Who: Noah, Basch, Jacob, Balthier and Courfeyrac in the background When: Current Where: Craigcrook Castle, Edinburgh What: Jacob comes by to help wake up Shaun to drifted off in the gatehouse, and Noah's not sure it's a good idea to wake him up with a stranger. Rating/Warnings: Vague references to Basch's injuries, vague talk about Jacob's trauma Status: Complete
Noah messaged Tadgh, since he didn't have Desmond's fake name, or a good contact for him, and messaging the Assassins in general seemed - weird. Besides, Jacob was having some mess with his son lately, and Noah didn't want to deal with that.
Still, he's pretty sure he did it right. Called him Falcon, mentioned that Fawkes drifted off, and asked if someone had time to come down and wake him up safely, it'd be great.
As it turns out, since Tadgh’s currently on a mission, he ended up passing on the information anyway, and Jacob DOES turn out to be the one heading over. The distraction’s probably actually good, in all likelihood. He’s fairly sure nothing’s seriously wrong with the Emmett situation and that he needed some time to blow off steam. Not that it’s not frustrating and doesn’t make him question everything about his abilities to handle this sort of thing, but hey, he’s still making an attempt at being calm and...anyway, he CAN drive, even if Shaun says otherwise and if Shaun’s that tired, he’s not going to make a fuss, right?
So Jacob’s got the van and is heading through and...there might be a bit more speed than is deemed safe as he pulls up, but he’s avoiding everything IMPORTANT, so that helps?
There's some audible chatter and laughter going on to the left of the gatehouse. That's Balthier, hefting a large pumpkin or squash, and wearing, for him, a surprising lack of clothing. Old jeans, undershirt. It looks like they're helping out with the garden, and there may be plans to play with water balloons later. The flower crown on his head is a little damp, but it looks like they wove some out of the flourishing patch of daisies.
That’s, well, not quite at all what Jacob would have expected to run into, given that he’s never actually seen any of these people really relaxing before. There’s also a Basch, half asleep on the porch himself, and looking perfectly content, though his shirt’s a little stuck to his back with how wet it must have gotten at some point. It reminds him, really, of his rooks, and he’s laughing a bit as he manages, somehow, to park successfully, then makes his way over to collect their mentor.
“Molloy’s got a thing in Budapest.” he explains, as he makes his way over. “And no one in their right mind wants to let Evie drive ANYTHING, Arno’s got some...I want to say it was the girl guides round up, so here I am.” He explains to Noah and gives Balthier a wave.
"She drives defensively, I'd guess?" Noah says, distracted by Courfeyrac with the wheelbarrow.
Balthier reaches over to help steady him. "Hello, Jacob. There's cake and tea inside, if you want. We'll be down at the target range once we're done here."
Noah's also dressed for the heat today, and there's a faint bit of an old scar on his side that's almost visible as he's reaching to offer Jacob a hand up the steps.
“That’s one way to put it if you’re being polite.” Jacob snorts. “At least there aren’t carriages now. THAT’S caused multiple...incidents in the past. On the bright side, it DID help with taking out the assets of a templar run omnibus company.” He laughs a bit as he accepts that hand.
“Ah, thanks. I’m a little unsteady still.” Not bad as he was, but…
Courfeyrac’s waving as well. It’s been a while since he’s seen most of these people, but…”We’re putting in a few things.” He explains. “We probably look a bit odd.”
“Not horribly.” Jacob offers with a shrug. “I mean, the results will be good.”
"We're working. You've got an excuse to look like whatever you want while you're working." Balthier eyes the patch they were working on. "Shall we head over and throw balloons at targets? Or do you want to catch your breath? We should probably drink some more water."
Noah opens the door. "And the steps aren't perfectly even. Come on in. I'll show you where Fawkes is napping. I guess he got comfortable. I was doing some reading and he was grading papers."
And his brother's back now that Jacob's at the right angle to see it better is - not smooth like Balthier's.
“Ooh targets.” Courfeyrac sounds impressed. “Combeferre’s got fantastic aim, you know. I wouldn’t mind seeing if that’s a distinct skill we share with some long distant relative or something.” Water, right. He didn’t think about it, but that IS a good idea.
“He’s had a LOT of stuff lately.” Jacob says as he slips through, and he does get a look at the scars there and, well. It’s proof, he supposes, not that he doubted any of them before, but still. “Start of the semester. He was GOING to quit but they begged him to return to wrangle the freshmen. Apparently it’s taking an effort not to murder them.” Something he can relate to with annoying people too, mind you. “It’s good he was able to DO that.”
Basch stirs enough and stands slowly. “Ah, here you are. Good to see you again.” He doesn’t add anything about the father of understanding, even though he SORT OF wants to throw it in there.
"Falcon's working," Noah explains, since Basch was looking like he was dozing off. "I made a fresh pot of tea. You'll be all right, brother?" Near each other, the fact they're twins is pretty obvious. Noah's got a shiny burn like mark on one arm, and he's got more shoulder muscles. Looks a bit like he broke his jaw at some point. Beyond that, the main difference is in Basch's scars.
“I’m fine.” Basch says, nodding and shrugging a bit. “How’s it going out here?” And he’s vaguely met Jacob a few times, so it makes enough sense not to really call attention to the last year.
“I keep forgetting you’re twins.” Jacob says, glancing at Basch now. “I shouldn’t, it’s fairly obvious, but there’s been...it’s been busy for us.”
“Well, that DOES seem like it’s the sort of thing you’d forget about someone you’ve only met a few times. “ Basch says, shrugging a little at him. “Come on, you won’t have been around that often. And you’re English so...tea.” He’s absorbed that’s sort of like breathing around here.
Jacob laughs at that. “I probably could use it, sure. Life is insane. But so, you’re doing security now, aren’t you? How’s that working?”
“Not bad.” Basch shrugs. “The people are nice. And I have time to play ridiculous phone games.”
Noah steps back a bit so Jacob can come in if he wants. The house has a vintage looking kitchen with a lot of green tiles, and their dishes definitely have a second hand shop feel to them.
Jacob does step through and smiles at the kitchen. “This is lovely. Tadgh said it reminded him a bit of his Nan’s place back home so that’d be...a little past turn of the century? “ The tiles make him think that, roughly. “Looks like you do a lot of work with it.”
"I think someone remodelled it at some point. It's a cozy place." Noah's sliding a mug over to Jacob, and heading to check in the fridge. "Cream or milk? I've got both. Sugar's in the round dish near the bowl of apples."
The sugar bowl may've been meant for something else, but it had a lid, and it had a very kid's tea-set painting of rainbows and cavorting - they were probably meant to be horses but the art wasn't great.
“Sugar.” Jacob takes the mug. “Ah thanks.” He’s moving over to spoon some in. “This is fantastic actually. Evie and I kept meaning to try to do something with our space, I know Sher wouldn’t really mind, but she’s usually got assignments and I don’t quite know where to start with looking for people good at that sort of a thing so it’s in the list of things I’d like to get done someday. There’s a suspicious blood stain near the carpet that won’t entirely come out for one.”
"I've seen a lot of stuff online talking about how to get stains out." Noah shakes his head. "I've been doing cake deliveries and set up for weddings since early June, so I've had a bunch of people convinced that a dot of ink would end the world."
“You’d think they’d simply bleach things and then leave them, wouldn’t you?” Jacob shakes his head, “Or perhaps not. New methods now. “ He shakes his head. “Emmett made an attempt at getting it out, but he still isn’t saying what or how it got there and I’m fairly certain he’s obviously the one who knows but…” He takes a moment to run his hands through his hair and sigh. “It wasn’t worth pushing. Most things aren’t with him. I was probably the same.”
"I'm an ex-interrogator. It's not exactly -" Noah shakes his head. "I'm probably not the advice you need or want. How are you doing?"
Jacob laughs at the thought. “Do you take private commissions then?” It’s a wry, obviously not serious question but the idea’s a good one in theory. If only. “Things have been interesting. I can’t wait until I’m back to being able to do field duty. SOMEONE thinks he’s doing a great thing by keeping me out of it, but” he glances toward the other room and shakes his head a little.
“I’ve got the one eye that still works just fine and the other’s...well there’s eagle vision for one thing. It’d be simple enough to do surveillance or something but Shaun’s...I don’t know. I know the more serious stuff is dangerous now, but I’m bored. I’d love an honest fight or something. AND it’d get me out of the house.”
"And your son's still anxious from when you were taken away and hurt?" Noah guesses. "And he's not used to his illness being treated differently now?"
“He’s frustrated, I think.” Jacob says. “It WAS one of those things that was relatively under control. Or that it didn’t much MATTER because no one knew as much so he can’t do everything he wants. I think that’s the BIGGEST part of it. It’s a lot to deal with.” He does get that part of things, but on the other hand…
“And as for when I was gone...I have no idea. He’s stopped thinking he could have stopped it anyway.” Jacob shakes his head. “That was a problem. He obviously loathes me enough that he’s not worrying about THAT anymore. Which I’m fairly sure is normal. And it’s not as much as I hate my father.” Present tense, even now.
"I think he wants to impress you and get responsibility. He's expressed more than once that he doesn't want to seem lacking." Noah shakes his head. "But don't ask me. I don't know him that well. I think that's different from hating you. Get a slice of cake, if you want, and I'll show you where Shaun is? I didn't want to wake him up myself."
“Oh he does at that.” Jacob says. “And I said loathing, so not quite hating, more like a temporary bit of wondering who I am and where I get off trying to control him. Which...I know he’s got to find SOMETHING he can do that makes him happy. The problem is, of course, that it’s all too dangerous. I don’t know if you’ve noticed.” His lip twitches. “We’re not very good at accepting limits, as a rule. I can’t tell if that’s a family thing or an assassin one in general.”
It’s sort of scary, in an abstract way, actually. The Shaun change of subject is a good idea, along with the cake. It’s been a while since Jacob actually ate right now so he’s glad to accept. “Good point about Shaun. He’s a little...well it’s since the time he came back from that fight where his best friend was almost killed and he didn’t know for several months what had happened. Sleeps with more than one weapon and he’s gotten GOOD at using them and his reflexes. You sort of need to keep up the nack for it.”
And he really, he thinks now, should have brought Desmond. Connor would have been good at this. Jacob is at least good enough at doing it from a distance though.
“How’re you two doing, seriously, before I wake him? I know it’s not been easy. At all. Are you...Evie and I’ve broken up a couple times over the years, over less things than you are overcoming.” Then he pauses, thinking about how that sounds. “Oh God. Not like. We were partners until she left.”
"And she was your best friend as a kid. I get that." And Noah heard far too much of Balthier fretting about Jacob's worries about people thinking kissing him would lead to him and Evie in bed. Victoria (Victorians?) are odd humes. "I was more worried he'd not know me waking up. You guys all - stand out, right? In your secret organization?"
But right - how is he doing? "I'm not sure how I am," Noah settles on, as he fills up his mug again. "With my twin, I mean. Basch hasn't let himself be mad at me, and it'll come someday, and I'll survive, I suspect. Beyond that, the best I can do is give him somewhere safe."
“I don’t know that I can be mad.” Basch says, from where he’s followed and he looks at Noah a moment. “I can’t...I don’t feel like I DESERVE to be.” Does that make sense? It’s not quite the sort of thing that’s easy to explain to someone.
“I…” Jacob nods at Basch slowly. “I understand that. It’s...Jack...I feel that way about him. As if...well, I was responsible for him becoming a notorious monster who killed most of my assassins, and the women in the worst ways possible. I raised that so how can *I* resent that he kidnapped and hurt me? It’s as though…”
“As though YOU did something to cause it?” Basch nods. “And it’s about as easy to tell yourself that it isn’t true and believe that sort of statement as it is to herd a cat.”
“Or a few cats. Bayek’s picked up kittens last week.” Jacob now gets EXACTLY how that can look. “There’s no convincing them to do ANYTHING they don’t want to, so you end up fending off T’challa from the fridge and Shuri from the cabinets most of the time and it never works.”
“See? It’s a good analogy.” Basch looks amused, but a little resigned too.
"Some of that blame is my fault though. Since I tried to force you to answer questions by saying it was your fault." Noah sighs. "It's . . . not bad though, Basch. You want me there, and I'm trying to learn how that might work. I see myself in the mirror, most of the time."
Which probably doesn't make sense to someone who's not an identical twin.
Noah grimaces. "And I know. The therapist would say that I should recognize that's how you feel, even if I don't think it's grounded on pure facts. But - it is what it is. I guess we're happy?"
It doesn’t make sense to Jacob, no. Not really, anyway. Or well, it hasn’t made sense since he was about eleven, and Evie was suddenly a GIRL, and growing her hair, and they couldn’t share a bed anymore and there were stupid RULES, but..he’ll pretend that makes sense.
“I left him and our home and our mother.” Basch explains to Jacob. “It’s...I feel badly about that now.” Among many other things.
"You had to go," Noah says, looking down at his hands. "They came asking about you, and I thought mom was pretending to be more ill when she was explaining I was the younger twin. It probably would've been a stay in the jail and some threatening talks. Or attempts to recruit you, but - they did ask for you."
Basch draws in a breath and nods. “Still, had I known what it would lead to, well, hindsight, I suppose. But that does make it harder to accept about things, still.”
Jacob can’t help it, looking between them and himself, he bites out a little laugh that’s not exactly amused. “Look at the lot of us.” he says, rather quietly. “We ARE a piece of work. Or pieces, I suppose. There’s so much regret holding us back.”
"I'm not - not now. Not so angry. I wished you'd . . . I spent years, wanting Landis to be better, and safer and to go home. I wished you'd . . . it wasn't easy, when she died. And then I spent years telling myself I was doing the rational thing to make a better future for Landis. Because I didn't want to starve." Noah shakes his head. "It's not that you left."
Basch nods slowly, at least a little. He gets it, in theory, anyway. It doesn’t make much sense that anyone could care that much about something so far in the past as a place, when the people were gone, places don’t mean much, but...Noah’s not really like that, so he nods. It seems strange but then he’s able to accept it means a lot to Noah so… “I think you were. But Landis was practically gone by then as it was.” Basch says. “So you had to do what was going to help you survive instead of worrying, didn’t you? I mean after she died anyway. “
"Why couldn't I worry? I thought I'd get stationed in some Landisser town, and get jokes that I was the only one who could understand the language, and the names would slowly get changed to Archadian ones. But they promised I'd get fed, and I'd have a chance at something, and I wasn't bad. I could get the recruits and keep them safe." Noah shrugs. "I wasn't Archadian, and I'd never be Archadian, but I could do something. I kept an account in our mother's name, so if you ever went home, you could get something. The first Judge I had thought it was an ex-wife or something, because he thought I was older, and then he pushed that I got orphan's pay until I was fully an adult."
Noah frowns. "I guess it meant something because it was . . . a culture. A thing that was just mine, and not false teaming in the army or pretending to be something I'd never get accepted as. It wasn't like I had family, or someone to court, or a friend to buy a house with."
“I suppose that would make you feel more alone.” Jacob says, trying to see the reason in this too. “Like...Molloy’s thing when that idiot called him English a couple weeks ago...I don’t think he told any of you about this but...the idea that something was being erased, that he’s not Irish because of someone’s arbitrary obsession with borders and people and...anyway, it became a big to do. No one ended up very happy because of it.”
“Put that way…” Basch nods. “I suppose I worry now, more that I left both of you but I didn’t think about the rest of it. That COULD be difficult in those terms. Are they that xenophobic then? Balthier doesn’t care at all. I’d sort of assumed it was some extemists at work, but not a LOT of them.”
"In Archades." Noah shakes his head. "Officially, they weren't xenophobic, and officially you weren't supposed to care which part of the Archadian empire you came from, but people kept asking me if I knew that Landis didn't exist any more. Things like that. Kept noticing my accent wasn't correct."
Basch nods again at that part. “Well, obviously you knew . I mean you weren’t trying to...or were you trying to be yourself as you were there still?” He frowns, thinking about what that sort of thing COULD attract. “It seems awful either way, of course, and painful. But I can see where it would be worse, unprompted.”
"And . . . when Lord Vayne came and said that he'd make sure there wasn't another Landis, and that Dalmasca and Nabradia were courting war, I -" Noah trails off. "I bought into the story. I saw what happened when Archades rolled through, and what the new manufacted nethicite could do. I was naive and a fool."
“It sounds like…” Jacob takes a breath. “I’ve told Balthier more about this than anyone else but for a while in London, I had a...I don’t know what I would call Roth anymore. He promised that we could do better for the city than anyone had, and that it would be fun to bring down those who deserved it. He turned out to be as crazy as the rest of them but not before he’d almost made me into a monster. It...that happens. With people. And all I really wanted then was someone to approve of me.”
"Everyone said when Emperor Gramis appointed me to watch over Lord Vayne that I was lucky that he liked me." Noah shakes his head. "But I'm whining about the past. It - Landis is in the past, brother. You don't have to blame yourself."
“It is.” Basch nods. “But you are not. That is what I am getting at more than the rest. And I’ve hurt you and that is...I don’t like that I did it, even now.” So it’s hard to be angry with that, in mind.
Noah looks at Jacob. "Do you want me to pack you a plate of food? It looks like you've not had time to cook lately."
“It...actually I’ve not tried lately, no.” Jacob shakes his head. “Em’s decided to run off to...somewhere so I’ve been a little frazzled and forgotten about it. Not that I’m that great of a cook, generally. We tend to have a lot of egg and chips when we’re left on our own.”
"Anything you don't eat?" Noah's checking the fridge.
“Not especially.” Jacob grins a little. “Well, now that I don’t have to deal with tinned eels at least. Those were never exactly pleasant. They were useful but…” he shakes his head. “ARNO eats eels, you know?” He pauses. “Actually he did make them once, the normal way, for...some sort of a thing. They were fine but...still a little not to my tastes. Anything else is fine though, it’s the texture, mostly.”
"Stew and bread then, I think," Noah's fishing out some containers. "I'll pack for three, and if Shaun's fair tempered, you can send some home with him, or you'll have some for lunch."
“Thank you.” Jacob smiles. “Aedan says you’re very good.”
"I'm acceptable." Noah smiles back at him and slides the boxes over. "I take instruction well, I guess. Don't worry about the containers. I can get more."
“It’s appreciated.” Jacob smiles. “I’ll go see about Shaun now, then.” And he’s heading over to try and do that now. Shaun’s sleeping pretty soundly and he almost hates to do it, but he’s leaning over carefully, and whispering in Shaun’s ear in a terrible italian accent. “Ah, mentore! We should spend some time together, mentor to mentor, no?”
At which point Shaun bolts up, looking annoyed. “You’re not funny.” He informs Jacob. “But...How long have I been out?”
"About an hour and a half? I messaged Tadgh to see if he could come and help wake you up, since I wasn't sure you'd want me to do it. The water balloon throwing is happening, I think." Noah smiles at him. "You looked very comfortable, and I hated to wake you up."
Shaun smiles too. “Thanks for that. I had...well, some of these assignments.” He shakes his head. “I’m getting discouraged in my ability to reach them, which IS tiring. And it WAS quite comfortable. “ he eyedarts. “I still stand by my statement that it would be a good idea to use a lie detector to see WHY half of them didn’t turn in the assignment for real, but…” He smiles. “Thank you for letting me do that, Noah. It’s been...crazy.”
"Come by again tomorrow?" Noah offers him a hand up. "Thanks for visiting."
“I’d like that.” Shaun nods. “I’ll try to bring by something nice. There’s a new tea I think you’ll like. I’ll text you later to confirm that.”
"That does sound good." Noah passes over a box of muffins to him.
Shaun smiles. “It’ll be be fun. AND I don’t have a class until the day after, something about some campus event they want everyone participating in, so I won’t have to rush around and be miserable. I like that approach to things.”
"I might have to have you teleport in. School kids are visiting the archery range, but we can talk about it. I just don't want you to show up to about two hundred high school kids."