Cora nodded at Geralt and smiled to Akane before she continued to eat, her spirits definitely rising with each passing interaction. She preferred this, to be surrounded by pleasant people and busy herself with things as opposed to sitting alone in her trailer all throughout the day. Hearing that Aurel and Ivory were about to play cards was also very interesting, she hoped she would be allowed to stay and watch too.

Geralt smiled at Aurel and shrugged, then glanced around, [color=crimson]"I don't see much else going on around here, and this is certainly more interesting than the front page today."[/color] He pushed the newspaper he had been reading to the side. [color=crimson]"Besides, there are lessons everywhere, Aurel, you just have to know where to look.[/color]" He winked at the young man knowingly before turning to Ivory. [color=crimson]"Aah...that makes sense. Let's see if we can't change that, hm?"[/color] He asked, his eyebrow cocked high. He was certainly intrigued in this game, it was not something he needed to pretend about. A chance to watch Ivory's pokerface would do him some good anyway, and maybe his presence would throw her off just enough to let something slip.

He watched Ivory deal, saw Aurel's hand, and watched Ivory's face carefully as she looked down at her cards. As expected, she was quite good at not betraying her hand. There was little anyone could hide from him, however. After a moment, he heard the whisper in his head [i][color=crimson]An 8 and 9 of clubs...[/color][/i]. A solid hand for Ivory, but Aurel's had more potential. Geralt almost let his lip twitch as he saw Aurel's eyebrows raise and a slight smile touch him. He was not exaggerating, he had an absolutely awful pokerface. Geralt could work with it though, he knew what to do, he just had to learn [i]how[/i] to do it. Before giving any advice, he decided to just watch their game to see what it could tell him about the players.

Illyana nearly scoffed at Lucien and his comment, but settled for rolling her eyes slightly with her back to Geralt. [color=598527]"That's an understatement..."[/color] she said quietly to herself. It was clear from this morning's interaction that Geralt was not about to take Ivory's indifference lying down. He was aggressive, to say the least, but to Illy's ear the two seemed to be evenly matched in wit. It was hard to imagine them getting along...ever.

At Lucien's next comment, Illy's cheeks turned slightly pink and she looked down at the dish she was drying. It was true, she had done a little more research, but Lucien knew she couldn't sleep thinking there was knowledge out there for her that she didn't have. [color=598527]"Whenever you're free, I'd like to do it as soon as possible."[/color] She paused a moment and gingerly set the dish down before shrugging, slightly guilty, [color=598527]"I know, I know, I just did some light reading before bed. Just recreational...you know it helps me sleep."[/color] Illyana was careful to be sure there was no lie in her words.