OOC - application
Player's Name: Rae
Player LJ: suburbangoth
AIM or Email: ryuzaki plxkthx // marbleandstone @ gmail.com
Timezone: US Central [GMT -6]
Other Characters Played (at Template): Beyond Birthday [Original]
Character: Mihael “Mello” Keehl
Series/Fandom: Death Note
Original or Template version: Template
Age: 18 19
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Sexuality: Probably pansexual, but as a result of his upbringing/socialization/etc., Mello has maybe just a teensy bit of underlying homophobia ... actually, let’s say that his upbringing/socialization left him a bit on the sexually repressed side, in general. If asked, he claims straight. Prior experiences, though few, have all been with girls.
Link to picture/PB of character: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/3034193072_4d56e70cef_o.jpg (pre-scar) or http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3273/3026115189_d707718f9b_o.jpg (post-scar), for examples of canon anime-version Mello. However, for the PB of Template Mello, I’m using Shin from the band Cinema Bizarre - http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3162/3030725901_ec09eedfac_o.jpg.
Appearance: Mello stands about 5’6” without shoes, but unlike his canon counterpart, Template Mello has a certain fondness for platform boots, so he’ll usually stand 5’8” or 5’9” in the boots - and he’s almost always in the boots. He weighs in at around 120 pounds, which is only a few pounds more than in canon, but still almost technically underweight. Mello appears thin, with delicate bone structure, and more wiry than muscular. His skin tone is on the pale side - he’s susceptible to sunburns, so he tends to stay out of the sun. His light blond (often bleached a bit lighter than natural) hair falls just above the shoulders at the longest point, and is cut in a shaggy, asymmetrical style that constantly falls into his cobalt blue eyes.
As in canon, Mello wears black almost exclusively, but the main difference in his clothing is it’s much more mundane and casual - jeans, usually, and well-worn T-shirts or plain button-ups with the cuffs left undone. When he does dress up a little, Mello tends to favor clothing with a goth-punk edge. Even at his most casual, Mello won’t appear sloppy, as he puts a great deal of thought and effort into choosing his outfits. Mello is frequently cold, too, so he’ll often be seen wearing a vintage black leather motorcycle jacket (it belonged to his father), even indoors. As far as accessories go, Mello sticks with two in particular - black oversized aviator-style sunglasses with mirrored lenses, and a rosary worn around his neck. (The rosary is mostly for fashion’s sake; Mello claims to be an atheist.) Mello also occasionally dabbles with cosmetics - black or a dark-colored nail polish, mostly, or the occasional bit of black eyeliner. Nothing too girly-looking, though.
Lastly, Template Mello has a faded burn scar covering part of his left hand and forearm. This scarring was acquired in a boredom-fueled fireworks accident Mello sustained at the age of 12. The scar is not terribly noticeable, but Mello is extremely self-conscious about it, and tends to wear long sleeves and/or fingerless gloves to cover it up.
Personality: Much like his canon counterpart, Template Mello harbors one massive inferiority complex, a result of having internalized much of his aunt’s harsh criticism over the years. The main personality difference between the two, however, is that while canon Mello is driven by his insecurities to succeed, compete, and even overcome, Template Mello has had very little encouragement throughout his life, and even some outright discouragement from those close and influential to him, so he has basically had most of his ambition figuratively beaten out of him. He’s more or less aimless, frequently bored, and even more frequently frustrated by all of it, because deep down, he wants to do more with his life, he just lacks the drive and self-esteem to do so.
Mello is an emotional person by nature; if he were to spend any significant amount of time devoted to self-analysis, he’d likely characterize himself as someone who feels too much. He has, however, learned over the years to keep his emotions well enough in check so as to avoid excessive outward displays of said emotions. It doesn’t take much to anger or irritate him, but Mello’s anger tends toward a slow boil, where it takes a great deal of button-pushing before he’ll ultimately explode. That said, Mello does not appear coldly emotionless or robotic, either - he’ll seem perhaps a bit gruff and sarcastic on first meeting, but it’s a front, a coping mechanism developed over the years. He will eventually warm up to most people, and once he does, Mello exudes a powerful kind of charisma. He can be the life of the party when he wants - and usually, if given the chance, he will. Mello’s a good listener and a great conversationalist, prone to gentle sarcasm and dark humor, and though he sometimes has trouble connecting with other people, he’s extremely loyal to the friends he does make. On the flip side, Mello makes a terrible enemy, and he holds grudges. He’s not a mean person, in general, but he can and will turn vicious if pushed far enough.
Abilities/Strengths: Despite what he’s been led to believe, Mello is extremely intelligent, albeit unfocused and untrained. Given the right instruction, Template Mello could be every bit as brilliant as his canon counterpart. Mello is also quite creative, and those skills haven’t been quite as harshly suppressed, so he’s more in tune with his creativity. That creativity is evident in such things as his attention to detail in assembling fashionable outfits and hairstyles; Mello has cut and bleached/dyed his own hair since the age of 14, with no real training to speak of.
As far as physical fights go, Mello won’t usually start a fight, but once involved, he won’t hesitate to finish it. He doesn’t have any special kind of training, but he has been in a few fist fights over the years, so he’s not completely clueless on how to proceed.
Weaknesses: Mello is his own harshest critic, having internalized much of the criticism he’s received throughout his life, and as such, he has developed a tendency toward pessimism (“realism,” he’d say) and general negativity. He can easily fall into fits of brooding or depression, if he’s not careful. His laundry list of insecurities is one of his biggest hang-ups - Mello feels inadequate, on personal, societal, and academic levels, but doesn’t believe he has the ability to do anything to improve. If insulted or criticized, Mello will likely pretend not to care, when in reality, he’ll actually be quite upset over it.
On the physical front, Mello isn’t especially strong or skilled in combat - the extent of his knowledge includes what an average teenaged male with an occasional history of fist fights would know. He’s not exceptionally fit, but he’s not frail either - generally healthy except for a mild case of idiopathic reactive hypoglycemia, which means, in a nutshell, he occasionally suffers from low blood sugar with no real known cause. Instead of adhering to a closely controlled diet, however, Mello’s treatment usually involves a small dose of chocolate or peppermints; he almost always keeps a stash of these in his various pockets.
History: Mihael Keehl was born in the maternity ward of Template City’s Peterson Hospital on December 13, 1989, the only child of John and Darla Keehl, a university physics professor and a freelance photographer, respectively. He lived in the city with his parents in a fair-sized townhouse in one of the West Side suburbs’ nicer neighborhoods until the age of 5, when his parents were both killed in a tractor-trailer rollover accident on I-234. The Keehls were the only fatalities in the accident; Mihael was at home with the baby-sitter, awaiting their arrival after a night out at Template’s Gallery, where his mother’s first solo photography exhibit had opened that night.
Newly orphaned and with no other immediate family nearby, Mihael was sent to live with his mother’s older sister in the countryside just outside of Template City proper. His aunt Elise was the eldest of five children - his mother had been the youngest - and she had never married or had children of her own. Elise was a prickly woman - emotionally distant, overly critical, conservative, and generally ill-equipped to raise her sister’s child. She and Mihael did not get along, but Elise felt a deep sense of obligation to take care of her sister’s child after Darla’s death, so she persevered, clumsily and stubbornly and often to Mihael’s eventual detriment, rather than send Mihael to live with another member of their scattered extended family, or to an orphanage or foster care.
While Mihael faced a home environment from the age of 5 onward that was less than nurturing, that lack of nurture was only compounded once he was old enough to enroll in public school. Had anyone bothered at any point to test his IQ, Mihael would have likely scored in the Highly or Exceptionally Gifted ranges; in reality, however, he was classified as a “problem student” and left to slip through the cracks of the public school system. In general, Mihael did poorly in his classes, not because he couldn’t grasp the subject materials, but because he was profoundly bored and unfocused. Instead of encouragement, he received harsh criticism from teachers, administrators, and his aunt alike, and eventually, Mihael adopted an apathetic attitude toward academia and learned to put forth only the bare minimum of effort to keep from failing out of school entirely. (The “bare minimum” did not always entail actually showing up for classes; Mihael accumulated an impressive truancy record all throughout junior high and high school.) Even so, Mihael had to go through makeup summer courses all through high school, including the summer after his senior year. He graduated with a solid C average and spent the next few months doing odd jobs and saving enough money to finally move back to Template and away from his aunt’s influence.