on wings of hope, you rise up through the night higher, oh higher!
Hailing from the isolated northern nation of Sharlayan, this quiet botanist is an old friend of a surprising number of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, and she served as an informat of theirs before joining the organization herself. Having been sent away and left behind by her loved ones her whole life for the sake of her own protection, Melmeltan had to take matters into her own hands to break free of being a wallflower and step into a new dawn. Though she tries her best she's still a little shy and anxious, but rile her up and you'll see there's more than petals to this rose.Melmel, Mel, Meltan
✧─Early Life
Echoes of a Lonely Moon
Melmeltan was born during the first snowstorm that hit Sharlayan in the year 1560 of the 6th Astral Era. Neither of her parents' families were around for her birth, which may have set the tone for an overarching loneliness throughout the girl's life. Her mother's family lived on one of the islands off the coast of Tural and her father's family had a difficult relationship with him and she grew up not particularly close to either side of the family and her many cousins. Nevertheless, Melmeltan thrived making her own adventures on the streets and in the woods of Old Sharlayan, enthralled with the natural landscapes and the stories found there in the way only an innocent child could be, and when she was four summers old a very special boy moved into the house next door.
Coco didn't even know there was a world outside Fallgourd Float before he and his parents moved to Old Sharlayan, and their sudden disappearance after leaving him with a stranger naturally left him lonely and scared. Melmeltan was his savior, taking him by the hand and pulling him back out into the world, and to this day neither can remember a time they weren't best friends.
But the bright boldness Melmeltan possessed as a child didn't last forever. Not long after her tenth birthday the Echo manifested in her with a ringing headache that knocked her unconscious for three days; those three days were long enough for every scholar in the citystate to find out and clamour to examine her. After a kidnapping attempt was made not even a full month after she discovered her new ability her parents decided to send her to the Isle of Val, where the Students of Baldesion were already studying the Echo. The stress of all the prying and being separated from her family and best friend caused Melmeltan to rapidly withdraw into herself, and as time passed there were fewer and fewer traces of the energetic girl who had brightened the streets of Old Sharlayan with her smile.
✧─Another Story
A Realm Reborn
Melmeltan survived the vanishing of the Isle of Val by virtue of not being on the island when they decided to dunk it into the Lifestream. Reese and Coco were hysterical after hearing the news and being unable to contact her only for it to turn out that she lost her linkpearl entirely.
Heavensward
Stormblood
Shadowbringers
Endwalker
Dawntrail
✧─The Gentle Moon
Personality
Appearance
Image
Just barely 2'11" and pretty mad that she got just about nothing from her Miqo'te father besides her feline ears and stubby tail. She's apple-shaped with a round belly and thick upper arms and thighs but thinner forearms and calves, which she feels self-conscious about. Her vision in her left eye is slightly worse than her right, and her hearing in her right ear is slightly worse than her left, so she tends to tilt her head towards noise when her right ear struggles to pick it up.Withdrawn and shy, Melmeltan moves uneasily when too many eyes are on her and tends to hide behind others. She's a nervous fidgeter and tends to make herself as small as she can. She's also prettyclumsy and has been seen walking into Sharlayan lamp posts many times over the years. There tends to be at least five bandaids on various parts of her at any given time, especially her knees.
Features
Her face is that of a typical Lalafell's, round and chubby-cheeked and dotted with freckles. Her hair is pitch black and naturally straight but it frizzes in relation to how anxious or stressed or depressed or sleep-deprived she is. The luminous gloss over her lavender eyes cover her pupils which makes her gaze mildly unsettling, but struck with light they shine like moonstones and glow slightly in darkness.
Wardrobe
As she struggles with her body image, Melmeltan tends to wear clothes that cover her shoulders and upper arms. She likes frilly dresses with lace and ribbons and sailor or Peter Pan collars.
Voice
Melmeltan has a soft but not squeaky voice, and tends to speak quietly. She doesn't normally speak formally, but she's very polite to strangers and adults and may add an extra infliction of sweetness. Her voice claims are Xanthe Huyhn (ENG) and Machico (JPN).
Repertoire
SAGE─Rank A
.
FLORAMANCER─White Mage, Rank SS
.
RED MAGE─Rank B
.
Relationships
| Coco Cocoda | Melmeltan's best friend who she definitely has feelings for. She doesn't see a chance of them being requited (they are) and has accepted her place from the sidelines as a cheerleader for a once-cowardly boy who's grown up without her. Though Melmeltan hasn't figured it out yet, she still knows Coco better than anyone else. They became next door neighbours when Coco's family moved to Sharlayan. |
| G'raha Tia | Being six years her elder and having known her at her all time low, G'raha considers Melmeltan as much of a little sister as he does Krile. He's quick to tease her about little things, but in return Melmeltan will happily spill extremely embarrassing stories about his teenage years at the Baldesion Headquarters to anyone who will listen (particularly Lunya, G'raha's wife. This is actually delightful to him and he'll brag about how much she's grown and opened up since they first met to literally anyone who passes. |
| Krile Baldesion | Melmeltan's first friend among the Students has been like an older sister to her since the day they met, bound together by a kinship only the Echo could forge. |
| Ejika Tsunjika | |
| Lunya Lanya |
| Mimiel Flores Miel | Melmeltan's mom is proud her only child is such a gentle girl, but worries about her just as much. |
| Y'macha Tia | Melmeltan is, objectively, a "daddy's girl" and Y'macha's never once said no to her throughout her whole life. They're not exactly close though—she would very gently describe him as emotionally unavailable, reluctant to talk even to her mother about anything so sentimental as a feeling. |
| Galuf Baldesion | Melmeltan's mentor. | Herschel Nox | Herschel was a constant background presence in Melmeltan's life through all of her friendship with Coco. While she also addresses him as Uncle Herschel and he's been over for dinner at her place plenty of times, she can't help but view him a little suspiciously when he's the one person in her life with a frightening clarity for her long-time feelings for his nephew. Ever since Coco left Sharlayan and he's been training her in the arts of somanoutics, he's finally started to unleash a decades-long buildup of teasing material. |
The Unsundered
Selene the Silent
(she/her)
A gentle and inquisitive young woman from the days Etheirys was unsundered. A student of the Words of Halmarut who put her focus in creating flowers that bloomed by moonlight. Though she couldn't see it, her ability to sense aether was nearly unparalleled by any other her age. She had an endless fondness for Icarus, her best friend, but they never became anything more than that before the world was sundered.
Haunted by Icarus's disappearance in the Final Days, she joined Halmarut and the Convocation with a desperate wish to see him again. She was not one of the souls used to summon Zodiark, and in the aftermath of the Sundering her soul was raised repeatedly to stand by her mentor's side until it chanced to reincarnate into Melmeltan, who Icarus's soul found before the Ascians could take her again.
✧─Miscellaneous
Trivia
li>Along with the obligatory Sharlayan patron of Thaliak, Melmeltan's parents revere Azeyma, Menphina, and Nophica. Her mother is more religious than her father, and Melmeltan personally considers herself agnostic.She can sing, but she can't dance and can't play any instruments. Tragically, she's fascinated by both, so she's taken on the role of forever fan. Her favourite fruits are strawberries and peaches. She has almost no spice tolerance—she once bit into a black peppercorn and started crying. She likes to collect tea sets, but mostly drinks tea for the aesthetic rather than feeling particularly strongly about it. She is, however, obsessed with milk tea and bubble tea.
TV Tropes
Shrinking Violet.
Pets
Lillie: A supersized korporrkur kolossuss she grew herself in her parents' greenhouse. Lillie was originally a normal-sized korporrkur but over the years had a little too much premium fertilizer snacks, and, well... A waterlily floats on the raindrop on top of her leaf.
Sprig: A miniature korporrkur selectively bred and kept in alkaline soil until a very bright pink.
Verses
sailboats wish they were stars
Double WoL AU with Coco.
A verse where Melmeltan and Coco are the Warriors of Light and everyone else is just along for the ride. They left for Eorzea together.
Motifs
THEMES.inertia, changing for your own sake, the fear of leaving home, watching as others grow without you, learning to rely on others
AESTHETICS.fields of glowing white flowers, the full moon, waterfalls, fairy lights, trickling streams, butterflies, music boxes, fish ponds, water lilies
COLOURS.periwinkle, lavender, white, silver, blue-violet
ELEMENT.Earth/Water
SEASON.Spring
ANIMAL.Sheep
POKÉMON.Alolan Vulpix, Petilil, Litwick, Flaaffy, Marill
MUSICAL.music boxes, flutes<
MAJOR ARCANA.The Moon, upright. Illusion, fear, anxiety, subconscious, intuition.
MINOR ARCANA.Six of Swords, upright. Transition, change, rite of passage, releasing baggage.Similar Characters & Inspirations
Candace (Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility) Marianne (Fire Emblem Three Houses) Ninian (Fire Emblem Blazing Blade) Paya (The Legend of Zelda) Etymology
Melmeltan's named for one of my online usernames, based on the Pokémon Meltan and my nickname Melmel and playing with the Japanese honorific -tan, a cutesy baby talk version of the affectionate -chan. Her dad's name, Y'macha, is pronounced as YA-macha, and together with Tia sounds like "amacha tea"—hydrangea tea.