S037 - Dodds, Steven "EXTREME STEVE" [DECEASED]

#1

DECEASED

Name: Steven Dodds
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: YouTube content creation, parkour, skateboarding.

Appearance: Steve stands an unimpressive 5’6” tall, weighing a lean 135 pounds. He often has a slouched or relaxed posture, but when standing he draws himself up to a heady 5’8”, especially when talking to girls. His skin is ordinarily pasty white, but he has recently successfully cultivated a pale base tan. Steve does have the beginnings of a muscular build, and his top-heavy frame suggests that he could have quite an impressive surfer’s body if he focused on developing it, but his muscles lack definition and it gives him a bit of a boyish appearance. He rarely suffers from acne but is known to use concealer whenever he has a breakout.

Steve has long, flyaway blonde hair which reaches down to just below his chin. He bleaches it a bit from time to time in order to get a bit more of a proper "surfer boy" look. He sometimes wears it in a man bun, but never when he’s filming. Steve has angular features and a strong, squared jawline, coupled with a wide smile and good teeth. His nose is slightly downturned, and he has long eyelashes over his large, ice-blue eyes.

Steve tends to dress in the most current styles that are available to him, usually in bright colors or with neon accents to make him stand out. He frequently accessorizes with baseball caps and sunglasses. He almost always makes sure to include an EXTREME STEVE T-shirt in the ensemble, in order to promote his YouTube channel. His jeans are often scuffed or have holes in the knees from his many escapades, and his sneakers are often battered and dirty.

On the day of the abduction, Steve was wearing an ill-fitting bright red ski jacket overtop of a neon pink EXTREME STEVE shirt, a dark grey flat-brimmed New York Yankees baseball cap and mirrored sunglasses. He had black fingerless mittens, and wore blue jeans overtop of thick long johns, and black winter boots.

Biography: Steve was born as Steven Allen Dodds on November 1st, 2003 to Todd and Rachel Dodds. He has two older sisters, Ann and Kristen. Both Todd and Rachel are human resources mangers – Todd for a brokerage firm and Rachel for an insurance company. They met at a corporate retreat in the early 1990s and fell hard for each other. They were soon married and with their combined income, settled into a nice house in one of the Salem’s upper-mid-level suburbs to raise a family.

Young Steven, who was then called Stevie, was an active child. He rarely played with his older sisters, as he was bored by pretend tea parties and dollhouse games, and they in turn disliked his attempts to liven things up with make-believe explosions and velociraptor attacks. He would often visit friends’ houses, playing actives games like tag or soccer. He often started games of street hockey with neighborhood kids. During one of these games, Stevie took a particularly daring slapshot that ricocheted off two other players and a goalpost before bouncing into the goal to win the game. His teammates celebrated wildly and Stevie felt like a hero. His playstyle changed from then on, becoming marked by aggression and an insistence on trying to score flashy or impressive goals instead of passing. Because Stevie had very little accuracy or talent, these shots often missed the mark and frustrated his teammates. The negative feedback initially hurt Stevie, but he decided that he liked having a reputation and being known for something, even if it wasn’t wholly positive, and embraced his role with renewed gusto.

One day when Stevie was eight, the Dodds family went to Gallows Hill Park for a family outing. Stevie wandered over to the Ryan Brennan Memorial Skatepark, and watched some local high-schoolers skateboarding. He was enthralled by the experience, and thought that the skaters looked amazingly cool. After a lot of begging and saving up his allowance, Stevie bought a board of his own and began practicing some of the moves he'd seen the older boys doing. He wasn't very good, but he remained dedicated to it nonetheless.

Stevie continued his problematic behavior throughout elementary school and into middle school. He pushed the limits of his schools’ dress codes as best he could and would occasionally try and sass teachers in order to gain attention. This behavior got him multiple detentions and this, coupled with his grandstanding behavior in gym classes, got him rejected from most of the sports teams he tried to join. He was accepted onto the badminton team, but chose not to join. Instead, Stevie spent most of his afternoons skateboarding or riding his bike. He is passable at both activities but lacks finesse. In seventh grade, he decided to start a YouTube channel, mostly videos of himself attempting various skateboard tricks or handlebar footage from bike rides. He had very few views, and his early videos garnered more dislikes than likes. But after uploading some footage of himself hitting a railing and falling into some bushes, Steve saw his likes soar into the hundreds, and he began to experiment with riskier stunts, reasoning that his failures were just as likely to be popular as his successes.

In eighth grade, Stevie started to become interested in girls. He had little fear of rejection and pursued the prettiest girls in his classes. He was almost always turned down but maintained a positive demeanor. The few dates he did get went nowhere in particular, but gave Stevie the confidence to continue his efforts.

Stevie spent the following summer with his aunt in South Carolina. He attempted to learn surfing at Folly Beach, but his poor coordination made the sport a bad fit. He met up with a local group of parkour enthusiasts running on the beach. They helped Stevie to learn some of the basics, and despite his poor coordination and multiple minor injuries he was able to master some elementary moves. He filmed a lot of his practice attempts, and as with his skateboarding, his failures proved to be much more popular than his occasional successes. The parkour group had some local notoriety and a number of their fans subscribed to Stevie’s channel. Buoyed by this success, Stevie decided to develop a brand for himself in order to stand out. He filled a few pages of a notebook with possible names, but eventually settled on EXTREME STEVE, spelled entirely in capitals.

When he entered high school, Steve received a tepid reaction to his new persona. Teachers agreed to address him as Steve instead of Stevie, but most refused to actually call him EXTREME STEVE or accept that his preferred pronoun was “ya boi.”

Steve does not do very well in school and often slacks off on his studies. He doesn’t fail classes, but is known to completely botch assignments from time to time. He is still known to goof off or make smart remarks in class for attention, but he’s a lot more cautious about it than he was in middle school. Detentions cut into his afternoon parkour or skateboarding time, so he prefers to avoid it where possible.

Despite his general cluelessness, Steve is known around JEM as an easygoing and affable presence. He is generally kind to others and likes to make people laugh, though he sometimes fails to read the room and can come off as insensitive. He generally responds to criticism by ignoring it and carrying on doing whatever he was doing. He doesn’t have many close friends, but is on decent terms with most people around school. He has continued his attempts at being a womanizer and has shot his shot with many of the more attractive girls in school. Some attempts have ended in success, but he has little interest in ongoing steady relationships prefers to keep things casual.

Steve's parents are well-meaning but rather clueless about his activities. They're as supportive as they can be but they don't really understand his YouTube hobby and tend to politely stay out of his way. Ann is away at college in Boston and Kristen still lives at home. She hates being filmed and regards Steve's antics as an embarrassment. She occasionally shows flashes of kindness but in general she dislikes him. He remains affable with her, however, and bears no real resentment towards her for her behavior.

Steve is a tireless self-promoter. He has spent his summers mowing lawns or working at a convenience store near his house, and he often works overtime or picks up extra shifts in order to fund his merchandising efforts. He is most proud of a line of EXTREME STEVE T-shirts, which sell very poorly and can sometimes be found at local secondhand stores. He often wears sunglasses indoors as often as possible, and wears his own merchandise as a means of creating a brand. Steve also films YouTube content at the school: he does gross food challenges in the cafeteria, does tray surfing in the halls, and stages challenges on the lawn. He has been disciplined for this sort of behavior, but he continues on all the same and tries to avoid getting caught.

Steve is unsure of what he wants to do after high school. He plans on continuing his YouTubing activities but is realistic enough to know that if it doesn't pan out into a career he'll need to do something more practical. Both Todd and Rachel have offered him internships at their companies, but since these positions would require him to cut his hair, wear a tie, and sit in an office all day, Steve has no desire to do so. He intends to try and go to college, which will be difficult given his poor grades. He would prefer to go to Merrimack College because it's a top-ten party school with an 82% acceptance rate. Failing that, he's also planning on applying to the University of Massachusetts Lowell or Suffolk University.

Advantages: Steve is reasonably athletic and has decent speed when he runs. He is likely on good terms with most students in school, and is unlikely to be seen as a legitimate threat. His general willingness to take risks will enable him to find solutions that others might not.
Disadvantages: Steve is uncoordinated and accident prone, and what little brute strength he possesses is likely to be offset by his lack of technique or skill. He is unlikely to be taken seriously by other students, and as he will always prioritize spectacle over substance, it's unlikely that anyone will want to depend on him as an ally. His tendency towards showboating and theatrics will also leave him wide open in most combat situations.

Designated Number: Student No. 037

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Designated Weapon: 1-gallon jug of bleach

Conclusion: I can think of some pretty extreme things to do with that. - Abby Soto

DECEASED