Misunderstanding

Finding the Perfect Solution

"This meeting?"

"No, this new weird growth on my tail," Bowser growled sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Yes this meeting!"

"The water filter systems have been faulty lately so they're in discussion about what should be done about them."

Bowser sighed, rubbed his eyes, opened the door, and walked in. He could already hear nothing but the seemingly slowed down clock, ticking at him mockingly. It was going to be a very long morning...

~*~*~

Hours later, Bowser was ready to implode. He was bored out of his mind. All of his advisers and the workers of the individual departments were bickering about the same things continuously. It was torture, way worse than anything he'd ever punished anyone to. He was completely sure that if he were to be damned to cleaning nothing but toilets his whole life he could find a way to make it less mind-numbing and awful than this.

After a ten-minute argument about the town central park, Bowser finally felt ready to rip the head off of a few koopas in the room.

"The conditions of the air have made it unsafe for any families to attend the park or any of it's shows! It needs to be shut down for condition checking!" one koopa shouted, slamming the table with his fist. Bowser imagined the koopa's head in place of his fist.

"You idiot, we can't shut down the park!" another koopa shouted, rolling her eyes. "The revenue that it brings in functions too much of the city to shut it down over pollution paranoia!"

"But if we don't check it, then who knows what health complications can pop up! Lawsuits, Miss Koopem, federal cases!"

"If someone happens to get sick over air that they've been breathing for years, then that is their fault, not ours!"

"Then what about tourists, hm? What do we do if they get sick?"

"We don't do a damned thing! It is not our choice to shut down a major park that makes enough money to keep quite a few businesses within it running, we can't just close it!"

"We're going to shut it down, but only for a month for testing," Bowser spoke up, tired of their shrill voices getting louder. "If the tests come up as non-lethal, then we'll open it back up. If they come up as lethal, it'll be shut down and it'll be quarantined while the air is cleaned and replaced with artificial oxygen."

"Yes, Your Grace," Koopem agreed immediately. She'd been in an argument with Bowser before; she couldn't risk replacing her old burn wounds with fresh ones. They'd just healed. "We'll get the news out to the press right away."

"Good," Bowser nodded gruffly. "Is there anything else that's causing a problem?"

The many koopas and goombas in the room looked around at each other, talking quietly to see if there was anything. The male koopa that had argued with Koopem before spoke up.

"There's nothing more, Your Brashness," he said matter-of-factly. "It seems that this meeting is over."

"Good," Bowser sighed, grinning with relief. He slumped onto the table and nestled his head into his arms after all of the others had left. "Man...I'm tired..."

He yawned and a spark or two of flame popped out. Kamek was there immediately, smacking his king in the back of the head with his wand. Bowser was up as soon as the pain settled in, roaring and swallowing fire, nearly choking himself. Kamek rolled his eyes and looked around him, seeing the charred walls and sighing in response.

"Ugh, I'm up, I'm up!" Bowser shouted, waving his arms around, as if trying to swat away his advisor. Then he scowled. "If I don't even have to be at this meeting anymore - which is over, by the way, maggot-breath - then why can't I sleep?"