Mel Davenport
From DirtyWiki
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Out of Character
Created by Rue because she got smacked with the idea that New York's old Brandt family must be a family of angels, and she had this weird investigative teenager creature in her brain anyway. And then she went and got herself fleshed out, and got herself a sister who immediately had to be played too.
In Character
Specifics
Full Name: Melquiades Cari Davenport
Nickname(s): Denying actually being named Melquiades, "Mel" is more her real name than a nickname. Also gets Mellie, Brat, and Bansidhe (at The Rusty Goat).
Species: Angel
Birthdate: 14 June, 1988
Birthplace: White Plains, New York, United States of America
Hometown: New York, New York, USA
Family: A lot. Mother Jane Brandt Davenport, father Maxwell Davenport Sr, half-sister Elaine Brandt and brother Maxwell Davenport Jr. Also a nephew, Gremlin.
Sexuality: Mel thought she was straight, until she met Téa.
Relationship Status: In a relationship (with Téa Jordan).
Schooling: Salesian Elementary School, Rye Neck Middle School, Mamaroneck High School. Opted against college.
Occupation: Photographer for the Village Voice.
Detailed Information
Physical Description
Mel is 5'7", with long dark brown hair and pale green eyes. Being an angel, she's got that whole ethereal pretty thing going for her, despite the fact she does her best to rumple her hair and tone that down -- it doesn't serve to be so easily noticed when working in her line of work.
Personal Information
First off, as far as anyone else is concerned, her name is Mel. Just Mel. And Mel's one of those people who might be easily called "spunky," or perhaps "snarky," or described as having "moxie," depending on the setting. She's sarcastic and cunning when she needs to be, and pretty relaxed whenever she doesn't, but calling Mel "laid-back" would be a mistake.
Mel's in-your-face, and pretty much always paying attention.
To everything.
It's hard to get stuff past her. She's also got a prankster's sense of humour.
Backstory
Mel Davenport was born Melquiades Cari Davenport on June 14th, 1988, to human Maxwell Davenport and his angel wife Jane Brandt Davenport in White Plains, New York. The fact that her name is Melquiades is never, ever talked about, and the 'Cari' is usually also ignored – her name is Mel.
Her early childhood was fairly boring – Mel couldn't tell you anything about her early years except for her first real vivid memory, the vivid memory that made her aware of what she was at a very early age.
Mel was three.
Mel's half-sister, Elaine, Jane's daughter from her college days, was sixteen, and very, very angry at Maxwell. Elaine was threatening to run away, and there were arguments, and then all of a sudden, Mel's big sister had wings, and so did her mother, and her father's head was in his hands, and he was muttering something about how he knew it was hard the first time for him, and it was difficult for Jane to have to explain to Elaine, but did Melquiades have to be there so soon?
(Calling her Melquiades lead to Mel's stamping her foot at the issue, too, as one never called her that! Even a three-year-old could insist on some things. No one was surprised when Mel grew up stubborn.)
So for all of her formative years, years Mel spent absorbing knowledge like candy, she was looking forward to getting into the fight with her parents that would give her wings like her sister's and the calming nature her mother had. The one thing Mel never understood was why her father couldn't do those things, too. Yet her mother promised her that her father would never leave them, and that was enough for Mel.
The other thing that was enough for Mel, when she learned as she started at Mamaroneck High School at thirteen, was photography. The school's basement lab was a haven for her, and she instantly fit in with bizarre Mr Nanni and his other strange students. The kids in that class were Mel's only friends, and they were their own entire clique, fighting against the Theatre Kids and the Sports Kids and the Music Kids for as long as they could hold out.
Her only significant romantic relationship to date began at fourteen and ended at seventeen, that with fellow photo student Grant Echolls, a boy who Mel was better for than he was for her. She found herself bored with the sexual aspect of the relationship, and there was the added benefit that halfway through her time with Grant, Mel got the wings she'd always wanted.
While experimenting with oxycodone that Grant gave her, a mess that she left to Elaine (who by then was attending Clark University in Massachusetts) and her parents to explain away. They did, quite artfully, pointing out that not only did the youngest Davenport not have wings, but the two of them had been on drugs.
Mel still didn't talk to Grant anymore.
Right around Mel's seventeenth birthday, Jane became pregnant again, and in March of 2006, Maxwell Davenport Junior was born. Adding a third child to the family offset the balance just a little, and Mel was even more eager to graduate and get out of boring Mamaroneck.
Of course, she got about as far as Manhattan before settling down again, finding herself doomed to stay in lower New York forever as she moved into a 3rd Avenue apartment with her sister and gained herself a job doing photography as an intern for the Village Voice. College just wasn't interesting enough for Mel.
It was only recently that Elaine started talking about the family geneaology, and Mel became increasingly interested, learning from her sister that they in fact had quite a few relatives with quite a bit of wealth in both England and Canada. While the Davenports were never lacking in funds, and were never lacking in people, the idea still intrigued her, and while she wasn't working on photographing the Bowery's St Patrick's, she was studying up on the history of the angelic Brandts.
What she found in the histories and what she found in the Bowery was enough to inspire her to suggest a trip to London.
Elaine didn't argue, and on November 9th, the two of them left for Heathrow, after an argument the previous day over whether Mel could bring a taser and making arrangements to meet with her Very Best Online Friend, Téa. They spent one night at a Holiday Inn by Heathrow before Elaine got the two of them invited to stay with her best friend from high school, the younger Antonia Lindale, at their home in Kensington & Chelsea.
When Mel finally met Téa, after trolling through her school, Mel antagonising a few people almost affectionately, the two of them figured out that, hey, Téa's father Ivan Jordan turned out to be Mel and Elaine's cousin Crazy Ivan. Knowing very well that Téa wasn't an angel and Ivan was, Mel got very confused very quickly. But, hey, they'd come to England to find out more about their family, hadn't they? And they were.
(The romantic interest that had been festering between Mel and Téa wasn't really helped by this new revelation that they turned out to be cousins. It didn't bother Mel all that much, though, except for the fact that Téa was very clearly human, and this bothered her. A lot.)
Elaine called Ivan, after explaining to Mel that no, Ivan wasn't really Téa's father at all, and as the two of them sure didn't want to be the ones to tell Téa that, Ivan came to Kensington and Chelsea himself to explain it to his daughter. (What Mel still doesn't know is that Ivan told Téa all about the angel issue, too – she's got no idea that Téa knows.)
It was then, when they were all sitting in the front room of number ninety-three, that Mel and Elaine realized just how much of a familial drama they had revealed. For Ivan wasn't Téa's biological father, but he was their cousin – and Ryan Bertrand, they discovered, was Téa's biological father – and to top it all off, again, Ivan was attempting to court Ryan's sister-in-law, Emily.
This lead to a headache or two that soon subsided, and they all got along fairly well, really, from then on. Ivan stayed a few more days, days that included Mel, Téa, Ivan, Elaine and Carlton accompanying Ezra Thacker, one of Mel's new Best Friends, on an estate sale. (They spent a lot of the drive petting a stoned Ezra and teasing Carlton for his crush on Elaine.)
Mel was lucky enough to get to go to Cairo with most of the gang when Elaine headed back to New York. There, she photographed digs for Bianca, and made new friends including most of the Beauregard clan and Gwen Stanwyck. (She also made fun of Carlton for his crush on Elaine some more, and missed Téa quite a bit – this may have had something to do with the fact that days before her departure for Cairo, she and Téa finally had that sexual encounter the tension'd been amounting to for quite some time, and she and Téa hadn't spoken since.)
In mid-January, though, Ezra went insane on LiveJournal, keysmash and all, and was working himself to death. This, Mel did not like, and she told Ryan – that is to say, Corin – all about it. Worried, the two of them headed back to London to mind Ezra. After they'd arrived, Mel called Téa to surprise her with the fact that she was, in fact, back in London. This phone call had two consequences: Mel finally got to speak to Téa's mother, and Téa ended up practically moving into the townhouse, also becoming Ezra's de facto assistant at the expo while Ryan worked and Mel spent the Super Bowl weekend with Jack and Nancy at The Rusty Goat, claiming national solidarity.
(Sidney Remy was there part of the time, but she left when the little matter of the murder at the expo came up.)
So Mel stayed in London, not wanting to return to Cairo until Ryan could, and not wanting to go back to New York in its current weather. Seeing as how Ryan's not about to return to Cairo until they've solved the murder, and Ezra and Antonia and Vaughn are all going to America with them, Mel is in charge of the townhouse, and Téa of the shop.
(How safe.)
