I've just started responding to ppl in reviews in my own cause my god. Guise. Pls
also Duncan is absolutely a fucking MENACE. If his namesake was alive to see this he'd be fucking thrilled.
August 2026 Atlantis, Atlantis
Only a few people in the world were allowed to interrupt Desmond while he was home. That was his family and a select members of the Fold he found the least annoying. He looked up when the bell rang. It was seven in the morning. Who was bothering him? It was his turn to stay at home with their son Duncan. Lucy was out with Jacob and Tommy on a 'girls day' as Jacob called it and Tommy was dragged along to carry shit if needed. Desmond wasn't invited since someone had to watch the baby. Desmond didn't mind. He liked spending time with his baby.
"Who's that you think Duncy?" he asked Duncan, his voice a bit higher.
"Dumb dumb!" Duncan proclaimed.
Desmond laughed. "Yeah, probably." He got up from the table and went to get the door. He rose his brows at who it was. Od. "Od, it's early, what do I owe the pleasure?"
"There's an issue," the Ilythian said.
"I'll say. You're bothering me at seven in the morning while me and my son are having breakfast," Desmond said.
"The Fold needs some … intervening."
Desmond cocked his head at Od. "I want you to really consider what you're asking me, Od. You're one of the Fold chairmen. Can't you deal with it?"
"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. We just found out there are still slaves in Apollo."
Desmond blinked slowly. "I'm sorry," Desmond said and scratched the inside of his ear like he was cleaning it out. "I could have sworn you just told me something stupid."
"That's what we thought too. We've been in a meeting about it for thirty-six hours. The adjetavs insist that the humans are not captive and chose to stay-
"One day Od. One day I'm gonna go an entire week without something stupid reaching my ears. That's not today." He was mad about the news. "Are you in a recess?"
"Yes. People were complaining about not being able to stay awake but we didn't want to close the meeting so we took an hour recess," Od said.
"Hmmm. Alright. I'll be there," Desmond said. "Don't tell anyone I'm coming."
"Of course," he nodded.
Desmond closed the door and went back to the dining room where Duncan had managed to make a huge mess all over himself and his high chair with his breakfast of mushy vegetables and milk. "Duncan, no," Desmond sighed. He picked Duncan out of the high chair. His son was soaked in milk. "You're all messy," he scolded very gently. Duncan just laughed brightly. "C'mon lil buddy. Let's get you cleaned up," Desmond said and went to the bathroom where he filled the tub up a little and put a naked toddler in it to clean off the milk and mushy vegetables. "You should be the only mess I have to clean up, you know that?"
"It was fun, daddy," Duncan said.
"I know but cleaning up messes aren't fun."
"Yes."
Desmond scoffed. "Only cause I'm still cleaning them up," he said and tickled Duncan making him laugh. He got Duncan all clean and got him out of the tub and dressed him in some very nice clothes. Desmond and Lucy still had 'official' things to do in Atlantis despite taking a step back. Or they were invited to every party under the sun from baby showers of people they didn't know to public feasts proeathans held. They turned down ninety percent of them but the ones they went to they always dressed up nicely for. And Duncan was old enough to start being brought to the things as their excuse to leave early. Which meant Duncan had some very fancy, very tiny, clothes for fancy events.
"Daddy, it is itchy," Duncan complained and started scratching his arm.
"Oh no," Desmond said but still made sure Duncan was all dressed up.
"Why the pretty clothes, daddy?"
"Cause we're going to see some of daddy's friends and they like dressing up," Desmond said finishing with the clasps on Duncan's shirt. It wasn't quite a tiny suit but it was pretty close. A proeathan style suit since most of the fashion designers alive were proeathans. Humans had lost a lot of culture makers like artists, writers, singers, and movie makers. Proeathans hadn't so a lot of stuff, even human stuff, had a proeathan slant to it.
"Ohhh… party?"
"No, not a party. Just some people."
"Then why you mad?"
Desmond smiled a little. It was really hard to keep things from psychic children. Desmond and Lucy's especially since Duncan was such a powerful one with people considered gods as his parents. "Because they made me mad," he said gently. "So we're gonna go pay them a visit so they can try and make me not mad at them."
"Ohhh," Duncan said nodding.
"Okay, we all dressed and don't have to go potty?"
"No," Duncan said.
"Okay," and Desmond picked his son up and walked out of their home and out onto the uppermost floor of the Embrace. He went to the elevator and took it three floors down where most of the floor was dedicated to the Fold. It looked a lot like a typical big assembly hall full of desks and chairs on tiered floors facing a wall with a larger table with four chairs on it. All on their own the Fold had added a fifth chair to the room, moving the four chairmen chairs and table forward to accommodate another, grander, throne looking chair behind them. That was, of course, supposed to be for Desmond (or Lucy if she felt like it). Desmond thought it was over dramatic and gaudy. It also had the opposite effect everyone had hoped for. Instead of sitting at the chairman's table with the others now Desmond would stalk around the Fold chamber. Usually not talking but very obviously judging.
"Wooooa, big room!" Duncan cried when they entered. His little voice echoed in the empty room.
"Yeah," Desmond smiled at him and he went over to the 'throne' (so stupid they'd given Desmond a fucking throne) and plopped Duncan right down. "Okay buddy," he squatted down in front of him. "You're gonna just have to sit there for a little bit okay?"
"No."
"I know, it's no fun at all. But you need to be a good boy and do this for daddy."
"Why?"
"Cause I wanna show all my dumb friends how utterly adorable you are," he said and wrapped an arm around Duncan to smother his face in kisses and playful bites. Duncan giggled and shrieked happily as Desmond lavished him with affection. Then Desmond stopped and Duncan gave him a very deliberate kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," Desmond said. "I'm going to be right here the entire time, okay?"
"Okay," Duncan nodded.
"Good," Desmond looked up when he heard the door open and immediately turned invisible. He moved to the side of the chair and Duncan followed him with his own black eyes. Once he saw Desmond wasn't moving he dropped them and looked around. People were coming into the room. The Fold was made of two hundred people. One hundred of each species and fifty of each gender for both species. Half of them were elected officials and the other half Desmond had personally appointed. Their recess was over and they were starting to trickle back into the room to take their seats.
Duncan didn't know the meaning of fear. When people noticed him he waved at them and even gave them a bright, "Hello!" in only the way a three-year-old could.
At first, Duncan was ignored but then as more people came in he drew more notice with his hellos and waving. The humans, of course, came over to investigate first. Always too curious for their own good. Since nearly the entire older generation of humans had been wiped out all the humans of the Fold were around Desmond's physical age to forty at most. A bunch of young people trying to make life better for their species now that they weren't burdened with the shackles of the older generation. The women came over first but in the past few years all humans had been getting more in touch with their sensitive sides as they realized that it was their ability to connect with each other that made them truly powerful and some of the men eventually followed. The women cooed over Duncan but didn't touch. Desmond was sending them subtle telepathy to not touch his son. Duncan was the friendliest boy you'd ever meet in your life and would wave and say hello and be genuinely happy to see you but he didn't like being touched by strangers or even by people not his parents sometimes. Desmond and Lucy respected the boundaries he set and always made sure to ask before they let one of their family hold him. Desmond thought it had something to do with his natural psionic inclination. Empathy maybe? He wasn't sure. It was all so new to everyone, even Desmond and now there were no old angels to ask. The humans didn't touch but Duncan did love all the attention and being told he was such a cutie. That made Desmond smile.
Eventually, the humans had satisfied their main curiosity about a child and some more progressive proeathans also came down to inspect Duncan. Desmond didn't have to stop the proeathans from touching Duncan. They wouldn't. They didn't have the same touch orientated way of communication that humans did. Two of them was Baldur and Thor and they both looked around for Desmond but saw him nowhere. Duncan, of course, recognized the two of them. "Obi, obo," he waved at them excitedly when he spotted them.
"Hey," Baldur smiled, it pulled at the big scar across her face. She hunkered down in front of Duncan, "Where's your daddy huh?" she asked in a whisper. Duncan looked up, around, then back at her. He gave a big shrug with his entire body that made Desmond laugh to himself. Only a little kid could get away with that level of drama. "Your mommy?"
"She's with her boyfriend," he said proudly and everyone around gave the child a strange look. What? Thor coughed to hide a laugh behind his hand. Baldur's face twisted as she tried not to laugh and ended up having an actual coughing fit as Thor patted her back. Desmond just covered his face with his hand. That joke about Lucy and Jacob was literally never going to die; neither were either of them.
"Okay," Baldur squeaked.
"C'mon Baldur, you're gonna hurt your chest again at this rate," Thor said and tugged her away.
"Bye, buddy," Baldur waved as she allowed Thor to pull her away.
"Bye bye obo," he waved after her.
There was a bit of discussion about the little boy on the chair but no one had taken him off of it. "Ahem!" one of the human chairmen cleared his throat. "It has been an hour recess and everyone is expected to have returned. Those that haven't will be penalized. Everyone take your seats." There was some shuffling as two hundred people got to their assigned seats.
"Obi," Duncan said, looking at the back of Od's head. Od was ignoring him. "Obi, obi obi obi," he said over and over again. Desmond saw Od twitch in annoyance and rub his thigh of the leg he had left. That was how Desmond knew Od was annoyed. "Obi obi obi-
Od turned and gave Duncan a hard look. "What, child?" he whispered, almost angry.
"Hi," he waved.
Od's face darkened. Honestly, Desmond's favorite thing in the entire world was watching Od have to deal with Duncan. He also hated that Baldur had taught Duncan to call him 'obi' or uncle in Ilythian like he did to Thor. Desmond was sure Duncan knew Od didn't like children too. "Be quiet," he whispered and aggressively put a finger to his lips. Duncan mimicked him. Desmond snorted. Od might not like kids but he'd spent enough time around Desmond and Lucy the past three years to know the motion to get kids to shush. Od turned back around.
Duncan noodled his finger around his mouth for a few minutes. Desmond was paying more attention to what was going on in the Fold chamber. The chairmen were bringing back up the topic of slaves in Apollo. The humans, rightfully, were full of bristling anger. The proeathans weren't so much. A lot of proeathans still lived in Apollo and Apollo was part of the Fold. But it was literally on the other side of the Earth and short of Desmond going there and kicking their asses, again, it was harder to get them to agree to something and then actually follow through with it. Of course, the leaders and reps of Apollo knew that, they also knew that Desmond had a small child and was hard pressed to be convinced to leave Atlantis without a very good reason. They were taking advantage of this fact and Desmond didn't like it.
He listened for a little while. Apollo reps said that under good authority that the humans were not slaves but were simply workers for proeathans who'd decided to stay in Apollo under their own free will. The human members of the Fold had a lot of shit to say back to them. Most of it not good and Desmond wrapped Duncan in a soundproof bubble so he couldn't hear the foul language the humans threw at the proeathans.
"Okay buddy, you were really good and very patient. We're almost done," Desmond said and stood up with a grunt. As he did he became visible and the entire room went dead silent. He reached down and picked Duncan up and walked away from the chair out onto the floor between the chairmen's seats and the rest of the Fold. "Hello, everyone," he said. He knew he didn't look the part here like the rest of them. Everyone else was dressed all nice in pressed suits and dresses and here Desmond was in sweats and a hooded long sleeve shirt he had pushed up to the elbows. He preferred longer sleeves to hide the very obvious glyphs burned into his skin. He looked even more out of place with a toddler on his hip.
"S-seventeen," one of the Apollo reps stuttered.
"Yeah, that's me," Desmond said. He'd just started going by his number around the Fold after the first few days. It was mostly to remind the proeathans not to fuck with him because he was still their seventeenth stadalla. That and it gave him good anonymity by not going by his real name so he could exist as a normal human being outside of the Embrace's top floor. "And just what in the world are you doing. Really. What is the meaning of this?"
"You were listening, stadalla?" another proeathan asked.
"Oh, I hear everything," Desmond said. He was very good at playing all the all knowing, all seeing, all doing god being they thought he was at this point. "And I want all of you to look at yourselves and look hard." He hefted Duncan on his hip a little. "This is my son by the way," he said. "Why don't you tell all my dumb friends how old you are, buddy?"
"Three!" Duncan said proudly.
"So now I get a house call from one of you," his fingers noodled around, pointing vaguely at no one, "this morning, while I'm feeding my son his breakfast. And they're telling me that you— people," he said to not swear. Oh, but he wanted to swear so badly. He'd done a lot of swearing and yelling the first year or so. Everyone in this room had seen just how furious Desmond could be and what a naturally inclined pyromancer stadalla looked like. "Still have humans in Apollo. Humans. In. Apollo," his voice got tight and hard, his face devoid of emotion. He took a deep breath. Oh, he was so mad. OH! He was so mad! He'd felt the minds of the humans in Apollo before he'd left the Unnamed. They all had wanted to go home. They didn't know where home was but it wasn't this metal cage shaped like a city. "And then you lie to your fellow members of the Fold about them. Lie to me," he pointed at himself somewhat vaguely. Really he was just making a show of this with a kid on his hip to make sure everyone knew how pissed he was to be dragged to this place and having to bring his little son with him to discipline them much like he had to when Duncan wouldn't pick up his toys or screamed because he didn't want to take a bath. Desmond would have to take him aside and talk to him in a calm but firm tone to remind Duncan that Desmond was the boss and he would help Duncan pick up his toys or clean his room but they were getting picked up and he was going to bed and no amount of screaming was going to change that.
No one said a word. You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Even Duncan knew to be quiet and was just hanging onto Desmond. Desmond rubbed his face with one hand and a groan. "I want all those humans out of Apollo and on Atlantis soil in three days. If they aren't every Apollo member of the Fold is fired and your replacements will be chosen entirely by me instead of your people getting to decide who some of them are." There was a general pull back from the proeathans. All of the Apollo reps made up about half of the proeathan members of the Fold.
"But-
"But what?" Desmond demanded. "But what?" he asked again. "All humans in Apollo on Atlantean soil in three days. If I find out you haven't obeyed there will be consequences. Your failure to relocate all humans to Atlantis before now is an act of treason against the Fold, against Atlantis, and against me. I made the Fold to deal with important issues between Earthlings so I didn't have to babysit you all the time. The only person I should have to make sure don't make a mess out of everything is my son. And yet here I am cleaning up your mess too. You don't want me here. I don't want to be here. Fix your shit. I don't wanna have to come back here again. Next time I do something bad is going to happen.
"Three days," Desmond said as he started to walk out, holding up three fingers. "Don't fuck it up," and he walked right out of the room.
"Daddy, you said bad words," Duncan said once they were outside of the Fold chamber.
"Yeah, I know. That's cause my dumb friends made daddy reallly mad," Desmond said. "Don't tell your mommy I said them okay?" he pushed his lips out a little making a face that made Duncan giggle and nod. "Good boy," and he kissed Duncan on the cheek. "Let's get you into some real clothes and we can go to the park. Does that sound fun?"
"Yeah! Can obi and obo come?" Duncan asked.
"Maybe. They might be busy," Desmond said.
"What about jid? Or nonno? Or grampy?" Duncan asked.
Desmond chuckled. "Maybe. I'll call them, how about that and you can ask them if they'll come to the park." He called the elevator and it immediately dinged open.
"Yay!" Duncan cried, throwing his arms up. "Daddy when's mommy coming home?"
"She'll be home for dinner, you know that," Desmond said, walking into the elevator.
"So that means Tom-Tom and Jacobe can't come too?"
"Yeah, that does mean that, sorry chief," Desmond said.
They rode the elevator up. "Daddy," Duncan said.
"Yeah?" Desmond asked as he stepped out of the elevator to the front door.
"What if no one wants to come to the park with me?" Duncan asked and was literally three seconds away from crying.
"Duncan it's okay," he said gently. "I'm sure one of your grandpas will come to the park with us."
"But what if they don't?" Duncan blubbered.
"Duncan, buddy, it's too early for crying about the park, baby," Desmond cooed and cuddled him. As he did his eyes blacked out and he offered Duncan happy, soothing, feelings. Personally, Desmond thought it was pretty hilarious. Kids were great. Their biggest worry in life was if someone was going to go to the park with them. Desmond wished he got to live one day as Duncan so he could experience what no worries felt like. "I'm sure you can convince your jid or grampy to come to the park with you. Just ask nicely."
Duncan sniffed. "Okay," he said, voice full of tears. Desmond just patted his back gently and went to change him into some regular clothes.
"So we're gonna call jid and nonno and grampy and see who wants to come to park. Okay?" Desmond asked once he had Duncan dressed again. Duncan had stopped crying and looked totally normal now.
"Okay," Duncan said brightly. Desmond left the room and Duncan skipped after him.
Desmond went and picked up what a phone had turned into. It was a proeathan device made of a solid piece of crystal where the circuits had been etched into the inside of the crystal. There was no screen but responded to touch and a number pad. It was audio only but had no speaker, the crystal just vibrated at a certain frequency to produce sound and transmit your speech. Humans were already figuring out how to push proeathan tech in ways proeathans had never even considered because they so rarely worked together on anything. Human engineers were already talking about how to turn it into a sort of smartphone but with more data and memory capacity than had been possible on chips. But that was still a few years out as engineers became familiar with the super high tech stuff the proeathans had.
He knew if he had it his way Altair wouldn't have one. Jacob made him have one. He dialed Altair up and waited. There was no dial tone, you just had to wait. Humans hated it. They wanted feedback that the other person was actually being rung. Desmond didn't blame them really. "Hello?" Altair's voice came in so perfectly it was like he was standing right next to Desmond.
"Hey, dad, someone wanted to ask if you'd come with us to the park-
"Daddy I wanted to ask him!" Duncan protested and pulled on his long-sleeved shirt in annoyance.
"Sorry, I didn't hear you," Altair said.
"He wasn't paying attention, kiddo, here you go," he handed Duncan the crystal and Duncan launched into a completely different topic of conversation. Desmond just sat down while Duncan walked around in the living room talking to Altair. Altair probably wasn't even saying anything except for 'yeah' now and then.
Duncan took five whole minutes to finally get around to what they'd called Altair for. "Me and daddy are going to the park, jid. Do you want to come? Okay. Okay," he said to whatever Altair was saying. "Jid wants to talk to you," he said and gave the crystal back to Desmond.
"Hello?"
"Which park exactly?" Altair asked.
"The graveyard- what park do you think?" Desmond rolled his eyes. "The one in the Embrace. Duh."
"I was just asking, no need to get fucking snippy with me, ibn," Altair huffed.
"We'll be down there once we ask if Ezio and Mike want to come too."
"Uhg."
"Don't groan at me," Desmond said.
"I will if I wanna. Uhg."
"Don't make me tell Cain you're being annoying."
"I'm shaking in my boots."
Desmond snorted. "Anyway. We'll probably be there in like half an hour if his conversation with you was any indication."
"Right," Altair said. Then he hung up. No goodbye. Altair never said goodbye over the phone.
"Duncan, come over here if you want to ask nonno and grampy to come to the park," Desmond called because Duncan had wandered off somewhere.
"Yeah yeah yeah!" Duncan yelled and hopped out from behind the sofa and bounded over to Desmond. They repeated the process with Ezio and Micheal. Ezio couldn't come, he was helping some people out in Westcliff. Mike was going to join them. Mike always dropped whatever he was doing unless it would explode to come hang out with Desmond and Duncan. He didn't want to miss anything.
Once they'd finished Desmond grabbed Duncan's hand and they headed for the park downstairs in the center of the Embrace, just off to the side of the now fenced off Unnamed.
And before you freak, Des just calls Altair dad cause he acts like his dad. They still aren't related in canon. He calls Ezio and Mike variations of 'dad' too.
If you like the story or excited about the update you should leave a comment. Even if to just say 'I love this story!' I appreciate all of them and let me know you appreciate me too. Please don't feel intimated by the long reviews on this story. I assure you I love them all.