Jess hires Daud AU

Tagged as Jessamine Kaldwin, Daud, Corvo Attano

Creator: Ferox

Description:

just, for a moment, imagine Jessamine to be just the tiniest bit more aware of the fact that shes the chicken dangling in a piranha tank

Corvo isnt there, because he is off to hopefully get help (on the suggestion of Burrows, which, is slightly fishy.)

She doesn't trust Burrows. especially not with how he keeps stalling any and all investigations about the origin of the plague. It didnt start in the ports or on the ships, but in the slums which you dont need to be a genius for to see it doesnt make sense for a disease supposedly spread via an infected ship from pandyssia

Naturally, Burrows talks her down but her suspicions wont leave. So. She hires the man she knows everyone with enough coin uses to get their blackmail from, or to take out someone who needs getting killed. Look. She's Empress. She knows how politics work, even if she doesnt like it. Right now, she happens to be Done With Everything, and people stalling her, so she goes "Fuck It"

Makes some inquiries via people who know people, and with the usual things, Daud now has a letter from the Empress on his desk, offering a LOT of coin for getting behind the origin of the plague

Daud, at first, is trying to game the system - Corvo hasnt been gone that long, so they got time to off the empress if this first avenue of coin doesnt work out. Like. Why not cash in double, if he can? Burrows can wait a few more weeks, that fucker.

Daud and the Empress communicate via letters and code. Again. Jess is many things, but Stupid or a Pushover is none of them.

And Daud doesnt hate that job this much. Its Questions he wondered nobody was asking before, mostly, and Digging up Bullshit Mysteries, once he's on it, is also somewhat fun. More fun than staking out guard rotations, anyways. He gets to a bunch of names, all who are conveniently dead - not of the plague, and more shoddily disguised murders as someone was too cheap to hire a true professional. Good Enough to fool the Watch, but not good enough to fool someone who makes a living orchestrating such things. It's High Key Suspicious.

And he actually, to his own surprise, finds himself agreeing with the Empress because this is many things, but not something accidental. Not some oopsie at the port, that led to pandyssian rats escaping into the slums on the opposite side of the city, where properties get swept up by some very familiar and hated names after everything got quarantined and People started Dying.

Which is where Daud maybe starts getting a first glimpse at Burrows' inner circle. Not the bastard himself, not yet, but maybe Timsh, or the Pendletwats, or someone yet unnamed

Meanwhile Jess keeps up an act around everyone, of fake despair and less openly disagreeing with Burrows etc. Because she doesnt need to, and having everyone off her back is helpful because she has a lot to handle. She'd probably get some of the Watch, and the Tower Guard, in on it. Those she trusts, those she knows are incorruptible. People Corvo trusts.

Daud puts the plans to Kill an Empress further on the back burner, and Burrows doesnt pressure too much because even if he threatened Daud to send the Overseers to sweep the flooded district, he isnt that stupid to want shit like this rushed. Eventually, a Daud who got reminded of all the reasons why he hates the nobility so much, meets in person with an Empress who is doing a v good act of not being intimidated because to Jess, she knows that if Daud kills her then and there, he wont get paid the $Fuckton they agreed on.

The Meeting is very reminiscent of two territorial Cats circling each other. I love this scene because Jess and Daud are both very straight-backed and collected people but with radically opposite vibes. also, Jess is fluent in sarcasm. you have to be if you wanna survive dunwall nobility. Same for Daud, except he doesnt try to mask it

Daud gets a little angry and Jess listens because its easier to let men talk and then strike back once they feel like they managed to overpower her. And well, Daud has a point, to her. She's not too fond of those actively working to take from people who dont have anything in the first place. She's Empress and her People are all her People, the poor aren't some lesser species you fucker.

Daud did not expect that. He still doesnt like her, or anyone, ofc. Still has that murder contract on the back of his mind, which, to him, is the final dot that was missing to figure out burrows has something to do with All That Bullshit. (Also, the fact that Jessamine doesnt seem too fond of campbells overly militaristic methods does help better dauds opinion on her.)

But, now Daud starts questioning why burrows wants Jess dead, just as she starts digging into the cause of the plague. it explains why many many small things start pointing at Burrows being somehow involved, and with Burrows starting to get antsy abt the murder contract, Daud decides to try and see what shit burrows was hiding away in that safe of his. Its not the audiographs from ingame, exactly, but different things. Enough evidence of the conspiracy, and his plan to eradicate the poor.

Which leads to another meeting between Daud and Jess. Theyre both Pissed this time, because That FUCKER. Jess is very tempted to let a pissed off Daud do what he wants to do to the bastard. She doesnt, in the end, bc the courts need to do their job, and she has promised herself to be better than the fuckers. but it is tempting.

It is also what has Daud abandon the assassination of the Empress, because fucking void, Burrows is a bastard and Jess offered enough coin that he can compensate for that loss. Eventually, he tells her about the fact that burrows wanted him to kill her. Jess takes it with surprising nonchalance. "You could've done so a hundred times by now and didn't. You're hating Burrows a lot more than you hate me. And, he won't pay you." this is how nobility works, not the first time, probably not the last.

They still need that final piece of evidence however, to have Burrows sacked before Corvo gets back (and before burrows tips off the Overseers). So. They Plan. A Fake Assassination Attempt. Jess feels sorry about how that would shock Corvo, who will be a piece in it, but well. There Is A Reason.

Anyway. the beginning of DH1 goes down. Except both Daud and Jess are in on it, and the guards around are not but are those Jess trusts to not be in league with Burrows. Daud pretends to attack, everyone sees how Burrows tries to work along, clearly in the know - sending away the guards, etc. Except Daud retreats as soon as Corvo makes an attempt to strike, and Jess confronts Burrows with All of It, Corvo who is slightly alarmed and confused at her side.

There is no blood at the gazebo that day, and instead of Corvo, it's Burrows who gets dragged to Coldridge. Court and Parliament and all are faced with an Empress who is Done With Everyone's Bullshit, later on. Corvo is grumpy about Jess being in danger, yet happy that shes alive.

Burrows doesnt spend more than a week or two in prison before he dies a suspicious death. Jess gets a letter from Daud, where he is not at all sorry about murdering Burrows. Jess gets that, and time moves on.

At first, she keeps hiring Daud and the whalers to do duties that would technically be spymaster work, except there is no spymaster rn. Corvo reluctantly agrees with all of this. He'd rather have Daud on his side, than against them, in the first place. Daud is okay with it bc its a steady source of coin, and the abbey isnt breathing down his neck that much, because they are suddenly very busy trying to cover up their involvement in the bullshit. Campbell gets officially branded.

The Pendleton twins get arrested too, and Trevor preemptively confronted with the fact that Jess has So Much Dirt on that family, he better not try any shit. Lady Boyle also gets confronted, but she's the one who gets off with a threatening talk only.

It's probably an exasperated Corvo being like "Well when the assassin is doing so much already, why not make him spymaster if you don't want another person like burrows who'll plot to backstab as soon as hes appointed". He was being sarcastic. Except Jess considers that Idea now. and ends up offering Daud the position.

Who is. Very Much feeling like he's missing something. He still has his slight change in morals. It's a lot more subtle, now, a shift in focus rather than a depressive breakdown. As Spymaster, he is terrifying. Corvo very slowly gets less hissy because they find things to bitch about.

Then one night Corvo has a bullshit dream and wakes up with a weird tattoo, magic powers, and a name he cant forget. Delilah.

whale satan was all cryptic, talking about different worlds and changed timelines and shit. abt corvo and emily, and all. then like, told corvo "what if all this time, a hidden threat has been brewing, to your empress and your daughter" or sth. then gives him delilahs name. Which leads to a team up neither corvo nor daud had expected to work this well. there is so much snark tho. They bicker worse than fishwives.

The whalers, during all of this, largely stuck with daud and now make up his agent network. Some fucked off, and daud let them keep being assassins, now sans arcane bond.

Billie is... actually not trying to betray daud here. because this time, his change of hearts came with less of a breakdown, more slowly, with logical reasoning behind it. she might not agree with all choices, but she also doesnt think he is losing his edge or w/e

so the delilah thing goes off a lot more smoothly, which it honestly needs to be as delilah is working to possess jessamine in this as jess isnt dead yet

Archives:

Daud: Btw I was originally payed to kill you

Jess: It be like that sometimes