Ashley Tate (鷹野 秋代 Takano Akiyo) is a minor character in Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within.
Appearance[]
Ashley was a thirteen-year-old middle school student and, from her concept artwork, had brown eyes and a short, dark brown bob cut. She is depicted in a navy blue Japanese seifuku uniform with a maroon tie and white socks under black Mary-Jane shoes.
Background[]
Ashley is the oldest daughter of Philip and Kathryn Tate, the sister of Michael and Stephanie Tate, and the adopted cousin of Alyssa Hale. The game and drama CD suggest that she and Alyssa were particularly close. Ashley's biography in-game suggests that she is "a very unlucky girl".
Drama CD[]
Prior to the game's events, as Ashley was walking home from school, she was being stalked by George Maxwell. He eventually caught her and injected her with the Cerebral Toxin, turning her into a zombie.
Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within[]
A Cerebral Toxin infected-Ashley wanders back to her home, where she attacks her mother. Philip is forced to kill and dismember Ashley before attempting to hide her remains.
Alyssa Hale arrives at the house later that night to find her family missing. She wanders around the house only to discover several dismembered body parts including a leg in the toilet, a torso in the bathtub, and even a moving arm. Each one is green and surrounded by a mysterious yellow liquid. As she ultimately makes her way into Ashley's room, she discovers her dismembered head on a pillow, leading her to realize that the various body parts she has been finding belong to her beloved cousin. Alyssa becomes distraught, causing Bates to take over.
Trivia[]
- The piano in her room suggests she was a pianist and had an interest in music, and her poster for the Clock Tower game suggests she may have been interested in video games as well; her room is equipped with a large television.
- Her Japanese name, Akiyo (秋代), has the kanji of autumn (秋 Aki) in it. Her siblings original names also contain kanjis of seasons in them, Stephanie (千夏 Chinatsu) has the kanji of summer (夏 Natsu) and Michael (雅春 Masaharu) has the kanji of spring (春 Haru). While there is no other character with the kanji of winter (冬 Fuyu), Alyssa's real name (Lynn) in the japanese version is Rin (凛) and the kanji used for it means "cold", such as winter, completing the name play on the four seasons in some way. The fact that the kanji in Alyssa's real name simply means "cold" instead of "winter" could be a reference to how she is not connected to her cousins by blood, but they are still family.
- In an optional scene, if Alyssa examines Ashley's piano, it begins playing on its own before abruptly ending with Stephanie laughing in distance.
- Incidentally, the tune that the piano plays is Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu, the same music that May Norton plays in Clock Tower 3.
Gallery[]
