#wage

We have a progressive income tax system, so even if the CEO was subject to a 40% income tax, it wouldn't be calculated on the total salary, but only the portion that was netted in that tax bracket.

Even if compensation is issued in the form of stock, it is taxed as ordinary income (e.g. salary) and only the appreciation between vesting date and sale date would be subject to the capital gains tax.

Using stock as collateral for debt still requires the CEO to pay back the debt plus interest and then the tax on the appreciation of stock.

Built may a doll

Day 3: «Is now a bad time to tell you i'm claustropobic?»

I want to try different brushes, techniques and canvases, so there may be differences between the drawings

I will most likely draw the next three in the form of a sketch so that I have time to draw all the themes

Okay, so, ironically enough, I was watching and reblogging all of ya'll post your amazing ideas for this challenge whilst struggling the whole day to think of something XD

Needless to say, I decided to rewrite a short that I had posted four years ago because surely none of you remember it. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

And, yes, it has been a long time since I've written a SHORT story, why do you ask?

_________

“Absolutely not.”

Ox had been bracing for rejection, but not so soon. And not certainly from Moxy. Or any of the others. “Look, I ain’t sayin’ we get him back into trainin’ or anything,” he held both hands up to placate the group around him. All seated at the diner he had intentionally invited them to because A) Wage was working today and B) food was usually the best way to introduce a controversial topic.

Like the fact that less dolls were returning from the Big World and they had, up until that point, been twiddling their thumbs for the last few months trying to pretend like nothing was happening. Because not all dolls came back. Whether they chose to stay with their kid instead of returning to Imperfection…or something bad had happened. The former reason obviously was no problem.

But they weren’t dealing with the former reason. 

“But we can’t keep ignorin’ the fact that we’re startin’ to lose more dolls than what the factory is makin’,” Ox finished. He had more to say, of course, but putting everything out on the table right at the beginning wouldn’t be wise. Especially now that he knew his friends were against the idea.

“Well maybe they just like being in the Big World more!” Moxy reasoned, desperate for anything now. Anything other than going to Lou for help. Anything but that. Even it meant kind of implying that Imperfection wasn’t on par with the Big World when it came to what dolls preferred. 

Literally anything would be better than going to Lou. Why would Ox even suggest that?

“”Plus,” Mandy spoke up this time, keeping her voice at an actually reasonable level for a diner, “dolls just don’t come back sometimes. Stuff happens. Dogs. Babies. Kids play too rough. It’s…hurts to think about, but that’s just part of being a doll.”

“Yeah, you know all that you just listed?” Ox waggled a finger in her direction. “Sounds familiar, don’t it?” 

Mandy gave him a flat look. “We’re not fishing the Gauntlet out of the ocean. Lefty already destroyed half of it and the other half has, like, eight layers of paint on it.”

“We wouldn’t need the Gauntlet if we just ask Lou,” Ox pointed out. 

Wage spoke up this time, finally, which was a shock because Ox had thought, out of all of them, that she would have been the one to protest first. “Weren’t you the one that said no one needed Lou or his training, though?”

Ox opened his mouth. Closed it. Faltered. Spluttered faintly. “That– I…,” he shook his head roughly, pushing his plate away as well. “That was somethin’ just heat of the moment, alright? There was a lot goin’ on and I was kinda busy makin’ sure that–” He stopped, then shook his head again. He didn’t have to explain himself for something he had forgotten the reason for. “Point is…,” he took a breath, “Lou actually knew what he was talkin’ about when it came to…survivin’ in the Big World. Dodgin’ dogs and hidin’ from babies. All of it.” 

“All of it?” UglyDog questioned. Because of course he would choose to nitpick that one part, out of everything else Ox had just said. 

“You know what I meant, stop pickin’ holes.”

Moxy opened her mouth to object. Anything. Literally anything would be better–

“I think we should.”

Ox tried not to choke on his own spit when Wage spoke up to say that. He wasn’t complaining, obviously, that someone was agreeing with him, but his arguments and points hadn’t been directed toward her, really. He had assumed she wouldn’t want anything to do with Lou, save for knocking him upside the head. 

Instead of voicing his surprise, though, he went with it. “Uh– Yeah, see? Someone agrees with me.”

“You can’t be serious,” Moxy gaped at the orange doll sitting beside her. 

Wage merely shrugged, looking more interested in her food than the actual conversation, which was probably the only normal thing about the actual situation so far. “I wanna see the look on his face when someone throws the first tomato at him halfway into a lesson.”

Ox deadpanned, ears lowering to either side. Of course, yes, there wasn’t a genuine interest in this being beneficial. It was for entertainment.

Which was part of the problem! They were used to just having fun and being happy that rules were never needed for the sake of survival. The only rule back in Uglyville had been to stay away from the flower. And, even then, that rule had really only applied to Moxy.

And she had literally broken the one rule he had enforced. 

Rules weren’t their thing. 

But again…beggars couldn’t be choosers. He supposed if he had support, it didn’t exactly matter what the intentions were behind it. 

Forcing on a smile, Ox rested his elbow on the table. “You know what? Yeah. Imagine it– We give Lou this opportunity to teach and do his thing, only for the dolls to throw it right back in his face. Literally. Maybe the dolls could use somethin’ to come back to.”

That caught attention. Moxy pursed her lips. Would more dolls come back from the Big World if they had something entertaining to do that didn’t involve random nonsense? After all, the most united she had ever felt with the Uglies and Pretties alike had been when they all banded together against Lou. 

Mandy, however, suddenly wanted to backtrack. How odd. Ox tried not to grin. “Woah, hey, I don’t like the guy, but making him out like a martyr seems a little much, don’t you think?”

“It does sound kinda bad, huh?” Ox hummed, pretending to suddenly think about it.

“Oh, come on,” Wage rolled her eyes, forgetting about the original reason Ox had brought this whole thing up and looking over at Mandy now. “After all he did to you and Moxy? I think he deserved more than that washer. Public humiliation isn’t that bad, anyway.”

“I guess not,” Mandy hesitated, “but do we really need to trick him into being humiliated?”

“He tricked us,” Moxy pointed out under her breath.

“He did do that,” Ox agreed, nodding in Moxy’s direction.

“So we’re gonna stoop to his level?” Mandy countered. Ox made a hum of agreement for her point as well. 

“It’s not stooping if he deserves it.”

“That…kind of sounds petty,” Lucky added quietly. 

“Okay, then what do you suggest?” Moxy looked over at the bat. 

Lucky looked genuinely confused, because he hadn’t realized the discussion had transitioned from “let’s ask Lou for help” to “how should we deal with Lou in general.” Hadn’t they already assigned him janitor duty? If they weren’t asking him for help on the matter of training then the conversation should have ended already, not completely targeted a problem that didn’t even exist.

He opened his mouth–

“You know what, new idea!” Moxy brightened, apparently abandoning the fact she had asked Lucky for a suggestion in the first place. “We let Lou go back to teaching. I bet that’ll be more embarrassing for him. Especially since he can’t go to the Big World and we know it.”

Mandy groaned, putting her face into her hands, but Ox smiled brightly and gestured with both hands like Moxy had suggested the best idea he had totally never heard before. “That is a great idea, Mox! I knew I could count on ya to come up with somethin’!”

Lucky looked between Ox and everyone else like he had missed something important in the conversation, but the bunny simply sat back and gave the bat a wink. 

Lou was a great teacher, actually, especially when it came to teaching how to manipulate people into thinking your idea was theirs all along. 

—

“Absolutely not.”

There it was! The denial, but now from Lou, which Ox had totally planned for ahead of time, so he smiled through the rejection. “Now, hold your horses. Just think about it, alright? Ya wanna get back into teachin’, don’t ya?”

“First off, I taught because I had to,” Lou started, completely deadpan. He was already in a bad mood from, well, everything. His hair was a mess. Clothes shrunken and he had forsaken the blazer back at the shed because it genuinely didn’t fit anymore and he looked ridiculous with it on. “Second off, no, I don’t want to teach the same dolls that want nothing to do with me. Why on earth would I help someone like you?”

“Not entirely true,” Ox kept up his smile, tone almost casual. “They actually want you to teach.”

Lou squinted down at the bunny, skeptical. “Who is ‘they’, exactly?”

Ox had deliberately told the others he would be the messenger for “Moxy’s” idea since he and Lou had a history. A noble sacrifice, really, on his part. One could almost call him a saint. “The dolls.”

“I said ‘exactly’, bunny, not the vaguest answer in the world.”

“Moxy, Lucky, me, Wage, Mandy, Babo–”

“Mandy wants me to teach?” Lou’s expression changed slightly at that, eyes genuinely widening a bit. And, if Ox didn’t know any better, he would have thought the tone of the question had sounded a touch softer. Sincerely shocked. 

Perfect.

“Uh huh!” Ox nodded. His expression sobered a bit, ears lowering. “But, yeah, I guess I can’t blame ya for not wantin’ to teach or anything like that again. So I won’t bother ya about it–” He pivoted on a foot to turn and leave–

Lou opened his mouth, then glared. Oh, wait a second. He knew exactly what this bunny was doing and he wasn’t falling for it. Lou knew emotional manipulation when he heard it. He had practically invented it! 

Also, how dare Ox use Mandy to try and trick him. That was low. 

Two could play at that game.

“Well, hold on,” Lou spoke slowly, watching as Ox stopped like he had been prepared to do so anyhow. Yeah, that rabbit thought he was slick, huh. Lou, in turn, sighed and looked away like he was genuinely conflicted. “If…you guys really need me–”

“Want you,” Ox clarified, like somehow needing someone took more pride-swallowing than wanting someone. 

“Then I guess I could,” Lou continued without acknowledging the correction. “But you’d have to monitor the sessions, obviously,” Lou let out a lengthy sigh, as if just thinking aloud.

Ox blinked, smile tightening. “Pardon?”

“Well, you know the dolls won’t listen if it’s just me,” Lou put a hand to his chest, frowning as if any of this actually mattered to him. “And I would hate for this idea of yours to go to waste because they didn’t take it seriously. Having you there would make it mean something.”

Make it mean something. 

Lou could have phrased that a million different ways. Ox knew that he could have, because the blond could rephrase one statement over and over and the meaning would somehow change each time. Which meant that Lou phrased everything with intention.

In this case, emotional manipulation. 

“You…want me–”

“Need you,” Lou clarified, tone slightly firmer because wanting someone, to him, was definitely more humiliating than needing someone. 

Ox hesitated, staring at the blond for a long moment before his expression softened slightly. Still confused, but he didn’t have a good reason not to monitor the teaching sessions. “Well– I mean, I guess I could. If ya really need me to. It would help them pay attention, wouldn’t it?” He asked, more to himself than to Lou specifically.

Lou’s expression brightened. “You’re right, it would. I didn’t even think of that,” he rolled his eyes, smiling, as if he hadn’t been the first to give that reasoning. “See? This is why I’d need you there. You can catch onto things that I might not notice. Make sure they pay attention whilst I’m doing the teaching part.”

That was definitely supposed to be a brush to his ego. Ox could sense it. He could tell this conversation (deal?) had gone from him trying to convince Lou to teach to Lou convincing him to monitor like it had been Ox’s idea all along. 

Unfortunately for the others, that would mean no tomatoes. Because the dolls, as Lou said, would actually take the teaching a bit more seriously if their mayor was the one enforcing it and watching over the sessions.

Ox had a feeling Lou had known what their intentions had been right from the beginning. 

He stuttered. “I guess I could–”

“Great!” Lou smiled wide, already walking past Ox and turning on his heel to shoot finger guns at the bunny. “I knew I could count on you, buddy!” And then he turned back around, heading for the shed.

Ox’s eye twitched, lips pursing, because those last words were like getting something thrown back in his face. 

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