sortinghat_rp | (no subject)

[Not really knowing the proper etiquette for dorm trespassing, John settles for giving a small knock as he enters the 6th year dorm.]

You know, when you told me the answer, I was expecting the riddle to be dog-related, not about guessing the names of a bunch of historical wizards' surnames and putting the first letter of each in the right order.

You think they would make it that easy?

[He hops up. Yay, John is in his territory ^_^ ... Actually, he could have picked up a bit. He scoots some books and supplies off his trunk to make a place for John to sit if he likes. His bed has more parchments and books on it with the snake egg on a table under a heating lamp next to a cauldron bubbling away.]

There, see, the egg's just fine.

Shows why I'm not in Ravenclaw. I'd get to the door while I was exhausted, have no idea what it's asking of me, and yell obscenities at it until dawn. Possibly while kicking it, depending on circumstances.

[He walks over and peers at the egg. It certainly looks okay, seeming quite comfortably warm beneath the magically-powered lamp, but how long can that last?]

Well... I'm glad it seems fine. I think I'd still prefer to hang onto it most of the time, though.

[He sits at the offered spot, taking in the general clutter. He doesn't comment, however; Sherlock had told him about that, after all, as well as the... unusual sleeping arrangements that involves.]

Of course it's alright. All I've done it measure it, weigh it, and held it up to the light to try and see inside.

Am I completely banned from all experiments? Another student and I rather wanted to do musical tests on them.

[John shrugs.]

Not all experiments, I suppose. But ones that could end in a broken egg are right out.

So it depends on what kind of musical tests you're talking about. If it's what frequency you'd need to hit to shatter an eggshell, that's a BIG no.

Nothing of the sort.

[He grabs his violin from it's stand and hands it to John to hold while he resins the bow]

I said music, not noise.

[John accepts the violin, blinking at it in surprise for a moment.]

You want to play for it? That's... nice, actually. But what do you want the experiment to prove?

Well, snakes are deaf and at this stage of development it is even more so but perhaps indoctrinating it to the vibrations of metered sound will have an affect on a hatched snake. You want it alive and such an experiment requires a living sample so I suppose we could consider this a compromise.

Huh. Yeah, fair enough. Feel free to serenade the snake to your heart's content. Maybe it'll do it some good, who knows.

Now we just need to come up with a name for it.

Snake 001 will suffice.

Uh, no.

I only support that name if you were going for a James Bond, MI-6 angle, and I know that can't be the case.

Plus I'm almost completely sure nobody makes tuxedos for snakes.

If you name it, you've already set yourself up to grow attached. Numerical designations are better.

And I think steering clear of numbers might get you to stick to the "no snake killing" compromise.

Numbers imply an unlimited supply of backup snakes.

I have yet to be responded to in regards to the number of snakes I'm allowed.

The point is we aren't going to NEED any backup snakes.

Keep this up and you're in danger of me giving it the most embarrassing name imaginable.

I might want extra all the same.

You can name it whatever you like but you can hardly expect me to call it anything other than Snake 001.

[John squints at him.]

So those would be, what, snakes on the side?

The most embarrassing name in the world, Sherlock. And I'll write it on the snake's jar in big, bold letters. And charm them so they can't be erased. So you'll always see it.

For shell stress tests. You said you wanted this one alive. There's no accounting for other specimens.

And don't you dare do something so... stupid.

Good luck convincing the professors to hand over an unknown number of baby snakes for you to subject to every test under the sun. If we do get a grade on this, I won't be held accountable for the fates of whatever bonus snakes you get your hands on. If any.

Maybe it's stupid, but it's strategic, weapons-grade stupid.

Fine. You win. At least name is something dignified.

[John grins.]

Alright, since you asked nicely. Or at least less sulkily that you could've done. I'll try to come up with something good then. I won't make this a war of snake name attrition.

Though now we ought to figure out who has the egg when again. I was going to keep it since that would keep it safe from your shell tests, but the music thing you've got planned is quite good.

Edited 2013-02-08 14:32 (UTC)

I don't sulk.

How long exactly is it supposed to take before it hatches?

[He holds out his hand for his violin. Time to tune it.]

[John doesn't dignify that with a response beyond a very disbelieving "Oh, really?" look. Still, it manages to remain a very fond expression. The hatching question catches him a bit off guard as he hands back the violin.]

Er, I don't really know. I've got know idea how long it takes snake eggs to hatch under regular conditions, let alone whatever weirdness Hogwarts might apply to it. Could be as soon as tomorrow or as far off as weeks from now for all I know.

Then I suppose an every-other-day sort of set up will suffice. Though I would very much like to be present when it hatches.

[He tunes his violin, plucking the strings then setting the instrument on his shoulder to test the sound with the bow before going to the next.]

Well, yeah. Of course I wouldn't let you miss that.

[John is quiet for a moment as he ponders names. He feels stumped; he doesn't want to go for a common or embarrassing name now that Sherlock's backed down from calling the thing Snake 001, but no truly good names are immediately forthcoming either. He tries to think about things associated with snakes, and suddenly an idea flashes alight in his eyes. It's a complicated name and it takes a few seconds of lip-chewing and brow-furrowing thought for him to remember it, but finally it comes.]

What about Asclepius? As a name, I mean.

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