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| [[File:Headclouds.png|330px]] | | [[File:Headclouds.png|330px]] |
| It was a normal pregnancy. Jon and Hannah had been married for 8 years, trying for 3. When it finally worked for them, they were elated. They went to every appointment and had eager expectations for their child. It was the birth that was weird.
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| Hannah's water broke a month early. Premature labor initiated and they rushed to the hospital. The doctors monitored her for an hour before quiet words between them sent her to have a c-section. As they pulled the child out, concerns were raised. Her color was wrong, she wasn't going pink, instead staying a worrying blue tint. Her ears slightly pointed, but that could have been the result of them being pinched when she was in utero. Her temperature was a few degrees low.
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| They rushed the infant out and put her under observation. While her vitals were normal, and her lungs strong as heck, the initial causes for worry just... didn't go away. After a month of observation, the decision was to send her home. She was thriving.
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| The couple took Iris Jane Felton home just in time for Christmas.
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| Things progressed as normally as could be. Iris was a pleasant, easy baby to take care of. Alert and quiet, her oddities didn't seem to affect her. The skin tone which had initially seemed to be a vaguely blue tint began to intensify and become full on blue and felt somewhat damp. Ears that had seemed pointed were, well, more than that. The older she got, the longer they were. And the odd clinging surface on her skin only intensified, appearing like wisps of clouds atop her flesh, moving with air and touch.
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| Moreover, she seemed to match the temperature of whatever it was outside. Her hair grew in a soft downy white all over her head. And it also did not stay still. No matter how fiercely Hannah tried to tame it, how much product or ponytails she put in it, the girl's hair seemed to have a mind of its own.
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| Jon and Hannah were at a loss. She was happy. Joyous even, if she were out in the sun. But their child was decidedly different and they had no idea what that meant for the family's future. Love her? of course. That wasn't the issue. It was other people. It was Iris herself. What was going to happen?
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| The family opted to homeschool their little girl. Precocious and smart, Iris had no issues reading or wanting to learn. She did, however, have attention problems. Always doodling or staring out the window, she wasn't entirely there. They tried their best, though, and began to intersperse all of her learning time with outside time. An hour of learning, an hour outside. It worked.
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| Until one day, her hour outside turned into a disappearing act. Hannah stepped outside, expecting to find Iris on the playground. When she wasn't there, she walked out to the barns, looking to see if the energetic girl had gone to talk to the animals without saying anything. Still no Iris.
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| She called Jon and he came up from the garage, the two of them wandering around their 15 acre farm looking for a small child, calling her name with increasing panic. Finally, Jon called the police. THey brought down dogs and the dogs went all over the property. They lost her scent in the middle of a clearing. An amber alert was set out for a blue-skinned, white haired girl of only 7. Long blue ears and cloudy white eyes.
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| A week went by without any hints. Neighbors who had previously kept their distance came to check on the couple, helping search or feed the family while everyone continued to look.
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| It wasn't until all hallow's ever a month after her initial disappearance that there was a lead. From a most unlikely source. He knocked on the door, all dressed to the nines and somber; the earth toned suit tailored to fit his tall and broad frame. There were glasses on his nose, small wire frames with thin lenses and he held in his hand a trilby which had up until the knocking been perched on chestnut colored hair. Hannah opened the door curiously to the stranger. ''News'', he said, ''of your daughter. She is, I believe, through the hedge. There has been much discussion of her, and we ... my friends and I, that is... we believe she is not entirely as you think. She will be returned to you at the darkest time of night, unharmed. But... I encourage you to seek assistance and have an open heart and mind.''
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| She stared at him, unsure if he was threatening, though he seemed entirely polite and demure. She couldn't find it in herself to yell or argue, only nodded. Catching sight of a pair of small horns now peeking through the mess of hair on his head, she stopped herself from thanking him after a syllable. His lips curled into a little smile and he nodded. ''Best leave it at that.'' Turning, he walked off, getting into an Oldsmobile and driving from their property.
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| Hannah relayed the conversation to Jon when he returned from checking on the livestock. He hadn't heard a car come up the drive and began to wonder if his wife were okay. Waiting until after dinner, he began to make plans. She needed some company. Iris being missing was taking its toll on her. When he brought the subject up, they fought. It was loud and lasted for a long time, until ultimately, Hannah found herself curled up on the floor in tears with her husband beside her just as emotional.
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| As they consoled each other, the skies grew dark with clouds, hiding the moon. It became nearly black out, and a knock sounded on their door. Leaving his wife to recover, Jon went for the door. There, he found a tall being. Standing at well over seven feet, they had an adrogynous appearance. Their dark frame was well toned and seemed to shimmer in the light while also absorbing it. What could have been confused for hair was faint shadowy wisps on their head, stretching out behind them for a good three feet, twisting around ears and fading into nothingness. Speechless, it wasn't until he heard Hannah's cries of '''Iris!''' and sobbing as his wife came up behind him, that Jon noticed they held his daughter asleep in their arms.
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| Hannah immediately invited them in. With a bow, they stepped over the hearth and changed. Thick, natural hair fell in waves down their back as they shrunk into an impressive 6 foot tall amazon with dark brown skin that was almost black. ''I believe this is yours.'' With a brilliant smile, they set Iris in Hannah's arms. ''Though how you came to birth a fae is ... a question, isn't it.'' A slight apologetic smile crossed their lips and they continued speaking. ''I am called Door. I offer myself as a teacher to both you and the child Iris. She is being raised in your world, but is of ours. She will need help with her abilities- understanding them, controlling them, in order to protect herself and others.''
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| The conversation fell on dumbfounded ears as Jon and Hannah processed everything, and ultimately agreed, in exchange for fresh milk and honey, freely given. A gift had opened and Door had walked through.
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| [[File:Weatherclouds.png|260px]] | | [[File:Weatherclouds.png|260px]] |
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| The next few years were filled with randomly timed visits from Door and two others, one to set protections on the property and another to spell the family safely. The three of them along with Jon, Hannah and Iris formed an odd gathering but slowly a different sort of family - though there was always a striking sense of other about the trio.
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| Iris grew quickly in their combined attentions. Door set out a harsh but fun series of lessons on her behavior, and soon her abilities. It was revealed that she was a sort of fae who had the ability to become and charge the air. It was why she had disappeared so readily, unknowingly using her gifts to turn into a cloud and slip through the thin veil.
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| Head in the clouds was no longer just a phrase for Iris. She reveled in it, taking to her gift with ease. With her form being variable, she could do anything! She could even go to the clouds ... better yet, she could '''make''' them! It was increasingly more difficult to get her to pay attention to her school work, and finally, Hannah had to enlist the help of the trio for that, also. Despite Door being unimpressed with the information deemed necessary, they strove to help her learn all of that in time for graduation.
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| And it came with struggle. Struggle which opened the floodgates on Iris' other abilities. Not only was she a cloud child, her emotions affected the clouds themselves. Being stressed would bring on dark clouds; petulance and sadness brought out rain. And one day, there was a fight and Iris got mad.
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| The lightning hit a nearby tree, splitting it in half and trailing along the ground to jump back up through her body and into the clouds above. It was a perfect storm. Wild and torrential, and all of two minutes. Having scared herself, it abruptly stopped, leaving curious rumblings of thunder dancing around the farm for a few hours as Iris and Door spoke long and hard about her temper being a necessary thing to control.
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| One day, it all ended. The trio stopped showing up. Door was the only one who came. ''She is being sought. And also, no longer your charge. She has come of age and graduated... our jobs have completed unless she herself seeks us out.'' No more explanation. There were gentle goodbyes, and then nothing.
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| Quiet conversation between Jon and Hannah that night carried up through the farmhouse to Iris. She heard worried talk about her future, her ''other'' father. Door, Runelend, and Skips were not coming back and she wasn't entirely sure how to find them... but she needed to.
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| The next morning, she packed her stuff up while her parents were tending to the farm, left them a long note, grabbed all of her savings out of her piggybank and left.
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| [[File:Driftingclouds.png|330px]] | | [[File:Driftingclouds.png|330px]] |
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| * Leaving home
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| * Wandering around
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| * Finding Paragon
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| * Her ears drip from the tips when it is humid outside. | | * Her ears drip from the tips when it is humid outside. |
| * Iris' hair tends to act as if there is constant wind or lack of gravity, or both. There are ever present flyaways and floating wisps. | | * Iris' hair tends to act as if there is constant wind or lack of gravity, or both. There are ever present flyaways and floating wisps. |
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| <center>'''Associations'''</center> | | <center>'''Associations'''</center> |
