OPEN you could kiss a hundred boys in bars

[METEOR]

METEOR

Meteor accepted Vale’s decision to use his horn as a perch with an askance glance. But, whatever, Vale’s displays of friendship were often weird. Given that Vale only perched on Chernabog and Meteor? He decided this was acceptable.

His golden eyes lingered on Kole’s face and the fluff of fur. Praise motivated, eh? Another useful observation about the vampire.

“I believe our arrangement is worth continuing.” He smirked. “Nature magic. How useful.” Though, when he looked at the Beastie, the smirk became a slight frown. Definitely the antisocial adrenaline response. Sherbet, by contrast, would’ve cried himself into a melted puddle of ice cream.

Glance to Vale. And, this time, the two’s eyes met and held for an instant. Then a grumpy nod from Meteor. And a cackle from Vale.

Meteor’s golden gaze slid back to the Beastie. An antisocial with earth elementals. How unfortunate: a prosocial could be tortured into compliance. Shame and fear made a powerful combination. But an antisocial? Dangerous game, torturing an antisocial. Hell, even without torturing. The beastie could be trusted to make the logical play to guarantee his own survival. Meteor’s calculations? Utilize the elemental until the damn beastie showed his fangs. Then kill him. Immediately.

“Your comfort is not my priority.” Meteor snapped back. “You want privileges? Become a reliable tool.”

However, Meteor looked back at Kole. And the smirk returned. “Between the three of us, we can square away the supplies and figure out where to hold this Beastie.”

Then a skeptical side-eye to Vale. Three antisocials working together: Meteor, Xanti, and Vale. Unusual? Not particularly, if you knew where antisocials hung out and how they collaborated. But, out of the three of them, Vale was… erratic. Meteor wouldn’t have guessed Vale could be collaborative if he met xem today and didn’t know xyr track record. “Vale, you think this Beastie can be reasonable?”