queerzane

[queerzane]

One thing I think is interesting about Zane that the fandom doesn’t talk about is his morality, specifically his “the ends justify the means” mindset

There are multiple times in canon where Zane is shown to be absolutely 100% down to throw himself or other people under the bus if it means that it will eventually lead to a better outcome for everyone. Obviously his sacrifice comes to mind but he’s also shown multiple times in both in and out of show that he’s willing to sacrifice his own friends as well if it means that he gets to find out who the quiet one is or something like that.

Even when he was the ice emperor, when Akita confronts him about freezing her people he responds by saying vex told him they were evil and cruel people. He still thinks he’s doing something right and that by getting rid of an entire group of people for the greater good that he’s improving the never realm. Which is something both vex and the staff take advantage of.

It’s a genuine flaw I think Zane has in his character and I’m ngl i kinda wanna see other characters call him out for how damaging that mindset could be. The closest we ever got was in s3 but even then he didn’t really change his mindset just the methods of which he achieves what he thinks is right. I want it to cause conflict with the other ninja who do have to deal with the fact Zane is always willing to put them down if he deems it needed. I think it would be interesting.

[queerzane]

I return from the dead with MORE ICE EMPEROR! HOW SUPRISING!!!✨❄️

Thought I’d finally share my head cannons for this creature and for how the staff of forbidden spinjitsu works so HERE WE GO-

❄️ when each ninja holds the staff, their elements burst to life all around them, most notably through their hair. Lloyd and Kai’s looks same as the show, though Kai’s hair is smoldering a bit more and smoky, and Lloyd’s is flickered with gold. Everyone else is different! Nya’s hair swirls with clouds and mist like a brewing storm, jay’s hair stands on end as the lightning makes the lights flicker, and Zane’s hair floats and glitters like the northern lights, leaving lil flurries behind him as he walks! This effect looks even cooler when he grows his hair out as the ice emperor.

✨when Zane crash lands into the neverrealm, the fall leaves a serious wound on his right temple. This badly damages his right eye, making his vision unpredictable and his eye noticeably glitching out.

❄️ Zane was built to be as convincingly human as possible- because of this he mimics different symptoms to communicate what kind of damage he has. For example, when he has malware or a virus, Zane will run a fever, cough or sneeze. He shivers on the rare occasion his powers become too overwhelming and, in the case of the fore mentioned head trauma, Zane will show concussion symptoms- such as his pupils being “blown” (two different sizes). Also yes his hair does grow. He doesn't know how to take care of it as the emperor so it grows tangled and matted but it grows nonetheless

✨the effects of the scroll are a slow burn! Sure the effects are noticed almost immediately, but the damage it does is slow and not easily reversed: therefore contributing to my “Zane does not turn back into “Zane” after he drops the staff” bit! The effects linger- Zane’s hair flickering with power when he’s upset, his powers responding in a similar way to season one- where he’d freeze the training grounds over. He leaves frozen footsteps wherever he goes, freezes over on occasion(mostly along his face when he cries) and if you were to tousle his hair it’d start snowing indoors. ❄️ I love the “Zane committed active genocide alongside vex and is horribly traumatized by it” trope I see in fics a lot, but I also found myself wanting to work with the concussed, sleepy boi we got in the show! So Im developing an AU that meets sort of a middle ground: with Zane participating in the first decade or two of war, but slowly becoming sicker and more manic and paranoid the further into his rule he goes. When he is not asleep, the emperor is pacing the castle in unrest, the walls creaking as he spirals in the warped memory of the lies vex had told him and the realm continues to freeze solid.

That’s all I got for now! Feel free to use any of these in your own works- just be sure to tag me bc I’d love to see it! I’ll be adding to this and tweaking it as I develop this au more… in fact lemme know if any of y’all come up with a name for an au like this!

….and if you read this far- holy guacamole thanks I guess!

[queerzane]

Kotori accidental kidnapping arc. They are so dead 🤪

[queerzane]

Artistic rendition of what I've been going through for the past year of my life help it hurts it hurts so bad

[queerzane]

Yayaya glacier kiss because I really need glacier

[queerzane]

I've been rereading Never the Dark and wanted to try my hand at making a birdie dragon in flight rising ^-^ Might try to make a Farley or Samira too. (hope it's alright if I'm playing with dragon pngs with your story, tell me if it isn't.)

ARE YOU KIDDING ME THIS RULES. YOURE SO AWESOME!!! the fur on his neck mimicking his cape, the staff on his wings, the bandages... Your attention to detail is perfect. I would absolutely love to see other characters if you want to make them! Thank you so much!

[queerzane]

wanted to get this done before the spring semester starts

[queerzane]

Praying mantis inspired harumi!

[queerzane]

Ummm new oc. Kotori 🩵

[queerzane]

Never the Dark, 3 and 9!

[ask game]

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

there are so so many to choose but I think one of my favorites is from Cole

“He’s a good person,” Cole says softly from where he’s laying on his cot staring up at the ceiling. No one says anything for a long moment. “How can you be so sure?” Jay asks, voice vulnerable. “I just am. I can feel it.” He’s not sure how to articulate it- how does he tell them that he feels a connection with this man? That when Birdy raised his hand to tuck that strand of hair behind his ear, when he thought he might kiss him, Cole had leaned in? When Birdy looks at him, the weight of his gaze feels familiar, “He listens to me.”

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

oh absolutely. The core idea has stayed the same but a lot of smaller things changed around a lot before the start of the fic. Samira was originally going to run a cage-match style fighting ring, and she was from djinnjago at first. the sleeping dragon in the mist was a late stage addition. the biomes in the ROM all shifted a bit. Birdys nickname was originally BUG! and he could use his ice powers from the jump- his original mask was made of ice!

[queerzane]

May I ask ALL of the ask meme questions about Never the Dark 👉👈 I WANT TO KNOW

[ask meme]

i'll do all the ones i havent already answered! Thank you! and putting it under the readmore cuz it'll get long

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

cuteness agression towards zane. love him so much i have to put him through the horrors. No to be serious I just really enjoy writing things that cover darker topics, so drug use, alcoholism, manipulation, etc. is all interesting to write for me, so i favor that type of plot. the main idea came from thinking about what might have happened if Wu never told the other about Zane getting sent to the never realm, and just quietly went there alone to save him. Wu doesn't fight the emperor, he doesn't even try. he tries to bring zane back but he mostly dodges his blows until he's certain that nothing he says will remind him who he is. and then i thought- what would Wu do, and what would be the fallout? and the fic was bornnn

2: What scene did you first put down?

the very first scene. that feels surprising to me- i usually get hung up on scenes happening way later down the line, but i had such a clear and specific idea for how i wanted the prologe to go that it was almost easy.

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

i already did this but i'll do it again.

“Oof-” She stumbles back, “Sorry- what happened? Why are we stopping?” “I apologize.” Birdy says, emotionally flat where he’s standing in front of a large purple tree, “I was simply making sure we were on the right track.” When he starts moving again, he takes a wide step over something. As the others begin to move, Nya sees that the thing Birdy had stopped at and stepped over was a oblong dark spot on the grass. She’d seen a few of them before, scattered around the forest. She steps over it too but doesn’t ask about it. Birdy's voice had taken on that tone that comes when he’s not feeling like himself. She blinks, surprised at herself for knowing that.

this is part of the scene where Birdy is leading the others through the acid forest. I think you all should know that spot? blood on the weird grass here leave lingering stains. this clearing? the same as the one birdy shared with farley. it's why zane doesn't want to stop here and why he acts so jumpy

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

crying screaming throwing up

“It was wrong of me to bring up your friend.” Birdy says before stepping any closer, “I reacted so strongly because I was afraid for you, Kai. Those pills are designed for control. Samira supplies the people of this realm and then twists their addiction against them.” “I don’t need your worry.” Kai says, but it’s lost some of the bite it had before. Hesitantly, Birdy approaches Kai. Slowly, with enough time for Kai to draw away, and with more than a bit of caution to stay out of easy access of another swing, Birdy cups Kai’s injured palm. He takes the bandages next, moving to wrap his hand, “There is not a switch I can flip to turn it off.” Birdy says wryly, carefully winding the gauze around Kai’s hand, “I am sorry for what I said.” Kai just stares at him. “...You may not trust me, but I trust you.” He continues, finishing up dressing his knuckles, “I believe you would have made the correct choice.”

5: What part was hardest to write?

the zane POV chapters actually. isnt that funny? theres just so SO much information that recontextualizes a lot of previous events, and trying to keep track of everything was really hard. ewspecially when past me would add stuff without thinking of the ramifications. like FUCKK i wrote a throwaway line about x in chapter 5 now i have to integrate that into this chapter. damnit.

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

I don't know

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

nope! well there may be a little projection in some aspects, but what is writing if not sorta-therapy through the blorbos?

12: What do you like least about this fic?

that i didn't write it all down and edit before posting. Looking back through chapters i'm catching inconsistencies a lot that coul dhave been avoided if i drafted, then edited and fixed, then posted!

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

i'll make a separate post for this one heehoo

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

don't take candy from strangers.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic

that I can write a book. I used to be so convinced that my attention span wouldn't allow for long form writing like this but i've proved myself wrong. and i'm grateful for that.

[queerzane]

Never the dark 7, 10 [dareth x Cyrus, it's not a pairing I've seen before and it humors me in a good way], and 11?

[ask meme]

YAAAY THANK YOUUU

7: Where did the title come from?

Bury Me Low by 8 Graves! I was listening to this song a LOT when conceptualizing the fic and I feel like the whole thing kinda describes Zane in the fic. In retrospect, I do kinda wish I had named it something smoother, I had a few ideas for what I might change it to (Inside the Dark, Forsaken Dark, and [redacted because i might be using it for another project teehee]) but I do like Never the Dark and I think i'll keep it lol

the funniest thing about this song is that I played it so much I got sick of it and now I wont listen to it

If I die today, it won't be so bad I can escape all the nightmares I've had All of my angry and all of my sad Gone in the blink of an eye I've seen the devil. I've shaken his hand I've seen the evil that dwells in a man For all of my wisdom, I can't understand ...... If I die today, it won’t be so hard Everything scares me, but never the dark

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Polyninja because I love them and the fucked up relationship dynamic post zanedeath called to me.

Pixal/Skylor has always been awesome but I included it here specifically because of how I view their character actions in the three year time skip. Skylor joins the ninja a few month after Zane dies and despite the fact that they don't harbor any ill will towards her, Zanes absence is a fresh wound that it feels like she's trying to step into. It makes everyone bleed. No one is coping well and things get messy and tense between skylor, the ninja, and pixal until Skylor has a mental breakdown and removes herself from the team (trauma response due to the nature of how her father raised her.) Skylor was never part of the team- she's not been there from the beginning, so she's an outsider. And so is Pixal. (Not intentionally of course, but the others share a different kind of grief that the two don't.) Cyrus eventually convinced Pixal to go to therapy where she gets some clarity on things and reaches out to Sky to apologize again for any role she played in the teams tension with her. She invites Skylor over for dinner and they accidentally end up talking for 6 hours- and the rest is history

(Skylor IS on good terms with the ninja btw. they apologized and hashed things out- but she won't rejoin the team for a lot of different reasons.)

Coppershipping my beloved. new-ish in the ficverse! They were starting to be more friendly with eachother after zanedeath, and that progressed post s11. Dareth took his grief at losing Zane as motivation to get in better shape and actually try and train, so he hits the gym and puts on a lot of muscle. takes up boxing. He wants to be able to do more to help if something happens again. He ends up putting his new skills to use protecting Cyrus from something or another and Cyrus asks him to be his bodyguard. They spend a lot of time together and fall in love teeheehee

also, fun fact for you, Dareth handmade all the ninja suits they wear in NTD!

11: What do you like best about this fic?

oh man. Is it bad to say the fact that it's almost finished? I'm just really proud I've been able to stick with it and put in the time and effort. I've got a pretty spotty track record with chaptered work- i lose motivation and drop things a lot, unfortunately. But i'm still dedicated to finishing NTD!

and im really proud of the wordcount! 100k!!!!!!! WAOW

[queerzane]

happy lunar new year ^_^ 🐍🐍🐍

[queerzane]

En mi cerebro, Lloyd es un alma viajera, su hogar es el Destiny´s Bounty y le encanta explorar los reinos. Le gusta más que asentarse en un solo lugar. Kai esta bien viviendo en el monasterio.

[queerzane]

Ah fuck it, tits-out Nya

[queerzane]

🐟

[queerzane]

You know it's telling when the first thing I yell out when the teaser was finished was "ZANE WAS ACTUALLY IN THE TEASER?????? 4 TIMES????????" Like wow Zane is actually important and shown in the teaser thats crazy I thought they forgot about him they forgot about Cole instead