hisapprentice | [Puzzle 018]

[Puzzle 018]

[For house 48]

[A typical day in this house begins with Luke up and about, making breakfast and tea. Whether Firo shows up to have any is up to him. School's back in session and he needs an earlier start, that's all. This morning is no different, Luke pulls on his sweater while walking into the kitchen, headed for the refrigerator. It's when he pulls open the door that everything gets weird - starting with the whole room losing its household vibe and becoming much more...archaeological.]

[Action]

[Incredulous adventures aside, Luke finds it difficult to adjust to the busier lifestyle that comes with school starting and warmer weather ending. It gets darker, colder, Luke grows lonelier. He's out and about in the autumn sun, off to his usual stop at the bakery (okay, okay, one of his three or four usual stops) when a brownish figure passes him going in the opposite direction.

Luke stops. Spinning left, he sees the figure retreating down the path the way he came, and though all logic tells him it can't be real, he takes off running after it.]

Professor! [Because there is no one else. It must be him.] Professor, wait! Just- hold on a minute, please!

[Luke did not realize a vision from the past could hurt so much. When Layton's back and top hat fade into a false mist and then nothingness, Luke has run himself all the way back across the village, nearer to the rec center. Out of breath and out of spirit, he sits down on a bench to stare at the dirt.

Today is awful.]

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[Luke makes everyone feel tall.]

At least we've a bit more light now. [In future, Luke must be careful. He might pick up that damnable accent of Firo's someday.] I know this isn't very exciting for you, but it could really be worse, all right?

[Either one could be alone in the false ruins. Or mummies could arrive and chase them. Luke sets his shoulders and starts off down the left hall.]

[~~Don't be damning his accent!~~

He walks alongside Luke, careful to hold the torch out to light up as much of the area before them as possible.

He shrugs, grumbling.]

Of course it could be worse. It could always be worse. It's just damn inconvenient to be stuck here.

[~~He will damn what he damn well pleases~~

There are people Luke would rather be trapped with than Firo. Maiza and the Professor were happier, more adventurous company, for one.]

I just hope that when it all changes back, we aren't trapped underground or something.

[Firo blinks and shifts the torch to better look at Luke's face.

Damn it, he hadn't even considered that.]

You mean, like, buried alive?

[He's heard of people dying that way, though he's never had it happen to him and has never done it to anyone else.]

Er. [Luke pales in the torchlight. No he did not mean that but now he's thinking it.] I-I don't want to think about that happening. I meant...you know, with room to breathe.

Oh.

[He probably should have guessed that Luke wouldn't bring up something so dark.]

Well, I'm not sure how likely that'd be, unless the tunnels actually go through this exact spot...

[Way to lift the mood.]

But, uh, let's not worry about that.

[Firo Prochainezo, expert in the art of sunshine attitudes.

At least that gives Luke something else to think about.]

Why doesn't your last name match the name you call your family, anyway?

[Firo blinks at that question; it's something so familiar to him that he never would have thought it might be weird to other people. The fact that his Family is part of his family complicates things a lot for outsiders. Most don't even ask.]

They are my family.

[He's probably reading too much into the use of the word "call" there.]

The Family uses Don Martillo's last name 'cause he's the one who started us. I use my pop's last name, 'cause... well, that's what we always used even after he died.

["We" this time referring to him and his mom.]

[Ah, yes. The Family, different from "The Family" Luke knew in crazy future London and, of course, different mostly from Firo's blood relatives. Not all of Luke's memories from the time he spent as Czes's brother stick all the time.]

Maiza's in your Family too, right?

[Boy, does Firo like talking about his adopted family--particularly the Family part of it. (Blood family is a completely different and somewhat depressing story.) It does make him a bit homesick, but the smile on his face still threatens to outshine the torch when he thinks about them.]

Yeah, he's our conta e oro--like an accountant, basically. And, of course, that means he's a capo, too. Like me, but way higher up.

[Luke has been around the world a bit and is fairly sure Firo just called Maiza "that guy who counts the gold". It doesn't really fit in with calm, smiling Maiza in his head, to imagine him as the mafioso in charge of the money...but there was no money in Luceti. Maybe he's different when it exists.]

I sort of remember those things, but I don't think we knew a whole lot about them at the time. Czes and me, I mean.

[It's rather nice to see Firo happy, sort of.]

[In contrast, many of the picciotto--the low-level members--couldn't see Maiza as anything but a guy with a head for math and money. Even Firo, his devoted defender, didn't find out the truth about Maiza's physical skills until later.

That picture probably wouldn't come as a comfort to Luke.

Firo tilts his head to the side, realizing he doesn't know too much about what Czes knows.]

Makes sense. We're not as big on hidin' it as those Mafia guys are, but most people just aren't interested in that kinda organizational stuff.

[And his expression sours a bit, though there's a bit of good nature in Firo's grousing. He's never liked dealing with the police, but his memories of Maiza interacting with a certain officer are almost enjoyable.]

Except for the guys who wanna take us down.

Wait...so you're not with the Mafia, then? [In his defense his detective-novel background likes to point at the Mafia because they're organized and everyone can relate.]

No way! We're Camorra--it's completely different!

[It's very similar. Firo's just incredibly touchy about being mistaken for Mafia.]

All right then. What makes it so different?

[They're Italian-sounding and they call themselves Family and Firo is well-versed in how to kill people and they have Maiza as an accountant.

It looks suspicious, is all.]

[Luke, he is so glad you asked.]

A lotta things! For one, the Mafia's made a' Sicilians and we're from Naples.

[Well. Their boss is. Their primo voto is Japanese, Firo was born in America, and Mr. Martillo doesn't make a big deal about where anyone's from... He actually refers to their organization as "orphans" because they were established in the states.]

And we use knives more than they do--they're more about guns now and maybe a garrote, but even then not that often. And, uh, we have different rules for our people and different names for everything and it's just all organized differently!

[He says that last part pretty much in one breath. But is he done? Nope. He sucks in another breath and keeps going.]

Like we don't have a consigliere or a sotto capo, but we've got a chiamatore and a primo voto and there's this whole period where you're a picciotto d' honore instead a' an associate and when we wanna promote you we don't hafta talk to the other Families about it 'cause we're pretty much on our own.

[And Firo's not going to get whacked for telling all of this to a kid. The Martillos are pretty lax.]

[Good thing it's so dark. Firo can't see Luke's eyes go from wide to glazed to staring at the other wall. Unless his immortality gives him excellent night vision too.]

I don't know whether I should be scared that you've compared the ways you hurt people or surprised about all those words I didn't know.

[Thankfully, his vision is not that good.

Perhaps it's also lucky that Luke can't see the intensity of his pout right now.]

But it's important.

You didn't know any a' those words? I guess they're really only stuff we know...

[He'd feel impressed with himself for knowing something Luke doesn't, but Firo did grow up with all this.]

Well... The chiamatore is like an advisor, I guess. And the primo voto is second in command.

It's important if you're in your Family. How many regular people in your world know all of that?

[At least he can defend himself about 'regular' if Firo gets offended...]

Do you do...like the mafia does in stories? Get paid to go after people? To get revenge for someone else? [Luke has also not read many stories about the mafia.]

I guess you got a point there...

[But he can't let Luke's questions go that easily. If the visibility were better, Luke could see Firo's eyes widen in surprise.]

What? The Mafia usually doesn't take contracts from outsiders--they might have a hitman who's not made, but they'd only contract him for stuff in their organization.

[Murder Inc. has yet to be established in Firo's time. And even then, that was a cooperation between the Mafia and Jewish gangsters who usually got their contracts from others in their organizations.

He frowns. Perhaps it's unfair considering the things he does, but he's a little offended that Luke would think he's the kind of guy to kill for hire. Killing for his Family is different.]

Any, anyway, my Family'd never get involved in that stuff. We take our own revenge and no one else's. We're not thugs for hire, you know.

[Revealing how little he knows about the Mafia isn't something he worries about, really.]

Actually, I don't know. We met a group called the Family too once, but they weren't...necessarily together for the reasons you all are. I guess...er, a lot of the stuff might've been the same, but...

Well, we aren't.

[However misguided he may be, he honestly believes that he needs to do whatever he can to serve and protect them. He got used to pushing aside the urges of proper morals long ago.]

Yeah? What were they together for?

[He thinks he may have an idea. He's not so blind as to think that there are gangsters out there who aren't in it for the money or the glory. They're just not in his Family, of course.]

[Luke tugs down the brim of his hat and keeps his eyes straight ahead.]

They were working for someone...whose plans for revenge included destroying London. I think a lot of them didn't know it, but they acted like, well, like you'd think a mafia sort of gang would do.

[Destroying a whole city? That's definitely not something Firo could get behind and he can't hold back a sound of disgust. It's not so much the scale of the destruction as the sheer numbers of innocents who would be hurt.

Ordinarily, Firo'd be okay with criticizing the Mafia. Though he has close friends in a Mafia Family, he also knows plenty of lowlife mafioso. But knowing that Luke associates his Family with "a mafia sort of gang"...

His response is curt:]

And how would that be?

Er...

[This is difficult for Luke in particular because despite knowing that that person was not him, for a long time he believed it was him - that his future self would be capable of epic plans of vengeance like that.

Also, he thinks he's offended Firo again somehow.]

Sort of...like bullies, sometimes. Really dangerous ones. They came into a casino and just started shooting!

[[ooc: THEY DID HAVE REAL GUNS HAHA]]

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