Drawings of Jess

Tagged as Emily Kaldwin, Anton Sokolov, Corvo Attano, Jessamine Kaldwin, Delilah Copperspoon

Creator: Blue, Potes, Eels

Description:

thinkin hard about emily drweing that picture of corvo with "daddy" on it like. Such heart warming stuff. but you've gotta think about how Emily was 100% like "no you can't see it" when adults were like "what are you drawing" bc shh secrets.

can we briefly talk about how dark her drawings get if her dad becomes violent. it really shows how a) corvo is like a perspective anchor for her, if that makes sense and b) how the dialogue of the other adulta (in reference to increaed blood, weepers etc) rubs off on her

give emily a sketchbook.She has her travel log already! She can draw in that. emily drawing wyman.

idk if it's better if em actually learnt to draw or is 25 but still draws like a 10yo. i like the idea thats shes a really good artist. i think it's great when people aren't that good at what they're doing but keep doing it since it's cathartic to them. corvos office walls are FULL of emilys drawings from when she coukd firat hold a pencil until now. she had sokolov as her teacher soooo

for corvos 50th bday, emily gifted him a portrait of jess she spent hours on... nothing fancy, not a posed one, just jess as she was, as a person. bc all the official portraits are you know. Like that. but thats not the jessamine corvo and emilly knew and remembers and saw everyday. maybe just. A loose portrait of jess smiling, laughing, looking free

emily did talk about that. how much it sucks that she can't bring up her moments with jess and corvo at her own funeral, jess as a loving mother, as something more than an empress. To the public she's this perfect Saint, their fair Empress, not a person

corvo says nothing when he sees it, and enily is worried shes done something wrong, that he doesnt like it. But when she looks at him, she can see the tears in his eyes and he tells her its perfect. He hugs her so hard. And cries into her shoulder. he just lets of a quck thanks, and then they hug in silences for a bit. they think about the woman they lost, who she was, and who she could have been now...

corvo comes into emilys studio one day (he doesnt usually, she likes her privacy), and sees shes working on a family portrait of the 3 of them, back then when emily was small and before jess died, because they never got a potrait of all 3 together,,,

Ok but bc em doesn't have any actual refs of Jess she's gotta just study paintings. So what I'm saying is Emily going "missing" and callista comes into Corvo's office like "ah em is gone!! Can't find her!!" So corvo goes to look. And finds her under a portrait of Jess and it's like. Ah

OH sokolov for emilys 18th birthday gifts her his old studies of jess, since he would have LOADS of prwctise sketches etc,,, Emily asks Sokolov if hé has old sketches of her, because he's not only the official painter but he was also a friend of jessamine... And so he shows her the sketches of her where she's not in full empress mode, that side he saw as her friend but wasn't fitting for an official painting.

hoeslty like the idea of sokolov just giving emily ALL his work on jess, the private stuff that no one else has seen,,, it also hits the heart strings. Maybe that's what he does before leaving his position of royal physician to go be serkonan grandpa piss

like can u imagine emily, on her 18th bday, sad that her mun isnt there on the day she becomes an adult for real, and sokolov comes up to her and they chat and then hes like. Listen. I have something for you. And hes spent the past few weeks/months collating all his jess works, concepts into a few portfolios etc, something handy, to give to emily, bc remember this is pre photos so like. Emily wont have many pictures and porbably like none non official ones. because what do you gift to an empress? Emily has to try blink away her tears and choke out a thank you

Ok but Em showing them to corvo. Corvo is even MORE emotional than em. and like. Ems 18th was defo a big fancy affair for the upper class, making it hard on em and corvo bc they know jess shouldve been there celebrating with them.

on emilys 18th corvo gives her jess's favourite necklace or smthing, its not uber expensive but jess liked it, and emily has vague memories of her mother wearing it when she was small

when jess was really young and she and corvo maybe just a thing but ssh secret, before emily,,, they went on a diplomatic mission smthng smthng, maybe before jess was empress (how old was she when thay happened??) nd anyways sokolov came too to capture some drawings/paitnings of the young royal on her first solo diplomatic trip, with an intetion of doing a proper piece on their return,,,, and from it he basically has lots of sketches/drawings of jess and corco young and on holiday and srcretly in love (none of which became a final painting, but he just thought it was a nice thing to capture those moments). And sokolov gives these sketches to emily too,,, says something like "especailly look at these, your mum wasnt much older than you then" or snthng

Emily,, seeing her mum like her. Bc I think I've talked abt this before but em has a slightly more "perfect" image of her mother than Corvo does. In that she was a small child. So while she does know the not-empress version, her mother, she also has a very wow idea of her mother. Much more human than most's idea of her, but still a little rose tinted. Particularly in that em doesn't think her mum ever struggled as Empress aside from the rat plague. Even if her father says "yeah she did 100%".

So maybe a sokolov drawing that sorta shows the more tired and less perfect v -- the struggling jess. tired jess, caption "after a day of negotiationa with smthng smthng". bc corvo steuggles to talk about her, he loves her dearly but it hurts and ofc he doesnt talk about the bad days much, bc he doesnt want 2 think about when jess was tired, stress,,, Bc while still more human, her 10 year old view of her will still be pretty 1 dimensional ish

Delilah finds emily's painting of jess hung in corvo's office after the coup and tears it down and burns it in a fit of rage because she's a painter, she sees the love and care put into it by an amateur but talented hand and how dare jess have this even in death

When corv and em are dealing with the gut wrenching fallout of everything after he's un-stoned and trying to put some semblance of something back together in dunwall and the tower there's this moment where they start on his office and both see the charred frame, and realize what's been lost. They have this silent moment of another gut punch they were not prepared for, because god even after all this and clawing their way back, even this is gone and it's one of the few irreplaceable objects. There are a small handful of emily's old sketches miraculously still ferreted away in the safe room, and the relief when they find them is huge but still bittersweet since they have something at least, but it's not enough. They're gutted and angry when they see the painting is destroyed, but the tears come when they find the sketches

Archives:

callista: oooo whats that ur drawing can i see it??

emily: absolutely NOT its a secret

callista: ooo come on i wont tell

emily: no it s a secret gift ONLY for dad- i mean corvo

"what is that?" "[Emily sticks her entire arm over the piece] NOTHING"

emily: NOTHING *throws her desk and all her paper out the window*