Prologue ~ Winter Blossoms

[RoboticDL]

"Yeah. Good idea. I uh. Need to step out as well. Fuck." Ray heads back upstairs without waiting to see if anyone else is actually coming.

[Terabraska]

Sam flinches back as far as possible at Quinn's outburst, gasping reflexively. Quin never gets loud. They must have seriously overstepped. Sandra was probably Quinn's friend, Quinn was friends with everybody, and everyone liked him so much. Of course Sam let their own emotions get the best of them, completely botched the entire thing, and now everything is going to get even worse.

They slink out of the beanbag chair, murmuring "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," to Eavan, and Quinn, and Ray's retreating back. They glance to Sandra, mouth open to offer a quivering apology. To Sandra's eyes, the ghoulish air around the high schooler is gone. Sam is almost nine months Sandra's junior, and in this moment they look so small and pathetic.

Sam turns away, apology dead in their throat. They can't bring themself to offer contrition to Sandra. Not after what she's done.

Moving on whisper quiet feet, they flee the basement after Ray.

[Adraius]

"Sam!"

Sam's escape up the stairs is sabotaged by weary feet and guillotined entirely by Ray's bulk in the stairwell. "Sam," Quinn calls from right behind, then puts his hand around Sam's right wrist on the railing. Sam swings around to plead-

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!-"

-as Quinn's other arm goes around them and brings Sam's shoulder into him in the awkward staircase approximation of a hug. Quinn has never been particularly touchy-feely. Even here on the stairs, Sam is still shorter, their shoulder meeting Quinn's sternum.

"I'm not mad at you," Quinn's voice hisses into Sam's ear, voice thick. "I'm mad at Greg." He releases Sam's wrist and puts his hand around their upper arm, just holding them there. "I'm mad at him, not you."

Edited September 17 by Adraius (see edit history)

[Terabraska]

"W-what?" Sam is pulling away unconsciously, stiff and frightened. That was clearly not what they were expecting.

"Sorry. What?" They repeat in a small voice.

The temperature in the short stairwell drops noticeably, as though a breeze from outside had found its way in.

[Adraius]

"You don't deserve the things your brother says to you. Don't listen to him." Bereft of his jacket drying over a chair in the room below, the change in temperature is immediately apparent. Quinn's tenses slightly. "Come on," he says, leading Sam by the hand up into the library after Ray. Immediately outside on the ground floor, there's isn't anywhere quite so comfortable to sit, but there's a low-slung bunch that will serve, and Quinn guides Sam to it. The cold doesn't leave them. He kneels in front of Sam.

"Sam... you saw something out there with the tree. Something really dangerous. And that's important! Imagine if you hadn't, if we didn't know. Without you, I might have gone to the other trees and walked into a big cloud of gas and never come out. You did great, Sam, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I hate that you even have to be here, but it's really, really great that you are. If Greg is telling you otherwise, Greg is wrong. Don't l-let him silence y-you." Quinn's teeth betray an actual clatter, the sourceless cold having deepened as he spoke.

Quinn stands and spins to address the empty space around them. "You need to back off, Greg," he says, voice low, hands clenched.

Edited September 18 by Adraius (see edit history)

[Terabraska]

Quinn is so good. Even with everything going on he takes the time to pay attention to Sam's feelings. No wonder Eavan is so downbad for him.

Sam is staring at their feet the entire time. They're shivering a bit too, but their hoodie is better insulation against the chill. When Quinn finishes speaking, they glance up for just a second.

"Thank you," they whisper. Sam really, truly means that.

"Greg, uh, was..." They trail off, "He's mad. At, at Sandra. Not me. I don't..." They look up to the left, in the opposite direction Quinn is looking. "Uhm. He... he's upset I didn't... I'm not saying what he wants me to say. To Sandra." Sam's hands are hidden inside their overlarge sleeves, twisting and picking at the fabric anxiously. "And, I, I think he's right."

It's hard to hear them now. "I'm mad too."

[Adraius]

Quinn seems to half expect a spectral hockey stick to the head or something... but when that doesn't come, he heaves himself down on the bench next to Sam.

"He's 'upset,' sure. And whenever he's upset or peeved or bored that lands on you. If he wants to say something-" Quinn's tries to look where Sam had earlier, but his gaze isn't entirely in the correct direction, "-look, you and I have our differences but you're allowed to talk, and I'll listen n' stuff- but let Sam speak. You've been cutting them off. Undercutting them. That's a shit thing for an older brother to do," Quinn said, something creeping into their voice at the end. "Things need to change."

On the bench, Quinn's hands feel clammy. Really, this conversation had been a long time coming. A long long time coming. Greg had been a problem been since Quinn met Sam. Greg's callousness towards Sam had made Quinn want to jump to their defense. Quinn's had tried, once, shortly after they had met, and the attempt had been disastrous and abortive. How do you handle a bully who is untouchable, imperceivable to anyone except the subject of their attention? Anything Quinn tried could be returned against Sam with interest. And so Quinn ground his teeth and did nothing. Tried to help Sam with things that weren't Greg. But now Quinn thought that maybe, just maybe, he had something.

He'd also not addressed half of what Sam had said, and Quinn quickly tried to recall what else that was.

Edited September 19 by Adraius (see edit history)

[Terabraska]

In the empty space Quinn leaves, Sam responds to the empty air, "Uh... okay." They hesitate, "sure, just..." They glance at Quinn quickly, "don't take too long." Sam looks trepidatious, but they stand and face Quinn as he sits. They visibly steel themself and close their eyes.

It's subtle, what happens next. Sam's body language has always been inward facing. Slightly duck-toed stance, hands near their stomach, head tilted down. In this moment, they shift. When Sam opens their eyes, they look exactly the same, but they are different. Eyebrows furrowed, fists balled, chin thrust forward.

"Listen up, Pearson. I'm fuckin' pissed off! And I'll tell you why." Sam's breath is billowing out as puffy clouds of condensation in the freezing air. Their eyes flash as they barrel onwards, "That bitch has the fuckin' nerve to sit there and tell us how we should act, as if she has ANY right! All of this, this is all her fault! Literally every single one of my problems is Sandra's fault!" Sam starts sarcastically counting off on their fingers. "If she hadn't shitted up the river, Elston would still be alive. If Elston hadn't died, my Aunt wouldn't have had to take control of the church. If Emma wasn't in charge of the church, the rest of the town wouldn't be out to murder my entire family." Sam steps forward, nearly shouting. before this, Quinn might have thought Sam incapable of this volume, but here they are, right in his face. "If none of that had happened I wouldn't have fuckin' died!"

They throw their arms out to the sides as they snarl, "So, excuse the fuck outta me when Sam loses their shit and cries instead of standing up for themselves!"

Just like that, Sam is back. They cough slightly, leaning over with one hand on their knee. They don't say anything else as they catch their breath.

[Adraius]

Quinn is temporarily too shocked to respond. Greg's mannerisms taking over Sam had been frankly terrifying, like something out of a horror movie. Quinn's hackles are all the way up, and he tries to force himself to calm down, to unclench the part of him that had reflexively readied itself to physically come to blows with Greg in Sam's body. He's mostly successful, and on some level he's grateful Sam's attention is preoccupied.

"...I've got my doubts about Sandra too," Quinn says to either or both of them. "She's done a lot wrong - she literally bombed the place I worked! And that-" Quinn cuts off, remembering Sam and Greg have him beat when it comes to familiarity with the downstream consequences of her actions. "She's fucked up," Quinn sums it up instead, "in so many ways she's got more to tell us we didn't even know about. I don't trust her judgement - at all!" There's a gleam in Quinn's eye. "But... she's honest. And she's out trying to help." In the cold, after 10 at night, at something of a sketchy meetup. "So we're gonna hear her out. And we'll figure out what to do."

Quinn pauses. "Good luck shouting Ray into submission. I'd like to you see your old self try, Greg." There's just a touch of pain in his voice, an acknowledgement that they knew each other from before, through school, however distantly. "And Eavan knows how to dig her heels in. Not steamrollering Sandra's spiel isn't 'not standing up', it's how we figure whatever we're gonna do like a group." A thought occurs to Quinn - has Greg's isolation been a contributor to his attitude? A second thought; he snorts. "Group projects - even less fun for real than in school." It sounds a little bitter.

Edited September 19 by Adraius (see edit history)

[Terabraska]

Sam straightens up, bundling themself into their hoodie. Their shivering is pronounced again. Head cocked, they don't speak at first. "Uh... Greg... he's right, I'm just, I'm more worried about Sandra... she won't shout. She's just... she's persuasive. Amber, or, or, whatever’s left of her, she's got a magical nuke and... we are all in super real danger." They move to sit on the bench, knees to their chest. "I don't know how to convince everyone. Sandra's..." Sam trails off, cold and uncomfortable and totally unequipped to resolve this dilemma.

[Adraius]

Quinn leans back and lets the silence stretch a bit as he thinks. "Let's say you got to pick. What would be the smartest thing for us to do? Hm?"

[Terabraska]

The only thing showing that Sam is alive are the little puffs of vapor from their exhalation. They think for several long moments.

"I guess... it's hard, cuz, like, Amber is a child of God with a soul, presumably. Killing is a sin." They pause, then shake their head, "but something put this weapon in her mind that will absolutely kill everything in the entire world. It's..." Sam turns their head, listening.

"Yeah, it's inimical to life on Earth, right." They stumble slightly on 'inimical,' as though they'd never said it before. "If we can't put some kind of check on Amber, we all die. Sandra showed us the cute video of her dancing, but that Amber doesn't exist any more." They heave a huge sigh. "Reverend Elston would say that no one is beyond forgiveness, and we have a spiritual obligation to help, but..."

They squeeze their legs closer, thinking about what Sandra took from the world. What she took from Sam. They can't muster any forgiveness or grace for Sandra, or her friend.

"I don't think I'm a very good Christian."

[Adraius]

"Nobody has the handbook for what to do about stuff like this. Or, I guess Father Elston would say you use the same handbook as always. It is harder though. Er, he might disagree with that too, actually. I got worse at knowing what to do as things got more... complicated. Years ago, before things got extra screwy." Quinn gestures limply with both hands. He pauses a bit.

"I think most people are like that. It would be great if people were better at knowing what to do. It's... just not like that, though. And I think we do some of our worst thinking when we're afraid. Which is hard, because people can do their best works at times when they're totally afraid." He pauses again. He's rambling.

"I- I don't actually know what I'm trying to say. I don't think you're a bad Christian. I think you're afraid, which makes sense. You're not alone."

[Terabraska]

Again, Sam is quiet, they turn to Quinn slightly, offering him a pale, feeble grin.

They attempt a joke. "Well, I, I guess, at least, uh, you don't have anything to worry about, because... if we all die you're going to Heaven."

[RoboticDL]

Abruptly, Sam and Quinn hear the door swing open, and then shut. Then the familiar almost-stomp of Ray walking. Then they see him again.

"Oh, you two are here. I'm fine now. What's the current state of discussion on what the actual fuck to do about this mess?" he asks, in a tone still a bit off from what it was before he found out he'd put a crater in a kid's arm. But much closer to it than it was immediately after.

Edited September 20 by RoboticDL (see edit history)