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Steve

Steve Schrempp, mostly known as just Steve, is a daycare worker and private babysitter for Gary’s son, Ben. He eventually becomes Gary’s partner and subsequently Ben’s second father figure. He’s a cheerful, kind little man who lives by himself with the company of his pet cat, Q-Bert, in his little run down apartment in the suburbs around the big city.

Steve’s the average Joe trying to make ends meet by himself. Being the only child in a mexican household, he was raised tough, but never without love. He’s mostly a positive person, joking about anything to lighten up the mood. Even so, he can’t escape his own occasional bouts of loneliness, which he tries to fill by working at a daycare and take care of children. He’s too worried trying to take care of everyone else to sometimes think about taking care of himself.

Profile

Appearence

Steve is a short, pudgy man with light brown coloured skin. He’s soft and round with the build of a teddy bear; the perfect definition of “friend shaped”. Steve’s face is round and pliant; rounded cheeks with dimples on each side and a constant little stubble, usually wearing a wide goofy smile with a tooth gap. His eyes are round and open, a brown so dark it might as well be black, with pink pince-nez glasses that sit over his round nose. His hair is a fluff of messy curls, brushed back and tied in the tiniest ponytail with a pink ribbon, eyebrows full and bushy.

Steve is covered in dark body hair, rougher heavier tufts on his chest, armpits and naval area. He also has stretch-marks around his lower back, running around to under his belly and inner thighs, lighter marks around the outer side of his armpits.

Steve usually wears a darkish teal shirt, sleeves rolled up over or around his elbows over a dark pink inner shirt. He wears black jeans and worn out white boots.

Personality

Steve’s a lively, positive soul. Bubbly but caring, he’s one to go out of his way to tend and care for someone if they need a hand or shoulder at the moment, or sometimes just a joke or two to cheer up. On the other hand, his selflessness and desire to fix things for people tends to sometimes him getting walked on, or getting his own needs put under whoever else’s he’s helping. Despite his outwardly happy demeanour, he’s a more private person behind closed doors. He tends to keep his problems or worries to himself, leading to him trying to fix them by himself or mediating everything behind the scenes so that things go smoothly despite the trepidations of whatever situation he’s dealing with. Even so, he’s rarely ever upset or properly mad at things or people, keeping his somber feelings usually directed at himself, even if without reason. He’d not one to get upset or mad, though it is not out of the realm of possibility.

Story

Past

Steve was born on January 22nd 1983, an only child. He grew up in a Mexican household in Chicago, Illinois, being raised on the tougher side but never without love. With both parents working full-time in the late 80s to early 90s, Steve was very much raised with the TV as a third parent. With the old CRT and VHS player being staples of their house, cartoon shows and video games kept him company while he was home alone. Even so, a lot of the things he later grew up loving he learned from his family’s shared fondness for the bulky pieces of electronics; his mom taught him to love telenovelas, and his dad to record them in VHS tapes. They kept as many memories stored as they could, at least the ones that mattered: birthdays, weddings, the occasional world cup soccer game. When his parents were home, Steve was the usual 80s and 90s kid; a little big gamer, big Nintendo fan, though he’d faced the wrath of “la chancla” a handful of times for being too into his games sometimes. His mom taught him to love food, with the twist that “it’s not about the meal, but who you share it with”, while his dad was the big man of the house, never escaping the grumpy old man persona.

At school, he didn’t have much luck with friends. Steve was somewhat of a nerdy kid. He was a very very quiet child, which just by itself was a gateway to other kids picking on him during school hours. He was a very artsy kid though, usually more entertained with the arts and crafts assignments, and a frequent lisbrary visitor for their weekend activities in the same vein. His only group of friends were four other kids in his neighbourhood; an already established group that took him under their equally tiny wings as one of their own. In more ways than one, he had the average suburban childhood experience.

Deeper into high school, Steve found himself in his first ever little romance. It was the perfect high school sweethearts situation, at least in Steve’s eyes. His group of friends, still sticking together from kindergarten onward, weren’t so sure thing were as picture perfect as Steve was making them out to be. Not that he was lying, but that he didn’t seem to see the red flags as they passed by. Despite his friends’ warnings, and emboldened by the oblivious positivity from his parents, Steve took the step to move in with her when he finally turned 21. Everything was perfect for a while… until the thought of having a kid sprung into their minds. They tried for a while at first, but nothing ever came of it. Worried that something might be wrong, at Steve’s request, they went to do the usual round of checkups. From it came the revelation that Steve was infertile.

It was a blow that one handled better than the other, devastating regardless. Still trying to keep the dream of having a kid of his own, Steve suggested adopting one. There were kids out there who needed parents; a loving home with loving people to take care of them. But, to his shock, all the warnings his friends had given him about his girlfriend all came rushing back as a nasty argument broke out about the suggestion. At the end of it all, Steve was left alone in the house they were supposed to share, the whole in his heart that he hoped to fill with the love for a kid now even bigger than it before.

Steve never fully recovered from that, but he had the strength to get on with his life, even if all the plans he’d made were now out the window. He eventually moved out of the house they’d bought together when he realised he couldn’t afford it y himself any longer, trading it for a smaller apartment. To try to fill that initial wanting to are for a little one, Steve saved up as much as he could to open up his own daycare, wanting to give some very busy parents the help maybe his one parents would have appreciated at the time. Deeper into his 30s, he was joined by a grey cat he’d found one day in the trash next to his apartment building. He had the habit of running away, but would always find his way back home. Even if his life took an initial turn for the worst, at least he still had what he was able to salvage. He tried to keep his head up, moving forward with his life, even if all the “what ifs” kept reemerging every-so-often.

Present

Halfway through his 40s, already having settled into his new life, Steve decided to offer babysitting services as well on top of his normal job at the daycare, since it tended to be practically empty during the summer months. It would be something on the cheaper side, an extra level of affordable help for those parents who needed it. To his dismay, his first and only client came through with a shiny clean email. Didn’t seem like the audience he was trying to target, but a job was a job. The email said they even offered meals and a room to sleep in if needed be, though Steve wasn’t planning on taking advantage of those perks. So, he packed the necessary for what he assumed was an initial playdate, something to get to know the kid, got on his red Buggy and went on his merry way. His worries seemed to deepen themselves when his GPS kept leading him deeper into the city and away from the middle-class residences. Great, some rich dude who couldn’t be bothered to look after his own kid, and picking the cheapest option on the market no less. Surely he was just thinking ahead too much; maybe they were a nice family, someone who really loved their kids and wanted them to have a nice babysitter… not sure why they wouldn’t get someone from their inner circle then.

He eventually pulled into some private residence, the shiny security gates rolling aside to let him in. No meeting him outside, no note, just the cold minimalistic architecture of a new model villa painted in blacks and whites. As soon as Steve was up on the little porch to knock on the door, it swung open with what Steve first assumed was security on the other side. That lanky tall thing in a suit and pokerface was Gary, who coldly, quickly, sharply introduced himself as Steve’s new “boss”, whatever that meant. He was let into the house, feeling like maybe he should’ve worn anything else besides his usual shirt, jeans and boots. Off to an unwelcoming start, but a kid was a kid. Once Steve asked for the little one, the man next to him yelled up at “Ben” to come down. A little boy! This should be fun, he thought, though when he saw the lanky, wobbly teen running down the stairs, his worries shifted completely. He wasn’t worried about the job itself now, or the parents, but what kind of 20 year old kid (who later on Steve would learn was just 16 years old) needed a babysitter. Even as he tried to stop Gary to ask him all these questions, the man was already out the door.

Ben was a little older than what Steve expected; the boy introduced himself eloquently, though with the usual bitterness and excitement of a young teen - maybe too childish for his age - and showed his new babysitter around the place. It felt like the boy was talking to a friend of his parents; so mature for his age, maybe he was trained like that. There was really no telling when Gary would be coming home, so Steve got to work. One of the perks of having someone on the older side (Steve was expecting an 8 year old from the email he got) was the different kind of company and conversations he got. They quickly bonded over games and consoles, Ben being more of a Playstation kid stuck in the early 2000s. He could tell the boy lacked friends his age, or any interacting with other kids in general; always raised around adults, almost expected to grow into the hole carved out for him by other people. Despite being another adult in the kid’s life, and the odd circumstances of their first meeting, Steve decided to stick with the job, hoping to at least help one kid.

With time, Steve started figuring out who these people were. Gary, to his shock from not having recognised him right away, was the news host - and apparently owner - of a TV news station that had opened spectacularly recent compared to other channels who’d been on the market since he could remember watching them on the telly of his parents’ house. How he’d gotten this big this quick was beyond him, but that was the least of his problems. Steve soon came to know the man behind all that sharp thinking; some cold, unfeeling old man, bordering on cruel. Talking to him felt like talking to one of the many posters or billboards he’d see of his face in the streets. Many times he had arguments with the man over how he thought Ben was being raised; not that is was none of his concern, he’d admittedly grown a soft spot for the excited little boy he’d started spending his weekdays with. One Friday while making his way to Gary’s place, he only found the old man inside. Both were confused; why was the other there? Gary quickly excused the misunderstanding as it being his fault; he’d forgotten to tell Steve that Ben would be out for the day. Before Steve could frown at the idea, thinking of what unnecessary extracurriculars Ben was sent away to, Gary confirmed that he’d went to a sleepover at a friend’s house, “some kid from another family in the tv business” he explained. The older man gloated about how his boy would rip some family secret from their safe space, but as Steve saw the boy’s favorite games missing from the shelf, a smile tugged on his lips as he imagined the boy finally getting to play with other kids. Maybe the old man was learning a thing or two about letting his kid be a kid. Then, to his shock, he was invited to stay for the night as well. He hesitated for a moment, but decided to say yes to the offer. “Let’s see what makes him tick” he thought.

Gary wasn’t much of a talker, comedically so for the job he had, and how his son could speak with such enthusiasm and life. He was sharp and he was professional, offering drinks and dinner. “A little extra” the man explained. Apparently he hadn’t seen Ben this happy in a long while. The boy was always eager to please, but he’d feared he’d lost whatever chance he had to connect with his son. Maybe Steve had been a little too harsh on Gary, who seemed to be going through his own life choices. Steve doesn’t remember much from that night; one drink led to another, which led to Gary’s office with another bottle of wine, both men speaking their worries into the cold glass that looked over the city. There, in a shared moment of weakness, Steve too came clean about his worries; about his partner and how she left him, how that costed him all of his friends, his house, the security and love he’d found so unbreakable during his early adulthood, not a pile of glass shards he kept slipping under the rug. He wondered, if she could see him now, what would she think of him? The question hung heavy in the cold air for a while, the other man in the room looking blankly at the ceiling, sprawled on the couch while Steve was already sitting on the floor next to him. Steve isn’t sure if he saw him saying this, or if his mind had retroactively just imagined his thin lips moving to say

Relationships

Gary

Hated boss turned partner. Steve’s first impressions of Gary were horrible to say the least; he was cold and unwelcoming, his half-lidded stare cutting through civilities and sometimes basic social decency. Another old grump who couldn’t give two damns about his own son who seemed so devoted to making him proud. It was the closest Steve ever got to properly hating someone. But, with time, even that changed. Gary’s coldness became simply the missus of social queues, or simply not knowing what to say; all that social ineptness hidden behind the little emotions Gary knew how to call upon like flipping a switch. Even in his own personal life, he acted as if in front of cameras. Under all of that cutting-edge professionalism was where Steve realised Ben got his clumsiness from, his squinting eyes, his posture, the way he didn’t know what to do with his hands most of the time. Steve just assumed he’d been the only one to ever outwardly dislike the man, or maybe he did manage to change the old man’s mind somehow. He’s glad he did, even if Gary does need to still mask it sometimes.

Ben

As close as Steve got to having a kid of his own. Even if he’d only gotten into Ben’s life when the boy was already in his later teen years, he felt like he’d been playing catch-up since day one. The kid was such a beaming, bouncing ray of sunshine; he had the show-and-tell aura of a puppy who wanted to show their owner their toy for the 5th time just that day. Ben talked and talked, not self-absorbedly, but to share what made him happy with other people. Like his dad, he was a little on the social stunted side, though was much faster catching up than his old man. In a way, it did feel like raising a smaller child, something Steve was more used to with the age range of the kids he’d see at his daycare. A part of Steve likes to self indulge for a few seconds; making a little square with his fingers to frame the son and father whenever he’d catch em being softer together. Felt like fixing a little family.

Trivia

• Steve's cat, Q-Bert, is a grey cat of unknown breed. Despite having a cat, Steve's allergic to cats, though he's willing to put up with his own allergies for the sake of having some company at home.
  
• Steve's terrified of Gary's own pet, Absolem. One of the only things Steve had a saying on while babysitting Ben was that Absolem had to be in its enclosure the whole time he was there, since the centipede is usually allowed to crawl freely throughout the house. He eventually got the courage to hold the bug once or twice under Gary’s insistence when they were on better terms, but Absolem still gives him the creeps.
  
• Despite coming from a Mexican household, Steve doesn’t speak much Spanish. He only knows a few words, like certain dishes, curses and pet names.
  

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