"Listen, I just think it's cool that even the serpentine kids know who I am," Jay says, a hand to his chest.
Cole rolls his eyes. "I've been listening for twenty minutes. And they know who all of us are."
"But do they know you for hosting a game show?"
"No," Cole sighs. "Not like there are better things they could know you for though..." sarcasm bleeds through his voice.
Jay smiles. "I just think it's neat. Today wasn't a total bust after all."
Two hours earlier
"Fascinating. I've never had the opportunity to inspect one of the turned," a snake remarks, looking over Jay's hand. A constrictai. Lower rank, but did ranks even matter anymore?
Scales on Jay's hand were peeled up, some shedding, and some an irritated mess.
"So this is from me being more human orrr?"Jay asks.
The serpentine stares at him. "No, it's from you picking at your scales during shedding time."
Jay blinks slowly. "It's supposed to feel like that?"
"Yes!"
Jay looks for words, making exaggerated grunts and scoffs.
Cole steps in. "Is there anything we can give him, Doc? Like an ointment to ease the itching? Nothing at home worked."
The doctor serpentine shakes his head. Then considers it. "Well, we do have mittens we give to the young to discourage picking, but I don't think we have any that would fit him."
Cole and the doctor glance over at Jay, who went back to picking at the scales on his hand. He briefly looks like a deer in the headlights before hissing.
"Excuse him, it's his first time going through uh, this," Cole sighs, gesturing to his teammate.
"Oh, no worries. I'm sure if I suddenly had skin like yours, once shedding day comes I would be having issues too."
"...humans don't shed their skin."
The doctor seems surprised. "Then how do you get rid of dead cells?"
"They kinda just flake off randomly."
The doctor scoots away from the earth ninja in mild disgust. Then he scans the room for something.
He pulls a notebook off of his small desk. "This will be very useful information to offer any future turned."
The two ninjas spend a good hour being poked and prodded at.
They walk out of the doctor's "office" (it was really just a curtained-off area of the city, no larger than a bedroom at the monastery).
"That was a lot," Cole mumbles, rubbing his arm. "I think I need something to eat."
They walk through dozens of stands, mostly selling bagged food, with things written on them in snake language.
"Wonder what they have here today," Jay ponders, picking at the back of his hand again.
"Probably grilled rats or something," Cole snickers, pulling one of Jay's hands away from the other, refusing to verbally acknowledge the gesture.
Jay on the other hand did somewhat verbally acknowledge this gesture with a hiss.
"Hey, you're not supposed to be doing that in the first place."
"But it itches!"
"If you don't stop, we're putting mittens on you when we get to the monastery."
"I'll bite you if you try."
"Then I'll make sure you bite magma."
"I'll spit in your face."
Cole looks Jay up and down. "You even figure out how to do that?"
"I haven't tried. Haven't really had an opportunity to. I mean, I can spit, and I think all my saliva is kinda acidic now, but to go full force, not really."
"Wonder if you just can't. The doc did say you're less snake than the average serpentine."
"I considered that. Dunno, I'm in no rush to really try."
Cole nods, still walking. "Try when we get h- cake."
Jay raises an eyebrow.
Then he sees it.
A small food stand selling cupcakes.
The short Hypnobrai cashier waves at the customer speeding his way to the stand.
Two hands shake the stand unintentionally.
The cashier cowers slightly.
"Hi, what kind- hey, no, you're okay, sorry, sorry." Cole rambles. He scoots the stand back over just a bit.
The cashier comes forth.
"Okay, sorry about that," Cole says gently. "What kind of cake is that?"
"W-we have chocill-" the snake is still trying to regain composure- "we have chocolate and vanilla."
"For how much?'
"What do you mean for how much?"
Cole tilts his head. "How much money is it?"
"We don't exchange goods for money down here."
"Oh...what do I pay with instead?"
"Nothing? Why would I charge you for food?"
Cole blinks.
Jay finally catches up to the stand. "What's the issue here?"
"Did you know food is free down here?"
Jay raises an eyebrow. "I thought you knew?"
Cole scoffs, "No! I haven't spent enough time down here to buy food. This is your home, not mine."
Jay rolls his eyes. "I haven't been down here that much. There's not enough sunlight."
"Do you want a cupcake or not?" the cashier grumbles.
Both ninjas flash an apologetic look.
"Can I have two chocolate and one vanilla?" Cole asks eagerly.
The cashier writes something down quickly before gently taking tongs to the cupcakes and placing them on the counter.
Cole picks up his small cakes. "Thank you, sorry for the inconveniences."
The snake rolls their eyes. "You?" they ask, pointing at Jay.
"Oh uh, I'll take one chocolate."
Write something down.
Plop the cake on the counter.
"Thank you," Jay says with a smile.
The cashier sighs in relief.
"Why didn't you tell me they had free, normal food down here?" Cole asks, unwrapping a chocolate cupcake as they walk away.
"This isn't a food pantry. At least not for us. We can't just be taking freebies whenever we feel like it when we have food a home."
"Didn't we just take freebies?"
"Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't hurt to do it every once and a while. This isn't our home though. Can't just walk in like we own the place."
One wrapper is crumpled. Onto the vanilla cupcake. "Surprised. You usually aren't this, uhhhh..."
"I've been trying to be more respectful. I can't come down here and misstep where I don't really belong. It's still not really my place. And at home, Wu's been kinda..." Jay trails off.
"I thought he was okay with the situation?" Cole says curiously, his face inches away from a bite of cake.
"He tries, but whenever I'm alone with him, I can tell." The two of them come upon a bench. "I can tell he's not comfortable. And he's always talking about getting me back to normal." He plops down on the seat. "Don't get me wrong, I wanna go back to normal too, but the way he talks about it makes me feel like I'm somehow inconveniencing him just by being around."
Cole sits down on the bench too. "Well, if he has a problem with you, he can take it up with me." He reaches out to ruffle Jay's hair.
Jay playfully makes a chomping motion. Then he smiles, laughing slightly. "Thanks." He finally starts unwrapping his cupcake. "I guess going through that with Wu right now and not being too well accepted down here has me being more, I dunno, considerate?"
"Wait, I thought everyone loved you down here?"
"No? I mean, I'm generally accepted, and it feels like almost everyone's heard about me, but not my case. Outside of the Fangpyre, most serpentine kinda have issues with victims of Fangpyre bites. It's more of a taboo-across-cultures thing. Especially now, since there's no reason to turn people. Think most people down here just assume some hungry Fangpyre took a chunk out of me."
Another crumpled wrapper. "So that'd be the issue of whoever bit you in the scenario, not an issue with you."
"Yeah but I don't think that matters. I'm weird and foreign and unwelcome and they think I was forcefully brought down here."
Cole starts unwrapping his third cupcake. "Well, fuck them."
"Easier said than done. Maybe it'll be easier over time, dunno, I have spent more time down here than anticipated."
"Probably. Just weird seeing you be not so loud lately."
Jay smiles. "You think I've been quiet? Get ready to hear some singing on the way home."
"Wait, no."
"I can sing right now!"
"Hold on hold on, not in public."
Jay stands up, taking a deep breath, holding his half-eaten cupcake like a microphone.
He closes his eyes and opens his mouth.
Nothing comes out. Instead, his eyes snap open at something tugging on his pant leg.
It's a child. A Fangpyre child, short and two-headed, all four eyes looking up in awe. "Are you...are you..." they start trying to squeak out words.
"A 'turned' or whatever? Yeah." Jay answers boredly.
"No! I know you are. But are you the guy from that one show?"
Jay chuckles nervously. "What show?"
"The game show. You know, you had the neon suit and and...it's not you, is it?"
"Yeeeessss?"
Two smiles and four sparkly eyes look up at him excitedly. "I knew it!" One of the heads turns around. "Guys, I was right!"
Several serpentine children creep out from behind a bench.
Jay's eyes dart side to side, looking for an escape.
The kids run up in excitement though.
Jay's anxiousness turns into a smirk. Oh, this is some positive attention.
"You all know me? From my show?" he asks with an eyebrow raised, a smirk growing wider.
A venomari child nods excitedly.
Cole leans forward, still sitting down. "Hey, he also helped save Ninjago a few times. I helped too."
A constrictai child turns to look at him. They blink several times. Slowly, they turn their head back to Jay.
Cole cracks a slight smile. Okay. This is new.
"It's interesting to me that the serpentine actually have stars, y'know? And I was one of them without even knowing!"
"Uh-huh."
"Also I think it's interesting how most of the 'stars' among the serpentine are Fangpyre," Jay remarks. He and Cole walk down the sidewalk of Ninjago City now. "The cultural differences are neat though. It's like, that one tribe loved theatrics so much that when they started making serpentine movies, most of the industry is just Fangpyre because they love drama."
Cole nods tiredly. "Maybe they can start offering acting lessons. Bring in some diversity."
"That'd be amazing to see. It's just cool to see their culture evolving considering they were locked underground until like, five years ago."
Cole smiles. "It is cool." He yawns. "I think I'm ready to go home."
"I know. Just need to buy something real quick."
It had become a habit anytime he went out. At least when he visited the serpentine village.
Jay would buy a single flower on his way home. Just one.
He would have to pass the coast on his way to the monastery.
Standing on the shore, he sits on a patch of sand that rests where Ninjago City trails off.
Gently, he places a flower on the water, letting Nya take it away.
Maybe it's a romantic gesture.
Maybe it's mourning.
Either way, his love has a gift.
Cole stands there, arms crossed, watching the waves.
It's hot out. He should've worn something sleeveless. But...maybe he didn't wanna encourage someone to bite him.
"We should have a beach day at some point," Cole mumbles.
Jay looks up at Cole. "That'd be nice. Especially before it gets cold out."
"Oh yeah, shit, you're cold-blooded now, what are you gonna do about that?"
Jay shrugs, letting out a small "Ehhhhhh." He gets up and dusts the sand off. "Apparently I'm not, but my body responds as if I was. Like I'm not gonna freeze to death, but I will feel like I might. Something about me only being considered half serpentine, who are already pretty humanoid, so I'm still like kinda three-quarters human with mostly human biology, surprisingly."
"That's still probably not good."
"Yeah, I know. Depending on what happens and if I'm cured, I'm gonna ask Wu if I can have a custom suit that's warmer or something."
Cole looks up at the bright sun. "Well, you can enjoy the heat all you want, think I'm going home. I might've put on too many layers."
Dinner is nice.
Zane cooked.
He can't even taste anymore- he hasn't been able to for years- but somehow, he always makes something great.
It was simple. Meatloaf. Nothing too fancy. But it was good.
Kai chatters with Cole over a cool new movie trailer he saw online today.
Lloyd updates Jay on his and Wu's research. They had slowed their search in the few weeks since the incident happened. Several days of heavy research slowly faded into checking maybe one potential source a day.
"Wu's been in a bad mood, sorry," Lloyd whispers. "Never trust a snake, y'know?"
Jay nods, eyebrows arched. "Uh uh." He poked his food with his fork. "I could tell."
"We found a lead though."
Jay's eyebrows shoot up. "I'm listening."
"It's equal parts tea leaves and emotions, it'll need some prep but-"
"How soon can we do it?"
"We're missing some supplies, it's not much though. Maybe a week?"
Wu sits n the floor of his room, alone, meditating.
There's a small creak in the floorboards.
He ignores it.
Then someone sits down.
Okay, he has to open his eyes for this.
Jay sits down on the floor, legs crossed, fumbling with his hoodie's sleeve, using it as a barrier between his fingers and the back of his hands.
Wu holds his breath for a moment. Keeping his composure, he breathes out a sigh, remembering that this is just his student.
His student is a snake now.
A snake is in his room.
The snake is someone he's mentored and cared for several years now.
But that's still a snake.
Great.
But they're not all evil, he has to remind himself.
"What is it, my pupil?" the old master asks calmly.
"I uh, just wanna thank you."
"Hmm, for what?"
"For trying to get me back to normal. I know it hasn't been easy for you but you still did it. I appreciate that."
Wu smiles. Then he looks skeptical.
"What?" Jay starts tugging at his hoodie, trying to cover a bit more skin.
"Nothing, I just don't see what this is for."
"Respect your elders? Isn't that something you're super big on?"
Wu's frown grows.
"Not that you're elderly! I, uh, you know what I mean, right?"
"You just don't seem like one to do such spontaneous gestures of kindness," Wu responds.
"Yeah, I know! But I know this has been hard on you. I know you get on edge when I'm around and-"
"And you want me to lower my defenses?" Wu asks, standing up.
"No! I'm just trying to be nice. I know I'm kind of a jerk sometimes, but I'm working on it. I feel like you don't treat me the same and it's..." the blue ninja searches for slightly less crude words than what's bouncing through his head. "It's not cool?"
"Never trust a snake."
"Yeah well the snakes said to never trust a human and look, now they're integrating into our society little by little. They're trusting us. So why can't you try to do the same?"
The sensei looks down at the student who still sits on the floor. "I've had a long history with serpentine. Aspheera was evil, a snake made my brother evil, I lived through the serpentine wars, I was eaten by the Devourer." Wu's voice begins to grow louder.
"Sensei...no offense- or full offense, I don't know anymore- but...isn't that a little racist? You can't blame them all. You can't blame serpentine children who weren't there for war. You can't blame me for-"
"I am not blaming you for anything, snakes just simply cannot be trusted."
Jay stands up. "You. Me. Serpentine Village tomorrow."
"I would rather not."
"What's the worst that can happen? I've brought everyone else down there at least once."
Wu gives Jay a worried look.
"The rest of the team can come with us. I promise it isn't a trap."
The elder man comes close to the kid-snake-thing.
He takes a deep breath. It's hard to sort out who and what the lightning ninja is right now.
The remaining ninjas are all around 20 to 21 years old. (The only major exception was his own nephew, whose age has been tricky to decipher since a faithful incident involving tea.) Yet it was hard to not see them as the same 15 to 16-year-olds he brought in years ago.
He didn't raise them. They were capable of looking after themselves for the most part when they came into his life. Yet he has grown attached as if they were of his kin.
Time is strange for someone as old as Wu. It has been a while, yet no time at all to him. They are older, they don't look like they did years ago, they look as if they've seen many things in life.
Yet at the same time, seeing them in distress, some sort of instinct kicks in. Something makes Wu want to help. Time melts and he's looking at the boy he found wearing fake wings again.
But something isn't right. Jay's current mood does send Wu back several years. But also his appearance is in stark contrast something that Wu fears, poisoning Wu's desire to help.
So he stands there, frozen, taking in the ninja's expression.
Does he accept the offer? Does he let his guard down? Does he kick him out of the room?
Jay puts his hands in his pockets and takes a step forward. "I swear, you won't get hurt."
And by the FSM, it is strange to see Jay this...small. While he was the shortest of the ninjas, he was always rather loud and presented himself in a larger-than-life manner whenever he could. Lately though, not so much. Especially right now. His voice is small. His posture is small. As if he's trying to not take up much space for once.
This isn't his trusted blue ninja.
After a moment of contemplating if he should grab his staff, Wu places a hand on Jay's shoulder.
This is his trusted blue ninja, he's simply changed. He's widowed. He's a snake now. He's going through things.
Wu just needs to remember this.
"I accept your offer," the elder man says gently.
Jay's eyes light up.
Wu smiles. "And hopefully soon you can return to your previous form."
Jay cringes a bit. "For your sake or mine?" he forces a slight chuckle.
Wu doesn't answer.
