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oblivious-aro · 2 months

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Where the Sky Meets the Sea, Ch 3/3: Wavebreak

Summary: Rewrite of the parts of season 6 of Ninjago (Skybound) that make my blood boil. The main change is that Nya's struggles are respected, and she's allowed to yell at people. Also, Jay isn't a complete tool the whole time abs actually goes through some character development. Follows roughly the same plot line as Skybound. The parts that are unchanged are just skimmed through.

Word count: 7600

Nya grimaced at her reflection. It was slightly better now that the extra arms had been removed, but looking at herself in Nadakhan’s mother's wedding dress made her stomach tie itself in knots.

She didn't have anything against dresses, but Nya liked simple clothes. Clothes that you could easily move around and work in, not bulky restrictive skirts drowning in oversized flowers and unnecessarily showy frills.

And wedding dresses were the apex of pointless bulky dresses. She never understood how people could be excited to wear them, even when they weren't being forced to.

The familiar feeling of her gi on her skin under the dress was a small comfort, but the reflection she saw in the mirror wasn't her.

It moved when she moved, scowled like she scowled, but was still a complete stranger.

The whole situation was horribly surreal.

Tap tap tap!

Nya's attention was pulled from the mirror by a noise at her window.

She looked over and saw the last person she expected to see clinging to the bars.

"Jay?" Nya rushed over to the window.

"Nya!" Jay briefly let go of the bar with one hand to wave to her. "Are you okay? Did Nadakhan hurt you?"

"I'm fine. His goons just stuck me in this stupid thing.” She gestured to the dress. “What are you doing here?"

"Uh, some combination of freeing you, rescuing our friends, and defeating Nadakhan. I haven't super worked out the details yet…but hey, we made it this far, so that's good!"

“We?”

“I put together a little rescue team of back-up ninja.” Jay grinned proudly.

At that moment, Nya spotted a brown blur in the distance being chased by three armed pirates.

“Is that Dareth?” she asked, squinting.

“Yeah…my options were kind of limited.”

Nya watched Dareth until he disappeared behind a barbershop.

“I always forget how fast he can be with the right motivation.” She said “But please tell me you at least brought Skylor.”

“Of course I brought Skylor! Honestly Nya, I thought you said you believed in me!”

Jay planted his feet against the side of the building and gave the bars a good yank.

"It's no use." Nya said "I already tried."

"Maybe if we work together…”

Nya grabbed the bars and tried to push while Jay pulled.

"Ugh," Nya grunted "Still...won't...budge!"

"Keep...going. Maybe…it'll-AGH!"

Jay's foot slipped and he fell down the side of the building, landing in the bushes down below with a crash!

"Jay!" Nya called.

Creeeak.

The sound of the cabin door opening made Nya's heart stop. She turned to find Nadakhan floating at the entrance, leering at her.

Nya made her stance as wide as possible to block the window and smiled as innocently as she could.

"That dress suits you much better than those garish ninja robes." he said, shutting the door and setting his sword against the wall.

Nya bristled at the unwelcome compliment, but at least Nadakhan hadn't seen Jay.

"I've been watching you, you know." He continued.

"You have?" Nya wrinkled her nose.

"Yes." Nadakhan seemed oblivious to Nya's discomfort. "I've seen how you struggle, how you have to work twice as hard just to get the respect the rest of the ninja simply have. You know, if you were to marry me, all your struggling would be over. You could get your every heart's desire without having to even lift a finger. It would be a nice change of pace, would it not?"

Nya gritted her teeth. It took every fibre of willpower she had not to claw this condescending idiot's eyes out.

But as insulting as his suggestion was, she knew their best chance of beating Nadakhan was Jay's final wish, so she had to keep his attention on her and away from Jay as long as she could.

That was why she'd let herself get captured in the first place.

She steeled herself and plastered a doe-eyed expression on her face.

"Really?" she said.

Nadakhan grinned.

"Of course. Once I marry you, I will be able to wish for anything I want, no limits, no restrictions. And naturally, I would be able to give my bride anything she desired as well…" Nadakhan's eyebrows slid up his head as he let his sentence trail off.

Nya pretended to consider what Nadakhan was saying.

"Anything I wanted? That...does sound nice."

"Excellent. The ceremony is right this way."

Nya blinked.

It was that easy? He really believed that she'd changed her mind and wanted to marry him just like that?

She quickly wiped the disbelief off her face.

"You mean we can get married today?"

"Of course. The second I saw that temple in Djinnjago, I knew it would be the perfect location for the ceremony. I had my crew clean it from top to bottom, set out some very tasteful decorations, prepare seating, and to finish, Clancee performed a preservation ritual to keep it in pristine condition for our union."

"Oh wow," Nya looked away bashfully. "All that for me?"

Nya cringed internally. She was trying to fit the demure role Nadakhan had picked out for her in his head, but it wasn't a role that came naturally to her, and she was laying it on too thick. Nadakhan knew that she wasn't normally like this, there was no way he would fall for-

"But of course my dear," Nadakhan cooed, flying closer to Nya. "Any bride of mine deserves nothing less than the best."

Wow.

Nya had never met anyone who thought so highly of themselves. Or so little of women.

She was almost too astonished to be insulted.

"Now come," Nadakhan picked up his sword, "It is time for us to be wed."

"O-Of course," Nya turned her head towards the window. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Jay caught up in a fight with two pirates.

…Was that Captain Soto fighting by his side?

“Is something the matter?”

Nya's head snapped back to Nadakhan.

“Nothing!” she said quickly. “It's just…are you really bringing that sword to our wedding?”

"Of course. It is tradition for a djinn king to be wed with the djinn blade.”

“Oh well, that's not really a traditional wedding thing here in Ninjago. You should just leave it here during the ceremony.”

Nadakhan narrowed his eyes.

“For what reason would you want me to leave my djinn blade behind, little ninja?"

Panic seized Nya.

"Call me Delara." she said, surprising both herself and Nadakhan. "I just...want to be close to you. I don't want some sword, or ninja nonsense, or anything else getting in the way of…us."

That seemed to do the trick.

"Well," Nadakhan smiled as he leaned the djinn blade against the wall "I suppose I won't have any need for this once we're wed, anyway. Seeing as I will be able to simply wish for whatever we desire."

Nya forced out a shrill giggle. The sound made her slightly nauseous.

"Come Delara," Nadakhan said as he threw open the door "We have a wedding to attend, as the guests of honour!"

"Yes, and with no ninja or silly sword to get between us!" Nya said as loud as she dared, following Nadakhan to Yang's stolen temple.

She desperately hoped that Jay had gotten the message. She had Nadakhan distracted and unarmed.

The rest was up to Jay and his last wish.

--------------------------------------------------

When Nya entered Yang's temple, she found it hard to believe this was the same haunted building the other ninja had told her about.

The outside was still a bit decrepit, but the inside was so polished and pristine it almost hurt to look at.

The front entryway had been completely emptied out and filled with pews and colourful floral arrangements. An altar had been set up in between the double staircase.

The alter and pews looked too new for Yang’s temple, but Nya decided against asking where the pitates had gotten them.

Once everyone was situated, a nervous green serpentine with a peg leg read out a long passage followed by an even longer list of vows.

“...through the g-g-good times and the bad, t-t-till death so you part?” he eventually finished, pausing for an answer.

“I do.” Nadakhan smiled, savouring the triumph of the moment.

“And do y-you, Ny- I-I mean…D-D-Delara, t-t-take King N-N-Nadakhan to be your lawfully wedded husband, in s-s-sickness and in health, through s-s-sunshine and rain, whether r-r-rich or poor…”

As Clancee talked, Nya subtly turned her head to glimpse at the shut temple doors.

There was still no sign of Jay. Where on earth was he? Why hadn't he crashed the wedding to use his last wish yet?

A worrying thought crossed Nya’s mind.

Had Jay actually figured out what that wish was going to be? He hadn't mentioned anything about it at the window…

“Erm…D-D-D-Delara?”

Nya turned back. The vows had been said, and everyone was waiting for her answer.

“Oh, um…just…just hold on for a second? I need some time to…you know…think this through…and…you know…”

Nadakhan frowned.

“I thought you said you wanted to marry me, Delara.”

“What?” Nya smiled widely “Of course I do, I just…didn't hear…um…Clancee, was it?”

Clancee nodded nervously.

“Yeah, I didn't really hear what Clancee said. I'm afraid I got caught up daydreaming about married life. Ah, so silly of me! Do you think he could repeat himself?”

“He's asking if you want to marry me.” Nadakhan said curtly “There's no need to waste all of our time with needless repetition.”

“Oh, of course I want to marry you! We’ve clearly established that! I just…think it's important to understand exactly what I'm saying ‘yes’ to before I actually say ‘yes’, right? I mean come on, that's like clicking ‘I agree’ without actually reading all the terms and conditions. Who does that?”

There was a tense beat of silence.

Nadakhan flew closer to Nya, slowly rising into the air above her.

“Are you questioning me, Delara?”

Several audience members flinched. Clancee threw his book protectively over his head.

Nya took a panicked step back.

Nadakhan was running out of patience, which meant she was running out of time.

What on earth could be taking Jay so-

BAM!!

The doors of the temple flew open.

Everyone in the audience turned their heads.

Standing in the doorway was Jay, Nadakhan's djinn blade in his hand. Behind him stood the back-up ninja crew, Flintlocke, and all of the previously captured ninja, armed and ready for battle.

Nya gasped with joy.

Nadakhan’s face scrunched into a mixture of shock and fury.

"What in the name of-"

"Nya! Catch!" Jay called, throwing the Djinn blade in her direction.

Nya caught it and turned to find Nadakhan scowling, having fully processed exactly what was going on.

"You dare double cross me, Delara?" he growled, rising further into the air and glaring down at her.

Nya glared right back at him.

"My name," she said "Is Nya!"

She grabbed the skirt of the wedding dress with her free hand and in one swift motion, sliced it off with the djinn blade.

Nadakhan looked as though he’d been slapped with a cast iron skillet.

Nya only savoured his expression for a moment before hurling the severed skirt in his face.

"Gah!" Nadakhan struggled hopelessly under the frilly fabric.

Nya yelled and swung her blade, but Nadakhan teleported away just before it made contact, the wedding skirt drifting to the ground in a lacey heap.

Nya’s head darted all over the temple, searching for where Nadakhan was going to pop back up.

Poof!

Everyone turned to the front of the temple where an angry Nadakhan glowered at the crowd below.

“What are you all standing around for?” He spat “Seize the ninja!”

Pulled out of their stupor by Nadakhan's command, every pirate stood up and drew their weapon.

The ninja squared up, ready to defend themselves.

“STAND DOWN!”

The booming voice made everyone freeze.

Dogshank stood up from her seat in the front row, her expression daring anyone to question her.

“Dogshank!?” Nadakhan’s eyes were nearly bulging out of his head “What is the meaning of-”

“Flintlocke was right!” Dogshank turned to the rest of the audience, “Nadakhan's no captain! He never cared about Djinnjago or any of us!”

She turned back to Nadakhan, her beady eyes narrowed.

“You may have given me great strength, but you took away my beauty and made me believe that meant I had nothing to offer! For the longest time, I really thought that was true. I thought my ugliness made me worthless, that no one would want me. That's why I joined your crew, because I thought this was the only place I could go. But when Flintlocke spoke out, he made me think about exactly who was benefiting from those ideas in my head!”

Dogshank gestured to the audience.

“You took everything from all of us and convinced us to keep giving you more! You’re nothing but a slimy snake and a coward!”

As Dogshank finished speaking, the pirates in the audience looked at each other anxiously, unsure what was happening or what to do next.

“Sh-sh-she’s right, captain!”

No one expected Clancee to be the first one to speak, but there he was, looking up at Nadakhan with uncharacteristic determination in his posture.

“I’ve never liked the way you’ve always t-t-treated us. You’re nothing but a big b-b-bully!”

Clancee flinched when Nadakhan turned his seething glare on him, but he didn't hide under his book.

“To think, after everything I've given this crew,” Nadakhan spoke through clenched teeth, “That you would have the gall to turn your backs on your captain! I used my power to give you Djinjago! I have been nothing but generous! But…”

Ndakhan’s voice grew dangerously quiet.

“Perhaps you’ve all forgotten how easily my gifts can be taken away. I may not have infinite wishes, but I am still a powerful djinn king who is not to be trifled with!”

Nadakhan punctuated his statement by opening his fists to reveal four bright balls of green fire.

On the opposite end of the front row, Doubloon stood up and drew his cutlass. He looked at Dogshank and his happy face turned to the angry side challengingly.

Money Wretch climbed onto Doubloon's shoulder and started screeching.

“At least some of you still have functioning brains.” Nadakhan huffed.

He thrust out his arm authoritatively.

“Those of you that are still loyal to your captain, take care of these interlopers and ingrates!”

With a puff of orange smoke, Nadakhan was gone.

“Ninja!” Lloyd yelled “Follow Nadakhan!”

“Back-up ninja!” Jay yelled “Keep Nadakhan’s crew busy!”

Lloyd, Kai, Zane, and Cole ran out the door as about two thirds of the audience launched out of their seats.

The remaining third of the audience tried to fight back, but it wasn’t long until the Nadakhan loyalists spilled out into the isle and surrounded Nya and Jay.

Nya raised the djinn blade, ready to fight, but before she could get a single swing in, all of the pirates were knocked out by Skylor and Ronin.

Soto and the police commissioner similarly helped Jay. Dareth cheered then all on from his hiding spot under a pew.

“We’ll handle these creeps,” Skylor said, kicking away another pirate “You two go after Nadakhan!”

Nya looked over her shoulder.

Dogshank was locked in a heated battle with Doubloon by the altar. She was able to block his blows with her thick arm guards, but Doubloon was nimble and kept dodging her comparatively slow punches.

“But what about-

“We’ve got things handled here!” Ronin whacked the pirate he was fighting in the head and turned to Nya “You belong out there, saving Ninjago with your friends. It's kind of your thing, isn't it?”

“Ay! I’ve been itching to knock some o’ Nadakhan’s goon’s heads for years!” Soto declared as he tripped a passing pirate with his peg leg. “Just make sure to give the ol’ captain one for me, eh?”

“You got it.” Nya nodded “Hey Skylor, before I go…”

She held her hand up to Skylor.

Grinning, Skylor gave Nya a high-five, their hands glowing amber when they touched.

“Much appreciated.” Skylor said as she summoned a giant ball of water and lobbed it at a group of loyalists who were trying to sneak up on Dogshank.

“Go Skylor!” Jay cheered “C’mon Nya, we gotta move!”

Just as the two of them made it to the door, three pirates jumped in front of them, blocking the path to the exit.

Nya swung the djinn blade. When the sword struck the pirates, they shrank into balls of light and flew into the jewel on the hilt.

“Wait, you can just hit people with the sword to trap them?” Nya asked incredulously “Why does Nadakhan even bother with the whole three wishes then?”

“That’s what I'm saying!” Jay said before a pirate jumped on his back. He quickly pushed her off and followed Nya outside.

“Where'd that slippery djinn go?” Nya growled as she and Jay caught up with the others.

“There! Up there!” Cole pointed.

Nadakhan could just be made out floating by a line of maple trees on a distant island, high above the one the ninja were currently on.

“Ugh, how are we supposed to get all the way up there?” Kai groaned.

“I do have one idea,” Jay said “But it's kind of crazy.”

“This whole situation is kind of crazy.” Lloyd said “It'll fit right in.”

“We jump across those!”

Jay thrust his hand towards the numerous mine bombs floating in the air between the islands.

There was a beat of silence.

“You…do know those explode when you touch them, right?” Cole asked Jay.

“Well, I personally oversaw Monkey Wretch’s design and construction of those mines,” Flintlocke said “They’re only meant to go off when something big hits them, so I reckon they’re actually pretty safe to jump across.”

“And exactly how confident are we in that?” Kai raised a sceptical eyebrow at Flintlocke.

“According to Pixal,” Zane's eyes lit up as he spoke, “Those explosives are designed to detonate from the impact of an enemy airship, so they should be durable enough to withstand a much smaller impact, such as a single person landing on them. Most likely, anyway.”

“Good enough for me!” Nya declared, running to the edge of the island and taking a leap.

She landed on the closest mine. It wobbled a little, but it didn't explode.

The group let out a collective sigh of relief.

Confident that the mines weren't going to blow her up, Nya jumped to the next mine without hesitation. And then the next one.

“Hey!” Jay called “Wait up!”

He jumped on the mines after Nya. The others followed right behind him.

Bang! Bang!

The ninja turned back to Yang's temple.

A few pirates had managed to slip past the back-up ninja, and were shooting at the ninja with pistols.

“That's not good…” Cole said, eying the mines floating all around them.

“Just keep moving!” Lloyd commanded.

Nya hadn't stopped in the first place.

Between dodging bullets, the drifting of the mines, and the fact that only one person could fit on one at a time, the ninja were progressing towards Nadakhan's island at vastly different rates.

Nya and Jay got pretty far ahead of the group and were the first ones to land on the island.

Nadakhan was waiting for them when they arrived, armed with a slightly weathered cutlass.

“Foolish girl,” Nadalhan gritted his teeth. “I offer you nothing less than infinite wishes, and yet you still insist on being a thorn in my side!”

“Oh I've got something bigger than a thorn for your side!”

Nya charged.

Nadakhan parried her blade with his cutlass. He sliced back at Nya, but she quickly moved behind her sword to block his strike.

Nya was quickly back on the offensive, striking hard and fast.

Nadakhan growled in annoyance, but he deftly countered her every blow.

They continued back and forth like this, the battle so heated sparks seemed to fly from their weapons.

One by one, the others arrived. Once they landed on the island, they stood by Jay, entranced by the fierce dual.

The energy between the combatants was intense. No one dared to interfere.

Finally, Nya spotted an opening and swung, but Nadakhan teleported away at the last second, the djinn blade slicing through orange smoke.

“Ugh! Where'd that slimeball run to now?” Nya growled, panting as her head darted back and forth searchingly.

Nya didn't see the swirl of orange smoke directly behind her.

She didn't see Nadakhan suddenly appear with a maniacal grin on his face.

She didn't see his cutlass raised above her, ready to strike.

“Nya look out!” Jay cried.

Nya looked obliviously into Jay's eyes.

Nadakhan swung.

Bang!

Splat!

“Gah!”

The cutlass dropped to the ground with a clatter.

Nya turned and gasped as Nadakhan dazedly staggered to the ground, a yellowish green stain splattered across his chest.

Everyone's heads snapped to where the bang had come from.

Flintlocke stood with his arm held out in a firing pose, a thin stream of smoke trailing from his pistol.

“I found a strange vial on the floor when I had to clean Nadakhan's cabin.” he said “I had a feeling it was the tiger widow's venom.”

“Nice shot!” Cole cheered “But I thought Lloyd's wish made it so you couldn't aim properly anymore.”

“I can’t.” Flintlocke blew the smoke from his pistol “That's why I aimed for your Delara look-alike. Nya, was it?”

“You what?!” Kai’s eyebrows nearly flew off his head. “You're telling me you aimed the deadly spider venom at my-”

“We don't have time for this!” Lloyd cut in, “Jay, you need to make your wish now!”

“I- what!?”

“Lloyd's right Jay,” Zane said “Nadakhan will overcome the effects of the venom in less than a minute! This is your only chance to make a wish without him teleporting away!”

“I…uh…” Jay stammered “I wish…I-I wish…”

This was bad. After all this time, Jay still hadn’t figured out a wish that would stop Nadakhan. They didn’t have any more venom, so Zane was right about this being their best and possibly only chance.

But Jay couldn’t think of anything!

He was going to let everyone down in the final hour…he really was useless after-

No! It wasn’t over yet!

Jay didn’t want to give up. He was done with giving up.

He still had time! He could still think of something…

‘The wish has to come from the heart!’

As Lloyd’s words played in Jay’s head, his eyes fell on Nya.

Jay stopped thinking and listened to his heart.

“I wish for Nya to have my last wish!”

Nadakhan was too dazed to even utter his catchphrase as the sparkles of wish magic swirled around him.

“What?!” Nya looked between Nadakhan and Jay with a mixture of panic and confusion. “But Jay, I don’t think-”

“Don’t think!” Jay interrupted “Remember what old-Lloyd said! The wish needs to come from the heart! Don’t focus on trying to beat Nadakhan, just wish for whatever your heart’s telling you to wish for!”

The hesitancy on Nya’s face only lingered for a moment before morphing into her signature look of stubborn determination.

“I wish…”

Nya took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“I wish I wasn't wearing this stupid wedding dress!”

“What!?” Nadakhan said as he once again let out a burst of orange sparkles.

The wish magic swirled around Nya.

Her shredded top faded away, leaving Nya standing once again in her maroon ninja gi.

No one moved. The wind rustled gently through the trees, but outside of that the world seemed to stand still.

“You…you imbecile!”

Nadakhan picked himself off of the ground. As his strength slowly returned he ambled over to Nya, his face contorted with rage.

“You had me at the tip of your knife just now! You could have wished for anything…anything in the world! I am just about set to become the most powerful being in all the realm, and your main concern is your clothes?! Foolish ninja!” Nadakhan turned to Jay “I can’t believe even someone like you could’ve been so wasteful! Giving up your last wish to some vain little gir-”

Shwink!

Nya hit Nadakhan with the djinn blade.

His body shrank into a sparkling orb.

The orb circled around Nya, then disappeared into the gem on the sword's hilt.

It was over. Nadakhan was finally defeated.

Nya panted and stared at the djinn blade, her eyes drifting from the gem to her reflection in the polished metal.

The image was distorted and bits of hair were stuck to her sweaty face, but a strong sense of satisfaction washed over Nya.

She looked like herself again.

“You did it sis!”

Nya was pulled from her thoughts by a tackle hug from Kai, which she returned enthusiastically.

“It’s so good to see you again,” Nya looked at the other ninja “All of you.”

“Likewise.” Lloyd smiled.

“Most impressive Nya.” Zane said ”But, if I may ask, why did you use your last wish like that?”

“Nadakhan's a master of twisting wishes to his advantage. The only way to win against that creep was to not play his game.” Nya grinned slyly “But I figured it would really mess with his ego if someone made a wish he wasn't expecting, and in those extra few seconds he was ranting, I remembered another very obvious solution.”

Nya gestured to the djinn blade before sheathing behind her back.

“Also I really didn't want to be in that awful dress anymore. Nadakhan's mother had a terrible fashion sense, and a her waist was definately smaller than mine.”

Everyone started to laugh, but the celebration was cut short when the ground started to shake.

“What's happening?” Cole asked.

“It seems that with Nadakhan gone,” Zane explained as he struggled to keep his balance, “There's no longer anything to hold up the- AHH!”

The other ninja screamed along with Zane as the ground fell away beneath them, sending everyone into a floating free fall.

“Ninja quick!” Lloyd shouted “Call your dragons!”

Four elemental dragons flashed into existence and flew into the air.

Nya didn't summon her dragon. She'd noticed Jay was in trouble.

When they started falling, Jay had wound up in a midair spin that made it hard for him to get his bearings.

“Ahhhh!” he screamed, his panicked flailing not helping the situation.

Nya kicked and dove until she was right next to Jay, then reached out and grabbed his arms, steadying him.

Despite the fact that he was no longer spinning, Jay still continued to scream.

“Ahhhhhhhhh-”

“Jay!” Nya barked, shifting his attention from his predicament to her voice, “You need to focus and summon your dragon!”

“D-Dragon? Right, y-yeah. C'mon dragon…”

Jay's voice was unsteady, and his grip on Nya's sleeves was tight.

It didn't take a genius to figure out Jay was too panicked to summon his dragon.

“Come on!” Nya said more gently “You can do this! We'll do it together!”

Jay looked into Nya's eyes. Her words seemed to calm him down.

A tiny bit, anyway.

It would have to do.

“One…two…three!”

Jay and Nya simultaneously manifested their dragons.

Kah-Krakk!

The other ninja watched in awe as a giant elemental dragon rose into the air above them, both Nya and Jay on its back.

The dragon was a strikingly bright blue, with an even brighter blue energy flowing between its scales. Each thunderous beat of its mighty wings filled the air with a sprinkle of raindrops and sparks.

“Woah!” Nya exclaimed.

“Did we do that?” Jay asked, suddenly full of confidence.

“I think so, but I'm not really sure what we did.“

The other ninja flew up to Nya and Jay's level.

“Did you two just make some kind of fusion dragon?” Cole asked.

“That’s awesome!” Kai beamed.

“Ahhhhhh!”

The fearful noise pulled the ninja's attention from the new dragon.

Two pirates were huddled together on a small piece of land, screaming as it plummeted towards the earth.

Lloyd zoomed towards the pair. His dragon stopped just below the little island, flapping its wings rhythmically to keep in place.

“Hop on!” Lloyd yelled.

The pirates gave each other a quick glance before running to the edge of the island and jumping on the dragon behind Lloyd.

“We have to help the other pirates!” Lloyd called to the others.

“But there's only so much room on our dragons!” Kai said “Even with Jay and Nya’s new giant dragon, there's no way we can carry all the pirates to safety!”

“I got plenty of room over here!”

The ninja turned at the voice and saw Misfortune's Keep approaching. They instinctively prepared themselves for conflict, but then noticed Flintlocke smiling at the bow, Dogshank behind him at the wheel.

“I may not be able to shoot the broad side of a barn,” he said “But I sure as sugar can still steer a ship! I’ve got my crew patrolling around on their own vessels too, so just drop our people off with them and they can unload them here on The Keep!”

“Roger that!” Lloyd saluted before turning back to the group “Listen up everyone! Djinnjago was made by pulling chunks of land directly up into the sky, so that means these falling rocks are headed right for the city! Cole! Zane! You two head down and help everyone evacuate! Everyone else, round up the stranded pirates! Ninja go!”

“Ninja go!” the other ninja repeated before heading off in the appropriate direction.

Kai had to hold on to his hood as the hydroelectric dragon sped past him. It was much faster than any of the other elemental dragons.

Jay and Nya stopped by a falling coffee shop to pick up a group of five pirates.

After some flying around, they found one of the patrol ships Flintlocke had mentioned.

As they were transferring the rescuees from the dragon to the ship, an eerie shadow fell over the group.

They looked up and saw that an island the size of a whale was plummeting straight towards them.

“Oh man,” Nya's eyes widened “That's gonna do a lot of damage when it hits the ground.”

“Forget the ground, what about us?” Jay shrieked “We gotta-”

The hydroelectric dragon suddenly threw its head back.

“Hey!” Jay cried “What's this crazy dragon-”

He was cut off by a deafening crackle as the dragon opened its mouth and let out a stream of black sparking clouds.

The stream quickly grew into a mass of clouds that was big enough to block out the falling island above them.

The clouds warbled as the island crashed into them, but to everyone's surprise, the island didn't fall through.

It simply sat there, nestled above the group in the giant black clouds.

A soft drizzle began to fall on the ninja and pirates.

“Are those storm clouds?” Nya asked.

“I think so,” Jay said, wiping rain off of his face “But how are they holding up the island?”

“It's not just your dragon's clouds,” the pirate piloting the patrol ship said “Look!”

She pointed to a smaller island in the distance that was sitting in a thick cluster of white clouds.

“My wish!” Nya's eyes lit up “Remember? During our battle with Nadakhan, I used my third wish to make it so the clouds would catch us!”

“Guess you've saved us with your wishes twice now!” Jay laughed “Now let's go catch the other islands!”

Lloyd and Kai helped gathered the remainder of Nadakhan's crew while Nya and Jay used their dragon's storm cloud breath to catch as many falling islands as they could.

They missed a few of the smaller islands, but Cole and Zane were there to protect the Ninjago citizens when the islands crashed into the city below.

The city ended up suffering a fair bit of property damage, but thanks to the city's incredibly efficient evacuation protocols, there were no major injuries.

It was far from the worst catastrophe Ninjago City had faced.

Once the dust had settled, Doubloon and Monkey Wretch approached Flintlocke and Dogshank, their heads hung low.

Flintlocke and Dogshank nodded at each other in mutual agreement before Flintlocke walked over to Doubloon and patted him on the back.

“I'd be a real hypocrite if I was mad at you two for being manipulated by Nadakhan.” He said “I think we all deserve a chance to decide where our loyalties are without him looming over our shoulders. In fact, after things settle down a bit, I'm gonna have a chat with Jay about getting the rest of our people out of that magic sword.”

Doubloon's face turned to the happy side.

The chunks of Ninjago City caught in the clouds were still stuck up in the sky, but maintaining their elemental dragons for the entire rescue had taken its toll on the ninja, especially Jay and Nya. The townsfolk were very understanding when they decided to wait until tomorrow to figure out how to get them down safely, even if that meant they'd have to wait a bit longer to go to their favourite coffee shops.

But tonight wasn't about despairing over caffeine withdrawals, tonight was for celebrating!

As the sun set, Ninjago City was filled with coloured lights and joyous shouts. A city-wide party was held to celebrate the defeat of Nadakhan.

Luckily, the ninja's favourite karaoke juice bar was still intact on the ground, so they had the perfect place to celebrate.

After nearly two straight hours of singing her lungs out, Nya had stepped out onto the veranda for a break.

Partying with the group was great, but it was nice to just take a quiet minute to look at Ninjago City, one again at peace, even if it was missing a few pieces.

"Nice night, isn't it?"

Nya turned to see Jay approaching with two drinks in his hands. He held one out for Nya.

“Mango? I got you a purple crazy straw and a little umbrella.”

“You don't need a crazy straw to sell me on mango.” Nya smiled as she accepted the plastic cup.

“You deserve it after saving all of Ninjago.” Jay took a sip of his lemonade. “I gotta say, that’s not at all how I thought you’d use the wish, but I’m still pretty glad I gave it to you.”

Nya swirled her cup uneasily.

"Look Jay," she said "I appreciate you giving me your last wish, but it doesn't change anything. We still aren't going to happen."

"Wait, what?" Jay’s eyes went wide "Oh! No no no no no, that wasn't my intention at all! Did you seriously think I'd use my wish to try and manipulate you romantically?"

Nya raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, that's…” Jay rubbed the back of his neck “Actually a pretty fair assumption, I guess."

"Why did you give me the wish then?” Nya asked, “My best idea at the lighthouse was summoning The Great Devourer."

"Yeah…I am glad you didn't do that."

Jay took a long drink of his lemonade while he thought about Nya's question.

"Well, Lloyd said to wish from the heart, and giving you the wish was what my heart was telling me to do. I've been making so many mistakes lately, especially when it comes to wishes. But you..." Jay looked Nya directly in the eye "It seems like no matter how challenging a situation you get thrown into, you always manage to rise above and come out on top. I knew that you'd find a way to stop Nadakhan, even if I couldn't."

The corners of Nya's lips scrunched slightly.

"I'm not trying to flirt with you! I swear!" Jay said quickly.

"I...yeah, I know.” Nya fiddled with her straw “It's just..."

"You don't trust me." Jay hoped the hurt didn't show in his voice.

"I do! I mean, I trust you with my life, and I trust you to always have my back, but..." Nya bit her lip.

"Yeah, I get it." Jay rubbed the back of his neck "I screwed things up pretty badly the last time you trusted me, huh?”

Jay's words hung in the air as the two of them watched a group of pedestrians go by, singing boisterously at the top of their lungs.

"For what it's worth,” Nya didn't take her eyes off the crowd, “You were an alright boyfriend back then. Which is commendable, since I was a pretty bad girlfriend."

"What? Come on, don't be like that. You were a perfect girlfriend!"

"Jay, I left you for a roomba. And I flirted with Cole while we were still dating. Ugh, I honestly don't even know why I did that. I don't even like Cole like that, nothing about that situation made any sen-"

"You flirted with Cole while we were still together!?"

"You didn't know that?"

"No!"

"Then why did you attack him when Pixal said we were the perfect match?"

"...It...erm...has come to my attention recently that I...may not be the most...secure person in the world...sometimes."

Jay felt a part of him deep inside screaming in terror as he said those words, but he knew they were words that he needed to say.

He needed to stop hiding.

"Oh, you think so?" Nya grinned, but her smile fell when she looked at Jay's face and realized how serious he was.

Jay took a deep breath. The noise of the celebrating crowd slowly faded in the distance.

“It's just…you guys are the best friends I've ever had, and I know it's sappy, but I don't want to lose any of you, and sometimes there's a part of me that scared if you guys knew the real me, the weird me who's afraid and messes up all the time, you wouldn't like me anymore.”

Jay took a quick drink of his lemonade to help with his dry mouth.

“I guess Nadakhan took advantage of that. He used my…I let him use my insecurities to control me. And then I tried to hide it like I hide everything else I don't like about myself. I guess a scaly tail and fangs weren't the only thing I needed to stop hiding to live up to my true potential, huh?”

Jay chuckled.

“But seriously,” he quickly sobered, “It was selfish how I tried to use you to feel better about myself.”

Jay looked back up at Nya.

"Speaking of, there's something else that's come to my attention. About you.”

“About me?” Nya raised an eyebrow.

Jay nodded.

“You have to face a lot of challenges that the rest of us don't, and we don't really help you with that stuff. I don't really help you with that stuff.”

“Oh, you mean what I said at the lighthouse…” Nya looked away bashfully “Look, I didn’t mean to lose my cool like that. There was just so much going on, and I was exhausted, and-”

“But you meant everything you said, didn't you?”

Nya looked back at Jay.

“You get brushed off a lot don't you? And not just by bad guys and sleazy reporters, but by us, the people who're supposed to be your friends. I love how strong you are, we all do, but that strength shouldn't have to come from having to carry things on your own. That sucks. We suck for doing that to you.”

Nya was silent the whole time Jay talked. He couldn't read her expression, but he decided to just keep going.

“I know I broke your trust in a really big way, but I really mean what I'm about to say: from this point on, I'm going to make sure you aren't going through your problems alone anymore. I won’t show up to those PSA shoots if you don’t get called too, I'll hold down those sexist producers so you can punch them, I'll..I'll tell those interviewers I'm dating Cole so they'll stop bugging you about that stupid love triangle thing!"

Nya let out a snort that almost made Jay fall over the railing.

"Uh, I feel like Cole might take issue with that plan," she said "But…thanks Jay."

Despite the smile on her face, Jay noticed Nya's tone sounded a little forced.

"It's okay if you don't believe me right now. I know you've got good reason to not have faith in people having your back, especially me. But I-I really do mean everything I just said. About trying to be better. I really do want to start being there for you. If, you know, you're okay with that…”

Having said everything he had to say, Jay’s eyes fell to his half-drunken lemonade.

He couldn't recall the last time he'd been so open and serious. It was cathartic, but also terrifying.

What happened next wouldn't be up to him.

It was up to Nya.

All Jay could do was wait.

“Hey,” Nya said after a few beats.

Jay looked at her.

Nya held her fist up to Jay.

He smiled and bumped his fist against hers.

Once they pulled their fists away, Nya took a sip of her juice.

The sweet taste of mango hit her like a rainbow after a storm.

It had been a long time since she'd had a mango juice. She'd forgotten how refreshing they were.

"There you two are!"

Jay and Nya turned to see Kai’s head sticking out the door.

“You gotta come inside!” he said “Zane made this giant drawing of Nadakhan, and we're all throwing shurikens at it!"

"Oh I gotta get in on this!" Nya smiled deviously as she moved to follow Kai inside.

She stopped at the door and turned to Jay.

"You coming? If your time as Nadakhan's prisoner was anything like mine, I'm sure you want to throw sharp things at that stupid face as much as I do."

Jay smiled and followed Nya inside.

--------------------------------------------------

"Boom! Take that sucka!" Kai yelled as he threw his fourth shuriken.

The other ninja cheered as it sunk into the Nadakan drawing's previously only shuriken-free arm.

“Whew! You got him Kai!” Cole slurred, nearly falling off his stool as he raised his cup. “That's all his legs!”

"I think that's enough juice for you." Zane said, taking Cole's cup from him.

Lloyd, Nya, and Jay clapped as Kai pulled his shurikens out of the drawing.

"For you sis," Kai mocked bowed as he offered them to Nya "If anyone deserves this, it's you. After being forced to wear that horrendous dress."

"Why Kai, you shouldn't have." Nya returned Kai's bow as she accepted the shurikens.

Jay held out his hand, and Nya gave him her drink to hold.

The ninja watched in eager anticipation as Nya held her hand back and carefully aimed, before flinging two shurikens at the drawing.

Thinck!

Thuck!

The loudest cheer of the night rang out as Nya's shurikens landed in both of Nadakhan's eyes.

"Excellent precision, Nya." Zane remarked once the whooping had finally died down.

"Thank you Zane." Nya grinned proudly “I've been wanting to do that for a while, and with Nadakhan trapped in the djinn blade, I was worried I’d never get to.”

She held her remaining two shurikens out to Jay.

"I imagine you want a turn." she smiled.

Jay blinked.

He's seen that smile. He knew that smile.

Her face was less wrinkled and her hair was shorter, but there was no mistaking it.

Nya was smiling the exact same way she had been in the vision Jay had seen in the maze.

After everything that had happened and how much he’d thought about that smile, there was no way Jay could mistake it.

What did it mean?

"Hey Jay," Nya's smile morphed into a concerned look and the spell was broken "You all good in there?"

"Huh?" Jay said "Oh yeah, I'm good. I'm just…glad we're all together again, you know?"

"You can say that again," Kai draped his arms over Nya and Jay's shoulders "Now take those shurikens and dish out some payback on Nadakhan already!"

"With pleasure!" Jay traded the two drinks he was holding for Nya’s shurikens. "But you know, it's not really Nadakhan I'm getting payback on, it's more like Nada-drawn."

Everyone in the room groaned.

"As the maker of this drawing," Zane said flatly "I would like to request that you do not call it that."

"Fine then." Jay crossed his arms poutily. "Be no fun."

"It's good to have you back, Jay." Lloyd said.

"It's good to be back. Now take this!"

Jay tossed his shurikens.

Zip!

Thunk!

One of Jay's shurikens sailed right out an open window, and the other right through Cole's head into the wall behind him.

Everyone turned and gawked at Jay.

"Um…whoops. Sorry everyone, my bad." he said, gesturing to his eye patch. "Forgot that my depth perception's kind of out of whack."

There was a beat of silence before all the ninja burst out laughing.

"That's not funny!” Cole protested “Jay could've killed me if I wasn't already..."

But even he couldn't keep his face straight for very long.

Everyone continued to laugh hysterically for a while, some combination of the hilarity of Jay's blunder and the relief that they'd all made it out of the Nadakhan situation okay fueling the mood.

Jay finished getting all his laughter out before everyone else, and turned to look at Nya.

After wiping away a tear, Nya looked back at Jay and smiled.

It's that same smile again. Jay still wasn't sure what it meant, but he had a feeling it was something good.

He smiled back at her.

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#lego ninjago #ninjago #ninjago fanfiction #jay walker #nya #nya ninjago #my fanfic #my writing #I had a piece commisioned for this but it's not gonna be ready for a bit so I decided to post the chapter just add it in when it's done

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cboffshore · 5 months

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Right Here, Right Now: Main Character Decision Making In On Sea, Sunlight, and Sky

Or: a casual essay examining planning, privilege, and immediacy in On Sea, Sunlight, and Sky, because I had some Really Fun Thoughts about my work today and decided to write about them. This might be a little messy, but I think it's still worth a post.

Obviously, spoilers for the latest installment (which drives a lot of this essay by virtue of being the longest installment yet), and the series as a whole, so it's under the cut.

There's a core tenet in my work on OSSAS over the years: everything Nya and Nadakhan do is, ultimately, pointless. After all, these fics are meant as gap fillers to complete Nya's experience after "The Last Resort," and we all know how Skybound ends by now. (I hope. If you don't... maybe don't read this?) So what I've tried to remember this whole time is that I don't have to worry about long-term canon consequences, because no matter what I write, the imaginary timeline gets wiped clean no matter what. (Yes, I'm the kind of person who worries about canon compliance that heavily.) They're acting for now, not the next season.

The thing is: my characters don't know that. In their fictional world, all of this is very, very real. Actions do have consequences, and besides being pointless, a lot of the shit I have Nya and Nadakhan do is just plain goofy from a distance. Gull swarm! Bullshit chase scene! Chess night that goes horribly wrong, set up specifically to mess with Nya! Everyone is fueled by spite and desperation the entire time.

That being said: that's all on purpose. Without consciously realizing it (although I know I recognized it on some level while writing), I spent OSSAS examining how Nya and Nadakhan both perceive and use immediacy - especially when reacting on the spot.

Let's take a step back and look at canon. Nadakhan's entire MO is, basically, to annoy his victims so much that they opt to just give up entirely by accepting his offer to wish it all away. Key components of this include:

Rushing his opponents and refusing to give them the time they need to come up with their own plan

Keeping them in one spot

Confronting them while they're alone

Most of the time, this works. I don't think I need to rehash that - you can pull up any confrontation in the season and watch these at play. The first hiccup we see is when Jay flips the script on him (accidentally), by getting so afraid that he makes a wish that summons Nya to the scene, which ruins that third component and forces Nadakhan to abandon the attempt. While these fics aren't about Jay, I wanted to mention this scene as a summary of how we know Nadakhan operates well before OSSAS slots into the timeline.

What do we learn from this?

On one hand, Nadakhan has a system in place - this guy likes his plans watertight. He's got rules that he plays by, generally without fail.

However: Nadakhan doesn't adapt well to change. We also see how he reacts when he finds out Delara's dead, his crew has been scattered, and his realm destroyed, so we knew about this already, but his confrontation with Jay helps highlight it. We also know that he sticks to his plans at all costs. Flintlocke attempting to convince him that he's got enough doesn't work, because at that point Nadakhan's so set on his very particular plan that he doesn't know how to accept that he's already won. (The commitment issues discussed in chapter 5 of the 2023 installment are different from what I'm talking about here, just so we're clear.)

Fatal flaw, that. And what a fun one - and very fun to use in my writing.

At this point in the timeline, whether he's willing to accept it or not, Nadakhan is fully in charge. He's got control over the skies; he's got mad resources; he's got Nya, who is central to his final plot and (despite all the chaos I keep letting her cause) is unable to leave. In OSSAS, he's got plenty of space and time; this allows him to read Nya and attempt to come up with solid consequences whenever she tries to rebel. For instance, in A Disappearing Act (Done Poorly), Nya uses her elemental powers to stage an immediate escape. This does not work; she's caught and brought back, and in Coughing Up Feathers, is forced to wear a Vengestone bracelet to prevent similar attempts. Ordinarily - under the rules Nadakhan's been playing by the whole season - this would be effective, right? Nadakhan used Vengestone on Jay to suppress his powers, after all. Why wouldn't this work?

Because the rule surrounding Vengestone has changed.

As of "Wishmasters," Vengestone amplifies power - but that's a relatively new thing at this point. Nadakhan hasn't interacted with Vengestone since the rescue mission (and according to my fic timeline had the bracelet made a while ago), so in CUF, I thought it would be appropriate to have him forget about granting that wish in order to let Nya weaponize it. Naturally, she does, and he doesn't figure it out until the following night (the prologue of If I Can Think (Of Something Clever)); embarrassed, he removes the bracelet from the equation and tries to figure something else out. His next attempts - destroying her comms bracelet and orchestrating a cruel false escape for Nya - are a lot more cut-and-dried, but still ultimately force Nya to look for alternative ways to resist that he's not expecting. Even when he thinks he's orchestrated it fully, he misses that. In the fake escape attempt reveal, he admits that he didn't expect her to use a chain as a weapon in addition to the torch he laid out. He also didn't expect Nya to react so violently to the image of Landon - he chose a friendlier face to approach her with, hoping she'd maybe cooperate when the end drew near, but didn't expect her to simply lump him in with the rest of the crew and fight him off the same way in the combat sequence. (Talk about a superiority complex...) When Nya points these things out to him, he panics and tries to change the subject.

Nadakhan's issue here is that he believes his plans are so solid that nothing can break them, so when hiccups like the Vengestone thing pop up, he's not entirely sure how to deal with them beyond simply shoving that to the side and moving onto his next scheme. This shows up in the IICT chess confrontation, too - when Nya doesn't react quite how he hopes she will to the bombs he drops, he either tries to redirect to the chess game or another topic to avoid feeling that shame of failure. This is because, like when he came up with his initial plan, Nadakhan plans for the long-term and doesn't worry about immediate effects. He knows his plan from top to bottom way before the crew catches on, and is unwilling to budge from it. He's had so much time and privilege to weave this tapestry that he can't imagine anyone going at it with scissors, so he doesn't arrange for any sort of Plan B.

Nya, however, is very much waving those scissors recklessly - at least, when she can reach them.

Unlike Nadakhan, Nya doesn't really have that same sort of space and time. She knows approximately what's going to happen, but not quite when. As fic author, I've given her about a week between her capture and the wedding - but she doesn't know that! For all she knows, at any moment, someone could barge in and drag her out to get hitched. She doesn't have the privilege to take her sweet time planning, so all of her moves are immediate reactions to her situation. Her escape attempt in ADA(DP) is a spur-of-the-moment plan triggered by her remembering a key detail about Nadakhan's quarters and making a wild guess about how she can weaponize it; the gull thing in CUF is an accidental discovery that she only gets to test twice before using it on Nadakhan. The longest she takes to formulate a plan is a day in IICT, which is the shortest amount of time she needs to gather the information to break out. After that, the combat scene is entirely improvised, and so are her personal attacks towards Nadakhan during the final chess scene. Everything she does is inspired by something either said, remembered, or realized in the moment. (Respectively: she weaponizes the line about Nadakhan's father teaching him chess, the dream, and the realization that Nadakhan fridges major problems instead of pivoting to deal with them immediately.)

As such, the effects of Nya's actions aren't long-term, at least not by design. She can't effectively plan for a future she knows so little about, and she's frustrated, so she takes it out on the now: little digs at Nadakhan that she knows he can't adjust to quickly or calmly, and actions that do serious damage to his attempts to control her.

Ironically, Nya's making snap judgements the entire time - the exact thing Nadakhan usually banks on when dealing with opposition. However, Nadakhan relies on those snap decisions being made to avoid him - not attack him.

Nya's cornered this whole time. Nadakhan's not trying to get rid of her like he is everyone else, so he tries to contain her. This upsets a key part of his usual strategy, which Nya recognizes early on (even if she doesn't really give thought to it - it's an unconscious undercurrent). By keeping her within easy reach, he's ironically given her a taste of the same privileges he has: he forces interactions that unwittingly help her learn about him and provides plenty of chances to push his buttons. Usually, he only interacts with people once or twice - enough to knock them off the map and shrug them off. However, he's pulled Nya into a position where he has to be around her to keep an eye on her... which goes two ways, of course. He's trying to read her; she's trying to read him.

Ultimately, Nya comes out on top - not because I think snap judgements are the way to go for most issues (I, too, like my plans solid and often dislike adjusting to new things), but because this is a season where how people react in the moment matters. We all know the season is resolved peacefully thanks to a quick, emotional judgement Jay makes; although this is very much not a Jay series, I like to think that Nya helps pave the way for this success by breaking down Nadakhan's self-confidence to the point where he really starts to lose his ability to insure his own work. (Let's talk about how he doubts Delara even loves him after she's resurrected sometime - I'm also trying to build into that.)

I don't really have a good ending for this - after all, I wrote this on an impulse - but isn't it neat how these things work out sometimes?

#ninjago skybound #ninjago nya #ninjago nadakhan #ninjago fanfiction #lila speaks #OSSAS tag #analysis freak lila back on her bullshit #december wip rambles

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lloyd-the-green-gremlin · 1 month

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*deep sigh*

Okay, I'm ready.

What order to watch Lego Ninjago media in?

—CRONOLOGICALLY

Khm.. Sorry, the little gremlin living inside my head and eating up my brain said that...

I will give you my toughts and to summarise them:

Imo this is totally up to what you enjoy and have the patience to endure. I watched from start to finish - almost, i will get to that - and just finished Dragon's Rising. But you don't have to do that of course. I will describe each "etap" of seasons, so you can choose and decide what is best for your viewing experience.

The older seasons AKA pre-movie:

This is from S1 to S7, before they got rebooted. These seasons lay down the basics, in lore and about the characters. You get info on elemental powers, FSM, the multive- i mean the different verses. They vary in quality, but i can say my fav ninjago episodes and seasons come from this era. But if you dont want to look at the crusty ass animation and just wanna get to the later seasons (for some reason, idk i can't look into your head), then watch:

S1 - Rise of the Snakes

S2 - Legacy of the Green Ninja

S3 - Rebooted

S5 - Possession

BONUS : S6 - Skybound

Although a lot of people shit on Hands of Time, personally i love it, but the story got cut in half and basicly never gets reference, you can cut that from the watchlist. (also guys. lets be real, the Chen season is way too overrated and was not half as good as yall make it out to be)

Or just watch a lore video and skip the juicy stuff

Post-movie , visual reboot, Lloyd begins puberty and finally gets a haircut:

From S8 to S13. Okay . the post-movie has a lot of misses. The simplified a lot of the characters, changed up stuff, overall very eh meh. I recomment you watch

S8 - Sons of Garmadon

S9 - Hunted

S11 - Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu (the first part is eh but it has some fun lore stuff later)

S12 - Prime Empire

S13 - Master of the Mountain

I will warn you that this is where they did the "10 minute episodes" for a while, and that wasn't a very nice viewing experience. Also the Oni season could have been really good, they just had some writing issues, so imo its overall skippable.

The "miniseries" or "why do you keep abandoning your cool storylines":

so we got to The Island and Skybound, the are interconnected and really good seasons, Nya focused and have cool sets and figures. Go watch them.

Then theres ...ugh...Crystalized.. the one season i half watched-half skipped. Why must they drag my girl Harumi's corpse up from the grave and cut in half a nicely written thing that could have given us a possible Morro comeback? Doc, why. so, Imo its skippable and doesent really get brought up later either. It does some fun stuff with Lloyd, but the way they took his dad's characterisation is icky. To me.

NEW GEN! Dragons, references, and being confusing about key lore again:

I am of course yapping about Dragon's Rising. We have two seasons so far, and the writng, the cast and the designs are peak. I would recommend watching it fully, very enjoyable.

OVERALL SUMMARY:

If you are picky about your content and want to limit what you wathc, the abobe is my recommendation. But really, you only get the good thing if you watch it from start to finish. (but really, just skip Crystalised-)

If you do wanna eat it whole, you should watch the first two seasons to get lore and characters down, then watch the movie - that actually has little to do with the plot, but it will only such you in further. Also a lot of people write early seasons ninjago with the movie crossovers. Then watch the rest of the seasons, and then the movie again, pre-S8. Then finish the og series and watch the movie again.

Oh yeah, there's shorts! I recommend that you either watch them as they follow the series, or do a recap of them every few seasons, OR! watch them after you finish the main series to get recapped on old stuff, then plunge into Dragon's Rising.

DR could be enjoyed without previous ninjago knowledge, bit in my opinion , its best consumed with prior and intimate knowledge of the characters!

To close this unstoppable wordshitting ive been up to: Ninjago has lots and lots of content and if you get bored watching something, feel free to skip the hell away. I know the fandom loves deep lore theories, but even we dont understand half the shit we yap about.

Remember, the first rule of Fight Club Ninjago is #1 - Have fun and be yourself :)

ALSO READ FANFICTON ITS RLY GOOD -

#eddie talks #yepps #rambles on #szófosás if you will #lego ninjago #ninjago #recommendation #eddie's asks #asks #feel free to send me asks i love yapping

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galaxyhanart · 2 years

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CABINET MAN AU Timeline Information

So I’ve talked about it a little bit but I want to go into more detail about the different timeline of the AU!

this is what i was thinking when i first started the AU and so far I’m sticking to it except for one change! Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitsu is going to hapen AFTER Skybound now, simply because Skybound and Seabound are so close to each other and it seems cruel to put Jay through those seasons nearly back-to-back. Not gonna go into Crystalized yet cuz i still haven’t watched the rest of the season but I’m gonna lay out some key details for the rest of the seasons

In terms of the AU itself, the ones that are the most important are

- Prime Empire (of course) - Hands of Time - Skybound - The Island/Seabound

“But Leo, Hands of Time is not a Jay-centric season and the CMAU is a Jay-centric AU so why would that one be important?”

Hands of Time is the AU that happens after Prime Empire, so it’s kind of the catalyst for the timeline of the AU to get fucked up. In the AU, Hands of Time takes place around a year after Prime Empire! Within that year, Jay was readjusting to life outside of Prime Empire and beginning his ninja training. In that time, he became very close with Master Wu, Morro, and the rest of the ninja. Because of this, even though that season isn’t centered around Jay, that’s when Jay will be doing his first “official” ninja stuff

PILOT EPISODES - DAY OF THE DEPARTED

I’m not thinking too hard about the changes from the pilot eps through Day of the Departed. Because of the way the AU works there are obvious inherent plot holes - Jay is a key member of the team, not only as one of the Elements of Creation and protectors of the Green Ninja but also his inventing skills and such. So don’t. Think about it too hard lmao Nya picks up the slack in those seasons!

The most major change that involves that AU directly is that Morro ends up returning from the dead alongside Cole in Day of the Departed! Neither of them expected that to happen and everyone’s kind of shocked and confused, but Wu welcomes Morro back with open arms. It’s obviously... tense. At first. It takes a lot of getting used to but everyone makes their way around to Morro being a part of the family eventually.

Not gonna go in the specifics of timing for the AU but by the end of it, the ninja + morro are in their early 20s

PRIME EMPIRE

The obvious start to the AU! This takes place over the span of a few weeks, and the aftermath is where Jay reconnects with Ed and Edna, meets Morro (who was away doing some much needed self-discovery this whole season), and starts getting taught by Master Wu. During this time he also gets to know his team! He fills a void that the team hadn’t even realized was forming, and while Jay is beyond relieved that he finally has people around him, he’s worried about how to act to make sure they don’t abandon them like Unagami did.

Unagami goes home with Milton Dyer and the two reconnect like in canon! Jay visits every so often, but there’s an unspoken rift between then that they both have a lot of growing to do before it can be undone

HANDS OF TIME

This season is accurate to what happens in the show BUT Jay is like. A lot closer to Wu than in canon and Morro is also here!! So there’s a lot of stuff involving them - Jay’s episode with his parents still happens but like. Plop Morro down next to him those two are kind of joined at the hip at this point (although when not with Jay, Morro’s usually watching over Wu) also! Jay is trying EXTRA hard to prove that he’s a good ninja and deserves to be on the team (which was never in question to anyone but himself)

SONS OF GARMADON - MARCH OF THE ONI

SOG and Hunted are pretty much the same as canon, not much changes there except for Morro exists. However, since it’s my AU and I get to make the rules, March of the Oni happens. Very differently. Because honestly I find canon MotO to be the worst season of the show but it UNFORTUNATELY sets up key elements for Garmadon so like. I can’t just ignore it (if you like MotO i promise this isn’t like a slight against you i just think it’s poorly written ahhhh) but tbh it’s been a minute since i actually WATCHED the season so I’m not going into it here

SKYBOUND

EEHEHEHHEHE THIS IS MY I GET TO HAVE FUN SEASON :D

so i really don’t like a good chunk of Skybound and it’s writing so grabs Skybound and chucks most of it in the trash my turn with it

FIRST THINGS FIRST NADAKHAN IS NOT GOING TO BE CREEPY WITH NYA BC I HATE THAT

i haven’t decided if i’m gonna keep the forced marriage plot or not because I can’t think of a good replacement yet but at the VERY LEAST if it stays I’m pulling a Musical Beetlejuice where he’s doing it just for the powers and is like “YEAH IT’S A GREENCARD THING” because that’s the only way i can touch this season without being disgusted but anyways

This season keeps its “the public love the ninja as if they were celebrities” thing especially since Jay practically IS one. He’s stepped away from a ton of his idol pop star stuff since becoming a ninja but he still has lots of fans

His wishes are pretty much the same but they’re driven by his fear of abandonment rather than the canon “i’m not good enough for nya” stuff

Jay’s captured on Misfortune’s Keep for around three weeks (two weeks felt too short and anything longer than a month felt way too long). He gets. Kinda really fucked up lmao not only does Nadakhan get real frustrated he can’t get his wish out of Jay he’s like. EXTRA pissed about him trying to get the venom to stop him after he was able to avoid wishing himself into the blade in the first place and all that. so yknow. my excuse to make whump and angsty content heheehhehehe

ALSO THE BIGGEST CHANGE OF ALL: THE SEASON DOESN’T GET UNDONE BC I HATE THAT TOO

how does nadakhan get back in the teapot then? great question i’m unpacking that later BUT that means that the rest of the gang doesn’t completely FORGET all of Jay and Nya’s trauma. And they have. So much trauma.

also i’m redesigning nadakhan cuz i don’t like that he’s Orange okay i’m done rambling about skybound now

SECRETS OF THE FORBIDDEN SPINJITSU - MASTER OF THE MOUNTAIN

These seasons don’t have many changes either! Other than the placement of them of course. Also this is when the second image of Jay’s design comes into play!

THE ISLAND/SEABOUND

Oof the Pain Season

The Island is fun because it’s a bunch of people pampering Jay and he’s like OHOHOHO OF COURSE JUST LIKE THE LEAGUE OF JAYS I MISSED HAVING THIS LEVEL OF FANDOM and then his friends are separated from him and he’s having Less of a Great Time due to his abandonment issues but he’s fiiiiiine

Seabound is obviously,,,,, upsetting. I’ve posted a little about it before but I’ll go into more detail here. Nya and Jay are incredibly close, even if not implicitly romantic in the AU (although as i write this i miss the jaya dynamics so that might change tbh lmao but for now its platonic) so the entire season Jay is incredibly worried for Nya - AND Morro, who shows up at the monastery with his powers also going kinda fucky. Everything pretty much happens the same way, the battery scene kind of fucks Jay up for a while but it’s also a bit cathartic - he’s CHOOSING to use his powers as a battery to save his friends, even though it’s risky.

When Nya becomes the sea? Oh boy.

Jay gets so distraught - he’s tired of losing people, he’s tired of people leaving him, so he isolates himself by choice this time. If he keeps losing everyone around him, he’s going to get himself lost first. That’s how he ends up alone in the lighthouse. The only one who he sees in that entire period of time is Morro and Pixal, who check up on him from time to time. Everyone else is too wrapped up in their own grief.

#i've still got a lot of things that i need to work out for how specific things would go lmao #prime empire and skybound especially since they have the biggest differences #also march of the oni bc it's STUPID and i wanna make it better #cabinet man AU #jay walker #ninjago #prime empire #lego ninjago #lego #galaxyhantalks

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walkerwords · 3 years

Text

“The Savior Sessions” Part 31 of 33 - Negan x GN!Reader

IMAGE CREDIT: AMC

SERIES MASTERLIST

Summary: Negan seals a deal, Daryl asks questions, Carol provides the answers and forgiveness is asked of the reader.

Word Count: 6506

Warning: Swearing, Violence, Blood

Song I Wrote To: “A Little Forgiveness” by The Rescues

Note: Quick little thing: As I am not continuing this past “Certain Doom” a lot of the Eugene/Princess stuff isn’t really a thing in this series. Also, with Michonne not on some quest to find her hubby, it is a bit different. With only two parts left, I want to start wrapping up a few things. The next part is going to be very much focused on conversation and then the big showdown in the finale! ALL OFFICIAL DIALOG IS PROPERTY OF AMC AND SKYBOUND

-----------

J.D. Salinger once said, “And I can't be running back and forth forever between grief and high delight.”

Salinger had the right idea, you thought as you lay in the middle of your floor, staring at the ceiling.

You and the rest of the group had arrived back in Alexandria early in the afternoon and you had immediately shut yourself away in your house.

There was more work to be done. There were bodies to be buried and you knew you should have been helping with the preparations, but all you could do was lay there and stare at the damn marble.

When you had returned to the group after confronting Negan, nobody spoke to you and you refused to speak to them. Not even Lydia could get you to talk, and while you knew you were being cold, you didn’t know what to tell them.

There was a part of you that felt such rage for the man that had faced you in that old shed. Nothing about the way he looked told you that he was your Negan. There were too many shades of his old self and it was terrifying, but not because you were scared of him, but because you were scared for him.

Negan had worked so hard to not be the man that had stepped out of that RV nearly a decade ago only to end up back behind enemy lines. When Daryl had told you that Negan was with her, you didn’t want to believe it, you couldn’t, but there was that small voice in the back of your head that was telling you that perhaps you had known for a while.

You had searched for weeks and never even found a trace of him. Thinking about that night when the leaders of Alexandria were debating on what to do with him, you never blamed him for needing an out. Now, you just only wondered why he thought Alpha was his only choice.

“What am I missing?” you asked to the empty room as you rolled the marble between your fingers. You began to think back to everything that had happened since that night and one moment stuck out.

The day that you and Enid had been hunting Walkers together.

You were almost positive that someone had been watching you. It was the day Beta had attacked you in Alexandria. You had thought that it was a Whisperer scout, but what if it had been Negan? Now it was only a matter of why he was doing it. Negan wasn’t one to take orders, but if Alpha had asked him to watch you, would he have?

You didn’t know what the nature of their relationship was. Hell, you didn’t even know if she even tolerated him. However, considering he was still breathing in her presence, you figured it was one that held at least mutual respect.

Then there was the baseball bat.

You had no idea where he had even found another one. Just by looking at his new weapon you knew it wasn’t the original. Lucille 2.0 was a different bat, but to you, it still meant the same thing. You had accepted that she would always have a hold on him, but seeing him hold the thing that he connected his wife to hurt more than you had ever imagined.

“There’s a reason,” you whispered. “You were right, there is a reason. He wouldn’t have given you the damn marble if there wasn’t.” Pausing, you sat up and frowned. “And now I’m talking to myself...again.”

Groaning, you squeezed your eyes shut as you tried to stop your thoughts from racing. It was as if there was an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Except they were both Negan and one wore a Whisperer mask and the other didn’t. You wanted to reach out and talk to your family about it, but you had no idea where to begin.

For all you knew, Negan had just given you the marble as a diversion. He could just be playing with you. However, as you began to think back on the conversation you had had with him, something felt off and it was only after a few seconds that you realized what it was. He had never directly answered any of your questions. This also could have been a diversion, but you knew him better than that.

“He was trying not to lie to me,” you realized. Jumping to your feet, you ran from your room. “Lydia!” you called, searching for her, but there wasn’t an answer. “Lydia!” you tried again but were still met with silence. Opening your front door, you scanned for her.

“(Y/N)?” Rosita asked as she noticed you.

“You seen Lydia?” you asked.

“Daryl didn’t tell you?” Rosita said.

“Tell me what?” you asked.

“Lydia’s gone,” Rosita said. “She went looking for Negan after Daryl told her that he was with her mother.”

“She went alone?” you asked, suddenly very worried.

“She’s been out there alone before, what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that I think Negan is planning something,” you said. “Something big.” Rosita furrowed her brow and then gestured into her house.

“Tell me everything.”

————-

Negan could feel his heart racing as he walked with Alpha through the trees.

That morning, he had been nervous, but determined. The day before, he had begun to think that there would be another way to do what Carol had tasked him with. Negan thought that perhaps he could kill Beta as well or even both of them at once.

He thought about doing a lot of things. Until you had ambushed him and he heard how hurt you had sounded. Now, he couldn’t take it anymore. He had to kill her and he had to do it now.

His final plan was in motion and it helped to know that Alpha was feeling rather victorious after the battle at Hilltop. Her guard was done and after he had helped block the survivors from leaving Hilltop, she trusted him. There was a part of him that was dreading what he was about to do.

No matter who it was, killing someone always had consequences. Alpha was the biggest gun he had gone up against. Rick had been difficult, but that man had had a soul. Negan wasn’t even sure if Alpha knew how to be human, let alone a decent one.

Then there was the moment he had had with her earlier in the day when she had asked about her daughter.

There was a moment when she had seen almost genuinely concerned about Lydia and whether or not she was alive after the fight. Negan had no idea what happened to Lydia. However, considering you hadn’t told him that she was dead and you didn’t seem to be acting as if you had lost a child, Negan figured she was okay.

When Alpha had begun asking questions about her, it was then that Negan finally realized how he would take out the Queen of the Whisperers and he was going to hate to do it.

Walking alongside a silent Alpha, Negan thought back to an hour before when he had gone in search of his final piece.

Earlier in the day…

Negan moved through the trees after finally losing his tails. He knew that Beta was having people watch him, but he didn’t care. Beta was dealing with his own problems as well. Negan had learned that the giant man had killed Gamma during the battle after she had stopped him from killing the one with the sword.

Negan had left camp after hearing that Beta had once again tried to kill you. He needed some air and he needed to find Lydia. Negan didn’t want to move too close to Alexandria, but he had to be close enough to intercept the young woman.

He also knew that Daryl would have figured out that he had been the one to set up the roadblocks and so he had to be smart. He didn’t doubt that Daryl would shoot him if he got the chance no matter how he felt about you.

Which is why he needed to get to Lydia. Negan stayed in the shadows of the road that led to the community. He had learned enough about Lydia’s former family to know how to get her attention. He also knew that she wouldn’t stay behind the walls long and that she would get restless.

And so, he waited.

Negan was getting restless as he waited, but at the time, he didn’t have any other options. He was ready to give up and go back to the pack when the gates slid open and Lydia slipped through the fence. Her staff was in her hand as she took a deep breath and then turned to say something to someone behind the gate. Negan figured it was either Scott or Eugene.

Lydia began to wander away from Alexandria and that’s when Negan began to track her.

He would never forget the way her expression changed from hope to betrayal as she saw him walking towards her only to see the mask in his hands.

It was only an hour later when Negan approached the Alpha.

“Alpha,” he said, “that thing you’ve been looking for…” Alpha turned to him with curious eyes. “I found it.”

A smile crept across the woman’s face and for a moment, she looked genuinely happy at the prospect of finding her daughter.

“Lydia.”

---------

“It is beautiful,” Alpha said as she stared at a Walker stumbling through the trees. Negan watched it with disdain. “Pure.”

“All I see is a bag of bones and some gnarly-ass teeth,” Negan scoffed.

“You will see. Maybe soon. And I will meet you there,” Alpha promised, looking up at him with eyes full of unrequited compassion. Negan turned away as he adjusted the strap on his back that held his bat.

“You know, I ain't exactly ready to meet my Maker, if that's what you're saying,” Negan said. “Hell, I’ve survived this long and I don’t plan on making any appointments with the man downstairs.”

“You proved yourself again by finding her,” Alpha went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “And like the young lion cub who must leave his pride, it is time to roam the Earth. Build a new pride.”

“Do you want me out there, preaching your gospel?” Negan asked. “Cause I’m gonna be honest with you, people stopped listening to me a long time ago.”

“I want you to become a lion,” she said. Negan paused, trying to understand what she was saying. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

“You know,” he began, “I may not be hip on the whole Greek alphabet, but Beta is no Alpha. And if we're going stick with the whole lion thing... then isn't it the young lioness who takes her mother's place?” Alpha looked up at him and he could see the shift in her attitude at the mention of her daughter and that was when he finally understood. Lydia was not her strength, she was her weakness and Alpha could not bear to be weak.

“Walk,” she ordered.

As they moved together, Negan began to think about Lucille of all things. After you had brought her up the day before, he couldn’t keep her out of his mind.

“A long time ago before meat-lovers like him started showing up,” Negan said, gesturing to the Walker not far from them, “I, uh... I lost somebody that was close to me. Pancreatic cancer. If the disease wasn't eating her up from the inside, then the chemo was kicking the ever-loving shit out of her. And yet... I don't know. Maybe, uh... Maybe the cancer just put things in perspective. She was, uh... She was never more beautiful.” Negan paused, letting the memory of her wash over him. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about his wife in this way for a long time. It was as if he was finally ready to let her go.

“Be grateful,” Alpha said. “Death... set her free.”

“The thing is,” Negan said as he kicked out at an old root, “when she was gone, I didn't feel much of anything anymore. You know? I didn't feel scared, I didn't feel happy. I didn't feel anything. I was just... here. And that is my strength. However, someone else has taught me that that strength isn’t the only thing that has kept me alive. They taught me that we need people.”

“I thought you didn’t have people,” Alpha said.

“Everyone’s got people,” Negan argued. “Even if you hate each other, they’re still there. Still waiting. See, you are pretending. You think that it makes you strong to say that emotions aren't real, that we are animals. That is bullshit. And you know it.”

“Is it?” she asked as they approached an old cabin between two tall trees. Alpha started at it as if it held all the answers in the world.

“You’re claimin’ that you have to kill your own daughter,” he said. “Right? That’s what you’re plannin’ to do here? She’s your own flesh and blood.”

“It is her destiny,” Alpha argued. “That disease... took your wife... because that was what nature intended. She could not take you with her. But you live every day wishing she could.” Negan shook his head.

“No, not anymore,” he said, his jaw rigid. “I may have felt that at one point, but I’ve seen what a real future looks like and I ain’t about to throw that away.”

“Lydia was made for this. To be free. With me,” she said.

“You still love her,” Negan said.

“I have to do it because I love her. She will always be my baby,” Alpha said as she approached the door to the cabin, laying her hand against the door.

“You don’t know anything about her,” Negan said as he drew his blade from his belt. “She is kind, strong, resilient, and she is loved by people.” Alpha pushed open the door and beheld an empty room, stopping her in her tracks. “People that I love as well,” Negan said as Alpha turned to him in confusion, but he didn’t hesitate.

With a quick strike of his arm, Negan slashed Alpha’s throat with his knife. Alpha stared at him with wide eyes as blood sprayed and cascaded down her neck. As she lurched forward, Negan caught her, taking her down to the ground. Her eyes were boring into his, but he could feel no remorse towards the dying woman.

“I really thought that there was a chance for you,” he said, but then he was shaking his head. “But then you tried to kill the kid that is like a daughter to me. I love Lydia, and I will protect her with everything I have left. You took people from me, won the battles, but now you don’t get to win the war.” Leaning down, he put his lips next to her ear. “Thank you, for making me realize that I don’t have to be a monster.”

Negan leaned back as Alpha finally went still and the blood slowly trickled from her neck and mouth. Picking up his knife, Negan aimed it at her throat and finally finished what he had started.

----------

In the silence at the border, Negan dropped a burlap sack on the ground as Alpha’s head rolled out and landed at a pair of worn boots.

“Took you long enough,” Carol said as she met his eyes. “What took you so damn long?”

“What took me so long? Doing your dirty work?” Negan scoffed. “Oh, I don't know, Carol, I guess I wanted to get out of there with my head still attached. Shit like that takes time and I’ve been in a bit of a mood lately if you couldn’t tell.”

“I told you to do it fast,” she said.

“It's done. All right? I held up my end. Now I am asking you to hold up yours. Just walk me through those gates so I can open up a new chapter in the Book of Negan and get the love of my life back. In case you hadn’t noticed, they’re pretty fucking pissed at me.” All Negan wanted was for Carol to do as she said, make the people of Alexandria look at him, not as the man who ruined them, but the one who saved them. However, it seemed like Carol had other plans.

“I'm not going back. Not yet,” she said. Negan who was glaring at her clenched his fists.

“I go back there without you, there is a noose around my neck the second I step foot in there,” he argued.

“Then wait,” Carol said as she picked up Alpha’s head and approached the pike she had set up in preparation.

“Wait? How long are we talking about?” Negan asked as Carol placed Alpha’s head on the pike and took a step back, admiring Negan’s work.

“You're free now, Negan. Do whatever the hell you want,” she said. “Wait, don't wait, it's up to you. You did good on what I asked of you.”

“I did this for (Y/N),” he said, “not you.”

“They want Beta’s head, not Alpha’s,” Carol said. “Go home to them, Negan, I need to be alone.”

“Carol!” Negan yelled, but she just turned away from him.

“Shit like this takes time,” she said as she continued on her, leaving Alpha behind and stepping into the next chapter of her own story.

“Fuck.”

----------

Negan was pissed at everyone.

He was pissed at Alpha, he was pissed at Carol, and he was even more pissed at himself. “I’m a fucking idiot,” he said as he kept moving towards the place he had actually kept Lydia. He knew he had a lot of explaining to do and he wouldn’t be surprised if she hated him or slapped him as you had. He just hoped that she would listen to him and even forgive him for what he had to do.

What Carol had asked him to do.

Yet, it seemed that that deal was useless at the current moment. Carol hadn’t kept her end of the bargain and now Negan was the one running around with his head cut off. Alpha’s mask burned a hole in his pocket and all he wanted to do was scream.

Instead, he approached the old hunters’ cabin and braced himself for a teenager’s wrath.

“Hey, kiddo,” Negan said as he moved up onto the porch. “Sorry about‒” Negan froze as he opened the door to find an empty chair. “Shit,” he swore when all of a sudden, he was thrown into a wall and a crossbow was pointed at his face.

“Where's Alpha!” Daryl yelled as he levelled his weapon at Negan. Carefully, Negan raised his hands, his bat pressing into his spine.

“Look, whatever Lydia told you..,” he tried, but Daryl wasn’t listening.

“Where is she!”

“She is dead. She is dead. I killed her,” Negan said, trying not to think about the bolt that could enter his brain at any moment.

“You’re lying,” Daryl said.

“I am not lying. I have somethin' in my pocket,” Negan said. “It's not a weapon. I am slowly gonna reach for it.” Daryl waited as Negan pulled Alpha’s mask from his jacket and held it out. Daryl grabbed it with disgust.

“Her mask ain't her head,” Daryl growled.

“Oh, I know. I am getting to that,” Negan said.

“Well, then, get to it,” Daryl said. Negan gestured down to the weapon and Daryl jerked it away from his face, but didn’t put it completely down. Negan went on.

“The whole reason I threw in with them, was so I could get close enough to Alpha to slit her throat. Now, you talk about ‘silencing the Whisperers’, I silenced the Alpha,” Negan said and then leaned towards Daryl. “Why the hell else you think that your girlfriend let me outta that cell?”

“That don’t mean shit,” Daryl said. “Ya didn’t do this out of the kindness of yer heart.”

“Nah,” Negan said. “I did it for (Y/N). I never stopped loving them.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Daryl said.

“I never planned to leave them. I would rather die than hurt them,” Negan tried again.

“Good,” Daryl scoffed.

“Dammit, Daryl!” Negan said. “Can’t you see what’s goin’ on? You’re so goddamn blinded by your hatred for me that you don’t get what I just did! Alpha is dead and now her psycho personal trainer is gonna be comin’ for me!”

“Show me,” Daryl said. “Show me her body.”

“I’ll do you one better,” Negan said. “Come on.”

-------

Negan was getting real tired of the universe screwing with him.

“Are you fucking serious?” Negan said as he stared up at the empty pike.

“So, where is it?” Daryl asked, aiming his bow at Negan’s back.

“It was right here. I swear to God, it was on that spike,” Negan said, looking back at Daryl. “Jesus,” he swore as he realized the weapon was trained on him again. “Look, we sit here, we can wait for Carol. Or I can take you to find the body.” Daryl raised the bow higher. “Oh, come on, man. We're talking about Lydia here. Why would I stash her out in banjo country unless the whole point was to keep her safe? Unless the whole freakin' point was just to use her as bait so I could get Alpha alone? That’s a pretty far stretch, don’t you think?”

“You sure took your sweet-ass time, though, didn't you?” Daryl asked and Negan threw his hands up in exasperation.

“What is with you guys thinking I didn't do it fast enough? You didn't kill her. I did. It took a minute. I had to get her to trust me. Because I wasn't on some half-cocked suicide mission. I wasn’t exactly wishing to get my head cracked open by Beta or my brains eaten by Alpha’s ‘guardians’. I had a plan!”

“What do you want me to do, huh?” Daryl asked.

“Take me to (Y/N),” Negan pleaded. “I think that they may have figured it by now.”

“Figured out what?” Daryl sneered.

“That I’m not bullshitting you,” Negan argued. “And we gotta do it now before her pack comes lookin’.”

“For you?”

“No, for all of us.”

---------

“I don’t know…” Rosita said as you stood in front of her. “Seems… crazy, even for him.”

“He is crazy!” you said, trying to get her to understand. You had finally finished explaining your theory you had about Negan and the Whisperers. There were a lot of holes in that theory, but overall there was one central idea. “Negan’s playing double agent.”

“And you got all of that...from a marble?” Rosita asked, still not buying it.

“It makes more sense if you know more about the marble, but I don’t have the time to get into all of it.”

“What do you think about all of this?” Rosita asked, turning to Michonne who had come in mid-explanation.

“I agree with, (Y/N),” Michonne said. “Negan is crazy.”

“Not the point, Michonne,” you argued.

“Just listen,” she said. “If this was some sort of crazy plan of his, why didn’t he tell us?”

“Who would have believed him?” you asked.

“You?”

“I’m not enough,” you said. “I don’t know what the plan was or if he just wanted to take control of the Whisperers, maybe turn the tide, but I don’t think he is with them because he believes in all their bullshit. Negan is a lot of things, but that? No way.”

“What if you’re wrong?” Michonne asked.

“I can’t be,” you said.

“But what if you are?” Michonne pressed and you could see the growing concern in her eyes.

“Then, everything over the past year has been for nothing and I never knew him at all,” you said, dreading that outcome. If Negan wasn’t on your side and he had actually willingly gone to Alpha… You didn’t think you would be able to handle it. When Rosita went to add her two cents, the door to her house opened and Lydia rushed in.” Where the hell have you been?” you asked.

“With Negan,” Lydia said. “Sort of.” You, Rosita, and Michonne all shared a look.

“Explain,” Michonne said.

“No time,” Lydia said. “He’s here. Negan is here.”

“What?” you asked, unable to comprehend what she was saying.

“Daryl just walked in with him. He’s heading this way.”

“Daryl’s with him?” Michonne asked, but you didn’t hear Lydia’s response as you turned and walked from the house. The sun was starting to set over the trees as your eyes scanned for his tall form. When you finally saw him walking down the road, speaking to Daryl, you picked up your pace, aiming right for him.

Daryl saw you first and took a step towards you. “(Y/N), wait,” he said, but you didn’t listen as you walked right up to Negan, pulled back your fist, and let it snap forward, catching him in the jaw. Surprised, Negan dropped from the sudden hit.

“Shit!” Negan swore from the ground. “What the hell!” he asked, staring up at you.

“You know what that was for!” you said, pointing at him.

“I have a lot to explain,” Negan said, getting to his feet.

“Yeah, no shit,” you said and then you turned to Daryl. “You, too.”

“Call a council meeting, (Y/N)” Daryl ordered. “This is far from over.”

------------

Laura’s empty council seat felt as if a black hole had appeared in the room.

Nobody sat in it as Gabriel called the meeting to order. Everyone was glaring at Negan who stood at the side, his arms and ankles crossed. You were across from him, staring him down and trying not to unleash the fury you were feeling. You still believed that he had been playing the other side, but seeing him again after your last encounter only reminded you of the rage you had felt then.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Gabriel said.

“Maybe with a bullet to his brain,” Aaron offered, staring at Negan who in turn, just narrowed his eyes at him.

“Considering Alpha wanted your head on a stick, Aaron, you should be a bit more grateful,” Negan shot back.

“Enough,” Michonne said. “Daryl, you better start talking before anyone else starts throwing punches.” You rolled your eyes at that but remained quiet.

“Negan claims that Carol let him out,” Daryl began. That made enough sense to you, but then again, you were still pissed that you weren’t let in on the secret. “Alpha killed her son and Carol wanted revenge.”

“So she went to Negan?” Siddiq asked as he held Coco in his arms. Rosita was nearby as well. Even though it was a council meeting, every major player in Alexandria and Hilltop was in attendance. Enid was there too as she stood near Alden.

“I’m assuming she figured not many would go looking for him,” Daryl said.

“Assumed?” Michonne asked. “So you haven’t spoken to her?” Daryl shook his head and then looked at Negan.

“Carol went off on her own after I delivered Alpha’s head to her,” Negan said and then caught the look on Lydia’s face. He didn’t want her there and you didn’t either. Her mother had just been killed and no matter who she was, hearing that was not easy. Lydia seemed to be in shock as she sat on one of the benches in the back, not speaking. Jesus’ coat was around her shoulders to keep her warm, but it didn’t seem to be making much of a difference.

“So we’re going on his testimony alone?” Alden asked.

“This isn’t a fucking murder trial, Alden,” Negan said. “Then again, you were always a true crime fan.”

“I told you that one time,” Alden argued.

“Guess it stuck,” Negan said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“That’s enough,” Gabriel said. “What I’m gathering from Negan’s sudden reappearance, is that Alpha is dead, he killed her, and that was why he left Alexandria the second time.”

“See, it’s not that hard to get,” Negan said.

“Except for the fact that you helped burn down Hilltop,” Enid added.

“I had no idea she was going to do that,” Negan defended. “I tried to convince her to offer some sort of deal to the lot of you. She got it all twisted around and wanted to make you all a part of her horde. You’re just lucky so many of you refuse to die and actually stood up and fought.”

“What were we supposed to do? Lay down like dogs? Kneel at her feet?” Aaron pressed.

“I did,” Negan said. “And I guess it worked.”

“But then what? You had a change of heart?” Rosita asked.

“No,” Negan said. “I was always going to take her out, but I was going to take Beta out first if possible.” You looked up at him at that statement and he was looking right at you with steel resolve in his eyes.

“Why didn’t you?” Gabriel asked.

“She forced my hand. Told me that she was going to kill her kid. I couldn’t let that happen,” he said.

“And suddenly he’s a Saint,” Aaron scoffed.

“I wasn’t going to let her murder a kid, Aaron,” Negan shot back.

“And what about my kid, Negan? We tried to evacuate them before the battle, but you put up your goddamn roadblocks to stop us from leaving!”

“I didn’t know the kids were with you! I thought they were back in Alexandria. How the hell was I supposed to know anything? Carol sent me out there and I never heard from her. I was running around with a single goal but no idea where the hell I was going. You think you know the Whisperers, Aaron? You don’t. You haven’t even seen the worst of what they do or who they are, but I have! Now I’ve done a lot of horrible shit in my life, but what she did, I would never.”

“You can’t tell me that you didn’t like it,” Aaron pressed. Daryl then fell into his seat, trying not to get a migraine from the conversation.

“Liked it?” Negan asked. “Did I like not being locked up in a cell most of the day as I received death glares from every damn person in this place? Yeah, I fucking liked that. I liked that I was out in the world and doing something rather than sitting here waiting for this damn kangaroo council to decide whether or not to finally off me. The fact that any of you are surprised that I did this is astonishing. I thought you were smarter than this.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” you put in.

“You know me better than anyone, (Y/N),” he said. “Tell me, do you think I’m lying?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” you said.

“Don’t bullshit me,” he said, but just as you were about to fire back. The back door to the meeting hall opened and Carol stepped in. She was a bit banged up but she was alive. Nobody spoke as she walked down the aisle. She stopped and looked over at Lydia who slowly looked at her with heavy eyes. Ignoring the teenager, Carol faced the room.

“It’s all true,” Carol said. “I let Negan out to kill Alpha.”

“And you didn’t want to share with the class?” Siddiq said.

“It only worked if you all thought he was against us,” Carol said and then she looked at you. “I’m sorry.” Turning away, you stormed from the meeting hall, not wanting to hear anymore. Negan moved to follow you, but Daryl moved into his path. Negan shoved Daryl back, not caring how pissed the man was at him. He needed to speak to you and he needed to do it before there was no going back.

“(Y/N)!” Negan called as you walked away from him. He ran to catch up with you, grabbing you by the arm. You tore away from him, facing him head-on.

“Don’t,” you warned. He stared down at you, searching your eyes and then, he frowned.

“You didn’t find it,” he whispered.

“I did,” you said and his eyes lit up again.

“Then why are you punching me and screaming?” he asked.

“You lied!” you yelled at him. “You never lie to me and you just...you left when you promised you never would again.”

“I know, Baby,” he said, using a rare pet name. “I know, but this was the only way.”

“Why?” you asked, trying to understand.

“Alpha she is... was complicated,” Negan said.

“She murdered children!” you said.

“Which is why I did what I did!” He said, reaching for you. When you didn’t pull back, he gripped your arms and looked into your eyes. “See me, (Y/N), please see me and see that I am not lying to you now.” As you tried to keep your emotions in check, you failed, letting the tears flow down your face. Reaching up, you placed your hands on either side of his face and looked into his hazel eyes.

It took you a few moments, but finally, you saw it. That spark, that fire that you had fallen in love with. The same fire that everyone else saw before you did. “I see you,” you whispered and Negan sighed, leaning his forehead against yours. “I don’t know how to get through this,” you admitted.

“I know,” he said. “But I am willing to do anything to win that trust back and even your love back if I have to.” Leaning back, you shook your head.

“I never stopped loving you,” you said. “That was never the problem. I am always going to love you, but there is more to a relationship, a partnership, than just love. I mean, you were with her for so long…”

“She meant nothing to me,” he swore.

“Did you…” you hesitated, not wanting to say the words out loud but you had to. “Did you do anything with her?”

“Fuck no,” he said. “I know that she wanted to, but I couldn’t do that to you. Not with her or anyone. You are the only one for me.”

“How do I believe you?” you asked, clutching at his face.

“Believe this,” he said before pulling you to him and kissing you with everything he had left in him. Your mind wanted to resist, but your heart won the battle quickly. You tugged him further into you as you kissed him back, hard. This wasn’t one of your usual kisses, it was firm, desperate, and you were throwing your whole body into it, needing to feel him solid in your arms.

You were crying as you kissed him and you could feel him shaking. HIs hand came up to your neck and then your jaw, keeping you in place as he apologized with love and passion. When you finally pulled away, you breathed in his scent, letting his labored breathing wash over you. “You are my whole universe, (Y/N),” he whispered.

“Constantly reaching towards each other?” you quoted, leaning your weight against him.

“I knew you would figure it out,” he said, rubbing your back. “Leaving you was the hardest thing I have ever done.” Negan brushed the tears from your face as you pulled his lips back to yours in a quick kiss.

“If you ever do this again,” you said against his lips. “I will kill you.”

“And it would be an honor,” he said as he leaned back and looked down at you.

“A part of me knew, I think,” you said. “I spent so long looking for you everywhere except across the border. I think I just didn’t want to think about you with her.”

“But you finally understood?”

“When I got the marble,” you said. “I got the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle.”

“Forgive me, (Y/N),” he pleased.

“I don’t know…” you said, running your hands down his arms. He then stepped back out of your hold and in one fluid movement, knelt down on his knees. “What are you doing?”

“You once kneeled at my feet, begging for me not to hurt you and your family,” he began. “Back then, I was lost, horrible, and not capable of remorse. It took me a long time to see that what I had become was not right. You changed that, (Y/N). So, now, I’m doin’ the same. I’m on my knees, begging for you not to hurt me. I’m begging for your forgiveness.”

“Negan…”

“Please, just listen,” he asked and you nodded. “When you told me about Lee that night in your house during the storm, you told me that you never regretted what you did but that it was still unnecessary. Do you remember that?”

“Yes,” you whispered. You remembered everything from that night. It was the same night that you realized you were falling in love with him.

“I told you that you had to do it because you were protecting the people that you loved. I meant that and I still do. We are all darkened by this world, but the thing that keeps us going is doing the right thing for the people we love and dammit I love you. I didn’t think that after Lucille I was going to love again, let alone someone as kind and as strong-willed as you. You made me want to live again and you made me want to fight for this place and everyone in it. I know that a simple apology ain’t gonna cut it, but until this war is over, it’s all I got. I am so sorry, (Y/N), and I am willing to spend every day making it up to you no matter what you think of me now.”

“It’s going to take me a long time to forgive you for the lies,” you whispered as you then kneeled down in front of him, taking his hands in yours. “But,” you said.

“But?”

“I can try,” you said. “I can try to be the person you described because I love you too much to give up on you. You don’t need to kneel for me, Negan. We don’t have to kneel for anyone anymore.”

“That’s not true,” he said. “This war ain’t over, Teach,” he said and you laughed quickly at the nickname.

“I still have a target out there,” you said.

“Beta, I know,” he said.

“I am going to kill him,” you promised, “but I am going to need you by my side to do it.” Negan reached forward and kissed you softly. Pulling back, that fire was burning brighter in his eyes.

“Where do we start?”

Note: I know some of yall wanted so massive angst, but I really wanted to look at the deeper connection between these too. These two have been through too much to not see how the other thinks. The Tower is next and we will finally see Lydia’s reaction.

TAGS: @lucillethings @cameronsails @stark-dreams @amaroho @thanossexual @yes-sir-hotchner @boom-bunny @delusionalteenagewhispers @scootankle @ritajammer21 @writteriguess @tea-atfive @jennydehavilland @waspyyy @yespleasejayhalstead @hoemadegrace @writingdeadangel @huffledor-able541 @pulplorrd @felicisimor

#the walking dead #twd #imagines #negan imagines #negan x reader #negan x you #negan x y/n #negan x gn reader #savior sessions #walker words #ApolloLoki97 #whisperer war #alpha #beta #season 10 twd

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knowledgequeenabc · 3 years

Text

you belong to me, my snow white queen, there’s nowhere to run

I’ve been so dead inside I never posted my NNQ fics but, happy belated tenth, Ninjago! the fandom has been wonderful and I’ve made so many friends, seen so much beautiful work, made it through so much because of this silly little plastic ninja show. <3 This fic’s title comes from “Snow White Queen” by Evanescence (yeah I know don’t @ me), if you wanna. set the mood for this one. We’re gonna be following Nya after Skybound for a bit and it won’t be pretty.

Nya remembers it all.

It never happened, of course. That was the condition of Jay’s last wish: that none of it had ever happened in the first place.

Yet she remembers.

It’s good that she does, honestly. She’ll recognize the threat if it ever presents itself again. Plus, the others don’t remember, so they can’t worry themselves about it.

Jay wanted to tell them. “No more secrets,” he said. She’s proud of him, she really is, at least he’s learned from dragging them through hell and back …

But she can’t do it.

She remembers Jay’s eyes, glinting bright and worried in a dim room, as he asks if she’s sure about this; Nya remembers her voice hardening to keep vulnerability from bleeding through as she nods. She’s well aware it’s unwise to keep a secret this heavy, thank you, but they’re both heart-wrenchingly familiar with secrets. What’s one more?

Getting angry at Jay for keeping secrets and then turning around and asking to keep this one … it’s hypocritical. She sees the recognition of the fact in his eyes, but there’s understanding mixed with it; it’s his secret, too. It’s their burden to shoulder behind closed doors, afraid to face their family. After losing Zane and getting him back, after Chen and Garmadon, after Morro, peace feels fraught, like walking a tightrope over another storm. How would the others react to knowing they’d broken again? She doesn’t want to deal with the answer to that question.

So Nya does what she does best. She squares her shoulders and marches through each day, reminding herself with each skip of her heart, each flash of her life before her eyes, each time the world blurs that it’s over now. It spits in the face of every lesson life’s beaten into her bones, reverting to stubbornness and pride and the kind of independence that would rather see her amputate an injured limb than get help for it, but it’s a twisted kind of easier to wrestle her pain in silence. The sky pirates made it clear that she needs to stop being afraid to rely on her team, and with a distant sense of guilt it occurs to her that applies to her emotions about this situation, too, but ...

But that fight’s over. And Nya honestly wants nothing more than to take the lesson to heart and put the rest behind her. Let sleeping dogs lie, and all.

Slight problem with that plan: she’s beginning to get the feeling they don’t want to stay asleep. Nya’s good at compartmentalizing, and has been ever since she was an orphan child balancing school and keeping the forge afloat, but the neat dividers are starting to give.

All she can do is watch as the cracks spider out like the Tiger Widow’s web.

~~~~

Lloyd sits on the edge of the ship’s deck at night, sometimes.

Who knows what he’s thinking. Nya knows her little brother would rather sort through his feelings behind curtains, and they’re all working on helping him open up, but sometimes there’s nothing to do but be there with someone while they watch the world turn.

Tonight, thoughts zipping through her head with manic intensity and no distraction to stop them, she joins him, letting her legs hang over the edge of the Bounty. He acknowledges her with a smile and inches closer, then turns back to face the clouds, eyes searching the scene like there’s a cosmic answer somewhere in the moonlight poking through the blanket of grey. The sky roils in dark, angry sheets, air thick enough to slice with a knife. Nya remembers another storm out at churning sea, splinters from a shipwreck, a missing friend and her bubbling fury in the aftermath, and shudders.

Lloyd doesn’t speak, but he’s gripping a photo of his father with white knuckles and a pinched face. And she understands.

Never once has Lloyd gotten to choose his path. His only crime was wanting Garmadon in his life, and the gift he received in return for it was becoming fated to finish his father off, once, then twice. It’s a painful game, to be destiny’s plaything.

Self-centered as it is, Nya wants to think she gets it. Rarely does she get to choose, either. Being folded into the fate of Ninjago via kidnapping from blacksmith shop had been exciting until she was relegated to damsel in distress and left on the wayside. Then when she’d forged her own path as Samurai X, she had to give it up and be the water ninja instead. Water ninja. Kai’s sister. Jay’s love interest. The girl. Nadakhan’s prize.

Never a thought for what Nya wants to be. Just roles and labels to live up to whether she likes it or not, forced upon her like a wedding dress sewn for someone else.

And the one choice she could make ended up …

Her chest tightens until she’s dizzy.

Once the world sharpens back into focus, Nya casts Lloyd a sympathetic glance and quietly traces the feathery outlines of the clouds with her eyes. It’s a good night for commiserating, and she’s not feeling talkative, either.

She wonders what she is now, and her throat tightens.

~~~~

Nya catches, out of the corner of her eye, the breathless headline on the tabloid lining the rack at the grocery store—“DEVASTATING FACTS ABOUT THE GIRL NINJA!!” —and bites back the urge to scream herself hoarse.

The public eye is an unforgiving one, she knows that, she’s long since resigned herself to it. But sometimes it grates, the way everyone seems to presume they can weigh in on Nya.

The people out there don’t know anything about her. All they care about is that she’s the girl, and there’s drama behind her they can gobble up like starved mutts.

She doesn’t let on about it much, because being imperfect is kind of one of her worst nightmares, but she knows she’s made mistakes in the past. She was prideful, even haughty. She strung Jay and Cole along for way too long because the attention got to her head, and the paparazzi will never let her forget it. Nya should have been the bigger person and cut it short, instead of letting Cole keep going with it because he was mad Jay didn’t trust him, or letting Jay’s jealousy fester as long as it did. Bit late for that, though.

It’s hardly like her faults stop there. Being hunted by Nadakhan and upset by Jay’s refusal to understand her “no” meant no, on top of the fact that her independence would only ever be conditional sinking in from becoming the water ninja … it was a perfect storm of stress, and it made her nasty. Jay keeping secrets and endangering them all was the last straw. She blew up, lashed out, furious that she couldn’t trust anything to go right.

She still regrets it. The bruises on his skin after his rescue are still imprinted on her eyelids when she wakes up, sometimes.

So she’s not perfect, by a long shot. But …

(Greedy eyes following her every movement, wanting her as she runs. Blinking to find another family member gone. Fighting for her life as the pirates capture her. Being wrestled into someone else’s gown. Pushing desperately against Dilara’s spirit snatching away her autonomy. Venom seeping into her gown, frigid then BURNING, the ability to think slipping—)

Nya loosens the death grip she has on her basket. Takes a deep breath in, then out.

They don’t know anything about her. Tabloids and TV hosts and publicists can gossip all they want about Nya’s mistakes; they’ll never convince her she deserved to die for them.

~~~~

Kai is many things, and stupid is definitely one of them, sometimes. But he isn’t stupid when it comes to how Nya’s doing, and she knows this. If anything, she’s the idiot for thinking she could keep herself under wraps from him for long. Kai must have noticed the tough veneer she’s painted over herself, and how secretive she’s being with them, because Kai knows she doesn’t like to be open about feeling unwell, and Nya knows that it worries him.

Ironically enough, that worry is why she knows she can’t ever tell Kai what happened. Ever since she revealed herself as Samurai X, he’d learned not to hover, and Nya’s endlessly grateful that he’s understanding enough to trust in her strength. Nowadays, Kai’s concern manifests in significant glances, questioning hands on her shoulder, hugs a little tighter and lingering longer than normal, discreetly asking if there’s anything she wants to tell him.

He’s taken to all that behavior in hyperdrive, of course, because there is no way Nya’s snippiness and constant tension and nights in the kitchen making tea after nightmares slipped his notice.

But that’s fine. Nya would rather deal with the quiet apprehension radiating off him now than the full-blown panic she’s bound to have on her hands if Kai ever found out that she’d lost her life and he’d been helpless to do anything but watch.

She has an idea what it’ll look like, too. He’d taken Lloyd’s possession hard enough—Nya had caught him pummeling punching bags in the training room until his knuckles bled, noticed the heaviness in his eyes when he looked at their little brother, or at Cole, and no matter how much she insisted that he hadn’t failed, Kai refused to let himself believe it. Uttering a word about the Sky Pirates to her older brother, Kai who had practically raised them both, Kai who had only ever become a ninja to save her, Kai who had blamed himself so ruthlessly for Zane and Lloyd and Cole?

It would break him.

She just can’t do that to him. She’ll stitch her lips shut if that’s what it takes to make sure he never finds out.

So when Kai fixes them both mugs of chamomile tea at 2 in the morning, and casually remarks on the strange amount of repairs she’s been doing on the perfectly intact Bounty, Nya just smiles tiredly at him and fires off some sarcastic retort that’s sure to rile him up.

She loves her older brother, which is why she made the decision to take this secret to her grave.

~~~~

Nya notices while brushing her hair, one day, that she’s neglected to pay attention to it; the sleek black strands are almost to her shoulder, rather than brushing against her chin like she’s used to. Once she’s teased out every last snarl, she goes to cut her hair, but hesitates right before the scissors snip.

When she looks in the mirror, sometimes it’s Dilara’s face flashing before her eyes, not her own. She has to look for the minutiae, the details that count, like the flinty sharpness in her own eyes, the scar near her chin, the odd mark forming on her cheek, obsessively contrasting them to wide, sweet eyes on a deceptively cherubic face.

Nya wishes—no, not wishes, look where wishing had gotten them all—that Nadakhan had cared to see the differences. Maybe that way, she wouldn’t have felt the eyes on her back, always following her, waiting for her to fall into his grasp. Maybe she could have avoided the desperate game of cat-and-mouse. And just maybe, she wouldn’t have been grappled into a suffocating gown, or had her agency ripped from her as Dilara took her face, or died—

Right, that had happened. How Cole and Zane go about their days knowing they’ve walked through the doors of death, she can't begin to fathom. Nya wonders when she’ll stop feeling like she has to hide in her own home from eyes that are no longer watching, wonders when she’ll stop feeling the white-hot burn of venom leaching into her blood, and it’s Dilara’s face that brought it upon her.

Nya sets the scissors down, and tries not to flinch at the way they klink against the counter. She doesn’t want Dilara’s face anymore.

Maybe she’ll let it grow out.

~~~~~

It wasn’t even that rough of a touch, Nya despairs later. Cole, even in spars, always knew his strength, and he barely glanced her sternum with a ghostly hand as she knocked him off balance.

Apparently, on a bad day, that chilly touch was enough to send the phantom shock of Tiger Widow venom racing through her system; Nya forgot how to breathe for a second, and the next she broke her stance and pushed. Already off-kilter, Cole stumbled, his back hitting the ground with a heavy thud. In the instant before the others could be alarmed, they locked eyes, concerned meeting terrified. She forced her voice to stay even as she said, “I think that’s enough training for today.” Then she ran.

Now, here she is, her door slammed shut and locked, and her back’s pressed against it as she tries to remember what it feels like not to buzz like an entire hornet’s nest. She’s fine, she repeats to herself. The mantra is soothing simply in its repetitiveness; it gets her mind off of the sensation that won’t leave her alone ever since she lived it. She’s fine, she’s alive, and she’s not losing her grip on consciousness because all her organs are shutting down. Nya is fine, not actually feeling the venom seep into her skin through the coarse fabric of the wedding dress, cold for just a millisecond before erupting into white-hot pain across her skin. If her vision is off, it’s because of the tears welling up despite her stubborn efforts to blink them away, not the spots that danced across her world as Flintlocke’s fatal accident slowly claimed her life-

Her breath catches in a sob. Nya furiously muffles it behind her hand.

It didn’t even happen. She’s been through so much, she’s been in danger so many times, and this is the one that sticks? So it killed her, yeah, admittedly that’s a big step above the other times, but it hadn’t happened to anyone else except her, and Jay, and she can’t, won’t, make those words leave her lips. Every other problem in her life, she’d risen above, she’d fixed and wrestled back into her control, and then she’d gotten to square her shoulders and quip to the boys how easy it had been.

How does she fix something that’s only broken in her memories?

~~~~~

Nya remembers it all.

She almost wishes she didn’t.

#ninjago #nnq zine #nya ninjago #nya smith #n1njag0 #happy tenth anniversary ninjago #abc writes

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nightshadowhawk · 3 years

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rating ninjago seasons with explanations because i was bored (spoilers obvs)

way of the ninja: 6/10 - i remember watching this ages and ages ago, to me they were just filler episodes to me as i’d watched all the way to rebooted at that point, not super interesting but it started everything so extra points for that

rise of the snakes: 5/10 - YES its old i know but the… the GD attack should have caused more chaos… destroyed more stuff… it only moved a couple cars in this season (which entirely changes in SoG with harumi’s flashbacks) which i thought was … weird, even when i was younger lol… but theres development of characters n all i think a lot of it is rad !

legacy of the green ninja: 6/10 - pretty good, i haven’t watched this in a while so i dont remember much but the end battle is Legendary so there’s extra points for that and also extra points for dareth being introduced hee hee

rebooted: 6/10 - the whole overlord and nindroids thing is … pretty cool ?? pixal and cyrus exist now so !!!! that adds points !!! when i was younger i remember watching zanes sacrifice a lot cuz i couldnt get over it, and now i can recite all the words off by heart … lol anyway i think this seasons ok 👍

tournament of elements: 8/10 - very good, i loved seeing the other elemental masters !!!! and chen is actually a very cool villain, especially when i was younger, i loved him then lol … the ending is kinda 😟 bc garmy technically dies but yea its a gud season C:

possession: 10/10 - this season is EVERYTHING???? the intro SLAPS, the whole aesthetic is incredible and not to mention theres a whole bunch of favourite characters content in this season so that adds extra points !!!! the story all flows smoothly and its just Mmmm so gud. i love it dearly, defo a comfort season i’ve watched it so many times

skybound: 7/10 - i can see why some people hate this season as the whole nadakhan marrying nya thing is VERY weird (even my cousin who was 6 at the time when we first watched it could tell that) … but theres extra points for 1. the whole misfortunes keep crew, i love them, and 2. the ninja replacements team, i also care them all so dearly … the lighting in this season is super good, and also the storyline threads together well, i just find it very Appealing how it goes back to how it started

hands of time: 4/10 - idk man its just … boring, i can’t really be interested enough to watch to the end of the season? extra points for acronix being pretty and the scruff moments tho lol…. also whats with more snake people …. cant be ninjago without snakes ig LMAO

day of the departed: 5/10 - i also just see this as a filler… i mean yes it tells how cole turned back from a ghost but otherwise it’s just kinda random but i still liked it

sons of garmadon: 7/10 - pretty good ! harumi is a very cool character tho i do think shes kinda selfish … like a lot of others probably lost family in the GD attack??? kind of confused … but the SoG group as a whole is VERY epic i love the designs for UV and mr E (killows design just throws me off tho… why Real Hands..)

hunted: 10/10 - SO damn good the storyline is EVERYTHING and i love how it switches POVs every so often to keep things on edge. its also pretty dark for a kids show and that makes it better, and the cinematics for this are all just AMAZING…. i care the dragon designs so much, mmmmmmmmmm beloveds :^)

march of the oni: 6/10 - wasted!!!!! potential!!!!! the oni were such a good show of fantastic character design and they were just….. taken out in like 5 seconds despite them literally being the embodiment of destruction? there was literally two seasons before this of the ninja dealing with one (1) embodiment of destruction and then when theres LOADS that make tentacle death clouds and are super OP they just … are defeated????? ok…… also what was the point in coles fall fr it just made me sad for no reason🙁

secrets of forbidden spinjitzu: 6/10 - the fire chapter was … cool ? i guess, wasn’t the most interesting, aspheera is hot tho lol😝(LITERALLY !!!!! Funny joke pls laugh.)also clutch being introduced adds points, love the stupid explorer man. the ice chapter is super dark, i loved seeing the never-realm and how everything worked there, and ?? evil zane ?!??!? sheeeeeesh that was a bold move that was super epic … i liked this part of the season :^0

prime empire: 10/10 - another comfort season YEAHHHHH !!!! the aesthetic !! so good !!! the characters r RAD like scott and okino and seven I LOVE THEM SO DEARLY ….. the soundtrack is RAD as well i listen to it plentifully …… the ending is happysad and i always go a bit cry when unagami and milton walk away together :’^)

master of the mountain: 8/10 - the whole slavery thing is … questionable but the skull sorcerer’s design is super awesome ! and the upply … i care them … :^)))) AND A COLE SEASON !!!! i loved the development for him !!! and the way that vania and cole stayed a friendship the whole time cuz it never implied they were gonna date or whatever which made me happy honestly … i rated it 8/10 as the extra points are from the upply

the island: shit/10 - what the fuck was that. the islanders were cool i liked their designs but seriously i hated the ending so bad like there was no reason for ronin to be the antagonist again … just let clutch steal the amulet and there you have it all set up for the next season whoooo

seabound: 9/10 - again i love the aesthetic, the glowy-ness of everything is so pretty in this, and the design for wojira is amazing … tho this season is super sad, im sure theres reasoning for the ending of it :)))))) the storyline is also very good in this ! it does actually make sense which sometimes doesnt happen ……...

#ninjago #ns15 spoilers

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andawaywego · 3 years

Note

Would you mind doing a dani x jamie ficlet about pregnant dani maybe?

i’m finally getting to this! (and hopefully some other prompts that have been sitting very patiently in my inbox). this takes place in a world with no ghosts, where Dani and Jamie have still built themselves a life in Vermont. i hope you like it!

Dani sits on the edge of the bathtub, waiting. She is staring at the back of the bathroom door, at Jamie’s towel hung right beside her own; remembering their shower this morning and the way Jamie closed her eyes as she let Dani scrub shampoo into her hair.

It’s been a long four months. Going into the whole thing, she’d known the chances of a pregnancy sticking right away would be slim. That it could take some time, a few tries, before anything happened. Sometimes it takes couples years to conceive, even if they are doing things the “natural” way. But knowing these things is different than experiencing them, even when she’s been blessed with such a supportive and optimistic partner in Jamie.

Jamie who holds her hand through every procedure; who buys pregnancy tests from the store because Dani felt too embarrassed to do it herself the first few times; who holds Dani in her arms every time the tests come out negative.

Jamie who is out getting them dinner. Who doesn’t know that Dani is sitting on the edge of the bathtub, waiting.

Dani checks her watch. It’s been only two minutes. The box says four.

Distantly, she hears the front door open and then the tell-tale sounds of Jamie arriving home: footsteps to the kitchen; the crinkle of the takeout bag; the fridge opening and then closing. Dani closes her eyes and imagines her in the kitchen, leaned back against the counter and wondering where her wife is.

When she opens her eyes, it’s been three minutes.

Footsteps again, the creaking of the floorboards underfoot. Jamie is looking for her, Dani knows, but she must see the bathroom door closed. The light peeking out from beneath the gap between it and the floor. The footsteps retreat.

Four minutes.

She imagines a cloud drifting over Jamie’s face like it has every other time and tells herself that, if it’s negative, she’ll wait to tell her. She’ll give it time and then break the news as gently as she can. With a deep breath to steady herself, Dani turns the test over in her hands. Exhales.

It’s positive.

Her heart hesitates, chugging on each pump, while her mind struggles to catch up. It feels like something inside of her is lifting and lifting, skybound and unfettered, and Dani blinks once. Again.

And then she stumbles to her feet, her legs numb from sitting in that position for so long, and tugs open the top drawer of the bathroom counter, fumbling for another pregnancy test Wants to be positive.

Double-check. Triple-check, maybe.

Just to be sure.

________

Five minutes later, she’s opening the bathroom door and trying to pitch her voice louder without letting it crack with emotion.

“Jamie,” she calls. “Can you come in here please?”

Something metal drops to the floor in the kitchen. She hears Jamie curse and then pick it up, calling back, “Yeah! Just a sec!”

It feels like it takes years for her to finally reach the bathroom, despite how short of a walk it is. Dani’s heart pounds in her throat and her head, bites at her lungs. She can’t help but picture a litany of different reactions Jamie might have, all of them relieved, excited. Overjoyed.

Like she is.

Jamie appears in the doorway, smiling a little tentatively when she sees Dani standing very still and waiting for her. “You okay?” she asks, coming closer.

“Yes. Yeah. Perfect,” is the best thing Dani’s brain can come up with.

She’s too busy thinking: I’m pregnant, I’m pregnant, I’m pregnant with our baby.

Jamie reaches out and Dani doesn’t hesitate to fall into them. It’s been only forty minutes or so since they last saw one another, but it feels like it’s been weeks and weeks. It always does, somehow.

Nauseating, is how Owen and their other friends usually describe it, but it’s been nine years and Dani knows:

They’re in love. Terribly, wonderfully in love.

She doesn’t even realize she’s grinning until Jamie makes a face, her lips quirking up in a smile, and says, “What?”

“What?” Dani repeats.

“Something on my face? You’re smiling like a loon.”

Dani laughs and shakes her head, rocking forward to kiss Jamie’s nose. “No, no. You’re perfect. It’s just...there’s…” She stops and swallows thickly, forcing herself to calm down. “I have to tell you something.”

“Okay. Well, you look too happy for it to be something bad,” says Jamie, their child’s other mother.

Their baby. She can’t get over that.

And she knows they’ll need to go see her doctor again. Get it confirmed. But for now, she says, “Nothing bad, just…”

Another long, steadying breath.

Then, finally: “I’m pregnant.”

There it is.

The silence that follows is deafening. Dani can see the range of emotions Jamie is feeling painted clearly on her face. The way she inhales sharply, the way the shock makes her body shake where it’s pressed to Dani’s.

“You’re…” she starts to say, breaking off to lift her hands, cupping Dani’s face between them. Freezing Dani solid in her awed gaze. “You’re...You’re pregnant? You...We’re having a baby?”

Tears are stinging in Dani’s eyes at the look in Jamie’s. That wonderful disbelief. “We’re having a baby, Jay.”

“We’re having a baby,” Jamie repeats, like she’s trying the phrase out on her tongue. “We’re gonna be moms.”

Dani grins. “Yes,” she says, “we are.”

“I can’t...Holy shit, Poppins.” She laughs breathlessly. Exhilarated. Some great victory won. And then she leans in and kisses Dani until she’s breathless too. “I can’t believe we’re…I’m...”

She trails off, so Dani kisses her again. Says, “I know, I know. Me too.”

“Yeah,” Jamie breathes and Dani laughs again, brushing some of her unruly hair behind her ear. Her eyes land on the three pregnancy tests, lying capped on the counter and they’re close enough to them that, when she reaches out, she can grab one. “Oh my god,” comes her next whisper, staring down at the little screen—the little blue plus sign.

“I know.” Dani kisses the side of Jamie’s head, making her lift her eyes again. “We need to go...confirm it.”

Jamie nods seriously. “Right.”

“But—”

“Yeah,” says Jamie, laughing now, too, but her voice is thick. “Oh my god, Dani.”

That’s the moment when Dani realizes Jamie is crying. Her chin is trembling, looking at Dani like she’s her entire world and then Dani is crying too. She sniffs a little and wipes at her eye with her right hand.

“No,” she says wetly. “Stop crying. You’re making me cry.”

Another laugh. Jamie sets the pregnancy test back on the counter and pulls her closer.

“I’m just happy,” she says. “Really, really happy.” She leans up and kisses Dani’s forehead, then the bridge of her nose, and her lips again. Laughs against Dani’s lips, wet with tears, as Dani wraps her arms around her neck, trying to pull herself as close as she can. Whispers, “I love you so much,” into Dani’s hair after a few silent moments.

Dani draws her head back and looks at her wife for a moment. She kisses her. Her chest feels like it’s only seconds away from collapsing with how much she loves this woman in her arms. “I love you, too,” she says.

Jamie moves one of her hands from Dani’s hips and brings it up to rest it on her stomach. “Our baby is in here.”

The awe in her voice has Dani on the verge of tears again. She covers Jamie’s hand with her own and squeezes. “You’re going to be an amazing mother,” she says and Jamie looks at her again.

The weight of all those worries they’ve both shared in the past—fear of becoming like their own mothers; of letting their child down; not loving them enough—whisper ghosts through the curls of Jamie’s hair, making her shiver just a little. But she doesn’t argue. She just says, “So are you.”

Dani reaches up and wipes away some of Jamie’s tears with her thumbs. Lets herself be led to their bedroom—lets Jamie lie her down and hover above her. Cool air hits her stomach as Jamie lifts up the hem of her sweater, running her fingers up and down Dani’s flat stomach in breathless disbelief.

“Hi,” she says to it, then looks up. “They probably can’t hear us yet.”

Dani shakes her head, smiling. “Not for a while.”

“S’too bad. I’ve got a lot to say.”

Of course she does. Dani doesn’t doubt that one bit.

“There’s time,” she says, because there is, and Jamie’s eyes are shimmering again as she holds back tears.

“Yeah,” she agrees. “Lots of it.”

They lie there for a few long minutes, just resting in the truth of this life they’ve made together. Dani understands how lucky she is to experience this with the love of her life as they lie in their bed, the apartment they share.

“Right, so...if they can’t hear us…” Jamie says, breaking the silence. She has a mischievous look in her eye that Dani knows all too well. She clenches her thighs together as best she can without drawing attention to the act. “Right?”

“Right,” she says and Jamie grins.

“Good.”

Not a second later, Dani finds herself pressed down into the mattress, Jamie resting between her legs as she kisses down her jaw and her throat, tugging Dani’s sweater up again as she goes.

She pulls away for a second, grinning already at her own dumb joke and says, “Wait. D’ya have a condom?”

Dani smacks her lightly on the shoulder and laughs. “I think it’s a little too late for that,” she says.

“I guess it’ll be fine just this once,” Jamie jokes.

Dani wants to say something witty, but then Jamie’s hand skims the bottom of her bra, eager and sure, and she forgets about anything else but them.

All three of them.

#this is so sappy #what am i becoming #dani x jamie #dani/jamie #damie fic #dani x jamie fic #the haunting of bly manor #thobm #prompt

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purplerose244 · 4 years

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Thinking journal for season 12 Prime Empire 😎😎😎 (1/2)

So, I'm keeping this during all of season 12 to put down my thoughts as they appear. It's mostly for not ranting every single time a new episode comes out so please don't mind me too much 😅 I'm following the English release so please no spoilers 😙

I'm gonna split it in two, since apparently the season has 16 episodes. So this is the first part, enjoy my rambling 💜💜

It's the 30th of March and here we go!

IN GENERAL

I'm so, SO HAPPY, we have a theme for this season. For my experience apparently silly themes (tech ninja, ghosts, pirates) had brought very surprising results so I'm SO DOWN FOR THIS 😍😍

It seems that they fixed the mood, there is a specific mystery and a specific mission to follow. I like it too

THE NEW WHIP IS DOPE AS ALWAYS

I'm really glad there are plenty of references to past episodes, comebacks are my jam

The only thing that still kinda bothers me is the length of the episodes. It's not all bad, I just think the 20 minutes format was better. One thing is splitting 20 in 10 minutes, another is putting together 11 minutes of important stuff. Doesn't bother me too much, I just wish there was more time for my favorite show 🤷‍♀️

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENTER PRIME EMPIRE?

Is it normal for me to feel really old after they made the "what is a VCR?" joke? Like, I'm a uni student so still pretty young, but I lived through the transition from that to the DVD so... eh, I laughed anyway👵

Jay is smart, I really believe he is. Yet I saw him putting a possibly corrupted motherboard into a legendary game randomly found into a villain's lair, and I was like "Of course he did that, I love you you dumb*ss" raising my glass of juice towards him 😎

Okay, I'm down for this Lloyd. I'm down for a season with Lloyd being creeped out just because, being silly, just a ninja helping his friends and- (remembers there's a Harumi avatar in the sets) I'M NOT READY

The ending was actually nicely creepy. Cool nods in approval

DYER ISLAND

THAT INTRO THOUGH, THAT WAS EPIC! Love the techno sounds, love the clear gaming connection, I rate it 10/HECK YEAH LONG LIVE THE FOLD

I was scared about how the shorts were supposed to play along with the season, but it looks fine so far with the mechanic and later for Scott. Good 👍

Ah, Fist to Face, that game came all over from the nostalgic season 1. That's what I'm talking about 😎

So they just associated that Unagami is probably Dyer's avatar like that? Like sure, I thought about it, but it looks a little rushed. Mm, I wonder if there's something more behind it?

LEVEL 13

Cyrus Borg is back and he TALKS!!! Finally, he gets some action! Go tech dad!

I'm so happy he referenced the Digiverse, I would have been very disappointed if he hadn't. Time flies Borg...

Not gonna lie, I thought the next to follow up Jay's spot as best in videigames was going to be Kai or Lloyd. It's not disappointing though, since pretty much all the ninja have been seen playing, and to be honest I like the implication that Cole and Jay probably played a lot together. As bruiseshipping or as BrOTP, I still love them together no matter what 💙🖤💙🖤

Ooooohhhhh, that's why Zane and Pixal are left behind. It makes sense, sure, but I don't understand the implication of the plan: they saw Dyer entering Prime Empire, so why looking for him in real life? Mm, maybe they will investigate about his life and what happened... PIXANE ON THE CASE 😍

Already saw Prime Empire's world in the shorts, of course it looks DOPE, still very happy to finally being there!

SUPERSTAR ROCKIN' JAY

I don't know why, but Kai questioning the double jump made me laugh. Also poor him, he just got his powers back from last season and they're already gone again 😂

And of course. Them. Wow. It must be the most amazing and CURSED thing I've ever seen so far, the League of Jay 🤯 I'm so happy they exist and they freaking use past seasons' suits!!! Awesome!!! Never thought I was going to see Jay's old plain haircut again... yeah, he got better with the curly one, but I'm feeling nostalgic 🤷‍♀️

Their nick are histerical omg, Jaybird, Dee-Jay, Jaywalkin, I'm loving this way more than I should 😂 Also they freaking screamed "JAY-NJA GOO!!!" and I don't know what to do with that, it's too great for me to comprehend 👏👏

And then, THIS happened:

Your Honor, I would like to confirm this as THE MOST SECRET DREAM I'VE EVER HAD FOR THIS SHOW FINALLY COMING TRUE!!! A NINJA FROM NINJAGO DOING THE NARUTO RUN!!! 🤯🤯🤯 Done, I'm done, conclude the season, this is more than enough for me 😍

First Kai gets hit and fall from a building, DYING, then Lloyd gets desperate for his brother (MY BROTP 💚❤💚❤), then Kai respawns and Lloyd looks so relieved and Kai is all panting while slowly realizing it's a game and MY HEART CAN'T HANDLE THIS MUCH OKAY???

As a very passionate Kai fangirl I always expect the cringy moment, it really is inevitable for my favorite hothead. I love that idiot so much it's unbelievable, even if it's an absolute and costant suffering 😅 Holy Garmadon it was painful seeing his VERY slow realization that in this game you only have four lives

... SO HE HAS ONE NOW!?! NINJAGO CREW YOU ALREADY KILLED ZANE, NYA AND LLOYD ONCE AT THE END OF A SEASON, DON'T YOU DARE PLAY WITH ME AGAIN 😱😱😱

Okay, I did not expect to hear about Mr. Cuddly Wamp ever again since Hands of Time and BOY if I'm happy it was actually a password, I love this show 😂

SCOTT FINALLY!!! YESS!!! 😍😍😍

Okay, for as long as it is not debunked, I will hold onto the Scott is Jay's brother/twin theory. I'm sorry but: his jacket has dragons AND lightnings on it, they have very similar skin in avatar mode, he said he was waiting for him in the short, he could very well have his same hair under cap and hoodie and he's a mechanic too. I know, I know, they could have the same skin because Scott helped him for the avatar, and there might be shadier reason behind the 'I was waiting for you' thing, and there are tons of good mechanics in Ninjago... STILL HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE??? 😍

SCOTT HAS ONE LIFE POINT TOO??? NO! NOOO!!! NOOOOOOO!!! Don't you dare appear and steal my heart only to die at the end of the season, come on!! 😭

So for now it seems like he just wants to survive. Can we actually confirm he's an avatar and not an NPC? I mean he could be, but I don't see the point of an NPC self aware of his life points. Idk, maybe I'm overthinking this 🤷‍♀️

Lol, Kai is the only one weirded out by the Jay-con all around him. Probably because he hasn't heard from his fans since Skybound 😅 (I'M STILL HERE MY FLAME BABE, ILY ❤❤❤)

And in all of his glory, freaking Superstar Rockin' Jay!!! 😎😎 Okay, I loved the design since the first time I saw it, but it looks possibly even better in the show 😍😍😍 And Jay looks absolutely adorable in it, and he's got a guitar, and he was waiting for his friends, and he hugs them (I'm weak for LEGO hugs for some reason) and he is so happy and AAAHHH 💙💙💙💙💙

I'm very curious about how Scott will play into the situation, clearly he will provide some kind of insight about Prime Empire. I can't wait to know more about him!! 😍

I AM OKINO

I did not expect this when I saw this Okino guy in the trailer... and I'm so happy I was surprised, I love him 👌

And he's voiced by Alessandro Juliani?? HECK YEAH!!! With all the hype about the DnD 13th season, and consequentially the knight theme, I really miss Nexo Knights and having Aaron's VA around makes me happy... any hope to have Giles Panton as well? I miss Clay the most 💙💙

This is what I'm talking about, the game theme needs this stuff! I was already happy to see life points, double jumps and respawns, but this? The NPC guide? Awesome 👍 It's nice to see the take on the matter, the guide seeing so many players getting killed, first because they did not listen, then because they were actually just unlucky. The touchy matter I always expect watching Ninjago 👏👏

At least I THINK he's an NPC? For now I don't really see a way of knowing, and it doesn't look like it matters. He didn't show life points so maybe? Does this mean he can't die? I have questions people

Which brings me to the cube thingies. That's what happens to the dead players? I mean, I would understand if they just become pixels, but there's also the drone that takes the datas every time. Idk, feels like there's more behind it. And honestly? It looks like great material for angst, like one of the ninja dies but then they discover they just need to get where Unagami stores all of the players! I hope it's something like this!

They designs of the players are really cool, I already saw them in the other episodes, but seeing them this close just confirmed it. Between this and Jay's awesome avatar, I see lots of great cosplay ideas coming 😍 I wonder when will Kai and Lloyd use their avatars, and why would they since I'm guessing Jay did for disguise and to distinguish himself from his fans

PLEASE TELL ME WE'LL SEE SCOTT SOON, I ALREADY MISS HIM!!! 💙💙💙 I have too many theories about that tech dude, I'm so excited about who he might turn out to be!

I was a little skeptical about the new ninja suits, but seeing them in the show convinced me, very cool! Especially on Nya 💕💕💕

THE GLITCH

Alright, Okino is indeed an NPC. Cool the fact that at first he could not understand the fact that he was in a game, but when reality changed he was forced to. Welcome into the crew! 😙

I'm kinda worried about it though, either they will shut down the game and he will stay inside or he will sacrifice for them. He's a very loyal samurai, I can see that happening and I'm SCARED

I WAS SWEATING BULLETS AT THE AMBUSH!!! I 100% saw it coming, we all freaking saw it coming, even the ninja did but where like 'we can walk and die or we can risk and die so might as well'. But still, my babies DYING and respawning so fast was not pretty 😱😱

Nya got the scariest death until now in my opinion, holy Garmadon Dyer DOES have a twisted mind...

Seeing Kai so scared of being in a new situation and with one HP reminds me A LOT of the Digiverse, and that's actually a nice touch. Give him a cellphone, hothead is a social media expert, but put him in a game and... huuhhh... 😅

Have I mentioned I love the ninja's new emoji masks??

BECAUSE I DO!!! 😂😂😂😂

So Unagami knows about them trying to stop him and he sent the rat people because of it. Considering how little we know about this guy, I'm wondering what we are about to discover

Alright, going to the next challenge, very curious about this adventure. So... beware of the rats, ninja? Still not sure what I think about the rats 😅

THE CLIFFS OF HYSTERIA

I would like to say Okino is the edgiest character of the show I've ever seen... but I've seen MORRO. But still poor guy, he got a case of the Matrix

Oooohhhh, the major question in videogames: better go grinding for more money to get the better stuff but while losing lots of time, or get the least expensive just to go on with the story but definitely risking to lose lives?

Ah there we go, so the energy cubes mean something! Also reference to the Sushimi guy of the set (gosh that name, I can't 😂). So do people actually die in Prime Empire or they are just kidnapped kinda? Can the ninja just bring back? ANGST POTENTIAL

Cole please don't die please don't die please don't die for the love of Garmadon please don't die somebody help-

HOLY FSM KAI I MEANT HELP FROM SOMEONE WITH MORE THAN ONE LIFE DON'T DO THAT BE CAREFUL PLEASE I FREAKING LOVE YOU YOU RECKLESS HOTHEAD ❤❤❤

Nya giving Kai a sweet look after seeing her brother is okay, that's what I live for 😍

So apparently Unagami is trying to build some kind of device using the energy cubes of the dead players (sounds kinda creepy like this 😱) to create some kind of portal? To Ninjago? I don't understand, if Unagami is Milton Dyer then why this? Just to bring his army and conquer? I mean I guess, sounds a little simple though. Then again, if it turns out it's not Dyer, it could be Unagami wanting to be real and get into his creator's world? Mm...

I like the message, having the ability to choose your own path. Very fitting for a game themed season, I hope it gets explored even more!

More for the "I love the ninja emoji masks of this season"'s compilation 😂😂😂

THE MAZE OF THE RED DRAGON

Duuuude, Jay being good at mazes comes all the way from Possession, the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master! 😍 ... or maybe I just rewatch this show too much... could be both really 😅

Unagami is NASTY!

Confirmed the thing about going into the real world, what scares me is how much powers Unagami seems to actually possess. Like, can he do the block thingy whenever he wants? Just straight up pause and do whatever? Wow...

Jay being extra 😎

I mean, of course he is, he's got better statics! 😂 I like how he seems so focused and in charge, I still hope we see more of him... and Scott... WHERE IS SCOTT???

I love dragons, this metal one is cute 😍

So now we have two ronin: a samurai looking for a path on his own in a digital world... and a shady guy named Ronin 😛 Total respect for Okino, he really showed the values he believes in. No matter he was programmed his way, I hope he finds what he's looking for. Better come back for the final battle!

One Keytana down, two more to go. I know one is the price of the race, while the last one... I don't really know.

More of the masks because I love them 😂 Here we have Vegeta Lloyd and Kawai Cole ✌✌

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mautadite · 5 years

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july book round up

19 books this month, while means that i’ve finally pulled ahead and am 3 books ahead of schedule! YAY ME. i finally finished that training course for work and i’ve been making it up to myself big time. late in the month i took a subscription to audible escape :3 so expect a LOT of schmoopy romance on the horizon.

jane doe - victoria helen stone ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ good! i’m always up for a tale of a woman and revenge. this did do that whole ‘oooooh~ psychopathy is scary and sexy ooooh’ thing but not to a degree where it became unbearable. for me at least! your mileage may vary. triggery as hell and difficult to read at times, for all its lack of subtlety. i still enjoyed it.

the way of a man with a maid - rose lerner ⭐️⭐️⭐️ i realised i hadn’t read this story set in the universe of one of my favourite rose lerner books. it was enjoyable! a good illustration of how people often didn’t know each other (or ANYTHING) when they got married but that doesn’t always spell (permanent) disaster.

temeraire 1: his majesty’s dragon - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ i’ve been threatening to reread this series for years and ingrid finally gave me the impetus and i’m so happy. I LOVE THE BABY DRAGON AND HIS AWKWARD STUFFY SOUL MATE OF A HUMAN. the first book of the series is probably my favourite; nothing beats watching these nerds fall in aromantic love.

go tell it on the mountain - james baldwin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ BEAUTIFUL PROSE, so good it made me want to tear out my hair. i listened to the audiobook as read by adam lazarre-white, who is jacob taylor’s VA, so, you know. i was flipping out the whole time.

temeraire 2: throne of jade - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ or, baby dragon turns into social justice dragon. loved it.

no strings attached - harper bliss ⭐️⭐️⭐️ this was a cute, late-in-life coming out lesbian romance. i can’t say i’ve ever read a book with this EXACT plot but it was very simple. no alarms, no surprises.

kidnapped by the pirate - keira andrews ⭐️⭐️ i thought this would be good, tropey and fun, but it was only one of those three things. and hey, i like tropey. but nothing stood out about this, and i didn’t get the sense that the author went through the trouble to deeply research her setting. god save me from white people writing about the caribbean.

skybound series - fae sutherland ⭐️⭐️⭐️ the result of what happens when world-building is overlooked in favour of character interaction, and then the resultant character interaction isn’t very good. each of these three books held its own certain charm, (the romance in book 2 was really sweet) but they also all disappointed me in some way too. especially the third one. i can’t think of anything less satisfying than a character assuming an identity to escape one they don’t like/want, only to backpedal because another character thinks its cowardly or w/e.

temeraire 3: black powder war - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ four stars, but it technically deserves 5, since this is the book that introduces tharkay, and he is my boyfriend. kind of a damper sometimes tho.

london calling - clare lydon ⭐️ lesbian romance that meandered hopelessly, had an irritating writing style, and a ‘nothing happens’ plot. (which i usually don’t mind!) DNF; the protag uses a transphobic slur unchallenged, and i absconded.

temeraire 4: empire of ivory - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️ this is where people start saying that the series feels like a travelogue, but fuck it, i like travelogues. fuck riley tho. though i didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first two, the world-building around the tswana dragons and the slave trade is some of my very favourite.

blood is another word for hunger - rivers solomon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ really intriguing and fantastically written short story about a recently freed-by-her-own-hand slave who births a human being for every one she kills. i’ve mentioned that i love women taking revenge; i also love slaves taking revenge. great mix of history and magical realism.

the fall - robin alexander ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ favourite book of the month!!!! (barring the temeraire series.) really sweet lesbian meet cute romance, with family drama and hijinks, REALLY cute characters. one of the few books that sells itself as a ‘romantic comedy’ and really is; it was actually genuinely funny at times. listened to the audiobook which had a fantastic narrator, which made it all the better.

temeraire 5: victory of eagles - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️ god this book made me sad lol. :( necessarily so, because it had to deal with the fall out of the previous book, but agh. it was so much at times. definitely enjoyed it more on the reread tho. loved the dragon stuff, didn’t care about the war stuff.

the man on the third floor - anne bernays ⭐️⭐️⭐️ a historical m/m romance that was heavy on the history and light on the romance. which i don’t mind per se, because it was interesting to get into publishing house drama and post wwii society in the eyes of a jewish protagonist. but the character interaction was so terribly sparse. i don’t think we started getting to know barry as a person until the very last chapter.

temeraire 6: tongues of serpents - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️ KULINGILE. ALL IS WELL. 😭😭😭 (tharkay is in this book too so yay.)

temeraire 7: crucible of gold - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ one of my very favourite books since the first read!!!!! and tharkay’s not even in it!!!! i loved the incan dragons; i don’t know, they’s something very charming about people hoarding. i keep thinking back to the first one they met, and how jealous she got when she saw all the sailors temeraire had in his netting like ‘THOSE ARE ALL YOURS???’ and how she tried to hide her own humans from him like ‘YOU CAN’T HAVE ANY OF MINE...’ plus fun hijinks and my faves coming out and getting more screen time and riley fuckin dying at last... great book.

for august, i look forward to finishing my temeraire reread, finally reading the ninth book, and perhaps starting an HDM reread. and more sappy romance lol. currently rereading blood of tyrants, the 8th temeraire book, and listening to a cute lesbian romance: just jorie.

#book talk #long post

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grimmseye · 6 years

Text

and he sees eight

Fandom: The Adventure Zone

Relationships: Angus McDonald & Taako

Characters: Angus McDonald, Taako

Other Tags: Tattoos, Found Family, Taako is Sentimental

(Read on Ao3)

— — — —

Taako has a tattoo of six birds on his hip.

They survived the end of the world just over one month prior. Taako is wearing a baby blue crop-top, even though it's cold outside. It's long-sleeved and hangs above his belly-button, and that's when Angus sees them.

The truth is that he's seen it before, but before his eyes always slid away before it could register, the memory always blurring over in his brain as the voidfish's influence will do. Now he sees six birds in flight, their wings outstretched, soaring across the plane of Taako's skin and triumphant in their splendor.

It feels like they mean something — but this is Taako, so he can only begin to imagine what.

They’re seated on the couch when he sees this, in the common room shared between him and Magnus and Merle. Their wands are on the table, Taako's feet propper up there as well. Angus is content to curl up on the couch, close to Taako but not quite touching.

It's a familiar scene. The artificial moon will not be home forever, but it was the first he’s had in a long time, and for now he’s happy with that.

“I didn’t know you had a tattoo, sir,” Is what Angus says, both an observation and an inquiry. Taako glances down to where he’s pointing, looks confused for a moment and then — something. Something he’s seen before but cannot name, a softening of the features, a dim light in his eyes.

“You thinking of getting one?” He asks, phrased seriously but with a teasing crook to his mouth. “Cause I’m not your legal guardian but I’m sure they won’t say no if I sign off for you.”

And Angus huffs a small laugh. “No, not for me. I'm still just a kid." He's never thought about it before. Getting a permanent mark on the body, something that couldn't just be erased. He's certain Taako could find a way, but he's also certain Taako wouldn't need to. This isn't the sort of thing he would do so carelessly. "Does it mean something?”

He’s not really expecting a straight answer. It’s not Taako’s way to be sincere; everything is roundabouts and diversions with him. In a way, Angus likes it. He likes that he’s had to work to figure him out, that everything he knows is an achievement to take pride in. In another way, he hates it, because Angus loves to know and more than that he loves to be certain and the thing about Taako is that almost nothing about him is ever certain at all.

But Taako considers his answer, and then he says, “Yeah. It’s, uh. Pretty important to me.”

“Oh,” Angus says. Then, “Okay. Will you tell me what it means?”

“Nope!” He pops the ‘p’ and smirks. Predictable, again: it’s equal parts familiar and disappointing.

" But…” And here Taako pauses. He bites his lip, drums fingers on his knee. Then he grins, and he says, “But, I bet you can figure it out, boychik. Why don’t you tell me?”

And that's something that piques his interest. “Like a puzzle, sir?” Angus’s voice comes out eager.

“I guess so.” Taako puffs out a breath, smiles, and drops a hand into his hair to make Angus’s head bob under its weight.

And. Well. There's not much Angus loves more than solving a good puzzle.

Six birds.

The albatross heads their flight with valiant glory.

A dove twirls with a jay in a skybound embrace.

The eagle has his wings outstretched, a shield for them all.

Below soars the owl, wide and watchful eyes.

The finch takes the tail, small but mighty, unassuming in her grace.

“Oh,” Angus says, and his voice is soft. “Well, two of them are easy.”

His fingers trace the birds that frame the image, the one above and the one below. The eagle and the owl.

Magnus is a fighter, and even before that he is their shield. Loss did not make him brave, but love did. The eagle has its wings outstretched to guard them in its shadow, a willing target if it meant protecting those in its wake.

He smiles as he looks to the owl. “You know that owls aren’t actually very intelligent,” he said, a laugh in his voice.

“Yeah, I know,” Taako lilts back.

Angus snorts. “Merle doesn’t, though.”

“Doubt it.”

Owls are symbols, though. And perhaps, in the end, it's still fitting. Merle does not often dish out advice — at least, not any worth following. There are moments of sobriety, though, that make him pause. Beneath a gruff exterior was someone who felt love deep in his heart.

The others take him a moment. “The jay is Barry, right?” He ventures. “Because it’s… blue?” He tips his head, considering. He thinks that Taako probably would be the type to use such shallow symbolism. It doesn't fit, though. The others are thoughtful, and Taako is always a stickler for matching sets.

Taako makes a buzzing noise. “Incorrect-o-mundo,” he declares, shaking his head. “Well, about the second bit. You're right about it being Barry."

Angus doesn’t know enough about birds to form a proper theory.For now, he has to move on to the next, the dove.

“This one is Lup,” he says, and he’s certain of that. “Peace and love, right? That, uh. That doesn’t…”

“Sound like my sister?” Taako finishes the thought for him. “Yeah, you’re right. I probably should have gone with a phoenix or some shit.”

Angus ponders it for a moment. Lup is fire incarnate. He met her in a blaze of glory, scarlet robes wound about the manifestation of her soul as her passion and fury seared their foes to less than ash. She radiated power and inspired awe, but in that moment, taking in the powers of a lich, a soul infused with wrath and magic, Angus had never seen Taako appear so complete.

“No,” Angus muses, “I actually think it fits.”

The albatross only takes a second. The bird that carries voyagers to safety, to shoot it down spells a curse. Captain Davenport had lead his family for one hundred years and then further, to the end of the world and through it. He doesn't know the man well, but they all know his story.

Angus knows, objectively, that the finch must be the Director. Lucretia, he reminds himself, she insists he calls her that now. Her bird lags faintly behind the flock, its wings bent down in a powerful stroke to keep pace with the others. Small, but strong. Plain, but fierce. Taako is quiet as Angus explains, a distant shadow in his eyes.

Theirs was the damaged bond. The birds had been inked here before he forgot, and Angus wonders what it might have looked like after, instead.

“You got them all,” Taako tells him, maybe even sounding proud. “But you’re still missing a piece. Come back when it’s complete, boyo.”

So Angus takes up a book on jays. Gorgeous birds, with plumage that shines. Resilient, and determined. They mate for life, he learns, and that tidbit makes him smile as he remembers the dove.

In a year’s time, Angus looks to the birds on Taako’s hip, and he sees eight instead of six.

Before that, he sees that the dove’s feathers have been tinted red, embers falling from the tips of her wings. Stars have joined them, now, so that they are gliding between glittering diamonds.

Two have joined the flock. They are not in flight, do not appear to soar with the rest. The crow’s wings are angled down, beak in a peaceful tilt. It's inked differently: while the first designs were crafted with solid lines, this one appears to be painted on. Strokes of blue shine against the black, which bleeds across his skin into an ebony sky.

“Mister Kravitz must have been happy,” he notes, and Taako only hums. “I’m not sure who this one is for, though?”

He pokes the last one. A hummingbird, emerald and sapphire, it’s the smallest of the bunch. The wings become a watercolor blur that meld into the black trailing from the feathers of the crow, like ink mixing in a pool.

“You really can't figure it out?” Taako prompts. “How much do you know about hummingbirds?”

“Not much,” Angus admits. “I’m surprised you do.”

That earns him a snort and a flick on the forehead. “Okay, well, listen up, kiddo." He straightens, gives his pot a stir. "These little fuckers are a pain. They’re tiny but they’re not afraid to go after something big. Can do some wild stuff, too — pretty sure there aren’t any other birds that can fly backwards.”

“Hovering, too,” Angus adds, and Taako is quick to agree. It’s strange, though, because he doesn’t look quite so mischievous now. There had been a glint in his eyes when Angus named the rest, but here he’s avoiding his gaze. His ears are twitching, something Angus has learned to recognize as a sign of nerves, the way he himself might fiddle with his glasses or Magnus would wring his hands.

“It sounds like whoever it is must be pretty impressive,” Angus finally says.

And Taako gives a huff. “Don’t get a big head, kid.”

He’s still not looking at him.

Angus waits a beat, gauging his reaction. “I’m… not sure what you mean, sir?” He cocks his head. “As far as I know, that’s everyone you’re close to. Maybe Miss Ren, but it doesn’t seem to fit her.” He sorts through the names and the faces he knows, how he’s seen Taako smile around them — the smirk or the sneer or the grin that’s too wide and too perfect. Only a handful get the real thing, the crinkling eyes and the soft, slow, delighted draw of his lips around affection.

It’s the smile Taako is wearing right now, his eyes flickering to Angus and then away again. He swears there’s fondness in there.

“Oh,” Angus says.

“You really deduced the shit out of that one,” Taako smirks, ruffling his hair. And Angus is a little bit embarrassed because letting emotional bias get in the way of objective fact is a rookie mistake for a detective of his caliber. His eyes burn a little bit and he draws in a breath that’s too sharp as he smiles and bobs his head.

“Okay,” he says, voice high and raspy. “I believe I've solved your puzzle, sir.”

“You sure did, hummingbird,” Taako says. He turns back to the pot on the stove to adjust the flame, and Angus takes that moment to remove his glasses and wipe his eyes.

Taako is more sentimental than he would ever admit. He’s the one that gave Angus this puzzle, though. He’s the one that gave him the key.

#angus mcdonald #taako #the adventure zone #taz #my writing #magic boys

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eddycurrents · 7 years

Photo

For the week of 11 September 2017

Just one favourite this week: Ninjak #0 by Matt Kindt and Francis Portela (with MJ Kim, Khari Evans, Roberto de la Torre, Sija Hong, and Juan José Ryp). Published by Valiant.

Ninjak #0 provides a capstone to Matt Kindt’s run with the character, giving both an encapsulation of Ninjak’s history to date and one final mission to propel the series further into a more in-depth exploration into the Ninja Programme and legacy, before handing the character off to Christos Gage and Tomás Giorello for their new Ninja-K series.

I very much like how Kindt plays with time in this story. After firing an arrow on the first page in the present, the book’s pages are bisected by that arrow’s path, with the top telling of the events immediately leading up to that first page--illustrated by Francis Portela--and the bottom offering snippet’s of Ninjak’s history--illustrated by MJ Kim, Khari Evans, Roberto de la Torre, Sija Hong, and Juan José Ryp. (You can see an example above). It’s an interesting and effective way of delivering a lot of simultaneous information and narrative at once and I was particularly impressed by everyone involved.

As time on the top converges with the arrow, the structure reverts to a standard one timeframe narrative as it leads into a teaser for the new Ninja-K series from Gage and Giorello.

Like with the previous recent zero issue offerings for Bloodshot Reborn and Divinity, this serves as an excellent primer for people interested in the character and in jumping into the Valiant Universe.

Quick Bits:

All New Wolverine #24 wraps up the “Hive” arc guest-starring the Guardians of the Galaxy and Leonard Kirk’s tenure as artist on the series. This arc was fun, with Tom Taylor delivering some very nice and heartfelt interactions between Laura and Gabby, as well as continuing to present some strong characterization with Rocket and Groot.

| Published by Marvel

Amazing Spider-Man #32 is a single issue story of Norman Osborn trying to reclaim his Green Goblin persona. It’s an interesting look into Osborn’s drive and potential, with some absolutely beautiful artwork form Greg Smallwood & Jordie Bellaire.

| Published by Marvel

Birthright #26 provides a jumping on point as it begins a new story-arc. It’s fairly exposition heavy, but Joshua Williamson still makes it feel interesting, even to old readers since there’s a bit of a shift since the last issue. As always Andrei Bressan’s art is beautiful.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Deadpool #36 is a transitional issue from Deadpool working for “Stevil” Hydra Cap and the forthcoming Despicable Deadpool, closing out some old plot threads and sending off the remaining supporting characters, while setting up Wade’s new status quo of reluctantly working for Stryfe. As usual Gerry Duggan mixes in humour while ultimately making Deadpool a tragic figure.

| Published by Marvel

Doctor Strange & The Sorcerers Supreme #12 is a fitting send-off to a series that still feels gone to soon. From Javier Rodriguez to this issue’s Nathan Stockman, the series has been great artistically, and this issue’s sideways widescreen format is well appreciated. Robbie Thompson also brings it back full circle to how this excursion started in last year’s Doctor Strange Annual by closing on the “Not So” Ancient One’s journey.

| Published by Marvel

Grass Kings #7 is still an inscrutable beauty. Part crime drama, part mystery, part family drama, part treatise on loyalty and community in an extremely independent society, Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins have something special here. This issue adds another layer to the problems that they’ve been having with Cargill, while more explicitly breaking open the mystery of a potential serial killer and giving us some more details on what happened in Bruce’s past that led him to coming home to the Grass Kingdom.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Gwenpool, The Unbelievable #20 is going to mess with your head. In a good way.

| Published by Marvel

Hulk #10 brings Mariko Tamaki’s second story-arc to a conclusion. I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as I did the first, but there have still been some entertaining moments. The character interaction between Jen and Patsy being particularly strong.

Also, like the previous issue, the art shift part way through detracts. Both artists, Julian Lopez and Francesco Gaston, are good, but their styles kind of clash. Lopez uses a thick line and somewhat realistic style similar to Jesus Saiz, whereas Gaston has a thinner line and a bit more angular, stylized character composition--much like Georges Duarte, who started this arc.

| Published by Marvel

Kill or Be Killed #12 pushes Dylan further into darkness, even without his little demon friends whispering not-so-sweet nothings into his ears. As always, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are creating a compelling, nuanced story month in and month out. There’s also some good development in Dylan and Kira’s relationship, but, as per the original dissolution, I’m expecting the other shoe to drop sometime soon.

| Published by Image

Mech Cadet Yu #2 brings Yu and his adopted Robo back to the Sky Academy, where he’s officially accepted as one of the cadets. The story beats are pretty standard coming of age, living through adversity by being a fish out of water, ruffling the feathers of the establishment-type thing, but Greg Pak never allows it to feel old. Yu and his Robo are just too likeable characters to not enjoy seeing their advancement and acceptance. It also helps that Takeshi Miyazawa’s artwork is wonderful.

Despite not being published under one of their more all-ages imprints like Boom! Box or kaboom!, this series remains something that I think that kids would get a lot of enjoyment out of as well.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Old Man Logan #28 is a work of art. I don’t know who made a pact with the devil in order to consistently get this level of artwork out of Mike Deodato Jr., but whatever they did since at least the Jeff Lemire Thanos series, Deodato has been producing some of the most beautiful, thoughtful, and compelling work of his career. He’s been a great artist for more than twenty-five years in the industry, but his work lately has been absolutely next level. His shading, page layouts, character designs & staging, and panel transitions are practically a masterclass on the art form.

| Published by Marvel

Pestilence #4 unveils some secrets as we head towards the conclusion. This has been a fairly bloody and brutal tale of knights vs. zombies from Frank Tieri and Oleg Okenev and it’s not letting up. It delivers a nice satisfying crunch.

| Published by Aftershock

Redlands #2 jumps the series ahead to modern day, fleshing out the sisters’ characters and the world that they live in, having pretty much taken over Redlands, Florida following the bloodbath back in ‘77. We’re still left a lot of details out, but we’re given a better look at some of the things going on, as a game of murderous cat and mouse between the sisters and an unknown potential blackmailer unfolds. Jordie Bellaire and Vanessa Del Rey are creating something interesting here and I’m definitely hooked to see what happens next.

| Published by Image

Retcon #1 is...something, I’m not really sure what. Interesting, though, certainly, and something I’ll continue to read for a bit. Ostensibly this is about a team of supernatural beings working for the government, but the interview in the back and the title suggest something else. If anything, the artwork from Toby Cypress is worth the price of admission alone. Still not sure what to think of the story.

| Published by Image

Sacred Creatures #3 again challenges me to decide whether or not I like Pablo Raimondi’s mix of traditional comics art with photography. I’m leaning towards yes.

| Published by Image

Secret Warriors #6 kicks off a two-part arc with the members of the Warriors back on their own. The bulk of the issue is devoted to Daisy tracking down who murdered Coulson and it leads to some humorous exchanges. Who would have known that life model decoys are anatomically correct?

| Published by Marvel

Spy Seal #2 feels even more like a European funny animal book than the first issue. To me it feels like Rich Tommaso is doing a take on something like Tin Tin, but with an anthropomorphic seal, and it’s just wonderful.

| Published by Image

Transformers: Lost Light #9 gives a kind of closure, or at least a transition, to the Natuica/Velocity/Skids character and story arcs. It’s kind of bittersweet when you consider the implications and I expect that James Roberts will undoubtedly revisit this somewhere in the future. Also, the reveal of who the “Grand Architect” is at the end of this issue is pretty epic.

| Published by IDW

Uncanny Avengers #27 is a pretty straight-forward conclusion to the team’s confrontation with Graviton. It’s mostly action, but there are some character moments cementing that this team can still work together fairly effectively. The artwork from Sean Izaakse again is very nice.

| Published by Marvel

Other Highlights: Babyteeth #4, Black Science #31, Clue #4, Curse Words #8, The Damned: Ill-Gotten #4, Defenders #5, Dread Gods #2, First Strike #3, Genius: Cartel #2, Ghost Station Zero #2, Harrow County #25, Hellboy & BPRD - 1955: Occult Intelligence #1, InSEXts #13, Jane, Lumberjanes #42, Mage: The Hero Denied #2, The Realm #1, Riverdale #6, Rocket #5, Rose #6, Runaways #1, The Shadow #2, Shadows on the Grave #8, Slam!: Next Jam #1, The Sovereigns #5, The Spirit: The Corpse Makers #4, Star Wars #36, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #12, TMNT Universe #14, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #24, Venomverse #2, War for the Planet of the Apes #3, Weapon X #8, Winnebago Graveyard #4, X-Men Blue #11

Recommended Collections: Britannia - Vol. 2: We Who Are About to Die, Elektra: Always Bet on Red, Kingpin: Born Against, Saucer Country, TMNT - Vol. 17: Desperate Measures

d. emerson eddy believes that uptown funk is going to give it to you. Don’t believe him? Just watch.

#This Week in Comics #Ninjak 0 #Matt Kindt #Francis Portela

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