#wastedtimee

Vernon: Welp, in terms of gettin' a gift fer my Ma, it's always kinda...well a bit of a struggle. Not cause I don't wanna get her nothin', it's just...with seven brothers and Pa to contend with, there can be a lotta...accidental gift overlap. I remember one year some how all of us thought to get her real fancy fruit baskets, with jams and stuff, and while all the fruit choices were different...I mean...it was just too much...

Dawn: How big were these fruit baskets?

Vernon: Welp, mine was average sized, but Yuri *Chuckles* he tried to make a big show of it by gettin' Ma a Megafauna sized one.

Dawn: *Giggles* Seriously?

Vernon: Cost him a pretty penny, not just fer the basket, but fer the delivery. So you can imagine how sore he was that the rest of us got her similar stuff. *Shakes head* I can't tell ya how much of that stuff ended up compost fer the next years pumpkins and corn...

Dawn: Well, I suppose that means it didn't go...entirely to waste.

Vernon: O'course this year, me and my brothers all discussed gift options months ago to make sure we didn't have a repeat of the 'basket' incident. And although it took a bit of fightin' with Wade and Zach, me and Dawn managed to score the “Spa Day” gift rights.

Dawn: You really can't go wrong with a good old fashioned Spa Day gift. It's almost foolproof.

Vernon: We managed to win the rights cause Dawn argued that since she we had figured to get one of 'em fer Clover too, both of them could go together.

Dawn: *Giggles* Well I find Spa days are much more entertaining when you have someone other than the masseuses and staff to talk to.

Vernon: I'm sure Pa's happy fer that. He didn't seem keen on the idea of Ma bein' around well-toned masseuse mammals.

Dawn: *Giggling*I hope that insecurity doesn't run in the bloodline...

Vernon: 'Course it does. Why d'yall think I didn't get you a Spa Day package myself? *Laughs*

Dawn: *Giggle* *Snort* Oh Puppy, hush!

Vernon: In case yer wonderin' what my Pa got Ma, welp he pulled the whole classy dinner at a restaurant thing. Granted, that weren't the gift, no, the gift was him re-proposin' to her. He's fixin' to have 'em renew their tithe in August.

Dawn: Aww...that's so adorable.

Vernon: I'm surprised he didn't plan it fer their thirtieth anniversary. But better late then never I guess, *Chuckles* I think the new pups in the house made him kinda nostalgic...

Dawn: He seems really happy to be a Dad again.

Vernon: Speakin' of new parents, why don't y'all tell the folks out there how yer mother's day went Honey Lamb.

Dawn: Oh my goodness! *Chuckles* I almost forgot...

Vernon: Almost fergot our gifts?

Dawn: *Laughs* Don't be silly Puppy Love! I could never forget what you and the Pups did for me for Mother's Day! It's just...I'm still not used to the title. *Giggles*

Vernon: I can maybe give ya that back when we had just adopted Allison and Edison, but y'all can't tell me given birth to Paige didn't etch the fact that you was officially a mother into that ol' noggin' oh yers?

Dawn: *Laughs* Well, I had a C-section for Paige...and I was pretty well numbed up form the meds. A lot of that was pretty hazy.

Vernon: Mhh-hmm...

Dawn: *Giggles* Well it did make it all the more surprising to be woken up with breakfast in bed, care of my wonderful, caring pups, and my big, strong, handsome Puppy. *Pets Vernon affectionately*

Vernon: *Chuckles* I'm glad y'all liked it. The Pup's poured their hearts into makin' that lil' spread. I supervised o'course, but I tried to use a light paw.

Dawn: That explains the “Astronaut Orange Juice”.

Vernon: Hey, I was okay with Edi addin' the Tang to it, but I musta' missed him pourin' in the cup of “Meteo-Puffs” into the glass. I kinda got wrapped up in teachin' Alli how to flip a pancake with just the pan.

Dawn: *Giggling* I loved the card from Eddi too, and the little wolf plush that Alli got me. It looked just like a little fluffy version of her, and it'll go wonderfully with the little plushes that looks like you and me.

Vernon: Gettin' another one that looks like Eddi will be easy....but we might need to find some one to make use a custom fer lil' Paige. *Chuckles*

Dawn: Oh, and Vernon got me this beautiful sterling silver and amethyst pendent shaped like a heart. I absolutely love it.

Vernon: Yeah, I held off givin' that to her till dinner. Luckily Wade was willin' to take the pups off our hands fer the rest of the night so we could enjoy the evenin' together, just us two.

Dawn: It was wonderful, those turf burgers you made were almost as good as the ones at The Grazer's Green.

Vernon: I can't take full credit there, I did have Malcolm coachin' me a bit ahead of time.

Dawn: Then we spent some time curled up on the couch watching some of my favorite movies before having a wonderful Mint chocolate torte for dessert.

Vernon: I can take even less credit fer that. Had to pick that up at a fancy bakery.

Japanda Journeys Episode 5 Pg 3!

You were probably wondering where the heck the asks were this week, or why I hadn’t said anything yet. I apologize for the delay, but I had to do some retooling behind the scenes to figure some stuff out, and I was also dealing with some arm issues. I’ll go into details in a little while, as I have a roadmap and may Patreons to thank.

That said, here it is...god it’s been months since i did one of these, but Joel’s Journey continues. This strip properly introduces Megumi Gomipa, owner of the Manga shrine and the last mammal standing between Joel and Yukari-chan being re-united. Then again, she’s merely a shopkeeper...it should be a simple transaction shouldn’t it? There’s probably no strings attached to the sale...right? Based on Megumi’s actions in the last panel..perhaps not...

Vernon: Oof...well that's a whole complicated mess right there. I mean, there's just so much to tell...

Dawn: Well, if were being honest Paige's birth isn't exactly responsible for all of it...she was just part of the one two punch of the Queen Blackwool discovery.

Vernon: Yeah, that caused a lot of...chaos in its own right. But then Dawn turnin' up pregnant so close to that just...I mean I don't know how it woulda' gone over if there had been a year er' so between 'em, but...the whole thing sent some religious and national leaders into hysterics.

Dawn: We've probably talked about the whole...Scottram-Norwulff tensions since the Ulric incident. Norwulff's leaders chose to go forward with releasing everything they had in regards to Moira, Erik and...little Keld.

Vernon: The lost heir.

Dawn: Apparently that was a breach of a long standing agreement with the Schottramish royal family. They also accused the Norwulff government of stealing Moira's missing diaries.

Vernon: But accordin' to documentation released along with said diaries, Moira's diaries were given to King Magnus during her stay to oversee Erik's funeral in order to prevent them from being destroyed by those in her royal house that feared such knowledge coming out would destroy everything they had worked for. And while King Roderick had apparently been the one to draft the secretive agreement to hold the couples tryst as a joint national secret, the current royal family in Norwulff saw little purpose in keeping the agreement since a third party had come in as exposed it to the world.

Dawn: Since then, they've gotten as close to a cold war as two nations can get without threatening war with one another. There are even those in the Schottish Parliament now actually trying to argue that any mammal holding dual citizenship between the two nations, something that has been sanctioned since Moira's time, needs to make a choice and abdicate citizenship from the other.

Vernon: Next thing you know they'll be shippin' wolf and wolf sympathetic mammals to Norwulff against thier will.

Dawn: i'm sure the Roaropean Union would step in before that would happen...then again...

Vernon: They have their own messes to deal with?

Dawn: Indeed. Roarope is more old world in terms of religious beliefs, and many of them have a strict 'no inter-species or pred/prey couplings' as part of their core tenets. Needless to say, my book drew a lot of ire from those groups, and there were significantly more protests in Roarope than over on this side of the pond. Which... only worsened when the news about Paige spread out across Animalia.

Vernon: Yuri may joke about lil' Paige bein' a monster er' demon' considerin' when she was born and what not. But I know a few groups out there that really see her as the 'Herald of the end times' er' Scar Reincarnate.

Dawn: Granted it's still not so bad that things have destabilized or anything. No one is stopping mammals of differing species from dating, even if they are complaining about it and preaching against it. Aside from going to Norwulff...

Vernon: Because Ulric got us all banned, not because we'd be in danger.

Dawn: We'd be safe to visit Roarope, albeit with a little security in tow.

Vernon: But places in Afrikat and the Purrabian Peninsula started puttin' a hard paw down in regards to hybrids and inter-species relationships startin' with bannin' Dawn's book.

Dawn: Then passing hard laws about inter-species dating all together when Paige was born.

Vernon: Naturally this has lead to protests, and both Roarope and The South Afrikat Pridelands to help try and keep peace accordingly, not to mention take on hundreds of refugee couples.

Dawn: Japanda, Panda, Sibearia, and most of northern Ursa have taken to Paige's existence maybe a little better than Roarope as the pervading Polar based religions don't have any cross species tenets in them. So most of the noise has come from smaller sects of religions transplanted from other areas. Then there's the areas in and around Bharat....which are in as about as bad shape over this as some of the nations in Afrikat.

Vernon: Austalia, like Great Kitten is largely acceptin' of us, and hybrids and the like, and they've moved to put a lot of protections in place fer interspecies couples since Dawn's book and Paige.

Dawn: Which is pretty much what North Mammalia and Zootopia has done. So barring a few crazy zealots or pred and prey supremacists, Zootopia and North Mammalia seemed to have remained as safe as they ever were...At least for now.

Vernon: And just to finish out little trip around Animalia, South Mammalia already had trouble with pred and prey integration in society. So this whole mess has only made things worse...and checked purty much everything south of Mexicat under the list of countries we can never step foot in fer our own safety.

Dawn: We have received threats of course...threats on our lives. Our Pups lives, and Paige's...

Vernon: Some particularly colorful language in them letter's threatenin' Paige. Language so colorful it makes me wanna track them folks down and...well...you can imagine...

Dawn: But our house is very secure, and we have the ZPD looking out for us, as well as a number of mammals in administration positions to assure that we, and our pups can live as normal lives as possible.

Vernon: As normal as a family with a half sheep, half wolf hybrid in it. *Chuckles*

WT: This is a post related to Elite Shade's BellHunterverse AU “Found”. Check it out on Fanfiction.net and Archive of our own. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13128859/1/Found

Ulric: Oh I've got a lot to say about these 'Humans' my brothers insisted on adopting, in fact I've got binders full of notes and theories on-!

Yuri: Nobody cares fer yer take on Lil and Marcus ya nutjob!

Ulric: B-But I have-!

Honey: Ully sweetie, maybe it's best you stay out of this one...that look on Yuri's face is...well, I wouldn't push your luck.

Ulric: F-fine...whatever. Remain ignorant of the truth!

Yuri: They are just pups Ully? What am I gonna do, criticize my brothers choice in pickin' pups? Granted I'll make jokes to 'em in private, but I ain't gonna blast 'em fer it on some sorta semi-public forum. *Shakes his head.* Iffin' were bein' honest, I'd...say both of 'em are purty...brave fer takin' up carin' fer a species they don't know nothin' about.

Ada: Wow...

Yuri: What?

Ada: I just...ya's didn't even try to sandwich dat in da middle of an insult dere...dat's a genuine complement...

Yuri: I can give complements!

Ada: Yeah, sure yous can....in da rare instence when da stars align...

Yuri: *Scoff* Whatever.

Xavier: I honestly couldn't have said it better myself. I mean, I couldn't think of more fitting parents to charge with the care of those pups.

Malcolm: Well, maybe us. *Chuckles* Er' yer Ma and Pa...

Xavier: P-Please, it's far too soon for us to be thinking about pups...

Malcolm: Ain't that soon...

Xavier: We aren't even tithed yet dear...

Malcolm: Oh I'm more than aware...

Yuri: *Chuckles* Looks like some mammal marched themselves right into the dog house.

Ada: And youse are one to talk?

Yuri: What now?!

Ada: All I'm sayin' is my paw is feelin' a little naked witout dat tattoo if ya gets my meaning.

Yuri: Oh now don't you start!

Trenton: Well...trying to steer things back on topic, I'm really happy for my brothers and sister-in-laws.

Qali: And we love, love, LOVE those pups to death!

Trenton: We try and get out to see 'em as much as possible, but we don't have it as easy in terms of travel as ol' Wade and Gizzy, er' my parents.

Wade: I only wish my apartment had more room for when the stayed over. Then again, I wish my apartment had more room in general just for Gizzy's sake.

Giselle: Giraffe sized housing is hard to come by in Tundratown. But we get by, don't we love? And We still manage to make those little sleep overs for fun for the pups!

Wade: We haven't had ol' Marcus out yet, but I know Zach and Vanna are still easin' the boy into family life so I kinda figure a sleep over is a ways off fer him.

Audrey: *Chuckles* Wade honey, Zach's still tryin' to convince the boy he ain't a butler. I'd say a sleep over at his uncle's is a long ways off.

Dorian: At the very least you'd have to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't start cleaning while you were both asleep.

Wade: Is it bad to say I wouldn't be adverse to him cleaing my place a bit?

Audrey: Wade.

Dawn: I am familiar with those kind of sheep, although I've only ever seens a few videos of sheep with that unique wool trait explaining how the process of 'rooing' works. Granted these videos were from the perspective of Sheepland Sheep, and according to them they aren't born with constantly removable wool, but during the spring new wool coming in creates a break point in the old wool, allowing the older fleece to be pulled away with a little bit of force.

As for whether or not I'd be happy to have wool that worked that way...well...I'm not sure. I mean it would only be once a year I could effectively pull off the loose wool, so it almost makes it not worth it from the get go. But then there's the prospect of all my wool being susceptible to being easy to pull loose and well...that...It could cause problems. For instance, once early on in my political days I accidentally got my hair caught in a door frame and hadn't realized until it yanked at my scalp.

It hurt like heck, but at least my wool stayed on! If I had rooing wool, I would have walked away from that door completely balding.

Vernon: *Snickering*

Dawn: It's not funny Puppy!

Vernon: I-I'm just imaginin' y-you with a sheared head...Pft...

Dawn: Vernon!

Vernon: Y'all got to laugh at me when I tried shavin' my fur, it's only fair y'all give me this one!

Dawn: Absolutely. It's a regular thing for sheep folk, and there are several small business just in Zootopia that specialize in supplying wool, or selling clothing made from their wool. And then there's the online craft market which is massive. Seriously,  Etsheep was founded on custom wool creations.

Joel: The same goes for alpacas like myself, as well as some species of goat from what I've heard.  I mean hey, it's a great way to make some quick cash, or to make a quick gift for friends and family.

Dawn: Well that's what I use mine for. *Giggles* My wool is for friends and family only.

Vernon: And I don't know where I like yer wool more, on yer head, er' as a shirt. *Chuckles*It's hard to choose.

Dawn: Aww...Puppy.

Vernon: Wait, I gotta pick shirt. Only cause that means I get to sheer the wool off ya...

Vernon: I wouldn't know...I mean so far when Dawn uses that voice the outcome is usually positive.

Yuri: Lucky devil...

Gus: Give it time...

Zach: I've been with Vanna fer years and she's never used an overly sweet voice to try and hide bein' mad at me.

Trenton: What does she do?

Zach: Generally I just get the cold shoulder. So Vanna gets quieter than usual until I'm forced to ask what I did.

Vernon: Dawn just gets cute when she's mad. *Chuckles* The way she puffs her cheeks out and crinkles her muzzle is so damn adorable it practically hurts. I just can't see her resortin' to the voice though.

Gus: The reason I said give it time is because...well...Dawn seemed like the type to do it.

Vernon: What's that supposta' mean?

Gus: She just...sometimes she seems a little...well...I mean there are certain traits she has that....er....seem a little....devious?

Vernon: Treadin' on some thin ice there Gus...You ain't implyin' that cause o' Dawn's history now ar-?

Gus: I just meant her and Melly seem to have some personality overlaps...and well...I'm used to Melly using that 'sickeningly sweet' tone more than I'd like to admit. That's all I meant by it.

Yuri: *Chuckles* I only get that tone when I screw up somethin' real bad...

Trenton: In what way?

Yuri: Like...I dunno. Last time I heard it, it was cause' I tole her co-workers a bunch o' fake stuff about what Ada does in private as a joke...Like that she was obsessed with ballet, er that she cried at the sad parts of Pup Cartoons...

Gus: You say that like it's a bad thing to cry at cartoons...

Yuri: *Chuckles* It ain't?

Gus: Y'know, a lot of cartoons can be very emotionally mature, especially when you throw Animalme into the mix, now th-

Yuri: Also made sure that word got around that Ada said the head of the hospital was an Incompetent boob, who's never worked a day in his life because his Pa got him the job.

Vernon: Sttthhh....Yuri...

Yuri: Yeah, I think that was the one that really got her mad at me...although the other stuff didn't help. Needless to say, her boss weren't all that happy to hear that...and it earned her some extra grunt work.

Trenton: Yeesh.

Vernon: So after she called you in that voice, what did you do?

Yuri: I ran. Out  of the apartment, into the parking garage, onto my motorcycle and just drove around fer a few hours...in the rain...

Vernon: Really?

Yuri: Hey, I'd rather end up with a cold then be on the recievin' end of Ada's wraith, even iffin' it only bought me a few hours at most...

Gus: What about you Kodi...Val strikes me as the type to only get sweet when she's angry...

Kodi: Hey she can be sweet! She's probably way softer than you guys even know...

Vernon: Really? I find that hard to believe...

Yuri: Hey pup, ya might no-.

Kodi: She loves snuggling up into my pelt and cuddling. Hell, we practically do that every time we're together, and I don't even have to be the one to start it anymore. Also, she's really affectionate with her pet lizard too...

Yuri: Kodi-

Kodi: And of course she's like an entirely different mammal with her Dad. She's practically like your pups are with you and Dawn Vern. Very huggy. Almost acts like a kit when sh-

Val: *Sweetly* Oooohhhhh....Koooodiii.....

Kodi: Uh-oh...

Yuri: *Sigh* I tried to warn ya...them boys was walkin' you into a trap....

Vernon: Sorry Kodi...it was too funny to pass up...

Kodi: I....think I need to hide....Gus! Do you have any space in the store she does-

Val : Kooodiak Uylesses Cooonvel....

Vernon: Uh-oh...that's a full name right there...Now that's a warnin' sign I recognize.