Chapter Text
Cole felt confined. Confined to gravity; his body; his person. He couldn't fly or float anymore. No longer could he possess random objects at will. He missed making Jay's tools float off the bench and the laugh Jay let out when he realized it was his friend messing with him.
If he felt like it, Cole could become anything he could get close to. He had possessed a rug once while Kai was walking on it and made it float. Cole also sang "Magic Carpet Ride" to get on Kai's nerves even more. It worked. Once, he had possessed the bathroom mirror and experienced Nya's deep stare. It was supposed to be at her reflection, but to Cole, it felt like she could have seen into his very soul. If you think looking deep into your mirror is frightening, imagine BEING that mirror.
He had possessed Lloyd's comic and kept flipping the page back until Lloyd gave up. He didn't need food as a ghost, so sometimes he'd possess the utensils the Ninja were using and make them fly just out of reach. Or he'd make their noodles hover in the air and tilt just enough to scare someone but not enough to make a mess. It was fun! He just had to steer clear of the water cups.
That was all over now. He couldn't possess things and make household objects come to life (or death since he was a ghost) so pranking his fellow Ninja was harder. Less spontaneous. Another thing that he missed just as much was invisibility.
When someone seemed like they were off, Cole could untracebly follow them around and look for clues as to what was wrong. Then he could help comfort them based on his findings. Not being able to stalk people made it harder to tell what made them upset. He did know everyone's hiding places now at least.
The other day he found Zane staring out the window, and he knew that meant he was going over sad memories. So he did his best to make cookies (did he forget half a cup of flour, making the cookies terribly thin and chewy? Yeah, but he tried!) and shared them with Zane. The gesture was appreciated.
Cole couldn't help as much. Jay and Lloyd noticed. They noticed that he found them when they tried to hide, but that he didn't have the right words like he used to. They both kinda guessed that he spied on them more when he was a ghost, but they didn't want to hurt his feelings and always appreciated the effort he gave to help, so neither pointed it out.