Zootopia: The Visitor

A Night Just Like Tonight

[Luke]

I was thrown into this strange world without warning, and without explanation. Something brought me here, and I don't know what it is. But that's the least of my problems, because I wasn't the only one. I didn't get put into this mess alone, and I really, really wish I had. It goes against the balance of things, us being here, I mean. I'm the one who's especially out of place here though. I don't belong at all. If it weren't for the two little geniuses I like to call Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, I have no idea where I'd be right now.

In all of "Zootopia," as it's called, they were the only two... mammals, out of the lot that I could trust, or count on. But even though I would consider them my friends by now, and I'd trust them with my life too, I don't think they're going to be much help to me anymore. I have to do this on my own, and I don't need their permission either.

1 week earlier...

[Nick]

I sat behind my desk staring at the stacks of paper in front of me, and sighed. "The worst part about solving cases, is always filling out the paperwork afterwards," I muttered to myself. If there was anything I was the master of in this world, it was procrastination. Thank my mother I'm going on leave this weekend, I thought. The sooner I could catch a breath and relax, the better, but in the meantime, this paperwork wasn't gonna do itself, so I got to work. I filled each one out carefully, and efficiently to make sure I wouldn't have to look any of them over again. As fast as possible was as good as possible.

I wondered how Judy was holding up. I hadn't seen her for the last few days. Not around the station, or anywhere else. Word was, she was still up to her pits -which now that I think about it, isn't that high- in her own paperwork over the savage case. It had been more than three months since we had solved it, and all predators been cleared. It was unbelievable to me that she would still be backed up with all of that. I was just glad I hadn't joined the force until after we tied all the loose ends up.

I looked at the picture hanging on the wall of Judy and I shaking paws on the day of my graduation from the police academy. A fox like me, and a bunny like her. An unlikely duo that I never would have thought possible a short time ago. Who would have thought that someone like me, the lonesome Nick Wilde could ever go from being some con-artist to a law-enforcing police officer? Certainly not me. It was all thanks to her though. Judy and I, we were an odd pea pod for sure but man, did we get things done...

It must have been an hour later of filling out my paperwork that I realized my shift was coming to an end. Clock-out would be in twenty minutes. I sat back in my chair, exhaling in agony on account of time slowing down so much all of a sudden. Just a little longer, and I'd be able kick back for the weekend. With nothing really to do except scribble on the papers in front of me, I decided that maybe I should spend the last few minutes I had left on tidying up my office. Me being the slob I was, the whole thing was pretty much trashed, my desk decorated with candy wrappers, and useless sheets I had barely even looked at. On the floor next to it was my overflowing trash can surrounded by wadded up pieces of paper that had failed to make their way in. My office was small too, which made it seem all the more cluttered and dirty.

Yeah, I was a mess, but no more! Tonight would be the night that I would change that, and I would do it all in fifteen minutes. Making great haste, I changed my trash bag, picked up the wrappers off my desk, threw away the wadded pieces of paper, and shredded all of my excess sheets. Before I knew it, I was done, and with three minutes to spare. I sat back down in my chair, sighing again, this time in relief and satisfaction.

Moments later, I was clocking out, and making my way down to the front entrance of the building. At the front desk, as always, was Ben Clawhauser.