Alex Tartaglia*

General Goose · #1

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, and on the day he was “chosen” to participate in SOTF, he was wearing jeans and a black shirt.

Biography: Alexander’s parents, Fred Tartaglia and Samantha Knowles, were fairly young when they met while they were both vacationing in Florida. Fred was a 32-year old veteran of Italian descent from Pittsburgh who at the time worked at his parents’ restaurant, while Samantha was a 27-year old woman from Fort Wayne, Indiana who had just graduated from law school and was at the time working as an intern in a legal office as she was job-hunting. The two hit it off fairly quickly, and after getting married and gaining the money needed, they got married and moved to a comfortable suburban home in California; they decided that it was a good place to raise a child, and both of them were able to find work in the area. A lot of the money came from Fred’s parents, owners of a popular local Italian restaurant.

A few months after getting 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 frequently flew to California to visit and 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. One problem his family faced was that, up until the age of around 8 or 9, he struggled heavily with reading, mainly because he had very little interest in learning to do so, and it was only at the age of 11 he caught up with most other kids his age.

Unfortunately, at the age of 5, just as he was starting school (where he settled in surprisingly quickly and easily), his mother was killed in a car accident while on her way to picking Alex up from school. The death of Samantha impacted his father greatly (leaving him a somewhat bitter and pessimistic man and giving him a case of severe depression that lasted for years) and it was incredibly traumatising for Alex at the time, but the long-term impact on Alex is harder to discern, especially as both he and his father rarely talk about her. Up until around the age of 15, he would still occasionally get depressed or extremely upset about it, but since then has "moved on". He still wishes he knew her better, as he has very few distinctive memories of her, but that is more of a passive wish that he keeps to himself as opposed to one he acts on. His grandmother has made a few token attempts at getting him interested in her hobby of geneaology, but Alex never had the time or the passion to make more than a token effort at getting involved.

For large periods of his life following his mother's death, while his father was focused on work and other interests, his grandparents Vincent and Angela acted as parent figures, particularly as they sold the restaurant and moved to California shortly after Samantha’s death; they soon established a new restaurant in the area. Even today, Alex has a closer relationship with his grandparents than with his father. 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 individual, and has had several major spells of depression 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, as he puts it. 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 (or at the very least tries to be) to friends going through their own bad spells, and is generally sympathetic with the problems of others as a whole, 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. In strong contrast to his somewhat cynical and sarcastic outwards personality, inside he’s very idealistic, even a bit naïve. 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 him being very self-conscious about his appearance as of late (which is one reason he exercises so regularly.)

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. He has no patience for any subjects even closely resembling maths or science. He is famously terrible at on-the-spot maths.

In contrast to his earlier life, Alex now enjoys reading quite heavily. Alex's enjoyment of reading first came about when he was around 11 or 12, 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 nor 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. 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.)

Advantages: Thanks to his relatively healthy lifestyle and high amount of exercise, Alex has above-average stamina and strength. He is also 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 looks 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. His sarcastic comments may sometimes be considered inappropriate or hurt feelings. If a situation comes up where knowledge or skill relating to mathematics or science would be useful, Alex would be useless.

Original Profile: http://sotfmini.wikia.com/wiki/Alex_Tartaglia