Day 21: Photography

"You know, I thought we'd have more of a normal room." Oriani mused.

"I wouldn't have accepted it. To share a building with the common masses… they're not like us, Oriani." Roma reclined on a couch, looking over the city that shared her name.

"But I had hoped for a normal vacation…" Oriani sighed. How was she going to really interact with the people and see what they thought if she was always under armed guard?

Maybe Roma was right, and those great masses of people out there weren't like them. A different species, practically, even if they had similar bodies. Kansen were more, in some sense.

(Well, that was the sort of thing someone who wasn't friends with the Commander would say. They had this remarkable knack for getting close to you…)

Even if there was some gap that couldn't be crossed between man and ship, Oriani found the other side so fascinating. Their progenitors, the reason behind everything a Kansen was, were humans. Oriani wouldn't be here today if not for people: the people who built her all those years ago, the ones who operated the planes and moved the baggage in and suffered Roma's attitude…

Still, she kinda wished they would have stayed around instead of just dumping them in a fancy mansion and leaving. They had settled down near a window, where they could look out and see the city, glowing with artificial light.

"The eternal city…" Roma breathed, seeming genuinely impressed. "It's more magnificent in person."

"And we haven't even seen it up close yet!" Oriani grinned.

Oriani was, depending on how you sliced it, either just a few years old or maybe eighty and change if you counted the old her. Even taking that big number– which was a lie, honestly– the city was filled with buildings twenty-five times older. From the founding of the city to now was thirty-four times.

Something could have no purpose she could imagine, it could be completely pointless… and it would be two thousand years old. Crazy. The Mouth of Truth still gaped, just as it had when Charlemagne or Caesar were around.

Yeah, it was really touristy, but she couldn't resist, not when it would make such a good photo. "Alright Roma, you look perfect. Now just put your hand inside."

Roma looked at the great stone carving and raised an eyebrow. "For what reason?"

"Haven't you heard? They say that it'll bite a liar's hand off!" Oriani chirped.

"I am subject to no judge," Roma said, refusing to put her hand inside the mouth.

"Really?"

Yes, it turned out, really.

It wouldn't be the only time one of Roma's idiosyncrasies complicated their little trip, and it was only Oriani's desperate intervention that stopped her from causing a real mess for Azur Lane. She was down a few pounds because Roma didn't always feel like paying for things, and she had this habit of reading over a suggested schedule and completely shuffling it according to her fancy– regardless of silly things like specific times they were supposed to enter museums or the hunger pangs of her 'legionnaires'.

Still, it was inarguable they got things done, even if they weren't always the things Oriani wanted to be doing.

From there, they went to hit a few of the city's other famous destinations, going through the whole tourist song and dance. A brief crossover into the Vatican, Oriani gaping at the galleries as Roma just silently soaked them in, more examples of Rome's tremendous splendor.

All the while, Oriani built up a collection of photographs, with occasional help from one of the guards who accompanied them as they wandered. There was a whole pile of them for the Colosseum, plus a few of them pacing the length of the Circus Maximus, imagining the charioteers who would have raced there…

Of course, it was only fair that Oriani showed her photos to Roma, considering that she was the star of so many of them. Roma really was photogenic.

"And these will be shared with the world?" Roma asked.

"Yes, I was thinking we'd make an album of it–" Roma in Roma just had a certain appeal to it, and it had a bit more oomph than Atlanta in Atlanta or whatever. Europe and her cities were old, and there was a certain… weight to them, maybe? Well, Roma was as slim as a model, but she certainly seemed a match for Rome. Oriani couldn't imagine being straight-up Rome, especially as she was now. (A bod like Roma's would probably do wonders for your confidence, though.)

"These photographs are impressive. A fitting tribute."

"You're welcome?"

"Fear not– you shall see your labors repaid." Roma reached out and laid her hand on Oriani's head. For a moment, Oriani wondered if just her touch was supposed to be recompense enough… before she began to ruffle.

Admittedly, Oriani wasn't that much of a head pat girl. She knew a lot of other girls went gaga over that sort of thing– heck, she had taken a lot of pictures of girls going gaga over it– but it just wasn't something she really fit into her schedule or made time to do. It was a thing folks liked…

And yeah, she understood it a lot better when Roma went a'ruffling. It felt good to be praised for her work, especially by someone as high up on the totem pole as Roma.

"Perhaps you could become my official photographer?"

"I'll think about it."

I had an old idea sitting around for a Roman holiday spoof with Roma