Aefenglom application

[onamissile]

Player Information
Name: Carrie
Age: I can buy beer. For everyone. Just ask.
Contact: LiterallyOnFire Discord: Pendancy#9139 (Preferred)
Other Characters: None.

Character Information
Name: Mello (Mihael Keehl)
Canon: Death Note
Canon Point: Post-death (I'd prefer to bring him back with no memories of having been here previously.)
Age: 20

History: Here! (Will expand if needed)

Personality: From a young age, Mello has been conditioned to win, which has served to shape the majority of his overall demeanor. Groomed to succeed L, the world’s top three detectives, Mello has known competition since he was young and carries it with him in everything he does. Life is a game and the world is his playground; he will willingly destroy everything in his way in his effort to be number one. Paired with an inferiority complex that is brought to light when he states that no matter what he does, he always comes in second to his primary rival, this leads him to make overblown, extreme decisions in his quest to accomplish a goal.

Highly intelligent, he has the ability to deduce and predict his opposition’s thought-process and form his own plan of attack accordingly. While his brilliance was originally intended to be utilized for noble purposes, he instead chose to exploit it in order to rise to a high rank of a criminal enterprise. His intelligence shows in his ability to form successful plans and bring them to conclusion, as referenced by one of the mafia members with whom he associates when the man asks his comrades rhetorically whether Mello has ever been wrong in the short time he worked with them. Another area where he is knowledgeable is literature, as when telling the story of Beyond Birthday—the failed successor who went on to defy L—he quotes Holden Caulfield and refers to him as, “One of history’s most famous literary bullshitters.” Given that he was second in line to succeed a genius, it would be safe to assume that his intellect is extraordinary. His reference to Caulfield and the flippant comment that followed is a clue that at some point, he immersed himself in literature to the point of becoming a bit of a well-versed critic.

Before the explosion that destroyed his hideout and wiped out his crew, Mello appears to practice self-preservation through delegation, a primary aspect of his personality denoting selfishness. The duties he imparts on others range from kidnapping the Japanese chief of police’s daughter (who was also Kira’s sister), having underlings seal a deal with a death god—sacrificing half of their lifespan—in order to gain the ability to see his enemy’s names and subsequently write their names in the notebook to simple tasks ranging as low as holding a mobile phone to his ear. In order to win, he has to be alive. Making others do most of his dirty work is a way to ensure this, though he will also have people do small, unimportant things for him in order to assert himself on the food-chain. However, when backed into a corner, he has personally taken drastic actions that have injured and eventually killed him, showing that he's not at all incapable of being the one who will make a move directly.

If it suits his purposes, Mello will employ his high social skills in order to gain the favor of those around him. He will seek the group or individual with the most power and align himself with them in order to exploit their position(s) for his own needs. This will often lead him to operating outside of what would be considered legal restrictions. If criminals have more pull, he will align himself with criminals. However, it wouldn't be wrong to assume that if law-abiding groups have more influence, he will turn to them instead.

Loyalty? He doesn't understand the meaning of the word. Through his actions involving the Los Angeles mafia, he shows no loyalty to the L title or the institution responsible for educating and housing him. Through setting explosives all through the building which he detonated with his remaining crew inside, he shows a disregard for those with whom he works. Having no loyalty, he is not trustworthy when forming pacts and alliances. If someone’s motivations align with his own, he will use that to further his own agenda and show no qualms when it comes to disposing of the other party. In the world of Death Note, possessing a person’s name in conjunction with their image gives the notebook holder the ability to kill an individual. There is one picture of Mello in existence and it is possessed by Near after Mello (for unknown reasons) left it behind at the orphanage where he resided. That Mello goes to retrieve this photo and offers information pertaining to the rules in the notebook as a fair exchange shows that he is well-versed in acceptable business tactics and will employ them even if he is not particularly fond of the individual with whom he is interacting. Disloyalty does not necessarily suggest a lack of honor.

That said, Mello is most likely not apt to become close to anyone in the traditional sense. Instead, he will interact with those he holds the most confidence in on a level that may resemble camaraderie though in the end, he is only interested in what the individuals contribute to whatever his given cause may be. Manipulation, however, would be an incorrect assessment as those with whom he associates possess the opportunity to mutually benefit from their interactions.

He possesses a commanding air about him, even going so far as to frighten a god of death with his demeanor. Where the death gods make it a point multiple times in canon to state that helping the human who possesses their notebook is not something that interests them, Mello succeeds in having one not only assist him, but work under him and take orders. It even appears that he hands orders down to the head of the mafia sect to which he belongs, though he does so in less in the way of barking commands, more along the lines of making infallible suggestions that he knows will be heeded. He is frequently shown sitting separate from his gang, as though he has established spaces for himself that others simply don't enter.

In the words of the death god, Sidoh: "For a human, he's scary."

His lack of subtlety shows in the most ridiculously obvious ways: he’s aesthetically flashy, he owns any room that he occupies with nothing more than his presence. He likes to sprawl when he sits, he has the ability to stand at 5’6” next to a hulking mob boss and make the other man look small in comparison. However, this isn’t just limited to the physical. His actions are chaotic: he has launched missiles, killed, kidnapped, threatened the President of the United States (and got him to agree to his terms), blown his own hideout with himself in it to avoid capture, and he has done it all with poise and style. While many of his moves may be driven by impulse, they are also the result of quick-thinking on his feet and the ability to carry out actions with little time between conception and execution.

Despite his cool exterior, Mello operates on emotion more than it appears. It is shown that he is prone to outbursts as a child such as when he is informed by the school’s headmaster that L has been defeated and killed by Kira, he launches over the man’s desk and takes him by the collar, demanding confirmation that it is in fact true that his predecessor was killed. After this incident, he regains some form of composure and makes the impulsive decision to leave the school and set out on his own. Though given the option to work alongside Near under the L title, he refuses, stating that the two of them don’t get along. He then goes on to acknowledge his own shortcomings by claiming that unlike himself, Near is able to “calmly and unemotionally solve the puzzle.” He makes decisions based on frustration and impulse but will blanket them with a calm justification, though he is very aware that emotions drive his most reckless responses.

Victory, excitement, defeat: these things all show in his facial expressions at any given time.

All bets are off if someone is considered a fierce rival. Mello will hold a grudge forever and lose his composure in the face of said rivalry. Both as a child and an adult, Mello is shown to have little patience for Near’s presence, even going so far as to recklessly pull a gun on the other in the SPK headquarters where the majority of his team is armed. Doing so shows that despite his logic and thorough planning, when in the presence of a worthy opponent, Mello’s emotions will overcome common sense to the point where he will ignore his self-preservation instinct and risk his life in exchange for instant gratification. He is also not above cheating, as he has one of the mafia members execute most of Near's team via the notebook in order to set the other back in his race to capture Kira.

Morally, Mello cannot be defined as either “good” or “evil.” Whereas L sought to bring Kira to justice, Mello states during his hunt that he wants Kira’s head, and that he “will be number one.” It is merely a byproduct of his end-game success that thousands of lives would be saved and the world would ultimately benefit from the removal of Kira. However, this is not to suggest that he is evil in any sense. Though people may get caught in his line of fire, Mello does canonically show remorse for, not his actions, but the fallout from his actions. He expresses regret for the death of his former Wammy’s schoolmate who was eliminated in the process of kidnapping Kiyomi Takada, an underling of Kira. He also states that he originally had no intention of inadvertently causing the death of Yagami Soichiro, Kira’s father and the chief of the Japanese Task Force, during a raid on his hideout. He may be a firebomb, but he does occasionally feel guilt for his actions.

Based on how highly he speaks of L in the spinoff novel, Another Note, he appears to hold his predecessor in high esteem despite deviating from his methods to the point where he falls into the category of “criminal.” He laments the loss of a great man and states that his killer, Kira, is “Not worth the dirt beneath (L’s) shoes” and that meeting L was “The single most valuable memory” that he possessed. He then goes on to gloat in reference to L’s achievements and shows an overall awe of the man he was set to succeed. Mello’s reverence for his predecessor directly contradicts his criminal lifestyle and goes to show that with him, there is no black or white. There are only grey areas, self-serving initiatives that hold no place on either side of the “good and evil” spectrum. What he views as good is anything falling in line with his own wants/ideals with evil being all that opposes him and stands in his way.

With a fierce determination, Mello is unmitigated chaos. He will do anything and everything to dominate any situation which he deems worthy of his attention, including sacrifice himself if it will prove that no one else could have accomplished the goal. His drive is the thing that fuels him, though it can also be his downfall. His capability is often eclipsed by his sense of inferiority—his need to constantly prove himself to anyone he deems competition—and this can lead to him going overboard with his execution to the point of endangering himself and everyone around him. He is a vain, dangerous, untrustworthy, disloyal, self-absorbed genius who has somehow convinced himself that any uncouth action he takes in the grand scheme of things is for the greater good. He wants the world, and he fully intends on taking it.


Abilities & Skills: Highly intelligent, quick to think and act on his feet, ability to plan based on deductive reasoning and foresee his enemies' moves/motivations, highly motivated, fashionable as fuck.

Inventory/Companions: The clothes on his back. Old-school flip-phone from the 90s. Beretta 92FS with a full clip,a rosary which he wears around his neck.

Choice: Witch

Reason: Magical abilities would seem more powerful to Mello than becoming a monster, even if monsters come with their own power stats. Being a witch, he will be able to round out his abilities to gain maximum power (which is his driving force in life) with none of the downfalls of negative physical alterations. He's very vain, and any physical changes that come with being a monster would mess with his characterization and throw him into a self-loathing spiral that would ultimately hinder his ability to focus on his goals.

The key reason for this choice is the pure expansive abilities which spellwork provides. Given his disgustingly high intelligence level, I can see Mello finding ways to combine/create intricate spells once he's mastered the basics. Just passing isn't enough for him; he would go above and beyond. The results will be highly effective and amusing.

Plus, the boy is driven. Studying magic is something in which he would excel. Mastering it? Watch him. If it benefits him, he would even go so far as to teach others.

Sample: A year exactly! Just made it!