Ashiro

Sooo this is not Ninjago related, obviously. (But maybe it is, because D R A G O N)

I have had an interesting few days, honestly. I got blood drawn, (it sucked, I greatly despise needles) found out I have a vitamin deficiency, (is that really the reason I’m so tired?) and most importantly, took a very special someone do the vet, and uh… confronted something I had decided to ignore for no reason—actually, I ignored it purely because I had allowed myself to get into the habit of calling him “little man,” when I was not 100% sure he was even a male. In fact, based on a few things I won’t get into, I had a feeling this might be the case all along. At the end of the day, I don’t care, of course, it’s just a change to remember to say she from now on—

But rambles aside, I’d like to introduce my bestest buddy, my little pal, my inspiration and love for dragons that has manifested over the course of many years (okay, okay, I’ll stop stalling) — Apollo!

She is a bearded dragon, and often chills on my shoulder whilst I’m drawing, cuddles at night, loves to eat bugs, and poops on my bed whenever possible. I was actually inspired by a mutual who has posted their bearded dragon pictures before, and figured that this was a dragon-related community—so why not! (Looking at you, @morroodle :P)

Here’s a little unfinished drawing I did. Sorry this post is so long, but hopefully you all enjoy the adorableness.

Bonus: Find the difference between these two pictures.

Warning: Extreme fluff (lol)

This is for all of you who wanted little Raven and Morro content, and also because I was loosing my sanity and drawing at 3 am… 🙃

Don’t worry—I’m still working on the main story, this is just one of the random AU’s I write tidbits of when I’m laying in bed. Apparently, I have two writing modes: extreme angst and violence, and extreme fluff ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, the gist of this AU is: Morro still kidnaps Raven after she destroys the staff, finds it amusing that a ten-year-old is somehow acting like a teenager, gets caught up in side quests that have nothing to do with his original mission because Raven gets injured, all the while denying that he is slowly becoming attached to this scruffy lost child while poor Lloyd watches in complete and utter bafflement.

Would she befriend Morro? Would little Morro even like her? Would she go to Wu with him? 👀

Oh my. Oh my goodness that is adorable. We need a name for this AU right now.

First of all, Raven would also be a homeless orphan in Ninjago, once again on the streets just like in the beginning of the regular story, but now it’s even harder because she is a literal child. If she managed to make it to the monestary and meet Morro before he started actually living there, she would absolutely try to befriend him. In fact, if he was already in the monastery, she would probably try to find a way in.

”Would little Morro even like her?” An honestly great question. We do not see him getting along with any of the other students, and a large part of that most likely comes from surviving on the streets. He almost certainly would not trust her. Why does she want to be friends so bad, for seemingly no reason? What is she trying to gain from this?

Raven would definitely try to get into the monastery. She would likely keep most of her knowledge a secret, and instead perhaps make a claim to Wu that she is Morro’s “protector.” She could make some cryptic statement about her presence being to make sure he doesn’t fall down the wrong path. Would Morro know of this? Absolutely not. (Oh I am so coming up with this as I go, as I’m sure you can tell. It is making me grin so much, this AU is becoming so silly and adorable.) He would totally be freaked out by her because why was she also let into the monastery? Why does she watch him so much?

Raven would try to pull her weight by doing chores and such for Wu in exchange for living there. At some point, she may also ask to train, or perhaps after finally befriending Morro, he could start teaching her what he has learned.

Here is a slightly extended Raven reference for the Ninjago OC Secret Summer event! You’ll have to excuse me, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing when it comes to making a character reference.

First of all, the fact that you re-read the chapters is making my heart explode, thank you. ☺️

Oh certainly, things would be very different if Raven had not died at the start. In the first chapters, she has a lot of moments where she kind of freezes up, especially after interacting with the first few people she meets. This is basically her brain trying to figure out if this is actually real—which brings her back to the thought of dying (her dying was the entryway to Ninjago, so it is almost impossible to try and figure out how she got there without thinking of the crash.) The brain naturally tries to protect the victim from trauma by avoiding the threat, which results in lots of freeze-ups or fight or flight reactions.

The reason why she doesn’t figure out what part of the timeline she’s in immediately is due to her brain focusing all of its energy on not thinking about her death. She eats dinner with the ninja, goes to sleep, sorts tea, and all the while her mind is convincing her that perhaps everything was a dream, and she will eventually just wake up. At the same time, she cracks a few jokes to push the boundaries of the new world, testing its legitimacy without even realizing it. Deep down, she knows that the uniqueness of each character’s reaction to her is probably too wide of a range for her brain to be imagining all of this—but it’s still possible. The fact that dreams basically have no limits will be a continuing problem for her, because even when she is on the absolute verge of believing that all of this is real, that the world has become too complex to be a figment of her imagination, the thought will always whisper in the back of her mind: “Dreams have no limits. This can’t be real.”

The first slap in the face is when she thinks of Morro, (who is undoubtedly her favorite character back home, lol) and her brain latches onto that for a bit instead. But when she runs to tell Misako and Wu, sliding down the hallway in her socks and going through a very normal-feeling morning routine—the world feels, well… real. Even if only for a moment. She hesitates, and makes an excuse to test the waters a bit more.

Then Morro arrives and Raven is slapped in the face once again. She acts on impulse, directly confronts Morro, and has another freeze response. He grabs her, and it becomes fight or flight. Once she calms down (a bit) from that though? She actually starts to think. She realizes she was panicking in front of him, feels embarrassed, then changes tactics and insults him instead. Raven does not like to feel weak. She’s knows on a logical level that physical strength and power are not everything, but deep down? She hates being taken advantage of. She hates the fact that, as a physically small teenage girl who has been slacking on exercise, Morro can basically do whatever he wants with her. The only advantage she has is her mind, much like you always say with Sen. So when this makes her angry, she lashes out.

We’re getting off topic. My bad. If Raven did not have the trauma of dying at the start, she still would have the problem of believing that this was all a dream, but not quite to the extent of how it is now. Here’s the thing; no one knows what comes after death, right? But how in the world could being Isekaied into your favorite TV show, a kids show, be your afterlife? Raven knows that she died. It’s possible—again, the afterlife is a mystery—But this is just ridiculous!

Raven without the extra burden of trauma would still be freaking out over the decisions she is forced to make, but in both cases, she can’t bear the thought of not doing anything. Leaving Morro to die (again) would weigh on her conscience forever—she’d never forgive herself for having the chance and failing to make change. But is saving one person worth the potential collapse of an entire universe?

Like Sen and Val, Raven can be shy. But she is a nerd. She loves books, movies, stories, ect. Around her close friends (of which she has like two) she is silly and teasing. She’s the kind of person who gives a friend great advice and then never follows it herself. She loves her family, but is the kind who will talk back to her parents. She is close with her brother, but he just went away to college, leaving her to feel quite alone. But loneliness? She can handle that—after all, it’s not as important as getting good grades, or finishing your projects, or not collapsing into a total failure. [But she hates school and work] Freedom from these things in Ninjago would be so relieving. Sure, she’d miss and worry about her family, but it’s not like she’s dead, right? There must be an eventual way back to them.

Raven would try to make a plan from the start. Would it eventually go south? Probably, but she would make a backup. She would try not to act so much off of emotions. There would still be moments of fear, of course, but it wouldn’t trigger a huge trauma response. She might poke at Morro a bit more. Try to get him to question the Preeminent. Convince him that there is a way out. Prove it to him, somehow. She might also push her luck a little more, not quite flaunting her knowledge, but definitely acting a bit more forceful when it comes to what she knows will happen in the future.

Wow, I’m sorry, I just wrote an entire essay. If only I could do that for school. Ha. Ha.

Ur lore seems so peak i just wanted to ask if you do oc x canon with morro because im a non sharing selfshipper and I dont want that on my feed

Thank you in advance yay no offence hehe ur art is so amazing and cute

lol no problem! And thank you!! No, my story will not have any romance in it, Raven’s relationships with any Ninjago characters are all going to remain platonic. I myself have absolutely no experience with romance, and therefore I have no idea how to write it accurately. I also love to explore sibling-like relationships more than anything, they are my absolute favorite.

@kyodrawsstuff (Val)

@manga-reader-xd (Sen)

(Raven)

I feel like those weird question are what's keeping the whole little Ninjago Isekai/self insert community alive xD

Since Raven technically died once, would the bow of Soul Archer be able to turn her into a ghost? Would her spirit even go to the Departed Realm if she dies in Ninjago?

Yes, I agree, the little Ninjago Isekai corner needs all the questions <3

This is a very interesting question in so many ways. Raven can in fact die in Ninjago, but it would definitely be… different for her, you could say. There’s issues where her being from another world and ending up in the Departed Realm collide, but that’s kind of spoiler-ish? Unfortunately? But I can say that almost nothing about the way she interacts with the universe in comparison to its actual residents is “normal,” if that makes sense. I know I always say this, but it’s going to be so much fun when we finally get into characters actually beginning to notice all that a little more. If she were hit by Soul Archer’s arrow, she would change in a way, but it definitely wouldn’t be the same as someone from Ninjago getting hit instead.

“Boi, ya botherin’ me.”

What if Raven actually would have land in the beginning of the pilots, in Ignacia? The whole dying part still included, so that she probably would still be having a lot of trauma to deal with.

Would she have tried to change the story?

Would she gotten along with the ninja, when Kai is not judging her because of Lloyd and all that? I feel like even in that AU he would judge her for Nya, if people would think again she's an Oracle xD probably Wu would come up with that instead of Morro lol

lol stoooop I love questions! I should really start asking you guys the big questions on tumblr so there can be potentially larger discussions on it—

I think landing in the pilots would have been… more therapeutic—well, not really the word, but there would have been time to process the trauma a bit more (like in Wanderlust. Then maybe Raven would be addicted to serenitea as well—we love you Val 😭)

She definitely wouldn’t have been as much as an outsider to the ninja as she is in Possession, and let’s face it, the boys would probably be a bit more flirty towards her as they were towards Nya in the beginning as well. (Raven would not be amused.) Kai probably would still be a bit suspicious of her, let’s be honest. A girl who supposedly knows the future? Really? That is—if she decides to change the timeline, which she probably would. She also wouldn’t purposely flash the Oracle card, but it’s something that would probably still end up happening eventually. In the beginning, she might hint at knowing a few bits of the future just to get Wu to allow her to stay, but not reveal that to the team. And yeah, I’m sure Wu would not pass up the opportunity to (again, as Kyo once stated 🥲) re-do the Morro situation and get future intel at the same time.

✨Random question time ✨

If you would gonna wake up as Raven in the current point of your story, what would you gonna do?

Nooo I LOVE random questions! Okay okay, hmm this could go many ways I feel like. (I am so sorry if I go way too far into this, my brain is currently scrambled but also working off caffeine, lol)

The current point in the story: in the cave, wounds just bandaged, with Morro, the ghosts, and… Wrayth. Yaaaay. I’d probably be disbelieving of reality for a moment, but let’s skip over that part, I’ve got a plan to enact.

The safest option that I would likely choose first is to play stupid as long as possible, then potentially mislead/delay Morro’s plan by giving false information (whiiiiich would probably get me hurt, eventually, but that’s what dissociation is for!) If I could get him to believe that I have no clue what I’m doing, that would be great. The thing is, since I did not just go through a huge trauma like Raven, my reactions would not be the same— at the current moment, Raven’s death does influence her behavior, even if in subtle ways— she’s sarcastic and witty, but perhaps not as much as she would have been had she not, you know… died.

In stressful situations, I tend to joke to myself in ways that only I find funny, (humming, dark humor, ect) and I think Morro would most likely detect the overall behavior and attitude change—which could technically work to my advantage, if I were to convince him that I am actually a bit insane, and therefore unreliable… to a point. Morro is also not stupid, and would never just let Raven go… he knows she/I have some sort of information—it would be preferable to get him to understand that

A) no, the preeminent does not actually care about him (which I think he knows deep down, but he’s so desperate for an attachment and approval from said attachment to give up his mission. He also does not have a choice; defying the Preeminent = endless pain and suffering. He also also has nothing left to live for besides being the green ninja—all of that stuff) I would of course, try to gain his trust and befriend him, which may be slightly possible, but I think it would be veeeeeery difficult to talk him out of his mission—the reason he gives up in the end is because he experiences first hand that Destiny is not going to give him what he died for.

B) he can in fact start fresh somewhere else and not even interact with the ninja/his past life if he didn’t want to. Technically, if he was careful until the eclipse he could get rid of his curse and really get his life back—but that’s a whooooooole different story.

My goal would be to somehow prove the point that the Preeminent will not get him what he wants without him getting dragged into the water—a sort of conversation about what actually ends up happening would be preferred, but I’d need a way to prove my point, which I won’t go into right now because this would turn into an essay XD If I could prove that I was actually trying to help him without an ulterior motive, that would be the best outcome—which would be extremely hard, but not impossible.

If finding the Realm Crystal could be avoided, that would be great; again, it would NOT be easy, but if I could somehow convince him to abandon the mission, and then reinsure his safety by explaining that he could completely cut ties with the Preeminent through the eclipse—best outcome. Then you avoid the the Crystal, avoid the Preeminent, and life is great. (Not really, but you see where I’m going. The Preeminent is bad and causes so many problems, we need to get her out of the equation.)

Anyway, that’s the best case scenario, and what I would somehow work towards in general. Thank you for such a fun ask— and Sorry if that was like the messiest answer ever, I went way to far into this, and my brain is also not functioning at maximum capacity at the current moment :D

Also, HOLD UP— you could also technically save Garmadon as well! Get the armor, get Lloyd to summon him, then also keep him safe until the eclipse and undo his curse. Boom. Easy-peasy. Totally 🙃

And somehow research how to free Yang since he’s stuck as “the master of the temple” to get him on board with freeing himself and a bunch of other people. I honestly think Yang can be reasoned with, he actually seems like a chill guy… Cole does it, after all—

Okay. Okay. I’ll stop. But if I was sent to Ninjago, I’d be cooking up crazy plans in a journal (so I could remember them all) like there was no tomorrow. This stuff’s gotta get done somehow, right? 😎

Ahhhhh!!! It’s so funny that you should ask this, because I actually plan to write an AU someday where Raven ends up at the Well with Morro instead of in Possession after dying. I think they would get along pretty well, after the initial confusion— especially if you are thinking in terms of how I have the AU planned out, Raven ends up in the Spectral Lands not as a ghost, but as a living person… just covered in blood from the accident. Unharmed, but still bloodied. Morro would be not aggressive, so there would be more conversation from the start.

He would be very confused as to why a living soul has appeared in the land of the dead, to which Raven would make it clear that she’s “not from around here.” (She’d also be a bit convinced in the moment that nothing is real, just like in the normal story) So, this random girl shows up covered in blood, claiming that she died, and is also clearly going a bit crazy… Morro figures something must’ve gone wrong with her death (maybe the merge had something to do with it?) and then shenanigans ensue…

I’m rambling. I am very excited to write this AU, but I do want to get further into Paroxysm first. But yes, Raven would be shocked (but happy to see him?) upon first meeting, and Morro would try to help as he does, finding her strange but tolerable.