Breakfast by the Pond (7-13-2011) [Open to All]

It was an early Wednesday morning, the sun having just risen not very long ago. Few clouds filled the sky and a calming breeze blew through the area of Penrose with the world losing its layer of morning dew. With the weather being so nice, Jack decided to eat his breakfast outside. Pulling his car up next to a tree by the pond, he got out and sat on the hood. Basking in the sun's warm glow Jack slowly ate his meal, taking the time to enjoy the calmness of the morning. On the hood next to him sat an old manila envelope. It was battered and beaten slightly and seemed to be fraying on the corners. Undoing the string, Jack opened it with and pulled out a paper with one hand and started reading.

An early wensday morning indeed... how Axel got bored of being a morning person sometimes. Always the first one to be out of bed, waiting for everyone to finally roll out of their nest (for some bizarre reason he didn't know many people his age who didn't prefer to stay in bed cuddling their pillow till at least midday).
'O well, perhaps it would be a little different here?' He sure hoped so. ((so thanks to Jack for this small wish-fullfillment))

For his breakfast he simply took an apple, not really in the mood to eat anything needing more than 10 seconds to prepare. He decided to eat it in the greenhouse; as most of the walls and the ceiling were made of glass it would give him with a nice view outside. Then, to his surprise he noticed a car standing in a rather unsual place in the garden, and also that there was someone sitting on the hood. Curiously he went outside.
When he got closer he noticed he didn't know this person yet so he walked up with a friendly smile and said: "hii there." ((not the most original way to open a conversation but hey, it usually works))

Jack turned to see who called out to him, spotting a young man roughly his own age. Before turning, he put down the paper to be courteous, but placed it facedown to be private.

"Morning!" he said with a nod and taking another bite out of his meal. Scooching over on the hood, he asked "Care to join me?"

Axel smiled a little surprised at the friendliness with which the stranger greeted him; the way he sat there alone in the garden reading, distanced from the mansion, there was a fair chance the reason he'd come there for a moment of privacy. But nothing in his words or behaviour suggested anything like that so Axel felt welcome to join him.
"Yes thanks," he therefor replied before carefully sitting himself down on the hood next to him. "You surprised me," he then said, "I wasn't expecting anyone to be out of bed yet."

"Neither was I," Jack said, responding to the visitor's comment on being up earlier. "I'm usually up at this time anyway. There's something about the sunrise that always wakes me up."

Putting down his meal, Jack extended his hand to the newcomer, "In any case, the name's Jack. Jack Imball."

Axel nodded at Jack's explanation, recognising what he said. "At least you can sleep in a little during the winter hmm?" he remarked jokingly, knowing that didn't help a thing with himself - he still always woke up incredibly early.

"Axel," he replied with a smile, shaking Jack's hand, "nice to meet you."
After that he didn't immediatly knew what to say, and while looking for a good topic his eyes found the paper Jack was reading. That one second too long he curiously looked at it may have been noticed but in the end he didn't ask any questions, assuming it was either private or something that wouldn't interest him (that last he thought mainly to fight off his curiousity).

"How long have you been here?" Axel asked. People were arriving so uncoordinatdly he was losing track of all the tennants of Meinior now.

Jack noticed Axel's had spotted his paper, but acted as nothing happened since Axel didn't immediately ask about. However, his guest's question did unfortunately lead to it.

"Well, I got here around mid day yesterday," Jack said calmly, "but that's not saying much. I was actually here a couple years ago when it was under old management." He took a moment to think back on some of the fond memories; all his theiving, pranking, and sneaking. "I was looking through some old notes I took," he said, giving the folder a tap, "Random stuff mostly."

Weak locks, loose floorboards, low spots in the fence, great places to hide, he thought, listing off some of the things he didn't want people seeing.

Flipping though some of the papers, he pulled out one of the lesser incriminating sheets and showing it to Axel, "Like this for example. I was trying to keep track of the deals some of the shops were having. I doubt any of this is useful now, but I like looking through it."

"Waow, you really came prepared," Axel said amazed as his eyes slid over the paper. Then as he looked up from it again - his eyed passing over the rest once more, with him forcing them not to linger curiously again - and asked Jack: "why did you bring all this?"
It wasn't a suspicious question in any way, just an hoenst one as Axel couldn't really imagine why someone who was familiar with the place already, would do so research like this. It did seem like an interesting idea though, having all kinds of info about the mansion, it's grounds and Penrose ensembled together.
"Anything interestiing in there I should be aware of?" he asked, still appearing comepletely oblivious to the real story behind Jack's 'notes'.

Jack paused for a second. At first he wanted to joke around and admit to his "hobbies", knowing that it would be too absurd to take seriously. Luckily, something else came to mind.

"The bathroom door on the first floor has a faulty lock," he said, thinking back to an encounter he had those years ago, "I don't know if the original door is in the same place since I think the building was remodeled, but it's something to think about."

He looked off into the woods, trying to think of something else, "There might be something in the woods, but I never really got around to exploring it last time. All I remember were a lot of rumors and stuff."


((I actually looked back to the old forum to see exactly what happened in one of my threads to include here .))

Axel let escape a small chuckle at Jack's strange explanation for his carefully documented information and didn't bring it up again, guessing the reason he's said it was because he didn't want to talk about it. That didn't make him any less curious though. And even though he didn't usually put his nose into stuff that wasn't any of his business - very much unlike his stepbrother - he decided to make a mental note of this.

"No? That's a pitty," Axel said smiling a little disappointed when Jack said not to know much about the forest, "I heard stories about the forest too but... I dunno, some people really overdo it... not everyone but sometimes when people talk about the forest they act as if we're in a bad horror movie or something."
His gaze turned to the forest to find it a beautiful, impressive but not exactly scary or dangerous sight. 'Perhaps it's just the morning sun and the sound of birds tsjirping that cause that,' he thought, because he knew the seemingly endless sea of trees and swamps appeared much more threatening after dark. Even so, it was just a forest.

Jack gave a nod, agreeing with Axel's comment. "I even heard that the road gets patrolled at night. If it turns out that there's a family of axe-murderers in the forest or something, I will personally going to change every lock in this mansion. You have my word."

On the last sentence, Jack looked Axel directly in the eyes and pointed at him. He held the serious gaze for a good long couple of seconds before breaking off with a good laugh. He paused again, recollecting himself.

"So what about the others in the mansion? I've haven't really got to meet too many others yet," he said casually.

Axel chuckled along with Jack's laughter. "I'm not sure," he replied, completely oblivious of the irony of what he was about to say, "you might just make yourself a spare key and sneak into my room. And then you might find the mobile entrance to hell that I take with me," he ended jokingly, adding a theatrical evil laugh.

When the subject went to the other tennants he turned more again. "Well," he started, "everyone seems really nice... non of them axe-murderers as far as I can tell."
'Perhaps Aemilio,' he added in mind and not even fully sarcastic.
"But I haven't been here all this long myself so I don't know everyone that well. And... well I'm taking you met the owners? Well, mrs Nellis at least?"

While Jack didn't laugh along with Axel, a large grin grew on his face. If one was careful, they might have even seen the creep of mishief enter his expression. However, this quickly left as he let his grin ease down.

"She had ... energy," he said, thinking back to his first day, finding it hard to accurately describe his hostess without being insulting.

((Didn't know how to proceed since the intro thread isn't that far yet.))

Despite feeling a bit rude for doing so, Axel couldn't help laugh a little at Jack's comment. Up to now, everyone seemed to have a moment of some difficulty describing mrs Nellis without being a little insulting - and the fact that everyone still managed in the most inventive of ways, avoiding saying whatever originally popped up in their heads - and it never failed to be a little funny to him.

"She's a dear," Axel said with a smile. That made him think: "maybe you can show her some of those files sometimes?" he suggested half-jokingly, "for some reason she seems like the type who'd really like to know everything about everyone." As he said that he realised he might want to lock his door every time he went out. It wasn't that he didn't trust people as much, just that he suddenly (finally) realised his living conditions just required something like that to be safe.
"I know this is a bit of a nasty question," he then said hessitantly to Jack, "and it probably won't do much good... but was there much... trouble here before? Between the people living here?"

((Azii probably wont ever be online again T_T))

"Well, I doubt she'd want to see these old things. Not much to learn since I gather there aren't too many people from the old days here," Jack said, hoping to not spread around his notes to others.

Upon hearing Axel's hesitant question, he took another pause to think. After gathering his thoughts, Jack said, "It was as volatile as you'd expect a mansion full of teenagers would be. There were some petty fights and the like." For a moment, he remembered some of the more supernatural events that happened. "I'm pretty sure there were pranks at one point, but I usually wasn't personally around."

Axel nodded at what Jack said; it did make sense stuffing a mansion with teenagers would occasionally lead to some trouble. But the was Jack said it made him doubt how serious they were.
"You weren't around for anything exciting?" Axel asked with a joking grin, "that sounds suspiciously innocent...!"

His eyes turned back at the mansion for a moment before he said: "I hope everyone here will get along." He then realised what he said and chuckled at the wish he'd jist uttered; "I know that sounds a little boring and utopic but still... I think I could do without tensions around here. Then again, without them I might get homesick," he muttered after that.
"Anyway, have you seen people from before around already?" he asked.

"Yes! So suspicious I must be innocent!" Jack proclaimed, finishing his breakfast. Putting his plate down, he turned to respond to Axel's question, "Others? Not really. I haven't really had the chance to meet anyone else since I got here. I'm pretty sure at least one or two others have to be here."

((I might not be actively on/might be slow to respond for the next 5 or 6 days. I'm rushing to get some work done at the moment. Also sorry for the short reply.))

"Ah," Axel replied, "I guess you haven't been here long... so that only makes sense. Well, you should definatly meet Dominique - she's great...!" His voice died of when he felt his cheeks collor speaking of Dominique.
"Sh-she's really nice," he chancelessly tried to recover.

'Smooth', the voice in his head sarcastically threw at him.

"So.. has anyone told you about the upcoming welcoming party yet?" Axel asked, visably glad he'd found a different topic to talk about.

((I am SO sorry that I'm late to replying! I know I said 5-6 days, but my life got really hectic after that and I was too tired to come back during the time.))

Jack watched Axel's expression once Dominique was brought up and let out a single soft, chuckle at his embarrassment.

"No. Not really," Jack said, shaking his head, " I might have heard a thing or two buzzing around, but nothing in great detail."