Fuzzbutts: Mean 'Yeens (Patreon)

"Criminy, Virg, how many heart attacks do you respond to every month? And yet I still catch you shovelin' trans fats and sugar into your face every mornin'."

"Well maybe I wouldn't have to settle for stale donuts if you finally learned how to cook. That tuna casserole you made last week? You oughta feed it to your terminal patients, I bet it'd put 'em outta their misery for good."

"Oh fuck you, Virgil. I hope the ambulance runs you over today."

"Love you too, stripes."

~~

hyenasssss

So we've already met Virgil, our mysterious figure from Sunny's past. Virgil is a spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), and one of his more notable relationships is with our fair lady here, Savannah. She's a striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), and also a very, very, verrrrry loose expy of Rosemary. More distantly inspired than anything else. 

Virgil and Savannah are foster siblings. Although they are not blood related, they grew up together in a group home, paired up because of their similar species. Hyenas are pack animals, so although Virg and 'Vanna had little in common, they nonetheless clung hard to each other through their unstable adolescence and have maintained this bond into adulthood. As both of them lived out their childhood in lonely poverty, so routinely failed by the system meant to protect them, both hyenas decided to pursue careers where they could help people in need. Virgil is (was?) a paramedic. Savannah is a nurse. To their patients, both siblings are dedicated, professional, kind, and caring. To each other, they are assholes.

Savannah's career is a major source of stress in her life. Between the long hours and demanding duties, she also has to deal with how herbivore's natural unease around carnivores is greatly amplified in a medical setting. In a hospital, prey animals are ill, injured, vulnerable, and frightened- every instinct they have tells them to bolt in the face of a prowling predator, even one smiling and wielding a stethoscope. Further compounding the issue is a rather nasty, persistent superstition around scavenger animals (eg. hyenas, vultures, etc), who are thought to be bad omens, harbingers of death and decay- not exactly the face an ill patient wants to wake up to. Savannah's only concern is helping people- but she has been bitten, kicked, clawed, and verbally abused- all by panicky prey animals that see her as a monster. No matter how small and sweet and friendly she makes herself, it never seems to be enough. She's....frustrated. None of the herbivore nurses have to contort themselves the way she has to. It's exhausting.

Fortunately, Virgil understands her situation perfectly. Virgil deals with people who are sometimes actively dying-injured in accidents, betrayed by their aging bodies, bleeding out on the pavement. Virg receives the very worst of the herbivore fight-or-flight instinct, and he too must stay calm and pleasant throughout it all. As Virg and Savannah know and trust each other deeply, they drop all pretense around one another. In each other, they have the space to be frustrated, to vent, to be mean, to be themselves, to be carnivores. Although they snap at each other frequently and never seem to have anything nice to say to one another, they're the closest thing to family they have. So they have each others' backs, no matter what. 'Vanna can call Virg for an assist with an unruly patient anytime, and he'll be there. He might not like her shitty casserole, but she'll still make it for him, and he'll still eat it. They sit quietly with each other when their patients die. They might not be good at being siblings, but they are, nonetheless.

Savannah has found a place to release her bottled primal instincts as a member of Jude's punk rock grrl group, Maul Madness. She plays the bass, sings, and writes lyrics dripping with sex, violence, and mayhem. Her stage persona is quite different from the kindly nurse she plays in her day-to-day life.

Virgil too will eventually find an outlet for his own frustrations as a carnivore, though his strategy will prove much less healthy than his sister's.