#its ninjago: raising kids after all
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rainofthetwilight · 1 year ago
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what i love abt the ninjago fandom is that the moment we knew cole went missing in the merge we expected him to come back as a dad
and we were RIGHT
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em0-alpaca · 2 years ago
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what if instead of Wu Time Twins found Morro
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katsmtmsdoodles · 1 year ago
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in-universe explanation under the cut 😘
Lloyd:
- On the news CONSTANTLY
- Whenever the ninja are talked about, it's Lloyd's picture thrown up there
- He does all of the official public speaking for the team, so of course
- He's notoriously the sweetest to his fans
- Compilations of him being the nicest person ever are all over YouTube
- He doesn't ever post anything on Instagram, but he has the most followers anyway
- Isn't and doesn't want to be verified on TikTok, he's just a scroller, but trying to find his account has become a huge internet conspiracy
Kai:
- Posts on TikTok & Chirp DAILY, he has huge followings everywhere
- Everything from charities to his work out routines to Q&As to thirst traps
- Even has some vulnerable inspirational videos that are like "keep going. you'll be okay, i believe in you" that are honestly tear-jerkers
- Interacts with fans the most
- If anyone is curious about what the ninja have been up to, Kai's pages are the place to go
- Also attends the most events bc he's an attention whore
- But has also raised the most money and attention for said charities as a result
Jay:
- He doesn't host Ultimate Ninja Warrior anymore, but it kept going with his permission and a contract, he visits as a special host during the finals every year
- He's also on the logo of the show lol
- Occasionally posts stuff on Chirp when it means a lot to him
- He's bad at ignoring haters tho so not online as much as Kai
- At the same time, he gets really emotional when fans tell him how he's inspired them
- He's the funniest at interviews and really likes doing them with the other ninja
- His compilations are either "the blue ninja being HILARIOUS" or "the blue ninja secretly being a genius for 10 minutes"
Nya:
- She's only on social media to bother Kai during his livestreams and talk shit on his posts. also gives Jay's haters nasty comments
- But she does have a few workout tip videos to empower girls who look up to her
- Everyone has a crush on her
- Does volunteer work for publicity to the organization
- She's lowkey aggressive on her social media though, like, half of her posts are going after terfs and nazis to get them canceled
- The ninja's social team has a heart attack every time they hear that she posted something lmao
Zane
- The most Memed Ninja, like it's ridiculous
- He's every reaction image
- You know how supernatural has a gif for everything? There's a Zane gif for everything thanks to his interviews, media, fan events, etc
- His fan base is AGGRESSIVE for some reason, though
- His fan base is the K-Pop fans of the ninjago world, even though there's not as many of them.
- Maybe that IS why though. The few. The strong. They're the ones who, like, solve crimes through the internet and shit
- There are compilations of "every time the white ninja remembers he's a robot" that's just Zane, like, being shook when fridge magnets stick to him and when metal detectors go off around him
Cole:
- He has zero internet presence
- A whole ass mystery
- There are conspiracy theories that he's not even real and its a running gag
- There are accounts dedicated to posting blurry pictures of him like he's a cryptid
- They were clear pictures before, but they were edited to be blurry lmao cause it's a joke but some people have genuinely began to wonder
- Like some of them will literally be a blurred picture of him sitting with everyone else at an interview
- Cole isn't in on the joke though and is confused every time people meme at him (he's not an internet kid TuT)
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snazzilystoopid · 2 years ago
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Ninjago little sister AU, pt. 3~ Jay's turn!!
This is kinda longer than I thought it would be but I hope yall like it anyways <3
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Hope you all enjoy 🤭🤭
Gwendolyn "Gwen" Gordon
She hates the name Gwendolyn with a burning passion, so most people just call her Gwen.
Jay calls her Lyn most of the time
So basically Gwen had no idea that Jay existed up until the space of time between Possesion and Dotd
(To make space for when Skybound would've taken place)
Gwen was born a year after Jay, and their mom decided to leave Jay at the junkyard because once she divorced Cliff, she wanted to keep them both
Unfortunately she wasn't able to take care of two young children by herself and made the difficult decision to give up her eldest child
She was leaning towards keeping Jay at first, because he was the one who inherited her elemental powers
She ultimately decided to keep Gwen, bear in mind her taking the children wasn't agreed between her and Cliff
So "Johnny Law" (as Kai calls it lmao) got involved and Libber was forced to hand custody over to Cliff, whom Gwen has lived with ever since
Up until he died obviously
Yes he did still die even though Skybound technically didn't happen
Anyways, Gwen grew up in a very fortunate household, though her father was distant due to his job and because he'd much rather hang out with other random women, models, etc
So she's raised by herself, more or less
Nothing really special happened in her life before she met Jay. She goes to school like any normal kid would, she also becomes a fan of the ninja (like any normal kid would)
Just like her dad, Jay was her favourite (but she didn't know he was Cliff's favourite because its his son ofc)
But one thing stood out throughout her younger years and it was that she wished she was taken by her mom, not her dad
Because he never paid attention to her
When Cliff passed away, she got a hold of his will and was a little confused as to why half of it wasn't in her possesion
She wasn't actually living in the mansion when he passed, by this point she had gotten an apartment of her own (with her dad's money 😭)
Meanwhile Jay still gets the letter that his dad died
Only this time he knows it's not Ed, it's Cliff
So Ed and Edna give him the key to his mansion, at the same time, Gwendolyn also makes her way to the mansion and unlocks it first with her spare key
Jay shows up afterwards and explores the mansion for a bit, looking at the places he hadn't already been to, before finding Gwen's old room
Little did he know that she was already in there
When he opened the door, Gwen grabbed a replica of his nunchucks and threatened him lol
Because she was confused as to why there was another human in her dad's house
Jay explained that Cliff is his birth dad and he was left at a junkyard blah blah blah
By this point Gwen realised she was related to the Lightning Ninja and she actually squealed
Poor Jay is so confused but Gwen explains that she's Cliff's kid as well, and she's lived with him for most of her life
So they hug and Jay cries bc hes emotional like that
Gwen takes him on a little tour of the house, she doesn't know that Jay's already been here but anyways
They go back to her apartment and she tells him all about her crappy childhood with basically no father
Jay cries some more because he then realises that his sis had to grow up with essentially no family
He offers to take her to visit Ed and Edna, and she agrees
(Yes this is still happening between DotD and Possesion)
The Walkers feel so bad and basically become her second parents
She still lives in her apartment, but she would come over to visit them a lot during the events of DotD and HoT
So after Wu gets lost in the time stream, Jay and Cole go looking for him
But before Jay leaves, Gwen gets to meet each of the ninja first because her bro wanted to flex that he's got a little sister
Even though she keeps telling him they're only like 14 months apart
When she was introduced to Cole she nearly had a heart attack
She has the BIGGEST crush on this guy
Once he left she wouldn't shut up about him and that really pissed Jay off
She met Nya last, and Jay at first introduced her as one of his friends
Jay left the room they were all in for like 5 minutes and thats when Nya explained that her and Jay were actually dating
Gwen didn't mind but then after that they became besties hehe
Gwen and Jay stay in touch while he's away looking for Wu, and she's the first person he visited when he got back
During that time she had become a Mechanic like Ed
They played video-games for like 3 hours straight
At the beginning of Hunted, Gwen joins the resistance as a mechanic
But she was kinda bitter about the whole thing because at first she thought her bro had been squashed like a bug by Garmadon
He was ok but still after that she just stopped admiring the fact that he was a ninja
She hated the idea of her only birth family left being in constant danger
Ed and Edna tried talking to her but she always refused to visit the monastery
So whenever they wanted to meet up it had to be somewhere in Ninjago City or at the junkyard
Nya texted her when Jay got sucked into Prime Empire, having a literal meltdown
Then the rest of the Ninja (minus Zane) get sucked in
Gwendolyn was pretty pissed off and she stormed right up to the monastery, yelling at Master Wu, who had no idea what the hell was going on
But then Zane explained she was Jay's little sis and she got even more pissed off when he said "little"
She basically cussed him out for letting him get into all this trouble and him being in danger all the time
After Gwen calmed down Wu explained how it was completely Jay's choice but this girl didn't give a shit
She ended up helping them out anyways lol
When Jay returned she gave him a big hug and he got all teary-eyed bc he missed her sm 🥰
Just before the Ninja got the letter about Shintaro, Gwen tried to ask Cole out on a date with Kai and Jay's flirting advice
The silly guy didn't take the hint and she was friendzoned
She considered herself pretty good-looking and approachable, and was severely humbled by this
Jay didn't stop laughing about it until Nya told him to stfu
By the end of crystalized, Gwendolyn is the same age as Jay!
Time for more facts hehe
Gwen has brown hair, but she dyes it blonde
Because of this most of the time no one would think that she and Jay were siblings, but if you look closely, you van definitely tell, mostly because of their freckles
Nya and Gwen both do impressions of Jay whenever he's around as a joke
Nya also told her about the events of Skybound, and she's the only other person who knows about those events
Gwen hasn't got any elemental powers, however she, like Jay, is immune to electrocution (meaning it can't kill them, but it can hurt them)
She she has a lightning ninja-themed hoodie that she wears almost everywhere
Whenever the ninja want to have parties (that aren't under Wu's watch) they always go to Gwen's apartment
This basically means whenever they want to have alcohol at a party they always go somewhere else bc Wu's banned alcohol from the monastery 😭
Whenever Cole talks to her she goes really pink in the face, which Jay always teases her about
If someone ever calls her by her full name, her left eye will start to twitch out of irritation
Ed and Edna bought Gwen this blue teddy bear plushie for her birthday, and from then on she never went to sleep without it
She decided to name the plushie "Jaya" after Nya and Jay 🥰
That's everything!! This one was kinda long heh, also sorry if you find any typos in this-
Lloyd is next, prepare for a tragic ending lol
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briaradeuce1959 · 1 month ago
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New Au
I've been thinking of making a new au, i think i'll call it wonderous Gold or smth like that, It's a crossover of Twist and Ninjago, because i am a huge fan of both and this idea has been bouncing around my head for forever. (Also I Genderbend characters, because I am a Woman lover, and I am very disapointed with the amount of women in the main story of Twist) Also Dragons rising is not cannon to theis au as i am not caught up on that series. I may make a cameo for Sora and Arin though.
So basically what ive been thinking is that the island of ninjago is in Twisted wonderland. But at the same time that the FSM split the Island in two to stop the overlord, he also hid the Island to protect its future inhabitants. But when the overlord was defefeted for the second time, the shield hiding the Island was deactivated.
Characters! The original Ninjago characters still exist, but their adventures stopped after the overlords first defeat. And they are'nt really that importiant to the story as they stay in Ninjago and do their own things, they are still all besties, their like in their 30s, Pixal is still included + Nya is still the water NInja and Pix is samurai X. Who are the main characters if it isnt the ninja? Why the new Ninja team! It concists of 6 Teen age 16 to 18! Do you see where im going with this. Yes, our protags are a couple of NRC students! I am changing a few backstories to better fit into the au, so be warned. Also The main Elements that the characters wield will stay the same. (Gold/green, Fire, Ice, Earth, LIghtning, Water)
Our lucky main Characters are Deuce, Ace, Cater, Ruggie, Epel and Azul. My reasoning, 1 these are some of my fav characters, 2 their are characters that i felt would be rude to just remove their backstories, for example almost all the dormleaders + all of Diasomnia, 3 Characters like Riddle and Trey or Floyd and Jade can only work together in my opinion
Most of these backstories are just... trauma and then they wind up in Ninjago
Changes to Characters (F)Deuce: now a half oni, personality is about the same, did have her mom, but she died, and then a while later Deuce washed on shore in Ninjago and was found by Lloyd and was promptly adopted, Mystake is the best Grandma ever, has no memory of what happend after her mothers death. Technically the ninja of Life, but the green ninja in name. loves axolotyls
Ace: personality is pretty much one to one, but he's just a tad more protective of the people he views as family, at five years old he just kinda was found by Kai wandering the streets, Kai asks where his parents are, Ace says no Idea, Kai goes looking for Ace's parents + brother, no trace is found, Ace has no Idea if he was abandoned or if something happened to his parents, he now has abandonment issues.
(F)Cater: very changed in personality and backstory, perks of being my favorite, ortho is now not alone in being a robot kid, Caters backstory for a backstory is that Caters dad was like why do I have such spoilt daughters, I know I'll just build myself a new one, so Caters dad, a skilled robotosict built her to be perfect, but she was built with mostly spare parts, and her dad was super selfish, beacuse he wanted the perfect daughted without even putting in any effort to love/raise her, so Caters dad then died, and then she was sent to live with her mother and sisters, and just became their maid, and the three did not treat her well, they thought that she was some sort of doll and not a sentient person, but even if they did know they would have cruel and nasty. SO one day her mother was getting sick of her so she rented a yacht, drove to the middle of the ocean and trew her in, and then she sped away. she was eventually found by Pixal, who brought her to zane, the two then fixed her, and made her their daughter, you know Zanes wierd kind of heart and how he gave half to Pixal, yeah both of them gave a 1/3 of their hearts to power her. Caters personality is mostly the same mischeveaous and social, but shes a but more formal, and a bit more serious, not really getting jokes, but she tries her darndest.
Ruggie: Cole found him while he was shopping, he then asked the pickpoketing malnourished kid if he needed food and invited him to eat with him. new son aquired. The ninja are seen to not be the wealthiest so Ruggie does take on pretty much any job to get cash, but he has a stricter moral code.
(F)Azul: Floyd and Jade talked to her a bit too late, andddd she was gone after some trauma she cannot seem to remember. Nya was swimming, y'know as ya do, and then she noticed a small chid under the water, uh oh, not usually a good place for children, she dived down and saw the most adorable octopus child ever, New Child aquired. Azul is still shifty and will still scam every cent out of someone, but she now has some notable exeptions to her scamming. Her and Ace are cousins, Ace annoyes Azul so much she wants to strangle him sometimes. Shes also less self concious, but she w´has gained the crippling fear of failure, she is also no longer that afraid of heights, she does not enjoy them, but she has learned to deal with them
Epel: abandoned on Jays dorstep at like 2 months old, adores Ed and Edna, and much better at tinkering than in cannon, he also isnt as obsessed with being manly, and more rational, but prone to having huge outburtsts. Somehow will be more and less agrivated with Vil once they meet.
These Six characters all know eachother and have known eachother. they started being a ninja team when they were 14 to 16, Cater did technically start sooner, but she was just backup for small missions. They also recived a lot more training than the og ninja. All of them were found really young, Cater was about 4 years old by Zane, but being a robot that doesnt say much, Deuce was found at 6, Ace at 7, Ruggie at 6, Azul at 8 and as stated before, Epel was ~2 months old.
They lowkey annoy eachother but at the same time would give eachother a kidney. Like most siblings.
I will also change their unique magics, also im giving Ace one, their core will stay the same, but they have new and diffrent trauma so their magic reflects it. I'm thinking of writing the au as a fic on ao3 where their unique magics are revealed throughout the chapters. Their Dorms would still be the same. also im debating if azul should still overblot, i have to think about it some more.
They all go to NRC, because they were invited and wanted a break, they would not get one. (Also my au has no Yuu or MC) Also I want Cater and Ortho to be friends. I need it for my soul.
Yeah, I litrally could not keep this in my brain any longer.
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corvid-case · 11 months ago
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hello everyone :) I'm Corvid/Icarus/Shark, pronouns they/them!! Tone tags appreciated!!! Artist and writer, working on fics :D I don't have one main fandom I have FOUR do you like plastic ninja and turtle ninja and Minecraft block men because boy I do (Ninjago, ROTTMNT (I don't really know any other version I'm sorry guys), Life Series, Hermitcraft) I also really like Dreamzzz but I've just started that series so I have less feelings about it /lh Do YOU like silly little aus about Ninjago and Rise because I have many if you're interested I have a list I'll put them under the read more with their name, tags, and a short description :) ITS LONG IM SORRY LMAO Also yes there is shipping in some of these, not really in any of the Rise aus but in the Ninjago aus there's some, most of the time it doesn't really affect most of the story but I'll mention if it does
RISE OF THE TMNT
Initium Novum (#inau) Told from the perspective of an OC (lost turtle sibling called Masaccio (Acie)), takes place during the show and has a lot of other OCs in it if that's not your jam
What Do You Do When You Fall Into Heaven? (#fihau) Told from multiple perspectives, takes place during/after the movie and is a hurt/comfort. The same cast as Initium Novum, with some additions :) I really wanted to write the future guys man they all show up at some point
Who's That Hamato? (#wthau) Kind of an au of Initium Novum, it's what if Acie was also taken in by Splinter. Explores a different facet of them, explores how their relationships would be different in a different situation.
We Have Got To Stop Meeting New People Like This (#snpau) Another Initium Novum/WDYDWYFIH au but this one's Ninjago :) Similar to House of the Rising Sun (Shells) in that the Merge caused their world to join the Merged Realms, they all explore this new world and Acie gets to go nuts.
Boys of Summer (#bosau) Non-OC au, it's another separated au throw the confetti throw the sparkles- Leo focused, he's still with Splinter but Draxum is there as well and has been redeemed, the others found their own ways out of the lab and ended up in different places.
Rise from the Dead (#rftdau) Non-OC au, puts a ghostly spin on the story. The turtles are all ghosts that only April can see. There's no yokai and no mystics, but multiple yokai characters are still in the story, just as humans.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Critters (#tmncau) Sort of Minecraft au but not really, I just really really love the fanon Minecraft hybrids so I made the turtles into them :). They're mutants still but they've got distinctly Minecraft hybrid traits I've put sooo much thought into the traits for all the different hybrids it's so fun
Shell From Another Realm (#sfarau) A Rise/Ninjago crossover au, takes place post-Rise movie and post-Crystalized pre-Dragon's Rising. The turtles, April, and Casey end up in the world of Ninjago and try to find their way home while also trying to figure out this new world.
House of the Rising Sun (Shells) (#hotrsau) Another Rise/Ninjago crossover au, completely separate from the previous one in that this takes place during Dragon's Rising instead. When the Merge caused all the Realms to collide, Earth was one of them, and everyone ended up scattered across the Merged Realms. The Hamatos decide to settle in the Crossroads and meet some young faces.
NINJAGO
Some Assembly Required (#sarau) Completely rewrites the entire thing, based on the question "what if the bite from the Devourer didn't turn Garmadon evil and instead made him sick?" Garmadon is good and raising his children, the kids aren't really as in tune with their elemental powers, and I made a bunch of lore for it around the dragons and the other elemental masters please ask me about it please please /lh (has a couple ocs but not very many) (pretty shippy, a lot of poly relationships)
Web of Destiny (#wodau) Spiderman au, all six main ninja are a group of heroes, with Pixal as a vigilante. Other characters from the series feature as villains. The Dragons Rising cast also features.
The Dragon's Samurai (#tdsau) Crystalized ending rewrite, Pixal focused. Asking "what if their golden powers went haywire after they sent them to Lloyd, causing them to lose themselves? Also what if Nya got a golden form I'm so sad she didn't get one" Basically they get taken over by their powers and Pixal has to go talk some sense into them I lOVE PIXAL SO MUCH DO YOU UNDERST
Abnormal Reaction (#arau) DO YOU GUYS LIKE THE BIZARROS BECAUSE I DO this is entirely me wanting to have a Bizarro au they don't die after getting dusted they just regroup somewhere else and decide to go do their own thing after Garmadon gets defeated
A Different Vision of the Future (#advotfau) I'm lowkey embarrassed about this one lmAO it's a Genshin au,,,,, I probably won't write a fic for it like I will with the others but I wanted to draw it and explore the concept I don't even play Genshin anymore I'm crying
Ready Your Triforce, It's About To Have More Sides (#rytau) Do you guys like Breath of the Wild :) I like Breath of the Wild :) BotW/Ninjago crossover au besties they all end up in different points in time and get to interact with different pEOPLE lots of me messing around with dynamics
staring up at the sky (and hoping to see your face) (#suatsau) Veeeeery self indulgent self discovery au. Everyone but Lloyd is this almost godlike ruler of different concepts and they give him the chance to leave everything to come join them, and he has to make that decision.
Ninjas & Normies (#nanau) They're all just normal college students who like to play D&D, they each get a chance to run a campaign once they're taught how to play. Each campaign is based off a plot point or season from the show.
Departed and Service (#dasau) BASED ON Five Nights at Freddys NOT ACTUALLY A FNAF AU I don't know NEARLY enough about the fnaf lore to make an actual au with it but they're all animatronic characters from a very popular kid's TV show and Morro and Pixal are employees at their party place :) A bunch of side characters show up in this (Dragon's Rising cast also appears)
SPINJITZOON! (#spinau) It's a Splatoon au they're all having fun Ronin is basically Grizz he messes with their weapons and makes them more powerful (Dragon's Rising cast appears)
Pokemon Spin and Pokemon Whip (#pspwau) Pokemon au!!! There's two different parts to this, the first one starring Kai Nya and Lloyd, and the second starring Arin Sora Wyldfyre and Euphrasia! They all go on their adventures and in the second part Kai Nya and Lloyd see themselves in these kids and want to help them go farther
Adventures of the Dragon (#aotdau) Another D&D au but this one is them just living in a D&D fantasy style world :) silly things ensue this one's more just art than fully written story
Shapes and Colors (#sacau) Minecraft au! They're a group of friends who play on a server together and some of them are streamers and youtubers who record these sessions and put it out there for their fans, some of them do lore while some of them have no idea what's going on any of the time. Other elemental masters and Dragons Rising characters appear. (shippy, but mostly with their little characters that they made for the lore)
Lights, Camera, Action! (#lcaau) Silly actor au! Not much else to it
Song of the Sirens (#sotsau) Mermaid au, some of them are pirates and others are mermaids. Just some fun dynamics with some human/nonhuman shipping :)
Mobs of a Feather Flock Together (#moafftau) Another,, another Minecraft au this one is like Adventures of the Dragon in that they live in this world and also they're all different Minecraft hybrids I got really really into Minecraft hybrids man I just really like to draw them,,,, Dragons Rising cast is included
Ninjagoing Going Gone (#gggau) Sort of Scooby Doo-esque mystery au, kind of a blend between movieverse and showverse. Starring Arin, Sora, Wyldfyre, and Euphrasia, they're looking for the old heroes they used to hear about as kids who completely disappeared years ago. They find Lloyd and force him convince him to help them, even though he's not so sure he can.
These Problems Are Multi-Faceted (#tpamfau) Gem au! Like from Steven Universe! Except it's not a Steven Universe au, it doesn't follow the plot of the show at all. Super quick synopsis is Pink Diamond grew tired of the way things were on Homeworld and so rebelled, escaping with his fellow rebels to a planet already under his control. After lots of fighting and the establishment of a shaky truce, an Emerald and his crew are sent to the planet to try and bring Pink back.
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swampythesweetsketch · 2 years ago
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So……… citrus child Arin?! Explain. Elaborate. Enlighten me.
You know that new lil' dude from the United trailer?
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This is Arin, rumored to be the possible new Master of Wind.
But in the HJ AU, Wind and Water ARE Elements of Creation. And in the case of their last living chosen dying before passing on to their kids/protégé, the Elements will legit conjure a new chosen out of nowhere.
For Wu, this was how he gained Morro. Wind didn't have a living chosen, and seeing as Wu was looking to raise his own child, Wind whipped a baby into existence and left them on Wu's doorstep.
So come to post-Possession's alternate ending. Morro accepted his father's help and joined the team as a spirit, went through the Rift with Cole, and finished his redemption as a human.
Echo joined in S2 as Dr. Julien couldn't leave his oldest (yes, Oldest) son. Echo helped Morro in his redemption, and the two gained a admiration for each other, and eventually fell in love.
But the issue of children arose, Morro and Echo saw all the little terrors running around the Monastery and began wanting their own. But Morro being a Man, and Echo a Nindroid, neither could conceive. They thought about going the Zeke route and building their own child-
But Wind intervened, pulling Morro around until he conceded and followed it. He kept going until until he got dragged to the Ninjago City Urbans, and was met with Arin.
Arin lost his mom and had no dad to take him in, so he was put into the Ninjago childcare system. When he was met with Morro and a tug from the Wind, it's discovered soon after that during Morro's ghostly return- Wind was searching for a new living person to pass its power onto.
So Wind found a new Chosen, Morro got his successor, and him and Echo adopted Arin as their son.
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fabrowrites · 2 years ago
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Fang-llo has never been like the other serpentine. They all tell him he's too much of a human, even if that's a blatant lie -- he knows his eyes are red like a Hypnobrai's and his fangs are as sharp as any other Fangpyre's. He's serpentine through and through and he hates humans just like the rest of them. They're all the worst, including the nice girl and her brother who just don't know how to leave him alone. The absolute worst, you hear him? or: Lloyd Garmadon, raised by the Fangpyre his entire life, never saw any good in humans beyond maybe their candy-making skills. Now, he finds himself struggling between balancing his loyalty to the serpentine and his growing fascination with the multi-colored humans who keep crashing into his life.
🐍 Lloyd & Kai & Nya, Lloyd & Nya 🐍 ns1 setting 🐍 friendship, enemies to friends, fluff and angst 🐍 9462 words, complete 🐍 written by @21st-century-ninja @dumbfandomdoodles and @blanket-ruler13 🐍 read on ao3 here
Heyo everyone! We can finally reveal one of our telephone fics for @ninjago-wip-telephone and we’re so excited for you to read it! I (Fabro) wrote the first part of this fic, dumbfandomdoodles the middle, and blanket-ruler13 took us to the finish line :D hope you enjoy!
excerpt:
They're still following him. At first it was funny, hearing them stumble behind him, his expert serpentine tracks invisible to them, especially with the after effects of the smoke bomb, but now he's tired.
They're just so fast. He presses his back against a tree, tail slipped out from its confines and wrapping around the branch underneath him.
"I'm sure he was kidnapped, Kai." Nya’s voice echoes below, "He might have lived in those houses."
"Kidnapped or not, he'll lead us to wherever they've taken over next." The boy responds, and Fang-llo’s breath hitches. Of course that's what they want. A tiny part of him hoped that maybe they were just trying to make sure he was okay, but that was well and truly quashed now.
He didn't even get his candy.
He reached into his bag, hoping for a net bomb, or even another venom bomb, really anything that would ensure the safety of the tribe. His fingers scraped around the bottom, scrambling in the emptiness. No luck.
"I can't find a trail, we should just get back to town. We know what the kid looks like now."
"But Kai- what if he's in danger?"
read the rest on ao3!
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rottedsoulx · 3 years ago
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I’m a little embarrassed to share this so,,,, be nice hahaha
Now before I go into WHY I made DILF Oni Cole and why he’s in LMK, I’m gonna go into the au I invented in my head. under the cut haha bc its... a lot
This AU takes place a few decades since the beginning of the ninjago series, the ninja are all retired. Jay and Nya have a family. Zane and Pixal run Borg Industries and are effectively the parents of all modern androids. Kai runs his own Dojo, and probably runs a smithy in a joint building. I can’‘t imagine him having kids, or starting a family. He visits the other ninja frequently and has a small family of employees at his dojo and smithy. Lloyd is still physically younger (being Oni/Dragon) and didn’t retire. He manages a new ninja team, taking Wu’s place as master while Wu is retired with his new tea shop.
Cole also ages slower than the rest of the ninja, because in this he’s also an Oni. I figure before the ninja settled down, but after they decided to retire, they did a world round trip, exploring different continents and whatnot. Cole ended up falling in love with the forests and mountains nearby Megapolis. He is visited monthly by the rest of the ninja, and calls them bi-monthly.
NOW.
Cole lives there, built his own cabin and became a bit of a lumberjack again. As an earth elemental he has a lot of outdoor furniture made of earth/rock/etc. He also creates statues as a hobby, fine tuning his powers while also working his creativity. He also makes place for  rock climbing and goes on lots of hikes.
I also decided that it’s the same forest that surrounds Monkey King’s temple in that episode where MK tries learn focus.
So.... Monkeys! He feeds and talks to the monkeys. And oddly, after years of doing this, the monkeys actually entrust him to babysit and take care of the babies. So obviously this is where the DILF part comes in. He’s doing his part to Monkey society and raising generations of adorable little baby monkeys.
The Monkeys name him “Guardian”, for he guards the young and feeds the hungry.
Humans know him as several different Cryptids, but I haven’t really gone into details on how. He just never leaves the forest, and occasionally goes into the outskirts of town for supplies, and to use a payphone.
now. Why? I hear you ask. Why make this au? Why have you done this? Was it just to make Cole more of a Dilf than he already is? Is that it? Yeah kinda. Also I’m going to have Sun Wukong himself find him and imagine a 100,000 word slow burn roccshipping fic.
Cole can be the stubborn solid rocc to Wukong’s constantly rolling around pebble.
uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh I’m losing steam and have to get ready for work but he’s an uncle to MK after MK and Mei decide to investigate where Wukong is constantly disappearing to when he misses training. Turns out he found the forest cryptid aaaand- conversations with MK and Cole are very quiet mainly bc Cole is very quiet unless monkeys or kids are around, then his dad instincts kick in and he interacts with small creechur. It’s only after he learns MK is training to fight and basically be a hero that he offers MK a shred of his dad instinct and he helps with meditation and tells him to follow him rock climbing and spars and stuff.
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master-of-fluff · 2 years ago
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Ok iv been needing to make a new pinned post so here it is :D
Hi! I'm Kari but i also go by Fluff.
I'm a minor running a multi fandom blog that posts mostly Ninjago, Tmnt, Batman, AVM and AVA, Transformers, and basically anything about heroes or ninja. Very rarely I'll reblog voltron, rwby and bnha tho I don't really interact with those fandoms cuz they kind of scare me lol.
I also like astronomy, the colors purple and blue, cats, cooking and lots of other cool stuff.
Other blogs that I'll associate with me are my writeblr that i'm trying to revive and also needs a new intro, my witchblr and my crafts blog.
a list of my aus;
-ripples au
Basically what if Lloyd and Kai unlock their elements early and Kai gets kidnapped in the pilots instead of Nya because of it, you can read the unfinished fanfic on my ao3 @/hikari_hikari though im planning a rewrite rn
-hybrid smith siblings au
Au where Ray is a demon and Maya is an angel who fell in love and went to ninjago in disguise to be together after bwing shunned by their society 
this results in their kids gaining demon/angel traits as they grow older with no knowledge of what's going on
-polyninja fam au
The ninja decide they're done with saving the world and run away, they then adopt Lloyd, turn him back into a kid with yesterday's tea  and go live in the light house for a bit, finding echo and also adopting him.
They all eventually start dating while co-parenting Echo and Lloyd
They all get different jobs that they enjoy and Nya, Pixal and Skylar also end up in a relationship and are motorcycle aunts
Brad and Gene also make up with Lloyd and now the poor ninja have 2 extra kids that aren't theirs constantly over and eating all their food XD
Ronin and Dareth are also there as everyones favorite uncles who teach them to fun games and (whenever ronin can get away with it) how to steal.
-poly ninja high school au (with @/lloyd-garma-gun and @/strangermask)
Basically Zane is pastel goth, Jay is a jock, Kai is a nerd, and Cole is grunge and they're all in highschool
I think this all started with the idea of cottage core Morro and goth Echo but I can't remember if they're in this au
Polyponytail are all apart of a chess club 
And Lloyd Genenand Brad are all cheerleaders.
-nindroid jay au
Jay is Dr.Julian's first nindroid prototype who's power source doesn't work so he's sent to the junkyard, ed and edna find the weird looking robot cute and decide to put him by the junkyard entrance instead of scrapping him, one day he gets struck by lightning -which is actually the element of lightning because this is the same day Libber died- and comes to life
Ed and Edna raise him like their own and also since his parents are inventors he adds a bunch of cool stuff to himself like jets/gliders so he can fly and a welding torch and stuff
Paranormal youtuber's au (with @/wojira, tho I think they deactivated or something idk)
Its not really my au i just agreed to write it (though when I'll get to it idk) Here's the au info though
-evil ed and edna
Ed and Edna are assassins/inventors who turn their son Jay into a living weapon (think cyborg) they trained him to follow orders exactly and replaced how limbs with mechanical ones with different functions.
One day that find the skeleton army's weapon maker (dr.julain) ad get the blueprints for a nindroid they could improve and make better then Jay they decide he's no longer needed.
They leave him in a forest to rot telling him that they'll be back (they won't) 
Eventually Nya and Kai find Jay and Nya fixes him up a bit with her then rudimentary but lastly growing knowledge of mechanics.
 Jay then decides to stick around these kids/adopt himself into the smith family lol
Eventual technoshipping
-bnha crossover
Turns out some people in the cloud kingdom fucked up some peoples life's accidentally.
the cloud council or whatever decide to compensate said people by reincarnating them.
So harumi, morro and garmadon all get reincarnated into bnha with all their former memories
Harumi as hatsume mei's quirkless twin sister
Morro as izuku's adopted older brother
And Garmadon as a martial arts instructor
-manipulative morro au (with @thebluelittlewitch2-thesequal)
Lloyd never gets turned older and since morro isn't about to possess a scrawny useless little kid so instead he manipulates lloyd into stealing the realm crystal for him.
- wings au
Once an elemental master gets to a certain stage they grow wings that have the same traits as their elements.
They're also very bird and catlike
- seven deadly sins au
Idk I haven't really developed this one beyond;
Lloyd is envy
Jay is lust
Kai is wrath
Zane is sloth
Cole is gluttony
Nya is pride
And Morro is greed
Evil mer au
Ninjago but mer-people and also the ninja are all evil with abandonment issues and either Wu is also evil and keets them later or Wu and morro are the good guys I haven't decided yet
Overwhelmed au (made with tex @ninjaslegosmains)
What if being an elemental master came with horrible consequences? Well that's the au every basically. element has horrible drawbacks
Gamer kai au
Kai hears that you can make bank as a streamer and even tho he hates newer technology and he sucks at video games he starts streaming so that the ninja can eat.
occasionally the other ninja make appearances but not often because they kick Kai's ass and the people of ninjago take much joy in Kai learning how to play the games they suggest for the first time
S.H.I.E.L.D's babysitter au
Morro is apart of shield and is tasked with training ultimate spiderman and his team and keep them from running off but ofc Morro was also a rebellious teen once so he low-key enables them.
YJL au's;
800 purrs
Crack Au where aquaman and aqualad have an army of cats because they smell like fish, and conner has already named them all things like 'stray' and 'lil kitty' and given them little leather boots so now they have to keep them.
I'd love asks about any of them!!!
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hext00ns · 2 years ago
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It Started With A Tickle {@sicktember}
AO3 l!nk in comments
Ships: Morro/Kai
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Description: Somehow, Morro falls ill and now Kai has to find a way to care for a ghost.
{Sicktember 2022 Day 26: Tickle in the Throat}
It started with a tickle-like feeling. A cough here, a short clear of his throat there. It really didn’t bother Morro at first. Then the coughing became harsher and louder and more frequent.
He brushed it all off as being nothing but a change in weather. Maybe the monastery was particularly dusty lately. After all, it couldn’t possibly be a sickness. What ailment could a ghost even catch? It sounded ridiculous to even give thought to the concept. He was already dead and gone, what diseases could possibly affect him?
But he had been living in Ninjago for a while now. He wondered… no. It was ridiculous. There was no way he was sick. He ignored the tickle in his throat and kept on.
However, the tickle soon turned to pain as every cough felt like sandpaper knives cutting into him. The heat didn’t help. He wasn’t sure what heat. It was winter and had been snowing for almost a week. In fact, even in the hottest months, the mountain top never lost its faint chill.
It wasn’t till the heat had begun to make his head spin that he realized his head was the source in the first place.
Morro quickly reached out to grab at a wall to steady himself only to lose tangibility and fall through it. He floated in the wall between the dining room and the kitchen for a moment, attempting to regain himself. He thanked The Master that no one had been around to see that.
“You havin’ fun there?”
Damn it.
Morro pushed himself out of the wall and forced his feet to the ground. He didn’t feel as firm as he would have liked. He looked over to the other and frowned at him.
Kai raised a brow at the other with a knowing smile. “What was that about ghosts not getting sick?”
Morro scoffed. “It’s impossible. It makes no realistic sense.” His words being punctuated with a sharp cough.
“Since when did anything in Ninjago make realistic sense?” Kai chuckled as he walked over to the other. “C’mon, you should go lay down.”
“I don’t need you to coddle me like an infant.”
Kai shrugged. “Whatever you say. I just didn’t think you wanted to get stuck in any more walls.”
Morro squinted at the other. He didn’t make a sound as he walked past, towards the bedrooms. Kai followed after him with a satisfied smirk.
When they got to his room, Morro sat on the side of his bed and looked up to the other with a raised brow. “Please don’t tell me you plan on nursing me back to health.”
Kai gave a little shrug as he plopped down onto the desk chair. “Why not? I could get one of those Halloween nurse costumes, you know the ones,” he said with a cheeky grin. “I think it’d be fun.”
“You disgust me.”
Kai gave a shouting laugh. “Really though, even if I did think you’d let me I wouldn’t know how. It’s not like you eat so not sure how well meds would work. Can’t exactly cool down a fever with a wet rag, either.”
“Not unless you want to burn a hole into my face.” Morro let out a sigh that fed into a coughing fit. He aimed the sounds into his elbow only for the force of them to make him double over, grabbing at his chest. When the coughing subsided he let out a groan.
Kai moved off the chair and sat next to him on the bed. “When Nya or I got sick as kids our mom sometimes gave us massages. Especially if we were in pain.”
Morro didn’t respond at first. He just rubbed at his chest. Kai waited patiently for any sign of a response. Finally, one came in the form of Morro solidifying his form.
Kai pulled Morro to sit up by his shoulders and turned him so they were facing each other. He put his hands around the others neck, first checking for any swelling.
A chill at the touch faintly passed through Morro. Ever since his fever had started up he’d felt hypersensitive to the sensation of touch. It was almost a welcomed occurrence even if the only thing he’d felt the past few days was pain. He hadn’t felt real sensations since he died.
With his skin so aflame and sensitive, Kai’s touch came in loud and clear to his senses.
“Your hands are warm,” he mumbled.
“You can feel them?”
Morro nodded.
Kai gave a snort. “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. I run pretty hot. Master of fire ‘n’ all that.” He located the swelling and gently pushed his fingers into the skin and around it. He went slow and concentrated on not putting too much force in. Just because choking a ghost wasn’t exactly possible didn’t mean it would be any less uncomfortable.
“My mother used to do this as well,” Morro said after a while.
Kai looked up from his hands to the other’s face. “You remember your mom?”
The spirit gave a pause. “A little. She left when we were very young. But I was old enough to keep a few memories,” he admitted. “When either of us were sick she often would rub our backs to comfort us as well. I remember her telling me to do so if Jay was ever sick or upset while she was away.”
Kai watched the other’s face as he talked. Morro’s eyes losing focus as if he were chasing something far, far away. Kai moved his hands to a different position to continue his ministrations.
Morro suddenly jerked away from the other and slammed his face into his arm as his coughing returned with a vengeance.
Kai quickly moved his hand to the ghost’s back. He felt the other’s form go in and out of tangibility with every harsh sound. When the coughing subsided, Morro’s form solidified again, allowing Kai to actually run at his back.
Morro let himself fall forward against the other, into his arms. Kai only smiled down at him. He let his hands continue to rub his back as well as run up and through his hair. The green strands mixing into the black like scattered grass.
“He’s a lot like her,” Morro said, seemingly out of nowhere. “Our mother, I mean.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” His voice was so many things, Kai almost wasn’t sure which emotion to focus on. A fondness, a longing, a sorrow, a hope.
Kai smiled. “I think he’d like to hear that.”
Morro hummed. “He would. One day I’ll be able to say that to him.”
“It’ll be worth the wait.”
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rainofthetwilight · 1 year ago
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guysguysguys what if pixal came back with a kid that she adopted??? or kids even???
she would help all kids that lost their family to the merge 100% all while girlbossing n being badass as hell
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trappedham · 3 years ago
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My AUs/Projects (updated regularly, except I'm slacking lol)
Everything is under the cut bc it got too long :P
Ik I have it in my bio but I'm pinning this post again for easy access while I whip up master posts for each of my aus... and a masterpost for those masterposts, probably. again, for easy access
Bizarro Ninja
- Kai centric
"In the fight against the Bizarro Ninja, Kai gets dusted by his Bizarro counterpart."
Unwritten
Written in Stone AU
(Aka, the most developed one. Still subject to retcon/change)
- Morro + Lloyd centric
"After being pick-pocketed in Jamanakai Village, Morro takes pity on the brat and adopts takes him under his wing, as his master once did for him."
Some drabbles written, subject to change/retcon (need to link all drabbles and shitposts for this au here. Also playlists?)
Masterpost/doc in the works
Master of Creation! Morro AU
- Morro (+ maybe Lloyd) centric
"For better or for worse, Morro inherits his master’s legacy and raising the Green Ninja until his time comes to defeat the Overlord."
Unwritten
Need to link playlist(s)
"Dark Souls" Ninjago AU
- Morro + Lloyd or Ninja centric
"After a great calamity leaves the balance tilted, the Realm of Ninjago descends into darkness."
Unwritten
(Lmao I have so many Morro + Lloyd centric AUs, can you tell I have a lot of Green Cousins feelings?)
Smith Sibs Angst AU
- Kai + Nya centric
Instead of leaving the two kids to fend for themselves, Krux strategies to keep them apart.
Security Breach 3 star ending/"Human" Freddy AU
(Aka Thing I Don't Have A Name For then again do I have a name for anything around here?)
- Freddy, Gregory + Vanny centric
(Vanny and Vanessa are most likely the same person in this AU but that might change later)
We're ignoring that canonically, Freddy doesn't have a body in this ending- just. He keeps his body and he, Gregory, and Vanny(Vanessa?) leave the Pizzaplex together. Angst/fluff. Also slice of life and found family.
Masterpost/drabble in the works
Maria Lives(?) Or something AU (Sa2)
(Very basic name, I'll find a better one for it later. Probably.)
Maria + Shadow centric
I'd write a proper description for this one if it wasn't a very rough basic idea. Also I just love these two alot and they stole my brain. That's okay I didn't need it
Sonic 06: Original Timeline + Rewrite (unofficial title)
Uhh pretty much everyone gets a role so. Everybody(?) centric?
Rewriting sonic 06 just a bit, and also exploring more of the doomed timeline
Doomed Timeline/Original Sonic 06 Timeline
Shadow centric, and maybe some Silver too
Hey, wouldn't it be funny of Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) came after Sonic 06. Haha jkjk... unless? 😳
Shadow The Hedgehog (2005) Rewrite
Team Dark centric
Yes this is yet another au/fic project centered around found family dynamics what about it
Somehow accidentally made a Sonic X oc so now Shadow has his own scrappy kid
Shadow + Original Character centric
Ya so I started watching Sonic X, just finished s1 fantastic amazing that season finale was just *chefs kiss* literally I am. Dying for Shadow content even tho it don't come until season 2 and boy we are. Speedrunning the adventure games huh. Anyways I accidentally made an edgy teen oc so now I'm sticking them with Shadow and they have to put up with each other and also I love them. Uhh oc introduction soon? As soon as I've got some good 💪art💪 for them...
SatBK but make it gae and the plot make sense
Probably Sonic and Shadow/Lancelot centric. Possibly Sonadow.
I finally watched a playthrough of SatBK and I have Opinions but I'll be merciful and spare you the wall of text. Straight to the business, I desperately want to do SatBK some justice bc God help me it's called Sonic and the BLACK KNIGHT- istg if the "black knight" is supposed to be "king arthur" im gonna. ITS SHADOWWW ! !!! I'm nothing if not a Shadow truther and he and Sonic should've had an enemies to friends frenemy bromance arc SEGA PLEASE- also there's some fuckery going on with the plot but thats not important
Sonic Western AU
technically omniscent?
mostly an excuse to put sonic characters in silly hats and costumes.
Shadow's Mixtape AU
Team Dark centric but mostly big sis/lil bro Rouge and Shadow
something something Shadow missed out on a lot since he was asleep for 50 years. Rouge takes it upon herself to catch him up on the times... with a mixtape. Things dont go as smoothly as the bat would hope...
(yes, fic/drabble and playlist in the works)
IDW Metal Virus arc AU
Sonic and Shadow centric (obvs but this is technically omniscient)
Just a big fat excuse to have the two but heads but have to begrudgingly work together to Fix Things I just. Ough theres so much to play with I'm a kid in a candy store rn I'm just gonna go HAM >:DD
Strays AU
Shadow centric, lots of fluff
Shadow seems to have a habit of collecting strays... and they aren't just cats.
Projects & stuff
- The Idea TM
- WiS! Morro (Serpentine War Era)
- MoC! Morro
- Ronin wip?
- Finish Elemental Team Up
- Come up with a better name for Bizarro Ninja AU T-T
- TAG YOUR SHIT MARS T-T
- Written in Stone Masterpost/Infodump
- WiS: the Vengestone Situation
- should probably link all of the WiS!AU drabbles here, just to have them all in one place..
- 3 star au masterpost/general content
- baby Phos pentest doodle :P
- Valentines day shitpost
- Valentine's day shitpost (late) 😭😭 girl help
- all of my aus probably need a masterpost of their own...
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m-aster-of-spinjitzu · 3 years ago
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orange and gold
...I just need more Cole and Vania content, they seem like they'd be great friends.
Basically it's just 'Cole goes to visit her there, they almost burn down the kitchen, and make way too many puns', lol.
Set a few months after Master of the Mountain, but before Seabound or The Island.
Also yeah, I couldn't think of a better title, sue me- I just know that they wear one of the colours at some point, so... 🤦‍♀️😂
Trigger warnings: none I think? Huh-
Also, bingo!! I really need to learn better time management, dear freaking gosh- I hope I'm not too late though? I know it's like half a day late, eek- and I was supposed to post this earlier, but I ended up literally falling asleep while writing it😂
Thank you so much Fabro, for hosting such a cool event!:D Your comments on my fics literally never fail to make my day<3. And I'm so glad that I met so many awesome, really skilled people through this event too - it's been a lot of fun working alongside y'all:D, I wish I'd had more time to interact instead of posting stuff and vanishing lol, but exams be like:////
Prompt: cooking (does baking count as cooking? I realized too late lol-) from @ninjago-bingo 's warm board.
Word Count: 2497
Tumblr media
---
Trying to escape from killer dire-bats hadn't been on Cole's to do list today - although the mountains were kind of beautiful.
It was a bit difficult to see them while he was being dragged to his death, but hey, didn't Jay always tell them to be more positive?
That was, until he made the mistake of looking down.
Miles of snowcapped mountains touched the pastel blue sky, but he was more focused on exactly how high he was from the ground.
Great.
Trying to swing back onto the Bounty, he didn't notice a golden-winged blur shoot past the bat, almost dropping their spear in haste.
"Let my friend go, or I'll-"
"Vania?"
She throws the spear at the bird, successfully knocking one of its wings.
Huh. She must've been practicing - throwing with accuracy while flying seemed kinda difficult.
"I'm so sorry!" she replies, grabbing his arm before he fell down too. She winces at the strain on her wings, almost dropping him onto the deck. "I was supposed to come earlier, but there was an issue with one of the mines, and it took forever to-"
"There ain't anything in this world that's managed to kill me yet," he replies jokingly, checking that the autopilot hadn't been damaged. "I doubt an angry bird is going to be the first."
"Didn't you mention that you became a ghost once? Pretty sure that means you were dead-"
"Shh, that's not an important detail," he jokes.
"If you say so," she replies with a grin. "Did I mention that Chompy's been tearing down the palace flower arrangements again?"
"Send my regards to the gardener-"
"Did you just make a pun?"
"Remind me why I decided to visit you again?"
"Because you love me?" she asks stepping onto the ground as the Bounty landed gently.
"I hereby crown you as my platonic soulmate," Cole deadpans, taking her hand. "Vania and Cole-"
"Destined to annoy each other for eternity," she giggles, swinging their hands up and down. "But seriously - thanks. I don't think I realized how much work being a queen was."
"What's it like?"
"I mean - I'm glad that people trust me, and they come to me if they have a problem, but the paperwork is a nightmare. I never get to go outside anymore, I swear."
"Paperwork? Also, you just invited me here for a week. I don't wanna disturb you?"
"Nah, I cleared my schedule, don't worry. And trust me, you don't want to know. Everything requires some sort of official written thing, and it's so boring-"
"Official? But you're the queen?"
"Well, yeah, but I don't really want to change something unless it benefits the people. Not after..."
Her smile dims, eyes straying to the palace walls.
Oh- oh.
"You're nothing like him," Cole says firmly, squeezing her hand. "I mean, if you need to take a break, or you can make your job a bit easier by cutting out something unnecessary, that's just gonna help you become a better queen. You've definitely got the interests of your people at heart, and that's the most important thing, you know? And well, uh, everything seems to be going great so far - you don't have to beat yourself up over someone else's mistakes."
"Thanks," she replies softly, her smile slowly returning. "Speaking of breaks, what do you think we should do this time?"
"You could show me around the city again?"
"You've already seen everything cool," Vania giggles, skipping ahead of him. "We don't renovate much - unlike you guys-"
"Hey, it's not our fault that our city gets destroyed every few months-"
"More like every few days," she teases, tying back her golden hair. "How about we find some dragons to adopt?"
"Tempting, but where would you keep them?"
"They could sleep in my room-"
She breaks off when she notices him laughing. "What?"
"N- nothing," Cole replies, in between laughs. "Jay and I just made a bet."
"On what?"
"How many dragons you've adopted. I bet at least six, he bet fifteen."
"Well, jokes on both of you - I'm pretty sure my advisor's going to throw a fit if I show up with another one," she starts, giggling. "We've got twenty living in the palace right now."
"Twenty dragons?"
"They're so cute! You just look into their adorable little eyes," Vania pauses for breath, continuing her animated gesturing, "and you can't help but wanna hug them!"
"Oh, Jay's going to be so mad."
"Aww, I'm sorry guys. They're just too adorable!"
"...Wanna hear a funny story?"
"Yeah, sure!"
"I actually used to be terrified of dragons-"
"No way!" Vania exclaims. "Y'all have been on a lot of adventures though, so-"
"Nah, we used to have our own dragons at first. They were pretty cool! I just- I'm a simple guy! Huge animals with wings are scary up close when you're barely a teenager."
"Or when you're really short-"
"We're the same height!" Cole exclaims, facepalming in a bit of a fondly exasperated way.
"I'm two years younger than you-"
---
"Ugh, whose idea was this?"
"Yours," Vania grins, sitting down on the kitchen counter.
"You were supposed to help me, not leave me high and dry!" Cole accuses jokingly, staring at all the appliances they'd found in the cupboards.
"'One must always be prepared for new adventures,'" she quotes seamlessly, waving one of- what was his name again? Mulch something? Oh! Clutch! Some explorer he was, leaving them to die in the pyramid - Clutch Powers' books in the air.
"Fine," he sighs, staring at the old recipe book she'd found in one of their back cupboards. "But you've gotta help me? I almost burned down-" "Woah, what? If you finish that sentence with 'kitchen'-" "In my defense, Kai was playing a prank on me-" "In my defense, I wouldn't like to explain how the queen of Shintaro burnt down the palace by teaching one of her friends to cook," she grins, flipping through the pages. "What do you wanna start with?" "Something simple?" "Have you ever tried baking bread before? It's a lot of fun!" "I haven't really had the time, but that sounds kinda interesting."
He skims the recipe, raising his eyebrows. "Wait, why does this take hours? I thought you said it was simple?"
"Trust me, it is," she laughs, adding, "besides, I still wanna hear about all your adventures!" "Uh... okay," Cole replies hesitantly, "but if this fails, I'm so sorry." "Give yourself some credit, you guys literally saved the world! Multiple times!" "Bold of y'all to assume we know how we did it," he laughs, only half-kidding. "Besides. I botched soup once."
"I've botched toast," she mock-sighs, smiling. "Pretty sure that makes us even."
"Lemme get this straight. You've messed up toasting bread, but you can bake it from scratch?"
"Trust me, I don't know either," she giggles, trying to open a brightly coloured packet of... something? Did flour come in packets that small?
"Uh, why are you opening something called 'feast'?" he asks, eyebrows creased in confusion.
"Feast," she echoes, trying to stifle her laughter. "Off to a... rocky start, aren't we?"
It took him a second.
"I already regret this," he jokes, facepalming. "But I'd say that your puns are, uh, gold."
"I've un- unleashed-" breaking off, she half-falls off the counter, laughing so hard her face starts to go red, "a monster."
---
"Uh, is it supposed to look like that?" Cole asks, frowning.
The mixture looked less like the dough he'd been expecting - more like one of Jay's inventions gone wrong.
Badly wrong, he thought, eyes widening at the goopy mess of foam that threatened to spill over the jug.
"The yeast?" Vania echoes, poking her head out of one of the cupboards. "Yeah, all good! It always looks a little gross, and you're gonna doubt ever eating bread again, but at least it doesn't taste like it's fermented-"
"It's what?"
"Yeah," she grimaces, exaggerating her disgust a bit. "If aliens ever fell from the sky, they'd think we were crazy for eating bread-"
"Aliens? I think we're a bit crazy!" Cole exclaims, trying not to laugh.
Vania smiles, then sighs, lugging a huge bag of flour onto the counter. "I can never open these bags properly," she starts, eyeing the the bag a bit warily, "and it always makes such a huge mess all over the kitchen. You'd think they'd make it easier for people to use, right? I swear-"
He jokingly puts his hands over his ears. "I can't hear you!" "But you know that I've sworn off swearing-" she replies, breaking off with a laugh. "Pun not intended - that actually made sense in my head. I swear!"
"No," Cole interjects with a grin, shaking his head. "You don't, remember?"
"See, this is why we're friends-"
"Friends? Is that all I am to you?"
"Oh, be quiet," she shoots back, exaggeratedly dragging a hand down her face. "I mean, sure, just because everyone thinks that we're dating doesn't mean that we-"
Wait. What?
"People think that we're dating?" he asks, clamping a hand over his mouth in a poor attempt to muffle his laughter. "I- I- really?"
"I know, right?"
"Even my friends thought so at first," he confesses, dragging a hand down his face. "I mean, as much as I love you-"
"I love you too," Vania replies, completely seriously. "Even if you'll always be more like an annoying-"
"Hey-"
"Sibling to me than anything else," she finishes, grabbing a pair of scissors. Cole watches, a little alarmed, as she stabs them into the flour bag over and over.
"Is it... supposed to be this difficult to just open the bag? Seems kinda stupid-"
"Well, er, they have this piece of paper with glue that you're supposed to pull away from the rest of the bag, but it never works properly and I-"
"Well, we could always make our own flour," Cole interjects, laughing. "I mean, I've got a scythe? Let's go!"
"Uh, but we don't have wheat growing here. I don't think it'd suit the climate very well?"
"Wheat a shame," Cole sighs jokingly, measuring out the flour (which had, finally, escaped the bag).
"Oh my gosh," Vania deadpans, "you did not just-"
"Yep, I did."
"You're horrible," she giggles, "then again, I was the one who started this whole debacle, so I think we'll share the blame."
"Debacle? Where'd you pick that one up from? Sounds kinda cool-"
"Oh, it's from a book someone wrote about you guys," Vania says casually, pouring a cup of water into the bowl.
"Hey, uh-" Cole starts hesitantly, twisting his fingers back and forth, then breaks off. "Why'd you read all that stuff about us, anyways? Adventure books don't really seem like something you read a lot, since we have similar favorite books. I mean..."
"Well, um..." Vania trails off, clearly uncomfortable. "Uh- I guess, well, it sounds kinda stupid, but I'd never really met anyone my age who wasn't a royal or something. I... er, I didn't want to be left out, you know?"
Cole thinks back to a scroll; a quest, a sacrifice. One that his friends never seemed to really notice, unless it was with horror or flinches. Not that he blamed them, but - joking about how he was much more useful to the team when he was freaking dead than he was before he'd stumbled and fell in the temple?
That had been a bit far, even for his best friend. Locks could always be picked or something, he didn't need to be a ghost to provide some sort of value-
Well, that's not completely true, is it? a small voice questions, and he can't keep his hands from shaking a little.
"Jay here thinks you're the least valuable ninja."
Not enough to be a performer. Now, not good enough to even be a ninja, apparently.
Well, he reminds himself firmly, you don't have to be the best - just stand up to those who are cruel and unjust.
Nothing but a scar that glowed warm orange occasionally left of the whole Cursed Realm ordeal, sometimes it was all too easy to forget - or pretend - that it had never even happened in the first place.
Other times, like when he'd dropped a glass of water on the floor and his hands hadn't stopped shaking for hours, or when he woke up screaming, expecting to fall through his bed again, it still felt like he was trapped as a ghost. Literally - and maybe a little figuratively as well.
Yeah. Yeah, I know.
"Thanks for trusting me with that," he replies softly. "And I'm sorry. That sounds... horrible, but, honestly, you're a pretty cool person, and I ain't just saying that because we're friends. People can be awful, and they can- they can leave, but you don't need to pretend to be someone you're not for people to accept you. I kinda know what it's like, and it's... just, uh, not great."
"No, thank you," Vania says, rubbing her eyes. "You're pretty cool, too. And I'm glad that we become friends, even if wasn't in the- the, er, greatest circumstances."
"Right back at ya. The fall was pretty terrifying, though," Cole says casually, as if memories of that nightmarish plunge into the depths of earth don't still send shivers down his spine.
"No, definitely! I was so sure we were gonna splat onto the ground or something, thank gosh we didn't."
"Yeah..." Cole trails off, reading the recipe they'd been following. "Oh- do we just leave the bowl somewhere for a few hours now?"
"Oh, yeah," Vania answers. "Other than clean up the kitchen, what else do you wanna do?"
"That's kind of you, but, ah, I don't mind. You can choose something."
"I don't mind either," she replies, covering the bowl with a dishcloth. "Seriously, I don't."
"Same here though."
"Really, I don't mind-" Vania breaks off with a laugh, adding, "Well, actually, there is something."
She doesn't elaborate, thoughtfully gazing out the window.
"Well, what is it? Don't keep me in the dark."
"Ugh, it's kinda stupid-"
"I'm sure that it's not- well, unless you want to try to jump off a flying ship with a homemade parachute to prove a bet to someone-"
"Do I even wanna know?"
"...uh, probably not. We're way too crazy sometimes, our Master has a hard time keeping us in check. Your thing, though?"
"Can I give you a hug?"
Cole blinks for a second, expecting some sort of punchline.
"That's your thing?"
"Well, yeah- I mean, I said it was kinda stupid-"
"No no, that's not what I meant. You're so sweet - that's all."
"Well, not more than you-"
"Nah, you're sweeter-"
"Let's just call it a tie," Vania says with a smile, reaching over to give her friend a hug. "Thank you so much, I swear- well, no, I don't, but you know, anyways-"
"Yeah," Cole replies, laughing softly. "I know."
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crystalgirl259 · 4 years ago
Text
How to Train Your Dragonblood 3: The Dragonblood Alpha Ch4
"Ground all dragonbloods!" Cliff shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran through the underground stone corridor to the hanger. Jay and Kai were trailing after the chief as he ran ahead, bellowing orders to anyone who would listen. Cole and Ed were also following them, also concerned about Cliff's fear. The others were following Cliff's orders and locking down the island, even though some of the dragonbloods weren't happy about it. They hated being controlled and ordered around, especially after all those years of being enslaved by that monster at the nest.
Unfortunately, as they were living on Cliff's island, they had to live by his rules.
As soon as Jay confirmed Iron Baron's name, it was like Cliff suddenly became a completely different person. One not seen by his family or anyone in Ninjago. As he was growing up, Jay had seen his father in chief mode, father mode, over-protective mode, and sometimes he could just be an insensitive and condescending jerk. This Cliff was very different, however. He looked downright terrified as he ran around the hanger, and it was very unnerving for Jay to see.
"What?! Why?" Jay cried in shock, but Cliff ignored his son.
"Seal the gates! Lower the storm doors!" He shouted as they entered a bigger cavern. Jay tried to keep up while Kai followed him, just as bewildered.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait, wait, what is happening?" The brunette asked as everyone rushed around.
"Come on, you heard the man, lock it down!" Ed echoed around the underground cave with dragonbloods and humans milling around as the group climbed down the stairs, one-half alert and the other half confused. People began to pull down levers and the gate that led outside slowly closed.
"No dragonblood or man sets foot off this island until I give the word!" Cliff bellowed and dragonbloods and humans start running around in near panic at their Chief's sudden alarm. Cliff ignored the stairs and jumped down the platform along with Kai and Ed.
"Wait, all this because some weird guy you knew is stirring up troubles on some faraway land?" Jay asked in shock. He had never seen his father run from anything in his life. Without warning, Cliff suddenly got into his son's face, a look of fear, anger, and determination plastered on his face.
"Because Iron Baron is a madman, without conscience or mercy, and if he's built a dragonblood army... Gods help us all!" He muttered in horror before he started to scream orders at his men again as he paced around. Jay wasn't discouraged by this and caught up to him, cutting off his path. Ed had to give the kid some points for audacity. He had always known the lad had it in him to stand up to his own father.
"Let's ride back out there," Jay suggested, trying to be positive. "We'll follow those trappers to Iron Baron and talk some sense into him."
"No! We fortify the island!" Cliff insisted.
"It's our duty to keep the peace!" Jay argued.
"Peace is over, Jay! I must prepare you for war."
"War!?" Kai exclaimed in shock. He could tell Cliff was scared of the Iron Baron, so was Kai, but the brunette didn't expect it to go so far.
"Dad, if this Iron Baron is coming for the dragonbloods, we can't wait around for him to get here! Let's go find him and change his mind!" Jay pushed, but the chief was too stubborn to listen.
"No, some minds won't be changed, Jay; Ninjago is what you need to worry about! A Chief protects his own!" He snapped at the young man before turning back to the panicking humans and dragonbloods running around the hanger. "Secure the stables! Latch every stall!" He ordered as he ran ahead, leaving Jay and Kai alone in the middle of the hanger. As he left, Jay looked at Kai and gave his hotheaded boyfriend a comforting look, sensing his unease.
The Fire Dragonblood then went and gently touched his arm, already knowing he was up to something from his determined look.
"Jay, don't!" He tried to reason with his boyfriend, but Jay was just as stubborn as his father.
"I have to baby, you know that." He replied as he leaned down for a quick peck on Kai's cheek and that was all it took to convince Kai into transforming into his dragon form. Cliff saw the flash of Kai's transformation, but before he could turn around completely, Jay was already on top of Kai's dragon form and then they were in the air and swooping underneath the closing hanger gate. The couple tried to find a way out as the windows and other openings of the cave were closing off.
Luckily, they managed to get into the open air before the last gate was closed.
As the Chief and Ed watch him go, another dragon swooped down behind them and takes after them. When they saw what was happening, Pixal also transformed and she and Zane chased after the pair. Zane frowned as the gate slowly rose and the light was blocked but in the last second, he and Zane were out right before the entrance was locked. Cliff sighed and shook his head as he watched his son and Zane fly off into the distance...
****************
As the sun began to set, a ship was sailing in the icy sea near some huge cliffs. At the front of the ship stood Clutch Powers, watching the horizon before he walked back on the deck where his men were working and pulling ropes. They all had to keep their eyes peeled. With this wind, they would reach Iron Baron by daybreak so they had to fill up the ship with dragonbloods and quick. It was no time to be picky. Not with riders showing up to rescue their targets almost every night.
He just couldn't understand how anyone could like those flying, murderous, monsters.
As Clutch examined his maps, trying to pinpoint the most recent dragonblood sightings with their route, one of the sailors looked in the sky, and Clutch noticed that and followed his gaze. Everyone was watched the two dragonbloods appeared in the distance and flew towards them. Clutch brightened up at the sight of two healthy-looking targets.
"Get them, lads! Take them down! He ordered as he aimed the crossbow with a satisfied smirk. It was wiped off, however, when he realized who the dragonbloods were. The same riders and dragonbloods that they had met earlier that day. As the men around him yelled and prepared themselves for capture while Clutch frowned and pulled the machine.
"You're not getting away this time!" He shouted at the riders.
"Jaybird, please tell me you have a plan at least." Kai gulped mentally as they flew closer to the ship. The ginger-haired man didn't say anything to his boyfriend, however. He wasn't confident enough to even look at him. "YOU DON'T HAVE A PLAN!?" He roared, catching Zane and Pixal's attention.
"Is everything alright?" Zane asked in worry, but Jay gave him a comforting smile.
"Yeah, we're good, Kai's just being paranoid as per usual." He reassured as he petted the Fire Dragonblood's head. Kai only snorted in disbelief, but before he could respond, Clutch started firing net at them. The launched nets were gracefully avoided and Kai got closer to the ship until he could leap on the deck with Pixal following seconds after. Jay removed his helmet while Zane spun his large shurikens and Clutch takes out his blade.
"And here I was worried I may turn up empty-handed," Clutch smirked as he prepared for the riders to make the first strike.
"Nope! It's your lucky day, we're here to give up." Jay chirped as he held out a hand for Zane to put down his weapon and for Pixal and Kai to return to their human forms, which they all did. The hunters and Clutch were shocked to see the dragonbloods transform into humans. They knew dragonbloods could do this, but they rarely saw this. When they all finally registered Jay's words, everyone blinked in shock. Even Kai and Pixal were confused, and Kai practically shared a mind with him.
What was his human boyfriend up to?
Zane looked at him like he was crazy as Jay put his arms up in surrender. Everybody else was too busy gawking to even remember to pick up their fallen jaws. Clutch also almost dropped his knife as he raised a confused eyebrow. Jay and Zane walked away from their dragonbloods and Jay leaned down to take a net.
"That's one Fire Dragonblood, one Ice Dragonblood, and two of the finest riders from the sunny island of Ninjago; that ought to make the boss happy, right?" He smirked as he suddenly threw the net over his three friends all froze in shock. Kai really hoped Jay did have a plan or else the human would be sleeping outside for a week. Mutters of insane and worried rumbles flew in the air around them. Pixal mentally begging the crazy boy who apparently was willing to sell them to a bunch of hunters to explain himself faster or she would happily freeze him right where he stood.
Jay said nothing to his friends as he pushed Zane's shurikens into Clutch's hands, who was still rooted to the spot and watching Jay in disbelief. He backed off when Kai bared his fangs at him to follow.
Jay then shoved out of the way the weapons of the dumbstruck crew while Zane, Kai, and Pixal finally got the net off. They all climbed down in a cage built below the ship while the men are still watching.
"What are you doing Jaybird?" Kai hissed at his boyfriend as Jay followed after him, pulling down the barred opening. This only made Kai more worried as he was a bit lost by his boyfriend's actions. They were among enemies yet the boy and Zane were not aggressive. Granted he somehow doubted Jay would ever intentionally be aggressive. He just didn't seem to carry that type of intimidating aura like his fellow humans. He was also concerned that he willingly entered a cage.
He whined in his throat at Jay's confusing gestures that made a dragonblood as mighty as he behaves like a mother watching its hatchling from falling out of the sky.
For the life of him, Kai just couldn't understand his human, boyfriend, rider sometimes.
"Kai, just relax." Jay pleaded as he turned back to the hunters. "Dragonbloods don't really care for cramped spaces, but they won't be any trouble." He promised, but this had a very opposite effect to what he was hoping for. The people suddenly pointed all of their weapons at the Fire Dragonblood, making Kai jump in fright as he transformed, eyes like needles and back arched like a cat. Pixal quickly followed his lead, also feeling incredibly threatened.
She had spent many long and grueling months locked up in a cage in the arena back in Ninjago, so this was all brought back some very painful memories.
Zane seemed to sense this and gently rubbed her head to help her relax. It worked, but only a little bit. Kai lowered his body to the ground and growled. Jay resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he poked his head through the bars. Clutch stared at him with a flat look. Beside him, a hooded man fidgeted with his weapon. After a short staring contest, Clutch rolled his eyes to the sky when a sword sticks out of the cage. The crew jumps back when it lit up in flames.
Jay popped out again, hitting his head as if reprimanding himself for not remembering.
"Can't have armed prisoners." He smiled as he gave the sword to a man while down below Ka, Zane, and Pixal watched everything unfold with trepidation.
"How is this a plan?" Kai mentally glared at the back of his head. But Jay was more focused on the trappers and gaining their trust.
"Just what every dragonblood trapper needs." He smiled as the men inspected the device he made curiously. One end coated the blade in saliva from Kai's dragon form and the other sprayed gas from Tox. As the men looked at the weapon, they accidentally activated the gas. They desperately tried to shut it off, and Clutch stepped away while another man clicked the lighter by mistake. Jay ducked below as an explosion rocked the deck. The two men that caused the explosion were covered in soot and coughing.
A spark was floating around and glided into the cage.
Without thinking, Kai and Pixal leaped onto their back legs and played with it, trying to be the first to catch it with their paws. Jay almost squealed at the sight and Zane smiled. Despite being intelligent, powerful creatures, dragonbloods were still animals deep down. Jay would even use light reflecting off his knife to make a little dot for Kai to chase like a cat. When he finally regained his senses and the spark faded, Kai moaned and covered his face with a paw.
He hated it when he acted cute when he was supposed to be daunting and remarkable.
He always told Jay and anyone that he was a fearless creature, not some cuddly toy. Having enough of the show, Clutch stomped to the men and grabbed the sword before he turned to Jay.
"What game are you playing?" He demanded.
"Eh, no game, ee just want to meet the Iron Baron." He shrugged innocently.
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to change his mind about dragonbloods." He replied, looking more serious than Clutch had thought the small man was capable of and the crew started to laugh. Zane sighed in disagreement but said nothing.
"Some minds cannot be changed, Jaybird, you really have to understand that." Kai mentally mumbled with a tired thought when Jay caught his eye he shook his head and that visibly hit the ginger-haired man judging by his surprised look. The teen was silent as he stared back until he finally gathered his thoughts.
"Well, you changed yours, so did my Dad and all of Ninjago." He shot back just as determined but a tad more subdued, and Kai looked away. Zane and Pixal shared a look, knowing that the couple were having a private talk, and were feeling very uncomfortable at being in the middle. When he knew he had won their short argument, Jay slowly climbed out of the cage and was joined by Zane and the two dragonbloods. The trappers raised their weapons but waited for Clutch's command.
"He can be very persuasive," Zane added, trying to help his friend.
"Once you gain their loyalty there is nothing a dragonblood won't do for you." Jay smiled as he scratched the Fire Dragonblood's ear fondly, demonstrating their close bond and showing Kai he wasn't upset with him. But Clutch was still not convinced.
"You won't be changing any minds around here." He snorted.
"I can change yours right here, right now." He promised as he reached for Kai's flying gear, pulling a lever that spread the prosthetic tailfin.
"You sure about this Jaybird?" Kai asked nervously, but his boyfriend sent him as much love and reassurance as he could through their link. Once he was sure Kai would be alright, Jay turned back to Clutch.
"May I?" He asked as he extended his hand for Clutch to take. Only he didn't get the chance to do anything because all of a sudden, a dark green shape moved across the ship and snatched him away. Another dragonblood flew by and ripped the sails. Within seconds, the trapper's ship was surrounded by a few dragonbloods. The sailors tried to stay on their feet as Clutch glanced around at the sky for the assailants. Fearing for his boyfriend, Kai leaped onto the mast and sails growling loudly, until he stopped when he saw they were the other riders from Ninjago.
He was relieved to see Jay in Morro's claws.
"Put me down! Harumi, what are you doing?!" Jay screeched as he struggled in the Wind Dragonblood's claws, but Harumi and Morro had to suddenly duck with everyone else as the trappers started firing nets at them. As most of the riders managed to dodge the nets, Dareth and Tox weren't as fast and one of the nets wrapped around them. They would have fallen into the icy sea if Rocky hadn't caught them in the air. The Earth Dragonblood hovered in place as Cole climbed down and cut the net away with a knife, freeing the pair.
While they were all distracted, Jay finally managed to push his legs up and released himself from Morro's grip.
As he fell headfirst he looped his hands through the bands around his legs and unfolded his wings. On the deck, Zane rushed Clutch and pushed him away from the catapult, but the net was still fired. Luckily, Jay avoided it as he glided back down to the ship. He grabbed a rope from a sail and slid down on the deck. Kai jumped beside him as he took off the wings and nuzzled the human affectionately. He would have transformed and hugged Jay, but he still didn't feel safe enough to do that yet.
"What are you guys doing here?!"
"We're here to rescue you!
"We don't need to be rescued!
"Enough!" A voice suddenly boomed and a large dragonblood made of metal landed behind a sail, with Cliff Gordon as the rider and Ed as a back passenger. This was Karloff, a large Metal Dragonblood. A couple of years ago, Jay finally convinced his father to partner up with a dragonblood like almost everyone else in Ninjago. After many failed attempts to connect with a dragonblood, Cliff met Karloff in a local tavern and the two of them hit it off right away.
They were now regular drink buddies and partnered up whenever Cliff needed a dragonblood.
Karloff roared in agreement with his rider and Jay turned just as the Chief hopped down with a thud on the floor.
"Well, you just picked the wrong ship!" Clutch sneered as he gestured angrily at them. Cliff just heaved a sigh in frustration. Before the lead trapper could say another word, the chief grabbed his face without a word and pushed him away, being in no mood to deal with other people with attitude problems. He slid down and as he tried to stand, Zane hit him in the head, knocking him back down. Before he could get up again, Pixal suddenly pinned Clutch down, her icy breath leaving bits of frost in his face and hair.
Clutch was smart enough to stop struggling.
"Does anybody else want to try anything?" Cliff growled and the crew reluctantly lowered their weapons. They may be skilled in the art of Dragonblood hunting, but they weren't stupid enough to take on eight different Dragonbloods and nine humans. "That's what I figured." Cliff huffed and turned to glare at Jay. "You, saddle up; we're going home."
"No." Jay snapped. It was so blunt that Cliff almost fell over. That ungrateful, idiotic son of his! What had he done to deserve so much grief from his family? First Libber and now Jay? It must have come from her side of the family, no doubt about it.
"Of all the irresponsible–"
"I'm trying to protect our dragonbloods and stop a war! How is that irresponsible?!"
"BECAUSE WAR IS WHAT HE WANTS, SON!" Cliff shouted louder than he had in his life. The exasperation in his voice had Jay freeze and Cliff realized he had to explain. With a heavy sigh, he began to tell the story of Iron Baron. "Years ago there was a great gathering of chieftains to discuss the dragonblood scourge we all faced." He started and Ed gripped his friend's arm tightly. The Chief was rubbing his eyes and frowning. Ed had a feeling that by the end of this his friend would have aged decades.
Who could have thought that something so old and gone would surge from the folds of the past and haunt him so much?
As Cliff recounted his encounter with the Iron Baron, his mind flashed to the past. A younger Cliff looked around at the other chiefs sitting on high chairs as a pale, hunched figure was stepping in their middle.
"Into our midst came a stranger from a strange land, covered in scars and draped in a cloak of dragon skin; he carried no weapon and spoke softly, saying that he, Iron Baron was a man of the people devoted to free mankind from the tyranny of dragonbloods." He said as he remembered the man speaking to the chiefs and Cliff leaned down in his chair, scratching his chin as he listened with the others. "He claimed that he alone could control all the dragonbloods and that he alone can keep us safe if, we chose to bow down and follow him." He sighed sadly as the sound of the other chiefs laughing rowdily at the man's boldness still ringing in his ears.
In the present day, the teens all started laughing too, Dareth and Plundar the loudest.
Ronin was laughing so loud that he had to wipe a tear from his eye.
"Yeah, we all laughed too; until he wrapped himself in his cloak and cried out: Then see how well you do without me." Cliff shuddered at the memory. "Then the rooftops of the meeting hall suddenly burst into flames and from it armies of dragonbloods descended, burning everything to the ground!" He hissed angrily before it melted into a look of sorrow and regret. "I... was the only one to escape." He muttered and everyone on the deck fell silent at the confession.
Jay still wasn't convinced, however, and everyone could see it.
"Men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with." Cliff tried to convince him, but as usual, his son was stubborn.
"Maybe, but I'm still going to try." Jay insisted as he walked away. Clutch followed Jay with his gaze as the younger man Jay hopped onto the Fire Dragonblood, just as surprised as the chief. "This is what I'm good at, and if I could change your mind, then I can change his too." He added, sounding sincere but determined at the same time. Ed smiled at his apprentice's courage while the Chief shook his head. With one thought from Jay, Kai took off and Cole runs over to Rocky to follow.
"Let's go!" He ordered to the other riders, but Cliff grabbed his arm.
"No, lead the others back to Ninjago; I've had enough mutiny for one day." He growled as he stepped away from the Earth Dragonblood and his rider. Down with Clutch, Pixal still had him pinned to the deck until Zane managed to pull her off. As quickly as they had appeared, the riders all flew from the trappers' boat, with Ed and Cliff chasing after Jay and Kai and the others heading back to Ninjago. Clutch couldn't move from the deck, too shocked and confused by what just happened...
16 notes · View notes
spinbitchzu · 4 years ago
Text
citrus kisses
Darling, you don’t need to say what you mean, ‘cause your kisses taste like tangerines. Aka: cole’s love language is tart and sweet and reminds Kai of things he thought he’d lost. 
hey uhhh so. I don’t write ninjago fic often but apparently when i do, it’s about the inherent romanticism of peeling an orange and also action-oriented love languages. anyway you know the drill. lavashipping, a bit over 2k words. unbeta’d bc we die like men. 
The oranges that grew in Ignacia grew in huge groves.
It’s one of Kai’s only memories with his whole family: walking between his parents in the long aisles stretching between the lines of trees, Nya’s tiny, chubby hand clasped carefully in his own as she toddled along beside him. The smell of oranges was everywhere, and that day they picked enough to last them for weeks and weeks. 
He can still recall his dad’s hands braced around his ribs as he hoisted Kai up to pick a Valencia orange bigger than his head from a high branch, eyes squinting against the bright sun on his face. He’d felt such pride that day, as he carried his treasure around for all to see.
He remembers summers of frothy fresh-squeezed orange juice in the morning, afternoons of fragrant orange cake, and evenings of carefully-partitioned segments that exploded juice on his tongue. His mom used to make ambrosia for Saturday morning breakfast, the orange slices piled high with coconut shavings and thick, fluffy whipped cream. She’d scold him when he peeled the oranges himself; his forceful little thumbs always dug too far into the flesh and sent the juice squirting everywhere. Instead, she clucked her tongue and peeled it for him with easy, deft movements while he sucked the stickiness off his fingers.
Those days—patchworks of hot nights and sunshine through the kitchen windows and the smell of citrus on his mother as she leaned in to kiss him goodnight—they’re days Kai can hardly remember the older he gets. 
After his parents disappeared, no one took Kai and Nya to the Valencia groves; no one whipped the cream for ambrosia; no one lifted him to the highest branches for the best oranges. He simply had to wait until he was tall enough to reach them himself.
He doesn’t think about those memories very often, and Nya was so young, he doubts she remembers it at all. It’s not like he ever gets a summer off to return home either, so instead he lets the memory fade until it’s almost entirely forgotten. He locks it in the part of his brain that he’s sectioned off because it’s too painful to keep clinging to when things were that good. It’s okay. 
The past tastes like oranges and coconut cream, and Kai has left it behind.
...
Kai forgets why they’re making a stop over Ignacia, but it just so happens that the nearest rural area place for them to moor is over the Valencia groves he had nearly forgotten about. 
He stands at the front of the ship, leaning over the railing with his chin propped up on his pillowed arms to study the trees extending in every direction, the dark leaves bejewelled with not-quite-ripe January oranges. The sun overhead is more of a pale, cold disk, and Nya is somewhere below-deck, but it makes him melancholy anyway.
Footsteps approach from behind him—heavy but soft: Cole. He leans over the railing beside Kai, bracing his forearms against the wood as he surveys the landscape. “Hey. Whatcha doin’ out here, stranger?”
“Just lookin’,” he murmurs back. He hums to himself. “Did you know I used to come to this grove with my family as a kid?”
“I didn’t even know you liked oranges,” Cole replies, giving him a sideways glance. He smiles when Kai glances back, dark eyes crinkling. “Do you want to go down now? I’m sure we could grab a few and no one would miss ‘em.”
“Nah, that’s alright,” Kai says with half a grin. “They’re not ripe. And I don’t like oranges that much anyway. Too hard to peel. They just made me think about—things I hadn’t let myself think about for a while.”
“What kind of things?” Cole asks, nudging him with an elbow.
The touch grounds him and he’s grateful for it. He shrugs in a way that’s neither here nor there. “Just things. Home, I guess. My life? Before all the...ninja stuff.”
“Is that a good thing?” Cole tilts his head. In this light, his eyes turn from obsidian to sunlight through whiskey as he waits for an answer.
Kai makes a contemplative noise. “I don’t know. Hurts less than I expected, after everything. It’s bittersweet.” He sighs then, shoulders falling with the motion. “It really is making me miss oranges, though. I don’t know why I lied before—I really do like them.”
He looks back at the groves below and misses the look Cole gives him—measured and curious.
“What about you, do you like oranges?”
“Some. The sweet ones.”
“You’d like these ones, then,” Kai tells him, cheeks rising as he smiles. “The oranges from Ignacia are the biggest, sweetest ones around. They’re good just by themselves, but my mom made a mean ambrosia with them.”
“I bet Zane could replicate the recipe if you told him what it was,” Cole replies.
Kai just shrugs. “Maybe so. He’s sharp like that.”
They fall silent. Kai can physically feel Cole worrying about him and his rare bout of melancholy, so he squares his shoulders and musters up a grin. “Hey, Cole, you—,”
“You don’t have to,” is what Cole interrupts him with, paired with a weighted look that settles around him like a blanket. “I don’t mind the quiet. You’re allowed to, Kai.”
All the feigned bravado drains out of him. Kai stares at him for a second and wonders when Cole got so good at gauging his moods. There’s so many words unspoken inbetween what he says and that earnest, draping look in his eyes and Kai kind of aches with it.
“Okay,” he says instead, shoulders slowly falling. His chin dips to rest on his crossed forearms again and he leans into it when Cole slips as arm around him. “Okay.”
The nippy January wind dances around them, stirring their hair and whipping at their gis, but Kai tips his head against Cole’s shoulder and feels warm down to his toes.
...
“Holy crap, what the hell did you do?” Kai can’t help asking a week later, as Lloyd and Zane walk into the kitchen carrying groceries.
“There was a sale on tangerines at the grocery store,” Zane answers primly, setting his paper bag on the counter. “I thought it prudent to take advantage of it.”
“We have like a hundred pounds of these things,” Lloyd adds, setting his own bag down. “We’re going to be eating tangerines until we get old and grey.”
“Zane, man, you know I love a sale as much as the next guy, but this is a little overboard,” Cole says as he comes in, two more bags of tangerines hoisted on his shoulders. Kai does not stare, thank you very much, as much as he’s been finding it kind of hard to avoid when it comes to Cole and lifting things recently.
“Proper intake of vitamin C is important in preventing scurvy,” Zane replies, though he’s blinking the way he does when he’s getting embarrassed. “It’s a common illness in sailors.”
“Does that still apply  if the ship can fly?” Lloyd wonders.
“Or if we’re in the twenty-first century?” Kai adds wryly, eyebrows high.
“I’m sure we’ll find some way to finish them all,” Cole pipes up. “Don’t worry about it, Zane.”
“I was not.” Zane turns away to put away the rest of the groceries while Kai and Cole exchange an amused look. As he bustles back and forth, Kai grabs a tangerine from the bag behind him and turns it over in his hands, studying the way the light catches on the dimpled rind.
“Hey,” Kai says quietly, leaning across the kitchen counter. “Did you do this?”
Cole just shrugs with a crooked grin. “I didn’t do anything. You know Zane and sales. Can’t resist ‘em.”
“You did,” Kai deduces, eyeing his teammate’s reddening ears. He feels his expression soften. “You didn’t have to.”
“Maybe I wanted to,” Cole says in response. He reaches over Kai, coming very, very close, until their noses are close enough to brush. His eyes are very dark and very close and Kai would very much like to kiss him right now.
“Um, uh,” Kai says, very eloquently.
“Not in the kitchen, please,” Zane calls from the pantry, because he hasn’t a romantic bone in his body (or any bones, to be fair to him).
Cole just grins and pulls back, displaying the tangerine he’d grabbed from behind Kai with a flourish. “I’m heading to the training deck. See you around, Hot Stuff.”
“R-right,” he mumbles (like an idiot), fighting the heat settled in his cheeks. He watches Cole go and feels distinctly like an opportunity has sailed over his head.
...
Cole smells like oranges these days.
Kai only notices because that isn’t his normal smell, which is much more organic soaps and something earthy and fresh. It’s a smell that clings to the hoodies Kai keeps pilfering from his closet—comforting in its familiarity. 
The abrupt invasion of tangy citrus makes him do a double take the first time he smells it. And then he reaches into the pocket of the hoodie and finds a tangerine. It’s store bought, with a little sticker on the side, and it’s not exactly a strange sight for any reason, but it sort of confounds him.
“Hey,” he says, walking into the kitchen, the object of confusion held gingerly in his hand. “Is this a tangerine?”
Cole looks up from where he’s making a sandwich and raises an eyebrow. “Is that my hoodie?”
“I asked first,” Kai replies quickly, before he has time to pink up.
“I mean, yeah, five points for powers of deduction,” Cole says cheekily. “Congratulations, it’s a tangerine. We gotta finish them somehow, don’t we?”
“I—yeah,” Kai says absently. Cole holds out a hand for it and he tosses it over wordlessly, before he even thinks too much about it.
“You said they’re hard to peel, right?” Cole asks, digging his nails into the rind. He peels it in the shape of a flower and then splits the orange in half with his thumbs to hold out to Kai. “Here.”
Kai looks down at the segment being offered to him in an open palm and then back at Cole with his earnest, crinkly-eyed smile, and feels something stutter fatally in his chest.
“Thanks,” he manages to say, as his heart cracks open to let sunshine stream all in, filling his ribcage with warmth.
He bites into the fruit and feels his mouth fill with juice and thinks about how his mother used to peel oranges when he was too clumsy to and then about how Cole leaves tangerines in the pockets of the hoodies he knows Kai will steal and peels them for him in the shape of a flower, even though it turns his nails all yellow. He thinks of it so hard he forgets to make a face that doesn’t show about seven years of adoration on it and when he looks back at Cole, he’s already looking back with realization blazing across his expression.
“Kai?” he asks, voice wavering as his throat bobs with his nervous gulp.
“Yeah,” he agrees, and then grabs Cole by the collar of his shirt and kisses him, soft and open-mouthed, across the kitchen island. He’s so filled up with sweet oranges and sunlight and the heat of Cole’s skin that he forgets to even be afraid of this, as much as it’s frightened him in his fantasies. He stops being afraid of it altogether when Cole sighs into his mouth and cards a hand through his hair.
When they finally draw back, Cole’s pupils are blown huge and dark and he’s looking distinctly Kissed with a capital K. Kai would very much like to continue that endeavor.
“You taste like oranges,” Cole chuckles as he tugs Kai around the island to pull him closer.
You taste like home, he wants to say, but then Cole leans over him to cup his jaw and kiss him breathless, and Kai decides to let it go unspoken. There are more important things to attend to.
In the early summer, Cole and Kai negotiate with the others for a three-day vacation in early June. They drive in a rented car to the Valencia grove outside Ignacia and pick enough oranges to last the ship for weeks. Cole boosts him on his shoulders to help him reach the huge oranges at the tree tops and they laugh the whole time, chasing each other through the orchard and trading citrus kisses. Kai wonders if it’s possible to burst with happiness.
“I’m sick of eating oranges,” Lloyd complains when they come home bearing the (literal) fruits of their labor, newly sun-tanned and smiling.  
“Really?” Kai tilts his head, considering. “Seems to me like I can never get enough of ‘em.”
“Was that some sort of romantic metaphor?” Lloyd asks with a wrinkled nose. “Gross.”
Cole laughs from where he’s watching and sidles up from behind to rest his big hands on Kai’s hips. 
“Yeah,” Kai says affectionately. “Gross.”
“Not in the kitchen,” Zane calls from the next room, but Kai just leans back against Cole and closes his eyes to drink in the moment.
It’s worth it, he decides. All the fighting. All the losing. All the danger. It’s worth it to eat oranges in the kitchen with people he loves.
“What are you thinking about?” Cole teases, his voice rumbling low in his chest against Kai’s back.
“Nothing,” he says with a smile, opening his eyes. “I just love oranges.”
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