28-04-2019, 02:10 PM
Troy Equals remembered a couple of hours ago, when Contessa Helena de San Finzione had kissed, then licked the tip of his nose. She brought the hand she'd raised to tilt his head down, so she could touch his ear, activating the earbud that Troy was wearing.
"That ought to do it." Helen said with a smile. Troy nodded that he was receiving her. She then told him to "Mingle" and wandered into the crowd.
Troy touched his ring before walking toward another part of the crowd. He wasn't used to wearing one on that finger. His wedding ring was a simple gold band with "I love you" engraved inside. It was identical to Julie's, except hers was engraved with the words "I know." This ring was on his right hand, on his pinky. It pinched slightly, because it had been resized from a hand much smaller than his and couldn't get past his second knuckle without risking breaking the ring or its contents.
The ring was special for two reasons. The first was that it was one of very few authorized reproductions of the original rings that it had been designed to resemble. The second was what made it unique: that it had been fitted with a tiny microphone, completely invisible amongst the cuts and grooves of the emerald signet rings worn by members of La Familia Royale de San Finzione. It belonged to Rita Delvecchio and had a special purpose for when she used her resemblance to Contessa Helena de San Finzione to fill in for her at certain events.
As Troy associated with people whom he recognized as some of the most horrible in the world, he held a drink in his hand so that the ring wouldn't slip off, and he had an excuse to bring it up high enough for the voice of the person he was speaking with to be picked up by the microphone. Normally, when Rita wore the ring, there were translators on the other end who would listen to what was being said and tell her what to say back in the language of the person she was speaking to. It was necessary for her duties as Contessa Helena de San Finzione's double, to simulate Helen's natural gift for languages. Although Rita was a native of San Finzione and spoke all of the official languages, La Contessa was known for speaking a great number more of them. All of them, if one believed La Contessa.
Because Troy's conversations with the Auctioneers' guests were going to be much shorter, the full team of translators wasn't required. Helen was able to do the job herself, with an earbud in her own ear that would transmit to Troy's via bone vibration, so that muttering the words was sufficient for Troy to hear clearly when Helen would listen to the language of the person that he was speaking to, determine what it was, and tell Troy how to say a specific phrase to each person he spoke to, while she was doing the same with others.
The phrase was "You don't want Lot 15. Don't bid on it." Occasionally, depending on whom Troy was speaking to, she added the phrase "Just be afraid of the person who DOES get it." There were other messages for specific voices that Helen recognized. She simply had to tell Troy what to say in one of the three languages that he knew before telling him the phrase. One of the important parts of The Thing was understanding what one was trying to convey with the command. This meant that Helen had to be honest about what she was telling Troy to say, allowing him to use his own judgment on whether or not to relay Helen's messages.
"You love using all these languages, don't you?" He asked her.
"Most days, I end up so hot from it that I need Jeanne to come speak French between my legs, Oui."
"This is what you do all the time, isn't it?" Troy murmured over the comms to Helen in Greek. "All those charity balls and parties with 'the elite.' This is where you get most of your work as Contessa done."
"I've stopped wars over the course of a dance, yes." Came her reply in the same language. "And just for you, Troilus, I fight the urge to tell genocidal maniacs to drive off a cliff on their way home. The ones who are stupid enough to come near me themselves."
"If I haven't actually said the words, Helen; I apologize for saying that Propappou wouldn't be proud of how you got where you are. He was always proud of you. When we took him to Greece for his final days, he'd tell the cousins 'My Petalouda Mikro, she a QUEEN! They call her Komissa, but she really queen! But don't you go bugging her for stuff. She busy, she gots the queening to do."
"That ought to do it." Helen said with a smile. Troy nodded that he was receiving her. She then told him to "Mingle" and wandered into the crowd.
Troy touched his ring before walking toward another part of the crowd. He wasn't used to wearing one on that finger. His wedding ring was a simple gold band with "I love you" engraved inside. It was identical to Julie's, except hers was engraved with the words "I know." This ring was on his right hand, on his pinky. It pinched slightly, because it had been resized from a hand much smaller than his and couldn't get past his second knuckle without risking breaking the ring or its contents.
The ring was special for two reasons. The first was that it was one of very few authorized reproductions of the original rings that it had been designed to resemble. The second was what made it unique: that it had been fitted with a tiny microphone, completely invisible amongst the cuts and grooves of the emerald signet rings worn by members of La Familia Royale de San Finzione. It belonged to Rita Delvecchio and had a special purpose for when she used her resemblance to Contessa Helena de San Finzione to fill in for her at certain events.
As Troy associated with people whom he recognized as some of the most horrible in the world, he held a drink in his hand so that the ring wouldn't slip off, and he had an excuse to bring it up high enough for the voice of the person he was speaking with to be picked up by the microphone. Normally, when Rita wore the ring, there were translators on the other end who would listen to what was being said and tell her what to say back in the language of the person she was speaking to. It was necessary for her duties as Contessa Helena de San Finzione's double, to simulate Helen's natural gift for languages. Although Rita was a native of San Finzione and spoke all of the official languages, La Contessa was known for speaking a great number more of them. All of them, if one believed La Contessa.
Because Troy's conversations with the Auctioneers' guests were going to be much shorter, the full team of translators wasn't required. Helen was able to do the job herself, with an earbud in her own ear that would transmit to Troy's via bone vibration, so that muttering the words was sufficient for Troy to hear clearly when Helen would listen to the language of the person that he was speaking to, determine what it was, and tell Troy how to say a specific phrase to each person he spoke to, while she was doing the same with others.
The phrase was "You don't want Lot 15. Don't bid on it." Occasionally, depending on whom Troy was speaking to, she added the phrase "Just be afraid of the person who DOES get it." There were other messages for specific voices that Helen recognized. She simply had to tell Troy what to say in one of the three languages that he knew before telling him the phrase. One of the important parts of The Thing was understanding what one was trying to convey with the command. This meant that Helen had to be honest about what she was telling Troy to say, allowing him to use his own judgment on whether or not to relay Helen's messages.
"You love using all these languages, don't you?" He asked her.
"Most days, I end up so hot from it that I need Jeanne to come speak French between my legs, Oui."
"This is what you do all the time, isn't it?" Troy murmured over the comms to Helen in Greek. "All those charity balls and parties with 'the elite.' This is where you get most of your work as Contessa done."
"I've stopped wars over the course of a dance, yes." Came her reply in the same language. "And just for you, Troilus, I fight the urge to tell genocidal maniacs to drive off a cliff on their way home. The ones who are stupid enough to come near me themselves."
"If I haven't actually said the words, Helen; I apologize for saying that Propappou wouldn't be proud of how you got where you are. He was always proud of you. When we took him to Greece for his final days, he'd tell the cousins 'My Petalouda Mikro, she a QUEEN! They call her Komissa, but she really queen! But don't you go bugging her for stuff. She busy, she gots the queening to do."
Like, Comment and Give Rating.
![[+]](https://xossipy.com/themes/sharepoint/collapse_collapsed.png)