doing a small portrait of an adult omega for my redesign and i’m making my own self emotional. her growing her hair out bc she was never allowed to on kamino.
the freedom to wear her hair the way she likes is such a tiny victory, such a little thing, but expressing autonomy over herself makes her feel so happy. having something that’s her own, that she controls.
and then it becomes something for the rest of the batchers. wrecker’s seen regs with braids, him and tech become fascinated with them, start to figure out how to do them with omega’s growing hair. tech on one side of her head and wrecker on the other, seeings who can do a better braid. hunter points out that tech’s braid is much neater, tighter. obviously better from a tactical point of view. echo likes wrecker’s braid more, though, because it’s more her. it’s a little bit wild and messy, and it fits her really well.
soon they all know how to braid her hair. once she’s older, once she’s ready to have her own armor, they give her a helmet. her hair’s long by this point, past her shoulders even when in braids. there’s a little place for her hair to sit comfortably inside her helmet. tech designed it specially for her, echo helped to make sure it was still safe. there’s a tiny 99 emblazoned on her helmet, right at the chin. she already feels they’re her family, already knows it — but it’s incredible to have a tangible reminder.
once she gets older, and eventually they start splitting up sometimes, she has to learn to braid her own hair. she doesn’t like how she does it, but becomes more comfortable with it over time. she’ll still get wrecker to do her braids when she sees him. hunter wears small braids in his hair when she isn’t with them. to keep her safe.
they age a lot quicker than she does. eventually, they’re gone. she realizes with a start, one time when she’s untying her braids, a few days after she’s lost wrecker, that he did these ones. that these were the last ones he’d ever do for her ):
