It had been a decision she made on a whim, really. Perhaps as Specter, when that nun's habit shrouded her entirely, she would have maintained that her hair remain long, keep it braided loosely beneath the dark, stiff fabric that covered it up as she made her way down the battlefield. When she had just been Specter and nothing more — when that name had been all she was, a shadow, an illusion, one that clung to a church tucked deep beneath the sea and prayed to a god unknown — she would have obeyed every whim of His Omnipotence and grown out her hair for him. That was the way in the Church of the Deep, it would seem.
But she's not Specter anymore; or rather, she's not only the name the Church of the Deep had christened her with. She is Laurentina, the Abyssal Hunter working as a Rhodes Island Operator. The storms have passed, the ocean water no longer brews angrily. (Of course, there's always the danger of what might happen should she lapse into psychosis again and the amnesia cloud her mind, not to mention what the Originium's done to her body. But better that she at least be the captain of her ship, even though the Oripathy cripples her.)
She'd approached Silence for help when it came to cutting her hair. Dear girl, she'd thought to herself as Silence had run her fingers through her hair, eyeing her nurse's own short brown hair enviously. She's always been too kind and patient with me. Silence had readily agreed to the decision — "I have some basic knowledge of hair care," she'd said, running her hands through dense silvery curls, "Even though I'm no expert stylist. But I think it's a good decision, especially in regards to how it'll be more pragmatic both for combat as well as easier to take care of."
She'd stroked her hand along the now bare skin of her neck, shaking her head at how much lighter her back felt now that there was no weight on it. Now that her hair was no longer long enough to be bound in a braid, it framed her face and brushed just a little past her chin in clustering curls.
Specter had expected for her haircut to be noticed, but she didn't expect the compliments. Gladiia raises her eyebrows a little but crisply tells her that her newly-cut hair suits her quite well, a tinge of warmth present in her otherwise formal tone. Some of the other operators are overcome with a look of slight surprise, others are a bit more forward — it's one of the Ursus girls (Rosa, the one who always carries herself with such poise and dresses herself in a way that seems fit for a princess) who tells her "You look beautiful with short hair."
It's a change that's welcomed by the Rhodes Island operators, but ultimately to most of them it's a change that doesn't mean much.
Skadi is the one who approaches her with a slight tinge of blush upon her cheeks, a little disbelieving when she points out the obvious that Specter has cut her hair. But then she clarifies in those warm, dulcet tones of her and adds on, "Of course, I quite like it even better. But I like it now because of how much lighter you look with it. It makes you look like… you."
Specter kisses her. She always understands.