OOC: Reference - Application (Damned)
Series: Ace Attorney (Investigations: Miles Edgeworth)
Series' Medium: Video Game
Character: Byrne Faraday
Age: 40
Sex/Gender: Male
Canon Role: Secondary character with few canon appearances, though he plays a major part in the game’s plot.
"Real" Name: Anthony Sullivan
History of Byrne:
Unfortunately Byrne’s lack of canon appearances leaves much of his early history a blank slate. He was born in 1971 to an unknown family. In his early twenties he became a prosecutor and made his home in Los Angeles, California. When he was still a rookie, he began working with Tyrell Badd, a hardened homicide detective thirteen years his senior who was entirely no-nonsense and highly respected in his line of work. Though their initial relationship was rocky, the two eventually developed a strong friendship. Badd became an essential part of Byrne’s life, sticking by his side for the rest of his life and becoming a guide down many of the prosecutor’s moral crossroads.
In 2001 Byrne had a daughter, Kay Faraday. He immediately introduced her to Badd the day she was born. While Kay quickly became the centerpiece of her father’s life, the circumstances surrounding her mother were never made clear. Kay only mentioned her mother’s family taking her in after her father’s passing, suggesting one of two situations: either her mother died, or her parents divorced. [Note: The mun who plays Kay Faraday at Damned decided that Kay’s mother died, so that is what I will be adopting for Byrne to keep our canons in check.]
Byrne was incredibly successful as a prosecutor and soon rose to the position of High Prosecutor. He and Badd worked together to crack dozens of high-profile cases, one of these cases being the unsuccessful hunt for the leader of an international smuggling ring. The ring dealt with counterfeiting money and smuggling artwork and other goods from the European country of Cohdopia, especially a rare type of ink that made distinguishing a piece of counterfeit currency from an original almost impossible. Their counterfeiting scheme caused the economy of the Asian country Zheng Fa to suffer tremendously. Detective and prosecutor tried desperately to find leads dealing with any part of the criminal organization but always came up short.
In 2008, they finally got a break in the case. A young woman named Cece Yew stepped forward and claimed that the company she worked for, the Amano Group, had been financing the smuggling ring. Immediately Byrne and Badd set her up to testify before court on the matter with Badd becoming Cece’s guard until the trial. But Badd failed in his duty and Cece was stabbed to death in her apartment by Manny Coachen, a secretary from the Cohdopian Embassy in L.A. Luckily Coachen was caught on camera walking into the apartment complex holding the murder weapon. He was arrested and brought to trial with Byrne as prosecutor. The security footage was the most vital piece of evidence Byrne had, and would have easily proved Coachen was the perpetrator. However, the video tape was stolen by agents sent from the Amano Group just before the trial, and Manny Coachen was acquitted despite the prosecutor’s best efforts. This case became known as the KG-8 Incident (‘KG-8’ being the case number) and the failures it brought haunted Byrne for the rest of his life.
Calisto Yew, a defense attorney who claimed to be the older sister of the victim, was present in the audience during the trial. She let out a loud wail of pain when the verdict was read. Both Byrne and Badd apologized profusely to Calisto after the trial, but she merely slapped Badd and made it clear she never wanted to see either of the two men again.
The case rested too heavily on the prosecutor and detective’s shoulders to bear. Both of them decided that there was a limit to what the law could accomplish; their enemies were beyond the law, and in order to catch them, they too needed to go beyond the law. With Calisto’s help, they teamed up to create the Great Thief Yatagarasu. The thief infiltrated corrupted companies and stole evidence of their illegal activity, sending this evidence along with the thief’s signature card to the media and ruining the reputation of the target company. The Yatagarasu’s name originated from the smuggling ring’s boss’ method of delivering orders: a black card with a white three-legged bird (a Yatagarasu) symbol on it. Byrne and co. inverted the colors and satirically made this inverted card and the name their own. The ultimate goal of the Yatagarasu was to find leads to the head of the smuggling ring through the corrupted companies they infiltrated, with a side result of making other companies fear doing similar illegal activities thanks to the Yatagarasu’s influence.
Each of the three members of Yatagarasu had a specific role in the partnership. Byrne’s was to perform the actual heists with his knowledge of criminal affairs and security systems. To assist in his endeavors, he created a special device he called “Little Thief”. It would allow him to plan heists ahead of time and locate a target’s security system using information provided by Calisto.
The Yatagarasu was quick to make headlines, and all information regarding it became top-secret. As a cover, Byrne and Badd placed themselves in charge of the Yatagarasu case, making themselves the ‘experts’ of their own tracks and also making it easier for them to discard any incriminating evidence. However, they never managed to capture the head of the smuggling ring due to the fact that Calisto was secretly an agent of the ring itself. Everything about her was a lie, including her name, her face, and her history; Cece Yew never had a sister. Her partners’ trust in her allowed her to subtly yet effectively manipulate her two ‘friends’ and lead them away from anything that could have seriously incriminated her true allies.
On September 8, 2011, things plummeted downhill. An employee of the Cohdopian Embassy named (unfortunately) Deid Mann came before police to testify about the smuggling ring just as Cece Yew had done three years before. He, too, was murdered the night before he could testify. His assassin was a hit man named Mack Rell, a common thug and a complete idiot hired by Calisto to take the fall. He allowed himself not only to be caught in the act by a security camera, but also to be arrested with the murder weapon on hand. Intending to go out with a bang, he started claiming he was the Yatagarasu, but was clueless when Badd questioned him on simple things like the thief’s calling card. The same night the murder occurred, Byrne snuck into the Cohdopian Embassy and came across an oddly shaped key in Manny Coachen’s office (who was still a secretary for the embassy). This key got ‘sent’ to the police instead of the media and was dubbed the Yatagarasu’s Key. Byrne intended not only to use it against the ring, but also to prove in court that Rell could not be the real Yatagarasu. To Byrne, this long-fought battle with the smuggling ring was nearly over.
But it was far from over. Unbeknownst to the police and to Byrne and Badd, the key could open a safe within Coachen’s office that would reveal documents showing who the head of the smuggling ring was. Alarmed by this threat, the boss of the smuggling ring decided the Yatagarasu had overstepped the line. Calisto was ordered to silence Byrne, retrieve the key, and destroy the Yatagarasu for good.
She became Rell’s lawyer, persuading him that she would acquit him if he publically accused Byrne of being the Yatagarasu and ordering him to kill Deid Mann. Rell agreed. Two days later, on Sept. 10, the trial commenced. Byrne was able to easily prove Rell was guilty of the murder and demonstrate the thug’s ignorance of the Yatagarasu, but the tides immediately turned against him when Rell followed Calisto’s order and accused him before the court. The court took the accusation seriously and the judge decided to make Byrne step down and be replaced by another prosecutor who would finish the trial in his stead. Furious at Rell but also terrified at the rightful accusation, Byrne had no choice but to obey the judge’s order and he was left wondering what would happen next.
It is here that Byrne will be taken from his world - just minutes before Calisto would have cornered him in the defendant’s lobby and stabbed him to death.
From when is Byrne being kidnapped and why?:
As already stated, I am taking Byrne from just after being accused in open court of being the Yatagarasu, right before his death at the hands of Calisto. Because he’s under heavy stress from the accusation (considering his reputation is on the line), he will not have any sort of easy awakening in the institute. Being taken in right after death will allow him to acknowledge that yes, Calisto was near him before he ‘blanked out’ and therefore she ‘could have possibly stabbed him’. Such circumstances would make it easier for him to accept the news of his death, reducing a whole slew of potential for character development.
Byrne's Personality:
While Byrne (regretfully) only speaks twice in the game, his life and personality are revealed through those he left behind, and their otherwise unimportant dialogue surprisingly fleshes him out quite well.
Obviously one does not achieve a high status in something without dedication and skill, so Byrne had to have both in order to have risen to his status as High Prosecutor. Byrne’s associates have praised and respected him for his hard work and how seriously he took his job.
Despite his honors and achievements as a prosecutor, Byrne did not think highly of the law his job required him to uphold, considering it more of a boundary to the greater good. His impatience and frustration with the law were two of the main reasons why he and Badd agreed to take on the second life of Yatagarasu, and Byrne states himself that he did not regret his decision. His strong desire to see justice done in any way possible, betraying his own job and putting everything he had on the line in the process shows how much he valued the idealistic morals which led him to become the Yatagarasu. He also isn’t afraid to defend these morals, even to other distinguished prosecutors like Manfred von Karma.
Family is as important to Byrne as his morals. He is a loving single father to Kay, and Kay happily recalls a lot of their time together. He doted on her and sought to instill in her the same values he held so dearly. However, he was also slightly overprotective. A book of promises he made with Kay hints at this personality quirk; two certain promises reveal Byrne being fearful for the day Kay would start dating, making her promise him at an early age to always introduce him to her future boyfriends and to not to forget about him whenever she did get a boyfriend. Kay herself is portrayed as being too innocent even at ten years old, as it takes her time to allow powerful events such as her father’s death to truly sink in.
Byrne’s best friend Tyrell Badd is also considered a part of his ‘family’ from the strong friendship they share. While Badd is normally an antisocial and extremely stoic person, he admits on a few occasions to Edgeworth that he often participated in many family activities with Byrne and Kay; one such example is when the three of them would sit around together and eat Swiss rolls. Beyond family relations Badd described his friend as a ‘battle-buddy’, and said that they had fought through a lot together. While the both of them are mature and rational when handling stressful and graphic cases on a daily basis, personal losses wound Byrne and Badd deeply - KG-8 is a big example. They also share a joint desire to see justice done to the smuggling ring.
While Byrne is slow to anger, he has a great intolerance for detectives who do not maintain professionalism. He is also extremely honest, a trait Calisto took advantage of and the perfectionist Manfred von Karma mocked as foolish. His kind-heartedness made him trusting almost to a fault and this ultimately led to his downfall.
As for his general manner of writing, the journals he left behind show that he wrote practically everything in a professional manner - not overly detailed, but not too casual. In his work-related organizer he would note down his strategy for winning trials; in his personal diary he was much more open, actually admitting to being the Yatagarasu but not mentioning anything that could implicate his teammates.
In short, Byrne’s a good guy who wouldn’t mind overstepping the line to do what he feels is right.
Physical Description:
Byrne has an average build and a light complexion, standing at 176 cm (~5’9”) tall. Some signs of aging are starting to show on his face, with wrinkles under his eyes and lines from his cheek bones beginning to form. His eyes are a warm brown color and his hair is a similar shade; the hair is long enough to touch his shoulders in the back, and looks about chin length in the front. The bangs are normally tied back in a chonmage-style ponytail, though in Damned it’s likely his hair will not be tied back. He’s also left handed.
Any otherworldly abilities?:
Byrne doesn’t have any sort of special sparkly abilities. He’s just an average middle-aged man with above average capabilities.
How about super awesome ninja skills?:
The bulk of Byrne’s skill is smarts. He has a strong understanding of both legal and police procedures, such as how to interpret methods used by murderers by examining a corpse and surrounding crime scene. Byrne’s skill also extends into his double life as a thief, including how security systems work and whatever other training he might have put himself through in order to perform heists. Obviously he is able to enter and exit an establishment without drawing attention to himself, and he has great breaking-and-entering/lock picking skills from three years of thievery. But of course, he isn’t perfect - his mistakes give the third leg of the Yatagarasu a job to do.
Byrne is great with technology and electronic devices. He single handedly created his special thieving gadget “Little Thief”, which is able to project a holographic image of whatever data is put into it. How he made such an incredibly advanced piece of technology and the extent of his technical skill are not explained, so in Damned I will not be giving him any crazy abilities in this area (like insane computer hacker skills and etc.). But he will at least be able to identify and work with quite a bit of modern technology, and if there are any security systems in the institute he will be able to avoid/disarm such things - if that type of security system exists in his world, of course.
Series' Medium: Video Game
Character: Byrne Faraday
Age: 40
Sex/Gender: Male
Canon Role: Secondary character with few canon appearances, though he plays a major part in the game’s plot.
"Real" Name: Anthony Sullivan
History of Byrne:
Unfortunately Byrne’s lack of canon appearances leaves much of his early history a blank slate. He was born in 1971 to an unknown family. In his early twenties he became a prosecutor and made his home in Los Angeles, California. When he was still a rookie, he began working with Tyrell Badd, a hardened homicide detective thirteen years his senior who was entirely no-nonsense and highly respected in his line of work. Though their initial relationship was rocky, the two eventually developed a strong friendship. Badd became an essential part of Byrne’s life, sticking by his side for the rest of his life and becoming a guide down many of the prosecutor’s moral crossroads.
In 2001 Byrne had a daughter, Kay Faraday. He immediately introduced her to Badd the day she was born. While Kay quickly became the centerpiece of her father’s life, the circumstances surrounding her mother were never made clear. Kay only mentioned her mother’s family taking her in after her father’s passing, suggesting one of two situations: either her mother died, or her parents divorced. [Note: The mun who plays Kay Faraday at Damned decided that Kay’s mother died, so that is what I will be adopting for Byrne to keep our canons in check.]
Byrne was incredibly successful as a prosecutor and soon rose to the position of High Prosecutor. He and Badd worked together to crack dozens of high-profile cases, one of these cases being the unsuccessful hunt for the leader of an international smuggling ring. The ring dealt with counterfeiting money and smuggling artwork and other goods from the European country of Cohdopia, especially a rare type of ink that made distinguishing a piece of counterfeit currency from an original almost impossible. Their counterfeiting scheme caused the economy of the Asian country Zheng Fa to suffer tremendously. Detective and prosecutor tried desperately to find leads dealing with any part of the criminal organization but always came up short.
In 2008, they finally got a break in the case. A young woman named Cece Yew stepped forward and claimed that the company she worked for, the Amano Group, had been financing the smuggling ring. Immediately Byrne and Badd set her up to testify before court on the matter with Badd becoming Cece’s guard until the trial. But Badd failed in his duty and Cece was stabbed to death in her apartment by Manny Coachen, a secretary from the Cohdopian Embassy in L.A. Luckily Coachen was caught on camera walking into the apartment complex holding the murder weapon. He was arrested and brought to trial with Byrne as prosecutor. The security footage was the most vital piece of evidence Byrne had, and would have easily proved Coachen was the perpetrator. However, the video tape was stolen by agents sent from the Amano Group just before the trial, and Manny Coachen was acquitted despite the prosecutor’s best efforts. This case became known as the KG-8 Incident (‘KG-8’ being the case number) and the failures it brought haunted Byrne for the rest of his life.
Calisto Yew, a defense attorney who claimed to be the older sister of the victim, was present in the audience during the trial. She let out a loud wail of pain when the verdict was read. Both Byrne and Badd apologized profusely to Calisto after the trial, but she merely slapped Badd and made it clear she never wanted to see either of the two men again.
The case rested too heavily on the prosecutor and detective’s shoulders to bear. Both of them decided that there was a limit to what the law could accomplish; their enemies were beyond the law, and in order to catch them, they too needed to go beyond the law. With Calisto’s help, they teamed up to create the Great Thief Yatagarasu. The thief infiltrated corrupted companies and stole evidence of their illegal activity, sending this evidence along with the thief’s signature card to the media and ruining the reputation of the target company. The Yatagarasu’s name originated from the smuggling ring’s boss’ method of delivering orders: a black card with a white three-legged bird (a Yatagarasu) symbol on it. Byrne and co. inverted the colors and satirically made this inverted card and the name their own. The ultimate goal of the Yatagarasu was to find leads to the head of the smuggling ring through the corrupted companies they infiltrated, with a side result of making other companies fear doing similar illegal activities thanks to the Yatagarasu’s influence.
Each of the three members of Yatagarasu had a specific role in the partnership. Byrne’s was to perform the actual heists with his knowledge of criminal affairs and security systems. To assist in his endeavors, he created a special device he called “Little Thief”. It would allow him to plan heists ahead of time and locate a target’s security system using information provided by Calisto.
The Yatagarasu was quick to make headlines, and all information regarding it became top-secret. As a cover, Byrne and Badd placed themselves in charge of the Yatagarasu case, making themselves the ‘experts’ of their own tracks and also making it easier for them to discard any incriminating evidence. However, they never managed to capture the head of the smuggling ring due to the fact that Calisto was secretly an agent of the ring itself. Everything about her was a lie, including her name, her face, and her history; Cece Yew never had a sister. Her partners’ trust in her allowed her to subtly yet effectively manipulate her two ‘friends’ and lead them away from anything that could have seriously incriminated her true allies.
On September 8, 2011, things plummeted downhill. An employee of the Cohdopian Embassy named (unfortunately) Deid Mann came before police to testify about the smuggling ring just as Cece Yew had done three years before. He, too, was murdered the night before he could testify. His assassin was a hit man named Mack Rell, a common thug and a complete idiot hired by Calisto to take the fall. He allowed himself not only to be caught in the act by a security camera, but also to be arrested with the murder weapon on hand. Intending to go out with a bang, he started claiming he was the Yatagarasu, but was clueless when Badd questioned him on simple things like the thief’s calling card. The same night the murder occurred, Byrne snuck into the Cohdopian Embassy and came across an oddly shaped key in Manny Coachen’s office (who was still a secretary for the embassy). This key got ‘sent’ to the police instead of the media and was dubbed the Yatagarasu’s Key. Byrne intended not only to use it against the ring, but also to prove in court that Rell could not be the real Yatagarasu. To Byrne, this long-fought battle with the smuggling ring was nearly over.
But it was far from over. Unbeknownst to the police and to Byrne and Badd, the key could open a safe within Coachen’s office that would reveal documents showing who the head of the smuggling ring was. Alarmed by this threat, the boss of the smuggling ring decided the Yatagarasu had overstepped the line. Calisto was ordered to silence Byrne, retrieve the key, and destroy the Yatagarasu for good.
She became Rell’s lawyer, persuading him that she would acquit him if he publically accused Byrne of being the Yatagarasu and ordering him to kill Deid Mann. Rell agreed. Two days later, on Sept. 10, the trial commenced. Byrne was able to easily prove Rell was guilty of the murder and demonstrate the thug’s ignorance of the Yatagarasu, but the tides immediately turned against him when Rell followed Calisto’s order and accused him before the court. The court took the accusation seriously and the judge decided to make Byrne step down and be replaced by another prosecutor who would finish the trial in his stead. Furious at Rell but also terrified at the rightful accusation, Byrne had no choice but to obey the judge’s order and he was left wondering what would happen next.
It is here that Byrne will be taken from his world - just minutes before Calisto would have cornered him in the defendant’s lobby and stabbed him to death.
From when is Byrne being kidnapped and why?:
As already stated, I am taking Byrne from just after being accused in open court of being the Yatagarasu, right before his death at the hands of Calisto. Because he’s under heavy stress from the accusation (considering his reputation is on the line), he will not have any sort of easy awakening in the institute. Being taken in right after death will allow him to acknowledge that yes, Calisto was near him before he ‘blanked out’ and therefore she ‘could have possibly stabbed him’. Such circumstances would make it easier for him to accept the news of his death, reducing a whole slew of potential for character development.
Byrne's Personality:
While Byrne (regretfully) only speaks twice in the game, his life and personality are revealed through those he left behind, and their otherwise unimportant dialogue surprisingly fleshes him out quite well.
Obviously one does not achieve a high status in something without dedication and skill, so Byrne had to have both in order to have risen to his status as High Prosecutor. Byrne’s associates have praised and respected him for his hard work and how seriously he took his job.
Despite his honors and achievements as a prosecutor, Byrne did not think highly of the law his job required him to uphold, considering it more of a boundary to the greater good. His impatience and frustration with the law were two of the main reasons why he and Badd agreed to take on the second life of Yatagarasu, and Byrne states himself that he did not regret his decision. His strong desire to see justice done in any way possible, betraying his own job and putting everything he had on the line in the process shows how much he valued the idealistic morals which led him to become the Yatagarasu. He also isn’t afraid to defend these morals, even to other distinguished prosecutors like Manfred von Karma.
Family is as important to Byrne as his morals. He is a loving single father to Kay, and Kay happily recalls a lot of their time together. He doted on her and sought to instill in her the same values he held so dearly. However, he was also slightly overprotective. A book of promises he made with Kay hints at this personality quirk; two certain promises reveal Byrne being fearful for the day Kay would start dating, making her promise him at an early age to always introduce him to her future boyfriends and to not to forget about him whenever she did get a boyfriend. Kay herself is portrayed as being too innocent even at ten years old, as it takes her time to allow powerful events such as her father’s death to truly sink in.
Byrne’s best friend Tyrell Badd is also considered a part of his ‘family’ from the strong friendship they share. While Badd is normally an antisocial and extremely stoic person, he admits on a few occasions to Edgeworth that he often participated in many family activities with Byrne and Kay; one such example is when the three of them would sit around together and eat Swiss rolls. Beyond family relations Badd described his friend as a ‘battle-buddy’, and said that they had fought through a lot together. While the both of them are mature and rational when handling stressful and graphic cases on a daily basis, personal losses wound Byrne and Badd deeply - KG-8 is a big example. They also share a joint desire to see justice done to the smuggling ring.
While Byrne is slow to anger, he has a great intolerance for detectives who do not maintain professionalism. He is also extremely honest, a trait Calisto took advantage of and the perfectionist Manfred von Karma mocked as foolish. His kind-heartedness made him trusting almost to a fault and this ultimately led to his downfall.
As for his general manner of writing, the journals he left behind show that he wrote practically everything in a professional manner - not overly detailed, but not too casual. In his work-related organizer he would note down his strategy for winning trials; in his personal diary he was much more open, actually admitting to being the Yatagarasu but not mentioning anything that could implicate his teammates.
In short, Byrne’s a good guy who wouldn’t mind overstepping the line to do what he feels is right.
Physical Description:
Byrne has an average build and a light complexion, standing at 176 cm (~5’9”) tall. Some signs of aging are starting to show on his face, with wrinkles under his eyes and lines from his cheek bones beginning to form. His eyes are a warm brown color and his hair is a similar shade; the hair is long enough to touch his shoulders in the back, and looks about chin length in the front. The bangs are normally tied back in a chonmage-style ponytail, though in Damned it’s likely his hair will not be tied back. He’s also left handed.
Any otherworldly abilities?:
Byrne doesn’t have any sort of special sparkly abilities. He’s just an average middle-aged man with above average capabilities.
How about super awesome ninja skills?:
The bulk of Byrne’s skill is smarts. He has a strong understanding of both legal and police procedures, such as how to interpret methods used by murderers by examining a corpse and surrounding crime scene. Byrne’s skill also extends into his double life as a thief, including how security systems work and whatever other training he might have put himself through in order to perform heists. Obviously he is able to enter and exit an establishment without drawing attention to himself, and he has great breaking-and-entering/lock picking skills from three years of thievery. But of course, he isn’t perfect - his mistakes give the third leg of the Yatagarasu a job to do.
Byrne is great with technology and electronic devices. He single handedly created his special thieving gadget “Little Thief”, which is able to project a holographic image of whatever data is put into it. How he made such an incredibly advanced piece of technology and the extent of his technical skill are not explained, so in Damned I will not be giving him any crazy abilities in this area (like insane computer hacker skills and etc.). But he will at least be able to identify and work with quite a bit of modern technology, and if there are any security systems in the institute he will be able to avoid/disarm such things - if that type of security system exists in his world, of course.