#either that or more geletal like eating Orbez

[goodfish-bowl]

Taste Test

Ectoberhaunt Day 10: Hunger

AO3 Link

Summary: He wasn’t hangry, no matter what Sam or Tucker claimed. He didn’t want the Snickers either!

Warnings: ghost hunger, vivid descriptions of the taste and texture of foods

Words: 1553

Notes: Takes place early on in the story, probably a few months after he became Phantom. Pre-Vlad, and Danny has yet to befriend any ghosts.

@ectoberhaunt

Danny had simply thought it was the stress and lack of sleep that were getting to him. He was exhausted, more so than he’d been in a while, with an irritated twist in his gut. That totally sounded like stress in his opinion. He was eating enough, so he didn’t buy Sam’s teasing that he was simply “hangry” or whatever. Tucker even had the nerve to throw a Snickers at him. He was fine. It wasn’t getting worse; he just needed some decent rest and for the ghosts to leave him alone for about a week. So what if he’d had a short temper for the past few days? It wasn’t helping that he was tiring more quickly from using his powers in fights.

Sam had suggested that he was missing some nutrients from his diet, maybe he needed something weird due to being half ghost or something along those lines. Danny didn’t like how that idea had merit, but he begrudgingly took to the idea. But this led to the question of what he was missing, especially if it was ghost related. It wasn’t like he could really ask the ghosts what was up with his biology. The only one he could think of would be the Lunch Lady, and he wasn’t eager to encounter her a second time. So, Danny decided to do the only other thing he could think of, ask his parents.

Danny brought it up the next time he actually had to confront his parents.

“Hey, Mom?” She would be the one to know this. “What do ghosts eat?”

Maddie paused her cooking, contemplating for a minute. “Well, I’ve never actually seen a ghost ‘eat’ so to say, but they seem to need a steady amount of ecto-energy to continue existing, even if they lack all of the basic needs and bodily functions to do something as complex as consume nutrients and minerals as part of a ‘diet’. We’ve never actually tested their energy requirement, though. What a wonderful idea, honey! I’ll be sure to ask your father to help me conduct some test to figure this out! And we just managed to catch a bunch of small ones recently too!” Maddie gave a light clap of her hands and an excited smile at the idea of a new series of tests to run on ghosts.

Danny suppressed the shiver threatening to race down his spine and gave his own tight smile in response. “Thanks mom.”

The kitchen was abandoned, along with whatever new recipe his mom had been working on. After a moment, Danny let out a groan at the confrontation. This whole ‘keeping his ghost half from his parents’ was getting harder to deal with every time, especially when either of them was excited about tearing some poor looking blob apart. But the information he got out of it was better than nothing. He didn’t like the idea of eating straight ectoplasm though, that was just asking to be caught.

Danny glanced at the fridge in thought, then around the house. Maddie had dragged Jack down into the basement to talk about the idea he’d accidentally given her for their latest experiment. Tucker and Sam were busy doing their homework and taking notes so he hopefully wouldn’t fall behind further than he already has. Jazz was out hosting a “group study night” at the school. Danny looked at the time. It was 4pm, meaning Danny had time to look through his meal options before cramming his homework and going on patrol. Besides, the food in the fridge was usually just thrown out anyways, what was the harm?

Danny got up from the table and walked over to the fridge, making sure to grab the ecto-proof knife that was kept nearby. Carefully, he made sure to crack the door open, weapon prepped. A burst of cold air rushed over his face, and he could hear the ecto-wiennie’s growling in the back. He opened the door more and pursued his options. He obviously wasn’t going to eat a haunted hot dog; those things were actually sentient at this point. He eyed the milk, before wrinkling his nose at the expiration date. There was a yogurt though. Danny grabbed it and looked it over. Vanilla, set to expire in about a week, and it looked like a sample had actually fallen over it, judging by the green stains on its lid. Should be fine to at least try.

Danny took a spoon and popped the lid open, slamming the fridge before the hot dogs could get any funny ideas. What should be white was tainted green and had a faint citrusy-electrical smell he’d come to associate with ectoplasm with a hint of the original vanilla. Danny’s gut twisted and he swallowed the saliva building in his mouth. It looked innocent enough, even though it was most definitely glowing.

Before he could chicken out, Danny scooped some onto his spoon and thrust it into his mouth, already prepared for the consequences. It slid down his throat with little problem, and definitely tasted of ectoplasm. Metallic and thick, like a flat sprite with pennies blended in. He gagged, going to throw it in the trash when his gut twisted, filling him with a raging hunger like he’d forgotten to eat for days, then walked straight into the Nasty Burger kitchen. Suddenly it didn’t matter what the yogurt tasted like; it was food. Danny devoured the yogurt and then lunged right back at the fridge in a mad fury.

If there were a few less ecto-wiennies by the end of the day, that was no one’s problem.

  Danny let out a tired yawn, waiting for the thermos to unload tonight’s haul. Just the box ghost and a few ectopi, but he was finally getting a hang of fighting mid-air. He had the bruises to show for it. His stomach let out a decent growl and Danny groaned. He’d been raiding the fridge for anything ecto-contaminated for the past few days, there was barely anything left at this point, and he had to eat a lot to get the hunger to go away. If he kept at it like this, someone was bound to notice, especially if he snuck a sample again. His mom had definitely noticed when one went missing but had chalked it up to his dad’s shenanigans.  He knew he shouldn’t take another sample like that again, but it really did hit the spot like nothing else could. He told himself he would be fine for one more night at least.

The thermos finished spitting out everything, and Danny swore he heard a solitary “Beware!” before he quickly slammed the doors shut on the portal. Danny sighed and went to switch back when he heard a small keening noise from somewhere in the lab. His eyes zeroed in on a small blob ghost in a phase-proof cage. It was the only one remaining from his parent’s experiments from the past week. It looked at Danny with vacant eyes, to tired and small to move from its place on the bottom of its cage. Danny’s stomach growled.

Without thinking, Danny approached the cage, and turned it off. He reached his hand inside, plucking the small creature from it’s confines and holding it to his face. He should release it, he told himself, back into the Zone where it could recharge or however that worked. It was a better fate than it would meet at his parents’ hands.

Danny had to swallow the drool in his mouth. At this proximity, it smelt like orange sorbet, and he didn’t want to let it go. He looked around the lab, lit only by the light drifting from the cracks in the portal and his own glow. It just looked at him from it’s place in his palm, unreactive, not trying to escape in the slightest. Danny bit his lip. Sam would never let him hear the end of this. He let out a shaky breath, and poked it, trying to get it to react, run away, something. It keened again and his gut twisted in hunger. It had shaken like a jello mold when he poked it, and his mind started to fabricate how that would feel if he swallowed it. Creamy and rich like the sorbet it smelt like? Or would it actually be closer to jello like his parents’ samples? Would it have that metallic taste, or would it be straight citrus?

With a final wrench of his gut, Danny’s mind blanked out and he shoved the small blob ghost down his throat, not even bothering the chew. It went down smoothly and easily, a sweet lime flavor filling his mouth, and the hunger fully vanishing for the first time since he’d noticed it.

Danny stared blankly at his hand for a moment, then two. Oh no. He glanced around, then quickly flew from the lab into his room, transforming back once he was safe behind a locked door then rushing into the bathroom. He gagged, nothing came up, and he devolved into a fit of coughing. He couldn’t believe he just did that, but somehow, he couldn’t find it in himself to regret it, even when it sent his mind spiraling.

Not with the hunger finally sated. At least for now.