Trading My Yesterday // Morgan Heights

[Quill]

There was very little in life that prepared you to be a Changeling. Of course, Alianna- or Annie, as she preferred- knew little different. She was a Changeling, and that was simply a fact. Of course, the Morgan Heights welcomed such a fact; they embraced it as part of their culture. And in other ways, it was simply a... very weird form of adoption. Of course, Alianna wasn't sure what brought her mind back to the idea. She was eleven now, and she had spent.. pretty much her entire life within Morgan Heights and with her mother, Eliora. There was little reason for her to consider her past anymore, since her future was now open to all the possibilities, especially as she grew older. Maybe she just couldn't help but to reminisce on the facts.

After all, how many people could say that they were a Changeling? Annie had no doubt in her mind that Eliora was her mother, in fact, she'd stake her life on it. Her blood mother, her biological one as it were, was no mother. Annie didn't truly remember much of her life before the Morgan Heights; a mother who smoked in the house, a deadbeat drunk of a father; a half-deaf baby girl; a toddler, really, who was lucky for any ounce of attention she could get, often left alone to fend for herself; hit when she cried, ignored when she didn't, hungry, or cold, and often sick. Eliora had been her savior. Maybe Annie just liked to think of how different her life could have been if it hadn't been for her.

Needless to say, she liked this life a lot better. 

Standing in the Train Station, Annie struggled with a large tarp that she was attempting to tape up onto the stone wall of the little hub area. She had an idea- call her crazy, but she wasn't about to go painting the walls without Eliora's direct permission so... she was using a tarp as a draft. At her feet, a small box of paints and a spray sealant sat waiting. Of course it'd be pointless until it was actually approved but... what was the harm? Or.. Okay, she admits it, maybe she thought of the repercussions of no permission after she had found all the supplies she had needed.

Her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth slightly as she leans up on her tiptoes with the bit of blue tape to hang the tarp as high as her small and lanky body could, she gave it a good smack with her palm to keep it in place. As she rolled back onto the balls of her feet, her breath tense as she waited a few bated heartbeats to see if it stayed, she exhaled with a grin as she stooped down for some of her paints. With little care for the mess, she dalloped a fair bit into the palm of one hand and dipped her other hand into it, beginning to sketch out her design through the wonderful art of finger painting.

Eventually, the stump and branches of a tree, missing its leaves, came to life on the tarp over that wall. There was an unfortunate bit at the top where Annie couldn't reach that was just sort of tapered off, and would likely need to be fixed by someone who did have the height, but for now it was... Well, it was acceptable.

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Eliora was so glad for Annie in the same way she was glad for every child that was saved by Morgan Heights. They were better off here, happier here. Not only that, but she was glad to have a daughter and someone she could look after. After losing Ivy, she thought she'd never be able to bring herself to connect with children again but the idea of saving Alianna and seeing her in that awful state had been more than Eliora could bear. How could she leave a sweet little girl with people like that? And so she had gone to save her. She had seen her father in her own vision and through them, she recieved both her Reckoning Wings and her daughter, and she couldn't be happier now. Even with all the difficulties that came with raising a child, Eliora didn't regret a single moment of it.

She'd been wandering around all day asking for her daughter and asking for her. She'd been hoping they'd be able to go out to lunch together. She felt bad for often leaving Alianna to her own devices throughout the day but it was nearly impossible to avoid given her occupation. She knew that her fellow citizens would look after her, though, and she hoped that Annie understood. After asking around, Eliora learned her daughter was apparently in the train station, although she couldn't imagine what for. There wasn't much for a child, or anyone, to do there. The train had been out of service for a very long time and all that was left was old relics and the small elevated platform that'd been moved there so she could speak to a large group of people while still being visible. Eliora wasn't the tallest woman to say the least and she always wanted to be sure everyone could see and understand her during such gatherings.

When she entered and saw what the child was doing, a light smile came to her lips and she quickly moved forward. "It looks like you need some help, darling. I think I can help you reach that bit up there if you'd like," she tried to speak a bit louder than usual and signed as she spoke, despite the fact she wasn't sure if Alianna had seen her yet. It was a habit she picked up. Soon after realizing she had trouble hearing, Eliora had taken her to a doctor but they said there wasn't much that could be done to enhance it. So, that was when she decided to learn sign language to better understand and communicate with her new daughter, and it'd worked out pretty well so far. She thought the paintings in the train station were nice. Besides, a little color never hurt anything and the way it was currently decorated was rather boring anyway. 

that i should rise and that you should not

[Quill]

Of course Alianna knew that her mother was busy- it was simply a fact of the job that she had, to take care of Morgan Heights and all its occupants. Of course, that didn't mean that Alianna couldn't try helping her from time to time, but most of her mother's work was, well, her work. Annie knew well enough when not to impose on some large task that didn't need a set of extra helping hands, so she occupied herself with trying to help elsewhere. Or, goofing off. Usually, it was a healthy mix between the two- a mess up that turned into a great idea so she pretended that the goofing off had never happened at all.

Thankfully for Annie, when Eliora approached, it was when the girl had stooped down for another bit of paint, where her non-deaf side (her left) was facing her mother. Looking up with a bright grin, and bouncing back up to her feet to face her. She paused in any response as her mother spoke first, watching her speak, or ever so slightly flicking her gaze down to her hands and her signing if there was a word she hadn't been certain on at the distance. When she was done, however, Annie bounced forward to hug her, mindful that she didn't get any of her painted hands on her mother's nice clothing. "That'd be great, Mama!" the answer came, carefully spoken. Since she had use of her hearing still, though she had to grow accustomed to one deaf side (or being rather unable to hear much at all if she were in a crowded room), she had the luxury of learning how to speak and hear her own voice.

"See, I had an idea! We paint a tree on the wall, just the branches and the boughs and not all the other stuff; its our meeting area, so its even better!" she paused a moment, realizing she was getting sidetracked as she gestured to what mockup she had created on the tarp while she had been left to her own devices, still grinning from ear to ear as she kept her gaze mostly on her mother to judge her reactions. "Anyway, we put our handprints on the wall with our names underneath or on them, like the leaves of the tree- just an explosion of color! And the new joiners would do it too, like a welcoming ceremony to be forever part of the Morgan Heights!" Her words were followed by idle gestures with her paint-covered hands, at one point smudging a bit of a brown streak of paint onto her cheek. "What's more is I was thinking- paint will sorta fade, right? So we can watch the generations of color spread across this wall-- the Morgan Heights living tree- and I was thinkin' it could start with us." She ended her words with a grin, beaming hopefully at Eliora and waiting for what she had to say.

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ELIORA D. LIRO

PEONY OF MORGAN HEIGHTS

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PERSONALITY

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HONEST
MOTIVATED
COMPASSIONATE
GENTLE
FAITHFUL

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VENGEFUL
MANIPULATIVE
EMOTIONAL
STUBBORN
CALCULATING

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THE DIVINE
☰                ►

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[/td][/tr][/table][div style="width: 330px; height: auto; text-align: justify; font-family: microsoft sans serif; padding: 2px; margin-top: 15px;color:black;"]Eliora smiled when the girl confirmed she wanted some help and she was quick to move forward, stopping in front of the paint, looking over what her daughter had already done. She gave her a hug back, not seeming worried about the state of her clothes. There were always more dresses but there would not always be more hugs. She then nodded, listening as the ideas spilled from her daughter's lips. She also made sure to glance at the girl occasionally, just in case she had started signing. She was making all sorts of gestures but most of it wasn't any sort of word. She couldn't hold back the small smile that came to her lips when the child smeared a bit of brown paint over her face. As she kept talking, she turned her attention back to the tree, slowly nodding. "I think that is the most wonderful idea I have ever heard, darling. I think it will be a wonderful way to remember our history and celebrate our future," she answered, making sure to sign every word as she spoke just in case Alianna would want it. "And I think it is perfect that it will begin with the two of us," she concluded, now reaching forward and finishing the bit that Alianna hadn't quite been able to reach. She then looked over the various paints that her daughter had out. [b]"What color do you think we should use for our hands? Should we just use green, like normal trees, or should we try all sorts of colors?"   

© LEXASPERATED

[Quill]

Annie's grin only grew at her mother's approval and praise of the idea, stooping down for a rag to start wiping her hands free of the brown paint; which only proved to smear more of it across her hands until it was only an eventual brown-tint to her hands that would have to be washed away later. "That's what I was going for!" she'd  chime brightly as she watched her mother finish the last bit of the tree upon the train station wall, where the branches carefully spread out across it all. It would serve a good focal point for meetings to gather, in any case, both pretty and functional.

She stepped back as she glanced to her mother to follow her words a little better, where her nose wrinkled up with the smile that she gave in return to the question as she shook her head, as if the question itself was foolish. "Always color, mama." The answer was swift to come, followed by Annie reaching back down for the small box of paints that she had laid out. "Plus, it'll let people be more creative, and we can see everyone's hands better. Rainbow of colors, mama, rainbows." Perhaps her ideas were childish at best, but when a vision was in mind, it was hard to let it go.

Turning, she held the array of colored paints out with a grin, putting on the most 'official' voice she could muster. "As the Peony of Morgan Heights, you should have the first honors, mama."

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