Matthew Moss

<infobox layout="stacked">

 <title source="Name">
   <default>Matthew Moss</default>
 </title>
 <image source="Image">
 </image>
 
 <title source="title">
 </title>
 
   <label>Alias</label>
 
 
 
 
   <label>Age</label>
 
 
   <label>Gender</label>
 
 
   <label>Status</label>
 
 
   <label>Type</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>Classification</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>Affiliation</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>Family</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>Occupation</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>First Appearance</label>
 

</infobox>

Matthew is a character in Pale. He is Edith's husband, and a Host.

Personality

Louise considered him friendly and easygoing when she'd encountered him at work.<ref name=":2" />

He was perhaps the most agitated about the threat of inviting outsiders to Kennet.<ref>He went on, more agitated. “By the books we’d have to invite outsiders in to handle this, and in the best case scenario, I’m pretty darn sure they don’t leave after. Most likely case, we’re goners. Murder doesn’t get any passes.”
“Calm down,” the woman with the toque said, putting a hand on his arm. “Don’t panic.” - excerpt from Blood Run Cold 0.0</ref>

Relationships

Mathew is married to Edith, having sacrificed his humanity to try and stabilise her.

Like all the local Others, he is bound to aid the local Practitioner trio.

He works in the Buckheed tackle & hunting shop.<ref name=":2" /><ref>“Do we know you?” the man asked.

Louise shook her head.  “I know you work at Buckheed.” - excerpt from Blood Run Cold 0.0 </ref>

Appearance

He appears to be a man in his 20s or early 30s, with brown hair and a beard. To the Sight his eyes are permanently in shadow.<ref name=":0">Matthew Moss
Type according to Matthew: Host
Appearance: Human I guess?  Brown hair + beard.  20-35?
Appearance with Sight: His eyes are in shadow.
[...] Married to Edith James. People can see him.  He works in town (sales). Was awakened a long while ago. - excerpt from Notes on Others </ref> His face is round, with his beard hugging where his jawline should be. His shoulders are broad.<ref name=":2">He was… Louise couldn’t place the name.  He worked at the tackle and hunting shop.  Friendly, easygoing.  Twenty-something, broad shouldered with a rounded jawline that made him look slightly overweight, even though he wasn’t.  The short beard he’d cultivated to suggest a jawline didn’t really do the trick. - excerpt from Blood Run Cold 0.0</ref><ref>There was a guy sitting with her, broad across the shoulders, with a chin-strappy sort of beard that didn’t quite match his round jawline. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref>

Abilities and Art

Mathew is, or was, a Host - a Practitioner who specializes in voluntary possession. Although he has crossed the line from human to Other, he still remembers some magic, such as the Awakening ritual.<ref name=":0" />

He was able to take some of Louise Bayer's pain from her condition and take it on himself, in exchange for her forgetting what she had seen.<ref name=":1">“The people who will look into this will be in need of those clues, and we’ll be desperate and in need of them,” Matthew said.  “If my life partner is willing to oblige me, I’d like to offer you a deal.  Edith?” The woman with bleached blond hair and a toque took a few steps forward.  “She’s in a lot of pain, Matthew.  You’re too much a part of this to get involved, and you’re fragile.” “I know.  But she’s dying,” Matthew said. [...] “Forget about us, okay?  Then, outside of any meetings with us or any other person or people who ask you about it, forget about tonight and forget about… that thing you saw.  Make it a total, comfortable amnesia that ends if you’re asked.  In exchange, I will take some of your hurt, pain, and suffering, and I’ll give you more time.” [...] “May I kiss you, Louise?” he asked.  “There’s nothing romantic to it,

but these things traditionally work better with a kiss than with the 

holding of a hand.  Is that okay?” “Yes?” she made it almost a question, again. He touched the underside of her chin to raise her face, and then he kissed her.  It had been a long time since she had been kissed, and a longer time since she had been kissed in a way that made her heart warm. That warmth was choked by a sudden hurt, black and bitter.  The hurt leaped into her mouth, and it tasted like regurgitated bile, metallic tastes, salt, foul-tasting medications, and the stinging smell of her own body odor when she didn’t shower frequently enough.  It filled her nose, and she twisted away. He held her face, not letting her, his fingers gripping her chin to maintain the contact.  The taste and smell dissipated.  It was him who wrenched his face away, expression twisting.  He hunched over. Dizzy, bewildered, she swayed on the spot, watched as this man pressed one hand to his lower back. “You’ve suffered a lot,” he said, grimacing. - Blood Run Cold 0.0</ref> It is implied that he then passed that pain on to Charles Abrams.

Weaknesses

Edith noted that he was "fragile".<ref name=":1" />== References ==

<references/>