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The hand that had hovered out towards the ice queen faltered, then slowly fell back to her skirt as a torrent of spite and brittle disgust fell from the slender maw of the woman. Large satellite ears fell back against her crown. China seemed to retreat within herself without moving - Arms hugged tightly to a torso in a defensive posture that was familiar to one with her red eyes.
Halo's voice cracked the air like a whip, and for a moment after the sharp retort, China merely gazed at her with those strangely hollow eyes. Her maw trembled slightly, but she had cried a lot lately, and no tears came. "No," The admittal denial fell from her maw in a slightly trembling tone. Already, the girl was preparing herself for punishment for such retaliation. "No, Triarii, that is... I don't know your pain," Her voice began to gather speed and volume and the hands that held herself together so tightly clenched into little fists. "But see, hope is all there is! It's all there is," A smile now, but it was tense and sharp and ached on her mouth. "Without it, we are dead."
Her trembling ceased immediately as the words bloomed fresh. Oh, how she craved a joint to take away the sharpness of Halo's angles, the growing light that made her eyes wish to blink and close and never open.
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