(no subject)
He likes women, oh God, does he ever like women. His brother Heinrich is two years younger and Mathias has looked after him like a child for as long as he can remember. Germany is home, but he always wanted to live somewhere else for a little while, just to see what it was like. As much as he likes women, he's only ever been sort of successful with them. He likes to party, but he likes a good adventure even more. Growing up fairly wealthy means he isn't sure how to live any other way and he knows he's a little bit spoiled. He lost his virginity at age eighteen to the girl he thought he was going to marry. All his life, he's been nervous in the ocean, but not the jungle. Making friends has always been easy for Mathias and he knows it's a blessing.
There is nothing like a cold beer on a hot day. If given the choice, he'd rather listen to another person's story than tell one of his own. He has a remarkably accurate internal clock. Though he's outgoing and friendly, when a situation gets him down he has a tendency to shut off completely. Back in Munich, he had a cat he'd named Katschen, which means 'kitten'.
There's a tattoo of a black and red eagle on the inside of his right forearm. Touch is the best of all the senses, he thinks, and he loves that fleeting moment of his fingertips pressed against someone's skin. Before the ruins, he was studying to be a mechanical engineer. He was baptized as a child, raised Christian, but calls himself an atheist. He's a survivor, not because he's afraid of dying, but because he doesn't want to stop living. His parents were kind, but absent. His flat in Munich was above a bakery and he woke up every morning to the smell of fresh bread baking. He used to find plants calming. Since he was a child, he's been called reserved and steady more times than he can count and he's not always sure it's a compliment. The first woman he loved broke his heart so badly; it's partly because of this that he never touches Stacy despite how badly he wants to.
He likes to look at people, he finds them endlessly fascinating, beautiful and ugly all at once. If he'd been the last one alive, he would have let the vines take him. Toward the end, the burns on his hands had become the good kind of pain, the kind that lets you know you're still alive. He's slept with four women; one of them only once. Dogs have always sort of annoyed him. His favourite colour is blue.
When he was small, his grandfather told him stories of the bombings during the Second World War. Yes, he thinks he was one of the lucky ones. There is nothing quite so comforting as the feeling of warm grains of sand under his feet. The first time he drank enough to throw up was during the 1999 Oktoberfest. He is far more intelligent than most people think and would have made a brilliant engineer. The acid burned all his callouses away. Though he smiles easily, there are very few photographs of him with a smile. The name of the girl who broke his heart is Ilyse.
Although he's young, he's already seen Stonehenge, the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Great Wall of China; the other wonders were planned for the future. Much of his reserved nature comes from his mother. The baker's daughter was feeding his cat while he was away. His mother taught him how to waltz. He's never asked if his grandparents were involved with the Nazi Party; he doesn't want to know. When she left him, he was sick to his stomach. He doesn't smoke.
She told him once that the world destroys men like him and he resolved to be stronger; he didn't realize until later that when she spoke of the world, she meant herself. Herinch has always been his best friend. He doesn't want to die anywhere. Quiet extroverts may not be common, but they exist. There's no such thing as heaven, no such thing as hell.
Mathias Eckhard Schreiber. He grew up listening to the Beatles, Dire Straits and REM. There are few things in this world he loves so much as Munich's unexpected rainstorms. All his life, he's been one of those kids who eats and eats and never gains a pound, always skinny and lanky. There was a short rebound relationship after Ilyse; he picked her up at a pub and doesn't remember her name or what she really looked like. Henrich was always so scattered and wild, a strong contrast to Mathias. There's a cafe three doors down from his flat and he used to sit there to do his schoolwork.
Once upon a time, he was convinced there was no adventure he'd turn down. The burned skin on his hands cracks now whenever he makes a fist. He was born to be a tourist. Sometimes he thinks he smells Pablo down there in the dark, the shit and the piss from his voided bowels. The moment was brief, but he remembers touching Stacy's cheek. He tried to learn to play guitar, but became frustrated too easily and gave it up. It's impossible to forget that he's cut off a man's legs. He'll take this opportunity to learn how to surf. Despite all appearances to the contrary, he is over her. Never one for books or movies, Mathias loves music and he loves to dance. When he was nine, he broke his wrist falling out of a tree. He hasn't lived at home since he was seventeen. Sometimes he talks in his sleep.
It's strange, but he hopes the acid didn't burn away his finger prints. He's never cared to prove himself to anyone. These days, his fingers itch for Henrich's pendant, his good luck charm. If you let yourself hope, and then you're wrong, think how terrible you'll feel. He got his tattoo during his brief service in the army. The bakery ovens used to make his flat unbearably hot in the summer.
He loves Christmas lights. Although he doesn't believe in a God, he believes he must have done something horrible to lose Henrich like that. It isn't that he doesn't experience emotions, he just doesn't want to share them. He wonders what it would have felt like to be stabbed. Sometimes, childishly, he wishes he had his iPod just to hear something familiar. He cries now and then, but only in private and not very often. When he was a child, he told his mother he wanted to be a veterinarian, but only for cats and horses. Money can't buy happiness, but it makes the pursuit of it much easier. He loves fresh fruit. Until he was sixteen, he bit his fingernails until they bled. He has an impressive collection of CDs and vinyl back in Munich. Mathias is the villain -- definitely; more than anything, that hurts. He finds the sound of windchimes soothing.
Dein Bruder ist gestorben.