Bojack Horseman (DeviantArt)
Princess Carolyn, Bojack Horseman's agent and close friend, started her date with Vincent Adultman, who was clearly not three kids stacked on top of each other in a trench coat, and it was going very well. With cotton candy in one hand and Princess Carolyn's hand in the other, Vincent was enthusiastically telling Princess Carolyn all about his "business transactions" at work while they were in line for the tall person rides at Disneyland.
"All of my business friends, we like to play together at work, but the big boss man doesn't like it. He yells at us and makes us work extra hard, but I just wanna play. I may be an important business man, but I have to play before I do a business," Vincent said.
Just as they got to the front of the line, Princess Carolyn's phone rang. Of course, it was Bojack Horseman, star of the hit 90s television show, "Horsin' Around."
"Look, Bojack, now's not a great time. I'm on a date with Vincent right now and it's going very well for your information. We're at the front of the line for Splash Mountain!" she said.
"First off, have you gone anywhere else with Vincent besides Disneyland? You know he's just three kids stacked on top of each other in a trench coat, right?" he replied.
Bojack continued, "Secondly, look, you know I wouldn't call if this wasn't an emergency. I'm at the movie theater with Todd right now because he dragged me to some horror film he wanted to watch, and some guy in a ghost costume tried to jump out and scare me, so naturally I punched him in the face. Anyways, the police are on their way and Todd won't let me leave until the guy wakes up so..."
Princess Carolyn said, "You did what? Look, Bojack, I would love to come to your rescue again but-"
"Princess Carolyn, get off of your phone! We're about to get on my favorite tall person ride!" Vincent interrupted.
"Look, honey. Bojack needs me. He's in trouble right now and I have to go help him. You understand, right?" she said.
Bojack said, "Hey, Princess Carolyn, could you hurry? This guy is losing a lot of blood, and Todd is trying to wake him up by pouring popcorn in his mouth. I'm telling him that popcorn doesn't have any magical healing properties, but-"
"I think it's working! I can feel his spirit being awoken by the popcorn. Quick, Bojack, hand me your soda," Todd said.
"You are always busy with work when I want to play!" Vincent said.
"I'm sick of you always leaving me to help Bojack when he doesn't even act like a grown-up! I'm the real grown-up here!" he cried.
Vincent Adultman began to cry and stomp his feet, much like a child would, and he stormed off in the direction of the nearest candy store.
"Look, Bojack, I gotta go. Grab Todd and leave. We'll take care of this later. We can just say it was a freak accident or blame it on some other Hollywoo star," Princess Carolyn said.
She hung up and began to go find Vincent and apologize, but first she had to buy him some more cotton candy.
Author's note: The story I based mine off of, The Quack Toad, stars a toad who claims to be a learned doctor. In that story, a fox visits him for a check and decides that the toad probably doesn't know what he's doing after looking at his awkward hop and blotchy skin.
All of these characters are from the show, Bojack Horseman. Throughout the show, Princess Carolyn consistently struggles with putting herself first. She is always putting her clients' needs ahead of hers. As her client, Bojack requires more attention than any other client, and rightly so in his opinion because he is the most important client.
The theme in the original story was that sometimes you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of other people. Many people may view this as selfish, but it is important to look after yourself, so that you can look after others to the best capacity. I took the theme of self-care and put it into my story, where Princess Carolyn, a textbook codependent, ruins her date with Vincent by trying to leave to go help Bojack. Rather than choosing a physical ailment in this story, I chose something less tangible to convey that health is a complete and total well-being, not just physical health. In the end of the story, she decides to take care of her own relationship instead of going to help Bojack, unlike The Toad from the original story.
Bibliography: Milo Winters The Quack Toad