AN: *glances at the calendar* I mean, it's still a Christmas present, I guess, just a different year?
Lloyd is trying to impress Gayle Gossip. He's just trying so hard to impress her. Granted, it's not for her, it's not at all for her, it's actually for his fellow ninja, but he is really trying to impress her.
Too bad it's not really working.
Gayle Gossip looks utterly unimpressed as Lloyd ushers her toward yet another area where training equipment or weapons or tools or things like that are hidden away in the Monastery. The first time he'd opened a secret compartment, she'd looked impressed. The second and third times, and maybe even the fourth and fifth times, she'd looked vaguely interested. Now, probably the fifteenth time or so, and maybe an hour or two later, she looks incredibly bored, and the more bored she looks, the more she seems to want to turn the conversation toward something else, or really, a specific someone else.
"And this one hides just a bunch of throwing stars," Lloyd says hopefully as he opens a hidden drawer, trying to push her attention back onto the Monastery and not onto its inhabitants, either in the present or in the past. "Like, a bunch of throwing stars. A whole bunch. A lot of a-"
"And how long has this compartment been here?" Gayle Gossip asks.
Lloyd blinks. "Well, it was put it when the Monastery was built-"
"So it was around when Garmadon lived here?" Gayle Gossip asks quickly.
Lloyd winces. "Uh, no. Well, maybe? I mean, you know, the Monastery's been destroyed and rebuilt since then, so a compartment like this might've existed when, uh, he was here, but not this exact one, so-"
"So it has nothing to do with Garmadon," Gayle Gossip says sharply.
"No," Lloyd admits.
"Unlike you," Gayle Gossip says. "You have everything to do with Garmadon, and yet, at the same time, you have nothing to do with him."
"I wouldn't say it like that," Lloyd mumbles.
Gayle Gossip motions at Vinny as she shoves her microphone in Lloyd's face. "How would you say it, then? How, exactly?"
Lloyd coughs nervously, leaning backward to get away from the microphone and glancing around the silence that follows.
Or, well, the near-silence that follows. Gayle Gossip is silent, and Vinny is silent, and Lloyd is silent, but the room isn't quite silent. Lloyd can just barely hear a low set of murmurs from down the hall.
Suddenly filled with inspiration, and yeah, okay, maybe filled with a bit of cowardliness too, Lloyd leans even further away from the microphone, which followed his face backward, and says quickly, "I don't know, I'm not always good with words, really, but I know who might be! Come on!"
Spinning on his heels, Lloyd swerves around Gayle Gossip and walks speedily down the hall, hearing the murmurs grow louder and more distinct as he goes. He also hears hurried footsteps from behind him, and he speeds up his walking even more.
Lloyd dashes into the kitchen, yelping, "Zane! Pixal! Help!"
They look up with alarm from the game they are playing on the counter.
"What? What is it?" Pixal demands, standing from the stool she was seated on with so much speed that the stool topples over behind her.
Zane stands almost as quickly, scanning the room with urgency for threats.
"It's Gayle Gossip," Lloyd says in a hiss. "Help!"
Pixal and Zane trade glances. They visibly loosen up, their arms going down from the fighting poses they'd taken, but they also visibly shudder.
"Ah," Zane says. "Yes. Well. Indeed?"
"Good," Lloyd says with relief.
Just then, Gayle Gossip rounds the corner into the kitchen. Before she can begin to say anything, though, Pixal takes charge.
"Now that the Destiny's Bounty is a few further pieces toward being more prepared, I would be happy to show a bit of it to you, Miss Gossip, were this an ordinary occasion," Pixal says, quickly moving a few things around on the counter to hide the game there. "However, I do believe my assistance is needed here in another form of preparation."
"Another form of preparation," Gayle Gossip repeats, her eyes narrowing.
"There is more work to being ready for the life of a ninja than the work involved with vehicles and their technologies," Pixal says.
"Agreed," Zane says, apparently catching on to whatever Pixal was implying. "For example, there is the etiquette involved. With guests at the Monastery, and now that we are aware of their presence, it would be quite a misstep for us to not provide a proper meal. Would you and your friend be willing to join us in the preparations?"
Gayle Gossip looks skeptical, even as Vinny, who just joined them in the kitchen as Pixal was speaking about being ready, looks intrigued.
So Zane sweetens the deal. "And, if it were of interest, we could discuss how some meals are chosen and prepared by each of us in turn."
"Most of us in turn," Pixal corrects slyly. "There are, of course, exceptions to those choices and preparations, certain ones."
"Exceptions," Gayle Gossip says slowly. She steps forward and seats herself on the stool that Zane had just gotten up from. "Do explain. What certain choices, preparations, and exceptions are you talking about?"
As Zane begins what sounds like an overly-complicated and awkwardly-polite way of saying "Cole can't cook to save his life," Pixal makes a flapping motion with her hands in Lloyd's direction and whispers, "Go. We will handle her for a bit."
"Thanks, Pix," Lloyd whispers back, and he runs out of the kitchen as fast as he would if he were actively being chased.
As Lloyd enters the dining room for lunch, he can feel his anxiety rise at the sight of Gayle Gossip already seated at the table. He'd been feeling a lot better, having spent the past few hours huddled up in bed, leaning over a few different comic books. Now, he's starting to feel a bit panicky again. He pauses where he stands, only a single step in through the doorway.
Pixal looks up from where she's putting plates at their places on the table. She sets the stack of plates down, comes to his side, leans in close with a clear frown, and says directly into his ear, "When I said 'a bit,' I did mean a relatively short bit. Not multiple hours."
Lloyd frowns back sheepishly. "Yeah. Sorry. I just… I couldn't take it any longer."
Pixal leans back a little, gives him a long look, and then nods, her frown softening. "Understood."
She returns to her task, and Lloyd pulls up every bit of courage he can muster, then he joins her at the table.
Everybody else is already there, he notes. Even Jay and Nya, who often struggle to be pulled away from projects like the Destiny's Bounty, are in their usual spots. To be fair, they probably weren't really working on the Destiny's Bounty the whole time, though, Lloyd realizes. It was probably mostly an excuse.
Lunch goes a lot like breakfast did. Gayle Gossip makes always-loud and often-personal comments, Vinny looks awkwardly apologetic but still takes videos of what she tells him to, and everyone else just suffers. Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, but Lloyd feels like he deserves to be a little dramatic after how this day has gone so far and how Gayle Gossip keeps bringing up uncomfortable topics and giving him pointed looks.
Because she just doesn't stop. All throughout the meal, she keeps saying things about the Oni, and the Sons of Garmadon, and the way she hopes to find out more about "the process by which Garmadon returned to our realm in the form he did." And she keeps it up even when the meal is clearly done and other people are slowly edging away from the table, one by one.
That's when Gayle Gossip starts in on Harumi.
"You all were staying with the royal family when the palace was destroyed, and as the Green Ninja, you are often the face of the team," Gayle Gossip says, looking right at Lloyd. "Did you have much interaction with the Jade Princess before she revealed herself as evil and intending to revive your father?"
Despite having just drank a final sip of water, Lloyd feels his mouth go dry. He glances around helplessly as everyone stops moving.
Even Jay and Nya, who are already at the doorway and, in Jay's case, halfway through it, stop moving. Then, a moment later, they come all the way back in.
"You know, I don't think we got a chance to be interviewed yet," Nya says thoughtfully, tapping her cheek almost like she isn't quite sure about it, even though Nya certainly remembers well that she definitely hasn't been interviewed and certainly remembers even better exactly why she hasn't been interviewed.
"Yeah," Jay says, practically vibrating with energy, definitely the nervous kind, not the good kind, despite the smile on his face. "I'd say it's our turn. We've got plenty of answers for your questions for us, I bet."
Lloyd gulps.
Gayle Gossip just grins. "In that case, I think I can hold off on any other kinds of questions for now. Jay, Nya, lead the way."