Characters / Born To Be Wilde The Counts Court

Born to Be Wilde character index
Precinct 1 | The Count's Court | Other Crime Lords | Other Characters | Drabble Characters

Count Reynard and his main henchmammals, most of whom don't really care for the guy.

---

Count Reynard

The Crazy (Like A) Fox

^{Click here to see his Big Climax Ensemble} 

"Nobody wrongs my son and gets away with it. Not Big, not Thornbrush, not any of you. On my honor, Nicholas Piberius Wilde is going to be the greatest criminal the world has ever seen."

The mastermind behind the Crime Lord Killings, a series of assassinations against Zootopia's most powerful criminals, with the aim of becoming the greatest of them all. His true identity and motivations remain a mystery for a while, but seem fairly clear-cut at first. Then he's revealed to be John Wilde, Nick's father, which...complicates the issue a bit.

---

• 0% Approval Rating: It's brought up multiple times that Reynard's henchmammals stick with him mainly for pragmatic reasons and very few actually like the guy. For a while, Koslov was the one notable exception, up until he wasn't.
• Abusive Parent: To both Nick and Vexey. He is willing to put them through heinous criminal practice without much care if they're interested in following through with it.
• Affably Evil: The Count is quite a wisecracker, talking with both his minions and his victims in a friendly, joking manner. Depending on whom he's dealing with, it's either genuine or just a false front.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: Publicly announces Nick's birthday to the entire city and even sings the song, which is not just comedic, but horrifying as Nick sees any future job prospects drying up before his eyes.
• Archnemesis Dad: To Nick Wilde.
• Assimilation Plot: A mundane version of this; his plan revolves around assassinating Zootopia's most powerful crime lords and taking over their organizations, absorbing them into one giant syndicate.
• The Atoner: He is guilt-stricken over leaving Nick to fend for himself all those years ago. Unfortunately, his plan to make up for that isn't exactly the kind of redemption Nick is looking for.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He's so frequently able to manipulate and outwit others partly because he's very good at reading them and figuring out exactly what buttons to push.
• Ax-Crazy: Behaves this way when assaulting Judy in the hospital, flying into a fit of rage and letting out a maniacal Evil Laugh. It comes the most to prominence in a flashback where he casually mentions murdering the Junior Ranger Scouts that bullied Nick in childhood.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Not only is he himself one, but he enforces this as his dress code.
• Bad Boss: He cares very little about his henchmammals beyond the point that they stop being useful to him. To wit:
  • Him relieving Fangs and Boomer of duty involves them downing actual Night Howler pills and going savage, without any hope of being cured, as punishment for their failure to obey orders.
  • When he no longer has need of Harvey Montapue, he sells him off to the Belfry, to be part of Lucy Sang's dark web show where she puts folks through all sorts of death traps, just so that he could recoup profit.
  • In the finale, he happily throws his entire criminal empire under the ZPD bus for the sake of his "final hustle."
• Baddie Flattery: He is simultaneously Nick's greatest enemy and his biggest fan, constantly praising his skills even when used against him. Usually results in a Your Approval Fills Me with Shame reaction.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Technically speaking, he gets exactly what he wanted in the end. (Or at least, what he wanted by the end.) Heavily downplayed, however, given that his final plan is a Failure Gambit that costs him everything but his life. Reynard himself doesn't consider it a win at all, just "losing with style."
• Batman Gambit: Suspecting Finnick of being The Mole, he proceeds to call him out on it and threaten him to his face, knowing that he would respond to this by going straight to Nick to leak info and later giving him Thornbrush's key with minimal resistance. All According to Plan.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Nick theorizes that, contrary to his earlier claim that he couldn't lie to himself, he's been successfully lying to himself so well for so long that he can easily justify anything he does without ever feeling sorry about it, no matter how horrible. Nick is appropriately terrified of the implications.
• Berserk Button: Harming Nick, or his family in general, is a quick way to piss him off.
• Big Bad: He's the one plotting to assimilate all of Zootopia's crime gangs, and the cause of most of the story's conflict.
• Black Comedy: He shares a similar sense of humor with Nick, except much darker.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: He doesn't like calling what he's doing "murder." He prefers the term "permanent hustle," or "permahuss" for short.
• Breaking Speech: Regularly employs these as a favored manipulation tactic. Most impressively, he gives one to the entire Lang Family, who were currently surrounding him and ready to rip him apart, and manages to talk them into submission in a matter of minutes.
• Broken Pedestal: Nick used to greatly admire and respect his father before he was forced to leave him. Twenty years later, he's horrified at what he's become.
• Cane Fu: A fox-headed cane is his favored weapon. Normally, he uses the huge assortment of gizmos inside of it when forced into a fight, but it's shown to be a perfectly capable melee weapon as well.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He takes great pride in his own lawlessness and believes that all foxes should strive to be the same.
• Catchphrase: Crazy like a fox. You'll be quick to hear it if you call him, or anything he does, crazy.
  • Subverted Catchphrase: He comes up with different variations of the phrase as the story goes on, and other characters do as well.
• Character Name Alias: "Count Reynard" is itself this, as he did indeed name himself after the (in)famous Reynard the Fox.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: His default expression. Even his cane and broach are based on it.
• The Chessmaster: Partially. Although his plans are intelligent and well thought-out, most of them seem to rely on sheer chance and luck. One of his minions even comments on this, calling one of his plans "Just as crazy and convoluted as the rest." He himself acknowledges this as well, admitting that any good con requires a little risk.
• Classy Cane: Helps sell the "Count" image. But as stated above, it isn't just for show.
• Combat Pragmatist: He will freely use any dirty trick at his disposal to win a fight, many involving the use of his cane.
• Cool Car: The Countmobile, one of Mr. Big's former limousines tricked out to suit Reynard's needs and including such editions as a missile launcher under the hood.
• Cool Old Guy: For an elderly fox, Reynard is in remarkably good shape and shows off all kinds of flashy tricks with his cane.
• The Corrupter: Aims to bring out the worst in his son, encouraging him towards his lawless lifestyle. He almost succeeds too.
• Crazy People Play Chess: The "chess game" he plays to represent the conflict in Wilde Times barely even qualifies as such, with Reynard giving Chess Motifs to the characters involved but otherwise just having fun with it.
• Crazy-Prepared: He seems to have a plan for every possible outcome to any possible situation. Nick even describes him like this, saying that any plan they could come up with to beat him, "he'll have ten more to counter it, plus another two just for kicks." Subverted, however, because he didn't see Nick's ultimate rejection of him coming, and he has no idea what to do about it for a while.
• Crocodile Tears: Uses this tactic to manipulate Harvey, pretending to empathize with him a lot more than he actually does until he gets Harvey to confess to his own sins, after which he quickly flips the script on him.
• Cunning Like a Fox: It's practically his MO, and very nearly his Catchphrase. Furthermore, this is what he believes all foxes should strive to be, which helps him become the most powerful crime lord in all of Zootopia.
• The Cynic: To the extreme; he genuinely believes that the way of a cunning trickster is the only way a fox can live by, and is adamant in maintaining this view.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He didn't have much choice but to abandon Nick, as Marian kicked him out of their home and made it clear that she didn't want him anywhere near their son, a sentiment he reluctantly upheld. His reasons for abandoning Vexey though are far less justifiable and essentially amounted to her not being a good enough successor for him.
• Dark Secret: Is revealed to have killed Nick's childhood bullies, though it doesn't seem to be a secret he's that ashamed about.
• Deliberately Bad Example: Ultimately makes himself one for foxes, helping to boost Nick's image for saving the city from him.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Decided to become one as soon as he adopted the "Count Reynard" alias. And after achieving such a status in Foxden for several years, he then moved to Zootopia and forcefully usurped other Diabolical Masterminds to become the biggest one of all.
• Did Not See That Coming: Despite generally living up to his reputation as The Chessmaster and correctly anticipating most of the moves the heroes make against him, there are a few points where he is genuinely caught off-guard:
  • The biggest is Nick rejecting him at the end of Chapter 21 and letting himself be arrested shortly thereafter. This breaks his carefully-laid plans to such a degree that he's forced to change his entire endgame before he can bounce back.
  • Even after doing so, losing his chance to kill Narwhalter was not part of the plan, despite wanting to kill him mostly out of petty spite by that point.
  • And he especially didn't expect Nick to get arrested again after he had just monologued to him about how perfect his plan was. Of course, he also didn't expect that the ZPD would agree to pull off an elaborate hoax just to trick him into believing so, which Nick specifically counted on.
• Deadpan Snarker: Where else do you think Nick got it from?
• Deal with the Devil: How he gets several mammals and criminal gangs under his control. Best shown when he recruits Koslov and Carla.
• Death by Irony: Invokes this, going out of his way to murder his enemies in the most dramatically-appropriate ways possible.
  • His own nightmare-induced death in Drabble 13 is also one, as he is not only stabbed by his own Wallabeanie, but said Wallabeanie was designed to resemble Nick.
• Disc-One Final Boss: In Chapter 21. While he IS the Big Bad and still remains so afterward, he gets away after his defeat while his plot to kill Sanchez goes off without a hitch despite losing his input. However, this defeat does rattle him quite a bit and changes his attitude from that point forward, making him no longer the same villain he was before.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Bully his son? Hope you like being burned alive.
• Disappeared Dad: Absent from Nick's life for a full twenty years thanks to Marian throwing him out. Unfortunately for both of them, he didn't stay gone.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Outside of family, no one gets to call him John anymore. He's Count Reynard now. And should he spontaneously change his alias again, Reynard doesn't fly either.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: In Drabble 10, Lady Lang goes off on him for being a lousy father. He agrees and resolves to become a better one...resulting in the monster he is today.
• Dressed to Plunder: He briefly dresses up as a pirate in Chapter 28 and starts calling himself "Long Con John". He ditches the costume soon after, which he regrets when he ends up in a pseudo swordfight against Narwhalter.
• Engineered Heroics: He publicly challenges Nick in the finale purely so Nick will come and stop him, while he secretly broadcasts it to turn him into a citywide hero overnight. Though as he points out, nothing about that was truly "fake" on Nick's end.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being a villainously ambitious criminal mastermind, he is shown to truly care for his son and ex-wife, though his methods of showing that care are often less than appreciated.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Or so he claims, shortly after claiming the opposite. If anything, he does make it clear that he abhors laziness and cowardice among his ranks, if his opinion of Fast Tony is any indication.
  • He also openly despises naturalists, despite being allied with a large chunk of them, which makes sense when you remember that he's a tailor.
  • In Drabble 14, he admits to attempting to seduce a vixen in order to produce a new heir, but realized he couldn't go through with it due to his lingering loyalty to Marian.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He is genuinely confused as to why Nick even wants to be a cop when he is obviously so much more suited to being a criminal mastermind like himself. He actually thought Nick would be pleased by his plan to merge all of Zootopia's syndicates together because he intended to give it all to him when he was done.
  • This trope bit him in the ass hard when he met Vixey. Due to a misunderstanding, Reynard gets the impression that she pulled a masterful long con on him, and thanks to his preconceptions of how foxes are "supposed" to act, immediately writes off the rest of her bumbling antics as Obfuscating Stupidity. Ultimately, he ends up adopting what he believes is a future crime lord in the making, but is actually just an oblivious little girl who never even realized he was a crook in the first place.
• Evil Counterpart: To Nick, essentially the embodiment of Nick's criminal side. He's also one to Jimmy Frost, who's the same for Nick's innocent/cop side.
  • And to Lady Lang, with him being a crime lord dad who wants his biological son back, and her being a crime lord mom who isn't blood-related to her children but is loved by them regardless. No wonder Reynard decides to murder her personally.
• Evil Is Hammy: Is very exuberant about his villainy and prone to loud sweeping gestures of emotion.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He doesn't seem to realize that there is a time and a place for jokes, and "in the middle of killing/threatening someone" is typically not it. It doesn't help that his sense of humor is generally a mixture of Black Comedy and puns.
  Reynard: "Guess you could say my organization is 'tailor-made' for duty, eh?"
  Lady Lang: glares
  Reynard: "Fine. Don't laugh. Just trying to lighten the mood."
• Evil Old Folks: As Nick's father, he's definitely more than sixty years old. Not that it slows him down, physically or mentally.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Reader suggestions for an actor include Liam Neeson and Jack Nicholson.
• Face–Heel Turn: The time he truly descended into outright evil was when his offer to have Nick taken in by one of the Crime Lords was rejected.
• Five Stages of Grief: Mentioned by name in Chapter 22, after Reynard starts showing them. He is in Denial for most of that scene, unable to get over the shock of Marian being shot and Nick rejecting him. He quickly transitions to Anger, blaming Felix for the turn of events and calling for assassins to sic on him before he calms down. Then he starts Bargaining, with himself, trying and failing to come up with a usable heir other than Nick. This causes him to collapse into Depression, and he's an utter wreck when he goes to visit Marian at the hospital. After an unexpected encounter with Judy though, he suddenly gains Acceptance...by deciding that it was never his fault at all, and blaming the ZPD for it.
• Follow in My Footsteps: His intentions for Nick, very much against Nick's actual desires.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: As pictured above, he wears glasses and is very, very rotten.
• Freudian Slip: Makes one in Chapter 20 that blatantly foreshadows the existence of Vexey:
  Reynard: But even after all the fame and fortune I raked in, I couldn't escape one simple fact: I missed you, son. And nothing could replace you, no matter how hard she tried.
  Nick: She?
  Reynard: No matter how hard I tried.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Once a simple tailor and conmammal, now the most powerful and dangerous crime lord in Zootopian history. (Who is still a tailor and conmammal.)
• The Gambler: He frequents casinos, is an expert on dice and card games, and even gives card-themed codenames to several of his minions. He also uses a gambler mentality for his schemes, relying on probabilities rather than certainties and willing to take risks to get what he wants.
• Genre Savvy: He seems to be well aware that he is the villain of the story, making multiple decisions based on what he deems most narratively appropriate and even abusing his own Plot Armor.
• Hearing Voices: His building stress levels eventually cause him to start hearing the voice of Nick in his head, just as Nick heard Reynard's way back when. While the voice encourages him to keep going, it also freely berates him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He secretly broadcasts the events of the finale to turn Nick into "Hero Fox". In response, Nick pulls off a smaller-scale version to trick Reynard into thinking he got arrested over it, even utilizing the same spy camera he once had Carla wear. And Reynard's own Failure Gambit ensures he no longer has the power to do anything about it, triggering his final Villainous Breakdown.
• Humiliation Conga:
  • One of the factors that drove him to madness was a long string of personal indignities and his inability to do anything about it. The summary rejection by the crime lords and his realization of his own powerlessness finally pushed him over the edge.
  • He suffers another one when his operation against Narwhalter goes far less effectively than he anticipated, leaving quite a blemish on his ego.
  • The final battle in Chapter 38 sees him getting owned by everyone from Bogo to Felix to Wallace. And given that his intent was only to lose to Nick specifically, it definitely wasn't part of the plan.
  • Lastly, he of all mammals is successfully conned by not only Nick but the rest of the ZPD, leaving him screaming alone in a cell while they share a hearty laugh over it.
• Hurricane of Puns: Engages Nick in a pun duel while they're trapped in an elevator at the Palms.
• Iconic Item: His Classy Cane. He is almost never seen without it aside from drabbles that take place before he acquires it. As of Chapter 37, it's finally destroyed for good.
• Incoming Ham: Tends to make his entrances very noticeable, especially in Chapter 26.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Successfully pulls this on Judy when she holds him at gunpoint in the hospital. She knows she should just tranq him and be done with it, but her moral code doesn't allow her to shoot an unarmed criminal who seems to be complying with her demands, which Reynard exploits.
• It's All About Me: Nominally, his interests are in protecting Nick from the hatred and bigotry of the outside world and ensuring that he has a bountiful existence and a steady business. However, said motives become far less altruistic when one realizes that all of that is honed towards one basic end - asserting that Reynard's cynical ways are right, and proving a point; his selfishness also shows in his adamant refusal to take advice from those he supposedly holds dear, and to own up to his mistakes.
• I've Come Too Far: Fully admits that he is a monster and is fine with it so long as he can do what he needs to for Nick. If he can't, however, he is now a monster for "absolutely no reason" and has no idea how he would handle that. He compares it to betting everything he owns on a single spin of the roulette wheel, where all he can do is try to better his odds.
• Jerkass: As soon as his character started to appear more frequently, Reynard was quickly established as a Bad Boss and an Abusive Parent. Even though he never goes out of his way to act aggressively towards Marian or Nick, his self-righteousness and autocracy is what irreversibly tarnishes his relationship with both of them.
• Kansas City Shuffle: In Chapter 36, he challenges the team to retrieve five keys from five zones in order to open the gate to his own domain. They immediately (and correctly) assume this to be a trap to split them up, but also assume that the trap ends with getting them killed by the ones guarding the keys. In actuality, four out of the five keys were entirely useless anyway and the real trap was allowing Reynard to seal off everyone except Nick inside their chosen zones.
• Keystone Army: As a result of his Assimilation Plot, Reynard eventually ends up in control of a criminal empire that is A) massive, and B) entirely dependent on him to function properly. This is actually used as an argument against taking him out, as the resulting Evil Power Vacuum threatens to be equally massive. But the heroes ultimately have no choice but to try anyway.
• Knight Templar Parent: Do anything to hurt his Nicholas and he will take violent revenge. The Junior Ranger Scouts were not exempt from this.
• Laughably Evil: The Big Bad of the fanfic, and hilarious to boot.
• Laughing Mad: Laughs this way while attempting to beat Judy to death with his cane. Doubles as an Evil Laugh.
• Locked Out of the Loop: For how much he actually does know, Reynard is completely oblivious to the existence of Crypsis, something the newly-activated Koslov mocks him about.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He is actually John Wilde, father of Nick Wilde. Count Reynard is merely a Character Name Alias.
• Malevolent Mugshot: His original base of operations, the Mild Manor, is absolutely flooded with his image, including a topiary of himself in the front yard, a giant portrait in the main hall, and a carpet in his office bearing his grinning face.
• The Man Behind the Man: At first, his hitmammal Simon, along with the koala crime lord Damian Thornbrush, seem strong contenders to be the biggest threats in the story, but they are eventually revealed to be but pawns in Reynard's game.
• Meta Guy: Several characters make Leaning on the Fourth Wall jokes, but Reynard is by far the biggest offender. See Genre Savvy above.
• Mood-Swinger: Constantly pivots back and forth between Evil Is Hammy and Soft-Spoken Sadist, which is part of what makes him so unpredictable.
• Moral Myopia: He outwardly voices the belief that the mainstream is corrupting foxes from what they truly are in essence, but takes great issue when somebody calls him out for pontificating about what foxes should be.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction to seeing Marian in her comatose state, knowing that he is responsible. Sadly, it doesn't last.
• Nerves of Steel: Multiple characters have threatened him to his face and failed to so much as shake his usual Cheshire Cat Grin. This includes the entirety of the Lang Family surrounding him just after he killed their mother. Threaten his family, however, and he is quick to lose his composure.
• Never My Fault: He often blames others for his own mistakes. As soon as he spots Judy in Marian's hospital room, he is quick to blame her and the rest of the ZPD for "corrupting" his son away from him, no longer taking any responsibility.
• Nightmare Face: The face he makes as he talks about his permahuss of the Junior Ranger Scouts is described as this, complete with a Slasher Smile and Scary Shiny Glasses.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Launches his entire Evil Plan more or less from a bruised ego, as shown in Drabble 10, when his meeting with the crime lords grows awry and Lady Lang calls him out on his selfishness and stubbornness.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Make no mistake, he is insane, but his default persona (his "mask") embellishes it to such a degree that it's sometimes hard to see the cunning, calculating mastermind behind the wacky facade.
• Ominous Adversarial Amusement: Outright bursts into laughter when he sees F.R.E.N.E.M.Y. assembled and ready to charge, and he only gets more amused and excited as they keep getting closer.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You can practically feel when he shifts his tone from delightful charmer to cold-hearted crime lord.
  • The first sign that something is seriously wrong with him in 22 is that he doesn't make a single joke, wisecrack, or snark about anything going on around him, including a partially-numb Koslov wrestling with Finnick.
• Our Founder: He has a topiary in his image in front of the Mild Manor. Similarly, there is a (faux) golden statue of himself in the middle of Wilde Times.
• Paint It Black: Seems to be his favorite color. All of his suits are black, most of his minions wear black even when not in the suits, and any vehicle he owns will indeed end up painted black.
• Papa Wolf: Displays a strong defensiveness over his son. Anyone who harms Nick will meet his wrath.
• Playing Card Motifs: Has a habit of codenaming his minions after playing cards, most prominently in the Sanchez arc (which takes place partially in a casino) but carries over to the Discards in the following arc. He himself takes on the codename "Wilde Card", which is also commonly known as the Joker. Speaking of which...
• Practically Joker: The aforementioned Playing Card Motifs, his flair for theatrics, sharp-dressed appearance, Cheshire Cat Grin, and general manner of speaking all bring to mind a vulpine Joker. His final hideout is even an Amusement Park of Doom! Several readers have made the comparison and it's very much deliberate as the Joker was one of Reynard's primary inspirations as a character.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He's pushing seventy, yet acts like a spoiled child who reacts violently if he doesn't get his way.
• Pungeon Master: The biggest in the story, not only nicknaming most other characters in this fashion, but regularly dropping puns (especially in inappropriate situations) just to get some kind of reaction. Several of his associates are annoyed by this trait, Simon in particular.
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": He laughed maniacally when he murdered the Junior Ranger Scouts that were bullying Nick.
• Race Against the Clock: Forces Nick into one by virtue of triggering the bombs he's planted all throughout Zootopia, challenging his son to defeat him before time runs out. He does, but that isn't exactly the end of it...
• Rags to Riches: Started off as an impoverished tailor, then became outright homeless, but upon moving to the suburbs with his new persona, he made a fortune on the Fox Away brand and only became richer from there.
• Red Herring Twist: Nick comes to suspect that Reynard's rant against Judy and the ZPD in Chapter 24 was merely a fit of impulsive anger, as nothing Reynard has said or done since suggests that he's targeting them specifically.
• Rhymes on a Dime: One of his less-showcased talents, spending the entirety of Drabble 22 rhyming every line he says. He enforces it on his henchmammals as well and doesn't take kindly to one accidentally rhyming night with night.
• Secretly Selfish: Even though it appears that he wants to make Nick a criminal for his own psychological betterment, the plan is centered primarily about seeking validation for his deeply-rooted view that a fox can only be a cunning trickster and nothing more.
• Shadow Archetype: Is specifically-designed to be what Nick could've been had he never met Judy and changed his ways.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Invoked in-universe, as he requires his henchmammals to wear snappy - but slightly uncomfortable - black suits.
• Shout-Out: He is named after another Disney fox, specifically Honest John from Pinocchio. He even used that name himself in the past.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He has his moments, usually when threatening someone.
• Start of Darkness: Shown in Drabble 10, but he didn't really go over the deep end until the moment he decided to take his first lives with the Junior Ranger Scouts.
• Stealth Pun: He's a villainous father who constantly speaks in bad puns, i.e. dad jokes.
• Stepford Smiler: Nick comes to realize that his goofy and affable demeanor is nothing but a mask, much like his own, that Reynard uses to hide how monstrous he's really become, even from himself. By the end, stress and guilt are making him struggle to keep it up.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: His cane, a weapon as chaotic and unpredictable as its user. It has shown a huge variety of hidden mechanisms so far, much more than should be physically possible, and seems to practically run on plot convenience.
• Talking Your Way Out: As a general rule, if you've got him cornered, do not let him start talking. The Lang Family did, and he summarily convinced all of them to not only spare his life, but to become his begrudging workers. Judy later attempts to avert this by not listening to anything he says while she holds him at gunpoint...which Reynard expected, so he triggered a voice command in his cane that caught her off-guard and let him escape.
• Thememobile: The Countmobile, which is really just one of Mr. Big's old limousines painted black and tricked out a bit.
• Vanity License Plate: CZYLKFX. Three guesses what it means.
• Villainous Breakdown: Starts in Chapter 21, hits its peak in Chapter 24, where he shows up to visit Marian in the hospital a broken mess of a fox, disheveled and ranting. By the time he next appears in Chapter 26, he's inexplicably made a full recovery, which is (initially) implied to have something to do with meeting Judy there and concluding that it's Never My Fault.
  • Has an even more spectacular breakdown in the epilogue after Nick tricks him into thinking he got arrested over his actions in the finale, the once-powerful manipulator reduced to screaming desperately for someone, anyone, to listen to him.
• Villainous BSoD: Falls hard into this after Nick turns his back on him in Chapter 21, to the point that Koslov has to physically carry him to safety. He doesn't get better until a few chapters later.
• Villain Has a Point: When confronted by Nick over his Failure Gambit, Reynard counters his claims that he didn't really save the day by pointing out that his actions were his own with Reynard only publicizing them. And that Nick still would've gone off to stop him even if he knew exactly what he was planning simply because Reynard needed to be stopped. And that he only did any of this in the first place due to the strength of Nick's convictions making him change his plans. Nick is eventually forced to concede, though he still isn't happy about it.
• Villain Song: Sings a full parody of "Born to Be Wilde" while the heroes make their final charge on him.
• Walking Spoiler: Everything about him, from his name, to his identity, to his motivations, is a massive spoiler that has major ramifications for the entire fic.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Brings this up towards the end of Chapter 35 when he has the rest of his forces dope themselves up on Feral Dream, claiming that it's time for them to prove that "mooks are mmammals too". Of course, given how he normally behaves in even that same chapter, he's most likely just trying to amp them up.
• The Wonka: Many of his underlings are quick to point out that he is completely off his rocker, but also note that he is highly competent and his unconventional tactics are almost always successful in spite of that.
• Would Hurt a Child: He murdered the Junior Ranger Scouts that teased Nick when he was a kit.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: He frequently compliments Nick on his slyness and cunning, but since these are the exact traits Nick doesn't want to be associated with, he isn't very flattered.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: When he finds no need of employing Harvey, he sells him off to the Belfry for Lucy's villainous game show.
• Zerg Rush: By the time the Narwhalter arc rolls around, Reynard has amassed so many mooks under his employ that he is effectively able to just throw them at his problems until they are solved. Having spent most of his career forced to use guile and cunning to get his way, Reynard is ecstatic when he realizes this.

Simon VanDal

The One-Legged Bandit

^{Click here to see him without his jacket.} 

"I did what he asked and gave him what he wanted. If he has a problem with the way I do things, kindly remind him that I'm in this for my own reasons, not his petty revenge fantasy."

A raccoon mercenary and hitmammal who kicks off the entire plot by assassinating Mr. Big on behalf of the Count. Despite this, his sheer contempt for his employer is clear, which raises the question of why he even works for him in the first place.

---

• The Ace: An elite mercenary who has decades of combat experience and is truly frightening in battle, tossing aside anyone in his way with little effort. He is given the codename Ace of Spades to highlight this.
• Accidental Pun: Makes one when he says that Lucy "dropped the ball" during the Thornbrush murder...remembering too late that she did, in fact, drop a ball on him. And that he's talking to Reynard. He is horrified.
• Anti-Villain: Not apparent for a while, and his methods are a bit extreme, but in the end, he's just a desperate father looking for his son.
• An Arm and a Leg: He lost his left leg sometime in the past and now walks around on a metal peg leg. Drabble 4 shows him with both legs, but doesn't explain how he lost one, despite maliciously teasing it. Teased even further in Drabble 8, which reveals that it wasn't even during the war at all. Drabble 20 finally reveals the actual cause.
• Arc Villain: Of Chapters 24-26, a mini-arc surrounding his attempt to hold up Precinct 1 and steal their data.
• Atrocious Alias: Karen saddles him with the codename Hot Fuzz in Drabble 4.
• Bait-and-Switch: He is bitten in the left leg by Compact Cobra at the end of Drabble 4. With Cobra's venom threatening to spread to the rest of his body, Simon decides he has no choice but to amputate it and prepares to do so. Then Karen reminds him that she packed an antivenin.
• Batman Gambit: The bloody tracks he left at Mr. Big's crime scene are eventually revealed to have been left deliberately, as he wanted the ZPD to discover them and come after him.
• Berserk Button: Being called during a meal. The Count manages to do this to him twice and he suspects that he's somehow doing it on purpose.
  • The Count's "Crazy like a fox" Catchphrase seems to rile him up more every time he hears it. Given that he's a former Delta Fox and that Reynard hired him almost solely for that reason, he most likely sees it as an insult to his unit.
• The Coats Are Off: For most of the story, he wears a brown aviator jacket. The jacket comes off in Chapter 25, revealing the orange t-shirt and Delta Fox logo he sports underneath. Fittingly, he does this right before throwing down with Judy.
• Combat Pragmatist: He fights pretty dirty, despite, or perhaps because he's a war veteran.
• The Comically Serious: Much of the humor that comes from him is the direct result of a hardened professional constantly having to put up with the Count and his antics.
• Dad the Veteran: A veteran of the Cold-Blooded War, now raising a son. Mom is a veteran too, but it's more pronounced with him.
• A Day in the Limelight: Drabble 4 focuses on him in his glory days as a Delta Fox operative. Drabble 8 shows his more domestic side.
• Deadpan Snarker: Is frequently the straight mammal to Reynard's shenanigans, though he tends to have a dry quip for just about everything.
• Determinator: Nothing will stop him from finding his son, no matter who he has to kill to do it. This trait of his clashes with Judy's during their fight, but in the end, Simon's will is even stronger.
• The Dragon: Serves as the Count's for a good while, until he is replaced by Finnick.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Despite this, he makes it clear at several points that he hates Reynard's guts, but works for him anyway for some other, unspecified purpose. Later revealed to be the purpose of finding his own missing son.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Charles. Nick makes it his new favorite nickname for him as soon as he learns it.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Makes it clear to Judy that he wants Kyle to be nothing like him, which he highlights as the main difference between him and Reynard.
• Failed a Spot Check: He failed to notice a set of bloody footprints he left on the floor of Mr. Big's office, which is later used to identify him. It's implied that this is because he simply didn't care enough to do a thorough job cleaning up.
• Faustian Rebellion: Eventually abandons Reynard's plot after deciding that he's been putting up with his schemes for long enough without seeing results.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: A former special forces operative now putting his skills to Reynard's use.
• Forced into Evil: Mostly aids Reynard in his Evil Plan in order to help his son.
• Groin Attack: Is fond of delivering these with his metal leg.
• Grumpy Old Man: A textbook example, grumbling about modern technology, today's youth, and generally being a Deadpan Snarker.
• Handicapped Badass: Has a peg leg and takes out two ZPD officers, one of whom was twice his size, in paw-to-paw combat.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: It becomes increasingly apparent that there's a lot more to him than the hardened criminal merc he makes himself out to be, especially once his true motivations are revealed.
• Horrible Judge of Character: While he makes it clear that he never liked or trusted Reynard from the getgo, only using him as a means to find Kyle, Karen calls him out for never considering that Reynard himself kidnapped Kyle to manipulate him despite how Obviously Evil he is.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Revealed only after the fact, but as proof that Simon really was holding back on Judy the whole time, Karen removes his peg leg and shows another leg underneath, a sharp and poisoned blade.
• Jerkass: He's pretty unpleasant to be around, at least until you get on his good side.
• Karma Houdini: Thanks to his family's absurdly powerful government connections, he is freed from ZPD custody less than a day after being put under it.
• Lethal Chef: Downplayed, as he actually does a pretty good job making brownies in Drabble 8, up until the kits start rushing him and he tries to double the baking speed by doubling the temperature. Needless to say, Don't Try This at Home.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: At the end of Chapter 26, he has defeated Judy and claims the flash drive of stolen data he'd been after this whole time. He is then immediately knocked out by Karen, who reveals that his entire scheme was pointless as the data wouldn't have told him what he wanted anyway, then destroys the drive just to add insult to injury.
• Noble Top Enforcer: He comes off as more of a Consummate Professional than his cohorts, plus he doesn't even like his employer that much and has his own agenda.
• Not So Above It All: Drabble 4 shows him being a bit cockier and more free-spirited than he would later become.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Fights and soundly defeats nearly every secondary officer that has played a part in the story thus far offscreen. He lampshades this, noting that the choreography was pretty impressive and it's a shame Judy couldn't see it. His murder of Mr Big and his polar bear thugs also counted as this for a long time, until Chapter 23 of Drabbles that is.
• Old Soldier: An elderly raccoon who fought in the army before he became an assassin. Despite his old age, he can still put up a tough fight. The way he manhandled Judy and Carla at Outback Island attests to this. His age does impact him during his second fight with Judy though, as he no longer has the kind of stamina that he did in his prime.
• Papa Wolf: His love for his son is so extreme that he won't hesitate to commit murder or hold an entire police precinct hostage in order to find him. Yet he still comes across as a downplayed example compared to Reynard.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He even ends up in PTSD counseling over it, though Simon's case of PTSD is a pretty unique one.
• Sleepwalking: According to Karen, he has a habit of sleepdiving. As in, digging through the trash in his sleep.
• Sanity Slippage: As shown in Drabble 23, the Secret War against Crypsis has been taking a heavy toll on his state of mind, causing him to lash out at seemingly innocuous mammals and eventually assaulting a fellow veteran under suspicion that he's "one of them." As he would later snap and take an entire ZPD precinct hostage, he never really got better either.
• Stealth Pun: Simon has a peg leg, a subtle Shout-Out to Simon Pegg.
• Technologically Blind Elders: He's not against technology in general, but the newest gadgets tend to trip him up, especially phones. He doesn't find out that Nick wanted to talk to him for over a month because his voice mailbox was full and he had no idea what it even was let alone how to empty it.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Does not enjoy working with Reynard, or pretty much anyone else, for that matter. It eventually becomes clear that he only stomachs his line of work for the sake of his family.
• Villainous Rescue: Saves Nick from the feral Fangs and Boomer by shooting them off of him. Of course, he had ulterior motives, and used rubber bullets.

Lucy Sang

The Bloodthirsty Bat Thief

"Lucy Sang. Professional thief, mercenary, and all-around mischief-maker. Pleasure to screw you over."

A gleefully-sadistic professional thief with a literal thirst for blood. She seems to be going along with the Count's plan mostly for her own amusement.

---

• Arc Villain: Of the Belfry sub-arc that takes place alongside the Narwhalter arc.
• Archenemy: While her first major conflict is with Judy, by the end of the Sanchez arc and into the Belfry, she has firmly established herself as Carla's.
• Attack Drone: The "Bad Bat Battalion" that Reynard gives her command over in the finale. They are actually controlled remotely by Martina while Lucy gives the orders, but due to Martina's deficiencies, they immediately cease to be a threat once Lucy is taken out.
• Ax-Crazy: A psycho and literally bloodthirsty thief who relishes in the prospect of inflicting violence upon others.
• The Baroness: She's a snarky, playful, and psychopathic female minion of the Big Bad. Fittingly, she chooses the wrestling moniker "La Sangrienta Baronesa", i.e. "The Bloody Baroness".
• Bat Out of Hell: Played horrifically straight.
• Benevolent Boss: One area where she clearly shines above Reynard. She has few subordinates, but she treats them with courtesy and respect, probably because they're also her only friends.
• Bloodsucking Bats: Will gladly take the opportunity to drink someone's blood when it presents itself, even if she's not particularly thirsty. Rodents are her favorite prey.
• Breakout Character: Her guest appearance in When Instinct Falls ended up making her popular enough to get her own co-authored story named Bloodlines.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Freely introduces herself as one. See the above quote.
• Characterization Marches On: In her first appearance, she was described as speaking with a posh accent and used Terms of Endangerment like "darling". This was since retconned out and these traits were passed on to Piper Piedmont instead.
• Climax Boss: Becomes Carla's inside Wilde Times.
• Cloudcuckoolander: A much more devious example than Jimmy - she is completely off the rails about her evil.
• Combat Pragmatist: Yet another dirty fighter in the Count's employ. Given her relative fragility, she seems to favor the "use anything around to her advantage" kind of style.
• Commitment Issues: Getting someone like her to settle down is hard enough as it is, but getting her to settle down with the caveat of not even having the guy she's interested in all to herself proves to be a dealbreaker.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The Belfry practically runs on these, with the "contestants" having to escape Lucy's various death traps before they suffer one.
• Crush Blush: Experiences one when thinking about Vladzotz Fangpyre, another vampire bat.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Is very fond of making these sort of threats, especially during her final clash with Carla.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied in the main story, elaborated on in Bloodlines and When Instinct Falls.
• Dramatic Irony: A minor case, if you've read When Instinct Falls, is her mentioning that she's never actually met Vladzotz in this universe, whereas their relationship is quite a lot closer there.
• A Day in the Limelight: Drabble 6 shows her in her element as a thief, and reveals how she got recruited by Reynard. To say nothing of the whole spin-off story she got dedicated to her.
• Death from Above: How she kills Damien Thornbrush. Being a flying mammal means that this is a favored tactic of hers in general.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Her full name is Lucele. She does not like being called that, probably because it reminds her of her upbringing.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite running the Belfy, she admits that some of the fans' ideas for challenges disturb even her.
• Evil Is Hammy: Boy, is she ever? She really enjoys herself as she goes into long-winded speeches riddled with Insane Troll Logic.
• Evil Is Petty: Makes no qualms about how unashamedly evil she is, prone to acts of petty cruelty for no other reason than her own amusement.
• Eviler than Thou: She shares a lot of similarities with Reynard, practically being the Harley Quinn to his Joker, but the key difference between them is that Reynard is motivated by what he sees as justified reasons to protect his son while Lucy just wants to cause chaos and torment others for the hell of it. She seems to think this makes her better than him.
• Fair-Play Villain: Surprisingly so, at least when it comes to the Belfry. She may bend the rules every now and then, but she won't break them, and she keeps her word on letting the contestants live for completing challenges, even offering rewards that she also adheres to. According to Kyle, though, this is primarily just to be "sporting" for the sake of her audience.
• Fangs Are Evil: Oh yes they are, especially since she uses them primarily to drain blood from unwilling victims.
• For the Evulz: She goes out of her way to psychologically torment her victims even when she's already gotten what she wanted. Perhaps the best example is her taking the time to spell out to Jimmy that Carla is The Mole just to see how both of them react.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: As Carla makes very clear during her rant, Lucy being framed for her brother's murder was genuinely wrong, but using it as an excuse to go full-blown sociopath isn't winning her any sympathy points.
• The Gadfly: She is prone to just saying or doing whatever comes to mind, either because she knows it will get under someone's skin, or because she just doesn't care if it does.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The Belfry is chock-full of highly-advanced technology and nightmarish inventions. Subverted, since it's implied that she hijacked most, if not all, of it from the Felidae Infernum.
• Handy Feet: Being a bat, she can use her feet to hang upside-down or manipulate objects. It's shown to be a useful trait in her profession.
• Hate Sink: With her villainous deeds, the joy she takes in causing them, and minimal (but still present) redeemable/sympathetic qualities, Lucy nearly ties with Reynard as among the most loathsome character in the story.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Downplayed, as she'd still be a criminal regardless, but Drabble 21 has her being offered an ideal chance at retirement with Vladzotz Fangpyre, but not committing to it because she'd have to share him with his not-so-dead wife and kids. For someone used to getting everything she wants, changing her ways becomes a lot less appealing if there's a giant compromise attached to it.
• Hemo Erotic: Has way too much fun drinking mammals dry, even moaning sensually.
• Hidden Depths: While introduced as merely a "professional thief, mercenary, and all-around mischief-maker", it becomes increasingly apparent that the "all-around" part is pretty far-reaching. Among other things, she's also a rodent Serial Killer and runs her own dark web show about making mammals run through Death Traps for entertainment, all of which she refers to as her "hobbies." She gains some sympathetic qualities as well once her backstory and motivations are revealed.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: As Kyle points out, the Belfry's audience is made up of mammals who enjoy watching others suffer, and thus they immediately turn on her once she is the one suffering the most. Bonus points for this incident also going viral, just like the infamous "Batbunny Begins" video that embarrassed Judy.
• Incoming Ham: Her entrance into the world of Lucha Libre gets all the fanfare one would expect, complete with a Randy Savage impression that is sadly cut short.
• It Amused Me: In Chapter 27, she reveals this to be her prime motivation, the reason she created the Belfry, and why she does most of the shit she does. She just really gets a kick out of it all.
• Karma Houdini: Lampshaded by Kyle when she flees the Belfry at the end of her arc. Downplayed, as she still suffers a tremendous loss from this and the story isn't over yet.
  "Did she seriously just get away after all that?
• Lack of Empathy: She kills without a shred of remorse, and acts as though nothing significant happens when she does.
• Oh, Crap!: Says this word-for-word more than once. Technically.
  "Oh guano."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Her attitude around Martina is surprisingly affectionate, especially if you're aware of her backstory, and she has a small Freak Out as soon as Carla holds her hostage.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: This "professional thief" isn't shown doing a whole lot of thieving. Subverted and lampshaded in Drabble 6, which shows her actually committing a major heist, but acknowledges that it's far from the only thing she does for a living.
• Mad Bomber: Reynard puts her in charge of the Bad Bat Battalion, a series of drones carrying a payload of bombs that are controlled by her via Martina. Lucy quickly takes a liking to the role.
• Made of Iron: For a frail little vampire bat, she can sure take a lot of punishment. Even being hit into a light with a metal bat and electrocuted isn't enough to keep her down for more than a moment or two.
• Masked Luchador: Becomes one solely to fight in Sanchez's ring, taking on the name of "La Sangrienta Baronesa".
• murder.com: The Belfry is a sillier example than most, but the deathtraps are still very much real.
• Pet the Dog: She has a genuine soft spot for Martina, even ordering her to escape in the end instead of following Lucy to prison.
• Psycho for Hire: A vampire bat burglar with sadistic tendencies.
• Punny Name: A less obvious one than most, but "Sang" is latin for "blood."
• Rage Quit: Her only course of action once Carla irrevocably destroys her reputation is to rage quit the Belfry itself, intending to immediately kill off the "contestants" and go find a new hobby. Thankfully, Kyle stops her.
• Sanity Slippage: Over the course of her final battle with Carla, Lucy goes from merely unstable to constantly screaming at her to die to hallucinating her dead family members and going Laughing Mad. Carla knocks her back into coherency for a few minutes, but quickly sends her into hysterical sobbing instead once she leaves her for the cops.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Eventually decides that the prospect of dealing with Kyle, Harvey, the Rodentriguez's, and potentially Carla isn't worth the risk and takes off with Martina.
• Serial Killer: More of a hobby for her, but she makes a habit out of feeding on rodents, specifically because they're small enough that it will kill them. Her body count may well be higher than Reynard's as a result.
• Sore Loser: She does not take kindly to her challenges being waylaid by Carla, Kyle, and Harvey.
• Spy Catsuit: Sports a black one like any good female thief.
• Trap Master: Between the Belfry's deathtraps and those inside Wilde Times' haunted house, Lucy is a master alright.
• Villainous Breakdown: Carla's "The Reason You Suck" Speech is so brutal and so on-the-mark that it first drives Lucy to tears, then sends her into a violent rage that would've killed all three of her victims if not for Kyle's quick thinking. To say nothing of the full-on psychotic breakdown she undergoes the next time she and Carla come to blows.

Harvey Montapue

The Tinkerer Stinkerer

"I burn things real good!"

A deeply-unhinged, but relatively innocent skunk whose pyromaniac tendencies are put to good use by the Count.

---

• Aerosol Flamethrower: Is capable of doing this with a canister of his spray, which is flammable.
• Ambiguously Evil: He clearly does the Count's bidding, but goes out of his way not to actually hurt anyone and seems to be involved just because he happens to like burning things.
• Anti-Villain: He comes across, almost immediately, as a confused nutcase whose mental deficiencies are being exploited to abuse his talents. He only gets more sympathetic later.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Is mentioned a few times early on as the "mystery arsonist" before he turns out to be working for the Count and is officially introduced.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Seems to live in his own little world most of the time. A world full of fire and burning things with fire.
• Covered with Scars: A variation; he is covered with bald patches as a result of inadvertently burning off chunks of his own fur.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He's been in an asylum for eleven years over setting fire to Castle Fangpyre as a kit. Needless to say, this is why he's so screwed up.
• A Day in the Limelight: Drabble 9 is about how he ended up in the nuthouse and how Reynard got him back out again.
• Farts on Fire: The skunk equivalent at least. Elise shares a story about him discovering that skunk musk was flammable and getting a lot of amusement out of lighting it up. Taken to its logical extreme in the finale when he ignites the entire payload of musk in his muscle car before using it as an explosive battering ram against Grunt.
• Freudian Excuse: Hinted at a few times before Elise reveals the full story. His parents were killed in a house fire when he was too young to remember them very well. His only memory of them was thus the fire itself and he was constantly driven to light more fires in order to "see" them again. Even Carla feels sorry for him after hearing that.
  "Poor little stinkball..."
• Gas Mask Mook: Wears a gas mask when on the job. Justified by both his powerful stench and the smoke created by his fires.
• Handy Feet: Implied when he uses his foot to shake Reynard's paw due to being in a straitjacket, which is Truth in Television for people who have worn them for a significant amount of time.
• Heel–Face Turn: While never entirely good or evil to begin with, him being thrown into the Belfry more or less forces him to break off any allegiance he had to Reynard and join up with Carla. By the final arc, he's fully with the good guys.
• Hidden Depths: Becomes apparent as more of his backstory is revealed, painting him as more than just an insane pyromaniac.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In Drabble 9, he's recruited when he puts his trust in both Reynard and Lucy, perhaps the two least trustworthy mammals in the entire story. Sure enough, they screw him over royally as soon as he stops being useful to them.
• Hypocritical Humor: He complains about the smell of Carla's feet while taking off her Hoot Boots. Carla regrets being too weak at the time to comment on it.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Is reduced to uncontrollable sobbing after one punch to the face from Nick. Reynard is not impressed, and this is part of what gets him sent to the Belfry.
  • He also does this in Drabble 9 when recounting the incident that got him put away.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: He's one of the nuttiest characters in the story, while simultaneously being one of the nicest and most sympathetic.
• Minion with an F in Evil: He may be doing the Count's bidding because he compels him to and because it satiates his pyromania, but otherwise, he wouldn't even hurt a fly.
• No-Sell: He's spent so long wearing a tame collar that the device's shocks are now completely ineffective at subduing him or even slowing him down that much. Nick learns this the hard way.
• The Pigpen: His fur is a mess, his claws are dirty and untrimmed, and on top of being a Smelly Skunk, he kinda just stinks in general and it's implied he doesn't bathe. Justified, considering he's an escaped mental patient with obvious deficiencies who's basically homeless too. Personal hygiene isn't exactly the top of his priority list.
• Psycho for Hire Downplayed as he torches buildings, but makes sure to drive the occupants out first, and is more of a Cloud Cuckoolander when not on the job.
• Put on a Bus: Disappears for a good chunk of the story after fleeing Reynard's hotel suite at the beginning of Chapter 20. Finnick even lampshades his long absence. He finally returns in Chapter 28 as one of the prisoners in the Belfry.
• Pyromaniac: A downplayed and somewhat more realistic example as he only seems to get pleasure out of burning empty buildings. He freaks out when he realizes one of his targets was still occupied.
• Red Herring: When Nick’s dilapidated cabin in the Rainforest District is burned to the ground, Harvey is the most obvious suspect. Turns out he had nothing to do with it as the actual culprit was Felix.
• Shock Collar: Wears a tame collar, which is supposed to forcefully calm him down through electric shocks, but he's so loony that he actually gets more stimulated by the shocks and has refused offers to remove it.
  • While in the Belfry, his usual collar is replaced by an even worse version that will kill him if completely submerged in water. He isn't sure which one he's wearing by the time he gets out, but it proves a moot point when Elise cuts it off of him for good.
• Smelly Skunk: He bottles up his own spray and uses it to drive civilians out of a building before he torches it. Nick ends up skunked by him at the end of Chapter 11 and stinks to high heaven for the entire rest of the arc, though eventually learns to weaponize it himself.
• Spanner in the Works: Vladzotz Fangpyre, the crime lord of the Nocturnal District and one of the most powerful and dangerous mammals around, was allegedly killed by a seven-year-old pyromaniac who didn't even do it on purpose.
• Stink Bomb: One of his primary weapons, naturally using his own stink.
• Stutter Stop: Thinking about his "Big Sis" temporarily halts his usual Verbal Tic. Reuniting and reconciling with her stops it completely.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Despite being a member of Reynard's criminal gang, he clearly dislikes killing as he tries to drive any occupants out of a building he's targeting before he lights it up. Turns out this is because he's already killed before, albeit by accident.
• Token Good Teammate: Compared to the rest of the cold-blooded killers in Reynard's gang, his lack of malice is very noticeable. The worst he ever does is burn down a few (empty) buildings, and is horrified when one of them wasn't.
• Verbal Tic: Has a habit of repeating words three times times times in succession. Even his own doctors have no idea why, but it's implied to be related to his emotional state. Being distressed or near fire increases it, and being reminded of his Big Sis briefly stops it entirely.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Reynard runs out of any real use for a serial arsonist once Lady Lang is dealt with, and this, combined with his general demeanor, leads him to decide he doesn't need Harvey anymore, tossing him into the Belfry.
• Younger Than They Look: As revealed in Drabble 9, he's eighteen.

Finnick

The Lighter Face-Biter

"You don't wanna arrest me for drug dealing, Nick? Then how about assaulting an officer?!"

Nick's former partner in crime. He briefly became a drug runner to make ends meet after Nick left him behind. Nick being forced to arrest him for this put a serious strain on their relationship, and after his immediate failure to get him out, he joins Reynard instead.

---

• Ascended Extra: He gets more lines in his first appearance alone than he did in the entire movie, being one of the major figures that kicks off the plot and eventually becoming Reynard's Dragon.
• Berserk Button: Making fun of his height, as usual, but he also tends to snap when Reynard's antics prove too much for him.
• Boxed Crook: How Reynard got to him. With Nick continuously getting side-tracked on helping him out of jail, Finnick finally agreed to join up with the Count in order to escape.
• Break the Haughty: He's initially pretty smug about jumping ship to Reynard, but loses that confidence as time goes on and he witnesses the depths that Reynard will sink to. While he refuses to show it, he's clearly scared shitless of the guy by the finale.
• Did Not Think This Through: He's so desperate to get out of jail that he doesn't consider the consequences of joining someone like Reynard until he starts seeing his twisted actions firsthand.
• The Dragon: Replaces Simon as Reynard's, and is perhaps even less supportive.
• Face–Heel Turn: He eventually gets so desperate and fed up with waiting for help from Nick that he too chooses to join the Count. His heart isn't fully in it though.
  • Heel–Face Turn: While his allegiance to Reynard had been shaky at best for a while, Finnick finally makes peace with Nick in Chapter 36 and leaves Reynard's side for good.
• I Let You Win: Challenges Nick to a series of card games for Thornbrush's key and throws every one of them. He doesn't even tell Nick this himself, but he figures it out anyway. Though Finnick also admits to being needlessly difficult by making it more than one game in the first place.
• Might Makes Right: His typical means of conflict resolution, but once he finally has the chance to square off with Nick physically, he decides to play it his way for once and settles things (relatively) peacefully.
• The Mole: Eventually becomes one inside Reynard's crew, trying to leak information to Nick. Unfortunately, by the time he manages to give him anything useful, the Lang Family had beaten him to the punch. Worse, Reynard catches on to what he's up to and doesn't even consider him enough of a threat to do anything about it.
• The Napoleon: Violently snaps at most anyone, especially if it concerns his height. A Running Gag is his shortness actually proving beneficial in several instances, but him refusing to acknowledge it.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As the gang closes in on him and Reynard towards the end of Chapter 35, Finnick eventually decides that he's had enough and ditches Reynard to fend for himself.
• Sixth Ranger: Joins Reynard's gang after it's already been well-established and isn't quite as committed to the cause as the rest.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Implied to be this starting in Chapter 25.
• Unfortunate Name: His real name is revealed to be Finnegan Chamberlain. It's no surprise he hates being called that.

RJ

"Welp. I had a good time."

A Wallabeanie dressed as a suited version of Nick that is given to Reynard as a gift by Drummond Rane. When his string is pulled, he says a quote and stabs someone.

---

• Ambiguous Situation: Like many other things involving Wallabeanies, his "death" was either the result of the way his chair happened to tip over, or was as Wallace claims, a murder.
• Archenemy: Wallace seems to consider him this, despite them sharing exactly one scene together previously. Unless you count Drabble 13, which only makes the sentiment stranger.
• Companion Cube: Reynard takes to him very quickly, ferrying him around on his belt, talking to him, and even petting him affectionately. This is despite RJ only being able to speak in prerecorded messages, unlike Wallace. Once RJ actually bites it though, Reynard barely gives him a second thought.
• Cool Shades: Sports these as a part of his design.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ultimately ends up stabbing himself repeatedly with his own pen due to the mechanism getting jammed.
• Killer Doll: Becomes one in Drabble 13 alongside Wallace.
• My Little Panzer: He carries a toy pen sharp enough to use as a knife and attempts to stab someone with it after saying a quote. Let's hope nothing like this was ever sold with the other Wallabeanies.
• Shout-Out: In an odd case, he is one to RJ, a fanfiction also written by Berserker88 that technically isn't canon to BtBW, but is heavily influenced by it. The plushie's design is based on RJ from that story and he spouts quotes from that RJ when his string is pulled, with no real explanation as to how.
• Transplant: In a very loose sense, he is the closest thing BtBW is getting to Reynard Junior.

Dr. Thompkin Hareison

The Madcap March Hare

"Just a moment, please! I seem to have misplaced my marbles!"

An eccentric mad scientist commissioned by Reynard to assist with his "secret project's secret project". He's assisted with quite a few other things as well.

---

• Cannot Tell a Joke: As Reynard finds out the hard way when he asks him for one. Hareison's first attempt is filled with so much Techno Babble that it flies over the Count's head, and his second is a spin on the classic Chicken Joke that he still somehow manages to overcomplicate.
• Catchphrase: "Balls", his favorite response to something going wrong.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's pretty out there, to say the least. You know it's bad when Reynard is thrown off by his antics.
• Foreshadowing: Reading in the recommended order, he is (indirectly) mentioned by Vexey in Drabble 16 just before he's actually introduced.
• Hair-Raising Hare: While not exactly evil, he's still working for someone who very much is. Multiple someones, in fact, given his résumé.
• Mad Scientist: His profession. And based on some of his inventions that we've seen, he's earned the title.
• Mood-Swinger: He goes back and forth from cheerful and perky to somber and downtrodden without much warning.
• Shout-Out: He is specifically stated to be based on the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland (2010). He also mentions Dr. Wondertainment as one of his previous employers, implying he was at least partially responsible for David the Robot Shark.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He doesn't appear until the final arc, yet he was responsible for most of the technological marvels seen throughout the story, including Reynard's iconic cane.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Serves as the answer to that question.

RRJ

"For you, son, there are no lengths I won't go! No lines I won't cross! No sharks I won't jump!"

—Reynard

Robo Reynard Junior. A Humongous Transforming Mecha built by Dr. Hareison and piloted by Count Reynard, serving as the very last challenge Nick (and his allies) must face.

---

• All Your Powers Combined: Parodies this, with each of its six forms utilizing the "powers" of the crime lords they're based on.
• Creator Thumbprint: Has Dr. Hareison's Catchphrase programmed into it for when it loses a Lock-On.
• Final Boss: Of Born to Be Wilde and outright referred to as such.
• Humongous Mecha: Towers over Nick, with him only coming up to the thing's nose when it's crouched over.
• Jumping the Shark: Even for this fic, a giant robot is pretty out there. Lampshaded in the above quote.
• Magnum Opus: Reynard considers it Dr. Hareison's and it's pretty hard to argue that.
• Running on All Fours: Most of its forms, for mobility purposes. S-Mode is the only one that stands upright in order to make the best use out of its bladed weapons.
• Shifting Situation Duel: The battle with RRJ encompasses the entirety of Wilde Times, covering all six of its main zones, the central plaza, and even the front gate where it's finally defeated.
• Transforming Mecha: Has six different forms, each based on one of the six main crime lords (Reynard included).