Prompt: "I think you need a shower"
Set... after season 9 but shortly before 10, since they live in the monastery again. ~
Zane stepped off the Bounty alongside Kai and Lloyd. They had just returned from routing a holdout group of S.O.G. causing trouble in the city. The full team would've been overkill, but the whole operation would've gone much smoother. There had been a lot more enemies than the ninja had counted on, and Kai had a black eye to show for it. Zane detected Lloyd's right shoulder was troubling him, though the green ninja was pretending otherwise.
Kai and Lloyd split off to their rooms, no doubt to sulk for a while about taking so many hits from low level thugs. Zane's analysis of their body language told him their pride had been harmed more than their bodies. He didn't understand why they were blaming themselves. Going off the data available to them, there was no reason to suspect so many Sons of Garmadon remained at large. There was no fault on their part, and thus no reason they ought to feel insecure about their abilities.
Zane passed Cole in the hallway but stopped when Cole coughed loudly.
"You do not sound healthy, Cole. Are you feeling well?"
"Yeah, I'm fine buddy, just... I think you need a shower."
Zane looked at him with a perplexed expression on his face. "I don't understand. I have already taken steps to ensure my cleanliness since our last battle."
Cole scrunched his nose and subtly shuffled a step back. "You smell like garbage, and I mean that literally."
"That is quite possible. I did briefly fall into a dumpster. However as I said, I have since cleaned myself. I detect no unpleasant scents on myself. Perhaps you are smelling something or someone else?"
"If you're implying that I smell-"
Jay interrupted Cole by walking up to them and promptly recoiling with a start as the smell hit him. "Whoa! Go dumpster diving today, Zane?"
"Of course not. A dumpster would make for a very poor choice in terms of locations to go diving. It would be very difficult to break through a pile of garbage in the same manner as one does water, and-"
"Whatever. Remind me to explain 'dumpster diving' to you another day. Just take a shower! Or... whatever you do to clean yourself." Jay backed up the way he came, careful not to get too close to Zane. Cole inched away in the opposite direction.
~
Pixal put down her controller abruptly. She smelled something terrible, like long-forgotten waste. She turned her sensors off to spare herself the pain of inhaling the poisoned air. Looking for the source, she turned to see Zane behind her.
"I need you to run an impartial diagnostic on my systems. By my own analysis, everything seems to be in order but Cole and Jay both disagree."
"I will concur with their opinions. You have a foul odor emanating from you. Running diagnostic now" Pixal's eyes flashed as she scanned Zane. "Your external olfactory receptors are damaged. That is why you aren't able to smell yourself."
"I was hit in the nose in our fight against the Sons of Garmadon holdout earlier today. However, I detected no damage."
"That brings me to the other issue I found; your internal diagnostic system needs to be recalibrated."
"I will have to confirm with the others, but I believe that would be.. ironic," Zane guessed.
"I do not see what is humorous about the damage you have sustained."
"Merely that I was unable to detect damage in myself because the system designed to do so was damaged itself. Although I don't understand why it is entertaining either, I suppose it is noteworthy."
"Fascinating what humans find amusing. It is a statistically anomalous error, that much is true. I will help you repair the damage later. But for now, please Zane... take a shower.
~ Do you ever start with an idea, get going on the story, then reach a question you don't know the answer to? I thought it would be a little more unique/interesting with this prompt to have the person who needs a shower be one of the only individuals who probably doesn't. But then... does Zane shower? He's metal now, sure, but he still gets dirty. If he doesn't take showers does he wipe himself off? Does he spray himself down like you'd wash a car? I'm curious what other people think, I genuinely couldn't decide whether he still showers normally or has some other way to clean himself.
Mandatory disclaimer that I had no idea what I was thinking when I was writing this lol. Something more coherent coming soon. Maybe.
