first // OPEN

[seventeenth]

[Desmond thinks he's getting the hang of the castle. On and off, all day, he's been alternating between lounging around the living area and badgering people to come explore the castle with him -- not very far, of course, but just enough to get a proper feel for the place. He wants to go back to the tower. He wants to check the sarcophagus room to see if anyone else showed up. He wants to see what's waiting on the other side of the dorms. He wants to climb all over ancient, crumbling architecture for the hell of it.]

[It'll probably get annoying for everyone else, after a while, but for now Desmond is enjoying himself.]

(ooc: An open 'get bugged by Desmond' post. I can come up with a reason for hm to approach and chatter at literally anyone! If there's a specific area you want your character to go to just say so in the subject line/an ooc note, or write the tag with them already in that part of the castle.)

Comments

[seventeenth]

You must lead a pretty interesting life, huh? [That or she's really calm and boring, but he doubts that a lot.]

Well-- he's not, not really. [Desmond's not the greatest liar, and he's honestly not sure why he's fumbling to cover his tracks -- aside from it being awkward to admit that hey, we might be related -- but it's getting a little easier.] That's the point. His mother kept a lot of journals, though, so she's famous for that.

[enthusiast]

Very interesting, yes.

[That's mildly suspicious, though, and she sees him stumbling over his own story.]

He spent little time with his mother for most of his life, and he never mentioned that she was a writer.

[seventeenth]

She suddenly stopped, right around 1477. Ezio wouldn't have even been 20 when that happened. [He frowns, a little, as he remembers why she stopped. Not that he can say that.] Though-- well, no one's sure why.

[enthusiast]

He would have been eighteen, no.

[She frowns, though she's glad that Desmond knows him from happier times, and doesn't need to know about those long decades between the tragedy and his retirement.]

I will leave it to him to tell you what happens next, but rest assured, all is well in his life. He has decided to retire, and we will be leaving Venezia for Roma soon, to make proper arrangements. Then... who knows? But I intend to keep him happy.

[seventeenth]

[Desmond nods, smiling again.]

That's good to hear. I'll make sure to remember it I ever get out of there.

[enthusiast]

You'd better. [amused.] I wonder how much of my time was lost to history... both the good and the bad. We know so little about those that came before us.

[seventeenth]

There's a lot we still know, but there's a lot we don't. [Desmond considers for a long moment. He can't really start rambling about Templars -- he's not even sure if Ezio would have told her about them.] People have always been pretty good about making inconvenient information disappear. A lot of the gaps in our history books were put there intentionally.

[enthusiast]

This is true. Many people have a vested interest in making information disappear. I grew up in Konstantiniyye –– Constantinople or İstanbul, if you prefer, though who knows what it is called in your time, if she still stands. She has known many rulers, and many tyrants, many of whom have tried to crush the less flattering parts of history. My parents fled when the war started with Venezia in 1498, but I returned alone later to open bookshops and make knowledge accessible in the region. It is inevitable that many will try to stop those books, but for every man trying to remove information, there is another trying to put it there.

My husband and I have both done that work, though in very different ways.

[seventeenth]

[Ahah, so she does know what the Templars are. Or, ar least, that her husband is trying to fight against them? Or--]

[This is confusing.]

Yeah, I mean-- book burning never went out of style, and there's a bunch of other ways people like to obscure information.

Course, there are a lot of other ways to get information around, too.

[enthusiast]

[Nod, pleased.]

I was told of something called "the internet".

[seventeenth]

Yup. That's a lot harder to censor. And technology means-- well. [He holds up his phone again.] It's possible to copy entire books into phones like these.

[enthusiast]

[She looks at the screen of her phone again.]

But it could not possibly be pleasant to read a book on such a tiny area!

[seventeenth]

I don't care for it, but apparently it's pretty popular. [He sets his phone down again.]

[enthusiast]

[Serious nod.]

Books are much better... and they carry their age so much better. A picture on a thing is not the same as an ancient book with its original bindings –– the same book touched by those that made it.

[seventeenth]

[It's hard for Desmond to not grin.] Can't say I've gotten a hold of any ancient, handcrafted books, but I imagine you're right on that count.

[enthusiast]

But you can see them in museums, can't you?

[seventeenth]

Yeah, but they don't let customers touch them. [He also never got a chance to go to many museums.]

[enthusiast]

How disappointing! Then again, they must be very fragile, by your time.

[seventeenth]

Pretty much. They're trying to protect them from people who'd destroy them on purpose, too.

[enthusiast]

Also disappointing, that such people still exist.

[seventeenth]

Yeah, but I don't think that's ever gonna change, either.

[enthusiast]

One can always hope. We shall have to look for someone from 2513, or 3012 and see what they have to say.

[seventeenth]

[.... if the world is even still around then.]

[Which Desmond is not going to say. He grins instead.] I'll keep an eye out. Can't say I'm not curious to see how things are gonna go in the future.

[enthusiast]

[Smile]

I'll keep an eye out, too.

[seventeenth]

[Desmond laughs.] I bet you're more interested in asking if they've uncovered any more old books.