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willakk · 4 months

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I’m so excited to share my Ecto-Implosion 2023 (@ecto-implosion)piece! I worked with a fantastic artist, The Spirits Demise, to create this story where Danny gets to go to space (space!).

Here is a link to Spirits' Art! It's so good! Please, please give it love!

Here’s chapter 1 for now!:

They were still waiting for Daniel Fenton, Louisa “Lewis” Rivera realized with a frustrated sigh. It had been ten minutes of the entire team, minus Daniel, mind you, waiting to start the United Nations livestream in their self claimed Aphrodite I meeting and lounging room. Well, the segment that was important to them would talk all about them and their mission wouldn’t even start for another ten minutes, but that was beside the point. Daniel’s – she refused to call him by his nickname of “Danny”, as their friendship had not reached that level yet – punctuality always caused her to wonder how he was even selected for the team. Okay, that is not entirely true. She knew why: he’s an exceptional team worker, always has high craftsmanship and attention to detail, got along just splendidly with everyone, and, in general, was immensely qualified for the job. It’s just, that it’s hard to have a good image of someone when the first time Lewis met them he was twenty minutes late to the meeting and then accidentally broke a thousand dollar machine in front of her eyes. While he did fix it all by himself later, that’s beyond the point she’s trying to make. They’d got off on the wrong foot and now it was hard for her to not see all the minuscule flaws with Daniel.

But, aside from all of this, they really needed to start the livestream. It was at that moment Matt Sumner tried to tell her something, but she was so stuck in her thoughts that she missed it. That’s something that I need to work on before we’re in space. Wouldn’t want that to happen at an inopportune time. Lewis thought. She looked over to Matt, the multitalented pilot and engineer who was the commander of their team. “Sorry, what did you say?” she asked.

“We are all ready to start the United Nations live stream, so I was just going to ask if you were ready. I know Danny’s not here yet, but he’ll probably get here any moment now, and we don’t want to miss out on anything,”

“I was actually just thinking about that. Go for it.”

With that, Matt nodded and went back to working at the computer that was hooked up to the screen at the front of the small room, his cleanly cropped brown hair slightly falling in front of his face. Near to Matt was Emit Spellmeyer, who was sitting at their small round table working on some sort of circuit board. Emit wasn’t typically as reserved as they were now, but when they put their mind on a project, it was kind of hard to pull them away from it. Although, Daniel was normally the one most successful with that. Pretty early on they bonded over their commonality of constantly accidentally electrocuting themselves and, therefore, having scars from it. Which, to be honest, worried Lewis. She was trying to work with Emilia, the team’s physician specialist, to create some sort of outline and safety precautions to avoid those accidents; because one of the last things you want is to get electrocuted in the middle of space.

Emilia Brell was talking with Mack Faolán on their large couch they were currently sharing with Lewis. From what she could gather, they were talking about the latest Disney price hike, something they were rather frustrated with since their passion for Disney was only surpassed by their love for space.

The current chatter across the room was suddenly cut off with the United Nations meeting becoming live on the screen in front of them. It seemed like the meeting was running slightly behind since they were still deep into their previous subject. It was rather novel to the UN and the world in general, but it was still rather pressing: Ghost Zone representation in the United Nations.

When Lewis heard about ghosts for the first time;:, she wouldn’t be lying if she said she laughed. She didn’t believe it at first: it was against all of what science knew to be true and was just outlandish in general. And if she didn’t follow science to the mark, then she didn’t know who did. But then she was proven wrong. It turned out it could be explained by science. It just wasn’t explored much, or at all, beforehand. That was about thirteen years ago. Ever since the worldwide acceptance of the existence of ghosts and another plane of reality termed the “Ghost Zone”, it has slowly become the topic of interest in nations worldwide. Which is understandable because it was just like an entire country, and a very large one at that, popped in out of nowhere.

The last three years is when everything political started ramping up. One could say that this current UN meeting is the culmination of everything that’s been happening for the past few years. Consequently, the entirety of the present Aphrodite I team focused their attention to the screen, including Emit, who even went as far as placing the in progress circuit board to the side.

The current focus of the meeting was on the Secretary General. When they started the stream, he was just wrapping up a question posed by the assembly: “-can you please elaborate on why having a seat in the United Nations is important? As of, the Ghost Zone is on another plane of existence, so we cannot see why it is beneficial to have a role in these decisions that only impact this plane.”

The camera then changed to point at the opposite side of the room where the exhausted spokesperson (ghost) for the Ghost Zone was. The figure looked slightly blurry as if the camera couldn’t focus on him, yet his appearance was still rather noticeable. He was wearing an impressive get-up including a cape of moving galaxies draped across his shoulders over black and white formal attire. But what was truly striking was the breathtaking living aurora borealis sitting atop his unnaturally weightless white hair. The camera picked up the lighting around him oddly. His own subtle glow surrounded him, illuminating his blue tinted skin, the black of his attire, and the area around him. “Whoa,” Emit exclaimed, “That’s the Ghost King, Phantom. I can’t believe he’s there instead of a representative.”

At this point, anyone who knew anything knew who Phantom was. With all the dynamics with the Ghost Zone and the world, he’s been present. If you are any bit aware of the current world news, you are bound to know. And if you don’t know about him that way, then you probably heard about him apprehending rogue ghosts that were occasionally wreaking havoc across the world. That was always a flashy affair, so they were pretty hard to miss; those events often gained popularity with the younger population since they aligned so well with the common fascination of superheroes and magic.

There was an odd dynamic of those in favor of the Ghost Zone and Ghost King and those against the presence, which Lewis was sure stemmed from poorly backed bias and fear of the unknown. Luckily, the entire Aphrodite I team was in favor of the Ghost Zone and were mutually interested in how the whole integration of the two “worlds” would play out. In fact, when Danny spilled the fact that his parents are the world’s leading ecto-scientists, the entire team made him share everything he knew, which was definitely more than they expected.

The sudden subtle sound of an aurora borealis – strikingly reminiscent of birdsong, a crackling campfire, and disjointed morse code - surrounded Phantom’s voice as he started to respond to the question, took Lewis out of her thoughts, “This is not common knowledge, but since it is pertinent, I’ll share.” He paused for a second. The subtle sounds of his aura humming, yet sounding like a speeding car passing infinitely by a house, permeated the silence in the air. “While the Ghost Zone is technically not a part of this plane, the two planes are still fundamentally connected in every way. These planes are parallel. Think of a mirror. A movement on one side will be reflected on another. The Zone acts similarly to the mirror. The major changes of existence and major events have impacts on the core status of the Zone. If the Earth falls plague to global warming, the Zone will have reflecting detrimental effects. So, it only makes sense that we should have a position to help prevent any harm to the world, as they are one in itself.”

He took a pause, as if waiting for questions before resuming his speech, “So, don’t you see? It’s all connected. In order to have the United Nations successful in its endeavors, the Ghost Zone will need to have a part in it.”

The camera shifted to the Secretary General, who nodded and then took a moment to discuss with his adjacent cabinet members. After a short minute, they came to a conclusion, “Considering the joint effects of this plane and the Ghost Zone’s, we have agreed to allow the Ghost Zone to have a representative in the United Nations’s body. Please be prepared to select a representative that will best represent your “nation” and best contribute to the United Nations’ seventeen points. If nothing else is to be added, we will conclude this segment and take a ten minute recess before we talk about NASA’s Mars expedition.” Seeing as no one moved to speak, the session broke, and a picture of the UN logo filled the screen of the room.

Now that everyone was pulled out of their intense focus on the proceedings, Mack broke the silence exclaiming, “I’m so glad we caught the end of that. This has been going on for so long. It’s wonderful that it’s finally resolved.”

“Exactly,” Emilia said, “It’s a relief that this finally happened. Also, I had no clue that the two planes were connected. That’s so interesting.”

That’s right. Lewis thought, “I bet Daniel’s parents didn’t even know about it since he never shared it with us. Which really shows how important this revelation is,”

“What is really interesting,” Matt said, pondering as he wandered over to sit on one of the chairs next to the couch, “Is how this correlates to the universe as a whole. If the Ghost Zone is really as infinite as it is claimed to be, would that mean that it is connected to the entire universe rather than just Earth?”

Before Matt could explain more of his pondering thoughts, their resident geologist (and sometimes engineer) Daniel, suddenly said, “Sorry for getting here late, everyone.”

“Geez, Danny, when did you get here?” Emit exclaimed, slightly startled.

“And where were you?” Lewis added on.

“I actually just got here a second ago,” Daniel mentioned casually as he walked over to the adjacent chair on the opposite side of the couch of Emit’s table. He sat down in a dramatic, exhausted manner., “And I was busy dealing with some family things over a call. There’s just a lot going on with everything, particularly my sister, and I had to tend to it. But look, I haven’t missed anything. The discussion hasn’t started yet!” Daniel pointed at the screen that was very clearly showing the “on pause” image.

Showing up at the last minute, Lewis thought, Typical. She rolled her eyes in a friendly manner. “But you did miss the big news with the Ghost Zone.”

“Oh, what was it?” Daniel said as his eyebrows scrunched up with question.

“The Ghost Zone is getting a United Nations representative,” Emit shared.

Matt then piped in, “And the Ghost King also explained that the two different planes are interconnected, which makes me think that the infiniteness of the universe is connected to the infiniteness of the Ghost Zone. That’s something that I would really like to study and figure out.”

“That is a really interesting concept,” Daniel said to Matt, “I would love to look into that with you sometime, after our mission, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Wait,” Mack broke in, sweeping a stray strand of dark blonde hair off his face as he narrowed his eyes. “You know when people kind of look like celebrities?”

“Yeah…” Lewis said, not really understanding where his train of thought was heading.

“Danny kind of looks like the Ghost King. Just, like, make Phantom human and change his hair and eye color, and they look similar.”

“You know what,” Emit said, “You’re right, they do look really similar.”

Suddenly, all eyes were on Daniel, who looked rather uncomfortable with all the attention, which Lewis noticed was rather uncharacteristic within their team. Perhaps it’s just too much right now, he looks absolutely exhausted, Lewis thought.

“I mean,” Danny started, slightly startled, “I guess I do, but there was this one guy from my high school, Wes, who everyone also said looked just like Phantom. So maybe he just has a familiar face.”

“Hm, sure, I guess,” Mack said.

Before they could ponder everything even more, the screen changed to once again show the filled assembly room. After a moment, the Secretary General spoke again, “Today, we would like to talk about the newest space expedition that is led by the United States of America’s National Aeronautics Space Administration, also known as NASA. Since this expedition is going into places unexplored by humans in person before, it is significant to our society and the changes that it will bring. Quinn Moreau of NASA will be the representative from NASA explaining everything about this expedition to Mars today.”

“Hello, what a delight it is to be here. Thank you for having me. I have been working with much of the preparation process for this mission, including planning, team selection, and training. So please, ask away.”

“Does anyone have any questions or concerns before the office shares ours?” The Secretary General asked the hall.

“I actually do,” the representative from India said as she pressed the microphone button and leaned forward, “I have some important questions about your team. How did you select them? Why is this team the best for this mission? I understand that the entire team is from America, why no other countries?”

“Well, to answer these questions I’ll have to start with our selection process. Two of the base requirements for our organization are that you have to be a citizen of the United States and that you must have a masters in a STEM degree. As such, all of our astronauts are inherently from the United States. It is possible to have astronauts from other countries, but they would only be honorary within NASA and under their own country’s organization. For two reasons, we don’t have any for this mission. One is that the best team combination was made, and coincidentally, was only those from NASA. The other is that this is an unprecedented mission led by NASA. As it is the first of its kind and a solo expenditure from the start, it lies that the astronauts are also from our organization. In the future, we can certainly consider bringing in the best from all countries.

“I would also like to assure you that we went to great lengths to select and curate our team. We chose a selection of those who have a well balanced combination of success in their field, teamwork skills, creativity in thought, perseverance, and integrity. From those selected, we had them undergo our unique HERA training. This is where we simulate a mission in space. From the place, tasks, people, and situation, we simulate it to a T. Through this experience, we can analyze just how well the teams work together and what strengths and weaknesses are most important. We did this extensive forty-five day process three times until we ended with the best team we could curate. And now, they are continuously working on preparing their skills and knowledge for their expedition. Shortly from now, they will undergo a quarantine process where they will finish refining their skills. We know that this team will be successful. Thank you for your questions that allowed me to share our extensive process. Is this information satisfactory?”

“Yes, I do regret that this could not be a multinational expedition, but I do see merit in this process.”

“Any other questions?”

“Yes, exploring new places in space is definitely remarkable, but why did you choose this mission to Mars? What are you, and we, going to get out of it? How will this impact the world?” The representative from the United Kingdom asked.

“Thank you for such an interesting question. I’m sure many of us are familiar with the opportunities that Mars can hold for the future. How it can be used to help Earth is important, especially since we’re running out of space and infringing too much on the natural landscape and ecosystem. But we really can’t figure any of this out unless we go there and study it – in person …”

“We know all of this part already,” Emit said as they reached for his circuit board and started to work on it again, “Say, how many times did you all do HERA, again? I did it two times.” The majority of their group let the assembly meeting become background noise as they turned their attention away from it to converse.

“Three,” Matt said, turning away from the screen to face Emit, “It was certainly an experience, that’s for sure. I got to say though, that the third time was exponentially better than the first.” He shared a smile with the team.

“I did it once,” Mack said. At this point, Lewis realized, they were all going to talk and there really was no point in watching the current UN conversation. Might as well enjoy their time together when they don’t have much to worry about.

“Two times for me, and that’s the same for Emilia, right?”

“Spot on.”

“What about you, Danny?” Emit asked.

“Oh,” Daniel started, pulled out of whatever deep thought he must have gotten himself into, “Three times, actually. It was really nice how, although it was the same mission every time, something was always just a bit different to make it feel like a brand new experience, besides having new teammates of course. Are you guys all ready to go to space? We only have, what, two and a half weeks now?”

“I think I’ve always been ready,” Matt said, “I honestly can’t wait. However, it will be pretty hard to leave all my friends and family behind for such a long time. I mean, it’s almost two years, but with all of us together, I think it would be worth it.”

“Definitely,” Emilia agreed, a soft smile on her face. Lewis could relate, after all this time during their training, they’ve become some sort of a family, though an odd one at that.

Lewis turned her attention back to the United Nations’ livestream. She guessed she shouldn’t be surprised that nothing from it was new to them, but it was still interesting to see how the UN handled it. From what she could see and hear, it seemed like they were concluding the Aphrodite I mission segment of the conversation, and everything after that would be irrelevant to them or is knowledge they already have. “It looks like everything’s about wrapped up. What do you say we play a board game for old time’s sake. We all know we need it.”

“Oh, definitely,” Mack exclaimed, “I need something that’s not this to busy my mind.”

“I definitely need a brain break,” Daniel proclaimed, “Which game should we play?”

Emit sighed exasperatedly, “Oh no, you didn’t just ask that, did you? You know it takes us almost an entire hour to decide.” That was true , Lewis realized. The bad side of having a team of such exceptional people is that, sometimes, it was hard to decide such mundane things because of how much they would overthink it.

“Let’s just do Clue,” Lewis proposed, hoping that they could just settle on anything quickly. This was meant to be a relaxing time, not a debate.

There was silence for a moment, then Emit spoke up, “But that game doesn’t –”

Soft groans of frustration permeated the room. Here we go … Lewis thought fondly.

#danny phantom #ectoimplosion2023 #space #space core #the astronaut

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cyntax-err0r · 5 months

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Wicked!

And the lore of a snarky Ranger below

Dirt poor with no education, no mother, and their father slaving away at the docks, Ilphella Ru Solis joined the other poor children of the Lower City in a group soon turned gang, running scams, stealing things, anything to get by and eat. At this young age, Ilphella befriends a little drow girl, Sabal, and the two grow to be inseparable - but it’s with Sabal that Ilphella learns they can’t produce any magic. Disappointed that the only sun elf in the group can’t use magic, they appoint Ilphella to be the face; someone who sweet talks targets and uses charisma to distract them while they pickpocket them, or to keep targets away from their homes during heists. Ilphella becomes well versed in the art of charisma and sleight of hand, but in a job gone wrong with Sabal, the two are punished by the woman they were trying to rob who declares them to be “Vile and wicked creatures.” It was then and there Sabal and Ilphella likened themselves to the insult, naming themselves Vile and Wicked, respectively. Wicked used this opportunity to distance themselves from their mother’s sun elf heritage, despising their mother for leaving them. As time went on, Wicked began to bump heads with the appointed leader of the gang, Tenval, who betrayed Wicked in a heist, leading to their imprisonment. Using what little savings Brell was able to accumulate, and pleading with the guard captain, he bails out his child from jail. Deeply disgusted that their father used all his money to free them, Wicked took off into the wilds around Baldur’s Gate, vowing never to be a burden to their father again.

Wicked would spend months alone in the forest, being watched over by an elk that would slowly approach Wicked, until the elk took the form of a young woman. The woman taught Wicked how to survive in the wilderness, swordsmanship, archery, and over time the two grew close and became lovers. More time passed and the woman noticed how Wicked demonstrated kindness to animals and respect to nature, and although perplexed by their lack of magic, brought Wicked to their enclave to join them. After meeting the Head Druid to see if they would fit their lifestyle, the Head Druid sensed something dark, something wrong within Wicked and cast them out, declaring their presence the first sign of a dark plague.

Broken by this, Wicked returned to the city after being rejected by the Druids and encounters their childrenhood friend again, Vile - or now known as Lady Vile. Lady Vile welcomes Wicked into The Guild, not as a member, but as Guild-Friend. A few of Wicked’s old gang members are part of the Guild as well, now full grown adults, but after Wicked’s rocky departure, is still not on best terms with them. Wicked hears of a bounty hunting opportunity from a noble who has ties to the guild - Viscount Gildenow. Wicked, looking to make more gold as their game meat wasn’t selling huge on the market, and would like to make more money to send to their aging father, signs themselves up to hunt the rogue court mage. After succeeding in record time, Lord Gildenow assigns Wicked to be his personal bounty hunter. He “rents” Wicked out to the other nobility who are in need of a hunter, but when they’re not away from Baldur’s Gate on a mission, Lord Gildenow totes them around the court and private parties as a pet. Making ample money, Wicked paid back their father tenfold and used their coin to ensure Brell is never without. Between missions that take them far out from Baldur’s Gate for long periods of time and doing quests for The Guild to remain in their good graces, Wicked hardly has time for the wilderness and longs to live among the trees again. While out on a mission, Brell passes away, and Wicked finds out months later when they return.

One day in the Guild hall beneath Baldur’s Gate, Wicked hears news of a mother/son duo welcomed by the nobility; a renown cleric of Corellon Latherian, Veshnilla Dawnbreaker, and her blind son, a cleric of Lathander, Ilphelkiir Morning’s Glory.

A mother and son who share striking resemblance to Wicked…

#Wicked #BG3 #Tav #OC #half elf #sun elf

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