Room 218; Tuesday, Mostly all day.

[ecirpnellehada]

At one point in her life, many points, like points of stars, srats of stniop, Adah used to draw. There weren't anything much, mirror images of things she saw, but they were through an Adah mirror, so they weren't exactly what everyone else saw. She was starting to feel like maybe she should start that again. She certainly had a few things that

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[comelyhonour]

Beauty had been handwavily at the library, by way of visiting Greatheart. Which meant she had a stack of books in her arms, with two apples balanced on top, and a bit of hay in her hair.

Giving Adah a smile, she said as she came into the room, "I borrowed a couple of volumes of an encyclopedia from the library. Anemone suggested it would be a good way to find out what I needed to learn. You're welcome to look at them too, if you like. Oh, and would you like an apple?"

For some reason, she always made an effort to speak quietly around Adah. As if there was a particular level of silence that ought to be maintained in their room.

[ooc: Feel free to have Beauty's arrival be before, after, or whenever in relation to the other folks. I'm flexible. :)]

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah glanced up from a page about Toorlexa Nebee and his Hut of Secrets as Honour came into the room; the passage from past to present was a lot sharper, firmer, quicker for her because of what her roommate held in her arms. Adah's eyes instantly locked on the stack of books, how they were placed, and the apples on top, perfectly balanced. The apples themselves were not even perfect; good apples rarely were, one side of one slightly thicker than the other side and the other looking as if it shouldn't be able to stay with a bottom like that. But there they were, perfectly balanced, on top of books, in Honour's capable arms

[comelyhonour]

Beauty caught the flash of something dark in Adah's eyes, and found herself poised on the edge of an apology before common sense took over and pushed her to move forward instead, so that the other girl could choose her apple from the pair.

"I hope I didn't surprise you," she said, the apology too insistent to be done away with entirely. "Sometimes when I read or sit by the window, I get lost in my thoughts and don't realize when other people are around." It was, in a way, also something of a test, to see if Adah was amenable to conversation, or preferred to return to her quiet world.

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah took the smaller apple, the one with the slight bulging on its side. Her fingers wrapped around it a little tighter than she needed to, drawing it in and tucking it against her chest, hand twisted, wrist bend. She'd get to eating it in a moment; she was scanning the spines of Honour's books for a quick moment before lifting her dark eyes back up to her roommate. She gave a light shake of her head to assure Honour that she had not been disturbed (no more so than she'd been throughout the day), and then unwound her hand to take a bit of the apple. The knife laid unused, unuseful to her, on her bed beside the notebook.

[comelyhonour]

Setting the books down on her desk, once Adah had gotten a good look at the titles, Beauty sat on the edge of her bed and looked thoughtfully at the other girl. Sometimes it was best to take bull by the horns and just ask questions, even if the result was that you got yourself into trouble. Not asking was likely to lead to far greater trouble down the road anyway.

"Do you mind for people to do things for you, or to ask if you want them done? I've been thinking about that, and it's occurred to me that maybe you get fewer offers like that, someone just wanting to be nice and lend a hand, because they might be afraid of hurting your feelings. And in the end, maybe your feelings get hurt all the same, because no one ever does the friendly sorts of things they'd do normally, for anyone."

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah was chewing her apple carefully on the good side of her mouth as she listened to Honour. She was frowning; an introduction like that made her worry that her roommate was going to start offering to do things for her. But then she kept talking (it was not the volume, but mass, of Honour's talking that made her loud) and Adah was suddenly choking on her apple. Face red from the sudden lack of oxygen passing through, she curled over and coughed, forcefully, a few times. Her apple fell to the bed, rolled slightly over the small bite that her mouth had taken from it, her left hand poised before her mouth to catch the piece if she'd managed to get it from being wedged out. It wasn't coming easily; death by apple and disbelief. A regular Snow White.

Finally, half-chewed bit of apple settled in her palm as the red drained from her face, Adah just stared at her roommate like she was crazy. Feelings? Hurt? Because people don't offer to help her? If she wasn't so busy catching her breath, Adah would laugh.

[comelyhonour]

Beauty was horrified. First she thought something she'd said had caused Adah to choke (and she was right)and then it looked as though her roommate thought what she'd said was crazy (also right), and finally came to the realization that she may have offended the other girl (possibly wrong).

And what a lovely flavor of shoe you own, Honour Huston, she thought to herself. "I'm sorry. I just thought it best to know, and not wonder. I'm usually too curious about things."

She eyed the apple, with the bite taken from it, and Adah's hand holding the bite itself. "Would you like some water?" she asked hesitantly. Nothing wrong with offering a glass of water to someone you just nearly caused to choke to death, right?

[ecirpnellehada]

Since she couldn't exactly brush the hair out of her still-wide eyes at the moment, Adah blew out a breath of air to send the tendril away, only to have it flop back. The apple in her hand was depriving her of her only asset at the moment, so the apple, pre-chewed, like ABC gum, went right back into her mouth. She wiped her hand against her side and reached for her notebook, the conversation one. She wrote quickly, so that Honour didn't get any more crazy ideas like the she'd proposed.

"The last thing I want is the pity of other people. Why would my feelings be hurt because people aren't expressing to me that they find me incapable?"

She gave the notebook a soft toss; it fell on the floor halfway between them, not quite managing to make it all the way to her roommate on the other bed.

[comelyhonour]

That was all right, Beauty scrambled off the bed and grabbed up the notebook to read it. Then she moved to perch at the foot of Adah's bed, hoping the intrusion would be overlooked for the good of easier conversation, and handed the notebook back.

"I suppose I wasn't really looking at it that way. More like...well, if my hands were full and I couldn't get the door open, I'd hope someone would offer to help me." She pointed at the unused knife. "Your hands were full, and I'd thought to ask if you'd like me to cut the apple for you. But I didn't dare, because I was afraid you'd take it amiss. And that made me wonder if it wasn't just as bad not to offer, when it's obvious that a person could use an extra bit of help."

She knew she was talking too much, but that was Beauty. When she got it into her head to want to know about something, it was hard to hold herself back.

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah, swallowing the apple hard as if feeling it necessary to force it down in case it decided it wanted to pull that getting stuck bit again, looked at her roommate at the foot of her bed for a long moment, her eyes thoughtful but the rest of her face a careful, stoic mask. She knew she was being needlessly sensitive about it; no one in the Congo thought twice about a disability and her family had been used to it; she wasn't used to people who didn't know how to handle it, but it bothered her that it was even an issue as to whether or not Adah needed help. She considered telling Honour what she was thinking, just to let it sink in, but she still returned to the notebook.

"I have teeth, designed to pierce the flesh of an apple or rip through tender enough meat. Why would I need a knife?"

[comelyhonour]

"Not everyone likes to eat an apple that way," Beauty pointed out, feeling a bit sheepish. "My sisters wouldn't, for example. It isn't ladylike."

It occurred now to Beauty that Adah was as perfectly capable of asking for assistance as she was at refusing it, and her face reddened with embarrassment. "I usually bring myself back an apple after I've visited with my horse, and I'll be glad to always bring one for you as well, if you like them," she said softly, by way of withdrawing from the discomfort of the earlier topic.

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah's brow arched a little critically as she looked at Honour and wondered where ever she'd gotten the idea that Adah would be concerned with something like being a lady, but then, shifting slightly in her cocoon, figured she should probably let off a little. She did have to share a room with this person, after all. That never excused Leah or Rachel from her constant judgment, but Honour didn't share the same genetics in her veins, so that should allow her some leeway...

When she wrote, she allowed herself to be lead down Honour's new pathway. "I'm never one to turn down food when it appears. One lesson well learned from years of realizing that it doesn't always come easily."

[comelyhonour]

Beauty smiled understandingly at that. "There were times last winter that I'd have given anything for a fresh apple."

She moved off the bed and went to carefully arrange the books she'd brought with her on the shelf. She had another question for Adah, just one more, but figured it was the sort that wouldn't require the other girl to write out a response. "Would you mind having a painting done on our wall?"

[ecirpnellehada]

A small smirk slipped onto Adah's face. "Done," she wrote, "by a nervous boy in baggy clothing?" Her head tilted as she slid the notebook back Honour's way to see.

[comelyhonour]

Beauty hadn't expected more than a yes or no from Adah, and she took a surprised glance at the notebook, and then turned a bit pink.

"Oh! Um, yes, I suppose that must be A.J. Have you met him then? Did he talk to you about the painting?"

[ecirpnellehada]

Well, now, this was an interesting story unfolding itself in front of her, on the pink of her roommate's face and Adah's intrigue was enough to forgive her easy for her misjudged concern.

"Not so much talked as just incessantly babbled. I have no qualms about the room being painted; I just ask that you make sure he doesn't use too many bright colors. I have difficulty with them."