Connor Huntford

Connor Huntford

the basics

Connor Huntford•

nicknames • Chomp (by his father), Punk (by his father), Con (by his mother and brother), Runt (by the gang.)

age • 20

primary standing • Gilded Wings Supply Runner

secondary standing • Member

faction • Gilded Wings

species • Anthropomorphic Wolf

gender • Male

sexuality •Straight

the appearance

origin • Zootopia

height and weight • 5’0 at the ears, 153 lbs

overall appearance •Connor may move with stoic confidence but it can’t hide his general smallness. He’s short for a wolf and though wiry, he’s narrow-shouldered and narrow-chested. Lean at best, scrawny at worst. He’s worked hard to try and build up muscle, but only succeeded in getting wiry. All of this is in comparison to other wolves. Around other, smaller canines he’s still a bit larger by comparison, normally.

Connor is a dusky grey with undertones of tan around his muzzle, inside each ear, around his eyes, and against his throat. The tips of each tuft of fur edge toward black because of his guard hairs. Grayish brown bridges his nose, tips each ear and scruffs between them. His eyebrows are jet colored. His eyes are plain brown. He wears a faded blue collared workman’s shirt with the sleeves rolled up to elbow length over a white T-shirt and plain black pants. The shirt once had his name in a small oval patch over his heart. Now it’s so faded you can’t see the cursive letters. It’s the same way for the black calligraphy on the back that once marked it a uniform for Tundratown’s Howling Winds Diner.

the personality

likes • Intimidating others, being respected, being liked, clear tasks, making his father and family proud, his little brother, and kids (don’t tell anyone!)

dislikes • Know-it-all’s, small talk, wasting time, being told he can’t do something, disappointing his family, being left out of serious business or underestimated, being judged, being alone, being savage.

strengths • A tireless worker, very task-oriented, and took boxing for two years. Sharp, excellent attention skills.

weaknesses • Not sociable or manipulative in any way; very straightforward. Intensely stubborn to the point of recklessness. Doesn't take no for answer or understand how to cut his losses. Not good at social cues. Passive-aggressive up to a point until he explodes in temper. Physically small, so no matter how hard he tries or trains all fighting is an uphill battle for him. Naturally guarded and untrusting. Easily confused by morality.

dreams • Formerly, to be part of the Rush Pack gang and take over his father's business. Currently, to make up for all he's done in the name of the family criminal activity and be worthy of someone like Colleen.

fears • Going savage again, losing his brother, facing his father, prison or other types of restrictive confinement.

overall personality •
Connor's mother describes him as “The grunt-first, customer-service-never hardhead. The sulky, all-C’s brawler who’s only social life for the past ten years had been trying to scramble his way in on the family business; who’s liveliest conversations were used up in shouting matches with his parents or joking with his little brother. The delivery truck driver. The lone wolf.“

Most of her summing up of her son is accurate...except that he actually isn’t a lone wolf. Connor, at his core, wants to be accepted, whether that is by his family or by his neighborhood or by his crush. He’s a pack animal through and through with a strong sense of loyalty.

Connor has a chip on his shoulder and a bit of an identity crisis. He’s determined to prove himself as a strong, ferocious, formidable member of the Rush Pack, for example, and is too stubborn to give up.

He’s passive aggressive, believing often that there’s no reason to open his mouth when it only gives others an excuse to ‘jump down your throat.’ He is prone to surliness, moodiness, and bad temper. If he isn’t passionate about something, he doesn’t fake it or try and pretend to be something he’s not. This sometimes disguises the fact that he’s actually very smart and sharp. He’s keen enough to default to lies, throwing cops off of his family’s criminal trail without losing his cool, flirt with female canines wittily, and roast elderly animals who waste his time without their noticing it.

Largely because of his parents, Connor has a skewed sense of right and wrong. He generally took it for granted that if his parents wanted to do something, it was right, and anyone in their way was wrong. After going savage he became uncharacteristically insecure and started questioning all of his worldview and his parents’ actions when he realized he didn’t actually enjoy getting violent. This has been further ingrained into his mentality by meeting and exploring relationships with animals outside of his family’s gang, such as Colleen DunBark and her high standards or innocent little Abigail Woolensworth.

the history

father • Randall Huntford, Howling Winds co-owner by day, Rush Pack criminal gang leader by night, 45.

mother • Payton Huntford, co-owner and manager of Howling Winds Diner and accomplice to Rush Pack crimes, 40.

siblings • Raoul Huntford, 11, brother, paralyzed from the waist down.

important people • Abigail Woolensworth, The Rush Pack (Vincent Fangmire, Toby Moonrim, Shamus and Marcus Lupe, etc.) Officers Hopps and Wilde, Dr. Madge, Colleen DunBroch.

overall history •

Connor’s father Randall Huntford married his mother Payton when they were both young. His charming and authoritative personality and passion about wolves looking out for other wolves led a group to respect and obey him, and he eventually built a small criminal gang in the illegal shadows of Tundratown. Randall and Payton still wanted to raise their cubs with half a normal life, so they opened a diner called Howling Winds, which served as both a cover for their real source of income and a base of operations for the gang after hours. This was the world Connor grew up in.

He learned lines to say to nosy animals before he could walk so that no one would question his mild-mannered family. When he went to Tundratown Elementary with the other middle-class kids his father instilled in him on the playground that he always took the side of and played with other wolves, even if he liked different animals better. Connor was runty and small, and frequently got into fights trying to prove he was tough.

When his brother Raoul was born, and an accident left him paralyzed for life from the waist down, Connor became more surly and grouchy than ever and fiercely protective of his brother. His one driving ambition throughout all of his teenage years was to be allowed to go with his father on gang business and start being groomed to take over the Rush Pack Gang. He would be to tag along when the Gang went out together, or to come to shady meetings dealing catnip or stealing elephant tranqs. The answer was always the same. “Stay and help your ma with the diner. Keep Raoul company.” Randall only ever said it once or twice, but Connor knew it was because he was considered too small or too weak to join the Gang officially.

When he was old enough, his parents tried to give him a safe outlet for his ambitions by having him drive the Howling Winds delivery truck to their vendors throughout Tundratown. Connor disliked it intensely. He kept having to deal with small business mammals and their folksy neighborliness when all he really wanted to do was prove himself and be part of the Rush Pack next to his dad.

Through this route Connor found two things that shaped his twentieth year.

The first was a boxing gym. He began rushing through his route in order to spend the extra time out learning to perfect his boxing, hoping to impress his father. Randall wasn’t paying attention to much else than his work these days. Mr. Big, little-known crime boss of Tundratown, employed Polar Bear thugs who kept interfering with Rush Pack’s best business deals. Randall was becoming slowly obsessed with toppling Mr. Big’s little empire, and was constantly infuriated because his Rush Pack gang wasn’t even a bug on Mr. Big’s windshield.

The second thing he caught sight of while on his delivery route. A foreigner from the Merged Worlds had begun working as a teacher at Snowflake Hall Academy, a preppy school for mostly prey-animal upper class families which was across the street from the little shop Holwing Winds got their veggies from. Her name was Colleen DunBark, a dog who’d earned her position by writing a fascinating article on her travels in the Merged Worlds on her way to moving to Zootopia. She was beautiful, and the most colorful, interesting thing in Conner’s small world, which up until seeing her had consisted of finishing his route fast, trying to get his dad and the gang’s attention, and avoiding babysitting Raoul.

Embarrassingly, Connor began lingering at the vegetable store just to catch a glimpse of her playing with the kids during recess. He sometimes left the gym early to check that she’d made it to the Ice Floats safely on his way back to his truck. He was planning how to introduce himself but couldn’t quite get past why the first dog in Zootopia would care to know a scruffy delivery truck driver when the opportunity fell into his lap. During a field trip, one of the sheep kids Connor had seen playing with Colleen during recess got lost and happened to ask him for directions. Recognizing the kid, who introduced herself as Abigail Woolensworth, anti-social Connor actually jumped at the chance to return her to the new teacher.

The meeting didn’t go well. Colleen was grateful until she saw Connor was a wolf. Then she became frosty and rude. Connor, either because he isn’t good at social hints or because he didn’t know the dog well, didn’t understand this and held out hope at interacting with her more in the future. It happened often enough, because his route took him by the school twice a day and Abigail (a lonely black sheep) considered him her personal hero and often called the wolf over to the school lot during recess to play or chat his ear off. Still, Colleen was stiff and spoke to the hopeful wolf as little as possible.

One morning, Connor overheard his father planning to ambush and rough up two of Big’s Polar Bears after dark as part of a long-term gang war he wanted to start with the Arctic Shrew. Connor showed his boxing gloves, explained he’d been training, and begged to be allowed to come. Randall said no with hardly a glance. This wound up being the worst day of Connor’s life. He went out on his route angry and nearly hit Abigail with his delivery truck, blazing by the school, when she ran out of the recess yard and across the street in excitement to see him. When he returned the black sheep to Colleen, she lost her temper and told him that she thought all wolves were “blackguards” and made it clear she considered him among the worst for his carelessness. Crushing though he was, Connor stormed away resolving to be done with the teacher, with the sheep, and his whole delivery job.

He drove straight to where he knew the meeting was happening with Mr. Big’s two henchmen and his father’s gang, intending to force his way in and prove himself. This was when Doug, Assistant Mayor Bellwhether’s lackey, shot Connor with a Night Howler dart. As he turned savage, he stumbled toward his father on instinct and got caught up in the gang conflict. In his sick frenzy, Connor half-mauled one of the polar bears. In his normal state, up against an animal three times his size and twice as experienced, the young wolf would’ve gotten every bone in his body broken. But this way, his berserker rage left him nearly unharmed aside from his brain. Connor’s father left him at the scene because Cliffside’s wolves showed up and they would’ve recognized Randall from frequenting the Diner. They took Connor away and locked him up, senseless, with the other victims of Bellwhether’s conspiracy turned savage at the Asylum until Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde found them.

While hospitalized, Connor was not only visited by his family but by a shamefaced Colleen DunBark, who brought little Abigail too and was rethinking her prejudices. Connor was still savage and did not remember the visit, but apparently snapped at Abigail when she got too close to her big friend, and this caused the lamb to be afraid of him even after he recovered.

When Hopps and Wilde cracked the case and Connor was rehabilitated, he was surprised to find himself confused. He’d thought beating up a polar bear for his dad’s gang and proving himself would feel great. Instead, memories of turning savage and blindly mauling the bear horrified him, gave him nightmares.

It only got more complicated over the next few weeks.

Colleen DunBark seem guilty over her earlier treatment and even apologized, bringing Abigail to visit, building a warmer friendship with the wolf. As he got to know her, he fell more in love, but also learned that the teacher was very honorable and had high standards. He knew she’d be horrified if she learned about his family’s real work. Which she would, eventually, if his father didn’t calm down. Ever since witnessing his 153lb runt of a son take down one of Big’s polar bears, Randall had given Connor all the glory and opportunity to join in on gang activity he could ever want. Now Connor regretted his wish. He was more and more uncomfortable with the Huntford’s gang activity that he’d grown up alongside.

He started avoiding coming home altogether, making up excuses to go out and meet up with little Abigail, who was warming back up to him, or Colleen. Sometimes it made him feel better, but the double life took it’s toll, and the mounting pressure from his dad built up. One day, noticing his strange mood, Colleen tried to open up about where she came from and how her mother had been killed, probably by wolves, to explain the prejudice he was undoing. Of course, that only made Connor feel worse because he knew he was exactly the same kind of wolf she hated according to his family. As a result, when Abigail bounced up and interrupted them with a birthday invitation for Connor he snapped at her to leave him alone. Temperamental Colleen snapped right back at his harsh treatment of the lamb and they fought. Connor left in a huff without explaining himself, leaving Colleen to assume she’d offended him again.

When he returned to the Diner, Connor found comfort unexpectedly from Raoul. His paralyzed younger brother accidentally gave Connor some eleven year-old wisdom, and the wolf would’ve left immediately to go back and apologize to Colleen...if the resourceful teacher hadn’t found his family diner for the first time before he could. She wanted to say she was sorry, too. Closer than ever, the wolf and the dog might’ve said anything, but they were interrupted. Randall, ablaze with some plan about Connor joining the Rush Pack’s next operation, burst in, accidentally blowing the family cover to Colleen.

Heartbroken and betrayed, all her prejudices and bitterness against wolves slamming back into place as she realized Connor had been lying to her, Colleen fled. Connor tried to follow and explain, but she was having none of it.

Randall, in the meantime, was furious to discover his son’s attachment to the dog and Connor’s softness. He organized the Rush Pack to go and get Colleen, hoping to silence her before she could reveal them to the ZPD. She was nowhere to be found, and it was actually rumored that she had quit Snowflake Hall Academy and left Zootopia altogether.

Connor’s breaking point came when his father wouldn’t give up on tracking the collie down. He knew he had to stop his family from doing any more harm. When he heard from Abigail’s family that Colleen had left for the Merged Worlds, he made up his mind. He took Raoul with him and ran away one evening, leaving an anonymous tip at the ZPD to look into his parents’ and their criminal activity.

Connor had a half-formed idea of going to Nottingham, which Colleen had told him about, and trying to find her. But the more he thought about it, the less sure he was about how to explain himself or be worthy of her affections, and really what he wanted was to get as far away from the mess of his family as possible. He and Raoul made it all the way to Nottingham before he ran out of funds and options. That was when the Gilded Wings found him.

Connor implied, without really lying, that he and Raoul were displaced from their home by the war somehow. The Wings took them in, and Connor, finding himself liking the idea of their cause, joined them. It kept Raoul safe, both of them far from their parents, and made him feel better about his own shady background to be helping regular people during the war.

the Role play sample

the role player

alias • Spot

age • 23

pronouns • She

how did you find us? • MY FRIENDSSS!!

other characters • if any