#that he has to leave behind and he is happy to because he has zane

[chebyshevptera]

okay so you mentioned harumi in your destinyswap au... can we know more about her? pretty please :3 (btw no pressure)

OFCCCC I LOVE DS HARUMI SM IM SO GLAD U WANNA LEARN MORE ABOUT HER . here’s my special little thing , she’s all that matters to me 💜

as always … lore ramble under cut !!

likewise to her canon self , ds harumi is a silly little kid from ninjago city . she lives with her parents and is a huge fan of the ninja and their feats . she collects merch , especially toys and action figures based off of them . she’s justg…. So silly

for ds (and my headcanon) , she’s about one or two years older than lloyd :)

now here’s the fun part:

without lloyd releasing the serpentine , the great devourer is not revived in season one . ergo, harumi’s parents never die during its attack . harumi instead meets lloyd during one of his patrols in ninjago city , while shes hanging out with her friends . her friends, also fans of the ninja, immediately circle around lloyd, who is happy to answer questions and chat with them (he wants a break from work, anyway) , and harumi just … sits at their picnic blanket.

when questioned by her friends about her love for the ninja?

essentially…… harumi and lloyd don’t get along very well at first . she thinks he’s a loser. but her favorite is nya, so the first time she manages to meet nya, she reacts excitably and happily, while lloyd simmers with rage behind her .

somewhere along the line , harumi becomes regularly affiliated with the ninja . she’s smart and capable , and she’s able to come up with plans and solve puzzles that they weren’t able to do without her . the first time she helped, they were so impressed by her ability that they sought her out the second time, and then the third … and it became a regular occurrence.

next thing you know, she’s hanging out at the monastery often, playing with swords and helping zane cook and annoying lloyd with her presence . and when she learns about nya’s destiny to fight wu / the overlord , she becomes determined to help in any way she can. she’s not an engineer like jay, and she’s not an elemental master like the others, but she is an intelligent kid who is now pretty knowledgeable in prophecies and elements . thus , she pulls garmadon aside one day and asks to learn magic.

he’s very happy to help her.

enter mage harumi!! she trains in magic and combat while the others work on their elements , intending to be another person at nya’s side when she has to face her destiny : )

blah blah, that’s really all i have for her . she’s still one of the characters that’s more under construction than not , but i care her very much and she’s super super dear to me <3

like i did with lloyd, here’s some canon stuff about her!

- her magic is pinkish-red and she gets very upset when kai jokingly compares it to lloyd’s fire . it’s also emotionally charged, so it sometimes gets unstable when she’s angry….

- the ninja all call her rumi as a nickname!

- she doesn’t like hugs from people other than her parents very much, but she will let the ninja hug her .

- she is a HUGE fan of the movies that jay acts in (as most kids her age are) and she may or may not have talked his ear off when they first met . it made him a little reluctant to connect with her at first, but being the only two members who weren’t allowed to train (at first) made them interact more.

(and harumi learning magic and getting to train with the ninja totally didn’t upset him… totally.)

- when she needs to move quickly, she ties her cloak around her waist

- morro is the one who ties her hair into space buns . zane does it in a braid sometimes !

- like I said, nya was her favorite ninja , but she likes them all equally when she joins, because they’re part of her family now

- she’s still attending school during her training . the ninja help her with her homework

- she WILL leave during training hours randomly if she wants to see her parents. she dgaf . sometimes they’ll come up to the monastery to visit her though <3

- she cuts her hair on her own . that’s why her bangs are kind of fucked up . it’s ok tho she’s a cutie pie

- she doesn’t actually like being called a ninja . she’s a mage and she likes to be recognized as such . being called “the violet ninja” did nearly urge her to go back on this claim though …

- the pink tint in her eye is from a spell mishap

- I LOVE HERRRKWHDKSHFAKSH

that’s all thank u

[beau-bunny]

Mystreet has brilliant potential as a more “innocent and casual” modern au of Diaries to be the universe that heals all the heavy scars that Diaries left behind.

In Mystreet, Laurance’s dads are both alive and the Zvahl family lives as a very happy nuclear family. Sasha and Laurance had a small grudge in their childhood over Laurance leaving the gang in his freshman year, but when they’re older they make up and stay close friends.

Zane and Aphmau used to bicker a lot in their childhood (and very much still do on occasion in their adulthood), but somehow ended up forming a tight-knit friendship over their shared autism I mean interests, making Aphmau one of Zane’s first ever friends. Zane ends up becoming deeply loyal to Aphmau as a true and genuine friend, who would do anything for her and do his best to keep her from harm when the chips fell down. He becomes integrated into Aphmau’s group of found family. He could never dream of hurting her.

Garroth and Zane struggled in their childhood to connect, with Zane’s constant attempts to push everyone away and appear guarded and non-vulnerable, but when dire circumstance finally forced Zane to put his ego aside and open up for once in his life, they do end up connecting and becoming incredibly close as brothers. ((GUYS. REVERSE OF THE IRENE DIMENSION SCENE IN STARLIGHT GUYS. INSTEAD WE HAVE GARROTH FIGHTING HIS LITTLE BROTHER WHILE ZANE BEGS THAT THERES STILL GOOD IN HIM AND TO COME BACK TO HIM AND BE BROTHERS AGAIN. THEY REVERSE THE ROLES IN MYSTREET. AND THIS IS HOW THEY HEAL. FUCK YEAH))

Jeffory lives. And though he and Katelyn still had their break-up, in their later years they still keep in touch, occasionally seeing each other again as Jeffory is invited to house parties and holiday celebrations. He’s happily married to a new wife, who doesn’t die, and raises his daughter in peaceful bliss. He and Zane never meet.

Gene becomes a good guy. More specifically, he becomes a caring older brother and partner. There’s never any point where he and Dante don’t keep in contact. In his childhood, Gene was an edgy emo prick desperate to be cool and superior through manipulation and blackmail, but he mellows out a lot in his 20s, because in this universe, he doesn’t have any reason to keep fighting. Life is good, no one ever betrayed him (aside from Laurance leaving the gang, but when he’s an adult his perspective on that changes from “how could you leave us for a goody-two-shoes PREP life” to “yeah that was very understandable tbh we were NOT a healthy clique lmao”), he was never killed, no one is making him fight for anything, nothing is there to make him bitter and angry and vengeful. There’s nothing to avenge. So he’s happy. He loves his little brother, he loves tormenting him and teasing him, but at the end of the day he would die for him. He loves his doting parents, he’s a happily married polyamorous husband to both Zenix and Sasha forever and I will die on that hill, he reconnects with Laurance and apologizes for all the trouble they had in their youth. Laurance forgives him with a laugh and a joke, the two hug it out, and stay acquaintances. Laurance forms a closer bond with both Zenix and Sasha as a result.

Zenix and Garroth are best friends, especially when they’re adults. It takes them a bit, because in highschool I imagine Garroth would know Zenix as “one of the kids in that mean-looking ruffian gang that made my boyfriend Laurance cry, so fuck you” or even alternatively, if you’ll allow me to be a bit more self-indulgent, “that’s Zane’s weird little friend that comes over sometimes and is very loud and breaks things on occasion.” But like. they can’t NOT be friends in this universe. they should get to maintain their old bond in this universe. Where Zenix is like an additional little brother to the Ro’meave family. Once they become friends, they never have any fallout or problems, they stay friends, and Zenix is very worried about whatever the hell went down on Starlight and very badly wants to make sure that Garroth is okay.

This is the universe where the Diaries characters and their relationships in Diaries are allowed to happen again, but this time, it happens without any of the conflict that tore people apart. There’s no war to fight, there’s no shadow knights that do dastardly things, there’s no heaven and hell colliding that forces people to pick sides—they just get to live. And if life is good and normal and happy for all of them, how do they change? What bonds never die, that did prior? They all get to be friends in ways that they never could before. Zane never goes on a murdering spree antagonizing all of Phoenix Drop for years, so he’s able to meet Nana and the two fall in love, when in Diaries the two never even met. They were always too far apart to have met (and frankly I bet Diaries Nana would have a lot more violent words to say to the man that terrorized her best friend and new home). Zane becomes friends with Aphmau, of all people. Laurance keeps Sasha as a close friend. They heal, man.

travis is an exception to this rule though, he does not get to heal in this universe. it gets worse for him actually

[shadowqnights]

share the garroth playlist and my life is YOURS (and the reasonings behind some songs maybe 😀🙏)

OF COURSE I CAN! here's garroth's playlist that i do reorder and add to periodically but for the most part remains pretty firm! and is my favourite mcd playlist (i have multiple :3) - the vibes are there if shuffled but the playlist is in chronological order for the entirety of season one, but you'll probably enjoy it more with this context:

my playlists are closer to rewrite than canon and songs don't refer to garmau/laurmau as necessarily romantic! though some are about their relationships and dynamics + garrance is underlying context for many songs here. though you can interpret these any way you like, romantic garmau isn't the thought behind their additions!

in terms of some song explanations, i do have a couple of favourites - but i'll start with some placements first!

dvd menu to self (2020 remaster)- childhood/teenage years. self marks the point where garroth makes the decision to leave o'khasis! everything from there on out is chronological through phoenix drop - de selby 1 & always gold, however, are reflection songs that provide the bridge into the childhood years!

sunlight to that you are generally mark aph's arrival! and just as saint bernard leads into this chunk, saint bernard 2 leads into the second half of the playlist where garroth's moral code is beginning to degrade. there are multiple of 'reprises' in the playlist, but saint bernard is one of my favourites. there's also an always gold reprise & one for kiss me, son of god!

in my rewrite, the betrayal's pace slows and becomes more drawn out - hence why the mental degradation crumbles around saint bernard 2 (and there are hints beforehand) and is Officially triggered around heaven is here!

eight, holy the sea & beneath the brine are the reflective irene dimension songs! and from there is the epilogue/aftermath leading into season two! i'm uncertain if i'll create a new playlist for season two or just Add onto his seeing as je te laisserai des mots and vienna are my typical Conclusion songs for playlists. WE WILL SEE!

ANYWAY. SOME SONG YAPS.

the bug collector is lowkey the reason i wanted to make this post, its my favourite garroth song ever. i'll attach a lyric image - but each verse has a central bug - starting with a centipede, then a praying mantis, then a millipede. and we could argue that each bug represents a formulative person in garroth's life. the centipede, laurance, naked in the bedroom and representative of the present, where garroth is most paranoid - the praying mantis, a priest from a past life, zane. and the millipede, angry with a vengeance, zenix. important to note here the common tendency for people to struggle to tell the difference between a centipede and millipede and misnomer them as the other. the song closing with "try to prove that nothing's out to get you". everything wraps up so perfectly.

realising i've already written so much and i don't want to be annoying asf so i'm bundling the other songs up into a compilation i call dog mode and dog mode was made for garroth ro'meave. saint bernard is obvious but beyond that. i'm your man. crumbling relationship with aph/himself but can be taken for irene and/or laurance.

dogbird. garrance relationship turmoil / references to haunting ro'meave expectations. classic avoidant tactics.

dog. very straight-forward as the song suggests. garroth is a dog (though you can also say that the 'dog' is more of a haunting presence representative of o'khasis following him around until he has to confront that this IS him, but i digress. i flip between the two), as a teen he entertains fantasies of putting a violent end to his expectations but cannot follow through. so he sates himself with the thoughts.

and listen to all these songs + the playlist in whatever form you please if you would like it will make me happy if people enjoy or have any thoughts on any songs :3. or even song suggestions because like i said i do Add to this playlist based on suitability or sometimes just vibes :3!!!

[lyraofthestarsss]

GODDDD I AM SO NORMAL SO VERY NORMAL ABOUT THE END OF S1 EP99 OF MINECRAFT DIARIES

The way guards, specifically Laurance, sees emotions and vulnerability as a weakness. If you let your emotions overwhelm you, you leave yourself open to an enemy attack. Emotions, specifically anger, is what directly feeds Laurance’s shadow knight abilities. Emotions are something that you control, not something that you allow yourself to feel

The battle is finally over. The misunderstanding with Nicole’s kidnapping is cleared and Scaleswind has finally surrendered. Aphmau is overjoyed by this news. They won. They won! All of that fear and worry that they won’t make it out alive, that they won’t see their friends and family again, is finally gone. Scaleswind is now their ally, the fighting is over, they won

And yet, in her moment of pure happiness, she forgets that O’Khasis is still a threat. She forgets that the battle is over, and not the war. She forgets that the whole reason they’re fighting in the first place is because Zane wants the amulet they tried so hard to hide and protect

And in this moment of weakness, she tells Garroth that Laurance has the amulet

Where does Garroth find Laurance? At the foot of Ungrth’s grave. Deep in thought, completely unaware of his surroundings. He’s… happy. The battle is over. He can let down his walls for even just a moment. He’s probably telling Ungrth that they won. That they’re safe. That they’re no longer at war

And when he sees Garroth appear behind him, he doesn’t put those walls back up. Even if he’s been acting strange for the past few days, Laurance doesn’t see him as a threat. The guards of Phoenix drop have something of a brother-ship. A close, tightknit bond full of respect and love for one another. And for Garroth and Laurance, maybe that bond goes deeper than that

He tells Garroth that he’ll hold onto the amulet just a little bit longer, not because he doesn’t trust him, but because he doesn’t see a reason to pass it on. Laurance has held this dangerous and very powerful amulet all this time, it only felt right to hold onto it just a little while longer

Laurance trusts Garroth enough to turn his back to him. He’s allowing himself to be vulnerable with him around. He trusts Garroth with his life.

I can only imagine the pain he feels when Garroth uses that moment of vulnerability to knock him out cold and steal the amulet from him

[propheticlyre]

ok its been a day so im ready to put my thoughts down, in no particular order, and definitely an incomplete list. below the cut for length and spoilers

jeremey backstory reveal, I'm :(((

while difficult obviously, i appreciate the way nora has handled homophobia in this book, in a way that balances having a safe place in the trojans with the homophobia of jeremy's family - i dont feel like i can explain it well, it just seems like she captures the homophobia of the time period well, especially in particular kinds of political circles, without it being miserable to read and a hopeless cesspit of homophobia idk

speaking of """time period""" (quotes because treating books set in the early 2000s as historical fiction feels wrong although at this point is accurate) the offhand reference to the politics surrounding the iraq war did untold levels of psychic damage to me

a lot of this comes from that while not a political family like jeremy's, i was growing up at the same time with a family that would have very much politically aligned with them and so it hits close to home

and i'm begging, jeremy needs to figure out in the third book that he deserves the same kind of future he wants for jean and all his friends - one where he is happy with the life he chooses!!!

also let him change his last name since he has rejected wilshire and he wants to let go of knox (i know someone who he could share a last name with too ;) )

after what feels like lots of fandom speculation, i loved that it was just kevin and andrew who came to california for the interview (ok i actually hate that andrew ever has to set foot in california again but narratively i appreciate what it says about his and kevin's relationship that andrew does it), AND the reveal that neil had not told either of them he'd been to see jean - i saw lots of posts/fanfic around neil going back to south carolina and talking to andrew about the grayson stuff and while i understand the interest in exploring that and i dont mean judgment towards that i just love that neil treats that as wholly jean's business and he is not going to be telling his secrets to anyone, including andrew

xavier explaining being trans to jean and jean is just immediately chill about it, in the most predictably jean way possible and its so 🥹🥹

spokane mention jumpscare

happy old gay couple!!!! yes they have to hide it behind the "we're just two bachelors chilling together" but they're gay!! and happy!! and together!! anyway i just don't think there can ever be enough representation for this kind of story and im always happy for stories with queer elders like this!!

in general rhemann's characterization in this book !! i love him your honor. i also love, again after ages of fandom speculation on it, that the one to go to violence for jean is rhemann, but not by breaking the rules to take a red card, but truly in a moment of physical defense of jean but that even STILL nora establishes that this does not make jean feel safe with rhemann, that he can physically stop zane scares him, even if when jean talks with adi he acknowledges he mentally knows rhemann wouldnt hurt him, he still feels scared (i feel like this mirrors neil/wymack's dynamic but its different, but that would be a whole other discussion)

laila and cat. cat and laila. i feel like we got so many insights into them in this book and yet i need MORE. the laila and jeremey family dynamics at play !! cat and jean as biker buddies !! also them at every possible opportunity being like "no jean really, please leave us in the house alone, we have some things to do. together."

the house... their home... im crying for them. while theres obviously the big things, i feel like the mentions of so many of the smaller sentimental things were like stabs in the heart - their photos from their dates, cat's quilts from her grandmother, jeremy's nan's movie collection, jean's first new postcard from kevin, and of course, barkbark :(

trying to rebuild their cozy space, and jean finding a painting in the store, and THAT being what spurs laila and cat into action, and while it's very much in a way of getting things that are "good enough" for now, rather than beloved pieces, i think its so so huge that their new place is something they are so actively building WITH jean

i 100% do not trust those fugly fbi agents though, im still suspicious of the new place

jean's eating disorder issues but him always trusting cat!!! and cat telling him to trust himself!!

speaking of that scene, I'm on my knees begging for pat, ananya, and cody to get together finally!!

jean going to therapy, and verbalizing that he deserves to recover from his trauma, when i tell you i am crying for him

jean bodily checking bryson into laila's car, breaking the windshield, to defend jeremy and laila and laila being "you should have seen him jeremy, it was hot and i dont even like men ;)"

also on the note of unwanted visitors im tired of ravens showing up to harass jean, leave him alone!!!! (insert here the era appropriate "leave britney alone" meme)

jabberwocky moreau !!!!!!

[aphverse-confessions]

things i want from ms s7:

- michi returns and crashes the aarmau wedding

- vylad has his main character era where he has to play detective and figure out what's wrong with his family and what exactly went down on starlight because everybody is too traumatized to say what happened (dante & laurance are the watson to his sherlock)

- the shadow knights return for one last slay

- jenny returns and oddly enough becomes besties with aphmau (jennymau toxic yuri ftw. come on, aphmau literally saved the world, she should be allowed to cheat on her fiancee with women as a treat)

- MORE TRAVIS AND AARON INTERACTIONS. the parallels are there! they could bond over being cursed souls and their messy relationships with their (deceased) fathers.

- kimcinda becomes canon. fight me. lucinda and kim are gfs. also emmalyn leaves kim's body and moves onto the afterlife with kenmur and mcd aphmau.

- nana reveals her past and her real name to the rest of the cast. she finally leaves behind her "kawaii~chan" persona, and searches for who she truly is, possibly going on a quest to track down her family with zane.

- make garrance at least implied or give garroth any boyfriend. we deserve one genuine mlm relationship that isn't just played for laughs.

- teony and ivy also return bc i said so.

- zack has a redemption arc and reconnects with aphmau ofc.

- ein's mom shows up as a villain, seeking revenge for her son's death. but when she sees how hurt and sad everybody is, she feels bad and doesn't have the heart to hurt them any further. she also finds out how much pain and suffering her son has caused to everybody, and begins to feel guilty because of how she raised ein.

- ein's ghost haunts the cast and possesses several characters. they eventually have to appease his spirit because it's the only way to get him to leave them alone and put his soul to rest. ein's spirit has very long conversations with all of his enemies — aphmau (they find out they're half-siblings which makes them both feel a mixture of disgust and sadness), aaron (they finally find one thing they can agree on, they both hate their dads, and put their rivalry to rest), blaze, daniel, dottie, rylan, kacey, katelyn, kai, gene, zack and his own mother. [+possibly an ein backstory in flashbacks/animation to finally explain his motivation in detail]. ein finally moves on to the afterlife (HELL ofc).

- elizabeth starts off as the main villain of the season. you think she's gonna do evil stuff and kill people like michael and ein did, and then BAM — halfway through the season she has a reluctant change of heart and semi-redemption arc (with zack's support) and ends up an anti-hero instead. she reunites with her family. katelyn is not happy to see her at all and is still very angry at her. but kacey warms up to her much quicker surprisingly and they spend quality mother-son time together.

- all in all pretty peaceful season with depressing undertones. it's like early, slice-of-life mystreet and late, dark mystreet fused together. there are a lot of red herring villains (michi, ein's mom, elizabeth), but none of them actually do anything evil and all of them have a change of heart. nobody dies.

- the void consumes everything. but the cast ends up creating a new dimension (with the help of the void paradox cast!) and uses the realm breaker to transport themselves into it just before the mystreet dimension is consumed and dies off. the series ends with aphmau and co swearing to build a better world in the new dimension they have created.

.

[stellisketches]

why? please explain the soldier, port, king in excruciating detail PLEASE

EDIT: ITS FINALLY DONE i'm so sorry this took me like six months I got really busy with school work and I wanted to make sure I wasn't half-assing this anyway thank you for asking please enjoy

For reference I will be quoting the “Poet Soldier King” test on uQuiz as I feel they summarize each role most succinctly.

"You wonder, sometimes, if anger is the only thing you can feel. Remember: love is passion too. You made your own rules and will follow them to death. You try and forget that there is only one rule, and that it is "FIGHT". You are tired of fighting. You try to forget that, too, and keep going. You dream of quiet. Your love is where you heal." -Soldier

It's a subtle element but Vylad’s entire character/existence is about enduring conflict. It's an easy thing to forget due to his calm demeanor, but Vylad has been fighting since the moment he was born (hell, even before). Fighting the ill-contrived gossip of being a bastard son, fighting to prove himself a genuine Ro’Meave, and fighting against Garte and Zane’s abuse over his childhood. It’s a subtler form of conflict, but it’s very interesting to imagine how he was able to put up with all of it (I’ve planned so many prequel fics about the Ro’Meaves you guys). Then there’s the whole shadowknight topic that really is indicative of itself. Vylad's whole arc was based upon leaving behind the violence of his past as a literal soldier within the Shadow Lord's army. Again it’s really easy to forget but this is someone who was revived to burn the world to the ground and slaughter any and every man, woman, and child that got in the way of it. He told Aphmau himself in season 2: “One good deed does not fix a thousand wrongs done. I'm not a good person, let's just leave it at that. Please.” We may not have seen it on screen, but who knows how long Vylad was traveling with Sasha and Gene. I doubt Phoenix Drop was the first village they targeted, and I doubt Gene or Sasha or even Zenix were ever like “oh yeah you can wait outside while we commit atrocities on this Lord and his family and burn the whole village to the ground.” Vylad has a very practical mindset (another trait indicative of a good soldier), and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was purposefully good at his job so it would land him more opportunities to get out of the nether now and again. He enacted violence well enough that he was trusted to be sent outside the nether to go fuck up the overworld. Vylad is a man thoroughly haunted by war and the violence he’s committed against others in a way his brothers just… aren't. Sure, Garroth knows fighting and violence as a means of protection and ensuring the safety of others, but he doesn’t know war. He’s never had someone he cared about die in his arms. He’s never seen a whole village burn to the ground and see innocent people slaughtered left and right. He’s never seen a child screaming at their dead mother to get up. He may use violence, but he was never a violent person. Zane, on the other hand, most definitely was, however, but he hardly ever enacted any of the violence himself. 90% of the time it was jurors or guards he’d given orders to. And while he was more than happy to get his hands dirty every once in a while, he never felt genuine consequence from it. 

Continuing on Vylad’s inner psyche, we see after he still keeps a very practical, soldier-like mindset out of the nether in company with Aph and Co: He gets annoyed at Aphmau when she puts off telling everyone about the Tuu’la invasion. He surveys Laurance from a distance and does not interfere even in danger because he’s aware of the long term effect of distrust it would cause him. Upon the chaos in Narhaka, he immediately goes to burn books that have important locations the enemy could use against them. This is actually one of my favorite scenes because of how subtly status-quo breaking it is. Tell me right now of any scene involving book burnings done by a guy the audience is supposed to root for. Vylad’s view of the world makes him incredibly pragmatic and able to calculate the win-loss ratio of his actions and let that decide whether or not he will go through with it.

Vylad may not have the typical surface-level look of the characters often put into the category, but if you really dive into his past, his mindset, and the way he views the world, he easily fits into the role of soldier; with the final line “Your love is where you heal” setting him on the path of redemption we see throughout the whole series.

"Loneliness. Strength. Joy. You are powerful, but struggle believing it. You think you're not enough. Here's the truth : you are. You sing songs and hope they carry faith, because you have run out of it, and yet you still throw your heart out to the world and hope it makes it through. You convince yourself that pain is art because at least then, you will always have something to create. You are tired of stumbling through life. You dream of a ground you can stand on. One day, you will dance. Your love is where you feel - without fear." -Poet

Now I admit for Zane it does require a more particular perspective to place him as poet, but I’ll start simple and slowly transition to red string and corkboard. Firstly, from the original song lyrics, “He will slay you with his tongue” applies in at least two different ways. The first being obvious: Zane is incredibly charismatic- you don’t just make it to High Priest without a certain degree of people skills included but not limited to negotiating, preaching, and being able to reason your way through any theological question a questioning sinner could ask you. It’s a shame we don’t see it put into use very often throughout the series, but I think his position gives enough testament to his people skills. The second way this line applied is a bit more literal and a bit more dark, which would be the sheer amount of people who were murdered not by his hands directly, but on mere orders. He can quite literally have people slain in just a few words to the right people. Moving to the more esoteric; the line “You are powerful, but struggle believing it. You think you're not enough.” seems like it be a hitch to his characterization, as it first invokes the idea of someone who lacks self-confidence, which is FAR from what we see Zane characterized as in the story. However I see this from the lense of artists becoming blind to the depth of their own skill. Zane is powerful, but it’s not enough for him. He’s become so accustomed to the level of influence he holds he’s become desensitized to it, like how you stop feeling the cold of the water once you stay in it long enough.The power he’s been swimming in his entire life no longer brings that vitalic shudder of control he craves. Thus he seeks power that goes beyond mortal influence to raw, unchanneled divinity, as that’s the only thing that he has ever been told is above him. He hungers the same as any artist— to be something greater than they already are.

“You convince yourself that pain is art because at least then, you will always have something to create.” The idea of creation draws back to Zane’s relationship with control and divinity. I think it's highly debatable as to whether or not Zane has actual “faith” in the divine (i.e, seeing them as gods he wishes to emulate or simply as extremely powerful beings minus the religious element), but in either case it again leads back to desire for more. (sidenote: Zane’s fatal flaw being lust is such a delicious piece of irony and I could make an essay of its own on it). Anyway, back to the point I was originally trying to make: Zane sows pain and destruction as a means of asserting his power/importance both to others and himself. The “pain” spoken of would normally belong to the poet themself— but this is no ordinary poet, and there is no specific indication where said pain emerges from. 

"Duty. Strength. Resignation. You were told to do things and you did them. The world is something that was put into your hands and that you must deal with - so you will. You have a rigid back and steady hands, either metaphorically or physically. Is it nature or nurture ? You don't know. You are tired of being steady. You dream of feeling alive. Not that you aren't, but, sometimes, it's hard to remember that there is a heart between your ribs. Your love is where you breathe." -King

God where do I start. “Duty. Strength. Resignation” It’s like someone just said ‘describe Garroth in three words’. Duty has been his entire life, wanted or not, which leads directly into resignation. “You were told to do things and you did them.The world is something that was put into your hands and that you must deal with - so you will.” He learned his history. He learned the politics. He followed the dogma. He believed in Irene and his father and the glory of O’Khasis and his divine duty to lord over its people. His people. He said it himself in episode 68 he wanted to be exactly like his father, and that he thought to be lord was an honor and a privilege. To him, the weight of the world has rested upon his shoulders for so long that he becomes accustomed to each additional hardship quickly and quietly, never kicking up a fuss about his growing stress and dissatisfaction, like a frog in a pool of water that is steadily increasing in temperature. He locks his festering disdain for glorification of leadership away from his father, his family, and the rest of the world because he cannot show that he is anything but the Atlas of duty he was born to be. 

Until, one day, he has enough. He saw what happens to his dear little brother, likely the only person he felt he could truly bond with, and despite everything he still dealt with it, for the sake of the people around him, but when his father commands him to marry a girl he has never met (likely while he is still processing his grief) in the name of ‘duty’, it is the straw that breaks the camel's back. He sees that everything he has worked towards is meaningless as he will never reach a point where his father will be satisfied with him. That his father will continue to take and take from him until there is nothing left but a soulless puppet that will continue to speak his words even after his reign has ended. Every burden he has carried, every grievance he has hidden, every struggle he’s overcome and the hard work he’s put into building himself a true heir of O’Khasis— it all amounts to nothing.

So he leaves. 

Now, let me ask you: what would you do if you were a runaway prince escaping the crushing weight of expectation? Take a bunch of money from your no-good dad? Buy a boat ticket and live a new life in luxury on the other side of the world? Never work a day again and dive head first into careless relaxation? Surely, you wouldn’t look twice at a dilapidated little village on the coast. Wouldn’t bother to stop by and lift a finger to help it. You're free, you have a whole life of sweet exemption to look forward to. You wouldn’t give it the time of day.

“You have a rigid back and steady hands, either metaphorically or physically. Is it nature or nurture?”

Garroth finds himself in Phoenix Drop— a rickety dead-end little town as far away from home as possible. He stays, and he helps. He keeps the village running, he helps the Lord wherever he can. He takes in the broken, starved boy he finds in the woods. He does whatever he can to improve the lives of the people around him. Why? He owes them nothing, he’s spent a lifetime crushed under the weight of people's expectations and he turns around just to find himself carrying the weight of more lives on his shoulders. He is doing everything he was taught and everything he ran away from. 

But this time it’s different. This time, he sees how he’s helping. There’s no more grating voice telling him none of the effort matters. He has a rigid back and steady hands, metaphorically and physically. For the first time in his life, he can see with his own two eyes that his effort is worth it. There isn’t doubt and lies and corruption floating in and out of his mind. Just the warm, honest smiles of the people he helps. He feels it and it is real. The question “Is it nature or nurture?” is genuine: Is Garroth helping these people out of the kindness of his heart or because it was what he was always told to do, and now that he is without the purpose he was assigned he’s leaning on something familiar? Personally, I think that’s for the audience to decide. I myself would say a mixture of both, leaning more so towards nature. But I digress. 

It’s better then, when he helps and can see that he is doing good, but of course, that peace is not to last him. With the Lord’s death and impending turmoil of Phoenix Drop, Garroth’s role in the village shifts drastically to closer resembling the role he ran away from. People are treating him with near as much kindness anymore, no. The most forgiving are losing faith and the least are blaming him. Blaming him for failing to meet their expectations. Now, as things are deteriorating, he has more than enough reason to leave. He gave it the good ol’ college try, and he failed. With the sentiments of the village becoming scarily familiar to that of his father, he should just say “fuck it” and head on off to that faraway land where no one will know his name.

But still, he doesn’t. We see him in Rebirth and how desperate he is to fix the village, to make it work. Even when everyone else is telling him to give up, he refuses. Even sinking, a captain stays on his ship. (Side note: it’s scenes like this that cause me to start tearing up people’s lawns whenever I see takes that label Garroth as having a “fear of responsibility”). And he is completely ready to either make things work or die trying, regardless of what stands in his way. 

‘You are tired of being steady. You dream of feeling alive. Not that you aren't, but, sometimes, it's hard to remember that there is a heart between your ribs.’

Aphmau wasn’t the first person he saved. Zenix had likely been around for at least a year beforehand. However Zenix was a hothead teenager in need of guidance, which simply made him become another responsibility Garroth set upon himself. Don’t get me wrong, he definitely cares for him, but their relationship is far different than the one he has with Aphmau. 

With Aphmau, he finally has someone who shares the burden. Not only that, but sharing it willingly and with a smile on her face. He’s not used to having a person who presents themselves as an equal sharer of responsibility. Much less, someone who is willing and wanting for him to put his burdens on her (At least, that’s how he sees it). He can’t remember the last time he truly allowed himself to be vulnerable with someone. All the desires he’s pushed down start to bubble back up again, and he starts to imagine things he’d long tried to do away with. He sees Aphmau as a strong leader, one whose idealism is a strength and not a weakness, and how she accomplishes things he never quite got around to doing. An admiration grows for her, yes, but that’s not what makes her different. The difference, he sees, is her vulnerability. How she allows herself to be vulnerable around him. How despite the brave face she puts on, she has just as much fear that she isn’t enough. And she tells him this, directly, because she trusts him. And all of a sudden he realizes that if she can be strong to the rest of the world, and yet still let him see her weakness, her softness, then maybe, just maybe

“Your love is where you breathe.”

He can take his armor off, too.

[foxes-that-run]

As it Was

Harry released the song and video on April 1 2022, the morning after the 10 year anniversary of Harry meeting Taylor Swift. It was written with Love of My Life. While he described it as bunch of people dancing to your most devastating experience, I think he has taken it as a reflection point and decided to Shoot his Shot.

Music Video

In the open Harry is behind glass, he tries to move on with others but can't. In the Zane Lowe Interview Harry talked about One Direction band being a unit and reflected on solo peers (Taylor) not having that support. He said "everyone else is on the other side of the glass and I am on this side of the glass, no one really gets it, having that is priceless." When Harry leaves he references the Delicate music video

Harry is pulled back by gravity to be behind the glass again. To me this is similar to Anti-hero, no one else can relate.

This dance then tells the story of him dating Taylor, it references this expressionist dance. They first hold hands briefly (May 2012 - January 2013, Red) They come back and walk together, his arm around her but looking ahead, not at her (from September 2013 (1989) to February 2015). She moves on because he wasn't looking at her. Harry and his muse wear Red (Red) and Blue (1989) to represent the eras they first dated in.

She leaves him and he stops, frozen at that point while she walks on without him (from February 2015, Harry Styles Debut, Exile) until they embrace tenderly and he looks deeply and lovingly at her. (February/April 2016 Reputation, I'm not happy)

But he turns away, she is in great pain and now she is stuck and can't move without him (from May 2016 Reputation). He comes back and embraces her in a supportive caring way and it looks like he encourages her to go on, which she does in late 2016/2017.

For a short time they both walk confidently then they are both stuck on the past, neither able to move and not together in 2017-Early 2018. Then they have a wild embrace in late 2018. (Lover and Fine Line) She falls off the turntable after the affair. The cycle is broken.

Then they go the London Zoo Penguin enclosure so they can be observed they take their clothes off alone, apart and with others. Taylor is higher than him, maybe 2019 - but also it’s a zoo and reminds me of Central Park. In 2020, they embrace and go to this colourful world where there is no one else and hold out their arms to hold on tight. (COVID / Folklore / HH) Other people come in, (I think this is Joe and OW, the chairs are a reference to R & C Eames), separated again, the world is black and white.

And then they are back in the turntable / their old cycle again. She is walking confidently without him, he reaches out, tries running and stumbles trying to catch up. (Evermore, Renegade) For a time they both walk alone, but then she disappears. In the bridge, in 2021, (the part with leave America) he is devastated, alone and is defeated.

Then he gets up and joyously dances into the future. (Harry's House) This sequence again references Delicate and has seagulls, referencing 1989. With a smile he goes through a gate. He spoke to Zane Lowe as going through a one way portal of realisation.

Charles and Ray Eames

The chairs are a reference to Charles and Ray Eames, who took a photo like this. Charles and Ray were creatives who had a highly productive marriage that shaped 20th century design. A reference to Harry’s desire for a creative romantic partnership.

Harry told Hits Radio As it was was written at the end, Love of My Life was in the same session. He said it about metamorphosis or perspective change. Saying you get to decide if it is devastating or great and accept it is probably both.

When Zane Lowe asked what Harry was going through Harry talked about the journey of his Pandemic experience having 4 parts.

LA March - May 2020, LNT and Folklore w/ William Bowery

England / Italy drive Summer 2020

LA again November 2020 - California possibly, DWD filmed and Long Pond announcing Joe as WB. 2021 Grammy's in March 21

Back to England - April 2021 - LOML and As it Was written

In the same period Harry stopped wearing the Peace Ring. :(

Lyrics

"Come on Harry, we want to say good night to you"

This sample is his goddaughter, Ben Winston's 5 year old. It speaks to the meaning of the song about the difference between Harry's life and goals and calls back to the time Harry met Taylor when he was staying in Ben's house.

The Lyric video also shows Harry playing piano with a child, I think Tyler's son. Who is referenced in Canyon Moon which is similar. Where Harry compares his famous person life to the settled family life Tyler has and asking a wistful what if he had made a choice to stay in LA with Taylor. To me the Lyric video is reminding of that life, asking if he can or will have that life, or what it would look like.

Holdin' me back Gravity's holdin' me back I want you to hold out the palm of your hand Why don't we leave it at that? Nothin' to say When everything gets in the way Seems you cannot be replaced And I'm the one who will stay, oh

In the opening verse, Harry is stuck on the past, he cannot replace Taylor because she is unique. He refers to common themes she has said to him, particularly on 1989 - saying he is the one that does those things but she did not - it's a crushing open.

Harry often talks or shows Taylor as in the clouds or sky. (Golden "So you wait for me in the sky" and in the LNT video) Here he is asking her to hold out her hand to help him get there, which is different, he often talks about 'waiting' or 'one day'.

Taylors asked him to hold out his hand many times in song:

Blank Space: "Grab your passport and my hand"

I Know Places: "Just grab my hand and don’t ever drop it"

New Romantics: "Please take my hand and please take me dancing", and

Willow "I'm begging for you to take my hand"

Taylor has also asked him to Stay, including on 1989's track 5:

All you had to do was stay

Harry has a "Can I stay?" Tattoo in October 2013 after that song, which Taylor wrote 10 January 2013.

Treacherous: "I hear the sound of my own voice asking you to stay"

Renegade "There was nowhere for me to stay, but I stayed anyway."

Delicate: "Stay here, honey, I don’t wanna share"

New Year’s Day: "But I stay when you’re lost and I’m scared and you’re turning away"

The Archer: "Who could stay, you could stay"

Right Where You Left Me: "Everybody moved on, I stayed there"

In this world, it's just us You know it's not the same as it was In this world, it's just us You know it's not the same as it was As it was, as it was You know it's not the same

"It's just us" is being separated from other people by celebrity. Similar to Taylor's Coney Island, (written in a shortly beforehand) "If I can't relate to you anymore / Then who am I related to?" Harry and Taylor have a long shared history, similar experience of celebrity.

'You know it's not the same' is referring to the realization that things have changed and they need to move forward. To me the 'not the same' has layers:

They are no longer the young pop stars in Slut!, Suburban Legends or I know places. Earlier on the record, in Sushi Harry also addresses this "I don't want you to go broke / I won't go broke." They and their fans have matured, he is saying that it won't be as hard as in 2014 and they could now be together.

Their relationship is no longer as it was, in the video Harry shows them being 'built to fall apart and back together' and "when we go crashing down we come back every time' (OOTW/Style). They are older their dynamic had changed and I think he now wants more

Talking to Sirius xm Harry said it was about metamorphosis and that realising that “everything has changed”

Answer the phone "Harry, you're no good alone Why are you sittin' at home on the floor? What kind of pills are you on?" Ringin' the bell And nobody's comin' to help Your daddy lives by himself He just wants to know that you're well, oh

This verse shows Harry alone in a literal and psychological sense. He wishes he was with Taylor. He is alone and his family are worried for his wellbeing and safety.

Go home, get ahead, light-speed internet I don't wanna talk about the way that it was Leave America, two kids follow her I don't wanna talk about who's doin' it first

To me, the leave America line is about Harry finding himself part of a blended family with teens, with a partner he didn't know 6 months earlier. This is pulling him away from his single celebrity life and future expectation Taylor was End Game / Someday.

Much focus is given to that line, but to me "I don't wanna talk about who's doing it first" is equally impactful. It speaks of a sad frustration with the state rather than joyful beginning.

It sounds like being competitive in personal relationships in your late 20's and managing a public narrative with a personal relationship. Hence the sadness here in the film clip.

"Leave America" is his partner leaving a 'Home' rather than going toward one. Home being intertwined with love and commitment in Harry's songs. Looping back to the "Come on Harry..'" sample and lyric video, this 'leave America' is not the life he wants.

As it was You know it's not the same as it was As it was, as it was

In this part of the video Harry dances off into the future. In the bridge Harry saw a path that was not what he wants.

Knowing it is the last song written leaves me suspensed for HS4! Harry is purposeful in his track listing and placed As it Was toward the beginning, between Grapejuice and Daylight. I take that to mean Harry has chosen to pursue the life he wants and to Shoot his Shot.

[blu3cl0v3rs]

Wojira's Ghost Season 5 Rewrite-ish

Plus the seasons before it, but whatevs-

So if you've been reading my Morrotober posts, you might remember my Day 6 prompt featuring my Wojira's Ghost AU. This is slightly inspired by someone's Storm Tether AU, which I can't find anymore.

Mostly follows canon until Season 5, but from Nya's perpective, of course with Ghost Morro being himself.

More Lloyd and Nya content, because while this is Wojira Duo centric, I love them too!

In season 3 and 4, Morro and Garmadon hang out, and it is revealed to Nya that they know each other and are quite close.

Morro acts... weird around Wu. Even the mention of the old man gets him into a mood.

This, of course, builds up tension between Morro and Nya.

At the end of Season 4, Morro and Nya get into a huge argument, and Morro leaves.

Now starting on Season 5's rewrite!

Wu and Misako (btw in this AU there's no romantic stuff between them, and the letter thing never happens) start up a tea shop together, having the Ninja help out with it when they can

Speaking of the Ninja, here's how they (and the Wojira Duo) are doing:

Kai is very happy Zane's back; he's quite clingy and protective of the titanium man. However, he also worries a lot about his younger siblings, who have been avoidant and down ever since Sensei Garmadon sacrificed himself.

Cole has been mostly hanging out with the other Main 4 and spending time with his dad. After Sensei Garmadon's sacrifice, he realizes how easy it is for his family to leave and has been more interactive with his loved ones since. He's worried about Lloyd and Nya, who have been distant.

Jay has been hanging out with Zane a bunch since he was found. He worries a lot about his girlfriend, who seems to be super upset about Sensei Garmadon's sacrifice, but Jay thinks there's something else going on. He tries his best to be there for Nya and Lloyd as they deal with what they're struggling through.

Zane has been happy, as he's with his family now and has Pixal back. He feels as if they are being a bit overprotective, though he doesn't really mind. He is concerned about Lloyd who is handling Sensei Garmadon's sacrifice rather badly. Nya is also upset about something she will not admit, so he will be patient with her nd be there when she needs him.

Lloyd has been burying himself in his Ninja duties, and when he's not on a mission or training he's in his room pouring over anything he can find about the Cursed Realm and realm travel. He mostly eats in the silence of his old room and often cries himself to sleep. He's noticed Nya's also sad about something, and sometimes they exist in the same room doing fheir own respective things in silent solidarity.

Nya spends most of her time avoiding people. The only person she's really around is Lloyd. She regrets her fight with Morro, and wishes she understood why he had an issue with Sensei Wu. She waits, hoping he might pop up and they can apologize.

Morro is no longer tied to Ninjago. By leaving Nya and abandoning his job of watching over her, he accidentally sent himself back to the Cursed Realm. He realized his mistake and regrets it immensely. The Preemminent recognizes that and preys on it, and essentially possesses Morro using his regret, lingering hatred of Lloyd getting the title of the Green Ninja, and left over, messy feelings about Wu (burnt out gifted kid-core).

So yeah, Lloyd, Morro, and Nya are not doing great...

But, Lloyd learns about something called the Realm Crystal, which can teleport you to any realm! He asks Wu about it, and Wu tells him that the Realm Crystal was in the FSM's tomb, but there was no message left behind to find it.

And, Nya discovered that she has the ability to control water! She asked Sensei Wu about it, and he confessed he didn't want to tell her, as she had already become Samurai X. They agree that her learning how to control her abilities does not have to change her being Samurai X, and she starts training.

Anyways, instead of Morro escaping, Wrayth escapes! He steals the Allied Armor of Azure, summons Bansha, Ghoultar, and Soul Archer, and show up at Wu and Misako's tea shop to steal Wu's staff. By some stroke of luck and a lot of teamwork, the ghosts get the staff and escape the Ninja.

Of course, the Ninja also had the symbols copied down, and they embark on their journey to get the Realm Crystal, both to stop Wrayth and co. and get Sensei Garmadon back (and Nya to get Morro back).

It bounces back and forth between the Ninja learning Airjitzu (CYCLONDO), getting the Sword of Sanctuary, and finding the tomb, and Garmadon and Morro in the Cursed Realm, with the last we see of them Morro becoming fully possessed by the Preeminent. Cole doesn't get turned into a ghost. Yet. Also all the stuff with Ronin happens.

The Ninja and the ghosts fight over the Realm Crystal in the tomb, and Lloyd gets taken hostage. Kai pulls the same trick he uses in canon Season 5, and Cole gets turned into a ghost by Wrayth's chain-blade-thing. The ghosts scamper off to Stiix and bring the Preeminent to Ninjago, with the grand reveal of...

Morro

Possessed, angry, violent Morro.

He's an almost complete contrast to the Morro that Nya knows, this one lashes out, yells a lot, and is very harsh. He is nothing like the soft-voiced, distantly caring ghost she grew up with. But, the weirdest part is how much he targeted Sensei.

Then, she looks over and sees Wu. Wu, who looks shocked, crestfallen, and remorseful. Wu, who knows Morro.

Wu hastily explains during the fight that Morro was his first student, which triggered a rage from Morro, who screamed about his past. The one thing he never told Nya.

The Ninja are all knocked down, save for Lloyd, who was tasked with getting the Realm Crystal and wasn't there. Wu is stuck in his head. Nya is the only one left. She talks with Morro. She apologizes. She apologizes again and again, relentless, as Morro seems to come to his senses.

Then, he screams, and a haunting, sickly sweet voice permeates the air from seemingly everywhere. It's the Preeminent. She tells Morro that Nya is lying, that no one cares for him, and that his destiny was stolen.

Nya is pissed off. She just wants her ghost friend back. So, she summons a big ass wave and drowns the tentacled horror, and Lloyd teleports back with his father in tow.

The Ninja ask how Nya knew Morro, and she explains that she grew up with Morro watching over her. Morro elaborates and tells them how Kai, as a kid, summoned and bound him to Nya. The Ninja also ask how Nya summoned that wave, because she and Wu never told them about her powers, and she tells them that she's the Elemental Master of Water, but is still Samurai X.

While the Ninja + Nya and Sensei Garmadon talk about that, Morro and Wu talk. Wu apologizes and tells Morro how he should never had made it seem like Morro needed to be the Green Ninja, and that he was already good enough just being himself. Wu also apologizes for not chasing after Morro, and that it was wrong of him as a teacher and father.

It ends with Morro meeting the Ninja and they all hang out as a big happy family

And that's how Season 5 goes in Wojira's Ghost! Let me know if you want me to elaborate on the other seasons in this AU, or character dynamics/relationships.

[diino8081]

frozen liberation au

THE BEGINNING

chapter 9

(chapter list)

warnings for discussion of murder, self deprecation

zane puts on the necklace.

he's been staring at it for the past 5 minutes and has come to no viable conclusions whatsoever.

the only thing that he knows for certain, he smirks, is that he's just won a free gold necklace.

part of his brain nags at him disapprovingly. what? it's true. this random child gave it to us, for free.

that was out of their own kindness, we could at least honour that.

kindness, or weakness? the child gave you something so valuable to them without even batting an eye. it's stupidity is what it is.

hey! don't say that. kids can be stupid, yes, but they can also be kind.

i will admit though. it does have a nice shine to it, he thinks. i wonder what kind of gemstone that is.

he's brought out of his thoughts by a new pair of footsteps at the door. he turns to see nya shaking the snow off her boots.

"hey. we're going soon." she begins, making her way inside. "the travellers tea wasn't enough for us to reach ninjago. but cole found something a little while ago that should help us through."

nya sits at the driver seat, spinning it around to face zane.

"we're leaving in... about 5 minutes? the team are just saying their goodbyes."

he hums. fidgeting with the necklace.

"where'd you get that?"

zane pauses, looking up to meet nya's eyes. it's a genuine question. she's not going to take it from him.

"i- um. there was a child. they snuck into the bounty, probably a dare or something. gave this to me before leaving." he holds it out in front of him. "they said it brings luck. luck and good fortune."

he notices her staring. "i-it's stupid."

"no, it's not. you clearly care about it. otherwise you wouldn't be wearing it right now."

guilt ruptures in his chest. "it's just, i don't know if i'm worthy. of this. of their kindness."

"of course you are! everyo-"

"i'm a bad person nya!" he stands, clenching his fists. "a murderer! i killed people! tortured them! i did so many terrible things. and the worst part? i enjoyed it."

the room goes quiet.

nya's voice turns stern as she stands up, glaring at him. "you were controlled by the staff, zane. manipulated by vex. you had no memories of who you'd been. who you are."

"no- but-"

"that wasn't you." she continues.

"you don't understand! even after i regained my memories, i killed vex. i hurt kai. i still feel hatred towards the formlings. it's not going to change any time soon. i'm a bad person."

he sighs, looking down. "that's just the way it is."

nya takes a step forward. moving towards him and wrapping him in a hug.

zane's eyes widen.

"we'll fix this. fix you. you're family, and don't you forget it."

his vision glitches one more time before calming.

he tries to reciprocate the hug but remembers; oh, right. hands are cuffed.

instead he leans into the touch. closing his eyes and settling for a "thank you."

they hug for a little while longer before nya moves.

"alright, you dork." nya breaks from the hug. "let's go get the others. we've waited enough."

zane chuckles at the nickname, following behind but he hesitates at the door. he looks outside to see wooden houses scattered in the snow, a river flowing through the middle of it all.

he sees the people he's hurt. they look... happy? why are they happy? is it because the ninja won? because he lost? what would they do if they saw him? run? hide? scream?

...fight?

no... he can't do this. he looks at nya who's watching him with concern.

"i'm not going." he shakes his head.

nya smiles at him with pity, nodding in response. her boots crunch in the snow as she walks away.

zane sighs, returning to his seat. what is wrong with him today?

--

it's not long before the rest of the team arrive. he gets a few looks and glances from the others but he tries his best to push them aside and ignore it.

the engine grumbles to life. he sees a portal of gold appear in front of them. on the other side is what looks to be the monastery's basement, if he remembers correctly.

the land bounty revs, driving through the portal. the bright sky transitions into a dark cave. the curious voices of spectators into a quiet hum of technology.

he's home.

alright that's it for season 1, thank you all so much for reading! season 2 is going to be a wild ride. i'll have a gallery post up in a bit for all the art from the beginning. see you next season!

< previous

+ masterlist

> gallery

[enbysorcerer]

🖋 for Atticus pls?

I cannot draw so have a piccrew instead!

So this is Atticus. He's a feline shapeshifter and fire mage.

Backstory

He was born in France to happily married parents, Angela and Alex.

He was excited to gain a little sister and very confused when his maman didn't seem to like her as much (Angela had severe postpartum depression for reasons that I won't go into on Atticus' bio).

Moving to the US was exciting. He'd heard stories about New York and his great-grandfather from Alex, but getting to see it for himself was a new level of excitement. (The fact that it only happened because his parents were struggling was something he was oblivious to.)

Shortly after moving in, Atticus decided to do the thing he'd been expressly forbid from doing (playing with his fire magic) and ended up burning Alex's arms pretty severely. To this day, he still can't look at the scars without feeling guilty no matter how much Alex has tried to assure him it's fine and was just an accident.

Since Alex was forced to work in the US (he'd largely been a stay at home father in France but now they needed two incomes), he would often bring the children (Atticus and little sister Arianna) to work with him. It was there that he met the first of his future queerplatonic partners, Yashira.

(She was there due to being mute following the death of her parents and Atticus was the first person to really get her talking after their deaths).

I feel I should mention Alex is a psychiatrist before this gets misinterpreted.

Anyway, the two became fast friends and soon Alex was forced to encourage them to seek a different psychiatrist because he'd come to see Yashira as a second daughter.

(He still saw her unofficially but legally they were in a blurry zone that he didn't feel comfortable wtih)

Zane, the second queerplatonic partner, entered a few years later when their mum sent them to Mystic to learn how to control their magic.

He was twelve when he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and boy did he struggle with it. He stressed his poor parents to the extent that all four children (Atticus, Arianna, Yashira, and Zane) were convinced the adults were going to get divorced because "that's what happens when children get sick like this".

(Zane's parents being divorced were the only reference they had for divorced parents and that was not the best example since their divorce was... a lot more complicated than the children realized.)

At some point around here, Amara (Yashira's adoptive mother) started training the trio (Yashira, Zane, and Atticus) to hunt and fight monsters.

Their first solo hunt was when the trio was 18, and resulted in Zane being scarred. Atticus blames himself for that too since he witnessed it happen, and maybe sort of caused it. It's complicated.

Fun Facts

He hates his magic. He'll likely never admit it, but he wishes he'd inherited Alex's plant magic instead of Angela's fire.

He's polyamorous! Even without the two queerplatonic partners, he doesn't think he'd be happy in a monogamous relationship.

Despite this, he hopes to one day find a love like this parents where they're hopelessly devoted to each other. He just wants more than one of them.

This is why the triad with Zane and Yashira works so well. It's just not romantic in nature... at least not on Yashira's part (she's aro).

He's a chemistry teacher at Mystic Academy, the town's school for magical beings.

He was raised pagan and continues to practice as one to this day. He, like Alex, is particularly fond of Persephone.

He loves pokemon and has played every pokemon game there is to some degree. His favorite type is probably fire and he loves the original Ninetales.

He's a video game nerd in general tbh. Pokemon is just his favorite.

He's worn feminine clothes before as an experiment. Ultimately decided he was definitely a boy though, and the clothes were donated to a Mystic charity for people who've had to leave everything behind to run to the safe haven.

He did theater in high school. He tried band as well, but decided it wasn't for him after a few weeks and switched to choir for the remainder of the year.

He knows a fun fact for just about everything. Between Alex (an avid reader and Jeopardy enjoyer), his own love of reading, and being a liberal arts major for two years before switching to teaching, he knows a little about most things.

[gwenbrightly]

Of Milk and Cookies Chapter 18

I'll be honest... It's been years since my last update. Life happened and a lot of my writing took a hit as a result. This story was never truly abandoned, just put aside for awhile, as much as I love this story. Anyway, I am so happy to finally have another chapter ready to share with the world. Hope you all enjoy!

"You have no idea how good it is to eat real food again," Nya declared through a mouthful of pizza. She was finally home after several days of being stuck in her hospital room. The doctors had been concerned about potential infections and had a hard time believing she would stay put if they released her sooner. It had taken a wide array of medical tests (and a lot of begging) to convince them to let her leave. Nya would have danced with glee if not for her stitches. Instead, she settled for a celebratory dinner from her favorite pizza place.

"I can only imagine," Lloyd commented. His own diet lately had been an odd mixture of fast food and local delicacies (some of which were…. Unique for lack of better words) depending on his location throughout the victory tour. He had politely declined her not so subtle attempts to get rid of her bowls of jello and mystery goop by getting someone else to eat them during more than one visit.

"I'm just glad you're okay, Nya," Jay told her, reaching for a slice of pepperoni. He had been extra protective of her since their mad dash to the hospital a few days earlier. Nya wasn't sure if she found it adorable or annoying.

"Yeah, don't scare us like that again." Kai added, earning him a vicious elbow jab from his sister. Nya ignored his yelp of pain.

"I'm fine, guys, really."

"If you're fine, I guess we should put back all the booby traps we found in your room, huh?" Cole offered teasingly. Several of the students of Wu's Academy had chosen to express their excitement at Nya's return by leaving little… surprises in her room.

"Nope. Definitely don't do that," Nya relented. She didn't have the energy to deal with frogs in her bed or whatever else the kids had come up with. "How did Sally and Megan even get in there?" Whoever else may have been involved, those two were almost always the ringleaders when it came to annoying Nya.

"It wouldn't surprise me if Brad taught them to pick locks," Lloyd offered with a shrug. As much as his friend had changed, Lloyd was sure he could still be a menace when he wanted to be.

"Eh. That tracks. I gotta say, I like that kid way better when he's focused on his gardening instead of causing chaos." Nya might find Brad annoying, but she had to admit he had done wonders with the school's flowerbeds.

"He has really been trying to turn over a new leaf lately. I'm proud of him," Stated Zane. The others nodded in agreement. Brad had come a long ways since they had first met him during the Evil Clone Incident.

"With a granny like his, I'm not surprised. She scares me." Jay shuddered.

"Hey, now," Lloyd said. He took a bite of pizza before continuing. "Everyone needs a slightly terrifying old person in their lives. Brad has his granny and we have Uncle Wu."

"You find Wu terrifying?" Zane asked, skeptical. He found it difficult to see Wu as particularly threatening. On most days, at least.

"Well yeah - Sometimes." The green ninja sheepishly admitted. He was fully aware that most people probably expected his father to be the relative he found scary. And Garmadon was scary, too, but things were different now that he was free of the Great Devourer's venom. Wu was a menace because he wanted to be, not because of any outside influences.

"Have you seen how quickly Wu can move when he wants to be sneaky? I swear the guy gives me a heart attack at least once a week popping up behind me when I'm in the middle of something!" Jay exclaimed, "I'm with Lloyd on this one."

"You probably shouldn't say that in front of Wu. It'll just encourage him," Kai commented.

"Yeah," Cole agreed, "Don't give him any ideas. One time I told him he might wanna sing a little more quietly in the shower… So He sang louder instead."

Nya stifled a giggle. Their uptight mentor certainly knew how to mess with people when he wasn't forcing them out of bed hellishly early to train. No one except maybe Zane appreciated that. Speaking of beds, Nya was beginning to think hers sounded like a rather nice place to be right about now. Definitely more inviting than the hospital cot had been. With a thick pile of fuzzy blankets and plenty of extra pillows. Mmm… Yes… Bed… sleep. She had a lot of sleep to catch up on…

"Ugh. I hate to say it, but I'm about ready to fall asleep at the table. All the pain meds they had me on really wiped me out," Nya admitted, yawning. Several of the others began to boo loudly at this announcement.

"Oh stop it you guys. You managed to survive a weekend without me. I'm sure you can survive a little longer," Nya told them. She rolled her eyes at the ridiculously pathetic looks Lloyd and Jay were giving her. She wouldn't be giving in to their pleading puppy eyes routine. Not this time.

"Aww fine…" Lloyd was the first to relent. "But at least have some dessert before you go?" He leapt up from his seat and disappeared into the kitchen to retrieve a grocery bag with several boxes of frosted sugar cookies. Nya stared longingly at them and said,

"I guess I could be convinced to stay up a few more minutes." She couldn't help it. The cookies were calling to her.

"That's what I figured," Lloyd replied. He really was an expert at the Bribing Nya game. It was a skill worth being proud of.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Cole interjected, "we can't have cookies without milk. It's practically illegal."

"Truth. I got it!" Jay announced. Glasses and a jug of milk were quickly added to the assortment of cookies Lloyd was arranging on the table.

"I propose a toast," Kai stated, pouring himself a cup of milk, "To Nya not dying and finally escaping the hospital."

The sound of glasses clinking followed as the others repeated, "To Nya not dying and finally escaping the hospital!"

It really was good to be home.

[weirdships000]

Back for more, I'd love to know some of your Zane x Zenix hcs!

Yay, I'm glad your back for more, especially when it comes to asks about this pairing, i love these two. these are PDH centered because thats where i have the most hcs.

in PDH Zane was pretty open with his feelings for Zenix, (not intentionally, Zane was just in puppy love with all the Sks and couldn't properly hide it)

Zenix at first tried to brush his feelings off and ignore it (it did not work)

Zenix is like a bratty child, when he has a crush instead of properly flirting or talking to the person he gets more aggressive.

Zenix would pull Zanes hair, punch him, kick him, insult him more, and just generally be as mean as he could.

Zane being extremely both very naïve and very much in puppy love was just happy to get the attention and it made him follow Zenix more.

Zane managed to find out which locker was Zenixs and started leaving gifts in it, (like candy, flowers, pretty rocks, random canned drinks, etc, etc)

Zenix loved the sweet little presents and kept everything Zane gave him.

Zane being mildly obsessive with his crushes collected things Zenix had used or left behind in places.

Zane also had gotten some of Zenixs hair, blood and spit (Spit is from when Zenix bite Zane once and got spit on Zanes bleeding arm.)

when they both get together/get closer they start hanging out more, like having tea parties, rough housing, binge watching horror movies, reading together (Aka Zane reads to Zenix and Zenix cuddles Zane.)

they also play a lot of video games together, usually some fantasy or horror related, or sims. (they make themselves as sims and have them get married, they both get super flustered when they do it.)

Zenix is still fairly aggressive even once they're dating, Zane is constantly covered in swollen love bites.

Zane likes brushing and braiding Zenixs hair but he has to do it super gently or Zenix will bite him.

they have matching heart shaped necklaces because they are cheesy like that.

Zane is usually little spoon and Zenix is usually big spoon but if Zenix is having a bad day or just wants to be held then Zane will be big spoon.

thanks for the ask anon, hope you have a good day.

[roxxie-spirt]

The people have spoken, Laurance is the reincarnation of thee shad

I’ll do some small shad lore in this post this just a small one not too much

Shad was close friends with the divine warriors long before they were divine. This was when Shad was about 13years old and a peasant mortal from the shadow realm, one day a wyvern broke the barrier between the realm’s and shad was able to go through without a scratch. When he touched the green earthy grass , he’d be lying if he said he didn’t have a sensory overload of colors and light. While he was adjusting to this new world he heard crackling of leaves coming from a near by path he hit as fast as he can before someone can see him. As the steps grew closer, the louder his hearts seem to be pounding in his ears. He jumped out from his hiding spot behind a tree and just saw a human girl short tanned skin and pitch black hair. He had met Irene and he would also be lying if he didn’t admit that she was a pretty girl, but he did, immediately by calling her a monster and Irene the same. For a couple of moons shad would visit the overrealm to banter with Irene and slowly Irene brought some of her friends such as Enki, Esmund, Menphia, and Kulzak. The first time Shad felt like he belong that he made true friendship , kinda sad he had to venture out of his realm to make friends… but friends neither the less.

Now for some personal info about shad teehee

Shads a total mamas boy he loves his mom

He’s an only child with a single mother

Shads a being of the shadow realm, he has darkened Hands and feet and pointed ears, they’re shadowpeople one power they usually have is that they can hide well in shadows. Are they larger than the overealm beings? Not really they do have more magicks within their genetic makeup though

Shad just like Laurance ofc is a raging Bisexual

How does Laurance find out that he’s the reincarnation of shad??

So I will eventually design the relics because I heart the relic loreee mmMmmMm , but that’s NOT NOW‼️‼️ as I said Shad relic was passed down by his bloodline over thousands of years and yes Shad had a kid that ISNT THE ONE FROM MYSTREET I’m not even gonna.. anyways Shad banged ok and had a kid with some chick so technically Aarons has a bit of Shadowpeople genetics in him ;). Laurance finds out pretty early or at least he kinda has a hunch. When Laurance is healing from the shadow realm in aphmaus home he has these vivid nightmares of his own POV grieving in what seems like the Shadowrealm and him creating shadow knights from corpses of human beings. The nightmares goes away after Laurance is heard sobbing in his sleep from Zoey, she puts a comfort spell in his sleep and the nightmares just become dreams and it’s happy memories of these blurred out faces of Preteens and teens Going on adventures and using magic. Of course Laurance doesn’t think too much of this until Zane becomes a bigger threat and everyone’s doing research on relics and the divine warriors, Shad is almost wiped out of religious and history books at least his name but the destroyer comes up A LOT. Some of the books sound familiar to Laurance even if he wouldn’t even know how he would know it’s like a sick sense of déjà vu. Truly Laurance finds out that he’s at least a PART of shad when he goes back to the shadow realm due to the calling and the corpse of Aaron is waiting for him being reanimated by Shads other part of his soul.

Bruh Laurance fr is having so much internal battles in himself he’s not quite dead not quite alive and brother doesn’t even have a completed soul‼️‼️ this dudeeeee he’s still my fav he’s still silly

just to let it out there THIS AARONS OUTFIT ISNT MY REDESIGN I’m still plotting ( I am keeping his stupid eye mask it just has holes in it now… also it’s Jacob’s shirt :3) anyways back to the mainnnn subject

I just can’t decide is the clear deal I got two ideas that I’ll share right now that I’m torn , to let it be clear, shad and Irene aren’t romantic partners in this rewrite ( but honestly I’m mixed opinioned on it )

Aaron ! Just plain and simple, he’s the reincarnation of shad because of his bloodline being connected, the relic was pass down generations until Zane stole it. Aaron never absorbed the relic because he honestly did not know what it was since by generation to generations the story grew thin and fictitious. He is a DIRECT descendant of shad , great great and so on and so forth grandson of shad

Laurance ! Now shad is Aaron’s great ancestor and Aaron looks horrifyingly similar to shad, but that’s all a red herring. Laurance is the true reincarnation of shad his soul decided to choose Laurances life as its new life, or at least part of shads soul. Laurance of course he doesn’t know he’s the reincarnation of this ancient evil, and he doesn’t find out until his calling to the shadow realm. While Laurance was being made into a shadow knight the essence of shad who had been just a shadow that roamed the halls of his castle, felt a sudden urge to follow its tug until eventually he sees Laurance surrounded by his shadow knights. Until ungrth crashed into the walls and rescuing Laurance. The reason why Laurances calling is so much louder and way more aggressive is because part of shad is calling him out personally, he wants his soul back and he doesn’t want to wait any longer.

THAT A QUICK LIL THING ANYWAYS BTW THIS DOESNT MEAN LAURANCE WOULD DIE IN SEASON2… THATS THATS still Aaron and there’s a reason for that, which I’m not gonna say because I love keeping people on edgeeither way one decision or the other it doesn’t matter to me Aaron in my rewrite is important just not a romance interest.. ( that doesn’t mean Alina doesn’t exist btw )

[queerzane]

I just connected my daydream world to ninjago.

I have this character Ria who almost dies but Dr Julien saves her and builts her a heart and an arm she lost.

Ria is Zane's third friend ever after Julien and Falcon.

[destinysbounty]

I was gonna put this headcanon in a fic but i probably will never write it so instead im gonna share with all of you. Do with this idea as you wish

The fact that Pixal just up and built herself a new body in season 7 suggests she could have done it at any time, but chose not to. And i refuse to believe Zane and Borg didnt at least offer to give her a body - Zane admitted he preferred having her physical, im sure he at least suggested rebuilding her at one point. As he said in season 8, "The choice has always been yours, Pixal." Which leads me to believe she was the determining factor in her own reconstruction. She chose to stay in Zane's head, and Id like to think her reasons for doing so are similar to her reasons for hiding her identity as Samurai X: self-imposed guilt.

Let me explain.

Think of it like this. Pixal was built to assist, right? Even from the beginning of their relationship, she has been put in several positions of saving, protecting, and looking after Zane. Their first bonding moments involved her repairing him and later rescuing him from a junkyard metal shredder. Just as Zane has an integral need to protect built into the core of his existence, so too does Pixal have an integral need to assist.

When Zane gave her half his heart, he seriously disadvantaged himself in combat. Not only that, but it was his heart being unable to withstand the Golden Power that killed him in the end. Im sure there was at least some small part of Pixal that blamed herself for this. Not just because she might see this as a failure to uphold her reason for existence (helping people) - but also bc maybe if he'd had his whole heart during that fight, maybe if she'd just given it back to him, he might have had a fighting chance. It would have only marginally improved his chances of survival, but that small .003% probability increase is enough to make her blame herself. A probability that small is statistically irrelevant, but she cant help using it as an excuse to blame herself - or perhaps, to give her a rationalization for her survivor's guilt. Because the heart inside her, powering her, is the same heart Zane could have used to defend himself against the Golden Power, and the feeling of it inside her is unbearable.

Then Zane comes back, and she gets scrapped. And Zane forgets everything, and his mind is in shambles, and she has to help him piece himself back together again.

She blames herself for this, blames herself for his death and for the scrambled state of his memories that came as a consequence. So she figures, she caused this, so its her responsibility to help him fix his broken mind. Its her responsibility to assist.

So she stays in his head, where she can hold his memories together and keep his mind from falling apart. She insists she prefers it this way, likes being close to him, but deep down she longs for her physical freedom and hates herself for wanting more than she deserves.

Then Borg is kidnapped. And Zane is nonresponsive. And she has a choice. So she chooses to rebuild herself and leave Zane behind.

And...she feels good. Free. She's...happy about it.

But shes also deeply ashamed. Thinks she doesnt deserve to enjoy the experience of leaving Zane's head. He needs her, she's less useful to him outside his headset...and yet here she is, being Samurai X, having the absolute time of her life. She loves it, and she hates herself for loving it so much.

So out of shame, she tells no one. Shes worried theyll be just as disappointed in her as she is in herself.

And Zane...well, maybe theres a reason the Ninjigma didnt become a problem until after Pixal left his headset. Maybe she was the only thing holding him together, and the moment she left, all his memories started spiraling out of control. Maybe the events of Decoded turned out to be for the best, and allowed Zane to sort through and finish repairing his memories on his own, without relying on Pixal for help.

When Pixal reunites with Zane, shes worried he'll be upset. "Was i more...useful...inside the computer?" But to her surprise and delight, he prefers her in whatever form makes her happiest, not whatever form makes her most useful.

And Pixal, backed by the support of Zane and their friends, flourishes in her new role as Samurai X - not just in an assistive capacity, but exploring and embracing her interests in engineering and tinkering. Things are good, for a while.

But then Zane ends up in the Never Realm. And he comes home, and she learns what happened. She hears what Vex did, how she sabotaged his memories and twisted his own sense of self against him.

Once more, she blames herself. Begins to believe that maybe if she had still been in his headset, she could have prevented all that suffering.

Anyway, Pixal with survivors guilt and a raging hero complex my BELOVED