The call of the teal deer (a.k.a. my app)
Character Name: Matt
Character Nickname: None yet.
Age: 19
Canon or AU?: AU
Point taken from canon: NA
Appearance: Matt's slight and skinny, about 5'5" and 115 pounds. He's not very physically active, and is wiry instead of muscular. His eyes are a smoky grey-green, not that anyone ever sees them, because he always wears yellow-tinted goggles, as well as a generic baseball cap, pulled low over his eyes. His hair falls into his face; he cuts it himself, whenever it gets annoying, and it tends to at least brush his shoulders. He dyes it fairly often, and in varying colors, but it's usually a shade of red just a bit too bright to be natural. That and his clothes-jeans, boots, big black gloves, most often a striped shirt-are a sort of protective camouflage to make him seem like a harmless, vaguely punk kid.
He's good-looking in a boyish sort of way, with a straight nose that tips slightly up at the end and a wide mouth that wears a smile more naturally than any other expression. He almost always has a cigarette, and he has a habit of flipping them around between his fingers.
History:
Matt never knew his parents. His mother was only sixteen when he was born, and gave him up for adoption at birth, since her own parents were not supportive, and Matt's father had long been out of the picture. He lived in a string of foster homes, but had trouble fitting in from the time he was about seven. He'd grown accustomed to the idea that he wouldn't be staying anywhere very long, and it didn't seem worth it to put in much of an effort. He was very intelligent and very bored in public school. Around his eleventh birthday, Wammy's House took notice of him, and he went to live in Winchester, England.
Wammy's takes in orphans from around the world and gives them specialized training, with the goal of creating a successor to L, the greatest detective in the world. Because Matt arrived at the House later than most of the other kids, he wasn't quite as indoctrinated to worship L as most of them. He had, instead, a more clear-eyed appreciation of L's intelligence and ruthlessness (of which Matt did not disapprove), but he was never incredibly motivated to want to take L's place. Matt was the second-best student at the orphanage, through no great effort. He was so far behind Near, the top student, that it seemed silly to try to overtake him.
The Wammy's program did no favors for Matt as far as improving his social skills. He learned several languages, including French, Japanese, and Spanish; investigative procedures; psychology; and computer programming, the only subject about which he was truly enthusiastic. He formed many casual friendships, but never truly bonded with anyone. He was content, though: at least he wasn't bored anymore, and at least he had something like a home.
Then Kira emerged.
Matt never knew most of the details of the Kira case. He knew L went to Japan to investigate a serial killer mysteriously and systematically eliminating criminals in prisons and elsewhere, and he and Near were informed of L's death on December 5, 2004. Near was the clear choice for L's successor. There seemed little Matt could contribute, and he figured Near could handle the case just fine on his own. Matt regretted L's death, but wasn't very personally affected. He'd never attached to L the way many of the other orphans had. With what little motivation he'd had gone and the staff basically calling it quits at the House, Matt drifted away, too.
He went to London for a little while, then to New York. His talents were for cracking systems and writing programs to help people cover their asses, and not only did being based in the States make maintaining contacts easier, there were more and better places off the grid in New York than in London. Matt didn't consciously try to become part of the underground resisting Kira, but most of his associates and clients were connected to it one way or another.
After L's death, there was a long public silence regarding Kira. The information Kira needed to kill-someone's face and true name-began to be widely available online for many criminals, despite governments and the current L (who Matt knew to be a fake) paying lip service to the idea of restricting it. The mood of the world was shifting towards accepting Kira's judgments.
In 2009, Kira stepped up his activities, and even appointed a spokesperson. The world had changed enough that this was welcomed, and leaders around the world began to openly accept Kira. He'd proved an effective deterrent against violent crime, and though people were being killed for lesser and lesser offenses, the voice of the lowest common denominator was firmly on Kira's side by now.
Matt observed all this with a detached disgust: it didn't affect him or his dealings that much. He was maintaining multiple identities and making quite a bit of money helping people protect themselves. It wasn't that he was pro-Kira, but what could he do?
Kira's victory was never broadcast, of course, and Matt only realized it had happened at all by the ripples spreading outward from it. Though he was never able to confirm Near's death, it was obvious that Kira was now unopposed. His targets were no longer just people who had been convicted or even accused of crimes. Dissidents, ex-convicts, and, increasingly, people Kira deemed lazy, were being weeded out. Matt began to feel guilty about his apathy. If he had cared more, stayed involved, tried to do more, maybe Kira would have been defeated.
When Matt began to hear that other Wammy's kids were dying or going missing, he had to take action. For the last year, he's been trying to track them down before Kira can.
Personality: Matt's shy and rather socially awkward, and aware of these traits. Out of necessity, he's learned to appear less intelligent than he is. He's fidgety, almost always doing something with his hands, be it smoking or playing a handheld video game. Matt concentrates best when multitasking.
He's easygoing and forms casual relationships readily, but never really interacts with people beyond a surface level. His shyness is a defense mechanism, a shield he raised while being bounced from foster home to foster home. He learned he couldn't depend on people, so he doesn't get close enough to be tempted to. Despite this, his demeanor is quite friendly, even cheerful, and people seem to find his slight awkwardness charming more often than not. His persona is not exactly a front, but he does emphasize those qualities that help him fly under the radar in his world and seem like a normal, law-abiding young man who'd never dream of opposing Kira.
He likes science fiction and fantasy novels, comic books, and computer games, the more difficult the better. He has an affinity for electronics of all kinds, and almost prefers them to people: they're easier to deal with, rational and predictable.
It takes a lot to make Matt angry, but he's definitely capable of a slow burn or an outburst if pushed too far. He hates Kira, who effectively destroyed the only real home Matt ever knew, but he also feels guilty, because he feels he didn't do anything in the fight against Kira until it was too little, too late.
Matt's goal in life was to fly under the radar and survive as best he could in a world increasingly dominated by the fear of Kira. Now, though, with little left to lose, he simply wants to save what he can of the life he knew before Kira: the kids of Wammy's House. He knows he'll become a target if Kira ever becomes aware of him; indeed, he probably already is a target, thanks to his work for people also trying to evade execution. The world has become almost intolerable, and Matt is running a race he knows he'll probably lose. He's resigned to this, and is becoming more reckless over time. Instead of always hiding behind aliases and a voice distorter, he has lately been using his real voice and the name/title "M" to gain the trust of people who might be or know of the rest of the Wammy's kids. These and other calculated risks might put Kira on his trail faster, but they also might help him find people before Kira can.
He has a gift for computer programming and can crack almost any system. He's very intelligent, and, thanks to his training at Wammy's House, he speaks several languages and has detailed knowledge of various investigative methods, both by-the-book and not-so-legal. He has good observational skills and good hand-eye coordination, and though he's not much of an offensive fighter, he can defend himself well enough. He's not fond of guns, but has become reasonably proficient with them.
However, Matt doesn't have great social skills. Though he's had to learn caution, his mouth still gets ahead of his brain sometimes. Physical strength isn't one of his strong points, either; he's underweight and shorter than average, and has little to no experience with physical confrontation. His apathy is a flaw Matt's well aware of, and trying to change. He knows he didn't work up to his potential at Wammy's, he thinks he didn't do enough after leaving, and he feels Near's death and Kira's victory are at least partly his fault.