paradisa | (no subject)

[He'll make a show of it, walking forward a few steps with that usual effortless swagger and then bowing.]

Why, grazie, madonne! I'm glad I meet your standards.

[He sets his clothing down on Steph's desk.]

[Amen to that, Lucrezia. Steph laughs.]

You have to do a twirl.

[ That swagger. That must be it. She hops up from her seat and steps to the middle of the room to distract herself from the gorgeousness that is Ezio. ]

Let us start our word games.

[He rotates on the spot once, just for Steph, before meeting Lucrezia in the middle.]

Word games, hmm? That's a strange reason to be kidnapped.

[Steph approves of the rear view, too.

Anyway--]

And dress up isn't? [From where she's sitting, she uses her fingers to frame Ezio and Lucrezia. You people are too pretty. She smiles and then leans over to pull a box out from under her bed--don't mind the single sock you might catch glimpse of, please.]

It's easy, I promise. I play it with my mom all the time at home. [And lose, but hey. They don't need to know that.]

[ She steps closer to Stephanie to help her with the box, flashing Ezio a smile. ]

Rest assured, Ezio, we are not done with you yet.

[Socks: a symbol of wealth and nobility. Ezio's watching them curiously.]

As long as it's not Primera.

[Stupid card games. Stupid Rosa :')]

[She hands Lucrezia the box so she can hike her skirt up a bit before sitting on the carpet. At first she sits cross-legged, like she'd do normally, but then decides on something she thinks they might find a little more ladylike or... something. Whatever, legs are shut and to the side.]

I don't know what Primera is.

[ She also sits with her legs to the side, especially now that the jeans do not hide them. ]

It is a game where you compare what cards you have. To win, you must pretend to have a better hand. [ She tips her head at Ezio, biting back a smile. ] It is Spanish.

[Ezio stretches out on the floor, relaxed, right at home. Sitting up straight is overrated. He smiles and nods at Lucrezia.]

That it is. The Venetian thieves and merchants play it, too, and they tend to be better cheats than I.

[It's like the centerfold of a fashion magazine fell open. Steph's not sure if fashion magazines really have centerfolds, but they should.]

Guess that means I better be careful around you guys.

[She opens the box and puts the board in the middle of the floor, then puts the little tile racks in front of them. She puts the bag of tiles aside for the moment.]

I hope this game won't bore you too much.

[ She chuckles. That was meant as a challenge but he declined it so gracefully that she must concede. She inspects a 'Z' tile. ]

Are we to make verses with these?

If we get bored, we will just have more wine.

[He looks at the board. Yeah, he has no idea.]

Is it chess with letters?

[She'd roll her eyes, but she chooses to explain the game.]

Basically, everyone gets seven random letters and has to make words out of them. For example...

[Her hand goes into the bag to pull out the tiles.] I can spell "fire." So, I put the tiles on the board. Right here, because it's the first word. [She points and puts the tiles down.] Since I got rid of four letters, I pick four more tiles from the bag. [Which she does.]

Now, pretend I'm Ezio and laying around all cool and casual in my modern clothes. I need to make a word off of what was previously put down. Any of these letters on the board can be used. [She puts down a few tiles, and now the e has been turned into "enter."] See? You kinda keep building off. If you put tiles next to each other, it's got to spell a word. So no horizontal or vertical words can be right next to each other because you'll have nonsense.

Easy, right? If you can't make a word, you can exchange some tiles for some more random letters.

[ That sounds easy enough. Stephanie is decidedly an excellent guide to all things 21st century. She points to the colored blocks on the board. ]

Is that only for decoration?

[Oh Steph, you noticed :')]

It does seem easy... but certainly not where my talents lie. It should make an interesting challenge.

The colors bring me to the next thing, which is scoring. All the tiles have points on them. When you make a word, you get to add up all the ones in the word, and if you placed a tile on the right square, sometimes that score can be doubled or tripled for the word or the letter on that spot.

[Steph's pretty sure she knows where your talents lie, Ezio. ;)

... in being an assassin, or whatever, right? Right. Whatever she's thinking, she shrugs.]

I'm not a pro at this, either. I'm pretty sure Lucrezia is going to destroy us.

[ She really wants to ask him where his talents lie, but bites back a chuckle at her own speculation. Immature cheddar. ]

I would never destroy you, I like you too much.

[ But she is already eying the colored tiles. Hmmmm. ] Should we set a prize for the winner?

Ah, then our deaths will be swift and painless.

[He rifles through the tiles. He wants good ones.]

I like prizes. [Ezio glances to Lucrezia with a grin.] You're most likely to win –– what are you playing for?

I'm still scared.

[ She laughs, reaching to take Stephanie's hand in reassurance. She looks back at Ezio. ]

I want a mystery gift wrapped in perfumed silk.

It could be arranged. That I have talent in.

I think I can do that. [She sticks her tongue out at Ezio.] And I bet my mystery gift is better.

There is more than one likely outcome to this game. How would you see your gifts wrapped, dear friends?

I would not worry about wrappings... What is inside matters more. [cheeky smile. :)]