Another trip to Earth

Sylvie was back at the abandoned world she used as a hide-out. She'd been through a few places like this, of course; one day she hoped to find a more reliable hiding place from the TVA. As it was, any variance she caused here seemed to be minimal, affording her more time to rest than she ever did at any other point in history.

Sooner or later, though, she'd have to move on. It was a good thing she didn't have much to her name. A few luxuries could be stolen again, and otherwise she just had her TemPad, and the clothes she wore. What little there was.

Rather than a mirror, she went out to a nearby hill; there was a reflective mineral in its surface that served much the same purpose. Sylvie looked at her reflection doubtfully.

Despite her embarrassing trip around space and time, all she had to show for it was the underwear she'd nabbed off Pepper. Given that she'd been making a late night visit to her husband, it wasn't exactly casual-wear: the scarlet satin was attention-grabbing enough, to say nothing of how it looked on her. The bra that had been so revealing on Pepper, strained even more on Sylvie. It felt like more of her breasts were exposed than covered, the curve of the underside and her generous cleavage all very visible, while the satin stayed tight enough to show the outline of her nipples.

The panties weren't much better. The same form-hugging shimmering material, outlining her butt far too completely, and with a slit in the material that had all but revealed her core. Sylvie had improvized there, knotting the strands together to both make the lace less see-through, and to keep the gap from widening and showing things she very much did not want bared again.

It was only decent by the barest of technicalities, the crease at the top of her thigh fully visible, as was a little skin further in. Even her hands had offered her more modesty than this.

Heat rushed to her cheeks as she took in her reflection. If anything, she looked more eye-catching like this than she did when she was nude; the red was certainly more startling than flesh-tone. Though she remembered all too clearly how well her bare skin had stood out against more mundane environments.

There was a trade-off. As soon as she saw her reflection, she felt mortified, traipsing around not just near-naked but in something as... provocative as this. At the same time, as soon as she closed her eyes or looked away, it was psychologically nicer to feel some kind of layer on, even if it was wholly inadequate.

"Better than naked," she muttered to herself, trying to convince herself.

She wandered back to her little outpost, picking up the newly stolen TemPad. It wasn't enough, at any rate; she knew that. She'd need to get more clothes from somewhere.

She took a deep breath, and began scrolling through coordinates. Earth seemed a good target again, with a combination of a relatively weak-minded population, and the correctly shaped clothes of its inhabitants. It was hard to know exactly what any of the coordinate numbers meant - she didn't know Earth's history well enough to know what happened in what year - but she could take a basically guess.

She spent a few minutes trying to find coordinates that wouldn't let her land. At a guess, those would be physical objects, so if she could find walls, that increased the odds of her being inside.

Eventually she grew bored, opened a portal, and mentally prepared herself.

She strode through, arms crossed over her straining bra in the most dignified pose she felt she could adopt in bright red lingerie.

No immediate laughter or gasps. That was probably a good sign. Cheeks still a bit pink, Sylvie steadied herself and looked around, trying to take in her surroundings.

It was some kind of dwelling; she was definitely inside. That was good. Inside meant less public a locale, and meant the possibility of finding a wardrobe. This room was some kind of primitive library, bookshelves up one wall and a table and chair with an open book not too far from them. Sylvie looked passed them, moving carefully.

She didn't want to touch anything. The longer she could go without disturbing events and alerting the TVA, the better. Freeing up her hands, she slid the TemPad into her panties, hoping it wasn't testing them too much.

She tiptoed, barefoot, down a hallway, keeping an ear out. The most she could hear was a low hum of some kind of Midgardian machine, though she had no idea how commonplace that was. Maybe it mitigated the heat, or cooked a meal. Whatever.

There had to be a bedroom or dressing room somewhere. Carefully, Sylvie nudged a door open.

There was a woman on the other side; Sylvie stiffened, and the woman immediately reacted to her presence, first by whirling around and straightening, and second by quirking an eyebrow.

It didn't look like as casual a room as the rest of the house. There were shelves, machinery, primitive by Sylvie's reckoning but ramshackle enough that she guessed it was cutting edge by Earth standards. And in the middle of it all was something best described as a glass box, metal bars along each edge and clear glass filling the gaps like some kind of cage, rippled patterns in each.

Sylvie eyed the equipment. Interesting.

"You don't look like much of a thief," the woman on the other side of the glass said.

"Why does everyone think I'm a...." Sylvie muttered to herself.

She took a slow step forwards, carefully not turning around, adjusting her arms as best she could to keep what dignity she had. Well, she supposed she was stealing clothes.

"Why are you in there?" Sylvie said, still eyeing the box.

"Why are you breaking into strangers' mansions in lingerie?" the woman said back.

Sylvie reddened. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing another exist from the room. She sidestepped over to it, as casually as she could, not wanting to show off how she looked from the back on top of everything.

"Have a name?" the woman said.

"Sylvie," she said, getting closer to the door.

"Ava," the woman said back. She was still staring at Sylvie. "You got past the security system. How did you do that?"

"Long story," Sylvie said.

She stepped back, and hastily closed the door in front of her, relieved to finally turn around. Then she realized she'd had that whole confrontation with the TemPad sticking out of her underwear; blush never fading, she quickly pulled it out deciding to keep it in one hand. She could bear not having both hands completely free if it meant not looking even more ridiculous.

She climbed a staircase, and paced around for a bit. There were empty rooms around there, and bits of furniture that looked like they could be wardrobes, but they were all empty. She opened drawer after drawer and cupboard after cupboard, and only saw bare wood.

There wasn't even a bedroom. The closest she found was a bare mattress next to a few bits of tech. Even the bathroom lacked towels.

Irate, Sylvie made her way back down the stairs. She pushed the door open - Ava was still waiting in her glass cage. She was dressed, of course, some white suit with bits of technology added to it. Sylvie had considered enchanting it, but opening an ominous-looking glass cage containing someone had seemed an unnecessary risk when she'd been sure there would be full wardrobes to take multiple outfits from.

"What kind of house doesn't keep clothes anywhere?!" Sylvie snapped, frustration getting the better of her.

"That's why you broke in?" Ava said.

"What else does it look like I could want?" Sylvie said.

Ava nodded, conceding the point.

"None here," Ava said. "No one lives here. Bill sometimes stays, but that's it. This is just where I come to heal."

Oh for... of all the houses she could have ended up in, she just had to come to the one where there weren't any spare clothes?