Sinewave's OCs

Cornelia Chime (Ace Attorney OC)

Character belongs to SinewaveSanctuary#0795

Name: Cornelia Chime

Nicknames: Cori or Celia (friends only)

Age: 27 (as of Dual Destinies)

Gender: female

Occupation: Prosecutor

Nationality: English (from London specifically)

Sexuality: heterosexual

Pet: a male black and white cat named Domino; she adopted him from a shelter recently, as being in another country, away from her friends/family, long-term made her a bit lonely.
Image credit: Warren Photographic https://www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/09544-black-and-white-cat

Personality: Cornelia is a kind, polite and highly empathetic person. She is motivated by a desire to help those who are suffering in what way she can. She has a strong sense of justice and fairness, which, coupled with her high empathy, helps her to craft strong, passionate arguments with genuine feeling behind them in court. Her calm and polite manner should not be mistaken for passiveness. She can be stern at times especially in a situation where the possibility of a calm, sensible discussion has clearly already gone out the window.
She is an ambivert; she enjoys company and going out, but also needs time to be alone and recharge her social battery, especially given how stressful her job can be at times.
Cornelia is, however, something of a worrier. If she feels she has acted incorrectly during an interaction, or that someone isn't  their usual self, it will bother and distract her. She won't be able to let it alone until the situation is resolved in some manner.  In court, she will do her utmost to avoid potentially upsetting witnesses, defendants and especially victims, unless it is an inevitable consequence of broaching a subject or asking a question which is clearly necessary for the progression of the case. Her empathy can also cause her to be hit hard when she loses a case-not because of the loss in and of itself, but because it meant that she believed an innocent person to be guilty of a crime (or had to knowingly accuse an innocent person because someone still had to fill the role), and that accusation, though proven false, may have damaged that person's reputation and almost certainly their mental health in the process. She will be stuck thinking about what would've happened if the truth hadn't been found, and will feel guilty for her part in this dark "what if" scenario that didn't actually end up happening. Even during a case, having to ask questions (or do other things) that upset those involved for the sake of the task at hand may cause her to question herself and the rightness of what she is doing, even as there is no avoiding it. She is willing to do difficult work and face ugly subjects, situations and truths for the sake of those who can't and are hurt by them, but when she is the one doing the hurting, even if it is for the sake of a greater good, she becomes vulnerable herself.

Appearance: Cornelia has green eyes, white skin, and is of average female height. Her hair is light brown and is usually in messy curls which she can't seem to control no matter how hard she tries or for how long. Her hands are unique; each has six fingers instead of five (polydactyly).
She speaks with a southern English accent.
At work, she wears a long red coat with white cuffs and gold buttons, white pants, white shirt and black boots. Unlike many prosecutors in America, she actually wears her prosecutor's badge at work, because the trend of not wearing it did not spread to England, where she is from.
She also often wears a pair of gold bell-shaped earrings. Outside of work, her attire is sensible and feminine, falling into a middle-ground between casual and formal.

(First image made in CreateShake Manga Girl app as an approximation. Drawing by me but it is old and bad so I plan to update it)

Backstory: Cornelia was born in England, to Andrea and Albert Chime. Albert Chime was a surgeon and Andrea was a psychologist who specialised in trauma counselling; she worked at the same hospital to provide counselling to patients. Cornelia's parents didn't  believe in sugarcoating things so she heard bits and pieces of anecdotes about their work days, and if she asked a question they answered it fully and/or to the best of their ability regardless of how "heavy" a question it was. On top of that, when she was old enough Cornelia began volunteering in the children's ward of the hospital her parents worked at, bringing snacks to the children, playing with them, reading them stories, etc. Through all of this, Cornelia developed a strong sense of empathy for the patients her parents worked with and the children she saw during her volunteer work. She wanted to do more for them, but she couldn't see herself going into the medical field. Since her mother specialised in working through trauma she was very aware of the fact that a lot of these people were victims of crime, and here, Cornelia saw her way of helping them. Cornelia decided to become a prosecutor, because she saw ensuring that the criminals who had hurt these innocents were brought to justice as her way of helping them to heal, and it would prevent future innocents from having to go through what she saw even young children and babies having to endure as a result of the acts of  brazen, heartless criminals. Additionally, Cornelia was bullied during primary school because of her polydactyly (or by bullies who didn't need a reason to pick on someone but saw her as an easy target due to her kind and polite nature), and this experience further strengthened her sense of justice and her understanding of what those who were victimised felt.

Cornelia was very dedicated to her legal studies, and she was also part of an exchange program between her law school and one in America (or Japan, depending on which localisation's universe the roleplay is set in) during her second year; she spent two months studying its legal system, observing trials and participating in mock trials. Even after returning home to England, Cornelia still kept in touch with her exchange partner, Freda Ashton. This would prove crucial later on.
She graduated law school and became a prosecutor at 22. She was good at what she did, and knew how to work with witnesses in an empathetic manner (given what some of them had witnessed) while still getting the answers the court needed. She knew when to put more pressure on, and when to let up. Her priority was finding the truth, and in as timely and painless a manner as possible, the quicker the victims and witnesses to heal.

Some years into her career, news reached England of the legal crisis known as the "Dark Age of the Law" which was spreading legal corruption and chaos overseas. However, she didn't quite grasp just how bad the situation was until one fateful night when she received a call from Freda, her international exchange partner from her law school days. Freda had just endured quite the harrowing experience: she had been falsely accused of a murder she didn't commit, and had been a firsthand witness to the corruption present in America's legal system as a result of the aforementioned crisis, from the extremely rushed investigation, to the clearly deliberately vague witnesses, to the prosecution insisting that she was guilty even when their case was clearly on its last legs. Cornelia waa beyond shocked to hear just how bad the situation was, but as Freda was a lawyer herself, she obviously knew what she was talking about.

Following this, Cornelia wasted no time making preparations. She saw herself not as a "sword of justice" even as her profession filled that role to an extent, but as a healer of those whom such swords often failed to protect.  And this was clearly  a justice system that was in need of some healing. Thanks to her prior experience on her exchange trip and the studies she'd done in preparation for it, it didn't take long for her to fill what knowledge gaps needed filling regarding the other country's system, and she had little trouble convincing Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth to accept her, following her argument that this broken system could benefit from people like her who hadn't been exposed to its corruption. The London Prosecutor's Office was sorry to see her go, but she was needed elsewhere, and she intended to return once the Dark Age of the Law was over and she had done her part to heal what cracks she could.

Note: I started writing a fanfiction about her years ago, called "Amicus Curiae", which can be found on Wattpad, AO3 and QuoteV. It's still incomplete and I have no current plans to update it; in any case, it's not required reading and the events of what I have written do not occur in any roleplays I use Cornelia in. I've also changed a couple things from the book in writing this updated bio.