Room 218

Peridot collapsed onto her bed, dropping her single suitcase on the floor where it landed with a dull thud. She lay for a minute, starring up at the blue canopy that hung above her bed. Eventually she sighed and stood up, searching the room for window. She found one, it's brass latch tarnished and it's window panes already beginning to fog up. She lifted the latch and swung the window open, leaning out to smell the crisp fresh air. She pulled her jacked off, the cold air swirling around her now bare arms, she shivered and put a few steps between her and the window.

She began unpacking, a small wardrobe to the left of her bed more than fit her clothing. An empty, leather bound journal and her hair brush went into the night stand drawer. Closing her suitcase she shoved it under her bed and sat back down on her bed. She had nothing to do, in this empty room. She thought about beginning her journal, her step-father had suggested she write in it. She opened the drawer but decided against it, closing it once more.

Topaz

"Room 218. Peridot Zircon." Topaz said lightly to herself, taking the keys, "I have no questions, thank you for your service," she said, bowing respectfully again. She smiled slightly before walking away, her heels clicking on the floor once more.

Soon she made her way up the stairs towards the rooms of the House of Sunlight, inevitably making it to her room. She opened the door, to reveal the rather archaic seeming room that was within. She gave a small smile and nod of the head respectfully to her roommate before promptly unpacking her things, various clothes, pieces of jewelry, and antiques that she used were what primarily took up the space of her bags.

Once she was done she took a seat on the bed, the mattress sagging slightly, a tad bit to her dismay. It seemed as though the living conditions of the school weren't quite what she was used to, and she definitely didn't expect the rooms to be this run down for a school that appeared so extravagant.

She sighed before smiling at her roommate again, "Topaz Montgomery, and I'm assuming you're Peridot Zircon?" She inquired politely.

Peridot had slipped quietly back into her room and was sitting at her desk with her journal open, and empty, in front of her. She heard the door creak and turned to see, what she could only assume was, her room mate entering. At the girl's nod she simply turned back to the yellowed pages before her.

Peridot heard some rustling behind her, probably her roommate unpacking, and then the other girl spoke up. "Topaz Montgomery, and I'm assuming you're Peridot Zircon?" Peridot sighed and nodded. Inspiration finally hit her and she dipped her pen and began scribbling in her journal.

Topaz Montgomery (Roommate)
-Talks too much.

Topaz

Topaz gave a small smile to her roommate, who nodded when asked if she was the Peridot Zircon she was to be acquainted with, she assumed that making a bond with this girl would be a bit more...difficult, although it was rather difficult for Topaz to bond with anyone really...for some reason people just didn't seem to enjoy her company all that much.

She glanced over at her roommate, who seemed to be too focused on writing in her journal to chat with her. The room was silent and Topaz lazily watched dust particles float gently in the room. She was rather bored, her mind drifting from one topic to the next, until it finally settled on one, "Why isn't Peridot talking?" She began thinking, obviously the answer appeared to be quite clear, but Topaz always knew that not everything had to be so simple. I mean, perhaps she was simply too busy writing in her journal, or perhaps she just didn't like talking, or didn't like her for that matter.

But it would be wrong of her to deny all other possible explanations just because there were more "realistic" ones. Besides, Topaz took the term realistic lightly, they lived in a world full of magic after all. Perhaps she took an oath of silence. Maybe she was traumatized and didn't speak afterwards...she had heard of cases like that. Maybe she was sworn into secrecy as a part of some cult initiation and she was scared she'd blurt out the truth to her. Maybe she had cut off her tongue!

After that thought Topaz's mind was thoroughly invested in the thought of what would occur if one were to cut off their own tongue. Her mind raced through the possibilities, for one, they wouldn't be able to talk, which makes it a possibility for why Peridot wasn't speaking, but more so, she assumed one who did that would already be dead after committing the act, as they'd probably end up choking on the blood that came out of their severed tongue.

She smiled again, this time her smile much wider than it was once before. She made her way to one of her trunks, painted a ivory white with gold plating, she opened the trunk up, rummaging through it to reveal her scissors that she had grown to love very much so. Once she retrieved them she, in what seemed to be one swift motion without any deliberation, casually snipped off her tongue, which plopped onto the ground soon afterwards. She laughed slightly, facing her head down so she wouldn't choke on her blood, watching as the blood poured from her mouth onto the ground. She could feel her tongue beginning to heal itself already, as such she'd unfortunately be unable to test out all the hindrances a severed tongue causes, she laughed again, this time a bit louder, enjoying herself despite the fact she wouldn't be able to test everything out. At least she knew that it was possible to not choke on your blood after cutting off your tongue.

Peridot sat with her back firmly turned to her roommate. She doodled idly on the edges of her journal, making swirls until the ink on her pen was worn off and the swirls were only slight scratches on the surface of the page. Topaz's laugh made her freeze. Her peaceful silence broken, she added a second point:

-Laughs too much.

When Topaz continued to laugh, getting louder and louder, Peridot twisted around in her chair. "Would you be-" she growled, but cut herself off with a scream. Blood was dripping from the girl's mouth, and once she follow the steady stream of drops, to a piece of pink flesh that lay on the wooden floor, she screamed again. The pen dropped from her hand, landing with a clank on the floor and splashing her shoes and the chair legs with the ink that was too far up the shaft to be useful.

"What is wrong with you?" she managed to rasp out, her mouth suddenly dry and sticky.

Topaz

The girl seemed to have had such a rough exterior to her earlier on but apparently now just some blood reduced her to horrified screams, it was interesting really, to see what fear brought one to. She laughed, some blood spurting out of her mouth as she let out the hard laugh. The girl had dropped her pen, ink bursting out of it, she began to speak, although most of what she said probably wouldn't make sense as one required their tongue to speak, "Ink stains are rather difficult to wash out..." Topaz said, still soft spoken, "You should really be more careful," she said, her head turning slightly in a puzzled manner. What she said was highly hypocritical..."You can use some of my cleaning utensils once I'm done with them," she said, beginning to cough up more blood, she decided it'd be best to continue looking down rather than at her roommate, "One can very well choke on their own blood if they're not careful..." Topaz mumbled to herself silently.

"What is wrong with you?"

She smiled slightly at the question, opening her mouth once more to let some blood trickle through. Was it really wrong to have such an inquisitive nature? To test out the things you did not know rather than to simply assume they are true? She supposed seeing as Peridot didn't know the whole story, nor that she could regenerate and heal herself passively, that it would make sense to be rather scared and confused in the situation she was in.

"Well for one, I'm missing part of my tongue," she said in response to Peridot, her tongue almost fully regenerated, making what she was saying obvious without one having to pay much close attention to her. She decided not to speak in the third person, deciding Peridot had gone through enough of her oddities for one day.

Topaz continued to laugh, although once her tongue was fully regenerated and the bleeding was over, she stopped. Standing up formally once more before turning to Peridot. "Sorry for the scare," she said with a slight laugh, "I was just testing would would occur to someone if their tongue had been severed...but I'm all better now," she said, revealing her to have a new tongue. Her mouth and dress had been stained with blood, and she made a mental note to clean herself up before going outside.

She picked up her severed appendage and put it in a small velvet bag, thinking she may do something with it, before taking out her cleaning utensils, contemplating whether or not she should clean the floor of the stains...they could keep them as memories of their first day as roommates. "I apologize again for any trouble I may have caused you," Topaz said with a slight smile, getting to work on cleaning it, deciding that Peridot may not want to remember this day.

Peridot watched in horror as the girl explained that she had cut off her tongue, just to see what would happen, and then stuck it out to demonstrate that it was, in fact, 'all better now'.

Now she was cleaning the blood off the floor, and Peridot couldn't help but wonder what she had gotten herself into. Her step-father had made it sound like she would be learning how to light something on fire with just a thought, or levitate objects at will. That she could handle, but the way this girl casually snipped her tongue off, it made her stomach churn.

Standing up, and using the back of the chair as a support, Peridot didn't even bother to close her journal, as she made her way unsteadily to the other side of the room. She stayed as far away from the girl as she could, her legs pressed against her bed as she walked past. She pushed aside the curtain to her clothing area and sank down onto the floor, legs stretched out in front of her, her back against the wall and the curtain brushing against her arm as it swung back into place.

Peridot took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to compose herself. She subconsciously grasped the bracelet on her left wrist and transferred it to her right, then back again. Finally she opened her eyes and stood up, stepping back into the main room.

"Topaz," She began, staring pointedly at the far wall. "I have to ask you never to do that again." Then she sat down on her bed and waited for the girl's reply. She usually didn't like it when people talked to her when it wasn't necessary. However she needed to know that this girl was just like everyone else, and she could hate her for the reason's she hated everyone else. She would forget this incident and it wouldn't effect their relationship at all.

The ringing of the noon bell interrupted any response Topaz was going to give, if she was even going to give one. On the eighth 'dong' Peridot stood up.

"I'll see you at lunch then," she said to her roommate before opening the door and leaving quickly. As she walked down the hall, crowded by other students, she tried to block the image of the severed tongue and blood stained mouth of her roommate.