Who: Yvette Moore, Desmond Miles When: Current, a few weeks back now. Where: Some buildings for sale What: Yvette and Desmond are looking at some homes that might work for werewolf children and them. The plan is to make a place that Abstergo can't hunt, because they're blending in. They're also talking about Desmond. Rating/Warnings: Mild mentions of the people that Desmond "bleeds" due to his Assassin heritage? Spoilers: Spoilers for about the first hour of Assassins' Creed 1, and about the first two to three of Assassins' Creed 2 Status: Complete
Yvette waves her card to unlock the box for the keys and opens up the door. "It's dusty, and the back stairs are a mess, but - I thought there was potential." It's a five story building, and narrow. One side had a cafe, and the other side of the corner had a hat shop that closed down in the eighties. There is a tiny greenhouse on the roof over part of the top floor for the cafe, probably mostly meant to look impressive, since in practice it probably wasn't big enough to do more than greens and maybe herbs.
Desmond’s glancing the building over, and nods slowly. “I can see where this would work out interestingly. You could always rent the business spaces too. I can think of a few people with, well, our people, who might actually be good if they went full business mode on people. I wonder if Arno, if the cop thing doesn’t work out would consider an actual cafe again, for one.”
"The kitchen's got a decent vintage floor but it's - pretty old and smells like vintage chips even with all the appliances taken out. I could just see putting a temporary kitchen depending on how bad the plumbing is." Yvette's opening up the door into - the hat shop still has a dusty hat rack with a single large brimmed hat on it, and some counters. "The views are nice. You're near a park and a subway line. I wanted Shaun to look it over too. This one's definitely going to be a fair amount of work, but - well - that's part of why I'm looking. Entrance here, for the offices, which could be access to the apartments."
She's getting out of Desmond's way so he can head in. The cafe's done in an almost aggressive yellow with a very "Dutch" by way of a cheap shop theme to the blue and white tiles on the walls. Kitchen's definitely 70's vintage industrial with paler patches on the floor where the stove and the like used to stand. The office end of things even has a tiny grim little security / elevator operator room and one of those old lined boards with a scattering of letters on it. A Dr. THMMMIS and Attrny at Law GEORG HARSSS and the like still remaining on it.
“That’s, huh.” Desmond tries to think about how that might actually smell, but he guesses that might happen soon enough. Grease, maybe? He supposes grease.
“Oh wow, there’s even a hat for luck.” He snickers, walking over to it. “Why do I feel like Aedan’s mule would look really good in this? “ And then the cafe itself is, huh. “Okay, I see what you mean about it being a little dated, but nothing that’s insurmountable, right? Ezio would say it’s too bad Leonardo didn’t find his way here. It looks like a DREAM project for the guy.” He did always like Leonardo, after all.
“And ooh this board. This could be fun to play with.”
The back stairs are from the hat shop, and are indeed pretty grim, leading down to the basement and up to the second floor and a shared bathroom with the offices. The main stairs are vintage and look like they'd be better for new carpet, but pretty good shape. "Elevator's got a hand crank to turn in it, but it's been checked for safety." Yvette's following him. The cafe does have a distinct "burger place which needs to mop up" smell of beef tallow and old frying grease, but some of that might be the fryer hood in the kitchen which frankly looks kind of scary. "I do like the board? And for the - having this look just like a regular house, it means you've got a stop before you're getting anywhere near the homes sort of stuff." Plus, built in mailboxes with mostly working doors on them.
She's tossing him a flashlight. "Lights are on, but a lot of the bulbs are dead. The bakery - the building that's not on a corner like this one, has no power, but it's also a lot more move in ready, other than the open question of the plumbing."
The main office floor has a room with a ton of desks (typing pool?), some empty rooms, and an old tailor's shop, judging by the big cutting table, and the lamp clamped to another table, and the old sign on the door. Someone, at some point, replaced everything in the bathroom on the second floor with the loudest possible brass fixtures.
Desmond’s accepting that and flicking it on, but he’s also focusing intently for a second, and there’s a bit of a blue shift to his eyes, as much as possible as he moves along.
“Plumbing IS kind of important, yeah.” He agrees. “And oh wow, the brass. That’s...a thing.”
"Original nickel and a neat octagonal sink on the third floor." Yvette leans on the railing. "Are you - how'd Reynard put it? The sight? Eagle eyes? It's part of why I wanted you guys to check the place out for anything that seemed bad." She still caught herself wanting to message her Fox and tell him about things, but . . . well - that's probably true for everyone here.
She should probably ask if Shaun would mind getting messages like that. The mini bathrooms on each floor thing seem to be partially due to the differing clientele. You'd probably not want your hat shop ladies with your legal team powdering their noses together, and so on. Also, she's pretty sure it was pretty easy to design that way, since it's probably all going to the same sewer stack from kitchen up to the top floor. Which means you're probably looking at 30's era plumbing so it's either rock solid or dubious.
“Exactly. Eagle vision is what it translated to with Altair, when I learned it.” Desmond’s scanning the walls now, checking things out. “Okay, wow. So far so good on this floor.” And the rest of the place seems much the same.
“I’d say it’s a DEFINITE contender, given what you’ve said you’re looking for. What have we got next?”
"What are you looking for? Reynard's descriptions were always - he said it gave him a headache, and usually he was looking for warnings left by other Assassins." Yvette's locking up. "And - these coordinates. Ex bakery."
The bakery still smells like bread, unsurprisingly, and about two thirds of it is taken up by the space that probably held the ovens. There's a vintage steam oven still in place, probably too heavy and too old to move. "Top two floors were already a hotel in the past, for the train station, middle floor were a dry goods store and clothing store. Hotel was open in the last ten years, so it's semi move-in ready, if worn."
“Right now, structural difficulties, anything like that.” Desmond says. “I”m not sure there’s much chance of warnings here. Then again, the people I’ve interacted with who I had to look up this stuff for were. Well, I spent most of my active duty in ancient dwellings, caves, temples, Ezio and Altair and Connor in other sacred places...Ask Ezio about whether God lives in the Vatican sometime. It’s an interesting story.”
Or he could tell her, the next time he starts bleeding Ezio, but he’d like to pretend that isn’t happening as much. These days, with a Haytham and an Ezio here, he’s more apt to be Altair or Connor than anyone else, which is, at least, not as weird for most of them. Well, Haytham thinks it’s weird but Haytham’s adjusted to a LOT.
"Would that be one you'd know? Ezio's one of the guys you can be, right?" Yvette's tilting her head. She's sitting on the counter watching him explore.
“Sometimes.” Desmond nods. ‘It’s easier here because he IS here so my brain doesn’t confuse things as much. The version of the ANIMUS I was part of, even with Rebecca’s modifications still left me prone to really thinking I was them. They have medicine now, to prevent that at least, in new people. It got messed up, at home. You’d get kids playing the abstergo games and thinking they were Aveline or Edward..I think those are the two who got actual released stuff. Don’t get me wrong, Aveline’s the BEST, but…”
"But I can see where it's frustrating to suddenly realize you've been someone else, and even if you like them, they're - moving you, versus you?" Yvette shakes her head. "Sometime I need to know how to handle it. Other than just telling you that you're bleeding someone, and that I'm here."
“I”m hoping that when we crack wherever Abstergo IS, they’ll have some of their meds with them for one.” Desmond says. “They wouldn’t be risking Sherr bleeding an ancestor like that, and would take the precautions so that might help. But uh, reminding me who I am, asking questions about recent events eventually brings me out.”
"Makes sense." Yvette frowns. "Are you okay with no flirting while you're bleeding? Just - since you're not the one consenting?"
“I prefer that, actually. “ Desmond says. “I was trying to get that through to brain Ezio. He’s got a thing for Shaun. And for just about everyone but Shaun reminds him of Leonardo. Luckily the same’s true of OUR Ezio and he’s very much interested in protecting people he likes, even if they aren’t into him. And family. So...It works out.”
He smiles a little.
“I’m glad you’re asking this stuff actually, instead of assuming one way or the other, Helps feel like it’s still my life while it’s happening.”
"Hey, if there's something I'm forgetting to ask, check in with me? I know I had to kind of change how things worked when my friend's PTSD was pretty bad, but I've never dealt with bleeding effects." She stretches her back. "Want to head back? I'm feeling sore and hungry and kind of tired. It sounds like you like the first place? How's this one?"
“I can do that, definitely.” Desmond says. “It’s weird because I don’t actually know, or remember what’s going on, so I can’t exactly describe the whole sensation. It’s not like, say, a PTSD episode with flashbacks in the TRADITIONAL sense where you can figure out ways around it. And it’s usually pretty mundane. I mean, okay. Ezio and Altair have definitely taken over fights before, less with Connor. He’s uh. Massive. You’ve met Haytham, from a distance, right? I didn’t exactly get the Kenway height, but Connor’s even BIGGER. Anyway, though. It’s sort of weird that way. I’m hoping that when we work out where Sherr is, they’ll have been dosing him and we can snag a couple pills and get a chem student somewhere to break them down so we can make them.”
Granted, Shaun says Arno’s guy was too far gone even with the pills and killed himself over Elise’s death, but Arno, well, isn’t the most emotionally stable person in the world. Between their little gang, he’d only say that Jacob’s worse.
"And my -" Yvette's throat catches a little. She's not going to cry about who can't be here. "My friend was more - they drugged him with basically a bunch of truth telling serum. And who knows what else. But - I've never seen you bleeding? Not in that way, I mean. It's - just something you've got. Like what he has. If there's pills that'll help, that's good but I don't think you've got to never have any scars from what they did to you." She pats his shoulder of the side with the bad hand. "Take us home?"
“I mean in that case…” Desmond considers. “I’d guess the usual stuff you’d think about in terms of kidnappings. I’m not going to freak out really, but I tend to autopilot stuff like sudden movements near my face? Chloroformed, and I couldn’t exactly break away in time.” He thinks for a second. “Stuff like the rest is more...I WOULD probably have had issues once, but I think I got them out with Altair and Ezio more than the others? Ezio especially. We uh, he’s the one I was ‘with’ for the longest amount of time.” he pauses. “Just make sure nobody gets hung around either of us? That one, I’m pretty sure would freak him out to this day too. And good idea.”
"Do they still do hangi - I don't think I want to know the answer to that." Yvette's digging out the coordinates for the phone. "Let me lock up and be sure everything's fine here. Any preferences for dinner? We could see if Shaun's seen daylight in twelve hours and take him down to a restaurant. Probably one with wifi, if we want him to go along with it."
“I mean, I think in some non westernized places and I wouldn’t put it past people from fantasy universes who show up here or whatever?” Desmond shrugs. “That’s just the one thing in Ezio’s head that *I* can’t get rid of. Sounds like stuff with your friend was a little more, well. I had the benefit of having the people I needed the most at the times I needed them the most. Obviously the whole having me AT Abstergo thing hinged on Ezio and Altair but… without them, I don’t know. And…” He snorts. “That’s a solid idea. I mean I’m betting the answer’s probably no.”
"He was - doing better? But he still had a ton of stuff he couldn't handle. So I got used to all the things that were the new normal. So - we could see if Shaun wants to go out for food. Or have some appear. What about you? We could plan for a schedule of a nap afterwards, if nothing's blowing up at the HQ." Yvette's locking up the doors. "I'd enjoy that, with you." Since she's getting used to the idea that it helps, for Desmond, knowing the patterns of what she's comfortable with trying. And let's face it, Yvette enjoys just having some downtime with people, and knowing they're as comfortable as they can be in the moment.
“That makes sense. You would have to do that after a point, I suppose. Malik, uh, friend of Altair’s said something to me...well to Altair but I was in the room with him, about new normals and how they kind of suck at first.” He pauses. “Imagine that but in Arabic. The gist was that it DOES take a while to find one and sometimes the people around you have a harder time than you do. He lost his brother and his arm because Altair’s...because he was Altair. So it was one of those things about how people were relating to him and how Altair was being weirder and he JUST wanted to go back to them sniping at each other about all of this completely unrelated random stuff , and, anyway.”
Desmond shrugs. “Let’s focus on the rest of that. Shaun’s a good idea and I like the next one even better.”
Yvette grins and tucks an arm around him before punching in the coordinates for home. "I like you, love."
“I like you too.” Desmond grins, stepping closer. “Kind of a lot.”
"Smart girls should date guys like that." Yvette leans to kiss his cheek. "Thank you for coming with me on this. It really does help."