Sisyphus was working the next hill over, and they actually had a pretty good rhythm going. Stomp, strain, pause. Stomp, strain, pause. Then the inevitable relapse, Sisyphus trudging back downhill and Alex up. It’s kind of funny at first. For the first hundred years or so Alex makes a grumbling noise every time the boulder slips away from him and rolls back uphill, just like Sideshow Bob did when he stepped on all the rakes in the episode of the Simpsons that was based on Cape Fear. Man, that was a good episode.

Sisyphus never laughs.

“Just like in the Simpsons, right?” Alex winks at his partner. “muhnuhmuhnuhyeeeeargggh. Did you ever see that one? Where he ends up singing the entirety of the HMS Pinafore?” Sisyphus ignores him. “No, I guess you wouldn’t’ve. Man, I love that episode. BART YOU WANT TO SEE MY NEW CHAINSAW AND HOCKEY MASK!” He laughs for a good five, ten years out of that.

Finally Sisyphus throws his hands up in the air. “ALMIGHTY ZEUS,” he bellows, “THIS IS TOO MUCH.”

“Yeah, seriously, what the hell,” adds Ixion. “Shut the hell up already, kid!”