Iris Earhart

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Chesterfield Act Registry of the Expressive Database

File #17 Feb 2018 20:39

Name	Iris Paige Earhart	Aliases
Status	Registered Expressive (Class C Kinetic)	Ability	Papyrokinesis

Gender	Female
Birthdate	April 21st, 1989	Age	28

Height	5'3"	Build	Small
Eyes	Blue	Hair	Brown

Residence	Williamsburg, New York City Safe Zone
Employment	Brooklyn Public Library

Parents

Quinton Earhart (father)
Aubrey Earhart (mother)

Siblings

None

Marital Status

Single

Children

None

First Scene

Like A Quest

Last Scene

Bookslides

Profile

Iris Earhart is an excitable London expatriate living in the New York Safe Zone. Despite being an affable and energetic young woman, she is most often found with her nose buried in a book - any book, really. With an overactive imagination and a love of all things fantastical, she works at the Brooklyn Public Library, where she spends more time reading than actually doing her job yet still somehow manages to get paid. Her ability allows her to control, wield, and change paper in amazing ways, and it's something she finds great joy in. She is commonly dressed in a bright blue jacket and is almost always carrying a book or a magazine or something. Also kind of hates it when people mispronounce her name.

portrayed by

Jenna Coleman

Iris Paige Earhart (pronounced EAR-ihs, not EYE-ris) was born in London, England to Quinton and Aubrey Earhart. An only child, Iris spent most of early life a bored child surrounded by busy, disinterested adults either at home, or at the daycare she was often deposited in when her parents decided they didn't want to deal with her neediness anymore. She was a shy young girl who found her companionship in books and stories and art and all forms of creative endeavors, rather than in the affection of her parents or the closeness of friends.

Into her teens she was often described s reclusive, the type who preferred to sit in the school library instead of play in sports or attend school clubs after hours; her high school however had a compulsory athletics program, forcing her to participate in one of the school's athletic teams for at least a season a year - Iris picked cross country, so that she could listen to music and audiobooks while she ran. She found something she enjoyed in running, able to tune out the world around her much like she did while running, and it has forever since been her primary form of exercise.

When she was sixteen, tragedy struck in America when The Bomb detonated in New York City and the existence of The Evolved was revealed. Her parents were ambivalent, but Iris was absolutely enraptured by the goings on in America. To her, from such a distance, it all played out like something out of one of the science fiction books she had read. In the wake of The Bomb all sorts of new books begin to pop up, wth Iris' favourites being those written by Savannah Buron in particular.

Such an idyllic view of the world wouldn't last. America was quick to enact the Linderman Act, with other drastic measures put into place, and as the supposed dangers of the Evolved began to spread out into the wider world. Her parents condemned the events going on in America, something which quickly became a point of contention between Iris and her parents. As violence and Evolved-related activity continued to escalate in America and overseas, Iris retreated further into her books.

It wasn't until she left for University in 2008 that Iris began to open up to others, making friends with a handful of students - other bookworms and creative types. Her small group of friends came include a few Evolved student, whom Iris eagerly befriended. While at University, she studied Classical Literature and Creative Writing, while working at the school library in order to afford herself money for more books, and more time doing what she truly enjoyed the most - reading.

It was shortly before Iris graduated that a second bomb detonated in New York City, once again the result of Evolved violence, and by the time Iris graduated in 2012, the Second American War was in full swing and the EU was strengthening it's own Evolved regulations. Iris spent much of this time watching the war overseas from afar - again, while this was dreadful reality, there was a story like enchanting quality to it, likely because she wasn't living it. And she was aware of this, but she couldn't help but be fascinated regardless.

While the war was raging in America, Iris went to work at a small used bookstore near the outskirts of London, renting space above the store as both an apartment and a place to keep her ever growing collection of books. It was an uninteresting life, to Iris - it lacked the excitement and unpredictability of the books she loved - but it was one that still brought her joy. She continued to work through 2017 at this shop, growing close to the owner and her son while at the same time growing more distant from her own parents

In 2014, with the end of the war and the enactment of the Chesterfield Act, things got harder back home as the EU continued to tighten regulations - never to the point America had, but enough to be off putting to someone like Iris - she, as far as she knew, was not evolved. Her parents and many others approved of the decisions to not longer honour American Visas, travellers, and refugees without precautions. Still, life continued to match forward.

Everything changed for Iris in early 2017. While locking up the bookstore so that she could go see one of her friends after closing, she was accosted by a man with a gun looking to rob a weak looking woman outside of an unassuming bookstore. Unwilling to comply with the man's demands, he took a chance and pulled a gun, firing twice at Iris. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself still standing, having hasily pulled something out of her back reflexively to try and stop the man or his bullets. But she hadn't pulled out any of the books she kept on her person.

Instead she had pulled out a simple piece of sketchbook paper that had been folded up in her pocket. And somehow, she had stopped the bullets with it. The man took off into the night, and Iris was left to accept the fact that she, at some unknowing point had herself manifested as Evolved. WIth a bit of experimentation, she came to realise that she now held dominion over paper itself. Iris was thrilled with manifesting her own ability, reminding her of the stories she had read as a child and a teen. But as with anything else, there were consequences.

The revelation that she was one of the Evolved was the final straw in Iris' relationship with her parents, finally being entirely disowned by them shortly after the news of her manifestation reach them. As well, she suddenly became subject to the EU's laws regulating the Evolved. What was happening to her was not the storybook affair she had always dreamed it would be. Nor, however, was it the end of the world.

Packing up what she could of her book collection and selling the rest and donating what she couldn't sell to the bookstore she worked at, Iris formed a new plan for herself: She would say goodbye to her life in London, leave the bookstore she had worked at for much of her adult life, and relocate to America. To those around her it seemed like an idiotic and foolhardy plan. To her, it was the beginning of the adventure she'd always wanted out of her otherwise mundane life.

She was not, however, dumb enough to think that everything would be simple and clean once she got there. She had followed the Second American Civil War, and she knew what kind of state the country was in. She knew what she was putting herself into would be hard. She knew there would be problems. But she knew if she stayed, her life was only going to get complicated in ways she was not willing to entertain.

So, in the summer of 2017, Iris Earhart relocated America, and was directed almost immediately to settle in the New York Safe Zone. Using what money she had and the grant funds provided for her for being willing to move to the Safe Zone, she registered under the Chesterfield Act and set up home in Williamsburg in a small apartment. Her dream is to save up enough money to open up a used bookshop of her own, as well as to rent out a second apartment to use as a storage center for the new collection of books she hopes to accrue.

It's nice to have dreams.

In the meantime, she took up a job at the Brooklyn College Library, before moving to the reopened Brooklyn Public Library when it is brought back to operational status by Gillian Childs. Though, in some ways, life is still unassuming, every day is a new adventure for Iris, far from home and surrounded by new folks in a city oh-so-different from London - and in much worse condition. She believes she is in NYC to stay, and hopes to make a difference and enrich people's lives however she can. It didn't take her long to become involved with the Save Zone Cooperative, volunteering and helping out in whatever ways she can manage and provide.

The most common words used to describe Iris by the various people she has known over the years would include things like "excitable", "space case", "bright", "enthusiastic", and "bookish". Despite her bookworm nature, Iris loves people, and as her life has gone on she has made more and more of an effort to be around others when she isn't reading - though reading does absolutely dominate the lion's share of her free time. She is always thrilled to meet new people and approaches others with an enthusiasm unexpected from someone who was probably buried nose deep in a book moments before.

Beyond being extremely friendly and approachable, Iris is a generally positive person who looks to find whatever good she can in a person or situation, even if sometimes it takes some mental gymnastics - she always wants to find the best in person, but once they have betrayed her trust, it is hard to earn back. She doesn't take well to lies or deceit, and even pranks can sometimes rub Iris the wrong way. She is a burning star of energy when engaged, always willing to offer smiles and help cheer up others however she can, and as of late tends to integrate her ability into these sorts of actions.

The mundane is the enemy of Iris Earhart's psyche, and she finds ways to make everything she can extraordinary in whatever way she can. Her years reading books of all sorts in relative isolation has given her an overactive imagination even at her age - simply reshelving books at a library will turn into an epic quest, or the hunt to find ingredients for tonight's cooking will turn into a daring mystery - all in her head. Sometimes she tunes out the real world when she does this, making her seem distant or vacant, and can make getting her attention hard - but she is a good, diligent worker, at least until she finds something more tangible to distract her.

These distractions tend to come in the form of books, papers, stories, magazines - anything Iris can read. When presented with material she has never read before - or something she has and adored - she can become even more absorbed into her reading than she does with anything else. Attention isn't paid to the world around her, conversations are missed, responsibilities are shirked - the entire world stops for something new to read. Friends have joked that the world could be ending around her, but if she had a book she'd never even notice. Her favourite authors as of late are Savannah Burton and her Amplified series, as well as the recent books written by Leanne Lennox.

Iris Earhart's ability is the power to manipulate one of the most common man made materials in the world - paper. Her potential control over paper is vast but wild and poorly explored. So far, Iris has learned that she is capable of affecting the rigidity, density, sharpness, and shape of paper - she can make a simple piece of paper as sharp as a steel knife, as strong as a piece of kevlar, or form it into wieldable shape. As well, her power extends through pieces of paper to any others the paper under her control comes into contact with, allowing her to adhere, change, and shape multiple pieces of paper together at once. Once Iris has set a piece of paper how she wants it to be, she no longer needs to focus on it - as long as it stays within her small field of effect, it will retain whatever properties she has given it

To manipulate a piece of paper, it must be within an inch of her body, or attached to another piece of paper she is already manipulating. Though she lacks the ability to manipulate paper at range, once she has affected a piece of paper's properties, it retains them for a small window of time once it leaves her hands - if she had the skill, she could make a bow and arrow out of paper, and the paper arrow would likely keep its strength, density, and rigidity long enough to strike it's target, at which point will likely return to being regular paper, or she could throw a piece of paper like a knife and possibly still be able to harm someone.

In theory, Iris can make any simple object from paper with her ability - anything from a chair, a table, or even clothes, to a knife, sword, bat, or a tall shield or small barrier. She could even animate small paper cutouts and has done so as a means to entertain children while she narrates stories she knows. Anything she manipulates or shapes remains as light as the paper that composes it. What she cannot do is create anything with complex moving parts, like a gun or a machine, at least not at her current strength - in theory her papercrafting ability is only limited by the scope of her knowledge, training, and most importantly, her imagination. She also cannot create anything that is bigger than herself at the moment in terms of area or height. Just because she can create something does not mean she is granted the knowledge of how to use whatever she creates - if she made a sword to defend herself, for instance, she would be reduced to swinging it wildly or trying to mimic what she's read in books or seen on TV.

Her paper can he rendered as sharp as an extremely well made blade, strong enough to cut wood, flesh, or soft metals, or render it hard as steel. Her ability has two notable weaknesses inherent to the nature of paper itself - fire and water. Fire will burn through her paper at a normal rate, though something thickened by multiple layers of paper may burn slowly, whereas wet paper is completely useless, limp and unable to be manipulated in any sort of way.

Everything Iris has learned how to do has been through her own practice and imaginings; she lacks any formal training of any sort. She always keeps paper on her, usually in bag or in one of her coat pockets, just in case - she knows the "Safe" Zone isn't always the safest place at all. She is often reluctant to use books to fuel her ability, but will if she absolutely needs to.

Appendices

A Dream of Lucid Worlds

Anthology

+ (Almost) Eidetic Memory - Not of the superhuman variety, but notable nonetheless. If Iris has read it, she can probably recall it without too much trouble. She doesn't remember everything she reads, but she is very good at recalling information if she has the chance to look over and study it. She has a much harder time remembering images or auditory stimuli, however

+ Physical Fitness - When Iris is not reading, working, or socialising, there is a good chance she is running. Despite her bookish temperament and sometimes meek appearance, Iris is exceptionally fit and surprisingly fast, capable of jogging through an entire cross country course or running a marathon at a decent pace and time.

+ A World Of Pure Imagination - Growing up surrounded by books and isolated from her parents and other children has led Iris to have an expansive and active imagination, even in her adult years. This causes her to space out sometimes thinking of fantastical possibilities, but her imagination is what fuels her ability, allowing her think up all kinds of ingenious, and sometimes insane, things to do with paper.

+ Well Read - Iris is extremely well read, and is very booksmart - though not terribly street smart. She has read books, fact and fiction, about an impressive assortment of topics, and finds herself able to contribute to most conversations she ends up. That is, when she isn't getting fact and fiction confused. That definitely happens. It's really embarrassing when someone points it out to her.

+ Organisational Wizard - Having worked in bookstores and libraries most of her life has left her with a keen grip on organisation and efficiency of all sorts.