#iris okaley

[totally-not-gay-bird-women]

Happy 167th birthday to our dear Iris!

She was one of the first children to end up in my care and for that, I am eternally grateful. She is an absolute joy to have around and we all love her to bits. Even if sometimes she tries to sneak just her hands into the pantry to get sweets in the middle of the night. (For the record, my dear, if you try tonight, nobody will notice). Anyhow, my point is, despite the fact that in a loop there is not much one can offer in the way of gifts, I, along with everybody else, I'm sure, wish you the happiest day in the world.

Nobody talk about the hair. Nobody. Say. Anything. - Iris

By the way, if anybody wants to sneak any gifts or letters into the loop, I'll be happy to deliver them!! - Guinevere

[totally-not-gay-bird-women]

We were pretty busy today, so we didn't have the chance to answer asks 😭 (Should get answered tomorrow!!) so to make up for it, here's what the kids (and Guinevere) look like :)

[totally-not-gay-bird-women]

Happy birthday Iris! Though I understand it may be in a bit of rougher times, please do enjoy this chocolate!

-ajp

Hey, thanks!

This is awesome! Definitely made my day (I mean it was already going great but this just made it ten times better) :)

- Iris

[totally-not-gay-bird-women]

-"You go back and warn everyone." Luna said. "I'll get the kid. No offense, but your peculiarity isn't necessarily the best for comat and defense. Plus, I gotta few tricks up my sleeve."

"But it's still a hollow!" Iris squeaked, already backing away.

"But if I can get some shadows around it, boom! No more invisible creature." Luna said. "Now go, and don't be late, ya hear me?"

"Got it." And Iris was on her way.-

Iris ran, praying that Luna would be alright. She wished she could with along with her, but the mere thought of a wight or a hollow was enough to paralyze her with fear. She wished she was braver when it came to things like this.

She very quickly arrived back at the house, cutting through the gardens. Phillip waved at her, an innocent smile on his face.

"Oh, Iris, hi-"

"Where's Ms. Sparrow?!" She interrupted, her voice shaking.

His eyes widened and he approached her. "Iris... Are you okay?"

"I-" She glanced around, as Issar, Peter and Eleanor also got closer. "Please Phil, where is she?"

"Iris?" The ymbryne called out, entering the gardens. She looked worried as she walked over, but it immediately calmed Iris down. "And where's Luna?"

"There's a wight!" She blurted out. Almost instantly, everyone went silent and all that could be heard was Iris' laboured breathing. "Near... Near the printing press... Luna stayed back."

Caroline was around that area... Ms. Sparrow looked at Iris and put a hand on her shoulder. "Get inside and tell the others, okay?" Iris nodded, taking Issar and Peter with her back inside. Ms. Sparrow turned to Phillip and Eleanor. "Phillip, we're going to do as we rehearsed, alright? I need you to get everyone to the safe spaces and hide. Do not let anyone in under any circumstances. Do you understand?"

Phillip nodded, now just as terrified as everyone else. He motioned for Eleanor to come with him to gather everyone into the underground bunker.

Ms. Sparrow watched the children go back inside. Even though they'd been over the scenario hundreds of times, she still couldn't believe it was actually happening.

As the children scrambled to get to safety, Caroline stumbled out into the garden, staring at Vivian. "Viv... Is this true?" She walked over to her, fear and concern present in her eyes.

Vivian sighed, trying to remain calm. "Yes..." She wanted to say more, but the words had left her. Instead, Caroline took her hands to help her calm down. Vivian took a deep breath. "At the printing press. Luna's still there."

Caroline nodded slowly, taking in the information. "Okay. Okay... My wing's not too injured, Guinevere helped with the last of it. And I can still fight like this too." She squeezed Vivian's hands. "We're going to get through this, Viv." She said, looking down at her with determination. Vivian closed her eyes and nodded.

"Let's go help Luna."

[totally-not-gay-bird-women]

-The printing press was a fairly old building considering it was in the past. Upon reaching the front doors, humming could be heard inside.

"Is that him," Luna asked. "humming 'Daisy Bell'?"

"Yup." Iris replied. "A favorite of his. He's really into the older stuff-"

"Hush for a second." Luna said. She went up to the wall and placed her hand against the rusty bricks. "There's someone else, ey? How old you say Elliot was?"

"Bout 8 I think, going on 9." Iris said.

"Well shit." Luna muttered. "This guys about 40."

"Do you think. . ."

"Uh huh. It's a wight."-

Iris froze almost immediately, the moment the words left Luna's mouth. "Oh no..." She backed up from the wall, almost stumbling over as she did so. "We need to get back... We need to-"

Luna shushed her, noticing how her voice was raising. She was equally terrified but tried not to show it too much. "We need to be quiet..." She whispered, heart pounding. "Isn't it true that when there's a wight there's also a hollow nearby?"

"Dammit..." Iris ran her hand through her hair as she felt her fear consuming her. Was that what hurt Ms. Flamingo? And what about Elliot? Was he in there with him? Iris certainly didn't want to find out right now. "We have to go back." She pleaded to Luna.

[totally-not-gay-bird-women]

-"Did you get a name, eye color, anything to go off of?" Jonothan asked.

"Not really. He was in the past, I know that. As well as being covered in dirt, head to toe. Poor child must have been orphaned and startled." Caroline said.

"That sounds like one of the paper boys." Iris whispered to Luna. They agreed this was not their conversation to overhear, and started walking away. "Elliot, I think his name was. Every now and then we'll go into the past where we can't age forward, and he's always on time. Like, dead to the very second. But there's small things he does differently. One day he sneezed, another day he almost got hit by bird dung, and so on."

"So an unlooped peculiar?" Luna asked. "That can't be right! He would have moved on."

"Well, no. The loop covers the entire block surrounding the graveyard. You know the very first tombstone of the yard? That was the loop entrance." Iris explained. "But Elliot sleeps just a bit down from behind the house, in the printing press."

"So within the loop borders!" Luna smiled.

"Well then, off to the printing press we go!"-

As the two walked, Iris started thinking about Elliot. She wondered what would've made Elliot attack Ms. Flamingo. She turned to Luna. "Soo... What should the plan be when we get to him? Try to talk it out? Eavesdrop or something..?"

"I don't know what we'd be eavesdropping on..." She said, giving Iris an odd look.

"Well y'know... In case he's talking to himself?" She smiled nervously. "No? Well, yeah, maybe it's best to just talk with him..." She glanced down, a thought lingering in her mind. "You don't... You don't think he'll attack us too, right?"

"There's really no way to know..." She said honestly. "But we'll be careful. If we don't give him a reason to attack us, we should be fine."

Iris nodded, her mind wandering elsewhere for a moment. Iris sighed softly and smiled at Luna. "Yeah, you're right!" She looked ahead, spotting their destination. "Okay, printing press. We've got this."

[totally-not-gay-bird-women]

-". . . So you're sayin' a peculiar you contacted did this?" Jonothan asked. There was a silence that followed, assuming Miss Flamingo nodded.

"Is there any info you can give us about this peculiar, Caroline?" Miss Sparrow asked.

"Well," She started. "He sounded French. Oh, who did his looks remind me of. . . Gavoroche! Yes, from Les Misérables. But his peculiarity was quite the interesting one. He managed to paralyze me, though it seemed like a second to me, for 5 minutes! Frozen like time stopped ticking."

"Do you reckon he's a clockwinder? Or even a demi-ymbryne. Not common in Europe, but still possible." Jonothan said, his whiskers gong up.

"No. He has to have a clock on him to be a clock winder." Caroline said. "And I remember demi-ymbrynes also must be female."

"He could also be a memory wiper." Guinevere suggested, thrumming her fingers on the wall. "Could've just wiped your memory of those 5 minutes. Or his peculiarity is just paralyzation you and not remembering is a quirk."

"Well one things for certain." Miss Sparrow cut in. "We need to find this kid, or someone else could get seriously hurt."-

Iris backed away from the door, looking over at Luna to see if she reacted the same way. "A violent peculiar?" She sounded a little worried.

"Maybe he just felt scared?" Luna wondered. "A form of self-defence?"

Iris sighed and nodded. "Yeah... That's probably it." She ran a hand through her hair. "Still... Enough damage to harm Ms. Flamingo... That's a little scary, right?"

[totally-not-gay-bird-women]

-Luna and Iris just finished resorting the library when they heard a loud bang on the other side of the wall.

"Do you reckon' that was Dawn?" Luna asked. Iris paused, then slowly nodded.

"Has to be. I wonder if someone got hurt. That would be why Guinevere had called her so shortly after breakfast." Iris said.

"Well, do you want to go see who?" Luna asked. Not in a bad way, just out of curiosity.

"Why not." Iris said. "It's not like we have anything better to do."-

Iris motioned for Luna to follow her. She lead them downstairs, to the infirmary. The door to the room was closed shut and locked. Iris frowned.

"Huh... Well, there has to be someone in there." She mumbled.

Luna tilted her head, inspecting the door. "Is there any way to know what's happening in there?"

Iris lightly tapped the door. "Well the door's not too thick. If we're quiet enough we might be able to listen in."