The Animalia potluck was a bit more public than anyone anticipated. True, Lyre, NV was only a day's travel away from Las Vegas, and it was often used as a "cooldown town" after people leave from partying in Vegas, but they didn't expect there to be several national newsgroups present. Clara managed to make it clear that while the publicity would be appreciated, she would retain ultimate veto power over any news clips. There was also a champion heavyweight boxer there, cooling off after winning a championship boxing match in Vegas. This would lead to a number of encounters.
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A group of poison dart frogs, gathered together in a kind of "family-hood" because of the different skin patterns and colors, were discussing their plans for the gymnastics competition (for the girls) or the lightweight bodybuilding competition (for the guys) when a young guy came up to their table.
"Uh, hi." He said, uncertainty, hoping that they might have forgotten what had happened on Friday, "Remember me?"
"Yeah," said a dark blue frog with darker-colored spots, whose name tag read 'Maria', "You're that polliwog who fell asleep in math class and started talking in your sleep about that little dream orgy you were having involving us."
"Oh." Said the guy, somehow doing a fallen facial expression and wincing at the same time.
"Just because we amphibian Animalians have tongues that can stretch to over nine feet long and still maintain complete control over them doesn't mean we can be sexual objects." Said a female black and yellow frog with 'Dolores' on her name tag.
"Uh..." Began the guy.
"Also," began a male frog with a red body and blue legs, with the name 'Carlos' on his name tag, "We and the scientists have discovered that, while our skin secretions do not have toxins in them nor the Animalia virus,they still contain a hallucinogenic compound. But you have to actually ingest it for that to happen. We've already have had stoners ask us for access to it, and we're getting a little disagreeable. So go bother someone else." So the guy left with his plate of food, utterly defeated.
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Laura and Walter, the unlikely deer couple, were being interviewed by a Fox News reporter about their relationship.
"We can now play be considered 'friends with benefits'," said Laura, "but we really can't go further until I fully recover, and go through rehab."
"I see." Said the reporter.
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Clara was discussing some things with some builders for the upcoming IAC. One wealthy person wanted to do a Vegas-Style casino/convention center, but when there was some protest to the idea, he included a plan to make it a place where tropical Animalians can stay during the winter months. At that, there was some more agreement to it, but the beavers insisted that they help with the design and construction phases. What was eventually decided that the two new, major additions to Animalia/Lyre would be the "arena" where the competitions, and the opening and closing ceremonies for the IAC (they decided that the Animalia Games would be something similar to the Olympic Games) and the proposed "casino".
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Anton and Marlysa had announced their intention to get married in Las Vegas, and they also revealed some other plans. Among those plans was the fact that Marlysa couldn't fit into Joyce's old wedding dress, so she had arranged to have it modified at an alterations place. Even when they were done with it, it was still remarkably skimpy, so it was decided to allow Animalians to wear remarkably less clothing to both the wedding and the reception. The press marketed it as "the first and most memorable Animalian wedding of the country."
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After the announcement, Anton got together with a health expert, one of the scientists studying the virus, a registered "sexpert" from Las Vegas, and a magazine publisher to discuss the creation of an "Animalia" magazine. It would be part Times magazine, part health/bodybuilding magazine, and part porn magazine (and thus be only available to people 18 years old and older). Once again, Animalia would retain ultimate veto power over articles in the magazine, and any pictures of Animalians could only be in the magazine if they were obtained with the subject's consent.
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There were also some major manufacturers present, hoping to get some Animalians for their advertising. For example, Budweiser wanted to get some male horses for their ads, but when the stallions they asked to take part tried the beer and found it nasty tasting, Budweiser had to change its ads so the stallions appear in their ads, but they don't actually drink it; Olay, on the other hand, managed to find a female spitting cobra Animalian, named Sabine, that was ready to shed her skin. After assuring her that she would get paid for the ad that she did, they decided to film the ad now, in a private room. Sabine not only found that the new skin ointment not only made it easier for her to shed her skin, she also decided to ham it up to the camera and turned her shedding into a striptease "dance" (after a fashion, obviously she had no legs to dance with). Later, Olay decided to splice the "dance" with the music from the lizard striptease from the old 40s cartoon "Cross Country Detours", not knowing that this will generate over 100,000 Internet memes, not to mention the amount of publicity that it would attract. After some stiff negotiations with Clara, they decided to only show the commercial during the IAC for the guests, and during the super bowl for everyone else.
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One final unusual thing happened near the end. Steele, the champion boxer was busy talking with another Animalian while a young Gorilla Animalian, named Anderson had put on Steele's gloves (with Steele's permission) and was making some shadow boxing moves. Steele had just turned away from his previous conversation when Anderson, getting a little carried away, clocked Steele across the face and into a vacant table. Dean, a male goat Animalian who was acting as a Chaperone, quickly rushed over to him.
"Steele! Steele! Steele! How many horns do you see?" He asked.
"Which one of you want to know?" burbled Steele, a little incoherently, his vision somewhat like looking through a kaleidoscope.
"I didn't mean it!" Said Anderson, a little frantically.
After Steele was a little more coherent, and with an ice pack on his head, Steele then asked something nobody expected.
"Hey, kid," he said, laughing a little, "You ever considered professional prizefighting?" His manager, angry at first, started catching on to what Steele was thinking.
"Say, that's not a bad idea." He said, "CHAMP Vs. CHIMP." Clara, after hearing the idea, opened negotiations for such a match to be part of the opening ceremony for the IAC, after it was arranged to get Anderson a proper boxing instructor.