#so they’re all. Training under Master Wu right | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stealingyourspins · 5 months

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So if the first Spinjitzu master was the child of a dragon and oni, would it be so far-fetched for the other masters to be dragon children too? Especially with how wonky they are with the timeline.. Like the parents that fought with Wu are probably at least in their 30’s-50’s when the ninjas are born?? Idk I just like to think they’re long lived too.

Or, in which Kai’s self esteem/abandonment issues act up, leaving him feeling unneeded. So dragon puberty combined with getting sick with some fire elemental specific flu decides to throw him into a loop and force himself to be the one cared for, for once in his life.

Kai hasn’t been in a good mindset lately. His siblings don’t seem to need him anymore. Lloyd is (mostly) all grown up and Nya is now a warrior in her own right. He doesn’t have to work in the forge or scrape for odd jobs just to put food on the table. They have a better home than he ever could have dreamed of. They have an allowance. They have a parent guardian that does all the things he shouldn’t have had to do in the first place.

It’s just, the others all have such useful talents. Zane can cook, strategize, and do incredible robot things. Cole had super strength, climbed cliffs like a spider, and was a natural with animals. Jay and Nya could build just about anything they can think of, and Nya always said that his own smith work was shoddy at best. Lloyd was the actual chosen one.

What was he good at other than burning things down?

Kai thought he was past this, past the need to snap out at others and do things alone. He was the last to join the original team. The other three were probably training together for years before he was brought in just because Nya was kidnapped. His entire induction was a trial by fire. It’s just far too easy to fall back into old habits sometimes…

His village was rustic and poor, so far in the outskirts that they didn’t have electric power or indoor plumbing. Nya learned to read before he did,(he still had trouble with it) insisting on her staying in school while he spent all day scrounging up any money he could. Whether from quick jobs or quick fingers. Food was hard to get as a six year old, let alone learning to use the forge with what little he could remember dad teaching him. He had street smarts and improvisation ingrained into him. Thinking on his feet and jumping into action so they could survive another day.

His mood was making him slip, he knew it was but he couldn’t stop it. Sparring against Jay always got him riled up, with all the verbal jabs at his sore spots that normally he could brush off and banter right back. Today he was just angry. Not just his temper but his body feels weird too. Restless, frustrated, sluggish, sore. His skin felt too tight and his muscles ached. His gut and lungs were clogged with soot. His head swims in fog.

Another miss had him slamming into a pillar. Everyone on the side chuckled and it made his chest burn hotter. Kai’s throat rumbled with a growl, a breath of flames licked over his teeth as he abandoned his weapons, loped forward on all fours and pounced, knocking the stunned blue ninja to the ground where they grappled and flipped and rolled through the dust.

Kai’s head lunges forward, teeth snapping together just a second too late to catch an arm. An electric kick to his stomach sends him flying back. Rolling tail over head once, then digging fingers and toes into the dirt till he slides to a stop. Crouched low to the ground, hissing and tensed to pounce again before something black and heavy jumped on his back, wrenching his arms behind him and pinning him in an unbreakable grip.

Kai kicked and screamed and flared his flames against stone skin until falling limp under Cole, exhausted and out of breath. A tickle in his throat turns into a cough, a wad of ash and spit splat on the tiles.

Cole sighs in relief slowly easing off the other in case he starts up again. Instead Kai keens, tiredly chasing the lost touch. Cole smirks, his fingers petting through the wild hair until the hot head drifts to sleep.

–

“Somebody please tell me WHAT THE HELL THAT WAS ABOUT?!!!” Jay shrieks after watching Kai throw a hissy fit underneath Cole, who was already taking the fire ninja to his room.

“Kai has seemed unusually stressed as of late. Perhaps he is feeling unwell?” Zane says

“Stressed? STRESSED? He tried to BITE me! He went full primal and chased me around like an animal! He grew a tail for Wu’s sake!!”

(later after someone goes to check on him, finds his bed buried under a mountain of blankets and clothes stolen from everyone, and runs to Wu)

Wu- “It appears young Kai is experiencing a nesting phase.”

“Nesting?”

Zane- “Nesting. The act of birds or dragons preparing to lay eggs and raise young.”

“He’s pregnant?!”

Wu “Not necessarily. It is more likely that Kai feels like making one to make himself feel better during his illness.” Wu strokes his beard. “However, if he, or even any of you, decides on a partner in the future it might be possible.”

“He can GET pregnant?? But he’s a guy!”

Wu “Dragons are the very source of creation. Something as small as gender wouldn’t stop a determined dragon.”

“HOW does that work?! Why would he WANT to get pregnant?!!”

“I’ll tell you when you’re older. Maybe a few decades from now.”

Is Wu kidding? who knows~ :3 Also would a fever for a fire elemental rise enough to bake the air, and ignite the nest? or douse them into dangerous cold? Having trouble deciding.

#HI BONES HERE AND LKAHSFLKJSFDH IM IN AWE HOLY COW #LKSJDFHLKJSFL DUDE THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL IM SPDHFLKDSJHLFJK #DUDE HOLY SHIT YOU JUST DROPPED AN ENTIRE FUCKING ASK IN MY INBOX?!!?!?!?!#this is so cool im going to lose my mind. expect fanart for this within the next few days #ninjago #prompt submission #ninjago fanfic #alsjhfdlkjahslkfjhsalkfjsakfjhkjAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA <333333 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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fisherrprince · 5 years

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I amn just a little creacher... and couldn’t resist SNJFK

#ninjago #my art #my brain: you like two things. Squish them together. Me: aight!!!!#kai smith #lloyd garmadon #jay walker #Cole brookstone #ninjago kh au #so they’re all. Training under Master Wu right #obviously he is a master of light and Garmadon is a master of darkness #Lloyd takes the Riku route and terrorizes the students until he realizes maybe he likesthem better #but then he gets norted in season 5 (he gets better)#Idk what his keyblade looks like but it’s prolly gold and has a dragon on it #while Morro is possessing him his keyblade looks SPOOKY I should draw that #Kai is in a darkness hula skirt because!! He can be!! He and Lloyd both have trouble with the darkness inside them babes!#but while lloyd walks the road to dawn Kai is trying to stay in balance!#anyways guess the Keyblade Weilders by their keyblades’ names #Spitfire; Seismic Anchor; Stormrider; Key of Creation; Windshriek; Lifeblood; Cloudburst; Permafrost; Tenebrous Reckoning #Chiaroscuro is a special one guess who gets it (lloyd but only for a while)#I’ve thought too much about lego keyblades at this point #AND ALSO THIS IS EXTRA GOOD BECAUSE I HAVE AN EXCUSE TO GIVE THEM ARMOR NOW #AND GLIDERS.

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lunarifie · 2 years

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Rewatching Ninjago

(With no context other than the episode)

Possession 3-4

The fact that Kais afraid of water while his sister is the elemental master of water is hilarious to me

Stiix is actually such a fascinating place in itself

Ninjago is legitimately good at world building Ill give it that

Why are they talking to this ronin guy as if he's an old enemy I have never seen him before

Ronin (talking about money): two hundred

Cole: what if we told you all of ninjago depended on the scroll of spinjitzu

Ronin: Well that changes everything!

Ronin: Four hundred.

Hes so funny but wiki says he sold Zane to chen so im a bit on the edge. He’s gonna have to do something redeeming for me to like him

Nyas training!!!!

I kinda like Wus depiction of water

Omg i remember finding it so cool and majestic when Wu summoned his dragon

Nya: you never told us you could do that

Wu: A sensei never tells.

Me (looks back at all the episodes I just watched): Obviously.

Wonder if Nya ever wanted to be the water ninja

If Wu KNEW that the ghosts were defeated by water why didnt he tell the ninja.

Cole, Jay, and Kai working as Zanes their cheerleader is so funny to me

Jay: his voice is on the fritz, i can fix it but it’ll take some time.

I miss techy Jay

Why is everyone except Cole being leader. Wasnt Cole originally the leader-like person in the team?

Jay: I say we dont need the scroll… because we’re gonna steal it. 😈

Ik i said this in my last post but

Jay, have. You. Been. To. Jail.

Nickname 1: mush mouth (zane)

Ik Lloyds fighting Morros possession but i wonder HOW

is it like a mental battle or is he pulling at the chains that restrain him in his mind

Either way thats traumatic

Nyas character has such depth that I wanna write a paragraph on her.

Her weakness being ‘feeling weak’

I just love her character sm

Her angers not misplaced though, if I was told I had to stop doing what im good at, and start doing something that im having difficulty with from scratch. To save my friends nonetheless.

I would go insane

They go so in-depth with Nyas character and symbolism in this episode that I cant help but appreciate it

Jay, (looking intently at the vase where the scroll is hidden in): ….

Jay (picks up the vase and looks under it): leave no stone unturned.

Hes such an idiot

Its so funny that morro waited, assuming the ninja would find the scroll for him and then just jumped out and fought them bc he didnt bet on their incompetence 💀

Okay but WHY is ronin introduced as such a ‘familiar’ character. Like his ship for example. Why are we acting like weve seen it before whats going on.

Why did Jay fall through the same womans roof twice 😭

Omgggg the same thing that happened to Lloyd where ‘everyone stays behind due to some circumstances leaving one character to fight by himself’ is happening to Kai!

Ronins such a dick

He was gonna leave Kai to DIE unless he paid up thats so shitty

Oh riiiight. Ronin starts working at steep wisdom. Forgot about that.

...

Ik yangs temple and ik exactly what's gonna happen

Coles in charge :D

Why didn't they just enter Yangs temple in the daytime? I mean thatd be a long time until sunrise, so no one turns into a ghost!

Jay and Cole (trying to break open the wooden boards on the window)

Zane and Kai (opens the front door.)

Jay and Cole: 😮

Fhjebtjdbrjsbf

Cole: didnt you hear! We have to leave before sunrise unless we turn into ghosts! God i hate ghosts. They’re terrifying.

Why did it have to be Cole 😭 it couldnt have been any other ninja

Jay loving ghost stories/true crime and getting excited over it while Coles hates it is a dynamic i need in my life

okay yeah the ninja are being mean by pranking Cole like that, but theyre right his scream was really funny 💀

Gonna do that drawing trend and draw the ninja in the haunted house poses

You know what im talking about.

Why does yangs flying swords look exactly like Kais golden weapon

(Swords and knives flying in all directions)

Jay: does this mean he wont teach us airjitzu 😀

Cole: ow my ear!

What ear.

God i wish the best for teenagers who broke into the haunted temple at night and had to experience THAT

Ronin: I dont knooow, wus my partner, i cant go behind his back.

Nya: (whips out a bag of coins)

Ronin: I can get you out of here tomorrow at noon.

Zane: EVERYONE. GET A HOLD OF YOURSELVES. EVEN IF MY VOICE WASNT STUCK. ID STILL BE YELLING AT THIS VOICE DECIBEL.

HFNSJFNSJR

(The temple starts flooding)

Cole: Why. Did you touch the scary painting JAY.

Jay: I didnt know it would do that COLE.

KAI LET GO OF THE DOOR YOURE GONNA DROWN

Ohhh so theyre facing their fears

Ok but how did Morro know about Nyas samurai cave can he see into Lloyds memories?

You really didnt think this through huh Nya, including the fact that Wu quite literally told you only water can stop the ghosts

Morro: BOO

he did the, he did the thing!!!!!!

At least she understands now :)

(The ninja tying each other by a rope so they cant lose each other)

Ah yes, this is brilliant, i do not foresee any consequences coming from these action.

Damn.

They really went straight to ‘the Morro fear/illusion’

I wanted to see Zane and Jays fears :(((

I need a fanfic asap where the ninja face their individual fears in yangs temple but its their fears on a deeper level. And they help each other out and stuff.

I dont wanna do a whole character analysis rn, but if someone else wants to write it tag meeee plsss

Yangs probably cackling as these fools stumble over each other

Zane: WHY DID WE TYE OURSELVES TOGETHER

YOU TELL ME.

This is it.

COLE SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR THE SCROLL.

And it begins, his ghost arc.

#ninjago #lego ninjago #Rewatching Ninjago

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curiosity-killed · 3 years

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Lang Qianqiu deserves more love goddammit: a post, unfortunately

This brought to you by the wonderful @veliseraptor & @/yuer on Twitter but also mostly out of spite and the fact that it’s preventing me from writing a very dumb poke-the-bear post abt the entire weird social media culture around The Minors

As always ✨SPOILERS!! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE✨

So first off: when I hit the scene where lqq confronts xl and screams “I will never be like you” I sat up in bed, did a little shimmy of delight, and hissed “fuck yes” at like 2 AM so. Now you have a preview of wtf this train wreck will be

1 ) lqq is a good character

We don’t get a ton of time with lqq because tgcf is 87 side characters running across stage with The Most Interesting Concept constantly one-upping each other before vanishing. But what we do get is, I think, enough to make a pretty compelling story: Lang Qianqiu is a kind and generous prince who is also the sole survivor of the bloody massacre of his entire family, committed by the people dearest to him (both in his belief that Gusohi Fangxin did it and in the reality of An Le’s involvement), who goes on to peacefully lead his fractious nation into a peaceful reign before he ascends as a powerful enough (aka beloved and worshipped enough) god to be ranked among the top heavenly generals. That’s like. Pretty fucking classic protagonist vibes right there.

And, as usual with mxtx’s characters, we get a lot more than this lovely little backstory. In his interactions in canon, lqq is capable of great grief and anger; he is willing to sacrifice himself if it means avenging his murdered family; and he simultaneously holds both great hatred and great respect for his old teacher. And, of course, he winds up raising and taking care of his enemy’s son which shows a remarkable depth of compassion and emotional messiness that I find terribly compelling. He struggles with a simplistic view of justice that is supported by lies told to “protect” him and that is uprooted by the truth and forces him to try to make sense of the world without the guardrails that others installed around him (looking at you mister fangxin sir).

Also I’m stealing my own tweets bc I’m Right but:

*pulls up single barstool to lqq is a good character table* I think it’s interesting & Says Things abt the continued relationship btwn lqq & xl that lqq *didn’t* recognize xl, implying that he left fangxin’s mask in place even when he went to kill him

Like here is the man who killed his family & best friend, who left him abandoned in bloodshed on his 17th bday—& here is also the man who saved his life, who taught him, who lqq looked up to & wanted to be like

Even when lqq *does* recognize xl, he still has so much respect for him paired with that hatred that it’s honestly rlly tragic? Like man. There’s so much grief in lqq’s repeated demands for a duel & insisting it’s fine if xl kills him as long as he doesn’t hold back

*pats lqq pompom* this bb is so sad. And so much more like his teacher than either of them seem to realize or necessarily want

Despite being a pretty minor character, lqq gets a lot of complexity and nuance! Look at this child trying to be grown up while desperately turning to his old master for guidance and “the truth”! Look at him! Be sad!!

2 ) lqq is an excellent parallel to xl

Okay stealing my own tweet again don’t look at me I yell the same shit everywhere

Xl didn’t want lqq to become like him (self-sacrificing, vengeful, alone) but lqq not only became alone, chasing vengeance, & willing to sacrifice himself for revenge—he also became kind, open-minded, & remorseful!! & he still clearly respects xl @ novel end 🙃🙃

We all know hc’s “they’re not very alike at all” and yeah sure baby go support your man but narratively, there’s a lot of importance given to cycles, parallels, and foils in mxtx’s writing and most explicitly (compared to mdzs, haven’t read svss) in tgcf. For example, *gestures at beefleaf, gestures at Xianle Trio vs Wuyogn Crew, gestures at Xie Lian & Jun Wu’s whole uh. Deal.* And while I’d argue xl and lqq are part of a triumvirate rather than a pair, we’re not including mister three-face in this conversation so just looking at xl and lqq:

Both adored and sheltered crown princes

Both taught by a guoshi who was seeking to prevent the repetition of their own tragedies and in their efforts, lied/omitted information and failed to protect their charge from tragedy

Both were betrayed* by their closest friends

Both are the last living members of their respective royal families

Both caught the interest of supernatural beings from a young age

Etc etc I’m getting v bored and distracted writing this so moving on

Most importantly to me, we have their betrayal by a very close and adored mentor and how they react. The confrontation I mention at the start of this shitshow is really imo one of the most important scenes in the novel because it a) illustrates the differences in xl and Jun Wu and b) sort of gives you a preview of how xl ultimately wins

So a) Jun Wu and Xie Lian both take a talented, marked-for ascension young prince under their wing. Jun Wu sees himself in the boy and obsesses over shaping him into Jun Wu’s own image in the belief that this will make him the perfect heir. Jun Wu pushes his chosen heir into situations where Xie Lian is repeatedly harmed in an effort to show that the common people are fickle and cruel and don’t deserve his compassion and care.

Meanwhile, Xie Lian is reluctantly roped into mentoring his prince due to his inability to stand aside when he feels he could do something to prevent hurt or injustice befalling another (simultaneously his great strength and great weakness! God I love him). Xie Lian tries to teach his student to believe in and care for the common people and not to sacrifice himself (see: flashback convo re:taking the force of the sword strike into his own body).

When Xie Lian refuses to bend in the shape Jun Wu demands, Jun Wu bashes his head into the wall. When Lang Qianqiu cries “I will never be like you!”, Xie Lian laughs and says “Good!”.

B) this of course feeds directly into foreshadowing! Like Lang Qianqiu’s bold words, xl ultimately refuses to become like his mentor and remains defiant even when it would stop him from being hurt. Xl beats lqq and says so what if I tricked you, so what if I lied, I still won. Naturally, xl beats Jun Wu not through standard swordplay but by using a trick he learned while forced to busk and wander the earth alone and unlucky for centuries.

…okay so I have fully forgotten what I was actually saying here! Anyway!

Like Xie Lian, Lang Qianqiu spends a time consumed with the need for vengeance, hunting his enemy and rejecting the heavens. And like Xie Lian, he winds up caring for his enemy’s “son” and trying to both comfort him and maintain what’s left of Qi Rong’s life force despite having previously been hellbent on destroying him—bc he sees the impact it has on another person. In the end, he even gives a gift to Xie Lian—his mentor, his role model, and the one who killed his father—that was once given to him as a symbol of unexpected kindness. Sound familiar?

But, importantly, and contradictory to what I have been yelling abt but whatever it’s 12:30 am, Lang Qianqiu is not a direct mirror of Xie Lian but a closing of a vital loop in the story. Lqq is very similar to xl (I will die on this hill!! Only I won’t bc I’m stronger than y’all and will keep swinging these pots and pans) but bc xl tries to do better and keep lqq from suffering the way xl has, lqq is able to have a gentler and more optimistic path forward. He’s proof that even a small act of kindness or even kindness to only one person still matters and has a ripple effect that can’t be seen when you’re in the middle of it—a thread started with xl giving the coral pearl to Lang Ying and closed with Lang Qianqiu returning the pearl to Xie Lian.

So I have no idea if any of this is coherent or compelling but I meant to be asleep two hours ago and the points are:

A) Lang Qianqiu is good actually

B) parallels!!!

C) look ive already started another wip about Lang Qianqiu and Xie Lian and I didn’t want this but no one else wrote it so now I have to so pls just accept this as a warning

*sort of air quotes around this for Xie Lian bc frankly Mu Qing was right & Xie Lian kicked feng xin out BUT on the other hand, it was experienced as a betrayal and we also again have all of Jun Wu’s shit so it evens out

#should I wait and proofread and edit this tomorrow? yes.#am I doing that? no <3 #idk what to tag this as #uhhh #tgcf spoilers #lang qianqiu #I don’t think this can reasonably be called meta #since I am unsure if it is even readable #tgcf #long post

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randomprose · 3 years

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Shang Qinghua is, for lack of a better word, a pushover—a pathetic, cowering, pushover.

He doesn’t talk back, mostly because everyone around him is so much more OP than him and he lives in constant fear that any one of them would be the cause of his demise (accidentally and/or otherwise).

So, Shang Qinghua just lets things slide, like, a lot of things. For self-preservation purposes. So he gets taken advantage of for it, so what? As long as he’s useful, he at least doesn’t have to fear being unceremoniously eliminated.

Shang Qinghua lives his life like this—except during the bi-annual Peak Lords’ Conference.

The bi-annual Peak Lords’ Conference is where they discuss the sect’s general administrative matters and most important of all, the sect’s financial records. It’s the time all the peak lords are scrambling to complete their administrative reports and the busiest season for An Ding Peak—especially Shang Qinghua.

It’s also the only time of the year Shang Qinghua doesn’t think about the importance of not crossing anyone in the name of self-preservation.

A couple of years since the end of the original novel officially transpired, and after also officially being saddled with the Northern Desert’s palace account and affairs, Shang Qinghua has decided he has had enough and will no longer be pushed around into doing the other peaks’ paperwork for them!

Shang Qinghua gets mean and snappy at these meetings. He’s so sleep-deprived he doesn’t even have the energy to be guilty about it. That’s how exhausted he is. If someone comes for his throat during this meeting he wouldn’t even flinch. He’d probably be angrier if they somehow don’t finish the job. Put him out of his misery or don’t waste his fucking time.

If this made the other peak lords lowkey scared of him singling them out during these bi-annual meetings, that’s just a bonus.

A hush falls among the peak lords already present in Cang Qiong’s main conference hall when Shang Qinghua enters. His Head Disciple and inner disciples carrying each peak’s individual reports in tow, placing it down on Shang Qinghua’s table while the peak lord himself goes straight to the podium to load today’s presentation in the crystal mirror projector screens.

It’s times like these that Shang Qinghua is so thankful he thought about writing in projection screens in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Imagine having to write and present a whole sect’s financial report in scrolls! He’d sooner throw himself off of the top of Jue Di Gorge.

He sticks a rectangular slab of crystal to a port and activates it with a short burst of his qi. The crystal mirror lights up with the first page of Shang Qinghua’s presentation and he eyes it for a second before walking to his table.

Yes, it functions like a USB, and no he doesn’t care that ‘it goes completely against xianxia logic!’ because contrary to what Cucumber-bro says, this is actually another thing that Shang Qinghua is grateful he wrote in because it’s a fucking stroke of genius.

An An Ding disciple comes in just before the start of the conference, saying a messenger bird of a merchant lord just sent a missive labeled ‘important’.

“This is not important at all,” Shang Qinghua says before sitting down, grabbing a paper, and writing a reply anyway. He hands it to his disciple, “Here send it back. If they reply unfavorably, tell them—"

Just then Shen Qingqiu enters, flanked by Ming Fan and Luo Binghe, which startled the An Ding disciple to drop the note. Luo Binghe picks up the paper to hand it over to the startled disciple, who bowed in thanks before Shen Qingqiu snatches it and opens the note.

“'To Lord Mao," Shen Qingqiu reads. "'Is that a challenge? If so, this peak lord will engage with Lord Mao. This peak lord knows the law of this land and will gladly see Lord Mao in court. Note, this peak lord knows what happened five days after last year’s harvest moon and supposes that, too, is up for discussion. Signed Peak Lord Shang.’” Shen Qingqiu turns to Shang Qinghua as he folds the note again and hands it back to the disciple, who bows to all of them before taking his leave. “Lord Mao? The merchant that supplies some of Wan Jian Peak’s blacksmithing tools? What did this Lord Mao do five days after last year’s harvest moon?”

“Nothing and it’s none of your business,” Shang Qinghua mutters shortly as he re-arranges his scrolls while the rest of the peak lords start to file in.

It’s a testament to how exhausted Shang Qinghua is that he doesn’t even flinch when Luo Binghe levels him with a dark glare and a snarl of, “Don’t speak to Shizun like that.”

“Binghe, stand down. Shang-shidi is just under a lot of pressure. This is a busy time for An Ding Peak after all.”

“No, Luo Binghe is right,” Shang Qinghua sighs. “That was out of line, shixiong, even if what you said was true.” He bows slightly to Shen Qingqiu in apology before smiling tiredly. “Lord Mao did nothing I think. I just—”

“What is this I hear about Shang-shidi being at odds with a merchant?” Qi Qingqi pipes up clearly having heard their conversation. “Really, Shang-shixiong. What are you doing? It better not be something shady again.”

“Rest assured, Qi-shimei, this shixiong knows what he’s doing.”

“This one sure hopes you do,” Qi Qingqi says not without suspicion at the same time Shen Qingqiu asks, “Do you really?”

“It’s fine. It’s fine,” Shang Qinghua says, moving his hand in a dismissive wave. “Don’t worry about it.”

Later, while Shang Qinghua is in the middle of speedrunning through the peak’s expense reports, because his martial siblings have very short attention spans for such things and anything else that isn’t gossip or doesn’t directly involve them, the same An Ding disciple comes in. He slinks quietly to An Ding’s Head Disciple, who is taking notes dutifully, to inform her of the missive.

The Head Disciple gives him the go signal to report and raises her hand to get Shang Qinghua’s attention.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Shifu, but Lord Mao has responded.”

“Oh? And what did he say?”

An Ding’s Head Disciple nudges her martial sibling, who looks unsure and a little unnerved at all the eyes trained on him, to deliver the message.

“Lord Mao said—” he clears his throat. “Lord Mao said there is no need to make a big deal out of nothing and agreed to meet on the twelfth day of next month.”

Shang Qinghua looks to his Head Disciple, rapidly flipping through a small pocket notebook before looking up and shaking her head no to Shang Qinghua.

“This peak lord is not available on that date. Tell Lord Mao to move it on—Xiao Lian?”

“Shifu’s next available date is on the twenty-fifth of the month after next.”

“There. Tell Lord Mao to move the meeting to the twenty-fifth day of the month after next.”

“Hey, now,” Shen Qingqiu says because his husband has gone, Ming Fan is taking notes for him, so now he’s bored and this is the most interesting thing that’s happened since this whole meeting started. “Isn’t Shang-shidi pushing it?”

“It’s fine. This master knows what he’s doing,” Shang Qinghua says as he waves away his disciple and goes right back to drilling Liu Qingge about Bai Zhan Peak’s expense report.

Around the concluding hour of the meeting, Shang Qinghua’s messenger disciple returns yet again with a response.

“This disciple apologizes a thousand times for interrupting once again.”

“The meeting is about to end. Wait beside your shijie for a bit, yeah?”

“Yes, Shifu.”

But before the An Ding disciple could do as he’s told, Wei Qingwei speaks up.

“It’s fine. At this point, I think this peak lord speaks for all when he says we all want to know what Lord Mao has said.” Not in the least because they’re all bored out of their wits and this is a very welcome distraction. “He's one of Wan Jian Peak’s suppliers is he not? This peak lord has a vested interest in this exchange.”

“Alright then,” Shang Qinghua says, no longer caring and just wanting this whole meeting to end so he can go back home and catch up on some sleep for a day or three. “Let’s hear it then.”

“Lord Mao agreed to meet Shifu on the twenty-fifth of the month after next and offered to host Shifu on his manor.”

“Fat chance,” Shang Qinghua says. And what? Hand himself over for a potential assassination plot? Shang Qinghua did not last this long and survived everything that’s happened in the original storyline only for some canon fodder merchant lord to get the jump on him. He makes a mental note to look for a new supplier for Wan Jian Peak’s blacksmithing needs if Lord Mao doesn’t agree with the terms he’s laid out—ones that are very much in Cang Qiong’s favor 70-30 now that he’s pissed Shang Qinghua off. “Tell Lord Mao this peak lord will receive him in An Ding Peak at no later than Wu Shi.”

The disciple bows and leaves to send the message and Shang Qinghua turns back to conclude his presentation.

Then later, after the meeting is adjourned, Shen Qingqiu sidles up to him with an amused, “Well, that was something, Peak Lord Shang. The bi-annual Peak Lord’s Conference really brings out your backbone, huh?”

Shang Qinghua just regards his friend with an exhausted flat look at the obvious mocking use of his title before smirking, “I told you I know what I’m doing.”

“So what did Lord Mao do five days after last year’s harvest moon?”

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Shang Qinghua replies in earnest with a shrug and a confused frown. “I just thought of a random date and hoped for the best that it held some importance to him. Guess Lord Mao does shady things on the regular.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah. Time to find Wei-shixiong a new supplier. I just hope he’s not partial to the ones that shady Lord Mao provides.”

ao3

#shang qinghua #shen qingqiu #cang qiong mountain sect #cang qiong peak lords #an ding peak #an ding peak disciples #it's expense report season my dudes #and sqh is so exhausted ™️#if they file the wrong forms again #sqh is gonna start smashing kneecaps #scumbag system #scumbag villain self saving system #svsss #svsss fanfic #writing

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rosiehunterwolf · 3 years

Text

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow

Prompts: Chores and Video Games

Word Count: 4,850

Characters: The squad + Pixal

Timeline: between seasons 11 and 12

Trigger Warnings: None

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

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

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

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

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

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

The ninja blinked at the scene before them, speechless.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Speaking of cake-”

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

“Dude, chill, I’ve been practicing!”

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

Cole blinked at him. “My what?”

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

“Who put you in charge?”

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

“Whatever.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Chores?” they cried in unison.

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

“Hey!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“They were fire ants,” Lloyd grumbled.

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

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

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

“I know.”

“... They really did that?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Not true! Why don’t you ask Pixal?”

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

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

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

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

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

“Critical Conquest is very important,” Jay muttered.

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

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

“Actually, there is another one next month-”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of course it was.

“What happened?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I can fix it-”

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

“But-”

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Can I be the one bashing the bags?”

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

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

“Kai! I said to do exactly as I say-”

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

“Lloyd, they expired three days ago.”

“So what, they’re still edible.”

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

“Kai would’ve let me keep them.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I am not emotionally attached-”

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

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

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

“What’s going on?”

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

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

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

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

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

“Am not. It hurts!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

“Please please please please-”

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

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

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

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

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

“C’mon Pix- I’ll do anything.”

“I don’t know, Jay-”

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

“What?” “We will?”

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

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

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

Zane blinked at him. “In an hour?”

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

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

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

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

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

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

---

“These dudes are insane!”

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

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

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

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

Pixal smirked. “I’ll do my best.”

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

“They’re ready, what about the controllers? All charged?”

“We really shouldn’t be checking these kinds of things literally three minutes before the tournament, but yes, they are.”

“Hurry, guys! It’s about to start!”

Zane blinked at the screen. “Jay… you named our team the Fast Chickens?”

“It’s a good name!” The others groaned, and Jay glared at them. “We’ll see who’s complaining when we win this thing!”

Jay fidgeted through most of the opening speeches from the hosts of the competition as they went over rules and procedures. And, after what simultaneously felt like both a million years later and only the blink of an eye, the game was finally starting. They got lucky with their spawn point, and after a few minutes, were able to collect some good resources and get a good start. Cole, Zane, and Nya were able to take down some of the weaker groups before they collected supplies while Jay and the others continued collecting and building up defenses.

Checking the score count, he could see there were already twenty teams down in various parts of the map, and he knew his team had been responsible for felling three of them. Jay couldn’t stop himself from smiling. It seemed like nothing could be going better.

That is, until they suffered a major blow on the southwestern flank of their territory against a high-level team- the CrownViolets, they called themselves. (Which was nowhere near as cool sounding as the Fast Chickens, Jay totally wasn’t insecure about that at all.) After a fierce fight that ended up costing them several lives- and robbing Zane of his last, taking him out of the game- they realized they couldn’t win this fight and backed down, sacrificing a sizeable chunk of their turf.

While still monitoring that boundary, they decided to primarily focus on expanding in the other direction. Their tactic seemed to be working well, and although the CrownViolets kept on encroaching on them from the boundary, the other teams weren’t backing down, and although none managed to defeat the rival team, they were certainly taking their tolls on them. Jay hoped that the other teams would eventually take the Violets out for them, although he had to admit that would be extremely lucky.

They were getting down to the last few teams in the tournament. When the top ten were remaining, special, more deadly weapons were hidden around, and with them, teams began to fight back harder. The Fast Chickens held their own, but by the time they were down to two teams remaining- them and the CrownViolets- both Jay and Lloyd had been killed and eliminated. Only Cole, Nya, and Pixal remained. The CrownViolets still had four players left, but they were weak. If the ninja were strategic enough, they could still win this.

But Pixal was a major hindrance. She had been plenty good at holding back and defending them, but now, with so few left, she was going to have to start playing a more active role. If only Kai had still been there.

“Alright, they’re somewhere around here.” Nya’s character pulled up her radar. “There seems to be two of them right up ahead-”

“Alright, Pixal.” Jay leaned over her shoulder, coaching her. “You’re going to have to start getting offensive. Nya says there’s only two, so there shouldn’t be a problem, but there could be an ambush, or these two could have higher health. We don’t want to take any chances. While Nya and Cole rush them, you should stay back and shoot at them with your launchers. Your character has good accuracy scores.”

There was a flash of purple, and muffled shouting, and Nya froze. “There they are! Let’s get them, guys!”

The three plunged into the fight, and although it was a tough battle, their opponents were relatively low on health, and they ended up eliminating the two CrownViolets- unfortunately, with the loss of Nya before doing so.

“It’s just the two of us left, Pixal,” Cole said, “but there’s also only two of them, as well. We can do this. Just stick close to me. They’re around here somewhere.”

“And that somewhere is here!” Pixal shrieked suddenly, whirling around.

Cole’s eyes widened. “One of their teammates must’ve sent out a distress signal before they died!” He grappled for his weapon, but in his haste, his grip was sloppy.

Pixal, however, barely hesitated, diving at their opponent and attacking in a flurry of blows. Jay’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head as she performed a complex combo it had taken him a full day to learn.

Zane smiled at all their gaping mouths. “I told you to have faith in her.”

Cole was evidently shocked too, and within a few moments, he was dead- although not before delivering a nearly fatal blow to his opponent. Pixal quickly finished him off before turning to face the last remaining player.

“Be careful, Pix,” Jay warned. “She still has pretty high health. Don’t get cocky, or take dumb risks.”

“Dumb risks are your thing,” Pixal corrected, not even batting an eye as she darted past her opponent, slashing her with her sword.

The CrownViolet wasn’t giving up, though. She pushed back, throwing down a smoke bomb and suddenly pushing Pixal down from behind. Pixal rolled out of the way, missing her sword by inches, and sprung up, taking the moment of surprise to her advantage to knock her opponent down. As the rival started crawling away, Pixal’s character took a potion, powering up a special move. The opponent knocked her down as she was waiting to power up, but before she could get a good attack in, Pixal was ready and was blasting her a beam of light.

The girl’s avatar fell to the ground, dead.

There was a beat of silence, then their living room erupted in cheers.

“Pixal! You did it! You won the game for us!”

“I can’t believe it! We actually won! Without Kai!”

“Hey,” Kai yelped. “That didn’t sound like it was meant to be a compliment.”

“What do you mean,” Lloyd said. “That was totally a super nice thing I just said about you.”

Kai narrowed his eyes. “A bit backhanded, don’t you think?”

“Guys, none of that is important!” Cole cried. “We won! Out of all the gamers in the city! We actually won!”

“But I have to know,” Jay insisted. “How did you get so good at the game?”

Pixal shrugged. “I guess you pick up a thing or two watching your team play a game obsessively for the past week.”

Jay blinked. “You’ve been watching us?”

She scowled. “I’ve been doing the chores in here, lightning brain! Repairs, laundry, picking up after you- you’ve just been too obsessed by your game to even notice me!”

“Oh, really? Uh, that’s my bad…”

“Speaking of which, you promised to do my chores, and I’m looking forward to a nice, relaxing evening off.”

“Did I?” Jay laughed nervously. “Hey, did I ever mention that the tournament winners get a cash prize-”

Pixal handed him a mop. “Nice try. Although I still expect my fair share of the earnings by the end of the week. Good luck.” The ninja just gazed at her in horror, and she laughed.

“You’re going to need it.”

64 notes · View notes

pthalomars · 3 years

Text

Ninjago fanseason!

Here’s the first part of my synopsis post, I’ll make sure to reblog it and add more of my summary as I write it out.

Trigger Warnings for this: blood/gore, hospitals+surgery, injury, there will probably be more and I will make sure to tag accordingly (if there’s anything else that I miss, please let me know so I can tag it!!)

Anyways, here’s how it starts...

Battle in Ninjago City

A group of assailants are on the rise in ninjago city. The ninja show up to thwart their latest attack and a battle ensues on the streets. The assailants are spread throughout the city, so the ninja are forced to split up into teams. Cole with Jay, Zane with Nya, and Lloyd with Kai.

Lloyd and Kai are fending off their attackers, but Kai notices something is wrong. His powers aren’t working. Pathetic flames are sputtering out of his palms and fizzling out into smoke. He’s losing his powers again.

While Kai is distracted, one of the enemies has a laser gun trained on him, ready to strike and take him out. Lloyd jumps in front of Kai at the last minute, taking the laser beam straight through his left shoulder. Dangerously close to his heart. Kai and Lloyd are on the ground, and when Kai comes to his senses, he frantically gets him and Lloyd into an alleyway for cover.

Lloyd is losing a lot of blood, and Kai is doing his best to tend to his wounds. He screams into the com that Lloyd is down and that they need medical help, now. Zane assures him that an ambulance is on the way, and to stay with Lloyd until paramedics show up.

The attackers start to make their way into the alley, only to be strewn aside by Nya and Zane. Cole and Jay have showed up as well, and now Kai and Lloyd are at least safe from them. Kai has Lloyd propped up against a wall, keeping pressure on his wound and telling him that he’s gonna be alright. Lloyd is whimpering in pain and tears fall from his eyes and stain his red-painted gi. “It hurts..” Lloyd murmurs. Kai lets out a choked sob and holds him close. “I know, I know it does buddy. It’s gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay I promise.”

Medics finally show up and get Lloyd out of there. Kai and Nya are able to ride in the ambulance, and so they make their way to the nearest hospital.

The Ambulance

The ambulance ride is tense. Paramedics are working to stabilize Lloyd enough so that he can survive until they arrive at the hospital. Kai and Nya are shoved in a corner, as to not get in the way of the medics. Kai doesn’t say anything, his eyes are empty and he’s a million miles away in his mind. Nya is beginning to process the events of that day too, and all she can do is look between her brothers and silently let her tears fall.

She leans on Kai and goes to hold his hand to comfort him, but she stops short of his wrists. He still has so much of Lloyd’s blood on his hands. It’s on his gi, it’s in his hair, it’s underneath his fingernails. She figures it’s best to hold his arm, so she does. Thankfully, the ride is short, and they make it there in time for Lloyd to go into emergency surgery.

The Hospital

Lloyd is rushed into surgery and Kai and Nya are left in the lobby of the hospital. Kai wants to be near Lloyd, so he stays as close as staff will allow him to. Which means he ends up sitting on the ground in a hallway for a very long time.

Nya sits with him for a while, before she gets up to get them snacks. Then to call the others and let them know where they are. Then to get some fresh air. She checks in on him periodically, but also figures he needs space to process what all happened that day.

Eventually, the others show up. Cole, Jay, Zane, Wu, and Misako arrive and start asking a million questions. Nya looks exhaustedly at them, and tells them that she’ll fill in the rest later. Jay leads Nya to sit down and Cole asks where Kai is. Nya points to the hallway across the room, and says that he should be at the end of the corridor.

Cole makes his way down the hall, and low and behold, Kai is still sitting in the same spot. The master of earth knees down, putting a comforting hand on Kai’s knee. Kai looks up for the first time in hours and Cole sees the dried tear streaks coming from his red and puffy eyes.

“Hey buddy, how are you holding up?” he asks. Kai averts his gaze and curls further into himself. Cole’s eyebrows pinch upwards, and he goes to move some of Kai’s hair out of his eyes. He notices the blood in his hair and worriedly asks him if he’s gotten medical attention. Very quietly, Kai says, “ ‘s not my blood.” and then Cole looks down at Kai’s clothes, and his hands. It finally clicks. It’s Lloyd’s blood.

Cole sighs, moving to stand up. “Let’s get you cleaned up, huh?” Kai doesn’t respond, but allows Cole to help him get on his feet. They make their way to the nearest bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, Kai starts to wash his hands. He watches as the dried blood begins to run off of his hands and drain into the sink. He scrubs and scrubs and scrubs, but his hands are still red. The water is scalding hot and he’s started to rub his skin raw. Cole sees Kai become increasingly upset and then notices his hands again. Steam is rising from the sink and there’s no more blood. Cole turns off the sink and grabs paper towels. He dries off Kai’s hands as delicately as he can before looking at him. “Your hands are clean, Kai. They’re clean.” Cole brings Kai in for a hug and Kai shatters in his arms. Cole presses a kiss to the top of Kai’s head and wraps his arms tighter around him. They hold each other for a long time before they finally leave the bathroom.

Cole brings Kai to the lobby, where everybody is sitting together, finding ways to pass the time. Zane and Jay go to stand up and greet Kai, but Cole gives them a soft, warning sort of look. A look that tells them that Kai isn’t ready for that quite yet. They sit back down.

A nurse comes out and informs them all of Lloyd’s condition. He’s alive and he’s stable, but he’s going to need to stay at the hospital for a while until his condition improves. And unfortunately, they aren’t able to let the ninja stay with him through the night. They have to go home. Kai protests, stating that he needs to be there for Lloyd, that he can’t just leave him alone. Wu puts a hand on Kai’s shoulder and reassures him. “He’s in good hands, he will be okay for the night.” Wu says. After a moment, Kai sighs and reluctantly agrees to leave.

The First Night Home

The gang gets home and everyone is so exhausted from the events of the day. It’s about 1 in the morning and everyone heads to bed. Cole asks Kai if he wants to stay in his room. Kai nods and lets Cole lead him to his bed. They fall asleep in each other's arms, and Kai is too tired to cry anymore. Cole holds him and pets his hair. He could take a shower in the morning.

The first week(s) home

Each day that passes, Kai begins to come to a realization. Lloyd was hurt because he was protecting him. If he had been able to use his powers, Lloyd wouldn’t have had to get hurt. It was his fault that Lloyd was in the hospital, that he had a hole blasted straight through his shoulder, that he wasn’t home.

He still visits Lloyd every day. His little brother isn’t always awake, but he just needs to make sure he’s still alive. Usually one of the others will go with him, and sometimes everyone will tag along. Lloyd gets better with time and his recovery goes along smoothly.

Kai comes to another realization. Without his powers, he is useless. He can’t protect himself, let alone anyone else. The rest of the team has to compensate for him, and because of that, they get hurt. Kai has to leave.

The others notice that something is off with Kai. Cole, in particular, sees that he’s acting very differently. He asks him if everything is okay, and every time Kai responds with “I’m fine” or “it’s nothing important.” Part of Cole feels bad, and wonders if he’s being too pushy. But his concern for his boyfriend overpowers that minor worry.

Kai spends the majority of his time thinking over his departure. Where is he going? What is he going to do? Why is he leaving? He doesn’t have all the answers right away, but to him, that didn’t really matter. All that mattered to him was that he was a danger to those around him, and to keep the others safe, he had to take himself out of the picture for a while. At least until he got his powers back and could carry his own weight.

But he couldn’t leave. Not yet. He was going to wait until Lloyd came back home. He had to make sure he was going to be okay before he left. He had already failed him once, he didn’t want to make it worse by leaving without ensuring that he was in hands he could trust.

Lloyd comes back

Lloyd is finally able to be released from the hospital. The ninja have worked hard to get the monastery clean and ready for him to come back home. After what felt like forever, they would finally get to have him back.

The doctors gave strict orders that, even though Lloyd is stable enough to be released, that he must be given enough time to fully heal and recover from his injuries. No training, no fights, nothing. Just bed rest and lots of physical therapy sessions.

The gang brings Lloyd home and they all share very careful side hugs with their boy. Kai is so relieved to have Lloyd back, but he also knows that it was time for him to go.

They all sit down for dinner and the room is lighthearted. Everyone is laughing, cracking jokes, and enjoying each other's company. Except for Kai. He’s trying to fake it, but it’s painfully obvious that he just doesn’t have the energy. Nobody pushes him though, nor prods at him with questions. For once, Kai feels relieved that he isn’t being put under scrutiny.

Eventually, Kai excuses himself and heads to his room. He explains that it’s just a headache and that he was going to lay down for a bit.

After a short period of time, Cole gets up to go check on Kai. He knows it wasn’t just a headache.

(dialogue)

[[Cole: Hey babe, just wanted to check in on ya. Everything okay?

Kai: … jus’ not feeling well.

Cole: Do you want some company?

Kai: I’d rather be alone right now.

Cole: That’s okay. Just know that I’m here for you when you’re ready. I love you, Kai.

Kai: .. I love you too, Cole. I really do.

Cole: I know. I hope you sleep well, good night honey.

Kai: g’night, rocky.]]

Kai’s Departure

Later that night, everyone has gone to bed except for Kai. He’s laying in his bed, staring holes through the ceiling. He knew that he would leave once Lloyd came home. He was alive, recovering, and safe with everyone else now.

He gets up and starts packing the essentials. He realizes he’s gonna need different clothes for when he’s gone. There are multiple reasons for this. He needs to be less recognizable, he doesn’t want people to see him and immediately know who he is. His signature color reminds him of his failures, how his fire has both failed him in his times of need and hurt those around him. And most importantly, it reminds him of Lloyd’s blood that remained on him for so long. The way the blood dried on the fabric and never seemed to wash out from underneath his fingernails. He doesn’t like the color red anymore.

(as a characterization for his outfit, the colors are dark grey and black to resemble charcoal and ash. This is meant to be symbolic that his “fire” has been put out and that he has to find a way to “reginite” himself)

As Kai is putting together his new outfit, Wu walks in and sees what he’s doing.

[[Wu: Kai, what are you doing?

Kai: I’m.. I’m leaving.

Wu: Leaving? Why? Where are you going?

Kai: Master Wu, I.. I can’t do this anymore. I don’t have my powers, and I’m dragging everybody else down. I can’t even protect myself, let alone those I love, or even all of Ninjago. Everybody else has to pick up the slack that apparently I can’t carry on my own. People are getting hurt. My friends are getting hurt, Wu, and it’s my fault.

Wu: Is this about Lloyd?

Kai: Yes, yes of course it’s about Lloyd! He got hurt trying to protect me because I panicked and wasn’t paying attention. He could’ve died, and it would’ve been my fault.

Wu: Kai, you know he did that because he didn’t want you to get hurt. I’m sure you would have done the same.

Kai: Of course I would, but that doesn’t matter. There was- there was so much blood. He was crying and I had to keep pressure on the wound but it was hurting him and there wasn’t anything else I could do. There was so much blood, and it was everywhere. I was supposed to keep him safe. But I couldn’t because I don’t have my powers, again. You know how I reached my true potential because I realized I was supposed to protect the green ninja? Some fuckin’ protector I am, I couldn’t even keep him from getting shot and almost dying. AGAIN. It seems like every five minutes, I lose the only thing that makes me worth something!!

Wu: Kai-

Kai: You know, after all the years you’ve spent training us, training me, that I would be able to carry my own weight. But I can’t! I can’t and I don’t understand why! So- so I’m leaving. I can’t stand to see other people getting hurt, so I’m gonna go figure some things out. I’ll come back when I’m ready, but I just can’t do this right now. And don’t try to talk me out of this, I don’t wanna hear any-

Wu: I’m not going to try to talk you out of it.

Kai: -what?

Wu: Even if I tried to convince you otherwise, it is clear that your mind is made up. If this is what you have to do, and this is what you think is right, then go through with it. It is not my place to tell you what to do. You may be my student, but you are also a grown man and you are allowed to make your own decisions.

Kai: I.. wow I wasn’t expecting that..

Wu: I know, but I hope that it was better than hearing me chastise you and tell you that you weren’t allowed to leave.

Kai: Yeah, yeah it was better than that.

Wu: However, you must understand how your absence will affect the others. Have you told them that you’re leaving?

Kai: .. No.

Wu: They will be searching for answers, and they will most likely be looking for you.

Kai: I know. If they ask about me, you can tell them why I left. But don’t tell them where I’m going.

Wu: Why not?

Kai: Because even I don’t really know.

Wu: I understand. Please be safe, Kai. The monastery will always be your home, and we will be here for you when you are ready.

Kai: Thank you, Master Wu. Thank you.]]

Kai makes his way out, but as he is leaving, Lloyd looks out of his window. He sees Kai walk out of the monastery and into the night. But Lloyd is still in a sleepy daze, and immediately falls back asleep. He assumes it was all just a dream.

#ninjago #ninjago fanseason #ninjago a fire you can't put out #kai smith #lloyd garmadon #nya Smith #Cole brookstone #jay walker #zane julien #master wu #ninjago wu #ninjago misako #lavashipping #tw blood #tw gore #tw hospital #tw surgery #this isn't beta read just as a heads up lol

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kittydemon9000 · 3 years

Text

Okay so once again, 3 am thoughts have gifted me with yet another au. It is by no means original but screw it: SmithSwap

The only things I’m switching is their ages, so now Nya is the older one, but it. Gets. Fun.

For specifics, as of the Pilots/S1 Nya is 15 and Kai is 11, because I want bebe kai

Now, prior to Wu showing up, it’s pretty much the same as canon only with roles reversed. Nya mostly runs the shop while Kai is trying to everything he can to make things easier for his big sister, and I mean everything. The only one Nya doesn’t stop him from doing is cooking because Kai is the better chef, though neither can figure out why. Nya also likes to tell Kai stories of their parents since he can’t remember them too well, much to his disappointment.

ANYWAY, Wu shows up, Kai gets upset he’s insulting his sister’s work, then Skulkin show up. Kai does get snatched, much to Nya worry and canon continues.

Okay but also tiny spinoff, it also would’ve been hilarious if Nya still got kidnapped because then when the guys meet Kai they’d be like “who is this sassy lost child?”

So then while Nya’s training, I’m actually going to say what happened when Kai is captured.

You see, a side affect of being really freaking old is that your perception of time changes, specifically how long periods seem shorter. Garmadon decided that because of the prophecy it would be best to snatch the Master of Fire, who he thought would be Ray.

So you can imagine his surprise when his Skulkin bring in a kicking, screaming 11 year old child.

He is, understandably, not happy and very confused.

He sends the Skulkin away and tries his best talking with Kai. Like, as little malice as he can in a gentle voice, and he actually learns a few things. 1) both Ray and Maya went missing years ago, 2) these kids have no idea about anything regarding the Elemental Masters, 3) Kai’s sister has been raising him since their parents went missing, and she’s only four years older than him

Understandably, he is concerned, but also sees this as an opportunity. If he raises the Master of Fire to be loyal to him, then he’ll never want to fulfill his role in the prophecy, thus ensuring his victory. also he really misses lloyd and now when he returns he’ll have two kids!!! how amazing is that

So yeah Kai’s stay in the Underworld isn’t that bad. This Garmadon guy is pretty nice, tells him awesome stories about his parents, teaches him a bunch of things(mostly how to fight), and really just acts like the paternal figure he never had(Garmadad is canon, no matter what form you can fight me on this). The only part that sucks in Samukai, but he’s just a jerk and Garmadon makes sure he’ll never actually do anything to hurt him. He does miss Nya a lot though.

Anyway back with Nya and the guys.

They don’t actually know the exact reason why she was here at the beginning. All they know was that Wu originally left for the Master of Fire and came back with her instead. They know she has a brother, but aren’t quite sure how he falls into it.

They learn her full story the night they’re heading to the Temple of Fire, at which when they’re winding down Zane brings up how she never actually told them how she met Wu.

They are very concerned when they find out the whole story and swear they’ll help her get him back, which is nice.

Then she sees Kai But Actually Garmadon, follows, and bam Sword of Fire time. She isn’t able to fully use it, but she’s able to get a few sparks. However, things then start to take a turn for the worst.

Kai is actually here, very confused why Garmadon’s having him tied to the ceiling, but hey Nya’s here! But then oh no he then realizes that Garmadon is the bad guy, which gets him upset and more then a little betrayed.

Seeing him hurt his sister, the one of raised him, actually has Kai pick up the sword and use his powers. Under normal circumstances, it probably wouldn’t have been bigger than a few sparks, however Kai has his big sister in danger, dealing with the betrayal of an almost father figure, holding the Sword of Fire, and being surrounded by his element.

So yeah. Not that small of a fire.

The guys and Wu are actually able to to witness the truly incredible fire blast he lets out from the camp, put two and two together, and start heading over. Wu didn’t follow Nya…..because plot and was the able to help them fight off the Skulkin.

Anyway, it’s more than enough to dissipate the shadows, however it also wakes up the dragon. Garmadon, who is sort of panicking because That Was Not Supposed To Happen, ends up scooping up an unconscious Kai and the Sword and retreating to the underworld, leaving behind a very pissed Nya and an equally pissed Fire Dragon.

But yeah, Nya deals with the dragon, they get the other ones and head to the Underworld with Wu this time, and he’s actually the reason they’re able to get past all the Skulkin.

But yeah, Samukai gets vaporized and Garmadon about to leave when a feverish Kai makes his way in and begs Garmadon to not do it and that they can fix things.

And Garmadon….actually pauses for a second and you can see the conflict in his eyes before he shakes his head and says “there’s no going back for me” and walks through. Kai then collapses and the end up heading back home.

As for what’s up with Kai, who would’ve guessed tapping into a kind of power you aren’t supposed to have access to yet in a high stress situation would be bad for the body. He has a really bad fever but he’s fine after a few days.

The few month timeskip in between the Pilots and S1 is mostly spent training Kai, so they have quite a bit less free time. However when S1 starts and Kai hears about Lord Garmadon, he actually wants to check it out himself first.

So yeah, he meets Lloyd by himself and it actually doesn’t go that badly. Kai actually buys some candy for them to share and they leave the town, and Kai actually starts talking with him. Eventually the topic comes up about Garmadon and Kai gives a rough basis about how he sort of got kidnapped, and then his work in progress plan of making him good again. Lloyd is completely down with seeing his dad again and says how they could probably get his dads attention if their got their own evil army.

And because they’re both stupid kids, neither of which have had parents before, Kai thinks it’s a great idea.

So yeah. That’s why they find the Serpentine here.

Ofc, it isn’t a right away type thing. It takes them about a month before they find the Hypnobrai Tomb, and Kai just plays off all his time spent out as him having made a friend, which they can’t exactly argue with.

Ofc, canon still happens and when Kai was busy training Lloyd ended up finding the tomb and releasing the Serpentine, and they do their regular Canon Nonsense.

However, Kai is not too happy about the whole Attack Villages things and after a bit comes clean to the ninja about their original plan. They very much aren’t happy, but admit his heart was in the right place and they doubt he’d pull something like this again.

Fast-forward a bit more, Kai is mostly chill with Zane’s “weirdness” and unfortunately stays home when the Hypnobrai burn down the Monestary. It’s only because the dragons were able to get out and protect him that he was still alive. Nya’s actually the one who yells at Zane this time around because again. Kai almost died, but it’s all cool later and they find the Bounty :D

Anyway, Canon again continues. Kai is still really good with the dragons and is a little upset they need to leave. He also gets along really well with Ed and Edna. Then when Lloyd joins Kai is a little….well he doesn’t hate him but he does spend a while avoiding him.

Eventually Nya has enough of their dancing around each other and locks them both in the same room so they can talk it out. Turns out the reason Kai was avoiding him was because Lloyd’s betrayal really hurt since they were supposed to do it to find Garmadon, not hurt people. They have a tearful apology, then Kai learns how much of a jerk the Serpentine were and is like “the next time I see any I’ll protect you, since you’re like my little brother and as a big brother it’s my job to keep you safe”

Now it’s Samurai Time :)

You see, this time around Kai has double reasons for being the Samurai. 1) Yeah, he hates being left behind and wants to be involved but also 2) he wants to keep his big sister and big brothers safe

So yeah, that happens. He does think it’s pretty funny when they keep trying and failing to one up him though.

But then :) He gets captured with Lloyd :)))

So yeah, that sucks but it only gets worse because while Kai was able to “summon” his Samurai Mech, he had to send it off to get the ninja away. So that sucks.

Garmadon eventually shows up to help since the Serpentine stole both his kids, much to Nya’s chagrin.

Then comes the freaking Volcano Scene and this one is from Nya when she rescues Kai, then has to choose between Lloyd or the Fangblade. She ends up unlocking her True Potential by essentially leaving behind all negative feels she had for Lloyd and accepting him under her protection just like she did Kai.

The sheer torrent of water easily cools all the lava and thoroughly soaks them. But hey, even Kai has to admit being wet is better than being burnt alive. Also when the ninja start wondering aloud why the Samurai didn’t help Kai bashfully admits he was the Samurai, and this thoroughly impresses the ninja since Kai is like, 12 at this point.

Uhhhh, S2 isn’t too different. Kai is super happy that the dragons are back and is easily Ultra’s favorite. He isn’t hit with either Garms spell nor the Tomorrows Tea, but is there to comfort Lloyd and says that even though he got hit with some magic stuff Kai is still going to protect him since he’s still his older brother. On the Dark Island Kai is heartbroken Nya got corrupted and swears he’ll help fix her. When Garmadon gets purified Kai looses his shit and gets so excited since let’s goooooo not only is his dad not evil anymore they can go out in public together :DDDD

S3, also not too different. During the whole Love Triangle nonsense Kai’s just sitting there so confused. Also Pixal joins team Kai’s Older Siblings. Him getting captured was just him being at the wrong place wrong time. He has a really fun time time in space though, which was nice.

But uh. Then Zane hecking dies, which hits everyone really hard, especially Kai. Only this time, Nya ends up taking Kai back to Ignacia and opens up the forge again, pretty much cutting all contact with the other ninja, Wu and Garmadon. While it might’ve been boring and lonely, at least in Ignacia they were safe.

Kai is…honestly really miserable, but hides it well. He can barely get up some mornings, but does so anyway since he’s desperately trying to act like things are normal, despite how Nya doesn’t talk very much. He misses the other ninja a lot, even Pixal despite not knowing her for very long, but doesn’t want to tell Nya since again, trying to make things normal again. Nya also doesn’t let him out of the house too often, only really if she’s there to watch him.

This routine goes on for about two months, until Lloyd shows up to try and get everyone back together. And Nya.....Nya doesn’t like that.

She and Lloyd end up having a bit of a passive aggressive argument that is progressively getting louder until Kai just. Snaps.

He yells at them to stop fighting, how they’re acting so horribly and that he wished things could go back to normal, how Zane wouldn’t want this and that he’d be disappointed in them.

The two visibly flinch.

Then Kai realizes exactly what he just said and who he said it to. And he runs.

Nya and Lloyd both spend some time in silence, mulling over what Kai just said because he was right. Zane would hate what’s become of the team and how they separated.

Nya ends up being the one to break the silence, asking Lloyd where and when to meet.

When Kai doesn’t return from the woods, she ends up leaving a note before she leaves, explaining where she’s going and how she’s sorry.

Meanwhile, Kai is having a slight breakdown in a Tree Base he made years ago.

But yeah, fast forward a bit and Kai’s getting ready to sneak onto Chen’s Island, but in a slightly different way than canon. Instead he takes a slightly experimental ship that’s basically a smaller Bounty which he calls the Destiny’s Wish. Think of the comparison like a Car vs a Go Cart. Comfortably, it can fit 2 people long term, but for quick trips can carry as many as 10, but it’ll be a tight fit and the Wish might have some trouble flying.

So yeah, he’s on his own and he doesn’t arrive until a few hours before the EMs all get dropped from the plane. Shade is actually the one to find him first, but has a moment of pause since Literal Child and gives Kai enough time to kick him into a tree and run. The whole chase actually lasts about two hours but unfortunately Kai isn’t able to get back to the Wish and gets caught.

Now for the fun part :)

So all the EMs(and I do mean all because he wanted to “thank them for their contribution”) are in the throne room, their powers snatched, when Chen said aloud “But it is such a shame that we don’t have the Master of Fire, the we’d be able to complete the spell.” and for the briefest second the Ninja Fam are relieved but then Chen does a whole “SIKE, WE GOT HIM” and has some of the guards bring Kai out.

The Ninja are, understandably, freaking out. The EMs kinda are too since Child but only a little bit and it’s not personal

But then just as Chen’s about to snatch his fire, Kai starts saying how Chen cheated since Kai never got to play in a match. Chen refutes it since His Game His Rules but then Kai says that age old statement to get siblings to do Stupid Shit: “What are you, scared?”

Chen is not scared, thank you very much. And you know what, since you’re so confident fine, you now get your own challenge!

So yeah, now Kai has his own challenge.

What is it you might ask?

A vertical obstacle course with a time limit. If Kai doesn’t grab the Jade Blade, the exit closes.

Not that bad you might think. After all, Kai’s been training with the ninja for the past year, he’s probably got this in the bag.

Yeah welllllllll, a little bird told might have told Chen that a certain Master of Fire couldn’t swim.....so he uses Nya’s power to gradually fill up the room and forcing him up.

Surprise surprise, it was rigged against him. I’m talking platforms having false bottoms, ladders being oiled, high pressure water jets to knock him off, the works.

Kai is so close to making it. So close..... but Chen can’t have that happen now can he :)

So yeah, Kai ends up falling in and Nya almost drags all the EMs into the water trying to get him.

Luckily it’s at that moment Lloyd bursts in with Garmadon, frees the EMs and gets Chen’s staff. The EMs bust out and just as Nya’s about to dive in the whole thing starts draining, like an enormous whirlpool.

You see Chen actually thought ahead and realized that “hey, if the kid dies he’ll loose his power” so he made a plan that when Kai was going to fall in, he would use one of the tubes that shot water but in verse and suck him in. Luckily he was able to pull it off before the gem was smashed because if not MMM.

So yeh, Kai is now captured, but still on the island. Skylor reluctantly copies his powers(she got sort of close with Nya and this is the little brother she was gushing about), and Anacondrai happens. However, the two are able to escape, Skylor’s actually able to figure out the Summon Dragon thing, and then they head back to the main group.

Then comes the inevitable question of “how did you get here anyway?” and then Kai shows them The Wish. He actually ends up flying back with Garmadon before all the EMs learn how to Summon Dragon so they can warn people about the ensuing danger.

So yeah, they head out, the Pythor thing happens, canon then Sad because Garm still needs to do the whole sacrifice thing D:

That one hits Lloyd and Kai really hard, but they both use each other for comfort so it isn’t as bad as it could’ve been.

But yeah, this is getting long so tbc for a part 2 :DDD

#Smith swap au #kai #kai smith #nya #nya smith #ninjago #info dump

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hugthepanda12 · 3 years

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Bobo rant

Ok, @narvana27 this one’s for you coz I’ve mustered up some motivation to finally write some analyses just like you or @medeaminte

This one will cover our beautiful Brazillian boy Raimundo Pedrosa. Some spoilers are inevitable to mention, but the main focus is on the episode titled ‘The Return of Master Monk Guan’.

1.1 short synopsis of the episode:

Master Fung, seeing how the forces of evil grew in power, decides to send monks to another temple for their training. It turns out the new master that is destined to teach them is Master Monk Guan.

As for his methods, they are surprisingly cruel. Our heroes are not allowed to take breaks or even ASK QUESTIONS! Guan becomes that horrible general in military school who likes when cadets are blindly following his orders and train to the point they collapse due to severe exhaustion.

Rai, of course, sees that the way Guan treats his students is unfair and stands up for the rest. Which ends up bad for him. Guan punishes him with additional training and what is worse humiliates him through giving him insulting nicknames! Later on, the audience learns that this disrespectful behaviour of Master Guan was intentional. What is more, Raimundo knows about it as well. It was a part of the agreement between them, reached off screen without the knowledge of the other monks. The main goal of such a strategy was to lure Hannibal Roy Bean out of his hiding, let him believe Rai is ready to turn to the Heylin side (again) and snatch the Treasure of the Blind Swordsman from his little evil vines.

As the episode reaches its end, this plan as well ends in success. Bean is mad as hell and promises Raimundo that he’ll pay for it. Yeah, yeah happy ending. Cool. Rai gets one of the Spears of Guan as a gift for a succesfull colaboration with Master Monk Guan bla blah

BUT!

Even if it was all the play on Guan and Rai’s part throughout the whole episode, in my opionion Guan was too harsh anyway. I get it. He had to be plausible, but man... Rai literally cried when he banished him from the temple!

And this is an issue I wanted to talk about.

1.2. Let’s look at all ‘nicknames’ Guan came up with for Raimundo.

1. Young prince 2. bobo

3. someone dark, ruthless, shady, rebelious

I WANT TO PROVE RAI. IS. NOT. ANY OF THESE.

1.2.1.The insult ‘young prince’ (or princess) is often used when a young person is too lazy to finish chores or he/she is not willing to do them at all. Maybe it was Raimundo in s01, although he had never said ‘no’ to master Fung. He just wanted to go easy way, like swiping the dirt under the sofa instead of getting rid of it in a proper way. But mind you, it is season 3 and this boy has changed a lot. Sometimes you don’t have to work hard to get your task done. All it takes is an adequate situation assessment and good organisation of your work.

It looks as if Guan just doesn’t get it. Just like how vital breaks are in order to rise productivity.

Rai made a right decision to stop training and lay on the grass. He knows what’s good for him and he stands by this intention to REST. Life is not ALWAYS about saving the world. He’s just a kid. Just like Omi, Kimiko or Clay. He’s defending his boundaries, but it appears no one’s respecting that choice.

1.2.2. What about Bobo? Up to this day I thought that Guan wanted to underline that Rai acts like a clown, so he gave him a clown name. However, I came across this site. And guess. Bobo in Portuguese means ‘silly.’

And my question is: Did Guan know? Hmm!? Did you know about it, Guan? If yes, I’m very disappointed in you. ‘Silly little clown boy’ - this is what Rai is? No, it’s not like he was the only one brave enough to fight Mala Mala Jong... or EVEN OMI when he turned heylin!

It’s not like he has feelings or something... He’s the fun guy! Always chill! Not allowed to cry! His purpose is to entertain the rest, righ?

NO. Rai is not only a capable warrior but also a very dedicated friend, who can sacrifice ANYTHING in order to save the rest. Let’s ennumerate how many people he saved throughout the series. People who live near the vulcano in Brazil, that Lady who turned out to be the Bird of Paradise.... OMI. The rest of his team a couple of times...

And what is more, every encounter TAUGHT HIM SOMETHING or had left some scars. He was possessed by Wuya, got beat up, and constantly he is accused of having EVIL TENDENCIES. What? Because ONE TIME he betrayed them? And that betrayal was justified because he felt hella ineadequate?

But yeah, Guan. Go on. He is just silly to get all the punches for the team. It’s not like he isn’t bothered when the forces of evil are victorious.

Not at all.

1.2.3. Ok, I agree Rai is rebelious, but as I mentioned earlier - HE HAS REASONS to be that way. He feels something is wrong - he exclaims why this is wrong and tries to FIX IT with the help or without it. The thing is, in s1-2 prefers facing problems alone due to that inadequacy he’s often reminded of by his peers. It’s sad to see that monks never realised Raimundo feels that way. Luckily, in season 3 Rai grew as a character. He displays more and more leader characteristics. He comes up with better strategy and is ore connected to his friends. As a result their cooperation during fights is on a higher level, just like in the last showdown in that alternate timeline.

DARK, RUTHLESS, SHADY. - those are lies and I won’t comment on that

He can be ruthless only if someone hurts his family and friends. They’re gonna pay for that. Respect Rai for that.

2. My opinion on ‘ The Return of Master Monk Guan’

2.1. Guan’s behaviour - this post is about it. Just wanted to add he is very inconsistent as a character and writers probably had no idea how to write him so they just randomly threw him to some plot points in order to give episodes smooth flow between scenes.

But yeah in that particular ep Guan is a jerk. First kidnapping Dojo, then overworking children only to kick out the most responsible one outta his temple with numerous sculptures of him, Dashi and replicas of his fav spear.

2.2 Monks’ behaviour - wanted to help, turned out bad. Omi as always was questioning Rai’s value and laughed at him bc of his new nicknames. Very mature of the chosen one, really.

2.3 My review

This episode was good because:

1. It's rai-centered

2. He put to use that clever brain of his and gave master Guan the idea how to retrieve the most powerful wu from Bean

3. He can KICK ASS, only refuses to use that against his friends. 4. good preparation for cheeseball to reconsider he's NOT ALWAYS THE BEST and should be aware of Raimundo's skills

2.4. Summary

Raimundo Pedrosa has one of the best character developments in animation history but most importantly he is the complete opposite of those things the other characters tell him he is. He learns from his mistakes and utilises the knowledge for his benefit to protect what he believes is right. He’s very compassionate young man, who can do great things and he WILL with guidance of his temple family.

But most importantly, he well deserved the position of the Xiaolin Leader. His name is not Bobo. Only Raimundo Pedrosa. Good friend, leader, warrior, the future hope for making the world a better place.

#xiaolin showdown #s03e07 #the return of master monk guan #bobo rant #xs analysis #panda writes an analysis #raimundo pedrosa #in this blog we love raimundo pedrosa #master monk guan #guan #guan vs rai #omi #character analysis #raimundo character analysis #bobo #still thinking naming Rai bobo was xs crew's move done on purpose

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jackdaniel69nice · 4 years

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Ninjago ATLA au Book 3: Earth

Books 1, Book 2

Harumi gathers her friends, Skylor and Vania to to help her find Lloyd

While in the swamp Lloyd learns from Bolobo about the connection between all living things and sees a bright flash of light and energy and two boys. He decides to follow the connection and arrives at the Walkers.

He meets Jay, an inventor and quite frankly a genius. He invites them to stay with them for awhile which is great because they’re firenation and fugitives and should stay out of big towns

When Lloyd mentions he’s searching for an earth bending master of course he points out Karlof, a strong man who’s said to be able to bend metal but his harsh treatment and cocky attitude don’t sit with Lloyd (or Kai) and Jay says he may know someone else.

They meet Cole at night. At first he’s off putting and cold (Jay said he would be, you just gotta warm up to him) and he’s suspicious of them but by Jay’s convincing he says he’ll “think about it”. Kai isn’t impressed and Cole puts him in the ground...literally.

They go into town to get supplies. They are quick to learn that the Walkers have a...reputation...here.

“Strange things go on out there girly don’t go associating with those people..”

“What do you mean?”

“Flashes of light, loud booms, quakes that shake the very mountain. It’s witchcraft.”

Unfortunately the attention had not escaped the local army and they tried to take them for “causing a public disturbance”. But Jay’s quick on his feet and leads them to a safe place, which just so happens to be Cole’s house.

Now they know Cole’s rich and dances competitively like his father, though he doesn’t seem to be happy about it. Cole takes them back through a tunnel, apparently the same one he had used yesterday to sneak out. The mysterious glowing lights guide them along. Cave of two lovers anyone ;)

They have a bit of fun talking, Cole really can be nice once he’s not so pent up. He says he’ll come by latter tonight. Jay say he wants to show them something. It’s an invention, he shows them the water wheel, a motor that generates electricity. It’s what made the lights in the tunnel and powers an assortment of other devices he has. Nya’s stoked (haha get it like to stoke the fire)

They are finished in a few days which is good because they have stayed in one place for a little to long and things are going to go sour. It turns out one of the people in the military was able to recognize Lloyd and sent for backup. An earth bending army is coming to capture them.

They meet nightly still. It’s mostly just chatting and relaxing. Of course the army ambushes them so Jay and Cole not only find out they are from the fire nation, but that Lloyd is the prince. There’s only a few moments to talk but even without much explanation Cole and Jay give them enough time to get to Ultra (is that a dragon!) and help them get away.

They have to make a decision, if they stay they’ll be arrested for treason, if they leave and go with them they will be leaving their families behind. Ed and Edna push for Jay to leave, only wanting his safety. Really they had already made their decision. They rejoin the others before they can get out of range.

It’s still not over yet though. Cole demands answers but they are able to get a hold of Ulta and start to bring them down. Cole tries his best to defend against the assailing rocks but is quickly overwhelmed. Lloyd can only watch as they fall into the arms of the earth nation army. When Cole gets injured it’s the last straw, his avatar state awakens and he decimates the army.

So now the earth nation, Cole, and Jay know the fire lord’s son is the avatar. They explain their past and struggles and how they need to defeat Garmadon before the solstice. Cole is still wary but understands their need for lying, more then they would know. Jay never really doubted them (in fact it’s really exciting, real life fire benders!) but he can’t help but wonder what’s going to become of his parents.

Other stuff happens like Morro and Wu’s traveling and the team facing off against Harumi. They meet a bunch of Pirates and Jay steals a lightning bending scroll from Captain Nadakhan (because Lloyd needs to learn duh! And maybe it will help me with some of my inventions... just a little) /

Cole’s mother died fighting in the war. They were very close and she taught him everything she knows about bending. It’s how he learns seismic-sense. Lilly always preached about about being one with the earth and nature and how important it it to give back to it just as much as you take.

Cole’s training is basically to climb a mountain and sit in a field of flowers and “listen to the earth”. They do this for days. Cole will tell stories and they’ll have a laugh. They bond a lot get to know each each other better.

But Lloyd is impatient, he doesn’t want to just sit around, people are dieing in this war and he needs to learn earth bending fast. They get in a fight. Lloyd says he doesn’t care about the stupid plants and needs to learn real earth bending. Cole decimated the entire field in an instant and leaves.

Lloyd is distraught, this place was where he got to know Cole and really become friends with him. He KNOWS this place deep down, right to his core. How it feels, how it moves, how it lives...but it’s all gone, buried under a mountain of rock and dirt. He cries and mourns, what has he done?

Jay talks to Cole who is just as upset and goes to talk to Lloyd, it’s almost night now and he still hasn’t come back. He tells Lloyd about Lilly. How the earth was something special he shared with her and was the only connection to her he has left. Cole wasn’t trying to teach him earth bending (I mean he was...), he was trying to connect to Lloyd, the same way he connected to his mother. Lloyd feels a lot worse after that but that wasn’t the point Jay was trying to make.

“If you felt that same connection he did, if you care about this place, then fix it”

“How?”

“Bend”

So he does

He works all night to remove the rubble. The next morning Cole comes back because Lloyd still didn’t come home. He finds the field, different but still familiar, has returned and a sleeping lloyd in a pile of crushed flowers. Lloyd immediately tries to apologize but Cole just wraps him up in a hug and they go back down the mountain.

They are traveling again and hear about the The Lost City of Ouroboros, a place filled with all knowledge guarded by a serpentine spirit. Obviously they check it out and discover the solar eclipse, they have an invasion plan. But with a cruel twist of fate Ultra is stolen right out from under Cole and they have to get to Ba Sing Sei on foot. Lloyd is torn up, he’s stressed, all he really wants to do is go home, for everything to back to how it used to. When they find the people who took Ultra...they never stood a chance.

They get to Ba Sing Sei and find it under attack. Using his technical know-how Jay is able to take out the drill from the inside. They get Ultra back and are eventually able to have a meeting with the earth king despite General Kozu and the Stone Army’s interference. Earth King Dareth agrees to help with the invasion plan after some coaxing.

The team temporarily splits up. Now that they arnt criminals anymore Cole and Jay are able to visit their parents. Kai and Nya receive word from the northern water tribe about possible information on what happened to their parents, Kai decides to go to the South Pole and look for them. Lloyd tries to master the Avatar state. Nya is excited to reunite with Pixal but Harumi worms her way in under the disguise of a Samurai-X warrior and takes over the Stone Army for herself.

Meanwhile Wu and Morro had opened up their own tea shop Steep Wisdom and are living pretty peacefully until Harumi captures Morro. They return to Wu telling them about Morro and Nya’s capture, they go to the crystal catacombs and the fight begins.

Lloyd finds that while he has an arsenal of elements to his call he can’t match up with Harumi’s abilities and the Stone Army. His avatar state becomes blocked once she tells him Garmadon sent her to kill him, and she does so.

Morro makes the wrong choice and sides with Harumi. He attackes Cole and Jay while Kai and Nya are busy fighting Skylor and Vania. Wu tries to stop him but he still ends up hurting Cole and knocking him out.

Jay’s weapons are shot and it’s easy to tell they’re losing, soon they will be captured. It’s a hard choice but with his friends in danger he would do anything to protect them. He uses lightning, not some little invention, real lightning bending. Who knew! (Probably you)

It gives them the edge they need for Kai and Nya to break free, they grab Lloyd and Cole and run. Wu gives them time and Nya has to use the spirit water to revive Lloyd. The earth kingdom falls.

Book 4

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valiantly-onward · 4 years

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The Serpentine War Ch. 14

Chapter 14: Amass

They were a somber, silent group when they landed in the forest. The cover of trees felt strange after so long in the rocky hills, and it was colder here.

Wu’s dragon vanished just as the Alliance began to gather. Among them, Wu found two injured Masters: Lorin, who appeared to have taken a blow to the head, and Maya, who was rolling her eyes as both Ray and Haru fretted over a cut in her shoulder.

“I’m fine.” She was vehement about it. Haru seemed to be handling the bandages nicely, so Wu instead knelt by Lorin. Lei and Asher hovered over him.

“A Hypnobrai got him as we were heading out,” Lei explained. She looked shaken, but that was a problem for another time. With some effort, she and Asher lifted Lorin to sitting position.

For a dreadful moment, Wu thought the Master of Earth might be dead. Then he lifted his head, groaning.

“This,” he muttered, “is why I always wear a helmet. Where is it?”

Lei pulled it from the grass behind her. “The Hypnobrai knocked it off.”

“Buggers.” Lorin took it from her. He squinted deeply, touched his bloodied temple, and continued, “Where’s Hanna?”

No one replied. Lorin turned his head, dark hair plastered with sweat and blood and dirt. His eyes found Ray. “Ray. Where’s Hanna?”

Ray straightened away from Maya, his expression flashing raw shame. “Lorin, there was an Anacondrai general. I tried -”

But now Lorin was scrambling to his feet, lilting a little as he did. The stones trembled around his feet. He looked very much like he wanted to throw himself at Ray, but Wu stepped in. He would not have his Masters killing each other.

“Lorin.” He caught the brawny man firmly around his armored shoulders. “Calm yourself.”

Lorin disregarded this. “You swore to me!” he roared at Ray. “You - you -”

He swayed on his feet. Wu helped Lei guide the man back to the ground and glanced at Ray with concern. Helplessness flashed across the young Master’s face, and anger. Wu knew this. He had trained this. Ray was furious with himself.

Before Wu could stop him, the Master of Fire stormed off into the trees.

No one spoke but Lorin, who continued to moan under his breath. “She was right there. She was right there.” He ground his helmet into the dirt and growled. “How did this happen?”

“Calm yourself,” Wu repeated, as much to himself as to Lorin. “The Serpentine do not harm their prisoners. Hanna is safe for the time being.”

Lorin fell silent, but the pain spilled out through his gaze. This was a blow with only one cure.

“Well, what do we do now?” Vivian asked from the midst of the other Masters. Her blonde hair danced around her head in a frizzy, lightning-induced halo. She laid her palms flat in the air before her. “The treaty’s broken, Lorin’s village is taken, the Serpentine have made it through the pass, and now there’s nothing to stop them from marching toward Ninjago City! It’s thirteen of us against an army! What do we have? And if you say hope, I’m gonna lose my mind.”

Everyone looked at Wu. Wu looked at Garmadon. Garmadon looked at the ground.

“I’m afraid,” Wu began, “that we cannot continue this war without help.” Garmadon finished the thought. “We need to mobilize the villagers as we move north. Lorin’s village included.”

“And the villages left behind?” Maya pointed out.

“We’ll evacuate them,” Garmadon assured her. He unfolded his arms with a glance at Wu. “I hate to split our forces, but -”

“But we must.” Wu let his staff hang horizontal at his side. “Vivian, you and the twins will go before us and evacuate every village from here to the north. Krux, you will lead them. Get all the villagers to Ninjago City. If worst comes to worst, perhaps we can make a stand there.”

There was silence for a moment. No one wanted to even think about what would happen if the Serpentine made it that far.

Lorin climbed to his feet. His gaze was darker than usual, but unbroken, and that was enough for now. “And the rest of us?”

“We will mobilize the villagers, as Garmadon said,” Wu answered. “We will slow the Serpentine down while we find a way to stop them.”

That was that. Wu directed Lorin to lead the women and children partway to the next town - they had a lot of walking ahead of them. He sent Vivian and the twins to talk maps with Haru while Garmadon set some of the Masters on lookout. Maya vanished to find Ray.

“Brother,” Wu said, when all was done. “I need to speak with you.”

Garmadon nodded. They stepped into the trees just far enough out of earshot. Garmadon leaned against a pine trunk and busily brushed dirt off his black tabi boots. “Without Kandoras, the Serpentine are less divided. I don’t know if I can exploit those divisions.”

“Kandoras was an asset,” Wu agreed, thinking of the old snake’s disdain for war, so uncommon among Serpentine. His son, Fangdam, would not be as insistent to stop fighting the ones who killed his father.

If they killed his father.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Garmadon said. “But there’s no way to prove it. For all we know, it could’ve been a human.”

“But it wasn’t.”

Garmadon looked unconvinced. In fact, he appeared entirely convinced of the opposite.

Wu frowned. “Garmadon. What are you not telling me?”

Garmadon took a long moment to respond. “I think I know who did this. But give me time to figure it out. If I can, it may work in our favor.”

The darkness in his tone was worrying. Still, Garmadon had never given Wu any reason not to trust him. If he needed time, Wu would give him time.

“Very well,” Wu replied. “Then we move forward?”

Garmadon pushed himself off the tree. “We move forward.”

~~~

The Alliance stayed in the Forest of Tranquility for a few days, minus Vivian and the Masters of Time. Wu wished Lorin could use patrol to stay busy, but with Hanna gone, the man struggled to form his Elemental dragon. So it was Sam Pale and Dojin who patrolled the countryside for the Serpentine army behind and the uncharted group of Constrictai out there somewhere in the Western Sea of Sand. If the Alliance hoped to protect Ninjago City at all, they would be fighting a battle from both the south and the east.

Garmadon rallied the citizens of Ninjago. With each village they passed, they gathered more men and women who wanted to fight. It wouldn’t be enough against Anacondrai warriors, and each furtive glance between Wu and his brother betrayed that knowledge. But it was all they had.

At night, they studied the maps. Stretching from the Glacier Barrens nearly to the mountains where the monastery lay, there was one obstacle.

“Birchwood Forest,” Garmadon said, his finger on the parchment. He jotted something indecipherable in the map’s margin - Garmadon always had terrible handwriting, even when they were children - then continued, “If there’s one thing snakes hate, it’s the cold.”

Haru, Master of Ice and their partner-in-maps, smiled amiably beneath his white beard. “And a frozen forest stands between them and conquest.”

Wu leaned on his staff and studied the blotch of white that was the Birchwood. “They’ll be weaker. Unfortunately, weak for an Anacondrai is still very strong.”

“Brother, you underestimate us.” Garmadon smiled and straightened with his fists braced against the table. “Remember that nice man I picked up from that village a few days ago?”

“No?”

“Well, this particular nice man is actually a veteran of the Royal Guard in Ninjago City.” Garmadon tipped his head to the side in a so-so manner. “Give it a week or two, we’ll have the villagers in fighting shape.”

Wu tried not to be dry as he repeated, “Fighting shape.”

“Very.”

“You’re...chipper.”

Crooked Smile Copyright Garmadon made an appearance again. “They’re completely useless, Wu, even more than your Masters. I will make sure they don’t get themselves killed.”

“There he is,” Wu declared. “Just checking. So, Birchwood is our stand, then?”

Haru and Garmadon both nodded. Whatever pipes held Wu’s emotion most of the time, they leaked a little now. He had known these two men for so long - Haru for centuries, and Garmadon for all the long years of his life. If they failed, at least it wouldn’t be for want of trying. And if they died, it would be as true comrades and friends.

Misako was the only one missing.

Wu dismissed himself before this feeling could worm its way to the surface. He strode out of the tent and through the camp, now always crowded - no longer with twelve or thirteen of them, but dozens of countrymen and kin.

Had Misako received his letter? There had been no reply. His heart had bled onto paper, and it petrified him to think it had been in vain. Or worse - not in vain, but in poor timing. A ruined chance. A lost chance.

What a torturous thought. She was safe, at least. Wu didn’t need to worry about her life as well as her heart. But even though Lorin’s wife was lost to them, at least Lorin had her love, and she his. If either of them died, they had no unsaid words between them. Yes, Wu had been right to send the letter. Even if he was killed, or rejected, at least she knew. The secret wouldn’t die with him.

Someone was calling his name.

“Master Wu! Master Wu?”

It was one of Garmadon’s villagers friends, a short, fair-haired man with his hat in his hands. He was looking to Wu expectantly. Other villagers stood anxiously behind him.

“What are the orders, sir?” he asked. “Are we moving out?”

Wu stared at them.

Courage. I would tell you courage, but I don’t know anyone braver.

“Yes,” Wu replied. He raised his voice louder. “Spread the word to pack the camp! We make for Birchwood Forest today.”

@greenygreenland

#the serpentine war #ninjago #ninjago fic #garmadon #master wu

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wastetimeandtype · 3 years

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KUVIRA WINS STORY/ NEXT AVATAR (SUMMARY)

--I’m not going to finish this. I haven’t touched the story in years. Honestly I just don’t want to write something as bleak as this story anymore, I was in a weird place when I came up with this. However, I am still fond of it, and I think it’s some of my more solid writing (I wrote 25k) if you can forgive the more edgelord elements, but I won’t be finishing it. I will say this was never meant to be tonally similar nor do I want this story to happen in canon, it was just an extreme ending to book 4 I found interesting to explore.

CONTWNT WARNING: This takes an extremely uncharitable view of Kuvira and is overall pretty depressing, so be forewarned that this story summary mentions death and one instance of rape.

So, general backstory:

- The hummingbird suits fail and they don’t manage to enter the colossus. Jinora is seriously injured, and the group try and regroup but are captured.

- Kuvira drugs Korra with the toxin that incapacitated her that time in Zaofu the Red Lotus tried to kidnap her. Kuvira executes Bolin, Varrick and Zhu-Li for betraying her (this story is bleak...)

- Kuvira tries to win Korra over by talking to her and appealing that they’re similar. This doesn’t work, and also Kuvira just executed Bolin. Anyway she eventually gets pissed and tortures Asami and Mako in front of Korra. Korra manages to break through to the Avatar State but as she is poisoined she is not all powerful and Kuvira manages to kill her. Korra dies surrounded by Korra and Asami.

- In the months that follow, Hiroshi Sato and Asami and encouraged to work for Kuvira. Asami is aghast and the two plan an escape. Hiroshi dies in the escape attempt. Asami looks around the cells for Mako, but she can’t find him- at this point, they hadn’t seen eachother since Korra died and he was moved. She leaves Republic City by boat, vowing to take back the city. (note. Hiroshi’s fate was never fully decided, but I didn’t write him into my first draft so i assume I meant for him to be dead).

- Wu, meanwhile, managed to escape the encroaching forces from Kuvira as many of the refugees were evacuated to the Fire Nation just before full control was given. He then lives there in political exile.

- The Fire Nation declares war on Kuvira’s regime after they get confirmation that the Avatar is dead, along with the Water Tribes. Kuvira makes good progress conquering some of the islands, but the Fire Nation manages to make Hummingbird suits which destroys the mecha, and out of desperation starting making their own spirit nukes. This forces the war to a stalemate to aavoid further huge losses. However, they do not sign a peace treaty, only a cessation of fighting. Kuvira releases some political prisoners like Iroh and the Air Nation as a sign of goodwill but Izumi and the Fire Nation won’t sign a treaty without the return of sovereignty to the United Republic. Kuvira refuses.

- Kuvira renames Republic City to Empire City, because originality, and makes it the capital. She rules the nation under an iron fist. All benders are made to register, with fire and waterbenders being treated the worst.

- MEANWHILE Kuvira released Opal (airbender) but not the rest of the Beifongs. Opal is PISSED. She teams up with Asami and set up the United Republic Liberation Front, with volunteers from refugees from all over the world.

- Whilst this is happening, Zaheer and the Red Lotus’s ideology sees a resurgence of popularity and Zaheer is broken out of his prison to lead the Red Lotus. So we now have to rebel factions, and the URLF does not trust the Red Lotus because of the whole trying to murder Korra thing, and the Red Lotus doesn’t like that they plan to put Wu on the throne in the Earth Kingdom.

- The Air Nation relocates to the Fire Nation, but some like Meelo join the URLF, and some rejoin the Red Lotus. The Air Nation implicitly opposses the Earth Empire so any airbender is viewed as a terrorist.

- The Fire Nation implicitly support the URLF, the Earth Empire knows it, but the two nations are still at a stalemate due to the spirit nukes.

- Opal and Asami begin a relationship out of shared grief (they have lost their family, friends, and romantic interest (Asami didn’t even get to date Korra). They also vow to try and rescue Mako, as they don’t know what happened to him, but they suspect he’s imprisoned with other lightning benders.

- A young child named Xan is born in the Earth Kingdom. His single mother dies young, so he is raised in an orphanage. He is a talented earthbender, but one day when it’s cold, he warms his hands up with firebending. He is whisked away to Kuvira’s mansion in Empire City. He sees her as a mother figure and is very close with her. Xan, the Avatar, is brought up to be a loyal member of the regime, and doesn’t doubt it otherwise.

STORY PROPER

- Xan is super happy with Unification Day! They celebrate the day Kuvira unified the Empire by conquering Empire City. They even have a play called the Unification Play. Bolin and Varrick are portrayed as evil and duplitious, propoganda runs rife. He is nearly seventeen.

- Xan is very loyal to the Earth Empire but chafes under the rule. He has mastered Earth and Fire, but struggles with airbending (as they have no teachers) and waterbending isn’t coming naturally either. He runs away from his bodyguard Iseul to have some fun on Unification Day. Iseul is a tall, metalbending soldier woman and around twenty-four. She is very by the book and has a strong sense of justice, and does not go out of her way to terrorise the fire and waterbenders like other members of the metalbending ruling class. However, Iseul is incredibly loyal to Xan, and loves him as a brother.

- Xan is reprimanded by Iseul and Kuvira for running off since he is a massive target for the evil rebels. Kuvira gives a speech to the crowd, but is targeted by an airbending assassin who is shot down by metalbending gaurds. She has insignia from the Red Lotus on her person so she is considered a terrorist. Zaheer is moved up to the top of the most wanted list above Asami and Opal.

- After this is Xan sees a vision of Korra. She has been trying to contact him, but Kuvira tells him to suppress these visions and that spirits are trying to influence him. He has no other education so he believes her. So he continues to ignore KOrra trying to get through to him.

- Xan is also generally an anxious mess and worries about the pressure.

- Xan watches soap operas with Kobi, his loyal servant of a similar age. Xan loves gossip and relationship drama. It’s his major flaw other than being an Earth Empire loyalist. He lives at the Air Temple with lots of guards which Kuvira turned into acomodation for him. Xan’s identity to the public is still kept secret, it’s just seen as more training barracks.

- Xan accompanies Kuvira to watch people being sentenced for being horrible people and also being anti regime. A waterbender is sentenced to a re-education camp, and her look to him strikes a nerve and disturbs him. Xan also visits a spirit weapons facility where they are attacked by a corrupted spirit (like in book 2) as all the spirit vine weaponry is causing the spiritual world to be out of whack and the spirits are angry (not helped by Xan ignoring his spiritual side).

- However Kobi briefly mentions that maybe Kuvira isn’t right all the time which causes Xan to snap at him. Xan is loyal.

- A few days later Kobi sneaks Xan out for some underage drinking but the drinks are actually drugged. Kobi is working for the URLF! Kobi is a trained liar so he evaded the truth seers under Kuvira’s employ. The URLF manage to get to the Air Temple, kidnap Xan in a submarine and take him away. This is the worst part of what I wrote because of how easy it was, and would be revised.

- Anyway Opal is on the submarine and takes Xan to the URLF base which is on a Southern Air Temple island (not the air temple itself, if that makes sense). They have an advanced cave system within the mountain to hideout.

- Opal on the trip is like ‘what up Xan’ and Xan is pissed and enters the Avatar State. They calm him down as he has nowhere to go as he is in a submarine. Xan is like ‘Bolin is shit fuck you’ and Opal hates this little shit. Xan can’t stand Kobi, who tries to say this is for the best and that Kuvira is wrong. Kobi is half a waterbender and hasn’t seen his mother in years as she didn’t register herself and was taken away to a camp, so Kobi joined the URLF. Xan has some sympathies, but can’t trust Kobi as Kobi has demonstrated that he is an excellent liar.

- They get to the hideout where we meet Asami. Asami and Opal are the leaders of the URLF. They imprison Xan for a bit where Korra again appears like ‘what up’ and he’s like go away. Asami lets Xan out of his prison to show him ‘Nuktuk’ because Asami is trying to explain to Xan bias and propoganda. She also offers that they’ll teach him airbending and his freedom around the complex in exchange for open-mindedness to their organisation. It’s better than being in a cell so Xan agrees. Asami also tells Xan that Kuvira killed Korra, and that she tortured Asami and Mako. Xan is disturbed, and also has no information on where Mako currently is. Opal is pretty pissed at Asami for basically doing this behind her back. (They have a slightly strained romance). Xan loves this drama. He is roomed with Kobi as Asami is like ‘you can room with your friend’ forgetting that Xan doesn’t like Kobi. Should be clear that Xan is pretty much trapped on this island as he has no control over the Avatar State and can’t bend water.

MEANWHILE

- Iseul really fucked up and Kuvira admonishes her for being a bad bodyguard. Iseul deeply cares for Xan and asks Kuvira to be allowed to go find Xan and Kuvira agrees (note: i do not like this plot point. I think it makes more sense for Iseul to go anyway despite Kuvira’s refusal).

- Iseul travels to a small town where she knows where rebels have had activity the Earth Empire is trying to stamp out. She decides to integrate with them, get close to the leadership, find Xan. She saves two members from the metalbending police starts to get friendly with the rebels. However they aren’t the URLF, they’re actually aligned with the Red Lotus, but on the ground, in towns, they often function fairly similar. Iseul decides to accompany a small group who are travelling down to another town with URLF contacts. She also meets Chatit, a prominent leader of the URLF. They flirt with eachother a little bit. Iseul wonders what she’s doing. THIS IS WHERE I STOPPED WRITING, THE REST IS PURE NOTES.

- Iseul and the Red Lotus gang get sidetracked by a member along the journey saying they think they found a bunch of lightning benders in a prison. The Red Lotus decides to break them out, Iseul reluctantly agrees to this to prove she is loyal to the cause so she can integrated with the URLF when the time comes. Of course, Mako’s in the prison! With a child named Akane. Iseul rescues Mako personally as he has an injured leg and they start to bond. Iseul also gets along with Akane.

- Akane is the daughter of Akane, another lightning bender Mako fell in love with in prison. She reveals she’s not Mako’s biological daughter, but the product of rape from one of the guards. Iseul is horrified, and does make her doubt the integrity of the regime she loves.

- Chatit decides, ‘hey, let’s go to Zaheer instead! We can get him on side when we go see the URLF and Mako is now a bargaining chip’. Mako is very unamused by this whole situation. He just wants to see Asami and Opal. He also likes Iseul not only for saving him but it’s clear that she doesn’t really believe in Zaheer and he likes that she thinks for herself.

- Chatit brings Mako to Zaheer’s secret camp in the woods and he’s like ‘what up Zaheer I brought you the guy who killed Ming-Hua!’ Zaheer does not give a shit as he is beyond grudges and admonishes a Chatit for not getting their philosophy. However doesn’t mind using Mako as a bargaining chip.

- mako is like to Iseul ‘Chatit is as bad with Zaheer as the metalbendera are with Kuvira’ and Iseul is like wait... that’s ME. She doesn’t say this aloud though but she now thinks Chatit is a complete weirdo because he simps for Zaheer so hard. Iseul’s faith in the regime is still shaken but Iseul is still dedicated to finding Xan and making sure he’s safe.

MEANWHILE (we’d cut back and forth between the two POV’s, so this is all mixed in with eachother).

— Xan struggles to learn airbending as he doesn’t know what true freedom is.

- Wu visits and is like ‘hey let’s party! You guys are so miserable!’ Wu also has a hunky Fire Nation boyfriend now. However Xan gleans from Wu that he intends to regain the throne, and also be the last King. The bloodline dies with him.

- Xan and Kobi have a little dance at this party. Opal and Asami make up. Xan is enthralled.

- Xan starts to make some progress with airbending so Opal and Asami decide to bring him on a boat to the Southern Water Tribe to visit the spirit portal in the hope he’ll be able to reconnect with Korra properly there by force instead of him burying it.

— they get to the Southern Water Tribe by Air Bison. The Souther Warter Tribe is attacked by Kuvira’s forces. Corrupted spirits also attack and wreck havoc amongst the general populace and the forces.

— in the chaos Korra reappears before Xan and he connects with her. She brings him to the moment of her death, and he feels her pain and is horrified, and it confirms the torture side of the story. Xan snaps back, enters the Avatar state and leaves with Asami and Opal.

— this is where the story gets a little shaky, but Xan still tries to believe he might be able to get through to Kuvira.

MEANWHILE

Word spreads that the Avatar has returned! Iseul sends some sort of message to the Earth empire forces to ask if they have Xan back. This is intercepted by the Red Lotus. Mako is horrified as the whole group realised she is a traitor. They move to execute her but Mako does step in since Iseul saved him from the prison, but declares to her to never interact with him and his daughter again. Which is sad as Iseul was getting a big sister bond with Akane. Akane does apologise to Mako but he’s having none of it. He just feels manipulated and he is so, so tired.

— not been clear but Mako’s mental state isn’t great. He’s been in prison for around seventeen years, witnessed the execution of his brother, and murder of Korra. He’s a bit fucked. His leg is also in poor condition and can’t fight well, he’s basically just been used to power lightning for years. Akane is the only thing that keeps him going. He wants to make sure she’s safe with Asami and Opal. Plus he’s also being used as a bargaining chip.

— the Red Lotus finally get to the URLF contacts. They manage to speak to Asami and Opal who are like ‘whooo Mako!’ and agree to a meeting with Zaheer. Xan decides to come too.

— Iseul and Mako are transferred to the URLF. Iseul finally decides to give up some crucial information— the Earth Empire intends to use its spirit weapons again soon, as they anticipate that the Fire Nation will use the comet in years to come to destroy the Earth Empire. They intend to use such an intense, short blast that the Fire Nation can’t respond.

— the URLF and Red Lotus decided they must band together, but they have to get the Fire Nation on side to attack the Earth Empire unexpectedly.

— Xan decides he must speak to Kuvira. Get her to see reason. Everyone tells him he’s delusional so he steals an Air Bison to get himself there before the attack.

— Before they fight, Mako, Opal and Asami have a tearful reunion. Mako can’t fight as he isn’t well, but he does bid them farewell.

— once there, Kuvira will not see reason. They fight and fight and fight, while the Fire Nation ships arrive with a shit tonne of weapons s, and the Earth empire prepares to use its weapons. Xan realised that it’s going to be an all out death battle, mutually assured destruction, so he kills Kuvira in a very long fight where he goes into the Avatar state (at this point he is pretty good at airbending but cannot waterbenders still).

— war is averted. Xan is traumatised and pissed. Korra reminds him that he isn’t some weapon— he’s been told what to do all his life, even by the URLF. So against proper protocol as suggested by Asami, he grabs all the spirit weapons in a big hurricane from both sides, and blows them up, forming a massive explosion (it could form a spirit portal like in book 4, but I don’t want to take Korra’s moment).

— the URLF establish control over Republic City. Asami is appointed temporary president. Wu is named King of the Earth Kingdom. Immediate release from the camps occur and the metalbending police are disbanded. Opal is re-United with her family.

— Zaheer says nothing and does nothing more after removing Kuvira, Though he does nod at Xan after the end— is it respect or a warning? Does Zaheer intend to try and kill the Avatar a second time?

— Asami and Mako enter a relationship, with Opal and Asami continuing theirs. It’s a poly life. Mako doesn’t really forgive Iseul but does tell her he might one day, and Iseul vows to make sure there is true justice for everyone.

— Xan is traumatised and hurt and realised he still has much more to learn. He decides to sneak away to the Northern Water Tribe. Kobi tells him it’s okay if he needs to spend some time alone, but he can have company if he needs it. Xan accepts and Xan and Kobi board a ship to the Northern Water Trube.

The endddd.

* I do realise Kobi has little impact on the plot after he spies for the URLF. He would mostly appear as Xan’s friend in the story and Xan would eventually trust him again. Hinted relationship between the two as he was the only person that Xan was honest with that wasn’t Iseul, and only she did it sometimes.

* I realised a while ago there there was an issue with Mako’s subplot not brought up here, that if Kuvira imprisoned him, wouldn’t she try and use him as bait with Opal and Asami? Or even execute him to send a message. Something. So I did come up with a backstory that Mako escaped prison but was recaptured, and went under a false name. It was only noticed that he was Mako because Iseul studied all the history books and recognised him as valuable during his rescue. None of this was developed beyond my own notes but it solves some logic issues, though is a bit contrived still to make this subplot work.

#lok #tlok #legend of korra #korra #mako #fanfiction #asami sato #original characters

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pxnk-velvet · 4 years

Text

The Dancing Warrior: Water, Chapter 11

(Sokka x OC Reader)

A/N: I’m so sorry but this is a REALLY long chapter, possibly the longest I’ve written so far...but oh well. If anyone knows how to edit a post so it has the “keep reading” link PLS let me know I’m begging 😭

It had taken them quite a while to finally arrive at the North Pole. There were chunks of ice floating in the water and the air was bitter to Navani. She had been shivering profusely for that past couple of days. She had never been to either of the poles before so she had no reason for owning a thick coat like Katara and Sokka. Katara had given Navani her spare tunic, which was a bit small, but a lot warmer than her own. The only thing she had were her robes, a clear indication that she was Fire Nation. Something they had all agreed to keep secret. Navani vowed to solely bend water for as long at they were there. And she knew she had to keep that promise or else they would all be in jeopardy.

Navani sat at the edge of Appa’s saddle, shivering as she tucked herself as far as she could into her tunic. Her knees were snug to her chest with her arms wrapped tightly around them. How could someone live in the cold like this?

She had been so consumed in her own thoughts that she hadn’t been paying any attention to the conversation going on between everyone else. But then she was brought back when Appa’s smooth sailing suddenly jerked and everyone screamed. He tried to keep his balance but some ice threw him off, causing him to tilt. Everyone one held on with strong grips....well almost everyone. As Appa crash landed in the freezing waters, Navani was thrown over with a scream.

They all gasped as the girl fell into the water, “Navani!”

Her body felt numb as she broke the surface, gasping for air. Her teeth chattered as dozens of boats emerged from behind small glaciers. She moved a fast as she could, which honestly wasn’t all that fast, and hurled her stiff body back onto Appa. They all had rushed to her side, but at the moment were too occupied with Northerners approaching.

===

Everything there was beautiful. There was so much to marvel at. From the beautiful architecture to the people and culture. Navani wished she could’ve enjoyed it more but at the moment she was soaking wet in the freezing cold. Her and Katara had done their best to bend the water out of her cloths and one of the men from the boats had lended her some blankets. Which she was currently tightly wrapped in.

As they rounded a corner, there were people along the sides of the canals and buildings waving down at them. Navani couldn’t help but smile and wave back despite her condition. At least she could enjoy that. Or so she thought.

The warm feeling grew a little as a small canoe drifted passed them, catching both Navani and Sokka’s attention. There on the canoe sat a boy and a girl, side by side, no older then them. Navani watched intently, curious. They were dressed like they were important with their hair decorated with different pieces and jewelry. The girl’s was a stark white while the boy’s was pitch black. They contrasted perfectly. Not to mention they were both extremely good looking.

That definitely didn’t go unnoticed by Sokka. Who sighed and leaned against Navani as a deep blush rose to his cheeks, his eyes glued to the girl as the canoe drifted by.

“Could you make it anymore obvious?” Navani scoffed, removing her support from under him. Laughing as he fell to the ground with a thud.

===

“Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of our brother and sisters from the Southern tribe. And they have brought with them someone very special. Someone who many of us believe disappeared from the world until now, the Avatar!” Chief Arnook declared, from his seat at the middle of the table, “We also celebrate my daughter and son’s 16th birthday. Princess Yue and Prince Hai are now of marrying age!”

Navani nearly spit out her drink, turning to look but catching a view of the back of Sokka’s head instead. She scoffed, leaning back to see.

“Thank you, father.” Both twins bowed, Yue continued, “May the great ocean and moon spirits watch over us during these troubled times.”

The Prince turned and glanced her way, a blush so hot on her cheeks she thought her face would melt off.

“Now, Master Pakku and his students will perform.”

That was all Navani needed to hear to have her undivided attention. With an excited gasp, her head whipped around to look at the raised platform.

She watched with wide eyes as the three man manipulated the giant barrels of water to create giant streams moving in almost every direction. They moved in a manner she had never seen before, very different to her usual style. She was mesmerized. So much so that she hadn’t noticed someone standing next to her.

“Is this seat taken?” Hai asked politely, gesturing to the spot next to her.

With her attention still glued to the performance, she responded, “No, you can sit if you’d like.”

He chuckled, taking a seat, “I can tell you’re enjoying the performance.”

“Huh, oh.” Navani blushed hard, finally drawing her attention away, “Yeah, they’re really good.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” Hai gave her a warm smile that made butterflies erupt in her gut.

“I, uh- I’m Navani...” She introduced, bowing her head.

“No need, Navani. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” His smile never leaving his face. She giggled, breaking their gaze to save herself from anymore embarrassment. As she did she caught sight of Sokka and the Princess next to her.

“I’m thinking, maybe, we could do any activity together?” Sokka asked, attempting to woo the Princess. Navani couldn’t help it but feel angered by this. She knew exactly what he was doing....

Navani turned back to Hai, “So you’re a Prince?” She tried, hoping it wasn’t such a sucker of an attempt to make conversation.

“Yeah...” He chuckled, “I’m a Prince.”

“And...you have a sister?...Who’s your twin?” She wanted to face palm so badly but she resisted, “You two don’t really look alike.”

“Yue was born first and there was something wrong. So my father called upon the moon spirit for help. And it did, that’s why she has white hair. Hence our names as well. They mean moon and ocean.” He answered with not much enthusiasm. Like Navani had pushed a little too much.

“Oh, I’m assuming she gets all the attention?” She glanced over at his twin.

“Mhm,” He hummed with an eye roll, “She’s older, only by a few minutes so whoever she marries automatically becomes chief. Which isn’t fair. It really should be me because I’m the chief’s first son. Plus I’m a water bender!”

Navani perked, an idea popping into her head, “Me too! I’m not that good, though. I could definitely use some practice...” She batted her eyelashes, resting her elbow on the table and leaning on it. And just like that she was in....or so she thought.

“Well, I’m sure healing isn’t that hard.” He said smugly, waving it off.

Navani faltered a bit, pressing, “Healing? What about real water bending? Like actual fighting moves? Or dancing even?”

Hai gave a hearty chuckle, “Well...I guess I could show you a little something but no one can know, alright?”

Her eyebrows knotted in confusion but she brushed it off, nodding and smiling.

“We could meet sometime tomorrow?” He offered, taking hold of her hand and placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles.

She turned away, blush furious on her cheeks. And for a moment she forgot about why she was doing this.

===

She had been out for a walk that morning when she caught sight of a canoe in the canal ahead. Inside was just the person she was looking for.

“Prince Hai!” She called from the walk way, speeding up a little to catch up to him. Both him and Princess Yue were sitting in the small boat as it drifted down the canal.

Just as Navani cleared the corner, she ran right into someone, sending them both into water below. Both the Prince and Princess giggled at the sight.

“Ahhh, Navani!” Sokka yelped, pulling himself out of the water.

She could care less about what Sokka was yelling at her, as she shook her hair out of her face.

Prince Hai had gotten up from his seat and moved to lean over the edge, “Meet me on the palace steps tonight!” He called out as the boat continued to drift, without missing a beat.

Navani swooned as she bobbed in the water, a light blush gracing her cheeks. Soon after she pulled herself out of the water, coming to face Sokka as he watched much to his amusement. He had noticed the way the Prince looked at Navani, like he was head over heels. He knew that feeling, or knows to be exact. Sure he was flirting with Princess Yue but he couldn’t deny that he did feel a pang in his heart every time he thought of Hai and Navani together. He had her first, well, almost had her. Until he screwed it up for himself big time. Maybe Aunt Wu was right...but no. He just needed a distraction for a little bit then he’d deal with that, right?

Navani felt somewhat guilty as she stood in front of Sokka, soaking wet. Like she shouldn’t have made it known that she was going to visit Prince Hai later tonight.

So instead she grounded herself, placing both her hands on her hips, “Yes?” She questioned Sokka’s trained gaze.

He crossed his arms giving her a suspicious glare, “Nothing.”

She exhaled bluntly, giving a huff from her nose, “I’m going back to the igloo. Feel free not to follow me.” She turned sharply, taking off back the way she came.

“I bet you don’t even remember how to get back.” The water tribe boy laughed, watching as she groaned, stomping away. He followed her, doing exactly the opposite of what she said, just to mess with her. He walked a few paces behind her, throwing words of mockery every time she made a wrong turn or went in the wrong direction. Either way, they had ended up in front of the igloo they were staying in.

“Well, would you look at that?” Sokka amused, “We both got what we wanted. You were able to get home and I was able to annoy the heck out of you while doing so.”

“I suggest you shut up before I physically hurt you.” Navani threatened, not even batting an eye his way as she made her way inside.

He laughed, following suit, “You really think you can hurt me? I bet you can’t even pin me to the ground.”

They walked further into the igloo, stopping at the center. Navani shed her big coat, tossing it to the side before wordlessly getting into a fighting stance. Her gaze set sternly on his as he just stood there.

“Come on, tough guy. Since you think you’ve got what it takes, let’s put it to the test.” She stated, dipping low, kicking low and knocking Sokka’s legs out from under him. He landed hard on the floor, letting out a loud groan.

She stepped so she was over him, leaning to look down with her hands on her hips, “What happened? I thought you said you were a warrior?” She taunted, “Get up, I’ll give you another shot. You get the first strike.”

Sokka starred up at her in complete shock. As to why he was shocked, he didn’t know exactly. Of course she could beat him in a fight any day, he was just messing with her after all, right?

Soon after he stood, both of them taking fighting stances. Navani stood with a relaxed, yet steady posture, ready for anything like she had been trained to do. Sokka on the other hand, could fall over with the slightest nudge.

Sokka gave his all with his first strike, deflating a little when Navani dodged it with ease. Almost like it was nothing. He swung a couple more times, watching her move with ease every step of the way, like she had been doing this for dozens of life times.

Sokka tried and tried. He kicked, punched, grabbed, pulled, and shoved. Still nothing. Navani stood strong, barely even breaking a sweat. She giggled at his exhaustion, shoving his shoulder lightly, watching him lose balance and fall only from that little push.

She strutted over to him, placing her foot on his chest, “I didn’t even have to use my bending on you.” She leaned down, towering over him triumphantly. Watching as a smirk curl onto his lips and an idea pop into his head.

“Who’s the warrior now-“ Suddenly her leg was being pulled out from under her, Sokka being able to roll out from under her and pin her down as she made contact with the floor. He sat square on her stomach, using a hand to pin both of her wrists to the floor.

“What the-“ Navani barked from under him. She struggled under his weight, which was almost surprising because he was a little slimmer compared to her trained build.

“Looks who’s on top now! Literally!” He mocked with a big grin on his face.

She hadn’t realized how close they were until then. It all settled in. His weight on her, the way his breath fanned over her face when he talked, his hand holding down her wrists above her head. The butterflies in her stomach matched the intensity of her beating heart. Not to mention she was almost as red as her shirt. Both of their gazes locked on each other, trained so intensely. All those things she had felt for him before over powered the hurt he had caused her. Maybe she had been a bit too harsh, a little too stubborn?...

It had felt like they had been sitting there forever until Katara came bounding into the room.

“Sokka! You’ll never believe it! Gran-Ahh!” She screamed. Both Sokka and Navani yelling along with her as Navani basically launched Sokka across the room. Kicking him off from on top of her.

Katara turned away with her hands over her eyes, “Oh my gosh! Can’t you guys find somewhere a little more private to do that!” She took off.

“Katara!” Navani called, getting up off the floor to run after her, “It’s not what you think at all! I swear!”

They both ran to the door but gave up on chasing after her. They stopped in the doorway, standing close to each other. When they realized it, neither of them jerked away like they normally would’ve. Navani felt....comfortable with their proximity. Something that shocked her, scared her almost.

“I- uhhhh,” Sokka stuttered, trying to ease the tension, “That was fun wasn’t it?”

Navani playfully rolled her eyes, giggling.

===

Later that day Navani was the first to rush out for her...date? Training? She didn’t even know what to call it, with Prince Hai.

For the last hour or two she had spent her time with Prince Hai as he taught her some water bending moves. She was surprised because she already knew a thing or two but his way was so much different from the way she had been taught by her mother. So she was grateful that she was actually able to learn something.

Now they sitting on the palace steps, just enjoying their time together.

“Thank you for teaching me.” She said, leaning back with her palms against the icy step under her, “I really appreciate it.”

He turned to her smiling, “You’re welcome. Thank you for letting me teach you. It’s not everyday a beautiful girl such as yourself gets to spend time with a prince.” He joked.

“I’m sure there are a ton of other girls who would be jealous of me right now.” Navani chuckled, noticing the space between them decrease slowly. Her laughed died off awkwardly as he got closer.

“Yeah, well it doesn’t matter anyways. There would be no gain in a girl marrying me with my current situation.” He sighed, the atmosphere around them shifting.

“Now don’t say that.” Navani comforted, “Any girl would be lucky to marry you.”

He looked into her eyes and Navani saw how bright they seemed to glow under the moonlight, “You really think so?”

Navani smiled, glancing down at his lips and seeing how close they were, “I know so.” She spoke, attempting to keep their distance.

But much to her dismay, he kissed her. She gasped at the sudden contact, her eyes wide with shock and confusion. She felt confused and just odd. It didn’t feel....right to her. It caught her completely off guard. At this, the Prince pulled away quickly with a worried look on his face.

“Oh spirits! I shouldn’t have done that.” He got up hurriedly, leaving Navani on the steps.

She got up after him, “Wait! Prince Hai!”

He stopped at the top of the steps, Navani catching up to him and taking a gentle hold on his wrist.

“I’m sorry,” She began, look up at him, “I’m sorry if it made it seem like we were anything more than friends. And I didn’t mean to hurt you in anyway. But I just think we aren’t destined to have a relationship in those sorts.”

He gave a sad smile, “I understand....you like someone else instead.”

Navani’s eyebrows knotted in confusion, “What?”

“Sokka, is it? I see the way he looks at you and the way you look at him. I was foolish for even thinking that we could’ve had something.”

Navani stood silently for a moment. Maybe he was right. Maybe she did look at Sokka a little too fondly sometimes. And maybe she still got butterflies in her stomach whenever she thought of him in such a way.

Navani took a step closer to him, “No you’re not, you were just doing what your heart was telling you to do.”

Hai smiled again, taking hold of her shoulders, “Go. Go do what you heart is telling you to do and find him.” And so she did. Of course she didn’t leave without giving her thanks and appreciation.

Navani walked back to the igloo in hopes of finding Sokka before he went off to do his activity with the Princess. She tried walking without being too loud. Or else her foot steps would echo off the ice walls. She trotted down a couple walk ways, crosses some bridges until she finally turned up at the igloo. With every step her heart grew with anticipation. She felt as though she could do anything. She rushed through the doorway, a smile as bright as the moon on her face.

“Where is he?” Navani exclaimed, out of breath.

Katara and Aang jumped, startled at her sudden appearance, “Who? Sokka?” Katara questioned.

Navani nodded eagerly, almost squealing with excitement. She was finally coming to terms with her feelings.

“He’s mentioned something about a bridge and seeing the Prin-“ Katara wasn’t able to finish her sentence before Navani rushed back out with a thanks.

At this point she didn’t care if she was loud and her stomping foot steps could be heard. She figured she start with the bridge where she sent Sokka and heralded flying into the water. She slowed as she approached the corner. Hunched over, she caught her breathe. She couldn’t help but over hear the conversation going on.

“Hi, Princess Yue. I made you something.” Navani over heard Sokka greet the Princess. She peaked her head around the corner, leaning as far up against the ice wall as she could. It hurt a little to see them together like so.

She watched as Sokka held out his hand to show Princess Yue what was supposed to be a fish carving. When did he have time to make that? Maybe he really wasn’t doing this just to mess around with her...

”I’m sorry. I’ve made a mistake.” The Princess cried, turning away, “I shouldn’t have asked you to come here.” She ran off as Navani stepped out from around the corner.

When she did something hard hit her in the head, “Ow!” She whined, rubbing the sore spot in her forehead.

Sokka stormed off without noticing Navani. She cursed herself for not making it known that she was there sooner. However she did make an effort to rush back to the igloo to make it seem like she hadn’t been spying on him this whole time. She ran through the doorway, startling Aang and Katara once again.

She tore her coat off in a hurry, along with her boots, plopping down on the ground next to Katara.

Not even a second later Sokka stomps right in, clearly upset. He kicked his sleeping bag and slumped down over it.

“How’s warrior training?” Navani asks carefully, making sure her pace was steady.

Aang looks at Navani with confusion. Navani gave him a desperate look and the boy quickly caught on, “That bad?” He played off.

Sokka groaned, “It’s Princess Yue! One minute she wants to go out with me and then the next she’s telling me to get lost!”

It saddened Navani to see him in such a sour mood over what had just went down. At that point she tuned out of the conversation and focused on relaxing. She laid down on her sleeping bag, arms behind her head and legs crossed. She hadn’t noticed Katara and Aang had left until a little while later. Leaving Navani and Sokka alone.

===

The events that occurred the night before greatly contrasted what was happening right now.

That morning Katara had challenged Master Pakku to a fight, which she still lost despite her skill. And now she was taking a walk with Prince Hai.

“You really like him don’t you?” The Prince questioned with a sly smile.

“What?” Navani blushed, trying to play it off, “I wouldn’t say really like him but-“

“Just admit and stop making it harder for yourself.” He laughed as they approached a bridge.

There stood the Princess and Sokka engaged in a kiss. Navani froze. Her whole body going numb. Her heart began to ache in her chest, under all the layers of cloths she had on. A lump grew in her throat, getting bigger by the second.

Prince Hai had done a service by leading her away from the scene as she wept. She knew she shouldn’t be crying. Because if Sokka had seen her and Hai kiss yesterday, would he have reacted the same?

Hai brought her close in a snug embrace, “Navani, don’t cry. It’ll be alright. She can’t even be with him. She’s engaged!” He explained, taking her face in his hands.

But her expression stayed the same as more tears fell upon her cheeks. Her breathing was choppy and all she could do was sob. She didn’t know why she was in the first place. It’s not like her and Sokka were...dating...in the first place. But she knew deep down that she wanted him. Yet she couldn’t have him.

[][][]

Taglist

@harmlessoffering

@ilovespideyyy

@eat-a-brick714

@none-of-ur-frackin-business

@smolbitch2006

@the-natureofme

@kaylove12

@missmorosis

@shellyseashell

#avatar the last airbender #sokka x oc #atla fic #atla x reader #atla #atla fanfic #aang #katara #toph #navani #sokka #original character #sokka imagine #sokka fic #atla sokka #sokka of the southern water tribe #sokka x reader #angie writes #oc fic

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imthepointe · 4 years

Text

The One That Got Away

@penofwildfire whoops...hehe :)

this is entirely based on their lovely and angsty post here!

Lloyd shot up from his makeshift bed, forehead dotted with sweat and eyes rimmed red with tears. His heart so beat loudly in his chest he was sure the thumping could be heard from a mile away.

At once, a steadying hand held his back, murmuring soothing utterances that he did not care to listen to. Harumi’s words from a week prior rang in his ear, the image of the Bounty- along with his brothers- being ripped apart still burned into his mind every time he shut his eyes.

For the past few nights, sleep had not provided any sort of escape or remedy for the past week’s events- rather proving to be an oblivion and open invitation to nightmare.

Nya seemed to have taken notice, much to the despondency of a certain green ninja.

She stood above Lloyd’s pallet, her hand still on his back rubbing small circles and her voice still cooing words of comfort.

Once he had calmed down a bit, Nya quirked an eyebrow. “Nightmare?”

Lloyd held his head in his hands. “Yeah.”

“Tell me about it?” she asked, sitting herself down beside him.

---

“I wanted this,” the Jade Princess had said, as she dangled Lloyd hopelessly over the once-bright Ninjago City. She giggled maniacally, her eyes wild and glued to the Colossus a few blocks down the street with fierce intensity.

“I wanted this!” she screamed in the green ninja’s ear. Her smile stretched from cheek to cheek, whatever semblance of sound mind she had left fading before Lloyd’s helpless form.

He was pathetic; he couldn’t do anything in Harumi’s grasp. The green ninja, once highly esteemed and venerated by citizens of Ninjago, was about to watch his friends die at the hands of some sadistic teenage girl and his father.

As much as the sane voices in Lloyd’s mind told him to turn his face away, he couldn’t peel his gaze from the ship in between the stone giant’s arms- the one his brothers were in- being crushed before him.

Harumi dug her fingers into the back of Lloyd’s neck, before pulling him back down to the train’s roof. “Now watch,” she breathed in his ear, a sweet and bitter edge to her cutting voice.

As if on command, the Bounty was crushed to a pulp.

Lloyd did nothing but watch in disbelief. His teammates were still on that ship. They were still on there, they must have been crushed too-

The Jade Princess jerked his head away from the fallen airship. “It’s too bad you were the one that got away,” she clicked her tongue, twisting her mouth into a grin. “I guess that just means I get to personally deal with you later.”

---

“Oh, it was nothing,” Lloyd reassured Nya with a sad smile. The same steadying hand from earlier once again patted his back, and though he was grateful for her presence- don’t get him wrong- something still was missing.

To be precise, 3 teenage boys, a nindroid, and a 500-year-old sensei turned infant were missing.

“I don’t believe you, Lloyd,” the water ninja deadpanned. “It’s okay, you can tell me what’s up.”

Lloyd fidgeted with his hands and looked around the room. It was completely empty, save for Pixal and her mech off to the side; his mother and Dareth presumably off somewhere in the city. He sighed, turning back to look at the last remaining ninja left on the team.

“It’s just that we lost them, Nya-”

“Lloyd.”

Upon hearing Nya’s grave tone, Lloyd flinched. Her hands were now bracing his shoulders, and she stared into his eyes; such firmness was not really out of the ordinary for the water ninja, but she usually never took this attitude with him. “We didn’t lose anyone,” she frowned, “my friends- our friends- they are fine.”

“How can you be so sure?” Lloyd interjected. He wanted to believe Nya, he really, really did.

But he couldn’t. He had watched them...

Nya continued to hold Lloyd’s arms, and he couldn’t help but remember the way Harumi’s own hands had held him in place just a week prior. As chill ran down his spine, where he could still feel the Quiet One’s fingers wrapped around his neck.

The green ninja spoke up again, more softly this time. “I saw them, Nya. I saw the Bounty get crushed to pieces. I saw them die.”

Nya bit her lip, visibly tensing. She closed her eyes and whispered a small “I know” before wrapping her arms around the last remainder of her former team.

“I lost people, too, Lloyd,” she muttered into his hair. “But they’re not dead.”

Doubt crept its way into his mind, and subconsciously he thought Nya knew how irrational she was being.

Perhaps more so how irrational he was for believing her. For a split second, he hugged the water ninja back, and accepted the fact that maybe his friends weren’t dead, and that they would come out of hiding soon enough, and Harumi and his father would be defeated, and Ninjago would be saved. That’s how things normally ended, right?

Just as soon as the moment of belief came, it too passed.

His mother and Dareth burst into the room, both Nya and Lloyd startled from their thoughts.

Misako’s face furrowed into an expression somewhere between scared and confused, and Dareth looked like he always did- mostly confused- and out of breath.

“We have to go,” his mother’s voice faltered slightly in a way that made Lloyd’s stomach turn. “The Sons of Garmadon are sweeping the block.”

---

The narrow alleyway the group of five were now hiding in was familiar to the green ninja in a very distant sense- something only Lloyd could liken to vague deja vu, or the moments of disorientation after waking up from a realistic dream.

He held his breath as Mr. E and the rest of the gang passed their hiding spots, with Nya beside him, Pixal and his mother adjacent, and Dareth...somewhere.

Only once the Sons of Garmadon were certainly out of range did anyone dare make a noise. “Thank FSM,” Nya breathed, pushing the piece of wood the pair had been hiding under out of the way.

Beside them, Pixal and Misako did the same, and the self-proclaimed brown ninja emerged from wherever he had been.

Misako laughed in relief, dusting herself off as she stood. “Do you all smell that?” she asked, trying to clear the air. She turned to her son, who still sat on the ground. “Lloyd, doesn’t it smell-”

Lloyd clutched the piece of wood Nya had previously shoved aside. “It’s the Bounty.”

---

The Colossus’ hands closed in on The Bounty, the sound of splicing wood and crushed memories ringing in Zane, Kai, Jay, and Cole’s ears. The stone giant was quickly compressing the ship to a pulp, and with each rattling shake the ninja stumbled closer to one another on the broken deck.

Wu clutched Cole’s gi and squeezed his eyes shut, burying his head in the earth ninja’s chest and whimpering softly. In turn, Cole hugged him tighter, shielding him from their imminent demise.

“Zane!” Kai stared at the nindroid at the wheel, an unreadable and blank look on his face. “Do something,” he pleaded, before desperately adding, “please.”

Zane sputtered. “I- I cannot-” He wanted to say that he couldn’t save them, but he supposed the rest of his teammates had already figured that out by now.

Jay looked at Cole, the baby in his arms, then to Zane, then to Kai. The wind whipped wildly around the team and the distant sound of sirens blazed in the background, though almost entirely erased by the screams of onlookers and the clamor of their precious Bounty being torn apart underneath their feet.

But between the team on the ship, it was silent.

Time moved in slow motion as the Colossus’ hands began to meet, and each ninja glanced at one another other with a small smile on their face and a look that said ‘Thank you for the past few years.’

Cole relaxed in acceptance, though the small figure in his arms began to squirm. “We have to go!” Baby Wu shouted.

The tea. Mystake.

Jay’s eyes widened in realization as he registered Wu’s words, and then the fact that it was too late to do anything about it.

---

Nya felt her chest tear apart.

The Bounty.

She said nothing as moved a few pieces of wood aside, revealing a broken picture frame that belonged on the ship. Pixal looked around- two engines, an anchor, a sail, a rudder- her home- and it was all right here, lying strewn about before them.

Lloyd sucked in a breath. “No, no, no, no, no…”

He knew this day would come, when he would find the ship he had watched just a week ago be completely obliterated, when he would see the remnants of his home somewhere in Ninjago City. He remained on the ground still, desperately searching through the wreckage for more fragments of the ship.

Lloyd froze when he grabbed something cold, and panic and awareness quickly set in.

His body began to jerk and tears began to spill freely from his eyes, because he knew what he had found. Still, he couldn’t stop himself as he brushed the wood away, revealing exactly what Lloyd had hoped he would never find.

Kai. Buried underneath the rubble of the Bounty was Kai- but it wasn’t. This wasn’t Kai. It was his corpse.

A scream caught in his throat, rendering him unable to comfort the master of water as she realized what Lloyd had found.

Beside him, Nya began to breath faster and faster, stumbling in her legs until Misako had to help her slide to a sitting position.

“No,” she sniffled and shook her head, “he’s okay. There must be a pulse, there has to be, they’re all alive.”

Nothing about Kai was alive, and Nya knew that. Lloyd knew that, too, but that didn’t mean he accepted it.

“Here,” Pixal called, small tears rolling down her face. She held a broken and battered nindroid in her arms, with dark and deactivated eyes and stray wires indicating no sign of life.

Neither Lloyd nor Nya moved as Jay, Zane, and Kai’s bodies were all recovered from the ruins; the two simply sat in the same crouched position beside each other in disbelief.

Had it not been Nya telling Lloyd just that morning that they were alright? That his brothers were just hiding?

He had watched them die.

A few more moments of waiting and Pixal had found the final two bodies. Quietly, Nya helped Lloyd to his feet, and they stepped over broken wood and their own teammates’ corpses to where Pixal was trembling slightly.

Cole, skin cold and gray, body covered in blood, was finally found lying underneath a large pile of wreckage. Still in his arms, despite being crushed then falling hundreds of feet to the ground, was a small figure, its fingers still curled tightly around the earth ninja’s body.

A baby that had died in Cole’s arms.

Their sensei.

A harsh, half-stifled yell sounded in the ash gray sky- undoubtedly alerting Mr. E along with the rest of his crew of their location- but Lloyd did not care.

He didn’t care when Nya broke down into sobs beside him, when Dareth and Misako too began to cry, or when Pixal fell to the ground on her knees, unable to stop herself from shaking.

He didn’t care when a smiling Harumi found him not fifteen minutes later, still clinging to each of their bodies.

#ninjago #tw #tw death #tw panic attack #tw blood #corpses #uh anyways lego ninja amirite #lloyd #nya #hunted #claire writes

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imthepunchlord · 5 years

Text

LfM Ch 16

Ao3

When Marinette came back, she had a start when a green kwami let her in. The little being offered her an awkward but optimistic smile before it zipped away, leaving her at the door. She knew that, as a kwami healer, he had a kwami, but seeing another one similar to Tikki was wild and odd.

There were more kwamis out there; like, clearly, there were, but just seeing another… she wondered how many more kwamis were there.

She jumped when Tikki darted out of the purse, giggling as she pursued the green kwami, looking like she was happy to be home. Marinette followed her slowly, pausing when she saw a black box sitting on a table, awaiting her, one far bigger than the one Tikki came in.

“Just in time.”

She looked over, seeing the old man leaning into the room, smiling brightly. “Water’s ready. Any favorite flavor of tea?”

“Um, you have oolong?” she asked.

“I do. Just a moment.”

The green kwami was back at her side, smiling at her brightly and bowing. “Welcome, I am Wayzz the Turtle. Please, sit, make yourself at home.” Tikki darted past him, starting to circle the table, and Wayzz followed, the two becoming a blur of color as Marinette sat down. She turned to the old man as he approached, setting her cup before her as he sat down.

“Hello, Marinette,” he started off, “I am Master Fu Wang, the Guardian of Miraculouses, and I am the one who chose you to be Ladybug.”

Marinette narrowed her eyes at him. “So that’s why you said intentionally walked into the street. Risking yourself testing me.”

His smile became a little strained. “Not the most ideal,” he agreed, “but it answered what I needed to know. Your took in your situation, reacted to it, was quick on your feet, and had the heart to care, even for a stranger, you risked yourself as well. And you sought no thanks for it. It made you promising and ideal as a hero, I was very impressed.”

Marinette looked away, cheeks going a little pink, a smile on her lips. “I just did what anyone else would do.”

He hummed, not quite agreeing, but not deterring her reply. He nodded to the black box on the table. “This is called a Miracle Box. Where I came from, the Order of the Guardians, there were many of these. They were built to contain a number of miraculouses, and individual boxes could be combined to join two sets together. That way, if there was a critical situation somewhere, they could be taken there to be used and to assist.”

“Did they send you here because of Hawk Moth?” Marinette asked.

Fu shifted uncomfortably. “In truth, me being here is more coincidental. I was already residing in Paris, awaiting an old friend who had yet to arrive when Hawk Moth arose. In truth, I am the last of the Order of Guardians.” At her startled blink, Fu bowed his head, revealing, “Thanks to a mistake we… I made, long ago, the temple fell to ruin. Many miraculouses were lost, though I saved what I could. It is quite a number, but not so big in comparison to what it was before.”

He reached out, touching the side of the box, and Marinette watched as the lid opened on its own, revealing to her two miraculouses set on a colorful flower themed container. “This, is the Balance Set. When my temple was the last of the Order standing, they fashioned this set of seven to Taoism, hence the yin yang symbol and the surrounding five.”

“Based on Wu Xing,” Marinette provided, earning a delighted smile from Fu. He continued, “In truth, while they fit, they aren’t strictly tied to Taoism alone. This set was very universal, tied to a variety of cultures and had a variety of symbolism. They tied to other elements, not just Wu Xing but also Classical and the Japanese Five. And Ladybug and Cat covered all aspect of opposites that balanced each other. They were also tied to other concepts, some associated them with Seven Virtues, and some with the Seven Chakras.

“That’s why there’s such a diversity of animals in this set, even though ladybugs were more European, and peacocks are more favored with India than they are in China. This set was very wide spread.”

“And there are at least two missing,” Marinette noted allowed.

Fu nodded sadly. “I thought the Butterfly and Peacock were long lost, but Butterfly at least has arisen. Though it is unfortunate circumstances, I am hopeful in its retrieval and rejoining it to its set.”

“We’ll get it back soon,” Marinette promised.

“Soon is a pleasant thought, but I am afraid this will be a matter of patience. Hawk Moth hides himself away, making this a stalemate between you; one only he can break.”

She frowned. “There has to be a way to tempt him, to draw him out.” She leaned closer to the Miracle Box, tentatively reaching to it. “You said this can hold a lot. Are there more? Is there one that can maybe find him—” She touched it, and drew away with a squeak when drawers started to slide out, showing her more miraculouses.

Fu blinked in surprise while Tikki and Wayzz gaped. With a little wiggle of excitement, Tikki drew near the old master, urging, “I highly recommend her! She’s trustworthy! Has a great judge of character! And, as you said, a true hero!”

“R-recommend?” Marinette repeated, looking between the two.

“The Miracle Box responds and answers to those who are Guardians, and Guardians are decided by those who are very balanced. It seems you, Marinette, have a very dualistic nature that the box recognized.”

“And I’m recommending you to be trained to be a Guardian!” Tikki said. “You’d get to choose heroes! Anyone that could help you if you need it!”

“M-me? More heroes?”

“Yes! And if I may, Master Fu, you are old.”

“Tikki!” Wayzz sharply called out.

Fu cast the kwami a slight look. “You pointed out I was old not too long ago…”

“She isn’t a kwami in your service though.”

“But you are both right,” he said. “It might be time…”

Marinette squirmed where she sat. “Um, isn’t that risky though? You kept yourself hidden from us, and Tikki didn’t reveal you till she had to. It’s bad enough that I know all this.” She waved to the Miracle Box. “And I now know that there are a lot more miraculouses in Paris than I originally thought. I get needing an apprentice, but maybe you need someone outside of this? Someone not involved and someone Hawk Moth isn’t looking for. But, that is also risky cause who else can you trust with this…” She trailed off, frowning as she mulled it over.

Fu beamed, however, looking very pleased. “This is what makes you very promising as an apprentice.” When she turned to him in surprise, he said, “This tells me you are aware of the severity of this situation; tThat you will be cautious and care greatly for things to work out. Alongside already being a capable hero, yes, you would make a good Guardian. Would you consider being my apprentice, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?”

“Um, well…” She looked away, rubbing her arm, unsure.

“Think it over,” he offered. “If you need help or have any questions, feel free to ask. My door is always open.”

“Yes, thank you, Master Fu.”

“Thank you, Marinette, for your help and service.”

Languidly, Ladybug played with her yo-yo, contemplative. While she thought about it, Tikki made it clear that she not reveal Fu to Chat under any circumstances. Fu kept himself hidden for safety reasons, allowing to be known only if they were ready. Tikki deemed Marinette to be ready, but Chat though…

Tikki said that is entirely up to his kwami, Plagg, and Plagg alone.

Till then, not a word to Chat.

Another secret to keep. Ladybug lips pursed, letting her yo-yo go far. Was she up to the task of learning to be Guardian? There was an appeal of learning, if Tikki got sick again, perhaps she could help her. And there were other miraculouses, if they needed help, she could receive it. But, that was also risky, did they truly want to reveal to Hawk Moth that there are more miraculouses in Paris? And who does she turn to? Like, there are her friends and she has faith in them, but did she want to risk them joining this game? Did she—

Her yo-yo was grabbed and Ladybug had a start when she felt it lightly pulled. She looked up to see Chat holding it, his smile tight and strained. “Hey, LB, something up? Usually you’re patrolling at this point.”

He let the yo-yo go, letting her reel it back. “I have a lot on my mind,” she confirmed, going back to smaller rolls with her yo-yo.

“Maybe I can help,” he offered, coming to sit beside her.

“Sorry, no, you can’t.”

He huffed. “Lately it doesn’t feel like we’re real partners, Ladybug.”

She sighed, “You know what, I agree.” She got up, starting to pace around on the roof. “Our partnership has been strained, dealing with akumas hasn’t been smooth in a long time and they take longer than they should. I’m… what do you think, if we had a third teammate?”

Chat perked. “A what?”

“A third teammate, someone to help us out.”

He hummed. “On the one hand, three’s a crowd, but on the other, it’d be nice to have someone to have fun with.”

“Chat! This isn’t about having fun! This is about having help! Getting serious! This is work.” He made a face and she groaned, starting to pace about sporadically. “Like, not to say this can never be fun. But our duty should be priority over fun. And with a third teammate, perhaps that would help, and that could open up for some levity on the team. But work should come first.”

He got up, arms crossed as he nodded, frowning slightly. “Ok, yeah, I get it. Though, how would we get a third teammate?” He cracked a grin and pointed to her, “Going to give up one of your earrings? If there are going to be two Ladybugs, my only qualifications are that they’re a girl and she’s cute.”

And he swears he loves me, Ladybug thought, rolling her eyes. “It’s not going to be another Ladybug.”

He had a start at that, frowning. “Then how is there going to be a third teammate? Wait, do you have another miraculous?”

“Uuuuuh, not exactly,” she answered awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Then how are we going to have a third teammate?”

“We might have a third teammate.”

“That doesn’t answer my question!”

“Look, Chat, just—just trust me, ok? When it's time, I can tell you, but not right now. Just—” She took a breath, relaxing a little. “—I just wanted to give a little heads up that there might be a third teammate.”

“You know something,” he noted aloud, his tone a little accusing.

She made a face at that. “Look, I-I gotta go. Homework, a lot.” Before Chat could stop her, she darted away. He watched her go, making a face, before he turned and headed out too. Dropping into his room and detransforming, he turned to watch Plagg drift away, unbothered with what they learned.

“What do you think she knows?” he asked.

“Hard to say,” Plagg answered, vaguely.

Adrien paused, narrowing his eyes at his kwami. “You’re not very bothered by this.”

“Why should I be? Didn’t she say trust her? She hasn’t failed us yet.”

“But she’s keeping a secret from us!”

“You need to calm down, kid.” Plagg waved him off. “Have some cheese. It always calms me down.”

Adrien narrowed his eyes. “You do know something.”

“Nope.”

“What do you know? What does she know?” Adrien went near him, swiping Plagg’s cheese and making the kwami mew in alarm. He held the cheese over his head and bribed him with, “You can have it back when you tell me.”

Plagg looked strained, eyes locked on the cheese. He shook his head, urging, “You need that cheese more than me, kid. I got enough. And I suggest having it fast; I left it out so it’s extra melty.”

No sooner had Plagg said so, a small chunk of cheese dripped down, and Adrien threw it away with a loud, “Ew!”

Plagg dove at the tossed away cheese, swallowing it one big gulp. His leverage gone, Adrien did the best next thing.

“Ok, how about, one secret for the biggest wheel of Camembert ever made,” Adrien offered, bringing out his phone, searching through sales with the biggest wheels of cheese. He watched Plagg go stiff, turning to eye Adrien, his pupils small. Then, he shook his head and darted away. Adrien followed, listing off a variety of cheeses, from the biggest to most expensive.

He was going to wear his kwami down, sooner or later…

Giggles filled the air between them. Ondine smiled brightly, a light blush on her cheeks as Kim towered over her, boasting about his latest success in PE and making it very clear that M D’Argencourt didn’t know what he was talking about, unable to see the true talent before him.

“To be fair,” she voiced, amusement lacing her tone, “you don’t exactly follow directions.”

Kim huffed, “Well, he needs to learn to let loose! I’m like... a rolling stone! I go where I want forever.”

“They do come to a stop eventually,” she pointed out.

“Not this stone!”

They stopped outside the pool, Ondine working on getting all her hair into her swim cap as Kim pulled out their bracelet capsule. He waved it about, grinning as he asked, “Ready for the game?”

Ondine beamed, plucking the bracelet from his fingers. “I call first dive.”

“And I—”

“Will be coming with me.”

They both whipped around, seeing Chloe approach with Sabrina behind her, making a slight face as she eyed the public pool behind them. Meeting their baffled stares, she stated, “I’m in need of a big strong man to help lift something. And that Ivan is too much of a brute to be of use.” More specifically, Ivan didn’t humor Chloe at all. It usually didn’t end Chloe’s favor.

“You think I’m strong?” Kim asked, rubbing the back of his neck with cheeks a little pink. Ondine frowned beside him.

“Yes. That’s why I’m here,” Chloe said, rolling her eyes. “Now come on, I can’t hang around here for too long. People will think I go here!”

“We’re about to go swimming though,” Ondine pointed out.

“Well, I need his help now.”

“But we made plans to swim right now.”

“Ugh, don’t you guys already swim like, once a week already? You can see each other next week! Now come on!”

Sabrina leaned over, sweetening the deal. “I’m sure Chloe will allow you to swim in her pool!” Chloe shot her a sharp look that had the redhead flinching away.

“Woah! I’ve never swam on a roof before! Ondine, we could swim on a roof!”

“You only,” Chloe corrected, “and that’s only if you do a good job.”

“Oh, uuuum,” Kim drawled out, shifting on his feet, unsure. Ondine watched as Chloe glared at him, tapping her foot angrily.

“Y-you know,” Ondine murmured quietly, “how about... how about you go ahead.”

“Really?” Kim asked, turning to her.

“Ye-yeah, we’ll—we’ll swim together again later. I mean, how often is Chloe going to offer up the chance to swim in her pool?”

“You’re the best, Ondine!” Kim cried out, giving her a quick hug before dashing to the two girls. As Sabrina lead Kim back to the limo, looking very put off by her classmate’s enthusiasm, Chloe lingered behind, giving Ondine one smug smirk and boasting with a sneer, “We’ll see if he’ll ever want to swim with you again in this dirty old pool, if he even earns the right to swim in mine.” She followed the two with a cackle, leaving a frowning Ondine behind her.

She tightened her grip on the bracelet, ugly feelings festering inside of her. Caught up in it, she didn’t notice the butterfly coming her way…

The flood waters came out of nowhere, filling the Parisian streets faster than anyone was ready for. Ladybug scrambled about on the roofs, fishing up anyone unlucky enough to get caught in the sudden rapids. Thankfully, the flood was starting to calm down and just leisurely roll around Paris, but it was still very alarming.

Ladybug leaned close to the edge, frowning as she peered into the depths. She didn’t like this and didn’t know where the akuma could even be. With the situation being water-related as well… she knew their tools could help them breath, but they’d be limited movement-wise. Maybe she should—

“Careful! You might see a catfish!”

“That was really forced,” she said, turning to Chat, seeing him looking tense above her and seated on a chimney. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of water, Kitty.”

“I love it, actually,” he said, “but I am nervous about what could be within.”

“Me too,” she agreed. “I’m… you wait here. I’ll be back in a bit.”

He dropped down near her, narrowing his eyes. “Is it someone you know?”

“Just wait,” she pleaded, racing away before he could press her for more answers. He grimaced after her, crossing his arms. A large part of him was tempted to just follow her… actually, the thought appealed to him enough that he started to, but as soon as he got onto that first roof to follow her, she was gone and out of sight.

“Great,” he muttered, dropping down onto one of the lower roofs, water sloshing about at his feet as he balanced on the long spine. Out of sight and no one around, he decided for one more try to get answers. It wasn’t fair that she got to know stuff and he didn’t; they were meant to be partners, equals. He should know, so it’s fair.

Fingers on the ring, he called, “Claws in.”

The transformation fell away, and Plagg wasn’t facing him at first. Instead the kwami was making a displeased noise. “All this water… I hope it didn’t ruin my Camembert back at home.”

“Plagg.”

Plagg turned, his eyes locked onto the ring Adrien had his fingers on threateningly as he glared down at the kwami. “You tell me what she knows or I’m quitting.”

Before Plagg could respond, or Adrien could add more, there was a bubbly laugh filling the air. Plagg darted out of sight as Adrien looked back to see a pink blur with a ruby pink dorsal fin coming straight for him in the water. Before he could move to get out of the way, a pink and black mermaid jumped out, coming to soar over him. Surprised, red eyes met wide green, and as the mermaid headed down, her tail hit Adrien right in the face, tipping him over into the water.

The silver ring went flying into the flood.

Adrien popped out of the water with a gasp, swimming to the low roof and grasping at it as he coughed. He looked back to see the akuma lingering for just a moment before she turned and dove back down.

“Adrien.”

He looked up, seeing Plagg stare down at him stiffly, his pupils small and thin. “Where’s the ring?”

Adrien stiffened, feeling very cold all of the sudden. He looked down at his fingers, finding them to be bare.

The ring was gone.

#miraculous ladybug #leave for mendeleiev #different class au #here you go guys #hopefully this will make up for the ep today

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