Hayward

Hayward is a Special Investigating Officer with the Greater Glottage Police Authority, specialising in religious criminality.

Physical
Stated in the casting call to be in his 30s, but otherwise age unstated. It is implied that he is plainclothes, as Carpenter didn't recognize him as an officer until he said something.

Personality
Hayward is described as 'smart, a little self-satisfied, and has a weary amusement in all things.'. He's introduced as a firmly middling cop doing his best to walk the line of his job and the public, and finds the idea of the police's deity to be incredibly stupid. He's even mildly resentful to the union, because the invention of their god means they don't have partners anymore.

It is mentioned that he forgets his service arm frequently, and has gotten into serious issues in the past because of this. Coupled with the fact that he believes that The Stink is on him, it is safe to assume that he does not do his job well. He believes himself to be bordering on a failure, resents the hours and blames his job for the emotional distance with his wife, and tries to have a mild, acceptant outlook despite this. Overall, in terms of his interaction with the world, he wants to be a good person but his attempts have put him here, and has to deal with the reality of that. He speaks of wanting to make a new start several times, both in his discussion of his divorce with Carpenter, and his talk with Stanton, in which he entertains ideas of giving up on the police and starting a fish restaurant, though he's mostly joking in the latter case.

He finds faith in general to be a chore more than anything. He says his thanks for the coffee in the morning, and that's enough. He firmly believes that people out in the country take their Gods too seriously. Despite his belief that worshiping the gods are a waste of time, he shows interest in information _about_ deities and the stories around them. He often goes on small tangents about the illegal deities he's encountered in his time as an officer, remembering the details, themes, people, and stories around them and enjoying recounting these tales to others.

Background
It is implied that in his description of 'The Stink' Hayward was speaking of his own past. As such, Hayward joined the Greater Glottage Police Authority by the age of 19. He was assigned to the Furnace District station in Southern Glottage after seven weeks of training, and mainly patrolled, as he was not initially given casework. In this same period, he witnesses the execution of Officer Kerling, without the context of the reason for the killing.

Additionally, he claims to be heading towards divorce, talking of his failing marriage to Carpenter, though its unclear whether he did this in order to get her guard down, actually is having issues with his home life, or came up with the story as veiled metaphor for his relationship to his work. Later, this comes up again between them.

Hayward also has some affinity/exposure for the Saint Electric- tuning his radio into Sid Wright's show, mentioning praying to the Saint Electric over coffee, and when suprised by Daggler, calling out 'Sainted Current!', though this might be expected given the high prescence of the Saint Electic in cities, being stamped on both his coffemaker and the trains.

Trivia
  Potentially, Hayward was written to have a partner with he/him pronouns at one point. In the transcript for Episode 5 there is a line 'If I can only do better, maybe he won’t look at me like he hates me.', which is not contained within the current release of the podcast audio. In episode 14, he is confirmed to have a wife. This is also questionable given the comment asking about Mason having she/her pronouns in one of the episode transcripts. Hayward's name continues on the trend of being named for medieval English professions, a Hayward being an officer in charge of fences and enclosures, with the job of protecting crops from livestock.  Hayward's story about the Lady of Linked Hearts and Carpenter's story later about The Cleft Benith All Things mention deities that could be argued as "Foils." The first revealing if lovers were true but not giving real information, and the other forcing truth from those in questioning. There is also something to be said about the iconography of the deities, one of Locks and the other of Opening. 