#because why would the templars ever release a narrative where they lose? where people survive? where theres still *hope*

[theconfusedartist]

hehe have internet back. I'm talking yet again~

but like, I get it. Shaun and Rebecca aren't going to get close to Desmond after what happened to Clay (hence why they always call him 16, don't give Desmond the full disclosure on what happened) because it's easier to keep an emotional distance. They're assassins after all, and if they already know that Desmond is most likely going to die, what's the point in getting close? Another death, another 'occupational hazard' in the making.

Rebecca worked with Clay, knew who he was, but it's easier to refer to him by number rather than think of him as a person that met a bloody end. Shaun is probably thinking about the fact that the last time they had someone who interacted with the animus into the order, they murdered the mentor (Daniel), so who's to say that Desmond isn't a sleeper agent? They see him going through the bleeding effect, they hear him screaming in his sleep, they can tell he's losing it. It would be so much harder emotionally to get close to him only for him to die, so they keep their distance and let Lucy handle it.

And on Lucy's part, it's just another animus subject she has to watch fall to pieces, another person whose personality gets eroded away to nothing as they lose all sense of self. How many times had she asked for extraction? How many times of her pleas for help being ignored?

No one is coming to save them. She learned that in the seven years as a mole, forced to work alone without any backup or real communication, it's only a matter of time before he ends up like everyone of the other subjects she had to see die.

So for Shaun, Rebecca, and Lucy, why would they start treating Desmond like a friend or a real member of the team? To them it's inevitable that Desmond will have a painful end, but they got back Lucy, right? At least there's an upside.

And as for Desmond? He's going insane and no matter how much he tells them, no matter how much they see it happening; no one is coming to save him. Sure, he might be willingly going into the animus, but he better not complain! After all, 'he agreed to this'. It's not like he can ask to leave, because for all the narrative and team want to paint retrieving Desmond as a rescue, they aren't going to give him a choice in going back to the animus. The only difference in situation with the Assassins is that he isn't being forced into a coma, because he willingly agreed to it, but what would happen if he didn't?

Desmond only really has Lucy to ask for support, and she's busy setting up enough emotional walls so she doesn't get hurt, that it's a shadow of a relationship. They don't give him answers because they expect him to die anyways, so what's the point? For all the assassins talk about freedom and choice, they have very little to spare for their members in the modern day.

And maybe thats why the modern assassins revere the ancient assassins so much, they're a tale of what the order *should* be, what they were *told* they were fighting for, even as it's not practiced in their own modern order.

By the time AC3 has rolled around, the group has been around long enough and weathered enough together that at least they can have *fleeting* conversations about the big things; Lucy's death and apparent betrayal, Clay being left to die, but only in hurried and hushed whispers. What was already a fragile working relationship is strained by William.

The same William that claims he had 'no clue' that Lucy had turned traitor, but conviently leaves out the fact that he left her in enemy territory with no way out. The same William that lays Clay's death at Lucy's feet, despite the fact that there are emails to prove that William will push whatever limits he needs to in order to get info, no matter who it is.

The same William that treats the deaths of his members as 'occupational hazards' and leaves bodies and bases behind to the templars, even knowing that they're scraping their bodies and DNA for any information they can find. The same William that treats the death of his members as if they're all pieces on a board instead of real loves being lost.

The same William willing to punch his own son in front of other people just for asking to be treating with respect.

Like. I get it.

This is the mentor of the assassin order and he's willing to let his son go insane, willing to hit his son for speaking up, and somehow incompetent enough to get caught by the templars. He keeps plugging Desmond into the animus when he goes into a coma or into a fainting spell, because if he's going to die, might as well get as much from him as they can.

By the time it's clear that Desmond is going to die, they've been expecting it for months now, it's not a relief or anything they were expecting because despite how hard they tried to distance themselves from Desmond--it's hard to treat him like a number when he's alive in front of them.

Desmond dies, and all they have are regrets, wishing that they had memories of a friend rather than someone they knew as a walking USB for historical archives. Desmond dies and no one gets closure because the templars are still a problem so they gotta keep moving.

And Desmond dies to save the world, his entire life orchestrated to the final notes, knowing that every choice he thought was his own was carefully planned from the start.

maybe my desmond tags were a bit spicy but i said what i said

The modern team was a group of friends with Desmond as their work friend/colleague

Not hateful or anything, not malicious. They just... they ain't close like that, unfortunately