OPEN my melancholy blues

[METEOR]

METEOR

The lion watched the gears turn in the dog’s mind—externally, at least, based on any details in the archon’s face and body language—but he was not surprised that the dog agreed. The garbage needed to go as soon as possible, in Meteor’s opinion. Otherwise, the state of the reefs might not recover as fast, which meant depleting their coconut crab supply too fast. It took years for those not-sentient fuckers to reach giant size, and he couldn’t bank on Coconut Island supplying them indefinitely. But the reefs? Critical.

“Very well. But everyone you bring is expected to work.” Meteor’s tail tip twitched. “No elderly. No invalids incapable of seeing or properly handling garbage without assistance.” A smirk flashed teeth and fang. “You already know what cannibals do with the useless, don’t you?”

At the end of the negotiations, the lion watched the dog stretch. Why wasn’t he surprised the archon hadn’t bothered remembering the vizier who handled shit when the pharaoh couldn’t be arsed? Meteor scoffed, then lashed his tail. “Meteor Prometheus. Now that I’m pharaoh, I suppose my name will stick in your memory, hm?”