#can you imagine brady having a kid

[dylan-duke]

SHUT UP

they were boys together

[starkwlkr]

Hiii! okay maybe teen mathéo likes a girl so he could talk to charles about it and ask for advice a little father son moment would be cool.

numbers | charles leclerc

hello lovely anon! thanks for the request! for this imagine, I’m going to include mikey and demri schumacher. they are characters that belong to @cs55version from their mick series that i am absolutely in love with!!

I JUST STAY IN MY ROOM TOO LONG BUT I FINALLY HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AND SHE’S THE BOMB — numbers by tempered

While the media saw Ruby Leclerc as the loud, but funny child of Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, they sometimes forgot about Mathéo Leclerc, the shy and quiet boy. It wasn’t a bad thing (Mathéo’s exact words). The boy liked not being in the spotlight.

He enjoyed art museums and going to see musicals with his mother and grand-mère. But there were sometimes when the media did question whether or not he would follow in the footsteps of his father. From a young age, Mathéo decided not to pursue a career in formula 1 and his family respected that.

Even the kids at school would ask him when he would start karting. He would always answer with “I’m not going to be a driver. Ask my older sister.”

He grew tired of people at school always asking him about Ferrari, his father and uncle, asking for paddock passes. It was always the same people, people he never even talked to. But there was one day when a girl who had just moved to Monaco came up to him during lunch.

Mathéo’s usual friend, Robin, was sick so he remained home. Now it looked like Mathéo didn’t have any friends and sat alone during lunch.

“Hi. Is it okay if I sit here?” The girl asked, pointing to the chair across Mathéo.

“Yeah, it’s okay.” He replied then went back to eating his sandwich that his mother had made him.

“I’m Giselle.” The girl introduced herself.

“My name is Mathéo, but with an h in between the t and e. A lot of people forget about the h.” He explained.

“Oh, okay. Mine is with two l’s so it’s not like the supermodel’s name, you know the one that was married to Tom Brady?” She asked.

“I don’t know who Tom Brady is, but I know who Gisele Bündchen is. My maman had dinner with her last week.” He said casually. “Wait, you don’t have an accent.” He quickly noticed.

“I’m from America, but my mother’s side of the family is from here. My mom got a really good job offer so here we are,” Giselle explained. “My mom has about of an accent though. She was born here but left when she was ten I think.”

Mathéo had a crush on a girl before. Her name was Eloise. She was the sister of the most popular girl in school so when Eloise asked Mathéo out to the movies, the boy thought it was just some kind of prank.

Giselle seemed nice, she listened when Mathéo had something to say, laughed at his jokes when he made one and she didn’t know of Mathéo’s last name so at least he didn’t have to worry about that yet.

As the school day came to an end, he walked back home only to find Mikey and Demri Schumacher and his sister eating in the kitchen while his mother was on the phone talking.

“Hey, Théo! Missed you.” Demri ruffled his hair as he passed by her to get to the refrigerator.

“You can keep him if you want. I see him all the time.” Ruby teased.

“Maman! Ruby wants to give me away to the Schumacher’s!” Mathéo yelled. He ignored the laughs coming from then teenagers and grabbed a juice then walked out the kitchen.

“Ruby, what did I say about trying to sell your brother?” Y/n groaned from her spot in the sofa.

“Uncle Mick won’t mind having him around!”

“Hi, maman. Is papa around?” The fourteen year old boy asked shyly. He needed his father’s opinion on Giselle.

“He’s in our room, baby. He might be asleep, but you can go check.”

“Oh. I’ll let him sleep then. I’m going to my room.” Mathéo said. He knew how hard his father worked so he rather wait to have a conversation with him. He walked up the stairs to his room and closed the door behind him.

Y/n could see the defeated face on her boy. “Mom, I’m going to call you back. Bye.” She hung up the phone. She got up and walked to her and Charles’ room where he was sleeping peacefully on their bed. He had just gotten back from Belgium and he decided he wanted to have a nap before dinner.

“Charles, sweetheart,” Y/n gently shook his body to wake him up. Charles groaned as a response. “Mathéo wants to talk to you. I have a feeling it might be important.”

“What time is it?” He asked, still not opening his eyes.

“Almost dinner time so you have to get up.”

Charles sighed and sat up in his spot. “Where’s my boy?”

Mathéo was in his room working on his art project. It was a show box diorama of his favorite memory, which was the day of his birthday when all of his family from both sides made it to his party. As he was putting a toy birthday cake in his box, he heard a knock on his door.

“It’s open!” He said, still concentrated on his project. In came Charles with a tired face, but he didn’t care. His son needed him and he was here to listen.

“It looks very nice. Is that Uncle Arthur with frosting on his face?” Charles pointed at a paper drawing of the whole family. Arthur had been drawn with blue marker ‘smeared’ on his face to resemble the frosting of the cake that Charles had thrown at his face the day of the party.

“Yeah, it was kind of hard to find the right shade of blue but I made it work.” Mathéo said, not looking up from his work.

Charles nodded and walked over to the boy’s bed and sat down. “Maman told me you wanted to talk.”

Mathéo finally looked up and slowly turned his chair to face Charles. “But you’re tired. We can talk later-”

“Théo, I’m not tired. I’m okay, now tell me, is someone bothering you in school? Are your grades bad? If it’s about grades then I’m not mad because my grades were not good. Arthur and I used to skip class because of karting so-”

“It’s not about grades. I’m doing well in school. Promise you won’t laugh at me.” Mathéo said quietly.

“Why would I laugh? I’m your papa.”

“Just promise me.”

Charles held out his pinky finger. “I promise I won’t laugh,” Mathéo nodded and was about to speak but Charles stopped him. “No, you have to do the pinky promise. This is serious.” Mathéo chuckled and laced his pinky finger with his father’s then let go.

“Okay, so I was sitting in my usual table during lunch and then this girl comes up and sits with me. Robin wasn’t with me because he’s sick so I thought she felt bad for me because I was sitting alone. But turns out she’s new to Monaco and to the school. We talked and I have decided that she is the coolest girl I have ever met and she doesn’t know I’m your son!” The boy explained. “And she laughed at my jokes, I think I’m in love.”

Charles’ lips turned into a smile. His son had a crush.

“Well that’s a big word for you. She seems nice. What’s her name?” Charles asked.

“Giselle but with two l’s. Even her name is pretty. But I don’t want to seem like a creep and ask her out. How did you ask maman to go on a date with you?”

“Your maman was not an easy person to ask out. The first time I asked her, she said no and I respected her decision. A month later, she was in Monaco and we got lunch with a couple of friends and I asked her again and she said yes. I wanted to take her to dinner but she said that was too boring for a first date so we signed up for a cooking class to make pasta but it was in Italy so we went to Italy.” Charles explained. He was never going to forget that day.

“Why Italy? Does Monaco not having pasta classes?”

“They do, but your mother hadn’t been to Italy so I took her. It’s became a tradition now. On our anniversary, we go to the same cooking class and make pasta. You would think my cooking skills would improve by now, but at least we have maman to help.”

“Maybe I can take Giselle to a cooking class in Italy.” Mathéo suggested.

“How about we start with watching a movie in the local theater?”

[alienoresimagines]

Honestly, Crank is such a mood and might just be my MOTA spirit animal

Exhibit A : He is just so done, all of the time it's so funny

1) "What I get a passenger?" Sassy Crank who then decided to sleep through the rest of the briefing because if he has Bucky the Yapper on his plane, he will need the extra sleep if they both want to make it alive to Algeria

2) Any sequence where he is flying and Bucky's behind him and/or asking for updates on Buck. The way he just... closes his eyes like he's praying a higher deity to take the Yapper of his plane before answering is so funny. I don't know if it's because of Bucky's poorly hidden attempt at making it look like he's not asking after Buck specifically by saying "the stagglers" and Crank realising exactly why Bucky "couldn't skip this one" or simply because he's just been through hell and the war wife that yapped his way on his plane won't stop asking is he's a war widow yet but it's funny. Reminds me of a parent who just wants some sleep but their kid keeps asking questions.

3) His "Oh that makes me feel better" when the mechanic tells him of the plane's condition ("won't go very far but you won't need it" because Münster isn't far and not because Crank gets shot down not 20 minutes later mind you). I know he was probably still angry and bitter after his altercation with Bucky and the fact that Crank does Not agree with the mission's order but I just love him. He reminds me of a cranky, wet kitten

Exhibit B : He is hella competent

Every pilot is good, that's a fact. There hasn't been much focus on the pilots except for the Buckies (even though we've never seen Bucky in the left seat except that one time he was smoking in it during his war widow era), Rosie and Curt (a bit of Brady and Blakely too) so there isn't much to say about Crank specifically. BUT when Bucky, lead pilot, goes down, Crank immediately takes the lead to avoid formation going into chaos like was the case during the Bremen mission ("There was a lot of confusion when lead (Buck and DeMarco) went down, it was chaos"). And don't forget that he flew through the Regensburg mission, which was absolute hell!

Exhibit C : He is Not Afraid to speak his mind or call people on their bs

1) Him being the one to ask Bucky how he managed to be put on the Regensburg mission while very clearly already having an idea, only confirmed by Bucky's vague answer

2) Famous moment but his confrontation with Bucky (and Brady) about the Münster mission. Nobody mentioned Buck to Bucky, except Ken, but no one really mentioned the fact that the Münster mission was a revenge mission. Everybody knew it but there was that fear that mentioning Buck would set Bucky off so nobody did. But Crank does, because Buck was also his friend and so is Bucky and neither of them would have approved or encouraged the mission if they'd been here/in their right mind.

Look at the devastation on his face when Bucky tells him that "it's a war and it won't end until they hit them where it hurts". That's the face of someone seeing a friend absolutely drowning in grief turning to revenge to cope.

So Crank says "None of the people we're going to bomb today shot down Buck" and he sees the look in Bucky's eyes and knows that he may have hit the bull's eye, but it was the wrong move. Only accentuated by the fact that Bucky then makes Crank call him "sir" something that he has never done before, clearly separating himself from his friends and Crank understands that this isn't really Bucky, at least not the one he knows. Buck may have been the only one to go down but the truth is, the 100th had already lost the two Buckies

Exhibit D : He loves his people soooo much

1) The hug he gives Dougie when the goblin fort crew comes back from the dead??? Just looking at that hug I could feel how warm and comforting it was. Crank is one of the best huggers of the 100th I bet. Also Dougie being taken aback at the force of the hug that he has to take a few steps back?? Can you imagine how good and relieved Crank must have felt after losing so many friends but, just this time, one crew came back and intel was wrong, they weren't dead!! They came back!!

See Gif below :

Look at his face when he goes to hug Dougie, he can't believe he gets to see them again 🥺

2) The grief on his face when he comes back from Bremen? Not having the words to say Buck went down because they all thought that no one bailed out and the entire crew was dead? He just shakes his head in defeat. All he can think about is that they lost Buck but someone will have to tell Bucky that he lost Buck. Look at his face and tell me he didn't know it'd destroy Bucky.

3) Him calling for Bucky at the fence when the latter arrived at the Stalag. The pure joy and relief on his face ("You made it!!!"), so overwhelming that he has to take his beanie off because he arrived at the Stalag and Bucky wasn't there and he didn't arrive even days after Crank. And if Crank arrived before Brady did, then he must have thought that the entire crew was dead because he saw them go down, even took the lead afterwards. But then Brady arrived, and Bucky wasn't there and that couldn't be because if Bucky's dead then the last time Crank had ever seen him it'd been in anger and for all Crank disagreed with the mission, Bucky's his friend. But then Bucky comes and Crank is so relieved because Bucky's alive and the Buckies are back together so everything will be fine and Crank's with his friends again.

In conclusion, I love my cranky but affectionate Crank from New England, he deserves more appreciation, thank you for coming to my ted talk.

P.s.: I haven't seen MOTA post ep 6 so this post might be edited if the last 3 episodes give me Crank content :)

[azzifuddworlddomination]

casual pt.4

paige x azzi

where my perkins tolerators at???

they'll be a part 5, maybe a part 6

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Here girls let me open up the trunk for you,” Paige’s mom says as they approach the car. Azzi had already been subjected to a somewhat awkward reunion between mother and daughter, and now she has to sit through a forty-minute car ride with not only Paige and her mother but her siblings as well.

Paige truly does love her mother, and her mother loves her. When Paige’s mother, Amy, found out she was having a girl she was over the moon. So excited for the princesses, the pink, the dresses, and the unicorns that would fill her life once her little girl was born. It didn’t take long for Amy to catch on that her baby girl was a copy and paste of her father, Amy’s estranged husband. Between Paige being a constant reminder of her failed marriage and several states between them, Paige didn’t see her mom too often. Amy thought inviting Paige’s best friend would sweeten the deal and encourage her to come. She was right, but as the girls giggle as they load their stuff into the car. Amy silently rejoices as she sees her daughter happy to be in Montana for once.

As they pull out of the airport parking lot Paige’s younger siblings, Ryan and Lauren, begin to fire off every question and fun fact that hits their mind. Paige and Azzi indulge them by giving the kids the silliest answers that she can to keep them entertained as Amy navigates the snowy mountain roads. Finally, they reach Amy’s home. As they bring in their bags Paige nudges Azzi, “y’know you’re staying in my room right? My mom said she set up the guest bedroom, but I told her you’re fine with me.” Conflicted, Azzi responds, “P, if your mom went to all that trouble I should at least humor her.” 

Amy leads them into the house, stopping at Paige’s room so she could drop off her bags before taking Azzi further down the hall. “Here you go Azzi, let me know if you need anything, okay sweetie?” Azzi nodded her head as Amy shut the door behind her. She held my hand the whole flight… who does that?? Casual my ass, Azzi thinks to herself. She stares up at the ceiling, am I stupid??? What am I doing here?” Azzi’s thoughts are interrupted as she hears knocks on the door. Azzi sits up at the sudden noise and looks over at the door. It’s Paige, she lets herself in as Azzi gives a nod of approval. Paige makes her way over to the bed and sits down next to Azzi. Silence fills the room before Paige breaks it. “Don’t sleep in here,” Paige looks at Azzi. She has a earnest look in her eyes, “Please, I need you with me…” “Okay,” Azzi replies “I will.” 

 Amy turned on a movie for the kids to watch as she worked on Thanksgiving dinner for the next day. Ryan and Paige played Fortnite on his switch as Azzi let Lauren tell her all about the fourth-grade drama ensuing at her school. Azzi even pinky swore to not tell anyone that Lauren had a boyfriend, a boy in her class named Brady, who played basketball but wasn’t super good. Azzi also promised to beat him in a game of HORSE if he broke her heart. As the night continued, one more movie and three more bowls of popcorn later, Lauren and Ryan were asleep. Paige carried Ryan as Azzi carried Lauren to their rooms. Meeting back out in the hall after they had laid their respective kid down, they went into Paige’s room. Azzi briefly imagined what that would be like someday, laying their own kids down to go to sleep. But reality hit as Paige left Ryan’s room and ushered Azzi into hers.

Paige closed the door as she pressed Azzi up against it, kissing her neck. “I’ve waited all day to do this, Az,” Paige muttered as she kissed a trail down her neck. Azzi could give you a list of a thousand reasons why she shouldn’t give in right now, but she ignores all of them as she slips her shirt over her head and lets Paige lead her to the bed.

Hours later when Amy walks by, after finishing a night-long cooking session, she peeks into Paige’s room. The two girls lay in bed, burrowed into the blankets. Too tired to really process anything she figures they must’ve fallen asleep talking. As snow falls over the peaceful Montana mountains that night. Paige pulls Azzi closer as the cold winds seep through the window crack.

“Wake up!!! Wake up!!! You’re gonna miss the parade!!!” Lauren and Ryan run into Paige’s room as the two girls frantically attempt to untangle their limbs. “We’re up! We’re up! Geez get out of here!” Paige yells as her younger siblings retreat out of the room. Paige gets up and throws a sweatshirt and flannel pajama pants toward Azzi, “it’s cold as shit,” she mutters as puts warmer layers on. The two join Lauren and Ryan in the living room watching the parade. They decide to join the kids’ protest of breakfast to save room for their Thanksgiving dinner.  

After the parade is over Paige retreats to her room to change as Azzi wanders into the kitchen. She finds a distraught Amy at the kitchen table. “The wind must’ve knocked the power out last night! The fridge never turned back on. All of it is spoiled! God I can’t do anything right,” Azzi envelopes Amy in a hug. “You couldn’t have known that that was going to happen… It’ll be okay,” she reassured her, “we can go out to eat! It’ll be fine it’ll be okay!” Paige walks in and sees Azzi hugging and soothing her mom. Concerned at what happened Paige approaches them, but Azzi brushes her away and mouths to “not worry about it.” 

Azzi helps Amy find a restaurant open on Thanksgiving day. They settle on a Perkins that’s about thirty minutes away. While it wasn’t the Thanksgiving dinner she had worked so hard to give her kids, it was still something. Amy loaded the kids into the car as they waited on Paige and Azzi. “When you were with my mom… That was really sweet, Az,” Paige held Azzi’s cheek and turned her towards her. “It was really no problem,” Azzi replied sheepishly. “I love you, Az, I mean it,” Paige looks Azzi in the eyes before finally bringing her lips to hers. Paige pulls back, as Azzi looks up at her, “I… I… think your mom’s ready to go.” 

As Amy pulls into the Perkins parking lot, its deserted. They walk into the resteraunt, and are seated immediately. Amy can’t help, but wonder if they’re judging her. Once their orders are taken, Paige excuses herself to go to the bathroom. Looking around the table, Azzi decides that going to the bathroom now would be less awkward than sitting with Amy, Ryan, Lauren, and their father. She follows Paige to the bathroom, and opens the door to see Paige splashing her face with water. “You okay, P?” Azzi asks. “Yeah, fine,” Paige responds. “No, you’re not P…” Azzi looks at her. “I said I loved you, Az, and you didn’t say anything back,” Paige replies. “I do… I really do love you Paige, its just I’ve been so confused about what we are lately I just couldn’t say it,” Azzi responds, moving towards Paige, “What are we?” “We’re what we’ve always been, Az,” Paige says grabbing her hand. Azzi should’ve been pissed off by this non-answer-answer, but as Paige grabbed her hand and pulled her closer, she couldn’t find it in herself to be mad. “Yeah?” Azzi responds, playing with Paige’s fingers in her hand. “So… do you love me?” Paige asks, “I love you, P” Azzi responds bringing her hand up to kiss it. “Then show me,” Paige says as she drags Azzi into a bathroom stall. “This isn’t a good idea,” Azzi says as she pulls at Paige’s flannel to expose her shoulders. “Your mom’s out there… she could walk in…” Azzi tries to justify between kisses. “So let her,” Paige breaks out as she grabs Azzi’s hair. 

Azzi presses Paige against the door as she kisses down her neck. Shedding her flannel, Paige throws it on the floor as Azzi helps lift her shirt above her head granting her access to more skin. Azzi kisses down Paige’s neck and stomach before arriving at her jeans. She looks up at Paige for permission as she unbuttons her jeans. Azzi pulls her jeans down and kisses the clothed area before moving to her inner thigh. Azzi rises back up to Paige’s height as she plunges two fingers deep into her folds. 

When the girls arrive back at the table, their meal is already out. They tried their best to smooth each other’s hair, and rid each other of a freshly fucked look. Amy sarcastically welcomes them back to the table, and for a split second, she wonders if her mom is catching onto them. 

[atlasscrumpit]

Assassin!Bucky x Immortal!Reader

You walked through the darkened streets of New York City, feeling a looming presence.

You sighed and slowly turned around to the none other than the winter soldier lurking behind you.

"You know...I did expect someone to put a hit on me eventually." You muttered, shoving your hands in your pockets.

"Nothing personal, doll. I have a job and I do it." He replied making you chuckle softly.

"I can respect that... Why don't you tell me who sent you?" You asked, tilting your head and looking him up and down.

"I wouldn't be going a good job if I just told everyone who wanted them dead." He said with a smirk, it was a shame he had to kill you.

You were quite the woman.

"Well... Unfortunately I need to know." You muttered before you concentrated and stared into his eyes.

He quickly shut his eyes and groaned in pain as you forced your way into his mind.

"Tony Stark, huh? Figures." You grumble, rolling your eyes.

Bucky recovered and looked at you in shock.

"What the fuck was that?" He growled making you chuckle softly.

"I guess Tony didn't warn you, huh? Too bad... There's some darkness in that head of yours." You muttered, crossing your arms.

He pulled out a pistol and cocked it as you smiled.

"Hard way, or easy way?" He growled making you chuckle softly.

"How about this... I make this job nice and easy for you and you go out with me on Saturday night." You said as he faltered for a moment and looked at you in shock.

"I'm about to kill you and you're asking me out?" He asked in disbelief as you nodded.

"I'll just get a new body." You said with a shrug as if you could just pop down to the corner store and buy a body.

"What the hell does that even mean?" He grumbled as you slowly moved forward.

"I think we can both keep a secret... I won't tell anyone about that kid you accidentally killed a few years ago and you don't tell anyone I'm actually an immortal spirit possessing human bodies." You said casually as he glared at you.

"You're fucking insane. How do you know about...that?" He muttered, his voice faltering.

"I was inside your head, I saw it all. So, Saturday 8pm at the Brady's restaurant down town?" You said looking into his eyes, he was filled with confusion.

"You expect me to believe all of this?" He asked making you chuckle softly.

"I'm dead either way, I'll see you Saturday. Since you won't recognise me I'll be wearing a red dress." You said as he narrowed his eyes.

"I'm actually intrigued..." He grumbled before aiming the gun at your head and pulling the trigger.

He stared down at your lifeless body, confusion clouding his thoughts.

"See you Saturday..."

--

Bucky sat at the bar in the restaurant, a glass of whiskey in his hand as he tapped the glass nervously.

It was thirty minutes past 8pm and he was losing his hope, he actually had liked you and hated the thought that he had actually murdered you...

But, at least he got paid.

"Sorry I'm late, new body and all. Still getting used to it." He heard a voice as he looked behind him to see a beautiful young woman in a stunning red dress.

"It's...you." He whispered in shock as you chuckled.

"I am a woman of my word. Come on, I booked the best table." You replied before one of the waitors lead you over to a more private table with a window.

You sat down with Bucky across from you.

"I honestly don't know what to say... I really didn't expect you to show up." He said with an awkward laugh.

"It's not often I reveal who I am to people... It felt nice I suppose. I always just live the role of the body I possess and that's it..." You replied, a hint of sadness in your voice.

"I can imagine it gets quite lonely. So, what's your name?" He asked as the waiter brought over some wine.

"Well, the bodies name is Scarlet but...my real name is Y/N." You replied a little unsurely.

After all it had been a long time since you muttered your real name.

"It's lovely to officially meet you, Y/N. You can call me Bucky." He said raising his glass up to you.

You did the same and tapped your glass against him.

"Here's to new friends."

[hockeyboysimagines]

okay we need a sequel to practice makes perfect where matthew is proven right and knocked hallie up first try 😂

Your wish is my commend anon. Please read part 1 before this, as it won’t make sense otherwise. I hope this is everything you’re imagining.

“Sooooooo?”

“So what?”

“Did you take it?”

Hallie rolled her eyes “No I didn’t take it yet. I’m not late, we still have another week.”

Matthew slumped down in his seat and crossed his arms “Ugh. Can’t you hurry it along? Like talk with your uterus and tell it to do us a solid?”

“The fact that you know nothing about the female body is amazing considering how good you are in bed.” She looked down at her abdomen “Excuse me in there. Can you tell us if you’re sending a period this month? My baby daddy wants to know.”

His mouth fell open and he started laughing “Baby daddy.”

“Is that not what you are?” Hallie asked reaching forward to run her fingers through his hair “I mean after all wasn’t it YOU.” She said jabbing him in the chest with her pointer finger “Who was just bragging about being 2 for 2 the other week? The cabin? The bar bathroom? Ring a bell?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember the bar bathroom.”

“Can’t remember my ass!”

“Oh no. I remember your ass.”

He ran a hand up her thigh and gave her hip a tug, pulling her over to straddle his lap, and looked at her smiling cheekily “Kidding. Of course I’m your baby daddy. Thomas looks just like me, now Lilly…..”

Hallie’s mouth fell open and she slapped his chest “Rude.” And then she reached down between them to palm him through his shorts “I guess if that’s how you feel I’ll find someone else to give me this.” She ground her pelvis into his, and he felt himself get hard.

“Never.” He reached forward and let his hands travel up her thighs to her hips and then leaned up to kiss her collarbone. Hallie closed her eyes and felt goosebumps erupt across her skin as his lips moved across her skin, tongue sliding across her neck, and up her jaw to her mouth. He had just started to kiss her, hand coming up to grip the back of her neck when-

“Daddy!!”

He stopped and his head fell forward with a sigh.

“Daddy come play!”

She smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek “We’ll finish this later. Your mini me is calling you.” she climbed off him and helped him stand, turning to head towards the kitchen when she felt his hand on her ass “I like these pants.” He said hand coming to the other side of her hips “They make your-“

“DADDY!”

“OKAY!” He yelled back, scowling and huffing “He’s so impatient.”

Hallie started laughing “You sure you want another one?”

“Ha ha. I want 4 more.”

“4-what I-4?!” Hallie’s sputtered at him until he started laughing.

“Can’t help it. You’re just so easy to get pregnant.” He shrugged and winked at her turning to find Thomas and take him outside to play hockey in the driveway, a daily past time for them.

4 kids. Was he crazy? She thought as she made her way through the house and upstairs to check on baby Lilly, as Thomas called her, who was taking a nap. On her way she passed the bathroom, and stopped.

Biting her lip she reached under the sink and pulled out a test. She didn’t feel pregnant. Last time she’d known right away, after said romp in the bar. Exactly 5 weeks later she was holding a positive test while Brady celebrated before the Battle of Alberta playoff series. When at home, some form of protection was always used unless they were trying. But there wasn’t much thought that went into spontaneous bar bathroom sex, or her last minute availability to be in Ottawa some weeks ago, both of which had been protection free. She held it in her hand, doing a mental count and pulled her jeans down.

Today would be 5 weeks exactly, and taking one couldn’t hurt. It would however prove his theory, and he would now be 3 for 3 on getting her pregnant on the first try.

Thomas was the night in the cabin, the first time they’d had sex.

Lilly was the bar bathroom, the first time they’d been out celebrating the trade with his new teammates.

And now if she was pregnant today, it would be after the game in Ottawa, all three being on the first try.

She would never hear the end of this.

She set the test on the counter, pulling her jeans up and washing her hands while she waited for it. She however was not alone before it finished because Matthew himself threw the door open and stopped, surprised to see her but then his eyes zeroed in on the test.

“What the- your taking it without me?!”

He pushed past her and peered at it, eyes moving between what appeared in the bubble and the difference between positive and negative. A smile spread slowly across his face like the Grinch when his heart grew three sizes and he turned to her.

“3 for 3!”

“No WAY!” She said grabbing it and holding it up. There it was. A pink plus sign clear as day in that tiny circle.

He thrust a fist in the air and gave a very loud “YES!” Before he pulled out his phone, fumbling to unlock it with the amount of excitement running through him.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling my parents to tell them that their son has successfully knocked you up 3 times on the first try. Let them tell me again that Brady’s more talented.”

“Matthew do not-“

But Chantal had already answered the phone.

“Hello I was just going to-“

“Hallie’s pregnant!” He yelled gleefully into the phone.

“AH!” Chantal screamed on the other end. She heard a clatter in the background and Keith yelling “What?! What happened?!”

“Hallie’s pregnant!” She yelled voice breaking a little.

“Again? He’s out of control.”

“Yeah remember that next time you tell me Brady is better. I’d like to see him do that.”

Hallie’s face burned with embarrassment as she accepted ‘congratulations’ from Keith and Chantal, who promised to come visit soon and hung up. But Matthew wasn’t done, he texted several teammates, all of whom chirped him, including Sam who said he didn’t think he had it in him, and then made one last phone call, looking at her and cracking a large evil smile.

“Now what are you doing?”

“Calling Brady to tell him that C on his chest is nothing compared to the C in my pants.”

“MATTHEW!”

[dark-dragon-8]

Do you guys ever think about eighteen years old Sam, going to his first university pool party, having fun, drinking booze. While everyone else just stares at him as he takes off his shirt, only to reveal a myriad of scars across his skin.

Imagine, you're in some club/committee/Student Council and want to throw a party to accept the new freshman year students to the school. So you get permission to use the pool for a welcome party and everything's great, everyone is having fun.

But then, that one guy takes off his shirt (and the situation is actually a whole lot worse because there were a ton of girls checking him out because he was ripped) and his body is just 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙 in scars. And it's not like those scars that almost everyone has, like a biking scar or maybe one you get from a knife when you cut your food and aren't being careful.

No, these scars are 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥 and more importantly 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩, one of them looks like it hasn't been too long since it's finally healed, kind of fresh.

He has a gunshot wound in his shoulder (run in with law enforcement before he left).

His chest and back are 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 with knife slashes and, if you look close enough, you could see a stab scar on his lower waist and another one on his collarbone near his neck.

His arms have those scratchings on them that honestly look way too deep to be human.

And just when you don't think it can get any worse, someone asks him why he isn't getting into the water (he already took off his shirt, why not take a dip) while he's a little tipsy, and his answer is "Because something (which most people hear as 𝗌𝗈𝗆𝖾𝗈𝗇𝖾) might grab my leg and try to drown me"

Everyone leave that party feeling absolutely horrified about this kid's past and vow to never inflict any harm on him and protect him from bullies for as long as they can.

Sam doesn't remember that day, however he is pleasantly surprised when everyone at school is extra nice to him and buys him extra food whenever he can't afford it (because he's broke asf).

I might actually use this for my fic (only in my fic, Dean comes to Stanford with Sam, so people might think that he's abusing him in some way, shape or form, so that'll be an interesting plot device, at least until Brady, or someone else, asks him if he's okay and he tells them how Dean helped him get away from his father, and people interpret that however the fuck they want because he doesn't care because he's a troll raised hunter raised liar).

[luminouslywriting]

Infertility anon back; thank you for your kind words! And your headcanons were, as always, so lovely and spot-on. I am here to shamelessly request a part two, if you have time: the guys' reactions to their partner finally getting pregnant after struggling with infertility. ❤️

^^Gif does not belong to me, it belongs to rcbertleckie^^

A/N: Hi sweetheart! I'm sorry it's been so long since you sent this! I hope this is everything you wanted and more :)

Warnings: Sensitive topics below, infertility mentioned, paragraph format

Bucky Egan:

I know that his initial reaction is just whooping and laughing for joy. He's utterly happy and so so proud of you and knows how big this is for you, just as much as he's happy about it himself. He's definitely going to sweep you up into his arms and kiss you senseless.

He'll immediately want to head to the store and get stuff for a nursery and starts asking the most random of questions. "What can you eat/not eat?" "Are we still able to have sex?" "What does it mean if you're nauseous?"

Either way, he's a doting husband who is more than thrilled to have this opportunity with you. He doesn't really care if it's a boy or a girl, he just wants the baby to be healthy and for the two of you to be happy. He's definitely obsessed with the baby bump and super overprotective of you. Prepare to be pampered for nine months straight.

A side note: You could decide to paint the house the ugliest shade of puke green during this time or tell him that he can't watch baseball a single time during your pregnancy and he'd go along with it haha.

Gale Cleven:

Definitely someone who plays more on the shock reaction, at least at first. He's so pleased and happy for you and for him—but also feeling a lot of emotions given his own upbringing. Be prepared for a surprised hug and some gentle kisses, but not so many words.

He may take some time to express it—but listen close when you're falling asleep. He'll be talkin' to that baby bump for hours about how he's gonna protect the baby and how much he loves you and is grateful for you.

Also someone who isn't 100% sure on certain things, but he's very logical. He knows that he's going to need to invest in some baby blankets and clothes. He's absolutely convinced he can build a crib without instructions. And he's ready to help you in whatever way you need.

A side note: He didn't think he could fall more in love with you but as the pregnancy glow appears, he decides that he's never been more in love and clearly this is a sign that you should have more kids haha.

Robert Rosenthal:

He's honestly so excited and views this as a result of working hard to figure out ways to increase fertility tbh. Logically, it all just makes sense. But he does also attribute some of it to being a miracle. Either way, he gets this grin on his face and immediately starts kissing you and kissing your stomach.

Definitely the type to call all of his family to immediately tell them the news and is so excited about the entire thing. He's gonna bring you home little presents just because and is so patient during the entire thing. He treats you like you're literally royalty.

Isn't too worried about getting everything done and bought already. He's very attentive to the things that you want to get done though. He wants you to prioritize your health and taking care of yourself and the baby, so that's his number 1 thing at the moment.

A side note: You can do no wrong during this time in your life and he's already imagining the future children down the line.

John Brady:

Immediately starts crying? I'm sorry, there's just no other way that I see this going. He's so thrilled and emotional about the entire thing, you'd think that HE'S the one pregnant, rather than you, but I digress. He's definitely going to say a few prayers of gratitude and he's going to shower you in attention and praise.

You thought he was bad before? Skipping work to spend time with you? Now he's leaving work early because he saw an ad for a baby carriage that you just need to have or he knows that there's a sale for maternity clothes and you'll just look divine. He's the sweetest and most attentive husband, and someone who really just wants a healthy baby.

His entire family will rally around you to help with literally anything you need. At the drop of a hat, you can have several in-laws over to move the couch or to reach something that's too high for you.

A side note: Brady definitely samples the baby food beforehand and decides that it's just not very good. So yes, he's making his own baby food for his child.

[thegreenthepeacetheorange]

Everlark (Mockingjay, Ch. 18-19)

because of everything in the last chapter, katniss throws herself into her training with a vengeance. something driven by what they've done to peeta but also that keeps her mind off it

the same way katniss used to watch peeta from afar in 12 when they were kids, she watches him when he starts showing up in training

"my weaknesses? that's a door i don't even want to open' let me guess it starts with a p and ends in eeta

i wish we all got a world where finnick got to heal post war with katniss, peeta, annie, haymitch and johanna... broken brady brunch that i love so much. the way being victors binds them into being this family so that even though when katniss says she doesn't really know johanna, we have seen how they are essentially sisters and understand each other in a way that most people don't... the gift she gives johanna when she's in the hospital is so beautiful and so emblematic of who katniss is despite the horrors she lives in. and it's also such a peeta thing to do. because they're both so thoughtful

(an aside: prim's goodbye to katniss hurts differently knowing what i know now)

the fact that she takes the pearl with her

coin was evil but thanks for sending peeta on the mission actually. forced dating trope is old news, forced fighting together in a war against an entity that has destroyed our whole lives is in

when katniss says the whole thing about how she wouldn't be shooting peeta, just one of the capitol mutts. very annoying of her actually but she says it herself, it's her lashing out because of how she's humiliated by it all that she's felt. but poor peeta having to hear that

gale offering to straight up kill him and katniss is like "um no". the fact that gale thinks that this is something she actually wants, that she thinks like him in terms of just wanting the problem dead. oh sweetie no. katniss straight up being like "i can deal with him" aka "mind your own business"

i answered a question here about the squad giving katniss unfriendly looks after her mutt comments about peeta so i won't type it all again

i'm grateful for haymitch talking sense into her because she needed it. with the situations reversed, peeta wouldn't have treated her like how she was treating him and she needed to remember that

"you're punishing him over and over for things that are out of his control"

haymitch reminding her of the deal they made to save peeta. they're still in the games and she's forgotten her task. but here it is again. she has to save peeta but this time she's not sure how to achieve that

finnick lending peeta his rope. ugh. him being there for peeta when katniss couldn't. the way they all step in for each other when others can't.

and she finally starts to open up instead of being defensive and cold back

"i suddenly want to tell peeta everything about who he is and who i am and how we ended up here. but i don't know how to start. worthless. i'm worthless. " - katniss taking it upon herself when actually the idea of telling peeta all this in its entirety is such a huge task because their relationship is too huge to capture in words, in moments.

peeta remembering her favourite colour...

his thank you to her when she tells him his...

"you're a painter. you're a baker. you like to sleep with the windows open. you never take sugar in your tea. and you always double-knot your shoelaces" - these small intimacies. these little facts that tell us how much katniss knows about him. the small things she's held onto. these little things she remembers with so much fondness.

can you imagine peeta listening to all that and then looking down at his double-knotted shoelaces? remembering the calmer sleep that comes with the wind blowing in through the open windows at night? ugh.

this whole passage tells her that katniss knows his essence. these little details that she's never mentioned to us before.

her running away after saying all that because she wants to cry. she's so devastated and i want to hug her and peeta

cheese buns being part of real or not real, along with the colour of katniss's dresses and their maths teacher. they know each other. have known each other.

i can't state how horrific it is that darius and lavinia were tortured and killed in front of peeta. because we obviously aren't his head for the books but the horrors that peeta suffered?! it upsets me so much every time i read this passage. they hurt and killed darius and lavinia to hurt and torture peeta.

(an aside: them all just being kids/young people and messing around while filming the propos and boggs having to reprimand them while holding back his own smile again just reminds me of how young they all were. it's so depressing)

[maxcuntstappen]

Bestie lestappen with the reverse trope “too many beds” ????? But they still share maybe?? Could be ridiculously funny

From this. Honestly any of these would be hilarious

It's the night of the annual lock-in.

Max never understood the point of them, really.

But it keeps him away from his house and gives him more time with his friends so he's not going to bitch about it.

After the chaos of last year's 'oh let's put a bunch of hormonal, horny, overly sensitive kids in one gym for one whole night and see how it goes', the management seems to have come to their senses and split the crowd up.

Max likes it better like this, 6 to 10 people in one classroom, people you can choose to have with you with all the bonding activities left for the gym.

It comforts him, knowing that he has a place to retreat if it all gets too much.

And it does get too much. But not in the way he expects.

"MAX!!!!!" Oscar yells, snapping him out of his snooze, just in time for Max to dodge the ball heading straight to his face.

"What the fuck," Max growls, or at least tries to, it comes out as a whine instead.

He would feel embarrassed if he wasn't busy feeling so fucking tired instead.

It's not his fault that GP and Seb made the entire team run double their usual drills because one stupid fucking freshman was late to the practice.

"What the fuck is you," Lando yells, making no sense but the frustration in his voice gets the message across.

"Okay," Alex's voice declares, "We need to regroup."

The other team groans and complains but they're retreating to their side as they do.

Fucking dickheads.

Alex pulls Max to the side, leaving their team discussing and strategising behind.

"Max, you know I love you," Alex starts, and Max preens a bit, always happy with how openly affectionate his friends are with him, "But you're a damn liability, man."

Max frowns, "No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are," George pops up out of nowhere, cause of fucking course, "We are being absolutely murdered out there and you're not helping."

"Okay, Russell, I've seen you throw, let's not pretend you're Tom fucking Brady, yeah?" Max snaps.

George opens his mouth to snark back but Alex pushes him away, "Go. Now."

George grumbles but walks away.

Simp.

"Max, buddy," Alex says, voice gentle, "It's okay to be tired. It's late. You can rest."

But Max doesn't want to rest. He wants to be with his friends and watch them be stupid. He wants to watch Lando slip on the polished floor and he wants to point at him and laugh in his face. He wants to watch George get worryingly protective of Alex when they play capture the flag. He wants to watch Charles argue and argue and argue over one single point in one of these redundant stupid games. He wants to watch him win the argument. Because he will win the argument. Max knows this all too well.

"But..." Max begins to protest, but Alex runs his hand through Max's hair and Max fucking melts into it before he remembers himself and snaps up straight.

"Yeah," Alex says, all sympathetic and soft. That cunt.

Max sighs.

Hard-headed as he is, even he knows when he needs to call it quits.

Max nods, making Alex softly smile.

"I'll see you in a bit, yeah?" Alex squeezes his shoulder, and turns to return to their miserably losing dodge ball team.

Max is practically dragging his feet as he exits the gym. He feels a tinge of sadness at the idea of missing out but it's overshadowed by the absolute fucking joy he's deriving from imagining how fucking good it'll feel to finally, finally be in a horizontal position.

He's just turned into the hallway when a voice calls out, "OI! MAX!"

Max looks back to see a grinning a bit-too-widely Daniel, holding a wide eyed, clearly trying-very-hard-not-to-blink Charles.

"Take him with you too, yeah?" Daniel says, slightly pushing Charles in Max's direction.

He leaves before Max can even get a word in.

Max sighs, running his eyes over Charles' rumpled appearance ; loose red sweatpants and a cream hoodie big enough to fit two, bloodshot eyes with mad scientist hair to match.

Max isn't the only one among his friends who had to run double the drills today.

"Tired?" Max asks, already knowing the answer.

Charles simply nods, his hoodie-covered hand coming up to rub at his eyes.

The sight makes Max feel all soft and mushy.

It's a feeling he's becoming increasingly familiar with, thanks to Charles' existence.

"Come on then," Max says, gesturing with a nod to the hallway towards their chosen class.

They walk next to each other wordlessly, both too tired to thinking of anything to talk about.

Max, surprisingly, is fine with it.

He thought it might be weird, considering just how much Charles and him talk when they're together.

But no.

This is fine too.

It's perfectly fine.

And then they reach their classroom and both of them stop short.

"Uh," Charles says, and Max agrees with that sentiment.

Because there are ten mattresses placed around the class, spread out from one wall to another.

Max so doesn't have the energy to gay panic about sleeping arrangements right now.

He never thought having too many options would ever be a problem when it came to sharing a bed with Charles.

Max glances over, sees Charles' eyes dart all over the floor, clearly trying to figure out his next move.

Max sighs, thinking, 'This is stupid'.

Cause it is.

Charles and Max have known each other since they were kids. Maybe they didn't like each other for half of that time.

But things are different now.

Even if Charles doesn't feel the same bubbly warm overwhelming feelings that Max feels for him, Max knows that Charles still likes him, still likes his company and their conversations and their time spent together.

That's more than Max's tired brain to make a decision.

"C'mon," he mumbles, taking Charles' hand in his, walking them over to the mattress closest to them.

He drops down, making Charles yelp and follow, somehow managing to not stab Max with his elbow.

It's not a big enough mattress to share.

But it's not a small enough mattress to not share.

Charles decides to stay, pressed up to Max's side.

Max is out before he can really appreciate the warmth and the comfort and the joy of the moment.

But it's okay, there will be other times.

[hopetorun]

i'd love to hear your beliefs about the tension in their relationship because i'm a very nosy bitch but obviously only if you feel like it!

lol well i did offer! beliefs is a strong word, tbh. more of a like ... is this stuff true? i don't know. but if i were writing a story where i wanted to have tension in that relationship, these are the places i would be inclined to introduce that tension. maybe there is tension in some of these places in real life! that's none of my beeswax.*

anyway: some places i think it is plausible that there's tension in the relationship, or at least plausible enough to play with in fiction. receipts on these where i can find them, sorry if they're paywalled but them's the breaks.

*unless they make it part of their public narrative

back in 2022 matthew was on the athletic hockey podcast and he talked about feeling "like a babysitter" when keith visits and how much keith enjoys being one of the guys. now mostly i think they probably have a pretty good time, but babysitter is a word choice there. i don't think it's a stretch to imagine that having your retired dad show up at your workplace and becoming the life of the party to relive his glory days could be ... trying.

not to beat around the bush but they're both opinionated guys! opinionated and chatty! and as a result you get: keith slamming the panthers on the radio. matthew sticking his nose into brady's contract negotiations (brady being grimace emoji about it). like, we know for a fact that the radio thing bothered matthew! and there's plenty of opportunities for one or both of them to offer unsolicited opinions that don't go over well.

to the previous point: i considered not including that because it's not as speculative as the others on the list. but it's definitely something i'd draw on if i was writing a story where their relationship is tense.

look, i'm not a man and not only am i not a man but i don't have any brothers and my dad died four and a half years ago and he never talked about his dad. so i can't claim to be an expert on the fathers-and-sons relationship dynamic. but why would i let that stop me from speculating wildly!

anyway: legacies. oldest sons. expectations. @ohtemporas touched on this briefly earlier, the way there's often an extra pressure on the oldest kid to be the same-gender-parent's legacy. do what i did. represent me well in the world. and i don't think it's even particularly weird for that to potentially lead to some conflicting feelings if all that legacy building leads to you being surpassed in some way. that's just human! especially for competitive people, and as i have said on this website before: no one becomes a professional athlete without being competitive.

here's keith being presented with matthew's 99th point puck from the 21-22 season, which his then-teammate did up with the writing for this specific purpose. chantal thinks this is SO funny. do think maybe being conflicted about being surpassed makes him not proud of matthew? no. but people can be complicated.

speaking of people being complicated: that one post-game after matthew scored 5 points on the blues. i think the tension between keith wanting his own team's success and wanting his sons' success isn't something people were making up out of whole cloth. but maybe it was especially noticeable when matthew was still in the western conference? i feel like it got dialed back after the trade. lol.

i'm mentioning it only because otherwise someone else might: i don't care about the hat thing. i think it's silly. if i was asked to throw my favorite hat onto the ice at an nhl game just because some schlub scored three goals i probably wouldn't.

a few concluding thoughts

i don't think any of this means they have a bad relationship! mostly i think that no two people have a perfect relationship where they agree on everything and never butt into each other's business uninvited and never hurt each other's feelings, because that's impossible.

i'm not making some counterpoint list of all the reasons i think they love each other. someone else can. i don't think having high expectations of someone means you hate them and i don't think anyone spends their time and money following their son's hockey team around the country on a road trip hoping to see him score his 100th point out of hatred or spite.

maybe i'm wrong about all of this and they've hated each other since 2002 and someday we'll get a tell-all story and people can come into my ask box or whatever and tell me how wrong i was. i don't care. all rpf characterization is fake. i watched keith froth at the mouth in the stands at the 2016 wjc every time someone so much as breathed on matthew, though, so i don't think i'm wrong.

[incesthemes]

hi bestie. it’s me. ❤️ monkey emoji 🙊 or whatever can i make you talk about stanford era sam again… for me for please…

you can do anything you want to me. i can take it

i guess i don't think about Sam At Stanford all that much really? before and after for sure, but college life is boring. cannot imagine why sam wanted that so bad 💔

i do generally think he would have felt very out of place there, though. he comes from a background so wildly different from the average student: i think there would have been a lot of jealousy and yearning as he made friends and learned about the lives they got to live, basic things which were so unavailable to him. he probably would have been angry about this for a while, and it likely would have kept him distant from people. humans seek connection and we do that through shared experiences; if sam has none of those shared experiences, he would naturally be alienated from the average person, even if just subconsciously and unintentionally.

i also prefer the version of canon where sam graduated from high school at 19 and is entering his 4th year of college in the pilot, which can tack on some latent shame and humiliation about being older than his peers, especially when he's had such different life experiences from them.

i like to think that in his first year at stanford, there was some kind of small haunting on campus (or equally low-risk hunt), and sam decided to take care of it—not like he can exactly ignore it when it's on campus, after all. he gets hurt in the process and can't help but miss dean and john, and he's never felt more alone in his life than at that moment. it's important to me that he spends his first year in college standing on a cliff's edge, trying to ignore the abyss below him as he struggles to fit into society (the abyss is hunting, the abyss is family). one wrong move will send him hurtling over the edge and right back into the place he fought so hard to escape. it's stressful and agonizing because he knows he doesn't belong here but he can't go back, and it rips him apart and this low-grade, routine hunt is almost enough to send him falling into the abyss. i want it to hurt.

ultimately i think sam's experience at stanford was a challenge to him, one that forced him to realize just how little he actually knew about a "normal" life, the kind he'd only ever seen from the outside. the show seems to imply that most of sam's positive strides occurred as the result of demonic intervention (such as brady introducing sam to jessica), and so it brings me great joy to imagine him really, really struggling to fit in and find a life outside of hunting—possibly to the extent that he wouldn't have been able to at all if he'd been left to his own devices. obviously he wasn't an outcast at school, but i favor an interpretation that most of his social circle was because of demons like brady interfering in sam's life. the kid's awkward and doesn't know how to throw away his trash, okay. he's not cut out for a normal life.

also i think he brought something of dean's with him to school. a shirt that he wore regularly, maybe. a trinket. their shared toothbrush. it probably made acclimation harder, but he desperately needed the comfort when he was alone and wanting. he's never been farther than a few feet from dean at any point in his life, and suddenly dean is all the way across the country and his dorm room is far too big and cavernous, like it'll swallow him whole. and he misses his big brother.

[hannahmanderr]

Supernova - Chapter 1: The Aftershock

(AO3)

aftershock: noun 1) a small earthquake or tremor that follows a major earthquake.

2) the effect, result, or repercussion of an event; aftermath; consequence

3) what Danny finds himself having to deal with all of a sudden

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I swear, you kids drink all those ‘Monstras’ or whatever they’re called and then come to class wonderin’ why you’re feeling like crap,” Tetslaff grumbled as she held the back of her hand up to Danny’s clammy forehead.

“Danny doesn’t drink energy drinks,” Sam said, indignant.

“Then what’s that stuff he’s always bringing to school to drink?” The question came from Star, who was one of the others in the class who’d come over to investigate the commotion. She jabbed a finger at one of the puddles of ectoplasm on the mat. “Because that is so not water.”

“Did she really just call them ‘Monstras?’” Tucker mumbled to himself.

Danny didn’t process any of this. For all he knew, he could be a million miles away from what was happening and he wouldn’t know the difference. Everything sounded far away and muddy, as if he were listening to it underwater. His limbs felt thick, like they didn’t even belong to him. Not to mention that he was still distracted by the remnants of that feeling that had overpowered him so suddenly. Whatever it had been. 

Really, nothing he’d ever experienced had yanked on his core as hard as that had. He’d felt drains on his core before, but this had been entirely different. Could it even be considered a drain? He couldn’t tell if he’d lost any of his energy.

A shiver ran down his spine. To have such a fundamental part of his being end up so violently displaced, so utterly violated… Even now, it was still out of sync with his heart and making his stomach churn threateningly again. 

And had he just been imagining hearing someone shouting?

“... take him to the nurse’s office?” Tetslaff was asking the small crowd. “ Not you , Foley! You’ll be lucky if I let you loose on your own durin’ class again before you graduate.”

“No,” Danny heard himself say. He was the one moving his mouth, right? Why did his tongue feel like sandpaper? “Don’t need the nurse. Just hot.”

And he was hot. Abnormally so. As in he hadn’t been this hot since before the accident. His core sputtered a few weak coils of his cold energy, but couldn’t manage much more than that so soon after such an experience.

“Sorry, Coach, I tried to tell him he needed to keep up with drinking his water today.” He was vaguely aware of his aluminum water bottle being pressed into his grasp by Sam. “He just wouldn’t listen to me.”

Normally, he would’ve been annoyed with the jab at his expense, but his head was still too full of fuzz to even really have room to be annoyed. Instead, he swirled the water bottle and discovered that not everything had spilled out onto the mat, so he took a tentative sip. The results were nearly instantaneous; the ectoplasm buzzed pleasantly through his core and sent a jolt of clarity into his brain. Not enough to completely clear the fog, but it was better than nothing.

Tetslaff eyed him skeptically. “You sure you don’t wanna get checked out? Dehydration is nothin’ to laugh at.”

“Yeah.” He nodded as enthusiastically as he could without setting off another wave of vertigo. “I just… need to sit for a second.”

“Aw, what’sa matter?” Brady Ibarra cooed from behind Star. “Fenton can’t handle a wittle baby workout?”

“Can it, Ibarra!” Tetslaff barked. “Alright, Manson, take him off the field. I don’t want him back out here for at least ten minutes. Nuh-uh, you stay right there Foley! You’ve got a hot date with a mat and some crunches. And the rest of you, get back to it! If you don’t have those sheets done before the bell rings, you’ll be runnin’ laps next time!”

She snatched the water bottle out of Danny’s grasp. “And you, if I catch you drinkin’ this junk durin’ gym again, you can bet your sorry bottom we’ll be havin’ a little chat with your parents. Here,” she shoved the bottle at Sam, “empty that out and get him some real water.”

Sam pulled Danny up by the elbow and dragged him toward the bleachers, away from the echo of Tucker’s complaints. “What the heck was that?” she hissed as soon as they were out of earshot.

“I don’t know.” He plopped down on the sun-warmed seats with a wince. Ouch . Too hot. Core still out of whack. Must’ve been too obvious, since Sam glanced over her shoulder and, after seeing Tetslaff busy telling Tucker to get onto a clean mat, handed the bottle back to Danny. He took a few greedy, grateful gulps.

“What do you mean you don’t know? And stop drinking that so fast, you’ll make yourself sick.”

He pulled the bottle out of his mouth and breathed in deeply before saying, “This is the stuff that keeps me from getting sick. And I mean, I don’t know.” Another swig. The familiar chill was finally beginning to return. “One minute I was fine and then just… I don’t know.”

“You totally froze up.” She looked over her shoulder again before taking a seat next to him. “Whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t normal. I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

“I thought we’ve established nothing about me is normal these days.”

“You know what I mean, you idiot,” Sam said, giving him her trademark Manson Eye Roll. “Like did you see the ectoplasm? It just doesn’t do that on its own.”

Danny hummed and finished off the rest of the bottle. Darn. If only half of it hadn’t decided to levitate itself out of the bottle and onto the gym mat. “I mean, it kind of does that in the Zone. Float around and stuff?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Were you the one doing it?”

“Wha- no, that wasn’t me. At least, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me.” He paused. “I was kind of distracted by whatever was going on in here,” he said, gesturing towards his sternum. His core. 

Boy, Sam could really look like Mom, or even Jazz when she scrutinized him like this. “Something happened with your core?”

He sighed and rested his head in his hands. Back on the field, Tucker struggled with his crunches. Poor Tuck, having to deal with Tetslaff’s wrath all on his own. “I don’t know how to describe it. It was like… like someone just grabbed it or something. I don’t know. And then I just - I could’ve sworn I heard something. And saw something.”

“What, like another ghost?”

He shook his head. “No, this was different. But I don’t know if I can explain it that well…” A couple of ghost language words came to mind that would’ve been helpful to describe it, but none of them translated well to English. 

The memory of the faint light burned clearly in his mind. Too far to reach, and flickering violently, like a birthday candle being blown out, but it had definitely been there. At least, he thought. He was still somewhat doubting that the memory of the whole experience was actually real. The shouting he thought he’d heard included.

But it hadn’t really been shouting…

Had it?

Sam was still watching him critically. Really, he wished she would give him a second to just breathe without having her breathing down his back. It didn’t help that Tucker would be demanding answers in the locker room. 

So he couldn’t give a perfect description of it. Whatever it was. Big deal. He wasn’t about to keel over dead because of it. 

“I don’t like this,” she said. “What if someone’s doing this to you? Trying to take you out indirectly so they can swoop in and take over the world or whatever?”

It was a possibility, to be fair, but it was a small one at best. “I don’t think so. Ghosts are kind of sensitive about cores. Like it’s just kind of one of those things you just don’t mess around with. It’d be like… I dunno, getting into someone’s brain and screwing around with how it works, or something.”

“You realize Spectra literally fed off your core that one time? And fed off of the souls of the entire student body?”

“Yeah, well, Spectra’s kind of the exception, not the rule. Most ghosts aren’t like that.”

She huffed and crossed her arms. “Whatever. I still don’t like it.” 

The feeling of her eyes on him was making his skin crawl at this point. There was a good reason he tried to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible. “So what do you think we should do about it?”

Sam considered this for a moment. “We should probably get you checked out by your doctor or something. What was her name? Fluffy… something?”

“You mean Flurryfoot? I don’t know, it doesn’t feel important enough to make a long trip all the way to the Far Frozen, you know?”

“It’s your core , Danny. Do people just brush it off when they have a heart attack or whatever?”

Danny slid back on the bleachers until his butt fell onto the row of concrete behind him and buried his head into his knees. “I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the ghost equivalent of a heart attack,” he mumbled into his gym shorts. 

He was grateful for Sam’s concern of course, and he knew he was lucky to have friends like her and Tucker, but really, could she not make such a big deal out of it?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pandora cursed in ancient Greek. “I should’ve known,” she muttered. Her flaming helmet flared, making Fleetfloe wince. Sure, she had possibly the strongest ice core next to Frostbite, but being so close to so much fire was still uncomfortable.

Pandora tossed the letter Fleetfloe had given her onto the throne and stormed out of the room. Fleetfloe sprinted after her. 

“I told them,” Pandora was grumbling. “They didn’t listen. I knew something like this would happen, and they didn’t listen!”

“My lady,” Fleetfloe said hesitantly, “I must return to the Chief with a response as quickly as possible. Those were my instructions.”

Pandora stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned to look down at the messenger yeti, as if just remembering she was there. The yetis of the Far Frozen towered at seven or eight feet on average, but Pandora stood even taller at a dazzling ten feet. Just the sight made Fleetfloe feel even smaller and more susceptible to the rage Pandora was notorious for.

“Yes, yes,” Pandora said. “My apologies. I am… No. It’s okay. I’ll send you with a return message as soon as I can make the proper preparations.”

“Preparations, my lady?”

 Pandora pushed open a great set of doors into a room that was strangely empty. Even stranger were the seven doors spread across the walls, each completely unique from the next. One stood tall and elegant, made of a wood so dark it appeared black. Another more so resembled a human sewer entrance, round and metal, though the material rippled like a curtain in an unseen breeze.

For a moment, Pandora simply stood in the center of the room before saying, “I need to consult with Frostbite about this. In person. Frostbite… and the others.”

Fleetfloe gasped. “You don’t mean…?”

“Yes.” Pandora closed her eyes and sighed. “The Ancient Council must convene at once.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They didn’t get to go to the Far Frozen right after school. 

For a moment, Danny wondered if Clockwork was pranking him. The scene was familiar - eerily familiar. He had to do a double take just to make sure he wasn’t experiencing some major deja vu. Especially since the last time he’d walked in on a situation like this, he’d ended up finding out that Pariah Dark had been unleashed.

“Danny!” Dad shouted, bouncing out of his seat. “Look who decided to join us today!”

A totally spontaneous visit, I’m sure , he snarked to himself, trying to ignore how his stomach dropped to his feet. “Hi, Uncle Vlad,” he said through a pained smile.

If Vlad was here, then that pretty much confirmed whatever had happened earlier that morning had been important. Crap. 

“Ah, Daniel! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you,” Vlad said, his voice dripping with faux warmth. Danny resisted the urge to bite back that no , it had not been a while, seeing as how he’d had to fight Mr. Mayor himself off from overshadowing one of the city administrators just last week. But, you know. Semantics.

Sam, however, was not as afraid of unleashing her vitriol. “What are you doing here?” she snapped. 

Vlad stood and brushed imaginary dust off of his suit. “Why such hostility? Am I not allowed to drop by and catch up with my dearest friend?”

“Catch up on evil ,” Tucker whispered under his breath. The following oomph told Danny that Sam’s elbow had decided to find a nice spot to jab Tucker in the ribs. Apparently, she didn’t approve of the dig. Either that, or she was trying to be at least a little conscientious about Dad’s presence. But it wasn’t like Tucker didn’t know how to keep things subtle.

Focus, Fenton . Fruitloop first. Friends could handle themselves and Dad. Besides, he already knew how to handle the old man. 

“I guess that makes sense,” he said, moving further into the living room and dumping his backpack unceremoniously on the floor. “There hasn’t been much time for you two to talk. I mean, Dad has been super busy and all. He’s been working on, what, at least three new inventions, and Dad, didn’t you just sign off on another contract with the city?”

Yeah. He could totally play the sneaky banter game.

Vlad’s smile turned so tight it turned his lips white. “Yes, well, if young Phantom wouldn’t be so careless during his fights, perhaps that contract wouldn’t be necessary, hm?”

Dad, oblivious to the scowl that erupted on Danny’s face, just grinned broadly and slung an arm around Vlad’s shoulders. “See? Now this is local leadership at its finest! Looking out for the town and stopping troublemakers in their tracks!”

“You know what they say,” Sam said, “never trust a politician.”

“My, such divisive words.” Vlad wriggled his way out from under Dad’s arm. “I’m sure one day you children will understand the importance of the measures I must take to keep our fair city safe. The youth of today just don’t care for civic duty like they should!”

The rage of an impassioned Sam flooded Danny and left him with a sour tang in his mouth. Some negative emotions were bearable, in terms of consumability at least, but Sam Manson’s ire? Not so much.

Vlad must have been able to taste it too, because his oily smile only widened.

Sam did not notice either of these reactions. She stomped towards Vlad with a finger jabbed towards his face. “Listen here, you little -”

“ Okay , Sam!” Tucker cut her off by grabbing onto her arm. Danny perfectly mirrored the move. “Didn’t you have something you wanted to do? Something important ?” In sync, the two boys started to guide her out of the living room and towards the lab. 

“Please, don’t go on my account. I was just about to leave anyway. Such important mayoral duties I must attend to! I must sign off on those plans to develop that drab little community garden that’s been such an eyesore.”

This time, the wave of rage nearly toppled Danny over. He gritted his teeth and, with Tucker, dragged Sam into the kitchen, which turned out to be a task much easier said than done when the subject of the dragging was determined to protest the destruction of the community garden. Very loudly .

“I swear, if you make us go deaf before we’re 30, I will never forgive you, woman,” Tucker said as they began to descend the staircase into the lab.

If it had been anyone else who’d made the comment, Sam would’ve probably gone ballistic, but Tucker and Danny both had long since earned the pass to sling such digs at her. Danny figured she’d probably return the favor before long.

As it was, her anger remained directed towards Vlad. “He can’t do that! Do you know how hard we worked to get all the permits and stuff to build that garden? It took months to get the city council to approve the plans! And doesn’t he realize that we’re donating the vegetables to the school so we can actually have healthy school lunches, which, oh look! Another thing the mayor should be looking into fixing instead of schmoozing up to big donors and trying to make another quick buck off -”

“He was bluffing!” Danny interrupted. Ancients, his ears needed a break. He would always love Sam to death of course - or at least, whatever came next for a dead-but-not-quite-dead freak like him - but more often than not, she could let her tirades get loud, and it was killer on his sensitive ears.

Huh. The death puns were strong today.

They reached the bottom of the staircase, and Sam immediately whirled on him with her hands on her hips. “Oh really? And since when did you get the power to read minds?”

“I don’t need the power to read minds, he’s done the same exact thing to me too, you know!” His fingers curled into his palms. “That’s - it’s just what he does, alright? He says a bunch of crap that gets you all riled up so you end up making a mistake.”

“That’s quite clever, little badger.” Danny turned just in time to see Vlad emerge from the stairwell. “And it only took you two years to figure out!”

Danny opened his mouth to order Vlad out of his basement, but Sam beat him to the punch. “I swear, if you don’t march up those stairs and rescind whatever stupid development project you’ve got planned for the community garden, I’ll… I’ll -”

“Oh, relax. For once, Daniel was right about calling a bluff. Those plans were rejected by the city council weeks ago. Besides, I have far more important matters to worry about.” He pushed past her easily and approached Danny. “We need to talk.”

“Sorry. Not interested,” Danny said, his voice clipped. “Just get out of my house, Vlad. I’m too tired to put up with your crap today.”

“Hm. I don’t think I will.” When Danny turned to storm away, Vlad caught his shoulder and forced him back around. “Now, can I implore you to act your age for at least five minutes? The sooner you cooperate, the sooner I can get out of your hair.”

Ugh. Why did his enemies have to make good points sometimes? “Fine. You can have five minutes, so you better make it quick.”

“I’ll cut to the chase,” Vlad said dryly. He leaned down just a couple inches more, and Danny’s already tightly curled fingers dug even deeper into his hand. “Tell me what your parents have been working on recently.”

Well. It certainly hadn’t been the question he’d been expecting. “... Why? So you can steal it or something?” 

“Daniel, I swear -”

“Okay, okay. Sorry . You want the truth? ‘Cause I honestly don’t know. I’ve been… busy lately.”

Vlad raised an eyebrow. “Busy doing what? Attacks have been down recently.”

“He’s got a life too, you know!” Tucker protested from the side. “You’re not the only one with things to do.”

“And it’s not like I would tell you, anyway.” He wasn’t exactly keen on telling him about the visits to Long Now, for one thing. Or the Far Frozen. Although, it would be kind of funny to see his reaction to that, given the cheesehead’s last encounter with the yetis.

Vlad looked to the ceiling and inhaled. “ Fine . Then tell me about what happened to you this morning.”

Ah, there it was. The question he’d been waiting for. Might as well make him work for the answer. How could he deny his duty as a sixteen year old to annoy crummy adults as much as possible? “How do you know anything special happened to me this morning?”

“Quite frankly? Because the same thing happened to me, and I’d like to know exactly what it was,” Vlad said, matter-of-fact. “Oh, don’t look so surprised. I wouldn’t bother to ask if I didn’t already suspect you’d been through it too.”

“It’s not that.” Danny fought the urge to give the man a cheeky grin. “I’m just surprised the oh-so-powerful Vlad Plasmius would ever admit to a moment of weakness.”

Red tinged the edges of Vlad’s eyes. “This is serious , boy!” he growled. “There are very few things that can affect a core so strongly and from such a distance, and I’m sure you can figure out for yourself that none of them are good. There could be a dire threat right under our noses, and I for one would much rather get the jump on it than the other way around. I can imagine you’d like to do the same.”

Faint memories of the disquieting sensation of his core put out of rhythm bubbled in his chest. Even now, hours later, he couldn’t tell if the dull unease that had settled in the center of his chest was a true remnant of earlier events or simply the results of an overreaction. And if Vlad had felt it too… “What could’ve done it?” he asked quietly. No more games.

Vlad sighed, and the fire in his eyes died away. “Like I said, there are very few natural forces that could have such an effect on a core. After all, it’s impossible for a ghost to have the power to interfere with another ghost’s core from a distance.”

“Wait, really?” He… admittedly hadn’t known that. 

“There’s a reason why ghosts with parasitic natures must make direct contact with their victim. Or why spectral healers always interact directly with a patient’s core. They must physically handle it in order to have any real effect.”

Huh. Well, that would explain some of the more… invasive portions of checkups with Frostbite and Flurryfoot. “They can still use technology and stuff, though, right?”

He was vaguely aware of Sam and Tucker, still standing off to the side, watching with barely restrained interest. If there was one thing he could never quite explain to them well enough, one thing they just could never understand, it had to be ghost cores and all the complexities that accompanied them. They probably had just as many questions as he did, if not more.

“Yes,” Vlad answered, “although such technology would have to be extremely complex. And information on other natural tools and forces and spells to interact with cores has been lost to history, or has been classified as forbidden knowledge by the Ancient Council.”

“So, then you think it wasn’t a ghost?”

Vlad hummed and took a few steps closer to the closed portal. His eyes narrowed as he contemplated the hazard-striped doors. “I’m not completely discounting the possibility. Not all ghosts are beholden to the superstitions associated with interfering with a core. It wouldn’t be impossible for someone to get a hold of an artifact, or perhaps a healer’s instrument. Difficult, yes, but not impossible. But that’s why I wanted to ask about Jack and Maddie’s latest projects. It’s also possible that they created something that could’ve had the same effect, whether they intended to or not.”

Danny hesitated for a moment. “I mean, Dad’s had a few new projects, but I’m pretty sure they’re all ecto-guns of some sort. At least, I think.”

“Well, I wouldn’t put it past Jack to bumble his way into something so destructive.” He eyed Danny critically. “You’re sure they haven’t been working on anything else?”

Ignore the cheap shot, Fenton . Danny nodded. He hesitated again, then asked, “I - you don’t think… the Guys in White could’ve done it, do you?”

Vlad’s response wasn’t immediate. That was the farthest thing from reassuring. “My sources within the organization lately have been… inconsistent, at best. I’m still working on getting more reliable means of collecting information on the inside.”

“You mean doing more spying?” Sam accused.

He shot her a wry smile. “Would you rather have no information on them at all?”

For a moment, she was uncharacteristically speechless. “Well, I - I don’t… it’s not like Tucker hasn’t been able to get into their system before…”

“And I suppose it’s somehow morally correct for you to spy on them?”

Sam’s face flushed red, and she slowly closed her mouth.

Vlad regarded her with a smug look. “I believe my point has been made. Anyway,” he turned back to Danny, “my best estimates indicate that the GIW are not capable of creating such a technology at this time. But… I would be foolish to completely count them out of the picture.”

Danny blew out a breath. Right. This was information he could deal with. He’d handled the GIW before. It wasn’t like the prospect of the GIW having technology that could affect cores from a distance was loads more terrifying than the prospect of a ghost having that power.

No, nothing like that at all.

“So wait, if neither of you knows what happened, what are we supposed to do?” Tucker asked. “Sit around and wait till whoever it was decides to try and do it again?”

“You are more than welcome to do that, if that’s your attitude.” Vlad didn’t take his eyes off the portal he’d returned to studying. “ I plan on investigating the matter further. I for one am not too keen on allowing someone to galavant around prying into my core. If you’re alright with that, I suppose that’s your prerogative.”

“Look, if you’re just gonna antagonize my friends, then the only thing you’ll be investigating is my fist in your face,” Danny snapped. The day’s events had long since worn his patience down, and now the potential threat of the Guys in White having something that could mess with him so badly only frayed his nerves further. Maybe he’d been able to tolerate a bit more of the banter earlier, but not now.

Vlad merely glanced at Danny, unfazed. “I suppose you wouldn’t be interested in collaborating our efforts then, hmm?”

“When have I ever been interested in working with you?”

It was then that Danny’s core pulled .

A silent gasp tore at his throat as he fell to his knees and the same feeling that had overwhelmed him earlier that morning once again flooded his body. Somewhere in the corner of his mind, he was vaguely aware of Sam and Tucker rushing over to him and Vlad doubling over. If any of them were saying anything, he couldn’t hear over the rushing roar of white noise that filled his ears. 

The only thing he could truly focus on was the agonizingly piercing sensation of his core being ripped away from him. Whether it was actually being torn out of his chest, he couldn’t tell, but he couldn’t help but feel the panic well up inside him that someone had actually taken hold of it and was trying to claw it out, determined to do so at any cost. It was too much. Too much .

I need… I need…

A scream echoed in his mind. This time, it was undeniable.

Except it wasn’t a scream of fear, or a scream of pain, like he would’ve anticipated. This was a wail of anguish, the kind that came from a refugee seeing their home go up in flames and ash. Or from parents who’d just found out their child had died.

Was it his own?

And just as quickly as it had come on, the feeling faded. The hold around his core eased, and his senses slowly returned. Ragged breaths blew his sweat soaked bangs out of his eyes. Nausea swirled ominously in his stomach. Please don’t throw up again , he begged himself, but the irregular rhythm his core had settled into and the feverish warmth washing over him didn’t help those prospects.

He opened his eyes (when had he closed them?) to find himself face down on the linoleum of the lab floor. Sam and Tucker each had a hand on him; their worry filled the air with a pungent taste. With a weak groan, he turned his head so his cheek rested against the floor, and he was surprised to see Vlad’s shoes fill his vision. The older hybrid also hovered over him, apparently having recovered from his own episode faster than Danny.

One of the hands on his shoulders shook him vigorously. “Danny, please ,” Sam was pleading. Her voice was thick with concern.

“Easy,” Vlad said. He still sounded like he was trying to catch his breath. “Give him space.”

If Danny could’ve moved his arm more than a few inches, he would’ve swatted it at Vlad. The last thing he needed right now was the fruitloop’s phony concern. “Lee m’lone,” he slurred. Maybe it was slightly childish, but he couldn’t be bothered to care.

Especially with that scream still echoing in his ears.

“Why was… whatever that was way worse for him and not you?” Tucker asked, a frantic edge creeping into his voice. 

Vlad didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stood up and walked out of Danny’s range of sight. A second later, he heard Vlad digging around in one of his parent’s storage fridges. “Where does he keep the supplements he takes?”

There was a slight hesitation from his friends. Danny didn’t need to see to know the two of them had some sort of silent exchange (the surge of the sweeter flavor of their loyalty to him told him as much).

“Most of it is in his room,” Sam finally admitted after whatever unspoken conversation they had. 

A heavy sigh came from Vlad’s direction. “ Where in his room?” he asked. “I’ll go get it.”

“Yeah, fat chance,” Tucker scoffed, standing up. “Like we’d let you have free reign in his room. I’ll go get it. You can just stay right there, where Sam can keep an eye on you.” And Danny , came the implied addition.

As the thud of his boots disappeared up the steps, Sam helped Danny into a sitting position. “You’re warm again,” she murmured as she propped his back up against her shoulder.

“Tell m’somethin’ I don’ know.” Well, at least he hadn’t sounded like a wasted frat boy in front of his whole gym class. Brady Ibarra definitely wouldn’t have let him live that down.

Ugh. An ice bath sounded so good right then. Like the one Frostbite had let him take in their bathhouse that one time, with the silky cold water and the swirls of ectoplasm and the yummy smelling bubbles…

Sam fixed Vlad with a hard glare. “So? You gonna answer the question or what? Because I’m starting to think it’s awfully convenient that somehow Danny’s a heck of a lot worse off than you.”

Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose, and Danny got the sense that he’d been thrown off by the episode more than he cared to let on. “Honestly, girl, what would I have to gain by subjecting myself to this? I could achieve the same ends with far more direct measures,” he bit out.

That much was probably true. Vlad could be very underhanded, but in Danny’s experience, those underhanded techniques got used way more often when he played his mind games. When he was out for blood (or ectoplasm), he tended to get straight to the point.

Not to mention Vlad was definitely not the kind of man to purposefully put himself into this vulnerable of a position.

Vulnerable . Why couldn’t he have thought of that word earlier? 

“But do y’know why?” Danny asked quietly. Any accusation he might’ve mustered before had evaporated as soon as his core had been pulled on again. Vlad might be a dirty, morally gray jerk of a man, but he really couldn’t imagine his archenemy going to such unthinkable lengths just to get at him. Sure, torturing, undermining democracy, and cloning weren’t off the table, but messing with cores was too far.

He just wanted to know what was happening at this point.

Vlad’s eyes bore into his. A reproachful twinkle reflected off of the man’s pupils, but something else danced behind them. Could that be… concern? Care?

“I’m afraid not,” he finally admitted, matching Danny’s volume. “Not without knowing the source of the disturbance.”

“That’s reassuring,” Sam said under her breath. 

A single red spark flickered at Vlad’s fingertip. “Believe it or not, I am not all-knowing. For all we know, the explanation could be as simple as Daniel having a younger core than I. His has not had the same amount of time to develop as mine has had.”

Tucker came thundering down the steps, a water bottle plastered with the NASA logo in hand. “I couldn’t find any of the vials,” he said in between gasps for breath. “I think this should have enough in it.”

Danny took the bottle with a grateful smile and began guzzling it down. Like before, the effects of the ectoplasm were practically instant. With a new surge of energy, he adjusted himself so he wasn’t leaning against Sam any more. That was better.

“Not so fast, little badger,” Vlad said, plucking the bottle out of Danny’s grasp, much to the disappointment of the latter. “These are the supplements you normally take, yes?”

“Yeah, and? Buy your own if you want some that bad.” Ah, there was the return of that Fenton fire.

Vlad merely rolled his eyes in response. He took an empty vial off one of the lab tables and rinsed it out before pouring a little bit of the bottle’s contents in it. “Trust me, my boy, you’ll thank me later. There is no reason you should need to drink a whole bottle in one sitting.” He handed the bottle back to Danny.

“I don’t drink it all in one go,” he grumbled, but he accepted it and took another sip.

“I want to analyze the makeup of this concentration,” Vlad continued, as if Danny hadn’t said anything. “For one, I can help you find a stronger blend to help you receive the same effect in a much smaller dose. No more need to chug ectoplasm like some uncultured animal.”

Danny nearly choked on his sip of ectoplasm, and Sam snapped, “Better an ‘uncultured animal’ than a creep who picks fights with a teenager.”

Danny rested a hand on Sam’s shin and, despite his core’s discomfort, tried to channel some of his cooler energy to her to counter Vlad’s heated aura beginning to encroach on them. It was a trick he’d picked up from Clockwork after having it used against him more than once: redirecting his intake of emotional energy into an output to help influence the environment around him. He tried to avoid using it on his friends and family too often (getting used to the idea of eating their emotions was bad enough, let alone intentionally influencing them), but he was definitely not in the mood to get into any sort of fight.

Questionable or not, it seemed to work. Sam’s muscles released their tension under his hand, and he vaguely felt Vlad’s aura retreat a touch. Which was a relief. He didn’t know if his core could handle much more at the moment.

“As I was saying,” the older hybrid said tightly, apparently trying to keep his own anger under control, “even if it’s heavily diluted, it’s clear that this specific concentration does seem to have a strong positive effect on you, in the wake of the interference with your core. If I can reverse engineer this formula and test it against samples of your energy, I might be able to narrow down a possible explanation as to what is causing this interference, or at least how to better counteract it.”

“Why would you do that? Why not just study your own stuff?” Tucker asked.

“Daniel and I are two different people,” Vlad replied easily. “Much like each human has their own, unique genetic makeup, the core makeup of each ghost is unique to that ghost. I could test my own energy to narrow down the possibilities, and I fully intend to do so, but that wouldn’t do much in terms of helping Daniel.”

“Wait, what?” Danny blinked in surprise. “You actually want to help me?”

Danny’s interjection caught Vlad off guard. He looked up from the glowing vial with wide eyes. An instant later, they glazed over with his usual air of confidence, but the initial reaction was unmistakable.

“Why so shocked?” he said with a bonafide chuckle. A chuckle . If that didn’t prove he’d been thrown off, even if just for a moment, then nothing would. “You do realize you are far more valuable to me safe and healthy than you are harmed, do you? What good would any of my plans be if something happened to you?”

Danny narrowed his eyes the tiniest bit. The comeback had been too… normal. Something wasn’t right about it. Still, out of some far-fetched desperation to keep this from becoming weirder than it already had, he scoffed and said, “That’s rich coming from the guy who’s beat me up more than practically anyone else in the Realms.”

If Vlad didn’t want to share with the class, then whatever. He didn’t have the patience to squeeze the truth out of him.

“It’s all been for your own good, dear boy,” Vlad said, putting a stopper in the vial. “One day, you’ll understand.”

“ So many creep alarms going off right now,” Sam said under her breath. Danny chose to ignore the comment. Fruitloops were gonna fruitloop.

With a flourish of black light, Masters became Plasmius. “I expect to hear of any developments you may encounter,” he said, looking at each of the teens in turn. Of course, his eyes lingered on Danny the longest. Maybe Sam had a point about the creep thing.

“Bold of you to assume we’ll just tell you things.” Danny folded his arms across his chest. Did he look as confident as he hoped? Probably not, but at least he wasn’t slurring his speech anymore. Seeing Plasmius always managed to stir the decidedly ghostlier part of him that pushed him to start posturing, trying to make himself seem like more of a threat than he truly was. He couldn’t help it.

He didn’t like it.

Vlad raised an eyebrow. “Believe me, Daniel, this is not a situation in which you want to shun my services. I highly suggest reconsidering.”

Reconsidering? Had he even made a decision? 

Why was Vlad even being so intense about this anyway?

Well, he kind of had an idea. Vlad wanted to see to it that this hole in his defenses was dealt with quickly. That had to be it, right? When had Vlad ever been one to just leave a potential weakness sitting out there?

Danny met Tucker’s eyes. The latter looked unsure about the entire situation, but gave Danny a tentative shrug. Whatever you think is best, man , Danny could practically hear him say.

He turned to look at Sam next. She had a much stronger eye of suspicion than Tucker, and it was clear from the look on her face that she didn’t want anything to do with Vlad. Part of Danny wanted her to argue with him, try to convince him that this was a horrible idea.

Instead, the hardness in her jaw softened just the slightest, and she closed her eyes. For you , she seemed to say. I’m only willing to do this to help you .

With a resolved sigh, Danny returned his gaze to Plasmius’. “If we work together on this, and you stab us in the back,” he threatened, “I’ll drag you back to the Observants’ Tribunal myself. They still have it out for you for releasing Vortex, you know.”

“Then I think you’ll find yourself pleasantly surprised.” Vlad smiled, revealing his sharp fangs. “Oh, and Daniel? You say that thinking you’d be able to keep me down long enough to bring me there.” With a cackle and a sweep of his cape, he disappeared out of the lab.

Danny’s shoulders dropped as soon as he felt the presence of Vlad’s core fade away. “Stupid, cocky fruitloop,” he muttered, staggering to his feet. Sam grabbed his elbow to steady him.

“Was anything about that weird for anyone else?” Tucker asked. “Like Vlad ? Wanting to work with us ?”

“You know he’s doing it just to get at Danny!” Sam exploded. She must’ve really been working to hold her tongue while Vlad had still been there. “He probably thinks he’ll be able to convince you that you’re better off with him or something. I’m still not convinced that he’s not just faking it and doing something to Danny behind all our backs!”

Danny bit his lip. Something had been off about Vlad, and like he’d already deduced, he knew why , especially since his own reasoning was similar, but could Sam and Tucker understand? Could they understand how terrifying it felt to have the looming threat of this unseen force, just waiting, primed and ready to seize his core again and try and rip it from him? Would they get that every ghostly instinct of his was screaming at him to run and hide somewhere in the Zone where no one would be able to touch his core, where he could protect this side of himself from being so brutally violated?

No. They were only human. They couldn’t understand.

Probably the thing that sucked the most about the only other person like you (other than your clone) being your worst enemy.

“Even if he tries,” he chose to say, “it won’t work. You know that.”

“Yeah… I know…” Sam sighed, and her posture drooped. It suddenly struck Danny how emotionally exhausting this all had to be for her, too. For both her and Tucker. This was the second time in 12 hours that they’d just seen him go through some sort of terrifying episode. He had no clue what happened outside of his own body during those episodes. The thought that he could be at fault for scaring them so badly made him feel sick all over again.

Without thinking, he grabbed a hand from each of them. When they looked at him in surprise, he offered them as warm of a smile as he could muster. “Hey. I promise, alright? It’ll be okay. We’re not gonna let some old man get the best of us.”

Tucker reacted much faster than Sam. He grinned and squeezed Danny’s hand. “True that. Besides, if he decides to turn heel, then I’ve still got some payback I’ve been waiting to give for those anti-tech laws he tried to pass when he first got elected. He’ll find out security at City Hall isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

Sam eventually smiled as well, though the concern was far more evident in her face. “That’s assuming there’s anything left after I get done with him,” she said with a weak laugh. She met Danny’s eyes and squeezed his hand too.

A metallic knock echoed through the lab.

The three friends turned their heads all in different directions. “What the heck?” Danny craned his neck to look up the stairwell. “I thought that door up there was wood.”

“But the tables are metal,” Sam said. She swiped a random ecto-rifle from the table closest to her. “So are the fridge doors.”

“Yeah, and so’s that,” Tucker said. His voice had turned uneasy, and when Danny turned to look, he had a finger pointed at the closed portal doors.

A familiar tingle worked its way up from his core and into his throat. “Grab a weapon,” Danny ordered, to which Tucker happily obliged. He himself called forth a healthy buildup of green energy.

He tried to ignore the uncomfortable flutter that came from his core as a result.

He pressed a cautious thumb into the Fenton Genetic Lock, and the hydraulics in the portal doors began to hiss as the mechanisms opened. Otherworldly green light spilled into the lab as the doors inched apart. Danny became hyper-aware of Sam’s finger tensing against the trigger of her rifle, of Tucker’s shallow breathing, of the bluish mist seeping through his lips. Right there . It was…

A woman’s head poked through the portal.

“Oh!” she exclaimed when she saw the three teens with their attacks primed. “Am I interrupting something?”

Danny’s energy fizzled out around his hand. “Uh…”

The ghost’s burgundy colored eyes landed on him, and her face split into a wide smile. “Ah, perfect!” She stepped the rest of the way through the portal and made a beeline for Danny, dropping to her knees at his feet. 

“What is even happening right now,” Sam said.

“O, Danny Fenton-Phantom of the Mortal Realm, Pariah’s Bane, brave warrior and favored ally of Her Ladyship, Pandora of Asphodel,” the woman recited, “an audience has been requested of you by my Lady Pandora and Chief Frostbite of the Far Frozen. They require your presence at once!”

The three friends stared in stunned silence at her bowed form.

“Do you think this counts as a development?” Tucker asked.

[therealslimshakespeare]

honestly kinda love platonic Bucky/ida bc I can imagine whoever she ends up having to contend with two protective Johns. John “Bucky” “Third Brady” Egan.

Thank you, love that we’re all catching the same vision. Sometimes the real treasure along the way are two catholic kids you’s adopted in a stalag, who in turn don’t let you die on them when you might wanna. 🤧

And since I’d hate to not be predictable, here’s a little upcoming snippet.

“Course! Yeah! For sure.” about five offers went up.

“You wake me up.” Ida clarified, coming to a full stop, wary of the enthusiasm, “I’ll wake up the rest.”

“I’ll get you up.” Her John said.

He’d probably sit and watch her sleep, too, needle and her torn pants in hand, like a creepy little owl but that was one of those things she found make or break a family, you either find it endearing you have a brother who rarely blinks or you go mad. Today, after all of it, she didn’t mind having a guardian Angel. Or a watchdog. Speaking of-

“Hey,” she asked him, “you two flew out together, where’s Bucky?”

[foodfightnovelization]

Foodfight! Deluxe Sound Storybook Analysis and Discussion

So here it is, here's the book we're going to read together. That's right, I finally got my hands on a copy of the Foodfight! Deluxe Sound Storybook. Now you might be asking what's so interesting about this, since it's clearly a picture book for children even YOUNGER than the novelization's intended target audience, but if you're as fascinated by Foodfight! as I am, it's an absolute treasure. The front cover is made up of various concept art for the film, drawn by Foodfight! character designer Jim George, and the rest of the book consists of absolutely beautiful hand-drawn illustrations by artist Ron Zalme. It's like looking into an alternate timeline where Foodfight! was animated in the style of classic Disney films like Pinocchio or Snow White. Just getting to see versions of these characters and this story that are actually visually appealing is delightful, and it's reminiscent of the early footage of the film before it was retooled into what we know today.

The book inexplicably commands a high price on eBay, which is why I haven't had the chance to talk about it before, but now that I finally have a copy here in front of me (next to the multiple Foodfight! plush toys I own because I'm NORMAL about this movie), it's time to snap, crackle and pop our way into this book and see what lies within.

Now, before I get any further, I'd first like to take a minute to discuss the "sound" element of this book. This is a Deluxe Sound Storybook after all, which means small icons will appear next to words or phrases throughout the story, indicating the reader should press the corresponding button from a soundboard attached to the side. Given these types of books are designed for the very young, I'd imagine the purpose is to help teach word association and auditory learning. Plus, kids just like funny noises! This book in particular contains 16 different sound effects, which the front cover describes as "yummy" seemingly assuming the reader has developed the ability to directly taste sound. Given this is a movie-based storybook, you'd probably assume the sounds are taken, at least in part, from the movie itself right?

Well, you'd be wrong! As you can probably hear from the audio I included of all 16 sound effects (played in the order they are on the soundboard seen above) almost NONE of the characters are voiced by their actual actors, and the rest of the sounds are just miscellaneous foley. While I can't say if this is common for books of this nature, it's interesting to listen and hear just how different the voices are. Mr Clipboard sounds far more menacing and less deranged than Christopher Lloyd's interpretation of the character, Hairy Hold's voice is far more nasally, and Polar Penguin is just portrayed by generic blubbering.

The only character to be voiced by their actor from the movie is Kaptain Krispy, and given that he was voiced by Foodfight! producer George Johnsen in the film, this makes sense as he would've been readily available for recording something like this. Some characters don't even HAVE voice clips- for instance, despite being the main character of the film, Dex is represented only by the sound of a spatula flipping. Overall though, the sounds are remarkably well-done considering they clearly didn't have access to any of the main cast members. You'd easily be forgiven for thinking Lady X and Dan actually WERE voiced by Eva Longoria and Wayne Brady in this, as the impressions are surprisingly convincing. I'd say for what they were trying to do here, they did a great job. Now with that out the way, let's talk about the book itself!

Normally I'd start by discussing the inside cover pages, but there really isn't that much to talk about here. The only noteworthy element I can see is that the copyright date is listed as 2007, whereas the novelization is dated 2008, suggesting this was in the works long before the novelization was. But given that these books take a while to print and publish, and that the Sound Storybook didn't make it to stores until 2008, these dates are fairly non-indicative.

That does bring me to another interesting point of discussion though- unlike the novelization, the Deluxe Sound Storybook was actually published and sold at retail, with various websites and blogs from the time being suitably puzzled as to why tie-in merchandise was being sold for a movie that not only wasn't out yet, but didn't even have a concrete release date. If I had to guess, considering the movie was at one point set to release in 2007, it's possible the Sound Storybook was already printed and shipped out to stores to match that release, only for all the copies to start gathering dust when the movie didn't come out. Retailers, likely not wanting to destroy stock they'd been sitting on for quite some time, sold the books for cheap in the hopes that SOMEBODY would buy them. And thankfully somebody did, which is why we're able to talk about it today! Despite this book being far more expensive than the novelization, it's also far easier to find a copy given it actually made it to shelves, making it easily the most accessible of all the Foodfight! books. So if you ever feel like dropping way too much money on a children's book from over 15 years ago, eBay has you covered.

Just like the movie, the book opens with Mr Leonard closing his store for the night as the last customer of the day leaves, only obviously presented in a way that's far more aesthetically pleasing. Of note is that he appears to be locking the doors from the inside, trapping himself in the building as it transforms into Marketropolis. The man's going to have a heart attack when he sees the what the cereal mascots do after dark... (seriously though, I think it's just for practicality's sake, so we can see both the inside of the store AND him on the same page)

This beautiful illustration is accompanied by some narration from our hero Dex Dogtective, telling us how even though we may think a supermarket is just a place to buy food, we'd actually only be half right. I find it interesting that he mentions you "might recognize him" from the Cinnamon Sleuth cereal box- given at one point there were plans for a real Cinnamon Sleuth breakfast cereal to be released in stores, it seems like they were trying to allude to this while also leaving it somewhat ambiguous in case the food licensing deal didn't come through and no actual cereal ended up being produced. Which is what ended up happening, so it's a good job they just said you "might" recognize him! I also find it funny that Sunshine's raisin packages are the same size as the boxes of Cinnamon Sleuth- who's ever going to need that many raisins? Maybe if you were manufacturing your own Raisin Bran and needed to add two scoops to every delicious bowl, but that's still too many! I always imagined Sunshine Goodness raisins in those tiny snack-packs like Sun-Maid or something, not a giant 17oz cardboard box...

The store transforms into Marketropolis, and I know I've said this already but these illustrations are absolutely FANTASTIC! The character designs look so charming in this artstyle, and it really makes me wish the whole movie could've looked like this. Seeing Marketropolis actually resembling a city at night is fantastic as well, given that it's so horribly lit in the finished film it always looks like it's the middle of the day (despite the basic premise of the film literally being this is what happens when the supermarket closes at NIGHT). Dex and Sunshine look really cute together, and I think it's adorable how he refers to her as "his gal" in the narration. Dex talks about how this is where him and all the other product icons reside, and I can't explain why but I really like the way it's phrased as "At night, this is our world. This where we all live." Dex then goes on to talk about his best friend Daredevil Dan, describing him as "the world's greatest stunt pilot flying squirrel on a chocolate bar wrapper", which is perhaps the most overly narrow superlative I've ever heard. Just how many other stunt pilot flying squirrels are there on the front of chocolate bar wrappers?

Dex goes on to explain that not everyone's as sweet as his Sunshine and that he often has his hands full keeping the aisles safe, as we're treated to another fantastic illustration, this time of him fighting Fat Cat Burglar off with his price-tag gun. I don't have too much to say about these two pages, other than once again mentioning just how much I love the art in this. Part of why I bought the Deluxe Sound Storybook to begin with was so I could share the artwork with everyone, as I simply LOVE how it looks- even Fat Cat Burglar looks great when drawn like this.

Dex attempts to propose to Sunshine, only for Dan to crash his plane while attempting the loop-de-loop, with her disappearing on her way to check on him. What's described here more or less happens the same way in the film, but the artwork depicts it very differently. In the movie, this all happens outside whereas here it's in some sort of restaurant or club. In addition, Dex is wearing his white tux but at this point in the movie he's still in his Indiana Jones gear, and Maximilius is also in a white tuxedo while in the movie it's purple. (However in the case of Maximilius, this is just down to to the white being an earlier look for the character, as on the cover and throughout the rest of the book he's still wearing it)

I have to say, it's crazy how much of this is dedicated to what happens in the first 10 minutes of the movie. We're nearly halfway in, and we've only just gotten to Sunshine's disappearance- not that it's uncommon for storybooks like this to take liberties with the plot, but it does mean the majority of the movie's events are crammed into approximately ten pages and so have far less time to breathe than the first half of the book.

Following Sunshine's disappearance, Mr Clipboard arrives at the supermarket pushing Brand X products, and we're told customers are going crazy for them. While this does happen to some degree in the movie, the art we're seeing here is of a scene that was cut out of the finished film and we've only previously seen in the novelization. In said scene, Mr Clipboard has had a giant Brand X display set up in the store, with a cardboard washing machine that sprays Elixir into the air and attracts customers into buying Brand X products. This scene is important for two reasons- not only does it establish how a washing machine ends up in the store (explaining how Dex and Dan end up trapped in a dryer later on) but it also shows how Brand X's plan is affecting the real world, and the danger it poses to not only the store but to people everywhere as well. On top of that, it's cool to see the way the Brand X display resembles Lady X's tower, as in the movie we don't get to see what it looks like during the day.

Sometime after Brand X's arrival, Dan goes missing and Dex follows the trail right to Lady X. It's here we see yet another scene that was cut from the film and previously only in the novelization- Dex's first encounter with the Xobytes in Lady X's penthouse. (Dex even has two price-tag guns here, something I saw mentioned in the novelization and assumed was a mistake on the author's part as we only ever see him with one in the movie). I really think this scene should've been in the film, as it serves as a proper introduction to the Xobytes, as well as the threat they pose to Dex and the other Ikes.

Dex attempts to fight off the Xobytes with his price tag guns, but he's quickly defeated and wakes up in Lady X's dryer where he finds Dan. The fact that it's a dryer and not a washing machine gives some indication as to which draft of script author Justine Fontes was working from when writing this- the I Can Find It! book (which I covered in a previous post) was based on an earlier draft and had them trapped in a washing machine full of water instead, seemingly changed due to this being too difficult for animators to render. As such, we can hypothesize this book was likely based on the same draft of the script the novelization was, given it's a dryer in both (and later on in the story Brand X are defeated by a lightning storm, whereas in earlier drafts/the I Can Find It! book it's a flood)

Dex and Dan escape the dryer, only to find Brand X is building an entire army of the Xobytes encountered earlier. This scene goes down more or less the same as it does in the movie, but visually looks very different. In the movie Dex and Dan see the army of Xobytes while looking through an air vent, whereas here they spot them from around a corner. In addition, the Brand X War Room looks very different to the way it does in the movie, on top of the Xobytes' poison being green instead of black. However these changes are likely down to Zalme not having any reference images of the room to work with, and so instead coming up with his own version of the design (given even in early footage it looks the same as it does in the final film). In addition to that, some degree of creative liberty is always taken with these kind of books anyway- what looks good on film doesn't necessarily look good on paper, and so you have to come up with something that still looks dynamic and visually appealing as a 2D image.

The book then skips entirely over the part of the plot where they cross the supermarket during the day, visit the Expiration Station, and meet Vlad Chocool, and we instead go straight to Dex and the other Ikes waging a food fight against the Brand X army. While this is a mostly accurate depiction of the battle as it happens in the film, there are still a few changes. For one, Kaptain Krispy and Twinkleton (the blue elephant) are part of the scene, despite both having been rubbed out by Brand X at this point in the film. Granted, the book skips over this part of the plot as well, and they likely wouldn't have wanted to include characters being killed in something intended for very young children, so it's not surprising this change was made. However, it does mean the Ikes are waging a war against Brand X before they've actually done anything to wrong them. I guess Dex and Dan knew they were building an army though, so it was best to just deal with the threat before it became a more serious problem.

Dex gives the signal for his secret plan, and Cheazel T Weasel starts a an electrical lightning storm, destroying the Brand X buildings while the rest of the Marketropolis is safety protected by lightning rods. It's a shame Cheazel only gets a brief mention here- I would've loved to see how he looked in this artstyle, and given he was voiced by director Larry Kasanoff they could have easily got him to voice a line for the soundboard as well. Seriously, how did Lord Flushington get a button on there over Cheazel? One is a toilet frog who has maybe two scenes in the entire movie, and the other is a classic "lovable rogue" character who plays a key role in taking down Brand X, helps save the day, and was even important enough to get his own plush toy. The Brand X Mashed Potato Man is similarly absent from this version of the story, but despite my preference for the character, he isn't particularly relevant to the plot, so this makes sense.

In the midst of the chaos, Dex finds Sunshine at the top of the Brand X tower, and as I'm sure you already know from either watching the movie or reading my analysis of the novelization, it's revealed Lady X had her kidnapped. (I know this is all incredibly obvious, I just like describing the plot of things, okay?) As the building collapses, Dan finally gets the loop-de-loop right and saves both Dex and Sunshine, daring the day and flying away. And damn, I know I've said this at least three times already, but I still can't get over how fantastic these illustrations are! The characters look so charming in this artstyle and they're drawn so dynamically against the night skies of Marketropolis, it's just a visual delight to look at. The one downside to all this is the book's extremely short length- just two more pages and it's over already! I'd have happily read a version of this that was double the length, so we could see how the rest of the characters and story would've looked drawn this way. (We didn't even get to see the Copabanana in this version of the plot) Still, it has all the major beats of the film covered, so let's press on and see how it ends.

Mr Clipboard comes stomping through the store, threatening to destroy Marketropolis. Dex gets Maximilius to use a piece of dental floss as a tripwire, and as Mr Clipboard's head hits the ground it breaks open, revealing he was one of Lady X's robots the whole time. Once again, the Marketropolis is safe, and Dex and Sunshine can finally be together.

This is more or less how the ending goes across all versions of the story (except the I Can Find It! book which Mr Clipboard is entirely absent from), but it does leave out the Lady X revealing she used to be Priscilla Pussly, the Ike for a failed brand of genetically giant prunes, along with Sunshine beating her up so badly her plastic surgery comes undone and she's transformed back into the hideous prune she once was. I'm glad this was left out- as much as I've warmed up to Foodfight! over time, I always thought repeatedly hitting a woman so badly that it destroys everything she's done to feel good about herself was a pretty horrible way to end things. Like yeah, destroy her sense of image and humiliate her in front of everyone, THEN kill her? That's so cruel, aren't Dex and the other Ikes supposed to be the good guys?

Either way, with that we reach the end of the Deluxe Sound Storybook. Despite consisting of an incredibly trimmed-down version of the movie's plot, the beautiful artwork was worth the price of admission alone, and it was truly fantastic to see characters and environments from Foodfight! rendered so beautifully. I'd say it's up there alongside the novelization, meeting the (incredibly low) bar of versions of Foodfight! far better than the finished film. I'm really glad I got to share this book on my blog too- while the Deluxe Sound Storybook has been talked about across various places over the years, nobody made its contents available in their entirety before now. I hope you all enjoyed taking another dive into the fascinating world of Foodfight! merchandise, and shortly after this post I'll make my scans of the book available on the Internet Archive for anyone who wants to check it out for themselves.

If you can believe it, long before I started this blog, all I ever wanted out of Foodfight! was a copy of this book someday so I could see what the movie would've looked like if it hadn't been spoiled before its time. But then I stumbled onto the novelization and realized I just HAD to write about that, then ended up interviewing a cast member, and ultimately ended up getting involved in a documentary that'll satisfy everyone's curiosities about Foodfight! a million times better than the Deluxe Sound Storybook ever could. However, finally getting to discuss what I was originally so fascinated by makes it feel like my blog has truly come full circle. Thank you for joining me on this journey, and I'll see you next time!

[hockeyboysimagines]

omg I'm sorry!!! I should have looked at the list first sorry

can I switch brothers then? lmao. Matthew in Otta for Brady's game and meet the girl at the candy machine? I can cleary imagine him bragging about the hat trick and looking at her across the ice.

No worries Anon! And you never EVER have to ask me if you can request or talk about Matthew Tkachuk. The answer is always yes. This was so cute. Hope you enjoy it!!🤍

The absolute LAST thing Matthew wanted to be doing was sitting in a dimly lit roller skating rink, listening to bad 80’s music but because he was a good brother and future brother-in-law here he was.

His game in Ottawa had so happened to coincide with Emma’s nephews 6th birthday. While he liked Brady most days, he loved Emma so when she had asked him nicely with her best smile, he’d sighed and flatly agreed to come. Brady came over and kicked his foot.

“What’s your problem?”

“Nothing.”

“Yeah okay. If you didn’t wanna-“

“I’m here aren’t I? What am I going to do? Strap on a pair of skates and do laps?”

“If your planning to do that, let me get my phone out. Wanna document the moment.”

“Fuck off.” He stood and stretched “I’m going to the bathroom.”

He made his way through screaming kids, falling kids, and crying kids nursing injuries in various spots from falls and collisions. As he neared several candy and soda machines, a girl caught his eye. The lights from the large spinning disco ball were catching her long hair, as she reached a hand forward and shook the candy machine.

“I don’t know buddy I can’t get it.” She shook it again, and the little boy standing next to her sighed and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

“Excuse me? Do you need some help?”

She turned, and smiled. He felt like he’d been hit by a bus. He was certain that she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, and he wanted to clasp his hands and thank God that he’d decided to be a good sport and come to the party he didn’t want to come to. He also wanted to personally thank whatever moron had decided to put a candy machine from the 1930’s in a high traffic roller rink, because it’s malfunction had now given him the chance to come in like a knight in shining armor and offer her the assistance she needed.

“Yes please. It’s stuck I don’t know-“

Before she could continue, Matthew wound up a fist and punched the machine, not enough to break it but enough to make it teeter and knock the candy loose. The boy gave a cheer and reached down to pull it out, before turning and zooming away.

“Hey! What do you say!” She yelled after him.

“Thank you!” He called over his shoulder before disappearing back to his friends.

She turned back to Matthew and smiled “Thank you. You just saved me from hours of complaining.”

“My pleasure. I’m Matt.” He extended a hand.

“Y/N.” He hand was soft and warm, and fit perfectly inside his own. He realized as he shook it that he was holding it a little too tightly, and staring openly at her. He released her hand and cleared his throat, thankful for the bad lighting to hide the redness that was creeping up his neck.

“So is that your-“

“Brother. He’s here’s for a birthday party, and I’m lucky enough to get to take him.”

“Funny enough I’m also extremely lucky to be here at a birthday party.” He glanced around before his eyes landed back on her “Maybe in more ways then one.”

And that’s how it started. They talked, and talked and talked some more, talking so much in fact that Brady had wandered the rink twice looking for him, thinking he’d left. As parties began to wrap up, and kids filtered out, Matthew panicked knowing his time with her was coming to an end. He spotted her brother making his way over and as a last ditch effort to see her again he blurted out “Hey, crazy idea but would you want to come to my game tomorrow?”

“Game?”

“I uh-I play hockey. My brother Brady-“

“No way!” She turned to look at her brother who was staring at Matthew open mouthed revealing several missing teeth, and slid his glasses back up his nose “ Matthew Tkachuk!” She looked between them and pointed at him.

“You know how this is?”

“Of course I do. He’s only the best player ever and-“ he went on to list all his stats, which was actually pretty impressive if Matthew was being honest.

“I had no idea.” She said laughing.

“So? Wanna come?” He asked, nodding his head at her brother “Maybe bring my number 1 fan with you?”

“Oh we’ll be there.” He looked up at her and made a face “Well don’t look at me that way. You can stay home but I’m going.”

She glanced between them for a moment before she pursed her lips “Oh-okay. Sure.”

“Wait really? Awesome, and then maybe after we-“

“Slow down Casanova. Let’s start with a hockey game. And then maybe a date. We’ll see how you play.”

“Oh yeah? Okay I’ll make you a deal. I score a goal we go on a date. If I don’t, you can forget I ever even saved you from a day of complaining.” He held his hand out “Deal?”

“Okay. Your on.”

He did score. In fact he scored 3 times.

She chuckled, shaking her head as he scored his third goal and turned to point at her in the crowd. The stadium booed around her, as it was mostly Ottawa fans in attendance, but she couldn’t help the smile that crept across her face. He made his way to the bench, various teammates giving him fist bumps as he went and sat down next to someone, turning to them as they spoke. She saw him shake his head and point across the ice at her. She felt her face get red, thankful he was so far away, and glanced at the scoreboard.

“He scored that hat trick for youuuuuuu.” Her brother teased, giggling and making kissy faces at her.

“Oh be quiet.” She gave him a nudge and rolled her eyes. She would never hear the end of this.

She watched as he celebrated with his team when the clock wound down, buzzer sounding to signal that Ottawa had lost. She watched as he made his way across the ice to the side gate and slowed down in front of where she was sitting. He knocked on the glass and grinned a mile wide.

“Guess this means I won!” He said gleefully, winking at her and pointing towards the score board. She felt a surge of excitement as she watched him skate to the side gate and exchange words briefly with an arena employee, pointing in her direction and waving before he disappeared down the tunnel.

She walked her brother out of the arena to where her parents were and made her way back inside, waiting quietly until she heard the doors bang open and turned to see Matthew standing in the doorway.

He smiled widely at her and for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, she was glad she’d lost a bet.