Hello! Okay okay so who is Manuel? What's our beef with him and why does Jacque hate him and yet still care for him? How did Manuel die? Also what our opinion on his wife?
Also unrelated but you say vhvh what does that mean? I'm not very good with slang + I'm not sure if it's like a borrowing from another language? (Like kekeke etc)
First answering the second question because it's shorter: "vhvh" is a laugh! it's kinda one of the ways we write laugh in russian internet, like "ahahah" but "vhvhvh" :3
Aaaand now back to our man!
He's a character who only appears in the arc of backgrounds, because by the time of the main plot you can guess where he is (six feet underground). He's tied to the main characters by being Paoul's father and (!!) Jacques' only friend
They met when they were late teenagers, and both were bookworm lonely souls who didn't get along with most people around them (very strong neurodivergent friends energy)
Manuel used to be VERY obsessed with medicine, and wanted very badly to become a doctor, but he was forbidden from entering the field because of his ability - no one wanted to teach a "potential killer" a profession that has so much responsibility and proximity to people. Jacques was better adjusted and gave up on his dream of being a teacher (for the same reason, no facilities thought it wise to give an ability wielder a chance to be around kids), but Manuel was a bit more crazy about it and kept trying, eventually just coming to a certain medical college's windows trying to listen to lectures from afar. There, he met his future wife
Marie was a student at this college, and she noticed Manuel and felt like there was something weird here - why is he always hanging around? She asked her peers, but none of them seemed to care, mostly joking about him stalking some of their girls, which she found awful, so she went to confront him about his intentions one day - and they ended up having an extra awkward talk, in which Manuel explained what he was doing, both found out that the other was in fact an ability wielder (Marie's ability - healing living cells and tissues, and it's the only reason she was allowed to study medicine), and Marie offered to help him study if he stops to creepily wander around their grounds. After some time tho, they became friends and later lovers, eventually leading to starting a family when their son, Paoul, was born
It happened a bit earlier than planned, which left them in a bit of a financial struggle, because Marie only just finished her studies and didn't find a job yet, and Manuel didn't have a proper education - so he mostly was taken on very low-paying jobs. And at some point, for a bunch of reasons, he lost the one that supported them and had to desperately search for a new one, which... Let's say, didn't go well. He struggled for a long time, and even had to move away from his family, and when he found it - it wasn't at all a good option, and Marie urged him to quit as soon as he told her. However, it paid much more than anything else, and by then he was so sure he won't find anything else, and felt so guilty for not being able to support his family, that he made a deal with her - he'll stay until they have enough money to support themselves and Paoul until he's 18. That, however, made him feel so guilty for doing something his loved person disapproves of, that he gradually started coming home less and less and eventually just moved away. After a failed attempt to return when Paoul was around 11, he had a bad argument with Marie and never returned again
Well, they started falling apart a bit when Manuel met Marie - mostly because he was deeply in love and couldn't stop talking about it, and Jacques found it, back then, slightly tiring. Then, Jacques' own life went a slightly different way, with his father being ill and eventually dying, and as it happened at the same time as Manuel's life was at its peak (he was!! Marrying!! The bast woman in the world !! And having a son with her!!!), they found it hard to connect when their moods seemed so different (there was honestly much more than that but that's for another time)
They still corresponded through letters, but didn't actually write much about their lives, mostly just discussed books and world news, and while Manuel was in his job searching turmoil, Jacques ended up forming the "homeless commune" - meeting that one group of orphan kids he decided to help as he could, and for the first time since he and Manuel fell apart feeling truly happy and passionate about something.
And then, three years after they stopped talking irl - they met absolutely accidentally and spent the rest of their day together, sharing news. Jacques, who by that time, thanks to his kids, finally learned to be a liiiiltle bit more open with people, was sincerely happy to see Manuel again, and Manuel was honestly just glad Jacques still seems to want to talk to him :")🤲
So, they started talking again, and their friendship somehow ended up being stronger and closer than before - that is, if you can call something that involves Jacques a close relationship (they were, but in their own way, a bit of an old timey friend vibe where they never really talk a lot about personal stuff, but do a lot for each other without words). Jacques even introduced Manuel to the kids, and they loved him for some reason - maybe because he vibed homeless and pathetic too even if he wasn't.
And then, Manuel died. Or, more accurately, was murdered in a horribly cruel way, where all the hints were pointed at a hate-crime based on his ability. It wasn't as simple as that, of course, but that truly wasn't what was important - the important part was that both Jacques and his kids were in a state of total shock. And if Jacques, being the person he is and also the one who was hit the worst, went into a deep denial and tried to suppress his grief under helping the kids cope with their own, the kids (who were all like... 20-ish by then) went raging. They were so sure that one of their dear caretakers was murdered because of hate towards their class that most of them wanted justice immediately - and the authorities didn't care. So they quickly boiled their little community from the inside to the point where they all decided to riot - which, of course, made Jacques try to stop them, and resulted in an awful argument where neither side heard each other. So, they left and did what they wanted, and expectedly half of them died and the other went to prison. Jacques, on his part, was completely wrecked by it and succumbed to the worst coping mechanisms he had (aka, completely shutting down EVERYTHING he ever felt and persuading himself he doesn't want to deal with any people ever again or make connections, because in the end they'll never truly stay and so he's better off pushing them away from the start)
So, he's not _mad_ at Manuel - he's just very bitter. He knows more than his kids did, and he knows that things wouldn't come to Manuel's murder had the latter made different choices. And, as he's not the best at dealing with emotions, he could never truly process his grief and instead tried his hardest to persuade himself that Manuel did too many bad things to both him and everyone around, and he doesn't care for a dead man who (partly) ruined so many lives (you can see how good he's doing, Manuel died in 1939, and in 1948 Jacques is still coming to his grave and cleaning it when it looks too abandoned)
