[OPEN]

[deadlybanker]

Date & Time: During/After the bombing
Location: The Continent
Characters: Assassins and refugees - OPEN
Summary: Those who have escaped the bombings by going to the mainland instead of to the moon... (though they will be dragged up there come Oct. anyway)
Warnings: Possible bloodshed, roughing it in the wilds


To the moon they said, THE MOON? Why go to so much trouble when the main land was so close? Those who felt the same took to the waves to cross the channel and invade enemy soil. The seas were choppy but the real danger came from United Earth who had stationed troops along the coast to kill any who tried to escape the destruction. Still, if you were lucky, quick, or skilled enough you might stand a chance of evading the increased patrols and scratching out some kind of existence from the ruined landscape.

It was difficult to stay in any one place for very long. The United Earth kept their patrols active day and night and alternated their patrol patterns but occasionally small encampments could be formed in secluded areas. Campfires were dangerous but were the only real way to cook most food and supplies were difficult to come by unless one could hunt or make a daring raid on UE supply caravans.

It was a harsh life even harsher than life had been on the island prison, but it was familiar, it was the Earth and here one could make their own decisions.

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[OOC: Feel free to start your own threads, open or locked, and write them about what Continent based activity you would like for them to be about! ]

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Comments

[givetheslip]

For a long moment, Maria just stared. It wasn't that she thought children were perfect angels until they reached maturity, and it wasn't that she expected life in the so-called 'new world' to be the same as in England, or even the Holy Land. But this was a little extreme.

Or maybe Ziio was older than she looked?

"How old is your son, did you say?" she managed eventually.

[onen]

"I did not say, but he is four," she says off-handedly, instinctively and out of habit. "Come, I think I saw some berries this way."

She starts to walk towards a bush that she had noticed earlier, laden with blackberries just ripe for the picking, when she stops and checks herself.

"Forgive me, I am mistaken. He is no longer four, he is twenty in this place. Time makes a mockery of us here, it seems. Sometimes I forget he is not my little boy any longer in this time."

[givetheslip]

Oh. Well, that explains a great deal. Maria breathes a little easier as she joins Ziio, though something still niggles at her...

"That must be strange for you," she said. "A friend of mine was in Exsilium for a time and we hadn't had the same experiences, but the difference was a matter of months, not years."

More to the point, Altaïr was not her child. That was an even greater difference at any age.

[onen]

"It was strange," Ziio agrees, hand hovering over a cluster of berries as she turns to the other woman. "I did not know him at first, but I expected to find a little boy and not a man full grown who is built like a bear."

She smiles proudly and shakes her head.

"But he is still my son, that does not change no matter how big he might be now or what he has become in the years I have not lived yet. Did your friend go with the others... up there?"

She still can't find the words to say 'to the moon.' It's patently absurd to give such a scenario voice in her opinion.

[givetheslip]

The comparison prompts a chuckle, the first in some time, despite the seriousness of the situation that drove us here. A bear of a man—she can think of a few people who fit that description.

"No," she said after a moment, growing more serious. "He hasn't been with us in quite some time. That's the way of it here—it's as if some people simply vanish."

She would be quite upset about it if she thought Altaïr had any control over his leaving, and had chosen to do so without taking her back with him.

"I'm sure he would be here with us now, otherwise," she said. "He's a man with a strong sense of justice, that much I know is true."

[onen]

"I am sorry for your loss. It does not seem fair that we should be taken and returned like we are their toys. But why should we be important to the people who would leave thousands to die while they launch their favourite playthings to the moon?"

She plucks a handful of berries and holds them out to Maria to sample.

"This world could use more men of justice to do what is right. My son tries, but he is only one man and I fear he takes it upon himself to do too much."

[givetheslip]

"Thank you." Maria nodded, entirely in agreement with Ziio's words. "I don't pretend to understand any of those who brought us here. I used to think it was because we're from such different times, but now I wonder if it goes deeper."

She accepted the berries, eyeing them a moment before trying one. It was good.

"Who is your son, by the way?" she said after a moment. "I thought I'd met all of those who organized this evacuation, but perhaps not."

[onen]

"His name is Ratonhnhaké:ton, but his father has told me that he also answers to name Connor. I do not know why, perhaps there are some who would find his true name hard to say." Certainly the aforementioned father, much to her annoyance. "I know there are those who cannot say mine no matter how many times I have repeated it to them."

She shrugs as she takes a berry for herself.

"Perhaps you know my son by that name."

[givetheslip]

Maria stopped dead in her tracks. "Connor is your son?" she blurted, eyes wide. That was the last person she'd expected, though in retrospect it was obvious.

She had never thought about Connor's parentage, but if she had, Maria wouldn't have imagined a woman like Ziio would be his mother. She seemed like a woman who would raise her children to have manners, for starters.

"I do know him," she said, recovering a little. "Not well, but we've met before."

[onen]

Ziio gives her a considering look, as the surprise on the other woman's face is unexpected. Of course it is difficult to reconcile a woman in her twenties having a full grown son but they have already covered the reasons for this.

"And it is so hard to believe that he should be my child?" she asks with a smirk of amusement. "I do not think we look so different."

She puts the berry she took earlier into her mouth and eats it, offering another to Maria.

"How did you meet him?"

[givetheslip]

"No...no, you don't."

It's true. Now that she thinks about it, Maria can see some resemblance in Ziio's face, and she feels foolish for not realizing the truth sooner. She suddenly feels awkward, as well; she likes this woman, has been inclined to trust her, but her son...well, he squashed her onto the ground and was rude about it.

Then again, he put this evacuation together and no doubt saved many lives.

"I'm afraid we didn't have the best meeting," she said at last, accepting the berry and wondering if it would be the last gift from Ziio. She could lie, but there's no point. Connor may have already told her of the Templar woman. "On the first day I arrived here, he thought that I was someone I am not, and took issue with that."

[onen]

Ziio watches her face carefully, and is surprised to hear that the other woman's first encounter with her son was not a positive one; Ratonhnhaké:ton has grown to be a quiet, thoughtful man and she has not known him to anger easily... except when it comes to the subject of the Templars.

But that would mean-

"That is strange, you do not look like someone who he would take issue with." She pauses as she gives Maria a considering look. "You were alone when you met?"

She gives Maria another long look, wondering how much she should probe into her business or give away about her own.

[givetheslip]

There's the look of uncertainty she's expecting. Maria holds back a sigh and hopes she hasn't just lost a burgeoning friendship. She has too few of those, here or anywhere else.

"It was the day I arrived," she said. "I was still trying to find my way about in the rain. I certainly wasn't expecting someone to brandish a blade at me and force me into an alley."

[onen]

"He did what?"

Ziio's brow draws into a frown as she can't quite accept the idea her son would ambush an innocent woman for no reason, especially not one newly arrived and alone in a strange new place. Then again, she would not have expected him to stalk her either.

"I am disappointed he would do such a thing, that is not how I have raised him, at least not in the years that I have lived out so far. I cannot speak for the fourteen I have not experienced yet. I cannot understand it. Had- had you spoken to anyone before he found you? Another man from your country perhaps?"

If Ratonhnhaké:ton has taken to mindlessly ambushing innocent women then his mother will have to have serious words with him.

[givetheslip]

"None that I knew." Of course, she came from England originally, but a few thousand years' difference effectively severs her connection to any of the Initiative, as far as Maria is concerned. Altaïr was another matter, but he had nothing to do with Connor's error.

"As I said, he believed me to be somewhat I'm not," she said. "Otherwise I doubt he'd have given me more than a passing glance."

[onen]

Ziio still can't understand it, or see anything about Maria that would make her seem like a threat to her son. It unsettles her that she can't figure it out; there's still so much about Ratonhnhaké:ton that he seems to be keeping from her and it is beginning to worry her.

"Then I do not understand why he would act that way. I am sorry. If you were a Templar or with one I could understand it, but I do not see a reason for his behaviour."

[givetheslip]

"I am not," she says, and sighs. "Anymore. But I still wore a cloak marked with their sigil at the time. He saw it, and...made an assumption."

An understandable assumption, she can admit, though that does not in any way excuse his subsequent overreaction. It wasn't as if she could be a threat the Connor, bear of a man that he is.

[onen]

"I see."

There is no condemnation in Ziio's voice, only understanding. An unfortunate misunderstanding, and nothing that she blames the other woman for, or Ratonhnhakéton... though perhaps she needs to have words with him about jumping to conclusions.

"I am sorry. Templars have tried to take our lands from us in the past, and in the future I am told. I do not forgive easily, he takes after me in that I think." She sighs and shakes her head. "Better that than he take after his father."

[givetheslip]

Maria relaxes a little, glad she isn't going to be immediately shunned out of mother's pride.

"It's all right," she says, though the memory of creaking bones protests. "What's done is done, and he's far from the first person to make a mistake." Even if it had been entirely avoidable. Something about Ziio's next words, though...Maria hesitates before speaking again, but goes ahead and askes the personal question that's sprung to mind.

"Why not his father? Did he do something to wrong you?"

[onen]

For a long while, Ziio does not answer, wondering how best to answer. She waits for a moment, distracting herself with checking another trap. There is no easy answer, no way of making it sound better than it is. Perhaps... she might not be so judgemental seeing as it seems as though her former companion might once have borne some allegiance to the Templars.

After all, she too had allied herself to their cause before she truly understood where their goals lay.

When she speaks again, she does not make eye contact.

"When I met the Templars they approached my people with offers of friendship, they helped free some of us from a man who wanted to take us for slaves. I thought their leader would prove to be a man who was sympathetic to our cause and for a while he made me believe that." She will not say anymore, the feelings she once had for Haytham are best left buried in the past. "But he was better at deception than I realised and he used me to get what he needed, and I did not let him stay long enough to turn my child into something he would use the way he had used me. I would sooner die than see him turn Ratonhnhaké:ton into a Templar like him."

[givetheslip]

The silence may or may not be good, but there is clearly a reason for it. Maria gives Ziio what time she needs, unsure what would even be the best way to push for more if she wanted to.

Maria listens carefully. And when Ziio finishes, she understands why that extra time had been needed. She knew full well herself that the Assassins and the Templars had certain similarities, but the scenario being described brought them far closer together than she would have guessed possible. An Assassin, the child of a Templar? No wonder Ziio would have wanted to distance the two.

"I understand," she said at last. "A little, at least. And I can't blame you for thinking as you do."