Zebulon might be officially posted here, as the on-site legal counsel, but this doesn't mean that his legal services are reserved exclusively for Alfredo's chapter. Thus far he hasn't been needed here in his official capacity, and his services are too much in demand for it anyway. So, for that matter, are his ambitions; Zebulon apparently wants to argue in front of the Zoopreme Court someday. Consequently, Zebulon will be periodically disappearing for an afternoon or so, in order to take care of this independent legal business.
Yesterday was Zebulon's first case since he came here, and he dressed for it before he left. This means that, while we still haven't seen him in action, we've seen what he looks like when he's ready for business.
I must be completely honest and say that the result does not particularly inspire confidence.
After Zebulon left for court yesterday, Alfredo spent the rest of the afternoon lying down with a cold cloth over his head in an apparently vain attempt to relieve his pounding migraine headache. He is more convinced than ever that Zebulon is somehow going to exacerbate the inevitable International Incident of Alfredo's gloomy anticipations and then ruin Alfredo's career and probably the entire Wild Republic in the process.
I'm intrigued that the Zoopreme Court seems so dominated by bears and, to a lesser extent, birds. I wonder how your chapter feels about that.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to respectfully suggest to Alfredo that he press Zebulon into service organizing a mock trial chapter for the kittens. In addition to the educational opportunities, this would provide a chance to subtly check up on Zebulon's legal skills.
ReplyDeleteWell so the internal politics of the WIld Republic are very complicated. It's certainly the case that in recent years the Zoopreme Court has been disproportionately dominated by bears, but this sort of thing is not too out-of-the-ordinary in a multi-species federal republic. It can come to be seen as one species's "turn" for a little while in some particular branch of government or civil service, and suddenly a lot of bears end up in the judiciary or hyraxes in the treasury department or whatnot at the same time. And of course they're not immune to the occasional bout of nepotism or trend-following, of course, just like anyone else.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Parsley has a huge crush on Sandra Day Okapi.
Yeah, what is it with all the hyraxes in the treasury department, anyway? They're even more proportionally dominant than bears and birds are in the Zoopreme Court, and there are fewer of them to start with.
ReplyDeleteThat's an idea worth looking into, particularly now that Jasper's around to ensure things don't get too out of hand. (One is inclined to worry slightly about the possible side effects of giving Zebulon too much influence with the kittens.)
ReplyDeleteWell, the hyraxes I'm more willing to attribute to straight-up nepotism—they're not ordinarily a very powerful political bloc, as you note. But you know, you appoint one hyrax who is actually really qualified, and suddenly you see hyraxes being subtly favored for other jobs in the department, and so on....
ReplyDeleteRight... because the competent hyrax is thinking, 'We hyraxes never get a big break! I'm going to use my position to get my people a break!'
ReplyDeleteYou know, I only just noticed that it matches his eyes.
ReplyDeleteHee! So it does!
ReplyDeleteThis is consistent with the observation that Zebulon is rather vain with respect to his personal aesthetics: remember how, at the Masque, he kept wanting to hang out with people whose costumes complemented his own?
ReplyDeleteBut of course!
ReplyDelete