A/N: In the first chapter I mentioned that it was long and rambling, but I realised after the fact that it had to be since much of it is given to us from Judy's point of view. She's old enough to be a little dotty and she has had a long and exhausting day, thank you very much!
Being a spinmystro FTW.
Rabbit Karma chapter 2.
The Keeper of Souls resided for the moment in the Garden of Souls, where new souls are born and old souls return to when they die.
Somewhat unexpectedly considering her title this was unusual for her, as she normally seldom left her own domain.
Today she had suddenly felt compelled to come here, for some reason.
A reason she did not know.
This bothered her.
It was her nature to know such things.
About everyone.
Everywhere.
All the time.
Her, the second most orderliest of the beings of Order there was, and suddenly she was acting out of some kind of… of… what?
Intuition?
Hunch?
Instinct?
Gut reaction?
Sixth sense?
She had no guts and far more than merely six senses, it was antithesis to her to not know why and yet here she was.
And she still did not know WHY.
Was it mentioned this bothered her?
She hadn't come here for an exemplar, had she? No no, that couldn't be it. She was a zoothropological manifestation of a basic concept of order, damn it! This kind of existential uncertainty were for mortals, not the likes of her!
Trying to make sense of it she had thoroughly searched the garden and inspected all the souls, but they were behaving just as usual and nothing seemed out of place. Still, she had a lingering feeling that something was wrong, that something had disturbed the very tapestry of existence.
As she was taking a closer look at a small cluster of souls, the tiny pinpricks of light that they were in this realm, something changed. The entire garden was suddenly lit up with a golden light and a strangely heavy feeling filled it. Surprised like never before, the keeper spun and looked at the Source, the great crystal tree that was the birthplace of new souls.
Had something new and amazing been unexpectedly spawned, perchance?
She realized immediately that she had guessed wrong, this was nothing new. No, this was something old. A single soul hung high over the Source, heavy with the experience of many years and shining like a miniature sun. This was unprecedented. Sure, some souls were brighter than others, but never like this. Normally a soul had all the candlepower of an overzealous firefly, but this one shone like a military grade searchlight in comparison.
Like a cloud of overly clever moths all the souls in the garden seemed to gravitate towards the light but stop at a certain distance, as if afraid to be burned, forming a halo around the newcomer.
Fascinated, the Keeper of Souls stepped forth into the halo to have a closer look. She got the distinct impression that this soul was searching for something, thus why it was floating so high up as if to have a better view range.
When the keeper stepped forward and held out her hoof, however, the soul seemed content to come down and settle just above it.
Getting the closer look she was after, the keeper got a distinct feeling of familiarity. She had seen this mortal soul before. The fact that it shone brighter than any soul should threw her off, however.
Thinking that a more direct approach might bring better results, she posed a question.
"So, what are you searching for, my dear?"
/Mate./
Having expected a vague feeling of some kind or some other small sign as was normal for disembodied souls, she twitched in wide-eyed shock at the firm answer. While it wasn't spoken as such, the meaning was unequivocal and unmistakable.
Quickly composing herself, she decided this was still insufficient data.
"Well, aren't you an articulate little one? I'm afraid I'm going to need a bit more than that to help you though."
/MATE! /
This time it felt as if her ears should flap like flags in a stiff wind from the force of the answer. However, with it came the description of this 'mate', a feeling of all that made him, him. The feeling described a soul she recognised, and with that she realized to whom she was speaking.
She remembered; the last time the soul of 'mate' had returned to the garden he had made a bit of a nuisance of himself. Not in a big way, but enough that her friends and colleges that had passed through the garden had seen fit to comment. Apparently, when he had returned he had waited; as in, appeared and not moved an inch. Ever. He just hung there, not flinching or blinking or anything, still like a led light in a light fixture. 'As if he were trying to put the very North Star itself to shame for being so flighty and impermanent', as one had put it. Normally souls are never still for long, always moving and flashing and fluttering about, so this behaviour stood out like a middle-aged streetwalker at a Nobel-price dinner.
It had gotten to the point that she had gone herself to take care of it in her capacity as Keeper of Souls. She was pretty sure what he was waiting for and she knew how long he would have to wait; There were better uses of that time than trying to out-do fixed stellar constellations, so she had sent him on a short trip. He would be back in plenty of time to meet up with the one he was waiting for.
Or so she had known.
Apparently her knowledge was flawed, another thing she was unused to. Another thing that went contrary to her nature.
What now? If all had gone as it should, 'mate' would have been back here within six to eight months and this oh so bright soul should not have returned for at least another four years, easily allowing them to reunite right here.
This was clearly what had gone wrong that had so irked her all day, somehow this soul had ended it's mortal life far earlier then planed in some way. Not that such things were unheard of, mortals had free will as a matter of course, but there were normally patterns to their existence that they should not go beyond. Dying almost five years before her allotted time was a real doozy.
It should be understood that to the keeper and her ilk predetermination and free will were not in any way mutually exclusive but rather intimately interlinked, seeing as their understanding of reality were so far above mere mortals that it was laughable.
Giving her confusion a swift kick out of her mind, the keeper decided to handle the situation at hoof and then seek assistance from the others of her kind. This whole thing warranted a close investigation in her honest opinion.
Trying to be as gentle as possible, she leaned in towards the soul and spoke softly to it. "I'm sorry, dear, but you will have to be patient for a while. Your bonded is doing a stint of soul-cleansing at the moment and won't be here for at least half a year. Just wait and he'll be with you again, you'll see. "
Her words did not have the desired effect; Disembodied souls may be the essence of sentient beings but without a brain to think with they should really only be able to express the most basic of feelings and desires. In the same way as telling a hungry toddler to be patient while their food is warming up is unlikely to silence a tantrum, even such an unusually verbose soul as this one was basically incapable of understanding such a nebulous concept as the passing of time. Like a toddler it came down to have need now and want now.
All that was clear to this poor lonely soul was that it had been denied. It tried again.
/... mate? /
The request, previously so forceful, was now the equivalent of a pleading whisper. The keeper couldn't help but feel it tugging at her heartstrings, especially as it should have already been granted if not for some strange circumstance beyond even her ken.
With a heavy sigh, she attempted to explain again. "I know it's not what you want, but he simply isn't here and there really isn't anything I can do. I'm sorry. "
The bright soul seemed to still for a moment, then it flickered. And then, it began to quiver and flash more and more violently.
/...paindespairsorrowpaindespairsorrowPAINdespairSORROWPÅ1NdEsPAiRZoRr0WpainpainPAINPAINPAINpA1nPÄJNnonononononoNoNoNoNoNoNONONON0N00N000NoNoNoNONONON0000.../
It went down hill from there.
-RK-
Judy Hopps had always been a pioneer. First rabbit police officer, longest serving chief of ZPD, first fully functional cyborg, first rabbit in recorded history to officially marry a fox. She had never let anything stop her from something that was important to her. She had always found a way.
So, when she found herself without a respiratory system and an irresistible need to vocally and loudly express her feelings, she... continued apace.
She did so by the very first ever incident of a horrible phenomenon;
Soulscream.
-RK –
The Keeper of souls, one of the seven primordial beings of order, found that her day had filled with chaos. It did not sit well with her. At all.
The latest expression of chaos was a sudden view of the sky of the astral plane ringed by the worried faces of her fellow beings of order and chaos. And again she had no idea why. That was becoming a worryingly regular occurrence. She closed her eyes in annoyance.
"Are you okay?"
A male voice, other than that she was loath to say which of her fellows who had spoken. Just great, another thing she didn't know.
'No, bugger that with a thirty-foot pole, I AM going to figure out how I ended up like this. Screw this not knowing stuff, I refuse to do it anymore! '
Focusing her mind, she forced her memories of the last five minutes to stand at attention in neat lines, ready for inspection.
'Okay, I had just told the bright soul that I couldn't produce her mate due to exceptional circumstances, at which point it seemed to go unstable and expressed great sadness. Then it kind of... imploded? It's happy golden glow seemingly inverted into an explosion of pure dark despair. Was sent rag dolling across the garden. Last thing I remember before a period of blackness is seeing all the other souls scattering to the four winds. Annoyingly incomplete. Need more data. '
Having unknowingly channelled a certain Salarian doctor, she raised her hoof and demanded: "Help me up."
Sharing a few nervous glances, the two largest of her colleges stepped forward to help heave her onto her feet; Slightly unsteady she immediately took a good look around.
'Eleven of them are here, plus me makes twelve, which two are missing? Let´s see, oh it's those two? Curious that, didn´t think anything would keep HER from something like this, and were one goes the other normally follows, need to ask later. Hmm, that soul is still here, still looking like a small black hole of misery but apparently isolated in some kind of bubble. Good that, it seems to have scared off all other souls, I can´t see a single one in the whole garden. Now, to questions!'
Having done her best to regain her equilibrium, she began her search for knowledge. "Can I surmise that the barrier around that black soul is the work of one of you?"
"No, it is in fact the work of ALL of us, we had to pool our combined skills to supress that thing, your saying it´s a soul? Peculiar, even all together we just barely managed to contain it." The one who had chosen to speak for the group of astral beings appeared as a stately equine, a good choice of speaker since he was one of the most cerebral of the bunch. "Anyway, MOST of us…" Here he gave the stink- eye to his most fiery brother who looked a bit sheepish. "… deemed it unwise to do anything more drastic than to contain the situation until we could speak to you, seeing as you were on the scene already. Yes indeed, MOST OF US did not think that 'BURN IT WITH FIRE!' was a good alternative to handling a completely unknown phenomenon of unknown but obviously great power!" Another stink-eye, answered with a roll of fiery orbs and a circular flaming paw-wave.
Ignoring the by-play as inconsequential, the keeper was pleased. "Yes, wise of you, and most prudent. I believe that we will be able to handle this situation in a timely manner if one of our missing members were to assist. Now, where are…"
That was as far as she got before a series of rapid paw-falls and a sudden small dust cloud announced the arrival of one of their two missing members. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" And boy was she agitated; ears back and tail stiff, the long-tailed canine that had just rushed in did not look to be in a mood to screw around.
Of course, there is always one asshole who just have to yank your chain at the most inopportune of times; In this case a large spotted predator with an inclination for mayhem. "Oh you know, just handling a little problem. Speaking of, where is your little problem? I would never have believed that your better, or maybe worse, half would miss out on this kind of action?"
The newcomer answered the smirk of her antagonist with a snarl. "My mate is currently resting in our home! At her very core she is unexpected joy. That aura of certain despair that washed over this plane earlier is anathema to her existence! I got to watch helplessly as she whimpered and almost faded away before my eyes!"
The pain in her voice caused a heavy silence to fall over the garden. The spotted one who had messed with her even lowered his muzzle in slight shame, most unusual for him.
The keeper quickly decided that this was no time for drama; Now was the time for getting down to business. "In that case I assume you will want this situation dealt with post haste. The cause of your other half´s condition is contained but not resolved, I believe you can help with that."
Worried and confused, the newcomer expressed her doubts. "Me? Why, and how, do you think I can be of help with that?" So saying she waved her tail in the average direction of the containment field, where the black souls pained miasma could still be felt ever so slightly straight through it´s prison.
The answer was short. "Because the source of this despair is the soul of your exemplar."
"WHAT!"
The shout came as a simultaneous reaction from everyone present bar the keeper. The long-tailed canine felt this needed more details. "Are you sure? And how can a mere mortal soul do this, exemplar or not? Nothing I´ve ever heard of suggests that a mortal could ever gain such power."
The keeper lifted her hoof towards to core of the problem. "You tell me? Have a better look and see what you can make of it." Still not entirely convinced but ready to do anything for her mate, the canine stepped forward to do just that.
Getting closer to her supposed exemplar her worry raised, she could begin to recognise this soul as her exemplar, even if only because she had already been told so. Sticking her head as close as she dared, she began to try to make sense of what was going on. It only took her moments to figure it out, her eyes going large in shock, only to be instantly reduced to slits. Growling lowly, her long tail came up to sweep across and around the soul, the very air around it coming alight with glowing archaic runes and symbol. These symbols then coalesced into a sort of free-floating document that she proceeded to study intently. After but a few moments of careful consideration, she turned to the waiting group and spoke. "Short of a few details I believe I understand what has happened now. But to get to the heart of the matter, this dark miasma of despair she is exuding is basically her karma."
Confused mutterings and a question from the keeper was the response she got. "Her karma? Are sure? No, forget I asked, silly me." A single pointed look made the keeper back pedal." Of course you know that, but how can it behave this way? "
In answer the canine used some of her Power to enlarge the data she had gathered from the trapped soul into a big, white screen in mid-air. Sitting down primly in front she used her long tail to Point to it and with an air of a teacher began her Presentation, indicating each relevant part in order. "This is a karmic reading of the life of my exemplar. As all kits, it starts off with some ups and downs until she properly learned right from wrong and matured enough to be responsible for her actions. Then her karma starts improving rapidly until here, (taps tail to relevant information) where she gave that damned press-conference. That was literally the worst thing she ever did, there were a few things that could be considered questionable in the chaos with the Night Howlers, but she always learned from her mistakes and more importantly, she always owned them. For the rest of her life, she did her damndest to do the right thing, even when she had to make the hard choices of a leader. She might have sometimes gotten too absorbed in her work and thus neglected time with friends and family, or she might have 'borrowed' a few doughnuts from that big cheetah, but at the day of her death her total karmic balance was in the top ten of any mortal who have ever lived. This is, paradoxically, part of the problem. "
As she silenced for a short breather, a confused mumbling arose from her audience. A long-legged feline felt this was taking to long; "That doesn't make any sense! How can it be a bad thing to have great karma? "
"Yes, normally you'd be right, but she somehow managed to save two innocent lives at the cost of her own. Let me repeat that, she willingly paid the ultimate price and sacrificed her own life in some way to save the lives of two innocent young ones! Important distinction, she didn't just risk her life, but truly sacrificed it. No, don't ask me how, that will need further investigation. Anyway, that increased her karma to a whole new level, above anyone ever before. Now this is where it gets tricky, you know how stars are born? A ball of gas accumulates, until it gets big enough to collapse in on itself and ignite under its own gravity. At that point her karma was dense enough to be on the ragged edge of collapse, and then there was a problem. She saw a pair of little ones suffering from survivors' guilt, so she used her dying breath to absolve them of that guilt and then set them upon the best possible path their young lives could take! IGNITION! "
Panting slightly after her impassioned speech, her peers appear to be struck speechless. The keeper is the first to regain her wits. "Well, that certainly explains my observations of her when she returned to the Source, but not how she turned dark or how she gave up the time she had left in the mortal realm in defiance of her path. "
The equine took up the thread this time. "Well, we were waiting for you to tell us what happened before the rest of us arrived, now seems to be the time. "
Nodding, she agreed. "Agreed." Like that. "I had a most vexing feeling earlier that drove me to come here." Many looks of disbelief were shared that collectively said 'a feeling? You? Really? She felt her fellows were quite vexing in their own right, at the moment. "Yes really, thus, vexing. Anywho, when our little exemplar arrived at the Source she was indeed glowing like a new born star... " Cue recap of her interaction with soul-Judy.
When she was done, the youngest-seeming participant raised his hoof for a question. "Question?" Like that. "You kinda sorta implied that her mate should have been here already? Why isn't he?" The keeper felt a small jolt of happiness, finally something she knew for certain! Feeling her world start to return to an even keel, she started in on her area of expertise, the predetermined paths of mortal souls. "Correct, he should have been here to meet her at her passing. Now, I am sure many of you will remember how he was waiting for her, well it seemed unsatisfactory to just leave him like that since I knew how long that would be. Thus, I decided to send him for a short stint to one of the side branches of creation to atone for some of the things he did in his last life, you all know he had a troubled youth. Its not a very nice place, his current path should have him back here well within the year." The canine nodded emphatically at this, balancing your scales were all to the good in her book. "Everything was on track for their reunion until this one..." Points to Judy. "... Somehow breaks free from her path and comes back here at least three years too early."
A small long-eared female was next to take her turn. "So, what drew you here was most likely her defying you, then?" The keeper squinted her eyes and thought hard. "The feeling I got was most likely the tapestry being disturbed, yes. But more like she defied my basic nature, you very well know I have no say over the life paths of mortals. I only watch and see to it they follow them."
Their canine friend, who had been patiently sitting by her presentation, decided it was time to get to the heart of the matter. "That's good, but let's get to the heart of the matter." Like that. "How did my exemplar do it? My dear Keeper of Souls, I think this is right up your alley. Show us the last few minutes of her life." Having just stated that fact herself, the keeper thought nothing of stepping up beside her canine friend to open a large astral window for all to see a repeat of the death of the Grand Hero.
Several 'ohh's and 'ahh's, even a spontaneous applaud from the larger of the two present felines when he saw Judy run, culminating with a few sniffles at the end was the response to the showing. The smallest of the audience had watched carefully though. "Hey, show me the part where she got that speed boost again, I have an idea." Curious, she did as asked, and then turned to the previous speaker for an answer. "Yes, yes, I´m sure I know what happened now, but before that, can you tell us what she should have done?"
A peculiar request, but the keeper scrounged up her face to try to see into the possibilities. "I… see only three roads this could have possibly taken. From worst to best, she could have patched in to the monorail to engage an emergency stop on the whole system, but then the pogo-ped would have come to a sudden stop, snapping the lifting-fibre and sending the kits flying in an arc…" She shuddered at the grief Judy would have suffered for such a screw-up. "No, that would not have ended well, for anyone. Second, she could have kept running and failed to catch up. She would have grieved for her failure but accepted it, se la vie. Lastly, the best option, she could have used the big medallion in her pocket like a shuriken to break the fibre, the kits would then have fallen much faster and hit the wall separating the highway from New Town. They would have been hurt, the vole seriously, but they would have lived." She gave the small being a sharp look. "Now please tell me how she managed to kill herself but save the kits."
He answered with a smile. "Just as you just amply demonstrated your speciality, her cybernetics falls within mine. So, I can tell you with certainty that what she did; overloading her power distribution and energy core, overclocking her nervous-system and bosting her legs until they were turned to slag; all this far beyond any technical specifications to the point most of her remaining organic parts were all but roasted, its impossible! Her systems simply didn´t have any such functions, it would have been like trying to play a CD on an old gramophone; NOT! HAPPENING!" He was really getting into it now, gesticulating wildly with his small paws. "All this only leads to one conclusion: It´s a MIRACLE!"
Shocked silence. Many of the present felt this day was having a little too many shocking revelations.
Not everyone bought it though. "Okay, I call bullshit on that one, mortals can´t cause miracles! And if they did, what kind of miracle causes the user to die?" This time, the talker was a black furred ursine. This latest revelation beggared belief, to his mind. Others, though…
"Yes, that makes perfect sense." It was the wolf-like being, again. At the doubtful looks she got, she scoffed. "What? I told you she sacrificed herself, but now that I know what to look for, I see she didn´t so much sacrifice her life but instead her life-time, all she had left bar about two minutes. I postulate it was her already exceptional karma that allowed it; she concentrated almost her entire existence to a single point and denied any other outcome than her saving those kits. So in short, she caused a small break in the fabric of reality to let her perform something miraculous; she isn´t a higher being like us though, so it cost her dearly."
With a somewhat careful smile, the smaller of the two present felines made himself heard. "You are certainly on the ball today, my friend! Do you perhaps also know what happened to your exemplar to make her like this?" Waving his paw in the direction of the still pitch-black soul of Judy.
"I do." The looks she got, again, made her hurry to explain. "No really, it´s called karmic inversion, it can happen to exceptionally deserving individuals that are denied something that was clearly theirs! It´s rare but not in any way unique, her, ahh, extreme karmic state just exacerbated the problem."
"Then you know how to handle her? I´m assuming just leaving her in that containment field is not an option." The keeper felt they were truly making progress here.
The answer was decidedly flat. "No. No, we can´t just leave her there. According to my calculations, she will stay in her current state in excess of twelve thousand years if we do not interfere. And seeing that, I do not feel non-interference to be the wisest choice." She pointed her tail at the containment field. It was visibly deteriorating, blemishes and cracks all over it. And worse, the closest branch of the Source-tree had wilted ever-so-slightly.
"Shit." The keeper's response was succinct if out of character.
"Quite so. No, the only way to get her back to normal… -ish is to give her her due, her mate as it were."
"This is bad, we can´t interfere on the mortal plane so he will be here in six months at the earliest, and we can´t possibly reincarnate her in a branch of atonement, not with her karma!" The tallest being of them all felt they had reached an impasse. "Normal-ish, by the way?" But she was not about to let that deprive her of knowing things. Not today.
"Yes, even if we get her back to the state she arrived here in, we still have to address her karma; if she were to go back to the mortal realm as is, she would be a demi-goddess that subconsciously imposed her will on everything around her, she just wouldn´t be a dark demi-goddess. You all saw how mammals behaved at her death, all still and quiet? She subconsciously wanted her passing to be dignified, so that was what she got. And that was before her ignition. No mortal should have such power."
The smaller feline piped up again. "Can we expect you to be on the ball with this too, maybe?"
"Why, certainly. We bless her." Those looks, again! "Oh come on! Good karma means good things come your way, thus diminishing it! Being blessed by a higher being is about as good as good gets! This is NOT rocket-science, people!" A short, thoughtful paus. "A sevenfold blessing should reduce her to merely a bit above average karma, I believe."
They all felt a bit silly, in hindsight it really was quite simple. The keeper saw the problem, though. "That is all fine and dandy, then. Unfortunately, we still can´t get her to her mate. I mean, there is already a soul living out the life of 'Judy Hopps' in that reality. Look." With that, she changed the astral window to show a grey bunny.
A bunny in a bathtub.
A naked bunny.
Not that anyone noticed, the were all too preoccupied with her chosen bath accessories; a big bottle of strong sedatives, clearly meant for a bigger mammal and an exacto-knife. Any mammal taking a bath at two in the morning with such things could only have one plan. Her eyes looked dead already.
The keeper found herself the centre of attention yet again. Knowing what they wanted from her she sighed, closed her eyes, concentrated and let her mind's eye examine this mortals path. "Unfortunately, it seems like the current soul in that body has made a decision. The possibilities have already collapsed to a certainty and she will be here in less than six minutes."
At that moment, they all shared a single, more than slightly ghoulish thought:
'Chance!'
The long-tailed wolf-like being took command immediately, this was her exemplar after all.
"You!" Pointing at the keeper. "Get a connection to that body open and make sure it´s in prime condition, as soon as the current occupant vacates it we will have a new one lined up! You!" Pointing to their calmest and fluffiest member. "Help me keep Judy calm while I prep her for her new home! The rest of you, I want seven of you ready with a blessing on the double! GO!"
They scrambled, and soon a slowly changing soul was carefully guided towards her new life and her mate; the mere understanding that she was on her way to him caused the despair-aura to recede and glimpses of gold to shine through. Just in time too, the containment had mostly given up the ghost already. A flick of a long tail reduced it to dust.
As they approached the Keeper of souls, the smallest and the biggest of them stepped forward for their blessing. "We decided to do this together, it seemed appropriate." The small one said.
With a nod the bigger one began and raised his massive hoof over the quickly brightening soul. "Judy WildHopps, you have always impressed me with your strength, mental and physical. I fear you shall need all you can have were you are going. So, even though you shall remain flesh and blood, I grant you all the strength, stamina, resilience and everything else that your former body gave you. THIS IS MY BLESSING TO YOU." A flash, and it was done.
The enormous being left his spot for his small companion. "Judy WildeHopps, you have chosen a difficult path for such a small mammal. In that, I feel for you, and grant you my boon; no matter what, you shall never lack the tools of your chosen trade, and they will be the finest! THIS IS MY BLESSING TO YOU." Another flash.
The next pair was the felines of the group. Bigger before smaller seemed to be the pattern again.
"Judy WildHopps, you have impressed me, simple as that. If you run away, you will not be caught! If you give chase, they will not get away! THIS IS MY BLESSING TO YOU." Flash.
"Judy WildHopps, you have a tendency to leap before you look, even if only in defence of the innocent in your later years. I don´t think you´ll stop, so I´ll help you with that. THIS IS MY BLESSING TO YOU." Flash. Judy was starting to look a bit less glowy by now.
The larger feline was a bit miffed with his fellow cat, though. "Mysterious, much?"
*Sheshire smile* "A bit, yes. But I have my reasons, you will see. It´ll be a surprise."
For some reason, the next two had also paired up, but a strange pair this time. The two largest predators, the bear and the big smiling one. Not that he was smiling now for some reason.
Noting the sceptical look he got from the chosen soul-bringers, he felt compelled to explain. "Yes, me! Have you seen where she is going? That is what too much order can do to a place, she is going to need all the chaos she can get over there! Ugh, you order guys…"
Another shocking statement on a day shock full of them. Of course no one could help but see for themselves if this could possibly be true. They had all shared a belief that order was good and chaos was... less good. To be told that order could be less good as well, that demanded a follow up. Even a quick look through the astral window showed that yes, an order that is uncaring and cruel, upheld with pain and fear only for the sake of the higher ups, can indeed be straight up bad. This revelation might have far reaching consequences for them all at a later date. But not today.
Today a canine with a long tail humbly bent her head and allowed her exemplar to be blessed.
The bear began, according to the established pattern.
"Judy WildeHopps, you have never feared going against the grain. When you felt it necessary you would defy tradition and society for the right of all. Where you are going next, that is far more dangerous. Henceforth, you will slip past such patterns and be unseen by their enforcers. THIS IS MY BLESSING TO YOU." Flash. Next.
"Judy WildeHopps, you've caught much flak for being what you are and for what you are not, as well as what you want to be. Where you're headed it will be so much worse. From here on, let your detractors know confusion and indecision, and let the doubters stand in bewildered awe! THIS IS MY BLESSING TO YOU! " Flash! That one had some real omph to it.
By now, the keeper was waving, indicating a single newly arrived soul by her side. Their window of opportunity was closing, they had a minute more, tops!
"OKAY, WE NEED ONE MORE BLESSING ASAP! WHO'S UP? "
"Me."
"Wait, you? Really? I mean, uh, really? You know what, fuck it, no time! Bless away! "
And so the seventh stepped forth. "Judy, YOU HAVE MY BLESSING. " Flash. And it was done.
With that the wolfish one all but tossed a now normal looking Judy-soul to the keeper, who didn't really need to do much as the speeding soul raced up her neck to shot away from her horns like a tiny inversed shooting star.
Off to her new life.
-RK –
In a cozy little nest, a multi-coloured lapin rests.
"Feeling better, my love?"
Only to be disturbed by a wolf like entity hovering over her.
"Yeah, much better now. I think I'll be up and about in a few days. Did ya find out what that awful whatever-it-was was? It luckily diminished to almost nothing pretty quick and disappeared completely a little while ago. "
With a perfectly straight face the larger of them answered.
"Yes, it appears the source was my exemplar, returning to the Garden of Souls."
"What?"
"But don't worry, we all pitched in to ensure she wouldn't become a fully realised dark demi-goddess and sent her off to a reality meant for atonement. "
"Wut."
"Indeed, you have nothing to fear. We all also learned today that Order can be even more bad than Chaos can ever hope to be."
"..."
Looking up into the eyes of her beloved mate, the bunny raised one finger indicating her one question. "One query." Like th... or not.
Feeling a sudden inexplicable desire to smirk, she asks her mate: "Are you having me on right now? "
She is the most chaos-y being in existence, you try to anticipate her!
"Every word I just said was the truth."
"I feel like something got lost in the retelling, why don't you make me company and tell it from the start. "
Now openly smirking, the larger of the two wraps her mate in her tail and stretches out beside her.
"Very well, it all started when... "
Letting her beloved's words wash over her the rabbit cuddles up as close as possible.
All is right in her world.
-RK –
End of chapter 2
If you are confused you need to read 'The Celestials' by VariableMammal.
All credit for the creation of most of the characters in this chapter bar Judy goes to him as well. I PM:ed him to ask for permission to borrow his mammals but no joy, he hasn't been active on ffn since May last year so I might have to ask for forgiveness instead if he doesn't like what I have done. The Celestials have done their part and are unlikely to appear any more except for a quick cameo. Help me out by reading his works and favourite a few.
Now the setup is finished and we can finally get to the meat of the story in chapter 3: Judy's new life. (chapter name is liable to change on the authors discretion.)