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The weather was starting to look up. At least, a little bit. It wasn’t so cold outside and the sun was peeking through the clouds more often than not. Of course it was possible for another cold front to move in and dump more snow, but Ryan wanted to remain optimistic. Spring would be here soon! And with spring came new beginnings, new life, and plenty of color!
And there was a definite deficiency of color lately. For the past few months, everything had been either dead or dying, white or brown. It was awful. But color would come. And so would plenty of new things for Valkyrie to see. Flowers! Oh, flowers would come! The roses would come back. The wild grasses would grow tall again. Ryan simply could not wait.
But for now everything was dull and drab. They would have to deal with it for a few more weeks. In spirit of the upcoming change, Ryan decided to get out her small sewing kit. Except she wasn’t planning on making any garments. Instead, the Inferni woman took out a small pairs of scissors. Valkyrie sat anxiously at Ryan’s feet as she raised the metal to her shoulder. With a soft snip, a lock of her hair fell to the ground. "Like this?" She asked, cutting another section of hair. "Shorter, mumma," Valkyrie cried back, grinning with excitement as she watched the hair fall.
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[html] Reclusive as she may have become, Corona had not been ignorant to the sound of little feet in the way that they pitter-pattered across the old floors. As it were, she often heard people coming and going more than she heard them talking. But today this wasn't the case, as the voice of Ryan and her unknown child had filtered through the air and grasped her attention. Navigating through the old house, it didn't take Corona long to spot them out from where she was, though she had the aerial view of mother and daughter in their sweet moment. She watched for a few moments, picking out the delicate features of the youth and wondering who her father was.
Of course, the fact that the kid was not an infant told her more about how long she had chosen to hole herself away. Save for checking the borders and wandering the coast from time to time, Corona didn't stray all that far from Inferni. She had no reason to, but no reason to stay out of the way of those who lived and breathed right along side of her. Pushing back from the rail of the loft-esque hallway above, she meandered towards and down the stairs. “There'll be no pigtails for you, will there?” she mused aloud, letting her eyes meet with Ryan for a moment, before settling on the grinning girl. [/html]
I'm slow slow slow and I think I just hacked up a lung while writing this, go me![html] http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/k ... ump/08.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">
She cut her hair just above her shoulder and Valkyrie returned a furious nod. It was clear that her daughter approved. It wasn’t so much about functionality but more Ryan needed a change. Somehow she felt by cutting her hair she could create a new slate for herself, a new chapter on life. One that didn’t involve the dangerously handsome boy from Phoenix Valley, of course. Corona’s voice was a surprise, but not an unappreciated one. It had been awhile since she had seen the woman whom she had grown fond of. "I guess not," Ryan chuckled back while Valkyrie just shook her head from side to side. The little girl wasn’t quite sure what pigtails were, but neither her or her mother were going to have them.
Ryan cut another large section of her hair and watched as it fell to the ground. It probably wasn’t as neat as she would have hoped, but it didn’t matter. So what if the strands were a bit different in length? She finished the basics of cutting away the rest of the length so that it just barely swept along her collarbones. "How have you been?" She asked, sending a smile in Corona’s direction as Valkyrie pawed at the discarded locks.
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Pfft, a few days isn't anything. Not like you took six weeks and three days to get here, right?  (And feel better!)
[html] She faintly smiled when Ryan chuckled, letting her eyes roam over the mother and daughter duo as her feet hit the last few steps. For a moment, she also met the watchful gaze of the little girl as a few more stray locks fell towards the floor, but even that was quickly abandoned for what had fallen away. “I've been… well, I guess you could say. Keeping busy. What about you?” And keeping busy was a loose term, not that it mattered all that much. Corona hadn't really been out of the mansion in what seemed like forever, though she did step out several times a day to check the borders. Gabriel had chosen her to lead with him and that was really the only obligation she had… aside from making sure that Jasper stayed out of trouble. Which he did, for the most part. Bending so her hands rested on her knees, Corona offered Ryan's daughter a warm smile. “What's your name?” She seemed bright—should've been bright, given at least half her heritage—and was full of the one thing Corona's life had been void of lately: life. [/html]
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With a few sweeps of her fingers, Ryan brushed away any strands of hair that had remained on her shoulders. It was kind of exciting, this change, even if a haircut wasn’t anything too major. "The same," Ryan responded then, looking towards Corona. "Trying to keep this little one in check," she grinned playfully, looking back to Valkyrie as the girl pawed some more at the discarded hair. The little girl looked up to find both pairs of eyes resting on her, so she beamed back a smile. Being cute always made grown-ups say funny things. "I’m Valkree," she told Corona, before sniffing at the hair. The bright blue eyes crossed as she tried to focus on a few strands that seemed to have stuck to the moisture of her nose. "Uckk," she cooed, using a paw to try and swipe it away. Once successful, she looked back towards the grown-ups.
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[html] Valkyrie, if that wasn't a fitting name. “I'm Corona.” Corona smiled broadly to her, well aware of what valkyries were and their place in mythology. Maybe it would be a name that foretold the future, or maybe it was just a name that would enchant and capture the interest of those who didn't know it. Not to say that it didn't do that already, of course. “That's good to hear,” she pressed on, trading her gaze from daughter to mother as the girl fussed quietly. Children were somewhat amusing, ever fascinated by all things big and small. Corona wasn't much different, even though she was far from a child; she gestured to Valkyrie and asked, “this your only one?” After all, one child was rather uncommon given her heritage and beyond that, their species. [/html]
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Ryan nodded solemnly, replying in a lower voice (though Valkyrie wasn’t likely to catch on anyhow), "The other one didn’t make it." In fact, the little girl had never had a chance. Her spirit had never come into this world; it passed quietly from womb to the ethereal realm without ever making a pit stop. "We buried her by the shore. Valkyrie loves it so much, I figured she would too." Even though Ryan had given the stillborn child a name, she found that she didn’t often use it. To speak it aloud would make the matter more painful – to think that the child could have grown up alongside Valkyrie. Ryan’s little Gabriella.
Valkyrie had wandered a ways from the two adults, sniffing at the random odds and ends that the mansion housed. Ryan never took her daughter here and it was full of interesting things for the girl to check out. Now that the excitement from the haircut had faded, Valkyrie had to find entertainment elsewhere.
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