Wisps: Recollection (Ninjago X Reader)

43. Strikes and Sparks

Out of the handcuffs and into the ball and chain. You preferred handcuffs to lugging a heavy-ass lump of vengestone by your ankle. Two days on this ship and it was beginning to wear on your mind and body; the answer grimly apparent. You couldn't come to terms with it. "Ow." You pulled too tight the bandages, the stitched-up gash from when Cole punched Nadakhan stinging. It was, in fact, not a nick, but at the time, adrenaline was the thing that drove you to disregard it. 'Fucking Cole. Could have had my throat sliced.' Chains clattered as you scratched below the ankle cuff to satisfy an itch. Jay's ramblings ground on your eardrums, and you scraped too harshly the skin.

"...thing to happen to me! I'm stuck with you! I won't see my parents again! They'll never find my body-!" You flung a spoon at his nose, his grey eyes thundered.

"Shut it." You lie on the floor, on your side. "We'll find a way out of this mess... Somehow." A hollow hope.

"You're the reason we're in this mess. You should have used your wishes wiser!" A vein was ready to burst in your temple.

"You're the one who wasted one to impress Nya." You insulted him before you registered it. "Why don't you disappear and use your last wish on Nadakhan?" You couldn't help it; he made it simple when all he did was offend you. But it wasn't doing either of you any favors. Here, in this cage, you need him on your side.

"Why don't you use yours?! Try and outsmart that djinn- Zane failed." Zane's failure chained the aggression, and you spoke an idea before he found the motivation to stir the pot.

"Why can't you just wish Nadakhan dead?"

"If I could, I would! But you can't directly wish harm or wish for death either. Your idea is stupid."

"I haven't heard anything from you."

"It's because I don't trust-!"

"We are literally in the same boat, in the same cage-! What the fuck do you-!"

Some pirates pounded their paws on the cell's bars and mocked, "Shut your traps." A serpentine unbarred the cell, and shoved Jay out, bringing you with him. Coarse, lime scales were lusterless in the candlelight. 

He gasped, his glowing eyes on you, well, on your clothes, "Is-is-is-is that a-a-a snake?" He pointed to the symbol on your gi, with something akin to delight.

"I guess it is."

"A fitting symbol for someone like you!"

"At least mine isn't a shitty octopus."

"Gu-guys there's no-noth-nothing wro-wrong wi-with being a sn-snake." Or something like that, his voice falling to the backdrop as Jay stuttered to find an insult. The half serpentine spoke louder, "My na-name is Cl-Cl-Clancee."

"Alright, Clancee." His eyes glowed brighter. He seemed to be the most "tolerable" one on the ship. Everyone had a bunch of unruly, turbulent personalities, but that's just expected(even more so for Jay).

"You wi-will bo-both cl-clea-clean–"

"You both be cleaning the deck again." The pirate from earlier cut him off, the cleaning supplies at his feet, and then he wandered off.

You squinted, the sun burning your retinas. You got a wet scrub brush, and Jay was handed a mop. 'Looks like I'm not mopping today, Skylor.' You chewed up your pride, scrubbing at the grime and dirt that built unevenly on the wood. The ball dragged along with you, its noise and heaviness a perpetual reminder. You dipped the brush in the bucket, and Jay rammed the mop on your hand.

Your other hand punched Jay's knee, and he grunted, "What was that for? Ow."

"For being a dick."