xt1me

Somewhat inspired by the many, many, mistakes I make playing Assassin's Creed.
I wanted to mention something about glitches in this but it threw off the mood.
(the Dictaphone thing really helped writing this)

I couldn't help but think of the Three Days Grace song while writing this.

There are two different types of pain in the Animus.

The first type was when Desmond messed up. When he fell off buildings or got jumped by guards.
He was getting better. And the more he synced with his ancestors the less mistakes he made. But, especially at the start, he made an awful lot of mistakes.
There’s nothing quite like jumping off a tower and completely missing a haybale to find out that what it's like to get your neck broken.

But it wasn't real pain. It was more like the feeling when you bang into something and say ‘ouch’ before you realise that you didn't actually hurt yourself. Like his body knew it should hurt but didn't actually.

It was a false pain.

The second type of pain in the Animus was the pain his ancestors felt. Scrapes and bruises that even the best assassin could get scaling walls. Small nicks and cuts some fights. From bruises to stab wounds. Actual damage his ancestors had received on their various adventures.

Thankfully Desmond never had to feel those injuries for long. It was always gone when the next memory loaded or he was pulled out of the animus.

The memory of pain.

There are four types of pain from the Animus. The first two were the pain and he felt inside the Animus. The third type of pain it was from the Animus itself.
The headaches he sometimes felt after a long session. The aches from lying down all day. The twitches of his muscles, leftover from the Animus’ attempts to prevent muscle atrophy.
Thankfully the aches and pain didn’t last. And though, every now and then, something would flare up it was never for more than a moment. Enough to make him catch his breath but easily fading back into something that could be ignored.

At least it was a real physical pain.

The fourth type of pain from the Animus was from the bleeding effect. He didn't just hallucinate visions or sounds. Occasionally it was touch as well. Usually at night, when his brain desperately tried to process lifetimes of memories that weren't his in a kaleidoscope of nightmarish images. He'd sometimes wake up feeling not only every heavy fist and blade he had felt in the Animus but ones from memories he hadn't even lived through. He found himself moving as if he was an old man, cradling injuries that he didn't actually have.
Thankfully his body eventually got with the message that he wasn't actually injured and it faded like the rest of the bleeding effect. Even if it felt like it lasted longer every time.

An echo of pain.

There was a fifth type of pain from the Animus.

The pain of betrayal from a mentor. The pain of seeing his family hung. The pain of losing his mother to fire. Pain of loss, of despair, of regret. Even joy could be pain. like turning to speak a friend only to realise not only had they been dead hundreds of years they hadn’t even his friend.
But this is the same type pain of missing his friends from work. Of chatting with the regulars. Smiling at his neighbours. The loss of the life he’d scraped together himself only to have it ripped from him when a shady corporation decided to kidnapped him. And knowing he was never going to get that back.
The pain the Animus was really only a symptom of.

There was nothing that could be done about the pain from the Animus.
Nothing you could do but keep on going and feel it.

After all pain just meant that you still alive.