Weighing in on the Patreon / Ashley thing, I believe you need to make a significant change. Whilst I know this is not going to be an enjoyable change for yourself or the current Ashley fans, you can't run the risk of getting Patreon offside. If you don't make a sufficiently big change, I would expect that Patreon will just respond by instructing you to remove the character entirely.
The trick will be to make a change with the minimum effort (affected scenes) and also with maximum effect. I would offer the following as suggestions to how this could be done:
- Remove all scenes where she is wearing a school uniform.
- For all the hangout scenes / sitting on bed, change outfit to be more akin to what Ellen wears. Overcompensate on some scenes.
- Add glasses to the character for hangout and several other scenes. Will make her look older for those scenes, but won't destroy continuity if you don't remake all scenes.
- The twin pigtails are also a bit of an issue, however not sure how to fix this easily. Her brown hair makes her look more mature, however implementing this for all hangout scenes, would make a bit of a mess of her story events.
Best of luck with the adjustments and I hope things go smoothly with Patreon.