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[molto_magnifico]

The door opens, and a black-haired boy in sumptuous renaissance clothing enters, daintily holding a napkin between his finger.

"Wow!" he explains. "It worked! Magnifico!"

He is rather plain, bug-eyed and pouty -- but his face shines with utter enthusiasm and an unsullied sense of wonder.

So much to discover!

Lorenzo steps inside and closes the door.

Comments

[cantdiequiteyet]

There is a pale, heavily armored woman standing at the window, watching the universe explode with an enigmatic little smile on her face. At the boy's exclamation, she looks over her shoulder at him.

"What worked?"

[molto_magnifico]

Oh, how lovely and amazing! Lorenzo is instantly smitten.

The armour adds to her aura of mystique. Lorenzo is glad,, suddenly, that he knows words like 'mystique' and 'aura', thanks to all the good tutors his father pays for.

"The napkin, my lady," he says, waving it in his hand, then bowing with a large flourish. "Holding it when I walked through the door, I came back to this amazing tavern."

[cantdiequiteyet]

Teresa turns around slightly to face him, watching his bow with a curious air.

"The napkin did that?"

[molto_magnifico]

"When we came here the first time," Lorenzo says, noticing how amazing her silver eyes are, and how lovely her pale hair -- where was he? -- "somebody told us - me and my friends, that is - that holding a napkin from here while walking through the door might help us get back here. And it worked! It's an magnificent place, don't you think, my lady?"

And it has magnificent girls!

[cantdiequiteyet]

She looks back at the window, as if 'magnificent' might refer to that, then back to him.

He's very earnest, and apparently unafraid of her. She isn't sure what to make of that.

"It isn't bad," she allows.

[molto_magnifico]

"You're probably used to something better, my lady," Lorenzo says, wondering what such a lovely apparition might be. With armour and a sword -- the personification of some virtue or another, perhaps?

Hopefully not Chastity. But even if so, he can still admire her from afar. That's what you're supposed to do, anyway, isn't it?

Where do personifications off virtues live? It must by some magnificent, mythical place.

"That window is amazing, isn't it? We had to keep our friend Leonardo from breaking it to see if it's real, and how it works."

[cantdiequiteyet]

"Hm," she says to that, wondering how a window is supposed to work.

"Not really. I didn't spend a lot of time inside taverns when I was alive."

Not until Clare, anyway.

[molto_magnifico]

"Alive?" Lorenzo says. "Are you not any more?"

How bewildering! Personifications of virtues are not supposed to die, are they?

[cantdiequiteyet]

"No," she says mildly. "I died before I came here. This is my afterlife, it seems. I understand it is not the case with everyone."

[gorgonfondness]

There's a woman in clothes not too dissimilar from Lorenzo's. Fine robes of rich red with an embroidered crest. Her hair is in a bun and she is eating seafood pasta at a table.

It's possibly unlike any other seafood pasta Lorenzo has ever seen.

The woman notices Lorenzo and gives him a welcoming smile. It's not his first time here but he's still clearly new.

[molto_magnifico]

Lorenzo bows to her, taking off his feathered cap and waving it in a large, courtly flourish.

"Good afternoon, my lady!"

She is clearly no commoner and deserves all the courtesy he's been taught.

[gorgonfondness]

"Good afternoon, good sir," she answers. "Are you very new to Milliways?"

[molto_magnifico]

"This is my second visit," Lorenzo says. "Holding this napkin while going through the door that brought us here the first time did help."

[gorgonfondness]

"Really? I find that I have almost always come through here using the doorway that was once a hallway closet in my home. Interesting."

She wonders what magic might be connected to that napkin.

[molto_magnifico]

"Somebody advised us that this might work, as the napkin is from here," Lorenzo says. "Perhaps the door remembers later when we used it more often. I think Mac went through again, too."

[gorgonfondness]

"That does make sense," she says, lifting up a similar napkin to wipe some sauce from her lips. "Mac?"

[molto_magnifico]

"Niccolo Macchiavelli," Lorenzo says. "He's a friend. He knows useful things, too. We came here together with our friend Leonardo."

[not_his_pa]

William's reading at a table and laughs, the boy looks like he stepped out of some of his books,

"Yeah, you were tryin' to get back?"

[molto_magnifico]

"Yes I was," Lorenzo says, waving his napkin at the boy. "It's from here, and it brought me back."

[not_his_pa]

"Where were you comin' in from? That outfit looks like it'd get dirty quick,"

It wouldn't last long in the kind of work William does.

[molto_magnifico]

"Florence," Lorenzo says. "These are good clothes. They can be a bother when I'm about with my friends, but my parents expect me to wear this sort of thing."

[not_his_pa]

"Florence like the place in Italy? Oh, your family's rich?"

That's the only reason William can think why how the boy dresses would matter.

[molto_magnifico]

"Oh yes, stinking rich," Lorenzo says, waving his hand in a dismissive manner. "It's mostly a bother. All those manners and rules and things to learn."

[not_his_pa]

William takes a drink of his hot chocolate to keep from saying something rude,

"How'd your family get so rich?"

[molto_magnifico]

"Trade," Lorenzo says. "Banking. Business."

Judging from his tone of voice, he finds it beyond boring.

"It's my friends who have the really interesting lives," he then ventures. "Leonardo is a painter's apprentice, and Mac is" -- he can't really describe what Mac is -- "he's free and does his own things and knows everything and everybody, and has minions!"