It's his first time in the building, and Altair is surprised by how bright it seems. He's not exactly expecting something dark or dungeonlinke, but it's almost unnerving to walk in and see this space. It's bright and airy, and there's even a little stand selling coffee. Altair treats it with a skeptical look from across the lobby. Even knowing that most of the people in the entertainment division are normal employees rather than templars, it's strange to see something so normal in the middle of the lobby. Then he frowns, because there's something strange about the guy selling the coffee, too. Before he can get any closer for a better look, a voice interrupts him.
"Are you here for the interview?"
It's a voice that sounds like its owner is trying way too hard to sound cheerful. He turns, and nods at the woman standing just behind him. "Right."
"Well, my name's Melanie." She glances down at a folder in her arms. "And it looks like your paperwork's all been approved, so why don't you come with me and we can get started?"
That's the first test passed. Everyone hired by any branch of Abstergo, from the CEO all the way down to the janitors, has to go through an extensive background check. Altair doesn't have a background- at least not one he wants them knowing about. The papers in Melanie's hands haven't actually been approved, because they were planted by Haytham the day before.
She leads him into a room that could almost have been pulled out of a doctor's office. It's clean and brightly lit, and smells faintly of disinfectant. Instead of an examination table or some other medical equipment, however, an animus sits in the middle of the room.
"It's not the most up to date technology," Melanie says, pointing at the animus. "But the desktop units need to be individually calibrated, and it's just easier to use this for the interview process."
"It's fine," Altair says, because something she's clearly expecting something from him.
"Good," Melanie says. "Alright, so this is a fairly straightforward test, just to see how well your synchronization rate is. The subject we're most interested in is Edward Kenway, so I'll start you off in one of his memories. If that works, I'll keep you in for a while, but if your rate's too low I'll try a few other people in his bloodline. The entire family is honestly just fascinating."
A little too fascinating, in Altair's opinion. If they'd kept their attention on Edward, instead of going through the memories of everyone else in his family, Altair wouldn't have to worry so much about Connor or Haytham getting recognized.
"Your application said you had some experience working with animi before," Melanie goes on. Altair nods, because technically he does. It's just been mostly on the other side of the machine than what she's expecting. "Then I don't need to tell you what to expect," Melanie says, and directs him into the animus.
Once he's down, it takes Melanie almost a full minute to get the animus up and running. It's possibly the longest minute of Altair's life. He's not used to being down on his back, especially in a place like this. If anything were to happen right now, he'd be completely helpless.
Just as he's mentally going through all the ways this could go wrong, Melanie announces that she's about to launch the program, and the world around him dissolves into blackness.