Melody Graves (GraveWarning)

## Overview

A willing Valkyrie and semi-willing Host, living with her Practitioner family in Phoenix, Arizona. Surprisingly upbeat for someone who works so closely with Death.

## Appearance

Short, pale, and slightly underweight, with chin-length wavy black hair and blue eyes. She has a small hallow diagram scarred cleanly over her upper sternum. She favors dark clothing, and tends to wear a sunhat and/or sunglasses when it’s bright outside.

## Powers/Practice

Her Practice is centered almost entirely around working with Echoes. As a Valkyrie, she hunts and binds Echoes to imbue them into tools and weapons, and as a Host, she has a Hallow in her Heart for immaterial Death-related Others. It’s mostly used to Host an Echo Amalgam, several ghosts of the lowest tier melded together to match the power of a single moderately-powered Echo.

### Sight

Melody’s Sight renders the world run-down and decrepit, as if it had been fast-forwarded a hundred years. Somewhat reminiscent of the Ruins, minus the rain. Everything is consistently dimly-lit, as if illuminated by faint moonlight, allowing it to work as passable night vision. The air is thick with dust that catches the moonlight, which coalesces into vague apparitions to visualize spirits, and trails as if moving along air currents to represent connections. When she focuses and empowers her Sight, any people, places, and things that are heavily influenced by Death have silvery spectral ivy and other creeping plants growing on and out of them, as if being reclaimed by nature.

When her Sight is active, her eyes look glassy and speckled with dust, and her irises turn into rings of silver filigree.

### Equipment and Tricks

* Hallowed Locket: A silver locket, engraved with the image of a luna moth. A single-occupant hallow for immaterial, Death-related Others.

* Laceration Knife: Switchblade imbued with the Echo of Elton Whitaker (deceased), victim of a gruesome industrial accident. Cuts inflicted with this knife bleed more freely than normal and have very ragged edges despite the sharpness of the blade, making them difficult to treat and slow to heal.

* Sunstroke Flashlight: Pocket-sized flashlight imbued with the Echo of Alissa Todd (alive), who was found in the Sonoran Desert suffering from extreme sunstroke and dehydration. Shining the light on someone causes them to feel disoriented, sick, and dehydrated, and the bulb itself sheds much more heat than a flashlight should. Requires several seconds of exposure to become debilitating. The light is also painful to Others vulnerable to sunlight, though not as potent. Power-hungry.

* Vial of Illness: Small glass vial of water imbued with the Echo of Brian Banks (deceased), spawned from the moment he was told he had contracted a terminal illness and had only months to live. The Echo resides in the water, not the vial, transforming it into a sickly green fluid. Splashing the liquid on someone will temporarily cripple their immune system, leaving them extremely vulnerable to illness for a short period of time. One-time use.

* Asphyxia Baton: Collapsible self-defense baton imbued with the Echo of Chris Walton (alive), who suffered an intense panic attack while going into anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction. Striking a victim with the baton will overwhelm them with panic for a moment, and leave them short of breath for several seconds afterwards. The shortness of breath compounds with each hit.

* Car Crash Gloves: A pair of fingerless leather gloves imbued with the Echoes of Sylvester Golden (deceased) and Evonne Benjamin (deceased), two drivers killed in a brutal head-on collision. Both gloves will empower the wearer’s punches and other strikes with increased force, with some slight variation between the two. The left glove, holding Sylvester’s Echo, spreads the force out, lending itself more to knocking a target over or pushing them back than dealing additional damage. The right glove, holding’s Evonne’s Echo, concentrates the force into the point of impact, making it easier to break or crush things.