Mela Ghirgha/Introduction

### Namesake

Melania: Italian variation of Greek name, meaning "dark".Ghiberti: From the Italian artist Lorenzo Ghiberti.

### Family

Unnamed husband (alive), Nazzaro Ghiberti (son, alive)

### Occupation

Housewife (former), Team Bucciarati member

### Status

Dead

Mela Ghirgha is a member of Team Bucciarati and a minor antagonist in Fate of Zephyr. In Vento Aureo, she is Narancia Ghirga's mother who died due to an eye infection prior to the latter's own illness.

A housewife who suffered abuse from her husband and was labeled insane and ill due to an untreated eye infection, she escaped the insane asylum she was placed in before joining Passione. The effects of the abuse and trauma she experienced in the mental hospital as well as the toll of losing custody of her son Nazzaro Ghiberti drove her to madness. She ultimately dies at the hands of Andreas Arancini, but able to send back information confirming The Hitman Team is in posession of Gigi Una, as well as learn what happened to her son and husband before her last breath.

Mela possesses the Stand Twenty One Pilots, which has the ability to \_\_\_\_\_.

## Appearance

Mela is a thin woman of average height. Like the original Mela, she has brown hair and purple eyes like her son, although her hair is messy and curly. She wears a fitted dark suit jacket covered in patches of warm-toned swatches sewn in, indicating that the suit was well worn over the years. She doesn't wear anything underneath save for a bolo tie and a black bra that is well hidden. She wears black shorts underneath the suit with square patterns, resembling boxer briefs. She is rarely seen wearing shoes, claiming them to be restraining, and only wearing lace up dirty white sneakers with red accents when walking out in public. When not wearing shoes, she is spotted wearing orange crew socks that are often scrunched downwards and unevenly put on. The socks resemble the no-slip ones often worn by hospital patients who are admitted into institutions for wellness.

Mela is seen wearing an orange-red beanie in reference to Narancia's headband, and broken blue earrings. The earrings are jagged and she often complains about them scratching her neck, resulting in some minor scars in the area over the years of wearing them. Like the original Narancia, she has a switch blade hidden within her suit jacket pockets, as well as some cigarettes and a lighter, the last two she often takes out and uses sporadically or mid-battle. She is also seen to have very chipped nails painted red.

Prior to her stay at the mental institution, Mela resembled like a typical middle-class housewife, wearing a short blue dress and apron whenever she cooks and cleans, as well as low white heels. Her hair is much neater due to being chemically straightened and sometimes tied in a tight bun. During her stay at the mental hospital, Mela would wear the institution's given gowns, which were bright pink, and at one point her hair was forcibly cut to be a messy bob.

## Personality

Years of being abused by her husband and enduring treatment and further abuse in a poorly run mental institution has caused Mela's personality to alter into one that makes outsiders view her as deranged, anxious, and unhinged. Mela has a habit of avoiding others from seeing her as anything beyond weak, as she often uses her voice and presence to make herself appear as if she is the bigger, stronger person. However, her attempts to appear in such a way are often ignored by her team, who are able to see through her persona, yet is tolerated due to her irritable mood swings allowing her to get what she wants from others around her- including Paolo Bucciarati. As a result of her abuse, implied to be both emotional, physical, and sexual, Mela developed a fear of being excluded and unwanted by not just the people she loved but society as a whole, willing to do anything to get what she needed or stay included. As she grew older and felt more neglected emotionally, she began developing a fear towards her age, feeling that she would soon be discarded as soon as she no longer looked conventionally attractive or physically fit to perform tasks. That fear, according to her, came true, when years of being gas-lit and her undiagnosed eye infection landed her in a poorly maintained mental hospital known for its abusive treatment towards patients who do not pay well enough to be treated well. The experiences in the hospital, mostly contributed by Dr. Dolcio, further deteriorated her mental well-being. As a result, she sees even her closest allies as a potential threat to her stability and security, occasionally interrogating them sporadically if they irritate her at the slightest.

In connection to her fear of being alone and isolated, she developed a distrust and subconscious hatred towards other women around her, especially if she feels threatened by them. Mela often regarded herself as the "better woman", and sometimes complains about how younger women in this day and age no longer have the right charms and beauty for men to enjoy. This is especially seen with her relationship between her and Ceci Mariposa, who Mela is jealous of due to her age and sometimes taunts her for being seemingly more inferior when Paolo Bucciarati or the other men aren't watching. However, Mela mentioned that she is willing to cooperate with her female comtemporaries if it will benefit her, and show more aggressiveness and hatred towards the women outside of her team, namely the women of The Hitman Team. Her distaste is highest with women in power, as seen when she openly complained and insulted Zura Grattachecca to the point of purposely getting under the latter's skin.

Despite her attempts of hiding her true personality, Mela is shown to be resourceful and clever, using her unhinged appearance to get what she wants and unabashedly interact with people without apparent concern for social norms or expectations. This was especially seen when she revealed that she was able to use her deranged ability and seduction to sleep with a male nurse in order to sneak into the female locker room to disguise herself and escape the mental facility without being caught. Mela is no stranger to bragging about her resourcefulness, which much of her team ignores, but cannot deny, as she is able to confirm Gigis whereabouts once they found out about Mela's death.

Although she appears as an insane person, she is shown to have a motherly, overprotective side when it comes to Nazzaro or those she believed to be her son. Despite the lack of a meaningful parental relationship growing up, she strived to be the best mother she could to her son, doting on him and obsessively taking an interest in his welfare as a means of compensating for her supposed inability to be a good person. Nazzaro commented how he found this aspect of her annoying while he was growing up, but found the memories of her fussing over him to be comforting, especially after she was admitted. This behavior is often used by her husband to control her, causing Mela to often question whether she is a good mother, and later on contributed to the case of her being labeled insane enough to be admitted to the mental hospital. Even in her last moments, she asks Andreas about what has happened to her son and died smiling when Andreas confirmed that he was doing well.

## Abilities

### Stand

Twenty One Pilots is a far-ranged Stand that

### Smuggling Capabilities

Due to her experience as a former delinquent and during her stay at the mental institution, Mela is able to hide various objects in various places. These places include her body, as she is often seen hiding items like cigarettes, bottles of liquor, and knives in her clothes and even herself.

## References

* Twenty One Pilots accepting their award for Best Pop Duo / Group Performance at the Grammys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxBERcE5yl8
* Squid Game's Han Mi-nyeo analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_JqfFmzWXlY

Anime reference of Mela, Narancia, and her husband.Anime reference of Mela's birth and death date.

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