born the third child of four, valirya quickly became the apple of her mother's eye. everyone always says they have pretty babies, but she was a really really pretty baby. so pretty, that she was modeling before she could even sit up by herself. of course, valirya (who goes strictly by v unless you're family and even then it makes her eye twitch when they call her anything else), doesn't remember any of this. at least not the early modeling gigs. she does remember throwing a temper tantrum on the set of some toddler clothing line photo shoot and her mother promising to never make her model again in her life.

what v didn't know at that time, was that she may have been free from modeling gigs for the rest of her life, but she wouldn't be free from the spotlight. now that tricky bright light followed her around for the rest of her life. a few years after the photo shoot fiasco, her mother convinced her to give beauty pageants a try. at first they had been fun. she got to hang out with other little girls her age and play dress up, but soon it became to clear to her that no one that was in these things was in it for the reasons she wanted to be there. she kept at them however, not wanting to disappoint her mother. she so loved picking out her dresses and helping her rehearse her speeches and practice her talents.

because of the pressure to constantly live up to this image v's mother had created for her second youngest daughter, v found herself pulling more and more into herself. she didn't have many friends, not even in her own sisters, and would spend hours practicing the various instruments she learned to play for the talent portion of pageants. by the time she was thirteen, v could play the piano, the harp, the violin, the flute and the cello. she found solace in music. her favorite piece to play, and the one that never fails to bring her back to a place of peace, is für elise by ludwig van beethoven.

she did well in her studies, excelling across the board on almost every subject but found a particular penchant for everything science related. she did well in things like physics and chemistry, but found she had a greater interest in biology. she loved learning about the human body and how it worked. it was a wonder to her. so when it came time to move on to university, it only made sense for her to pursue a career in the medical field. she attended the university of arcadia to become a nurse and six years after starting there, she graduated and went on to work at the eden medical center on her home planet of babylon where her mother had secured her a position. she had thought that going into medicine would provide her the ability to help those in need, but her mother had other ideas for her and instead she ended up working in a private sector of the medical center that catered to the wealthy. she was still helping those who needed it, so v, never one to question her mother, accepted the position graciously.

a year before graduation, the wynter family suffered a great loss in the death of their father. while v had never been super close with the man, she still felt the loss. she was the one who stepped up to help support their mother through it, another reason she didn't question coming back to babylon for work after she finished her studies. her mother needed her now more than ever.

she spent four years working there before she found herself restless and wanting more. after one evening lamenting over her unrest with a fellow medical professional, they suggested she reach out to an old friend of theirs and see if he needed help in his clinic out on the far edges of the galaxy. han kang-jun had opened a low-income clinic two years prior on terminus station and the thought of actually helping people that needed it had v jumping for her comms.

a few short months later, she hoped a shit off babylon and found herself on a space station at the edge of the known universe. it was her first time being off planet aside from her schooling on mahoroba but luckily she had her eldest sister nearby to help her feel a bit more at home. karolin was there for her own reasons, ones that v didn't press or question, and while their childhood was tense v is hopeful that they'll be able to mend whatever bad blood is between them now that they're the only wynter's on station.