Waezi2′s thoughts on “Beast Complex” chapter 13.
Today’s chapter focuses on the burden of being one of the kings of the jungle... or rather, queen.
Meet Aisha the Tiger.
Aisha works in a company where she is one of the few carnivores. And being a tiger makes it worse since she has to both be extremely friendly whether or not Aisha feels like it(she often doesn’t since her co-workers are not the brightest bunch) and she has to be a hard worker despite the stress taking it’s toll on her but physically and mentally.
This is a lot like the problems Bill the Tiger faces in “Beastars.” he feels like he has to be bigger than life and laid back because he is a “king” despite him being scared and nervous a lot of the time.
Heck, we get a small background detail that reminds us how much physical appearance matters in the world of Beast Complex
Anyways, Aisha goes to a massage clinic once a week to try and get through her shitty life as a friendly tiger.
Her masseuse is an alpaca named Marilyn.
Marilyn is quite talented and surprisingly strong despite her sheep-like cute appearance. Aisha enjoys coming once a week to get her body worked on by this alpaca female since it also means she gets to tell this herbivore what to do. A carnivore bossing a herbivore is controversial, part of why Aisha has to be so god damn fucking nice to her co-workers all the time and pack it in before telling them that they fucked up.
Just look at this:
Aisha has to look ridiculously nice as she tells this sheep in the politest way possible that she wrote a draft more complicated than necessary... and the sheep still looks at her worried and almost accusing for being told that she fucked up. And to top it all, someone even comes and asks the sheep if she is okay just because she was told to do her dang job.
Aisha is well aware that if she is not super nice and smiles, people will think she is a mean bitch with fangs and claws.
But Aisha can tell and demand Marilyn to work on her body and free her from all her stress. She is in control of the situation.
... Or so she thinks...
Marilyn asks Aisha to get on her back so she can work on the front side of her body. Aisha is quite shocked b this request since it is kind of a big no-go for carnivores to expose their stomach, something that is considered a sign of submission.
And that’s where their dynamic changes drastically.
Marilyn has not shared Aisha’s perspective on their relationship at all. The alpaca is the one who has the tiger at her mercy since she is the one working on her body, having a physical position of power. That’s pretty unique for a sheep to have that over a giant cat.
And Aisha doesn’t seem to mind. She is puzzled, but she keeps coming to the clinic once a week and let Marilyn tell her to “surrender” so she can do her job.
As time goes and Aisha returns to get her weekly massages, Marilyn starts to lecture Aisha since she can read her lifestyle on her body and can therefor see that the way she works is downright unhealthy, that she is taking more work than she should and apologizes too much.
But then, Aisha finally snaps.
Aisha reveals how frustrated she really is. That the crown that follows with being queen of the jungle is so heavy that it almost makes her back snap. Even when she is getting a massage, she refuses to lower her guards and expose her tummy since that would be a not-very-tiger-like thing to do. She is tiger 24/7.
Marilyn knows that since she works a lot with carnivores. In fact, she is trying to make a point to Aisha.
In this clinic, on this massage table, Aisha is not a big and powerful tiger. Once a week, she is a kitten, completely dominated by the alpaca who is the queen of the castle that is the clinic. She is completely unimpressed by Aisha’s social status and physical strength and tells this misbehaving kitten who ruined her own body to surrender and let the Marilyn do her fricking job.
THAT is what Aisha really needed. Even in her free time when she spoiled herself with getting massages, she kept being a “tiger”, kept trying to be strong. But Marilyn made Aisha lower her parades through force so she could relax and allow Marilyn to cuddle her and remove the stress from her over-worked body.
It is healthy to lower your parades once in a while. To allow yourself to be helpless and let someone take care of you, even berate you.
It did wonders on Aisha who ended up stopping her weekly massages that was just temporarily fixes and became more relaxed and less stiff, both physically and mentally.
