It's Mailtime (Open)

[Tom Marvolo Riddle]

One thing I’d like to note is that I completely underestimated the distance between myself and the Nipur gate. Smiling for that long can be painful even when my mouth muscles were merely construct of my own will power and magical force. It’s a rather curious assumption. About half way through the distance I reevaluated my need to appear smiling. Even a grin might be too much.

“Ready Nealaphh?” I said mostly to test my own voice and its compatibility with the look on my face. How it felt.

It took some doing but I found that a simple half grin worked much better. I could remember a number of times were a simple, self-assured smile, like that the brushing back of my hair, a two quick blinks were all it took to charm most witches… and even some wizards. Although, thankfully, my dealings with the latter had been few and far between in anything more than just casual conversation and business. Each stride was loose, jovial even; as I put my energy into projecting an air of a man who had been both humbled and given a curious new puzzle.

I quite liked puzzles, working on such helped me keep an image that I was just as wise as everyone else, when I had already far surpassed them. Paying only just enough attention to them just enough that it didn’t appear that I was dissecting them for weakness. Of course I was, I would never let such an opportunity go to waste. I just wouldn’t point it out to them, as was the case with my feathered companion and its broken wing. How easily that had been done or how little it would take to do more.

But such thoughts were unbecoming of the situation that was now upon me. A business wizard who enjoyed life, that’s who I was. A pureblood who had a rich life, rather than that of a simple orphan who had grown up with nothing but his birthright.

Granted I imagined Nealaphh didn’t quite help the semblance that I was going for. Crows while they were truly intelligent animals usually didn’t endear the masses nearly as much as the everyday owl. Maybe I could persuade Nealaphh next time to let me transfigure it into such. It wouldn’t be much painful I imagined, perhaps the being might even enjoy the experience. But such an intriguing conversation would have to wait for a later time if I was allotted such.

I had plenty going for me and I didn’t let my fears waylay me in the least. Each step forward was one less I’d have to take retracing old history.

I gave several practice squeezes of my right arm and hand as I readied for social interactions with humans for the first time in nearly fifty years. My left arm I kept loose as well, but unlike my right, I kept it ready for summoning my wand to my defense. After all most wars came about because social interaction fell sway to societal reformation. Exactly what I planned but this time I’d take a longer path, harder path to achieve such. If such a thing happened now, I’d be forever playing catch up, but if I did this right I wouldn’t have that problem. Which meant I needed to psych myself up. An old hat for a new body.

At about ten meters I waved with a light flick of my hand and a nod of my head. Casual but not dismissive. With one last squeeze of my fingers and loosening of my shoulders felt a familiar energy settle into me. I focused in on my prey as I push the light into my eyes. Not quite the twinkling Dumbledore eyes but it’d have to do. At about five meters away I raised my voice with my signature as my face broke into a momentary beam, “Well met friends!”