#not letting desmond die peacfully for the hundredth time

[onionkrisp]

No words can describe how much I love this idea! So I'll add on to it.

For this post I'll go with Shay conceiving the child with a random woman, as you already explored him doing it with Hope Jensen.

This woman could be a random citizen he took a flying fancy to before sailing off to Lisbon, or it could be a whore he paid, it doesn't matter as it wouldn't change Demsond's future too much regardless of which one you would like to go with.

If the mother is able to contact Shay upon the realisation of her pregnancy, he could rendezvous back to meet and raise his son, or he could send a local templar to pass on money to support and help raise Desmond. If Desmond's mother is to die soon after the birth, Shay could take Desmond with him and raise him as he goes from mission to mission.

When Desmond realizes that, wait! My father is a templar! He could run away (or you know, just fake his death for that extra sweet sweet angst later on) and jump on to the first ship he sees, which will ultimately take him to colonial Boston.

In Brooklyn he would be a street urchin, fighting every day just to keep himself from starving, until a few years later (lets go with 1769 so that he and Ratonhnhake ton can become besties) he comes across a very familiar man he swears he has once upon a time seen before...

If the mother is unable to contact Shay about the baby, then I'll stray from killing off Desmond's only ally, and family (at the moment) right away, he can have a mom for a few more years before he's strong enough to become an orphan.

In this setting he can be raised in the grimy streets of Boston, his family doesn't own very much, and is even less financially stable; but he's happier than he was in his past life, so that's a plus.

He wouldn't have any formal education, or, if he decides to use his past lifes knowledge, he could be declared a genius and a kind benefactor could sponsor his further education. Desmond would probably like to stay away from the assassin/templar bullshit, so he would likely focus on his studies with the hopes of getting a high paying job in the future to lift the financial burden off of his new family's shoulders.

Hey, he could even have younger/older half-siblings if you feel like it!

But I'll go with him being sponsor/education-less (can't have Desmond having any kind of support network, nuh uh).

But his hopes and dreams for a normal life come crashing down at the age of 11/12 (depends on whether you want to make him younger/older than Ratonhnhake ton) when his mother, and sole provider, tragically died from her 'work related' disease (if she's not a whore then maybe some epidemic or sepsis/ infection).

Life for a newly orphaned boy in the 18th century is not a kind one, he's constantly struggling with finding food or scrounging enough funds to keep himself warm at night (and it would be even worse if he has siblings to look after, but for simplicity's sake I'll go with him being an only child). The punishments for crimes such as theivery are still severe enough for Desmond to be weary, and there are no child protective services yet, so Desmond has only himself to rely on.

Let's not forget about how he would be treated, when once he was tolerated and maybe liked (his illegitimate status would never allow anyone to even consider respecting him), he's now treated worse than shit underneathe peoples shoes.

In another life, one where he experienced a scenario similar to this one, he wouldn't have been bothered by the scathing remarks or dirty looks, but after living with a loving mother for so long...

Well, the switch up left him dizzy and nauseated for the longest time.

It's a few months in to his new, and frankly disgusting, life that he sees him. The wrinkled robes, yellowed whites and limping gate...

Convincing Achilles to take him on was a difficult task. Desmond swears Achilles was being even more difficult to the 'apprenticeship' then he was originally with Ratonhnhake ton.

But the reasoning didn't matter at the moment, Desmond was too caught over doing the exact thing he swore he wouldn't do at the beginning of this mess, getting involved with the assassins, with Ratonhnhake ton.

Overall, I think life in the Homestead wouldn't be too bad, sure, the fear of messing with the Kenways story, especially with how important they were for Desmond's birth and saving the world, would probably paralyse the guy at times.

Let's not ignore how it would mess with Desmonds and Ratonhnhake ton's growing friendship as well.

But Desmond will get over it... after a few freak outs of course.

Normally when Desmond travels back in time, people tend to forget about the cons of the Bleeding effect. Being able to learn decades worth of fighting skills within weeks is pretty cool, but what's cooler is when this has consequences, hallucinations, loss of self, insanity, and on and on.

People just take the positives, the ancestors memories, their fighting skills and strategic genius, and all but ignore the hallucinations and fast approaching insanity. A funny thing someone could do is make Desmond deal with all the negatives (hallucinations etc) whilst he is actively interacting with his ancestors (Ratonhnhake ton in this scenario).

But what I think would be even more fun is if Desmond lost the negatives of the bleeding effect... as well as the positives.

He wants to factory reset his brain? fine, but he can't complain when he has no more master assassin skills at his disposal.

Desmond has to regain everything the good ol' fashioned way.

Cue a training montage that will span multiple years as he and Connor (well, he can't call him his birth name without being sus af, can he?) slowly hone their skills and develop a sort of understanding and respect for one another.

Obviously, at the time being Desmond would have no clue on who his birth father was, probably wouldn't care that much either.

He never relived Shay Cormac's memories, in his last life he wasn't related to him, so how would he know anything about the man apart from him being the 'assassin traitor who destroyed the colonial brotherhood'?

There's a short and simple answer to this.

Achilles

There is no way that Achilles wouldn't recognise the features of the man that haunted his dreams on the face of a child that all but demanded his mentorship.

I can just see him trying to do right by Desmond, trying to prove to himself that after all these years he changed, that he could train and 'nurture' assassin Desmond to become nothing like his father.

But I can also see him going hard on the child, I can see him as a stone faced mentor trying to dissuade Desmond from joining the fight.

That for all that he wishes for the brotherhood to rise again, he fears seeing his pupils, Ratonhnhake ton, Desmond, die in this centuries old war. He fears to see his mistake's own mistake (ouchie) repeat the nightmare that he could never shake off even two decades later.

But even after all the rough words and training Desmond will flourish anyway. He, after all, did survive the training at The Farm, with William as his father (fucking hate that douche).

As time progressed, Desmond would grow in to his new role, his new friendships and his new body. At the age of 15 he wouldn't have had to ever met the man to know what he looked like.

Achilles made sure that all Desmond ever saw when he looked in to a mirror was the reflection of Shay Patrick Cormac staring right back at him.

Now this has some spicy angst potential. Without Achilles' contribution, the only reason for Desmond to hate Shay would have been his betrayal to the brotherhood.

But if Desmond knew that the sole reason Achilles was extra hard on him and never quite warmed up to Desmond was because of his and Shay's shared blood?

Well, that's a motif for his steadily increasing hatred for that man.

But what about Shay's side of the story? If he never knew of Desmond, how would he find out about him, and if he already knew about him (following the scenario that Desmond's mother did manage to come in contact with Shay), how would he react to finding out that his missing/perceived dead, son is in the colonies fighting alongside Haytham's son and Achilles?

He wouldn't be happy, that's obvious.

If we're going with the scenario that Shay already knew Desmond, and that he actually raised him after his mothers death, he would definitely want to have his son back. He would be worried, and could possibly suspect that it's the assassins that kidnapped his son and they manipulated and brainwashed him in to becoming one of them.

The Templars in the colonies could notify Shay that there's an assassin in Boston who looks unsettlingly similar to him. Or maybe even Haytham himself would write to him, as at that point he would have met his own son on multiple occasions, and even worked with him and his friend.

Nevertheless, the following story would be pretty simple: Shay would go to Boston, locate Desmond, they would argue (maybe even fight). he would attempt to get Desmond to see 'reason', but Desmond wouldn't listen, wouldn't even humour the thought of doing so, after all he's loyal to Ratonhnhake ton.

Would Shay give up, would he finally cut his losses and realise that his son is loyal to the very same creed he once was also a firm believer of?

Or would he try to fight for his son, would he refuse to part with the memory of the little child he took in and cared for an eternity ago?

Now, if we're going with the scenario that I unashamedly gave more thought in to (that being him never getting informed about Desmond prior to this), how would Shay find out about Desmond, how would he react, what would he do?

Following what teacup said, Shay very obviously wasn't present during Assassin's Creed 3, so unfortunately he won't be finding out about his son because said son came crash landing on top of the table Shay was just having a templar meeting on (how unfortunate).

There's truly only one option for Shay finding out about his son, and that's him being directly informed about Desmond.

Similar to the previous scenario, it can be either by a random unnamed templar or by Haytham himself. And as I am a fan of Haytham (crazy, I know), I'm basically obliged to give the man himself the honour of informing his dear friend about his bastard running around Boston and terrorising the colonial templars.

Before his first time meeting Haytham, for real this time, Desmond would have wishfully hoped that his existence wouldn't have changed history too much, that what he saw from Ratonhnhake ton's memories will uphold perfectly.

But then he met the man.

And he knew that wouldn't be the case.

The man was rude, arrogant even, and if his 'greeting' wasn't unnerving enough (seriously, who introduces themselves to their child by attempting to kill them?) he also held the kind of intelligence behind his eyes that caused Desmond to grow weary in his presence.

Desmond knew what that man could do, saw the things he hasn't yet done first hand.

He has Lived as that man, however short that period may have been.

So Desmond knows that that scrutinizing look aimed at him means nothing but trouble.

Cue Haytham writing a very annoyed letter to Shay complaining about his bastard 'getting in the way' and being a 'hooligan', while Shay is sat at his desk like:

The realisation will be so stark and sudden Shay gets whiplash.

I can just see him having to put the letter down and pause for a long moment as he tries to remember when has he ever-

Oh

yeah, that checks out.

Luckily for our hero Desmond, Shay is not as hell bent on killing off his descendants as Haytham is.

Unluckily for our other hero(?) Shay, Desmond essentially went on to self exile to the Homstead the moment word of Shay stepping foot on to American soil reached the assassins ears.

Whether that is because Desmond is fearful of meeting his father, a famed deserter and traitor (unlikely), or Achilles didn't want to risk those two meeting and Shay manipulating Desmond in to joining the templars (more likely).

It's not until months later that they meet.

Desmond spent the last few weeks of his sudden callback from the field trying to recover the skills he lost when he was transported back in to the past.

It felt... weird, to live without the constant voices in his head guiding him on, to not get feelings of deja vu over the most random of things. The bleeds were a sign of of his mind combusting, a warning that he was teetering over the edge of his sanity, it was supposed to be worrisome.

But for the first time since he was taken by Abstergo, since he layed strapped to the animus for days at a time as the sun loomed over them like a ticking time bomb, Desmond didn't feel lonely.

It's crazy how when he was surrounded by his own father, and people he spent the last few months in close quartersc with, he felt the most comforted by his own figments of imagination.

frustration creeped in to his mind and stiffness overtook his body as he corrected his stance and raised his arms once more.

Maybe he was being idiotic, maybe he was just sick of not being understood. But he wanted to grow closer to his ancestors once more, even if this time their relationship will be even faker than their last.

He reached for the arrow behind him and set it alongside the bow's string as he leveled it to the target ahead of him.

And if he could no longer hear their voices no matter what he did, then he would force the sensation of them to his side guiding his attacks.

Releasing his hold on the string, Desmond watched the arrow glide through the air and hit it's target.

Bullseye

He only managed to emit a small smile as he began his ascend towards discarded arrows before the tranquility of the moment was disturbed by the sudden sound of clapping.

Desmond stilled his movements, before turning around, he expected Connor, maybe even one of the homsteads residents seeking him out for help.

The sight of the black and red uniform alongside an aged face froze him for only a moment, before he forced his body in to movement, stumbling towards his abandoned quiver.

A face so much like his own stared back at him with a complicated expression as he leveled his weapon at the intruder.

Desmond didn't know what to say, interrogate the man? question his intelligence? provoke him?

His lack of words and shock deepened even further when the familiarity of the grey hue enveloped his world and left him staring at the lone figure in front of him, surrounding his environment with a blidingly blue shine.

'I'll add on to it, just a little bit, I'll just sprinkle a few ideas on top, no more than a few paragraphs' I say naively as I press the reblog button

This is long, longer than I expected it to be... and you can probably tell how I started to slowly get tired as the story commenced. The ending was supposed to be longer, more shocking, confusing and angsty, but I lost the majority of my braincells by the time I got to it soooo...

Anyways, I would like to thank the pack of cheetos I ate, my motivation for not leaving me, and @teecupangel for inspiring me to write this.

Edit because I just remembered the game was set in Boston and not Brooklyn. If you see any lingering mention of Brooklyn, no you don't.

What if Desmond was reborn as Shay’s son and the same age as Connor

We have this idea where Desmond is reborn as Shay’s son but, in that one, we made Desmond the same age as Arno for that sweet, sweet angst.

For this one, we need to talk about the timeline for a bit.

Ratonhnhaké:ton is born in 1756 and Shay put his lot with the Templars the same year.

This means Desmond has to be conceived in 1755 before Shay leaves for Lisbon. Specifically: Desmond must be conceived months before November 1 1755. (If you want, we can put it his birth date as March 13 then Desmond would have to be considered around June 1755)

He returns to the homestead late 1755 to early 1756 and there was a lot of snow during the cutscenes during that time so we can say Winter Months (December ~ February)

Why is this important?

Because we have a prime ‘candidate’ for Desmond’s mother:

Hope Jensen.

Hope would definitely hide the fact that she’s pregnant and would never say that Shay was the father.

Perhaps it was simply a night of passion that they never talked about.

Maybe there was a sliver of ‘something more’ but it was postponed when Shay sailed to Lisbon.

Regardless, Hope would still join the hunt for Shay and she would watch as he ‘dies’ after failing to persuade him into returning the manuscript (maybe even hint on her current ‘situation’)

After that, she would never tell anyone who the father of her son was.

Desmond would be born in one of her gang’s hideout.

He would stay with her while she worked for the Brotherhood and he would know she’s an Assassin early on. Her gang would serve as both his bodyguards and his nannies when she’s away.

He would be 1 year and 8 months old when his mother died while he was taken away by her most trusted gang members, running away when she noticed Shay spying on them while she was talking to Liam. Desmond was nearby and was taken away while Hope slowly filled the warehouse with poisonous gas.

Desmond would then watch the fall of the Brotherhood and his mother’s gang as Shay hunted them down.

By the time Desmond is four years old, the only living gang members that he knows of are the ones who took care of him.

To him, Shay Cormac is the man who betrayed the Brotherhood and joined the Templars to hunt them all down.

The man who killed Desmond’s mother.

And now we have the setup for Desmond’s revenge plot (with a twist).

So, in this one, Desmond comes to Achilles around the same time Ratonhnhaké:ton does. Maybe he timed it that way, maybe it was fate. An important thing to note is that he has been making a name of himself by rebuilding his mother’s gang.

Of course, it’s less of a gang and more of a Brotherhood by its own rights. They stick to the shadows and follow the Creed and its tenets.

People see him as a genius youngster.

The ones who raised him after Hope died believed that he’s a prodigy like his late mother.

So he didn’t come to Achilles to ask for him to train him, he came there to learn about Shay Cormac and if he knows his current location.

This is where our plot can diverse into specific plot points:

(1) Desmond learns Shay is his father but Shay remains oblivious.

(2) Shay learns Desmond is his son but Desmond doesn’t know about this.

(3) They learn of their connection with one another in different ways.

For Desmond, either one of the people who raised him (maybe the ‘nanny’) knew the truth, maybe she was a servant of the Jensen family who came to care for Desmond, or Hope left a letter for Desmond to read when he was older if she died to one of the people who cared for him beforehand.

For Shay, it could be the good old ‘Hope Jensen had a son’, ‘said son is around this age’, Shay remembers they had sex around that time, and did the math himself. Or the Templars learned of the connection and informed Shay.

This would change how tragic this becomes, especially on Shay’s side.

Desmond’s side though?

He already had a bad father as Desmond Miles. His father being the one to kill his mother? Yeah, that just another nail in the coffin he would be carving for Shay Cormac, to be honest.

Shay though? If he learned that Desmond is his son, he would absolutely try to connect with him.

He would be the reason why Shay would return to the colonies during AC3.

So if you want Shay to be part of AC3 then Shay must know that Desmond is his son.

Or…

He learned that Hope Jensen’s son has been wrecking havoc with Haytham Kenway’s son and felt that it was his duty to ‘finish’ what he started.

.

Whatever situation they have, Desmond would be loyal to the Brotherhood. Not Achilles’ Brotherhood but the one he made himself. He’d support Ratonhnhaké:ton on his missions while suggesting Ratonhnhaké:ton join them.

Haytham would even comment on how their relationship is a bit similar to Haytham’s relationship with Shay but with the ‘roles’ reversed.

Desmond would clarify that he sees Ratonhnhaké:ton as an equal.

Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton would also bond over having bad fathers (although Ratonhnhaké:ton would remind Desmond that Shay Cormac doesn’t even know that he has a son so it was less ‘bad father’ and more like ‘bad Assassin’). In the end, Desmond would never betray Ratonhnhaké:ton and he has no memories of Shay being anything ‘good’ to him. Being his mother’s killer definitely soured their entire relationship before it even started.

So… it’s not going to have a happy ending.

.

.

.

Or, you know, Desmond’s mother could be some random woman Shay slept with and he found out about him after betraying the Brotherhood. He raised him away from his Templar business and Desmond becomes an Assassin anyway because of Ratonhnhaké:ton. This one’s angst would be the hesitation of fighting his father.

Pick your poison. XD