Elyza Nightblossom
She’s well known for her rather unconventional dress code in the courtroom, earning the nickname of The Casual DA, but she still considers herself to be professionally dressed. She doesn’t mind the nickname, however, but prefers the one the hardened criminals give her: The Ban Hammer.
Physical Description
A little on the tall side for an elf, she has exceedingly long bright red hair, with it flowing loose down her back all the way past her backside. She also has two amounts of hair which start at her forehead and frame her face, ending at the top of her breasts. Her ears ate the traditional long high elf variety. She has a decent sized chest, but is overall a little less slender than most elves. Her rounded face also shows this, a side effect from her bad dietary choices.
She likes to give a hint of her looks to people, allowing them to see the shape of her frame, but rarely showing much flesh in her torso area. She wears red lipstick, and has dark red paint on her nails, keeping them long, but not so much as to make typing difficult. She also goes with a heavy eye shadow, usually purple in colour, enjoying the mysterious look it affords her.
Physical Quirks
She moves with an obvious feminine stride, more reminiscent of a runway model than an attorney. She also tends to talk with her hands, accentuating verbal points with gestures, and sometimes slipping into repeating what she says in sign language. She is also quite good at portraying emotions she wishes others to feel, using that in her courtroom presentations to sway the jury.
Clothing Style
While she considers it professional, most lawyers see her look as completely casual. She never wears suits, finding them too restrictive and ugly. Instead she opts for a tight sweater top, with short sleeves, and an asymmetrical skirt, which is actually higher in the front, being closer to a mini skirt, and longer in the back, down to her knees at the longest part. She loves blues and greens for her sweater, and black for the skirt. She also wears a pair of blue high heeled shoes. Her arms are adorned with a pair of golden spiral patterned bracelets which go up almost her entire forearm. Because of her mass of hair, she avoids earrings, which she is afraid will get caught in her tresses. When she’s not working, she actually wears much the same, except her sweater choices show a lot more.
Mental Characteristics
Personal History
Being born to a congressman’s family in the heart of the nation’s capital, laws and the government have always been a part of her life, and she had plenty of opportunities laid at her feet. Her and her older brother were given the best private schools and tutors, and they never had to worry about anything. She never really liked this, however, and was always a little rebellious. Much to the dismay of her parents, she would never wear the school uniform, opting to go casual instead. This led her to being put in public school, since she could never follow the private school rules.
While she did push against her parents in other ways, she did always express an interest in law, and so when she decided to be a lawyer, they were relieved, hoping this would calm her rebellious streak and she would take up the family business at the law firm they were partners with, since her father had retired from politics. Instead, as soon as she graduated, she applied with the public defenders office, and started working there, bringing more shame to her parents. She worked there for five years, earning a reputation as being extremely fair, before she realized she could do more from the other side, and took a job opening at the DA’s office in New York. She quickly worked her way up to the top, and now runs the office in her own unique fashion.
Education
Despite having the money and connections, she preferred public school to private, finding the people there less judgmental, and more accepting. She also rather enjoyed the less strict dress code. When it came to getting her law degree, her parents spared no expense and called in all the favours to get her the best they could afford. She got reasonably high marks, but nothing to distinguish herself.
Employment
After five years defending those who couldn’t afford a lawyer, she realized how broken things really were in terms of class. This is when she decided she would work from the other side, to try and correct the imbalance, and joined the DA’s office. She was voted in 10 years ago as the District Attorney, and has been doing the job ever since, getting more and more support each election.
Morality & Philosophy
She believes that crime must pay, but that not everything on the books is a crime. She’s been lenient with those who commit crimes out of necessities like hunger or fear of losing their home, but will crack down on those who prey on others, use excessive violence, or are involved in gangs, the drug trade or organized crime. She is willing to forgive mistakes, but if someone doesn’t learn from that, she won’t hesitate to nail them to the wall the next time.
Personality
Motivation
She is looking to even the field by making sure that those who aren’t able to defend themselves for mistakes are given less punishment, and those who can afford the most expensive lawyers to cover up for their idiocy or evil get the full brunt of her office. She’s known for kicking rich people who try and buy their kids freedom out of her office in spectacularly public and embarrassing ways, and then going full force after the kids. She feels this is the best way she can help justice remain fair for all.
Likes & Dislikes
She really likes to eat take out, probably more than she should, and will regularly be seen with a Styrofoam food box, or something from a street food vendor when it’s time for lunch. She also loves to push against the establishment, never really losing her rebellious streak. She absolutely hates people who feel they are entitled to a free ride because of money, and has done a lot to get money influence out her office. This has pissed off a lot of big dollar donors, but has endeared her to the the voters, which is why she keeps getting voted back in.
Virtues
A strong sense of justice and equality, she wants to enforce equal standards for all, and will try and level the playing field for everyone she prosecutes, or chooses not to. She also is quite tenacious, not letting go if she thinks she’s got someone on something she can prosecute. She also is quite loyal to those she employs, giving back to them for everything they give to her.
Vices
Besides her really bad eating habits, she also has a temper that flares up quite easily. She does not like entitled people, and will do whatever she can to dismantle their ego in public and embarrassing fashions, sometimes taking her time to plot just the right revenge. She is also very distrustful of people who came from money.
Quirks
The way she moves and walks, which is reminiscent of a model, is actually from some of her friends in high school. She became good friends with the fashion crowd, and they taught her how to walk like that, and she’s done it ever since. She also has spent so much time in Chinatown getting take-out, and helping some of the people there, that she’s starting to learn Mandarin from them, sometimes cursing in it when she doesn’t want people to know what she says.
Values
She places a great importance on honesty and those looking to correct for their mistakes. People who offer to make up for their crimes usually earn her respect more than someone who has to be forced into accepting community service. She also appreciates when someone tells her the truth of a situation, rather than having to investigate to find out. She is a good judge of character and can usually tell when someone is hiding something, and tries to get them to talk. The public defender’s office knows when she’s looking to help people, and so has learned to advise their clients correctly. Paid lawyers have not, and so end up making the wrong choice.
Sexual Style
Despite being a lawyer and a public official, she still has quite the sex drive. However, since she is in public life, and she has made many enemies of the rich people who want to have their own special justice, she must be exceedingly careful. She has opted to instead keep her partners completely secret, even to the point where she has found ways to get them into her house without others finding out. She tends to date within her work sphere, which works out well for her, as inviting a colleague over to discuss a case over dinner and working long hours is seen as normal in her job. But it’s usually not a case they are discussing. Because she is forced into such secrecy, she tends to be very wild, letting it all out at once, and is up for almost anything. She has a particular love of having sex fully clothed and has had meetings in her office where she’s been instead riding her latest partner with no panties on. She also keeps extra make-up supplies in her office to re-apply it, and has a washroom attached to clean up any mess.
Social
Contacts & Relations
She really never got along with her parents, and they constantly butted heads. While she did make them proud by becoming a lawyer, they expressed open displeasure with her choosing the public defender’s office. They had never spoken since that point, and so when she moved to New York to join the DA’s office, and eventually attain that position, they were very proud. When they died, they left a note in the will for her letting her know they were very proud of her, and all she had accomplished, and that she found her own way, and defended those who needed it. They said they never could express it publicly, because of the pressure others in their class exerted on them, but they wanted her to know they were proud. The money they left her, half of their fortune, is how she can have such a nice house and how she is able to keep putting up a good campaign for office. She still keeps in contact with her brother, who ended up taking his position at the family law office. They disagree on much, but still remain friendly to each other. She considers the people at her office to be her real family, and treats them as such, always making sure they know how much she appreciates them.
Social Aptitude
Known for constantly butting up against the establishment, she never finds herself surrounded by the rich, as they actively tend to despise her. Instead, she opts for more down to earth gatherings, like the fund raising BBQs she usually holds. The people of her office get on the grill along with her, and they sell burgers and hot dogs to raise money for her re-election. She enjoys being around real, honest, hardworking people, rather than those with money.
Religious Views
While her parents went to a Catholic church in DC, she could tell it was all an act, and just for the voters. They never really cared. As such, she vowed to herself she wouldn’t be fake like that, and instead has chosen a small church in one of the poorer neighbourhoods where she goes for her spiritual guidance. She has even made friends with a Daeva nun who works there, as the nun has the same hatred of gangs and drugs that she does. If anyone from that parish is brought into the DA’s office, she will check with the nun to get any additional information before she decides how to proceed.
Mannerisms
While she moves in a very feminine way, when she is genuinely angry and isn’t acting, she has a habit of slamming her hands on a nearby table, and glaring at the person making her angry. In the courtroom, she has a very controlled and practised way of getting the reactions and results she wants out of a case, being just as good of an actor as she is lawyer. She is known for her closing arguments being either fiery condemnations, or full on tear jerkers for the victims, and the jury is usually fully on board the ride.
Hobbies & Pets
As she works long hours, she doesn’t have that much personal time, but her co-workers have begun to work together to give her some free time for herself to have a life. She has been using it lately to learn Mandarin, as well as learning to cook. She also is fond of turning on classic rock and blasting it through the house. She has a doberman she rescued from the humane society named Max that guards the house. He likes to sleep on the bed beside her, as she can’t really have her partners stay overnight without inviting trouble.
Speech Style
As someone who has always been around politicians and lawyers, she tends to speak a lot like them, but she also adds in her own natural acting skill to make things more emotional. The biggest difference is that while she speaks like a politician, she refuses to lie like one. To that end, while she has the tone and inflection of one, she tends to use less formal language, which appeals to her voter base as well.
Political Affiliation & Activism
While she does consider herself a Democrat, she’s become disillusioned with how they have become corrupt and all about the elites. She has been in talks to cross party lines, but even those in her office don’t know about it. What she doesn’t realize is that most of them would follow her no matter what, believing in her more than any party. Her activism is all poured into who she decides to prosecute, and it has made her popular as she puts actions behind her name rather than words.