_of_one, artoflife, distractable, doctorfeelgood, drumroller, el_iosef, iswithstupid, jack_fortescue, jawkrawk, karanissa, levons_mommy, magical_hands, making_history, manoffaith, mothtotheflame, oblivionmods, oblivionnpcs, pastorsdaughter, queen_mab, reactionary, ronniedrook, sexy_exec, shear_genius, sixlittledots, stretchthetruth, takeitoutonme, tenouttaten, tinkertot, truebloodmuse, upfromtheashes, weallfalldown, yeschef
	4:	oblivion_ooc, oblivion_rp, oblivionooc, oblivionrp

Friend of:

61: abitanachronic, altatecnologia, amazonrock, anotherleftturn, aoneill, aria_of_hope, army_of_one, artoflife, at_arms_length, blessyourhearts, bob_widmore, bodyofthebrain, distractable, divegirl, doctorfeelgood, el_iosef, fml_aussie, gotwhatyouwant, i_am_spy, iswithstupid, itsallashow, jack_fortescue, karanissa, keepdancing, lady_thief, levons_mommy, librarygirl, magical_hands, make_it_snappy, making_history, manoffaith, mothtotheflame, nottheherotype, notwhatsheseems, oblivionmods, oblivionnpcs, only_the_lonely, pastorsdaughter, playboydaddy, pollux_flint, preciousbalance, ragingriver, reactionary, ronniedrook, sexy_exec, sixlittledots, splitbrain, standishh, stretchthetruth, strum_this, takeitoutonme, tasty_tyrant, tenouttaten, theartsyone, timesink, tinkertot, truebloodmuse, upfromtheashes, watchingdeath, weallfalldown, yeschef

Member of:

4: oblivion_ooc, oblivion_rp, oblivionooc, oblivionrp

Account type:

Free Patient

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