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EERERERER, yo what's up. Inclined to T.A.M.E. is an original story [sarcasm], therefore it is good,[/sarcasm] that I came up with thanks to the wonderful people of /r/Zootopia.

30 Days Before Elections

I was just getting off from another terrible council meeting. Juggling between the 50 hour work weeks and the campaign has been driving me to drink. I went over to a pay phone and pushed .15 bucks into the slot dialing 345-3112, my campaign manager.

"YAH, HELLO?!" an agitated oryx yelled into the phone.

"It's Leo."

"Oh, sorry, should of known... so how was work session?"

"Same as usual, Swinton was being a serious wank today, god only knows what's on her mind."

"Something gives me the feeling that she's going to come out in support of Bellwether sooner or later."

"Of course, why would anyone question that, Tyke. A prey is going to support another prey. We'll be lucky to even get a single vote from the prey... I'm not so sure about this campaign."

"CHEESE AND CRACKERS LEO HOW MANY TIMES..." Tyke was quiet for a while, "Look, you've seen the polls, we have a chance at this, okay we may only be around 46% but come on we can't stop now."

I put my fist on the wall whispering into the phone, "What if the extortions become public Tyke, we'll be done for after that."

"Don't worry Leo, I-" The phone cut off.

I scrambled to get more change, every phone was occupied. A short line of mammals developed waiting to make phone calls. I looked around as the phone began to ring, hoping they wouldn't get too agitated by my long call.

"God, you're too cheap, it won't hurt you to put .25 bucks in you know."

"Oh, shut up. What were you just saying?"

"LEO, LISTEN TO ME. You know I've done this before. You're getting too paranoid about this."

"Oh you would know."

He breathed heavily into the phone, "You just need to chill, take a day off at least. Don't you, uh, have a partner or something?"

"Now you know I have no time for that crap."

"Oh well okay then... J-just go out and drink or something, BUT HEY, DON'T GET TOO DRUNK, YOU HEAR ME. The last person I was running with went a little too far about every other night."

"Let me guess he was a disaster."

"HE WAS DRUNK, AT ONE OF HIS DEBATES. I was SO READY to quit."

"Don't worry I won't let you down. Well uh, I gotta go. I might go around in some prey neighborhoods tonight. Make some public appearances. Hopefully nothing goes as bad as yesterday."

"Right, yah. Don't get yourself in trouble..."

"Okay bye." I stepped away from the phone, a recognizable sheep was right behind me. The sheep was often on committees relating to city development. She wore a suit, and had heavily trimmed fur all around her body. She, in my opinion was pretty intelligent, others in council didn't think so, but her ideologies matched mine when it came to a lot of things.

"Councilmember Lionheart, how are you today?"

"Oh I've been better..."

"Say, are you doing anything tonight, I'd love to go out for something fun."

"I'm going out for some business tonight, you know, campaigning."

"Oh! Y-you wouldn't mind, if I..."

"Oh, uh, n-no certainly not, I'm going into some prey neighborhoods... I could use a, how do I say it-"

"Friendlier face?" She looked at me with a big smirk.

"Ah, yes... A friendlier face..." I slightly frowned.

"What neighborhoods were you planning on going to?"

"I'm not quite sure, I thought about some around downtown... I've sort of been ignoring it, we've been trying hard to pound the other districts. That's where my worst numbers are. Last night didn't go too well, we might have provoked a protest or something, I couldn't tell. Probably were pro-segregationists, they must not like the idea of a predator running for mayor."

"You want me to be honest with you? Come on let's step over to there." Pointing to a lounge area.

I hesitated, "Oh uh, didn't you have a call to make?"

"Oh no no, It wasn't important. Come, come!" We walked over to a bench and sat down. "Look I don't know how sensitive you are about the tame collars-"

"OH NO, it's uh no big deal... Just a daily thing, you know."

"Well, its something that a lot of prey believe and something that I used to subscribe to..." She paused for a while, I almost said something but she finally blurted it out. "I think a lot prey have the idea that you want to, um, get rid of the shock collars, " she looked incredibly worried about my response.

"When did I ever say that? Boy the ignorance of voters these days is just incredible!"

She looked over at me, "W-well it's not just the voters, I-I overheard a conversation between the Mayor and Bellwether after the council adjourned. They, they want to use it in their campaign."

I was infuriated, I wasn't going to let something as silly as this ruin my entire career. We both sat there for a while. The worst thing about it was the fact that a prey was telling my this.

I got up, "I need to go."

"Wait!"

"Alone, I'm sorry, this is important."

日

Opening the door, it was still bright outside, I had to tell Tyke about this. He just wouldn't believe what was happening. I walked down into the plaza towards the subway station. I could never remember where he lived so I always had a note with me with the station I needed to get off at. Green Line inbound was on track one, then I needed to take the Inner Loop to... Trip Street. As I got further down into the station I could hear the departure melody playing. I stood around for a while hoping another was on its way.

A few minutes later an announcement came up 'High speed commuter train passing through, TRACK FIVE, stand behind yellow line.' An express train could be heard down the tunnel nearing the station with its loud alarm tones.

I took a seat as the train passed through, the Savanna Central station was extremely beat up, it hadn't been renovated since the very early 0200s. You know I could really use that for my campaign, 'Let's fix the trains!', well maybe I could come up of something better. Regardless, how did it never bother me before? I took the trains everyday, maybe its just the thing with Bellwether messing with me.

Sooner than expected the announcement for the next train came. The familiar screech echoed off the walls as the train slowed into the station. 'For, TRACK FIVE, this is a GREEN LINE train headed for PEAK STREET, please wait for smaller mammals before entering the train.'

I got on the second car, it was usually the quietest in the whole train, couldn't explain why, it just always was. The train had no seats left and barely had enough room to stand. Even though it was past 18:00 the trains were still packed. The train lurched forwards, it was one of those trains. The worst kind, they made a terrifying, but almost melodic noise when they accelerated, it sounded like you were in a spaceship. As the train sped up the pitch coming from beneath quickly rose in pitch in steps. Eventually the noise slowly subsided away.

After traveling through multiple stations the loud deep announcement came, 'The next station is, PEAK STREET, PEAK STREET, change here for... INNER & OUTER LOOP, RAINFOREST EXPRESS, ZOOTOPIA LOOP, RED LINE, SMALL MAMMAL EXCLUSIVE, TUNDRATOWN EXPRESS, SAHARA EXPRESS, DOWNTOWN LOOP, ORANGE LINE, LOCAL BUS ROUTES 100 THROUGH 145... and, GONDOLA ROUTES 1-4, please hold on, this train is stopping.' It was like hitting a brick wall, the train lurched and a terrible screech could be heard inside the car. As the train got slower the car began to shake. 'Be aware you are not leaning on a door, doors open on both sides... please wait for smaller mammals before exiting the train. This train departs in FIVE minutes.' The announcement about small mammals was always a female voice, probably added on after the Multi-Proportion Rights Act, MPRA for short. As I walked out of the train a barrage of announcements, noises, and talking made the underground station unbearably loud. I looked at my note again, Inner Loop, Trip Street. I looked around for some signs, a large sign pointed down at a tunnel.

Downtown was completely different from Savanna Central. Downtown was the true mix of the entire population, predator and prey, bad and good, rich and poor. Zootopia despite its known utopian qualities, lost most with integration. Many areas became slums, mammals from all over moved to different areas, neighborhoods completely fell apart and downtown was right in the middle of it.

After a decent walk through the tunnel I finally made it into the Inner Loop station. As soon as I started walking down the platform a train began to enter the station. The loop lines had the nice new trains on them. Perfectly built for mammals of all sizes.

I rode down two stations until the announcement came 'The next station is... TRIP STREET... change here for... LOCAL BUS ROUTES 325-A THROUGH C AND 450... please hold on, this train is about to stop.'

The station was oddly slanted downwards, Trip was decently downhill from Peak so the elevation changes in the area were jirastic. As I walked out of the station I looked again at the note. "Okay 35th & Trip he's in 'Orlandria' 34 35th Street #82 just two blocks." Walking from the station the traffic wasn't too heavy. Pedestrians were scattered here and there, completely opposite to the city center.

When I made it to 35th Street, looking up at the street sign the 30 block was to the left. Four buildings down I finally made it to Tyke's building. His building was, let's say, okay. It wasn't the nicest but it was at least 'liveable'. The rooms were pretty sizeable but some mammals in the building were not the greatest. I got to the elevator conveniently already on the first floor and pressed for the eighth. Slowly the elevator made its way up as it rattled and made some concerning noises. #82 was right across from the elevator. I knocked on the door. Tyke was odd when it came to certain things, even the littlest things would pester him.

"WAIT!" he yelled from inside. I just rolled my eyes. The door flung open seconds after he spoke. He looked up, being two feet shorter than me. "LEO... what are you doing here?"

"Is Pronk home? I need to tell you something, big scoop."

"Oh, OHH COME IN! I'm all alone."

We both took a seat, he never bothered asking if you ever wanted anything, he wasn't the type who wanted you comfortable. His apartment was very tidy except for his desk which had his word processor in the center with stacks of paper strewn all over the place. He owned nice furniture despite not living in the nicest place in town. I sat in an easy chair while he lounged in his couch.

"SO what's the big scoop that Mr. Leo Lion's got on his mind?!"

"Well, its not the greatest of news."

"AHH! I knew you were tricking me, I shouldn't of let you in!"

"Ha, well I'm sure you're dying to know. So I talked to a sheep who's on city development."

"Don't know her, so, why's sheep relevant?"

"Well, she overheard a conversation between Swinton and Bellwether."

"DID SHE REALLY? Let's buy her some coffee and-"

"It's bad news, really."

"Ah yes, that. So what's going on?"

"Well its obvious they're working together."

"Bah I fucking hate the incumbents, they always make it more difficult."

"That's not it."

"Oh?"

"Well... um it's about the tame collars."

"Shit. Now... Leo, you know I'm... for anything you believe about them, d-don't get me wrong, just because I'm, y-you know, doesn't mean I'm afraid of a Zootopia without collars..."

"That's not the point, those bastards are trying to smear me! They want to make it seem like I want collars gone for good in my campaign."

"THOSE BASTARDS. FUCK. HOW DID I KNOW THEY'D PULL SOMETHING LIKE THAT!" I kind of cringed at him screaming at such a high volume, his neighbors must have really liked him.

"I think we're done for with this."

"LEO, do I need to fucking knock you out."

"Okay, sorry SORRY! I'm just getting a little emotional about this, my whole life is leading up to this and the fucking collars have to get in the way of it all over again!"

"Careful, yellow alert."

I sighed.

"Look, Leo. There's nothing we can do about this, the prey in this city are gullible, I'm sure some will come to your defense but most of them were already going to vote for Bellwether even before we got enough campaign contributions. She's been At-Large for years, hell even close to being Assistant Mayor if she hadn't of ran with that fool."

"Maybe it won't be so bad, I'm just worried about all the preds... What if some believe that bullshit, we'll get some angry mammals in our very base support."

"Oh god, yah. They get sensitive over that kind of stuff, god I feel so sorry for some of you guys, like you'd love to lose of the collars but in return it would just make everything so much more worse. I couldn't even imagine the psychological effects on preds if the collars were suddenly banned. Cheese and crackers, I couldn't even imagine the fight that the prey would put up. There would be SO much money behind it, even if you were publicly for it after you got into office, there would be absolutely NO way it could pass."

"I never thought of what it would be like without collars, I mean I accept them and all. It's just a condition of desegregation. I would much rather bound by this collar than be segregated. I would have never met you Tyke! I mean we're too young to remember it but my parents used to tell me prey were so much worse to preds back when the city first integrated. It's cooled down but if this get's into the public eye, it could make it just like it was."

"Man, I'm just thinking of the possibilities, Swinton definitely is in on this. SHE'S CRAZY! She just loves all of this drama. 'GET THE SCOOP, LEODORE LIONHEART SCANDAL, HE WANT'S COLLARS GONE, PREY FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES' She'll get so much response from it. Oh it's going to happen. Yeah I already see it. I know it, she'll announce it probably in a campaign ad, probably on TV. She might start on the Public Access, but ZNN might pick it up early. Hold on..." He reached for his desk phone and dialed a number quickly.

"MANNY! HEY IT'S NYLE. Yah... Hey, I'm wondering if you could do me a favor... I need you to watch for Bellwether ad requests... Probably on either Public Access or ZNN... Yeah... Whichever gets filed first... First you find it make sure you record it on the first screening... NO NO, I'll come over, don't you come over here... It's way too far for you to travel... Okay, thanks... Bye!" He threw the cordless phone across the room in another chair. "WE'RE IN GOOD HANDS LEO!"

"I thought you went by Tyke to everyone."

"There's a few people that I still go by Nyle. They're nostalgic of the good old days."

"I wouldn't of exactly of called them 'good'."

"AH! You don't know what you're talking about, it was fun back then, but I needed to stop, I would of been arrested if I went on any longer. What I do now is petty," he said with a big smile on his face.

"Oh you're too harsh on yourself."

"Okay well it's getting late, FRIDAY NIGHT! You need to go take a break tomorrow and do absolutely nothing and I MEAN IT!"

He got up and went towards the door.

"I couldn't have thanked you enough Tyke. You're the best. You wouldn't want to be in my administration?"

"OH GOD NO. I'd kill myself if I worked at city hall."

"Oh come on, nothing in finances?"

"You're pestering me, see you soon Leo. OH, before you go, I don't want to hear a single word from you tomorrow. YOU HEAR ME! I will call you on Sunday, early morning." Before I had a chance to say anything he closed the door behind me.

Great early morning meant around 6am, Tyke liked to start early and when he was up he was ready for everyone else to start working. I stepped over to the elevator and waited for it to slowly come up. As the bell rang for the door I heard a loud crash and muffled screaming from inside his apartment, "FUCK YOU BELLWETHER, FUCKING SHEEP SCUM." I quickly jumped into the elevator. He must have been angier about than this than I originally anticipated, usually he was great at hiding his emotions but there were a few that he just let flow free. The elevator slowly creaked down making a few bangs on its way. As I stepped out it was getting darker outside as the golden light from the sunset came through the front door.

日

I was somewhat far from my house so I needed to take the Inner Loop to the other side of downtown. Herd Street, where I live, is probably the nicest part of downtown. My family has owned a couple apartments and has rented to animals of all size, it was all we had. Getting mortgages as a predator was near impossible, most rented instead. We didn't exclusively rent to predators, but it seemed that every time a prey was interested the fact that their landlord was a predator always ended the deal. Our area was decently integrated mostly between larger prey animals and common predators. The area was originally a mistakenly plotted as a predator area as an 'addition' to Happy Town; however, urban planners accidentally plotted the wrong wrong blocks, almost 10 total blocks from the edge of Happy Town, one of the largest predator communities in all of Zootopia. Even to this day, almost 50 years after forced integration, it still had a 95% predator demographic.

Most of my friends from high school still lived in Happy Town, they could never dream of leaving because of the expense. It was unfortunate that they were stuck, a few became well off serving the community opening businesses but even they couldn't of dreamt leaving. Predators did feel an attachment to Happy Town for some reason, before integration, even moving between predator communities was difficult, a mess of paperwork and advising to make sure predators didn't somehow move into a prey community. After integration predators rapidly began moving to different predator communities, specifically Happy Town. The population there surged 90% between census records in 0180. Today Happy Town is very densely populated with a rich amount of historic buildings dating back to early Zootopia.

Maybe I ought to go to Crossings. One of my favorite bars, it was in the heart of Happy Town, an absolutely vile establishment but its where we've hung out since I was 19. I got on the Inner Loop once again and rode out to Central Happy Town, passing my stop for home, I'd have to take a night bus home. I walked down Guy Ezelle Blvd., the main street. Happy Town was well known for its nightlife, predators and prey came from all over Zootopia to have a party like no other every night, especially Friday nights. Music filled the street, rock, electronic, pop, jazz, anything you could think of. Mammals were desperate to make a Buck and they would try anything. Illegal bars and clubs were all over Happy Town despite the heavy police presence in the area. Entertainment was a prime commodity here, if you had talent bars would pay big money to have you come down for the night.

When I got there I walked into the dimly lit bar, it might of been darker inside of here than it was outside. Smoke filled the air, silhouettes of predators ears could be seen on the walls coming around the corner inside the main room. There was no doubt I'd see someone I knew in here. I looked around when my eyes spotted a very familiar pair of ears on top of a well made suit. I came up from behind and pulled the ear of the fox making him wince, it was my good friend John Wilde.

He looked up quickly, "OH MY GOD! Well if it isn't the Mayor of Zootopia."

"Oh you kid! How's my man?"

"Oh its going great, you know, I don't know what it is about this time of year, but there is always a huge demand for tailored suits. Must be the weather, still warm but its starting to get cold."

"You know what, I've got this odd feeling! This weather, I'm just itching for a new suit!" We both laughed out loud in the bar, completely muffled by the noise of everything else.

"Well, I got this new fabric in two days ago, right up your alley. You ought to come by if you're not too busy with the campaign."

"Actually I got orders from the man to take the day off tomorrow, so consider yourself lucky, I might just be down tomorrow."

"Speaking of the man, how's Tyke doing? Still madder than hell?"

"Oh I know right, he's still the same, just doing less illegal stuff these days... Uh don't tell anyone, just between you and me. He's running a bit of an extortion scheme for the campaign."

"HEY EVERY- HAA I'm just kidding! I'll tell you, I'm the least bit surprised, there's no way you'd get the donations otherwise. Fucking predators are too afraid to dump their money on someone they know won't win. But you sir are a different breed, what are those polls up to now?"

"Last I heard they were hovering around 46% for us."

"Cheese and crackers, Leo! It's what? A month until elections, this could really happen!"

"That's what I keep hearing."

"Oh come on with something like that there couldn't be a grain of doubt for the fact that you'd win! Is something going wrong?'

I looked at him for a while, his ears dropped, "It's... really awful actually. The other side is wanting to make it look like I want to ban the collars."

"Fuck."

"I think this is the end of the line. I mean Tyke is just going nuts over it acting like our numbers will skyrocket, but he just... He doesn't understand the sentiments that some mammals have about this."

"There possibly couldn't be a way to stop this?'

"Pfft, yeah if I dropped out. Not after this much work. I feel like we're just going to have to battle and hope most take it for a grain of salt.'

We sat in silence for a couple minutes

He interrupted reaching into his pocket, "Hey you want a drink, it's on me, here, take 5 Bucks."

"Thanks," I didn't say anything else, getting up over to the counter.

"How's your date tonight?" A well dressed Jaguar said.

"You're too funny, how about a Sierra Nevada Rabbit Brew."

"It's 2.50 for a cup, 5 Bucks for pint."

"I'll do a pint."

He went over to the draft and yelled back at me, "HEY HOW'S THE CAMPAIGN GOING?"

"OH IT'S GOING GREAT, DID YOU HEAR? THE LAST POLL WAS UP TO 46%."

He flipped around, "YOU'RE KIDDING ME. LEO, THAT'S FUCKING AWESOME..." He screamed at the top of his lungs, "HEY EVERYONE, LET'S WELCOME ZOOTOPIA'S FIRST FUCKIN' PRED MAYOR. THREE CHEERS FOR THE END OF PREY DICTATORSHIP!"

The bar filled with a roar as mammals slammed the tables and yelled as loud as they could. The noise shook the walls. A group of four police officers came running into the bar with their megaphones and guns pointed into the crowd "KEEP IT DOWN FUCKING PREDS, WE DON'T WANT ANY TROUBLE." They inspected the completely silent bar for a solid minute. Three officers flung their lights around everywhere inspecting every single predator in the bar. All four with their arms willing to wield their guns. Most predators became desensitized to police officers because of the constant interaction, but even in scenarios like these being in large crowds still made me uncomfortable.

Just as the door closed I yelled pointing at the door, "AND THAT'S THE FIRST THING I'LL FIX!" Instantly the bar erupted into a roar again, some predators collars went off either from their excitement or from yelling too loudly. I sheepishly looked around hoping the officers wouldn't come back in.

The Jaguar came over with my pint, "It's on the house, FOR FREEDOM!"

I walked back over to where John was, "Way to cause trouble, you're worse than me!." As I sat down he looked at me with a huge grin, "Now you better not be getting yourself in trouble, these guys are depending on you." He laughed punching me in the shoulder.

"I have a feeling they're going to be deeply disappointed in the next coming weeks..."

日

After a long two hours at the bar I decided to go to the bus station, I didn't drink too much, only two pints. The bus station was dimly lit with a few predators waiting on the bright green benches. The transit center was long with a parking garage underneath. Glass bricks lined the walls on the inside of the transit center. After about 10 minutes multiple night buses pulled in. My route went right in front of my house, N190. It pulled in with about 15 other mammals on it. Quickly the station filled with people from all over the city. Mostly degenerate predators were riding at night, either going to their late night jobs or coming late to one of many bars in Happy Town. A few larger prey animals were scattered in the crowds, it was rare to see smaller prey using public transit at night because of the fear of being assaulted by predators and even other prey. It was a huge public safety issue, night buses were the worst. The ZTA had to hire an officer for almost every single night bus by order from city hall in order to make night transit safer for prey.

I stepped into the double decker bus. The lower part was for larger mammals and the upper for smaller. The fare was expensive as hell, 7 Bucks for a ride through two zones. I sat in the bus for another 10 minutes before it departed. As we drove out of Happy Town the bus only stopped twice to let people off. After a couple minutes we turned turned onto Sycamore Avenue, my street. I pulled the bell cord, the bus came to a quick stop as I was getting up. When I got off the only noise outside was the bus pulling away. My building was directly across the street. My family owned the entire building, 'Preston Arms'. Rent was free for family members but I was the only one other than my brother who actually lived in the building.

My apartment, on the first floor, was one of the smallest in the entire building, only around 700 square feet. It was a complete mess. I hadn't been in my apartment for longer than an 8 hour period in the last 2 months because of the campaign. I fiddled with the deadbolt until it unlocked. I stepped into the front room that had an arching hallway towards the main room. I was on the corner of the building so I had windows in every single room. I looked at the clock, it was 01:00. I walked through the hallway through the main room into the kitchen in the back passing my small bedroom on the left. I grabbed a glass and opened the fridge and filled it with water from the water purifier. I took a big swig, I hated being even the slightest bit hungover in the morning. I placed the glass back onto the shelf above the sink. Everything in my house was original, built back in 0160 the building was 70 years old.

I slowly walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth trying not to get the toothpaste in my mane. As I spit out the toothpaste and washing my mouth out with water I looked into the mirror. I took a deep breath. God only knows what I've gotten myself into, this might as well be the end of the line.

I struggled to go to sleep, if only tomorrow could be any worse.

Please critique me! I'm a terrible writer.