#Ezio is a fellow model

[sneaky-eel]

A modern au with no assassins and Desmond instead rebels against Bill by becoming an internet thot/onlyfans like model and Bill can’t do jack shit because a. Desmond is 25 and b. he makes enough money that Bill can’t threaten to cut him off. Bill owns a very successful business and Desmond plasters his own name around to embarrass him, like, “Why yes, my name is Desmond MILES. Son of WILLIAM MILES!”

More art under cut!

Bill isn’t to happy when his own employees find Desmond’s page.

His mom is there, she is the head of private security for Bill. Since Desmond came back into their lives, she tries to be supportive, but that woman can’t do anything in halves.

She also has some of her men keeping an eye on him to ensure he is safe. Desmond gets embarrassed but doesn’t block her because he doesn’t want to make her sad.

[teecupangel]

First off, I wanna say, ever since I discovered your work while scrolling down Ezio's tag randomly, I have been thoroughly hooked to everything you have written. Your work is simply amazing!

With that, I hope you don't mind me sharing an idea that's been haunting me for quite a while now.

What if Desmond reincarnated as La Volpe's son? Not biologically his son (or maybe he is but no one knew?), merely, he was found by Gilberto when Desmond was a little kid on the streets and took him in and taught him everything he knows despite Desmond clearly being a young prodigy in multiple skills as is. The man grew rather fond of Desmond, to say the least- and rather protective

(Desmond with eyes glowing purple instead of gold when using Eagle Vision anyone?)

The Thieves Guild knows Desmond (many having seen him grow up as well and befriended him) and are the ones to consider/acknowledge him as La Volpe's heir (Cub or Kit? Idk much Italian for the proper word/term for Little/Baby Fox and I don't trust Google Translate ngl) in this.

While we don't have a confirmation of La Volpe's age (doesn't help his model didn't change between AC2 and Brotherhood), I like to imagine Desmond is only a few years younger than Machiavelli when the two meet. And Machiavelli (a sort of friend despite La Volpe not liking him initially-) is trying to persuade Desmond to try his hand in some sort of apprenticeship or get him into politics even cause it's such a waste for him to remain amongst the Thieves when clearly his skills means he's destined for a better lifestyle- though, of course, Desmond's already quite an asset for the Assassin's regardless.

Would be even more interesting/amusing if Shaun reincarnated with Desmond somehow. A fellow thief (or maybe a son of a noble that Desmond tends to target- and if Desmond knows its Shaun, welll, who knows. In the end, he's still messing with him regardless) perhaps that believes he's being haunted by a familiar ghost from the past life- but that's impossible! The only ghosts (well, they're real- he long since came to terms that this isn't a dream anywas- is it hell, though? He's yet to decide) he'd had to deal with should've been the Auditores and the Templars- but then... Why does he keep seeing Desmond? (And why does he associate him with purple and even orange instead of Gold, White, and Red?)

(I apologize for the amount of parentheses in this)

(Considering how liberal I am in using parentheses myself, you don’t have to apologize for anything XD)

If you’re alright with messing up canon character’s personalities… we can make Shaun be reborn as Machiavelli instead?

And if Desmond and Machiavelli!Shaun are both around the same age, they’d be younger than Petruccio (at least 6 years for Machiavelli) which means we have the opportunity to mess with both Shaun and Desmond with this.

Because they would realize if someone was changing history if the Auditores live. By making them too young to do anything to stop it, we’re giving them the false sense of confidence that they are the only reincarnators in this story.

By the time they would both have the power and influence to change the plot, they would come to believe that the changes are butterfly effects of their own actions, not because another reincarnator is changing some things under their noses.

For this one, we’ll have Shaun try to push Desmond into going to politics because he believes that La Volpe’s son is meant to die young. That’s the only reason he could think of to why Ezio never saw him in his memories. Any antics or reactions that reminds Shaun of Desmond is simply Shaun’s mind trying to keep him from grieving Desmond’s death too much. Ezio was a constant reminder of his ‘impending death’. La Volpe’s son reminds him of what Desmond could have been had circumstances been different.

In Desmond’s eyes, Machiavelli was simply being Machiavelli. Any discrepancies between the Machiavelli his Bleed remembers and the Machiavelli in front of him is because Machiavelli isn’t treating him like he treats Ezio. Another important thing is that Desmond uses the name La Volpe gives him (your call what it is and if he has a different nickname that’s connected to foxes or a similar animal) because he knows calling himself Desmond would just make Ezio look for him.

And he was trying to stay away from Ezio because, as much as he wanted to help him, he feels guilty because the tragedy in Ezio’s life was all his fault.

To ensure he was born.

So this story now becomes two reincarnators (Shaun and Desmond) trying to change Ezio’s life, all the while not realizing each other’s true identity.

Ezio has no idea that he has two ‘guardian angels’ and is just doing his best with what he’s given XD

[historybehindassassinscreed]

In Game:

Nicolaus Copernicus, also known as Mikołaj Kopernik and Niccolò Copernico, was a Polish Renaissance astronomer, mathematician, and priest.

In 1500, Copernicus visited the Vatican, where he was introduced to the Templar Order. Upon joining them, he was later told that they wanted him to keep his discoveries secret.

A day after, however, he enlightened the public on science and mathematics at the Il Campidoglio, encouraging them to question past teachings, as he could not keep his findings to himself. He went on to urge the crowd to visit him or his fellow scholars if they wished to know more.

As soon as the Borgia – the leading house in the Templar Order – heard of this, they sent their guards to kill Copernicus and the other scholars. The Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze watched the scene unfold and, upon realizing their common enemy, came to Copernicus' aid.

Copernicus admitted his affiliations to the Templars to Ezio, though the latter was willing to help Copernicus reach a safe location. Upon arriving in a secluded building in the Antico District, Copernicus asked Ezio to deliver some documents to his fellow scholars, which would inform them of the danger they were in. Though doubtful if he could trust him, Ezio agreed, and aided most of the scholars in going into hiding.

The Assassin returned some time later, and by then, Copernicus had concluded that the Master of the Sacred Palace was most likely behind the plot to kill him. Ezio sought out the Master and heard from him that there were six executioners walking around Rome, searching for the scholars. Ezio rushed to take these executioners down, and returned to Copernicus with the confirmation that his suspicion had been correct.

Copernicus, however, was persistent in going out into the open to study a lunar eclipse. The Master of the Sacred Palace seized this opportunity, and sent a Papal Guard to kill him. Ezio followed and killed the Master of the Sacred Palace before returning to Copernicus, with whom he took down the assailants. The pair then went their separate ways, with Copernicus staying behind to study the eclipse.

Following their encounter, Copernicus became an ally of the Assassin Order, and was assisted in further astronomical studies with Novara via the Order's protection, with one instance including the Assassins Francesco Vecellio and Cipriano Enu.

In Real Life:

Certain facts about  Nicolaus Copernicus’s early life are well established, although a biography written by his ardent disciple Georg Joachim Rheticus is unfortunately lost. According to a later horoscope, Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473, in Toruń, a city in north-central Poland on the Vistula River south of the major Baltic seaport of Gdańsk. His father, Nicolaus, was a well-to-do merchant, and his mother, Barbara Watzenrode, also came from a leading merchant family. Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. After his father’s death, sometime between 1483 and 1485, his mother’s brother Lucas Watzenrode took his nephew under his protection. Watzenrode, soon to be bishop of the chapter of Varmia (Warmia), saw to young Nicolaus’s education and his future career as a church canon.

Between 1491 and about 1494 Copernicus studied liberal arts—including astronomy and astrology—at the University of Cracow (Kraków). Like many students of his time, however, he left before completing his degree, resuming his studies in Italy at the University of Bologna, where his uncle had obtained a doctorate in canon law in 1473. The Bologna period was short but significant. For a time Copernicus lived in the same house as the principal astronomer at the university, Domenico Maria de Novara.

(Image source)

Novara also probably introduced Copernicus to two important books that framed his future problematic as a student of the heavens: Epitoma in Almagestum Ptolemaei (“Epitome of Ptolemy’s Almagest”) by Johann Müller (also known as Regiomontanus, 1436–76) and Disputationes adversus astrologianm divinatricenm (“Disputations against Divinatory Astrology”) by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94). The first provided a summary of the foundations of Ptolemy’s astronomy, with Regiomontanus’s corrections and critical expansions of certain important planetary models that might have been suggestive to Copernicus of directions leading to the heliocentric hypothesis. Pico’s Disputationes offered a devastating skeptical attack on the foundations of astrology that reverberated into the 17th century. Among Pico’s criticisms was the charge that, because astronomers disagreed about the order of the planets, astrologers could not be certain about the strengths of the powers issuing from the planets.

Only 27 recorded observations are known for Copernicus’s entire life (he undoubtedly made more than that), most of them concerning eclipses, alignments, and conjunctions of planets and stars. The first such known observation occurred on March 9th, 1497, at Bologna. By the time he published this observation in 1543, he had made it the basis of a theoretical claim: that it confirmed exactly the size of the apparent lunar diameter. But in 1497 he was probably using it to assist in checking the new- and full-moon tables derived from the commonly used Alfonsine Tables and employed in Novara’s forecast for the year 1498.

In 1500 Copernicus spoke before an interested audience in Rome on mathematical subjects, but the exact content of his lectures is unknown. In 1501 he stayed briefly in Frauenburg but soon returned to Italy to continue his studies, this time at the University of Padua, where he pursued medical studies between 1501 and 1503. At this time medicine was closely allied with astrology, as the stars were thought to influence the body’s dispositions. Thus, Copernicus’s astrological experience at Bologna was better training for medicine than one might imagine today. Copernicus later painted a self-portrait; it is likely that he acquired the necessary artistic skills while in Padua, since there was a flourishing community of painters there and in nearby Venice.

In May 1503 Copernicus finally received a doctorate—like his uncle, in canon law—but from an Italian university where he had not studied: the University of Ferrara. When he returned to Poland, Bishop Watzenrode arranged a sinecure for him: an in absentia teaching post at Wrocław. Copernicus’s actual duties at the bishopric palace, however, were largely administrative and medical. As a church canon, he collected rents from church-owned lands; secured military defenses; oversaw chapter finances; managed the bakery, brewery, and mills; and cared for the medical needs of the other canons and his uncle. Copernicus’s astronomical work took place in his spare time, apart from these other obligations.

He proposed that the planets have the Sun as the fixed point to which their motions are to be referred; that Earth is a planet which, besides orbiting the Sun annually, also turns once daily on its own axis; and that very slow, long-term changes in the direction of this axis account for the procession of the equinoxes. This representation of the heavens is usually called the heliocentric, or “Sun-centred,” system—derived from the Greek helios, meaning “Sun.” Copernicus’s theory had important consequences for later thinkers of the scientific revolution, including such major figures as Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Newton. Copernicus probably hit upon his main idea sometime between 1508 and 1514, and during those years he wrote a manuscript usually called the Commentariolus (“Little Commentary”). However, the book that contains the final version of his theory, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs”), did not appear in print until 1543, the year of his death.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus

https://www.space.com/15684-nicolaus-copernicus.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/copernicus.shtml

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit Reviews Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

When Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood came out, I honestly didn’t know what to think of it at first. Is it a sequel? Is it a side story? What’s the significance? Will I not understand Assassin’s Creed III if I don’t play this one? All of these questions just going through my mind and after being burned by the Kingdom Hearts series and its shenanigans I decided to get Brotherhood and find out for myself.

The answer…

...it was a sequel, a canonical sequel that you would need to know what transpired if you want to understand Assassin’s Creed III.

I want to go ahead and add that I’m going to spoil the ending for Assassin’s Creed II so if you haven’t played Assassin’s Creed II yet, I’d recommend playing the entire campaign before going into this review.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood takes places immediately after Assassin’s Creed II. Ezio is escaping the Vatican after his boxing match with the Pope and finding the vault from the First Civilization. After the escape, he returns to Monteriggioni with the intention to relax thinking his job is done. The next day, Cesare Borgia attacks in retaliation of Ezio’s attack on the Pope and kills Ezio’s uncle. After escaping the attack, Ezio makes his way to Rome to avenge his uncle’s death and to defeat the Borgia family once and for all. Personally, I wasn’t too impressed that Ubisoft used another family death to motivate Ezio.

As for the modern day plot, Desmond and gang leave their warehouse hideout and move to the ruins of the Monteriggioni villa. The modern day Assassins are trying to locate where Ezio hid the Apple of Eden he acquired during the events of Assassin’s Creed II so that Abstergo does not get their hands on it. They’re also looking for other clues on how to prevent an oncoming solar flare that is said to occur on December 21, 2012 and if that date sounds familiar, that was the date where the Mayan Calendar ended. The reason it was significant was because Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood came out in 2009 and 2010 respectively and the Mayan Calendar highly discussed topic throughout the world as the date was coming close, so pretty interesting way to make part of your game topical, especially one riddled with a lot of historical events with alterations to suit its lore.

Gameplay for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is pretty much the same as Assassin’s Creed II, with a couple additions. Ezio can now use a crossbow to dispatch enemies from afar which allows for a more silent option compared to the hidden wrist gun. Ezio can also call upon fellow Assassins to aid him in battle. You can recruit these Assassins throughout Rome and send them on missions to make them stronger, as well as acquire money and items. However, if you have these Assassins on missions, then they can’t be called to help Ezio. When you have six Assassins and your Assassin call meter is completely filled, you can unleash an Arrow Storm attack which can dispatch of a group of enemies with ease.

Now, you would think that your Assassins would need to be leveled up to have the ability to call upon them to use Arrow Storm, but no, all you need is six Assassins to use them. So why level them up? Well, you could call on them to help you in a fight, but again, why would you do that if you can just not engage in a fight by shooting them with your crossbow, or just wait and use Arrow Storm if you do get engaged in a fight.

Between this and the crossbow, the game offers very little challenge as these two things can clear every obstacle in your way. Notoriety also works the same as Assassin’s Creed II as well, you kill in the open, pickpocket, or just be an overall nuisance, your notoriety meter will go up, meaning guards will pay more attention to your actions. Getting rid of notoriety is also the same with taking down posters, bribing heralds, or killing high level officials.

There are more side missions such as Thief and Courtesans Guild missions, that have their own side plots. Templar agent assassinations which give the multiplayer characters some backstory (Yeah, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood introduced multiplayer to the series and to my knowledge, the servers are still online.) There is also Cristina Missions which tell the story of what happened to Ezio’s girlfriend in the beginning of Assassin’s Creed II after Ezio left Florence.

Finally you have Borgia Towers, towers that Ezio must kill the captain and set the top of tower on fire to rid the influence of the Borgia family in that section of Rome. This side activity did have potential, but again, with how easily you can access the previously mentioned Assassins and crossbow, finding and killing the captain and any other guards you encounter offers no challenge. So what’s the purpose of taking down these towers? To gain more recruitable Assassins and repair shops in the area to make money.

I think the no challenge comes to how you make money. It’s really easy to make money in this game. You would think it would be hard, because you have to repair shops and buy landmarks to make money, but surprisingly it’s not. You can loot bodies for money, find chests for money and items, and even sell items to shops. You could use some of those items to turn in for shop quests, but honestly, it’s not necessary as you’ll get stronger version of some of items at a later point in the game. With all of these avenues to acquire money, it’s fairly easy to buy the crossbow.

The only challenge the game offers is completing missions in certain ways. If you’re going for 100% synchronization, simply doings tasks and side missions won’t cut it, you have to complete objectives within story missions to reach 100%. These objectives can range from, reaching a place in a certain amount of time, using only a specific weapon, using a specific tool, not killing any enemies, not alerting enemies, not losing health, or not losing a certain amount of health.

Rome looks more detailed than the cities of the previous two games. I think since the majority of the game takes place in one central area, the developers and artists were able to give Rome some extra detail that wasn’t possible before because there was multiple cities. Facial animations and character models look much cleaner as well and have aged far better than Assassin’s Creed II.

There’s also an open playable modern-day Monteriggioni, but it’s just to get a few collectables, it doesn’t add anything to the overall plot.

As far as actual Assassinations go, again you’ll get your fill of that with the Assassination contracts and the previously mentioned Templar missions. There a few moments in the story that do require stealth and one story target that allows you to use the environment to your advantage, but that’s it for the most part. Compared to Assassin’s Creed II, it does give more of a feeling that you are a sneaky Assassin, but similar to Assassin’s Creed II, it’s more open world adventure.

With this I have to say, the game does add a few new additions to be a sequel, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like a sequel. If anything it feels more like an expansion to Assassin’s Creed II, another chapter to Ezio’s story and honestly, I think this is what Ubisoft was going for, hence why it’s not Assassin’s Creed III.

As far as how Xbox One backwards compatibility goes, I experienced no disappearing bodies or walls this go around. I did however, experience two hard crashes.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is a fine game, it does fix some of the small issues that Assassin’s Creed II had making it a more refined experience. However, by fixing those issues, it created its own issues with the new additions it added.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood receives a 3 out of 5

[kiwisfics]

Vampires and Assassins - Chapter 3

A/N - This chapter is where it starts to get a bit more into the world building that this useless author needs to FINISH so I might get into that later this week. Insinuations to rape? Kinda, in Kady’s thoughts. I haven’t gotten much into her past yet, but there will be mild trigger warnings for emotional abuse in later chapters. The beginning of this chapter could be triggering since it deal with a creep, but there’s nothing explicit, and there won’t be anything explicit other than violence. Which I doubt is anything worse than canon. 

Summary: Kady Lason had dealt with enough in her life to think she deserved a pass when it came to the dangers of walking alone at night, but her bad luck doesn’t show any sympathy and she finds herself facing a world of myths as a captive. A world she would have never thought real doesn’t take long to reveal it’s vines tangled in her own world tighter than anyone would have guessed. 

He was staring.

He was always staring.

Eyes planted on my form with a look that made me want to flee as I tried to keep myself hidden from attention against the bleachers.

I didn't run though. After all, where could I go in the school? The restroom could only protect me for so long and even it couldn't defend against the barrage dealt upon me by my fellow girls.

So I stayed still as he finally approached, a hunter stalking it's prey.

And I screamed prey. From my hidden spot in the corner to my trembling hands, I might as well have hung a sign around my neck.

Pay no mind to this girl. She's hiding.

He wasn't a skilled predator, not when faced with prey as well evolved as me.

His smile didn't fool me. If it had, the hand that came with it would have swallowed all certainty and left me bounding away from his maw.

He touched me.

He touched my face. Who even does that?

X

I had always loved predators.

They were the most majestic animals; lions, wolves, the difference was minimal in my eyes, because they were the hunters.

And I was prey.

So, like someone gazing at a movie star and vowing to model themselves in their likeness, as soon as I'd realized my lot as prey, I vowed to become a predator. I vowed to become strong and rise above the cowardice and weakness of my species. I didn't realize then, predators were not soft. Predators did not shatter from the inside out in the face of angry voices. Predators did not run at the drop of a hat. Predators were not soft and I was and I always would be. I would always be prey.

At least I'd faced predators. I knew their gaits, their appearances, the ways they tried to draw you in with. I had learned them and all the dirty tricks they used to lure in my kind. They would give kindness upon kindness until they sunk their teeth into your flesh, but I had learned to avoid and slink my way by.

Then again, I had been led to believe I'd met my ecosystems top predators.

And I was wrong.

"You will consider all of us your masters and you will follow all our orders without question." I nodded quickly, jaw clenched and teeth gritting together. Clearly, the man in front of me wasn't in any mood for anything other than compliance; I wasn't in any position to be arguing back anyway. The kicker of the whole situation, however, was that I couldn't look him in the face without feeling like a child who had done something wrong.

Or a pet that had been bad.

Submissiveness was how prey survived, but that didn't mean I liked playing the role. It never got easier to tuck tail.

All earlier fire and rebellion had burned out, ashes of my hope remaining in their place.

There were six of them.

Six men.

Six predators who were tall and built and I was one short, chubby girl who knew how to elbow and kick and bite. I was prey, more so than I'd ever been before.

A rabbit. A rabbit was the closest comparison, from my trembling to the flighty nature that had led to my kidnapping and to this.

"Altair, you're scaring her," said man huffed under his breath, but ceased in his lecture and scowling, "Bella, don't mind him. I'm Ezio Auditore." I kept my head down, any and all responses dying on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to speak my mind, but, more so, I wanted to survive.

He pushed on despite my obvious unease, "What's your name, Cara?"

I remained silent for a moment longer, the bitter taste in my mouth growing stronger with each unwelcome pet name. Really though, did I want to earn pain over something as simple as my name? Besides, I would greatly prefer my name to all the insults bestowed on me in the time before the auction.

If someone addressed me as slave one more time, I was almost certainly going to get myself killed by trying to kill them.

"Kady Lason."

Silence followed my answer, clearly none of them had expected me to respond. Finally, after what felt like minutes sitting in deafening silence, but really could only have been seconds, Ezio held his hand out. I hesitated, not believing for a moment that the civility of this situation was honest, but I did shake his hand.

An act. This was an act and I had been an actress my whole life, playing the role required in each and every situation tossed in my direction. Walking on eggshells all your life and keeping it hidden needed a fair amount of knowledge in the way of performance.

Ezio's move led to the others introducing themselves. I had expected some of their names to sound familiar, as I was certain at this point that I had recognized some of the people in the crowd, but none of their names rang a bell.

Not that I was well-versed in the names of the wealthy. I had my own problems without watching them flunt their money in the faces of those who had to work for life.

Maybe that was why these people were so entitled as to believe they could purchase other humans, because they hadn't needed to earn the right to survive or fight to deserve any level of comfort.

Entitlement wasn't evil. And I was grasping at straws, trying to mold the ashes of hope quickly vanishing inside me into something to cling to.

The situation was far from becoming any less awkward than it had been when Jacob had carried my sobbing form through the front door. If anything, the situation was becoming more awkward. Or, maybe, it was tension, not awkwardness at all. Could a situation this awful even be described as awkward? Either way, I couldn't help clenching and unclenching my fists at my sides, a nervous habit I hoped they didn't misinterpret as anything other than an attempt to calm my nerves.

If I could fight, I would. I had no uncertainty about that. I'd already made the attempt, as weak as it had been.

Yes, I was prey, but prey didn't lay down and die, and neither would I.

For the time being, as prey does, I played complacent, biding my time. I couldn't fight them all. I couldn't even fight one.

"Who's going to tell her?" I had no idea what Desmond was referring to, so his question immediately sent my mind into a panic, trying to give myself any idea of what they would need to tell me.

It was obvious why I was here wasn't it?

Still, part of me chanted a mantra of pleas within my head. Housework. Housework. Housework.

God, if they didn't hurt me, I wouldn't mind staying in this enormous house. I'd been trying to get away anyway, right?

I was smarter than that, though. No one would throw that much money away for a maid. Men were all the same, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, and these men had bought me.

With a sigh, Edward spoke, "I'll handle it." He muttered something I could quite hear as he took the few steps from where he was standing to where I was. He crouched down in front of me and sent glances to Jacob and Desmond who were the closest to my sides.

I wasn't blind.

He spoke gently, like I was a scared animal—which I was, a scared, trembling meal for the wolves that surrounded me. Again, as always, in my efforts to disguise what I was, I'd hung a neon sign from my neck: Prey.

"This is going to scare you and, considering you weren't trained, you have every right. But we aren't going to hurt you." Before I had a chance to question or even consider what he had said, his eyes flashed red and he opened his mouth to reveal sharp fangs.

What was in that sedative?

Because, I was definitely having hallucinations.

I pushed myself up with a gasp, fully intending to make a run for the door that was only a few feet away as I realized, I was not hallucinating. They were vampires.

When I'd referred to myself as a meal, I had never expected it to be literal.

Before I could get my bearings to charge the door, Jacob and Desmond had grabbed my arms and pulled me back onto the couch we were on. "No! Let me go!"

Fire was back and, with it, thrashing and yells, but not with any semblance of bravery, only with terror.

I was sure I dug my nails into Jacob's arm, more out of reflex than genuine intention, but he didn't sound at all upset when next he spoke. "Calm down, Love." Using the hand that wasn't gripping my wrist, he turned my head to the side and met my eyes, his own flashing red for a moment before my body fell limp. A false sense of security clouded my mind and, though I knew it wasn't real, I couldn't fight against it. "That's a good girl," he purred, rubbing his thumb against my cheek.

And, God help me, every one of my senses had echoed that purr.

"We went to the auction intending to buy a trained blood slave." While Edward paused, and sent a glare in Ezio's direction, I could feel fear bypassing the false peace. What could blood slave possibly mean other than what had immediately popped into my mind?

I had to wonder which was worse, my previous soul crushing fear or being dinner?

"Ezio didn't want you to be bought just to be tortured and killed - like most blood slaves and almost all untrained slaves are—so he bought you." Altair's voice was cold, but his eyes seemed to hold a bit of sympathy, not that such offered me much, if any, comfort.

Pity was something I knew, though. Pity was something normal, outside this realm of impossibility and madness I had somehow entered.

I was insane.

That was what was happening.

Or I was in a coma.

Please let this be a coma.

Connor, who had been nearly silent up to this point, interjected bluntly, "We need to brand her."

My body was still limp and the false peace still mostly intact, but it was hardly a moment after the word brand that I was thrashing once again, kicking and trying to pull my arms from the grips of the men beside me. "You can't! Don't!"

I wasn't mindlessly swinging now.

Jacob and Desmond's grips immediately tightened to a point that was borderline painful, but I landed enough kicks in kind, "Thanks, Connor!" Desmond snapped, trying to avoid my nails, that were now clearly being used as intentional weapons.

I was literally dinner.

That's it, I'm going vegan.

At least animals didn't realize what was happening. They didn't have to suffer the blind panic of knowing they were going to die.

Why, if I was a glorified blood smoothie, did they need to brand me anyway? It seemed like overkill. Like adding insult to death.

"He is right; we should get it over with." Edward had quickly gotten out of the way when I'd started kicking and was standing next to Altair. "I'll go get it ready." He was gone in a flash, through the panic in my brain, I acknowledged that it was most likely because he wanted out of the situation.

Yeah, you and me both, pal.

"No!" I shrieked once more, somehow getting loose from Jacob and Desmond to my own surprise, stumbling over myself as I launched off of the couch. I immediately darted, slamming into the door as I grabbed the handle and found it locked, my mind not working quickly enough to reach for the lock. Connor was standing over me a second later, my arms in his hands, tightly, but not painfully. "Please don't! I don't wanna die!"

Clearly, that gave him pause, his brow furrowing in what seemed to be confusion before realization took it's place.

It was then Ezio stepped in again, "Cara, we will explain more later, but we are not going to kill you."

When I spoke, through the panic and tears, my voice was firm and my tone surprised even me, "My name is Kady."

What right did a monster have to call me anything but?

Surprise showed on his face and one of the others chuckled, almost silent as he muttered, "Category H, alright."

Any ounce of bravery vanished as it had come. Death or not, I wasn't anymore thrilled with the idea of branding. "Please, please don't brand me!"

"If it was our choice we wouldn't, but it is law. If anyone happens to notice you without a brand it could cause trouble for all of us."

"I won't run! I swear! Please!" I didn't expect them to believe that, even I didn't believe it, but I'd say anything to get out of this. I'd do anything to get out of this entire situation. And if I didn't run, why would anyone notice I wasn't marked like livestock?

Unless they branded me somewhere visible.

The thought alone was enough to spark an aggressive kick, hitting Connor in the shin. He didn't even flinch and, through the pain in my foot, I cursed the fact that they'd taken my boots and replaced them with the pathetic flats I was wearing.

"It's ready." Edward's voice came from the stairway he had disappeared up. Connor seemed relieved, not that I could blame him. He could try to reason with me as much as he wanted, but he knew he wouldn't get anywhere. Because there was no reasonable explanation for branding another person, monsters or not.

I was against branding animals, what did I do to deserve this? Hadn't I dealt with enough?

I shrieked again as Connor picked me up. I brought my hand back, intending to scratch him—not that it would help me in the long run—but his eyes flashed red, much in the way Jacob's had, and I froze. It must have been comical the way my hand froze halfway through the action of attacking, as every nerve ending in my body went numb.

I did not like that.

The effects lasted only a couple of seconds, but it was long enough for him to pin my arms to my sides and wrap an arm around my legs, preventing any attack I could have attempted.

I continued to thrash, but tears quickly covered my face as I found I could do nothing.