Character Information

Gender		Male
Species		Human
Age		38
Date of Birth		15th November 2357
Place of Birth		Buckinghamshire, England, Earth

Starfleet Info

Physical Appearance

Height		5'11"
Weight		166lbs
Hair Color		Dark brown
Eye Color		Blue

Family

Spouse		Captain Reuben Loughty (KIA)
Children		Lucas Kane-Loughty (age 7)

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Asher has a sarcastic streak and will often use sarcasm or humour to hide how he really feels. He is close to his mother and siblings, even if they all seem to spend time arguing more than anything else. He often jokes that he can’t keep a secret and has been known to ‘spill the beans’ on things, but never anything truly serious and usually only with family. His confidence was both built and knocked down in his marriage and he does still struggle with the fact that his now-deceased husband cheated on him. He isn’t always the best communicator when he has a negative emotions, but is excellent in an argument. He is passionate about languages, able to retain information and see the patterns in it. He is also very caring, even if he sometimes struggles expressing it to people.
Strengths & Weaknesses		Strengths: Asher is an accomplished language specialist with good memory for detail. Weaknesses: Asher can be argumentative and stubborn and struggles admitting he was wrong.
Ambitions		Asher wants to rebuild his career after the years of being a civilian who did not, despite what he thought, have any time for languages.
Hobbies & Interests		Running, surfing, wine drinking (amateur sommelier)
Languages Spoken		Latin, Federation Standard, Klingon, Vulcan, Romulan, English, Cardassian, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Japanese, Bajoran

Character History / Other

Personal History		Asher was born and partially raised in what is affectionately known as the English countryside, which is a nice was of saying South East of the country. He was the middle of three children, with his father being a dealer of authentic food and drink and his mother a museum curator who decided she wanted to work part time so she could spend more time raising the children. The family were close and loud, often arguing their way through family dynamics and any issue or cause one of them had taken up. He was 15 when they relocated to San Francisco and being in a busier city than the farmhouse he had grown up in was a culture shock. Not only were there more people, there were people of every species he could think of, with languages all by their own. It fascinated Asher who had already mastered a few human languages to now have access to so much more. The dream quickly went towards Starfleet and what they had to offer: exploration, new people and civilisations and more importantly, new languages. It was a dream that his older sister would shake her head at, since she wanted to take up the family business and her younger brother scoffed at. Because it’s just so lame to wear a uniform all day and also, spaceships? Like floating schools, no thanks. But Asher was enamoured with the idea and spent the next few years diligently working towards joining Starfleet. The fact that there was a war on just made him more anxious to show he could do it, as his father had serious doubts he would succeed. He did the exam plus the personality tests and while the assessor suggested that he should consider the route of JAG rather than linguistic, Asher insisted that he wanted to become a Language Expert. Because he scored well on that, he got to study that, alongside the standard sciences that a science officer would need. Asher threw himself into his studies, showing a great aptitude for learning. He was famous for pulling all-nighters to study before exams and through the four years went from being a bit awkward and quiet to being a serial dater who was on the debate team and would engage in spirited arguments about various aspect of Starfleet history and morality. He graduated in 2379, an eager Ensign who was more than ready to take on the linguistic world of the Federation and Starfleet’s post-war mission to explore the universe. He started out serving on the USS Lexington, in the science department. It gave him a chance to start studying the connections between languages and he took an almost artistic approach to it. In 2383 he was transferred to the USS Portugal, where he found himself doing more science duties as it was a smaller department. It was here he met Reuben Loughty, a charismatic pilot. The attraction from Asher’s side was instant; Reuben was tall, broad-shouldered with auburn hair and an infectious grin. They didn’t really have a conversation until Asher was brought along to a first contact, where the species had a complicated language that seemed to change. Asher quickly realised that the grammar changed based on the emotions the person had on the subject matter and once he had mastered it, he ended up having to help programme the subroutine into the universal translators for the away team. After the mission, Reuben and Asher started seeing each other romantically. It was a hot and cold, up and down relationship, with its share of messy arguments and moments where both of them acted like children. But it was a strong relationship where Reuben could rely on Asher for when he needed to talk to someone as he rose up the ranks. In 2387 Asher proposed and they got married the same year. Reuben’s career progression led him to Command, whereas Asher got a good reputation on him for being a capable language specialist. Reuben came from practically Starfleet royalty, with both his parents being Admirals and his two siblings already having their own ships. Meanwhile, Asher’s father died of an aneurism in 2389 and his sister took over the company on Earth. After the funeral, Reuben sat down with Asher and talked about what he wanted. Children. Asher was reluctant, enjoying just the two of them and also pointing out that with their careers, there would be little time to raise a family. He thought it was subject over, until a few nights later Reuben started the conversation again. He wanted children and Asher should too, they could be a real family. Asher argued that they were a real family without children, but Reuben kept pushing until Asher finally said what he knew was the reason for his own reluctancy: their careers. More precisely, his own. With Reuben lined up to become the First Officer on the USS Mustang, Asher knew that the only career that would suffer would be his own. Reuben argued that Asher wasn’t exactly going to be a Department Head or a Captain, he was a linguist in a world where universal translators were the norm. The argument ended with Asher staying at his mother’s until they returned to the ship. This put a strain on the relationship for a few months until Asher had calmed down and they had another conversation. He finally agreed that they would make good parents and they set out to adopt. In 2391, over a year later, they adopted a 3-year-old human boy named Lucas. It was a hard time, as Reuben was the First Officer on the Mustang and Asher found himself trading shifts whenever he could to spend time with their son. Despite his previous reservations, Asher did feel like Lucas was their son and he didn’t regret the adoption. In 2393, his husband got promoted to Captain and given the command of the USS Olympia and Asher was taken aside by his father-in-law and told the cruel truth: it wasn’t going to work them serving on the same ship. While there was no regulation against it, Reuben was uncomfortable being in command of his own husband. She suggested that he resigned his commission and stayed as a civilian. Asher was livid, not at the news but that Reuben had used his mother to tell him rather than having the conversation. The conversation happened later the evening, after Lucas was safely tucked into bed. Reuben spoke honestly about how it had felt being just the First Officer with Asher working and he couldn’t do it. So the options were that either Asher served on another ship and they split custody of Lucas or Asher resigned his commission. It was clear to Asher that Reuben not taking the Captain’s Chair was not even in the consideration. But Asher loved his husband and knew he could pursue his passion of languages even as a civilian, so he agreed. So they went over on the USS Olympia, Reuben as its Captain and Asher as the civilian husband. As the next year progressed, their relationship saw its ups and downs. The biggest up was Lucas winning his spelling bee at the age of 6 and the low point was when Reuben had to confess he had a one night stand. Asher was furious at the infidelity, hurt beyond words. Well, not hurt beyond words, as he angrily shouted What a cliché, Captain Kirk snogging people across the universe. You’re married! To me! I am not angry, I am in pain and you put me here! But they went to counselling and their marriage ended up for the better when the distance between them was addressed: Reuben missed talking to Asher about work and Asher felt out of the loop on the ship as he was now no longer part of the crew. It was hard work, but in the end they were in a good place. Until in December 2394, when Reuben went on the Away Team rather than his First Officer, because he wanted to stretch his legs. The Away Team got caught in the crossfire of a terrorist group on a colony by the Cardassian Border and Reuben was killed. Suddenly Asher was a widower, with a young son who was trying to process that his hero father was dead. As a civilian, Asher found a lot of Starfleet doors closed to him; he couldn’t see the counsellor the same way that he had been able to when he was serving, he had little say over the funeral as Reuben had already expressed in his Will that he wanted a Starfleet burial and he was told as soon as the funeral was over that he would be sent back to Earth. Asher, with Lucas, returned to Earth and he stayed at his mother’s once more, trying to process the anger he felt with Reuben for going down to a planet he didn’t need to go to. During this, his father-in-law reached out and offered that they became Lucas’ guardians since you were always reluctant to have a kid anyway. Asher was shocked, angry and upset at it, but managed to keep his cool enough to politely saying that no one would take his son from him. The next day he contacted Starfleet, to be re-instated as a member of Starfleet, with his old rank. He asked to be placed on a ship or base that accepted children, as he now had his young son with him. And in 2395, Asher and Lucas set foot on the USS Wolff, joining the crew there.
Service Record		2375-2379 Starfleet Academy, Sciences, Languages 2379-2383 USS Lexington, Science Officer 2383-2388 USS Portugal, Language Expert 2388-2393 USS Mustang, Language Expert 2393-2395 USS Olympia, Civilian 2395-PRES USS Wolff, Language Expert