#currently back in the ninjago phase again

[figs-oliomedley]

Laval Chima :]

tried something different with the shading, I don’t really know quite how I feel about it, but it’s aight

I just copied and pasted his eyes from the sketch because I didn’t like the eyes I painted when I posted this the first time

[ninja-go-to-therapy]

Whumptober 5: Where Do You Think You’re Going?

On the Run

I finally got around to writing something for my own damn AU, and it’s not even canon! I’m great at this.

Summary: Months after escaping from Prime Empire, Scott finds himself in Paris with none other than Unagami. It doesn’t go well. (This is of course part of the Miraculous crossover that I talk about sometimes on @blursed-ninjago-ideas)

Trigger Warnings: death threats, violence, panic attacks

4517 words

The years of his life Scott had lost to Prime Empire were hard to come to terms with. Every day he had been in there, he was well aware of the passage of time, but it was still the hardest thing he’d ever gone through.

Every day he had convinced himself that he would get out soon.

That first day, he was certain he’d be out by the end of the week. By the end of the week, he thought it couldn’t possibly be longer than a month.

It had gone on for years. Thirty, specifically.

Everyone he had ever known and loved had grieved and moved on. He had missed decades with them. His friends. His family. Everyone.

And it was all Unagami’s fault — right. Unagami was actually just a stupid little child who hadn’t really known what he was doing. He was supposed to be trying to get along with him, because he needed to be a role model or some shit.

Honestly, now that the kid wasn’t actively keeping him trapped inside a game for decades, he wasn’t all that bad. Sure, he could be a bit of a brat at times, but that was a phase that all children went through.

And apparently, he lowkey — that was the word Jay liked to use, right? He was so behind on the current slang — idolized Scott. Yeah, the child who’d been trying to turn him into a lifeless, numb, empty little energy cube for years and years and years, thought he was cool. That was… something, he supposed.

He was mostly doing this because Jay had all but begged him to. Said it made him a good person and he needed to let go of his anger.

Scott didn’t know if he would call it anger. He couldn’t bring himself to hate Unagami, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t a little… well… uncomfortable around him. Yeah, that was definitely the right word.

But that was dumb. That debacle was finally over, and even if the nightmares and trauma didn’t go away, it wasn’t like Unagami acted malicious anymore. He wasn’t trying to kill anyone anymore.

So what if every time Unagami did much of anything, Scott’s grip on whatever it may have been that he was holding tightened enough to break a bone? That wasn’t that concerning. Everybody did that. Probably.

And hey, he could have had worse problems than scratching up his hands when he was nervous or anxious or really freaked out or really scared or flashing back to that cramped dark horrible nothingness when he was just lines of code trapped in a little energy cube with no way to get in or out or anything — and, uh, everyone had a random bad dream once in awhile. Or every night.

But he could put that aside, because he was a mature adult.

So here he was, babysitting an arcade-game-turned-boy, who was surprisingly energetic and very bright-eyed. 

“When are the ninja coming back?” Unagami asked, popping up from behind the couch.

Scott barely suppressed a surprised curse. This kid was way too light on his feet. “I don’t know,” he said, taking a deep breath to calm himself.

Unagami, unlike most kids would, actually accepted that as an answer and went back to his BorgPad, tapping away at the screen.

The thing was, nobody had seen the ninja in a few weeks, now. Scott was beginning to get concerned. After Lloyd had disappeared — which had been information divulged to Scott privately by Jay, because they didn’t want the general public to know — the next few days had been spent in a raw panic. And then, total radio silence.

He hadn’t heard from the ninja since.

He hoped they were okay. He was a little too familiar with people disappearing only to never be heard from again. Well, not until thirty years after the fact.

He wasn’t bitter, not at all.

“What are you doing, anyway?” Scott asked, trying to get his mind off the subject. He was supposed to be taking care of the kid for the day, he might as well have been trying to make some sort of connection.

“Hacking the Hexagon!” Unagami said, looking up from his screen with a big smile.

Oh, that was nice — wait, what?

“Excuse me?” Scott asked, jumping over the back of the couch and crouching on the floor, where Unagami was sitting criss-cross-apple-sauce. Scott peered over his shoulder at the screen.

“If they didn’t want it hacked they shouldn’t have made it so easy,” Unagami shrugged.

Was it… was it normal for a child to be hacking into government facilities from a BorgPad?

Scott was going to go out on a limb and say no. …It was probably just an AI thing? Yeah, it was probably fine.

He watched for a moment as Unagami’s fingers flew across the screen, lines in a language Scott didn’t understand everywhere. He’d never had the ambition to learn how to code.

But damn, back before Prime Empire, people had hardly even dreamed of tech like this. 

It was kind of crazy.

Scott was going to be honest with himself. The BorgPad was cool. It had tons of features that were all put together onto one little device — texting and pictures and games and social media and more. It had everything.

But at the end of the day, it was just another reminder that Scott had missed out on so much while he’d been trapped inside the game. 

Back in his day, people had been perfectly content with “low quality” arcade games and flip phones. But now… well, people like Cyrus Borg were completely changing the world.

It was cool. But it stung.

“As long as you don’t get like, in trouble with the law or something. I don’t want Dyer buggin’.”

Unagami gave him a weird look, but slowly lowered his gaze back to the screen.

Right. People didn’t say that anymore, did they? His vocabulary was really outdated. He was really outdated.

He sighed, standing up and heading to the kitchen so he could make some tea. Jay had given him some, claiming it was really calming.

Scott could use a little of that right now.

The label was faded enough that it was basically unreadable. Scratch that, it was completely unreadable. Did tea expire…? Nah, Jay wouldn’t have given it to him if it was bad.

As the tea was brewing, Scott leaned against the counter, fiddling with his phone. It had been brand new technology at the time, and had been pretty expensive.

Now, according to Jay, it was “mega-outdated”. 

That hurt more than it should have. He remembered being so excited about this thing, but now it was nothing compared to the technology of today.

“You want some tea?” Scott asked when it was done, going for a mug.

“What does it taste like?” Unagami asked, setting aside his tablet and coming over to observe the tea with interest. 

“Uhh… I dunno, haven’t tried it yet,” he shrugged.

“I think I would like some, please.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Scott went to pour it, but as he was doing so, he found his mind wandering to wondering where the ninja had disappeared to again. It was strange that they had just —

“Is that supposed to be happening?” Unagami asked.

Scott looked down at the tea, concerned to see a bright glow spilling from the kettle. “Uh…” before he could come up with a rational answer, it brightened, all but blinding the two as it took over the room.

When it faded, there was nothing left but a broken mug on the floor.

———

What the fuck?

What had just happened?

The last thing Scott remembered had been sitting in the kitchen making tea, but now… now he was outside, near some giant metal tower, in a place he absolutely did not recognize.

He didn’t recognize the place, but he did recognize the feeling.

He was in a new realm.

The first thing he could feel was the panic.

Not again. Fuck! Not again. He couldn’t go through this another time, he couldn’t lose more of his life to a monster, he couldn’t — he couldn’t — he couldn’t breathe. He gripped the grass he was sitting on, practically hyperventilating.

“Scott? Are you alright?”

Oh first master, Unagami was here too.

“Get away from me!” he yelled, though he made no move to put distance between them. Instead, the little brat only came closer.

“You need to breathe.”

“I said get away—” Scott’s words died in his throat. Something was different. Something was wrong.

“Captain Clockwork,” a voice said, booming throughout his head.

“What’s going on?” Scott demanded.

“I am Hawk Moth. I can feel your distress. The anger, the grief, all of it. You just want things to go back to the way they used to be, don’t you?”

“Yes…” he found himself agreeing, nodding along.

“I can help you with that. I can give you the power to take back your life. All I need in return is for you to retrieve two pieces of jewelry for me, called the Miraculous. Do we have a deal?”

Scott didn’t even have to think twice. “Yes, Hawk Moth.”

——— 

Unagami was concerned.

Scott was freaking out, clearly on the verge of a panic attack, and nothing he was doing seemed to help. And then, out of nowhere, it just stopped.

And then Scott started talking to nobody, and then his body, for the briefest of moments, was enveloped in a purple so dark it may as well have been black.

When it was gone, Scott looked different. He was wearing an outfit that could only be described as old-timey-steampunk. 

It wasn’t that strange, considering that sort of stuff was perfectly normal in Prime Empire. Still, Unagami should probably make sure that Scott was okay.

“Scott?” he asked, stepping a little closer.

Scott glared at him dark enough to kill.

Wide-eyed, Unagami took a small step back. “Scott, what’s wrong? Who were you talking to? Is this a video game, like Prime Empire?”

“You would just love that, wouldn’t you?” Scott yelled. “You would just love to ruin even more people’s lives!”

“What?”

A ball of light burst into existence in Scott’s hand, which was closed tightly in a fist. He threw the light off to the side, launching at a huge television screen on the side of a building. Almost immediately, it turned into a box-style TV.

Scott smiled wickedly. “Oh, would you look at that? The power to downgrade tech. If I can do that to a TV, I wonder what will happen to a stupid. Little. Arcade game.”

Unagami narrowly dodged a blast from Scott following those words. “Scott, stop! You’re — you’re not in your right mind!”

“Oh, I’m in my right mind!” he screamed. “I’m finally free, and what am I met with but a world that moved on without me? You took away my life!”

“Scott, please, you are not thinking clearly!” Unagami said, desperate.

“Save it, you little brat! Now hold still so I can kill you!”

Unagami tripped, falling back into the grass. He scrambled back, doing his best to get to his feet, but regardless, Scott had the upper hand. He was done for.

He squeezed his eyes shut, accepting the inevitable.

Suddenly, he was being lifted, and then he was in the air. What?

He opened his eyes.

“I’ve got you!” a girl dressed in red spandex with black polka dots all over it said.

“What’s going on?” Unagami asked.

The girl looked confused. “Uh…” they came to a stop on a rooftop. It was then that a boy dressed in what looked like a leather catsuit joined them, vaulting up with an infinitely long pole.

“How do you do, M’lady?” he asked, smiling at the girl.

“Not now, Chat. I just saved this kid from the latest akuma, but I don’t think he’s speaking French.”

“Language barrier powers?” Chat asked. “That’s a new one.”

“I don’t know, from what I could tell, the akuma was speaking in the same language as him.”

“What’s going on?” Unagami demanded. “What happened to Scott?”

Chat frowned. “It sounds kind of like Japanese. But like, not quite? It sounds like Japanese on drugs.”

The girl sighed. “Wonderful description, Chat.”

“Thanks! I try.”

“Wait, I’ve heard this before! It sounds like that language the ninja speak!” The girl said.

“Oh yeah! Maybe they’re from the same place?”

Unagami tuned out their rambling, glancing over the edge of the roof to see if he could still see Scott. Luckily, he couldn’t.

Or was that unlucky?

Scott was the only person he knew here, but at the same time, he’d lost his mind out of nowhere. And now he was on some sort of evil… violent rampage… manhunt… chasing after him… well, that was uncomfortably familiar.

 “Okay, well, our miraculous allows him to understand us, I wonder why it doesn’t work the other way?” Chat glanced at Unagami. “You can understand us, right?”

Unagami gave a frustrated nod.

“Okay, well, do you know why that guy got akumatized?”

Unagami had absolutely no idea what that was, but it was clearly in reference to what had happened to Scott.

“I don’t think he does. We have to get back to fighting before this guy destroys half of Paris,” Chat said, tapping his wrist as if there was a watch there.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Scott yelled from the streets below.

“Oh, hey, that was French!” Chat said. “Akuma powers are awesome.”

The girl gave him an unimpressed frown.

Various balls of light were transforming technology into older versions of themselves left and right as Scott rampaged.

“Shit, okay, Chat, can you drop him somewhere away from the akuma?”

“Sure thing Bugaboo!” Chat said with a wide grin. He held out a hand to Unagami. “Hold on tight, kid.”

———

Ladybug landed in front of the akuma gracefully, her yo-yo at her side.

“Ladybug, I presume,” the akuma said.

“That would be right.”

The akuma glared at her. “Look, I don’t particularly want to hurt you. Just hand over the earrings and the kid, and I’ll be on my way.”

“What do you want with him?” Ladybug asked, eyes narrowed. “What could he possibly have done?”

The akuma laughed, and it started low, but it quickly gained a touch of psycho, edging on hysteria. “What didn’t he do?” He yelled, his arms widely gesturing — though his right hand stayed tightly closed. That could be important. “He kept me trapped in a video game for decades. He made me live every day in fear that it would be my last! He ruined my life! He took everything from me!”

Well… fuck.

That was actually a pretty valid reason to be upset with somebody. But how on earth had that happened in the first place? Well, the details didn’t matter. She had an akuma to fight.

Against all reason, Ladybug decided to try getting through to the poor guy. “You don’t have to do this! Hawk Moth is manipulating you!”

“I don’t care!” He screamed. “He made me into Captain Clockwork! He gave me the power to take back my life!”

He threw a blast of energy at Ladybug, which she only barely managed to deflect with her yo-yo. It bounced back to what looked like a brand new car, which immediately turned into a station wagon.

Oh boy.

“Time has moved forward without me. I don’t fit into this world, so I’m gonna make this world fit me!”

She needed to figure out what to break. Whatever he was holding, that could be it.

Unceremoniously, Chat dropped from the sky, landing in a heap next to her.

“I did not get that right…” he muttered, getting to his feet with some difficulty. “What’s the plan, M’lady?”

“I don’t know, but I think the akuma is in whatever he’s holding. We need to get him to drop it.”

“May I offer a distraction in these trying times?”

Ladybug smiled.

“Hey, the future isn’t all that bad!” Chat exclaimed, dramatically vaulting himself to be behind the akuma so that he had to turn around and his attention was off of Ladybug, while she quietly summoned her lucky charm.

“We’ve got video games! And bullet trains, and iPhones, and — ooh, we’ve got anime! It still baffles me that people ever managed to live without anime. A tragedy, really.”

Captain Clockwork glared at him. “We had video games and anime back in my day. It was good enough, it didn’t have to change!”

“That’s sort of the way of life, buddy,” Chat shrugged, batting away a blast with his baton.

“It shouldn’t be! I shouldn’t have gotten left behind!” he screamed, sending blasts of energy one after the other at Chat.

“Left behind?” Chat asked, lowering his guard slightly when the akuma, breathing heavily, stopped firing.

“That boy you stole away just a few minutes ago,” Captain Clockwork said, laughing hysterically. “He kept me trapped inside a video game, for thirty years. Thirty years! It’s not fair! It’s not fair! I’ll kill him!”

“How did a little boy trap you in a video game?” Chat asked, legitimately curious.

“He is the game! He ruled Prime Empire! He ruined my life!” 

Chat was regretting asking, because now the akuma was backing him into a corner, his fist glowing. He wasn’t sure he’d ever battled an akuma so full of pure rage before.

Chat extended his baton, sweeping it under the akuma’s feet and knocking him to the ground.

“This is so cool!” Alya shouted from across the street, filming with her iPhone.

“Alya,” Nino all but begged. “We gotta get to safety!”

“But I’m getting some great footage on this thing!”

Captain Clockwork growled, blasting violently at the pair. Alya’s brand new, expensive phone immediately reverted to a flip phone.

The way Alya screamed would have suggested someone had been murdered. “No!” she shrieked, being dragged away by Nino.

“Phones don’t need to be able to record! Just use a fucking video camera! They didn’t have to change it!” Captain Clockwork yelled, running after Alya.

That got the couple’s attention enough to start running.

Chat put himself between them, crying out when he intercepted a blast.

“Chat!” Ladybug yelled.

Chat grunted, rolling with great difficulty away from the akuma.

His baton immediately grew in length, turning into what looked like a perfectly regular, non-magical, old-fashioned baton.

“Oh fuck.”

“Hand over the ring and I won’t hurt you,” Captain Clockwork demanded.

“Sorry, I’ve got a contract,” Chat replied, using the baton as a sort of cane to help him get to his feet again.

He didn’t manage to dodge the next blast, which turned his magical very technologically advanced leather suit into a hoodie and a cheap pair of sweatpants. 

Panic gripped him, and he quickly went to feel for his mask. Oh, thank god, it was still there.

Captain Clockwork charged up another blast, but before he could use it, Ladybug grabbed Chat and swung her yo-yo, getting them both away and into a back alley.

“Are you okay, Kitty?” she asked, setting him down gently.

“I’m alright,” he affirmed. “I need to detransform, make sure Plagg is alright. Maybe when I retransform it’ll go back to normal?”

Ladybug purposefully turned around.

“Claws in,” he said.

Immediately, Ladybug could hear a low groan from her partner’s kwami.

“Here,” Chat muttered, presumably offering him some food.

“Thanks. God that really hurt…” Plagg muttered.

“It did?” Chat cried, worry seeping into his voice. “Are you okay? How can I help?”

“I’ll be fine, Kitten,” Plagg said, laughing somewhat through the now very obvious pain. “Just defeat this guy and you can buy me some extra nice cheese to make up for it.”

Chat laughed. “Sure thing Plagg. Claws out!”

Ladybug waited a moment, then turned back around. Luckily, Chat had been right, and his suit was back to normal. “Okay, so we’ve got my lucky charm, but I still don’t know how to use it. Did you learn anything about the akuma?”

“Well, apparently the kid he was trying to obliterate trapped him in a game for thirty years,” Chat shrugged. “I dunno if that’s important though.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard. He keeps screaming about it every chance he gets. But as long as we free the akuma, he’ll be fine. Did you happen to see what he was holding?”

“It looked kind of like a phone, but like, one of those really old flippy ones. Like the ones they used in High School Musical!”

Ladybug sighed. “Well, that’s something. Actually, my lucky charm is a flip phone.”

“That’s weird… think he’d like that?”

“Wait! I have a plan.”

———

Meanwhile, Unagami was hiding behind a trashcan as Scott got closer and closer to his whereabouts. His heart was pounding loudly in his ears.

“Unagami,” Scott called out, his voice sickly sweet and too high in pitch. “Come out, come out wherever you are…”

Unagami held his breath, praying Scott didn’t find him.

“Isn’t it ironic?” Scott asked, something out of Unagmai’s sight crashing loudly. “The hunter becomes the prey. Bet you never thought you’d get retribution, huh?”

He hadn’t meant to ruin Scott’s life. He’d just been following his father’s instructions. He’d apologized. He thought Scott had forgiven him. He’d acted like he had.

Had he felt like this the whole time?

Angry and hurt and wanting to kill him?

And… was this how Scott had felt while trapped in Prime Empire?

Scared for his life, fearing every second that it could be his last? Keeping himself hidden away for years with the constant terror that he would be found?

The trashcan was thrown, and there was Scott.

“Found you.”

“I’m sorry—” Unagami said.

“Save it! Sorry doesn’t make up for the lost time! Sorry doesn’t make up for the fear I lived in! Sorry doesn’t fix things!”

He charged a blast.

Out of nowhere, a bright blue tornado threw Scott across the street.

It slowed to a stop, revealing none other than the blue ninja. “Unagami?” he said, bewildered. “How are you here?”

“Why are you defending him?” Scott screamed. “He trapped you too! He took all of your friends! He hunted you down like a wild animal! Aren’t you angry?”

“Scott? Jay cried, even more bewildered than before. “What the… wait, but Unagami is just a kid! Sure, he caused a lot of pain, but it wasn’t his fault! And he’s done all he can to make it right!” “That’s not good enough!”

“Ice to see you!” Zane yelled, dropping down from the rooftop.

Scott growled, charging a blast of energy. “Just let me kill the little brat! He’s not human! He’s not a person! What difference does it make?”

Unagami froze.

Scott… didn’t see him as a person? All this time?

He thought they had been bonding. He had thought… well, he hadn’t thought they were friends, exactly, but he had at least thought… 

It was true that he wasn’t human, but Unagami had likened himself to Zane. They weren't human, but they were still people. But that wasn’t how Scott saw it at all. And he had never known.

Zane screamed out as he was hit with a blast. The light encompassed him, and suddenly he was left with rusty copper skin.

Unagami’s eyes widened in horror.

“I — I — I — do not feel — Jay — I cannot — what is happening?” Zane stammered, his voice box glitching heavily.

“I can downgrade tech,” Scott said, laughing darkly. “You’re tech.”

“Scott, this isn’t you!” Jay attempted. “You’re better than this!”

“I don’t want to be better than this!” he yelled. He threw Jay to the side, completely knocking the boy unconscious.

With Zane unable to even move, Unagami was about to die.

“I never meant to hurt you,” he said.

“Hurt doesn’t care about intention.”

In what was either the best or the worst timing ever, the boy from before — Chat — waltzed over to them casually. “You were right, Captain Clockwork!” he exclaimed loudly. “Old technology is better! I’m just surprised that you didn’t notice I took your phone!” he said, waving around an old flip phone.

“What?” Scott — Captain Clockwork? — gasped, opening his fist. “No you didn’t, it’s right here?”

But then it wasn’t. Ladybug’s yo-yo string wrapped around it, and yanked it hard.

“No!”

Ladybug snapped the phone in half easily. “No more evil-doing for you, little akuma. Time to de-evilize!” she declared, catching the butterfly — Unagami wasn’t even going to ask why a butterfly had come out of Scott’s phone — easily. “Gotcha!” she set the butterfly free, and in a stark contrast to the previous shade of sickly purple it had been, it was now a pure white. “Bye bye, little butterfly.”

Scott fell to the ground, his new avatar — or whatever it was — dropping.

“Miraculous ladybug!” Ladybug shouted, throwing the fake phone into the air. A swarm of butterflies took over, somehow undoing all the damages that Scott had caused.

Honestly, it was far from the strangest thing Unagami had experienced recently.

———

Scott came to on the sidewalk. Hadn’t he just been near some big metal tower thing? And how had he blacked out in the first place? What the hell?

“What… what happened?” he groaned, unable to get to his feet. 

Zane — when had Zane gotten here? — said something in what sounded like another language.

“Everything’s alright now, sir!” a girl dressed as what looked something like a superhero said, smiling gently at him. “You don’t know what an akuma is, do you?”

Again, Zane repeated her question, this time looking at him. Ah, he was the translator.

“No…?”

Her and a boy in a leather catsuit shared a look.

“A bad man called Hawk Moth took advantage of you,” the boy explained, reaching out a hand and helping Scott to his feet. “You were feeling some kind of negative emotion, and he used that to turn you into a supervillain.”

A supervillain? What kind of negative emotion could he have been — 

He spotted Unagami, who was staring at him in nothing short of terror from against the brick wall of a building. Oh yeah.

“What did I do?” 

“Nothing that couldn’t be undone,” the girl assured. “All property damages have been magically repaired, so you don’t have to worry!”

“It’s not the property damages I’m worried about,” Scott muttered, looking at Unagami, guilty all but stabbing him through the heart. The kid looked traumatized.

Before anyone could say anything else, Unagami ran. Jay immediately went after him, but the others stayed behind.

Scott knew that if he went, he would only make things worse. “Please, just… what did I actually do?”

By the end of the recap, Scott had sunk back to the ground. 

There wasn’t really a way to fix this, was there?

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

Ninjago Unpopular Opinions

Following on from my watch of the entire old series (combined with already having seen the last two series), I have enough material to work with to make a sort of unpopular opinion list. Some of these are lightweight, some of these are...uh, not so much. 

These aren’t in any particular order, this is more of a “I’ll just put them down as I remember them” sort of deal. That’ll be why they appear so messy. 

-Even after all this I prefer the newest seasons to the older stuff. There have been a surprising number of good to great older seasons, but I just love that hit of S1/S2 campiness with the more developed writing of later seasons. 

-Cole sucked as a leader, aside from in the pilot episodes. In the series proper he varied from complete meathead I hated (first part of S1), to having the same mentoring personality as everyone else (S1 - S2), to being consumed by the love triangle which made him pull a really shitty move (I don’t need to tell you what that refers to). He eventually gets ironed out in season 4, but Lloyd had already taken over as leader at this point. And rightfully so, even if Lloyd’s material got knocked from season 3 as a result. 

-I couldn’t really warm up to Ronin that much for some reason. I get the reason why he’s popular, since it was pretty obvious he was supposed to be like an off-beat mentor figure to Nya, but...I dunno, unlike with Dareth, it felt like his skeevy moments were more off-kilter, plus I didn’t really like his arc in Skybound (even if that was written out of reality). That being said, his was strong in Possession even with said moments. Maybe I just need a future appearance to see how I ultimately swing with him.

-I mentioned this in my Hunted overview, but I think Skylor’s just bland. Part of the problem is that she’s mainly just wedged in as an action girl and doesn’t have too many moments to interact outside of that. That’s mostly reserved for moments where she acts as Agony Aunt (which is fine, that shows that being supportive is in her nature), but she needs more to work with. And as an obvious offshoot, if Kailor is the intended endgame it sucks in its current form. They don’t have chemistry or a decent dynamic.

-The other Ninjago ship I don’t particularly like out of all of them is...actually Geode. Yeah, Rebooted obviously wasn’t good for it considering the love triangle, but what actually did more damage to it for me was Skybound. It went so far in trying to oversteer back that it beat you over the head with the fact they were making Cole and Jay best friends after said love triangle (made really obvious when Jay is worried about Cole’s reaction to him seeing Nya in his reflection in both Possession and Skybound, when Cole isn’t even phased when he’s told). It was just really off-putting.

-Jay is a better big brother figure to Lloyd than Kai. Yeah, Kai’s true potential moment in Rise of the Serpentine hinged on realising he (and the others, mind) were supposed to protect Lloyd, they all spent Legacy of the Green Ninja’s first half being Lloyd’s proper mentors, Zane’s death prompted Kai to hover with thoughts of the Green Ninja again (which seemed to me for different reasons to being envious of power at the start, although its handling was very clunky after that), and he had the first episode in Possession which was arguably the strongest showing of a dynamic with Lloyd, but Possession didn’t have much about it outside of said episode, and the show seemed to just forget it from that point beyond some very, very fleeting and sparse bits. In the more modern seasons, it feels like Jay’s stepped up to be more supportive of Lloyd on a more consistent basis (which would make sense with the common fanon that Jay is the youngest of the original Ninja, he’d be closer to Lloyd’s age). It’s something I kind of want tapped into in a proper way at some point.

-Sensei Garmadon is a bit overrated. Just a smidge. When he’s good, he’s good, but most of the time he’s no more interesting than Wu would be in the same position. And I feel like they didn’t really develop his fatherly bond with Lloyd too well despite that being what his character was there for. Again, aside from moments where he was really good.

-Most underrated season of the old batch for me was the last minute shock, March of the Oni. I did enjoy Day of the Departed (which has a worse reputation), but I can understand why someone wouldn’t like it considering how bare it was. March of the Oni is far from my favourite season but I thought it came together really well, so the fact it’s generally panned legitimately confuses me. I guess Hands of Time would be a contender too, but I think opinion on that has swayed in its favour after the new seasons came out (and Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjutsu would be here if I included the new batch) so that’s why it’s edged out. 

-Most overrated season for me was undeniably Tournament of Elements. It’s not my least favourite season, but Rebooted and Hunted are pretty maligned to begin with, while Tournament of Elements is usually considered one of the top ones. It starts strong, has an interesting premise and there are ideas that are executed well. The thing is that the elements that people tend to praise the season for are ones I actually think the writers dropped the ball on, hence why this ended up the toughest season to get to the end of, even more than Hunted. It’s a shame, but it’s just not for me. 

-Best ninja suits...honestly, I don’t really notice the suits unless they’re really bad, because I’m used to franchises where costume changes mark radical permanent redesigns, and are not just par for the course of the brand (it makes perfect sense with a toy brand who want to sell you the same characters over and over again but still). Not counting the S11 suits since they weren’t part of the old batch, I guess I’d honestly say the ZX suits, maybe? They’re simple, but they’re cute and very distinct. Also Sons of Garmadon Cole channelling the Movie costume was a very good move (and arguably looks even better ripped up in Hunted aethetically), and Kai’s suit was bleh in Sons of Garmadon but its overhaul in Hunted was way better. Also, just as a wildcard, Rebooted Lloyd looks like a more finely tuned ZX suit. Actually, just one last bit on a tangent to note a difference the show makes to the figures that demonstrates the figures’ limitations. For Kai and Jay’s S11 suits, their figures invoke similar feels (because underneath the accessories they do have a lot in common), whereas they feel very different in the show because while Jay sticks to the figure and looks snug, Kai has a lot exposed around the neckline, as if his gi is hanging loosely on the shoulders and should join Cole in the “For fucks sake it’s an ice realm wear a jacket please” club. 

-Worst ninja sui--what the hell happened to Cole and Nya in Hands of Time?! Nya’s main issue is that it’s trying to work too many colours and they just don’t mesh well. I think this was the time they were partially adapting the movie’s change, but they were clinging onto her having red to both represent Samurai X and her ties to her brother, but they should have just picked one or the other because it just doesn’t work the way it did in Skybound. And Cole’s outfit is just hideous. Its balance of colours and accents is all off-kilter, and to top it off the shoes just don’t work and somehow look like socks with sandals. I didn’t know that was doable with a whole suit. Finally, on a general note, I’m not a fan of when the suits are all very similar bar some very, very minor differences. One could argue that it makes them look more like a team, but I prefer the individual personality to come out. 

-It’s hard to judge the best and worst episodes, honestly. The seasons from Tournament of Elements onwards are done so tied to each other that picking an episode is rather difficult outside of designated finales (or the odd Jay-focused/Zane-focused episodes that happened in seasons 7, 8 and 9). I guess for best I’d say stuff like The Quiet One, or The Fall, or Grave Danger, or stuff like that would be up there. Worst episodes in those seasons are even harder, because usually it’s how arcs over episodes are written that get to me, not individual episodes.  This all being said, it’s much easier to do this with the more episodic first three seasons, and to that end I would still say that Tick Tock is my favourite standalone episode still, and Home is still my least favourite. For all the times the writing has dropped the ball, nothing has legitimately pissed me off more than what this episode did because it’s in its own category of bad writing. 

-There have been some concepts thrown in that, while they definitely wouldn’t work out in the long term, make for interesting snippets of what-ifs. Like, I loved the bit where Jay was a show host and got around the stage using his lightning powers. That seems like such a natural fit outside of his ninja identity I wish I’d thought of it. Imagine Bradley Walsh using lightning to get around the studio, that would be metal as fuck.

-On the other side of that coin, the bizarro Ninja are the single most overrated concept in the show. I don’t like Scourge the Hedgehog to begin with, but he at least had some efforts to make him unique (that fell flat, but eh). The bizarro Ninja are the equivalent of Evil Sonic; cliche and undeveloped. They’re not even useful for the cliche idea of framing the actual Ninja since even though they’re seen doing delinquent behaviour, this is never addressed. Heck Nadakhan was more effective with this idea. Thing is that I can’t blame the show at all for this. While the concept is naff, the show itself treats them as they actually were; Garmadon’s puppets and the scheme of the episode. Aside from bizarro Jay’s behaviour to Nya being full of unfortunate implications, there is no greater purpose for their existence, and the show never tries to do it again. It’s really the fans that have inflated their appearance in this case because I guess the idea of “take this nice character and give them an evil version” is just so appealing to the teenage demographic. Screw that, corruption is way more fun and interesting. 

-What I can blame the show for is the single worst execution of an idea, because to this point I still consider Kai’s green ninja “arc” in Tournament of Elements to be the single worst executed arc (yeah, even worse than the love triangle, but that one is still bad). The sad thing is it managed to convince me that it wasn’t such a bad concept when they explained it by being an offshoot of his depression following Zane’s death (before that I was very sceptical it could fit it in naturally after the last three seasons). But then it was used once when Skylor tried to get Kai to stab Lloyd in the back during the skating match (which Kai completely rebuffed and seemed over his depression-rooted negative vibes on Lloyd), and once more when he was overcome by the power of the staff. The latter is especially infuriating since this would have been the perfect opportunity for a character moment. Like, Lloyd and/or Skylor could have fought to get Kai out of the trance of the staff and see that his friends mean more to him than having power. It practically writes itself and is a perfect set-up. What happens instead is that Cole is technically the one to save Kai from himself as he rams the Roto Jet into the chamber and makes the rocky serpentine structure come crashing down on Kai. Maybe interesting to read into if you want a Lava reading of the show, but in that moment is just a wasted opportunity. Come on!

-Actually, also talking about other bad concepts, I don’t miss those weird energy dragons they could summon starting from Tournament of Elements. The dragons in Rise of the Serpentine/Legacy of the Green Ninja were fine because they had a logical reason for being there and actually were integrated into the plot (so you got to watch them being maintained and having moments with the ninja). The energy dragons in Tournament of Elements existed for one character as a plot thing (Zane’s, because he always had the good plots in the earlier seasons), but then everyone else suddenly could do it too and they became convenient plot devices and nothing else. Airjutsu I was more okay with because it seems more like a tool they’d use and could be integrated better, but I can also see why that stopped being used (outside of that one bit in Prime Empire).

-The Elemental Masters are both over-hyped and underdeveloped. The normal civilian cast really got the shaft once the series decided it wanted to explore this lore, yet the only ones I really got interested in in any way were the villain EMs and Karlof. And even Karlof is overlooked by the fandom, by the looks of it. 

-Jay actually came off the best in the Rebooted love triangle. He’s not entirely perfect, but he is essentially the biggest victim as a result of it in that season, and what Nya and Cole did either bordered on or was outright callous for different reasons. I think if people gave Jay the biggest shtick for Rebooted’s events, it’s influenced with how Skybound botched trying to patch it up. 

-The movie was a net positive influence on the show. Aside from me preferring the designs of the movie anyway, it forced the characterisation to actually pick a lane for each character and stick to it, mitigating a lot of the haphazard characterisation issues. The inconsistency in later seasons is tone instead, which is maybe why people thought the characterisation was inconsistent between Sons of Garmadon/Hunted and March of the Oni/SotFS (when really, they weren’t that different if at all). The show also made a good call in ignoring movie Zane’s characterisation; as much as I enjoy it in the film, it really didn’t gel up with what the show had done with him, so trying to force it in would have been more of a characterisation jolt than any of the early season stuff. 

-I’m generally fine with Jaya and Pixane. The former I can see why people would be off about it because there have been some badly written periods for them, but I think on the whole it manages to hold it together. The latter was written in surprisingly smoothly given the circumstances, so it’s no wonder I don’t see discourse about it. 

-Oh yeah, I don’t get Wu/Faith as a ship. Like, she was the cool drill instructor/aunt to everyone, including Wu. This is a quick one because it’s just a very small aside.

-Also I can’t really get behind Polyninja either. If the characters had a fairly even spread of interaction and moments between each other I could, but the spread ends up like lots of moments between Cole and Kai varying from little moments to huge dollops, and Cole and Jay having a whole best friends affirmation arc due to the fallout of the love triangle, to Kai and Jay having barely anything to work with and anyone with Zane getting a couple of table scraps occasionally. It’s not even enough.

-Following on from that though, Zane feels the least integrated with the group dynamic in general. He’s has some of the best plots and stories in the show, but nearly all of them have been focusing on him solo. And not even SotFS or Prime Empire helped with this one. Hopefully MoM can smooth this one out a bit. 

-Finally for this post, after going through all those seasons I still prefer Nya’s movie voice to her show voice by a significant margin. Sorry Kelly Metzger. 

I think that’s it. I’ve actually been on this for a week but I’ve been allowing time for more thoughts to come to me, because there have been a lot of thoughts coming in batches. I think I’ll leave it at this though, because I think most of it is covered pretty well.

I have at least two more text posts like this planned, but they’re not strictly about the old seasons so I’ve left them for after. I’m looking forward to them though, because they’re on specific topics and that is my bread and butter pudding. 

[razzle-zazzle]

Yes, I am calling this AU "Sad Jay Noises"

1918 Words

In the aftermath of the Oni, when Ninjago struggled to rebuild itself, in those first, fledgeling weeks, all the ninja could do was grieve.

Maybe one of them would go out to make an appearance, help with the reconstruction efforts. Maybe two. And maybe it’d just be one of those days where they all stayed in the monastery, desperately avoiding the empty room where dust clung to the bedsheets, their grief choking the air. Even Wu tended to give the doorway a wide berth when he passed it in the hall—a hall he rarely walked now, avoiding it entirely when he could help it.

Several times Jay had found himself stopping by that door, tracing his hands over the wood while contemplating going in. And every time, his mind would bring up the memories unbidden, so real and visceral and painful—

He didn’t scream. He just fell, silently, into the cloud. He hadn’t screamed—Jay had.

He didn’t scream, but Jay could never recall him looking more terrified.

And then Jay would find himself in the bathroom, splashing cold water in his face. Telling himself that everything was okay, when it clearly wasn’t. Telling himself that he’d go in next time.

It was after those first few weeks that they all—Jay wasn’t sure how they even managed to reach this decision, acting as one even as more than a few of them threatened to leave—wordlessly agreed enough was enough. They would go in that room, collect the meaningful things, and give him a proper memorial. They would mourn, and then they’d move on. Maybe they’d split apart again, like when Zane had sacrificed himself to defeat the Overlord. Maybe Jay and Nya would finally start putting together plans for their wedding.

Of course, fate was rarely so kind. Just as they had finally worked up the courage to confront what they had been avoiding, an alert came up. A break-in at the museum.

A welcome excuse to leave the room untouched.

And so the team assembled, meeting the new villain on his way out of the museum, stolen papers in his bag. “Stay out of my way.” He’d huffed, voice distorted through his mask. A mask painted in a way clearly emulating the oni, sending another pang of grief through the group. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, so stay out of my way.”

They didn’t.

He mopped the floor with them, though Kai grumbled that it was only because they were out of practice. That they’d underestimated the guy. That they’d win the next time he showed up.

They didn’t.

“We’ll win next time. One person can’t beat all of us that many times.” Lloyd promised. Yeah. They’d do better next time.

They didn’t.

“Vengeance” was what the public had taken to calling him, based on how his mask and style seemed to be emulating the oni scourge that had so recently been defeated. Media stations speculated on his intentions, social media threads discussed theories about his techniques. There was something achingly familiar to Vengeance, something about the way he moved and fought that reminded Jay of something he couldn’t identify. The others agreed, there was something familiar they couldn’t identify.

“We’ll unmask him in the next battle, everyone. We’ll get the drop on him.”

They didn’t.

And, throughout all of this, the empty room had gone untouched, the priority pushed down in all the chaos Vengeance had been causing. They’d brought it up, once, after a particularly embarrassing battle, but couldn’t bring themselves to do it. Decided they’d get to it after cleaning themselves up.

They didn’t.

But Vengeance did, breaking into the monastery while they were away, rummaging through the things in that room with no care for them. No care for how he was desecrating the memory. It made Jay's blood boil. How dare. The audacity to just dig through their brother's stuff like that.

Kai swore that they'd take Vengeance down next time, to make up for letting this happen.

They didn't.

+=+=+=+=+

It had been a more successful battle than the other times, Zane managing to immobilize Vengeance with ice just long enough for Lloyd to get a good swing in.

Of course, that didn’t last. Vengeance, as always, found a way to regain the upper hand, trapping Lloyd and Kai in a pile of rubble. Nya managed to knock Vengeance off balance with a blast of water from the nearby river, but the extra water on their impromptu battlefield plus a misfire from Zane only served to make everything spiral out of control faster.

But then Jay saw an opportunity. No longer taking the time to think, he rushed Vengeance, tackling him to the ground. “Why are you so frustrating?” He’d asked, while rolling around in the dirt. Vengeance said nothing, just moved to push Jay off of himself.

But Jay wasn’t having it. This weirdo had been causing trouble in the city—so soon after the oni invasion, while emulating those monsters to boot—for so long now, and Jay was done. How was he supposed to grieve his best friend if he was constantly being reminded of the circumstances that killed him? Jay wasn’t thinking, couldn’t hear anything past the sound of blood rushing in his head.

So he punched Vengeance, putting as much voltage as he could into it. He couldn’t help but be satisfied at the whumph sound Vengeance made, the way he twitched and spazzed under Jay as the electricity coursed through his body.

But all too soon, Jay was flying through the air from the force of Vengeance's throw, slamming against Nya before he could even process what happened. When he did, when he heard Vengeance's cry of "JAY YOU FUCK THAT ACTUALLY HURT" as the man charged towards him, Jay had to double take.

He'd put in far too much voltage for Vengeance to have recovered so fast. And yet, there he was, grabbing Jay by the neck and lifting off the ground, ready to throw him in the river.

But Jay wasn't going down that easily—at least, not alone. With a well-placed kick, Jay turned what would have been another take down into a struggle, getting both himself and Vengeance into the overpowering current.

His friends called out his name as he continued to struggle against Vengeance, trying to gain an upper hand. But all too soon, he and his foe were washed away.

+=+=+=+=+

Jay groaned as he coughed up water. He must have hit something in the river, if he'd fallen unconscious. Blinking the bleariness out of his eyes, Jay had to double take once again.

Vengeance was leaning over him, hands on his chest. It took Jay a moment to realize. He had been doing compressions.

He might have even saved Jay's life.

Noticing that Jay was awake, Vengeance backed away. "You okay?"

Jay's jaw was on the floor. Was… was this a trick? It had to be.

"Alright, what's your ploy here?" Electricity sparked in Jay's hands as he backed away, hackles raised.

Vengeance, though his expression couldn't be seen past the mask, gave Jay a blank stare. "Is it so wrong for me to be concerned, Jay?"

And there it was again. He'd referred to the ninja by name before, but something about the way he said Jay's, the sort of familiarity in his tone, gave Jay pause.

Well, two could play at that game—even if Jay wasn't sure what that game was. He relaxed somewhat, though he remained ready for action at any moment. "And why would you be so concerned?"

Vengeance recoiled, as if hurt by that remark. He looked away. "Because I still care about you, Jay."

What the actual fuck. "And why should I believe that?" Jay demanded, hands sparking again.

Vengeance looked back to him, before wordlessly raising his hands to his mask. He took it off.

Jay froze.

It was the last thing Jay expected to see under Vengeance's mask, and yet, there he was.

Cole.

"C-... C o L e?" Holy shit. Holy forking shit on a waffle. Cole was alive. He was there, breathing, breathtaking, alive. Jay stumbled forwards, choking a sob out. His tears were hot on his face. But that didn't matter, because Cole was alive and he was right there and Jay could hit him for being such an idiot and making everyone think he was dead.

So Jay did.

"You jerkass! This whole time, we thought you were dead!" Jay's fists pounded uselessly against Cole's chest, tears running hot down his face. "Do you have any idea how much we've been hurting? How much we wanted you back?" He let out a cry, sagging forwards into Cole's arms. Cole's strong, comforting arms, that always kept Jay safe late at night. Jay wailed again, shoving his face into Cole's chest as his shoulders shook.

Cole said nothing, letting Jay cry it out. When Jay finished, Cole backed away, reaching for his mask to put it back on.

"What are you doing? Cole, stop."

Cole looked back towards Jay, his expression neutral. "I've still got something to finish, Jay."

"Then let us help you." Jay came forwards, taking Cole's hands into his own. "Come back to the monastery, everyone will be so happy to know you're alive. Please." At Cole's unconvinced look, Jay continued. "Whatever's going on, whatever this 'Vengeance' phase is—" And Jay had no doubt in his mind that vengeance was the last thing on Cole's To-Do List; Cole wasn't that type, "—We'll help. We'll support you. We're your family, Cole. Let us help you."

Cole gently removed his hands from Jay's, one of his arms moving to rub nervously at the back of his neck. "Wow, Jay. That's—I don't—" His expression turned cold as his grip tightened on the horns of his mask. He looked away.

"For a moment there, I almost believed you."

Jay's blood ran cold.

Cole replaced the mask, adjusting it once it was on. "Not that it matters." He said grimly. "Even if I wanted to go back, I really can't."

"What… what are you talking about, Cole? Of course you can come back. You can always come back."

Cole shook his head. "I don't think you get it, Jay. Even if I could, I don't want to. There's nothing left for me there." He moved to leave, but Jay latched onto his arm, the tears already back.

"Cole, please." And boy, if that didn't sound pathetic. But Jay was fine with sounding pathetic. His image wasn't important right now.

But Cole just shoved Jay off, knocking him to the floor.

"Cole, wait—"

Cole whipped around, kneeling so that he was directly in Jay's face. The snarling face of the mask met Jay's heartbroken one. "I don't want to hurt you, Jay. I don't want to hurt anybody, so stay out of my way." Cole then stood up and began walking away, leaving Jay with words that went straight through Jay's heart.

"If it makes you feel better, it's not because of something you did do."

"It's what you didn't."

And when the others found Jay, lying there in the dirt pathetically, sobbing inconsolably, when Kai angrily demanded to know what "Vengeance" did to get Jay so worked up like that, when Nya helped him up, when Zane asked what happened, when Lloyd tried to console him, something in Jay broke. Something he didn't think he could fix.

I'll tell the others once we're back at the monastery, Jay told himself. They'll know what to do.

But he didn't.

[aweebwrites]

Move on dragons Ch26

Cole had to admit, now that he wasn’t focusing on the negatives, this whole ghost thing was pretty fun. While he was possessing the others, he had all five senses again which was absolutely great. Possessing someone for a few minutes a day actually helps out a lot and makes the rest of the day without it a bit easier. Not to mention how cool it is to use their powers. Each one feels pretty different and needs different approaches. He never really saw it that way, you know? But what was equally entertaining was watching the shock and awe of the dragons as he casually passed through trees and solid surfaces. It’s even more entertaining for the twins. He was afraid he’d spook them too badly doing it but they were tough little guys that did indeed get spooked but in a way that made them even more excited and well, now? 

Cole grinned as he peaked up through the ground just outside the Dragon Tower, just behind the two searching dragons. He slowly floated forward, only his head above his nose visible, creeping up on the two as they searched everywhere but behind them. He and Jay were the only ones out here, the others gone to New Ninjago City to deal with a group terrorizing the city and they needed the Bounty to get there quickly. Jay was watching them, content to sunbathe not too far away on his stomach, wings spread to help him absorb the warmth of the sun easier. Cole crept closer, his hand phasing up through the ground as he reached for them- Jay gave a grunt and Nix quickly whirled around, giving a high roar of triumph of finally being able to catch him before he spooked them.

“Jay that’s cheating.” Cole huffed, shooting a glare at the lightning nin that stuck a long, forked tongue out at him before grinning.

“Oh come on, let the kids win too for once.” Jay huffed at him before he sat up, warm and toasty all over. “Games aren’t fun when there’s only one constant winner.” He reminded him chuckling as Nix ran over, burying himself in his arms.

“You’re getting big! Pretty soon, I won’t be able to hug you like this at all!” Jay laughed as Nix wiggled in his excitement, already taller than him while sitting.

“They are getting big, huh.” Cole smiled as he rose up from the deck only to crouch in front of Rux watching him curiously, getting closer to attempt to sniff at him- but he had no scent like this. “Who knows? Maybe in the next few months or so they’ll be Morro’s size…” He says, imagining it.

“The dragon’s time runs differently after all. I mean, from what Kai told us,  Lloidie did go from a little older than these two to almost an adult in like… Two months or so.” Jay shrugged. “We’ve had them for almost three months now and they’ve grown a lot. They went from barely being able to walk to big, strong dragons in no time!” He grinned, nuzzling Nix who gave a happy coo, nuzzling him back, his wiggling increasing.

Cole laughed at the sight of the two, a smile lingering after. Who knew raising dragons would be this much fun? Sure getting them potty trained was easier said than done and sure they still liked to gnaw at whatever they could and get into all sorts of trouble but they were worth it. He reached out to place a hand on Rux’s head- then blinked, realising he wasn’t- His hand made contact anyway, his body solidifying as he did. Cole stared as Rux purred, rubbing himself up against his hand before lunging forward, pulling a yelp from Cole as he fell back, Rux now sitting on his stomach, looking down at him triumphantly with his wings half spread.

“Alright bud, you win, you win.” Cole huffed, reaching up to pet his snout.

He was smart enough to realise that there were times he could and couldn’t touch Cole where Nix often makes that mistake. Rux gave a huff through his snout then hopped of him and gave a chirp of a certain tone they knew well.

“Looks like it’s lunch time, but the others aren’t back yet.” Cole says, scanning the sky for any signs of them.

“The two of us can totally handle this, don’t worry.” Jay grinned as he got up. “The river’s not too far away and there should be plenty to eat out there. This area’s pretty warm all year around so there’s fish and food all year ‘round.” He told Cole as he marched ahead into the forest, Nix trotting after him.

“That might be but I’m no good with water…” Cole mumbled, following after him as Rux trotted ahead, catching up with his brother.

____

“Jay, I’m not so sure about this…” Cole says nervously, floating high over the bank of the river where Jay walked along, looking for a good spot to fish from.

“Relax Cole! I’ve got this! You just stay up there!” Jay reassured, both dragon younglings trotted after him, pausing at times to look at the river or an interesting plant but keeping close to Jay.

“Right. Relax.” Cole says flatly, taking his higher viewpoint to keep an eye out for anything dangerous.

These forests, as regularly visited by dragons as they were, still had beasts and entities that would not hesitate to attack them since they were much, much smaller. He didn’t want to chance how fast he could float with how fast an enemy could move.

“This looks like a good spot!” Jay grinned, gesturing to a pool of water that was rather deep further up stream.

“Jay that’s way too deep for them. They don’t even know how to swim.” Cole pointed out.

“Then today’s a good day to learn!” Jay called back as he walked in a bit. “You guys stay there first.” He told Nix and Rux who were at the banks and they sat, understanding stay.

“What are you planning?” Cole asked with narrowed eyes, settling closer to the twins.

“You’ll see.” Jay hummed then stopped once the water was up to his neck.

Cole watched as Jay’s straight, backwards facing horns charged with electricity before he realised what he was planning. With that,he sent a pulse of low electricity through the water- and almost simultaneously, several stunned fish popped up to the twin’s amazement.

“Come in and eat as much as you want!” Jay says as he pick up the closest one and sunk his teeth in.

The two excitedly hopped in then, wading in to grab one and taking it to shore to eat. Cole would have been worried about the electrical current in the water still but this was Jay. He may be accident prone but he knows his lightning.

“I thought you hated raw food.” Cole commented, watching him all but swallow the rest of the fish.

“Raw meat.” Jay corrected with a huff, moving towards shore with as much fish as he could carry. “Raw fish is just sushi and I like sushi.” He shrugged, piling the fish on shore, leaving the majority he missed to break free from being stunned and swim away.

“Eat up! We’ll digest then learn how to doggy paddle- or in this case, dragon paddle.” Jay grinned and Cole rolled his eyes but didn’t comment.

Them learning how to swim at this age could really save them if they were to end up in a situation.

______

“There you go! Kick those little paws! You can do it!” Cole cheered, watching the two paddle in the water without Jay this time.

“You’re more excited about this than they are.” Tempest hummed, holding his arms out for them as their goal.

“Shut up you.” Cole huffed from above, floating down closer, watching as they kept going, clearly racing against the other with the look of focus on their faces.

Rux was faster though, what with him being more active than the two. Nix watched Jay play video games as his means of entertainment while Rux made trouble of himself, climbing anything he could and keeping himself entertained with self play- or their tails.

“We have a winner.” Tempest says once Rux reached his hand first, Nix giving a protesting whine as he swum in moments after.

“Don’t worry about it. You can beat your brother in lots of other things.” Tempest murmured as he headed towards shore with them both, the water supporting their weight up until their small paws touched the ground and they walked the rest of the way out themselves, shaking out their wings on reflex. “If you don’t want these two catching a cold, I suggest we get them back to the tower to warm up.” He says as Cole followed behind them.

“You know, you’re surprisingly good with them. Why don’t you hang around with them more?” Cole asked Tempest as they headed back.

“Oh don’t be fooled. Jay’s the one who’s dealing with them. I’m only in control mind-wise right now, not body.” Tempest dismissed. “I’ve seen enough of the modern world through Jay. It’s places like this I prefer. Less people, less problems.” He shrugged, lazy smile in place.

“You know, for a person who seems to hate people, you sure come out a lot when you’re surrounded by the whole team.” Cole pointed out with an arched brow and Tempest shrugged.

“‘Course. There’s a big difference between people and…” His smile slips but only to become smaller and more honest. “And friends…” He whispered, surprising Cole.

Before he could properly react however, loud wing beats interrupted and they looked up at the tower they just arrived at.

“The last two Kronos Steel blades are ready.” The dark elder dragon told them as he and his brother landed before them, both of which were holding a blade.

That’s right. Yesterday when he heard Garmadad leaving, he actually went to Torchfire Mountain to gather embers of the volcano to help forge the metals sooner. The elders were fearful of what else their powers could do to them so they decided to nudge the fire dragons providing the heat in which the metal dragons need to forge the blades a bit further by having them consume the embers to temporarily double the heat of their fire to make the hard to melt metal even more pliant. Rux uneasily shifted closer to where Cole was floating, not liking the situation at all.

“Hey, don’t worry.” Cole says as he knelt, reaching a hand out to stroke between the nubs of his horns growing in, his hand becoming solid on contact. “It won’t hurt a pinch and you’ll get your powers back when you’re a little older.” He promised him and while Rux was still uneasy, he relaxed some with Cole there.

He then turned to Garm and nodded, shifting closer to hug Rux to him once he lowered the blade over them. He watched in awe as amber energy rose up from Rux, getting sucked into the blade itself, creating a huge time blade. The same was done with Nix, his blue time energy absorbed inside the blade, leaving the bright blue streak down the side of his body a dull one.

“Good job…” Cole murmured, nuzzling him and Rux purred as both brothers sent the newest time blades to Wu’s pocket dimension.

“Indeed.” Wu rumbled. “It’s as you know, temporary. Once they’ve reached a certain age where we are sure they can actively make the right decisions, we will return their powers in full.” He reminds them.

“Even if they show malicious intent?” Tempest asked them.

“That is the only scenario where their powers would remain with us.” Garmadad told them. “Though that is a scenario we are certain, will not happen.” He added and Tempest hummed.

“Jay wants to know if you guys wanna join our movie night tonight.” He told the dragon elders who blinked, never expecting that.

“Yeah! It’ll be fun! Food and entertainment! We have a projector so Zane can use his ice to make a like, wall to run the movie on! The other dragons could come too if they wanted!” Jay grinned, patting Nix’s head from where he reached his waist.

Both brothers shared a look as Cole huffed.

“Sounds like fun.” Garmadad murmured affectionately.

_____

That was how they had the most chaotic movie night yet. A lot of dragons turned up, almost all the dragons present at the tower- which was at least half the dragon population. They had to make the block of ice they would project on it much bigger. Luckily, Shard and the other ice dragons were there to help. They also had to organize the dragons, not only by size, but horn size as well. That and they had to have the elders translate the movie but they didn’t mind at all. And let’s not forget snacks… By the end of it, they were all tuckered out but they had a lot of fun. The dragons really seem to like the movie- even though it was an animated film. Cole went to tuck in the dragons as everyone else cleaned up- and by the time they too returned to their room to sleep- they stumbled upon a very human Cole fast asleep between the two dragons on their nest.

“Holy shit! Cole!” Kai gasped but the earth ninja only grumbled and hushed them as Rux struggled closer than he already was.

“Cole you’re not a ghost anymore!” Nya told him excitedly, still baffled.

“Sleep now, celebrate later.” Was all the earth nin grumbled, his face relaxing again soon after as he drifted off again.

The group looked at each other, a little baffled before Lloyd yawned.

“I can get behind that.” He murmured, heading over to his bed and crawling in.

One by one, they followed Lloyd’s example- all but Kai that is. He slept with the twins as a means of warmth for them. It’ll be a tight fit with Cole there but he’ll make it work. With that, he slid in behind Nix and extended his wing over him, Cole and Rux as he settled in. He was just glad Cole was back to normal...

____________ (This is technically on time and not early but only because writing a chapter before some actually exciting stuff goes down is hard af so sorry if this chapter seemed low qual. I hope you guys liked it still! One more chapter until the final arc! Thanks for reading!)

[despair-ninja-everything-agency]

Ninjago: Ongeki Hibiki - an idea of Kamen Rider X Ninjago

Ever since I came back to the Kamen Rider series, one particular Rider-Ninjago match up has been stuck on me for a while. Believe it or not, it's between Kamen Rider Hibiki and Cole's dad, Lou. There's a reason why I gave his surname (and by extention Cole) as Hibiki.

While I haven't watch the entirety of Kamen Rider Hibiki (or Kamen Rider in general, really) save for some YouTube clips, I at least have the general gist of the plot and how the staff changes affect the second half of the season.

But enough of that, let's get to the proposed story of Lou as Hibiki.

Overview and Brief History

Back in 20... what? 10? 12? It was when Gaim was the latest Kamen Rider on air. There's really not much premise since it was still in a "casting agency" phase, meaning I still playing matching up without much story put on thought.

Lou is no different. I assigned him to be Hibiki simply for the latter's theme in music. He's in a team consisting of Dr. Julien as Kabuto and Ed Walker as Den-O, both of which doesn't have valid reasons to be matched up with like Lou did other than it sounds cool on paper. You could argue that Ed is Den-O because Den-O is one of if not the quirkiest Heisei Phase 1 Rider and Ed is that quirky while Kabuto has technological emphasis in which Dr. Julien is related to but these kinda stretching it.

Come this year. 2020.

Lou's Story as Hibiki

The idea is that, since it's confirmed that Onis exist in Ninjago's World, there's supposedly a small Oni tribe known as the Ongeki tribe, famous for their usage of music in battle. This again split into 4 clans. The clan of Ibuki which specialized in wind instruments, the Zanki clan specialized in string instruments, an unnamed clan which specialized in keyboard instruments, and the Hibiki clan which specialized in percussion instruments. They are separate from the usual Onis of Ninjago's Continuity in that they rather left out of the never ending war between Onis and Dragons, only come out to the battlefield whenever necessary. However, this in turn causes friction with the other Onis, the latter deeming them to be cowards. It resulted in a genocide against the Ongeki tribe, with only one (or a few, maybe) survivor.

Lou (original name unknown) was an Oni from the Hibiki clan. He specifically mastered in taiko drums, in leu with the original Hibiki. Not much known about his past except he was a trained warrior. While skilled, he's considered to be one of the lowest ranking warrior. On the day of the genocide, he managed to escape to the realm which would become Ninjago with the help of another Oni, which may or may not be Mistaké.

As an Oni, his form is closer to that of the Oni of Kamen Rider Hibiki, in particular Hibiki himself, rather that the Oni of Ninjago. Once settled in Ninjago, he changed into a form that we now know as Lou. As a disguised human, he often changing identities and jobs. But each jobs he had were always have to do with music, something he felt reminding him of his home.

This might be forced but let's talk of how Lou transforms into his Oni form using a device rather than at will like most of Ninjago's Oni. Cuz I like the Henshin Onsa :P

Lou, back then know with a different name that suspiciously similar to the OG Hibiki (Hitoshi Hidaka) down to the alletrative name, was involved with helping the First Spinjitzu Master fending off the Oni forces sent to capture him. However, since he's weaker than the FSM, he's captured quickly by the Oni. Believing that having his powers would be an obstacle to them, the Oni forces decided to seal away his Oni powers and form, rendering him a normal man. They didn't manage to do the same to Mistaké tho, as they're driven away from Ninjago.

It is at this time that the FSM offered to help him tapping into his Oni powers, which led to the creation of the Henshin Onsa, a tuning-fork shaped transformation device. It lets him to access his Oni powers and ability yet not enough to return him to his Oni form. He only finally able to turn into his Oni form again after a tougher training, and even then he still need to use the Onsa for it.

Due to the extended lifespan of an Oni, Lou had lived long enough to know the history of Ninjago itself in the making. However, he only known as what he is now when he met with The Elemental Master of Earth. They both fell in love quite fast and not even the revelation of Lou's true identity hindered their love for one another. This led to their marriage and later the birth of Cole.

Cole was unaware of his heritage as an Oni as Lou tried his best not talk about his other activity, often disguised it as something related to his current occupation as the Royal Blacksmith. Speaking of Royal Blacksmith, he established it with three other people not long after Cole's birth.

Now for something related to his injury, that is his broken foot. See, while he presented it as some insignificant accident, in reality he was injured while fighting against a giant creature similar to the Makamou of KR Hibiki. In his defense, it did happened during a big party in which he's invited to.

General Appearance as Hibiki

While his Oni form is that of OG Hibiki's, Lou's transformed or powered state is usually signified with his suit turning into a simple purple colored hakama with brown ropes fastening a golden Oni face similar to the early Ninja gi where the Oni face is replaced with elemental symblos. His footwear is a pair of wooden sandals and a pair of white socks. A red taiko drumstick known as Ongekibou usually appears on his back in a crossing manner fastened by the ropes.

Rider AU vs Symphogear AU vs A Canon Divergance

Here's the deal. I have two or three idea for Lou as Hibiki.

The first one is a Canon Divergance, in which I have elaborated above. His relationship with Cole is still strained, even more so once Cole found out that Lou isn't what he appears to be. But it does work around later on.

The second is the Rider AU. While the whole Ongeki tribe thing still exist, its demise is instead causes by a group known as Shocker (the OG Kamen Rider's enemy). The circumstance of his transformation is different as well. In here, Lou was almost got killed and went missing, leading to the then teenager Cole to go after Shocker in revenge. This leads to him nearly dying, only surviving thanks to Dr. Julien turning him into a cyborg and become Ninjago's equivalent of Kamen Rider Black. Lou returns to his only family after recovering from his wound.

The last is Symphogear AU. His circumstance is that he's an early expermentation of Symphogear's prototype, utilizing the power of music (specifically taiko music) as opposed to the more well known song. In appearance, he is also different to his successor in that he wears a hakama instead of armors. Of course, his son Cole become the next Symphogear wielder who utilize the power of Gungnir relic. Lou's relic is left unknown.

[kriber]

Aaaand I made an art summary thing! I scoured my computer for art and found at least one pic for every month (2015 not included), so I compiled them all into this masterlist! Read under cut for my further thoughts on each month

2015:

Jan- I saw a youtubers as pokemon thing and did one myself,,, when I had only MS Paint as an art source. So naturally it’s shit

Feb-Apr- Nothing found.

May- Just edits of mlp bases

June- Wow! A catte!! Yes that’s a cat

July- I was just doing base drawings and two drawings in the mlp style (sorta? it’s not good)

Aug- More edits

Sep- Drawing humans/minecraft characters for the first time!

Oct- I know it wasn’t supposed to be scary but holy shit that haunts my dreams

Nov- I both drew on bases and my own. It was left unnoticed by all,,

Dec- Ok yea it fucking sucks so bad but the concept of it is even worse,,,

2016:

Jan- My first drawing of my persona! Still stuck in MS Paint land tho

Feb- Aaand we leave MS Paint land and venture into Alpaca/Medi, with what was once my old ponysona. This was a wip and my first experience with layers and when I got my first tablet!

Mar- We Do Not Discuss This One.

Apr- That was for a school project. It’s a humanization of pinkeye,,,

May- NewScapePro’s Undertale series kicked off and I loved it and drew some,, flattering fanart. Remastered 2 years later

June- I was told to draw my persona cosplaying my fav chara. It’s not,, bad? At least the face isn’t too bad. The body sucks ass fgdjkhbdsjkg

July- Genderbends aren’t bad at all!!1!11!!1 And my art is good too!!1!!1

Aug- This actually isn’t that bad. The shading needs work but it really isn’t bad at all.

Sep- Oh yea I went back to MS Paint land to draw this :/// Never Again

Oct- I Have Entered My Homestuck Phase. (fyi that’s an AU Karkat)

Nov- A troll I made. He’s much better drawn nowadays trust me

Dec- Ok now this is a step into the right direction. Before this point I was using the pixel tool, which was a strict 1-3 pixel brush with no fade at the tips. I didn’t know about turning anti-aliasing off yet and hated when it wasn’t pixely (still do) due to a shitty tablet. This is when I figured it out and life got infinitely better.

2017:

Jan- Now things are better. I turned on anti-aliasing again? for some reason??? and went through a brief Eddsworld phase. I made an au and still kinda like the designs I made for it

Feb- fuckin sexy art there

Mar- Ok anti-aliasing is gone again but HOLY SHIT THOSE ARMS. WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE. Remastered a year later

Apr- Just full of hs sprites but I found some customs and they were.. not good. But we can see progression into my current style

May- what did i do here i feel Dirty

June- A piece I did for DA’s pride month thing that I’m still happy with it. Has some issues but overall not bad!

July- I tried to use multiply layers without having a multiply layer on. But the art style is coming in to my current one slowly but surely!

Aug- I stole images off google and used them for backgrounds. Not the best business practice

Sep- I didn’t find any real digital art tbh :/

Oct- Aaand we enter the Ninjago time of my life! Art is marginally better than before and actually looks presentable.

Nov- Aww my first Bruise fanart!! And me experimenting with backgrounds and art techniques 

Dec- Progression of my talent is visible here,, also of my Gay

2018:

Jan- Still not my style but I was into v3 now so I made some art experimenting with brushes

Feb- Edgy Shit but it’s legit good now

Mar- I have no idea how to proportion here but the style is coming in well!

Apr- This was a diversion from the current style to make smth look pretty but my style is almost there!!

May- Same as above but also profile practice

June- All throughout June art it was almost the same as my style now! Look at that!!!

July- Some great art came from this time, art style is now the current one.

Aug-Dec- The art style is solidified and I actually like this art so much more,,,

Look at how far I’ve come with my art! I know I have like three followers on my main but I’m glad I got to share and compile this! Yea my old art fucking sucks ass

[eyeofthewolfe]

Evil Zane Chapter 8

As Zane prepares his new allies, the ninja discover pursue an unlikely friend who has the ability to cure Zane.

Prologue and Chapters 1-5: here

Chapter 6: here

Chapter 7: here

Chapter 8

 Immediately after PIXAL delivered the horrible news, Jay instantly broke into a coughing fit, but he was shooting looks at Nya. The girl instantly caught on. “Oh no, I thought you were getting better!” Nya said quickly and then pulled Jay out of the room. The ninja all glanced at each other, but shrugged and ignored the sudden outburst.

As soon as Nya and Jay moved out of earshot Jay quit his coughing and grabbed Nya. “You don’t think…”

Nya stared back. “She said there was no one else in Ninjago like Zane…” she said. “But she doesn’t know about the other Zane.”

Jay’s mouth lifted into a small smile. “You don’t think that he has the part we need, do you?”

Nya looked back, but Jay could tell that she was thinking. “He did say that he was built to protect others who can’t protect themselves, right? That’s the motive that Zane has, well, had. So that means…”

Both Jay and Nya grinned. “Echo Zane can save Zane!” they said in unison.

Jay turned to go back to the bridge. “We need to go tell the others!” he said excitedly, but Nya grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Wait, Jay- how are we supposed to explain that we know about Echo Zane?”

Jay froze. He grabbed his forehead. “Aw man, that’s a doozie! We met him during the Skybound timeline!”

Jay and Nya had experienced an alternate timeline in which Ninjago was under attack by sky pirates led by an evil djinn captain named Nadakhan. Each of the ninja were captured in the magical djinn blade, all except Jay and Nya. But after the evil genie had ripped huge chunks out of Ninjago and married Nya to inherit infinite wishes, he was poisoned and weak enough for Jay to say a final wish that would mortalize Nadakhan and therefore destroy his power. But he wasn’t the only one who was poisoned, Nya was accidently effected as well, but fatally. She died in Jay’s arms. That was when Jay made his last and honest wish to go back and prevent all the events that transpired because of the release of Nadakhan. The defeated djinn reluctantly granted the wish and time was reset. Only Jay and Nya remembered the events from this miniature adventure, which they have nicknamed the “skybound timeline”.

But within the skybound storyline, Jay and Nya had fled to the lighthouse prison that Dr. Julien had formally been imprisoned in in order to escape Nadakhan. There, they were surprised to find out that they were not alone. It turned out that Dr. Julien had built a replacement Zane out of scraps to keep him company. He was covered in rust from age, but Nya and Jay had somewhat adopted him as a fellow ninja. He even assisted Jay when he led a party of replacement ninja to rescue Nya and the other ninjas. But when time was reset…Echo Zane was put back in the tower untouched and unknowing that he had ever had friends or been part of an epic battle for Ninjago.

Nya frowned. “How are we going to explain that we know about him without sharing skybound?”

Jay looked up the staircase where the rest of the team resided. They had kept this a secret for so long- none of the other ninja would have ever imagined they had faced a Djinn in their time. Or rewritten time.

Finally, Jay sighed and turned back to Nya. “I guess it’s time they learned the truth.”

Nya paused, then nodded as well. They both returned back to the bridge.

Cole was the first one to notice them walk in because his eyes were already focused on the doorway with a dead stare. He sat up with a confused look. Slowly the team recognized that Jay and Nya had something to say because they were standing in the front. “Yes, you two?” Sensei asked as the room fell quiet.

Nya and Jay exchanged a nervous look.

“You guys are scaring us. What’s wrong?” Kai spoke from his seat.

Nya cleared her throat. “Um, so we haven’t told you the full story of how Jay and I made up.”

“Okay,” Lloyd said, stepping in. “We really don’t have the time to listen-“

“Lloyd, zip it. This is important.” Jay snapped, a bit of electricity sparking from his right hand. Lloyd froze with his mouth open.

“Okay, listen up guys.” Jay started. “I need to tell you all something that you may not want to believe but need to trust.” Nya took his hand. He took a deep breath and said, “I’m going to tell you how Nya died.”

 _____________________________________________________

Zane slammed his fists on the console sending sparks flying. “This is frustrating! The ninja continue to somehow overpower me! This must be what the other villains we have faced felt like after a defeat.”

The Mechanic nodded.

Zane turned to the cyborg with a scowl. “How is Phase 2?” He spat.

The Mechanic directed Zane to the factory line where the machines were busy with five different projects. “It’s moving along, sir. There were some complications with the designs-“

Zane grabbed the Mechanic’s throat and lifted him a few inches off of the ground. “What complications?” Zane growled through clenched teeth.

Spitting and gasping, he said, “They….weren’t���..weaponized….enough….”

Zane dropped the man. “They don’t need to be weaponized! They are fine as they are!”

The Mechanic regained his breath in long gasps. “Sir, all I did was add personalized weapons to fit each design personality to make them even more powerful!” He pushed his shaking body off the ground and hit a button on the unbroken computer console. Five blueprints appeared on the screen.

The Mechanic, still shaking, pointed at the designs. “Now, they are deadly both mentally and physically. I can reverse this if you want-“

Zane shot his hand up and the crook flinched in fear. Zane studied the designs before grinning. He turned to his ally. “Once again, you have exceeded my expectations. You’re excellent additions to my allies will carry through.”

“Thank you sir,” The Mechanic said in relief.

Zane turned to the factory where the machines were busy at work on the current project and the massive metal dragon rested beyond it. “This changes the ball game…” Zane spoke as he saw his new allies form before his eyes. “And it looks like I’ve got home field advantage.”

 _______________________________________________________

They were almost to the lighthouse when Jay finished his story. He closed his mouth and was met with silence.    

“So?” Jay said. “Do you believe me?”

Kai, who actually started silently crying when Jay got to the part about Nya’s death, was the first to speak. “You are expecting us to hear you say that you and Nya lived an alternate timeline with flying pirates and floating land masses and an evil djinn and follow it immediately with asking us if we believed it?!”

Jay nodded. “Yes.”

Kai snorted and was about to speak when someone said, “I believe you.”

The whole team turned to Cole. “You do?” Jay said softly.

Cole stood up from his seat in the corner. “Of all the people in this room, if there’s only one person who could outthink a genie solely based on his love for another, it’s Jay.” Cole started. Jay blinked in surprise. “I know this because when Nya fell for me you fought so hard to get her back. It was enough for me to realize how dedicated you were to loving her and how it was destroying our friendship. If some evil being, genie or not, was after Nya, the only person on this team who would be strong enough to rescue her is Jay. So do I think that timeline is true? It’s not unbelievable. It’s not impossible. But it is imaginable.”

Nya smiled at Cole. Jay looked like he was on the brim of tears. “Thanks, Cole.” He said. Cole nodded before sitting back down.

“So in your…story…” Lloyd began. “You mentioned the other Zane… Emo Zane?”

“Echo Zane.” Nya corrected followed by a giggle from Jay. “He is currently located within the lighthouse prison. We should arrive there momentarily.”

“And if he’s not there?” Misako asked.

Jay looked at her confidently. “He will be there.”

Kai raised his eyebrows. He leaned over to Lloyd. “He must have gained his confidence from that timeline.” he whispered to the green ninja. Lloyd cracked a smile, but his eyes were locked on his casts again. He was lost in his head as Jay continued to speak.

“So since he is built by Dr. Julien and has the same motive, he must have the piece we need to save Zane. So we go there and ask him for it.”

Cole looked up. “Without that piece of equipment, wouldn’t it just render Echo Zane purposeless?”

Nya frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Without a purpose it would just be a relic, right?” Cole said.

Jay shifted. “You have a point,” he said. “Removing that piece would…deactivate Echo Zane.”

Nya’s frown tightened. “I’m sure Echo Zane will understand. He’s built to protect others, so that means his brother to.”

“But would he die for his brother?” Kai said.

“I would.” Nya shot back. Kai opened his mouth, but closed it shortly afterwards.

The Bounty began to drop altitude slowly. Nya and Jay looked out the front window and smiled. “We are here!” Jay announced. The team turned and in the brilliance of the sun sat the tall lighthouse gleaming above the waves of the ocean. The Bounty landed on the small beach at the base of the staircase and caused seagulls to flutter to the roof. Leaving Misako to care for the ship, the team exited the Bounty and followed Jay and Nya as they walked up the staircase.

Filled with excitement, Jay bust through the door and yelled, “ZANE!”

Nothing moved. Jay frowned. “Hold on,” Jay said (mainly to himself) and walked towards the wall. Nya walked toward the staircase and looked up. Kai, Lloyd, and Cole walked into the main area followed by Wu, who was checking a golden pocket watch.

“Zane?” Nya called upstairs. She began to walk up the many flights of stairs. Kai followed her.

Jay, on the other hand, was staring at the wall.

Cole approached him. “What are you looking for?” he asked. Jay’s eyes were narrowed as he scanned the brick wall. “The right lever….” He murmured, before his eyes froze on a spot. “There!” he said, pointing at a camouflaged lever. Cole felt his jaw drop a little. Jay chuckled then pushed it down. The brick wall shifted and shape of a door slid to the side, revealing a path to a hidden bunker.

“Zane?” Jay called out as he made his way down the path, followed by Lloyd and Cole.

Sensei Wu looked up from his watch and saw two parties disappear in two different directions. He sighed, walked over to a stool, sat down, and waited.

 _________________________________________________________

After a few flights of climbing, Nya and Kai made it to the top floor. “Zane…” Nya called out as she finished walking up the last few stairs. However, the floor was empty. With a frown, she turned to go back down, but Kai stopped her.

Nya was going to say something, but she saw a spark of fear in Kai’s eyes. “What is it?” She asked.

Kai looked into her eyes and said, “Did you really die?”

Nya felt like Zane had frozen her heart. In that moment, Kai didn’t look like the brother she knew. Instead of his cocky smirk, he wore a confused scowl. His eyes that were once filled with fire were now full of tears. He even looked more pale than usual. Nya sighed and sat down on the top staircase. Kai sat down next to her.

Nya paused. “Yes, I did die.”

Kai looked like he was shot in the gut. “There is an existing timeline where you are dead?” He cried. Nya watched the tears begin to stream down his face. “I don’t want to believe that, I can’t believe that-“

“You don’t have to. You didn’t live that, and you never will.” Nya reassured him.

He tried to wipe away his tears. “But you died. That happened. And a version of me had to live with having my entire family being gone...“

“Oh, Kai….” Now Nya began to form tears. “You know mom and dad are still with us in some way. Besides, we don’t even know they are really gone. They just vanished.”

“It’s not like they are going to come back,” Kai spat. Nya flinched, shocked. “I’m sorry…” he instantly said. “But they’ve been gone for 12 years. I’ve somewhat gotten over losing them…but loosing you…”

Nya wrapped her arms around her brother. “You won’t lose me. I’m right here. I’ll always be there for you.” Kai returned the hug, and the siblings were wrapped in a hug for a few hour-long seconds. Finally, Kai pulled away and attempted to wipe the tears from his cheeks.

Nya lifted her hand, and the water on Kai’s face lifted off of the skin and formed a miniature ball of water. With a flick of her hand, the ball of tears sailed out of the window. Kai watched it go before turning back to his sister. “I’ve seen you do a lot of cool things, but that has got to be my favorite.”

Nya laughed. “I’ve had practice.” She said with a wink. “C’mon, let’s go find Echo Zane.”

 ________________________________________________________

Jay finally made it to the base of the bunker. He paused and looked at his surroundings. “Wow,” he said to himself. “Such good non-existent memories.”

Cole and Lloyd flanked his side. “Whoa,” Lloyd said out loud.

The room was full of boxes with rusted metal packed into them. The ground was littered with orange crusted parts and random sheets of blueprints for skeleton vehicles. A circular window that was half underwater provided the needed light in the room.

“Hello?” Jay called out. “Zane?”

There was silence.

Cole sighed. “Look, Jay…maybe you were wrong about-“

“How do you know my name?”

The three ninja froze. Cole’s eyes widened. “Scratch that, you were right.” He whispered really fast.

Jay stepped farther into the room. “Zane..I know you are in here. This will sound weird, but I know you. My girlfriend and I met you in an alternate timeline, and you helped us. You were built to protect others?”

There was a pause, but then the sound of creaking and rusted metal squeaked in the shadowed corner.

Emerging into the light, Echo Zane said, “I was built to protect others who cannot protect themselves.”

Lloyd and Cole gasped while Jay grinned. “Echo Zane!” he cheered.

Echo Zane looked at his new visitors. “Wait…you three look familiar.”

Lloyd looked at Jay, who was the one now who looked confused. “Does he remember the timeline?”

“Father…” Echo Zane spoke suddenly. The ninja turned back to the robot. “Dr. Julien?” Cole guessed.

“Father.” The rusted replica repeated, this time with more certainty. “You took Father away.”  

[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani here.

It is once again time for the weekly wrap-up, where I talk about all of the books I’ve finished, the ones I’m currently reading, and my plans for the upcoming week, as well as  talk about what Damian and I have done and watched over the last week. For the record, I think this might be a pretty big wrap up for just one week.

Let’s just jump into it.

Books read: Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks, Wicked Fox by Kat Cho, The Language of Fire by Stephanie Hemphill, Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger, Screen Queens by Lori Goldstein, Specter by Katie Jane Galloway, The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin, and Vox Machina Origins II Issue #1 by Matthew Mercer, Jody Houser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher.

After seeing a lot of other people doing a similar thing, I decided to use July to sit in on the two OWLs I did not complete for the OWLs Readathon, so that I can sit in on my NEWTs in August, so I need to complete Defense Against the Dark Arts: Title that starts with “R,” and History of Magic: A book published 10+ years ago. To complete those I will be reading Roomies by Christina Lauren and I will be re-reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban because I finally got my 20th Anniversary Ravenclaw House Edition.

I’m participating in the July round of #AGameofBooksathon, and the prompts are genre based, so I’ve completed Horror by reading Specter by Katie Jane Gallagher, Middle Grade by reading Keeper of the Lost Cities, and Contemporary/Romance by reading Screen Queens by Lori Goldstein.

I also last minute decided to join the DND Readathon, which is a readathon based on Dungeons & Dragons. The first round, which is taking place this month, is the round focused on the Races of D&D. Basically by completing all the prompts for a certain race, you can choose that race for the character you will be building throughout all the different rounds. So, based on the books I had already planned on reading, and on the prompts that I found, I will be aiming for the race of Dwarf. The prompts for Dwarf are to read a book with foil on the cover, read a classic, and read a book you acquired for the cover. So I will be reading The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, and The Language of Fire by Stephanie Hemphill. So I’m doing pretty well on this readathon already too.

My current reading plans are all over the place, because honestly I’m in a bit of a mood reading phase at the moment. Though I do have a TBR in place for a couple different readathons, it’s like I’d rather be reading other books at the moment. Plus I know I have quite a few NetGalley ARCs piling up on my Kindle app. So I have a lot of reading I’m hoping to be doing over the next week and a half while at work. Because, yes, I am on one of my favorite jobs, one where I can actually write blog posts, watch some BookTube videos, and read books while technically on the clock. As long as things are running smoothly with my system, my time is fairly free. It’s great.

So these are the books I’m reading at the moment, or will be starting very soon. I’m looking forward to all of them, so I will say a quick thank you to the publishers for being so kind as to grant me copies of each of these books through NetGalley. Speaking of NetGalley, I have been approved for quite a few books these past few weeks, and I’m honestly thinking that I should probably put a limit on my book buying until I catch up on some of these NetGalley reads. I think my review rating is at like 69% or something like that, and I would love to be at the 80% or higher that they recommend you have. It’s just that I’ve really been in a physical book mood these past several months, so having all of these e-arcs isn’t as productive as I wish they could be. But that’s my personal problem, and is not the fault of the great stories I keep getting my hands on.

Looking at the rest of the books I’m hoping to read, oh man, I don’t know what I’m going to pick up next.

Maybe one of the above books. I don’t know. I’m actually doing really well with my readathon TBRs, so a couple of these books will finish off those TBRs, and then I’m sort of still in a contemporary romance mood, so there’s that too.

I can’t say that I’m in a reading slump, because I’m still reading quite a bit. I mean, I’ve already finished 11 books this month, which is really good. But it’s more that I’m in this weird phase where I’m not quite sure what I want to read, and it’s almost to the point of indecision leading to reading nothing or like 5 things at once, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

I’m also trying to get things all organized and prepped for our trip to Gen Con here in a few more weeks. I want to have my blog posts written and scheduled, but I also need to think about what my convention reads will be, because I always like to take a book or two with me, so I can read them before bed, first thing in the morning, and sometimes while waiting in lines.

Oh yeah, and then there’s what we’ve watched to talk about as well. We’ve made more progress on getting through “The Big Bang Theory” Season Five, and we watched “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse,” “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” “Men In Black International,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two,” “Ghostbusters,” “LEGO Ninjago,” and “The Pacifier.”

Wow. we watched a lot of stuff. To be fair it was a holiday weekend and we decided to be cheap and lazy and not really do a lot of running around and stuff. So aside from going to the drive-in movie theater to see the new Spider-Man and MIB, we didn’t really go anywhere. We ended up lounging around and watching a whole lotta movies. Which was nice and relaxing, so I’m okay with it.

Okay, well this has been a rather lengthy weekly wrap-up post, but hey that happens sometimes. I had a lot of books to talk about. That’s all for today, but I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.

Weekly Wrap-Up (21) Hey all, Dani here. It is once again time for the weekly wrap-up, where I talk about all of the books I've finished, the ones I'm currently reading, and my plans for the upcoming week, as well as  talk about what Damian and I have done and watched over the last week.

[wordsablaze]

#13: Waves and Worries

Match of Magic What if destiny chose soulmates through literal aesthetic matches? What if education fused with impossibility and reality faded away? Dan and Phil must unite, work together and help each other live the best of all the worlds they can…

(Phil POV)

It’s like my brain decided to move my arm before I could overthink it and chicken out.

Of course I’d watched him walk down the bus aisle and through the doors but I also grin at him through the window, waving with my fingers splayed as the bus starts moving. He gives me an adorable smile back, his dimples making a reappearance as he becomes smaller and smaller until he’s literally too small for me to make out, even with my glasses.

I turn back round when I can’t see Dan anymore, his sweetly effervescent wave still fresh in my mind. Placing my bag on the seat next to me, I put in earphones, sighing as I watch the streetlights blur past through the condensated window. My stop takes a while because there’s traffic lights clumped together in the area where I live.

Not that everyone uses them. It’s as if the regulators don’t care either, leaving us to do what we want. The bus driver seems to care today so we have to tediously stop at each and every one along the route.

I don’t mind but some people feel the need to express their irritation through non-stop cathartic swearing.

I place my forehead on the window, the cool glass calming despite the occasional pothole that sends jolts running through the bus and subsequently through my head as well. I’ve finished the whole band album I was listening to by the time my stop comes so I quickly wrap up my earphones and slip my phone inside my pocket, slinging my backpack over my shoulder as I make my way off the bus.

Ken, who happens to still be on the bus for some reason, sticks his foot out and I’m not fast enough to step over it so I stumble, my hands reaching out to grab something.

I hold onto the seat nearest to me as I regain my equilibrium and Ken laughs, folding his arms cockily.

The driver, Alan, smiles sympathetically, tipping his hat as I climb off, the only one at this stop.

My walk back is mercifully uneventful, the regular gang that hangs out here missing from the scene, and I end up reaching home without having to avoid any particular streets like I usually make a habit of doing. Almost dropping the key twice as I unlock the door, I push it open and see Mark fiddling with the power outlet behind the kettle.

“Hey Mark.” I grin as I enter, dumping my shoes inside the cupboard. Well, neatly placing them. I quickly skip up the stairs and throw my bag in to my room upstairs before rushing back down, where Mark frowns at me.

“You’re not immediately videoing something or doing homework? What happened? Something in school?”

“I got it. You’re matched, aren’t you?” Jack asks, playfully whacking Mark on the head.

Before I can confirm it, Dylan and Henry do, both of them lifting me up with huge smiles. I don’t know how they’re all here today but I don’t let myself think about it too much, laughing as I’m lifted in the air. Once we’ve settled back down on the battered couch with cereal as an amazing substitute for popcorn, Dylan turns to me, “Thanks for making my trip back even more cheerful, dude. I mean, come on, how fated is this?”

“Very.” Jack and Mark chime, high-fiving. They’ve recently fallen back into the phase of having uncanny unison whenever they say something, which is equally impressive and creepy.

“You’re both a disaster to adult-kind.” Henry sighs at them, shaking his head before turning to me, “Congrats, man.”

Jack eyes me suspiciously, sensing my growing agitation and smiling, “Dude, what’s wrong?”

“He lives on…that half.” I blurt, biting my lip. I was expecting wary glances and dispiriting explanations of why I can’t see him but I receive the polar opposite reactions.

Dylan actually sighs happily, “That’s such a relief man. I was worried you’d be matched to someone violent or something.”

I laugh, easing up and my worry disappearing as they all admit that’s a good thing and the exact opposite of a problem. Anyway, how much longer can we all stay together?

Dylan is off doing various jobs and hobbies most of the time, Henry’s job takes him travelling and the twins aren’t long off transferring to a better university somewhere else. They’re overly eager to get away from Dad anyway, especially recently.

I sigh, not liking being the younger one when it comes down to things like this because it’s always harder to be the one that gets left behind than it is to be the one that leaves others behind.

At least I’ll always have Dan.

He’s always be my match, and I won’t live a single day without him. Ever.

Or, at least, I’ll try not to stay away from him too much. If he’s okay with that.

I’m glad that the film we vote to watch is an old one because I can’t concentrate through the majority of it, thinking of Dan’s chocolate amber eyes and curly oceanic hair, his cute dimples, his caramel voice, his darkened school uniform and his smart, knowing look.

“Phil!” Henry yells, snapping his fingers in front of me. I jump, simultaneously jolting backwards and lashing out defensively.

Henry yells as I whack his forehead by accident, then simply sighs at me, “If I hadn’t gone through this whole phase myself, you would so be a dead man.”

“Sorry, Hen.” I grin sheepishly, raising my hands as if to surrender.

“Why didn’t you take the chance to sarcastically remark something?” Dylan sighs, exasperated.

“Would be the baby brother if he did?” Jack asks, laughing, just as his phone rings. He grins,

“My match a-calls!” he announces and bounds upstairs, shutting his room door. Mark laughs, shaking his head, “He never gets the whole we-share-a-room thing.”

“Marky, he doesn’t have to; he knows that you’ll give him space.” Dylan laughs, elbowing him.

“Yeah, space right beside a nebula.” I mumble.

Henry claps my shoulder, “That’s the spirit, bro!”

Dylan’s phone goes off with the Ninjago theme tune and I laugh, not having known he’d changed it from the SpongeBob one we’d made him set it as last time.

He sighs, “I lost one of my bets to Mark so I had to pick another theme tune from the ringtone jar.”

I smile, remembering when we first made that: when Dylan got his own phone.

He was eleven so I was only three years old and didn’t really understand it until much later. We’d just found a jar from a disregarded crafts project and decided to place theme tunes from all our favourite shows inside it – obviously adding to it every time we found a new show- and officially making it The Forfeit Jar.

Whoever owned a phone and lost a prize-less bet to anyone else would have to pick out a new ringtone as a punishment, or if they didn’t want to do whatever they were dared to attempt.

My ringtone is currently The X-files, Jack’s is Attack on Titan, Mark’s is Gravity Falls and Henry’s is Noddy.

We never really removed all the more ancient ones so having one of them as our ringtone often gets us bizarre and suspicious looks when we’re out in public. Which is why all the phones in our house are mostly on silent, aside from Dad and Matthew of course, but we don’t care about that.

Matthew never took part, but he did once break our jar without warning us so, of course, I accidentally stepped on shattered glass shards and my feet bled all over the floor. Since then, we’ve added padding around the jar to prevent it being smashed again and I still have little silvery scars ghosting the bottom of my feet.

“Food!” Dad calls loudly, “No gadgets!”

We exchange a look, dispersing and assembling in the spare room, flopping down on the sofa with our pasta plates and forks since none of us could afford and now no longer wish for an actual dining table. Dad does halfheartedly ask me about my match, which he purportedly sense but I’m certain one of the others kindly prompted him to ask me like they usually do to get Dad talking, and I can’t help my mind wondering.

Why is Dad so distant anyway? Maybe he just doesn’t like me that much or maybe it’s because I’m not living up to his expectations. What does he expect of me anyway? I don’t know how to change myself. I hope Dan doesn’t have a problem with me; I’m sure he won’t…

Dan is the best.

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