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 Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:08 am
It had taken him a while to decide.
After all, he was very attached to it. It had been with him for his entire life, and with it he felt somewhat safe (strange, but true). But after a week of internally debating, going over the change he was about to undertake, Gale Gentry had finally made up his mind.
He was getting a hair cut.
He had thought about asking Eva to cut it, but he was not entirely certain he could face her. Then he had thought about asking Candace, but he still felt a little awkward. And he was not about to ask Bix for help, not when he knew the albino would just tease him mercilessly about it.
So he narrowed it down to one person, the one other who he thought might help him. Though he still wasn't entirely certain that she would help him.
Which was why, early on a weekend morning, Gale stood outside of the door of one Ariane Brown. He fidgeted a bit, absently twisting the cuff of his coat, but then sighed, resigned himself, and knocked on the door.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:38 am
Ariane was getting a little fidgety as she stared at the ceiling; ever since she recovered from that horrible experience, she hadn't been doing much at all. However, while a part of her felt guilty about not doing much despite having recovered, the part of her that felt like resting for a little while longer was much stronger...
... Which was why she was still in bed when she should have been up a while ago.
The knock on the door caused her to turn her head in its direction, not making any efforts to move. It was a moment later before she finally yelled "COMING!" and rolled out of bed with a soft sigh. Dragging herself to the door - hair tied up in a messy ponytail, wearing just a simple tank top and shorts - she opened it, and stared at the person on the other side.
"Oh," She blinked, staring more before grinning, leaning against the frame of the door, "Morning Gale! Well, what a lovely surprise!" Yup, she was awake now.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:19 pm
Gale almost turned around and left when no one answered the door.
Almost. At least until he heard a muffled "COMING!" from the other side, and then he relaxed a little, his shoulders still tense. He debated just making up some other excuse about why he was here - something about just saying hi , or another lame reason - but the door swung open before he could formulate a proper response in his head, leaving Gale to answer with the only one he had.
"Er, morning, Ariane," he said, a bit hesitantly, as he shifted from one foot to the other. "I was wondering...if I could get your help with something."
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:21 am
"Morning kid," She grinned before chuckling, shifting her weight and pushing herself off the door frame, reaching out a hand to ruffle the boy's hair, "Gale." She felt a little guilty about not making more effort to see him. Or Bix and Before for that matter, but...
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow, her hand resting on the top of his head for a little while before she removed it, "What can I help you with?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:11 am
Really he had said only Ariane would get away with calling him kid, but so many people had done so by now that Gale had really just given up on ever escaping that label.
Though hopefully this next step would at least alleviate some of the raised eyebrows - he hoped. Gale squared his shoulders and looked up at Ariane with a determined expression on his face, which was very slightly pink.
"I need a haircut."
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 12:07 pm
The way Gale was going about this, you would think that it was a confession of some kind. Like 'I killed all the foxfires in the Life labs' or 'I put hair dye in Caelius' shampoo' - oh, great prank idea there! - or even 'I think I might like boys'.
But no. He just wanted a haircut.
"Oh," She sounded mildly disappointed, just standing there and looking at Gale for a while, as if waiting for him to say something else. After a few second though, she just laughed, shook her head, and grinned, waving him in before walking straight to the small dressing table by the side of the room, "Eh, sure! Why not? I just hope you're not regretting it already~" More grinning.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:47 am
He gave her a slightly exasperated look.
"Sorry it's not all that exciting," he said dryly, catching the slightly surprised and disappointed tone of her voice. "For you, I mean, but for me this is a rather large change.
"And no," he added, stepping into the room and following Ariane over to the dressing table, most of the things on there girly things that Gale squinted curiously at. "I'm not regretting it. I just want to..."
A slight pause. Gale blew out his breath in one long gust, arms folded across his chest as he pivoted to look at Ariane.
"I want to look older," he said bluntly.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:29 pm
"I suppose it is!" She laughed, patting him on the top of his head before pulling up another chair (that had magically always been in her room) to sit behind him, eyeing his ponytail, a pair of scissors and a comb in one hand, "Do you want to untie that, or should I?"
There was a pause as she registered Gale's reason for wanting to chop his hair off.
"You want to look older," She repeated it back to him, folding her arms across her chest the way he was, "Why is that?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:47 pm
Reaching up, Gale unwound the band that kept his hair tied at the back of his head and let the golden strands fall about his face in thick waves. It reached down nearly to the middle of his back now, and was just as unruly as it ever had been.
He swiveled his head up to look at Ariane, a faint blush dusting his cheeks as he said "No...particular reason."
Which was clearly a lie.
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:07 pm
Gale's hair could make a girl jealous; what's with Beta males and long hair, anyway? At his answer, she eyed him suspiciously, noticing the faint blush on his cheeks, "Uh huhhhh. You sure? Your face is all red now."
Putting both hands on his head and turning it so that he was directly facing the mirror, she started combing, making an effort to be gentle as she tried to get all the tangles out; honestly, she had only really cut her own fringe, to stop it from growing too long and potentially stabbing her eyes.
She had never tried to give anyone a haircut... Until today, anyway.
"It sounds to me like you're doing this for someone... A girl, maybe? You're at that age, aren't you? Trying to impress the girls~" She wriggled her eyebrows at him, a huge grin on her face, "You're the youngest intermediate trainee though! I'll say that's pretty impressive in itself." She chuckled, patting him on the head, before sighing, "You could teach Jeremy a thing or two about responsibilities."
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:33 pm
"Yes," said Gale, in a tone of voice that indicated he was, quite clearly, not being truthful at all. He let her push him around until he was looking at the mirror before Ariane began running the comb through his fringe of blonde hair.
"I am not," he insisted, but again in a tone of voice that wasn't convincing in the slightest. Her remark, sadly, was half right, and Gale felt his face reddening a bit more.
"It's not about a girl," he mumbled, but then his embarrassment turned slightly more proud as Ariane went on to compliment him. He turned rather pink at her words, but internally he was pleased that she had noticed so much.
Except for the girl part.
"Jeremy?" Gale repeated, frowning a bit. "I haven't seen much of him around...in fact, I haven't seen him in...not sure how long. And I doubt he knows who I am," he added, with a small quirk of his lips upwards in what might have been a dry smile.
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:46 pm
"... To impress a boy then?" She looked and sounded surprised, but it was obviously faked; judging from his tone of voice and his ever reddening face, she knew that she was onto something. That or Gale just did not take well to teasing.
Either one of those.
Looking slightly exasperated at the mention of 'Jeremy', her expression then softened, "You know that theory about how sometimes, siblings were born with the same ability to see FEAR? Jeremy's older brother, my good friend from childhood, went through the trials with us, but he didn't make it... And he'll never make it, if you know what I mean... I think he's been taking it pretty hard." Another pause, and she was smiling again, "Anyway! How short did you want your hair to be? Short like... Marcus-short, Caelius-short or..." She tried to think of a male hunter without long hair, and got stuck there for a moment, until she remembered the guy with a nice a**, "Harrison-short? Maybe somewhere between those?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:07 pm
"No!" squawked Gale, a bit too hastily. He tried to relax a bit, and said, with a small sigh, "Not that I'm against any of that or anything, but I happen to like girls."
His shoulders lost some of the tension as Ariane spoke of Jeremy, and Gale could not help but think of his own sister. Somewhere in the pods was Leslie...somewhere he could not help her, but she was safe, at least for now.
Or so he hoped.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, after a moment. "I didn't know. If it helps any, I...know a bit of how he feels. My twin sister, she..."
There was a slight pause.
"Well, she's not likely to awaken anytime soon, either," he finally finished, idly twisting the cuff of his sleeve. "It's pretty rough, I know."
Gale stared at his own reflection in the mirror, squinting a little as he tried to picture himself with short hair.
"Not that short," he said, meaning Harrison-short. "Marcus and Caelius are a bit too long still - maybe something just above my ears, but still a bit...floppy. For lack of a better word."
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:15 pm
"Alright, alright!" She laughed, "Relax! Which girl are we talking about, huh?" She was grinning again, but that faltered as she patted him on the shoulder, and ruffled his hair - his long hair - one last time, seeing how it was all going to be chopped off.
"At least there's that chance that she'll wake up one day," She smiled, although it was a pretty forced one; honestly, she wasn't sure she liked it when Dean was still asleep... Always waiting and hoping and waiting... It got pretty tiring and frustrating at times, seeing new recruits, but no familiar face among them.
"Like... Jerry but not as dorky?" She held up the scissors; maybe she should chop enough off to make it shoulder length first, and go from there.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:51 am
"...no one in particular," said Gale, which was again, a complete lie that Ariane would probably see straight through, but that was beside the point. Her fingers pushed through his hair as she ruffled it, Gale giving her a mildly exasperated look, but he let her do it anyway.
"Maybe," he said quietly, with a small shrug, toying with his shirtsleeve again, but he was not even sure he believed it himself. Leslie was still asleep somewhere, and whether or not she woke up...well...
A laugh escaped his throat, and Gale, with a faint smile, said dryly "Yes, well, okay that works. Just...yeah, not as dorky."
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