i do all that may become a man;

[risegloriana]

Who: Elizabeth Tudor, Desmond Miles
What: all sorts of memory related things.
When: a sunny, quiet afternoon
Where: the villa
Rating: PG... ish?

Comments

[milesawayfrom]

"I think it's more like I found you." Desmond cracked a smile. She was the one looking at the paintings. "I'll take that as a compliment then." Then he nodded towards the paintings. "Ezio collected all of them as he went through Italy. Venice, Florence, Florì, places throughout Tuscany. You should ask him about them sometime. He knows more about them than I do."

He could recall buying them and sending them to Monteriggioni, but not their names or who they were painted by. The smaller details like that were lost in the sea of memories that sometimes felt like it was his life. Desmond knew better, after having placing his broken mind together, but that didn't get rid of the vividness of the ancestral memories he had lived. Somethings were sharper than others, and then there were times that he could only remember certain things in his dreams. Nightmares of faces from the Crusades and Renaissance as blades cut into them. The nightmares were fewer now, but he still found himself waking up sometimes and hoping to whatever was listening that his ancestor didn't hear him.

[risegloriana]

"Oh hardly, for surely I could sneak up on an assassin in his own home." Though she doesn't believe it, for she laughs all the same.

She turned away from the paintings, walking across the stone floor to the stairs. "Do as you will, Master Desmond, something tells me if I started complimenting you properly, you'd run away like a boy from his tutors." She did take her time on the stairs, getting distracted again by the paintings. She'd never see these things, not in her time. For she'd never leave England, and it was seldom anything so fine ever left its home. "I've heard of some of these... others are so far after me. But it is nice to see them... Do you like them? Do people still appreciate paintings anymore?" She reached the top of the stairs, fingers running along the bannister.

[milesawayfrom]

"I'm pretty sure you couldn't. We're really good at hiding in plain sight." He let the smile turn into a grin.

Then he laughed. "Maybe. I'm not that great with the whole compliments thing." He wasn't in a rush. Instead he stood and leaned against the railing with his arms crossed. Desmond paid little attention to the paintings that were on the walls. It wasn't his forte and there were more important things going on in Mandalus to be preoccupied by how Ezio chose to decorate the villa. "They're pretty nice. Painting isn't really me."

[risegloriana]

"Oh but I'm just so very discreet." Says her in the bright green silks and silver thread that glitters, but she's not taking herself seriously at all.

"It would seem that way. You must learn to take them, sometime. Or someone will exploit this as a weakness. Which would be cruel of them, but I am sure it's expected." And by someone, she meant her, but that was plainly obviously. She smoothed a hand over her skirts before coming up to him. Giving him that same kiss on the cheek in greeting that she had taken to doing, whether he liked it or not. "Don't like deciphering them? Or just not appreciator of beauty?"

[milesawayfrom]

Desmond decided not to comment on that. He simply looked at the color of her gown. Right. Discreet. Huh-huh.

"I haven't had a whole lot of people in my life to compliment me." He shrugged it off. His dad was a Drill Sargent when it came to the ways of training him as a kid. Desmond left and for nine years really had no friends. There were the Assassins of his time, and then the Brotherhood in Mandalus... but it was still hard to shake off an entire life worth of feeling useless. Even if the fate of the world was on his shoulders.

He cracked her a grin, even if it was forced. "More like... Ezio knew Leonardo da Vinci so, you know, there's a lot of stuff that's kind of family secrets." This was awkward. "I worked bartending back home. I'm used to loud music and crazy lights and listening to peoples problems as they get drunk."

[risegloriana]

The most discreet. Well, she was at home. Honestly unless it was a session of parliament, or you were a priest, you'd look very odd wearing only black or white.

"Well then, I shall have to do it more often if that be the case. Where should I start? Your looks or your skill?" Grinning widely, she tapped her finger against her lips -- as if it were some great matter of state that need contemplation. "For surely you've pretty bright eyes. But no doubt your mind is brighter still."

Her eyebrows went up. She knew Da Vinci, closer to her grandfather's time, but his work even to her was said to be unparalleled. "And here you are, in the company of such fine work and so utterly unappreciative of it." She gave him a little nudge against his side. "Aha, and you do not long for anything else? For surely fish long to fly and eagles long to swim from time to time."

[milesawayfrom]

He's never really going to understand why high courts need to wear such fancy things. Then again, he is only from the modern era.

Desmond stared at her, forcing himself not to blush or stammer. Why the hell was the Queen of England making him feel like a little kid? If only Shaun was here. He'd be freaking out that Queen Elizabeth I herself was trying to... flirt with him. Desmond shrugged and glanced away. "I guess so." He felt pretty stupid for everything he had done in his past.

"People would say the same thing if they found out the Queen of England was flirting with me." He replied. "Leonardo was just a person too. Smart as hell, sure, but just a person." There was a smirk on his face. "I already am what I wanted to be."

An assassin.

[risegloriana]

Because power should dress like it knows what it is doing. It should be that seemed untouchable, and Elizabeth aimed to be that to her people, above and beyond even the normal, so they could believe in something. They could believe in what was so far above even normal nobility.

She grinned only wider, watching him force himself be calm, to not give in like young men usually did. "Oh now, is that all Desmond?" She considered it a public service to teach young men to flirt. So far they all seemed rather awful at it.

"Those who knew me would say I was bored no doubt." She gave him a determined poke. "Flirting is the least of what I am capable of." The queen shook her head. "A person of skill, just the same way as I am well learned." She gave a sigh. "You always knew what you wanted to be? Once upon a time, all I wanted was to be acknowledged by those around me. I have that now..." she shrugged, it came at a high cost. "Once I was just a child that was largely ignored by those around her."

[milesawayfrom]

That was just a statement. Desmond had seen it where people don't need the garbs or trappings to actually be powerful. Control the hearts and minds of men... that was real power. He saw it used for both Assassins and Templars--sw the damage it did. How it's destroyed an entire civilization. He wasn't going to question Elizabeth's power, simply because he knew the version of her in his universe had an Apple of Eden.

He had been around the block a few times. Flirting was nothing. Flirting with the Queen of England? That is weird. Even for him. "No point in bragging about something you haven't been doing your whole life."

He was being honest. Sure, he had skills; ones that he learned from his ancestors and honed to fit him. He had lost all the training he had as a child in those nine years. Desmond wasn't going to say he was an amazing assassin or "the savior", because, why bother? He was just a guy who had a hell of an ancestry. There was nothing too special about him. The Ones Who Came Before could have picked anyone. They just happened to pick him.

"Ow!" He reached up and rubbed his arm where she had poked him. "Hey, you keep going at this, and you're going to ruin that reputation of yours being the Virgin Queen." Oh, man. He wished Shaun was here so he could rub it in his face. "No. For awhile I thought I had what I wanted. It took me awhile to get it through my head that what I thought I wanted wasn't real." There was no true freedom as long as the Templars controlled everything. "Ignored, huh? I ran away."

[risegloriana]

She honestly wished things would be so easy. Then she wouldn't have been a frustrated crying mess every time she had to pass a law and trying to convince them, her bishops and her lords what had to be done. Perhaps she was a traditionalist, it involved just kidnapping.

Elizabeth is dismissive of that, waving a hand, flicking her wrist neatly. "Hardly. Whether you are doing it a long while or a short while, the fact remains the same if you are good at it. You are just that, and if you will not brag then I will do it for you."

... She'd argue that tooth and nail, because she refused so much that she was chosen simply by accident. Too many had died, there was too much suffering. But then, perhaps, he didn't have the need to consolidate as she did, to force her world to her will.

"Oh, please. You're a warrior, that ought to hardly hurt." Snorting in amusement at him. "I think the trickster already saw to that reputation, don't you think?" Really had, and there wasn't much pretending otherwise. "... We've much in common Desmond -- perhaps not circumstance, but ah, I know that feeling well." She shook her head, amused at a thought of a Prince running. "Run? Where should I run when the world is watching? I bet you'd never think you're envied by royalty for that."

[milesawayfrom]

That mess is what made it human. What was the point in being human if they couldn't chose? If you were forced to do whatever someone did simply because of an object of power - or because they thought you were less than them? What was the point? Desmond would chose the mess and the risks any day. At least then they could chose whatever destiny they wanted. Complete with it's consequences.

"Well, Ezio and Altaïr were the ones who taught me. I can't take all the credit. Even if you want to brag about me."

Desmond wasn't about to point out how she shouldn't brag about him. People shouldn't know that he was an assassin unless they had to. Gabriel? Unfortunately, he was one of those people. Maybe if the guy hadn't been an asshole he wouldn't have ended up in the situation he was in. There were a few others in the city that knew - but Gabriel was one of the more dangerous ones who knew.

"I'm pretty sure a warrior and an assassin are different." He remarked with a grin. Even if he knew how to use a vast amount of weaponry dating back to the Crusades. The Bleeding Effect trained his mind and muscles, but he still needed to practice at it. "...Wait, he was serious about that?"

Sorry, Elizabeth. He's still trying to fathom the fact she'd sleep with someone like The Trickster.

[risegloriana]

The mess made the humanity, and the mess brought the pain and the suffering -- it brought a country divide and butchering and burning. It was why she tried so hard.

"And my tutors taught me -- I am still proud for speaking ten languages. Are you going to tell me I shouldn't be?" She's faintly challenging of him, chin tilted up and jaw set proudly, all that steel she kept hidden most of the time, but then she shifts and it's simply gone again, too much of a changing creature for that. "See, perhaps, if we were talking about your flirting -- that would be an utterly different scenario."

"Assassin's don't often fight for causes. They kill for money. Granted Mercenaries do the same, but they are as described. You're closer to a warrior than that." Elizabeth looked at him side long, then nodded stiffly. "Indeed. Not perhaps the way I would of like to make it known, but he was speaking the truth. He is my ah -- amante." She gave a guilty little laugh, because it was still hard for her to admit. Not because Gabriel, but because for so many years she could never breath a word of her own affairs.

[milesawayfrom]

"Ten languages, huh? I barely speak Italian." Even then that's just broken phrases and the words he picked up from being in the Animus for so long. He rolled his eyes at her. Was Queen Elizabeth really trying to bait him into a pissing contest about who had the most training? "Oh, let me guess. It's non existent and tactless? I'm pretty sure that's what Ezio would say."

Hell, Ezio would probably say that Desmond's lack of flirting would come from Altaïr's side of the family.

Demsond shrugged. "That's what they make you think in my world. The Templars. They rewrite history to make us look like the bad guys while they're the saving light of humanity." He couldn't help the angered tone that came whenever he talked about those bastards. "Holy shit." Great job, Desmond. Use those words of yours.

[risegloriana]

"Then we shall have to start from there -- moi amore." But she'd be offended that he thought that of her, she'd never be quite like that, it was all to prove one single point, that just because you were taught by someone else, didn't make you any less skilled. "I wouldn't say that exactly, I would say that you simply need practise, and perhaps a second chance at it." She stopped him, to take his again, dipping a curtsey. "Pretend I am a lady you fancy, what would you say to me?"

"But the Templars were destroyed before even my grandfather's time? They were slaughtered even, so much blood spilled that the day is considered cursed itself." She frowned at him, confused at what he was saying. But his response made her frown deeper. "Really now? Is it just so shocking I should pick him?"

[milesawayfrom]

He chuckled a bit at the tacked on Italian. That one he did know. The Animus left certain words untranslated, which Rebecca always apologized for, but he liked it. Hearing how they spoke back in Ezio's time helped him understand that much more. At the question he eyed her, raising an eyebrow. Uh. He was pretty sure how her time worked and his time worked for 'picking up chicks' worked differently. This was officially awkward training. "I guess that all depends on where it was I met you."

He shook his head. "They survived underground. The Knights Templar were destroyed, sure, but their thought process and everything else stayed around. Sometimes it seems like an endless war. Templars versus Assassins. No one ever winning, no one ever staying dead." That was just how it was. People desired control, people desired freedom. As long as they did those two philosophies would always bring back the Templars and Assassins. "I just never expected it. I mean, after what he did."

[risegloriana]

Little bits of affection, she'd found, were always universal. After all, Ezio used the words easily and often, she figured at the very least, he'd know it in those terms. "Well, say it were my time." She composed herself -- it was fun, in its own way. Once she'd just been a maid as all women were. Same prospects, to have a husband and charm men to her own benefit. "How would you get my attention?" She doubted it was all that different in any time.

"... Of course. I ought not be surprised but..." Elizabeth knew these patterns after all. Knew that there was somethings that never truly died, no matter how many times killed. "I just find it strange that -- an assassin, whose task is to do a work so undesirable, would say it was for good reasons without religion being the cause?" She shrugged. That was the usual excuse, after all. But the question of Gabriel, of her trickster, made her pause, and for a moment, she did truly seem younger, less a queen and more a woman. Worse than that, one infatuated, her head ducked a little, a smile curled at the corner of her lips. "Great men have often said that out of adversity... love can grow. Perhaps against all odds but..." she laughed so very gently. "Not that I didn't make him pay for what he'd done. Women can have such a way of crippling men, after all."