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). The author is McTavish.

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.

Crash 2.0 and Iris' Emergence

For three years, Iris and Jynx lived a reasonably simple and happy life. Iris no longer had an intrinsic connection to the matrix, but remained a proficient hacker and would earn occasional money performing low end shadowruns. But for the most part she learned to live off the matrix, and would take Jynx "Rainbow Chasing": they'd ride on her Yamaha Growler across the Barrens, looking for rainclouds that were passing by, leaving rainbows behind.

And so Iris wasn't online when Crash 2.0 hit. In fact, she had been mostly oblivious to the Otakus' part in it, besides what the public knew. But when the Technomancers started Emerging, Iris regained her connection to the Resonance, stronger than ever before. She reveled in the new wireless Matrix, and went back to hacking more regularly. She still spent most of her time with Jynx, but Prismatic Shade was back with a vengeance.

Jynx's Emergence

One night in late 2066, while Jynx and Iris were sleeping in the Barrens, a ganger managed to kidnap Jynx and lock her into the back of her truck and drive away. As Jynx started to freak out and cry, she Emerged. The ganger experienced this as a large, radiant crackling avatar of the child suddenly appearing on her PAN and wresting control of the truck from her. The truck slammed to a halt and all the doors locked

As Jynx's new Living Persona was obviously not running silent, Iris, who at this point was already frantically searching for her daughter, immediately saw the icon, recognized it and traced it. She brought her Growler to the truck, and she and Jynx opened the back door and sped off into the night, leaving the ganger locked inside her truck. Iris didn't hurt or kill the ganger that night, but later she did make sure that enough evidence against her made its way to Lonestar to put her away for good.

Iris then spent a few good months with Jynx sharing the joys of the Matrix and the Resonance with her, although she tried to instill in Jynx some of the appreciation for meatspace she'd developed while her connection was gone. She taught Jynx everything she could, and since she was aware of the dangers the new technomancers were facing, made sure Jynx would always hide it from people she couldn't trust.

Disappearance

All good things come to an end though, and for Jynx and Iris this came in 2067.

Iris was set to go on a milk run to help pay the bills, but they were double-crossed by the Horizon Johnson and instead was kidnapped during the run. One of the other runners managed to escape to tell McTavish what actually happened.

Jynx hasn't heard from her or seen her since.