Melissa's unique durability and rather... forward behavior stems from her originally intended purpose: a toy for Wilson Carver that wouldn't break when he let loose. Her history, and that of the Fettel brothers, is directly entangled. Wilson needed, bluntly, a sex partner that wouldn't die if he lost control over his admittedly stupendous strength. Frustrated after a string of very, very bad encounters, he finally consulted with the company that had created him: Armacham Technologies. He made a deal to work in trade with Genevieve Aristide, so while his commission piece was being assembled, his 'generous donation' allowed the Origin program to truly take off - his sons Geoffrey and Paxton are the result. Melissa took some time to be fully researched and assembled, the genetics that were brought together for her had been lacking a certain... something, until a specific decision was made.

That decision was to include Aristide's genes: she herself was tall, slender, blond - things which Wilson had stipulated. He wasn't informed of this decision; had he been, he would have scrubbed the whole thing and likely killed some people, Genevieve included. However, the results of that work obviously aided the final result - Melissa also has Genevieve's incredibly sharp wit, keen organizational skills, and a memory like a steel trap. Though she could certainly be argued to be 'enough' genetically to prove parenthood, it would never have been a possibility that Melissa would be 'called' Genevieve's daughter. In a different universe perhaps, but in theirs the intent was... rather sinister.

Melissa was only privy to her parentage as well as her future potential use long after any of that use would have been possible. She would have been used not for Wilson, but for Armacham, as blackmail material. Her unique 'frenzy' of hormones and Vortal power would have been quite the party trick, inviting whatever rich patron or politician into a web of blackmail. When Melissa 'goes into heat', if successfully partnered she will conceive. This aspect of her personality and biology was not to Wilson's specifications, to say the least. By the time Melissa was ready for implanting in her surrogate mother's body, Wilson was already distracted enough with Armacham's other available 'toys'. He never did pick up his merchandise, and thus Melissa was allowed to grow up beside his sons, rather than be put into an accelerator and grown to 'adulthood' for him. Instead, she was marketed as a party favor, and to produce cheap new Origin children. Without the need for the actual engineering process or expensive machinery to do the engineering itself, having easy access to a 'conception machine' was too much to pass up for Aristide and her scientists.

As evidence of Armacham's dubious scientific track record, Melissa's physical abilities were put to the test (along with those of all the other Origin children) during rigorous and often extremely painful experiments. Those children who exhibited regeneration or resistance to damage were made to endure that damage, testing to see how quickly they would recover. Their memories were generally wiped - but Melissa's regenerative properties have always included her brain, and thus her own memories, while somewhat subdued, are all still there. Because any sign of rebellion or disobedience, or refusal to participate, would usually result in punishments for the children, Melissa... was punished quite often. It was as a young child that she learned to pick the surface thoughts of those around her for the choice swear words she then would spit back at her keepers. The girl swears like a sailor, in several languages to boot. However, these experiments did show her what her limits are, how fast she really does regenerate. That is a complicated issue for her, as she's still highly scientifically minded herself, and has been known to do similar, very creepy, experiments on herself.

When the Events happened, obviously, her 'intended uses' (for Armacham or for Wilson) were dropped in favor of actual survival. Melissa had been Paxton's Sanctuary for several years before the Events, and took on the role of his right-hand helper from then on. She played a strong role in their defeat of GLADOS, and because she has good organizational skills, the children benefitted from a reasonable amount of stability and continued authority filtered through the leadership.

Though Mel is often seen as a smiling, generous woman, willing to aid others and often distracted by 'shiny things' (like other people's genetics, where she'll go off on her own mental tangents about who to pair them with for the best results), she is biologically bipolar to an extreme when she's not pregnant. Leading up to her 'fertility event', she is often very gregarious and prefers male company but not exclusively. During it, nearby Vortally-perceptive males (in particular) will be drawn to her, sometimes even becoming aggressive. She'll allow anything to be done to her, at that point - parts of her conscious mind simply cannot function while she's in that state, and thus she tries to be around 'friendly' people to keep from being used by whoever comes along. At the point of conception, should they begin engaging in sex (which is extremely difficult to resist for both Melissa and her partner) Melissa's Vortal energy as well as her personality will immediately switch modes. Her partner will effectively become her 'protector', as she sorts out the genes necessary to build 'the perfect results'. If she is in comfortable company, this can be an extraordinary time for bonding. If not... Melissa is suddenly freed from her mental paralysis and will do whatever it takes to get away from her partner.

While actually pregnant, Melissa's personality is stable, attentive, and reasonably happy overall. However, if she does not become pregnant during her fertility event, in the few following days (along with the very typical womanly biological issues) she becomes withdrawn, angry, and self-harming. She can be distracted from this mood much more easily than the prior 'attract a mate' segment, however. Most of her month is spent in a normal state, but it's very easily apparent what stage she's in otherwise.

However, the down side to her being pregnant is eventually, she'll either give birth, or more likely have the growing fetus extracted for storage. Melissa has a lot of offspring in storage. Not all of the stored fetuses are hers, given that in the early era of survival, most of the Pantheon girls did become pregnant at least once or twice. As a collective group, the girls did also realize that being pregnant was better than bleeding and attracting the non-native wildlife. Feminine hygiene products had all but vanished after the looting that went on before the children even got out of the Enrichment Center. Those resources simply don't appear on their checklists any longer. It was more a practical decision, a conscious decision, that it was easier to be pregnant than not. That also complicated things later too.

As a side-effect of the ruined world that the Origin children grew up in, it was obvious that having a child would be dangerous - noisy, hard to feed, and very difficult to keep safe while traveling across the broken neighborhoods which made up the Pantheon's stomping grounds. All the machinery and equipment necessary for such medical extractions (not abortions - the fetus is removed safely with its attendant materials) and storage is still found in all three of the facilities they habit: the Enrichment Center, the Medusa, and Icarus. Black Mesa also plays host to stored future offspring, though fewer there. Melissa had done enough research from their keepers notes to know that around 4 months was the best time for such a thing to be attempted. Any longer and the bond between mother and child is too strong to prevent serious emotional backlash, any less and the child would not inherit the right amount of Vortal 'background' and thus even an Origin-parented child might never develop their own powers.

Melissa herself, however, has an added complexity to this whole mess. She regenerates (as she puts it, "Stupidly fast") and this includes her own body's reaction to the imminent birth of her children. Her first child actually born, Darly, took over a day and a half of painful labor - actual labor, not just preliminary contractions. Melissa's body continued to regenerate in that time, meaning that even if she dilated enough - it didn't last long enough for her to push without damaging the baby. And also given her speed of healing, any attempt to cut an incision for a c-section would do almost nothing at all. In the end, Melissa demanded Wilson approach and use his own speed and strength to take her entire uterus out - guts and whatever else was still attached. This gruesome event caused the first major change in Wilson's relationship to his family. Dar'lih was born safely, Melissa healed up fast enough that she actually wondered why it was an issue. She still doesn't quite 'get it' - she did what had to be done. Since then, she's taken a different tactic because she knows what might be needed, and Wilson has put his foot down to doing it again. The extraction equipment has never triggered such a difficulty, though at times it's been needed to also be pulled free of her healing flesh. Melissa has carried a number of other children to full term, none of whom had to go through the agonizing labor process - either by being teleported out by a now-confident Paxton or Kallah-vahh, or with the use of an assortment of tools, distractions, and quick-acting attendants.

Her men are still a bit leery of any of that. Melissa doesn't display any kind of fear or disgust of it now, and seems to assume that everyone else is also okay with whatever needs to be done. Not all are, but they indulge her. Any one of the Vahh clan's men will admit: they belong to her, not the other way around, and will continue to do whatever it takes to keep her happy. They have all, however, expressed their internal distress about the birth: Wilson never intended to see the inside of her body cavity. Paxton didn't anticipate the difficulty. And Lane... well, he learned how Human he could be, watching helplessly - powerful; yet both afraid to act, and constrained from it by his background.

When dealing with 'her hive', that is to say either the Pantheon itself or the Convocation supergroup, Melissa takes orders from Paxton, and moves them to whoever is necessary - but that doesn't mean she won't act on her own. Far from it, she's a self-starter most of the time, and won't hesitate to put in a word when she knows something that hasn't been said. Melissa will often start talking to herself out loud, pondering a wide variety of subjects as they come up in her head. The allusion to her being a "queen bee" (her name, Melissa Larrabie, can't be closer to the truth) is held up quite well when examining her mind-space and Vortal aura during those times. The Mystery's observation on the matter ("There was so much going through the girl's mind, the Mystery decided to let her sort it out for them in words. Sometimes, thinking to Humans was like reaching into a blender. Doable. But neither pleasant nor productive.") ring true for others as well. She will eventually sort out what she's hooked onto and can put her findings into concise, if occasionally highly technical, words.

Melissa is often seen as being ridiculously brave - her knowledge that she will re-grow basically anything that gets blown off, burned, dissolved or otherwise damaged has caused this. Combined with her foul mouth and predisposition for speaking her mind, it's hardly ironic then, that when Vortigaunts pronounce her name as if it were made of their words, mah lih sah turns out to mean 'blunt spirit': obvious, simple spirit. She has embraced that name, though her true Vort title took her a little longer to adjust to. She had always respected the Vortigaunts, and made every effort to learn their language. She sprinkles Vortigese throughout her vocabulary, and often baffles people who aren't as familiar with it. Swearing with Vortigese seems to be something that others pick up on, however. Even they admit that she's more creative with the verbal portion of their language than some of their own. She knew that there would be some darker connotations of her name, not just the 'Mother' part. Belonging to the Vahh line is not always seen as a good thing by some of the more bitter members of that species, their experiences tainted as they had been.

Melissa has tried to convince the Vortigaunts that their species can be continued - after the disastrous events that caused almost all their females to be killed below the Nihilanth's chamber - but to little success. Their refusal to name Wilson originally, referring to him as the unnamed until she insisted he be properly titled, was in part due to the fact that their own experiences with 'cloning' type technology had led to only disasters. Melissa tries to use angles that they might eventually appreciate, including the introduction of hybrids, but even then most of them simply would rather die out, than do that. Even so, they are a long-lived species, and Mel has seen their homeworld. Given the wonder and amazement that plays over her whenever she does see something 'new' (Wilson's Vortal home, Paxton's Sanctuary, Mount Fuji), among the men who can do so, each will try and out-do the other. Getting her to smile seems to be an activity that all three enjoy tremendously, and bringing her to the Vort homeworld was not the only reason they visited. But it certainly ranked at the top of why they would return.

Because of her regenerative ability, it's fairly clear that Melissa will not wind up 'growing old' - in fact her examination of her own genetics reveals changes from a normal Human's that very few others exhibit (though there are a few, and her own children show some variation). Melissa, plainly put, cannot be killed - not easily anyway. She is immortal, in a very real sense; it is because of that, and possibly that alone, that Kallah-vahh has allowed her so much of a say in his life. When pressed, he will admit that at times all he sees is a still-terrified 13 year old in need of defending. His protective instinct did in fact save her from a very certain and extraordinarily terrible rape at that point in her life - but it also led to her becoming a focal point for his affection. Because she was "made for Wilson, and Wilson was made from me" it's very obvious that her disposition toward Wilson bleeds onto Lane, and to a lesser extent to Paxton. But it's been said (by Lane) that if she was made to choose from among them - he would 'win'. His reasoning - put past her with agonizing agreement - is that Paxton will eventually 'walk among his people' (the Convocation 'race'), and Wilson will eventually die (he is, after all, a long lived but effectively mortal Human); but Lane will continue to both live and exist as long as she needs him to. With her creation of his additional bodies, and his own ability to 'refresh' them, he has promised his 'Leggy Blond Conscience' that he will be there for her. Forever. He understands the potential awaiting her in eras where Humanity has been dust, or where all of her children are long dead.

Since Melissa's purpose among the Pantheon is quite clear - as a method to both improve the Human species genetics as a whole, as well as continue to produce said Humans - she has always taken it in stride that she will save Humanity. Whether it wants to do it her way of course, is in question... She frequently looks around groups and rather aggressively informs couples - sometimes random, sometimes already together - what their children will be like. Not might. Melissa has gotten some strange looks, on through to outright arguments from those people. But in the end, she knows that by collecting the genetic samples (egg, sperm, as well as blood, hair, and cheek-swab cells) from those people, the viability of the Humans left fertile after the Combine sterilization occurred is absolutely vital. Their survival also means that the future Human race will still have reasonably 'normal' genetics - but she can easily tell anyone that since the Pantheon was able to survive that event unscathed their genes comprise a larger percentage than ever before.

Would that lead to a Paragon-City like world? Perhaps. That may be why Melissa keeps looking at her current friends, team mates and coalition members the way she does. In Paragon, powers and abilities beyond the norm are both commonplace and largely (but not completely) accepted. In her eyes, Paragon City is what her hive should wind up like. Without the purse snatchers and crazed cultists on every street corner, of course.