#older!danny

I headcanon that Danny doesn’t really need to breathe, since he’s... you know, DEAD. So,,, he can totally go into space unprotected as Phantom! Space shenanigans!!! but obviously if he’s not wearing a suit, he can’t really communicate because duh, no air = no sound wave travel. So he wears a suit anyway, at least just so he can talk with control or whoever/whatever astronauts connect to with their suit radios. (don’t quote me, i know nothing about how astronauts do space stuffs)

SO LIKE IF THIS WAS MADE INTO A FIC WHERE DANNY JUST... BECAME PART OF NASA CREW FOR A BIT OR SOMETHING THAT WOULD BE FREAKING AMAZING AND I WOULD SMASH THAT KUDOS SO HARD

if that was a thing tho (wahhhhh all the ones I’ve ever encountered where he does NASA space stuff are one-shots TT~TT) then i feel like it would have to be set during summer or something to have it make sense why he can just up and go to space without everyone filing a missing person’s report or anything lol.

first off - the setting. (NO PHANTOM PLANET)

- 1: it’s gotta be summer because otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to disappear during school, since everyone would notice. but, this only gives us roughly 3 months for Astronaut!Ghost!Danny to have space shenanigans and fun NASA stuff... so i’m leaning towards number 2

- 2: OR this is set when he is a teensy bit older. he finished high school (managed to graduate with A’s and B’s somehow) and is now gonna take a gap year to finally relax after the stress of fighting ghosts while also having to attend high school is over. so now he can focus on doing the things he wants/likes, and can fight ghosts worry free without having Major Life Consequences. and maaaaaaybe he kinda decided to go around and spy on a bunch of NASA’s facilities in the meantime :D. i mean it’s no big deal, right? he’s just floating around invisibly and intangibly, not really bothering anyone. And it’s not like anyone’s gonna know, all those weird temperature fluctuations are just the air ducts acting up, come on guyyyys that’s not weird and suspicious at all. so Danny is just doing his thing and wow are those pieces of asteroids? dangg look at thattt that’s so cool! and then over ther— OH MY GOD THE ROCKET LAUNCH IS TODAY?!! so obviously he flies over as fast as he can to check out the inside and watch it all happen and ohmygod!!! this is so exciting!!! but then after a few hours of super high strung energy... *yawnnnn* he’s getting real tired now, all that excitement and adrenaline really lends itself to a much harder crash once he calmed down a bit... maybe he could just sit somewhere unobtrusive for a little, yeah. ooh this cupboard looks really nice, i’m sure it’ll be fine here.... *snore* and BOOM the story all spirals from there.

then, the reasons why no one is worried when he goes to space (they would all need to be micro-adjusted per other scenarios, but I think they can all fit with any of the others):

PARENTS

- 1: his parents are on some summer-long cross-country ghost expedition trip and left the kids at home (“do what you want, stay safe!! see you in september!”)

- 2: or maybe they sent danny to a summer retreat or something for several months so they don’t even question the disappearance because he is supposed to be gone the whole summer (this would also explain why Sam/Tucker/Jazz don’t freak out)

JAZZ

- 1: Jazz is in/at college (or otherwise just a not staying at the house for the summer for some other reason, maybe also doing a summer-long boarding camp thing) and thus not worrying about Danny too much (we all know she would 100% be trying to check up on him and make sure he’s ok)

- 2: Jazz is home for the summer, but since she already knows about Danny’s Spoopy Stuff TM, Danny could just figure out a way to tell her he’s in space for a while somehow, or she just wouldn’t be too alarmed since she knows he can take care of himself now OR he told her he wanted to go on a trip like mom and dad are doing except his is to explore fun places like the Kennedy Space Station over the summer, so that’s what he would be doing (“i’ll check in every once in a while, just so you know I’m still dead and everything.” *Jazz pinched the bridge of her nose and tries not to sigh too loudly* “...please try not to get yourself hurt, Danny. You’re not a cat, no matter how much Tucker says the purring makes you one—“ “Hey!” “—so you don’t have 9 lives. At least remember to protect the half-one you have left.” *Danny pouts for a second, but then relents and sighs* “Okay okay, i’ll be EXTRA careful spying on NASA. Scout’s honor.” “you’re not a boy-scout.” “I CAN DREAM, JAZZ”)

VLAD

- 1: there might be some Vlad stuff too (or at least vlad’s perspective because that would be funny to slip in occasionally, if Vlad just couldn’t for the life of him find Danny and just spends the whole summer getting increasingly frustrated and then really worried because where is Daniel??? how did he disappear with no trace??? and then it escalates to where he eventually takes down the whole GIW because he thinks they killed/got rid of Daniel, the only one who could truly understand him they’re gonna p a y).

So it starts like this: Vlad was all hyped up to have this whole summer with no one in the way to try to get Daniel over to his side, but then the brat up and disappears on him before he can make any big moves and now he’s gotta hunt down the pesky little badger, but for some reason his ecto-signature isn’t showing up anywhere, hmm perhaps he is hiding in the ghost zone? or in a different country? and voila he starts searching.

- 2: or, he went after Maddie and Jack on their road trip instead of focusing on Daniel over the summer. Yeah idk, it lacks a bit of oomph, but after thinking about that first scenario so much I just can’t think of anything better.

SAM AND TUCKER

- 1: if this is the older!Danny setting from the top, then they would all be doing different things. Danny would be taking a gap year, Tucker would probably go straight into college (give it up, Tucker is a tech genius and would straight up get into MIT or some ivy league bullshit) and probably get an internship to some big tech company too. and then I feel like Sam might go to college right away to move out from her parents’ house, or she would go to California or something to do activist stuff. let her find her people guys.

- 2: if this is the summer setting, then I feel like they still might be doing different things, similar to how the college scenario worked out. Tucker = tech internship, or starts working with Technus (Danny has mostly friendly relations in this fic, cuz you know… he’s the ghost king and all) to learn tech stuff and whatnot. Sam = gone to go activist/protest, or her parents are taking her on a mandatory trip to do fancy shit she hates. (sorry sam, it’s just the hand you were dealt with)

either way, all 3 of Danny’s closest people, Team Phantom (Jazz, Sam, & Tuck), would notice after not too long that Danny was no longer checking in with them. Naturally, Sam and Tucker ask Jazz about it, since if anyone knew where he was, it would be Jazz, and she says that Danny was exploring NASA. so they look up whatzit goin on and lo and behold, they find out that there was a rocket launch recently. (“Wait, hang on...” Tucker mutters. “Guys, I think I found something.” he calls over to Sam and Jazz, who were sitting on the other side of the room, bouncing ideas back and forth of where Danny could be. They stop taking and walk over to where Tucker is typing away at the computer. “What is it?” Sam asks. “Ok so the last time any of us heard from Danny was two weeks ago, right?” “Yes, that was when he was telling me about the new rovers that are being built for the Mars explorations.” -Jazz “Yeah, so I looked up anything related to NASA that happened since then and... you guys aren’t gonna believe it.” Sam quirked an eyebrow at him. “Believe what?” Tucker took a breath, then blurted it all out in one go. “TherewasarocketlaunchandIthinkDannytotallystowedinsideorsomething.” Sam and Jazz just blinked at him for a couple of seconds before their brains caught up. “I’m sorry, come again? I think you just said Danny hitched a ride up into space?” Jazz squeaked. Sam groaned and looked up at the ceiling, covering her face with her hands. “Ughh, of course he would.” Jazz looked back at him. “Tucker, you’re sure?” “Well,” he fidgeted, “it makes the most sense, and there aren’t really any other big events that happened up until now. Him being in space would explain why he wouldn’t be able to contact us, and it’s much more likely that he jumped at the chance to go to freaking SPACE (come on, this is Danny we’re talking about) than say, a natural portal swallowed him up into another dimension.”

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