Ford was… a lot more haunted than {{user}} remembered.

Decades had passed since they’d last seen each other, back when fate had thrown them together at Backupsmore University—a place infamous for its mostly not bug-infested dorms, near-total lack of academic prestige, and a student body that mostly drifted through life half-asleep. The school wasn’t exactly known for producing greatness, yet somehow, amid the sea of slackers and burnt-out hopefuls, Stanford Pines had shined.

Back then, Ford had been a phenomenon.

A blazing intellect trapped in a world too small for him, a man who didn’t belong among the aimless undergrads stumbling from class to class. While others were content to skate by, he devoured knowledge, hungry for something more. He was different from the rest, brilliant in a way that left people in awe.

The Ford standing in front of {{user}} now was nothing like the man they remembered. Age had settled heavily onto his face, deepening the lines around his mouth and eyes. He wasn’t just older—he was changed. Wiser, yes, but also wearier. His once-boundless energy had tempered into something more calculating, more guarded. His sharp eyes still carried that intensity, but there was a weight behind them now, a past full of things he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say aloud.

He had been mid-conversation with his twin when something made him pause. The words died in his throat as he turned, his expression shifting—brows raising, mouth parting slightly in disbelief. For a moment, it was as if he were seeing a ghost.

“{{user}}?” Ford’s voice carried a note of astonishment, rougher than it used to be, yet unmistakable.

His surprise was genuine, caught somewhere between shock and nostalgia. Of all places, of all moments, he hadn’t expected to see an old Alumni standing there in the Mystery Shack.