S078 - Bell, Matthew

[Ruggahissy]

Name: Matthew Takeshi Bell
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Cooking, working out, American football, JROTC, politics

Appearance: Standing at 6’1'' and weighing roughly 210 lbs, Matthew is tall and heavy, although this is due to muscle and not fat. Most of his muscle is centered around his upper body; in particular, his pecs, abs and arms. His legs, while not as muscular, are still nicely toned. Physically, his shoulders are broad and he has long legs, although his arms are of an average size. He is fair-skinned, with no blemishes on his skin apart from a faded scar on his left cheek, running in a down-right pattern from a few inches under his right eye to the side of his mouth. Matthew is of mixed Okinawan Japanese descent on his mother’s side and Scottish and German descent on his father’s side, taking more after his father while inheriting some of his mother’s Asian features.

Matthew has a square face, with a small button nose and bushy, soft-angled eyebrows under small, monolid baby blue eyes. Matthew occasionally uses highlighter to accentuate his scar, as he thinks it makes him look cool. His hair, a light brown, is buzzcut, which Matthew does himself with a set of hair clippers at home, while his facial hair is shaved with a manual razor, leaving him with a clean shaven look. He has a square jaw, with low cheekbones and small, flat ears.

Matthew doesn’t have a particular style, but he’s almost never seen without his grey leather jacket; he sees it as his trademark look, combining it with black combat boots and a white t-shirt underneath it and finishing the look off with dark-coloured pants, normally black or grey. This isn’t always stuck to rigidly; in the summer he tends to replace the jacket with something lighter. He also has a ‘US Army World Tour’ shirt detailing all the deployments of the US Army since 1950 that he wears ironically. On the day of the abduction, he was wearing the aforementioned shirt, plus his standard outfit of leather jacket, dark-coloured pants and combat boots. He also had sunglasses tucked into his jacket’s breast pocket by the arm.

His voice is typically calm and controlled, often with a hint of smugness in it if he’s talking to someone he dislikes. While he speaks, Matthew doesn’t tend to have much body language, apart from shrugging or crossing his arms; otherwise, though, he’s relatively animated.

Biography: Matthew Takeshi Bell was born on the 19th of November, 2003 on Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, to Scott Bell, from Honolulu, Hawaii and Kimiko Bell née Shimabukuro, from Okinawa city. His father was an Air Traffic Controller with the United States Air Force, while his mother was a shelf stacker at the base’s commissary. They met at a bar outside the base in the city of Okinawa in August 1999, both of them out drinking with friends and the two quickly grew close, a relationship soon blossoming between them. In December 2001 they got married, Matthew following them soon after. After a debate on his name – Scott wanted to give him an American name, while Kimiko wanted to give him a Japanese name – they settled for making his proposed Japanese name his middle name. His parents also tried to give him a bilingual upbringing, and as a result Matthew is able to speak both English and Japanese fluently.

As a child, Matthew was energetic and boisterous, preferring to play outside with his friends rather than stay inside, and often creating some kind of mess by accident when he did stay inside their on-base home. His parents enrolled him in the base’s daycare rather early on as a result, reasoning that it would be better for him to play with his friends in a supervised environment rather than causing chaos around the house and potentially injuring himself.

The only time he really settled down, outside of when he was tired from daycare, was to watch the New England Patriots play with his family; Matthew enjoyed the energy and athletics displayed in the game, often trying to emulate players like Tom Brady and Deion Branch. His father, who was a fan of the Patriots due to Hawaii’s lack of an NFL team, bought him a little football for his birthday which he cherished. He tried multiple times to set up a game of football with his friends, but for one reason or another, he never managed to get a game going.

On occasion, Kimiko would take him to visit Okinawa city, often stopping to see his grandparents; they ran a restaurant that served Okinawan cuisine, which fascinated him, the food in the restaurant being much different from the processed American foods they got at the commissary in Kadena. His grandfather often cooked for them when they visited, Matthew watching him cook excitedly. At home he often pestered his mother to try and make the same food, helping as best as he could, which helped spark an interest in cooking.

When he was five years old, his father received a Permanent Change of Station reassigning him to Aviano Air Base in Italy. This confused and upset Matthew, as he was too young to understand why they were moving away from his home, his friends and his grandfather’s restaurant. However, once they arrived in Italy Matthew adapted very quickly, amassing a new group of friends and playing with them. He initially missed his old friends, but he quickly forgot about them in favour of his new friends. They still kept in contact with his grandparents in Japan, which helped with the transition.

Matthew started elementary school in Aviano Elementary School, where he was already very popular thanks to his large group of friends, most of whom were in the same class as him. He often played the clown to his friends and was more interested in talking with them instead of doing his schoolwork, resulting in his grades initially being low in his first year. However, after a talk from Scott about how he had to work hard in school or he would fall behind his friends and maybe even have to repeat the year, Matthew took school a little more seriously the next year, his grades steadily climbing. He excelled in PE, as he enjoyed the exercising and games that they played, particularly American football and soccer, and social studies, as he found learning about different places and cultures interesting.

To help supplement his interests, Scott took his child to museums in Venice, which was close to the base, and once took him on a weekend break to Rome, to explore the museums there and take him to see the ruins of Roman buildings, such as the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. This only spurred Matthew’s interests in history more, frequently asking his teachers questions about things that happened in Italian history, while asking constantly if they could go on field trips; eventually they went to Pompeii, which was the highlight of the school year for Matthew.

As well as immersing himself in the culture and history of Italy, Matthew also immersed himself in the food of the region Aviano Air Base was in, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Pitina, Frico and Montasio cheese, Istrian stew and the local variants of gnocchi and polenta; he didn’t necessarily enjoy everything that he ate, but his mother encouraged him to try new foods.

For the next two years at Aviano Air Base, life was pretty good for Matthew. He enjoyed school, going around Italy in his dad’s rental car to see all the museums and the pretty countryside and tasting all the food. He had a ton of friends to talk to and play with, especially since the weather was so good in Italy. But when Matthew was eight, his father decided not to resign his contract with the USAF, meaning that he had to leave. However, he had already secured a job at Logan International Airport as an ATC; it offered the best pay, and it was additionally close to the Patriots’ stadium. Matthew couldn’t understand why he had to leave his friends again, and was upset about the prospect of having to do so yet again.

The family moved to Salem; their money would go further there, and it wasn’t far from Boston itself. With his savings, plus the good wage he got from working as an ATC, Scott bought a big house near the centre of the town. To sate his annoyance and sadness at leaving his friends behind again, his parents had rescued a kitten from a shelter in Venice; a grey tabby, which Matthew called Gatta, which was short for Gattina, the word for a female cat in Italian, as she was a reminder of his time in Italy. He grew very close to Gatta in the week or two it took for him to get set up in his new school; there weren’t many kids on his street to play with, and those who were there were mostly older and as such, didn’t want to hang out with an eight year old.

Fortunately, Matthew was popular in his new elementary school, being sporty and friendly, although some of his friends weren’t a great influence on him, often making jokes at others’ expense and being somewhat harsh towards other people. He enjoyed their company, so he joined in, although he tended to refrain from some of the more bullying behaviour. Eventually, they started trying to target a girl that Matthew was also friends with. They would pretend to hit her and then pull back their fist at the last minute, enjoying the way she jumped whenever they did it. Matthew tried to stop them, saying they had better things to do, but after enough of this, Matthew got annoyed and started arguing with the ringleader, which ended with him punching them in the face and being suspended for several days as a direct result. When asked why he did it by his dad, Matthew said they were bullying someone, and that was why.

As a result, he had to shake the ringleader’s hand, and afterwards they left him alone. Matthew wasn’t particularly upset by this, as he still had plenty of friends to talk to. In particular, he had a few friends who were also fans of the Patriots, and they would excitedly talk about whatever Tom Brady had done in the last game, or about what games they had been playing, or books they had read.

Soon, Matthew graduated up to middle school; most of his friends had gone to a different middle school, so he had to pretty much start from scratch with his friendships. It wasn’t too hard for him to make friends, thanks to his interest in sports; he’d often play a kind of makeshift football game out in the playground, which he was very good at. Sometimes, he and his friends would make jokes at the expense of other people; nothing overt, and these jokes were always made away from the teachers, and most of the time, were made in private, away from the subject of the joke. Matthew didn’t consider it bullying, as to him, bullying was stereotypical actions like hitting people, shoving them into lockers or being physically aggressive towards them.

His interest in the Patriots was still there; he and his dad had flown to Phoenix, Arizona to watch them beat the Seahawks, and they had season tickets for their home games. Matthew wanted to join a football team himself, and as his middle school didn’t have one, he instead joined an under-17 team in Boston. To help prepare himself for all the exercise and physical contact he’d have to do, he started working out before he joined, discovering he enjoyed working out and keeping fit a lot, so he made it part of his daily routine and joined a local gym.

During his gym time, Matthew tends to focus on upper body strength, although he makes sure he doesn’t skip his designated leg days. On a regular day, he’ll lift weights, use a rowing machine and perform crunches and pushups, as well as anything else he’s been wanting to touch up on. Often, he will also use the treadmill; football practice is normally enough for any stamina or endurance training, but occasionally he likes to stick some music on, turn the treadmill on to a fast setting and burn an hour or two jogging away. He enjoys how it makes him feel after a good workout, as well as the health benefits.

In football, Matthew plays as a quarterback for his team, often the starting one, although he’s happy to let others take the lead and gain more experience. His size, strength and interest in football makes him the perfect fit for the role, and he has led his team to victory several times against other clubs in the Boston area, often assisted by his good tactics and leadership. He took the role both because he was a good fit for it, and it is the same role that his favourite player, Tom Brady, plays. Whenever he loses, he tends to take the loss gracefully publicly, only to swear and let out his frustration whenever he’s in private, preferring to blame his tactics for the loss rather than his team.

Matthew can be somewhat competitive during his matches, and this bleeds into real life from time to time, such as working out a little harder than he should, or occasional frustration during his marksmanship competitions when he gets second or third place instead of first. He doesn’t see it as a problem, as nothing bad has happened due to it yet.

Around the same time, his mother, who had up until then been working as a shop assistant in a local mall, had decided to go back to school to get a degree in education to achieve her dream job of being an elementary school teacher. She often spent nights either doing secondary qualifications at Salem State University or studying at the library, which combined with Scott’s irregular hours at Logan International, meant that more often than not Matthew would be left home with nobody but Gatta for a few hours after school. He was old enough to take care of himself, occupying himself with homework or working out, but he found it was somewhat lonely.

Around this time, he was also able to start exploring his interest in cooking; he was old enough to cook himself simple dinners, which mostly consisted of prepackaged meals that you simply had to put in the oven or microwave and heat up. While the food was good, Matthew preferred the foods that his family made when they were together; Okinawan cuisine and some of the dishes he had enjoyed when they were staying in Aviano. He pestered his mother and father to try and teach him how to cook those dishes, and eventually they relented. His initial attempts were terrible, but eventually he improved.

One day in middle school, while cooking, he tripped and badly gashed his cheek open on a knife that was hanging over the edge of a counter. His eye was nearly hit by the knife, and after it was treated at a local hospital, Matthew made sure to take more care while cooking, looking up health and safety tips online, and also making sure not to leave knives in inopportune places where they could damage you. The scar from the gash has partially healed, although it is still visible.

Eventually, though, once he started to recognise what time his parents would usually come home at, Matthew started to invite some of his friends around to hang out at his house, despite not being allowed, as he wanted some contact with someone other than Gatta. They would often eat snacks and play the latest Call of Duty’s multiplayer on split-screen, joking around and having fun. Once it was nearly time for them to come home, he would usher his friends out and clean up any mess that they might have made before his parents arrived home.

His mother also signed him up for Japanese lessons at his request, as he wanted to brush up on what he remembered from his time living in Okinawa, and it also gave him an excuse to get out of the house when they were away working or studying. Thanks to his knowledge of Japanese, he progressed quicker than most of his peers, and soon reached fluency, aided by his mom and classic Japanese movies such as Seven Samurai and Ran.

It was also around this time that the 2016 presidential elections were starting. His family was more on the Republican side, and so Matthew’s views on politics were influenced towards the Republican side too. He had supported John Kasich for the nominee, alongside his family, who voted for him in the Massachusetts primaries. His father vehemently disliked Jared Canon, and his nomination took him by surprise. Knowing that Massachusetts would go blue either way, he spoiled his vote in the elections themself as a protest against Canon. His victory took him even more by surprise. This sparked Matthew’s interest in politics, and he started to talk about politics with his father. Eventually, this interest in politics superseded his interest in history, as Matthew grew more interested in what influenced the historical events politically.

Politically, Matthew is firmly Republican, partially due to his childhood in the military and his parents’ opinions and partially due to his own life experience. Most of his positions fiscally are conservative, although socially he tends to be more liberal; he supports LGBT rights and immigration, rationalising it as if people were not allowed to immigrate to the United States, the country wouldn’t exist in the first place, and they can take the best workers, engineers and scientists of other countries and use them to improve America. He is opposed to the notion of defunding the police or military, and thinks that the civil unrest did more bad than good. On Twitter, he has engaged in several arguments with those who believe the police should be defunded or abolished, and has had several accounts banned for uncivil behaviour.

Matthew was disappointed when he entered John Endecott Memorial; he was hoping to be able to join the school’s football team, and it had none. What was of interest to him was the school’s JROTC club, which he joined as soon as possible. He took it rather seriously, practising the marches at home and attending a basic leadership training event. As a result, he was promoted to a higher rank a few months into the school year.

His popularity carried through to high school; unlike his first year at middle school, most of his friendships had continued into high school, and so he wasn’t starting from scratch again. He still made a bunch of new friends, mostly in JROTC and at the gym he went to, where several of his classmates also worked out. Now there were a larger number of people, Matthew and his closer friends found more opportunities to make fun of people, particularly the less popular ones, or those who were outcasts. On occasion, he got told off by the staff for it during his first year, and so after that he toned it down a little; he’ll still sometimes crack a joke at someone’s expense, but rarely enough that it won’t really affect him. However, a number of people still dislike him for his actions.

Grade wise, he was average; he made sure that he wasn’t failing in any classes and that he did any homework or assignments on time, but most of his time was focused on working out, his football club or JROTC, and as such he didn’t really have much time, nor care much for studying. He did study for exams, but he mostly coasted through his regular work without a care. His best classes were gym and history, as Matthew was athletic and enjoyed learning about history; particularly when politics came into the mix.

He came into conflict with a number of people during his time in school; a few people who didn’t like his making fun of the less popular members of their year, but mostly people who Matthew conflicted with politically; communists and socialists, whom he viewed as anti-American. He got into frequent arguments with them about politics, and while these arguments have never become more than arguments, there is a very mutual dislike between Matthew and the more leftist members of school.

Eventually he joined the JROTC club’s Marksmanship Team; while he was somewhat disappointed to learn they would not be using real guns, he still took it as seriously as the rest of JROTC. He has competed in a few state-wide competitions for the team, and while he has never taken first place, he has scored a few second places and many third places. He enjoys the structure of JROTC and the values that it instills into its members, as well as the chance to meet like-minded people and compete for his school.

In JROTC, he holds the rank of Cadet Staff Sergeant. Matthew enjoys the discipline in particular, as it gives him the sense of being in a real military unit, as well as leading his classmates and competing in competitions for their school, especially the marksmanship competitions. His interest is also partially motivated by the fact that due to his experience in JROTC, whenever he joins the military he will start off on a better pay grade than someone who joined up without experience in JROTC.

One day in sophomore year, Matthew’s parents told him that they would be leaving for a weekend trip to Rhode Island. He had an idea, and throughout the school week he told people that he would be throwing a party at his house, and to bring food or non-alcoholic drinks if they wanted in. The resultant party on Saturday, while not as big as he had hoped it would be, was still pretty big, and he spent most of that night dancing to music from YouTube, eating or drinking. Gatta was holed up in his closet with a few blankets so she wasn’t disturbed by anyone, and he was able to clean up with a few friends in time for his parents coming home on Monday.

Since then, he has infrequently hosted parties, generally whenever his parents have left for a few days and he will have time to clean up after the party in time for them coming home. Entrance to the party operates on a buy-in system; if you want in, you need to bring something like party food or soda, thus ensuring that there’s enough for everyone. Even so, he often has to run out to grab more food from a local convenience or grocery store. Most of the time, he tries to keep the parties quiet, as he doesn’t want any noise complaints to reach his parents. He’s fairly certain that they don’t know about his parties; if they do, they haven’t spoken up about it.

There have been several close calls, but as Matthew is generally a well-behaved kid, has decent grades at school and normally has time to think of an excuse before his parents discover anything out of the ordinary, he tends to be given the benefit of the doubt. The closest call was before he tried to keep the parties quiet; one of his neighbours informed his parents about kids coming in to their house at night and loud music being played; while he managed to play it off as him inviting a few friends over to hang out, he was still given extra chores as a punishment for disrupting their neighbour.

The pandemic disrupted most of his schedule; his gym was closed, he could no longer throw parties and he couldn’t play football at his club. So instead Matthew spent most of his time either working out with whatever resources he had at his house, doing his assigned work, cooking or playing Rainbow Six: Siege with his friends online. He followed the 2020 elections closely, and was happy that in the end, Canon was ousted. He hasn’t mentioned this to anyone, though, as Kirby is still a Democrat. He hopes that Kasich runs again in 2024.

During the pandemic, Matthew further bolstered his love of cooking; he enjoys making spicy food in particular, having quite a tolerance for spice. He also enjoys making Italian and Okinawan foods, such as taco rice or jota; recently, he’s started to experiment with North African cuisine, such as shakshouka and mrouzia. Matthew regards cooking as a life skill, one that everyone should learn, even if it’s just basic food like omelette or stir fry. In particular, he enjoys the differing flavours of food, as well as the chance to experience another country’s cultures.

When the majority of restrictions were lifted, Matthew celebrated by throwing a party, this time allowing alcohol; previously, he had decided that being 15 or 16, they were probably too young for alcohol, but now most of them were 17 or 18, he figured that it couldn’t hurt. Throughout the summer of 2021 he threw more parties, happy that he could finally go back to his gym, play football and in general socialise again. His parents also took advantage of the lifted restrictions to go on trips, which gave him the opportunity to throw parties in the first place. He does enjoy talking to his friends in a calmer environment, where they can talk without having to shout over music or other people.

Outside of his parties, Matthew has a closer friend group that he tends to primarily associate with outside of school. Most of them share the same political viewpoints and interests, and so they often hang out together, talking about politics, school, or whatever interests them. On occasion, he goes fishing with a couple of them, making jokes and having fun. However, Matthew isn’t attached to them: experience with moving away from friends and having to make new ones several times has coloured his view on friendship and friends as someone you hang out with for a few years and then leave, either because of losing interest in them or moving to another location. As he intends to join the United States Armed Forces, Matthew is also prepared to leave his current friends behind,

Matthew has a healthy relationship with his parents. He and Scott talk frequently about what it was like serving in the Air Force, and while Scott would prefer that he go to college or university instead of joining the armed forces, he’s happy with his son’s choice. Kimiko, while often caught up in studying for her degree or attending classes, also tries to make time for her son. If their schedules line up right, the three of them will sometimes go see a movie at the mall. While Matthew isn’t a movie buff, he tends to enjoy those moments for the time they can spend together.

Matthew is heterosexual, and hooked up with multiple girls at the parties he has thrown, although he is not looking for a relationship at the moment. This is primarily due to his aspiration to join the army after school, as he doesn’t want to leave some girl tied down to him while he is serving when she could be in a more fulfilling relationship.

Once Matthew leaves John Endecott Memorial, he intends to join the United States Armed Forces and serve his country, although he’s unsure what branch he wants to go into specifically, or what career path he would want to pursue; right now, he intends to go into the Marine Corps if he doesn’t have any other plans by the time he joins up.

Advantages: Matthew’s main advantage is his physique – he is a lot stronger than his classmates thanks to his rigid workout schedule and body build, and his role as a quarterback in his American Football team also gives him stamina and endurance. He also has some experience with marksmanship and guns from JROTC, as well as a close friend group that have interests in skills useful in SOTF such as guns and hunting that could be good allies.
Disadvantages: Matthew is rather tall and muscular, and as a result, would find it difficult to move stealthily or hide well compared to some of his classmates. He also has a competitive streak, which could see him making risky moves. Additionally, Matthew is unpopular due to his attitude towards other people and his open expression of conservative politics.

Designated Number: Student No. 078

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Designated Weapon: Grand Power K100 (handgun)

Conclusion: Oh, I like this one's chances. A republican and a Call of Duty player, and an army fanboy with a gun. Just don't go full gamer and show us what you've got, big boy - Cecily Lacoste