More guests arrive (07-11-2011) [open for all]

This day made yesterday seem even better than it already was. Who would look up to the sky now would see a grey, threatening field of clouds with big raindrops falling from it. Though the forest seemed to enjoy this rehydration the people of Penrose seemed less amused by the change in weather. The streets were practically empty except for one or two people hiding underneath an umbrella, the terraces were deserted and all you'd hear were the raindrops in the puddles.

If you'd follow the slightly muddy road to Meinior Mansion, you might want to take a cab or make sure you're wearing watertight shoes. But don't worry, once you're there you can find shelter under the roof of the porch as you wait for someone to open the door.

Tobias' time keeping skills had never been the best, the fact he had missed the first bus to Penrose only served to solidfy this fact. It wasn't long however before he made it to Penrose, albeit a bit later than some of the initial students and as a result, missed the others that had arrived prior. This didn't prove much of a problem however as Tobias stepped off the bus, raising the hood of his jacket to keep at least somewhat dry in the rain that was currently covering Penrose.

After unsuccesfully trying to hail a cab, Tobias resigned himself to simply walking to Meinior Manor, the rain and the horrible conditions underfoot proving not much of a deterent to him. After an initial look around the town, Tobias began making his way up the muddy road to Meinior. As he continued on towards the mansion, his bag slung over his back, he looked up at the grey sky above him and smiled.

" Couldn't have got the first bus, huh Toby ? " he said to himself with a chuckle as he continued to make his way up the road, hoping to see other students who had arrived late but resigning himself to the fact he'd probably be taking this trip alone.

Lenny sat anxiously in his limo while Oliviander was driving towards Penrose. He wasn't happy at all with the fact that Oliviander demanded to drive him to his new home. 'What if someone saw him stepping out of this ridicilously expensive car?' His chances for a real friendship would be over immediatly. So he just sat there, straining his eyses, to look out of the windows to make Oliviander stop.

Then he saw someone from his age, walking in the mud, in the same way as they drove. He wasn't entirely sure, but... it could be one of the students at the college. If that was true, then he had to stop Oliviander.

"Oliviander, please stop before you pass that person. I'll walk the rest. It's not far away, I guess." Oliviander wasn't pleased about this, it was raining and his master's shoes will be ruined, but nodded and stopped the car silently, so that master Leonard could get out. He grabbed his bags and gave the handles to him. "Here, master Leonard. Please remember, if you need anything at all, please call me with the emergency phone." Lenny nodded. "Okay, but don't count on it." He said cheerfully, happy that he got another chance around here. A place where no one knew him because he was rich, but where they will get to know him as the person as he is.

They said their final goodbye's to each other and Lenny hastily walked towards the person he already saw. His shoes were ruined because of the mud when he caught up with him and he didn't had a lot of breath left. The only thing he could gasp out was a high pitched. "Hi!"

Unsure as to what he would find on the road up to Meinior, it's only natural then that Tobias would jump at the sound of the high pitched greeting over the rain, said greeting causing him to spin around to its source. Upon doing so, he found himself greeted by a young man of roughly his own age walking with great haste towards him, the young man out of breath as Tobias looked on. Not one to be rude however, Tobias spoke up.

"Hey there, you ok ?" he asked with a slighty perplexed look appearing on his face as he came to a stop after a few steps, giving the new student a once over before looking around to see if any other students were around or if it was just him. As he watched Lenny try to regain his breath, he noticed his bags, looking from them to him before speaking up again.

"Need a hand with those ?" he asked, a friendly smile appearing on his face as he motioned to Lenny's bags, unsure as to whether or not they were the source of his breathless state or if it was the brisk walking pace Lenny had taken up in an attempt to catch up with him. As the rain continued to fall, Tobias waited for Lenny's reply, ready to help should his help be required.

Paranoid as he is, Lenny started immediatly with worrying if he did the right thing to do when he saw that he startled the other boy, only to calm down when he heard his kind soumding voice.

The first reply his still somewhat selfish mind thought of was, "yes please" and then he would simply give the bags to the stranger. In this case however, he could barely ignore the selfish feelings and so, he shook jis head. "No thank you, I'm fine, I just saw you walking here, in the rain, alone and since misery really loves company I figured I'd joim you."

"Well if you're sure" Tobias said upon hearing Lenny decline his offer to help with his luggage. Returning to his own bag, Tobias lifted it from the ground and slung it over his shoulder. After hearing Lenny's reason as to why he approached him, Tobias turned back to him with a smile, his mannerisims suggesting that he was quite happy to have someone joining him on his trip to Meinior.

"Oh, awesome, always nice to have company, especially on trips like these." he said with a smile as he extended his hand so that Lenny could shake it if he so wished. "I'm Tobias by the way" he added, a friendly smile still on his face as he kept his hand out.

Lenny calmed down a bit again, seeing that his companion was happy with him. He gently smiled back and just wanted continue to walk untill he saw Tobias holding out his hand to shake it with his. Immediatly he heard the scolding voice of Oliviander in his head. 'Master, you should always introduce yourself properly!' A bit ashamed of his lack of proper etiquette, he grabbed the hand of the stranger and put, just as him was thought, perfect pressure on the shake. Not too weak, so he wouldn't be judged as a wimp and not too tight, so he wouldn't be judged as too dominant.

"I'm Leonard Ricardson by the way, but you can call me Lenny for short." He said, with a bright smile. Not aware of the fact that while he was focussing on the proper introduction that his suitcases were falling down in the mud.

As he felt Lenny shake his hand, Tobias shook back as he spoke up " A pleasure to meet you Lenny." he said with a smile, his attention soon being broken by Lenny's suitcases taking a tumble into the mud, seeing this, he decided to let him know. "Hey man, are you sure you don't want a hand with those bags ?" he said as he motioned to the bags, hoping Lenny could salvage them before they were totally ruined.

As he broke the hand shake, Tobias looked around, allowing Lenny ample time to handle his luggage situation. Looking around, Tobias' eyes eventually come to rest on something not to far away from them, said thing being the imposing gates to Meinior itself. Seeing this Tobias turns back to Lenny. " I mean, it's not that far now" he said as he motioned to the nearby gates.

Lenny looked down at his bags. "Oh sh-..." He luckily could withhold himself for cursing, because that would be really frowned upon in his family's eyes. "No, no... I should be able to take care of this on my own..." He went down on his knees, ruining his pants to try to wipe of the dirt of his luggage. But suddenly, he didn't care as much anymore and he just shrugged. "Oh hell, if you think you can do better then me, why not?" He smiled sheepishly, trying to cover his own mistakes.

Then he heard that they weren't that far from the mansion and he stood up enthusiastically, he grabbed one of his suitcases and stepped forward, ready to continue their walk towards soft beds and clean showers. "Oh by the way, I don't know if you mentioned it, and if so, I'm sorry if I missed it, but... what was your name again?"

As Tobias watched Lenny kneel down to wipe the dirt off his suitcases, he raised an eyebrow, the mans actions taking them back a little bit as he looked on. Upon hearing him ask for help however, Tobias smiled again and approached, patting him on the back as he did so. " No worries man, happy to help" he said with a smile as he took the bigger of the suitcases.

Watching Lenny begin to make his way towards the mansion, Tobias adjusted his grip on the suitcase before speeding up to catch up with Lenny. Upon hearing Lenny ask him his name, Tobias turned to him. "I'm Tobias, or Toby if you aren't one for formalities" he said with a chuckle as he continued onwards. After some more walking Tobias soon found himself outside the imposing gates of Meinior Mansion, looking up at them with awe before looking to Lenny.

"Feel like I should have bought a gift or something" he said with a nervous chuckle as he looked from Lenny to the gates, lowering Lenny's other bag as he did so. "So do we just go in or what ?" he asked, hoping Lenny would know more on what they were supposed to do now.

"Toby, huh? Nice to meet you." Together they walked towards the gate, which was very impressive and a bit scary to him. This was the place he's supposed to have a new life, a nicer life.

When Toby asked him about what to do next, he simply smiled and searched for something. "If you want to enter a house, you always have to ring the doorbell, I mean, you can't simply barge in, especially not when you're as wet as we are right now. The cleaning lady will get a heart-attack if we barged in like this!" He continued with searching when he finally found it and pulled/pushed it. "And... now we wait." He said, while he took the correct position in front of the gate, so that the owners of the mansion immediately could see with who they would be dealing.

Watching Lenny ring what he thought to be the mansions' doorbell, Tobias looked from it to Lenny, a nervous smile appearing on his face as he looked back to the gate. "That makes sense" he said as he moved into position outside the fence, waiting for someone to come meet them at the gate. After a few seconds of silence, Tobias looks beyond the gate to the house, wondering if they should maybe just make their way up and knock on the main door.

"You'll have to forgive me, I've never even seen a house this size, let alone lived in one" he said with a nervous chuckle as he looked back to Lenny. " I'm not exactly clued up on the etiquette" he added before looking away from him, slightly embarresed by his lack of knowledge on the subject and hoping that someone would come meet them soon.

It took a little while for someone to show up but finally a man holding an umbrella showed up. He was wearing a gruffy shirt with an ugly suit-jacket and jeans that had been tucked away in rainboots. His hair was dark and looked messy, as if it'd been slept on and he wore a grim, grouchy expression.
"Who are you?" he asked when he arrived at the gate. Then when he looked closer he guessed: "you're future tennants aren't you?"

Lenny nodded compassionately, 'I know what you mean, I just had a rigid education about manners and etiquette. So that's why I know all of this stuff." He waited for the owner of the mansion to come outside, when he thought by himself that he was really getting cold from the rain. He really wanted that warm and nice shower, and fast.

When the man came outside, he was relieved, his prayers must've been heard. "Hello sir, yes we're new tennants. My name is Leonnard Ricardson." He didn't introduce Tobias on purpose, that would be rude. He extended his hand in the hope the man would shake it, though he didn't really count on it, the man seemed a bit... grumpy.

I'm off to bed guys, I have to get up early today^^' sorry...

Listening to Lenny explain his education, Tobias raised and eyebrow, his curiosity certainly piqued as he continued to listen. Before he could reply though, the sound of Mr Nellis speaking caused him to once again, jump. "Goddam, he's like a ninja" he said into himself before returning his gaze to the man behind the gate As he tried to regain his composure again, he looked on as Lenny introduced himself to Mr Nellis. After Lenny extended his hand, Tobias decided to also introduce himself.

"I'm Tobias, or Toby, whatever's easier" he said with a friendly smile as he finally managed to regain his composure, giving Mr Nellis a friendly nod instead of also offering his hand, allowing Lenny the chance to shake his hand first. "That's right, we're future tennants" he added, adjusting his bag as he locked his eyes on the man behind the fence.

(( No worries Smily, see you later ))

Mr Nellis looked at Lenny for a moment (completely ignoring his extended hand) then studied Tobias briefly, as he stood there nice and dry under his umbrella. "Fred Nellis," he said in an uninspired grunt as he placed his hand on the doorhandle of the gate opened it, revealing it'd been open all this time. He didn't push it open though as it opened to the outside and it would hit the 2 young men in the face if he did. Instead he allowed them to let themselves in and started leading the way over the dirtroad to the mansion.
"Like I said, I'm Fred Nellis," he said without looking back at them, "that's mr or mr Nellis to you. Not Nellis, not Fred, definetly not Freddy, got it?" He had quite a speedy pace which must've been hard to keep up with when carrying heavy luggage over a slippery muddy road.

Realising the gate was already open, Tobias looked to the side, a little bit embarresed as he did so. Sensing Mr Nellis wasn't one to beat about the bush, Tobias, after shooting a slightly perplexed look to Lenny, adjusted his own bag, lifted Lenny's suitcase and began to make his way inside, keeping at a pace that would allow Lenny to keep up but would also allow him to keep up with Mr Nellis.

As he listened to Mr Nellis speak, Tobias decided it would probably be best to keep his head down low around him, at least for the time being. "Yes sir" he said to Mr Nellis out of respect, following him up the road with relative ease with his own bag slung over his back and Lenny's in his left hand while looking back to see how Lenny was doing himself.

Secretly, Lenny shrugged in his mind. He already knew Mr Nellis wouldn't shake his hand. Even so, he was polite, that's a good thing. He quickly grabbed the other luggage he had and tried to keep up with mr. Nellis and with Toby. In the meanwhile, he looked at the mansion itself. It was pretty big, not as big as his own house, but that would be like comparing apples to pears, so he banished that thought. He answered mr. Nellis on auto-pilote, with a very polite, 'yes sir, no sir' when it was appropriate.

Miraculously, he could keep up with them, not really because he was fit enough or anything, his curiosity got the best of him, he was genuinely interested in how the mansion would look like from the inside.

They arrived at the porch on which you'd find the still half-open front door. In the door opening there stood a woman, mrs Nellis, welcoming them with a warm smile; "hello you two," she said cheerfully, "you must b-"

"These are 2 new tennants," her husband bluntly interrupted her, "Ricardson and To-something." That was all he said before he disappeared behind the door that lead to the Nellis' private quarters.

"O don't mind him," mrs Nellis said still smiling at them, "well, I'm mrs Nellis but by all means, just call me Ceceile! How nice to meet you two, what are your names? I'm afraid I didn't catch them when mr Grumpy told me just now," she said with a wink. But fortunatly she noticed she was rambling on again while the two new guests were standing there dripping in their clothes; "but o my, you two are soaked! The bedrooms are upstairs, the doors to the ones that are still free are open. Just pick one and get changed into dry clothes first, why don't you? I'll give you the keys later and then we'll do proper introductions ok? There, off you two~!" she said warmly, directing them up the stairs.

Lenny was a bit overwhelmed by the sudden change of environment, it was difficult to change from being overly polite to casual, so he stood there, not knowing what to do, when he got directed upstairs. One thing he did remember though was his name, so he mumbled a bit so that Toby and Mrs Nellis could hear them, but not very clear: Thank you... My name is Leonard Ricardson, nice to meet you... shower, bye Toby, see you later... shower..."

He walked upstairs and wandered into one of the rooms next to the bathroom (nr 23, or 32, he couldn't really remember) and claimed it, before going in the bathroom itself and locking it tight, so he could finally take the long shower he longed for and in his eyes deserved.

As he moved onto the porch, Tobias lowered his hood, running hand through his hair as he continued to look around. After a few seconds, his eyes fell on the woman now standing in the door way, her sudden appearance causing him to raise an eyebrow and her rather sunny nature contrasting greatly with the man who greeted them. Before he could introduce himself however, he found himself interrupted by Mr Nellis, his face becoming rather dead pan upon hearing Mr Nellis refer to him as To-something.

Before he could re-introduce himself to the man however, Mr Nellis was gone, Tobias left in silence as he disappeared. As he watched Lenny disappear up the stairs, Tobias waved, watching him disappear before looking back to the burst of sunshine that was Mrs Nellis directing them up the stairs. "Nice to meet you Mrs Nellis, I'm Tobias" he said with a friendly smile as he began to make his way up the stairs, giving her a friendly wave as he did. Upon finding his room, Tobias began the process of drying himself off and changing, hoping to explore more of the mansion upon doing so.

Once both Lenny and Tobias had found a room a cab pulled up at the gates, but it wasn't a cab from Penrose. No it was a cab from the nearby city, for some strange reason the driver had agreed to drive the young woman all the way up to the gates of the mansion without complaining once. And now he was even helping her by carrying most of her luggage up to the porch despite the pouring rain. Whilst the young woman dressed in leather from her head to her toes was only carrying a bagpack, a pet transportbox and an umbrella shielding her from the rain.
"There you go miss," the, now soaked, driver said as he put the two suitcases on the dry porch, "the next time you are in town please don't hessitate to call for my cab."
"Thank you so much, you have been very kind," Azar said, dry as a bone, in a voice that sounded like melting honey with a smile to match it, "and don't worry I will."
Handing the man the fair and a nice tip she waved as he walked back to the gates, smiling all the while she could see him. As soon as the man dissapeared from her sight she sighed annoyed, her voice nolonger sounding like melting honey but more like a rough silk, still pleasant but not as sedusive as it was first.
Finally!
Closing her umbrella carefully so that there where no droplets would fall on her barely exposed skin, she shook her hair and it went from wavy blond to straight black. Her eyes turned from green to a light blue and after taking out a lighter small flames appeared around her luggage and umbrella vaporising the water.
Once all of that was done and she was sure she looked like the girl in the picture that had been sent here along with other documents about her she knocked on the door.

Mrs Nellis, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Lenny and Tobias to come down so she could get them the keys of the rooms they'd chosen was close to the door so it was a short wait for Azar before a blond woman with a cheery smile opened the door:
"Hello!" she greeted her, "how lovely, another new guest! Come in, come in!" She stepped aside to grant the young woman the space to get herself and the luggage inside. "I am mrs Nellis, your landlady," she said upon closing the door behind her, "but please just call me Ceceile. Welcome to Meinior Mansion!" She extended a hand to Azar; "and what's your name you pretty thing? Why, the boys here are so lucky; the young women who've moved in here before you are so very pretty already and now look at you, you could be a model!"

Azar smiled warmly at Mrs Nellis as she opened the door, glad that she didn't have to wait long and that she had changed her appearance and dried her luggage before knocking on the door. She would have been caught redhanded if she had done it the other way around.
"Goodday Ceceile," she said still smiling while putting her luggage and umbrella inside before shaking Mrs Nellis hand and introducing herself, "I'm Azar Tyson and thank you."
Pangur Bán meowed then from her box, wanting to be introduced as well, either that or being let out, petted or feeded or all of the above.
"Oh and this ball of fluff here is Pangur Bán," Azar said opening the box and taking her cat into her arms, who immediately climbed up and lay herself on her masters shoulders.

Not wishing to keep Mrs Nellis waiting to long, Tobias, upon finding his new room, quickly dried himself off and changed into a clean set of clothes, putting away his luggage upon doing so. Giving his room a once over, Tobias smiled as he stepped out of the room and into the hallway, closing the door as he did so. Not wasting any time, Tobias made his way to the stairs and down to meet Mrs Nellis, hoping to get the key to his room and with any luck, explore the place he would soon be calling home a little bit more.

"Hey Mrs Nellis, Can I-" he said as he made his way down the stairs. As he did though, he was greeted by the sight of another new student in the hall way, Mrs Nellis speaking to her with her usual enthusiasm. "Oh, sorry" he said as he looked to the two of them, pausing on the stairs for a little bit as he did so. "I'll just wait till you're finished" he added with a smile as he kept his eyes on them, waiting for them to finish their conversation before he asked Mrs Nellis for the key, walking to the bottom of the stairs as he did so.