Chapter 3: Invitations

Movie Ninjago

Due to Garmadon's flashy announcement, his upcoming wedding was the talk of the city and everyone wanted to go.

Thankfully, Koko managed to convince Garmadon not to invite the whole city just to show off, and limit their guests only to people they actually know.

Given that there were a lot of people they actually know, it was still going to be a pretty big wedding.

Though, there were some that were surprised to be included.

For example...

Morro was lounging in the house he shared with his friends. They all went to college together and figured it would save them money to rent their own place off-campus rather than to stay in the dorms.

Also… after what happened in their first year at Ninjago University no dorm would ever take any of them. They thought all of them were too… eventful to handle, to put it mildly.

Griffin, Paleman, Neuro, Tox, Karlof, Shade, and Morro. The rest of campus thought they were crazy, but they'd been friends for far too long to care.

Unfortunately, as much as Morro liked his friends, he had to admit some of them were terrible snoops. Paleman was the worst, but the rest weren't innocent either.

Case and point…

"Hey! Morro! Why is your crazy uncle inviting all of us to his wedding?" Griffin shouted at him after getting the mail.

"No look, it wasn't him that invited us, it was Morro's nice aunt," pointed out Paleman.

"Whatever," grumbled Tox. "We're still invited."

"We are being invited? Alright!" came Karlof's accented cheer.

Realizing that he should go find out what they were talking about, Morro got up and hurried to the front hall.

Five of his housemates were already there looking down at a beach-themed invitation.

"You know you're not supposed to go through someone else's mail, right?" Morro snapped with no real heat as he snatched the card away.

He wasn't looking, but he just knew his friend Griffen was smirking at him, "Like you wouldn't do the same to us."

Morro ignored him (though he didn't deny it) and looked closer at the invitation. His aunt's cheerful script was clearly written under the standard invitation message.

Hi Morro,

I know you wouldn't want to choose among all your friends to pick a plus one, so go ahead and bring all of them if they want to come. I know they're all good kids. See you at Game Night.

Love,

Koko

P.S. Garm might try to scare your friends off to annoy Wu. He knows they took lessons from him in the past. Just tell him I invited all of you, and he should back off.

Along with that were seven decorative slips of paper that said:

RSVP for the Wedding?

_ Yes _ No

"What's all the shouting about?" asked Shade, coming in with a wary look on his face. He'd accidentally sat on Paleman earlier in the week (an unfortunately common mistake with dire consequences) and knowing that eventually retaliation would come was making him paranoid.

"We've been invited to wedding!" cheered Karlof, clearly thrilled by this news.

"That wedding?" asked Shade, surprised.

"Know of any other weddings happening lately?" asked Tox dryly.

"We're going to have to go shopping," Neuro said, clearly already making a mental list in his head, and his hands reaching out for paper to make an actual one. "I know not one of you has suits, and Tox is going to need an appropriate dress, as she most definitely has none." He glanced at Tox, and added for emphasis, "Appropriate means not ripped."

Tox, in all her ripped jeans gothic glory, let out an indignant growl.

"I have a suit," said Griffin with a frown.

"Tracksuits do not count, my friend," said Karlof, patting Griffin's shoulder with a shake of his head. "No matter how expensive they be."

"Not that kind of suit," Griffin protested. "A real one."

"And of course we'll need to come up with suitable wedding presents." Neuro continued, ignoring them. He glanced at Morro, "Should we get individual presents, or come up with one big one together?"

Morro shrugged. "Depends on what it is. Aunt Koko will like it either way, but Uncle Garmadon might feel gypped if he doesn't get individual presents unless it's something really good. For him, the more presents the better."

"Individual presents," said Neuro with a nod, already writing all this down. "Got it."

"Got any suggestions of what to get?" asked Griffin.

"My sources say whatever edgy stuff you'd get Tox or Shade would make Garmadon happy," said Paleman, once again showing off how he was way too nosey for his own good.

"You'd be right," confirmed Morro.

This time both Tox and Shade made indignant noises, making the rest of them laugh.

This wedding was going to be fun.

Show Ninjago

It wasn't every day that a giant demon cat came by to drop off some mail, but it was welcome news all the same, even with the Mailman yelling about felines stealing his job.

"WE WERE INVITED! YES!"

Jay's shout rang out through Steeped Wisdom, making the rest roll their eyes.

"Of course we were invited," said Cole, like this should be obvious. "We're friends with their kid and have helped them with a bunch of stuff now. Plus, Kai's still taking those bodyguard classes from Lord G. It'd be weirder if we weren't invited."

Jay didn't hear him, too lost in his excitement at getting to go.

"He's going to try and catch the bouquet, isn't he," said Kai dryly to Zane.

"Oh, most definitely," Zane agreed. "And will likely cry during the ceremony."

"So what if I do!" snapped Jay, utterly unashamed.

Lloyd looked thrilled too as he read his own invitation. "Mom and Uncle Garm want me to be the ring bearer! Look, Mother," he said proudly, waving his invitation up for Misako to see.

Misako took the invitation from him and smiled at the request. "We'll have to coordinate with Koko to get you a tux," she said.

Some of Lloyd's enthusiasm waned hearing that, but he still looked proud nonetheless.

"I'm more surprised he's inviting us," said Sensei Wu as he and Sensei Garmadon looked over their own invitations. "I always got the impression that he didn't like either of us very much."

"He probably wants to rub getting married in your faces," said Nya with a shrug.

"But I'm already married," said Sensei Garmadon. "To his betrothed's counterpart."

"You think that matters to him?" asked Kai.

Sensei Garmadon had to concede that point.

"We will have to look into our profits for you all to afford appropriate clothes unless you have something suitable already," said Sensei Wu thoughtfully. He then waved for his brother to join him. "Come, Brother. Let us look over our budget."

Garmadon nodded and they headed into their office to look over their business profits to figure out how much they could spend.

Kai frowned after them as he left. "Is it me, or did Sensei Wu just imply he wasn't going?" he asked the rest.

The others paused and looked after the two senseis.

"Maybe he's already got some formal clothes," Cole offered.

"Perhaps," said Zane.

Misako sighed. She had a suspicion why that was, but she kept it to herself.

It was a matter Wu would have to solve himself.

Movie Ninjago

Gayle Gossip was preening.

Guess what had just come for her in the mail?

An invitation to the event of the year.

The wedding of Lord Garmadon and Lady IronDragon.

All other press had already been barred from the event, but with this invitation, and her plus one camera person, Gayle was given explicit permission to record the event.

While it may be a fluffier story than she usually went for, the fact it was so sought after made her pleased as punch, and the look on Fred Finely's face had been so worth it.

It was all she could talk about during her next coffee hang out with her friends.

"Not too surprising the boss invited you," General #7, Nana, said with a shrug as she sipped her coffee. "He likes you. Plus, you helped out during Gary's meltdown."

"Is that why I was invited too?" asked Jimmy the rookie cop, looking down at his own invitation dubiously. "I honestly didn't think he liked me that much."

"Eh, probably," said Nana with a shrug. "Could also be he's trying to bribe you and the rest of the police. He's got a hearing coming up on how much more house arrest he's got to go through and to get permission to get married somewhere outside the volcano."

"Why can't he get married in the volcano?" asked Gayle curiously.

"That little kid Lady IronDragon adopted is afraid of them, and they want him to be the ring bearer," said Nana. "Can't exactly do that if he's too afraid to walk down the aisle."

"Aw, I can see how that'd be a problem, poor kid," said Jimmy sympathetically. "In all honesty, I probably wouldn't want to go to a wedding in a volcano either. I don't know how you work there every day."

Nana shrugged. "Eh, you get used to it."

"So," said Gayle a little too casually. "Is there anything interesting to look forward to that day?"

Nana and Jimmy both looked at her oddly. "It's a wedding," said Jimmy. "Isn't that interesting enough?"

"Yeah, but it's Garmadon's wedding," said Gayle emphatically, as if that explained everything. "And if that guy has a run-of-the-mill boring wedding, then I'll eat my microphone."

Nana smirked into her coffee. "Well…" she said, making Gayle lean in eagerly. "There's nothing 'interesting' planned, per se, Lady IronDragon doesn't want a fuss, but… there are certain parties that don't exactly approve of the idea of Lord Garmadon and Lady IronDragon getting remarried."

Gayle grinned eagerly while Jimmy looked like he was already dreading the coming event.

"Oh no," groaned the cop.

"You think they'll try something?" the reporter asked.

Nana barked a laugh that rang out through the coffee shop.

"Oh, they're sure to try something," she said with a shark-like grin that matched her uniform. "And Garmadon is looking forward to it. A chance to kick butt and marry the woman of his dreams?" She laughed again. "Trust me, Gayle, Nothing would make him happier."

Harumi cackled with glee as she opened the tacky beach-themed invitation.

"Yes!" she said. "I've been invited! All my plans are coming together!"

With that, she dove for her computer to tell the rest of the Sons of Garmadon the good news.

Watching her from her bed (they'd let themselves in again), Brad and Gene exchanged a glance.

"Well, at least she's happy," said Gene with a shrug.

Brad grinned. "No matter how this goes down, it's going to be epic."

Harumi didn't seem to hear them.

She was already too lost in her own schemes.

A/N If you haven't noticed (and I don't think I've explained) each chapter of this fic is connected to wedding preparations (or at least the plot-relevant ones) and of course the event itself. Invitations seemed the best time to expand the character roster, and, welp, here are some guys that'll be showing up at the wedding. I gave Morro a friend group. A very familiar friend group. I wonder if that'll be relevant later ;) The Show Ninja are, of course, going to be there. However, there still seems to be some tension with Sensei Wu that'll come to a head soon. A lot of people liked the friendship I made with Gayle, Nana, and Jimmy, so they're going to give a fun perspective of events as well. And of course, we can't forget Harumi. Looks like she got in too.

As always, massive thanks to Kay Hau for contributing ideas and beta-reading my work. I can't remember specifics of who contributed who, but I know she helped a lot in hammering out the personalities of Morro's friend group.

Next time: When sent an invitation, it's only polite to send back the RSVP with a response. Unfortunately, some responses are taken worse than others.