#everyone calls her roadkill but she wanted to be “Pet Cemetery”

[versias]

Melly G., local homeless kid followed around by packs of skeleton rats and one ominous cat zombie

First meeting with Red Hood went something like:

"So what's your deal, kid?" “I’m a homo mage or whatever,” Mel said, slurping on the soup cup he'd handed her and kicking her feet against the box. Red Hood stared (probably? He was wearing a mask) at her for a long moment before saying, “Homo magi. You mean homo magi.” “Yeah. Gay wizard,” she confirmed. He sighed, a sound the vocoder in his helmet translated as a rush of static. “That’s. Not what that means.” “You saying I can’t be a gay wizard?” She glared at him, pointing an accusing finger. “Homophobic.” “No, you can, it’s just… never mind.” “S’wha’ I thought,” she muttered into her cup.

Backstory: Melinda Graven was abandoned, along with the family cat, by her mother for unknown reasons at the age of 9. After a week of surviving in her house alone with only the food in the pantry, Mel left the house and hit the streets with her cat to find something to eat. She was, of course, quickly picked up by the police and put into the system.

Her first foster family was also her last. They were hard people who believed the worst of Melinda, and sought to punish her into being a more perfect child in line with their ideals. They forced her to go by her deadname and dress as they wanted. The fights between herself and her foster parents were long and loud and violent.

When Mel's cat Gravel attacked her foster father in defense of her master, the father strangled the cat to death in front of her. Melinda's natural affinity to necromancy emerged, reanimating her cat and a dozen other dead animals in the area besides. The family survived, but Mel fled into Gotham's streets, refusing to go back into state custody.

Over the years she's spent on the streets, she's reanimated a great deal of city-dwelling animals who act as her eyes and ears. They keep her aware of danger and potential allies, as well as acting as bodyguards if necessary.

While Mel doesn't trust the local vigilantes, she doesn't have any problems with them. She has gotten into scrapes with the bat family over her enthusiastic approval of necromantic revenge for animals slain unjustly by humans, but for her age and her motivations she is labelled as a potential danger and victim rather than a rogue.