Hey Everyone!
I just want to start off by apologizing for the lack of updates for the past few days... I've been busy lately: wrapped up in exams and rent and all sorts of other nasty stuff.
But upplet, Why are you taking exams? I thought you already graduated college! You all ask curiously.
Right you are, mi amigos: My college experience has long since passed.
When I say exams, I mean the final exams for my flight school! I'm learning how to professionally fly helicopters, as it's always been something I've been fascinated with. I hope to one day work for some sort of heliport, perhaps flying those things back and forth... Oh my, getting off topic again aren't I?
Point is: I'm sorry for the pitiful updating schedule, for I have been most occupied the past few days. Back on track now though! :D
I sincerely appreciate all of your great patience and stable attitudes: Thank you.
Without further ado, I present to you chapter 31 of 'When Instinct Falls!'
Enjoy...
"All roads that lead to success have to pass through hard work boulevard at some point." - Anonymous
Just another day on the job...
But of course, it's been like that since day one.
For the past three weeks, Nick and Judy- under their falsetto aliases of Felix Leyfur and Alaina Ryder- have been working beneath the mercantile business empire of none other than Jack Savage himself.
Their undercover work seemed like a walk in the park at first glance, but after exactly 21 days, both fox and bunny were starting to realize that it was, in fact, quite the opposite...
Their first day of undercover work within Jack's business proved to be quite effective, as they had claimed some unofficial evidence that certainly put Jack under the shadow of suspicion. However, what they learned that first day had failed to meet the fixed objective that they had been assigned: To expose Jack Savage for financial fraudulence on the behalf of his own company and everyone he worked with.
The information that Judy had acquired was undoubtedly something, but it was far from what Bogo had asked for, who even himself dismissed the idea of Jack committing crime-related business deals with Shahaz the Stinger, the Sahara-Square's number one criminal figure-head.
As he oh-so officially claimed; The information that you've recovered fails to undermine the backings of the case's accusations, and currently cannot be treated as important.
That statement really put a twist in Judy's tail, as she had spent nearly 8 hours sucking up to Jack and trying to get him wasted, only to find out that that single sentence of information that she had recovered in the very end was nil to nothing in regards to the importance of the mission.
So with the exception of that seemingly worthless and unofficial lead that she had obtained on the first day of working with Jack, the past three weeks had been filled with a dreary staleness of clues: She'd uncovered nothing close to what Bogo wanted, and was no closer to finishing the case than when she had started. Thankfully though, Jack didn't remember a single thing from that night of heavy drinking, and he continued to work with Judy as if nothing had ever happened in the first place.
Since then, Judy attended Jack to nearly every single one of his business meetings, executive updates, trips, and more, yet she had nothing worth showing for all of her hard work. In the end, it wasn't very surprising to her, as she was forced to stick right alongside Jack for nearly her entire working period, thus rendering any sufficient intelligence-gathering as futile.
The only intelligence-gathering she could do was conversation with Jack himself, who hadn't unintentionally given away anything useful since the first day.
In short, Judy was becoming frustrated.
Frustrated with her fake job,
Frustrated with her real job,
Frustrated at Jack,
And perhaps most of all, frustrated with herself.
She, Judy Hopps: The bunny that had alone plowed her way through the police academy and outfitted herself as the unopposed valedictorian of her class...
Judy Hopps, the hero cop that nearly single-handedly solved a conspiracy that could have brought down the entirety of Zootopia and everything it stood for...
Judy Hopps, the police officer who had practically wiped an entire criminal organization off the map of the Nocturnal-District in a few days time...
Was losing.
She was losing her patience, her temper, and her clear state of mind.
Her frustrations were beginning to eat away at all of these factors, but all the while, she had to keep on a straight and smiling face in the presence of one Jack Savage.
Despite chief Bogo's warnings, she had expected this case to be over and done with a lot faster than how it was currently drawing out to: Her speedy and slightly impatient nature made this long and especially drawn-out case to be one of great irritation and dismay to the bunny.
Her nettled state of mind clouded her sense of reason and empathy: Making her unaware of the unsavory actions that seeped out and were bestowed upon others.
Since she bottled up her emotions and forcefully plastered on the cheery and unquestionable personality of Alaina Ryder in the presence of Jack Savage...
There was only one mammal whom her frustrations truly leaked out to...
Judy's own husband, Nick, noticed her antsy and even somewhat depressed attitude within short notice, of course. Figuring that Judy was strong and wouldn't need assistance overcoming this obstacle, the fox didn't bother questioning the bunny about her current state of mind or mood at first.
He could tell that she wasn't liking her current situation... There were even a few times where Judy would simply flop into bed after arriving back at their hotel from work; completely avoiding any form of conversation with Nick and leaving him in the dark in regards to their mission.
Eventually, Nick grew worrisome of her sullen attitude, and decided to take matters into his own paws by talking it out with her when they got home when night. He figured that allowing her to let loose some steam via ranting might get some of the wight off of her shoulders: It did, for as soon as Nick had asked her how she was feeling, she nearly broke down; beginning to tear up around the eyes and nervously fidget with her fingers.
After she was done speaking, Nick got up close to her and gave her a reassuring kiss on the nose, soothingly telling her not to give up or let herself fall apart.
"Aw, don't get all weepy on me: You're doin' good, whiskers!" He told her.
"I don't see how... we haven't gotten anything useful on Jack in all this time... I feel like I'm just failing miserably here..." Judy claimed, wiping at her eyes.
"Now I know that this new case is frustrating and all, but you gotta keep moving one step at a time. Don't let the fact that Jack isn't dropping any clues get in the way of you being you, carrots... Don't forget that."
Judy aptly and quickly calmed down after that, for Nick's soothing words never failed to cheer her up in even the bluest of situations. They cuddled for some time after that before falling asleep, both mammals locked in one another's arms and dreaming of one another's warm and silken touch.
The following morning, fox and bunny alike awoke from their slumber extra early, so as to make a quick trip back to the ZPD to get their dye redone. Around their joints and other body parts that absorbed lots of friction, the due had started to wear away, showing off their true colors underneath. Judy's wasn't as bad as Nick's, whose orange fur made itself quite noticeable through the dull gray coloration of the surrounding dye.
Upon their arrival at the ZPD head-quarters, they immediately made their way to the stylist room, where they found Marie and her small army of hedge-hogs in wait.
"Ah, welcome back, welcome back!" The porcupine said aloud. "What do you see we re-layer that dye of yours, hmm?"
Both animals stripped themselves and promptly took their places with their stylists, whom made short work of them both.
As Nick stood very still while the hedge-hogs applied his dye, he couldn't help but listen to Judy and Marie's conversation as their new dye layer was applied.
The porcupine's shrill-sounding voice was detected first;
"I'm just so glad that the ZPD lets us help you officers out... So few mammals back on Outback-Island get cosmetic work done, so it's nice to open up towards a new and diverse crowd."
Judy's sweet spoke next.
"That's good! But why don't very many mammals go to your cosmetic shop on Outback-Island?" She asked curiously.
"Oh, just cultural norms and whatnot! Most of Outback-Island's population consists of kangaroos, and dingoes: Neither of those mammals have very long fur, thus making most of my products quite useless towards them. The koalas are the largest market that I have."
She snorted out of her nose before continuing.
"But don't get me started about those taz devils, honey! Violent lil' guys, I'll tell ya! You ever try and clip their nails before? It'll be the last thing you ever do!"
Nick stifled a reverberating chuckle. Not only did he find it amusing listening to Marie talk about her customer pool, but he also noticed that Judy was acting more like herself: Laughing alongside the porcupine, engaging in active conversation, and being all-around more friendly and approachable.
That thought put a smile on the fox's face for the rest of the day.
Meanwhile, Judy continued listening to Marie as she ranted about the poor cosmetic hygiene of wallaby's; But behind the porcupine's tirade, she could make out the squeaking conversation of two female hedge-hogs as they discussed something atop their table.
"Hey, we're running out of dye here! If these two coppers don't manage to crack this case before their next clock-in with us, we're gonna need to get some more." One said.
"Yeah, no kidding: We're burning through dye like a wildfire, here! I'm honestly surprised that those two haven't wrapped up their case yet... I thought they'd be done by now!" Another stated.
"Huh... Some hero cops they are, huh?" The other squeaked back irritably.
Judy had completely blocked off the sound of Marie's voice, and had focused her entire sense of sound upon the two hedge-hogs. She couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed in herself: Those hedge-hogs were upset at her because she hadn't completed the mission yet. The bunny felt like she had let them down, and was only prolonging their already drawn-out mission. Her stubborn nature and steadfast attitude convinced her that she needed to be more assertive and goal-centered in her efforts: She was going to prove those spiky little turd-balls wrong!
Though alongside her regular attitude when it came to set-backs, the bunny's reassuring talk with Nick the previous night made her even more determined than before.
She craned her head around and stole a glance at Nick, who was already looking directly at her. She saw him wiggle his eyebrows teasingly, causing the bunny to let out a few giggles before turning back around.
Dumb fox... Her conscious blurted out.
"You got that right." She softly said aloud.
And with that, she refocused her attention upon Marie, listening to the porcupine drone on about the stubbornness of wombat fur as she reapplied the dye to the bunny's body.
10:00
Time to clock-in at Jack's tower.
Both mammals strode together jovially as they entered through the sliding-glass doors, stepping inside the lobby and into Jack's building.
Judy suppressed her desire to hold Nick's hand as they walked, and instead focused on him as he shot a few finger guns towards a small crowd of bunny's in the corner of the room, all of whom were waving at him and shouting morning greetings across the lobby.
"Looks like you've been making friends, huh?" The bunny asked the fox, whom turned towards her and gave her his signature half-lidded smirk.
"Yes ma'am!" He said excitedly. "The other bunny's in Sector-A have started to warm up to me! But hey, what can I say? I'm a natural charmer!"
Judy rolled her eyes.
"Whatever you say, Felix." She muttered mockingly to the fox, causing him to snort out loud before responding.
"You know I am, Alaina!" He mocked back before leaning in and whispering in to her ears. "Also, you know you love me!"
Judy didn't respond until they had stepped foot inside their elevator, pressing the button that sent them up and soaring to Nick's floor.
"Do I know that? Yes... yes I do, you dumb, dumb fox." Judy claimed as she reached up to Nick and gave him a quick peck on the nose.
Blinking once, Nick briefly donned a puzzled look before reconstituting his favorite smirk. Unsatisfied with the previous kiss, he leaned down to Judy's level and gave her a longer, more drawn-out smooch upon her forehead. Nick adored the feeling of Judy's soft white fur beneath his lips, and milked the moment for every second that he could. The bunny's eyes closed in relaxation, and soon reopened when a sudden and reverberating ding sounded through the elevator cart.
When the elevator doors slid open once again, Nick shot Judy with a finger gun and gave her a sly wink before stepping outside and entering his floor level, bound for Sector-A.
Meanwhile, Judy was still recovering from his surprise smooch: She batted her eyes and lowered her ears in embarrassment, where they flopped over her cheeks, hiding her growing blush. Though she knew no one else was in the elevator (and that there were no cameras in the elevator), it was simply a habit that the flustered bunny just couldn't loose, no matter how hard she tried.
Today will be a good day... She mentally repeated in her head: The bunny was certain of this.
Although she didn't exactly have a set-in-stone plan for today's work with Jack, she was determined to obtain some sort of useful information. Bogo might not have approved of her previous lead which supposedly involved Jack doing crime-related business deals with Shahaz the Stinger, but Judy had a sinking feeling that there was something more to this than what met the eye.
She was ready to find out just what.
When the door slid opening, revealing the window-clad hall-way that lead to Jack's office, Judy couldn't help but sneak a glance at the other elevator on the opposing side of the room.
Throughout her time working with Jack, she'd seen all sorts of mammals come and go from the elevator that she had just used... but not a single one from the other...
It's doors had remained shut every day ever since she first saw them open, albeit slightly, on her first day on the job. Sometimes, after her work with Jack had concluded, she would stand in the hall-way next to the elevator, making sure to stay at least until the approximate time when she had last seen it open.
Despite all of her attempts, the doors stayed shut... thus the bunny, stayed suspicious.
As she paced down the hall-way, she eventually found her way to Jack's office. She was just about to open the handle and enter when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.
In the farther reaches of the hall-way as it continued onward, Judy spotted a steel-framed door labeled 'Security/Surveillance' at the end of the hall-way.
She stared at it for a few brief moments before turning back around towards the doors in front of her, smiling all the while, for she at last had an idea.
But first... Priorities... She told herself.
And with that, she flung open the door and entered Jack's office, beaming with excitement that for the first time in days; Wasn't forced or fake.
That though, at the very least, made her all the more pleased.
Hey Everyone!
As always, I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter, and do feel free to drop a review, favorite, or even follow this work of mine: It would be most appreciated! :D
As for now, be sure to tell me whatcha think of chapter 31! The 32nd is already in the works, but will be a bit longer than this one, I promise! I have a number of thing planned out for the next few chapters, all of which will be interesting and quite neat as they are! I can't wait to unveil them all to you! :D
Also, don't be surprised if you see another OC drawing popping up here sooner or later! I have another idea for another OC, and one that I really want to put to paper here soon! But in regards to putting him to words, well... that's a different story.
In the end, time will tell whether or not Ivar Obdenberg, and Gryggori Ratsputin find their way to 'When Instinct Falls'... For those who are interested, Ivar has been drawn in my image, and I think he looks pretty neat: If you wish to see what he looks like, take a stop by my Tumblr page real quick to see him! I go by the same alias there as I do here: upplet
Anyways, that's all for now, folks! Be sure to let me know of whatcha think of chapter 31, and perhaps your hopes/thoughts for the future!
Peace!