"Ha!" Eternia murmured confidently. "My job is much more impressive. I'm sure I win this round!"
She quickly followed the pony up the stairs.
Sinistra, who stood behind her, sighed silently. She wasn't sure what to do. Her competition was not just seemingly richer than her, she was also very confident and able to present herself. Sinistra however was rather shy and even without such a hurdle it was hard for her to apply for her first appartment and discuss the deal. She wasn't used talking to strangers much, while Eternia being a model meant she surely handled other people all day long.
Shortly after Mister Indi trotted into the kitchen.
"So, now that the two of you have seen the other bedroom and the utility room we're finally in our last room. I'm pretty sure that you will like this room, too!" The stallion looked around pointedly. "The furniture might look a bit random but at least it's complete and you can start cooking on the spot! All appliances are fully functional and some are even quite new!"
"Oh, Mister Indi! You have not exaggerated!" Eternia swooned right away although she hadn't fully entered the room yet.
The blonde had praised everything on the upper floor just as much as the rooms on the ground floor. Even the storage in the corridor had been inspected by her with enthusiasm and she almost hugged the old washing machine.
In the corridor Sinistra exhausted leaned against a wall and took a deep breath. "Whom am I trying to fool here, anyway?" she asked herself, "Eternia will get the house. She gets along so well with the landlord, I can't compete with that..." The woman wondered if she should even look at the kitchen. Her disappointment would just become so much bigger once she'd get rejected as tennant.
"Hello? Miss Sinistra? What's taking you so long?" the landlord cautiously asked. "Are you alright? Are you feeling ill, or did you fall down again?"
The elementalist pulled herself together. "No, no, I just looked around more closely for a little longer! I'm coming!"
She straightened her shoulders, walked over into the kitchen - and promptly covered her mouth with her hands to suppress a delighted outcry. Yes, there was some creative chaos in the kitchen and once again the ceiling was in need of cosmetic repairs. From the look of it the furniture had been used by several previous tennants and each of them had added something new and tried to make it fit the rest. Still, for Sinistra this was a dream come true! The room was very big, almost as big as the livingroom, so there was space for a big table. There was lots of storage, work space and all electric utilities were present. From the window she looked down directly on the beautiful city park, which was another benefit.
Financing and mounting a kitchen had been Sinistra's biggest worry. She had never expected to be so lucky right on her first try to find an appartment. Just a little bit of paint and cookware and she could live here. If the rent wasn't too high. And if there wasn't...
"This is truly the cherry on top! I don't know where to look first! And the view from this window! Awesome!" Eternia barely paused to breathe, that's how much she tried to show interest on this house.
She looked closer at the oven and also found a small cabinet with an orange door. "Ha, ha, you simply have to rent this house out to me, Mister Indi! My shirt already matches the kitchen! That must be an omen, mustn't it?"
While she acted casually, deep down inside Eternia was nervous. Just the day before she had looked at brochures and she knew the prizes of even cheap kitchens. This was a great chance. She had to be the one to rent this house! At the same time it had to be cheap, though. She was afraid of having been too enthusiastic with her praise of the upper storey, thus giving the landlord a chance to demand a higher rent, but on the other hand she had to beat the other woman for it and thus couldn't look uninterested. If only it wasn't so hard to strike a happy medium with her behaviour...
"Do you enjoy cooking, Eternia?" the landlord asked politely.
"Oh... err... " She hesitated and pondered what to say. "Being a model I have to take care of my figure, so I often eat raw fruit and vegetables."
"So you rather don't cook much. Oh, how sad, I really thought I could make you happy with this kitchen."
"But you do!" she exclaimed promptly, "Really! I can't think of a more relaxing way to start the day than to sit here on this nice table with a cup of tea in the morning and enjoy the view of the park before work."
Mister Indi turned toward the other women. "And how about you, Miss Sinistra? Do you like to cook?"
"Err... I... I like baking! As an elementalist I often have to brew potions too and cut ingredients, so all this space would come in very handy." Sinistra tried hard to say something about the kitchen, although her mouth was completely dry from elation. It was hard for her, since so far she had only seen electrical kitchenware in the brochures so far and she didn't know how exactly they worked. Back home in Yonar she used to cook in a kettle, fired the oven with wood and stored ingredients in a cellar room with ice.
For a second she pondered whether a new kitchen - which came with instruction booklets - wouldn't actually be better for her... No way was she willing to admit that she didn't have a clue about live in this town.
"Hm. So I suppose the facilities are adequate for you too."
"Oh yes, it's wonderful!"
The landlord stayed silent for some minutes and let the women explore the kitchen, before he cleared his throat.
"Well then, I think we should talk about finalizing our deal. Please have a seat, that's more comfortable."
After both women sat down Indi trotted from one end of the room to the other several times, deep in thought. "Both of you saw all of the house now. Including this big breakfast kitchen there are four rooms, a bathroom, a utility room and corridors with storage room. The house is partly furnished and apart from some cosmetic repairs it's ready for occupancy", he summarized. "Our conversations allowed me to get to know both of you a bit and I think that my inheritance would be taken good care of by either of you. But before we talk about the rental price I'd like to know if one of you actually is interested in renting it?"
"Yes! Absolutely!" Eternia yelled and Sinistra instantly added: "Of course!"
"Hm", said the stallion and adjusted his glasses. "If you're both interested, I figure we have a problem, don't we?"
Sinistra's palms got damp and Eternia tried hard not to wiggle her foot nervously.
Indi trotted to the corridor again, turned, came back to the fridge and turned towards the two young women.
"Or we don't. I made my decision. You got the house."
"Uhm..." Sinistra was irritated.
Eternia was less silent. "Err, whom of us do you mean?"
"Well, I mean both of you! I'll rent the house to both of you together, Miss Sinistra and Eternia."
"Now hold on a sec!" the blonde exclaimed. She quickly glanced at her competitor before looking at the landlord again. "We never talked about a shared house! I met Sinistra for the first time today, why would I want to move in with her?!"
The elementalist harrumphed unhappily too. "I'm very sorry if it seemed that I was interested in living in a shared house, but actually I wanted to rent the house solely for me, too..."
Indi took off his glasses to clean them. "Well, that's a pity then", he said casually, "since I'll either rent the house to both of you or none of you."
"That's attempted extortion!" Upset Eternia banged on the table with her flat hand. "You better have a darn good explanation for that!"
"Oh, I do." Calmy the stallion put his glasses back on.
Dolltopia 0003 <- # -> Dolltopia 0005