Assassin's Creed: A Brotherhood Divided

[Aarah]

Vladimir walked towards the newly opened door.
Great. Now we go into some kind of cave, he thought as he peered down the hallway. He felt the wall with his hand; wondering why it, and the floor, were made of such an odd material.

[The-Shadow-One]

"Cheery place.." Alex atated as she walked beside Cole. "Lovely decor."

[Hissien]

Lana


Lana didn't comment on the conditions of the base and just kept walking towards the mess hall.

[Archer]

Cole grinned. "And I bet it cost a fortune." he added.

[The SheoDovah]

Connor kept an eye on their guests and didn't comment on the decor of the animus chamber. "I do hope it's something meaty for lunch today as one can only eat so many cans of baked beans before feeling a strong desire to convince the local markets to give you a discount on your purchase for being a superb customer." He commented. "Oh and i do desire a good old cup of wine."

[Rook]

The Mess Hall

"I doubt it's anything particularly rich. The funding for this project just covered the Animus stations, everything else was out of this cell's pocket." Noah replied, dashing Connor's hopes and dreams, "Besides, word on the streets is that the Templars have infiltrated the police. It's not safe to make routine runs to the surface until we can confirm the rumor's validity."

The hallway was spotted with the occasional door, and the group took two right turns before arriving in the mess hall: it was a large room with a convex ceiling, all the walls and floors were made of the same gray stone that the hallway had been constructed with. Bare light bulbs provided lighting, though it was somewhat dim. especially to those with low perceptive skills. There were three cafeteria tables in the center of the room with two tables running parallel to their counterparts. One of the tables was completely empty, but the other two were fairly crowded. To the far left of the room, a man in an apron was handing out food. To the far right of the room were three couches: one was leather and crowded with people, while the other two were made of some stained grey material and were empty. A small TV and VCR were set on the floor, and it displayed some news channel.

However, the most noticeable feature of the mess hall (which was more of a common room), was a life-size statue of a robed and hooded man. Draped around him were dozens of red crosses hanging from golden chains, and by his feet were an almost equal amount of hidden blades.

[The SheoDovah]

"That is a dear shame, chap but if the meal consists of more items then cold baked beans, i shall be rather pleased." Connor told Noah as they entered the mess hall. "I believe that is a memorial of our fallen and some form of record keeping of the high ranking templars we have persuaded to cease living." He told the guests.

[Aarah]

The mess hall lived up to its name; it was dim and basic. The first thing that caught Vladimir's attention was all the other people; he had expected the room to be empty.

The second thing that stood out was the statue. It seemed out of place in such a common area and appeared to be arranged as some sort of shrine; probably in respect to the person that the mystery man had been blabbering about earlier.

"Who are all these pipple?" Vladimir asked Noah, in regards to those seated at the table and couch.

He looked at the crosses around the statue; then noticed all the hidden blades that looked like the ones that Lana, Connor and Noah were wearing.

[Rook]

The Mess Hall

"The rest of the Family. My family." Vladimir's question brought a smile to Noah's lips, "Initiates mostly, but we've got a good bit of full Assassins on hand. We're fairly large for such a previously unimportant cell; the Rafiq's influence, no doubt. His name still carries weight in the Brotherhood."

"Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad: the greatest of our Brotherhood." Noah answered Connor, genuflecting as he spoke, "The Rafiq instituted the tradition after... Well, he'll want to tell you himself, I'm sure."

[The SheoDovah]

"Sadly, i must confess to not know about Altair but i do know a fine amount of knowledge about Ezio Auditore, if the book that i read it in was correct and one was not tricked into reading a Templar doctored novel as that would really give me a cause to tear the order apart with my hands." Connor told Noah. "But i will inquire about the tradition after i have had a fine meal prepared by the finest cooks we possess or find a way to liberate the supermarket for our cause and by extension, our stomachs." He said to the man as he walked over to the statue. "Oh and i do hope there is a chance to regale tales about our encounters with the templars as our guests may be curious to hear about how we deal with them. Currently, i have a few tales about my encounters and i would love to share them however, i will confess to being a bit lazy in my last two exploits instead of being my usual civilised self." It was unlikely anyone apart from Lana and a few other Assassains in the room may have been aware of Connor's meetings with the templars. He always did get results in the form of a dead templar but ruined several hoodies in the proccess. What a pain it was for him to replace them due to his large stature but still, why use a blade when one can simply unleash years of rage on one's enemy?

[Aarah]

Vladimir thought that referring to all the people as 'family' when they clearly weren't related sounded like something those from a cult would say.
He looked up at the convex ceiling; noticing the continuation of the rough stone.

"This place is odd. Looks like it is not above the ground."
He was still standing near the statue and tapped at the crosses dangling down. "What are all these crosses from? And why are all these wrist daggers on the floor?"

He went to pick one up to take a look, but then stopped as he realised that the others might consider it a hostile act.
"Can I hiv a look?" He asked as he pointed at the gauntlets.

[Rook]

The Mess Hall

"We passed the library on our way here, Brother." Noah replied, "You could go there later, if you'd like. We keep our records and corrected history books there, as well as lighter reading material."

"We are underground actually. It's the safest place to hide from Abstergo." Noah answered Vladimir sternly, "The crosses were taken from the bodies of Templars, they wear them as some sort of 'badge of honor'. They don't need to hide as much as us. The blades were recovered from fallen Assassins. We don't usually manage to retrieve bodies, so they're put here as a memorial. You may look at them more closely, but don't touch."

[Aarah]

After receiving permission, Vladimir looked more closely at the blades. They seemed of good craftmanship and were of an interesting assembly. He couldn't tell how they worked just by looking at them, however.

He figured that the hidden blades must be a mandatory piece of kit for the assassins and assumed that himself and the others would get one at some point.

The statue area gave off an air of morbidity and he found it rather unpleasant to think that the items lain there had been taken off of dead people.

He moved away from the statue and over to one of the occupied tables. He wondered whether the people there knew what was going on.

“Hey, you know what is going on here? You know that we were kidnipped?” He gestured to himself, Cole and Alex.

[Archer]

Cole grimaced at the appearance of the mess hall. "Why would you put the statue here? Seems like its own little room would be better." He questioned Noah.

[Rook]

The Mess Hall

Vladimir

Most of the Assassins just shrugged or refused to acknowledge him entirely. One of them, a large fellow wearing a cap and sporting a blonde beard, simply said, "We're not supposed to talk to you." He resumed his meal, apparently forgetting the Russian entirely.

However, from the right-hand corner of the room, a hooded figure beckoned to him.

Cole

Noah replied solemnly, "It's to remind us of what we've won... and what we've lost. This is the common room: all the Assassins visit this area at some point in their day. Why hide it away where most would never see it?"

[Aarah]

It was clear from the assassins ignorance of him that they knew about what was going on, or at least weren't perturbed by it. Vladimir huffed at them and shook his head; he wasn't going to get any help there.

His eyes, however, noticed a man beckoning to him in the corner of the room; hidden by his hood. Vladimir looked around to see if anyone else had noticed him, then casually slinked over to see what the unknown gentlemen wanted. Perhaps he was concerned by their predicament, and wanted to assist.

[Rook]

The Mess Hall

Vladimir

"They don't trust you, and they won't until you can prove yourself." the hooded man stated matter-of-factly. His head was inclined such that the white hood shadowed his face, hiding his identity to Vladimir, "They don't know what to make of the others either, but they've done nothing wrong."

[Aarah]

"I hiven't done inything that hasn't been called for." Vladimir whispered to the hooded man.
"Those other two are young; they are naïve and foolish." He glanced quickly over in the direction of the others, then back at the man.
"And why should I do inything to make thim trust me, when they hiv done nothing to make me trust them?"

He lowered his head slightly to try to get a better look at the man's hidden face.

[The SheoDovah]

"I shall pursue the libary's vast and dare i say, fine collection after lunch if there is time to spare. If not, i shall do it after my first dip into the memories." Connor told Noah as he walked over to the grey coach and sat down on it.

[Hissien]

Lana

Lana may have been a social butterfly but she wasn't feeling particularly talkative at that very moment and went to get some food. She hoped there would be light fare like sandwiches. Her stomach was in knots over entering the animus, she just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

[Rook]

The Mess Hall

Vladimir

"Sorry, I forget to take it off sometimes." the figure laughed, lowering his hood to reveal his face. A long scar ran down his lip, likely inflicted by a knife. 'No, you're perfectly right. But if you want to live long enough to get out of this sanctuary, you're going to need to cooperate, at least for a little while. That ice queen upstairs would rather kill you and be done with it, but Rafiq Beaumont is holding her at bay... for now."

Connor

The springs of the grey couch squeaked and groaned as Connor at down. The couch felt slightly damp, and gave off a subtle perfume of mildew. The Assassins gathered on the single leather couch hooted in laughter, "I'd throw those clothes out if I were you, Brother. Unless you like to sleep with bed bugs!"

Lana

Malcolm Belser, the 'official' cook, was spooning out food onto the plates of those in line. There was a basket of bread on the counter with a pitcher of water and several glasses next to it.

As Lana approached,Malcolm looked up and asked gruffly, "Lentils or an egg?"

[Aarah]

Vladimir felt less threatened by the man once he had lowered his hood; he didn't like people who hid themselves from view. He took note of the man's advice as he listened to his words.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion at the man's last piece of information. "But, I thought we were important. Valuable. Why would the womin rather hiv us dead? She says she needs us."

[Rook]

The Mess Hall

Vladimir

The man's face turned grim as he spoke, "She doesn't need you alive. As long as the required DNA could be retrieved from your corpse, we could observe your ancestors' memories without using any of you. You're only here because the Rafiq chose to abduct you, and you only remain because he's intervened on your behalf."

[Aarah]

The news that they weren't as indispensable as he thought made Vladimir's stomach churn. If he'd known earlier that the woman would rather have them all dead, he probably would've thought twice about trying to sabotage the animus chair. Another horrifying thought suddenly came to the Russian's mind.

"So....although they can use the machines with just our DNA -it works better with us alive in them, yes? Maybe the 'Rafiq' man is only bothered about keeping us alive because he knows his machines will not work as well with us dead. Maybe, once he has the information he wants, he not bother about keeping us alive."

Fear began to build inside Vladimir's chest once again, and he looked round the room in a panic. Any one of the assassins in that room could receive the order to kill him, and the others, at any time; without warning.

He turned to the man in the corner once again. "What do you think - you think our chinces of getting out alive are slim?"

[The SheoDovah]

"This is rather inconvient and i'm rather fond of these clothes." Connor replied to his brothers in arms. "But I suppose i will have to take some joy in making you pay or giving such fine gentleman, such as yourself as free showing of my unqiue stature." He said as he got up off the couch and looked at it. "But first, i must eliminate our foul stench producing friend." He said before stabbed the poor couch with his hidden blade. "And one must keep their skills up to do. I do hope you fine gentlemen won't object to me using it as target practise." He said to the same men.

Hidden:

Oh yeah, we are about to have a strip show. Oh yeah.