Marceline Chen

- 1:14 PM

Toast never tasted so good.

Careful not to get any crumbs on the pages of the book she was currently flipping through, Marceline dipped the bread into the sunny runny yolk on her plate, taking small satisfaction in trying to dye as much of the white slice as she could before bringing it to her mouth and biting it off. The crunch crunch of her chewing filled the silence in the room, only occasionally broken by Félix checking in on her. It wasn't long before Marci had polished off the rest of her light meal, having not realized how hungry she was.

Just as she was washing down the breakfast with some cold - and absolutely mind-blowing - apple juice, Graven swept into the room, cradling a cup of coffee and an empty plate. Somewhat astonishingly, he seemed only slightly worse for the wear. He was wearing an expensive looking shirt, a charcoal grey pair of designer jeans, which were rolled up past the ankles to reveal his navy socks, embroidered with colorful feathers.

“Goodmorning!” Gray addressed the room, bringing in with him a bright energy. First, he smiled, acknowledging Marci’s presence, and then he turned to Felix, who had followed him in to collect his tableware. “Thank you for a wonderful breakfast, Monsieur Dubois, my compliments to the chef. I intend to retire to the lake this afternoon for a little swim. Would you mind terribly preparing a little picnic platter of, let's say, just cured meats and cheeses will do wonderfully. Oh and definitely a bottle of wine as well, with two glasses, please. I hope to bring Miss Marci along, if she will agree to accompany me.” Gray sat down at Marci’s table and smiled again, warmly. He tilted his head a fraction of an inch, as if to silently ask her opinion on the matter.

An amused smile had taken over the female's face at his entrance, and at the mention of her joining him on a trip to the lake, Marci made a small "Ah!" of surprise before nodding her head to happily oblige. "That sounds great to me; I'm in."

“Of course, Mr. Birch. Will you have a preference for any particular bottle this afternoon?”

“Nothing so heavy as last night’s Bordeaux, but we’ll have to do red for the cheese. A Pinot, perhaps? Does that sound alright with you?” Gray turned from Felix to Marci, who could only nod again as the former of the two began his exit from the room. "Please excuse me. I shall have your basket ready shortly.”

Marceline took the glass of water from the table and sipped from it before offering Gray a sheepish grin while tucking her legs underneath her on the chair, criss-cross apple sauce. "I'll probably only have a glass of the red. I'm still, uh, recovering. Hope I wasn’t too much of a handful last night.”

“A healthy dose of antioxidants is all part of the recovery process, I assure you."

She chuckled and downed some more of the water, a thought occurring to her. “Mmmm. I was just speaking to Kim about the lake, actually. She’s in the library…" She hesitated, then decided to forge ahead. "Did you happen to hear some loud noises from outside last night? Apparently something was going on and the other guys in our group got caught up in it…?"

The smile that had occupied Gray's face while Félix was in the room faltered slightly. “What sort of noises? I imagine there must be a fair amount of wildlife around here, an’ I suppose it can’t all be friendly.”

“I dunno, apparently there was some loud splashing and howling out there… But it wasn’t a wolf or anything - or so Jonas says. I’m not really clear on the details, since this is all coming from Kim, but... The guys also said they saw something getting dragged over by the water?” She made a spooked sort of face by arching her brows and thinning out her lips, before shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t know. I didn’t really hear anything myself… I passed out when my face hit the pillow, hah.”

Gray paused for a moment, visibly (and uncharacteristically) disturbed. “Normally I’d blame something like that on a little too much liquor, but a manor home belonging a family of Bavarian aristocrats is not really the place to let your guard down.” After another moment, he waved it aside with a brush of his hand. “It’s nothing to panic about though. I’m certain we will find a perfectly reasonable explanation for the whole thing. I spoke to Maria yesterday and I got the impression that the family is pretty secretive, but there is no reason to assume the intentions behind it are sinister in nature."

Inhaling deeply to emit a sigh, Marci lifted her glass of water in cheers to him. "Well. At least one of us is optimistic," she quipped before taking a drink. “But I guess you’re right. No reason to get so worked up over it..." And then to herself, she added quietly, "Yet, at least.”

It was then that Félix came right back into the room holding a large basket filled with their goodies. He placed it on table and somehow knocked over salt and pepper shakers just to the right of where Gray was seated, breaking up the conversation. “Your basket, sir. Hope everything is to your liking. Please let me know if there is anything else, Mr. Birch.” He then proceeded to clean up the mess made on the table.

“Wonderful!” Gray presented himself to Felix as delighted and carefree. He stood up and clapped his hands together. “As always, you never fail to impress, Monsieur Dubois.” Turning to Marci, he spoke plainly, though she could tell both of them were now acutely aware of Félix's proximity. “Shall we? I imagine you’ll need a moment to fetch a bathing suit. I’ll be waiting for you in the lounge with the piano.”

Picking up on Gray’s lead, Marci nodded and stood up as well, collecting her book and taking one last sip of the water. “You got it. I will be right back. Thanks for the food and wine, buddy," she added to the butler on her way out, to which he responded with a few somewhat perplexed blinks before resuming a stoic expression.

She parted ways with Gray in the entrance hall and rushed upstairs, fishing out her room key from her pocket as she went. Fifteen minutes passed before she was skipping back down the stairs again, now in high waisted denim shorts and the same gray paint-splattered hoodie over a simple V-cut black halter-top bathing suit. She also had her journal and her polaroid camera in hand.

Gray was in the lounge, over by a section of the Wolf family portrait wall, examining a few odd ones in turn.

“Hope that didn’t take too long. Had to dig this out of my luggage.” She hooked a thumb under one strap of her bathing suit and tugged it so it lightly slapped back against her collar bone. “Ready when you are.”

He extended a hand and beckoned her over with a waggle of his index finger. “Fantastic, just give me a moment to stretch these old bones and then we can head out.” He stopped in front of one particular painting, pulled a small magnifying glass from his pocket, and started to examine the painting further. When Marci was finally close enough, he suddenly whispered, “If there really is something strange going on at the manor, we need to be careful what we say and where.”

Marci blinked a few times, much the same as when Félix had done so in the dining room, and stifled a smile. This could have been a short clip out of a movie. But she nodded her head in agreement, leaning forward as if to examine the paintings as well before whispering back. “Right. And I’m sure Félix’ll be lurking around in here with us soon enough.” Paranoia crept up on the back of her neck and she turned her head just slightly to take the smallest of glances back at the doors, before returning her attention back to the paintings to actually look at them. “Oh... ”

She raised her brows, actually registering what they all were. Kind of creeped out by how all the Wolfs were staring out at her now, she grunted and chewed on her bottom lip, pulling her hoodie tighter around herself for comfort.

“Exactly. Have you noticed the period differences in the section of the wall? The entire collection follows a pretty established stylistic progression of Germanic art, all except this section… The brushstrokes, pigmentation…” Gray whispered, and after a moment, Marci grunted again, this time in agreement as she squinted at the paintings in inspection and suspicion. “Yeah… How strange…"

Probably realizing she was right about Felix, Gray straightened up momentarily to look back at the entrance to the lounge. “Would you mind closing that door? I want to try something.”

"Ah... Yeah, sure?” Hesitantly, she made her way over to it, and after taking the quickest peek out to check if the coast was clear, she closed it as quietly as she could. Turning back to Gray with a slight frown on her face, she nodded to herself as if to assure her climbing anxiety that they weren't doing anything fishy at all. “Alright, you’re good. What are you planning to do?” She continued to speak in a low volume as she walked back to him curiously, albeit a little warily.

“It probably has nothing to do with the sounds that the others heard last night, but I want to take a look at the back of this painting, there’s a strange gap in the early 20th that’s been bothering me since I saw it yesterday. Here, look at these ones.” Gray pointed to the paintings on his left. “Based on pigment decay and brush stroke analysis, I’d put them between 1890 and 1920. But these...” He then waved a hand over the paintings directly in front of him and then reached forward to carefully lift it off the wall, eliciting an involuntary wince of uncertainty from Marceline. Is this guy for real right now...? He gently placed one end on the ground, and tilted it to expose the back of the painting.

“It’s hard to accurately date this one from the front, but look here, the canvas is attached to the stretcher with staples. European artists didn’t switch from nails to staples until the 50’s, but it quickly became common practice because it’s easier on the paintings. Older stretchers were made of dark, heavier woods in an H or X shape but this one is light and square, using mitered edges. All things considered, this painting simply couldn’t have been made less than 20-30 years from those others.”

Marci remained quiet, simply listening to him and his observations. He was right about everything, of course, and it really was fantastically suspicious. But not exactly being the sleuthing type to connect dots, or to search for things that would further her own paranoia, she didn't understand what he was getting at. Pushing the hair behind her ears and furrowing her brows, she whispered back, “So, what are you thinking?”

Gray looked back up at the wall in thought. “I don’t know, I wasn’t really expecting to be right about any of this. But see the second hole in the wall next to the hanging nail? The painting must have been moved at some point, and how the spacing between the paintings seems off? This had to have been done recently, but I just can’t figure out why…”

Marci had begun chewing on her lower lip again, a sure sign that her inner worry-wart was kicking in; as if the goosebumps that had erupted all over her arms weren't proof enough. “Yeah… Shit, that is pretty weird. Maybe they were in a rush to hang it up?” The small joke was punctuated by nervous chuckling as she swiped at the back of her neck to calm the goosies creeping over it. Glancing back at the door, she hugged her journal and the polaroid camera to her chest. “Uh, maybe we should head out though… I’m sure someone would have noticed the closed door by now…” Although she was trying to play it off through mere concern for sketchy activity, she was very much just creeped out by the room in general, and it was obvious.

“You’re probably right.” Gray took a second to look back over everything on the wall for anything he might have missed, but apparently came up empty since he spoke again soon after. “We should definitely get out of here. Can you help me with this painting?” He stood to one side of it, waiting for Marci to get the other.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. Of course.” Quite relieved that he had agreed with her suggestion, she put her belongings down and moved over to the other side to help him heave the thing back onto the wall. Once it was back on, she gathered the journal and camera and made a beeline for the door. Nearing it, she spoke again, trying to keep up a somewhat casual front. “Fresh air sounds great right about now.” More nervous laughter escaped her as she waited for Gray to catch up.

When he did, he opened the door, motioning for Marci to go first. “It certainly does, I can’t wait to have a swim. That picnic basket looked wonderful too. Oh, wait..."

“Yeah, it did, didn’t it?” Marci was way too happy to be out of the lounge that she didn't immediately realize that Gray had stopped moving behind her. She turned around just in time to see Félix coming towards them, carrying the basket that Gray had apparently forgotten in the dining room. Marci's relieved smile faltered. How could she have not noticed that Gray didn't have it with him? She immediately froze, resisting the urge to look to Gray in exasperation. After he had already reached them, she managed to mentally kick herself into gear in time to fumble out, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, “Oh… Hey Félix!”

“Hello again, Miss Chen. You forgot your basket, Mr. Birch.” The two didn't fail to notice the way Felix eyed the door to the lounge before he proceeded to hand over the basket to Gray. “Thank you very much Monsieur Dubios, as always, you never fail to impress me.” Felix bowed slightly, before turning and retreating back into the kitchens.

Jesus Christ...

Once the male had disappeared, Marceline spun around, let out a huge breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and covered her face with a hand. “Oh shit... Oh shit. That was freaky… That was freaky, right?” She looked to Gray with all the panic coloring her face pink, wanting some sort of confirmation that Félix was way too timely for anyone's good. After a moment of recollection, she huffed like a child and lightly gave him a frustrated smack on the shoulder with the hand that had been hiding her face. “How the hell could you forget the basket, Gray?”

“You will figure it out when you’re older” Gray smiled, devilishly, to which Marci replied with a roll of her eyes. Still, she eventually couldn't help letting out a few genuine chuckles, shaking her head at how eventful her morning has been. Thank goodness the headache and nausea from her hangover were practically gone or else she might not have handled any of this and still had her breakfast in her stomach.

“Now, come on. Let’s get out of here.” Gray made his way over to the manor's back doors and pulled one of them back, holding it open. “After you.”

"Mm, thank you," Marci sang, her mood considerably lighter now that they were finally getting out of the house and away from the possibility of finding more anxiety-inducing mysteries.

Evelynn Joshi
~2:40 pm

The day progressed beautifully. Jonas had left Evelynn close to noon, and though she had thought she might get bored out by herself, the lake and its scenery proved otherwise. She couldn't help but take some pictures with her mobile phone, useless now without a network connection but still able to pull through in a pinch. She sat with her knees brought up to her chest and used her lap as a mock-table for the sketchpad she was working on. Lazy sunlight fell in patches through the shade of the leaves and made the white of her paper and the white of her dress glow in a warm manner that just screamed ‘summer’. She was drawing the trees on the far side of the lake, and always went back to add another branch, add another detail to a leaf, so remained fully engrossed and growing enchanted with the scenery, and admittedly her own work, too. It was coming together wonderfully. Adding some finishing details on one corner of the page, she looked up, swallowing up the atmosphere and a deep breath of air with a content sigh, before noticing something out of the corner of her eye. It was a small kind of movement, but sure enough, it piqued her curiosity and she turned her head to make out what it was.

Two figures that were just silhouettes at first were approaching, and Lynn grinned. Although she was finishing off, company at any time would be appreciated. She was even more delighted to make out one of the figures as her most recent neighbour, Marceline. Though as they came closer, she realised she hadn't once spoken to the older gentleman with her, with the brilliant white beard. Her eyebrows knit as she tried to remember his name. All she knew was that he was the last person to step into the waiting room at the airport, and though his name was said at least a couple of times over during the past two days, she could not for the life of her remember it. Marci's name was no problem, and it came to Lynn instantaneously as she blurted it out cheerily, when they were a sufficient distance from her, “Oh, hey! Hey, Marci!”

Lynn noticed her and the older gentleman were chatting, and she was curious as to just what it was about. The party last night? The Wolfs? Their lives before coming here? Any of those could have been plausible, but Lynn never would know, as it the conversation cut when Marci noticed Lynn. Though, she wasn't displeased.

“Ah! Hey Lynn, what's going on?” the other woman called with an unmistakable smile, and even waving with a similar unmistakable energy. Lynn waved back, though a little more subtly and a little less swingy, even if only for the moment, since she found herself quite curious about the man with Marci. As they finally neared where Lynn was sitting, Marci, never missing a beat, motioned to the gentleman and explained, “Oh, uh, Lynn, this is Gray Birch. I guess you two haven't properly met yet?”
In response, the gentleman lifted his hand in a casual two finger salute greeting, his manner laid back and polite all the same. Lynn was just about to get up to shake his hand and supply the traditional ‘Nice to meet you’, especially since he was much older, and so Lynn was taught in the typical Indian household to thoroughly respect your elders, when he spoke, “Ah, there's no need for such formalities anymore. After all this insanity I suppose we're all in this together now.”

Letting out a sigh in relief that she hadn't just offended anyone by being too formal, she returned the two-finger salute with a little laugh. “We haven't met properly, no.” she smirked at Marci, “But he's quite right. You can call me Lynn, Mr-” She caught herself just in time, lips curving into an embarrassed smile, “...Gray. Gray is good. Whoops, hah.”

There was a warm, comforting, if refined, aura about this man, Evelynn had decided. Despite his age and wisdom, he really was just as lost as they were in this hellish place, and that reassured Lynn, even if just slightly. He smiled warmly as he placed the object he'd been carrying on the ground at last, and Lynn's eyes lit up at noticing it was a picnic basket. A very big picnic basket. As Gray spread out a picnic blanket he retrieved from the basket, Lynn only just heard him mention to himself, or probably Marci, “That young man sure does think of everything.” before he took a seat on the blanket, motioning for anyone to join him there.

Lynn gladly moved over to the blanket after just a second of pondering, dusting herself off and sending a little sprinkle of grass back onto the ground, before she sat herself down on the edge, legs to one side and the sketchpad shut - with the pencil stuck in as a bookmark for now - and shoved back into her canvas bag, which she's put on the blanket just next to her. “A whole picnic out? Ooh, my... But I'm curious, hm. This young man you were referring to. Would that be Félix?"
She visibly bit her bottom lip here with a sheepish smile, slight colour rising to the tan of her cheeks slowly but surely. The events of this morning lingered in her mind, and she decided she most definitely would be ringing Félix up for ‘breakfast in bed’ in the near future. Changing the topic before things got any more flustering for her, she continued, "What brings you two out here? A coincidence I'd see you here! Jonas was here with me earlier."

Marci gestured to Gray, and used the same hand to push her hair back behind her ears, before she spoke, “He invited me to check the lake out - figured it was a nice day and my hangover is finally in retreat, so why not? How long have you been out here?” As she spoke, she put her journal down on the blanket too, not too far from Lynn, and then removed her hoodie and placed it beside the notebook. Lynn noticed she wore what appeared to be a swimsuit under the hoodie, and reminded herself internally to see if she brought one. She probably hadn't, thinking this was a trip for work related purposes after all, and didn't expect to go swimming. If she did, it'd have to be in the nude...something that made her shudder at the thought of, since she never imagined she'd be doing that of all things at a place like this.

“The one and only.” Lynn had almost missed the last bit Marci left before she, all too hurriedly, moved forward with her camera and began snapping pictures of the landscape. Something seemed definitely off about the way Marci reacted to his name, and though Lynn wanted to press it, she had to satisfy herself with a ‘what happened’ sort of glance at Gray, who conveniently missed the entire exchange and probably looked really puzzled. She sighed defeated, “Huh...I see. That's nice of him...”
She decided to drop the topic for the moment, subconsciously curling up just a little at the bad feeling she had about what happened with Félix. “Been out here for a while...ever since breakfast, I think. That was at…um.” instinctively she threw out her right hand and, finding no watch, moved to dig in her canvas-bag to fetch it, checking the time with a little gasp. “God, it’s been hours now. I was out of the house - err, manor - before noon!”

She spoke to Marci primarily, since she noticed one Gray Birch was quite lost in his own world, staring off at the lake. Lynn mentally slapped herself at the notion that he was old and his hearing deteriorating, so he probably hadn't heard her, but nervously laughed to herself with a tiny inward shrug, when he mused fondly, “What a wonderful view! I can hardly wait to get in the water… But first, we can’t let this fine plate go to waste.” and at that moment, as if right out of a clip from a grand, tropical holiday movie, he pulled out a silver platter - Lynn wondered if silver platters were all they had at the Manor - containing more cured meats and cheeses than Lynn could even place! She'd be lying if she'd said she wasn't salivating at that very moment. It only got better when Gray, or ‘the magical food-bringer’ Lynn had internally dubbed him, pulled out a small, round basket with a napkin over it. He pulled it off to uncover a pile of sliced French bread, and Lynn's stomach growled insistently as the older man fished out a bottle of red and a corkscrew, and began opening it up.

Marci happened to be taking pictures all throughout the ceremonious uncovering, and when it was all done, finally sat herself down on the blanket, and as if welcoming her, Gray finally popped the cork off. Lynn shot her an ‘Oh, I’m dying to see’ sort of smirk when she finally put the camera down, and the photos that poured out of the slit kept coming and being arranged by Marci on the grass. Her smirk turned curious when Marci gave her a sort of expectant look Lynn couldn’t place alongside the question she asked, “So, seen anything creepy out here yet, Lynn?”

The brunette’s eyebrows knit as she thought, trying to remember just what it was the bearded man had said to her. “Personally, when I was out with Jonas earlier, he said some things that I thought were...spooky, but I dunno. The lake seems pretty nice. It’s really calm, and really pretty out here.”
Here she paused briefly, and changing the topic quickly, her eyes found Gray’s. “Goodness, look at this spread! Seems you really did get everything for a perfect picnic.”
Well, it would have been perfect. The one failing factor was the fact that there only happened to be two glasses, something for which Lynn looked a little disappointed, but only for a split second. Of course she hadn’t expected them to bring another glass! Why would they, after all, when they had made plans for a picnic among themselves?!
Being reminded of her own thirst by the red wine swirling and glittering in the bottle, Evelynn fished out a half-full water bottle from her canvas bag, laying limp and piling up against her body, and once she had spun open the cap, brought her lips to the rim and sipped idly. Her dark eyes swept gently over the landscape to the lake again, “...aah, I’m sure the water’s lovely. I might just dip my feet in, too.”

“Well, Kim told me what Jonas told her, but…” Marci began, though as if an indication from the heavens themselves, she happened to notice how Lynn brushed it off as if it was no more than the wind. Picking up on the left cue, she changed gears, “I’m sure everything’s fine, yeah?”

Unfortunately, for all the girls’ efforts, or mostly Lynn’s, to divert the conversation, it came back to bite her indirectly. It seemed Gray was aware of it too, and he asked Marci if Jonas had told her a “chilling” story, too. As he waited for her answer, he had taken to gently, with the skill of a refined wine-drinker and the grace of his sturdy hand, pouring the wine into the two glasses before he stopped mid-way and seemed a little thrown off. “Oh dear! Now this is just absolutely terrible, we should have asked for more glasses, in case something just like this were to happen. But now we don’t have enough!”
Before Lynn even had a chance to complain, the glasses were thrust into both her and Marci’s hands, and they couldn’t have given them back because Gray, even for his age, got to his feet ridiculously quickly. Lynn, yet again for the umpteenth time this afternoon, mentally smacked herself.
She didn’t know if he had read her mind, or if he was just excited, but he was smiling when he added,“I’m going to get in the water now, and by the time I’m out, we can just switch off.”

Marci was the first to speak between the two girls, having just finished spreading the last of the pictures on the grass and, to Lynn, she seemed just as surprised to have the glass of wine thrust right into her hands, "Oh, are you sure? I mean, I can do without it for now, and it was your idea, so-”
And here surprise turned into a tiny, awkward panic.

“I didn’t really think it was...real, I gotta admit.” Lynn bit her bottom lip embarrassedly, a little ashamed to admit she didn’t believe Jonas as much after all. She had wanted to believe him fully, she truly did, but especially after sitting out there in the heart of the sprawling lawns of the manor, surrounded by beauty and tranquility as far as the eye could see, it seemed way too unlikely.
“It all seemed too...dream-like. No, actually. Too nightmarish. Like something out of a horror movie. I’m sure there’s honestly nothing like that here.” She had been sipping from the water-bottle when her hand now held the glass of wine, making her choke awkwardly between a surprised attempt to complain, and a surprised attempt to speak, “Really, I-I’m fine too! I shouldn’t! Not this early, at least, I…”
She trailed off, her eyes meeting Marci and her being minutely reassured that she wasn’t the only one considering the situation a little unfair, “Err...uh.”

“It may be too early for liquor, but wine is a special sort of thing. You drink it to accompany the finer things in life, not just to get drunk. Thankfully there are enough fine things around here to warrant a few bottles now and then.” The suave gentleman teased, making Lynn’s cheeks go hot. She never did receive attention like that positively, because it always threw her off guard and if she could help it, she’d perhaps not be a squealing, pleading mess more often than not. However, it seemed his word was final, and he left the wine in their care, stepping determinedly forward and kicking off his shoes with an excitement or a vigour Lynn couldn’t place.
And then he took off his shirt, and as if on cue, Lynn’s jaw dropped.

He was absolutely covered in tattoos.

Everything flowed into each other, from the clock-face on his right shoulder which blended into sands and the crescent, half and full moon down his arm. Similarly, his left arm was covered in tattoos but not so much sticking to the theme of time, with compasses and bizarre beasts that Lynn couldn’t even place. Fortunately, there were some animals even Lynn recognized: A cow, a lion and a big cat with rosettes. Lynn wasn’t sure exactly what it was in the split second her eyes fell upon it; there was just so much to take in. Her eyes finally settled on a circle tattooed onto Gray’s lower back, made of a snake eating its tail with the centre filled in to resemble roses. Though Lynn had no idea what snakes had to do with roses for, she didn’t have the ability to ask.
If she had, she would have noticed an inscription in the center of the roses which read, ‘Henry Calhoun Birch, 8/22/94 -- 10/17/14’

“Whoaaaaa.” Lynn barely even made out Marci from the corner of her eye quickly sitting her glass between her thighs and snapping a picture of the tattooed masterpiece that stood before them as he looked out into the water. Though she’d be much happier sitting there gawking forever at Gray, his body in an impeccable condition for his age and now in full view in the shorts-style speedo he wore, in a way that made her kind of jealous that she probably wouldn’t take care of her own body in that way so she’d be all saggy and wrinkly when she got to his age – she really didn’t even know how old he was, and on top of that she dared not ask, either – she was snapped out of the trance when only just managing to clink her glass against Marci’s incoming one as she declared, “Well, cheers, then.” with a grin.

“Let’s just hope the water is warm.” The older gentleman, formerly staring fondly at the lake, now made his way down to the edge, leaving the two girls alone.

“Whoa! Cheers indeed, hah!” Lynn gave Marci a bashful smile, a little apologetic for her previous distractedness, and so quietly bringing the glass to her lips as the girl next to her called out to Gray, “Let me know how it is!”

Lynn lazily focused her eyes on Gray as he made his way down, and her lips idly sipped from the swirling red drink. They were drawn away from the wine only when Lynn brought the glass back down, finally noticing the darling little collection in its entirety laying on the grass right next to Marci. Some of them were still drying, though a lot of them were dry already, and after all, Lynn had been dying to see…

“Hm, Marci.” She shot her a side-glance. “May I…?” she asked in an almost awestruck tone of voice, glass held similarly to Marci’s earlier between her thighs and her hand gesturing out at the pictures. Her free hand moved to play with the edges of the sundress she wore, and simultaneously tug at it and straighten out the edges.
Fortunately, Marci was quite happy to share her work, after being snapped out of idly swirling the contents of her glass, she gave Lynn a green-light smile. “Oh. hah, yeah sure. Go ahead.”

“Thank you.” Lynn bowed her head in an exaggerated expression of gratitude, before her fingers moved to the photos and she busied herself with browsing through them, ever admiring the talented young woman’s work.

Jonas Landvick
2:22 pm...

Jonas had found himself back in his room once again after aimlessly lounging around the manor. He came up with the intention of getting changed into clothes that were a bit more appropriate for a trip back to the lake. A little hike around the place was at the forefront of his thoughts.

Trudging to his suitcase, Jonas had started to unbutton his shirt when he thought to empty his pockets first. As he slipped his hand in his pocket, he suddenly felt the key that he had stolen. Jonas blinked, a little worried since he had completely forgotten about it after showing it to Kim. He sure as hell didn't want to lose it, and leaving it in his pants then forgetting about it was probably the quickest way to do so.

“Shoot.” Jonas mumbled, pulling the key out and gazing around his room for a decent hiding spot. He wasn't sure if cleaners ever came into the rooms, or if they would service the room sometime in the future, so he couldn't hide it anywhere where they would run into it. Jonas thought about one of the wall sconces, but then realized that it would be easily seen if the light was turned on. No good. It didn't help that the key was a massive bronze doorstop of a thing.

He whipped his head around the room, eyes darting desperately for a good spot, when they eventually fell on his own open suitcase. One of his hiking boots was sticking out of it. Quickly, he stepped over to it and stuck the key inside the boot and put it back in the case, zipping it up. It wasn't the best place, but it would have to do for now.

Just as he stepped back from his bag, there was a loud knock on the door that made Jonas' heart leap into his throat. Getting his senses back, Jonas opened the door with a slightly shaky hand to see Felix standing outside, looking a little less stiff and formal than usual. He had almost lost that professional stick up his rear end, but replaced it with an almost guilty sort of nervousness. It wasn't really a physical change, but a vocal one.

“I’m sorry, sir. Is this a bad time?” he asked Jonas, no doubt spotting the half buttoned shirt that he was sporting.

“Nah, it’s fine.” Jonas couldn't help but feel a little shifty himself, since Felix had once again nearly walked in on him engaging in some suspicious activity. Seeing the other man's own furtive tension was enough to ease Jonas' mind a little as he asked, “Whatcha need, Felix?”

“Is it okay if I, uhh, come in?”

Jonas blinked at the unexpected request, briefly wondering if Felix could read minds and knew that he had taken the key. He brushed the thought away, though it did make him think of Kim's theory from earlier. “Er, sure. I don’t see why not.” Trying to be as welcoming as possible, Jonas stepped back and opened the door further for him, letting Felix inside.

As Felix stepped inside quickly, Jonas noticed with some curiosity that he had something in his pocket. Whatever it was, it was rectangular in shape. He was in the middle of trying to figure out what it was when Felix solved the mystery for him, pulling Jonas' missing GPS out of his pocket.

“I found your GPS. I’m sorry that it went missing; it must have fallen out of your luggage.” Felix said apologetically, the nervousness he'd displayed earlier coming on full force now.

Jonas raised his eyebrows in genuine and pleasant surprise, the hidden key momentarily forgotten. “Oh! No kiddin’?” He took it from Felix politely, resisting the urge to just grab his precious possession out of his hands. “I thought it was a goner for sure. Figured it was on the plane somewhere.”

“No, it was in the boot of the limousine,” Felix said matter-of-factly, his formal and helpful self briefly making an appearance before drifting back to barely concealed furtiveness. “Could I ask you a favor?”

“Sure, but I get one too.” Jonas said, a bit more at ease and wondering what the favor could possibly be.

“Of course, sir.” Felix said, his professional self coming through again before sinking below the surface. At the moment, he made Jonas think of a butler-bot trying to break through its own programming. “I would really prefer it if you uh didn’t tell the Wolfs that I lost it?”

Jonas made a 'zipped' motion across his lips, which Felix simply blinked at, not quite getting it at first. Jonas added, “Lost what?”

Felix made a pretty feeble attempt to laugh at Jonas' joke before he asked, “And your favour, sir?”

Hopeful but wary, Jonas rubbed his hands together and brought them up to his face. “I noticed a boathouse by the lake. Can I ask what’s in it?”

“You can.”

Jonas stared back at him, a sheepish smile forming slowly as he tried desperately to figure out if that was actually joke or not. Felix just watched him, waiting for him to get it. He wondered if this was just how Felix acted all the time, this odd little flip-flop between the cold polished exterior and the awkward interior fond of dry humor. Jonas chuckled at the joke a bit, trying to urge Felix to go on, which he did.

“It’s mostly, uh, boats, but there are general gardening and agricultural tools in there as well. It’s quite cluttered; anything we don’t use regularly is kept there out of the way.”

“If you folks got a canoe, may I use it?”

“Of course sir,” Felix responded, looking a little downtrodden at the thought of clearing out the 'cluttered' boathouse. “but would it be okay to use it tomorrow? It will take me some time to unload the boats.”

Jonas was a little crestfallen himself at the news, since it was a really beautiful day for a row around the lake. “Oh, sure. I don’t mind. Don’t go through too much trouble on my account, though.”

“It’s no trouble. Will that be all?”

“Yup, that about does’er. Thanks for finding my GPS. It’s good to have it back.” Jonas said gratefully, bouncing the device around his hands as Felix made his way back out the door and to the hallway.

“Okay. Thanks.” Felix said before he strolled away gracefully. Jonas watched him go for a moment, then shut the door again and exhaled softly into the empty room. He was thrilled to have his GPS back, but having Felix in the same vicinity as the key Jonas stole twice in one afternoon was a bit nerve wracking.

Still intending to go out to the lake, Jonas finished changing into some more rugged clothes. He tore off his dress shirt and pulled on short sleeved red flannel one, and replaced his fancy pants with thick, durable, and a little battered dark brown trousers. Feeling much more comfortable, he slipped the GPS in his pocket and headed out of his room and down the lobby stairs, swiftly exiting the manor to get some more fresh air.

The trudge towards the lake was a familiar one, since he'd already done it quite a few times already. Jonas took his time though, sometimes stopping to appreciate the soft grass beneath his feet or the warm but not oppressive heat of the sun on his face. It was the kind of weather you had to take in while you still could.

As he made his way closer to the lake, the sight of another person in the distance heading in the same direction made him stop dead. The familiar red hair is what made him stop so suddenly. Lena. Or maybe it was Maria? He wouldn't be able to tell if he was close, let alone from this distance. Jonas watched as she kept walking, not wanting to take the chance if it really was Lena. He'd had just about enough of her already.

Jonas sighed, defeated as he turned around and headed back towards the manor. It wasn't long before he neared the entrance, and as he did, an idea struck him. He pulled the GPS from his pocket and tried to turn it on, hoping to see if there was a cache nearby. Unfortunately, it wouldn't turn on at all. Jonas frowned as he stepped through the front doors of the manor, slapping the device and shaking it a little to no avail. Maybe it had turned on somehow when it fell out of his luggage?

Suddenly, Jonas saw another flash of red hair out of the corner of his eye. Maria...or perhaps Lena had come from either the lounge or the study to the right of him and was heading upstairs. Too late, he tucked the GPS back in his pocket again, wondering if she had seen it. Whichever twin she was, anyway.

Jonas exhaled nervously again as she disappeared to the third floor. It wasn't as if his GPS was a big secret, but he didn't really like everyone knowing about his hobbies. Besides, the thing might get Felix in trouble, and Felix seemed like a decent guy to Jonas.

Resigned to his unlucky fate, Jonas headed up to his room again to charge his now dead GPS. Outdoor fun would have to wait until later.