CK03: LESLIE LOWELL [DECEASED]

#1

DECEASED

Name: Lowell, Marinus Leslie
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
Hobbies and Interests: Fishing, camping, football (spectating), agriculture

Appearance: Leslie, at 5’3” and 158 lbs, stands out as one of the noticeably shortest male students at Mangrove Garden High. He is stout. He overeats, giving him quite a bit of fat spread evenly over his body. However due to the physically demanding tasks from working outdoors and on farms over the last few years, he has developed plenty of solid muscle resulting in his broad shoulders, wide back, and a tight core obscured by a small pouch of fat.

His face is naturally a little more long than it is wide, but do to being somewhat fat his cheeks are pronounced. His straight black hair is buzzed down to about half an inch uniformly. He has small round ears, thick eyebrows, and beady eyes. He has a round nose with a dense spattering of freckles across the bridge and a soft jaw line. He is inconsistent with regards to staying clean shaven; for the last few months he has tried cultivating a short chin curtain beardx although it is rather patchy around the cheeks. He is Caucasian with a naturally lightly tanned complexion, but in the warmer months he has a more pronounced farmer’s tan on his face and arms.

Leslie’s body language is very stiff, much like a brick wall. He rarely speaks and keeps his deep thoughts to himself even outside of group settings. When he does talk he tends to hesitate, especially if has to go off-script from what planned in his head, so his sentences come out rushed and curt or he just shuts down completely if there is conflict. And because his words slur and run together when he gets flustered, he sometimes has to repeat himself multiple times to other. His face is in a frown at rest, and he hardly emotes.

Leslie doesn’t put much effort into clothes selection and just throws on whatever he manages to grab from his wardrobe of loose-fitting t-shirts and jeans with a few relatively nicer dress shirts. On Casting Day Leslie was wearing a black graphic tee of a vertically-aligned American flag, a short-sleeve navy blue button down pocket shirt left unbuttoned, blue jeans, and brown 6-inch logger boots. He also had on a navy blue trucker cap with “Southridge Shooters Club – Est. 1948” inscribed in white blocked letters, and a pair of black Oakley wrap-around sunglasses sat on the bill.

Biography: Leslie was born on March 14, 2003 to Jessica and Paul Lowell in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Jessica worked as a human-resources specialist for the city government, and Paul was an over-the-road truck driver for a nationwide shipping company.

From a young age, Leslie's household was dysfunctional. He was always well fed and had clothes and a roof over his head, but emotional support was inconsistent. His parents' relationship was strained for as long as Leslie could remember; his father would regularly be away for weeks or even months at a time hauling freight cross-country, partially to distance himself from the stresses of his own family life while ironically putting a great deal of stress on Leslie and his mother by being an absentee parent. Eventually the emotional load between both of them became too heavy, so Leslie's parents ended up divorcing sometime when Leslie was about 4 years old. Primary custody of Leslie went towards his mother, and about a year later the two of them moved farther south into Miami proper after she got an offer for a better paying position at a pharmaceutical company.

His mother wasn't the perfect parent herself. She did try the best she could, making sure he was physically well taken care of along with bonding with him by taking him on short day trips or doing activities such as going to the movies and celebrating holidays together. However, she was very emotionally turbulent and could change moods at the drop of the hat if she saw or heard something that was even seemingly innocuous set her off. She would criticize and find or create faults in Leslie, picking him apart if something was not up to her meticulous standards in regards to his completion of chores or her perception of being disrespected by him. Anytime Leslie tried to defend himself or give his input, she would disregard it or spin it around on him even if she was clearly in the wrong. This gaslighting by his mother had a negative effect on Leslie as he learned that it was better to not say anything and just take her sharp words since trying to speak up would only make things worse, since she could never be convinced otherwise.

School wasn't much better after he was old enough to start going. Although Leslie welcomed it as a break from home along with really enjoying learning about new things and concepts, socially he had a hard time adjusting. Because of his cold demeanor and home life it was hard for him to open up and make many few friends, usually sticking to himself and solo play from that fear of rejection. This, in combination with being so physically short in comparison to other boys, made him a prime target for bullying and name calling. This experience just reinforced his stoic attitude, him realizing that people will stop bothering you and go away if you just don't react.

As such Leslie enjoyed solo activities such as reading or working on puzzles a lot more than group play since he only had himself to worry about. He also enjoyed taking his toys apart and having a less enjoyable time putting them back together, both due to his curiosity of how stuff worked along with taking out his frustration with social experience by doing something productive with his hands.

After the divorce Leslie's father tried to at least put in a minimal effort for a relationship with his son, especially after finding it easier not having to deal with his mother so much. On weekends when his father was home, he would take Leslie out for activities such as camping or fishing. Initially he hated these outings because of his resentment for his father leaving them, but after spending more and more time he came to appreciate them as a way to get to know his father more on a personal level and understanding of the reasons why he left, though he views his father as more of a sibling or an uncle than a real parent. He also found enjoyment just getting away from the stress of daily life; he could just fish, or read, or take a walk and no one would bother him.

When they weren't on an outing, Leslie and his father instead passed the time watching or attending football games. Initially viewing it as just something to do together, over the course of viewing games Leslie realized how much he enjoyed the endorphin rush of seeing someone make a long distance play or the anxiety turning into elation of a clutch game won by just a few points difference. It was also another thing to just talk about with his dad, along with being something to strategically deploy as small talk with other people. As such, Leslie has regularly kept up with games every season, and his favorite NFL team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Approaching high school, Leslie's mother made him take the test to enroll in Mangrove Garden, seeing it as a good opportunity for him along with desiring the clout of having a child enrolled there. As such he only put in a passable effort to please his mother, not trying too hard but trying hard enough so he could plausibly claim the benefit of the doubt with not placing. This plan backfired when he placed high enough to get on the reserve list, and it really backfired when Mangrove Garden gave him the opportunity to enroll with the scholarship after someone who placed higher declined. Initially Leslie protested claiming he didn't want to be separated from his friends and school he was already in, but really he protested due to the anxiety of feeling out of place among those who actually scored high or bought their way in. After some encouragement from his father and tiring of the incessant nagging from his mother to take it, Leslie decided to accept being enrolled.

Around Mangrove Garden Leslie fades into the back in the social standing due to his loner tendencies and his aloof nature. Since starting high school he has tried to at least put in some sort of effort into being more social, though his interactions are superficial small talk at best. He has a few friends, mostly surface level acquaintances with those in the jock-adjacent or outdoorsy groups; he does feel somewhat lonely due to not having any of those deep meaningful relationships everyone else seems to have, but he also figures it's not worth the effort to make those kinds of connections if people will just find ways to hurt you anyway. Grade-wise he does well; he gets A's and the occasional B in classes he struggles in, and he stays somewhere above average in class rankings. He favors classes in math and science as he really enjoys learning about the theories and mechanics that make up and affect everyone's day-to-day lives. He doesn't enjoy English that much, finding deep and personal interpretations of texts really boring and fake and somewhat condescending, especially if it's taught by a teacher with a strict black or white viewpoint.

Leslie doesn't participate in extracurriculars, instead occupying his free time with going camping or fishing by himself or with the very few people he's let his guard down enough to hang out outside of school. He also does odd jobs and gigs sometimes, mowing lawns or trimming bushes for neighbors. The last few years he has started working under the table as a farmhand for a few local places such as classmate Emmett Purcell's family's sweet potato farm during the busy seasons. Through this avenue he has started to really take an interest in the science behind agriculture, especially all of the chemistry and biology that goes into raising crops. He also just enjoys staying busy, along with the generated disposable income and the excuse to not be at home for as long as possible.

Leslie's current relationship with his parents is still about the same. His father retired a few months ago so Leslie's been able to spend some more time with him voluntarily, going over to his place once a month or two if he needs help on a project or just to spend time together. His relationship with his mother is still strained at best. She still finds something to criticize and emotionally use against him when she gets in another episode, whether it be his grades not being good enough despite staying consistently high on the class rankings or a communication misunderstanding on her part she spins around to make herself the victim. Recently, especially in the last year or two after getting his driver's license and buying his own vehicle, he has started finding or making more excuses to prolong going home as a defense mechanism by reducing their contact time in case she gets in one of her moods. However he does feel guilt over this as he feels he is running from his duties and responsibilities as a son, but he also rationalizes avoidance as the best solution for now as he has started to become more independent.

After high school Leslie plans on continuing school and pursuing a bachelor of science in agronomy. He has been accepted into Florida A&M in Tallahassee and has impressed them enough to be awarded several scholarships for his academic efforts. Leslie looks forward to this opportunity both for his education along with physically distancing himself from his demanding mother.

In regards to his consumption of Survival of the Fittest Leslie practically has none. He’s seen a few episodes and out of context clips of random previous seasons on the news or the internet, but he’s never shown much interest in actually keeping up with it. This is less from a moral standpoint and more from just finding most non-sports related pop culture really dumb and not worth the time getting emotionally invested in.

Advantages: Leslie, being under the radar socially at school, may have an easy time being able to stay out of the way while the bigger personalities clash with each other. He is physically strong as well due to his work experience, and his wilderness experience may aid him in the survival aspect of the game.
Disadvantages: Leslie is a bad speaker, and he may have an especially hard time getting out of any problematic situations by talking his way out. He may have a hard time establishing alliances with others due to his cold and aloof attitude, effectively playing the game all by himself right from the beginning.

Designated Number: Claudia's Krakens 03 (CK03)

----

Designated Weapon: Sedgley Glove Gun

Mentor Comment: "Awww yeah, a big ol' farm boy, okay so he's not that big, but he's still a farm boy which means he's gonna be strong. It doesn't matter if he can't talk worth a damn, if anyone tries something he doesn't like he can just punch them and shoot them at the same time and that is pretty fucking cool."

DECEASED