Melody Smith

Melody's weapon form is that of a handheld crossbow. The handle is reminiscent of a gun, angular instead of flowing along the path of the main body of the bow. This allows him, in his weapon form, to be fired from the hip with less required motion, as merely angling one's wrist will be enough to change the direction the arrow fire from. The main body of the crossbow is made of polished gray wood. Though it has an old feel to it, there are no splinters or cracks in the wood. He possesses two sets of bow arms rather than one, and two firing positions, one at the top of the crossbow, and one partially hidden in the main body. The second bow arm is also hidden behind the first, so at a distance, while one might think they only have to worry about one shot, another can be fired off right after they dodge.

Unlike most other weapons, Melody's partial form is actually quite useful in combat. Being a crossbow weapon, he can transform his arms from the elbow down into the main body of his weapon form. Since the weapon is a part of him, he is able to fire without needing a proper trigger. Instead it seems to be a muscular reflex which he describes as having the same feeling as pulling a trigger. This allows for a degree of autonomy, as his basic abilities can be used with his partial transformation, but without a proper meister, soul resonance, and thus his most powerful skills are outside his reach.

Following soul resonance, Melody's weapon form grows to almost three times its previous length, taking on the appearance of a rifle. Since the shots fired by this form are more powerful, there's a significant kick to them, so there is a stock at the back end which rests against the meister's shoulder. The metal of the bow-rifle is gray just as the wood of the previous form was. It's bright and shiny, having a very new air to it. In addition to the lengthening and addition of a stock, Melody loses his hidden secondary shot. Instead he gets an upgrade, which allows for single fire with each trigger pull, or a burst fire of three bolts. Switching between modes can either be done by himself, or manually by his meister by manipulating the switch on the side of the rifle. Whenever this form is summoned, the soul resonance rate starts at zero, and slowly climbs, allowing for more shot types to be fired at higher resonance levels, with the greatest of them only available at a higher resonance rate.

Melody stands at a height of five feet, seven inches tall. This translates to about one hundred seventy centimeters tall. His weight, to no one's surprise given his appearance, is only one hundred thirty pounds, or around the area of fifty nine kilograms. Phsycially, his build is rather slight. Some might even go so far as to call him delicate looking. Slender limbs, narrow shoulders, and no identifiable muscle definition leave him seeming as if he might fall over if someone looked too hard at him. His skin is pale as well, something of a surprise given he likes spending time in the sun. In a match to his pale skin, his hair is silvery in color, and his eyes are somewhere between green and blue. Teal is the current closest guess as to their actual color. Both his appearance and his voice are rather ambiguous, leading to some amusing situations where those who don't know him well or have only met him for the first time take his name and appearance to assume he's an under developed girl, much to his apparent annoyance.

Melody prefers clothes that fir loosely on his frame. Not falling off, but loose enough that he can move in all sorts of directions without feeling like he's restricted. Normally, when attending class or on missions, he will wear a blue and white horizontal striped shirt. Underneath will be a black tank top, the straps of which can be seen in the neck space of the t-shirt. Over the t-shirt will be a white sweater with blue-black fringe. He wears black denim pants, and dark blue sneakers. When just hanging out around the house or with friends, he will forgo the t-shirt and sweater, just going around in his tank top.

While not obsessed with accessories, Melody does appear to have a fair few that he wears on a daily basis. His full list of accessories includes two bronze pinky rings, a bracelet of bronze rings, a black metal ring with a silver spade etched into it, a skull charm on a necklace cord wrapped twice around his neck, and most important of all, his headphones. The headphones are silver, black, and bronze, and almost always on his head or around his neck. It takes a while for him to notice, but he is able to hear people over his music, so the best way to tell if the music is on is just to start talking and see if he replies immediately or not.

The headphones are very special to him, and he will take utmost care that they aren't damaged in the midst of battle. Something interesting about the headphones is that even when he's in weapon form and is reflected within the weapon, his headphones are still on, even though all his clothes are gone. Sometimes he's even wearing them. It raises the question of whether he can actually listen to music while in weapon form.

Melody comes from the pairing of a meister and their weapon, as is sometimes the case when the two parties are opposite genders. In this case, his father was the meister, and his mother the weapon. On his mother's side, his family has a history of autonomous weapons. None of them had a soul wavelength that was easy for a meister to match, so they developed the strength to fight without one. On his father's side, it was much the same. All meisters without weapons, able to use physical ability and soul force attacks to get the job done and provide support for their teams. Melody's parents were something of outcasts from their families because they didn't live up to the legacy. Melody's father couldn't use soul force, and his mother had no skill fighting on her own, and could actually be matched up with a meister.

Melody's mother was a slingshot, a sort of step down from the weapon form of her son. The two of them were a perfect team. As emberassing as it might have seemed to be a slingshot and a slingshot meister, the two of them were able to pull it off with a complex series of different shots born of manipulating their soul wavelengths. The most powerful of which they called the Feedback Shot. They accomplished this through manipulating how soul resonance. Soul resonance is achieved when the meister passes their soul wavelength to the weapon, who amplifies it and passes it right back. Performing this many times in rapid succession is soul resonance.

Melody's parents developed a special Feedback Resonance. Once their soul resonance was activated, they would begin feedback resonance, in which the meister's wavelength was not amplified, but purified, with all the unnecessary noise stripped out to create a single, pure tone, which when fired had a devastating effect. Sort of like how microphone feedback builds up into a single piercing tone that seems to strike at your core with its power.

With their bond, and feedback resonance ability, they were able to survive well into their adult years. Eventually, they decided to retire and start up a family. This soon led to Melody's birth. His parents were sound nuts, hence their development of an attack born from a sound concept. They wanted their child, son or daughter to be named after something related to music. Eventually they settled on Melody, even if it was a male. They never told him that to most, his name would be that of a girl, hence his annoyance when he started to grow up, and teachers paid less attention to the gender section on class rolls.

His parents thought that their son would become a meister up until he turned ten because he didn't show any signs of weapon blood. Then they came to get him on his tenth birthday and found holes in the ceiling of his room. When they asked how he did this, he showed them his arm, transformed into a crossbow. He'd actually had the ability for three years, but never shown his parents. Since the crossbow was part of himself, whenever his parents asked if he could become a weapon, he said no because he didn't think of himself as a weapon. He also claimed to be able to hear soul wavelengths, which they took as a sure sign he was a meister, not someone who'd inherited meister traits.

He enrolled in the DWMA, more at his parent's request than his own desires. He was perfectly happy to go on as he was, but his parents said it was for the best, as he would be able to make friends more easily among weapons and meisters. They were right of course. It was easier to find people who could become his friend when they weren't freaked out or scared at the fact his arm could become a crossbow. And the fact that the school was in another city meant he got his own dorm, away from his parents who had at that point become slightly stifling.

Although it would have been possible for him to have any meister he wanted, he couldn't bring himself to settle on anything. He was looking for a perfect match, and according to him, no one had a soul that sounded just right. So, while he stays at the academy, his goal isn't so much to become a death scythe, but to find someone he can resonate with without having to first modify his own wavelength.