Narcissus Melyn

Narcissus Melyn is one of the members of team WNDR. His weapon of choice is a grenade launcher and circular saw combo called Umber Storm.

He made his first appearance in "We're All Mad Here", arriving in Vale with his adoptive sibling Wofi. After crashing the World Leader's Ball, he is recruited by Ryu Akino and joined by Diane Glas to investigate a mysterious assailant Ryu encountered.

History
When he was young, Melyn was abandoned on the streets of Vacuo by a family who decided they could no longer take care of him. He had to learn to survive on his own, his exploits eventually leading him to cross paths with a young Wofi, who had also lost family. After some initial distrust, the two quickly became thick as thieves. As they grow up, Melyn starts to get bored with his familiar surroundings and dreams of “getting out of this dump” and exploring the world, so they hop an airship headed to Vale to do just that.

Appearance
Melyn is a tall young man with dark skin and gold eyes. On the rare occasion he takes off his hat, his blonde hair underneath is curly and messy, sticking up every which way.

During his childhood in Vacuo, Melyn had to wear what he could find. His outfit from that time consists of a cream-colored button-up shirt, halfway tucked in to a pair of wide black pants. Over the shirt he wears a brown leather vest with a broken buckle and a tattered yellow scarf. A brown belt hangs loosely on his hip, holding on a bag where he keeps his money and tools. He wore brown fingerless gloves, tightened at the wrists with twine. His white socks are held up with bandages and one homemade orange kneepad, which he wore mostly out of pride rather than for any actual protection. A pair of goggles is perched on his head.

After crafting his tophat-shaped weapon, Melyn decided he needed an outfit to match - he switched out the cream-colored button-up for a white one with a popped collar and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Over this he wears a bright yellow vest with long tails in the back. His toolbag is kept in place by a brown belt around his waist and a strap around his thigh. He wears black pants and white knee-high spats over brown boots. His gloves are still brown, but now cover his fingers. He still wears the same pair of goggles, but they are hidden under his hat.

Personality
Melyn is a wild-card type, unpredictable and spontaneous. Generally antisocial, he has trouble making friends, but cares deeply about the ones he does make. He is very nosy with those close to him, wanting to know what they're up to and if they're feeling alright. This habit usually presents itself as one of his impromptu "tea parties", where he sits the person of concern down with a cup of tea to talk over their problems. While he is smart and good with tinkering, he isn't one much for diplomacy or plans. He's more of the short-term tactics sort of guy and lets Wofi handle overall strategy. He tells puns aggressively to the point that it usually starts getting annoying. He also tends to talk with no sign of stopping and will go on forever if no one interrupts. He flirts with every boy that looks his direction, though he's rarely sincere about it.

Though his first name is Narcissus, he loathes it, as the name carries some bad memories; instead he introduces himself with his self-given surname. Calling him by his first name will anger him to the point where he might even lash out. He has an inferiority complex and is rather insecure, always worried about being "replaced". No one would know, however, because he acts extremely confident and is even a bit of a show-off, often taunting his opponents. Because he is so often jokey and sarcastic, when he is actually being genuine most people still don't take it seriously at first. He hates being talked down to and can't stand people thinking they're better than him on principle. However, if he were to be actually bested by that same person he would accept his defeat graciously. While not necessarily hot-headed, he is rather impulsive and has trouble listening to authority, even if that "authority" is Wofi.

Powers and Abilities
While Melyn tends to avoid close combat, he is still able to hold his own in a melee fight. He shows high agility and reaction time; as he puts it, when he "gets into the groove" of a fight, he can anticipate his opponent's fighting style, allowing him to see hits coming and avoid them.

Melyn is a self-proclaimed machine whiz, a skill he learned while fending for himself on the streets. He is a master at building "something out of nothing", taking seemly random parts and creating a functional device out of them. He built his own weapon and armor from scratch, and often is recruited to fix his teammate's weapons when they are inevitably damaged. He will also build equipment for his teammates unprompted - after their first battle together, Melyn notices that Ryu causes damage to himself with his semblance, and immediately builds him protective bracers so it doesn't happen again.

Weapon
"Main Article: Umber Storm"Melyn's weapon is unusual, being that it also functions as an article of clothing. Melyn, being an inventor and fairly narcissistic when it comes to his appearance, crafted his own weapon that could work with both style and substance. When removing the weapon at the start of battle, Melyn almost always accompanies the movement with a small bow.

When not in hat form, Umber Storm can change between a grenade launcher and circular saw. Melyn is rather uncomfortable fighting at close range, so he leans heavily on the weapon's ranged mode, staying back from the action to cause heavy damage with well-placed explosive shots. On the occasion that he does use the weapon's saw mode, he will usually try and get his opponent's weapon caught in the saw blade, allowing its powerful rotation to rip the weapon from their hands.

Semblance
Melyn's semblance, nicknamed "Haze", gives him the ability to place circular symbols on any solid surface that activate when crossed, releasing a burst of fog that causes dizziness and disorientation. Those affected will stumble in their movements and find it hard to see straight or regain their balance. Some might also act "loopy", similar to the effects of oxygen deprivation, or become nauseous. If a lot of the fog is inhaled, it causes a poison effect which drains the target's energy over time. He can place up to three small symbols at one time, or one large one.

Wofi
Melyn no longer has any "real" family members, but considers Wofi to be his family. Since they grew up together, the two are extremely close and care about each other immensely. They have the same cheesy sense of humor which drives their teammates insane. Though he is still very protective of his adoptive sibling, Melyn tends to be the more reckless of the two, often having to be held back from his more perilous ideas by Wofi. He has accidentally called Wofi "dad" on several occasions.

Ryu
When they first met, Melyn assumed Ryu to be a stuck-up palace brat, and his testy attitude only solidified this idea. Melyn immediately took to teasing and pushing Ryu's buttons. Even though they actually often agreed on things, Melyn would still choose to fight, since he couldn't look past the idea of Ryu he had in his head.

Getting lost together in Forever Fall, however, forced the two to look after and open up to each other. Upon seeing more of Ryu's softer side, Melyn grew to genuinely like him, with the crush he had been nursing turning into full-blown romance.

Trivia

 * Melyn alludes to the Mad Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. For more information on his character allusion and other creative choices, see Narcissus Melyn/Behind the Scenes.


 * Narcissus is an alternate name for the daffodil. It also refers to the Greek myth of Narcissus, a self-centered man who fell in love with his own reflection.


 * Melyn is Welsh for "yellow."