Edward is starting to figure out the differences between different peoples' minds. Altair's is the most familiar to him, because he spends so much time in the animus, but he can recognize Ezio's too. They both have their own unique feel to them, but the next mind to show up in his head is dramatically different from both of theirs.
"Desmond," he guesses, because out of all the people that he might expect to find in his head, Desmond's is the one he thinks would be the strangest. And this head is very strange indeed. Instead of traces of the apple's magic, like he could feel from Altair and Ezio, Desmond's mind is drowning in it. There's almost nothing else there, no memories, no nothing. Almost nothing, anyway. There's a few memories, all recent, and then something like a black pit that Edward decides he doesn't want anything to do with.
"Wha-" Desmond seems surprised, and not just by Edward guessing his name. His whole mind is radiating confusion, and Edward doesn't have to dig too deep to realize this must be the first time Desmond's been in someone's head. Or at least, the first time he can remember. "Yea. Have we met before? Sorry, I don't- my head's kind of…" he trails off, and Edward can sense the mental equivalent of a shoulder shrug.
"No, but I've heard a lot about you," Edward says, and goes back to not so subtly poking through Desmond's head. Most people would probably feel a little bad about that- especially since he spent so long resenting it when Altair tried to do the same thing to him. Edward decides he doesn't much care. "I-"
"Edward. Hey."
"…was supposed to be meeting a friend," Edward sighs. When Desmond and his weird head dropped into his brain, he completely forgot the meeting he had planned.
"Mary!" he forces a smile onto his face and tries to sound cheerful. "Good to see you."
"If you'd said that any louder, I wouldn't have to worry about keeping my name a secret anymore," she says. "Thanks, Kenway."
"Right." Edward drops his voice. "Sorry."
Mary doesn't seem reassured by his apology- instead, she crosses her arms and glares at him.
"Wait, what?" Desmond says. "That's a woman?"
"Yea."
"But-"
"Not now, Desmond."
"There's something wrong with you," Mary says, and Edward can't hide his sigh. This was supposed to be a night off from anything weird or serious or important. Instead, it looks like he's getting all three.
"There's nothing wrong with me," Edward protests.
"You're distracted," Mary says. "Like there's something going on in your head that's more interesting than whatever's happening in the real world. And you've been talking crazy-"
Edward can't argue either of those points- he hasn't quite mastered having one conversation in his head and another one out loud. And he's really starting to regret having his 'Distract Abstergo' conversation with Mary and Ade, because neither one of them has let it drop since then. Edward curses himself for thinking Mary wanted a normal night out. Of course this is about her continuing mission to find out what's wrong with him.
"Why don't you just tell him?" Desmond asks.
"That's-"
"Sorry. Her."
"I can't," Edward says. "If anyone from Abstergo is listening, it would be… bad." He stops there, not quite sure how much Desmond knows about what's going on. Altair said he told Desmond the whole story, but on the other hand, his head is… weird. Edward's not sure what information managed to stick.
"They're not listening," Desmond says confidently. "They can all see the same memories, right? Which means that if anyone could see this particular memory, Altair would have access to it too, and he'd be in here too."
Edward hesitates. That's actually a good argument, but he's still not sure if it's the best way to go.
"Seriously, Edward," Mary snaps. "You're doing it right now- that weird staring off into space thing."
In the end, when he makes the decision to tell her, it's because of the expression on her face, and not because of any kind of logic. "Fine," he says. "But I'm telling you, it's going to sound crazy."
"Everything you say sounds crazy," Mary says, half smiling.
Edward doesn't smile. Instead, he takes a deep breath and launches into his story. By the end of it, Mary isn't smiling either. But she's convinced, and Edward's surprised how much better he feels just knowing she knows his secret.
-/-
Shh... there's some Kiddway leaking into this chapter, my bad... But yea I couldn't figure out where to go next so it just kind of ended up in pointless drabble territory. But at least Desmond and Edward have finally met, which is something I've been trying to get done for a while. :) Now I just need to get all three Kenways together. Preferably in a dramatic fashion.