Character development and goals!

[dreamkid]

This post contains spoilers for the third book of The Raven Cycle! You have been warned.


Development

By far the most significant thing that has happened to Matthew since his arrival in game is his learning that he is not a normal person, but that his older brother Ronan pulled him out of a dream and into the real world when Ronan was three years old. After finding out, and learning also that his entire family knew all along but still loved him, Matthew announced that it's no big deal and he doesn't care that he's a dream.

... Yyyyyyeah he's realized over time that he kinda cares though.

While he does not dwell on upsetting things or fret over them, since learning what he is, he has definitely been picking up on some stuff he didn't notice before. There seem to be lots of little ways in which he's not quite like everyone else--certain emotions he never or very rarely feels, for example. He was created by a three-year-old for the specific purpose of being a perfect playmate, so there are some gaps in Matthew's personhood.

A far more significant and upsetting effect of being one of Ronan's dream creations is that if anything happens to Ronan--if he dies, or is Ported out--Matthew will almost immediately fall asleep and not be able to wake up until Ronan comes back. Matthew tries not to think about it, but it's not easy to forget that his continued existence is hardly guaranteed. He could fall asleep for years, or, y'know, forever--and of course there's no way for him to predict or control if/when this might happen.

So that has the potential to be pretty distressing. Instead of obsessing over it--Matthew does not obsess--he pursues happiness a bit more willfully, striving to be good and to try new things because he doesn't want to miss out on any part of his life.

Probably the most obvious way this new curiosity has manifested itself is in his relationship with Noah, who also has his own reasons for pursuing life aggressively. Matthew and Noah kiss sometimes. It's very innocent and joyful and sweet, and they are still Just Friends (though Matthew would date Noah in a heartbeat if he asked, whoops.)

Matthew has also been trying to wrap his head around relationships better in general, because he lives in a house surrounded by co-dependant teenagers who take themselves very seriously (with good reasons, just-- read the books if you want to know more.) Since Matthew's friendships have been primarily casual, being in this house where everyone gets wrapped up in everybody else's lives and one event can ripple through the whole group until it becomes some giant tidal wave before he even realized something was happening, well. It's raised some questions. As he tried to explain to Adam, he feels like they are more of a family than they are friends, except that they haven't lived together long enough.

Another aspect of living at the Meadows is that no one is parenting Matthew much at all right now. Everyone does their own thing, and most of the structure in his life is self-moderated.

He's trying to be more of a "real" friend to people, for example trying to support Lucy in her position as Ambassador (you know he voted for her), and making fumbling efforts to reach out to Noah, too, when needed. (Noah is dead. Matthew didn't really know how to deal with that initially.)

The main things holding him back right now are his own dumbness and a complicated relationship with Ronan. Matthew loves him, dearly, and hates seeing him upset, so they really can't have frank conversations about certain things at the moment. Namely, anything relating to Matthew's concerns about being a dream, since Ronan is plagued with guilt about it.

Goals

My goals with Matthew are to have him form more meaningful friendships with people, to eventually date Noah (hey I'm just being transparent here), to become more accomplished at using his powers, to become more of his own person, and in general to take advantage of all the opportunities that being in MoM has to offer him as a character, since he is quite minor and inconsequential in his own series, except for in his importance to other people.