Mel's Questionnaire

I live in New York city, because that's where all the action is. Crime happens, disappearances. A city full of secrets desperate to be investigated. Greatest place on earth for any serious detective. I've been working cases here for a while, and nothing compares to the thrill of the hunt you get from tracking down a perp in this town.

There really isn't much to my life that isn't that hunt. My home is full of files, and cork boards. Newspapers clippings from previous cases. A few extra guns, weapons. Maybe the occasional trophy.

I'm good at one thing. I've given up pretty much any other pursuit to get good at this. Like an extreme athlete, I live and breath my craft. And that craft is figuring out mysteries. 

I get my money from solving cases. Sometimes private cases, sometimes working with the police. I work these cases, solve them, get paid, and then put most of that money into solving the next case and getting tools.

Like I’ve said, I’m very focused. Not many hobbies, not many friends. I’m an Olympic athlete of solving mysteries. Nothing else drives me. I had to be a beat cop for a little while when the force was training me, and it was awful. I was bored the entire time, itching to do more. I spend my money on tools, some forensic equipment, and occasionally some nice dinners after a big case. 

I need to solve mysteries. People are hiding all sort of things, and there is this ache I feel in me when I know there is something missing. It's like a sore I can't stop touching, something caught in-between my teeth. I need to know the secrets everyone is hiding, and I've devoted my entire life to getting good at searching for them.

There are more things out there that I don't know about. Given the opportunity, I would do whatever I can to learn everything I can about the secrets of this world. Until I have found them all. 

I would kill, and have over mysteries. In all cases, it was a criminal defending a secret with their life, but still. I would get very close to death to solve this.

Expect a batman like origin story? Nope. I liked figuring things out as a kid. My mom was a cop, and my dad was a nurse, and they raised me pretty well.

I suppose If I had to pick a defining moment, it would be when I left the force, and decided to go private. 

I was working this case. Serial killer type. Focused on homeless people in poor neighborhoods. And he kept getting away with it with just a small trace. It didn't get the resources I thought it deserved. 

The department gave up when the deaths moved to a different precinct. I couldn't handle that. 25 deaths, I can't let someone else just take over that.

Took a vacation, spent a few all night-ers reviewing what I knew, then set up a trap.  Got the fucker. A fucking crazy nazi asshole. 

Took some shit from the brass, but I had decided that I would be on my way out anyway. Still work for precincts sometimes.

First would be Detective Jacob Watts. He was a very close friend on the force, and saved my life several times. I still hang out with him sometimes, and talk about any cases I’m working. He’s my main contact in the police department when they get tricky cases, and probably my most reliably friend. He’s younger, mid thirties. Jacob Is a muscular man with cropped brown hair.

Next we have an occasional companion of mine. Mrs. Indigo, a widow I met in the process of one of my cases. She propositioned me after I solved the case of her husbands murder. I never found much interest in that sort of thing, but found her a func conversationalist. After tea for a few months we ended up coupling. I don’t get the hype, but the companionship was nice. We still see each-other occasionally. She is a beautiful woman around my age.

Last is Alice. I never wanted kids, I’m good at one thing, and I had no reason to inflict that on a child. Alice had both her parents killed on a case I worked. In the middle of the case really. Her only remaining family was off on a bender somewhere, and someone needed to watch her. She was 8. The department needed someone to watch her while we searched for her relatives. She stayed with me till then. Took several month. I kept tabs on her after that when her aunt went on a bender a few months later, I stepped in and became her foster parent. She’s in college know , and I’m so damn proud of my daughter.

Heh.

Don't know if I know what a normal childhood counts as any more. Wasn't as bad a Alice's at least.

My parents were normal folks. Didn't do much of note other than work their jobs. I looked up to my dad, and spent all my time trying to be like him.

They reached a bit above their means. Got me into a nicer neighborhood than they maybe should have. Things cost more than we could afford some times, so I was always in clothes a bit too run down, and out of fashion. But, it didn't really matter. I mostly just didn't interact much with other kids.

I found people interesting to observe, but rarely did they want to engage with me the way I wanted to engage with them.

So I focused on my puzzles, and learned what I could so that one day I could be like my Dad. Then he died. and I worked harder.

No.

Assuming you mean romantic love. That’s not a thing I really like. I make friends, and I enjoy contact sometimes. Have a friend of sorts who I couple with when she wants to blow off steam. But I could take or leave everything but the friendship.

Mrs. Indigo is the name. She is the main one, I don’t really have time unless someone seeks me out. she sought me out a while after I solved the death of her husband. I kept her at arms length as a friend for a while, but eventually she wanted something physical and I went along with it. 

Not a big fan, but not adverse. She’s a good friend.

As for other love… I love my daughter, I love my mom, and I loved my dad. 

That something happens to Alice.

i’ve upset some dangerous people over the years, and with what I’m caught up in now…

I know who I am, and what I’m going to spend my life on. I can’t not. I need to know what’s going on, and I can’t stop myself.

I think it is likely a good thing to do, but it is a dangerous thing to do.

I can accept that for me, I’ve never expected to grow old. But Alice needs to stay safe.

She’s the most important person in the world to me. She dealt with so much at a young age. I worked so hard to make her safe from that. I… tried to keep my life from bleeding into hers. I hope I succeeded, but I was only ever a great detective, and an okay Dad. I couldn’t stand to be responsible for her coming to harm.

The most recent contract made me really worry about my ability to keep her separated from all this. Not the first time she has been in danger because of me, but maybe the first time I wasn’t sure how to handle it. The things I’m finding… they are strange and dangerous. Powers I’m not sure how to fight or stop. But I’ll learn more about them. And try to keep my little girl safe.

Oh, that’s easy. My best friend over here

(Mel places a hand in Chester, his briefcase)

Got him from Winsley! A great gift! I was a bit wary at first, but then I got it ! Chester has been my best friend ever since!

Chester is so very useful, and so friendly! He can keep so many things in him. He also lets me focus through the pain and exhaustion of the last few missions!

Really, I’m not sure I would have survived without him. 

(Mel let’s Chester affectionately)

I’m very  glad Winsley shared a Chester with me. Hopefully more people will be able to get a Chester soon. I know he’ll be useful in whatever coming challenges we’ll have. We need to think a lot, and be prepared for what the harbingers have been warning us about. 

The world is ending, and we need every tool to stop it, and figure out what is going on.. and Chester will be one of our greatest tools.

Three children are relying on me are not safe.

Jacko, a child that knows very little of this world, and seems to have been made from some lab doing horrible things. He lives with me, and I do my best for him, but this is all so much.

Alice Abernathy, A girl mixed with a raccoon after her family was killed. Kept by an organization which styles itself as a world government.

And my Alice. She... I already failed her. She is dead, only a voice I can bring about now. Maybe one day I'll figure out something more for her.

These 3 need me. They need things which I will do anything to give them. None of them are safe, and I need more than nearly anything for all of them to be. 


That's the big problem in my life. Although I suppose the world is also ending. Once I get them out of their current fires, I'll have to figure some way to solve that for them.

Maybe Winsley has an idea, he's very proactive.

I live very simply. I wake up. Usually I have my files on my bedside table, where I was reading them before sleep. Sometimes other notes, of late, a lot of other notes.

I wake up, put them in order, and move them back to their proper place. 

Then I take a shower. Need to be careful of any wounds I've acquired, but a good shower lets me clear my head and wake up. Never got into coffee, messes with my head too much.

Back when Alice was living with me... When she was alive. I would spend some time making sure she was up, and that she had all her school supplies. She stopped needed as much help in her last few years before college, but it was still an important ritual for me. After she left, I would still find myself going into her room to check, only to remember she isn't living here anymore.

That part of my routine is worse now.

The last thing, and the newest part of my routine is to check if Jacko will be alright for the day. Making sure he has what he needs, and he knows how to respond to any visitors.

3 years ago. 

Mel wears a basic suit and suit jacket. Not the regalia he likes the most, that would be his full police regalia. The rules in the police are clear. Issued by others, so he doesn't need to spend valuable time figuring it out.

But he isn't here as a cop today. He's here as a father. 

"Alice Melborn"

Middle of the alphabet. He waits. For their first couple of years, Alice kept her birth name. Up until this year. As much time with him as before him. He wasn't good at this. It took a lot of learning. So many struggles, trials and tribulations... The Joy of parenthood.

Today... healthy, and safe, she graduates. It is all worth it.

Mel gets the picture as his daughter accepts the diploma.

Now

Mel wears the same basic suit and suit jacket.

Some of his friends are here. More of Alice's. They should be. It's an important day.

The coffin is lowered into the ground.

Years ago

"Hey Mel?"

"Yeah Alice?"

Alice is 14. Her birthday was yesterday, and she has spent half the day reading through her new collection of comic books.

Mel is looking through some file. Today is supposed to be a day off, but Mel's life is a very focused one. With one exception.

"Sooo, we always have a party for my birthday, why don't we ever have a birthday party for your birthday?"

"Oh!" Mel furrows his brow. Thinking. "I guess I just never wanted to. I always had a lot going on, so it never seemed worth the effort."

"Oh... hmmmm. When is your birthday?"

Alice got Mel a card for his next birthday. And every birthday since. Added into a chest under Mel's bed, along with all his other precious things.