PSL: For Hermann

[not_kenway]

Ratonhnhaké:ton had left Hermann safely in his locked up apartment, sleeping off the massage and hopefully getting a decent night's rest without his body screaming pain at him.

he slipped back into his routine. Late nights out on rooftops, sleeping not really enough hours to get up and train and get on with his day.

He didn't contact Hermann. He didn't know when Hermann would be comfortable with seeing him again, so he would wait for him to make contact.

Comments

[orthogonal]

"Well, here in the modern age ... we have people called psychologists." He wasn't sending the man to a psychiatrist, they'd try to put him on some sort of modern drugs that he wasn't quite sure Connor could handle. "You go to them, and they listen to you while you talk. They're able to help you deal with your past issues."

He paused, and sighed. Heavily. "I .. went to one after I lost my legs. Mandatory. It didn't do me a lot of good - I am ten times smarter than they are, after all. However, it might not do you any harm even though you are at least five times smarter than them on a good day."

[not_kenway]

"And that helps? Talking to them about..." He wasn't sure what. Past issues. Whatever that was. Maybe things like 'my mother was burning to death until the longhouse fell on her'. "You believe it would help me with my extreme aversion to contact?"

Many people overlooked that Connor was clever. Very clever. He spoke multiple languages, he managed an entire town and a spy network on his own and still managed to research his assassinations while helping to fight a way. "Does being smarter matter if all they have to do is listen?"

[orthogonal]

"Well, it always helps to have an unbiased opinion - and a sounding board. If nothing else ... you will be able to realize when they are leading you someplace, to work on a deeper issue. It is up to you, my friend, if you want to work on that issue." Yes, he is gesturing with a spatula.

[not_kenway]

Connor is quiet for a while as he thinks about it. He doesn't know if talking will help. He knows that here, at least, it won't hurt him. At home, being vulnerable was being dead. But this is not home. Haytham and Lee are not watching and waiting to slip the blade between his ribs.

"Do you know someone who does this talk treatment?"

[orthogonal]

"I do not, but I can ask around. I know a great deal of people." He gave the other man a long, considering look. "We'll make sure that you find someone good to go with."

[not_kenway]

Connor didn't know if he'd be able to open up to a stranger, but just as he sought to alleviate Hermann's pain, he recognised that Hermann was trying to alleviate his.

He reached to his necklace, stroking one of the bear claws with his fingers, thumb pressing over the tip. "I taught myself to not flinch at a hand on my shoulder or a hand shake. Those are both common from the men of the liberty army. Especially Washington. He is very tactile with me."

[orthogonal]

"You know, I find it so odd to think of Washington as a tactile man... he seems so stern and foreboding in his portraits." Hermann paused, and then gently let the conversation shift happen. "So tell me about him. What was he really like?"

[not_kenway]

"Well, for me he is tactile. He likes to grip my forearm or bicep, pat the shoulder, that sort of thing." Which weren't really overly tactile, except to a people who kept their contact to a minimum, especially with strangers.

"He is a very confident leader and general. I am not certain that his confidence is entirely warranted, but confident he is. He is very even tempered, which endears him to many, compared with Lee's temper. My people call Lee, hm.... Boiling Water." He had to take the moment to translate in his mind. "It is one reason why he was chosen to lead the Revolution, rather than Lee."

He always had a slightly prickled feeling about Washington. He wasn't sure why. The man had done nothing to deserve Connor's wariness and he still showed as a neutral ally.

[orthogonal]

"Interesting ... " For someone who did not touch as much as Hermann did, outside of sex of course, that was fairly tactile. "So he is a confident leader - even tempered - and yet ... yet I feel as if I am missing some part of the equation." He sighed, shaking his head. "My suspicious nature, I suppose."

[not_kenway]

Connor was quiet for a moment. "He is not a good general," he confided. "He is quite a poor general, he has no mind for strategy and war. Lafayette may be the only chance the revolution has of defeating the loyalist troops. And... I have stubbornly stuck by the man's side, because my father dislikes him, but he makes me uncomfortable."

He wasn't sure why. Something about how Washington looked at him made him uncomfortable, but he didn't know why.

[orthogonal]

"You know, that's surprising. It is rumored that he was actually a fairly strong tactical mind, but he had poor support from his own generals, outside of Lafayette of course." He took the pancakes out of the frying pan, putting them onto the plate.

[not_kenway]

"He may have a strong tactical mind, but he does not understand troops. Perhaps in the purest sense of understanding war he is fine, but he is yet to actually win a single battle he has engaged in. Haytham despairs of his ability to defeat the crown."

[orthogonal]

"Well, I suppose that would make for a bad leader. Especially the ones that I know - they acknowledged how to use their people more effectively."

[not_kenway]

Connor gives a slight shrug. "I am not well versed in commanding for war. I have a few people who have... I work with them. They have joined the Brotherhood, we form a network. I send them missions based on their skills. I do not think I could do so on a much larger scale."

He closes his eyes and inhales deeply. "It is smelling good... Would you be willing to help me with my German? I speak it passably, but not as well as I speak English or French."

[orthogonal]

"I haven't done leadership myself - brain tank operations are more my game. In fact I have only had ... one partner in so many years and he annoys the living daylights out of me."

Hermann looked pleased again. "Excellent, for it is almost done." Surprise filled his gaze, but he nodded. "Certainly, my friend. Go ahead, give me a few phrases you know."

[not_kenway]

"I know some German. Mostly for trade. Weight, costs, lengths." His accent rolled though the German words, dragging the words together a bit more than most German or English speaking natives would.

"I could order a half weight of stone and negotiate the price, but my more conversational German is lacking," he elaborated in English. "I also could not say 'I am very much looking forward to eating that if it tastes half as good as it smells'."

[orthogonal]

Hermann twitched a little bit, before he gave the other man a wry look. "So, there we go. We have some work to do, but you are as you say, passable." He smiled softly, before he spoke slowly, "Ich freue mich sehr darauf, zu essen , wenn es nur halb so gut schmeckt , wie es riecht."

[not_kenway]

Connor parroted the words back, copying Hermann's accent more than his natural tendency in German.

"That is one thing I have found surprising from many who come further ahead in time than myself. Most speak only one language. Maybe two."

[orthogonal]

He nodded his head with approval, before turning back to the food. The sausages were ready, so he turned off the heat, and plated them, then going to plate the potato pancakes as well, as soon as they were golden brown on both sides.

"Well, it was a matter of education, really. As the nobility started to thin out, the middle class rose, but they couldn't afford lessons in multiple languages. So most people only learn one or two now."

[not_kenway]

"... I know no nobility. My education is Latin and Arabic was provided by the Brotherhood... well, by Achilles, but German and French were necessary for interacting with colonists. And I was raised bilingual. My mother was fluent in English as well."

He offered to take the plates, to give Hermann free hands for at least the walking cane.

[orthogonal]

She lets him take the plates, before her lips curving up at the corners. "You're a man of the world, my friend. And I am certain I have told you a time or two ... brilliant. Your mother must have been of equal genius."

He turned off the oven, gesturing for the man to carry the plates to his table, as he went to follow while hobbling on his cane.

[not_kenway]

Connor smiled slightly, ducking his head and taking the plates. As had been evidenced earlier, he coped poorly with compliments. He never knew how to respond because he had had them so infrequently in his life.

"My mother was an amazing woman. She fought the Templars, slavers. so even managed to form an alliance of peoples for a short time to combat the soldiers who were attacking our peoples. Oiá:ner, my clan mother, despaired at Ista's insistence that we could no longer afford to not be involved and simply ignore the colonists."

He goes quiet suddenly, the brief lightness in his voice darkening. "And now I know she was right. Our future is... bleak."

[orthogonal]

"Well ... you never know. Your world could end up like mine, with gigantic space lizards coming through the ocean, and you get your land back by default considering how precious land is." Hermann stated, giving his fiend a wry smile as he shifted to take a seat at the table. "You shall make a better world, because you want it to be better, my friend."

[not_kenway]

Connor took a breath, paused and then canted his head, considering it.

"Yes, I suppose that could happen. After all, I am here, am I not? And that, perhaps, is far stranger."

And, Hermann has managed to draw Connor's smile back.

[orthogonal]

Which, amazingly enough, was the plan all along. Hermann nodded his head.

"Good. Now sit down and eat your dinner before it gets cold and congealed."