Aks Gideon; Echoes of the Past

 

    Gideon: I just try to get by day by day when it comes to how I...used to act...and the impact it left behind. I tired to apologize to every mammal I teased and bullied growin' up, wether it was in person, er' by mail. O'course, that don't mean everyone accepted them apologies, and I do still get some cold stares from those who still harbor them feelin's about me. While I can't blame 'em, it does still sting a might from time to time. What was worse was them folks who were more upset that I was a fox in 'their' town, rather then a bully as a kit. There's still folks like that skulkin' around Bunnyburrow to this day, and while bein' forced to interact with 'em is few in far between, it never really gets any easier. Folks like that er' why my kithood was the way it was. It's par tof the reason I spent them year's lashin' out.

Before Shar came into my life, a lot of that frustration and bein' all uspet over that sorta thing would spill into my bakin' from time to time. A burnt pie here, salt in place o' sugar there, all cause I was too busy dwellin' on the pain to be at top performance. And while that still happened from time to time before our little family formed, I had my Darlin' black forest cake to come along and talk my troubles outta me.

O' course, my kits havin' to deal with well...bein' adopted, and by Gideon Grey no less, the ol' terror of Bunny Burrow, they got more flack that I was ready to handle. Our older boy is real sensitive like I was...but he buries that pain, and he ends up comin' home cryin' rather than givin' some of his bunny bullies a swirly in the middle school bathroom. That kind stuff had me back to messin' up my pies and cakes somethin' fierce. But he has somethin' I didn't have growin' up. Our little lamb is a real spitfire, and she's usually there to stick up fer our son with them bein' near the same grade. Then there's the twins, who are in the same grade so they can can back eachother up even easier. Not only that, but all of 'em have a lovin' family to come home to. A family who while march down to the school and fight fer 'em in person. Who always got their back. I just hope that when they is grown up, they'll....well they'll have been better for it. I mean, I know our little mixed pack ain't perfect...no family is. But I just hope they'll always remember me and their Ma fer bein' right there for 'em. 

(Edit; I forgot when writing this, because I wasn't feeling so hot, that the Gideon pack has 4 kits. A fox tod, the oldest, then a younger lamb, and the youngest, a set of bunny twins, one boy and one girl. None of them have names yet, and since I wasn't feeling good I kind of avoided coming up with names on the spot. I'm open to suggestions, but it'll be rectified either way in the future.)

Ask Blog Update; Current Delay

     

     I just want to take the time to apologize for the unscheduled lapse in ask content over the last two weeks. The first week was just what I thought was going to be a minor delay, as I was finishing commission and story work, and I had Christmas duties. I figured I would be able to make up for it early the following week. However, life comes at you fast, and my ask plans, as well as my Christmas plans were dampened severely by a medical emergency involving my mom that still has yet to be fully resolved. Thankfully, we were pretty much out of holiday themed asks, so it wasn't a total loss in terms of missing a content window. 

    That said, I should have more asks for you later this week provided nothing else comes up. I've never been a big 'New Years' guy, so I don't expect that to get in the way much. 

    However, I feel I must address an issue that has been coming up increasingly over the past few months. As I've said on my previous blog, when it comes to asks, the official ask email (Or Patreon Member Ask Chat) is the only place I will solicit asks from. The reason is a combination of keeping thing organized, and maintaining my other pages strictly for commissions inquiries and other requests and questions.In addition, sending me asks doesn't guarantee that I'll answer them. I try to answer most of them, but if it's ill-suited, or I can't do anything with them, I'm sorry but I'll have to skip them. More-over, sending me emails like this...

    Is the fastest route to insuring I blacklist any asks you send in going forward. My ask blog is the tail end of my workload. It's meant to be more of a promotion of my stories more than anything else. Aside from Patreon asks, which get some degree of preference as part of a perk, I don't rush to answer specific asks generally. When I'm ready to do asks, I take a look at the inbox and visualize a minimum of two for art, and about five for text. They are largely chosen based on how I'm feeling and how much writing I've got in me at the time, because I have a nasty habit of turning asks into minifics. That's my system. If you've sent in an ask, it's unlikely that I didn't get it. And I will eventually get to it. But pestering me outside of the Ask Blog email, or emailing me about when your going to get your asks answered is not going to get you any sort of preferential treatment. 

    I hate that I had to say this, and I hope it doesn't come off particularly venomous, I have had a rough two weeks and it's weighing on me a bit. I try to accommodate everyone to some degree, and be understanding, but when people start pushing boundaries I've established, I eventually have to say something.

    That's all for now. I hope you had a Merry Christmas or other holiday, and I hope you go on to have a Happy New year.

-WT

Farewell Finnick

 

 

 

FOUND AU; Marcus Starts School

 

Vanna: Zach and I have...come to an agreement that we believe Marcus is ready to start school.

Zach: Admittedly we were a little nervous-

Vanna: A little? Also, we?

Zach: A-alright...some of us were...more nervous than others.

Vanna: Zach felt we should hold off for an extra month or two. At one point he actually suggested waiting until Yule break was over before allowing Marcus to attend classes.

Zach: Well he's! I mean, he's gonna be the only human at school! I...I don't want the other mammals to give him grief over that! *Grumbles* I just...I don't want them gawkin' at my boy like he's an exhibit at the reptile house!

Vanna: We've already talked this over with Marcus, and should any of his classmates or the other students bully him, he could turn to his teachers as well as us to try and resolve the problem.

Zach: Tellin' teacher's just makes it worse. *Shakes head* It don't do anythin' meaninful *sigh*

Vanna: Goofball...

Zach: I just wish I could be there to help him. *Sighs* When me and my brothers were growin' up, we at least had each other to lean on in school. Anyone picked on one of us, the Hunter pack dealt with it. Even Yuri didn't stand fer other students pickin' on us.

Vanna: Because he saw that as his job. *Chuckles*

Zach: Well...I mean...yeah...but...Look the point is I'd just feel better if I could be there. At least fer the first few weeks...just to make sure things go smoothly.

Vanna: You already booked us for a 'police education' seminar for his class.

Zach: Yeah, but that's one day....for like an hour.

Vanna: I don't think they'd be willing to host the same seminar every day for a month Goofball.

Zach: Hmm...maybe I could try my paw at applyin' to be the school's baseball coach?

Vanna: Goofball...with Marcus'...er...talent? I think you'd be in full traction by Yule.

Zach: Oh! I got it, I'll just disguise myself as a student fer a few weeks an-.

Vanna: If you don't think for a second that if you do that, I will absolutely drag you out of that school in a firemam's carry, no matter how big a scene it makes! I don't care if it makes the local paper Zach, I swear I'll do it.

Zach: ALRIGHT! Alright geeze....didn't even let me finish...

Vanna: I think that was for the best, for both of our sakes...

FOUND AU ASK; Lily's Great Pie Caper!

 

Dorian: Proud? Are y'all kiddin' me? *Chuckles* I'm over the moon! She-.

Vernon: It weren't... I mean anyone coulda' put together who done it. Right? It don't mean-

Dorian: Anyone coulda'!? Oh please, she wasn't just ahead o' the rest of you boys, she was ahead o' me too! Granted, I wasn't exactly...lookin' to deeply into who ate a pie.

Vernon: Pa, please...

Dorian: And the way she explained how she figured it out, goin' over all her leads and their alibi's before tellin' revealin' it was Qali! That's classic etectives intuition! Y'all can't even teach th-

Vernon: MY Pup is NOT going to be a DETECTIVE, er a POLICE OFFICER! GOT THAT!? She's my little princess, and that's all. T-This cop stuff is just a phase is all...

Dorian: I'd say the princess stuff is a phase Vern. Y'all can't exactly grow up to be a career princess, but with a mind as sharp as that, at her age? She-.

Vernon: Then she can be a scientist! Er' a mathmatician' er' somethin'!

Dorian: Vernon...y'all don't by any chance remember what my Pa did to me, do ya?

Audrey: Or what yer Pa did to you?

Dorian: Y-yeah...

Vernon: *Whining* B-but I know she don't wanna be a cop! I know it's just a phase!

Audrey: But if she does, are y'all gonna do the right thang? Or will y'all be a stubborn as yer ol' Pa?

Dorian: HEY! I...I mean I got over it...

Audrey: Mhh-Hmm...

Dorian: Eventually!

Audrey: About twenty years too late.

Dorian: It'd be 'too late' if we hadn't mended thangs!

Audrey: Look, Puppy, I just want y'all to be careful. I don't want y'all stiflin' the pup's dreams because yer scared, or y'all had a bad experience. Y'all need to be understanding, and accept what Lily wants to do with her life when the time comes. If she wants to be a cop, tryin' to push her away from it'll only push her away from you.

Vernon: I KNOW! L-Look...If...and this is a big ol' if, she decides she...wants...to...maybe be a police officer....when she's eighteen. I'll...I...I will try to support her...As long as the rest of y'all ain't pushin' her into it!

Dorian: What're we gonna do?

Vernon: Keep brainwashin' her like y'all are already!

Dorian: Brainwashin'!? Y'all sound nuttier than yer lil' brother! I'll have y'all know...

Vernon and Dorian: *Bickering Continues*

Audrey: Y'all Hunter boys, always so damn stubborn...*Chuckles* At least I know Dawn will be around to keep y'all in check...

Ask Dawn and Vern; Experiments on Mammalkind

 

Vernon: No trouble at all, in fact it's encouraged...

Dawn: Joking aside...is this a serious question? Honestly? If so, I think you can probably guess what most of Animalia's nations have to say about that sort of thing. Probably several densely worded legal documents in fact, peppered with words like 'un-mammalian', 'war crimes', and 'death penalty'.

Vernon: Yeah, aside from what Ully might tell ya, that sort of stuff has been very, very illegal since after the great rodent migration in the late 1940's to early 50's, after all them horror stories and documents came out about what certain nations did to solve their perceived 'rodent problem'. There's still sanctions placed on some of them places to this day.

Dawn: Maybe if you lived in a really bad third world country you could get away with that...or were a super-villian with your own private island in international waters to perform such experiments on.

Val: She probably knows what she's talking about, as an ex-super villian and all...

Vernon: HEY! VAL!?

Dawn: Who LET you in the house!?

Val: I copied your Mom's spare key. Y'know, in case I needed it...

Vernon: To steal out of our fridge again?

Val: Well, what's a few cold pizza slices and Mountain Dog's between family, eh sis?

Dawn: I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!

 

Gus: Amplify. *shakes head* definitely amplify.

Vernon: Yeah, them two seem to draw out the worst aspects of one another when set in the same room.

Gus: I always took Ulric for a harmless goof, right?

Vernon: He is.

Gus: I know, but when he had the three of us up on the school's roof that night, I mean...I was already nervous. It was the most drastic thing he'd ever done. So I was...less certain I had him pegged right. But Joel being Joel...he just couldn't keep his mouth shut.

Broomie: Joel started egging him on, and playing into his delusions and just...amping him up to the point where he was raving like a mad dog.

Gus: Started raving? He was raving like a mad dog when he got us up there.

Broomie: Okay, fine. A madder dog then.

Gus: I remember when Joel started egging him to throw him off the roof. Remember that Broomie?

Broomie: How could I forget? Sweet Sawgrass...He was daring him. Telling him he wouldn't do it. Even called him a pussy.

Vernon: Didn't y'all tell me that Joel said once Ully threw him, he'd fly? Somethin' like that?

Gus: Apparently the type of alien your brother thought he was could fly somehow? Something about fake wool hiding air sacks in his neck? It was hard to understand, by that point Joel had him worked up to the point where all his words were bleeding together. But Joel said that once he flew back up, he would melt Ulric's brain with his laser vision.

Vernon:*Shakes Head* Lamb Sakes...

Gus: *Chuckles* Lamb Sakes?

Vernon: Sorry, the misses vocabulary is startin' to bleed into mine. *Chuckles*

Broomie: At least you had the brilliant idea of convincing Ulric to chloroform Joel again. For his own protection of course...I was too busy freaking out to manage to keep my cool like that.

Gus: Yeah, Joel still act like that was some sort of great betrayl on my part. *Snorts* It's like 'Dude, you were toying with a mentally unstable persons already fragile psyche!” It's like, did he want him to kill us?

Vernon: Ully would never do that.

Gus: Under normal circumstances, sure. But... I mean you didn't see the look in his eyes that night Vern. While Joel was teasing him. There was a moment there...I was sure we were going off the roof, one after the other.

Vernon:...Have I mentioned lately how grateful my family was that y'all didn't press charges?

Gus: Not enough times.

Ask Dawn; South Ursa Relations

 

Dawn: Generally speaking, Zootopia relation with the rest of the world powers are....well they are more positive than negative. There has always been a bit more tension between us, and Grussia, or us and Mainland Panda, but that has largely been a bleed over from the North Mammalian Nations own relationship with those countries. Granted, I am aware my book has only...furthered such tensions. I know for a fact it was banned in Panda and Grrussian, as well as numerous Northern Afrikat and South Mammalian countries for promoting a 'deviant lifestyle.' You've said it yourself, a great deal of the...less western Animalian aligned countries are...to them interspecies relationships are a symptom of social decay. Of course, that sort of accusation has been levied at Zootopia more than once for significantly lesser 'social' crimes.

In terms of my book, well, it's more of a....its largely in it's own bottle. I'm not the Assistant Mayor or Mayor anymore, merely a citizen. So in terms of my book souring relations between Zootopia and other countries anymore than they already were, the impact was minimal. Zootopia has largely had a decent relationship with the nations of South Ursa, and Singapurr, and I don't see that being severely strained due to my works. Although I know my book is pointed to by some as yet more proof at how immoral the 'Zootopian' way of life is. But as I said, it was merely something to add to the list some mammals were already keeping as to why Zootopia was a bad place. It wasn't going to change the hearts of mammals with that sort of outlook on the city at large.

I'm glad to hear there has been little protest in your area due to my book, and I do hope your country does move forward with providing benefits to mixed species families. While I don't know if you are in an interspecies relationship yourself, I can imagine you will at least agree that those of us in such relationships aren't hurting anyone. We just love who we love, and all we want is to be allowed that. I personally believe marriage, tithing, whatever name anyone else myight have for it, between two consenting mammals is an Animalian right, and I hope as the years go on, more countries will arrive at the same conclusion.

Ask Dawn; Zootopia Census Follow-up

 

Dawn: Right, right, Little Rodentia. I did inadvertently include Rodentia's population as part of Savannah Central's total. I apologize for that. It's a bad habit I picked up from my time working under Leodore. He would always forget about Little Rodentia as he didn't really consider it a 'real' district behind closed doors, and since I couldn't...well he wouldn't accept my corrections, so it eventually just became easier to tell him what he wanted to hear. Anyway, so...right. Little Rodentia makes up a whopping 1.5million of the residents of Savannah Central. Not counting them leaves the population at 5.5 million in Savannah Square.

As for the islands, such as Animalia's World Fair and Outback Island, as I said the population is negligible. We're talking 1-5,000 in terms of Animalia's world fair, and maybe less that 20,000 mammals living on Outback Island, if you count inmates and employees, as it's only real purpose is to house a prison. So both of those population measures, while notable, are comparatively small.

 Oh, and Animalia Fair Island is sort of hard to explain. It's an amusement park, as well as an international market and presentation space. You can get food and goods from all over Animalia there, which is why they call it 'The Animalia Fair'. It's also home to the yearly Animalian Science and Technology Expo, where they show off all sorts of inventions and cutting edge technology from all over Animalia. The first Expo ever in Zootopia was actually where they first demonstrated the rudimentary framework for what would become our City's greatest technological marvel, the climate control systems. Thus, it made the Expo a landmark in and of itself, and put Zootopia on the map in terms of being considered 'ahead of the curve' technology wise.

Ask Beth; Lance in the Bedroom