Chapter 14
Reality Check

Chris's (Jack's) POV

The flash drive that I had given Melody was a real goldmine of information. It had biological data not only on me before I changed, but also on the average human, the average evolved arctic fox, as well as me after the transformation, somehow.
After some general browsing of the contents, Melody decided to compile the most relative information into a grid for a better comparison. I left her to it as I finished up with the dishes, figuring she'd benefit from not having someone looking over her shoulder the entire time.
Once everything was put away, I came back to find Melody inputting the last of the info in her grid. Looking at it with no relative context, it seemed like a jumble of words and numbers to me.

"So… What're we looking at?" I asked a bit apprehensively.
"Well, I can't say for certain," she admitted. "But if this information is correct, then technically you're still going through a changing process."
"What do you mean? Being turned into a fox isn't enough?"
"Yeah, about that. According to the data, you're not all fox to begin with; about 78% of you is still technically human."
"Great, so I'm a freak that only looks like a fox," I deadpanned. "Anything about these new memories I'm getting?"
"Not exactly," Melody answered as she pulled up one of the original files. "According to this, there's a thin golden membrane covering all of your organs inside of you. Apparently, it's regulating your transformation process and whenever it activates in your brain that's when you black out."
"See, the hippocampus is where all the memories are stored in the brain," she explained as she tapped my skull. "And whenever this membrane activates, it heats up as the information is created; causing a lot of stress in the area, resulting in headaches and the eventual blackout."
I just nodded, barely understanding what she was trying to explain. My eyes drifted toward the clock, showing how late it was, and I decided that it would be best to leave it at that for the night.
She went back to her room, I set myself back on the couch. As I stared at the ceiling, I couldn't help but wonder what the hell was happening to me.

I woke up the next morning to an empty apartment, Melody having left a note that she had classes and a couple of group meetings to attend to. I was perfectly fine with it; I finally had some time to think without worrying about anything.
After a quick breakfast, I grabbed a set of jogging wear from my new clothes and headed out. For the first time ever, I had to keep my glasses on while I was running. Otherwise, I would've hit someone or gotten hit, no matter how big the mammal or object. I was also still a bit unaccustomed to running without shoes, and I nearly tripped over my tail a couple of times, but after about a quarter-mile of embarrassment I was on autopilot.
I ran for quite a while before reaching a park in front of a building that I recognized all too well, the ZPD precinct of Savannah Central. Of all the places I could've run, I had somehow ended up on its front step. The irony was lost on me as I turned tail and ran back to the apartment.
A shower and a small lunch later, I was walking the streets of Zootopia again; my thoughts falling on my light wallet.
'I'm going to have to find a job soon,' I thought to myself as I passed shops and cafés.

The next few days were a blur of the same. Wake up, go for a jog, and lounge about while waiting for Melody. Eventually though, Melody had a break from her classes and insisted on showing me around the city, pulling me to the station and onto a train towards another district. I didn't care; I was zoned out, playing the same scene in my head over and over. About how I got there in the first place. There had to be something I missed, something that would explain to me what happened. But I couldn't find it no matter how hard I tried, causing me to involuntarily growl.

"Chris, what's wrong?" I heard Melody ask, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Nothing, I'm fine," I tried lying.
"No, you're not. Your ears are flat against your head," she said as if pointing out the obvious.
And just to see if she was right, I slid my paw over my head. Sure enough, they were flat just as she predicted. I grumbled at how easy it was for someone to guess how I was feeling now.
"You know, I've never asked how old you were," the vixen admitted, trying to start a conversation. "I always just assumed you were eighteen."
"Well just to let you know, I'm actually fifteen," I told her, earning a look. "Sixteen in a few weeks."
"You're taking this quite well for fifteen."
"Well, I've got two words for you," I said as I raised my paw to count them off. "Distraction and denial."
"I'm not following," Melody responded with a cocked head.
"I've always been an isolated person due to my outlook on life," I sighed. "I see things for what they are, not what other people think. And because of that, denial has become fairly easy to accomplish. As for distraction…"
"I've been thinking about other things, constantly worried about everything. But now that I haven't been doing much lately, I guess I'm finally catching up on what's going on. And now I'm trying to figure it out from a different perspective."
"Wow," Melody simply stated. "But you don't seem very isolated to me."
"Well that's because I'm overloaded with god-knows-what was in that serum and that I've been trying to survive for the past couple of weeks," I retorted, slightly irritated. "So I'm sorry if I haven't acted like myself lately."
"You don't have to be rude, you know," she shot back.
"Well, I wouldn't be me if I wasn't," I returned.
"Okay, now you're acting like a real ass," she said.
"First of all, isn't that speciest or something? And second, I'm stressed and my social anxiety is getting the best of me," I replied as I massaged my temples.

Melody sat there next to me in silence for a good few minutes. I just stared out the train window and watched as the buildings flew past us.
"You know, Jackson was almost the exact same way," she finally sighed. "He had social anxiety too, always nervous with others. It took me and Mandy a while to break him out of his shell. And when we did, we found that he was a nice and caring fox who always used his head to get out of bad situations.
"Sure, he avoided others like the plague and he also acted like a complete ass when he was stressed. But he would always think over his problems, mulling it over and over until he figured it out.
"And if you're anything like him, then you must be doing the same thing," she said as she looked straight at me. "Thinking there was something that you missed or something that you could've done differently. So you're replaying the situation over and over until it makes you sick or you found the solution."
I just stared at her for a long moment, trying to wrap my head around her conclusion.
"I… How…"
"I've been with Jackson long enough to know how he thinks," Melody said as she got up and made her way to the door, the train having arrived at our destination.
"But I'm not Jackson…" I muttered under my breath as I followed her.

We got off at Glacier Falls Station, right in the middle of Tundratown. And despite being practically blinded by the white snow, I immediately decided that I much preferred this district. Unlike Savannah Central with its warm temperature that left me sweating under my fur, Tundratown was much cooler, comfortable even.
"Okay, let's get this show on the road," Melody said as she walked in front, having just put on a pair of sunglasses.
I envied her; if I took off my glasses I was pretty much as blind as bat, at this point. So I decided to exact some revenge. Scooping up a bit of snow, I called her out.
"Hey, Mel."
"What?" She said as she turned around.
She ended up with a face full of snow, causing me to double over in laughter. Sure, I might've signed my death warrant, but it was worth it. And I think I got off the hook too, because it didn't take long for her to start laughing as well.

The day passed by with a lot of goofing off and sightseeing, Melody having even treated me to some nice sushi at the fish market.
'I can see myself living here,' I thought to myself as we walked through a park. 'Good thing I made that deal with Mandy the other day.'
And speak of the devil, because at that point I noticed the familiar otter on a park bench tapping at her phone. Of all the times she had to show up, it had to be then. Fortunately, Mandy wasn't moving an inch from her spot and Melody seemed to have not noticed her yet, so I figured if I could just steer Melody away then we could pass by without either of them noticing each other. And it worked…
For all of ten seconds.

"Oh, Jack! Hey!" I heard Mandy call out from behind us.
"Mandy! I didn' notice ya there," I greeted her as I turned around and donned my accent again.
"I almost didn't notice you," the otter said as she caught up to us. "What are you doing here?"
"I'M taking him around town," Melody growled. "You know, to jog his memory."
"Oh hey Mel," Mandy frowned at the vixen.
"So, uh, how're things?" I asked, trying to prevent any fights from happening.
"Well, I've found a place that's close to what you're looking for, so I guess it's about time you hold your end of the bargain," the otter answered without looking away from Melody.
"Jack. What is she talking about?" The vixen asked as she flashed a grin that most definitely hid some form of anger.
"Well… I made a deal with Mandy a few days ago while you were out of the apartment," I sheepishly admitted.
"What kind of deal?" She pressed while crossing her arms.
"That I 'might' let her look at the Long-Fall Boots if she found me a place to stay in Tundratown."
"Uh-huh."
"And I found you a place, here's the address," Mandy butted in, shoving a slip of paper in my face. "Now you're going to let me see those boots."
"Yeah, about that," I told her as I grabbed the paper. "I said that I MIGHT let you see them, not that I WOULD."
The otter gave me a disappointed look and then sighed.
"Fine, you win," she said in defeat as she started walking away. "But I guess you won't mind if I keep this, then."
She was holding up a small trinket that looked like a snow globe.
"STOP RIGHT THERE MANDY!" Melody shouted, causing the otter to stop just a few feet away. "Where did you get that? I've been looking everywhere for it!"
"Oh, this little thing?" Mandy asked as she whirled around. "I found it in the garbage, so why would you want it?"
The otter sported a sly grin across her face, contrary to Melody who was practically fuming out of her ears.
"Just give it back!" The vixen demanded.
"Only if you let me see those boots," the otter requested.
"Not in a million years," Melody growled.
"So predictable," Mandy shrugged. "Then I guess you won't mind if I revealed Jack's true identity to the press, now would you?"
I blinked for a moment, the words still trying to process in my head.
"What?" Melody asked, surprised by the otter's words as well.
Mandy walked up to us and stared down the vixen.
"You heard me," she calmly said before looking at me. "He's not Jackson."

"I still can't believe I'm agreeing to this," Melody grumbled as she unlocked the apartment. "You stay here, I'll get the boots."
As Melody disappeared, I was left with Mandy in the hallway; the otter still wearing the proud smirk from back in Tundratown.
"So, uh, I've been meaning to ask, but… How did you find me out?" I asked her, having dropped the Irish accent a long time ago.
"Well it wasn't easy," she admitted. "But not all that hard either. A strange unknown mammal just so happens to be with Mel in the lab, and then the next day a friend that's been missing for about a week shows up and claims to have amnesia."
"Yeah, that was Mel's idea…" I admitted.
"Figured as much," she replied. "Anyway, I thought something odd was going on, so I decided to try and catch you alone. And when I did, you weren't acting like Jack. You were nervous and shaky."
"Wait, so the place you found in Tundratown is a hoax?" I asked, a bit worried.
"I'm not evil, Chris, it's a real place," she assured me.
Melody came back with the Long-Fall Boots in paw, sporting a slightly grumpy attitude.
"Here are the boots," she said as she shoved them into Mandy's face.
"And here's your… Whatever this is," the otter replied as she dug out the snow globe trinket from her pocket.
"Go jump off a bridge!" Melody shot at her before storming into the apartment.
"I might just do that!" Mandy teased back before heading towards her own place.
"Hey Mandy, no hard feelings?" I asked as she unlocked her door.
The otter paused at the door for a moment.
"I'll think about it," she replied with a smile.

?'s POV

After going through every relevant file, my suspicions were confirmed.

Name: Frost, Jackson William
Species:Vulpes Lagopus (Arctic Fox)
Age: 22

Deceased, February 10, 2016

So how was it that Mr. Frost was walking around on the news? I had to find out why, and this new file probably had something to do with it.

Name: N/A
Species: N/A
Age: N/A

Living.

the Universal Conversation

{Electro}
-Hello travellers, my name's Electro, and welcome to The Universal Conversation. Now today, we have a very special guest appearing on the show today. He is the sole editor of this story and the author of 'The Hitchhikers Guide to Zootopia'. Please give a round of applause for AeroQC.

*Applause out of nowhere*

{Aero}
-Hey, yeah, my pleasure. First off, I wasn't exactly expecting you to drag me HERE.

*Gestures around us to showcase the apartment complex hallway we're in*

-And second of all: I'm a porcupine? Seriously?

{Electro}
-Well just be glad I didn't electrocute you. Remember I'm pretty much a living power plant. Now for our first question of the day: After seeing how our traveler Mr. Anthony took on this urban metropolis, how is Chris' take on his new environment different to your story's Mr. Drifner?

{Aero}
-Are you sure we should be talking about that here? I mean, I don't want you-know-who to accidentally over-hear us. I mean, she's already done it in my story, so I'm just being cautious.

{Electro}
-Hmm, you do have a point... Oh, I know a great place we can continue. I had this place set up not too long ago, up in Port Lions.

*Instantly transports us to said location*

-Ok, that should be good. Anyways, back to the question at hand, my prickly compadre.

{Aero}
-Just be glad that I'm used to cold weather. Anyways, Christopher seems to have taken his "displacement", as it were, pretty well. I mean, sure, he's finally letting it sink in, but he went two whole weeks without so much as freaking out. Sean, on the other hand, actually broke down and cried on the…

*Checks notes*

-…Third day. Huh. For a second, I thought it was on the fifth.

*Shrugs*

-Oh well.

{Electro}
-Hmm, that is true. Even with the obvious age difference. Ok, next question... How different is Chris compared to Sean in terms of personality and dealing with others?

{Aero}
-Hmm... That's a tough one, actually. Sean isn't exactly introverted, just... Evasive. He gets along fine with others; he's just not exactly inclined on making the first move, so to, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care who he bothers. And from what I can tell, he can be downright annoying as for Sean, let's just say that he can be a bit clueless sometimes.

*Chuckles*

{Electro}
-Interesting… Okay, onto the more complicated questions. Seeing how the events currently are, in terms of time placement, how do you think Chris will act when he encounters everyone's favorite bunny?

{Aero}
-Okay, I thought the last one was tough, and now you want a prediction? From your own editor?

*Laughs*

-You're good Electro, I'll give you that much.

*Clears throat*

-Okay, here's what I think. Jackson's disappearance was all over the news, just as much as his reappearance was. So naturally, I think that Judy would be intrigued by his case. Of course, Christopher has an aversion to cops, so he would try to get away somehow.

{Electro}
-Thank you, thank you very much. Now here's an easier one, what differences have you spotted between Chris and his Zootopian doppelganger Jackson?

{Aero}
-Well clearly Jackson had worse eyesight than Christopher, not to mention that Jackson is distinctly Irish, or in terms of personality, it seems like Jackson was more inclined to bettering himself by learning what he could. Whereas Christopher looked like he just complained about how awful or unjust the world was around him.

{Electro}
-You are correct. While Jackson is more like Judy in terms of breaking the stereotypes, Chris is more of the accepting realist like Nick. Now, if you were to ask the characters anything, anything at all, what would you ask them?

{Aero}
-Honestly? I wouldn't ask them anything. Their actions speak more than any answer they could possibly give me. I'm merely content in watching how this all plays out. Although to be honest, I think I would be a bit flustered in front of Mandy, if you catch my drift.

{Electro}
-Heheh, yeah. And how do you think Melody will be in the next few months of the story?

{Aero}
-Well right now she's distracted, but soon enough she'll have to come to terms with accepting that, as much as Christopher might look like Jackson, he won't ever fully BE Jackson. At least, that's the feeling I'm getting.

{Electro}
-Hmm, I feel like you could be some sort of therapist... Anywho last question before I let you go on your merry way. Who do you think our mystery mammal is at the end of Chapters's 13 and 14?

{Aero}
-A therapist, you say? Sorry, but that's more my assistant's thing; she must be rubbing off on me. And really, I can't tell who the mystery mammal is. Only that they seem to have information on just about everybody in Zootopia. And if I don't have enough info on something, I start making assumptions that just end up going way off course. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a movie to finish directing. One that I'm sure Mandy will enjoy, a lot.

{Electro}
-Yeah, you probably should. She is definitely someone you don't want to mess with. Luckily I've got Melody at my beck and call. Well, I had a fun time with you, Mr. QC. And tell your assistant Kyu to take some time off, she seems like she needs it.

{Aero}
-It was nice speaking with you, I can't wait to see what's in store.

{Electro}
-Thank you.
Well, I guess that's all for today. This is Electro, signing off till next time.

*Cease transmission*