• Sleep Forever - Portugal. The Man
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Matieu does not stand out. He keeps to himself, generally only speaking when he has to – yet he is not shy and, if anything, quite the contrary. Matieu has no problem with conversations, he is just not interested in human interaction. Not only human interaction however, Matieu appears disinterested in just about anything. His default expression tends to reflect that, though it is frequently mistaken for annoyance and, more rarely, sadness.

This disinterests stems from a lifelong feeling of being a burden. Though he pretends to not care about others’ opinions on him, Matieu does care; being told he is unwanted is especially painful. Matieu has a generally fatalistic view of life, believing that there is no point to expectations and that is easier to simply “go with the flow”. In truth, he has always been at the mercy of others’ choices and does not feel he has much – if any – control over his own life.

Beneath the cold exterior however, Matieu is a kind and compassionate human being. After warming up to someone, he comes to care deeply for them, to the point of worrying too much. And worrying is, generally speaking, something Matieu is very good at. Not paranoid or even anxious, he thinks thoroughly before acting and would consider himself the voice of reason in most situations.

Born at an unassuming time and to unassuming parents in the quiet city of Pagge, it only took a few months for a freak accident to rip it all away from Matieu. He lost both parents before he could form memories. It is impossible to overstate how devastated his family was - both for the loss of life and for what would happen to Matieu, orphaned so young. He would have ended up in an orphanage or foster home were it not for a relative taking him in out of pity.

Had Matieu stayed with that family for his whole life he would not have reason to complain, but life seemingly had other plans for him.

What followed that arrangement was another. And then another still. Matieu was shuffled around among family members every few years (if not months); he started with closer ones such as his grandparents or parents’ siblings, but soon was being sent across the country to live with distant relatives he would not have believed were related to him were it not for convoluted family tree diagrams. It became a predictable cycle: live with someone for a while, maybe form some friendships if he was lucky, then say goodbye and start over somewhere new.

At first Matieu hated it. By the third or fourth move he had stopped caring.

By the advent of adolescence Matieu had become resigned to his lifestyle, accepting that he had no control over his life and believing that simply going with the flow was the best way to live. He turned from a shy child to a disinterested one, who kept to himself and made no attempt to form connections. That was, until he moved to Castil at the age of thirteen.

Not even Matieu is sure what it was about Castil that made him so endeared to the place. Life with his uncle and aunt in the small town was idyllic and he even made friends in school; for the first time in his life, Matieu felt he belonged somewhere. Life in Castil lasted three years and was the longest Matieu had ever lived in one place.

But, although Matieu would have been ecstatic at the prospect of staying in Castil his whole life, fortune did not smile at him. Economic hardships made his family unable to care for him any longer (though they never told Matieu the real reason in hopes it would not make him worry) and they sent him to live with a cousin in the country’s capital - Greylake.

Between the heartbreak of having to leave Castil and the overwhelming chaos of a big city, Matieu did not even try to hide his hatred for Greylake. The cousin he moved in with did not make the situation any easier, being self-centred and aggressively indifferent to Matieu’s presence.

Matieu was ready to accept once more that his life was beyond his control, until he met Emil. Emil clung to Matieu until he relented and accepted Emil as a friend - something that, at the time, he did not think would have the impact it had. Emil had a wholly different attitude to life than Matieu and was not shy about it either, immediately opening up to Matieu about his plan to run away and start life afresh. At first Matieu was uninterested. Then intrigued. Then willing to participate.

It has not even been a whole year since Matieu moved to Greylake but so much more has changed than he could have anticipated. That city he despised started to feel like home, so many people he had no interest in became his friends, and as Emil remains set on his plan of running away, Matieu struggles to decide whether he wants to go along with it after all.

trivia

• Loves cats! Has a small white cat called Marike he picked up as a stray
• Marike is harness and leash trained and Matieu takes her out for short walks around the block sometimes - which she loves
• Matieu's family tree is a mess, with tons of branches and people and names... Mapping it out comprehensively would be close to impossible
• Has an interest in maths and physics, especially when graphs and charts are concerned
• Works part-time at a post office sorting mail
• Used to people mispronouncing his surname - but it still bothers him

design

• Dresses very plainly, not keen on clothes with complex designs/patterns on them

Emil

Despite Matieu's initial reluctance to befriend Emil, the two are now inseparable. Sometimes Emil's energy and wacky ideas are a bit too much for Matieu and he has to tell Emil to take it down a notch, but over time he has definitely come to appreciate his best friend's enthusiasm and seemingly endless weekend plans.