#but i do have like the idea for a dotd fic

[basicallyjaywalker]

Thinking about Ivy to realize I haven't posted about her at all so have a short infodump (when I get the chance to finish rewatching S5 I'm also gonna be insufferable about her)

-daughter of Morro and wind elemental and orphan with a lot of resentment

-taken in by Ronin, no one is sure if this was the better or worse option than living on the streets

-expert forger and a sneaky little thief

-her wind element is suppressed since Morro's held onto it. It's like it's been split in half between the two of them and after he's released from the cursed realm he hogs it like a blanket

-had a mom, once.

-since i recently rewatched skybound: she definitely believed the ninja could be innocent during the bounty hunt, but probably still helped bc a payday is important

-she would be part of the ninja replacement team

-gets along shockingly well with lloyd (bonded over morro giving them irreversible trauma)

-would also get along with jay and nya and would try to learn mechanics from them (ronin tried to teach her but it failed)

-her and luna are <3 they met when Ivy tried to rob doomsday comix and luna instead infodumped on her about a magical girl series. neither knows how to address their feelings despite each being almost a year older than the ninja

-ivy loves the sea and the water, always has. the docks of Stiix are one of her favorite places to hang out

-she inherited her dad's little hair streak and she dyes it black for a long time

-i do want her relationship with morro to slightly heal and have a fic planned for how it starts, but it takes a lot of introspection and she never fully does forgive him for leaving her

[absolutelynotsanebaby]

Okay, so I've seen a lot of posts on the "should Morro have stayed dead or should he have been given a redemption arc" and all that and I just kind of wanted to share my thoughts on the topic. I don't think his canon ending is bad, in fact there's a lot I like about it. It's a tragedy and a very good one at that. The way it ends with him and Wu, and with the whole "you can only save those who wish to be saved" quote? That's poignant, that has narrative weight. I think to say that it's bad is to ignore a lot of what makes Morro a good character. He's a reflection of Wu as a teacher, his teachings, and he's a foil to Kai specifically. He shows us why Wu works better now, and why he teaches the way he does. A large component of what makes his story have depth isn't just that he died young and was traumatized it's that he continued a cycle of trauma on with Lloyd (and Cole, if you considered that he dies indirectly due to Morro's actions but that's another topic). He's a bad person, he did really bad things, that's part of who he is. But, I think it's a misstep to call him irredeemable. I think that misses the point of his character entirely actually, like severely. Morro isn't irredeemable, he shows that he's capable of growth in the very scene he dies in! That's part of the tragedy too! It's not a 'hot-take' to miss the point of a character because it's the cool fandom opinion of the month actually. I know people are frustrated at the fandom misogyny in how people talk about Morro vs. Harumi and I agree, it is frustrating, but y'all are just spreading around just plain bad takes and that's getting frustrating.

On the topic of missteps, as much as I do like it, I also think it was a misstep in how DOTD handled Morro. In general DOTD has some interesting ideas and concepts but is overall flat and under-cooked. Morro's part in it isn't excluded from that. DOTD brings him back, it shows that he is extremely capable of change and growth, and understanding (which is something you guys like to ignore too, actually). Then, it has him just leave again, die and I understand why but I think it's very genuinely sad in a way I don't think was intended, or well done. I think it backtracks on the narrative weight his conclusion in Possessed had. Possessions' ending for him is sad but it has depth and weight. DOTD just brings him back for fan service, and again, just has him die, and it's because he wants to. I understand they were going for a "at peace" kind of approach with him but it just falls flat in my opinion. If they were going to bring him back, and I know this is kind of a debated topic, I think they should've just kept him. And everyone who says that he wouldn't be capable of change for that is dead-wrong, the show proves it, and just because you don't like it doesn't make it bad. In terms of how it's handled in fanon, I think it's a mixed bag. Some people do it really well, faithful to his character but other times I think he just gets hit with the fanonization beam really hard. Sometimes you see his woobification of him based on the trauma and death he went through, and that erases what makes him and any sort of possible redemption or relationships with him interesting. I think people tend to miss the idea that a redemption is both not something a character has to 'deserve' (because redemption doesn't equal forgiveness) and also something a character has to work towards. The idea a redemption has to be deserved (as a moral concept not a narrative concept), instead of something worked towards by the character presents in people downplaying his actions and effects, but also in people acting like redemption is inherently reductive to his character because he's bad guys, he's a bad guy guys. Bad guys don't deserve redemption guys (/sarcastic). To be entirely real, I do think redemption can and does have a place in his writing. You can't look at how he acted at the end of possession and DOTD and tell me otherwise. Redemption in fiction at the end of the day is a narrative device and trope, and how a character is written informs their development. Additionally, I think some of you guys take his "you can only save those who want to be saved" way way too literally. That, too, is tragic and it's not because it's right. When characters speak, nine times out of ten, you're not supposed to baselessly accept and internalize what they say as correct and true. Was it true when Cole said he wasn't a ninja after dying in the same season? Was it true when Kai said he deserves to be the green ninja, just because he said it? Come on. Also, just, I think sometimes this fandom needs to accept different people find different things appealing and cathartic. It's okay to prefer a tragedy, but it's also okay to prefer the idea of him redeeming himself (because it takes work) and healing. There's this whole argument about whether or not saying he should've gotten a redemption arc (kind of a stupid question to begin with, in my opinion) but at the end of the day, it's already done. Also, both ends of the spectrum can have the most frustrating takes on him, and yeah I'm going to be annoyed and salty about it if you couldn't already tell. Anyways, there's no proper point to this because it's really just be ranting about several things I find really frustrating about how people handle this topic, so take it as you will. You can disagree, but I'm not saying his ending is bad nor that his tragedy is bad. In fact if you disagree I encourage that this fandom is way too prone to just parroting each others (mostly bigger blogs) opinions and not their own personal ones, so yeah.

[regulusrules]

Hello :) I just found your blog here. I already read your Merlin fics on AO3 and loved them. Do you have any recommendations for dark Arthur fics? Thanks a lot :)

(English is not my native language sorry if I have written something wrong😊)

🌻

Hi anon!! You're doing great, never be apologetic about your writing ;) 💖

Ooh dark Arthur fics! I love those, but they're very rare for some reason in the fandom. Everyone tends to deify Arthur, and honestly can't blame😂 But in the rare times where we get unhinged, possessed, angry, or morally grey Arthur, it is a refreshing breeze of air.

I have three fics for you.

1. Beauty in the Ashes of Our Lives by Fulgance. To conclude even before I begin, this is one of the greatest Merlin fics on earth. It's not necessarily Dark!Arthur as much as it is ruined Arthur who ends up sentencing Merlin to death and killing him himself. It's awe-inspiring how the author makes you believe it, and not just that, but be able to justify both of their actions as well. (not that murder is justifiable lol, but in here you see an extreme reaction from the great King, and you somehow ache for him). You don't see Arthur a villain here; you see him broken to the point of having his solid grounds snatched from his feet. His anger is warranted, and his actions are so in sync with someone who is moved only by anger and pain. And the way the Knights are written; dear holy God! Sometimes I'm sitting in peace, then You're his fucking Arthur rings in my head, and I'm not okay afterwards. I'll keep recommending this fic until the end of time.

2. The Phantom of Arthur Pendragon by @clockwrkpendrxgon. This fic is the classic definition of Dark!Arthur. It's a crime against humanity how little it has been read. I kid you not, I screamed at my phone's screen as if it was the culprit when I first read it. And then I screamed a bit more to the author affectionately. I absolutely loved her take on the idea of changing destiny's course and saving Arthur, because in most dotd fix-it fics this doesn't have any consequences. But here, you see the price fully-fledged. And the way Arthur redeems his actions, asking Merlin not to make him forget because it's a burden they should both share, that was a supreme King Arthur moment. Such a hidden gem fic.

3. Pining for the Moon by EachPeachPearPlum. Again with the Arthur killing Merlin fic type, but the narrative here is very special. There is something in me that gets drawn immediately to experimental minimalistic writing. And when writers ace it, you bet I'm not shutting up about their fics anytime soon. There is so much brilliance in this method of writing that it makes me gape how works like these aren't published and publicly revered as they should be. You'll really enjoy this one.

Happy dark reading!

[denkilightning]

i LOVE LOVE LOVE the way you write jay ,, (i got a good laugh out of ‘ye of little faith’ - such a jay thing to say) are you working on any new fics?

Aaaa im glad!!! there's always a fear in the back of my mind that through all the headcanons the characters i write end up ooc and it might scare people off gkshjdhs

Yall I Am Not A Writer By Trade I Gotta Admit It

suffice to say i have a fuckton of ideas but so little executive function 😭😭

but ill write down for you a few ideas for one shots i have that who knows when or if ill write:

- baby pilots jay just being jay, probably through coles and wus eyes

- more domestic thundercloud!!

- post dotd morro and jay on a little quest realising that theyre connected by storm (with libber reveal!!)

- like a 5+1?? of jay and lloyd having little personal comfort moments through the years (5 times jay comforted lloyd and 1 time he didnt)

- jordana + walker fic, with doing hair as a sign of love especially learning about hair texture you dont have (hair care is so difficult yall)

- dr lloyd missing jay. thats it thats the shot

i also have a dark island trilogy inspired rewrite with jay in the centre but ill need to figure out the time placement cus it seems so fucking bleak without morro there to comfort jay istg. but thatd be a multichapter or like a couple tens k words long so itll be a beast. especially if i want to do deep lore digging and exploring how similar post skybound jay is to dr! walker

[wannabemasterofwindintraining]

Do you think morro should be brought back on the show and how?

PS thanks for answering my last ask

YES TOTALLY AAAA

As for how well i have some ideas going around in my brain

There's my favourite which is morro didn't die (again) at the end of s5 and he just became a permanent addition to the ninja

Another one which have been the subject of one of my old fics and is kinda more of au territory is well morro didn't die

He was just out there all those years and then he came back

In my fic he didn't join the ninja he was kinda doing his own thing with Lloyd and garmadon but you're totally free to have not dead morro join the ninja if you wanna

A third way is to bring him back from ghost death i guess

Like dotd but more permanent

Not sure how they'd do that cause i think basically all ghosts and the ghosts realm itself are dead? Idk?

Idk whatever way you like I'd just be happy with him being there

[sonickedtrowel]

8, 16, 19, 26 and 38 for the fic writer game!!!

Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

Ummm, probably the end, because that means I'm actually succeeding at finishing it.

How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them? Honestly right now it's just the THORS rewrite and the DOTD rewrite, I don't have a lot of different ideas, just ones that keep mutating and growing new subplots lol

What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

Sigh, embarrassingly it's romance which I'm aware is not really a fanfic tag it's just like a normal literary genre tag but I didn't exactly familiarize myself with how the fanfic world had changed since I was a teenager before I just started winging it.

Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride? Geez I don't know- my fics tend to be pretty... domestic. lol. I guess I would say the Furies except that is, to my eternal shame, my one abandoned WIP so it's a ride that's out of service and I would not recommend getting on it

Would you ever write commissions?

Is that a thing???? I'm old. I mean, not like a literal commission because, yknow, paying for fanfic is a slippery legal slope. I occasionally take prompts and hoard them all in case one of them sparks something in my brain someday but I absolutely cannot guarantee that will ever actually happen so it would probably not be wise for me to agree to that anyway lol.

[roseverdict]

Hold up i wanna know more about your Frozen Earth AU homeboy -kg ninjago

👀👀👀

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE @kg-ninjago

OK SO

Basically my thought process went a little something like

"what if cole never got un-ghosted? maybe dotd happens, maybe not, but for whatever reason he's still a spooky boi"

and then i was thinking about the zane needs a hug fic (for those who don't wanna dig it up, basically "post-season 11 ZANGST")

and they got slammed together into one idea that i shall now copypaste from my notes app

〜〜〜〜〜〜

what if cole…stayed a ghost?

day of the departed still happens, but cole doesn't make it through the rift in time. everyone's Super-Bummed, but they've got cole's back and will stop at nothing to try and get him back to normal, or at the very least, get him stable enough to Not Fade Away.

they succeed on that second part, but not so much the first.

so cole's a ghost for the hands of time, the SOG, hunted, the rise of the oni, and the forbidden spinjitzu seasons. even prime empire!

and during those seasons he keeps learning more about what he can do. he gets better at floating, even learning to fly. he gets good enough at vanishing to make others vanish with him. stuff like that.

basically im channeling my love for danny phantom into "everybody knows cole's a ghost and they're still on his side while he learns what he can do"

maybe he even gets good enough at ghosting to form a human disguise a la "i'm going ghost!"

〜〜〜〜〜〜

and then i really got thinking.

hey, zane's a nindroid who can physically deal with big honkin' time gaps

if cole's a ghost, he can also physically deal with big honkin' time gaps

WHAT IF I JUST-

〜〜〜〜〜〜

"You sure you'll be okay?"

"Yes, Cole." Zane chuckled and waved him off. "You go find us some supplies, I'll be doing repairs on the mech the whole time. If either of us should be worried, it should be me!"

"Alright, alright, I'm going, ya tin can!" Cole snorted, heading for the opening of their cavern. "I'll let you know if I find anybody!"

Zane's laughter followed him outside, and with a spring in his step, Cole took to the skies.

So far, he hadn't seen much in the way of other people, but that's what he'd thought in the First Realm. If a barren desert could support a thriving society of hunters and dragons, who was to say a frozen forest couldn't?

Below him, wildlife teemed, predators and prey working together. The sight made him smile. Maybe this realm wasn't quite as hostile as the First Realm…

As he watched, a hawk and a deer flashed with light, and when the light cleared, two people stood in their places, happily chatting about something.

If Cole hadn't had time to get used to flight, he might've fallen from the sky right then and there.

"Holy-! I gotta tell Zane!" Cole gasped, whirling around and shooting back over the treetops at top speed.

The cavern rose in his vision, and he'd barely landed before charging inside. "Zane, you're not gonna believe-!"

The cavern was silent.

"-this…?"

Cole stumbled to a stop, slowly spinning to take in the sight of the Zane-less cave. "Zane, this isn't funny!"

No reply.

"…c'mon, man, cut it out!"

The Scroll was missing, too.

"…Zane…?"

There was a loose cable on the floor beside the computer terminal.

Cole warily approached it, jolting as a video played on the computer screen.

"Greetings, Friend. If you have found this recording, then I am no longer here. My name is Zane. I'm a stranger in this land, trying to find my way home."

Cole froze.

"It's difficult to keep track of the days in this place. It feels like I've been here a long time. But I refuse to give up hope. I am attempting to repair the mech."

"Oh, Zane, tell me you didn't…"

"Unfortunately, the processing unit is damaged. In order to fix it, I must connect myself to the mech and run a system diagnostic. If anything were to interrupt the diagnostic, it could cause my operating system to reboot."

The ground shuddered, deadly-sharp stalagmites jutting out from beneath Cole's feet in all directions, save that of the computer.

"Cole, if you're watching this, know I would never risk such a thing unless I felt I had no other choice. I knew you would try to talk me out of it, so I waited until you left for your search. If all goes well, I'll simply delete this video and face your worried scolding upon your return."

Cole felt a lump rise in his throat.

"But, just in case something goes wrong, this is the last recording of Zane, Master of Ice. Son of Doctor Julien. Student of Master Wu. I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves and I have tried to fulfill this purpose. Goodbye to my friends…and…to Pixal, I love you."

The recording ended there.

Cole didn't react for a moment.

Then the mountainside shook, and Cole collapsed.

〜〜〜〜〜〜

"Hey there, buddy. I assume you've already seen Zane's recording? So did I. I'm from the same realm he is, and I just came back to find him gone and his final message playing. If you're watching this, then I assume I'm not hanging around here anymore.

"My name is Cole, and I refuse to find a way home without Zane. After I record this, I'm going to leave this cavern to search for him. He had run the diagnostic, which, by the way, Zane, if you're watching this, you could've at least waited for me to get back, but someone from this realm interrupted it and kidnapped Zane. I don't know if he'll even remember me, but I have to try.

"If I don't succeed, then I suppose this'll be my last message, too. I'm Cole, Master of Earth. Son of Lou, of the Royal Blacksmiths. Student of Master Wu. I may not be a nindroid, but Zane is my brother, and ninja never quit, not even when faced with impossible odds. I'm gonna get him back.

"…well, uh, see ya on the other side, I guess."

[fizzysugarwater]

If you still want random asks I just wanna say I had a very similar au as Double Possession where they get stuck together on DotD because Cole is fading and its the only way to save him but I’m never gonna do anything with it really so I’m absolutely obsessed with your fic and stuff about this au like fr just thanks for making this it’s everything I’ve ever asked for

BRO UR GONNA MAKE ME CRYYYYY im SO glad u like it!! and I do have some ideas as to how DoTD goes in Double Possession... some ideas that I might write into a ficlet (I actually rped it with a friend of mine so now the whole way that end of the story goes is In My Brain) but a writeup of that would come after dp skybound so like. stay tuned? double possession is the one au i’ve really Polished so there’s gonna b more, hopefully

[lloydskywalkers]

terrorize y’all’s neighborhood

I can’t write short fics, you guys. I tried. 

Anyways, I know DOTD is the canon Ninjago-Halloween-equivalent thing, but I wanted to write about the ninja having a normal holiday, because in what world would Lloyd not love an opportunity to dress up and eat all the candy he wants?

(And the title is completely stolen from Thriller. Completely.)

Hope you guys are having a great holiday!

"Kai."

"Kai, look."

Kai rolls his eyes, glancing skyward briefly before turning.

Sure enough, Lloyd is holding a bloodied, rubber eyeball up to his own tightly closed one, his face screwed up in a grotesque expression. "Agh, my eye fell out!"

Kai leans one arm against the shopping cart, the other on his hip. "What did I tell you about picking stuff up we aren't gonna buy?" he says, even as he suppresses a snort.

Lloyd's expression falls, and he sticks his tongue out at him. "You're not fun," he grouses.

"I'm lots of fun," Kai says. "I'm just trying not to raise the Green Ninja to be a corrupt child criminal who steals bloody eyeballs from Walmart."

"I'm not stealing," Lloyd protests. "Look, I got it from the Halloween section, it's right there!"

Kai looks up and realizes that he has, indeed, made the crucial error of wandering into the Halloween section with Lloyd in tow, when they're only supposed to be getting a few groceries.

"Oops," he mutters.

"Oooh, look at all the fake blood they have…"

Kai quickly makes to drag Lloyd away before he's forever swallowed by aisles of plastic skeletons and cheap ghoul masks. "C'mon, bud, we've still gotta get stuff for meals," he says, as he tugs a reluctant Lloyd toward the food aisles. "We can't all eat rubber eyeballs for dinner."

"Aw, but they have so much cool stuff," Lloyd pouts, watching the Halloween aisle disappear forlornly. "What's the point of Halloween if you guys aren't even gonna let me celebrate it?"

Kai is only half-listening what Lloyd is saying, too intent on the scrawled shopping list he's got in his hand. He brings it closer to his face, squinting. Why do they keep letting Nya write the shopping lists? Her hand-writing is terrible, they should just appoint Zane as secretary from now on.

"-and that's why Halloween is clearly the best holiday in the entire world," Lloyd is still rattling on. "It's way better than those other dumb holidays, kris-ness, or whatever-"

"You mean Christmas?" Kai gapes at him. He shakes his head. "Boy, we're gonna have to change your mind on that one…"

Lloyd shakes his head. "Halloween is definitely the best, because you get to dress up and scare people, but most importantly you get-" He stops abruptly, eyes going wide as Kai desperately tries to drag them to the next aisle.

"Candy, Kai, can we stop, please, please please-"

"Lloyd, I told you, we're only here for groceries."

Lloyd groans, hanging off the shopping cart as Kai struggles to push it forward, kicking at Lloyd with his leg. "Just some of the mini snickers bars? The ones with little ghosts on them?"

"Lloyd-"

"I'll die without them."

"You've been hanging out with Jay too much," Kai huffs, dragging Lloyd up by his arm. "Look, if you're good, maybe I'll buy you a candy bar at the check-out."

Lloyd brightens immediately at that. "Okay!" He says. "What's next? Do we need cereal? 'Cause the cereal's right here. Can we get Froot Loops?"

Kai rolls his eyes, but he can't help but grin at Lloyd's enthusiasm as he practically tears down the aisle, the sleeves of Jay's old hoodie (that's still way too large for him) flopping over his hands again as he does.

The grin slides off his face as Kai glances back down at the shopping list, highly conscious of the tiny numbers Nya's scrawled at the bottom of the page. Those are painfully legible. He drags a hand over his face. They're not scrapped for money, per say, but after everything - the loss of basically all their belongings on the Bounty to the Devourer, the cost of keeping up with rent - they really do need to be keeping an eye on things, financially. They aren't terrible, but it reminds Kai uncannily of the days he spent struggling to support himself and Nya on the blacksmith shop.

It also means he can't buy Lloyd anything he wants - not even cheap little bloody eyeballs.

Kai glances over the list again, chewing on the inside of his cheek. They can't not get ibuprofen, that's a big no-go. Basic medical supplies are a must, obviously, and he can't skimp on the milk or Zane'll kill him. They could maybe skip the anxiety meds this time, but then Kai would feel awful if anyone had trouble-

"What's wrong?" Lloyd says, craning his head over Kai's arm. "Do we not have enough money? Do you owe some to somebody? Are we in trouble with the mob?"

"Are we - what?" Kai blinks. "The mob - no, Lloyd, geez. How do you even know about that?"

"Gene had an uncle in it! He said they would go yank people off the street, then they would like, steal their kidneys an' stuff if they couldn't pay you back," Lloyd says, gleefully.

Kai stares at him, mentally despairing. He finally decides to let this particular one go. "No, Lloyd," he sighs, wearily. "We're not in trouble with the mob. We're just…a little tight on stuff, right now."

Kai winces. How is he supposed to explain their financial woes to a kid? "Sorry kiddo, we probably won't be able to get those snickers today."

"It's okay," Lloyd says, with surprising nonchalance. "I know we're not super rich or anything. Stuff cost a lot. Before I was with you guys, back when I was on my own, I would try to buy food and stuff, sometimes? But it cost so much. Who even has that much money, anyways?"

Kai winces even harder, feeling the same frustrating mix of pained anger he does whenever Lloyd brings up his childhood thus far.

"-anyways, the point is, I totally get why people become bank robbers, because imagine if you had that much money, you could buy, like, so much candy-!"

"And that's our cue to check out," Kai says, a hand on Lloyd's back as he ushers him past the employee eyeing them suspiciously. "Didn't I say we were trying not to turn you into a corrupt child criminal?" he hisses.

"It was just a joke! You're never fun, geez-"

They get through the check-out line mercifully quick, and Kai's total ends up being slightly under budget, so he caves and buys them a snickers bar to split. Lloyd is seemingly pacified, so Kai decides it's a good time to bring something back up.

"Anyways, back to the whole 'we're tyrants who won't let you celebrate Halloween' thing," Kai says, as they pile the now-bagged groceries back into the shopping cart. "Where'd you get that idea? We're obviously going to celebrate. You can even go trick-or-treating with the other kids in Ninjago City, if you want. Or we can hit up Jamanaki, or Cole's hometown, I guess."

Whatever place is safest at the moment, Kai decides, as they head out of the store.

Lloyd, to his surprise, doesn't exactly look thrilled with that idea. "I dunno," he says, dully. "I don't really wanna hang out with the other kids. Can we just watch scary movies at the apartment?"

"What's wrong with the other kids?" Kai says, frowning. Lloyd isn't usually shy - maybe a little quiet around new people, but he's definitely not one to shy away from any opportunity to get candy, regardless of who's around.

Lloyd shrugs, looking down as he toes a scuff on the linoleum floor. "There's nothing wrong with them," he mutters. "It's more kinda...me."

Kai blinks, coming to a halt. "What?"

Lloyd gives a jerky little shrug. He grins up at him, a toothy one that shows his slightly too-sharp teeth, his red eyes flashing. "'Cause I'm the spawn of evil, duh, they all fear me!"

He says it brightly, still grinning fiercely, but Kai catches the slight waver in his voice, the fake edge in his smile.

Oh. Kai's heart twists.

He opens his mouth to give a rebuttal, fully prepared to insist to Lloyd that nobody even notices those things - and stops. Kai hesitates, thinking back to their trip in the store so far. You'd think, living in a place where literal snake people ran around constantly, red eyes wouldn't draw much attention. But living in a place where Garmadon is relatively well-known…

There'd been that shopper passing by who had done a double-take at Lloyd, her eyes quickly skirting away from his. Kai had shot her a death glare, and Lloyd thankfully hadn't noticed, but…still.

Kai's jaw tightens, and he feels about ready to bare his own teeth.

"You just…you just gotta show 'em it's nothing," he opts instead, trying to sound encouraging. Cole is usually much better at this positivity stuff. Or Zane. Or Jay, really, just anyone other than Kai. "Just be yourself," he finally says. "Once they actually meet you, they'll like you, no sweat."

"Just be yourself? What kind of stupid advice is that?" Lloyd glares. "You didn't even like me when you met me."

"Wha- that's not true," Kai says, frowning. "I-"

"You guys hung me from a roof!"

Kai cringes. "Ah, yeah…um….look, in hindsight, that was super uncool-"

"And then you all hated me for like, a month, until you found out I was the Green Ninja-"

"Hey, woah, now that's not true," Kai says, grabbing Lloyd's shoulders firmly, forcing him to look at him. "We definitely liked you before then, and you know it. But c'mon, Lloyd - you acted like a total brat, you know that, right?"

Lloyd huffs, but he nods, looking sour. "Yeah, yeah," he mutters. His expression falls a bit. "But…you guys are different. No one else has ever liked me. All the kids at Darkley's hated my guts."

Kai is dying, just a bit, on the inside. Like the I-Need-To-Light-Someone-On-Fire-For-This kind of dying, the kind where he goes out and does something stupid-

"Except for maybe Brad," Lloyd mutters, hand on his chin. "I think he sorta liked me, a little bit…"

Kai finally cuts in, his voice only mildly venomous. "Well, the kids at Darkley's were all little assholes-"

"Nya says you're not supposed to use that word," Lloyd says, suddenly very serious. He'd taken his "language learned at Darkley's is not acceptable language if you want dessert tonight" lecture very seriously, it appears.

Kai huffs. "Okay, those little jerks - they don't know what they're talking about. They're a bunch of brainless rock heads."

Lloyd gives a slightly happier giggle at that. "Like Cole?"

Kai gives him a side eye. "Be nice."

"Cole is way cooler than anyone at Darkley's, anyways," Lloyd amends.

"How about this," Kai says. "We all go trick-or-treating together, so if anyone decides to mess with you, I light them on fire."

Lloyd lights up brighter than the flashing electronic pumpkins next to them, and Kai mentally congratulates himself.

"For real?" Lloyd says. "You'll dress up and everything?"

"Cross my heart," Kai draws an x across his chest. "Now hop on," he says, patting the shopping cart handle. "I'll run and push us across the parking lot."

Lloyd whoops, hopping up on the cart.

"Okay," he says, as Kai puts one foot up. "I lied. You're sometimes fun."

"Oh, just sometimes, huh," Kai grins.

"On weekends, and holidays, and-"

Kai never does learn when else he's fun, because Lloyd is too busy laughing as they careen down the parking lot, shopping cart rattling loudly in their wake.

******

Nya thinks them all trick-or-treating a great idea, and she claims that she can make fake blood all on her own - so by the time Zane agrees with her, nobody stands a snowball's chance in hell of saying no to that particular team-up of puppy eyes.

Cole tries arguing that they don't have costumes, until Jay wickedly reminds him that they've still got the pirate outfits from the whole thing with Captain Soto and his men - but by that point, Cole isn't resisting much anyways. Lloyd's excitement is infectious, and it's fun to celebrate holidays with a family this big.

It's something none of them are quite used to, but it's welcome nonetheless.

"We're only sticking to this neighborhood, okay?" Cole tells them, for the hundredth time. "It'll gonna be crowded enough that I doubt anyone will notice it's us, and they're running a haunted house in the middle, so-"

"A haunted house?" Lloyd says, looking up from where he's finishing off the blood splatters on his own costume. "Can I take back what I said about Ninjago City being lame? This is awesome."

Lloyd, economically, has decided to as a ghost, which only requires Nya's old bedsheet, eyeholes, and a good deal of homemade fake blood splattered over it.

"I've gotta be a scary ghost," Lloyd tells Jay, seriously. "The more blood, the better."

"You got it, kid," Jay says, who's getting pretty liberal with the blood himself.

"You're a pirate, Jay, not a zombie," Zane says, ducking the drops of red paint that go flying.

"A zombie pirate," Kai offers.

"A zirate," Jay grins. Cole groans.

Nya's the last to dress up, and she's ended up going as a vampire, to Lloyd's eternal delight.

"You look like me!" he says excitedly, as Nya gives him a sharp-toothed grin.

"Yup," she says, running her tongue over the plastic fangs and making a face. "They feel kinda weird, because they're just lame fakes, but they look super cool, right?"

Lloyd's own fangs (which is a generous term) are tiny in comparison, of course, so they really look absolutely nothing like each other, but the megawatt grin he's got on - Nya's playing the long game here, and Kai has to respect her for that.

This means he's gotta get those snickers bars with the little ghosts on them later, though.

******

Trick-or-treating ends up being a lot more fun than Kai had been expecting - then again, he's never really been himself that he can remember, so maybe it's a new experience for all of them.

Well, except Jay and Cole. They're both far too invested in making sure they hit every single house possible.

Kai grins as he watches them head back from their latest house - Lloyd makes the cutest little terror of a ghost he's ever seen, swamped in the sheet as he is. Albeit a very bloody ghost, fake blood dripped gruesomely all over him. But he seems happy enough, flapping his sheet-covered arms around at anyone who dares get near them.

Well, he had been. Lloyd had discovered, much to his dismay, that it's almost impossible to eat candy with a sheet draped over his face - though there were an amusing few minutes where he had tried vainly to shove several Starbursts through the eyeholes at once. He's finally given up and shoved the sheet back over his head, where it drapes over him like a very bloody cape as he surveys his bag of candy. He's beaten them all by a ridiculously large margin, but that's just because they're all suckers who are slipping half their own candy into his bag the entire night.

"Hey, you got any chocolate you wanna share?" Cole says, reaching his hand toward Lloyd's bag.

Lloyd opens his mouth and snaps his teeth together. "I'll bite you," he threatens. "Like a shark."

"Ooh, Lloyd the Fangfish," Cole pretends to shudder. "Watch out, he's got rabies."

"I do not," Lloyd huffs, but he grudgingly hands Cole one of his Kit-Kats.

"Don't eat too much in one go," Zane reminds him. "You don't want to make yourself sick."

"Aw, c'mon Zane, it's Halloween," Jay says, through a mouthful of his own candy. "Lighten up."

"Hey, Zane can't help being such a mom," Kai says, slinging his arm around him. Zane shrugs at him good-naturedly, not hard enough to actually shake him off. "One of us has to be."

Zane rolls his eyes long-sufferingly. The moon dips behind a cluster of clouds, darkening the streets a bit, and Kai's about to suggest they head home - when a voice echoes across the street.

"Lloyd - hey, Lloyd!"

Lloyd's head snaps up. "Brad?" he says, almost incredulously, as the boy runs up to them, tugging on the hood of his own costume.

Kai stiffens, and he's distinctly aware of Nya giving the kid the stink-eye where she stands off to the side. Sure, Lloyd kind-of made-up with his friends after they lured them all to Darkley's and tried to re-evil-brainwash him, but years of being demon brats don't just go away (look at Lloyd). That, and Lloyd's words from earlier are still pretty fresh in his mind.

Kai narrows his own eyes. Lloyd can handle himself against one little tyke, but just in case…Kai isn't too opposed to shoving some kids in a trash can tonight.

Lloyd and Brad have gone quiet, carefully eyeing each other. Kai holds his breath as they size each other up. Brad was the one Lloyd said might have liked him, right? Maybe this can work in his favor, then. If Lloyd can just be chill for five seconds, then maybe-

"Your fake blood is lame," Lloyd finally says. Nya smacks a hand against her head.

Apparently, it's the right thing to say when you're an ex-evil hellion of a kid, though, because Brad immediately relaxes, jutting his lip out in a half-pouting scowl.

"Is not. Where'd you get yours, anyways?" He gives the ninja a wide-eyed glance. "Did you get it from somebody they killed?" he whispers.

Zane sputters as Cole claps a hand over his mouth, holding back snickers. Lloyd rolls his eyes.

"Nah, they'd never actually kill somebody. They're good guys, remember? Nya - that's Nya, by the way! - she made it."

"Cool," Brad says, looking a little less nervous. "Hey, Gene's over at the playground - wanna help scare him? We still owe him for the fake spider thing, right?"

"Oh - uh, yeah, obviously," Lloyd says, and Kai almost snorts at the gleam in his eye. Gee, you spend all this time trying to reform a kid.

The two fall into easy conversation - mostly plotting an unfortunate Gene's demise - as if they'd never been strained at all, and Kai watches as Lloyd runs off with him to the other kids, feeling a little abandoned and a lot protective.

"Just one little hair," he says to Nya. "I'll just singe one off."

"Kai, he's his friend, look," Nya sighs, gesturing at Lloyd and Brad where they're now tearing around the playground with several other kids (who are, no doubt, equal hellions). "They're just having fun."

"Yeah, well, I don't trust 'em."

"Well, Lloyd can always blast them across town with an energy burst, if they give him any trouble," Jay says, tossing a chocolate bar at Cole.

Zane frowns at him. "That's…not exactly the use of power we should be teaching him."

"What, you don't want Lloyd to protect himself from bullies?"

Zane considers the point. "Perhaps, if the situation called for it…"

"Great!" Jay stands up, linking his arm with Zane. "Then who's up for the haunted house with me?"

Cole takes a step back. "Nuh-uh, you know how I am with creepy houses. I don't do that kind of stuff-"

"You do with us!" Nya says cheerfully, grabbing one arm while Kai wrestles the other. Cole sputters indignantly as they drag him along. "Come on, let's see if Lloyd and his little demon gang wanna join."

******

"Welp!" Jay throws the door open with unnecessary dramatics as they pile back into the apartment. "We're banned for life. I hope you guys are happy."

"Hey, I wasn't the one who drop-kicked the chainsaw actor," Kai mutters.

Cole flushes. "I'm a ninja, I can't help it - it was reflex!""

"Was the high-pitched screaming reflex?" Jay says. Cole elbows him in the gut, and Jay snatches the candy bar from his hand in retaliation. Cole gives an indignant yelp.

"Hey! That was my last chocolate bar!"

Nya roll her eyes as she squeezes past Jay, who's loudly chewing Cole's candy bar in his face. Lloyd totters in behind her, half-buried in the pile of candy he's amassed in his bag. He's giggling manically, and the look in his eyes is genuinely more terrifying than anything Kai's ever seen.

"Pace yourself on that candy, alright?" Kai says, eyeing him. "I don't wanna wake up to you puking your guts out tonight."

"Nuh-uh," Lloyd says, through a mouthful of taffy. "I don' ge' sick from candy. S'impossible."

"That's what you said the last time," Cole says, snatching the bag from Lloyd's hand and ignoring his cry of displeasure. "That's enough for tonight. You can eat yourself sick again in the morning."

Nya strides by them, falling onto the couch next to Kai with a a thwump. Kai watches in amusement as she rubs a hand across her eye, smearing mascara and eyeliner across her cheek in a raccoon-like smudge. Nya notices his stare, glancing at her hand and huffing.

"Remind me not to wear costume makeup again," she mutters, as Kai snorts. "At least I didn't ruin it for the picture."

She digs into her bag, pulling out a slightly-rumpled but still glossy photograph.

"Not that it matters," Nya continues. "This is the worst picture of us I've ever seen." She makes a face, staring at the picture the workers at the haunted house had snapped of them before they went in.

Kai shifts on the couch so he's looking over Nya's shoulder, squinting at the photo. "Is that supposed to be Zane?" he says, pointing at the blurry figure on the right.

"May…be?" Nya says. "At least you turned out alright."

Kai grins at where he's taking up half the picture, Lloyd wrapped in a chokehold around his neck that could be considered a hug if generous, both of them grinning wildly.

"Someone's gotta bring the beautiful," Kai says. He looks up to where Lloyd is being accosted by Cole, having somehow gotten his hands on yet another chocolate bar.

"Lloyd, I said that's enough. Lloyd, don't - no! Stop!"

Lloyd's hand stills, the chocolate bar hovering inches from his mouth.

"Put it down," Cole hisses. The chocolate bar moves half an inch closer. "Lloyd! No!"

Lloyd shoves the chocolate in his mouth before Cole can blink. "Lloyd!"

Lloyd springs from the chair, cackling wildly as he runs. Cole tears after him, seething. "I'll use you as a toothbrush for the Ultradragon, you pint-sized punk-"

"I'm surprised Sensei Wu hasn't come in and killed us yet," Jay says, flopping down on the rug below Kai and Nya, fumbling with the remote.

"He went out for the evening," Zane says. "Which means you can scream as loudly as you want over the movie."

Jay chucks a wrapper at Zane's head. He snatches it easily, tossing it back at Jay. Their worn TV finally flickers to life just as Cole and Lloyd finally wind down, Lloyd looking a lot less gleeful with his decision.

"O-oh, too much candy," Lloyd moans, clambering onto the couch next to Kai.

"You puke on me, I'm tossing you off the roof," Kai says, but he wraps an arm around him nonetheless, pulling Lloyd against his side.

"No you won't," Lloyd yawns, eyelids already fluttering as the movie starts. "You'd miss me too much. Wouldn't ever have any fun without me."

"Oh, I wouldn't?"

"Nope. I gotta…keep you from getting boring."

"No worries on that one," Kai says, grinning. He bites back his own yawn, settling further into the couch as Lloyd nods off, curling up against his side. "No worries at all."

Lloyd is soundly asleep against his side in seconds, snoring softly. Kai's getting all sorts of looks from Jay and Cole, but he masterfully ignores them - for now. Nya's taken to nodding off on his other side, so he's kinda sibling-sandwiched at the moment. Upsetting them isn't worth putting Jay in a headlock tonight.

"Here," Nya suddenly whispers over the movie, waving the picture up at him from where she's using his shoulder as a pillow. "Wanna put it in your modeling portfolio?"

Kai maturely sticks his tongue out at her, but he still snatches the picture. "Nah, but I'll keep it as a reminder of what massive dorks you all are."

They settle back to watching the movie, and he glances at the picture again. It's a pretty cute one - not that he's gonna admit that. It's a keeper, at least. They really don't have a lot of pictures of their team, and hardly any at all with Lloyd and his disaster-haired self.

Ah well. He can take more later. They've got plenty of time.

[sonickedtrowel]

🥰🎁

🥰 fave fic you’ve written? I think the one I’m most proud of right now is There is a love I reminisce.

🎁 have a quote from a WIP? Oh boy I’ll have to dust off the DOTD rewrite WIP.... I’m just gonna throw in a whole big section bc this isn’t going to be finished for probably years so YOLO.  (this is Ten’s POV:) *** The toddling jester grinned at her, strutting back into her personal space, and the Doctor did his best not to visibly bristle.  “And what brings you to the sixteenth century, dear?” he asked her.  “You know you didn’t have to ring junior, I’m always happy to give you a lift.”

“He called me up this time, in fact,” said River, before the Doctor could even sputter a protest.  “And I’m not sure how you’d have given me a ride when it appears you’ve just been… spat out of a slice of the vortex?”

“Mm, that was a bit unusual.  I was at UNIT HQ and it just sort of turned up.  I thought I’d seen it before, which— well, yeah,” he said, nodding in the Doctor’s direction.

“So naturally you jumped right in,” said River.

“Course I did.  Big swirly wormholey thing, how could I resist?”

“How indeed?”

“And look,” he said, taking both of her hands in his, “it’s brought me straight to you.  Must be my lucky day.”

“What’s got into you?” River demanded, which did little to hide her obvious delight.  “Not that I’m complaining, mind.  I could always do with more sweet talk.”

“You ought to know, Professor Song, it isn’t just talk.”

“Oh?” she said innocently, and there was really very little space between them now.  “And what else is it?”

“Ditch the spare and I’ll show you.”

“Or I could just keep the both of you.”

“Yes, I bet you’d like that.”

“I certainly would.”

There was something happening which made it seem impossible for the Doctor to get a word in between them.  Despite the many questions asserting themselves in his brain, he couldn’t help feeling he’d be intruding; cutting into a dance that he hadn't learnt the steps to yet.  Which was absurd, because they were just shamelessly flirting, and that was him, and— and, he really needed to lie down.  Or maybe open up that brandy after all.  But he was beginning to get the idea that if he didn’t hurry up and intrude a bit more forcefully, there’d be no stopping wherever this was headed.

“So,” he rasped, finally diverting their attention, “the clothes you offered me?”

“I’ll admit,” River said, “I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get to see you in tweed.”  The giant baby giggled.  “And, I don’t know how to tell you this, sweetie, but… friends don’t normally bathe together.  I’m not really sure how you’ve got on with humans this long without knowing that.”

“Well, in my defence, it’s not as if it usually comes up,” the older him pointed out.

“Thanks,” the Doctor said faintly, nodding in his direction. ***