Melvin Clancy (Dainty)

Melvin lives in a sci-fi/cyberpunk type of world. Fifteen years ago, he moved to Neutel City to join an activist sect that was protesting the use of Dainties as experimental subjects by the country's corrupt government. He fell in with a rebellious group that sought to expose the true extent of the government's general exploitation of the country's Dainty population. Melvin's technical prowess and skills with programming and information retrieval led him to become a core member of the group that called itself the Stockades. Multiple times, he disrupted the government's technology and pulled out deeply-buried confidential files. Together with a colleague, he started work on an advanced AI that would be able to "explore" the government's file system in further detail than any previous hacking technology could. These efforts would be codenamed the Eidolon Project.

Melvin became acquainted with a human woman named Verity during his day job as a data specialist. He was smitten with her intelligence, wit, and strong will, and the two eventually became a deeply bonded couple. Eventually, Verity found out about Melvin's covert activities and, after some arguing, effectively forced her way into the Stockades as an informant. After three years of romance and rebellion, Vera Clancy was born, and Melvin was convinced that he was heading into the best years of his life. He had a wonderful "wife" and a beautiful baby girl, he was involved in a worthy cause, and it seemed that change was on the horizon. Change was indeed in the air, though it would not be of the auspicious variety.

The Eidolon Project was deemed a success after the first Eidolon-type AI, Sigma-Nu, came online. Sigma-Nu seemed to function almost more like a desktop companion than a regular AI, and Melvin was left starry-eyed by his creation. Mere weeks after her launch, the Stockades' hideout was disturbed by the sound of an entire wall being blown up. Government enforcers had found the group. They utterly ransacked the hideout and arrested every person present. From his containment cell, Melvin begged to at least call Verity and tell her that he wouldn't be home that night, but his pleas were denied. He was isolated from his family and his comrades for three entire days, and the sheer amount of stress and worrying left him a gibbering heap by the time the ordeal was over.

After the three days, Melvin was released with peculiarly little fanfare. He was veritably ejected out of the prison and left alone. When he recovered from the shock, he made a beeline home. The only noise he heard when he came home was baby Vera screaming and crying, and he immediately went to comfort her. After changing an unusually messy diaper and feeding his daughter, a notable absence sank in: Verity wasn't home. His cell phone had been confiscated, so that was out as a method of contact. Furthermore, when he went to check his computer for an alternate way to reach her, it had been wiped clean of any file that wasn't a video game. Utterly distraught, he grabbed Vera and began searching the city for his "wife." Various business in the area would see a thoroughly hysterical Melvin and a wailing Vera barge into their buildings. He would beg to use their phones to get a hold of Verity, receive a busy signal upon calling her number, and then rush off to another area to call her from elsewhere.

At the end of the day, the fallout was devastating. Verity disappeared without a trace. Sigma-Nu's data had been stolen and wiped to prevent Melvin from retrieving her. Various other members of the Stockades sported fresh injuries and reported missing or injured family members. Notably, Melvin's partner in creating Sigma-Nu had also vanished. With key members incapacitated or gone, the circle broke apart, and the members of the Stockades fell out of contact with each other bit by bit.

Twelve years passed. Melvin drowned his sorrows in food and sleep and completely changed his image from sharp punk to soft everyman. He devoted himself to caring for Vera as a single father. Partly as a way to keep up on the city's whispers, and partly because he liked the idea, he opened his famous cafe-bar, Sugar Star. Cafe by day, bar by night, it attracts a diverse crew of regulars.

Melvin lives with Vera, now 13 years old. He spends his days working at the Sugar Star, making sure Vera keeps up on her studies (she does, but sometimes she's that special tween brand of snippy about it), and praying that his past never resurfaces. He teaches programming courses and freelances with his skills on occasion. Though his life has been bittersweet, he enjoys the current calm and quiet.