Name: Avalon Mitchell-Callagher
Age: 24
Species: Instar Diviner - Light (Unknown)
Family: NA
Faceclaim: Sarah Bolger

It starts with the sun.

Jacob and Summer Gallagher were from a long line of light diviners and met while still in their teens, before the ceremony, and long before either considered marriage or having children. They were the best of friends and that was what made them the happiest couple. Friends knew them as the jovial young family who loved to travel, host game night, and never turned away a person in need. It was three years into their marriage when a piece of that light was chipped away at the news it may become difficult for Summer to ever carry a baby. They were devastated having always wanted to raise a family. It became especially hard for Summer when her sister-in-law became pregnant and a year later her niece, Aster, was born. However, the wait wasn’t long, and their miracle arrived. A surprise to everyone, Avalon June Gallagher came into the world with laughter instead of tears. However, as beautiful as the baby was, the birth had been difficult on Summer. To her husband’s protest, the diviner insisted on being the one to cast life protection on her daughter. As generous a sacrifice as this was it slowly began to drain the last of what made Summer Gallagher herself. She never fully recovered. The tiny family of three chose to vacation far from the small town of her birth and move to Lyon, France.

Avalon’s first three years were filled with bright breezy mornings, colorful bouquets, and her own childish imitations of a new language. Her father, Jacob, found work as a carpenter since he had always been good with hands and her mother did her best to conceal her illness around their small daughter. However, Summer’s light was fading, and the toddler was quick to one-up her in energy. Before long, most of the couple’s limited finances were going to a nurse and a nanny. Ava grew bright and enjoyed making her mother laugh, but it wouldn’t be long before her self-awareness grew enough that she noticed her Mother’s laughter typically ended in a blood-soaked handkerchief. Jacob was worked to the bone paying the pills and it wearied him to see his wife slipping from his grasp, day by day. It was then that they decided to return to consult the coven over Summer’s illness. Perhaps, something could be done.

The year was 1995 and the metro in Lyons could not be more crowded. Two and a half year old Ava sucked her thumb as her Mother held her and her Father carried the majority of their belongings stuffed into three suitcases. The train rushed out of the city and towards home when suddenly the lights in the car went black. Everything was still before the back of the train rocked back and forth to a giant boom. The screams of people and cries of children were overshadowed by the blast. Chaos broke out as everyone ran towards the doors. Upon finding them locked and underground silence took hold while everyone trapped in the railcar wondered to themselves how long they’d be there. Eight people died and another one hundred and fifty seven were injured in the attack on the train, but never spoken of was the the little girl who went missing in the bedlam.

Found on the scene of a terrorist bombing with no identification, Avalon Gallagher had little chance of ever seeing her family again, even as they searched for her. Her life was quickly a question of who was she was, but one man made sure they never found out what she was. With her blue eyes flashing between a terrified white and an angry red, it was clear to Eric Mitchell that Ava was no normal baby. As a CIA agent, it was his duty to protect both foreign entities and and his own country by turning in anything that may be dangerous. For all he knew, this baby could have caused the explosion; but as he he held the child and calmed her cries, Eric could not excuse handing her over to the authorities. He knew that any kind of foreign being, whether it was alien or something else, would be tested and imprisoned. This was a baby and he couldn’t have blind faith in any organization that would treat a child with such cruelty. So, doing the only thing that felt right, he brought her home to his wife. It was easy for Marigold to notice that Avalon wasn’t a normal toddler. The toddler’s prompt dislike for peas made her eyes turn green. After spending a week buried in the deepest of locked up files (plenty of which were illegal for him to access) Eric Mitchell found hope. He believed that small ‘Avie’ as she called herself was a magical being of some sort and her powers were controlled by the sun. It took another few days of research and a clever contact in the black market for him to come upon an antique silver necklace with a red gem inside. They placed it on the baby and from that day on, Ava’s magical colored eyes disappeared only to rainbow into her jewelry. Eric had no joy in taking away what he knew could make her so special, but if it was to keep her safe, he believed his new daughter could never know what power was underneath her fingertips. Neither could anyone else.

Meanwhile, Jacob and Summer searched for their daughter who had disappeared on the day of the disastrous train trip back to their coven. Summer’s health was still weak and losing her only child did not aid her. Jacob continued to work so that they could afford rent, but France was no longer the safe haven it once had been. Slowly, grief began to take its toll on their relationship and losing Ava was all that they could think or speak of to one another. It was as if the sun had faded behind a dark cloud which did not cease. Eventually, despite that her health hadn’t improved, Summer packed her bags. She couldn’t remain in the home where her baby girl had taken her last steps and had given her last hugs to her parents. It was too painful. In the middle of the night, she boarded a taxi and left Jacob. There was a letter pinned to the fridge, but all it really said was goodbye.

Ava Mitchell grew into a spunky, bright, opinionated child who treated the world like her wheelhouse. She knew the names of the neighbors and their dogs and exactly what time the bus left for school, but even with all the reminders she was always five minutes late to class. Over time, it became part of her charm, but school was difficult for her. Easily distractible, she liked to dream during lectures and study periods and never found Maths and English interesting, but more frustrating. Science was the one class she enjoyed, but only the chapters on birds and clouds. The rest of the year passed by in a dredge of education and extra tutors and always trying harder to seem like she fit into a school that just didn’t fit her. Ava was always too loud when she needed to be quiet and too quiet when she needed to be loud. She simply didn’t tick the boxes of elementary school. However, in the midst of it all, she did find that despite her family’s strict rules, they were kind. Many times she wondered where her bright colored hair and eyes came from when both Eric and Marigold had dark eyes and brown hair. Her parents simply told her she was unique, but for Ava it was more than that: struggling to feel like she belonged.

Curiosity and questions are all well and fine in an eleven year old, but as she aged, her grades and her “lack of trying” at school became came an issue for her parents, but Ava did try despite her dislike of school. Only now, it was with an end goal in sight. She wanted to get out of Harper’s Ferry and attend a Pilot’s Academy. There was much tension for several months and she often awoke to hearing her parents argue in whispers about the necklace she’d worn since long ago. Could they trust her to keep it on? It was all for her own protection. These things worried Ava, but she did her best to push them to the back of her mind and sleep through the conversations she was never meant to hear. Her senior year was ripe with growth, good grades, and a gift. Instead of buying her a car for graduation, Eric Mitchell brought his adopted daughter down to the old military consignment lot and helped her choose her first plane. It was small, lightweight, and fit two people in the front. Retired, but in excellent repair. Ava’s eyes glowed when she saw it, though purely from excitement. Before the afternoon was over, she was the proud owner of The Clair de Lune. The sight, the feel and just the emotion of running her hands through the mechanisms of The Clair, reinforced the idea that had developed since she had first stumbled upon a tattered copy of The Red Fighter Pilot. Filled with the intriguing tale itself and the accompanying comments in the margin, Ava knew without a doubt that this was her path in life.

It took a lot of convincing, but eventually Eric and Marigold allowed their daughter to move into the dorms. They were a wreck of nerves her first day on campus and could barely leave in the car once she was settled in with her roommate. However, Ava was walking on air. Finally, she was free to explore her interests without an angel and a devil on her shoulder, constantly reminding her of the rules. Unlike a normal college, flight academy only lasted a year and a half. Her classes were not only oriented in logic, brain training, and geography, but also mechanics, emergency safety mechanisms, and finally piloting a plane. She dove into her studies head first for the first time in her life fascinated enough to be focused, and energized. The next year and a half passed by faster than she anticipated and Ava graduated with honors.

Like all newly graduated students, Ava decided to fly commercial planes. It wasn’t hard to find a job and soon she was being swept off her feet-quite literally in the whirlwind of her training and certifications. 100 hours of pilot-in-command time, 50 hours of cross-country flying and the realisation of finally living her dream had Ava beyond happy. Once the newness wore off and the experience became a regular routine, she started to feel like she was missing something. Coming home to Virginia and sinking into the old sheets of her bed, Ava wondered if having waited for so long that this was all it felt like to have finally achieved her goal. She cuddled up next to her parents and confessed her struggle. Her father was encouraging, for once, and her mother baked a pecan pie; but it was really a single documentary about a military pilot that showed Ava why she’d been feeling so trapped while flying in the air. She wasn’t content shuttling discontent passengers from place to place. She needed a purpose. With a skip in her step, Ava Mitchell signed up for the United States Air Force. Eric and Marigold, worrying her secret was only one accident from being released into the world, feared the worst.

Only the worse did not come in the form that they had anticipated. It was no secret that Eric and Ava did not see eye to eye on her joining the Airforce. Having been a CIA officer for a large part of his life, Eric felt that world to be too grim and too unpredictable for his daughter and they argued many times in person and on phone. Ava defended her passion and dreams fiercely, but it wreaked havoc on their already rocky relationship and though Marigold tried to be the buffer, things never really improved. It was near the end of her second year of enlistment that Ava found herself again on the on the end of another troubling conversation. She bluntly stated that being a military pilot was what she wanted and he’d simply have to accept it before ending the call and sending her phone flying across her bed. Eric Mitchell was a stubborn man and she anticipated another call from him soon. It came seven hours later, but it wasn’t her dad but her mom. While it was difficult to decipher the sounds of choked up sobs, Ava could hear enough to tell that her father had died in a car crash. Her whole world came down crumbling at that news.

There wasn’t much she could do, but power through the rest of her enlistment, but afterwards, Ava didn’t choose to sign up again. After all, it had been her father’s one wish that she never fly an army plane to begin with. Truthfully, despite, that she knew he was trying to keep her safe, Ava couldn’t help but wonder if he’d been hiding something more. After the funeral, she chose to take some of the money that she’d earned and vacation in France. Eric had always spoken of retiring there and despite his many faults, she preferred to remember him as happily as she could. Her time in Lyons and Annecy was therapeutic, but eventually, Ava grew to truly love living in France. She picked up the language much easier than studying Spanish in school and living among the locals made asking for advice on what she missed a pleasure instead of a chore. Eventually, she moved inland towards Paris and began renting a small apartment on top of a flower shop and working for a non-profit for veterans that ran out of the American Hospital of Paris.

It was while organizing a charity 5k for her job that she met Caleb Segal while he signed up for the race and two weeks later came in third place. The job earned her a lot of commendation from her superiors and her first friend in Paris. While it took another few months for Caleb and Ava to begin keeping each other regular company, he began tutoring her in French almost immediately and non-stop teased the redheaded lass over her terribly American pronunciation of over half her vocabulary words. Conversations soon blossomed into hours of dialogue and nights spent watching movies glued to the floor with popcorn and grapes. His energy was infectious and they were never not laughing. It was always fun, but Ava was starting to believe he was only interested in her as a friend. And she was starting to see him as something more. Maybe for the first time, her heart felt a sense of warmth and belongingness she had never experienced with anyone before and though a part of her was still fearful of rejection, Ava, who had never been shy of going after what she wanted, decided to make her feelings known.

The film was called Amélie and it was one of Caleb’s favorites. He seemed fairly engrossed and despite enjoying the movie, Ava truly even more wished, she could be enjoying him. She had tried subtle hints, but they hadn’t seemed to work. Finally, when it was over and the two lay side by side, underneath the skylight, she pointed upwards at the stars and told him the legend of Altair and Aquila, the Romeo and Juliet of the constellations. Caleb laughed for a solid three minutes because he thought Aquila’s name sounded like Tequila. Irritated that even romance wasn’t getting through his ability to laugh at anything, Ava reached for his shoulders, climbed across his lap, and kissed him, while whispering. “I don’t BS about stars.”

Their life together in Paris was happy and filled with so much good. For Ava, her volunteer work with veterans was enough for a while, but it wasn’t long before she had the itch to fly again. That led her to a second non-profit that licensed pilots to help families escape from impending disasters, such as tornadoes, and tsunamis. It made Caleb happy to see her pursuing what made her shine. In their downtime, they spent weekends in the French countryside. It was on one of those many that Caleb proposed and Ava happily said yes. She believed that she would live the rest of her life in Paris, but only a few months before her scheduled wedding, there was a giant storm spotted off the coast off an island in the Indian ocean. Few people lived there, but those who did would lose their homes and their livelihoods if they weren’t escorted out in time. They didn’t need more than one pilot, but everyone knew that Ava was the best at what she did. It was one of many reasons Caleb had taken to calling her ‘Ace’. He kissed her goodbye and watched as the plane flew off the strip in the Charles De Gaulle Airport. If anyone could navigate an incoming storm, it was her.

Despite having a fear of storms ever since she was small child, Ava knew that what she was doing was more important than being afraid. Still, she couldn’t help but feel the hair on the back of her neck raised as she flew closer into the grey clouds that loomed ahead and sported purple tendrils of electricity like an angry jellyfish that belonged somewhere deep in the ocean. With a gulp, the young woman angled her plane towards the island and the local people in need of aid. However, out of nowhere, the storm raised her one. She had to act fast as a coil of sparks nearly hit her tail. She took a deep breath, thankful to have dodged it. The sky was darkening around her and Ava could feel nerves creeping in as she watched people gathering on the shoreline. She could smell oil from the tank; perhaps that brush with the lightning had been closer than she thought. There was no way everyone got out safe, not with the wave of water gathering behind them. Why hadn’t they sent her earlier? Was she ever going to see Caleb again?

There was the soft, persistent beep of machines as Ava’s eyes opened to fluorescent lighting. Her head hurt. Her mouth was dry. As she blinked into the strange surroundings, there was the hazy longing for a person that wasn’t there. Someone she couldn’t remember. Instead, a group of strangers peered back at her. “Avalon? You’re awake!”

A strange place with even stranger people who claimed to be her family. A name which sounded foreign to her own tongue a mind which was blank like a canvas, but a heart which called to it. It was now all up to Ava to figure out who she was and where she belonged.

~~~~~~

Negative- Stubborn, Messy, Blunt II Positive- Adventurous, Romantic, Spontaneous