With Valentine's Day approaching, a couple of newspapers and magazines saw this as a good time to make a few articles about Animalia. It was no secret that the people of this growing community were open about their attraction and affection towards each other. Many people found new loves or had their relationships rekindled by the virus. That would certainly make for some interesting stories to read on Valentine's Day.
Mayor Clara and her group were still at Mieni Atoll but she assured her citizens that they'll be back in time for the holiday. She allowed the various newsgroups permission to interview Animalian couples, but they did have the respect the couples' privacy on various matters and that the couples had the right not to tell them anything if they didn't want to.
There were quite a lot of couples to interview. There were plenty of former humans that had bonded after converting, animals who remained mates or became mates after uplifting, and many who had found their perfect match after they had been completely different species before Animalia. There were people who became uplifted by accident, willingly joined Animalia, or signed up for Project Phoenix. The effects of a double dose allowed people to find outside of their original age range, like making Anton and Marcy younger and older respectively. Of course, these stories were becoming increasingly commonplace and the interviewers were looking for love stories that were more unique and interesting.
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One interesting story was the one about Rift and Jet. Rift was one of the goth teens, dressing in excessive black, wearing dark makeup, and reading poems that were either gloomy or scary. As was common with goths, Rift didn't have many friends outside of the other goths. But there was one soul that Rift could really open up to and feel happy around. Jet was a wild raven that Rift had encouraged to visit him with anchovies. The raven was quick to gobble up the morsels but did appear to like to hang around. Rift often read poetry to the bird, most often of Edgar Allen Poe. Rift never tried to catch Jet. A winged soul didn't belong in a cage. Jet usually showed up at least once a day. But one day, Jet didn't show up at all, nor on the next day or the day after that. Rift was worried that an eagle or a wolf might have caught Jet and ate the raven.
Of course, what Rift couldn't have known was that the day that Jet failed to show up was the day the experimental virus was accidentally dumped into the river. Many animals were exposed to the virus and changed into anthro versions of themselves, including Jet. Rift, being unfamiliar with bird anatomy, couldn't tell if Jet was a boy or a girl so he had given the raven a gender-neutral name. However, Jet actually was female and it became very evident when the virus gave her a quite womanly figure. Ravens are very intelligent birds so it didn't take Jet very long to become accustomed to her new state of being.
The affection that Jet had felt for Rift before was elevated to actual attraction. But Jet wanted to make a good impression on her friend. When Animalia was established, Jet tried to earn as money as she could, doing any available jobs. Once she had earned enough money, she gave herself a total goth makeover. Every from her leg stockings to her neck choker were as gothic as she could afford. She wished she had actual hair to style and her feathers and beak didn't make makeup impractical, but she was figured she was good as she could get on her own.
When Jet showed up at Rift's house in her new outfit, his parents were obviously bewildered about the raven woman in goth clothes asking for their son. It didn't take her long to convince Rift that she used to be the raven that visited him. Rift was amazed about the Animalian Jet had become and didn't begrudge her about not meeting him sooner. The two quickly developed an even stronger relationship. Before a month had passed, Rift asked his parents if he could become a raven like Jet. Thankfully, his parents were open-minded enough to let their son go goth in the first place and him joining Animalia didn't seem like a bad thing to them.
Rift still attended high school and Jet enrolled with him. She was a very clever bird and was able to pick up lesson pretty quickly. Rift and Jet may seem a little too cheerful now to be considered goths to some people. But the important thing was that they were happy with each other.
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There was one story that was a bit more sensitive. Since they had been introduced to each other, Beth Jonson and Eliza Marigold had gotten along quite a lot. Most people would assume they were along as well as, well, cats and dogs. Yes, there were a lot of differences between the two. Eliza was an elderly lady who preferred some of the daintier things while Beth was a young tough girl. Even so, the two were able to find some common ground. One of the few feminine things that Beth admitted she liked was baking and tea. And it turns out that Eliza also had a rather unladylike interest in professional wrestling.
Over several weeks, Beth and Eliza had grown closer. Eliza could see that an old soul lived in Beth while Beth could see Eliza was able to hold on to her youthful spirit. While Eliza had no living relatives to shun her, Beth was still nervous about admitting to her father that she was a lesbian. But with Eliza's encouragement, Beth was finally able to open up. It was probably very bizarre for Mr. Jonson to learn that not only was his daughter gay, but that she was actually in love with the old cat lady she had been visiting. But what mattered most was that Beth was happy and eventually, Beth and Eliza convinced Mr. Jonson to give permission for Beth to get a second dose so she and Eliza could be the same age.
However, they hadn't made that big step quite yet. If they did get the second dose, it would soon be revealed that they were in a homosexual relationship. Yes, this wasn't against the edict about cross-species breeding, but be the first Animalians in such a relationship to open about it. Even if others wouldn't frown about them being different species, there was a lot of anti-gay opinion that was being expressed with the new president. That was why Beth and Eliza had asked the reporter to not list their names or species in the story. As much as they'd like to take their relationship to the next level, the pressure from the outside world might be too much. They would need some support from others before they could go through with it.