Frozen in This Fog

[madimpossibledreamer]

The chapter music is kind of important for this one, too.

Main Points: Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: Alice and Carter react to Desmond's stunt, and it turns out it had some unexpected side effects.
Word Count: 2094
Rating: Teen

 

         Alice is still stuck, and a simple shake doesn’t get her back with them, so Desmond gingerly, carefully kind of just...pulls her back out with the Calculations. He keeps thinking about it too much, but apparently that’s not how they work best. It’s a muscle memory kind of thing, and if he overthinks it he actually gets in his own way. It’s not like he’s just setting it loose and watching it go with loose instructions, either; it’s more like when he’s fighting and really getting into the groove.
         He’s trying not to look, either, but he gets a glimpse—she does have family, and almost didn’t, she was lucky enough not to be born fully human, or else—a kid dressed in a green...kimono, is that the right word, sitting in the middle of wooden columns, surrounded by candles and candlesticks and it wouldn’t take much to make it all go up in flames—
         “You can stop looking,” she snaps, pulling back and eyeing him angrily.
         “Sorry.” He shifts awkwardly. At least Carter came out of it fairly easily, but—it seems like she’s the least affected out of all of them, so that’s probably why. “I don’t exactly know what I’m doing.”
         She crosses her arms at him, and—is she pouting at him? “You let me lecture you.” She doesn’t give him the chance to ask, though, because she just continues, steamrolling over him. “You didn’t tell me you already had enlightenment.”
         It takes him a moment to even process the accusation, and when he does...he’s even more confused. “What—wait, are you talking about the Calculations?” What the hell?
         In response, Alice just deepens the pout at him.
         “I don’t—” he continues, and she interrupts, glaring now.
         “Do not lie to me.” Does that mean that that’s what they’ve been striving for, all this time? Maybe that’s why they claimed him as Dragon—it would make perfect sense and be the perfect cover, if chaos magic works the same way, and it also explains why they’d be sticking their necks out, too. They might be using him or his position, but now he’s starting to suspect that maybe they’re trying to keep an eye on him to figure out how their enlightenment works so they can duplicate it.
         Rukh doesn’t like her tone, or maybe what she’s saying, because he puffs up on Desmond’s shoulder and croaks quietly, reproachfully.
         “I’m not.” She opens her mouth again, and he’s not going to yell at her, but he’s not going to let her just keep thinking that, either. “Let me finish, okay? Sure, I’ve got access. That doesn’t mean that I can do absolutely everything.”
         Her eyes are still narrowed, but at least she’s looking a little more thoughtful than angry, at this point. “...More work is required for mastery. That makes sense.” It’s still not quite right, since for one thing he’s pretty sure that a human, even a human with Isu DNA, isn’t going to be able to achieve that perfect control, but he’ll go for it. “It also explains your stance on free will. You have actually achieved it.”
         On the other hand, he’s not going to let that just slip by. “It’s not exactly...everyone has some. Sure,” he holds up a hand as she goes to argue again, “...some have more than others. Some are a little more trapped. Kids by parents and guardians not only telling them what they can or can’t do but also by shaping what they’re told about the world, adults by structures, like taxes and jobs. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have choices or free will. They’re just not always obvious or easy. And everyone changes things a little, so a whole lot of people working together means more.”
         She nods, still thoughtful. Hopefully he’d explained that well. She still doesn’t seem fully convinced, but apparently this revelation also helped her see him more as an expert in this kinda thing, so he can hope.
         “Mister—uh, Desmond. Are you two okay now?” Carter asks cautiously. Seems like she hadn’t wanted to interrupt. “Your, uh. Your arm is kinda glowing.”
         Desmond’s first instinct is to glance down and go, huh, yeah, actually he is still glowing, weird. The warm glow feeling kinda died down, so he’d assumed that had, too, but nope, still out here like the world’s most mobile nightlight. Less creepy than the lights-that-aren’t, though. His second instinct is just to answer that he’s fine, but just...trying to ignore his problems and not think about this kind of thing is how the Park had nearly gotten to him in the first place, so he forces himself to slow down and actually think about it while Alice nods, suddenly very quiet. Hopefully because she’s listening to him now.
         He’s...kind of exhausted, but in a happy way. He’d say like how he feels after a workout, but even that’s not quite right—it’s more like when he’d go on a run through Monteriggioni until the Bleeding Effect wasn’t lurking on the edges of his brain for a few hours.
         “Yeah, I’m good for now. I don’t think the Park or whatever can try that again because I know it’s coming now. I’m not letting my guard down, though. Just because it’s failed one trick doesn’t mean it doesn’t have more.” He stretches. He’d say it was a surprise that your muscles could get all sore when your mind’s just going through the wringer, but...well. He’s been in the Animus. “An...ally, I guess, told me that we could find something else by the Ferris Wheel…” And then, as he turns to look, he just trails off, because that’s. Just. What.
         “What’s wrong, Desmond?” Carter asks, following his gaze, and then she nods. “Ah. Like the map.” Like this is something she sees every day.
         Maybe this is another instance where if he were any other Bee he’d have to die to see this. He doesn’t have any way of finding out, but he’s kind of happy he doesn’t actually have to find out, especially not for this. The glowy circuitry stuff looks even more Isu-like when it’s, you know, actually there on the ground. He’s had enough of dying for weird Isu schemes, thank you very much. And if he remembers correctly, these designs connect all of the main attractions, so… “Given that,” he nods at it, “...I think he’s right.” But then he’s frowning at it again, ignoring the trees kind of twisting in the background. It’s kind of disorienting, yeah, but it’s also just distracting. Just like him, it’s still lit up. It’s white, yeah, but the kind of white that makes him think of Templar—old Templar—architecture, all sterile walls. No art, no soul. If they collected any, they’d only display it to impress and distract, not because they cared about that kind of thing. But that also kind of makes him think it’s still active. And it’s not like he’d brought it into being, or anything—he’d just made it visible, which is important. If you can see it, you can stab it. Or shoot it. Or...
         “Do you think you could blow this up?” he asks Carter, gesturing at the circuitry glowing through the grass.
         She blinks at him, blinks at it, and then blinks back at him for good measure, looking honestly a little intimidated. “...Without blowing any of you up. No wonder Danny likes you.”
         That’s kind of an odd complaint given that they’re here to destroy this Park in the first place, but...yeah? “I managed to help you channel it before, remember?”
         She nods, a little more cheerful and a little more determined. “...Yeah, you did, thank you. I’m just...not exactly used to being able to control it.”
         Oddly, that sounds familiar. Not like he’s going to say it, though; he’s pretty sure it wouldn’t help her confidence. Rukh actually hops over to her shoulder for this, and a glance tells him that yeah, his raven’s sure about this and it probably wouldn’t help her confidence for him to question his bird about this in front of her either, so he doesn’t. Not that Rukh would probably do anything if he wasn’t sure about it, but he gets the feeling that even if it had been a bad idea Rukh would never admit to it anyway.
         He’s not wrong about this, though. Desmond’s too distracted channeling the destructive power very carefully into the ground that he doesn’t get a great picture of the exact specifics, but Rukh is doing something with magic in the background to help.
         He flinches back into reality as one of the bumper cars flies off the track and into the fence, denting it with enough force to get lodged. The rest in the background are actually moving erratically, like someone’s actually driving them, but—it looks like death throes. Not of the entire Park, but...maybe part of it. Glancing back down, the circuitry’s still there, but it’s faded, lifeless and dull.
         Carter suddenly crumples, and Rukh cries out in warning, gliding to the dead tree next to them, where he watches Desmond and Alice catch her with a concerned eye. Which, yeah, sure, maybe that’s a little callous, but on the other hand Rukh is just a bird. A big one, maybe, but it’s not like he can catch her.
         And the world flickers again, and suddenly a woman’s standing there. Not a zombie. Desmond gets the feeling that maybe this is the woman he kept catching glimpses of, from the outside. “Is your daughter okay?” she asks quietly. She doesn’t exactly seem like she’s exactly here—and honestly, that’s probably because she maybe isn’t. Though she’s not like the other ghosts he’s seen in this world.
         Rukh flutters closer to her and starts circling her carefully, like he’s trying to figure out what’s up with her. She doesn’t even notice.
         “None of us are related,” Alice announces proudly like that somehow makes it sound normal, but the woman doesn’t even respond. She doesn’t even act like she heard.
         “The park’s closed; you should take your daughters and go,” she answers vaguely. “Though they might have a first aid kit in the visitor’s center.” She waves generally at the area behind them, with the barn. So—wait, she’s getting glimpses of the Atlantic Island Park, the other one that nobody else has seen, so she’s probably one of the keys here, too.
         “Thanks for the help, but...if it’s closed, why are you here?” She probably doesn’t actually know herself, but she might have a clue, something to lead them down the right path.
         For a moment, her face is complete and utter misery, and suddenly he recognizes her usual vacant stare. That’s how Maria looked, after— “Callum ran in; I couldn’t stop him—” and just like that, she’s back to normal. Ish. As normal as this real-within-some-definition-of-real woman ever gets, probably. “You haven’t seen him, have you?”
         He shakes his head. Other than the carnie-zombies and her, he hasn’t seen anybody else. She just walks past him, eyes unfocused like she isn’t seeing what’s in front of her—wait she could be in the other Park, seeing that rather than the reality—but she’s gone by the time he turns to look.
         “I’m okay,” Carter states faintly, fooling absolutely no one.
         “We’re taking a break,” he insists firmly, ignoring her protests about how she can keep going. Sure, it’s a little bit of a risk that it can regenerate or something, but if she burns herself out, that’s a problem. He could probably figure out how to replicate what she’s doing, given time, but that’s definitely time they don’t have. Better to hop the fence and get their strength back—and maybe confer with the druids, see if any of them can help a bit now that they’ve maybe weakened the Park somewhat.
         Rukh ends up following them pretty closely—it’s clear he doesn’t want to get too close in case they fall over on top of him, but he also doesn’t feel comfortable getting too far away, either, which is perfectly understandable, since Desmond would be on edge with that, too.
         “The spirit wasn’t digested,” Alice explains, like that’s perfectly understandable—and as they hop the fence, ends up basically carrying most of Carter’s weight, too. She’s stronger than she looks, which isn’t too surprising, but Desmond hadn’t thought about the fact that she’s still short with a child’s limbs, so leverage is still an issue.