Lucy Stillman § 002

[assassininheels]

Who: Lucy Stillman and Desmond Miles
What: Two assassins on a datetrying to find their Place of Solace.  I mean one Assassin and a Novice
Where: All over the city -->The Sanctuary beneath the Auditore Villa
When: Night
Warnings: Closed.  Language maybe?  Will be updated if needed (in case Desmond finds a bag of oreo)

Comments

[assassininheels]

When she heard Desmond in her head--the whole sensation still something that startled her at times--Lucy pushed herself off the pillar she was leaning against, turning to him. And promptly cursed her stomach for doing that stupid flip-flop it started to do when she found him smiling at her when they were alone together. Still, she gave him a smile of her own, hoping her thoughts sounded as light as they should be:

'Really? Because I was starting to think I had been stood up.'

Yes, Desmond, you're late. Was that part of your plan of playing hard to get?

'Are you feeling any better tonight?' Because the last time they had met, he hadn't look so good and Lucy couldn't deny that she was still worried about his sanity and well-being in this world. Just like she was worried about Rebecca and Shaun. They were all team mates, no favoritism, right?

The Assassin moved closer to the ledge, over-looking the building next to where they were standing:

'I was thinking that we could search for a safe place for all of us to meet. 'Us' being all the Assassins, of course. 'One of our place of Solace would be perfect, if we can find one.' She turned around to look at Desmond again, her smile slowly turning into a smirk: 'I hope you're hope for some physical training. We have a lot of ground to cover.'

And with that, she took a few steps back before running to give herself a good momentum, jumping onto the neighboring building. Lucy had checked this area earlier, so it was time to get to another part of the city.

[assassininheels]

She hated feeling like Desmond was diminishing what he was going through concerning the side effects of the time he spent in the Animus. Lucy had to wonder if he was doing it out of pride, or simply out of the naivety that the symptoms he had were not that bad. It never occurred to the blond that he might have been hiding the truth simply to spare her more worries. She could take on more. She was strong, wasn't she?

Those darker thoughts were however quickly pushed back as laughter filled her mind: 'Of course I'll be able to keep up. I wasn't the one stuffing my face with cheeseburgers back in Italy!'

While she was still teasing on his weight, it was a wonder to her where he'd manage to put all that food. There wasn't a single ounce of unnecessary fat on his body, despite his job asking him to lay down most of the day. Not that she had actually look at his body more than necessary, not at all. For some reason, that thought brought warmth to her cheeks and she pushed it as far as she could in the back of her mind so Desmond wouldn't pick up on it, putting the account of the stains on her cheeks on the physical exertion.

'And the levers are still your job. I wouldn't want you to lose your hand at it' she tossed as she looked over her shoulder, making sure the bartender was still following her.

Their pace was a good one and within a few minutes, they found their way into a part of the city Lucy had yet to explore. She stopped by the edge of the roof's building, looking down on the streets.

'I don't know...My best guess is that our place of solace must be a place where we felt the safest at in our world.' There were so very few for her. Her first apartment, the hideout, the Sanctuary. She gave a look at Desmond, wondering where he had felt the safest at in his life.

'Can you see anything? I mean, with the Eagle Vision.' Maybe this would be a shortcut to searching the buildings one by one.

[assassininheels]

It wasn't surprising to hear Desmond put the fault of the cheeseburger incident on Shaun and Lucy laughed softly, the sound echoing in her head instead of passing her lips.

She was about to retort to that when the mixed image of the Villa entered her mind. She shifted, suddenly surprised to see the Sanctuary through Desmond's eyes. It was as she remembered it too, except that the bartender was thinking of the team as well. She had to smile at how he saw them: Rebecca hunched over the Animus, Shaun reading a book by his desk, her giving him a cup of coffee while they lounged by the stairs. Lucy couldn't help the pang in her heart: it was the perfect picture of a team, one that didn't seem on the verge of the end of the world and the blond hoped Desmond felt about them as he saw them.

Still, seeing the young man's memory felt invasive and the comparison with what Desmond was living every day in the Animus was too easy to make for Lucy to ignore it. Was that how he felt when he was looking at his ancestors' lives? She should really have asked about how he felt in that regards, instead of always focusing on the more physical part of the side effects. She shook her head, pushing the thought away when she felt his voice in her head again.

She nodded, waiting to see if they'd be lucky in this part of the town. The young woman tried to focus her mind on a building far of at the horizon, so visions of inverted colors and distinct auras wouldn't fill her own mind. There was no reasons why she shouldn't be a blue hue through the Eagle Vision. No matter what happened, she'd always be on his side. By his side as well.

Lucy looked where Desmond pointed. She couldn't see anything for now, but she trusted him, and she nodded:

'Lead the way,' she said while gesturing to the general direction of what he had spotted, ready to follow him closely.

[assassininheels]

It was easy to see even for Lucy that Desmond's skills had grown since the last time they had run together. She knew she would soon have to test his fighting skills as well. His shy debut at the Hideout must shine pale in compared to what he was probably capable of doing now. The blond Assassin made a mental note to ask the formal bartender for a sparring match once they were both more settled in this place.

Still, she followed him closely, choosing path more adapted to her shorter yet more acrobatic strides. Her pace only faltered when she caught glimpse of the man's thoughts: partial images of the Apple lighting up Juno's Temple, a bloodied Hidden Blade and her own blue eyes looking back in shock. The images felt so real that Lucy stumbled lightly but caught herself before Desmond looked back at her. Still, she was frowning and couldn't help but wonder if what she had saw was what kept him screaming at night or was something he was trying to hide from her. The images didn't make sense much in her mind, but perhaps the novice would be able to clarify them for her.

But before she could ask, Desmond turned to her and she pushed the questions further into her mind, choosing to focus on the task at hand. She could always ask later on. Walking up to him, Lucy looked down at the building in front of them.

'Does...this wall look familiar to you?'

Jumping across the ledge, she grabbed a flag pole before swinging to land gracefully on the ground, walking up to said wall. Running a hand over the stone, she couldn't help feeling like she had seen it before. Quickly walking around the corner of the building, she stopped short in her tracks: there, on the adjacent wall was the same entryway they had encountered at the Auditore Villa. Almost in awe, she walked in, finding the entrance to the Sanctuary just like back in Monteriggioni. The black plastic carpet they had used to roll in the equipment was still there, as well as the many cables and Lucy was only half surprised to walk the stairs down to enter the Santuary. It looked exactly like they had left it, it was almost scary.

She walked to her desk, running her hand over the top of her computer tower. She turned around to look at Desmond, her sweeping over the room while doing so. Their sleeping gears, the statue of Altaïr, even the supplies they hadn't touched were there.

'This....this is...incredible....'

Her blue eyes finally settled on the Animus and she felt a pang in her chest. It couldn't be functional, couldn't it? Not that she'd want to send anyone in, anyway.

[assassininheels]

Lucy held a hand and ran it over the hand rest, brow creasing in thought. It was strange how, now that here in this place the Animus seemed useless, she found herself resenting it slightly. If she let herself dwell on more selfish thoughts, she would have to admit that no matter how much she knew her research had been important to mankind, to keep the people safe from the Templars, she still hated that she had to sacrifice over seven years of her life to the machine. Long years spent hidden amongst enemies, without friends, without real contact with the outside world. Seven years to get that much closer to the Apple, seven years spent watching as the Templars went through subjects like fire wood. Fifteen subjects she watched dying or being rid of before one gave them an inkling of hope about the Pieces of Eden. One she watched descent into madness without being able to do anything to help him, to let him know that he was heard and that his warnings would fall into the right ears. Sixteen innocent persons she let die and no matter what Desmond had told her when they had met with Vidic at the Hideout, she knew that Warren was right. She was as responsible for their death as he was. Just as she was responsible of putting Desmond's sanity and life at risk.

Desmond...the only good thing that had waltzed into her life since she had started her double life at Abstergo. It was still amazing to her how much he had opened up since he'd woken up on the Animus in the Templars' facility. How much he had changed, for the best, since he had first walked in Altaïr's boots, literally. She turned to look at him as she felt the weight of his hand on her shoulder, seeing his concern in his eyes before hearing it in her head. Lucy couldn't bring herself to share her thoughts with him. It seemed so selfish of her to do so when he was the one giving up everything to help the Assassins. Something inside of her wanted to make her tell the bartender that she didn't have any intentions of sending him back into the Animus. At least not any time soon. But instead she nodded slowly:

'Yes. I guess I didn't expect this place to look so much like...home, you know?' she thought as she gave him a small reassuring smile. It was the least she could do for him. To stay as strong as he thought she was.

[assassininheels]

The blond Assassin felt that what Desmond had thought of wasn't exactly what he had first meant to say, as if he had changed his mind before words had formed into her mind. She let the moment pass and turned around to catch that half-smile of his, her own lips mirroring his expression:

'For all we know, this might be Rebecca's or Shaun's Place of Solace. But either way, this place will be perfect to set up a base for all of us Assassins' she thought, trying to focus on a more professional view of the situation instead of letting her thoughts wander to places she shouldn't visit. Like how she really wanted to prove to Desmond that she could have fun, or how sometimes she wished they had met under better circumstances than 'get into a machine I help built that's gonna turn you insane, but really it's for mankind's best interests'.

Moving to boot up her computer, she gave Desmond another look. It was strangely reassuring that he had felt the safest when around her...around them. But she couldn't help the sudden pang in her heart as she realized that here, in this world, he didn't need them like he did back in their world. Here, he was safe, with no Templars and no impending doom hanging over their head. She knew she needed to cling to the thought that everything they all went through had been enough to forge a friendship that would stay strong in this place as well. Lucy didn't even want to fathom the thought of Desmond distancing himself from their group.

Lucy's gaze lowered from the novice to look at the Animus again. No Templars, no end of the world plot could also mean that all of them could have a chance at a normal life, here. The blond Assassin wasn't even sure she could remember what a normal life was anyway, but it didn't change the fact that the thought was a pleasant one. Still, she had to wonder: would she have the guts to reach out for what she really wanted, no matter the consequences? Despite herself, that single thought was strong enough for her to look back at Desmond, her cheeks warming up lightly at the implications tumbling in her head.