Iris Fairlight

OOC

The following article is a file on a throwback Meta Link in the form of a wristwatch Jynx keeps on her at literally all times (showers included). This file is not intended to be common wiki knowledge, it is here to allow GMs to use Iris consistently and understand my (Daniel's) intentions, but Jynx doesn't discuss any of this (except when it comes up in plot, natch). Character Sheet

Here you go Jynx. This is what I know about your mom, what she told me and what I remember. I owe you this, I owe her this, but this is it. I'm not talking about her anymore. Hurts too bad.

Before Jynx

Iris Fairlight, your mom, was an Otaku. Misunderstood and feared by her parents when she came into her powers, she ran away from home and bounced from place to place. She would join and leave Otaku tribes, never quite finding the right fit. She was a wiz hacker going by the handle Prismatic Shade; her Persona looked like a flat projection of a metahuman, fading off at the bottom, single-hued cycling gradually through the colours of the rainbow.

She started to Fade; according to her, earlier than most Otaku. So she turned to various meatspace... encounters and one of these led to your conception. She's never given me any details on that, so don't ask. I mean it.

I guess that changed something in her, because she was determined to give birth and give the baby, you, the best life possible. So she came looking for me. She'd helped me set up my tavern in Redmond; she'd made sure the right permits, licenses and miscellaneous paperwork got to the right place without getting bogged down in bureaucracy. My tavern wouldn't be here without her, so I owe her a lot. But hell, even if it weren't for that I'd probably do anything for her.

Right. Anyway. So. I let her stay on for cheap, would have let her stay for free, but she insisted on doing matrix favours for me. Never was great with this stuff, though compared to you two, who is?

Eventually you were born, and with your birth the last of Iris' powers Faded completely. Iris was in really bad shape then - I've heard of postpartum depression and I'm sure you of all people can imagine the insecurity that maybe having the baby caused the Fade, maybe you'd even stolen her powers! But understand this Jynx - it didn't take long for Iris to realize that she loved you more than anything. She would do anything for you. So you'd better not feel guilty, especially because of what comes later.

I'm using your handle here, since you insist on it, but I think the name she gave you is beautiful, sappy as it is.

OOC

If as a GM you need to know the name Iris gave Jynx, which only they and McTavish know, contact me. Jynx's real name is Luna Fairlight (though there's no official records to prove it). So far no one else in party is aware, but it has come up on screen.

Crash 2.0 and Iris' Emergence

For three years, you had a reasonably simple and happy life. I don't know how much you remember. Iris no longer had an intrinsic connection to the matrix, but was still a hell of a hacker and would earn occasional money on low end shadowruns. But for the most part she's come off the Matrix. Do you remember when she would take you Rainbow Chasing, riding on her Yamaha Growler across the Barrens, looking for the rainclouds and the rainbows they left behind?

So Iris wasn't online when Crash 2.0 hit. In fact, she later told me she'd known nothing about the Otakus' part in it, nothing besides what the public knew.

But then the Technomancers started Emerging. And Iris... She got back her connection to the Resonance, apparently stronger than ever before. Prismatic Shade was back, spending so much time in the new wireless Matrix, doing all kinds of hacking she tried to tell me about but I just couldn't follow. She still spent most of her time with you though; even with the Resonance, you were the most important thing in her life.

Jynx's Emergence

So this bit you might remember better than I.

Sometime in late 2066, while you two were sleeping in the Barrens, some ganger managed to kidnap you and lock you into the back of her truck and drive away. I guess you freaked out pretty bad, because that's when you Emerged. Iris had been panicking, looking everywhere for you, and then this large, radiant crackling avatar with your face suddenly appears on the Matrix, messing with the the ganger and her truck, stopping it dead. So Iris traces you, brings her Growler to the truck, and coaxing you into opening the door, she gets you out of there and takes off with you on the Growler, and leaves the ganger locked inside her truck. I don't know why she didn't hurt or kill that ganger that night, but I know that soon a pile of evidence against the drekhead scumbucket made its way to Lonestar and put her away for good.

I guess you guys had a good few months then, reveling in the matrix and the resonance. You both seemed so happy, so radiant...

I know I tell you this all the time, but she really tried to get you to learn to appreciate 'meatspace' like she had come to. I keep telling you you have to get out there more, learn from her. The way you learned to keep your talents hidden to keep the slotters away.

But one time that didn't work, and I don't think either of us has ever come to terms with it.

Disappearance

Iris was supposed to go on a milk run, just something to help pay the bills. But she was double-crossed by a Johnson from Horizon. One of her crew made it out alive, and let me know that Horizon had kidnapped Iris, but that's all I know.

I know it hurts, but despite all the guff I give you, you've gotta know how happy I am to see you managing to grow up happy, even in this drekhole. You're strong, resilient, bright, might even be a better hacker than your mom. Hold onto that. I gather you're going down a darker path now, but remember - Iris reached pitch black and came back shining brighter than before.