xxxiii λ christmas

[assassino]

It has been a good day!

[He's a touch tipsy :')]

I rather like this Christmas. You see, in my time, gifts are usually only given between landlords and their tenants, so it is sweet to see that everyone is so generous in the future.

However, I rather prefer it as Novena, in which we have fun for eight days, and into the New Year.

Also, the man who first created la presepe -- a nativity scene -- was an Italian! He may not have been a Florentine, but Italian will have to do. Yet one more thing you should thank Italia for! We may as well have invented Christmas for you all.

And while we are on the subject: why have I not see any presepe here? You should get on that, fellow residents, it is not too late! At worst, if we cannot find any sculptors amongst our lot, we can just have some dress up in costume and pose for some time in the lobby.

[Yeah, tipsy.]

But even so... to my friends, grazie per la tua amicizia in my first year in Paradisa. I hope there will be more to come!

Comments

[heloise]

Women dislike crassness as much as they abhor dishonesty.

Was it a contest?

[assassino]

What a girl thinks of as crass, a woman lusts for in the bedroom.

And no, there is no contest.

[heloise]

Why, then?

[assassino]

To prove to myself that I can.

[heloise]

Tell me then, is your mind clearer now from abstinence, your heart lighter for it?

[assassino]

Perhaps a bit, but there has been no enlightenment nor epiphanies about God and purity and the sin of lust, so it serves little moral value.

[heloise]

A pointless exercise.

[assassino]

And so I conclude that abstinence for abstinence's sake is pointless.

[heloise]

Is there no purpose that would warrant it?

[assassino]

None.

[heloise]

Except for pride, as you yourself have said.

[assassino]

Well, yes, but that is for pride's sake, not abstinence's sake.

[heloise]

Of course. [ Lucrezia doesn't like this, all barely hidden aggression. But she did start it. ]

Felice anno nuovo, Auditore.

[assassino]

To you as well, Lucrezia.

What did you think of your gifts?

[heloise]

[ She draws a breath for a blow, then remembers to sharpen her words first. ]

I thought they are thoughtless.

[assassino]

I thought women appreciated jewelry and pretty things.

[heloise]

What did you think of yours?

[assassino]

The banker's scales? They were nice.

[Pause.]

Stephanie told me what happened when I was an old man.

[heloise]

Did she tell you that time when you lost your cane?

[assassino]

No, but that was not the time I was thinking of.

[heloise]

[ And that isn't the time she wants to talk about. ]

You did not seem to need it, however. Is that not strange?

[assassino]

Lucrezia, I do not need scales because I am an investor, I had told you this before –– I buy and renovate property and take shares of its profits. I do not sit behind a desk with coin, that is my sister's work.

And I told you on the day we met that I disapproved of your father being pope. I am perplexed as to why this was surprising to you.

[heloise]

No, I should not be surprised. [ He is Italian. What was she expecting? ]

Should I present you with another gift?

[assassino]

Lucrezia, all I want is a measure of peace between us.

[heloise]

Which you have known is impossible from the beginning.