Mateo Reyes (from Psi High)

Icon above originally from Alexander Skowalsky in the Noun Project.

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Mateo Reyes (20)

Project: YA Novel (Psi High)

Known as: No nicknames

Real name: Mateo Reyes

Group affiliation: The Omegas

Physical description: Mateo is 16-year-old Hispanic young man. He has dark eyes and hair (cut short), is of average height, and is lean and muscular. His aloofness causes him to not make eye contact with people regularly, and he often keeps his eyes down and his hoodie up. This means he doesn’t always get a second look but when he does people realize he is quite handsome with chiseled, well-defined features.

Personality: Mateo is cynical and aloof. He does not trust easily, as he has seen too many people betrayed and mistreated. He does not see being an Electi as a blessing that elevates him, rather he feels it resulted in him being surrounded by people with agendas the kind he feels like he can trust the least. He doesn’t like fake people and finds most people fake. Rules and administration are means to control the people in his mind. So while he doesn’t seek to do wrong, he certainly doesn’t hesitate to break the rules to do what he feels is right. This results in him having a bad boy reputation.

It is undeserved. Mateo believes that the system works against the little guy and he has tremendous sympathy for the little guy. If he perceived someone as disadvantaged, he is quick to step in and defend them. He is pretty much fearless, so it doesn’t matter who the abuser is. As a result, even though he is neither talkative nor particularly social, he becomes the core (leader) of the Omegas. The misfits of the school either hang with him because he has helped them in the past, or simply sense he is a protector.

And they are right. He is loyal to a fault. No one frustrates him more than his sister (Maria, who doesn’t put up with his brooding), yet he’d crash through the gates of hell for her. Once he has connected with you, and found you “real,” he’ll give you the shirt of his back (though with an eye roll of frustration). As a result, he takes betrayal very, very hard.

He is first drawn to Selena as he suspects she is someone the Alphas will exploit and take advantage of. When he discovers that she is more than capable of taking care of herself, he falls for her. His affection for her is hard on him, as she won’t declare herself a member of one group or another. He admires this but at the same time it makes him uncertain he can trust her. The fact she seems to have feelings for both him and Ethan doesn’t help matters.

“Then Selena saw it Mateo smiled. In all the time she had known him, she had not seen a genuine smile. And it was transformative. While always handsome, Mateo was beautiful when he smiled. Perhaps because it was so rare, it seemed more real than any smile Selena had ever seen. It was made of light. He realized he was smiling, and it melted to a lopsided grin. It was as if his smiles were gifts he doled out hesitantly, and she had just stolen one from him.”

History: Mateo and Maria are from a working-class family. Electi are not unusual in their family and in history they were Brujeria and spiritualists. They are still dedicated to their community and appreciated by their neighbors. However, their abilities never resulted in fame nor fortune for the family.

We will find out over time that Mateo’s family were unfairly treated by the authorities and the criminal elements of the community. This has made Mateo cynical and withdrawn against his fundamental nature.

His time at Coldwater Academy has done little to change his perspective. It is a microcosm of classism with the powerful and pedigreed students enjoying advantages over the others. He is drawn to and protective of the less powerful students and has broken the rules when he thought it necessary to balance the scales. This has made him an easy target for blame when anything happens and early in our story he will be blamed for a crime he didn’t commit.

The administration would just as soon expel him but the laws around the training of Electi reduce their options on this front. While protective of others, he tends to quietly accept injustice towards himself. His goal appears to be to survive high school and go back to his real life.

He is not however a complete loner. He loves his sister who keeps him from withdrawing too much. Though he won’t admit it he also likes his fellow Omegas and appreciates their company (it is the only community he has at the school).

Selena’s arrival complicates things for him. Early on he tries to intercede when he things Selena is being treated unfairly only to find that Selena can take care of herself. Her sympathy towards her as a potential outcast turns to admiration. He is very drawn to her but isn’t completely sure he can trust her as she seems to reject being pigeonholed into a certain group. He loves her but she fears she may end up an Alpha.

Selena also helps him (she isn’t as accepting towards injustice aimed at him as he is). This is something of a new experience for Mateo as he is usually the protector. Things become more complicated when he hurts a fellow student (in self-defense) when Selena can’t be completely sure he didn’t take more extreme action than he should have.

Mateo has a hero’s heart but he might need Selena’s help to learn to let go of some cynicism and recognize his own prejudices.

Role in the narrative: The third point in our love triangle. Mateo and Ethan are sides of a coin. From opposite ends of the social spectrum, they both have a decency that has been tainted by their experiences. Their natural rivalry is exacerbated by Selena (who in turn has zero patience for people “fighting over her”).

He is also a key plot driver (see abilities as well). Early on Selena exonerates him of a wrong doing, only later for Mateo to use his power in a very questionable way in self-defense. This makes Selena question Mateo and Mateo question himself. Selena is ultimately able to undo some of the damage Mateo did which still increases his gratitude to Selena as he regrets his actions. This starts him on a journey to take a harder look at himself.

BTW, I don’t know how the love triangle resolves itself. I doubt I can write a good one unless I feel both relationships are contenders (in fact, Selena may end up with neither they both need her more than she needs either of them). OTOH, I am rooting for Mateo.

Abilities: Mateo is a telekinetic (like Ethan another source of rivalry). However, where Ethan is seen as very gifted, Mateo is considered a marginal talent. He can only affect small objects around the size of a marble.

There are a few things that suggest that this assessment may not be accurate. First even though he can only move small things, he can move them very quickly and with tremendous precision. As the scale of power for telekinetics is whether they can lift as much with their minds as they can physically, his low rating does not account for these skills. Yet they are truly exceptional and unmatched.

Furthermore, Mateo has abilities he hides due to his mistrust of authority. Virtually all telekinetics have to see things to move them. Mateo has a sort of telekinetic sonar. He can touch an object and sense and manipulate the mechanisms within it. This means he can open locks and the like without being able to see the inner workings with his eyes. This also means that he can do some truly nasty things to a person he touches if he chooses to do so (small movements can be devastating in parts of the body).

Mateo will drive part in one final way he is secretly a “blocked Prime.” He actually has the extreme power of the type of elite Electi that has hidden itself from the world. One of the ways they maintain their secrecy (and their power in the hands of a few) is that they detect those with tremendous potential and have their telepaths place a mental limit on their abilities. In extreme circumstances this means these blocked Primes could be activated but otherwise they are no threat to either the secret or power of the Prime cabal.

What would be a threat is an unknown Prime telepath that has slipped between the cracks (one so gifted, she instinctively hid her potential). Such a telepath might remove these blocks, and Primes with power equal to the cabal but outside their control would be active. Cabals don’t like such things.

And Selena is just such a telepath. Which means one day Mateo might become an extremely powerful telekinetic.

Inspirations: I’ve been watching some Gotham lately, and Ben McKenzie might have put Ryan Atwood of the OC in my brain. Mateo may evolve into a Tatsuo type from Akira (though minus the lunacy and so forth). The inspirations for Psi High might be relatively short because I’m playing with archetypes, which means the inspirations are many and hard to specify (misunderstood guy from wrong side of the tracks pick the one you like most for my inspiration here).