Fading Memory

The Things We Fight For

Lictor

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx B A S I C I N F O [Name] Joab of Thrax [Callsign] Lictor [Gender] Male [Age] 64 [Rank and Designation] White Dwarf - Main Class [Place of Birth]The rubble field formerly known as Thrax [Official Statement] ”Can you look someone weaker— someone more vulnerable— than you in the eye and tell them to go get hurt because you don’t want to fight?” Mood Playlist C O M B A T A B I L I T Y [Anti-Barrier Sword] XIII - Carnifex [Anti-Barrier Quotient] 30% [Physical Description] Depleted Uranium alloyed with AB materials, rendering the blade pyrophoric and flexible despite its immense density and weight. Provided a blow lands with sufficient force, the blade burns along its edge and maintains sharpness through prolonged confrontations. Stylized as an archaic Germanic executioner's blade, when paired with its lead-lined shroud and sheathe the full package of this ill-fated sword exceeds fifty pounds. It is worn over the shoulder on a sling, meant to be shrugged free before clearing the sheathe. In a world of high technology and incredible genetic capability, this is a weapon of deliberation and unmitigated devastation. [Attributes] Carnifex's capabilities are well regarded as accursed among the known AB weaponry. 'Unlucky Thirteen' has been its unofficial title for as long as the weapon has been in operation, for all who have wielded the weapon save for Lictor himself have died from the sword's unnatural radioactive emanations. It produces a latent level of radiation that is lethal within minutes for those who wield the blade. Thankfully, Lictor can handle this and the weapon only serves to enhance his natural capabilities immensely; his inherent resistance to Radiation can be channeled by the blade into his own retaliatory beams and waves of lethal energy. In other words, while in the hands of Lictor, Carnifex is capable of absorbing and deflecting laser weaponry as well as producing its own long ranged counterstrikes. In nearly anyone else's hands, it is merely an obscenely heavy blade for the short breadth of time it permits them to live. [Anomaly] Thraxian Grit [Origin] Line of Eorman - Splinter bloodline [Phenomena] Lictor's Anomaly has manifested in a duality of traits. The first is an uncanny and impressive inherent resistance to radiation, which went unnoticed the entirety of his young life until his enrollment as a Constellation. The second is an immense physical strength and prowess, which was believed to simply be uncanny genetic good fortune and favorable results from physical training... Until it exceeded human expectation. He is quite capable of dealing with lower caste Aberrants in hand-to-hand combat without the aid of Carnifex, and his immense strength makes wielding the obscenely heavy blade seem effortless in the moments where the blade must be drawn. [Limitation] Lictor's body burns an excessive quantity of energy. His metabolism is off the charts, his dietary requirements are staggering, and when pushed to the limits his recovery times can become prolonged. He is a candle that blazes like a forge, but should one withstand the inferno of his wrath then he is ultimately doomed to concede any prolonged, attrition based, campaigns if unaided. He eats a lot, he sleeps a lot, and while he may be a juggernaut in a fight he must pace himself.

Profile [Surface-level Impression] Lictor is a tool, a vessel for a blade, the only means of transportation for the sole item that has defined his existence for two thirds of his life. A grim man, dutiful and critical in equal parts. A man who has witnessed too much death. A man inured to horror and blood. A man who struggles to exist on his own two feet, so entwined is his identity with that of a blade. A man to whom retirement could not stop the nightmares. A man who is not whole without a sword in his hand. A man whose emotions run deep, but dare not to reach the surface. [Personal History] Thrax was a harsh, cruel, uncaring mother world. And yet, the peoples from there were strong. The higher gravity ensured of that, but so too did an environment that would have made old Darwin dizzy with theory after theory on specialized evolutionary traits. Humanity came to Thrax chasing metals; humanity had to bend to Thrax's primal energy to reach them. The violent, tribal, peoples of Thrax became as feral and wild as the world itself. Joab was born amongst these savage and proud people. Joab was born the son of a miner and a hunter. Joab learned to shoot before he learned to read. Joab learned to split the earth before he learned algebra. Joab learned to kill a man before his fifteenth standard year of age. By the age of eighteen, he had conquered six of his planet's eight rites of passage. He had swum to the bottom of the great lake basin; he had wrestled with the humongous spider-like predators of the southern jungle; he had been stung by the man-sized scorpions of the northern deserts; he had drunk of the nectar of the hypnotic honey-flower and seen visions beyond report; he had scaled the dizzying heights of the thick Tesla-Trees, who stormed with lightning eight months out of the year, to claim the egg of the razorbeak birds. The only two rites left to him were the easiest and the hardest of them all. Most by his age had already killed a man, but leaving Thrax on a vessel was almost impossible for most of the denizens of Thrax. Joab was a man, respected, with influence and power among the tribes of Thrax. Joab, three named, strong and proud. Joab wanted more. The military had often come to Thrax to take conscription, to run blood tests, to harvest the youth of Thrax before the planet could break them. Joab had watched his entire life as ship after ship came down to the great space ports, protected fiercely by rival tribes, as his people were forced to eke out a meagre existence trading their resources to those who had the right and capability to ship product offworld. Joab wanted more. His clan went to war. The battles were bloody, but over swiftly and decisively. By the time his clan's colors rose over the spaceport of Thrax's Throat, high on a mountain overlooking the equatorial jungle, Joab was only of two names. When the next military cruiser came through seeking conscripts, Joab was twenty. When he filled out the recruitment forms, it was to the applause of his people that he signed himself to the Constellation program as merely 'Joab of Thrax'. He excelled in the initial training, surpassing other candidates by sheer physical prowess and capability. Later tests cemented his enrollment and bestowal of an Anti Barrier weapon; a mutation in his bloodline marked Joab as the first to express an inherent resistance to harmful radiation. He spent days in sealed rooms experiencing blasts of unseen radiation, exposure to Aberrant cores, proximity to laser blasts, and the ultimate test of being tasked to draw Unlucky Thirteen from its lead shroud. Ten minutes later he was officially a Constellation, at the age of twenty two. The horrendous history of the blade was impressed upon him, as was the astronomically unlikely existence of his unique anomaly. The blade was renamed, but its form left unchanged. Thus was Lictor, the bearer of Carnifex, given his sacrosanct task to execute the enemy's command structure. Two terms. Lictor served for two full terms. His career was thirty years of trawling the void from operation to operation, heralding Carnifex to his sanctioned targets, bringing low the Aberrant foe, and surviving to get to the next battlefield. As colorful and decorated as his career may be, all acts of service or war are shadowed by the Siege of Thrax. Aberrant invasions are either repelled, or the world dies. Thrax lasted longer than most. For four months the planet itself, as it always had in its history, resisted the devouring hunger of its invasive predators. For four months Lictor commanded warriors from jungle trees, river banks, mud huts, desert dunes, and ocean vessels in a ceaseless resistance to the planet's destruction. Every day the jungles he had called home withered more. Every day the roots of the mountains cracked. For every Aberrant he slew, two more high caste entities were revealed. The planet was too rich in biomass, raw resources, and water for the Aberrants to be worn down. They could not find the Princess, and that meant that each day Thrax weakened and the Aberrants grew stronger. The natural might of the planet slowly turned against Lictor with each passing day. Eventually he was on the back foot, racing from defensive effort to defensive effort trying to hold the line. Inevitability struck like a guillotine. The Siege of Thrax was dubbed 'The Massacre of Thrax'. Lictor's name and career were bloodied with the failure to hold the resource rich planet as well as the blame for the loss of several billion lives. The survivors of Thrax know him as a hero; the rest of humanity knows him only as a red handed butcher who failed to secure the only kill that mattered. Lictor did not sign for a third term. His fifty third birthday was spent on transit to a mobile Anti-Barrier armory, where he relinquished Carnifex into its leaden vault. He was discharged with honor, but little fanfare. His fifty fourth birthday found him on a boat, under the sun, on the paradise planet of Maui Covenant. For ten years the ageless warrior fished, swam, avoided official news of the war effort, doted upon his god-children, and sought answers to all his unanswered emotions at the bottom of a liquor bottle or in the blackened vestiges of a pipe. When men in unmarked suits, walking in unmistakable military spook goose-step, approached him one year ago it was to find him filleting a massive fish. They spoke as he descaled the catch. He silently listened as he worked with knife and hand to remove gamey flesh from white bone. A long silence reigned as he cleaned his tools and packed the harvest away. When the spooks turned away from him, he finally spoke. "I'll carry the sword again. You said it yourselves, I'm the only one that can." Thrax The World Rent Asunder Thrax was once a lush planet dominated by a Pangaea continent, with incomprehensibly dense and tall rainforest jungles crossing the entirety of the equatorial latitude. The far southern pole of the continent was a permanent tundra, but the northern hemisphere was temperate by comparison with the ice pole distant from land. It was a dense planet that was larger than Earth, bestowing it a slightly higher gravitational quotient than humanity-standard. Higher levels of oxygen on the planet meant that plantlife grew rampant, grew large, and grew strong. Thrax's native wildlife consisted of insectoid creatures of immense size, as well as vicious predators that turned the primary jungle biome that spanned most of the continental mass into a blender of life and death. And yet deep within the planetary surface, rich ores hid. Humanity came, and where the iron boot of conquest and terraforming failed- adaptation succeeded. For much of Thrax's history, it was ruled by a confederation of intermingling tribal societies that fought one another for control of principle spaceports to amass wealth and import rights over their competitors. When the Aberrants came, the war for Thrax was brutal and long for invasion standards. Now all that remains of Thrax is the fragments of a planet that collapsed upon itself and shattered apart. A ruin left adrift in the void. Deathworld Tribalism Thrax was a brutal planet, ill-suited to human habitation. Hostile fauna, deadly plant-life, but ludicrously rich in raw metals and ores needed in nearby systems. The fierce world bred fierce settlers. The nature was so hostile that the only way to survive was to adapt rather than conquer. The peoples of Thrax were almost tribal in their organization, and superstitious as well, crafting myths about their world to rationalize the horrors of their existence. Most of these myths revolved around a prolonged coming of age ritual practiced on the planet, involving eight great trials of planetary feats of bravery and strength. The people of Thrax are given nine names at birth, and for each trial overcome they lose a name. Most adults of Thrax achieve satisfaction and respect with three or four names remaining. To achieve the full rite and be rendered singly-named is to become legend to Thraxians. The Line of Joab Of the known bloodline of Joab, following his enlistment as a Constellation, he is the first to express the key radiation resistance that defines his Anomaly. Notable Contacts [Name] Kyra Newman [Relation to Subject] Kyra Newman is the fresh recruit that the top brass have hoodwinked into being Lictor's battlefield chauffeur (Read: Pilot); she's allegedly an ace at maneuvering a battlefield in simulations, but she's green. Very, very, green. She has yet to see her first true combat scenario... The brass promised she'd hold up under pressure. [Analysis] Prodigy of a military recruitment drive emphasizing virtual and augmented reality 'gaming' rigs; champion of multiple tournaments throughout her teenaged years, the military compensation package that came to her and her family's mailbox one day was almost impossible to say no to. Her training continued in physical spectrums from the age of eighteen to twenty, and she has just been assigned to the newly un-retired Lictor as personal pilot. [Name] Jocasta Dorcas Mary Lilith [Relation to Subject] A fellow survivor of Thrax, one of humanity's best reconnaissance and scouting squadron leaders. Has refused promotion countless times, wishing to remain on the direct field of conflict with the Aberrant foe. Her recklessness and wrath are second only to her knack for surviving to paint a target on a critical Constellation target another day. Often outlives her squads. Her target acquisition capabilities often directed Lictor into key Aberrant kills. [Analysis] Jocasta D.M.L. and Joab shared a physically intimate relationship that was born with the siege of Thrax and died with the planet's destruction. They found each other in an opportune time, but their personalities could not truly mesh beyond physical attraction. Instead of a romance, they found a profound friendship that was forged into something indestructible as they watched Thrax break apart in their retreat. Lictor pursued retirement, Jocasta pursued revenge. [Name] Beornwulf Kantor [Relation to Subject] Beornwulf helms the mighty vessel known as 'The Dream of Dawn'; prior to Lictor's retirement, he and Beornwulf shared a grim comradery. The Dream of Dawn served as Lictor's primary transport and support ship during his official career as a Constellation. [Analysis] Kantor is the only person from his career that Joab kept in contact with during his retirement. Their regular communiques kept Joab apprised of the frontline developments, and in return Joab would pay regular visits to the captain's family; Joab's retirement was on the same paradise world that Kantor's family lived on, after all. According to official record, Joab is the registered god parent to the three youngest grandchildren of the Kantor clan, who all see him as brother to Beornwulf.

Household Adventures, a Two Little Mice game

The current genre and vibe of the opening is a relatively cute mystery focusing on relatively light drama in the opening years of the fragile peace; Stairside is on the bottom side of the Great Staircase near to the living room, and scenario going on is that there is a hubbub going on about the Sluagh embassy and the Grand Imperial Army stomping about under Lieutenant D'arcy in search of some kind of thief.

With this context, whomever you feel of your people fits that vibe will be appropriate. If you go with Tenebris, then this is likely a stepping-stone adventure on their path towards their actual goal elsewhere in the house for the time being.

AZUL Islands - Drama, Romance, Mystery, Slice of Life

I think the boss was mostly amused at the enlarged font

Household Adventures, a Two Little Mice game

I'm stoked to have another person around, who are you thinking will join us in Stairside?

AZUL Islands - Drama, Romance, Mystery, Slice of Life

Bunny

Name: Iris Cardenas
Nickname: Pollito (Familial), Bunny (Preferred, friendly)
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Occupation: Marine Biology Student (Intern)

Appearance:
Some Tunes

image

Iris is slightly tall, and her build is a bit heavier than is typical for her stature-- though few find her relative thickness to be of a disagreeable sort. A coupling of fitness and a love for food renders the term 'Buxom' to be utterly appropriate to describing her; full curves with tanned skin, dappled with freckles and moles from being kissed a little too frequently by the sun. She is hardly out of shape, to be clear, but she contrasts conventional pencil-thin ideations starkly.

Her hair is kept medium in length, though the style is a casual and low-maintenance cut. She is not someone who puts great manicure into her appearance; her makeup is kept minimal, with the typical extent lying in a lip gloss and eye shadow. Her nails are rarely doted upon, but are kept neat and trim. Her clothing can be described as 'sporty', though she tends to prefer the athleisure and lounge aspects of this genre. She could certainly make a striking figure when dolled up or planning to wow- but those nights are infrequent, and one is more likely to find her wearing a swimsuit to the store than a tight fitting dress or short skirt to the club.

Character Concept:
Iris is a young daughter to the Cardenas family. As such, the expectations for her were lesser than those for her elder kin. This bestowed upon Iris the fabled status of 'flying below the radar' when it came to escapades and tolerance for deviant qualities. A flaming bisexual with a stark disdain for authority, Iris is a firebrand and troublemaker who seemingly possesses no filter between her antagonistic thoughts and her scathing tongue.

She is a self saboteur, her own worst enemy. Every success is marred by doubts and backwards steps. Relationships brought to ruin by her need for games of proof and devotion. Academic records scarred by periods of lapsed focus and effort. Rebounds, of every definition, form the pillars of her social, academic, and spiritual core. Things become too good to be true, and she must scratch and poke at it until her own worm of doubt becomes self fulfilling. She has left a trail of broken hearts and loathing in her wake as she has travelled for her education, and she rarely spares a glance back as she moves onto the next ill-fated relationship or professional effort.

The only thing left unsullied by her self-sabotage is her love for the sea. Her role in the University of Miami's marine biology program has been hard-earned, despite her track record, and her intern status during her master's program is something she is genuinely proud of, but deep down she fears that that the proverbial shoe will drop-- or, perhaps, that she will throw it down herself just to prove to herself that her dreams are naught but a house of cards waiting to topple.

She earned the nickname 'Bunny' during the early days of this very internship. Her nose is quite expressive, often wriggling or shifting upon her face, and she has a curious habit of sniffing things and people somewhat more frequently than is perhaps common or courteous.

Character History:
Trouble. That word seems to define and surround Iris Cardenas. If she's not causing it, she's finding it. If she can't find it, it finds her. Her upbringing was overshadowed by her elder kin, and in the gaps of parental purview she found her freedoms and rebellion. What began as childish acting out soon developed into true rebellion. Drawing on the walls and running through the halls became staying out late and coming home tipsy. Brazen displays with young boys became daring infatuations with young girls- particularly with a girl two years her senior, one Ana Varela who happened to be a cousin to the prominent Flores family.

This teenaged infatuation was a doomed one, to be sure. Their secret tryst came to light. It was hardly Iris' first scandal, but insofar as her family was concerned it was to be her last. Her freedoms were sharply curtailed until her primary education was completed. These were two years of Hell on Earth for Iris, whose efforts to escape Isla Azul itself became frenetic. Her educational trajectory exponentially improved. Her prospects off-island grew with each improved grade and each refined essay. As much as both sides of this familial conflict hated it, the imposed social exile of Iris Cardenas had achieved the desired result; academic excellence. It had just severed whatever final threads of filial piety Iris had forgotten to take a hatchet to herself.

For a few months she moved out of her family home and onto a private beach-side house on Isla Zafrio. While there she exported her unexpectedly stellar academic record to the mainland and awaited word. She kept to herself as she awaited word, not leaving Isla Zafrio to visit her family one time in these critical months. She spent her days on the beach, at the bar, and in her home. The gulf between her and Ana seemed impossible for her to even begin attempting to broach- especially since Ana had begun dating others since their ill-fated tryst. It wasn't until Iris received word from a Mexico university that she finally felt like she could take an easy breath for the first time in years.

She left. She pursued her education- though the moment she was away from the eyes and reach of her parents, she regressed in many ways. University life was liberating. Old embers of rebellion found fuel and fire to rekindle her spirit. She became a social hurricane, whose grades fluctuated like the tides under the immense pressures of her ceaselessly evolving interpersonal relationships. She spent two different semesters under academic probation in her two years pursuing an associate's degree in the field of science, before transferring to Miami to continue towards her goal of Marine Biology.

The United States was a wild beast to Iris. Miami was massive, beyond massive, populated beyond comprehension. More people lived in her dorm than lived on the entire archipelago of Azul. The night life was loud. The night life was attractive. The men and women were devilish in their temptations. School was hard. School was chaos.

Iris excelled in chaos. Or, at least, she thought she did. Her grades remained passable, she rarely had to sleep alone, she had choices in all things, and in the end it seemed as if she could simply coast along through her bachelor's degree. That is, until she turned twenty two and received a letter from home; if grades did not improve, funding would cease. Iris was being threatened with being cut off, and once again she felt the familiar phantom grip of the familial ties that bound her life. School was hard. Life was chaos. Iris was trapped within this chaos.

She dug in deep and grades improved. Enough to truly put her up for consideration for her Master's Program. Twelve months of research in some far off ocean-side paradise was the dream, and Iris frantically pursued it with everything she had. She was driven by the fear of her family pulling the rug out from beneath her feet right as she was approaching the finish line. One last sprint, then truly she could be free. When her approval into the program arrived, she literally almost fainted. There's always a catch though, isn't there?

Iris never wanted to return to Azul. In fact, the current strife-ridden circumstances of the island's political drama have nothing to do with her return at all. Instead, it is the local dolphins that herald her return. The year-round presence of the unique aquatic fauna of Isla Azul, along with its long history of isolationism, have rendered the island of critical interest to marine biology programs across the globe. Much to Iris' chagrin, her enrollment in the University of Miami's coupled with her last name have provided a singly unique opportunity to those around her. She finds herself returning far sooner than she ever expected, among a small group of her peers and the head professor of the program, to the very place she was trying to run away from.

Her enrollment was the key to the kingdom, so to speak. A fact that plagues her and makes her privately wonder if she even earned her spot in the program.

Likes:

• The beach, the sun, the sand
• Physical Contact and Intimacy
• Late nights, full moons
• Cheap beer, good food
• Loud music

Dislikes:

• Storms
• Emotional Intimacy; "Sorry, we're just friends."
• Authority, pedantry
• Being cold
• Poor hygiene, bad smells, poor air quality

Special Talent:
Iris is a prolific swimmer and scuba diver. Her body type hindered her prospects as a professional athlete, but her stamina, endurance, breath capacity, and passion for the sea all render her a nearly aquatic creature when the siren calls. The addition of scuba equipment to these qualities is a boon of immense obviousness.

Supporting Information:

• Scuba Gear
• Private beach-side home on Isla Zafrio - Iris, before leaving Azul for university, had arranged to have her own domicile separate from the Cardenas estate. She still has the keys, though the home hasn't been used in years. It is mere yards from the sands of the beach itself, raised on stilts to withstand unexpected tidal surges or storm flooding.
• Insomniac - Iris suffers from a mild insomnia, and it is not uncommon for her to go a day or two without sleep if she does not have some form of chemical or medicinal aide.
• Chemically Tolerant - Her time travelling across Mexico and the United States in the pinnacle of her youth were not spent idle; Iris has a tolerance for both alcohol and recreational narcotics that would place her veritably in the 'big leagues' with salted sailors and grizzled fishermen alike. She knows what a bad trip is like, and can see the signs in others.
• Gremlins - Outside of the realm of her immediate workplace interests, she is quite technologically illiterate. She can read a SONAR and tag a dolphin with a tracker, but if you ask her to edit a PDF she might end up setting the computer on fire before making any meaningful headway. She can drive a boat, but not a car. Snapchat and Instagram? Totally fine. Fishy emails with hyperlinked text? Fifty-fifty shot at working on her.

Relevant NPCs

• Ana Varela - Iris' 'First Love', a cousin to the Flores family. They had their youthful fling when Iris was 14 and Ana was 16, and it ended in a relatively earth-shattering fashion when their romance was discovered by Iris' parents. Ana had begun to date others by the time Iris left Azul the first time, and who knows how the woman is doing when Iris returns?
• Jeffrey MacGilfoyle - Bad News, made flesh. Iris' peer and colleague in her master's program, a fellow student on the twelve month research project to Isla Azul. They had a fling. A dirty, messy, fling. He tried to define things; she refused to acknowledge. They get along like oil and fire. So far they've managed to keep things professional in the program, but their private affairs threaten to boil over due to their mutual hostility. An all-around playboy type, who has an infuriating knack for his chosen science.
• Professor Arwa El-Rehman - Iris respects her professor profoundly, and the woman's laid-back and casual approach to the research project has endeared her to her students immensely. She sees in Professor El-Rehman a true matronly figure that she never saw in her own mother. On being accepted into the research program, Iris and Arwa shared a few drinks in a private fashion to discuss Iris' future in the field and it helped form the core of Iris' plans for the future. Iris has a bit of a hopeless crush on the professor, despite their age differences and the woman's own marital status.

Edit: Relationship to Jewel Cardenas and the core Cardenas family is ‘Cousin’. Her father, Raul Cardenas, is younger brother to Miguel and was always a strict and controlling influence over Iris. Iris’ mother was a generally subdued woman by the name of Anita who always deferred to Raul’s decision making. With their powers combined they produced one veritable Black Sheep of the family in Iris.

AZUL Islands - Drama, Romance, Mystery, Slice of Life

Gonna drop this here for public perusal and official judging by the boss.

Bunny

Name: Iris Cardenas
Nickname: Pollito (Familial), Bunny (Preferred, friendly)
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Occupation: Marine Biology Student (Intern)

Appearance:
Some Tunes

image

Iris is slightly tall, and her build is a bit heavier than is typical for her stature-- though few find her relative thickness to be of a disagreeable sort. A coupling of fitness and a love for food renders the term 'Buxom' to be utterly appropriate to describing her; full curves with tanned skin, dappled with freckles and moles from being kissed a little too frequently by the sun. She is hardly out of shape, to be clear, but she contrasts conventional pencil-thin ideations starkly.

Her hair is kept medium in length, though the style is a casual and low-maintenance cut. She is not someone who puts great manicure into her appearance; her makeup is kept minimal, with the typical extent lying in a lip gloss and eye shadow. Her nails are rarely doted upon, but are kept neat and trim. Her clothing can be described as 'sporty', though she tends to prefer the athleisure and lounge aspects of this genre. She could certainly make a striking figure when dolled up or planning to wow- but those nights are infrequent, and one is more likely to find her wearing a swimsuit to the store than a tight fitting dress or short skirt to the club.

Character Concept:
Iris is a young daughter to the Cardenas family. As such, the expectations for her were lesser than those for her elder kin. This bestowed upon Iris the fabled status of 'flying below the radar' when it came to escapades and tolerance for deviant qualities. A flaming bisexual with a stark disdain for authority, Iris is a firebrand and troublemaker who seemingly possesses no filter between her antagonistic thoughts and her scathing tongue.

She is a self saboteur, her own worst enemy. Every success is marred by doubts and backwards steps. Relationships brought to ruin by her need for games of proof and devotion. Academic records scarred by periods of lapsed focus and effort. Rebounds, of every definition, form the pillars of her social, academic, and spiritual core. Things become too good to be true, and she must scratch and poke at it until her own worm of doubt becomes self fulfilling. She has left a trail of broken hearts and loathing in her wake as she has travelled for her education, and she rarely spares a glance back as she moves onto the next ill-fated relationship or professional effort.

The only thing left unsullied by her self-sabotage is her love for the sea. Her role in the University of Miami's marine biology program has been hard-earned, despite her track record, and her intern status during her master's program is something she is genuinely proud of, but deep down she fears that that the proverbial shoe will drop-- or, perhaps, that she will throw it down herself just to prove to herself that her dreams are naught but a house of cards waiting to topple.

She earned the nickname 'Bunny' during the early days of this very internship. Her nose is quite expressive, often wriggling or shifting upon her face, and she has a curious habit of sniffing things and people somewhat more frequently than is perhaps common or courteous.

Character History:
Trouble. That word seems to define and surround Iris Cardenas. If she's not causing it, she's finding it. If she can't find it, it finds her. Her upbringing was overshadowed by her elder kin, and in the gaps of parental purview she found her freedoms and rebellion. What began as childish acting out soon developed into true rebellion. Drawing on the walls and running through the halls became staying out late and coming home tipsy. Brazen displays with young boys became daring infatuations with young girls- particularly with a girl two years her senior, one Ana Varela who happened to be a cousin to the prominent Flores family.

This teenaged infatuation was a doomed one, to be sure. Their secret tryst came to light. It was hardly Iris' first scandal, but insofar as her family was concerned it was to be her last. Her freedoms were sharply curtailed until her primary education was completed. These were two years of Hell on Earth for Iris, whose efforts to escape Isla Azul itself became frenetic. Her educational trajectory exponentially improved. Her prospects off-island grew with each improved grade and each refined essay. As much as both sides of this familial conflict hated it, the imposed social exile of Iris Cardenas had achieved the desired result; academic excellence. It had just severed whatever final threads of filial piety Iris had forgotten to take a hatchet to herself.

For a few months she moved out of her family home and onto a private beach-side house on Isla Zafrio. While there she exported her unexpectedly stellar academic record to the mainland and awaited word. She kept to herself as she awaited word, not leaving Isla Zafrio to visit her family one time in these critical months. She spent her days on the beach, at the bar, and in her home. The gulf between her and Ana seemed impossible for her to even begin attempting to broach- especially since Ana had begun dating others since their ill-fated tryst. It wasn't until Iris received word from a Mexico university that she finally felt like she could take an easy breath for the first time in years.

She left. She pursued her education- though the moment she was away from the eyes and reach of her parents, she regressed in many ways. University life was liberating. Old embers of rebellion found fuel and fire to rekindle her spirit. She became a social hurricane, whose grades fluctuated like the tides under the immense pressures of her ceaselessly evolving interpersonal relationships. She spent two different semesters under academic probation in her two years pursuing an associate's degree in the field of science, before transferring to Miami to continue towards her goal of Marine Biology.

The United States was a wild beast to Iris. Miami was massive, beyond massive, populated beyond comprehension. More people lived in her dorm than lived on the entire archipelago of Azul. The night life was loud. The night life was attractive. The men and women were devilish in their temptations. School was hard. School was chaos.

Iris excelled in chaos. Or, at least, she thought she did. Her grades remained passable, she rarely had to sleep alone, she had choices in all things, and in the end it seemed as if she could simply coast along through her bachelor's degree. That is, until she turned twenty two and received a letter from home; if grades did not improve, funding would cease. Iris was being threatened with being cut off, and once again she felt the familiar phantom grip of the familial ties that bound her life. School was hard. Life was chaos. Iris was trapped within this chaos.

She dug in deep and grades improved. Enough to truly put her up for consideration for her Master's Program. Twelve months of research in some far off ocean-side paradise was the dream, and Iris frantically pursued it with everything she had. She was driven by the fear of her family pulling the rug out from beneath her feet right as she was approaching the finish line. One last sprint, then truly she could be free. When her approval into the program arrived, she literally almost fainted. There's always a catch though, isn't there?

Iris never wanted to return to Azul. In fact, the current strife-ridden circumstances of the island's political drama have nothing to do with her return at all. Instead, it is the local dolphins that herald her return. The year-round presence of the unique aquatic fauna of Isla Azul, along with its long history of isolationism, have rendered the island of critical interest to marine biology programs across the globe. Much to Iris' chagrin, her enrollment in the University of Miami's coupled with her last name have provided a singly unique opportunity to those around her. She finds herself returning far sooner than she ever expected, among a small group of her peers and the head professor of the program, to the very place she was trying to run away from.

Her enrollment was the key to the kingdom, so to speak. A fact that plagues her and makes her privately wonder if she even earned her spot in the program.

Likes:

• The beach, the sun, the sand
• Physical Contact and Intimacy
• Late nights, full moons
• Cheap beer, good food
• Loud music

Dislikes:

• Storms
• Emotional Intimacy; "Sorry, we're just friends."
• Authority, pedantry
• Being cold
• Poor hygiene, bad smells, poor air quality

Special Talent:
Iris is a prolific swimmer and scuba diver. Her body type hindered her prospects as a professional athlete, but her stamina, endurance, breath capacity, and passion for the sea all render her a nearly aquatic creature when the siren calls. The addition of scuba equipment to these qualities is a boon of immense obviousness.

Supporting Information:

• Scuba Gear
• Private beach-side home on Isla Zafrio - Iris, before leaving Azul for university, had arranged to have her own domicile separate from the Cardenas estate. She still has the keys, though the home hasn't been used in years. It is mere yards from the sands of the beach itself, raised on stilts to withstand unexpected tidal surges or storm flooding.
• Insomniac - Iris suffers from a mild insomnia, and it is not uncommon for her to go a day or two without sleep if she does not have some form of chemical or medicinal aide.
• Chemically Tolerant - Her time travelling across Mexico and the United States in the pinnacle of her youth were not spent idle; Iris has a tolerance for both alcohol and recreational narcotics that would place her veritably in the 'big leagues' with salted sailors and grizzled fishermen alike. She knows what a bad trip is like, and can see the signs in others.
• Gremlins - Outside of the realm of her immediate workplace interests, she is quite technologically illiterate. She can read a SONAR and tag a dolphin with a tracker, but if you ask her to edit a PDF she might end up setting the computer on fire before making any meaningful headway. She can drive a boat, but not a car. Snapchat and Instagram? Totally fine. Fishy emails with hyperlinked text? Fifty-fifty shot at working on her.

Relevant NPCs

• Ana Varela - Iris' 'First Love', a cousin to the Flores family. They had their youthful fling when Iris was 14 and Ana was 16, and it ended in a relatively earth-shattering fashion when their romance was discovered by Iris' parents. Ana had begun to date others by the time Iris left Azul the first time, and who knows how the woman is doing when Iris returns?
• Jeffrey MacGilfoyle - Bad News, made flesh. Iris' peer and colleague in her master's program, a fellow student on the twelve month research project to Isla Azul. They had a fling. A dirty, messy, fling. He tried to define things; she refused to acknowledge. They get along like oil and fire. So far they've managed to keep things professional in the program, but their private affairs threaten to boil over due to their mutual hostility. An all-around playboy type, who has an infuriating knack for his chosen science.
• Professor Arwa El-Rehman - Iris respects her professor profoundly, and the woman's laid-back and casual approach to the research project has endeared her to her students immensely. She sees in Professor El-Rehman a true matronly figure that she never saw in her own mother. On being accepted into the research program, Iris and Arwa shared a few drinks in a private fashion to discuss Iris' future in the field and it helped form the core of Iris' plans for the future. Iris has a bit of a hopeless crush on the professor, despite their age differences and the woman's own marital status.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Charm’s about to Power Word Kill me, I can feel it in my bones.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Got a 1 boss.@Guardian Angel Haruki

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

@Guardian Angel Haruki

10 and 66 bossu

Planescape: Search for Tir na Og

Not in the way you may think, but appropriate gif indeed.