Yeah, remember when the idea of nudity being taboo popped into my head? Well I'm starting to believe I was right, if all of the angry and disgusted glares I received was any indication. At one point, a lioness covered her little cubs eyes when I walked by her while shooting me a harsh look. I didn't see the reasoning in clothes for me though, not like you can see anything through all my fur in the first place.
Also, my theory of not being special was very much right, as the entire population of this city, which I now know is called Zootopia thanks to a Gazelle on a Jumbo-Tron...never thought that sentence would ever leave my lips, but I was a wolf now so pretty much anything was up for debate at this point.
Where was I...oh right, the animals. So yeah, every inhabitant of this sprawling metropolis I've come across seems to be sentient animals that strictly fall under the class of mammals. Not a single human in sight though, seems like they either aren't here, died off, or never existed in the first place. If any of these theories were true, then evolution didn't really have a single species to focus on anymore and just said fuck it, giving every mammal their sentience. Like literally every mammal, ranging from a little mouse I nearly squished under my paw, to an elephant who almost squished me.
For now though, I need to get back to the point where I currently am, which is sitting down in a random alley, covered in nothing but my fur, and messing around with some poor sods wallet I stole. Good thing I'm a really good pickpocket, cause without it, I wouldn't have nearly five hundred of whatever they call their currency here. I did question why that Zebra was carrying five hundred bucks in the first place, but shrugged it off as dumb luck on my part.
"Least he was single, not much guilt over taking his money that way." I sighed and looked at the guys ID one last time before tossing the wallet in the nearby dumpster, leaving the alley soon after with the money held tightly in my paw. "Now where to buy some clothes?"
Alrighty then, now I have stolen both five hundred bucks and a set of clothes, off to an amazing start in this city. Not like I wanted to steal them though, the guy kept telling me he wouldn't serve my kind, whatever that means, so I just bared the fangs a little and he gave me a set clothes and begged me to leave. That little ram was so frightened that I almost pissed myself laughing after leaving.
'I wonder if he called the cops on me.' Even if he did, they had nothing to take me in on. I never forced him to give me anything, but he did anyway.
Of course, with my luck, as soon as that thought entered my head, I hear sirens coming ever closer to my position. I just flipped up the hood of my black jacket and put my paws in my pockets, looking down as the police cruiser sped past me.
I looked back a moment later and sighed in relief, they hadn't noticed me, last thing I need to deal with right now is police. I need to focus on finding some accommodations for the night, but first, food. And low and behold, I'm standing in front of some coffee shop...Snarlsbucks...oh sweet lord, puns.
"Whatever." I shrugged and made my way inside.
"Another slow night." Nick sighed, taking another sip of his coffee. He and Judy, after about another hour of nothing since their talk, decided to visit the local Snarlsbucks after finally reaching their last break before their shift ended. Both of them were exhausted and really wanted to avoid going back out on patrol, so here they stay, sipping on coffee and chatting about pretty much nothing until they were forced to return to work.
"Yeah, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually sad that we solved that Night Howler case, least back then we had something to do." Nick nodded in agreement and sat back in his chair, letting his eyes slowly drift closed, right before a mild pain shot through his arm.
"Don't you fall asleep on me Slick, I'm bored enough as it is." Judy grinned as the fox looked at her with a tired glare. How she was so perky right now, despite the long boring day they had, he will never know, just another mystery that surrounded the little bunny doe.
"it would be a lot easier to stay up if their was something interesting to focus on, we have nothing left to talk about and were literally the only ones in this place." True to his word, the coffee shop was devoid of life, save for them and the tired ferret sitting behind the counter, playing on his phone.
"Well I'm sorry if I'm not all that interesting." Judy said in mock anger, to which Nick just stuck his tongue out at her. In the middle of their banter, neither seemed to notice the hooded figure making his way into the coffee shop, that was until the cashier let out a scream after recognizing the species of said figure. Both pairs of eyes turned to see what the commotion was about, seeing nothing more than a confused Arctic wolf and a screaming ferret hiding behind the counter.
"Um...okay" the wolf muttered, barely being heard over the polecats screams. Nick and Judy watched the wolf slowly walk backwards out of the store, not taking his eyes off of the terrified mammal until he was on the other side of the door.
"And now we have our mammal of interest." Judy tittered, hopping from her seat and making her way to the door, her partner following close behind.
Well that was a truly interesting moment of my life. The kid was absolutely terrified of me, and all I did was stand there. Am I really that intimidating, granted I was quite a few heads taller than the small mustelid, but still.
Maybe their was some tensions between the prey and predator species, but who in their right minds loses their shit over something like that, its just strange to me.
"That was quite a show back there wasn't it?" I hear a female voice say from behind me. I turned around to see who had decided to speak to me, but saw nothing, so I just looked around in confusion. "Down here."
I mentally facepawed and tilted my head down to see and little bunny doe looking up at me with her deep purple eyes filled with amusement.
"Your telling me, never seen a guy lose his shit that fast before...very interesting I must say." I replied, hearing her giggle lightly while looking back at another mammal, this one seeming to be canine in species, most likely a fox if the tail and fur color were any indication. Said fox was currently staring up at me with a weird look in his eye that I couldn't quite place.
"Anyway, my names Judy." She said, holding a paw out towards me. I smiled and grabbed her tiny paw in mine.
"Pleasure to meet you Judy, you can call me Frost, everyone does." She snorted amusedly and studied my face. "I know, I get the irony...so who's your friend?"
She looked at the fox again, who still hadn't taken his eyes off of me, and quickly elbowed him, bringing him back to the land of the living.
"N-Nick, my names Nick." He said, a slight stutter in his voice that made Judy giggle ever so softly, earning a glare from the now named Nick. I looked between the two, seeing the absurdity of this duo. A fox and a rabbit, mortal enemies in the wild, hanging out like best buds...nothing makes sense anymore.
"So, you live around here?" Judy questioned.
"Nope, can't say I do...actually the first time I heard about this place." I mentally slapped myself almost as soon as I said that.
"Really, you've never heard of Zootopia before...I'm sorry but that's kind of hard to believe. Theirs probably not a single mammal on the planet who hasn't heard of this place."
Okay, some good from the bad. This city must be some kind of central hub of all commerce, and if its world famous, most likely one of the largest cities on the map.
Yay for learning.
"The keyword in that sentence was probably, theirs probably dozens more like me that have never heard of this city...not really sure where they are, but they do most likely exist." I said with a grin. She seemed to buy it thankfully, but not before asking another question that was pretty hard to lie about.
"So where do you live, don't usually see many Arctic animals around Savannah Central." She asked, actually making the Fox's ears perk up a little.
"Right now, no where, I just got into the city so I'm trying to find an apartment or something." I shrugged, not able to lie since I knew absolutely nothing about where I was. "Speaking of which, do y'all know anywhere cheap I can stay at tonight, I'm kind of strapped for cash right now."
Judy seemed to ponder that question in her head a bit, right before a large grin formed on her tiny muzzle. Nick caught that look and instantly paled...weird.
"Last time I checked, Nicks apartment has a spare bedroom that he never uses, I'm sure he'd let you use it if you asked politely." I didn't know a fox could blush until today. If the white of his muzzle didn't give him away, I'm sure I never would have learned this amazing fact.
"W-Well...I do have room...b-but that's only if you want it." Nick said, scratching the back of his head while a small smile spread across his muzzle. I just raised a brow, finding it hard to believe that they were really offering me a place when I was nothing more than a stranger.
"Well gee, that's awfully kind of you, but I don't wanna impose." I replied.
"No, I really don't mind, it'd be nice to have the company." Nick said quickly, making me raise a brow curiously. He blinked and his blush turned a whole light brighter, but he refused to break eye contact with me. I let the idea rattle around in my head, weighing the pros and cons, but I didn't really see any other options, so I just shrugged and held my hand...paw out towards him.
"Eh, why not, sounds like fun." I grinned, seeing his eyes light up as he took my larger paw in his.
"Great, I've actually been looking for a roommate, can get pretty lonely after awhile." He sighed before perking up again. "So, why don't we all grab some food and get to know each other better, we still have another fifteen minutes before we have to go back on patrol?"
A tempting offer, but the badges on their chests kind of set me off just a little. How I didn't notice they were in uniform before, I have no clue.
"Nah, I ain't going back in there, I would like to keep my hearing thanks." I chuckled and stood up to my full height, looking down at the two officers with a grin. "And besides, I wanted to explore the city a bit more before anything else. I'll just pick up hot dog off a street vendor or something."
"A hot dog" Judy questioned, her head cocking to the side curiously. "Is at like, code for something?"
Oh right, pigs are sentient to, crap...that means no more bacon...I think I'm gonna cry.
"Sorry, you probably don't know what that is do you...what do you all eat here meat wise?"
"Fish, bugs, and artificial meats, why, are you some sort of cannibal or something?"
"No, I just usually eat whatever I can get my paws on, I may starve for awhile, but I'm not some savage...at least when I'm not with the ladies" I said with a wink, earning a blush from the bunny and a frown from the fox, odd. "Anyway, I'll catch y'all around, I got places to see and people to do" I chuckled and waved as I walked off in a random direction.
"Wait, you don't even know where I live, how will you find your way to my apartment." Nick shouted. I just turned back at him with a grin, tapping my nose and continuing on my way.
"Well, he was most certainly an interesting individual, wasn't he Slick." She chuckled, not hearing a response from the Todd as his eyes were glued to the wolfs lazily wagging tail. She raised a brow and waved a paw in front of his eyes, still not getting a reaction from him. She sighed and punched him in the arm, getting a surprised yelp as a result.
"Its impolite to stare Slick." She giggled, making the fox blush wildly while rubbing his arm nervously. "So, I'm guessing he really caught your eye huh?"
"...No comment" He replied, a blush clearly on his muzzle while his ears were pinned back and his eyes looking at anything besides the little bunny at this side.
"Whatever Slick, now come on, we still have another two hours left in our patrol, then you can get back to your apartment and hang out with that big hunk." She giggled and dragged the still blushing Nick back to their cruiser.
"Now let's see here..." I hummed while studying the map of Zootopia I had found on the side of the road, convenient.
"Savannah Central, Tundra Town, Sahara Square, Rainforest, yada yada yada, etcetera, etcetera" I threw the map to the side, choosing to simply walk along the road, pulling my hood back up over my head and keeping my paws stuffed in my pockets.
From the looks of things, this city wouldn't be too hard to figure out, it was large, but simple. The only things I would need to worry about was getting a job...and probably get every single prey animal to stop staring at me.
"...Maybe I need to do some research, see if there's some sort of increased tensions between species, besides anything that would already be there since they did kind of simply make a city and throw every species in there...which probably wasn't the greatest idea at the time. I wasn't here at the time so there was probably nothing I could do about it, nor would I have done anything, not like anyone would listen to an ex-convict.
"Least now I don't have a criminal record...or a record at all, have to change that soon. For now though, I needed to get to that fox's apartment, having been walking the streets for the last three hours. Luckily, his scent was still fresh in my memory, so it was pretty easy to find the place. Not a bad looking building, it was actually pretty clean and was only about three or four floors high.
"Hello sir, how may I help you?" I heard a female voice ask me and I turned my eyes to see a pretty little she wolf sitting behind the counter, smiling brightly as I neared. I smiled back and leaned against the counter.
"Hello there beautiful, how are you doing this fine night." Okay, well that came out of no where...guess that carried over...whatever.
"Sorry sweetheart, mated" she giggled, flashing me a ring. I chuckled and gave her a sly grin.
"Can't say I didn't try...anyway, on to what I came here for, do you have a tenant named Nick?" I asked her, hearing a few clicks from her computer, and an directing me to said fox's apartment. I knocked a few times, waiting a few moments before hearing the click of a doorknob, the door opening to reveal Nick, clothed in noting but a pair of bike shorts.
"Hey Snowflake, was wondering when you would show up" he said, not sounding anywhere near as nervous as he was before, seemed he only needed a little time or something, not sure.
"Snowflake?" I asked, a brow raised and a grin tugging at my lips.
"Oh yeah, got nicknames for everyone, don't worry, I'll think of something better later." He gestured for me to come in as he stepped to the side, allowing me entrance to his pretty simple apartment that he somehow turned into an obvious bachelor pad. "Sorry about the mess, kind of short notice you know."
I just waved him off, not really caring about how he kept his house.
"Its not a problem dude, but are you still sure you want me here, we did just meet after all and I would have found somewhere to sleep."
"Its all good, I was serious when I said I needed a roommate, I don't like living alone, plus when you get a job, you can help me pay for the rent. Have to remember I'm on a cops salary after all" he chuckled, earning a grin from me.
"You say that, but this is actually a pretty nice space ya got here, definitely made for someone bigger than you, that's always a plus in my book."
"True...now I'm really sorry about this, but I really need to get to bed, I gotta go to work tomorrow and I'm already breaking my strict curfew, courtesy of Carrots." he sighed, before making his way over to the couch. "You can take the bed for tonight, I'll grab the couch."
"Not gonna happen" I reply almost immediately. "Your place, you get the bed, your used to it, I haven't slept in one for the last two years, I will be more than happy to take the couch."
"But yo-"
"Please don't argue about this with me Nick, I'm lucky you opened your home to me in the first place, I won't be able to live with myself if you don't have the couch, hell I'll sleep in there with you if I have to."
He didn't reply, just let his ears pin back as a blush grew along his muzzle. He quickly wiped it away and looked me right in the eye, seeing that there was no arguing with me, he simply bid me goodnight and went off to his room.
I nodded with a smile and fell onto the couch, enjoying the fact it wasn't some cheap piece of crap that I paid for with a street smugglers salary, which was really not a lot in that city, or simply just dirt.
"Maybe tomorrow I can figure out what happened...and I swear to God, if some higher being brought me back to serve some grand purpose or some shit like that, I'm punching someone in their ethereal balls. Not the most graceful sentence to pass through my conscious, nor was it healthy, but it was the last one I had before I finally blacked out.