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