Melinda Scales

CHARACTER

Name:
Melinda Scales

Age:
17

Gender:
Female (Snake-Type Fauna)

Symbol:
A black snake coiled into a spiral

Occupation:
Student at Beacon

Appearance:
Melinda is fairly short in height, being only around 5’2” and is actually quite muscular in build. Since Melinda is a snake-type fauna, the skin surrounding her face as well the skin of her arms, legs and torso are dotted with black shiny scales, while also having a long prehensile snake tail. She also possesses long fangs that stick out of her mouth. Her skin itself is a dark tan while her eyes are bright gold color with slit pupils and her hair is ginger in color while being quite curly and long in length since it reaches her lower back and is usually tied in a low ponytail with a jeweled hair clip.  

Melinda’s main outfit outside of the Beacon school uniform is a snug white sleeveless top that has a high neckline with the design looking like a snake is coiling around the lower chest and the waist, with the fabric of the snake looking like it’s made of scales, a pair of black high-waist shorts, light gray tights underneath with dark red rose petals design across them and a pair of green chunky heel ankle boots. As for accessories, Melinda wears a green scarf around her neck, a pair of black opera gloves, a golden bracelet with a flowers and vine design engraved in it and a pair of sunglasses.

History:
When Melinda was born, she was put up for adoption since her biological parents couldn’t afford to care for a child, not to mention they wanted her to live a better life then the one they had to offer her. She lived in an adoption agency until she was around four years old, when a wealthy couple by the names of Bernadette and Justinus Scales. The couple was the ones to permanently adopt Melinda into their care and even legally changed her last name to match theirs. The reason they chose Melinda in particular was that they found her to be a charming child that they wished to raise despite her being a Fauna. So as far as Melinda knows, Bernadette and Justinus raised her for her whole life and she’s actually content not knowing her biological parents.

Despite living a wealthy lifestyle, Melinda was taught the values of hard work, generosity and honesty by her parents since they themselves spent a fair portion of their lives working their way up to their spot. Due to this, Melinda was no spoiled brat and was actually quite modest about her riches, though occasionally she’s surprised when she meets people who are much less financially well. And Melinda ended up a sheltered child as well, not even aware of the treatment towards Faunas like her and wouldn’t even know she was any different from her parents if they didn’t blatantly tell her.

Melinda began to strive to become a Huntress when became thirteen after hearing tales of the job from a relative of Bernadette. These tales left a lasting imprint on her when she began to think of what she wanted to do to contribute to society as Melinda grew older. While Bernadette and Justinus were wary of her choice, they still chose to support her by personally crafting her weapon based on an old weapon that ran in Justinus’ family. By the time Melinda was sixteen, from her determination and seriousness of becoming a Huntress, she was accepted into Beacon.

Personality:
Melinda is typically very quiet, not because she is shy but more because she prefers to use her words when they are needed since she believes they’ll have more of an impact on others. One thing Melinda enjoys to do is break peoples assumptions about her since most people just assume upon first meeting her that she’s meek or a mute. She’s quite warm-hearted towards others and is rarely ever mean to someone upon first meeting them. However Melinda can tend to be quite sensitive to other people’s feelings, to the point she’ll put most of her energy and time into making them feel better. Not to mention she’ll sometimes try her hardest to avoid conflict among others and has trouble solving her own problems.

While Melinda is quite sensitive to other people’s feelings, she tends to have trouble expressing her own emotions, especially negative ones. This leads to them building up until she needs to find an outlet for these emotions, which is usually writing. One thing that Melinda takes seriously is her duty of a student at Beacon to study and train to become the strongest Huntress she can be. However her devotion to this duty makes it somewhat hard for to take criticism, especially from her teachers. Not to mention Melinda tends to have feelings of inadequacy due to both her species, as well as her difficulty to keep up with the more gifted students at Beacon.

Strength:  
Since Melinda is a Fauna, she has natural night vision which makes stealthily attacking her foes in the dark a much easier feat. With her small size in both height and build, it helps make Melinda a slippery opponent to corner. Melinda is actually quite flexible physically and is skilled in gymnastics, which she incorporates into her fighting style. Whenever she fights, Melinda tries to catch her opponent off guard with feints, complex foot work and everything else of the sort.

Weakness:
Melinda’s sensitive eyes make her vulnerable to bright flashes of lights, hence why she wears her sunglasses. Due to her Fauna type, she is vulnerable to cold temperatures and naturally prefers warmer temperatures. While she has impressive strength and speed, Melinda’s endurance to full-on attacks is lacking. She is also quite easy to manipulate with the right means to do so.

Semblance:
Melinda can use her Semblence to teleport short distances, which makes her fighting style ever more effective since she can disappear from sight, only to reappear behind her opponent and go in for a sneak attack. A downside to this is that overusing it can lead to her becoming dizzy and disoriented and having her to need to stop in order to straighten herself out, leaving her wide open.

WEAPON

Name:
Venom Cleaver

Primary Form:
A large double-sided blade axe that Melinda can use for close combat, which reaches her shoulders in size. In its primary form, Venom Cleaver main usage is for classic slicing-and-dicing Grimm in pieces. The axe’s blades are green in color and have carvings of snakes on them, with the staff of the axe being made of a dark wood with similar snake carvings.

Secondary Form:
Venom Clever second form is a large rifle and doesn’t necessarily transform into that except for the barrel of the gun opening up at the head of the axe with a trigger folding out of the staff.

Tertiary Form:
The last form Venom Cleaver can be used as is that another trigger can fold out of the staff, except this one pops the pommel of the axe off, leaving it connected by a cable. This allows the axe to be used as a flail or even a grappling hook.

History:
The weapon is not that old since it created specifically for Melinda to use in the Beacon Academy, paid for by Bernadette and Justinus. However the design of the weapon was based off an older weapon that ran in Justinus' family during the Great War, altered for her liking. Venom Cleaver was created by an old friend of the family who was also a blacksmith, Alfred Coal.

Add in a weakness to the semblance and you're okay in my eyes.

There you go. I added a weakness to the Semblence.

Works for me +1

So I'm good here?

Amber needs to go over the changes first.

Looks good. Approved.