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cerealia
27/9/15 17:41Applicant Info
◎ Name: Hina
◎ Journal: (no personal journal)
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hina_mun
◎ Current Character(s): None
Character Info
◎ Character's Name: Iris Hawthorne*/Fey
◎ Character's Canon: Ace Attorney Series
◎ Character's Age: 25
◎ Canon Point: end of Trials and Tribulations
*note - throughout the game, she is never referred to by her last name, as she was left at Hazakura temple at a young age. Hawthorne is the name her twin sister, Dahlia, went by during the time she lived with their father. However, given her past, Iris would be more inclined to either indicate she is a member of the Fey family, or give no name at all.
◎ Background/History:
Some time during the early to mid-'90s, Iris and her twin sister, Dahlia, were born to Morgan Fey and an unnamed, wealthy jewel owner. The only difference in their appearance was hair color. Aside from that, everything--facial features, vocal timbre, and body type--were indistinguishable.
The marriage of their parents had been one of convenience, formed due to mutual desires for wealth and power. It had always been assumed that Morgan, as the eldest Fey sister, would inherit her spirit medium clan's Head Family status. The Feys were well respected at the time, with much influence in higher society, and would have access to all the things they could possibly dream of. However, Morgan's younger sister, Misty Fey, had proven to be the stronger of the two, with far superior channeling skills that allowed her to usurp the title instead.
To make matters worse, when Iris and Dahlia were still very young, there was an incident. For the first time, the police were so stumped on a particular case (DL-6) that they called in a spirit medium to help them. They called Misty Fey. The whole thing was highly publicized for many reasons, and though the channeling was truly successful...in the end, the person who was named during the ritual turned out to be innocent. Misty and the Fey family name were shamed.
Misty disappeared not too long after. Gone, but not dead, and still legally assumed as the head of the clan until the day when one of her own daughters could assume the role.
With their chance for power long gone, the father of Iris left his wife, taking both girls with him. His new family already had a daughter, Valerie, and as such, he chose to keep Dahlia but give Iris away. Iris was brought to the far mountaintop of Hazakura Temple. Ironically, it was a remote training location overseen by Sister Bikini, a distant relative of the Feys and devout follower of the Fey Family Channeling Technique. It was Sister Bikini who oversaw both Iris' training--though she possessed no spiritual abilities of her own--as well as her upbringing
All things considered, Iris was grateful for the life she had been given. True, she had been abandoned by both parents, but she was also freed from their cold, power-hungry influence. Sister Bikini was a wonderful, loving surrogate mother who cared for her deeply. Compared to the cold, lonely life her dear sister went on to lead, Iris had very few regrets...though the ones she did carry with her could be summed up by a single word: guilt.
Guilt that she had been granted a happiness that Dahlia was denied. Guilt for not being strong enough, spiritually, physically, or otherwise. And guilt for...well...
Though separated, the sisters regularly communicated. It is unknown whether or not their father was every aware of this fact, and even the legal courts seemed to have no idea that Iris even existed. When they were fourteen, Dahlia hatched a scheme with her step-sister, Valerie. A kidnapping, involving a man named Terry Fawles whom she had deceived into thinking he was in love with her. Iris was meant to play some unknown role in the scheme, and had gone so far as to fully agree. When the day came, however, she panicked. Fear kept her from fulfilling her promise, and she never showed up. As a result, Dahlia was "thrown" over the side of a suspended bridge and presumed dead. Terry Fawles was arrested and convicted of her murder.
In reality, Dahlia had simply thrown herself over the edge to escape, disappearing for several years. She had allowed Terry to take the blame for her crime, and Iris had retreated back to Hazakura Temple. Unable to come forward.
Six years later, the past caught up with everyone involved. Terry escaped. Dahlia took advantage of the situation to murder Valerie and blame Terry yet again. She posed as an uninvolved eyewitness and told lie after lie an an attempt to seal Terry's fate, under an assumed identity. However, one thing Dahlia did not anticipate was the defense attorney: a rookie woman by the name of Mia Fey. Dahlia's cousin. The two did not recognize one another on sight, but there was one thing that Mia did recognize, and that was the fact that "Melissa Foster" was both a liar and a phony. The subsequent trial unveiled many dark secrets of Dahlia's past--with the exception of Iris' existence--and she was nearly found guilty...until Terry willingly consumed a small bottle of poison that Dahlia had given to him as a "gift" years back. He died on the stand, ending the trial. One couldn't prosecute a dead man, after all.
Dahlia was set free.
Questions still remained unanswered, however, and while being interviewed by a man named Diego Armada (mentor and lover of Mia Fey, who had also been present at the trial), Dahlia put poison in his coffee. To hide her crime, she quickly hid the bottle--which was disguised as a necklace--by giving it to an unsuspecting, uninvolved university student who happened to be at the courthouse that day: Phoenix Wright.
But once the smoke had settled, this made Phoenix a loose end she had to deal with. One Dahlia was all too ready to handle...when Iris stepped in. Phoenix had been given that necklace under the pretense of Love at First Sight. And the boy had been so immediately enamored with Dahlia's (false) sweet and gentle nature that he really thought they were meant to be. Rather than let Dahlia kill him too, Iris agreed to pose as her sister and attempt to get the necklace back by pretending to be Phoenix girlfriend.
In a way, it was ironic. As Dahlia took on a persona very similar to Iris' nature when she was trying to manipulate and/or deceive others...this meant that Iris was essentially pretending to be Dahlia pretending to be her.
So she left Hazakura Temple once more, dyed her hair red to match Dahlia's, wore Dahlia's signature white and pink dress, and assumed the role of her twin sister. Phoenix never suspected a thing. In fact, the longer they spent together, the more enamored of her he grew. Their relationship lasted nearly eight months, during which time he continued to treasure the "gift" he had been given so much that he would happily show it to anyone and everyone who would listen. Each time Iris asked for it back, he refused, thinking she was just joking.
As if all that wasn't enough, Iris had another major problem: she had started to really fall in love with him.
Dahlia must have sensed this, and grew impatient with Iris' constant failure. So she acted. For the first time, Iris wasn't consulted, perhaps because Dahlia knew she would never have agreed to the latest plan. Dahlia intended to kill Phoenix with a bottle of his favorite cold medicine. Pretending to be Iris pretending to be her (who often pretending to be just like Iris in nature), Dahlia went to the college campus.
Just as all her past plans, however, there were unforeseen circumstances standing in her way. Another student, an ex-boyfriend of hers by the name of Doug Swallow (whom she had simply used for access to a certain special kind of poison), tried to warn Phoenix of Dahlia's true nature. She couldn't have that, so she killed him via electrocution, and then tried to pin the blame on Phoenix.
Iris, of course, couldn't say anything without revealing everything about their deception, so she once more quietly disappeared back to Hazakura Temple. Ashamed and guilt-ridden by all the pain she blamed herself for. Both for failing Dahlia, and for failing Phoenix. The two most important people in her life.
Just like the last time, Dahlia was brought to the trial as a material witness. And, just like the last time, her cousin Mia was once more in the defense box. Determined to bring Dahlia to justice. For Doug. For Phoenix. For Terry. For Diego, whom was presumed dead after the poisoning. Unlike last time, however, there was no escape. Phoenix did attempt to swallow the evidence, but the poison had long since lost its potency and he was unharmed. With the defendant still alive, the trial continued. The truth was uncovered in full.
Dahlia was finally found guilty of all her crimes. Justice was served. She was sentenced to death.
Five Years Later, her sentence was carried out.
Around that time, Iris was contacted by a man going by the name of Godot. Over the course of the conversation, he revealed his identity to her: Diego Armada, the defense attorney whom Dahlia had tried to poison. He survived, though he had been placed in a coma for several years and only recently awoke to find the love of his life dead and her sister in grave danger. It was for the latter reason that Diego contacted Iris: he needed her help to stop Dahlia one last time.
In a plot hatched with her mother while the two met in prison, Dahlia would be channeled from the afterlife by her half-sister, the young Pearl, and from there, murder one Maya Fey. Daughter of the woman who stole Morgan's role as head of the Fey clan, but also the beloved younger sister of the woman responsible for Dahlia being sentenced to death. The motive was mutually beneficial revenge, in addition to the potential to elevate Pearl to the status of next clan head.
Iris agreed to do whatever was needed of her, with full acknowledgment of the consequences she was risking. It was the least she could do to atone for her past, and besides that...she and Sister Bikini were loyal to the Fey family head clan.
One thing Iris could never have foreseen, however, was the arrival of Phoenix Wright along with Maya and Pearl Fey. A face she never thought she would see again, with hers being a face Phoenix would never have forgotten. He still thought of her as Dahlia, after all, and had seen her in a picture taken with Sister Bikini advertising the highly advanced training sessions offered at the Temple. In other words, he had come to see her. To hopefully get some answers.
Mutual shock would have put it mildly; neither of them could hardly believe who they were seeing. Initially, Iris insisted that she was exactly who she claimed to be. It wasn't a lie. Exactly. Later, during a private conversation between them, she let it slip that yes, she knew him. Had known him. For that reason, she presented him with a gift: her white acolyte hood, which was meant to ward off evil spirits. Something to protect him for the night ahead. Something to protect him from Dahlia, though he would have know way of knowing. And Iris said nothing further on the matter before they parted for the night, leaving Phoenix with even more questions than before.
The sun set that night. Maya was sent across the wooden bridge to an isolated island area for her training. There was a snowstorm. Lightning. The bridge was struck and caught on fire.
Worst of all, there was a death.
But it wasn't Maya; it was a woman by the name of Elise Deauxnim. A mysterious, lovely children's author who had also been a visitor at the temple. In reality, Elise was none other than Misty Fey herself, come out of hiding upon receiving a distress message from Godot (who used the influence of the prosecutor's office to track her down) about her daughter's life being in danger. Misty had been in on the plan as well. At first, she was meant to simply distract Pearl. Keep her from being able to channel Dahlia at all. With luck, the young child would have been so enamored by being invited to the room of her favorite author that she would forget all about her mother's instructions--which she didn't truly understand to begin with, and only followed because she still loved her mother.
Pearl never showed up, however, and drastic measures needed to be taken. To keep Pearl from being able to channel Dahlia, it was Misty who channeled her instead. A channeled spirit by a powerful medium couldn't be channeled by another, after all. However, once Dahlia had temporarily returned to the living world, she still attempted to kill Maya. She would have succeeded, too, had Godot not secretly snuck onto the island that night. While "Dahlia" was in the process of attacking Maya, Godot snuck up behind her and stabbed her--and, consequentially, Misty. Dahlia's spirit was released back into the realm of the dead, Maya's life was spared...but at the cost of Misty's life.
They had another problem. Nobody knew that Godot had been in the area that night, and with the bridge having burned away, Maya would have been the only plausible suspect in the murder. Their goal still being to save her in any way possible, Godot called up the only other person he could still trust: Iris.
She drove out to the cliff's edge on the other side of the bridge using the snowmobile. Meanwhile, on the opposite side, Godot tied up Misty's body and swung it across the ravine, where Iris was ready to receive it. From there, she placed it back on the snowmobile and drove it back to the main temple. Bringing it to the backyard.
The cause of death needed to be obscured, so she removed the blade from Misty's back--an act she was caught doing by Sister Bikini. The aging woman could hardly believe her eyes. The shock of it all led to several initial confusions during the subsequent trial, but the fact remained that it was really Iris who pulled the sword out, threw it into the ravine, and re-stabbed the body with the Seven Branched Sword, making it appear that the state of the late Ami Fey was stabbing Misty.
While this was all going on, Phoenix had been in a panic over Maya's well-being. There had been a snowstorm and lightning and an earthquake and the place where Maya was supposed to have been training was at risk for collapsing. Despite the fact that the bridge had caught fire, he was too consumed by fear to think properly. He tried to run across the bridge after her, but fell through the weakened plans and into the chilling river waters below. He survived, but was hospitalized for several days after. Even as Iris was arrested and set to stand trial for the murder, based heavily on Sister Bikini's eyewitness testimony.
Phoenix was desperate to help her, but he was still bedridden for the first day of the trial. As such, a desperate call was placed to one of his old childhood friends, Miles Edgeworth, a genius prosecutor. The only other person he could trust to take on Iris' case. Miles had yet to commit, however, though he did come to see both Phoenix in the hospital (a mutual friend of theirs who had placed the actual call had slightly exaggerated Phoenix's state of being at the time) and, afterwards, Iris at the prison. The girl was a mystery to him. Someone he didn't know, but who very clearly meant something to Phoenix. He was curious. He wanted to know why. Iris didn't quite answer all of his questions, but she did satisfy him enough that he agreed to defend her. On one condition: when all was said and done, she was to tell Phoenix the truth. About everything.
Iris promised.
Special arrangements had to be made, of course. Miles wasn't a defense attorney. A licensed servant of the courts, yes, but only for the prosecutor's side. As such, he would not only need a fellow prosecutor who wouldn't give away his true identity, but a judge who didn't immediately recognize him in the courtroom. He called Franziska von Karma, fellow genius prosecutor. And his adoptive younger sister. The woman seemed all too eager to be given a chance to face her brother in court, regardless of his motives, and went along with the charade. Together, though it had been her full intention to "win" their legal battle, they managed to uncover too many questions and evidence for the judge to render a guilty verdict. More investigation would be needed.
It was just enough time for Phoenix to be released from the hospital, ready to resume his defensive responsibilities.
Iris wasn't the only one still in danger, however. Maya was still trapped on that opposite side of the burnt-out bridge. Presumably locked inside a cave that could still collapse at any moment. The bridge had only just been re-built that morning, granting them access to the island area for the first time since the murder. Because Iris was one of the only people who could properly undo the lock sealing Maya inside, Miles was granted special permission to escort her back to the mountain.
There was another earthquake. A big one. Miles, who was severely phobic due to a childhood trauma, collapsed to the ground in a near catatonic state. Iris took the opportunity to escape...but not for freedom. She ran towards Maya, worried that the poor girl would be crushed in a cave-in.
Fortunately, the cave was still in tact when she made it there, and unlocked the main gate. Unfortunately, Maya had been channeling the spirit of Dahlia ever since to protect herself. Meaning it was Dahlia waiting for her. The girl grabbed Iris and threw her into the cave instead, placing several more locks to hold her before the rest of the group arrived. When they got there, they assumed it was Iris still standing before them, as Iris and Maya had the same hair color (one of the few physical attributes that did not change during a channeling).
No one was any the wiser. No one except for Phoenix, who had a nauseous, unsettling feeling deep in the pit of his stomach for some time after. A feeling he couldn't quite explain, and that could have been dismissed as lingering sickness, or the stress of everything happening. After all, "Iris" was still on trial. Maya's life was still at risk....
Yet, things refused to add up. Especially once "Iris" began to testify with a completely different story than before. Attempting to implicate Maya in the murder of Misty Fey. Story after story was told, lie after lie was seen through, and Iris...was no longer fully acting like herself.
It was Phoenix, of course, who finally uncovered Dahlia's deception and revealed her identity to the entire court. As well as the events of what truly went on that night. Worst of all, after a brief reoccurrence of Mia (being channeled by Pearl), the ultimate truth was revealed: Maya Fey was not, as Dahlia attempted to claim, dead. She was the person channeling Dahlia. Dahlia had failed yet again. In both life and in death, with Phoenix, Mia, and Diego all there to witness her shame.
Her spirit was broken. Ejected from Maya's body, she was finally gone.
Iris was eventually freed thanks to the tireless efforts of Franziska von Karma working alongside Sister Bikini, who had stayed out in the cave all night to undo Dahlia's locks. She returned to the courtroom in time to be declared NOT GUILTY of the murder...though there would still be a later trial to determine her guilt as an accessory after the fact. While not a death sentence, it would still lead to a prison sentence.
But Iris was at peace with the outcome. As she told the court, she had known the risks when she agreed to help Godot and Misty, and while she deeply regretted Maya losing her mother as a result...she did not regret agreeing to help save Maya's life.
It was then, in full view of the entire courtroom, that Iris also finally admitted the truth to Phoenix: that it had been her, not Dahlia, who he had been in that relationship with in college. That it made sense for Dahlia to not care whether or not the boy lived or died because she had only met him twice. Whereas Iris had spent eight wonderful months with him. Fostering such fond, wonderful memories. Each day, growing fonder and fonder...feelings that had never really faded over time.
In turn, Phoenix had something to confess to her as well: he had never truly stopped believing in her, and had struggled to equate the Dahlia who had done those awful things with the sweet, gentle, kind girl he had fallen for. Now he understood why.
The realization of his words brought tears to her eyes, and she thanked him for his faith in her.
(In an after scene, it was also revealed that Phoenix had come to visit her in prison, along with Maya and Pearl. The former seemed to bear no ill will towards Iris for everything, though the latter had gotten quite upset to the point of slapping poor Phoenix because he couldn't stop staring at Iris the whole time. Something which made Iris happy, but...well...Pearl had these childlike illusions of Phoenix being Maya's "special someone", and got mad he was paying attention to another girl so blatantly in front of Maya. Even though Maya didn't seem to mind at all.)
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? No; while Iris does come from a powerful family of spirit mediums and is familiar with the concept, she has no powers of her own
◎ Personality:
Seemingly delicate in both nature and appearance, Iris is a polite, demure young woman. Shy, but friendly. Easily prone to blushing when it came to either being compliment, or having to face certain emotional situations. Her voice is soft. Her words, kind. If one speaks to her long enough, it would be all too easy to make the assumption that she was sheltered and lacked self-esteem.
After all, Iris has a habit of relating her life not by who she is as a person, but by the people in it: how she was "fortunate" to have a woman like Sister Bikini to help raise her...how her life was spent either catering to her stronger twin sister's whims or betraying her out of fear...how she had caused so much pain over the years through her cowardice or acts of deception...
...but also how she was willing to risk her own life in an attempt to foil the plot to kill Maya. How she was able to stand up to Dahlia when the time came. Covering for Dahlia's crimes, and even trying to protect her from committing even more. How she summoned the courage to agree to Godot's plan, going so far as to mutilate a corpse in order to help Maya. Defying both her mother and late sister's wishes because she knew they were wrong. That it was more important to protect the head of the Fey clan than try to destroy her.
Iris is loyal to a fault. She is fully willing to put the well-being of others before that of herself, even if it meant sacrificing her own freedom. She is willing to lie...to commit horrible crimes...to deceive...to conceal...but always with the best intentions.
In many ways, it is because of her loyalty to others that Iris is much stronger than even she gives herself credit for.
In actuality, Iris does have some recognition of her positive attributes. She knows what she is capable of. She can drive a snowmobile. She can use a cell phone (something Phoenix didn't quite think she should have looked so pleased about), and--presumably--other basic technologies. Though she (truthfully) admitted the fact that she was never actually enrolled in University, or had any such desires to do so, Iris also did spend just under a year posing as a University Student in order to get close to Phoenix. As such, it would be reasonable to assume that she'd had a significant amount of exposure to the world outside Hazakura Temple, despite it being the only true home she's ever known.
(There is also something to be said about the fact that, whenever she was attempting to manipulate or deceive someone into siding with her, Dahlia always imitated Iris' kind, gentle nature. When Iris had to pretend to be Dahlia, all she ever had to do was be herself. And it worked.)
But most importantly, Iris has shown that she can learn from her mistakes. After twenty five years of conceding to Dahlia, whom she always thought was the stronger twin, Iris finally is able to step out from under her sister's shadow and make her own decisions. She acknowledges the sins of her past, and was prepared to atone for them. That includes accepting her guilty verdict and subsequent prison sentence for her role in Godot's plan. In a way, she already had been atoning for them long before, by remaining at Hazakura Temple for so long despite claiming to hate spirit channeling (a sentiment that may or may not have resulted due to her childhood abandonment by her Fey-born mother) and believing that there was little point in communicating with the dead. To her, the continued training was a means to purify her soul.
She also, with Miles Edgeworth's insistence, finally confronts the one person she had been hiding from for so long. And her feelings for him. In public.
For all the times she had spent running back to Hazakura Temple whenever things went wrong...Iris isn't running anymore.
◎ Powers/Abilities: Iris' most noteworthy skills in the game include the ability to use a mobile phone, computer, drive a snowmobile, and set up/undo the special Trick Locks used among Fey family members. Besides that, she's as baseline human as they come.
◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory: Along with her acolyte uniform, she has a special white hood that is meant to ward off evil spirits
CEREALIA-Specific
◎ Element: Water - of the four elements, water is often recognized as feminine, cleansing, healing, psychic, and loving. It is both passive and receptive, patient and enduring, and--in a bit of meta wordplay--can refract light to form a Rainbow, which is what the Greek Goddess IRIS is known for.
◎ Sense: Sight - Vision is highly important to the Fey family in general, as those with the Power are Spirit Mediums with the unique ability to not only channel the spirits of the deceased, but assume their physical form during channeling. On top of that, as an identical twin involved in multiple acts of past deceptions, appearances are a key plot point to Iris' story.
◎ Seven Character Traits: (Kind, Loyal, Friendly) + (Timid, Secretive, Easily Manipulated) + Soft
Samples
◎ First-Person Sample: Here
◎ Third-Person Sample:
((Based on PHASE I of the September 1st Test Drive))
Iris was used to waking up before the sun. Habit, really. It was always easier to get her morning chores done before the guests were awake. And a lack of sunlight made very little difference towards the seemingly perpetual chill in the air. Cold rarely bothered her. She'd grown up surrounded by it. She hardly even felt it any more.
What she was not used to was waking up in a completely different world than the one she'd fallen asleep in. Her bed had been replaced by a pile of leaves and a surprisingly comfortable rock. Inky black sky, dotted with twinkling stars, where she could have sworn there was once a ceiling. It was quite beautiful, actually. Not unlike the kind of vision she could have seen from her bedroom back at Hazakura Temple. Iris actually wasted several minutes of her initial return to consciousness staring up at it. Following the foreign constellations with her eyes. Tracing invisible patterns with her finger.
With a smile on her face, she moved to sit up. And what's when she saw it.
The dress.
One she hadn't worn in...how long had it been? Five years? Six?
The fabric was soft. Breathable. Far too thin for someone sitting outside in the brisk cold. Far too white for someone who had been laying on the ground. Save for the pink lace outlining the modest neckline. Even in the darkness before sunrise, she could see smudges of dirt lining the shin-length hem. It made no sense for her to be wearing it here. Now. Yet she was.
Even worse, further inspection revealed bright, red strands of hair falling on her bare shoulders.
Iris' eyes widened. She stood up with a start, hands flying to her mouth. No. No, this was all wrong. What was...and why--
The sudden movement seemed to trigger something in the system's coding. With her own eyes, she watched the dress appear to...glich, she believed the term was. Flicker. A fleeting moment during which she thought she saw a shadow of her usual acolyte uniform. She froze, and glanced down. Focusing harder.
There. It happened again. Not only did her outfit change, but her hair had returned to its normal color.
Slowly, Iris lowered her hands. She understood now. She thought. If she closed her eyes and concentrated enough...
No more lies. No more hiding.
She repeated the mantra over and over again in her mind. Hoping that whoever--or whatever--was behind this latest deception could hear how much she didn't want to be a part of it any longer.
When she opened her eyes, she was herself once more. Not the false image of her late twin sister.
Iris let out an audible sigh of relief. Then turned her eyes to the skies once more, just in time to catch the first glimpse of a sunrise over the distant horizon. Barely visible between the trees.
◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? No
◎ Name: Hina
◎ Journal: (no personal journal)
◎ Contact:
◎ Current Character(s): None
Character Info
◎ Character's Name: Iris Hawthorne*/Fey
◎ Character's Canon: Ace Attorney Series
◎ Character's Age: 25
◎ Canon Point: end of Trials and Tribulations
*note - throughout the game, she is never referred to by her last name, as she was left at Hazakura temple at a young age. Hawthorne is the name her twin sister, Dahlia, went by during the time she lived with their father. However, given her past, Iris would be more inclined to either indicate she is a member of the Fey family, or give no name at all.
◎ Background/History:
Some time during the early to mid-'90s, Iris and her twin sister, Dahlia, were born to Morgan Fey and an unnamed, wealthy jewel owner. The only difference in their appearance was hair color. Aside from that, everything--facial features, vocal timbre, and body type--were indistinguishable.
The marriage of their parents had been one of convenience, formed due to mutual desires for wealth and power. It had always been assumed that Morgan, as the eldest Fey sister, would inherit her spirit medium clan's Head Family status. The Feys were well respected at the time, with much influence in higher society, and would have access to all the things they could possibly dream of. However, Morgan's younger sister, Misty Fey, had proven to be the stronger of the two, with far superior channeling skills that allowed her to usurp the title instead.
To make matters worse, when Iris and Dahlia were still very young, there was an incident. For the first time, the police were so stumped on a particular case (DL-6) that they called in a spirit medium to help them. They called Misty Fey. The whole thing was highly publicized for many reasons, and though the channeling was truly successful...in the end, the person who was named during the ritual turned out to be innocent. Misty and the Fey family name were shamed.
Misty disappeared not too long after. Gone, but not dead, and still legally assumed as the head of the clan until the day when one of her own daughters could assume the role.
With their chance for power long gone, the father of Iris left his wife, taking both girls with him. His new family already had a daughter, Valerie, and as such, he chose to keep Dahlia but give Iris away. Iris was brought to the far mountaintop of Hazakura Temple. Ironically, it was a remote training location overseen by Sister Bikini, a distant relative of the Feys and devout follower of the Fey Family Channeling Technique. It was Sister Bikini who oversaw both Iris' training--though she possessed no spiritual abilities of her own--as well as her upbringing
All things considered, Iris was grateful for the life she had been given. True, she had been abandoned by both parents, but she was also freed from their cold, power-hungry influence. Sister Bikini was a wonderful, loving surrogate mother who cared for her deeply. Compared to the cold, lonely life her dear sister went on to lead, Iris had very few regrets...though the ones she did carry with her could be summed up by a single word: guilt.
Guilt that she had been granted a happiness that Dahlia was denied. Guilt for not being strong enough, spiritually, physically, or otherwise. And guilt for...well...
Though separated, the sisters regularly communicated. It is unknown whether or not their father was every aware of this fact, and even the legal courts seemed to have no idea that Iris even existed. When they were fourteen, Dahlia hatched a scheme with her step-sister, Valerie. A kidnapping, involving a man named Terry Fawles whom she had deceived into thinking he was in love with her. Iris was meant to play some unknown role in the scheme, and had gone so far as to fully agree. When the day came, however, she panicked. Fear kept her from fulfilling her promise, and she never showed up. As a result, Dahlia was "thrown" over the side of a suspended bridge and presumed dead. Terry Fawles was arrested and convicted of her murder.
In reality, Dahlia had simply thrown herself over the edge to escape, disappearing for several years. She had allowed Terry to take the blame for her crime, and Iris had retreated back to Hazakura Temple. Unable to come forward.
Six years later, the past caught up with everyone involved. Terry escaped. Dahlia took advantage of the situation to murder Valerie and blame Terry yet again. She posed as an uninvolved eyewitness and told lie after lie an an attempt to seal Terry's fate, under an assumed identity. However, one thing Dahlia did not anticipate was the defense attorney: a rookie woman by the name of Mia Fey. Dahlia's cousin. The two did not recognize one another on sight, but there was one thing that Mia did recognize, and that was the fact that "Melissa Foster" was both a liar and a phony. The subsequent trial unveiled many dark secrets of Dahlia's past--with the exception of Iris' existence--and she was nearly found guilty...until Terry willingly consumed a small bottle of poison that Dahlia had given to him as a "gift" years back. He died on the stand, ending the trial. One couldn't prosecute a dead man, after all.
Dahlia was set free.
Questions still remained unanswered, however, and while being interviewed by a man named Diego Armada (mentor and lover of Mia Fey, who had also been present at the trial), Dahlia put poison in his coffee. To hide her crime, she quickly hid the bottle--which was disguised as a necklace--by giving it to an unsuspecting, uninvolved university student who happened to be at the courthouse that day: Phoenix Wright.
But once the smoke had settled, this made Phoenix a loose end she had to deal with. One Dahlia was all too ready to handle...when Iris stepped in. Phoenix had been given that necklace under the pretense of Love at First Sight. And the boy had been so immediately enamored with Dahlia's (false) sweet and gentle nature that he really thought they were meant to be. Rather than let Dahlia kill him too, Iris agreed to pose as her sister and attempt to get the necklace back by pretending to be Phoenix girlfriend.
In a way, it was ironic. As Dahlia took on a persona very similar to Iris' nature when she was trying to manipulate and/or deceive others...this meant that Iris was essentially pretending to be Dahlia pretending to be her.
So she left Hazakura Temple once more, dyed her hair red to match Dahlia's, wore Dahlia's signature white and pink dress, and assumed the role of her twin sister. Phoenix never suspected a thing. In fact, the longer they spent together, the more enamored of her he grew. Their relationship lasted nearly eight months, during which time he continued to treasure the "gift" he had been given so much that he would happily show it to anyone and everyone who would listen. Each time Iris asked for it back, he refused, thinking she was just joking.
As if all that wasn't enough, Iris had another major problem: she had started to really fall in love with him.
Dahlia must have sensed this, and grew impatient with Iris' constant failure. So she acted. For the first time, Iris wasn't consulted, perhaps because Dahlia knew she would never have agreed to the latest plan. Dahlia intended to kill Phoenix with a bottle of his favorite cold medicine. Pretending to be Iris pretending to be her (who often pretending to be just like Iris in nature), Dahlia went to the college campus.
Just as all her past plans, however, there were unforeseen circumstances standing in her way. Another student, an ex-boyfriend of hers by the name of Doug Swallow (whom she had simply used for access to a certain special kind of poison), tried to warn Phoenix of Dahlia's true nature. She couldn't have that, so she killed him via electrocution, and then tried to pin the blame on Phoenix.
Iris, of course, couldn't say anything without revealing everything about their deception, so she once more quietly disappeared back to Hazakura Temple. Ashamed and guilt-ridden by all the pain she blamed herself for. Both for failing Dahlia, and for failing Phoenix. The two most important people in her life.
Just like the last time, Dahlia was brought to the trial as a material witness. And, just like the last time, her cousin Mia was once more in the defense box. Determined to bring Dahlia to justice. For Doug. For Phoenix. For Terry. For Diego, whom was presumed dead after the poisoning. Unlike last time, however, there was no escape. Phoenix did attempt to swallow the evidence, but the poison had long since lost its potency and he was unharmed. With the defendant still alive, the trial continued. The truth was uncovered in full.
Dahlia was finally found guilty of all her crimes. Justice was served. She was sentenced to death.
Five Years Later, her sentence was carried out.
Around that time, Iris was contacted by a man going by the name of Godot. Over the course of the conversation, he revealed his identity to her: Diego Armada, the defense attorney whom Dahlia had tried to poison. He survived, though he had been placed in a coma for several years and only recently awoke to find the love of his life dead and her sister in grave danger. It was for the latter reason that Diego contacted Iris: he needed her help to stop Dahlia one last time.
In a plot hatched with her mother while the two met in prison, Dahlia would be channeled from the afterlife by her half-sister, the young Pearl, and from there, murder one Maya Fey. Daughter of the woman who stole Morgan's role as head of the Fey clan, but also the beloved younger sister of the woman responsible for Dahlia being sentenced to death. The motive was mutually beneficial revenge, in addition to the potential to elevate Pearl to the status of next clan head.
Iris agreed to do whatever was needed of her, with full acknowledgment of the consequences she was risking. It was the least she could do to atone for her past, and besides that...she and Sister Bikini were loyal to the Fey family head clan.
One thing Iris could never have foreseen, however, was the arrival of Phoenix Wright along with Maya and Pearl Fey. A face she never thought she would see again, with hers being a face Phoenix would never have forgotten. He still thought of her as Dahlia, after all, and had seen her in a picture taken with Sister Bikini advertising the highly advanced training sessions offered at the Temple. In other words, he had come to see her. To hopefully get some answers.
Mutual shock would have put it mildly; neither of them could hardly believe who they were seeing. Initially, Iris insisted that she was exactly who she claimed to be. It wasn't a lie. Exactly. Later, during a private conversation between them, she let it slip that yes, she knew him. Had known him. For that reason, she presented him with a gift: her white acolyte hood, which was meant to ward off evil spirits. Something to protect him for the night ahead. Something to protect him from Dahlia, though he would have know way of knowing. And Iris said nothing further on the matter before they parted for the night, leaving Phoenix with even more questions than before.
The sun set that night. Maya was sent across the wooden bridge to an isolated island area for her training. There was a snowstorm. Lightning. The bridge was struck and caught on fire.
Worst of all, there was a death.
But it wasn't Maya; it was a woman by the name of Elise Deauxnim. A mysterious, lovely children's author who had also been a visitor at the temple. In reality, Elise was none other than Misty Fey herself, come out of hiding upon receiving a distress message from Godot (who used the influence of the prosecutor's office to track her down) about her daughter's life being in danger. Misty had been in on the plan as well. At first, she was meant to simply distract Pearl. Keep her from being able to channel Dahlia at all. With luck, the young child would have been so enamored by being invited to the room of her favorite author that she would forget all about her mother's instructions--which she didn't truly understand to begin with, and only followed because she still loved her mother.
Pearl never showed up, however, and drastic measures needed to be taken. To keep Pearl from being able to channel Dahlia, it was Misty who channeled her instead. A channeled spirit by a powerful medium couldn't be channeled by another, after all. However, once Dahlia had temporarily returned to the living world, she still attempted to kill Maya. She would have succeeded, too, had Godot not secretly snuck onto the island that night. While "Dahlia" was in the process of attacking Maya, Godot snuck up behind her and stabbed her--and, consequentially, Misty. Dahlia's spirit was released back into the realm of the dead, Maya's life was spared...but at the cost of Misty's life.
They had another problem. Nobody knew that Godot had been in the area that night, and with the bridge having burned away, Maya would have been the only plausible suspect in the murder. Their goal still being to save her in any way possible, Godot called up the only other person he could still trust: Iris.
She drove out to the cliff's edge on the other side of the bridge using the snowmobile. Meanwhile, on the opposite side, Godot tied up Misty's body and swung it across the ravine, where Iris was ready to receive it. From there, she placed it back on the snowmobile and drove it back to the main temple. Bringing it to the backyard.
The cause of death needed to be obscured, so she removed the blade from Misty's back--an act she was caught doing by Sister Bikini. The aging woman could hardly believe her eyes. The shock of it all led to several initial confusions during the subsequent trial, but the fact remained that it was really Iris who pulled the sword out, threw it into the ravine, and re-stabbed the body with the Seven Branched Sword, making it appear that the state of the late Ami Fey was stabbing Misty.
While this was all going on, Phoenix had been in a panic over Maya's well-being. There had been a snowstorm and lightning and an earthquake and the place where Maya was supposed to have been training was at risk for collapsing. Despite the fact that the bridge had caught fire, he was too consumed by fear to think properly. He tried to run across the bridge after her, but fell through the weakened plans and into the chilling river waters below. He survived, but was hospitalized for several days after. Even as Iris was arrested and set to stand trial for the murder, based heavily on Sister Bikini's eyewitness testimony.
Phoenix was desperate to help her, but he was still bedridden for the first day of the trial. As such, a desperate call was placed to one of his old childhood friends, Miles Edgeworth, a genius prosecutor. The only other person he could trust to take on Iris' case. Miles had yet to commit, however, though he did come to see both Phoenix in the hospital (a mutual friend of theirs who had placed the actual call had slightly exaggerated Phoenix's state of being at the time) and, afterwards, Iris at the prison. The girl was a mystery to him. Someone he didn't know, but who very clearly meant something to Phoenix. He was curious. He wanted to know why. Iris didn't quite answer all of his questions, but she did satisfy him enough that he agreed to defend her. On one condition: when all was said and done, she was to tell Phoenix the truth. About everything.
Iris promised.
Special arrangements had to be made, of course. Miles wasn't a defense attorney. A licensed servant of the courts, yes, but only for the prosecutor's side. As such, he would not only need a fellow prosecutor who wouldn't give away his true identity, but a judge who didn't immediately recognize him in the courtroom. He called Franziska von Karma, fellow genius prosecutor. And his adoptive younger sister. The woman seemed all too eager to be given a chance to face her brother in court, regardless of his motives, and went along with the charade. Together, though it had been her full intention to "win" their legal battle, they managed to uncover too many questions and evidence for the judge to render a guilty verdict. More investigation would be needed.
It was just enough time for Phoenix to be released from the hospital, ready to resume his defensive responsibilities.
Iris wasn't the only one still in danger, however. Maya was still trapped on that opposite side of the burnt-out bridge. Presumably locked inside a cave that could still collapse at any moment. The bridge had only just been re-built that morning, granting them access to the island area for the first time since the murder. Because Iris was one of the only people who could properly undo the lock sealing Maya inside, Miles was granted special permission to escort her back to the mountain.
There was another earthquake. A big one. Miles, who was severely phobic due to a childhood trauma, collapsed to the ground in a near catatonic state. Iris took the opportunity to escape...but not for freedom. She ran towards Maya, worried that the poor girl would be crushed in a cave-in.
Fortunately, the cave was still in tact when she made it there, and unlocked the main gate. Unfortunately, Maya had been channeling the spirit of Dahlia ever since to protect herself. Meaning it was Dahlia waiting for her. The girl grabbed Iris and threw her into the cave instead, placing several more locks to hold her before the rest of the group arrived. When they got there, they assumed it was Iris still standing before them, as Iris and Maya had the same hair color (one of the few physical attributes that did not change during a channeling).
No one was any the wiser. No one except for Phoenix, who had a nauseous, unsettling feeling deep in the pit of his stomach for some time after. A feeling he couldn't quite explain, and that could have been dismissed as lingering sickness, or the stress of everything happening. After all, "Iris" was still on trial. Maya's life was still at risk....
Yet, things refused to add up. Especially once "Iris" began to testify with a completely different story than before. Attempting to implicate Maya in the murder of Misty Fey. Story after story was told, lie after lie was seen through, and Iris...was no longer fully acting like herself.
It was Phoenix, of course, who finally uncovered Dahlia's deception and revealed her identity to the entire court. As well as the events of what truly went on that night. Worst of all, after a brief reoccurrence of Mia (being channeled by Pearl), the ultimate truth was revealed: Maya Fey was not, as Dahlia attempted to claim, dead. She was the person channeling Dahlia. Dahlia had failed yet again. In both life and in death, with Phoenix, Mia, and Diego all there to witness her shame.
Her spirit was broken. Ejected from Maya's body, she was finally gone.
Iris was eventually freed thanks to the tireless efforts of Franziska von Karma working alongside Sister Bikini, who had stayed out in the cave all night to undo Dahlia's locks. She returned to the courtroom in time to be declared NOT GUILTY of the murder...though there would still be a later trial to determine her guilt as an accessory after the fact. While not a death sentence, it would still lead to a prison sentence.
But Iris was at peace with the outcome. As she told the court, she had known the risks when she agreed to help Godot and Misty, and while she deeply regretted Maya losing her mother as a result...she did not regret agreeing to help save Maya's life.
It was then, in full view of the entire courtroom, that Iris also finally admitted the truth to Phoenix: that it had been her, not Dahlia, who he had been in that relationship with in college. That it made sense for Dahlia to not care whether or not the boy lived or died because she had only met him twice. Whereas Iris had spent eight wonderful months with him. Fostering such fond, wonderful memories. Each day, growing fonder and fonder...feelings that had never really faded over time.
In turn, Phoenix had something to confess to her as well: he had never truly stopped believing in her, and had struggled to equate the Dahlia who had done those awful things with the sweet, gentle, kind girl he had fallen for. Now he understood why.
The realization of his words brought tears to her eyes, and she thanked him for his faith in her.
(In an after scene, it was also revealed that Phoenix had come to visit her in prison, along with Maya and Pearl. The former seemed to bear no ill will towards Iris for everything, though the latter had gotten quite upset to the point of slapping poor Phoenix because he couldn't stop staring at Iris the whole time. Something which made Iris happy, but...well...Pearl had these childlike illusions of Phoenix being Maya's "special someone", and got mad he was paying attention to another girl so blatantly in front of Maya. Even though Maya didn't seem to mind at all.)
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? No; while Iris does come from a powerful family of spirit mediums and is familiar with the concept, she has no powers of her own
◎ Personality:
Seemingly delicate in both nature and appearance, Iris is a polite, demure young woman. Shy, but friendly. Easily prone to blushing when it came to either being compliment, or having to face certain emotional situations. Her voice is soft. Her words, kind. If one speaks to her long enough, it would be all too easy to make the assumption that she was sheltered and lacked self-esteem.
After all, Iris has a habit of relating her life not by who she is as a person, but by the people in it: how she was "fortunate" to have a woman like Sister Bikini to help raise her...how her life was spent either catering to her stronger twin sister's whims or betraying her out of fear...how she had caused so much pain over the years through her cowardice or acts of deception...
...but also how she was willing to risk her own life in an attempt to foil the plot to kill Maya. How she was able to stand up to Dahlia when the time came. Covering for Dahlia's crimes, and even trying to protect her from committing even more. How she summoned the courage to agree to Godot's plan, going so far as to mutilate a corpse in order to help Maya. Defying both her mother and late sister's wishes because she knew they were wrong. That it was more important to protect the head of the Fey clan than try to destroy her.
Iris is loyal to a fault. She is fully willing to put the well-being of others before that of herself, even if it meant sacrificing her own freedom. She is willing to lie...to commit horrible crimes...to deceive...to conceal...but always with the best intentions.
In many ways, it is because of her loyalty to others that Iris is much stronger than even she gives herself credit for.
In actuality, Iris does have some recognition of her positive attributes. She knows what she is capable of. She can drive a snowmobile. She can use a cell phone (something Phoenix didn't quite think she should have looked so pleased about), and--presumably--other basic technologies. Though she (truthfully) admitted the fact that she was never actually enrolled in University, or had any such desires to do so, Iris also did spend just under a year posing as a University Student in order to get close to Phoenix. As such, it would be reasonable to assume that she'd had a significant amount of exposure to the world outside Hazakura Temple, despite it being the only true home she's ever known.
(There is also something to be said about the fact that, whenever she was attempting to manipulate or deceive someone into siding with her, Dahlia always imitated Iris' kind, gentle nature. When Iris had to pretend to be Dahlia, all she ever had to do was be herself. And it worked.)
But most importantly, Iris has shown that she can learn from her mistakes. After twenty five years of conceding to Dahlia, whom she always thought was the stronger twin, Iris finally is able to step out from under her sister's shadow and make her own decisions. She acknowledges the sins of her past, and was prepared to atone for them. That includes accepting her guilty verdict and subsequent prison sentence for her role in Godot's plan. In a way, she already had been atoning for them long before, by remaining at Hazakura Temple for so long despite claiming to hate spirit channeling (a sentiment that may or may not have resulted due to her childhood abandonment by her Fey-born mother) and believing that there was little point in communicating with the dead. To her, the continued training was a means to purify her soul.
She also, with Miles Edgeworth's insistence, finally confronts the one person she had been hiding from for so long. And her feelings for him. In public.
For all the times she had spent running back to Hazakura Temple whenever things went wrong...Iris isn't running anymore.
◎ Powers/Abilities: Iris' most noteworthy skills in the game include the ability to use a mobile phone, computer, drive a snowmobile, and set up/undo the special Trick Locks used among Fey family members. Besides that, she's as baseline human as they come.
◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory: Along with her acolyte uniform, she has a special white hood that is meant to ward off evil spirits
CEREALIA-Specific
◎ Element: Water - of the four elements, water is often recognized as feminine, cleansing, healing, psychic, and loving. It is both passive and receptive, patient and enduring, and--in a bit of meta wordplay--can refract light to form a Rainbow, which is what the Greek Goddess IRIS is known for.
◎ Sense: Sight - Vision is highly important to the Fey family in general, as those with the Power are Spirit Mediums with the unique ability to not only channel the spirits of the deceased, but assume their physical form during channeling. On top of that, as an identical twin involved in multiple acts of past deceptions, appearances are a key plot point to Iris' story.
◎ Seven Character Traits: (Kind, Loyal, Friendly) + (Timid, Secretive, Easily Manipulated) + Soft
Samples
◎ First-Person Sample: Here
◎ Third-Person Sample:
((Based on PHASE I of the September 1st Test Drive))
Iris was used to waking up before the sun. Habit, really. It was always easier to get her morning chores done before the guests were awake. And a lack of sunlight made very little difference towards the seemingly perpetual chill in the air. Cold rarely bothered her. She'd grown up surrounded by it. She hardly even felt it any more.
What she was not used to was waking up in a completely different world than the one she'd fallen asleep in. Her bed had been replaced by a pile of leaves and a surprisingly comfortable rock. Inky black sky, dotted with twinkling stars, where she could have sworn there was once a ceiling. It was quite beautiful, actually. Not unlike the kind of vision she could have seen from her bedroom back at Hazakura Temple. Iris actually wasted several minutes of her initial return to consciousness staring up at it. Following the foreign constellations with her eyes. Tracing invisible patterns with her finger.
With a smile on her face, she moved to sit up. And what's when she saw it.
The dress.
One she hadn't worn in...how long had it been? Five years? Six?
The fabric was soft. Breathable. Far too thin for someone sitting outside in the brisk cold. Far too white for someone who had been laying on the ground. Save for the pink lace outlining the modest neckline. Even in the darkness before sunrise, she could see smudges of dirt lining the shin-length hem. It made no sense for her to be wearing it here. Now. Yet she was.
Even worse, further inspection revealed bright, red strands of hair falling on her bare shoulders.
Iris' eyes widened. She stood up with a start, hands flying to her mouth. No. No, this was all wrong. What was...and why--
The sudden movement seemed to trigger something in the system's coding. With her own eyes, she watched the dress appear to...glich, she believed the term was. Flicker. A fleeting moment during which she thought she saw a shadow of her usual acolyte uniform. She froze, and glanced down. Focusing harder.
There. It happened again. Not only did her outfit change, but her hair had returned to its normal color.
Slowly, Iris lowered her hands. She understood now. She thought. If she closed her eyes and concentrated enough...
No more lies. No more hiding.
She repeated the mantra over and over again in her mind. Hoping that whoever--or whatever--was behind this latest deception could hear how much she didn't want to be a part of it any longer.
When she opened her eyes, she was herself once more. Not the false image of her late twin sister.
Iris let out an audible sigh of relief. Then turned her eyes to the skies once more, just in time to catch the first glimpse of a sunrise over the distant horizon. Barely visible between the trees.
◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? No
