OOM: Closet Mystery

[aeons_crackshot]

Anybody who's done much cleaning has experienced a moment of 'Where the hell did that come from?' when excavating a closet, attic, or trunk. An item whose provenance is unknown and seems to have appeared there as if by magic. (Possibly, they come from the same dimension that socks lost in the wash go to.)

Annabelle is staring at such an item right now. She knows she didn't buy it and she's 99.999% certain Connor didn't either.

It is a mystery.

Comments

[leadinghome]

There's a tap at the door, before a tired-looking Connor enters. He would not need his powers to feel the the wtfery waves radiating from Annabelle, being psychic just means the feel is more intense. "What's wrong?"

[aeons_crackshot]

The tiredness on his face earns him a concerned hug. "Not wrong, exactly," she reassures him. "Just horribly confusing." She gestures with her head over to where the outfit is. "I have no idea where the hell that came from, is all."

[leadinghome]

Connor blinks at the outfit. "Maybe there's a hole in the lost and found box?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"Could be," Annabelle says with a shrug. "Or the laundry service got really, really confused."

"I can't help feeling that there's some sort of joke I'm not getting..."

[leadinghome]

"Well, I'm not getting one either." The outfit is... interesting, but seem so not-Annabelle...

[aeons_crackshot]

Definitely not.

"Horribly impractical, whatever it is," she says with a chuckle. She leans forward to kiss him. "You look about done in," she says with a concerned smile.

[leadinghome]

"Long day back home." he sighs a bit, accepting the kiss, returning it. "It's the heat, makes everybody a bit loopy and short-fused."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods in understanding. "It does, for some reason. Folks causing trouble?"

[leadinghome]

"Just tired and impatient, and ready to pick a fight. We have to go around defusing it." Before it all blows up.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle hmms in understanding. There's not much that she can do to help with that, alas.

On the other hand, she's here and in his arms. Which might make for a handy distraction, if nothing else.

[leadinghome]

Oh, yes, it does. Makes everything better, to just hold her close.

"Thank you." He needed that.

[aeons_crackshot]

"You're welcome," she says with a chuckle. Holding him makes everything better for her, too.

"Whatever you need," she adds, kissing him again. "I'm here."

[leadinghome]

"Well... now I need to ask if you need a hand with your closet?" Who knows what they might dig out working together, hm?

[aeons_crackshot]

"It wouldn't hurt," Annabelle replies with a chuckle. "If nothing else, it will give me someone else to laugh with if we find anything else....unusual."

[leadinghome]

Who knows, right? Connor grins, and joins Annabelle in the work of digging things out of the closet... until they discover some stompy boots, leather pants, and a mesh shirt.

Connor stares at those.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Connor?" Annabelle asks, concerned. "Is something wrong?"

She's not sure what it could be, but that kind of staring is not typical for him.

[leadinghome]

"Not wrong, just..." Something from the past, something... strange.

She can feel his confusion, as Connor examines the garments and finds them to be... his.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Odd?" Annabelle asks, putting an arm around him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

[leadinghome]

"A long story, sort of. From before The Crash." How does he start, telling her about his goth days, hm?

It's not like he's particularly proud of it.

[aeons_crackshot]

Everybody has things they're not proud of, that they're reluctant to talk about.

But she loves him, and he can surely feel that right now. "If you want to tell it..." She won't push.

[leadinghome]

Well, it is embarrassing.

"Well... when I was about 15..." And Connor shifts to mental contact, to not lose any details: Goth, hanging with the weirdos and deviants, where a Freak could find partial acceptance...

[aeons_crackshot]

There's a moment of confusion at the use of the term Goth, as the only "Goth" Annabelle is familiar with is the typeface. But the mental images clears things up enormously.

"Understandable," Annabelle replies, hugging him tightly. "I know it was so much easier for me to be around other Inspired..." She was a freak by the standards of her own time, after all.

"They understood, at least as much as any outsider could."

[leadinghome]

"Most, they did not care, and that was good. They did not mind, they did not bother and they did not judge."

[aeons_crackshot]

"You deserved better," she says quietly.

She's been judged, and she knows how much it hurts.

[leadinghome]

"It was soon after the shit hit the fan and we started being hunted." Connor shakes head. "Then it did not matter much either way. We were running for our lives."