A What? Pv Closed

Dated: June 19th, 2022

After the Easter holiday, and a bit before it, Flash would change his routine to more reflect his life before he was cursed. Now, he wore an eye patch over his new brown eye, and could be seen outside sitting in the shade like he used to. Today, he brought another book to read, sitting in a convenient spot that was perfectly shaded while being away from the main thoroughfare around the castle. It was the weekend, and nearly time for everyone to go home for the summer, so the energy was high for most.

Unlike the general populace, Flash had next to no energy. Life had beaten it out of him, and he'd not even be able to focus on the words in front of him. Instead, he'd tilt his head back against the wall and close his eyes. Fresh air, sunlight, and the noise of life around him would serve to soothe the discomfort he found himself in, even if it was hard not to simultaneously miss the things he no longer had. Being in the courtyard in particular always reminded him of bumping into Adlai, such as when he shared some poetry with her, or the time they danced. While he had seen her often in their shared Ancient Runes class, it wasn't quite the same as spending free time together.

As chances would have it, the next time he awoke from a micro-nap, he caught sight of the very person who had occupied his mind a moment earlier. Adlai was walking into the courtyard... with a large snake. Flash would watch silently for a moment, realizing that Adlai had bought a snake companion that she would be able to talk to. It made sense, though seeing it was another story. Next to the bright and fair Adlai, the snake looked like a dangerous beast, but it was clear in the way they interacted that they were comfortable around one another. However, Flash was intrigued by the idea that unlike for everyone else, Parselmouths could actually converse with their pets. That aside, he was also just glad to see his friend.

"Adlai! Over here!" Flash would call out, waving to get her attention. "Who is your friend there?"

@Flash Holmwood
Date: August 19th

Parseltongue

Shooting her head in the direction her name was called, Adlai's smile widened. "What is it?" an ever so curious little snake inquired."It's a friend." Adlai responded only to be met with the rapid chittering of "A friend? Oh a friend! I'm so happy, I was beginning to think you didn't have any friends and were just making them up. You seem social but you're really a little hermit, aren't Adlai?"

Adlai rolled her eyes. "Flash!" She exclaimed as she then wondered into his direction, Dafina curling up her right arm. "Oh male? Why a male? Males are so ugly, why couldn't it be a pretty little female person like you Adlai? You seem to socialize with too many males. We need to fix that, actually I'll fix that for you!" On and on went the little squeaky voice in her ear until Adlai stood in front of her old friend. She immediately noticed the difference in his appearance, but didn't say anything.

"This is Dafina!" She said, sticking her arm out a bit in an awkward attempt to show her off. "How have you been, Flash? It's been a while since I last saw you. The valentines day event was the last time, wasn't it?

Adlai noticed him, and it had triggered a hissing conversation between the two. It wasn't the first time he had heard Adlai speak parseltongue, but the last time had been only very shortly, back in first year. It was an odd experience, but he couldn't say it was bad. Just different, and Flash was always drawn to learn more when he came upon something he didn't understand.

Flash smiled when she called his name and came over, she was always one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen. It was much needed, and he would feel a bit more awake as well. He wasn't exactly timid about snakes, his other roommates has a few, including Hanako's snake, which was oddly friendly. This one seemed mostly preoccupied with providing commentary directly to Adlai, though it figured, given Flash would not be able to understand.

"Hello, Miss Dafina." Flash would look at the snake that had been outstretched to him as he spoke, too tired to stand up, but not too tired to be polite. "Outside of class, yes I think that's right. Of course I barely got to speak to you at all. I've missed being able to talk about something besides our lessons."

Flash put his book down, patting the bank he was sitting on in hopes she would join him for a longer conversation.

@Flash Holmwood
Date: August 19th

Parseltongue

"In all honesty so have I. But I've found that near the school year, with classes having less and less the teach students conversations and expand to more than just whats in the classroom." Adlai said before nodding to Flash and sitting in the spot he had patted just moments before.

Dafina wiggled her way from her mistresses arm across her shoulders until she was directly facing Flash. "I want to have a good look at him!" She exclaimed. Dafina hadn't been too physcially close to other people aside from Adlai, mainly due to the fact that most people feared snakes or at the very least were made uncomfortable by them. Adlai admitted that having a snake for a pet on school grounds would be seen as a little odd but it was permitted by the school so she didn't see any reason why she shouldn't be able to bring Dafina along on small day errands and when she was out and about as long as it was during her free time.

"What have you been up to though, Flash? Any exciting stories? Interesting homework?" Adlai asked. "In all honesty I'm not sure what to ask you." She sighed.

Adlai took him up on the offer to join him, which warmed Flash's heart. She was always a delightful presence, though his enthusiasm would be tempered by the addition of her pet. It was no secret that Flash and animals did not generally get along well. However, he had lately been making large strides in accepting them more openly, and not taking their owner's bad training as a reflection of the animal itself. Still, he was clearly not in his element when dealing with them.

This would be tested when her snake suddenly drew closer to his face, which would result in Flash instinctively flinching. He was already somewhat jumpy due to unfortunate memories of sudden attacks, but the addition of his eye patch had made depth perception difficult to gauge. His heart would leap, but after the initial scare, he calmed quickly. He trusted Adlai not to simply let her pet attack him for no reason, she was far too sensible for that.

When she continued to talk, she stumbled over an ice breaker before admitting that she wasn't sure what to talk about. "To be honest... my life is quite boring. I mostly study and train. I've been having some trouble sleeping, so it's been that and nothing else."

Flash would be brutally honest, even if he was underselling how bad it really was. There was no getting around the fact that things had changed for him, what with his eye suddenly changing, only for him to later cover it with an eye patch. He had learned to be more vulnerable around people, especially people he knew cared about him. Still, he did not want to create a depressing mood either.

"Which is why it's so nice to get to spend time with friends." He would conclude, yawning afterwards, no doubt because he had just said 'sleep' a moment ago. "Does Miss Dafina approve of me?"

After having been inspected, Flash's curiosity over her reaction would be piqued.

@Adlai Rod

@Flash Holmwood
Date: August 19th

Parseltongue

"Life seems to be boring for the lot of us as of late. Study, sleep, eat and repeat seems to be the cycle we've all fallen into. Even Dafina and I have began our own rhythm together. There isn't anything exciting anymore." Adlai said, her conscious drifting off. "Well, I suppose the balls are exciting, especially the air leading up to them. Everyone giddy about who will ask who... but even those are becoming repetitive, for me that is anyway..."

"I'll be honest sleep hasn't been going well for myself either." She admitted. "Falling asleep isn't the problem, it's waking up." She laughed. She was sure she sounded awkward but the mention of Dafina from Flash gave her something familiar to fall back on.

"Oh, well I'll have to ask her." Adlai pulled Dafina a bit closer to her as she tried to close the space between Flash and herself. "What's he saying? I don't understand and frankly I don't like it. Everything would be so much easier if everyone just spoke how I spoke. I don't see why they couldn't do that. You'd have an easier time to dear, sweat Addie! You wouldn't be so anxious and worried about how your voice sounds after you speak like me and-"
"Dafina, I have a question."
"Oh! A question? What type?"
"A judgement."
"This is fantastic! You know I adore judging people! Who are we judging? I hope it's that kid with the paper bag on their head! I'd give anything for you to ask me to judge him!"
"No, it's not him. What do you think of the boy next to us?"
"Him? Let me see..."

Although Dafina was small she was slim and slender, allowing her to glide with ease out of Adlai's hand and onto Flash's shoulders. Adlai watched as her pet peered up at him and frankly made herself comfortable with someone, who was just moments ago was, a complete stranger. Her eyes then traveled to Flash's face, searching for how he would react to this.

Flash would calmly smile as Adlai spoke, though he couldn't help but hear his words of exhaustion echoed back at him. His instinct told him he ought to have spoken of things more pleasant than his condition, but he tried to wave off the thought. He so often blamed himself for everything, and people like Adlai were trying to teach him how to stop taking everything so deadly serious. It was alright if the two of them complained about the banality of school, it wasn't wrong to relate and share, even if it was about a depressing topic.

"Yes. Waking up is horrible. Waking up tired feels awful." Flash would be genuine about his feelings, but he'd still be smiling. It was nice to abandon his worry and be honest.

Once he asked his question, Adlai began to speak to it. He waited patiently, listening to the words with interest. To him, it sounded like various noises, he couldn't tell the context at all. It amazed him that something like that could be inherent, it was exactly the kind of mystery that fascinated him. With how their friendship had changed over the years, he had almost forgotten how he was there when she discovered the strange chamber in the dungeons. That had been the last time he heard her speak in this tongue.

Flash's nostalgia would vanish however, as instead of a response in English, the snake began to slither onto his shoulders. He became a bit stiff, not knowing what to expect, yet trusted that Adlai would not have let it happen unless he was safe. He was quiet as she made herself comfortable, and slowly returned to normal. After several nightly encounters where he woke up embraced by the ever-obsessive Cu Sith, Flash was familiar with and even liked the feel smooth scales. From there, he would finally notice Adlai was observing him.

"She's very friendly." He would laugh a bit as he said it.

@Flash Holmwood
Date: August 19th

Adlai continued to watch Flash, even after he spoke. Although she trusted Dafina, Adlai had never owned a snake before and thus didn't know what exactly would happen if she ended up not liking her friend. Nonetheless, Dafina was quick to become comfortable.
"This one's good." Dafina said. Hearing this Adlai relaxed, it was nice to know that Dafina approved of one of her soul friends. "But his heart is sad." the snake added.

Adlai had known that the boy had a solemn air to him since the moment they had met. That edge is what seemed to drew a few people to him, people that felt the need to help or to care for him. She assumed it was because of a possible increase in work load due to the fact of how active he was with the student body, or his lack of talent in a specific subject, or some kind of personal familial problem. That or he was just plain edgy. She had never asked him what was wrong though, she assumed he had grown tired of hearing those sorts of questions. So, she asked him something else...

"Do you want to be my hamster?"

There would not be much Flash could have done to prepare for Adlai's question. Having been preoccupied with his own life and problems, he would have neglected to learn about the fact that Adlai was getting to know and connect with other parseltongues in the school and had formed a club. Really, he did not pry into Adlai's life at all. She was a girl with simple desires and ambitions-- she wanted friends, to be understood, to get along with her family. Compared to others he was entwined with, she had very little controversy or mystery surrounding her, and to him that was the whole idea. She was a comfort, something soft and warm that would never hurt him. Little did he know, she had plenty of controversy and mystery that he he had chosen to overlook.

There, with her snake wrapped around him and speaking something he could not know, he would be asked whether he wanted to be a hamster. "A what?" Pardon, not a hamster, her hamster. "Forgive me... I think I must have misheard you... you don't mean a hamster, do you?"

Flash would be at a loss. Even if this was some kind of preposition to practice her transfiguration on him, it seemed quite bold to assume he would be okay with that. He was not keen on becoming a rodent, let alone a tiny defenseless one. Certainly she would quickly start explaining what she actually meant...