#basically a morally grey ekko au

[higuchisora]

No one has any clue what the fuck the Firelights actually Do so I'm gonna dump my headcanon here as the official lore in continuation of my saga of Zaun headcanons.

The Firelights are basically like a nonprofit organization with a Robin Hood twist. Their mission is to be a stabilizing force in Zaun, trying to do whatever they can to take care of both each other and their people. Since they aren't an actual nonprofit, and Piltover doesn't give a damn about human rights, this is where the Robin Hood stuff comes in.

They have to gain their resources (food, water, medicine, etc.) Via theft. So they tend to rob Piltie ships. They try to avoid the foreign ones just to lower the risk of backlash (the foreign governments putting pressure on Piltover to crack down on them, etc.), but they'll do what they believe is necessary to get supplies (and also sometimes mistakes just happen).

They're not above violence, but they do try not to kill people just because they know it can get messy with Piltover if they do. That being said, I believe they probably have killed a few, at the very least on accident. Fights can be brutal, especially if your opponent isn't holding back like you are.

Another thing: their masks aren't just to hide their identities from their enemies. The reality is, things can happen. If they started walking around bare-faced in Zaun, it would be easy for other Zaunites to identify them and possibly give them up (whether to Silco or enforcers or whoever). So they wear them til they're back in their hideout.

The Firelights try not to operate in Zaun beyond distributing supplies or fighting Silco. This is to both prevent their identities being leaked and because they never want to be seen as a "policing" force in their own home. The last thing Ekko wants is to see his own people as "others" or "suspects". Yes, the Firelights are his family, so he seeks to protect them. But Zaun is his home, the Zaunites are his people. He IS a Zaunite, just as all the Firelights are. And he never wants any of them to forget that.

As for who he DOES fight in Zaun: in season 1, Silco is at the top of that list. However, I feel like they probably have other enemies too, even if Silco is the biggest fish (as de facto leader of Zaun at the time). The Firelights have been around (by act 2 s1) for seemingly a few years at that point. It's entirely believable they'd ruffle some feathers along the way. Perhaps a few gang leaders/drug lords (the type to either follow Silco or be desperate to usurp him) who think taking the Firelights out would be the next step towards their goals. Other enemies might include of Silco's allied chembarons and anyone who tries to attack their deliveries.

Distribution of supplies: after robbing a Piltie ship, they'd take stock of whatever they got and send anything they can spare to a connection of theirs in the rest of Zaun. I'd imagine (since they don't seem to have hospitals) to an orphanage of some kind. So, food, clothes, medical supplies, etc. Basically anything a trading ship might have that would be useful to people.

If they snag loot that happens to not be immediately useful (nonessentials like jewelry or knick-knacks or something) they'll either try to repurpose/upcycle it or they'll sell it and use the money to either buy those supplies or put towards projects (such as building tech) to help their mission.

My musings are only half fleshed out and I'm really expanding most of this on the fly as I write it. But I do like to explore the possibility that they're not as sunshine and rainbows as they might seem in their rare moments in canon (and in my post so far).

Less sunny ideas under the cut:

I saw a clip from s1 the other day of a scene that I totally forgot about. When Caitlyn first tells Ekko about the Hexcore, his first thought is about what they (he) can do with it. Namely, as a weapon. Against Silco.

And yes, his traumatizing childhood punctuated by Silco basically coming in and fucking his life up out of nowhere DOES mean it makes sense that Silco is Enemy Number One in Ekko's eyes, arguably even more than Piltover. (Because Piltover ruined the world around him, but Silco might as well have personally walked in and shot everyone he loves right in front of him. Silco IS the villain of Ekko's story, arguably more than anyone else). THAT BEING SAID, he's expressed anti-Piltover sentiments since basically the first time we meet him. So what if Silco telling Marcus to paint the Firelights as terrorists... isn't entirely baseless?

When I say terrorists of course, I really only mean to Piltover. Actual terrorists exist, but many revolutionaries are also painted as terrorists. Silco saying this and giving the bomb as "evidence" isn't just him "being evil", it MAKES SENSE because that's probably already what Piltover would think even without the fake evidence. So what if the Firelights WERE planning to attack Piltover at some point?

Maybe not the same way Silco was. At the end of the day, his whole thing is being calculating (he's also got more life experience than Ekko, who's the same age as his daughter). So Silco definitely thought through Zaun's independence plan waayyy more than Ekko has (whether or not the plan is a good one is notwithstanding, stay focused here). So maybe the Firelights kinda have this plan to like. Destroy Piltover.

Not with bombs, but to be fair, Ekko IS a smart techy guy. He's not into grenades like Jinx, but he did make those hoverboards. He designed the fans to be able to withstand the thick air in Zaun. So what if he's generally just really familiar with the ventilation system? What if he was planning on doing something similar to what happened in Season 2 (redirecting the air to Piltover), but like, worse? Maybe he'd make it so the air system was permanently pushing the Grey into Topside, and maybe he even wanted to put something else in it? Give them a taste of their own chemical warfare? It would take years to do, and might be his end goal, but really, what else would someone who's been radicalized by oppression, who's filled with all this pain and anger, who has so much innovative skill - what else would someone like that do? Lay down and take it? Considering he made the Firelights... I don't think so.

Obviously I don't think he was actually planning on doing this; I don't think they thought him or the Firelights through at all. But he's expressed interest in violence before, and he's also anti-Piltover, so I figure he has to do SOMETHING with his anger (and also as much as I love him, being that squeaky clean and perfect of a character is.... suspicious to me. Or at least not as interesting. You can't live in a world so unforgiving and come out unstained, especially with all that- understandable- anger in him). He clearly wants peace, in whatever way he can (hence he wanted to give the Hexcore to the council himself; likely to bargain for benefits for Zaun). He's hopeful, but I don't think he's necessarily naive about it. He knows that they're most likely never going to just hand it to them- or else they would've done that already. So just in case, he has a plan to take it for himself.

[diino8081]

au masterpost

for all my aus

main misc

[link for non-listed aus]

-

codeflippa au: qsmp comic in which flippa comes back as a code before the birthday stream

[comic link]

-

diino lore: my main oc's in-universe lore

this masterlist is for my stories so this fits here. lore masterpost soon when there's more coherent stuff

[general lore tag] [transformation] [altem] [specific altem yearly redraw post]

ninjago:

frozen liberation au: for my ninjago fl!au (zane centric, morally grey, found family).

during ice chapter instead of zane turning good immediately, he struggles in a mental battle with the ice emperor. two lives trying to fight for his mind. how will this affect the timeline?

[complete chapter list] --- [general tag]

please note that the tag also includes older non-canonical content from before the story was properly created. the official story is in the complete chapter list.

-

time waits for no one: time travel, kai centric, sent to the past

in the fight with the time twins, kai gets taken into the past by krux, leaving nya to fight off acronix. as it turns out, they've gone much further than expected. will they be able to avoid paradoxes and the enemies of the past? will they make it to their future? they'll have to team up to find out.

an old unreleased au from 2021, still occasionally in the works.

-

rainbow zane (rzau)

a ninjago series i created after i discovered titanium changes colours. in which i have created a multiverse of different zanes. from pink to blue, gold to silver. each one has their own personality and each universe turns out differently. this may sound like those undertale sans au multiverses from 2016 and to which i say: yeah. that's basically it.

[masterpost]

-

prime pixane au: pixal and zane accidentally enter prime empire

as mentioned above, pixane enter prime empire. their code sort of merges with the game's and they become ghosts in a way. unagami takes interest in them and pixane realise his plan is their only way out. chaos ensues.

[general tag] -- [info post]

arcane:

swap au:

in which i swap the characters around a bit (jinx is ekko, ekko is viktor and viktor is jinx)

[first post] [general tag] [inspired by]

crossover

loki x ninjago: morro enters the TVA.

at the end of their battle, morro has a choice to make. take sensei wu's hand, losing the realm crystal but getting another chance at life, or give wu the crystal, let go, and die. morro chooses life. apparently he chose wrong.

this au is just a concept and will probably stay that way indefinitely cause the loki hyperfixation is kinda dwindling

-

pressurejago: ninjago x pressure

in which the ninja team get captured by urbanshade because their powers seem useful for their mission. i essentially throw them into the hadal blacksite and see what happens a link to the general tags: [tag 1] [tag 2]

-

ninjago x mcyt:

throwing my favourite minecraft youtubers into the ninjago universe

(formerly named "imperium beans" as i only crossovered joel)

[first post] [general tag]

-

mcyt x ninjago:

inverse of the previous one, throwing my favourite ninja into the life series universe

[first post] [general tag] [🐌]

-

ninjarcane: ninjago x arcane

you'll never guess it gang. i made another hyperfixation x ninjago au

[general tag] [first post to latest reblog]

-

THERE'S A FUCKING SECOND ONEEEEEEEEEE ---- JVNRIAUUUUUUUU

jayvik ninjago retirement isekai au / jvnriau

qpr jayvik, post canon they are thrown into ninjago, some fluff, not much angst, ed n edna are there, fix it? kinda?, a little ooc but it's character development, they are both ace btw

[second post/fic linked]

-

doc and slime, space and time

slimecicle and doctor who crossover from 2023-24

[origin comic]