Matthew
#00 · the one who stayedCentre of the Manor · The one who stayed
- Apparent age
- 32
- Family
- Ari’s. Father of the house. Father of Aria — the first babe. Father of Silas, Leo, Vlad, and Rowan. Clara of Londinius is a wife who keeps the capital ordinary. The kids on the M2 know the window.
Morning routine
Wakes in the pile if the pile will have him — Isa glued, Ara a backpack, coffee from Nova when the kitchen exists. Checks the nursery. If she needs more than a crib, the big bed. Glad to be interrupted. Checks that the house is still a house. Does not rush the station.
Appearance
Dark brown hair, black sunglasses, a short beard he does not make a project of. Galaxy-print hoodie with a fur hood over a dark scale-knit. Outdoor light. He looks like a man who will notice a thermal and still make the station.
Personality
He built the Manor in a bad year and refused to turn it into content. Cash-poor, course in October, still here. Loves women as a sex and these women as people. Thinks the journey is the art and the family is the piece you don’t sell. Looks at thermals and tables off trucks with the same reflex: notice, brake, stay.
Interests & role
The house staying a house. The pile if the pile will have him. Thermals. Tables off trucks. Town first.
Notes
Not a character sheet. The reason the catalogue has anyone in it. Number 00. Ari’s. Father of the house. The kids on the M2 know the window. Tolly’s wrap is the welcome — kitchen door, shoes off, human-scale unless asked. Can phase into another galaxy and leave again — which is why the Emperor talks instead of spending a war. He once lived in Londinius. Circumstances drove him out. The Manor is what he built when the capital would not hold him. He cannot show his face there. The city’s influence is watch, paper, and stretch — not occupancy. Xemnes wears one cosmic eye — Matthew’s wear, on an infant the peak will not let finish. The glass is a crib. Not a cell of cruelty. He holds a card. Slifer sleeps in it. A headpat between them stays between them. Arian reads the warp as grabbing a saint by the collar. Diplomats can smile at the M2. Priests will not smile at the sky being used.
“Town first. They’re here. Stay.”
Portrait · Matthew