Vanetti's Eleven [Isabella/Saisei]

"Fix your tie."

Isabella's eyes didn't leave her phone, so it was odd that she could see the state of Saisei's tie, but she was right; there was a tilt to it, not by a lot, but enough to be noticeable by the folk they were soon to meet. It was important to look sharp, and look correct.

In typical Vanetti fashion, their mode of transportation was a proper automobile. Vintage, archaic, but classy. Still, totally pointlessly, their goals for the time being were low key. So low key, in fact, that Isabella hadn't elaborated much of anything at all to Saisei. Simply that he get dressed in the sharpest suit, entered the car, and followed her lead while prepared for anything. To add to it, Isabella's hair was darker than normal, and her eyes were a different colour.

"Remember what I told you--and stay close to me. Not too close, thanks. We'll arrive in a bit."

The windows were tinted, pitch black from the outside, and the scenery of the area approached a busy street in a dense city, well within tourist area and by far and away outside of the immediacy of Vanetti territory.

Isabella clicked her tongue to the slight shaking in the car's interior from Saisei's hyperactive leg, but she didn't voice anything else out. When the car came to a halt and Saisei opened the door, she had no thanks to say; it was an action that was simply a matter of course, after all. Her eyes were still trained on the screen of her phone, her purse hanging on the inside of her elbow. She got out and with her single free hand, brought her hands over to Saisei's tie to fix it properly. She was skillful with it, and the noose accessory loosened enough to give him room to breath, while still looking fit and dapper.

"Come along, and walk with your shoulders back. Oh, if you can, be discreet." She made no attempt at further explanation.

The place they stopped seemed relatively unassuming on a global scale, just an extremely high end restaurant. Their chauffer drove off, and Isabella walked forward into the entrance. Stanchions decorated the outside of the dimmed glass double-doors. Two men at the front stood by, stopping the duo for a moment. They asked to see her purse, carrying detectors in hand. They scanned energies, metals, the whole works. Isabella offered her purse, which only held the most basic of amenities, but kept her attention on her phone. One of the men waited patiently to take the phone, but the attempt had her eyes for the first time rise from the screen and straight into his eyes with a scalding expression. He then refrained, and went to scanning her body. No issues there.

The other man approached Saisei, stopping him a few paces behind. The man moved to pat Saisei down before passing the detector all over his body.

No issues indeed. Good. But this was just the interest, the most mundane of interactions that Saisei just lived up to. Though he wasn't made fully aware, this was an actual certified operation for the Vanetti--or rather, against the Vanetti opposition. As much as this was to see what the man was made of, it was something that genuinely needed to be executed properly.

Once they entered the restaurant, a woman at the front in uniform greeted them. Isabella finally put her phone away into her purse and approached the woman. The restaurant walls had a dark and deep shade of red with grand decor. Roughly half of the tables were seated with people eating; they seemed a bit mechanical, and those with more acute senses would be able to determine that the people seated at the tables weren't really even people at all. They seemed hollow in presence, awkawrdly more or less dense at times, sometimes even just an incorrect number of unique spiritual signatures per table.

"Table for two. Park Misun."

In total contrast to her rough sicilian from earlier, Isabella spoke in proper italian, with a subtle korean accent to it. The woman tapped her ear piece, and a translucent screen reflected off her eyes. She nodded her head, welcomed the two of them, and guided them further into the restaurant, specifically to a room off to the side.

Once the two of them passed on more deeply into the restaurant, the setting changed just a bit. The place seemed far busier, and each table which sat--or had standing up--people were instead various gambling tables of different games. Poker, craps, roulettes, the whole variety. Saisei and Isabella were guided to a setting just a bit more private than the main room. The room was spacious, with fewer tables that had more room respectively and lounging chairs and low-set tables.



Without missing a beat, Isabella sat down at the table, a poker setting, with the dealer at the opposite side. The table was empty of any other participants. She turned back to the guiding woman, asked curtly, "Negroni." Finally, pretty much for the first time today, Isabella turned to look Saisei in the eyes. She gave him a devilish smile and patted the seat right next to her, beckoning him to come over, reverting back to her normal accent.

"You did good, picciriddu. Order yourself a drink, we'll be sitting here for a little while."

Alright, the kid was a little cute, in a puppy sorta way. The water wouldn't be necessary, her body was desenitised to the effects of a number of recreational substances, alcohol included, to say the least. She reciprocated her own amused smile.

"It's the most fun playing against bad poker faces, but I'm sure you'll do fine."

The dealer shuffled in an elegant manner, artistically even, and started tossing out cards to the two of them. Meanwhile, with a shocking expediency, a waitress came with their drinks. Isabella went straight to sipping. As the cards came in, chips materialised straight into the table. The different chips had numbers on them corresponding to their worth: one, five, ten, fifty, and different colours to each of them.

Other casinos had fully electronic credits systems that materialised straight onto the table and holographically above it, but in this gambling den there was an appreciation of the feeling of tossing your chips in, hearing the clack of two chips together and the physical collection of them when you make it big. A large part of gambling was the experience of it, after all.

"Mmm, well, you'll learn a bit more here soon enough. Just enjoy yourself for now."

Isabella took a peak at her cards and without missing a beat, tossed in a fiver, tilting her head a tad to then peek over at Saisei.

Well, he sure wasn't doing a good job of remembering to be discreet. Barbarous was an apt description. Still, they were cleared through the hard part, mostly, and in an area with less visibility. Letting him relax just a little wouldn't be an end to the mission.

Hmm... this was a dangerous sort of charismatic innocence. Certainly useful to have amongst the Vanetti, but Isabella didn't like the idea of being affected by it herself. The princess straightened her back out and went back to looking serious and disinterested.

The dealer starts the flop, the first three cards showing a King of Hearts, an Ace of Spades, and an Eight of Hearts.

Another fiver goes in. A nice, slow roast. Saisei's expression already made this round seem hopeless for him, but it wouldn't be any fun to just have him fold from the get-go with a big bet. Isabella wanted to see what he could've had up his sleeve, a lucky turn of events, a good board for his pocket.