Ashton Keene

Background: As far as Ashe had ever known, his life began within the safety of Vault 101; raised by his father in a tight-knit community, Ashe's life should have been idyllic, compared to the lives of those born outside the hermetically-sealed, lead-lined walls. However, from an early age Ashe felt isolated; from the other children, save the Overseer's daughter, Amata, and later, from that same group of peers, for different reasons. In their vault, there was a certain weight afforded to the genetic future of the community, and anyone who was different... 

At fifteen, Ashe confided in Amata that he was attracted to another boy in the vault, and while Amata was kind and understanding, someone else had overheard the conversation. He was cornered by the very boy -- his lifelong bully, Butch DeLoria -- who started off demeaning and berating him, only to push him against a wall and kiss him. Little wonder Butch's G.O.A.T. had assigned him as the future hairdresser... They met often, sneaking to little-visited corners of the vault, and in public continued to pretend their relationship was the same antagonistic bullying as before.

When Ashe's father left the vault, and chaos erupted, Butch begged Ashe, who he knew was a decent marksman, to help save his mother from the radroaches which had scurried in the open door. The youths were successful, and Butch helped Ashe escape the clutches of the Overseer and his security, so that when Ashe burst out into the blasted wasteland, Butch eventually wasn't far behind.

Not that Ashe would know for a while. All he knew was to head for some city called Megaton... and he didn't get there by any direct means. Growing up underground has certain drawbacks, namely that one's skin and eyes are ill-prepared for the harshness of an unsimulated sun. Ashe's skin burned and peeled, and his eyes would have burned as well if he hadn't found a pair of dark motorcycle goggles in a trash pile. He stumbled through the wasteland for weeks, so that by the time he stumbled through the rusty gates of Megaton, he looked more like a ghoul than a man due to the sunburn turning his skin to one big scab. He spent a couple of weeks recovering in the town infirmary, made friends with the overly-chipper girl that ran the trading post, and then set out once again, with fresh mottled scars and a new sense of purpose.

Only to stumble head-first into a den of Fiends. And while they didn't kill and eat him right then, he almost wished he had. One of their bosses liked the looks of the water-soft Vaultie... and used him to satisfy other cravings for several months, keeping him tranquilized with chems and only fed and given water if he behaved. Eventually, though, the Fiends got complacent; the boss left a knife out where Ashe could reach it, and one bloody night, he broke free. He ran, following a river, and wound up in a strange little settlement called Big Town. The strange kid-adults there got him back on his feet in exchange for helping them fight off a band of slavers, and the kids in nearby Little Lamplight helped him put his mind back together by giving him hope.

Once back on his father's trail he made his way southeast, to a city on a former aircraft carrier named Rivet City. There, he ran into the most unlikely of faces -- Butch DeLoria, having left the vault to find his own way in the world. For a few nights they rekindled their romance, no longer fearful of discovery, but their paths diverged when Ashe needed to get back out to find his father and didn't want to put Butch in the line of fire in the process. Butch gave him his old Tunnel Snakes jacket, one last kiss, and sent him on his way.

( at this point, Ashe's story basically parallels the 'canon' storyline of Fallout 3, until... )

After his father sacrificed himself for Project Purity -- after watching Sarah Lyons die on the field of battle -- after ensuring that at least the Capitol Wasteland would have fresh, clean water for generations to come... Ashe couldn't stand to be on this land anymore. He'd been fixing up an old Lone Wanderer for years at that point, and after scavenging a fusion core from a fallen Brotherhood Paladin, he finally had the last thing he needed. He fired it up and roared away from the Capitol, searching for a place to belong.