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gwenbrightly · 4 years

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The Gingerbread Caper

Cross-posted from ffnet.

The quiet atmosphere of the monastery was broken by the sound of screaming originating from Kai’s bedroom, waking anyone who still happened to be asleep. Nya groaned in annoyance and covered her face with a pillow. Wu was letting them slack off from Sunrise Exercises and she really didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to take advantage of that.

“GET IT OFF ME!!!” Her brother screamed again, forming coherent words this time. That was it. Obviously, the master of water wasn’t going to be sleeping in today. She threw her pillow aside and climbed out of bed, eyeing her clock resentfully. It was far too early for this. Not that 10 am was particularly early (but still!). She trudged from her room still wrapped in one of her blankets.

“What the heck, Kai?” Nya demanded when she reached Kai’s bedroom just down the hall. The master of fire sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He tossed something at her in disgust. She caught it with minimal effort. A gingerbread man. Or, at least, what was left of one. The poor cookie didn’t have any head.

“This better not have been you, sis.” he stated. Nya rolled her eyes, tempted to return to the comfort of her bed rather than deal with her over dramatic brother.

“Like I’d ever stoop so low. Seriously, you didn’t need to scream like that. It’s just a cookie.”

Kai gaped at her indignantly.

“Would you wanna wake up with some creepy soulless human wannabe in your bed?”

“Now there’s a quote I should send to your lovely girlfriend right away.” Nya laughed. He glared at her for a moment before suddenly shooting up from his bed.

“Skylor!”

“What?” she asked, confused, “I swear I wasn’t actually planning on sending this to her.”

“No, she’s supposed to be coming over today to decorate cookies with us!” he reminded her. Nya face-palmed.

“I can’t believe I forgot about that…”

“Actually, this is perfect. She’ll be totally unbiased about this whole gingerbread man fiasco.” Kai mused, already deep in thought. His sister frowned at him. It was obvious he had something up his sleeve.

“What are you planning?”

“Don’t look so worried, Nya. This is just like one of Ninja Noir’s mysteries! I just gotta follow the trail of evidence and eventually, I’ll be able to eliminate the impossible and find the truth!” Kai told her, quoting his favorite detective series.

“Kai, no.” she said, attempting to prevent the situation from getting totally out of hand. He ignored her, instead opting to head over to his closet to grab something. When he turned to face Nya again, he was wearing a fedora.

“Since when do you own a fedora?” the master of water questioned. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.

“Shhhh,” he cut her off with a wave of his hand, “Just go with it.”

Nya sighed, but followed him to go wait for Skylor to appear.

_________________________________________________________________

“Do I even wanna know what I just walked into?” Skylor wondered when she caught site of the scene playing out in the living room. Her boyfriend stared suspiciously at Lloyd and Jay, who were playing what appeared to be a rather intense game of Fist to Face (Ninja Edition!). It took him a second to register her presence. Nya waved her over, smiling apologetically.

“Someone,” Kai began to explain, holding up the cookie, which he’d gotten back from his sister, “thought it would be funny to put this in my bed and I wanna know who.”

Skylor resigned herself to another of Kai’s chaotic schemes. She already knew he had a problem with gingerbread people (and Christmas elves, and those little expanding bath toys they sold at the dollar store for that matter), though he wouldn’t tell her what it was about the holiday treats that bothered him so much.

“Eh okay. How can I help?”

“Are you sure you wanna do that?” Nya asked at the same time as Kai said, “You can be, like, the insanely hot mystery woman who helps the dashing detective (me) solve the mystery.”

“Real smooth, dork. But sure, why not.” the redhead decided, punching the master of fire’s shoulder lightly to distract from how rosy her cheeks were all of a sudden. He grinned in delight.

“Cool! Oh, and I guess Nya can help too.” Kai added as an afterthought. Nya raised an eyebrow.

“Well, you’re obviously not a suspect, sis! The gingerbread man couldn’t have been in my bed long or it would have crumbled, and you value sleep way too much to have gotten up early enough to orchestrate this.” he stated confidently. She didn’t look like she was taking this as a compliment.

“So, detective Smith, where do we start our investigation?” Skylor prompted. She had no desire to see the siblings get into a debate over their sleeping habits.

“Oh. Uh… We have to interview our suspects!” announced Kai, dragging Skylor and Nya over to the two video game playing ninja.

“Oh, hey guys. You wanna join our next round?” Jay offered, not taking his eyes off of the screen. He rapidly pressed several buttons on his controller at once.

“Yeah, it’ll be way more fun with more players!” agreed Lloyd. He gave a smirk of triumph as his avatar landed a final hit on his opponent. The master of lightning groaned, disappointed.

“Actually, I think Kai had something he wanted to ask you.” Skylor informed them. Jay and Lloyd set aside their controllers, curious. The sight of Kai in a fedora was unexpected; Lloyd was usually the only one who found them fashionable enough to wear.

“Oh, okay. What’s up?” the green ninja asked, wondering what on earth could be so pressing that Kai had gotten Nya and Skylor involved.

“I was wondering if you knew anything about this?” answered Kai he shoved the cookie under his brother’s nose. Taking note of the gingerbread man, Jay demanded, “Hey – how’d you convince Zane to let you have one of his cookies?”

He’d tried to snag one earlier that morning, only to be thwarted by the master of ice, who insisted they must save the gingerbread cookies for Skylor’s arrival. This was rather unfortunate, as they smelled utterly delicious.

“No, I- you’re telling me that you, the two biggest pranksters around, have no idea how this got in my bed?” Kai stated, skeptical. The two ninja shook their heads. It appeared he was going to have to use a different interrogation method to get answers. He judged his sister. She glared at him. He nodded pointedly at Lloyd and Jay. Not wanting to give in so easily, Nya stared at Kai silently for several minutes before finally relenting.

“If that’s true, then you won’t mind telling us what you’ve been doing all morning.” she said in her best police officer voice (and secretly wishing she had a fake mustache on her).

“Oh, that’s easy. We’ve been having a Fist to Face (Ninja Edition!) tournament for the past couple of hours. Just look at the scoreboard,” Jay told them with a shrug, “I mean, it is kinda embarrassing to see how many times Lloyd’s hooped me already today, but if it gets you to stop looking at me like that…”

Lloyd nodded, the picture of innocence. They took a closer look at the screen. Sure enough, the scores for the past thirty or so rounds, along with the times they were completed scrolled across the pause screen.

“Huh. Well, I guess you’re off the hook. For now, at least.” Kai decided, wondering who he should use his detective skills on next if the most obvious suspects had been ruled out.

“Maybe Zane knows who it was. He’s been in the kitchen all morning.” suggested Lloyd as he set up another round of the video game. Skylor grabbed Kai’s elbow and drug him towards the door, saying, “Good idea. I need to give him the extra sprinkles I brought anyway.”

Nya mouthed I’ll be back later to her boyfriend before following them. Instead of heading directly to the kitchen, Kai insisted on examining every nook and cranny of the hallway. He held a magnifying glass he’d somehow ended up with, though no one could say for sure where it had come from, and was doing his best to mutter what he thought sounded like very professional and insightful comments.

“Ahah! A trail of crumbs. Collect that for evidence, Sky.”

The redhead pretended like she hadn’t heard him, sharing a grossed out look with Nya.

“Oh, hey! Weren’t you missing an earring, Nya?”

Kai held out something sparkly and blue.

“Uh…thanks.” Nya accepted it, a look of utter surprise on her face. She’d been searching for this earring for weeks. Could it be possible that Kai was actually… good at this detective stuff?

“The detective and his sidekicks arrived at the kitchen at approximately 11:05 am., wondering what clues they would uncover inside…” Kai loudly announced, interrupting Nya’s thoughts.

“Hello!” Zane greeted them. Bowls of frosting in an impressively wide range of colors lined the counters along with several different kinds of sprinkles. Pixal was currently adding a few drops of vibrant red food dye to one of the few bowls that remained uncolored.

“Yes, welcome! Did you bring the sprinkles?” she asked. Skylor pulled a jar from her purse.

“Yep, here you go.”

“Thank goodness,” exclaimed Zane, taking them from her, “Dyeing sugar crystals by hand just isn’t effective.”

“Tell me about it. We tried it at the restaurant one time when we were in a pinch and… it didn’t work well.” the redhead recalled. Having grown bored with the conversation the others were having about epic fails with sprinkles, Kai examined the trays of cookies stacked next to the oven. Just as he’d predicted, one row of cookies was missing a gingerbread man.

“Hey, Zane, Pixal? You guys have been in here all morning, right?” he asked, casually. The two nindroids glanced at each other. Zane was the first to reply.

“Well, I stepped out for a few moments to bring Master Wu some oolong tea – he claims to be feeling a bit under the weather today – but, other than that, yes. Why?”

“I’m trying to figure out where this cookie came from. You didn’t happen to, say, give one of these to someone, did you?” Kai showed them the gingerbread man, curious to see their reaction. He was a little disappointed when neither of them did anything incriminating.

“I suppose it’s possible that Cole took it when I wasn’t looking. He came in here while Zane was gone to grab some extra tape.” Pixal said thoughtfully. Ahah! Kai’s eyes lit up.

“So he’s wrapping presents, huh,” he mused, “I wonder if he’s gotten to mine yet…”

“Kai! I thought you were being a detective, not some nosy kid!” his sister hissed disapprovingly. He huffed indignantly.

“I’m just curious, Nya. And besides, all the best detectives can multi-task.” Kai defended.

“Suuure.”

“Anyway, thank you for the info. We may be back later.” the master of fire stated in a more professional tone, heading out into the hall once more. Zane and Pixal waved as the others left, not sure how else to respond.

En route to Cole’s bedroom, Kai immediately reverted back to carefully examining every small space, carpet snag, and leafy garland in sight. Nothing escaped the lens of his magnifying glass. Not even his sister’s tennis shoes, which kept blocking his view. If he could just find something, anything, that would prove once and for all who was guilty of this delectable crime… Wait. Kai caught a whiff of something cinnamony wafting off of a wreath hung across the hall from the master of earth’s door. He sniffed the gingerbread man. It was the same smell. Reaching into the wreath, he plucked something small and round from inside. Victory! Skylor stared at him in confusion for a few minutes before realizing what he was holding.

“Is that what I think it is?”

Kai held the two pieces of the gingerbread man together.

“Yep. Looks like we might just have an official suspect.”

“You’re so weird…” Nya muttered under her breath. She was pretty sure nothing would possess her to behave like this.

“Hey, it worked pretty well, didn’t it?” Kai pointed out, slinging an arm around her shoulders. She sidestepped quickly, shrugging it off as she went.

“Well…” she started reluctantly, “I guess we’d better get in there and get some answers.” She swung the door open. They could hear the pleasant tune of the Nutcracker soundtrack playing on Cole’s phone as they entered. The ninja in question sat at his desk, surrounded by wrapping paper. He turned around and blocked their view of whatever else was on the desk before quickly asking, “Do… you need something, or are you just here to enjoy the total masterpiece that is the Nutcracker?”

“Uh, yeah. Though, it is definitely a classic.” Nya told him appreciatively. They would have to pull out the recording of Cole’s 6th grade performance of the ballet that Lou had given them one day soon.

“Let’s cut to the chase. We know why you were really in the kitchen, Cole.” Kai cut in impatiently. Cole’s face flushed with embarrassment.

“Aw, man! You’re not gonna tell Zane, are you?” he stammered.

“…What?” the master of fire attempted to ask.

“This is a one-time thing, I swear! His frosting is just too delicious to resist.” Cole continued sheepishly, oblivious to Kai’s question. Kai, Skylor, and Nya froze. This wasn’t at all what they had been expecting him to say.

“Zane’s…. Frosting?” Skylor repeated, wanting to make sure they had heard him right.

“Well yeah. I’ve been snacking in it all morning,” the master of earth admitted, showing them a mostly empty bowl, “It’s so good! Wait - what did you think I was talking about?”

No one replied at first; they were still processing the unexpected turn of events.

“We… may have thought you put a headless gingerbread man in Kai’s bed to mess with him.” Nya ultimately explained. Cole couldn’t help himself. He burst into laughter at this admission.

“Wow, I guess that explains the looks on your faces right about now. But as totally brilliant of an idea as that prank is, I had nothing to do with it. Sorry.”

“Eh, it’s okay. We probably shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions when Pixal told us you’d been in the kitchen. Or when I found the gingerbread man’s head in that wreath. In hindsight it was a pretty weird hiding place.” Kai said apologetically.

“Yeah.” his sister agreed.

“Almost…. Like someone wanted us to find it…” he continued.

“You think whoever did this tried to frame Cole?” Skylor questioned, finishing his thought. It was all coming together now.

“I guess I do…. Oolong tea not licorice…. Hang on a sec, I think I solved this thing!”

Nya gave him a look, as if questioning his sanity. His ramblings made little sense to her.

“No offense, Kai, but you lost me at tea.” she told him with a frown.

“Me too, honestly.” Cole nodded, equally lost, especially since he had missed a majority of the investigative process. Kai rolled his eyes in exasperation and said, “Just make sure everyone meets me in the living room in five minutes, and I’ll explain then, okay?”

“Even Master Wu?” Cole clarified, not wanting to disturb the old man without a good reason.

“Especially Master Wu.” Kai confirmed before dashing out of the room and leaving everyone else to wonder whether or not the master of fire was going to crash and burn.

He paced back and forth across the living room, earning the occasional odd look from Lloyd and Jay, who had moved on to arguing over the existence of a plot hole in the latest Starfarers movie.

“I’m telling you, Jay. They left that part vague so that it can be expanded on in the sequel!” Lloyd insisted. Jay didn’t look like he agreed with this statement, still stuck on his accusations of lazy writing. He was rescued from having to formulate a convincing comeback by the arrival of the rest of the residents of the monastery. Nya and Skylor had returned to the kitchen for the pair of nindroids, leaving Cole to retrieve Master Wu. The room was suddenly filled with noisy conversations as everyone claimed a seat.

“Okay. Let’s get down to business.” Kai practically shouted over the din. One by one, the others stopped talking and looked at him.

“Alright, let’s get this hare-brained scheme of yours over with so we can have lunch, then.” Cole encouraged, speaking for everyone. While they were curious to see if Kai had actually figured out who had pranked him, they had also gotten more than a little tired of being on the receiving end of his investigative tactics.

“Right. As you all know, I woke up this morning to find a decapitated gingerbread man in my bed,” the master of fire began dramatically, making sure everyone could see the cookie, “at first, it seemed like our resident pranksters, Lloyd and Jay, were the obvious suspects. However, they both had a strong alibi… It couldn’t have been them – they were right here in this room playing video games when the crime was committed.” he crossed over to Zane and Pixal, “next, my lovely assistants and I headed to the source of the cookie – the kitchen, in the hopes that someone there would know what had happened. Our ever-watchful ice ninja hadn’t seen anything suspicious. He stepped out for what, 15 minutes tops?”

“That is correct,” Zane nodded.

“He was getting Master Wu some tea because he was sick,” Kai explained, “more on that later. Pixal told us that Cole had come looking for tape while Zane was gone. We figured maybe he could give us some answers, so we headed for his room, and you know what we found in the wreath across the hall from his door?”

“That’s right,” Nya jumped in, though she still wasn’t sure how relevant it was, “The missing head!”

“Exactly. So obviously that must mean that Cole’s the culprit, right?” Jay and Lloyd looked at each other. Were they supposed to agree?

“Wrong! If he’d taken the cookie, he would’ve eaten the head right away, not hidden it. The only thing Cole was guilty of was stealing a bowl of frosting for a mid-morning snack. And that’s when it hit me. What kind of tea does Master Wu always drink when he’s sick?”

“Licorice?” Lloyd offered. Kai smiled triumphantly.

“Bingo. But when he asked Zane to bring him some tea, he asked for Oolong tea, which he never drinks when he’s sick because it tastes nasty with honey in it. Master Wu, you’re not really sick, are you?”

The elderly spinjitzu master smiled weakly at him, but did not deny the accusation.

“Here’s what happened: Master Wu asked Zane to bring him some tea because he knew it would distract him long enough for the real gingerbread prankster to put their plan into action. Knowing she only had a short amount of time, Pixal grabbed a cookie and snuck into my bedroom to plant it on me. She also hid the gingerbread man’s head in that wreath in case someone came looking for it later. She only barely made it back to the kitchen before Cole arrived.”

Skylor snapped her fingers, excitedly jumping in.

“I get it! When we showed up in the kitchen to ask Zane about the cookies, she told us about Cole because she knew we’d find the head and think it was him.”

“Exactly! And it would’ve worked, too, if the tea hadn’t made me suspicious. The only thing I haven’t figured out is why….” Kai paused, staring at them, “Why did you do this, guys?”

Wu stood and walked over to him.

“To put it simply, we wanted to help you overcome your phobia of gingerbread people. It gets in the way of you spending time with your family and friends every year. I know it wasn’t a very kind thing to do, but I honestly felt it would be worth it in the end to see you enjoy the holidays a bit more.” he admitted, placing a hand on Kai’s shoulder.

“And I do believe it worked!” Pixal added, “although you were certainly annoyed, you didn’t seem frightened at any point this morning.”

Kai made a funny face as he thought about everything that had happened. However misguided Pixal and Wu’s plan had been… he didn’t feel the disgust and terror he was used to when he looked at the gingerbread man in his hand anymore.

“You know, I think you’re right… don’t get me wrong, I’m still kinda irritated that you thought this was a good idea. But… thanks.” he told them. Out of all the holiday adventures Kai had had, he was pretty sure this was the strangest. Later that day, after they had finally eaten lunch (much to Cole’s relief), he had to smile when Zane didn’t hesitate to hand him a gingerbread man to decorate. He set to work carefully frosting it so they it resembled a detective with a trench coat and fedora, proudly displaying it with the rest when he was finished. It was nice to see that gingerbread people weren’t so bad after all. Ninja Noir would be proud.

Hopefully this ridiculous story made someone smile today :) it was literally so fun to come up with hehe

#Ninjago #Ninjago fanfiction #my fics #ninjago Christmas #Kai loves detective novels #Who put a decapitated gingerbread man in his bed?#Yall are gonna have to read to find out #Pixal and wu just wanna help but are really bad at it #Cole eats frosting by the bowlful but can we blame him? No #You guys I am seriously so proud of this

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rosiehunterwolf · 3 years

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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.”

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sketch--booked · 3 years

Text

I wanna complain about how the ninja treated Zane in the first few episodes real quick. Specifically in Home. Since I have some beef with the ninja.

So remember that one time Zane froze the entire monastery without effort? Yeah, that was kinda cool,

Now I begin to get angry, You’ve been warned--

And the ninja, understandably, were upset and I can get that.

But then you see how they all kinda just--- treated him really badly all the time. I get it,, he’s got weird traits and does very “Zane” things (being unfazed to be in the bathroom with somebody, legitimately not understanding comedy and laughing at odd things, at least Nya and Jay weren’t watching a horror or slasher movie, and his famous sitting-in-the-fridge scene) but like--

They really gonna do this??

Laugh at the guy for what he wears and throw around the food he made for them? Even Wu, may I add.

Can I also call attention to Jay, who throws something at Zane.

AND LOOK AT HIM--

That is not a face of comfort? By any means?? Zane shows a very little range of emotion, in the early seasons especially. But when Jay throws his own food at him, he frowns. THAT’S EMOTION,, HE’S NOT HAPPY,,, THIS ISN’T A JOKE NOR IS IT FUNNY TO HIM.

And they just--Don’t even do a double-take.

I’m bewildered at just how horribly they treat him, in this scene specifically. Not one of them, NOT EVEN WU, takes a second to think about how Zane might feel in this moment??? IN FACT, If you listen carefully, you can hear Nya and Jay belittling him.

“He looks so cute in his apron!” and “Look at his face!”

THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEY’RE BEING CRUEL LIKE WTF THIS MAKES ME SO MAD--I HOPE THEY WENT TO BED STARVING.

So after this god awful display of friendship that makes me want to slap all the other ninja, we get the infamous Falcon scene.

Zane has his general neutral kinda-angy-lookin’ expression. So we can’t really tell what he’s feeling in this moment, but it’s his actions that follow that say everything.

He sees the falcon and is intrigued by it and actually smiles. Which is good! That’s emotion! Well done, Zane, you’re learning!

NOW IT’S THIS BIT---IS WHERE I GET REAL JUST---HHHHHMMM It’s in this moment, I wonder if Zane knows what a toxic friendship isghghgh I jest--

Zane is smiling when he sees the falcon fly off. He likes the bird but he lets it leave.

But then---

Zane takes one brief look back to the sound of his friends and without a second doubt he BOOKS IT--

So from initially seeing this, you get the instant feeling that he would prefer to follow a mysterious bird into possible danger, than go back to his friends who are still laughing in the distance. He obviously was going to return back to them, they tease his lack of returning later in the episode WHICH I HOPE TO GET TO. But that does say enough about his actual feelings towards the rest.

Strange, possibly evil bird---or my friends who’re probably going to continue to laugh at me.

It’s a nobrainer that he’d follow the bird??

He’s not truly upset at them, I don’t even think that Zane has the capability to really be angry ngl,, but he still chose the bird over his “family” and that’s what makes me so angry at the ninja.

And to those who say “He’s not upset at the ninja, he’s just curious and the fact that he essentially ran away from them, doesn’t mean he dislikes them” I say,,, That is fair. And I will, for the sake of not looking like a dick, argue for that.

It’s clear that Zane likes to know stuff. In the beginning, he’s been the smart one. Even in this episode Kai says “We like the guy, he’s really smart..” then complains about him being weird. And later down the line he’s shown an interest in learning, being the only one in season 11 to actually read about the desert of doom and the Mechanic himself saying he’s an inquisitive nindroid in season 12.

So it’s understandable if Zane was simply sating his curiosity. But how can you tell me that the previous event was not a deciding factor in choosing the bird instead..

I would now like to jump forward to when the ninja are at Lloyd’s tree-house (Can I point out that the first place the falcon took zane, was a tree-house. And the last was a tree house?? Anybody? okay just me--).

And when they ask him how he found it; he tells them it’s because it danced. Jay then jokingly asks if it was a coo-coo bird, promoting everyone to--

IF YOU GUESSED “laugh at him” YOU’D BE CORRECT, HOW DID YOU GUESS???

When he does his info dump thing they don’t even bother, they just shrug in unison--which ngl I do find funny ghghgh

Now that’s where you’d think the Zane bullying stops right?

NOPE,, TIME TO BURN DOWN THE MONASTERY (this is a cool shot btw)

This is a good shot too, because it sets up that Zane will be a focus, and you can already assume it’s because, in some essence, this is Zane’s fault.

But then they go all out on him. They straight up tell him this was his fault, that he shouldn’t have followed the bird, he shouldn’t have been curious or try to help, that everything they had here is gone, and yell at him to his face “A teaching moment? What’s wrong with you? Don’t you get it? Everything is gone!” and it’s because of him.

In this moment they are taking out every frustration they had with him. They’re taking out every moment he’s gone into his own world and making their lives harder and that their home is gone because of him.

This is one of the very first, and very few times all the ninja have pitted against just one of their team. And it hurts. Because Zane’s reaction to this, his response to being treated horribly, having his food thrown at him like he didn’t spend likely hours making and planing it, like he doesn’t do the chores they probably wont do (taking out the rubbish earlier in the episode), is to go back to them like he wasn’t hurt by this at all.

And y’know what could’ve solved this entire thing? What could’ve prevented the exclusion and the explosion that is their friendship. Communication. On both sides, neither of them communicated with each other. The ninja didn’t openly express their feelings towards Zane TO Zane, only Wu and probably Nya. And Zane never expressed anything, ever, like--literally nothing. His moment of most emotion is in episode 7 dammit.

And I just--This is an issue that’s followed through even to the new seasons. Honest to god some of the only times I can recall him actually expressing how he feels about something, is with Pixal, and when Kai persuades him to break his morals and cheat in the slug race. God please help me find more examples because I cannot remember anything else (I’m ignoring Decoded for the time being since the last episode of that was almost entirely “Zane therapy time”)

Imma end it here because my rant juices have stopped flowing and I haven’t slept in many many long hours and I really would like to collapse right about now.

So i’m not saying Zane has it worst, he probably doesn’t,, but what I’m saying is that Zane had a tough time in the beginning especially. After Kai became properly a part of the group, it was Zane that they outcasted. And because they wouldn’t actually talk to him about what they all thought. They didn’t take the time to understand him and only realized they missed him and how badly they’d been treating him when he was gone.

In the start, they were bad friends, they were horrible in fact. Zane tried, or didn’t. Where he didn’t understand people or social cues, he understood being kind and doing the right thing.

The ninja did however work from this. As of this episode, they tone down the mistreatment and make a bigger effort to get the guy. And it’s all explained and finished in episode 7.

Overall, I really like this episode! I think the characters were great! I think the humor was great! I think the progression was great! I dunno why some o’ yall think I don’t like something because I hate it. I can hate-love something, and you’ll find there are a lot of things I hate-love in ninjago.

#this got real long real fast--#ngl this was just going to be me remembering the icy training area #but then i got distracted by how they treated him #and then it turned into a rant #probably a stupid--likely biased--rant but whatever-I haven't slept well in days i'm tired dammit #ninjago zane #ninjago #sketch rants about something #that's what i'm calling it now #can you see now why zane is my favorite? i like unpicking his character #he's fun

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ninja-knox-ur-sox-off · 4 years

Note

Who's your favorite characters in Ninjago and Monkie Kid, and why are they your favs?

Hmmmm...

Ninjago:

Kai (cares a lot would do anything for fam I love him T-T)

Nya (such a cool character I want to write a fic/character study about her so bad cause she’s got so much unexplored potential AAAHH)

Cole (T-T smart boi, loves his fam, love him)

Jay (LET JAY INVENT AGAIN i HAVE SO MANY FIC IDEAS TO GET HIM INVENTING)

Zane (SO GOOD. HE’S JUST WHOLESOME AND WONDERFUL)

Lloyd (*SCREAMS IN ANGST AND TRUAMA AND SUPPORTIVE FOUND FAMILY*)

Pixal (SHE)

Garmadon (BEST DAD I LOVE HIM)

Wu (*SCREAMS IN ANGST POTENTIAL AND UNRESOLVED TRAUMA THAT CARRIES OVER INTO HOW HE DEALS WITH OTHER PEOPLE*)

Scales (SNEK)

Ronin (YA FUNKY RAT DAD)

Akita (SMOL FERAL CHILD PLEASE I JUST WANT HER AND LLOYD TO BE BEST FRIENDS THEIR DYNAMIC GIVES ME LIFE ;A;)

Lilly/Cole’s Mom (*SCREAMS* I WANT TO WRITE A FIC ABOUT HER SO BAD SHE BASICALLY CARRIED THE WHOLE OF NINJAGO ON HER SHOULDERS BY HERSELF FOR DECADES--)

Skylor (TOL PRETTY CONFIDENT SKILLED GIRL HELP HELP SLDKFAWE SMART, STRONG, IS AWESOME AAHHSALDFWO)

Morro (GIVE THIS GHOST BOY A NAP AND I’M ALMOST DONE MY NONESENSE FIC ABOUT HIM SDFLKMAWE)

pretty much every elemental master (AAAHHH)

Monkie Kid:

MK (this child T-T I would protect him with my life)

Mei (*inhales* I LOVE HER SO MUCH OH MY GODS WITH MY WHOLE SOUL)

Pigsy (GRUMPY DAD ACCIDENTALLY ADOPTS FAMILY GRUMPY DAD GRUMPY DAD) (also angsty backstory potential >:D!!!)

Tang (NOODLE “If I weren’t so relaxed and chill I might be really worried about the consequences of this” DAD, I LOVE HIM LSMDFIAWEFL)

Sandy (YA FUNKY ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORTIVE BLUE UNCLE)

Wukong (HIM?!?!??!?!?!? *gestures wildly at the monkey* AAAAHHHH)

Macaque (HARDCORE MANIPULATIVE VILLIAN WOULD THROW A CHAIR AT HIM BUT WOW HE MAKES A GOOD BAD GUY SLDKFMWAEOIF, also character design is top notch dude skkldfmawoefi torn between redemption arc and throw him off a cliff LKSDMFAOIWEF)

Red Son (SCREAMY LOUD BOI WITH NO CHILL AND DRAMATIC AS HECK. reDEMTION ARC??)

i’M PROBABLY FORGETTING PEOPLE BUT I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS FOR MOST OF THE CHARACTERS SLADMFAWOEIF

LOOK. I HAVE A BIG HEART AND I LOVE WRITING ALL KINDS OF CHARACTERS AND I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM SO!!!!! SKLDFMAOWIEJAGFHG;ORIMFWOEIF

This is why I have so many fic ideas, because I wanna write something about everybody XD SLAKDFMAWOIEF

Point is, each of these characters are so unique and different and I love watching them interact and care about each other, picking favourites is really hard because all of them have so much potential and I can’t wait to write something about every single one of them >:D!!! dlskfmawoeiSSLKDFMAWOIEF

#Knox rambles #asks #herhighnesstheprincess #Ninjago #Monkie Kid

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grimbeak · 3 years

Text

hi! here’s another fun n cheerful ghost jay drabble, definitely not really depressing at all! :D

Mistakes

Pixal was expecting many things to be going on when she got back to the temple, almost a month late after her mission went awry. It was supposed to be only two weeks she was gone, but, well, duty calls.

Out of all the things she has been expecting (mourning, an empty temple, arguing, etc.), seeing Jay on the couch talking to Cole was not one of them.

“Um.”

Both boys look up, confused looks turning into delighted smiles almost instantly as they jump up. “Pixal!” Cole runs over to her, and she laughs as his arms wrap tightly around her in a hug. “How’ve you been? Zane and Lloyd are doing a patrol,” he explains, “something about a rogue batch of serpentine. They should be back in about an hour or two, unless something goes wrong.”

“Great,” Pixal smiles, squeezing him back one more time before stepping away. Her eyes land on Jay, and her smile fades. “How- my apologies, but... why and how is he here?”

“Well, uh...” Cole trails off, clearly a bit uncomfortable. “He’s kind of...”

Jay’s smile, however, doesn’t falter, instead clearing his throat and pulling a paper out of his pocket (is he... see-through?). Reading from the paper, he says, “So, funny story, I died. And now I’m a ghost. With no memory of dying, or... anything that caused me to die. So, don’t-” he frowns, slightly- “don’t tell me anything that may trigger memories, and try not to act weird around me. And, um, that’s about it.” He folds the paper, slipping it back into his pocket. “Kai wrote that for me,” Jay explains. “Pretty informative.”

Pixal blinks. “Right. Well. So you don’t remember... anything?” She’s been told about the island, but... apparently her friends have neglected to tell her that Jay is alive (well... half-alive. A ghost. Whatever) and well (as well as one can be with zero memories of their death.)

Jay shakes his head. “Nope. And, apparently, no one’s allowed to tell me about it.” He sounds a bit disappointed at the last bit, but regains a smile that seems rather forced. “Anyway, good to see you again! I’ll go tell Kai you’re back.”

Pixal waits until her friend (friend? Formerly-dead-but-now-alive friend? Formerly-enemy-friend? Hmm.) jogs off before turning back to Cole. “So. When did he turn up?”

The master of earth rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “Few days after you went on your mission. From what I heard, he just kinda... popped out of the wall. Scared the crap out of Kai.”

Pixal smiles, slightly. “So, I’m assuming I will be informed about what happened when the others return?”

Cole nods just as Jay re-enters the room, followed closely by Kai. The fire ninja offers a smile and a wave to Pixal. “Hey, Pix. How was the mission?”

“Long,” she sighs, and Kai smirked.

“So, uh... wanna come get some tea? Lloyd made some, earlier.” Pixal raises an eyebrow, and Kai hurriedly adds, “Zane helped him. It doesn’t taste horrible, for once.”

“Yes. That would be nice.”

***

So maybe Jay shouldn’t be doing this.

But hey. He did figure out how to turn invisible all on his own (well, mostly on his own (having your best friend become a ghost for over a year and a half does have its advantages)), so he should use it. It’s his decision, not any of his friends’.

Not that he’s told his friends about his ability to turn invisible, anyway, but still.

From what Jay understands, the other ninja are going to have Important Discussion Time with Pixal in around five minutes. Explain to her what happened on the island and what not.

So, the logical thing to do is sneak in while being invisible, listen to whatever happened on the island that nobody wants to tell him about, try to figure out why they didn’t want to tell him. Can’t be that bad, right?

Right. Everything’ll be fine, and Jay will be fine, and he’ll tell the others that he knows, and everything will be great.

Pixal interrupts his train of thought, standing up with the others. “So, we’re gonna go...” She gestures vaguely to the living room, and Cole and Kai wince in unision behind her. They probably don’t think that Jay has noticed the fact that they shoo him away for a few hours every time that they have to explain his existence (half-existence?) to someone. Which, surprisingly, happens a lot.

Jay pushes himself away from the wall he was leaning against (being able to touch solid things is a lot easier than being able to touch people, or have people touch him.) with a smile. “Yeah, sure. I’m gonna go rest for a bit, see you guys later.”

He’s not going to go rest for a bit. What he is going to do, actually, is pull the tracker off his uniform (it’s not as hidden as Zane thinks) and put it on his bed, then sneak back into the living room, invisible.

(One of the first things he worked on as a ghost was turning invisible. Going invis is easier than getting out of invis, actually. It’s sort of like a switch you flick down to disappear.

Getting out is harder, due to the fact that it takes physical contact with someone to switch out. The last few times he’s done it, Jay just bumped shoulders with Zane while he had his nose buried in a book.

Jay hopes this meeting won’t take too long. The longer he’s invisible, the more he can feel himself fading away.)

The other ninja (and Pixal) dissapear into the Important Discussion Talk room, and Jay wanders off to his room. Quickly, he pulls the mini tracker that Zane made off his elbow (not the best hiding spot, seriously) and places it carefully on his bed.

Time to overhear some things, like any good person questioning their existence and/or past would do.

Once he’s back into the kitchen, Jay flips the internal switch.

And vanishes.

It’s... it’s pretty much exactly the same as being a regular ghost, except for the fact that he can’t see himself.

Jay pushes the door open (and silently thanks the FSM that it doesn’t creak), and gets noticed almost immediately. Crap.

Cole frowns, pushing himself up from the couch. “...Jay?”

Zane pulls something out of his pocket before turning it around so that Jay and Cole can see the screen. “No. He’s still in his room. We should really get that door fixed- does that all the time.”

...Oh thank god.

Zane sets the tracker pad back down onto the table, Jay slinks farther into the room, and Cole closes the door before plopping back down onto the couch. “We ready to start?”

Pixal nods, slowly, looking a little less unsure than earlier. “Affirmative.”

“Alright, so...” Kai leans back in his chair, in a ready-to-start-talking-about-our-friend’s-demise-and-resurrection pose. “Let’s begin.”

And they do.

They talk about getting to the island, about being... not exactly welcomed by the locals (understandable), and about-

“His mother?”

“We think so,” Cole says awkwardly. “Well, not think so, Master Wu did explicitly say that she was Jay’s mom. Said her name was Linda, or something.”

“Liberty,” Nya interupts “But when they were kids, everyone apparently called her Libber. She used to be really nice and kind too- a lot like Jay, really, but...” She looks at the ground.

Jay can’t breathe. His mother was there, his mom, and they didn’t tell him about her? Why?

He finds it very hard to stay quiet right now, and instead shoves his fist in his mouth and bites on it, hard. ...Doesn’t really do anything, but the numb feeling he always has grows worse. He’ll start sort of... tingling, soon. Always happens when he gets stressed, now.

“But she had lost it.”

Hold on, she- what?

Nya takes a shaky breath, and her brother squeezes her hand comfortingly. “Libber was... clearly not herself. Insane, really. Just kind of... bent on destruction. Something had happened, we don’t know what, but she wasn’t- wasn’t herself, anymore, according to Master Wu. Jay was kinda... messed up about that.”

“Of course he was,” Cole murmurs. “I mean, you meet your mom after not even knowing she existed for most of your life, and she doesn’t even care about you? Gotta screw you up a little. Along with... all the other stuff.”

Jay’s starting to think he really doesn’t want to know about all the other stuff.

But the other ninja keeps talking, and he keeps listening, and Jay really understands why they didn’t want to tell him about any of this.

“So,” Pixal says eventually, after Kai’s taken a break from speaking. “Just to be perfectly clear- Jay went evil slash insane because his mother didn’t care about him, and he thought that none of you cared about him as well?”

Yes, Jay wants to scream. Yes, that’s exactly what happened.

There are thoughts in his head, memories blinking in and out and Jay doesn’t really know what to do with all of them.

“Well,” Kai starts slowly, “it wasn’t all that, but-”

“Shut it, Kai,” Cole interrupts, and his companions stare at him in surprise. “Look, just- yes, Pixal. It was our fault. We made him feel like we didn’t care about him. Kai especially,” he added, and the fire ninja glared at him for a few seconds until he gave up, looking down at the ground. Cole continued. “And now we have another chance, and just- we can’t mess up this time.”

“And then what happened?” Pixal asks.

“The tribe got to him,” Cole says, “offered him a way out.”

And they all keep tallking.

And Jay listens.

Listens to how he turned against his friends, how he was going to destroy Ninjago to bring them pain and suffering, and how the others had no choice to but to take him down. And they did that by-

After a few seconds of silence, Pixal speaks up. “So... how’d you stop him?”

No one says anything, and Jay’s stomach drops as Kai looks at the ground.

Pixal’s eyes widen. “You didn’t- you guys- you...” She trails off, shocked.

Kai whispers, eventually, “We didn’t mean to kill him. But he... we were just trying to hit him with all our powers at once, see if we could snap him out of it, maybe stop him, but-” he looks at his hand as if it’s covered in blood. “...We’re more powerful than we thought.”

Jay’s frozen, and the one remaining part of his head that can think clearly hopes that this meeting’ll end soon, otherwise he’ll start to fade away. Once that happens...

His friends-

They killed him.

Jay had assumed it was something that happened with the tribe, or-or maybe even his mother and where was she?, but not his friends.

He feels sick.

...Maybe he deserved it, honestly, with the way he was acting, but still.

“OK,” Pixal says after a moment, “so he’s dead because you guys killed him.” Cole and Lloyd wince at the true accusation, but nod in agreement. “So how’d become a ghost, then? There’s... I can’t think of any logical way.”

“We think,” Cole starts, “that the tribe has some kind of resurrection ritual. But either something went wrong or there’s a cost, because Jay doesn’t know how or why he died. Also the whole ghost thing.”

“I see. And- was Libber there, too? Did... did she have to watch? Did you guys kill her, too?”

“No! She... she disappeared, just before Jay lost it. We’re not sure where she is- probably alive somewhere else. The tribe didn’t know where she went. She might’ve told Jay, but... if she did, he won’t remember.”

...OK. So his mom is still out there, somewhere, probably insane. That’s... good to know, sort of.

“And, um...” Cole drums his fingers on the armrest of the couch he’s sitting on. Jay’s legs really hurt. “I think that’s about it.”

“OK,” Pixal says slowly. “And I’m not allowed to tell Jay about this?”

The others shake their heads immediately. “Nope,” confirms Kai. “Too dangerous. Might go all insane-ey and lose it again.”

Jay...

Ouch.

...His friends don’t trust him, that’s for sure, and to be honest he deserves it.

But he deserves an apology, as well, not some half-baked lie about how when he died they realized they weren’t as nice to him as they could’ve been.

...Maybe he can think of a way to tell him that he remembers, without them trying to kill him for it.

As Jay’s thinking/beginning to have an internal mental breakdown, Cole stands up and starts walking towards the door. “I’m gonna go check on Jay, see how he’s doing. He’s asleep, right?” Zane holds up the tracker pad, which shows a little dot marked Jay on his bed. “Great. I’ll see how he’s doing, and-”

Oops.

Jay had tried to go through the door just as Cole opened it, but apparently the other ninja has no respect for the personal space of friends he can’t see and didn’t know where there.

Jay takes a few careful steps back, internally keeping the invisible switch down due to the fact that Cole bumped into him.

Cole hesitates, then reaches out a hand, and Jay is suddenly filled with so much dang panic that he can’t move, and Cole shoves him back so that Jay stumbles, landing hard against the wall and almost knocking over the coffee table. “Watch it!”

Cole’s eyes go wide and mouth drops open, the other ninja (and Pixal) twisting around in their seats to see what’s wrong.

..Jay’s not invisible anymore, is he.

One glance down at his body confirms that. He’s back to being a dark green/blue combo, the floor an odd colour beneath his feet.

“You were...” Cole’s voice is quiet, but it quickly grows to a normal tone, albeit stunned. “You were listening? You were here the whole time?!”

“I-” Jay glances around the room, eyes landing on Kai. “I didn’t-”

His friends killed him.

Kai swallows, before asking, “How do- Jay, are you... how do you feel?”

Jay looks at him.

And turns and sprints through the wall.

It’s getting dark, outside, gray clouds indicating rain soon. Too bad. Jay can’t stay here.

His friends killed him his friends killed him-

Jay hears a yell of “After him!” from behind him as the others claw their way through the temple.

He doesn’t have much time.

His friends killed him his friends killed him his friends-

Jay summons his dragon, pushing through the fear that seems to be overwhelming his body, more and more every second-

Hisfriendskilledhimhisfriendskilledhimhisfriendskilledhim-

He flies off just as the remaining ninja burst through the door. He can hear them calling their dragons, as well, with the sound of wings behind him within a few seconds.

He flies faster.

“Hmmm, what you’re looking for is an Aeroblade, forged by Deepstone, an aquatic material mined from the bottom of the ocean. Very unique. Even more expensive.”

Aeroblades.

Ronin.

He needs to find Ronin.

Jay looks back at the five dragons following him, their riders too far away to see clearly (he got a head start).

He looks ahead of him, to Ninjago City the place that he apparently tried to destroy a few months ago.

..He’ll lose them there.

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aweebwrites · 4 years

Text

Move on Dragons Ch 15

"Any luck yet Sensei?" Lloyd asked from the bridge of the Bounty, watching Little G eat his fill from the small bowl of wild berries in his palm, the others next to him.

"Yes and no." Sensei Wu admits, something akin to frustration in his slitted golden eyes. "I managed to get closer this time but your father is a slippery man who insists on not being found. He has taken traveler's tea to leave the realm so I must follow him." He told them, shifting the view of the device to the sight of the small camp with an empty teapot there, the outed campfire still burning.

"I will still have to figure out just which realm he escaped to but there are only so many he's willing to visit. I may be unable to contact you all for some time longer." He forewarned them.

"That's cool Sensei. Everything's pretty chill on our side still. Nothing too major has come up and our tech team is getting closer to figuring out how the device works." Cole says as he glanced at Zane, Nya, Pixal and Jay close by.

"Indeed." Zane nodded at the screen showing their Sensei. "We've already learned how to turn it on and off but we're getting closer to figuring out how to activate its interface." He reported.

"That's good. Having a direct line to Vortica will prove to be most helpful." Sensei Wu nodded then looked to Kai who was a little jittery if his shifting wings and flicking tail wasn't enough indication. "Is something the matter Kai?" He asked him and Kai blinked then shrugged.

"Nothing's actually wrong but…" He says then grinned. "Wu and I will be checking the Dragon Dimension today. We hit the 2 month mark since the dragons left so we're gonna see how things are doing. We aren't expecting much progress so quickly, even though 5 years have passed there, but we're looking for small signs that the planet is recovering." He told them.

“It won’t be in its best shape but… I’ve missed the place, you know?” He added with a shrug and the others could relate.

They haven’t been there for long but it really was beautiful.

"I see. Be careful however. Extinction usually brings forward evolution in both animals and plants alike." Wu warned him and Kai nodded.

"I will be. We'll let you know the news of what's up next time we chat." He promised and Wu nodded.

"Then I will contact you once I am able to." He promised them.

With that, their conversation ended with well wishes and goodbyes.

“This infernal device is highly frustrating.” Pixal says glaring at the small device she held in hand.

“But it’ss pretty fun to sssolve! It’ss kinda like a rubix cube!” Jay grinned, taking it and looking it over, his flicking tail almost tripping both Zane and Cole, all of them used to he and Lloyd’s tails to know to stand clear of the area behind them.

It took a lot of adaption to work around their individual changes, especially both Jay and Kai’s changes as theirs was permanent. It didn’t bother either of them much anymore- Kai didn’t have a problem with, too used to it as he was- but there were days when they did miss being human and on days like that, their much bigger family was there for them.

“Are you ready Kai?” Wu asked, looking down at the team’s ship from where he sat near by.

Somewhere in the past week, they began being able to speak like them. Zane knew better than to question how they were able to what with the structure of their mouths. Pixal knew better not to as well, not after almost short circuiting trying to figure out how Zane too got the ability to shift. Both nindroids decided to call it magic and left it at that.

“Yeah.” Kai says as he walked over to the edge of the ship, pulling out the dimensional crystal.

“Don’t forget the camera so we can keep track of the planet’s progress.” Nya called and he turned around catching it with his tail.

“Thanks sis. I’ll get all the footage you guys need.” He grinned then hopped over the edge of the ship, using his wings to catch him.

“You guys sure you don’t need us to come along?” Lloydie asked, stepping forward from where he and the others stood.

“Nah. It’s just a quick in and out. We won’t be more than 5 minutes tops.” Kai reassured.

“Just make sure to stick close to my father.” Morro cautioned and Kai smiled, flying over to stroke his snout, bumping his forehead against his.

“Don’t worry Mor-bro. We’ll be fine.” He reassured and Morro wasn’t ready to admit he needed the reassurance.

He knew their world was in a bad state, knew it was dangerous to go as they weren’t even sure what the oxygen levels were like right now and with both Kai and his father going there… He blinked once Kai held the crystal out to him.

“Why don’t you send us off huh?” He grinned and Morro blinked at the pink gem then balanced on his hind leg and accepted it, the crystal tiny in his paw but he picked it up between his claws and glanced at Kai as he flew back to where his father was. “Just hold it up and it’ll do the rest- but make sure not to do it twice or else the portal will close.” Kai warned and Morro nodded before holding up the crystal as instructed, a large portal opening up close to the two as he did.

“Sit tight. We’ll be back in a jif.” Kai winked before he flew in as Wu walked through.

The first thing Kai noticed once he stepped through was that the sun was setting- which was good since the air was uncharastically hot. That combined with the obvious decline in air quality made it a little difficult to breathe. He glanced up at Wu as the dragon looked around at what once was a lush, bountiful planet, now reduced to desolence, nothing but broken and dead trees standing around the base of the mountain they called home. The sky held a noticeably redder colour and it was quiet. So uncharastically quiet. Kai turned the camera on, moving forward still, looking for any signs of life thriving here. There were bones of animals passed, decomposing still and fungi. Well. At least they were clear signs of life.

“We won’t be able to ascend the mountain. The air gets thinner the higher you go and it’s already difficult to breathe at sea level.” Wu spoke up as he too walked around, keeping his pace slow and his breathing even.

He couldn’t afford to get even slightly winded. As a dragon of his size, his lungs demand a large amount of oxygen with each inhale, amounts that the planet could no longer satisfy. He couldn’t stay for very long still, else he collapses from oxygen deprivation. But their future depends on any signs of life. Fungi was a good start but he was hoping that more complex life survived the decline in the planet’s environment. If not, then they would be in Ninjago for far longer than he originally thought.

“Nothing. Maybe we should try in a different area? This is still kinda on a slope so maybe if we head to flatter land…” Kai suggested, turning to Wu.

“Perhaps.” Wu says in consideration. “However-” He was cut off by a cough that quickly descended into a coughing fit.

“Wu!” Kai yelled, alarmed as he flew over.

“I’m… Afraid I cannot… Stay any longer here…” He rasped, barely able to prevent himself from coughing further.

“Then go back!” Kai urged, looking back to the portal and he nods, heading towards it. “I wanna look around for a minute longer but I won’t go far.” He told Wu as he paused to see if he was coming.

“... Be careful.” He warns and Kai nodded, watching as he returned to his world.

Kai looked up, the moons, rings and stars in the night sky holding a reddish tint from the oxygen deprived atmosphere before he looked around again, hoping for even the softest glow of an insect but finding none still. He sighed, turning the camera towards himself from where he had still been filming.

“Five years past here and no signs of complex life. I’d look around a bit longer but it’s not exactly easy to breathe here, despite my body needing less oxygen than the dragon’s. It’s dark but it’s still pretty hot out and the air is thick and heavy. Maybe things will be in better shape after five more years. We could probably even chek different locations then.” Kai shrugged at the camera recording him. “Might as well head back now.” He says quietly, looking at the reflective lense before he frowned, spotting something strange.

He glanced back and up, looking at the sky suspiciously. Strange. He could have sworn he saw some kind of light- It flickered in again, growing brighter and larger this time. Kai’s eyes widened at the familiarity of the phenomenon in the sky. No way… He turned the camera towards it without much more thought, on the defense as he narrowed his eyes at the swirling multicoloured vortex above. Suddenly, two figures came tumbling out and Kai’s eyes widened before he darted forward, dropping the camera and catching one- then two, before they could hit the ground. Oh man were they heavy! A small sound from one of the two figures caught his attention and he really looked at them.

“Oh boy.” Was all he could think to say.

Wasn’t this a situation.

Outside the portal, Morro was fussing over his winded father, creating a gentle but oxygen filled airflow around his head as he caught his breath.

“Kai’s still in there. What’s taking him so long?” Cole says with a frown, wings out and opened, ready to perform a rescue mission if he must.

“If he doesn’t come out in the next minute or two then we go in.” Lloyd says, looking across at Cole and he nodded.

You better be ok Kai…

____

“Ugh!” Pixal growled in frustration.

“I agree! This is hopeless! Almost two months and we’re hardly any close to figuring this thing out!” Nya yells, resisting the urge to throw it down to instead place it on the table.

“I feared we wouldn’t be able to uncover the mysteries of this advanced technology. It appears this is becoming reality.” Zane says with a tone of frustration as well.

“I don’t know guyss, maybe we’re overthinking thingss.” Jay spoke up and they looked at him, both parts unimpressed and curious.

“Have you even interacted with this device? I think overthinking is quite necessary.” Pixal pointed out.

“No no.” Tempest says as he took over, Jay on the back burner. “I think Jay’ss got a point. Doess Vortica ssseem like the type of persson to use anything overly complicated? Doesn’t matter if complicated is within her knowledge basse, I think ssshe’d use sssomething that only takess a touch or two to activate.” He says as he used his tail to pick it up and bring it closer.

“Maybe turn it on then swipe?” Tempest mumbled as he did so, sliding his thumb against a pink panel before he blinked once a holoscreen and keyboard popped up, an image of Vortica sticking her tongue out at the top, making it clear this was a messaging interface.

Tempest smirked at the surprised, borderline angry looks both Nindroids and Nya wore, Jay yelling up a storm in the front of his mind.

“Well. I’ll be damned. Looks like the mystery is solved at lasst.” Tempest huffed.

____

“Alright. Let’s go in.” Lloyd says as he walked forward, Cole on his tail.

Before they could get any closer however Kai walked through the portal, struggling with the weight of the figures in his arms.

“Is that-” Blaze says with wide eyes as he and the others walked over.

“They are…” Wisp whispered, not sure if he should go on the defense or assist.

“Well. There’s two faces I never expected to see again. Especially like this.” Mist spoke up as Morro closed the portal.

“... Indeed…” Was Wu’s contemplative hum.

Perhaps… This was for the best.

____________ (I'm trying for updates every 2 days now for this fic. Also I cannot write the name Green Bean/Greenie and take it seriously so I updated Dragon!Lloyd's name to just Lloydie. They still call him Greenie and he's still annoyed by it but that's kinda in the background. Can you guess who came through the portal? ;)Thanks for reading!)

#ninjago #lloyd ninjago #kai ninjago #jay ninjago #cole ninjago #nya ninjago #pixal ninjago #Sensei Wu #morro ninjago #original characters #aweebwrites' work

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sodasyrup · 5 years

Note

I love,,,,, domestic lava au... You should do more of it. I'd love to know more about reka and monty too!

BWAAA...

Okay as I said it’s an au with kittie (6kuro) so I’m gonna grab the things it said and I said lmao

warning its a LONG disjointed post bc im too tired to make. a good post fdhghdf

lovelypeaches08/28/2019cole and kai would settle down real late like....in their late thirties because they want to keep their children as safe as possible, being elemental masters and having enemies and all

at first wu wants them to fight longer and shit but hes OLD so who cares and theres probably conflict on thatbut kai and cole are old enough to realized they dont have to be controlled

so they get married, symbolically if anything, because they've been dating for probably a little over a decade now and known each other even longer, AND been living together for the same amount of time

theyre the first of the ninja to settle down, and they buy a small house in a village thats maybe an hour away from ninjago city

the tininess of the house is made up for by the largeness of the yard, where cole likes to garden, especially fruits and vegetables

cole works as a stay at home free lance artist, doing stuff like commissions, book covers, comics, etc for moneykai does something that puts his charisma to use, probably something in business that lets him advertise and talk a lot..he could never settle down for a stay at home job or anything, even with all his thrilling ninja stories

they have enough money from donations and awards to thrive off these jobs, and ninjago probably pays them kind of like retirement

cole cooks for kai so he always has a meal ready when hes home, so then kai cooks on the weekend

anyways, they have two kids, about 3 years aparti haven't figured them much out yet, but kai and cole cook and bake with themcoles parenting style is very protective and rather spoils them, while kai lets them do whatever as long as its not immediately dangerousthey balance each other out well, so their kids grow up loved and well rounded

lovelypeaches08/28/2019coles always buying them sweets and treats and Kai pretends to be annoyed but thinks its really cute

the kids go to a small school on the outskirts of ninjago city, and get asked about their parents a LOT. they kind of like the attention but it gets irritating

moving on to the other ninja who also start to settle down,jay doesnt really want kids, so he passes on his powers with ~science~ or something, but only when hes a lot olderhe does engineering at borg industries or something, and he messes around a lot but gets away with it bc hes the blue ninjahes like kai and coles kids Fun Uncle, since he lives in a big apartment in downtown ninjago city, with a bunch of cool techkai and coles family often take elongated road trips therejay thinks hes a cool relative but besides being super lenient hea actually kind of embarrassing lol

nya settles down a bit later than the rest of them, because she wants to live her ninja days to the fullesti could go on about my domestic samurai au but her and pixal have a kid who gets nyas water powersnya is much more eager to train her kid than cole and Kai are (they want to start properly training thwir children when theyre like 16, much to wus disappointment)nya doesn't force anyrhing on her kid but she doesnt protect her kid from the fact they'll have to train sooner or latershes determined on still changing the world, so she's a strong political leader, with innovative ideas who doesnt approve of ninjagos government and wants to change it for the betterShe also lives in downtown, but isn't as fun as jayher kid is younger than kai and coles, but kai and coles kids look up to them because they're very independent and skilled! their mom is also super cool, but not in a silly way. she rocks leather jackets and drives her kid around on a motorcycle

lovelypeaches08/28/2019zane is tricky for me...i like to imagine him sticking with lloyd to being a ninja or whatever, since hes going to be alive a lonnggg timehe also wants to respect wus wishes, so he teaches students and fights alongside lloydhe does so much less however, and finds a lot of time to visit his friends

kai and coles kids are shy around him at first, him being a nindroid whose still a ninja, but hes so much nicer and softer than expectedhe always brings them presenrs and enjoys quality time with them, so he's basically their favorite uncle

now lloyd continues his master training, to become the next master after wu dies. hed be the one to guide the next generation of elemental masters as well as their parents in training thembut don't worry, he gets a break too, since the other ninja help him out. hes much less burdened then wu was in the later years of his lifeok thats all i think

My commentary now

little boy whos like 3 and super wide eyed and excited and loves pink (when he foudn out zane at one point had a pink gi he asked if he could get one too)older girl around 6 whos a big daddys girl and loves to garden with cole and make mud piez

the little girl is the fire em - she had temper issues linked to autismz which they worked through her with early and never thought of it but she has a big passion for gardening they mistook for elemental connection when rly she just LUVS IT

little boy is em of earth - hes a natural born leader and stubborn, wide eyed and excitable. again bc they worked w both their kids about their tempers and such they never realized he was just naturally good at keeping his composure. also a lot like jay keeping morals upnaturally strong but both their kids are and i hc the super strength doesnt come in until peubertyz

shes a bit of a late bloomer with em powers but one day their little boy accidentally makes a pot hole inside the kitchen bc he was excited over zane cookingthey took too good of care of their kids and his true potential was simple bc he was a litol kid which was im going to live my best fcuking life with friends and family *rips a hole in the ground

kai and cole are the gross sappy parents that trade kisses n their kids are like thats DISGUSTING youre DISGUSTINGLY IN LOVE

Kittie pointslovelypeaches08/28/2019YEAYEYAYAYYEYAYAYEoh god the little boy is part scenecorelikenot full on scene but like punk y2kwhich is a part of scenealso at first cole and kai are super concerned being a ninja will be as mentally damaging and ack as it was for them at times, but lloyd and zane are genuinely good mastersbutnot to get sadbutwhen tragedy does happen somehow, since neither Lloyd nor zane can ease that, cole and kai are so good at helping their kids e thatthey help them recover from it without downplaying their kids concerns and feelings amd give good advice and loveand make being elemental masters a lot easier for their kids than it ever was for them

me again.....

they always get so fucking scared thokai custom makes weapons for themarmor too he spends hours upon hours making sure its perfect and even prays over them to keep their kids safe

anyway when kai n cole visit w them (idk if theyr just adopted at their current age or like.... adopted as babies or surrogate or?? idk but) they visit lloyd and kai softly says "Look! its uncle lloyd" and lloyd starts SOBBING hes just fucking bawlinghis eyes out and when kai offers to for lloyd to hold him lloyds just like are you suure arre eyyuuu thherye so smsmm all kaiii are yoruur suureee thheyrey babbeises

nya is hesitant but ends up being a really good aunt, i meanshe took care of kai /j

zane is a fav uncle and hes always making sweets for them jay is. also sorta a fav bc where zane comes jay follows and jay has a sweet tooth and also makes Cool Toys + hey wanna prank your dadsalso im dramatic and likekai and cole sitting down and having a convo about master wubc he was sorta a shitty mentor and they really REALLY dont want their kids going through any self confident issues nor over stressing bc theyr KDISeventually kai and cole talk to master wu and actually has wu face his terrible practice towards kids and wu accepting he was.............................a bad 'parent' in a senseblebleblelelelelelellekai works but cole absolutely watches over any training when wu is there at first but lloyd is the master now and lloyd is like..........................i dont want kids to go through what i went through kai is like i trust you but also i will murder every single one of you in this dojo if you ever hurt my little girlim doing what i do and taking an au and running im sorry ghdghdfhJACK RAMBLES....their son refuses to wear shoes he lieks dirt on his feet they never really think much of it but its actually really comforting for him to feel the earth under his feet and feel stablethey think its just a stim thing maybe? theyr unsurebut! turns out him Element(also a fear of heights)lloyd tries to be a serious master but hes a big ol goof and can easily be manipulated

ironically.......its the lil boy who often is like HEY!!!!!!!!!!! WE GOTTA TRAIN!

kai and cole agree not to tell anyone what theyre thinking of naming their little boy until he arrives so when the day comes kais holding this tiny little boy and holds him out gentlyand lloyd is already EMOTIONAL because this is a BABY and lloyd softly asks his name n cole cuts in like "hes named after a really brave dude, montgomery. but we're thinking monty as a nickname"lloyd, choking up:(hc garmadons first name is montgomery)

the girl is Reka which means sweet in maori (a personal headcanon for cole) and shes their sweetheart

lovelypeaches09/04/2019bhrnrng this is in domestic au but col and kai teachign their kids instrumentscole and reka wud play piano duets togetherand monty doesnt like instruments much but he likes to singlike a LOT he belts out a song for everythinghe just lieks his own voice

burdletutt09/04/2019HNGGG HFHMONTY LOVS BEING LOUD

lovelypeaches09/04/2019YEAAAHhes like the type who makes a song for everythingmonty voice we rr goinggg to the parkkkkk and the grass isss.........GREEENNNNNNN and there are LOOK THERE ARE SQUIRRRELSSSS and a playground and the skyyyyy isssssssssssss...*deep inhale* BLUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE1E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!kai and cole: you are literally so talented

jay tries really hard to be the Cool Uncle at firstbut Monty just :^TReka gives him an awkward chucklewhen jay stops being Cool ™ hes goofy and thats when they start giggling and liking him more

#sodask #Anonymous #dads au

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ff2-soda-pop · 5 years

Text

watching ninjago season 10 and im writing down All The Thoughts:

Tv has text saying “Preparing For Playback” and anyway its making a HORRIBLE static sound

Actually no take it back - the static sound is just,, in the background and won’t go away

did they just lock lloyd in there jhgfds

OHMYGOD STOP BEING VAUGE PLEASE

jmhgf lmao why Should he trust him anyways?? he hasnt even CLEARLY said what the threat even was

there’s a mayor now????? last time it was more of a freaking monarchy. can we get SOME clarity on how this stuff works like did we just casually brush past how all known members of the family that was in charge just kinda all Died. when was this set up is this just specific to ninjago city if so why wasnt this established more when they introduced harumi and her family why-

“the bounty was-” kjhg and it literally Is the bounty

how the heck did someone get the blueprints actually

firstly, jays being adorable again, secondly im just- kai Please stop ohmygoddd

ok but Why is dareth here exactly??

nyas outfit looks like her old one!! but blue!! :0

oh ok so the tales from the monastery shorts were before this season but after the 9th one. ok that helps

KJHGF THE CONFUSED LOOKS KAI AND DARETH GIVE EACH OVER ABOUT THE ONE ABOUT SEASON 6 THATS A NICE DETAIL AND I LOVE IT

“the tornado of creation? remember??” i mean. whens the last time they even used that

why is my first thought here “is the dragon dead”

is faith ok???? oh no?????

wait she said something??

jay thats not. a joke or anything. stop laughing.

see also: oh sorry but y’all thought the serpentine thing was just a “bedtime story” and look where that one went. why are you asking this like half the “legends” that get mentioned in this show end up being Actual Things

oh its a thing w/ borgs logo. can we see borg actually??

“nothing and nobody is getting in here” ok my memory is bad but,,, haven’t people gotten in there before???????

ohhh what is this

“someone must have wired the lever wrong” .......thats gonna be important later isnt it

“we only have tazors” oh my god

why are the police trying to do Anything like firstly thats a storm cloud thing you cant really fight it, secondly when do the ninjago police do like. ANYTHING TBH

its a storm cloud stop trying to attack it that wouldn’t work

OH NO????

ok nope we’re fine

“you can’t” thats is Not helpful

jhgfd lloyd looks So annoyed

the audio just cut off??? i mean it went to a commercial but?? the audio cut off???? why???

jhghgf this scene makes me miss season 1 aaaaaaa

“if master wu is right” where is he actually

can i ask what the actual point of shutting the engine off was

“THAT BUTTON IS LABELLED” where i didnt see a label anywhere

i started Feeling Things slightly too much so i had to get up and wander around aaaand the sound turned itself off again (it does that sometimes)

okay nope im feeling things and theres nothing i can do to stop it

cole thats a Horrible analogy

woah zane types Fast

could lloyd hypothetically go in the cloud without getting hurt??? he has oni blood in him right??

“a pillow!!” EVERYONE LOOKS SO ANNOYED/UNAMUSED JHGFGHJKHGFDFGHJHGFDSASDF’ (i like. actually laughed at that jghftd)

“you are PART oni” aren’t- ok you know what nevermind i gave up on understanding this stuff awhile ago

but i mean thats Still a valid point. its probably not a good idea to just blindly jump into Oni Death Clouds based on a “what if” idea

jays trying so hard,,,

“that side of you is weak” “its also stubborn” jkhgf

i mis-heard “cole” as “cloud” what the heck

OH COME ON

it really just took like five seconds for this to get Super chaotic huh

YOU FORGOT THIS INFORMATION???????????

is lloyd ok and also can he breathe in there

oh my god poor pixal!!!! D:

can we Please get an idea of how far the smoke cloud has spread

oh and we’re back with those slow motion scenes??? i thought they stopped doing those

“follow the darkness” uhhh have you noticed its literally Everywhere

oh what is that thing. I Hate That Thing.

i can barely understand the omega (is it time for captions?? probably)

garmadon: if anyone’s going to destroy ninjago its going to be ME | lloyd: *just looks Very Concerned™ in the background*

“well i thought it would work!” WHY DIDNT YOU ADMIT TO THAT EARLIER??? I CANT UNDERSTAND WHAT GOOD COULD COME OUT OF NOT ADMITTING TO THIS EARLIER

“i am a nindroid i can withstand the clouds affects” “you don’t know that!!” ......pixal,,

hgbfvd gayle is so serious about her job

oh no??? oh no??????

OH NO OHHH NO

THAT IS. THAT IS VERY BAD

OH MY GOD. OHHMYGOD

and the audio cut out again. ......why does it keep doing that??

c’mon they gotta make it!! they HAVE TO!!!

!!!! they made it!!!!!!!!!!!!

awwwee zane immidientally going over to pixal to make sure shes okay

oh no

im gonna Cry aren’t i???

aaand there it is. im crying over lego people Again but whats new there.

NYA NO THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO BLAME YOURSELF NO

ohhh my god garmadon SHUT UP THIS IS SO NOT THE TIME

“You! nindroid!!” theres two i think you’ll need to be more specific than That

ohh hey theres the news people. i kinda forgot about them

hgfd vinny is acting So Excited

“Lots of things! Friendship, [...] and love, and harmony, and trust, and the truth, and courage,” jhgf awwwweee i love this

ok Theres wu

seriously cant figure out why some people dont like misako aaa??

oh theres faith! :0

theres so many oni omg

!!!!!!!!! its cole!!!!!!!!!!!!

wait i thought just being In the cloud turned people to stone?? y’know what nevermind

oh????? oh???????????

hey whats happening

HEY OKAY CURSED

THAT IS. VERY CURSED.

hey whats with the echo

OH MY GOD AWWWWWW!!!! THAT WAS SO CUTE ❤❤❤

wait are they gonna

are they gonna do The Thing 👀

they’re gonna do the tornado!!!! they haven’t done this in forever!!!!!!

wait im confused. they need garmadon for this work this time?? they didnt last time

whats?? going on??

oh pretty location

wheres Everyone Else??

oh!! a dragon!! :O

whos talking who is this

OH!!

OH!!! :O

i have. some question??

side-note: this is the first time in a Very Long Time lloyd’s been referred to by his Full Name

ohhh no??

hey PLEASE tell me that didnt imply dying

STOPPP I DONT WANNA CRY OVER LEGO NINJAS AGAINNN

oh!!!! oh good!!!!

oh my god!! this dang show had me worried for a minute!!! :O

garmadon like 24/7: :|

....what does that say where’s the book where did i put the book

is that a “D” or is it something else i cant tell

....no wait yep its a “D”.

aaa?? that was So Good??? also im emotional AGAIN OHMYGOD

THIS SHOW. THIS SHOW KEEPS GETTING TO MY EMOTIONS JHGFDS

#ninjago #this got longer then i wanted it to ujytresdfgh

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gwenbrightly · 4 years

Text

Ninjago Christmas Fic #1 - Decorations

Ahhh, it’s that time of year when I speed write Christmas fics because it’s fun! Crossposted from ffnet. Takes place after MOTO.

“Let’s see what everyone was able to snag for the monastery,” Lloyd suggested enthusiastically. Having never celebrated Christmas in the monastery of spinjitzu before, the ninja had been horrified to discover that Wu hadn’t thought to invest in decorations for the holiday season. Not prone to giving up easily, they had spent several days searching high and low for trees, wreaths, lights, and anything else they could get their hands on.

“Ma and pa sent some lights they swear still work properly. Left most of em outside. There’s also a bunch of garlands that look like they’re in pretty decent shape. Perks of living in a junkyard, I guess. And uh, I think this used to be an angel?” Jay stated, holding up a sparkly hunk of metal with appendages shaped vaguely like wings. He glanced sideways at it, trying to decide if it was worth keeping.

“I… can try to fix it later, if you want?” offered Kai, “I got a lot of practice with metalworking while Nya and I were visiting mom and dad yesterday. And the whole remaking the Golden Weapons thing probably helps too, heheh.”

His sister rolled her eyes at his self satisfied smirk. Jay nodded, handing Kai the mangled decoration.

“If you think she’s savable, go for it!”

“Speaking of mom and dad, they gave us a box of Christmas ornaments and some other stuff, too.” Nya added holding up the blue orb with swirly designs she’d just grabbed from the uppermost layer of the cardboard box she was kneeling next to.

“We couldda brought some tinsel, too, but we decided it wouldn’t be a good idea after last year…” she continued. They all shuddered.

“Dad convinced the tree farm that sponsors the Royal Blacksmiths to sell him a tree for super cheap. He said he’d drop it off in a little bit.” Cole informed them, not wanting to dwell on the incident.

“Dude! That’s awesome!” Exclaimed Lloyd, his eyes lighting up. The others smiled. They’d never been able to have a live tree before. Zane nodded in agreement.

“Indeed. I’m sure it will look lovely in the living room. I managed to locate a wreath my father built. It’s made mostly from old gears, and I know that’s not very traditional, but I’d like to put it up somewhere. If you don’t mind?”

“Of course, Zane. I’m sure we can find a good place for it.” Cole assured his friend. He understood what it was like to miss a family member during this time of year.

“Yeah. I mean this place is huge. We need all the decorations we can get!” Kai reminded them.

“We had better get started, then.” Pixal interjected, eager to finally be celebrating the holidays without being confined to a screen (or her wonderful soulmate’s head) this year.

“Heck yeah! So where should we start?” asked Nya. They glanced around at the heaps of miscellaneous decorations, considering their options.

“Maybe we should tackle the lights outside first? I’d rather do that before it gets too cold out.” proposed Jay. Although it had not yet snowed, the weather had been growing increasingly colder.

“I vote yes to that idea. It’s usually better to test anything the Walkers give us as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary explosions. No offense, Jay.” Cole said, giving the master of lightning an apologetic grin. Jay punched his shoulder lightly.

“None taken. We do tend to end up with... Surprises pretty often when ma and pa gift us stuff.”

“Okay, then. Outside it is. Just… try to keep the dangerous hijinks to a minimum? I don’t wanna worry Uncle Wu.” Lloyd told them, heading for the front door.

The next hour was spent watching Jay zap each strand of lights or light up decoration with his powers as he tested them to see if they worked, waiting for the inevitable explosion. Surprisingly, they made it through 5 whole strands, two light up snowman, and a reindeer before coming across their first exploding decoration. No one could be sure if the shattering of every single bulb on the rainbow strand of lights was due to Jay’s parents tampering with the wires, or the master of lightning himself sending too much electricity into it, but the display of rainbow colored shards flying through the air was impressive to say the least. After cleaning up their mess and testing the remaining decorations, the group began the actual decorating part of the process. Pixal and Zane wrapped lights around the columns that lined the entrance to the monastery, creating elaborate patterns. Cole and Jay worked together to lift an ornate sleigh complete with reindeer onto the roof via airjitzu. Meanwhile, Nya simply tried to keep Lloyd and Kai from killing each other with additional decorations. Seeing her brother wrap the green ninja in lights, she cried, “Kai no!” in exasperation.

“Cmon, sis! You’ve gotta admit he’d make a great Christmas tree!” He defended, before launching into singing oh Lloydie tree, oh Lloydie tree, how lovely are your branches! And receiving dirty looks from his victim.

“Listen to Nya, Kai.” Cole shouted from above them. The master of fire relented, muttering about how no one appreciated his brilliance as he unwound his brother. Their hard work was interrupted by the sounds of a (much less irritating) Christmas carol floating into the courtyard from just beyond the gate.

“We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!” Sang Lou and his quartet as they lugged a ginormous tree inside.

“Hey, pop!” Cole greeted. He left the lofty heights of the roof, followed by Jay.

“Hello, son! You’re doing a lovely job with this place!”

“Thanks!” Jay said, “You just missed the explosion!”

“… The what?” Lou started.

“So, how was your drive?” Cole inquired, cutting him off. His father gave him a strange look, but didn’t push the topic further.

“It was fine. Building that driveway was a wonderful idea. I can’t imagine how much of a hassle it would’ve been to carry this thing up so many steps.” he answered.

“It really has made life easier for all of us.” Zane agreed.

“This tree is beautiful! Thank you so much for hooking us up!” Added Lloyd, staring admiringly at their

“It was no trouble, Lloyd.” Lou told him, smiling warmly.

“Wanna come inside for some hot cocoa? We were about ready to take a break anyway.” offered Cole.

“I would love to, but unfortunately we need to get going. We have a concert at the hospital to attend. Can’t disappoint the kids, you know.” the older man replied regretfully. The master of earth shrugged. Christmas was always a busy time for the Royal Blacksmiths.

“Okay. Next time, then. Break a leg, and thanks again!”

“Goodbye son!” Lou called as his companions burst into sing again.

“Now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding and bring some right here!”

“What even is figgy pudding?” Lloyd wondered aloud.

“No clue.” Kai shrugged.

“Let’s get this bad boy inside.” Prompted Jay, rubbing his hands together and grinning in a way that was only a little bit maniacal. It took a fair amount of maneuvering, but they eventually managed to get the tree situated in the living room.

“Wow, I hope we have enough ornaments for this thing.” Nya commented. The tree looked even bigger now that it was upright.

“We’ll think of something if we don’t. Maybe we can just put Jay to work making paper snowflakes again.” Lloyd plotted.

“I’m down for that. I don’t get why you guys think I’m the only one who’s deserving of this honor, though.” said Jay. He had never quite understood why the others were so fascinated by his ability to make paper snowflakes with such ease.

“Because you’re better at it than we are and we like the way they look.” Nya stated simply, hanging the ornament she’d discovered earlier on the tree. Jay leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Thanks, sweetie.”

Kai rolled his eyes at them and set about digging through the boxes looking for more ornaments. He pulled out anything that looked like it was still functional, tossing a few broken ones into the garbage.

“This one is neat!”

“Oooh shiny!” Lloyd noted. He snatched the ornament from Kai before he could protest. The master of fire decided it wasn’t worth fighting and returned to his rummaging. Kai managed to protect a few of the ornaments from Lloyd’s watchful eye, sneaking them onto the tree when he wasn’t looking.

“Wait… how did that get there?” Lloyd asked, finally noticing one of the extra sparkly ornaments Kai had hidden from him.

“I swear Lloyd, you’re as bad as a cat when you get like this.” Nya told him, stifling a smile.

“Like what?” he replied innocently. Cole watched Lloyd stare longingly at another ornament.

“All oooh shiny every time you see something cool.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure that stems from having a dragon for a grandmother.” Lloyd reminded them.

“Hmmm that’s a good point.” Confirmed Zane.

“Kai, I am almost completely certain that Santa was not intended to be a part of this nativity!” Pixal scolded, frantically trying to prevent the master of fire from ruining the decoration he was currently setting out on the mantle.

“Well, he is now!” Kai retorted, not caring about historical accuracy. Pixal sighed loudly.

“Can we at least discuss fixing the sheep so they don’t look like they’re fighting to the death?”

“Gee, Pix! It’s not like they’re real,” he reminded her indignantly before smiling a devious smile, “Hmmm I should add one of Lloyd’s dragon figurines...”

“Kai no! That is the most horrible idea ever.” she protested, horrified.

“What you call horrible I call brilliant!”

“Okaaay maybe it’s time for a break before Uncle Wu comes in here and questions our collective sanity again.” Lloyd said awkwardly pushing between the irate ninja and samurai.

“There’s hot cocoa in the kitchen, remember?” added Nya.

“Hmmm okay, sure. Hot cocoa does sound good.” Kai admitted (totally not planning on sneaking back later to mess with the nativity some more).

“Yeah! Let’s go eat way too much whipped cream and marshmallows!” agreed Jay.

“Looks like we’re off to another chaotic Christmas.” Lloyd commented to Nya as they headed for refreshments.

“Yeah, but you know you love it.” She told him with a laugh. The blonde shrugged, saying,

“I do. Somehow this never gets old.”

“That’s the magic of Christmas for you. Or… something like that, anyway. Now cmon, let’s get some hot coco before the others drink it all.”

#ninjago fanfiction #my fics #ninjago christmas #decorating #its the most wonderful time of the year #decorations and mayhem #ninjago #Kai's an idiot basically the entire time #Pixal doesn't approve of the way he builds nativities #okay yes I included that #don't judge

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