Special Promotion Part 2 - In color (Patreon)

When I did a color picture of Diane I thought it made sense to go back and line and color the sketch of Jenny I used for Special Promotion part 2. The original is here and both it and the colored version will be available for viewing in the table of contents

Part 2's story below: 

This is Jenny. Or at least, it was Jenny. Jenny Koda. She studied biochemistry in university, as well as psychology. Life intervened before she could finish her university courses, but a lucky placement in a local Sifton Incorporated office saw a young mouse with the chance for some upward momentum in a large and diverse company.

She worked hard and people treated her well. Numbers were her specialty but the mouse was quickly learning about other things, too. The science of Sifton was above her paygrade, something that happened in isolated laboratories by people much smarter than Jenny figured she was. But now and then some insight would trickle down, a piece of a puzzle that most of her fellow employees wouldn’t even notice existed. Sifton made food, but it also made more than that. She could follow the lines of biochemical addiction, find markers that were made for certain purposes. The money that could be made from a market that was hopelessly addicted to your product was incalculable and no sooner had Jenny thought she understood what Sifton had hoped to do, she was being flown half way across the country and promoted to stand beside the big wolf himself.

But while that had been an amazing degree of upward mobility in a company, that was where her ascent ended. Jenny was promoted to stand right beneath the wolf she worked for, some kind of upper management, CEO type person, and that would be her last role before her ‘promotion’ to Taste Tester. Not that Personal Assistant had been a glorious role, in fact it had been more confusing than any position that came before it. Jenny was following the wolf whose name she didn’t even know around, scheduling meetings and flights, watching him as he directed marketing pitches and entire campaigns. Here she discovered that the addictive properties that Jenny assumed would be spread to a wide customer base were actually targeted to specific individuals. Through some process unknown to her, the wolf was able to target Katie, that massive mound of a fennec fox and create something unique for her. Something that she would enjoy so much, she would immobilise herself in months. Why that formula wasn’t rolled out en masse, Jenny didn’t understand and though she had suggested it, days later she found herself assigned her special promotion.

BEEP

The conveyor in front of her rolled forward, pulling Jenny back to reality, back to her sugar dusted lips and the taste of jam on her tongue. Of course, she knew in the back of her mind that the products weren’t addictive. That the addiction based additives were made for select batches. But that wasn’t what she felt now. What she felt now was the need, the burning desire to eat another donut. To stuff it in her face as fast as possible.

She wondered, was this what everyone tasted?