#the fact that jay has never been turned evil though-

[starsabovethesun]

Not my video, but it's good none the less.

[mafuluzx]

Can I have a one shot of any of the ninjas x male!reader? The reader looks incredibly intimidating but when the reader gets talked to it just turns out he's shy , has a soft voice, and is just overall kind hearted? (reader basically just puts up an intimidating look with a straight face to avoid conversations)

Of courseeeeee! Hmmm, If you say any character, I'm not sure if you prefer a female character or a male character, so... I'mma just pick Jay cause he's cool.

I rarely refer to the reader as 'you', I often use (y/n) to get a more storybook like feel to my stories, to but one was in desperate need of the change.

Jay x male reader

Season 4 episode 1

Your biggest Fan

(y/n) (l/n), the tallest, scariest Elemental Master by far. Even the tough Karlof or the intimidating Shade avoided even stepping close to him.

And (y/n) (l/n), is in fact, you.

You liked your solitude, so it was fine for now. The ferry was packed, and the pressures of a large crowd, when the only way to escape was to jump in the ocean, sounded less than pleasant.

You kept taking glances around though, you had seen the ninja on the docks before everyone had gotten on the boat. But after accidentally locking eyes with the blue ninja of all people, you decided to instead keep your distance. He was probably intimidated by you anyway.

Most people took one good look at you and though: Nope! nope, nope, nope and nope! Sometimes a short glance was enough to have the same results.

That's exactly why you never made any friends. You didn't know exactly why you seemed so scary to the others. Alone your expression wasn't intimidating enough to scare anyone. Maybe it was the combination of the expression, the way you stayed quiet to avoid stuttering, and maybe something else.

But for some reason, he wasn't scared.

"I'm Jay, the Master of Lightning. I don't wanna be rude or anything, but... are a bad guy? Like a villain?" You were way too scared to answer him. You barely even turned your head towards him, and gave him a glance.

Though you couldn't see it, this was the exact intimidating expression that kept you away from other people.

"That's it! That look! You're planning something... something evil. Epic, but evil!"

You tried to keep your face neutral, though inside, your heart was pounding. Not because Jay’s weird accusations uncomfortable. Well, they were weird, but you were fine with it.

The actually reason was that Jay is, and had always been your favorite ninja. The way his energy made just wouldn't die down, and how he could make even the darkest situations seem a little brighter. He was the exact opposite of you, and maybe that’s what made him so magnetic to you.

"I'm not… planning anything," you muttered, barely even hearing your own voice from under the sea breeze.

Jay blinked, before giving you an awkward smile. "Sorry, didn't quite catch that."

You cleared your throat, feeling the heat rise to your cheeks. "I'm not planning anything," you repeated, slightly louder before you went right back to muttering "I just… don't talk much."

"So... you're just shy?" (y/n) thought about it, before giving Jay a nod, hoping he'd drop the topic.

But of course, Jay being Jay, didn't let it go. Instead he grinned like a child.

"That's adorable!" Jay chuckled, leaning against the ferry railing.

Your heart skipped a beat, and you nearly choked on your own breath. Adorable? Jay thought you were adorable? You were supposed to be the tough, quiet one, definitely not adorable. But strangely, it made you happy.

"W-What?" You stammered, eyes wide.

Jay laughed, clearly enjoying your reaction. "You’ve got this whole 'I'm tough, don't talk to me' face on, you even glared at me back at the dock! But you're actually just a shy guy. I mean, how can anyone not think that's adorable?"

You could feel your face getting hotter by the second, and for a moment, you felt like hiding everything. Your face, your voice, the way you couldn't just be normal around him. But then, Jay's laughter softened, and when you dared to look up at him, his grin was still there, but there was a warmth in his eyes too, something that made your stomach do a little flip.

"Hey, don’t worry," Jay said, leaning against the railing again, "It's al-" Unfortunately, Jay was cut off by another ninja calling over to you and him.

"Jay! What are you doing, you can't just wander off like that." Kai, the one who had called over to you, jogged over, his tone half-scolding, half-exasperated. Behind him were Cole, Lloyd, and Sensei Garmadon. None of them seemed even half as annoyed as Kai did, just confused.

Meanwhile you felt angry. So angry that you, on purpose for once, gave Kai a glare.

Immediately Kai froze, though he didn't seem scared, just taken back.

"Jay, who the hell are you hanging around with?" Kai huffed at Jay as his eyes scanned you up and down, not in an insulting way, but as if he was sizing you up.

Jay huffed right back, "Don't be rude! This is..." Then he trailed off, before turning back to you as you wiped the glare off your face faster then lightning.

"What is your name, anyway?"

"...(y/n)," You quietly said, a bit nervous because there were more people around. Jay smiled, before whipping back to face Kai.

"This is (y/n)!" He declared, giving Kai a smile that just screamed 'I'm proud of myself!' It was as if introducing you like you were a gold medal, showing you off in glee.

Kai raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed by Jay's theatrics, though his gaze relaxed a bit. "Okay... and how do you know him?"

Jay opened his mouth to reply but faltered, clearly realizing that he barely knew anything about you beyond the few words exchanged moments ago. He glanced over at you, looking a little sheepish, before giving Kai the same awkward smile he had given you before.

"Uh, well, we actually just met, but-" Jay started, but Kai cut him off with a skeptical look.

"You mean you just started talking to some random guy?" Kai crossed his arms, looking concerned once more.

Lloyd, who had stayed back with Cole, approached you with a polite smile to calm down the situation. "It's nice to meet you, (y/n). Don’t mind Kai, he's just annoyed." He shot Kai a glance before adding with a slight smirk, "Unlike Jay, he hasn't gotten any new friends."

You gave a small nod, still feeling a little out of place with all their attention on you. But Lloyd’s calm demeanor eased some of the tension that had built up.

Cole, who had also been quiet up until now, finally spoke. "I think I saw you by yourself, back on the docks?" His tone was mindful and careful, he didn't want to seem rude either.

You nodded again, wishing they would stop looking at you so intently. With Jay you hadn't felt this uncomfortable. Probably 'cause these three were also careful about how they came across, while Jay didn't seem to care about that.

"He’s not some 'random guy,'" Jay jumped back into the conversation, also jumping over and hugging one of your arms tightly.

"I mean, sure, we’ve only talked for a few minutes, but come on, he's adorable! He's super shy, but nice. And I bet he's stronger than he looks." Jay spoke enthusiasticly, as Lloyd looked (y/n) up and down.

"Well he looks strong to begin with-" But he was cut off by Jay turning back to you again. "And you're an Elemental Master, right?"

"Obviously..." Kai muttered, though he was left ignored.

All the ninja were looking at you now, and the pressure of their stares felt heavier than before. Your throat tightened slightly as you debated whether to tell them

You swallowed, then nodded slowly. "Yeah... I am," you said quietly, your voice barely audible. "The Master of (Anything you want!)."

"See! A pretty powerful element, right?" Jay asked the others, who nodded, except for Kai.

Jay noticed how stubborn Kai was being, and turned to whisper into your ear.

"Kai might not like you, but I think you're great!"

Jay hadn't even asked you to be his friend yet, but you knew, no matter what, you couldn't say no to the Master of Lightning.

[razzle-zazzle]

1593 Words; this is literally just crack

AO3 ver

“Dad!” Cole stood up, phone in hand. “How’ve you been?”

He walked towards the doorway as Lou chatted on the other end of the call. Kai watched Cole go, then turned his focus back to the game. If he timed his next combo just right, he could finally get the edge he needed to beat Jay.

“Ha!” Kai executed the combo, grinning as Jay’s character took the hits. “I’ve got you now!”

“No you fucking don’t!” Jay riposted, “Not if I use my special move!” And indeed, while wearing a grin that Kai could only describe as pure evil, Jay broke Kai’s combo to unleash his character’s special attack.

“Wh—no fair!” Kai started mashing buttons frantically to try and regain the upper hand. “I had you! I was—”

“YOU’RE WHAT?” Cole’s voice smashed through the wall and Kai’s concentration in one fatal blow. As one, Kai and Jay turned to yell towards the wall that Cole was on the other side of for breaking their focus—

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU’RE REMARRYING?” It felt as though the whole monastery shook from the force of Cole’s yell. Now everyone was staring at the wall, jaws dropped. Cole’s dad? Remarrying?

Okay, they just had to hear this. With only a single shared glance the ninja crept towards the door as one, the video game long forgotten. One by one, they each poked their heads through the door, thankful that Cole had his back to it.

“Why the fuck haven’t I heard anything about this?” Cole demanded. His foot was tap-tap-tapping against the floor the way it did when he was agitated, and the hand not holding his phone was tangled into his hair. He twitched, as Lou said something sharp on the other end.

“No, dad,” Cole’s free hand moved to pinch the bridge of his nose as he turned, the ninja ducking behind the door frame before he could notice. “I’m not going to watch my language. Not when my dad’s remarrying and never even told me he was DATING in the first place!” Cole paced a short circle as his dad responded, his face pinched between annoyance and disbelief. Kai peeked around the door frame—only to have to duck back behind it when Cole’s pacing turned him towards the door.

Jay turned around to the sound of a floorboard creaking. Wu, undoubtedly disturbed from his meditation by Cole’s earlier shout, stood behind them all, stroking his beard contemplatively. After a moment, he shuffled over to stand to the other side of the door. “Don’t mind me.” He muttered, quietly enough that Cole didn’t hear. With that, they all turned their attention back to the half-of-a-conversation going on in the other room.

“Dad—” Cole had to pause to massage his temples. He loved his father, he really did, but that didn’t mean that his father still couldn’t utterly bewilder him. “Okay, fine, it was a whirlwind romance and you were ‘too caught up in the love’ to tell me.” He conceded, “But just because I can see you doing that does not mean you’re forgiven!”

Zane could have sworn the response from the other end was smug. He could barely pick up on the audio, let alone decipher it, but he could just feel the quick comeback that had Cole stiffening, stopping in his tracks.

“Wh—that’s different!” Cole insisted. “I go to other realms and stuff! I’m not always going to have cell service in the middle of the end of the world!” He put his free hand on his hip, leaning slightly as though Lou were right there in front of him. “What’s your excuse, huh?” Another pause, as Lou spoke on the other end, then—

Cole sighed. “Alright,” he caved, fondness creeping into the edges of his voice, “You’re forgiven. But!” He spun on his heel, “Don’t think I’m not gonna hold this over your head forever!” Some things just could not be let go. Like the Triple Tiger Sashay incident; Cole would never let his father live down the fact that he’d genuinely thought a seven year old could perform the most difficult dance move in all of Ninjago.

Kai locked eyes with Lloyd, wiggling his eyebrows to ask if this was some sort of elaborate prank. Lloyd shook his head, wide-eyed with just as much surprise as Kai was feeling. Kai turned to Wu, who raised an eyebrow in question. But the old man had that gleam in his eyes he got when a soap opera reached a particularly interesting twist, and was leaning towards the wall with clear interest in the conversation unfurling on the other side.

“So who is it?” Cole asked, back once again to the door. “Who am I gonna have to throw into the mud at the wedding?”

Nya had to bite back a snort, lest Cole discover everyone’s shameless eavesdropping. But she and everyone else were on tenterhooks, now—they had to know who it was. Who could Lou possibly have fallen so into love with?

Cole chuckled at his father’s response, tension starting to roll out of his shoulders. He opened his mouth, as if to retort to some comment—

They all noticed the way Cole went as still as a statue, the room suddenly silent. “...what?”

Now everyone was leaning into the doorway, eyes locked onto Cole. The mystery just kept getting more mysterious! Jay and Kai glanced at each other, silently conversing through complex eyebrow gymnastics—

“You’re joking.” Cole wasn’t even tap-tap-tapping his foot anymore, as still as a statue. “You’re pulling my fucking leg. This isn’t—”

Whatever happened on the other end of the phone made Cole’s eyes widen in disbelief. The ninja watched as his grip on the phone grew slacker, slacker, the phone beginning to slip from his hand—

Cole doubled over as he choked on air, the phone clattering to the floor. The ninja all met each other’s eyes. Kai and Wu began to move into the room to go help Cole, only to stop in their tracks when Cole grabbed the phone, and, still kneeling on the floor, spoke.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I—” Cole threw his head back, muttering what might have been a prayer to the First Master before speaking again. “Dad—and I say this with all due respect—but—just—what the fuck?”

The ninja were all silently conversing now, astonishment in their eyes as they tried to determine via eyebrow wiggles and hand movements who in the name of the First Master could be Lou’s new fiance. Even Wu contributed the occasional beard stroke and pointed look to the conversation. No conclusions were reached, though, as Cole continued to converse with his father.

“So when’s the wedding? Oh, are you gonna send out fancy invites?” Cole asked, nodding as Lou responded. “Okay, right, makes sense.” He turned back around again, his foot once again tap-tap-tapping against the floor. “I’ll keep an eye on the mail.” He chuckled at something said on the other end. “Bye, Dad. Love you too. Bye.” With a sigh, Cole lowered the phone, the call apparently over.

The smart thing to do would be to go back to the video game and pretend none of them had heard any of that, to try and respect Cole’s dad’s privacy by waiting until the supposed wedding invites would arrive—

Oh, who cared! As one, everyone spilled into the room, almost tumbling over each other as they swarmed Cole.

“YOUR DAD’S REMARRYING?!”

“Who is it?”

“Are they nice?”

“When’s the wedding?”

“Are we invited?”

“Where will they be getting married?”

“Lou? Remarrying?!”

“Whoa—” Cole stumbled back from the onslaught, turning pleading eyes to Sensei Wu for a moment. But Wu was to be no help, instead stroking his beard contemplatively. With a resigned sigh, Cole turned his attention back to the others. “Guys, guys, slow down, I only just found out—”

“Cole.” Jay gripped Cole’s shoulders with such intensity that Cole could no longer move. “If you don’t tell us who your dad’s marrying I am going to go straight to his house to find out.” His voice was thick with its intensity, static electricity making the ends of his hair begin to float.

“Yeah!” Lloyd added, “We gotta make sure she’s good enough for Lou!” From the looks on everyone’s faces, it was clear that Jay and Lloyd would not be alone in going all the way to Cole’s childhood home to pry into Lou’s love life.

“Wait,” Cole’s attention locked onto Lloyd. “You don’t know?”

Lloyd blinked. “Why would I know?” One could see the gears in his head turning as he tried to parse the hidden meaning in Cole’s question. His eyes literally lit up once it clicked, his expression morphing into one of horror. “Wait, it’s not…” He inhaled sharply, “mom, right?” Misako and Garmadon had divorced shortly after Lloyd was born, and despite some flirting here and there they had never quite rekindled their old flame. Lloyd’s head began to spin—only for Cole’s hand to land on his shoulder, bringing Lloyd’s attention back to the here and now.

“It’s not Misako.” Cole said, though his tone suggested that Misako might be preferable to whatever was going to come out of his mouth next. He took a deep breath, “The guy my dad’s marrying…” Cole started—the anticipation of the air thickened to the point of suffocation, the heavy silence cut by Kai and Jay’s excited “GUY?”—

“…Is Garmadon.”

The ensuing cacophony reached all the way across Ninjago. Suffice to say, nobody would be returning to the video game for a while.

[bokettochild]

Hey! I ahev some rambled about the opera house au and just things with the chain in general.

First.

Hwo do you think legend would react to having to play a lead character for the opeing of the show and the main character he played love interest was one if the dives? Like maybe lullaby started panicking because dusk dropped out on opening night and she got sick and lullaby panicked and told legend he would play the lead daisy Buchanan (i'm just using the great gatsby musical characters bc i'm in love with it right now) and one of the dives played jay gatsby and he had to kiss them and sing powerful songs?

Second.

I don't know if it is Canon but in the linked Universe, legend is times descendent or direct successor. How do you think tike would react to finding out he had one more descendent under his nose and it's the veteran who is prickly and cold nothing like twilight his descendent or wind I think wind is his successor who is goofy ans child like but also put. Off even though in recent update we saw legend is an aboustle gremlin...well live that though.

Third

Do you think legend would ever yell at twilight? Like maybe legend is having a bad day snd twilight says somting like "time left the master sword in perfect condition I didn't have to save Mt world until I was 17" and so on just really boasting about it to legend maybe because legendhad been mean or snsrky to wild and twilightwas trying tk get back for wild. Snd legend snaps "yeah really?! Good for you well time didn't leave the master sword in good condition for me! When I found the master sword it rusted beyond belief I had to build it back up with my own 9 (or who ever years old legend was) old hands with times blood on it because time died! Well fighting ganon making my world fall apart leaving a nine year old to save it!" Had legend just yells at twilight dumping all of his trauma on twilight even bring marin into to mix, and the whole chain stands there watching their veteran yell at the ranch hand with tears streaming down his face. Well time feels horrible for birnf inccont legend into the cruel world of being a hero, and giving him that trauma.

Alright bye enjoy your day and be safe!

Legend can and has filled in for leading roles before, but he's also been cast in them! His major starring role is actually one of his more iconic (there's nothing more iconic than that, fight me) and does feature a bit of a "love story" between himself and the character that Warriors plays. Granted, Legend's character is faking the whole thing, but it's still a lot of flirting on stage. They both know how to be professional about it and behave themselves though, and anything like kissing is usually faked for the sake of the actors (when and if they can, there's no actual contact made, as long as they can make it look like there is. He's also ended up having to play a love interest (unrequited, but still) for Wild's character! They had a good laugh about it honestly and yeah, there was a moment there where people had questions, but it just turns out Legend's a good actor and very convincing :)

Honestly, I think Time would be sort of shocked to find out that Legend is also his successor, but also sort of horrified. I mean, Legend comes from a world where Time not only died, but also failed in his duties as a hero, leaving them to fall on the shoulders of another child instead. Granted, that's not his fault, but if you look at their timeline talk and all, you can't deny Time wouldn't blame himself at least a small amount. Would that guilt make it harder for him to be around Legend? Would he treat him differently, knowing that Legend might never have become a hero if Time hadn't fallen? I think he would. I think the guilt would eat at him, because while he does know there will always be heroes who rise to face evil, the fact that Legend had to rise specifically to clean up after him would devastate him. All the more so because Legend's the guy who's done the most out of all of them and is the only one to repeatedly have to fight Ganon, because the pig gained immortality as (again) a result of the Hero of Time falling.

I don't know that Legend would trauma dump on any of his brothers intentionally. he's very guarded, an people like that tend to not be super eager to drop truth bombs that big in a moment flat. Over time though? Sure! Someone makes a comment about the Master Sword and Legend ends up revealing that he had to reforge his before it was actually fit for use, because it was left in ruin. Something else later lets them learn that it still had Time's blood on it when it was left in the forest, and that Legend, while reforging the blade, had to clean the blood-rust away, smelling the blood of his predecessor as he worked. Maybe this or that comes up and they slowly start getting the puzzle pieces of the vet's life; nothing seems to fit together one way or another, and they're not sure how much is true because there's so many things, how could this much happen to one person? But then they realize how many adventures there have been, and how long it took, and when the final nail in the coffin comes with a tired "I was eight", it really hits them all. Legend wouldn't dump it all at once, but I think his brothers are smart enough to put together what he does say to find out the truth, and I think it would devastate them. Twilight would absolutely feel guilty about having it "so easy" in comparison (no such thing, they all suffered, but hey, they all think their pain is lesser than the rest) but I think Legend would shut that down in a heartbeat, if he knew. Now, if Legend inhibitions were lowered in some way and someone set him off? We might get it all at once, with the drama you described. Legend would have to be pretty out of it to be so honest about his past, but hey! Whatever works to make fissures and pain, no?

[error-pleaseleaveamessage-error]

Show Me How It's Done

This could take place anywhere between Season 2-4! I wrote 4,000 words in two nights, I don't know what beast possessed me to write this.

Fandom: Lego Ninjago

Summary: Zane gets into a tickle fight for the first time.

Warning(s): Swearing

Disclaimer!! This is a SFW tickle fic!

Zane had never been in a tickle fight before.

He’s seen them plenty of times, especially ever since he joined the monastery. In fact, he couldn’t recall a time he’s ever seen so much tickling to this degree before he met his fellow ninja brethren. 

Despite this, Zane has never found himself on the receiving end of such affection. 

“NohoHOHOAHA!! COHOLE. GIVE ME THE CONTROHOLLER!!”

“Not gohonna HAHAPPEN Zaptrap!!”

“Oh, First Master. SHUT UP YOU GUYS!” 

He’s calculated that there is a high probability he will experience that tonight.

He has finished dinner by the time the sun has set well past the mountains. The next phase would be for Zane to exit the warm kitchen momentarily so he may gather everyone, usually in a one-by-one fashion. Someone could be found in the training room, or in their collective bedroom. Not too long ago, he had found Lloyd in the latter, peacefully reading his preferred comic book series. Wu, no doubt, would be mediating and waiting for Zane’s arrival. Nya, more often than not, could be found hunched over her latest work. 

Lucky for him, the last three were gathered in the living room. Unluckily for him, he caught them in the middle of a heated argument. In the literal sense of Kai, being the elemental master of fire, looking seconds away from smacking a bickering Cole and Jay with the nearest thing - being a pillow.

Predictably, Zane watched as Kai snatched his weapon and whacked his closest target. His victim, happening to be Jay, sputters on the floor in a protective ball.

“Yeah, get him Kai!” Cole cheered, eager to have someone on his side.

Then Kai turned to him, furious and equipped. “Hey, wait a second-!” Nevermind, Zane supposed, as Cole blocked blow after blow with light chuckles. 

“SHUT!” Cole didn’t prepare for the whack on his side, toppling him next to Jay.

“THE!” Jay shrieked at the next smack, or perhaps from the sudden weight of Cole.

“HELL!” The two yelped, shoving at each other or in an attempt to be ready for the next blow - Zane was unsure.

“UP!!” With a final whack, eliciting giddy giggles from the heap, Kai suddenly abandoned his weapon. Instead he dove into the pile, pulling even more shocked gasps and squeaky giggles.

It wasn’t difficult to see why, Zane let out a sigh of fondness, gazing at Kai’s devious fingers poking sporadically at any limb he could reach. It didn’t seem to matter if it was Jay’s rib or Cole’s tummy, they were squirming to get away from their friend’s wrath. 

“Ahahaha!! Kahahai!!” Cole swiped at the offending fingers, missing hilariously far in the process, before giving a quick pound to the floor. “Nohoho!”

Jay was no better, hugging his arms against his stomach did no good when Kai scribbled at his neck and ears. “Cuhut ihit out!! Pffftehehe!”

“Do you honestly,” He pointedly jabbed at their tickle spots, grinning sinisterly when they flinched in unison, “think I’m going to let you knuckleheads ruin my night? No! I’m trying to relax, dumdums.” 

“But you-!” He weasled a poke under Cole’s arm, prompting one of the highest squeaks he’s ever heard from the elemental master of earth.

“-and YOU!” Jay made a choking noise impressively akin to a pterodactyl, shoving Kai’s hand away from his sensitive sides.

“Are being so loud that all of Ninjago City can hear you!” In a proper show of his anger, Kai finished his dramatic scolding by going a step further. He stuck one hand on each of their tickle spots, right on Jay’s tummy and left nestled under Cole’s arm. The two waited with baited breath, quietly giggling with frightened eyes. 

Though Kai looked anything but frustrated, underneath his playful expression was something sappier. But at the moment, Kai looked downright evil with a massive grin over his face. 

With no warning, he started to squeeze.

The whole room erupted into chaos once more.

“AAAAAAAHAHAHA!! NONONONONONO!!”

“KAI! KAI KAHAI KAHAHAAAAA-”

“CUHUT IHIT OHOHOUT!! NOHOAHAHA!”

“DOHON’T! YOHOU AHARE SUHUCH A-HAHAHA!!”

The hysteria seemed to increase upon realizing Kai wasn’t switching spots anymore. Zane noticed he was, however, switching his techniques. In growing interest, he saw Kai adjust accordingly to his laughing victims. Jay got some silly and adorable snorts to match the quick scribbles dancing over his tummy, while a weakening Cole hiccuped everytime Kai’s claw hand grazed his skin.

Ironically, Kai was being nearly as loud and prompting his friends to be continually disruptive. (However, Zane wouldn’t quite call it that.)

Zane was almost too distracted to notice Kai’s wandering gaze. Almost.

He let Kai redirect his attention, taking in with sudden warmth at the way his smirk softened around its edges. “Oh, hey Zane.” He said it with such casualness, as if Cole wasn’t trying to claw out his shoulder or Jay wasn’t trying to kick his legs. “What’s up?”

Zane let out a sigh, unable to hide his amusement. In complete honesty, he didn’t want to. Nor did he want to break up this moment, but the longer they stayed the colder the food got. “Sensei Wu, Lloyd, and Nya are awaiting our arrival for dinner.” 

He absentmindedly wondered if Kai could hear him over the laughter, but it seemed his voice reached him just fine. He got the point, and gave a final tickle for a few long seconds before backing away.

Jay practically flopped onto Cole, babbling something nonsensical while Cole fanned his flushed face. The two were a combined giggly mess, and Zane was very enamored by their loopy smiles. A quick glance at Kai proved he was in a similar state. 

He broke free of it after a few moments, “C’mon. Dinner’s ready.” He extended his hand, a peace offering.

Cole instantly smacked his hand away, clearly not so trusting after that experience. Jay was in the same boat, squinting his mirthful eyes. “Shuhut it.” Jay snapped, surprisingly sassy for someone who just got tickled. 

Zane figured he should step in, if they ever wanted to at least arrive for dinner. He walked past the threshold, ignoring a gaping Kai in favor of offering his two hands. 

Albeit shaky, Zane heaved his fellow ninja up with ease. He hovered nearby, as Jay was looking weak in the knees as he leaned against Cole, but no falling occurred. Mission successful, as far as Zane cared.

As they took a brisk walk down the hall, Zane was acutely aware of Kai taking the lead. He seemed eager to lead the way.

Cole and Jay seemed far too eager to follow him.

When they finally sat down, and ate mildly lukewarm food, Wu wasn’t too disgruntled. Nowadays, getting the ninja to actually sit down in one place was more of a blessing. There was minimal small talk, which came to a surprise for the whole table. 

Except for Zane. 

In-between bites, he secretly watched Kai do his best to hide his flinches. Jay and Cole sat on either side of him, far too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence, proceeding to be pests. 

Jay would lean over to grab a plate, just in time for Kai to inhale a bit too loudly into his rice. Cole stretched his arms to lay behind him, and Kai would scoot closer to the table to pointedly stare at a stain from long ago. They were coordinated, sharing minimal glances behind their resident hothead’s back, as if they were plotting something. 

Zane, like a good brother, said nothing. 

The end of dinner soon arrived, perhaps too soon for Kai’s liking, because he was the first to silently place his dirty dishes in the sink and scurry away. Cole and Jay, of course, were right behind him. All the while looking more devious by the second, causing Nya - ever so observant - to raise an eyebrow in their last seen direction.

It was Lloyd’s turn to do the washing, and usually Zane would assist. But at the moment, he believed he was currently Kai’s only witness and maybe even savior. So, he spared the younger an apologetic smile and his dirty plate, he moved from one room to another.

It didn’t take long for him to find the others. 

He soon heard the sound of laughter, and followed the trail back to their shared bedroom. The door was creaked open, and silently - as a ninja should - he snuck in, closing the door behind him. 

It truly was a sight to behold. 

Kai was pinned on his side, refusing to lay flat one way or the other as he tried to thrash his way out. But that didn’t work in his favor either, because Cole sat steady on his hip and kneaded carefully into his ribs. Jay focused on trying to find a good spot on his back, darting quickly to his shoulder blades that somehow managed to twitch away in time.

“Gehet. Off.” Kai gritted his teeth, face pink in determination to hide the growing laughter in his chest. 

Cole chuckled apathetically, while Jay hummed mockingly. “Nope!” He popped, expertly following whenever Kai moved - more like spazzed, now that Zane had a closer view. He certainly looked seconds away from breaking, a wobbly smile growing on his face.

A well timed squeeze from his hip, and a poke to his neck, was all it took for the walls Kai built to come crashing down. 

Ironic, once again, that Kai was just as loud as the other two had been moments early. 

“NAHAHAHA!! Stohohop ihit!” 

“HA!” Jay laughed, “Not a chance, dude!”

“You deserve it.” Cole sang under his breath, leaning in closer to Kai’s sensitive ears. Zane’s enhanced hearing picked up on his teasing, his voice bonderline sly. “Tickle, tickle, tiiickle…” 

Kai’s face was pink before, but now a bright red flush spread from his cheeks to the very tips of his ears. “SHUHUT UHUP!!” He screamed, voice crack and all.

Jay gave a disappointed tsk, tsk, tsk. “Do you hear him, Rocky?!” 

Cole hummed with an exaggerated frown. “He’s so rude, Blue Jay.”

“We’ll give him a peace of our minds!”

“That’ll teach him a lesson.”

“FUHUCK OHOFF!!” Kai interrupted, desperately grabbing at the ground to pull himself up. He had taken the plank position, leaving no chance for Cole to poke his belly button. (“Aw man.” Cole seemed bummed about that.) But he had not taken into account that Jay could still reach over and squeeze his hips too. (“Gottem.” Jay snickered.) Kai flopped back to the ground, back at square one with a new level of hysteria in his loud laugh.

He usually sounded hearty whenever he laughed, and now wasn’t an exception. It was only a little different, Zane documented. It sounded as though it came from his chest rather than his gut, reaching a higher pitch. He sounded youthful, which is a quality Zane was happy to attach to his laughter. 

 “Gehet AWAHAY frohom meheHEHE!!” 

In a moment of clarity, Kai’s rocketed his head up. Zane made eye contact with very hopeful eyes.

“ZAHANE!!”

In a moment of déjà vu for Zane, he titled his head. Kai started to pull himself up again. “Yohou gohotta hehehelp mehe!!”

“No, he doesn’t.” Cole scoffed, prodding at his ribs to send him tumbling back down. Again. “He didn’t help us earlier!” 

“Zane would never convert to the dark side, especially not for you Kai!” Jay then took on a thoughtful tone, contrasting to his quick and skilled scribbles. “But,” He slowly dragged out, directing a very deviously curious expression his way. “I’m not opposed to some extra help.”

Cole shot him a glance, and a matching sinister grin. “Whaddya say, Frosty?” 

Zane, suddenly put in an interesting situation, decided this was as good a time as any to get some experience. Much better than getting jumped later in life, as these three tended to do more often than not. 

This didn’t mean he would play nice. He was being polite, civil even. But when he gets an opportunity, he isn't one to let it waste.

“I’m sorry to say I do not have much experience when it comes to tickling.” He easily admitted, choosing to pretend he didn’t see Cole and Jay’s share a wide-eyed devious glance to each other. He shuffled near, closing in on Kai as he sat on the floor. The poor guy was growling out every threat he could, far too giggly to have any real impact on the elemental master of ice. Zane turned to the current offenders. “Could you demonstrate?” 

Cole gave a show with cracking his knuckles. “Gladly.” 

Kai yelped, his threatening dissolving into a heap of giggles. “Nohohahaha!!” He scrunched his shoulders, as if that would stop the tickling on his back. 

“Now, y’see Zane,” Cole began, “There are many techniques and they work differently in different places.” Zane nodded his head, leaning in with interest as Cole started performing a kneading motion with his thumbs.

The reaction was instant, Kai started to wildly thrash. He screamed bloody murder, but laughing too hard for Zane to pick up any coherent words. He turned back to Cole, who had a monstrously wide grin that showed his canines.

Kai flared this way and that, but Cole followed easily. Never once easing up. “You don’t want to be too rough.” Zane saw him mouth the words, but it was a slight strain to hear over Kai’s shrieks. 

Jay, however, swiftly got bored after a few moments of staring. “Oh, oh, oh!” He cheered, clapping his hands together in glee. “I want to show him something!” 

Cole huffed, but traded his kneading for some light tracing - keeping Kai suspended in a light giggle fit. Zane watched with slightly wide eyes as Kai stopped all squirming, now melting into his arms to hide his face. 

Cole warmly chuckled at Zane’s reaction, or maybe at Kai’s whining. “He’s fine, Zane. Just a little embarrassed.” He bent down lower, his fingers inching too close to the back of Kai’s ribs. “That’s all it is, isn’t it, matchstick? You’re too ticklish, aren’t cha?” 

“Down here, Zane!” Beckoning to his name, Zane left Cole to tease a slowly melting Kai into a puddle in favor of joining Jay near his legs. The shorter was already wiggling his fingers, as if he couldn’t help himself. 

“Rough is fine and all, but quick and light is where it’s at!” Jay promptly snorted to himself. “Hey. That rhymed.” 

Zane smiled, allowing Jay to direct his hands above the back of Kai’s knees. The latter placed a hand on the calf, stopping a sudden jolt in surprise. “There are the classic spots, but sometimes the goldmine is right under your nose.” 

Before he could inquire what that meant, Jay began a slow descent. He gave a wink to his student, before beginning to slowly claw the back of Kai’s knees. 

The recipient gave a high-pitched yap, giggling at a much steadier pace. “JAHAY!!” Kai kicked his free leg, leaving Zane to dodge the flailing limb.

“This flusters him more than it tickles.” Jay casually mentioned, beginning to pick up the pace. His expression took on something more manic, but downright devious. “But you can do this-!” He dropped the jellyfish motion for something quicker, spidering and scribbling the back of his thighs too. 

Although funny to watch Kai kick his free leg back and forth in ticklish agony, making a delightful set of noises to match his chuckles, Zane was feeling semblances of sympathy. These two could be ruthless, this wasn’t the first time they’ve taken such devious routes.

But for Zane, who was drifting his gaze to Cole’s very exposed back, he was about to turn the tables. 

“Ah.” He hummed, moving away from a confused Jay. He positioned himself carefully above Cole, putting a finger to his lips when Kai’s eyes widened. It was high time for a game changer, he had never participated in their antics before.

Zane lifted his wiggling fingers. “So… like this?”

With no prior warning, he shoved his cold wigglers right under Cole’s arms and quickly skittered.

The reaction was very rewarding. 

Cole was unprepared for such a surprise attack. He let out a loud screech, slamming his arms down. But the damage was already done, Zane’s fingers were perfectly stuck and left to use every technique he was taught. It was like a fun little experiment! 

The pokes got hard flinches. The clawing got loud guffaws. The scribbles got giggles. (That did rhyme, Zane thought with amusement.) Only when he kneaded, making sure to really dig in with his thumbs, did Cole collapse - falling off of Kai in the process. 

Zane followed after him like a hawk, bending in half just to pinch the very top of his ribs. 

“ZAHANE!!” Cole howled with laughter, frantically shaking his head. His laughter took on a slightly higher pitch too, but Zane was sure that was mostly due to the shock factor. Knowing that could make it tickle more, Zane continued to switch techniques so no pattern could be found. It earned some of the loudest laughter he’s ever heard come out of Cole, thrashing around like his life depended on it. “WHAHAT THEHE HEHECK?!” 

“Rocky!” Jay cried in woe, only to yip in surprise as Kai began to freely move around. He attempted to pin him back down, grabbing onto his legs, but that did nothing but empower a very tickle hungry Kai, hell bent on revenge, from pouncing.

The look on his face was murderous, but hilarious combined with his red face and even crazier hair. “YOU’RE SOHO DEAD, WALKER!!” He growled.

Jay comically gulped. He didn’t need to be told twice before he tried to high-tail it out of the room, but did not get far before Kai tackled him back to the floor. It wasn’t long before Jay’s frantic laughter joined the mixing pot. 

“Thanks Zane!” Zane loosely heard behind him, perhaps a little too eager to tickle his friend to tears. It was exhilarating, he felt strangely powerful. 

“It was time for a change.” Is all he said, simple as that, and not that he was taking Cole’s happy expression in great stride. It wasn’t every day that Cole went down without a fight. As the element of earth, he always had an advantage of strength in their sparring matches. 

Zane, suddenly feeling a little mean, decided to give teasing a try. He leaned in, just as Cole did with Kai, and gave a big smile. “Does this tickle, Cole?” 

“WHAHADDYA THIHIHNK?” Cole sassed through his teeth, head tilted back in mirth as he tried to get a grip on Zane’s arms. He missed, of course, Zane took a steady position behind him.

Zane frowned, quite close to Cole’s neck in the process. “That did not sound very kind.” 

“WAHAIT!! ZAHANE NOHO!!” Cole shriveled back into a ball as the unfamiliar cold breath of air passed his neck, scrunching his shoulders to protect himself.

That met him with a hum of disapproval, “That was rude as well. How will I tickle your neck now?”

Cole actually squealed, rocking back and forth. “JUHUST DOHON’T!!” 

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!” 

Zane turned his head, momentarily distracted by the call of a dragon. 

Only, it was not a dragon. Instead, he was met with the sight of Jay crying from laughter. He was utterly incoherent, making funny noises as Kai planted raspberry after raspberry into his tummy. Jay balled a fist full of Kai’s hair into his fingers, not quite tugging and not quite shoving either. He was paralyzed in ticklish agony as Kai tickled one of his worst spots. 

It was quite deserved, Zane thought. That trailed off, however, as he suddenly was met with a force trying to push him onto his back.

Cole, seeing the opportunity, decided to roll over. If he couldn’t grab Zane then he would find other means to take him down. Zane, slightly stunned, watched as Cole maneuvered himself onto his knees. He planted his whole body weight onto Zane, reversing their positions.

Oh dear.

“Oh dear,” Zane said just that. A sudden ball of nervousness began to tingle through his systems, staring directly up at a breathless Cole. His face still held an adorable red tint to it, but his grin was massive and shining with mischief. 

“Shohouldaha thought ahabout thahat one, buhuddy.” Cole giggled deviously. 

Zane opened his mouth to say something, anything possibly, but that proved to be a mistake. Cole chose that exact second to squeeze his sides, eliciting a gasp out of the master of ice. 

Zane went slack, stiff as a plank board, his hands trembling over Cole’s arms in confusion. He didn’t know whether to push or pull, and if it would even do anything to stop him. He’s never been in this position, and now that he’s here none of his theories compare to the real thing. 

Tickling felt… tingly. It reminded Zane of shivering, but it was constant. Strangely, even though Cole was tickling over his sides, the feeling spread to his ribs and stomach. Which tickled even more in the process.

Cole, taking Zane’s quiet stubbornness for a refusal to laugh, changed his tactics. He went for his ribs, his hips, his stomach - anywhere he could reach, he gave it a quick scribble and moved on. This left Zane in a constant state of squirming, occasionally moving into Cole’s tickles rather than away. 

"Oh, yeah! I don't think I've ever tickled YOU before..." Cole trailed off, over his giggle fit, and instead, humming curiously as though this was a normal conversation. Zane suddenly empathized with Kai’s earlier plight. It was flustering, and Cole knew this.

Cole looked his way, smiling impishly. "Where are you ticklish, buddy?"

Zane puckered his lips, unable to stop the shaky smile from growing further up and up his face. He didn’t know what to say, so he shook his head. Cole, seeing it as a challenge, amped up his intensity. 

“Then I guess I’ll have to find out!” He sighed, as though it were a chore. “Cute smile, though. Never seen something like it.”

Now, that is something Zane could respond to. “Thahank you.” There was a little giggle slipped in there, sounding foreign to Zane’s own ears. Cole looked more surprised, and very humored, that he’d responded at all. 

“Course, Frosty,” His smile morphed into a soft smirk. “You wanna giggle for me? Where’s your tickle spot, huh? Is it… here?” 

Cole pointedly spidered up and down Zane’s ribs, bidding a small squeak. 

“Or right here?” 

A squeeze to the hips made him slip out another tiny giggle. 

Cole then slowed down, causing Zane to tense up. He watched as Cole menacingly wiggled his fingers, not close enough to tickle but close enough to trigger phantom shivers. 

His grin was wicked. “Or maybe… it’s…”

He didn’t get to finish that sentence. 

“What are you guys doing?” 

Lloyd, for gracious timing once in his life, stood in the doorway. For how long, Zane didn’t know. Cole didn’t see this coming either, lifting his head up as his expression switched to something more sheepish. 

“Hey Lloyd,” Cole greeted, still very much laying on Zane.

“Sup,” Kai greeted next, still very much present in the room with a slightly delirious Jay next to him. Speaking of, Jay weakly waved his way. 

“Hey.” 

LLoyd held in a snort, entering the room with his toothbrush. “You guys are going to bed, right?” 

Correct, Zane now recalled. It was definitely time for bed. For no reason in particular, going to bed sounded very appealing. 

“Aw, man.” Cole pouted, wrapping his arms around Zane in a hug. Zane, not so trusting at the moment, tensed up again. 

“But I was just about to find Zane’s tickle spots.” 

Kai whipped his head around, eyes gleaming. “Really?!” He gasped. 

Zane squinted his eyes, pinning Kai under his gaze that dared him to even try. Especially after he rescued him. 

Kai shrunk back a little, coughing into his hand - only to yawn soon after. “Nevermind.” He waved off, getting off the ground. “We’ll do it in the morning.” 

“Pardon?” Zane croaked, as Kai helped Jay off the floor. He faintly registered Cole getting up too. 

“Yeah,” Jay followed suit out of the door, yawning the whole way. “We’ll get you later Zane. Time for bed.” 

The two joined Lloyd out to the bathroom, leaving him alone with Cole. Zane turned his head, finding a hand waiting for him. A peace offering. 

“C’mon,” Cole smiled, some goodhearted teasing still in there but mostly sincere. “Next time.” 

Zane thought about it, and no second longer did he wait to take his hand. 

“Alright.” He agreed, although he didn’t think he had much choice. “However, do not expect to ‘get off the hook’.” He warned, because he deserved as much.

Cole chuckled, escorting him out the door to join the others. “Wouldn’t expect anything less, popsicle.”

Zane deadpanned at the nickname, while Cole huffed out some more gigglish snickers. Zane couldn’t find himself to be angered, however. He could only find himself theorizing about his next attacks and tickle strategies. 

Yes, he thought to himself. There’s always tomorrow.

[qiqi-media]

Top 3 reasons people hate Audrey that I think are false

I've been wanting to post this for awhile but I've been just not really into being on tumblr all too much. But I was on tiktok and sometimes come across posts defending Audrey and the comments that rebuttal them have so much misinformation in them and it annoys me because it's usually being spoken as fact and if you just think you'll see why it's wrong.

1.) Audrey bullied the VKs

Audrey is not a nice person I'll get that right of the bat now. She's a royal princess she's had etiquette training and that's really the whole problem, she knows what it is and doesn't care to use it on people she doesn't want to. Name actually scenes or scenarios where she full blown bullied or harassed the VKs, I can't name one. Her whole suspicion/ not wanting to be friends with the Vks is why she's labeled as a bully. She's barely even spoken to them when you really get down to it. She let Evie know factual information, she had no royal status in Auradon, she didn't know Evie so it's not like she knew how significant royal status was to her but it was true. The Evil queen was seen as a criminal not a queen in Auradon so why would Evie be seen as princess? The problem comes with the etiquette problem I talked about Audrey knew this probably would've made things awkward or embarrassed Evie she just didn't care, but she didn't Bully her. I can't recall a scene where she has spoken to directly or talked ill about carlos or Jay. She didn't even have a problem with Mal, she had a problem with her mom, and never said anything to Mal about it she would talk to it privately to Ben. She didn't try to stop anyone from being friends with them or alienate them. She again, just talking to Ben, her boyfriend said she he should probably have some common sense and not blindly trust the vks. Even on Family day what Jane said was worse than what she said, all she said was that Ben was going through a bad girl phase Jane made sure to get in Mal's ear with what she said. In D3 her problem was with everybody so she never singled them out to bully them.

2.) She was a mean girl

To me personally there isn’t too much of a difference between a mean girl and a bully which is why even though she isn’t nice I wouldn’t say she a mean girl. She didn’t run Auradon by fear or brute force, and had people scared of her. The person I would say she was mean to was Jane and that’s just because she giggled when she got her hair unspelled. If we’re going according to the other resources besides the movies because we really don’t see much, Audrey was pretty well liked and popular and tried to behave like a ‘princess’ as much as she could.  She’s snarky and prissy I’d say that before I’d called her a full blown mean girl, when I think Mean girl I think Isle Mal, Courtney shane from jawbreakers etc actual evilness. She just needs to learn how to watch her mouth, because at least in D1 she hadn’t actual done anything to anybody. Like hey audrey, even if they ask your opinion it’s kind of an spoken rule to not tell your friend that the dress in fact makes their feet look big. Little out of touch shit like that I could see Audrey doing but then turning around and opening up her closet to them or taking them shopping if they can’t find something in her room because she wasn’t trying to be mean she was trying to be honest, they asked she told the truth and tried to help. 

3.) Audrey never loved Ben she just wanted the crown.

FALSE!!! I'm so tired of seeing this narrative it’s the same false narrative as them being in an arranged marriage. These things were never stated as canon people just assumed because it’s easier to hate her that way and justify having them broken up. For starters they had a very high school like relationship according to her diary and canon. She wasn’t dreaming of taking over Auradon and ruling over people. She liked reading notes Ben left on her locker, walking with him through the halls to class, wearing his jersey before games and cheering for him. She liked talking to him and having lunch, she knew his biggest fear and insecurity so they definitely had meaningful conversations. According to her diary since when the first got together in high school she was excited because she really liked Ben and had been crushing on him when HE asked her to be his girlfriend. When her grandma found her she said she was clever for putting herself in first place for the throne and Audrey said it wasn’t like that, she wanted to take things slow and fall in love and then like every teenager who fantasizes about marrying their crush she said they’d rule together. She wasn’t thinking “let me lock him down as soon as possible” Most people date for marriage so if you’re dating a king who you plan on marrying on some point why wouldnt you be assumed queen. Audrey loved Ben but as a princess who was dating a King yeah she knew she’d probably be the queen JUST LIKE MAL DID. Mal immediately went into becoming a lady of the court when her and Ben became official. The only canon girls who were directly after the crown and so used Ben were Mal and Uma who both had their own motives respectable or not. Audrey was a teenage princess dating her teenage prince crush and because she knew that this would end up with her being a queen all of a sudden she never cared about Ben and just wanted the crown. She had pictures of this boy all over her room and took him on special dates just the two of them because she cared they were all more easier and quicker ways to get married to him if that was all she wanted. 

Unless I said something was canon these are all of course just my opinion and you’re free to feel differently as that is your right, especially the first two because they have grey area because in the movies she wasn’t this super kind nice willing to say sweet words girl but when you really look into it was she the worst person ever who bullied people no.

[troutfur]

I've always loved the Fern/Ash/Cloud sibling dynamic. I hate how they never address Fern's or Cloud's reactions with the Squirrelflight relationship, or his death, or anything. Tbh that's why I really like the Fern/Ash patrician au posts.

It really is underexplored! And there's something very sweet to it sprinkled across the books.

A moment that stands out to me is how in... I think it's The Sight (?) where Ashfur volunteers to go out and be part of the patrol that drives out the dogs in WindClan and she's very concerned about him going on his own without her and he's like "No, no, let me handle this. I owe it to you and your children to protect you".

I really cannot believe this would go unaddressed among the three of them.

And I think his defining moment of evil at the fire scene could've used more build up. Addressing how his siblings are reacting to his bubbling resentment post-break up would've been great for it.

Not to mention the connections he has to Squilf's kits, not only with Lionblaze as his apprentice (who even though in my fanworks I tend to play up as abusive if you look at the bare facts of canon, at worst he turns very stern once Lion begins falling behind due to the Heathertail tunnel situation) but also because his sister nursed these kits.

How much does that make them family? How much of his loyalty to Ferncloud's kits transfers over to Jay, Holly, and Lion? How could his searing hate and desire for payback overpower those connections?

There's fertile ground in there for interesting stories and yet the fields remain untilled. It really is a shame none of this has been touched upon.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s13x22 exodus (w. eugenie ross-leming, brad buckner)

well, mom gets a hug. that's something i guess. no time for extended you're-actually-alive-reunions with lucifer smarming around in the background.

this trying to be i dunno, spookyish discordant atmospheric music is not hitting for me. it just feels wildly out of sync with the tone of the scene. i wonder who made iiiit. oh look, it's jay gruska. i seriously don't look it up until i have a ~vibe~ and i'm vaguely impressed with my consistent reactions to the two composers. i'm pretty much never rockin with jay. sorry, my dude.

LUCIFER Don’t say he’s nothing like me. I’m the only one who understands him. This power he has? I’m powerful, dangerous, ruthless. In the...best sense, though. DEAN No. Kill him. LUCIFER (chuckles) He can’t. He’s not strong enough. GABRIEL Dean… DEAN (turns on Gabriel) You’ve got the blade. JACK (quietly) Stop it. DEAN He’s the devil. Kill him. JACK (shouting) Stop it!

in the land of not-a-show, this seems very reasonable. we have the means and opportunity to FINALLY fucking kill this guy, who has done unspeakably awful things to more than one person present. who they've been trying to take out for a long ass time. but, being that it's this show, yeah. of course it's not that simple. i think they had a general plan to kill him after they used him for the nexus excursion, yes? but them believing he'd still be captured and subdued until then was a bit of a stretch :p also, jack wasn't around for that convo and i suppose he might have some thoughts and feelings around cutting down bio dad right away

CAS In case your innate evil overwhelms this new found team spirit, you won’t mind wearing these then, will you. You’re not at full power. They should hold you.

LOL good one. is he not at full power because he was drained, juiced up, then used some of that juice to resurrect sam? (was also thinking about how like, cas stole someone's grace at one point. a bad someone, right? is it that different? why didn't gabriel just go that route? not actually socially acceptable? whatever. we needed to include lucifer)

jfc nic shut up

thank you, everyone, for that long ass hug. i'm not crying, no, i'm fine

i know the wiki has hugs and lengths (which amuses me to no end), i wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the longer ones. ahbl 29 seconds i think is an outlier being that sam is dead through most of it 😞 what a statement. excluding ahbl pt 1, top 3! lol

other thing he did, which he does regularly? when he's affectionate, that turn to the side like he's checking who's around or avoiding eye contact while he got a little mushy.

he does it before hugging a lot too, like the avoiding eye contact and pulling someone in. definitely with charlie, not sure actually who all he does it with, if everyone at one point or another? anyway. he doesn't instigate a ton of hugs. i'm not under the influence, i swear, i'm just extra... *waves hands*

jack having a little montage o'guilt with xfiles sounds rapid fire (they use it periodically now but i don't recall so many of them in one scene like this. i had to search for "shoe" on the wiki because my blog search is perpetually fucked and all i could remember of the scene was sam finding a shoe lol)

so like, the solution is all the au people come back with her through the nexus, right? so this is a moot conversation? but. dean's reaction to her "i know what you went through to come find me" was so right. like, understatement of the century and in fact i DON'T think you know what they did. and (show logic aside) sam died and only isn't still dead due to a fluke/luck.

interesting to see the production draft script has her saying sorry and that she's grateful, which didn't make it to screen

granted, i think they were doing the getting back to the nexus project for jack too, and i imagine they would have made the same efforts and paid the same prices. but anyway. feels like dean is always waiting for the other shoe to drop with mary, reinforced with her needing space business before, so understandably he's immediately reacting defensively and maybe a little childishly (do they need-need mary? probably not. but it's also reasonable and understandable to want your almost entirely absent mother [which she had no control over] once you got her back)

another thing i like about pellegrino's lucifer, the hair! it just is almost always unkempt in not a cool way, more the disaster been sleeping on it weird way. which my hair also is often in some degree of.

DEAN We have been mopping up the world for years. Years. We have been knocked down. We have been possessed. We’ve lost friends. We’ve lost family. We’ve lost each other. And we never walk away, ever. And sometimes, we should’ve, because not every fight everywhere can be won. It just can’t. Right? (turning to Sam) Tell her.

never (permanently) walk away. ignoring the nonsensical amelia aberration? 🤪 i don't really understand dean's logic. we never walk away, but sometimes we should have, so mary should walk away? doesn't seem like the best sell

SAM I think Mom made up her mind. DEAN See? Wait. What? SAM Mom doesn’t want to leave these people. So let’s take ‘em with us. MARY They’ll never leave their home. They’ll never leave their cause. SAM I’m not saying abandon the fight. I’m saying we get them somewhere safe, then we all figure out a way to take down Michael. Then once we do, they can come back and save their world. MARY You’d do that for them? DEAN Well, we got...what, nine busting out? What’s a few more. How many are we talking? MARY Twenty-five.

(don't know what that 9 number is referring to either, oh right, charlie and ketch? lol) sammy's plan seems very. pie in the sky and not something these other world people would necessary go for but mary's down so sure why not

LUCIFER Well, I mean, yes, I have done things that I am not entirely proud of. I have led the occasional soul to ruin. This is true. But, Jack, it’s because humans are so messed up. They’re -- they’re so willing to be led. JACK My mother was human. LUCIFER Awesome lady. Incorruptible. Not like that. You know, great kisser. And, uh, lost my virginity to her.

pointing to my very disgruntled thoughts about this in 12x08. we're going to regularly make allusions to lucifer raping sam via hallucifer and i think also when sam was stuck with him in 11x09 before cas sprung luci but then lucifer in the president vessel supposedly had never had sex. ok. i prefer to believe that rape isn't part of the torture package, but they make it real hard sometimes. but the show is gonna tell us that was the first time lucifer had sex. being generous and dumb, maybe he believes in the rehymenation like dean. or some particulars of being in a human vessel. as opposed to whatever it is exactly getting tortured in hell. soul in vessel-ish shape? because it wasn't dean's shiny glowing light of a soul on the rack, it was his person. i've been thinking about this off and on since we knew generally what a soul was supposed to look like

jack interviewing lucifer, the quote unquote father of lies, to whatever, determine if he wants to have anything to do with him? well. how could this go wrong?

DEAN I told you no talking! And I told you no listening. JACK Dean, he’s in chains. DEAN His mouth isn’t. Shoulda gagged him. JACK No, I need to know about my powers, my family. CAS Jack, we are your family. We’ve been protecting you. We’ve been honoring your mother’s wishes. We’re your family. SAM Jack, you have no idea who Lucifer really is. JACK And I never will unless I talk to him.

like yes obviously, going this route is going to make anyone shut down and not listen to what you have to say (acting like john winchester basically), especially someone who is framed as being a kid. HOWEVER! couldn't we just say that lucifer spent a year which is equivalent to whatever in dog hell years torturing sam. our sam, that's standing right there. your sam, who you're including as a father figure.

MARY (amused) Jack isn’t going to the dark side. He’ll see Lucifer’s true nature. And he’ll see through his own eyes and not yours.

like she's trying to impart some parenting wisdom - which this is surely applicable to regular real life parenting! but i don't think it's applicable to the situation at hand. being that the grown ass adults with a lot of life experience and big bad demons etc etc have been fooled by lucifer time and time again. at least he should be aware of the actual harm lucifer has done to everyone present that they've personally experienced. and maybe he does know? i'm thinking WAY TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS. for this half baked plot shit.

lucifer cutting off gabriel from telling him about the (oops not actual) murdering of himself would indicate to me he doesn't know so, yeah. whatever man. i gotta fucking finish this episode! i started yesterday but just yammered on too much and then it was midnight.

BOBBY Now about that. Mary said you wanna take a bunch of our people back to this Other Earth? DEAN Yeah. Yeah, that’s the idea. BOBBY Well, no offense, but that may be the dumbest friggin’ idea in a landfill of dumb ideas.

say it, bobby

sam's gonna give a rousing speech to get the people to come around though, right. and now ketch and charlie get to be tortured. so both ketch and rowena are all about the redemption arc life

i'm real tired of this episode lol.

GABRIEL Dad saw that your evil was like the first few cells of cancer...that it would spread like the disease unless He cut it out. That is why He locked you up, to stop the cancer. But it was too late then. And guess what? It’s too late for you now.

excuse me what. he's crying? what even

great, au!cas misha doing another accent. as a... nazi? seriously checked out at this point

sure. like that whole wound tending thing the first time they were there. weird vibes man, are we supposed to ship it

AW-CASTIEL Don’t think that you are better than me. Well, we are the same. CAS Yes. We are.

cathartic

this like. militaryish music as they ride off in the bus is.... oof. not great. ditto for the music with this goofy fucking jumping through the nexus proceedings

and now gabriel's gonna get into a knife fight with this basically impossible to win against michael, good idea. and sam and dean are just gonna hang back and watch him die

well, at least sam got to trap lucifer there with michael? 🤷 surely that won't go bad!

gives me the heebiejeebies all those people in there

CAS What about Lucifer? DEAN Sam handled it.

heaven forbid we actually kill him. wonder how they're gonna have jack react to this

and hey last minute mushy music during the toast by bobby to sam and dean. welcome to the family. mhm

and of course lucifer immediately plotting with michael

[yvtro]

Ideally, how would you change Jason's story? I completely agree with what you're saying and love Jason but I don't really know how you could really fix that without completely changing his character?

Maybe instead of retconning his behavior have him instead realize he was in the wrong and grow from it that way it doesn't change his past comics?

yes!! but also no. i talked a bit about it here, but let me elaborate.

there's plenty of potential in post-resurrection jay material, as shitty as it is. i love stories about haunting and about trying to escape from the narrative and about regaining autonomy, and i love reconstruction. which is why i think the best thing to do here is primarly to do what you said: for jason to realise he was in the wrong and grow from it.

i think here a new narrative (new-old, because it's something that some writers have been trying to imply but never succeeded) could be given shape, one more compliant with his 80s characterisation: that he gave in to a moral defeat mostly because of the tension between how it was initially his sensitivity and devotion to protecting others that pushed him into extreme methods as a vigilante & the fact that he tried to detach himself from these feelings at the same time. (of course it is much more complicated, because there's plenty things coming into play regarding his red hood persona, including bruce, his personal trauma etc., but let's set it aside for another time). in other words, he turned to extreme methods because he cared too much and didn't know how to handle it, so ended up repressing it and committing to violence in order to avoid vulnerability. we could move towards this interpretation of his story in two ways:

–– by jason failing completely and hitting the very rock bottom. i'm thinking about him, for example, killing the wrong person by accident and being confronted with the consequences of his action. or maybe failing to protect someone because of his methods. this would be a wake up call for him. it's an easy, fun and fast vision, this one. altern

–– by a gradual process of jason opening up back to his community and seeing that his actions do not help them in the ways he hoped, and that him committing to more positive and grassroot work makes a much bigger difference.

i'm a fan of the first option because there's so much space for pathos there, and the second scenario can naturally follow from there. i'd like to see bruce in this kind of story, also; i want jason breaking down and asking "if my ways don't work, and your ways don't work, then what will work? are we doomed to live like that? i want these people safe. for them to feel safe" "jay. do you not feel safe?"

what then though? well, jason has to learn how to live. i talked about if before, but i think one of the biggest sources of jay's misery is that he doesn't really have any civilian identity. i want to see jason unburying himself and for dc to actually address this issue instead of hinting at the fact that he's no longer legally dead (not even talking about lobdell's storyline where jason reveals that, i'd rather forget.) i want to see jason retiring for at least some time and living among people instead of working on the peripheries of the society with no connection to anyone.

and then, if he takes up the mask again... controversial, but i would love to see him as batman at some point, even if just for a while or as a substitute for bruce when b is not around. i think one part of batman's philosophy that is completely overlooked by many jason fans, and that would be so valuable for jason's storyline, is that bruce is completely aware both of all the evil in the world and the long term futility of vigilantism. the thing is that he is also able to own the success of helping even just one person. and it's something that jay, on the other hand, can't seem to be able to focus on; he is so preoccupied with both suffering of the others and his own pain, that he is not able to appreciate small "wins."

not to quote this again but jason really needs to realise that "one measure of maturity might be attaining an awareness that there can be no genuine devotion to fighting the forces that unworldly the world without genuine devotion to the littlest manifestation of beauty that make this planet a world and this existence a life.” he needs to embrace hope the way bruce did, because there's no other way of living for self-sacirificial bastards like them (and they are so similar in so many ways that are completely overlooked by writers, although i guess it's also hard to see it with how chronically mischaracterised bruce has been in recent years).

of course i don't mean that jason should be moulded into a copy of bruce. he should actually become better than bruce, and that's not that hard to achieve given that jason has infinitely more connection to the people. he has a community where his dedication comes from, and he is needed there, among them, as opposed to above them.

having said that, this story couldn't really happen with some changes to the canon, by which i don't really mean retconning anything, but rather underwriting certain reboots, to name a few:

–– the story has to get jason's origin as a robin and his inherent kindness right. it has to denounce lots of flashbacks in which jay was potrayed as aggressive and angry. this should come with the narrative addressing victim-blaming, but this is a complicated matter, because jason being victim-blamed was not only shitty for his character, but also sometimes rather out of character for the others. and i'm personally not necessarily interested in mindless whump at expanse of the narrative as a whole. so it's tricky, but we need to see victim-blaming being acknowledged without jason being victimised further for no good reason.

–– willis and catherine should be shown to be as loving as they were originally. willis being abusive doesn't add anything to jason's story rather than trauma porn and classist undertones. it's not necessary here.

–– honestly, let's just ignore half of rhato. bruce beating up jason for example was a crazy fantasy that didn't bring in anything to the narrative.

with these aspects corrected, the story can be reframed as a reconstruction of tragedy, where jason realises that there's no fate (and definitely no fate adjacent to classist rhetorics) that he needs to fight by commiting to the tragic irony of assuming his murderer's past persona. all he needs to do is to go back to his roots and find a way to live with all that happened to him, and still have hope and love for the people he seeks to protect.

so, tldr: yes to development from the point where we are at, but also yes to underwriting and reconstruction of past events in a less invasive way to push the storyline in the right direction. of course what i described above is also a very specific scenario, but you asked how i would ideally do it, so i delivered.

[neos127]

ENHA as your vampire boyfriends

pairing. gn!reader x vampire!enha

notes. kinda messy bc i was just dumping my thoughts! also just cw that this includes mentions of blood (duh) and killing

heeseung ✧˚ · .

• feeding on you is addicting to him. not too bad as to where your life is in danger, but he definitely takes any chance he can get if you allow him to. he loves feeding off your neck because he thinks it’s ‘intimate’- even though it doesn’t feel too great for you.

• he hates the fact that you’re now involved in his lifestyle. his careless actions from the past can sometimes come back to haunt him, and you’re caught in the crossfire.

• the first time you witnessed an evil vampire snap his neck, you were absolutely distraught. you had no idea that not many things could kill him. he was super nonchalant about it too when he woke up.

• “DIDNT YOU JUST DIE??” “Oh that? This is like the 100th time this has happened to me since I’ve been alive? You get used to it.” He shrugs while stretching out his neck. You just stare at him with your jaw on the floor and dried tears on your cheeks, not being able to process what you just witnessed.

jay ✧˚ · .

• his charm was majority of the reason you fell for him in the first place- despite the fact that he was a vampire. he honestly made being a vampire so hot that you ignored the fact that he needed human blood to live.

• grazes his teeth along your neck before he bites you just to tease you. he thinks it’s cute, the way you shiver in anticipation.

• jay knows how to control his thirst for blood and is able to make sure he doesn’t severely injure someone when feeding. he only takes a bit of blood and simply compels them to forget. when you found out, you offered him your blood. mostly because you felt bad that random humans had to endure a vampire bite.

• one time you tried to give him animal blood as a substitute(not knowing that he couldn’t digest it) and made the poor boy sick for the rest of the day. you felt horrible but he wasn’t angry at you, he never could be. he knew that your intentions were only pure.

jake ✧˚ · .

• the way you found out that your boyfriend was a vampire was truly unfortunate. you had never meant to stumble upon him feeding on someone behind a bar one weekend night. it was terrifying, seeing his face covered in blood, his eyes dark and unnerving while black veins rand down his face. he looked almost unrecognizable, and for the first time in your three year relationship, you were terrified of him.

• it took a while for you to warm up to him again, even though jake reassured many times that he would never hurt you. the two of you had a long discussion on how you hated him feeding on humans. he agreed to drink from blood bags if you were able to sneak some for him.

• it took about two months for you to become accustomed to his vampire lifestyle. you became less afraid of who he was, and agreed to let him feed on you occasionally. it had helped him control his urges. even though the pain was something you dreaded, you found the fangs covered in blood look to be attractive after a while.

sunghoon✧˚ · .

• as a vampire he has a chilling kind of edward cullen vibe. he’s kinda quiet at first, until you get him to open up more.

• he’s super possessive over you, making it hard to control his face changing whenever you may be in danger (or if he happens to be a little jealous). you’re the one thing that can calm him down, holding his head between your hands as you urge him not to to turn.

• one time you accidentally cut your finger with a knife while preparing dinner when sunghoon was in the room. your eyes widened as you looked at him, knowing how he could become around blood. he quickly diverted his eyes and left the room, continuing to sip on his bag of blood like a caprisun.

• vampires typically burn in the sun but he seems like he would sparkle idk

sunoo✧˚ · .

• he tried so hard to leave his old vampire lifestyle behind. he found that feeding on humans wasn’t serving him anymore and he hated the person he became with his lust for blood. you trust him easily after learning his secret, finding it hard to resist his sweet smile and kind eyes.

• sunoo thinks it’s funny to sneak up on you when you’re brushing your teeth because his reflection isn’t visible in the mirror.

• he would definitely take a stake to the heart of it meant that you would be safe. sunoo’s past has caused him to gain a lot of enemies, and those people who want to kill him also want to kill you. if you’re ever in danger he will do anything to take you out of the situation. even if that means ripping a few heads off in the process.

jungwon✧˚ · .

• the first time jungwon fed on you, you were so nervous. you weren’t sure why you agreed to it…maybe you just wanted to see him happy. or you just wanted to prove that you trusted him no matter what. the pain was weird, not like anything you had felt in your life. it was uncomfortable, but bearable.

• jungwon was very sweet about your aftercare though. even though it was only your wrist, he treated you delicately. cleaning your wound and wrapping a bandage around your wrist before placing a kiss on top of it.

• whenever his fangs are out, he has a lisp when talking and you think it’s adorable. jungwon hates when you tease him about it and tries to intimidate you— which never works because you know he wouldn’t even think about hurting you.

• he stopped feeding on people years ago, but whenever he kisses your neck he has to resist the urge to sink his fangs into your skin.

• he ended up turning because he got bit by a vampire, killed and revived by said vampire’s blood while taking a hike in the woods one day. totally unexpected and unwanted.

riki✧˚ · .

• you, as the non-vampire s/o, have to basically train your vampire boyfriend to not rip people’s throats out of their necks when he’s feeding.

• “oh come on, i’m not gonna kill them. it’ll be like a few sips, i promise.”

• it was in fact not a few sips, resulting in you screaming while trying to stop your boyfriend from mauling an innocent person like a bear. riki doesn’t do it to be malicious, it’s just so hard for him to control himself at times. he tries his best for you though. to him, there’s nothing worse than seeing the look in your eyes when he violently fed on people. riki never wanted you to see him as a monster.

• he would do anything for you, even if that meant going on a blood bag only diet. he was so dramatic about it though, gagging at the taste while claiming that it’s not fresh. but one stern look from you makes him slouch back in his seat and finish the whole bag.

made this while watching the vampire diaries lmao

©neos127

[circus4apsycho8]

autonomous. | chapter iii - lloyd x reader

𝚊/𝚗: 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚒𝚌'𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚎𝚗𝚓𝚘𝚢!

𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜: 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍 𝚗𝚎𝚐𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝, 𝚌𝚞𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐

autonomous. | lloyd x reader | chapter iii

“Lloyd?!”

You turn at the new voice, watching as a group of four boys jog towards the two of you. Your eyes widen as a sudden wave of shyness overcomes you. Until the past few days, you had never spoken to anyone who wasn’t your father, Garmadon, Kozu, or a Stone Warrior.

“Where the hell have you been?! Who is this?” demands the spiky-haired brunet, pointing an accusatory finger at you.

“Yeah, Lloyd! We go to see if we can locate the Temple of Light and come back to hear that you’ve been gone for like four hours?! And now you’re back here with...a girl?!” yells a redhead.

“Come on, guys, chill out. Let’s hear what he has to say,” encourages a muscular, dark-haired boy.

“Thank you, Cole,” Lloyd says, sighing. “To make a long story short, I was taken while you guys were searching for the Temple. I was paralyzed, then taken to the Overlord. She freed me and helped me escape. Her name is...” he says your name, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder. “She’s the Overlord’s daughter but is seeking a means to help defeat him.” You stay silent but don’t miss how he failed to mention the fact that you were the one who kidnapped him.

“What? The Overlord has a daughter now?! Jeez, what’s up with evil warlords having kids?” mumbles the blue ninja - Jay. The last sentence prompts the one dressed in black to slap the former upside the head. “Ow!”

You freeze as they all quiet down and stare at you. Of course, you understand their apprehension. You’re an outsider – one who happened to be an adversary mere hours ago. It makes sense that they don’t trust you around the one person that could vanquish the Overlord.

“Come on, guys,” Lloyd says, stepping in front of you. “She got me out of there. I understand that there’s still basis for us not to trust her, but she deserves a chance to prove herself.”

“Yeah, maybe so...but what if there’s some ulterior motive? What if she just wanted to figure out the location of our base so she can send a bunch of Stone Warriors to obliterate us in our sleep?!” the blue ninja replies.

“To be fair, we have known the location of your base for a while. You all aren’t exactly discreet,” you mumble, folding your arms.

“Okay, this is getting us nowhere,” Lloyd interrupts. “Did you guys find the Temple of Light?”

“We did. It is located atop a mountain across the island.”

“Yeah, but it’s gonna be hard to get up there,” Kai adds. “Let’s hope Nya’s latest invention is done.”

“What are we going to do about her, though? Is she coming with?” Jay asks, gesturing towards you with his thumb.

“From what I’ve seen, you all don’t appear to be capable of hindering the Stone Warriors very well,” you say. “I can help hold them off. By now, they’ve likely noticed Lloyd is no longer a prisoner and that I have betrayed them. They’ll be scouring the island soon if not already.”

“She’s right,” Lloyd adds as you follow the group towards the broken ship. “We can’t hold them off in our current state. Our only hope is to make it to the Temple so we can become powerful enough to fight them off. She’s coming with us.”

“Fine,” Kai grumbles. “But if she makes one wrong move…”

“Kai, we get it,” Lloyd replies, sighing as the sound of foreign footsteps catch the group’s attention. It's then you realize that the elders of the team have come out to see what’s going on.

“My students...what happened?” questions the old man with a long beard. In his grip is a bamboo staff – one you’re sure is older than you.

“Lloyd got kidnapped by the Overlord’s grunts but then she helped him escape and now she’s saying she wants to help us so now we have to take her with us while we go to the Temple of Light-”

Kai groans, pushing Jay aside. “Yeah, pretty much. What do you think, Sensei?”

The old man remains silent, stepping towards you. The ninja split so that they aren’t in his way, all observing their master as he studies you.

“Interesting...there is a longing in your gaze,” notes the old man. “One that tells me you have been trapped here far too long. Is this true, my dear?”

You nod, a lump forming in your throat as you start explaining yourself: “Yes. My father has been lying to me about the land of Ninjago for as long as I can remember. Only today was I able to discover the truth thanks to your brother.”

His bright eyes seem to light up a bit at the mention of his brother. “I see. What does the Overlord want with Lloyd?”

A pang of guilt surges through you as you recall the memory. “He wants Lloyd dead. Had I not interfered, my father would have injected him with a lethal dose of dark matter that would have killed him by the time he made it back to your camp.”

The ninja all tense, all holding wordless conversations as their master nods solemnly. “It is as I feared. The Overlord will not stop at anything to reach his goal.”

You nod in agreement. “If he’s willing to kill Lloyd, then there’s no telling what he’s going to do to the people of Ninjago if he’s not stopped.”

“Then there is no time to waste. Ninja, you are to report to Nya for a briefing. Find the Temple of Light and see what secrets it holds. You are to treat this young lady as if she is one of your own. Am I clear?”

A defeated chorus of “Yes, Sensei” echoes among the group before they jog somewhere else, leaving you with the elders.

“My name is Sensei Wu. This is Misako, Lloyd’s mother, and this is Dr. Julien, Zane’s father. Please forgive my students; they are protective of Lloyd by nature.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” you say, smiling gratefully. “And it’s quite all right. I would expect nothing less since they are the ones destined to be his protectors.”

“Thank you for saving my son,” the woman says, approaching you and gently taking your hands in hers. Your gaze shifts to her, causing her to smile. Her grey hair is tied into a messy braid, cascading down her back. She must be Garmadon’s wife. “I know the others haven’t said it, but they are grateful that you saved him.”

“Of course,” you respond. “I owe part of it to Garmadon, too. He kept my father and Kozu distracted while I got Lloyd out. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have been able to pull the escape off.”

Her expression shifts to one of heartache, making you pity their broken family. “I’m...glad to hear that. He still has a soft spot for his son after all these years.”

“You should join the others considering they’ll leaving soon,” the doctor pipes in. “We can chat more later. It is good to have you on the team, though.”

“Thank you all for your understanding.”

With that, the four of you begin walking past the ship

They haven’t gone far, as it turns out. The five boys are crowded around a machine, listening to a girl standing in front of it.

“We've also packed another surprise in the back. Perhaps it can be of use?” she asks, taking a moment to press a chaste kiss to Jay’s cheek.

“Another Nya surprise?” he replies, perking up a little bit.

You stand a fair distance away from the group, watching as Misako approaches Lloyd. “You’ll have to go too. Be safe.”

“We will,” Lloyd assures as the boys start climbing into the machine. It seems to be a drill, but...with wheels?

“Whatever you do, do not stop until you get to the Temple of Light. Our survival depends on it,” Wu addresses as they all get settled. You hesitate upon trying to enter the machine, not sure how to go about climbing in. What parts are you supposed to step on…? You hadn't thought to closely watch them enter.

“This time we’ll stick to the plan,” Kai agrees as he sits down. You frown, wondering why they're all sitting in the middle of a giant drill.

You’re snapped out of your thoughts when you see Lloyd offering his hand to you, all of the ninja now masked. You inhale deeply as you take his hand, his touch sparking a wave of warmth within your fingers as he helps pull you in.

“Good luck, ninja.”

“What...is this?” you question, becoming even more puzzled when you see that there are seats built into this machine.

Lloyd keeps a hold on your hand as you glance around confusedly. There’s a wheel attached to the front, across from where Cole’s sitting. In total, seven seats are present, with you and Lloyd in the row preceding the last one.

“It’s a vehicle that Nya and Dr. Julien built,” he answers.

“Veh...icle?” you wonder, hesitantly sitting down when Lloyd gestures you to do so.

“You know...like a car?”

“A car?”

“Uh, yeah...Zane, help me out here?”

“A vehicle: noun – a thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land, such as a car, truck, or cart,” answers the white ninja.

“Oh, we don’t have anything like that. At least, we didn’t until Garmadon arrived, but I didn’t really see them being built,” you explain, looking up in alarm as the translucent glass above you starts sliding forward, enclosing you within. “The glass moves?!”

“Yep! It helps make sure we stay inside while also protecting us from any potential hazards.”

Suddenly, the vehicle starts rumbling and rolling forward. You gasp, wondering what’s making the noise as you snap your gaze towards the glass. It's moving!

Lloyd chuckles at your reaction. “Relax, that’s just the engine running.”

“What’s an engine?”

“It’s a device that converts gas to motion so that the car can move. If you want, we could show you how it works when we get back home.”

“Really?” you wonder, eyes wide.

“Yeah, of course.”

You can’t help but grin as the vehicle barrels onward, butterflies of excitement fluttering through your chest. Any time you had asked your father how certain things worked he would always refuse to explain anything since you were to focus on nothing but training. The fact that you’ll be able to learn about the world without restriction is something you’re greatly looking forward to.

You’re anxious to ask more questions, but part of you is afraid you’ll come across as annoying. You decide that you’ll ask them later since it seems a brigade of Stone Warriors is now giving chase.

From there, the ride becomes rather bumpy as Cole attempts to lose the warriors.

“You do know how to steer this thing, don’t you?!” Jay yells when the army nearly closes in.

Cole doesn’t respond, seemingly focused on avoiding a pair of vehicles that have blocked the way ahead. You and the others grunt as he jerks the wheel to the right, taking a sharp turn that instantaneously switches the vehicle’s direction. The black ninja proceeds to use a nearby boulder as a ramp, accelerating quickly.

“Woohoo!”

With that, Cole pulls a lever, causing a new whirring sound that comes from the front. The drill starts spinning, allowing for it to dig into the ground.

“Wow!” you say, turning around to look at the path the vehicle left. Sunlight has since faded from the makeshift tunnel. Would Kozu even be able to follow? “How are you all able to build such a wondrous device?”

“Well, Nya’s amazing at building stuff! Paired with Dr. Julien’s knowledge, I bet there’s nothing they couldn’t make!” Jay answers.

“Jay and Zane are both pretty handy with machines too,” Cole chimes in, eyes focused on the path ahead.

“What else have you built?”

“We make lots of mechs, vehicles, robots, all kinds of stuff. Just depends on what we might need or what we’re inspired to make.”

You nod in response, realizing that Cole has shifted direction once more. Soon enough, the vehicle starts barreling upwards, eventually breaching the surface.

The sudden burst of sunlight makes you squint as you glance upwards, seeing that your group is stationed at the foot of a mountain.

“Well, that’s about as far as this baby will go. We’ll have to do the rest on our own.”

“But we’ll never make it up the mountain before they arrive!” Lloyd interjects as a beep sounds. The glass windows slide open, allowing for the boys to hop out. You stand there, wondering how you should go about getting out.

You can’t see his expression due to his mask, but Lloyd seems to be smiling as he offers his hand to you. Thanking him quietly, you take his hand as you gingerly step out.

“Well then, let’s see what my sister packed!”

You linger towards the back of the group as Kai walks to the back of the vehicle, pressing a button on a strange box that appears to be attached to the metal. It beeps, suddenly leaping off of the vehicle. It whirs and beeps, expanding into…

“What is that?” you wonder, studying the device. It’s like a mechanical statue!

“Oh, I love my sis!” cries the red ninja as he leaps onto it.

“It’s a mech. Basically a giant robot that we can control,” Lloyd answers.

“I see,” you wonder, the sound of whirring catching your attention. You turn towards the source, spotting a bunch of Stone Warrior vehicles approaching.

You frown, taking a few steps forward as you glare in their direction. They shrink back, but slow down. You spot General Kozu approaching on a machine as well.

“Mistress? What are you doing?” the grunts ask in their tongue. Hm, the Overlord must not have told them of your betrayal before sending them out. That, or they were simply on patrol while the whole ordeal occurred.

“Leave us,” you warn, not backing down this time.

“She has betrayed her own blood,” Kozu explains, glaring daggers into you. You push aside your emotions in order to return his stare just as pointedly.

“He is no longer my father.”

“It is a shame that all of these years have led to your treachery. You will never understand what has been lost as a result of your deception. Now, it will lead to your undoing. Attack!”

You remain still as they advance, focusing your magic energy into your fingertips. A smirk crosses your lips as they hesitate, stopping in their tracks for a moment.

It seems as if Kozu is the only one who recognizes your spell, because his cries for his men to fall back are cut off by your quiet chants.

Moments after, rings of dark magic encircle themselves around their limbs, immediately tightening. The runes embedded in the spell start glowing a pretty shade of lavender as the spell’s effects enact.

With that, the Stone Warriors crumble to their knees, crying out in pain. Kozu does so as well, but only grunts as he manages to glare at you.

“There, that will hold them for a few minutes,” you say, turning back towards the ninja.

“What? How did you do that?!” Kai wonders as they stare at the fallen Stone Warriors.

“It’s a spell that grants its victims a sense of pain, no matter their biological status. Part of the reason why they’re indestructible is because they can’t feel pain. For them, even a little bit of pain would feel excruciating, as you can see.”

“Um…well allow me to be the first to say that I really hope you intend on staying on our side!” Jay chimes in with a nervous chuckle. The others nod in agreement.

“I intend to. Anyways, we should start heading up.”

“Yeah, let’s go! Climb on!”

The four ninja leap onto the mech, with Lloyd climbing on top. Once more, he offers his hand to you.

You take it, tightening your grip as he pulls you on top of the mech. With his right hand securely holding onto the golden part of the mech, he uses his other one to hold you against his side. You cringe at the thought of having to scale the mountain with such an unsound grip, but it’ll have to do.

As Kai dashes towards the mountain, you immediately circle your arms around Lloyd’s neck, feeling wobbly. His grip around your waist tightens as the mech leaps onto the side of the mountain.

“I won’t let you fall,” he assures. You nod in response, glancing down at the Stone Warriors giving chase.

“Oh, they’re still coming!” Jay yells.

“One of these days we’re gonna have to fight!” Cole complains from the side of the mech.

“We’re not climbing fast enough!”

Kai makes the mech jump from point to point, which is a tad bit faster. Even so, a Stone Warrior manages to leap onto the leg of the mech, eliciting a bunch of beeps from the mechanism. Kai has to stop in order to shake him off. The beeping stops, allowing the mech to continue.

“Activate hook!” Kai yells, aiming the mech’s left arm upward. Sure enough, a hook shoots out of the palm, attaching to the top of the mountain. The mech is then pulled up by the rope, letting Kai climb onto the top.

With that, the five of you jump off. Your knees are a bit unsteady, but the adrenaline coursing through you makes it all worth it.

“We made it to the top!” Jay cheers as your group looks around. “But where’s the Temple of Light?!”

“Are you sure you used the medallion right?” Lloyd asks.

“Oh, of course I used it right! It said it should be right here!”

“Well, until we find it, I’ve got to find a way to slow them down,” Kai adds as the mech turns back around to face the cliff. Thankfully, he shoots down a few boulders, knocking the Stone Warriors out of sight.

“That should buy us a little time.”

From there, everyone begins scaling the mountain. You remain towards the back, but make sure to keep up. Suddenly, you’re grateful you spent so much of your time training for physically demanding challenges.

After a minute or so, you hear Lloyd gasping. “The Temple of Light!”

Once you pull yourself to the top, you pause for a moment in order to catch your breath and admire the Temple. Clearly erected in ancient times, it looks great for how old it must be.

You elect to only watch as the ninja enter. For some reason, this feels like something they should do by themselves. You hang out by the mech, staring at the summit below.

“Hey.”

You turn, seeing Cole poking his head out of the door. “Huh?”

“Aren’t you coming inside?”

“I feel like I’m intruding,” you admit. “I can just keep watch.”

“You’re not. Sensei said to treat you like you’re one of us, and I trust his judgement, so that’s what I’m gonna do. Come on in.”

You fidget with your hands for a moment, watching as he beckons you inside. You thank him, offering an appreciative smile towards the dark-haired boy.

The temple’s doors close behind you, leaving you and Cole to catch up with the rest of the group. You can’t help but wonder who built this place. There are four pillars and a large bell located in the center of the room. What purpose do those serve?

“Guys, check this out!” Jay says, gesturing towards what appears to be a large mural depicting several events. “It’s us!”

“Impossible… It’s everything we’ve ever done!” Kai notes as they pad over to the first painting.

“Finding the Bounty, facing the Devourer…even right now!” Cole adds as he points to the a specific painting.

He’s right – it contains a depiction of the ninja. But not just the ninja…

“Even her?” Kai wonders. You can’t help but feel a bit giddy when you see your figure painted onto the mural too. It looks like you made the right decision after all!

“That settles it,” Lloyd replies as he glances at you. “It’s destiny.”

“How could it all be here?” Zane wonders.

“Like I said: destiny,” Lloyd answers. “I think I know what we need to do.”

He walks out towards the center of the room, underneath the large bell. You observe in silence as he kneels down, wiping the dust off from the floor. “Look!”

Sure enough, his symbol is there. The ninja spread out, all bending down to swipe the dust off of certain sections of the floor, revealing their respective symbols scattered around Lloyd’s.

“Wait, there’s something else here,” Zane says as he glances around. “Our elements comprise the circle surrounding Lloyd’s symbol. But…there is an outlying symbol here.”

The ninja of ice takes a moment to kick the dust off of the unknown shape. Sure enough, a new symbol lies there – this one featuring a rune surrounded by a dark purple.

“That must be yours,” Zane says, glancing up to you.

“Mine? No, that can’t be right…”

“You were in the mural. That means the First Spinjitzu Master knew you would be here too,” Lloyd points out.

“That means it has to be yours,” Zane adds as he walks back over to his symbol. “Stand on it and see what happens.”

You nod, swallowing nervously as you step within your symbol. From here, you’re outside of the ninja’s circle but straight across from Lloyd.

“Okay, now what?” Lloyd wonders as everyone looks around for some type of clue. When no one finds anything, you spot Lloyd shaking his head as he glances up at the bell above him. “Wait…the bell! It’s an instrument! You guys ready for this?!”

“Bring it!” Cole encourages as the ninja straighten their posture.

Lloyd releases a cry, running towards the pillar behind Cole. He uses his momentum to kick off of it, giving him the height he needs to strike the bell.

As his foot connects with the metal of the bell, a sharp ringing enters your ears. It pierces through your head, eliciting a headache as the force of its rumbling starts shaking the entire Temple.

The ringing gradually fades into a low reverberation, a golden beam of light shining down on Lloyd as he stands up.

“Whoa! What’s happening?!”

“No one move!” Zane directs.

You shift your gaze back to Lloyd, watching as he relaxes and tilts his head up with closed eyes. As the golden glow brightens, a white beam shoots down from the bell, seemingly being redirected to a crystal implanted in the wall via Lloyd. From there, the light bounces from crystal to crystal until it strikes Kai’s pillar.

That same white light surrounds Kai, changing his gi into a new one. A golden object is summoned into his hand.

The process happens for the other three ninja as well, when finally the beam of light is shot into the floor around Lloyd. The outline of his circle turns to a pastel purple color, the light rushing towards the perimeter of your symbol.

Your heart rate increases as foreign magic seeps within your skin, tangling itself with the magic you had learned to wield so well. No longer did the darkness feel forced; Lloyd’s energy intertwines with your magic to grant a lighter sense. It lightens the burden that had been placed upon you against your will. No longer does the dark nature of your magic feel evil; you are now embracing it. One with your element – that of darkness itself. It is the natural balance to Lloyd’s magic, and should not be treated with fear.

It is the natural way. Shadow must accompany the light wherever it may follow, and that does not have to be a bad thing. You are now the exception, and hope to lead others in your example.

No longer connected with your physical self, you sift your way through the energy in an attempt to find a tangible connection with your body. It comes shortly after as the sensation subsides, leaving you breathless as you find yourself gripping a silver object akin to what the ninja are holding.

Wind rips throughout the Temple as the light encompasses Lloyd once more, this time making him levitate. You watch along with the other ninja in stupor as he begins spinning midair.

Suddenly, elemental-themed blades shoot out of the golden objects the ninja had been holding. Yours doesn’t come out though, much to your surprise.

“Guys, send him your powers!” Kai yells over all of the commotion. The others nod, aiming their blades towards Lloyd and summoning blasts of elemental energy towards him.

Lloyd absorbs it, a low hum resounding throughout the Temple as a bubble of green energy surrounds him before exploding into a golden dragon. You stand there in awe, admiring the sheer power radiating from him.

“Lloyd!” Kai yells as the green ninja falls to the ground. It's then that the blade erupts from its silver handle.

You want to go check on him, but are stopped when you hear the shouting of Stone Warriors coming from outside.

“Let ‘em have it!” Lloyd yells as all of you get into fight stances.

You smirk, taking a moment to test out your new weapon. It’s light and versatile, and the darkness of the blade seems to bend to your will in a way.

“Now we get to fight!” Cole yells as Kai dashes towards a group of Stone Warriors, blocking one of their swords. The warrior seems shocked when the sword fails to shatter upon impact.

“Cool!” remarks Kai as runs around the group while dragging his sword on the ground. It creates a wall of fire around the group that can’t be escaped.

“Woohoo!”

You see that a group of warriors are heading your way too. The other ninja begin battling the Stone Warriors as you back away, wondering how your new blade works.

With a mighty war cry, a Stone Warrior rushes towards you, lifting the sword in preparation for a swing. After promptly blocking it, your eyes widen when you see that darkness from your blade is actually eating through the metal, causing it to shatter moments later.

“Ooh…” you mumble, chuckling as you enter a swordfight with a few other warriors. Their blades are no match for the corruption oozing from your weapon, shattering each and every one of their swords and shields.

They back away upon realizing they no longer have any items to protect them from the destructive nature of your weapon.

“What’s the matter? Going to run back to Kozu now that you know you’re done for?” you mock in their language, a new sense of confidence swelling within you.

They back away, but only to be frozen by Zane’s ice. A dark chuckle escapes you as you swing the elemental blade down, making the mound of ice dissolve within seconds.

“Not so indestructible now!” you say.

“Indeed! Let’s catch up with the others.”

You follow Zane towards the center of the room, where the others are currently gathered. They’re behind Lloyd, who’s summoning a ball of green energy that gradually turns golden. It’s almost mesmerizing, in a way – how the light of his element gently embraces the world around it.

Soon enough, the same golden dragon appears, this time flying towards the Stone Warriors.

“RETREAT!” Kozu yells as the Stone Warriors run away.

“We did it!” Jay yells once they’re gone. “We actually won this time!”

“Hell yes! We sure gave them a taste of their own medicine!”

“And it feels damn good not to run away for once!”

“Not to mention that we finally have a means to interact with our elements,” Zane adds.

You can’t help but tear up as you watch the group, a smile on your face as you realize that you finally have a chance to leave this cursed island so you can make a name for yourself. You wipe your eyes with the sleeve of your new gi.

Speaking of which, it’s exactly like the ninjas’, but with purple accents. It’s comfortable yet also seems ideal for combat. You release a shaky breath, sheathing your elemental blade in the holster located on your back.

It’s time for a new life!

[interlunium-opus]

Enhypen as your Best Friend: Sunoo Edition

Check out other members’ versions too: Heeseung | Jay | Jake | Sunghoon | Jungwon | Ni-Ki

Looks like such a softie but boi has too much ✨sass✨ and is ready to throw hands (translation: words) to those who annoy him. That includes you. That is why you guys are always bickering over the simplest of things. That said, if anyone tries to cross you though, best believe he'd be the first one to react defensively and the first one to get worked up defending you.

"I somehow felt guilty though, maybe I shouldn't have been friendly towards him. His friends are probably right, I must've led him on or something," you sigh. Sunoo gasps, wrapping an arm over your shoulder, "Hey, no one should feel like that. If you don't feel the same way towards him, you have all the right in the world to reject him. You don't owe him anything. Also, let me just drill this into your mind okay? it is not your fault alright? I know you and I know you don't play around like that so if anything, he's the one that should get a grip — kindess and help don’t equal to flirtations.“ You stare at him, getting all welled up, "has anyone ever told you that you're like the personafication of comfort." "All the time," he quips sassily, "also, give me names. Who are the imbeciles who have tried to guilttrip you over this? I'll give them a piece of mind."

In fact, if you had tripped over a flat surface, you can be sure that he'd be scolding the flat surface instead of you.

“Damn, I tripped again,” you bury your face in your hands, “I need to stop being such a klutz.”

“Girl, it’s not you. The floor here is messed up,” Sunoo grumbles, brows furried.

“But it wasn’t even on those buckled floors Sunoo — it was on some perfectly flat flooring.”

”Must have been tilted, you never know. Anyways, you okay? I’ve got bandaids”

That friend who is always whipping their phone up for selfies together. He takes so many selfies and pictures of you that your face basically comes 2nd if you turn to that section in the gallery with the face recognition function — next to his own face that is. You know what this also means? That he has a gallery full of meme-able pictures of you that can be used for blackmail purposes in the future. But Sunoo is an angel so he wouldn’t do that :) he’d just turn them into stickers to use whenever he bickers with you over text.

Is so supportive that he’s like your personal hypeman or something, whenever you have to do a presentation, a speech or perform — best believe he'd put up a digital neon sign using his phone to support you "u go gurl" "y/n 4 president" "in y/n we trust". He’s also the first person to clap, give a standing ovation or shout for your name in support in the crowd. Conversely, he would also be the first person to laugh at you when you embarass yourself.

Quality time with Sunoo would consists of activities like cafe-hoppings; food-hunting; diy workshops (perfumery, pottery etc); screaming/squealing over dramas while putting on some skincare treatments; pilates class; and so on.

Whenever watching romance dramas or movies, you guys would end up trying to cover each others’ eyes at romantic scenes. Conversely, when watching horror, you two would be holding each others’ hands down in an effort to stop one another from covering their eyes during jumpscares.

Such a chatterbox — always have interesting stories to tell of him, of others and always have the latest gossips to dish. That said, he also have zero filters and awareness which often would get you in trouble in the crowd or in a class.

Can be too caring and selfless at times. He would share his favourite food with you even if he only has one of it and/or power through his fears just for you.

“Should I go with you?” He offers as he watch you get your safety harness tightened in preparation for bungee jumping.

”You don’t have to, I can go alone,” you reassure, knowing how Sunoo is not a fan of heights, “I’ll be fine.”

”You know what, I’ll go,” he clasps his hands together, looking determined, “let’s both fly high or die together.”

“Dude! Don’t say that, no one’s gonna die!!” you shriek before offering your hand, “but sure, let’s. We’re not called inseparable for nothing.”

Always low-key judging any guys that makes any kind of moves on you.

“Heeseung’s too competitive, you’re also competitive so nah you two won’t match. Afterall, like poles repel.” // "Nah, not Sunghoon either — heartthrobs is just a nicer, fancier way to refer to heartbreakers.” // “Jay? Are you even serious? Your bank would break, followed by your heart.” // "Definitely not Jungwon either, he's like the spawn of evil." // "Dude don't even start on Ni-Ki, he's a menace."

"Ugh," you groan in annoyance, "What about Jake then?"

"I mean if you have to," Sunoo sighs and you almost leapt in happiness but then he adds, "he's a bit too flirty though..."

“You’re supportive of everything but other guys,” you roll your eyes.

“because bestie, I want the best for you and yet you’re too good for almost everyone,” he shakes his head, ”We can just both stay single for a long time then — we’re all that each other needs anyway.”

[goldenavenger02]

my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand

5 times Zane took care of the team and 1 time the team took care of Zane

•••

1;

"You three are brothers now, and will become stronger together. But for now, you must get acquainted with each other." Sensei's words rang in Zane's head as he made his way into the kitchen of the monastery.

While Jay had been somewhat easy to get introduced to, with his passion for robotics and his tendency to talk, they had become close very quickly.

Cole, however, was a bit harder to speak to; Zane could tell that Cole was a good person, as he was extremely loyal to Sensei even though he had just started his training under him, but he was also closed off to Jay and Zane.

And while he didn't know why, Zane had a feeling it was more so due to some sort of pain in his past, and not him viewing himself and Jay as lower than him.

Which is why Zane was now in the kitchen; he could never quite place exactly why, but he always felt at peace when he was cooking. Something about making something out of nothing was soothing to him.

But before he had decided what exactly he was going to make, that's when Cole came in, a look of longing across his face.

"Hello, Cole," Zane greeted, offering him a smile, but it faded when Cole stiffened, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you."

"It's alright, just startled me," Cole insisted, the look of longing came back before he asked, "are you making anything specific?"

"I have not decided. Do you have a request?" Zane asked, trying to read Cole's face.

"Can you make cake? Vanilla cake?"

"Absolutely," Zane smiled, going to grab the ingredients before asking, his back turned to Cole, "are we celebrating something, or is it just cake?"

He heard Cole take in a deep breath, almost as if he was trying to avoid crying, which didn't make much sense, since from what he knew, cake was never for sad things.

Zane turned around to see Cole staring at the counter before he responded.

"Yeah, it's…" he swallowed before locking eyes with Zane, "it would have been my mom's birthday. She passed away a few months ago."

"I am sorry for your loss, Cole." Zane spoke softly, unsure of how best to comfort someone he didn't know very well.

The room went quiet for a few moments, and Zane busied himself with grabbing the rest of the cooking supplies when Cole spoke up again, his voice cracking slightly from the tears.

"Can I help?"

Zane nodded, allowing Cole behind the counter before Zane got to work on the dry ingredients, watching as Cole started working on the wet ingredients.

And when Zane tripped over his own foot, resulting in Cole being covered in flour head to toe, he couldn't stop himself from laughing when Cole did, although he didn't fully understand exactly what was so funny.

2;

"Come on, you stupid hunk of junk!" Nya's shout rang through the Bounty, startling everyone that was aboard.

"How long has she been working on the thruster?" Zane asked, wondering just how long she had gone without food, sleep and water.

"Since yesterday afternoon, I can't pry her away from it." Jay explained, which led Zane to nod before making his way to the control room.

Nya was hunched over the thruster controls, screwdriver in her left hand and a screw hanging out of her mouth, her eyebrows scrunched in anger as she continued to twist the wrench with her right around a bolt.

"Nya?" Zane spoke softly, not wanting to provoke her, before gently putting his hand on her shoulder, "perhaps you should take a break. Jay said that you have been working on it since yesterday."

"I've gotta work on this," she shook her head after taking the screw out of her mouth, "we don't know when we'll have to make a getaway from...whatever Lord Garmadon is planning."

Zane nodded; since Garmadon had disappeared after the destruction of the golden weapons, they had all braced themselves for an attack, even Lloyd who had just started learning the full extent of his powers was getting ready for whatever his dad was going to throw at them.

"I understand your reasoning perfectly, but you are human, Nya. You will get burnt out if you work yourself too hard," he stopped to gently take the wrench out of her hand so she would look at him, "and if we have any chance at stopping Garmadon, we are going to need Samurai X."

Luckily, Nya nodded, and put up her tools, before wiping at her brow with her arm. "Thanks, Zane."

"You're welcome." Zane couldn't help but smile as he watched Nya make her way towards her quarters, and that's when he turned back to the thruster, and started to get to work with schematics pulled up in front of him.

"You will fly again, my friend."

3;

Despite the fact that it was called "The Dark Island", Zane had actually found the perfect place to sit on the beach and watch the sunrise, which was hidden by large rocks, even though he could see the ocean perfectly.

He knew that the others would wake up soon, and they would start working towards the final battle yet again, but for a brief moment, everything was peaceful.

Until he heard the footsteps.

Zane immediately drew his weapon, hearing the slight rustle of sand get louder and louder, until finally, he stood and yelled, ready to attack until the supposed assailant screamed, energy at both of their hands.

Zane immediately sheathed the weapon and took a deep breath, watching as Lloyd did the same, his hand against his chest. "You scared me, Lloyd."

"Likewise," Lloyd took a deep breath before raising an eyebrow, "what're you doing?"

"I'm watching the sunrise, it looks beautiful from here," Zane explained, sitting back down and watching Lloyd's face fall, "although, I could ask you the same thing."

"I just needed some time for myself," Lloyd told him, sitting next to Zane before letting out a sigh, "I don't think I'm ready."

"To fight your father?," Zane offered, resulting in a nod from Lloyd, "You have every reason to be upset about this situation. I just reunited with my father, and I can confidently say that I would be very distraught if we were on opposite sides."

"My entire life, I've lost people. My father got banished, my mother went to work on her research and left me at Darkley's, even my uncle didn't take me in for a long time," Zane watched as Lloyd took in a shaky breath before wiping his face against his sleeve, "I don't wanna lose him again."

"Again?" Zane asked softly, as to avoid provoking Lloyd.

"My dad has been the only one to come back for me. When I got taken by the Serpentine, he left whatever evil place he was in to come save me, and I know you guys came for me too, but…"

"You're scared of being abandoned again after you fulfill the prophecy." Zane spoke aloud as it clicked in his head, and when Lloyd nodded, he could feel his heart break slightly.

"I don't want to be alone again."

Zane nodded, before gently laying his hand on Lloyd's shoulder and he saw the tear streaks on Lloyd's cheeks. "You won't be alone again, because you have me and the others. We are your brothers, and even if you didn't have elemental abilities, we would still be your brothers."

Zane didn't prepare himself adquitally for the hug that Lloyd gave him, and he could feel his circuits and gears tightening under his grasp.

But hearing Lloyd's soft voice whisper, "thank you, Zane," made it all worth it, and he couldn't stop himself from returning the hug.

4;

"No sign of Chen or any of his warriors." PIXAL affirmed with a smile, which led Zane to repeat the message to Kai.

Now that he had been freed, he was fully able to explore exactly what his new body could do, and while he remembered big events clearly and flashes of small things, his memory was still foggy.

But he remembered his friends, and that was the biggest thing that mattered to him.

"Any sign of Skylor?" Kai begged, and Zane had no choice but to shake his head no, seeing the look of anguish on Kai's face grow more prominent.

"Let's keep looking. They couldn't have gotten off the island." Kai insisted, Zane following closely behind, watching as Kai's face went from anger to worry.

"You seem distraught, Kai. About more than Skylor," Zane reached forward and gently set his hand on Kai's shoulder, watching as he turned back to meet his eyes, "do you want to talk about it?"

Kai let out a sigh before turning back to the path and continued to walk, "I feel terrible for what happened. I had to trick Lloyd in order to get the staff from Chen, and then I almost hurt Lloyd and Skylor with the staff. Now she's missing, and...I feel like that's on me."

"No one blames you for that, Kai. Chen is the one who took her, not you." Zane reasoned softly.

"But I allowed myself to be corrupted by the staff. We all know how bad losing power is for Lloyd, and I allowed the power to consume me, to say things to him that...that I haven't believed in a long time."

"As soon as we get back, you two should talk and get everything out in the open," Zane stopped once again to put his hand on Kai's shoulder, "if we are going to fight as one, and stop Chen, we cannot have any harsh feelings towards each other."

"You're right," Kai nodded, before letting out another sigh, "I just hope Lloyd doesn't hate me."

"I think that would be impossible, Kai," Zane insisted, and when Kai turned to raise an eyebrow at him, he continued, "I do not remember everything, and my memories are still foggy, but I remember just how much Lloyd and you have bonded over the years. I have a feeling that after you two talk, he will forgive you."

Kai smiled, which made Zane's emotion levels spike with happiness, before the two continued walking deeper and deeper into Chen's island.

5;

Zane couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something, like there was a gap in his memory drive, even if PIXAL insisted that there wasn't one.

So he was awake in the bridge, trying to double check; he really did trust PIXAL, but something had happened to his memories, and after the whole situation with his memory switch in the first place, something about forgetting just scared him.

But as he continued to go through his internal hard drive, and his memory drive, it seemed as though PIXAL was correct, and there was no gap.

As he went to close the files, that's when PIXAL popped up in his vision.

"Zane, there is someone in the general proximity of the bridge. Proceed with caution."

Zane straightened his back as he closed the files, even though the only sound he could hear was a slight sniffling that sounded a lot like crying, and grabbed one of the spare katanas that was out, turning slowly to see if he could scope out who was in the room, but that's when Jay turned the corner, a pint of ice cream in his hand that he almost threw at Zane when he screamed.

"What the heck are you doing up, Zane?!" Jay screeched as Zane set the katana on the table and approached him, "You're going to give me a heart attack if you're that quiet!"

"I'm sorry, I was just…" Zane trailed off before making eye contact with Jay, who now had the spoon from the pint of ice cream, that looked like it was Cole's ice cream, in his mouth; the tear streaks barely visible against Jay's cheeks, however, that's what Zane noticed, "What are you doing up at this hour?"

"Could ask you the same thing," Jay responded before sticking another spoonful in his mouth, "couldn't sleep, got hungry, and Cole's name isn't on his ice cream."

"I heard someone crying." Zane asked softly, watching as Jay nearly choked on a chunk of cookie dough before sputtering.

"Maybe it was Lloyd, you know he curls up under the wheel when he doesn't want anyone to know he's crying."

"Lloyd was snoring when I left our room, I would have seen him," he watched as Jay's body deflated slightly and he put the ice cream down on the console before sitting down, which led Zane to put his hand on his shoulder, "do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm just working through some things, things that...you wouldn't remember."

Zane swallowed as he made the connection that Jay knew exactly why he had a gap in his memory that PIXAL couldn't detect, but instead of freaking out, he sat next to Jay, and put his hand on his shoulder. "Maybe not, but I am willing to listen, even if you wanna erase this conversation afterwards."

"Nah, I'm not gonna do that," Jay wiped his hand across his face before taking a shaky breath and turning back to Zane, "You remember when we were trying to get to Stiix because of reports of Clouse being there?"

"Yes, that's when you and Nya resumed dating." Zane affirmed, watching as Jay's face fell slightly.

"Yeah, that's… not exactly what happened…"

6;

'Remember when I put Kai's clothes in with yours, and you had to dress up as the pink ninja? Remember?' The blonde boy pleaded, green eyes full of tears.

He had no idea what this liar was talking about, let alone who he was. Vex insisted he was some sort of liar or traitor, but there was something about the way…

'No.'

He had no idea who this was.

•••

Zane tried to shake the memory away as he made his way to his room, looking over at the photo on his dresser.

The picture that they had taken after finishing the mural on the monastery wall; where Kai was holding onto Nya and Lloyd and Nya was holding onto Jay and Jay was holding onto Cole and Lloyd was holding onto him and he was holding onto PIXAL.

And they were all happy; even though the Oni almost killed them all, there was a large gash next to Lloyd's eye and Cole looked like he had been through the underworld and back, they were happy.

Zane was anything but happy now.

When they returned from the Never-Realm, and they shared weary smiles and hugs with Master Wu and PIXAL, despite the frostbite, Lloyd's obvious concussion and the burns on Kai's hands that would definitely scar, they were happy.

The feeling in Zane's gut was not going away anytime soon. Watching as PIXAL stitched the cut on the back of Lloyd's head, applied bandages to Kai's hands, and treated the frostbite wasn't helping with that either.

Zane didn't deserve to feel happy after nearly killing the others. After nearly killing Lloyd.

While the others were eating dinner, courtesy of Nya, Zane was sitting outside on the steps of the monastery; he didn't need to eat, and even if he did, he didn't think he could stomach it.

'You were built to protect those who cannot protect themselves. You failed your purpose. Both as a ninja, and as yourself.'

Despite all that had happened with his memories, Zane was starting to consider asking Jay to wipe the archive of the Never-Realm. Maybe he wouldn't feel as bad then.

"Hey," a voice interrupted his thoughts, and he lifted his head to see Lloyd smiling at him, although it was more of a sympathetic smile than a genuine one, "mind if I sit here?"

"You're not supposed to be outside, or on stairs for that matter, without supervision," Zane reasoned, but still moved so Lloyd could sit beside him, "you still have a concussion."

"Well, you're here, so I'm being supervised," Lloyd reasoned while sitting, and Zane couldn't deny that logic, and the company was more welcome than the deafening silence, "besides, I need a break from Kai and Master Wu breathing down my neck."

Zane nodded as Lloyd adjusted to get comfortable; he had noticed how understandably protective both of them had grown since they had gotten back, and how Lloyd had insisted immediately that the concussion was Vex's fault, refusing to look Zane in the eye.

"So, are you leaving?" Lloyd's voice cracked, which jolted something in Zane's system as he nearly stood with the shock.

"No, no, I'm not leaving," he insisted, unable to ignore the relief on Lloyd's face as he spoke, "why would you ask that?"

"Because the last time you left the monastery at night, you found my treehouse," Lloyd kicked at a pebble before looking at Zane, "and when the Hypnobri burned down the old monastery-"

But Lloyd's voice cut out as the scene played out in his head.

'Flames, trapped dragons, no more training equipment, no home, nowhere to go, alone, everyone accusing him of causing this, insisting that it was a teaching moment, being ignored, seeing the falcon, following it, the feeling of being alone again.'

"I left because I saw the falcon, and you weren't even there." Zane tried to convince Lloyd that it hadn't been the guilt, feeling like he had screwed up, feeling like he was alone.

"You're right, I was busy being a brat," Lloyd reasoned before looking back at Zane, "but I know as well as anyone what guilt is, and you felt it then, like you feel it now."

Zane swallowed; did everyone know? Was he terrible at hiding this? Had they planned to send Lloyd out?

"I hurt people. A lot of people," Zane swallowed, knowing that there were tears in his eyes, "I hurt you."

"That was Vex-" Lloyd tried to insist, but Zane shook his head, unable to look at Lloyd and instead looked up at the glittering stars.

"You don't have to lie to me, Lloyd. They were my hands, I was the one who…" he couldn't even finish his sentence without choking on the emotions on his throat.

He felt Lloyd's hand on his shoulder, he couldn't look at him, but he couldn't reach over and pull his hand off either, 'what if I freeze him? What if I hurt him again?'

"You know, Master Wu has a saying for things like this, "we cannot change the past, but we can affect the future"," Lloyd quoted, leading Zane to swallow harshly as his master's words rang true in his head, "but I get it. Feeling like you hurt people because it was your hands."

'Morro.'

"Lloyd, I didn't-" Zane started, finally managing to look at Lloyd, but he was cut off by childlike wonder spreading across his face.

"A shooting star! Quick, make a wish!" Lloyd begged, and Zane wiped at his tears before closing his eyes, pretending to make a wish before turning back to Lloyd.

"What did you wish for?" He asked, fully indulging Lloyd at this point, who was standing up. 'Lloyd deserves this, after everything.'

"That you'll come back inside with me and the others," Lloyd held out his hand to Zane, making his head throb with worry.

'You'll hurt him, you'll hurt him, you'll hurt-' "You're not going to hurt me, Zane."

Zane took Lloyd's hand, and allowed him to lead him to the living room.

For the first time since they got back from the Never-Realm, as Cole and Kai went head to head in their video game, as Nya and Jay snuggled on the couch, as he sat in between Lloyd and PIXAL, things felt right again.

He let PIXAL hold his hand, he let Cole high five him, he let Jay give him a fist bump, he hit the empty bag of chips away from Lloyd's head. Even as Master Wu pulled Lloyd away from the TV due to the concussion and Cole took his spot, he still felt calm. Relaxed even. Maybe now, they could all start to heal together.

[rosiehunterwolf]

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow

Prompts: Chores and Video Games

Word Count: 4,850

Characters: The squad + Pixal

Timeline: between seasons 11 and 12

Trigger Warnings: None

Summary: …what can be done today, yada, yada, yada, we all know the saying. So do the ninja- when Master Wu is drilling it into their heads every minute of every day, it’s kind of hard to forget.

Naturally, it only takes them a week (and the biggest new video game in Ninjago) to do so.

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“Get that gun out of his hand! Without it, he’ll be defenseless and we can take him down easily!” “I’m trying, Jay!” Lloyd said through gritted teeth. “One wrong move and he’ll get me with that thing!”

“Use your powers!” Jay raised his sword and dove at the enemy, forcing him to turn and face him. As their swords clashed with a loud clang of metal, Jay quickly pulled back as Lloyd shot a blast of power at the attacker, who promptly collapsed to the ground.

“Alright! Way to go, green ma- look out!”

Lloyd shrieked as someone suddenly jumped on him from behind, skewering a sword through his skull. The green ninja fell to the ground and vanished in a puff of smoke.

The ninja blinked at the scene before them, speechless.

Jay suddenly let out a whoop, leaning over to high-five Kai. “Way to go, bro! You’re so good at this game!” “He came out of nowhere,” Lloyd huffed, tossing his control to the ground. “He didn’t even give me a chance to fight back.”

Kai reclined, putting his hands behind his head. “Work smarter, not harder, green machine.”

Lloyd scowled, and Nya shot him a sympathetic glance. “Hey, Lloyd, you lasted a whole ten minutes longer than last time! You’ve drastically improved.”

“Don’t feel bad,” Kai winked. “Even Jay couldn’t beat me, I wouldn’t expect you to.”

Cole shook his head. “Dude, you’re unchecked! We’ve only had this game for a week and already, you’re insane. Let’s just say I’m very glad you’re on our team.”

“I’ll say,” Zane agreed. “The Critical Conquest Gaming Tournament is going to have some of the best gamers in Ninjago. You’re good, Kai- we all are- but we all need to be at the top of our game if we want a chance at winning.”

“We got this, guys,” Nya assured. “We’ve fought off serpentine, ghosts, the Overlord, Oni- winning a city-wide video game tournament should be a piece of cake.”

“Speaking of cake-”

“No cake,” Jay snapped at Cole. “Not until we’ve won this thing. I need you to practice.”

“Dude, chill, I’ve been practicing!”

“Then can you show me your double twist dash-melee maneuver?”

Cole blinked at him. “My what?”

“That’s what I thought. Here, let me show you. We’ll try until you’ve got it down.”

“Who put you in charge?”

“You did. Literally. You guys chose me to be the team captain for the competition.”

“Whatever.”

“Lloyd, come here, so he has someone to practice on.”

“Why me?” “Because you need to work on your stealth. Kai got that jump on you surprisingly easily. You’re a good fighter, Lloyd, but fighting doesn’t matter if your enemy kills you before you have the chance. Practice your stealth and dodging on Cole.”

“Ready to get your butt kicked, bud?” Cole reached his hands out, cracking his knuckles before picking up the controller.

“Ha! You wish. The only one who will be getting their butt kicked is-”

The sharp rapping of something against the floor interrupted him, and they turned to see Master Wu standing behind them, his gaze disapproving as he clutched his staff firmly in hand.

“Students, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Uhh, practicing for the Critical Conquest tournament?” Nya said. “I thought that was pretty obvious!”

Wu glared at her. “I know what you’re doing. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut all this short. The six of you have many chores to do.”

“Chores?” they cried in unison.

“The past week since you bought that game, you have done nothing but sit around on that couch and play it. In all that time, your chores have piled up. Now, I’m cutting you off. They need to be done, now.”

“But Master!” Jay pleaded. “The tournament starts in only a few hours!”

Master Wu smirked. “Well, I guess you better be fast, then.”

---

The ninja stared down at the alarmingly long list Master Wu had given them, no one speaking a word for nearly a solid minute.

“Why,” Kai groaned, “did we ever put all of these off?”

“Why didn’t Master Wu just let us wait one more day to do the chores?” Jay complained. “The tournament would be all over then!”

“Well, he didn’t,” Cole said. “So there’s no use in complaining. We might as well get started.”

“Alright, guys, if we’re going to get through all of this before the tournament starts, we’re gonna have to divide and conquer,” Nya said. “Let’s see. Zane, Lloyd, you guys take the kitchen. Jay, Cole, you can check the vehicles to make sure they’re operating properly- wait, scratch that, Cole doesn’t know shit about mechanics. Besides, putting you two alone together is never a good idea.”

“Hey!”

“Zane, you go with Jay on the machines. Cole, you’re with Lloyd. Kai and I will work outside on raking and fixing the training course.”

“Hey, no fair, you just gave yourself the easiest job!” Cole grumbled.

“I’ll inform you that raking leaves is very mundane!”

“Yeah!” Kai snapped. “Especially when it’s cold out like this. I’m gonna freeze my fingers off!”

“You’re the fire ninja, you’ll figure something out,” Nya snapped. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Hey, Cole? You think this is so easy? We can trade places! You wanna trade places?”

“Actually, I’ve decided to be nice and let you take this one.”

Kai glared at him. “You’re only saying that because you know I hate it!” Cole leaned back against the table, smirking. “Maybe.”

“Come on, Kai, we’re going.” Nya grabbed his hand and yanked him out the door.

“I guess we better get working,” Cole sighed. “Jay, Zane, you guys need a copy of your tasks?” Zane shook his head. “I’ve got the list committed to memory. And there’s a lot to do, so we better go.”

As they left the room, Cole turned to Lloyd. “Put a check mark or something by the things the others are doing, so we can see what’s left for us.”

Lloyd made little marks next to the tasks, his pencil slowing as it reached the end. His frown deepened. “I swear, this list is getting longer. Some of these are just ridiculous! Polish the counters? Clean out the oven? Dust the tops of the cabinets? Who does these things?”

“Normal people, Lloyd. It’s not my fault that we’re so busy saving the city that you’ve never done anything more than the most basic chores in your life.”

“I’ve done chores!” “Darkley’s doesn’t count, bud. I bet the only thing you did there was clean spiders out of your bed.”

“They were fire ants,” Lloyd grumbled.

Cole turned on him with wide eyes. “What?”

Lloyd stiffened, suddenly seeming to realize what he had just said. “Uh… I mean… don’t tell Kai, okay?”

Cole stared at him for a moment, before sighing. “I’ll let it go, this once. But only because you’ve had a lot worse things than fire ants since then. Those kids are jerks, though.”

“I know.”

“... They really did that?”

“Yes, Cole! Do I need to show the scars to prove it?”

“No! I was just- you know what, forget I even said anything. Let’s get to work. First up, doing the dishes.” They turned towards the sink, where dozens of dirty plates and cups had accumulated.

“Seriously? Doesn’t anyone ever clean off their dishes after eating?”

Cole shot him a look. “Name one time you did that.”

“Okay, so never, but we’re ninja, not dishwashers! What do you expect?”

“Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today, Lloyd.”

Lloyd groaned. “I can’t believe I’m missing Critical Conquest for this.”

---

“Jay! You’re supposed to be repairing the sentry cannons on the Land Bounty!” “Chill out, Zane, I’ll get to it in a minute-”

Zane suddenly snatched the remote control out of his hand. “Jay! We’re never going to finish in time for the tournament if you don’t focus! Stop playing with toys!” “It’s not a toy!” He gestured towards the small remote-controlled robot. “This thing is going to be a major distraction! It could make it or break it for us in battle!”

Zane eyed the robot skeptically. “This. Distract our enemies?”

“Well, I was going to make it into a smoke bomb, but someone kept pestering me!” “Look, Jay, this isn’t the time to work on your inventions. You can do that later. Right now, you need to fix the sentries.”

“I already looked at the sentries,” he whined. “They were completely fried in our last adventure. I have to rewire the whole thing.”

Zane blinked at him. “Isn’t… that kind of your job?”

“Yeah, well, it’s hard work! I don’t want to do it! I’ll take any other chore on your list.”

“Well, someone needs to do it, and you’re the only one who knows how.”

“Not true! Why don’t you ask Pixal?”

He gestured towards the nindriod, who was tinkering with what appeared to be a small metal box.

“Pixal,” he called, walking over to her, “do you know how to rewire the sentries?” “Yes, but I know for a fact that Jay does, too. I’m not doing it for you.”

“Aww, come on, Pix,” Jay groaned. “Why don’t you have to do anything while the rest of us are all working our butts off?”

She glanced wryly at Jay’s little robot, who was waving cheerfully at her. “I wouldn’t exactly call it that. But I’m not helping because I already did all my chores while the rest of you were playing video games.”

Jay went pink in the face, and even Zane felt himself avoiding Pixal’s gaze.

“Critical Conquest is very important,” Jay muttered.

“More important than making sure all our weapons are operational? Or restocking the medbay?”

“We can do those things any time! The competition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

“Actually, there is another one next month-”

“Shut up, Zane. With our luck, we’ll probably be fighting evil nindroids or will be locked inside a different realm by that point, anyway.”

“I’m not helping you,” Pixal sniffed. “So I don’t know why you’re still here.”

Not taking Pixal’s… not-so-subtle hints, Jay leaned in towards her. “Whatcha workin’ on?”

Pixal eyed him warily. “... It’s a jetpack. I wanted to make something more compact in case I was in a situation where I couldn’t use the Samurai X suit.”

“That’s cool! Although, it might work better if you recalibrated the engines to-”

“Jay,” Pixal said sharply. “I know what I’m doing. Please go work on your chores.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “No one ever lets me have any fun.”

Zane shook his head, wandering over to the Earth Driller where he was working on replacing the paneling that had been damaged in the Oni incident.

He couldn’t have been doing so for more than fifteen minutes when the sound of a small explosion interrupted him.

Zane jerked to his feet, dashing over to where the sound had come from.

Jay had jumped back from Pixal’s jetpack, which was now black and smoking.

Of course it was.

“What happened?”

Jay scratched his head nervously. “Well, you see… I really didn’t want to work on those sentries, so when I noticed Pixal stepping out of the room for a moment…”

Zane sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Are you alright?”

Jay grinned. “Right as rain. Not even a scar like last time!”

“Okay, that’s good, now I feel less bad for saying this- what were you thinking?”

“I couldn’t help myself, Zane! She calibrated it all wrong!”

“Well, evidently, you were the one who did it wrong, seeing as it exploded within five minutes of you getting your hands on it.”

Jay jumped nearly a foot in the air. “Pixal! You’re back! Ah… um, I’m really sorry about your jetpack, I was only trying to…”

Pixal marched forward, snatching it off the floor. “It doesn’t matter, it’s done now.”

“I can fix it-”

“You’ve done quite enough,” Pixal snapped. “Why don’t you just go finish your chores now?”

“But-”

Pixal held up the burnt jetpack, shaking it lightly. “You owe me.”

“Fine,” Jay groaned. “I’ll rewire the stupid sentries.”

---

“If I have to rake one more pile of leaves, something is going to end up on fire.”

“Well, luckily for you, that was the last of them.” Nya set down her rake, rubbing her hands together. “Now we just have to dispose of the leaf bags.”

She and Kai glanced over towards the towering pile of leaf bags, and Kai groaned.

“It’s going to take forever to throw these all away!”

“Kai, the dumpster is just on the other side of the Monastery wall!”

“Yeah, but we can only carry a few bags at a time, and we’re going to have to make so many trips!”

“Well, unless you’ve got a better idea, we don’t have a choice.”

Kai paused, his eyes lighting up. “Wait-”

“No, Kai, we are not burning the leaves.”

“I wasn’t going to say that! Although… it’s not a half-bad idea…”

“Kai!” “Okay, okay, no burning! What I was going to say was, why don’t we just toss the bags over the wall and into the dumpster?”

Nya frowned. “We’d miss half of them and then have to go over there anyway and pick them all up.”

“No, we could do it like in Critical Conquest! Remember? The ground-bash move? This is just like that!”

“Kai, that’s just a video game. This is real life!” “Yeah, but wouldn’t it still work?”

Nya frowned, stepping forward and eyeing up the roof of the Monastery. “I suppose if we got the right angle… we’d have to make sure an ample amount of newtons were applied with each hit to reach the correct velocity… and of course we’d have to take into consideration factors like density and wind acceleration per second and its tendency to carry-”

“Okay, okay, enough with your science-y nerd stuff!”

“It’s just basic physics, Kai. I mean, there are a lot of external factors to consider that wouldn’t be present in a lab setting, although I still think it would be quite simple-”

“Would it work or not?” Kai interrupted. “Yes or no, I want a one-word answer.”

“Yes. We just need to get the proper positioning-”

“Can I be the one bashing the bags?”

Nya sighed. “Only if you do exactly as I tell you-”

“Whoooooo!” Kai cried, running off to grab the rake as he swung it around fiercely. “Who’s ready to bash some leaf bags?”

“Kai! I said to do exactly as I say-”

---

Despite Nya’s initial trepidations, the process did not end up being a total disaster, and they actually ended up getting the chore done decently quickly. Now all they had left to do was to test and recalibrate the training course.

Nya glanced down at her watch. Only an hour and a half until the tournament started. Her chances of getting extra practice on those tricky combos were looking slimmer by the second. Hopefully, Kai’s mastery of the game, Jay’s high skill levels, and Cole’s advanced items and power-ups would be enough to help them beat-

“Nya!” Kai shrieked. “I said, turn it off!”

Nya snapped out of her thoughts, glancing up at her brother, who had been knocked to the ground by a whirring training dummy. “Oh, shit!” She spun towards the controls and shut them down, jogging over to Kai. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so, I just-” Kai reached for her extended hand, pulling back with a sharp cry as they made contact.

“What?” “My hand,” he grimaced. “It hurts like hell.”

---

“You can’t throw out the Eggo Waffles!” Lloyd insisted, grabbing at the box in Cole’s hands

“Lloyd, they expired three days ago.”

“So what, they’re still edible.”

“They’re going.” Cole gave the box a strong tug, jerking it out of Lloyd’s hands and dropping it in the garbage. Lloyd huffed, crossing his arms.

“Kai would’ve let me keep them.”

“No, he wouldn’t have, because he doesn’t want you to get food poisoning.”

Lloyd paused for a moment, before amending, “Jay would’ve let me keep them.”

Cole sighed. “Yeah, and then you guys would’ve eaten them, and we would’ve ended up with two sick ninja.”

“I wouldn’t get sick! I have these super cool powers that protect me-”

“We don’t have any proof of that. We still don’t know exactly what your powers do.”

“Which means we can’t rule that out yet!”

Cole rubbed his head. “Out of all the people I could’ve gotten stuck cleaning out the freezer with… it had to be you. The one who gets emotionally attached to frozen waffles.”

“I am not emotionally attached-”

“Are you kidding me? He can’t play with this on! This thing is stiff, it seriously restricts his movement!” “It’s not a question, Jay, he needs to keep it on!”

“Is it actually that bad, though? Couldn’t he skip it for one game?”

“Not unless you want it to get worse!” Cole and Lloyd exchanged a glance and stepped out into the hallway, where the other four ninja were gathered.

“What’s going on?”

Zane opened his mouth to speak. “There was-”

“Kai!” Lloyd interrupted suddenly, darting over to him. “What happened to your hand?”

Cole blinked, realizing for the first time that Kai had a swathe of bandages wrapped around his hand.

Kai yelped in pain as Lloyd touched it, and the green ninja recoiled, his eyes widening in guilt. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry!”

Nya rolled her eyes. “Don’t apologize, Lloyd, he’s fine. He’s just being a big baby about all of this.”

“Am not. It hurts!”

Zane stifled a sigh. “Kai, it is only a bad pulled muscle. Apart from being painful and needing plenty of rest, it’s nothing serious.”

“Well, you don’t know what it feels like,” Kai snapped. “It’s a lot worse than ‘nothing serious.’”

“I scanned you. I am quite certain my diagnosis is correct.”

Nya snickered, and Kai shot her a look. “Shut up, you. You’re the one who did this to me.”

“You’re the one who wasn’t paying attention!” “Yeah, well, you’re the one who was supposed to be-”

“Guys!” Jay cried. “Can’t you see we have more pressing matters at hand? Severe injury or not, Kai can’t play Critical Conquest like this. And he’s our best player!”

“Alright,” Lloyd said. “So we don’t have our best player anymore. That’s bad. But Jay’s still a beast! And Cole, and Nya, and everyone except me, basically-”

“He could be the worst player in all of existence and it still wouldn’t matter,” Cole pointed out. “We need six players to compete or they will disqualify us.”

“But if Kai can’t play, we have no one else! There are no backups!” Nya huffed, turning on Jay. “You’re our team captain! Why didn’t you prepare any backups?”

“Because we know no one else! We live in an isolated monastery at the top of the tallest mountain for miles, what did you expect? Besides, I wasn’t anticipating this to happen!” Zane frowned. “Well, if Kai can’t play, and we have no backup, then our only choice is to drop out-”

“Wait!” Jay cried suddenly. “I think I might have an idea of someone.”

---

“Please please please please-”

Pixal raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you really think begging is going to change my mind?”

“Please, Pixal, we need a sixth player, and you’re the only person I can think of!”

“Why would I help you after you blew up my jetpack?” Kai gaped at him. “You what?”

Jay fought back the heat spreading across his face. “That’s not important right now! Pixal, I promise I’ll fix it, just please compete with us!”

Pixal frowned at him, which wasn’t the most reassuring answer.

“C’mon Pix- I’ll do anything.”

“I don’t know, Jay-”

“We’ll do all your chores for the next month.”

“What?” “We will?”

“Jay, what the heck! We never agreed to that!”

Pixal smiled at him. “I would’ve accepted it if you offered a week, but that’s very generous of you.”

The others shot him smoldering glares, and Jay groaned. “It doesn’t matter, we don’t have time for this.” Glancing down at his phone, he sucked in his breath. “We’ve only got an hour until the tournament! Zane, can you teach Pixal how to play?”

Zane blinked at him. “In an hour?”

“Just cover the basics. We don’t have time for perfection. Just teach her as much as you can before the tournament starts.”

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

As soon as they were out of the room, Jay wheeled around, moaning. “We are so hooped! She doesn’t know how to play! Kai, how could you be careless enough to injure yourself?”

“Oh, sure, blame the victim!” Kai snapped. “Would it kill you to show a little sympathy to your injured teammate?”

“You pulled a muscle, you baby!” Nya groaned. “Pixal’s a fast learner, hopefully, she’ll get the hang of it.”

“Fast learner or not, nothing can beat hours of experience,” Lloyd said. “Let’s just hope the other contestants aren’t as good.”

---

“These dudes are insane!”

Jay continued to scroll through the queued-up players, examining their stats, his jaw dropping. “How much have these people been grinding?”

“So much for an easy win,” Lloyd grumbled.

Zane and Pixal walked into the room, holding their controllers. “I think I’ve done everything I can with Pixal. The competition starts in five minutes, I suggest we get ready.”

“Alright.” Jay turned towards Pixal as Zane worked on setting up the game. “We’re going to need your help, but since you don’t have experience, I think the best move is to have you stay behind us and play defense.”

Pixal smirked. “I’ll do my best.”

“Guys, we have to queue up!” “Are the headsets working?”

“They’re ready, what about the controllers? All charged?”

“We really shouldn’t be checking these kinds of things literally three minutes before the tournament, but yes, they are.”

“Hurry, guys! It’s about to start!”

Zane blinked at the screen. “Jay… you named our team the Fast Chickens?”

“It’s a good name!” The others groaned, and Jay glared at them. “We’ll see who’s complaining when we win this thing!”

Jay fidgeted through most of the opening speeches from the hosts of the competition as they went over rules and procedures. And, after what simultaneously felt like both a million years later and only the blink of an eye, the game was finally starting. They got lucky with their spawn point, and after a few minutes, were able to collect some good resources and get a good start. Cole, Zane, and Nya were able to take down some of the weaker groups before they collected supplies while Jay and the others continued collecting and building up defenses.

Checking the score count, he could see there were already twenty teams down in various parts of the map, and he knew his team had been responsible for felling three of them. Jay couldn’t stop himself from smiling. It seemed like nothing could be going better.

That is, until they suffered a major blow on the southwestern flank of their territory against a high-level team- the CrownViolets, they called themselves. (Which was nowhere near as cool sounding as the Fast Chickens, Jay totally wasn’t insecure about that at all.) After a fierce fight that ended up costing them several lives- and robbing Zane of his last, taking him out of the game- they realized they couldn’t win this fight and backed down, sacrificing a sizeable chunk of their turf.

While still monitoring that boundary, they decided to primarily focus on expanding in the other direction. Their tactic seemed to be working well, and although the CrownViolets kept on encroaching on them from the boundary, the other teams weren’t backing down, and although none managed to defeat the rival team, they were certainly taking their tolls on them. Jay hoped that the other teams would eventually take the Violets out for them, although he had to admit that would be extremely lucky.

They were getting down to the last few teams in the tournament. When the top ten were remaining, special, more deadly weapons were hidden around, and with them, teams began to fight back harder. The Fast Chickens held their own, but by the time they were down to two teams remaining- them and the CrownViolets- both Jay and Lloyd had been killed and eliminated. Only Cole, Nya, and Pixal remained. The CrownViolets still had four players left, but they were weak. If the ninja were strategic enough, they could still win this.

But Pixal was a major hindrance. She had been plenty good at holding back and defending them, but now, with so few left, she was going to have to start playing a more active role. If only Kai had still been there.

“Alright, they’re somewhere around here.” Nya’s character pulled up her radar. “There seems to be two of them right up ahead-”

“Alright, Pixal.” Jay leaned over her shoulder, coaching her. “You’re going to have to start getting offensive. Nya says there’s only two, so there shouldn’t be a problem, but there could be an ambush, or these two could have higher health. We don’t want to take any chances. While Nya and Cole rush them, you should stay back and shoot at them with your launchers. Your character has good accuracy scores.”

There was a flash of purple, and muffled shouting, and Nya froze. “There they are! Let’s get them, guys!”

The three plunged into the fight, and although it was a tough battle, their opponents were relatively low on health, and they ended up eliminating the two CrownViolets- unfortunately, with the loss of Nya before doing so.

“It’s just the two of us left, Pixal,” Cole said, “but there’s also only two of them, as well. We can do this. Just stick close to me. They’re around here somewhere.”

“And that somewhere is here!” Pixal shrieked suddenly, whirling around.

Cole’s eyes widened. “One of their teammates must’ve sent out a distress signal before they died!” He grappled for his weapon, but in his haste, his grip was sloppy.

Pixal, however, barely hesitated, diving at their opponent and attacking in a flurry of blows. Jay’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head as she performed a complex combo it had taken him a full day to learn.

Zane smiled at all their gaping mouths. “I told you to have faith in her.”

Cole was evidently shocked too, and within a few moments, he was dead- although not before delivering a nearly fatal blow to his opponent. Pixal quickly finished him off before turning to face the last remaining player.

“Be careful, Pix,” Jay warned. “She still has pretty high health. Don’t get cocky, or take dumb risks.”

“Dumb risks are your thing,” Pixal corrected, not even batting an eye as she darted past her opponent, slashing her with her sword.

The CrownViolet wasn’t giving up, though. She pushed back, throwing down a smoke bomb and suddenly pushing Pixal down from behind. Pixal rolled out of the way, missing her sword by inches, and sprung up, taking the moment of surprise to her advantage to knock her opponent down. As the rival started crawling away, Pixal’s character took a potion, powering up a special move. The opponent knocked her down as she was waiting to power up, but before she could get a good attack in, Pixal was ready and was blasting her a beam of light.

The girl’s avatar fell to the ground, dead.

There was a beat of silence, then their living room erupted in cheers.

“Pixal! You did it! You won the game for us!”

“I can’t believe it! We actually won! Without Kai!”

“Hey,” Kai yelped. “That didn’t sound like it was meant to be a compliment.”

“What do you mean,” Lloyd said. “That was totally a super nice thing I just said about you.”

Kai narrowed his eyes. “A bit backhanded, don’t you think?”

“Guys, none of that is important!” Cole cried. “We won! Out of all the gamers in the city! We actually won!”

“But I have to know,” Jay insisted. “How did you get so good at the game?”

Pixal shrugged. “I guess you pick up a thing or two watching your team play a game obsessively for the past week.”

Jay blinked. “You’ve been watching us?”

She scowled. “I’ve been doing the chores in here, lightning brain! Repairs, laundry, picking up after you- you’ve just been too obsessed by your game to even notice me!”

“Oh, really? Uh, that’s my bad…”

“Speaking of which, you promised to do my chores, and I’m looking forward to a nice, relaxing evening off.”

“Did I?” Jay laughed nervously. “Hey, did I ever mention that the tournament winners get a cash prize-”

Pixal handed him a mop. “Nice try. Although I still expect my fair share of the earnings by the end of the week. Good luck.” The ninja just gazed at her in horror, and she laughed.

“You’re going to need it.”

[lueurjun]

𝖱𝖮𝖠𝖣 𝖳𝖮 𝖥𝖠𝖬𝖤. 𝗌𝗂𝗆 𝗃𝖺𝖾𝗒𝗎𝗇

“=⌕ sim jaeyun x gn!reader. 

⌗ SUMMARY — becoming a tiktoker was never apart of the plan, but here you are, 4 million followers and a love for pranking your boyfriend. 

. . ⇢ LUEURJUN’S NOTES — this is supposed to be gender neutral but if i slipped up at any point then i do sincerely apologise. this probably won’t be written the best, i was kinda sick and had a moment of inspiration. this is super fluffy and cheesy, so brace yourself. 

₊❏❜ WARNING ⋮ uh tears of joy?? i guess.

2021 @lueurjun.

i. 

THE 30TH APRIL 2020 was the day that your life changed in ways that you used to believe only happened in movies. 

Honestly, setting up your phone and telling your devilishly handsome, yet so pure, so innocent boyfriend that you wanted to have a child—whether that be adoption plans or getting pregnant—it was a small prank you decided to pull and film for your group chat. You never had any intentions of uploading it onto the internet, until Jay, one of your closest friends, suggested that you posted it to Tiktok. 

Jake was cool with it, having not expected it to blow up as much as it did. Nobody had expected for you to get over 2 million views and over 600k likes on your first video. Nor did you expect the heaps of requests in your comment section of different pranks to pull on your boyfriend. And that’s where it began. 

That one video was a rabbit hole into what quickly became your career. 

Now, with over 4 million followers, you have created your own little fan base, who have grown to love you, your boyfriend and even your friends that occasionally end up in your videos.

ii. 

The light in the kitchen flickered once as you set up your phone against a bunch of cookbooks that your parents had yet to read. Mentally, you made a note to ask one of your family members to change the bulb when they returned home. Focusing on your phone, which was now recording, you put your thumbs up and turned towards the door.

“JAEYUN!” Your voice echoed through the quiet home, bouncing off every wall until it met your boyfriend’s ears. Brief shuffling could be heard followed by the padding of feet across the floor boards. He was only in the next room, so it didn’t take long for him to appear right before your eyes. 

The first thing your eyes set on was the crinkles in his shirt, suggesting that he had been laying down. His dark hair was hidden beneath a black hat, which he had placed on his head backwards. He was dressed so simple, but you still managed to fall in love once again at the sight of him. You often wondered how you had managed to bag someone like Jake, he was the epitome of perfection and you couldn’t really see why he would want to be with you. Jake never let these thoughts ponder in your mind for too long, since he was always quick to prove to you that you’re everything to him.��

Secretly eyeing the camera, you put on a pout and fiddle with the hem of his shirt. Immediately, the alarm bells go off in Jake’s mind. You’re never normally this quiet and it’s rare to see you pout. He frowns a little, eyebrows knitting together as concern washes over his face. Using his index finger and his thumb, he lifts your chin and gently rubs the skin just below your lip.

“What’s the matter?” 

“I just- don’t get mad,” you begin, forcing yourself to sound sad. “But I just think you could’ve been a little bit nicer to me today.”

He had been nothing but an angel to you all day, and you felt horrendous for making him think otherwise, but alas, Tiktok had spoken and they wanted you to do this prank. So, as bad as you felt, it wouldn’t cause much harm. 

“Did I do something to upset you?” He looks genuinely hurt by his own actions and guilt immediately tugs at your heart strings.

You shrug and avert your gaze downwards, focusing on the tiled floor beneath your feet. This was partly to stop yourself from giving in too quickly, you’d always been a sucker for Jake’s puppy dog eyes and you knew if you looked into them any longer, you would stop the prank.  

Jake cocks his head to the side and steps closer to you, nuzzling his nose against the side of your head. You feel his breath fan over your ear and you swear your heart stops beating for a second. His fingers trail over your waist and he plants the softest kiss to the side of your head. 

“I just feel like you’ve been a little mean to me today,” you continue. And he nods his head in understanding, though you know he doesn’t understand at all. Jake doesn’t know what he’s done wrong, but if you think he hasn’t been nice to you then he’s not going to argue. 

“I’m sorry, can you tell me what I did to make you feel this way?” 

You lean your head against his chest and bite your lip, it’s hard to contain your smile. With his sweet response mixed with the scent of his cologne fogging up your brain, you have a hard time holding onto your act and he quickly notices. 

“Is this a prank?” He asks, pulling away from you. 

You let the giggles slip from your mouth and nod towards the phone, that you had done your best to hide. Jake turns, his hand still on your waist, and he looks for the camera. Once his eyes land on his figure, he throws his head back and a breathy laugh falls from his lips.

“I should’ve known.” 

Yes, yes he should’ve but you still made up for it with plenty of kisses. 

iii. 

Picking Jake up from football practice had become a ritual. 

You didn’t need to be asked anymore, you’re just always there waiting for him and he loves that. The excited smile on his face whenever he sees you patiently sitting behind the wheel never gets old. Picking him up, as sad as it sounds, has become your drive to get through Tuesdays. They’re not your favourite day of the week, but knowing you get to see a smiley, yet sweaty, Sim Jaeyun at the end of the day gives you more than enough motivation. 

Just like any other Tuesday, you’re waiting. You like to get there early and so, you have about fifteen more minutes until you see your favourite boy walking through the gate. Music plays softly in the background as you lean back and scroll through your comment sections—people are so sweet, though you do get a bitter taste in your mouth when you see people fawning over your boyfriend like he’s a piece of cake. 

You ignore the thirst comments and look through the requests. Not many catch your eye, until you come across a particular one and a smirk appears on your face.  

Fifteen minutes turns into twenty and finally you see your worn out boyfriend heading towards your car. As tired as he never fails to smile and pick up his pace. He pulls open the door and slips inside. You reach over and greet him with a chaste kiss before pulling away.

“How was practice?” 

“Exhausting. Can we take a nap together when we get to your place?” He asks whilst adjusting his seatbelt. 

A nap sounds amazing, and you waste no time in nodding your head. “Before we go, I went shopping today. I picked you up a few things, let me show you.” 

He melts then and there. Reaching back, you grab one of the bags and aggressively tug it towards you, making sure you hit Jake on the side of the head. He hisses and turns to look at you. 

You don’t even apologize. 

“No this isn’t it,” you mumble to yourself. 

You grip the bag and throw it back where you got it from, once again making sure to slap your boyfriend with it. He stares at you, annoyed with your aggressiveness, though you don’t look back at him and instead, you hit him a third time with a new bag but you instantly regret it. You ended up attacking him with the new pair of shoes you treated yourself to and you can tell this one pained him.

Quickly giving up on the prank, you drop the bag and reach over to rub the back of his head. “I’m sorry! I really didn’t mean to hit you that hard.” 

He whips his head towards you, looking at you as though you had just murdered an entire family in front of him. “What? So you meant to hit me?” 

You drop your hand and retreat back to your seat, attempting to look innocent. Jake then finds your phone, which is pointing right at him and he sees that it’s recording. You feel guilty, having not meant to hurt him so hard, you can’t meet his eye. You are about to start driving again, when you feel an impact on your arm and a yelp parts from your mouth. 

Jake sits beside you, a smile on his face and a bag clutched in his hand. You scowl and he only grins wider. 

“Now we’re even.” 

Oh, he is evil. 

iv. 

On the 10th May 2021, you hit 5 million followers. 

It was a shock, you rarely kept track of your follower count because you weren’t really in it for that ( though you are grateful for every single person that supports you ) so, you really hadn’t been expecting to hit such a huge milestone. In fact, you were so unexpectant, that you were sleeping at the time. 

“BABY!” Your eyes flew open as the bed shook. Jake had jumped on the bed, plastering kisses all over your face. “You hit 5 mill!” 

Disoriented, you blink. “Pardon?” 

Jake chuckles at your sleepy state, even with messy hair and puffy eyes, he thinks you look so attractive. His dark eyes trail over your features as he uses his thumb to rub underneath your eye, almost like he was trying to wipe away your sleepiness. 

“You hit 5 million followers, you did it.” His voice is softer this time, quieter but still filled with enthusiasm. You gape at him, and he laughs. 

“I did?” You ask, pointing to yourself. 

He nods. “You did.” 

The realisation crashes down at you at once and suddenly, you feel your nose sting as tears form in your eyes. Your fingers curl around the fabric of your boyfriend’s shirt whilst the other hand comes up to cover your mouth. Stray tears drop down onto your skin. You can’t believe it. 5 million people followed you. They like your content.

Jake coos at the tears that leak from your eyes like a waterfall. He’s quick to wipe them away, before he presses a kiss to your wet cheek. He’s proud and he’s filled with pride, his baby got 5 million followers and he couldn’t wait to brag to everyone about how talented and cool you are. That’s his favourite thing to do. Jake loves to brag about you. 

You sniffle and press your hands against his cheeks. Gently, you rub your nose against his own. “We did it. It’s your account just as much as it is mine, I wouldn’t have got this far without you. After all, you’re my main prank victim. So, we did it. We hit 5 million together.” 

You weren’t taking all of the credit, Jake was just as involved as you and he deserves the praise. You had done this together. 

“You do know Jay is never going to let you forget that he was the one who suggested uploading it to TikTok...right?” 

You laugh, nodding your head. “Yep. I know he’s gloating in the group chat, right now.” 

And he was. Jay was so proud of you and Jake, but most of all, he was proud of himself because without him, you would have never uploaded that first video. So, you let him have his moment. 

“To millions more!” Jake cheers as he lifts the pizza in his hand, the two of you had decided to celebrate with a victorious take away and a movie marathon. 

“To millions more,” you repeat softly. 

Whether you had 0 followers or 5 million, as long as Sim Jaeyun was by your side, you didn’t mind.

[marvel-m-lee]

Jay's Makeup Giggles

I actually like his fic a lot for the most part. I haven't felt so gd bout righting a fic in a while lol- though it's weird at the start, I promise it does actually get better.

Prompt: by @secretly-tword-obsessed - Lee Jay

Words: 2222

Warning: language, teasing, fluff.

-Big Mouth!

--------------------------------------------------

It was a casual day. Only it wasn't. I lied. Jay was now hiding somewhere in Nicks house, giggling nervously, awaiting for one of his friends to find him.

It had started off a normal day, Andrew and Jessi were going to come over to Nicks and Jay just stayed the night. Nicks parents loved him so they never really minded.

"So, Nick, Jay? What time are Andrew and Jessi coming round?" Nicks mum asked, everyone sitting around the breakfast tabled eating.

"Any time, but knowing them probably 11 or 12" Nick answered.

Both of Nicks parents looked at each other with lust, his father slightly whispered something rather a little too loud making all but the two lovers uncomfortable. Well and Jay- but that's just Jay for ya.

"Please don't say that when they're here-"

"Nicky, I perfectly normal -and healthy! To make love in the morning. Your mother and I would do it all hours of the day if you kids weren't around and we had no jobs-"

"That's enough dad!" Nick sighed, putting down his cutlery and feeling incredibly embarrassed.

Later Nick and Jay were getting ready when the door rang, alerting them that Andrew and Jessi were here. Nick ran down, Jay following after and let the two in the house.

"Hey Andrew! Hey Jessi!" Jay happily yelled, giving the two a hug.

"Hey Jay" Jessi chuckled, patting jays back.

"Okay, alright! Let's go upstairs and play some video games!" Nick said, the four ran upstairs and played video games.

Yeah, all rather casual for the most part. They played videogames, had lunch, played more video games- them jessi decided to scroll on her phone for a bit.

"Come on Jessi girl, let's do something fun!" Connie begged, watching ad the girl scrolled through Instagram posts of mini make up tutorials and clothing outfits.

"Connie I'm bored too, but the boys just wanna play videogames and I just wanna scroll through my phone" Jessi didn't once take her eyes off her phone.

"Come on!!!- oh I have an idea!!! We could convince them to let us do their make up!?" Connie's eyes shone brightly, as thiugh she'd just had the best idea.

Jessi thought for a moment, about to agree because that could actually be pretty fun, but she soon remembered she hadn't brought the little make up she had.

"We can't, I didn't bring any make up" she sighed, looking back at her phone.

Connie's expression changed from excitement, to disappointment ment, to yet more excitement in a matter of seconds.

"Check your bag!"

"What?"

"You packed some from the time you went on that horrific date-" An uncomfortable shiver went down Connie's spine, the same for Jessi's.

"Yeah- it was pretty shit..."

"Yeah... anyway go check if you still have it!"

Jessi jumped off the bed and went to grab her bag, Nick looked over to check if she was alright but soon realised she was fine.

Annoyingly that made him loose the game. "ha! Another win for the Jay Hammer! Thats what my pillow calls me" Jay winked but the other two grimisted at the thought of Jay fucking a pillow-

"Hey guys?" Jessie asked, picking something up and nor letting any of them see.

"Yeah Jessi?"

"Wanna do something fun?"

"She wants to fuck! She definitely wants you to pounds her" Maury chanted, excitement radiations off him. Andrew tried to ignore him.

"Uh.. sure Jessi, what?" Andrew asked, confused but wanting to see if Maury was right. Obviously he wasn't. But still, hope. 🤞

Jessi pulled out her make up and smiled evil-y as the lights flickered and the boys all screamed.

Very over dramatic indeed.

"What the hell jusy happened to the lights?" Andrew asked, looking up.

"Probably a fuise"

"Did anyone else hear that demonic laughter?" Nick asked.

"Me again, haha- MAHAHAHA" The lights flickered again as Jay laughed manicly, everyone else screaming. The next minute it was like nothing happened.

"Okay- anyway- Jessi you can't be serious? That's... make ups for girls" Andrew said, threatened by ruining his masculinity.

"Yes I'm serious! Plus, make ups for everyone. All it does is make your features show more"

"Jessi- I just don't think... make ups for me? Ya know?"

"Oh whatever Andrew, Nick? Jay? You two aren't afraid of make up right?" She asked, not wanting to convince Andrew.

"Uh... Jessi I just don't know-"

"I will!" Jay jumped up and off the bed, jumping up and down with his hand in the air like a child.

"Yes Jay!"

Jay and Jessi were both excited to do the make up, Nick and Andrew both shrugged as they continued playing their video game. Though it was better cause Jay would always win.

"Okay Jay, sit up here" Jessi said, patting the edge of the bed as she put her stuff down and grabbed a rather large make up brush.

Jay sat down and swung his legs like a five year old, he was more than happy to do this- for whatever reason. He sat patiently as he waited for Jessi to get ready.

Jessi had put some sort of powder on the brush and asked Jay to look at her, she gently held his chin in her hand and dusted the brush on his face, asking Connie if she was doing it right.

Suddenly though, Jay jumped upwards with a little squeak, everyone stopped and looked over at him.

"You okay Jay?" Nick asked, Jay went a little red and nodded, suddenly quiet. Andrew and Nick looked at one another, asking what the hell just happened, Jessi just asked for Jay to sit down again so she could keep going.

Reluctantly, Jay sat back down and waited. He tried to hold it in but he couldn't help as the brush dusted his cheek once more. Suddenly, light, bubbly, childish giggles splattered out of his mouth, giggling away as the brush tickled his skin.

He tried to twitch away but also tried to stay still, trying to mask was something he did rarely, if ever, but was trying so hard to at this moment.

"Jay? Everything okay?" Jessi asked, stopping the brush and taking it away. Jay's giggles didn't stop though, so he tried to rub them away which just messed with the powder slightly.

"Is- is he okay?" Andrew asked, yet again pausing the game.

"I dont know-"

Nick tapped Jay's shoulder, making him jump. For some, stupid, random reason whenever Jay was lightly tickled he'd become incredibly sensitive, not that he wasn't already, no. Jay was probably one of the most ticklish people in the world but would usually run and hide so his friends never found out.

"Woah- hey, Jay?" Jay stopped rubbing as the sensation went away, his face was going red as he realised most, if not all of his closest friends were in the same room, without him being able to run, as he was lightly tickled.

"Oh my god the boys ticklish-" Maury and Connie both exclaimed, now visible to all the children rather than just their kid.

"Aw, that's so cute!" Connie exclaimed, grabbing him and ticking under his chin, starting up a whole new bundle of giggles as he turned away.

"No! No-" Jay denied, still giggling like the five year old he was.

"Wait seriously?" Andrew exclaimed, jumping off the bed. Out of all of them Andrew was one of the most ticklish, but it wadnt a surprise, let alone new news. Jay on the other hand jumped at the slightest touch.

"How did we never realise?" Nick asked, rather surprised yet somehow not at all.

"Let's tickle him till he cries!" Maury yelled, wiggling his fingers at the boy who just giggled before he was even touched.

He shook his head, "g-guys! I-iheim not even ticklish!"

Jessi couldn't help but smile, Jay trying to ignore the fact of how ticklish he was was adorable to say the least. Especially as he was already giggling at the slight thoughts of being tickled.

"Aren't you a cutie!" Connie said again, tickling his chin, ears and neck making him squeal and step back into the bed. He tried to run away the sensations but couldn't stop the giggles or smirks growing on all his friends faces.

"N-no- really guys- ihihim n-neheot ticklish!"

"How about we test that theory?" Andrew said.

As soon as Jay heard that his eyes went wide and he ran. Probably faster than Usain Bolt.

So that's where we are, Jay hiding from his friends as the image of their wiggling hands corrupted his mindz reluctantly giggling. Jay slammed his hand over his mouth and shut his eyes tight, pretending he wasn't there.

Jay didn't hate tickling, he actually enjoyed it. His brothers would tickle him to tears and although they thought they were annoying him, Jay treasured the moments. His parents would do the same when he was much smaller, tickle him slightly and hear his childish giggles.

The thought of his friends tickling him? It was terrifying buy also exciting. He couldn't bring himself to let them though, so he hid away.

It had been 10 minutes, his giggles would stop and go all over again and he was surprised he wasn't found yet.

Only then did he hear people walking down the hall, calling out his name.

"Jayyyy? Where are you~" Andrew called out, the teasing didn't help. He flushed red and hid deeper in his hands, curling up.

"Jay, we're gonna find you" He heard Nick call.

"Come out~" Jessi couldn't help but laugh, imagining her friend in the exact position he was in.

The footsteps passed the cupboard but stopped soon after, Jay had accidentally let out a rather loud giggle after holding his breath. Once more his breathing stopped and so did everything else.

In a slash of a second, the door opened and Jay was thrown over some hairy monsters shoulder, squealing and yelling. Pounding his back.

"This kid is strong" Maury said, but soon gave Jay a poke on his side and he once more turned to a puddle of giggles. Jay was thrown on Nicks bed and the door was locked.

Jay curled into a ball and squeezed his eyes tight, giggling hysterically already.

"Oh my god he's worse than Andrew!" Jessi called out.

"Hey!"

"We haven't even touched him yet" Nick laughed, then going to poke Jay's side as he squealed.

"Jay~ are you sure you're not ticklish?" Nick teased, poking his side over and over abd Jay frantically tossed and turned, laughing now.

"NAHAHAGAHANOOOOO" He shook his head and squealed as the pokes became faster as faster.

Andrew them fluttered some fingers around his neck, giggles splattered out along with reluctant laughter.

"NAHAHA!! PLEASEEEEEE" Jay battered their hands away, begging as the sensations became stronger.

"Oh my fuck, you got him begging already?!" Maury cheered the kids on. Nick looked at Andrew and Jessi and the three decided to climb on the bed.

Nick said just below Jay's hips but not on his thighs, Jessi sat on his angles and Andrew used all his strength to lift up the boys arms exposing his armpits and sat on his wrists as he clashed around.

"All spread out just for us" Andrew teased, dragging his hands lightly down Jay's arms as he tossed and turned, giggling eyes squeezed shut after feeling the horror of being so exposed.

"Nahahaha!! A-andreewwww" Jay begged but soon he felt hands on his calves, Jessi's fingers slightly being dragged upwards. Jay couldn't help but bash his feet.

"Now, Jay? Are you ticklish?" Jay didnt care, he somehow thought that they'd believe him if he stood ground. Even if he was a giggling puddle.

"NooAh!?" He jumped as he felt Jessie flutter under his knees.

"Weak spot guys" she called out, then moved her hands and squeezed his kneecaps.

Jay shook and squealed then, bashing all he could to get out. His knees were definitely a weak spot, he couldn't handle the torture. And it had only just begun.

His friends all laughed at his situation and actions, then everyone dived in. Andrew scratched at his hollows, Nick squeezed his sides and hips, making him buck. Occasionally spidering his ribs which made his giggles bubble up again. And Jessi kept changing from squeezing his knees to his thighs.

Jay couldn't handle it all, not at one anyway. He shook and squeaked, a bright red happy face but begged abd begged.

"STAPPPPPPOP PLEASE STAPPPPHAHMMM" He spluttered out, his face was so red and he couldn't help the tears that formed through laughter over a party few minutes.

Everyone let up abd laughed with him as he crawled into a happy giggly little ball. Maury poked his side one last time for good measure with made him yell but they all just laughed.

"Aw, Jay's a ticklish like boy" Jessi teased. Jay hugged himself, drowning and his own laughter for a few minutes.

"Ya know we would have stopped if you asked?" Nick teased, jumping back on the bed witb Andrew to play again.

Jay went red again. They were right, he'd never actually asked them to stop, and he loved it so much. Everyone went back to doing their own thing and Jay just giggled. Fuck.