An Uneasy Peace, Part I

[madimpossibledreamer]

I did log back in for the tour lol it’s been a while but also ‘tis the month for the spooky, right?
Also, in general, there are clothing choices that are only allowed for women or only allowed for men. Given that this is an utterly ridiculous decision I have elected to ignore it.
There’s about 5 different currencies. Most of them are premium. The gold bars were funny, though, so I had to poke fun at the absurdity.

Main Points:
Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: Desmond starts poking around this part of London as the Dragon mess with him and he learns something about the local power structures.
Word Count: 1043
Rating: Teen

         So Desmond just...hangs around in London for a bit. He gets a notification on his phone that Pax Romana has been deposited into his account. Apparently that’s a unit of money, and his phone’s not lying to him, because the bank he wanders into verifies he does, in fact, have the hexagonal shaped coin with a little griffon on the front. It doesn’t look like any of the coins he’s seen before, but then, he gets the feeling that the Animus streamlined some things because he’ll wake from vague nightmares of young Ezio trying to make sense of the Italian local currencies sometimes (old Ezio had just kind of shrugged off the necessity and gotten on with it), and he’s pretty certain the Crusades didn’t have the same currency everywhere, either, though in some cases they probably resorted to bartering instead.
         He doesn’t withdraw all of the Pax Romana even though he’s not really used to actually using a bank as himself. Again, that trust in the banks is a holdover from Ezio suggesting that yeah, a bank might not be the worst place to keep one’s money, just don’t count on it if someone decides to freeze your account or commit treason or whatever, though he’s pretty sure that last one doesn’t really apply too much in his own case. The echo of Altaïr grumpily concurs, even though he was glared away from the Assassin coffers by Malik and secretly was pleased because he didn’t want to do the bookkeeping any more than Malik (or Maria for that matter) wanted him to do the bookkeeping. Even as a Master Assassin, he tended to just pickpocket what he needed, even though he didn’t need to do it. Malik lectured him every time, but privately Altaïr was pretty sure his old friend found it funny.
         They hand him a little pouch to carry them, and it seems to be bigger on the inside. Maybe he’ll figure out how that works, because a messenger bag like that? He’d be set.
         He really should stop being surprised. Traces of magic are everywhere here, if you know where or, really, how to look. Connor would see it as normal. 
         Though, the banker lady tells him cheerfully, most people like him prefer to pay by app, these days, she can definitely show him how. Maybe later, he tells her with a smile, mostly because he’s not sure how many pies Illuminati has its fingers in, in this world, and doesn’t want to mess with it even if they probably won’t retaliate or anything.
         He’s also treated to a little lecture that kind of reminds him of Shaun about how they’re also called Marks of Favour because they’re manufactured by the Council of Venice (interesting choice; he can definitely see why Venezia would serve as a good base at least in Italy and it’s probably why they went with the term ‘Pax Romana’ for the official name of the currency, and almost certainly the Council Geary had mentioned), who kind of serve as a United Nations of the Secret World. Interesting stuff, and definitely something to ask Shaun about later.
         While he’s there, he also sees this guy just come in and...withdraw gold bars. Legit gold bars. Part of him wants to complain about that, like, that’s weird, why, but the rest of him that got a little too into treasure-hunting as Ezio is busy cataloging that this means that if he does find any loot, he can probably just use it to barter or sell it or whatever and nobody will be suspicious.
         He wanders into the clothing store across the street and just browses a little. They have yet more hoodies, these ones with flame designs. He’s a little tempted, but doesn’t want to go buying much yet when he’s not sure if he’s getting, like, a regular paycheck, or if he has to make this last, and he still needs to pay for food. They also have leather, which might be useful if he ever gets a motorcycle again. Road rash hurts like a bitch and he doesn’t want to imagine actually doing things, strenuous things, like climbing buildings or trying to fight.
         They take Pax Romana, like he’d suspected. They’ll take regular cash, too, which is good. He’d had some in his apartment, so it’d be weird if they didn’t, but still. On one hand, it means that the world hadn’t stopped using regular old American dollars, but on the other, he gets the feeling that since Pax is a Council of Venice currency, it’s likely not everyone takes it, so maybe he should hold onto the cash for places without that influence.
         He hasn’t worked out what about this world is the same and what isn’t, and he still hasn’t quite gotten over that bee thing, but maybe getting his bearings here will help. It turns out to be quite a lot of money, even if Pax does seem to be a slightly weaker currency than the dollar (funny what you pick up from Renaissance Italy banker’s kids when you spend decades in their head), so you have to use more to buy things. Being gifted so much cash out of the blue makes him uncomfortable, and he keeps getting notifications about packages at the post office next to the little fish & chips place. They turn out to be things called ‘talismans’. He’s not sure what to do with them yet, but he’ll figure it out. He’s almost certain it’s the Dragon messing with him, waiting to see what he’ll do, so he just puts those in the bank and tries not to let himself react visibly.
         He has watchers, and they're not red, so he doesn't worry about it too much. Mostly, they just follow him around everywhere. He thinks about turning and waving at them, but decides not to, mostly because, well, it’s not good to make paranoid people even more paranoid. Take Machiavelli, for instance. Nah, it’s better not to let them know that he’s managed to spot most of them, mostly but not exclusively using Eagle Vision, partly because, well. He’s pretty sure Eagle Vision isn’t a thing here, and not just because of the creepy little girl’s words.