Morning arrived, as it always does, and Mark Gibson, as usual, was the first of the Gibsons to wake up: he had a long commute, after all.
He showered, gave himself a quick shave, and re-entered his bedroom, wife still asleep, to get dressed. There was a moment's hesitation as he opened his underwear drawer. As though something was not right. But then he blinked, shook his head, and removed a lacy pair of teal hipster panties that were exactly in his size. And of course they were. Elsewhere, several blocks away, Sarah McMillan briefly shuddered in her sleep, as a new talisman drew power from her to make a new connection. But aside from that minor hiccup, his morning went as it normally did, and he was just donning his blazer and leaving the bedroom as his wife's alarm went off.
Linda Gibson yawned and followed her husband's routine, for the most part. A quick shower, a quick skincare routine, and soon she, too, was strangely befuddled for a moment as she looked at her underwear drawer. She didn't like that feeling, so she selected her favorite pair: a white thong with the word "sexy" written in a pink sparkly font across the top of the small triangle in the back. Decision made, she continued to dress herself in her usual professional skirt-and blouse ensemble. And Sarah McMillan exhaled a breath whose successor did not entirely account for.
The next Gibson to wake up was Mikey, at Linda's nudging. He needed to be ready to leave with Linda so she could drop him off at school. While he was in the shower, Linda started getting his outfit ready for the day. "Mikey?" she called through the bathroom door. "Do you want your yellow panties with the rhinestones today, or the purple ones with the sequins?" A grunt answered the query, so Linda simply made the choice for him. Purple with sequins it was. And as the young boy got dressed, a tear escaped Sarah McMillan's sleeping eye.
Zoe Gibson took the bus to school with her older brother, but she was keen on getting into the shower before him. As an established member of the Lake Point goth community, she liked to make sure her outfits were appropriately dark and that her makeup was equally impressive. And sometimes that required extra time. So as she exited the shower and approached her underwear drawer, she searched for something that would set the right gothic tone for the rest of her outfit: the hot pink bikini brief with "Princess" printed across the front in a flowing script, and a golden crown dotting the "i." Perfect. A whimper escaped Sarah McMillan's mouth.
Jon Gibson and Sarah McMillan, by sheer chance, both had their alarms set for the same time, but they awoke in entirely different states of mind. Sarah could barely move, while Jon felt full of energy. Sarah skipped most of her morning routine, while Jon felt the need to pay himself some extra attention that morning. Sarah cursed herself for staying up so late, which in reality was only a part of the reason she felt so drained, while Jon barely had a thought on his mind. But as they got dressed, they both reached into their respective underwear drawers and removed identical red panties with an identical black outline of puckered lips emblazoned on the front.
As Jon stepped downstairs for breakfast, his siblings and his mom were already in the middle of theirs, and his father was just walking out the door. It was a usual, lively, slightly-chaotic Gibson morning.
As Sarah stepped down for her own, the entire downstairs was empty. Her parents must have already left for work. Sarah had an extra bowl of cereal, and two extra glasses of orange juice, before she felt anywhere near her normal self. She'd need to make sure she got a good night's sleep that night.
