They've had a bunch of very uneventful days, and Kingo was entertaining himself by catching up with the rest of the team. Ikaris and Sersi were being boring, as they foten were (I mean he loved them both, he did, but sometimes...they were boring, and Kingo got tired of them and their mushiness). (They had been much more interesting before they together, honestly)
Thena was always training and thinking of new battle strategies, which again, was good for a bit, but he ended up getting tired, because that woman just simply could stay fighting forever and ever. She didn't know the meaning of the word exhaustion. Talk about resilience. Gilgamesh also liked to fight, but he also liked to eat and chat, and that was nicer.
Phastos was also nice, but often Kingo didn't understand what the hell he was talking about, leading him to smile awkwardly, try to follow his friend's work speed (which was way too fast) and end up with a headache. Talking about going fast, it was hard to catch up with Makkari, because she was just never there. Or well, she was there, then she left, came back two minutes later told you she'd been to every beach in Europe, disappeared again, told you they were building a very big wall in China and then disappeared again. Never around for long.
The one who Kingo liked spending long times with was Sprite. He loved her little stories, he loved watching her illusions, seeing htem unfold. And if you were bored, you could always ask her to create something new, make up a new story, see it develop in beautiful colours. It was one of his favourite pastimes, and he really liked losing himself in those stories. And Ajak...well, sometimes she lectured him, and he didn't like that.
Druig, he honestly didn't know all that well. He was perhaps more introspective than the rest? More surly, definitely. More... moody. But Kingo guessed that if every time he used his ability he'd been able to feel people's moods, get in their minds and see the ugly things there, maybe he would be a bit surly, too. So Kingo decided that maybe he could give Druig another chance, try to get to know him better.
In that precise moment, their resident mind guy was on the little porch of the house they were staying in, just looking at the empty field being showered by the heavy rain. In silence. Kingo went next to him and tried to understand what was so fascinating.
"Are we looking at anything in particular?"
"Just the rain." he said, with that funky accent of his.
So... the rain. It was... certainly... something, wasn't it? Was there a meaning behind it? ... what?
"Do you remember if it rained in Olympia, Kingo? Because I can't. Sometimes I wonder if we'll ever see it again, or even if we ever were there at all."
Druig was so weird.
Honestly.
He sighed and looked at Kingo. His eyes were so blue, sometimes it startled him. Were they supposed to be that blue?
"Anything in particular that brought you here, Kingo?"
"Just... wanted to catch up?" He didn't know how far Druig's mind powers went, but, just in case, he didn't lie to the man. Not to get to his bad side. "So... what's going on with you?" Awkward smile. Why did he feel awkward? He'd known Druig for thousands of years.
"What's going on with me? Well, I am haunted by the agonic voices of the thousand if not millions of humans whose deaths I could have prevented and they weigh on me so bad that every day I feel closer to being crushed by my own head. You know, the usual. What's up with you?" a smirk. Had that been supposed to be a joke?
If he was honest, Druig was the one that scared him the most out of all of them. Ikaris and Thena were regular warriors, had a strong honour code, could be trusted. Ajak was a born leader, cared about her team and her mission and that was that. Some of them, were easy to read, easy to deal with. But Druig... he sometimes felt like a shadow, always there in the darkness, seemingly understanding things they never could.
Because emotions were so terribly more complicated than technology or lasers, right? They kept changing, and they could run so much deeper and make such profound changes. And Druig understood emotions, and none of them knew exactly to which level.
Because the training they got in Olympia was fairly basic and they hadn't unveiled all aspects of their abilities. In the beginning, Sersi thought she could only change rocks into other materials. Then every material except for living things. (And even that would change with time). His cosmic energy balls had been tiny in the beginning too, but he'd learned to control and transform them and now he could make them as big as a house.
His point being, where did Druig's mind powers end? Would he, at some point be able to control the rest of them too? Would he choose to? He had more than once done things they weren't supposed to do, according to the mission's rules, so where did his loyalties truly lie? Was it with them, or was it with the human? Would he at some point betray them and side with the deviants for some reason? He was so hard to read.
But he had asked a question, hadn't he? And what was up with Kingo?
"Just... you know, trying to know what is going on with everyone. See if there's any interesting gossip."
Druig raised an eyebrow, seemingly interested.
"Is there?"
"Not that I've found out. There's something strange with Sersi and Sprite, I think, but I'm not exactly sure why."
Druig just nodded and went back to looking lost on himself while watching the rain. It was fairly calming, the rain, wasn't it? But there something unavoidably sad about it, too. Like with Druig, in a way, perhaps. He did often have a calming effect when tension where running high, but there was a bit of a sadness to him and his eyes as well. Did bad emotions affect him more than the good ones? Would they ever know?
Whatever the case, Kingo decided that Druig wasn't that scary, actually. If you got close and tried to see through that mysterious dark aura, it turned out he wasn't such a bad guy, right? Tried to make jokes, find out about gossip. He was one of them, even if he was among the quieter ones, even if he was never at the centre, even if he looked aloof and distant.
Usually.
Makkari appeared out of nowhere, drenched, and signed something to him (Hi, Kingo) and then to Druig (Hey, -word Kingo didn't know-, would you like to join me and get a bite to eat?)
And suddenly the distance and the aloofness and even the sadness were gone, in one single moment.
Huh, Kingo thought to himself, the mention of food really cheers this man up, right? He filed that info for future reference - so if he needed something from Druig he could bribe him with food. (Many years later he found out that the word Makkari had signed was "gorgeous" and many many years later he kind of realised that maybe it wasn't just the food that cheered him up, gosh, Kingo, the denseness of you sometimes.
Maybe he should have figured something out when he based a couple of minor characters of one of his movies on them and the public went crazy asking for a movie only about them. Kingo had been mad that they stole his thunder and never saw that these people were actually asking for a movie about their love story. Love story on characters you completely based on your friends, Kingo. You spent thousands of years with these people and the viewers saw it in about fifteen minutes of movie. Denseeee.)
"NIce talking to you, Kingo." Druig said, and then he was gone, into the rain, and presumably the food.
It wasn't the conversation of the century, but it taught Kingo a few things. Druig did have a sense of humour, but it was a bit dark, he cared about them as well the humans (why else would he be interested in gossip?) and you could always cheer him up with food.
(Later he would learn not to put anyone even resembling him in any of his movies because the attention had to be on him!!! He was Kingo, he was the movie star!!)
And perhaps, maybe, perchance, that their resident aloof dark "mind" guy, was actually not that scary.
You only needed to get closer.