Meadow Skyson was sitting at her dining room table, pouring over her notes trying to make sense of things. They had wrapped up session three today and even though she got a lot of information about Dawn's time in school and her tenure under Lionheart, she still hadn't found that key point yet. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her paw as she pressed play on her recorder and just listened to the previous back and forth, following at best she could with her own notes, hoping to see what is missing.
Earlier...Session 3
"So, now that we kinda got family out of the way Dawn, why don't we talk about school?" Meadow pulled out her notebook and pen, "And don't hold anything back." She smirked firmly.
Dawn sighed before taking a sip of tea, relishing in the flavor knowing she would get this after a few more weeks, "Well, elementary school wasn't to terrible, we were all about the same size and all scared because school was new to us so nothing really to report there. I made a few friends pretty quickly with a few students, mostly prey but there was a predator in the mix as well. I did my work, got along with the teachers, and generally had lots of fun."
"Was that where you thought about being a teacher?"
"Yea kinda, there was this one teacher that helped this one kit that had a problem learning math, so she took him aside late and helped him out and he actually was better at math later on than I was. The proud look on her face that she helped a student exceed expectations was amazing to see, and I kinda thought that...that could be me." Dawn's smile faltered a bit, "Life at home was rough at times, but school was like a little escape."
"Interesting...and makes sense. Lots of young kits see something like that early on in life and decide to pursue it. One of my other clients loved watching a simple seed turn into a plant and the effects of which made food, so they became a farmer."
"Wow, why did they need..."
Meadow cut her off curtly but softly, "Sorry but that's patient/doctor confidentiality Dawn...the most I can say is that they were having a little 'hiccup' in their life."
Dawn's face fell, her ears flopping down, "Sorry, wasn't thinking."
"It's fine, you wouldn't believe how many forget the little things." She waved it off with a smile, "Anyway, so elementary went OK, how about middle school?"
Dawn sighed, letting it all come back into, "Well, that was rougher. At the start it wasn't bad, since we still were roughly the same, but after a while...some got taller, some got bigger, started to grow from their awkward kit stage. But not little me, not only was I a runt, but I was also a bit of a late bloomer, I was still tiny until the last year of middle school. Plus this was when the groups and cliques were forming, if you weren't in one...you weren't anybody. Oh and to top it off, some kits, mostly predator kits, started to realize either from their parents exactly WHO I was so they started in on me. If it wasn't them, it was the prey kits that assumed that I thought I was better than them just because of my dad's name. So... as you can imagine, I was a loner of sorts."
"So no friends? At all?" Meadow scribbled into her notepad.
"Well...I wouldn't say that, I had a few here and there. A girl from the preps was nice to me since we were both runts, and even though she grew out of it, she treated me OK since she knew my pain...and convinced a few other of the preppy ones to cut me some slack. My neighbor was a jock and he sucked bad at history so I helped him out to stay on the team...little stuff, but I never joined a group, was too focused on keeping my head down to avoid fights."
"Fights?" Meadow paused tilting her head, trying to imagine a smaller version of this ewe in front of her fighting. If she wasn't careful, she might've laughed at the idea, "Were ya a little Mike Byson or George Foremam?" She smirk trying to keep the mood light and Dawn at ease.
Dawn giggled, setting her tea down to avoid slipping it, "No no, but some of the kits HATED my father. Mostly predators, again, because of my father. Once a few of them found out what some of the things my dad did to secretly reign in predators, they bullied me even worse. Filling locker with spoiled food, ripping my schoolbag open, hiding books...later on they even escalated to spiting on me or shoving me into lockers."
"Didn't you alert school teachers to this?"
Dawn looked down, "No..I...didn't want anymore issue. If I got them in trouble...they would just come at me harder. That's why they started spitting on me and stuff. I just put my head down and let it fester. Never even told my mom. My oldest brother, who was just graduating college as I entered seventh grade... somehow figured it out. He mentioned it to me one day, but he never told dad about it, said I deserve whatever I get."
"For being a runt and being the 'even' number?"
Dawn nodded. She opened her mouth to say something but clammed up, instead going straight into high school talking about how it started out somehow worse than middle school, even though she finally started growing and filling out nearly to where she is now. The bullying still got worse and more creative..mostly by predators, until it peaked during her second year, before it dropped off as things changed. Planning for the future, dating, prepping for college...things seemed to start going good. Meadow noticed a pained look on the ewe's muzzle as she spoke about senior year, like she was hiding or avoiding something. She ignored it as Dawn went into college, talking about keeping her father happy by taking courses in politics and business, while minoring in teaching. Her logic was, as she explained to her dad, was that she wasn't always going to be able to be in office, so she needed a fallback plan in case she didn't win office. Her father reluctantly agreed, and Dawn took dual courses, putting full effort into her minor, but keeping her grades high in both to avoid a blowout with her dad. She was still bullied and picked on, by both pred and prey students, mainly due to her being so small and a few hearing about her dad, but also due to the fact she started to act a bit smug, in part to her high grades and finally standing up for herself by flinging insults to a few preds that tried to put her down. Meadow circled this in her notes, Dawn seemed to have a personality shift for an unknown reason prior to college, something that wasn't there before. It might have had something to due with her high school life, and whatever she avoided. Dawn also talked about meeting her co-conspirator Doug Ramses in college.
"And how'd that go?" The good doctor asked as she made notes, especially of Dawn's unusual expression.
"Horribly, at first it was OK, but then all the little red flags started popping up. He's talk about how dangerous preds were, how they need to be not just reigned in, but controlled and restricted to a near disgusting degree." She paused as she shook her head, "I broke it off and went home early, he told me once I change my mind to give him a ring...I..I wish I would've never went back to him now that I think about it."
"And...just curious Dawn, what is it you wanted?"
"Nothing, I just...had a lot of issues with preds bullying not only me but other prey mammals...I just wanted to...i don't know...I guess I just wanted to show predators that they are not all high and mighty just because they have claws and sharp teeth." Dawn shrugged. Meadow circled this note in her book, noticing her expression was honest and sincere. They continued to talk about classes, and turns out they had a few similar teachers, having gone to the same college, although a few years apart. In the end however, Dawn walked out of university with two degrees and top of her classes, which is what fast tracked her to running for office after her father passed away from health reasons not a month after she walked across the stage.
Her grief was short lived, shedding only a few tears for the ram, before picking up where he left off by being talked into politics by her fathers political manager, putting her plans of teaching on hold. Meadow decided here was a good stopping point, so they could talk about politics in the next meeting, which was drawing close to ending unless she could find 'that moment'.
The session ended, Meadow packing up and bidding the ewe farewell as she was escorted, roughly as usual, back to her cell to wait until the next week.
Present...
Meadow glanced to the circle portion of her notes. The personality shift...there was a reason for it...there had to be. She reached over and grabbed another folder, this one much older, and opened it, letting Dawn's school record speak to her. She let her blue eyes roam over the sheets of paper, noticing a pattern. Her grades where steady for a bit, maybe one class being low from possibly struggling in a certain subject, social studies...when it began spiking up and plateauing in late middle school, almost like she suddenly got better in said subject. She noted this in her notebook to ask about, especially when in late high school senior year about halfway through, her entire grades dropped. Not enough to fail her or cause issues with college, but enough to be noticed on paper. There was also a few reports about her from the school councilor, remarking a drastic increase in depression and aggression. But nothing else came from it, no meds, no doctor recommendations, nothing. This line up perfectly with her own notes on the ewe's sudden mood shift in college, bashing predators that bullied her. Her eyebrow cocked as she noticed another pattern with this, making another note to try to bring it up next week. The sound of the back door opening signaled to her that her boyfriend was home, she leaned back into her chair as the sound of light paws padded across behind her, two white furred arms wrapping around her chest in a tight hug.
A whistle filled her ears as her boyfriend looked over her shoulder, "Looks like a mess Hun."
"Yep...but I'm getting close Howie, just one more day." She leaned back into the forms hug as a kiss was felt on the back of her neck, spreading warmth throughout her petite frame.
Session 4
The next week found Dawn sitting across from Meadow, who look flustered as she went about getting things set up. The arctic vixen entered the room just seconds prior to Dawn, running late for the first time and, well, Dawn could tell from the messed up fur and slight...scents, that the reason for being late was intimate in nature. There was something off about the scent though, the scent of vixen was subtle and faint, but the other scent was...different. She shook her head, it wasn't her place to ask, or even think about her therapist in that area, none of her business. After finally getting her stuff situated, she plopped into her own chair and gave a subtle sniff, looking suddenly very embarrassed and, for a second, Dawn swore she saw her turn red unto her white fur, her pointed ears pinned back in near shame.
"Sorry bout that Dawn, my boyfriend got 'extra' frisky last night AND this morning, I thought I had musk mask in my purse but it must've fell out..this is so unprofessional of me."
Dawn smiled warmly at the fox, "Don't worry about it, we've all been caught in some way." Meadow noticed her smile faltered for a split second, but ignored it for now, she planned on circling back later.
"Thanks Dawn, now...lets chat about your political career. You said you ran for council?"
"Ha more like got convinced to run...my older brother said it was my duty to continue dad's legacy. I won by a landslide though, so I had no choice. Didn't take long to see what my dad was doing...all those back door policies to hinder predators, it was terrible."
"Did you ever try to undo or lessen them?"
Dawn looked away ashamed, "At first, but then all those predator rights groups started in on me...heckling and calling me names, accusing me of rigging the system to win against the predator nomination, sleeping my way to get in office...etc etc. It brought back a lot of ….well a lot of things. So...I kept dad's laws intact...and even added one of my own, albeit quite embellished to the point that preds had no idea what happened." The smile on the ewe's muzzle was disturbing to say the least, "I wrote a small law that said that a business cant turn an employee away based on mammal class, as long as said mammal size is not equal to or one stage larger than current employees class."
Meadow sat there for a moment, until it clicked, her voice cracked slightly at how sad it made her, and reminded her of her own struggles, "So...since most of the meadowlands were prey...a wolf couldn't work if ANY workers were smaller..."
Dawn sighed, suddenly looking defeated, "Yea...I..I just don't know why I did that...I guess I am like my dad." She paused, taking a drink of tea before going on, "That's how I got on Lionheart's radar, he thought it was going to help preds, but he never saw the fine print. He invited me to a public lunch where he laid out his platform. A predator and prey, running together as equals, a stage of equality amongst pred and prey. It was a nice notion...but considering the last predator mayor Zootopia had nearly bankrupted the city trying to undo Bullson's more speciest laws to fast, I had very little hope he would succeed. But I figured that this would ruin my political career and I could return home to teach so...I took the plunge. I never paid much attention, but turns out he was running for RE-election, and he had done so much good for the city, but it still needed more." Dawn sat straighter in her chair, "My surprise when I found that my running along side him worked well, helping him win by a long shot, not just a narrow margin like his last term."
"So how'd it go at first.?" Meadow asked as she leaned back into her chair, getting more comfy, trying to ignore the subtle scent of 'fun' she still smelled of.
"At first...it was great, we would go to rallies together and build up political energy for getting laws and policies changed, we would collaborate on ideas for new laws, tackle the budget together to avoid any mess ups. I was actually the assistant mayor of Zootopia, and it showed." Dawn's smile fell fast as she started talking about things going wrong. More and more Lionheart started to treat her like a personal assistant, having her pick up clothes from dry cleaners, fetch paperwork, take his place as protests and rallies (including a skunk rally, who's member where still upset by Bullson's decade previous mandatory 'descenting'). She then went into him bumping into her, knocking her over, taking credit for her work. As things got harsher from the mayoral feline, the more angry and resentful Dawn got, until it all came to a head one night she said, her own expressions and body getting more animated as she ranted, the ewe now pacing across the room as Meadow sat taking notes, being silent as she could, letting the sheep vent.
"I was sick, had the flu and was out for the count. Well, that and also SUPER pissed that he took all the credit for the Mammal Inclusion Act the week prior, even though he stole it from MY idea journal. Well, he call me into work, under threat of having to go the union meeting next month at the sewage plant,which I still was made to go anyway. So I got almost high on cold meds, and trudged into the office, where he quickly patted me on the head, gave me the address and shoved me out the door. Turns out, he had to meet up with a few donators, took them golfing...while I, a freaking SHEEP, was going to the Feline Association Meeting."
"The yearly meeting of big cat species to talk about how to uphold feline law and make changes?"
"Yep, and as soon as I walked in...they all started to laugh at me. Saying things in my direction In different tongues...I assumed some ancient felid. Finally I had enough and yelled out 'WHAT?' This snow leopardess walks over and kneels in front of me. She asked if was sick, to which I said 'yes...why?' She reached up, touched my wool on the top of my head, and when she pulled her paw back it was covered in his white thick fluid. She gave me this...look and I knew..KNEW what it was."
Meadow looked disgusted, she had never heard of any male doing that, especially to a coworker, "He didn't!"
"Oh yes...jerked off while I was on my way to the office and smeared it all in my wool. I huffed and left, all those damn preds laughing at me, taunting me...I just snapped." Dawn paused to breathe, jumping back up to the chair after her tirade, "I got home and called Doug...and told him Id listen."
"And..how did that go?"
"Well, at first he said he found something...a natural compound that reacts in the brain to alter the chemistry. He was using it to test cure for migraines, memory problems, or even behavioral issues, But with the right additives, it had a unique reaction."
"Going savage?" Meadow almost whispered.
Dawn nodded, "Doug said it temporarily shut down the connection between the hippo-campus while greatly increasing aggression and feral like tendencies. At first I didn't know what he meant, until I realized this could be used to do what I wanted...which was show prey just how dangerous preds can be."
"That's it? Just scare prey?"
"Well, mainly scare predators, show them how dangerous they could be and were to prey species. A lion coughs and flings paw, and a deer gets sliced open. A wolf get arrested and tries to resist and accidentally bites someone on the neck. Predators are sometimes bigger, stronger and have natural ways to hurt or kill by accident."
"But a rhino can gore someone with their horn if they trip, a white tail buck can do the same, or a ram with their horns or any horned prey, what about if an elephant falls over?"
"I know, but at the time...it sounded right to me." Dawn shrugged, looking shameful once again, " Well, at first it was going good, until his true colors showed through, he was planning a genocide."
"What? What was he wanting to do?"
"You name it. Mandatory feline declawing, teeth filing, curfews, shock collars...the worse was sterilization of predators after they had one kid. I fought him hard on it, insisting we take it slow. We did at first, making sure to target one maybe two preds a month, none of them married and always in areas with little to no other mammals. But then he started to get impatient, wanting to go after bigger targets, make a bigger impact. I tried to stall him by telling Jesse and Woolter bad advice or the wrong target, but he caught on...and he...threatened me."
"How?" Meadow leaned forward and held Dawn's hoof as the ewe started to sob.
"He told me If I didn't start doing more on the politics side to restrict preds and stop hindering HIS plans...He would set off a Night-howler bomb at a school, that would make an impact he said."
"By Vulpea...was he serious?"
Dawn started to cry, "He seemed to be telling the truth so I had no choice. Emmett Otterton was the first...and seeing his wife beg for help nearly broke me. I managed to get Jesse to help me stall, turns out he has a daughter In school and it got him worried, so he would do what he needed to. It was sheer luck though that Lionheart did what he did, not knowing I was involved...the rest is public knowledge by this point."
"So...you just wanted to scare prey into being more afraid of preds...and scare preds into being more aware of how dangerous they can be...but Doug was the one wanting power and control."
Dawn nodded, wiping her tears. Meadow got out of her chair and pulled the ewe into a hug. They broke as they saw time was up, "Well, times flew by Dawn. I'm going to take this information to Bogo, see if we cant use this to get Doug a more severe sentence." Dawn smiled at the vixen as Meadow cleaned up her stuff, the feeling of something still hidden nagging at the fox. Dawn was escorted to her cell, a bit lighter on the shoulder than before. Her new cell mate already asleep, so she was unsure of her species, although from the size of the lump on the top bunk, she was a large mammal.
Later that night, Meadow lay on the couch, her hind-paws in her boyfriends lap as they went over her notes again, not seeing what she was missing, the odd area in school still standing out. It wasn't until his deep voice called her attention, "Did she ever mention a lover or boyfriend?"
Meadow looked to her mate, a slim white hare sitting at the end of the couch, massaging her paw while reading. He turned to face her, his distinctive black cheek stripes boldly showing in the light.
"Um no...why Howie?"
"Well, everyone in school has a crush or someone they fall in love with, whether on purpose or hidden." He closed the folder, "Maybe someone really hurt her, broke her heart?"
Meadow's face lit up, she jumped up from laying and tackled her jackrabbit boyfriend, pinning him to the couch before kissing him, her predatory mouth locked with his prey one. She broke the kiss and looked deep into his hazel orbs, "Oh Howard Jensen you are a genius."
She hopped up and made a note in her folder to ask Dawn about this next week...which could possibly be the last session before her trial.
