Welcome! In the interest of facilitating an internet experience for myself akin to what it used to be, have an about me post!
I'm AJ and I'm a writer, reader, all-around renaissance man stuck in a frutiger aero world.
This is my writing blog where I share my works and anything related to them. I create stories featuring no humans fit for ravenous consumption, and share thoughts about the writing process to the void.
Search these tags on my page: fanfiction, scanlation, thoughts
I like these enough to contribute works in them: DuckTales, Donald Duck comics, Beastars, Darkwing Duck, Bluey, Zootopia
MY DISNEY COMIC SCANLATIONS
MY ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN
MY FANFICTION.NET
Hello, I’ve been rereading “Diesel’s Patrol” theee past few days and as someone who has he own headcanon names and all that, would it be okay to use your headcanon of Rusty’s dad being a garage owner/mechanic? I wish to make my own book one day and I loved that headcanon of him being a mechanic after discharge !
Yeah, that's fine, go for it! I love that my fic inspired you enough to explore Rusty's dad with your own work. Lemme know when you write it, cause I'd love to read it
Have you ever wanted to showcase your voice acting skills? Want to show how fantastic of a voice actor you are when it comes to Zootopia? Well sign up for the ZDC! Check the link below for more info!
SUMMARY: With Andross's demise behind him and a free Lylat waiting for him, Fox McCloud is led out of the temple by his father, James. The tunnel is long and quiet, but it may allow Fox to say what he never got to, and James to provide some final comfort to his son.
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“If I go down, I’M TAKING YOU WITH ME!”
The violent metallic reverberation of Andross’s final declaration propelled the evil scientist’s battered brain deep into the base’s reactor core.
“NO!” screamed Fox McCloud. He thrust his Arwing into a U-turn as the core erupted into a huge fireball. The heat of the explosion rocketed him towards the tunnel he entered through, his paws straining to keep control of his ship.
The entire fortress shook, and a structural pillar crashed down in front of the tunnel as Fox approached. He yipped and quickly pulled up. Luckily, there was another escape hatch to his west that he saw earlier.
Anywhere was better than here.
The molten metal and acid below the Arwing began to rise as the reactor melted down. Rock and metal crumbled, sparks flew all around as Fox closed in on his new exit. Suddenly, a plume of fire surged out of the tunnel, and Fox halted the Arwing hard and turned around again.
More beams and trusses rained down. It took every evasive maneuver Fox knew to keep the Arwing from joining them on their way to doom. He was running out of time. There had to be a way out.
The G-Diffuser alarm blared. It was overheating and near its limit. Fox’s ears pinned to his head, and his breathing spiked. He couldn’t go out like this, on the eve of peace in the galaxy. He didn’t want to be a martyr for Lylat, his promising life cut short.
He didn’t want to let his father down.
Another Arwing shot across in front of him. Fox gasped and reflexively rolled in its direction before he collided with the wall. He pushed his G-Diffuser for all it had left to tail this new Arwing. Who was this hotshot dropping in out of nowhere?!
The comm hissed to life, and a calming voice came through. “Don’t ever give up, my son.”
Fox’s ears shot upwards. He remembered that voice like it was yesterday.
“Dad?!”
It had to be. No one could fly an Arwing like that, unless they were James McCloud.
“Follow me, Fox.”
The Arwing ducked into a hatch just big enough for the ship as Fox blasted after it. The G-Diffuser gauge was empty. The destruction around was overwhelming. Thread the needle, Fox.
Fox rocketed into this hidden tunnel and let go of the G-Diffuser. The alarm cut out, and the gauge began to fill. His shields were battered, but hanging in there. He was still okay.
Fox sucked in a shaky breath and let it out. He had to stay sharp; the danger wasn’t past yet. The rumbling of the base’s collapse grew quieter behind him but did not vanish. He would not survive if he stayed.
The mysterious Arwing banked across his cockpit glass, making the numerous scratches in it apparent to Fox. As they approached a branch in the tunnel, the ship rolled to its right and took the corresponding path.
“This way, Fox,” said his father.
“Dad…” said Fox, begging for a reason why he couldn’t say anything. He could only give chase.
In his mind’s eye, he wasn’t 18, escaping Andross’s temple, about to become the savior of Lylat. He was in his father’s lap in the Arwing’s cockpit, taking his first spaceflight for his ninth birthday. That first barrel roll and the laughing fit they had both dissolved into, along with Peppy Hare’s scolding afterwards, had been the happiest memory of his childhood.
“Dad…” Fox tried again, pushing past the forming lump in his throat. “Is that…really you?”
“Don’t worry, I get it,” said the elder fox, “And…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to leave everyone so soon.”
Fox dipped his head. If this was an illusion, a ghost from his past among the surges of heat and sparks dotting the tunnel walls, then his mind was relaying the truth he didn’t want to believe, that he had buried under his childish hope that James was still out there…somewhere.
He wasn’t. He was dead at Andross’s hands. And now, Fox had turned the tables on the ape.
“C’mon, fly with your dad for a bit?”
Fox looked up. The Arwing ahead of him was turning left at another fork in the tunnel.
“Dad, wait!” Fox flew after him as a small blast sounded from his six. “Wait up!” he panted. “Just—don’t go, okay? I’m…I’m scared.”
Fox had put on a brave face for everyone since that fateful day his father didn’t come home. Through the funeral and the tough academy curriculum and the constant, unrelenting comparisons, Fox weathered it all with a brash attitude and unquenchable ambition. He wasn’t just going to be the son of the late James McCloud. He was going to carve his own path, chart his own pattern in the stars.
“It’s okay to be scared, sport.”
But like every other time, his father knew how to dive through the mask and know exactly what Fox was feeling.
Fox swallowed as he hit the G-Diffuser again, keeping his father within reach. So many things left unsaid, so many questions unanswered. What should he ask?
One question shone brighter than the others. “Were you scared when you…when you…” He couldn’t even finish, the memory too painful.
“Terrified, Fox,” said James. “I’ve been terrified many times. When I first stepped into an Arwing, when I left the CDF and started Star Fox, heck, when we had you. I had no idea how I could be the dad I wanted to be for you with the pressures of leading my own team through dangerous missions. I’ll admit there were a couple of times I felt like I was failing you, being gone all the time.”
“Dad, no!” Fox exclaimed, “Not a chance! You were the best—the only dad I could ever want! You inspired me, inspired this! I owe you everything.”
“Thank you, Fox,” said James, “I hope you know that for all the time I spent out at work, I only felt I was really living when I was home, raising you. You were the center of my world, my son. I only regret that I don’t have more time.”
“I know, Dad,” said Fox.
The tunnel shuddered, and the distant rumble of the collapsing base grew louder. A steel panel detached from the ceiling, and Fox barrel-rolled out of its way. It bent and twisted in his rearview as he continued to catch up to his father. He wasn’t even sure he was leading him to the outside. It was instinct that was driving his Arwing forward.
“And listen…” James continued, clearing his throat. “I was terrified…that day on Venom. When Pigma betrayed us, I was terrified that Corneria’s blue sky would darken forever, that Peppy’s worst nightmare would come true…I was scared I’d never get to see you graduate from the Academy.”
Fox remembered barely holding it together as he walked across the stage, knowing his father wasn’t in the audience, wasn’t waiting outside to hug him and tell him how proud he was. It muted any joy he felt for accomplishing his dream.
“But you know what?”
Fox blinked his moistening eyes as his father’s Arwing grew closer to him. “What, Dad?”
“The one thing I remembered in that moment, and the one thing I always want you to remember—I never gave up, and I trusted my instincts.”
There was that phrase, the one mantra that remained a bedrock through Fox’s life, from his childhood adventures with his dad to the Academy training, and up to the decision to strike out from under the bureaucracy of the Corneria Defense Force to continue his father’s legacy with Star Fox.
“The most important thing I knew, deep in my gut, is that I had to keep my friends and my home safe. That’s why I took the shot meant for Peppy, and charged into a one-sided fight with Andross–so he could escape and warn of what was coming. I’d take that shot a thousand times over. True bravery is doing the right thing even when you’re scared out of your boots, because you know it’ll save your best friend, and someday…it’ll lead to the downfall of evil and to peace for the system.”
They made one more turn to the right this time, and Fox finally reached his father’s Arwing. He slid onto its left wing and glanced over to its cockpit. Would he look the same as in the old photographs Fox always kept close to him?
A middle-aged tod with orange-brown fur and a white fur hawk on top looked back at him. His aviator sunglasses reflected red as another explosion boomed at their rear. He wore a green flight and a brown kerchief, similar to Fox’s.
He had always sneered at those who said he looked so much like his dad, but right now, Fox couldn’t have been prouder to be his father’s reflection. And he looked so real.
Fox held his lips together, but they trembled anyway. His eyes burned as tears finally breached and slid down his face. His heart ached as he had never felt in the five years since James was declared dead. Dang it, why did he have to cry in front of his father?
James’s lips moved with his soothing voice over the comm. “There, there, kiddo. You’ve become so strong. I know you feel for this system the way I do, so never shy away from that. Feel it, Fox.”
Fox felt so much as a leader—for Lylat, for his crewmates, for his father, and it was all coming to a head.
James smiled before looking down. “I hope you can forgive your old man for the sacrifice he made.”
Fox let out a wet laugh as he wiped his eyes. “It’s okay, Dad. I do.”
James returned his gaze to Fox. “I know Star Fox is in excellent hands.”
“You sure? I feel like I still need you.”
“I’ll be with you forever, Fox, deep within that spirit of yours. Look after your team and let them look after you. It’ll all be okay. Never give up, trust your instincts.” James raised a paw to lower his sunglasses. His eyes looked right into Fox’s soul, wrapping his arms around the part of him that still hurt for his father’s absence. The tunnel’s texture changed, the steel darkening as they grew closer to the surface.
“I’m so, so proud of you,” James emphasized, word by word, imprinting it into Fox. “You’re Fox McCloud, my son, and you’re gonna rattle the stars. I love you from one end of Lylat to the other, and I always will.”
Fox’s shoulders shook as he nodded, his voice reduced to a whisper. “Love you too, Dad. Forever and ever.”
“Go get ‘em, kiddo.” James pushed his sunglasses back up and hit the throttle, blasting forward.
Sobs wracked through Fox as he hit his G-Diffuser, straining to keep his father in his sights as long as he could. The daylight ahead was a dot in the distance before it grew into a white circle that surrounded Fox’s view. Tears leaked through as he squinted his eyes. The rumble behind him returned to his awareness as a deafening roar. Fire and heat engulfed his ship, and he grit his teeth for the end.
The Arwing continued to fly straight up into the sky as the destruction of the base and of Andross shattered the ground behind Fox. Caustic flames engulfed the entire structure he had just flown out of. No doubt there would only be a crater left of the maniacal monkey’s assault on the system.
Fox’s sobs quieted the higher he climbed. In the corner of his eye, his father’s Arwing banked into the hazy green clouds above Venom and then disappeared. Fox gasped and whipped around to catch a last look at James, but he was gone. He had come to him in his darkest hour, saved his life, and returned from whence he came.
His eyes dried, and his pain subsided, replaced by an all-encompassing exhaustion. Fox was alone again, but only for a moment.
As soon as the Arwing broke through Venom’s atmosphere, there were his friends, his team, lined up in a row in their Arwings next to the Great Fox, the giant flagship bought by his father as Star Fox’s headquarters and home away from home.
Fox shot up behind them and pulled up, rotating around before slowly pulling into their formation. Aside from the gentle hum of the Arwing’s idling reactor, all was quiet in the blackness of pure, unyielding space.
The comm crackled to life again. “Andross’s forces are retreating!” Slippy Toad cheered.
“Fox! I knew you had it in you!” said Peppy.
“I had my doubts,” said Falco Lombardi, “But you’re the real deal, boss.”
Fox sent his rival a smile. Of course, his compliment would be backhanded, but the respect within it made him feel like a leader after all.
Falco’s beak turned down in concern. “Yo, you been crying, Fox?”
“Crying?” said Peppy, coming up next to Fox’s ship. “What’s wrong?”
Fox sniffed, rubbing at his eyes once again. Catching a glance at his reflection, he saw that his eyes were indeed red and slightly puffy.
Don’t be afraid to feel it, Fox.
“I just…” Fox shuddered, “…can’t believe it’s over…that we did it.”
“You know, your father would be proud of you today,” Peppy said with a nod. “Very proud.”
Fox looked down toward Venom with a wistful sadness. “I know…”
The red dot of destruction was visible through Venom’s atmosphere, and continued to grow. Happy flying, Dad, Fox thought, longing for James to hear him. Clear skies wherever you’re going.
Fox looked out toward a distant blue planet, a speck in the etherium. “Star Fox,” he ordered, “let’s head home.”
The three Arwings of his teammates set off at cruising speed, the Great Fox flying next to them on a course for Corneria. They would meet little resistance on the way as Andross’s army continued to fall apart, at the mercy of the CDF now that Star Fox had saved the system.
Fox leaned back in his chair, feeling a weight he’d gotten used to lift from every part of his body. The future was uncertain now, so much would have to be rebuilt. Lylat and Fox himself were entering uncharted territory in their lives.
I’ll always love you, Fox, my son. Good luck.
But he could trust his instincts that his father would always fly beside him, and that things would be okay.
The ZDC Needs Video Editors! Come one! Come all! The ZDC needs your help! Are you a video editor who can save the ZDC and Nick Wilde? If so! Shoot us an email to join the ZDC! [email protected]
After 5 years of producing this podcast off and on, I'VE MADE IT THROUGH GRAVITY FALLS' FIRST SEASON! Listen now to all the shenanigans we get up to with our special guest, Rob Renzetti!
The ZDC is proud to present our first full length comic dub since our return to Youtube: An Adventure in Zootropolis. Our team worked very hard on this project and we are so excited to share it with you all. Check out it out here!
So glad to have edited this and voiced everyone's favorite dad cut from an early version of the film, John Wilde! Enjoy and lookout for more from this project!
Wildehopps Big Bang Challenge Artists Still Needed
Hello everyone! The Wildehopps Big Bang Challenge registration is open. We are very pleased and excited with the turn out we’ve had so far with people registering to join, but we are still in need of some more artists. Artists, of all different levels of experience, are welcome to join! For anyone who is not an artist, if you know of any artists, who may be interested, please spread the word. This is a fun challenge for authors and artists to collaborate in order to create content for the fandom to enjoy. Artists will complete two pieces of art to represent an author’s fanfiction. One piece of art will be a full cover art depicting a scene from the fanfiction and the other will be a basic sketch of another scene from the fanfiction. The art does not have to be complete until February, so you will have plenty of time to work. We look forward to working with you all!
The sneak peak of our first comic dub since the ZDC has returned is available on Youtube. A huge shout out to UncaAJ who has been doing incredible work on editing the comic dub and thank you VolFoxxo who helped with putting the preview together. This is an excellent come back and I'm thrilled to work with you all! Check it out here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y8LvNLLcIQ
The Zootopia Dubbing Channel (@zootopiadubbers) from @zootopianewsnetwork is coming back, and I'm helping to edit the very first one: An Adventure in Zootropolis by RobertFiddler! Check out the trailer!
I'm a huge Justin Bieber fan and one of my favorite songs by him is "Deserve You" and everytime I listened to it, I couldn't help but think that's how Nick would feel when it comes to Judy, so I was inspired to write a story about it!! I recommend listening to the song while reading it! Hope you all like it 🥹💜
[Rating T13]Romance
A fox, a bunny and a snake walk into a bar…
Not a set up for a joke, but rather three our our fav characters going for a fun night out. And while WildeHopps may be a benchmark itch that this fic is oh so happy to scratch, it’s our favourite blue pit viper finding someone who might be more than a friend, and in a very unexpected way, that takes centre stage in this story. A small but fun read, full of fluff and… uh… Scales? Either way, well worth checking out.
