It'd only been three days since they'd returned from the mission, and Kang had not been acting like his usual self. Typically, he was pretty sociable, and it was a good bet that if you needed to talk to him, you could find him in the tavern, but he'd been avoiding it for the most part, only stopping in once per day to check on things before disappearing again. He'd been spending most of his time in unoccupied portions of the City, the Sensoriums, his room, and Hydroponics.

The latter was where he was now, lying on his stomach underneath a tree and going over what had happened during the mission in his head for what felt like the billionth time. He was wearing the simple cloth tunic and kilt he'd purchased on Zokez II instead of his armor, though he still had his dagger and spell pouches nearby.

He wasn't paying too much attention to his surroundings, knowing that he was in no danger from any of the animals.

Iniss stared at the slop, willing it to turn into something marginally palatable.

The slop remained inert and gray.

< I don't think it's going to magically morph into a cheese burger, Iniss. You may as well eat it before it gets all cold and congealed and starts tasting worse. >

< I can stand the taste, it's the texture that's soul crushing. It's like someone put old tires and used gym socks in a blender and decided to serve it for lunch. >

< I think I'm just glad you get to be the one that actually has to chew it. Yeerks are useful for something after all. >

< You know I could give you control, I'd even give the appearance of being charitable. >

< Give the appearance of being charitable, in reality being sadistic. I bet Dani would be proud. >

Iniss huffed, taking a bite of the food and forcing himself to swallow it without tasting it. His host couldn't help but rub that in, could he? Useless brat.