I love your Neopolitan patrician emo boy, he's adorable! This was a nice conversation-- at once clever (in a realistic way, which makes it even more fun), bittersweet, and entertaining for the reader.
Their back and forth feels very natural, but you're always good with that sort of thing. I'm sympathetic already though. Not sure if I've heard you talk about this one yet or not (I didn't know you had a Rufus though, which excites me-- I have one of those! That and a Felix and this group is apparently all about the nameshare. Great minds think like us.), but I'll look forward to more if and when the mood strikes you for sure.
He has disintegrated from a painting to a mosaic Nice bit! This part of the conversation was particularly interesting-- I like how you're playing with memory and recall so much in their back and forth. The smells and sights working to bring back Pompeii in far-flung, cold, wet Britain. I've been messing with that a lot in the last few months with one of my things and the possibilities are so endless with it I get a bit lost. Reading it makes me feel things very keenly.