Third Floor Common Room; Monday Morning [04/26].

[howareyanow]

Wayne almost didn't even make it on over to the common room fer breakfast that morning. There'd just been this heavy feeling weighing down his broad shoulders since he woke up that morning wondering what was even the point? No one even really cared about MMB and the tradition of it all, 'cept mebbe him, really, and it wouldn't even matter soon, anyway, he'd only had two or three more of 'em left before he graduated and it was back to the farm, back to chorin', so what did it even matter? Mebbe you could fuck with tradition after all; mebbe you should.

Odds were somethin' terrible was going to happen once he got down there, anyway, like all the eggs were actually monsters or all his pancake batter turned to slime or some other such tomfuckery...

But somehow, he managed to pull through this fog of reservations and excuses and shuffled reluctantly down the hall to the common room, not at all comforted by the fact that the eggs were just eggs and his pancake batter remained batter, because that just meant that, if the breakfast was normal, then something else was likeleh to go pear-shaped instead, but at least there was something in the fact that he'd have a good solid breakfast in his stomach to prepare him for whatever it was that might be headin' their way...

[[ open breakfast is open, of course! ]]

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[noonedecidesmyfate]

Belle had awoken this morning feeling very out of sorts as well. Something just didn't feel right about the day but she wasn't enough of a Fandom veteran, still being quite new, to take the feeling very seriously.

Mostly she was hoping that breakfast would help. Breakfast certainly couldn't hurt, right?

"Morning, Wayne."

[howareyanow]

The grumble that emitted from Wayne immediately in response wasn't anything against Belle; it was just that today felt like the sort of day when the whole world sort of deserved being grumbled at.

He did nod, though, even if his attention stayed on the food with his brow furrowed in a troubled sort of squint.

"Belle," he said. "How are ya now?"

[noonedecidesmyfate]

"I'm not entirely sure," Belle told him. Somehow admitting to a feeling of impending doom didn't seem like appropriate breakfast conversation. Besides, the feeling would probably go away after some pancakes. Or so she hoped.

"And yourself?"

[howareyanow]

"Ohhhh," Wayne started, with the same drawl that almost always lead into a not so bad, even when things might be a little bad, but clearly things were worse than a little bad, because what came out was an incredibly dejected sounding, "...'bout the same..."

And that just settled all awkward and wrong and seemed to just make him feel worse, so he tried, firmly, a recovery.

"Fix you up a plate?"

[noonedecidesmyfate]

"Yes please," Belle said gratefully. "Pancakes can only help!"

Did it sound like she was trying to convince herself of that? Because she was.

[howareyanow]

Wayne could, in that moment, actually think of at least three different ways in which pancakes might not help, but he decided to firmly keep those thoughts to himself, especially since around here, sayin' a thing like that was just askin' fer it to happen.

So instead he just grunted an acknowledgement, loaded up a plate, and turned his head as he offered it out to Belle.

Still with his eyes averted.

And only a moment later did he remember to add, "Way ya go."

[noonedecidesmyfate]

"Thank you," Belle said, offering a very lackluster smile as she took the plate.

"I hope it helps."

[howareyanow]

"Me, too," said Wayne.

Who figgured that was prob'ly a much better thing to say right now than the Doubt it that had bubbled up first on his tongue.

He grumbled a little with discomfort before turning to just focus on the next batch, half wondering if he'd just handed Belle an unexpected plate of doom.

Could he throw a punch fast enough to get a sudden attack plate of pancakes?

Mebbe he'd find out.

[grayskollar]

It wasn't that Adora hadn't woken with a vague and lingering sense of existential dread, it was just that she was more used to waking like that than not. Since there was nothing solid she could pin it down on, she did what she usually did and determinedly ignored it. "Morning, Wayne."

[howareyanow]

Adora was met with a similar general grumbliness that Belle had recieved initially, and Wayne had a strong compulsion to ask exactly what was so good about it, but his staunch dedication to tradition and proper greeting even in the most vaguely trying of times helped avert that particular train of thought.

"Adora," he said, instead, with a firm resolution to say that instead of what he'd been tempted to say, "how are ya now?"

[grayskollar]

"I'm okay, excited about graduation." The thought of seeing Glimmer, Bow, and Catra in just under a week created a warm glow that no amount of dread could smother. "How about you?"

[howareyanow]

"Ohhh," said Wayne, squinting a little extra hard at the drawl because it took some effort to say the words he wasn't really feeling, but that small sliver of positivity in Adora's response made him at least want to try. "Not so bad..."

That settled a little uneasily for a moment before he made himself move on with the important thing, the whole reason any of 'em were here, right?

"Fix you up a plate?"

[grayskollar]

"Thanks!" Adora had a lot of practice with fake it until everyone thinks you've made it. Plus it would take more than a little (or a lot of) dread to affect her appetite.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

It was Sabine's last Monday breakfast, and she wished she was in a better mood for it.

"Hey."

So that's where she was today.

[howareyanow]

There was almost a wince in the squint that Sabine's greeting received, even if Wayne was still keeping his eyes on the breakfast he was making in front of him rather than the people he was talking to, though he didn't know why, which definitely inspired a bit more grumbling, but he very dedicatedly, almost insistently proceeded to greet her with the expected, "Sabine." A nod. At...the bacon, mostleh. "How are ya now?"

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Not great," Sabine admitted, leaning against the wall like she was in a sulk. "How are you now?"

[howareyanow]

"Ohhhh," Wayne started, and, try as he might, couldn't seem to get the words out the way he would have liked, the way he should have, what with a proper greeting and all, but if that weren't evidence enough that today was definitely not a proper day, he didn't know what would be!

"Pretty fuckin' terrible, actualleh."

And he didn't even know quite why, which, fer him, meant it really wasn't worth dwelling over, so he was just going to move right on to, "Fix you up a plate?"

But he did look over at Sabine when he asked this time, which only made his squinting furrowed brow even deeper.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Sure, thanks," she said, not sure why all that frowning made her self-conscious. She was never self-conscious. "What's up with your day?"

[howareyanow]

"Y'ever get the feeling that something just ain't quite right?" Wayne asked, after taking a long moment to figure out how to say it, exactly, in a way that wasn't just going to be typical fer about any day around here. "Like something terrible's gonna be waitin', jus' 'round the corner?"

Again, in a different way than just your run-of-the-mill week at Fandom High.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Yep," Sabine said, nodding slowly. "That's about how I feel now, so maybe it is."

[howareyanow]

"Isn't. That," said Wayne, each word clipped and tight through a somewhat clenched jaw as he set up a plate for Sabine, "Fun."

[scoffs_at_tradition]

The last time Shuri had woken up feeling this paranoid, she had turned the common room into a obstacle course of doom, so it was probably better that Wayne had beaten her in.

"How are ya now?" she asked.

[howareyanow]

Wanna know what could really make a fist of dread clenched around a man's stomach tighten enough to make it feel like it might up and burst like a tractor tire with too much air?

The oppressive presence of a topic that might need to be discussed sometime before graduation that you were generally avoiding....even though you knew you shouldn't.

So it was...a looooong time before Wayne answered, blinking quite a bit at the pancake that was currently getting very burned on one side.

He thought about lying and giving the usual answer, but if you considered avoidance a form of dishonesty....there's already been too much of that.

So the answer was brusque. And honest.

"Terrible!" he barked.

But the follow up was much softer.

"N'you?"

[scoffs_at_tradition]

"Not amazing," Shuri admitted with a long sigh. "Feels like everything is coming to a crashing end, neh?"

[howareyanow]

Wayne blinked again, this time one of those long, singular ones.

Then his attention swiveled entirely toward Shuri.

"Can confirm," he said, but the tone was somewhat slowed and awed that she would put it with such perfect, horrible percision.

"That's exactly what it feels like."

[scoffs_at_tradition]

Shuri came closer, silently asking for a hug. "This stinks."

[howareyanow]

"Can confirm," Wayne said, again, this time sounding perfectly miserable about it, too.

And while Wayne might have a slim chance of picking up on a social cue like that on a good day, a day like toda meant he wasn't even sure how to read that move that put Shuri closer, and it was only his own worry that she might take it the wrong way that he didn't actually step away. When in doubt, he figured, just stand yer ground.

"Fix you up a plate?" At least he could offer that much. "Pancakes might help."

While they were still pancakes and not trying to come alive or attack or nothin', anywhey!