Morro's Means to Make Money
Morro comes to Ninjago with one purpose in mind– Take over Ninjago by controlling the economic flow of the realm.
But he’s been trapped in the Cursed Realm for decades and Ninjago has changed to the point Morro doesn’t recognize anything anymore. So he hires– kidnaps– Lloyd Garmadon to help him secure enough money to be the wealthiest person and ghost in Ninjago.
An interactive S5 AU where I ask you guys to help Morro and Lloyd come up with SFW ideas to get money!
_-___-Part 1: How this mess started-___-_
Lloyd groggily makes his way to the bathroom, hating every life choice he has ever made. Why had no one stopped him when he was six cans of energy drinks, fifteen packs of assorted chocolates, and an entire family-sized bag of Skittles deep into the night? They knew he was going to end up in a sugar coma, and yet they had sat around him, enjoying the horror movie Cole had put on, and did nothing to stop his bad decisions. Did the Ninja not love him anymore? Were they trying to kill him?
He runs his tongue across his teeth and grimaces when he can still taste the fuzzy aftertaste of sugar in his mouth. He knew that much sugar was a mistake, he grumbles to himself, making the decision that he was going to brush his teeth twice and then he wasn’t going to touch candy for at least a day. Maybe that was a bad decision too, but Lloyd’s veins are mostly sugar anyway and he’s too self-destructive to make healthy life decisions.
After Lloyd feels like his teeth won’t decay on him right then and there, he splashes water on his face to wake himself up. Then he looks up from the sink and into the mirror to make sure he looks more awake than he actually feels, and screeches so loudly, he hears a bird flapping off of the roof.
Lloyd curses Cole for playing that movie last night. Is that why he ate so much candy? Was it because he was scared and needed comfort food? Possibly. But Lloyd didn’t think he’d get so spooked from the movie that the fear would still be there in the morning. Is he still dreaming in his sugar coma? There is no way right now that he is in a horror movie right now.
He doesn’t feel like a human right now, let alone a ninja capable of surviving a supernatural attack. Because, uh, yeah, there is a person in the mirror. No, it’s not Lloyd, though he’s there too– but a green, blob-looking man, peering over his shoulder with an uninterested frown. He looks to be Lloyd’s age– with pitch-black hair and sunken eyes floating over him, looking at Lloyd like he has personally disappointed him.
“I’m dead,” Lloyd whispers dreadfully, as cold air floods through him. “I ate too much candy and now I’m dead. Ohhh, Kai’s going to kill me.”
The figure in the mirror makes a face, “Ugh.” He says, and Lloyd bites down another yelp as the green man in the mirror isn’t just in the mirror anymore but next to him. Is that why Lloyd is suddenly shivering despite it being summer?
“You better not be dead. I need you to do something for me.”
Despite Lloyd’s brain telling him to scream and run out of the bathroom to tell someone that the monastery was haunted, and they definitely needed some sort of ghost pest control, he just groans and rubs his head.
He’s barely awake enough to function properly anyway. “I’m a little too scared to ask this, but why do you need me? Like me specifically? Because I don’t think I can be much help to anyone, let alone ghosts, right now.”
He’s expecting to hear something along the lines of some sort of unfinished business or a ghost with a vendetta against him, not: “You’re poor.”
Lloyd just stares blankly at him. This has to be the candy talking. “Uhh… What?”
The ghost sighs, and rubs his head, like Lloyd is slow to the uptake. Sue him, he was recovering from his candy high! Also, why would: “You’re poor,” be the first thing to pop into Lloyd’s mind when there is a ghost haunting him?
“Listen, you’re the Green Ninja right?” The ghost says slowly like he’s trying to teach Lloyd something. Lloyd just nods his head along, trying to figure out why he thinks that this won’t be the weirdest thing that will happen to him today. “Someone who is famous, correct?”
“...Yes,” Lloyd nods his head again, brows furrowed in confusion. What did that have to do with being poor?
“Where’s the money then?”
“I– what?” Lloyd asks, feeling befuddled. “What are you talking about? Also, who are you? Why do you care about my money? Shouldn’t you be… I don’t know? Haunting me? Scaring me? Making my life miserable? Whatever ghosts do?”
The ghost snorts, “Do you want me to do that?”
Lloyd tosses his hands in the air, “No! But what does my money have to do with anything?” He demands, and the ghost shrugs.
“When I was living, I was poor and an orphan. Now, I’m dead and still poor, I’d like to change that– except the orphan part, I don’t really care about that anymore,” The green dude says, and Lloyd thinks it over in his head before nodding in agreement.
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Why do you need my help though? Not anyone else…like I don’t know, Clutch Powers? Or Cliff Gordon? They’re pretty rich, right?”
“Yes, they are. And trust me, we’ll get to them. But you Lloyd– you’re not only famous, you are a legend. No matter what you do, you will be immortalized in history forever. You should have a lot of money rolling in for simply being you. So where is it?” The ghost asks, and Lloyd frowns at that perspective that he hadn’t thought of before.
He didn’t have any money.
He didn’t have a need for money, since Wu paid for most things, so that meant he was all set. But… he was super famous though. Surely someone had tried to pay him for protecting Ninja or something, right? But no, he realizes with a frown. He’d never gotten a dime for his efforts.
“Exactly,” The ghost seemingly read his thoughts and grins at him victoriously. “You’re poor.”
“I have food on the table and a roof over my head,” Lloyd points out, trying to find some reason to be okay with having no source of income to his name. “Also I have candy. I think I'm alright with that.” But the more Lloyd thinks about it though, he doesn’t think he actually is.
“But with money, I’m sure you could get that new comic book you’ve been thinking about. Fritz Donnegen and the attack of the Arsenic Featherflies, right?” The ghost says, looking smug, and Lloyd frowns.
Yes, he did want the new comic, and was saving up for it, but…“Hey, how did you know about that? How long have you been haunting me?” He demands, and the ghost rolls his eyes.
“I don’t need to haunt you, one look from that sugar-infested hell that you call a bedroom was more than enough to know what you truly like when you're not saving Ninjago,” the ghost dismisses, and Lloyd bristles, feeling offended.
“Okay, buddy. This is the last time I ask you: Who are you and why do you want my non-existent money?”
The ghost sighs and crosses his arms. “I don’t just want your non-existent money, I want to hire you to make money for me.”
Lloyd blinks, once again feeling lost as heck. “Wanna run that by me again?”
“Be my cash cow and I’ll pay you in candy and comics. Plus, I can get you blackmail on literally anyone you want– Wu especially,” The ghost offers, stretching out a goopy hand, Lloyd just knows this is a bad idea, but hey, getting money that he probably deserves, plus free candy, comics, and blackmail on whoever he wants?
“Well, it’s not like I’m doing anything,” Lloyd shrugs and shakes the ghost’s hand. And then immediately pulls back, because ewww. Ghost hands were gross. “How do we start?”
The ghost grins, deep and dark, and despite there being no windows in the bathroom, Lloyd’s hair flutters from the wind. “Give me a list of all the things that can get us quick money,” The ghost says. “And write a letter to the Ninja so they don’t think I’m using you to break into your grandfather’s tomb.”
_-___-_
Kai swears he’s just walking to his room after grabbing pain relief for his throbbing headache when he passes Lloyd’s room and hears voices. He doesn’t mean to be suspicious, but he didn’t think that Lloyd had any friends over, so, who was he talking to?
“We could always start a fan shop?” He hears Lloyd say and frowns. A fan shop? Did Lloyd forget that they were setting up a tea shop?
He’s so confused that he misses the other person’s response, although it sounds garbled and distorted to the point that even if Kai could hear, he probably wouldn't be able to understand anyway. Who was Lloyd calling at six in the morning?
“Ugh, you’re so old– I’m not saying that we personally make the fans by hand. I was thinking more along the lines of getting custom fans pre-made that have my autograph or something– wait! What if we set up a merch shop? That’s low maintenance, especially if we just get someone to do it for us,” Lloyd says, and Kai blinks a few times.
A merch shop? For fans? Or a fan merch ship? Was Lloyd still on his sugar rush? Did Kai need to take him to the hospital?
“What do you mean you were once a human fan? You’re not even a human! I don’t care that you can control the wind, no one is going to pay me money to be a literal fan!”
Okay, that’s it.
Kai can only reach so much confusion with a raging headache, and he’s met his limit. He pushes Lloyd’s door open, and winces in pain as Lloyd yelps and throws a pillow at his head. “Dude! It’s just me,” Kai says, tossing his arms up. “Just wanted to check up on you, you had a lot of sugar last night. Are you alright? Who are you talking to?” He looks around the room– Lloyd is sitting on his bed, facing the window with a notebook on his lap, but no one else is in the room.
Maybe Kai’s going crazy. That’s probably it.
Lloyd shrugs, shutting the notebook. “I’m just talking to myself. I had a weird dream that a ghost was trying to convince me to make him money, and then I decided that was a good idea, so now I’m trying to think of ideas. Got any?”
Kai nods his head slowly, his brain trying to understand what in the world is going on. “Dreamt of a ghost? Did the movie last night scare you?” He asks, grasping at straws for any semblance of context, but Lloyd snorts and shakes his head.
“Nah. It was just good timing.”
Well, that makes absolutely no sense.
“Okay,” Kai says, backing out of Lloyd's room. “Good talk. When my headache goes away, I’m going to assume that this was a hallucination and that a ghost didn’t ask you to be part of a money-making scheme.”
“Okay,” Lloyd nods his head and waves Kai away. “By then, we should probably have the money, so don’t even worry about it.”
Kai shuts the door and heads back to bed. Let someone else take care of this– preferably Cole. It was his fault for showing them the movie after all. Although making money on the side wasn’t such a bad idea, Kai admits.
Maybe… Then Kai remembers the last time he tried to make money– as a human pinata. He shakes his head violently. That was a memory he thought he had managed to scrub from his brain. Guess not. He’ll think about money-making later.
_-___-_
Dear Wu,
I have decided that since your tea shop is not going to do well– probably because you have it in the worst place for customers and have no idea how to run a business– someone needs to step up and be able to provide. So to obtain a constant stream of money (That I should rightfully have since I have saved Ninjago multiple times.) I have decided to explore my options, and honestly, the others should be doing the same thing as well, though I will probably be out of town for the next few months.
Please do not panic, I am not in a hostage situation, in fact, I have your former student Morro helping me, and he promises me candy and blackmail on you, so don’t even try looking for me. I had Dareth set up a merchandise shop, so you will have at least some sort of income while I am away.
To the others, GUYS WE’RE GOING TO BE RICH I PROMISE
Love, Lloyd.
Ps. Whatever you see on the news, ignore it.
Pps. Wu, Morro told me what you did back in 1545, I swear to your father, don’t even try it.
_-___-_
What should be the first thing Morro and Lloyd do to get money?
Perform a Heist at the Ninjago Bank
Force Cyrus Borg to pay a Ransom Fee
Other (Comments)
Part 2: Robbing a bank