First Animus Data Fragment [Radio]

[shirley_templar]

[When the radio clicks on, the first thing listeners might notice is the whistling of the wind, as though the person on the other end is very high up somewhere. Really, Desmond just needed to process everything, after waking up in the city. He hadn't even though to get his hand looked at, so shocked was he by what was happening.]

So uhh...I'm supposed to be dead. Someone wanna shed a little light on why I'm not? I mean...I got the whole "Welcome to the back of a Giant Turtle" spiel from the guys in that Welcome Center place, but...they wouldn't answer why I'm not a corpse right now.

[He coughs.]

I mean...I don't wanna sound ungrateful or anything, I'm glad I'm alive or whatever, but...there was a good reason why I was supposed to be dead.

Comments

[lasergrenades]

What's the Animus?

[Pepper smiles sympathetically at him.]

It does when you stop thinking about it. For the rest of the time, I usually go punch things at the dojo where I train. [The rest of the time it sucks, basically, but they all learn to live with it.] Yikes - are you hurt?

[shirley_templar]

It's this machine I kept getting put into back home. Accesses your genetic memory, and let's you see a simulation of your ancestor's memories.

Makes sense. My right arm got a little cooked by the whole "saving the world" thing I was doing. I've got a spot on my palm that looks a little bit like hamburger. Not that you probably wanted to know that, heh.

[lasergrenades]

Oh. Wow. That's, uh. I don't even know, that sounds totally amazing.

[She blanches when he explains what's happened to him.]

Okay that's a little horrible - you should probably go to the Healer's Guild like immediately. [She's not exactly grossed out but burns are serious bad.] I'm Pepper, by the way. It's very nice to meet you but you should also seriously get that looked at.

[shirley_templar]

It is pretty cool, but there's some side-effects that make it....well...there's good and bad to it, I guess.

[Like picking up the skills of his ancestors, at the eventual cost of his sanity, for example.]

Yeah, that was gonna be my next stop. I just needed a minute to clear my head. I'm Desmond. Desmond Miles.

[Then, there's the unmistakable sound of a Leap of Faith, as Desmond plummets to a conveniently-placed pile of hay. He forgot to release the transmit button on his earpiece. Oops.]

[lasergrenades]

Genetic memory doesn't exactly sound like something easy to tamper with.

[She startles slightly at the unusual sound, but manages not to yelp.]

What the heck was that?

[shirley_templar]

I'm not even sure how it all works. I just know that they hook an IV in my arm, it reads my DNA, and they zero in on specific parts of my DNA that are associated with people in the past, like Ezio Auditore.

[Desmond hops out of the pile of hay, shaking a few errant pieces off of himself, before he starts walking down the street.]

Oh, I just jumped off of the building I was up on. There was a pile of hay close enough to break my fall. My ancestors call it a "Leap of Faith".

[lasergrenades]

...That sounds both incredibly cool and completely terrifying. Sheesh. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

[She frowns at the radio at his answer, pausing for a moment before she replies.]

You learn how to not die jumping off buildings from your genetic memory trips? How high can you get?

[shirley_templar]

Right? You know that side-effect I mentioned? It's called "The Bleeding Effect", and is basically my ancestors' memories bleeding into my own. The upshot being that I learn their skills really quickly.

Well, Ezio once took a swan-dive off the top of the Vatican in Rome. I've only done it a few times myself, and never from that high up. I did once jump off a construction crane on a building so I could parachute onto the next roof over. Didn't wanna get caught breaking in, heh.

[lasergrenades]

Are you sure these guys didn't have superpowers because that sounds, uh, a little bit impossible. Not that I don't believe you it's just... wow.

[Then again, this was Keeliai. Nothing had to make sense here.]

What were you breaking into?