Off Duty with Sam Snow & Kit Casey

An Intro to The Creature Cases, Off Duty, and the Sachland Creative Universe

An introductory note from Adrian:

Before we dive right into the CLADE-verse--yes, that's what I'm gonna call the universe that The Creature Cases is based in--and peruse the hypothetical hidden cameras to see what Sam and Kit get up to during their downtime in between their Creature Cases, the purpose of this passage is to serve as an introduction to three items: the show; the short stories that are based on the show; and the wider creative universe that they'll exist in upon its release.

First: the show. The Creature Cases is a new Netflix original series produced by the same folks from Silvergate Media, who have also produced the OG Octonauts TV series (with animation provided by Brown Bag Films), as well as its Above & Beyond spin-off (with animation services fulfilled by Mainframe Studios). In fact, Gabe Pulliam, who has worked on some episodes from the Octonauts franchise, created The Creature Cases, and that's just one connection this show has from its elder sister of sorts. During each episode, agents Sam Snow, a snow leopard, and Kit Casey, a kit fox, work together to decode and crack a variety of cases involving various animals across several biomes and continents around the world, utilizing their many individual skills and their elementary detective thinking to do so. The first season, consisting of 12 episodes, is available to stream exclusively on Netflix, though the Netflix Jr. YouTube channel has released a few episodes to view for free, without a Netflix subscription.

Second: the short stories themselves. Each episode of the show starts off with Sam and Kit doing a particular activity, sometimes on the mundane side, before CLADE Director Peggy Scratch calls them over to her office to brief them on the new Creature Case that they must solve during the story. This collection of short stories aims to build upon those interactions Sam and Kit have before taking on such cases... and then some. Sometimes there will be days where they don't have any training scheduled and they just happen to hang out platonically, but don't count on that always being the case; there will be some installments where you'll see them engage in training. Don't count on them engaging with each other romantically, either--I've already seen a visual piece of fanart that ships them as love interests (you do you, y'all!) and as much as I like to ship Tweak & Kwazii together as well as Dashi & Shellington, it's not going to happen here, and I doubt that's gonna happen on the show itself either (haha!).

Third: the creative universe it exists within upon its release. Off Duty is one of the first three stories created as part of this massive artistic endeavor I'm currently undertaking, named the Sachland Creative Universe, where I plan to resume my creative ventures. It's been three and a half years since I've started working at SeaWorld and I've barely had time to myself to engage in anything creative, and over the last few weeks, I've been pouring the foundation to begin satisfying that hunger. The other two stories currently being worked on as a part of the SCU are Octonauts & the Offshore Oil Spill, an Above & Beyond fanfic, as well as an original series of short stories about America's unofficial international flag carrier, Pan American World Airways, in Bright Blue World. There's also new artwork coming your way, as well as some new original characters that I can't wait to share with you all. I'll also begin taking artwork commissions as a part of this venture, details of which will be revealed later on.

I hope you'll enjoy those offerings as I begin to carve out this brand new world. For now, it's on with the show as we check in on Sam and Kit at their quarters at CLADE HQ!

Adrian