A Tale of Two Thoughts Show me what it's for / Am I going insane? Judy hopped off the podium still stressing about the press conference. She had tried to follow Nick’s advice and answer the questions asked with another question, but she had quickly become overwhelmed and forgotten. She was worried that in her rush to answer some of the questions being shouted at her, and to put the minds of Zootopians at ease, she may have revealed too much about the case. “Was I O.K.?” Judy asked mayor Belleweather as she was led off the stage. “Oh you did fine.” Was the soothing response from Belleweather as she gave Judy a gentle nudge towards Nick. Nick, her best friend in Zootopia, and hopefully soon to be partner in the ZPD. Judy really hoped that Nick would decide to join her as she thought they made quite an amazing team together. As she approached him however, she could tell that something was not right. It was in his face, the face that was usually graced with a smug smirk or a sly smile held something ugly in it. A cross between a grimace and a snarl barely noticeable over his usual display. ‘He must be mad that I didn’t give him any credit’ Judy thought, suddenly feeling slightly ashamed of herself for neglecting to mention the pivotal role that this fox, Nick, had played in solving the case. “Uh, that went so fast! I didn’t get a chance to mention you or say anything about how we…” she tried to explain. However, her apology was cut short. “Oh I think you’ve said plenty.” Nick cut her off, his eyes narrowing. This reaction confused Judy, she had expected him to be upset about her lack of words, not about her having spoken too much. “What do you mean?” She asked, allowing her confusion to show on her face. “Clearly there’s a biological component? These predators may be…reverting back to their primitive, savage ways? Are you serious?” Nick parroted her own words back at her, his voice filled with disappointment and disbelief.
Judy was shocked, this was not how she had envisioned her talk with Nick going. ‘He is mad at me for telling the press my theory about why these animals went savage?’ Somehow, the tone of Nick’s voice set her on the defensive. “I just stated the facts of the case.” Judy said, trying to explain herself to Nick. ‘Wrong words dumb bunny’ she thought as she saw his face fall even further. “I mean, it’s not like a bunny could go savage.” Judy reasoned. After all, she was right, none of the animals going savage were prey, they were all predators, and she had never even heard of a bunny exhibiting overly aggressive behavior. “Right, but a fox could, huh?” Nick responded with barely concealed anger. Judy couldn’t understand where this anger was coming from. It wasn’t like she had said that foxes were behind the transformation from normal to savage. As far as she was aware, there had not yet been a case of a fox going savage. How had Nick come to that conclusion? “Nick stop it.” Judy tried to soothe the fox “You’re not like them.” She said as she tried desperately to get him back to her side. “Oh there’s a ‘them’ now?” Nick asked, the expression on his face showing Judy that she had said exactly the wrong words to the angry fox. She had to get this under control and fast, or else she might risk losing her friend. “You know what I mean, you’re not that kind of predator!” Judy said, trying to make Nick understand that she hadn’t said those things about him, that she still wanted him as her partner. Suddenly, Nick exploded into the most furious outburst she had ever seen from him. To a normal mammal it would have seemed like he was slightly annoyed or exasperated, but Judy had seen him at work. She’d seen his reactions and talked to him about emotions, and she knew that even now, he was trying his hardest to not let anyone see that this got to him. The clear show of anger on his face, the tension in his muscles, and the agitated way his tail was starting to move, all signalled to Judy one thing. Nick was furious. “The kind that needs to be muzzled!?” Nick almost yelled, raising his paw to the projected images of the savage animals in muzzles. Judy turned to look at the screen and saw, for the first time, the black and white pictures of the savage animals muzzled, tied down, and caged. Seeing this brought back the memory of the one time Nick had shared something personal with her, the story of his own muzzling. At this point Judy’s brain was starting to comprehend why Nick was so furious, but it wasn’t quite clear yet. Before she could puzzle it out however, Nick continued his outburst. “The kind that makes you think you need to carry around Fox Repellent?” He said gesticulating to her belt. Judy looked down and saw the bottle of fox repellent on clear display at her hip. She had forgotten that she was still carrying it around. Quickly she remembered why she even had it on her uniform in the first place. Starting with her disbelief at her father’s overt prejudice she had taken the bottle as a way to placate him without seeming as prejudiced as he was. She had then decided to leave the bottle on her table when she had left for work. Yet in a moment of weakness, thinking it was better to be safe than sorry, she had come back and retrieved the bottle to place it on her belt. She had even been prepared to use it on Nick when she first saw him enter the Elephant Ice-cream shop when they first met. The feeling of shame she’d felt back then returned to her now one hundred fold as she knew she would never have a need to use it on this fox. “Yeah don’t think I didn’t notice that little item the first time we met.” Nick continued. In truth, he hadn’t noticed it the first time, but the second time. At this point though he was too mad to care. He was getting so riled up about this bunny and her words that he decided it was time to lash out, make her feel some of the pain that he was feeling. Why did she still have that stupid bottle anyways? -- Flashback -- Nick thought back to when Judy had first hustled him into joining her. At first he’d been able to maintain his condescension towards the ZPD and the authority that had caused him so much grief. However, when she brought out his tax forms and was going through them right in front of him, he’d started to worry. He knew that the appropriate reaction would be anger, so he let a small part of his mind focus on his hatred for Zootopia, how all these smug little mammals thought they were so good with their “anyone can be anything” slogan, rallying behind it as if it made them better mammals. But Nick had seen the truth behind the lies. Sure, anyone could be anything, so long as that anything fit within the stereotypes that those in control held for you. In this great city, a fox who had done nothing wrong was still discriminated harshly against, sloths were assigned jobs where they were intended to slow down others, and many, many other small slights occurred every day. The small predators had it the worst however, as prey still greatly feared predator, despite the fact that predators hadn’t consumed mammal meat in over two thousand years, despite the fact that most predators thought the idea of eating another mammal to be disgusting, despite the fact that there were prey animals many times their size and much more dangerous walking around with no fear directed towards them. Zootopia’s slogan was just a flowery band-aid attempting to patch the festering wound that was the speciesism within. While a part of Nick’s mind was running down that all-to-familiar road, controlling his ear, facial and tail muscles to make him look angry, another part of his mind focused on this new problem. “Actually it’s your word against yours” Judy said as she played that stupid recording of his voice bragging about his income. The recording wasn’t a problem, it could easily be dismissed as a bit of braggadocio used to avoid helping the cop, even in a case of “his word against his” as the cop had put it. The balance of probability fell closer to him making not having made enough money to declare on his taxes. After all, that fell right within the prejudiced expectations for a fox. Too barely make ends meet while scamming and scheming for their next meal.