Two Sided Coin//Scrooge McDuck x Reader

An Empty Home

Webby was ready before you finished your sentence. She had even brought her own novel down from her room, knowing that this was part of the typical morning routine. You, also knowing the routine, settled further into your chair. It was time for a Webby rant.

She provided you with an extensive list of places and lore. Similarly to you, Webby thought that research was just like reading a fairytale, especially if the places were of mystical origin. Eventually, you chose Atlantis, much to the little girl's delight.

"Atlantis!" Webby squealed. "The lost city!"

Webby's talk about the mysterious lore faded into ambient noise as you glanced down at the platter Mrs. Beakley had brought in. It was pure silver and polished to such refine that it practically worked as a mirror, reflecting the same face that had emerged from an interdimensional rift a hundred or more years ago.

Your (h/c) hair didn't have a single gray. Your (s/c) face remained wrinkleless. Nothing had changed. A perpetual state of existence that had followed you for longer than the average human in your world was meant to have in a lifetime.

Even after Magica was banished fifteen years ago, you still didn't understand the extent of the Black Curse, as you had taken to calling it. Whatever Magica had done, she brought you to a world of fictional characters and stopped you from aging entirely. She loathed you for your uselessness to her, having no magical power to take down Scrooge McDuck as she had hoped when she summoned you from the Number One Dime.

You had theories about it, of course. You wondered if Magica was preserving your youth to keep you around as a pawn when she returned. If it, perhaps, was a mistake entirely. Either way, her spell had one clear effect on you: the Black Ooze.

It was the plague of your life. The silencing sickness that kept you from saving the people you cared for. That stopped you from warning anyone about the Spear of Selene.

Anytime you tried to say something about the future, the same pain that had welcomed you to Duckworld slithered down your throat. Air would leave your lungs as black liquid poured out of your mouth, as if the shadows themselves were preventing you from saving anyone.

For the first few months of your life in Duckworld, you had tried to find a way around the Black Curse. Future-telling charades made you pass out, trying to write down the future left your hand singed with white-hot pain, and, obviously, trying to speak only left you gasping for air.

You still tried to interevene with the world, using your knowledge to your advantage. It had made you rich through playing the stock market and investing in companies you knew were profitable in the future, specifically McDuck Enterprises. You had tried to stop the Spear of Selene from being built, too.

But the future always righted itself. Nothing ever changed.

"Aunt (Y/n)? Aunt (Y/n)?" You snapped out of your reflection as Webby shook your shoulder. "There's someone at the gates. Granny wants you to go meet them."

"Who is it?" You asked curiously, abandoning the books at the table as you walked to the front hall. Mrs. Beakley was standing beside the front door, standing beside the intercom that was linked to the gates of the manor. As you walked over, Beakley finished her conversation with the visitor, and pressed the button to open the gates. "Is Scrooge home?"

Mrs. Beakley's green eyes fell to the ground. That was one thing you enjoyed about being in this world: seeing everyone's true eye color rather than black dots. Beakley pinched the bridge of her beak as she sighed and turned to head back to the dining room.

"Yes, Mr. McDuck has returned."

"Then why do you look so upset?" You asked. "Is he in a bad mood?"

"Always," she answered as she walked away, "But yes. He's bringing guests."