Kyo Draws!!

Hi!! I'm Kyo, and this is a sideblog dedicated to my art and my main fic, Wanderlust.

What's Wanderlust about?

Wanderlust is a si-oc fic (An isekai) about Ninjago. It follows my oc, Val, as she gets dropped into the cartoon and tries to survive without having a mental breakdown. As of the time of this post, the story's not that far into the show, but it stands at 100k words and I'm very proud of it.

What's special about it?

While I wouldn't say the story's all that extraordinary, Val's struggle is a bit different from what you'd normally expect from this trope, as there's a couple factors playing against her.

She speaks spanish and little to no english, which is the language everyone in Ninjago speaks.

The reality of the world is 2D/3D, so her perception is absolutely off.

She is constantly debating the morals of living alongside people she thought of as characters, and the implications of them being now real people, as well as the implication of herself being now fictional.

Val does not take the role of a ninja, a villain, or a vigilante. Instead, she becomes the team's medic.

When do you update?

I have no update schedule. In fact, updates are quite slow, as I like making my life harder for myself and make each chapter detailed. Months wait between chapters is expected, but they are usually 10k at the least. I write whenever I feel like it, and I'm editing the story near constantly.

Are there any other fics like this?

Sure are!! If you're looking for other isekai stories about Ninjago, I strongly reccomend reading @/manga-reader-xd 's story, The Dreaming Whip, or @/ashirothebird 's fic, Paroxysm. Both are lovely reads with original character concepts you don't usually see, and the little community of Isekai Ninjago ocs is thriving in this moment.

I've heard of more Ninjago isekai fics, but haven't read them yet. As I get through them, I'll probably add them here as well :]

However, I can also reccomend you read @/dragonessfire 's The Silver Seer, which has a wonderful story and a lovely main character, and if you like X Reader fics with original stories, Opposites Attract will be right up your alley. I can assure you both stories will Hurt You.

Is the story canon compliant?

Eh, kinda. It does follow canon, but I'm taking plenty of liberties with the worldbuilding. There is no bashing towards any character, but I'm sticking to certain sides about every person, so their attitude might not fit everyone's specific characterisations. The fic is also going a very specific way and will be definitely not canon compliant by the end of it. But by now, yeah, everything's following the script.

Where else can I find you?

The story's being published on Ao3 and crossposted on Wattpad, though the fic may have some small differences depending on where you read it. My main account is @kyodoesstuff . I repost pretty much everything I see there, though there are a few Wanderlust posts if you look.

Any dnis?

None, surprisingly, though that's only by now. As long as you understand this is all me playing dolls with some lego characters and it's all in good fun, I don't have a problem with you :]

Prefacing this by saying that I am simultaneously very grateful there are so many maps of Ninjago to crosscheck and cite things from and also sososo very frustrated with them. Can you stay cohesive with one another. Can you Agree where things are. I am shaking all maps by the shoulders as if they were a person. Why can't you Work.

Anyways :]

Anyways I have been rereading "Same people, but not really" and I am now Infested with ideas of how that au would happen in Wanderlust with Val as a character.

On Val's side, she's fresh off of a traumatic situation and she just needs someone to Be There, constantly, she needs a task to keep herself busy and Not Think About What Happened, and if she could also get human connection and get acclimatized to her new reality that would be Really Cool as well thanks. And in comes Kai, who is loud enough to always be present, never for Val to forget that he's there and nearby and alive, always keeping Val focused on the moment. He is Active and Doing Things and if Val keeps by his side then she is Doing Things by approximation, which is Great. The more she thinks about Kai the less she thinks about Jade and The Horror and her home. Then Kai starts getting hurt enough to warrant needing treatment and Val goes GREAT FANTASTIC AWESOME because now she gets to stitch him up every day (Which is a thing!! She learned!! From her grandma!! She is Doing A Thing she Knows How To Do!! Something she Enjoys!! And keeps the demons At Bay!!!). And just like that, Kai ends up being the person who gets her to teemptatively accept her new reality by 1) Not letting her get stuck on her memories 2) Being her rat subject to her self soothing methods (Medicine) and 3) Acting like a Normal Domestic Person when he's not training and thus making Val see Hey this is just like back home actually, he is Just like a Real Alive Person. And she imprints on him because of it. And also bonds (Unilateraly) over both of them being older siblings with a little sister who is (Was) in danger, and tries to support Kai through everything to make sure he gets to save Nya faster, doesn't have to feel like she did when she saw Jade's corpse, even knowing Nya isn't actually at risk of dying. (She's always needed someone to look after.)

On Kai's side, his life just went sideways Again. His sister's been kidnapped by Actual Undead Warrior People, Garmadon is Apparently Real and still alive and is behind his sister's kidnapping, and instead of blazing after them to get his sister back he's forced to follow this random man who is Apparently Wu, the First Spinjitsu Master's son, and he Has to train under him or else he won't be allowed to go after Nya, and even if he managed to convince Wu to send him in early he would die trying to save her because as proven by the man he is shit at fighting. So he has to run a stupid course and do an impossible challenge and every day that goes by is a day he has to sit with the fact that Nya could be dead now, he could be alone forever now. And while he struggles with that and tries to rile up Wu, there is Also a random girl that doesn't speak ninjargon (???) around, who never talks to you and seems lost half of the time, and yet is the only person who seems to be in the Monastery because Wu dissapears Every Day. Sure. What-fucking-ever. He already had it out for destiny, it's good to know destiny has it out for him as well. But then Val suddenly becomes Lucid and starts Being There. Constantly. She watches him train, gives him pause and think things through, makes sure he eats and showers and generally takes care of himself, and he thinks it's a one time thing, that she'll drop it after he keeps snapping at her, keeps having rough edges. But she doesn't. She keeps at it, keeps making sure he's taken care of even when he bites back, starts healing his wounds when he gets hurt more than he can handle. And. It means a lot, that she stays through his temper. It's nice, having someone taking care of him for once. It feels good to be treated gently, softly, even though he can't treat her with the same kind of gentleness. And Val is fourteen years old, same age Nya is, and she's taking care of him - and the itch to take care of her in return kicks in. He's a protector at heart, has been used to providing and taking care of himself and his sister for years now, and though it felt good to have someone look out for him, it comes naturally to him to look out for people, too. So he starts taking care of Val, trying to learn how to communicate, how to serve her the way she's been serving him, each in their own way, and if he's doing for Val the same things he does for Nya - well, she doesn't need to know how much it soothes over his ache. (He's missed having something soft on easy reach.)

Anyways. Just lock them in a house together for one month with no one else to interact with apart from an old man who pops in every couple hours to make sure they didn't die while he was gone and are also eating regularly, and just. Wait until That Whole Process happens, and see the insane codependency that walks out.

Then there's just the fact they parallel each other in Insane Ways, which is a ramble that deserves it's own separate post that I sadly can't write yet due to spoilers. But yeah, sometimes I worry I made them drop into intimacy way too fast, but then I just remember they were never going to be normal about each other anyways, and relax back into my seat. They were always going to have a potent dynamic, so who cares if they start it up a week after they meet?

My guess is that it's a little tier under Ninjago. Or does it might even higher? 👀

Hiiii :D <3

Yes they did!! When Val was patching up the ninja at the end of Chapter 7, "Restless", they were retelling what happened in the Underworld to Nya. Val didn't pick up on the conversation due to being focused treating everyone, and so it doesn't show in the writing, but they explain to Nya how the Underworld looked different from Ninjago. Due to being their first time in another Realm, they decide the reality looked different because it was the Underworld, a Realm of death, and not because every Realm has a different reality. Having settled on that explanation, they just. See no worth in discussing the theme further. Val was not filled in simply because they forgot she wasn't paying attention/couldn't understand them while they were explaining.

Hmmm I haven't actually though what the style of the Underworld would be, or if it'd be higher or lesser than Ninjago's style. Haven't thought of any Realm's reality other than Ninjago's, really. On one side, I want to say based on vibes that the Underworld looks like drawings made of charcoal and chalk, with the impression of 3D due to the depth given to everything by the mix of colors. Thinking of deep, black shadows everywhere because that's just the reality of the Realm, with any and all colors (The red eyes of the Skulkin, the lava, the clothes and armor of the skeletons) looking super bright in between all the darkness. On the other hand, I've been toying with the idea of making every death-related Realm be higher than all others. If I went with that idea, then the Underworld would need to be a higher reality. Perhaps a low-resolution comic style, or something.

For now, I'm going with the charcoal idea :] Since charcoal and chalk are already in Ninjago's reality, it would mark the Underworld as lesser in the hierarchy than Ninjago, and so the ninja would have a slight advantage there. Plus, they would not have to deal with a lot of unreality problems since everything looks decently similar to Ninjago. They didn't even become 3D!!

Hmmm I can see Val telling other people stories from/about Earth, but maybe not writing them. Mainly because of the whole ninjargon-english-spanish dilemma. To write a whole book, she'd have to first write everything out in spanish (Or at least have a vague idea of what she wants to write), then translate that to english, and then passing that writing to ninjargon dialect. It'd take triple the effort, and writing a book is already hard work. Unless she was Extremely Bored and had no other thing to do, I don't think she'd sit down to write a book. If she did, Val would turn the story into one of those books with shortened versions of tales, like the ones you give to children who are learning to read. Much easier to write out, and so much more manageable to get out more than one story. Or, she could try to get in contact with a writer, tell them as much as she can remember from a story in detail, and pay them to write it, hoping they can convey the themes and hit the storybeats.

That's just on the language, though. There's also the Guilt. Val is a very logical person, but she's still driven strongly by emotions and, more importantly, her morals. Similarly to how she's been having an inner turmoil about interacting with fictional-characters-turned-real and all the implications of that, she'd think that profitting off of other people's efforts would be slimy. There'd be a battle in her mind, between the urge to share the stories she holds dear to other people so that they can delight in them as she did, and the shame about making money off of someone else's work. Val's already having breakdowns about having watched her housemates' lives through a screen and now living alongside them, I don't think she could handle getting credited for other people's hard work when to her knowledge they're still alive back on Earth. Sure, the chances of them dropping in Ninjago and calling her out and slim to nonexistent, but never zero, right?

And then there's just Val's doubt that she could tell her stories well enough. She'd think that with her struggles with the language, she won't be able to convey the stories correctly, and she'd had to pause and wonder if by telling them and risking doing so incorrectly, she'd do the stories a disservice. If she can't instill the same sense of wonder and awe when she first read/heard/watched a story onto the people around her, is it even worth it?

So. I can see Val writing down short, simplified versions of stories she likes to properly remember them, and maybe telling the ninja or other close friends some tales if she feels the mood is right, but she wouldn't professionally publish anything due to *Gestires vaguely* all that.

Thanks for the ask!!

Anything that comes at the cost of the ninja, Val would not do. She is under constant guilt about their circumstances, and feels indebted to them. Knowingly hurting them after years of watching them go through scenarios for her own amusement makes her want to throw up. Not even the chance to go home would tempt her, especially later on in the story.

Because. That's the whole thing. If Val was tempted with that offer now, barely past the pilots-

Yeah. She would go back in a heartbeat.

She's still unsure on where she stands about the universe being real or just a script someone's writing that she was unlucky enough to fall into. If she was offered a chance to go back home at the cost of hurting (Or killing) the ninja, she would debate it for a long time, then accept. She'd try to convince herself she's not actually hurting anyone, nothing's real, nothing at all is real, she's known this from the start. She'd zero in on her plausible deniability about hurting someone, shielding behind the knowledge that who she's hurting isn't an actual person, jut a simulation of one. If the offer was actually true and she went home, she'd eventually get over that part of her journey, insisting everything was an hallucination. If the offer wasn't real, and she just hurt the ninja for nothing, she'd spiral even deeper into guilt, and be very panicky about ever disagreeing with the ninja again. She can't do that to them. Not after everything she's done.

In the future of the story, she'd be a lot more secure about the rest being real, and wouldn't risk hurting them at all. But it's not just about Val learning to think of the rest as real people, but also about her feelings for her home.

If Val could go home at this point in the story, she would, because she's still not over her grief. She hasn't really fully accepted the fact she won't see her family again. She tells herself she is, but she hasn't gotten time to properly mourn or rage in the story yet, so there will be times when her feelings overwhelm her and she has breakdowns.

In the future, though...

Val would have processed what happened to her. She'd have lamented and risen up. She'd have truly grown out of her depression and trauma.

So going back home at the cost of hurting the ninja, or even killing them, would be like mourning twice. She'd be stepping back into a world she'd forced herself to forget, and stepping out of a world she'd learned to love. How would she act with her parents? Does she remember what she last learned in school? Can she even speak spanish anymore? Can she live without seeing the rest every day of her life? What will she do without her clinic? Can she leave behind the watercolors of Ninjago and go back to real life?

She'd be mourning all over again. She'd have trouble settling back into her life, and would terribly miss everything about Ninjago, especially her relationships to the people there. She'd cry over them as if they were dead. She'd know this, by that point. So she would choose not to.

Hmmmm, at the risk of spoilers, I'll say that they form a close bond!!

They're the only ones on the team with no Elemental Powers, and technically don't need to be part of the team. What keeps them there is not precisely their roles (As they could easily be fulfilled by another person, even if they weren't as skilled as Misako and Val are), but their connections to the rest.

I'd say Misako sees a bit of herself on Val, especially when she starts studying on other subjects apart from medicine. Eventually, as the seasons go, the ninja get hurt less and less, so Val picks up new skills to remain useful. Fun fact!! Her favorite subject in school was History, so once she's skilled enough at Ninjargon and has no obstacles in her way, she would be very interested in learning Ninjago's history. And Misako is very well versed in that regard.

It's a teacher-student relationship, what they have, with a closer bond formed by their similar circumstances in the team. Misako is to Val what Wu is to the Ninja.

That is a Question, alright.

The pilots were actually decently short compared to what's ahead. Half of it mostly because I wasn't that good a writer when I started the fic, so the first chapters are really short. Each arc will reach 100k easily, but they will be a lot, lot longer than that.

The longest arcs will be the First (The current one) and the Third one I'm pretty sure, though I'm unsure which one will be longer due to all that happens in both. The shortest arcs will be the Second and the Fourth; once again unsure which will be shorter, though they will both be probably longer than the pilots. I have no idea how long the Fifth and Sixth arcs are going to be simply because they're so far away most ideas I have for them are still not set in stone. I do know what happens in the big picture, but all the scenes and important details are still out there.

So. Yeah. Expect each arc to be much longer than the pilots actually. There is. A lot I have to get through. I don't even know how old I'm going to be when I finish Wanderlust. Probably past thirty, by that point. More than probably past forty.

All this for a silly isekai concept......

Would Val have asked that idea to the ninja to screw with the timeline and save people?

Did. Did the ninja ever get a fangblade. Apart from when they had all of them. Did they. Honest question. Because. Oh god that moment just dissapeared from my mind.

Hold up. Carnival episode, they lost the fangblade. Singing episode, they lost the fangblade. Volcano episode, they lost the fangblade. Then they tried to steal those three fangblades while Pythor went to find the last one. They manage to steal all four then, and try to dump them into a volcano. Pythor gets in the way.

Was there a moment before that where the ninja did get a fangblade? Because. If not, they did try to destroy them. Sure, not immediately, but they'd been fighting the Serpentine for months, so a night of celebration before destroying the blades the following day sounds reasonable.

But yeah, the Cloud Kingdom definitely has a part to play. Maybe if they weren't controlling the ninja's destinies, the ninja would have chosen to immediately destroy the blades somehow, and maybe they would still have their night of celebration before getting back down to business. It's an event that could have happened either way.

As for Val's involvement with the fangblades, I sadly can't say anything. As a rule, I'm trying to give as little information as possible about what happens in s1 so the plot hits harder, but I'm going to be absolutely down to ramble about Val's actions after they happen in the fic. You'll have to wait and see what Val does :]

That's the plan yes, but I don't know how far I'm taking it.

With the ninja, I just like the trope where people with powers are affected by them, or meld with them. I think it's a very popular headcanon that Zane runs very cold and Kai runs very hot due to their elements, for example, and it's canon in Wanderlust as well. Jay and Cole's variant of that would be that Jay always smells vaguely like ozone and Cole always smells vaguely of earth and grass (Like, specifically how parks smell after it rains). Nya, once she gains control of her power, smells like seawater, salty and fresh. Undecided on how everyone else's smells/feels is affected by their elements, though. I could make Lloyd start to naturally smell like flowers or ripe fruit once he unlocks his element, and something vaguely related to heat or metal when he's harnessing golden power specifically. Still thinking on it.

Also thinking about stealing a Percy Jackson headcanon for Nya. When Percy, son of Poseidon, travels, his eyes shift colors to match the shade of the nearest body of water. Perhaps I could write it in that Nya starts going through the same thing after she becomes the Master of Water.

Hmmm another few headcanons I've seen around tumblr is that Kai catches fire if he's mad enough. I think that's hilarious and I'm adopting it; unclear when I'll get to actually write a scene where this happens. I also just like to think things around him spontaneuosly burst into flames when he's upset enough. When Cole gets upset, instead, the ground rumbles like a small earthquake.

I've seen this with other lightning-based characters, so I think it'd be fun if Jay's freckles light up when he's happy or anxious, like bioluminiscence. His scars as well. Also, when he uses his powers too much, lightning can actually arce between his freckles. Think of that image. So cool.....

Hmmm some random thoughts. Kai and Jay burn through calories faster and so eat a lot more snacks than the rest. Cole and Zane are the opposite, and can last longer on little food. Passive effect of plants wilting much more slowly when around Cole and Zane, but faster when handles by Kai and Jay. Nya, and generally all Water Masters, are slightly bipolar; something about water coming in so many different shapes, about the ocean being calm and bountiful to some and wrathful and merciless to others, the constant changing of tides, how a river can stream along mildly or drown you in a flash flood.

Kai, Jay and Zane are more resistant to their elements, but they aren't immune to them. Kai won't get burnt immediately if he puts his hand to a flame he didn't create, and he probably won't even feel any pain from the heat, but if he leaves his hand in the fire long enough, the skin will be damaged, even if the pain is lessened. Zane takes a lot more time to succumb to frostbite, and Jay honestly gets a kick of being struck by lightning or by electricity by some stray wires. They have a higher pain tolerance/tolerance in general, but will eventually be hurt if they push themselves too hard. Mayhaps they wouldn't be hurt at all by their elements either when they're at their prime (Aka completely mastered the element) or when in True Potential state. Nya doesn't get to breathe underwater, but her eyes don't get upset if she opens them in the sea, at least not for a while. She also can see perfectly underwater, no matter the dimness or the rubble. Cole can breathe in a lot more dust than the average person before he starts getting hurt from it, as well. His skin also doesn't get as hurt when he tries to dig something with his hands, or when in contact with earth in general. One reason he took to mountain climbing with barely any equipment or clothes; the rocks and stones from the mountains did not hurt his palms and feet as gravelly as they would anyone else.

Those are all side-effects, though. As for straight up new abilities, I don't know what I would do. I do want to do something, I just haven't figured out anything concrete yet. Perhaps figuring out Elemental Bursts for everyone, and I do have a plan to make the True Potential State more relevant, if only because I think the suits each ninja has when they reach that state to be insanely pretty. Also something to do with True Potentials in general, but that one particular idea isn't introduced until Arc 6. So. You won't be seeing it for a while.

Mayhaps Jay gets to throw his lightning like daggers, like his Lego Fortnite version. Main four get a passive effect around people if they focus enough; Kai and Zane get to affect a room's temperature, and Cole can make everyone around him calm down, while Jay can get everyone jittery. Kai can meld wounds closed, because I think it's neat when fire-based characters do that, and Jay can make people move involuntarily (Or stop moving) by shooting tiny, focused bolts of electricity to people's muscles. Nya can purify water, and any water she makes is pure already; she also can manifest water from the humidity in the air around her. Lloyd can heal wounds, though it costs him a lot of energy, and can also heal sicknesses (Which costs him even more). He also occassionally leaves a trail of flowers behind him when he walks on grass. People naturally turn to him when he enters a room. Animals are generally nice to him, and he can subconsciously pick up languages easily. He will also get to use the other core four elements again, because I still don't understand entirely why he doesn't anymore. If it was due to a canon reason I have honestly forgotten. Also I will eventually try to incorporate [Redacted] in the story somehow, because I think that would be neat.

If. If you meant new abilities as. As Airjitsu and the Elemental Dragons and Elemental Bursts type of abilities. I once more have nothing concrete planned but I desperately want to figure something out. Like. I've been brainstorming a new form of Spinjitsu and have come up with ideas so dumb I'm startled by them

KYOOOOO (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠) hope you like it.

The idea was longer in my head now, since the first time we talked about Val on Day of the Departed. And since I'm obsessed with the idea of Jade - a character not even really appearing herself - haunting the entire narrative, I just had to draw it (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠) It didn't turned exactly out like I imagine and I'm hoping with sweat of pure fear that the Ninjargōn is right xD but yeah, well, that's it! ❤️

Your writing is fantastic, every line always feels kinda poetic and has a asthetic like the colors Val is wearing. And even though I'm aware for the fact that you'll emotional destroy all of us, I'm excited for more and to learn more about Jade and Val's longing for her beloved little precious boneless flesh bag sister<3

Have a nice day/night^^

YOU

I JUST. JUST. YOU.

"EVERYTHING I DO IS FOR YOU"?????? AND. THE. THE LANTERN WITH JADE'S NAME ON IT. I AM.

AUGH UGH AUGH I AM SOSOSO HAPPY AND ALSO GRINNING LIKE A FOOL.

You just have No Idea of the feelings this single thing gave me. I am chewing on your artsyle like a dog chewing on a juicy steak. VAL. MY DAUGHTER. EVERYTHING SHE DOES IS FOR JADE. MY OTHER DAUGHTER. AUGH. DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE MY ETERNAL LOYALTY AND ALSO THAT I LOVE YOU????

I. KONSANAJWN THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! It always means so much to hear people think about my story and my characters. I am sososo happy you like Jade - even though as you said, she hasn't ever appeared on the story herself!! I love her so much......my beloved flesh bag girl........your fate was sosososo horrible and sosososo unnecessary. I. I know I keep saying that I can't wait til everyone sees what the deal is with her, but. I'm just so fucking excited to see everyone react to what happened to her. It's years away yes but my god. Jade. Jade my beloved precious sunshine daughter.

"Everything I do is for you" congratulations that phrase is now getting included in the fic. I will use to Devastate you Forever <3 Ohhhh how I love you sisterly love trope.