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Characters: Dino

witchmaker
Location: Dino's version of Rome.
Time: Continuing from this thread
Summary: Dino is showing Anglea around Rome
Warnings: Umm..nothing yet?

Dino smiled at her, then turned to Romario.

"Have the car brought around again," he said aloud. Romario nodded and pulled out a cell phone but have him a look that Dino knew meant he would be explaining about Angela later. That would bit complicated without mentioning the Plane. He would never have been able to become this close without at least one of his men finding out if it hadn't been for that.
"The coliseum is ancient, but I think it's worth a look at least. It's a reminder of the city's past," he said to Angela as he lead her outside.

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Angela was starting to wonder if Dino had thought out a good lie to explain his guest and her surprising lack of knowledge about things that were, well, standard for most people in his world. From the look on Romario's face (and the way the other men stared at her with complete bewilderment) she hoped for his sake he'd concocted something good.

"How old is it?" She wasn't sure what the standard for "ancient" was in Dino's world.

"It's nearly two thousand years old," he said proudly as he lead her outside and the car came around. He waited for it to stop and opened the door for her, trying to ignore the stares he got from the driver. He wondered if it would have been better to offer to drive himself...but that would still require one of his men to be in the car.
"It's been here since the Roman empire."

Two thousand years was pretty old. Angela wasn't sure if the Light Castle ruins in her world were older or not. Perhaps she shouldn't have fallen asleep during that lecture...

"I'm guessing it's not an empire anymore, then?"

Oh yes, more odd looks from the driver. Angela was starting to wonder how often Dino dated, and her current observations were making her lean towards "hardly ever."

"No, the empire fell around what.." Dino has to pause and think, trying to dredge up all he had learned in school. "Around fifteen hundred years ago I think. It was mighty while it lasted though."

He was getting tired of the looks, and a stiff look from him only seemed to discourage them for a minuet or so. It was a relief to finally reach the coliseum. The driver was out and opening the door for them almost immediately. Dino wondered about that, it was something he had told his men he didn't require them to do.
"Here we are Angela.." he said as he climbed out.

Angela climbed out of the car and took a moment to stare at the ruins before her.

It certainly was a coliseum. And despite having seen better days, it was still impressive. A smile spread across her face. "Wow. Forcena'd give half their land for something like this, I think. I'm guessing it was a warrior empire?"

"It was," Dino grinned. "Wanted to go take a look inside? They let tourists see some of it."

There was a faint thunk from behind him. Dino turned to look at the back of the car, frowning but there was sign that anything was wrong. The driver was leaning against the car, whistling as if he didn't have a care in the world.

Angela thought she'd heard something and glanced over her shoulder, but came up just as empty as Dino had.

"All right. Show me around, studly." She grinned a bit and took his hand. "The people who built this thing, were they your ancestors?"

"They might have helped at least. But it was so long ago that it would be impossible for anyone to tell for sure," Dino smiled at her as he lead her over to join the other tourists milling around. "Information like that was lost to history."

He glanced behind him when he felt that prickle on the back of his that told him he was being watched. But he didn't see anyone he would label as a threat. It was probably just another tourist staring at anything and everything.

Angela couldn't help but feel the same thing as they shuffled along with the gaggle of tourists. There was a tour guide there, explaining the history of the coliseum, all the important people who'd been there-- Angela half-listened, half-tuned it all out, if only because a lot of the references to different places and times went over her head. Still, there was that strange feeling at the base of her spine that someone had their eyes on them.

That wasn't the only strange thing-- there was one couple who constantly seemed to shove ahead of the others. After the woman elbowed Angela out of her way, the princess was ready to give her a piece of her mind, but at the next stop, the couple had vanished.

"Where are we headed next?" she asked, once the tour was over. Maybe if they left the coliseum, that creepy being-watched feeling would go away.

"Hmmm...I can take you around to some of the other shops here. Or we can visit the Vatican if you like. The Pope lives there and it's worth a look if you're interested."

He was beginning to get annoyed and just a little nervous. They were being watched, he was sure of that now. In his life having someone tailing you was not a good thing. Moving out of here was probably the best thing he could do and not alarm Angela.

Angela wasn't sure what a Vatican was, or a Pope for that matter, but either idea sounded good to her. "I'm happy to go wherever you want to."

"Just tell me if you get bored with it," Dino said, giving her hand a small squeeze as the neared the car. "We can go somewhere else then."

The driver opened the door for both of them when they got near. Dino motioned for Angela to get in first, then leaned over to speak to the driver.

"Have yous seen anything suspicious?" he asked softly. The driver shook his head.

"Nothing boss," he answered.

Dino frowned, wondering if he had just been imaginign things. "Keep your eye out," he said at last. The driver nodded.

Angela settled back into the backseat of the car, and that creepy feeling melted away almost instantly. Maybe it really was just the coliseum itself. A lot of people had died there from what the tour guide had said and, well, all it took was one trip on a ghost ship to get you to believe in all kinds of things.

"What is a Vatican, by the way?" There was that look from the driver again. Dino's explanation of where Angela came from was probably going to have to be really good.

Her questions were innocent and he was so used to her asking about the simple things in his world he had forgotten how odd it would sound to outsiders.

"Ah, the Vatican is a city-state, basically the smallest independent state in the world. It's ruled by the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, one of the major religions in the world," Dino explained, hoping that the only explanation he could think of, that Angela had been incredibly sheltered, would sound believable.

"So it's a bit like Wend-- er."

Angela doubted there was a Holy City Wendel in Dino's world. She trailed off, then gave Dino a little smile. "I didn't think you were particularly religious."

Dino chuckled, a bit glad she hadn't said anything more about her world. It would have complicated things later.

"I'm not, but you have to learn to deal with the Vatican if you want to do business in Rome. At the very least you have to learn who to avoid."

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