I redesigned Mello's puppet to fit my version of him and it triggered a whole train of thoughts about the Mello puppet in general.

Take a look at the canon. Left is Near's puppet. Right is how Mello showed up at the SPK headquarters (aka the only time Near had the time to actually look at how Mello looks like AND DIDN'T EVEN TURN AROUND ONE TIME TO LOOK AT HIM).

Near has surveillance footage of him entering the building though, so he for sure had the footage open for reference when sculpting. The puppet has this weird cushion pattern on it that Near has no way of knowing, given it wasn't really visible when Mello was there in person. How the hell did Near know about the vest then? I think Halle described him.

"Yeah you know he always has this weird way too short biker vest or something with this weird pattern on it, I don't know how else to describe it but it's... so weird?? And the rosary and the leather in general, it's just... he's so strange."

And I headcanon Matt being at some of the meetings between Halle and Mello too. At least as a driver. So Halle 100% mentions Matt to Near like

"Mello had a buddy with him this time"

"... a buddy?"

"Yeah, they seemed to be friends."

"What did he look like? Did you catch his name?"

"No but he looked equally weird as Mello. He had these orange-tinted goggles and a super giddy looking fur vest, smoking..."

"Did he have reddish-brown hair? Freckles?"

"Uh. Yeah...? Yeah he did??"

"Wearing stripes of some sort?"

"Yeah??"

"Mh. Interesting. Still glued to Mello's butt, huh?"

Near wants to make a puppet for Matt too and asks Halle to draw him, at least make a sketch. Halle can't draw shit.

(Shoutout to @mihaelkeehl for this absolute banger of a drawing of Matt!! 💜💜💜)

They ask Gevanni to make a composite sketch of Matt by Halle's description. Halle describes him very unflattering and Gevanni draws the most unsettling portrait of Matt you will ever see.