Summary
Callenreese Aslan Jade is a seventeen-year-old protagonist defined by his peculiar quirks, including a phobia of pumpkins and severe morning crankiness caused by low blood pressure, which once led him to punch out a gang member's teeth. He is the half-brother of Griffin, whom he calls Griff, sharing the same father but having different mothers. At age eight, Ash fled his home in Cape Cod to escape social pressures and was taken in by Papa Dino, the leader of the Corsican Mafia. Although he was groomed to succeed Papa Dino and currently leads Manhattan's largest street gang, Ash has no desire for this role and spends much of the manga attempting to escape his mentor's expectations. Visually striking with shaggy platinum blond hair, pale green eyes, and a slender figure, Ash is often described as beautiful, yet his personality is far from graceful. He is known for his snarky attitude, recklessness, and cold capacity for violence, which has earned him numerous enemies. Conversely, his intelligence and charismatic leadership allow him to build and exploit a wide network of connections. His skills include expert marksmanship, the ability to hack 1980s computers, and an intuitive sense for being followed. Despite never finishing high school, Ash is an avid reader who taught himself advanced mathematics and can appear quite cultured. His later character design was modeled after the actor River Phoenix.
