Ask Omari and Elizabeth; The Moment We Knew.

 Omari: Is it off-putting to say the moment we met? I mean, I know we were pups but...

Elizabeth: I don't really think so...I mean, we were...sort of coming into adulthood at that point I suppose. You were eleven, and I was ten...

Omari: Hardly adults there Dear...

Elizabeth: *Giggles* I meant we were entering puberty. 

Omari: Technically, I suppose. Still I didn't...Hmm...*Scratches chin thoughtfully for a moment* I didn't know what I felt, if that makes sense? I just felt...all warm and fluttery when I first saw you...*laughs* Well, what little you'd allow us to see at that reunion.

Elizabeth: *Snickers* I did spend eighty percent of it hiding behind one of my Dad's at all times. It was only because of Paige's persistence that I finally started playing with the other girls.

Omari: And I couldn't even properly introduce myself. *Shakes head* My brothers just stroll up and introduce themselves, and now I'm hiding behind Piper...

Elizabeth: Poorly I might add, Piper was half your size even then. *Laughs* Still, I did think it was cute...not romantically of course, not yet...but...just seeing this 'giant' hyena, at least comparatively, hiding behind this tiny otter was...well it definitely helped reassure me that my father's were right. That I really didn't have anything to worry about meeting the family. *Snickers* In fact, Malcolm said my cousins would probably be more afraid of me than I was of them.

Omari: After some...prodding by Piper, we...I mean, I slowly eased into being comfortable around Elizabeth. I still felt butterflies in my stomach sometimes, but I managed to keep my cool for the most part.

Elizabeth: We both played instruments, that helped bridge the gap of course. I played violin and Omari played the keyboard.

Omari: *Rolls eyes, snout scrunching in disgust* Poorly I might add. I can't believe I ever played that...*Shudders* 

Elizabeth: *Giggles* You were fine when you practiced with me. Believe me, my classmates back in San Francisgoat were even less gifted than you. 

Omari: I think that was when I knew though...that it was a crush...

Elizabeth: Hmm?

Omari: The first time I saw you play your violin. You played...you played divinely even then but...*Sighs warmly* It was how you looked when you played. That determination, that poise, all signified in your body language alone. All your shyness and timidity just sort of...fell away. And I felt like I could see the real you.

Elizabeth: *Blushes* Aww...Omari...

Omari: Granted, I never got to see you play in such an unabashed fashion until we were what? I was thirteen? 

Elizabeth: *Nods* That was right around the time we all had to relocate to Zootopia after the 'Big One'. Before that, we largely had to wait until reunions to see one another. Well, at least those of us living far out from the city.

Omari: When did you know you had caught feelings for me?

Elizabeth: *Scrunches her muzzle, blushing softly* This is...super embarrassing...

Omari: C'mon. it can't be that bad can it?

Elizabeth: *Lolls head warily* Weeelll....It's just it makes me look both....petty and shallow I think.

Omari: *Flicks a dull glance Elizabeth's way* The river incident?

Elizabeth: *Nods briskly* Yeeees...Where Piper was making fun of me, so you dunked her in the river, and then we both ran away from her giggling like idiots...

Omari: We hid by that tree, and after the coast was clear from my pint-sized pressure cooker of a sister, I took my shirt off to ring out the river water...

Elizabeth: And I...*blushes* noticed your muscles were developing. *Giggling, placing her head in her paws as her blush intensifies* Oh gods, I'm so ashamed of myself.

Omari: *Snickers, shaking his head* We were teens...it's natural. Besides, I'm not so humble I won't take a compliment...

Elizabeth: After that...I started looking at you differently...It was like a door opened, you know? The way you were studying so aggressively to follow in your Mom's footpads even then, the passion you had for medicine, and wanting to help other pups it...I suppose it snared me the same way my music snared you. That passion...

Omari: *Nuzzles Elizabeth's snout with his own affectionately* As for when we...confessed our feelings...it was a whole different sort of mess entirely. 

Elizabeth: Yes...it seems we weren't the only members of the pack forming 'romantic attachments'. And while I was at a sleepover with the other Hunter girls when I was fourteen I...I was pressured into admitting I had a crush on one of my cousins... I wouldn't say who, but unfortunately...Lumi, who was struggling with some very confusing feelings of her own took it to mean it was...well...her...*Sighs* Granted, she still had to work up the courage to confess her feelings for me during a big family barbeque a year later.

Omari: The same one I was aggressively goaded into admitting my own feelings for Elizabeth thanks to Piper's meddling...which she still swears was just so she could tease me for wanting to 'rut my cousin'. But I know her heart was actually in the right place.

Elizabeth: *Rolls eyes* There was a whole 'secret admirer' thing floating around the Barbeque. I was told someone 'liked me' like I liked them by Paige, who was busy trying to set things up for Lumi. I agreed to meet my admirer in the barn at a certain time, which Piper overheard.

Omari: Piper had been entirely ignorant of Lumi's feelings, but she already knew how I felt about Elizabeth, and assumed I was in on the whole thing. And through a murky and confusing exchange, I came to believe that Elizabeth wanted to meet me in the barn to confess her own feelings I hoped she'd held for me. 

Elizabeth: We confessed to each other there, sharing our first...non-familial hug. It should have been a happy moment for us... albeit a bit embarrassing...instead...*Elizabeth winces*

Omari: *Rubs the back of his neck in clear discomfort* Lumi overheard us, and ran off crying. *Sigh* Long story short, the family got treated to finding out Elizabeth and I had a crush on one another, and that Lumi was a lesbian the same day. It was...awkward...

Elizabeth: Despite everything being fine between myself and Lumi now...I still feel bad about it looking back. I just...I couldn't see that Lumi had those kind of feelings for me because I just...I didn't even fathom it. *Chuckles* Imagine that, me, the adopted daughter with two gay fathers and I just wrote off the way she treated me as just...being a nice cousin and friend.

Omari: We were teens, we were all still figuring ourselves out. *Shakes Head*

Elizabeth: Anyway...I don't think our parents, or really the whole family took our little relationship seriously. Not until your Dad caught us getting...um...frisky during a 'date'.

Omari: *Chuckles* After that it was "Doors open at all times, curfew enacted, Piper is my informant." *Rolls wrist* Etcetera, etcetera. Suddenly Mom and Dad were all business. There was a serious discussion as to whether to let this 'go on' because we were cousins...

Elizabeth: It was my parents who managed to calm Uncle Yuri down, making sure to point out again and again that we weren't blood cousins even with his reservations about 'wolf inbreeding stereotypes'. 

Omari: Also, we aren't wolves...*Chuckles* In spirit maybe. 

Elizabeth: *Giggles* I think by that point they all still were assuming we'd break it off...*Extends a paw, flipping it palm side out to reveal a half-moon tattoo.*

Omari: *Shows off his own matching mark* If they were disappointed, they hid it pretty well at our tithing ceremony.

Elizabeth: And Lumi was my maid of honor, in case you were curious. *Giggles*

Ask Elizabeth; Tail Brushing

 

Elizabeth: Oh...well...I don't know if all skunks do it but...

Lumi: Probably not the boys...I know boy foxes tend to ignore their tails aside from worrying about how big they are! *Giggles*

Elizabeth: Well, even so...I do take a... a little bit of pride in my tail. So I do brush it regularly, or sometimes one of my fathers will brush it out for me.

Lumi: Then there are the sleepovers where we brush each other's tails!

Elizabeth: *Giggles* Oh yes, that's so much fun...I do love doing the whole sleepover spa ritual. It's so much fun!

Paige: Makes me wish I had a tail as long and luxurious as you guys do...all I've got is a half stubby little fur wool matted mess...

Lumi: Hey, I like a challenge! Besides, you have that amazing mop of head wool I can't keep my paws out of when you come over! *Giggles* It's so fluffy!

Piper: Jeeze, like mudder like daughter. I sure hopes yas at least asked halfsie over there before gettin' ya dirty paws all up in her head wool.

Paige: *Scoffs* She did, and honestly Lumi works wonders with those magic paws of hers, between her pro styling skills and her dressmaking she's probably going to end up a big stylist someday.

Lumi: *Blushes* Aww, hush cuz! *Giggles*

Piper: Eh...as much as I'm loathed to give a compliment, credit where it's due, Lumi does good woik. *Cackles* Even wit me, and I got barely any fur to woik wit

Ask Special Collection; The Hunter Pack; the next generation Pt 4

 Trenton, Qali and Lumi; (The other Hunter family hybrid)

Initially, I think I wanted Paige to be the only hybrid, and even then Paige's creation was one I struggled with in terms of actually going through with. I think shortly after Rehab was completed, on the old blog, I asked you guys what story they wanted to see next, before pitching the ideas I had lying in the back of my brain. I remember at the time I think I discussed both Dawn and Vern taking hyphenated names, and one of the stories centering around a possible hybrid pup. Then I received a comment telling me that both the hyphenated names and the hybrid pups were a bad avenue to pursue. And while I stuck to the hyphenation regardless because I thought it would be a very Vernon thing to do to insist Dawn embrace her old name, I did bench the Paige project. It was only after the word of god (Zootopia's creators) said hybrids were definitely a thing, did I revisit the idea and find the story to be told there. Still, Paige was initially meant to be the one hybrid in the family, as reasons will be established in the last Bellhunter story as to why Dawn and Vern managed to win the pregnancy lottery so to speak, and why it would be harder for species that were genetically further apart to have pups on average, at least for some time as the methods to assist such pregnancies got better.

I'll admit, Lumi (Named by Unformed8) was created totally based on the prospect of making a very fluffy girl. That was one of the reasons Trenton and Qali were chosen to have a hybrid, the other happening to be that foxes and wolves would logically have a smaller species gap genetically speaking. It made the most sense that if Trenton and Qali made an aggressive attempt to have a hybrid child, there's a better chance of them succeeding than say, Zach and Vanna. So two years after the birth of Paige, and after a great deal of trying and taking weird fertility enhancers and taking advantage of other medical procedures, Lumi is finally born to Trenton and Qali. 

Lumi is sweet and excitable but is also capable of keeping a pretty cool head thanks to her father's genetics, which is a good skill to have when it comes to being picked on by Piper or other mammals at school for being hybrid. On top of that, Lumi's genetics make her early years and adolescence rather awkward in terms of appearance. She's got her mother's extra sleek build but quickly develops her father's height as she grows making her a bit a beanpole...or string bean as her father affectionately calls her. Piper likes to mock her by calling her stickly or stretch, and tends to be especially vicious to her and Paige for being hybrids. She also has poor eyesight, which just adds another aspect for Piper and others to tease about. While Lumi tends to be very cool and calm in the face of teasing, she'll confide in Paige, and especially in her parents when something really gets under her pelt.

Lumi is a Daddy's girl, and even though he sterner than Qali is, Lumi pretty much has her Dad wrapped around her fingers from the day she was born. She's also very much a cuddle bug, and loves hugging and curling up with her parents at every opportunity.

As an adult, Lumi's genetics seem to finally come together in a truly spectacular fashion. With the height of a wolf and the sleekness of a fox she becomes a true beauty, so much so that she becomes a fashion model and designer, as she had always had a bit of a passion for creating outfits and clothes during her pre-teen and teenage years. Her industry name is 'the Kitsune', as her features seem very reminiscent of the ancient legend of 'Kitsune spirits' in Japanda, and she subsequently names her fashion line 'Kitsune'. As an adult, she's considerably more confident and cool, and is even better at dealing with the occasional ribbing from Piper, as well as dishing out clap backs. 

Paige and Lumi; BFF's;

With Lumi and Paige both being hybrids, they have an immediate connection that's stronger than the ones they share with their other cousins. They have much of the same struggles and uncertainties to deal with, and their personalities sort of complement one another with Paige being the more of the fighter and Lumi being more of the negotiator. If Paige is going to get into a fistfight with Piper, you can bet Lumi will be the one to pull her off the little otter if the parents aren't close enough to break things up. Also, both sets of parents are more prone to setting up playdates for the pair over the other local cousins due to them both being hybrids and logically, at least to the parents, could do with the solidarity.

The tight friendship maintains into adulthood, although they don't get to see each other as often as they'd like. Lumi's career keeps her extremely busy, and on the move. But that said, every time they manage to reunite in Zootopia, the pair probably revel in each other's company more so than any of the other cousins. One could argue the pair were actually sisters were it not for their drastically different appearances. But considering the menagerie of different species making up the respective Hunter broods, that might not be too much of a stretch for most.

Okay, one more sheet to go. 

-Wasty