Glitz And Chips AU; The Hunters

 

WT: I'd imagine most, though not all the Hunters would live away from Zootopia. Maybe a pawful in other North Mammalian Megacitites, but I imagine a majority of them have chosen to turn their snouts up on the invasive monitoring and large-scale corruption that settles into such places and instead choose to live outside those corrupt spheres of influence even if it means being left to the 'wolves' so to speak.

I figured I'd take a page from Shadowrun here, and other 'future dystopia' stories and have it that some sort of...disaster wiped out a lot of the mammalian population. What remained mostly clumped into these megacities, and while it would give them access to technology beyond their wildest dreams, the trade-off was being ruled over by corporations and monitored constantly. Those who turned their nose up at such a thing are basically homesteaders, out in the overgrown ruins of the abandoned places and building small towns and communities there. Of course, that puts said communities at risk of being raided by others, unable to get help during a plague, or being attacked by god knows what.

Dorian and Audrey would be steadfast homesteaders, with Dorian leading the New Meadowlands Militia in order to protect the burgeoning community and do their best to keep Zootopia from reincorporating it. Zach and Vanna would be a part of this Militia as well.

Ulric would probably live in the city, working as his own sort of...deep underground hacker/detective along with Honey. He'd probably see himself as an almost Neo figure, though whether he can live up to that sort of mantle is up to your imagination.

The west coast would be in a state of disarray, with no megacities to spare save for a few built-up coastal import points. This is because the Juan De Fuca and San Andreas Fault ruptured at the same time during the 'disaster' and basically ruined the western coastal cities. This allows me to place Yuri, Xavier, and their mates into the Zootopian Megacity. Xavier I figure would still be a lawyer, working diligently and tirelessly to fight back against a corrupt legal system to the best of his abilities. Malcolm would be a bartender at one of those literal 'speakeasies', secret internet dead zones where people could congregate without the city's eyes and ears. I imagine restaurants, much less individually owned ones, are functioning in the Megacity. It's all chains and pre-processed corporate-owned joints. Anything resembling an actual restaurant is staffed by robots owned by the greater corporate entities.

Ada would still be working at a hospital, and probably still a friend of the family. But Yuri would more than likely be dead. Despite how much of an ass Yuri can be, he was still a moral mammal. He'd want to join the ZPD and help protect the smaller and weaker mammals in the city. The issue is, of course, Yuri is both stubborn and brazen. He'd quickly become a thorn in the side of the more corrupt mammals in the ZPD, and he'd be disposed of similarly to what was attempted on Hopps and Wilde. Or perhaps maybe he'd go down in a blaze of glory, killing one of the bigger politicians or CEO's and become a martyr for the growing discontent of the city.

Last we've got Wade and Giselle, and Trenton and Qali. I imagine Trent and Qali make a go of defending the outer burrows, and homesteading there. And Wade, after seeing what happened to Yuri making him feel stuck as to what he can do, decided to cut and run to join Trenton and Qali in defending the Burrows. Some would call that cowardly, but he chose that in order to protect Giselle and get her out of the city along with him. Ada was already a widow, and he couldn't risk the same thing happening to Gizzy. In the Burrows, Trenton heads up the defensive militia, with Wade as his deputy, similar to the situation with Dorian and Zach. Qali is a trap designer and layer, using her small size, agility, and dextrous paws to shore up defenses against neighboring towns and the city at large, and Gizzy is a farmhand.

Thanks for the ask!

Ak Wasty; Glitz and Chips AU Villians

 

WT: Hmm...I'm thinking sort of a mixture of corpos and government figureheads...essentially a 'board of shadowy figures' ala Clone High, but with one exception. There is a...I'd call him an antagonist really, that is still in the concept phases for the eventual last fic in my series, "The Bellwether Legacy", (If I can actually get back to god damned writing) which kind of flip flops between the present (in terms of the fic universe, around the time Paige is born) and twenty years into the future following Paige starting at the ZPD. The main conflict in that section of the fic is meant to be two rival factions of pred and prey supremacists that are in an arms race against each other. However, both factions are being driven on and supplied by these two very commanding and charismatic figureheads.

The spoiler and twist are that both of those figureheads are entirely fictitious, fake personas being managed by the same mammal who is riling up both of these factions to make money paw over fist on illicit weapon sales. To add a further form disparity, while the figureheads would be something like a Tiger for the Preds, and a Stag for the Prey, it would be revealed the actual mammal is something small and omnivorous, like a prairie dog. 

So that said, I could very easily see this villain becoming sort of the leading force of the shadowy council, playing as his two 'counterparts' as needed. That said, I think arms dealing and blackmail would be his bread and butter. Arms dealing to approved insurgents and armies to keep the public in fear and clamoring for these despotic figures to protect them, and blackmail to keep his fellow council members on board. 

Also, in the fic, while it was going to be set 20 years later, I'm not sure how 'advanced' the tech would be in terms of helping him keep up the illusion of being two other mammals. Initially, I thought it would be cool to have this guy have full robotic suits of each of his personas that he piloted as a mech, but now I'm leaning more toward an AI model of his personas that only ever appear on screens or recordings because I feel it would be more feasible and realistic. Maybe even some holograms that give the illusion of actually existing since we see that tech now to some degree.

In Glitz and Chips, however, I could go whole hog with the Cybernetic robot suit idea, and make this mad prairie dog a true force to be reckoned with on the day of the showdown. Lord knows those suits would be the most cutting-edge weapons tech that DecoPunk Zoot had to offer.

Thanks for the ask!

Glitz and Chips AU; Gazelle

 

WT: I spent a lot of time pondering this one over, exploring the ideas for Gazelle you proposed when all of the sudden an idea hit me like a ton of bricks that felt so right, I had to go with it.

Basically, my idea is that "Gazelle" Would in fact be a sentient AI that was designed by Clawhauser to help run their whole 'underground shadow organization' that Nick and Judy are inducted into. This version of Gazelle is built to manage their base and operations and help them with missions and scanning and infiltrating surface channels. At first, this version of Gazelle is very...robotic...(Think the dancing app voice from the movie). She lacks Gazelle's general warmness and the smooth butteriness of her tone. However, she was designed by the genius Clawhauser to learn and grow, and as she does she develops a personality, that warm demeanor we all know and love, and develops a penchant for singing while she 'works'.

As she becomes more of a 'mammal' she becomes the 'face' of the underground, creating music videos and propaganda rallying against the corrupt companies and ZPD that have a stranglehold over the innocent citizens' lives. By the time Nick and Judy join they are floored when they discover that Gazelle is a machine, as by that point she's so convincingly mammalian she had the entire ZPD and companies with a vested interest in putting down any counter-narratives marking her as the ring leader of the rebellion.

By this point, Clawhauser has developed a bit of a crush on his own creation, but with Gazelle's own growing personality, independence, and increasing fascination with 'actual flesh and blood' mammals, she finds herself growing increasingly chummy with Finnick, the resident mechanic, implant and bionics expert. This would cause a sort of love triangle thing to crop up, which in turn leads to a mission requiring both Finn and Clawhauser to go completely sideways, and nearly compromise and erase who Gazelle is in the process. After the close shave, Clawhauser elects to stand back and allow Gazelle and Finn to pursue a relationship, and the close call, essentially a near-death experience for Gazelle, pushes Clawhauser to invest heavily in back-ups and safeguards to ensure her consciousness is protected, eventually going so far as to line up a job that gets his claws on a top of the line synth mold, which with a little work between him and Finnick, is able to provide Gazelle with a physical form at last.

So here's "Glitz and Chips' Gazelle, AI turned Synth. The machine with a heart of gold, and a voice to match.