"I think maybe... I mind if I bother you," the shadow says tentatively.

"Ahh, that's a different matter," she nods. "Well, it will bother me more knowing you're uncomfortable than it will setting up some kind of light-barrier, but," she glows up to about halfway to where her roommate squeaked last time, "does this make you uncomfy?"

"...I think that's fine?"

"Okay. If I set up glowing rocks around my bed it'll probably be a little less bright than this all told." 

"I think that will be okay."

"I'm glad." 

She lets her glow fade out. "Your side of the room is interesting. Is that what your home looks like?"

"...no. Sorry. It's—nice, though. Dark. Hidey. ...has air."

"Air is generally a good thing! My home looks pretty different from my side of the room too." 

"I... think our room is pretty," she says tentatively.

"I think so too! I bet everyone has rooms they think are pretty." 

"Oh. That makes sense..."

"I like your taste though. I wonder if roommates were assigned based on compatible aesthetic sensibilities."

"...maybe," she says, uncertain and thoughtful.

"I suppose we can ask the Dean about it later. Would you like a hug? You look like you could use a hug."

"...um?" she says, sounding confused and nervous.

"It's fine if the answer is no."

"I don't... know what the answer is? Sorry. Sorry."

"That's fair. Sometimes people don't. It was ages before Tutankhaten was able to formulate preferences more complicated than 'I don't want to be a snake.'"

..tiny face peering curiously around stalagmite. "Who?"

"He's a friend of mine. He was shapeshifted into a snake for a long time; he didn't like it."

"Oh."

Thoughtful pause.

"...what happened?"

"That's a long story...about five thousand years ago, he was bitten by a poisonous snake; his wife made a deal with a great power to save his life. But she was really trying to trick the great power, not save her husband, and she ended up using the power given her to prolong his existence as a giant and extremely poisonous snake called the Cantigaster instead of healing him properly. I don't know all the details; I'm only a few decades old, and what I know about what happened back then has been cobbled together from scraps from different sources."

"...is he okay now?"

"He isn't a giant snake anymore, or poisoned; I got him out of that situation. He's still recovering mentally, though."

"Oh."