Exploring the grounds (07-11-2011) [Open to all]

"Ah, well, hey, it's always a plus to know someone already, even if it's just in passing," Keo replied with a nod. And Toby agreed to go along, so on with the tour. Both of the boys let her go first, "Aw, such gentlemen, thanks."

After she got to the top of the stairs, she stepped out of the way so that the other two could come up. Then it was up to Creed if there was a room he liked or not. "The ones that are locked are already taken, of course," she noted despite the fact that that was probably obvious. But it didn't hurt to mention it just in case.

As Tobias watched Keo and Creed ascend the stairs, he soon followed suit, following them up to the first floor soon after. Upon reaching the first floor, Tobias put his hands in his pockets, moving and looking around the floor at first before spinning back to face Creed and Keo. "I wouldn't worry though man, there's still a fair few available, at least I think there is" he said with a smile and a chuckle as he ocassionally glanced at the other doors on the floor. "Only arrived earlier today myself" he soon added as he returned his gaze to Keo and Creed.

“Hmmm..true.” He put it aside as a mental note to hang out with the guy sometime. Creed moved into the hall and looked down both ways. Defiantly a lot more rooms than he remembered, he nodded at Keo’s tip and headed down the shorter end of the hall while replying to Toby. “Hahah yeah I see there are a lot more around.” He made his way down the other side of the hall to check. “We sure picked a crappy day to come didn’t we……” he took a moment but remembered Keo said his name was Toby,his mind instantly made a nickname for that and he ended up saying. “Tobes.” He stopped at the hall and looked around; it was pretty empty here which was nice but also pretty boring to him. “hmmm..”

Keo grinned at the wrong day comment, "It's only dreadfully rainy, muddy as hell, and generally miserable out. I'm sure it was plenty fun. Right, 'Tobes'?" she joked, liking the instant nickname Creed had thought up. "But hey, the next floor up has a terrace. It was lovely yesterday, when the sun was out. Great view of the mansion's grounds too." It didn't hurt that it also gave her the perfect view to keep an eye out on the moon, so she could make sure she could avoid her transformations.

"So, if there's no good room here, might as well check the next floor. I think a lot of the rooms there are taken though," she mentioned, taking a few steps towards the next staircase before turning around to check if Creed wanted to check there next.

((In fact, only room 21 is left, lol))

Creed's new nickname for Tobias didn't immediatly register with him, Tobias imagining that he must have heard it wrong, despite his powers. It wasn't until Keo also used the new nickname Tobes that it sunk in. After a few seconds of silence, Tobias laughed, realising it was probably better to roll with it than fight it. "I must say, thats a new one on me" he said with a chuckle and a smile before looking back to Keo.

"Oh yeah Keo, totally, I can't speak for Creed of course but I had a whale of a time" he said with a chuckle as he looked out at the still falling rain. "I only wish that there was some lightning, or maybe even a twister to make things really interesting" he soon added. As Keo made her way to the stairs leading up to the second floor, he looked to her before looking to Creed, waiting to see what he would want to do.

Creed strolled back over with his hands in his jacket pockets, “If it gets annoying, just smack us.” he smirked lightly it was a main smile to him; he hardly mocked people with it. He looked at both of them Keo explained the conditions. “I’d say that’s pretty spot on with conditions but being fun for me…ehhh its alright until I hit a huge mud puddle.” He wandered over to the other set of stairs after a moment.

“A terrace, huh..” He tilted his head slightly in thought a moment; it would be a nice little place to mess around with his Parkour and possibly his other skill. He pulled his hand out of his jacket and placed it on the railing. “Well, sounds good to me, I don’t mind which room I get.” He waited for Keo to go first before following after.

"Yeah, you guys should check it out when the rain lets up, it's lovely," she commented before heading up the next staircase. It was a shame the weather was so poor right now, or she would have just showed them. Waiting for them to follow, she noted, "My room's number 22 actually. I don't mind having company on occasion. Gotta make use of the time we got here at Penrose, ya know?" She didn't say anything about her intention to go back to her usual stance of forgetting everyone she met once she moved out. But then, it went back to her point of enjoying the time they had.

Upon hearing Creed mention that he can smack them should the nickname not sit well with him, Tobias chuckled and waved his hand in a dismissive manner. " Ah don't worry man, it's fine. Besides, it's better than some of the nicknames I've held in the past" he said with a smile as he moved to the side again, waiting for Creed and Keo to make their way up the stairs. As he heard Keo talk about the terrace, Tobias made a mental note to check it out once the weather clears up, hoping the view was as good as Keo has said. When the returned to the topic of room's Tobias spoke up. "I'm in 19, so not that far" he said with a smile as he began to follow them up to the next floor.

“Cool, glad it’s one of the better ones.” Creed adjusted the bag on his shoulder once he was in the hall. He would defiantly check it as well when the weather cleared. He wandered around a bit peeking in the laundry room and bathroom before they said their room numbers and keeping them in mind to skip those. “Yeah cuz before we know it we’d be out of here.” He tried some of the doors then found room 21 to not be taken, he opened it and dumped his bags by the foot of the bed. "Looks like I’ll finish it off this floor. This room works because I’m next to and across from you guys, so I’d say it’s perfect." He removed his jacket and threw it onto the bed before stepping out of the room, he would rearrange and unpack later.

"Hah, looks like I'll have some neighbors then," Keo said with a grin, since it looked like Toby and Creed would both only be a minute away. "Good deal. Oh, by the way, Creed... Ah, you know anything about the forest here? I've heard some cool stories," mostly thanks to Lugh.

"And I'm rather interested in checking it out. I'm a film major, ya see, and I love trying to get creepy, supernatural stuff on camera. Maybe not the most professional stuff to shoot, but it's interesting to say the least," she explained, in hopes that Creed might be able to validate Lugh's stories and give her even more reason to check the place out.

Upon reaching the second floor, Tobias had another little look around again, his eyes returning to the door to the terrace before returning to Creed and Keo. As he listened to Keo and Creed speak, his interest was soon piqued by Keo's mention of the great forest that surrounded the mansion, Tobias looking out the door to the terrace again, looking out at the forest though the rain. After hearing Keo's reasoning for wanting to check out the forest, Tobias turned back towards the two of them.

" As good a reason as any" he said with a chuckle as he moved towards them. " The history of Penrose and the forest is definetly quite intriguing, if the history books are to be believed that is" he added, not letting on that he had decided to research the area before deciding on the university, not wanting to move to a strange new place without some prior information. "History major, incase you're curious" he added with a smile

Creed nodded. “Yep.” His smirk grew more defined when she asked about the forest and he stayed quiet for a good bit before replying. “There defiantly are quite a bit of stories I heard about the forest…” He heard some from students and a lot from the people in the prison he went to, most that ran from the cops ran through the forest and encounter some things there. “My sister almost got eaten by a plant.” He sniggered at the thought because he over exaggerated on it. “well.. there’s some parts where the forests vines are alive, it’s pretty crazy. Then I heard two people got lost out there and never came back.”

He looked to Toby and nodded. “Yeah, I very much agree with that, a pretty unique place here. From what little I’ve read when about is pretty close.” He looked over at the terrace door and stared a moment as they talked about their majors, he looked back to them. “Those are good ones, I’m majoring in mechanical engineering.” He let his hands slide down to the sides of his neck before letting them drop. “Hmmm maybe all three of us could do some exploring out there some time.” He gave a devious grin as he thought about it.

"Almost eaten by a plant...?" Hell, even she was skeptical about that one. But given that it was a forest, well, what could be more dangerous than the environment itself? And it was also swampy, if she recalled correctly. "But... Toby. Oh, a history major..." She turned to face him with a smirk.

"If you know any good stories about this place, I swear, you'll be my new best friend," she ended with a laugh, picturing what kind of madness might go on in that forest at night. "Oh god, I wanna check it out. You two are welcome to tag along, of course," she added, hearing Creed's comment that they should all go sometime. She couldn't stop grinning, this was just too perfect. This had to be why she'd been sent off to a remote place like this instead of just some normal college back in the states. Her mentor, Anna, always knew what would get Keo interested.

Creed's comments about the nature of the forest caused Tobias to raise an eyebrow, the story of his sister almost being eaten by a plant in particular causing some skepticsm to arise in his mind. As he listened on, he soon found his attention drawn back to Keo, her remarks about him becoming her new best friend should he be willing to indulge any info he had on the forest causing him to let out a chuckle. " Oh the history surrounding this place isn't as remarkable as I made it out to be honest Keo..." he said as he looked back out the door to the terrace and the forest beyond it.

"Just your run of the mill tale of terrified villagers, human sacrifice and the belief that there was something dark and gruesome lurking in the undergrowth" he said with a cheeky smile as he kept her eyes on her. "You know, stuff that would make the Salem Witch Trials look tame in comparison" he soon added with a chuckle. Upon hearing Creed and Keo mention the idea of going to explore the forest, Tobias looked back to them, a bit aprehensive at first. After a few seconds though, he shrugged as a smile appears on his face. "Ah sure, I'm game" he said with a smile, putting his hands in his pockets as he did so.

“Weeell I admit that was a bit exaggerated but I figured it was going to eat her when it happened…the vines tripped her n tried draggin her off is all.” Creed looked to Toby and listened intently as he spoke about the history which made him smile. “Well with that very lovely history and the many fantastic stories of the forest I am defiantly not going to miss this. Then we can probably freak the others out with the footage from yer cam Keo and all of us as witnesses to back it up.”

He looked back to his room. “Oh yeah…before I forget.....” Creed went back over into it and rummaged through his duffel bag and found a small box that was fairly heavy. It was full of coins from all over the world, though he didn’t travel for them, he was lucky to find them at shops and friends. He grabbed two of the many cool looking ones and came back over to them, he handed them each one. They were both the size of a half dollar but were different currency.

Despite Toby saying it wouldn't be that interesting, his quick story still got Keoki more fascinated by the forest's story, "Oh, but it still sounds so perfect!" Keo said with a good deal of enthusiasm now. Maybe she was just very geeky when it came to the supernatural. "Of course, you two should get settled in before we go trekking into some swampy forest. We'll have enough to deal with, with just the environment, monsters or not," she added, "Though I won't bring my camera along on the first trip. Cost far too much money, if something happens, it'd just be too much trouble."

But when Creed starting digging around in his bag, she got a bit curious. Then he pulled out a pair of coins, handing one to her, which she took and examine, "Hm, what's this?" It looked pretty interesting, even though she couldn't place where it was from, "Hah, and here I don't have anything to give you in return, how mean of me."

Tobias had a feeling in the back of his head that his short summation of the history of the forest wouldn't deter Keo from going into the forest, her reaction only serving to cement this idea as Tobias chuckled. As he heard her talk about how Creed and he should probably rest up first before they go on their little adventure, Tobias nodded in agreement. "Yeah, probably the best course of action, I'd really like to get more acquainted with the grounds first before I go trekking in the surrounding woodland" he said as he moved closer towards them.

"Good thinking about the camera by the way Keo" he added upon her mentioning it. As he was readying himself to move on, Tobias' attention was soon drawn Creed, his bag causing him to raise an eyebrow as he soon shifted his attention to it. After being handed the coin, Tobias took it from Creed, examining it closely before flippping it, catching it as it fell. "Wow, thanks man" he said as he looked back to the coin. " You sure you don't mind though ?" he soon added.

“Sounds good to me. N yeah, wouldn’t want a waterlogged camera..a nightmare for filmers. ” He nodded at Tobys plan to look around the grounds, Creed was sure they hadn’t changed too much from last time. He watched them as the examined the coins. “It’s all good Keo, no need to give me anything ..They are coins from random countries that I don’t recognize.” He laughed a bit. “I haven’t had time to figure which ones which yet, but once I know I’ll tell you guys. I’m good bout giving those to you guys. A token to a great start of friendship.” He smirked at them before going through the threshold after a moment. “Well, I better go pick up my key. Thanks for letting me in and for the great mini tour.”

"Mhmm, and I do quite like my camera," she noted on the subject of leaving it behind, at least for now. "And hey, sounds good," she replied to Creed, though friendship was a term she'd use loosely. Still, it was a kind gesture, and she pocketed the coin so it didn't get dropped or lost. When Creed mentioned going off to get his key, she nodded, "Yeah, good idea. We'll still be around, anyway. And you're welcome, thanks for the neat little coin."

As he went off, she looked back to Toby, "So, you wanna take to getting settled in too? Not like I'm far if you wanna chat later. But I think I'm gonna get back to doing some work." And by work, she meant cataloging her strange little collections of video into a notebook.

Taken aback a little bit by Creed's gesture, Tobias smiled as he gave the coin a once over one last time. "Thanks man" he said as he kept his gaze locked on the coin for a few more seconds, eventually pocketing it, patting the pocket as he felt it hit the bottom. Upon hearing Creed mention that he was going to get his key and Keo mention that they would still be around, he nodded to Creed with a friendly smile. "Nice meeting you man" he said as he gave a friendly wave to Creed as he left.

Upon seeing him leave, Tobias returned his attention to Keo, nodding upon being asked if he was going to go get settled in too. "Yeah, I think I will, still have some unpacking to do, may rest up a bit after I finish." he said as he moved to his door before looking back to Keo as he unlocked it. "It was nice meeting you Keo." he said with a smile as he opened his door, waiting for a few seconds incase Keo had anything else to say to him before he left to finish unpacking.

"Alright," she gave a light nod and headed towards her own room, turning back for a second when Tobias spoke again, "Yeah, nice meeting you too. Don't be a stranger, fella." She moved back into her room, closing the door behind herself and settling back on the bed with her camera. At least having a few friends in the mansion would be nice during her stay.