Mel Melborne

Basic Information
Current Date: 1968

Age: 22-24, Unknown

Choice Music:


 * Tea With Cinnamon- Katzenjammer


 * No Rain- Blind Melon


 * This Too Shall Pass- OK Go

Physical Appearance
Mel is broad shouldered and muscular, with a spattering of freckles over his cheeks. He has sandy blonde hair, occasionally tied back in a ponytail, but more often laying free, trailing over his shoulders, and a fluffy beard. He is usually in a dress shirt and pants of varying wild patterns. He only wears more plain clothes with dull colors when upset.

Scars
He also has multiple scars that are normally hidden by his clothing. One under left his eye, an X across his chest, and one horizontally across his left bicep. He also has one horizontally on his left side, above his hip.

Early Years
[TW for emotional and sexual abuse] Mel was adopted at age two by his mother, where he lived happy until age four, when his mother staged his death and from that point on kept him inside out of fear of him being hurt or taken. Or, namely, corrupted. He was babied extensively and expected to act like a child even into his teen and young adult years, unallowed to speak more than a few words at a time, or make his own decisions. Emotional, and occasionally sexual, abuse carried on his entire life until he was nineteen, after she couldn't ignore his status as a more grown man and not a child any longer, and she left him in their home alone, not coming back.

Years Alone
[TW for drug use] Mel stayed in his and his mother's home until running out of food, and he was forced to go outside and find a way to sustain himself. He largely did odd jobs for anyone who needed it, as well as he could with his limited communication skills, to earn money. He stayed in London until he was forced to cross by boat into the United States illegally, to escape from an incident he'd caused due to his phobia of women. There he did mostly the same, moving around, and now also working with construction, his broad frame naturally made for it. Wanting to get help with his phobia, he checked himself into a conversion therapy center, assuming it would help, but instead with his kind nature he ended up being taken advantage of, and addicted to a variety of the anti psychotic drugs given. He struggled with this heavily until managing to cut himself off once he moved away from the area he'd been staying in and largely isolating himself from people.

Current Time
He settled down in Badlands, New Mexico after nearly being run over by a car driven by a man named Jane Doe. In apology, Jane asked him to work for him for a large amount of pay, and in addition, some of the land he owned, to live permanently. Mel accepted and built a cottage out of the way in the woods, where he watches over the forest for Jane when he's away at his own job.

Personality
Mel tries to be very positive, kind, and nurturing. He also tries to trust people until proven untrustworthy, and even then he'll tend to try to listen to them as well as he can. Depending on his mood though, he can be either quite naive sounding, or very world weary. Because of his upbringing, when he's not thinking he might tend to speak in more of a child like manner, giving the impression he's very innocent and unassuming. Other times he may sound very blunt or bitter. He used to listen to anything anyone said, and put their wants above his own, but over time he's learned to stand up for himself and do what he himself wishes. The downside of that, is at his size, it's impossible to make him do something he doesn't want to. Even if it's something good for him.

Jane Doe
Mel met Jane when he was still almost completely mute, preferring not to speak other than simple words and sentences, much rather listening. Jane often came over to discuss how things were going, and Mel would listen and allow Jane to talk as much as he wanted. He was a bit intimidated by Jane's enthusiasm, but was always polite and allowed him to speak, dealing with his energy. After Jane broke up with his ex husband however, Mel automatically allowed Jane to stay with him as he got back up on his feet. Mel was also going through the loss of someone close to him, and he leaned on Jane as much as Jane leaned on him. As he became more open with Jane, and more relaxed, he slowly got used to Jane's eccentricities, learning how to read him, and his emotions, very well. This let him calm Jane down easily, and as a result Mel started gaining more confidence in himself, and more confidence speaking to and understanding others. He enjoyed feeling like he was trusted, and able to make his own decisions, and Jane was the first person he spoke to about his past, and his feelings involving it, as he knew he wouldn't be looked down on, and that Jane's view of him wouldn't change.

Chopper Knivesbane
Mel doesn't even recall where he met Chopper first, as a lot of the time before striking up a friendship with Jane was largely a blur, and even during, when Jane wasn't yet living with him. Despite that, when Chopper busted into his home and spoke to him casually, even making demands, Mel was unperturbed, having been getting used to such things due to living with Jane for the past while. Jane and Chopper were quite antagonistic towards each other, and Mel automatically stepped up as a mediator between the two. As Chopper came over more often, eventually basically living in the house, Mel got used to him the same as he had Jane, including his eccentricities, one of these being Chopper casually hitting on him and flirting, which Chopper seemed to do to everyone and everything. Mel was completely unaware of Chopper's obvious attraction, as he'd never had such attention on him before, and when he did figure out what Chopper was saying, he was always heavily embarrassed. He didn't realize that Chopper expressed interest for a long while, and Chopper's distrust in getting close to people prevented them from going much farther than an oddly close friendship. As time has gone on, Mel's gotten extremely used to Chopper's casual use of dirty language, and his constant joking and implications. As he got more comfortable, he's managed to develop more of his own sense of humor, even casually insulting his friends as a loving jab, something he never would have let himself do in the past.

PTSD
As a result of his treatment throughout his early life, Mel can be easily thrown off and upset by things that may not cross other people's minds. Being called "childish" or people talking about liking children is something that causes him to get angry, lash out, or disassociate. He has a difficult time controlling his emotions, as he experiences them rapidly and in quick succession, due to never fully learning a lot of coping skills a young child does as they grow up. This causes him to feel hard, and extremely. He can cry very easily, and be discouraged with few words, often shutting himself down and blaming himself for doing something wrong. When he has a meltdown he will often find a place to hide, curling up and letting himself calm down.

Gynophobia
As a result of being taught to do so, Mel stays away from women and has required an intense fear of them. While it's not as prominent as it used to be, in the past it caused him extreme distress and anxiety, and if pushed far enough, emotional numbing and blacking out, often lashing out at these points without his control. This lead to him hurting people, which in turn worsened his fear of women and of himself.

Colors
As a child, Mel was conditioned to have a strong fear and distrust of the dark, and the color black will trigger that fear and upset him. He refuses to wear black clothing and uses bright colors to try to disrupt getting upset easily at the color black touching him, either physically or imagined. His bright clothes are a major way that he does this. He wears a variety of patterned shirts and dress pants, though occasionally allowing himself shorts, even refusing to have black buttons, or shoes. The soles of his shoes are always painted a bright orange. His house is similarly colored, the walls covered in a multitude of colorful paintings that he made himself. On particularly bad days he has a difficult time touching his boyfriend, who's fashion sense is very much darkly colored, but they've found ways around this.

Hair
Mel was forced to keep his hair cut short, and his face bare. After his mother left, he no longer was able to maintain it, never having cut his own hair before, and let it grow. As time went on he started seeing it as an extension of himself and his healing. He keeps his beard neatly trimmed, but lets his hair grow as long as it will. He has never cut it and the only time he have ever thought to were a sign of severe distress and depersonalization. The thought of being without his facial hair causes him extreme anxiety and panic.

Other
Mel was also held to a strict code of cleanliness and things being put in their places. He often brushes his teeth after every meal, and brushes his hair multiple times a day. He showers every morning and tries to look immaculate at all times. Anything being out of place in his house causes him great distress. He's alright with people making a mess as long as it's cleaned up after, but dislikes things being left out more than a short while if it's not being used. If something has a certain place, he gets greatly upset if something happens to it, such as breaking or being taken away, not liking the item's spot being empty. He will get erratic and irritated, and in order to calm he must find something else to put there, often needing to get or be given a new item to fill the empty place.