Third Floor Common Room; Monday Morning [10/07].

[howareyanow]

The amount of grumbling that had gone on that morning when Wayne woke up was substantial. It'd been a while, after all, since the island went and had to make things a bit...different, and it had been nice, and Wayne would have been perfectly happy to just keep staying that course, but nope. He had to go and wake up that morning as a girl, which in and of itself wasn't a bad thing, realleh, it was just the principle of the thing, it was just impolite to go changing people like that, but fuck if the island cared at all, making people into birds or crabs or girls just whenever the fuck it felt like it.

But, well, it was Monday an' all, so....pitter-patter. He wasn't about to let something like this interfere with tradition, and even though he wasn't even sure if Nina was back yet, he couldn't risk letting all his grumbling about it lead to her beating him to the common room again. His clothes were going to fit a bit looser than before, but they still fit, that was the important thing.

He had been thinking out something to mix it up with breakfast that morning, just because, but ultimately decided that things were mixed up enough already, might as well stick with the basics, unless the island decided to go change that all up, too.

[[ open breakfast is open! and, yes, my main concern here was the plaid ]]

Comments

[chirpchirpchirp]

Tradition was important! And Vette wasn't about to let her start on that new one go slack now. She could smell the food cooking already, which meant she wasn't even completely through the door when she started to cheerfully call, "Hey, Wayne! How ar-what?"

Sorry, tradition. Vette had tried.

[howareyanow]

And Wayne, who liked to think he could solidly stand by tradition no matter what sort of dysphoric nonsense was thrown at him, was determined to insist that absolutely nothing was wrong, it was just a normal Monday like any other, he just woke up considerably prettier than usual, and it would all be over by tomorrow, mebbe, or a few days, or, fuck, even a week, but the fact of the matter was that it would probably be over.

"Vette!" he grunted. Or at least tried to. It came out a lot less like his usual bark, actually sounded pleasant and noticeably friendly in its higher pitch. "How are ya now?"

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette was still kind of blinking and headtilting, but this routine was familiar enough by now that she did, at least, manage a, "Good." A beat. "N'you?"

Wayne was pretty. And, you know. Shapely? Different-shapely. And Vette had been warned about this island pulling a lot of weird stuff before, heck, she'd been a little girl again for a few days that one time and she'd just recovered from a serious case of the bluebirds, but... this was Wayne.

[howareyanow]

Wayne was incredibly grateful for the fact that the one person who'd managed to actually consistently get it just right was adhering to the protocol now, too, because now was when these sorts of things became particularleh important.

"Oh," the usual drawl seemed a little more wistful, almost breezy, in his current form, "not so bad. Fix you up a plate?"

See? Nothin' to see here. Completely normal. Way ya go....

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Please?" Vette said, and then paused. Opened her mouth. Shut it again. Tilted her head the other way for good measure. Pursed her lips a little. And attempted to figure out just what to say, here. "You know," she settled on, "you're always going above and beyond on Mondays to keep us all fed. I feel like I should be offering something back as thanks."

That was kind of where she was going with that, anyway?

Oh god, she was so tiny and Wayne was bigger enough like this that she probably couldn't offer him any of her clothes. Maybe she could steal him a sports bra or something. Um.

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Still convinced that no one would really notice any of the changes Tisarwat had gone through that morning, not nearly as much as she herself had, she smiled at her big sibling and nodded a greeting, figuring they didn't spend nearly enough time talking with each other as they should.

"Good morning, Vette. How are you? Would you like some tea?"

[chirpchirpchirp]

"I," Vette declared, "will never say no to tea!"

A beat.

And then Vette was tilting her head a little and kind of processing that offer and that familiarity and those gloves? Before adding a kind of hopeful, "Thanks, Tisarwat!"

It was definitely one of those days. Her head felt like it was going to explode.

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

"I don't think I could trust anyone who would," Tisarwat remarked, laughing a little as she made a detour over to the cabinet to get Vette a mug before she got too settled on the usual spot she usurped on the couch. She filled on easily from her flask, topped off her own, and then closed it again before handing the mug over. "So, how have you been? I feel like we haven't had much of a chance to catch each other much lately."

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Oh, you know," Vette said, looking curiously at the flask before accepting the mug with a grateful nod and considering the contents of it, "I can't complain too much, now that things are..."

... Well, they weren't exactly normal, today.

"Less bird-shaped."

That would do.

"I didn't get any visitors the other weekend or anything and things have been pretty quiet since," what with Nina being off on some mission somewhere. "And, uh, how about you?"

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

For the Lord of the Radch, changing bodies was like changing clothes; she was often inhabiting several of them at once, for that matter, all of them different, on the wide spectrum of forms humanity could take. For Tisarwat, it was still a bit of a new phenomenon, but she'd experienced the feeling before, through her memories shared with Anaander, so waking up that morning had been...disorienting, a little confusing, but only briefly, only for a few moments, because Vette had warned her about this, hasn't she, that things might...change? But for a Radchaai, changes like these were...insubstantial. It didn't really matter. And, for a part of Tisarwat, it wasn't even anything new or unusual. Bodies were mere vessels for consciousness, nothing more. And the other part of Tisarwat was mostly just found the changes to her body different enough to be annoying. Back home, most people probably wouldn't even notice them; she was only aware of them because they weren't exactly hers.

But none of the changes were as annoying as the fact that, with all those little changes, she still had these ridiculous eyes.

Her clothes fitting just a little differently. Her gait somewhat altered by the lack of the usual parts down there, she still made it over to the common room, flask of tea in her hands.

"Good morning, everyone," she greeted, then blinked a little at Wayne because even a Radchaai could see that he looked quite a bit different, didn't he? He must have done something different with his hair.


[[and for ooc clarity: i'm taking tisarwat being biologically male but feminine presenting as a free pass to really muck this whole week up, because why not? mwa ha ha]]

[howareyanow]

She sounded a bit different, so Wayne, even though he was deterimined not to make note of anyone else being different, because that opened the door up to people takin' note of him being different, couldn't help turning his head to confirm who that was, but it wasn't too hard to tell, even though she did, in fact, look a bit different.

A bit.

Not as much as Wayne, it seemed, which hardly seemed fair. So there was a bit of a grumble, but he still chirped out--yes, chirped--"Tisarwat! How are ya now?"

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

"I'm....fine," Tisarwat ventured, since she didn't exactly feel the changes she felt were different enough to bring any attention to, especially not when she was so distracted by the changes she felt she was seeing in Wayne. She wondered if she should just not say anything, but she also realized that it would distract her the whole time if she didn't at least address it.

"Did you do something different with your hair?"

[howareyanow]

Y'know, Tisarwat had always seemed a little weird to Wayne. And sure, a lot of people here did, but he just really got the feeling she was from somewhere completely off the beaten track, so to speak, and then she came in here with a question like that, where he almost hoped she was just being facetious and not just weird.

"You fucking serious with that question right now?" he asked, forgetting at just that moment aobut his dedication to just pretend like everything was normal.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

It was one of the or I had Sabine actually made her way in for breakfast, and she got mostly through a "Good morning-" before pausing.

It didn't look like Wayne or Nina...

[howareyanow]

But the plaid, Sabine! The plaid!

And if she needed any help, Wayne was a creature of habit, no matter what the form, so the person at the stove flipping pancakes greeted her with a not-nearly-as-brusque-as-he'd-like, "Sabine! How are ya now?" which could maybe help a bit there.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

A lot of people could wear plaid!

But yeah, that helped.

"I'm good," she said slowly, and way slower, asked, "How are you?"

[howareyanow]

"Oh," it came out as much more of a wistful sigh than one might expect Wayne to otherwise be capable of, "not so bad..."

Considerin'.

He was trying not to think about it.

"Fix you a plate?" he offered instead.

[scoffs_at_tradition]

No one had told Shuri that this was a possibility. "Wayne?" she gaped, blinking rapidly. "Or are you a random new student who just likes making breakfast on Mondays, too?"

Please be the second thing.

[howareyanow]

Now that there was going to create a wince, and quite a bit of rapid blinking on Wayne's part, though his was mostly directed up at the space where the wall met the ceiling. Sometimes, Shuri didn't always come to breakfast (though, admittedly, more so recently, which would usually be very nice), and so he'd been sort of hoping this morning would be one of the ones where she didn't, but...nope. Here they were.

"Shuri." He sounded a bit pained to say it, and his eyes were squinting at that same spot still, and his current pancake might be getting just a little bit burned. But he was staying the course, like nothing was wrong at all. "How are ya now?

[scoffs_at_tradition]

"Confused," Shuri admitted, glancing around at the rest of the room and trying to assess if this was a Wayne-only thing.

[howareyanow]

So far it, unfortunately, seemed to be just sort of a Wayne and Tisarwat thing, but he didn't know how far you could trust Tisarwat with this sort of thing, considering all she seemed to think was that they'd just changed their hair.

Wayne, for a brief second, thought about just trudging forward with a steadfast 'oh not so bad,' no matter how much it didn't even match what Shuri had answered, but feeling defeated in his hopes to avoid at least this awkwardness, he just murmured out a "Can confirm."

[handystand]

Okuyasu had slept in.

This meant when he came into the room, he was a little confused.

"Who are you and why are you wearing Wayne's shirt?"

Yes, he recognized Wayne's clothes on sight. Shhh.

[howareyanow]

Well. There was a theme.

Wayne sighed, his much slimmer shoulders sagging a bit as he wondered if he still had the energy to go with the rigormorale of just charging forward and ignoring that question for a more standard and appropriate point of greeting, or if he should just cut to the chase. For mostleh anyone else, he might forge forward, but, with Okuyasu, in his experience, it was definitely better to just put it right out there.

Even if there seemed to be a really good missed opportunity in suggesting he was wearing Wayne's shirt for reasons other than being Wayne, but that was dishonest and he was a bad actor, anyway.

"I am Wayne," he said, "n'this is my shirt."

[handystand]

"Oh."

Okuyasu mulled over that for a second. "Is it weird if I say you look pretty? I don't want to make you uncomfortable, you're probably feeling pretty vulnerable right now. In fact, forget I said that. I wasn't thinking."

He nodded. "You do look pretty though."

Considerate, but also still kinda dumb.

[howareyanow]

Wayne went through an interesting tumble of emotions and reactions there, starting with the exact discomfort Okuyasu had apparently been trying to avoid, and then irritation over the vulnerable thing, and then relief as it seemed Okuyasu realized what he'd said and then retracted from it, thus making it easier for Wayne to igno--

--and then disappointment, as that last bit slipped in there and put them right bac to where they started. Wayne growled a bit, disconsolate, and offering at least one thing other than the wardrobe that still seemed very much Wayne's usual self.

Squinting, he considered exactly how one should handle their roommate going and calling them pretty.

"....can confirm," he finally said. "I s'pose I could be considered what most would traditionally call..." He squinted. "....a catch."

It was impolite to brag, but it was probably more polite than just ignoring Okuyasu's comments all together, especially when they both had to live with the fact that he'd called him pretty, and, also, you should probably call a spade a spade, and all that...