He was asking for someone who is nonexistent. Someone who has been lost for a long time. If he was referring to the other Lloyd, the one whose body was three people...there's a problem here. That Lloyd was never there in the first place.
Oh boy, do I love hurting my fictional son with angst stories that have no context or meaning just to make me feel bad!
It felt rude to have someone invade your mind uninvited. It was like a vampire just waltzing inside your home and instantly going to your neck for blood, of course, vampires were fictional, but this was real. He was possessed by a vengeful spirit. He couldn't move, couldn't talk, his lack of senses were killing him.
Who was he?
"Morro,"
Ah, so he was Morro. Morro. Morro. Morro was also a ghost.
Was, a past-tense. Oh, ghosts were dead right? It felt weird to share a body with someone else. But since he was Morro, it felt weird to share a body with himself.
Maybe the other sharer felt it was weird too.
He'd forgotten the other sharer's name.
He controlled the wind now, asked it to dance for him, to fight for him. Since he was indeed Morro, he enjoyed it, watching his other's friends struggle against it. He ignored his other sharer's pleas to stop, stop, stop. But then, his other voice ceased and let him be.
No, where did he go? Morro didn't like it. Morro never liked it. It was quiet in his mind. He was already Morro, who else was there with him?
Where was he?
"Ll-!"
He felt tongue-tied with this new name of his. But earlier, they had a conversation going, the other was nice to talk to. Why was the other being quiet? Why did the other leave him alone?
"Hey! Where are you!?"
It seemed like the other had disappeared in his mind. Morro felt bad. But why? They did not like to be alone.
They've been abandoned a lot. It hurt.
And to think they were only children.
He coughed water, wait, he. Oh god, he was alive! What happened to the other!? Why were they freaking out?
Was he still Morro? No? Who was he? The uninvited voice had left him again. He felt sad.
He liked that voice.
He couldn't recognize his hands, but he wasn't Morro. He was confused, there were others surrounding him. He knew them, probably. But since he was Morro, he forgot who they were.
He-they were not Morro. They-he, wait, he was Morro!
"Lloyd!"
Lloyd? Lloyd. Who was Lloyd? They only knew Morro.
Lloyd does not exist.
He had fallen in love with her, the Jade Princess. She was very pretty, he liked her. Was, there goes another past-tense. How long ago has it since he's been Morro?
He, they, she-hold on. He wasn't there yet.
His mind was racing with memories as she wore green. His heart was beating. He trusted her. He-she agh!
The Jade Princess only laughed as he was helpless in their one-sided relationship. She watched as he tripped and stuttered for her like a baby learning to walk and talk. She listened to his tone and matched his smile. He'd forgotten who he was for a second there. Har-
She felt bad for ignoring these thoughts.
What was his own name again?
"Harumi,"
Oh, okay then.
He was now Harumi.
He was going too fast. He was not Harumi. He-she was the Green Ninja, right? He had only just met her.
Her voice was soft like a melody, she smelled like Christmas and Easter. Wait, maybe that was him. Oh, he's forgetting again. Her looks were deceiving.
He was missing again.
She messed him up pretty bad. So confusing.
He watched her die. The Quiet One, the one who he'd fallen in love with. He whispered her name under his breath. It felt like it was she who was watching him say it.
"Harumi,"
Someone was calling him.
"Lloyd!"
Stop. Stop. Stop. That wasn't his name anymore, he didn't even know who 'Lloyd' was. He had changed a lot over the years.
Wait, why was he alive? She was sure that they'd be crushed by the building during his father's wrath. They felt off, three people gave him confused looks. She was him, running fingers through his blonde hair, she could taste copper.
"Are you okay?" The water ninja asked them. She was the Quiet One, how were they supposed to tell her that he wasn't okay? Um. What a strange predicament.
Okay. Okay. Okay. He felt fine.
Spinning memories of herself as she screamed for their parents. Uh, were they only Harumi this time? But Harumi was a separate person. How did that happen? So, who was this other person then?
Harumi died just a second ago. That trauma finally caught up with her. She finally slipped far enough into his consciousness to not taste reality. They were losing it.
"Lloyd?" A hand touched her shoulder. But she wasn't Lloyd. She tensed and grabbed that hand.
"Don't touch me-! Him-! Her-! Us-!" She yelled. She made a mistake. The Quiet One had to apologize, this new body of hers has been acting strange lately. But she lied. "She's sorry, our thoughts are not himself today."
She didn't have to use the other pronouns but she did. If no one else was with him-them. Then how come she didn't feel alone? In her thoughts, it's quiet but only for a minute.
Wasn't she Morro again?
The other did not answer.
"Hm, I guess he's gone."
They weren't children anymore. So why was he playing hide-and-seek?
Right, Lloyd didn't exist anymore.
Laying on his bed, his thoughts were interesting, Lloyd would often have conversations with them. His friends were alive, his dad was in jail, his uncle was now back to his aged form. But there was something he was missing. Only a small detail that his voices reminded him of every day.
A hybrid of such, of a ghost, a resurrector, and an elemental.
It was like he had absorbed their lifeforce or something. But it seemed as if he was the only one left alive. Or, maybe he was already dead and he had stolen someone else's body. Or maybe this was a really vivid dream.
Perhaps they were figments of his imagination and he was just going crazy.
No, today, he was Lloyd. Somedays, he was Morro, and others, he was Harumi. Today, he talked with Morro and Harumi, asking them what they wanted to eat for lunch. The other outsiders were worrying about him.
Sometimes, he referred to himself as 'We' or 'They' like he was more than one person (which he was), but it was getting out of hand lately. When he's not Lloyd, Morro, or Harumi, they called themselves 'The Chosen One'. They liked being alone, they liked to talk to each other.
The Host of their body was The Chosen One.
The Chosen One is strong. A combination of all three of them combined. They became scary when intrusive thoughts came to play along with their silly game. Lloyd's fingers twitched at the thought. The voices asked him if he was okay. Yeah. He was still hanging in there.
"Good Afternoon," His uncle opened his door. Lloyd continued his conversations with them, ignoring the older man. His uncle only sighed and sat on his bed and shook him. Lloyd sucked in a breath.
He hadn't had human contact in a week.
"Hi," He said, without looking up. He hushed his voices. Once again, he was alone. He didn't like to be alone.
"Who are you today?" Wu asked him. The only one who didn't give much pity as the others have. The one who let him be them. He liked that. He hummed softly.
"Lloyd."
"Zane made lunch, would you all like some?" No, he did not want lunch. They all wanted their own lunch, this was their body and only they got to choose what they wanted. Lloyd shook his head and sat up.
"We're good. I'm getting a sandwich later." Lloyd answered. Wu formed a thin line on his lips, Lloyd could feel Morro flinch, he did not like to disappoint Wu. His hands were in front of him protectively. "D-Don't be mad!"
Wu only gave a small smile knowing that was his former student. Being careful to put a hand on the boy's shoulder, he just nodded. In return, the boy gave a confused look. Why wasn't he mad?
He's been changing quickly a lot lately.
"Actually, I think we'll join everyone for lunch," Lloyd said softly. Morro and Harumi made noises in agreement. Ha. They never left him. Lloyd missed them.
They were hungry anyway.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Why was she screaming? He was fine a minute ago.
It hurt. They couldn't breathe. Sharp pangs in her chest proved him wrong. Oh no, The Chosen One.
The Host hasn't been his best. They were going to die. They were going to take over his-her-their body. Ah, it hurt so much.
The red ninja held out his hands to calm them down. Didn't work. They were still screaming. The flickering lights terrified them. The Chosen One was very unstable.
The Host was throwing his temper tantrum again. He was only a child. They were throwing furniture. She could hear the voices of the other ninja.
"Lloyd! You have to snap out of it!" The blue one called to them. They were not Lloyd. Lloyd was screaming too. The Chosen One didn't like that name yet. So they cried.
The voices were screaming again, he-she-they wouldn't stop screaming. They wanted to leave. They were only children for their sakes. All of their thoughts at once were killing them.
"We don't want you to hurt us!" They shouted. His voice sounded younger than one would imagine. They were trapped in a body of a teenager. They didn't know who they were anymore. "We've suffered enough and it hurts!" They took a step back.
The five other ninja gave them a sorrowful look. They hated that. They didn't want the stupid pity from them. They didn't need a stupid pity party.
"Stop looking like that! He gave me the exact same look when I died! I don't want your pity!"
Who said that? Which one of them said that?
"Harumi…?" The black ninja whispered. The Chosen One felt stuck. Wait no. Wrong choice of words.
They felt trapped.
"Stop whispering, I can hear you! He did that too when I was around! Always whispering around me like it means something!"
"Okay, that's Morro." The white one said from behind.
Something did not feel right. Were they blaming him? But why? They had a conversation.
No, that was the Host's doing.
"Stop pointing out the obvious guys, we tease each other all the time." They nervously laughed, hoping to throw the others off. The others shared looks.
So they screamed again and fell to the floor.
"They're gonna leave me again! I can't do this! I don't like to be alone!" They shouted. Lloyd. But he didn't exist anymore. Yes, he did. "Lloyd doesn't like this."
That was their Host's name. It didn't make any sense. There were two Lloyds? The Host was a child.
Right, they never really particularly aged.
"How old are you?" There was an older voice. His eyes tore him to pieces. They didn't want any help. But The Chosen One opened their mouth anyway.
"Eleven," They answered. The wise man nodded.
"And how old is Morro?" The Chosen One tightened their fists. They didn't want to answer. But they did. Someone was making them.
"Fourteen," They were using his voice this time. It felt foreign, they hadn't been Morro in so long.
"Good, what about Harumi?" Their uncle nodded.
They felt themselves shift as they were now Harumi, the Quiet One.
"Sixteen,"
They felt like they were disorienting. It was like they didn't know who's body they'd inhabited. They did, they just kept forgetting his name. Who's who wasn't an option.
"Lloyd?"
That name sounded familiar.
"What?"
The man tsked and stepped closer.
"How old is he?"
He was asking for someone who is nonexistent. Someone who has been lost for a long time. If he was referring to the other Lloyd, the one whose body was three people...there's a problem here. That Lloyd was never there in the first place.
"He's scared. He doesn't know, none of us know. No more questions." The Chosen One got up and continued to push others out of their way. Making their way outdoors. The man cleared his throat.
"Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, how old are you?"
The Chosen One hated that name. Lloyd. Full of power and energy, connected to four other elements, a savior, the pacifist, the leader. Just a boy.
They didn't like this name because Lloyd has been through a lot. If he hadn't had a dosage of that Tomorrow's Tea, then maybe his life would be different. He wanted to be normal. This Lloyd was hiding from his own future, never moving on.
Trapped in his mind of self-hate.
"He says he doesn't want to answer because he's sad. But...I will answer for him….okay?" The Host mumbled. Now it hurts to speak. They were crying again. "He's seventeen….right?" In truth, they weren't sure. They were never sure.
"Yes, Lloyd is seventeen." Their master confirmed. The Chosen One felt their heart beam with warmth knowing that they did something right. Actually, there was a mixture of emotions. There was always that lingering sadness that fell in with it.
"We're not Lloyd but we understand why he's sad. Lloyd says he's sorry for being a burden." The Chosen One resorted to looking down at their fingers, fiddling with them. Five shadows neared them along with the old man. "And um, Lloyd thinks that he doesn't deserve you guys 'cause you're always so nice to him and he's been lonely a lot."
But the five ninja and the old man hugged them. They tensed. Out of all their predictions, this one was not called for. This contact felt like it was too much. They sighed.
"Hm-why?" Morro choked on his own words. His eyes softened at the touch but a shiver ran up his spine. Even when he was alive, he longed for the touch of someone who cared. Someone who could give him what he wanted. "Why don't you hate me? Why do you all-"
"-care about me so much?" Harumi's tears didn't cease to leave her. She didn't want them to let go, it was like she had a family again. One that she could love. One who didn't pretend to care. "After all the trauma and-"
"-things I did wrong, you still cared about me." The Host felt himself calm down now. He's tired. There was so much going on. Too much to think about. "Lloyd's tired. He says thank you."
"Well, before Lloyd goes to sleep, would he like to go out to get ice cream with us then?" The red ninja gave them a warm smile. The Host looked up.
"Lloyd says he wants one but he's not going to be back for a while."
"That's fine, tell him that we'll be waiting with open arms when he arrives."
"Lloyd says that he'll be happy to see you guys when he does."