#or pythor two

[kindaasrikal]

You know the funniest thing being a Morro fan before dr season 3 was when everyone’s opinions were coming out.

So many people would just keep noting that Morro can’t come back, because he died.

That guy was dead the second he appeared on screen and then proceeded to ‘die’ another two times from water and on the day of the departed.

And when he finally did come back in Dragons Rising season 3. He dies. Again. To a dragon.

Death does not stop this guy in any way from haunting the narrative and then forcefully putting himself directly into it again.

[andraw-oid]

Thought I’d hop on this trend as well

Look at me being a trendsetter 😌

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#ninango #ninjago #ninjagofanart #ninjagokai #ninjagocole #ninja #ninjagoart ninjagolloyd #ninjagozane #ninjagonya #ninjagojay #ninjagosixfanarts #sixfanarts #ninjagoultraviolet #ninjagoakita #ninjagonya #ninjagopythor #ninjagorogue

[unicornblossom13]

[Threatening the Villains]

Pythor: You wouldn’t be that cruel.

Jay: Relax, we could never be that cruel.

Cole: But Kai sure could.

Kai [walking in]: Well, well, well!

[jynxheartlake]

Regardless of if you view Pythor and Skales' relationship as bitter exes, romantic or strictly platonic or dislike, you have to admit Skales is *really* loyal to Pythor, right?

Like sure, Skales does bicker a lot with Pythor on screen during s1 and immediately "betrays" him the moment he has a chance to take charge, but, let's look over his actions during s1:

During ep4/5 Skales has just newly become general of his tribe and is likely enjoying the new powerful position. He's also now reunited with one of his friends and now making plans on how to take revenge on the humans. But then suddenly this one Anacondrai just shows up on their doorstep asking to come join him in this meeting to re-unite the serpentine tribes.

Logically Skales would decline, no? He's just gotten all this new power, he might already have plans of his own, and has said himself it's unlikely the serpentine will be willing to re-unite.

But then, he's there, at the meeting.

At the meeting Skales tells Pythor that words will be futile to convince the serpentine, he's seen it himself while trying to convince Slithraa. Thus Skales is more partial to taking action instead. Yet Pythor keeps it at words, and — like Skales had assumed — Pythor failed.

So, does he leave now? Does he think Pythor's plan is incompetent and book it? No. He stays.

Now, Pythor's new plan is to find the "Lost City of Ouroborous". Skales, being the biggest skeptic of anything mystic or ancient around, would think this plan is stupid. Right?

Yet Pythor somehow convinces him, and him alone to come along and dig up this lost city in the desert.

There Skales once again repeats how he thinks Pythor's plan is bullshit and how the serpentine have been at constant conflict yada yada, yet he doesn't leave.

Now, at this point you could still probably argue: "Maybe Skales sticks around him out of respect because Pythor's an Anacondrai?" Which, yeah, could be a possible explanation as part of the reason. However, there's something that debunks it being the *full* reason for Skales' descision.

You see, while Skales could respect Pythor because the Anacondrai were like great warriors. Pythor hasn't exactly shown he is like the other Anacondrai. He hasn't thrown hands ONCE, nor has he shown much competence in his plans. (Not to mention he would've had his ass handed to him if he didn't rig the fight in his favour). Yet when he asks Skales to help him rig this fight, Skales fully accepts. He does what Pythor tells him to and let's him win, let's him take power. In fact he PERKS UP at Pythor's promise of being his second-in-command.

Yes, the serpentine who just four episodes ago happily overthrew his former general to have power now is willing submitting to a serpentine with ideas that rival his, with very little physical competence shown and ideas that only have failed so far.

That has to be true loyalty RIGHT THERE.

That or the anacondrai dick is just that good

[taddymason]

one of the most wtf moments in Crystalized is Jay fucking Walker being the one who tries to give a peace speech before the final battle- like, no, he wouldn't say that

[razzle-zazzle]

actually, what has Cole's group been doing around ninjago? are they just checking up on areas like the dark island or also drifting around to wherever to see the sights.

Drifting, mostly.

It starts with Cole setting out to try and... he's not sure, really, just that he wanted some time away from the monastery. He runs into Pythor, who's tired of the whole villain thing but doesn't want to admit it, and they end up traveling together because, well, why not? Pythor's bored and Cole doesn't trust him (doesn't trust anyone), so they end up following the same path.

Morro shows up later. He's spent some time trying to acclimate to the modern world and being alive again, but when he and Cole cross paths he decides he also needs to stick around, because he's still not happy about being thrown into the Rift of Return without being asked if that was what he even WANTED, COLE! So now he's gotta come along and bug Cole as much as possible.

Echo, of course, comes along after they find him in the lighthouse, because what else is he going to do? Continue rotting away alone but for Tai-D? No way! He's got a whole world that Julien described that he wants to see! At this point, Cole's already started to come out of his "nobody likes me and I need to be ALONE" arc, and Echo's really just the final nail in the coffin for that. Not to mention, Echo's enthusiasm for the world and desire to protect those who cannot protect themselves is really kind of infectious.

Still, the group's not really all that close, right? They're just traveling together for convenience, surely. When Pythor suggests trying to see if Cole's status as an Elemental Master and Hero of Ninjago could get them some vacation time in the luxury of Shintaro, he's only looking to get himself that vacation time, of course. Why would anyone suggest otherwise? Him, Pythor, caring? Impossible! He ate the other Anacondrai, he opposed the ninja again and again! He couldn't possibly be thinking about how not immensely, sickeningly goody-two shoes Cole's been, or how about how Morro and Echo still have so much of life to experience. Not at all!

And if Morro's sticking around and teaching Echo how to fight, well, it's just because he has a soft spot for second bests! He's only sticking around Cole because Echo is, and because he still has that unfinished business with the Earth Master, and not at all because it's better than being alone. Not at all!

Echo's just happy to be here. He has no idea of the trials he is soon to face in Shintaro.

[ninjakitten1699]

if Acronix felt any guilt at the time, he buried it deep. Krux knew, and he tried to cover it up as best he could, and then he just acted indignant that his brother was facing consequences at all (not that he could site a reason beyond... "We should be able to do what we want", not the strongest argument there)

No idea if Python knew about any of this, Moreli hadn't spoken to him for years at this point, but it could've been a high profile case at the time, so, who knows

I would imagine this would be a high profile case cause well, it's the serpentine war, here's a serpentine man hooking up with a human, let alone a Elemental Master who everyone else thinks got tricked/hypnotized into it (presumably). Acronix turns on him (mostly out of fear of punishment and he didn't want Krux to lose him.) and Moreli is left to deal with the consequences himself while Acronix swept any feelings he had under the rug.

[eritehelf]

I did this a while ago, but here are my interpretations of all of the Serpentine Generals and some headcanons about each tribe :)

Fangpyre are the most warrior-like other than the Anacondrai, specializing in complex large-scale arrangements.

Venomari are the storytellers of the Serpentine, often valuing tradition over anything else. Whereas most other generals earned their position through battle or threats, Acidicus earned his position using wits and being actually helpful for the tribe...

While Pythor claims to have been a high ranking general of the Anacondrai, he was really just an outcast due to his unusual appearance. However, he was much more intelligent than the average Anacondrai and outsmarted all of them while they were trying to survive in the tomb. Even though he was the weakest in the tribe, he was the only one left standing because he used traps and manipulation to eat off the rest of his tribe.

Hypnobri are the strongest strategizers of the Serpentine. They often make for the best leaders, which is why in centuries past, Hypnobri were often king/queen of the Serpentine. This is also why Skales naturally becomes leader after Pythor and Garmadon even though Acidicus was the most experienced out of the remaining generals.

The Constrictai are extremely shy, which is why they were one of the last to join in the Serpentine war. Out of the tribes, their culture stands out the most because of how separate they are from the other tribes.

I headcanon Skales as the youngest of the serpentine generals and also the fruitiest

For Fangtom, I headcanon that his two heads have slightly different personalities, like one head is more sadistic and crazy while one is just a schemer. Also he and Skales were friends before Skales became general so I think Fangtom is as old as Skales, if not just a bit older. They bond over their gothic makeup esque scales.

Skalidor I based off a hognose snake. Headcanon for him is that the other generals assume he can't read but he is actually an avid enjoyer of poety and, more imprtantly, manga.

And finally, my personal favorite, Acidicus. I headcanon him to be the oldest and the only general to have actual respect from his tribe rather than just fear.

[overlordkisser]

her as an adult, she's like two pythor's long

[askthatoneanacondraikaiguy]

I have a quesiton, what was the first reaction of Pythor when he saw Kai turned into an anacondrai? (Love your draws btw)

(Thank you!)

His initial reaction is a bit of ironic delight

He finds it absolutely hilarious that this happened to Kai as well as Garmadon. Especially because he can tell how much it bothers Kai.

He's not as amused later when he realizes that actually there are two new anacondrai in the world. He calls Chen a "culturally insensitive noodle baron" so I imagine discovering that any part of his plan to essentially revive the Anacondrai species with magic survived (especially his daughter) annoys him.

Not like he can do anything about it though.

[mislamicpearl]

Pythor's WHEEZE kills me every single time

Plus two of my other favorite Pythor scenes of all time. Best Ninjago villain imo

[clockwork-krow]

I've been thinking a lot about Kai and Morro again, and specifically their parallels (dangerous thing, I know) and I just really wanted to ramble about what I've taken to calling the inferno of destiny parallel.

As a beginner ninja, both Morro and Kai dealt with arrogance, recklessness, and anger. We see this in how Morro took extremely dangerous risks to get Wu to save him, with how he assumed he was to be the green ninja when Wu told him he believed Morro was to wear green, and how Morro reacted when the weapons didn't react to him (ripping off the sliding door). We see this in how younger Kai jumps into situations without a genuine plan, how he gets angry and often (literally) explodes with fire when something frustrates him, and how he kind of defaults to the coolest person on the team/the hot one/the center of attention/etc when that's just really the immature persona he's thrown up to try and be the best.

Both Morro and Kai want to be the best at what they can do, and when they heard about a chance to be even better than their original concepts of the best (becoming the Green Ninja), both of them jumped at it.

Morro trained so hard he ended up hurting the kids he was training against and worrying Wu

Kai tried so hard to be the green ninja he ended up placing unnecessary strain on his relationships and even went so far as to risk letting people get hurt/die because he was prioritizing what he thought might get him closer to being the Green Ninja (a competitive line of thinking that Kai's been known to buy into in addition to his constant needs to try to be the best in the situation before he matures) (btw I'm talking about him originally trying to get the fang blade instead of. yknow. the CHILD about to burn lol.)

So, where do we see the shift from heroic to villanous in these two suspiciously similar characters? Well, it's when both of them are placed in an inferno scenario where they have to choose between pursuing their perceived destiny and their true destiny; hence, the inferno of destiny parallel.

Morro

When Morro searches so long to try and find a way to become the Legendary Green Ninja and rewrite destiny, he eventually finds himself in the Caves of Despair. We don't have the details of what happened, but we see the ninja try to escape Morro's fate in season 5 episode 7 titled "The Crooked Path". Here we see them encounter geysers that are releasing poisonous gases at an alarming rate, and they also spray boiling water/steam out in addition to rising the temperature to an unbearable level in the cave. It's reasonable to assume that Morro experienced a cave-in due to the caves' lack of structural integrity (also experienced by the ninja)* and then was killed either from burns from the hot steam and/or due to inhaling too much of the dangerous gasses.

The point of Morro's inferno: Morro couldn't accept the fact that he was not destined to be the Green Ninja, so he wasn't willing to turn away from his perceived destiny to save his own life. He wouldn't leave the cave because he couldn't let go of the fact that his perceived destiny wasn't his true destiny.

Kai

When Kai trains and practices to become the Green Ninja, making rash decisions (like jumping down for the Fang Blade again) and reckless choices that hurt his relationships (like barricading himself into a room to fight Garmadon for… literally no reason other than his desire to be the Green Ninja), he eventually finds himself in a similar inferno: The Fire Temple. An ancient temple constructed inside a volcano that once held the Sword of Fire, this is where the fourth and final Fang Blade is located and where the ninja must fight against Pythor and the other Serpentine generals for it. The volcano begins to erupt and collapse in on itself, and Kai ends up with a choice: save young Lloyd from his inevitable death in the erupting volcano, or try to reach the Fang Blade before it ends up in the hands of Pythor. This is the critical moment* for Kai, as he has to choose between his percieved destiny (becoming the Green Ninja and getting the Fang Blade) or his true destiny (protecting Lloyd in the hopes of saving both of their lives). In the end, he chooses to give up the thing he'd been working towards for most likely months now to try and be the best in the favor of saving a kid that used to be a massive pain in the ass (no offense, little Lloyd).

The point of Kai's inferno: Kai gave up his perceived destiny in the end, and only then was he able to unlock his True Potential in addition to being able to escape the Fire Temple safely with Lloyd and himself still alive. He was able to save himself and Lloyd because he gave up something that had felt like such a core part of his being, that he believed was his destiny, even though it turned out not to be.

He even says this himself to Sensei Wu: "I knew when I had to make a choice. I wanted the Fangblade so badly, to prove I was good enough to become the Green Ninja. But then I figured it out. All of my training to become the best ninja wasn't in preparation to become the Green Ninja. It was… to protect him." (s1e10, titled "The Green Ninja")

Kai and Morro both experience infernos that threaten their lives and rely on their ability to relinquish their percieved goals in favor of the objectively best choice in the moment. Morro was unable to give up what he truly believed was his destiny, and he ended up dead and sent to the Cursed Realm as a result. Kai was able to give up what he had been working towards for so long, and was able to save his life and Lloyd's life (especially entertaining when you remember that Kai had to give up trying to be the Green Ninja to… save the Green Ninja, lmao)

The critical moment I noted with a * for both Kai and Morro is that this point is the moment where each of them have to decide what's more important to them: what they believe is their destiny, or what would save their life. Morro tried to push through to his "destiny" and became too hurt or sick from the fumes to escape, and eventually died there. Kai gave up his "destiny" and just barely managed to escape with his life and Lloyd's.

So yes, I love the inferno of destiny parallel quite a bit! All three of these characters are very near and dear to my heart and they're rotating in my brain like a rotisserie chicken lmao

[chaotically--calm]

Various Ninjago headcanons (except it’s almost entirely side characters)

Ronin shot someone by accident in the dark once, ran and never found out who it was (it was Pythor. He still doesn’t know who shot him)

Dareth is a diehard Phantom of the Opera fan

Skylor learned how to play the piano and saxophone when she was young. She still plays both when she has time

Chamille listens to Siouxsie and the Banshees more than anything else

Tox is red/blue colourblind

Clouse reeks of onions. He doesn’t even touch them, and has no idea why he always smells like them

Ghoultar was the first ghost to talk to Morro in the Cursed Realm

Ronin never got a driver’s licence, and has hit several people with vehicles (Ex: Crystallized. The car he hit went flying)

Dareth also doesn’t have a driver’s licence, but he can drive

Soul Archer doesn’t remember much of their human life, only that they were really angry when they died (they were executed)

Some of the kabuki on Chen’s island were related/married to his followers, so many were there for family

Skylor’s mother was red haired, I refuse to accept she got that from Chen

Ronin’s wife and daughters live in Jamanakai village, and she’s mostly unaware of his crime, only that he’d been to prison. She’s planning on divorcing him since he’s never around

Ash is the cousin of Cinder’s mother. No one in their family knows why Cinder got the power of Smoke instead of someone closer to Ash

Elemental powers are passed on genetically until a bloodline is wiped out, which is when a power disappears for a generation or two, and then reappears once it finds a new, fitting bloodline

That being said, Euphrasia is very distantly related to Morro. She is unaware, he assumes she’s related since he spent a lot of time learning about elemental powers with Wu

Euphrasia learned she’s allergic to really commonplace things the hard way

Soul Archer, Bansha, and Ghoultar aren’t any of their real names. None of them remember their real names, and Morro’s would have changed if he wasn’t so fixated on his life

Cinder uses he/they, Jordana uses she/they, and Ras uses they/them.

Neuro fell down a flight of stairs like a cartoon character. Obscuria and Ash laughed at him for a good 5 minutes because he fell like this:

Obscuria is Shade post-transition. Everyone from the ToE knows and accepts her (canon is overrated.)

[astro-nomaly]

Hemlock Sugar Rush (Greenflower)

...listen I hyperfixated.

This takes place vaguely in the pocket of time Wu is missing in the time stream but that doesn't actually matter it's just an excuse for Lloyd to live alone. I was gonna include a Brad POV, but this is 7k, so fuck that noise.

@mother-spore-missa @highbookwormofthecentury @flirty-anon @ren-cerati (idk if you like greenflower but here's some greenflower lmao) @gre3n-bl0ssom

CW: stalking (Lloyd is into it), dark romance (actually romantic as Lloyd is into it), possessive and obsessive behavior, references to past non-consensual stalking, freak4freak behavior these two are batshit crazy. Oh and they make out at the end if that squicks you out. Not like graphic tho 🤷‍♀️

Content under the cut. I wrote this in a day and only spell-checked so don't expect poetry

Hemlock Sugar Rush

Lloyd Garmadon, the Green-sometimes-Golden Ninja whenever it's convenient, Chosen One, World Savior like five times over — no need to thank him — and grandson of technically God with a Capital G but it's chill don't even worry about it, has a stalker.

Out of context, this wouldn't even be that weird. See, Lloyd is a pretty big deal (as per the reasons listed above), and he's had multiple small-time stalkers over the years since becoming the Green-sometimes-Gold-but-usually-Green-for-simplicity's-sake Ninja. More than a few overly obsessive hero-worshipers, Pythor when the snake was skulking around trying to sap his powers, a really weird religious fanatic, the list goes on. He's not even the only one! Kai has his share of obsessive fangirls that haunt his Chirp like ghouls, Nya has a really weird public image, Cole and Jay have both been stalked online, and Zane deals with fanatics obsessed with the rise of artificial intelligence and robot uprisings on the regular.

When you're a hero ninja group that keeps saving the world, you tend to work up an audience. And sometimes that audience gets weird. Lloyd's learned to accept it. Kai has always been pissed about Lloyd's stalkers in particular, but he's protective over Lloyd when it comes to everything. They never go very far anyways, aside from Pythor but that slimy bastard doesn't count because he was an actual supervillain. Lloyd and the others always manage to either dissuade or arrest stalkers. It's not a pleasant ordeal, but it is a manageable one.

However, this stalking is not 'out of context'. This is a very unusual stalking.

For one, they're good. They're so good, in fact, that Lloyd can never trace anything back to them. Never a hair or lint out of place. So good, in fact, that for a while, Lloyd didn't even know they existed.

Best he can figure, his stalker has been around for a very long time. Other stalkers/obsessive fans/religious fanatics are usually pretty sloppy. They take pictures with their shutter sound on, they like and save every single social media post in rapid-fire succession, hell, some of them are bold enough to try sending DM's. They're easy to trace and easy to deal with.

But this stalker is really, really good. It's been a few months since Uncle Wu's disappearance into the time stream, a few months of Lloyd operating in Ninjago City alone save for Pixal's help in city surveillance and keeping an eye on the others. He'd moved deeper into the city to better keep an eye on criminal activity. Pixal had convinced (re: threatened) the mayor into paying for the over-the-top high-rise Lloyd lived in. Personally, even though he really shouldn't feel this way, Lloyd thinks a fancy penthouse is the least this city could give him after all these years.

It's been an adjustment, for sure. He isn't used to living on his own, even though Pixal invades his smart-fridge (he really doesn't know why his fridge has a built-in facetime function) on the daily to check in. But he likes it anyways. The independence is nice, even if he does get terribly lonely most days.

Well. He did, until his stalker slipped up.

Again — they're crazy good. From what he's figured out, they've been stalking him for potentially years at this point, and nobody ever noticed. It was a bit of a terrifying notion at first. Either they've gotten bold now that most of his family is split up around the world, or they've gotten obsessive to the point of foregoing their usual caution. Because someone doesn't evade the senses of six superhuman ninja without a healthy amount of caution.

The first sign was his window. It was a little creaky, and the apartment being so high, nobody had done maintenance on the exterior for a long time. It kind of annoyed him, but he didn't really care to fix it, especially not after long nights spent fighting crime. One day, after a particularly exhausting drug bust, he'd stumbled into his room and found his window wasn't creaking anymore. He'd shrugged it off and gone to bed, assuming Pixal had done it.

But a few days later, when he thought to ask, she denied any involvement with genuine confusion. It had irked him, but he'd ignored it. Maybe it had just stopped creaking on its own.

But then things got more and more suspicious.

His gi always had less bloodstains in the morning than he swore they had the night before. His candles never burned out. His bike never needed fuel. His fridge was always stocked with the good caffeinated tea, even though he didn't buy it and Pixal swore up and down that she didn't know he even liked that stuff.

At first, he could brush it off. He had misremembered the fight. He had fantastic candles. His bike used insanely efficient fuel, approved by Pixal, Zane, Jay, and Nya. Somebody else on the team was buying the tea for him online.

But things kept stacking up. Things he couldn't call coincidence, or luck, or chance. His plants were watered, their pots rotated so they faced the sun. That couldn't be Pix — she was never physically in the apartment. She took to possessing his TV and fridge instead, and her pixies stayed at the base to help her out with repairs and mechanical work. There were vegetables he didn't buy in his fridge, and his cabinets were more organized.

Whenever he received a genuine picture or gift from a fan on the street, it was shredded to hell the next morning.

It should freak him out. It should make him nervous, and paranoid, and running to his siblings for help. His stalkers have never been this bad before. They've never broken into his house and been close enough to clean his gi without him knowing.

Instead, he likes it.

That's weird, right? He's still just seventeen. He feels like an adult these days. Kai and the others used to say that he wasn't because he 'didn't have a real job' but neither did they, and being the Ninja counted as a real job now that the mayor was actually paying them for it. He didn't pay bills either, but that was because he had a fifth-grade education and never learned algebra. Still, he's seventeen, which makes him technically a minor. For all he knows, this is some sick freak of a pedophile, or another religious fanatic that knows way too much about his heritage.

But he's still excited. Ignoring all the reasons that's a horrible thing to feel about a stalker that can break into his penthouse without Pixal noticing, this person makes him feel exhilarated. Because lately, they've been leaving clues.

Little things. Things you'd have to be a ninja to pick out. Footprints in the grass next to his bike. Flower petals scattered a little too far from their pots to have fallen there naturally. Once, even the smudge of a fingerprint against the counter.

Once, a sticky note.

It was taped to his nightstand. He'd woken up that morning, none the wiser to the person who'd apparently been inside his room while he slept, and found a little green sticky note with cutesy heart doodles and flowers drawn in glittery gel pen. He'd felt real, genuine fear for a tense few minutes, struggling to breathe past the panic of somebody skulking around his room in the dead of night. But once he'd calmed down, he felt excitement replace the anxiety. Someone had broken into his room — and they'd left him doodles.

He'd placed the note back where he found it and continued his day like it never happened. A few mornings later, another sticky note came. This one had a more detailed drawing. Lloyd had hesitated, his total of three brain cells yelling at him to stop being stupid, before he'd left his own little note on the picture in thin pen strokes: what's this flower called?

He didn't get a written response — he never did. But the next morning, he woke up to a printed article about Morning Glories. He'd done a little digging online, and found that they apparently symbolized infatuation. That alone should've made him panic. Instead, he'd sat in his chair, staring at the screen, and blushed like an idiot.

So… he'd sent something back. His own little sticky note with a crude, traced doodle of a Queen of the Night desert flower.

His stalker had been overjoyed, if the twenty (yes, literally, he'd counted) little notes filled to the brim with hearts and doodles and Morning Glories wrapped around Queen of the Nights were anything to go by. And again, like an idiot, he'd blushed and resisted the urge to giggle when he woke up to them all scattered across his room.

Look. Here's the thing — Lloyd had never been a very independent person. As a kid, he'd felt completely isolated in Darkley's. When he was kicked out, he latched onto the first 'friends' he could find, and they turned out to be rotten assholes. Then he had the ninja to latch onto, and the first time he was separated from them it was because he'd been kidnapped and held in a cage in the middle of the damn desert, then almost died in a volcano. He's grown up since then, but the experience made him pretty clingy to his siblings. This was the first time in years that he's been truly independent of them. Being so attached to his siblings, and between all the world-saving, he's never exactly found any room for external relationships. Sure, he kept kind-of in contact with Skylor, but she was Kai's girlfriend. Didn't really count. Lloyd didn't have anybody who he could call his.

But now, there was someone he had all to himself. The adrenaline rush was like a sugar high. Maybe that's why he keeps it secret from Pix — selfishly, stupidly, he wants to hoard this person that draws him flowers and hearts on sticky notes.

So he does. Pixal checks in often, but not often enough to notice. Lloyd tells her all is well, he's getting on fine, criminal activity is manageable. At night, he researches a new flower to trace for his secret stalker, and leaves the sticky note by his bed.

He could leave it literally anywhere else. Pixal respects his privacy enough to not enable security cameras — which Lloyd really should do, but somehow that feels like cheating, and he has a feeling his stalker would get around them anyway — so he could leave the notes anywhere in his apartment and the stalker would find them. Why he encourages them to tiptoe around his room, he has no idea. He doesn't stay up for them, or set up cameras or tripwires or alarms. He lets them come. For some insane reason, he trusts this person not to kill him in his sleep.

One day, he thinks to ask a few questions. So he prints out a nice little photo of Borage — bluntness and directness — and asks, what's your name?

He sets it carefully on his vanity — listen, he needs some form of self-care and Pixal says he needs to do something other than play video games in his limited free time — and goes to sleep with adrenaline in his stomach.

He wakes up to a miniature sea of notes taped to his mirror. Incomplete lines go over every tiny square, completely incomprehensible. So Lloyd makes himself toast — he has the good bread, which he doesn't remember buying — and sets to work decoding. Eventually, he figures out it's a puzzle. Rearranged, the notes form a large flower. He scans the pile for some kind of clue as to what flower it is, and finds the answer on the back of his own note from the night before. In deep, blood-red ink, are the words red Camellia.

He's embarrassed to admit he rushed to his computer for the answer. Almanac, Red Camellia: "You’re a flame in my heart". A hot blush had eclipsed his face that morning, followed by a rabbit hole of searches that include, but are not limited to:

What to do if my stalker is in love with me

Does red camellia mean they're in love with you

What to do if I'm in love with my stalker

How to know you're in love

Is consensual stalking a thing

…it was a weird morning.

They continue to play this dangerous game. Lloyd knows it's dangerous — how many times had he been told, as an oblivious kid, that feeding into this kind of stuff would only make the delusions and obsessions worse? He's knows it's incredibly dangerous. This person knows he's the Green Ninja — his identity isn't exactly a secret — and they seem to know literally everything else about him. They could hurt him with that knowledge.

But that's just the thing: they don't.

This person does seem to know absolutely everything about him, and it's so enticing. They know what brand of tea he likes. They know he sleeps in socks, because he needs to be as warm as possible while cocooned in his nest-like bed, and his socks are always miraculously warm when he gets home. They know he likes to play DVDs over streaming, and they're always tidy and unscratched.

So he doesn't do anything. He encourages it, even. Because there is something so close to a sugar rush about this dangerous game.

And Lloyd has always had an insatiable sweet tooth. His stalker knows it, too, because he begins waking up to chocolate chip pancakes. It's an excellent way to start the day, next to a fresh vase of white clovers — think of me.

They know so much about him that they only get him female flowers, because they know his overly sensitive nose can't handle pollen. They also know exactly what kind of allergy meds actually work on his insane metabolism.

He adores it. There is someone in the world who knows him so deeply they pay attention to the gender of the flowers they buy. Before this started, Lloyd didn't even know flowers had genders.

Maybe it's his weird, fucked up childhood that's made him find this behavior, which is genuinely atrocious in every sense of the word, endearing and exciting. He can't help it. The secrets he hides from Pix, the way he dodges questions during video calls with the others, the back-and-forth of messages and flowers… it's sweet. The adrenaline is like molten sugar and honeyed pixie sticks. It's caramel nougats and tart truffles. Soon, it's Fennel (flattery) and Fern (magic, fascination, secret bonds of love) and Gardenias (you’re lovely, secret love).

It's utterly intoxicating. Lloyd soon decides that, among the Ferns and Gardenias and Fennel that his admirer leaves him, he needs to start leaving gifts. In a frenzy, he abandons his usual routine of Saturday mornings — going to the park and breathing in fresh, non-acrid crime air and enticing ducks to jump in his hands, just because he can — and stays home to research 'candy language'.

…it doesn't go well. Apparently, 'candy language' means 'how to say chocolate in Sanskrit'. Which. Not exactly helpful to his weird stalker obsession. So instead, he goes out of his way to find those corny little candy hearts that have equally corny sayings on them like 'be mine' and 'only you'. He knows he's caught his stalker's attention by breaking routine, because they know every second of it by now, he's sure of it.

He doesn't think the candies are very good, but he leaves them next to the sticky note on his dresser anyways, with a little Morning Glory doodled on the paper. It's crude and he doubts anyone could identify the drawing as said flower, but he trusts in his scarily intelligent stalker to piece it together.

And so they do. The next morning, there is a brand new gift: a book. Lloyd, curious, opens to the first page. There is a flattened red Salvia — forever mine — between the pages and delicate words scrawled in gold ink. For you to read on Friday.

Their handwriting is the same as the only other note they ever wrote actual words on, the Camellia, but what really makes his heart pound is the 'Friday'. On Friday evenings, he stays up late to read because on Saturdays, he sleeps in before going to the park.

Nya once told him something she'd read somewhere: 'to be loved is to be seen'. She said that's how Jay made her feel — seen. Was this it? To be seen, as he was?

What does it matter if he's seen through his window, or the lens of a hidden camera?

He sets the book down, reverently, and leaves it there until he stumbles back home after another night of fighting crime with Pixal's assistance. He slips on fuzzy socks that are always warm, and drinks tea that he didn't buy, and doesn't bother going to the AC to change the temperature because he knows it's already set to perfect. He plops into bed, and opens the book.

It's delicious. Page after page is filled with fiction he never thought he'd be interested in. Stories about flowers that carve into your ribcages and sit there for eternity until you cough up thorns. Vines that hold you down until they can kiss you. Deadly nightshade and belladonna that turns your skin black and blue with bruised touches.

The best part is, as always, the flowers. After the third flower name he finds scrawled in the corner, he digs up his laptop and spends the night decoding. Yellow roses — jealousy — tell Lloyd that his stalker is jealous of the characters who confess to each other. Heliotrope — eternal love and devotion — tell him that his admirer thinks the character is pathetic compared to what they could do for Lloyd.

It's inane and absurd for Lloyd to think he can read the mind of who is probably a dangerous sociopath, but he doesn't care. There is someone in the world who has chased after him for possibly years, who knows him better than anybody, it seems, and who is eternally, deeply, helplessly in love with him.

He can't bear it much longer. It dawns on him how unfair their situation is. His stalker knows him inside and out, but all Lloyd can glean is gleaned from flowers pressed between book pages and gifted in glass vases. All his information is born from an almanac.

He grows them, this time. In between exchanging truffles and nougats and mints for Lady's Slippers — capricious beauty — and blue Salvias — I think of you — he grows flowers of his own. He has bought many plants from stores that he keeps on windows and shelves to make his home lighter and fuller in the absence of his siblings, and his stalker takes better care of them than he did. But this is a secret of his own.

He doesn't know if he can hide it from them, but he tries. First, he does his damnedest to find every single sign of surveillance. He puts tape on his computer cameras, peers into every corner, hell he checks the legs of his couch. He finds a few microscopic cameras, which should really freak him out but don't, and leaves them where they are.

He doesn't need to remove the cameras. He just needs to know how to find them.

His stalker knows he's up to something. They send him botanical horrors strife with mystery, and Columbines that mean curiosity in the most devoted sense. He sends them cherry-filled chocolate and a candy heart that says XOXO.

He finds his blind spot. He hopes they trust him enough not to fill it. He grows his own flower in between botanical horrors and crime fighting and sporadic bouquets that put every simple lily and petunia to shame.

Pixal notices his sporadic behavior. She asks him what's happened. He smiles and says that he's made a new friend, is all, and she tells him she's happy. Pixal is easy like that. They've gotten closer over these months that the other Ninja have been gone, but she doesn't feel the need to push into every facet of his life.

Why does he like it when his stalker does?

Maybe because they already know. He knows by now that they've had to have been following him for years now. There's something sweetly exhilarating about that — being trailed by an obsessive flower without ever noticing. Are they nightshade? Belladonna? Foxglove, Lily of the Valley?

He wants to know how sweet those flowers are. Will they taste like honey on his tongue, or pixie stix? Pocky, or sour patches?

There is someone who knows him inside and out, and he wants desperately to meet them. To hear from their own lips what they think of him.

He writes this on a sticky note, next to a heart that says 'don't be shy, be my valentine', which is horrendously cheesy and not half as elegant as his stalker's beautiful flower language. 'Who are you? Why do you love me?'

They send back a bouquet. It sits in a glimmering emerald green vase with gold rim, bursting with color. Daffodils for generosity, Gladiolus for heroism, Orchids and Irises for beauty, and Panda Lilies for loyalty, devotion, and secret love.

They send no sign of who they are. But the confession is enough to make his heart race, his cheeks flame, and his skin crawl with hot fireflies.

He must be really, really messed up to like being stalked and having his house broken into. This person is cooking him food, and he just eats it! They could do anything they wanted to him. He doesn't care. Because they both know.

Lloyd could end this as easily as they could. Lloyd could power up his ethereal element and wipe them from the face of the planet as easily as they could slip foxglove into his oatmeal. Lloyd could have twenty high-tech lasers pointed at them before they stepped foot inside as easily as they could slit his throat.

It's a game. A game of passing notes like high schoolers, and of Lloyd changing the passcode to his front door every week, and delving into the hidden messages in between forest rot and poison love. In between growing secret flowers.

Finally, finally, after three months of the exhilarating back and forth, something happens.

It was a long night. Some gun-trading organization had set themselves up big, and Pix was busy on the other side of town with a shitshow of a monorail wreck, so Lloyd went in alone. He wasn't shot, but he was kicked around.

He leans his forehead against the cool metal of the elevator as it hums, dutifully raising him to his apartment. At least at the end of the day he has a penthouse with a personal gym to go home to. Perks of saving the world five times over.

He stumbles across the short carpeted hall, probably dripping blood from a still-broken nose, and rocks against his door. He fumbles with the passcode, but the door is already slightly ajar. Nerves buzz in his head. That's not right. He locked it, he was sure of it.

He breathes out slowly, silently, through his mouth. He doesn't bother pulling his mask up — his nose protests the idea, and whoever's in here must know whose apartment they're inside. He silently prays that he really did just leave the door open, but he knows he didn't.

He slips inside, perfectly silent, exactly as his uncle and father trained him. The lights are off. He inhales through his nose, as deeply as he can without aggravating it too much. His apartment smelled normal… no. More flowery. Like the plants he stuffed into every available corner had grown in intensity. His pointed ears flicked. There was a grinding noise, coming from the kitchen. A garbage disposal?

He slinks down the hall, quiet as a cat. The disposal grows louder.

There is a person in his kitchen. Lloyd holds his breath, watching them with green eyes like crescent moon slits in the dark. Their silhouette is dark and featureless, but they appear incensed. They're violently shoving something down the garbage disposal, swearing to themself. They're a few inches taller than Lloyd is, not very thin but not very bulky. Muscle built from regular exercise like jogging and physical labor. Not a gym rat, but no slouch. From the way they hold themself, they don't seem like they'd be good in a fight. Their center of gravity is off, and their twitchiness isn't a good sign.

Lloyd sniffs the air. More of that scent. It's achingly familiar. The stranger's swears grow minutely louder, and he makes out "I'll hunt them down and shove hemlock down their eye sockets" before he intervenes.

"What are you doing in my kitchen?"

They freeze. Lloyd holds a glimmering sphere of pulsing green energy, his element more than willing to burst. The eerie green light scatters through the room, illuminating the contours of the intruder's face. A boy with tan brown skin, an angular face, and soft brown hair. It's not shoulder-length like Lloyd's, just long enough to curl around the nape of his neck.

His eyes widen. Those are brown too, a honey color like toffee. The intruder rips out what he was shoving down the garbage disposal — a bouquet of roses.

"Fuck," he whispered. His voice wasn't very deep, wasn't very light. It was low from his whisper, carrying more weight than to be expected of such soft sounds. "I almost forgot how quiet you are."

Lloyd steps forward, jaw set. "Who are you? Why are you in my apartment?"

The stranger's jaw ticks irritably. They hold up the tattered bouquet. "Really, Lloyd?" He whispers. It startles Lloyd to be referred to by his first name. The intruder's eyes grow manic, filled with rage. "I don't mind the gifts. Really, I don't! A charm bracelet, a beaded necklace, stick figures and macaroni art — it's adorable, seriously. How much your fans love you." Fans? Lloyd's face begins to flush on reflex. The intruder's lips quirk, but his eyes don't lose their manic sheen. "You deserve the recognition, the fame, the accolades. You deserve it all and more. I love how much you love their gifts. But this?!" They shake the roses. Broken petals flutter to the floor. "ROSES?! A Sunflower, a Carnation, hell, even Ivy! But red ROSES?!"

He's begun stalking toward Lloyd, blood red petals trailing in his furious wake. Lloyd finds himself backing up. "You accepted roses," the intruder spits, "from a stranger! Roses! How could you?!"

He's betrayed, Lloyd realizes. Betrayed by Lloyd's actions. This afternoon, before heading out for the night again, Lloyd had happened upon a fan. A girl around his age who had shyly given him one, before rushing off stammering and blushing. He hadn't kept the roses out of some kind of requited love.

And now, he's pissed off his stalker.

Lloyd bares his teeth, thin fangs glinting from the ball of green light glistening around his fingertips. "Back up, man," he threatens.

He doesn't. Faster than Lloyd can blinks, he whips out a thick white cloth from his pocket and lunges forward. Lloyd dodges to the side, but his assailant just smirks when he does. Before he has time to question it, vines are erupting around his feet and entangling his legs. He stumbles, and the intruder takes the chance to press the cloth against his mouth and nose. He reflexively sucks in a breath, and then he's gone.

He wakes slowly. The lights are on — the warm lamps, not the overhead fluorescent fixtures. The room smells of his abundance of flowers — no roses — and food. He groans, shaking his head as he sits further up.

He's propped up against the arm rest of his couch, a pillow pushed snugly behind him and a blanket he didn't own yesterday over his legs. He notices that his hands and forearms are bound together with soft ribbons of felt and silk. His mouth isn't gagged.

"You're awake," a soft voice says behind him. He turns to find the intruder with wide honey eyes filled to the brim with devotion and excitement. Similar excitement curls in his stomach.

He's been knocked out and tied up, and he wants to- what? Make out with the guy who did it?

"I knew you would be," his stalker babbles reverently, wrapping around the back of the couch to set a plate on the coffee table. "I had to up the dosage for your metabolism, but I made sure it was exactly right. I know exactly how much you can take. And I patched you up. I'll kill whoever did that to you." He's leaned in, now, breath hot and soft against Lloyd's face. He blinks. Turns to the plate.

"Is… that food?"

His stalker nods excitedly. "Yes! I know you've had a poor night. And I hate that you keep eating cup noodles for dinner — they make you lethargic. Here," he offers a forkful of pork chop to Lloyd, right up to his lips. Lloyd raises a brow.

"You're… going to feed me?"

"Yes."

"Why should I trust anything you cook?" Lloyd asks skeptically. It's a test. His stalker's eyes glint dangerously. Lloyd is quickly finding that he likes that dangerous look. After so many years of being a ninja, he's attracted to danger like a magnet to the north pole.

"If I wanted to kill you," his stalker whispers, leaning in, "I'd use Hemlock in your hibiscus tea. I'd put Nightshade in your toffee. I'd melt down Oleander and turn it into candle wax, and I'd put Aconitum in your air purifier." He lifts the fork again with a smile. The insane sheen in his eyes hasn't disappeared. "Please don't think I'd insult you like that."

Lloyd opens his mouth and accepts the food. He hums, swallowing. "It's good," he murmurs. His stalker's eyes light up in excitement, pride glowing in every feature.

"I know," they whisper frantically, "I used your favorite seasonings. I know everything about you, darling." Lloyd's heart skips a beat. Darling. So hopelessly romantic.

What's romantic about drugging and tying him up? About watching him through windows and hidden cameras? Everything, Lloyd thinks dreamily, drinking in every feature of the boy in front of him. He has a birth mark under his right eye. A small, faded scar on his cheekbone.

"Mm," Lloyd hums, letting the stalker feed him another bite. "I don't think I've told you how much I like your cooking before."

His eyes shine again, a proud grin overtaking his features. "I know you do," he speaks. He says everything quickly, like he can't wait to get the words out. "I know what your favorite dessert is, your favorite pasta and bread and tea- here," he presents Lloyd with a glass cup of hibiscus tea and straw. "For you."

He takes a sip. It's perfect. "Honey?"

"A drizzle," his stalker whispers reverently, "Just how you like it. I even know your coffee order, Lloyd. Your real one, not the one you let the barista keep mixing up. Want me to kill her for you? No, of course not, you're more noble than that." The stalker sighs dreamily, leaning in even closer. Lloyd couldn't avoid his eyes if he tried. "I love that about you, Azalea."

Lloyd's heart sings. He licks his lips, and doesn't miss how his stalker stares. "Azalea?"

"The mind-altering honey," his stalker responds. "Perfect. One of a kind. Wrong color, though I've been working on that."

"You breed plants?"

"You noticed!" His stalker exclaims, laughing. "Of course you did! You're so much smarter than anyone knows. That's how I knew you'd know, you know. About me. You figured it all out so fast. You're like a drug."

Lloyd knows what he means. This entire interaction has him feeling high as a sugar rush, liquid honey in his veins and starbursts in his eyes. He breathes in shakily. Not because he's scared, even though he should be screaming for Pixal by now. He's alight with nerves, prickling his skin with goosebumps.

"This wasn't how I had our first meeting planned," his stalker says quietly. "I was going to be more romantic. A meet-cute."

"Meet-cute?" Lloyd breathes, exhilarated.

"Yeah. I know you like the romance-y tropes," his stalker says, completely genuine. He's right. A little part of Lloyd, kept tucked away by duty and his overly complicated life, wants to be swept off his feet. "I'd bump into you on the sidewalk. I'd fall, but not really — I'd be faking it. You would help me up, apologize. Expect me to recognize you," he speaks at a dizzying pace in short, choppy sentences, breathless. "But I wouldn't. I'd ask for your name, and you'd tell me, brace for it- but I'd say nice to meet you, and-"

Lloyd realizes he's been tensing in anticipation. His stalker looks at him, devotion clear on his face. "I'm so angry at you," he confesses, hands wrapping around Lloyd's immobile one. He tenses, but his stalker just lowers his head until his forehead presses against Lloyd's knuckles. He shivers from the touch.

This is real. This is very, very real. How devoted is he, Lloyd wonders in an almost drunken haze. He wants to push it. See how far this boy will go.

"Why?" He murmurs innocently. His stalker glares up at him from under his thick brown bangs.

"Roses. Red. Roses. How could you?" His stalker gets up, but he doesn't get off. It's becoming very clear that this boy has no concept of personal space. He straddles Lloyd, arms caging him in. Lloyd lets him. It's exciting. The stalker snarls, but not at Lloyd — at the roses. "I'm better than roses. I know I am. I'd never send you roses."

"I thought red roses meant love?"

"They're pathetic!" His stalker exclaims, rising to the bait easily. "They're mediocre, basic, mainstream — everyone uses roses! There's no thought behind them! Who could give you Morning Glories in every color of your eyes? Who could know only white Hyacinths describe how lovely you are? I'm better than roses!"

Lloyd smirks at him. "I know."

He didn't keep the roses out of some kind of requited love. At least, not for his poor fan.

His stalker's eyes widen. Then he grins, with all his predatory teeth. "Of course," he whispers, laughing under his breath. "You're so much smarter than anybody gives you credit for." He brushes a hand under Lloyd's blonde hair, so softly. Lloyd has never appreciated being treated as delicate, but this isn't that. This is raw obsession. "You knew I'd be mad, didn't you? You kept the roses to make me mad."

Lloyd leans forward, lips brushing against soft brown skin so lightly they might as well not have touched at all. But his stalker stiffens and swallows thickly. "So what if I did?" He whispers. "Maybe I'm tired of this. Maybe I wanted to know as much about you as you know about me."

"I've been following you your entire life," his stalker says, "you could never catch up."

"My entire life?" Lloyd arches a brow. He scans his stalker's face. It's vaguely familiar. "Who are you?"

He laughs. He gets off of Lloyd, which is something he secretly mourns, and stabs into the food. Lloyd takes the bite while he talks. "I've been following you so long. At first I stayed online. Every video, every picture… it was never enough. I collected all your merch, you know. I've been waiting for this for so long."

Lloyd swallows. "How did you do that with the vines? How have you been in my room without waking me up?" He's hungry for the answers to their game.

"I've been breeding plants for years," his stalker says. "I have one for every occasion. As for the second part…" he waves the white cloth Lloyd was suffocated with. "Little bit of this. Small dosages, of course, and only at night."

Lloyd blinks. "I'd have smelled that."

"Not if I added it to your air fresheners and candles slowly over several weeks," his stalker responds smugly. Lloyd's eyes widen. Of course. His nose was too sensitive not to pick up on sudden smells, but… "You naturally filter out smells," his stalker says easily, like they're discussing the weather, "if they're familiar enough. And you have so many scented candles, it was easy to disguise my mix until you got used to it. It helps with the nightmares, doesn't it?"

Lavender and poppies. He smelled it every single night. Fuck, he thought it was his detergent!

"Well played," Lloyd admits. His stalker's eyes light up, practically glowing with obsession.

Is it bad that Lloyd likes it? Someone is so obsessed with him they went through the trouble of Pavlov-ing him with lavender and poppies. If a bouquet of roses is romantic, this is downright swoon-worthy.

His stalker brushes a knuckle over Lloyd's cheek fondly. "So pretty," he murmurs. "You have markings… your powers? It's the one thing I can't figure out."

"Maybe," Lloyd responds quietly. "I don't know either."

His stalker sighs. "I had it all planned out so well," he moaned, "a meet-cute. You'd be so excited to have found someone who didn't know you. No expectations. We'd text for three days, and we'd both flirt but you'd wait for me to make the first move… you're insecure like that," his voice is wistful and dreamlike, like he's sucked them both into a fantasy. "You shouldn't be. You're perfect." Lloyd blushes, squirming. He wants his hands free.

That's just the thing, though. He could get free easily. They both know it. He could topple this stranger in a second, blast his face off without breaking a sweat. That's the allure.

For whatever reason, Lloyd is in love with danger and fear. It's a result of falling from crashing ships and dancing around vengestone blades, of being possessed and kidnapped and stabbed and strangled. Danger is the one thing he knows intimately, and this danger in front of him is so enticing he feels high on it. A sugar rush. He is in love with the sugar rush of danger, and the boy before him is a skydive right into it.

They both know Lloyd can get free. They both like it.

"Then what?" Lloyd breathes. He wants to hear more of this fantastical date.

"I would take you to the movies," his stalker says, "I planned it perfectly. Opening night: a slasher comedy. You like scary movies, but you're jumpy. So naturally, you would grab my arm. We'd share a popcorn bucket, and I'd reach in whenever you did so our fingers brush."

It's so romantic Lloyd wants to bite something. The amount of detail, the precise planning… this isn't a stalker that wants to stare at him forever like a doll, or keep him stationary in a basement. This isn't a stalker with delusions and no sense that he's a person. This is a stalker that wants to stare at him forever like something divine. Who wants to keep him inside his ribcage so they can share a heart.

His heart pounds.

"I'd walk you home," his stalker says softly, "and you'd invite me to stay." He's right, Lloyd would. "You'd feel bad for making me stay on the couch, so I'd say we should both camp out and sleep on the couch together. You would agree, and we'd spend the night talking. Reminiscing. Catching up."

Lloyd tilts his head. "Reminiscing?"

His stalker's eyes sparkle. "Of course. You remember me, don't you?"

Lloyd searches his face. There is a distant tug of familiarity. Not to the face — to the plants. He slowly shakes his head. "I… no…"

His stalker holds his hands in both of his own. "Brad," he whispers desperately, "Brad Tudabone."

A boy taller than him. A boy with blood on his angry fists. A boy who hit him first, yes, but then hit anybody else who dared touch him three times as hard. A boy who was nice to him, and got so horribly defensive and protective that he broke bones for him. Foxglove in secret, nightshade in the shadows, oleander in private. In the soups of Lloyd's bullies, and black mold in the shadows of the teacher's quarters.

"Brad," Lloyd whispers reverently, eyes lighting up in recognition. "From Darkley's."

"I knew it!" Brad exclaims, beaming. "I knew you'd say that!"

Lloyd laughs breathlessly. A distant past so old he hasn't thought of it for years. "How long?" Lloyd asks. "How long have you been in love with me?"

"Forever," Brad says, pressing a numb kiss to his knuckles. Lloyd's face burns, and he fights back a childish giggle. "You were perfect from day one. I've been so obsessed with you… nothing is ever enough. The first person who was nice to me… you were like the sun, Jessamine."

"Jessamine?"

"The twining vine," Brad answers. "Beautiful. One flower is enough to kill a man."

"I've been growing you something," Lloyd confesses, lurching forward, "in the blind spot."

Brad smiles. "I know. I know everything about you."

"Do you know what I'm growing?"

"Not yet." It's a promise.

"Hydrangea."

Gratitude for being understood

"Perfect," Brad whispers frantically. "FSM, you're so fucking perfect. I wanted to wait until I was done. I would've been done with it-"

"With what?"

"Ornithogalum. The Star of Bethlehem," he whispered, cupping Lloyd's cheek. "Toxic. One of a kind. Could kill a grown man with ease." He isn't talking about the flower. "So dangerous. So beautiful. For you, darling."

Lloyd breaks the bindings and flings his hands around Brad's neck. His lips taste like poison in the best way. Gardenia, Forget-Me-Nots, Honeysuckle and red camellia and salvia in the best way.

Mine. Mine mine mine, says Brad's mouth against his, whispering reverently. He's been cornered in his apartment for months, stalked by a predator armed to the teeth in poison. A predator who lied in wait until his protective family vanished and he got comfortable alone.

He loves it. Someone who wants him so fiercely, with such devotion, to wait years and years just for the chance to fake a meet-cute?

Roses would never be enough. There is only the sugar rush of a boy made of hemlock and nightshade, draped in jessamine and red salvia falling from lips made of camellia.

"Yarrow," Lloyd whispers between frantic kisses, pressed into the couch as he tastes the honeysuckle on Brad's tongue. "Yarrow."

"I'll ruin you," Brad says suddenly, lifting his head and staring down at Lloyd with frankly really fucking hot intensity, "for anybody else. You're mine. I'll kill anyone who thinks about taking you from me, got it?"

Lloyd nods and pulls him back down. "Yarrow. Everlasting love."

Lloyd Garmadon has a stalker who leaves him poison and thorns and the most beautiful flowers in the world. Roses would never be enough. Only yarrow and hydrangea and obsessive red salvia.

[sotsc-au]

What does Pythor think of Arin? 👀

Since I doubt I'm gonna be able to draw out the whole thing (curse my lack of drawing skills when it comes to serpentine) I'll just say that Arin definitely knows who Pythor is, and despite wanting everyone free, he actually was against releasing Pythor

But then all the other serpentine (in this AU, Arin convinced them to have some small level of peace so they're not attacking anybody) was confused by this and urged the two of them to do it otherwise, so Lloyd and Arin went ahead with it

Pythor thinks Arin is a naive child at most, who thinks the power of friendship works and stuff like that

He actually was the one that convinced the serpentine and manipulated them into continuing the rise of the snakes storyline, when Arin and Lloyd left Pythor whispered and manipulated the other snakes to get the fangblades and the great devourer is still summoned, and all the others get their true potentials later due to this (like those that needed to get attack by Lloyd's doing to get their true potentials)

So yeah, pythor heavily underestimates Arin a whole lot (same way with Lloyd) but he knows he can't pull Lloyd's strings due to Arin, cause for some reason Arin doesn't like him either (cause pythor doesn't know about the future stuff he does n stuff)

And in this AU, technically Arin does indeed cause the great devourer but he truly doesn't mean it (it has heavily impacted his mental wellbeing)

[agenericplaceholdername]

saw a post a few days ago that said something along the lines of: "the First Spinjitzu Master and his family should be royalty and have the ability to interfere in Ninjago's government"

hard disagree with this however because basically every *political* decision this family makes is awful:

the First Spinjitzu Master negotiates a peace between humans and serpentine that exists around Aspheera's time. what is that peace? simple: humans and serpentine are forbidden to enter each other's lands. let's be clear - this is a creation of two ethnostates divided on the basis of species. yes humans and serpentine are different species, but as sentient beings they have fundamental equality. dividing them like this is absurd and as we see later, only leads to more conflict

Garmadon and Wu facilitate the end of the Serpentine War by locking every Serpentine underground presumably forever. what about the Serpentine children? civilians? also, even POWs (which is functionally what the Serpentine are once put under the control of the Sacred Flutes) should be released after the conclusion of the war (see Article 118, section II of the Geneva Conventions). the anacondrai minus Pythor starve to death as a result. why do they do this? listen to what Wu tells Lloyd as a mere child: "never trust a snake." should we accept this racism simply because Wu's dad used some magic weapons once?

more fundamentally, Ninjago as a society is a constitutional monarchy whose emperor is a figurehead (and also dead). functionally, Ninjago is governed by democratic institutions, and that's a good thing. yeah it sucks that the Ninja go to prison when they break the law, but you shouldn't get a pass because of something your ancestors did.

the reason we have democratic institutions is because they are supposed to be most responsive to the people the state is designed to benefit - their citizens. that's because citizens have a direct say in who they elect and therefore government policy. no citizen's right to vote should be overturned because some old guy asserts his birthright to be in charge.

and even just from a practical level, would Ninjago be better governed if Garmadon had returned from the Underworld and proclaimed that as the eldest heir to the FSM, he deserves to rule? Given all the secrets Wu keeps, would he be a better leader? and Lloyd -- cmon he is NOT a politician, let him teach his kids in peace.