Let's think hard about this, because I made a resolution this year that there'd be no more adopts, but here's an adopt.

I don't know his name. I do know, clearly, that he's a mechanic.

He's another resident of the "normal" world that contains Roxanne, Maurice and Jeremy. And he is a real mechanic. He's honest, he charges fair prices and pays his taxes, his garage is OSHA-compliant and anybody working for him receives fair pay and benefits. His business isn't a front for anything.

The "obvious" thing would be to make him a competitor to Emmet who can't understand why the fraudulent repairman is stealing away his customers... so we won't go down that route. He knows about Emmet. He isn't particularly bothered by him.

In fact I think Emmet is a little intimidated by him. When Emmet started up his repair business he stopped by once to introduce himself, but it quickly became evident the fox was never going to be afraid of him, in awe of him, or see him as some great mystery to be solved. Instead he wished Emmet good luck and went back to work.

That's a risk you run when you operate a fake business and come face-to-face with the landscape outside of your schemes. As he left the shop Emmet probably muttered something to himself about "dealing with him later," but he never got around to it because he knows the fox has something that he can never touch.

What the fox is instead is a foil to Sully. The two of them interact because Sully sometimes comes in to buy parts, and invariably they get to talking shop.

He's older than Sully but not anywhere close to "father figure" age, so what he represents is the possibility of Sully "going legit." Although he's never outright asked Sully to work for him specifically, he does drop hints that Sully might be better off in a place like this, doing work that he's clearly good at but learning transferable skills (bilking a sheep out of his money while transforming him into a badger is not something you can put on your resume) and possibly moving up in the world, maybe even opening his own chain of repair shops someday. At the very least he'd be able to put in an honest day's work and go to bed at night with a clear conscience.

Add to that the fact that Sully's boyfriend is also going down the respectable blue collar route and there might be a serious fork in the road to consider taking later, especially if any events transpire that start to make Emmet seem like the ominous figure he only pretends to be now.

Of course, there may be others vying to divert Sully's loyalties...

Artwork and design, once again, by LemonCoyotes.