Tino and Ingvar's room

Tino hauled his trunk up the stairs with some difficulty, staggering and nearly punching holes into walls on occasion, but he righted himself and managed to heave it onto the next landing before running back down to his other piece of luggage to drag it up as well. He had repeated this process steadily up four flights and now stood in the corridor, staring at a row of doors. Steeling himself, he began pushing the trunks down the hall, ticking off room numbers as he passed, searching for...

Aha! 230. At the end of the hall. Of course... He kicked the door open viciously and braced his back against the luggage to shove it into the room.

It was empty. Completely uncluttered, neither bed claimed, an entire untouched frontier, territory for the taking. After careful deliberation, he picked the bed across from the door - and with a spectacular window view of the grounds - and collapsed, rolling about to give it that slept-on look, for any other that might try to take it. One trunk was shoved to the foot of the bed, the other underneath. They could wait to be unpacked. For now, he would take a break.

Tino tossed his messenger bag on the bed beside him and took out a stuffed Moomin, which he placed carefully on his pillow, and a box of salmiakki. He gazed about his new abode curiously, munching on the licorice, planning before starting his personal renovations. Once he was through lazing, he took out his headphones and iPod, blasting the music as he unpacked.

Ingvar glanced again at the paper he was holding. 230...maybe I've passed it? He'd opted to have most of his luggage delivered to the room, and his suitcase had wheels, but he still didn't want to have to roll it around forever. With an annoyed sigh he pulled the suitcase up another flight of stairs, only to find out once he reached the top that his room was on the floor below. Apparently he had indeed passed it. His irritation and frustration didn't show on his face, but he was giving off plenty of hate filled vibes to let everyone know that now would not be a good time to stop and strike up a conversation.

When he finally did find the room some of his frustration eased away. A soft, relieved, sigh escaped his lips and he pulled open the door, finding that his roommate had better luck (or better directions) as they were already there. And they had taken the better bed. The door closed behind him and he turned all attention on the other boy.

"Hallo."

Tino was completely oblivious to the new arrival, still dancing along to the beat of his music as he rummaged through his trunk. He continued tossing objects out on the bed for placement on his side of the room. He liked to sprawl, so the territory issue might come into play with anyone who moved in with him. The idea of laying down a tape strip to remind him where his own domain ended briefly fluttered through his mind, but he blew it off, deciding to wait until his roommate arrived to figure everything out.

The Finn finally got an odd prickle-down-the-spine feeling that warned him of eyes watching and he whirled, startled to see someone else in the room. Quickly, he slid the headphones around his neck, wide-eyed with apology.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't realise you had... Um. Hi, I'm Tino. Nice to meet you." The boy held out a hand.

The dancing had been quite amusing, but any hint of a smile was gone when his roommate turned around and noticed him. The other boy couldn't have arrived too long ago though, as he was just unpacking. At least he wouldn't seem late now.

"Ingvar. Likewise." He shook Tino's hand to be polite. They were going to have to co-exist for a while so he might as well be nice. All he could do at this point was hope that Tino wasn't going to make him want to jump out the window of their shared room.

Tino appraised the newcomer's appearance, swiftly reading him as the type with little patience for foolishness. His voice and facial expression were so emotionless, the Finn couldn't help but be cautious and businesslike as well.

"I apologise for taking a bed before your arrival, I hope you don't mind it. I figured I needed a chance to look around and gain my bearings this evening, so I began unpacking as soon as possible. If you want, we can always trade now."

Ingvar seemed to approve of Tino so far. He seemed like he wouldn't cause much trouble, which was exactly what the Norwegian wanted in a roommate. Maybe they could even be friends at some point.

"You can keep the bed." It wasn't that important.

"Thanks!" Tino smiled brightly and returned to unpacking, leaving the headphones like a collar around his neck out of politeness but continuing to dance to the beat.

"So, Ingvar. Tell me a little about yourself. Any particulars, hobbies. Criminal activities." He glanced back at the other boy over his shoulder.

Ingvar moved his things over to the vacant bed, then turned to answer his roommate. One would assume that when someone was talking about something (or someone) they enjoyed that they would smile, or at least sound a bit happy. Not so with Ingvar. While speaking the Norwegian kept a perfectly flat tone of voice and dead facial expression.

"I enjoy reading and skiing, among other things." Apparently Ingvar wasn't quite ready to disclose anything more about himself to his roommate just yet.

Pausing to process, Tino tipped his head to one side. Violet eyes focused on Ingvar curiously, then he shrugged and continued sorting out his things.

"Better than one of my past roommates. His hobbies included smoking pot and stealing booze from local liquor stores. That was an exciting one. Personally, I'm fairly laid back, but don't expect me to hide your crack if the police come knocking."

He stacked clothes on his bed, all in neatly folded bundles. "What do we do, split the closet?"

A pale eyebrow just barely raised at Tino's description of his former roommate, but within moments his expression was back to normal and he had turned to start to unpack his things.

He paused when Tino mentioned the closet. It wasn't that he had concerns about whether all of their things would fit in there, he just didn't like to share his space. In fact, he was notorious for slowly invading his roommate's side of the room. "I would assume so." At least for the time being they would.

"Where are you from?"

"I hail from Finland." Tino began arranging his clothing in the closet. It was a laborious process, as he refused to take the pieces of clothing readily available on top of the stack. He dug for something in particular, then hung it.

"And where are you from?"

"Norway." Ingvar started hanging up some of his clothing as well but, unlike Tino, he was much less selective about which article of clothing got hung first and so it was going a bit faster. Briefly he wondered if his brother had arrived yet, and then decided to call him to check-up on him after he had done some more unpacking.

"Good to know."

When he was finally done hanging clothing, Tino stepped back to examine his work. Each item of clothing had been arranged into a perfectly graduated colour scale, starting with white and ending with violet. He nodded in satisfaction and returned to the rest of his property.

"So, Ingvar. What about family? Friends? Why did you come here?"

Ingvar had made sure to keep his clothing seperate from Tino's, even though it messed up his scale anyway, therefore identifying itself as the beginning of Ingvar's clothing.

"I have a younger brother who will be going here as well." He didn't giving his reason for attending this particular school, more interested in getting some more of his things unpacked. A stuffed pink bunny was the next thing to come out of his luggage, and he put it down on his pillows, not really caring what Tino thought about it.

"Aw! Cute bunny!" Tino commented. "I happen to be an only child. Spoilt from day one, probably because my parents felt bad for being completely absent... But that really doesn't matter. I'm at a new school, starting a new year, and I couldn't be happier about it."

Ingvar nodded and sat down on his bed, crossing his legs and moving the stuffed rabbit to his lap. He didn't see any reason so far that he wouldn't be able to get along with his roommate. And hopefully it would reamin that way.

Tino continued with his systematic unpacking, removing a package of bright blue Sticky Tack and a stack of rolled papers from his luggage. He began unrolling each, putting the Sticky Tack on the corners of the pages and pressing them to the walls.

"Hope you don't mind... I draw random crap and hang it around. Just tell me if any of it is too much, and I'll take it down and stuff..." The boy tacked up a piece of torn paper, with an image of a raven in a top hat inked and watercoloured on it.

Ingvar watched him hang the first paper, studying it for a moment before speaking. "I don't mind." Really, he didn't. It was better then the plain white walls. Besides that meant he might be able to hang a few things of his own on his side of the room.

"Perfect." The Finn proceeded with his hanging. "They provide a little liveliness at least. I hate blank walls. They make me feel incomplete and empty or something. So I fill them with crap. Makes me feel much more at home."

He pinned up a massive image of a snarling golden lion with brilliant green eyes and claws outstretched, smoothing it carefully.

"Are you...an artist or anything? Musician, thespian? Athlete? Or are you strictly academics?"