paradisa | (no subject)

[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. :)]

I don't want mine wrapped. I'll settle for a nice dinner.

[ She bites back a snicker at Ezio. ]

It is settled then. How shall we begin?

Someone goes first, correct?

[Oh, Lucrezia, you know how it is, girl B) He picks through his letters.

R J I V F F X I

What the fuck. He's going to lose at this already.]

This is going to be harder than expected...

[Steph feels out the correct number of tiles, then hands the bag to Lucrezia.]

We'll let Lucrezia go first. That way, when she kicks our butt, we can say she had the advantage.

[ This must be how Gioffre feels at card games. She takes out the letters and checks them on her palm: K B T E F T Z T. Hrm. ]

Then I will be sorely embarrassed if I lose.

[he rearranges his tiles with a laugh.]

I don't think there's a worthwhile word in my possession.

[Steph looks at her tiles. K D A A W L J.]

Remember, if they suck, you can trade them in.

[ She wants to trade them in to win, but the challenge is more fun than winning. She puts out "BET" and takes three tiles: H K U. ]

[He plays "FIRE" off her "E", and picks up O P E.]

Could we just keep trading until we found exactly what we wanted?

Well, if you exchange tiles, you don't place any down that turn. So you could, but it's not a good tactic.

[As she explains, she puts down "WAIL" off the "I" and nabs U C I.]