paradisalost

Ino had been taking a walk through the city in her civilian clothes (just a simple t-shirt and miniskirt), headed to the market to get some food -- having the ghosts cook for her had gotten old a long time ago. And besides, it was kind of fun to interact with the farmers and the other people there, anyways. That had been a few hours ago, though, and now that she was satisfied she had gotten everything she needed, she headed back towards the castle with a few paper bags full of food in hand.

Her gaze lingered on a cute, feminine dress in a nearby shop as she walked; unfortunately, it was distracting enough to cause her to accidentally bump into Ezio. A few apples fell out of the bag and onto the ground.

"--Ah!" She let out a noise of frustration as she spotted the apples falling and was unable to catch them.

Ezio had been attempting to make his way through the crowds. It was nice to be down with everyone else, on foot, sometimes, but he was beginning to get irritated at how many people there were. Perhaps he could simply get on the rooftops and not have to worry about bumping into people or knocking anyone over. He couldn't help being wary of pickpockets, either, considering there was an abundance of them where he was from.

Brushing past a man, he made a startled noise as he felt someone bump into him, his hand coming out to grip her arm in case she fell. "Mi scusi," he murmured, crouching to pick up the apples that had fallen.

"My apologies, signorina," he spoke politely, though a little suavely, genuinely apologetic for knocking things out of her hands.

Ino blinked in surprise at his polite response. Though unfamiliar with some of what he said, she got the gist, and the fact that he went out of his way to pick them up for her meant that he wouldn't have to meet the short end of her temper today.

"It's fine," she said finally, giving him a friendly smile in return. "Sorry for bumping into you in the first place, I wasn't looking where I was going." There was a pause, as she scrutinized his outfit, and finally, his face. "Uh, but ... what's a 'signorina'?"

Ezio handed the apples over, shaking his head slightly. "No, it is my fault," he insisted, always polite when it came to women, unable to be anything but a gentleman. Keeping his gaze on her face, aware she was looking him over with scrutiny, he smiled at the last question, aware not a lot of people seemed to speak Italian.

"It means 'miss', a way to address young women you, unfortunately, do not know the name of," he explained quite easily, content to assure her he wasn't, in fact, insulting her in a foreign language. She wasn't Altair, after all, and he was rather fun to insult in Italian, even despite them only recently meeting.

She took the apples gladly, letting them drop gently back into the bag where they belonged, before she held out her hand for a handshake with a little laugh. She wasn't sure if that was his preferred method of greeting, but it seemed to be the most common here.

"It's Ino. Nice to meet you."

Taking the young woman's hand, Ezio leaned down to kiss the back of it. He simply didn't shake hands with women. It was a masculine gesture, one that hadn't massively caught on in Italy yet. Women deserved respect, affection and chivalry.

"A pleasure, Ino. I am Ezio," he informed her, releasing her hand quite easily and bowing his head politely. "Again, my apologies for causing you to drop your possessions," he added, intent on leaving her to her day now they had met, he had been polite, and no conflict had arisen.

The gesture elicited another small laugh from Ino -- it wasn't the first time she's been greeted in such a manner, but it did reaffirm the theory based on his behavior so far that this one was a gentleman. Her hand moved back to support the bag - maybe this time, holding it with two hands would keep anything from falling out!

When he mentioned his name, however, she looked a little surprised. Ignoring his second apology, she glanced up at him curiously (and up a ways, no doubt, as she was just barely past the five foot mark).

"Are you new to the castle, Ezio?"

Ezio paused in his steps, returning his gaze to the woman and nodding just once. "I am. I arrived only a few days ago," he answered honestly, unsure of that curious look she gave him. Maybe she had known the Ezio that had been here before, the supposedly younger version of himself that Altair had mentioned.

"Have you been here long, Ino?" It was only polite to ask in return, though he gently settled a hand on her arm, guiding her to the side so they were no longer blocking the street from the people around them.

She blinked in surprise, just now noticing that they were blocking the way. She moved with his guidance closer to the nearest building before answering, not wanting to interrupt anyone else's walk this morning.

"I thought so," she said with a smile. It was easy to recognize when people were first learning their way around. Not to mention she knew most of the people in the castle at least by name, if not by face - the fact that she didn't recognize his was a sure sign of that. "You have that look on your face."

His next question gave her reason to pause, however - she never did like telling people exactly how long she'd been there. It often upset people to hear that someone could stick around this place for four years and counting, or made them worry about how long it would take them to return home too. But she didn't want to lie, either, so she settled for vague: "Me? I've been here a few years."

Ezio smiled at her, nodding slightly. "I am sure it is a look most have when they first arrive," he agreed, certain it was somewhere between amazement and unhappiness.

Her response to his question provoked a small sigh. Years? That meant there was every chance he could spend years there himself. He was already fifty-one. He had only a few years left by the standards of all others from his home, and his time period, even if he was aware Altair had lived a very long life. People simply did not live that long where he was from. It was almost entirely unheard of. "That is a pity."

He was sure by now she was probably missing her friends and her home a lot. Aware she was holding those bags and that they didn't look like they'd be comfortable to carry for very long, he offered his hands out for them. "May I offer help to carry those to il castello?"

"You could say that," she replied, nodding in agreement. She noticed his sigh, though, and quickly lifted a hand again in a gesture meant to dissuade his concern. "Oh, don't worry -- most people go home long before that." Which was true. Most people were gone within a few months, to stay as long as she had was extremely rare.

When he offered to carry her bags, she looked a little surprised again, glancing down at her bags before looking back up at him. While she wasn't exactly lacking in the strength department, she supposed it was a good chance to continue the conversation. So she offered the bag to him with a smile. "Thanks!"

"I see. Then it is unfortunate you have been kept so long," he murmured, a little sad for her to have been held here this long. It was unfair of this world to hold her from her home so long and he could only dread the idea of it happening to him. He wasn't intent on dying alone in some foreign world. He wanted to at least die in Italy, or even Masyaf, when he eventually got there.

Carrying her bag, he continued to walk with her, nodding politely to her gratitude. As much as he was full of questions, having only just met her he decided to save his questions for someone he didn't mind irritating all that much.

"It's not as bad as it seems," she insisted with a smile. It probably seemed strange that she defended living here, considering all the things that had happened to her and to her friends. But she couldn't help wanting to try and stay positive about the whole thing - after all, letting herself feel miserable would only make things worse. Staying positive, remaining cheerful - it was one of the few weapons that she had that actually seemed sort of effective against the castle's strange and invasive ways.

Plus, there was one reason why she would always find herself a little bit grateful for Paradisa. "I have many friends here who I treasure very much. It would really be unfortunate if I never got to meet them."

She glanced up at Ezio curiously, now. "Is there anyone here from your world that you know already?"

"It seems there are bright sides to the worst situations," he commented, looking down at her as her gaze found his and her question came. There was an obvious answer though he wasn't sure how well to describe his relationship to Altair. The man who appeared far younger than him was, in fact, his distant grandfather and he frowned to himself for a brief moment, deciding it was best to keep it vague for now.

"Si, I have a distant relative here. His name is Altair," he answered mildly, giving her a light smile. "We do not know each other particularly well, however," he added.

It was the truth. As much as he knew about Altair's work and had learned from him, he was not close to him, though he planned to be.

"Always is!" She replied brightly, beginning to walk back towards the castle and beckoning for him to follow.

Her answer intrigued her, and her face showed signs of obvious recognition when he mentioned the name Altair. "Altair ... yeah, I think I've seen him around. Well, it's nice to have family around, even if you don't know each other that well, right?" Of course, she was oblivious to what, exactly, their relation involved - she just thought of how she might feel if another member of her clan, either from the past, present, or future had arrived.

Ezio nodded just lightly, walking patiently towards the castle at her pace, the bag comfortably lighter than he had expected. At least he wasn't expected to carry a mass of bags-- he wasn't the youngest man around, after all.

"He stands out well. All white, a hood, a red sash..." He was surprised he was ever capable of hiding well with all of that, though he knew he couldn't talk. The Assassins all wore white, aside from him. He tended to prefer dark colours these days. "I intend to get to know him a lot better," he agreed, nodding slightly.

"Were you planning to cook? You have a lot of food here," he commented amusedly.

The heavier bags were reserved for a different kind of shopping, the kind which Ezio has been fortunate to miss. (Sometimes she got a little carried away with the buying clothes thing, okay. It couldn't be helped, she was a regular twenty year old girl at heart, despite her status as a ninja.)

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm sure I've seen that. He climbs a lot, doesn't he? On the walls ..." She could have sworn she remembered seeing someone matching that description and looking rather similar to Ezio scaling the castle. "But that's good! I hope you guys can get along, then."

At the comment about the food, she looked a little embarrassed. It wasn't all for her - it was just that most of the people she knew tended to eat a lot. But it was embarrassing to be accused of being someone who would eat all of that herself .... She glanced down at her stomach and legs quickly. She wasn't looking a little chubby today, was she?

".... It's for a friend," she said, a little roughly, trying not to seem too offended by his comment.

Ezio laughed, nodding just a little. "That sounds like him. It is common for both of us to behave in such a manner, despite how odd it is." He knew it wasn't every day you saw someone climbing a wall and running over rooftops like it was a totally normal way of getting around. He was sure that people were probably used to it by now, however.

Aware of her tone as she spoke, he gave her a warm smile, adjusting the bag. "That is a relief. I wondered where such a bella donna would put all this food if she ate alone, considering how slender you are," he commented suavely, taking a few more steps to put a mild distance between them.

"Let us hurry, before the food spoils, shall we?"

She shrugged. "It's not that strange, I do it all the time. It's much faster that way." Which ... she really did. It was so much easier to climb the wall or walk the rooftops than walk on the ground, especially if you were in a hurry. She found herself wondering, now, exactly what type of career the two of them shared to make use of that so frequently. Or maybe that was just how their people behaved? You never could tell, with Paradisa.

Nice save, there, Ezio, especially with the slender comment! She relaxed a little at that, quickening her pace to match his. "Yeah, yeah. The castle's not that far."

He smirked to himself, glad the situation had passed by easily enough, though he'd be sure not to tease her even slightly about the amount of food there was ever again. Some women were able to brush off playful comments, others required just a little warmth after getting offended over statements that had been spoken without much consideration. Mostly, Ezio was willing to compliment a woman, flirt with any that were at least old enough and perhaps one day find a woman as good as Christina or Catarina to settle down with.

"How interesting, to find another person who uses such unconventional means to get around." It was at least a relief to know he and Altair wouldn't be considered odd just for that and end up singled out too massively. The last thing Assassins needed was notoriety.

Fortunately for Ezio, as easily as Ino was offended by comments about the food she was eating and her weight, she was almost just as easily smoothed over with a few well placed compliments. And while she was capable of brushing off teasing and the like, they had only just met, and she had yet to gauge just how serious this guy was (though he seemed like the playful type).

"It's normal for the people from my village," she said, before glancing up. "Would you prefer that way, then? Or do you think it might be too hard to hold my things, then?" A bit of a smirk accompanied that last question; a bit of a playful taunt never hurt anyone, after all.

"If you would prefer me to drop all your food then, by all means, we can take to the rooftops," he commented lightly, giving her an amused look and continuing towards the castle. He was sure once he was actually up there he'd be fine but he was rather heavy built and that required two hands to get him onto a roof.

"I'm sure it is easy for you to do it that way but I am an old man," he insisted, though his tone suggested he was joking. He was old but he hadn't quite yet decided he was too old for anything, except perhaps running around sleeping with everything that batted an eyelash at him. Maybe.

Content to let the conversation turn into the plethora of jokes and taunts, he headed towards the castle, stepping aside to allow her to walk inside first.

She let out a little laugh, anyways -- it was true, he did seem a bit .... fatherly, in a way, to her. Old enough to complain about being old, anyways. (Maybe it was the beard.) She wondered briefly if he knew that physical aging stopped while in Paradisa.

"Giving up already? I'm sure it's not that bad."

"I said nothing about giving up. It is probably just better I do not climb buildings with bags of food." He laughed lightly at the thought of even trying it. Even in his younger days, he wasn't good at carrying things and climbing. He'd always, without fail, drop whatever he was carrying.

Stepping inside the castle, he paused for a moment. "Would you rather continue to your room alone, Ino?" He knew all the doors had name plates but there was such a thing as allowing a woman her privacy. If she was alright with him bringing the bag to her room, he would, but he didn't want to offend her by simply following her to her room.

"You said you were getting too old for that sort of thing," she explained, but let it slide, as it was only a joke. She blinked in surprise at his next request, though - she'd never really considered her room a particularly private place, and she didn't know much about customs in worlds where there was a great divide between where women and men were allowed to go. So she just shrugged.

"Up to you. I can carry it, if your arms are getting tired."

"Too old for some things, like carrying bags of food on rooftops," he commented amusedly, though he was more amused by her expression at his words. Was it that strange? He supposed certain places had different ways of doing things and maybe he was saying something she wasn't used to hearing.

"I can carry it, I just would not wish to intrude on your vita privata." She was a young woman, after all.

"Vita privata?" She repeated, before recognizing a bit of what he was saying. "Oh, you mean my private space? You don't have to worry about that, it's not really like that." Ino waved a hand dismissively, turning to head towards the elevator. Hopefully Ezio had tried the thing out before, otherwise he was about to be in for quite a shock.

"Si, your... privacy," he agreed, though that she insisted it was no issue was fine by him. Following her, he paused outside the doors of the elevator, staring quite curiously. What was that tiny room for? She definitely couldn't be living in there.

Following her inside, he paused, looking around, unable to help his entirely curious gaze.

It was a good thing Ino had no ill intentions towards him; after all, it would have been rather easy to simply get rid of him, trapped in a tiny room like that. Elevators - they could be so potentially dangerous!

But instead, she pushed the button marked "11", and glanced over at him as the elevator doors closed and began its trek upwards. That, too, was a look she recognized.

"Never been in one of these before, huh?"

Ezio shook his head slightly, looking around the small room they were in, a little disturbed by it when it started to move.

"We do not have these... things in my world," he answered her, though he was comfortable with it only a few moments later, deciding it was likely far more convenient than the stairs and perhaps he'd use it more often. He could tell the numbers corresponded with floors, at least.

Once the doors opened, he waited for her to step out first, following as she led the way to her room.

"It's called an elevator," she explained as they headed upwards. "It's much quicker than the stairs to go up to the higher floors in the castle."

Everything else seemed pretty self-explanatory, though, and he seemed more comfortable with it once they went up a little higher, so she didn't continue with that thought. Instead, she stepped out of the elevator once they reached her floor, and quickly found her room, moving to unlock the door and hold it open for him, gesturing towards the counter.

The room was (perhaps surprisingly, considering her appearance) very much mature and elegant, all things considered. Simple furniture, a deep purple dominating the room. However, the wall opposite the door was difficult to miss - it was almost completely covered in photographs, most featuring Ino with her friends or family members. She paid no attention to it at the moment, though, just moving towards the kitchenette area once he let himself in.

One of those odd people was actually doing the roof running at the moment. Sakura had her cloak on, hood down so that her pink hair flew around her face when she left from one roof to the next. There were a few people who patrolled town through the day and night, so this had more been an extension of late night wishes for mingling among the drunks listening to any changes in the stories they were telling.

Hard, when the residents down here defied normalcy in almost any other world she knew of with how fast they forgot things.

One of the roof tiles she stepped on came loose, starting to slide down toward the street. Spinning around from where she'd already landed on the next roof over, Sakura takes a split second to realize what was happening and sight some movement down in the space between houses before she's leaping back, sliding down and then over the edge while catching the tile. Dangling from the lip of the roof with one arm over it for stability, she sighs.

Well, at least she wasn't accidentally destroying someone's roof, or hurt someone indirectly from it.

She also learned she made one heck of a poor roof ornament. That might count for something.

Ezio had wandered for some time, brushing through the crowds. He was beginning to find himself comfortable enough in the city not to worry about having nowhere to hide if it ever became necessary, though he would always be able to use his Eagle Vision if he had to, though the darkness that caused made it often difficult to see where he was going.

Dark brown eyes found the girl with the pink hair, somewhat dangling there, off that rooftop. It was strange enough to see someone with pink hair but how she hung there was even more unusual. Perhaps she needed help, though he wasn't sure she did, more that she seemed to have caught something before it hit the floor, or someone passing by.

Intrigued, Ezio turned to run towards the building, speeding up enough to scale it, rather like a monkey, finding hand-holds that were barely noticeable, pulling himself up near her.

"Do you need help, signorina?" He offered his hand out to her, crouching to help her back onto the roof properly.

Sakura tensed hearing someone else on the roof, waiting for a potential attack. She was ready to cousin her fall backward, or roll forward on the roof, but a lack of anything approaching a killing intent gave her pause.

Which was nice, since the person she hadn't been expecting offered a hand she'd been expecting even less. She glanced to the tile still in the hand not supporting her, then set it gently down on the roof. With a smile she hoped communicated in some way, she nodded her head briskly twice before accepting his hand.

She'd appreciate steady footing again.

Pulling the young woman up, he hooked his free arm around her, supporting her weight as he lifted her onto the roof again. "You should be careful. The rooftops are no place to play," he commented, though his tone wasn't scolding, more friendly, affectionate even.

Releasing her, he bowed his head politely. "Are you alright?" He couldn't help but worry about anyone that seemed hurt, especially young women, and ones who looked barely old enough to be unaccompanied by a parent.

"Perhaps you should return to the ground. It is much safer," he insisted, knowing he was being a hypocrite but deciding women were safer on the ground and it wasn't important if a man got hurt.

Sakura snorted at his statement, returning his bow of the head with one of her own. The ground was safer? Not really, not when people did move on the rooftops. His help had been kind and polite, but hardly necessary -- if she guessed that was the point. A stranger had no reason to know she would have been fine either way.

Leaning down to pick up the tile, she walked it back over toward a part of the roof that could hold it in place. Slat tiles didn't go missing in the same way shingled did from roofs back home, but she figured if the homeowner ever got up here, they'd appreciate having more to work with rather than less.

Ah, but she hadn't answered his question. Sakura half turned and flashed him a smile and a thumb's up, wondering if the gesture meant anything to him. All these people from all these worlds and times understood different things. I'm fine, is a lipped statement afterward, if she'd not made a move to get down to street level.

In fact, keeping half her attention on the man, she's looking out over the next few rooftops. Looks like fairly clear running up here, for now.

Open!

Hopefully this is alright? :D

It's fine! :D

<3!

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lmf /tosses another ninja at

/watches Ezio collect ninjas

/find Hinata, collect the Narutoworld female set

/Ezio wants to collect them all!

/and I am forever late my apologies!