Murder on the Orient Express AU

TW: Mentioned suicide

Creator: Blue

Description:

[SPOILERS for Murder on the Orient Express. Duh.]

wholesome (ended up not wholesome) cou p crew dh1 au plus murder on the orient express: hiram gets murdered, someone investigates idk who, turns out (uh major murde ron the orient express spoilers) lich rally everyone else murdered him bc he sucks, im talking corvo, emily, wavelry boyle the pendletwins, daud, idk maybe the loyallists can be there too. Anyways, they all kill hiram thats the au

someone w strong morals as a large part of the storys conclusion is poirot torn between his religion and arresting the murderers bc murder is wrong, and objectivrly doing the right thing bc they killed a man who committed a henious crine and would never be charged and effectively they rightly dealt justice

and the murderers in this au is anyone whos life was torn apart as a result of Hiram dhgsga so yea coup crew in a way eg blackmail, corvo and emily obviously, daud bc hes dumb

Setting:

keeping this within the original time frame foe the book which is what btween ww2... Im gon a say jessamine was of a wealthy family and owner of a large business that she inherited?? social class meant she and corvo kept their relationship a secret jdhsvs BUT hiram say was a high up member on the board and didnt like what jess was doing so had her killed or whatever anyways yeah and conspiracy blah blah blah

uuhuhh and ye i think i said but Elaboration -> hiram had jess killed bc he didnt like the direction she was taking the company (perhaps in a direction away from exploiting workers, towards better pay and working conditions anyways). hiram didnt like this bc he would lose money and he sucks. if jess was dead, he would naturlly b first in line 2 take over bc emily small child, and he could easily convince the rest of the board to agree....

The characters:

The detective: Geoff. again idk if geoff would b so strongly like anti murder as poirot?? I mean geoff has killed - not in cold blood - but hes not like. So against it??? maybe tho we can like. Ignore that for this au. geodf probably is the only character who would wanr 2 inveatiagte hirams death bc its the right thing 2 do and even tho he stinky murde ris bad. ALSO geoff smart so

emily is a young heiress (late teens early 20s here) whos mother was killed, corvo is her idk bodyguard (and secret dad owo). so corvo/emily motives r clearly jess's murder and xorvos subsequent framing/imprisonment. for extra angst, corvo spent several years in prison framed w jess' murder, and either escaped or his lognstanding alibi was finally accepted (which was orev ignored bc Racism or something)

when emily and corvo are travelling on the train, they are as a father and daughter. Anyways this serves 2 muddy the water bc OBVIOSULY anyone familiar w the jess murder case KNOWS her only child was orphaned, and that emilys dad "died in the great war" (a lame cover story by jess bc of whatever reason prevented her and corvo formally being a couple) - so when geoff goes "hey ur emily and tjats corvo , jess's formaer protector/bodyguard" emily is like no?? Thats my dad??? and geoff is like i never said he WASNT your dad!!! and then theres a big bit of exposition where geoff explains that corvo IS emilys dad and the whole "oh no emilya dad died in the war when she was tiny/immediately after she was conceived" story jess had spinned back then was in fact, just a story

daud is again a former assassin, who has moved away from that life etc and hes there bc hes agreed to help the others, as part of his self redemption idk. dauds he resents having to have done that bc he sucks.

How about Hiram put some pressure on Daud so that he'd do the deed - no straight-up blackmail, but heavily implied he'd send the Overseers on the Whalers if he refused the job? (Because Daud's motivation is a bit flimsy compared to the story's tone otherwise). Especially if Geoff has to decide to let them all go at the end.

hiram threatening daud and his effective family, making him feel like he has no choice and "its just some rich woman" but daud sees the consequences after and feels awful, leading to effectively solid depressjon and idk the whalers disbanding idk

daud was also part of the crew who helped corvo out of jail. but daud was also like damn im not going 2 jail over this tho lol ill getcha evidence to help hiram be convicted tho xx so hiram eventaull y woulda been tried for conspiracy 2 commit murder on top of loads of other things meanwhile, once hiram is in jail/awaiting trial daud is like I Am Fleeing the country. until ofc, hiram is acquitted on a technicality and then yeah

waverly is that she was used by hiram, her position and influence in siciety was used by him to set his plans in motion. Or she commits suicide in the fallout, and the remaining boyle sisters wanting revenge for how hiram manipulated their sister.

ok so anywas, lady boyle. she was also somewhat manipulated by hiram and used - he used her social standing to gain access to clubs etc that otherwise he may struggle 2 get in - he may have been rich/businessman/maybe a gang person idk my dudes, but he was no aristocrat no matter how much money. through that, he got like contacts etc to aid his evil bidding. he also used some of her money to do Evil!!! when she realised a) what he had done and b) how she had inadvertently helped, she committed suicide - in this au its her sister esma on board on her behalf...

the pendletwins is similar to waverly but alao including them being blackmailed by hiram just cos uuhh idk what else. Or one of the twin just... becomes a shadow of himself. And the other twin takes care of him and sees him becoming more and more of a husk, and has to struggle between their dwindling finances and his brother's medical needs.

anyways yea so pendletwins, they were as we already decided both from a rich family, business men as well bc i dont know what rich people do, but family falling into disarray and some bad investments that fell thru leaving them on the brink of having to downgrade their lifestyle. anyways hiram blackmailed nd bribed them into assisting him w things that ultimatley helped him order the murder of jess/do other evil stuff bc hiram stinnky. in the fall-out, the twins didn't end up w any money, perhaps they actually gave hiram a lil some to kickstart his plans (bc hiram manipulated) so they lost big time. plus seeing everything that happened broke ONE twin (custy can decide who) who becomes a shadow of himself, very much struggling and the other twin needs to drop a lot of irl responsibiltiies to care. until they get drawn into the conspiracy at which point both r like yes!!! murder time!!. im thinking that like while they r on the train the Sick twin is barely seen/sticks to their uh room or whatever u would call rooms on a train. cabin?

Mmmmm Sokolov? Because he was forced to work for Hiram or something. or he just saw his friends planning shit and didn't want to be left out. ok so sokolov can also be there bc we need an ensemble cast... there is a doctor in the original aNYWays so yea a medical person. should b there. idk again his motivations in a way we can somewhat keep it aligned w his character but u know what !! fuck it!!! sokolov can still be a dick but we can think of his exact motivations 2 be part of this gang. later. sokolov is still old as shit naturally

ok also i decided maybe martin can be there too - Martin bc idk he was affected by the Hiram and he helped corvo get out of jail but ultimately lost so much himself bc of it).

Mmmmm maybe Martin was never rescued/was rescued too late and got branded? maybe not quite branded bc like its the 1930s and idk if that would b like. A thing. But possibly like beaten/tortured by hirams thugs bc hiram has thugs in this au. maybe like left with perment impacta on his quality of life

so ive decided that martin was a priest obvs but still like in dh1 where hes like hehe no ive never been 2 the golden cat ;) ya know,, and helped proved corvos initial innocence leading 2 corvo getting out of jail AND smthing something hiram who has a lot of power sent Thugs™️ after martin as a punishment, badly beating him and he loses an eye so i can give him a sick eye patch. by the time of the actual lets kill hiram, martins faith is much stronger despite everything. however, he s like. idk how to say it. he is fully aware that in this case proper justice was missed and therefore as part of the Crew views it as his job. so hes in a funky place where he is very religious and a strong/devout believer (cf earlier in the timeline where hes more like dh1 martin is) but i guess is tired and believes justice should occur smthn smthng old testament being brutal

OH SAM ISNT IN THIS YET. sam can be like. the uh waiter fellow on the train - the porter?? conductor?? so sam get s to wear a fancy suit. ive not decided on sams motivations 2 b involved but fuck it!! this is just for fun so he can be there (with a knife!)

wait shall we make delilah not evil too??? :) yea so delilah can be there to avenge her sister. she isnt well known as jess's sister as an illegitamte child, but they were still close bc we are IGNORING canon in this sense xx but, she was devastated by what happened 2 her and hated what happened w the generic company jess owned, given that delilah also had secret shares in it idk how business worked in the mid 1920s, so she also Lost Money boo xx. FUCK delilah would have SUCH a stylish outfit

also everyobe has fake names so geoff cant connect the dots so easily, bc ofc if enily was known as emily kaldwin hed be like "damn daughter of that woman who was horrendously murdered, as ordered by the victim??"

presumably geoff has never met corvo in this au bc otherwise he might definitely be like "yep that's corvo whom hiram had put in jail"

How they met:

How do they meet in the og story. I don't remember but otherwise I was thinking maybe they all meet at the trial or something. probably did meet at the trial when the dude was acquitted. which is also p good for us bc can u imagine, all th e characters investing in bringing hiram 2 jail, expecting justice and he gets acquitted??

Daud is like 100% ready to admit to everything if he can make Hiram fall with him, and that's how the others see he's genuine

and OBVS in this au all th e characters r friends who plan a murder together!!

Investigation:

geoff clicks that daud is daud early on, and daud is the rpime suspect . Daud gets a solid alibi though and so on.

anyway cool to think about geoff piecing together whi hiram actualky was, remembering his crime, they deducing each passengers connection to him

Piece of dialogue:

I went brain fart and may or may not have a little dialogue between Daud and Corvo once Geoff has found them out and decided to let them all go. (It's not my usual level of writing because I had only the dialogue in mind and not the description so hhhhhhhhhhhh here goes)

Daud is outside the train, smoking, snow up to his knees. Corvo walks up to him. They're both in heavy coats.

"So we're walking free."

"Looks like it."

"You don't deserve it."

Daud snorts. "Gonna kill me, bodyguard? Might be pushing your luck with the detective's mercy."

They pause.

"You'd let me do it, if I try. Am I wrong?"

Daud takes a drag of his cigarette before answering. "You aren't."

They keep watching the snowy field for a bit. Daud offers Corvo a cigarette. He takes it. It's been a stressful day.

Written by Hiaen

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geoff, after finding out about it all: so he uh... killed your wife right?

corvo: yeah

geoff: so does that mean you're single?