#rosehearrt

“…I meant to go outside, so as not to disturb you. I thought the sound of the zipper may do so more, however, so I remained. I apologize.” Of course, knowing Jade, that wouldn’t be enough. Especially not when Riddle hadn’t in any way answered the question he’d directly been asked. So, after another moment of quiet contemplation, his lips parted: voice soft, only for the other’s ears, nobody else’s.  “I don’t tend to sleep well. Or often. Three and three quarter hours a night is often my cut-off. I’ve tried to make it to the four hour mark, though it’s a rare occurrence. Ah, before you say anything, I know it’s unhealthy. There’s little to be done for it though. I’ve been this way for…a long time, now.”

The shadow of a smile lingers on his lips as Jade lies on his side, gaze still focused on Riddle's silhouette; colours had begun filling themselves in as the night grew darker and more in favour of the eel.

"I know." He drawls. It wasn't about the Heartslabyul Dorm Leader's sleepless nights, nor did he mean to say that it wasn't healthy. Those were given. He knows that Riddle is clever enough without a reminder. Instead, it is the fact that Jade himself had gone through that same restless phase, to anyone's surprise. "I recall sleeping during the day was difficult when I first came on land. It'd taken me a few months to successfully adopt the surface's sleep rhythm. I suppose there is more than one reason that could cause a person to be unable to sleep."

Coming to the surface required a great adjustment to his norm. Where he's used to sleeping during the day and becoming active during the night, he's appalled to find that the surface had the opposite practice. The first few weeks had made him tireless, forced to operate without so much a wink of sleep on top of many other different adjustments.

With a small sound, Riddle adjusted the somewhat precarious hold he had on the stack of papers in his arms. As per usual, he and Jade had both volunteered to retrieve them from the staff room, as well as to hand them out once they returned to class. Riddle volunteered both as an overachiever and out of some visceral need to please the professors, as well as to set an ‘ example ‘ for other students as a housewarden. As for Jade’s own reasoning…he couldn’t say.

“The last time we were walking down these stairs, holding papers, Floyd nearly knocked into us. It made me think. You two are so different, yet you’re so close. It’s…an intriguing thing. Is that because you’re family? Or is it because you’re twins…?”

Perhaps he should have thought about it a bit more, that questions regarding the other Leech might be sensitive. He of all people knew what it was like to dislike speaking to others about his family, but…all he was really thinking about at the moment was the way he and Jade had been talking more recently. And that these days, it didn’t feel so inappropriate to speak freely around him.

“I suppose it draws my attention in such a way since I grew up an only child. It was quite an unceasing source of headache for me, and of contradiction. I changed my mind on the subject often. The company sounded nice. And the idea of blood connection. But…I don’t believe another child would have been suitable for my household.”

A few papers slipped, and as he spoke, Riddle bent down smoothly to pick them up again. He had yearned for the company, the closeness when he was young. But wishing for someone else to lead the life he had? Another child? It didn’t seem right. It didn’t feel right. So he didn’t wish for it. But he’d always wondered nonetheless.

“All of that aside, it seems nice. That the two of you have each other.”

Riddle / @rosehearrt

He had volunteered suit after Riddle as Jade thought it was unfair for the Heartslabyul's Housewarden to carry all those papers alone. The other students have thus far been rather unhelpful, though Jade decides they were not his business to ponder over. Riddle has always been quite belligerent with his words that they could easily be mistaken to be rude. Perhaps that was the reason for his boycott.

Their walk down the hallway had been quiet until Riddle's query causes him to chuckle. Not at his classmate's bluntness or how his question made little sense, but at the sheer obliviousness of it. "I doubt we got along just by being twins." Most people found Floyd draining to be around, but Jade had been the opposite; he was spurred on by Floyd's contagious energy and eagerness to cause chaos. As much as he preferred not to admit it, he found himself dejected when he was not with Floyd all the time. There's a good reason why when Floyd barges into his class to glue himself to his side, Jade happily lets him.

"Don't you also have Trey and Chen'ya?" Jade asks with a laugh. "Are they not also available and around you, and beyond that, willing to associate with you?"

Riddle's debunk of company under the mask of blood relations sounded silly to him. It's as if Jade would have cared if Floyd turned out not to be his brother at all one day. Would that ever matter to him? He had chosen Floyd, and more than that, chosen only Floyd among hundreds of other siblings. Blood would not have sufficed to erase all the years they've spent with each other, have known each other, the times they've not been apart. He would not allow himself to be bound by something as trivial as being related by blood, or anything other thing for that matter.

"While I am grateful that my brother is also my best friend, you are blessed with a pair yourself. Despite receiving all misgivings from your mother, they have remained by your side." He reaches out to grab ahold of Riddle's elbow just a second before he would place his foot upon a missed step, steadying him. "Doesn't that say it all?"

          Ohoh? It would seem she has touched on a nerve without meaning to. She supposed she should have known better with the hints and bits she's gathered about the other through the grapevine, but it was never enough to paint a full picture. In fact, she still doesn't have the full picture when it comes to Riddle but this is a good step towards seeing it. Towards understanding him just a bit more.

          Gemiya listens and listens without judgement, her expression, her posture, everything about her attentive to his being; instead she's curious and takes note of his tells. For the moment she takes care to note his body language, treading carefully and proceeding with the conversation in a way that hopefully illustrates that she bears no ill-will to his quieter outburst.

          "My method?" Hmmm. Upon hearing his query she grows thoughtful, eyes wandering upward as she looks for the right words to describe this 'method' Riddle had asked about. In truth she's never really thought about it, but she knew she had one. It's just that the need to put it into words had never been brought up before.

          "I suppose..." She starts, choosing her words with care. "It would be to get as close to perfection as possible while accepting that it will never be achieved." An odd contradiction to be sure, she's aware.

          "Objective perfection simply doesn't exist." Gemiya continues, speaking with a gentle tone reminiscent of a melody meant to calm. "Subjective perfection on the other hand... well, that's a bit easier to achieve now isn't it?" She shrugs, accepting that Riddle may not like her answer.

          "Perfection is in the eye of the beholder after all. What is perfect to one, may not be perfect to another. Such is the nature of all things." Even Mother Nature herself isn't perfect, but with each imperfection comes new life, evolution and an ever-evolving way of living.

          "Simply put. I evolve. Whether into something that's perfect or not doesn't matter. What matters is- that it's better than what came before." Gemiya looks back to Riddle, wondering how he might react to her answer, but knowing him he'd likely need some time to process it. Or- he might prove stubborn and show no reaction at all. Or perhaps another reaction entirely?

He had not placed that much importance on his marks. An urge, a strong need for validation and achievements is a terrible thing. From his observations, humans often had to endure the brunt of judgment from their peers or their family should their mark fail to meet expectations. Which he thinks, is rather a silly thing to start a spat about, allowing a few written papers to define their capability.

He lifts his arm absentmindedly at Riddle's request and reveals his marks. There is reluctance in his actions, but it would have been unfair to Riddle if he had taken a peek at his marks yet refused his request to see his.

Jade had been prepared for the judgment: the ugly look on his classmate's face, the creasing of his eyebrows, and the way his lips twist in disbelief, but he had not been prepared to feel embarrassed at the words that come out of Riddle's mouth.

“You’re far more intelligent than a good portion of our higher-scoring classmates. I know that. Why does your test not reflect it?”

Most people would have called him cunning, devious, calculative, or a swindler. Intelligence had certainly been a new description. Jade did not particularly consider himself intelligent. If anything, unwinding himself out of difficult situations when he finds himself slotted between a rock and a hard place had been his nature. Impressive to some, perhaps, but it was not something that he had learned.

Unbridled and wildly unpredictable; neither were technically handy qualities to have when it comes to academics.

"Of course not." He says, the inclination to divert the topic hadn't yet reared its head. "I am just unable to shake off the lack of motivation to exert effort, but I do enjoy learning." It's the tests that throw him off, frustrated by the way humans used their words, sometimes every word individually makes sense to him, until they're strung together to form a sentence, then he'd have no idea what the Professor wants.

If Riddle ever develops an interest in how music is made and produced, my first guess is that he'd go to Cater due to him being in the Pop Music Club. However, Cater wanting to truly help him out refers him to Gemiya for whatever reason Cater comes up with. (Probably wants Riddle to branch out a lil. Especially if this is post overblot) So Riddle may reach out to her and Gemiya educates him on different sects of instruments. From brass, to woodwinds, strings, piano, harps, even something as niche as a Hurdy-Gurdy, nothing is off limits. Music is a quiet passion of Gemiya's so it'd be a slow start as she doesn't often share it with others. If Riddle's willing she may even show him some of the work she does to mix and produce the less classical genres of music on her laptop.

In turn, Gemiya is willing to listen to Riddle in any subject he takes interest in. Even if it's something like... history or math... things people often don't have an attention span for. They likely have these back and forths over tea and snacks.

I imagine students see them chatting over tea and they probably assume that it means more work for anyone in their dorms, but really they could just be shooting the breeze.