“So I have been meaning to ask, what exactly are you?”
Danny was floating through the open space of the Watchtower bridge. Idly tossing a fist sized red bouncy ball with a yellow lightning bolt pattern off of the gray metal walls. The question came from the red speedster, Flash, who was lounging in the central chair of the room with his feet propped up on the control panel. Supposedly Flash was watching those monitors. But despite this being the third time Danny had visited the space station, he’d never seen Flash monitor anything. He just made conversation and told stories that Danny could not decide if he believed or not.
The question caught Danny as he sent the ball flying. He fumbled and twisted upside down as he barely caught the ball on its return. Nervously he straightened and replied, “What am I? Uh. Kind of a deep question isn’t it?”
Flash waved his hand dismissively. “I mean the ghosty stuff. Not really my area of expertise. But you don’t strike me as a ghost.”
“Ha. Not ghostly enough for you?” Danny put his hands over his head and made his eyes glow. “Am I not spooky enough?” He waggled his fingers for extra effect.
In a blur Flash was standing next to him, giving Danny an over the top examination. Half bowing as he hummed in consideration. Then in an instant he was back in his chair spinning slightly. “Nope. Kid you don’t seem like a ghost at all.”
Danny let gravity find him again and drifted back to the floor with a light thump. He stood up straight and eyed a glance at his reflection in one of the grand windows of the space station. His hair was still white and he radiated a soft glow. Slightly annoyed, he asked, “What do you mean?”
“I have met ghosts. Sometimes they seem like normal people. Sometimes they are invisible voices that try to creep you out. Sometimes they turn into monsters and throw cars at you. Heck we have a part-time leaguer named Deadman. Nobody can see him at all until he decides to take over someone's body. I’ve never seen a ghost shoot lasers or make glowing shields like you do.”
Suddenly a pencil eraser from somewhere on the nearby desk bounced off Danny’s face. Danny flinched and rubbed where he’d been hit. “Ow, stop that!” Looking back he saw Flash toying with a pencil innocently.
“Besides,” Flash continued, pointing the pencil at the ghost boy, “You are solid. Lots of spooky things have to work to be solid. You default to it. You gotta choose to go through stuff like J’on does. So I figure, not a ghost. Am I right?”
“Well, I am a ghost.” Danny tossed the ball back to the speedster. “But that is kind of a blanket term that gets complicated fast. Lots of things call themselves ghosts. Technically speaking, I am an Ecto-Entity.” Danny pronounced this with formality and a stiff back. Thinking of the way his parents said it. “Also more politely known as a Ghost of the Infinite Realms.”
“Infinite Realms huh? Sounds spacious.”
“You have no idea.” Danny picked his foot up and tucked it under himself. Then slipping past gravity he pulled the other foot up so he was sitting on nothing with crossed legs. Drifting slightly he continued. “Also called the ghost zone, it is an endless dimension of energy and emotion that exists in the shadow of reality. Basically emotions and memories from this world can imprint on the energy of the ghost zone. Then that energy forms stuff like me.”
“So,” Flash smiled. “Just to be clear, you aren’t some creature that escaped from Hell to haunt the living?”
Danny flashed a crooked smile and shifted his eyes to a bright frost blue. “Keep the jokes up, I know how well you handle iced floors.” Still drifting lightly while sitting in air, Danny softly blew air at Flash. Dusting him is a light coating of frost and snow.
“Cute.” Flash shivered slightly and brushed a few snowflakes from his shoulders. “So not the exorcism, don’t go into the light kind of ghost?”
Danny thought back to the flash of pain and light from the accident. “Uh, well… There can be some overlap…”
This conversation takes place after Danny has worked with the Justice League a few times and built some trust. Flash, after learning of his love for space, invites him to spend time at the watchtower. Giving him someone to talk to during his shifts on monitor duty.
I haven't written much myself, but there have been so many great posts lately about Danny interacting with the DCU. I might have to start my take as well.
Plus the question of how the lore interacts between the different shows is really compelling to me.
Let me know what you think. I haven't written much so I am sure there are plenty of pointers I could use. Hit me.
My favourite book series! This is Carl and Princess Donut from the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman. Amazing books and amazing audio books because the narrator is so insanely talented you completely forget it’s just one guy!
Information about the painting
References used:
Carl - based very loosely on Tom Hanks from Saving Private Ryan
Donut - Google image search for tortoiseshell Persian cats helped me figure out the coat pattern and smushed face look
Tiara - Google image search for plastic tiara, and then I combined a few of the results for something a little more unique
Glasses - Google image search for rhinestone sunglasses, and then combined for a gaudy look
Butterfly charm - couldn’t find anything I really liked so it’s more of a sort of fairy wing look than anything else 🤷🏻♀️
Leather jacket - Google image search
Brushes used (procreate):
Lilydale
Winkleigh
Lichen
Agrarian
Forester
Mintbrush
Canva used to add signature
Native Apple photos app used for post-processing colour balance
"There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true, it can pierce the veil between life and death. Conjuring spirits from the past and the future."
SINNERS (2025) dir. Ryan Coogler
Mulan AU where she does get caught by the other fresh recruits while she's bathing but Mushu helps her spin it like the lake is cursed by an evil lizard demon and will turn men into women if they stay in it for too long.
From there it's not actually difficult to get the other soldiers onboard with covering up the fact that poor Ping took one for the team and got afflicted by the vagina curse, especially since it would have been all of them if they hadn't gotten the warning ahead of time. So they agree to help him cover it up, because obviously the army's not going to understand.
Shang is... tentatively glad that the men are bonding and getting along, even if they continue to be deeply weird about it.
Mulan: Uh, what boobs? Huh? Where did these come from?
Mushu: *facepalms and thinks quickly* (speaks from the shadows) I AM THE SPIRIT OF THE LAKE! BEWARE MY CURSED WATERS FOR THEY WILL TURN MEN INTO WOMEN!
Ling, Yao, and Chien Po: Oh no! The spirit of the cursed waters!
So here is my theory for the record. There are no humans in the digital circus. They are all AI. But the "humans" are made by scanning the brains of anyone who puts on the helmets.
Cain is a true AI obsessed with pleasing humans, and his brain scan AIs are the closest he can get. They abstracted when their code gets corrupted or damaged enough that they can't maintain human style consciousness.
It occurs that the notion that we should all be opposed to violence has created a situation where the only people I would trust to use violence refuse to do so...
