[Learning multiple languages is probably the most normal activity from the Wammy's House educational system, so that facet is not necessarily the best representation of its unusualness. Mello takes out a glass from the cabinet for himself and fills it from the tap, then sets it down on the table in front of the chair that he turns sideways and sits down in, one arm wrapped around the top of the chair's back. He silently considers the question for a moment, mouth pressed into a thin line, fingertip slowly tracing the lip of the glass. Finally, he shakes his head.]
My only concern is confidentiality, and I think you'll understand why once I get into the details. But you've already covered that, and I believe you to be a professional, just as I believe myself to be a good judge of character.
[So, in other words, he believes Lance will keep what Mello tells him to himself. There are only two people left from Mello's world here in Hadriel other than himself, and only one of them might be considered a threat to the other, but old paranoid habits die hard. Preparing to disclose what he intends to goes against everything Mello was ever trained for. He inhales a slow, deep breath, and begins.]
I told you before when we spoke about the Guard that I was trained from the age of seven to solve crimes, and that's true, though not the entire story. Some people, hearing that, might assume that solving crimes was a family business, to explain my involvement from such a young age, but that's not the case. I have no family - I'm an orphan, you see, and I have been since my mother died, when I was five years old.
[He pauses, expression pinched at the too-recent memory of his mother's reappearance here, the joy seeing her again brought him, the pain losing her a second time caused. He takes a sip of water, pushes his feelings aside, and focuses on continuing his story.]
Since I had no other family to take me in, I was sent to a Church-run orphanage, where I lived for the next two years, and I hated every day of it. [Interesting, perhaps, that he chooses to wear a rosary, then.] One day, though, I was approached about taking a series of tests, which I agreed to, mostly because it got me out of the class taught by the sister I disliked the most. [He half-smiles, thinking about what an impact that one small decision motivated by simple enmity ended up having on his life.] I scored very highly on those tests. It may be an oversimplification to put it in these terms, but the results said that I was a genius.
[He doesn't say this with any sense of boasting - it's merely factual. Mello glances up to Lance, gauging his reaction to what he says.]
no subject
My only concern is confidentiality, and I think you'll understand why once I get into the details. But you've already covered that, and I believe you to be a professional, just as I believe myself to be a good judge of character.
[So, in other words, he believes Lance will keep what Mello tells him to himself. There are only two people left from Mello's world here in Hadriel other than himself, and only one of them might be considered a threat to the other, but old paranoid habits die hard. Preparing to disclose what he intends to goes against everything Mello was ever trained for. He inhales a slow, deep breath, and begins.]
I told you before when we spoke about the Guard that I was trained from the age of seven to solve crimes, and that's true, though not the entire story. Some people, hearing that, might assume that solving crimes was a family business, to explain my involvement from such a young age, but that's not the case. I have no family - I'm an orphan, you see, and I have been since my mother died, when I was five years old.
[He pauses, expression pinched at the too-recent memory of his mother's reappearance here, the joy seeing her again brought him, the pain losing her a second time caused. He takes a sip of water, pushes his feelings aside, and focuses on continuing his story.]
Since I had no other family to take me in, I was sent to a Church-run orphanage, where I lived for the next two years, and I hated every day of it. [Interesting, perhaps, that he chooses to wear a rosary, then.] One day, though, I was approached about taking a series of tests, which I agreed to, mostly because it got me out of the class taught by the sister I disliked the most. [He half-smiles, thinking about what an impact that one small decision motivated by simple enmity ended up having on his life.] I scored very highly on those tests. It may be an oversimplification to put it in these terms, but the results said that I was a genius.
[He doesn't say this with any sense of boasting - it's merely factual. Mello glances up to Lance, gauging his reaction to what he says.]