wallflowering in the ballroom: Harmonia
This was... strange.
It was strange not that he was crawling now, the leafy scales of his belly sliding, accordion-like, on the hardwood floors of a vast, creaking building, but that it had not always been like this, that at some point not too far past he had been walking through these rooms, with feet and hands and soft, pliant human flesh. Jörmungandr wondered at this, at what it meant for him and this quiet biped he seemed to know.
Adam.
He knew that name, felt a stirring within him that answered to it as if it was his own. It was a curious feeling, a bisection of his mind and soul and everything he was. A question in need of an answer.
The crack beneath the door was small; too small, he knew, for comfortably moving beneath. He tested his size, feeling his body begin to shrink, then expand again. Not knowing what lay beyond that monstrous barrier left him unwilling to risk a size too compact, given the possibility of capture or severe injury. He thought a moment, his slit pupils contracting, forked tongue tasting the air.
Ducts.
He slithered to the wall, gripping it tightly as he moved upward. The building's prop furniture, cheap though it was, provided occasional support, a lamp here and a bulky wall hanging there allowing greater purchase for Jörmungandr's firm scales. The air vent proved more difficult, giving him a moment's earnest pause. Then, perched atop a painted, cracking doorframe, Jörmungandr made himself small - far smaller than he liked, so small he felt himself begin to panic. But his body, a newborn serpent's size, slipped easily through the vent's narrow slats, and soon he was within the cool air duct, the whole of the building his to explore. He calmed himself, growing larger again, and began his careful wandering.
He did not have far to wander. On the ground floor of the building he began to sense a new presence, one which drew him in a way he could not explain. It was not familiarity, perhaps, but a sort of kinship not bound to blood. She was also a biped, and by human standards a lovely one, besides. Her soft steps vibrated through his scales, set apart from the cacophony of the party around them; he read each footfall as light and confident, careful and self assured. This one would not fear him. Something in her resonated with him too strongly for that. Shrinking, he slipped through the vent in what appeared to be a vast ballroom, and gingerly invited himself in.