Not wanting to seem overeager Valkyrie took her time getting to the place where the horses were housed, but the truth was she had been power walking almost all the way and only slowed to a saunter when she had spotted the building from a medium distance. She wasn’t used to feel like she needed to impress someone or not hurt their feelings at the very least, but with her daughter now in play things felt different. Valkyrie wasn’t a fan. Responsibility and feelings and attachments... It was bad enough she felt a kind of loyalty and, okay, some kind of warmth towards Thor. But then he made himself so damn easy to like. And then there was Anissa, whom she wasn’t indifferent to either. It was a nightmare.
By the time Vakyrie got to the stables she was about ready to deliver herself unto the wings of a pegasus and leave all these thoughts down here as much as she could while being accompanied by the source of them. She was known around these parts, obviously, since riding a pegasus was her favorite pastime that did not involve someone(s) else. Taking care of the proper procedures, Val spied Kára approaching out the corner of her eye and smiled. “There you are.” She walked towards her favorite one, with whom she had established a rapport. “This is Silverlight.”
The past was weird, cool, but weird. Her parents didn’t seem like they expected to have a kid, or a kid together? Kára decided early on not to think about it too much, was what it was, nothing she could do about it or worry about it. When her Mom suggested riding she jumped on it, she liked riding, and it would be good to the chill with the Mom thing.
Taking a bite out of a carrot as she walked up towards the stables and caught sight of her Mom she smiled with the carrot bake in her mouth. “I’m not late am I?” She didn’t think she was, but she could have been. “Hey Silverlight, want a carrot?” She asked grinning approaching the pegasus.
“Nah, I just got here.” Valkyrie replied with a shrug. Time was largely irrelevant outside of operations, she felt. This was her first chance to get a good look at Kára, and so she settled beside her horse to watch her while Silverlight got saddled up. Val ended up smiling fondly, noticing little snippets of herself here and there on Kára’s body language and demeanor, how beautiful she was, what lovely hair she had.
The horse seemed interested in her offer as he launched his head forward towards the smell. That made Val snicker too. “We have been riding together since I arrived here. Have you gotten yours saddled up?”
Kára smiled offering the horse a carrot. She looked back up at her Mom and smiled. Some things didn’t change, the look on her face was one she’d seen before but opted not to tease her about this time.
“Yeah, he’s over there, seems sturdy,” she commented. She didn’t have her pegasus here, she hadn’t been born yet. “I almost feel like I’m cheating on Patches.” Kára shrugged. “Don’t make fun of the name, I was 6 and thought I was clever.” She scolded quickly.
The horse gobbled up that carrot as Val patted her softly on the side. The name Kára had given to her own horse made her laugh, but more because of the following scolding.“Patches? No, I like it. Flip that solemn thing on its ass. Good on you.”
As the horse finished eating and Silverligtht seemed to be all done up, Val stood up straighter, stretched her arms and rotated her neck and mounted up with ease. “Go get yours, let’s see Atlantis in winter from the clouds.”
Kára rolled her eyes, but in a more playful way with a smirk attached. She shrugged. “Patches rocks.” She was a little attached, but that’s what happened.
Laughing she nodded and jogged off to jump on the one she was riding that day. The second she was on she settled in comfortably and came around to meet her mom. With a grin, she nodded to the sky and let her pegasus do the work of flying up. “Not bad,” she whispered in his ear.
“I never said he didn’t!” Valkyrie protested, visibly amused. She too had been very attached to her own winged horse back in the day, so she understood.
Valkyrie followed suit, achieving flight only a second after Kára and assuming position beside her. She was smiling, pleased as punch despite the cold. A normal human would be having a bad time of it here, but she was having a blast. She rode beside Kára for a time before steering her horse to do loops around her, dipping under her on one side and rising on the other only to turn and do it again. “Tell me,” she half-shouted, “is this better or worse than flying a ship?”
Kára thought about it for a second as she tried to decide what was better. “This is better for the air, and freedom, but the ships have some advantages, like getting further into space and long distances” And that was as diplomatic as Kára got.
“But, who can pass up actually touching a cloud?” She laughed doing her own loop. “So, you and Dad? Nothing yet huh?”
Valkyrie thought about Kára’s answer and decided she agreed. She nodded, smiling. “Yeah. I’ve flown both and nothing beats this for freedom and riding into battle in style, but I used to have a ship and that was good too. I miss Warsong sometimes. Especially the holo-controlled gatling guns. It would come in handy in this war.”
Kára’s other question caught Valkyrie a little unawares. She sat upright on her saddle and blinked. Then, she smirked. “Not exactly.”
“Holo-controlled anything is the best, we use some against fire, but it’s a little different, shooting water or other fire suppressants.” Kára did enjoy her job, which was a good thing. “It’s weird thinking about the war, we didn’t have it, life was good, sure little things come up and there is always some crazy with an idea, but nothing like now.”
She smirked. “That’s what I figured.”
“Ah, very good.” Val nodded, still half missing her old little ship, but absolutely nothing else about her old life. Even this war was better. She glanced at Kára and smiled. “Good to hear, means we did our job. I can sort of guess I still raised you as a warrior, but with the urgency gone it’s completely different.”
That smirk was surprisingly familiar, and it made Valkyrie snicker. “Oh is it? How did you figure?”
“Made it a lot more fun,” Kára commented, and it was more fun for her and she knew it. “Although not all of it was fun.” She added with a smirk. Some of it was downright challenging and left her worn out more than once.
“Come on, the shock,” she laughed. “Gave it away right away.”
“Yeah, well. Not all of it was fun when I was training either. A while ago I would have said not all of anything being fun is lame, but it actually makes the fun stuff more fun so.” Centuries of living, centuries of learning apparently. It was good to know everyone could change however long they lived. Or at least she could.
She looked over at Kára, blinking. Now there was a whole lot more of something than back when Kára had first made herself known, but that only made Val more confused. “How could that possibly have given away that we’ve been in the same physical space before?”
“The whole gotta deal with the crap to truly feel the good,” Kára rolled her eyes but in a playful and friendly kind of way. “Atlantis is big on reminding you of that kinda feel good thing.” Sometimes Kára thought it was bullshit, but she knew deep down that it wasn’t.
“I know my history,” she said vaguely. “And it’s not like things fit into boxes in Atlantis, it’s an open kinda place.”
Valkyrie shrugged. She was no more a fan of it than Kára appeared to be, but it was proven to work somewhat. It also worked to drown out the crap with a century’s worth of the good, but that was something else entirely. “Yes, I daresay I wouldn’t be so in tune with it if not for Atlantis.”
With a snort, Valkyrie shook her head as she rounded Kára’s horse. “Then that has nothing to do with my reaction and everything to do with the things mothers and fathers tell their daughters about their origins.” She smiled at her daughter. “I don’t know the circumstances that lead to your existence but I can say you’ve likely now had a part in ensuring it to a point.”
Kára laughed, she considered arguing it for the sake of arguing but that didn’t seem to be where her mind was taking her with the whole will or won’t your parents kind of thing.
“It’ll be interesting to see if history does indeed change, but my guess is it’s the whole lots of universes every choice changes things kind of thing but the other one is still there,” she waved off the thought because really, that wasn’t her favorite thing to think about.
“Yeah I bet. But like I said, it won’t change. From my perspective this all cemented it. Funnily enough if it wasn’t for you I probably wouldn’t have messaged him and it all wouldn’t have ended with hm coming over to my house to see if I was flirting or threatening violence.” Valkyrie smirked, and glanced at Kára. So much for keeping things vague, but with so many parents being happy together forever, Valkyrie calculated it must be a little jarring that Kára’s barely even acknowledged each other at the moment. And as much as Thor told her that a daughter of hers must have thick skin, Valkyrie knew it wasn’t always foolproof. Hers wasn’t.
“No one said they have to be exclusive!” Kára said with a glint in her eye. “Sometimes that’s half the fun.” Kára had done her share of threatening flirting, or just one or the other, but both was usually more fun. “Maybe it was part of the destiny, or some organized shit somewhere decided coming back meant I’d be born, and if I didn’t I wouldn’t.”
Valkyrie chuckled heartily at Kára’s response, suddenly feeling a great amount of endearment for this quasi-stranger with obvious shared genetics and a good amount of nurture too, by the looks of it. Whatever happened, it was safe to say Valkyrie was now fully all right with it. This was by no means the worst thing to ever happen to her. Not even among the bad ones, maybe.
“Ugh. You and your father sure like to bring up fate and destiny and… all that. I’m not a fan. But I do think it’s amusing having to come back in time to ensure your own existence.” She winked. “I like you, so consider it ensured...Probably.”
Laughing at her Mom’s reaction it took a second longer than she thought it would but she grinned all the same. “Hey, something about stars and shit bringing together fate, destiny and don’t forget coincidence.” She partly teased, but partly serious somewhere in there too.
“Yeah, that’d be a pretty big complicated piece of time manipulation to make sure I survive or am alive,” she furrowed her brow in thought. Shaking it off a second later she smiled. “So, race?”
“Mmmhmm various crocks of shit. I don't like to think of being manipulated.” Valkyrie confessed, which probably revealed that she was more an angry believer than a skeptic. “It's the universe's chaos. Or the multiverse I suppose. Glorious and painful. You belong in the glorious column, that's all.”
At the proposal of a race, Valkyrie grinned, a glint in her eye. “Oh, yes. Ready?” She didn't give the 'go’ before setting off.