application ➢ etraya

⏵ player information
name and pronouns: ell (they/them)
age: 34
contact: brutallyamish (plurk), brutallyamish (discord), PM this journal

⏵ character information
name: Mel Medarda
canon: Arcane
age: 33
canon point: Season 2, episode 8, "Killing is a Cycle"
history: wiki
abilities:
arcane

Mel was born with an innate connection to the arcane, which allows her to wield magic. According to Leblanc, she is an empath, which is an incredibly rare subtype of mage, and it allows her to sense others, their magic, and also bind it. This power also manifests as almost an intuition, because she was able to sense the bomb before it struck, and this intuition sometimes reacts reflexively to protect her. Her magic is light-based, and she can both generate and manipulate the light around her to use as a shield or barrier, turn it into bolts or whips, or envelop herself within it and unleash a supernova. Mel is, at present, still navigating this ability, what it means for her, and how to use it, so she is not quite adept with it, though she does manage better under pressure currently.

diplomat

Having been banished from her home by her mother, Mel has depended on her ability to reach and sway people to her cause, first to grant her access to things and then to rise up in society, eventually earning herself a seat on the council. She has a strategic and political mind, cunning and clever, and she is adept at building networks to gather information. Mel is the kind of person who likes to play the long game, too, and is very good at moving pieces around the board to further her own agenda.

painter

This is really more of a hobby, but Mel has a great talent for it and has filled her home with paintings. She has an artistic eye for things in general.

personality: A bright woman with the world at her fingertips, it is abundantly clear that Mel is used to being in control and has the intelligence, wit, and drive to accomplish anything that she sets her sights on. Calculating and patient, she is progressive, open-minded, and willing to task risks when needed, not allowing tradition to hold her back. In fact, Mel readily challenges "the way things are done," and she isn't afraid to chart a new path, nor does she let anything or anyone get in her way. Mel can be fierce and determined, though she doesn't step over people to get what she wants, instead doing everything that she can to win them over to her way of thinking.

Cunning and persuasive, Mel prefers diplomacy, rationality, and guile to brute force and never resorts to violence to solve her problems, following in her brother's footsteps.

Possessed of a great desire to prove herself, Mel struggles with her sense of self-worth, carrying a lot of complicated feelings and trauma from her every thought and action being criticized prior to her banishment from her home. Though she would never admit it, Mel still seeks her mother's approval, to be seen as worthy of their clan name. More than that, Mel wants to be better than her mother ever was, a strong, capable leader who inspires through acts of good and temperance rather that fear and subjugation. To that end, Mel always tries to do what she believes is best, not only for herself and those she cares for, but for everyone under her care, never once truly taking the power she held on the council for granted.

Mel is willing to admit, however, that she can be single-minded, judgemental, or cold to those she doesn't deem worth her time, and that she has made terrible mistakes, both in her governing of the city but in her personal relationships, much of that stemming from her reluctance to let people in despite her loneliness. In the past, really, her most immediate past, Mel gravitated more towards people she believed she could manipulate on her quest to rise through the ranks, and she didn't look twice at someone she thought wasn't useful to her. That isn't always entirely negative, or without respect, but she could be dismissive of someone who didn't fit into her plans. She is attempting to repair the bridges she had been chipping away at now, especially when it comes to the people of Zaun, who she used to see as more of an obstacle than anything else.

Underneath her cold-hearted, closed off exterior, however, Mel is gentle, compassionate, and caring. As a child, she believed those traits to be signs of weakness, pieces of herself to be excised or buried, but as she has matured, she has come to view these parts of her as valuable. Years of guarding herself and her heart haven't made learning to open herself up easy, but she is trying every day to show this side of herself, especially to those she has grown to care about.

samples: TDM toplevel (there are 7 different threads here), tag in on the TDM, one, two from bakerstreet