MatthewHarriman

Matthew Harriman

Full Name

Matthew Harriman

Position

Repair man

Gender

Male

Hair

Brown

Eyes

Brown

Skin

Olive

Height

5'10"

Physique

Toned

Played By

Charlie Cox

Birthdate

[object Object]

Age

Local

Townie

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Background

Supplemental Information

A local whose parents - both of them! - worked for the Addington Sawmill from the time they left high school till the day they retired, Matthew skulked around underfoot as normal kids do. He has an older brother and a younger sister, but they don't factor much into this story except to say that they exist and were part of the landscape of his childhood. His whole family was made up of perfectly normal people.

He was not a perfectly normal person.

Matthew was different from birth. Of course, he wasn't aware of how different he was until he started forming memories, but they were always there. He always had the vague sense of something watching him, tickling the back of his neck. It was creepy, to be honest, and it made him into a nervous child. His brother and sister were totally normal, so his parents just chalked it up to him being the middle child; middle children are always weird. Like a lot of kids who don't quite fit in, Matt made an effort to keep his secret to himself. Sure, he could static electricity his brother so bad that he made him cry on more than one occasion, but whatever. Those things happened!

Throughout his adolescence, Matt was plagued by dreams of being electrocuted. One might think this would send a kid into a terror... but it pushed him the other way. After high school, he went off to UW in Seattle and pursued a degree in Electrical Engineering. And the whole time he was away from Gray Harbor? He felt better. Like a normal person.

He got a job working for a computer company in Seattle; not saying which one, but everyone knows it. He met a girl. He fell in love. He got married. They never had any kids. They got divorced. He started having bad dreams again. Dreams about lightning striking him. Dreams about being strapped into an electric chair. Dreams that started haunting him even while he was wide awake at work. Dreams that made it impossible to focus.

He lost his job. He lost his house.

What do you do when you're down and out? You go the fuck home, that's what you do. So that's what Matt did. There's not a whole lot of call for Electrical Engineers in Gray Harbor, and he wasn't sure he could really keep a nine-to-five job going anyway, so Matt answered some want-ads.

And that's how he wound up working part-time as a Ferris wheel operator on the boardwalk, the carousel operator at the park and working the lights at the Daydream Theatre. None of these jobs by themselves keep him afloat, but the combination of the three of them pay the bills. Barely. So now he is opening a side job, doing small Fix-It jobs on the side.

Relationships

Alexander

They went to high school together, though Alexander was two years older than Matthew. Many years separate them now.

Class of 2000 (NPC)

Other Contemporaries (NPC)

Not in the same graduating class, but still there at the same time.

Alexander

Benedict

Deacon

Eleanor

Hyacinth

Jack

Thewlis

Patrick

The owner of an old house that provides Matthew with plenty of work... even if the house's contents does give him troubles.

Thewlis

He does repair jobs, and they've worked out a bit of a cooperative.

System Information

Returned Local - Like a lot of people, Matthew left town for a number of years and came back. After high school, he went off to UW Seattle, got his degree in Electrical Engineering, and spent a good portion of his adulthood working for a software company.
Down On His Luck - Also like a lot of people, Matt returned to Gray Harbor after falling on hard times. Despite the degree in EE, he now works part time at a few places.
Carousel and Ferris Wheel - Matt is one of the carneys that run the carousel in Addington Park and the Ferris wheel on the boardwalk.
Static Cling - Rumor has it that he was struck by lightning several times when he was a kid in Gray Harbor. It may or may not be true.
Repair Guy - He has an advert out offering to do Odd Jobs - no repair too small, quotes done free.

With dark brown eyes, middle-brown hair, a fair complexion, and a toned physique, Matthew might be considered attractive, but he's not a traffic-stopping looker under the best of circumstances. His face has character in its imperfections: his nose is too large, the bulb of it over-sized and a touch broad; thick, level eyebrows make his forehead seem broad; his lips are fuller than they should be, the shape of his upper lip exaggerated, though his smile is transforming, giving his whole face a real nice-guy quality. He wears his hair at a tidy trim, the color unremarkable, only the slightest wave to give it body. Careless hair is a good match to the few-days' scruff that usually clings to his jaw and chin, sometimes allowed to get to a full beard before he gets around to shaving.

Dressed simply, he usually wears some combination of a plain, button-up shirt with an open collar and rolled up sleeves, and sturdy jeans. There's nothing remarkable about his clothing, though the loose fit does hide a conscientiously maintained physique. At 5'10" tall, he's not the most imposing specimen, but there's toned musculature beneath that dull attire, not a heavy build but a firm one nevertheless.

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