#bud flood | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

michimonie · 1 month ago

Text

I've been casually working on a College AU

...and I'm so sorry for those who are over these kind of AUs.

I have a Discord server where I write little fanfics and stuff for myself, and have been adding to it for years. One of the repeating ones is a College AU that involves characters from a few different shows.

Since I've been feeling down, I figured I'd make a little post about it in case anyone is interested.

Check below for character art and blurbs.

This whole thing started with the fearsome four, so I'll start there.

Fearsome Four

They've been friends since the beginning of college (and some longer). While they don't always have a lot in common, and may bicker often, they do genuinely enjoy being around each other. They like to meet up sometimes to share a meal and complain about their lives or talk up a recent project.

Reggie (Reginald Bushroot) Plant Molecular Biology & Plant Sciences

Shy, lonely, kind, gets bullied. He spends most of his time in the nature center and greenhouses. Students in his (and similar) degrees/programs have reserved spaces around there, and his happens to be in one of the greenhouses. He spent a long time working out a special process that could give people plantlike qualities, and eventually succeeded (on himself.) For the sake of keeping him in the college storyline, he has the ability to believably make himself look "normal," but it's not something he likes to maintain for too long.

Bud Flud (Or is it Flood?) Business Administration & Management

Manipulative, stubborn, selfish, still cares about his friends. He's the sole heir to his family's company. When his mother died, she left the company to him, but his father has been finding every delay or loophole to keep it all in his own hands. One day he's invited on a full tour of the main building for their biggest earner: bottled water. An executive (or at least someone hired to look like one) takes an excited Bud around and they eventually end up in the lowest basement floor, where he's pushed into one of the vats. Bud's father ran stories in all forms of media asap saying Bud was dead. Just outside the city, he reforms on the side of a river and sneaks back to his dorm. similar to Bushroot, I wanted him to be able to actively participate in college things, so he can hold a more "normal-looking" form that takes advantage of his watery abilities (and maaaybe makes himself look a bit stronger/beefier.) Eventually, he does get revenge on his father and takes over the company, but attempts to stay in college, because he doesn't want to leave his friends.

Jackie (Quackerjack) Mechanical Engineering & Robotics

Chaotic, fun, kind, impulsive. All he's ever wanted was to make toys and games (not the electronic kind) for people of all ages, but every time he had ever proposed his prototypes or ideas to companies, they had shot him down. Every time they'd become more and more harsh about it. During the final presentation the representatives he was presenting for told him he'd never get into the industry, and that's when he snapped. With his skills in engineering (and sewing), he created a toy army in secret as well as his signature costume, and proceeded to take down the companies that told him he'd never succeed. After his revenge, he is the first one to lead the group into becoming supervillains and tends to take on the leadership role more often than not (although, Bud takes charge in a few instances.)

Elmo Sputterspark (Megavolt) Electromechanical Engineering Technology

Socially anxious, guarded, has a hard time showing emotions, but genuinely cares for his friends. He started off college as the smartest one in class, always participating (even if he hated his fellow classmates), and doing extra credit often, even though he never needed it. He proposed his ideas on electricity and generation of it, and his professors laughed him out of the room. That's when he knew he was going to prove them wrong. Once he started making some real progress on his life's work, he stopped doing it in his reserved space in the science wing and started working on it in his dorm (which is against the rules, but no one's stopped him yet.) As he continued his work, he started getting into tunnel vision, his friends occasionally dropping by to bring him food and things. After an experiment, he found that he's become a living battery. Instead of his brain immediately being fried by the process (like in the show), his brain gets more jumbled as he continues to use his abilities. At some point he shows his new successful invention to his professors and they refuse to acknowledge his work, but still look into what he did. At a later date, he found out that they stole his work and put it out as theirs. Jackie suggested getting revenge so they go get back at them together.

The Theater Kids

While not a particularly tight-knit group, they do end up spending a decent amount of time together. They all are in majors in the Theater wing of the college, but Jim, Drake, and Duckula tend to get put on projects together (generally to Duckula's dismay.) Meanwhile, Drake, Duckula, and Daffy are all major players in the Event Planning Committee, mainly because they all want to host and be the center of attention.

(Warning: there's a lot of "and he's the son of..." in this part)

Jim Starling Acting

Selfish, guarded, standoffish, but serious about his work. He's secretly the son of the actor who played Darkwing Duck in the old show, but hates Darkwing for that exact reason. While it's a secret, Drake knew immediately and wanted to meet him, only to find Jim threatening him to never tell anyone. Before Drake showed up, he used to get every hero/protagonist role in major productions from the college, but now he only gets villain/antagonist roles. It angers him to no end that his roles are being "stolen" by this new guy. Through one means or another, he ended up meeting the actual Negaduck (90s) and while they're trapped together for a bit, Negaduck helps inspire him to play the best villain he can.

Drake Mallard Acting

Kind, stubborn, arrogant. One of the founding members of the college's Darkwing Duck Fan Club (the other being LP, but he doesn't actually go to college there.) His dorm room is filled with Darkwing merch of all kinds. As a member of the Event Planning Committee, he's the only one willing to do the paperwork and early prep for events. While sitting at a computer filling out forms and doing expense sheets isn't the most fun, it does give him more freedom to slip in a few Darkwing events and episode showings without running them by the rest of the committee. At a later point, Negaduck stalks the college campus and another character (Buck) suspects Drake and Jim. It's revealed soon after that Drake is the son of the actual Darkwing (who existed alongside the show.) His mother is Morgana Macawber and his older sister, Gosalyn, is Quiverwing Quack, local beloved superhero. His parents retired from superheroing and are traveling the world (though we all know DW is likely still running into problems, lol.) His father left him all of his old gear so Drake could take up the superhero mantle, but he's been too scared of ruining DW's legacy and being in his father's shadow. During the investigation, they find out Negaduck had put a tracker on DW's old suit and was back for revenge. Drake tried to pretend to be his dad to trick Negaduck, but it didn't work. Afterwards, they confide in Jim and get him to play DW, and he successfully convinces Negaduck long enough to get him trapped. Once Negaduck is turned over to the police, Drake rethinks his situation and slowly learns to be his own Darkwing, eventually making his own suit to fit.

Count Duckula (or just Duckula) Drama / Dramatics / Theatre Arts

Arrogant, dense, vaguely evil, but also very lonely. Unlike most students, he doesn't live in a dorm. Like his previous incarnation, his castle can warp wherever he wants to go, so he just warped near campus and set up his castle so that it wouldn't leave (for Duckula fans, I assume he just had to remove his cuckoo clock.) Out of the Event Planning Committee members, he's the best at event prep and technical stuff. You need a projector? You need a fog machine? You need a DJ setup? He can get it and set it up easily. He doesn't even seem to be aware of his skills in prepping sets and equipment. That being said, as they were deciding who got to host the biggest party of the year, he won and was super excited to host. It was definitely his favorite part of the year and made everything else worth it. Meanwhile, his skills in acting could definitely use some work. He once had to play a damsel in distress for a group exercise and Duckula's work was so bland, Jim came out with a chainsaw and scared him into saying his lines right. This mainly worked because his only lines were basically "help" and "save me!" One problem for Duckula is that he's a vampire, which is one reason why he wants to do theater so much, no cameras required. There are cameras that can capture his image, but they are unbelievably expensive. His dream is to get a bunch of those cameras and fulfill his family's dream of becoming famous. (For Duckula fans, this version is based on the 18th, who can show up in cameras, but this was added for more drama.) At one point he gets it in his head that animation would mean he doesn't need cameras, but he decided to hypnotize the entire animation wing to make him an animated pilot he wrote (and not a very good one.) After the hypnosis wore off, they chased him down, ready to stake his heart with styluses (styli?) and pencils until he agreed to bring them snacks for a year and donate to the animation wing.

Daffy Duck (Jr?) Musical Theater

Arrogant, aloof, chaotic. He's the son of the original Daffy, and a big Duck Dodgers fan. Since he's rarely paired in a group with Jim, Drake, and Duckula, he tends to tease their group a lot and give them grief when they use the stage too often for their practice. As a member of the Event Planners, he focuses on the decor and aesthetic for events. He also bothers Drake often about doing Duck Dodgers showings and bugs him about Dodgers being "better" and "more beloved." He'll slack off sometimes during event work when it comes to actually putting things up, but his decorating plans are actually pretty solid and eye-catching. He'll occasionally do social media stuff for events, too (especially if he's the one who gets to host them.)

The Rest

Other characters I didn't really have a group for, but are still important.

Buck McDuck (Aka Young Scrooge McDuck) Business Administration & Management

Stubborn, clever, impulsive. He took on the alternate name of Buck because he thought it would sound cool and give him the chance to separate his college life from his family life prior. His first year at college, he decided to take on a job as a part-time security guard, which he soon found was going to be very high stress. Catching small time security stuff was easy and boring, but soon a costumed villain (Negaduck) showed up and started causing problems. He never watched Darkwing and wasn't in the area during Darkwing's time as a hero, so it wasn't until way later on that he found out Negaduck was the criminal messing with campus (and constantly escaping him.) Eventually he had to work with Drake (and later on, Jim) to catch Negaduck and turn him over to the police. Buck was already becoming worn out from this madness, but it wasn't until a later incident involving Birch (Badboy) Goodman that made him quit his job and instead focus his efforts on selling homemade study guides (similar to Azul Ashengrotto of Twisted Wonderland) and doing odd jobs around campus (like helping the event committee) for extra cash. Luckily, these jobs also ended up paying better. Sometimes he likes to do his schoolwork while hanging out with the animals in the veterinary area, but he'd never tell anyone about that. I had an idea for his brother (from Italian comics) Gideon McDuck to show up and jumpstart the newspaper / reporter club, but that wouldn't happen until Buck was at least in his second or third year. Also, the possibility of Glomgold meeting him during some kind of international competition, losing, and transferring just to be able to beat Buck at things in his own classes.

Sylvester Pussycat Graphic Design & Illustration

Creative, sneaky, aloof. He's an ex-delinquent with a love for graffiti, who wants to become a muralist. Instead of a dorm, he saved some cash by renting a studio apartment nearby. It's a bit run down, but he knows a guy so he gets it at a steep discount. He's definitely butted heads with Buck on a few occasions (when Buck worked security), especially when he got a hold of Black 4.0 paint — he painted cartoonish holes in parts of campus, which really messed with people (imagine walking into a room that's now just a black void.) After he was forced to clean it all up as punishment, he promised not to paint all over campus again (but the city is fair game.) As one of the best resident artists who also is strapped for cash, the Event Planning Committee hires him often for poster, banner, and flyer designs. As an extra bit of fun, if he sees Duckula trying to hypnotize someone, he'll jump in and stop him— usually by pushing his beak up towards the ceiling. Duckula obviously gets annoyed at it, but Sylvester tells him that's what he gets for hypnotizing people.

Birch Goodman (Badboy) Neurobiology & Behavior

Kind, sweet, polite, cinnamon roll who must be protected. (Rude, selfish, uncouth, punk rocker)

Thee original Birch is transformed by his machine (and a thoughtless Danger Mouse) into a villain, but this version is instead semi-transformed through an accident while testing it. Through that accident, he gets stuck in a sort of Jekyll and Hyde situation where both versions of him share the same body (For Disney Comics fans: Think Gyro Gearloose / The Mad Ducktor.) Birch wanted to make a machine that could help the world learn to be more polite and peaceful, while Badboy wants to use it to make everyone embrace rudeness. Birch has a reserved space towards the back of the science wing, so he doesn't talk too often with others, especially since the accident. Whenever Badboy takes over, he avoids classes in favor of causing chaos around campus with a smaller, more temporary version of the machine, in the shape of a megaphone. To Buck's dismay, Badboy always slips away without leaving a clue as to who he really is. Birch wants to finish the main machine in hopes it can undo his situation, and he hopes he'll be the first to use it. Unfortunately, Badboy is the one to finish it and immediately unleashes it on the campus (with plans to unleash it on the world.) Luckily, Buck and the Fearsome Four were off-campus during the initial blast. They come back and realize they're likely the only ones unaffected, which leads to them working together to take Badboy down and deactivate the machine. As Buck, Quackerjack, Liquidator, and Bushroot distract Badboy (who ends up being more of a challenge than they expected), Megavolt works to rewire the machine. Once reactivated, everyone on campus returned to normal, including Birch. Though, even with Badboy gone, he sometimes falls back into his ruder ways.

If people like this, I can do occasional run throughs of other AUs and things from my Discord.

Also, for anyone wondering "why these characters?" I picked a few of my favorite characters at the time, and since this was written over the course of a few years, it ended up being a random assortment. I also run through a certain rule that characters must be from the same generation, if that makes sense. Since I had added Buck, I didn't feel comfortable just bringing in Donald, Della, Daisy, or other characters from the younger (duck cousins) generation. Another application of this was picking which generation Gosalyn and Launchpad would be a part of, which is why I went with Gosalyn is from 90s DW, so she's an adult (who is only ever mentioned, tbh), but LP appears occasionally at the college as a friend (or more) of Drake.

Sorry for any spelling or grammar errors, I typed this up real quick before bed.

17 notes · View notes