Authors notes:

RandomSht: It required multiple interventions, literally holding onto her for multiple days, countless 'think of the children' cries and a promise from the idiot who broke the first Bessemer converter to provide her with a lifetime marshmallow supply.

Foxlover: to be fair, part of that is because writing these stories only picks up on the mammals on the extreme ends of the scales. In Zootopia, (in ZTOP, before Wild-times) there were likely more (vocal) anti-collar prey than Preds and, for every vocal anti-collar one, there was one vocal pro-collar one. It's the 50% of mammals that aren't overtly hostile, but 'err on the side of caution' that are the most important, but they aren't really interesting to write about.

Combat engineer and A_Worm (A03 commentators):

The idea of the Preds leaving Zootopia to go bankrupt and buying it sounds gratifying, but it would take orders and orders of magnitude more money to buy even a wrecked city than it takes to make repairs beforehand. They also require foreign nations to actually set up large scale mining and other facilities. As John said, they still have next to no industrial capacity, and it would take decades (if not centuries) to build it up. The whole idea of ceding some of the mineral interests was to show an act of goodwill, and to make sure multiple countries each had a stake in protecting their sovereignty.

It's also worth noting that there are multiple countries/states that make up Mammalia. Zootopia is just one, and it had some of the best treatment for Preds out there. By bringing them over, John (in effect) vastly improves the lives of any Pred who moves there (on a scale he could never previously imagine). There are still places in this world like combat engineer describes, where a huge majority of Prey loathe Preds (and where collars won't be gone for a long, long time). If I get around to writing After ZTOP, you'll get some firsthand experience of these places (oh, you sweet summer child. The things I have planned).

Combat engineer's desire for justice is full of raw, powerful emotion. It's incredibly seductive, but ultimately it's a path that will only lead to destruction. After all, it's embracing these same raw emotions that led to the prey creating the collars and supporting them in the first place.

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Arcana: Zistopia's hiatus is a bummer, and it's sad that we may never see how the most influential work in our fandom wraps up.

When it first went on it, I was at least confident that it would pick up at the same time of the year that it did after the last one. Sadly that hasn't come to pass. What makes it more annoying is that it stopped when it seemed to be rapidly approaching the end of the 2nd act (which would end when the Cud club conspiracy would be revealed to the public, and society realising that the collars are evil and those who deceived them need to be brought to justice (which would be the third act (the first act being the start to Judy leaving Nick at Wild times))). Things were really getting interesting, and it's just a shame it didn't quite reach a 'good point' to go on such an indefinate hiatus (something which the Fic Fallen did at the end of its book 3, though it's now out of hiatus).

Then again, I'm crap at predicting how NicolasWilde's plot progresses. Back after Nick thought that Judy had betrayed him, I thought that he'd be packing things up (possessions, friends, a heavily protesting mother) and racing for the border. The next update surprised pretty much everyone, and if Zistopia ever restarts I'm sure it still has many surprises left. I still want to see poor, broken Frankie uncollared though (with Nick doing the deed and comforting her, telling her that they've won and Frankie bawling into him in return (with Nick saying that he once knew a happy, kind, loving vixen called Frankie Wilde, and for the first time in nineteen years he thought he was going to be able to see her again)).

I've also got another AU idea, which requires the ending of Zistopia to be known in order to work.

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Chapter 45.

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Judy's (3rd) Diary.

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6th, August 2017.

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It's kind of funny. Back when I was first told to start writing a diary, it was because of an encounter with a savage (I think) Jaguar.

I'd vehemently refused that I needed to a journal. I'd protested, been as stubborn as a…

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Actually no, I can't really say that anymore, can I?

There were a lot of things I said in that first diary, as I vented and stressed out. A lot of terrible things. A lot of things that, looking back now, shame me. After getting back my original diary I did try and re-read through it. I managed once, but it was deeply uncomfortable. I tried a second time not too long ago…

I ended up having to put it down, put it away, and I don't think I'll be able to touch it again.

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The thing that provoked me to stop was reading a passage about me thinking about how I used to think a certain way and congratulating myself on 'self-improvement'. It was crass, vulgar and quite frankly false. I'd barely improved at all…

The trouble is, I think I've improved now. I want to believe that I've improved. That I've finally become a good citizen. That I've got these prejudices out of me, or at least am able to recognise that some of the feelings I naturally get are wrong/ unwarranted.

The trouble is, I thought that back then. Back when I thought terrible things. Back when I supported terrible things. Back when I did terrible things…

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When I was 'a guest' under Nick's roof, I talked about being so scared of there being blood on my hands, I was in denial. 'Scrubbing' them clean so much I never noticed how soaked they were…

The trouble is that now I can never be sure that the blood will ever be cleaned out. And it begs the question, given that I came to realise that what I thought was once a fundamental pillar of society was evil, what other fundamental pillars that I also support are evil?

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I don't know.

I don't think I've ever known and I don't think I ever will.

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I said that all when I tried to resign, earlier today. Even though I'd risen up to being ranked detective, all these self-doubts had risen up given time until they became too much to bear. I always wanted to make the world a better place, but at that moment I believed that my actions could only ever make it worse.

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Bogo shouted at me a lot, telling me that I was stupid. Saying that I'd stopped murders. Saved mammals from slavery. Taken down master thieves and put serial rapists behind bars.

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I replied that I'd used that same logic to justify the things I'd done. The things I said… You know, all that.

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And he sighed, told me that I was a great cop. A talented cop. And that I should take some time out to think about this. He told me that for every mammal I may have hurt, I'd helped a dozen. He said he'd be trying to get in contact with them so that they could meet me. Give me a confidence boost.

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I went home after that. Logged onto the internet and told Nick. Or Sir Nick, as he joked. Saying that, as a foreign secretary, he might as well have a fitting title. I called him out on that, and he agreed. Lordy old royalty isn't a personality that works for him. Doesn't stop him from using it to annoy me though…

Anyway, he encouraged me to carry on. Carry on being a detective. After all, Prey on Pred hate crime has apparently been rising, and given how many more Preds are arriving in Zootopia (they're up to 20% of the total pop now) that's more mammals who need my help.

I think that put me at ease. Having the one mammal who called me out and challenged me more than ever being supportive.

Bit jarring, to be fair…

But then again, here I am talking to my kitnapper.

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We talked quite a bit, and I told him how I thought that I was a bad person. But then he said that people make mistakes. He talked about he was so convinced that the 'Savage mammals' were a Prey conspiracy, he refused to believe in them until he saw one for himself. He said he was stubborn, and made a mistake, and sometimes you're in so deep it needs a massive push to get you out. He said that, being able to make such a big mistake made him at least understand how Prey like me could make a mistake. He said I certainly made a massive one, but that I could blame it on my Prey instincts to fall into a mindless crowd.

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Heh… It felt good calling him out for speciesism for a change.

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It sort of changed my mind, and I told him that maybe I should try and keep on being this force for good in the world, and he agreed. He said I've always been a trier, and just because I tried in an ajar direction before doesn't mean I should quit when I've realised I've gone off path. He said I should move back onto the right path, taking a step at a time, and I should be back there in a year or so.

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I joked that I'd double down on that path, before Kitmas!

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That made him giggle a bit.

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Anyway, he rounded off by saying that I should visit some time. Meet his family again. He said his children and his parents liked me, and even Anita would give me a shot.

I asked about Hester, and he replied that she couldn't wait to annoy the dumbybunny again.

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I politely decline, and I said that I'd come to realise something. When I was young, I thought Zootopia was this magical place where Pred and Prey got one together. Turns out I was about as wrong as you could be. But however bad the reality turned out to be, there was a dream behind Zootopia. A dream that was slowly being pursued again, and that might one day be reached. But I told him that his country. The place he and his parents and all the other Preds made, truly was Zootopia. Not this stinky old city here. And that while the dream was worth pursuing here, it wasn't worth letting Preds live downtrodden and oppressed lives for generations until it became a reality. All those Preds coming to my city were coming to 'Zootopia', but all those leaving for those islands far out in the eastern Ocean were going to Zootopia.

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Nick said he enjoyed the usual vapid, hyper energetic me and that this was too deep for this late in the evening.

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I laughed.

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A lot.

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And then he said something amazing. He said that his sister Lynn would have liked me as well. And he was sorry that she never lived to see me.

I said that I was sorry too.

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I don't think I'm going to quit. While Nick and co are building a new Zootopia out there, with thousands of Predators sailing over a year, there's a broken one here that needs fixing. Out there, every joe just joins a 'worker army' for two years unless they're a doctor or something. Fair enough, it's what needed to build the new towns, dams, roads, bridges, trains etc… They're even working on a proper parliament building, and have got engineering teams from Avarian to help build a proper rail system.

Here though, it's not a simple job of designing and building new things. It's winning hearts and minds. It's inspiring dreamers to keep on pounding through seas that are far stormier for them than it is for others, to reach the shore on the other side. It's hard. It's messy. And it must be done.

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And for the sake of Predators, and Prey, everywhere, it has to be done.

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Well. Better call Bogo and tell him that I'm going back tomorrow.

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There's work to be done.

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Judy Hopps. A dumb Bunny. Signing out.

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Authors notes:

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So, a fan-fic of my fanfic...

I can't remember when I first started to write this, but it's been published over six long months. Half a year and (sadly, not quite) 200,000 words. Looking back, it tried a lot of things and some things worked, some failed. Personally, I preferred writing the first person sections compared to the third, and some people really enjoyed these. Others didn't and much preferred the present sections. I think that means I got the balance fairly right ;)

It was great to have so much comment interaction, including those people who were looking through the hints I was planting and trying to knit the pieces together. I didn't get a fan-fic theory episode, but hey? Still fun to see you guys investing yourself so much in this work. While I'll likely not do something so theorising-able in the future, and I hope this great comment interaction continues on any upcoming Fics I've done.

My next Fic (Evacuated) was supposed to be a short, four chapter job. So far, I've turned the first chapter into four chapters with 19,000 words combined, and have just decided to make two versions of the Fic (a dark version that I originally planned, and a light version)...

I'll be going on holiday soon, but I'm going to try and start a much more informal writing schedule. Taking time out here and there to add a few hundred words on my phone. When I start my new job in september, I should half an hour a day on a train which I'll try to harness for productive use.

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Well, those Fics comes out when those Fics comes out. Until then, so long, farewell, and Try everything.