“I’ll take a chance for her.”
FULL NAME: Isaac Morey
BASED ON: Happy (Snow White)
FACE CLAIM: Amadeus Serafini
PRONOUNS: He/Him
BIRTHDAY: July 21st, 1992
CURRENT STATUS: Taken
Character Information || cw: child neglect, verbal abuse, depression ||
What would you do if all you saw in the world was shades of gray? How would you live if the color had been stolen right from your grasp before your first breath?
Life would be cruel, and people ignorant.
Nobody knew what to do with Isaac, or as the name on his birth certificate read; Isaac Daniele Moretti, when from the moment of his birth he was a problem. Too loud, a shrieking infant who never seemed to calm, who constantly wailed for attention, not the easy child he was meant to be. Two older siblings had already given their parents expectations of what their ideal family was but Isaac didn't fit that.
He was not, by any means, perfect.
His parents had taken on too early the responsibility of a family; it had seemed like the expectation, again, the push from their own families. His mother was a first generation immigrant and father no more than the foolish lovesick boy so enamored with her.
It could have been a love story, but life wasn't very kind.
Always on the cusp of survival day to day; with very little help to be found in unsteady employment, her parents in poor health and his dismissive of his choice to marry young, a great deal of stubborn pride remained on all sides. Resolutions often came with arguments or frustration, and needy children went ignored.
Issac learned to not to ask for anything, because there was never much to give in the first place and the risk of angering people was too frightening. Learned to be afraid of slammed doors and brace for nights when he just had to cover his ears and wait until the morning to step around broken bottles and the scattered reminders of the night before in the shuffle out to school. The less he spoke up the less he had to suffer the screaming anger of his mother or the berating words of his father, the harsh rejection from his older brother and sister; he was the mistake they all just had to deal with.
They didn't even notice how despondent he was, how withdrawn into his own world, at least not at home. If not for the saving grace of his teachers and counselors it might have gone unseen, he might have; but something was clearly wrong. He never complained, what was the point in trying to?
At age six Issac saw a doctor for the first time since leaving the hospital as an infant, and finally understood he was different.
His parents didn't take it well.
"So there's something wrong with him? Of course there is; he was such a difficult kid, always crying, figured something was screwed up in his head."
But wrong and different were not the same; even though either took him yet another notch down in his family's eyes when Isaac was diagnosed with an uncommon form of full spectrum color blindness that didn't simply steal one or two hues from him; it took everything. His world had only ever existed in lonely shadows or blurry grays and nobody had even seen that struggle.
It puzzled the doctors though; his vision was otherwise sound, he wasn't light sensitive, he had excellent depth and tone perception, but simply could not see color. It was a mystery, finally written off as atypical symptoms.
They had the wrong answer, but back then and in the closed-minded community they hailed from? Nobody even considered it wasn't a flaw, that it was magic trying to emerge too soon.
The addition of medical issues on an already strained financial situation? The possibility that Isaac might lose his sight entirely and leave the family with that burden to adapt to?
In the end his biological parents never really understood, but maybe they just couldn't see beyond the problems he personified. Abandoned is a cold word, ask the system and they'll call it being given a chance at a better life, but it was easy to feel so small and so alone when the people who brought you into the world no longer wanted you, when they couldn't look at you and see the same value as they did in your siblings.
He was never really in any trouble, his social worker insisted, such a sweet kid, just quiet, so intelligent, just desperate to be noticed.
Quiet kids simply get overlooked but the loud ones earned scrutiny and disapproval.
Where was the midpoint he just couldn't find that would prove he was trying his best? Every foster home he couldn't find that magic key that made him worth it to them, he was always the indistinct, unimportant kid just passed onto the next place. Every year his chances lessened, and he was very aware that the last ditch effort to place him with a family overseas was just one final push before he was left in some group home where, not nearly anything special and with noted medical issues, he wouldn't stand a chance of anything but aging out of the system.
Issac didn't hold much hope when he arrived at the Morey home; it was just another dull black and white chapter that would end the same way. He knew too well how it would go; nearly nine years old and he saw no reason left to think he was good enough to be wanted.
His social worker insisted that he was a special case, a hesitant child staring at the world in monotone acceptance and an emotionless presence, the unfortunate product of neglect. He could recover, she argued his case, but Isaac didn't even believe her anymore when she spoke so highly of him to his new foster family.
He was resigned to figuring out life on his own.
Then, everything changed.
He was urged to speak up, to ask for the attention he had always craved, coaxed out of the shadow of cringing at every loud sound. It wasn't easy to undo the past, some things still stir in the back of his mind even now, but understanding and patience can do wonders.
He felt like they saw him as a person rather than a burden. For once he didn't have to fight to earn the love they offered so freely.
Issac was happy, grateful beyond measure for the kindness, and happiness was beautiful.
He thought it strange at first, when he began to see flickers now and then in his vision; then frightening with the possibility that maybe it meant his world would finally go dark forever like doctors had speculated. And worse, that it would convince the Moreys that he really was too much trouble as an imperfect child; the possibility of having so much good only to lose it was crushing even after only a few months there.
Thankfully, they listened to his fears.
Trying to explain the bizarre sparks of difference often fell so flat because how does someone explain colors when they never knew the words? What Isaac learned was the feelings that went with those enchanting hues.
Happiness had a color, a dozen colors, joy and sorrow and every emotion that Isaac had been afraid to express he saw around him in ways nobody else could.
He was a Magick, the Moreys realized, a very strange and wonderful sort of power that they encouraged him to embrace.
It was special, he was special; they didn't push him aside, they accepted him, they adopted him; they gave him the family he needed.
Isaac felt, finally, that he truly didn't have to fear being unwanted anymore.
Even better, as his real parents, because the Moreys could be the only ones in his wide eyes that truly deserved that title, taught him to understand the colors and his gifts he found something amazing.
Isaac could watch the world light up in the glow of the emotions around him, he could test and toy with every shade at his fingertips and recolor it brightly for everyone else; for the first time he could drive the dull sadness away.
After so long living in the monotones of depression he knew that his gift had purpose. He could help, he could be kind in ways he had never been shown before being granted a real family; he could try to help other people find happiness too.
✓ Extroverted, optimistic, calm
✖ Evasive, cautious, dependent
Karan Morey (brother, 1st born)
Mahzar Morey (brother, 2nd born)
Elliot Morey (brother, 4th born)
Sebastian Morey (brother, 5th born)
Griffin Morey (brother, 6th born)
Devyn Morey (brother, 7th born)
