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]

Connie doesn't make a habit of grabbing things that break too easily, because he drops his bag often, whenever he needs to run or fight, or sometimes by accident when he's climbing with it. Even with how tight Marco's got him, nothing should have gotten truly wrecked by it.

He's got another snip on the tip of his tongue but quiets at the crack in Marco's voice, and looks up at him from under the curls of hair once again in his eyes.

"Yeah, man. I'm fine. Seriously. I tried to come back after like three days but I saw a swarm that pushed me kinda far away, and then, y'know, unexplored territory and I got curious. . ."

[pyred]

Marco wouldn't know. Of the group, he's probably the least inclined to wander. He'd only done it out of necessity; the compound was good for him, in that sense, because it was a sense of stability in their fucked-up world now.

At the same time, he doesn't chide Connie for it. He's mostly upset that they hadn't heard anything, not because Connie wanted to explore after the swarm pushed him.

"I know," he settles on, sliding his hand to rest on Connie's shoulder and giving him a little squeeze there. "I'm just - glad you're alive, okay? I'm gonna start breeding carrier pigeons at this rate."

So he can find you all!