Bitch, you drink lattes so white, I wonder if you’re trying to match it to your fur.

Age: 23

Species: Elderan Felis Taijekan

Reference Sheets: Iris_Character_Overview

Background

Iris was born into privilege in the province of Elderbloom, a place known for its floral beauty, refined culture, and brutal standards of perfection. She was expected to follow a very specific path: graduate top of her class, inherit or helm a wealthy company, blood bond well, and carry herself with the perfection expected of someone with her last name. Her appearance, however is what set her apart from the beauty-obsessed elite. They all despised how her nose bridge extended out abnormally as opposed to how a traditional felis Taijekan looks. A birth defect. It was a small detail, but enough to make her the target of whispered gossip, backhanded compliments, and subtle rejections.

Though raised in high society, Iris hated everything about it; the shallow compliments, the fake friendships, the obsession with beauty and status. The only thing she ever truly connected with was plants. She found solace in the quiet of the domes, among the roots and petals that never judged her.

Rather than rebel outright, Iris initially tried to overcorrect, pursuing a degree in horticulture and environmental management, not because it was her passion, but because it would look good on paper for a corporate position. She played the part of the future CEO, masking her resentment for the wealthy world she was supposed to thrive in.

That facade shattered after Juno’s accident. Iris dropped everything to help, but found herself lost outside the ecosystem of prestige and polish she’d grown up in. With no idea how to exist in a “normal” life, she juggled low-end jobs, struggling to keep herself grounded while trying to take care of Juno. She hated how it made her feel powerless, awkward, average but she hated feeling above others even more.

Eventually, Iris settled into Malsburrow where she met Adam. He offered her a job and some way to blend into malsburrow's simple flow, but she still felt as though there was something missing. After carelessly making one too many mistakes and jumping to relationships that she couldn't keep up with, she eventually quit and opened her own flower shop not as some long-time dream, but as a compromise between the control she was used to and the grounded life she wanted. It’s her little sanctuary of structure and care, a place where she sets the rules and builds something honest for once.

Personality

Blunt, demanding, and fiercely loyal, Iris doesn’t know how to sugarcoat anything and has no interest in trying. She’s sharp-tongued, short-tempered, and will call you out the moment you step out of line, especially if you’re hurting someone she cares about. Beneath that intensity, though, is someone who genuinely wants to nurture, she just doesn’t know how to be soft about it.

Her relationship with Juno is less "best friends" and more reluctant coach and stubborn trainee. She sees so much of herself in Juno’s spiral: rage, shame, pride, pain. She pushes her hard because she believes neither of them can afford to fall apart again. If Iris had to claw her way out of the dark, then so will Juno.

She’s become the person who gets angry on your behalf, even if you didn’t ask her to.

Skills/Interests

• Botany & Gardening

  • Iris has a deep technical understanding of plant life, but it’s less about passion and more about control. She likes plants because they follow rules and judge her on her caretaking abilities, not looks.

• Floral Arrangements

  • She has a great eye for aesthetic design. Her arrangements often say what she can’t: care, apology, even love.

• Business Ownership

  • Running her shop gives her the sense of control and status she craved growing up, but now it's on her terms.

• Street Racing

  • Although at the start she was more support crew than a racer, she's learned to handle a car. She likes the risk; it reminds her she’s alive.

Motivations

Iris is driven by a deep, almost obsessive need to protect what little “real” she has in her life, Juno being at the center of that. But more than that, she wants to prove to herself that she can be something outside of the rich-girl mold. That she can build something with her hands, grow something with patience, and fight for people without being hollow inside.

Helping Juno isn’t just about loyalty, it’s about redemption. If she can bring Juno back to life, then maybe she can do the same for herself.

Conflict

Internally, Iris is at war with herself. She wants to be a caregiver, someone gentle and steady. But the only way she knows how to do that is by being loud, angry, and in control. She’s terrified of losing Juno, but even more terrified of what that would say about her own worth. After all, if she can’t protect the people she loves, what’s the point of all her fire?

Externally, she struggles with how to be vulnerable, especially as Juno drifts closer to Noah, someone Iris initially sees as too soft, too unsure, too slow to act. But as Noah starts doing the things Iris couldn’t, reaching Juno not through force, but patience, she begins to question whether being strong always means being hard.