Two teams. One disco. Very different warm-ups.
Every year, the villages of Dunwell and Yolotown held a joint disco night. But before they danced, they had to do their Annual Planning.
In Dunwell, it took ten minutes.
The turtle opened the logbook. “Right. We’ve been reviewing the upcoming work every week. We’ve got estimates. We know our priorities.”
He slid a neat stack of scrolls across the table. “So we start with the most important and stop when we run out of time. That gets us to the end of the year.”
The snail, monkey, and lion all nodded.
“Oh,” said the turtle. “I guess… we’re done?”
They looked at each other, mildly surprised.
“Okay then,” said the turtle. “Let’s party!”
In Yolotown, it was… different.
The lazy cat squinted at a pile of scrolls. Some were smudged, half-finished sketches. Others were just titles like “Cool Button?” and “Big Project Maybe.”
“We have so many projects,” the cat purred, already overwhelmed. “What about… this one?” She pawed at a scroll.
The parrot squawked. “Is that everything we need?”
The rooster puffed up. “Patsy’s the one who’ll check it. Right, Patsy?”
Everyone turned to the cow, who was chewing grass near a potted plant.
Patsy froze.
She stared blankly at the scroll, the plant, then the group.
“…Moo,” she said.
“Perfect,” said the cat. “We’ll figure the rest out as we go.”
This went on for hours. Projects were chosen, debated, dropped, revived, misfiled, misread, and misunderstood.
Eventually, they had a plan. Or something like it.
Too tired to tell.
The Yolotown animals finally staggered into the disco.
Bleary-eyed, they stared at the dance floor like it was a distant mirage.
The turtle spun joyfully on his back. “Wooooo!”
The snail grooved—always behind the beat, but happy.
The monkey dangled from the disco ball.
The lion sipped a mocktail and chatted with an antelope.
The rooster burst forward. “This is my moment!”
He flapped into a high-energy routine—
Just as the final beat faded out.
The lights dimmed.
DJ DuckDown pulled off his shades and leaned into the mic.
“That’s all, folks.”
The disco ball creaked to a stop.
The cat looked around, tail twitching.
“Oh,” she said. “We didn’t plan for that.”
Davide la Locomotive 
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