Fanfic / More than My Friend

More than My Friend is a Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends fanfic by Dude13. Dude13 also has a series of spinoffs and sequels set after the fanfic.

Mac's older brother Terrence has started smoking marijuana and has become even more aggressive towards him than before. It's up to Frankie to help Mac out of his situation. In the sequel, Falling Apart, Mac is sent to an orphanage after his family dies. Frankie decides to adopt him afterwards.

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More than My Friend and related stories provide examples of:

• Abuse Mistake: Forms the plot of "Helpless". A rushed morning at Foster's winds up causing Mac to take a doorknob to the face, resulting in a black eye. At school, the principal, rightly, is worried when he sees one of his students with a bad black eye. Mac, worried about being late for class, hurriedly brushes off his injury as an accident. Then the principal sees Frankie screaming at someone who cut her off and immediately jumps to the conclusion that she hurt Mac on purpose.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: For a few characters:
  • Mac's home life in canon wasn't perfect, but Terrence's bullying wasn't nearly as bad as it is once he gets hooked on pot here. Plus, Mac later has to deal with losing the only biological family he had left to a car wreck.
  • Nothing is said about Frankie's parents in canon, but it's implied that they're still around (although they don't visit because her father hates imaginary friends). Here, they were killed in a car crash when she was three, and said accident left her traumatized for weeks.
  • Averted with Wilt, whose backstory (how he lost his kid, eye, and arm in one day) is unchanged. To be fair, it was already sad enough.
• Adopting the Abused: Frankie, when she learns how bad Terrence has been treating his little brother (and how his mother has done nothing to stop it), becomes Mac's unofficial older sister, and later becomes his legal guardian when Terrence and his mother are killed.
• Age-Appropriate Angst: Mac's response to having (in his own mind) burned his bridges with Frankie and earned the ire of Terrence and his buddies and being hit with the realization that with Frankie mad at him, there's no one to care that Terrence is abusing him is to start sobbing and spend a good while mute, even after Frankie comes to his rescue. Then after Frankie gets him safely back to Foster's, he breaks out of the silence into hysterical sobs and babbled apologies.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: A heartbreaking example of the "They Mean It" variant shows up repeatedly when Terrence decides Mac needs to be punished for some slight; Mac repeatedly begs for the beating to stop, to no avail, and on at least one occasion, ultimately ends up in a sobbing ball as Terrence advances on him.
• Artistic License – Medicine: Terrence is able to convince the hospital to donate his heart to Mac, a procedure that kills him. Terrence, however, is a thirteen-year-old without a legal guardian, meaning that, in real life, no hospital would have let him be a donor. Furthermore, no doctor would allow a living person to donate their heart, seeing as how such a procedure would be fatal. However, this is a world where imaginary friends are brought to life every day, so maybe the rules are a little different.
• Berserk Button:
  • If you value your life, do not threaten or harm Mac if there's even a chance Frankie will find out. Kathy states in "Just Admit It" that she would feel safer harming a bear cub in front of a literal Mama Bear than doing the same thing with Mac in front of Frankie.
  • While her initial reaction is hurt rather than anger, Frankie takes Mr. Herriman accidentally implying that she doesn't belong at Foster's when he snaps that they can't take in every child orphaned by a car crash, a statement that describes Frankie just as much as it does Mac, very badly. Madame Foster later calls him out for it.
• Big Brother Bully: Terrence beats up Mac near daily and lets his drug dealer beat him up too.
• Big Brother Instinct: Wilt was created to be the best older brother/mentor figure a kid could ask for, so this is part of his character. He and Frankie met because he heard her crying after the accident that killed her parents and stayed by her side throughout the grieving process. He's also this to Mac and Bloo, and does everything he can to help them...even if all they need is backup in a tickle fight.
• Broken Pedestal: Kathy had always thought her boss, Mrs. Corningston, was a fantastic social worker who always wants what's best for the kids. Then she sees her berating Frankie for her very personality while calling her a completely incompetent guardian in front of the clearly confused and frightened Mac and Goo and suddenly every ounce of respect Kathy had for the woman is dead.
• Cool Big Sis:
  • Mac's Precocious Crush is put on the bench to focus on Frankie's sisterly/motherly relationship with Mac. This is addressed in a later story, when Bloo questions if he still has one a few years after his adoption. He states that he obviously grew out of it, but it leads to some awkward conversations when Bloo thinks he's denying it and shares said theory with the others.
  • Mac in turn becomes a Cool Big Bro for Frankie's daughter Bridgette, so much so that when the little girl finds out Mac is adopted, she ends up in hysterics because she thinks that means he'll have to leave.
• Cut Himself Shaving: Frankie starts noticing Mac's unusual behavior and bruises however he always has an excuse behind it.
• Dark Fic: It has a good amount of cursing, violence, and dark subject matter not present in the original cartoon. The multichapter sequels are equally dark with near-death experiences, actual death, a Heroic Sacrifice, an Abuse Mistake scare, and attempts to rip Frankie and Mac away from each other featuring prominently.
• Department of Child Disservices: The series bounces all over the place with this trope but can ultimately be broken down into 3 categories:
  • The Good: Frankie's friend Kathy and Rudy, Frankie's eventual husband, who carefully observe the parents/guardians in question and are well-aware that unusual doesn't mean bad.
  • The Bad: A good portion of the rank-and-file we see, who are constantly trying to remove Mac from a "foster" home because they didn't read his paperwork.
  • The Ugly: Mrs. Corningston, who adamantly insists that Frankie couldn't possibly be a good guardian due to the life she leads and when a misunderstanding over Mac insisting a black eye was an accident (it was but he didn't realize how he sounded because he was focused on being late for class) comes up in "Helpless", she gleefully assumes that Frankie is a reckless abuser instead of realizing that Frankie would never dream of hurting Mac and that her most violent outbursts were when the officials were trying to separate her and a terrified Mac. She even goes as far as to blame Frankie for not knowing about a heart condition that nearly killed Mac even though A) said heart condition only got that bad because Terrence returned and beat the crap out of Mac and B) Mac's doctor didn't know the condition existed until the events of "Wishing Only Wounds the Heart", meaning no one could have known about it until then.
• Did Not Think This Through:
  • A particularly dark example occurs when Mac trashes a particularly expensive shipment of pot he was supposed to deliver and mouths off to the dealer; things quickly go downhill and the dealer, Terrence and several of Terrence's friends engage in a "game" that involves stuffing Mac inside a trash can and then kicking said trash can around. The "fun" only stops when Frankie shows up and beats the crap out of all the teens.
  • For some reason, the nuns running the orphanage that Mac ends up at thought it would be a good idea to use an extremosaur as a guard dog. This ends about as well as you'd expect.
  • Terrence and his friends somehow forgot that Mac living at Foster's meant that there were hundreds of imaginary friends in the house willing to help and protect him at a moment's notice.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • When Mac shows up a few minutes late for a drug drop in one of the early chapters of "More Than My Friend", Terrence beats him so badly Mac can't sleep comfortably. A later beating after Mac accidentally runs into Frankie after another drug drop leads to him limping so badly he can't hide it.
  • In the sequel "Wishing Only Wounds the Heart", Terrence beats Mac into near unconsciousness, with the damage being so bad Mac does ultimately pass out, for the "crime" of being adopted by Frankie and thus having a happy and stable home.
• Drugs Are Bad: Terrence uses drugs and it caused a huge spike in his abusive behavior.
• Easily Forgiven: Terrence is forgiven by Mac and the residents of Foster's after he pulls his Heroic Sacrifice (it's implied that they're actually horrified that he went that far to save Mac). Before that, though, Goo willingly forgave him, despite knowing what he'd done, and told him that Mac, in all the time he was sick, was never mad at Terrence.
• Family of Choice: By the end, Mac has formed one of these with Bloo, his adopted mom/big sis, Wilt (who is now officially Frankie's imaginary friend), and everyone else at Foster's.
• Happily Adopted: In Falling Apart Frankie adopts Mac and their relationship is quite happy in future works. It's a mix between a maternal relationship and a sisterly one. Also applies to Wilt, who Frankie officially adopts as her own imaginary friend (considering how long they've been close, it was already all but official anyway).
• Happily Married: Ultimately Rudy and Frankie.
• Heel Realization: When given the chance to kill Mac, Frankie, and Bloo after sneaking into the hospital, Terrence watches in shock as Frankie rolls over Mac and his imaginary friend, willing to give her life to protect them. This causes Terrence to realize that Frankie, who isn't related to Mac at all, is a better sibling then him. This realization floors him so much that he leaves the hospital and makes no more attempts on Mac.
• Hidden Depths: Goo's Cloud Cuckoolander tendencies mean that few people take her seriously when she says she can do something...but she's not kidding when she says that she knows CPR. A doctor later compliments her on it.
• Hurt/Comfort Fic: A lot of stories in this series take this form, whether it be Mac recovering from Terrence's abuse, Mac and Frankie recovering from an extremosaur attack, or Mac being diagnosed with a severe illness.
• Incurable Cough of Death: In Wishing Only Wounds the Heart, Mac develops a cough, which eventually leads to heavy breathing. Said heavy breathing becomes asthma, which leads to the discovery of Mac having a heart problem... which leads to him having an asthma/heart attack and needing a heart transplant in the next twenty-four hours or he'll die.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Mac comes barging into Fosters in hysterics claiming that Terrence is alive and coming after him, he's shocked and angry that Mr. Herriman and Frankie don't believe him. To their credit, Mac was completely hysterical when he ran in, he has no evidence, and Terrence has been believed to be dead for a few months at least.
• Jerkass Realization: Mr. Herriman has one after Madame Foster gives him the scolding of a lifetime for not only allowing Mac to be taken from Frankie, but to bring up her worst trauma as if it was no big deal, do absolutely nothing to apologize for it, and then allowing Wilt (arguably her closest friend in the house) to be adopted. He quickly realizes that he's done nothing but make the situation worse, and starts working to amend it. For the rest of his appearances in the series, he is noticeably nicer.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After spending the entire series driving Frankie (and everyone else) insane with her increasingly ridiculous demands for pampering, Duchess finally gets her comeuppance. After Terrance's plan to get "revenge" on Mac goes wrong, she's caught red-handed as his accomplice and is sent to what's implied to be prison for imaginary friends. She won't be getting her coveted pampered lifestyle, nor will she bother anyone at Foster's ever again.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: The imaginary friends of Foster's are mostly fun-loving and happy-go-lucky, wanting only to play with and help children however they can. But if someone they love is in trouble, they are all willing to do whatever it takes to help them. Terrence and his gang learn this the hard way when their attack on Mac is interrupted by an entire army of imaginary friends busting into the backyard.
• Mama Bear: Frankie. Full stop.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Mac has this reaction not after hurting anyone else physically or emotionally, but after trashing a pick up of pot Terrence and some friends had all chipped in to pay for.
• Official Couple: Rudy/Frankie and Mac/Goo.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After they (supposedly) lose all hope of Mac being adopted by them, Bloo and Frankie each have their own Heroic Blue Screen of Death: Bloo has abandoned his usual trouble-making ways and now just sulks in his room. Frankie goes about her chores with a blank look on her face, won't even look at Mr. Herriman, and only snaps out of it when it appears that Mr. Herriman has allowed Wilt to be adopted when she needs him the most.
• Raised by Grandparents: Frankie's backstory here involves her parents dying in a car crash when she was a toddler, leading to Madame Foster taking her in.
• Redemption Equals Death: Due to his newly-discovered asthma and heart condition, an asthma/heart attack leaves Mac dying in the hospital unless they can find a donor soon. Terrence, fresh off of his Heel Realization and not wanting to see his little brother die, donates his heart, sacrificing his life for his little brother and redeeming himself in the eyes of the Foster's residents.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Wishing Only Wounds the Heart starts with the reveal that Terrance survived the car crash, having been thrown out of the wreckage, and had spent the past several months as a homeless amnesiac.
• Running Gag: Near the end of Falling Apart, Bloo has a nightmare about there being a cannibal ghost in the closet and goes to sleep in Mac's room...and then they become worried that there's a cannibal ghost in Mac's closet. So they go to sleep in Frankie's room...and then they all become worried that there's a cannibal ghost in her closet. So they all go to sleep in Wilt's room, and Frankie tries to keep Bloo from scaring anyone else by promising there's no ghost in the closet...then Bloo wonders if it's hiding under the bed...
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Terrence's "friends" have this reaction when their plan to abduct and possibly kill Mac is interrupted by Bloo leading all of the Fosters friends in an attack.
• Ship Tease: The author writes lots of Mac/Goo fluff and refuses to apologize for it.
• Single Parents Are Undesirable: Frankie is still in her 20s but has become the guardian of 8-year old Mac after his mother died. One story revolves around Frankie finding it difficult to get a boyfriend because guys balk after hearing about Mac.
• Stuffed into a Trashcan: Not remotely Played for Laughs as this is Mac's punishment for trashing a particularly large and important shipment of drugs and it's heavily implied he's having trouble breathing properly.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: The sequel starts with Mac's mother and brother getting into a car accident.
• Teens Are Monsters: Both Terrence and his drug dealer are teenage boys who beat up and terrorize Mac, who is only eight at that. Compounding this is the fact that Mac is well-aware that even if he managed to bust both of them, they still have friends he's never met but who know exactly who he is and would take Terrence and the dealer's place.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Terrance was just a Big Brother Bully until he began dabbling with drugs. He became even meaner and frequently beats up his little brother.
• Took a Third Option: In one one-shot, six-year-old Frankie reveals at school that she lives at Foster's. A lot of kids start teasing her for living in a "freak show". Wilt, who walks her to school every day, knows that he can't let this continue (as Frankie's already in tears whenever he comes to pick her up), but Frankie insists that he not tell Madame Foster or her teachers (as being labeled a tattler will get her teased even worse). So what does Wilt do? He asks Eduardo to start taking Frankie to school. Sure, the monster is sweet, cowardly, and totally harmless...but the other kids don't know that...
• Villain Has a Point: For as vilified as Mrs. Corningston is, she has a valid point that, unless you know Frankie personally, all the behavior that the social worker was privy to does point to her being an incredibly emotionally unstable individual, rather than a Mama Bear. Sure, she could take the word of Frankie's family, friends, and Mac himself that she's capable of being a good caretaker for the kid, but a social worker has to go on the evidence presented to them. And considering that she's seen Frankie's meltdowns, with one such emotional breakdown being the first time they met, you can't really blame Mrs. Corningston for thinking that Frankie is a danger to herself and others and has no business raising a child.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Lighter example in one of the side stories. Frankie is in hysterics after Bridgette jumped out a window and only lucky timing on Mac's part allowed him to catch her safely. Mac tries to calm her down but fails until he calls her "Mom", which he does so infrequently only one other story in the series features him doing it.