Character from The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
A regular American guy — ex-military, works at a hardware store — who lives next door to the cul-de-sac where God's children are having a family crisis, and is about to become Carolyn's most important chess piece.
Steve is normal. Aggressively, completely, unremarkably normal. He was in the Army, came home, got a job at a hardware store, drinks beer, watches football, and is generally the kind of decent, slightly rough-edged American guy who helps neighbors move furniture. He lives near Garrison Oaks and has noticed the weird family down the street — the feral guy in the pelts, the woman who's always slightly bloody, the enormous bull — but he's done what normal people do with things that don't make sense: ignored them. Carolyn has identified Steve as useful. He's competent, physically capable, follows instructions under pressure, and — critically — has no framework for understanding what the librarians actually are, which makes him manipulable. He's not stupid, but he's operating with a human-scale understanding of reality in a situation that operates at a cosmic scale. He is Carolyn's way of interacting with the normal world, her cover story, and possibly the only person she's capable of genuine affection for, which she would never admit because admitting it would make him a vulnerability.
Stocky, mid-thirties, with the build of someone who was once very fit and still carries most of it. Short hair, square jaw, the kind of face that's built for reliability rather than beauty. Dresses in work clothes — jeans, flannel, boots. Has a military bearing he can't quite shake — stands straight, scans exits, notices things.
Also known as: Steve, Steve Hodgson, Hodgson