Spotlight: Walter Meechum

Okay so this guy creeps me out like nothing else. He is terrifying and vicious and malicious and a sadist and I still don't know how the hell I came up with him. He's not just my nightmare, he's Dean's nightmare. And I dunno, maybe it's because I used to be terrified of hospitals and doctors (but have since become largely desensitized to them) that, you know, Meechum was born. Or, well, who knows. Anyway, here's Mr Creepy.

Name: Walter Meechum
Power: to be incredibly sadistic and creepy? He's Homo spaien
Codename: n/a
Team Affiliation: none; Apolyta Medical Facility, NOS

Meechum is in his mid-forties when Book 1 happens. He's British/Welsh/Somewhere In That General Area (no, I haven't figured that part out yet). Is that important? No, but I've been giving that kind of info for a lot of the others, so why the hell not give the information for this guy? Anyway. Mid-forties, married twice, divorced twice, no kids. He is the most apathetic guy on the planet, so I have no idea how he married in the first place.

In terms of who he is? He's a Homo sapien. He is also heavily involved with the NOS. Like, his grandfather (or whatever, family was involved) helped start the current incarnation of the organization. The NOS has been around for-freaking-ever, though it's probably not always been called the NOS (okay, it most certainly hasn't been called the NOS....which stands for...stuff. And no, I'm not telling). He was "raised" (I think he might have been hatched) with the general idea that Homo superum should be eliminated, no two ways about it. They are the upstarts who ruined the greatness of the sapiens and therefore must be put down. Look at all the problems (there really aren't that many problems in the world, remember? It's a utopia, more or less....except for the sapien terrorists) with the world these days. Freaks with powers are walking around unchecked with no source of dignity or manners, letting that nastiness just hang all out there. It must be stopped. That's more or less that kind of attitude Meechum's people have.

His parents were very hands on, very much the "mold you into what we want you to be to shape the future for the rest of us" type brainwashing crazy. They were also heavily involved in the NOS. Meechum has no siblings (thank the Gods) and is pretty much the apple of his parents's eyes. Well, kind of. They're dead, but you get the point.

Meechum hid his crazy, psycho....stuff and went to college. He was pretty normal, was neither top or bottom of his class, drew no attention to himself, and got his degrees in biochemistry and genetics. The NOS paid for everything. They then set him up on Mu and built him the Apolyta Complex, where Meechum could have access to prisoners (there is always some sort of crime going on, and any crime that does happen, the justice system goes down hard on them to discourage people) and small children that no one would miss. Meechum would take little groups of children, because the adults didn't interest him all that much (their genetics are fixed and old and not easily pushed or prodded), and kept going for years, searching. The thing he's looking for is the mythical "link" between races, the point where Homo sapien becomes Homo superum, the key to undoing everything that is the superum race. It's a big thing. This is mostly what happens in Book 2, that Meechum's crazy pays off and he finds said Link. He has a team in Apolyta full of crazy and creepy, and talented, people that are also on the same page as him and want the same goal - to eliminate the superum (which is rough 80-90% of the human population currently).

Then he met Dean and Evelyn and got distracted. Temporarily.

I'm gonna jump back for a second. Meechum's first wife he meet in college and they got married and they were happy (I guess?). She was a chemistry major, sapien, so they could talk shop and shared a love of science. Meechum can be very passionate about what he is doing. Then Mrs Meechum #1 found out that her new husband was off his nut about what he wanted to find (the Link) and they got a divorce. The NOS watches her, just in case she starts talking, and will have her killed if she does open her gob. Mrs Meechum #2 was someone within the NOS that Meechum married because it looked good at the time. ...Meechum ended up dissecting her. She had very nice genetics, and actually had a little bit of a superum power, which kind of made Meechum twitch. Legally, on paper, they got a divorce and then she moved somewhere and the NOS has covered everything up. They like their pet scientist very much (especially when he has the power to veto/shoot down many things that the various boards put forth) and want to keep him happy. As far as I know, he has no kids. Mrs Meechum #1 might have had one, but that's her business. Maybe it'll pop up later, but honestly, it's for the best that he doesn't have a kid. He'd probably end up vivisecting it. He's crazy. Beyond crazy. He scares me. D:

Meechum is Dean's nightmare, his boogeyman, his ultimate fear. Nothing scares Dean as much as Meechum does. Meechum is responsible for Dean's twin sister's death. He doesn't forget that, even through the mess his early childhood has become thanks to the telepathy; he can't forget it, really, since that's what started the majority of everything that has ever gone wrong with him. Meechum is the very last person Dean ever wants to have to deal with ever again.

And he scares the crap out of me and I hate writing him but I have to and omg why did I create the scary?! Ahem. I mean. It's usually a good sign when an author can scare themselves with their own creations, right?

And that is more or less Walter Meechum. The only other thing I'll say about him is that he is like a cockroach - impossible to eradicate. Which really pisses off Medic. Which really puts Dean into a tailspin every now and then. Which is also very dangerous.