Friday, October 16, 2020
Ask Dorian, Zach and Vanna; Sam Hain Pranks
Zach: I think we're all thinkin' of the same one purty much, right?
Vanna: The thing with Papa Hunter's squad car?
Zach: *Laughs* Yes, the thing with Pa's car! I still can't believe the rest of the boys at the station managed to pull that one off in less than a day!
Dorian: I'll give you that it was impressive. Funny on the other paw...
Zach: Funny to the rest of us anyway. *Cackles* Seriously, yer face when you opened the hood was priceless.
Vanna: We should...probably explain exactly what they did.
Zach: Oh yeah, so get this. The mammals at the station waited till Pa left his squad car at the station on one of his days off. Once they were sure Pa weren't comin' in, they called in a few of the local mechanics and have them bring their heavy duty tools along. After them boys set up a lil' workstation in the garage around where pa left his car, they spent the next few hours pullin' out every part of the engine, which the rest of the on duty officers helped move to storage temporarily.
Of course, the next day I carpool Pa into the station bright and early, and make sure me and Vanna are out of the station on patrol before the big reveal.
Vanna: It...might not of worked otherwise...
Zach: See, about a half hour after Pa settled in at his desk, one of the boys told him there was an emergency back at the ranch, and Ma needed him right away.
Dorian: O' course, with Zach out of the station...and with no inklin' that my boys would lie to me about somethin' so serious, I...ran right fer my cruiser...
Zach: And when he tried to start it, well you can guess how that went. *Chuckles*
Dorian: I...I'll admit, it really blindsided me. Just openin' up that hood and starin' into an empty chassis. At first, I was thinkin' somethin' was goin' wrong with my eyes, like I was startin' to go blind all the sudden. But after a few moments the whole...scene kinda set in...
Zach: And her turned just in time to catch purty much the entire police station watchin' him and tryin' to keep from snickerin' to loud...
Vanna: Not to mention taking a-lot of photos...
Zach: Again, priceless...
Dorian: Considerin' y'all had a day, and only four mechanics I mean...lookin' back it's purty impressive. Granted y'all had old Dave Boville fer most of the heavy liftin'.
Zach: Well he was the only mammal large and strong enough to pull the engine without using a crane, at least that's what they told me.
Dorian: Had it back together by the afternoon on the same day of the prank as well. And while I was purty sore about the whole thang, well...iffin' I'm bein' honest the ol' Sheriff's wagon has never run better than after that little stunt.
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Ask Auddey and Dori; Family Pumpkin Patch
Dorian: Actually we've been doin' that fer some time now. *Chuckles* Well, Auddey has anyway.
Audrey: Ain't like I stop sellin' pies once the Harvest Festival is over. Folks are still lookin' to buy pies right up until the actual Harvest Feast, and even then we get a few stragglers who want one fer Yule come sniffin' around. That said, most of my pumpkin crop is fer...well, it's bakin' pumpkins.
Dorian: Sugar pumpkins. And they ain't exactly prime specimens fer makin' jackal' lanterns.
Audrey: Yeah, sugar pumpkins don't get very big. To top it all off we got a few...er..bigger pumpkin farms situated around us, and I don't want to be steppin' on our neighbors paws too much by tryin' to compete with 'em in the jackal' lantern department.
Dorian: Granted, Auddey did add a smaller patch of Jackal' Lantern pumpkins to please some folks, but she generally gets by sellin' pies, sweet pumpkins and corn directly.
Audrey: We also do have a corn maze we do, but it's purty modest. The hunter Ranch ain't as massive y'all outsiders might think, so the maze ain't huge.
Dorian: At least, not big enough to waste money hirin' performer's anyway.
Audrey: But the lil' pups seem to like it, and that's what matters. *Giggles*
Ask Dawn and Vern; Paige's birthday and Ulric
Vernon: We ain't to worried. I don't know iffin' we've mentioned this before, but Sam Hain has sorta...the opposite affect on Ully one would expect.
Dawn: You mean he's normal for one night? *Giggles*
Vernon: Naw, just crazy in a different way. Y'see Ully takes Sam Hain very seriously, at least in terms of the old folklore. I suppose most of y'all know this by now, but most of the cultures and religions that made Sam Hain a thang celebrated it purty differently than how we do now.
Dawn: In the caprid religions, Sam hain represented the time in which the veil between the land of the dead and the land of the living was at it's thinnest. The costumes and treats were a way to confuse and appease the spirits that crossed over to torment the living.
Vernon: The costumes made it so that the bad souls from the other side couldn't tell live mammals and their own kind apart, which kept 'em from bein' stolen away to the other side of the veil.
Dawn: And the treats were sort of an offering to appease those mischievous spirits, and keep them from tormenting the living.
Vernon: Naturally...Ully takes that all very seriously. And while he's usually the type to be real interested in ghost huntin' he...well...how he put it when he said it to me was, 'I'm a marked mammal when dealin' with spirits. Goin' out on Sam Hain for me would be as stupid as taking on the entirety of Zootopia's Reserve Army alone, completely naked with nothing but a spoon to defend yourself.”
Dawn: Pft...*Snickers* That doesn't sound like a stretch for Ulric I think. At least the naked part.
Vernon: Honey's been tryin' to lure him out since she took up datin' him, tryin' to assure that idjit that' it's just a pup's holiday, and it'll be fine, but so far it hasn't worked.
Dawn: I just don't get why he can't at least hand out candy for the lambs.
Vernon: To him, that's riskin' invitin' a demon into yer home. *Chuckles* Nope, it's just gonna be a good twenty fer hours of him locked in his home, with all the lights off, hidin' under that ol' security blanket of his...
Dawn: S-Security blanket? *Snickers* Really?
Vernon: Some ol' habits die hard. *Chuckles*
Ask Dawn And Vern; The Paige Hunters
Dawn: Unfortunately yes...
Vernon: It's mostly from religious folks, granted we already got our fair share of hate mail from them about havin' an 'unholy union' and what not, but there has been an uptick in the letters since Paige was born.
Dawn: Yes, some of them are....really reprehensible. The..names especially hurt. I mean down get me wrong, Vernon and I...we're sort of....insulated to most of it by now.
Vernon: We've heard it all before, and we kinda expect it. We had gotten to the point where we we're pretty much just laughin' at 'em.
Dawn: But what some have said about Paige, about our adopted pups as well...it's so...it was impossible not to let it get to us in some way.
Vernon: 'Abomination', 'monster', 'creature'...Readin' words like that...I mean, it's like a punch in the gut, y'know. And makes us that much more worried fer Paige as she grows up...
Dawn: We have also had to...well...we do have security now. I mean...more than before.
Vernon: Sback at the ol' apartment we got by with a simple lock and baseball bat, although no one ever really tried anythin' as far as we could tell. Once we relocated to the South Meadowlands fer the sake of the pups, we had a proper security system installed with cameras and motion detectors and such.
Dawn; So far we've only really had issues with a few of the, more daring paparazzi and journalist types trying to get clear photos of Paige and the other pups, but the ZPD has been pretty on top of that.
Vernon: They weren't lookin' fer proof she existed. Most of society I think came to terms with it after the the pawful of pictures we consented to went to print. But y'know, she's a growin' pup so...every picture they can get has value.
Dawn: I can't think of a single mammal, at least that I've heard about, who legitimately believed we made up Paige's existence. Usually I'd want to say Ulric but...
Vernon: He believed it from the start. *Chuckles* Once again, the broken clock is right twice a day.
Ask the Author; Zootopian Slurs
WT: Actually I do have a few slurs and phrases I can throw your way. Although not exactly a complete compendium, I have been compiling a sort of slang and slurs dictionary for Zootopia since the early days of “The Rehabilitation of Dawn Bellwether”. With that in mind, the slurs are largely going to be related to goats, sheep, wolves and canines, as that marked a majority of the species of characters involved in my fics.
Dag or Dag Muncher- Dry clumps of Dung that cling to a sheep's wool. In Zootopia it's an insult among caprines, and adding muncher to it makes it worse.
Herbs- Slang for herbivores/prey
Riggwelter- A sheep that has fallen onto it's back and can't get up, and insult among caprids.
Lamb Shanks- Caprine slang, light curse.
Mutton Chops- Caprine slang, light curse.
Grazer- Slang for sheep, coats etcetera, can be used as an insult.
Mutt- Canid insult.
Gimmer - Slang for a loose female sheep, equivalent to calling a ewe a whore or slut.
Culler Ewe- An older, unmarried ewe that is beyond child bearing age. Therefore useless as a potential mate. It's considered a insult.
Mongrel - The canid equivalent of the 'N' word. Don't call a wolf a mongrel unless you are looking for a brawl.
Prey-Chaser- Offensive slang for predators who date or are interested in dating prey mammals.
Pred-Baiter- Offensive slang for prey who date or are interested in dating predator mammals.
Scraperfoot – A slang term for foxes. Primarily it means something akin to 'moocher' or 'Grifter'.
That's pretty much all the slurs i've got at present, although I'm work shopping more fox slurs as I working “The Family Vulpes”, so the list is on going. Feel free to use some of these in your own works if you like. A shout out would be appreciated though.
Ask The Author; The Grandfather of Beastars
WT: I actually found that out really recently, like a few weeks before this ask came in recently. Then again, I don't know enough about anime to really appreciate that. And if it's reflective of the recent writing in Beastars and the abruptness and overwhelming confusion I was left with over the manga series ending, I'm not sure it's a good thing?
Seriously...I....I'm not going to rant, but to prevent spoilers I'll just say that Beastars really let me down. It's still not quite done yet I guess, (Two chapters remaining), but most of the confusing groundwork for the wrap up has been set already, so I doubt the end is going to redeem it for me any time soon. I honestly...they way it all fell apart almost makes me regretful I got into the series in the first place. And I definitely won't be recommending it to anyone anytime soon.
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