Furtoonz Interviews Phil Rot, creator of Gritty Post-Technocratic Cyber-Dystopian Extreme Furry Noir Novella, Nerve City
The following interview was set to appear on the popular Furtoonz Blog before the allegations against Furtoonz surfaced, and the blog was temporarily shut down. Until all the evidence is compiled and Furtoonz is judged by a jury of their peers, all parties remain innocent. This interview is being released via Phil’s Substack because the editor believes it holds artistic significance.
Furtoonz: Phil, how’s it going?
Phil: Great, thanks for reaching out.
Furtoonz: Nerve City, what is it?
Phil: Nerve City is a gritty, post-technocratic, cyber-dystopian, extreme-furry noir novella that I’m releasing in pieces on Substack. So far, I’ve just released the Prelude and Chapter One. Gonna release a new chapter every other week. Oh, and Hunter Vibin does original artwork for each one. Heh.
Furtoonz: Have you always been interested in the furry fandom?
Phil: No, not really, heh.
Furtoonz: So what inspired you to write a cyber… whatever furry noir novel thing, lol?
Phil: Well, that’s a good question. I guess I just thought there was a lot of money in it for me. You know, furries tend to have lucrative careers in, like, coding and computer stuff. Autism basically. Elon is a furry–a diaper fur, actually. So, I figured I could orient myself in that direction. Heh.
Furtoonz: Not ALL of us are autistic, you know, lol.
Phil: Cool.
Furtoonz: So you haven’t done any furry or anthro stuff before? What are your other novels about?
Phil: You didn’t read them?
Furtoonz: No.
Phil: Oh. I sent them over. Did the files not work?
Furtoonz: I don’t know.
Phil: Okay. Well, my other books are typically about other things people like. My first novel, The Raft, was about a guy and his brother going rafting. The other novel, The Moon is Gay, was about the moon. Plus, I write a lot of stuff for Substack. Usually, I just figure out what people like and try to capitalize on it. I’m trying to make money, heh.
Furtoonz: Nice. So, did you do any research for your new novel series? Like, did you get involved in the community at all? Or read any furry lit?
Phil: Yeah, I started going to the meetups. Ya know, conventions and private get-togethers and stuff. I bought a suit.
Furtoonz: OMG, you jumped in the deep end!
Phil: Yeah, heh.
Furtoonz: Can I ask you your fursona?
Phil: Sure.
Furtoonz: What is it?
Phil: I’m a Vulpine. A fennic fox, heh.
Furtoonz: Can you show me??
Phil: Sure, I’ll put it on. Hold on.
(ten minutes later)
Phil: Okay, how do I look?
Furtoonz: Amazing! OMG, the mouth moves?
Phil: Yeah, heh. It set me back a bit. $9,560.
Furtoonz: It looks incredible! Where’d you get it done? Was that a custom commission?
Phil: Yeah, Made Fur You. I told them I wanted something more functional, you know, something that would feel immersive. It’s cool. I sent them a Life-Doll© I had made of myself a year ago, so they had my exact proportions and weight and stuff, heh.
Furtoonz: Hold on, a “life-doll?” What the flip is that??
Phil: You know, it’s like a Realdoll©, but it has this internal heating and breathing thing, you know, like, it feels like me if I was sleeping. Same body temp, chest rises and falls, makes little sounds. Heh. You fill it with water, but the skin is made of this synthetic material that’s essentially real skin, but off by one chemical. It smells like me, too.
Furtoonz: That’s nuts!
Phil: Yeah, heh, this guy in Arizona makes them. You have to sleep in this thing overnight that maps your body with all of these pressure-sensitive–um, essentially dull-headed needles. It’s hard because you have to lie completely still on your back, and I’m a side sleeper, while this thing hovers over the needles, gently pressing them into your skin, and there’s this computer that makes this humming noise. Thankfully, his partner, who’s a furry by the way, is a clinically trained anesthesiologist, and so I was out for, like, fourteen hours. Ten weeks later, I had my Life-Doll waiting for me at the post office.
Furtoonz: That is so freakin cool!
Phil: You have to be careful, though, if you leave it outside. The material–the skin- can get sunburned just like regular skin, and it can develop these nasty blisters. I left mine out at the beach one time and forgot about it, and the next day I went back to get it, and it looked like that dyed-red pork substitute you get in Chinese fried rice. Thankfully, there’s this lotion you can get for it, but you have to order it from Iraq, so it takes a while to make it Stateside. Heh.
Furtoonz: Why Iraq?
Phil: It has something to do with the animal it’s made from, or how it’s made, actually. I looked it up. Apparently, there are a lot of laws in most countries about what you can or cannot do in terms of processing animals. Like, in most countries, you have to source your product from an animal that’s already expired. With this particular product, I guess the animal has to be conscious. The animal has to, like, be afraid of the thing that’s scraping and exfoliating it. Something about cortisol, or something like that. Anyways, it’s considered “cruel” in the United States to do that to this specific animal as they are expiring. Which is crazy, because we eat chickens and cows all the time. Heh.
Furtoonz: What kind of animal is it?
Phil: I forgot. Heh.
Furtoonz: So, who should read Nerve City, your serialized cybergoth furry thing on Substack??
Phil: Furries, programmers, business professionals, college students, Japanese people–basically anyone would enjoy it, really. It’s got violence, sexual occasions, heavy drug use, lots of swear words. It’s not really for kids, but I’m sure they’d like it, probably even more than adults would.
Furtoonz: Awesome! Thanks so much for talking with us. Maybe we’ll bump tails at a con sometime??
Phil: Heh. Yeah sure.
That wolf furry’s smirk has been seared into my soul. We were friends in a past life.
It was inevitable.