And that is why you remain a novice

[theflyingone]

Who| Altaïr ibn La-Ahad and anyone vaguely interested in drawing
What| DRAWING/teaching drawing if asked
Where| Central Commons, maybe also D11 floor or the roof
When| may 11-14 perhaps?
Warnings/Notes| Assassins drawing flowers

He was reluctant to demonstrate even the most unassuming skill in front of these "cameras" he'd been warned about, especially since he promised someone he'd draw something else of a much more rebellious nature. But there were new drawing tools in this strange land, and he felt obligated to at least try them out in his downtime. Even an overachiever like him knew he couldn't leap across roofs tracking Peacekeeper patrol routes with no rest for his limbs. In a few hours he might sleep or scout the city again.

He procured some pieces of paper and idly drew lines in various types of pens. Ballpoint didn't do justice to the curling forms of the birds or plants he made. But that was why he purchased some ink and a few dried reeds from a flower-arranging shop. He cut them into flat-nibbed pens with knives in the kitchen (and reluctantly put the knives back).

With calloused hands he sketched and inked without intent, which was unlike him. He always did things with a purpose, but at least this was better than sitting in a corner lamenting his captivity. He drew animals, plants, and random decorative motifs. He very carefully avoided drawing people, fearing the faces of those he knew at home might show up in them.

Comments

[yoknapatawpha]

"Yes. In the military, although he was voted out of it, so now he just runs his own group of irregulars, he calls them. Protecting the women and children of the Yoknapatawpha territories."

He nods eagerly. "If there's still a war to be fought, I'll be registering in a few years. You're supposed to be sixteen but I don't reckon anyone will stop me if I do it a few months before. And you? When were you old enough?"

[theflyingone]

His father was not so bound to the rules as he thought. Interesting. Altaïr wondered more and more about this soldier's son.

"As soon as I learned what it meant to wield a blade," he said, still evasive as ever. "Any attempt to lay it down since then has failed. My cause is peace and the protection of innocents. Even without the Crusaders, my home has been surrounded by states vying for succession and power. Every noble believes himself a king, every king believes himself or his faith wrongly attacked, and they will drag their people into battle with them whether they will it or not."

His voice grew harder than he intended. He'd seen the battlefields of the Crusade and the bodies still being picked at by crows in Acre. With Adha, maybe, he might have stopped fighting and embraced a life of peace. But that dream died with her.

"You should wait until you are of age. You will miss having your hands free once you put a sword in them."

[yoknapatawpha]

"They sound like Yankees." Bayard's been drinking the Confederate kool-aid since before the war even began, being not only a native Mississippian but the son of white landowner, a white slaveowner, one who is willing to lay down his belief in blood for his right to own another living man or woman without the encumbrances of a federal government. Bayard neither knows nor has opinions of any nuance about the government, but he believes with all his heart in a cause which, to him, is still awkward-shaped and grand and undetailed.

"It don't matter what I'll miss, sir. It matters what protects us and our way of life best. If I ought to lay down my life for Mississippi, or even just for Jefferson, I will with pride."

[theflyingone]

Being an Assassin was the only life he knew. While he questioned Al Mualim incessantly, he still only had his guidance and the Creed to go on—as well as what he saw with his own eyes. Increasingly, he was beginning to see things were not so simple as he thought. He thought of Garnier de Naplouse's dying words. He had seemed so sane and so sure of his cause. Yet, his horrific work on kidnapped slaves spoke otherwise.

"I do not know what those people or places are—or your way of life, for that matter. But you spoke of protecting innocents. Never forget to do that."

The first part of the Assassins' Creed ordered them to stay their blades from innocents. Altaïr had broken that rule, among others, when he skirted the fine line between killing a possible snitch or finding another path around him. Al Mualim had everything taken from him and made him start over in rank, but Altaïr still had enough pride to continue fighting for ideals he was more sure about. Those who could not defend themselves against corrupt guards or tyrants had an ally in him. It made him friends among common folk and vigilantes, but it also made him enemies.

"It will set you apart," he warned. "You may even be persecuted for it."

[yoknapatawpha]

"I'd die before I forgot," Bayard says, with all that purity of someone who hasn't really considered the prospect but has devoted themselves to it too far to back out even if they did.

He sits down and starts to draw a bit more, trying to imitate the beautiful designs Altair has been working on.

"I don't care if I'm persecuted. Jesus Christ was persecuted too, I hear, and he saved all of mankind. At least, that's what my Granny tells me."

super old, feel free to drop this if you want

[theflyingone]

"And do you also intend to save all of mankind? That is a heavy burden."

He made no mention of his own goals, to fight for that until he could no longer. Altaïr was still young enough to think that if he just tried hard enough, problems would be solved. He could not understand an older man's wish to retire and lay down their sword because they thought they'd done enough. Altaïr had left off his drawing now, too distracted by thoughts he had a hard time putting into words. He spoke haltingly,

"I was taught it is better to live for others than to die, to escape danger to fight another day. But I was also taught not to fear death and the rewards it brings... Even now I am not sure of the reward, but I have always been more concerned with how I carve my mark on this world than the next."