Hi guys! So, I said I'd be doing something special for my 2-year FanFiction anniversary, and here it is! I was gonna put this up on November 12th, when I actually joined the site and put up my first story Phantago: Parallels Collide (which I have since abandoned, sorry), but I had to make a change of plans. You'll get full details at the end of the story, and thank you for everyone who participated for this first installment!

The Raven Files: Special Edition 2-Year FanFiction Q&A

Hosts: Jay Walker (Ninjago)

Legolas "Greenleaf" Thranduilion (Lord of the Rings)

Will Turner (Pirates of the Caribbean)

and

Connie Kendall (Adventures in Odyssey)

"The first two questions are from the Mayor of Ninjago City," Will said, taking one of the index cards on the coffee table. "She writes, When do you see yourself working on the Western-themed trilogy? The three titles (Desert Wildfire, Mountain Avalanche, and River Thunderstorm) sound very intriguing!"

Jayde shifted in her seat. "Unfortunately, I can't give much of a date on when I intend to post Desert Wildfire, but I'm hoping to have it up within the next year or so. I'm trying to finish up other stories; Shame Cuts Deep (Lord of the Rings) and Surprised by Jay (Ninjago) being my top priorities at this time, so before putting up anything new, I try to finish at least one story. I am tentatively working on it, but I probably won't have it up for awhile."

"The Mayor of Ninjago City also submitted this question," Jay added. "I presume you'll be seeing the Lego Ninjago Movie by the end of October. Let us know what you thought of it!"

A poof of blue smoke suddenly surrounded the Lightning Ninja, making Connie yelp in surprise and Will and Legolas jump back. When the smoke cleared, Jay looked - well - Connie kinda said it best: "What happened to your hair?"

Jay's hair had suddenly darkened to brown and appeared much more messy, and a splattering of freckles were splashed across his cheeks. His uniform had also changed. "Oh, he just switched into his Ninjago Movie self," Raven explained, grinning. "So ninja."

"Thanks." Jay blushed, pleased.

"Anyway, you might end up stuck like that because your TV show self is gonna end up looking like that - which is why your voice hasn't changed to Ninjago Movie Jay - I'm still in denial about your voice actor in the film. Anyway, I can give my opinion about The Lego Ninjago Movie (NOTE MAY BE GIVING AWAY SOME SPOILERS SO SORREEEEEEEEEE)

"When I list the three Lego Movies on a scale from one to ten, the original Lego Movie is smack at 7, the Lego Batman Movie is -19,383,556,373,028 (I really really really hated that movie XP), and the Lego Ninjago Movie is at 7.75. Yes, I think that in quite a few respects, the Lego Ninjago Movie is better than its predecessors.

"The animation is amazing - I loved the way they blended Lego elements with real-world environs - it gave it a more natural feel that the other films didn't have. And the fight scenes were FANTASTIC. Don't question me. One thing that bugged me a little was the definite reuse of previous scenes, such as when the Ninja are communicating via their mech intercoms or whatever they use to fire banter to each other during their battle scenes. Did they go so over budget with Batman that they had to reuse scenes? I get that they were trying to show the 'routine-ness' of the battles, and sometimes it played in comedy's favor, but a little variety would have been nice. . .

"I also found the humor throughout the movie genuinely funny - it can make both kids and adults laugh without it being entirely inappropriate - although the rude humor could have been toned down a few notches. But, eh - " she shrugged " - most kids' movies, unfortunately, have a surplus of rude humor. Except for The Croods. That, I kid you not, is a miraculous exception. While my mom wasn't a huge fan of the snark factor that popped up in the dialogue, I found it funny - probably because I'm a relatively snarky teenager myself.

"While the Ninjago Movie was mostly humorous, the more serious elements of it were not majorly affected by the overall casual vibe of the film, and they were genuinely sweet and touching - I did feel myself tear up during some of the moments between Lloyd and Garmadon - when I wasn't laughing. And I didn't feel like they were just slapped in at odd intervals, as was the case with Batman - they were woven into the plot excellently.

"Lloyd's character development was also splendid - as a sidenote, Lloyd, up until recently, was my least favorite Ninja because I found him so cliche, but the Ninjago Movie made him a character who I could really relate to - not that my dad's an evil warlord or anything, but I know how Lloyd feels. I haven't been judged as badly as he was, but most people my age who I meet tend to stay away from me because I'm so different from them. Thank God I have some friends who are as nerdy and boy-crazy as I am (well, not so much on the 'boy-crazy' part XP Only one of my friends swoons over Orlando Bloom like I do XP).

"Lloyd's character development aside, I'm still really ticked that the other members of the Secret Ninja Force did not get in on that action. We get their basic personalities established, but they hardly get any screentime, Jaya doesn't factor in at all-" Jay made a face "-and they only get to use their Elemental powers a few blinkin' times at the end of the film - and Lloyd doesn't even technically have a power."

"He kinda does," Jay piped up, but Jayde shook her head.

"Green is not an Element," she said flatly. "It may represent life, but I don't see any evidence of a quote unquote 'Elemental power'. Anyone can talk to cats," she said before Jay could pipe up again. "I've done it more times than I can count."

"You've spoken to them, yes," Legolas arched his eyebrows, "but can you understand them? And can they understand you?"

"To a degree," Jayde shrugged. "I can't talk to animals like you can, but -" she held up a hand to stop herself. "That's a conversation for another time, 'Las. Anyway, back to the question:

"I would LOVE to see a sequel that gets more into life after Meowthra and Garmadon are 'defeated', where we can get more into the character development of the other members of the Secret Ninja Force, not just the Garmadon family.

"So, in a nutshell, I really enjoyed this film - not my top five, but I really enjoyed it. If you want me to post a more in-depth review and synopsis of the film, please let me know."

Jayde exhaled deeply. The four characters stared at her in amazement. "That was . . . long-winded," said Connie weakly.

"Thank you," Jayde grinned. "It's a talent of mine. What's the next question?"

Will picked up another card. "This next set of questions are from NinjaJo: she asks, What inspired you to write fanfiction? And then actually get it published?"

Jayde smiled brightly. "Great question, Jo! Here comes another long-winded answer, so hold onto your hats.

"I can't exactly place a date to when I got the inspiration to begin writing fanfics, but I can tell you how I got the inspiration.

"When I was little, probably about eight or nine, I was really into American Girl dolls - my favorite being Kit Kittredge, the wannabe reporter from the Great Depression. I dreamed of getting a typewriter and writing newspapers and stories like Kit did, but it wasn't until 2013 that my dream came true - my grandparents got me a modern typewriter for my birthday.

"At this time, I was really into this kids' website called Club Penguin - some of you may be familiar with it, if only by name. And I was also fascinated with the mystery genre - American Girl's spin-off mystery series, along with Sherlock Holmes and other such writings, caught my attention. I'm not entirely sure how my brain worked back then, but these interests somehow mixed together and gave me the idea that I could write Club Penguin-themed mysteries.

"And so, my first fanfiction was born. Titled The Mystery of the Ransomed Clothes, it was typewritten on two sheets of plain paper and had exactly four paragraph breaks - while my spelling was flawless, my punctuation and choice of words left a great deal to be desired, and the plot makes me cringe. But hey, I was in middle-school - and with time comes experience, I guess.

"I used my actual Club Penguin accounts (I had two for some reason XP) as the main characters, and my friends' accounts often had cameo roles. While the main character at first was my secondary account, NickySwift, it switched over to my main account, Winterjlj, pretty quickly.

"My second Club Penguin fanfic, now in a series titled The Sister Sleuths, was also typewritten, but on four sheets of lined notepaper, and I divided the story into chapters - I tried to keep a consistent pattern of always having each story being four chapters long. The fourth chapter usually involved a very descriptive victory party XP And, weirdly enough, NickySwift, who was originally a girl, somehow changed into a boy. Strange.

"Anyway, I kept writing, eventually switching from the typewriter to my NEO typing device (my preferred mode of writing to this day) and redoing my stories. I successfully rewrote my first two original stories, added a prequel to the series, and renaming the whole shebang The Sherlock Sleuths. Winterjlj's name eventually changed to Annabeth Revere (when I got into Percy Jackson), and she gained a boyfriend, Jay Darkstrom (when I had a crush on a guy named Jay - not the Ninjago one. Oh, and "Darkstrom" is not a misspelling.) Even though I have unfortunately lost most of my original Sherlock Sleuth stories, I still have cover art I made for the ones which no longer physically exist, and I have the typewritten stories, and a few which I printed off my NEO.

"As for getting my fanfictions published, I didn't give it much thought until I started writing Ninjago fanfics, which was probably around mid-2015. I guess I got bit by the publicity bug somehow, and I wanted to share my stories with other Ninjago fans. I had recently received a laptop computer, and I asked my mom if I could look up Ninjago fanfics. She agreed, and on November 12th, 2015, I found FanFiction (the site). I started reading people's stories: I specifically remember reading SwimmerNinja13 and goldmedalninja's stories, and, delighted that I now found a site with people of my own age with the same interests and beliefs that I had, got permission from my mom to sign up that same day." She grinned. "The rest is history."

Jay whistled. "Wow. And I thought I talked a lot."

"Tell me about it," Connie agreed. "Are there any more questions from NinjaJo?"

"Yeah - one more." Legolas peered over Will's shoulder at the card in the blacksmith's hand. "If you could ask any fictional character(s) any question, who would it be and what would you ask? -If you're torn, you can do more than just one character."

Jayde frowned. "Hm. I think I'll have to give this some thought. Hang on."

Ten hours later

"I'm back." Will walked back into the studio - he had stepped out to finish a sword order for Governor Swann while Jayde was considering the question. "Did I miss anything?"

"Not much," Connie shrugged, thumbing at Jayde, whose forehead was still scrunched up in a thoughtful frown. "Jay went on a date with Nya for about two hours of this, and Legolas got bored and fell asleep, but apart from that . . ." She sighed. "Man, even one of Eugene's lectures is more interesting than watching Jayde think."

"I GOT IT!" Jayde's sudden yell made the four jump clear off the couch (well, except for Will, who was standing at the time).

Connie stared at Jay, who had let out a startled shriek. "Did you breathe helium, or is that your real voice?" she asked.

"I'm just gonna ignore that," Jay gasped, sinking back into the couch.

"Okay, NinjaJo, just hear me out, okay?" Jayde took a deep breath. "The truth is, I wouldn't do that. Why? Because I'm a writer - I can answer those questions myself by writing what I think the answer would be. That's the beauty of fiction. I could probably go on and on about it, but I think I'll save that for another time. Any more questions?"

"J. Walker-Gordon (fantastic username, by the way) wants to know how you got into the Ninjago fandom," Jay read off another card.

"Well, J. W-G, this answer is nowhere near as long-winded as my other ones, but here it comes:

"It was January 2015 - at this point in life, I was curious about the Lego TV show Legends of Chima, and my mom, being the awesome lady she is, added both Chima and Ninjago to our Netflix queue. My brother and sister wanted to try Ninjago, I wanted to try Chima. Some way or another, we ended up watching Ninjago first, which I didn't like - for some reason, I thought Ninjago was going to be boring.

"The first episode: Rise of the Snakes, hooked me immediately - partially because of a certain cute Lightning Ninja whom I instantly started crushing on. And when the first episode of Chima gave me a headache with a combination of Laval's bad acting and the dizzying camera angles they used for a Speedor chase, I ditched Chima and fell head-over-heels into Ninjago. As of today, we own all seven seasons of the show, including Day of the Departed, I have quite a few of the sets from the show, and I've got a ridiculous amount of Ninjago art stuffed into my desk."

"That was significantly less verbose than your previous answers." Legolas heaved a sigh of relief. "This is the last question from J. Walker-Gordon: what other favorite fandoms do you have?"

Jayde shrugged. "Well, there's Lord of the Rings, which I'm currently writing fanfiction for -" she thumbed at the blond Elf "-Adventures in Odyssey-" Connie waved "-Pirates of the Caribbean-" Will shrugged and grinned "-and Harry Potter, which is not represented here. Oh, except by that painting of Professor Lupin over there." The portrait of Lupin hanging on the studio wall, which had remained silent during the interview, nodded politely.

Glancing down at her watch, Jayde frowned. "Whoops, looks like we went overtime!"

"That's all the questions we had anyway," Connie reminded her.

"Yeah, that too. So that wraps up Part 1 of The Raven Files Special Edition Q&A!"

"If you have any questions for Jayde, please PM them to her, or submit them to the forum that's linked on her profile page," Jay piped up. "If you're a guest, you can ignore what I said-"

"-but if you have a registered account, please DO NOT submit your questions via review," Will added. "Jayde has been called out on multiple counts regarding the 'interactivity' of her stories, and she may have her account suspended if this warning is disregarded."

"So, I repeat, if you have a registered account, submit all questions you have for Jayde via a PM or the forum which is linked on her profile page," Legolas finished.

"We won't accept questions from users who don't listen to this warning - if you're a guest, questions via reviews are okay, but otherwise, you're making it look like Jayde's breaking the rules," Connie added.

"I know that the rule about 'interactive stories' seems annoying and ridiculous to y'all, and you don't like it when you get called out on it," said Jayde, "but for the sake of being able to continue posting stories for y'all to enjoy, please heed my request." She grinned. "I think that's it! So see you next time on The Raven Files! If you need any ideas for questions, check out the forum linked on my profile page: I've got a few categories to start you off! You have until November 12th to get in all your questions! Bye!"