#look it was either monteriggioni or masyaf

[teecupangel]

k, so. Desmond finds his way, someway, somwhow, to the Star Wars universe and, after some tomfoolery, finds the kindergarten of the Jedi homeworld (whats the name again??? anywho) and goes *gasp* Little Ones! Must Protect' as you will, cause dadmond is dadmond.~ And so nothing back happens to the kids. Ever. cause Desmond knows soo many different ways to fuck shit up, and space magic cant defend against most of them.~ its late and my brain gave me a weird idea, and its yours now. have fun!~

Are we talking about Coruscant? Nonny, are we setting this before and during Revenge of the Sith which means we’re gonna get Darth Vadar/Anakin versus Desmond so that the kids will survive in this one?

Okay then, let’s see how we can make Desmond be part of the younglings' lives without him becoming a Jedi then (because Desmond’s Assassin upbringing don’t really line all that nicely with the Jedi’s rules).

So, for this one, I think it would be fun if Desmond was more like a distant ally of the Jedis who likes to just slip in and out of the Jedi Temple like he has a lifetime Disneyland golden pass and the Jedis do find him, mostly after he had already done what he was meant to do there (which is to talk to Mace Windu or Yoda or actually check their data without permission) and he’s always found with the younglings, teaching them…

Uh… not Jedi-approved skills and moves.

Or just playing with them in general.

Desmond didn’t plan for this to happen. He was just looking for Yoda to talk about some weird shit he found while taking out a separatist base after being almost eaten by some weird ass ugh creature (Desmond knew they have names but Desmond also a lot on his plate right now and names are the least of his concerns, no matter how exasperated his Bleeds are with his priorities) and he found Yoda training some of the younglings ‘clans’.

He was reminded of how Altaïr used to train his sons and other children born and raised in Masyaf and he felt his heart ache because being reminded of how gentle and understanding Altaïr was to his sons and the other children only made him feel all the more bitter over how harsh his training back on the Farm had been.

One of the younglings noticed him but he simply smiled and placed a finger by his lips to ask the youngling to stay quiet. Seeing the trust in the youngling’s eyes as he nodded before turning his attention back to Yoda’s teaching made Desmond realize just how… pure these children were.

They were protected from the danger of the outside world, isolated in this temple where all they would learn about were those approved by the Jedi Order.

Just like the Farm.

Desmond knew that the Jedis and the Assassins weren’t the same, hell, Desmond think a lot of the Jedi’s way of thinking is too idealistic for his taste, or maybe he’s just become too ‘jaded’ or something.

Either way, he saw just how dangerous it was for these younglings to simply be trained in the Jedi’s way of thinking, especially now that the Clones War have gotten even more dangerous for everyone.

Hell, Desmond could think of almost a hundred ways he could destroy the Jedi Temple given enough time and manpower.

Anything was possible at this point. Simply because Coruscant was the seat of the Republic right now doesn’t mean it would always be. It also doesn’t mean that the Jedis would always be seen as allies by these politicians.

Desmond had enough memories of Ezio to know how politicians and people in power could backstab longtime allies if they would profit from it and could get away with it.

So Desmond started visiting the younglings whenever he was in the area. They think he was sooooo cool and they enjoy the games Desmond play with them.

Their favorite is the “let’s hide from everyone” game where they all play together with Desmond and hide from everyone, not realizing that Desmond was teaching them how to be stealthy and stay hidden while going for the many ‘hidden’ or unconventional exits all around the temple.

So when Order 66 began, these younglings didn’t wait in one of the rooms of the Jedi temple. They remember their promise to Desmond and began to make their way to their secret hideout that Desmond always brought them to whenever they played the ‘hide from everyone’ game. They knew it wasn’t a game, of course, they saw the death and carnage on their way out of the temple but they also remembered Master Yoda’s words about why he turned a blind eye even though he knew about their regular ‘playtime’ with Desmond. About how they should stay together at all times and to go to that secret hideout if they feel like they’re in trouble or they feel scared and wait for Desmond or Yoda to come get them.

So they do.

They manage to stay hidden and get to the secret hideout…

But they were only safe for a few hours. Just enough time for them to try and calm each other down and those sweets that Desmond keeps in the hideout that he always gives out whenever he notices someone was a little down.

When the door to their hideout opens...

And they saw Master Skywalker walk inside.

They’ve seen him, of course.

They’ve seen him as he led the clone troopers into killing everyone in the temple.

They knew Skywalker wasn’t there to keep them safe.

So when Skywalker took a step inside their hideout, the more courageous and older of the children stepped in front of the others, hiding the smaller children behind them as they try to use the force to push Skywalker out of the room.

It proved futile because they were still learning and all it did was make Skywalker’s robes flutter behind him.

Just as Skywalker lit his lightsaber and take another step towards them, the roof of their hideout suddenly opened and Skywalker instinctively jumped back as a figure clad in white robes that the children were so used to seeing almost jumped on top of him.

Blood dripped from the small cut on the side of Skywalker’s neck as Desmond stood between him and the children.

Before Skywalker could do anything, Desmond threw something which he cut down with his lightsaber, causing it to explode near him enough to push him even further away.

Desmond didn’t let up, throwing two more bombs.

Skywalker backed away to dodge the bombs but these ones were set on a timer and they both exploded near Skywalker. Just strong enough to push him back.

Just strong enough to distract him.

To give Desmond enough time to slam his hidden blade in a secret panel near the door of the hideout, enclosing the entire hideout and…

Making it fall.

Before the children could think they were plummeting to their deaths, hidden propulsion activated as a robotic voice announce, “Monteriggioni emergency takeoff function activated. Initializing default flight plan 11092007. Activating cloaking system.”

[meggannn]

cut for negativity about AC Odyssey cause I just need to bitch

the short version: I’m mad. and I can’t tell if it’s just my fault for having unrealistic expectations of Ubisoft.

the long version:

I fully expected a sequel to Bayek’s and Aya’s story and am massively, massively disappointed they aren’t treating them with more content like Ezio. this was my fault, I guess, because they never promised me anything and I did get my hopes up for another trilogy or at least one sequel with Bayek. crafting good protagonists then doing FUCKING NOTHING with them for the rest of the series is Ubisoft’s MO, but the fact that they have these two great characters that establish the entire Assassin Brotherhood and you just leave them right when their lives really become interesting… like, be honest with me. Aya/Amunet, an Egyptian woman, is the person who founded the Roman Brotherhood. Bayek, a medjay, founded the Egyptian brotherhood which eventually led (we assume) to an eventual migration to Masyaf Castle where the brotherhood became so recognized that it became a symbol around the world. given Aya’s statue in Monteriggioni, we can assume she’s remembered throughout their history as one of the founding members of the entire brotherhood. this is a non-white woman who you have established is integral to the founding of the faction around which the entire series is based, and then you drop her and her partner like hot potatoes right when things get interesting in their history. would it not, say, make sense? to follow up Origins up with a game set in perhaps Ancient Rome or Syria? featuring the brown woman or brown man who established the Assassins that spread across the world? maybe???? not to be overdramatic but for me this is like, emotionally on par with Bioware announcing Dragon Age 4 only to say we’re not going to Tevinter or Nevarra, and that none of the old DA2 or DAI characters are coming back, but instead DA4 is bringing us back to Ferelden and we’ll be running around the Hinterlands for another fifty hours. If you set up a game with the logical conclusion to follow your old protagonists’ journey, then like yeah… I will feel… mad… when you don’t… follow through with them… in the next game… and just go back… to more… fucking… European… locations… I just cannot get over the disappoint I’m feeling and it’s overwhelming any excitement I might have initially felt for a character like Kassandra.

I still loathe Ubisoft’s take on the RPG genre, particularly their combat system. it’s mostly my ongoing rivalry with the hitscan system. I don’t find it fun, but also in general it’s just not what I associate with AC games -- with AC, I know exactly what I’m getting. or lmao like, I used to. I don’t know what this combat is anymore. I liked knowing exactly what I’m getting. I liked not having to waste time on combat and inventory bullshit and my choices mattering -- I’d play a better RPG if I wanted that. I play AC to sneak around places and focus on the story and assassins I’m hunting. I mean the quest system in Origins was… not great, but definitely a step in an interesting direction, I’m not inherently opposed to all RPG elements here. I feel like they could improve it with more tweaking, but what I did not want was them to “tweak” it in the style of The Witcher or Dragon Age where choice determined how the actual story pans out. I’m not convinced Ubi can do it. I sound like a snobby exclusionist, I know. I just am finding it really hard to see Assassin’s Creed in the game we were shown. when I plan AC game, I want (and expect) an emphasis on stealth. everything I’ve seen is…… not that. I know, assassins didn't come until later, but you can’t tell me sneaking around was invented when Altair first did it. Origins tried to allow you choice in how could approach a mission, but everything from the wide, environment to the millions of fucking weapons they make you pick up  expected you to fight a fair amount of the time. it’s not, to be fair, unrealistic, considering Bayek’s background as a medjay. I suspect the same reasoning will be made for Kassandra and Alexios. so much effort was put into revamping their combat system with an expectation people would use it more, and now in Odyssey… no… hidden blades…? call it a new IP set in Ancient Greece, I’d be way more receptive, but I don’t like that the game mechanics and simplicity that I grew attached to, the ones that made up the AC brand, is now -- apparently -- gone for good. I liked that shit. It was easy! I knew what I was getting into! I’m not thrilled how instead of dialing back from Origins, they’re just charging ahead deeper in the same direction re: combat complexity. I find it overwhelming and I’m not gonna use half the shit you give me. it took me like fifty hours to learn what signs were in The Witcher 3, even later for potions, and another twenty to actually start using them, cause it was just too much.

now i’m ready to complain about the main characters. sorry. yeah, it does bother me that there’s no set character. one staple of AC for me is that even if it’s fantasy, it’s historical fantasy; you’re given a predetermined character and watch them grow into an assassin and make their mark on history. it’s beyond strange to now see that that role is… flexible. Someone on reddit phrased my unease a very good way: there’s one scene in, I believe it’s AC Brotherhood, where Desmond is jerked out of the Animus after he witnesses the attack on Monteriggioni. Desmond immediately wants to go back, he’s yelling for them to let him back in the Animus so he can go back and save those people caught in the attack. Lucy takes him and gently says, “Desmond, those people are dead. They’ve been dead for centuries.” part of the series is how you can’t change the past with the Animus: you’re only viewing it. it already happened centuries, millennia ago, all of it is set in stone. all you can do, all you should do, is learn from what they did and work to make what went wrong, right. this new choice system with the ability to ‘change’ the past, via Layla’s new Animus system is… just bizarre. I don’t know. what’s the plot excuse for it? is there really going to be narrative payoff or explanation, or is it just so Ubisoft can rebrand the franchise an RPG?

it’s another thing that the dialogue choices themselves I’m seeing aren’t particularly… I’m searching for a word here, but “natural”? the conversations read like all they did was write a scene conversation between two characters, then spit up the dialogue and make half of it optional instead. but the thing is it’s all stuff you need to know anyway, so making it ‘optional’ doesn’t even matter like it would in a BW game where the optional dialogue really is optional. in the Odyssey clips I’ve seen it just feels stilted and weird.

anyway call me a whiner, I fully own it, but another big thing is that I’m thoroughly sick of this strange trend of making it choosable between a man/woman protag as a side-step around commitment to diversity. most of the time it strikes me as… lazy is not the right word, because technically they’re doing more work. but it's becoming more apparent to me that devs are seeing it as a noncommitment to having a female lead. play as Sara or Scott Ryder, play as Emily or Corvo, play as Alexios or Kassandra. (Sara/Scott less so, cause BW is an RPG company where you’re MEANT to build on a character, and choosing a gender is a part of that, but you’ll see what I mean in a sec.) but anyway, yay, diversity. except you can play all three of those games without once playing a woman like you’re forced to play a man in other games -- my irritation is because it still allows people to avoid female protagonists entirely. like. my hope is to make a woman protagonist unavoidable? don’t make her optional. make her mandatory. give me more undeniable canon female leads. give me Aloys and Ellies and Laras and Chells and Faiths. if you want to know why I feel so strongly about this, it’s because: a. so long as there is a choice, it is inevitable that the male lead -- in this case Alexios -- will be promoted more and featured in marketing. how do i know, it’s because we’re already seeing it. they did the same thing with Scott Ryder. looking at the trailer or box cover for Odyssey and you’d have no idea you could play as a woman. (it’s a little too early to say the same for Cyberpunk 2077 marketing, but I’m getting the same vibe there.) it lets devs, say, feature male leads in the trailer, but female options only in the gameplay. guess which one gets promoted on the big screen in E3 presentations and which one is only viewed by people who actually seek out the game? b. I am already seeing people claim that Alexios is canon and Kassandra is “just the female option.” Ubisoft is not going to comment -- and therefore commit -- either way. usually there’s a half-hearted “it’s more realistic” explanation for why people see the guy as canon, but more often than not it’s just because he exists, and therefore, is assumed the “real lead.” I'd like to see games with a canon woman leading instead of an option where she might not exist at all. and honestly if there were more female leads I probably wouldn’t feel so bothered by this, but seeing men saying “I plan on playing Alexios and ignoring Kassandra the whole time” makes me want devs to give us more games where they’re forced to play a woman. sue me c. the thing is I know Ubisoft can get this ‘balance’ of man and women leads right, because they have already, once. sort of. Evie and Jacob was a great idea, because that story was one they shared, and one in which you had to play as both and had to understand both. refusing to play as one or the other was not an option, because they were a package deal. people who bitched and complained about Evie were forced to play as her anyway. their relationship and mutual involvement was crucial to the story because she, a woman, was crucial to the story.

I’m not even one to complain about this, I mean I even took all of the Andromeda animations in stride, but the Odyssey animation doesn’t look… great. poses, faces, mouth movements, are tellingly awkward. this time last year when they promoted Origins, I feel like it was in a better position, and Origins and Odyssey are both releasing/released in the fall? I dunno. I wouldn’t even be bothered by it because I’m not bothered by it with BW really, except it’s noticeable when it’s a step down from what I’m used to in the crisp, cleaner AC cutscenes I’m used to that aren’t just talking heads. I can’t help but feel it’s another downside of making dialogue optional instead of making scenes crafted every time: some things, like faces and idle dialogue animations, will be entirely automated,

BIG MAP! OUR BIGGEST MAP EVER!!!!!!!! EVEN BIGGER THAN ORIGINS, THE ONE WHERE HALF THE REGIONS HAD NOTHING BUT SAND!!! please stop. I’m so tired.

[teecupangel]

Submitted by @saberamane​

After seeing that chinchilla Desmond ask, it reminded me of my first impression upon encountering the ferox in Ark survival evolved, Genesis part 1. I know it has a cat/fox like face and kind of red panda tail and monkey-ish body but, my first experience with it was in game, as I hadn’t watched the trailer. And I thought it was a mutated chinchilla…

Saying that! A Ferox! Desmond au would be amazing. He’s small and cute, doing cute little hops to beg for treats, and then he’s a 7 foot tall wolf-gorilla thing capable of tearing your head off your body…

I just have a picture of guards angrily breaking into an ancestor’s house (like the Auditore villa at the start of AC2) and finding this cute…thing just sitting on the other side of the door, wagging it’s tail, and then they watch in horror as it suddenly grows, up and up, and up.

And then there’s nothing but screams…

================================

Additions by teecup

For those unfamiliar with what a Ferox look like, here you go:

Desmond would probably spend quite a lot of time trying to get used to his new body, especially his newly acquired four arms so he’d be a bit of a klutz too. And he’d be super surprised when he first transforms into his other form but also ‘hell yeah!’.

Desmond would just be a fluffy sweet bunny? Fox? Cat? No one knows (and Leonardo is trying to understand what he is) but that doesn’t really matter since Desmond is more or less docile and just likes to eat and cuddle. Not being liked by him would make a person a social pariah XD

So we have an idea of how Desmond could screw up AC2 (also, he can totally protect Monteriggioni by going on a rampage on the papacy army, although this might start a rumor of Monteriggioni having a demon as an attack dog) and Desmond could easily thwart Charles Lee’s plan to burn down Ratonhnhaké:ton’s village by going ham on them either while staying with Kaniehtí:io that day or by transforming and ‘taking care’ of the soldiers before Charles Lee could even hurt Ratonhnhaké:ton.

Now, the most common setup would be for Desmond to be Altaïr’s pet but may I suggest an alternative: Desmond as baby Sef’s pet? Sef found him while he and Darim are playing (maybe they were even able to sneak out of Masyaf) and he brought him back because Desmond doesn’t recognize Sef but he looks a lot like Altaïr so he just makes soft purring sounds as he put all his arms in the air in the universal gesture of ‘pick me up’ and Sef does. 

His transformation is kept a secret and Altaïr thinks Desmond might have mutated with the use of a POE. He’s still more or less Sef’s pet even though Desmond likes to follow Altaïr around when Sef isn’t in Masyaf. 

So when Swami tried to assassinate Sef in his sleep, Desmond is curled on top of Sef’s chest and he jumped down, staring at Swami. 

Swami’s eyes widened as Desmond transformed right in front of him and he let out a scream that gets drowned by Desmond’s roar.

Sef immediately wakes up to see Desmond pinning Swami against the floor and Sef knew that something fishy is certainly going on. Even though Swami is babbling that it was his father who ordered for his death, Sef doesn’t believe him.

First of all: His father wouldn’t order for this death. Of all the things Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad might and might not be, his love for his family will never be questioned.

Second of all: Even if Altaïr wanted him dead, he wouldn’t pick someone like Swami to kill him, that’s insulting. (At this point, both Swami and Desmond just stare at Sef because, yeah, he might be nicer and sweeter than his father but the Ibn-La'Ahad arrogance seems to be hereditary).

“Third of all…” Sef looked at Desmond and grinned, “Shall we get some exercise, Desmond?”

Desmond roared his agreement and…

That day, the conspiracy against Altaïr’s family and allies was thwarted by a large monster. Many of Abbas’ supposed allies squealed like pigs and admitted everything while being pinned down by said monster.

Malik drowned in paperwork that day.

[teecupangel]

From @mysticalbasementwitch

I think that the idea in which Desmond is a powerful artifact without knowing is funnier

From @thedragonqueen1998

Yeah and it would be fun, because then the knowledge of the movies would actually be useful.... in some years(is it hundreds or thousands? I haven't read the books either XD).

From @blue-cat-ter-flies-blog

Oh to be an Assassin in a fantasy world of Honour, Bardic Epics and Only Open Warfare. Desmond's gonna rattle so many cages they may as well be bells on a string. And imagine already sneaky elves being made sneakier with Assassin skills? Bods, they'd be considered more ghostly than the ghost army Aragorn called up.

Desmond has gotten the attention of too many powerful beings (of origins he doesn’t fully understand because, sure, Galadriel answers his questions but it’s like he has to keep opening tabs on a wiki page. Too many words he doesn’t know and needs to be clarified).

He absolutely doesn’t like the sons of Feanors and will actively fight them (might even take one or two of them down himself because he’s had enough).

Before Desmond realize it, too many people are following him and looking for him for guidance that he’s left with no choice but to build a village in a more or less safe place.

Unfortunately, no place was truly safe and, to protect the life that they have been building, they fortify the village with large walls. A castle and towers had to be created because these walls.

Farmland had to be taken in consideration to supply them with food and other resources had to searched for and planned on how to keep a constant stock of.

Desmond was pretty sure years have passed (it was hard to keep track of how long it’s been when he’s surrounded by people with long lives, including himself)

And now…

He’s the mentor of the Brotherhood.

The de facto ‘ruler’ of this… no. He wasn’t going to call this a kingdom but…

Considering it looked like Monteriggioni and Masyaf combined (he blamed his Bleeds)…

He might have ‘accidentally’ built his very own small… uuhhh… independent stronghold in a place they call Calenardhon.

As somebody who has pored over your past stories, I cannot help but find the hunt for the pieces of eden to be akin to the events of the wars of the jewels as mentioned in the silmarillion. In your view, how would you think a post-death Desmond (who winds up possessing some magic Isu powers) in beleriand getting involved with either the quest of the silmaril or the fostering of elrond and elros (referred to as the kidnap fam by sectors of silm fandom) by the last sons of feanor would go down?

It would be fun if Desmond doesn’t know about the plot of Silmarillion. He only watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy but he never read any of the books. Didn’t even get to watch the first The Hobbit movie because he was busy trying to save the world.

Shaun did go on a tirade about how it was possible that JRR Tolkien had some knowledge about the precursors and used that as the basis of the books. (Years later after Desmond’s death, Shaun would wonder if it was possible that JRR Tolkien was a Sage) but Desmond had been to busy trying to remember how his body worked to pay him much attention.

So, when Desmond gets transported in the middle of the Quest of the Silmaril, he knows he’s in a different world but he didn’t know he was in the same world as the movies he watched before.

It’s only when he meets Galadriel by chance that he realized where he was and even that information is useless considering he’d been pushed into the distant past.

For this one, we can go two different routes:

(1) Desmond gets in the thick of the entire thing because he saw the death and misery brought upon the land by the greed and desire to possess these ‘stones’.

(2) Desmond gets roped into it against his will because Morgoth lose another Silmaril and no one knows how that happened. All they know is that the ‘distinct feeling’ of the Silmaril is encasing Desmond. Desmond swears he doesn’t have any stone or jewel or whatever but no one believes him.

Both routes would have Desmond take in a rogue third party of some sort role. Would he create his own Brotherhood? Not in the beginning but after more and more people follow him, he’s forced to acknowledge that, yeah, he’s definitely the mentor now.

And his targets are those who would stop at nothing to get those damn stones.

And yes, that includes the Sons of Fëanor.

It is during his pursuit after them that he finds Elrond and Elros, effectively stopping Maglor from ‘adopting’ them. Desmond tries to help Elrond and Elros in finding their father because, as far as they know, their mother is already dead.

Desmond definitely assumed their father is an asshole for not even looking for them after what has happened and sorta-kinda adopted the two.

Desmond has a problem of his own though.

He noticed that he wasn’t aging at all.

No matter how many years have passed…

(If Desmond is the silmaril given ‘human’ form, he would be the silmaril of the earth, ‘cursed’ to walk Middle-Earth until Dagor Dagorath)