Joey

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Joey is an Assassin and former museum guard. They are a Sage of the Isu Vejovis.

Biography

In the 2020s, while working at a museum in London, England, Joey thought they saw movement on the CCTV feed and went to investigate. In the hallway in question, Joey checked artifacts on their podiums, noticing one of them, a cube littered with buttons, had been turned around. They picked the odd cube up and managed to unlock a secret compartment, causing a blade to fall to the floor.

They picked it up, hearing a metallic sound and following it to another area of the museum, as it grew louder and louder. At a room with a black monolith, Joey held the blade out without thinking, causing the monolith to start to glow and lines to appear to move on its surface before Joey saw a vision of Sam. In the vision, a man named Malcolm used a double-bladed version of the dagger Joey had found to control a tribe of people and almost killed Sam before an explosion shook Joey out from their vision.

Joey felt the explosion had come from the direction the cube had been in and heard voices echoing down the corridors, saying their name and "blade". Without hesitation, Joey went in the opposite direction of the explosion but saw the way blocked by a large figure in all black brandishing an assault rifle and went down an alternate corridor to hide. A hand covered their mouth from behind, and Joey was dragged through a hidden entrance to some steep stairs before their saviour released them. The long-haired man beckoned down the stairs, and they followed. The man introduced himself as Colm, saying they had be safe there for a moment but should leave as soon as Joey regained his composure, and that he worked for the "good guys". They continued down the passage, emerging at a crypt in a graveyard where they entered Colm's car.

After a twenty-minute drive, Colm pulled into an underground car park that led to a basement filled with servers connected to an Animus in the middle of the room. A woman entered the basement, and Colm introduced her as Alera, his partner. Alera gestured for Joey to get on the Animus, explaining that Jeoy would experience the lives of certain people whose memories had been extracted from various individuals. Joey recalled that animus was latin for 'mind', and Alera was seemingly impressed, adding that it also meant spirit, consciousness, courage, and even anger. Joey laid down on the machine as Alera started it, placing Joey into the role of Cadmus, a Greek mercenary from the 5th century BCE.

Joey resurfaced from the Animus to the voice of Alera saying they had to pull Joey out because their technology was a little temperamental, a statement punctuated by a shower of sparks erupting above her. Joey saw her barely flinch before leaving to get a new fuse. Colm explained synchronization to Joey and said that they could use the information from the memory to track down the member of the Order of the Ancients who took half the blade out of Greece, tearing a piece of paper from a nearby machine before handing it to Joey.

Joey looked at the seemingly random numbers and symbols, which Alera informed them were from an ancient language as she reentered the room with the largest fuse Joey had ever seen and replacing the old one. Joey recalled seeing those symbols before as a child and drew what they could on a nearby chalkboard. Joey puzzled out that the man and the blade went to Egypt, and the Assassin duo sent them into the memories of Khepri, an Egyptian Hidden One, where they discovered that the blade went to Baghdad next.

Joey was given some time off to rest at a hotel room arranged for them while Colm explored records of Baghdad. Insomnia kept them from sleeping before Colm called with a lead and asked Joey to return to the Animus chamber. Upon arrival, Alera threw them a metal cylinder, which they managed to catch, impressing even her and making Colm and Alera share an alarmed look. Opening the tube revealed an old parchment, a reproduction from a Templar artifact, which Colm explained were their enemies who sought to control all.

Joey opened the parchment to see a map of the Far East on one side and a series of sentences and instructions on another. With information about the starting point, which the Templars lacked, Joey managed to figure out that it was taken by the Hidden Ones to London. Alera was worried that they only had one available memory in London even close to the time: Alva, a ninth-century Viking of the Raven Clan.

In those memories, Joey was able to find out that the blade went to Syria next. Another thing in the memory that interested them was an encounter with an Isu called Vejovis, and Joey asked if Colm or Alera knew who he was, to which Colm responded that they had no records of an Isu with that name, but Alera mentioned they had one under ⟨V⟩. Colm proceeded to say that Vejovis was not to be trusted, with Isu objectives far beyond their understanding. Alera told Joey to get some rest, and while heading out, Joey saw the familiar face of Eivor Varinsdottir near the exit and said goodbye to her, not realizing that their mind was playing tricks on them.

Joey entered the Animus chamber the following morning, finding Alera and Colm whispering about the night before. Joey attempted to explain themselves, but Alera waved it off, saying that coming out of the Animus was like waking from a vivid dream, and it took a moment to become completely aware of where one is. Joey nodded, sensing Colm was silent because he knew otherwise. Colm announced that he spent the night delving into records of Alva and their links to Syria, saying there was only a small window of time where the owner of the blade was likely to have been: twelfth-century Damascus, after the Order of the Ancients had become the Templars and the Syrian blade collection had been moved to a place known as "The Hideout".

Alera mentioned they would send them into the memories not of someone in Damascus but into the memories of an Assassin at Masyaf. She added that Joey should try and ignore the instructions their host was given and head to Damascus to find The Hideout. Joey asked how they could change things so drastically, and Alera replied that if things went to plan, they would not have to, before starting the Animus and sending Joey into the memories of Faisal.

Joey relived the memories without issue, but at a point where Faisal saw his own reflection, Joey was so startled that they lurched upwards and out of the Animus, for they saw Faisal with Vejovis' face. Colm asked Alera if it was a glitch, with the systems bleeding over from one simulation to another, but she responded that it did not work that way and that if Joey saw Vejovis, it meant he was there. Colm pondered if that meant Faisal was a Sage, and Alera explained to Joey what that meant, including that the simulation could have confused Faisal's genetics with Vejovis', which would explain the identical face. Joey asked if Malcolm was a Sage, and Alera said that it was likely before Joey informed them that the blade went to Constantinople. Joey was still feeling the leg injury Faisal had gotten in the memory, and when they looked down to their hand, they saw it with a finger missing.

After a night with dreams filled with Assassins, both things they had seen in the Animus and some they could not have known about, Joey walked back into the Animus chamber, seeing only Alera, who greeted them with surprising warmth. Joey responded aggressively before apologizing, to which Alera said it was okay because the Animus tended to seep into one's mind the more it is used. At that point, Colm entered the room, saying that Joey was suffering from what they called the Bleeding Effect, the memories they'd been reliving blending into their own. The Assassin pair had hoped that by keeping the memories with each host as short as they could, there would not be any time for it to happen, remarking that it was unprecedented in its speed. Joey did not know what to do, with Alera saying it was imperative they find the missing blade.

Colm said that the blade had been kept in the Hagia Sophia until it was plundered in the early 13th century and taken, most likely, to Venice. They had a memory in 15th century Venice which could be useful, saying that after that period, preservation and records become clearer and that this was probably the last memory they would need Joey for. Joey was half-relieved and half-concerned to hear this. From Giulia's memories, they discovered that the blade was in the vault beneath the Basilica di San Marco, announcing it to Colm as they came out of the simulation.

Joey hopped off the Animus as Colm went to find a laptop to book their flights to Venice, seeing flashes of the people whose memories they had relived and closing their eyes to try and focus on the imagery. They opened their eyes to see Alera holding a gun to their forehead, announcing the Templars were coming and starting to pull the trigger, only for Colm to throw a hard drive at her head, allowing Joey to strike her with a roundhouse kick. Colm asked what she had said to them, before saying they needed to head to Venice as soon as possible, taking an indirect route through other airports.

When arriving at the Basilica, the pair found the entrance to the vault Giulia had used and opened the way into the vault. Upon finding a case with the half of the dagger hidden by Giulia, Colm revealed himself as the Templar ally, kicking Joey off the platform they were in into the emptiness below although Joey managed to hold on without Colm noticing. Joey climbed back up, using the moving blocks in the vault as handholds and positioned themself on a pillar above Colm, who could not find a way to unlock the case. By the time Colm looked up, Joey was already on their way down with a sharp piece of metal in their hand to kill Colm, but a vision broke Joey's concentration and when they came to, they were on the floor and Colm had blocked the attack. A loud noise from the entrance caught Colm's attention and allowed Joey to charge him. Colm, however, managed to overpower Joey and ordered them to solve the puzzle and open the case where the dagger was. Joey complied, moving away from the opened case when it was done, keeping Colm's attention on them for long enough for Alera to come in and assassinate him.

With the threat averted, Joey put the two halves of the blade together, causing a blinding flash of light to erupt. After Joey said Vejovis' name out loud, a hologram of the Isu appeared, congratulating Joey on bringing the two parts of the dagger together and making it possible for him to become corporeal again. Alera tried to attack the hologram, but Vejovis made Joey swipe at her before revealing that they were one of his Sages and that by reliving the memories of their other Sages and connecting the blades, Vejovis' being would bleed into Joey's before long. To stop this process from happening, Joey tried to separate the blades, shattering one half of it, and destroyed the part of the pedestal that the hologram was coming from. After that, Joey and Alera decided to leave before the Templars got there, with Joey taking the intact half of the blade.

As Joey left the basilica, their cellphone received messages from their boss at the museum informing them of their firing and Alera offered them a job with her, which they accepted.

Trivia

• Joey is based on a character in James Hamer-Morton's online games who is non-binary.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book