Same People But Not Really - Tumblr Posts

This but replace ‘show’ with ‘SPBNR’ 

A little snippet that would lead into the rest of the Monty + Sharkpup SBPNR

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All Lloyd could see was gold. Bright golden sparkles, first around his eyes, then wrapping around his arms, legs, chest, brighter and brighter-

When he came to, he wasn't in his dad's lair anymore. No, the cavern walls were gone, and it was loud, and neon, and- and-

His head whipped back and forth, tears quickly pricking his eyes. He wiped them away immediately with his sleeve, but more came when he realized he was alone. Where- where was his family? The five ninja had been there- right there- rescuing him before his dad had made a wish. Where- where were they? What had his dad done?

Where was he? It kinda looked like Ninjago City, but he didn't recognize it. It was... too big. Tall. Different. He was sitting on asphalt, in the middle of an empty road. A streetlamp flickered, its twin on the opposite side of the street shattered; Lloyd must have popped the lightbulb in his panic.

O-okay, he could do this. He was a ninja now. He was strong! He could... he could figure this out! Yeah. Yeah, he just... um... had to contact the Bounty and his Uncle. A-and hope the ninja had been sent there. Yeah! O-Or find Dareth. Find the dojo. Yeah, he could do that! Find the dojo. Find the dojo. Find the- 

Whhaaaatttt are those.

A few meters away from his feet lay a pile of tiny... sharks? With legs? It was hard to tell in the lighting and with how they were tangled together, but there looked to be able five of them based on the colours Lloyd could see: red, blue, silvery white, blackish grey, and turquoise. 

Lloyd scooted back a little as the pile began to move, tiny legs and tails and fins flailing alongside high-pitched yips, barks, and growls that were mixes of pup-like and shark-like. Some kind of... pupshark. 

The red pupshark- no, wait, sharkpup sounded better- untangled first, popping out of the pile and rolling across the ground to land at Lloyd's feet. They shook themselves off rather indigently, a cloud of smoke puffing from their mouth, before they looked up.

Amberish red eyes blinked at Lloyd. Lloyd stared back. 

The red sharkpup stumbled to their feet, standing for a moment on their hindlegs before toppling over and correcting itself on four paws. They made a series of panicked, almost concerned sounding barks, then stopped. Stared at Lloyd.

What, were they asking for a response? Lloyd just stared at them back, then gave a little shrug. This was apparently the wrong- or maybe right, who knows- thing to do, because the sharkpup started yipping at him again. 

Before they could get far, a very high-pitched yelp sounded out. Lloyd rubbed at his ringing ears and looked over at the piles to see that one of the pups- the greyish black one, probably- had stepped on the tail of the blue one as they'd tried to shove each other off and untangle. The blue sharkpup was making a series of yips and barks so fast Lloyd could barely keep up.

Then there was a pause. A stretch of silence. One slow bark from the greyish black pup, almost like a question. And then the blue pup started yelping and yipping like someone had set their tail on fire or something. Something about it was strangely familiar. 

The red pup started to bark and growl, turning their head. They cut themselves off with a higher yelp, staring at the pile as if, like Lloyd,  they'd never seen a sharkpup before. The blue pup snapped their gaze to the red pup, paused, then continued to bark their head off. 

The turquoise and silvery white pups had untangled themselves now. The former looked down at their paws, holding one out and flipping it back and forth. The latter looked- well, almost mechanical in the light, and had the strangest expression of pure bafflement on their face. The greyish black pup let out a couple of sharp barks, the fin on their head flicking, and the blue pup began to quiet down. The red pup barked something out. 

Then, like something out of a horror film, all five pups turned to look at Lloyd. Lloyd leaned back instinctively. "Uh..."

All four pups from the pile made a single bark as one, a noise Lloyd could have sworn sounded like his name but not quite, and scrambled toward him. Lloyd flailed back and the red pup stopped the others, though a couple of them tripped and tumbled and didn’t stop right away, as if they weren’t used to their own paws. Who knows, maybe they weren’t. Lloyd didn’t know sharkpup biology. 

Great, now all the pups were looking at him expectingly. Lloyd swallowed and wiped his face with the sleeve of his black hoodie. “Uhhh…”

The red pup took a hesitant step forward, then another. When Lloyd didn’t move or make any motion of running off (he was tempted to- this was too weird- but they weren’t doing anything to harm him, and they were extremely adorable), the pup placed one warm paw on Lloyd’s leg and looked at him.

Something about the look in their eyes seemed… familiar. Lloyd squinted at them, leaning forward. He could see now a bit of fur in front of the fin on their head, spiked and ruffled like-

“…Kai?”

The pup let out an excited yet relieved bark, and- oh. Oh, he was right then. This tiny red sharkpup was- 

Lloyd started to grin. He couldn’t help it, honestly. Then he started to laugh, giggling and snorting and only falling into harder laughter at the pup- no, Kai’s deadpan look. “You’re… you’re tiny!”

Kai made a sound like ‘gee thanks Lloyd, I hadn’t noticed.’

Wait, if that was Kai, then-

Lloyd looked at the other four pups. Oh. It was rather obvious. Blue, greyish black, turquoise, silvery white (even mechanical, how had he missed that). “It’s you guys, right?”

The rest of his family surged forward to tackle him and Lloyd laughed again, less out of a joke and more in comfort. He hugged all of them tight as they fought to pile onto his chest and knock him over- he had been kidnapped by his dad before all this, after all, and they were rescuing him when the wish had been made. “Guys, stop it, I’m ticklish, get off!”

Zane complied, giving Lloyd a look that just screamed ‘I apologize for this gaggle of idiots’ when the others refused to follow Lloyd’s demands. Whatever. Lloyd was just happy he wasn’t alone here, even if his family had been turned into, uh… shark pups. Tiny adorable sharkpups, and holy FSM was he going to tease all of them about this. 

He was about to make one of those teasing jokes when a voice down the street cut him off; “H-heh, c’mon. L-let’s talk this out.”

Lloyd instantly quieted and turned his head, five pairs of eyes looking around him to follow suit. That sounded like it came from an alleyway. 

It sounded like it came from someone in trouble. 

Lloyd stood, the others hopping off his chest instantly. He wobbled for a moment, a little woozy from the wish sending him to wherever this place was, then corrected his balance and pulled up his hood.

“We gotta go help them!”

SHARK PUP PILE :DDDD

(I did not create Sharkpup, that honor goes to @vress-shark, I highly recommend checking out their stuff, they make amazing art)

That Time At Least Four Kais Met

So uhhh I was thinking about how cool a crossover between @sunnylighter ’s awesome fic series ‘The Grass is Always Greener’ and @kittydemon9000 ’s amazing fic ‘Same People But Not Really’ would be and then I realized that the Kaiverse AU exists so… uh…

I guess the moral of the story is ‘be the crossover you wanna see in the world’?

Smith: Show!Kai (SPBNR)

Red: Movie!Kai (SPBNR)

Spike: Show!Kai (GiAG)

Buddy: Movie!Kai (GiAG)

Aki: Show!BizarroEvilCloneKai

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This day had officially gone weird, and there was one thing Buddy thought he was familiar with, it was weird.

Buddy knew the multiverse existed. The proof of it was walking next to him on Garmadon’s volcanic island after one of their shared body-guarding classes. If you would have told him he’d be taking security classes from Lord Garmadon with an alternative version a week before Lil’Loyd had crash-landed in their realm, he would have first laughed and then offered you a hug to see if you were alright. 

And yet, here he was.

Spike was just explaining to him that one move he hadn’t managed to figure out in class when a portal ripped into existence in front of them. Now, that wasn’t actually that uncommon; between the Ultra Dragon and Meowthra, travel between the two realms was remarkably smooth. The unusual part about this specific portal, however, was how much smaller it was compared to when one of the two giant creatures travelled. 

A figure flew out of the portal, stumbling in the sand before regaining his balance He slammed into Spike, shoving Buddy’s counterpart out of the way with a sharp growl and taking off in a sprint in a random direction Buddy recognized as the way to the underwater glass tunnel connecting the volcano and Ninjago City. 

Buddy stood there blinking as Spike yelled after the figure. For a moment he could have sworn the mysterious newcomer had looked a little like Spike, but with glowing red eyes and a paler, almost washed-out look to him. 

But before he could get far in his train of thought, the portal rippled with new shapes, and Buddy’s brain promptly stuttered to a halt.

The first thing he recognized was a dragon- a big, red, freaking dragon that was NOT Ultra, with multiple people riding on their head and back. The second was that there was some kind of knight, and some kid that looked like the Kai-version of Lil’Loyd, and someone that vaguely resembled an Oni from that one book Buddy had read, and a guy with a headband and staff that Buddy had the strangest feeling he should recognize, and some bewildered guy that looked vastly different from the rest of the group and had some kind of… slug slinger? , and-

The dragon skidded to a halt, promptly launching one of the people off their head. The person catapulted into the sand- or, well, he would have, had Buddy not been standing in the way.

When the sand and dust cleared from his eyes, Buddy found himself staring into the eyes of… himself? And not in the ‘this guy is like Spike’ way, but in the ‘genuinely looks like me with the scar on the same side and hair styled like a really cool flame (NOT A BUNCH OF BANANAS, SERIOUSLY, NICK JAY?). The doppelgänger sat up with a groan, then looked down at Buddy. His face split with a wide smile.

“No way! Finally a Kai that looks like me and not Smith! You- are a Kai, right?”

Buddy nodded, too stunned to speak as he noticed that the rest of the entourage looked much too similar to him and Spike (mostly Spike, honestly) to be coincidence.

The doppel Buddy whooped and pumped one fist in the air. “Yes! I’m not the only one who knew this hairstyle was fire! Smith, hey Smith!” He craned his neck to look at another Spike-like Kai climbing off the dragon and hurrying over. “This realm’s Kai is like me!”

Smith- oh, like Kai Smith, clever- stared at Spike, who stared back. “Red? I think there might be two Kais in this realm.”

Red- for the red ninja, also clever- looked over at Spike and deflated in excitement slightly before shaking it off. “Still cool! They’re like us!” He turned back to Buddy. “Hi, I’m Kai Smith, so are most of them behind me, call me Red!”

Buddy sat up, starting to grin. He couldn’t help it, honestly. When it came to multiverse shenanigans, he’d learned to roll with it. “Kai Smith, but you can call me Buddy. That’s also Kai, but you can call him Spike.”

Red snorted. “The hair, right? Smith’s is the same.”

“It’s not that bad!” Spike protested. Smith just looked resigned. 

Red helped Buddy up. “Sorry about crashing into you. It’s a little hard holding onto Drake’s - he’s another Kai, by the way- horns when he hits the breaks. Mer and MK have gotten flung off once or twice. Elias got flung on when we crashed through his dimension for a few seconds and accidentally dragged him along- he’s not exactly a Kai, but we had him fill out the checklist and it lines up.”

“The checklist?” Buddy asked, only really registering the last part of that sentence.

Smith was the one to speak up this time. “Some kind of connection to fire, spiky-ish hair, a found family, pushing aside your trauma and insecurities for the sake of protecting the people you care about- don’t scowl, Spike, we compartmentalize and you know it, it’s not healthy-“

“He’s a hypocrite,” Red whispered to Buddy. “He gives Smith Advice™️ to everyone but himself, which is ironic, considering he technically has by giving it to me. Trust me: you got a problem, Smith can fix it.”

Spike interrupted Smith’s lecture. “Moving on, other than the obvious, who are you all and why are you here?”

Smith shot him a brief glare- they would be returning to the Smith Talk™️ later- before explaining. 

Buddy and Spike listened to a shortened story of how Smith had been wished into Red’s realm by his world’s Garmadon. The conniving lord had thought ahead about his attempts to escape and return home and had sent along an evil clone of Smith as a glorified babysitter, an arrangement neither Smith nor ‘Aki’ were happy with. When they got to that part of the story, Spike winced. “Yeah, I remember the clones. Ouch. Not a fun day of fights.”

Buddy looked at him with curiosity- he’d never had to deal with evil clones, and with the exception of Aki, neither had Red- and listened to the rest of the story. Apparently Aki had stolen Red’s world’s realm crystal and it had shattered during a fight, dragging Aki, Smith, and Red into another realm and allowing them to hop between dimensions. Smith and Red had been chasing Aki across the multiverse and gathering other Kais along the way, hence the small army.

Aki’s latest escapade had apparently led the group here, with Aki having run off after bumping into Spike. 

“He’s headed toward the tunnels.” Buddy realized at the same time Spike said, “If he makes it to Ninjago City-“

A four-letter word that Buddy would not be repeating in front of Lil’oyd rolled over the beach. All heads turned toward where the glass tunnel entrance was.

Red and Smith both took a step back in sync. “What is that??”

Buddy smiled in relief and waved to the giant demon cat that padded out of the tunnel. “That’s Meowthra! She’s friendly as long as you don’t threaten either Lloyd or point the Ultimate Weapon at the city.”

Squirming in the hold of the big cat like some disgruntled kitten was the very angry original figure who had burst out of the portal. Aki, right, that’s what Smith had called him. 

One of the other Kais (the normal looking one, like he had no elemental powers and instead had a- WAS THAT A GUN?- strapped to his belt) let out a long-suffering sigh. “I hate alternative dimensions.”

Meowthra plopped down on the beach next to the group, eyeing the dragon Kai (Drake, Buddy would later learn the name of) like she would Ultra. This squad (group? Gaggle? Flock?) of Kais better be ready to be kittened by her. It was easier once you got it through your skull that it was inevitable. 

“Well, we don’t have to worry about him getting away for now,” Spike said. “Once Meowthra grabs you, there is no escape.”

The evil clone hanging above them continued to swear and kick up a hissyfit. 

Red put one hand on his forehead to shade out the sun as he looked up. “What should we do with him?”

“How about you buttheads explain first?”

The entire group whirled around. Drake started growling, the normal-looking Kai flinched but ultimately looked tired and used to it, and the other Kais made various noises of anger and defence.

Lord Garmadon took a sip of his ‘World’s Worst Recently Remarried Dad’ mug and crossed two of his arms, unfazed. “One of you nerds better start fessing up before the press finds out and throws more fuel into the cloning theory fire.”

So yeah, all in all, a very weird day, if Buddy had to say so himself.

The Great B-A-T-H Incident

Back at it again with more SPBNR AU sharkpup nonsense! This is the Monty + Sharkpack AU where S!Lloyd (Monty) ends up in the M!verse with five shark pups that happen to be the S!ninja. After a bit of taking care on their own, the M!Ninja find the squad and help take care of them. This leads to... shenanigans, to put it lightly. 

Smith = S!Kai, Phoenix = S!Nya, Brook = S!Cole, Boreas = S!Zane, and Robin = S!Jay

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Zane had made a mistake.

Honestly, he’d thought he’d been pretty smart. Monty was staying at his place today- an arrangement where the Ninjaforce made sure the kid was never left somewhere unsafe- and had been playing with Echo and the five sharkpups. Echo was cuddling the silvery white pup (Boreas)- the one Zane could have sworn looked almost mechanical- while Monty played with the turquoise pup (Phoenix) and the red pup (Smith). If Zane didn’t know any better, he would have said that the blue pup (Robin) was staring at Monty, Phoenix, and Smith with jealousy, though Zane couldn’t tell who the pup was truly jealous of. The brownish-black pup (Brook) rested on the carpet next to him.

It was around this time that Zane had noticed the state of the pups. As in, they were covered in dirt and dust and mud, especially Brook. So, being a good brother and a responsible (though still wild) teen, Zane decided to get Monty and Echo’s help with the matter.

“Hey Echo,” Zane had said. He wouldn’t learn his mistake for another minute. “Do you want to help me give those five a b-a-t-h?”

He’d read on the internet that spelling the word had better results when getting pets to avoid getting spooked by things they disliked. Then again, these were shark pups, and surely they would be fine with a little bit of water-

Five pups turned to look at him. Three immediately bolted. 

Zane didn’t even have a chance to blink. One moment, there were five pups in the living room. The next, the only ones left were Boreas in Echo’s arms and Phoenix by Monty. Boreas squirmed a little, though ultimately gave up as if resigned to his fate. 

Echo squealed. “Can we? Ooo, can we?”

Monty was grinning, and that looked a little too mischievous for Zane’s liking. “Yeah, why don’t we give them a b-a-t-h? Wanna help us catch the three loose pups, Phoenix?”

Zane really needed to check his optic sensors eyes, because Phoenix really looked like she was grinning in a ‘it would be my pleasure’ sort of way. He supposed it didn’t matter; they’d need all the help they could get wrangling the three escaped pups.

“Echo, could you draw a bath?” Zane asked. “We’ll start trying to catch them.”

Echo shot him a pleading look. “Can I help? I know every hiding spot in the house for hide n’ seek!”

Zane ruffled his brother’s hair. “Bath first so we have somewhere to put them. It’s really important.”

At this, Echo lit up. “Got it!”

He stood and carried Boreas to the bathroom. Good; Zane hadn’t been lying when he’d said they needed a drawn bath ready. He got the feeling that the three pups would not make it easy to catch them, and would be even harder to keep put. 

“N- Phoenix is good with water,” Monty said, letting the turquoise pup down and standing himself. “She’ll help us look!”

With six eyes on deck, with Echo (and perhaps Boreas) helping search, it shouldn’t be hard. Zane almost laughed to himself at how easily he had added the pups to the list; then again, with how intelligent they seemed, it was only natural. 

Still, it was a small house. How difficult could finding three brightly coloured shark pups be?

The answer, he discovered 20 minutes later with not a single sign of a tail anywhere, was very difficult. Especially when those three shark pups did not want to be found.

Monty was very good at hide n’ seek, but there was only so much he could do with an unfamiliar location. Zane too was having troubles because no matter where he looked (the cupboard, behind every day, his father’s workshop), he couldn’t find a single thing.

Luckily, Echo came to the rescue.

He emerged from the washroom, smelling of three different kinds of shampoo, with bubbles on his arms and his shirt sopping wet. Despite the mess, a bright grin stretched across his face. Boreas (with a freshly cleaned coat sparkling as if it were polished metal or shining snow) padded along at his feet. Echo listened to Zane and Monty list the places the’d already searched, put one hand on his chin, then walked back to the living room they’d started in. Curious, Zane followed.

Echo lifted up the couch- Zane would have to remind him both not to do that then Monty was over (not that the kid seemed to mind or notice, thankfully) and some better lifting techniques- and sure enough, three streaks scattered in every direction. Phoenix leapt in the path of the biggest pup, Brook, as he tried to run for the door. The blue pup Robin and the red pup Smith both managed to dodge Zane and Monty’s attempts to grab them- goodness, they were faster than lightning- and blazed out of the room. 

Phoenix barked a few times. The fin on Brook’s head flopped over in the same way a dog’s ears would lower. Zane was struck with the strangest sensation that Phoenix was making a deal of some kind. The pups did seem to communicate with each other like some kind of family-bound team. Smith and Brook took the leader positions, Boreas and Phoenix seemed to keep them in check, and Robin helped them remember to let loose and have fun. 

But that was ridiculous. They were shark pups.

Still, whatever Phoenix did seemed to work, because Brook wasn’t running anymore. It was as if he’d agreed to help in exchange for something. Bribery? A ‘get out of bath free’ pass? Whatever it was, at least they had one less pup to look for and one more pup helping to look.

Because by the FSM, the two remaining pups did not want to be found. 

Zane, Monty, and Echo searched everywhere. Echo’s calls were heard every few minutes as he found the pups but could never quite catch them before they vanished again; hidden in the kitchen cabinet behind the box of oatmeal, hidden in the trunk of Dr. Julien’s car, hidden in Monty’s spare hoodie lying on the bedroll he would use for the sleepover. Zane’s eye twitched. Damn, these two pups were smart. They always seemed to know how to sneak back into the rooms previously checked, causing Zane to have to backtrack more than once at the flash of blue and red darting around the corner. 

Jay and Cole swung not too much later (Kai was supposed to as well, but he was confined to bed after the, er, ‘incident’ when Nya found him chugging a pot of coffee that had been infused with 5 hour energy at 3:00am) and joined the hunt. Despite the odds being severely in their favour at this point, with five humans and three shark pups searching, those two blasted pups just were nowhere in sight. The shared utter despision the two had for baths was unfathomable and unrivalled. There was no way to catch them; the second someone had one cornered, the other would kick up enough of a fuss for them to escape. 

Heck, Zane had even found the two hidden in Jay’s scarf while he was still wearing it. What, were the two shark pups ninjas or something?

There finally came a point where the sightings stopped altogether and the two vanished. Jay got worried that the two had escaped to outside, and Zane couldn’t help but think what if? along with him. A quick check of all the windows and doors- yep, still closed, though one window might have been pushed on (luckily one you needed opposable thumbs to open)- disproved that theory, but the worry that the pups had gotten lost in the city under his watch persisted. He was supposed to protect those who could not protect themselves!

Though, judging by the skills of these pups, they certainly could protect themselves. 

For FSM sake, it was just a bath! And with how much the two had crawled behind every dusty cubby space and under every piece of furniture and into every grease-stained spot in the workshop, they needed it!

Cole leaned against the wall, clicking on the ceiling fan switch with his back. His headphones hung around his neck. “So how did this whole mess start?”

“I asked Echo if he wanted to help me give the pups and I quote, a b-a-t-h.”

Cole nodded. “Makes sense. Have you seen how smart they are? Wouldn’t be that surprised if they could read.”

Monty sat down on the couch, swinging his legs. “Did ya fall for the conspiracies too?”

Cole snorted. “Course not. Not like Red has. I swear, he’s usually not like this.”

“He’s like Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia!” Zane said cheerfully. 

“Yeah,” Cole said. “He fell off the deep end because of these pups, right, Jay? …Jay?”

Zane looked over to see Jay’s face had gone pale- well, paler than usually- his gaze fixated on something above them. Zane followed the line of sight up, up, to the ceiling and the-

There was a blur of purple zinging around the spinning ceiling fan. 

For a moment Zane (and the others in the room) could only stop and stare at the ceiling fan. Zane’s brain crashed, thoughts slamming to a halt, because the two pups had been hiding on the ceiling fan that was now currently on.

The thing was, Zane could perfectly reconstruct how the two shark pups had gotten up there. Boosting each other onto higher ledges, swinging each other by the tails to bridge gaps, climbing higher and higher until they reached the one spot no one would think to look because there shouldn’t be any plausible way for two shark pups to hide on the ceiling fan, and yet here they were.

And then Cole had accidentally turned it on.

The ground suddenly became a scramble of motion. Cole whirled around and slammed the switch so hard the plastic cracked. Everyone who wasn’t standing surged to their feet in a panic, spreading out in case one of the pups couldn’t hold on while the fan slowed to a stop-

And it seemed like one couldn’t.

Like flying out of a bench swing into a tree, the blue pup was yeeted off the fan and tumbled directly into Jay’s arms. The bullet actually knocked him off his feet, and a bolt of relief shot through Zane when he realized that neither Jay nor Robin had gotten hurt. 

Above them, the now-only-red blur was starting to slow down. The fan finally stopped moving and a very dizzy Smith rolled off it, giving Zane barely enough time to lunge forward and catch him in a landing as soft as a snowdrift. 

For a moment, no one breathed. Then Monty started to snicker and giggle, and then Echo joined in, and suddenly the whole room was laughing. Zane handed Smith over to Monty. He could see the pup’s eyes spinning; they’d lasted a surprisingly long time, as if used to spinning real fast (chasing tails, perhaps?), but nothing compared to the ceiling fan whipping them around.

Jay (who looked both like his soul had left his body for a moment and had an immense amount of static clinging to his scarf) handed off Robin to Echo. The group finally, finally, made their way to the bathroom with all five pups. Boreas had already gotten a bath, as had Phoenix during the amount of time it took to catch the others. Brook stood on the edge of the bathtub, shooting what Zane could only think looked like an apologetic look at Smith and Robin. The brownish-black pup had joined in the search, after all, probably thinking to get out of the bath himself.

Phoenix leapt up and body slammed Brook while the pup wasn’t paying attention. He teetered with a yelp and splashed into the water. Zane didn’t think it was possible, but Brook had such a wounded look of betrayal as fading sud bubbles stuck to his fur while Phoenix appeared to be laughing. 

Some kind of weird static crackling hung in the air. Zane frowned, scratching at his ear in hopes of clearing the high-pitched wire whine, but it didn’t stop as Echo approached the bathtub. That was… strange. 

Monty must have figured it out a second before it happened because the kid’s eyes widened. “Wait, don’t just suddenly drop-“

Echo opened his arms and Robin fell into the water that had at this point gone cold. For a moment the scent of ozone filled the room, and then an almighty POP rang out. The lights flickered once, like a shudder, before going out. The group was plunged into darkness with a high pitched noise Zane later registered as Jay shrieking.

Zane blinked, sensors eyes automatically adjusting to the sudden dark much faster than his friends. There was a muted splash, and Zane spotted a dazed shark pup stumbling around his feet. He carefully scooped them up, then scanned the room. Echo seemed the first to recover besides Zane, standing in front of the bathtub. Zane could almost hear the fans of his brother’s processor brain whirling to figure out what had just happened. Monty looked okay, waving one hand in front of him while the other held Smith under his arm, and over to the side stood Cole with Jay latched onto his side- quite literally, with feet off the floor- like a koala.

The backup generator kicked on and brought the brightness back. Brook heaved himself out of the bathtub and shook the water from his fur, pointing a tired glare at Robin laying stunned in Zane’s arms.

“Anyone know what just happened?” Cole asked.

Zane blinked. “Power surge. But I am unable to determine the cause of it."

Monty wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth as if to say something, then decided against it. “I think we need to make a fresh bath."

The kid was right; there was an incredible amount of dirt in the cold water, despite it being relatively clean before Brook was shoved in. Zane handed Robin to Echo (after he got the promise that his brother wouldn’t surprise the pup again) and set to work emptying the water and letting new, warm water into the tub.

It took the combined effort of all five people and three shark pups, but they finally got Robin and Smith to sit still for the bath. Zane had the sneaking suspicion it was Monty and Echo’s combined puppy-eyed look that did it. For whatever reason, Smith seemed almost completely dry after shaking his fur off once, as if the water had merely evaporated, but Zane shrugged it off. He was just happy they were finally done getting all five pups to be-

“BROOK, NO, DON’T JUMP INTO THAT MUD PUD-“

SPLASH

Well, getting all five pups to be clean for a few moments.

The best part is, is this Smith (S!Kai), or Red (M!Kai)? If you know, you know :3

Some good ol unexplained Server Shenanigans

One Wrong Word (Calypso AU)

Hehehe I had fun on this one. For context, this is based on the Calypso AU for @kittydemon9000​‘s story SPBNR- essentially, instead of S2 Kai/Smith getting wished into the M!verse, it’s S8 Smith tackling Mr. E (who in this AU is Echo Zane) into the summoning ceremony portal and taking the masks with them, ending up in the M!verse. Mr. E/S!Echo decides to use the name Calypso and makes a deal with Smith not to hurt the M!ninja in exchange for getting to keep the oni masks.

There’s a lot more to the Calypso AU that can be found in the discord, but that’s the basic summary for this particular fic.

Deciding to follow Mr. E, one of the new vigilantes and a much more violent one than Shogun, Red (M!Kai) dons his backup secret identity of Heatstroke and sneaks after him.

Unfortunately for M!Kai, things don’t quite work out the way he was hoping...

Enjoy :3

Kai Smith was furious.

It was by simple chance that he spotted the figure following Mr. E- Calypso, as he wanted to be called here out of costume- though it wasn't because the spy was stealthy. Far from it; it was a miracle no one else paid them much attention. Considering they were in a city that got attacked at least once a week, that was both an expected and sad thing.

No, what was interesting about this figure was not how badly they tried to subtly follow Mr. E- though that in itself was familiar- but rather their chosen attire. At first Shogun thought it was perhaps some fan of Mr. E, what with the spray-painted motorcycle helmet and the jacket, but the rigid spikes of fire from perhaps some kind of cosplay caught his attention the most.

Fire. The bad stealth. Stalking Mr. E.

It was one of the ninja. And Kai could guess in one try who it was.

Mr. E, who would have to be the worst (not as in 'evil', but in 'really bad at this') SoG member ever not to notice Red's (as Kai had taken to calling the other Kai in his head) attempts at stealth, finally had enough, it seemed. He vanished into a crowd and Red's movements stalled, unsure where to go next. The helmet visor- seriously, why was he dressed like some villain and not in his normal ninja gi?- swept back and forth.

Then Mr. E appeared behind him, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him into an alleyway.

At this, Shogun leapt down from his actually hidden perch (though he still suspected Mr. E knew, because of course the bastard would) and stormed into the alleyway after. The two had a deal, after all, and it thankfully covered idiotic reckless teen shenanigans.

He wasn't a moment too soon either as Mr. E had Red pinned to the wall. The firejet spikes were shuttering and puffing smoke, and the helmet was cracked as if he'd been slammed into the bricks behind him. Red clawed at Mr. E's arm, but Kai knew from experience that the nindroid wasn't going to move.

"Enough!" Shogun barked out, catching both of their attentions.

Red's reaction was a little slower, which Kai hoped was just because Mr. E had the reflexes of a nindroid and not because Red had some kind of concussion; the SoG member could hit pretty damn hard, hard enough to take down Titanium Zane, so there was no question what he could do to a regular human who probably wasn't wearing a supportive, semi-shock absorbing gi (though Kai didn't know if that's how the Ninjaforce's worked in this universe).

"You don't get to interfere," Mr. E snarled back at him, the lights of his own visor narrowing. "I caught this one trying to follow me fair and square."

"We had a deal," Kai countered, closing the distance between them with a few steps. Up closer he could see cracks in the brick and shattered pieces of metal laying at Red's feet- or where his feet would be if Mr. E didn't having him dangling in the air by the scruff of his jacket and the wall.

Like a stubborn kid, Mr. E replied, "Deal doesn't count for street punks."

"But it counts for the ninja."

Mr. E scoffed. "That's not a ninja."

"Yeah? Look at him." Kai gestured at the still flailing and very panicked teen in Mr. E's grip. "It's Red."

Mr. E leaned close to Red's face, bumping the two helmet visor's together as the latter tried to lean away only to be pushed further against the wall he was trapped against. "...How about I make sure-"

Shogun sighed. "No, E, you can't take his mask off."

Red, who stopped his pawing at Mr. E's arm in favour of trying to brace himself against the wall, coughed out a weak, "p-please don't-"

Shogun levelled Mr. E with a glare. "Put him down."

Mr. E glared back. "No."

"E."

Mr. E's grip on Red's jacket collar tightened, earning another cough. "No."

Shogun stepped forward with one fist balled. "I said. Put. Him. Down. Or the deal is off."

Mr. E snarled but let go, unceremoniously dumping Red on the ground. The teen sputtered weakly and Kai winced, noting the sharp metal fragments on the ground. "I didn't say drop him!"

"You said put him down," Mr. E said. "You didn't say gently."

Kai scowled, but there was nothing he could do now about it. He balled both fists and adjusted the twin katanas on his belt (one of the only things he'd brought with him through the portal as he'd grappled Mr. E). "Whatever. You know the deal. You don't hurt them, and I don't try to take that from you. Not like how you took everything from me."

Mr. E lashed out, grabbing the front of Kai's gi not entirely unlike how he'd been holding his counterpart moments before but without the lift. "You don't get to tell me what to do, Smith."

Shogun ignored the way Red's gaze snapped to him. He wouldn't let Mr. E see how much that stung, having his hard secret-keeping work flung in his face intentionally or not. "Last chance, Cal."

With an inhuman growl, Mr. E let go of the fabric and stepped back. Good. One thing dealt with.

Kai turned to Red, missing how his fiery gaze made the other wince and shrink back like a flower curling away from a wildfire. "And you. What were you thinking?"

"I- I just wanted to-"

To help. To prove he was the green ninja. To prove he was a good leader. To prove his parents were- good? bad? Wrong in their decision to leave him and his sister behind, Time Twins or not?

Kai felt something hot and nasty bubble in his chest.

"To what? What excuse could you possibly have?"

Red cut himself off with the audible click of a jaw slamming shut. But Kai wasn't done yet; the building storm in his chest had only just started. "You wanted to show you can be the hero, huh? Follow Mr. E anywhere, even somewhere obviously dangerous, just to prove you could take him in a fight, huh? Left everyone behind in your stupid little stunt?”

His words burnt his own throat, the taste of smoke think on his tongue like ash. "You left them all behind. Let them to get hurt in your absence. For no possible reason other than your own impulsiveness. Did you really think you were strong enough to- to-"

To deal with the portal. To stop Mr. E, stop the Sons of Garmadon, stop the Time Twins, stop Morro, stop Master Chen, stop the Overlord, stop Garmadon, stop the Devourer, stop Samukai.

Kai slammed his fist into the wall with a sharp groan of anger and frustration, leaning closer to the reflection of his furious face on glass pressed against the brick. “You can’t do this, Kai! There are people counting on you, people who care about you! You can’t afford to be reckless! I know you think that throwing yourself out on the line in front of them will keep them safe, but it won’t! You need to be there for them, and the only way you can really help them is if you’re going to help yourself!”

His chest was burning, a consuming black hole that broke every wall of the carefully crafted compartmentalization boxes. “You never once stop to think, do you? You could have gotten Lloyd killed!”

A volcano, a blade, a cage.

“You could have gotten Nya- your sister- killed!”

A chain, a flaming sword, a dragon and a temple and a shadow.

“You could have gotten Cole killed!”

He did, he let it happen, let the curse claim his brother until he nearly faded away as a ghost, only getting him back by a slim chance, a roll of the dice.

“You could have gotten Zane killed!”

The Overlord, the Golden Master, and then the Sons of Garmadon, Mr. E, Chen’s island, so many close calls.

“You could have gotten Jay killed!”

He couldn’t remember, didn’t remember, and yet some feeling in his gut told him something had happened, something to do with the sky or pirates or both.

“You could have gotten Sensei Wu killed!”

In the time stream, gone, gone, who’s to say they were gonna get him back, if he even was back, what if, what if-

“You could have gotten them all killed, and it would have been all. your. fault. You and your stupid, reckless, impulsive, hot-headed actions where you try to play hero and take on every role yourself, and yet someone always has to take your place instead and get hurt.”

His family, hurt over and over again, cuts and bruises and busted lips and fractured ankles and still, oh so still chests.

He was panting, smoke curling out of his mouth, eyes ablaze, fists tight as embers threatened to spark from his palms. The word deep in his soul, etched there even since he feared he couldn’t take care of Nya by himself, spat from his lips like hot poison. “Useless.”

He was so close to the shiny visor he could see through it, past his furious reflection at himself. Past to the face under the helmet.

Like staring in a mirror.

A mirror with the scar on the wrong side. With eyes so wide, pupils so shrunken and glazed and reflecting the glow of Kai’s look of pure anger, encased in a ring of hurt like a deep, oozing cauterized wound-

The wave of anger washed away as if Kai had been doused in icy water. Dimly he was aware of Mr. E staring at him with- what was that prickling sensation? Surprise? Shock?- but all he could see was Red, poor Red, who was a Kai but wasn't Kai-

Red, who's breath hitched and chest heaved without air, who had thick globs of transparent tears running down his face, who looked to all the world as if Kai had struck him across the face and then stabbed him with one of Mr. E's knives twenty eight times. Because in a way, Kai had.

"Red- Kai-" Shogun's voice betrayed him, cracking on the name, but it fell on deaf ears as he stumbled back. "I'm- I'm so, so sor-”

Red bolted, scrambling down the alley so fast smears of blood from freshly cut palms and  the metal shards in his legs and back studded the walls and floor. Pieces of his get-up were tossed aside without a care, helmet cracking as it hit the far wall, and then he was gone, for once vanished so swiftly that not even Shogun would be able to spot him.

Mr. E was still staring at him.

Kai took a shaky step, dawning horror slamming into him over and over like the relentless tide. Only one thought echoed in his mind:

What have I done?

It’s true!

y'all get no context for this……

well, okay a little context. Red is M!Kai

Chappy 21 of SPBNR, a summary

@kittydemon9000

If I can add some more details from the discord chat! - Red is the only one who believes Smith when he says he just misplaced his body (the others think he’s in heavy denial because when Smith off-handedly mentions appearing in a ‘shower of golden sparks’, they think he died in a fire / his death is related to fire)

- The squad also Smith’s fear of water has to do with his death (so Nya is also in denial through guilty)

- Only the ninja force can see him. They think it’s because of him dying in an GarmAlarm attack on their watch and he just can’t remember it

- Smith possesses the mechs from time to time like he’s a driving school instructor to make sure they don’t crash/do stupid things (he also powers mechs up and appears on the screen)

- Garmadon fights become so chaotic for the Generals, it’ll be like the city itself if fighting them, but Smith’s just possessing a bunch of stuff

- Smith loves possessing blankets and wrapping around the ninja, and even sometimes with posses Jay’s scarf if he really wants to feel some physical affection

- Smith tends to offhandedly mention a lot more things in this AU because he’s stuck as a ghost that only the squad can see.

- “Yeah I once jumped into a volcano to save my little brother.” ~ doesn’t elaborate

Smith: Yeah, fire’s just comforting to me. I- [remembers he can’t spill the secret about having fire powers] uhhhh don’t know why it just does 

The Ninjaforce, thinking that his death is related for fire/the volcano: [share concerned glances]

Red, slamming his hands on the desk: I TOLD you guys fire is just calming and comforting, but you all just think I’m a pyromaniac!

- Garmadon’s base is a volcanic island. Surrounded by ocean. There is much panic

"He’s a ghost, how can he be kidnapped!?!" 

"I DON'T KNOW!!"

- Smith’s thalassophobia get’s levelled up to aquaphobia

- Smith gets increasingly frustrated over how the squad keeps telling him everything is fine when it’s clear they all feel guilty over something and are hurting but they just won’t tell him what

Smith: Okay, seriously guys, what's wrong? 

Nya: Nothing (sigh) don't worry- 

Smith, interrupting: -about it Smith. Yeah, okay, let's pretend we've already done the whole, "there's nothing wrong or HEY LOOK AT THIS INSTEAD" script that we keep doing and just get to the point already. What's going on with you guys? 

Lloyd: Smith, really, it's noth- 

Smith: If you try to lie to me and say nothing is wrong again, I will scream at you guys. You guys are TERRIBLE liars and it's genuinely insulting me that you think I haven't noticed. Now tell me, what is wrong? 

Zane: We can't tell you. 

Smith: Why?!  What is so bad that it's emotionally and mentally messing with all of you, that you can't tell me? WHY CAN'T YOU TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG? 

Jay: BECAUSE YOU'RE DEAD, SMITH. 

Smith: ...I'm sorry, what

[Cue Jay, with Cole and others but mostly Cole, trying to calm Jay down while he blurts out all the evidence and what it means for the group]

Smith: ...Uh...As solemn as this is, I think I have some clearing up to do

- Red’s conspiracy board/consumption of the forbidden pocky sticks comes in handy once again

Smith: You see, I'm not actually dead, I'm just- 

Red: From an alternative world/timeline/planet/possibly from the future or the past though multiverse theory seems the most logical and you're basically astral projecting either intentionally but most likely an accident caused by either technology or magic and you just want to find a way back to your home where your body still is

Smith: 

Red: 

The other ninja: 

Smith: How the f-

- Smith hangs out in the back of class & helps the ninja with homework

- History especially, he’s really freaking good at it [insert the theory that Smith is an ancestor to the Smith siblings here]

- Smith accidentally possesses one of the ninja after seeing them get knocked out in a battle and tries to catch them

Can I join the chaos? I want to know more about the Smith AU's and shenanigans!

Hmmmm how about Ghost Smith :D

Basically this time around, the Megaweapon just kinda yeets his spirit into the M!verse and he sticks around the Main Squad.

Things that happen include:

Smith insisting he isn’t dead, just misplaced his body

Squad not believing him, but not wanting to correct him

Guilt all around since they all think he died in a Garmadon attack, and they know they can save everyone but still

Smith now has another reason to fear water

Wu thinking that Smith is possibly Red’s ancestor since Fire

Smith also teaching the team how to fight

The Chap 20 thing is a lot scarier for everyone because Smith just. Disappears. He comes back dw, but it scares the crap out of them

Hush Now (Cryptid AU)

So I got inspired by the song, “The Nowhere King” (NWK) from Centaurworld and this happened. I recommend reading the summary of the SPBNR Cryptid AU & perhaps ‘Watch Your Mouth (Cryptid AU)’ as that is earlier in the timeline, but to quick summarize:

Red (M!Kai) is at the ‘Nest of the Red Blur’ (aka the abandoned apartments Smith took over and stylized to fuel the cryptid rumours about him) when... oh dear, it seems a real cryptid (cough M!Overlord based on NWK) has taken an interest in his apprentice- :3

TW for creepiness, horror, tar, kidnapping, etc.

Waking up in an old decrepit building full of ivy and spiderplants, scrap metal, peeling wallpaper, and washed out paintings of cake was not the ideal scenario, but considering Red had been cryptid-hunting for the elusive cryptid that seemed intent on training him for some reason, the Red Blur, the previous night (or was it still night? early morning? it was hard to tell), it wasn't as frightening as it should have been.

It was still mildly terrifying waking up in the nest of fabric. But he'd been here a few times before, and it was at least appreciating that the Red Blur didn't leave him alone on a rooftop or alleyway in the city when he inevitably ran out of energy and crashed during their late-night runs. 

He untangled himself from the nest and stretched, wincing at the crack of bones. Urgh, he was going to end up like Master Wu at this rate. The Red Blur (in their own way) had shown him the exit (after a bit) the first time he'd woken up in their lair, but he still got lost in the maze of nature-claimed hallways of the apartment ruins. 

Well, at least he could explore then. And it was only mildly creepy wandering around alone. 

But something felt... off. He couldn't quite place his finger on what. Was it that the air was still, a suffocating cold that stung his throat and puffed his breath in little clouds? The way the broken clock on the wall still seemed to tick, chiming just off-key to the steady march of time? The pungent smell of petroleum, something acidic and tar-like like rotten mold?

The apartment creaked and shuddered with every step, which shouldn't have been possible considering it was formed from concrete and carpet. Red felt like he had chugged a gallon of oil; the taste was heavy in his mouth and he wrinkled his nose in disgust. 

𝓗𝓾𝓼𝓱 𝓷𝓸𝔀 (Hush now)

Red froze in the centre of the hallway and batted his ears. He could have sworn he heard a chorus of whispers, sounding both at the ends of the hallway and inside his head. Wind brushed the back of his neck.

There weren't any windows in this hallway.

𝓓𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓼𝓵𝓮𝓮𝓹 (Dreamless sleep)

Red's feet were planted- almost as if frozen or glued- to the old stained carpet. A low creak sent a violent shudder throughout his body, but when he looked at either end of the hallway, no one was there. Though... was it just him, or was the area getting darker, the edges tinted with shadows. 

𝓓𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓲𝓼 𝓷𝓲𝓰𝓱 (Darkness is nigh)

No, it wasn't shadows...

𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓮𝓽 (Quiet)

It was tar.

𝓢𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽 (Silent)

Tar, leaking from the cracks in the wallpaper. Tar, dripping down from the ceiling in fat droplets and tendrils. Tar, spilling out from underneath the carpet. 

𝓗𝓪𝓽𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓮𝓼 (Hatred that reaches the skies)

Red couldn't move. All he could do was stare at the tar, a choir of ghostly voices resting phantom hands on his shoulders and singing soft melodies in his ears. His mouth felt sticky and he coughed, struggling to suck in a breath through the choking, acidic air. Something cold and wet dripped down his chin. 

𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓳𝓸𝔂 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓝𝓸𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰 (You will bring joy to the Nowhere King)

The tar was reaching toward him, forming clawed hands that pushed off from the floor, the walls, the ceiling with a leisurely pace.

𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓮𝓮𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 (When he sees the light)

It was cold.

𝓛𝓮𝓪𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓮𝔂𝓮𝓼 (Leaving your eyes)

{---------------}

The Red Blur- or Smith, though no one knew his name nor that he wasn't actually a cryptid, heard the scream. It sounded like- but why-

Smith bolted from his room, the only part of the abandoned complex he hadn't changed to match the 'nest' aesthetic of the building and raced through the hallway.

But when he got to the spot where he'd heard the scream from, he found nothing but a smoking scorched stain on the carpet and a message written in black paint on the wall:

𝓘 𝓭𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓬𝓲𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓬𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓶𝔂 𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 (I don’t appreciate curious little pretenders in my territory)

Did you ever read Divided For Keeps by STheVi? It's based on the broken phone one-shot you wrote.

I did! It's absolutely FANTASTIC!!! Here is the link for literally everyone, this fic is fan-freaking-incredible. https://archiveofourown.org/works/34723405 Highly recommend go check it out if you haven't already, leave comments and kudos, it's great!

The Broken Phone one-shot, by the way, is https://impulsivefanwriter.tumblr.com/post/662097760247513088/shattered-dreams-broken-phones-smith-garmadon based on the Smith Garmadon AU for SPBNR

(Had to use a trace reference of a drawing done by wolfy1298 because digital art is not my realm of expertise, I much rather do tradition or just write, but I had to)

DUCKLINGS!

Today, on server shenanigans-

DUCKLINGS!!!

D U C K L I N G S

- The two museum curators are actual timeless beings (again, not that far off, at least on the ‘time’ thing)

- He keeps seeing the same kid at school multiple times- the same sunglasses, a different clothing style but always in purple/pink- and swears the whole ‘clone theory’ is true but surprise, nobody believes him

- The nice flower shop owner is/was a pirate in a past life

- He does not trust Lloyd’s cousin’s boss. She’s good, but there is something about her that just gives him the heeby-jeebies

- He saw a grey tabby at a pet store once and just stared for 20 minutes until Nya and Lloyd (wearing a hoodie to disguise himself so he wouldn’t get kicked out) dragged him away

- He’s convinced the noodle chain in the city is the cover up for a gang or something

- Hates mason jars with a passion. Doesn’t know why, but has managed to argue about it for an hour. Nobody won that debate

- Hates tar even more than glass jars. Nobody knows why. Neither does he. But he does not trust it.

- Thinks Dr. J has an apprentice that stole White’s blueprint designs once. Dr. J said he’s never had an apprentice before, but he’s lying, he knows it

- Someone introduced him to Gravity Falls and other code-related shows. It did not end well for anyone but Red

- He now sometimes writes in code, and it’s even harder to decipher his weird half-awake notes right after visions

I am wondering... After eating the forbidden pocky sticks... What kind of conspiracies about things in general had Red come up with that are actually be true but nobody believed him until he somehow managed to prove it?

not in order, but some notable ones:

- Multiverse theory

- some higher power controlling them(this one actually has an angsty AU)

- Mothman and other such cryptids

- Garmadon is actually a demon from another universe(partially true)

- Wu is almost a god

and bold of you to assume he was able to prove any of them

A Pair of Sunglasses (Aki AU)

So here’s a fun little idea-

Remember the original version of the Aki AU for SPBNR? Where Smith ends up in the m!verse alongside Aki (aka Bizarro Kai), who’s hellbent on making sure he a. stays put and b. has to deal with as much inconvenience as possible? Sometimes even impersonating him (as Shogun) to mess with him?

What would happen if a certain m!Kai happened to be in a rush one morning, didn’t have time to gel his hair, and happened to get mistaken by Smith for...

:3

----------

----------

Red didn’t even know what he did wrong.

Seriously, all he did was stand next to Jay by the lockers and chat! And he couldn’t remember doing anything wrong during the morning, or yesterday, or-

And yet for some reason, Smith came storming over with a look of pure fury. Fury pointed at him.

“I thought I made it very clear,” Smith growled. “What would happen if I caught you hanging around here.”

Behind his sunglasses & the bangs covering his face- he wasn’t used to his hair being down- Red’s expression furrowed in confusion with an edge of hurt. He started to ask what Smith was talking about but shut his mouth when the other teen jabbed a finger toward him.

“Don’t play games with me, Kai.” There was an odd style to how he stressed Kai’s name, but he couldn’t place what it meant. “I’m not in the mood.”

Red was aware of Jay standing awkwardly to the side, fingers tugging at the frayed end of his scarf. His gaze darted back and forth between the two like he was watching a tennis match. A very volatile tennis match where the tennis ball could explode into flames at any moment. 

And Red? Red was just confused, and more than a little hurt now. At first, he’d thought maybe Smith hadn’t recognized him- his own friends hadn’t the first time he’d ran out of time to gel his hair up before school- but when he used his name it was clear he knew exactly who he was talking to.

Red just didn’t know why. He hadn’t even been drinking a lot of coffee lately, so he hadn’t (or shouldn’t have) done anything crazy in a caffeinated haze (he pulled an all-nighter once, figuring that it would be okay to skip the few hours of sleep his mind would have let him get anyway. Never again). The last time he and Smith had talked, they’d ended on friendly terms, right?

So why was Smith acting as if Red had slammed Jay into the lockers and demanded his lunch money?

“Smith-”

“Don’t you ‘Smith’ me,” Smith interrupted. Red recoiled at the open hostility, the strongest he’d ever heard from Smith. “You know, just when I think I know how low you’re willing to sink, you go ahead and surprise me.”

Okay, ouch. Red really wanted to know what he’d done now.

“I-I-”

The two turned to look at Jay, whose ramble grew muffled as he ducked his head into his scarf and blushed. Smith moved, stretching out his arm and-

Positioning himself between Red and Jay. Okay, what parallel dimension had Red been dropped into that moment where Smith felt he had the need to protect Jay from him, as if Red would whirl around and attack him like some evil minion of Garmadon?

“Hey, it’s okay,” Smith spoke in a soothing tone to Jay. The latter shot Red a confused and apologetic look over the former’s shoulder. “Did he hurt you?”

Did- did Smith really think- think that he- he would-

Red’s heart shattered, and if Smith had been looking, he would have seen how his expression crumbled into devastation. Instead, his focus was on checking Jay for injuries. Every second that passed drove another knife blade through Red’s heart.

Something sputtered in his chest.

“Did- did you really think-” His tone went from hurt to defensive angry, an instinctive reaction to lash back against the undeserving pain. “That I was going to- that I was here for that?”

Smith spun with his teeth bared and Red nearly lost his fire. “What else? You knew you weren’t supposed to, and yet here you are. Why can’t you just leave me alone? Can’t you see no one wants you around, faker?”

This- this had to be a joke, right? Or a misunderstanding? Smith didn’t really say that. He didn’t- he didn’t mean that-

Shoving his shaking hands in his pockets, Red fought to keep the choked sob down. Jay tried to step toward him, to say something, but his voice hitched into a stutter. Smith once again turned to comfort him before turning on Red with the fury of the sun in his eyes.

“What. Did. You. Do.”

Oh FSM, he wasn’t kidding. This wasn’t a cruel joke, Smith was serious. Red swayed on his feet, blinking back tears. He was so, so utterly confused, drowning in hurt and shock and a lack of understanding.

Smith’s hand clenched. “They were all right. You are the absolute worst. There is not a trace of good in your pitiful, shrivelled excuse of a heart. Resorting to this pettiness just to spite me. You’re pathetic.”

Red couldn’t breathe. Heat rushed to his face, and the only reasons he wasn’t crying were his wish not to appear weak at school (he needed to keep his reputation strong to scare off some bullies for Lloyd) and seeing how behind Smith Jay looked furious on Red’s behalf. Though he hasn’t managed to find his voice, the look of support- at least one person didn’t fully believe that- kept Red from breaking on the spot.

“Yeah? And they were right about you.” Red was proud to admit that his voice only slightly wavered. “You’re not-”

And the next moment he was on the ground. 

His face stung. Why was his face stinging? What-

He looked up through the cracked lens of his sunglasses at Smith, standing over him with his fist held as if-

As if he’d just decked Red.

Smith had a mixture of anger, surprise, and smugness on his face, like he hadn’t fully expected to connect but was damn proud of himself for it.

As for Red, the punch had brought more tears to his eyes in reflex, and they were starting to spill over his cheeks. He wanted to wipe them away before they ran far enough for someone to see, but his body was in shock and wouldn’t respond.

“What- What is wrong with you!!”

Oh, Red had not heard that tone in a while. It took a lot to get Jay to explode like that, and it warmed Red’s heart the one that lay in shattered pieces on the floor or the hallway to know it was for him. Smith looked over his shoulder, eyes wide and puzzled, and shuddered like he’s been statically shocked at the intensity of Jay’s glare. The look of sheer anger didn’t last long, though one could argue that the amount of guilt you were slammed with when his expression dissolved into tears was worse. He hiccuped and rubbed his cheek in a rushed stroke, still managing to look pissed despite the water stains splattered across his freckles.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay-” Smith tried to soothe him. “He tried to trick you, but-”

Jay was having none of it, slipping under Smith’s outstretched arm and hurrying over to check on Red.

Smith did a double-take. “Hey- Jay! No, he’s lying to you, you can’t be hanging around him, please, you’ll get hurt-”

“More hurt than what ‘Smith’ here did to your friend.”

The three startled as a fourth voice joined the conversation. At Red’s side, Jay curled in on himself with a soft, strangled whimper, his eyes wide and confused. Smith stared at the newcomer.

And Red-

Red looked up to see himself.

Or, well, what he thought was himself for a moment. Between the crisp leather jacket and aviators, hair chopped in an intentionally short and messy style, the guy was the epitome of a ‘bad boy’ without the cringe. A scar peeked out under his left eye- not that dissimilar from Smith’s, actually- and he had a wolfish grin that immediately put Red on edge and fired off every warning signal in his brain.

“You- how-”

Smith glanced between the newcomer and Red, horror slowly creeping into his expression. 

Between him, Red, and the newcomer, Red noted, they could be mistaken for triplets under the right circumstances.

“My my-” The newcomer whistled, hands in his jacket, posture leisure. “You really did a number on him. That’s going to be a black eye for sure, maybe two! I must congratulate you.”

Smith whirled on the newcomer with refreshed anger fuelled by- Red hoped for a moment it was guilt, then chided himself for hoping that because that would mean Smith was hurt, but based on the dots rapidly connecting in Red’s mind, his words hadn’t actually been meant for him.

They still stung though, and his face hurt worse.

“You-”

“Me,” said the newcomer, unbothered by Smith’s scathing bark.

“You vile, evil, manipulative-” 

The newcomer raised his hands- damn, Red was a little jealous of those gloves, some kind of fancy fingerless style that they once again pulled off effortlessly- and smirked at Smith. “Hey now, that-” He gestured to Red, still sitting stunned in the floor, and Jay, who pressed against his side and shrunk under the sudden attention. “-was all you, ‘Smith’.”

Smith looked less than a fraction of a second from spitting some very choice words in the newcomer’s face, but his pupils slid to Red and his expression dropped back into guilt. “Kai, I’m-“

“Ah, right. Kai.”

Red really didn’t like how the stranger said his name.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised Smith landed a punch on you. If I was allowed, I’d do the same. Though I must admit, I wouldn’t be able to stop after just one; your mug just screams ‘dork alert’. Grow a little spine.”

Red found his voice. “Hey-!”

“Come on now, Kai,” the newcomer spoke over him. “Be a little smart and realize this isn’t a fight you want to pick. Can’t you see the big boys are talking?”

He caught Smith’s punch with one fist before it could hit his cheek, never taking his eyes off Red. “You know what ‘Smith’ here was saying is true. You’re just too stupid and stubborn to realize it. Come on, ‘Smith’. Let’s take this discussion outside away from these losers.”

Smith lunged at the stranger again but he merely sidestepped. “Ah ah ah, don’t want to cause a scene, do we? Would be a shame to involve these two more than we already have.”

Smith sneered at him and for a moment Red thought he’d attack him again anyways, but he bit his tongue. The two walked out of the hallway, one storming, one with all the time in the world. 

At the last moment, the newcomer turned and a chill shot through Red; he could have sworn that behind his shades, his eyes looked crimson in the light. His grin was twisted, sinister even, and Red realized with clear certainty that he wasn’t a student at this school. “I have a feeling this isn’t the last time we’ll cross paths, Kai Smith.”

As he walked off to join Smith outside, Red couldn’t help but feel as though he was right about everything.

DUCKLINGS!

When you become the babysitter for six young ninja.

@kittydemon9000

Drew @fishybehavior’s Nindroid Kai & Kaigami, a Nindroid doppelgänger of Red (m!Kai) who didn’t know they were a Nindroid or a doppelgänger for a bit but has since been adopted by the Smith family as their fourth sibling

And an (unfinished) fandom wiki! And memes. Can’t have a fandom without memes.

I guess you could say it’s the same fandom but not really as Ninjago

How does it feel to have created a whole fandom inside a fandom?

Because I just got here and I'm McLovin' it lol

I mean, I'd say we pretty much meet all the criteria

We've got AUs, fan lore, Canon OCs(think Wes Weston from Danny Phantom) art, even a few spinoff fics, and almost 150 members on the discord.

me from a year ago would be loosing their shit if they saw this.

Red-Eyed Rival (Love Rival AU)

You even just wake up one morning and decide yep. Time for angst?

Here’s a fun little idea crossing multiple AUs, so hear me out on the summary-

Remember the Aki AU for SPBNR mentioned in this fic? Where Smith ends up in the m!verse alongside Aki (aka Bizarro Kai), who’s hellbent on making sure he a. stays put and b. has to deal with as much inconvenience as possible?

What if I told you there’s a version of that inspired by the variant of the Possession AU (where Smith gets thrown into possessing Red, aka m!Kai, while Red backseat games) known as the Jekyll and Hyde AU (where they switch every time they fall asleep and neither is aware of the other).

The Aki version goes as follows: Aki is essentially like a ghost tied to Smith that can possess Smith at any time, but is careful with it as it leaves memory gaps. Because of this, Smith isn’t aware Aki got thrown along. This AU’s Smith is part of s!Polyninja, and while missing his boyfriends at home, decides to friendly-flirt with their counterparts (unaware that Aki sometimes does the same as well to a more serious level).

Blue (m!Jay), Black (m!Cole), and White (m!Zane) start to fall for Smith a little.

Unfortunately, Red (m!Kai) has been hopelessly in love with those three, and now someone’s come along and immediately gets jealous (and a bit insecure) of his new ‘love rival’.

And Aki does not make things easier :3

Enjoy!

Fine, he admitted it.

Red was jealous.

He's been in love with them for— well, he'd known them for years, and only figured out that he felt a little stronger about Jay, Zane, and Cole at the start of the school year, which, considering his normal track record of noticing these things, was a new record.

Of course, acting on said feelings was a little harder said than done. As it, he'd been hopelessly attempting to flirt with them for ages, but none of them seemed to get it. And yes, he could be a little more straight(ha)forward, but in his defence, feelings were difficult, and no, Nya, I can't just tell them, and-

Well, it was complicated, okay. What if they didn't reciprocate his feelings? He was dealing with not one, not two, but three major variables here. If he messed anything up, he'd be make their friendship- the team dynamic- awkward, or worse-

He didn't want to think about 'worse'.

And just as he'd psyched himself up, and was maybe, maybe ready to start being a little more bold with his flirting, see if any of them (or, maybe, just maybe, all three of them) were interested back, suddenly Smith had entered the picture.

He didn't know what to think of Smith.

Well, that was a lie. As his aforementioned admittance stated, he was jealous.

Because Smith knew how to flirt with them. Knew how to turn Jay into a blushing mess instead of just a rambling friend. Knew how to get into the banter of trading pick-up lines with Zane. Knew how to knock Cole off his cool game in a good way. In the little while he'd been here, he'd completely thrown all three into a tizzy.

The worst was that Kai genuinely wanted to like the guy. He did! Smith was nice, he was friendly, he was protective of them- literally everything that could be great about him was!

And Red... Red wasn't that much compared to him, was he. He wasn't as smart, wasn't as strong, wasn't as pretty, wasn't as smooth, wasn't as charming.

Smith walked around like he was the coolest thing since sliced bread and had them hanging off every word. Red went on long-winding tandems on how the mayor was using Garmadon attacks to cover up the existence of trolls that steal your left socks.

Yeah.

Smith was basically the cooler, prettier, smarter, overall better version of Red. And based on how they'd all been practically scrambling over themselves to hang out with him, the others agreed. Red just... wasn't needed anymore in the friend dynamic.

Heck, maybe he should just pass off the role of Red Ninja to Smith too, he'd probably ace that way better than Red ever could.

And through everything- all the casual flirting, friendly hangouts, everything- Smith had been nothing but kind to him. To all of them. And Red repaid that kindness by being jealous and cold back.

Some friend he was.

...

Although...

In the last week or so, things had felt... more personal. He didn't know if he was going crazy or not (all the sleepless nights tossing and turning in bed, brain going a mile a minute over this whole mess, wasn't helping), but it almost felt like Smith was... mocking him?

His flirting had doubled down. He'd gotten... well, bold, and Red just knew the three were falling for it hook, line, and sinker. Why, just yesterday-

// "Awww~ Jay, Baby, you're so cute when you blush like that," Smith said, putting his hand on Jay's cheek and giving it a little pinch. Jay had turtled into his scarf, sputtering, as Smith side-eyed Cole with a soft smirk. "Don't you think so, Cole?"

Cole shrugged, though his eyes were smiling. Next to them, Zane piped up with a cheerful "your heart-rate has elevated by 30%".

Smith looked at him and put a hand on his chest. "Oh? And what about yours?"

Red did his best not to slam his locker shut as he finished grabbing his books. He quietly walked away, but his skin prickled, and he had the oddest feeling Smith was watching him, as if he did that just to rile Red up. //

Which was honestly ridiculous. What could Smith possibly gain from intentionally flirting with Jay, Zane, and Cole in not-just-a-sweet-and-friendly-way, but just to make Red jealous? It would be cruel, underhanded- and it would be using his friends, which was just- no.

It didn't fit with the rest of Smith's character. Unless he was lying, but he seemed to genuine other than a few specific instances, and even then, it was probably just Red being paranoid and selfish.

Right. Yeah. I-It had to be.

Red shook his head to clear his thoughts, heading toward his locker. He'd find Smith later today and talk to him about it. Yeah. Make sure that- even if... if he'd lost before he'd even tried, that at least the others were taken care of. Because if Smith hurt any of them, on purpose or otherwise, well-

He knew a spot behind the diner on Den Street to throw hands.

But if Smith was genuine, and the others genuinely liked him, then... well... then he was happy for them. And he could bottle up his own feelings to sob into a bowl of ice cream later, because at least they were happy.

And if they decided they liked Red (for some reason)- well, he could daydream a little. Jay wasn't the only one who had his head up in the clouds sometimes.

Red turned the corner, and-

…

He froze.

O-Oh. Oh.

Red tried to take a step back, to leave unnoticed, but there was no way his luck would ever be that good. Smith looked over from where he’d just been snogging Cole. “Oh, Kai! Didn’t see you there.”

Red swallowed, tucking his jacket as if he could shield how his heart splintered just a little more. He plastered on a fake grin. "Smith! Cole! Hi. Sorry to, uh, interrupt you two, just wanted to grab my stuff-"

Cole pushed away from the lockers, fixing his headband and staring just a little to the side so they didn't have eye contact. The tips of his ears were darker with a blush. He hummed in greeting, subtly fiddling with his headphones.

"I'll just-" Red unlocked his locker and fumbled for his books at record speed. "Don't mind me, have a great rest of your-"

"Actually," Smith interrupted. "I wanted to chat with you, if that's okay."

Oh. Oh, so they were going to chat now. Okay. Right. Great. "Sure, yeah, totally!"

Damn, Red was actually pretty proud of keeping his voice chipper. Not Zane-chipper, of course (he was pretty sure that was physically impossible), but enough that he didn't sound like he was dreading the conversation.

Cole gave Red a cool little wave- damn he was so cute- before turning to leave. Smith leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek- ouch, no, keep it together, that wasn't on purpose, stay cool- and waved as a flustered Cole put on his headphones and walked away.

"Look," Red started. He took a deep breath; either he got it all out now, or he never would. "I'm happy for you all. Really! I'm- I'm glad they're interested in you, and I'm glad you like them back, and I'm truly happy they- they like you. I-I still gave you a... a good run for your money, though! A-And-" Why was his stupid voice cracking and choking, stop it, you can't appear weak and-

"Pathetic."

"-you better believe if-..."

Red trailed off with a blink. He'd imagined that, right? He'd thought that internally. So why had it sounded like-

He laughed in a short, quiet way. "That's funny, I thought you said-"

Smith tilted his head and smiled. "You're pathetic."

No. No, there was no way Smith just said that. He was hallucinating even though he hadn't touched coffee in ages, too kept up by his own thoughts to need it. Because there was no way that Smith Forge just called him- that he actually just said-

"You know, Kai-" Smith began. "At first, I thought maybe you were just a little dense. Maybe you just hadn't gotten the hint yet, or that you were kidding yourself. Then I realized 'oh FSM, that guy's actually delusional. You genuinely can't see what's directly in front of you."

Red's throat gummed. No way. His feet were rooted to the spot as Smith stepped closer, still smiling like this was just a cheerful chat between to good friends.

"Did you really think-" Smith laughed. "That you ever had a shot even before I came along? They barely tolerate you as a school friend, they’d never want something more."

He clapped a hand on Red's shoulder and the latter flinched, mind reeling, unable to process everything enough to fight back. Not a single sound sang through his broken voice; not a retort, not a comment, not even a sob.

"Face it, Kai. You're a joke. A weak, pathetic, joke. I'm the newer, cooler version of you, and everyone knows it."

It was one thing when it was just in his head. It was another when it was spit, dripping with false kindness and unbothered cheerfulness, directly in his face.

Smith stepped forward and Red finally moved, tripping until his back hit the lockers. Smith didn't seem to care, only grinning a little sharper.

"You got a little crush or three, don’t you, Kai? Well, that’s gonna make this hard to hear. See, I like seeing how flustered I can make those three. They're rather cute, you know. Real precious. Just the sweetest. And you know what I like the most about them?"

He leaned closer, to the point where Red could feel the heat of his breath sting his cheek. Red was almost afraid of the answer, almost- no, that was ridiculous, but-

As he stood there, lungs empty of air, flooded with so many emotions that his vision was tinted at the sides from the overwhelment- in that moment, he was almost afraid of Smith.

He stared at the dark lens of Smith's sunglasses, watching the glint of sharp teeth in a malicious smirk.

"The thing I like most about them is that if they're with me, they're not with you. I'm with them to spite you. Just because you want them, and I get what you want."

Red was dimly aware that he was shaking, slammed with every emotion under the sun at once. The breath he tried to suck in hitched and caught, nearly choking him. His mind was a hurricane of thoughts.

Smith was a threat he couldn't beat.

Smith knew about his crushes and enjoyed watching him suffer.

Smith was faking being his friend.

---

Red was too weak to stand against him.

Red was too easy of a target, had nothing on Smith.

Red wasn't worth being the friend of Smith.

He was unlovable.

His parents didn't care for him. The school didn't care for him.

Why had he ever thought Jay, Zane, and Cole would.

Smith pinched his cheek with another laugh. "But hey, that's just between us, okay? No need to get the others involved. 'Course, that's if they even would believe you. After all, I'm just poor, innocent Smith who Kai seems to hate for no reason. Because you're jealous. Or maybe that's not the right word;

"Because jealous implies you ever had a chance."

Smith suddenly shoved away from Red, adjusting his hair almost lazily. Red was too stunned to cry; he could feel the urge too, but just... didn't. Couldn't.

"Honestly," Smith said, sticking his hands into his pockets. "It's a miracle those three don't hate you. You're so annoyingly persistent. Just give up, Kai. Save them the trouble of having you tell your stubborn face how they really feel about you. Just go home."

He gave a little wave, eyes almost seeming to glow beneath his sunglasses. "Glad we cleared that up. Toodles!"

Red blinked, and the next moment he was gone. The hallway was deserted once more.

But Red didn't cry. He didn't cry as he numbly grabbed his stuff, didn't cry as he walked home one foot in front of the other, didn't cry when he closed the door to his room and drew the curtains. He didn't cry when checked to make sure Nya wasn't home, nor when he weakly shrugged off his jacket. He slipped under the blanket of his bed.

And then he finally broke.

Literally what I was gonna say—

Sometimes, a fic doesn't have to get published, it can just be a series of messages on a Discord channel, between a dedicated group of friends going "oooh, you know what else would be cool?" continuously over a period of weeks and months :)

number 5 with lloyd (u can decide if its show or movie)

Green = movie Lloyd

Shogun = show Kai’s secret identity

A SPBNR (Same People But Not Really) AU where Garmadon succeeded in kidnapping the Green Ninja

————

Green comes back to consciousness with blurry vision and a throbbing headache.

Which is… gosh, not the first time this has happened. He probably should get therapy, except every therapist runs screaming from him and the ones that don’t either try to get him locked up in a mental institution or blame him for getting their office destroyed in the latest Garmalarm.

Voices echo around him, grating like TV static on his aching head. He squints his eyes, trying to make sense of his surroundings.

His hood is still on. That’s good. There’s blood on it. That’s bad.

How are you supposed to check for concussions again? Counting, right? One, two, three, five, six—

Uh oh.

The voices slowly become clearer, and Green strains to hear them. It’s weird— they sound far away yet right next to him, far below him but echoing up to him somehow.

Oh. He’s dangling in the air by some kind of chain. Okay. This is a thing that’s happening.

“General #17, you better have that report on Shogun’s whereabouts in 5 minutes or you’re fired!”

…oh no. He only knows one person who would say something like that.

That means he’s at—

/ A missile colliding with his mech, the capture device closing around him as an evil laugh pierces the last of his fading vision. /

The volcano.

With his dad.

Oh duck, this is bad.

“Well, how else was I supposed to lure Shogun here? Kidnapping the Green Ninja was the only way I was going to get him here.”

Great, and now he’s bait too? Thanks, dad. Appreciate it.

His vision starts going black again and he panics, trying to get a good look at his surroundings before he passes out again.

But it’s not use— the dark spots in his eyes grow larger and larger before ultimately knocking him out again.

The last things he sees is a pool of lava below him and his father looking up at him with a wicked evil grin.