#and some Katie gifsets as the adjudicator

[stingslikeabee]

The Continental verse

Born as Lilian Siân Owens-Drysdell to a Welsh crime syndicate family, Lilian had the life of a princess growing up: surrounded in equal measures by luxury and the knowledge of what her family did for a living, the girl nonetheless took after her mother and her hobbies - gardening, beekeeping and being as sweet as the honey produced in their backyard had been Lilian's preferred strategy to achieve her own goals.

Not that she needed to manipulate the patriarch or most of his men to get anything - those under Edgar's rule would always do whatever his oldest asked without any hesitation, but his daughter just had a knack for being welcoming, hospitable and displaying other true talents of a seasoned hostess like her mother, used to holding, planning and organizing many grand events at the Drysdell estate.

And perhaps it was precisely because Lilian was so much averse to inheriting her father's role that she insisted in carving a different path, away from Edgar's shadow and influence. While firing a gun or getting into hand to hand combat were nothing the girl hadn't been trained for given her bloodline, there was no sense of personal fulfillment for Lilian in being a mafia boss. Instead, there was something much more attractive in connecting to people.

Finding out what made someone content, uncovering their strengths and weaknesses, providing for others while taking note of their reactions and soaking all that information - these were the true joys for Lilian, who fully embraced the approach of catching flies with honey and adopted the alias of 'Melissa'. With her origins, it was not difficult to find employment under one of the many Continental branches, earning the respect of the fellow hotel workers for her abilities and eventually getting promoted to the position of a concierge.

As concierge of the Continental, Melissa is the right-hand to whatever manager is currently serving as head of that location, as appointed by the High Table. While she is not privy to management-exclusive secrets of hotel operations, she is nonetheless vital to keep the hotel running essentially as what it is meant to be - from the regular hospitality services to the additional activities they might offer their guests for the right fees, there is a lot that she oversees and deals with, with varying degrees of personal involvement depending on how legendary the guest is.

The fact that she has blood ties to the Welsh mafia is not a state secret - but it is not openly advertised and, given how far Melissa has moved to make a career for herself, that connection is rarely (if ever) made. Most of the times, her reputation derives from the excellent service offered and the obvious preference for customized jewelry, accessories and weapons - several of Melissa's items have honeybees or honeycombs engraved or carved into them and she seems to enjoy the associations to the Greek nymph who she borrowed the alias from.

Note: I don't know what to say - but I sat down to watch 'The Continental' (the show set in the same verse of the John Wick movies) and I just had to make a concierge!Melissa verse. It has been in my head for a full day and I just decided to unleash this gremlin variety on the dash to make it everyone else's problem. I am using a mix of the movie and the show lore here and keeping her associated to a nondescript Continental; it doesn't even need to be a main one or under Winston's management (following Charon's death in JW4). It just made sense to me - Melissa's verses by default have her being a hostess and someone who derives a great deal of pleasure in connecting with people and making them feel welcome; it hardly felt like a stretch. The main difference is that this is a Melissa that knows how to fight back; she would never win against trained/professional assassins because that's not her forte, but she's not as useless in a physical confrontation as 99% of her counterparts. It's also safe to say she's absolutely used to violence despite having a decent family (although one she doesn't see or visits frequently). And although this is a verse rooted in John Wick lore, it doesn't need to be restricted to it! For any other purposes, she's just a concierge at a very unique hotel with surprising skills - either because she just doesn't want to pick up the family legacy as an outright mafia boss or for another personal reason that has driven her to the hospitality business. This is flexible and easy to be adapted as needed!