Old Secrets of an Ordinary Sailor
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Thank you everyone for the positive feedback. People keep asking me to continue this, so I guess I got to give in to peer pressure.
I had a vague kind of timeline in my head before I typed the first chapter. Anyone who has read "Amazing Peter Parker" might notice I like to blend a lot of history together and make, sometimes reasonable often wild, connections between continuities, people, events, and sometimes different media.
So hopefully without spoiling too much of what I may type in the future, how about a little backstory?
The story is set in Ducktales 2017, a few years after Della returned and Donald's eventual return. That bit a drama has already been written and probably will continue to be written by better authors than I.
I don't know what happened to Donald and Della's parents, so until that is resolved Hortense and Quackmore will rarely be mentioned. Grandma Duck, Elvira, will have had a hand in raising the twins. And to anyone new or not as informed about the HUGE Duck-Verse that has been established over the decades, Grandma Duck and Scrooge McDuck are not related. Elvira is Donald's paternal grandmother, and Scrooge is his maternal uncle.
Donald has been seen in the show not wanting to do EVERYTHING with Della, so he has a bit of a breakout once he got old enough. He ran with Goofy and Mickey getting into trouble and doing odd jobs since I don't see Scrooge footing any bill.
A few years before the triplets are born the beginning of the "The Legend of the Three Caballeros" happens. I recommend everyone to watch it. I won't spoil anything, but this is how Donald meets Jose and Panchito. After the show (let's say Donald is never offered a particular job at the end) the three of them form a band and travel around. Daisy was in a few of the episodes, so I might play off that a bit.
Speaking of Daisy, (WARNING! A PERSONAL OPINION IS APPROACHING!) I am not a fan of her in certain circumstances.
In my opinion, she's either too ditzy or too finicky. I preferred her characterization in Quackpack. She was confident and mature, and I liked her design much better. Also liked her design in Disney's House of Mouse, but this is where I think she was too bubbly and ditzy. There is that cartoon of her where she is shaded pinkish and she makes out with Donald behind a tree he carved their initials in. On the other side, there is several more initial carvings presumably of her and different guys. Again, I liked her design but not her characterization. And she has been shown bouncing between Donald and Gladstone in the comics. She probably will be in the story but if you are a big fan of Donald x Daisy you might not like where this goes.
Besides, I have a different lady in mind for our boy.
So, Donald bounces between his own thing and adventuring with Della and Scrooge, and I think that's what makes Della and Scrooge the fine-tuned machine and Donald the squeaky third wheel. They obviously love him, but he wasn't around all the time, so they tried to fit him in to their plans. Usually as the distraction or "gopher". All three are equally competent in their own right, but it ended up a kind of awkward 2 against 1 situation.
Eventually the "Spear of Selene" happens and Donald leaves with the eggs. He goes to Grandma Duck first and she helps raise them after they hatch. To try and fit it into the picture Donald shows to Gabby, he stays with Grandma Duck until the boys start walking. Donald realizes he'll have to be financially responsible, so he works it out with his grandmother. This is where he enlists with the Navy.
While with the Navy every spare cent he makes goes to his grandmother to help with the boys or to be saved. He boxes and earns extra money betting on himself. He's extra tenacious cause it is for the boys. To save some timeline, he'll have an honorable discharge after about 2 years and return to Grandma's house. I wanted him to have actual Navy experience.
After returning he spends time with Grandma Duck and the triplets while working every job he can. When Huey, Dewey, and Louie turn about 5 or 6 Donald has saved up enough for the houseboat.
This is where I'll be bending the Duck-Verse the most.
Donald receives the fated letter giving ownership of Villa Rosa. It was intended for Gladstone, but Donald keeps it. Grandma Duck often babysits, so he visits the villa and finds all the things that he uses to become Paperinik, the Duck Avenger. He still pranks Scrooge and Gladstone and others, but this time he doesn't interact with them as DONALD until later (in the 2017 series). He still wants nothing to do with Scrooge at this point. This is where he starts playing up his laziness to help keep his two identities separate. To reiterate, Duck Avenger had terrorized a few people and Donald Duck never dealt with them in person until later.
After the pranks Donald decides to keep the costume and to clean up crime in Duckberg, once again all for the triplets. He fights the Beagle Boys and others and meets Gyro Gearloose. Gyro thinks of it as a challenge to equip the Duck Avenger and creates a few gadgets including Car-Can, the candy that can delete short-term memory. Quickly getting bored and when feeling distracted Gyro takes Car-Can so he can forget the Duck Avenger and focus on his real work again. Donald also establishes several times that he has a friendship with "Duck Avenger" and manages to be seen with him at the same time on several occasions.
At some point Donald finds a job at the Ducklair Building, which he finds later was bought by his uncle. He wants to quit but needs the money, so he stays and manages to avoid his uncle completely and Scrooge doesn't find that Donald was working for him. He discovers the hidden floor and "IDW Duck Avenger" (more accurately, the larger number of the PKNA comics) happens for the most part. There are no direct dealings with Scrooge and Donald keeps his work life and his "work" life separate from his home life. The multitude of characters are never introduced to Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Same eventually goes for the "Double Duck" series that occurs when Donald retires the Duck Avenger.
Daisy and Donald are on-again, off-again throughout this and she DOES know the boys. Her and her nieces don't remember his adventures with Jose and Panchito thanks to Xandra, Goddess of Adventure, wiping bits of their memory to keep the secrets of Clinton Coots' cabana better hidden.
For the most part, any time Duck Avenger is in space it is far from Earth or generally not near the moon. He doesn't think to look for Della's ship because he has spent years trying to move on and he's fighting aliens and doesn't think about it.
Everett Ducklair leaves and returns and eventually leaves again, this time taking almost everything from the building and shunting most everything else into another, safer, dimension. All Donald keeps after saying goodbye to Everett and One is the X-Transformer shield. After using it for a while it loses power, so Donald hides it and retires the costume.
Uncle Scrooge and Donald still do not interact while Donald is a spy for the Agency during "Double Duck". Donald does a few missions and retires from there as well.
A year or two later is where Ducktales 2017 picks up. His overprotectiveness in the series is very real. Mrs. Beakley suspects Donald is more than he seems but cannot find definitive proof and has let it go until the beginning of this story. Same with Webby, who idolized Donald from the little snippets she has discovered of the Duck/McDuck family. Donald gives credit of his accomplishments to Della, who after spending a decade on the moon legitimately does not remember all the things she has done in her life so agrees, because she thinks the stories sound like something she would do.
Della returns, Donald leaves then comes back, Lena is officially adopted (I'm of the opinion she is somehow the daughter of Poe, Magica's brother), and the family becomes whole and continues to go on adventures.
Launchpad moves to with Drake Mallard after convincing him to be a superhero. He leaves Della to be Scrooge's pilot, forgetting that he ALSO drove the limo which becomes Donald's job.
And that brings us to the beginning of "Old Secrets of an Ordinary Sailor". If anyone finds a hole or has questions feel free to message, and I hope to get another chapter out soon.
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(Just so this won't be ALL backstory establishing…)
Donald walked a mile into Duckberg and was about to find a cozy box to collapse into.
He contemplated going back to the mansion, back to his family, but he needed time to think.
How would he explain all his actions?
His musings were cut short by the text alert on his phone.
-your message sounded serious-
-when did you want to meet?-
The duck checked his surroundings. A bank sign nearby flashed '19:34 AM', obviously having some sort of short. It was about 3:30 in the morning. He reviewed his mental map of the city. He WAS only 3 blocks away and she was already up.
His fingers flew over his screen.
-is now ok?-