Rescued from the stone AU

Tagged as Corvo Attano, Emily Kaldwin, Daud, Billie Lurk

Creator: Potes

Description:

Ok so thought I had: Billie and Daud in a Corvo the Black AU freeing Emily from stone and trying to help or something.

Daud isn't in the middle of dying because the weird shit didn't happen, he just like. Got captured just cause he sucks thas it. Alternatively he never got captured at all he was just living in the middle of nowhere w no idea of what's happening. Good for him.

Ok ok either way Billie finds him, is like "um hi the bodyguard went batshit he's emperor now I feel bad. We should save Emily Kaldwin from a crazy magic person... again. Promise i won’t betray you and join the crazy magic person this time". Like that doto in HC au, Billie & Daud feel guilty about the mental state of the monarch so go try to. Fix things.

So I guess fun father daughter roadtrip trying to first find out how to free Emily, then trying to convince Emily that she needs to somehow stop Corvo, then uhhhhhh I guess corvo… redemption arc??????? I have no idea on the story. (Admittedly my idea of HC corvo isn't even that evil, and honestly fixes a lot of shit, but I guess Billie & daud feel bad that Em's in stone).

But the main fun of this au is just Emily finds out that her merciful father's gone evil and the merciless assassins who killed her mother are her best allies. yeah it's a funky fun time bc Emily wakes up with no idea that the last however-many-months have even happened and has no idea what her father's become. Maybe em being like "I am ur Empress!!" Angrily at Billie who's just trying to help her and Bill being like "[nods to a long live the emperor thing] lol not anymore you're not"

Em probs goes w them bc she’s too out of it to think “ok i should not follow strangers who remind me of the ppl who killed my mum”

uh I would suggest a parallel au w stoned corvo but I don't think there's any way corvo turns from Emily, no matter what she's done, he's still going to love her (even if she's breaking his heart).

He wouldn't turn on her but I could see him trying to set her back on better track? Tough love style.

It'd probably be harder to convince him than the other way around because I def could see him staying loyal even to a Butcher Empress Emily, but you can push the angle of "if it goes on like this she'll have a revolution on her hands and even her could die from that", so Corvo would intervene to protect her. Another interesting angle, if we have Daud here for the convincing, would be to have him say "you might be willing to forgive her now, but in thirty years, you'll be dead and gone and she will have the blood of hundreds on her hands. And trust me when I say, she will feel regret."

but for either one, they're going to be tearing the empire apart looking for their family member whom they left in stone to protect. which might have billie and daud like "so we're just really good at doing shit to make the monarch want to kill us more". tho w my aforementioned thing on emily the butcher being lowkey crazy and expecting all betrayals, her father leaving her only serves to heighten her paranoia.

the Billie/Daud/Stoned protag trio having to hide from the authorities... With Daud and Billie knowing that if they're caught they will die, meanwhile unstoned protag has to 1) see that their daughter/father is capable of committing atrocities (in their name!), 2) struggle with the desire to just join them, and 3) admit that Daud and Billie are really putting their neck out for them here and that for all the shit they've done, they're trying really hard to make amends.

Also tension in the trio because they're all pig-headed dumbasses not used to not being in charge, and also because the stakes are very different between Daud & Billie and the unstoned protag. The former are risking their lives, the latter is risking their relationship with their most loved one. Those are comparable in term of importance, but they would definitely lead to make different choices - I'm mostly thinking Daud and Billie would be very prudent, while the unstoned protag would be willing to take a certain amount of risk (confrontation with their relative in particular) if it means maybe patching things up.

also very very high tension because of the whole "you killed my mum/wife" thing. like corvo and em are going to be 2 seconds from punching daud at any fiven time

ooo maybe the unstoned protag being like "they wouldn't-- maybe... maybe delilah did something to them, some kind of magic curse to make them like this". meant as in corvo thinking emily is under control and vice versa

Though the unstoned protag, regardless of which it is, would have very limited info about Delilah (since they were in stone for the entire thing). In fact Billie and Daud would probably be their only source of accurate information. they have to trust these assassins word that things happened. i mean there's also news and shit but I don't imagine the official news going too much into heresy details. All they're gonna have is the rundown of political facts and that "Delilah was a witch" but they simply don't have the knowledge to make a full essay on her magic.

tbh that actually leads to more fun bc then you have corvo or em being like "oh what a convenient time for you to find out you don't like killing. couldn't have done that 6 months earlier could you"

Maybe the unstoned protag fishes out a former witch and drag info out of her? I can especially see Corvo do that (former Spymaster, kinda used to that), Emily I'm not sure she'd have the field knowledge to track down a witch strictly by herself. that could be fun, them saying how the hc protag slaughtered them, even the ones that begged for their life.but yeah then the unstoned is like "You're lying, they wouldn't do that" "I watched it happen. they would"

Would wyman hear about any of this? something something our previous thoughts on Wyman in HC...

but yeah w hc!em, corvo wouldn't be so sure that wyman would help, bc maybe wyman is still in dunwall. he still thinks wyman might want better for emily, but he'd be worried that wyman's love would cloud his judgement. bc wyman wouldn't be thinking like corvo, they're not gonna be as likely to have that "I want what's best for you" love, just Love. even if in actual fact wyman is more like corvo and wanting em to stop but loves her too much to try and stop her

with hc!corvo, emily would know that wyman would help her above corvo, so they probably head off to morley like "hey b GUESS WHO'S NOT DEAD". cue very emotional reunion and "damn girl your dad has gone completely crazy" and that confirms the whole thing for emily. whereas i think corvo doesn't need that confirmation bc spymaster and has found his own evidence to the coup

very fun w the whole emotional reunion. bc corvo was all "emily is super dead" and BUT NO i am vibing w this.

so i guess on the emily parallel of the story, wyman's fam's manor is the first place she's making daud and billie take her

2 more thoughts on this au:

- the parallels between jess' assassination snapping daud into not killing, versus delilah's coup snapping corvo into killing a LOT

- billie gets daud's arkane bond back rather than her doto powers bc daud isn't drained like a cheap battery

What if they find Corvo’s trying to make himself void avatar. And they’ve gotta stop it. Involves the doto story w the story story

also i dont think i said before but Emily does get marked in the au (when the wale is a few days from Wyman's/ heading there) and daud and emily have a sit down and chat and it's the most tense thing ever. plus emily has to now deal with this very obvious linking her to corvo, who has become a bad person, and daud, a definite bad person, and she's like :\ also has to deal w daud of all people being the place she has to go for advice on the mark. The Marked in this AU really don't have the best track record as a group.

Archives:

Corvo: Maybe... Maybe they're cursed? Manipulated by Delilah?

Daud and Billie: Having a full-blown argument, seconds away to throw hands, about the best way to grill sturgeon fillet

Corvo: ...nah.

"yeah so basically 15 years ago daud saved you/ your daughter from being made a meatsuit for her then she came back and started a coup because someone [looks at daud] couldn't finish the job"

"uh hey em is that daud like daud the guy that killed your mum"

"uhhhhhhhh"

“No thats a different daud haha”

emily: this is david

daud: davi--?

emily, turning back to him: yes david.

Daud, standing right next to a wanted poster of himself: My name is David and I never killed anyone. Daud who?

“my name is uhhh David the Life of Funwall”

Meanwhile Emily, who has Actual Competences in Lying, is looking at him like "how are you the most feared assassin of this century". em's sitting there like "bruh i thought the man who killed my mother would be this fearsome assassin dude but... i just saw him trip up on a bagel so like"

billie: corvo's going to make himself the god of the void

emily: [nods] we have to stop him

daud, thinking about how he won't have to talk to that annoying little void twink anymore: ok but do we really have to stop corvo?

Billie: He's gonna smite you on the spot

Daud: An acceptable sacrifice