DokuWiki

Iris' personality is inquisitive. Like many pokémon, he pursues his curiosity with a childish energy. Unlikely many pokémon, he knows better than to be reckless about it, and only 'lets himself go' if there is adequate evidence that there will be no negative repercussions to such a decision.

Iris loves Jagdish. It's absolutely unconditional, to the point where Jagdish occasionally gets angry with him for not bothering to reflect on his relationship with the Arbiter, since that isn't Iris' strong point. In theory, Iris understands that his affection for Jagdish is probably to large part because of the man's inherent pokémon charisma, but that really doesn't stop him more than in most abstract theory. It certainly doesn't help that Jagdish has never treated him badly.

In contrast, Iris is intensely wary of pokémon trainers and to lesser degree human beings in general, but with the help of Jagdish and others up in Taqnateh has learnt a great deal about reading human emotions and developed an almost flawless empathy toward the species. He knows that bug pokémon are often considered weak fighters, a prejudice he's learnt to use to his advantage, easily underestimated. That being said, he avoids battling if he can, greatly preferring other means to keep himself in shape, and is not violently predisposed at all. He's entirely willing to defend his friends, however, if they're attacked, or he presumes them to be attacked… and if he had his way, everyone would be his friend.

He can be best considered a well-disciplined peace-time soldier. He has a strong sense of justice based on reciprocation - those who've helped him in the past are very likely to get his aid, in turn, and those of who he knows have done others harm will be met with vicious (if usually strongly non-violent) contempt. As such, it can be said that he keeps grudges - and it takes some effort to whittle such an opinion of his down. Repeated displays of good behaviour will, however, do more to unravel such grudges than a mishap here or there would serve to rekindle it, as he prefers interpreting actions in the most favourable possible light.

He makes no difference between humans and pokémon, thus expecting respectful behaviour from both. Even after years of observing strong differences in the nuances humans and pokémon are capable of, he's yet to have a fundamental understanding of that he simply cannot expect his fellow pokémon to act as humans would. Rationally he's aware of the divide, but being a pokémon himself, he has some trouble learning that truth on emotional levels (or in fact anything complex at all).

He can be considered marginally above average as far as pokémon intelligence goes - a far cry from the wit of a Legendary, but a little more lucid about the world around him than the average pokémon.

Ordered roughly from positive to negative, Iris…

• …loves Jagdish Tsukinaka unconditionally to utter disregard for his own safety and life.
• …cherishes Dakarai N'Sehla like a son or brother.
• …respects all pokémon he comes across greatly, unless they register as a threat (such as by attacking him or his loved ones).
• …respects human beings he encounters and prefers interacting with them on a friendly basis, but is wary of them owing to past experience.
• …is deeply wary of battle-prone pokémon trainers.

Iris came to be Jagdish's pokémon roughly four years prior to Dakarai's gym run. He used to belong to one of the (now dead) circuit goers and was extremely skittish around humans both during his enslavement and many months afterward, though with his affectionate personality and being utterly used to having a human point of reference, refused to simply return to the wild. As such, he simply stayed with Jagdish (who certainly wouldn't send him away against his will).

Jagdish often let Iris watch people's final moments, especially for the valuable conversation he normally has with people in that time. Torture not so much - the Venomoth isn't oblivious to it, but he's quite consciously opted out of observing any sort of prolonged pain in anyone, very distinctly not wanting to harden his heart against it.

When Jagdish asked for someone to watch over Dakarai, Iris was quick to volunteer, believing the man would benefit from the observation of someone who would not be prone to violent outbursts against him - even if he certainly had less interest in the 'make sure he doesn't come to harm' part of the agreement at first, but that was passivity. He certainly wouldn't have ever done anything to harm Dakarai except in self-defence and that never did become necessary.

Prolonged exposure to Dakarai revealed a person he couldn't really find a glaring fault in - certainly, Dakarai was eccentric and occasionally outright annoying, but he was distinctly not malicious - and so eventually Iris morphed from the Observer's Observer into a very good friend of Dakarai's, which he is to this day. That being said, if he had to choose between Jagdish and Dakarai, Dakarai would be left in a ditch.

• Tackle
• Disable
• Foresight
• Supersonic
• Confusion
• Poisonpowder
• Leech Life
• Stun Spore
• Gust
• Psybeam
• Sleep Powder
• Psychic

From TMs:

• Protect
• Return
• Sweet Scent

(italics: inferred (as opposed to canonically RPed); bold: same-type attack bonus)

Collected from Arsaga:

“This is Iris,” the gymleader elaborates, casually. “Iris is my little helper in Dakarai's case. He watches the boy and makes sure he doesn't throw himself off a building on accident,” he remarks, his humour lavishly dark.