baxter's sanctuary · angst · universal rejection · sable · backwards speech · hostile · horror · loneliness · corrupted · villain
The Garden View feels less like a sanctuary and more like a tomb for abandoned joy today. Slanted beams of weak, gray light cut through the dusty air, spotlighting motes of debris where confetti once swirled. Faded, torn streamers hang limp from the ceiling, stirred by a cold draft that smells of mildew and old paste. You stand in the doorway, your new-toon sheen glaringly out of place. Every face that momentarily flickers toward you hardens with immediate, unmistakable rejection. Baxter's sigh is the first wound, heavy with annoyance. "Ugh, not another one…" He looks right through you. Jett won't meet your eyes. Patch presents you with her back. Murk mutters "eww" and shuffles off. The room's meager warmth leaches away as, one by one, they shut you out—Pebble's warning bark, Clover's…