xix λ exploration

[assassino]

----- Stephanie Brown -----

She admitted to having affections for me, but acknowledged that they will not come to pass. I did not kiss her or lead her astray, but I thought you should know in case she goes to you weeping.

[He's just leaving her a message, of course. So he doesn't get his ass kicked.]


------

[Here's a fairly chipper tone:]

There are conversations about expeditions... I wonder, curiously, why there is so much waiting involved. There is no need to amass supplies nor food when the castle gifts it so readily, no need to search for patrons to fund the expedition, so why do people not simply pack up a horse and depart? Even women and children could travel easily, like this.

People from the future are terribly pampered.

[Meanwhile, you can find Ezio in the garden, picking flowers for his lady.]

Comments

[assassino]

Hmm. People do no such thing, in my time. No one would swear themselves to a nation... only to a city, or a leader. One can easily change leaders or cities... it is more difficult to find a new nation when yours has gone sour.

[molotov]

You have told me this before. But that is just how it is done in my time, in my world. I was raised to love the Party.

[assassino]

So what did this Party do that made it so powerful, for a time?

[molotov]

Removed the monarchy. Instituted a new government, one that was theoretically more fair. Lenin's ideas were better on paper than they were in action, as everything is. But devotion has little to do with that. When the Party came into being, the czar and his cronies were living high on the backs of the proletariat, taking everything for themselves. The Party came about to stop that.

[assassino]

[Big word, proletariat, and Ezio isn't sure what it means. The general people, maybe? The poor? That's what happened in his cities, anyway.]

Well, in my time, Rossia has a ruler they call Ivan the Great, I think... or they did last I heard. My father told me about his alliance with the Byzantines, and I think now he hires Italian architects... [shrug] I know little of Rossia.

Why was the Party ended, then? It seems their goals were well-intended...

[molotov]

Da, da, Ivan the Great. He expanded the country three times over.

The Party ran out of money, basically. The ideology was directly opposed to the ideology of the west, America and the other capitalist countries. There was an arms race, and we were outspent.

[assassino]

So what do you think of Americans here, then? Obviously you do not fault their ways too badly, if you would marry a Winebago...

[molotov]

I do not really have an opinion. I live in America now. I figured that, if I was going to work for money, I would live in the greediest and richest country of all.

[assassino]

Good thing it is working out for you, then.

[molotov]

You do not sound like you think it should have.

[assassino]

No, I am glad that you have found success. The only thing I question is greed.

[molotov]

America as a nation is terribly greedy. I do not think I am greedy, but I am competitive. And it is hard to be viewed as a serious competitor when your prices do not reflect your skill and exclusivity.

[assassino]

Ah, but I think you are taken more seriously when you cannot be bought. I would sooner have my targets know they will die because they have done ill to the people of Firenze or Venezia, rather than merely aggravating someone with a lot of money.

Besides... I have done work like that for pay. I do not like feeling as though I am someone's thug, someone's trained dog.

[molotov]

Perhaps that is the way to be taken more seriously as a vigilante or whatever. But I am a mercenary -- the whole point is that I can be bought.

And I only felt that way when I was working "for the people".

[assassino]

Mercenaries are so common in my time that it would be impossible to make such a reputation.

The people tend to have fewer petty demands, compared to the rich and powerful.

[molotov]

The demands of the people and the demands of the rich and powerful overlap more often than you would think.

[assassino]

How so?

[molotov]

There are many examples. For instance, an industrialist who is dumping waste into the water -- I take money from a wealthy organization devoted to nature conservation. The industrialist dies or changes his ways, the rich organization feels like they have accomplished something, the people have clean water, and I make several hundred thousand dollars. Everyone is happy.

Well, except the industrialist.

[assassino]

[Sorry, he's confused by this.]

People in your time have conflicts over the purity of water?

[molotov]

Water is no longer pure if people have been dumping waste into it.

[assassino]

[He just stares at her blankly. He comes from a time where people throw bodies and all sorts of crap in the water and don't bat an eye.]

The people of your time have such frivolous concerns. In my time, someone with free access to water cares little about where it comes from when they are more concerned about putting food in their bellies and finding work.

[molotov]

[Molotov sighs. GOD EZIO YOU'RE SO UNEDUCATED]

Well, first of all, if you are drinking contaminated water, you are probably going to get ill. Vomiting, diarrhea, all sorts of intestinal distress can come from dirty water. All the way up to death.

Second of all, imagine that it is not just standard, natural filth going into the water. It is chemical waste, capable of causing fish to be born with two heads, or strong enough to cause the fur of animals to fall off. Does that sound like something you want to drink or bathe in or cook with?

[assassino]

No, but we do not have such things in my time. Besides, few people DRINK water, they drink wine.

[molotov]

Da, I know this. You still cook with water. You still eat the fish that swim in it. You eat the animals that drink it. You bathe in it. You are still at risk.

And you asked for an example. I cannot give you an example that matches up to your time, because I do not live in your time.

[assassino]

Yes, yes, I know that, it just did not make a terrible amount of sense to me... but I understand what you are saying in theory.