Academic rivalry AU

Creator: Pip

Description:

(Pip's au, fic may happen so please ask before editing/doing anything with it)

modern au where Daud and outsider are rival academic philosophers engaged in heated academic discourse over the nature of choice/decisions/responsibility and they just publish these scathing academic papers abt each other like "a study on the nature of choice under pressure" "choice under pressure: a response" "choice under pressure: addressing some concerns" "the nature of choice: agency and responsibility" "a response to responsibility" and its all the dryest and most scathing bullshit thats just dragging each others points of view and their students are so fucking tired.

the beef started bc Daud studied under the outsider for his masters (he got into academics later in life!) and was really into his ideas, but then when he came back to do his phd they disagreed w each other on so many things and half his thesis was just shading the outsider and given that he presented that thesis to a board and defended it and published it. kind of a stir

Daud and Corvo were class rivals and Daud was like “surely the professor will like my thesis more” but Corvo gets a better grade and Daud never forgives the outsider

Daud and Corvo start bickering on sight every time they cross path in the corridors, but once in a blue moon they'll settle down at the coffee machine and trash talk the Outsider together. Daud and the outsider have an academic rivalry Corvo and Daud just fist fight each other on sight. Corvo doesn't like Daud bc he got Jessamine fired over smth incredibly petty. they don't throw hands bc that would be immature and get them disciplined by university higher ups

but god they want to. they're not allowed to drink near each other anymore. if you organise a staff party (bc they're both technically humanities faculty so they would get invited to the same parties) you have to like. wrangle them

Daud thinks Corvo is allowed to hold a grudge because Daud regrets getting Jessamine fired (it was so someone else could get her position but that person has also been fired for legitimate reasons) but that Corvo is immature for how unprofessional he is. Corvo thinks Daud is a sanctimonious asshole who shouldn't be allowed to be on staff after getting someone fired on shaky grounds and also is a hypocrite for being a philosopher who should know ethics better

Emily gets put in Daud's class and Corvo is furious. “I know he’s your teacher but he’s an asshole okay?”

Jess was a biomed/epidemiology professor who was fired for stealing (borrowing) university property (medical equipment and restricted chemicals) to donate to an infectious disease and drug rehab nonprofit group that was struggling. the uni board was turning a blind eye w plausible deniability bc technically it was v illegal but also it was like. a good thing to do. but when Daud brought it up to them directly in a way they couldn't deny, they had no choice but to fire jess. Daud justified it to himself by saying it was ethically right to call out rule breaking and illegal behaviour but he really did it at the prompting of an old colleague (burrows) who wanted jess' position (and subsequently got fired a year later for being a general horrible person, and who Daud didn't even LIKE why did he do that) and Daud regrets it. jess was obv really cut up abt it but she went to work with that nonprofit and ended up dying in a car crash on the way home one night and so Corvo kinda Daud accountable for held her being fired (justified) and her death (bc she worked there after being fired and died bc she was travelling home from there) (less justified)

The whalers are Daud’s chess club members. They talk abt tactics way too seriously. They're all bizarrely over competent at several things absolutely unrelated to chess. like picking locks, climbing walls or knowing the university's secret passages by heart. rest of the uni r like "what the hell is wrong with the chess club". Some assholes once tried to trash the club because they thought they were just a bunch of nerds and they came back 3 days later mumbling about weird satanic rituals. You can find them playing chess at absolutely random places

Emily has tea with outsider sometimes and they're actually good friends. Corvo is kinda jealous that his daughter is going to sider for academic help but also law and legal ethica is so far beyond his capabilities so hes just quietly moping that shes replacing him with a cooler dad until she ends up inviting him along to their weekly coffee meeting/academic discussion and he has no idea what the fuck they're talking abt most of the time but they both try to explain stuff to him so he definitely learns Something

they have an initiation rite where u have to go around campus and find these 'bonecharms' and 'runes' and then at the end outsider just gives u a temp tattoo on your left hand and a thumbs up

The outsider has a super secret club and you have to be “marked” to get in. For some reason Daud and Corvo are invited to every meeting but the outsider gives them no context. he just wants to see if theyll fight

Corvo and Daud apply for the same grants and neither of them get it obv (they're in humanities, come on) but they absolutely blame each other for them not getting it

Characters:

• Billie is Daud's academic protegee but is studying her phd at the outsider's university with him as her supervisor which Daud is so fucking displeased with

• The Outsider is a teacher with tenure so he literally cant be fired so he just does fucking whatever. he’s like 38 but looks like a teenager. also heads the boxing club

• Emily is dual degree biochem/law. she’s doing biochem/biomed as well as law in memory of Jessamine ;-; she wants to go into like. civil justice and helping people w medical malpractice cases and drug charges etc getting justice and getting them help

• Corvo is a history/classics teacher

• Jessamine was a biomed teacher who Daud got fired and then she died in a car crash

• The whalers are Daud's chess club members

• Sokolov teaches anatomy/physics/bio but he's attending scientist parties so piero, and chemistry teacher, fills in for him

• Delilah is the evil campus florist. she runs the largest campus coffee shop/florist/bookshop and she makes the best coffee but theres a genuine fear that if you piss her off she'll poison you. she has poisoned multiple students but they couldn't prove it. jess kept the antidote on her. now Emily has it (shes still an undergrad but shh)

• The three Boyle sisters supposedly runs PR but nobody has seen their faces

Archives:

The outsider: “Daud sucks”

Corvo: “oh you’re totally the better man”

Corvo, not five minutes earlier to Daud: “trust me you are the smarter professor”

Daud and the Outsider : Constructed arguments, exchanges in published journals, impressive use of sarcasm in academic language

Daud and Corvo : *hold up both middle fingers without a word and without breaking eye contact as they pass each others in the hallway*

Corvo is teaching a class. He hears a creak in the ceiling. One of Dauds little lackeys comes crashing onto his desk. the chess board falls on their head comically. they were playin chess in the vents

“Dad what are those people doing on the roof?”

“Uhhhh.... playing.... chess?!?!”

"wtf is this"

outsider, sliding his shades on: "it's the mark of the outsider. do with it what u will. peace"