Melisandre Gautier/Holder - Eternus Infinuum

Character Information

Character Name: Melisandre Leigh Gautier
Meaning: Melisandre - strong, industrious; Leigh - sheltered from the storm; Gautier - armed to govern
Nicknames: Mel, Meli, Melilee. Melee used to be popular among her crew onboard the USS Powell, but that brings back too many bad memories that she's been trying in vain to forget.
Codename: Maman Brigitte
Aliases: Sandy Lee, Ellie Savoy, Lee Andrews. Ellie was the name of a fellow childhood delinquent who ran away from home, so that's usually convenient to use in a pinch, and it kept her fed until she made it to Chicago. Then again, Mel's not exactly what one would call social outside of the Haven.
Date of Birth: January 4th. Capricorn sun, Scorpio moon.
Age: 28

Occupation: One of four Holders at the Haven, occasional pharmacist, former bioweapons expert, and coffee connoisseur.
Current Residence: The Haven. To be even more specific, two doors down from Xi in the Haven.

Allies: The Haven, mostly. Any of her weapons crew she could have trusted have been acquired/taken/kidnapped/murdered by military operatives working on the K&T payroll.
Enemies: K&T on principle, and she's technically on the run from the US Navy.

Relatives & Relationships:
Nanette Gautier - mother, deceased at age 41
Herman 'Hank' Gautier - father, 53, might as well be dead, currently in 'supervised care' at VA Hospital in Biloxi, MS
Jerry Dubois - former crewmate, presumed dead at age 26
Xi-Wang - Guardian

Race: Human

Physical Description

White-blonde hair dyed cranberry is kept in bluntly chopped layers that graze her cheeks and would hang over her eyes if not kept back with a headband or underneath a weatherbeaten fisherman's hat. Round expressive eyes are a honeyed hazel, set off by thin eyebrows that accentuate every facial expression. Her complexion is of that of milky tea, able to tan with a bit of effort. Her face is rounded, with apple-cheeks and a decided chin. Mel stands about 5'7", with a well toned body blessed with curves in all the right places, including a round backside that refused to disappear after weeks of basic training. Strong shoulders and good upper body strength are proof of her days in the military. Hands are rough and calloused, irregular scars the result of skin grafts and various emergency means of repair. She's got long slender fingers and a graceful curve to her back lends to her fluid almost ballet-like movements. Her voice is melodic, a sweet honeyed tone that purrs at the end of sentences and is flavored with a distinct Cajun spice. A wash of silvery scar tissue runs from the right side of her neck over her breasts, ending just above her left hip, the only outward physical evidence of the accident on the USS Powell.

Distinguishing Features:

Well, there's that swath of a scar Mel acquired two years ago from the superheated blast of biotoxin. Add that to the fact that she lost all semblance of fingerprints; holding one's hands against the offending cartridge does some amazing things to your skin. She has the tattoo of a Holder hidden behind her right ear, branded on top of the scar tissue. Her MU tattoo is done on her left shoulder alongside a cartooned missile tattoo that contains the word 'Melee' in script on the shell.

Superhuman Abilities

Mel's ability as an Illusionist is rather remarkable. Her talents lie in the creation and disguise of inanimate things. Need a chair to look filthy? Mel can simply imagine a sheen of dust, and it's there. The smell of rotting garbage? It takes a while, but she can manage it with a bit of concentration. It's the masking of people that gives her trouble. She's not nearly as adept with the portrayal of people as something other than themselves. Masking herself is one thing; it takes concentration, but it's possible. Other people... well, she can manage one other, but she'll hurt something awful afterwards. Her 'inanimate masking' can cover an influence sphere of a fifty meter radius, the effect on her at her limit being likened to a moderate migraine. Unfortunately, she can't keep up the charade if she's sleep-deprived, lest she suffer from severe migraine-like conditions, including extreme nausea and limited depth perception. Mel's Illusionist abilities came about as a side effect of exposure to nerve toxins stored in a facility not too far from the detention center where she spent nearly a year as a teenager.

Mel's subcutaneous neural structure is also mutated, courtesy of her accident on the USS Powell and exposure to powerful refined biotoxins present in canisters stored on the ship. Basically, she doesn't feel the same degree of pain via skin as a normal person might. 'Regular' skin is a bit numbed, likened to the sensation of one's lips beginning to come off of an injection of Novacaine in the lower jaw. It tingles a bit and one can experience some degree of pressure, but the ability to sense temperature is grossly inhibited and being poked with something sharp elicts a "hey, something's pushing at me," rather than an, "ow, that hurts." Mel has no feeling whatsoever in the area of scar tissue that runs from neck to hip, making the experience of receiving the Holder tattoo behind her ear nothing more than sitting still and being poked. Her hands are somewhere between that range of sensation, able to pick up a hot pot of soup bare handed and not feel pain. That's not to say that she can't burn her skin or endure frostbite; in fact, Mel must be extra careful to watch what she does, since she may not notice minor injuries she suffers simply due to the lack of pain she can experience. She has more than her fair share of nicks, cuts, and bruises, something that she tries to cover up when she has to go out.

Personality

There are a few words one can immediately use with reference to Mel. Those adjectives do not include lazy, carefree, sloppy, or overindulgent. Mel has a drive to her that comes across as intense yet quiet, likened to the fast undercurrents of a seemingly placid river. Perserverance is a trademark of Mel's, and is coupled with a dogged and serious dedication to duty. She is a firm believer that there is an ultimately 'right' way to do everything, and she makes it a point to find that 'right way' come hell or high water. There is still an air of military authority about her, evident in both her posture and her punctuality when it comes to completing a task. Now means immediately, and right now means five minutes ago. She's learned that not everyone works this way, and she does her best to not impose such a mentality on those she cares about.

How to descrbe Mel? Methodical. Serious. Loyal. She has her plans and routines, and sticks to them. In fact, routine and mundane tasks afford her a kind of solace in an otherwise chaotic day. She's not the type of person who ultimately has to have control (the woman understands and reveres the chain-of-command) but Mel's not one for surprises. She has her schedules, she prefers to stick to them, and changing tactics to attempt something new in a heated situation tends to throw her for a loop. To compensate, she practices often with different scenarios, either writing out contingency plans or actively practicing them. Mel is an advocate for Plan B, Plan C, and the woman probably has Plans D through Q written somewhere just in case. She does such things to protect the safety and well-being of those she cares for. Having already experienced the emotional torture associated with the unexplainable loss of those she held dear, Mel can and will do anything to prevent the same thing from happening to her makeshift family within the Haven.

It's taken time for quiet, serious, practical Mel to be able to call the assorted bunch at the Haven a family. She tends to hold people at a distance for an insane amount of time, partially out of a need to observe reactions and partially out of a habit to make snap decisions at first meeting. Mel has the presence of mind to not trust everyone at first sight, not to mention the logical sense to realize that not everyone puts their true face out for the world to see. She lets people into her 'inner sanctum' slowly, able to call someone a friend once she doesn't feel she needs to hide every emotion from that person. Beneath the sober and stoic exterior lies a young woman who still grieves for those she's lost and who desperately clings to those for whom she cares. She finds it incredibly difficult to ask for help in the emotional sense; she's not too proud to ask for help in carrying a heavy box or company when she's out at night.

Mel's pride gets in the way of her asking for help in sorting out the demons in her head and heart. It sounds funny, but one of the most difficult things she did upon first arriving at the Haven was ask Xi for a hug. It's gotten easier over time, but she's still incredibly tight-lipped when it comes to her nightmares or worries that dog her during the day. The best anyone could do for her is pat her shoulder (a little harder than normal, just so she can feel it) and wait for her to open up. It might come in an intense flood of tears and she'll apologize profusely for the emotional weakness, but honestly... she's grateful to have found people who can help her handle it when she can't do it on her own.

Overall, Mel's that serious and devoted elder sibling type who looks out for everyone. She'll offer sound and rational advice in that sweet N'awlins voice, she'll use her bit of medicine knowledge to try to take the edge off your pains, and she'll do anything asked of her immediately and with a reserved sort of pleasantness. The Haven is the closest thing she has to her beloved weapons crew that she lost, and Mel staunchly refuses to let anyone be taken. Not on her watch. Not ever.

But really... she'd be terribly grateful if you walked up to her and gave her a hug. Those sorts of things solve just about any short-term emotional problem.

Weaknesses:

Well, her sense of touch is severely limited. Not being able to sense when something scrapes her skin or if she gets first or second degree burns does have more than just a little inconvenience. She needs sleep to maintain her abilities as Holder; unfortunately, Mel suffers from nightmares that come as a result of post-traumatic stress syndrome. Three to four nights out of the week, she might awaken screaming and drenched in sweat, having relived her accident on the Powell or having dreamt that a close friend has been killed or taken from her. Being able to sleep for more than five hours straight without a 'night episode' is an accomplishment for Mel. Mel also has a severe inability to completely relax, and she has trouble letting other people help to take care of her.

Special Skills

Mel knows her liquors, and can mix with the best of them. She's also knowledgeable when it comes to street drugs as well as the more popular painkillers that can be created in a clandestine lab with the right ingredients. Military training left her with the ability to handle small arms and do some degree of mechanical repair, just enough to fix the little electrical things. She makes a mean cup of coffee, the kind that makes even the sleepiest of people come to attention after a few sips. She's got a singing voice that belongs in a smoky nightclub, harmonizing over bass and piano... she's especially good with the old standards, Sinatra being a favorite. And, she swears colorfully and in an extremely creative fashion... in both Cajun French and English.

History

Melisandre Leigh Gautier, Cajun princess... or so her parents would have introduced her. Called "Melilee" by mom and dad, this sober little girl grew up in the French Quarter above a rowdy bar run by her mother and sustained by her father's military stipend. Tutored by a family friend, Mel spent her childhood doing homework at the bar before it opened and helping her mom dry glasses in the back before going to bed. Not typical, but definitely exciting. Lacking supervision as she grew older (Papa was always on the ship, Mama was usually working), Mel fell in with a crowd of unsavory characters who had fun dealing stolen prescription drugs and dabbling in the creation of new ones. From the time she was thirteen up until a month before her sixteenth birthday, Mel managed to sample almost every new synthetic feel-good pill that came out on the market. It made for some interesting evenings and even more creative explanations for why she was spending so many nights out late.

Caught trying to sell dyacetylmorphine to an undercover cop, Mel found herself in a juvenile detention and rehab center at the insistence of her father. A year of that rigamarole, and Hank picked her up on the day of her release and gave her an ultimatum. Either she got a job and started paying rent living at home, or she joined the Navy after a two week respite at home. Mel thought about this seriously for a week and a half, coming to the conclusion that joining the military would be a far better challenge than staying in the Big Easy. Besides, she could put her childhood chemical fascination to good use.

So, she enlisted. Basic training came and went, and she was assigned to a bioweapons facility in the Florida panhandle for further training. Her command of the subject matter led her superiors to recommend her for the recently created K&T Biochemical Engineering program headquartered at Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia, where she studied for a year and a half while doing 'home security' tours of duty up and down the East Coast. Upon graduation, Mel was reassigned to the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Powell and given a commission as a weapons officer, head of the bioweapons group onboard.

Mel's dogged determination and her dedication to her work earned her the loyalty of her fellow officers and crew. She grew close to her group of eight sailors who had been assigned to weapons detail with her on the Powell, taking the role of den-mother almost instantly. The youngest, Jerry Dubois, remembered her from when his mom would tutor Mel at the bar, and the two became incredibly close. Jerry was the closest thing to a sibling that Mel could have ever hoped to have, and Jerry sat with Mel while she cried at the news that both of their mothers had been killed in a terror attack the night before Mardi Gras.

Soon after that, Mel's abilities as an Illusionist began to manifest in a rather odd and humourous fashion. Thinking of her mother's cooking one night in the weapons office, Mel snapped to attention when one of her crew asked if she smelled something like jambalaya. Mel managed a mumbled excuse that the guys in the galley must be making something decent for dinner the next night, and actively though of something else. A week later, an idle thought about a favorite childhood book caused the semblance of that book to appear on her bureau in her quarters. Both mildly amused and disturbed, Mel decided to keep things to herself, not about to divulge such information to anyone on board the ship. This was wartime; if she was anything less than competent and sane and 'normal,' they'd toss her Stateside and give her crew to someone else.

Jerry had been next to her when a modified Topaz-class missile canister erupted during a routine inspection of the aft missile tracks. The young man was completely covered in the grey-aqua ooze that bubbled forth and caught fire upon contact with his skin. Mel shoved him aside to staunch the flow with her hands, yelling for help and suffering third degree chemical burns from neck to thigh. Two other crewmembers in the compartment suffered injuries from exposure to the neurotoxins, and the area was quarantined for cleanup. The Powell remained at sea under quarantine, specialty crews flown in and out over the course of several months to contain the spill and retrofit the missile tracks to accomodate new (and supposedly safer) ammunition. Mel and Jerry were flown to a 'safe' hospital outside of Toronto for detox and treatment. While Mel seemed to recover, Jerry remained near-comatose, with severe subcutaneous nerve damage forcing him to undergo more experimental treatments. After six months, Mel was discharged from the Navy and given enough money to return to her parents' home in New Orleans. The last time she saw Jerry, he was hooked up to a dialysis machine and unable to even raise a hand to say goodbye.

Mel spent four months in the Big Easy, settling things at her mother's bar and ultimately selling it to a longtime friend of her father's. She tried to follow up with the families of the her two other crew members who had been in the compartment with her and Jerry. A few weeks of careful research and telephone calls earned her the knowledge that both Gina and Alec had been refused discharge and sent to a VA hospital in Norfolk. Her weekly calls to Jerry's nurse at the Toronto hospital ended when she found out that he had also been transferred to the same hospital. Suspicious, Mel managed to contact Gina's fiance who let Mel know that they'd taken Gina one night without any warning, claiming that exposure made her a walking biohazard, and that she had to be under further quarantine.

From that point on, Mel had her guard up. Stress and paranoia contributed to nightmares, and she found herself catching half-hour catnaps throughout the night, every noise setting her on edge. With nothing else to do but keep looking for her crew, read the news, and bemoan the rundown state of her beloved Jackson Square, Mel decided that practice with her Illusion abilities could fill the time. With enough sleep, she found that she could create the illusion of a locked door, or an empty room despite her sitting at the table drinking coffee. Creating smells and simple objects was easy, but people gave her a wicked headache. Such talents came in handy when she saw a large government van pull up to the building one night, agents with firearms in tow. Frantic, she constructed the illusion of a rotting corpse of herself, noose about the neck, lying on the floor beside her bed. Hiding in a crawl space above her closet and spying through a vent, Mel watched as the agents became nauseous and avoided going into the room. Another ten minutes, and they were gone. Mel knew better to think that they were gone for good, so she quickly gathered her things and escaped through the bar downstairs, hidden among the patrons as they stumbled home. For her troubles, Mel endured a two-week migraine that didn't ebb until she crossed into Mississippi. Mel traveled north, finding few mutant-friendly encampments until she entered Tennessee in the midautumn of 2009. There, a family gave Mel the news that the Mutant Underground existed, and that if she went north, she'd find more people to help her.

Mel made her way towards the Haven during the winter of 2009. Frostbitten and hungry, she became an acquaintance of some Havenites. Trusting one Xi enough to let slip that she was an Illusionist, Mel found herself surrounded by other similarly talented individuals. Given the chance to be part of a family again, Mel stayed in the Haven, utterly devoted to the defense of the people who called it home.

Meli was created by V. for Eternus Infinuum, which is owned by Angie.