#(Cole found it endearing; as did Nya)

[wolfiegirlxox]

Ninjago Role Swap AU!

This started as an AI!Jay AU that popped into my head while I was trying to go to sleep that quickly spiraled into a swap AU that made me me lay awake for an hour thinking as much through as I could.

My swaps are:

Morro/Lloyd

Skylor/Kai (This one is so unoriginal but Kai is *super* hard to swap)

Benthomaar/Nya (Less of a swap on Nya's end)

Unagami/Jay

Pixal/Zane

Vania/Cole

And, finally Wu/Garmadon

A lil' description of what's up with each character in my ninja lineup, I'll make a separate post for the others.

Morro is the sassy little 13-and-a-half-year-old (he won't let you forget the half, it's very important) adoptive son of Wu. The ninja were initially suspicious of him, given his father, but quickly grew to love him. When he found out he was the green ninja, destined to defeat his dad, he was far from excited but found there were other aspects of being the green ninja he quite enjoyed.

Skylor has spent a large part of her teenage years helping around her dad's noodle shop. She quite enjoys cooking, learning the family recipes, and making the best food she can. When Garmadon offered to train her in her late mother's fire she was hesitant, as much as she wanted to learn her element she wanted to stay and help at the shop. But with some words of encouragement from her dad (Chen is a good dad here and I love it) she decides to go.

Bentho's adoptive family doesn't really like surface dwellers that much, some more fiercely than others, but Bentho has always been fascinated by the surface and longs to go there one day. When he find's out Kalamaar's plan to destroy the surface he knows he has to do something. After a failed attempt to stop him Bentho is visited by a strange surface dweller who says she can give him the power to protect, which he quickly accepts. He doesn't realize what that means until he meets the ninja.

Unagami was adopted Milton Dyer at a young age, the man had always wanted a son but wasn't very interested in romance, so he decided to adopt instead. When Garmadon offered him a role as a ninja he consulted his dad first and eventually decided to join. He was pretty nervous at first as he had never been away from home for so long but thanks to the other ninja's kindness he was able to adjust and the monastery became a second home to him.

Pixal was originally created but Cyrus Borg as an assistant when he started inventing new things to use for his dream of starting a company. After a while he realized that, while amazing, many of his advancements could easily be quite destructive if they got into the wrong hands. So, he got an average, unassuming apartment in Ninjago City and live a normal life with Pixal as his daughter. He did his best to teach Pixal the ways of humans and to value and protect life as best she can. When Garmadon invited her to join his ninja team Pixal was eager for the opportunity to protect both her dad and the rest of the world and easily accepted.

Vania always loved reading any adventure book she could get her hands on, filling her head with dreams of being the valiant hero, dreams that are finally coming true. Vania was as surprised as anyone to find that she was the master of earth but was equally excited to learn how to wield it. The other ninja sometimes find her excitement annoying but eventually find just how endearing it can be.

...So those wound up being much longer than I intended but there is so much information stored up in my noggin, please ask me questions I want to share more.

[paskariu]

For the most part I really like the German dub of ninjago but their refusal to keep names consistent (or even give the names to things in the first place) gets frustrating and confusing at times.

what do you mean the ninjas’ ship has a name??? it’s only ever the ship or the “windgleiter”(wind glider) sometimes “ultraschall-gleiter” (ultrasonic glider) which only ever really sounds like naming an electric car “electric car”

the only time the destiny’s bounty gets a name is when garmadon takes it over in season 2 when it does keep the english name “black bounty”.

same goes for the great devourer. in seasons 1 and 2 it is only ever referred to as the “großer schlangenmeister” (”great snake master”). HOWEVER in season 6 nya suddenly calls it the “großer verschlinger” (great devourer) which is in line for the english version but NOT the german at that point. i only really noticed what she meant when i started thinking about what the fuck a “großer verschlinger” is and noticed the literal translation.

the entire “bequeath” dance just doesn’t exist because the stone samurai all speak german. Kuzo is not unique for speaking an understandable language. jay tries to painfully convince him that they(the ninja) want to learn how to dance and misako is their instructor (if i remember correctly it’s been a hot second).

“der stille boss” (the silent boss) instead of “the quiet one” sounds kinda cheesy though to be fair i cannot think of a better translation. “Der Stille/Die Stille” (the quiet one - literally translated) would a) give a hint as to the gender of the person potentially spoiling the reveal and b) sounds even cheesier.

“garmadons motoradgang”(garmadon’s biker gang): imma just leave this without comment. Sons of Garmadon is a baller title and comparison is unfair.

but in other aspects it’s just GOOD. i personally haven’t found a character whose voice i dislike and they use some great jokes that just don’t work in english.

"vielleicht hatte der Vogel ja 'nen Vogel" - maybe the bird had a bird - maybe the bird is crazy

Zane using the honourific way to refer to Lord Garmadon (”Sie”, polite “you”) which i just find kinda endearing. yea he is the big bad TM but Zane is still being polite. Especially since at least in children’s media everyone tends to be talked to with the less formal version (”du” “you”)

All of the ninja do that with Wu but only sometimes

Cole calls Jay “Lackaffe”

"hab' ich was verpasst?" "anscheinend hast du jedem hier eine verpasst" - “did i miss something?“ - “no you hit everyone”

Clousimaus.- clousey mouse - no fucking elaboration

[origamiyoda]

leo i cant stop thinking about zane having a cooking yt channel like. hes got all sorts of tutorials and recipes and hes really calm and clean about it all but its also somewhat unprofessional?? like hes doing all sorts of things for all different skill levels and hes telling stories and jokes the entire time. if hes got another ninja with him theyll tease each other and someones probably getting whacked with a wooden spoon but its all in good fun and no ones really getting hurt. he either brings in others or takes the food to them when hes done and its always so silly and fun. he makes homemade marshmallows with cole and they take mugs of hot cocoa with the marshmallows in them to jay and lloyd and lloyd happy stims when he sees that his marshmallows are green. he makes ignacian curry with kai and despite kai literally growing up making it they fuck up making the rice and make so much that the rice cooker overflows and its a huge deal bc everyones yelling and someone knocks over the camera and now theyve gotta save the rice or something bc theyres just way too much. theres a whole series of pies with jay, and a series of trying to find something too spicy for kai. just,, zane with a cooking channel man

DUDE IM OBSESSED WITH THIS??? HELLO????

I. Care this so bad what the hell oh my gods.

All I can think of is like. Him having a series of making like. Themed cupcakes for everyone. Like Jays r video game themed and bright blue, Cole's r chocolate lava cupcakes, Nyas r sea salt caramel, Lloyds r funfetti and have a bunch of sprinkles n candy on them, and Kais r like. spicy somehow yknow???

GODS ABDNHDKD and like. Jay, Lloyd, Cole, n Kai all repeatedly and separately sneaking in and trying to eat the food before it's ready, and theyre ALMOST there and Zane just whips around and they scream and the camera cuts out and then back to him cooking like nothing happened

BUT YEAH DUDE YOUR MIND THIS IS SO FUNNY AND I LOVE IT AJDKFHDKDHKD

[kristoffs-lullaby]

A Guide on How to Not Confess to Your Best Friend

(Hi!! This is late I’m so sorry ;; but here’s my part for the exchange! @ninjago-valentine-exchange) [ Plasma B | 2.9k words]  Kai was awful with feelings.  He might have played himself off as cool (or at least tried to) but when it really came down to it.. he was a mess. He could dish out flirty comments all he wanted but that didn’t mean that he knew what to do with them if the other party ever decided to retaliate. And that’s not something he figured about himself until Skylor. Maybe that’s why he’d liked Skylor so much. No he didn’t entirely enjoy the moments where his brain staggered and he looked like an absolute fool, but it made him want to try to keep up. If there was one thing he hated, it was being stunned into silence because that just meant he was losing. And Kai didn’t lose. 

While things didn’t really work out with Skylor relationship-wise, he still learned something about himself. And maybe their whole dynamic and the loss of it was what led to the chain of events that he still couldn’t quite believe even as he was living through it. 

Kai didn’t think much of it at first. That’s just how he and the other three Were. They teased each other. Poked fun at one another. Cracked jokes. And sometimes it would be at one another’s expense. Sometimes they’d take it too far and one of them would get pissed and the other wouldn’t understand Why until they had a much needed conversation about limits and boundaries. 

But that never came up when this particular brand of teasing and banter kicked off and maybe it should’ve been obvious way back then that he didn’t mind Jay crossing  this one specific boundary. But Kai was stupid and Kai was oblivious. 

It started as an off-handed comment about how maybe Jay had chosen the wrong sibling to date when Nya refused to side with him in a very heated debate about cake. Like the traitor she was, she took Cole’s side on the whole thing. Kai was at least glad to see that there was no bad blood between the three of them when Jay struck an, admittedly, low blow by bringing up how Nya was backstabbing him for Cole again just like in their former relationship.

That didn’t mean he didn’t want to witness SOME sort of drama. So he sided with Jay. Which led to an uproar. Which led to Jay saying what he did. 

And it was a joke. Kai knew it was a joke. Nya and Cole knew it was a joke. And Jay had obviously meant it as a joke. There was that buffer though and he couldn’t understand why. 

He reasoned with himself that he was having trouble keeping up with all three yelling at each other. All the while he was stuck in the middle and that was why he didn’t say anything immediately and instead took a swig of his soda. But even those few seconds he bought himself apparently weren’t enough because he didn’t even have the time to register the words he planned to say before his mouth had made the decision for him. 

He was playing along apparently. 

“Obviously. I’m much better looking than Nya anyway. Don’t know what you ever saw in her.” Kai hung his head and shook it in disbelief. 

“HEY!” 

It’d been months now and that one moment had spurred on their little unspoken challenge. A competition of sorts. 

Really what they were doing was full on flirting with each other but they’d play it off as if it were a game between them to see who could fluster the other first. Until it wasn’t a game anymore. But neither of them was willing to admit that it wasn’t. And it grew to be a frustrating occurrence because everyone else knew what was up except those two idiots apparently. 

Kai was currently winning though and that’s all that mattered. Yup. All that mattered.

“Hey Romeo!”

Kai’s head snapped up at the nickname. (There was something to be said about the fact that they’d gotten used to using them but he wasn’t about to be the one to bring it up). He watched as Jay jogged up to him before the blue ninja leaned over to catch his breath as soon as he was at a closer distance. Kai wanted to laugh at the fact that the guy was a whole Ninja and still ran out of stamina a lot quicker than Dareth. It was kind of sad, actually, but he couldn’t help the fond eye roll it got out of him. 

“Hey Sunshine.” Kai supplied as he draped an arm over Jay’s shoulders lazily when the other boy finally stood his full height. “I’m guessin’ you have some big news. That or you’re dying to see me and I just took your breath away.” 

Jay snorted and shoved at his chest before ducking under Kai’s arm and side-stepping away from the touch. 

“No. And if you’re about to detail whatever daydreams you have about me it’s gonna have to wait-” 

“Shit. Is there danger?” Kai’s face dropped instantly as a million and one bad scenarios ran through his head. Geez being a ninja was hard.

“No, no, no.” It was sort of cute the way the blue ninja waved his hands around frantically. He was so animated when he spoke and it wasn’t something that was lost on Kai. If anything it was something he found endearing. He couldn’t tear his eyes away. How could he? Jay made it incredibly hard to ignore him. That’s probably why most people he came across labeled him as ‘annoying’. And maybe Kai had used the word against him in the.. not so distant past. But it wasn’t exactly right. Jay just had that sort of presence that demanded attention and sometimes it was a bit overwhelming but.. it wasn’t exactly a bad thing either.

Jay tapped a finger against his chin and looked him up and down. ”Your fashion sense might be a danger to society.. but other than that?”

“You take that back. You’re just jealous I rock everything I wear.” Kai crossed his arms over his chest and squinted. The absolute nerve. This brat was asking for a beatdown during training later. 

“Not jealous. Buuut. I do appreciate the view you’re right.”

“Why you-”

“Here.” Jay interrupted and shoved something in his direction. 

It was wrapped haphazardly. It reminded Kai of something he’d whip together when he was like nine. Back when he hardly knew how to use scissors and the tape dispenser was one of the greatest enemies in his life. Ah the good old days. The longer he looked at it the more ridiculous it looked. It didn’t even look like it had been wrapped with the same wrapping paper all the way through. More like Jay had scraps of various different ones and decided to stick ‘em together. Which.. Actually suited him. This very much screamed JAY. But why was he giving this to him..?

“C’mon dude I know your favorite person in the world just gave you a kickass gift but  you don’t gotta stare at it like it’s the best thing you’ve ever seen in your life when I’m standing right here.” Jay sounded nervous. It was subtle and he played it off well (too well. Since when was Jay good at hiding it?) but Kai could tell in the way his voice rose just a decibel above its usual tone. It was also in the tic. Jay had a habit of looping one of the drawstrings of his hoodie around his finger when he was anxious. 

“My bad. Hold on let me get a good look at you,” This was totally payback for earlier. “Yeah. How could I even question it. Nothing compares.” he determined with a wink to send it home. 

Jay scoffed and was bordering on the edge of giving up this round too if the light pink dusting his cheeks was anything to go by, but in the end it looked like he was going to stand his ground this time. That was fine. This little exchange wasn’t over and Kai had plenty of time to sweep up a tally for the score from right under him. 

Or so he thought. 

Nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. 

Which sounded a lot more dramatic than it really was but what the hell was he supposed to do with this? 

Kai had spent that night restless. A restless night wasn’t foreign to him in any way. From time to time the red ninja had trouble sleeping. If he spoke out about how occasionally he’d lie in bed and just mull over every little detail from the past week, one of the other ninja would make some smartass remark about how Kai only found time to actually use his head at the worst possible time. Or maybe they wouldn’t and they’d understand. But he wasn’t going to try his luck. He’d rather protect himself than be vulnerable in a way he knew would hurt if they didn’t take him seriously. 

But this time he wasn’t lying in bed thinking about all the morbid things that came with being a ninja. This time he was glaring daggers at the stupid red bracelet tied neatly around his wrist. Because what the hell? 

It was so nice  and sweet and yet.. Still the most sinister gift he’s ever received. Because while it left him with this feeling of hope and joy, he was also afraid that the same hope that was so innocently sitting on his wrist would burn him. He was the fire ninja and he was afraid of getting burned. How ironic was that?

Kai draped his arm over his eyes. 

..And the smug look on Jay’s face when Kai couldn’t fight back the rising heat in his cheeks. Ridiculous. 

It was fair when they stood on equal ground. When they met on a mutual battlefield. But now Kai’s gone and dug himself into a trench. No. He’d fallen into it. He liked Jay. Dammit. And he let him win. 

Kai kicked his legs in the air in frustration before sitting up. That’s it. If Jay thought he was going to get away with this he was sorely mistaken. It was on and he was going to go all out. Go big or go home right? Right. 

And a month later the plan was kicking into motion.

“Can you remind me why we have to dress up again?” Jay asked. 

“We’re going undercover, I already told you.”

“Oh okay.” 

Kai wasn’t sure if Jay actually believed him or not but he was going to take it. On the one hand that could’ve read as a sarcastic remark because no Kai wasn’t the smartest tool in the shed and didn’t think this plan all the way through BUT Jay was also the type to just take things as they were.. For a bit. At least until it finally settled in that he didn’t actually know what he was doing then he’d start questioning again. Which Kai was banking on it not being for a while. 

“Well are you ready?” Jay looked up at him expectantly. 

Kai would have loved to say ‘Yes’. He really would have. Except.. 

“I just realized I don’t know how to tie a tie,” his lips drew into a thin line. What he’d done certainly wasn’t right. He knew Jay wanted to laugh. He knew it. Kai didn’t even have to look up at the dumb amused smile on Jay’s stupid face to know that. But he did anyway. And sure enough there he was trying his hardest to hold one back. 

Kai rolled his eyes and looked down again, the embarrassment washing over him just a little too roughly. 

“What, really?”

“Yeah. Never really been invited to events and stuff growing up and well I mean who was gonna teach me anyway even if I had been?” his mouth snapped shut as soon as the words left his mouth. Sure he had a streak of not knowing when to hesitate but god damn since when had it gotten this bad? Probably a while ago. This was not the time to bring up his fucked up childhood and admittedly he wanted to move away as quickly as possible before he could get any sort of response dripped in pity. 

But in true Jay fashion, the comment was the last thing he was worried about. And in true Jay fashion.. he was also full of surprises. 

Before Kai could even apologize or change the subject, there were hands slowly guiding themselves around Kai’s neck. They were Jay’s, that much he could process before his brain started buffering. He couldn’t say anything or even react to the extent that he was internally. Which was absolute chaos. 

Kai’s eyes flickered to the red fabric of the tie and lingered there for a second as he watched it being carefully tied in a way he knew would take him a while to master. His eyes wandered to the soft hands at work and he briefly wondered how they weren’t rough and scarred considering all the tinkering Jay did on top of ninja work. And then finally his eyes landed on Jay’s face and the way it was too adorably scrunched in concentration with his tongue sticking out and all. 

It took him far too long to realize when Jay was finished and he begrudgingly added another point to Jay’s side of the scoreboard in his head. 

Kai had to stop letting him stun him into silence. 

..Some other day. 

Because now they were staring at each other with Jay’s hands frozen in place on Kai’s chest and suddenly Jay was leaning in too close and- It was a kiss. It was a little messy and not at all how Kai imagined this going if it ever happened at all. But it was a kiss. And it was still perfect. 

Kai had wondered before if he’d feel a spark of electricity or if Jay would be able to feel the hot fire that burned Kai’s body without mercy on his lips. Now he had the answer. Or at least half of one. But suddenly it wasn’t important anymore. Suddenly it couldn’t even come close to it being his first thought when he could taste the sweetness of Jay’s favorite banana yogurt on his tongue. Or when he tried to imagine literally anything softer than this moment but only came up short on that end as well. Or when his hand cupped the other ninja’s freckled cheek and it fit there like it had always meant to be there. 

They pulled away after a few beats and Kai’s eyes snapped open and all too suddenly he was pointing an accusatory finger at Jay.

“You ruined it!”

“..Huh?” Poor Jay looked so lost and a little dazed. 

“Your ruined it!” Kair repeated as if that helped any. “I was supposed to trick you into this whole “mission” thing,” he threw up air quotes “but really I was GOING take you to this very nice dinner that the whole team helped out with and surprise you!” 

“And.. why can’t we still do that?” Jay looked at him like he was crazy and like he didn’t understand a damn word Kai was saying. Which.. fair.

“Because the whole point was to eventually tell you how I feel tonight and you were supposed to be so shocked by it and I’d get to see the look on your face and revel in it and finally get my revenge!”

“Huh..? Revenge for what?”

“THE BRACELET!” Kai held up his arm and pointed at his wrist where, sure enough, the red bracelet was still clinging to. 

It took Jay a second or two but soon enough the realization was starting to dawn on him. And he laughed. The bastard laughed while Kai was fuming and beat red from the whole thing. 

“But you beat me again,” Kai dragged a hand down his face and clasped his hand over his mouth trying to hide his blush as much as possible. “You got me. You beat me. I’m the most flustered and I-” he choked trying to form a coherent thought. Feelings were hard, how did he ever think he’d be able to push out an actual confession that night? 

“You were one step ahead and I look like the fool again for letting this affect me so much.” In true Kai fashion he didn’t understand immediately that Jay having kissed him first meant something very very important. He wasn’t smart and he never claimed to be in his defense.

“Kai.”

“WHAT?” 

Jay looked like he was considering something before eventually huffing a breath of air through his nose and shaking his head in disbelief.

“You know I gave that to you on Valentine’s Day right?”

“What?”

Jay pointed to the bracelet.

“Valentine’s Day. I was goooing to ask you out but. You kinda just stormed off like the whole thing pissed you off so.” 

Oh.. OH. Kai was an idiot. He didn’t know how many times he’d have to repeat to himself that he was just flat out stupid until his braincells got the memo and actually did their job.

“I’ll give you twenty bucks if you agree to never talk about this again.”

“Throw in a kiss and you’ve got yourself a deal.” 

“Deal.”

“Now how about that Dinner?”

Jay would later make fun of Kai for perfectly timing his whole scheme to fall on White Day. To which Kai would slide him another twenty to have the blue ninja pretend like he thought Kai had done it on purpose.

 Next year he would get him back on purpose. 

[dysfunctional-lego-ninja]

Watching Ninjago With My Parents But Mostly My Mom - Episodes 3-6

Okay so I’m scrapping the reblog method for updating this silly little commentary series, and it’s not gonna be weekly because watching Ninjago has become kinda sporadic at this point - but I will be going with four episodes per update, so yeah here’s the update for Episodes 3-6 (however I’m questioning why on earth the first post got 93 notes, but I’m glad people liked it!) Also my younger brother is rewatching the show with us so I may include some stuff from him too.

Episodes 3-4 (Snakebit and Never Trust A Snake) Okay my memory of this watch session is a bit rusty, so I have significantly less observations about this particular pairing of episodes.

So . . . pretty sure my mom liked it? Pretty sure she was honestly kind of tired during this watch session so I wasn’t able to get a lot of observations out of her XD She immediately pegged Ed and Edna as being from the Midwest and she seemed to like them (I mean who doesn’t, let’s be real). But the one thing that stood out to me was that she was eager to see Lloyd’s “metamorphosis” (her exact wording, btw) into the Green Ninja (she has no clue about the ageing up, that’s gonna be fun). So yeah - sorry to disappoint, I’m gonna try to keep better notes in between watch sessions since I usually write these on the second pair when my memories are fresh.

Episodes 5-6 (Can of Worms and The Snake King) Lots of observations on this one! So first off, when my brother and I were reading the Amazon Prime description of Can of Worms, we discovered that Amazon called the Venomari and Constrictai ���the Vipoids and Constrictaurs”. Amazon strikes again with its fabulous misnomers and misspellings (looking at you description that spelled Nya with an I).

This episode definitely got laughs from my mom - Zane’s pink gi obviously being the highlight, as was Kai’s little run-in with Venomari spit. She did have to have me clarify that Pythor was “the British snake” (his voice reminds her of Bagheera from The Jungle Book), but at least she was able to keep track of his name. She wasn’t, however, quite as adept at keeping the other tribes and generals straight, so at her request, I’m going to be making a chart of the Serpentine for her to reference. The foodie side of her made a return appearance when she asked whether or not they had food pieces with the Destiny’s Bounty sets for the Ninja’s dinner scenes (which I would absolutely love, by the way, I love miniature foods. Also I realized how much I miss seeing the Ninja chilling around the dinner table, that was just a nice little grounding detail).

She surprised both my brother and I when she mentioned that, upon seeing the Samurai X mech make its first appearance in this episode, that she had been waiting for a mech to show up since she knows we own a lot of them. My brother moped a little about wanting the OG Samurai X mech (I don’t remember whether or not he has the Legacy one). And she, of course, being the analytical detective type of person that she is when it comes to TV shows (she and my dad watch a lot of murder mysteries so she’s constantly trying to outthink the protagonists), immediately started trying to figure out who Samurai X was.

Which leads into The Snake King, in which my mom was pretty convinced that Samurai X was Sensei Wu - she did think it was Nya a little bit when I started laughing at the idea of Wu being the samurai (which is honestly a brilliant concept and I legitimately might do something with that sometime) - but she was pretty sure it was Wu because of how quickly the samurai could get from place to place and the amount of skill he (or rather she) had. Both valid points, but she was accepting of the fact that it turned out to be Nya, although she also suggested that perhaps Wu might have trained Nya or helped her get to the level of skill she has. Which, frankly, I can totally vibe with that too because even though Nya is incredibly competent and probably picked up most of her skills by herself (and the tech is absolutely all her, Wu might be a cool boomer but he’s still a boomer), she’s been shown to need honing and fine-tuning, and Wu is the perfect teacher for that. So . . . maybe stay tuned for Samurai Wu AU (or training Samurai X Nya)?

Other little notes and interesting tidbits: during Can of Worms, my mom asked whether or not Jay and Kai get paired up a lot episode-wise (meaning are they teamed up with each other a lot when they’re split up, and whether they’ve got a closer friendship kind of thing). She was a little surprised when I told her that it’s usually Cole and Jay, but that that dynamic occurs later on (I have high hopes that she’ll stick it out long enough to get that far). My brother and I also wound up asking her which Ninja was her favorite so far, and neither of us were surprised when she answered with Zane, her main reasoning being that she thought he was the most unique of the four, calling him the “weird introvert”. (That’s absolutely endearing, she and I are both the same way XD). This then led to her asking why they had to make Zane a robot (don’t think she holds that against him though), and I explained the little story about that (his design + Brent Miller’s performance = robot rather than seer), which she found interesting.

Conclusion: she’s getting invested and my brother and I got a nostalgia trip again XD

Stay tuned for Episodes 7-10, hopefully in the near future!

[blursed-ninjago-ideas]

Kairro AU where Ray and Maya decide to use the Reversal Blade on Kairro after the end of s7 to get their son back

What is coherent timeline???

You know what? This is happening after the last prompt shot

--

Nya had blasted him with enough water to drown a small town. It forced Morro out, but Kai screamed so much more than last time. Physically Kai was a lot better, but something was wrong this time.

He staggered and gaped, gripping his chest like it was in pain. He was crying, but they were ready for that part, it was his expression that caused them to flock to him. He was in absolute anguish.

Kai kept trying to push them all away, he wasn’t as weak as he was last time, so it was harder to restraint him. By the time they got a crazed and panicking Kai under control, Morro had already snuck off, ready to try and take Kai away from them another day.

Kai’s breathes were coming in unevenly and his eyes were glassy.

Lloyd came forward and put his face right in front of Kai’s, forcing him to look him in the eyes.

“Kai? Kai it’s me. It’s Lloyd. Are you there?” He asked urgently.

“I.....” Kai gasped. “I....we.....I......where? Where is....where am I?”

“You’re safe.” Nya explained. 

“No....no...” Kai said, shaking his head. “Where’s we? Us? Me?”

He stared at them pleadingly.

“Morro is gone.” Zane said.

“Not....not Morro...me.....I.....I’m.....” Kai muttered. “Me....us....me?”

“This is worse than last time.” Cole pointed out.

“Kairro was....he was talking about himself in first person.” Lloyd said, biting his lip. “I thought I got Kai to push back a little but...”

They all looked at Kai, who was frantically looking around for his missing piece.

“It wasn’t enough.” Cole said sadly.

“Here we go again.” Nya sighed.

She just hopped there was still something of her brother to help recover this time.

-

After Kai got passed the confusion, he hit the withdrawal hard. He fought and screamed for them to give Morro back while they tried to force food and water into him.

Wu gave him a very wide berth, knowing that Kai would try to hurt him if he saw him.

His parents came to try and help take care of him and were horrified.

“This was what he was like?” Maya asked.

“I mean it wasn’t as bad and he wasn’t as strong, but pretty much.” Nya sighed.

“What do you mean he wasn’t as strong?” she asked while she petted his hair.

Kai was currently sedated.

“I mean the being possessed put a lot of strain on his body, but since he and Morro were already....mixed” Nya said the word with disgust “It wasn’t as physically taxing this time.”

“That’s good at least.” Maya said.

“Not really. It also means that the bleed over continued at a faster rate.” Nya said sadly, starring at a cup of water. “We probably lost a lot more of him this time.” 

Nya wasn’t looking forward to any more “I should’ve been the green ninja” behavior, or the ruthless competitiveness that she knew didn’t belong to her brother. She hated watching her brother become spiteful when she knew he wasn’t supposed to be the type to hold onto hate like that.

“Is there anything we can do?” Maya asked, teary eyed herself.

Nya shook her head gently.

“You can’t unmix inks.” she said, quoting what Wu had told her when she had asked the same question early on. “You’d need some magic undo button for that.”

Maya stood up sharply.

“So be it!” she said, with a fire in her eyes that Nya had always thought Kai got from their father.

“What are you-”

She was out the door before Nya could finish her question.

-

“The reversal blade?” Lloyd asked.

“It could work, right?” Ray asked.

“Well...” Nya said

“Theoretically, it is possible.” Zane said. “But there’s no telling what it’ll do to him.”

“We can’t just leave him as is.” Maya said passionately.

“It’s worth a shot.” Cole shrugged.

-

If Morro had a beating heart, it would’ve stopped. They were going to pull him out of his other half! He’d go back to how he was before.

He couldn’t! He wouldn’t let them!

He was originally planning on waiting until he had an opening to get to Kai, but he didn’t have time. He had to take action!

Jay had been in the kitchen since it was his night to cook. Morro took him.

He fought him and Morro hated the feeling of it. He hated being in Jay’s body, he hated listening to his prattling thoughts that were sort of endearing. Morro didn’t hate Jay, just being in his body. Jay was his friend, er, well Kai’s friend. Oh, what difference did it make!?

“A LOT!” screamed Jay’s thoughts. Morro pushed him down. He just needed to deal with that reversal blade and then he could get out.

“Guys! Stop!” Morro yelled, using Jay’s voice.

“Jay? What is it?” Nya asked.

He’d managed to stop them before he got to Kai, good. He’d have to do something about precious Nya before he could do any fighting. She could force him out at any time. So, he’d have to play the role.

“What are you doing!?” He asked

They explained their plan to use the reversal blade on Kai.

“But what if it hurts him?” Morro asked desperately. “Maybe we should think this through more before we do anything drastic.”

He didn’t know what his plan was long term. He just needed to stall them until he thought of one. Maybe if he could get them to put it down, he could steal it and hide it where they’d never find it?

“Jay, what else can we do? You know Kai is getting worse. If Morro does this any more times, we might not have any more of Kai to get back.” Nya said with tears in her eyes.

Morro didn’t want her to cry. she’d stop crying when it was a reality and they had to accept him and Kai as one person. Then she’s be his little sister and have to love him like she loved Kai.

“But we don’t want him anymore hurt than he already is!” Morro said.

Nya teetered with the rest of the group, debating if they should wait or not.

Jay gave a very unexpected push at that moment.

“DON’T LISTEN TO ME! MORRO’S HERE! HE’S TRY TO STOP YOU!” Jay screamed.

Eyes went wide and they took a step back.

“DAMN IT!” Morro swore in his own voice.

Nya was already reeling up, better get out before he had to deal with that. Morro left Jay’s body and frantically pushed passed, trying to get to Kai before they did.

The race was on, the whole group tore down the hall to Kai’s room.

Kai didn’t have time to register that Morro had found him before the door burst open and a furious Nya sprayed down the room like a water hose.

“DON’T YOU DARE!” she screamed.

Kai coughed up water and started to voice his protest when his father stepped forward with a timeblade on his arm. He used it on Kai, and everything started spinning.

Kai felt his soul shift and move. He felt a lot lighter as things evaporated, but stronger and things grew and came back. Like coming into a room full of old friends, while taking off weights he’d long since forgotten he was carrying.

For the first time since the day Morro had first possessed him at the museum, Kai felt whole.

“WHAT DID YOU DO!?!?!?” Morro screamed in rage.

Nya started throwing streams of water at him before he could make any attacks though.

“This isn’t over. This isn’t over!” Morro roared as he disappeared.

“Kai?” Nya turned and asked.

“I’m....I’m me! just me!” Kai said, breaking out into a grin “He’s not here! And I don’t miss him!”

Nya shuddered with relief and collapsed.

Kai tried to run over to her but was still restrained.

“Um....guys?”

The all laughed.

--

That got long. I’m sorry for that. But I’m also sort of proud of it?

(No Editing, we die like men)

-Ivy

[fluideli123]

A Story

So, I’ve recently been inspired to write a story for Ninjago and I’ve only written the prologue since I wanna write it for everyone, people even not in the Ninjago fandom and all that. I’ve also been editing the hell out of it and listening to it from text-to-speech stuff because I just all of a sudden got really passionate about this story. I even have my co-editors editing it in their free time I’m so invested in this story. Anyway, I wanted to post the first chapter (Still being edited) here before I actually post it, because, well, why not? I havn’t posted in awhile and I’ve been working on this story nonstop for maybe, a week? I don’t know, it started out as a prompt and practice and than ended as a whole story with twists and stuff. So, I’m just going to leave below the line on what I have so far,  I hope you enjoy it?

The link if you just want to see this story is here: X

Cole's head softly nodded to the beat of the music playing loudly in his ears from a newly bought headset, continuously humming the lyrics from the songs by heart. The earth ninja had his back against his pillows with a notebook and pen placed on his lap doodling mindlessly. His mind was alive with thoughts and memories for an unknown amount of time.

Some days he would be with his team with no need to fight, saving people, and with no missions to complete. Other days where he had either enough time on his hands to sit down and lose himself in more than just additional training or had too much time than he knew how to deal with. He didn't know which was worse sometimes.

However, Lloyd had it the worst out of the whole team, he spent most of his life, if not all of it, fighting and training. Lloyd even lost his entire childhood to become the destined Green Ninja. Cole still felt sympathy over the day that Lloyd lost his childhood. Cole and his teammates, Kai, Jay, and Zane, met Lloyd when he was only nine years old. But one day, the whole team was turned into kids. An extinct Grundle was brought back to life to hunt them all down, leaving Lloyd to help them get back to normal since he was unaffected. Cole still remembered how he and his team members were in fear as the once extinct ninja hunter towered over them. It was a hideous creature with thin sharp teeth and razor-sharp talons, its scales were blood red, its body was littered in spikes, and long catfish-like whiskers on either side of its lips. They were all quivering in fear until Sensi Wu appeared with Nya, they were carrying a tea that they tossed over to the ninjas. This tea would reverse all the effects that caused them to turn into kids. But as Sensi Wu forewarned, the tea would also affect Lloyd, turning him older with the rest of them. Lloyd had heard this, yet, he still grabbed the brew and threw it at the monster, it turned to bones while the rest of them spontaneously aged older. He selflessly sacrificed his own childhood to save them, adding more weight to the things he already bared at such a young age. The kid could use a break just as much as everyone else.

Sadly, Cole doubted that would ever happen for any of them.

Cole frowned, his thoughts now souring his peaceful mood. He closed the notebook and placed it back in its proper spot, a drawer within his nightstand. Tidying up his pens, he sets them by the journal, closing the drawer before also pausing his music, taking off his headphones, and setting the two items on the nightstand.

Cole let out a sigh, closing his eyes and running a hand through his messy black hair. He was overthinking again, a byproduct of the peace in the world, as unfortunate as that was. The earth ninja stood up, stretching his arms above his head to work out the kinks in his back before making his way through the hall, trying to clear his mind before heading into the kitchen. As Cole stepped into the kitchen, he smelt the scent of strawberries and honey, noticing that the temperature was also mellow. What the earth ninja saw, though, was a sheen on a metallic body and the white of a gi with quick hands slicing something on the counter.

Only one name appeared in Cole's mind, one that was accompanied by a warm feeling in his chest and a small soft smile on his lips.

Zane.

The Nindroid faced Cole, his once focused icy blue eyes turning into their usual warmth as he beamed, realizing Cole had entered the room. Cole's own smile grew from the sight of Zane's smile, a swell in his heart forming, making the feeling in his chest rise. Even though Zane was the master of ice and a Nindroid, he had the most sunshiny smiles and had tender eyes, softening you from the inside out.

"Cole," Zane said, his words calm and witty with only a slightly robotic tone. "I see you've finally decided to leave your room. I was beginning to wonder whether you'd be trapped in there forever."

The earth ninja rolled his eyes as he made his way over to the ice ninja, becoming enthralled with the remark. Cole had recently been in his room more often than he was training, the team, for some reason, found that as something to make quips about. Cole would be lying if he didn't enjoy some of the banterings that would sometimes ensue, especially with Zane. He wasn't too good at understanding humor or joking, but when he did, it always made Cole chuckle, even if it wasn't something exceedingly funny.

"Oh, me being stuck in my room?" Cole answered, placing a hand on his chest dramatically, his words dripping in a little bit of playful sarcasm. "I could never! How could I ever stay in there without the most delicious thing ever made to keep me company? I, of course, need a cake to keep me thriving if I were to be trapped."

Zane shook his head a bit as Cole chuckled at his own comment, still smiling as he looked back at the strawberries he was cutting. Remembering the smell in the air and seeing Zane slicing the fruit, Cole looked over to the oven out of curiosity, seeing the light on.

"So, what are you making there, frosty?" Cole asked, looking back to the Nindroid and leaning to the side to peak over Zane's tall form.

"Strawberry Bread," Zane affirms as he places the knife down, lifting the cutting board to pour the fruits in a green plastic bowl. Setting the board down he quietly, says excuse me to Cole, who moves out of the way. Zane bends down, grabbing pink oven mitts in the process, and opens the oven pulling out a pink and golden brown bread. He stands up and places it on cooling racks on the counter, the opposite side of the stove where he was slicing the berries. The smell was sweet and had Cole's mouth-watering as Zane continued to speak. "Jay had spoken about how I cook so well that I should try making some more desserts instead of dinner foods. He suggested I start on something with fruit, so I did."

Cole nodded, sitting down at the table. Zane had always been the one to cook for the whole team after they realized how much everyone else's cooking sucked, and how the ice ninja's cookery was remarkably good. Zane could cook anything you wanted after he researched as much as he could on it, whether that be from books from the libraries in Ninjago City or from any digital device hooked to the internet. He liked to be informed and probably knew facts that no one else knew about, just because he enjoys learning things.

Zane has always been strange to everyone, even when Zane himself didn't know he was a Nindroid. It was just a feeling that Zane had given off. Of course, the team loved him like a brother, yet that didn't stop everyone from recognizing how different Zane was. When Cole, Kai, Jay, and Zane lived in Wu's Monastery, everyone would notice how Zane lived in his own world, while training. He would possibly bow at a wooden training dummy, or be utterly confused with expressions. Zane couldn't understand humor at all either, but Cole still found it often endearing, even back then when they annoyed him sometimes. 

Nevertheless, one time the whole team, including Sensei Wu and Nya, got in a food fight during supper. Zane had stood there watching them throw his food around, unable to understand why everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. Cleaning up after the ninja's ruinous fight, Zane had left outside with all the wasted food and tossed it in the trash. Zane had told the team that while doing so, he had met a falcon sitting on a branch above him, the bird following his exact movements as the ice ninja felt an ease with the bird. Unable to explain it, the bird had appeared another day, guiding Zane to Lloyd's secret hideout when he was with the Serpentine, which were snakes that wanted to get revenge on Ninjago for sealing them underground. Zane had gone back to the Monastery after finding Lloyd's lair in the trees to notify the team.

Cole has known for a long time that he has feelings towards Zane, even if it just began as a physical attraction. But that didn't prevent Cole's emotions growing over the years, his attempts to try and repress his feelings and only focus on viewing Zane as a brother like he did everyone else, had backfired on him. He often caught himself daydreaming about Zane without meaning to. There were just so many things about Zane that Cole couldn't help but to like about the ice ninja.

One of the first things that Cole liked about Zane was his eyes, whether that was sappy or not, it was true. When Cole first met Zane, his eyes were more human-like, a dull icy blue, still soft and kind when he looked at his teammates and friends but also appeared to be inquisitive or searching as if trying to understand something or learn something when he looked at you. Cole enjoyed the color more than when Zane looked at people back then, especially when it was dark, and his eyes would look too bright to be human. Nowadays, Cole just liked everything about Zane's eyes, like how they were robotically inhuman. Cole adored how they always seemed to be vivid and definite than a typical human's eyes, no matter how intense the light was, they would be slightly brighter.

The second thing Cole liked about Zane was his hands. He remembered how perplexed Zane was when he inquired why Cole had been gazing at his hands strangely. Cole had stated that he had never felt hands so cold before, even though it was the truth too, it wasn't the real reason why he sat there blatantly staring like a fool. Cole just liked that even after all the labor of training and fighting, that the ninja's hands weren't rough and hard like you'd expect them to be. In fact, they were soft and smooth like delicate fallen snow that doesn't cling together and as smooth as a thick formed icicle hovering from the roof. Now, the only thing that has changed is that his hands are sleek instead of soft from not having his albino synthetic skin, more gentle when they touched things now too. It's something Cole constantly daydreams about more often than anything else, as much as that irritates him. He regularly tries to push away the intruding thoughts, but the skin on his hands and face always tingle, even after he snaps out of his thoughts and into reality. Like if Zane was the ghost instead, and he couldn't truly touch Cole.

Cole could go on and on, describing every little detail about how beautiful Zane was from the inside out. But, out of everything he can explain, there is one thing he cherishes about Zane over everything else he could ever try to describe. It's something even Cole can't always name sometimes, and it's just how Zane is, well, Zane. The Nindroid will invariably do something outlandish like randomly stop moving and sit there for a while doing something in his head, or till someone questions what the hell he's doing. It's the same thing when he'll spend hours talking about how absurd people's theories are on multiple topics or randomly start talking about a fact no one else asked to hear. Even if Cole couldn't understand what Zane was prattling about or thinking, Cole would listen anyway.

Cole shakes his thoughts out of his head before he looks at Zane as he takes off one pink oven mitt and grabs a spatula, stabbing at the sides of the bread pan, the tip of his tongue sticking out in concentration. As the earth ninja took notice to the sight of no honey on the kitchen counter, he opened his mouth to ask why it smelt like it too if it was strawberry bread that Zane was making. That was, however, cut short when Jay walked into the room, answering his question before it even left his mouth. The lightning ninja held a white platter in his hands that held crumbs, strawberries and what could, and hopefully be, smeared honey on it. He placed the plate down in the sink before turning to the ice ninja with a toothy smile on his face.

"You are so good at cooking, I swear!" Jay exclaimed before he looked to Cole and made his way over, almost bouncing in place. "Have you tried it yet, Cole? Because you should! Zane made a hell of a new dessert, and oh my gosh, it's so good! You have to try it!" Jay whipped his head back to Zane, who was smiling proudly from the comments Jay was shouting left and right, no doubt. "Did he already? Oh, come on, he had to at least have stolen some when you weren't looking!"

Zane shook his head in negative, triggering a dramatic gasp from the lightning ninja, who quickly turned his head back to Cole. He looked determined, and before Cole could add his two cents to the conversation, Jay took him by the arm and drew him to the counter where he had formerly been standing with Zane, and grabbed a slice of bread and shoved it in his hands. Jay let go of his arm and looked at him expectantly, a look that gave off a false superiority sometimes, as it did now. Cole just raised an eyebrow at Jay, who pursed his lips and placed his own hands on his hips. It reminded Cole of those Ninjago City mom's who was about to say "excuse me?" bitterly because someone cut in line or did something offensive to them. Cole snorted at the thought, giving in and taking a large bite out of the bread only to cover his mouth when his eyes widened, and a muffled surprise escaped his throat. 

The damn bread wasn't chewy or crumbled apart too effortlessly, and it wasn't bland either, it was right in the middle and tasted like the berry it was made with without being too sweet. If Cole was incapable of loving cake as much as he did, he would probably just go off and marry this dish instead. Actually, no, Cole should go off and marry Zane, who is capable of making not only this bread but also cake, which would make a triple-win scenario.

That thought knocked him back into the present, his cheeks slightly gaining color.

Jay laughed and patted Cole's shoulder as he swallowed down the piece of bread. Apparently, he was amused by his reaction to Zane's baking skills. This shouldn't be a surprise, he was a badass in the kitchen like in the battlefield, as stated before.

"What I tell you," The lightning ninja beamed at Cole as he continued. "It's good, isn't it?"

Cole rolled his eyes. "Well, yeah, duh, Zane made it, of course, it's going to be good." He looked over to the ice ninja, who was patiently slicing the now cooled batch, Cole witnessed Zane pull out of the oven before. "You really outdid yourself again, Zane." "Why thank you, I was honestly about to think that Jay was overreacting to not hurt my feelings on possibly not making the bread well." Zane replies as he places all the pieces of bread in a clear plastic container. "However, I believe I should put these away till after dinner. I can already tell you two might try to grab for more, even though Jay has already eaten quite a few."

A loud, “awe man, no fair” came from Cole as Jay crossed his arms and seemed to now be sulking. Zane chuckled as he closed the lid and placed the container on top of the fridge, out of reach from anyone who didn’t grab a chair, climb the counters or who were tall enough to grab it by themselves. Sadly, no one was as tall enough to reach Zane’s height completely without putting something under their feet to gain a few more inches. It seemed the bread was held captive for the time being. That reminds him.

"Wait, how many did you eat, Jay?" Cole inquired as he looked over to the ninja in question. Jay looked over at Cole with wide eyes, as if caught in a terrible act that shouldn't be spoken about.

"Uh," Jay looked around the room as if it was supposed to help him answer the question. "Would you believe me if I said two slices was all I had?"

"No."

Jay frowned before he crossed his arms and pouted like a young child, a quiet "damn it" being muttered under his breath before he lifted a hand with five fingers up.  Cole stared at the ninja's fingers. Why was he holding up-

Oh.

He burst out laughing as he high fived Jay's hand. "Oh my god, you couldn't have beaten my record! I can't believe you actually ate five!" Cole joked, Jay huffed again and stuck his tongue out at Cole, causing him to laugh harder.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up dirt boy," Jay poked Cole's chest. "I only did it because Zane's cooking is awesome, and it was just a warm-up to when I beat you at your own food game."

The food game Jay was speaking of was a competition between him and Cole about whoever beats the other's score on eating the most in one day, wins. Every month, there was a day that the person surpasses last month's score, or tries to and fails. If you retain or beat the score, the loser must do the other’s chores or buy them something out of their own pocket when asked. So far, the high score was held by Cole, with three plates of two giant full-sized flour tortilla cheese and bean burritos. The whole team, Cole, Zane, Jay, Nya, Kai, and Lloyd, all went out last month to Kai and Nya's favorite restaurant, Taco Loco Pequeño César's. It was there that he not only won that month for his game but also won a sombrero and cool black sunglasses from the restaurant to congratulate him on winning their eating competition. It was the best day to see Jay's face go red in anger and brood for the rest of the day, Cole just rubbed it in his face by walking around wearing the sunglasses and sombrero he won. Kai even taught him some Spanish words, specifically "gané" and "perdedor" to further torture, Jay. Plus, the only reason Jay wanted Cole to believe he only ate two slices of the bread Zane made today was that he has to be ashamed of only eating five pieces and thinking that could beat the burritos.

"Say whatever you want sparky," Cole said, poking Jay back. "You can't beat the master."

Jay scoffed, looking to Zane, who was silently cleaning up after himself. "Zane, come on, Cole isn't the master of eating, right? I mean, I've eaten just as much as him, right?"

Zane looked up from pulling on his household gloves, staring at Jay for a moment before answering.  "According to what I've witnessed, and from other information about both your eating habits. There is a twenty percent chance that you have eaten anything slightly near the amount Cole has consumed. Ten percent being-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it, Zane, you don't have to hurt my pride more." Jay insisted, cutting off Zane with a wave of his hand in the Nindroids direction. Zane frowned before he turned away from the two, and moved towards the sink where he collected all the dishes. 

"I don't understand why you two believe the consumption of the most nutrients, is something to be made into a competition," Zane commented, his words less chipper than they had been moments ago. "You could harm yourselves by consuming too much that you get yourselves sick, or consume too much of a substance and damage yourselves."

"Well, then we'll have to be careful," Jay said, shrugging, walking towards a chair and sitting down on it, folding his arms on one of the legs placed against his chest.

"Yeah, plus, if we get hurt, it'll be our fault anyway," Cole chimed in, sitting on the table with his feet swinging below him as he watched Zane. "We're just a couple of competitive dumbasses."

Zane continued to wash dishes, silent. Cole sat there for a moment, wondering if Jay had interrupted the ice ninja a bit too harshly, that being the cause of the Nindroid’s silence. That was debunked, however, when Zane's shoulders fell as he let out a sigh of defeat. 

"I know," Zane replied, turning around and leaning on the side of the kitchen sink, a sponge in hand scrubbing a big white mixing bowl. "I'm just concerned for your well being, especially after Cole's appetite last month." He gave Cole a pointed look. "You could have gotten ill after devouring all of those burritos." 

Cole let out an airy chuckle as he brushed a hand through his hair, looking away from the look he was being given. Ah, yes, he almost forgot the lecture the ice ninja had given him afterward.

"You made a point there, I doubt Jay could eat that much without getting a major stomach ache," Cole noted, laughing at Jay's insulted face as he quickly looked back to Cole. Zane laughed too, a smile on his lips again as he turned away and placed the white bowl down on the other side of the divided sink with other soapy dishes.

Time flew after that, Cole had stayed in the kitchen with Zane and Jay since they had nothing better to do than talk, jabbing jokes at each other. Zane had spent most of his day cooking and reading a new book he'd gotten, named Sunrays of Serenity. It was a poem book that someone had recommended to him at the library one day, saying it was something Zane should read. It seemed to be something that the ice ninja could try and think about. Zane said it had plenty of hidden meanings and was chock-full of phrases, giving Zane material to analyze and ponder about, unlike the science and machine books he'd usually borrow. 

 Jay, on the other hand, had spent his day with his girlfriend Nya, building and brainstorming new ideas that they could work on together, or by themselves. The two were in love with constructing and understanding machines, and most of the time, worked well with each other, taking turns fixing things around the place and talking things out. The two were the perfect match in Cole's opinion, for more than one reason, of course, even if he did place a wedge in between them at one point. Cole's anger had gotten the best of him, creating one of his least proud moments, but one that he regrets every day.

It's also something Cole had recognized over the years when being with his team, actually, since Nya is stubborn and her brother Kai is short-tempered, Jay being the embodiment of an unpredictable explosion. Cole, however, he was just angry. That's all it was for him. The earth ninja wasn't headstrong unless it was necessary, he wasn't gruff, having things irritate him quickly and he wasn't inconstant. He felt angry from time to time, like an itch under his skin that wouldn't go away. It was often bothersome and only made him more upset when he realized the feeling. 

He wished it would go away.

The notebook he had been doodling in before, holds pieces of what he lets out of his anger, at least the ones captured on paper, that is. Drawing himself engulfed by green and black, or standing in a battlefield of fallen enemies, him standing above them all. Cole even once drew a picture of himself standing in front of a mirror, his reflection showing something dark and fiery on the other side, like a melted creature representing how Cole viewed his rage. The journal wasn't even for merely his anger. He had pictures of his family lying dead upon the ground, his team being a part of his family, while he kneeled with them, the only one alive out of everyone he ever cared for. His slightly better pictures, like when he drew himself treading on lily pads, the pastel colors, conflicting with his dark gi and skin, revealing his misplacement in tranquil environments. His happier pictures, which were always sweet, were drawings of his friends happy or doing activities. 

Ones where he drew Lloyd sitting in a field of flowers seeming serene, his shoulders no longer tense, his jaw no longer clenching and eyes showing no sign of the constant sorrow they hold. He had sketches too, like ones of Jay sitting over his workshop, tools scattered every which way. Kai and Nya asleep on the couch, her head on Kai's shoulder.

One of Cole's favorites by far, though, were the drawings of the landscapes of the places he's been to as a ninja. They always seemed to come out steady and how Cole had meant them to look, which is hard to do because there is something that comes out wrong each time. There would be times where Cole had paintings of his team where they're poses were wonky, their eyes different from the left, or he accidentally colored with the wrong color. But, the landscapes and places never had the same problems.

What was strange to Cole, was that he would have never guessed that when Sensi Wu had handed him the large red covered journal, when the group split up, that he would confide in it to express himself, when he didn't feel like training. Cole had usually just trained to let out all his emotions, not finding another outlet for them to flow. He was thankful to Wu for giving him another place to let everything go. It often helped him when he woke up from his constant nightmares. 

"Hey, ya'll," A familiar voice said, breaking Cole from his thoughts as he was listening to Jay think out loud about making a mechanical dog for him and Nya, instead of going out and buying a dog, and Zane informing him of what that choice would intel. The earth ninja looked to the doorway along with Jay, seeing white blonde hair and emerald green eyes, accompanied by a green gi. "The others were wondering if you guys started dinner yet, or not."

Cole didn't have an answer for Lloyd, he had been trying to avoid looking at Zane in fear of staring like a crush infused creep. But when Cole looked over to Zane, who was wearing a pink apron now, he was about to answer their leader without even looking up from the pot he was stirring, reading the poem book. When did he even start cooking again? Did Cole really get that wrapped up in Jay's talk on robo-dogs, and his own thoughts? Well then, at least he gets to eat soon.

"Dinner is not quite finished, but it should be in a few more moments," Zane stated, raising the scoop from the pot, where Cole sat, he could see baby shrimp, noodles, and various spices before Zane took a sip, tasting his soup. The ice ninja placed the spoon back in the large pot, he continued to stir as he picked up a salt shaker and added some salt. "I would recommend rounding everyone up and having them sit at the table. It should be done when everyone has a bowel ready and is seated properly."

Lloyd nodded his head in acknowledgment, gesturing for Cole and Jay to follow him. The two did instantly, joining him in the hall, Lloyd asked for Jay to go get Nya, and Cole to go get Kai, while Lloyd went to see if Sensi Wu and his mother, Misako, wanted to join them. Cole split from the small group, and after Kai, the fire ninja was likely blacksmithing locally at Herald's Shop, a place just down from where the whole crew stayed. Cole summoned his earth elemental dragon, Heath, and quickly made his way to the small shop, jumping off his dragon and into the shop without knocking, knowing Kai was most likely expecting someone to come in. 

"Hey there," Kai greeted, sticking a long metal thing into a barrel of water, steaming rising quickly, loud sizzling in the air around them. Kai had more long metal poles on one of his tables, each one having some sort of difference engraved on them that Cole didn't care to examine right now, but, even from afar, Kai's work was still beautiful. "Is it that time already?"

Cole cocked a crooked smile at the fire ninja. "Apparently so," Cole went over closer to Kai, who was taking off his blacksmithing wear, a pair of gloves, a dark apron, and a face protection mask. "Ready to leave your things here and get some food?"

Kai chuckled, picking up all the engraved poles and setting them to the side safely, including the one he had witnessed get placed in the barrel. After Kai cleaned up his place in the shop, he thanked the owner and said he'd come back tomorrow, the man just waving him off as he continued to read a magazine. 

The two made their way back to their home swiftly, talking about how they enjoyed being able to do their hobbies or favorite activities a lot more, but how much of a hassle it was to handle all that time given to them. As they walked into the hallway, Kai said that he had finished at least three of the poles the earth ninja had seen, telling him that they were going to be put up somewhere on or in their home. Cole found that impressive, Kai had been a terrible blacksmith before, his forges were, as Nya once stated, a wet spaghetti noodle. After regularly practicing in his free time, he rose up to the title of a blacksmith.

The rest of the day was spent with the whole team, Sensi Wu, and Misako after Kai and Cole arrived in the kitchen. All of them chatted together, the table crowded, loud, and noisy every which way. To Cole though it, was just one big family get together at the end of the day, talking their head off while enjoying food. It was comforting, to say the least, Cole was used to large group dinners, his father's job as a famous dancer meant big parties of all types.

Soon as the conversations died down and people were getting full, Zane took the job of picking up the dishes along with Misako, who helped him. People started leaving one by one, saying their goodnights, each one headed off for bed, soon Cole did too. Everything in Cole's life seemed perfect to other people's eyes, as it should have been, nothing but training, drawing, and family times. Sadly, that wasn't at all the case.

Not one bit.

[dorizardthewizard]

TLNM musings, part 1

Okayy here it is!

I enjoyed the movie and am grateful for a bigscreen adaptation, but it still has its flaws and to this day I lament what it could have been. First, some thoughts on parts of the movie!

Live action scene:

The live action sequences were nice but I can see why they didn't work for the movie. Idk they just don't seem to fit? The ancient legend vibe isn't really continued and it still doesn't explain the natural elements in the movie like actual water; before we assumed it was a kid playing with his Lego in the garden but now it doesn't really make sense.

The ninja:

The opening was fun and I really liked the ninja's introductions and title cards! One kinda annoying thing was the animation reuse though I mean... it's a pretty big production to be doing that and most of the ninja don't do that much in the movie anyway so I'd want to appreciate every new shot of them I can get.

Cole probably says the least but he's grown on me, I love his new design and how they at least gave him a more unique personality being the really chill dude who loves music, it's pretty one-dimensional but in the show they don't even know what to do with his character anymore so it was a refreshing change. 

Jay’s got all the nervous screaming from TV Jay but is also really adorable.

I like what they did with Zane by giving his “human” design a more android look, and his reactions to everything are just hilarious I still can't get over the little “gasp” :’D They could have done so much more with him though, but more on that later.

As for Kai, he's still a hothead but much more endearing and enthusiastic, it's nice that they tried to bring up the “big bro to Lloyd” part of him too.

I do love Nya's design and the samurai hint but she does look a lot like the other LEGO movie female characters. It's great that she's a badass motorcyclist (heeey we should have gotten some action with that!) but she's pretty much the token strong female character... all the reporter had to say about her was that she was a girl and sure, Nya countered that but I feel like it's unnecessary- having her as a part of the team without having to address the fact she's a girl is enough. In all fairness though, it's tricky to make her less token when none of the ninja except Lloyd get any development anyway.

(Looking back on this review I’ve realised how the movie versions’ personalities have merged into the TV show now, hm. Not sure how I feel about that).

Lloyd and family:

Lloyd's mech was amazing, the shots where Garm's mech grabs the dragon by the neck and when it got thrown off the building had me shook. As for Lloyd himself, I kinda like what they did with his character. As much as I am salty about him taking the spotlight (he even took Jay/ Nya's mechanic role and builds the mechs himself ;; ), I like that we got to see some more emotional struggle with him. TV Lloyd's character and actions always revolved around some external destiny or responsibility forced on him that he just kinda accepted- idk since the earlier seasons it felt like he hadn’t developed much other than feeling a little lost after the loss of his father, and some overdue insecurity about leadership in HoT. He did get some emotional stuff in season 8 but that was after the movie. Movie Lloyd though was more emotional and had to learn from his mistakes, which I personally just found more interesting.

The fact he has no powers is an example of this, because his character and place in the team isn't progressed just by “leveling up” and gaining a new power, it's done through exploring his role in the team and his family, i.e. his own personal actions. I really liked his relationship with Koko and prefer it to Misako; honestly, the scene where she had his birthday cake all ready but he went off to bed broke my heart. As for Garmadon, I miss the TV dynamic but the movie had an interesting take on their relationship that set up for a very emotional journey of reconciliation. I say set up because the delivery is... much more iffy.

Wu was pretty cool too, I like how they made him more wise-cracking and blunt, kinda miss that now that TV Wu is just “*angsty sigh* There’s something I haven’t told you”. It made the movie more self-aware and even poked some fun at the old wise man trope. “He deciphered your needlessly cryptic metaphors” nICE KILL ZANE! Also the choreography of Wu and Garmadon's fight was super cool and creative, wish we had more hand-to-hand combat like the deleted scene with Lloyd and the baby. Come to think of it, they didn't even have their weapons? Like only once did we see Lloyd swinging a sword during the introduction, and even those little shots of the ninja getting their weapons ready in the trailers weren't in the movie????

The ninja's elements and unlocking them:

At least we got some cool elemental powers action, the scene in the temple of fragile foundations was probably the most climactic part and I really enjoyed it- the soundtrack was astounding and seeing Lloyd piecing everything together and fulfilling his role or “power” of pulling the team together was nice. Plus there was a cute little Jaya moment and I liked that Jay unlocked his power first, like how he was the first to learn spinjitsu in the show :3

The whole resolution was lame though, Sensei Wu already told them they have the power inside them and even gave them a physical example of how you can use the elements without weapons, but the ninja are only able to do it once Lloyd tells them the exact same thing? It just ended up being a cheesy "believe in yourself and you'll do it" situation and the whole thing where everyone yells "I've got the power!" made it worse... although the animation and action was fun to watch then, and I laughed at Kai messing it up- classic.

Another thing about the elements though is that for anyone not familiar with Ninjago, they seem kind of... random? Sure in the show the whole backstory to how they have elements wasn't explained until later seasons but there was more buildup to it. Here, Wu just suddenly informs a few high school students that they have super powers, and they all just kind of accept it like “Oh wow really? That's so cool I wanna do that!” without questioning it? In the show we get the “origin story” of the ninja and see how Wu chooses each of them because they have something special inside them, then you start to see it when they learn spinjitsu and unlock their true potential, and regaining their elements felt like the natural next step. In the movie it seems more out of the blue, and granted it doesn't have the run time to create the same buildup as the series, but there could have still been a little more history or explanation to the elements to make up for that.

The finale:

And the elements weren't even important at the end of the movie! They were useful for a bit when the ninja were getting past the shark army generals but that was it... and again for someone who hasn't seen the show, seeing all this stuff about elements in promotional material and the start of the movie, only for them to be pretty unnecessary in the story overall, would seem odd. Sure, they had a role in emphasising Lloyd's role as a leader as he helped everyone unlock them, but this could have been done in other ways without needing something as specific as elemental superpowers. That being said, I loved the animation in that sequence, it's amazing how they can make LEGOs move so fluidly...

About Meowthra, I guess I don't mind the idea too much, I mean it's so silly compared to the show but it fits the LEGO movie universe. Only problem is it doesn't really make sense considering the story is being told, not actively being played by a kid with his LEGO city and cat jumping in to mess things up? It's cool that they subverted our expectations from the trailers though, everyone thought Meowthra would appear nearer the end of the movie and would be the final boss Lloyd and Garmadon team up to defeat, but she didn't actually have that big of a role. I think it was really fitting how instead of fighting her, Lloyd saw himself in her (as ridiculous as that sounds XD) and slowly transitioned from talking to Meowthra to expressing his emotions to Garmadon. It was a really touching scene and the voice actors just freaking nailed it, and it was so good to see Lloyd acknowledging his mother and how much she means to him too, bringing the family together, as is his power. As I said before I liked the revelation about his “power” and how the ultimate ultimate weapon actually hinted towards it I mean... inner pieces being linked together... it's all one big pun. I can see why people were disappointed with the ending though, and I guess I was also left with the feeling that there should have been more action and intensity just before the emotional finale. Sooo yeah, overall it's one of those films I know isn't amazing objectively, but was good fun. Despite this, the critical reception shows the movie isn't perfect, and I’ve got some bones to pick with it myself. But that’s for part 2 :'P

[aweebwrites]

Move on Dragons Ch22

uwa! sorry for disappearing again! I was just distressing over the financial side effects of this pandemic has on my family is all. I hope you enjoy that lil art piece in apology! I'll keep doing my best with updates!! Thank you for reading!!!‘Come on bud. Say Jay. Jaaaaaay.’ Jay cooed at Nix who was laying before him on his stomach on the deck of the Bounty, looking at him with curious shiny eyes.

“Maybe you’re asking too much of the little guy.” Lloyd huffed, watching the two not too far away, Little G watching as well from his perch on his head.

“And those guys aren’t?” Jay huffed, looking to where Kai was trying to coax Rux who was being held by Cole, into using his powers again by showing off his fire breathing, the latter looking entranced as Zane supervised. “Besides, the big dad said it himself. They should be learning to talk by now.” He says as he looked to Nix again then slithered closer to the dragonling so his snout was almost touching his nose.

‘Come on Nix. Jaaaay.’ He cooed and Nix only licked at his nose, pulling a laugh from the lightning ninja. “You are waaay too cute for your own good.” Jay smiled as he nuzzled Nix’s snout with his nose.

“Maybe you should try other words than your name. It takes a while for dragons to learn to effectively communicate after all. Our language isn’t exactly easy to learn.” Shard suggested, watching them all from his place laying just beside the ship, the other dragons gone to do their usual rounds. “Words- sounds that might be easier for you aren’t so easy for them. Names are one of the most complicated since they’re of a specific sound combined with a specific tone, both of which neither of them have a grasp on as yet.” He continued.

“He has a point.” Nya had to agree, watching the two nearby, on break from her last mission to help administer some antidotes for an excited poison dragon’s fumes in a village nearby Jamanakai village.

Luckily the fumes only caused nausea and headache and nothing life threatening. The people there held no grudges however and eagerly welcomed the friendly dragons as they dropped by for a drink by the lake near their settlement with food and curious pats and climbing the dragons found endearing.

“Alright then, so what kind of sounds you have in mind?” Jay asked Shard who paused to think.

“Nix.” The dragonling responded to his name by turning his head to look at the older dragon. ‘Bone.’ He rumbled low and Nix blinked at him as he repeated it again.

‘... Bone.’ Nix repeats after a while listening to Shard say it.

“Yeah! You said it! You spoke!” Jay cheered the little guy on, picking him up and swinging him around.

Nix clearly didn’t understand why Jay was so excited but it made him excited and the dragonling gave a high, happy chirp as his chubby tail wagged.

“Jay his back-!” Lloyd was cut off by Jay slowing down dramatically with Nix still in arms, spinning with him slowly in the blue energy that engulfed them. “Well then.” He huffed, amused.

“Nix’s powers are less likely to cause trouble at least.” Nya shrugged.

“Face it Kai, the kid doesn’t want to use his powers- though he’s having a hell of a time watching you use yours.” Cole huffed at Kai who shot a ball of fire from his mouth and having it explode outwards in the sky like a firework.

“Yes so I recommend not performing your extravagant fire tricks on and over a very flammable mostly wooden ship that holds a high amount of rocket fuel surrounded by very flammable trees.” Pixal called down from the bridge of the ship.

“Pixal does have a rather strong point.” Zane pointed out and Kai huffed smoke through his nose as the fiery glow of his chest  started to fade.

“Then how else are we going to get him to use his powers?” Kai asked them, placing his hands on his hips.

“We don’t.” Cole shrugged. “No doubt he’s a little traumatized from all the commotion the first time he used them caused so we just have to wait until he’s comfortable using it again.” He told Kai, scratching Rux’s stomach like he likes, smiling once he purred and turned over for a better angle.

“And when he does, Little G has to be close by, which means Lloyd has to be close by since the little guy would rather burn than be away from him.” He added, looking across at where said oni was watching them, the dark dragon tilting its head curiously at the mention of his nickname.

“Who knows how long that will take though.” Kai pointed out as he sat cross legged, glancing down at his permanently half shifted feet, wiggling his clawed toes.

“The reality of the situation is less urgent than you think.” Zane spoke up lightly, reaching over to Rux to scratch under his chin, an amused smile tugging the corner of his lips once Rux’s right leg began to twitch, his purrs growing. “At this point, I’m certain Vortica knows how to solve the situation of Garmadon’s fractured soul and it’s only a matter of time before Sensei Wu brings the other half of him here. While reversing time on Little G would prove insightful, with or without that occurrence, the end result will be the same. Garmadon will be whole again.” He elaborated.

“Yeah. I mean if she monitors dimensions, no doubt she’s seen this happen at least a couple of times.” Nya shrugged.

Before anything else could be said, Jay suddenly stumbled to a stop.

“Woah. Did he just use his powers?” He asked, looking down at a still happily wiggling Nix.

“He sure did.” Lloyd confirmed and Jay beamed at Nix again.

“Look at you becoming a big, strong dragon!” He cooed at Nix and the dragon gave a happy chirp of ‘bone’. “A talkative boy too!” Jay grinned at Nix wiggled in his arms from his almost violent tail wags.

“You already talk enough for us all Jay.” Cole says dryly and Jay shot him a glare before setting Nix down again, his arms starting to ache with the weight of the growing dragon.

“What else can we teach the little guy?” Jay asked Shard and the white and blue dragon paused to consider.

“Usually young dragons begin learning how to call for a parent by now with a specific sound at a specific frequency but well, their parents have long passed since they were fledglings as I was told.” Shard murmured in thought. “For now, I suggest taking things slow. He learned one word quickly but I highly doubt he will be able to learn another so soon.” He told Jay who deflated a little before sitting down, laughing as Nix crawled into his arms.

“Alright bud. One day at a time. Maybe we should show you what an actual bone is…” Jay hummed as he stroked his head, Nix purring as he did.

“What about you Rux?” Kai asked as he laid on his side, a hand on his cheek and the tip of his large wing being kept just out of the young dragon’s reach. “Feel like saying ‘bone’?” He hummed, watching as he set to pounce at his wing.

“What can he say?” Cole chuckled. “He’s a free spirit. He’ll say bone and use his powers when he wants.” He says as Rux jumped up, snapping his jaw at Kai’s wing he lifted out of his reach, leaving Rux to miscalculate his fall and land on his side.

He sprung up again before they could inquire if he was ok, setting to pounce again. Zane huffed, watching the young dragon attempt to bite at the tip of Kai’s wing again. He was persistent, Zane would give him that much.

______

“Looks like there’s gonna be one heck of a storm tonight.” Cole murmured as he leaned against the railings of the ship, watching dark clouds move in from off the sea, cool winds wrapping around him as they blew by.

“You’re telling me.” Tempest huffed next to him, eyes on the sky, flashing with the lightning in the clouds before he gave his usual smile. “My kind of weather…” He hummed, the tip of his horned tail gently tapping the deck.

“I hope you aren’t planning on flying out in this kind of weather.” Tempest leaned his head back to look at the green eyed Nindroid as she narrowed said eyes at him. “I’ve grasped the extent of both of your capabilities and in a storm of that magnitude, you would only end up in trouble.” Pixal warned, giving him an unimpressed look once he laughed light and airily.

“Lighten up. I meant it was good for sleeping.” He told her, resting his elbow against the railing and his cheek in his palm as he grinned at her still, the grin- as with all his smiles and laughs- never quite reaching his eyes that were noticeably darker than Jay’s bright blues.

Cole huffed next to him, knowing he definitely meant for flying. But he wasn’t wrong. Storms like this are great when you’re all bundled up in bed and warm. He hopes the same applies for the napping twins in the make-shift nest of blankets and pillows in the middle of their room. They don’t seem particularly bothered by storms but you never really know…

“Cole! Tempest!” They both glanced at Lloyd who was calling them from the living- and eating quarters below the bridge. “Lunch is ready!” He told them and Cole pushed off the railing.

“Let’s go. Jay told me to keep an eye on you and make sure you don’t go eating anything raw.” He says to Tempest who looked genuinely amused for once.

“The threat of a whole day of screaming is more than enough to keep me in line.” Tempest hummed as he headed in, his stride a lot more elegant and graceful than Jay’s- much like the snake he half was.

That made Cole think. This Tempest seems a little different from the tempest of the First Realm. Maybe the whole becoming half serpentine changed him a bit…

“Cole.” He snapped his head up to see Lloyd looking at him with red eyes holding a hint of worry, Tempest too looking at him over his shoulder. “You coming?” He asked and Cole huffed as he walked over.

“Yeah. I was just thinking.” He says, ruffling Lloyd’s hair between his horns as he walked by.

“Hey! No-one messes up my hair!” Lloyd called after him, fussing to straighten his hair again.

“Tell that to literally everyone else.” Cole called back with a laugh as he took his seat and Lloyd huffed, totally not pouting as they too took their seats.

____

“Man, the rain’s really coming down.” Kai says as he gathered their used dishes, balancing a few on the flat tip of his tail as he did, looking out to where Lloyd and Tempest were seated by the sliding doors that were half opened, looking out as the rain pelted the ship.

“I don’t know about you but it makes me wanna take a nap.” Nya says around a yawn, leaning against Pixal who had joined them for conversation, not minding at all that she can’t actually eat like Zane can.

“Weather patterns show that it might keep raining until well into the night. Perhaps back until into the morning.” Zane says as he too looked out from his seat around the table too.

“Hopefully no dragon gets in trouble then. It’ll be a hassle moving around in weather like this.” Nya says as she got up to wash the dishes with Kai as it was their turn.

“Unlikely. The dragons like to hunker down for weather like this. Lightning dragons might be out but they’d be grounded instead since they don’t need to fly to gain a boost of energy from the electricity charged air.” Pixal explained, her studies on the dragons coming in handy.

It wasn’t every day that she got an opportunity like this after all.

“That’s good. I plan on having a nice long nap after this.” She says as she followed behind Kai as he carried the dishes to the sink.

“Dibs on the tv.” Lloyd says as he got up, heading towards said device and curling up on the couch.

“All yours.” Cole says as he got up with a stretch, his joints popping as he did.

He couldn’t stop himself from jolting at a sudden and deafening crash of thunder however.

“Holy f-” Zane cleared his throat. “... Fudge!” Cole breathed, a hand over his chest.

He shot Tempest a glare as he laughed at him- the effect lost when a bright flash of light came with an even louder boom of thunder, startling Cole again. Tempest’s laughter was cut short when a sharp, high cry sounded. Cole was moving before he could even comprehend it, his feet taking him down the stairs quickly. He grunted once Rux ran right into him, landing on his butt in the hallway below. He did hold the young dragon closely as he all but crawled into his chest, trembling in his arms, whimpering fearfully.

“Shh. It’s alright. I’ve got you. It’s just a storm, you’re alright.” Cole reassured, holding the young dragon close.

He glanced up once a whining chitter sounded, finding Nix there, not at all afraid but certainly looking worried and afraid for his brother.

“Don’t worry Nix. He’s alright.” Cole glanced back, noticing that everyone had also gathered, Jay walking by to take Nix in arms.

“Poor guy must have been frightened out of his sleep.” Kai says, stroking Rux’s head from where he was, leaned over Cole. “He’s been awake and asleep through storms before, no problem.” He says as he knelt next to the two.

“Those lightning strikes were rather close as well…” Zane murmured as he shifted his attention between the two dragonlings.

“It’s just a storm… It won’t hurt you…” Cole continued to murmur low, pulling out his large dark wings to wrap around Rux to make him feel safer.

“Maybe it’s best to bring them above deck where everyone else is.” Nya suggested and Pixal nodded her agreement.

“Alright. Sounds good. I’ll grab their blankets.” Kai says as he walked passed them to the end of the hall.

Cole moved to get up- when another deafening rumble of thunder went off and Rux gave a terrified cry.

“Cole! Rux!” Jay yelled and Cole looked down at the dragonling as his right side glowed amber.

Uh-oh.

Cole didn’t have a chance to even attempt to set Rux down before amber blinded him.

Rux gave a small yelp once he was suddenly dropped, whimpering as he got to all fours.

“Cole…” Zane whispered with wide eyes and Cole stood there, not needing to see what happened to him.

This feeling of being disconnected like this, feeling as if his body was turned off… He’s felt it before, had dealt with it for months before. Rux turned back time on him… And he turned it back to one of the worse times of his life.

_______________________________

_______________________________

(uwa! sorry for disappearing again! I was just distressing over the financial side effects of this pandemic has on my family is all. I hope you enjoy that lil art piece in apology! Let’s just pretend I added scales to all of his wings, tail and feet. Also his hands look normal on the ground but they’re rather thickly padded in the palm area. I'll keep doing my best with updates!! Thank you for reading!!!)

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

2019 in Retrospect

2019 has been fairly quiet, so I decided to start off this year by looking back on it. I’ll be dividing it by main fandoms/characters/ships because this year there were actually some new ones. That hasn’t been the case since, like, 2013. 

Sonic the Hedgehog

It was an...alright year for Sonic. TSR was fine but too light on content, Mario and Sonic Tokyo felt like a step down from Mario and Sonic Rio but was still alright, and I have not played SEGA Heroes (and haven’t bothered with the Chao in Space short). Lowest spot for me was the IDW comic; the Zombot arc has had one interesting story so far, but the rest has had either bad writing (primarily aimed at Shadow’s turn) or it’s just been wallowing in its bleakness in a way even Shadow the Game didn’t. Then again, I find zombie stories uninteresting to begin with, so no duh I’m not interested in a Sonic take on it. 

Chaotix kind of mirror that. Vector’s managed to get a good showing in, batting 3 for 3 on the game front, and having a key role in two of them. And like I said before, the Chaotix have genuinely had the most interesting stories within the Zombot arc, although with Vector and Charmy turned this may become more limited. Speaking of though, Espio and Charmy have had weaker presences. Espio managed to get into all three games in some form but to a lesser extent (one just by name), and Charmy was really left behind. 

As for Vecpio, it’s been pretty bare for canon material stuff. Espio got mentioned in TSR as contributing the report that reveals Dodon Pa’s true role (with him and Vector being the key to making everyone shut up about him being suspicious, proving they’re best as a team). And Mario and Sonic Tokyo has something if you headcanon some stuff; when Vector talks about the medals, Espio is the first person you’re directed to. Nothing is said by Vector about Espio in text, but you can implicate that Espio was chosen first because of his strong link to Vector, being the first one Vector would trust to compete at a gold level. Other than that? Dry. And with no announcements for Sonic games in 2020, this may just continue. 

Crash Bandicoot

On the reverse side, we have Crash Bandicoot having a really strong year. CTR:NF came out (which is a remake of my favourite Crash game) and has been doing gangbusters. On top of this, it has been going out of its way to revive pretty much every dead character in the franchise, to the point that we have RIlla Roo back in the fold (something I genuinely didn’t think would happen 19 years beforehand). 

Skipping straight to the shipping for this, I wouldn’t have imagined it for Crash ever, but there’s actually some in-game material for me to latch onto for DingodileXKomodo Joe! Dingodile has been pushed into a more jovial character since N-Sane Trilogy, being even more doubled down on in CTR:NF. However, for the past 20 years Komodo Joe has managed to avoid being given traits closer to Espio. This game finally catches up to him, and does it hard. Seriously, his character took a hard turn for the stoic badass Espio did after Heroes, and when did Joe ever use Martial Arts magic ever? Aside from making that dynamic naturally more matching, Slide Coliseum joins in the fun with the visual upgrade. It has holographic projections of a trophy girl repping a couple of racers dancing each, and guess who the devs felt could be paired up for how they go together rhythmically? That’s right, my reptile boys. Man. 

Super Mario Bros

What a weak year for Mario for me. What Mario got for new games this year were Luigi’s Mansion 3 (which I’ve not played), Mario Maker 2 (which isn’t new story content and doesn’t interest me in the slightest), Yoshi’s Crafted World (which I forgot was a thing) and Mario Kart Tour/Dr Mario World (which...um). 

Because of this set-up, Bowser hardly got anything to do so he’s really been on the backburner. Considering how he’s been pushed in the rest of the decade that’s saying something. In fact, the most character stuff he got was in Mario and Sonic Tokyo, and even that was mostly just alright (I think Bowser Jr got the best deal out of that).

Spyro the Dragon

Spyro was alright, but this one’s more understandable. With 2018 being the big year for Spyro’s return, 2019 was a rest for the little guy. That being said it wasn’t completely quiet; Spyro Reignited Trilogy finally got its port on the Switch, and to tie in with that Spyro got an appearance in CTR:NF. 

Because of the latter point, Gnasty Gnorc got a surprisingly strong year. Not only having more people learn about his glow-up in SRT, but bringing over that petty and angry character to CTR:NF. Seriously, his bit in the grand prix intro video is great, and he has more lines in his racing quips than any other game. 

OK KO

I don’t think I made a post about OK KO on Tumblr (or maybe I did one, I can’t remember). But I did manage to get into this just before it got cancelled so there’s that. 

I maintain that the Sonic crossover (aka the first thing I really knew about OK KO) didn’t give me a good impression of the show.It just seemed like “here’s the Sonic and Eggman dynamic but with more cartoon shenanigans*” and it spent more time making endless Sonic references. While some were deeper cuts which actually were impressive, most were references I could see in pretty much any Sonic-referencing material. It wasn’t until I decided to look up more info on Lord Boxman sometime after because I wanted to check if N.Gin was an influence that I found out the plot of the actual show (crossover notwithstanding) was pretty nuts and way more up my alley. 

Speaking of, there’s Voxman. Whereas other ships on here I have to dig through material to construct nuggets from them, this was literally in the text. And why not, they have a good dynamic and are usually the most fun to watch bounce off each other. And I still like the fact that if KO and Lord Boxman were the Sonic and Eggman parallel, the story ends with Eggman becoming Sonic’s stepfather. Let’s see IDW tell a story like that, it’d be better than the Zombot stuff. 

*I think that was the point but still. 

LEGO

Man I wouldn’t have thought they would have remade LEGO Racers but the one they made this year was gre--

Okay no, this year basically reignited another flame that I thought was snuffed out like 16 years ago. For a brief history of me and LEGO, when I was six I had a freestyle box which I used to make an elemental superhero persona. I played with this until I was 11. Before then, my sister got some LEGO Harry Potter sets (which we still have in the loft), I played LEGO Racers a lot (and wasn’t very good at it), and I owned two random other LEGO sets (the trike from Life on Mars and Lava from RoboRIders). 

After that, I only dabbled in LEGO when there was a Sonic set done for LEGO Dimensions. I did try to play more into it, but it was really prone to crashing in certain worlds so I eventually got frustrated enough to stop playing it. Sometime in the interim though my sister started enjoying LEGO films without me knowing, so when February came around I was dragged to see LEGO Movie 2 when all I wanted to see in 2019 was Toy Story 4. Dad insisted on it since we rarely have family outings. In retrospect; 

LEGO Movie 2 hit me in a way a piece of media hasn’t for years, or even decades. It’s shot up to be my third-favourite film of all time. And it’s revealed to me that LEGO is shockingly good at making endearing characters. So much so that breaking it down (pun not intended) has to be done by theme.

LEGO Movie: Part of the reason why I didn’t get into LEGO earlier was because I did see LEGO Movie back in 2014 when my sister was given it on DVD (she wasn’t into LEGO then) and I wasn’t impressed with it. In retrospect, I can appreciate what it did more, and I bring it up because it’s what makes Unikitty, Benny and Metalbeard so endearing when combined with what happened in TLM2. Lucy’s okay (moreso in the sequel), Emmet’s cute, President Business is fun but the MVP is definitely Rex Dangervest, who’s this feral monster but with Emmet buried away deep inside ready to flesh him out. When I make LEGO stories, I just have Rex change his mind on rescuing himself after getting the dinosaurs, and instead wreaking havoc in the present. This kills Emmet off in any story I do but it’s a worthy sacrifice. 

LEGO City Undercover: As a video game person I’m kicking myself for not getting into this before. Frank Honey is the best; he’s adorable and weird yet still feeling very much human and basically the Emmet of his city. Rex Fury has grown on me lots since my initial assessment of him,it’s infectious how much fun he has with being a criminal (while Vinnie is more fun when not doing criminal stuff and Chan seems to be more focused on doing criminal stuff as a job. I also think his calmer side is criminally (no pun intended again) overlooked). Also Ellie is underrated, she is the best straight man you could ask for. 

LEGO City Adventures: As I’ve said before, pretty much everyone in LCA is adorable, especially Duke and Harl. Still hoping for more Daisy time in the second season, she could be a riot if played properly and not just a Fendrich stooge. 

Ninjago: Coming in with the hot take here; I prefer the movie version of Ninjago to the series. I think the problem with the series is that it has so much baggage from before the series started to iron out some of its issues and cliches that it’s kinda hard to get into as a new person, whereas movie Ninjago is a lot more approachable and written better off the bat (although I do see why it wouldn’t go down well with existing Ninjago fans). This all just makes me think of that moment in series 11 where Nya sees her worst fear of being normal in an artefact and it shows her movie self, almost as a take that. It just makes me think the show writers are salty about movie Nya kicking show Nya’s ass in being a better character. Also shout outs to Kai, Cole, Zane and Lloyd for being great characters as well (Jay is cute in the movie, his show self can be punted off a cliff for all I care). And I am with the movement to have Cole come out as gay (or at least bi if they want to keep Tournament of Elements I guess). 

Nexo Knights: This show is regarded as another Ninjago wannabe, but it feels very different to Ninjago to me. So much so, there’s not a single one of the heroes I don’t like and they all need to be cherished. Macy gets props for being the best female character to me, Aaron is probably my favourite now and this is a house of Clance for future reference. 

So, with all that being said, what do I think of the prospects for 2020? I think it’s going to be quieter than 2019 to be honest, since there’s a lot winding down, and on the game side there’s been zero announcements. Crash and Spyro having a rest is understandable, Sonic’s going to have to get past the movie before gearing up for 2021 probably (for the record I have no interest in the movie) and Mario just needs to try harder. And with OK KO dead, only LCA is holding the fort for guaranteed new content I want to engage in right now. 

You know what would be fun though? Series 20 of the minifigures theme is due at the end of this year. Wouldn’t it be awesome to use the occasion to give some phsical minifigures to characters who never got them before? LIke, Rex Fury somehow still has enough demand to be a persistent feature in the customs market, give him an official figure (especially since he’s the only character from LCU that’s not Chase that’s even appeared in merch outside the game). Or let Sky Lane get her LEGO Universe look in physical form to go with her LIXS look. Or heck, finally give Rocket Racer his original look, that’s how I discovered the minifigure world in the first place!

[textsfromninjagoblog]

For @snowflakeshard : The Perfect Gift! Pt. 1

I hope you enjoy this Jaya fic I put together, I was your secret santa! (It has to be in two parts because I hit Tumblr's word limit!) @spacecocosaurus

~~~~~~~

Christmas was coming to the land of Ninjago. The air was scented of gingerbread and other delights as last minute shoppers flitted from store to store; each one on a personal treasure hunt for what would warm their loved one's hearts the most.

Among the crowd, no one was more determined than Jay Walker. The plan for his present seemed simple yet effective; to gather up some parts for a unique mech that he'd seen plans for on Nya's desk. She loves to invent just as much as he does, so he knew she'd be thrilled at the prospect of getting straight to the fun process of building without having to scavenge!

He'd spent the afternoon salvaging as much as he could from his parent's scrap yard, but the delicate sterling wiring needed for the power core would need to be purchased in mint condition.

"This won't be cheep," Jay thought as he made his way into Ninjago City's hardware store, "but the look on Nya's face will be more than worth it!"

But on his way to the wiring department, Jay was actually beginning to doubt just how amazing his idea really was. While Nya would really enjoy the gift, to Jay it felt too routine. Come to think of it, what if she already had the parts and stowed them away somewhere!?!?

"Gah!" Jay muttered to himself, "You've really screwed this one up! Now what am I supposed to do?"

His mind went into overdrive trying to come up with possible ideas. The gift had to be something special, something unique, not just any old thing!

"I could get her a charm for her bracelet!" He thought as paced the aisles, "But, she doesn't really like much jewelry wise... Oh! Maybe some perfume-no, she's deathly allergic to it..."

Jay hung his head.

"Most of the stores with the fancy things she deserves are probably closed now anyway," he mused, "why didn't I go shopping before it was Christmas Eve!?"

Reaching his wits end, Jay quickly realized he needed help if he was going to fix this situation. His mission was in honor of his beloved after all, so failure was definitely not an option! So, he took out his cellphone and dialed Zane.

"Hello Jay," the Nindroid answered, "How's your shopping coming along?"

"Terrible!" Jay responded, "Anyway, you'd say you're the sensitive guy of our group, right?"

"I'm not sure that I follow." Zane said.

"Never mind," Jay grumbled, "in short, I mega messed up and now I have zero clue what I'm going to get for Nya! Any advice for this totally hooped ninja?"

"Hmmm," Zane replied, "From what I understand, the perfect gift for someone you love is something unique and deeply personal. Ideally, it would be something that really only the two of you understand the significance of, which shows how strong your bond truly is."

"Well I know THAT," Jay retorted, "why do you think I'm freaking out so much!?"

"I understand, but it's not like I can choose it for you." Zane said, "Besides, me and P.I.X.A.L. need to get back to making these cookies. They've got to be perfect if you want Santa to forgive you and Kai for knocking him out last year!"

"Heh heh," Jay winced at the memory, "I forgot about that. See you later."

With that, the lightning master sighed and glanced at the strange assortment of parts he'd been carrying around for the better part of the day. He was just as clueless as before, and the Christmas carols playing through the store did not help his mood at all...

But suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Jay's mind! He knew exactly what to make for Nya now, he needed just a few last parts...!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jay returned to the Bounty with his cache of hastily collected equipment, a newfound smile gracing his lips. This gift would be his magnum opus, and he didn't care if it took all night to complete!

He dropped the supplies at a station in the ship's workshop, then went up to his own room to retrieve what would make this masterpiece truly endearing.

After riffling through some of his old papers, Jay found exactly what he'd been searching for: a Christmas poem he'd written for Nya, but had been too nervous to give her.

Re-reading it as he slowly walked back to the workshop, he was actually grateful that he didn't have the guts to give this sooner. He felt that the words now meant more than they did in the past; especially taking into account the swashbuckling adversary the two of them had faced!

In only an hour or so, he had most of the mechanical gift constructed, but now Jay had hit another snag in his plan.

He had no idea how to read or write music!

But fortunately, help was (unintentionally) on it's way...

"What are doing down here so late?" Cole asked from the doorway.

"I could ask you the same thing!" Jay said, flustered from being jarred out of his thoughts.

"I'm just making sure you aren't setting up that crazy thing that knocked out Santa again." Cole replied.

"First of all, it was a Grinch Trap ok?" Jay said, "second, I'm actually glad you're still up. I need some help with this gift I'm making."

Jay gestured for Cole to come closer and take a look at the in-progress gift. It was a small, round, little golden box with a winder on one side; a beautiful carving of Nya's phoenix symbol sticking up from the lid.

"You see," Jay explained, "I wanted to make a unique music box for Nya, using this poem I wrote as the base for the song. But, I'm not exactly musically inclined..."

"Let me see what we're working with." Cole said as he looked over the poem, "I guess you weren't kidding when you said you dabbled in poetry, this is really sweet."

"Thanks," Jay replied, "How hard is it going to be to make music from it?"

"Not hard at all!" Cole said with a grin, "Come on, let's get this wrapped up so you can get some rest."

And for another few hours, the brothers-in-arms worked together; carefully punching holes in the thin metal sheet so that the pitches and tones would chime in just the right way. They also took painstaking care and engraved the inside of the lid with the words of the poem!

Soon, the project was finally finished. Jay's heart was filled with jolts of joy as he tucked himself in for the night, excited to give his best work yet to his favorite person.

[spinning-ninjas]

Pokémon AU

Each of the Ninja only has one Pokémon (as of now). I’m not going to say the evolved forms of the Pokémon, mostly because I want to tell more story before I decide if they do evolve.

Cole and Rocky (Aerodactyl)

After Cole had left the dancing school his father left him at, he ventured and traveled the world on his own. He never wanted to be a dancer, he had always wanted to be a trainer that experienced the action of a Pokémon battle.  Cole found Old Amber while on one of his mountain climbing trips. He noticed something odd inside of it, and he brought it to a nearby town where scientists brought Aerodactyl back to life.  At first, Cole was terrified of it. It was very dragon-like in appearance, and Cole had heard numerous stories during his childhood of dragon Pokémon taking children who wandered out at night. But Cole soon learned that the Aerodactyl was really just a softy, and he decided to keep it. He named it Rocky.

Jay and Wisp (Shinx)

Jay met Wisp when it was just a tiny Shinx, and they practically grew up together. It was storming kind of bad, and lightning flashed in the sky violently. Jay was shaking underneath his covered, terrified of the loud noises. He was fairly young, just old enough to run around, but not old enough to properly battle with a Pokémon.  He would have stayed in his bed, had he not heard a Pokémon’s cry come from outside his trailer. He was extremely hesitant, but eventually worked up the courage to grab his father’s flashlight and venture outside. With the rain pouring down and the sky roaring, Jay made his way down the steps and turned to look under the trailer. There was a small Shinx, shivering and whimpering. It was trying it’s best to cover its face with its paws and was clearly terrified.  It took a while and a bit of food, but Jay convinced it to come out from under the trailer enough that he could hold it. He carefully brought it into the trailer, where he tucked it into his bed while he told his parents about it. They were slightly hesitant, but allowed the small Shinx to stay, where it became part of the family. 

Kai and Flame (Growlithe)

Kai inherited Flame from his father after his passing. Not the most endearing story, but it’s what helped the two bond.  Flame is about as stubborn, if not more so than Kai himself. When Kai first received Flame, it completely refused to listen to him. For nearly a full year, Kai struggled and struggled to get Flame to listen to him. It was the day before the anniversary of his father’s passing that Kai and Flame really connected.  Kai grew angry and frustrated, and he began to yell at Flame. He told the Pokémon that it was useless if it wouldn’t listen to its trainer, and told it that it would never be a strong Pokémon without his guidance. However, as Kai slowly burned himself out, he realized just how much alike they were. He sat next to Flame and explained that he was sorry, that he knew he was trying too hard. He just wanted his connection to Flame to work so badly that he didn’t even see what Flame wanted. Kai was very surprised to find that Flame slowly started listening to him and bonded with him after that night.

Lloyd and Ultra (Dratini)

Lloyd was only a baby when he got Ultra. After his father left him, his mother struggled to raise him on his own. She did try, but eventually, it was too much, and his mother gave him a Dratini and left him to his uncle Wu. Wu helped Lloyd understand the ways of battling and Lloyd’s bond with his Dratini grew while they trained side by side. 

Nya and Ripply (Froakie)

Nya received her rare female Froakie from her mother from her passing. Unlike her brother and his Pokémon, however, Nya and Ripply bonded right away. In fact, Nya trained alongside Ripply, punching water and running alongside her Pokémon. Through that, she and Ripply have formed a strong emotional and spiritual bond. 

Zane and Shard (Alola-Vulpix)

Zane doesn’t quite remember where he got his little Vulpix, or why it’s so close to him all the time. He remembers waking up in a snowy area in the middle of nowhere, but that’s about it. He doesn’t remember anything of his past, and he travels with Shard in order to find answers. 

[aweebwrites]

When You Leave...

Polyninja soulmate AU

________________

They say to have a soulmate was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because you have someone destined to love you forever. A curse because life is a fragile thing. This is the tale of how four of Ninjago's protectors discovered that.

As a child, Cole grew up unable to see the colours red and blue. A triad bond the people in his village would whisper when they thought he couldn't hear. Lucky, they would call him. He did think he was lucky. Very lucky. It was the knowledge that someday he'd meet two persons who would love him no matter what that had kept him going through his mother's death and the rift it tore between him and his father. That knowledge gave him purpose.

Jay couldn't see the colour red whatsoever and the moment he and his parents found that out, they were ecstatic. He had a soulmate! Him, the junkyard kid, the wannabe inventor, the motormouth. It gave him hope. Someone would love someone like him…

Zane had only noticed he couldn't see red and blue just a few times but he wasn't ignorant to what it meant. He had soulmates out there. Lifelong partners. He had only returned to meditating. They will cross paths when the time was right. Then maybe… He could have a true home with them.

Kai had always known he had a soulmate. Hearing it as often as he had growing up, how could he forget? No blue skies for him either. But he couldn't do anything about trying to find them. He had to take care of Nya and the shop since their parents up and vanished. All he could do was hope destiny brings them together.

And destiny did, through Sensei Wu. He had first taken Cole under his wing. While he was reluctant, with what being unable to go out into the world just in case his soulmates happened to pass by and all, but reasoned that it was best to stay in one place. He would be easier to find.

Zane was second and went with him without a fight. He was curious. What he didn't expect was to meet another soulmate he didn't knew he had. He walked through the monastery gates and was struck by just how black the hair of the male on the training course was. Was black always so… Bright?

Sensei Wu had called Cole's attention and Cole glanced up, his eyes falling on the newcomer- before squinting, the white of his clothes all but too much. Had white always been that eye popping?

“Could you stand out of the sun maybe? Your clothes are… Too bright.” Cole says, rubbing his eye as Wu rose a brow.

“Your hair is extremely dark. My eyes are having some difficulty adjusting.” Zane also commented, squinting a little.

Wu had stood there patiently, waiting for them to realise. Both of their eyes widened.

“You're-!”

“Are you-!” They both said at the same time, shock washing over them.

Three soulmates?! Zane had never heard of something like this before. How will so many of them cope?

“You are both pardoned for today.” Wu says, walking towards the building. “The test continues tomorrow.” He added, turning to face them before the paper doors slid shut before him.

Both chosen pupils had watched him before looking at each other.

“Hi. I'm, uh. I'm Cole.” He introduced himself unsurely.

“I'm Zane. It's a pleasure to meet you.” Zane says with a kind smile and- wow he was even prettier when he smiled.

Cole blushed at his train of thought, glancing away. Zane couldn't help but notice how much softer he looked with the pink hue in his cheeks.

“Are the colours blue and red missing from your vision as well?” Zane asked him and Cole blinked and nodded.

“Yeah. Didn't know white was until now to be honest.” Cole says, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I didn't know black was missing either. But I'm glad I found you.” Zane says with a soft smile and how could Cole not blush at that.

He smiled however. Sweet talker.

A few short days into their partnered training and they worked surprisingly- or unsurprisingly- well together. They still couldn't beat Wu's incredibly quick drinking time but they were getting close. Then a new person was lead into their world and the skies shone.

“Huh. Your clothes and hair are a little bright.” Jay had said, rubbing his eye as both males looked up at the sky, alarmed.

“Woah… It's… Beautiful…” Cole whispered, eyes wide.

Before, the sky was a big blur of gray with eye popping white cloud but now? Now it was… It was… Breathtaking.

“Is this… Blue?” Zane whispered and Jay looked at them confused before gasping loudly.

They were his soulmates?! He didn't know he would have three! He had to admit to himself that he had hoped for his soulmate to be female but he would take whatever he could get. Besides, he still hasn't seen red yet.

Just like before, Wu had allowed them the day connect, to learn as much as they could from each other. While they weren't girls, Jay found them both incredibly attractive which sent him in a gay panic. He resurfaced minutes later after seeing them interact like they did with each other and himself. What does it matter if it made him gay or not? They're his soulmates and they were already so kind and helpful and thoughtful that he could see himself falling for them all too easily. Together, they trained together, pointing out flaws and areas of improvement. Within no time, they finally manage to best Wu and his quick drinking.

Their last test was to apprehend an intruder. They were all so focused on defeating the stranger that they hadn't notice the difference in their vision. It was only after Wu had changed their gi did they all pause.

“Easy on the eyes pal.” Jay says, squinting at Kai who looked over all three of them confused.

“Wait. Your clothes.” Zane says, the colour bright and hurting his eyes a little.

“What colour is that?” Cole asked, leaning in closer but pulling back and rubbing his eyes.

“My colour?! What is he wearing?” Kai asked, gesturing to Jay then looked to then. “And you two. Your black and white look so strange…” He whispered before gasping.

“Wait- you're our fourth?” Jay says, bewildered.

“Sensei, was this planned?” Cole asked, suspicious.

“Not at all.” The Sensei immediately declined. “Though it seems fit that the four of you, destined to protect Ninjago should also be destined for each other.” He says and they all looked at each other.

Jay didn't get a girl as their fourth but ay this point, he didn't care. He realised pretty quickly that gender certainly didn't matter. Not when his soulmates were perfect as is. Cole may tease him for being a blabbermouth but that's all it is. Teasing. He would sit and listen to him for as long as he can talk. Zane too. Kai seemed a little rough around the edges but he's worried for his sister. Not to mention that it was a little endearing.

Cole had similar thoughts. Sure Kai was a little blunt and quick to jump right in but he was sure his edges would fit perfectly with theirs somehow. Zane was just happy to finally meet and be surrounded by all of his soulmates. The moment was cut short however. They had golden weapons to hunt for.

Kai was a handful to say the least. Jumping into things head on and giving his soulmates mini heart attacks at each turn. Boy were they glad when everything came to an end. They had the golden weapons, Garmadon was in the wind, they had their own pet dragons that adored the rest of them as much as they did their riders (they were suspicious that it had something to do with them all being soulmates) and Sensei Wu wasn't dead! Sure Zane, Cole and Jay almost touched fire and lava several times because it was 'so pretty’ but Kai stopped them with an exasperated yet fond expression every time.

Now that Nya was safe and there wasn't an immediate threat, they focused on their bond and each other, discovering a few things along the way. Like Cole being touch starved and wanting to keep physical contact with them as much as possible. They didn't mind at all- in fact, they encouraged it. Jay for one appreciated a random hug every now and again. He was like a big teddy bear after all. A big, muscular teddy bear but a teddy bear no less.

Zane was the mother hen of the group. He just wanted his soulmates happy and healthy after all. He spoils them with occasionally baked goodies and concoctions he makes to appeal to their individual tastes. Kai was still the hot head they came to know but slightly more laid back than then. He was the encourager of the group despite of that. Jay working on an invention that crashed and burned? (more literal than you think) He pats him on the shoulder and tell him to keep trying. Jay brings the energy to the group. He's always doing something or talking about something and he always has this big smile on his face that often had his soulmates pausing to aww at his constant excitement.

They were all so caught up in each other and pushing training back further and further, that soon, they completely stopped. Which proved to be a big mistake when Lloyd Garmadon arrived on scene. At first, he was nothing more than a little squirt making trouble but then he decided to get payback and release the serpentine. Everything took a dip then. Between finding the scroll about the green ninja, losing their home, Cole getting hypnotized, turning on Zane, finding out Zane was a Nindroid (they didn't mind but Zane sure did at first), Kai's downright obsession with the green ninja title, the Great Devourer, Sensei Wu with his self sacrificing bullsh- you get the drift.

When it was all over, the first thing Jay did was turn and kiss his closest soulmate. Which so happened to be Zane. They've never seen Zane go that red before and was worried for a moment that he was overheating or about to have a malfunction. Naturally, they all exchanged kisses and voiced their relief that they were all in one piece. Now they had a young green ninja to teach and nowhere to stay while Garmadon was out there with their golden weapons. What's the worst that could happen?

The Overlord, that's what. The weeks leading up to that catastrophe really tested all of them, especially Lloyd. They watched as he went from pipsqueak to Ninjago's golden savior and couldn't help but feel proud, even though he got all the fame and glory in the end. And hey! Non evil Garmadon! He was actually pretty cool and *cough* looked way younger than Wu *cough*. But the break was welcomed since they all had a lot of recovering to do.

They even managed a few dates! Four to be exact with each of them picking a revenue. Jay picked Mega Monster Amusement Park and they certainly had a lot of fun on the rides and fireworks show afterwards was very romantic. Kai nearly had a meltdown trying to pick somewhere they won't completely hate but Zane had reassured him that they would love wherever he picked, as long as they were together. Still didn't help him with finding an exact place but he decided 'screw it’ and had a dinner date at Chen's noodle house instead. He was sure Cole loved it at least.

Zane brought them to a restaurant as well. The very one he worked at formerly because he knew the service was good and the atmosphere too. He was just not made to be a full time chef it seems. They had a blast, awing at the way the food was cooked in front of them. Cole turned up the romance with a private picnic in a spot with a great view. All through they had to climb there, the effort was worth it. While they did miss being ninjas, being teachers wasn't half bad. They still had to retire early when the digital Overlord made his presence known.

He was after Lloyd and they would make sure he wouldn't succeed I'm getting him. Or, at least they would try. And fail. If it wasn't for Pythor, the Overlord would have been history. If it wasn't for him…

“We're free!” Jay yelled once they landed on their feet, the tendrils letting them go, turning green as they went limp.

“Zane!” Kai gasped and they all looked up to where their soulmate was holding onto the golden armor, his body glowing blue as he was being overloaded by its power.

“He's not letting go!” Lloyd yelled and Kai, Cole and Jay's hearts plummeted at that, horror filling them.

“His heart! It's reaching critical mass!” Jay yelled with a step forwards, wanting to do something- anything but he knew he couldn't- knew he could only watch.

“If his heart overloads, he'll blow! He won't survive!” Cole yelled, breathing picking up as panic overwhelmed him.

“Let go Zane!” Kai yelled out desperately, but Zane kept holding on. “What is he doing?!” He asked, voice taking on a hysterical edge.

“He's protecting us all.” Wu says solemnly as they all looked on helplessly.

“I am a Nindroid, and ninja never quit! Go, Ninja. Go!” Zane yelled and tears fell from the eyes of his soulmates as he blasted ice at the Overlord, feeling his heart continue to overload, gritting his teeth.

“No, Zane! No!” Jay yelled, running towards him but Wu held him back as large chunks of ice began to fall around them, stopping Cole once he rushed ahead too.

“We have to get out of here, now!” Wu yelled, pushing them both back.

“No! We aren't leaving Zane!” Kai yelled, barely missed by a huge chunk of ice.

“Think wisely Kai!” Wu snapped at him, startling the teary ninja. “Would you rather have two soulmates left… Or none?” He asked and Kai's eyes widened before he gritted his teeth and looked away, more tears falling from his eyes.

“We have to go.” Kai says, taking both of his soulmates by the hand, pulling them back as even more ice began to fall.

Kai glanced back to see Garmadon holding a manhole open for them. It broke his heart to leave Zane like this, to hear Jay's sobs, to see the pain in Cole's eyes but he had to keep them safe. Zane- he choked back a sob- Zane would want him to. He got in last, all three of them watching as they slowly lowered the cover, their soulmate's last moments. An agonized ‘no’ escaping them as it all reached a crescendo, his glowing so bright they had no choice but to fully close the lid as they looked away.

Zane smiled as he looked back on his life, at the friends he made along the way, at his soulmates he would be leaving behind. He remembered meeting them all, all the fun they had, the good times, the bad. He wished he had more time with them all, wish he had done more but he was glad he met them, glad he got to know them as much as he had. This was to make sure they could live on, even if it was without him. He lifted his head and smiled wider. And if it was for them, it was worth it.

Kai couldn't hold back the sob that escaped him once the explosion rocked the ground, icing over the manhole cover, knowing that it meant their Zane, their soulmate was… Cole pulled Jay into a tight hug as he shook violently with each sob, burying his own into his hair. Little below, the Sensei's shared a sorrowful look as Lloyd hung his head. They knew… This would change everything.

They emerged shortly after, finding everything in the nearby vicinity covered in ice, the Overlord… Nor Zane anywhere in sight. Cole was the one to find half his face panel and stared down at it in silence as a tear fell under the eye and sliding down as if it was… Zane's. He was in denial but the truth of the situation… He looked up at the sky, at the washed out and faded white of the clouds. The truth was undeniable. They've… He gripped the face panel tightly as his hands shook. They've lost him.

_______________

(Good morning! Did I cry writing this? Only twice. But it was worth it! I was listening to Numa Numa and this idea held me hostage and wouldn't let go until I wrote it! I hope you enjoyed! Later days!)

[aweebwrites]

Dark Paradise

((Thanks a million for beta-ing and being amazing @thelucariosfish!))

__________

"Looks like a storm is heading this way." Kai says, looking out from the deck of the Bounty, spotting the dark clouds heading their way. "Should we find a spot out of its way?" Kai asked, looking across at Nya.

"It's too big of a storm for that. We'd waste fuel. We should find somewhere on the ground to dock so we can ride through it." Nya says as she was watching lightning flash behind the clouds.

"Are you sure?" Lloyd spoke up and they looked at him from where he stood on Nya's other side, Cole beside him.

"Yeah. I mean… It was stormy when it happened. Maybe… We can go around the storm this once? For Jay's sake?" Cole asked quietly, and the siblings shared a look.

Nya sighs.

"Cole, it happened almost 5 months ago." Nya says quietly. "I know it has been tougher on him than us but… He has to get over it eventually. Sooner than later. Lingering on the past like this isn't healthy. Look what it's done to him. It's best he learns to move on. Starting with storms." She told them and they sighed, knowing she was right.

"Yeah… I miss the old Jay. The joker, dorky Jay that took screaming as a sport." Cole says, placing a hand on his jaw.

"The Jay that spoke." Lloyd whispered, then gripped the railing tighty.

"Hey. It wasn't your fault.," Kai says, cutting Lloyd off before he could blame himself. "You did everything you could. We all did." He whispered as Nya placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"If I was faster-"

"Lloyd." Cole says and the teary-eyed blond looked up at the taller ninja. "You did everything you could." He says gently, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

Lloyd sniffled but nodded, brushing his tears away.

"Come on. Let's go dock the ship." Kai says, walking back to the bridge, the others following him.

He did feel a little guilty for what was to come though.

'Sorry Jay. Zane would want you, want us to move on.'

____________

Thunder rumbled low from the outside, signaling the approaching storm. Jay watched it come from the cabin window, once bright, expressive blue eyes now dull and near lifeless. Out of all places, they chose to dock near the sea. Though he couldn't blame them for that. They didn't know about the morning before he lost it all…

"Zane…" Jay whispered with a grin as he slipped off of his own bed and walking across to look at the Nindroid who was asleep.

He smiled softly at him then grinned mischievously. He lifted the sheets up then climbed in, working his way further and further up. By the time his head popper up on the other side, he found amused sky blue eyes on him.

"Good morning, Jay." He says softly, wrapping his arms around his partner's waist and he grinned widely.

"Good morning…" He says, reaching up to prod at his cheek.

The Nindroid chuckled then pressed a soft kiss to the lightning ninja's lips, Jay immediately melting against him. He smiled against his boyfriend's lips. Mornings like this filled his heart with so much love for him and joy. It reminded him of his mission for the day.

"Let's go for a walk before everyone else wakes up." He whispered with a grin and Zane rose a curious brow but was intrigued enough.

"Alright." He agreed and Jay grinned widely.

The memory already had a ghost of a smile appearing on his face. That morning was the making of the best day of his life.

"It's lovely out." Zane comments as they walked along the beach together, hand in hand and Jay nods, a nervous smile on his face.

Oh boy. Could he really do this? What would he say?

"Are you alright?" Zane asked, tugging him to a stop, concern evident on the Nindroid's face.

"Y-yeah! Great! Why do you ask?! Are you fine?! ‘Cuz I am but if you aren't let me know and I'll-" Zane shut up his nervous rambling with a kiss, pulling back a moment after to look down at him with a warm smile.

"Forgive me. You're always so endearing when you're nervous. I couldn't help myself." Zane says and Jay flushed deeply, his freckles disappearing under the intense red of his cheeks. "Talk to me. What's on your mind?" He asked and Jay looked up at his boyfriend, at the softness of his eyes and smile.

He fell in love all over again. His love gave him the strength and courage he needed to finally start talking.

"Well, I had a speech all planned but I forgot it so here I go on the fly." He says with a shaky laugh and Zane's concerned look returned. "Ok. Before I lose confidence, I want you to know that this past year with you have been amazing. Sure it was a little rough at the start after the whole Overlord and Chen thing but it was worth it to get to right where we are, together." Jay told him, giving his titanium hand a squeeze as the Nindroid's worry turned to awe and affection.

"You see, I love you Zane. A whole lot. With my whole heart and everything I have." He says seriously as the Nindroid tried not to cry, even as clear liquid filled his eyes and Jay smiled, feeling his heart swell impossibly more.

It gave him even more courage to…

"In fact, I love you so much, I wanted to ask you…" He pulled out the circular gold, black and white pendant from his pocket as he slipped down to one knee. "Would you be my Yang?" He asked, presenting him with the Yin Yang pendant, a smile on his face as he watched Zane cover his face with both hands, the blue filling his face acting as a clear sign that his internal temperature has risen and his cooling systems have kicked in.

Man he loved him.

"Jay…" The lightning ninja perked up at his name, albeit a bit nervously.

Zane removed his hands looking down at his boyfriend with softly glowing blue cheeks as the lense cleaner his eyes produced ran over, falling down his cheeks. But despite it all, he looked so happy. It made Jay's heart throb, overflowing with love. He had never been certain about anything but this? Them? He was certain that he wouldn't let what they had slip through his fingers. He watched as Zane parted his lips… Then said yes.

Jay watched as the storm arrived with rain, each drop pelting against the ship like bullets. Zane had kissed him so hard, they were both breathless afterwards. They had never been so happy, wearing their respective pieces. Looking into Zane's eyes as he had then, he knew he wasn't the only one who kept falling in love all over again. They had headed back to tell the others the good news- except they had a mission to attend to. 

Jay slipped out of bed, walking out the door barefoot. He passed by the rest of the team as they all worked together to make a meal, not even batting an eye at them. He walked out on deck, the harsh, icy autumn rain immediately soaking him though. It's been a while since he's been outside. The others don't let him go on missions unless absolutely necessary. Which was fine. He didn't want to do anything. Not without Zane. Shivers traveled up and down his spine as his duller, curly hair flattened, weighed down by the water. Lightning lit up the space around him briefly, allowing him to see just an inch further into the thick fog of rain. He looked towards his left, hearing the sound of the sea over the rain still. Without much thought, he walked in its direction, hopping over the railing to get there. He grunts once he ended up landing on his feet but the impact from the fall had him falling backwards, his back slamming against the ship. His legs gave way and he sat there, trying to recover from his completely spontaneous jump.

He was too cold to feel the pain anyway. He sat there, staring into the fog of night, unflinching against a huge clap of thunder. He got up slowly then walked towards the water, the rain washing the sand off his clothes from the fall but splashed more onto his feet. As he walked aimlessly along the shore, the dreery, cold night flashed in and out, into the soft light of early morning then back to story night as a familiar laugh filled his ears. Jay's tears mixed with the rain as he smiled, Zane’s face haunting him sweetly. That day, he did nothing to help… He… Failed.

Their mission was to stop the Chaos Sisters. They were two women who used their smarts to hack into a few of Cyrus' security droids and steal them, all while creating weapons and tools of mass destruction, just for the satisfaction of the chaos it would bring. Knowing just that made Jay want to insist that Zane stay but he knew he wouldn't, knew he would fight with his all. So instead, Jay stuck close to his side, watching his back as Zane returned the favour. The Nindroids that worked for them were easy to take down. They've done worse. They even managed to pull out some witty quips. It was easy… But then it wasn't.

"Lloyd's found them! He needs- ugh! Backup!" Kai yelled as he took down the yellow-eyed Nindroids swarming him.

"Jay and I will back him up, you three handle the Nindroids!" Zane says as they both took off to the main area of their creepy mountain top base, the rain from the storm pelting them immediately, soaking them through.

They both rushed onto the scene to see Lloyd blocking and dodging the laser fire they were putting him under.

"Ninja go!" They both yelled, rushing over with their Spinjitzu to take them down.

Thunder rumbled over head. It was supposed to be that simple. Take them down, go home and celebrate being engaged. But it hadn't been like that.

Jay gave a soft sigh, his breath coming out as a dull fog between his pale blue lips.

He underestimated them, masters of robotics, next to Borg himself. It was a mistake he paid dearly for.

"No! Zane!" Jay yelled once his boyfriend was swept off his feet with a yell, robotic claws holding him up high overhead.

"Let me- go!" Zane yelled, struggling fruitlessly against the limbs holding him up.

"And where's the fun in that?!" The ravenette sister asked, grinning madly as she held a remote controller in hand.

"Unluckily for you, my sister has been dying to try out her latest invention." The formerly unconscious brunette sister says with a smirk, pushing her rain-slicked hair back from her place leaned against a dented piece of machinery.

Jay wasn't listening. His internal alarm bells were going off wildly, sending his heart pounding a mile a minute.

"Don't worry Zane!" Jay yelled out, charging electricity into his palms as he rushed over, ready to short-circuit the claws holding him prisoner.

"No!" He looked over at Lloyd as he yelled, and everything slowed down in those few seconds.

The blacknette was bringing her hand down to push the button as Lloyd rushed to where she was, her sister cackling from the ground. He brought his head back to where Zane was as he ran still, seeing the odd device behind him, pointed at him. He knew in that moment, it was over. That didn't stop him from trying however. He blasted his lightning at the claws desperately, his lightning traveling quickly to their source- but not fast enough.

She pushed the button and the device behind him glowed white. The last thing he saw was Zane's terrified expression before blinding white. He must have screamed since when he could finally see again, his throat felt raw. That wasn't all that felt raw. Coming to a stop and staring up at the space Zane was, he couldn't help but wonder if this was all a vivid dream. Before he could try to consider that he's been sent to another realm possibly, something blue caught his eye. He numbly walked forward, the closer he got, the more the numbness set in.

Because the closer he got, the more evident it became… That the flickering glowing blue object…

Was Zane's core.

Jay dropped to his knees, his legs too weak to hold him up anymore. He stared at it, as it struggled and flickered…

Before finally going dark.

He didn't know how long he knelt there, staring at the lifeless core of his boyfriend- of his fiancée -his tears mixing with the rain that drenched him. All he knew was that the others were there, could hear their distress as a distant buzz in his mind. He had shakily reached out, gently taking up the dead core and saw the cracks it now carried. It sunk in then and he shook as he sobs, dissolving further and further into hysteria. He hunched over, ignoring the comforting hands of his friends…

Then screamed up into the storm.

Jay looked up silently from his place standing still in the storm, the higher tide allowing the warmth of the sea to lick at his feet. The burn of the rain water in his eyes was a welcoming feeling.

After that, he never spoke again. What's the point? Without Zane… He clenched his pale fist as he gritted his teeth.

Without Zane…

What does anything matter?

He looked down, at the salty water pushing its way up on shore and dragging itself back.

The others, they try to help. They do. Their hearts are in the right place but… They don't understand. 

"It's time you moved on Jay.”

"This isn't healthy."

"Zane would want you to get better."

"You have to learn to let him go.

"He wouldn't want you to be this way."

"The past is the past, and the future is the future."

Jay knew Zane wouldn't want him to be this way. But he's also not here. He… Won't ever be. There's no second chance like with the Overlord. This time, he was gone for good. The knowledge keeps him awake more nights than not. They didn't seem to understand that he knows that and he accepts that but that won't make him stop loving Zane. He owns his heart and that will never change. Loving him forever can't be wrong. Even though he isn't here with him anymore, he refuses to move on. There's nothing to move onto. There's nothing else waiting for him.

Waiting… 

He looked ahead again, taking a step forward- only to collapse against the sand with a grunt of pain. He looked back at his throbbing ankle then noticed that it was turning purple as it remained swollen, most likely from the fall. The warm sea water lapping at him made him shiver but briefly.

Sometimes, he ponders the reason he's continuing on. Why bother? More days than not, continuing on didn't seem worth it. But then he'd think of Zane, of how sad he'd be if he'd done anything like that… His eyelids drooped heavily.

Move on. Let go.

He can't.

He doesn't want to.

 “Jay?!”

Right now, he just wants to sleep.

He heard multiple footsteps approaching as he drifted off, water lapping at the back of his head.

__________

"Jay."

Huh?

"Come on Jay. Open your eyes…"

That voice… It sounds so familiar…

"For me?"

He fluttered his eyes open, wincing against the bright light of the sky.

"So bright…" Jay groaned and Zane laughed lightly.

"It always is here." He says then helped him sit up.

Jay blinked at Zane as he sat there, smiling patiently at him. His eyes widened before he grasped Zane's cheeks with wide eyes, looking him over.

"Z-Zane?!" He sputtered and the Nindroid smiled.

"Yeah. It's me." He says, reaching up to rest his metallic hands over Jay's.

Tears filled Jay's eyes as he looked at him, looking exactly as he remembered: happy. The tears skipped down his cheeks as reality continued to settle into him.

"You're just a dream, aren't you? I'll wake up again and you'll be gone…" He whispered, voice wavering as he looked away.

"Oh Jay..." Zane whispered softly, reaching out to turn his face to him. "I'm no dream but I won't be there when you wake up." He says, brushing his tears away gently.

"I had asked for the chance to talk to you before you do." He continued softly, Jay sniffling but he was listening. "I would have never left you if I had a choice. I love you more than anything, remember?" He reminded him and Jay found himself nodding as he sat in the middle of the open field of green, golden flowers littered around them.

They've never been here before. This was… Different from his dreams. He could feel it.

"I love you too. More than anything." Jay whispered, shifting to his knees do he could press their foreheads together.

"Oh, I've missed you…" Zane choked out, cupping his cheeks still. "But I don't have much time." He sniffled, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Why not? Why can't I just stay here with you?" Jay asked softly, brushing his hand against his cheek, his heart warming for the first time in a very long time.

"Jay, you can't. As much as I want us to be us again, you can't." Zane looked up at Jay, wrapping his arms around his waist. "Ninjago needs you, Jay. Our friends do. Your parents do. You have so much more to live for." He whispered and Jay though back to his parents, he recalled visiting once in a while, but not much more.

He's been that out of it... 

"Jay. It may be awhile before we can be together again but that's alright. It'll be worth it. I'll wait for you. Even if you do move on to someone else, I'll-"

"Never." Jay immediately declined. "Never anyone else. I can do anything else but let you go." He declares and Zane smiled, more tears slipping past his cheeks, landing on his yang piece from their engagement.

"Alright," he nods then takes Jay’s hands. "But I need you to do something for me, Jay, before you go back for good." He requested and Jay frowned, even though he was nodding.

"Yeah, of course but can't I stay a little longer? I mean, it's been so long a-and I just got you back and I don't- I can't- I need you to stay! Just for a little while? Please? Zane, I-"

Zane pressing a kiss to his lips, cutting off his panicking rant. He wanted this to last a little longer too but he needed him to keep going...

To live.

__________

Jay jolted straight up, a cool taste on his lips and a cry of Zane's name on his tongue. He looked around, panting a bit before he slouched, gripping the covers over his lap tightly.

Zane…

The sheets darkened with each drop of his tears that rolled hotly down his pale face, his teeth gritted tightly. Again. Again he lost him. Again he was out of reach. It felt so real, touching him, his lips even felt the same as he remembered… It had to be. He lifted his head, realising something. Lloyd described a place to him once, a place from his dreams. He had no doubt it was the same place he was just at.

The Departed Realm. 

Zane was there. He was happy…

And he was waiting.

Even more tears rolled down Jay's cheeks as he recalled the whole scene, his brief moment with Zane opening his eyes… And reopening his heart. He gave a watery huff of amazement...

But he smiled.

Thank you Zane…

The door to the cabin opened and he looked across to see Cole walking in.

"Oh, you're awake! I knew I heard something." He says with a relieved smile. "We're sorry. We should have tried to get out of the storm's path. We just thought this would be a good time for you to start to move past things and-" Cole shut up realising that he was rambling.

"A-Anyways. How are you feeling?" He asked Jay, noticing his face was still as pale as when they found him in the storm.

He face palms, forgetting Jay was now mute.

"I-"

"Good." Cole did a double take at the quiet, underused voice. "Really good." Jay continues, a smile on his face, completely throwing Cole.

Was he delirious with sickness? Was he the one who was delirious? He hasn't seen Jay smile or even hear him speak since before Zane passed!

"O-oh. That's um… Great! Let me just… Get Sensei real quick." He says then all but dashed out.

Jay huffed then looked up at the roof.

"I'll miss you. That won't change. But I'll keep going for those who need me to… For me." He says softly then smiled. "Hey Zane. Whadoyah say we get married as soon as I get there? When Destiny decides it of course." He asked, fiddling with his half of his pendent around his neck he never took off.

Realms away, Zane smiled, stroking his own half as he looked down into the golden pond, seeing him, hearing him.

"I'd say…" He smiled wider.

"I do."

_____________

(My peeps these past couple days have been a doozy! I can't believe it's taking me this long to finish writing CI7. I'll freaking finish it, I swear so for now,,,, I heard it was angst week. :) Thanks for reading!)