xvii. dictated, action

[heloise]

Paradisa
For my Giovanni. If you would be so kind.


[ Lucrezia can be found at highest roof with a wooden box inlaid with pearls at her feet. It is small and finely made, but the real (belated) gift is within: a white silk shirt fit for a little prince with golden narcissus embroidered on its sleeves. She turns away after enough time, retracing her steps back to her room. ]

Ovid once wrote, est etiam placuisse sibi quaecumque voluptas: virginibus cordi grataque forma suast.

But mirrors never turned out for good.

[ Translation goes: Besides, all women take a secret pride in being fine or else they are belied; for when the conscious maid explores her mirror and finds she's handsome, she herself adores. ]

Comments

[heloise]

[ Girl, what are you wearing? Lucrezia hesitates before taking off her cloak to offer it to her. At least she's all covered. ]

Yes. The language of the poets.

[kryptonian]

[She waves off the coat, not wanting to be rude, but also not wanting to take a cloak away from a human in the snow.]

It's alright, the cold doesn't bother me. But the language of poets? I can't say I know much about poetry.

[heloise]

Are you sure? [ She may not be human and all but it's cold out here! ]

The language of the learned. Though I find Dante's Italian as beautiful.

[kryptonian]

If it'll make you feel better, here--

[Kara laughs, and she flickers for a moment -- superspeeding away, and then right back again -- so it appears as though she magically changed outfits. She plops down to sit beside Lucrezia, now in jeans and a winter jacket, and a cute red hat with floppy ear-flaps.]

I'm afraid I don't know any Dante, either. I do know a bit of Italian, though. I'm really good at languages.

[heloise]

[ Oh no, that just has her gaping at her with shock. Lucrezia has seen some strange things in the castle but Kara looks so normal otherwise. She remembers to close her mouth after some minutes. That reminds her of Joshua. ]

Did you fly...?

[kryptonian]

Sort of, I just went really, really fast. Don't worry about it.

[heloise]

[ Lucrezia nods slowly. Swallowing crazy things hasn't gotten easier with frequency. ]

Dante wrote the Commedia, or the divine commedy as Boccaccio named it. What Italian do you know?

[kryptonian]

Just enough for basic communication. In my line of work, sometimes you end up working with non-English speakers, and it would suck to be unable to communicate with them.

[heloise]

Your work as a superhero?

Try a sentence.

[kryptonian]

[She smiles and nods.]

Okay, like... Ciao! Mi chiamo Kara, è un piacere conoscerti!

[heloise]

[ She chuckles. ]

Molto lieto anche!

[kryptonian]

[Grin]

Quante lingue parli? Italiano, latino, e ...?

[heloise]

[ She counts with her hands. ]

Catalana, francese, greco. I must say my Latin is nothing to be proud of.

[kryptonian]

Better than mine, to say the least. I just know "Carpe diem" and stuff. No one speaks Latin anymore in my time.

[heloise]

Carpe diem is a good one to know.

You must speak more languages than I do.

[kryptonian]

Lots, but that's only because my powers make it easy for me to learn them. I learned English in ten minutes.

[heloise]

Ah, perhaps you could teach me that.

[kryptonian]

I wish I could! What would you want to learn?

[heloise]

The basic greetings, first. Or silly phrases.

[kryptonian]

In English? To say hello, you'd say...

[She grins, and switches over to English, which sounds really weird considering this is typed in English but they're actually speaking a common tongue...]

"Hello!"

[heloise]

[ One day she will show this to the two queens of England and none will understand why she's saying hello twice... ]

Hell-o...?

[kryptonian]

That's right! And to tell t hem that your name is, you say "My name is Lucrezia."

[heloise]

[ She hesitates because wow that sounds hard. ]

My name is Lucrezia. [ Though it all sounds like Italian. ]

[kryptonian]

Very good! You'll be a natural in no time.

[heloise]

[ She laughs and draws her cloak tighter around herself. ]

You flatter me!