Alexandria Ripley

Alex Ripley (art by Mimi)

Girl 002, Alexandria Ripley

Name: Alexandria "Alex" Ripley
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: Aurora Highschool
Hobbies and Interests: Science fiction, crime procedural shows, steampunk, law enforcement, online roleplaying, band (plays saxophone)

Appearance: Alex has her blonde hair cut into a chin-length bob, and very often she tries to keep it well-combed and clean. Her eyebrows are slightly darker in shade and mildly thick, due to her not trimming them very often due to sensitive skin. Alex's eyes are a shade of blue, and fairly large and round. Her lips are somewhat thin, while her nose is small and round in shape. She is a pale skinned Caucasian, with an assortment of freckles dotting her face. Alex has an oval shaped face, with slight cheekbones and a mildly pointed chin. Alex never wears makeup on her face, though she does have her ears pierced. Usually they are small studs, though she has gone for earrings that slightly dangle with some sort of small pendant from time to time.

Alex stands at 5'5 and weighs 126 pounds, putting her at a normal height and weight of someone of her age. She doesn't look particularly muscular, though she does have a normal level of fitness for a senior in high school. As far as dress goes, she dresses fairly casually in blue jeans and T-shirt (usually either plain, or has some sort of slogan and/or picture relating to her interests such as a shirt with Star Trek characters on them), though she has been noted to get somewhat eccentric with accessories. Occasionally she wears things that are clearly inspired by "geek culture" in some way or another. The best example would be that for a while she wore motorcycle goggles as a headband. While she does wear them nowadays on occasion as sunglasses, she usually wears them off-campus when she does due to a mixture of mischievous classmates playfully snatching them off her head and teachers pointing out it was distracting. There have been other, more mild incidents relating to this as well, though she tries to keep it within school dress codes and not too distracting. In cooler weather she tends to wear a long brown jacket and a red scarf. Her shoes are slightly beaten up white sneakers, with black shoelaces and plain socks. She has a slight habit to paint her finger and toe nails colors when she's bored, and as of right now they are her favorite color, orange, though it's steadily chipping away. On her wrists she tends to wear simple woven bracelets. On the day of the trip she wore a blue shirt from Archie McPhee depicting a corn dog with a smiling face and wearing a propeller hat, holding a smaller, half-eaten version of said food item and a tube of mustard, with the text "CORNDOG" written on the side in red and yellow letters. She wore dark blue jeans with this, with white socks. She had decided to bring her goggles with her anyways, though during the abduction they were down around her neck. Alex, in addition, wore a woven blue and orange bracelet on her left wrist. Her cooler weather clothes were in her bag, just in case.

Biography: Alex Ripley was born in Seattle, the second child of her family after her older brother by four years, Bill. In her junior year they were joined by Nathan, her younger brother. Both of Alex's parents were musicians as a hobby, and encouraged her and Bill to be into music as young as possible. Alex has always remembered how her parents would play on the piano in the living room, occasionally letting her press a few keys. They always told her how music made the soul more calm and relaxed, and that it was good for all people to understand it. When she got a bit older, they enrolled her in music classes, and to this day Alex plays the saxophone at her parents' insistence, even joining the school band. While it isn't her main interest in life, she still practices to this day. Her attitude towards her role in the band tends to be of a humorously self-deprecating nature, such as poking fun at the outfits in marching bands. Her relationship with her family is mostly normal; like all teenagers she tends to argue with her parents and older brother, but in the end they are fairly loving. While her mother being pregnant with and giving birth to Nathan did put stress on the family, they have tried their best to take care of him, and Alex and Bill have been known to babysit him when their parents are out.

From a young age, Alex had found that she was interested in science fiction. Rather than watching cartoons, she always found herself changing the channel to classic science fiction shows such as Star Trek and Doctor Who. It started while casually channel surfing and coming across a channel showing the classic Star Trek, and soon she fell in love with it. She watched these shows with a passion, and many of her childhood fantasies involved joining the Enterprise or going on an adventure with the Doctor. Her taste in childhood books were the same, in that they always involved science fiction elements. This taste in media followed her to her teenage years, where she remained fond of Star Trek and Doctor Who, but also gained an interest in new media as well, such as Firefly. She often talks about them, and grows excited whenever they come up in conversation. Lately, she's been getting into the subgenre of science fiction known as steampunk, which was about technology run by steam-power. She finds this genre interesting, and has been getting into it steadily.

Alex was one of those people who knew what kind of job she wanted as a kid and stuck with it throughout her teenage years. It started when a police officer came to her elementary school for a presentation to talk about such things as 911 and similar. Alex was fascinated about how the officers did their job, and decided that one day, she was going to be in law enforcement. As she grew older, she started watching shows and movies about cops, and learning about what kind of things police get to do. The exact job she wanted alternated, with her wanting to be a judge, a police officer, or a lawyer, but in the end she decided on wanting to be a detective when she grew up. Starting from middle school she started reading about various laws and information on the job she wanted. As a result of this interest, Alex has always found it hard to deliberately break major rules, and feels she always has to do "the right thing". Her idea of law enforcement is slightly more idealistic than she thinks it is, and she has become rather passionate about it. It has resulted in her thinking about law enforcement being more "black and white" than she is aware of.

At school, Alex is known to be fairly friendly. While she has been the target of bullies from time to time, mostly relating to her more weird moments of dress sense, some of her more eccentric personality traits, or her interests (which has annoyed some of her classmates, particularly her openness about liking science fiction), she tends to snark them off and stand up for her classmates if they are being harassed as well. As noted, she tends to follow rules well. As far as grades go, what surprises people who only know her on a passing basis is that she tends to get good grades (mostly Bs and As) and remember the material long after the lesson is over. There have been a few times where Alex has gotten into arguments with her classmates, due to the fact that she tends to get passionate about things easily and as a result can get rather short-tempered if someone disagrees with her. While it does cause her to do things that she feels needs to be done, it has gotten on the nerves of her classmates from time to time. It doesn't help that Alex has been known to blurt things out without thinking, often leading to a misunderstanding if she worded it incorrectly. Otherwise, however, she is known to be remarkably friendly and able to make friends with her classmates easily. Oftentimes she becomes playful and energetic around her classmates, cracking jokes and playfully teasing those around her. All around, she's known to be cheerful and friendly most of the time.

Lately Alex has been getting into online roleplaying after casually surfing around on the internet one evening and coming across a site. She has since joined multiple sites, and while she doesn't consider herself any good, she feels it's more important to have fun with it. While she usually participates in roleplays relating to her interests, both with original characters and writing as characters from various media, she tends to pull out a character named Jackie Ripper, who she has all but admitted is a self-insert (similar interests, similar appearance, and the last name all indicate this). While she does allow herself to receive criticism as long as it's constructive, in the end she's just having fun writing about various characters.

Alex is still looking into learning about law when she's graduated, and has already been approved into a good school to learn more about criminal justice. She tries her best to keep her grades up, and to look into classes, jobs, and volunteer work to learn more about her desired occupation. This has included participating in Seattle's teen court and in the "police explorers" program, as well as looking into courses she could take in college.

Advantages: Despite initial appearances, she can be quite intelligent and well-read. Alex tends to become passionate about things easily, and as a result can get quite determined if she feels she has to do something. She is noted to be mostly friendly among her classmates, lessening the chance of someone killing her out of a grudge. Due to her tendency to do "the right thing" as much as possible, she might not rush into killing or doing anything that could be risky to her health.
Disadvantages: Alex tends to get passionate about things she cares about easily, and may get into an argument if someone disagrees with her. Her openness about her interests. along with her more eccentric personality traits, has in the past caused some of her classmates to be annoyed. Given her temperament, her attitude towards morally objectionable behavior may cause her not to play, or to lash out against those who are. Alex also has a tendency to blurt things out, potentially causing a misunderstanding.

Designated Number: Female student No. 002

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Designated Weapon: Battery Powered Personal Fan
Conclusion: I wonder if you could use a combination of law enforcement and roleplaying to trick somebody by holding them up with a battery powered fan? ... Eh, probably not. Good luck out there, G002. You're definitely going to need it. - Dennis Lourvey

The above biography is as written by KamiKaze. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.

Evaluations

Handled by: KamiKaze

Kills: None

Killed By: Makatala So'oialo

Collected Weapons: Battery Powered Personal Fan (designated weapon), Rubber Mallet (abandoned by Gwen O'Connor and taken by Alex), Crutch (found in hospital and used for intended purpose, but also used as a weapon)

Allies: Gwen O'Connor, Daniel Whitten, Carlon Wheeler, Cammy Davidson

Enemies: Hansel Williams, Makatala So'oialo

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Other/Trivia

• According to her handler, Alex was partially created as commentary on certain out-of-character trends/beliefs she (KamiKaze) happens to dislike. Part of the idea was to show that certain character traits doesn't necessarily make a bad character.
• Yes, the shirt she is wearing in her description is an actual shirt you can buy at Archie McPhee (whose base and walk-in store is in Seattle).
• Intially she was going to be named Alexandria Anderson; however, her last name was changed before she was submitted for pre-game due to similarities to a certain Hellsing character. 
• Her first pre-game thread (It's A-MAZE-ing!) was also the first thread in v5 pre-game, making her the first v5 character to appear overall.

Threads

Below is a list of threads that contain Alexandria, in chronological order.

The Past:

• Spooky Little Ghosties

Pre-Game:

• It's A-MAZE-ing!
• A Gold Dubloon for the First One to Find the Right Toy
• Dodge Brawl
• Cicada Nights
• How I Spent My Suspension
• Prom Ballots

V5:

• Tower of Alexandria
• There ain't no more cowboys, only men with violent hearts
• The Silver Chair
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

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 Alexandria Ripley. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!

Whoo boy Alex. I'm not going to lie: this character essentially started as me trolling yet playing everything seriously, if that makes sense. What do I mean by this? Well, some handlers can be very... opinionated about stuff. And Alex was, admittedly, based off of things that handlers can get very opinionated on.

Starting from the beginning, I had a basic idea of an Alex-ish character in v4 pre-game, when people were ranting in chat about how wearing goggles as a fashion accessory like an anime character was basically "awful and should never be done". This inspired my creativity a bit, and I mentioned to someone that it actually makes sense that a character could wear goggles as an accessory if they were a part of a subculture like, say, steampunk or if they were simply eccentric enough. We quickly realized that there were a lot of v5 concepts already being tossed about at the time that had steampunk as part of their premises, and I decided to make one, joking that if people were hating on anime fans in v4, they will probably dislike the steampunk thing.

I left this character floating around a bit in my mind throughout v4, and then when the concepts thread came up I expanded a tiny bit on her. She morphed from a steampunk fan to a science fiction geek in general, as well as other traits I decided to add that I knew handlers could get upset over just on the basis. For example, I knew from the get-go that she would develop PH-qualities as well as plotting escape. The end result was what we got: a friendly if temperamental geek girl who dresses like an anime character and has certain personality traits that could realistically result in her developing a player hunter's mindset. In fact, for a while she was the closest thing I had to a villain planned out for a while until certain other plans came about.

I guess if I could personally describe what kind of character she was going to be in-game, I would call her "sweetly malicious". She can be your best friend who would happily watch all sorts of science fiction shows, but if you're the kind of person who would get on her nerves or be someone who would be a part of her quest to stop players she can also be frighteningly cruel. She can be both super-nice and super-awful, if that makes sense? I did leave a bit of foreshadowing in pre-game hinting at her PH inclinations, mind, mostly because I like foreshadowing.

Originally I wanted her to start PHing first thing, but when I was writing her first in-game post I essentially went "Well, maybe later", and decided to wait a bit; you can sort of see me backpedal a bit in that post. I kind of figured that it would make sense if there was more lead-up to it. My original idea was that she would only start until the first announcement at the earliest. I did, however, have a good laugh at anyone who said that characters that plot escape first thing were forced attempts by their handlers to be "heroes". No, guys, there is a difference between a character wanting to make themselves a hero versus their handlers wanting to make them heroes. Wasn't there even evidence to the contrary in v4? Needless to say, I was amused, considering that I always thought Alex a villain.

So, am I happy at how she turned out? I am, in a lot of ways. I personally like how while I wasn't able to make her go on a PH rampage like I planned, we were still able to send her off in a way that makes that aspect of her character clear; Ime and I made it a goal to give her and Carlon Wheeler the best deaths possible. I also like the dynamic that Ime and I had in mind: basically, they were going to have this good cop-bad cop dynamic, with Alex as awful and extremist while Carlon as a more diplomatic type (you can sort of see it in their death thread). I think my only regrets were that I was super-slow with her for a while and some bits came out a bit clunky with her. Otherwise, I'm proud of how things turned out, and I happen to like her death.

What can I say? Alex was essentially me writing things I know the old guard dislikes, and having a good time with it. While I am sad she didn't go on a PH rampage, I'm still very happy with her. I guess the point I was trying to make with her when I first made her was: Tropes Are Not Bad. Can they be used wrong? Certainly. But can they be used right? Of course. I myself have certain things I dislike seeing, but I wouldn't say "Never use them" since there's probably a good way to use them or in a way that's enjoyable. For example, I dislike certain extremes with villains but I wouldn't say "never go there, and burn the concept to the ground" but more "Try to think about this detail, and how to make it work". Alex was basically the personafication of this ideal I have. I was hoping that I would convince a few people to enjoy her despite her having blatant SOTF "never dos", and perhaps even if I did well enough I could convince a few people to change their minds. That said, this is not to say she should never be criticized; I'm still willing to receive constructive criticism, as always, and there are plenty of legit criticisms you may have. I'm just saying that you can enjoy a character regardless of whether or not they're a geek, if they want escape, or if they decide to kill a few evil people. I hope I got the point across well enough with her. X3

Also, yes, I was intensely amused that this was the second character I've written that went PH and had a leg injury. Best part is, it happened completely on accident.

Writing a big long WoG on Your Thoughts rather than a brief paragraph was fun; I'll probably do it again for the other two. -KamiKaze

Well. That saved me from worrying about this being too short. Anyway, Alex is very interesting to me, now reading about Kami's intentions with her.

I always had this feeling like Alex was an unofficial flagship. But that may just because I always have the feeling that the first kid entered into the game is always the favorite, for whatever reason. This made Alex dying early a surprise for me, as I assumed Kami would use her swap card with one of her other kids, especially because Alex always seemed the most recognizable out of the three.

I enjoy the whole "bad things don't make bad character" deal, and Alex is a pretty great example of that. She's a very flawed person, but is not at all a flawed character to me. From her pre-game, Alex was seen as a very good natured, wholesome person who just wanted to do the right thing or what she thought was the right thing, but it still feels very natural when she dies and gets a friend killed because of one of her negative qualities. That was really cool to see. - Un-Persona