#melocask

5. How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?

Oh boy, Mel's name story is a bit embarrassing ngl xD

When I created Mel, when I was like 12, I was a massive weeb and, being inspired by Death Note and being the uncreative ass that I am I took his name directly from the anime and named him Mello after my favourite character at the time.

It took me a little while but at some point I realised that Mello is a bit too unusual a name in a realistic setting, so I shortened it to Mel. I decided to go with Melvin for his full name because honestly there weren't too many other options and I liked the idea of him having a bit of an awkward name that needed shortening in his opinion.

As for why he got that name in universe...Mel's maternal grandfather was called Melvin.

Mel's mom settled for that name because she couldn't really think of a name she liked, and the names she initially had in mind were shot down by her boyfriend (and Roland partially) for being too out there.

(Kinda wish I had had a Roland around to shoot me down when I initially settled for the name Mello tbh...)

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.

Serena

Does your OC have a faceclaim? If so, who?

Not really. (tbh none of my characters have an actual face claim apart from Lyall partially)

I did sort of implement certain attributes of fictional characters or people I know/ have seen somewhere in both her style and facial features tho...just not enough to really call it a face claim.

Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs the World for example is a character I very loosely based her on.

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Simon

What is the worst thing you have put your OC through story-wise?

(small tw for transphobia just in case)

Most of the answers here would be too much of a spoiler so I'm just gonna go with one thing, which is the fact that his relationship with his mother suffered quite a lot under his transition.

It's not like she disowned him or broke contact or anything like that, but she still has a lot of trouble becoming adjusted to it, which naturally causes a lot of tensions between them at times.

Part of me would love to just say "fuck it" and have his mother be 100% accepting and supportive but sadly that is not always the reality.

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Mabon

What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

One AU I would really love to explore more is the storyline of Mabon and @drawing-way-outside-the-lines' Caspian.

I like to think this AU is kinda...sorta what could come to be if Volatile was an interactive story (à la Life is Strange) and Mel/the Player made all the worst possible choices one could make.

I personally really like to dabble in this AU because:

a) I can just fuck around without much thought for plot and coherence

b) I love Caspian and his dynamic with Mabon.

and c) it allows me to explore a more unhinged side of Mabon.

🍑  :    how meticulously does my muse look after their physical appearance?  do they spend a lot of time on their hair,  makeup,  grooming,  and clothing?  is there a particular reason why they do or don’t? 

When Mel was a teenager he actually cared a lot, probably too much, about his appearance.

Serena would make jokes about the fact that he needed twice as long in the bathroom as her just to do his hair alone. That was slightly exaggerated on her end though.

To Mel focusing on his appearance was mainly an attempt to get his insecurities and dislike for himself under control. He had certain (sometimes rather conflicting) images in his head of how he wanted or was supposed to look but despite his best efforts he could never quite get it right.

These days Mel isn't really in a position to focus or at the very least do anything about his appearance, given his living situation. It's still on his mind from time to time though...it's a complicated subject all around for him.

The only time he sees himself is in the crusty bathroom mirrors of public toilets or when he passes a storefront window, and while he doesn't go out of his way to avoid it he's still not overly keen on perceiving himself.

Nowadays he switches between being completely disconnected from his appearance to  feeling immense shame and self hatred to getting a grim kind of gratification from that.

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Lyall

🥝  :    does my muse have any  ‘  unusual  ’  habits,  interests,  and  /  or talents?  do they hide it,  or are they proud of it? 

Lyall almost has a sixth sense for people. He can observe a person and assess how they feel, what they fear, what they want, what they need. And 9 our of 10 times he's correct with his assumption.

Although he perceives it as a gift (as well as a curse) to some degree he's still not proud of it for two reasons

1) it has a pretty grim background. It mostly stems from the fact that he had to assess his surroundings almost constantly as a child. Being able to read the room was necessary for survival to him.

2) He feels that being proud of it would cloud his judgement and hinder him more than anything.

He's also got a knack for solving riddles, puzzles, brain teasers of any kind. (Something he used to annoy Alev with on occasion when she was still a kid)

Again, not something he's particularly proud of. Although he thinks it speaks for his ability to think outside the box and not take everything at face value, which he definitely is proud of although he probably wourdn't admit it.

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Roland

🥭  :    how important to my muse is their hometown,  or where they’re from?  are they proud of it,  or considered a hometown hero?  did they move away,  or do they wish to?

Roland has always been a bit of an involuntary drifter at heart. He finds it difficult to build connections to places.

The city he was born in, Omsk he has absolutely no connection towards anymore. He moved away from there when he was very young and he's only been there once since, because he wanted to know what it's like. But it just didn't feel like home to him.

Dublin, where he grew up, also doesn't have much meaning too him anymore.

His parents cast him out after his discharge from the military which basically eradicated any feeling of home he had for this place.

🐟 What was your OC like as a baby? What were they like as a child? A teenager? An adult? How do you think they’ll develop ten years into their future? Twenty years? Will they live to old age?

TW: dysphoria

(Don’t really know how else to label it)

Simon was very independent and energetic as a baby much to his mother's dismay. He didn't really need much attention but his mom had to baby proof pretty much everything or he would wind up in places he shouldn't be.

As a kid he calmed down a tad bit. But he was still a very curious child. And he wasn't shy to speak up even if conversations with the adults.

His sister in particular (who had a hand in raising him) encouraged his behavior, most of his distant family did in fact, while his mother was on the fence about it. She loved his openness but knew from experience that the world was not a kind place and thought that speaking from the heart not knowing when to keep quiet might get him in trouble sooner or later.

When Simon reached his teens and puberty started he became much more withdrawn. He didn't like the changes his body was going through and the expectations people started having towards him and his presumed gender.

Suddenly being perceived as not just a child but a woman and having to act accordingly.

He became increasingly more bitter over the years and felt completely estranged towards most people, apart from his sister.

It also didn't help that he went to a predominantly white school and the negative experiences that came with it which added to him feeling like an outsider.

He didn't have many friends and was usually by himself. (Which honestly was almost unbearable to him because he was still a very social person at heart.)

It took him a while to get to the bottom of his issues. It really just hit him that he was trans when one of his relatives came forward about being trans and their wish to undergo a sex change.

While nobody in his family was really against it, it was still talked and gossiped about to an unnecessary degree until Simon eventually snapped and got into an argument with his mother about it.

He moved away from home when he was 19, he left on good terms with his family but only ever told his sister about his plans to transition

Finally having more freedom to express himself and to start working towards getting hormones, he slowly reverted back to his old self.

Past experiences have made him a bit calmer, wiser and yet more...lets say spiteful very deep down. He's a very positive (almost too positive at times) and peaceful person but he has a strong contempt for how cruel and close minded the world can be. Its a feeling he tries to push away to the best of his abilities, but it's there.

I think in the future Simon will have to find a balance between these two conflicting mindsets. How exactly and how he will evolve from there is something I leave open for now. (aka I have no effing clue yet)

Roy

💥 Are there any emotions your OC doesn’t know how to deal with, doesn’t understand or hates having to feel? Any reason behind this?

Now before I answer I should probably point out that at the core Roy is a very levelheaded person. Between him and Serena he was always the calmer one or at the very least had a tighter grip on his emotions. That being said he might have a bit too tight of a grip on them at this point. 

Anger has always been an emotion that left him uncomfortable. While he had anger issues in the past, a lot of it was actually heavily influenced by Serena. Serena was an incredibly angry person throughout most of their childhood ( fore good reasons I might add)  and Roy often found himself in a position where he felt like he had to mirror her anger without even wanting to. Doing or saying things he deeply regrets in the process.

When Roy and Serena got older Serena started working on her anger issues through therapy while Roy was left with a hollow echo of "Anger”  that he couldn’t quite shake off. And while it would never be as frequent as it was with Serena when Roy actually reached a point where he got angry he felt like he didn’t have much control over it, so he tried his best to bottle it up completely.

Another emotion he has trouble with is sadness. Not really trouble but he has a very polarising relationship to it. He feels a certain comfort in sadness, also because sadness to him is usually tied to some kind of nostalgia, remembering his mother (on her good days) or thinking back to his time in the residential home when he was still closer with Serena and Mel. It’s bitter sweet to him. And it confuses him. So he tries to bottle that up as well.

Roland

🏀 Does your OC have any skills that people wouldn’t expect them to have? Do they have a hobby or pass time that others would consider strange or weird? How did they learn this particular skill or pick up this hobby?

I was actually really happy when this question popped up xD

First of all Roland is an incredibly good shot. That might be not something super unexpected but given he fact that Roland isn't actually too fond of guns it might raise an eyebrow when he lets it slip in conversations.

He used to go on hunting trips with his father when he was younger (that was his dad's idea of father son bonding time) and to him there was nothing more satisfying than hitting his target with utmost accuracy and the adrenaline rush that came with it.

His talent also translated well to handguns later on.

The novelty of hunting and shooting altogether has worn off for him after his time in the army though, it very much changed his perspective on it.

He wouldn't touch a gun now unless for self defense reasons.

Apart from that Roland is very skilled with language. He grew up speaking both English and Russian.

And he speaks Danish, German, Italian and French well enough to have basic conversations. (yes the dude knows French)

He also knows a few words/ phrases in Arabic and Japanese.

He doesn't even know why but learning languages always came to him easily.

It helps that he has frequent foreign visitors in his pub and since he's not the best at small talk he usually steers conversations with his customers towards culture and/or language which tends to be a good ice breaker...and he can probably learn some new vocabulary in the process xD

He also has the rare talent of burning even the simplest dish to a crisp. Dude could probably burn Spagetti water.

As for Hobbys...the fact that he is an avid reader is something that tends to surprise people. He ddidn't have a tv growing up so reading was his main way for him to pass time. Especially when he was grounded which happened quite often.

His genre preference is all over the place, he's got some books about militairy history mixed with thrillers, a silly romance novel that he started when he was bored out of his mind but actually found it had some depth to it and to top i all off there's a french copy of the little prince in his bookshelf.

Luke (poor guy has no last name AND no picture)

💚 Are you writing anything with this OC or planning on writing anything for them? Do you rp with them or are they just for fun to mess around with?

While Luke will probably make reaperances in Volatile he will most likely remain a side character I'm afraid.

I might go a bit deeper into his relationship with Serena, but apart from that I have nothing planned for him sadly. I already have too many characters with side stories that I need to squeeze in somewhere xDDD

Oswald

💜 Do you enjoy working on your OC or are they a bit of a chore? We all have that one character who is hard to develop!

Both.

I think the main thing that makes it hard for me to develop Oswald properly is that I'm not really satisfied with his looks in my game. So I'm put off of taking too many pics/edits with him and using that to spin ideas around in my head.

Strangely enough though out of all my not so essential characters the side story I do have planned for him is actually one of my favourites and probably way more complex than it should be for a side story...

Then again it's not fully fleshed out yet, cuz...reason stated above. I might have to tweak him before he can make an appearance in my story...will have to see.

Serena

What does she think of the Cowboy Bebop Netflix adaptation?

Her initial reaction when she heard about it was this:

She hasn’t watched it yet. Nor has she checked much out about it.She hasn’t been watching much Netflix in general lately, her current go to streaming platform is Crunchyroll.

She isn’t even sure whether she IS actually gonna watch it. To her real life anime adaptions are a cardinal sin. And Netflix especially she doesn’t trust with it. (She’s still not over the Death Note movie.)

While some people including Simon have told her that it ain’t that bad actually  (granted Simon didn’t grow up with the original) and that especially John Cho is doing a really good job as Spike, until further notice she will pretend it doesn’t exist and just keep watching the original.

Mabon

💗 Ramble a bit about this character!

For the Wildcard Question... *drags Mabon out of the trash* let's talk about this fucker.

Gonna put a TW for Abuse mention here

I wasn't actually gonna talk too much about Mabon till he makes an official appearance in the story but since he's made a few appearances on my blog lately and since my story is moving so fucking slow that it might take a bit until he actually shows up I thought I could spill a few things about him. I hope it’s all understandable, if not feel free to ask!

For those who are confused about the whole Mel Mabon thing...Mabon is one of the Alternate States of Consciousness (Alters) of Mel's DID System. 

[DID is a condition that can appear after severe repeated trauma in early childhood.Basically the personailty of the person affected was never able to fully integrate into one (or is disrupted) during childhood development due to trauma which causes multiple distinct personality states to to exist in one body]

He'll be the first Alter to make himself known to Mel and generally he's the Alter who has the closest connection to him and who fronts (takes over the body)  the most frequently apart from Mel.

I have a love hate relationship with Mabon. I feel like most people would because he makes it incredibly hard for people to like him.

Which is something he absolutely does on purpose. He doesn't want to be liked, he wants to intimidate people to feel in control and so they back the fuck off and leave him alone. That is one of his main methods of protecting Mel or the body from harm. Kinda like how animals make themselves big or have some other crazy ass way to ward of foes. Only that Mabon unfortunately sees everyone as a potential foe. Even Mel himself at times.

You see to Mabon keeping the body from harm is a top priority, while Mel is pretty neglectful of his physical (and mental) well being, not to mention that he actively harms the body (through self harm, alcohol abuse for example) which poses a strong conflict for Mabon. How do you protect yourself from a potential threat that comes from within after all?

If Mabon feels like he can't protect himself from outside threats by just acting like a prick he resorts to violence. But unlike what people might think he is actually never the one to throw the first punch.

That said he's really not a villain or a typical bad guy in the story.

The thing about Mabon (and that hopefully will explain a few of his characteristics as the story progresses) is that he sees himself as inherently bad and a demonic entity of sorts. He's not a "non- human" alter through and through, but the mindset that he is  “evil” and not human is basically ingrained in his mind from past trauma and how Mel was treated by his abuser, who would switch between perceiving Mel as a normal child and a monstrosity. This inconsistency being why Mabon struggles to fully perceive himself as both human or non human.

Strangely enough he feels more comfortable seeing himself as non human. Mainly because fear factor. And because in a strange way he finds himself in his comfort zone when he does.

Roland

Regardless of whether or not they wield any, what kind of weapon do you associate them with?

It's a draw between a gun (handgun or rifle) and a knife for him. Both have relevance in Roland's life.

The gun being more of a reminder of destructive elements in Roland's life, hunting trips with his dad as a child, his time in the army, and his time he spent in the US afterwards...which were all not very great experiences to him.

And the knife being something Roland connects with more pleasant and creational experiences, carving wood for example.

Mel

Which of the seven deadly sins are they associated with? Is it a negative trait of theirs or something they actively struggle with?

Sloth

Pretty self explanatory. Mel most of the time lacks the energy and drive to do...pretty much anything, apart from maybe the bare necessities, but even that is a gamble in his case. He tends to let things slide until either somebody else takes care of them for him or they become a huge problem.

Which of the seven heavenly virtues are they associated with? Do they embody that virtue or are they trying to learn it?

Humility

In Mel's case humility is not really a virtue, since it's rather extreme to a point of self loathing sometimes, but still.

He's the last person to view himself as superior to others in any way.

Mabon

Which of the seven deadly sins are they associated with? Is it a negative trait of theirs or something they actively struggle with?

Wrath (what a surprise)

Anger is a strong emotion for Mabon that is almost always present in some way. To Mabon his anger is both, a result of trauma as well as, in a strange way, a subconscious way to emotionally detach or distance himself from it.

Its also a very strong driving force to him.

Which of the seven heavenly virtues are they associated with? Do they embody that virtue or are they trying to learn it?

Diligence