Aunt Mary

Biodata

Background / History

Mary was once a reasonably well-known makeup artist who worked with celebrities in entertainment circles. She also appeared in minor roles in small films. She and Mason had established their own household, but his failed investments cost them their savings and home and apparently left them in debt. They moved into the Immerlis Family villa with their children, Mina and Lunt 2.

After their return, Dis dismissed the company’s driver and funeral makeup artist, assigning those jobs to Mason and Mary. Mary transferred her cosmetic skills to preparing the deceased in a basement workshop. She also shared responsibility for cooking the household’s meals with Aunt Winnie 2 4.

Her specialized work eventually made her the household’s highest earner. Alongside family profit shares, she received the highest base salary and performance bonuses; exceptional funeral makeup artists were harder to replace than the company’s other workers 17 34.

Appearance

• Mary is described as attractive and retaining considerable mature charm despite getting older 2.
• She has a slightly voluptuous, well-proportioned figure, often accentuated by long dresses 17 45.
• She had her children young, explaining why she still looks relatively youthful despite Mina and Lunt approaching high-school age 34 45.
• During preparations for Eunice’s visit, she wears a peach-pink dress and carries a handbag when leaving the house 45.

Personality

Mary has a sharp tongue and enjoys teasing her husband, children, sister-in-law, and nephew. Her sarcasm conceals genuine affection: she cared for Kallen during his illness as she would her own children, and his sincere thanks briefly left her unable to answer. Dis is the exception to her irreverence; she fears him deeply and immediately restrains her temper in his presence 2 3 8.

She is openly practical about money. Expensive funeral packages delight her, while difficult restoration work at discounted rates provokes loud complaints. Nevertheless, profit does not override her conscience. After a little girl dies following a blackout caused by a protest Lunt joined, Mary chooses to provide an expensive funeral package at a loss and works through the night with exceptional care 16 19 32.

Working with corpses has not made her indifferent to death or immune to fear. She is disturbed by accounts of mutilated victims and distinguishes familiarity with bodies from accepting the loss of a life. She also wants Mina and Lunt to have opportunities beyond the family business rather than having their futures fixed while still at school 14 32 34.

Abilities & Skills

Mortuary Cosmetics and Embalming

Mary prepares bodies for viewing, preserving a recognizable and dignified appearance for the deceased’s family 2 32.

• Cosmetic preparation: Applies and repairs funeral makeup, including touching up bodies after Dis’s rites disturb her work 8.
• Body preparation: Her work can include cleaning, grooming, nail trimming, and removing unwanted body hair 2 31.
• Embalming and presentation: Embalms bodies and arranges clothing and hair; for the little girl, she carefully prepares a pink dance dress, white dance shoes, and styled hair 32.
• Specialized coloring: Uses spray-painting techniques while restoring Mr. Seymour’s body 17.

Corpse Reconstruction

Mary’s work extends well beyond applying makeup. She can reconstruct severely damaged remains for an open viewing 17 19 40.

• Fragment assembly: Describes sorting Old Darcy’s remains, fitting dozens of pieces together, and stitching them into a whole 19.
• Facial restoration: Fills out damaged faces and stitches torn skin, with pigskin available as replacement material 40.
• Concealing injuries: Uses clothing, heavier makeup, and staples to disguise the visible damage to a hanging victim’s neck 40.
• Professional constraints: Recognizes Molly’s reasoning for using skin from elsewhere on a corpse, but warns that relatives may object if they learn about it 40.
• Cost: Restoration as extensive as Old Darcy’s normally carries a hardship bonus exceeding 10,000 Lu Coins for the funeral makeup artist alone 19.

Funeral Operations

Mary helps coordinate the practical work surrounding funerals 6 16 34.

• Discusses arrangements with clients and organizes mourning-hall supplies before services 6.
• Makes pricing decisions with Winnie, including substantial discounts when the family chooses not to profit from a funeral 32.
• Offers her bedroom as a private counseling space for Mrs. Seymour when Kallen has no office 16.
• Requests a female assistant so Mina and Lunt need not repeatedly miss school to help the business 34.
• Suggests adding catered meals after tasting Kallen’s cooking 8.

Equipment / Tools

• Basement workshop — Her principal workspace for preparing and restoring the deceased 2.
• Needles, thread, and pigskin — Used in reconstructing damaged faces 40.
• Staples — Used to draw damaged neck skin taut for presentation in a coffin 40.
• Gas blowtorch — Removes clients’ body hair; she also lends it to Kallen for preparing a pig’s head 31 32.
• Flat iron — Used to style the little girl’s hair 32.
• Cigarettes and ashtray — Frequently present during workshop breaks, although she hastily extinguishes a cigarette when Dis arrives 2 3 19.

Relationships

• Mason — Husband. Their relationship is described as excellent despite her frequent complaints about his laziness. Both call each other “darling” while coordinating funeral work 8 12.
• Kallen — Nephew, whom she treats with the same care as her children. She notices his changed behavior after his illness and increasingly regards him as mature rather than as a child 2 31 32.
• Mina and Lunt — Children. Mary involves them in household work but opposes prematurely tying their lives to the funeral business. Lunt’s involvement in the blackout protest leaves her deeply troubled 6 32 34.
• Dis — Father-in-law and head of the household. She addresses him as “Father,” obeys him promptly, and does not dare direct her usual sarcasm or anger at him 3 8.
• Aunt Winnie — Sister-in-law and fellow household worker. They alternate cooking duties and consult on funeral pricing 4 32.
• Mrs. Hughes — Close friend whom Mary first met while doing her makeup before a shooting-championship award ceremony. Mary nevertheless warns Kallen about her romantic behavior; Hughes later reveals that Mary was her intended murder victim 14 20.
• Paul — Employee whose diligence Mary respects. She permits him to leave work to visit his ill mother and arranges his match with a coffin-factory carpenter’s daughter 8 31.
• Miss Molly — Assistant in corpse restoration. Mary is impressed by her stitching skill, discusses professional boundaries with her, and repeatedly asks her to use “Mary” rather than a formal address 40.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Kallen’s Return to Family Life

• Mary welcomes the recovering Kallen with teasing remarks, then accepts his help moving Jeff’s body into the basement. She immediately notices that her previously withdrawn nephew seems different 2.
• When Kallen collapses in the workshop, she panics and slaps him while trying to wake him, inadvertently causing a nosebleed. She sends him upstairs for treatment and explains the incident to Dis 3.

Mrs. Hughes and Old Darcy

• Mary promises Mrs. Hughes a dignified funeral for Old Darcy before learning that his body has been cut into dozens of pieces. Having already agreed to the welfare rate, she is furious about the unpaid difficulty of the restoration 19.
• She insists that Kallen accompany her and Hughes to Friday Winery, with Kallen responsible for driving them home. Hughes later tells him that Mary would otherwise have been the subject of her murderous “art” that night 19 20.
• After Kallen is hospitalized, Mary believes he suffered in her place. She cries while cleaning him, stays beside his bed, feeds him fruit, and continues caring for him after his return home 24 29.

The Little Girl’s Funeral

• A protest involving Lunt causes a blackout during a little girl’s surgery. Mary and Mason agree to provide the requested Package B funeral without profit, even accepting a loss 32.
• Mary personally prepares the body overnight and tells Kallen that familiarity with dead bodies does not mean being accustomed to life and death. Her wish that the girl could dance once more precedes Kallen awakening her for a final dance after Mary leaves the workshop 32.

Expansion and Later Funeral Work

• During the company’s expansion, Mary requests an assistant. She is astonished when the applicants, Alfred and Miss Molly, kneel before Kallen, interpreting the scene as an extraordinary result of his employee interview 34.
• Mary and Molly work overnight to restore four bodies for Siso’s family memorial, including two victims with severe facial injuries 40.
• She helps arrange Kallen’s lunch meeting with Eunice, encourages him to impress the teacher with his cooking, and refuses to let him avoid hosting her 45.

Notable Quotes

“We're only used to seeing dead people. That doesn't mean we're used to life and death.” 32

“In life, if circumstances allow it, you should avoid settling for less whenever you can. Otherwise, how could you do justice to those wounds from life?” 32

“I'm Lunt's mother. It's what I should do.” 32