Riddles {a Death Note MelloXOC and NearXOC story}

Extra: Character information

A/N: I'm including middle names. Just remember that middle names are not required in order for the Death Note to function. For Story, Harrowing, and especially Birdie, I will add a few things that apply only to the epilogue, unless it is a big spoiler.

Everything about Wammy's beyond the kids being gifted (vague) and having L's successors (also vague) is my own headcanon for this fic.

The bullets are important specifications on things in the character information. There are paragraphs to save your eyes, but a paragraph coming after a bullet is still part of that bullet. I'll try and keep things as brief as possible and will put in bold the must-read info, but I'd recommend reading it all.

● Gift: "General" refers to the general abilities associated with being a gifted child at Wammy's. A higher IQ than average, the ability to process multiple things at once (think Near and L looking at a bunch of screens at once but being able to keep track of everything), and a higher processing speed than average. The second one was the only one that was confirmed; I just added in other things I thought would be important and/or might apply based on what we've seen.

You can assume everyone has or develops these general skills. I say that some develop skills because some people believe that giftedness is natural, while others believe it can be taught. I believe both, but László Polgár is a good example of why I believe it is limited. His children's genius was in the field he taught, and he himself was an expert in his field.

The reason Wammy's takes people who don't possess all these skills innately is because they are gifted in another area that could be of use or because they're especially gifted at one of the general skills (the latter would still put them as "general" for this category).

"Higher level" means they have the general skills, but they are especially notable. There are a number of reasons this could be the case: overall stats, an especially fast learner, amazing memory, etc. Don't overwork yourself trying to figure it out (like I did, internally classifying each individual, lol).

Some gifts aren't the same as ones people say they have in the story. This is because these characters are assuming what specific gift got them into Wammy's based on the circumstances of them being taken in. My canon in the story is that Wammy's doesn't tell you, but if you ask, they will tell you. These girls assumed too much; Lacey was the only one who actually bothered asking and Joy was able to put two and two together based on the way she was scouted.

● "Archive Excerpt": This section contains portion of one or more recordings by an individual's warden (a brief explanation of what a warden is can be found in the A/N of chapter 2). These recordings are all part of each child's "archive," which contains a ton of different files on various information on the kid. Since it takes place in the UK and it's supposed to be Wammy's archives, I'm using DD/MM/YYYY format. Though since it's supposed to be audio, I'm still using American spelling.

The files Allison and May mention are very small amounts that were printed for data saving reasons, but it wasn't long after Patience arrived that they updated their systems, ditching the printed files and keeping everything in the computer archives.

● "Opinion of L": This is actually confusing if you don't get an explanation. You see, the children spoke to L via computer once, shortly before the Kira case began. After answering some questions, he told them he didn't take on cases because of a sense of justice, but because he found them fun, like puzzles or video games are to children. He explained that this is why he only took on cases that interest him, and he is willing to do anything to win. He's a cheater. By the law's standards, he's probably evil, too. After this, there were some children who lost respect for L. (this is all 100% canon, btw, even kids' opinions changing)