Name: Alexander Adam Tartaglia
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Hobbies and Interests: Reading, drawing, working out and swimming
Appearance: Alexander is 5’10” and weighs 158lb, and has a rather average build. He is relatively muscular, but not outstandingly so. Because of him having Italian heritage, he has a relatively dark skin tone for a Caucasian. He is, in the opinion of many, a rather attractive youth, with a well-defined, smooth face, chiselled jaw line and fairly high cheekbones. His nose is slightly larger than average and his eyebrows are thin and wiry, but other than that, his facial features are of average proportions. The clean-shaven boy has uninteresting, dull brown eyes and dark brown hair, that he currently wears at a rather short length so he doesn’t feel the need to style it or spend too much time looking after it.
Aside from the lack of care he puts in his hair (which is often unruly when it gets longer), it would be an understatement to say he puts quite a lot of care into his appearance, and it is not uncommon for him to shower or brush his teeth around three or four times a day. As such, he has a very clean appearance and very clean, white teeth. In terms of clothing, he usually dresses casually, however on Announcement Day; Alex was going for an uncharacteristically formal appearance, wearing a relatively expensive white dress shirt and a pair of navy blue trousers.
Biography: Alexander’s parents, Fred Tartaglia and Samantha Knowles, were fairly young when they met while on their compulsory military service. Fred was a 32-year old of Italian descent from Pittsburgh who was half-way his second five-year term of military service (he had decided to get it out of the way early so he could focus on other pursuits later in life), while Samantha was a 27-year old woman from Fort Wayne, Indiana who had just graduated from university and was starting her first five year term of military service. The two hit it off fairly quickly, and after Samantha’s first five years were over, they got married and moved to a suburban home in Pittsburgh, paid for by Fred’s parents, owners of a popular local café.
After a few months after being married, they gave birth to a son, who they named Alexander Adam Tartaglia, naming him after two of the actors from the couple’s favourite TV sit com. He was a healthy, fairly ordinary baby, and aside from the fact his paternal grandparents played a very big role in his upbringing (for example, his grandmother was with him when he said his first words), there was nothing out of the ordinary in the first few years of his life. Overall, he was a very imaginative, creative baby, but sometimes his nosiness and curiosity exasperated his family to no end. However, when he was 5 and starting school (which he adjusted to fairly easily), his mother was called up for service again. Within a few months, she was dead, killed in the line of duty after her squad was ambushed.
While the death of Samantha impacted his father greatly (leaving him a somewhat bitter man), it did not seem to have much of a long-term impact on Alex, aside from giving him a longing to know her better lately in life. He has very few distinctive memories of his mother, and for large periods of his life, while his father was focused on work, his grandparents Vincent and Angela acted as parent figures. Aside from that massive tragedy, his youth has been relatively uneventful and he has enjoyed a relatively stable, safe life. He has never suffered much in the way of bullying or social exclusion.
However, despite all this, he can be a very down-trodden, pessimistic, depressive individual, and has had several major depressive spells over the course of his teenage life. A majority of them he has had have been over a combination of several minor problems, or "thinking" himself into a depression. When going through a depression, he tends to keep it to himself, and others have rarely caught on when he is in a bad mood. His keeping it a secret is partially out of a desire to not cause further trouble for his grandparents (who are currently going through a bad business season) and father, and also out of a desire to not come across to his peers as whiny and a crybaby. He opens up to very few people, and that short list does not include any of his family members. He is often very helpful and sympathetic to friends going through their own bad spells, and is generally empathetic with the problems of others as a whole (almost to a fault), his grandparents having taught him to care for others at an early age.
In terms of personality, one of his most striking features is his reliance on sarcasm, a trait that is mostly picked up from his extended family. Serving as both his favourite form of humour and one of his favourite means of communication, Alexander is one of the most sarcastic people you could ever meet. Even if it doesn't come off as funny, Alexander will regularly respond to what he sees as stupidity with subtle or not-so-subtle sarcasm. Aside from that however, he does try to be a nice, friendly person, and mostly succeeds. While he has few qualms with insulting someone behind their back, he will rarely be deliberately mean to someone's face, aside from sarcastic quips. He is however, secretly rather self-conscious, which led not only to him keeping his depression secret, but also his over-the-top hygiene schedule and his frequent exercising.
He is not a big fan of sports, either as a spectator or participator, but is quite keen when it comes to exercise. He works out fairly frequently, which has lead to his respectable muscles, an asset he's quite proud of. He is also a keen swimmer, and one of the many career choices he is currently debating to do when older is that of a lifeguard or professional swimmer. Academically, he has passing grades, but is by no means an exceptional student. Subjects involving English and art tend to be the ones he gets As and Bs in, due to his interests in both reading and drawing respectively.
Alex's enjoyment of reading first came about when he was around 11 or 12 (in the past, he had been a struggle to teach how to read), when he decided to pick up a history book and read it when he couldn't get to sleep one night. Before his father and grandparents had time to process the change, he was a keen reader, regularly borrowing new books, both fiction and non-fiction from the nearby library. While initially surprised at this sudden u-turn regarding Alex's opinion of reading, Vincent, Angela and Fred supported Alex, especially when his grades in English began rising significantly. Alex is also a decent writer, having picked up quite a few tricks from the various books he has read, but has neither the time or the ideas to make a serious commitment to writing.
Drawing is an older hobby of Alex's, and like many others who have an interest in it, he started off young, drawing complete crap for most of his life up until around the time he turned 11, when he decided to begin putting more effort and more thought into the pictures he drew. There was a rapid increase in quality, with Alex now being good at drawing both realistically and in his own cartoony style. His grandfather Vincent was active in nurturing this hobby, and often used his disposable income to buy an array of random bits and bobs to try and serve as inspiration for some of Alex's better planned still life drawings.
In terms of relationships, Alex is a bisexual (with a slight female preference) who, being the extrovert he is, came out almost as soon as he realised he was one (which, to be exact, was when he was 14). Despite having received a small amount of bullying straight after coming out, he has not received much major stress from school for his sexuality, and his father and grandparents were surprisingly tolerant of his announcement. He has had a few relationships over the past few years, and has had sex multiple times with a small number of partners (both males and females.)
In a sharp contrast to his often cynical and sarcastic exterior, Alex secretly possesses an extremely idealistic, optimistic streak that he rarely lets shine. His active imagination and his sadness at never really knowing his mother have made him idolise an America free from the General and his government, and while he has never explicitly come out publicly about his distaste for the government (having a fairly rational fear of being punished for his beliefs), he has an aspiration of ultimately becoming a key figure in the Government and changing it for good from the inside. He has no real plan on how to achieve this, but still assumes he can. He is anxious about the prospect of military service, and doesn't feel he's cut out for it mentally, but acknowledges he needs to get it out the way if he wants any chance of "infiltrating" the government.
Advantages: Alex has got quite good strength and stamina thanks to his rather good fitness routine, and is a more than competent swimmer. He is a fairly popular guy with a personality that is easy to get on with, and is fairly intelligent and creative. If a situation arises where good lucks would be a plus, Alex would be set.
Disadvantages: Alex is not one for conflict. The thought of killing and fighting to the death is one he is not prepared for and not comfortable with. He's also prone to depression.
Designated Number: Male Student #20
Designated Weapon: Spiked Knuckle Dusters
Conclusion: His weapon matches his build, but M20's personality and aversion to killing may be one that spells his early downfall.
The above biography is as written by General Goose. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.
Evaluations
Kills: None
Killed by: Sophie Mason
Collected Weapons: Spiked Knucle Dusters (assigned weapon)
Allies:
Enemies:
Mid-Game Evaluation:
Post-Game Evaluation:
Memorable Quotes:
Other/Trivia
Coming soon...
Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Alex, in chronological order.
- Crayola Kids
- Out of the Darkness, into the Night
- I'm Younger Than That Now
- We Shall Be Together in Paradise
Your Thoughts
Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Alex. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!