The Kingsmouth Branch

[madimpossibledreamer]

You can use any combination of abilities, but you get bonuses for certain combinations that are different per faction. Chelsea is using the ‘crusader’ deck (hammer and pistols). Luckily, Desmond does not know the naming because no one’s bothered to tell him. Nate’s using the ‘neoshaman’ deck (blood and chaos magic). Incidentally, Desmond is currently using the Monk deck with assault rifle and fists, because fist weapons are Hidden Blade adjacent, as mentioned in the training chapters, but he’s probably going to start branching out soon, mostly because being stuck to only two weapons makes no sense to him. Particularly to, say, Chaos Magic (which would be the ‘chaos theorist’ deck).

Main Points:
Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: Desmond runs into some familiar faces.
Word Count: 1288
Rating: Teen

 

         Other than confirming the presence of survivors, Desmond hadn’t really bothered checking out the church. The pastor turns out to be a ‘hobbyist’ Illuminati (he’d joined a forum!) with a gun, and the stained glass windows behind him have the blue Illuminati triangle symbol. Shaun’s been sending him a lot of those recently, probably in case he runs across another puzzle. Desmond appreciates the help, but he gets the feeling Shaun’s looking for some kind of reaction and isn’t getting what he’s looking for, only he won’t actually explain what he wants from Desmond, exactly. Sure, Rebecca had shared overall, that he’s got a crush, but it’s probably not just a thanks Shaun’s looking for, because he keeps doing it.
         Given everything that’s been happening, when the pastor starts rambling about wards and figuring out how they work, Desmond listens with fascination. Rukh’s been a little restless ever since they entered the church, not that Desmond doesn’t get it, given that he’s fought the pope. As Ezio, but still. Still, he stops shifting so much on his perch, which probably means that learning about wards and how to cast them (and, for example, maybe protect the place he’s basically using to sleep on the rooftop) is probably pretty useful.
         There’s a graveyard behind the church, which isn’t too much of a surprise, but staying there sounds like asking for trouble, if you ask him. Every single occupant is trying to rise from the grave, given how often he has to pause to prevent another freshly risen zombie from trying to eat his face. Even more disturbingly, it seems like there are some unmarked graves, not that that should surprise him. On the other hand, zombies just...disintegrate when they attempt to enter the church seemingly just because of these wards, so who’s he to judge?
         He’s in the middle of trying to scratch an approximation of the ward symbol on the fence around the graveyard based on the picture he took with his phone when someone taps him on the shoulder. Maybe the training with Shaun had been useful, as traumatizing as nearly slitting his friend’s throat was, because he manages not to stab the person. Zombies don’t try to get your attention, they just try to eat you.
         Rukh doesn’t have quite the restraint, because he nips at the hand.
         He turns around, and the surfer dude and Chelsea are just standing there, watching him. Chelsea does a little wave. The surfer dude is rubbing his hand a little.
         “Sorry about taking so long, man.” He doesn’t actually sound that bothered about it, but then, he doesn’t sound too bothered about anything, so maybe he actually means it?
         “Oh, no, that’s...fine…” Out of nowhere (so the larger-on-the-inside stuff and storage spells are kinda standard, good to know) the guy pulls out pretty much a mountain of talismans and dumps them into Desmond’s arms.
         “The name’s Nate Fischer. Pretty sure I forgot to mention that. Didn’t find much about the murder attempt, but everybody’s talking about it. Even got the Council on edge, apparently. At least I brought a friend!” Okay, he does have some expressiveness, and the upbeat tone is a little surreal under the circumstances.
         “I want to learn how to tail people like you do,” Chelsea tells him firmly.
         He’s...not exactly a Bee. He’s not sure he can teach her (them? he’s got no idea about if Nate is normal or not) about being a better Bee, or whatever. “I’m new at this, too. I don’t know much more than you.”
         Somewhere along the line, she’d gotten a little more confident. That, or she’s been thinking about this long enough she’d worked up the courage to insist. “That’s a lie. Sure, you might be new at this, but you definitely know skills, and I want to learn.”
         This absolutely might give him away, and he’s really not used to working with a team, but at the same time, he’s feeling a certain sense of déjà vu. He really hadn’t meant to restart the Brotherhood, but it might be happening anyway, and he’s pretty sure Chelsea will just keep following him around. At least if she’s doing it with supervision, she’s less likely to get in over her head.
         “Well, I can try, but I’m not sure I’m good at teaching…” It’s not very enthusiastic, but it has Chelsea beaming anyway. He might as well move on, right now, because he’s feeling uncomfortable. “Either of you know much about wards? I’m trying to follow the design, but I’m pretty sure it’s Illuminati, and I’m pretty sure they’re the types that would take out a patent or something.”
         Nate grins. “I’m decent, yeah. Show me?” His attempt, once he’s seen the picture, is almost effortless, which Desmond envies, but it’s useful.
         They do get ambushed multiple times, including when the magic runes really kick in when they’ve put them around the entire periphery. Just like the voodoo book, it doesn’t quite work the way Desmond expects, with it pulling something from all of the zombies currently wandering around the cemetery, causing them to disintegrate, and then feeding into yet another giant zombie. There’s far too many ways to accidentally create giant zombies, in Desmond’s opinion.
         Chelsea wields the hammer like it’s nothing, and fortunately it does seem that she’s worked out that she should be on the opposite side of him and Nate when she’s swinging it around in a circle so she doesn’t hit them. Occasionally she’ll back up a little and just unload with the pistols before diving right back in with enthusiasm, but it’s clear she prefers the hammer. Desmond makes a note to remind her that as fun as getting right in the thick of things can be, it’s probably safer to take things out from a distance.
         Nate, it turns out, went full magic, though a lot of what he’s doing is less flashy, though just from fighting the monster Desmond can tell that whatever he’s doing is also very, very effective. He definitely did specialize a bit in blood magic, because he does end up healing them both once, after they didn’t get out of the way in time from a massive swing, and blood healing is uncomfortable. Effective, but uncomfortable. Desmond, meanwhile, can’t quite make up his mind as to whether he should be fighting close quarters using the Hidden Blade to go for weak spots (which, interestingly, his Eagle Vision seems to actually be showing him now, which is kind of cool) or keeping his distance to set a good example, and ends up doing some sort of awkward combination of both. Rukh, just like Rebecca speculated, decided that claws were the way to go, though he mostly stays out of it or does mid-air rolls to avoid getting hit.
         Fortunately, it does seem like they know what they’re doing when it comes to combat, a really good thing when it they’re surrounded by so many things that want to kill them, even if he’ll probably notice a few pointers he can give them. (And also, that he doesn’t actually have to train his bird too much, mostly because he has no idea how to train a bird even if he does have some pointers from Connor.) Chelsea seems to notice that too, as she leans on the hammer proudly. “Okay, what next?”
         Desmond glances around, but there’s still nowhere in town that feels really gold and shiny, and also, he’s not sure that dragging them into the middle of things is the best idea, so he shrugs, stretching a little as Rukh comes back in for a landing. “Guess we go see what else Pastor Henry has for us.”