#i hope they think it sounds neat nya

[whimsical-sonic]

i mentioned in the oc q&a that sting does contracted work for a former gun researcher by the name of taz nocturn. let's get into that!

pictured from left to right: dr. nocturn (she/her), vi the caracal (they/them), and sting himself

to explain why sting's working for taz, i need to explain a bit of what's going on with her. long story short, taz left gun to pursue what started as a pet project. she's been experimenting with chaos energy, studying how it interacts with the organic and inorganic, all with an ulterior motive in mind. her research is completely secret. so secret, in fact, that her lab is an abandoned subway system that had been repurposed to suit her needs

vi is taz's assistant. with taz's permission, vi hired sting, having learned about him via a newspaper ad (where he was promoting his services, he was a little desperate for cash). taz and her scientists don't usually leave the subway, and vi can only travel so far...sting is the one they rely on to get them new equipment, new material, new intel. sting is also the person they contact to help them, uh, find participants for their experiments

sting does not know what it is they're testing for nor do the scientists want him to know, can't let anyone on the outside know what it is they're researching. he gets paid well enough to not question it, but he can't help but get a little curious...

in terms of interactions, almost all work-related meetings are with vi. sting has only spoken to taz...maybe about 2 times? 3? taz doesn't really leave her research. she appreciates that sting isn't one for small talk, and he appreciates that she gets right to the point

during the events of my fanstory, a certain blue hedgehog and two-tailed fox start snooping a bit too close to the lab, assuming that eggman is up to something (fair assumption). not wanting to risk discovery, vi called upon sting to go deal with them

if this interests you, please consider voting for sting! 🦂 vote for him here 🦂

if you want to learn more about him, check out his socs2 tag here!

@sonic-oc-showdown

[quibbs126]

Thoughts on the legendary cookies?

Okay, this has been in my inbox for a while, I might as well answer this now

I’m just gonna focus on the elemental Ovenbreak Legendaries, since that’s what I was thinking of. I’ll put my thoughts on the others at the end, but it probably won’t be as in depth

Fire Spirit Cookie:

So I got this ask back before Flames of Longing was announced, and I was going to to say that I don’t really care for Fire Spirit, as I know basically nothing about him, but then Flames of Longing came out, and I quite like him there. Yeah he’s a bit of a prideful bastard, but he’s got a heart, and I can’t help but like him.

His Cookie Trial is ass though, I’m so bad at it

Moonlight Cookie:

I also quite like Moonlight Cookie. Granted, I haven’t gotten close to getting through Episodes 15-16, as I’m stuck at the beginning, but from what I have seen from cutscenes and Crunchy Dreams, she seems neat. Hopefully with her (I think) joining the fight against Dark Enchantress Cookie, we’ll be able to see more of her. I’m curious what interactions between her and the Ancients would be like. Also I haven’t finished Odyssey so I don’t know how we got to the Gingerbrave group looking for Moonlight, but I can’t help but imagine Gingerbrave going up to the Ancients and being like “hey guys, I was able to recruit the powerful moon lady! Oh, and her ocean wife!” (I assume that Sea Fairy would probably join if Moonlight was there) while they’re just like “wait how”

But let me tell you, until I got her for myself, I feared her in Arena

Sea Fairy Cookie:

Now, I actually quite like Sea Fairy Cookie, she seems like a nice lady. I just wish I knew more about her. I mean yeah, I know stuff about her, like the Sugarteara stuff and her relationship with Moonlight, but my thing with her is that we don’t know much about her herself, or at least things that don’t relate to Moonlight

I like seamoon, it’s cute, but I feel like it’s one of those ships/relationships where while one of the characters is allowed to have arcs outside of the relationship and about them themselves, but the other is stuck having basically all of their character moments having to do with their relationship, like Jay/Nya from Ninjago and Moxxie/Millie from Helluva Boss. The things about Sea Fairy that we’ve seen, like the Tower of Frozen Waves and the Sacred Pearl, seem to all have to do with her longing for Moonlight Cookie, and it feels like this relationship just defines Sea Fairy. Which sucks because I want to know about Sea Fairy all on her own. She’s the only elemental legendary we’ve met where we don’t know their origin, and sure we know she’s cursed, but we know nothing about that curse. I want to know about her lore, but right now we just don’t have it. But I hope we get it at some point, and Sea Fairy isn’t just relegated to “pining for Moonlight”

Wind Archer Cookie:

I also like Wind Archer well enough, but I also feel like I don’t know much about him. From what I’ve seen (pretty much just he Sherbet story and Truth of the City), I like him, I just haven’t seen enough with him in it. Hopefully that gets rectified in Kingdom, at least assuming he doesn’t show up with Millennial Tree Cookie. Personally I’d like to see him show up in Beast Yeast and become a traveling companion of the Gingerbrave group. That’d be neat to see

Millennial Tree Cookie:

I quite like Millie, he seems very interesting. I feel like I don’t have much to say on him, but I am very curious to find out more about his lore, which I imagine we’ll get. Also I personally like to think that White Lily Cookie comes from his forest, so if that turns out to be true, we’d get some interesting interactions between him and Dark Enchantress. And possibly he could be a reason for White Lily existing outside of Dark Enchantresses, since I mean he is an ancient powerful being

Also I love his trial theme, it’s very relaxing to listen to

Also a random tidbit, but I keep thinking his voice sounds like the voice Charriii5 gave the N’rrgal leader in his EWW Sonic Chronicles video. I don’t know why

I was gonna just talk about the Ovenbreak elementals, but might as well mention Frost Queen too

Frost Queen Cookie:

I like her. I’ve heard people think she’s evil because of how she treats Sherbet’s fate, but like, it’s just a fact of life for her, it’s something she knows is inevitable, why wouldn’t she act like that? Also personally I see the Legendaries as not really being the same as normal Cookies, since they’re like higher beings, so you could see her apathy as having to do with her no longer being a “normal Cookie”, so to speak. And besides, she tells Cotton of a way to possibly save Sherbet, or at least prolong their time together.

But regardless, she seems cool.

Might as well include the other legendary Cookies

Dark Enchantress Cookie is probably my favorite legendary, if only because of her story and character in Kingdom. Her being White Lily really adds interesting depth to her character and I’m very interested to see how they conclude her story

Timekeeper is fine. Personally I don’t think I get the hype. I mean yeah, I know why the hype’s there, but I don’t think I personally feel it. Maybe I’d get it more if I watched their story

Similar feelings towards Black Pearl, where I like her well enough, I just don’t know much about her to really give thoughts, since I haven’t watched her story. Though my feeling towards her are also elevated probably because she’s been an integral part of my team in Kingdom

I like the dragons, though I don’t really know much about Ananas. Did they have a story segment? Because I haven’t seen it. I think in Ovenbreak, Pitaya is my favorite, though in Kingdom I don’t think I like them as much. Maybe it’s because in Ovenbreak they seem more amicable to Cookies, at least from what I’ve seen. But I’d say Longan is second place. I’m curious if they’ll ever add any more dragons (like the North and South Dragons), and if they do, maybe ones with a different theming. Like how the five we have are supposed to be tropical fruits, maybe we could have other dragons that have a different shared base. Though I wouldn’t mind more tropical fruit dragons

Anyways, yeah I think that’s about it

[purplerose244]

My thoughts on Seabound!!! 🌊🌊🌊 (3/4)

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Yep yep yep, I'm liking this season a lot! 😍 Although I hope we'll get into a more frantic situation now, like with more battles and more bonding moments (Nya and Maya hopefully, but with Bentho too 🦈🦈🦈)! We got half a season to go, I'M READY!! 😎😎

Alright, here we go!

GENERAL THOUGHTS

I do like the season a lot, maybe MoM was a little more cohesive? Idk but it's not a big complain, I still love it so far 😍

Also maybe I would've liked more interactions between Nya and Maya about how they've been apart for so long, they had a chit chat but I would've loved even more. Maybe with Nya saying that it was fine and she grew up only to realize she is still hurt by that, even though it wasn't Maya's fault. I still like how they did it, I wished there was more that's it 🤷‍♀️

While I do make sense to Maya's behavior, that while it seems a little different from Hands of Time it had its logic in my opinion, maybe Ray feels a little weird? He seems less courageous than before, and it was established that he is a hothead like his son so that came off as unusual 🤔🤔

But I do love the fact that he's here and he's bonding with his son, for real, I've been waiting for this for so long so I'm happy nonetheless 🤩

Maybe I'm just easy to please and I take all I can get idk 😅

THE STORM AMULET

Oh, are we gonna address the wind element? It feels like we haven't really seen a Morro reference since Hands of Time, that would be cool! 😍 I mean, why even mentioning the wind then 😅😅

Well what do you know, they tracked them, who saw that coming?... me, I saw that coming... we all did probably 🤷‍♀️

Jay took upon himself making a quick recap on how Ninjago will be destroyed this time, thanks Bluebell 👌

Yep nyeheh electricity makes Nya go crazy for sure ❤💙 ... wait it wasn't a Jaya pun?

Jay wear your seatbelt please, you risk you life enough 😅😅 Pff lol "are we there yet" and they are actually there, biggest plot twist I've ever heard of 😂

LEGO HUG 💜💜💜

And with someone who might as well join the League of Jay apparently 💙

I liked The Island yet it was not as exciting as I hoped for, but now understand the meaning of it. The ninja helped the keepers and they are all allies. Without The Island the moment where Mammatus gives Nya the amulet wouldn't be as meaningful

Is it just me or Nya looked even more gorgeous during that moment?... just me huh? Okay then 😂💕

Wait that's a fake? Wait... UNCLE POWERS?!? OMG THAT I ACTUALLY DIDN'T SEE COMING 🤯

Here I thought he was just messing around, he always makes things harder 😅 Or maybe better? I mean, they kinda missed a bullet on this one...

BENTHO IS SO SWEET AND COOL OMG HE IS ALREADY OUR FRIEND 💙🦈💙🦈

Jay somehow had his own TV show in the past and yet he's got that horrible acting skills wth 😂😂😂

Kalmaar is a very cool villain, like, deeply evil. Not only he's calculated and merciless, he stops at nothing to get what he wants. And the people that get in the way? He wants them to suffer because they had dared to confront him 😳

And yes the voice does help a lot, I'm sorry I'll keep saying it until the season is over 😂 (or even beyond? Please cast Giles again LEGO 🥺🥺🥺)

Awww Nya no my poor girl 😢 Jay wanted to hug her to comfort her he is so sweet my SHIP ❤💙❤💙

MOM PEP TALK MOM PEP TALK!!! 🤩🤩🤩 How cool was it?

Like, this isn't even Maya asking Nya to believe in herself, this is her saying that she KNOWS her daughter can do anything when she puts her mind into it. FINALLY SHE SEES HOW AMAZING WATER GODDESS IS 💜💜💜

MORE LEGO TEARS OMG THIS SEASON IS FILLED WITH TEARS 😱 Which... kinda makes sense considering it's a water based season 😂

Nice one, and now? NOW WE GO BACK TO KAI COLE AND RAY YAS!!! ❤🖤❤🖤

RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

That is... surprisingly Egypt theme like? It feels like a title coming from the Fire Chapter of season 11... well we got two fire elementals so 😍😍

SPARRING KAI AND RAY

I REPEAT SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! ❤❤❤ Lol Ray got old, but how can someone blame him? He did touch death while aging in Hands of Time, I'm just happy he is alive 😂

Yep, master prankster Wu, that's what I love 👌👌 I always thought Wu had become a father figure for Kai at the beginning, so seeing Ray and Wu in the same picture feels very wholesome to me 😚

Ah, uncle Powers, I both love you and hate you so freaking much 😌😌 But you make cool slides nonetheless 😂

ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME WITH BEAUTIFUL SMITH INTERACTIONS??

BECAUSE I LIKE IT KEEP GOING 🤩

Oh no you guys are stranded on an island whatever are you going to do?? It's not like you had already before and managed to survive (Skybound) or you got stranded on a rock in a sea of sand filled with giant monsters (Fire Chapter) or you were on a freaking COMET in SPACE (Rebooted). Yeee, this is the worst yet 🙂

I'm starting to think these ninja are just a bunch of drama queens so no matter what happens, it's always hopeless 😂😂 I feel like I'm kinda right on this one honestly 😛

Whoa whoa WHOA WHO IS NYAD THIS SOUNDS VERY COOL???

Aww I like that, while Ray told his kids stories about dragons and how they traveled through the Underworld, Maya told them about Nya the first water master that could summon whales 💙❤💙❤

Pff imagine if it turned out Nya was the master of fire, carrying a very water based name? Lol

Maya: I would know if it was possible!

Nya: Yeah, like she knows that I can control a bit of ice because it's frozen water

Maya:...

Maya: YOU WHAT

I find both interesting and very annoying that this explorers club thinks so highly of themselves, to the point the deny to aid even the FREAKING SAVIORS OF THEIR FREAKING LAND 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Misako got good reflexes after all, Kai was probably ready to melt this guy's face 😅

Oh, so a trial by Sphinx is a challenge? A mental one? A cultural one? A physical one? Idk but Misako is actually taking charge and that is cool I guess 🤷‍♀️

Okay this is kind of weird, how is Ray so afraid? Is it because there's fire?... did he... did he grow afraid of fire for some reason? Because it feels a bit off for now, but if there is a deeper meaning that could be interesting 🤔

Wait is that the riddle from Decoded? That's fire right?

IT IS FIRE 🔥🔥🔥

Lol at least in this one Kai wasn't completely ignored 😂 I know my flame babe isn't the most rational person, but I do like that it was an answer connected to his element where he used his head!

Ah Clutch, you really got no backbone 😅 And apparently you're the only explorer who doesn't, dang look at the others go! I'm having a bit more respect for them now 😚

LOOK AT SENSEI GO FINALLY!!! 😍😍 FIGHTING SCENES HECK YES!!!

Kalmaar: I'm your conquerer

Wu: so after skeletons, the serpentine, nindroids, the Stone Army, Chen's army, ghosts, oni, more snakes but on fire and people from a game, that makes you the tenth. Have a free cookie

Kalmaar:...

Wu: you're not special

Is this a little throwback to Possession too? Nya seems to always control better water when she doesn't actually think about it. When her feelings are free, so are her powers 🌊🌊🌊

Also this opens up more possibilities! Creatures connected with other elements might get summoned too! I would love something like that 😍😍

This was NEAT, or maybe I just missed Kai that much ❤ What's next??

PAPERGIRL

ANTONIAAAAAAAA!!!! MY GIRL IS BACK!!! All my girls are back in this season, I'm so happy 😍😍😍 And if she is here, sweet little Nelson has to be around and I cannot wait! Bring in the purple ninja! 💜

Owww Antonia's last day as a papergirl? Nooo why??

She's got a job at the... DAIRY DRAGON??? OMG OMG OMG IT'S THE ICE CREAM PLACE BRAGI TOLD US ABOUT ON TWITTER!!! 🤩🤩🤩 I remember the post, he was asking about names for the place and ice cream flavors. Now I can't wait to see what did he choose 🍦🍦🍦

UNAGAMI BABY HI HONEY!!! 🙋‍♀️ I hope he's doing great 😘😘

This is so cool honestly, Antonia got her own character arc going on! Living in a chaotic city like Ninjago City must be pretty dang exhausting 😅

Was... was that Dareth in the garbage can? Am I wrong? Poor brown ninja 😅🤎😅

SPINJITZU SWIRL, BANANAKHAN, ORANGE SERPENTINE, I'M DYING 😂😂😂

Their friendship is so wholesome, I'm so happy they are still together no matter what happens 💕

I thought Kalmaar wasn't much of a fighter but DANG he's got skills! Also the fact that he uses tentacles makes the fight very cool to watch! 😚😚

RAY RUNNING IN AFTER KAI GOT HURT HECK YES ❤❤❤

Well at least you tried Ray 😅

Ah, little cameo of the original Weekend Whip, always nice to hear it again... AND DO THE WEEKEND WHIP!!! 🌪🌪🌪

EVEN NELSON GOT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I'M SO PROUD 💜

I don't even know what is cooler, the kids being mad lads on their bikes, Kalmaar driving a TRUCK or Kai going full parkour on the buildings to follow them 🤯

I'm sorry... am I the only one that during the Kai and Kalmaar talk kinda thought of Jestro and Clay? I miss my boys from NK, they're even more at odds now 😭😭

KAI YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE OR EVEN TRY TO DIE GET BACK HERE AT ONCE 😱😱

Kalmaar just loves to make everyone feel inferior, gotta be his hobby 😶

Oh good Kai is back

OH NOT GOOD KAI IS NOT BREATHING?!? FLAME BABE I TOLD YOU YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE 😱😱😱

Antonia, Nelson, you guys are now my heroes. You saved my fave, I'll be forever in dept with you ❤❤❤ Am I being overdramatic? Most likely, but Kai is one of the few that didn't almost die or did die in a dramatic situation and he is also my absolute favorite character so that... kinda keeps my sanity in check in this show 🥴

I wonder... does he still not know how to swim? He saved Lloyd in Possession but I wonder if he was only trying to float on the surface... THAT'S TERRIFYING

This episode was so adorable, I love Antonia and Nelson so much 💜💕💜💕 It's nice to see what the other people of Ninjago do while everything goes mad 🤣

Wait hang on my Ninjajan is a little rusty

"Ninjago City. City that never sleeps" well if that ain't the truth 😂

MASTER OF THE SEA

Like Master of the Mountain? Wait are we going back to Shintaro?? VANYA?? ANOTHER BEST GIRL RETURNS??? 💛

Hey hey hey, we got a full Nyad backstory! I really like when they do these little drawn shots, they feel more like legends! And... the ending sounds terrifying? Like, they wouldn't let Nya sacrifice herself and die... again... right? 😱

Bentho: and the world was in balance, until now because of my brother

Lloyd: and the Overlord before of course

Bentho: the what now?

Lloyd: the evil one my grandpa the first Spinjitzu Master fought?

Bentho: YOUR WHAT NOW

Why do I like this offscreen "hiiiyaaa" that sensei Wu does before actually going into the scene? 😂😂

No matter if they come from the underground or the sea, these are all snake-like creature with the same intellect 😅 Kalmaar and Garmadon would have a lot to talk about, sea king dealing with his minions does remind me of Lord Garmadon in season 2 a lot 😂😂

KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER ❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤

OMG Kalmaar is such a brat and petty villain I love him so much 😂😂😂 Yes I didn't even mention his amazing voice!... AH DANG IT 😳😳

*Misako kicks Kalmaar and is actually useful* 🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️

*Misako gets taken as hostage immediately after* 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

KAI LITERALLY JUST GOT SAVED FROM DROWNING WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO HIM!!!... and Ray and Cole and Wu of course, I care okay 😅

OMG that face 🤣🤣🤣

That some meme material right there

Whoa Vincent that voice just got super up when the Unsinkable showed up, it kinda sounded like Jay's lol

NO NOT BENTHO!!! 😢😢😢

Kai: Nya talks to whales now? (I snorted so hard at this 😂😂)

HECK YES NYA GOT THE AMULET!! 😍😍😍 ... we got, like, four more episodes to go so something needs to happen in between... do I need to be scared? I feel like I need to be scared 😅

Jay starting a fire then blaming Kai?... this is so in character I got chills 😂😂

SHARK BOY IS STAYING TO THE MONASTERY THIS IS SO PRECIOUS!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 I want all the shenanigans and we need to write fanfictions about more shenanigans and AAAAHHHHH 🦈🦈🦈

Bless these two fire idiots

They own my heart ❤🔥❤🔥 Also Vincent, this is supposed to be a fun little gag moment, your amazing voice acting is kinda distracting me 😭😭😭

ANOTHER LEGO HUG

YOU GUYS ARE SPOILING ME OVER HERE HECK YES 💙🌊💙🌊

Maya learned that her daughter is capable of everything, I love that. Nya simply understood that she doesn't have to give up when something gets difficult. She is AMAZING and can do anything she puts her mind into. She simply has to hold on until the end 💪💪💪

Omg Benthomaar playing billiard with the guys I already love this 😍😍

YES IT IS SHINTARO!!! THE UPPLY ARE HERE OMG!!! HI VANYA YOU LOOK AMAZING GIRL MISS YOU I HOPE YOU'RE DOING OKAY!!! 💛💛💛 ... I just really like Master of the Mountain okay 😅

I love how Vanya doesn't even question it. It comes from Cole and he said it needs to be protected? Done and done 👌

Wait what, did something fall?

IS THAT THE FAKE?!?!? WHAT HOW WHEN??? UNCLE POWERS??? OR KALMAAR DID SOMETHING??? SOMEONE??? I'M LEGIT CONFUSED AND EXCITED??? 🤯🤯🤯

Well dang, I didn't see that coming, now what Seabound? What do you have for me?

[imthepointe]

When the Hourglass Runs Dry

well ok this was supposed to be for @ninjago-angst-week but considering i’m, like, a week late, i’ll just post it as a regular fic :)

angst week day 7- prompt: future

tw: death, suicide and suicidal themes / word count: 2057

Many years into the future, Pixal and Zane reflect on the past.

Death was always a fanatical topic at dinner tables, partly because each ninja tended to die rather frequently. It was always brought up in a joking manner (“I dunno, Cole’s died, like, four times at this point,” or “Zane, after Prime Empire, I don’t think you’ve died the most times now!”), and truthfully, it wasn’t really something the ninja had given much heavy consideration to in the past. They were always taught to avoid death- to cheat it- they were ninja; it was kind of their job to protect, which is something you can’t do if you’re dead. Plus, the point of existing is to stay alive for as long as you can, anyway.

It is really so unfortunate that death is not a fleeting matter, unlike youth. It is so, so sad that the inevitability of mortality affects everything. 

Occasionally, in a fit of existential panic, Lloyd would remember that he was going to outlive Nya, Jay, Kai, and Cole by at least a few hundred years. But for now, while they were still teenagers, that wasn’t something for him to worry about. Zane and Pixal had told him it wasn’t something for him to worry about yet.

Then teenage years turned into the twenties, then twenties into thirties, and so forth- such is life. 

Lloyd, Pixal, and Zane had to watch their friends grow old, to watch them age; to Lloyd, there was nothing more painful than the thought that they were all going to die and he still had a good portion of his life that he would have to live without them. But, hey- they had all made it into their seventies, which if you asked Lloyd when he was a teenager how long they would live to be, he would have set the bar a little lower.

But then Cole was diagnosed with the same illness that killed his mother when she was barely in her thirties, and the beloved team ninja was forced back into the reality that they were all going to die sooner or later, and it was probably going to be sooner.

“We made bets on who was going to die first, do you remember?” Kai had said after the former black ninja informed them of his diagnosis. Even though his tone was humorous, his wrinkles furrowed and his eyes drooped.

“Yeah, I think I said it would be you, dumbass,” Cole laughed, which promptly turned into a rattling cough.

“Ka-arma,” Jay smirked. Nya smacked him across the face.

And then Cole was dead within two weeks. 

Then Kai, then Jay, then Nya, all only a few years later.

“They lived long lives, Lloyd,” Zane had mentioned one day. “I am so glad we were a part of them. We will see them again in due time.”

Lloyd prayed he was right.

***

Lloyd had made a comfortable living with Pixal and Zane. The three had moved out of Ninjago City, to a quiet and comfortable cottage near Ignacia, where they mostly kept to themselves. 

They each tried at least once a month to all visit their friend’s graves, which was normally easier said than done. When they did go, they were alone- Lloyd liked to spend personal time with each of his friends, and he supposed Zane and Pixal had the same logic. 

Years passed, and life droned on quietly. There were no new threats to the safety of the city, no new evils or big bads to defeat. 

Lloyd began to age. Slowly, surely, but he was aging, and grew to look more and more like his father with each new wrinkle or sign of age, which was often the butt of Zane’s jokes.

Three hundred years later, and the three of them had shifted into a routine with a strong sense of normalcy. It was nice. 

It was very nice, actually, Lloyd had decided. He no longer had to worry about people in his life leaving him.

But at four hundred years, he began to worry about his leaving of Zane and Pixal. Wu has lived to be nearly five hundred and thirty years old, but as Lloyd only had a fraction of the godlike blood that Wu had, he feared he would not last much longer.

Not only that, but Lloyd found himself getting much more tired and fatigued considerably more frequently.

The three always started out their mornings on the veranda of their cottage, talking and chatting about whatever subject was most relevant to their quaint lives. 

“I’m very old now,” Lloyd had said one day. 

“We all are, Lloyd,” Zane pointed out. Pixal lightly squeezed Zane’s hand as if to say really?

“When I die, what will happen to you all?”

Pixal whipped her head around to face the former green ninja and stared him in the eyes. “Do not talk like that, Lloyd,” she scolded. “Don’t worry about us. Don’t say that.”

That was the end of the matter, until Lloyd’s health only continued to decline. 

By four hundred and twenty-three years old, Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon was practically bedridden, his extended longevity catching up to him.

He knew he didn’t have much longer on this earth.

Zane and Pixal has been taking care of him to the best of their ability, but death is unavoidable, even for the green ninja. 

“I’m sorry,” Lloyd had managed one night, his voice raspy and weak.

“For what, Lloyd?” Zane gently raised the his torso and propped him up with a pillow.

“For leaving you and Pixal.”

“Do not be sorry, Lloyd,” Zane replied with a solemn tone. “Just say hello to our old friends, would you?” 

A small tear rolled down Zane’s cheek and he held Lloyd’s hands. The nindroid was mostly sure the other boy had nodded.

Lloyd died peacefully in his sleep two nights later.

***

Zane and Pixal sat on the porch, just as they did every morning, admiring the birch trees and various wildlife, occasionally pointing at a deer or falcon or fox that happened to cross their vision.

It had been a mere three months since the green ninja’s death, with only the two nindroids left to keep each other company. But this morning, this morning was different- Zane was ‘in a funk,’ as Lloyd would have said, and the recollection of Lloyd’s funny vocabulary made Pixal laugh.

“What is funny, Pixal?”

“You seem weird today, that is all,” Pixal met his eyes, “as Lloyd would have said, ‘you are in a funk.’ Are you alright?”

“I’m splendid. In fact, I was thinking of fixing a cake in a minute. How does chocolate sound?”

“That sounds nice, Zane.”

Now Pixal knew something was definitely wrong- Zane only made cakes when something was bothering him.

But even as she watched Zane move inside to the kitchen and put on an apron, she began to think about the question that was heavy-set in her mind, as well.

How much longer of this?

They were nindroids. They could not die from natural causes- how many more years would she live to see?

Pixal, she mentally scolded herself, stop thinking like that. You’re being silly.

You’re being silly.

She stood from the rocking chair, collected herself, and went inside to help Zane- Pixal too found baking rather enjoyable. 

Zane asked her to prepare some icing, so she fiddled with the sugar, cocoa, and milk, until she had a consistency presentable enough to self-proclaimed Master Chef Zane. 

...which, naturally, there was an issue with.

“See, Pixal, you must add more powdered sugar than milk, that way it stays fluffy,” he dipped his finger into the mixture, “but it still tastes good.” With a swift motion, he scooped some more icing with his finger and smeared it on the girl’s nose. 

“Zane!”

Through her frustration, she could not help but laugh, and thus a food fight broke out between them.

By the time they were through, an even layer of flour coated the kitchen counters and floor, cocoa stained on their garments, and icing was in every place imaginable. 

Zane stood and helped Pixal to her feet and almost stood in awe of the impressive mess they had made. 

Pixal hugged Zane, mostly in an effort to get his clothes significantly more adulterated than they already were. “I would have maybe expected this from Lloyd, not from you.”

The master of ice closed his eyes. “We should probably clean up.” 

“Right,” Pixal shoved him playfully as she made her way to the cleaning supplies underneath the sink. She handed Zane a broom and kept a cloth for herself. 

She picked up a photo frame that had been completely caked in flour and began to wipe it off. Underneath was a framed picture of her friends, some four hundred years ago, after some valiant battle.

She exhaled loud enough for Zane to notice. 

“When will we see them again, Zane?”

“I- I am unsure,” he sighed, “I have been wondering the same.” He swept the flour into a neat little pile in the middle of the floor.

“You have?”

The nindroid looked lost in thought for a moment. “Yes,” he said decisively. “That is why I have been acting weird lately, I suppose.”

“Even though it’s been hundreds of years since their passing, I still miss them so, so much. Is that a bad thing?”

“Oh, Pixal, I hope not.”

The rest of the kitchen was cleaned in a thoughtful silence. 

The cake was finished and set on the small dining table, with two rocking chairs on one half of the table and a third chair cast off to the side. 

Zane sat down in a chair, and pulled the other out for Pixal to sit beside him. He cut the cake, his hands moving more clumsily than before- Pixal thought he seemed lost in his mind, and she would know- she’s been stuck there before. He carefully set a piece of cake on each plate.

 “Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

 Pixal couldn’t help but laugh at Zane’s sudden use of Julius Caesar. “That is Shakespeare. Why quote it now?”

“Because it does not apply to us. We will not meet a necessary end.”

She tuned back down to her cake. “That is true.”

She poked at the chocolate for a moment before setting her fork back down. “What are you suggesting? I assume this has something to do with the conversation earlier.”

“I’m just saying I do not think we will ever see Cole, Kai, Nya, Lloyd, or Jay ever again by any natural means.”

 Pixal considered his words for a moment before grabbing Zane’s hand. “I have an idea,” she said cautiously- it was risky, unsettling, and terrifying- “but only if you are totally sure about it.”

***

2 weeks since the cake baking incident and Zane and Pixal had finished eating all of the cake. Zane has immediately agreed to Pixal’s idea- he had been toying with the same idea for some time, too, he admitted.

[MANUAL SHUTDOWN DISABLED. OVERRIDE?]

Zane’s fingers wrapped around Pixal’s. The rocking chairs swept back and forth, a gentle sway, just as they had every morning, like this was some part of their routine.

Pixal looked to Zane, her voice barely above a whisper: “Are you sure you want to do this, Zane?”

The nindroid smiled softly. “They are waiting for us, Pixal,” he continued holding her hand, “I can’t wait to see them again.”

Pixal followed Zane’s gaze to the same framed photo sitting across from their chairs.

“I cannot wait either, Zane.” 

There was a silence, but not the dreadful kind- the kind of silence that is warm, welcoming, and comfortable. 

“I love you, Pixal.”

He gripped her hand tighter.

“I love you, Zane. So much.”

[OVERRIDE.]

***

Soft light cascaded through trees with golden leaves, and a small breeze gently rustled the leaves. The place seemed familiar, in a very distant way, but the two nindroids could not recall anytime they would have visited such a place with this ethereal beauty.

“You two are late,” a familiar voice sounded behind them.

The two turned around, hands still linked, to face their friends. Cole stood in the middle, a tender smile spreading across his face.

“We are here now, friends.”

[21st-century-ninja]

Orange

My second piece for the @ninjaneverquit-zine- set in the same universe as White.  

The wings of the Shintaro are all sleek lines and silken feathers, painstakingly crafted down to each individual vane.  The Shintarans glide effortlessly through their city on them, robes neat and unruffled, nary a hair out of place when they take off and land again. They are a stunning display of craftsmanship and technology, way beyond anything that Ninjago has ever seen.

They also are completely bare of heart-colors.  

See, in Ninjago, people are born with pure white wings.  As you grow older, and grow your family and friends, their heart-colors (the unique patch of color hidden on the feathers near every person’s back) appear on your feathers.  Zane has the color of his creator spattered across his right wing.  Kai and Nya have each other’s colors covering their mantles.  Jay carries both sets of his parents’ colors, and Lloyd has each of the ninja’s colors staining his wings so violently that he looks like he was in some sort of studio accident.  

And Cole?  Cole’s left wing, near the wingtip, is painted in the rich gold of his father.  His left bears the faded orange of his mother.  Across the backs of his wings, the rest of the ninja’s colors wrap around his coverts like a warm blanket.  

Vania has just been crowned queen of Shintaro, and the coronation celebration is going long into the night.  Cole watches her from the edge of the crowd, smiling at the way she is completely unselfconscious as she dances in the middle of the room with Chompy spiraling around her feet.  She catches his eye and her face lights up; she breaks from the circle and flings herself towards him.  Cole loses her in the crowd, but by the frantic strings of apologies and yelping he hears, he has a pretty good idea where she is.

“Cole!” she shouts, when she finally breaks through.  “I haven’t seen you all night!  Have you been avoiding me?”

Cole laughs.  “Never, my queen,” he says, winking exaggeratedly when he uses her new title.  “You’ve just been busy.”  He grins wide.  “I get it, I get it, what’s a little old ninja to the queen of an entire country?”

Vania pouts.  “It’s not like that.  Everyone wants my attention, but you guys are my friends.  And you’re leaving soon, way before everyone else!”  A glint of an idea enters her eye- the same look she had before leading Cole to a drainage tunnel and whipping a set of torches from nowhere.  “It’s too noisy in here for anything, let alone talking.  How about we go for a little night time flight?”

She hikes up her skirts and marches through the crowd.  Cole laughs a little disbelievingly.  He follows her out, out onto the terrace, wings pulled close to his sides to prevent them being jostled or stepped on.  “Wait, can you just leave like that?”

Vania smiles with all her teeth.  She signals to an attendant and they reappear with her wings, attaching and securing them to her back.  “What do you mean?” she asks, cocking her head playfully to one side.  “I’m the queen!  I can do what I want!”

“Hey, works for me,” Cole says, grinning back.  He lets his wings unfurl to nearly their full wingspan, an impressive eighteen feet with his flight feathers outstretched.  “Just don’t start whining when I fly circles around you.”

“Hey, that’s not nice!”  She narrows her eyes at him.  “Just for that, I won’t let you win now.”

“Oh, so you were planning to originally?”

They take to the sky, chasing each other around the spires and drifting lazily through the moonlit clouds.  Cole marvels at the way her wings cut through the air, silent and smooth like a knife.  His own are built for power and speed but not so much for grace.  He’s sure they make quite the picture above the partygoers.  That is, if any of them bothered to look up.  

As their flight comes to an end, they alight on the highest balcony overlooking the courtyard.  Vania releases her wings, something that used to shock Cole before he got over it through repeated proximity and exposure.  His own wings he splays behind him, their motley of colors nearly twinkling in the low candlelight.  

“I used to think your wings were so funny-looking when we first met,” Vania says suddenly.  

Cole glances up at her sharply.  “Huh?”

She smiles and sits down gently beside him.  The night air is cool and a slight breeze tugs at both of their bangs.  “Your wings,” she says again.  “I mean, I still do.  They’re entirely too much wingspan for any one person to have.”

“Better to catch you with,” Cole replies, the winner of their earlier game of tag.  

Vania rolls her eyes.  “Not just the size of them though.  I couldn’t believe how colorful they were!  There are so many different colors that your wings were kinda ugly.”

“Thanks,” Cole deadpans.  “I’m really feeling the love.”

“Exactly!” she exclaims.  “They’re the colors of the people who love you, right?  I almost didn’t believe my tutor when he told me that, but I couldn’t think of any other reason why anyone would dye their feathers that way.”  She hesitates, one hand held in an aborted movement towards his wings.  “Can I- I mean, would you mind telling me about them?”

Talking about heart-colors isn’t necessarily a taboo subject.  Most people just prefer to keep their relationships and stories more private than not.  Looking at Vania’s hopeful face, half-illuminated orange by candlelight, Cole finds that he isn’t most people.  

“Yeah, sure,” he says, scooting over so he can fan his wings out.  “So you probably could have guessed, but all these ones are the other ninja’s.”  He points out Kai’s sienna, Jay’s pretty blue, Zane’s periwinkle, Nya’s warm maroon, and Lloyd’s bright green that make up the colors on his coverts.  

“This one’s my dad’s,” he says next, stretching out his left wing so the gold catches the candlelight.  “Both of my parents’ colors came in together, of course, but he saw his first because it was a little bit darker than my mom’s.”  He can remember it now, through the haziness of his three-year-old-self’s memory: his dad’s face hovering over him, eyes wide and face caught in some unidentifiable emotion.  

Reverence, Cole thinks now, years and years later.  It’s the same look Kai’s mom and dad give him and Nya when they work side-by-side.  It’s the same look he gave baby Wu, captured and immortalized forever on the tiny polaroid he keeps tucked away in his drawer.

Vania is watching him with a soft expression on her face.  Cole sighs, drawing himself from his memories.  He stretches out his other wing, wrapping it around his front so the color is on display.  “And this was hers,” he says softly.  “My Mom’s.”

“Lilly,” Vania echoes.

Cole nods.  The color on the tips of his feathers is faded now, looking peach instead of the vibrant orange of his childhood.  “For a long time, I couldn’t bear to look at it,” he admits, staring at the floor.  “I’d catch a glimpse out of the corner of my eye, and I hated it so much.  It was a brand of everything I’d lost, taunting me with how much it hurt.”

Vania seems to glow in the candlelight.  “What changed?” she asks.

Cole shrugs, feels how it costs him to be so nonchalant about it.  “The color started fading,” he says simply.  “And I realized that remembering, even though it was so painful, was so much more important that losing her forever.”

Vania is silent.  She hovers her hand over his wings, silently asking permission, and when Cole doesn’t do anything to stop her she drags her fingers gently over soft feathers.  Cole angles his wing so the vulnerable inner parts aren’t exposed, but other than that the petting feels nice.  It’s been so long since someone other than himself touched his wings like this- the ninja, for how much they love each other, are perpetually running off on some hairbrained adventure or another and don’t usually have time for group preening.  

“That’s it,” Vania says eventually, hand stilling over his coverts.  “That’s why I changed my mind about your culture’s wings.”  Her gaze travels somewhere toward the right, somewhere toward where her technologically-flawless and meticulously-kept wings rest against the railing.  Technologically-flawless, meticulously-kept, and completely bare of heart-color.  “I wish, sometimes-”

She cuts herself off.  “It’s not good to think about what-ifs,” she decides firmly, fixing a smile on her face.  Still, her fingers linger a second longer in his golden feathers.  “It must be nice, knowing that you are so loved.”

Cole closes his eyes.  The breeze washes over his hair, carrying with it the slight sounds of the party and his team laughing from below.  

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, it is.”

[rheisa-midnightfury]

Where the beans at?

@vlanderzine had a great idea of “What if they had to hide the coffee from Kai.” And I felt called out to write it. So... here goes nothing.

Drip. Drip. Black drops dripped slowly into a dark concentration of liquid into a transparent jar. Maroon eyes starred at the beverage across the glass. Arms on the table, Kai rested his head on them, looking at the coffee with dreamy eyes. Almost the same look he gives to his own reflection. The kitchen was empty, the master of fire tried to be here before the others get out of the bed. Quietly stomping his feet impatiently he leaned closer to the coffee jar.

”Why does this take so long?” He looked behind himself, making sure he didn’t wake up any of the ninjas. ”Come on you!” As the words left his mouth, the coffee had been ready to drink. ”YES! Finally!” Yelled in joy, but he realized in time that he shouldn’t have. Reaching for a red mug on the shelf, he looked around once again, quicker this time and grabbed the jar. One drop of coffee almost hit the bottom of the mug, when a raspy clearing of throats sounded from behind.

”Kaiii! You know what caffeine does to you.” The water ninja stepped next to her brother and took the mug from his hands. ”Do you wanna drive us crazy?”

”C’mon sis! Like when did I ever drive you guys crazy?” and he gripped back his mug from Nya’s hold.

” Er... Every time you drink coffee? Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

”Bah! Why do you have to bring it up?! I said a MILLION times I’m sorry.” Replied with a high pitched voice.

”We still have some bruises left from when you were so eager to hug all of us and burned our arms since you had no control of your power.”

”Gee! I was just extremely happy for you guys letting me drink coffee. Is that a bad thing?”

”Being happy is not, hurting us is!”

”Come on! One sip won’t hurt anyone.” Taking the red mug away, he aimed for the whole coffee jar to drink from.

”No! More! Coffee! For you, Kai!” And just in time, Nya took the coffee jar from Kai, spilling some on the floor. ”Wanna have coffee? Drink decaf ones.”

”You can’t be serious.” Eyes widened, jaw dropped in disbelief. ”I won’t drink decaff. It’s like, eating veggies for the tase and not for the vitamins.”

” What!? Some vegetables are actually tast… Argh! No Kai. It’s for the best.” 

Embracing his lose, Kai collapsed into one of the chairs around the dinner table, resting his jaw in his fist, like a child. In the meantime, Nya placed the jar on the counter alongside with free mugs. Green, black and gray. Milk was poured into all of the mugs, such as coffee.

Slowly, the rest of the team had also made their way into the kitchen. Some were in pajama and some in… sort of pajama. Kai wore tight underwear with socks and tank tops on. Nya had shorts with a spaghetti strap shirt. The green ninja had gray gym shorts on and a tight white t-shirt. Jay had long black pajama pants on, blue tank top and fluffy slippers. Black, tight tank top was on Cole with matching long workout pants. Zane went with the classic pajama, with some snowflakes patterns on it.

Loud yawning and whispers of ’Good mornings!’ filled the room. Lloyd sat next to Kai, already drinking his own coffee and sprinkling some cinnamon on top. He was too tired this morning to get anything else for breakfast. He’ll have something to eat if there will be any leftover toast or eggs. Jay almost dropped his cinnamon bun from his plate as he slowly walked to the table and took a seat, in front of Lloyd. Gently stroking his boyfriend’s back, Nya also took place in the dinner table with a ham sandwich and his cappuccino. For Lloyd’s luck, Zane prepared some toast for everyone. Cole stayed beside him, looking for some milk for his cereal. As the last slice of bread had popped up from the toaster and a mountain of whipped cream was placed on Cole’s mug of coffee, both the earth and ice ninja had joined the rest of the team. Kai and Lloyd reached for the toasts, as soon as the plate’s bottom hit the table. Everyone was quiet. Only silent chewing filled the otherwise silent kitchen. Cranching on his cereal, Cole looked at his mug and opened his mouth to speak, breaking the almost comforting silence.

”Man, I can’t believe we ran out of chocolate sprinkles.” 

Tired eyes faced the earth ninja, as Lloyd tossed the cinnamon shaker to him. ”Here, use this.”

”Thanks, man!” Relaxed smile sat on Cole’s face as he sprinkled the spice into his drink. But not everyone was this relaxed and calmed. 

”What a disaster you can’t place sprinkles on your coffee. Well, guess what! I can’t even have a SIP of coffee.” Fists slammed on the table, chair pushed backward with a loud squeak as Kai jumped up from his seat.

”Whoa! Easy there!” Confidant pair of eyes faced Kai’s angerful ones. ”No need for this just because caffeine has a bad effect on you.” 

”Yeah. Look! I’m not drinking coffee either. Am I angry about it? No.” Spoke Jay with mouth covered with cinnamon and frosting. 

”You don’t even like it.” Kai found his usual annoyed tone switching from the previous furious one. He calmed down. At least he tried. He had to. He didn’t want to start his morning with a fight, especially not with Cole who always had extreme strength no matter the time of the day. 

”Just enjoy your breakfast. After all, we’re just talking about a drink.” The rested and calm voice eased the fire ninja. Grabbing his friend by his arm, Lloyd smiled at Kai and pushed his mug away. ”If it makes you happy, I won’t finish mine.”

A sour smile sat on the red ninja’s face, he sat back to his chair and remained silent for the rest of the time. He crossed his arms and waited for everyone to finish their food and leave. 

Last bites were taken, dishes had been cleaned and one by one, everyone left the kitchen. Everyone, but Kai and the mug that Lloyd had put aside was still on the table. Kai swallowed, as he already felt the taste of coffee in his mouth. He reached for the mug and…

”No, Kai!” Nya stepped back to the scene just in time. ”I won’t argue about it. You can’t have any and that’s IT!” 

And the coffee was poured into the sink. Grumpy huff left Kai as he leaned back on his chair and watched his sister leaving the room once again. As Nya left, the fire ninja jumped up from his chair and rushed to the jar, only to find it empty. He searched through the whole kitchen, but he couldn’t find the beans, nor the instant powder. However, there was only one cabinet he hasn’t checked. He wide opened the wings, and there it was. A whole bag of unopened powder of coffee. He grabbed it and rushed back to the coffee machine. He almost opened the bag, when his eyes caught on the wrapping of the powder. ’Decaff’.

”Argh! COME! ON!” He didn’t even fancy putting the bag back to its place. Instead, he just left it on the counter and returned to his own room to finally get dressed.  Thought his usual morning routine will drag his attention from the fact that Nya had hidden the beans somewhere. He laid down in his bed, to his back, looking at the ceiling, juggling with a small ball of fire. Thinking. Taking a big breath, the fireball vanished in his palm, got up from the bed and walked to the mirror. Starring at his own reflection he squinted and leaned forward.

“I’m sure she hid them somewhere.” He shrugged and grabbed a bottle of hair gel, from a drawer next to him. Making his hair as spikey as possible, he winked at himself with a satisfied smirk. But the smirk slowly faded and his features became more annoyed-looking. “But where can those coffee beans be?!”

The door opened, Kai stuck his head out to get a better look at the hallway. Cole’s room was just on the other side of the hall. The usual loud music, which was coming from the black ninja’s room had suddenly muted, which only meant one thing. He switched to headphones. Kai knew the only reason Cole would place headphones on. It’s a sing he either started working out or doodling. Perfect. The fire ninja sneaked out from his room and carefully opened Cole’s door. Just as Kai expected. The black ninja had started lifting weights. No way he’s gonna turn around. At least, that’s what Kai hoped. He now entered the room and started searching. Nya knows how much he hates dueling with Cole, so she expects Kai not to enter the earth ninja’s room. But the coffee was at stake. His coffee, which he deserved.

The room looked surprisingly neat. His bed was nicely embedded, all the CDs were in a nice order next to his stereo. There wasn’t much stuff there, and everything had its own place.

Tossing away piles of sketchbooks, cd covers, and deodorants he gave up. It must be somewhere else. Kai tried to place back everything to its place, or at least he tried. Thinking he made a good job cleaning and removing his traces, he left. Carefully closed the door and leaned back to the wall. The next place to check was Lloyd’s room, but the green ninja hardly ever leaves his place and he’s always on a high alert, hears every little sound. No way he can go searching in his room. Sighing he slow-walked to the one door next to his own. Worried smile rested on his face, as he placed his ear on the door, listening if the lightning ninja was in his room. Jay hardly ever stayed in, as a social junkie he was. He usually hangs out at Cole’s place and annoyed the earth ninja with his endless talking. Luckily Cole got used to his friend’s behavior and learned how to lock out his dinginess. If not there, he would also lay on the couth outside, playing video games and waiting for someone to approach and have a conversation with. 

The room seemed empty. Door opened, Kai entered. It was empty indeed, but the sight wasn’t pleasant for the fire ninja. Laundry clothes were all over the floor, bags of chips and cans of drinks were at the table. Stacks of old games and broken controllers at one corner, rusty and oily spare parts in the other. 

“Yikes! Looks like someone needs a big clean-up.” Grabbing a half-eaten pizza slice he gave a pitty full smirk and throw the food under the bed. “How could my sister fall for you? HOW CAN WE BE RELATED?” Between several of annoyed groans, huffs, and grunts he dug up the whole place wich looked in better condition now, than when Kai entered. 

“This is hopeless. If the beans were here, there would be no way to find them in such a huge mess.” Slammed closed the door and buried his head to his own palms. Two more rooms left to check: Nya’s and Zane’s. With all the cameras and security systems placed at the nindroid’s place, there was no way on Earth he’ll attempt to enter. Even if he’s able to play out the system, all the hidden cameras would record his every move. ‘Why does Zane need such a defense in his room. Huh, that dude always has been weird.’

No other choice left, he needed to look at Nya’s room now. Same thing he did to Jay’s place. First, observe if his sister was inside, or not. Nothing, but silence. There is always a chance she’s not staying in her room, with Nya it’s always a mystery. Slowly, carefully, the door opened and the eyes of the fire ninja caught on one thing right away. Blushing in embarrassment, he half-closed the door, so he could hear everything clearly, but not see.

“KAI! DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO KNOCK?!” Burst out his sister in such a high pitched voice, that Kai had never heard.

“Yeah, dude! Not cool!” Yelled Jay too, who was holding Nya at his arms with several of smooch marks on his face. 

“I… er…” Kai froze in a second. He wanted to slap Jay in the face so badly, he still couldn’t get used to him making out with his sister. All sorts of emotions sat on his face just in a minute to finally decide to leave. Leave before Nya asks him what he wanted and finds out he’s seeking the coffee beans. He took one step back only to find himself bumping into a muscly chest.

“Do you mind giving us some privacy?” 

Kai turned around, finding Cole standing behind him. He still had some pearls of sweat on his forehead and biceps from working out. “What were you doing in my room, pretty-hair?” Holding a small mirror in his arms for proof. It must have had fallen out from Kai’s pocket while he was staying at the earth ninja’s room. Nervous laughs left the fire ninja as he carefully reached for the small mirror, already making up a dumb excuse.

“D-don’t you remember? You b-borrowed it, to fix your eyebrows.” Smiled sassily.

“Since when would I ask for your tiny mirror when I have a big one in my room. And when did I ever wanted to pull my eyebrows?”

“Maybe you should try it, a small makeover would make those bushes look better.” 

A growl left Cole, making Kai back of a little. Searching for a small gap between the black ninja and the doorway he almost escaped to his room when Zane stopped him. He was holding a tablet right into Kai’s face.

“Was there a reason why you lurked around my door? You know you have the permission to enter any time for help.” 

 Even more nervous laughs, another dumb excuse. 

“I just… dropped my… hairt…tie?” He swallowed. “I had to pick it up.” It’s now or never, leave them to think and return to his own room. That was the plan. He almost got away, when Jay jumped up from the bed and hurried to the ice ninja to take a better look at the footage. 

“Ey! You weren’t just lurking in the hallway. You entered my room!” Yelled in his usual whiny voice.

“Hey! Guys! Let’s just all calm down… and b-be reasonable.” He gently took of Cole’s grip from his shoulder, but the earth ninja quickly grabbed him again, not letting him escape. For his own defense, he put on the typical of a charming smile, but it did not work… as usual. 

“Kai! What is the meaning of this?” Nya walked next to her brother, releasing him from Cole’s strong hold. “You broke into Cole’s room, but you also did to Jay’s. I repeat, to Jay’s.”

Looking around the whole group, Kai had no other choice, but to admit his loss. He took a big breath, looked everyone in the eye and shrugged.

“I just really wanted to find the coffee beans you hid from me…” 

Nya shook her head in disbelief. “Hide the beans? No. Kai…” She smiled at her brother, trying to make him feel better. “We just ran out of coffee beans. I was about to get some this afternoon. No one is hiding anything from you.” 

“Really?” Kai looked rather surprised and relieved at the same time. “Sorry for messing with you guys.”

“Yeah, you’d better.” Added Cole. “Now I have to reorganize the CDs to be in genre order.” And without further ado, he returned to his room, beckoning for Zane to do the same.

“Maybe I overreacted a little…” Kai rubbed his neck before turning around, leaving the couple alone. Jay raised his eyebrows on the fire ninja and then turned his head towards to Nya.

“Did we really ran out of coffee beans?” 

The water ninja didn’t reply, not immediately. She first closed the room's door and started giggling, taking a bag of coffee beans out from her purse. 

“No, we didn’t”

[lloydskywalkers]

exposure therapy

Prompt three for @ninjago-angst-week , this one’s “hunger” - I’m taking a kind of...loose interpretation of it, I guess?? Listen hunger can go for a lot of things and I’ve been wanting to write something about Lloyd and abandonment issues for forever so!! That’s what this is.

it’s also the longest prompt yet oops 

(Takes place between s7 and s8!)

Lloyd is about four years old the first time someone leaves him and doesn’t come back.

He says about because he doesn’t really remember it all too well – he’s listened to the others bicker enough to know that technically you don’t start forming concrete memories until like, age five or something, and any that you do form before that you probably forget by the time you’re old enough to care.

Lloyd remembers the sting, though. In his eyes, that is – the ache in his chest was a whole lot worse than a sting, but it’s not like he’s going to spend that much time trying to describe it when he’s trying to get over it. And he is – over it, that is. He’s over being left alone on the doorsteps of some dumb school as a kid because no one cared enough to take him in. He’s over being the kid without a family for years and years because his parents left him and didn’t come back, because his uncle didn’t care enough to visit him, because clearly there was something wrong with him—

No, that’s – no, he reminds himself. They were busy, that’s all. With way more important things than some snot-nosed little kid who was pretty much useless at the time, and even better at causing trouble.

There’s nothing wrong with Lloyd. He’s over it, has been, and will continue to be, because someone in the mess that’s the family line of the First Master needs to have themselves together.

And if it does sting, sometimes, when he thinks about doorsteps and windows and how stupid he felt when he realized no one was coming back—

Well. It’s not worse than what the others have to deal with, is it? Lloyd should be thankful that’s all he’s been dealt.

(That and the whole, like, green-ninja-savior-of-the-world stuff, of course, but that’s — kinda whatever, at the moment. No one’s asked him to fight an ungodly being anytime recently, and Lloyd isn’t gonna complain.)

__ __ __ __

The thing about carefully constructing nice little (enormous) walls in your head to block out all the messy stuff is that, eventually, you’re going to have a few cracks in them to patch up. And while Lloyd’s dealt with those cracks before, he kind of wasn’t…really expecting this one.

“Oh,” he says, and he’s proud of how his voice doesn’t waver. Twice proud, really, because it’s been threatening to crack a lot lately, and that’s not just from emotion. “Yeah. That does make sense, I guess.”

Kai nods. “I mean, I don’t like the idea of us all splitting up, but it’s the best way to cover ground.”

“Additionally, this is a rare time in which Ninjago is not facing any immediate threat,” Zane chimes in. “If danger does occur, we should have plenty of time to regroup.”

Nya taps her foot. “I don’t like it,” she mutters. “And I don’t like leaving Ninjago City on its own.”

Especially with someone running around with my Samurai X armor on, is her unspoken complaint.

“We’re wasting time just sitting around like this,” Cole retorts. “The sooner we get out looking, the sooner we find Sensei, and the sooner we can come back.”

Lloyd looks down. The pain in Cole’s voice is obvious, and Lloyd knows he misses Sensei Wu. Lloyd misses him, too, but Cole’s always had a close sort of relationship with him.

Lloyd takes a breath. He’s leader now, right? Time to act like it.

“I can stay behind in the city,” he says, even as his brain gives him a nice little Lloyd what the heck warning. “That way I can keep an eye out for trouble, and listen for any tips on Sensei.”

Kai immediately looks concerned. Nya’s eyes spear into him. “You’re alright with that?”

Lloyd shrugs. “Finding Sensei’s first priority,” he says. “But someone’s gotta make sure the country doesn’t burn down.” He flashes Kai a smile. “Seriously, I’m taking the easy job from you guys. I’ll be fine.”

“Pixal can watch out for him on comms, as well,” Zane says, slowly. “That way you won’t be entirely on your own.” Kai nods at that, and Nya relaxes a bit.

Lloyd sours. He’s not a child anymore — they can stop treating him like one. They just made him leader, didn’t they?

A small part of him (a large part), though, has to admit that the thought of Pixal being with him brings no small amount of relief.

“Alright,” Lloyd says, trying to sound authoritative. “That’s it, then. We’ll split out at the end of the week. And we will find Sensei.”

“Fingers crossed,” Jay murmurs.

No one looks particularly excited about the plan, but they’re at least eager to start moving. Lloyd, for his part, takes the building amount of dread at the thought of watching them all leave, shoves it in a corner, and locks the door on it.

It’s not like they’re leaving-leaving. They’re coming right back, obviously. Lloyd is just – being paranoid, that’s all. His team is strong, and Kai definitely isn’t gonna go down to some low-level crooks while traveling the countryside.

(They aren’t like – her, either.)

And speaking of his family — Lloyd finds himself wondering, later, when exactly he started calling Wu sensei in his head, instead of uncle.

He thinks it might have been after Morro. That was around the time he started to feel like he didn’t have the right.

__ __ __ __

He says goodbye to the others at the end of the week. Jay and Cole are going together, and so are Kai and Zane.

He and Nya will be on their own.

No one is super excited about that development, either, but it makes sense. The guys are taking the more dangerous areas, so they’ll need backup. He and Nya can handle themselves just fine on their own – Lloyd isn’t even leaving the city. He’s got it easy.

Besides, the guys are used to working in groups. He and Nya are more experienced with functioning on their own. They’ve had to be, that’s all. They’re more familiar with fighting while knowing there’s no one watching your back.

They close up the monastery for now, everything in neat boxes and beds made indefinitely. They don’t pack much – either from convenience or hope that they won’t be away long, no one’s really sure. They say goodbye and make promises to check in as often as possible. Kai hugs Lloyd extra tight, his spiky hair ticking the top of Lloyd’s forehead as he’s crushed against him. Lloyd doesn’t mind, not even when he’s pretty sure Cole almost cracks a rib with his.

And then they leave, all trailing off in different directions, leaving Lloyd standing alone on the edge of the floating island, wind whipping cold through his hair, the monastery eerily silent behind him.

And it’s…

…he’s fine with it.

Like — there’s this weird sort of ache in his chest, kind of like he forgot to eat this morning, so he’s all empty and yearning inside, but that’s – that’s fine.

Perfectly fine.

__ __ __ __

It occurs to him, after he has what’s definitely not a breakdown that definitely does not last long at all, that he’s volunteered to look after Ninjago City, and Ninjago City is a considerable amount of distance from the Airjitzu Temple.

It hits him immediately after that moving to Ninjago City requires somewhere to live. He probably…should have thought of that before everyone left. Maybe he should call—

No. Lloyd shakes himself. He’s leader now. He can’t keep relying on the others for everything. He can find an apartment or something all by himself — how hard can it be, right? The guys found one for all of them back when they were a bunch of half-trained ninja and Lloyd still came up to about Kai’s knee. This is one apartment, for one person. And Lloyd’s got money — he thinks. Somewhere.

…maybe.

Stupid sensei creeds of peace and their obsession with not owning anything material—

Okay fine, so Lloyd’s got zip-zero-nada in the way of family inheritance, but his mother, who took off last week — yeah, she’s leaving too, big surprise —

Lloyd shoves down the spark of bitterness. Misako has better things to do than babysitting him, like finding Sensei Wu. And she did send him money, so he doesn’t even know why he’s feeling all empty about it. She’s made sure he’s not gonna starve and she sent him the name of a housing agent, Lloyd can’t ask for much more.

Maybe a nice landlord, but that’s about it.

__ __ __ __

On the list of bright sides to look at: finding an apartment isn’t as mind-numbingly difficult as he’d thought it’d be. He didn’t name drop or anything, but he did kinda have to fill out his full name on the application, so maybe that’s why. Either way, it wasn’t as bad as he’d worked it up to be, so that’s nice.

On the not so bright side — standing in the middle of his brand-new and also completely-empty apartment, it occurs to him that he should probably have asked for like, curtains, at the least. Or a table. How much do beds cost?

On the whole, though, it’s not a bad place. Really. Like – okay, he does need to get a bed and stuff in here, but – the walls are a nice color, and it’s got a little kitchenette off to the side, and the shower works, and the windows provide both a nice view and an easy way to slip outside to the rooftops. His neighbor is also pretty nice, in the way that he doesn’t hate Lloyd’s guts on sight, so that’s cool.

(Look, the way his life goes, guts-hating is just something you prepare for.)

His landlord is actually a landlady, and she’s mean, the kind of mean that makes Lloyd think of one of his Darkley’s teachers. But she’s got about eight cats that roam about the apartment at will, and she lets Lloyd bring in the stragglers he finds late at night on patrol and adopts them sometimes, so Lloyd could honestly care less if she actually was a teacher at Darkley’s. He gets to pet cats! On a daily basis!

(And maybe cry into the fatter one’s fur at two in the morning when he stumbles in from patrol sometimes but nobody needs to know that part.)

It’s like he’s off to college, he tells himself as he stares at the ceiling trying to fall asleep, in the apartment that’s completely empty except for him. If college was a full-time job that included regularly getting shot at by criminals and the police on the occasional bad night, of course, and if he’d actually finished high school, which he’s pretty sure you have to do if you want to get into college…he thinks. School is not a strong point for Lloyd, considering about eighty percent of his education came from Jay, Nya and Zane trying to stuff advanced algebra down his brain.

Either way, the analogy holds. Lloyd can just pretend he’s off to college, and before he knows it he’ll be back home and everyone else will be too. They’ll all come back.

They will.

__ __ __ __

He likes to think he has reason for being scared about it all the time, even though he’s the green ninja and team leader now so he shouldn’t be scared, much less of something this stupid, but it just. It blends together, sometimes. Whether he’s watching through cage bars or lingering after a funeral, held on the edge of a plane or standing on the deck of the Bounty while war rages below.

People leave. That’s life, that’s all.

That doesn’t mean Lloyd has to like it, but he does have to live with it. And he’s gotten really, really good at that.

__ __ __ __

He starts a growing list of bright sides to focus on, in what’s totally not a desperate attempt to keep up the optimism angle. His first attempts are decorating his apartment, which is actually kinda fun. He scrounges up a couch somehow and sinks entirely too much of his budget on little house plants and cool wall prints he finds in the market, and he probably didn’t need the little dragon lamp, but Mystake pawned it off on him when he stopped in for tea one day, so he starts basing the general aesthetic around that. See, bright sides.

Another one of these bright sides is that Ninjago City starts putting in sky trams the week he moves in to his apartment.

He’s a little wary, at first. Sky trams are like subways but in the sky, which means a whole lot more trouble if someone decides to hijack a subway and hold it hostage, or something. But then he pulls himself up on the roof, clambers over onto a station, takes a few tentative steps out over the thick steel cables, and — oh yeah, he gets it now. Lloyd’s never been scared of heights, and dangling this high above the city, skipping over traffic jams and cutting his patrol time in half, is something he can definitely get used to.

He gets in a whole lot of trouble the first few days for scaring the operators half to death, but all in all — worth it. Once the trams start running he trades the cables for the top of the cars, letting them steer him wherever they want in the city. It’s got a pretty great view of the sunset, which he’s been missing since leaving the Airjitzu temple, and the others are gonna love it when they come back.

Because they are coming back.

Lloyd’s just dangling one leg over the edge of the sky tram, considering dangling the other so he can drum them both on the side of the empty car, when his phone blares loudly and nearly sends all of him off the sky tram side.

“Hello?” he manages, clinging to the side of the sky tram with one hand, holding the phone to his ear with the other.

“Lloyd!” Kai’s voice is loud and cheerful over the phone, and Lloyd winces at the volume. “Hey bud, how’s it goin’? I didn’t catch you in the middle of anything, did I?”

Lloyd watches where his feet dangle over open air, the city far down below. “Nah,” he says, and carefully pulls himself back up. “Just finishing up patrol. How — how are you doing? Is everything okay?”

“Oh yeah, we’re good,” Kai assures him. “Just stuck between towns for the night, Zane didn’t wanna drive anymore.”

“Good for him,” Lloyd says. He bites his lip. “So uh, any luck?”

Kai sighs heavily over the phone. “Not yet,” he says. His voice picks up in determination. “But we’re still looking. We’ll find him, okay? No one’s giving up yet.”

“Yeah,” Lloyd exhales what might be a laugh. “I know.” He glances toward the horizon, the setting sun leaving white spots in his vision. “How’s it been, though, for you? Where all have you guys gone so far?”

“Oh man, we’ve been everywhere—“

Lloyd leans back on the roof of the sky tram as Kai fills him in on their ongoings. He closes his eyes, letting the conversation wash over him, Zane’s voice occasionally interjecting a point as Kai argues back.

Lloyd swallows. Kai’s voice is warm and familiar, and he feels a sudden ache of homesickness so bad that tears almost prick at his eyes.

Get it together, he thinks frantically, swiping at his left eye. It hasn’t even been a month yet.

“Lloyd?” Kai’s voice has turned uncertain. “You okay?”

Lloyd startles up, shaking his head. “Yeah, yeah I’m good,” he says, quickly. “Just a little tired. My uh, my landlady has a bunch of cats? And I stayed up late chasing one down last night.”

Kai snorts loudly. “I feel like you’re gonna have a lot of stories about cats when we get back,” he sighs, and the hollow part in Lloyd’s chest warms at the fond note in his voice.

“Or a couple cats.”

“Yeah, sure, good luck with that.” Lloyd can hear the grin in Kai’s voice. “Aw — shoot, I gotta go, but I’ll check back in, okay? In the meantime, take care of yourself before the cats, Master Lloyd.”

Lloyd rolls his eyes. “Will do, mom.”

“And that’s enough snark from you this evening, young man.”

Lloyd tells Kai goodbye on a laugh, and waits for him to end the call first. The evening grows unusually quiet without Kai’s voice to fill the silence, and Lloyd bites his lip.

Master Lloyd, he thinks absently, swinging his leg out over the edge as he watches the lights of the city turn on down below. He snorts without humor.

What does it say, he wonders, that they make him master, then immediately decide to jet off all over the country before he can actually lead them?

Probably something bad, Lloyd thinks to himself. He shakes his head, stifling a yawn. He’s too tired to even imagine what the others’ answers to that question would be. It’s not like they’re here to voice them, anyways, and Lloyd would probably get them wrong.

__ __ __ __

Kai’s text comes in clockwork as promised, reminding him to eat and take care of himself and eat, please, something other than just junk food. Nya’s follows almost immediately after, reminding him to do laundry and take care and take a shower, I know you’ve been skipping—

Normally Lloyd might have some snappy remark to send back about mother hens. This time he ends up staring at the texts until his eyes water, the empty ache in his chest growing tight. Half of him is considering blocking off his schedule so he can video call them for a couple hours, like they used to pester him with when he was off being the Golden Ninja around Ninjago, when his dad was still—

Right. Anyways. The team stays solid on their promise to keep in touch, and two hours later he gets a text from Jay. It’s a slightly blurry picture of him throwing the camera the peace sign as Cole struggles with camping gear, with a quick “hope you’re doing alright!” that follows after.

Lloyd laughs at the expression on Cole’s face, then spends the next two hours trying not to cry into his pillow, because yes, he’s that pathetic.

He wants to go home.

But see – it’s stupid, ‘cause he can’t. He can’t go home, because there is no home to go home to. His home ran off all over Ninjago and sure, while he can call them, he can’t go home to them because there isn’t – a home that’s home because they’re all there anymore.

“I mean, that probably doesn’t make any sense to you,” he finishes, ducking his head. “But that’s like…where I’m at.”

“No, I believe I understand.” Pixal’s voice is soft over his car’s radio. “Your home is people, and they’re out of reach from you. You could run to them, but there’s no guarantee they will stay.”

“Yeah, that’s — that’s exactly it,” Lloyd blinks.

Pixal makes a quiet noise. “My home is a person as well, Lloyd,” she admits. Her voice turns rueful. “But I cannot go anywhere. Not really.”

“Oh.” Lloyd’s stomach twists. Geez, he’s here feeling sorry for himself when Pixal doesn’t even have a body. Why doesn’t she have a body? They should get on that—

“Don’t worry yourself about it,” Pixal says gently. “I am fine. And our people will return, we just have to be patient. It’s only been a month.”

“Just a month?” Lloyd glances at his phone, checking the tiny digital calendar. His eyes catch the date ahead and his stomach turns. Oh. He hadn’t known that date was — that soon.

He quickly thinks of something else.

“Hey,” Lloyd says, breaking the silence. “What if I like – what if we snatched some old robot model from Mr. Borg for the day, and we checked out that new market downtown?”

Pixal is quiet for a beat, and the silence sounds almost guilty. “That wouldn’t — I’m afraid that’s not quite possible at the moment.”

“Oh.” It’s Lloyd’s turn to fall quiet for a moment. Then—

“Okay, but what if I brought you with me as a radio? I can just lug it around the whole time, and you can look at – aw, shoot, you gotta be able to see too – what if I brought you as like, my phone or something, like a laptop and I just have Skype running the whole time—“

Pixal sighs. “The radio will work just fine.” Her voice is more amused than exasperated, and Lloyd feels a wild surge of relief that he didn’t just drive her away, too.

__ __ __ __

Look, he knows he didn’t drive them away. Okay? He gets that they needed to split up. And he’s used to it. People leave all the time, and he should just be glad this isn’t one of the permanent ones. Because he’s had a lot of people leave him for really, really long times, too. He’s used to it.

The only problem there is that if he is, in fact, used to it, he should be desensitized to it, and not – feel as much, about it.

It’s not even like they leave him, really. It’s Lloyd. Lloyd is the one complicating things or driving people away or failing one too many times or just – sending them to Cursed Realms and losing them in a time stream because he couldn’t—

It’s Lloyd. He can’t go blaming them for his own issues.

Besides, it’s not like this time is – it’s not the same. Again, the ninja aren’t leaving-leaving him. They’re splitting up for a mission, they’ll be back.

This isn’t like with Zane. They’ll be back, on their own this time. Lloyd won’t have to wear them down, or lure them to a tournament, or anything. This is different.

It’s different, he tells himself fiercely, staring up at the cracked ceiling of his apartment, the ceiling fan drifting in slow, dizzy circles. This is different.

__ __ __ __

On Lloyd’s list of Things He’s Never Going To Voice Out Loud, To Any Sane Person: sometimes he feels like Morro’s still in his head.

Like – it’s trauma, he gets that. It’s bad memories and flashbacks and whatever acronym Zane keeps throwing at him that Lloyd can’t remember.

But sometimes the voice is just – it’s Morro’s grating timbre pitch for pitch, all mocking and bitter and sneaking up on him at the worst of times. Like right now, when it’s been two weeks since he last heard from anyone, and the silence in his apartment is getting too loud.

It’s you, the voice’ll say. That’s why they left. They grew tired of you. You drove them away.

Shut up, Lloyd thinks.

You’re not useful to them anymore, you know that, right? You couldn’t even save your own uncle, much less lead anyone. Why would they keep you around after that?

Shut up! Lloyd thunks his head against the wall, eyes squeezing shut tight. A throbbing pain echoes from the impact, and he winces.

Oops, he thinks, staring dully at the dent in the bathroom wall. Of all the things to get charged extra rent for.

Lloyd shakes his head, as if to shake off the thoughts as well. His wet hair swings out as he does, sending little droplets all over the bathroom mirror. Lloyd makes a face. As if he needed more evidence that his hair is getting too long.

And it is, really. His usual haircut’s almost entirely grown out, shiny blond locks long enough that they can form wavy little curls now. Lloyd brushes one from his face as he digs through the cluttered drawer of his bathroom vanity for scissors. It’s taking him a minute, because it’s a bit of a mess, but he’s not going to just admit that, not when Pixal’s been hounding him about cleaning your bathroom a lot lately.

It’s not like she has to live here, Lloyd grumbles to himself. He snatches the scissors from the bottom of the drawer, running a hand through the tangles in his hair and preparing to cut it back into the more familiar style—

Lloyd’s hand suddenly hesitates, his fingers stilling on the scissors.

It’s his father’s style. He’s known that. But looking in the mirror right now, at the sharper edge of his cheekbones and the dark red of his eyes, he realizes that he’s starting to match a little too—

Lloyd swallows. And there’s a reminder. He’d almost forgotten, that the date’s coming up. He isn’t gonna call it an anniversary, because that makes it sound like a celebration, and it’s definitely not, it’s just…an unfortunate date, in Lloyd’s history.

At any rate, he won’t match his dad. Not when his dad’s dead.

And who killed him, I wonder.

Lloyd chucks the scissors back in the drawer so hard he’s pretty sure he hears them break. He slams the drawer shut, exhaling shakily.

You know what, he’s kind of liking the feel of longer hair right now. It looks okay, he thinks. It looks like — well, Lloyd, he guesses.

__ __ __ __

His bathroom is a mess, though. Lloyd should probably clean it. He should probably call the others, too , just because — well, he needs to — he’s leader, so—

He needs an excuse.

Lloyd sighs, toeing the bathroom door shut. Aw, whatever. He can clean it tomorrow.

__ __ __ __

With the benefit of hindsight, Lloyd should probably retract his earlier claim that he’s used to fighting on his own enough not to screw up.

Probably because he screws up.

It’s not even his fault, really. How was he supposed to know that the rumors about the local biker gang getting more aggressive were under-exaggerated? They’re bikers, Lloyd can explode stuff with his hands, it should’ve been an easy fight.

And it was, right up until the part where the biker with the red mask whipped a gun out and shot him through the leg.

Jerk move, Lloyd thinks hazily, half-hopping through his apartment door, trying to stop at least some blood from getting all over the floor. Real jerk move.

He didn’t even catch the guy, either, which makes this whole thing so much worse, he thinks darkly to himself, as he stumbles his way to the bathroom. He probably should’ve just sucked it up and checked himself into the hospital, but Lloyd hates the hospital, and it’s really not that bad. He’s got plenty of medical supplies he stuffed in the sink cabinet of the bathroom, so he can just — patch it up with that real quick, then sleep it off.

You can’t sleep off a gunshot wound, Zane’s voice echoes in his head, and Lloyd blocks it out, carefully lowering himself down to the floor so he can—

His leg suddenly shifts wrong, and it flares in an agony so fiery that Lloyd’s vision goes white for a beat, a high-pitched keening echoing like a bomb’s been set off in his face, except it’s not his face it’s his leg, FSM that hurts, that hurts—

Lloyd braces himself on his forearms, drawing in strained breaths through his nose. It’ll stop hurting in a minute, he knows it will. He just has to give it time. But in the meantime, it’d be really nice — if he could just be sure — it’d be nice to ask Zane, you know, or have like, Nya here, or Kai, or—

The pain in his leg is finally starting to subside, but Lloyd’s still swallowing a sob. He wants his family here. He wants them here now, right now, so they can make it better—

His leg throbs again, and anger lights in his gut. No, you know what? He doesn’t want to see them. He doesn’t want them to come back, because he’s angry at them — he’s angry, they left him here alone and they should feel bad about it, should feel bad that Lloyd’s here all alone with his stupid leg bleeding everywhere, should feel bad when Lloyd doesn’t even wanna see them because he wants them to feel how he feels, all torn up and scared and dumb and miserable—

Lloyd exhales on a gasp, and the dam breaks.

He’s being an idiot, he tells himself fiercely, through hot tears. That’s something nine-year-old brat-from-hell Lloyd would think. Of course he wants them back. It’s not their fault Sensei went missing. None of this is their fault, Lloyd would give his right arm to have them back right now, if he could.

It’s not their fault Lloyd is—

Fine.

He’s fine.

Mostly.

__ __ __ __

Patching his leg is easy, once he manages to stop crying and choke the painkiller down.

Lloyd scrubs at his eyes, sniffling miserably. His nose is horribly stuffed and his head feels like it’s about to explode, but the awful need to sob is finally ebbing into residual shudders that leave Lloyd wrung out, miserable, and just – exhausted, he’s exhausted, that’s the word. Tired. He’s tired of getting up and feeling miserable every day, he’s tired of feeling sorry for himself, he’s tired of missing everyone, and he’s really, stupid tired of bikers that get lucky hits in when he’s got his guard down.

He stares at the dirty floor through grainy eyes. There’s blood all over the linoleum tile, and an old stain right by his foot that looks a lot like dried blood. It probably is blood, he thinks. And now he’s just adding more. Gross.

That’s…probably unsanitary.

On second thought, Pixal has a point. Lloyd does need to clean the bathroom already.

__ __ __ __

Several hours later finds Lloyd on one knee — the other is sprawled out awkwardly as it occasionally sparks green, which he’s ignoring right now — the sleeves of his too-large hoodie pulled up and his hair pushed back by the hideous purple-blue tye-die headband that’d been on sale at the checkout counter when he’d picked up groceries a while back.

He’s hauled the radio into the bathroom, and it’s playing some new synth-pop music that echoes weirdly off the tiles. He thinks he might like the music — that or he’s just been listening to it for too long.

His nose wrinkles as he strains further over the shower floor, scrubbing harder at a particularly stubborn stain. He’s really gotta start taking better care of this place, he thinks.

His leg twinges, and he winces, closing his eyes and taking a breath.

He should…probably start taking better care of himself, while he’s at it. He’s been doing a pretty sucky job, apparently.

Lloyd just wasn’t meant to live alone, he decides dully. It doesn’t suit him.

__ __ __ __

By the fifth day out Lloyd’s leg is starting to heal up pretty nicely. There’s a very large part of him that suspects the unusually quick healing time has something to do with the vivid green that’s bleeding into his irises, growing by the day. He’s not sure where suddenly having green eyes gets off equating to accelerated powers, but he can walk to the grocery store before he starves, so he’ll take it.

He buys himself enough to last a few weeks, which ends up being one grocery bag too many, so climbing the stairs to his apartment is a pain, especially when Minerva, the fat cat, runs between his feet and almost trips him back down the stairs. He finally manages to reach his floor and shakes the key from his jacket, balances the grocery bags in one hand, and keys the door open.

And promptly has a heart attack.

“Hey, about time!” Kai says brightly — Kai says brightly, where he’s sprawled across his cheap sofa, in his apartment.

Why is he in his apartment? Lloyd blinks once, hard. Still there. Is he hallucinating—?

“Need help with those?”

Nya is suddenly in his apartment too, grabbing a grocery bag from him and setting it over by the kitchenette.

“Sorry we didn’t warn you,” Cole says, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, and — FSM, are they all here? “Pixal told us where you lived, so we’d all planned to meet here, and I guess we…kinda all…forgot to tell you.”

“We all assumed the other group would,” Zane says, spearing Cole with a look. “Our apologies for barging in.”

“It’s a great apartment, though!” Jay exclaims, where he’s bent over his book case. “I wouldn’t have guessed you’d be into the whole interior design thing, but this is pretty nice.”

“Admit it, you were betting he’d moved into another volcano,” Kai snorts.  “Seriously though, green machine, how many plants do you need—“

“Leave him alone, I like the plants, I think they’re a nice touch—“

“Lloyd?” Nya’s voice is suddenly quiet. “Are you alright? I really am sorry we didn’t call first.”

Lloyd just stares at her with the same blank look he’s been staring at them all with for the last few minutes, still frozen in place. Is this what shock feels like? a part of him wonders.

“You’re here,” he says, blankly. “You’re all — here?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jay says, as if it’s obvious. “We said we were gonna check in, right? You didn’t get hit in the head while we were gone, did you?”

Nya whacks him on the shoulder. “Of course we’re here,” she says. “Your apartment is super easy to break into, you know. Gotta get a better lock.”

“Oh,” Lloyd says, weakly. “Um. Yeah. I — sorry, I just…wasn’t expecting, I guess. You guys to come now, that is.”

The mood suddenly shifts, and Lloyd’s not sure to what, but they don’t look as bright and happy anymore. Kai lifts a shoulder, then drops it, suddenly looking a little unsure. “I guess we should’ve checked, about the date,” he admits. “But we, uh, we just wanted to be here, for you.”

Lloyd blinks rapidly. “You wanted – why?”

Kai looks at Cole, chewing on the inside of his cheek briefly. “Well it’s…the day your dad got banished, isn’t it?”

The breath rushes from Lloyd’s lungs like a freight train, and oh. Oh. They remembered. They remembered, all by themselves, and they came back without him even asking, and—

“Oh,” Lloyd says, quietly.

Kai looks stricken. “Oh no,” he says. “You’re not going to cry. Lloyd, please, every time you go off I go off, so don’t — oh Lloyd, no.”

He tries, okay? He tries to stop it. But the cracks in his walls have turned to cracks in a dam, and the dam’s gotten a lot higher than he realized, and the cracks are suddenly big and torn and gaping—

Lloyd opens his mouth to reply and ends up hiccuping out a sob instead. “I’m sorry,” he croaks. “I just—“ he wipes fiercely at his eyes. “I really missed you guys, and that’s — that’s really nice of you, and—“

“FSM, Kai, suck it up.” Cole’s eyes are sympathetic, and suddenly Lloyd is in a very warm and very tight embrace. “This isn’t about you.”

“That’s not what I—!”

Kai cuts his own self off and joins the hug, and then Nya’s there, and a couple more arms that are Zane and Jay and Lloyd’s kind of suffocating a bit because the AC still isn’t on yet, but—

They came back.

Oh wow, Lloyd really wasn’t fine about that, was he.

__ __ __ __

They all stay in Lloyd’s apartment that night, which is a horrible decision, because he’s got one bed and one couch that shouldn’t really be called a couch, and there’s no room at all, but it’s free, Jay argues, so they can suck it up for the night.

They do, and Zane makes dinner with the few edible items Lloyd has and it actually tastes good,  Cole gets music on and Jay’s chattering with Nya and Kai’s hounding him about his hair, and it’s the loudest Lloyd’s apartment has been in months.

His landlady’s gonna give him heck about it, but Lloyd can’t find it in himself to care. He spends that night on his terrible sofa, crammed up between Nya and Kai with his cheek smushed into Kai’s shoulder, listening to Cole snore a room over, and it’s easier to fall into a sleepy lull than it’s ever been here.

“Hey,” Nya whispers to him, after Kai’s breathing evens out. “I really missed you, by the way.”

Lloyd rubs at his eye, yawning. “I missed you too,” he murmurs. “I mean, it hasn’t been awful, but—“

“Being alone sucks,” Nya finishes. “A lot. I miss everyone.”

Lloyd is quiet. “I do too,” he finally whispers.

“It’s too quiet,” Nya continues. “I keep having to blare music so I don’t lose it.”

“That’s what I’ve been doing,” Lloyd whispers. “Hey, have you heard, uh — it’s that weird sort of synth music—“

“The only thing they play on the hits channel now?”

“Yeah, that one. It’s not half bad.”

“Please tell me that’s not what you’ve been listening too, Lloyd. I thought you had taste—“

Lloyd stuffs down a giggle, burying his head into the couch. He knows it’s not gonna last much longer, and soon they’ll be off again, but—

They’ll be back. And for now, with them here—

That aching hunger in his chest doesn’t feel as much like starving.

[gwenbrightly]

Ninjago Christmas Fic #1 - Decorations

Ahhh, it’s that time of year when I speed write Christmas fics because it’s fun! Crossposted from ffnet. Takes place after MOTO.

“Let’s see what everyone was able to snag for the monastery,” Lloyd suggested enthusiastically. Having never celebrated Christmas in the monastery of spinjitzu before, the ninja had been horrified to discover that Wu hadn’t thought to invest in decorations for the holiday season. Not prone to giving up easily, they had spent several days searching high and low for trees, wreaths, lights, and anything else they could get their hands on.

“Ma and pa sent some lights they swear still work properly. Left most of em outside. There’s also a bunch of garlands that look like they’re in pretty decent shape. Perks of living in a junkyard, I guess. And uh, I think this used to be an angel?” Jay stated, holding up a sparkly hunk of metal with appendages shaped vaguely like wings. He glanced sideways at it, trying to decide if it was worth keeping.  

“I… can try to fix it later, if you want?” offered Kai, “I got a lot of practice with metalworking while Nya and I were visiting mom and dad yesterday. And the whole remaking the Golden Weapons thing probably helps too, heheh.”

His sister rolled her eyes at his self satisfied smirk. Jay nodded, handing Kai the mangled decoration.  

“If you think she’s savable, go for it!”

“Speaking of mom and dad, they gave us a box of Christmas ornaments and some other stuff, too.” Nya added holding up the blue orb with swirly designs she’d just grabbed from the uppermost layer of the cardboard box she was kneeling next to.  

“We couldda brought some tinsel, too, but we decided it wouldn’t be a good idea after last year…” she continued. They all shuddered.  

“Dad convinced the tree farm that sponsors the Royal Blacksmiths to sell him a tree for super cheap. He said he’d drop it off in a little bit.” Cole informed them, not wanting to dwell on the incident.

“Dude! That’s awesome!” Exclaimed Lloyd, his eyes lighting up. The others smiled. They’d never been able to have a live tree before. Zane nodded in agreement.  

“Indeed. I’m sure it will look lovely in the living room. I managed to locate a wreath my father built. It’s made mostly from old gears, and I know that’s not very traditional, but I’d like to put it up somewhere. If you don’t mind?”

“Of course, Zane. I’m sure we can find a good place for it.” Cole assured his friend. He understood what it was like to miss a family member during this time of year.  

“Yeah. I mean this place is huge. We need all the decorations we can get!” Kai reminded them.

“We had better get started, then.” Pixal interjected, eager to finally be celebrating the holidays without being confined to a screen (or her wonderful soulmate’s head) this year.

“Heck yeah! So where should we start?” asked Nya. They glanced around at the heaps of miscellaneous decorations, considering their options.  

“Maybe we should tackle the lights outside first? I’d rather do that before it gets too cold out.” proposed Jay. Although it had not yet snowed, the weather had been growing increasingly colder.

“I vote yes to that idea. It’s usually better to test anything the Walkers give us as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary explosions. No offense, Jay.” Cole said, giving the master of lightning an apologetic grin. Jay punched his shoulder lightly.

“None taken. We do tend to end up with... Surprises pretty often when ma and pa gift us stuff.”

“Okay, then. Outside it is. Just… try to keep the dangerous hijinks to a minimum? I don’t wanna worry Uncle Wu.” Lloyd told them, heading for the front door.  

The next hour was spent watching Jay zap each strand of lights or light up decoration with his powers as he tested them to see if they worked, waiting for the inevitable explosion. Surprisingly, they made it through 5 whole strands, two light up snowman, and a reindeer before coming across their first exploding decoration. No one could be sure if the shattering of every single bulb on the rainbow strand of lights was due to Jay’s parents tampering with the wires, or the master of lightning himself sending too much electricity into it, but the display of rainbow colored shards flying through the air was impressive to say the least. After cleaning up their mess and testing the remaining decorations, the group began the actual decorating part of the process. Pixal and Zane wrapped lights around the columns that lined the entrance to the monastery, creating elaborate patterns. Cole and Jay worked together to lift an ornate sleigh complete with reindeer onto the roof via airjitzu. Meanwhile, Nya simply tried to keep Lloyd and Kai from killing each other with additional decorations. Seeing her brother wrap the green ninja in lights, she cried, “Kai no!” in exasperation.  

“Cmon, sis! You’ve gotta admit he’d make a great Christmas tree!” He defended, before launching into singing oh Lloydie tree, oh Lloydie tree, how lovely are your branches! And receiving dirty looks from his victim.  

“Listen to Nya, Kai.” Cole shouted from above them. The master of fire relented, muttering about how no one appreciated his brilliance as he unwound his brother. Their hard work was interrupted by the sounds of a (much less irritating) Christmas carol floating into the courtyard from just beyond the gate.

“We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!” Sang Lou and his quartet as they lugged a ginormous tree inside.

“Hey, pop!” Cole greeted. He left the lofty heights of the roof, followed by Jay.

“Hello, son! You’re doing a lovely job with this place!”

“Thanks!” Jay said, “You just missed the explosion!”

“… The what?” Lou started.

“So, how was your drive?” Cole inquired, cutting him off. His father gave him a strange look, but didn’t push the topic further.

“It was fine. Building that driveway was a wonderful idea. I can’t imagine how much of a hassle it would’ve been to carry this thing up so many steps.” he answered.

“It really has made life easier for all of us.” Zane agreed.  

“This tree is beautiful! Thank you so much for hooking us up!” Added Lloyd, staring admiringly at their  

“It was no trouble, Lloyd.” Lou told him, smiling warmly.  

“Wanna come inside for some hot cocoa? We were about ready to take a break anyway.” offered Cole.

“I would love to, but unfortunately we need to get going. We have a concert at the hospital to attend. Can’t disappoint the kids, you know.” the older man replied regretfully. The master of earth shrugged. Christmas was always a busy time for the Royal Blacksmiths.  

“Okay. Next time, then. Break a leg, and thanks again!”

“Goodbye son!” Lou called as his companions burst into sing again.  

“Now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding and bring some right here!”

“What even is figgy pudding?” Lloyd wondered aloud.  

“No clue.” Kai shrugged.  

“Let’s get this bad boy inside.” Prompted Jay, rubbing his hands together and grinning in a way that was only a little bit maniacal. It took a fair amount of maneuvering, but they eventually managed to get the tree situated in the living room.  

“Wow, I hope we have enough ornaments for this thing.” Nya commented. The tree looked even bigger now that it was upright.  

“We’ll think of something if we don’t. Maybe we can just put Jay to work making paper snowflakes again.” Lloyd plotted.

“I’m down for that. I don’t get why you guys think I’m the only one who’s deserving of this honor, though.” said Jay. He had never quite understood why the others were so fascinated by his ability to make paper snowflakes with such ease.

“Because you’re better at it than we are and we like the way they look.” Nya stated simply, hanging the ornament she’d discovered earlier on the tree. Jay leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Thanks, sweetie.”

Kai rolled his eyes at them and set about digging through the boxes looking for more ornaments. He pulled out anything that looked like it was still functional, tossing a few broken ones into the garbage.  

“This one is neat!”

“Oooh shiny!” Lloyd noted. He snatched the ornament from Kai before he could protest. The master of fire decided it wasn’t worth fighting and returned to his rummaging. Kai managed to protect a few of the ornaments from Lloyd’s watchful eye, sneaking them onto the tree when he wasn’t looking.  

“Wait… how did that get there?” Lloyd asked, finally noticing one of the extra sparkly ornaments Kai had hidden from him.  

“I swear Lloyd, you’re as bad as a cat when you get like this.” Nya told him, stifling a smile.  

“Like what?” he replied innocently. Cole watched Lloyd stare longingly at another ornament.  

“All oooh shiny every time you see something cool.”  

“Nah, I’m pretty sure that stems from having a dragon for a grandmother.” Lloyd reminded them.

“Hmmm that’s a good point.” Confirmed Zane.

“Kai, I am almost completely certain that Santa was not intended to be a part of this nativity!” Pixal scolded, frantically trying to prevent the master of fire from ruining the decoration he was currently setting out on the mantle.

“Well, he is now!” Kai retorted, not caring about historical accuracy. Pixal sighed loudly.

“Can we at least discuss fixing the sheep so they don’t look like they’re fighting to the death?”

“Gee, Pix! It’s not like they’re real,” he reminded her indignantly before smiling a devious smile, “Hmmm I should add one of Lloyd’s dragon figurines...”

“Kai no! That is the most horrible idea ever.” she protested, horrified.  

“What you call horrible I call brilliant!”

“Okaaay maybe it’s time for a break before Uncle Wu comes in here and questions our collective sanity again.” Lloyd said awkwardly pushing between the irate ninja and samurai.  

“There’s hot cocoa in the kitchen, remember?” added Nya.  

“Hmmm okay, sure. Hot cocoa does sound good.” Kai admitted (totally not planning on sneaking back later to mess with the nativity some more).  

“Yeah! Let’s go eat way too much whipped cream and marshmallows!” agreed Jay.  

“Looks like we’re off to another chaotic Christmas.” Lloyd commented to Nya as they headed for refreshments.  

“Yeah, but you know you love it.” She told him with a laugh. The blonde shrugged, saying,  

“I do. Somehow this never gets old.”

“That’s the magic of Christmas for you. Or… something like that, anyway. Now cmon, let’s get some hot coco before the others drink it all.”

[nin-jay-go]

Shadows of Envy - Chapter 1

When you dismiss a dark thought, where do they go? To your shadows, of course. Kai’s jealousies get the best of him, and he gives into the temptation of the darkness, his own shadow posessing him. Yeeted from his body, Kai must figure out how to stop his shadow from ruining absolutely everything and hurting the people he loves.

Tagged on my blog as either Shadows of Envy or ekau 3!

Contains no romantic pairings aside from Pixane and hinted Geode

It was a quiet night at the Destiny's Bounty. Too quiet. It was WAYYY too quiet and Kai was getting a bit restless. To kill his boredom, he took to pacing through the halls while performing some Neat Sword Tricks. Flipping it around, spinning around with it, setting it on fire, the usuals.

Eventually, he paced right into the living room, where everyone else was gathered. Cole floated on the couch near Jay, who was bouncing his leg and fiddling with his gi. Zane was probably asleep already, as was Nya, but Lloyd still wasn't. The green ninja sat on the floor near the couch, reading a Fritz Donovan comic, which Jay was looking at somewhat wistfully.

Kai's preparations for starting up a conversation from the doorway were thwarted when Cole took that job from him. “Ugh, I hate not being able to sit on a couch anymore,” he complained. “I just gotta float above it now, instead of actually making contact…”

Jay pat the ghost's shoulder as best as he could and laughed. “You don't like being a ghost? I would've died to become a ghost!” A round of chuckles came from the room's occupants.

“I mean, becoming the Green Ninja and growing up was an experience too,” Lloyd spoke up. “Would it be any better than, uh dying?”

Cole gave an uncomfortable chuckle. “Well I'm mostly fine! I don't get hungry anymore so there's that…”

Jay put a finger up to his face, scratching at it slightly. “Wow, you two have really gone through some rough shit over the time we've been ninjas. It leads me to wonder,” he continued, crossing his legs, “has something exciting and life-changing happened to all of us?”

“I'd say so, yea!” “Yea probably.”

“Ok ok so,” Jay started, “we have you,” he pointed at Cole, “who died and became a ghost, you,” this time at Lloyd, “grew up and got ‘chosen by destiny’ as the Green Ninja-”

“And got possessed by my weird emo cousin and then forced to watch my dad die… twice in a row,” Lloyd added. The others got a good laugh at that traumatizing memory. “What about you, Jay?”

“Well, I was bitten by the Serpentine at one point and almost turned into one. Plus, I kinda found out something pretty big recently..” He panicked slightly when Cole and Lloyd stated expectedly. “It-its private personal stuff!! Nothing you two should worry about, nope totally not haha!” He waved them off quickly.

“Well, uh, Nya became the water ninja,” Lloyd continued, shrugging it off, “and Zane turned out to be a robot.”

“That and the only one with a functional relationship right now,” Cole quipped.

Kai, still semi-eavesdropping, now realized he was the only one not talked about. Either he had some SUPER life-changing event, or…

“What about Kai?” “Kai? Has he had a cool thing happen to him?” “Not that I remember… Oh! He had Chen's staff for a bit!” “Yea, like for a length of not even a minute.” “His sister got kidnapped?” “That adds onto more of a Nya thing though…” “He got addicted to twitter! That counts, right?” “Jay, no.”

They continued debating but Kai didn't want to hear any more. He heard the truth right then and there- he had an absolutely boring life. There was nothing to be talked about. He was worthless. So he left. He walked out of the doorway and onto the patio, sword strapped on his back. Looking into the forest they were currently parked over, he took a deep breath and jumped, activating his Airjitzu on the way down. He needed to release some steam.

The forest was awash with beautiful greens and blues, basking in the light of a full moon. Light crunching noises of twigs sounded underneath Kai's feet as he trudged through. Eventually, he made it to a clearing. A few tall bits of grass lined the trees, and a stump sat in the center.

He went over and flopped himself down onto the stump. Crossing his arms, he began to grumble. “Stupid everyone, thinking they're better than me, being special. Nya and Zane have cool lives, Jay has some big secret, Cole DIED, and Lloyd is the goddamn green ninja! They all think they’re so special, they don’t care about how I also have a cool and special life too! I’m interesting! They’re all just some.. insensitive jerks!”

“Couldn’t agree with you more.”

“Yea, I know ri-” Kai stopped in his tracks when he heard a voice in the clearing. It was… somehow familiar. He stood up and looked around, scanning the area. “Who’s there? Who are you?”

He heard a snort. “That doesn’t matter too much. Just think of me as… someone who wants to help.”

“Help? Help who, me? I don’t need help. I’m just here to blow off some steam,” Kai continued searching, rooting around his memories for who’s voice that was.  

“Yea, but I get what you’re saying,” the voice continued. This got Kai interested. “You do?”

“Well yea, I do. You feel jealous, envious of your teammates and friends. They’re all special, they have exciting lives, and you’re not, and you hate that. I know what you’re thinking, dude.”

“...where are you going with this?”

“I can give you a deal. I can make you… special, like the others. You can finally brag to them about having a cool thing happen and they’d be put in their place. After all, they don’t really like you. They’re special…” “...and I’m not,” Kai finished. “You can do that? Make me cooler?”

“Would I lie?” “I literally just met you, dude, you might as well be.” “Fair enough.”

A soft breeze blew through the night. The moon glowed, full and pale overhead, casting shadows all over. Kai narrowed his eyes, continuing to scan the forest for the voice’s origin, despite noticing it resounding all around him. “What do I need to do?”

A chuckle. “It’s simple. I’m gonna need you to say something, just a phrase or two.” He raised a skeptical eyebrow, hoping the voice saw it. “Just… saying something? And I’ll be cooler?”

He could almost feel the voice nod. “Just repeat after me. Omnis ignis ab umbra..” The voice took on a darker feel, deeper and more threatening. This went unnoticed by Kai, who mulled it over in his head some before taking a deep breath.

“Omnis ignis ab umbra.” No sooner had the words left his mouth when the wind picked up around him and the moon seemed to get even brighter.

“Tenebrae praete eum,” came the voice from directly behind him. He turned around briskly to see nothing there but his own shadow. A shadow that had two red orbs staring straight at him and slowly glowing brighter. A section where the mouth should be parted.

“...et novam vitam accipere.” It finished, and Kai saw nothing but black.

When Kai opened up his eyes, he immediately felt something was off. His feet felt glued in place, and a sense of vertigo and weightlessness overcame him. Somehow he figured out he was on the floor, yet when he looked up he saw…

Himself. His own body standing there, motionless, staring out at the trees. Suddenly, his body began to shake. Seconds later, it was shuddering with peals of laughter escaping, from his own mouth. His head turned to where he was and snapped open his eyes.

They were horrifying.

Where his irises were once a dark brown, they were bright red, almost glowing red, staring daggers at his own. The whites were pitch black, dark as the shadows around him. They stared at Kai with a feeling of madness.

“Hey thanks, dude!” The voice said. His voice. “Thanks for letting me borrow your body for a bit! Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it for you while you’re afk.” He cracked his neck casually, not breaking eye contact. “Wh-what? Who the hell are you?!” Kai yelled. He tightened his hands into fists but it didn’t seem to do much. It didn’t even feel like he did it or not.

“...Yea I have no idea either,” the body-snatcher confessed. “I mean, we’re both exceptionally stupid, ain’t we?” He stretched his arm out. “But from what I gathered over how long we’ve been alive, I’m your shadow. I am every negative thought and bad action fused into one formless being, forced to follow you around and eat your thoughts you banish from your mind. They aren’t that tasty, not advertising them.”

“So… you’re my shadow? And, and you.. possessed me?” Kai tried to wrap his head around the situation. “And if you’re me then… then how did you know that spell, or wh-whatever that was that did this?”

His “shadow” clicked his tongue. “I just kinda knew the words for some reason! As for what it did, we most likely switched places!” He sneered with Kai’s mouth, an expression that shouldn’t look so at home on his scarred face, scars that looked paler than ever.

“But yea,” he continued, “clearly those guys need to be put into their places, since they think they’re all so special. Self-centered, all of them. I’m gonna borrow your body to get our vengeance, since I know you won’t.”

Kai did not like this one bit. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Why was this happening?! He didn’t want to be here.

Seems like his brain listened, and he found his feet no longer glued to the ground, and the weightless feeling vanished. Opening his eyes, Kai found himself looking at his possessed body from a different angle, from the shades of the trees. His body looked around, and his gaze settled on him. Smirking, he closed his eyes.

“Well, at this point, I’m so filled with burning hatred I can’t be called Kai anymore, now can I?” Kai grasped his arm. It didn't feel all that solid. “What are you proposing?” His eyes opened, normal and brown once more. “How’s about you call me… uhh…” His eyes filled with confusion. Kai swore he heard him mutter “shit I didn’t think this far ahead uhh what’s a word for really hot- got it.” He cleared his throat. Pretending he didn’t mutter anything, he looked at Kai once more. “Call me Arid.”

“Arid...:” Kai rolled it around on his tongue. It fit such a dry, blazing shadow such as the one in his body. “Now that you have a name, I can call you out on shit you do. Just give my body back, Arid! I just felt a bit salty, you don’t gotta do anything bad to them!” “You don’t understand, Kai,” Arid stalked over to him. “Every bad thought you had belongs to me now. You felt salty, bitter, even, at your ‘friends’ for making fun of you, and wanted them to shut up.” He shrugged. “I’m just fulfilling your wishes, or I guess, my wishes now.”

He began to walk off. “H-hey wait! Where are you going?!” Kai called after him, running in his direction. The second his fingers left the shadows of the tree, they began to burn. He let out a yelp of pain and recoiled into the dark.

“Can’t go into the light now, can you?” Arid sneered. “You’re a shadow now, Kai. You don’t exist like I do anymore. Light will hurt you.”

“Duly noted…” Kai hissed back, cradling his hand. “Where are you going,” he restated.

Arid shrugged. “Back to the Bounty; where else am I supposed to go? I am Kai right now, after all.” He found the edge of the clearing and looked back at Kai. “Cya~!” He stuck out his tongue at him and spun into a flawless Airjitzu as he flew back to the Bounty, leaving Kai to stare up at the blinding moon.

[griffin-turner]

Elemental Masters Headcanons

Ash: -Mute, uses sign language to communicate -Or he mouths what he wants to say if the other party can stand smoke -Breathes normally and stuff but can’t play any instrument that needs the player to blow (aka brass and woodwinds) -Smoke is CONSTANTLY being emitted from his mouth as dead cells are turned into ash and excreted alongside the waste air from his lungs -Hair is even messier than Kai’s because he can’t be bothered to comb it every time he’s done reforming -Always seen hanging out with Chamile, Toxkita and Shade -rumour is that they’re all dating -the rumour is true they all love each other and share secrets via sign language -Knows all the gossip about the EMs

Bolobo: -One of the two Group Dads -A really good cook -Likes the sun and really hot weather -Is never seen without his staff or the feather thing he has around his neck -Is very proud of his beard -Fights Wu over who has the best beard -Occasionally ties his hair up in a loose ponytail -Tries to meme to look hip and cool -Fails to meme -Can’t figure out technology at all (he can operate basic stuff like tvs but a computer is pushing it) -Probably a Disney Princess™ in disguise because if he tries to sing birds and all kinds of woodland creatures spawn near his area -He can’t sing but the spawning happens anyway

Chamile: -The No. One person to go to for gossip on all of the EMs -Loves to bet on who can see through her disguise the fastest -Is constantly told purple isn’t a cool colour -Really good at makeup -Actually dyed her hair for the tournament and dyed it a less saturated purple afterwards -Can and will forcefully apply makeup to other EMs when bored -Knows exactly how to make Shade smile -The embodiment of “Looks can kill”

Gravis: -Hates walking and tries to float everywhere -Really messy -Often the peacekeeper of the group -Always ops for the method which needs the least amount of effort to complete -Strangely always early to events -A really good artist but always gets paint or whatever medium he uses on himself -Is extremely good at Science, namely Physics -Really likes space

Griffin Turner (buckle in buddies): -Really good liar -Constantly smiles to hide his true feelings -Cries a lot -Refuses to take his aviators off in front of anyone -Is actually the son of Krux, and the Master of Time -Wears his aviators to hide his inherited reflective iris (think the eyes of the HoT) -Always on time -Has an obsession with clocks -Constantly wishes his father was on the side of Good -Is very good friends with Skylor and Garmadon (before he kicked the bucket) -Is MUCH older than he looks -Once helped the Hands of Time, still has his armour from back when he helped them -Has a bad habit of speaking really fast and mixing up his sentences -Can’t express his feelings properly so he just smiles -Has extreme pyrophobia -Can’t stand Kai at all -Has a pet possum named Minute who he constantly refers to as a cat (she really likes grapes) -Often has visions of random points in time, be it from his own timeline or other timelines -Hates magic and the phrase “I wish” -Tries to flirt but fails -Loves classical music -Uses a metronome to calm down -Never looks forward to the future because he knows it’s always bound to be bad -A nihilist -Actually on okay terms with Jay -Muses about the past with Zane -Can stay on beat when playing instruments (plays percussion the most) but can’t always get the right notes

Invizable/Paleman: -Really shy -like his mom had to convince him to go (“to make new friends!”) and forced Shade to accompany him -Is blind whenever he makes himself fully invisible (because no light enters his eyes) so he picked up using his memory and sound to locate his targets -Older cousin of Shade -Writes (popular) fanfiction of the EMs anonymously -Hates loud noises and being stared at -Is a shitposter -Has really good memory -Will hold a grudge but is too nervous to do anything about it -Is a complete doormat -Tells really bad jokes -Constantly hides behind Shade whenever something dangerous/scary happens -His element of Light is tied to the element of Shadow so if anything bad happens to Shade, the same happens to him (eg Shade breaks a leg, Invizable breaks the same leg in a similar accident) -Morning person, extremely active on sunny days -Has to be forced do things if the event happens at night

Jacob Pevsner: -Was born blind -Hums to himself to stay calm -Fidgets with his sitar a lot -Accidentally hurt his vocal chords during a fight, so he uses his sitar as a replacement for his powers of Sound -Hides things in his afro -Resents being short -Will attack anyone who asks him why he is short -Really likes old music and classical -Can sing anything perfectly, and do all the parts himself in one shot -Good friends with Lou and the rest of The Royal Blacksmiths -Occasionally helps out with their shows -Grew attached to the serpent and got a pet snake after the Second Serpentine War (his name is Da Capo and he’s a corn snake)

Karlof: -Other Group Dad -Is good at listening -Bad at comforting, but he’ll give the person some of their favourite food(s) and a fatherly pat on the back -Is really passionate about metalwork and aerospace engineering -Often slips into his Mother Tongue when excited or talking for a long time -Physically the strongest Elemental Master (next to Cole, due to their Elements’ link) -Loves cats -Adores cleanliness -Aggressively polishes his gauntlets when he’s stressed out -Gives good hugs -Unfortunately, also gives good rides to the hospital for the ribs he broke on accident -Really good at playing percussion and tuba -Loves the Ninjago equivalent of Russian memes (especially those about old russian ladies because they remind him of his mother) -Loves shiny things

Neuro (I hope you guys are still buckled in): -True to his alias, he’s a neurologist and also a psychologist -Knows ALL the secrets of the EMs, but wouldn’t give any of them up even if threatened with death -No one recognises him in his civilian outfit -He’s all of the EMs’ psychologist -Learned the hard way why he shouldn’t read the mind of someone vaguing about their crush -Loves drama and gossip -On good terms with Shade -Wears glasses but likes contacts more -Loves the cold weather and rain -Really loves stim videos (especially slime videos with the foam/floam) -Often pulls all-nighters and passes out afterwards -Addicted to coffee -Understands most languages and sign language (thus he knows all the gossip as well just by observing Ash’s interactions with his partners) -Complains a lot -Is very stressed all the time and has a bad habit of yelling at people crying if they push him past the breaking point -Has acrophobia -Had a bad experience with a magic user in the past, which is why he’s scared of Clouse -Can’t stand reading Griffin or Zane’s minds as Griffin’s thoughts are mixed with his other timeline selves and Zane’s is encoded in binary -Reading minds for too long gives him a headache which he unintentionally passes on to nearby people -Wears a vengestone alloy collar in his EM robes to help prevent accidentally reading everyone’s minds at once -Wears a vengestone alloy bracer instead when in his civilian outfit

Shade: -Same as Invizable: His element of Shadow is tied to the element of Light so if anything bad happens to Invizable, the same happens to him (eg Invizable burns his hand, Shade burns the same hand in a similar accident) -Will hurt whoever Invizable has a grudge against -Hates talking -Really loves beanbags -Eternally stuck in a goth phase -Loves wolves -Is a closet furry and has a wolf fursona -Younger cousin of Invizable -Huge fan of heavy metal -Can only play the violin, all other instruments are either out of tune or offbeat -Has a pilot’s licence -Can’t stand in bright light for too long or he’ll lose his physical form -Also can’t stand in complete darkness for too long or he’ll lose control of his element -Loves to pick fights for seemingly no reason -Extremely rich and loves being spoiled -Loves dark chocolates with raspberry filling and Black Forest cake -Knows ALL the other EMs’ secrets and will trade them in exchange for food

Skylor: -Really hates noodles -Also knows all the EMs’ secrets and will sell them for money -Everyone else fusses over her as if she were a child and she HATES it -okay maybe she enjoys Karlof pampering her occasionally -Is a really good chef -Loves Ice Cream -Can’t use makeup at all -Has sharp snake-like fangs after her tranformation -Hates snakes and the Serpentine after her time in the cult -Has no proper sleep schedule and often ends up falling asleep at the worst times -Complains about her family issue with Griffin -Loves the feeling of having every element at once, makes her feel confident -Loses control over her powers if she takes in too many elements within a short period of time -Elements used are weaker than their pure forms -Doesn’t like using the element of Smoke or Earth as she ends up dirty -Neat freak -Adores being spoiled -Once tried short hair, never tried again -Enjoys using the power of Form to mess with people -Often hosts gatherings for the EMs in the restaurant -Memes a lot Toxkita: -Eyes glow in the dark -Dyed her hair neon green to show support for Chamile’s decision to dye hers purple -Runs all the betting pooling -Is a really good chemist -Really good at comforting people -Enjoys being the center of attention -Unable to get drunk -Hates wearing sleeves -Hates strong winds (as they make it hard for her to control the direction of her toxins) -Enjoys teasing Shade by making fun of his goth stuff -Wears spiky collars and wristbands even when it’s not appropriate -Uses brass knuckles to fight -Has a habit of cheating while playing board games -Has piercings -Has killed before (on accident, while practicing her powers) -did i mention she and chamile, shade, and ash are all in love -Rides a loud motorcycle -Used to smoke before her smoke mixed with Ash’s smoke once and nearly killed him -Aggressively vacuums if anyone makes her upset -Braids everyone’s hair -Loves everything neon

[purplerose244]

Thoughts journal for season 13!! 😎😎 (2/4)

Here we go with another four episodes! I'm enjoying myself A LOT and I do hope we will continue this way! I can't wait to know more about Rock Mom and who really is the Skull Sorcerer and ENOUGH LET'S GO TO THE EPISODES!!! 💕💕

Here we go!!

QUEEN OF THE MUNCE

For this one I already saw the Nya's knight suit already... and she was gorgeous... I mean she always is but COME ON 💙💙💙

These munce are too much 😂 They are kind of adorable in their stupidity really

Jay going full "we're never going to get out Imma get overly pessimistic because YES" is always a familiar sight, almost as him spazzing out during a difficult situation... that could still happen 🤷‍♀️

Good thing Nya gets the brain cell most of the time 👌

Of course while I'm waiting for the third part of Tales of Arcadia, something so similar to the Trollmarket comes my way 😂 Very nice thought, a bit dark. I hope it doesn't get in the way of seeing the good fighting scenes

Okay but THIS

IS PLAIN CURSED, PLAIN BALD HEADS😱😱😱 Well I'm guessing Tommy doesn't have excuses anymore to become a LEGO character 😂

Well Murt, that was one breathtaking story, you should be a storyteller 👍

Ah, there we go, with the Jay and Nya and queen situation 😒 It's not that bad really, considering I thought it was going to be just a weak way to include Jay with just another triangle. It didn't last long so that's kinda fine, but it is annoying that Nya is pushed away. But overall better than I expected

Also it is nice the reminder that she is his yang 💙❤💙❤

And they are still adorable 😂😂 I like that you can tell immediately here who's the strong one of the couple 😎😎

So there is a drawing of the Millie Gillie guy/gal on that wall, huh... was I in the wrong about that being Cole's mom? I thought they said she, but English is not my first language so I could be wrong 🤷‍♀️

Ninja Jay could be the new Kai Ninjago 😂

Aww, that part with the lightning and the crystals was so pretty 🤩🤩

And there we go with the confrontation 😛 I did snorted seeing Jay kinda offended at Nya not wanting to fight for him, but she is still super adorable saying that they belong 💕💕 Also Lloyd just being there trying to calm everyone down, le poor baby 😂😂

Yep, the fire instinct kicking in, Nya is the daughter of Ray after all 🤷‍♀️

AND SHE LOOKS ABSOLUTELY GLORIOUS WITH THE ARMOR 🤩🤩

Oh, apparently the queen of munce can do spin dash 😱

Woooo, that preparation for the spinjitzu was so cool 🤩 And of course she kicked the HECK out of her, THAT'S MY GIRL!!!

And now she's the queen, great, more problems to come 😅 We'll see how this plays out, and I am kinda curious to see queen Nya at work ☺

Not my favorite episode, but still enjoyable, let's keep getting better and better!

So... WHERE IS MY FLAME BABE?!? ❤

TRIAL BY MINO

THERE HE IS 😍😍😍

I don't know if it's because it's a very obvious but convenient thing to do or I just love Kai THAT much, but I love when there's dark and he just lights up his hand. Idk, I just think it's neat 🙂

There're the Geckos! They are cute too 💜 Also chanting about the Millie Gillie guy, I'm still convinced that's just Cole's mom! Also I'm kinda guessing the Skull Sorcerer is the king of Shintaro. He is the most suspicious for now, we'll see how it goes 🤷‍♀️

Poor Kai got the awful thing in his mouth... AND HAIR!!! Look out sweetie, your beautiful chocolaty hair!! 😱

OMG ZANE CALLING OUT KAI ABOUT HIS BLABBERING AS HE DOESN'T HAS A SKELETON 😂😂 I laughed too much at it, I'm sorry Tin Can 😅

Again

Really like the crystal vibe 😍 This one is blue, the other was green, is there a reason?

I missed Kai and Zane together, I missed anyone with Zane in general! It's always a nice contrast and always amusing, especially if hotheadTM is involved 💕

So they throw rocks to show approval, I'm loving this society for some reasons 😂

Okay, vengestone is literally everywhere, there is no way all this stuff was not on purpose. It would make sense that a place studied to weaken an elemental master was meant for something more. Wooooo, ROCK MOM ROCK MOM 🖤🖤🖤

Awwww, I don't know why but them acknowledging the elemental masters is super satisfying 💜

Oh so Kai is not a king, he's a chancellor... and he didn't want to 😂😂 Vincent definitely had fun voicing this episode 👌

Okay, so there are three explorers involved? I'm guessing the muscular one in the trailer was one of them. I wonder what will be their part in the story 🤔

Poor Kai, his encouragement speeches used to be the key of convincing, here it's harder. Let's see how they will deal with this... also how Kai will react with queen Nya of the munce 😂

Pff, Zane throwing the rock of encouragement, that was so adorable 🤍

I really missed these two ❤🤍❤🤍

THE SKULL SORCERER

Seriously, even talking to herself and thinking about the worst situations like Bluebell? If Cole and Vania do end up together, I'll still hold onto the fact that Rocky is into the loquatious type 😂😂

Okay, a sweet princess' paranoia towards a little white cute dragon named Chompy?

One of the cutest thing ever seen 😍 Also I am a firm believer that everything improves if you put a dragon into it, another reason why I love Ninjago so much 🤍🤍🤍

Pff, seeing Vania talking about call then the cut on the black ninja makes me think about that one vine with the guy hanging with his phone saying "Yeah I'm okay mom, bye (phone down)... I AM NOT OKAY!!" 😂

SOLO MOMENT WITH COLE!!! Freaking yes, and it looks like the little tic of talking to himself when stressed from March of the Oni got stuck 🙃🙃

Lava punches back! Big bad bats!! Spiders!!... wait- AAAHHH 😱

Okay, forgive my skepticism when I doubt that a simple spider web could stop one of the strongest ninja of the team. We needed Vania to the rescue, alright, still sounds a little easy but eh watcha gonna do 🤷‍♀️

SHE HAS HER HAIR DOWN!!! SHE LOOKS STUNNING!!! Golden hair girl 💛💛

And Chompy is a big good boy 🤩

CALLED IT!!! CALLED IT FOR THE KING!!!... I mean it was kinda obvious 😅 Still, happy I thought about it before it actually happened. Although it's curious that the reveal happens now, halfway there, unlike in Prime Empire where it took almost all the season to build up the reveal. What's left for the finale?... ROCK MOM?!?!

There's a customer for all that vengestone? That... actually makes a lot of sense. Anyone who is against the ninja would want it really, and that only considering past villains. And if we think about possible elemental masters coming back, uuuhhh, I like where this is going!!

YOU CANNOT HURT A BABY DRAGON IN THIS SHOW AND NOT PAY I HOPE YOU GET THE WORST DEATH/DEFEAT OF ALL THE FRANCHISE 👿👿👿

Wait, so they don't naturally have wings? Oh, that's why she didn't have them in the trailer, I see 🤔

This is probably the only moment when I think they rushed a bit. Not too much, I iust feel like we haven't seen enough of Vania and her father to truly feel that decision moment as fundamental. Still cool, still intense, but kinda light. Anyway GO PRINCESS GO!!! 💕💕

THE REAL FALL

Oh Garmadon... that title... *flashbacks The Fall while realizing this is indeed Cole's season* NOT AGAIN 😱😱😱

I mean they are already falling so... uh, let's see how it goes

HE EVEN FRAMED CHOMPY HE MUST DIE SO HARD 😡👿😡👿

Okay the fall here is actually kind of hilarious 😂 Or is it because I love that Kirby gets to be on the center of the attention and he is giving his all? Idk, I love all the voice actors of the show really 🤷‍♀️

Hey, you people watching this

Am I the only one getting emotional here?? 😢 ... just me, huh 😅 I mean come on, it's Cole and Wu! The first leader and the sensei! The used to be dad and his son Cole Jr.! I headcanon that Cole was the first to arrive at the monastery and this feels like the old times... EMOTIONAL PEOPLE

Lol, sensei taking the time to compliment Vania about her behavior, he's gonna adopt her when this is over 😂

I mean, you kinda faced worst yes, you fell into the Underworld on dragons you used to be afraid of, you fell from a ship with an anchor, you fell into a junk compactor that almost squashed you against your rival now best friend, you fell from SPACE towards THE EARTH, you fell from a ladder... THE LADDER COLE 😱😱😱 (this fangirl will never recover from that)

Aaaand a giant web. Of course. Classic Ninjago lack of luck right there 👈👈

Clutch Powers still lives 😂

Okay, seriously? She freaks out when things gets out of hand and talks about staying calm by making vocal exercises! Freaking, it might be me trying to find an excuse to think about Bruise, but they are making it a little too easy for me 🖤💙🖤💙

I am kinda loving her being so genuine, Idk, I really like Vania. She does her best 👍

Falling > Dying, life lessons by your master of Earth 😎 Wu sounds so done, they can never go anywhere without something crazy like this happening 🤣

Why is this so funny, the sequel of The Fall shouldn't be 😂 Meh, not complaining

That was one very mad Lapras

YES THANK YOU SENSEI!!! Finally he acknowledged it, Cole is literally surrounded by his element, OF COURSE he is crazy strong in here. I needed this scene, heck yeah, I love elemental powers 🖤

Oh they must be the explorers... Merlin, Assassin's Creed and Conan the Barbarian 😅 So we hit rock bottom, literally apparently, and one of the spider's name is Adam... OKAY

So the real fall was in fact Cole falling asleep for the shock 😂 Lol if Cole and Vania really don't end up together, I can joke and say that in this season Cole has never fell harder 😉😉

This was very amusing, I liked this episode, I would rewatch it only for the comments 😂 I'm curious to see what else will happen, especially with these three now involved! Who are they?