intro draft

“So.”

“So.”

“What did he look like when you found him?”

The top of the table between the two foxes barely reaches their chests. A haze of cigar smoke drifts lazily around their dark corner of the bar.

Any bystander looking on would be sure that the two are doing something illegal.

One of the foxes, skinny and gray furred, adjusts his glasses and waits for an answer to his question. The other, an older,  slightly more muscular specimen, takes his reflective shades off as he leans back in the booth. The sheen on his black dress shirt reflects the dim, mingy lamp hanging above them.

“He looked insane, obviously. We found him holed up in a shack in the rainforest district. Babbling incoherently about…Well, that’s why I said ‘incoherently’. He was completely nude. Covered in this weird black stuff, too. You're probably gonna want to jot that down. Looked like how back in the day, they would have Jaguars as Panthers in plays and stuff. Except, you know. He was a rhino child molester.” An orange paw twirls in the air for emphasis, but not the right kind. "I mean. He was a rhino and a child molester. Not a molester of rhino children...As far as we know."

It’s as if the he’s telling a story about how he accidentally bought the wrong groceries and not about how he brought down Zootopia’s worst felon in recent history.

The fox’s nonchalant tone does nothing to ease the other. His gray fur stands at attention everywhere on his body as he leans forward, eager for more. “That must have scared you quite a bit.”

“Me? Not really. I used to deal with shady people on a regular basis, back in the day. Crazy nutjobs were unavoidable.” A pause. Green eyes break the gaze of black ones as the canine’s smug tone melts away with his next sentence. “Scared the hell out of my partner, though.”

The interviewer tilts his head. Not once has he seen the other fox act so sullen. He searches his mind for a way to keep the dialogue going. “Your partner...the bunny, correct? Ms. Judy Hopps?”

And just like that, the name brings a smile to the orange fox’s face. The normal overtone of cockiness is present, but this smile contains something else. Something warmer, more tender. “Yep. That’s her.”

"What–"

"If you want to know about Judy's side of the story, then you're better off asking her yourself. All I'm gonna say is that it really messed her up at the time and that she's doing better nowadays." Vibrations rings out from both their pockets. "We're out of time, anyway. Text me if you need more info for your paper."

The orange fox hurriedly pays the bill and walks out of the bar. He pulls out his phone and takes a picture of the sign above the door, where the name "Lynn’s” is displayed in glowing yellow cursive. He captions it, 'Just got out of this place, coming over soon.' and checks off the box beside the name 'Carrots' before pressing send.

Officer Nick Wilde starts the walk towards the nearest tram station.