During our RWBY session tonight, towards the end, the question was posed: is Iris really acting in character?

And at first I was worried. I do my best to play my characters as closely to how they would act as possible, but I know it's possible for my characterization to slip when something I would like my character to do comes my way that doesn't necessarily make sense for them to do.

But, after carefully reviewing Iris' behavior (especially during this session), as well as talking to some of the other players afterward, I think Iris has acted exactly as someone who has had her experiences might act in her given situation.

Here is a character, who grew up surrounded by close friends, and even someone she cared enough for to consider loving beyond a platonic manner, and then was forced to abandon her teammates to death or worse when they were captured in Mistral.

Then came the betrayal she felt by the Hunter Academy who refused to send a hunting party after her companions, driving her to leave the only home she'd ever known to try desperately to find the only family she'd ever had.

Then years of isolation. Iris searched for years alone looking for her friends, unable to find any trace of the group that took them, until finally she was approached by Verra.

Then things bigger than the small world she had constructed for herself began to take place, webs of fate being woven together driving her back into a group she wasn't sure she was ready to be a part of.

Finally, the feeling of helplessness at having her own free will compromised, potentially leaving the option open for her to hurt her new traveling companions, becoming unable to even trust her own self and mind, until finally she snapped.

She no longer cared. About her own life. About her goals and aspirations she once had. About happiness.

So she became reckless. Even more so than her chance-driven nature already caused her to be. She became more willing to draw herself into fights, to be the sacrificial pawn, to literally throw herself to the wolves if it just meant that all of this would just. Stop.

None of her friends would be hurt again. No one would be left behind. She'd be alone. But the people she cared for would be safe.

She is in a dangerous place mentally. And sometimes it's hard for my fellow players (and their characters) to understand. But I will faithfully follow Iris along her journey. To have it any other way would be to do the character a disservice.

I know this post is heavier than my usual fare, so I'll leave you all with a more lighthearted highlight:

Iris entered a salon, dyed her hair and tail black, gave herself the nickname Onyx and played the violin so well that she earned herself an adoring fan, who is definitely not named Cindi. Onyx and Sterling will (hopefully) have a concert when this is all over

⭐⭐⭐

Standout Tracks:

who put blood in my drink?

wanting is never enough

just come home

Have I heard this album before today?

(As this is the first session we’ve played since I’ve started this blog, you won’t find Episodes 1-7 anywhere on my blog, just read Iris’s backstory and the analysis in my last post to get a sense of what’s happened until now. This also isn’t the 8th session of the whole campaign, it’s just the 8th that Iris has been a part of, as our parties are currently split)

We took an L tonight. Iris took a big one.

For some backstory for those just joining us on this RWBY-based Tabletop adventure, Iris is in a group of Hunters who are trying to take down an evil force in the world, a man known only to the group as Ludus (or Lupus, if you’re Iris).

Ludus, as we have learned, has three Naturals (or Nasties, as our furry fox friend likes to call them), Ormo (Orlando), Demens (Desmond), and Bellua. Our team has taken down Ormo, then we split up to fight the other two, one cell taking down Demens in Vacuo, the other (Iris’ cell specifically) rushing off to fight Bellua in Mistral.

Through a series of five sessions of play, Iris, Wally, and Kaia learned not only of Bellua’s abilities and influence over the people of Mistral, but also of another player in the world, a White Fang leader named Zemo.

Bellua’s power is a parasitic aura that controls the minds of up to three individuals, bending them to her will. Zemo’s power is the sapping of the life force of those around him.

Bellua was able to take control of Iris by means of deception and a misguided follower of Zemo, causing Iris to believe that Zemo and Bellua were working together. But after an subsequent encounter with Zemo where Bellua used her influence to cause Iris to release Zemo from captivity after our team had captured him, Zemo’s ability seemed to release Iris from Bellua’s control, leading her to then believe that the two were in opposition.

Finally it came time for the final confrontation with Bellua, Iris’ headspace as mentioned in the previous post was in quite a dark place, but she dove into battle regardless, during which Bellua was knocked out in one solid hit by our resident dust farmer Wally’s sneak attack.

In bursts Zemo and Clar, another one of Bellua’s mind-puppets, who begin fighting our team as well as the royal guard who had by then turned on Zemo and the White Fang members after Wally released the Mayor from Bellua’s control, the Mayor commanding his guards to take on the White Fang.

Iris, already feeling an unstable, clashing mix of emotions from her past encounters with Zemo, lets out a roaring question, “Why?” to which Zemo responds with a grin that causes Iris to fall to her knees, the emotions overtaking her and causing a few tears to slip down her cheeks.

After the adrenaline from combat kicks in however, she composes herself and zeroes in on Zemo, trying time and time again to put a dent in his seemingly untouchable armor, and time and time again failing, her desperation building to a fever pitch that culminates in her literally jumping out of a window and falling sixty feet to pursue him as he attempted to escape.

In chasing him down the mountain, she called out to him desperately, trying to understand, but received only cryptic answers to her emotionally charged questions until finally she revealed that she knew he was to blame for the riots that ensued on an island called Nausse, causing most of this conflict in the first place.

To this, he simply replied that he couldn’t allow her to live with that knowledge. Iris fought desperately against him, but wasn’t able to do anything, and was ultimately taken down.

Searches ensued for her body, but nothing was found, until Kaia entered the tavern at which the party stayed for a brief time, and was told that she had a visitor upstairs. Kaia raced to the room in which we had stayed and found an old friend-turned enemy-turned friend again, standing in the corner of the room, Iris loosely wrapped in a bloody blanket on the bed.

When the blanket was removed, Iris was missing an arm and a leg.

She was eventually stabilized by medical staff, but currently remains in a stasis chamber in a coma as the three of us fly towards Atlas, the rendezvous point for our two teams.

Atlas has the greatest medical technology in the world, so prosthetics aren’t off the table. But I do worry for Iris’ soul. Before this she didn’t care if she lived or died if it meant taking out the enemy. Now she might not want to live at all.

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