Frame of Mind

[madimpossibledreamer]

Desmond you say that but it’s still bugging you, you’re just so used to it that you haven’t noticed it’s bugging you.
and not that most people are playing it, but happy majima pirate launch day

Main Points: Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: Desmond and his allies get a look at the Park's plans.
Word Count: 1891
Rating: Teen

 

        Carter’s really quiet as they leave. He figures maybe it’s something about not wanting to say some things in front of her teachers, but she still doesn’t say a word after they’re back down the steps, so maybe it’s up to him. Before he can figure out the right approach, though, she finally says something the second they step outside the gates. Maybe there’s some sort of surveillance spells on the grounds or...something?
        “You know Danny, don’t you?” She’s not as talkative as her friend, but Desmond hadn’t exactly expected that anyway.
        Still, that kind of confirms something he’d been suspecting. “I’m guessing that means you’re League.”
        She doesn’t answer right away, watching Alice chase after one of the track zombies with interest. She doesn’t look inclined to step in, but the kind of careful way she’s carrying herself says that she definitely believes that stuff about her power—and so does Danny, since he’d mentioned not introducing her to Edgar for a reason. At a look and a wave, Nate rolls his eyes but goes after her.
        “Don’t mention that to Montag or Miss Usher. Technically I’m supposed to quit when I join the Academy, because sure I can just blow things up with my mind but God forbid I actually tell anything true and useful to the actual people stepping up to protect this island.” She pauses and then adds sheepishly, “Sorry.”
        He laughs. “Don’t be. I kinda approve.”
        All at once, her posture loosens. “That’s a relief. Okay, planning, how are we going to deal with the Park again? ‘Cause let me tell you, Mr. Miles, we didn’t get too far. I did go looking in the library and it turns out Henderson was retired Illuminati. They tried stepping in, because the farm was freaking even them out, and he just growled at them and they ran. Only kind of came back after the Park closed to put the bare minimum shielding spells in place, mostly just to try to keep people out. I’m the only one who got in, and did the whole kaboom, and, well.” She winces. “The only thing that stayed down was the House of Horrors and I think that was demolished years ago, only I actually got it to actually stick.”
        “First of all, Desmond, please, nobody calls me Mr. Miles.” Nobody still living, he corrects quietly in his head. He doesn’t particularly want to scare her. “Second, not sure. I’m kind of winging it. It’s possible the plans to build the Park are the key, somehow. We’ve got a bunch of druids, I’ve got my weird Bee powers which are apparently more connected to Gaia than someone’s ever seen, and you, and Alice and Nate, plus a couple others you haven’t met.” He’s still not entirely sure which of his pseudo-Novices are Bees.
        Carter sighs, a deep sigh that he feels in his very bones. “It’s more than we had the last time we tried. Just a warning: I think we can probably get some people to go in, but it’s not...great. Just being in there messes with you.”
        “Mind control?” he hears himself asking faintly, heart hammering in his chest, suddenly really, really aware of the necklace and charm in his pocket and wondering hoping praying they’ll be enough.
        She looks thoughtful. “Um...more like mind influence I think? Like, a nudge, not a complete takeover. Though take that with a grain of salt; that’s just what I got from a quick reading of a textbook. The actual lecture’s—was—supposed to be next week.”
        As they approach Winter’s parked car, Desmond gets dizzy again, blinking and briefly seeing a bigger parking lot with an actual visitor’s center where the barn barely pokes through the fog, which would almost make sense, except they said that Winter had kept the barn intact and the entrance looks like an escalator leading up. There is no up. It’s flat level ground. At least, it was the last time Desmond was here, and the next time he blinks it is again. What the hell. Why? There’s no point to that, and it’s not like that’s how it was, can’t be, the land’s pretty much been sitting there untouched since it shut down, and it’s not like he’s somehow seeing the past like with the blood, though he’s pretty sure that’s more visual metaphor than anything.
        Carter looks like she’s trying not to hyperventilate, and Alice looks uncomfortable, sticking closer to him again, shivering. “Okay, I think the three of us can definitely get in. Danny didn’t sense anything, and Liam felt weird but could only get a few steps. We could probably get others in especially if we break the wards, but…”
        “But we’ll probably have to do so anyway, to be able to purify it. We’re working on it,” Nuala explains, passing him a map of the park. “We found this in the car—and the Phoenicians again attempted to retrieve it.”
        Desmond takes it, shivering, because something about it seems wrong somehow. It’s too small, too compact, despite the fact that what little he can see through the fog beyond the chain-link fence looks accurate to the map.
        Carter’s peering over his shoulder, frowning. “Something’s off about the map,” she murmurs, and he really doesn’t like this, the fact that it seems like the park seems to be letting in people who are vulnerable to it. Like this is some sort of a trap. Like it’s specifically trying to choose targets.
        And god he doesn’t want to do this, to look at this with Eagle Vision, because that feels like giving in, like opening himself up further to that influence, but—he really wants this thing dead.
        Fuck he better not get those last moments with the Park if they manage to pull this off, in that weird grey space. He doesn’t want to hear any last confessions or anything. He doesn’t even want to know what that would be like. And then, as if in answer, he hears another whisper, “don’t have what it takes.” Which is kind of weak, if the Park thinks that’ll break him. He heard that all the time from his dad. It’s not like it’s new.
        Rukh shuffles quietly on his shoulder, letting out a low croak and rubbing his beak on Desmond’s ear.
        “Yeah, yeah, sorry, I know I’m stalling,” he responds quietly and looks, and damn there actually is something here, and Danny had been onto something, because yeah, it looks like an electrical diagram, or circuitry maybe. Rebecca had shown him something similar once, when she’d been trying to fix the Animus. He’d picked up a few things, lending a hand around Bad Weather and a few places before that, but most of it had flown over his head. It’d been nice to hear her talk about something she clearly enjoyed, though.
        You didn’t see much of that on the Farm. Just mostly whether you learned the lesson, and how you felt about it afterwards didn’t really matter.
        “I’m going to try something.” Carefully. Because he really doesn’t want to break that promise to Shaun and make the guy worry even more. He can see it, and he can almost even see how to make that visible to everybody else. He just needs to reach a little.
        “I know what you’re trying to do, but I haven’t learned how to cast something like that,” he vaguely hears Carter say, and then he’s holding hands with someone.
        “I have. I will help.” Nuala, probably? He’s definitely starting to feel the headache, but it feels like there’s a pattern, numbers and constructions lighting up like a beacon, and all he has to do is follow. When he finally opens his eyes again, he has no idea how long it’s been. It seems like there’s less light, but he’s not even sure Solomon Island follows traditional day/night cycles anymore, so who knows what that even means.
        “Neat!” Carter explains, and yep, he’s out of Eagle Vision but they’re still there, glowing on the map. In different colors now. He’s not really sure what that means.
        Nate frowns. “I’m not really familiar with this type of magic. It looks like it’s taking tech principles—which is a great idea when it comes to more long-lasting rituals, but difficult to pull off if you’re not multidisciplinary. I know one crazy bastard who could pull it off, but this isn’t his work. He’d leave some kind of signature.”
        “They’re ley lines,” Alice corrects simply, standing on tiptoes to be able to see. That throws everybody off. They stand there in eerie silence.
        “These aren’t lines…” Carter points out, and Nate shakes his head.
        He’s really into this magic theory stuff. “No, but maybe they’re an artificial version. Because they absolutely could be funneling energy, which makes the whole tech thing make sense—using a giant circuit board to encompass the whole park and funnel energy to that center area there is great symbolism.”
        “Winter made a mistake,” Ligeia announces as she strides over, actually gravely solemn for the first time he’s ever seen her. “Nuala. Congratulations on the new body.”
        “Thank you. What mistake?” Nuala responds politely.
        “Something about the energy. I can’t tell you that for sure without a better look, and it’s for the best neither I nor my granddaughter step foot inside. I’m not sure either of us would leave again. It’s true that a great and terrible power sleeps here, bleeding into the soil itself. Henderson’s legacy. If you could harness it, that would be enough power to pull off any number of dark and terrible sorceries.” Something about the grandmother’s smile suggests that she’d try it, if she didn’t know better. “But I suppose I should have said, rather: two mistakes. Winter was not the master of magic Henderson was, adapting plans and spells that were not his own. I don’t think he followed the original plans exactly, and even that blunder might have been recoverable if not for the magic already here, corrupting and perverting the aims of even the most perverse.”
        So what Desmond saw, the entrance, that might have actually been what it should have been. And he’d wanted his kid to follow in his footsteps, to actually pull it off. “Do you know what it’s for?”
        “That’s the key, isn’t it.” This time, she’s a little more serene, very possibly because she’s not the one that has to do the work. “Whatever it was, he had to have accomplished it, in a manner of speaking. One of those ‘beware what you wish for’ dark fairytale endings.”
        He glances at the park again and takes a deep breath. It’s suddenly looking a whole lot more foreboding all of a sudden. “But he might not have even had a choice at the end, huh? Because his son shows up here and all of a sudden after wanting nothing to do with it he suddenly can’t bring himself to leave.”
        “That’s the nature of obsession and addiction, isn’t it? The thrill, the rush of letting go of your inhibitions, of not second-guessing yourself or feeling inadequate.” Her smile is knowing and more than a little chilling. “Don’t lose your way.”
        Somehow, Desmond has the feeling that she’s talking about more than just getting lost inside.