How to actually use materia?

[TSLsmokey]

-snip-

That's odd, I've gotten it without being a crafter. It's a storyline unlock from what I remember. But while it gave you the meld option, you needed to be 19 in crafting to unlock something else. Before you got meld, your in-game character didn't know about melding so it would make sense to not have the request meld option and I've noted many players in my fc asking where the button was before they got meld. Once they got it, they found they were able to request the melding. I'll have to go back and double check this though.