#its taking enough willpower to post this as is im not tagging fanbase

[beesgav]

Convincing myself to queue this before I wimp out, haha. It's my blog, I should post what I want!

Though Melody was initially created for my oc universe, I pretty quickly went down the route of "what if she were in C009 though" so. AU!

Further deets under cut

Melody "Mel" Rodriguez is in her early 20s, Mexican-American, and grew up outside of Oswego, NY. She moved to NYC to work at an arcade, where she handles both regular staff duties and cabinet repair. She's an electronics hobbyist, with that having been primarily what got her the job. While working there she happens to meet Jet Link, and the two of them hit it off, eventually becoming good friends.

One day she gets captured by Black Ghost as part of a large group, who intend to turn her and her fellows into Cyborg Men. She's the first one selected for the procedure, but before it can go beyond her being injected with preparatory substances, the 00s attack the base and free those captured, including Mel. It's at this point that she learns about Jet being a cyborg, and the revelation puts their relationship on the rocks for a time, though they eventually reconcile.

Life returns to some kind of normalcy, until it turns out that the substance within the injections are not only self-propagating, but also affecting her blood pressure, eventually resulting in a form of extreme hypotension. She's put in contact with Dr. Gilmore and given a choice: wait and hope a blood treatment to remove the substance can be developed in time, or allow what Black Ghost started to be finished and become a cyborg herself. After much deliberation, she chooses the latter.

At first the modifications are minimal- just enough to account for her blood problems- but eventually she decides that if she's already partly robotic, she might as well make the most of it and become more able to help people, which is what leads to her "upgrade" and obtaining a real set of abilities. Compared to the others, she retains quite a bit more of her organic body, at the cost of being notably more vulnerable than any of the other cyborgs. She doesn't consider herself a member of the team, but is always willing to help out if the need arises.

Melody is sociable, energetic, and has something of a thrillseeking streak, but never takes things too seriously and is decently easygoing. Though she isn't endlessly optimistic, it takes a lot to get her down, and she's quicker to frustrate than mope. However, she's so used to her easygoing reputation that she often winds up unable to express her genuine feelings, especially when it comes to things that bother or upset her. She enjoys working and interacting with the kids at the arcade, and does her best to provide a fun, safe environment even with the arcade itself beginning to go into a decline. In addition to her electronics hobby, she also enjoys home console gaming and often doodles when she's bored, though she isn't very good at it.