Some of the Pack Street crew relaxing.note
"Sheep don't eat meat."
—Remmy
Pack Street is a series of Zootopia fan comics and stories by The Weaver.
You know Zootopia? A Shining City of interspecies cooperation in a World of Funny Animals, where "anyone can be anything"? Well, there's a Wrong Side of the Tracks there, too, and if you didn't already know there were predator/prey tensions, that's where you'll find out.
Enter Remmy Cormo, our protagonist, a mostly mild-mannered sheep with an open mind but his own preconceived notions and ignorance about other species. After renting in the only affordable area he could, he has to adjust to the cast of eccentric and varied characters that call the area home, and vice versa. Maybe he can learn something along the way, assuming he doesn't put his hoof in his mouth too badly before then...
The setting is ongoing, and has attracted some attention from artists such as Adam Bryce Thomas, best known for Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics).
The comic Wannabite can be read here
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The entirety of the written stories, including the chapters after "Wannabite," can be read on AO3. A rougher draft that only goes up to the "Ruin" joke chapter can be found on Pastebin.
In 2023, Weaver announced Pack Street to be going on hiatus, possibly indefinitely, as a result of real life troubles relating to the people he wrote the story with.
Examples:
- Accidental Pervert: This happens to Remmy more than once, and sometimes it's not quite so innocent.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Marty proves to be a pretty good sport about Remmy's prank in "B.R.E". Remmy himself reciprocates when Marty finally gets his revenge in "What You Sow".
- Animated Actors: In a very strange and presumably non-canon example, one comic shows a vixen claiming to play Charlie on the TV series Pack Street doing a celebrity endorsement, only for the real Charlie to show up and wonder how they got into her room.
- April Fools' Day: "Ruin", posted on April 1, came immediately after the Cliffhanger ending of "Wannabite", and is set up as a serious, dramatic continuation...before swiftly devolving into what would happen if the fans started
Running the Asylum. Massive Flanderization immediately sets in, with Charlie going full Rain Man; Avo smugly comments on the Fan-Preferred Couple; all of the males immediately become interested in each other, etc. - Arc Words:
- "Sheep don't eat meat."
- In "What You Sow", Marty leads Remmy around town on a scavenger hunt, with each clue accompanied by the mysterious words "We have what you need." It turns out to be a prank; the "prize" at the end is a sheep-shaped sex doll.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- When Velvet, a government worker is waiting for Ozzy and Remmy at the apartment building and expressing severe disappointment in them, you might think she's found out about their participation in the recent crime. Nope! She's actually upset that Remmy (unintentionally) made Ozzy late for his appointment.
- In the mini-story "Transformation", the entire narrative implies that the main character is Marty. It's actually Charlie.
- The title card for "What You Sow" appears to show Remmy tied to a chair and being recorded for a Hostage Video. It's actually a sheep-shaped sex doll being used to prank Remmy.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Remmy, a prey mammal who eats "bug burgas", a predator food. Come "Chum", he adds fish to his diet as well. Doubles as Ascended to Carnivorism.
- Book Worm: Marty. He works at a library, and his apartment is filled with books.
- The Caper: In the chapter aptly titled, "The Heist", Charlie ropes Remmy and Wolter into helping her "liberate" a batch of medical-grade tiger pheromones.
- Cerebus Call-Back: The entire prose story can be seen as one for the 'Wannabite' comic, which was drawn first. The events depicted in the comic occur around the halfway point of the story, and with the added context we find out things were actually worse for Remmy than it seemed in the comic. His closest friend went savage, he just got laid off from his job before the first page, and the good nature he shows to his neighbors is being forced. Even his assurance to himself, 'I'm sure I'm not the only sheep who eats at Bug Burga', comes across as harsher now that we know he did see another sheep at the place once, only for them to turn out to be a racist jackass.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Twice now Weaver has hidden a character who later turns out to be an important part of the story as a seemingly unrelated drawing among other Pack Street doodles long before they actually show up. Specifically, Pandora and Kenny.
- One doodle features Marty having an argument with an off-screen character named Jeanine. She turns out to be the goat in Don's pack.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: A two-way example with Remmy and the rest of Pack Street's residents. Over time, he gradually looks at them in a less negative light, and they in turn start treating him more like one of the group.
- Dictionary Opening: The very first line of the fic.Wannabite: Noun. slang. (Also “wanna bite”) Pejorative for an individual belonging to a prey species who demonstrates predatory characteristics, or who desires to be a predator.
Contrast predator analogs: grassbiter, grinder. - Enemy Eats Your Lunch: A variant. In 'Among Wolves', during a fight with Betty, Al tears her trademark cigarette out of her mouth and smokes it in front of her.
- Episode Title Card: As it was with Roommates, each chapter begins with a title card in a simplified art style.
- Fantastic Slur: As Pack Street is fairly rough territory by Zootopia standards, more than a few of these pop up during the course of the series.
- "Wannabite" — a coarse, but not necessarily unfriendly, nickname for a prey animal who enjoys eating meat. Remmy's status as such is established in the first story, which is even named after it.
- "Predophile" — a mocking nickname for a prey animal who is sexually interested in predators. The female preds of the apartment enjoy teasing Remmy that he is into them, and although he denies it, the narration makes it pretty obvious that they're on-track with the claim.
- "Hoofer" — an ungulate. Cliff the tiger is deeply scandalized when he actually says this in front of Remmy, but Remmy himself doesn't consider it to be a slur; it's factual in nature (ungulates do have hooves, after all; it's their defining trait), it doesn't really sound offensive, and it rolls off the tongue more easily than "ungulate" does.
- "Chomper" — a old-fashioned and very politically incorrect nickname for predators as a whole, referencing their teeth. Doubles as a Mythology Gag, having been used in the "tame collar" drafts of Zootopia.
- "Grazer" — the predator equivalent to "Chomper", a derogatory name for prey.
- From Bad to Worse: At the end of the "full" version of "Wannabite", the savage outbreaks may be over, but the predator populace knows it was a sheep ploy against them... and they know Remmy lives in the area. The end is essentially Remmy barricading himself in his apartment and huddling in a corner, terrified for his life in the face of what he can see coming. Later we find out that the protest was exclusively against Mayor Bellwether, not sheep as a whole, as Neil contritely explains in "Paint Job" when Remmy outright asks him.
- Furry Reminder: A lot of little tidbits about real animal traits and behaviors pop up during the stories, much like the series' inspiration.
- "Power Forward" reminds us that even as a short, hornless ram, Remmy is literally built for butting things with his head when he manages to ram a punching bag twice his size with such force that Avo, who's holding it on the other side, staggers away and falls to the ground gasping for breath like she just got one hell of a gut-punch.
- A lot of animal facts pop up in "Field Day" and "Sheepfacts", like the fact that hoofed animals like Remmy need special help gripping things due to the particular shape of their fingers, sheep have a 300 degree field of vision, aardwolves are technically felines, and hyenas can digest bones.
- In "Dogwhistle", Remmy assumes the whistle Al gave him is broken when he desperately tries to call for help as he's attacked by Don's pack. Indeed, a sheep's hearing range is smaller than that of a canid or feline.
- The Ghost: Mama Black Ivory, the leader of a herbivore-majority pack on Pack Street. We see members of her pack, like Don, Jeanine and Dolph, and Al meets with her offscreen to make peace between their packs after Don assaults Remmy, but Mama herself has yet to appear. Art by Weaver depicts her as a rhinoceros.
- Guilt by Coincidence: In the text version of "Wannabite", things are much worse for Remmy than they seemed even in the comics, implying that he'll be a target of a sheep witch hunt (at least given how he perceives it). Consider that:
- All the conspirators are sheep. He's the only sheep in the area.
- He was seen outside Pandora's shop the day she went savage.
- He made remarks about losing his job (for unrelated reasons) just before the conspiracy was announced.
- In "B.R.E.", he played a deep prank on Marty involving a fictional conspiracy of sheep, then promised him that no such thing existed, which was true as far as he knew at the time.
- Hotter and Sexier: Remmy's Unwanted Harem from the rest of Pack Street lends itself to a lot of sex comedy in a fic derived from a children's movie.
- How We Got Here: The story opens (via the "Wannabite" comic) with Remmy, already moved in, watching the announcement of the Bellwether scandal on TV. The rest of the story is about the events leading up to that point, which it does in the story of the same title, and then continuing on.
- Iconic Item: Remmy often sports a T-shirt that simply reads "MELES MELES"note.
- Innocently Insensitive: Remmy tends to come across as this more often than not, often without even realizing he's being a jerk. To his credit, he always attempts to make amends.
- Irony: Remmy is the most individualist character in the story, misunderstanding the group mentality shared among the street and causing them to think he's arrogant. He is a sheep.
- Just Whistle: Remmy Cormo is given a dog whistle as a present from the members of Pack Street after joining said pack, along with specific instructions on how to use it. When he eventually needs it while being attacked by Don, he assumes it doesn't work until seeing the effect it has on the canines among his attackers. Shortly after, Anneke comes running from how many times he blew it.
- Live Mink Coat: Charlie offers herself up (Or at least, is offered by Al and doesn't seem to mind) to be a scarf for Velvet in one gag comic, giving her a compliment as she does so.
- Lovable Jock: Cliff and Neil, a tiger and lion duo that Remmy befriends at the gym.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: While most of the crew has their moments, Anneke and Wolter qualify the most. Their only standard seems to be that they won't sleep with the underage.
- Mindless Sheep: Becomes a point of embarrassment for Remmy. At a meeting he gathered with residents of Pack Street to educate them on facts about sheep, he admits he mostly pulled facts off the same website without really checking them over. This leads him at one point to read a fact that claims sheep are natural followers, good at doing what they're told without asking questions. He quickly tries to move on from this, but several other facts reinforce similar negative stereotypes about his species.
- Mood Whiplash:
- In the story version of "Wannabite", Remmy goes from elation that the savage outbreak is over to anger at Bellweather for causing this whole mess for her own sick political games to sincere terror for his life when it's confirmed as a seemingly sheep-exclusive conspiracy.
- In "Jam", Ozzy tells a funny story about the former Packmate Kenny, who Marty tricked into trying to skip stones on the sea. They have a good laugh at the part where Kenny threw Marty into the sea in revenge... but then Ozzy solemnly mentions the injuries Marty sustained, and it becomes clear that Kenny was actually a real jerk.
- Moral Myopia: Zigzagged. None of the predators ever really openly acknowledge their own faults in making Remmy feel an outcast, other than a few token comments in a backhanded way. However, once Remmy does apologize for the legitimately wrong things he said to Al, they do open up to him a lot more.
- Mythology Gag:
- When he first meets Wolt, Remmy recalls that he knew a Woolter back in high school, who was a "real piece of work." In the source material, Woolter is one of the Big Bad's henchmen.
- Amongst the mementos Remmy finds in "Forget About Him" is a video game titled Nightmare Raid, which is also the name of a chapter in Weaver's other work, Roommates: Memoirs of the Hairless Ape.
- Naked First Impression: Remmy walks in on Charlie stepping out of the shower. She doesn't mind; he does.
- Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: With the exception of Charlie, none of them are actually criminals, but the Pack itself (realistically) blurs the line between this and a social organization when we finally find out how it actually works. It's eventually laid bare: they're an oppressed minority group in a city of immigrants, and they've got an informal code to protect each other. If one of the members has some kind of need — be it necessities, small amounts of money, help — everyone else is expected to pitch in to help, and the Alpha will do whatever he can to get it if need be. In return, people pay tribute to him not as a demand, but as a gesture of respect, and if you're going to get anywhere, you have to be willing to be humble before him. Sound familiar?note
- Not Helping Your Case:
- Neither Remmy nor the Pack make very good impressions on each other. Remmy is a real standoffish jerk to the Pack in the early stories, though is a little justified in that he's not only shaken up over whatever made him leave his old flock, he's scared to death in these unfamiliar surroundings. The Pack, however... on top of the casual intimidation and insults, you have things like Charlie breaking into Remmy's apartment, forcing her way into his bed, and getting Betty to shear Remmy against his will so she can take the wool without his permission for her own bedding when he kicks her out of his bed in "Cloudy Day", Charlie and Wolter tricking Remmy into helping them steal Tiger Oil in "The Heist", and then, the cherry on top, Ozzy attempting to blame an innocent Remmy for his delay in seeing Velvet in "Fall Back". Really, it's no wonder Remmy explodes.
- The Pack Street locals' response to the savage outbreak being proven to be a plot by Bellwether and company is to savagely maul her in effigy. The anger is understandable, but it's no wonder it has Remmy alarmed when he sees it and misinterprets the meaning.
- Oh, Crap!: Remmy has this reaction in the original comic when watching the news of Bellwether's arrest.Remmy: oh boy
- Poor Communication Kills:
- A huge part of the problem between Remmy and his neighbors is that neither side is really open to communicating with each other. In particular, the predators make a lot of assumptions about Remmy understanding their pack culture and deliberately refusing to play along. This comes to a boil in "Fall Back", where Remmy finally gets sick of his neighbors just assuming he understands everything they say or do and letting them having for this attitude. Unfortunately for everyone, he gets a little too heated in his complaints. This really comes to the surface when we get an outside view in the form of Avo's narration in a spinoff: she thinks he's treating the Pack like a gang and bristling under accepting Al's Tough Love leadership style, whereas he completely misses the unspoken "you help me, I help you" vibe and just wants to be left alone.
- In a specific example, in "Fall Back", Velvet is aghast that nobody's actually told Remmy about Ozzy's problems or her role in treating them, and starts to call Al out on letting Remmy go ignorant.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: After the savage hoax is exposed, Anneke starts to act cold and angry towards Remmy. He thinks it's misplaced anger over Bellwether's crimes and tries to talk to her about it. Unfortunately, she really is angry at him, and has been for a long time. After loudly calling him out for his selfishness and specism, she tells him she never wants to see him again. They only finally get back on speaking terms after the events of "Dogwhistle", when she runs to Remmy's rescue with a tazer in hand.
- Recursive Fanfiction: This series is popular enough that it's spawned fan fictions of itself, mostly on Archive of Our Own.
- Shout-Out: The story "B.R.E" revolves around Marty's knowledge of the old chant "Baa, Ram, Ewe..."
- Switching P.O.V.: In two spinoff stories, one of which is not in the above list (because it's NSFW), we switch from Remmy's POV, first to Avo, then to Charlie.
- Tuckerization: Byron's Manifesto, a shout-out to Zootopia director/writer Byron Howard.
- Unreliable Narrator: Remmy is both very defensive and highly oblivious to the way other people think, so his narration always presents himself as being in the right, even when context makes it clear he's not. He does get better over the course of the series, but the few times we get narration from someone else in supplemental material, it's clear how very wrong his first-person narrative often is.
- Unwanted Harem: Yes, Remmy somehow manages to get the affections in some way of every female in Pack Street except Pandora+ and Velvet+.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The pack of the Crowns tease and give each other grief constantly, but when push comes to shove, they've got each other's backs.
- Wham Episode:
- "Savages": Pandora goes savage, Charlie thinks that it should have been her, Anekke is too shaken to enjoy a night on the town, and a graffiti mural that Remmy admired gets vandalized.
- "Wannabite": The savage outbreak is done with and the truth is revealed. Remmy is relieved, until the newscast he's watching speaks of how the conspiracy was run by sheep, and he looks out the window only to see a furious anti-sheep demonstration, and the predators taking part see him up at the window. Remmy firmly believes he's in deep trouble.
- "Paint Job": Al reveals more details on the TAME collars debate and tells Remmy about what Pack Street used to be: Happytown, a failed planned community for predators during the worst times of discrimination that featured heavily in the original Zootopia script.
- "I Did Good Today": An argument between Marty and Betty about the former's bad attitude towards Remmy leads to them asking the ram's age. Suddenly we find out one more reason to explain Remmy's self-centered way of thinking, awkwardness and other such immature traits: he's only nineteen years old.
- "Forget About Him": First, Anneke blows up at Remmy about his internalized specism and tells him she never wants to see him again. Then Remmy finds the "stash" left behind by Kenny, the previous occupant of his apartment, and discovers that he's not the first prey species to join the Pack.
- "Dogwhistle": Remmy gets jumped by Don and his pack.
