"Judgment": A Dishonored Fanfic

Chapter 14

   "Where's Daud?" Emily asked as she sat with Corvo and Elaine in the rose garden on the next afternoon.
   "He's gone to enrol most of our guest list." Corvo told her. "Hopefully they won't trash the place."
   "I'm looking forward to seeing Martin again. He's nice. I'm not so sure about Daud's friends, though."
   "They're mostly harmless. They just look menacing. And very funny too, if you talk to them."
   "If you say so. I might not. They'll be very handy for cleaning up after the party's finished, though."
Corvo grinned. "I wouldn't tell them that. You could leave it as a nice surprise for whenever they've slept off their hangovers."
   "Oh...its that kind of party?"
   "Probably turn into that, yeah."
Emily wrinkled her nose. "They'll definitely be doing the cleaning up, then. Can't stand that stuff. Why do people have to get drunk and fall over? Seems pointless to me."
   "Some people...just don't like to stop, I guess. They don't realise, after a while, and by then it's too late."
   "Well I'm not doing it. I'll probably be asleep by then, anyway. Will you be doing it?"
Elaine smiled. "I'm not keen on it either, but...I might go a little further than normal, seeing as it's a special occasion."
   "Think we all will." Corvo agreed. "We deserve a good time."
   "Don't tell Daud that, he'll turn it into a work of art."
   "Probably will anyway. Speaking of which, I guess it's time to get the hall set up and decorated."
   "...is it that time already?" Elaine looked; wow. "I thought that it was roughly three, not almost six."
   "Might be cos' you've been at that microscope all day."
   "Can I help too?" Emily asked. "I'm great at blowing up balloons and hanging banners and stuff."
   "Yeah, you can. We'll need lots of help. Long as you're careful when going up and down the ladders."
   "I'm always careful."
   "No you're not."
   "That was one time."
Corvo stood up. "And I never forgot it." He reached out his hand.
Emily took it, and along with Elaine, they left the gardens and walked towards the Hall.

It had been decided that Daud's assassin clan would stay the night, sleeping in the west wing of the house, because nobody wanted to hear news reports of Dunwall getting ravaged by drunken men trying to find their way home in the early hours.
The west wing held a couple of unused dormitories, so they'd been aired out and spare bedding moved in with the help of Lydia, Callista and Samuel, who were of course also invited.
Over the course of the next couple of hours, all of the valuables and breakables were carried out of the massive main hall and stored in a couple of rooms within the east wing, just in case. After that, the furniture was pushed onto the sides of the room, thereby increasing the available space, and brightly-coloured decorations steadily started to make an appearance.
As well as blowing up more-than-a-few balloons and hanging some of the streamers, Emily also chose the music. She trotted off to a storage closet, dug out the audiograph player and began sifting through a large box of cards, playing excerpts from each one. The  tunes she eventually chose- ten of them- were all very jazzy and uplifting, very lively too. Perfect for a party, she reckoned, as it would help people to dance.
Callista and Lydia carried in armful after armful of food-laden trays, placing them onto the tables that Samuel had located and dragged in, along with several chairs and cushions. He also helped fetch countless knives, forks and spoons, then lastly, brought in some of the drinks and stacked them in a far corner before helping himself to the first one of the evening.
Everyone else followed suit not long after. Elaine briefly left to change into a different blouse and also put a short skirt on for once, then the festivities got underway.

Martin arrived at just after seven, carrying two bottles of wine, and then Daud arrived, looking almost like a gatecrasher as Billy and twenty other assassins walked in right behind him.
Daud had said, before leaving to get them, that they'd be responsible for the majority of the drinks and would bring lots.
They weren't wrong; a crate of wine, two crates of beer, one of lager, one of cider, one of fruit juice, and Daud and Billy were also carrying four bottles of 'special reserve' between them.
Several crates of standard whisky were also carried in too.
It all got stacked in that corner apart from the reserve, as that was apparently going to be saved for a little later on, then Daud approached Corvo and Elaine with a wide smile.
   "Ask, and ye shall get pissed." He said with a bow.
Elaine giggled. "There's enough to wreck an army."
   "Brought that too. Those, over there. Green one's Billy Lurk, my second, and the others are my boys. Are you gonna be up for a lot of drinkin' too, madam?"
   "I'll have a good go at it, yeah."
   "Bloody hope so. Y'need to, if you've been starin' at all them spiky balls of death again all friggin' day."
   "Who's got spiky balls?" Billy walked over and introduced himself in a very memorable manner.
Daud grinned. "Big ears. Elaine's been lookin' at plague cells again, that's what they actually look like, y'know."
   "...you been startin' that booze without us?"
   "Haha, I'm serious mate. She does science things."
Billy looked at her, and offered his hand. "Well put that away for now, there's gettin' blasted to be done. I'm Billy, by the way."
She smiled, and shook his hand. "I've heard a lot about you. Glad you could make it."
   "You been tattlin' about me again, Daud?"
   "When do I not?" Came the cheeky reply.
   "Heh. True." He turned back to Elaine. "You wanted a lively party? You've now got one. They might look a bit rough round the edges, like, but these boys are golden. Real nice lads. But I give you fair warnin', miss, we party hard."
She smiled. "Don't worry, we moved all the fragile stuff. Also got you somewhere to stay in the west wing, too."
Billy pouted at that. "Awww...was lookin' forward to goin' out to town after we was done."
Daud laughed. "That's one word for it. Sorry friend, but you'll have to do your partyin' and singin' here. Rather not have the Watch bayin' for your blood as well as dealin' with a hangover."
   "Spoilsport." Billy winked, then walked off to start drinking with the rest of the assassins.
   "What have we let ourselves in for." Corvo joked.
   "The night of your life." Daud grinned back at him. "Speakin' of which, hadn't we better get started?"