Melinda Desmond

A small beauty mark under the right side of her mouth punctuates Melinda's fair, striking face. Fairly tall for a woman of 46, she wears her dark brown hair, tinted green in the anime, in a soft wavy bob gathered back into a loose low bun, with cropped bangs and stray strands left free around her face. Damian inherited her hazel eyes, which droop slightly and carry long lower lashes, and years of household strain have stamped a permanently weary cast onto her features, though she remains notably athletic during Lady Patriots Society sports.

Her jewelry advertises her occult circle: a triangle enclosing a circle with a dot at its heart, worked into gold dangling earrings and into rings on her left ring finger and right middle finger. Out in public she buries her identity beneath sunglasses and a headscarf, while her fortune-teller persona, Lunaluna☽Selena, calls for loose hair, an indigo ensemble, a veil across the face, and a masquerade mask.

Around the few people she trusts, Melinda is warm, lively, and quick to laugh. Yor's astonishing physical feats charm her instantly, and she pursues the friendship on honest terms, deliberately withholding the Desmond name so Yor can know her free of preconceptions. She teaches patiently, encourages fun, and cares little about status. A naive streak shows too: told that Loid practices "concussive therapy," she takes the joke literally, resolves never to be treated that way, and even braces to defend herself at their first meeting.

Her public conduct reflects the poise of a former First Lady. When Millie Myers, whose father died in the second war, lashes out at the Desmonds, Melinda apologizes, acknowledges the pain, and admits she too would resent someone who took her family from her. As chairwoman she guards the Lady Patriots Society's image, discouraging unseemly displays. Divination is her guilty secret: she believes in destiny, keeps an open mind about ghosts, telepathy, and UFOs, and calls the hobby one of her few comforts, though she is an admitted amateur who knows the Major Arcana but not the Minor, and embarrassment over her age and station keeps the pastime hidden.

Privately she lives in fear. Donovan's transformation into a silent recluse after his party lost power convinced her he could read minds, a suspicion that later mutated into the belief that an alien had replaced him. Shielding herself consumes everything she has, leaving nothing over to protect their sons, so she mirrors whatever distance Donovan sets, once shutting down Yor's apology over Anya's punch with a sudden cold stare. She loves Damian yet, for reasons still unexplained, also sees him as a curse she sometimes wishes would disappear, an inner conflict that pains her deeply.

Melinda married into the Desmond family and served as Ostania's First Lady while Donovan held the office of Prime Minister, raising two sons, Demetrius and then Damian. Once the National Unity Party fell from power, she withdrew from politics and public appearances, narrowing her world to household staff and the handful of friends who predate her time in the spotlight, and disguising herself whenever she ventures out for errands or civic events.

An unplanned meeting with Yor Forger, whose remarkable athleticism impresses her on the spot, blossoms into a genuine friendship, and WISE later builds its "Plan C" for Operation Strix on that connection. Stress from her family situation manifests as headaches, insomnia, and a fading appetite, and at Yor's urging she visits Loid Forger for a consultation. His perceptiveness rattles her enough that she skips her next appointment, yet she still writes out notes covering her years as First Lady, the births of her sons, and her husband's premiership, sending them to Loid through Yor.