Informer Daud AU

Tagged as Corvo Attano, Daud, Jessamine Kaldwin, Emily Kaldwin, Farley Havelock, Teague Martin

Creator: Hiaen

Description:

AU where the Loyalists do their poisoning job right and Corvo fucking dies. Havelock becomes Lord Regent, Treavor has the parliament in his pocket, and Martin is High Overseer. Emily is a puppet empress.

Except, at this point Emily saw both her parents get brutally murdered by people they considered their allies. So she's severely mistrustful of everyone, and drives a hard bargain with Havelock when he attempts to manipulate her. She's in a really disadvantageous position - she's ten, she's completely out of allies, she has neither political experience nor physical advantage - but she's also the Empress and she will sell her power at a high price.

Every time the Loyalists needs her support, she drags a favor out of them. At first she asks for Callista to be instated as her governess. Then for Geoff to be named at the head of the Tower Guards. She slowly constitutes herself an entourage that is more loyal to her than to Havelock.

Then, she cultivates her reputation among the population. This she doesn't even need to bargain: if Emily has more sway on the population, and Havelock has Emily under control, it's all good for them, right?

(at this point, Martin's attitude starts shifting, trying to stay on Emily's good side even if he has to occasionally work against the two others. He was always the smart one. Maybe it'll be enough. Only time will tell.)

Emily has the people's support and she has control on her immediate environment. She however doesn't have any political sway; if she says anything that doesn't fit Havelock's plans, he'll immediately discredit her. But she starts digging, asks for every newspaper available and reports of each new law.

A few weeks later, she gets a letter.

It's not signed, and the handwriting manages to be both nearly illegible and showing that the writer put a lot of efort into trying to write well. Emily can't start to imagine what the person's normal handwriting is like.

It's accompanied with a bunch of silvergraphs, a couple audiographs, and it has all the aspects of a blackmail file. Except it isn't.

The letter is a warning about Havelock. That he's getting suspicious of Emily's growing influence, he has Pendleton - that spineless drunkard - in his pocket, and he's starting to work out ways to keep Emily under stricter control. Emily's fond of Callista, and Geoff, and she's kept contact with Samuel too. There are ways to apply pressure.

The writer ends their letter saying that they have ways to counter Havelock - blackmail works both ways after all. That they can send the necessary info. That they will, in fact. They understand that Emily is unwilling to contact them back - she's right not to trust an anonymous tip. So they're just gonna drop more data on her doorstep.

Emily is super suspicious at first. It might very well be forged information sent her way to manipulate her. Or worse, to frame her as a corrupt royal, if she's ever caught with those info.

She reads the written files over and over until she has them memorized, then burns them. Then, she gets Callista in the loop. Asks her to get some of the audiographs and silvergraphs to Piero, to look for tampering. She memorizes and destroys the rest.

A few days later, she gets Piero's answer: no sign of tampering. It could be staged, if Havelock was in on it, but those are risky document to send out with his voice on it. And both the audios and pictures have that distinct low quality of recordings done in secret, with the subject unaware they're being watched.

Meanwhile on Daud's side.

Daud had heard of Corvo escaping Coldridge, but then barely a day after the whole Delilah thing is over they're blasting news of Corvo's death all over the loudspeakers. For a bit Daud's suspicious of that info, he sends a couple Whalers to check and they comfirm yeah he dead, they saw his body and everything. So Daud who for several weeks had been living with the certitude Corvo was gonna slit his throat, is now :/ well what now.

Well now, there's a princess in that Tower who had both her parents murdered because of Daud, a government that is - maybe better than Burrows, but still stinky. Daud has a debt to Emily Kaldwin that can never be repaid, but he can still try, and he will.

He dissolves the Whalers, sends them on their way with a share of the accumulated money so they can restart their lives. His path of atonement is one that he imposes on himself, but like hell he'll be dragging his men down with him.

Or t least, that's what he tries to do. Turns the Whalers are way more loyal to him than he thought, and disturbingly stubborn. Some of them just leave - those who were only in here for the money, but that's just a handful. Some of them leave after emotional goodbyes that he never expected from any of them, actually thanking him for their time in thegang as if Daud had been doing them a favor and not ruining them beyond repair by making them like him. Some of them technically leave, but they don't even go beyond Dunwall and two weeks later Daud spots them with some remaining Whalers who are skipping on their patrols to play cards.

A good half of the Whalers just stick with him. Those who actually agreed with the drop in violence, those who also felt they had responsibilities in Dunwall's current situation. Some of them just straight-up refuse to leave him alone. "I owe you too much," Thomas says. "I don't imagine any other life than one where I follow you," Rinaldo says. "You're gonna be lost without me," Rulfio says. "Fuck you and your giult complex, I'm staying," Galia says. If Daud's eyes well up that evening, well that's between him and the black-eyes bastard.

Daud keeps sending Emily whatever info he thinks she might need. Emily is really hesitant to use them at first, but eventually she takes the risk and it goes without a hitch, so her mysterious benefactor seems at least somewhat reliable. I don't know if she asks to meet them eventually, or if she'd rather never know/keep the benefit of plausible deniability.

Also if I had Corvo haunt Daud as a ghost/heart-like thing would that be fucked up or what. More on the "ghost" side than "heart" side because I want him as a somewhat lucid character capable of guilt-tripping Daud to the Void and beyond. what if ghost!corvo is more coherent bc he was connected to the void before he died

what if he has jess and corvo

they can't "haunt" Emily, they're tethered to Daud, but she can vaguely feels their presence sometimes. Daud never gets into direct contact with Emily but sometimes he breaks into the Tower so that Jess and Corvo can watch over their daughter (and Daud gets some security check done because goddamnit he's getting attached to the little empress). These days, Emily feels less lonely than usual.

Daud keeps the Mask strapped to his bandolier, the Heart is in a pouch right beside it.

At first Daud doesn't wear the mask, because it feels like an awful disrespect of Corvo. But then Corvo gives him the okay, in fact encourages him to do it and make Havelock&co shit themselves in fear at the idea that Corvo is back to haunt them.

Also when Daud uses Corvo's mask he gets a weird feeling, like he's detached from himself. It's nothing near possession but after doing it several times he realizes that he's slightly more suggestible to Corvo's ideas when he's wearing the mask.

Thomas also mentions that he gives off a different vibe when he does. Daud's not a talkative man by any mean but with the mask on he doesn't say a word, and his footsteps sound different. Looking at the mask also feels off, like the mask isn't a mask, but someone's actual deformed face. Rinaldo swears he saw it move once.

what would Emily think about the news of the Masked Felon still running around. Havelock would want to keep it under wrap, but also 1) Emily here is shrewd enough to get the memo nonetheless and 2) Daud would probly feel bad about hiding things from her so he'd probably send her the info about someone running around with that mask, just not precising who's under it.

Big argument in the Kaldwin-Attano-Daud household about wether or not they should tell Emily about their current situation. on the one hand they all feel bad about hiding the whole shebang, and on the other hand they all know there's no way she'll take it well. It's a regular debate.

Picture the whalers hearing daud argue with himself and yell at no one except he swears its the ghosts of the empress and the royal protector he hasnt lost his mind

Daud is 100% sure he has indeed lost it when he starts seeing the Empress he killed and the Royal Protector who dies because of him. Then he comes to term with it (he's still not completely sure he hasn't in fact lost it but he's seen weirder things and well. he functions.)

The whalers however, are significantly more worried. Honestly after what he told them about delilah and the other witches im sure they would just roll with it because fuck it it sounds stupid enough to be true. No one really knows anything about the void. Its fair fucking game about what will happen next

Those of them who had an interest in the occult are cured cleaned of that particular obsession when they see their boss having to deal with the walking-talking embodiments of his sins and regrets, personally gifted by the Outsider. Outsider is still the worse gift-giver around nothing's change on that side.

Can corvo talk to daud through the mask like jess talked to corvo. Exposing an enemy or fortresses weakness or smth. Jess hears their secrets and corvo can see their weaknesses. they can both talk to him.

They'd be a terrifying force if only they'd stop sabotaging each others. During a mission they work together smoothly with the slight problem here and there. Any other time they are at eachother’s throats. They collaborate pretty well during serious missions - after all, Daud is doing it all for Emily. But Jess can and will lead Daud into a nest of river krusts when they're doing a routine scouting of the sewers.

Archives:

daud: [rolls over in bed]

daud: [puts a pillow over his ears]

daud: daud, turning behind him: can you guys stop that???

ghost corvojess: [stop making out]

daud: thank you

jess: look if you didn't want this you shouldn't have murdered me

corvo: hey daud use my mask

daud: are you... okay with that?

corvo: not really but I want to see havelock shit his pants so can you do it

Daud: “im not a talkative person”

Also daud: 3 hours straight of audiograph monologues

"wassup it's me the person who murdered your mum, i'm currently running around the city in your dad's mask but he said it was ok. also your parents are ghosts that follow me. so yeah bye"

Daud: “fuck you”

silence

Daud: “fuck you too”

Thomas: explaining plan

Daud: “shut up”

Thomas: stops talking

Daud: “no not you, the royal protector”

Outsider: “i have a gift for you daud”

Daud: “no wait-“

Daud: does literally anything

Corvo & Jess: “boooo! This bitch is stupid!”

daud: slightly messes up on a blink

corvo and jess: the knife has dulled, it seems