MATTHEW WELLS

 AGE    27 (fallout 3) / 37 (fallout 4)

 BIRTHDAY    january 10, 2250

 ORIENTATION    heterosexual

 APPEARANCE    once thin and wiry, matt has since grown into his frame. with a height of about 5'9, he doesn't quite cut the imposing figure of his younger brother, much as he wishes he could. he has dark hair that's usually kept somewhat long and tends to have stubble along his jaw, if not an outright beard. his eyes are a hazel brown, capable of a great amount of warmth or a surprisingly cold disinterest. his scars are almost innumerable, some of them gathered in childhood from his own antics, "earned" from his father, or received during his short stint with springvale's raiders.   FACECLAIM    milo ventimiglia. 

 PERSONALITY    matt is nothing if not an acquired taste. while he's got a cruelty streak on his resume, it doesn't represent the core of his person or the man he learned to be following his father's death. he's brash and reckless, driven by emotion before whatever little logic he possesses. he likes to think himself tough, but he has a softer heart than he realizes. while he might mock or berate, he doesn't have a taste for real violence. in fact, his "kill count" is rather low by most wastelander standards, and certainly by the count of the raider group he briefly joined following his dad's death. the circle of people he cares about is rather small, and he's mostly indifferent to the suffering of strangers. that said, if he does care for someone (or at least have a vested interest in their survival), he has a protective nature. 

  HISTORY  

matt was the first son born to sally and michael wells. the couple had only known each other for a few months when sally fell pregnant, and michael quickly secured them a home in the, largely abandoned, remnants of springvale. matt recalls very little about those first five years, prior to his brother, chris's, birth. he eagerly awaited the arrival of his baby brother; all the while, his father, always a brash, cruel, man to begin with, slipped further into alcoholism. 

he would categorize himself as a horrible older brother. the moment chris became old enough to express himself, their father resented him and encouraged matt to do the same. driven by the same need for attention possessed by all children his age, matt did as his father wanted. he tormented chris. he stole his toys and his food, pushed him down, left him out in the front yard on his own ... anything that would earn his father's approval and his mother's anguish, because, in both instances, at least they saw him. 

he never hated chris, not really. he resented him, mostly, for soaking up all their mother's love like a sponge, leaving him to hope for whatever scraps of attention michael might throw him. that said, he never felt particularly bad for how he treated chris, not until he got a little older and a little wiser to the sort of man their dad really was. 

unlike chris, who stood up against michael and his mistreatment of their mother, matt chose cowardice. he began to drink, which numbed the feeling of being trapped in a hopeless situation. eventually, chris was kicked out of their home, leaving matt and his mom to fend for themselves against michael and his drunk rampages. over the next few years, michael began vaguely working with the raiders that moved into the elementary school, setting up a tenuous truce between them and his family. eventually, the group demanded true loyalty. when michael refused on the grounds of not being told what to do, they killed him where he stood. when matt was given the same option, he caved, agreeing to be part of their gang as long as they left his mom alone. 

he wasn't a very good raider. despite his penchant for violence against his brother, he really didn't have it in him to kill indiscriminately, and, as much as he liked his booze, chems weren't his thing. when the lone wanderer swept through in 2277 and wiped out the group of raiders, it was a godsend. he ran at the first flurry of gunfire, unwilling to become one of the bodies already littering the battered linoleum. he returned to his mother's house in springvale, where they hunkered down long enough to be sure the raider threat was neutralized.

the next year, he met a wanderer traveling through the area named jenny. she had a sad look about her, even though she carried a smile on her face each time she passed through. he immediately liked her. when she was gone for months at a time, he even worried about her. he'd never cared about anyone outside his own flesh and blood before. eventually, after years of friendship and dancing around their stronger feelings for one another, jenny finally agreed to stay in springvale with him. in 2286, they have their daughter, julia.