So we just sit and wait?
-Day 8-
Nick had just finished up at the comfort station for the morning. He hadn't run into his three crazy lake friends lately and part of him kind of missed them. He hadn't seen anyone since Trisha and Atom had come for the install. Yesterday Nick had spent the whole day just sitting and looking out his window. Which in fairness was the whole of the job. Today however he was hoping for something different.
Judy had reminded him that his first few days had been very odd. Normally they didn't have nearly this much activity going on and that he was very lucky to have had the crazy adventures he had been on.
Nick rubbed his back which was still sore from the fall over My Boss is Trying to Kill me Mountain, he didn't feel so lucky about that one.
It wasn't all bad though. He had Judy to talk to and they spent hours just chatting about pure nonsense. They had decided to pace themselves though as to not run out of topics. Yesterday was spent talking about movies. A certain one in general.
"Then the part where they are standing over that giant pit and she just looks at Duke and says 'Duke! I am your mother!' " Judy exclaimed excitedly and began to squeal.
Nick chuckled and shook his head. He had never been the biggest fan of Sci/Fi but if Judy enjoyed it he guess he could nerd out with her.
"You pandas are such nerds!" He teased which earned him a few choice words from the sweet sounding voice.
That was yesterday though. Today they hadn't exactly picked a topic. Nor had he picked a mammal to use as Judy's new identity.
Nick leaned back in his desk chair and stretched. His eyes went to the computer and he sighed. He had already explored the computers systems and found it had a few games on it. Nothing major. He had already mastered the checkers since the computer was pretty dumb. Sadly he couldn't connect online otherwise he would challenge Judy to a few games.
"So gonna be under the falls for a bit, ill check in later," Judy advised over the walkie.
"When are they installing my waterfall shower again?" Nick teased.
"You just got a new computer and sheets! Don't push your luck!" Judy said playfully.
Nick looked back at his bed, "Yeah…new sheets..." He grumbled as he eyed the purple dots all over his bed.
Judy's end went silent and Nick put the walkie back in the charger. Unlike Nick, Judy didn't visit the comfort station near her tower every day. She was apparently near a waterfall and she insisted on using it to get clean.
Nick closed his eyes as he tried to imagine what it all must look like. Trees surrounding a small little lake that was fed its water via a waterfall that was nestled into the side of a rock formation.
The fox's thoughts wandered to more heated ideas. He tried to avoid the thoughts but soon images of different mammals washing themselves underneath the waterfall invaded his mind. As he tried to focus on one kind of mammal it would slowly morph into another one. A wolf would turn into a bear, then shrink into an otter, and then change into a coyote.
All of them though had one very distinct trait. The bright purple eyes that looked back at him.
Nick took in a deep breath as he slowly opened his eyes. His thoughts remaining on the one thing he knew about Judy, her eyes.
Nick put his feet up on the desk and stretched once more. He slipped slightly and he accidently moved the mouse which caused the computer to hum back to life from its sleep.
Nick looked at the screen that flipped on and studied the desktop. The wallpaper was the parks logo in a sea of green. To the left side of the screen were a series of icons. Some for the weather software, others for documents, and then a small internet icon sat on its own.
Nick shrugged and decided it was worth checking out. He hadn't actually even tried using the internet since the install. Mainly because Judy had said it was so slow it was kind of pointless to have.
With no real site in mind Nick just double clicked the internet icon to see how it loaded.
The screen filled with a new window and the computer made a small noise as it processed the task. It wasn't the slowest internet around but Nick still felt like it was just dragging on.
Finally the desktop finished loading and Nick looked at the main homepage. He wasn't surprised as to what he saw. It was the parks department's main homepage. Made sense, it was their computer after all so they probably had this set up as a default.
Nick scrolled through the page and looked at the various links. His eyes leaving the computer from time to time to scan the horizon. Doing his best to remain vigilant and not get tunnel vision. Judy had made a joke yesterday that if he stopped another fire they may send him a coffee machine and proper coffee. The fox knew it was a joke but it was still worth a shot!
When Nick's eyes came back to the screen they stopped on one of the links marked: Gallery.
A thought popped into his mind. Maybe they had pictures of the employees! Sure they didn't take his picture when he first joined but he had only taken a temp job. Someone like Judy may have a picture or two in here.
"Oh Judy! You are going down!" He chuckled as he clicked the link and waited for the next page to load.
The wait was agonizing as the computer processed the new task, but it finally finished and the fox began to scan the page.
There were actually a lot of galleries to check. Whoever ran the website was a real shutterbug and took tons of pictures. Nick decided to go for the most recent one marked: Beach day!
There was a small paragraph at the top of the page explaining where the pictures were from. Apparently the parks department had arranged a beach day for some of the teams at the end of the summer and had taken them all for a cook out at one of the larger lakes in the region.
There were pictures of all sorts of mammals. A few of the pictures had captions under them.
"Firewatchers keeping an eye on the cook!" One read. Nick looked at the picture and saw a few mammals surrounding a grill and playfully staring at a buffalo who had a weak smile on his face as he cooked some lunch over the fire.
Nick studied the mammals in the picture. He cursed his luck as he saw they all wore sunglasses. So the only hint he had of Judy was now blocked. He studied the mammals in the pictures and picked out three females.
There was a cheetah in a light green shirt, she reminded Nick a little of Tammy. Then there was a wolf in a swimming top and shorts. She had a nice figure on her Nick thought. Then a gray bunny in a pink button up shirt with her arms crossed. "She would barely be able to see over the sill of her tower." Nick thought with a chuckle.
Nick continued to scroll down the page and came across more images. All of them though had images of mammals wearing sunglasses. He shook his head and guessed he wasn't going to have much luck.
Nick still enjoyed the images though as he saw mammals of all varieties enjoying a day off together. He stopped when he came across one of two does. He recognized Trisha and his eyes went wide. The brown bunny wasn't in her normal ranger outfit. She was clad in a bright blue bikini and was laying on her back on top of a beach towel.
"Geeze! Way to go Trisha," Nick whistled, though he wouldn't normally go for a bunny he had to admit she had obviously been taking care of herself.
Trisha was laying next to another doe who was resting on her stomach. It was the gray bunny Nick had seen in the other picture. The gray mammal had her eyes closed as she rested close to her friend. The two does warming themselves in the sun.
Nick saved the image in his mind to tease Trisha about later. He then scrolled down till he reached the bottom of the page. There was a large group picture with all the mammals smiling at the camera. Nick looked through the crowd and sighed. There were so many different females that it was hard to even begin to guess which one was Judy.
Nick just hoped the other galleries would be a little more helpful in his search.
Sadly they weren't.
There were tons of galleries filled with pictures of the different parks employees. Nick even saw Judy's name mentioned once or twice. But it was always lumped in with a bunch of other names in a group picture and none of them were in order.
Nick felt he had narrowed it down though to a very attractive timber wolf, a dhole, a painted dog, otter, and…this wasn't really narrowing it down was it..
The fox groaned and rubbed his eyes as he looked through the pictures once more. The only mammals he recognized was Trisha and Atom. Trisha actually seemed to be pretty popular. She was in several pictures, always smiling and showing off those big blue eyes of hers. She also had a playful demeanor. One of the pics Nick enjoyed was her putting her ball cap on another park employee. The gray bunny he had seen in the beach pictures. Trisha pulled the bill of the cap down though so it covered the bunnies face. Nick could tell though both the does were enjoying the moment and giggling.
"Guess I can see why Trisha and Judy get along so much," Nick chuckled as he leaned back in his chair and stared at the image.
Nick finally gave up on his search and closed the window. Guessing he wouldn't find out Judy's real identity today. He did however like the purple eyed coyote that had crossed his mind earlier and decided that was Judy's species for the day.
"Oh my gosh that was so refreshing!" Judy's voice filled the tower from Nick's radio.
"Speak of the mammal," Nick said before reaching for the device that kept him in contact with his supervisor. "Have a good shower boss?"
"Amazing! Something about the cool water and breeze is just so refreshing in the morning!" Judy exclaimed.
"Just gotta watch for those hikers, wouldn't want to give them too much of a show!" Nick teased.
"Hey now!" Judy giggled, "First off they should feel honored for that kind of show!"
"I know I would be," Nick said to himself.
"Second, I always wear a swim suit when using my waterfall!"
"Oh your waterfall?" Nick asked as he looked over his shoulder at Judy's tower.
"Darn straight!"
"So we should name it then!"
"Guess we should," Judy said sweetly.
"How about coyote falls?"
There was a pause on the radio, "I would make a cute coyote!"
Nick groaned, Judy still not giving him any clue as to what she was.
"I would have a cute coyote tail, and a cute coyote snout, and" Judy began to list off different things about her that would be cute.
"A cute coyote butt," Nick added playfully, pushing their normal conversation standards a little.
"Oh I already have a cute butt! Just ask all the hikers near my waterfall!" Judy teased.
Nick laughed so hard at that he started wheezing.
"Might need to start going on more hikes!" Nick suggested.
"Oh really?" Judy asked slyly, "And where would these hikes take you?"
"North," Nick said plainly. Both Judy and he knew that her region was to the north of his own.
"Mmm, heard the views are beautiful," Judy chuckled.
"So are the firewatchers," Nick added.
"Awwwwww," Judy said sweetly, "Nick! You always know how to make me smile!"
"I try!"
"You succeed!"
There were a few moments of pleasant and silence. Nick had started to enjoy these moments. Not in a "thank goodness she shut up" kind of way. But more in a happy to know Judy was out there and just enjoy the moment kind of way.
"So I browsed the parks website," Nick mentioned.
"Oh really? Keeping up to date on all our policies and procedures?" Judy chuckled.
"No, just checking out the photo galleries."
There was more silence which caused Nick to grin. He didn't plan to mention he had been unsuccessful just yet. He wanted to let Judy squirm a little.
"Oh really?" Judy came back nervously, "Anything good?"
"Well saw Atom's smiling mug," Nick started, "And Trisha in a swim suit!"
"Oh beach day!" Judy said happily.
"Did you have fun?" Nick asked slyly. Trying to see if Judy would let anything slip.
"So much fun!" Judy admitted happily.
"Hang out by the grill?" Nick asked slowly.
"Nice try," Judy shot back.
"What?"
"Don't what me! I know what you are getting at!" Judy said with a laugh. "It aint gonna work!"
"Awww come on!"
"Noooooope! Just gonna have to deal with a coyote today!" Judy shot back.
"Least you have nice eyes," Nick muttered.
"Awww," Judy began to say, "Still nope!"
"Damn!"
-Day 9-
"Juuuuuuudy!" Nick groaned over the radio.
"Niiiiiiiick!" Judy responded.
"I am so bored!"
"Well what did you expect? We are firewatchers!"
"But there isn't a fire!" Nick shot back.
"Which is kind of a good thing don't ya think?"
"Fox's need stimulation to survive!"
"Hehehehe," Judy came back, giggling like a high schooler.
Nick rolled his eyes, "really?!"
"What kind of stimulation huh?" Judy asked playfully.
"Oh wouldn't you like to know!"
"That's why I asked," Judy said in a rather risqué tone.
Nick reached over and took a sip from his cup. The liquid stung the back of his throat. It wasn't exactly water. An open bottle sat on the desk by the computer.
"Mental stimulation," Nick responded.
"Oohhhhhh," Judy muttered, "So the boring kind?"
"Yeah, the boring kind," Nick grumbled, "Just like this work!"
-Day 10-
"Niiiiiick," Came a sweet sounding voice nearby.
"Noooo…"groaned the fox who currently had his pillow pressed against his head.
"Ohh Niiiiiick?" The voice came in garbled.
"Nooooooo!" Nick shouted.
"TWO FORKS PICK UP YOUR RADIO!" Judy shouted through the small device.
Nick felt like his head split open and winced. "Hate her...so much...right now..." The fox grumbled as he slowly rose from his bed. The sun was still rising and Nick could tell it was still early morning.
"She better have a good reason…"Nick grumbled some more.
"Yeah, I'm here…what's up Judy?" Nick said as he keyed up the mic and scratched his sides. His eyes falling closed as he tried to shield his pupils from the very very very bright sun.
"Good morning!" Judy said sweetly. Nick hated this! He couldn't stay mad at her, not even for 5 freaking seconds.
"Good morning, what do you want?" he asked as he looked at his bed, slightly annoyed he wasn't in it.
"I just love how much of a morning mammal you are!" Judy responded in the same sweet tone.
"Morning? No! Anything before 7am is still night time to me!" Nick groaned.
"Fine, guess I'll have to get someone else to help me with a task."
"Sounds good, back to bed now!"
"Awww, come on Nick! Where is your spirit of adventure?"
"It's still waking up!" Nick said as he fell face first on the bed.
"Nick this is serious!"
"Then call the rangers!" Nick teased as he stretched.
"Don't tempt me! Trisha is our current region ranger! I will call her and have her come round and kick your butt out of bed!"
"You're no fun!" Nick teased as he sat up in bed. Knowing that he had no real choice. "So what deadly adventure are you sending me on now?"
"The storm last night knocked out our phone lines to the head office. Need you to go and see if the break is in your region" Judy explained.
"It's way too early for this!"
"Oh hush, you could use the fresh air!" Judy teased.
"Is there time for coffee?" Nick groaned.
"Yes of course, you can tell me what mammal I am today while we wait!" Judy said playfully.
Nick chuckled as he shuffled over to the coffee put and began mixing a concoction that would hopefully wake him up.
"You ever seen a dhole- before?"
"Only when I look in the mirror!" Judy giggled.
Nick chuckled. It may be early. It may be a bit cold. The coffee may be terrible. But that giggle made everything worthwhile.
Hey everyone. So I noticed there has been a little confusion about this stories origins. Regarding the Firewatch aspect. I guess that is partly my fault since I didn't exactly explain much about the Firewatch part! So to help clear up some of the confusion I decided to recruit some help in explaining what the game is about.
Ladies and gentlemen Ranger Trisha Ro-
"Finish that name and I will dunk you in a lake Blue!"
Awwww, but it is such a cute name!
"Yeah, and I have you to thank for all those damn nicknames from Nick!"
He is just being friendly.
"He is just being a dork!" The brown bunny said as she removed her hat and let her beautiful ears raise up. "Awww, you're sweet, dorky but sweet"
I try, I have to continue working on a commission so I will leave you to it!
"Thanks Blue!" Trisha said sweetly as she watched a cloud overhead lazily float by. "So Hi everyone! I am Trisha! One of Blue's O/Cs. Whatever that means. Blue thought it would be nice to have me come and explain a little bit about Firewatch the game!"
The brown doe strolled over to a large rock and took a seat, stretching her arms a bit before getting comfortable.
"So Firewatch was released in 2016 by developer Campo Santo. It is listed as an Adventure game," Trisha began to explain as she set her hat down, getting ready for a somewhat long conversation.
"Yeah Blue, I got things to do, this ain't gonna be that long," Trisha said softly.
That's what she said!
"Is that where I get that humor?!" Trisha asked with a laugh. "People keep asking me!"
Focus!
"Oh right, ok. So Firewatch! This game is really fun actually and is a bit of a break! I haven't beaten it myself but it's such a smooth game and easy to just pick up and go! You play a Firewatcher named Henry with a bit of a sad past. Kinda like Nick in this story. You learn more about Henry through choices you make in the game and how you interact with your supervisor Delilah, who is being played by my favorite bunny Judy!"
Trisha slowly looked over to a clearing of trees towards a large rock formation with a white tower resting on top, "You know I am now closer to her tower than Nick has ever been…kinda sad when you think about it."
The brown doe took in a deep breath before continuing. "The game is kinda on the short side sadly and there is no downloadable content at all. So what you pay for is what you get. Mind you it is still an amazing game and almost anyone can play it. There are no bosses, no gun battles, and no fights. Just you, Delilah, and nature!"
Don't forget to mention the video!
"Oh that's right! So Blue checked a few of the trailers and feels that the June 2015 trailer is probably the best one for you all to check out. It is just a 1:05 minute video and kinda gives you an idea to the art style, story, and feel for the game. Some of the scenes may show up in our story! Some may not!"
Plus I have added tons more to the story!
"Yeah like comfort stations!"
Yes
"And naked ladies!" Trisha pointed out playfully.
Those too!
"And Nick and Judy!"
And who else?
The brown bunny looked to the ground for a moment as she thought, a pensive look in her eyes. She suddenly beamed before looking up to the cloud floating overhead. Those beautiful blue eyes shimmering.
"Me?"
A gently breeze blew through the trees and swept over the bunny, tickling her black tipped hers. The doe giggled happily. "Thanks Blue!"
Suddenly a garbled voice came over Trisha's radio. The brown bunny picked up the device and gave it a smack. "Last calling, please repeat!" The brown bunny said quickly.
"Hey Trisha, its Judy! Got a sec?" A sweet sounding voice came over the radio.
"For you I got tons of 'em" The bunny said as she winked at the sky.
"So, um, about Nick's eyes," Judy began to say nervously. "Just what kind of green are they?"
"Oh Judy! Like bright emerald!" Trisha began to explain in a bubbly manner as she hopped off the rock and proceeded down the path towards Judy's tower. "Of course I can think of a pair that are far nicer."
"aww, your sweet!" Judy said softly.
"Oh I was talking about me!" Trisha teased as she disappeared into the trees. A faint laughter coming from her radio.
Thank you Trisha! So I hope that helps everyone understand what this story is about. It is my version of Firewatch with a lot of Zootopia mixed in! I am so happy with how much everyone seems to be enjoying this story which is now receiving a lot of my time and effort! I hope to continue to give you all as many chapters as I can as soon as I can.
The support I have received so far has been amazing! Thank you all!
-Blue