hi home

[peachfuzz]

Connie had a terrible habit of wandering without notifying anyone that he'd be doing it. If no one ran into him while he was prepping to go, and asked what he was up to, he would leave people guessing when the last time they saw him was. He never planned on making anyone worry, of course, but Connie had long since gotten used to doing things on his own and though he liked the crowd he now ran with at the compound, it never occurred to him to report something like this to them.

It had only happened a few times in the month and a half since his arrival, and until then the longest he'd spent out was two nights. With all the fuss that was kicked up over that, he'd then tried to limit his outings to afternoon excursions or something that would get him in early the next morning before anyone realised he'd been gone at all, but this time he got distracted and ventured further without thinking on who might be wondering about his absence.

And so this time, it had been twelve days since anyone had last seen him.

He came back mid-morning with his old school backpack he'd managed to hang onto despite everything on one shoulder and a newly found but dirtied neon orange messenger bag over the other. Both were packed full of his findings, and he was chewing on some turkey jerky he'd uncovered in his travels as he strutted back into familiar territory.

His shirt had an entirely new tear in it, from getting snagged in a tree branch on his way down from where he'd been sleeping one night, and his hair tie had broken, leaving his mass of hair bobbing with every step, but Connie was, in fact, completely okay.

Comments

[peachfuzz]

"Obviously I can take off just like that. Hashtag suck it nerd."

He felt bad to hear that people had been missing him, but talking to Jean left it hard for him to linger on that for long. He returns the hug with a solid pat to Jean's shoulder.

"But I probably won't, 'cause man I am mad tired of exploring. I mean, yeah, I'm gonna be buff as hell from carrying those bags everywhere but is it really worth it?" Not that he wasn't already well and fit from the past few months spent keeping himself safe, but he was convinced those bags would seem heavy no matter what. "And you gotta tell me, what has been trending, dude?"

[notvaljean]

Ah yes, proper manly forms of bonding. Awkward hugs and shoulder pats for life. Finally, someone who gets it.

Jean steps aside, holding his hand out to take one of those heavy bags, if Connie wants to part with it. "What'd you find? And lately, the biggest trends have been everyone worrying about your dumb ass."

Himself included, although he won't admit it.