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Who: Stephanie Brown and YOU??
What: Sighing a lot and getting tar everywhere
When: Today!
Where: The castle grounds
Rating: PG

Tar, tar everywhere. It was black, sticky, and warm to the touch--which Steph discovered, as it clung to her arms and neck. It didn't take too long for her to realize that many in the castle were being afflicted by this, so she tried to tough through it. It would stop eventually, and she had things to do. There was still a lot to be done in the city, before she and Cass left on the expedition.

However, the more she touched, the more tar seemed to come from her hands.

She wasn't going to be useful to anyone today, let alone herself, she came to realize.

What was the logical response?

To lay down on the grass in front of the castle, of course. Maybe if she didn't touch anything for a while, the sticky goo would recede. In the meanwhile, staring at the sky seems like a good option.

Yeah, castle. She gets the irony. She messes up everything she touches. Ha ha.

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He shakes his head. It's a cave, just a cave with paintings, but he's not supposed to mention it to any outsider. Not that it really matters here, where there is no cave and there are no Templars, but his mother died because they sought it. She deserves at least his continued silence.

"No. But I do know they must be stopped. For my people and for yours."

She nods. "Templars don't really sound like the nicest folk."

She thinks about Ezio's war room and the portraits there, as well as the things he's said. They killed Ezio's family, and wanted that Apple--which Steph quickly learned was Bad News.

He smiles a little bitterly, glancing at his hands. "No."

But still, he wonders if there is a way to show them how wrong they are. He knows he must kill his father, there is no way to get around it, but if there was a way to make it not necessary...

"What has Ezio told you about them? The Templars?"

"Not too much, generally. I just know a bit about the ones he's dealing with in his time." The Borgia. Even if they weren't squeaky clean, historically, it's sometimes overwhelming to think that Lucrezia's father is responsible for the death of Ezio's brothers and father.

It used to be very difficult, given how sweet Lucrezia used to be, but nowadays not so much...

"Their ideologies remain the same throughout the centuries," he says, leaning back on his hands again. "The Templars Ezio struggles against are different in the execution of their ideas. Templars all strive to control men instead of allowing them their freedom, but those during his time also sought power.

"They now seek to influence and manipulate rather than outright destroy. And so they seek anything that will give them the knowledge to do so." He glances at her. "I do not know what they become in your time."

Good boy, Connor. This makes sense to Steph. She listens, paying close attention to what he's saying.

"I don't know, either. In my time, where I'm from--assassins are bad news. They're the enemy. There's a League of Assassins, but they're not like you or Ezio. And I'm positive I'm not a Templar," she adds with a smile. That would be awkward. "It's weird."

He's probably oversimplifying, but this is what makes sense to him. And isn't this what is at the core of the conflict between the Assassins and Templars? Freedom versus control. That's really all that's important.

Connor frowns thoughtfully at that, thinking for a second, then tilts his head. "The Assassins and Templars do not operate in the open. That is not their way. Perhaps you have simply not looked for them in the right places."

She shrugs. "I know the underworld pretty well, but who knows? Guess it doesn't really matter here, anyway."

At home, she'd stay far, far away from assassins, if she could help it. They tended to want her dead, after all.

"No. Much of what we know does not matter here."

He nods at his soot-covered hands. "Perhaps this is the god of this place reminding us not to forget who we are, and where we come from."

She looks down at her own hands. For some reason, she doubts that.

"Were you forgetting?"

There's only a short pause before he responds, but not because he had to think about it. He just has to think about what he wants to say.

"My father is an Englishman, Stephanie," he says, glancing at her. "I am not. How can I forget that?"

He folds his hands together.

It doesn't take a degree in history to figure out that means Connor hasn't exactly had it easy. She lets out a breath--fathers. Not her favorite topic.

"Doesn't sound like a good time."

He shrugs. His people don't particularly care about who his father is; he has always been one of them. But that doesn't mean it doesn't bother Connor.

"I have never met him. He was no longer with my mother when I was born."

"I'm sorry about that. Seems like he's missing out on one very smart and promising son."

Was that the right thing to say? She never knew. Her feelings of absolutely no love towards her own father made it difficult, sometimes, for her to imagine what it was like for others. She was reluctant to admit any sort of longing for acceptance by him of all people, but it's not like it really mattered since he was dead.

Connor's feelings about his father are also very complicated, especially since he found out that he is a Templar -- which isn't something he particularly wants to divulge. Not until he's had a chance to meet him in the real world, to find out just what kind of a man he really is. To see if there is any hope to convert him from his ideologies.

"It is nothing to be sorry for. I have never needed him. I would not be who I am now if I knew him."

She smiles over at him. She'll owe him a friendly hug once she's not all gross.

"That's the spirit. I'm just never really sure what to say when stuff like this comes up."

He smiles back, though it's subdued. That's just how he smiles, probably.

"It is that common among people you know?"

"I can probably count the people I know with good father relationships on one hand." With fingers to spare. They were criminals, murderers, or just dead and a source of often-unpleasant memories.

Well, now he's curious. "And your own?"

There's a really short, brief pause, and then Connor realizes that... is probably none of his business, and he shakes his head. "I am sorry. I do not mean to ask personal questions," he says, holding up his hand a looking a little bit embarrassed.

Steph shakes her head. She doesn't mind sharing--talking about fathers is awkward, sometimes, but she's not an especially private person.

"It's okay, you're free to ask all sorts of questions. My dad was not a very nice guy. He was a criminal, in and out of jail more times than I can count."

What a waste of space, he was.

He thinks about that for a second, finding it surprising. Of course, a parent being something does not mean his child must be the same way -- Connor and his own father are evidence of that. But he never would have guessed that about Stephanie's.

It's not quite the same as having a father who is a Templar, but he thinks she may understand. Later, though. Once he's sure she has a better idea of what a Templar is.

"You say 'was.' Has he died?"

"Yeah," she replies, stretching out her legs. "It's a long story, but he was killed in an attempt to do one good thing. There wasn't even a reward in it for him."

It's something she thinks about, now and then. Did he do it to try to make up for what he had done before? Was it some sort of trick? Why was he even such a terrible person the first place? Was he weak, or just evil? Maybe sick?

She'll always be pissed that he found one last way to mess with her.

"I don't think one good deed redeems someone from so much bad, but," she shrugs, "Ancient history, really."

"I think it depends on what the good deed is," he says, which is actually not an attempt to get her to tell exactly what her father had been doing. It's just a general statement.

If he could meet his father and convince him to renounce the Templars... would that make up for all he'd done? The village burned by his command? His mother?

"History is important to all of us, no matter how old. A father who is not a good person -- it still shapes you. Even if you have never met him."

Which is another general statement, since it seems like Stephanie at least knew her father.

Her father was the driving force behind her making her own costume. He was the sole reason she decided to take justice into her own hands.

"True. I wouldn't be who I am or where I am in life if he hadn't been around. I joined this whole fight to stop people like him, so kids wouldn't have to grow up afraid."

It's a heavy topic, but she smiles anyway. "And, you know. To be a good example of the fact that people don't always take after their parents."

Connor nods. "It is easier to fight against something that you have personal involvement in. Then you truly know what is at stake."

He's glad he tripped over her -- who knows if they would have had this conversation otherwise? He feels like he understands Stephanie a bit more now, and it's nice to actually talk to someone about his father, no matter the details he left out.

"My mother would say there is enough of her in me to balance anything of my father. I think I take after her, anyway."

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