I think Cole, Zane, Kai, and Nya all have some really basic sewing skills and I think they all got in the habit of just fixing whatever clothes had a tear but when Lloyd was a kid he used to just walk into the living room sniffling and holding a toy or a jacket and all four of them would LEAP to fix it for him. Most notably when his hoodie (yeah that one) would get torn someone would help him patch it so now there are random little swatches of different colored fabric at stress zones on the hoodie. He still has it and sometimes post merge but before DR he just sits up and stares at the patches
Borg tried to make sentient androids similar to zane but I think he kept fucking up the programming and they kept meeting their end in horrid ways. Eventually he just gave up and shifted the physical design to create the P.I.X.A.L. line, of which our very own Pix is the first model. Theyre supposed to be nothing but helper droids, like a walking Alexa or Siri or smth similar. So when Borg finds out that not only has Pixal been taken by the ninja, but also developed honest to god sentience and emotion, he's absolutely terrified because he doesn't think he can watch another android rip its own inner workings out in a fit of emotion and existential horror. Thats why we see him pamper Pixal while still stepping so far away from that "father" role that Dr. Julien filled for Zane.
Perhaps Frak's reason for having Cole as his favorite is a little more personal. I think it would be nice if Cole was like, in public (maybe at a library, maybe a cafe or smth, who knows) and he hears this guy insulting his kid easy as breathing. And Cole remembers sitting at the top of the steps after mom fell asleep and listening to dad and the other blacksmiths joke about Cole's dancing. So he quietly goes over to the group of adults and the one kid who's playing with ninja action figures under his dad's chair, and he starts hanging out with the kid and maybe plays a little game with him and like, autographs a cup or a napkin or smth. Its a short interaction, like five or ten minutes, and Cole honestly forgets about it in a week. But Frak, who was the center of someone's attention in a positive way for the first time, who wasn't ridiculed for liking the ninja for once, who had someone to play with? Never forgets that little interaction.
It makes me giggle that genshin decided to roughly define lohen's age when they give insights about age so rarely. And they decided he's canonically under 18.
I think if the ninja had never met each other they would all be varying degrees of touch neutral to touch averse aside from the siblings but I think they accidentally trained one another to be super super touchy throughout the first couple of seasons so now they always have hands on each other. I think the in universe fans have a running joke about keeping three points of contact with your fellow ninjas
Once poly!bau got together, Spencer and Penelope realised that they finally had enough people to make a D&D party.
The first few times they played, Spencer was the DM, and Penelope explained the rules as they went / helped everyone figure out what moves they should make.
Chaos insues..
...
Everyone knew Emily was a geek at heart, so it wasn't that surprising to anyone when she told them she already knew how to play, but she was a bit rusty. Five minutes in, and everything was coming back to her.
What was surprising was the fact that David not only knew how to play, but he also had a secret room in his house (that no one knew about) filled to the brim with everything a D&D party could ever want.
Manuals and handbooks all neatly organised on shelves, even old editions that none of the kids these days know about. There are dozens of character sheets he's collected from old parties just lying around on his customised gaming table. He even has a few of his first character designs hidden away in an old binder from high school.
Derek rage quit after he somehow managed to continuously roll the worst numbers known to man. He rejoined the game exactly 2 minutes later after being persuaded by Emily, Spencer, and Penelope's puppy dog eyes.
Jj was doing incredibly well for her first time. She was also doing incredibly well at rage-baiting Derek, which led to him quitting and rejoining a second time.
She got cheeto dust on the dice, which led to her indefinite ban on eating cheetos while playing.
Aaron almost pissed his pants laughing when Penelope whispered in his ear and told him what spell he should use against Derek. It was diabolical, but oh boy, did he want to use it. Unfortunately, he decided to be nice and played a different move.
He kept that spell in mind for future games, though.
..
Spencer loves Jj, and Jj loves cheetos (and Spencer too ofc), but Spencer hates getting cheeto dust on his fingers. So, as a compromise, he put on a latex glove and fed Jj her cheetos so she could play without staining anything.
..
While they took a break from playing, Emily helped Dave cook kept stealing pasta while Dave was cooking. Jj was on the couch with Aaron, nuzzling into his chest as he gave her a kiss on the head. Penelope was (not so secretly) taking pictures of everyone being cute together to hang up in her batcave.
After the photoshoot, she sat on the couch braiding Spencer's hair while he was on the floor playing cards with Derek. Since she couldn't braid Derek's hair, she just gave him a flowery headband to wear, and he happily accepted.
Then they all ate pasta and lived happily ever after :D
(Idk anything about D&D, so I hope my wording was okay :p)
My personal idea of what the yin-yang promise means, as a polyninja/ultrapolyninja/multi shipper:
The yin-yang promise represents a belief that the two members are, in some way, already bound by fate. Typically, this refers to a previous life. special jewelers exist who can supposedly sense a yin-yang pairing and create a special pendant based on the bond they sense. these jewelers are not always telling the truth, though some are. Yin-yang promises did not start out inherently romantic, that's a slightly more recent cultural shift. However, tradition dictates that a yin-yang promise be exclusively between two people. The common belief is that more than two essentially dooms your next lives to never find all of their yangs, and therefore never find true peace.
Now, there have been people who have, both correctly and incorrectly, felt that this was the first lifetime in which they met. When this happens, the duo goes through what's called an oathswearing. it involves some pretty serious rune work and a highly skilled blacksmith. it's meant to create a new bond that should withstand several lifetimes.
Onto the ultrapolyninja side, Jay asks Nya to be his yang because he believes (correctly) that they have long been bound together by fate. Sometime after crystallized and before the merge, though, the main six and pix go through an oathswearing. They have Wu help, and Kai and Nya forge specialized jewelry for everyone. They decide that they've all clawed their ways back to one another enough in this life, they're pretty confident everyone can handle it in the next.
Notably, that's what they decided in their previous life, too.
Of all the ninja I think that Cole is the one who wants children the absolute least. He doesn't hate them by any stretch, he's just perfectly content to spoil all the other ninjas' kids and not have his own.
He has to explain to Geo why everyone is staring so much when he reappears after five years with three of the lil shits.
I like how Camicazi is like "you haven't met stormfly because we're not clingy and seperation anxietycore like you and toothless" and then proceeds to never willingly part from her ever again Stormfly scarf, stormfly rope knot watever it takes same for stormfly. take them away from eachother they start crying and screaming and biting. Camicazi fake idgaf + seperation anxiety x20. Fishlegs and Horrorcow are the realdeal. Shout out to them, they're like- you know im not even sure they're friends. I think theyre Acquaintances.
If you're looking for writing prompts, would you be up for some movieverse pixal & ninja team dynamics? I'm particularly interested in seeing how she would interact with Nya (as a ship or platonic, either is cool!) but anyone else I would enjoy too
Hope you have a nice day!!
I had a very specific idea in my head for this one and I think it shook out well enough? Idk, I just hope you enjoy! Someday I'm gonna do a TLNM rebooted i swear
This sleepover had been a godawful idea.
Here she was, sitting awake as her friends dozed off around her. Nya and Kai were splayed out on the floor, somehow never touching even in their sleep despite both being sheer messes of limbs. Lloyd was draped over the armchair where he had passed out during the movie, and Cole was slouched on the ground against the side of it with Lloyd's fingertips just barely brushing his hair. Jay was curled small into the corner of the couch. Zane was taking up most of the rest of it.
And then there was Pixal. Poor, lonely Pixal, staring at her maybe-friends while they slept because Borg hadn't quite figured out how to program that one into her yet. Not that any of them would know the reason.
He wanted her to blend in. He wanted to create a droid that could blend in, with personality programming so advanced no one would know and aesthetic design so stunning that no one would care. She got so much disgusting attention that she did not find appealing in the slightest. Boys had been wolf-whistling at her in the hallway, girls either snubbed her or fawned. She didn't like it, and it was starting to make her think that making her attractive had been a mistake. Especially when she was supposed to be a teenager.
Then the Ninja had stepped in. They sat in a somewhat strange area socially - no one was willing to admit that what the city had done to Lloyd was wrong, but the Ninja were too beloved to simply sweep the boy under the rug. So they were worshipped like gods and avoided like the plague. Them pulling her into their little group had made her essentially untouchable.
Nya snorted in her sleep, and Pixal's head jerked over. It had been her idea, at first. Apparently one of Pixal's biggest admirers was a boy who had said some less-than-savory things to Nya once upon a time. When the other girl had seen what was happening, she had all but dragged Pixal away and over to the Ninja's little group. She had been stuck there ever since, not that she was complaining.
She wondered sometimes if they knew they were just training a program. If they would stick around if they did know. If Cole would still thoughtlessly switch to his two-port aux and offer her a pair of earbuds in art. If Jay would still hand her his carrots and steal her snap peas. If Kai would pull her into those massive comforting hugs, or Zane would ask her what she thought about their AP Lit homework, or Lloyd would tip her that shy little smile every morning.
If Nya would still look at her like she had hung the stars in the sky with her own two hands. If she would still snarl at the cruel boys in the hallway and block their views with her locker door. Would that fiercely protective girl still be so protective if she knew Pixal really was nothing but an object? Something to be helpful and admired and very little else?
Her eyes lit up a brilliant blue, casting the Cyan Ninja in her signature shade. Brown eyes turned blue by light fluttered open, and Nya squinted up at her as she struggled to shut the LEDs off.
"Sorry, sorry—"
"Somethin' wrong?" She slurred tiredly. She was starting to sit up, shit, her father was going to be so mad when Nya found out and told everyone—
"Wh— Pixal, Pixal." A gentle hand found her face, batted her hands away from her eyes. "Stop rubbin' 'em so hard, you're gonna fuck up your eyes. Calm down, they'll go off on their own."
Pixal froze, then gave a small nod. Nya shoved her to one side of the chair and curled around her, forcing both of them to sit sideways in an armchair that was definitely only made for one person. Pixal kind of suspected that Nya was dozing off on her shoulder.
"Uh…" Nya palmed at her eye, probably trying to wake herself up. "You good?"
"I think so," she replied quietly. The bright blue melancholy was already starting to dim. "Thank you."
"Mm." Nya looked her up and down, already looking much more awake. "What were you thinking about?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Bullshit. Tell me." Nya tucked under her chin. "Or I'll have Jay hack it outta ya, since you're acting more robot-y tonight."
Well, there was the light again. Cyan flickered into sharp orange alarm. "I'm sorry?"
"Hey, easy. Didn't mean to freak you out." Nya sat up a little straighter. "Was that a bad joke? Zane usually doesn't mind it."
"Zane?"
"Yes?" Zane chirped, sitting bolt upright. "Am I needed?"
Nya sighed. "No. go back to sleep."
"Okay!"
If he hadn't woken up so abruptly, Pixal would almost be concerned by how quickly he fell back asleep.
Nya tugged her chin away from Zane. "Ignore him. Focus on calming down. I'm sorry if I upset you."
"You did not." Pixal hesitated, then grabbed Nya's wrist. "How… how did you know?"
Pixal was good at reading people. She watched as confusion flashed across Nya's features, then something like pity. "Did your dad not tell you he told us?"
That… explained quite a bit, actually. "No, he did not."
Nya hissed through her teeth. "Fuck. Yeah, Pix, we all know. Fuck that's shitty."
"You swear a lot."
"Does it bug you?"
"No, I was just remarking on it." The orange was starting to fade out now, too. "Thank you for telling me."
"Any time."
"You mentioned Zane?"
"Yeah." She nodded towards the sleeping boy. "He's a nindroid. Different than you, though. Kinda an accident, you know? But we love 'im."
She wrung her hands. "Is that why you are all so nice to me? Because you have dealt with droids before?"
Nya scoffed. "First of all, you say 'droid' like you're a fuckin' Star Wars guy. Second, we hang with you because we think you're cool and like hanging out with you. If we didn't, we wouldn't." Nya curled impossibly closer, tangling their legs together. "That what you were thinking about?"
Pixal just nodded into Nya's hair. She didn't entirely trust herself to speak. Warm hands gently adjusted her, pulling her closer to Nya so she could shit in the chair and lay down somewhat properly. It was nice. She tucked her face into Nya's shoulder and let the girl get comfortable."
"Your dad treats you like shit."
"My dad treats me like a droid."
"Fuck that," Nya grumbled. "You're a person before you're a species. That's such bullshit."
"You seem to have a lot of opinions on this."
"Yeah." Nya's gaze dropped. "I guess… I guess it's kind of a trans thing. Like, when I first started on E, I was a trans person before I was Nya, you know? Shit, I was a trans person before I was Xian. I wasn't just me until Kai and Lloyd noticed and had me start hanging out with them instead of my old friends. And then we got the other and… blah blah. Point is, You don't deserve to be just a nindroid. You're Pixal first here."
"You didn't deserve that."
"I know I didn't. 'S why I'm makin' sure you don't go through the same bullshit."
Pixal hugged Nya just a little tighter. "Thank you."
Yeah let's pretend I was here on his birthday and remembered to post this! The way Derek holds cups and pens is the gift that keeps on giving! Happy (late) 53rd Birthday, Derek!
My fandom content predictions for when Duskfall eventually drops:
-Fix it where any dead ninja never die and they stick around to help train the kids
-time travel fics where the ninja meet their future kids
-movie/duskfall crossover where the movie crew meets their kids from another universe
-kids sent back in time to try and help their parents through the events of the main show
-Despite Mira/Nate being somewhat canon, Jin/Nate is going to be the most popular ship and people are either gonna make mira the ace wingwoman or make her a raging bitch
