silence is golden [alexis&&bea]

[Alexis Parker]

492 words Beatrice Hero Selwyn let me know if you want to change anything lmao

Gryffindor and Slytherin. The two houses had decades of history for why they were the main rivals at Hogwarts, and why they seemed to create a large shadow over Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Legacies passed down through pureblood families about why they should only allow their kind into Slytherin, whilst communities of mixed-heritage magic users heralded their time in Gryffindor as superior to other houses, especially Slytherin. Heated prank wars leading to deducted House points, Quidditch matches ranging from minutes to hours with plenty of injuries to talk about for the upcoming week… Even though they were supposed to be enemies, they were always looked back on with smiles. Most don't talk about the friendships made between houses during those smiles. Some purebloods had to go home and hide their owls from their new friends in Hufflepuff, other half-blood kids wishing their Aunt Sue would stop trying to read the hext thread between them and two Slytherins they shared a class with over their shoulder at family gatherings. There were smiles the grown-ups could share openly hidden behind locked messages, and they would be until graduation. Thankfully Alexis’ family were fine with her cross-house friendship. They were just happy she had friends, since they knew she struggled maintaining them, so when her father asked about the houses they were in he could only smile when she explained that she had signed Gryffindor. The first summer back home wasn't as filled with magic talk as her father had expected, and was a lot quieter with Alexis managing her time between the summer homework, her own homework of learning to sign, and catching up on the latest games. Currently, Alexis was flipping through a Muggle Studies textbook and looking at the way it presented technological advances within her lifetime. She knew more than what was required in her current year, and probably what was required of her during her stay at Hogwarts, but she had an interest in writing her own book about the finer points of the small compatibilities of magic and computers since all the books in the library she'd found said to keep them far apart. Her quill took down quotes from books that she knew were wrong to explore later, since her hands were much busier chatting. «”This one says you can't use magic to type on a keyboard like you can move a quill across paper, but that's only true for touchscreen keyboards since you can move the small mechanism of each key in the order you want, but at the moment I find it quicker to touch-type anyway,”» she signed to Bea, rolling up the sleeves of her uniforms jumper afterwards. They'd been sat in the rather quiet room for about an hour now, but barely any words had passed between them. The study room wasn't like the library in that it has enforced silence, but it still wasn't the place to have a large group conversation.

► kaigra ◄

[Beatrice Hero Selwyn]

Days like these were some of Bea's favourites. Just sat with Alexis in the study room, each of them working on their own different thing that was completely unrelated to the other, but having some sort of companionship was always helpful.

They'd been friends ever since their first year when they'd sat next to each other in a couple of classes. Both girls were quiet by nature and had gravitated towards each other. Back then Bea has been forced to use a Quick Quotes Quill to take notes in classes, as it was before she'd been given her babelfish, and honestly she still wasn't convinced that Alexis had realised she was deaf straight away.

After Christmas break, Alexis was the person she'd found on the train - eager to hear her friend's voice for the first time. She'd been thrilled at just the simplest 'hello' from her. It was the first time either had heard the other speak, in reality, as it was something Bea had been loath to do during the first term. Not when she hadn't heard herself for years and wasn't really sure which shapes made which sounds anymore.

When Bea had found out that Alexis had learned sign language for her over the summer between their first and second years she'd cried. Unashamedly bawled at her friend as she told her what she'd been up to over the summer using BSL. No-one else had learned by choice before, always by necessity, and Bea knew from this action alone that the two would always be close friends. She couldn't let them ever not be after that.

Comfortable with the idea that Alexis would alert her should she need all of her senses present, Bea had actually removed one of babelfish for the afternoon. They were now swimming gently in the jar she'd sat on the table amongst all of the girls' books, and she'd laid her head down - the mute ear in the crook of her elbow as she faced her friend to see what she was saying.

«”They should make a quill you can use against a touchscreen,”» Bea signed back at a sideways angle, confident Alexis would pick it up anyway, «”Although would it be a quill still, without ink?”»

She looked back at her own studies, lazily. It was nothing for any class, but some language work she thought she'd try next. She'd learnt English and Welsh along with her BSL when she was younger, and then Latin, Greek, and Olde English from her family's extensive libraries before she'd come to Hogwarts. In the last few years she'd picked up German too (similar to olde english), as well as french (from Louis, Merlin bless him but at least they'd finally found something to bond over besides Violet). Now she was studying Italian, but she wasn't finding it particular stimulating, «”All Romantic languages are so similar,”» Bea signed, sighing deeply. She flipped another page of the tome, glancing over yet more familiar verbs, «”I feel like I know this already even though technically I've never looked at Italian before.”»

tagged: Alexis Parker
words: 515
notes: finding her ~voiceeeee

[Alexis Parker]

386 words Beatrice Hero Selwyn e x c i t e

Alexis couldn't hold back a small chuckle as she watched her friend speak sideways: it was almost as if she was typing in italics, and it was the only way her mind would translate it. «”I meant like a laptop keyboard, but muggles already have a stick they can use on touchscreens; although I suppose you could move that like a quill for that. Maybe you could use a whole bunch of them to press down on the keys you want, but I bet that would take a lot of concentration,”» She replied, although was always grateful for Bea's inputs. Whilst the two didn't have many topics they shared a major interest in, they could bounce ideas off of each other to give a viewpoint that maybe one of them hadn't considered. Where one struggled, the other may thrive. When Bea spoke of languages, the quill she had been absent-mindedly channelling finished off the last sentence and stopped. Her lips rose into a smile and a sparkle lit up in her eyes. It was a rare sight, but those who saw it knew what it meant: there was a topic she knew something about, and she wanted to give all the information she knew about it to them. It happened rarely at Hogwarts, since most of the time the topics of conversation were about magic or teenage drama, but Bea had definitely seen it before, so Alexis hoped she was ready for her input. «”How about a language without a latin alphabet? The only one I know a little bit of is Japanese because there are a lot of game developers who write their notes in their native language so I've been trying to learn a little bit myself to translate into English to learn from them. There are three different alphabets, unlike Korean or Chinese which just have one main one, so that would give you something interesting to learn.”» Even though she'd signed, Alexis took a deep breath. She was anxious about if Bea would also be interested in learning the same language she was, as she had been used to telling people about things she had been interested in and with no energetic reply, and her mind was still going a thousand miles per hour, and her hands could only just keep up.

► kaigra ◄

[Beatrice Hero Selwyn]

The idea that an aid for typing existed in the muggle world excited Bea, and she couldn't help but zone in on that point when Alexis was done, «”Is it a feather? If not I guess its not a quill.. but would you call it a pen if it doesn't release ink? Just 'stick' doesn't seem right...”» Pens were quills in the muggle world but they contained ink already by definition. Words all meant something different and Bea couldn't help but be fascinated by them. There was always another way to say something but different words sometimes didn't get the specificities of things across in the right way.

Alexis had a noticeable spark in her eye when Bea had finished moaning about the Italian she was working on, like she did when she not only had something to say but was excited to say it. Bea automatically sat up and gave her more attention, nodding in encouragement as she spoke, ”Three!?” she spoke out loud this time as Alexis continued signing.

Three alphabets in one language was new to her. It was different. It might be a challenge. Beatrice had heard of other languages with multiple languages, she'd just never looked into any of them properly before. She knew Chinese characters had many written forms. The most notable two being traditional and simplified - although she always had to pause and think because in her own logic the fact that simplified tend to be used in China itself and traditional was used more in Taiwan and other areas not actually in the republic seemed.. well, frankly, the wrong way round to her.

«”I've looked at some non-latin alphabets before,”» Bea switched back to her hands to continue their conversation, «”But only really Ancient Runes in any depth - and that's in class. Nothing else at more than a glance. This should be fun!”» She moved the work in front of her to the side in a graceless swipe before leaning forward, closer to her friend, «”What do you know? Where do we start!?”»

tagged: Alexis Parker
words: 343
notes: protect them

[Alexis Parker]

448 words Beatrice Hero Selwyn i resurrect like a phoenix

To hear Bea's voice was a surprise, a very pleasant one of course, and it had almost made Alexis fumble her form but if anything it gave her the strength to keep going. Other people in the room might have been more surprised from the random shouting of a number from two people who had just been sat in silence for a long time, but she only noticed two heads quickly glance towards them. Not that the Slytherin was overly fussed about the attention, since it said more about their personality than her conversation, but it was somewhat interesting. To finally have some common ground between them in the form of a language was something Alexis wasn't expecting out of the afternoon's activities. For one, she had been mostly focusing on muggle technologies and how to use magic to make them easier for integration into the wizzarding world, so to shift from one topic to another took her a few moments of composure; she used this time in piling up the different books she'd brought into library loans and brought from home, and wrapping up the scraps of parchment she had been using. The brunette kept one piece laid flat out between the two of them, actually holding the quill and tapping it on the corner to make sure it still had some ink. «”I only know a little hi... hira...”» Alexis paused. Normally her hands just translated what she was thinking, but there was a blockage this time: English to sign was easy enough, but trying to translate Japanese terms into sign without just spelling them out letter by letter? "Hiragana and katakana, but I guess that's where anyone would start off," she completed the sentence as if there hadn't been a pause, nor the swapping of communication technique. She wrote five characters across the top of the parchment and scrutinised them a little bit. "Wouldn't it be better to learn from a book, or maybe a tutor or something?" Alexis breathed, pretending to ignore the fact she was biting the inner corner of her lip. When she knew a lot about a subject she was happy enough to talk until the cows came home. But as for this language she was only just beginning to dive into deeper grammatical structures, and now that she thought about it, why didn't she just ask Bea for help sooner? "Sorry," she said almost immediately afterwards. "I was so excited in trying to figure out what this programmer was talking about in their notes - which was apparently their favourite supermarket lunch, go figure - that I didn't even think to ask you if you knew any good language resources."

► kaigra ◄

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