Chapter Text
It's a hypothetical question Sebastian brings up one hot summer afternoon, as he, Abigail, and Sam chose a shady spot by the river to hang out for the day.
Their quest campaign had ended on a bittersweet note (Abigail's dwarf sacrificed is life so that Sam's ranger and Sebastian's wizard could live and get married off by a dragon who went to a secretive academy to become a minister, it was a whole plotline), and the smell of rotten pizza and laundry was beginning to overwhelm them so much sitting outside sounded so much better.
It was another sweat-inducing day, not a cloud in the sky offering a bit of mercy to Pelican Town below, and the three of them were the only ones brave or stupid enough to be out in it. Abigail insisted on sitting in the shade though, leaning back against the bark of the tree and taking up most of it for herself while Sam and Seb struggled to stay concealed as best as they could. Jokes were tossed on how preppy and needy Abigail acted, how Sam's spikey hair wilted in the heat, and how pale Seb's leg looked now that he actually wore something that didn't go beyond the ankle. And it was here that he realized they never addressed this one issue about their friend.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Abi said, her tone of voice bored but an eyebrow was raised to show that she was still listening.
Moving closer to her (because the sun had been beaming down as his calf for a while now and it was starting to get grilled), he emphasized by hitting a strand of hair that was loose from her ponytail. "This. It's purple."
"Oh thank god, Seb! All that time in the basement hasn't hurt your corneas!"
"Sam, that's amazing you know what 'corneas' are, but what does that have to do with my hair color?"
"Hurting your corneas makes you colorblind-"
"Eyes. Just say 'eyes', oh my god." Seb couldn't help but feel the conversation was quickly going away from him when, in fact, this was important. "Your hair is purple."
"As we've established, yes."
"Why, though?"
Sam chimed in again before Seb could stop him. "'Oh my god Karen, you can't just ask people why their hair's unnatural and strange,'"
Abigail's full attention was on the two of them now that Sam had even agreed with it. "What are you two talking about? What's so unnatural and strange about my fucking hair color?"
"It makes literally no sense," Seb continued, leaning back in an attempt to put his hair up into a bun and cursing when uneven strands still escaped. "Your mom's hair is green and your dad's hair is brown. I suck at art, but those colors don't make purple."
Trying to go back to being unfazed, Abigail replied, "Uh, she dyes her hair, first off. Second off......"
"...."
"...."
"....??"
Not a fan of the long silence of the boys waiting for her to make a point, Abigail kicked her leg out to knock Sam out of the shade. "Second off, nothing! It's just how science works for me. I didn't know this wouldn't be an accepted thing with you guys,"
Seb was quick to backtrack-Abigial's sensitivity was boiling underneath the hot summer sun-and added, "Abi, come on. It's not that deep. I just...how can that be natural?"
Arms crossed, she retorted, "Your hair's black and your mom's a redhead, so is that-," an accusing finger flew up to point at Seb's head. "-really your natural hair color?"
"Maybe we should try to-"
"So help me, Seb, if you lay a finger on my hair or bring any sort of color other than purple or pink-what it looks cool shut up-I'll put a virus on your computer and send your bosses a copy of your Harry Potter fanfiction. From eighth grade. That you dedicated to Ronnie Lawrence. And you read it at the school's talent show."
"WE MADE A BLOOD PACT TO NEVER SPEAK ABOUT-"
"Fuck this, we need an expert. PENNY!" Sam leaned back out into the sunlight and waved at a figure crossing the bridge to go into town, a book tucked neatly under her arm. The girl, orange hair put up in a bun and hidden underneath her sun hat that matched her bright yellow and white dress, gave a shy wave at them as Sam urged her to come over. "Wasn't that the one about Harry and Draco doing it in Dumbledoor's-"
"You guys-"
"Penny, dearest!" Sam loudly greeted her after Abigail gave him a nod of confirmation, Seb shrinking into the background as Penny looked down at the group. "We need a scientific expert and who better than Pelican Town's intellectually superior teacher?"
Penny blushed at that..or they thought she did. It was too hot to tell and someone as fair-skinned as her was probably racking up third-degree burns just standing there. "But what about Maru?"
"You're the only pretty little thing out here," Sam answered, causing her to shoot a concerned glance over to Seb and Abi, who both gave shrugs but gagged and pretended to stab themselves as soon as Sam and Penny weren't looking.
"Well, I'm happy to help, Sam. What do you need?"
"How do you make the color purple?"
It was obviously the last question Penny expected to hear, and maybe that was because it was a grown man asking it. "Well...purple's a secondary color, so that means two different colors had to be mixed together to make it. It's not like blue, for example, which is a..a primary color.." It was difficult to word it in a way that didn't sound like she was teaching kindergarteners, and Penny was clearly embarrassed the moment she realized it, but it went right over the boy's head. Not Abigail and Sebastian, though, who were both individually wondering if it was sanitary to try and drown themselves in the river.
Sam nodded along with the explanation, stifling a grin at an obviously more annoyed Abigail as he continued, "Right, right. So...it's not a 'natural' color, would you say?"
"Sam, man, this really isn't-"
"Seb, shut up. Teacher's talking." Sam held up a hand before giving a couple of enthusiastic nods to Penny. "Please continue."
She made a motion as if to sit on the ground in front of them but stopped herself short, rubbing her arm awkwardly as she continued, "I..It's unnatural, yeah. You can't get it without combining with the two specific colors..." a silent nod urged her to complete her thought, "blue and red,"
"So is it possible for two parents with different hair colors to combine and make purple?"
"Uh, not really, no. It's not that common-"
Sam clapped his hands together. "Boom! Point proved. Abigail's a freak. Thank you, Miss Penny."
"What?!" Her eyes became wide with alarm as her head shot back and forth between Abigail and Sam. "N-No! I would never...B-But I never meant imply-"
"It's cool, Penny," Abigail assured her, trying to give something of a smile despite how tired she was of this stupid conversation. " Sorry we dragged you into it. The heat makes Sam short circuit, sometimes."
The trio waited for Penny to give another shy wave and hurry as far as possible from them before Abi and Seb attacked Sam. "What the hell was all that?" Seb asked in absolute astonishment. "You had better game when you asked Haley out after breaking her camera!"
"The fuck-What'd I do?" Sam defended himself from the onslaught of punches Abigail threw his way, two out of three of them actually hurting a bit.
"You turned it into an attempt to talk to Penny, you anime-looking motherfucker!"
"Ohh, says Mr. Emo to the Extremo! You can cry and post on all the forums you want but My Chemical Romance ain't coming back together!" Sam threw an empty Jojo Cola can at Seb's head. "We all know that's what you really do all day long! You probably mod a good chunk of them!
"I bet Penny gets turned on from the Super Sayan look it usually has. If you hurry, you can run home and gel it up before she goes back home!"
Admittedly, Abigail welcomed the exchange of insults because it meant the previous conversation was done. She'd never admit it, but her hair was a source of comfort for her. It'd taken her a long time to come to acceptance with it, ignoring her mom's more traditionally feminine suggestions for Abigail's own sense of style, but she had. She'd gotten it to the length she wanted, and the shine of the purple after a relaxing bath was a confidence boost for her.
Hell, she was willing to argue that hair concerns, maintaining its health and growth and all that was the one thing Abi and her mom had in common. What salons to go to, what shampoo and conditioner worked best, all that. The purple tone to Abi's was just the extra little quirk belonging to her and her alone. It never really occurred to her that it wasn't common.
She had unconsciously begun running fingers through her hair that she didn't notice until the arguing stopped around her. She shook her head to snap out of it. "Huh?"
"You went quiet. I was serenading Seb with a Marilyn Manson song and you just sat there. Did we break you?"
Another punch to the arm came in response as Abigail grunted and stood up, wiping sweat off her forehead. "Nah, Goku. Not broken, but I do have a need for ice cream. Let's see if Jockstrap over there still has some left,"
Seb snorted, lazily pushing himself up and following after Abigail. "You're such an asshole,"
"Don't blame me, that's a side effect of being born with unnaturally purple hair."
"Ab.."
"I know," A more affectionate punch on the arm came for Seb as Sam, rubbing his arm and muttering something about 'wannabe goth queen', got up to follow them. "No harm done. Can I trust you two to just ignore logic on this one, though? Being called a freak over and over did kinda bum me out."
"Do we ever use logic ever?"
"...fair." Abigail nodded slowly, another hand moving to mess with a strand of purple hair. "But just for my sake, let's ignore it. Unless I bring it up again."
"Got it!" Sam clapped his hands again, pretending he was closing a literal case. "Conversation over. Case literally closed, see? You liked that?"
"Clever. Thanks."
"But now, we gotta discuss this new farmer. Did you see her muscles?"
Another conversation carried on, soon joined by Alex once they arrived at the stand, but she wasn't able to focus again.
Abigail wasn't about to say anything out loud, but a nagging feeling in the back of her mind said that the two boys brought up a solid argument. Purple was kinda weird, but there was no special birth story associated with her family, last time she checked. Was it drugs? Was she dropped on her head a certain degree and it damaged her hair follicles to the point they became a bruised shade of purple? Like when you get a black eye or bump your leg against the table when your Ouigi Board started acting weird and you didn't want to burn your house so you tried to exit?
The point, though, is that she never really knew purple wasn't common. Well, she did-she liked things different and strange-but not to the degree people who take notice and start asking those sorts of questions. The questions she was now asking herself. Like: If she didn't get it from her parents, then where'd it come from? She had a theory, but...Abigail liked mysteries, anyway. This was just another mystery. Mystery built character! And solving the mystery may destroy her parents' marriage, so. No. Abigail could live with the stares, the questions from her friends, and even her mother's insistence that she do something different with her hair, clothes, all of it. She knew at the end of the day, they'd all thank her for protecting them from absolute fallout and confusion. From absolute scandal and shame.
'God, lighten up!' she thought, taking the cone from Alex's hand and forcing herself to join in on the conversation, which was about some stupid horror movie the boys liked. It was a lame one, some 60s monstrosity that didn't age well in terms of cinematography, acting, soundtrack, or gore.
Didn't help that the main antagonist, some vampire chick coated in white makeup and black skin-tight dress, had purple hair and was burned at the stake.
For being a freak.