Chapter 2:
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Together, Jack and Skye settled down at the little conference, the swift fox looking over at the others in attendance. She was drawn the most to a coyote with a red dye mask around his eyes and, hanging off his left ear, a long, red, threaded-string earing that ended in a pair of red feathers. He was a tribe member for certain, and a slight curiosity filled Skye. Maybe she could talk to him afterwards, just for a little bit.
Next to him was a rather content looking skunkette, with a slick head of short white hair. It was a fairly common feature among female skunks, Skye having seen at least one other skunkette with white hair, albeit straight and long, hanging down to her chin level.
Alongside those two were a number of other interspecies pairs. There were some with similar species to each other, such as a goat and a mouflon or a nine banded armadillo paired with a three banded one, but there were also a disproportionate number of more drastically different pairings as well. There was a white wolf who just so happened to glance over at her and Jack and point them out, his tail going into a wagging fit, who sat next to what at first seemed like another canine. However, looking closer at the tan female, Skye noticed a set of distinct stripes on the back of her legs and down her brushless tail, marking her out as a thylacine. The tasmanian tiger and her wolf mate might look similar, but they were about as far apart as one could get without her laying eggs.
A base that the echidna with all his spines dyed red, and the female bat next to him, covered pretty decisively.
That one may have taken the top prize, but there was still stiff competition.
The next-strangest pairing either had to be a white mouse with a white horse mare, or the jaguar sitting next to a giraffe. Other than that, there was a grey fox with a bobcat, a silver fox with a flying fox, a black mountain lion with a white-tailed deer doe, an elephant with a female otter, a bespectacled male brown bear with an orange furred red fox todd (with plastic cups on his ears), a hyena with a red panda, a lion with a hyeness, another grey fox who was with a fennec vixen, a giant panda with an anteater and, last but not least, a wolf with a sheep.
The crowd slowly quietened down, before a well-built kangaroo boomer hopped out, taking up the front stage. Beating the microphone a few times, he smiled and spoke up. "Hello, hello. Welcome everyone to our fluffy little presentation. Before I introduce myself, let me say how happy it is to see so many funky and cute pairings going on. And apologise to any bunnies here who might be offended by that term." Skye noticed a few looks turn Jack's way, but he either didn't notice or wasn't bothered by it, letting a silence fill the room for a second or two before the kangaroo carried on. "Now, before I introduce myself, I'm pretty sure that some of you might know who I am," he said, before looking over to one side of the room. The thylacine, the wolf, the mountain lion, the deer, the silver fox and the flying fox all put their paws up. "Naturally it's the cops, the assistant district attorney, and their marvellous mates who did it! I'm Chief Ramic, of the Outback Island Precinct, and a long-time supporter of inter rights." There was a pause and a smile. "Looking at all of this cute lot, apologies to any bunnies here, who wouldn't be? Am I right?"
There was a light chuckle from the crowd, and Skye looked down at Jack. "You could say you don't mind," she pointed out.
He looked up at her and shrugged. "Or he can keep saying sorry."
Ramic continued. "Regardless, my date couldn't make it tonight to be with me, so I hope you don't get tired of my voice."
"I for one think we'll never tire of it," the coyote said. Murmurs of agreement began to flow from the crowd.
The kangaroo smiled, though he shook his head a bit. "Well… Maybe you won't. In any case, we have a few things to get through. But first here's some quick facts about OWO for any newcomers in the audience; we were founded in areas that still prohibited interspecies marriage or, in some regions, interspecies relationships in general. These areas tended to use the term 'Outsiders', hence the name of our organization. Even today areas like these do exist, and OWO continues to help out, while also supporting our friends in the LGBT+ community, who suffered much lower acceptance than we did." He paused to give a nod to the bear and fox in the crowd, the latter now waving his arms like crazy. "But what about our role here in Zootopia? Well, while we won adoption equality decades ago, we still like to help out those who wish to have adorable little children, so we're the ones to come to if you ever need help going through adoption paperwork, or finding a surrogate or donor. We also continued to support the Honeywell Genetic Counselling Centre, who assist with research into borderline viable hybrids." Skye couldn't help but notice the ears of the fennec vixen droop down sharply, her mate holding her paw, though she stayed quiet.
"-There's also counselling we provide, to those who come out as inter. Just because it's a lot more common than coming out as gay doesn't mean that some mammals don't have issues with it. There's also situations where mammals are disowned by friends and family, and we aim to provide the best support we can in such cases."
Skye felt a sad twinge at that, second paw pain coming to her.
"-We've also helped provide counseling to families at large as well, helping them accept their inter members for who they are," Ramic continued, before looking over to the lion-hyena pair.
The lion nodded and stood up. "I was in a bit of a rough patch with my family when I met my mate, and her being a hyena really didn't help, given some traumatic things that happened to my father in his childhood and a lot of old… -speciesism, to say it bluntly. But OWO helped me bring up the courage to reconnect and helped them change. Today, they accept both Jazzy and me with open paws."
He was met with a round of applause, sitting back down again. "But the serious stuff isn't all we do," the kangaroo said, looking around, a smile growing on his muzzle. "We happen to support fun get togethers like this for a start, happy events where you can have fun and be with other mammals who might be going through the same thing as you. Speaking of which, anyone got any fun inter-errors to help break the ice?"
"Oooh! I do! I do!" the white wolf said, jumping up and down, paw in the air.
"'Course you do, Eliot," Ramic said, just as his mate slapped both her paws into her face.
"Not 'Sipa', not 'Sipa', please not 'Sipa'," she muttered to herself, the white wolf carrying on, blissfully ignorant.
"Well," he began, wagging his tail slightly. "I once bet among a group of friends that I could bare my teeth the most, and that everyone would buy the winner a drink. -And then my little Pumpkin showed us all, won, got very drunk, and I had to carry her home!"
The crowd chuckled a little, the thylacine sighing with relief before standing up. She opened her jaw right up to and then beyond a right angle, a gleeful Eliot showing it off. Another, louder, round of applause came.
Then up came the black mountain lion, pausing as he checked with his mate before speaking up. "I've been in a long relationship with Jeanette here, and we've had the usual fun. However, in our first year, I didn't know she shed her antlers in the winter. Let's just say that, during one romantic evening, I'd been using them as a good grip when next thing you know I was panicking thinking I'd broken her."
A louder round of applause came up, along with the deer doe. "He neglects to mention that he was running around, panicking, at that. Fortunately, it could have been worse. One advantage of dating a feline over a canine is that I'm not dragged along in that. Quite literally."
This one brought a whole round of snickers and laughter, even a loud 'NARF' from the mouse, along with claps and applause. Jack, relaxing back in his seat, snickered a little.
Skye tried not to laugh.
She really tried.
She laughed. "Seriously… Knot jokes?"
"The highest and lowest form of humour…" he said innocently, before pausing. "Hmmm, maybe I could fit one in between…"
He trailed off, just as it was the echidna's turn. "Before being with Rouge here, I was with a wallaby, and picked up a few things I tried to carry along. I spent too long looking for my bat's pouch entrance."
"-Oh I'm so sorry for you," the white wolf said, speaking up. "I can't imagine my love life without snout in pouch actio…"
He was cut off by a slap from his thyalice mate as the silver fox, his flying fox mate draped over his head, spoke. "The first time I flew back to my parents in Poland with Zoe we were shattered from the jet lag, so we got home and went straight to bed."
"Even better," the fruit bat chirped, "his old room had a ceiling fan which I could roost from, so we didn't bother unpacking the portable hanger."
"The downside was when my mother came in the next morning, flicked on the lightswitch, and accidentally the fan switch."
There was a round of laughs and clapping, while the flying fox looked down at him with a cheeky look. "I don't know what they're laughing about. BEST WAKEUP EVER!"
The silver fox nodded. "If you were imagining her hitting the wall, forget it. Imagine my mother doing it instead, she fainted."
Another jovial round of applause came before the elephant stood up. "When her old boyfriend tried to crash our wedding, my lovely Sandra used my wedding ring as an offensive weapon against him." He slipped the band off with his trunk, his otter wife holding it with both paws and spinning it around as a demonstration.
Finishing his clapping, the coyote stood up. "One time, naturally when she had no clothes in the way, I found that if I tickled Roxxie in just the wrong place it sent a little twitch through her scent glands."
A round of laughter went off as the skunkette stood up. "I found out just how much a mate with a sensitive nose can moan about that."
More laughter, along with some claps, and Ramic took over again. "There, there, the cute little hijinks we get up to in the name of love. Now, it's interesting to note that we do have a diverse range of pairings here. We have a few similar pairings, with our armadillo friends for instance, and these tend to make up the majority of inter pairings. Now, it's estimated that half of all mammals meet the minimum criteria of being an inter, that's having an attraction to a mammal of a different species. This tends to occur when the relationship between scent and attraction is broken, with scent being a key requirement for many mammals to feel an attraction. Remove that, though, and visual attraction comes far more into play. Scent and sight will still often preference mammals of the same species, but, without the scent red-line element, relationships with similar mammals becomes much more common. Ten-percent or so of Zootopians in relationships are in inter relationships, and eighty percent of those are 'similar species' ones. Of course, these tend to be fairly well accepted ones, which can often produce hybrids, often viable ones at that. Any wolves here likely have some coyote in them, and vice-versa, and…" he began, looking over at Skye, her eyes widening a little as his gaze came on here. "-any swift foxes likely have some kit fox in them."
There were general murmurs of agreement, as Ramic's smile grew. "Most canids will then still go for canids, most felines for felines, lagomorphs for lagomorphs and so on. But a few special mammals might have no species preference, or a special one for some lucky species. I'm so happy to see so many of you here tonight!" Another round of clapping came, before the kangaroo spared a glance at both her and Jack and the wolf and sheep pair. "There is one, other, interesting quirk that often drives inter relationships. In particular, pred-prey ones. Now, anyone here ever seen a cute little baby, and you say you could just eat them all up?"
Murmurs of agreement were thrown around.
"Well, it's because a lot of the brain circuitry that controls what you want to eat is very close to that which tells us that something is cute! So when you say that, it's sort of because you do want to eat them up! In any case, predators evolved out of that urge eons ago, but the base circuitry still survives, it does in all of us. And, when many preds see their traditional prey, it still fires! Only this time, the hunt and kill signal is a cuddle and snuggle signal! Something that I think is the cutest thing that evolution ever did to us, don't you agree?"
Everyone chuckled, agreeing, bar one mammal.
Skye.
As Ramic went on about how such pred-prey relationships were far more common as compared to other 'wide-field' relationships as a result, she was looking at Jack and silently nudging herself away. She looked at him, feeling that very same little urge being talked about, and buried it deep down, looking away from him. Was that what her attraction to him, the main thing behind this entire potential relationship, was?
An old hunting instinct?
It didn't sit right with her, not at all.
She closed her eyes, pulled her tail up so she could stroke it for comfort, and took a deep breath in, guessing that this whole thing was just a little bit of fun but that there wasn't really anything good or firm for anything to be built on. After all, once the snuggling urges she was feeling were outed for the faulty things they were and, rightfully, disqualified, what really was there between them? They could be good friends, but she guessed that being lovers wouldn't work.
So, she resigned herself, watching as the kangaroo finished his speech and mammals began to get up and talk to each other. This was turning out like she feared, lots of strangers chatting to each other, and she likely having to bounce between them, trying and failing to strike up a conversation, getting bored, before she could finally filter out discreetly. Go home, have some sweet potato fries with blue cheese sauce as it was too late for coffee and a little ration of dark chocolate, before settling down to some music or TV and recharging herself.
Looking around, she paused as she saw the coyote from earlier and decided to go over and have a little talk with him, given that it would be more than just keeping up appearances.
She was cut off though as Chief Ramic hopped up to her and Jack, looking down at them. "Hey there! Nice to meet you, I'm pretty sure you're new here. Sorry about the 'cute' moments."
Jack shrugged. "Doesn't bug me."
"Excellent. Then you don't mind me saying how cute you two are! I love bunny-fox pairs, ever since I first laid my eyes on Hopps and Wilde."
"Cool," Jack said.
"-They're together!?" Skye exclaimed, not seeing that one coming.
Ramic looked at her and smirked. "We can all hope." He then gave her a wink.
"Well, I think Judy Hopps is staying over at his place tonight," Jack said. "I'm an old friend of hers. In fact, it was she who introduced me to Nick, who then introduced me to Skye here."
"Aaaw, spreading the love," Ramic replied, before giving Jack a wink. "Well, best of luck, I've got other perfect pairings to meet up with, a potential associate of an evil scientist to keep an eye on… -And I keep on hearing someone mention 'Crimes', so I better check that out. See you soon…. Or at the wedding…. -Or both…."
His voice trailed off as he bounced into the crowd, the pair left in an awkward silence. Looking at each other, Jack waggled his eyebrows up and down a few times before speaking. "He's a fair cop."
Despite her recent concerns, and slight discomfort at the grilling, Skye couldn't help but burst out laughing. As she recovered, though, she looked around, noticing the coyote was gone. In his place was the jaguar (alongside his giraffe mate), who was busy talking to the panda and anteater about having to recently find a new employer. Apparently, said new boss currently had him pulling out old plans in order to help workers repair 'goose damage' to a bunch of his past projects. They were all locked in their conversation, and to Skye it felt far too rude to butt in. "Jack," she said, deciding that she didn't fancy hanging about here anymore. "How about we find a…"
"-Uh, excuse me?"
She was cut off by another voice, and then another.
"Yes, sorry, excuse us…"
Looking towards them, she saw the hyena from earlier making his way through the crowd. In front of him, his red panda slipped through and looked at them both. "Were you talking about Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps?"
"We happen to be friends," Jack said, the red panda smiling back in response.
"One of my colleagues at work worked with him on an undercover mission!"
"Yeah," the hyena added. "We then went and bust a criminal too. And long story short, now we're dating!"
"Well Nick and Judy introduced Skye and I, this is our first date."
"Ours too!" the red panda chirped, before pausing. "You know, I'm a bit hungry. Maybe we could go and talk over some food?"
Jack nodded, before looking up at Skye. "Yea or nay? Incidentally, I'm for 'yay'."
Skye couldn't help but agree, the idea of sitting down with just a few mammals and having some nice food and drink sounding blissful compared to the hubbub currently around them. She smiled, looking at the other three, and giving her lips an exaggerated lick. "Sounds extra tasty!"
A loud rumble of the hyena's stomach signalled his agreement, and he chuckled a few times from it as they head off together.
"I'm Jack, by the way…"
"-And I'm Skye."
The hyena smiled and gestured down. "This here is Retsuko, and I'm Haida. Nice to meet you!"
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AN: I had some fun including some easter eggs, Zoosona's and OC pairs (mine and others) in the meet up. I even have a list… -Which I'll publish next week, so you guys can have a go guessing them in the comments.
In other news, I'll be dropping a short little Halloween one-shot in the drabbles collection, early on the spooky day. Cya then.