No, I thought he was best buddies with the ninjas.
XD Nah, man, this dude was scary! He even creeped me out, and LEGO villains don't typically scare me that much. The reason everyone loves Morro so much is because of this little redemption moment he had at his death scene.
*looks him up* Wait, that's Morro? I was imagining a guy in a grey ninja gi.
I had spent a few days with the Ninja. Zane would often cook for the team, and it seemed Jay did most of the repairs and even invented. For someone who seemed so ditzy and unfocused, Jay was very intelligent, and he had quite a creative mind; also, despite his cheerful demeanor, he talked to me about things troubling him, almost as if he trusted me.
Cole was quite serious at first, but it seemed he had his moments of being dorky and absent-minded. He seemed to enjoy cooking, which was unfortunate because his creations were nearly inedible. But he was very strong and reliable, and created very realistic and detailed drawings.
Kai seemed like a total hothead, but it seemed his attempts at flirting and showing off created some awkward moments. He spent hours on his hair and seemed a bit less caring of the rules, but also a bit more caring of the people in his life.
His sister, Nya, was quick to assist and encourage me as I trained. She seemed to like me, and we got along well; we would exchange ideas and tips. She was also very strong and confident, but went with the flow, like the water master she was.
And then there was Lloyd. Though he was very kind, brace and gentle, I detected signs of a troubled past. He was bitter about some things and didn't enjoy his power as much as I'd thought. He had trouble with trust and adjusting to change. Pain lay behind his bright green eyes and his skin was paled by the trauma of war. He was only fifteen.
I carefully studied the team as I went through life for the next week. Even chipper Jay seemed to hold some baggage. There were tears behind that cute laugh, and he was aware. Soon enough I began to realize how much burden was in this, and I felt something well up in my head.
To my room I fled, and for the first time since my discovery that I was an Android, I cried a few tears.
-last edited on Sept 30, 2018 13:05:29 GMT by LordTigress: no lego pants because he's a ghost and he's got that whispy piece instead. . . plez no reject :P
XD Nah, man, this dude was scary! He even creeped me out, and LEGO villains don't typically scare me that much. The reason everyone loves Morro so much is because of this little redemption moment he had at his death scene.
*looks him up* Wait, that's Morro? I was imagining a guy in a grey ninja gi.
Yeah, that's Morro, basically the Kylo Ren of Ninjago. Notice he isn't wearing any pants.
Zane arrived in my room as I had just settled down. "Your cheeks look wet. Are you alright?"
"Yes, I believe my emotion scanning has gotten the best of me. Er... sympathy, if you will." I scooted back. "Do I need a repair? It seems I feel like giving the others affection and comfort. It's on my mind a lot. Is my hard drive malfunctioning?"
"No, of course not," Zane replied with a soft smile. "This is normal for those like us. We aren't like the average robot. Cyrus Borg himself even gave his droids emotional suppressant chips to keep them steady. If your scanning gives you strong sympathetic abilities, Father designed you that way."
"Perhaps I feel I should protect my peers, even if I have only known them for so long. Even those I just met I feel attached to. It's a bit overwhelming." I sighed. "I guess it's because even the happiest are emotionally troubled. Even cheerful Jay is unstable and broken. I want to help them, I really do. Peace... it's what I've wanted for as long as I can remember. Are you like this, Zane?"
"Yes," Zane replied. "Of course, but you seem distressed yourself. Shall I leave you be?"
"No," I replied. "Stay here with me. Just be with me. I need you here right now."
"Alright," Zane replied, sitting on the bed with me.
"Bring Jay here too. He's the most broken."
"No one is more broken than another," Zane replied. "We all break. It seems to be a part of life."
"Yes, but...this one seems to hide behind his own cheerful personality. Bring him to me. I want to hear about his pain."
"Alright," Zane replied. He stood up and left, and I was left alone for a few minutes. I heard footsteps and the creak of my door. Jay came in, Zane behind him.
"You said you needed me," Jay said calmly. "What's up?"
-last edited on Oct 8, 2018 8:09:10 GMT by Gnuehchcaz
Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 4:53:54 GMT
"I want to know something," I told Jay, my face serious. "When you smile, when you laugh, what's behind that? Every joke, every time you pull a friendly prank....what's behind that?"
"Well, I guess I like to make others happy," he confessed. "It makes thing better for everyone. Including me. Especially me. I guess it feels good to get a good laugh out of those I care about."
"What's going on in your head? I won't tell unless the moment needs it."
"Well...I guess I'm scared, anxious, maybe a little paranoid, on the inside."
"Tell me what's bringing about these feelings."
"Well... it's been a lot of things over the years, but about last year, I found out I was a foster child," I replied. "My adoptive parents love me like their own son, but I was only a baby when I was dropped off, and I never knew why. They're both departed now, so I guess it saves me the trauma, but...I just wonder why they decided to give me up in the first place. It bothers me, well, a lot. I haven't told anyone but my girlfriend and Zane, or at least they don't remember."
"Who were your parents? Do you know?"
"A famous actor, Cliff Gordon. I love his work, or...loved it. Now it sort of brings me pain. Apparently he was a really good singer too. And...an Elemental Master. They called her Libber. She was beautiful, smart, and spoke her mind. Cliff got sick at an older age...I never heard what happened to my mom. I guess they couldn't take care of me, either because of some rift between them, or...well...because I wasn't supposed to be born."
"What makes you think that?"
"I was just born when they took me," Jay replied. "They didn't even get a chance to take care of me. It must have been unplanned or something. It just hurts to think I might have been unwanted."
"Then you're lucky," I told him. "They chose life for you, and you turned out to be a wonderful young man." I smiled, and he blushed a bit.
"Also, I never tell anyone, but when I'm on missions...I try to look brave and fight on, but on the inside, I'm terrified. I feel like if I tell anyone I'm scared, they'll think I'm some coward who can't hold his own. And...I probably am." Jay starts crying. "I...I probably lie to them, and to myself, because I don't want anyone to know how...how insecure and scared I really am. Even around my girlfriend, I...well, I try to be happy. For her, you know. And I'm happy around her, I truly am. I'm just...starting to feel tired of hiding my feelings."
"Then don't," I replied.
"Well, I guess you have a point," he said. "But nobody listens to me. I'm 'the annoying one,' the one who always gets 'roasted' when I try to prove a point. It doesn't make me feel any better."
"It wouldn't make anyone feel any better," I told him. "But I know that on the inside, they love you, feel for you and want to protect you. Be yourself. Keep being yourself. Love is the reason you're still alive and it will keep you alive."
"Love heals," Jay muttered.
"If you're scared, a good friend will help you feel brave. If you're insecure, he'll perk you back up. Stop pretending you're fine when it's much better to actually be fine."
"You sound like you're reciting from something," Jay admitted.
My only reply was "ahem."
"It's not like that isn't good advice though."
"Yes," I replied. "Well, I just want to say that though it may not seem like it, everywhere you go, every move you make, every breath you take...you are loved, and He loves you more than ever."
"My parents believe in God," Jay admitted. "I grew up thinking that same way, and it's carried on a little. I've just sort of forgot about it after a while. There was so much going on in my fighting life."
"We're all broken, Jay," I told him. "Even me. But we have hope, and you're the prime example. Your parents couldn't keep you, you could have been departed, but they chose to give you to those who would really love you."
"Thank you," Jay muttered. "You've made it a lot better." He smiled, a small, broken smile. "I'm glad I have people like you with me right now. I'm going through some difficult emotions and you and Zane are really the ones to trust here."
Jay and I talked for a while. He told me about a reality that no one remembered, but it was very real; a Djinn king taking him captive, nearly marrying his love and torturing him almost to death, and before he could stop it, his Nya had gone with his father. He seemed almost shameful as he told his story.
"You never experienced this," he said. "In your mind, it never happened...and you're lucky. We all suffered greatly, and only dear Nya and I remember."
I couldn't help but feel sad. This cheerful, childish teen had really been through so much.
"It's not like I'm the only one. Just talk to everyone else, they'll tell you, and maybe you can help them too."
Through the next week, I learned a lot about the Ninja. Lloyd's mother abandoned him, and his father was corrupted and bent on taking over Ninjago. Kai and Nya's parents had disappeared at five and three, respectfully, and they had fended for each other for as long as they could remember. Cole's mother passed when he was only a young teen, and his father was strict and wanted him to follow his footsteps, so he ran away.
I saw Jay again, and I learned he had been raised poor in a junkyard all his life, which he had been embarrassed of for the longest time. I also learned he had grown up on invention and surrounded by creative minds, and he had time to explore and create; he had found his master almost by accident compared to the others.
"He said I could build the impossible," he told me. "Who was I to refuse?"
I felt even worse for him then; he had been living a normal (if poor) life, trauma had hit him like a bus when he'd joined.
"Being a Ninja...though it was hard even at the time, it was cool. I had found some real friends. When you're raised in a junkyard, you're sort of cut off from society, as nice as it is to have loving parents and lots of food to eat."
I kept asking about his past. He admitted with a laugh to his parents embarrassing him when he was younger, but he told me they truly loved him anyway, and they wouldn't hesitate to defend or comfort him.
"So why are you so insecure in the first place?"
"It's a junkyard," he told me. "That doesn't sit well with people."
Somewhere else in Ninjago, while Jay and Hanna still conversed, a collapsed building lay still in the middle of the city. No one had thought to repair it, so it lay there, a relic of the past.
What drew people away from it was the fact that the building had collapsed on Harumi, Ninjago's traitorous princess, and probably still held her body.
And it did.
But that body didn't lay still. It ached. Its heart beat. Harumi was, in fact, alive.
But not awake.
Harumi had been unconscious for a long time. Days or weeks, no one knew. And it was finally time for her to wake up.
Consciousness came almost immediately, as if waking up from a nightmare, but it took a while for her eyes to open. Her whole body hurt, as if it was just formed, but somehow she didn't feel anything broken. She felt crushed by the weight of a single piece of wall, which she managed to squeeze out of, giving some damage to her leg, but it seemed worth it, as she was free.
Harumi looked up. Ninjago City seemed bright and overwhelming after such a period of darkness. She noticed first that her clothes were torn and didn't serve as much as a protector as they used to, so her first thought was getting clothes together. She wiped off her makeup as best she could, hoping it would make her seem more trustworthy, and twisted her hair into a braid to further disguise herself. She really hoped she could convince someone to help her, as she was penniless and didn't know if anyone would trust her after what she'd done.
Fortunately, she managed to find a homeless charity center, where she could find some clothes; they were a bit big, a little tattered, but they were better than her torn rags before. She then managed to find some fresh food in the other building, enough to feed her until she could get some money.
Harumi's next mission was to show herself to the Ninja; dangerous, but she believed she could manage. She managed to locate the harbor the Bounty was docked at and began to climb it...
...only to be knocked backwards by what she believed to be a high-tech security system.
Jay sat up on Hanna's bed. "You've really been there for me these past few days," he told me softly.
"I knew something was up," Hanna confessed. "As happy as you acted, there seemed to be a bit of distress behind that, so I had to step in."
"You really know a lot, don't you?" Jay complomented. "You could help a lot of people someday."
"I plan to," Hanna replied, "but as of now it seems like the focus is on the fight."
"Right," Jay replied.
"You'll be alright, won't you?"
"Yeah," he replied. "I should feel better now."
Hanna wiped away the last of the tears on his soft face. "You will. I believe it."
"Can I go now? It's my turn to cook, and it would be a little awkward if we ate late," Jay told her, and she nodded. He stood and walked out the door.
Jay flipped through a cookbook in search of something the others would enjoy. He kept allergies in mind, and remembered what they had said negatively of certain foods, so by process of elimination, Jay narrowed it down to a few recipes.
Just as he looked up, he heard the sound of static electricity, and then the thud of an object - or body - hitting the ground. Jay glanced through the window. A teenage girl lay exhausted on the floor of the dock, her white hair strewn across her face. Jay was lucky he hadn't started cooking yet.
Jay ran to the edge of the Bounty and climbed over, kneeling down near the girl's body. Little energy flowed through her body, and her breathing was shallow and slow. Her expression looked tired. He began to recognize her features, and then it hit him.
A sheet of long white hair, eyes as green as Jade, and skin as pale as the moon. This could only be the former Princess of Ninjago.
Hadn't Lloyd witnessed her departure though?
Jay looked in thought for a moment, then took her hands; they were cold. He pulled her up, causing her to stumble and look at him in confusion. He then chuckled in amusement.
"How many times did you try to get through the security system?*
*About...twenty," she admitted with a tired grin.
"Forget about the building...how did you survive that?" He laughed.
"I guess I have a little bit of lightning master in me too," she replied with a chuckle. "How funny."
Revised chapter (this is the one before the one where Jay cries):
"I want to know something," I told Jay, my face serious. "When you smile, when you laugh, what's behind that? Every joke, every time you pull a friendly prank....what's behind that?"
"Well, I guess I like to make others happy," he confessed. "It makes thing better for everyone. Including me. Especially me. I guess it feels good to get a good laugh out of those I care about."
"What's going on in your head? I won't tell unless the moment needs it."
"Well...I guess I'm scared, anxious, maybe a little paranoid, on the inside."
"Tell me what's bringing about these feelings."
"Well... it's been a lot of things over the years, but about last year, I found out I was a foster child," I replied. "My adoptive parents love me like their own son, but I was only a baby when I was dropped off, and I never knew why. They're both departed now, so I guess it saves me the trauma, but...I just wonder why they decided to give me up in the first place. It bothers me, well, a lot. I haven't told anyone but my girlfriend and Zane, or at least they don't remember."
"Who were your parents? Do you know?"
"A famous actor, Cliff Gordon. I love his work, or...loved it. Now it sort of brings me pain. Apparently he was a really good singer too. And...an Elemental Master. They called her Libber. She was beautiful, smart, and spoke her mind. Cliff got sick at an older age...I never heard what happened to my mom. I guess they couldn't take care of me, either because of some rift between them, or...well...because I wasn't supposed to be born."
"What makes you think that?"
"I was just born when they took me," Jay replied. "They didn't even get a chance to take care of me. It just hurts to think I might have been unwanted."
"Then you're lucky," I told him. "They couldn't take care of you, but they sent you to someone who could, and you turned out to be a better man. They would probably be very proud of you."
-last edited on Oct 4, 2018 20:17:00 GMT by Deleted
Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2018 20:16:06 GMT
Harumi's POV (this is part of chapter 3 again)
"I'll have to explain, well...a lot," I told Jay with a sigh. "I'm half-expecting them to gang up on me. Really, I'm surprised you're even being nice to me. I mean...I hurt you so much, and you never got to see me change."
"Hey, it's okay," Jay replied. "You probably thought we were gone anyway."
"Yeah...but how did you know what happened on that building?"
"Nya told me," he replied. "She's my...well..."
"She's mentioned you," I told him. "She said you're adopted too."
"That's what I was about to tell you in the palace, actually," Jay admitted. "But it wasn't like anyone would let me talk. Besides, they don't remember any of it."
"Any of what?"
"Do you remember a time when Ninjago broke into pieces and floated up to the sky?"
"No, that sounds like a weird dream," I replied.
"I try to convince myself it's a nightmare, but weirdly it actually happened, and Nya and I are living proof."
"The police mentioned pirate genies during my time in prison," I told him. "I thought they were crazy to be honest. Not that I was any saner." I laughed.
"Haha...yeah, you probably weren't there for that, so it seems pretty unbelievable. There was even a time where we were hated and chased after like villains!"
"The Ninja? Hated?" I laughed. "That's utterly ridiculous."
"Well, it happened!"
"Why did no one remember that?" I asked, tilting my head quizzically.
"A wish," he replied. "They did say it was a genie, didn't they?"
"Yeah..." I nodded. Although they had mentioned him being called a "djinn," I added in my head.
"Well...it it been good getting to know you, Rumi," Jay said, "but I need to make dinner and I'm usually punctual. I don't want to come back to worried and impatient friends, so I gotta go."
"Can I come with you?" I asked. "I have nowhere to stay."
Jay looked at me, then walked up and temporarily disabled the shield system for me, and I had to laugh because he muttered, "Be ye disablin' of yon shield."
"Thank you," I muttered and followed him inside. "It's much warmer in here."
To no one's surprise, Cole, Kai, and Zane stood there, weapons drawn, looking like they were ready to end me.
I left my room after an afternoon of looking at pictures, only to be faced with an awkward situation consisting of the others drawing their weapons on Jay and Harumi.
Wait...Harumi?
"Well," Jay said. "Um...this is awkward. Hey! You can put the weapons down now."
"What the heck is going on?" I asked. "And Harumi- how is Harumi alive?"
"I survived the building somehow," she replied with a shrug.
"Also, are you...wearing a braid?"
"Um...yeah, I..." She began fumbling with the ribbon in her hair.
"No, no, keep it, it suits you," I told her quickly. I was feeling rushed and a bit flustered, having seen her get crushed by a crumbling skyscraper, and there she was, alive and even unscathed. "You're not even hurt. How did you...?"
"I was in the Departed Realm for a bit," she admitted. "I came back after an anomaly sort of kicked me out."
"What sort of anomaly?"
"Fate, I guess." Harumi shrugged. "Most likely not some sort of...Realm Crystal accident."
"That's it," I muttered. "Did you notice anything once you'd gotten here?"
"A lot of pain," she replied.
"No, other than that."
"No," she replied. "As soon as I woke up everything seemed pretty normal."
"What's this 'normal' you speak of? This is Ninjago," Jay joked.
"I mean that everyone was going about their business," Harumi replied.
"So, uh...aside from that, where'd you get your clothes?" I asked. "Since the Sons of Garmadon disbanded and the palace blew up, it's not like you have any money."
"A homeless charity center," Harumi admitted. "They didn't seem to mind. I felt a bit awkward around some people though." She hoisted up a large, bulky bag she had. "I also got food. I wasn't expecting to find a home anytime soon, so I felt this would feed me until I could get some money."
I nodded as I listened to her tell her story. Cole, Kai and Zane gradually settled down as well and payed attention. Nya came out of her room as well, settling next to Jay.
"I came here because I felt bad," she admitted. "I'd been so blind for as long as I can remember, especially to you guys. I hurt so many people, and I never got the chance to apologise."
I took a deep breath. "Well, guess what? I forgive you."
