Real Name: Linda May
Room:
Age: 25
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5'

Backstory

Dahlia Hawthorne and her twin sister Iris were born to a spirit medium named Morgan Fey in Kurain Village. Morgan was obsessed with her daughters becoming powerful mediums since she herself had little power to call her own, hopeful that with them, they could take over as the main family of the Kurain Channeling Technique. Morgan had long been in the shadow of her younger sister, the Master of the technique, Misty, and she would take any measure she could to get out of it, even using her own children or murdering the current main family.

As luck would have it, neither Iris or Dahlia were powerful mediums. And as the technique is only passed to the woman of the clan, Morgan’s husband became upset at how unimportant his standing was married to a member of a particularly weak branch family and decided to leave, taking his daughters with him.

For whatever reason, Dahlia was a hateful child. She hated her mother for abandoning her and she hated her father for remarrying and giving her a new sister to go with the wife. Iris was left at a channeling temple (Hazakura Temple, to be precise) with a woman named Bikini after Dahlia convinced her father it was the right thing to do (the less children in the family, the more money to go around. Her father also was not so fond of children, as it was), inadvertently sparing Iris the same, hateful existence that plagued her twin. While she did visit Iris every once and a while, Dahlia grew up with her step-sister Valerie, her step-mother, and her father. And, as the years went by, she only got worse.

By the time she was fourteen, Dahlia already hatched a scheme to get back at her father, who just so happened to be a particularly wealthy jeweler. She convinced Valerie (who was a member of the police), her tutor, Terry Fawles (who was 20 at the time and may or may not have been mentally handicapped), and Iris to join her plot to steal a diamond by having Terry falsely kidnap her and extorting a two-million dollar diamond in exchange for her “safety.” Since Valerie was a policewoman, she was to play the part of negotiator and hand over the diamond. As Iris knew the area, the exchange would take place near the Hazakura Temple, on the Dusky Bridge above Eagle River.

It was supposed to go off without a hitch: Valerie would get Dahlia, Terry would get the diamond, and they would all split it amongst the four of them to start new lives somewhere else. Iris backed out of the plan, however, leaving Dahlia to plot with Valerie about cutting Terry from the deal as well and simply split the diamond between themselves. At the last minute, however, Dahlia had a change of heart--taking the diamond, she placed it in her backpack and jumped from Dusky Bridge and into the river far down bellow, making sure only she would reap the reward from her plan. Valerie, too flustered to do anything else, blamed Terry when the police arrived and claimed he killed Dahlia by pushing her off the bridge, that the kidnapping and extorting was legitimate.

Surprisingly, Dahlia survived the fall and the river’s swift current. She was later found by Iris and nursed back to health while Terry was put on trial for her “death.” Unable to admit to their crime, Valerie testified with exactly the same story she gave on the bridge: “That man... Terry Fawles... He killed her! He threw her off the bridge! He threw my beloved sister into the roaring river 40 feet below!” Terry was found guilty and sentenced to death, while Dahlia was declared legally dead and, with Valerie’s help, created a new identity for herself under the name Melissa Foster.

Five years went by since then with little incident. Dahlia remained “dead” as “Melissa” became a Freshman in college, Valerie remained a police officer, Iris remained at Hazakura Temple as a nun, and Terry was on his way to be executed for a crime he never committed. On the way there, however, the police vehicle was involved in an accident, tipped over, and allowed Terry to escape with one thought on his mind: find Valerie Hawthorne and ask why she did what she did.

Terry ended up calling Valerie at the police station and arranged a meeting with her on Dusky Bridge. Valerie evidently couldn’t ignore her guilt any more and got into contact with Dahlia, telling her about the meeting with Terry and how she planned to confess everything to the police.

Dahlia couldn’t have this. For years, she had been playing the unfortunate victim in a sad story and was in no way a criminal. For years, Terry was a hopeless, sickening murderer and Valerie was a hero for apprehending him. But, most of all, Dahlia got away with a two-million dollar diamond and a clean slate. Valerie was threatening to ruin it because she just couldn’t keep her mouth shut--so Dahlia would shut it for her. Permanently.

Needless to say, it wasn’t Valerie to meet up with Terry Fawles on Dusky Bridge. After mortally wounding her own step-sister by stabbing her in the back, Dahlia disguised herself as Valerie, stuffing the real Valerie into the trunk of a car Terry had stolen in order to reach Dusky Bridge (Terry had went to retrieve a necklace at the temple Dahlia had left for him those 5 years ago and therefore wasn‘t aware of any of this). Dahlia then set up a camera on the other side of a cliff, aimed at the bridge, and set the timer for proof of Terry’s meeting with “Valerie.” Once Terry returned, their conversation ended, and Terry drove off with the stolen car, Dahlia called the police about witnessing a murder, laying blame on Terry once again. This, too, was supposed to go as planned.

Unfortunately, she didn’t count on being brought into court as a witness. She pleaded and begged the prosecuting side (namely one young Miles Edgeworth) to not participate, to only give a written testimony, but the defense (a young Mia Fey -yes, Misty Fey’s daughter and therefore Dahlia’s cousin- and her partner Diego Armando) managed to pick apart all of its flaws. If the witness really saw the murder, why would the evidence point out so many contradictions to prove their testimony wrong? Why didn’t they want to testify in court? Did the witness even exist? Since Miles wasn’t above dragging someone out to win, Dahlia was forced into a situation she hadn’t planned on and didn‘t have much time to prepare for such on-the-spot lying. So of course, Mia and Diego, with Terry’s help, puzzled out what had really happened on Dusky Bridge, both with Valerie’s murder and five years prior. They even managed to out Melissa as the “dead” Dahlia and pinned her as a viable suspect. At least until Mia called Terry to take the stand and testify for himself.

Dahlia decided to pull out her ace. She knew Terry went to get the necklace she left at the temple for him when she was fourteen; a small, bottle necklace, just enough to fit a deadly poison. She had told him five years ago that she loved him, and that if they ever stopped trusting one another, they should drink the contents of it right then and there. She reminded Terry of this promise, prompting him to ask for water (he got coffee from Diego instead), secretly poured the poison into his cup, and drank it all. He didn’t even make it to the second cross-examination before apologizing to Mia and dying in front of the entire court. Without his testimony, Dahlia was free to go.

That trial personally scarred Mia Fey. As her partner (and maybe a little more), Diego took it upon himself to track down Dahlia and arrange a meeting with her at the courthouse cafeteria (although there seems to be a little discrepancy in the script, as Dahlia says Diego set up the meeting, while Godot says Dahlia did… idk, one of them did. He was obviously bugging her, in either case.). Annoyed with his constant need to harass her, Dahlia broke into the Pharmaceutical Department at her college (evidently using keys she had taken from a certain Doug Swallow, whom of which she begun dating for that express purpose), stole more poison, and poured it into Diego’s coffee during their little talk using the same necklace to hide the deadly liquid she had used with Terry. It killed him, yes, though he was revived fairly quickly. Unsurprisingly, it still wrecked a lot of his organs, mostly his vision, and put him into a coma for 5 years. Regardless of whether he lived or died, Dahlia needed to dispose of the necklace, considering her current location.

As luck would have it, one Phoenix Wright happened to be in the court’s Reading Room. Under the pretense of falling in love at the sight of him, Dahlia foisted the necklace off on “Feenie,” saying it was a token of their obvious meant-to-be love. Phoenix sadly fell for it hook, line, and sinker, meaning she got to squirrel out of the courthouse without the police finding the necklace on her.

Since she was still a major suspect for Diego’s poisoning, regardless of her lacking the necklace, Dahlia couldn’t get the necklace back herself. It was important, it pointed her to not one, but two crimes, and she couldn’t so much as step out of her house without being watched. Enter Iris: still lovingly devoted to her sister and not wanting any more blood on her hands, Iris agreed to disguise herself as Dahlia and try, day by day, to get the necklace out of Phoenix (who had begun taking it upon himself to show it to every single person he could). Thus began a cycle for the three of them--Dahlia would give Iris the plans for the day, Iris would date Phoenix and try to get the necklace back, and Phoenix would blissfully go on, ignoring Iris’ pleas, and assume she was just being shy. This went on for six months before Dahlia got sick and tired of waiting. It became increasingly obvious that Iris wasn’t just dating Phoenix for the necklace anymore, and Dahlia could see it written all over her. Iris just wasn’t cut out to do much of anything by now, so Dahlia took matters into her own hands.

Without consulting her sister as she always had, Dahlia again stole poison from the Pharmaceutical Department. During her lunch with Phoenix, she stole his bottle of Coldkiller X (poor Phoenix had come down with a pretty nasty cold, thus was constantly taking said medication to feel better), planted the poison inside, and planned to meet up with him later in the day to give it back to him. Phoenix, however, had an unexpected meeting with Doug Swallow, Dahlia’s ex-boyfriend and the man she had been taking those deadly poisons from.

Doug explained to Phoenix what had happened six months prior, about the stolen poison and Diego’s coma, and how more of the same poison had gone missing again. He told Phoenix that Dahlia wasn’t as innocent and pure as he assumed she was and that, if he knew what was best for him, he would get away from her as quickly as possible. Phoenix couldn’t believe his precious “Dollie” would so much as sneeze without excusing herself, thus the concept of her being completely demonic inside was nothing but a total insult in his eyes. In a fit of rage, he shoved Doug for talking about Dahlia like that. Doug crashed into a particularly weak electrical pole, causing a wire above to snap. Doug was fine when Phoenix ran away, however, which is where Dahlia came in, having apparently watched the entire thing.

Not only did she have to deal with Phoenix, but now Mr. Swallow decided to sniff around in places she didn’t want him. Since the wire was already down, all Dahlia had to do was push him again, this time onto the downed electrical wire and watch as he fried. Since the wires were connected to the Pharmaceutical Department, Dahlia knew she didn’t have much time before either the police or other students arrived to see what had happened. And because she was carrying around a bottle of poisoned medication, she panicked: if they searched her as they had six months ago, she’d be done for. So she deployed the same tactic there as she had then, by giving the evidence to someone else, this time placing the bottle in Doug’s hand. It would be perfect too--it pointed the murder to Phoenix, who also left a nice handprint in Doug’s jacket from when he shoved him, and took care of two pesky birds with one stone. Doug was dead and Phoenix would go to jail for it, problem solved!

…Let’s just say it didn’t work that way. Mia Fey took Phoenix’s case (who had been arrested for the murder, just as Dahlia planned) after realizing who was behind all of it and, this time, finally pinned the redhead for devious little witch she was. Despite a few setbacks (such as Phoenix eating the necklace when it was established that examining it for poison could send Dahlia to jail), Mia got a Not Guilty verdict for Phoenix and sent Dahlia on a one-way ticket to Death Row. Even after having a short and incredibly horrifying showing of her true colors, Dahlia only smiled to the court, told them she’d see them again soon, and walked off with the men in blue, supposedly never to be seen again.

While it’s never said just how much time passed, Dahlia was eventually visited by her mother, Morgan Fey. Some time after Mia Fey‘s death, Morgan was arrested for the murder of Turner Grey after a plot to get Maya Fey, Mia’s sister and therefore the last of the main family’s line (as Misty had gone missing some time before), sentenced to death backfired. Morgan was then transferred to the same prison Dahlia was held in and, since they were mother and daughter and Dahlia was on Death Row, it was easy for the two to communicate. Morgan, being completely obsessed with her family becoming the main branch, had another daughter in the time Dahlia and Iris were taken away by their father that, this time, was abundant in spiritual power. After her first plot to get her youngest daughter, Pearl, failed spectacularly, Morgan came up with another, more diabolical one, this time including Dahlia.

Since Dahlia was on Death Row to begin with and Pearl was an exceptionally powerful medium, the plan was thus: Pearl, who had become very close to Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey, would show them an article about Hazakura Village that Morgan gave to her. They would vacation there together under the guise of training their spiritual powers. In the dead of night, Pearl would channel Dahlia’s spirit, where Dahlia would then murder Maya and pin the blame on Iris.

While Dahlia was never one to do something if it wasn’t for her own gain, Dahlia agreed for one reason and for one reason only: revenge on Mia Fey. Mia was the reason she was going to die, Mia handed her her first embarrassment on a silver platter, and goddamn did Dahlia want to pay her back. But because Mia had been murdered by some no-account Redd White, she couldn’t. The next best thing was to kill Maya, the sister Mia adored so.

A while later, Dahlia was hanged for her crimes and this new plan was set into motion.

Personality

There’s a major distinction to make between how Dahlia acts and how she really is. For the most part, people see the sweet, almost fantasy-like dream girl who enjoys taking pictures of flowers, cooking, romance, and poetry. The girl that’s soft-spoken and timid, almost childish with naïveté, yet still manages to act refined and polite. She’s prone to crying when pushed or yelled at, acting overly delicate and sensitive. She’ll beat herself up over the slightest thing, calling herself “bad” and “horrible” for simply making silly mistakes. Overall, it’s the picture of a sickeningly sweet and endearing woman who sadly couldn’t make her way out of a wet paper bag without assistance and reassurance every step of the way.

This is only skin deep, however. Inside, Dahlia’s a murderous sociopath who can care less about anyone but herself. She’s cruel, hateful, manipulative, uses everyone and everything to get her way, and isn‘t above taunting someone if they annoy her enough. She’s far more intelligent than she lets on, playing the innocent beauty stereotype to her advantage, making sure to wrap everyone she can around her finger and killing those who try to out her for the monster she really is. She can be childishly stubborn, refusing to go down without a fight until it’s too late to lie anymore. And while her acting and lies are awfully convincing, she tends to put too much effort in executing them rather than thought into the facts, meaning they’re easily broken under scrutiny. Even still, she smiles when things are the darkest for her, refusing to show she‘s beaten. When she doesn’t… let’s just say it’s not pleasant.


At Landel's

TBA