Chapter 13
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Wuuuumppp-wump Wu-wu-pu-wump wump…
Wuuuumppp-wump Wu-wu-pu-wump wump…
Wuuuumppp-wump Wu-wu…
"Ah, there you are," the jaguar smiled, looking through his webcam. On the other side, a spotted hyena smiled back.
"Yup, now about those documents I was looking through," Haida followed on.
"Think you found anything?"
"Oh yeah, I found something alright," he said smugly. "Now, just to share my screen." A few clicks and… "Wait, wrong screen."
He quickly clipped away from the 'Mixed Martial Arts Zootopia International News, or MMA'ZIN!, homepage left open in one of his tabs, flipping over to the spreadsheet in question.
Not that his new boss seemed entirely interested in it anymore. "So, into MMA?"
"Y-Yeah," Haida said, playing it cool. "If Ivar the Tusked Terror going three hard rounds before finally sumo wrestling a taekwondo expert rhino to the ring floor and pinning him under two tonnes of walrus isn't worth watching, then what is?"
The jaguar smirk. "How about seeing your hometown hero hare Bo Briar, fighting for charity no less, give the Hoofbart Hercules Billy Mackenna himself a run for his stripes and money?"
The hyena's eyes widened with excitement. "Whoa, this is awesome. You know one of them?"
"Not closely," he said, shaking his paws a bit. "It may be called Bunnyburrow, but there's lots of hares there too, muscle disease or not. My real claim to fame is being in Judy Hopps' childhood class."
"Well," the hyena swooned. "I know her on a first name basis, so we're even there." He sat back, leaning into his chair and relaxing, arms stretched out behind him. "As for MMA, kinda trying to train up and get in myself."
"Cool," the jaguar side. "One of our painted dogs is really into boxing. You know, the guy with the glasses."
The hyena blinked. "No, I don't…"
"Well," the big cat sighed. "Guess that's what comes from working from home. -Hadn't thought about that. -But I'll ping him, and maybe he can invite you to one of his fights."
Haida smiled, nodding. "That sounds great." His head tilted. "You know, we had this maned wolf back at our place, Ookami. Also a friendly guy."
"What martial art was he into then?" the jaguar on the other side asked. "It's not as if we have a traditional one from down there."
"Oh, it wasn't fighting he was into," the spotted hyena continued. "When he wasn't all business formal and super polite, or all casual airheaded with his 'wickeds' and 'sicks', he was busy doing party planning."
"Ha, so what, work socials? Christmas parties?"
"Oh yeah," he smiled. "Our old manager would clamp down on any 'Nonsense time wasting water cooler clucking' as he put it, but the half a day hangover after an Ookami party? We all suffered together, and then look forward to the next."
"That good?"
"Good enough to cope with feeling like you were wacked in the back of a head with a plank of wood after, yup."
"Ha," the jaguar mused. "You know, a bowling night or something might be a good way to help bring the team back together. Office comradery without the office. Hmmmm, yeah. Given our good year, we should have plenty of time and money for that."
Haida winked. "Well, just remember which hyena gave you that brilliant idea."
"Uh-hu," he continued. "That comedian that stood for mayor the one time."
Haida sniggered. "Oh. Chuckles. When will my species ever live you down?"
"Sooner than the wolverines with their one. Anyhow, moving back to the forms…" Working through them, Haida quickly pointed out where he felt a few minor discrepancies were. "At first I thought it might have been a small accounting error, but no. I'm thinking that they're selling that stock off underpaw."
"It could just be going to waste," the jaguar pointed out.
Haida shook his head. "All the other companies I looked at in that sector do something with that waste stream," he explained, showing a few examples. "And given that they've been staying profitable all this while, and that's only come from paying most of their workers min wage…" A few more taps. "Workers who really don't look like they're earning minimum wage…"
His boss nodded along.
"The real question of course is how much they're into it or not," he explained. "I'm guessing they're all in the know, buuuutttt you can't rule it out."
"Yeah, wage and tax things like this tend to be whole company jobs, especially for smaller ones like these scrappers," the jaguar explained. "Whereas cooking the books and padding the profits with fake sales? Usually the big boss and an accountant or two he's pulling along."
The hyena paused, feeling an odd curiosity. "Do we get a lot of those?"
"Well, that tends to raise the taxes they pay, so not our remit," the big cat laughed.
"Ah, just gunning for new investors or trying to win that quarterly promotion," the hyena agreed.
The jaguar just rolled her eyes. "Wanting to boost themselves up and call themselves the next Tadano."
"Heh, did you know my girlfriend knew him," the hyena smirked. "And dumped him."
The big cat looked briefly impressed, then smirked. "Ah, recipe for disaster that. I can see it now, she sees him once to talk about something completely innocent, you think something's up which she denies… And next thing you know the insecurity at your 'lowly' position is clawing in and you're the one chasing that quarterly promotion… Just need your own Gordon Gecko heaping praise on you, my dear Michael Yeen lookalike, while asking for a few accounting adjustments as a favour, and next thing you know you're a new entrant in the window dressers club."
Haida blinked, jaw dropping down. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhh…"
"Ooooh, found your inner Walter White-Tailed?" the jaguar teased.
"No, no…" he said, looking away. "Just a bit out of the blue… -Pun intended!" He forced a smile.
"Ah, don't sweat it pup," his boss waved off. "I've had the nicest people, hardest workers, turn out to be benefit cheats or drug dealers or who knows what. A victimless favour for a friend can pull in many a law abiding citizen."
"Right," he said, a little smile growing.
"Exactly as I thought," the jaguar agreed, "and now if I'm chatting you up at a gym and ask for 'a little harmless favour' you're ready to say no off the bat. Not that I'm that kinda boss." A big wide smile grew across Haida's face and his tail wagged hard. "Just checking you knew."
"Oh yeah," he said, crossing his arms. "I totally knew."
"Right. Just don't get cocky kit," he said. "Okay, you've cut through what we've given you… faster than we can give it to you. Now, something might come up later today buuutt… I'm feeling generous. Have the rest of it off, and we'll meet you at half eight for tomorrow's meeting."
"Hey, thanks," Haida smiled. "Have a good rest of the day yourself."
"Will do," he said, before signing off. The screen went black and Haida shut it down, pushing back his office chair and stretching out, yawning. And with that, he took off his tie, unbuttoned his shirt collar, and stood up, walking across the room, trouserless legs on full display.
He at least grabbed a pair of shorts and put them on over his underwear before stepping on his new treadmill, setting in the twenty minute jog programme. Up from nineteen minutes a while back, as on his climb up to that great mysterious thing called 'fitness' he continued.
Yeah, he was gonna get there.
But did it really have to suck that much on the way?
He shook his head. At the least, the rest of his life certainly didn't suck! After all, his and Retsuko's new job was great! Fantastic! This work from home thing alone more than made up for it. Switching just part of a boring crowded commute for this exercise was worth it, given the extra free time he got. That and how he could listen to music while crunching numbers or freely browse or even watch videos during usual downtime.
Footfall rising up, he let out a little hyenid chuckle before focussing back onto pre-emptive deep breaths. Imagine Ton even being introduced to the concept of work from home! You'd need something like a treatment resistance mange epidemic to get him to even consider the idea. -Scratch that, you'd need the epidemic to make the government force businesses, including Ton, let their workers work from home. At which point the pig would probably devise all manner of things to make sure his workers weren't 'wasting time'. Always in videocall? Random forced share screen inspections on all screens? Tours of the workspace to make sure that there wasn't a television playing somewhere.
Haida shook his head.
You name it, that pig would be trying to find a way to stick his trotter in it!
But no, he was at a new job now. Good prey, good hours, great employee relations. As his thoughts faded out to the pressure of keeping up the pace, and as the sound of his 'Punk Ass Workout Tune playlist 7' sung out, he smiled.
Yeah, he and Retsuko had made it.
This was working.
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"And yeah, you're getting there nicely," he said, Retusko nodding along and smiling. "Now, you're a new worker, so just remember you don't have to be blazing ahead. Slow and steady as you learn the ropes."
"Yup!" she chirped.
"Right, hopefully that was all your queries answered. I'll be off on my rounds then."
"Thank you," she said with a curt little bow. Away the screen went, and back to her document she visited. She'd been getting the gist of it, and had found out all the main issues within an hour of starting that morning. All she needed to do was to properly format the specific responses in the internal reporting document. But, getting it right…"
She shook her head. She had her clarifications now, and could quickly start filling it in. Line after line, cutting through it, almost done! And…
…
"Uhhh… Does it want that, or that," she pondered, looking from side to side. Her head tilted as she peered closer at the words. "I mean, by the sound of it you mean that, so…" She began copying and pasting in, getting everything ready, and now move to hit send and…
…
"-But you could mean that," she said, scratching her head.
Unable to save a copy, it being an internal database entry sheet, she tapped Ctrl-Z again and again and again… And then copied, pasted, and looked at it, smiling. "Now that does...n't make any more sense."
She grumbled a bit, before breathing in, breathing out, and popping a small thing in the general chat. 'Hi, I'm not sure if for the form you're meant to do it like…' she typed in her explanation. 'Or like…'
Again, she went to press send, but…
"I don't want them to think I'm helpless," she muttered, shaking her head. "But…!" She rephrased it. 'Could I have some pre-done examples to get an idea of how I should do it.'
"And send!" she happily announced, posting it out there and tapping her paws on her desk.
…
…
"Sent," she said, glancing around to her room. Apart from the nice backdrop area she had, it was a bit of a mess…
A lot of a mess…
A massive mess.
-And she planned to try doing meal prep tonight, which meant lots of chopping vegetables she could now do nice and early while waiting for a reply.
A reply which, check, had not come.
"So, no worries Retsy. Just start cleaning…" Which she did, moving one piece of old laundry from the floor into her washing machine. Then another. Then…
"But I'm supposed to be working."
Back to the screen.
No reply.
"Okay," she said, closing her eyes. "No guilt, you can just go and spend this time being productive."
And so the next dozen or so pieces of cloth made their way in. Black trousers, creamy brown and white plaid skirt, red panties, white blouse, dark blue towel, and…
"But what if they see how little I've done," she mumbled, running back to the screen.
No responses.
"Okay," she said. "Let's just advertise that out a little wider right now.
She bumped it up, then for good measure copied it to her line manager.
Tapping paws against the desk.
Paws against the desk…
She'd get a nice clarification any minute now…
Aaaaannnyyyyy minute now.
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"Oh I love big tails and I cannot lie!" Up came the small weight. "You other brothers can't deny…" Down it went. "That when a femme walks in with an itty bitty waist…" Up it went. "And a bushy thing that has grace…" Down it went. "You get sprung, want to pull up tough." Up it went. "'Cause you noticed that tail was fluffed…"
Knock-knock-knock...
"Huh? Coming!"
Dropping down his small weight, inspecting his pec for a moment, Haida turned off the music, made himself moderately presentable and walked to the door, peering through the eyehole.
Nothing.
Hmmmmm, he mused, moving his eye to the one next to it, fitted with a downward looking mirror. "Oh?" He opened the door, scratching his head as the two teenage foxes walked in. "I didn't expect you two here."
"Hi," Ash said.
"Hey," Kris greeted. "I guess you don't take that bus anymore."
A single cackle came out of Haida's throat. "No, ha. And I mean that was a one time thing due to some line closures or… -But yeah, longtime since that chance meeting, not that it might happen again. Uhhh, drinks? Anything?"
"Well," Kris began, "I mean I'm happy settling for water, after all…"
"Apple juice for him," Ash said, giving him a nudge.
"Apple juice, please," Kris finished off.
"Uh-hu," Haida said.
"And grade soda," Ash added.
Kris gave him an eye narrowing nudge.
"Grape soda please."
"Hmmm, I don't have that I'm afraid," the hyena began, walking around. "But if you go back down to the entrance I think the vending machine there sells some. Buuut… I don't think it's canine safe."
"It'll just be the one," the red fox dismissed, as his cousin's apple juice was poured out.
"Well I suppose," Haida began happily, only to pause. "-Eh, it'll be a larger mammal sized one, so I don't think…"
"Fine," Ash huffed. "Water."
Kris, eyeing him for a second, nudged him. "He meant apple."
The briefly venomous glare his cousin gave him morphed into what could be very much called pride. "Yes, apple," Ash said, smiling, making sure his cousin got a warm nod.
Kris flicked a smile back as both glasses were presented, their large host sitting down. "So… Two teenage foxes in a hyenas apartment… Now if there's the start of a joke or a police report," he chuckled, pausing as the reception was less than warm. "-Anyhow, what are you two doing here?"
"To help build my cousin's confidence," Ash began, fingers steepling together and a determined look on his face. One cut out as his eyes widened, and he nudged Kris. "You carry on."
"What, I carry on?" Kris asked.
"Yes."
"This was your idea."
"Just like you carrying it on."
"That doesn't…" He shook his head, turning back to Haida. "Well, you see I used to do karate, but haven't since I moved to the city a few years back."
None dentally-challenged side of chin resting on a fist, Haida nodded.
"And thinking through methods of boosting my confidence again and reducing fears after the… incident… I was told that maybe restarting karate could help."
Looking up in the air, Haida nodded. "Yeah, that could work. But… Why come to me?"
"Because you plan to do MMA and so might be starting out."
Lifting a finger, the hyena suddenly smiled. "Yeah!" He stood up. "Yeah I am. I mean, I was thinking of going more into wrestling. And just earlier my new boss said that one of my other colleagues knows boxing." He let out a couple of punches. "But karate? Yeah! I can do that. I can do a bit of all of them."
"Well, it is called mixed martial arts," Kris continued.
"Right," Haida smirked. "So I can put in a little of La Mala Pera here." He got down into a wrestling stance. "Some of Muhammed Okapi there." He gave a few punches. "And to top it off. Bruce Lao-hu!" He raised his paws into a tiger strike and let out a hiss.
The foxes glanced at each other, the redder one then looking back. "Right," he said. "So, you have a teacher?"
Haida froze. "For boxing and wrestling, yes and hopefully fingers crossed if she'll let me when I tell her much how I messed up that lion."
"Right," Ash said, rolling his eyes. "I suppose that we'll have to search for one together."
"Well, if you want to do it together, I…" Haida froze. "I DO KNOW A KARATE TEACHER!" He pumped his fist and raced for his phone.
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"Come on…" Retsuko mumbled, closing her eyes.
…
"If I bug him again, will that be seen as me being pushy?"
…
"No," she said, breathing out. "It's been… an hour? Yes, an hour. So just a quick reminder, in case he was in the bathroom." She typed it out and pressed send. Then rebumped her request for help in the general chat. And then…
"Okay, I'm showing that if I'm not doing work I'm at least trying to do work. So… No guilt about doing more chores." She walked off, resuming her picking up of clothes and stuff. Dammit, she just wanted some work to do. She'd already read the main news sites three times each… What next? Watching Ewe-tube or TV while at work?
She shook her head.
You didn't just do that.
Then again, you didn't just wake up five minutes before the start of the work day, throw on a shirt for any vid calls if they asked you to connect, and ate your breakfast while muted and listening to the early morning briefing… And look where she was now!
Picking up her mid-morning shed pyjama bottoms and putting them into the washing machine, and it was done! The washing machine was filled. The amount of washing on the floor reduced by… a half? She hoped it was that, so she only needed one more load today.
Two if you counted her bedding, which had last been changed…
Had last been changed?
So now she was hoping that there was one and a half loads left on the floor, so she wouldn't have to do a mostly empty one with her bedding.
Right, all in, machine on, she'd done a major chore while at work!
At work!?
She raced off back to the screen, in case she'd been leaving any of them hanging and…
No, she had not.
She breathed out, only to jolt up as her phone rung. "I… Haida?"
On the other end, the hyena nodded. "Hey Retsy, how's the home working dream going?"
"Uhhh, good thanks."
"Yeah, I got everything polished off nicely. Now, do you mind doing me a favour?"
A quick discussion, and the hyena looked to the pair. "Right, off we go!"
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Not long after, the trio were standing outside a thin, white tiled building, squeezed narrowly between two much higher and broader structures. While there were a mix of tenants across the floors, the large picture window on the first let the light shine into one very particular facility. Any giraffes or low flying bats passing it would spy just what it was.
Ash and Kris, on the ground floor, just saw some kind of stylized head-motif on the window. Ash in particular felt his head tilt. "That doesn't look like a mammal traditionally versed in karate."
"Also," Kris said, pointing at a nearby sign. "It says yoga."
"Yeah," Haida waved off, "but this guy knows crazy stuff. I know that!"
"You didn't even know where he worked."
"All on well founded reputation," the hyena boasted, walking up and entering. The trio climbed the steps to the first floor, where an entrance door with the same stylised head-logo printed in the glass. Opening up, a far off huffing and grunting sound rang from the room, while a scurrying came towards them.
"Hiya, just a sec," chirped a ring-tailed lemur girl, dressed in exercise shorts, vest and sweatbands. Ash let a paw adjust his own, before glancing up to Haida. "Do you have an appointment?" she asked.
"No, but tell Protein that I'm Retsuko's friend and am here on important business."
"Uh, right then!" she agreed, scurrying off.
"You don't really see many lemurs in Zootopia," Haida pondered out loud.
Ash shrugged. "Maybe mammals from Madagascar never really wanted to leave."
"Didn't we see a fossa outside of the courthouse," Kris said.
Ash threw up his paws. "So? One lemur, one fossa. Maybe tomorrow we'll bump into a tenrec, I don't know."
"Right," the silver fox nodded. "-Why's the guy we're here to see called Protein?"
"PROTEIN!"
All ears turned deeper in the room where the sound had come from, the lemur waving them on.
"Yeah," Haida said to Kris as they entered. "That's why."
Through a pair of threaded beads they moved, the hyena and silver fox threading through between the strands and Ash just marching right through, letting them trail up over his shoulders and swing back.
In front of them was two hundred and fifty pounds of muscled up macropod, the massive red kangaroo currently working out on a yoga matt. His two huge legs were pulled up over his head and, pivoting on his thick tail, he was doing pushups, often one small but muscled up arm at a time. He flashed a smile at them. "Protein."
"Uhhh…" Haida began, only for the lemur from before to poke in.
"He said 'never skip arm day.'"
"Right," the hyena began, turning back, his own arms crossed.
"Hang on a minute," Ash cut in, all eyes turning to him. He fixed his eyes on the lemur, half way through exiting herself. "We need you to translate, so you better stay."
"I suppose," she said, glaring a little at him.
Haida carried on. "Okay Protein. You skipped out on us once. You skipped out on us twice. Do you know what that means? Third time is the charm. Me and these two kits want to learn Karate, or kung-fu, or whichever martial art I know you know. This cool dude here?" He pointed at Kris. "He knows it already, but has been through some really rough stuff, so it's cool friends supporting him and building his confidence up again. Okay?" He smiled, paw out. "Are you in?"
Protein, still repping, gave him a sly glance, fixed it on Ash, then looked at his assistant. She smiled as they shared a look. "Protein?" She asked. "Protein protein protein protein. Protein protein protein protein…"
For a second frustrated, it suddenly clicked for Haida, the hyena going down into a full on cacklefest. Even Kris was sniggering a little, and turned to his cousin. "I guess you did ask her to stay and translate."
"-protein protein, protein… Protein protein…"
The kangaroo nodded back. "Protein."
"Protein…"
Ash, rolling his eyes, let a small smile grow on his muzzle. "You know what?"
"What?" his cousin asked.
"I'll let them have this one."
The lemur stopped, while Protein finally pushed himself upright with his arms, unlocking his feet from behind his head and starting to shuffle forward. While kangaroos and other macropods were arguably some of the first true bipedal mammals, alongside all the other smaller hoppers like jerboa and springhare, pre-evolution they couldn't 'walk' in the traditional sense, their legs physically fused by the muscles into one unit. While presumed to use their tail and forelimbs as a tripod to move around slowly, as young joeys often did, evolution had given them a slight bit of flexibility to walk as normal. Even then, it was as if the legs were shackled by a chain together, only small steps made. Most of the time, if walking with others, the larger kangaroos would hold back, give one or two bounces forward, and repeat. In contrast, wallabees and pademelons were small enough to just hop everywhere.
Kris' ear ticked a bit. He'd never seen Luka in cuffs. That grey kangaroo had mostly hung back and sped forward, unless in things like the lunch queue or moving himself onto a chair. Moreover, for the times when he was in leg cuffs… Well, they wouldn't work, would they. He'd joked about always being able to jump over the fence and to freedom, so surely there was a way to stop that. Did they have a ball of chain they would attach, or a tight one to connect his arms and leg cuffs.
Had he been there longer, would that serval have fixed him in them too…
Making sure he wouldn't escape like the worthless sneaky…
He shook his head and closed his eyes, breathing in and out. Focus away from it. Focus away.
Protein, meanwhile, was talking. "Protein."
His assistant smiled. "He agrees that this is the third time, and it is the charm."
"Uh-hu," Haida smiled, crossing his arms in front of him.
"Protein."
"And he agrees that there is nothing stopping him from teaching you karate, and it would be an honour."
"YES!" Haida cheered.
"Protein."
"But the answer is no."
"..."
…
"OH COME ON!"
Backing off from the yell of the frustrated hyena, the rest of the group turned to Protein who was… Smiling? His paws up, he spoke warmly, pointing back at himself. "Protein, protein."
"It is no because he knows a far better teacher. One who, while versed in kung fu, should also be better versed for the emotional aspects of your noble crusade."
Haida blinked for a second, before pumping his fist. "Kung Fu? Cuss yeah! Hi four Protein."
Sitting up, paws crossed, the kangaroo raised up one of his paws, bent down his little finger, and hi-foured the hyena. "Protein. Protein."
"They have a temple up in the cloud forest heights of the Rainforest District. Fruit Market station on the inner loop line, then the Cloud Access line over old Growth city and to the end of the line. I'll put a word in myself."
"Hehe, you know what Protein?" Haida said. "Protein."
The room went silent, the muscles in the kangaroo's face dropping, his expression blanking out into a cold, critical, indifference. Then, his eyes narrowed and he thrust out a paw. "Protein!"
"Uh… Sorry" Haida said, before discreetly slipping out.
Ash, reading the room, did so too.
Kris, glancing back, walked up to the kangaroo and cleared his throat. "While it may have been unintentional, I feel it necessary to apologise for…"
He was broken off by a light chuckle from above, the kangaroo looking down and winking. "Protein," he whispered.
Kris smiled, and walked out, meeting up with the others once more. In the olden days, he'd have clarified the nature of the joke immediately in order to reduce emotional stress but…
Well.
He figured that Ash would probably be prouder of him if he kept it, so…
Out they went, as, back in the room, the lemur turned to her master. "So, why did you decide to send them up there?"
He looked down at her. "Protein."
"Visions? Really?"
He threw his paws up into the air and smiled. "Protein."
"Well why your high council would be… -Never mind. It's still arm day you know."
"Protein," he agreed, limbering up and stretching his fingers. The lemur walked over to a large storage area and opened the door, revealing stacks of metal buckets. She grabbed one and tossed it, letting him leap up, grab it in his paws, crush it together and throw it away.
"One!"
"Protein!" he beckoned, as she grabbed another and threw it in. Jump, catch, crush, toss.
"Two…"
.Meanwhile, outside, Kris breathed out, scratching his back. Ash looked at him. "You okay?"
"Yeah," he said, "I'm… excited! But…"
"Nervous. Good. Nothing strange then…"
"Well, I am a bit relieved."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "Relieved?"
Kris nodded, looking down. "Just thinking, being around a huge kangaroo jumping, hitting stuff. Even in there, I had a few flashes back." Indeed, right now, the image of another kangaroo, trying to push himself back up onto his feet with his arms flashed through his mind. Only for a hard hoof to sweep through, bowling his legs from under him and letting them kick uselessly in the air, evolution locking them out of any use anymore.
"Wasn't that one on your side?" his cousin asked.
"Yes, but… It all… It's difficult to explain, but…" He was cut off as Ash walked forward and put a paw over his shoulder. Tail wrapped around his younger cousins leg, the older one gave a silent nod, and the younger nodded back. "Thanks Ash."
"It's what I do," he said, before turning to Haida, the hyena making a call..
"Yes. All organised. -Sort of. Now, how about we slip somewhere nice for dinner. I can be over at your place for half five. Sound good?"
…
"Great!" And with that Haida closed his phone, turning back to the foxes. "Well, you know what guys? It's gonna be great learning kung fu with you two! See you tomorrow. I've got someone I need to see, at a time that a regular commute would make impossible. Working from home, literally no downsides! Get out of the way middle managers trying to stop this after finding out they are useless time wasters who do no work other than interrupting others. The future is here!"
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And, across the city, Retsuko put down the phone and nervously loaded her washed washing into her dryer, tossing in the next batch of dirty clothes after. Even before she started it going, she nervously walked back to her computer. Oh this feeling of non-productiveness was awful! They were going to end up realise she did basically nothing and let her go, weren't they?
Not that it was her fault of course, she told herself, teeth gritting. She'd been waiting on a simple but critical clarification FOR THREE HOURS!
So, when she saw the barrage of complaints about what on earth she was doing, wasting company time and not doing her job, she…
She blinked as she saw the one reply on the general thread. 'Heya. I'd love to help, but we're all kind of snowed under now. Sorry.'
The red panda blanked, a slow simmering rage beginning to bubble up inside her to the tune of ever screaming guitars and…
Another ping, from her jaguar manager, and she blanked back to a normal happy state. Turning over to the message she looked at it and smiled.
'Ooopsy, yeah that's a common question from first timers. Should have remembered it, but we've just been snowed under a bit. I'll go over it tomorrow after our meeting. See you then.'
"Okay, that's good…" she told herself, given that she didn't feel it herself.
Her fingers began trembling.
Her anger began rising.
The guitars… ROARED!
"WHAT'S THE POINT OF HIRING ME!
I WANT TO WORK CAN'T YOU SEE!
FEELING USELESS SUCKS…
FEELING USELESS SUCKS...
IF I WAS IN AN OFFICE NOW…
I COULD EASILY ASK HOW…
WORK FROM HOME SUCKS…
WORK FROM HOME SUCKS…"
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AN: So, I'd written this and then season 4 of Aggretsuko came out… I liked it, but it was… interesting. Interesting but with some big flaws is how I'd put it, mainly all down to our Hyena boi. Moreover, I left with the feeling that they'd jumped the shark this season, something I didn't get in both season 2 and 3.
After having a lot of interesting discussions, I'd say that giving him extra cold feet and self esteem issues at the start is still something I think was jarringly OOC, but was probably considered needed by the writers given their later plans for him… I didn't like it given all that stuff we'd seen him do before for this relationship… Though it is a bit rich from me given that I did essentially the same thing to Nick at the start of FFOZ.
As for what he did later (as lampshaded here)... It felt out of character at the time, but looking back at all the stuff they had put in, I think they had everything there to make it work and believable (I'm not against exploring what's the darkest a character can go, but it needs to be done with a lot of care) only for it to miss the mark and not to click together…
And I think the reason was pretty simple. It was Haida's story (at the end of the season he was the one who got the smile, having learnt something) and his experiences of inadequacy, being supported, being given these decisions and talked into it needed to be shown. Instead, it was all Retsuko's POV… It'd be like watching Breaking Bad primarily from Skyler's viewpoint and not knowing what Walt was up to. I feel that had they had an extra episode before the finale, flashing back and showing Haida's viewpoint through the season and how that led him to where he was at the end, it could have worked very well.
Though I'd also say that I think having Haida thrive legitimately in his new position, do a great job, only to realise he's improved the efficiency so well that he's now stuck in the same position Ton was in earlier in the season, only worse (and to be caught between a mentor figure that trusts and respects him more than anyone for the first time his life… and his long term coworkers… and forced to try and square it) would work far better as an Aggretsuko style plot.
Eh, just my musings. Feel free to share yours.
I made a few other references to some fighter mammals from various fics and authors I've read in my time. Bo Briar belongs to 6wingdragon and was a character in his Neverwere saga. Billy MacKenna belongs to MercMarten and was featured in some of his pre-zootopia stories. Chuckles the hyena is from When Night Falls by Upplet. La Mala Pella might be found in Berserker88's Born to be Wilde. IVAR BELONG TO UPPLET AND IS BEST WRESTLER FROM WHEN INSTINCT FALLS!