#heldhram

3. What was the first thing you decided on, the character's name, appearance, personality or their role in the story?

The first thing I decided on was that he'd have auburn hair and freckles (the freckles got lost over time). I just got done reading "The Child Thief" and the likeness of one of the protagonists was a huge inspiration for Mel at the time.

The second thing was that he'd be an orphan. I was watching Death Note at the time and wanted to create something similiar to the Wammy's House for gifted children in the anime.

I also knew fairly quickly that he'd be alternative, somewhere between goth and emo, just because that was my prefered style at the time but I wasn't really in a position to look the part.

So yeah mostly appearance, and I can definitely say that a lot of the things that make Mel who he is now really weren't present at the beginning.

6. What was the thought process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for the aesthetic or are there other reasons they look the way they do?

It's a mix of aesthetic and what would make sense for the character. I dare to say I put logic over aesthetic for the most part, either way these days I definitely put more thought into the reasoning behind his appearance. Back when I first created Mel I'd just go with things I liked at the time, whether they made sense or not.

13. Do you have a voice claim for the character? What do you imagine the character sounds like?

Sort of...the closest thing I've ever found as both a general speaking voice claim and accent claim is the actor, Jamie Bell.

I'd say Mel's accent would probably be stronger and he'd sound a bit more hoarse, other than that it's very close to how I imagine his voice.

Mel also got a singing voice claim, this incredibly talented guy.

He had a pretty horrible childhood that left him with quite a few emotional and physical scars as well as chronic pain.

He can appear quite stoic and hard to read at first glance but despite that he has a strange air around him that makes you want to trust him. It's hard to explain but he's got something inherently charismatic and captivating about him. In return however you really gotta dig deep (and probably break your fingers in the process) to really get close to him. There's only two people in his life he ever fully trusted.

He's a former member of a gang that was involved in a series of criminal activity in whatever fictional English Town this damn story plays in (World building is not my forte) Primarily burglaries and drug dealing. After a botched break-in where two innocent people wound up dead (and some other shit went down that I can't really talk about cuz spoiler) Lyall basically made a run for it and has been trying to keep a low profile since.