Fuzzbutts: Brucie-New, Improved, and Delicious (Patreon)
Content
I decided to fiddle with Bruce's design. His old one was based on his Pandoraverse design, which was initially created to be a one-off unimportant character. Pony Bruce is thus very monochromatic and simple looking, which I think works well when he's standing against my more complex and colorful pandoraverse characters, but in Fuzzbutts, he was left looking drab and unimportant. :<
So! I tweaked his colors and also changed his species. He's now a whiptail wallaby (Notamacropus parryi), also known as the pretty-faced wallaby✨~ They're a small marsupial known for the striking markings on their lovely, doe-like faces. So you have the contrast of Bruce, who is introverted and cranky, burdened by this sort of natural beauty and effortless cuteness. It pisses him off, and what's more, his pretty widdle face has not gone unnoticed by his roommate.
Sunny, to himself: ......interesting phrasing there buddy
Let's get something straight right off the bat....Fuzzbutts is not Beastars. I love me some Beastars, but I feel like as irl people already tend to lean paranoid and tribalistic, any world where part of the population is confirmed to instinctively devour people would just be an absolute shitshow, like no wolves falling in love with bunnies, only anarchy and philosophical horror. Carnivores in Fuzzbutts are not gripped by constant primal urges to maim and consume their friends and neighbors, nor purchase people-meat at illegal black markets. Even irl carnivores are not bloodthirsty monsters with an uncontrollable urge to kill.
But. Predators in Fuzzbutts are still animals. They do still have instincts. Namely, the prey drive. In all predators, the prey drive follows a sequence: Search-Stalk-Chase-Bite-Dissect-Consume. In a civilized society, this drive has been greatly reduced over generations, but it is still present....and it's stronger in some species than others.
Sunny's prey drive often manifests as a strooong fixation on Bruce. Bruce is, after all, a prey animal. Smells like prey, moves like prey. Sunny often finds himself naturally tracking his roommate's movements, the way a cat watches a mouse. He is very aware of Bruce's scent and the sound of his heartbeat, he can track him through these things alone. Bruce finds this....creepy. ("Stop staring at me, you dumb dog!"). He can't help the sinister feeling that underneath that innocent puppy face, Sunny would very much like to eat him.
....Little does Bruce know that Sunny's fixation does not include a desire to do him harm. It's more than he finds Bruce (with his itty bitty paw-hands and pretty coat and hippity-hop gait) extremely cute and naturally wants to protect him and keep him safe. Just like a little bunny~
....Or maybe his canine brain just sees Bruce as his prey and doesn't want anybody else to have him. Who knows for sure? Certainly not Sunny. Dat wallabooty is just too hypnotic (it'd help if you wore pants, Bruce).
stealth edit: fixed bruce's eye markings