Geralt chuckled quietly, toying with the ridge of one of his cards as he looked over at Akane. She was relentless...but he could tell she was not asking for any ulterior motives and was simply curious. Despite this, he found himself slightly annoyed by her continuous questioning. Still, he smiled through this, keeping up appearances. [color=crimson]"Fun?"[/color] he asked, at first pretending to consider the question. He had practiced these answers, given variations of them a hundred times.

But, during the pause, he actually began to think about whether or not he found his performances 'fun' any longer. Of course, being a Magician had been his dream as a child and young man, and his abilities had given him the chance to realize this dream in full. He supposed it was fun when he first began, he had elated in seeing the wonder flash in people's eyes. A part of him was still driven by this, he knew. Deep inside there was still that young man who yearned to watch his audience smile and cover their mouths in amazement...but now...did he still find it 'fun' to perform?

He forced himself to break from these thoughts as he realized his face had gone slightly slack for a moment, void of its usual controlled expression. In a moment, he regained it, and shrugged in response. [color=crimson]"My father always said that idle hands were the devil's playthings,"[/color] he said, his wicked smile returning, [color=crimson]"I said 'so be it'."[/color] He paused for a moment as this sunk in, then added, [color=crimson]"I'm good at it, so yes, I find it...'fun' to do what I'm good at."[/color]

Illyana had been watching Geralt's face as he considered Akane's question, and noticed a slight shift in his expression as he mulled her question over. It was short, and subtle, but to her he had suddenly looked years younger. This was the least concerning thing she had seen about Geralt so far...it was strange, but for some reason it had comforted her.

She turned to Aurel as he spoke and smiled, [color=598527]"Ah, I see. A worthwhile pursuit."[/color] she answered. As it came around to her turn, she pondered on who she should take from. Noting that Geralt had few cards left in his hand, she decided to take one from Cora. [color=598527]"Second from the right,"[/color] she said, instead of forcing the mermaid to struggle to hand it over, she allowed Akane to pass it to her without looking. No pair. 

As Cora handed her card to Akane to pass to Illyana, she looked over at Geralt, [color=00a99d]"You are very good with your hands,"[/color] she said, thinking back to all of the tricks he had done with his cards. Although she had always been reliant on her hands, as her lack of proper working legs and feet had forced her to be even before she had come abovewater, she was never that dexterous with her fingers.

Geralt raised an eyebrow at the 'mermaid' suggestively, [color=crimson]"Oh, dear, you haven't seen anything yet..."[/color]

Hearing this, and seeing the glint in Geralt's eye, Illy had to intervene. She coughed and said, [color=598527]"Akane, it's your turn."[/color] in a loud and bright voice. Her interjection had been obvious, but she didn't care if it got the job done.