Third Floor Common Room; Monday Morning [09/02].

[howareyanow]

Wayne supposed he probably could've done a better job at tellin' the new kids about Monday morning breakfast. There weren't much he could do about it now, though, except maybe hope that the girls had managed to spread a little bit of it by word of mouth, and trust in the ventilations system in here to take all those delicious aromas of a homecooked meal and spread it conveniently through the halls of the dormitory building. It'd be nice, to have some new faces join in on the tradition, realleh, so maybe he'd have to try to mention it if he wound up talking with any of them through the week, especially with classes and everything.

The fact that everything he'd picked up yesterday that he'd need was still there and exactly as it should be was a bit of a relief, and Wayne got to work, making sure each and every pancake was the fluffiest, that each slice of bacon had just the right amount of crisp, that there was more than enough coffee ready to go in the pot, and that there were more'n enough eggs to make however a person might like 'em...though he felt an odd reluctance to make too many of 'em sunny side up.

And so it was breakfast time, a good hearty meal to get yer day...and yer semester...started!


[[ and it's open, of course!!! ]]

Comments

[chirpchirpchirp]

Well, a tradition was a tradition, and, though Wayne's tradition hadn't strictly become Vette's (sometimes she liked to sleep in while the mun was murdered by work!), that didn't change the fact that she was up and at'em this morning, still in a pretty darn good mood in the wake of the whole bus incident.

Yes, even after having her lekku flicked.

"Wayne! How are ya now?"

She was even cheerful enough to beat him to the punch, grinning as she did so.

[howareyanow]

Now that was a good way to start the semester! That even managed to get a faintest start of a grin out of Wayne as he put a little extra oomph into his pancake flip as he parroted back the proper response that no one here seemed to quite get down right, but if Vette was askin', then there was definitely hope there.

"Good. N'you?"

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Oh..." Vette was actually kind of thrilled with that reaction, so help her, and so she dug deep and considered the whole summer and how things were now, and, with a decidedly certain air about her, she supplied an almost triumphant, "not so bad..."

She paid attention!

"It's good to have things back to what passes for normal around here," she added, gesturing to the room at large. "I mean, new students aside. Those are going to happen either way."

And so far, her new sibling didn't even seem that bad!

[howareyanow]

Did Wayne get a warm fuzzy in his broad chest just then? Wayne definitely got a warm fuzzy in his broad chest just then, and, if anything, if he was really honest, hearing that just sort of helped take the sting out of the still fresh wound that he was even still standing here to have heard it.

It wasn't home, but it was nice to have someone make an effort to make it feel a little bit more like it.

Vette was definitely getting extra everything on her plate that morning, as Wayne now went to go fill one up for her. And he knew she'd appreciate that, too, and likely eat every bit of it and still come back fer more.

"New students aside," Wayne agreed. And he still still felt a little bad about not really bothering to get to know any of them at the picnic, but he had been pretty busy proving a point.

"If this is what usually passes fer normal around here, I'll gladly take more of it."

Though he might not know what to think about it. He'd come in during the summer, after all, he almost didn't know what to do with the fact that weeks were going to be going back to mostly normal rather than mostly not.

[chirpchirpchirp]

"You and me both," Vette agreed, and now she was falling right back into giving a little bounce on her toes; she saw those extra helpings and she was here for them. "I mean, don't get me wrong? I love a bit of adventure," that was how she found herself here in the first place, after all, "but that... was a lot of adventure."

Possibly very nearly almost too much adventure, in fact.

[howareyanow]

"Is that what we're callin' it these days?" asked Wayne, quirking an eyebrow. "An adventure? I'd just as likeleh stick with callin' it a shitshow. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, an' shits like a duck, well, then, it probably ain't no Canada goose, I can tell ya that much."

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Hey, I actually know what a duck is!"

Good job, Vette!

"But seriously, now," she added, looking not at all serious, "there's no reason it can't be a duck and a goose at the same time, is there? Some of those things were actually kind of fun."

A beat.

"Some. Not all. I mean, there's a reason I had to carry my guns around just to get to work half the time, and that? That is prime... what's the word you used? Shit-show? Material."

[howareyanow]

"Can confirm," said Wayne. "Prime, grade-A quality shit-show matieral right there.

"But," he added, because of course there'd be a but, "you absolutely cannot have a duck and a goose bein' the same thing at the same time, Vette, because if you had a duck and a goose and you put them together, you'd no longer have a duck, and you'd no longer have a goose, but instead you'd have something different from either a duck or a goose. You'd have..."

He squinted.

"A duckoose."

[chirpchirpchirp]

There was a long pause from Vette while she processed that one, yes.

"... Do you suppose a duckoose is a good thing or a bad thing?"

Because they had monkey-lizards and frog-dogs back home, and a duckoose sounded like it might be a little bit like that?

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

The vents had definitely been working to do its job of wafting the scent of breakfast to various parts of the dorms; at least it had for Tisarwat, who, groaning and hungover from a night of exploring the impressive variety of alcohol that this planet had to offer, had decided that maybe that hadn't been her best decision ever, especially when there was no Medic here that could just give her a few drugs to help her get over the worst of it. Whatever it was that was cooking, though, smelled like just the sort of thing to sop up a night of drinking.

Of course, she realized that whoever was making the food was likely making it without wearing gloves, so she had a very important decision to make between various levels of nausea, but, in the end, her stomach won out over her sense of decency, and she went to go see if she could find out where the food actually was with small, slow, and careful steps.

Eventually, she found it on the next floor up, drifting into the room and looking toward the spread of food with an expression of both longing and revulsion for the fact that her fears were confirmed. Nary a glove in sight. But her stomach churned uncomfortably for whatever that beautifully greasy meat was.

And she winced, because that stomach gurgle was loud enough to make her poor head ache a little more.

She really hadn't eaten much since she'd gotten here. And she wasn't likely to eat much at all if she kept just avoiding food because it involved people not wearing gloves. Desperate times....desperate measures.

"That smells amazing," she said, feeling the awkwardness of not knowing exactly what the social situation here was, either, especially since she'd come up from a different floor, in addition to just the room sort of still spinning a little bit.

[howareyanow]

"I suppose a duckoose isn't a thing at all, Vette!" Wayne stated with confidence, and just that hint of disapproval that he'd always have for things that weren't things trying to go and actually be things. "But, if duckooses were a thing, it would likeleh just be a thing, neither good nor bad, because I'm sure you'd just as soon have good duckooses as you would have bad duckooses, and probably a majority of 'em'd even be neutral duckooses, just like most anything else!"

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Hmm," Vette mused. "Probably, probably. Though there are some just-things back home that don't do good or neutral very well at all."

A beat.

"Fortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of running into any of those."

[howareyanow]

And Wayne considered the person all but slumped there in the doorway with a lift of an eyebrow, because what kind of absolute degen showed up on a Monday morning for the first week of school lookin' like she'd pretty much been soaked in about every kind of alcohol, wrung out, and then hung out to dry on a humid day?

But she sure looked like if anyone needed breakfast right now, it'd be her. And maybe the biggest mug of coffee he could find fer her. And some water, because she'd definitely be dehyrdrated about fifty ways to Sunday, he bet.

He looked her over, gave a nod, and asked, "How are ya now?", even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer to that wouldn't likeleh be anywhere close to good.

[howareyanow]

"Yeah, well," said Wayne, "that's why I said most anything, and I s'pose it don't really matter much, anyway, on account of duckooses not being things at all."

And it seemed like that was where he'd fully intended to stop the conversation about duckooses, as his voice held that air of firm finality to it that was not likely to budge a step further on the matter if he'd set his mind to it, picking up his bowl of batter to pour in another pancake.

But then he said, a moment later, almost as an afterthought, "But y'wanna know what I think? I think that, if a duckoose were real, it'd probably be a mostly good thing, because I'd bet a duckoose would be pretty damn tasty, if you cooked it up jus' right. That's what I think."

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Tisarwat winced a little because...loud. This person was loud, and she was also noticing just how bright the common room lights were and, forgetting herself for a moment and where she was, mentally asked for the ship to maybe turn them down a little, but she wasn't on a ship anymore, the dormitories definitely were not run by interconnected AIs that could listen to you by mere thoughts alone, and the lights were probably so unsophisticated that they likely only had one setting anyway. So all she could do then was groan.

"I've been better," she murmured, feeling even her hair hurt. At the same time, though, she took comfort in the fact that she'd also been a lot worse, too. Tisarwat stepped in a little further and slumped to a seat on the arm of the couch. And looking longingly at the food again. "Are breakfasts here communal?" she asked.

Solid as this person looked, she'd be hard-pressed to believe she planned on eating that all herself.

But then again, she'd met Presger Translators, so who knew?

[howareyanow]

"This one is," said Wayne, with a confirming nod and a thoughtful sort of furrowed-browed look. And then he moved toward the fridge. "But before I fix you up a plate," he said, "I think you'll need this."

And he presented her with a bottle of water, handed it over, and nodded for her to take it.

and I swear I didn't start this thread just to use this icon, but that is probably about 25% of it, shhhh

"S'important to stay hydrated."

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

It was important, there'd be no arguement from Tisarwat there, but did he have to be so loud about it? Still, she took the bottle with a wince for that firm and pressing tone, glad that it was sealed and that he'd kept his hands away from the mouthpiece.

"Thank you," she said, cracking it open, and drinking so deeply from it that a little dribbbled down her chin, and she tried to discretely wipe it away. The cold water sloshed into her stomach uncomfortably, but other than that, she did already feel a little better.

and no, this icon isn't the other 75%

"Did you make the food?"

[howareyanow]

"And this," said Wayne, not answering her question but instead shoving that biggest mug he could find at her, though miraculously not spilling any of the contents inside, not even when he gave it a little encouraging sort of wiggle to encourage her to take it.

"And yes," he said, turning back to the stove once relenquished of the mug, "I did cook the food. I cook breakfast every Monday morning here in the common room, assuming I'm able. It's tradition."

And you didn't fuck with tradition!

Except for on occassion when you left because you thought you were actually going home but were sorely mistaken, however, Wayne would like to maket he arguement that he still made breakfast, as per tradition, it just was not in this room, which, he felt, was never a clearly defined requirement for said tradition of Monday morning breakfast.

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

"....what is this?" asked Tisarwat, as she held the very large mug in both her hands and peered down dubiously into the dark liquid within. It almost looked as though it could be very dark tea, but the smell was unlike any tea she'd ever encountered. Even worse than the supposed 'tea' she'd had from the Perk, although, now that she thought about it, it smelled an awful lot like the Perk had smelled.

[howareyanow]

"Good, strong black coffee!" Wayne said, almost brightly, and definitely obvious to the fact that the particular cadence of his voice seemed to send Tisarwat twitching nearly every other word. "With a bit of the hair of the dog that bit'cha thrown in."

He paused, considering her for a moment, and figured mebbe it wouldn't hurt to clarify, considering he was dealing with someone who didn't even know what coffee was, the poor, poor thing.

"Not literaleh," he offered. "Not an actual hair of a dog that bit'cha, I don't even know if you got bit by a dog, an' if you did, that's too bad, because that's a bad bo, that's a very bad bo, and that bo could probably use some excersise, discipline, and affection, in that order. But I was able to bring along a coupla bottles of Gus'n'Bru from back home, tipped a little of that in there fer ya. That's whiskey, by the way. Should do the trick a bit, and then we'll get some food in ya, soak all that up and cross our fingers and hope it just won't make ya spit."

This was hardly his first hangover rodeo over here.

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Well," Vette mused, "now you know I'm totally going to be on a mission to find some way to make duckoose a real thing. Would you cook up a duckoose if you were handed one, Wayne?"

Because never let it be said Vette was one to turn down a good challenge.

[howareyanow]

"Does a duckoose with a boner drag weeds?" asked Wayne.

...so that was a yes.

...probably.

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette was fortunately not privy enough to Earth waterfowl to argue that duckooses had cloaca and probably would not, in fact, drag weeds.

"Great! Then I'm gonna have to try to find one!"

There was a whole multiverse out there, Wayne. Don't doubt Vette's determination to try new foods.

[unusual_sith]

"Good morning, Wayne," Lana said with a smile as she came in. "How are you this morning?"

[howareyanow]

It was just a turn of phrase, anyway, and one that Wayne didn't even know he'd been itching for a good opportunity to drop ever since he pretty much arrived!

"And best of luck to ya, Vette!" said Wayne, who, despite the fact that he'd prefer duckooses to remain not a thing, would definitely warm up to the idea of them being things when it involved them being things he could not only Number A) Eat but also things he could Number B) Show off by cooking up real good and he would absolutely Number C) be looking up good duck and goose recipes and trying to find the best compromise between the two.

"I look forward to your potential success."