Heather's attack on Sophie and Roland had caused Animalia many problems, and while the apparent efforts to reform Heather Wilcox with regard to Project Dinotopia did seem to be working and that Sophie had found that the woman wasn't without things that would explain her past crimes, that didn't mean reforming Heather Wilcox would do much to reverse the consequences of one insane act. The biggest single problem was a lack of trust that some people had, even at Lyre High. In Lyre it wasn't at the point of threatening violence against Animalians, but it was obvious that those that had lost trust in the Animalians weren't going to regain it that easily. Sophie had found this out extensively as some students persisted in asking her why she kept hanging out with Jessica, Malice, Sarah, and Abby outside of school.
The biggest problems that Sophie had found had come from those who were likely from outside Lyre and perhaps even outside the state of Nevada as well. There, where contact with Animalia was less and the local governments were heavily conservative in the sense that they didn't want to change anything, regardless of whether or not they needed change of some kind, had created all sorts of issues that had given people who hated Animalia plenty of room to cause trouble. "Ih8ULibs" remained one of the frequent leaders of these sorts of trolls. Normally he posted some negative comment on one of the Animalia Ambassadoria videos and often left it at that, and rarely argued back when someone countered him in the comments section. However, after Heather's attack made the news, his comments became more frequent and even more hateful, and he seemed far more willing to argue when anyone countered him. And the latest string of comments proved that...
SOPHIERULZ: You know full well that Animalia has not overthrown Lyre's town government.
IH8ULIBS: Like their token human really knows what they're REALLY up to. They just trot you out when they need some token to make people think they're tolerant of humanity or actually have morals. Animalia = BLM, racist against white people.
SOPHIERULZ: Most humans in Lyre that became Animalians did so because of outbreak when the virus first spilled. There was NEVER any government overthrow. And Animalia ISN'T racist.
IH8ULIBS: Yes it is. They build this whole knew school and won't let anyone but Animalians go to it? That's racist. And that's why you're their token human. You don't even know they're racist and they hate you... or worse you support their racism against your own kind.
Sophie frowned at that and sighed heavily. Ih8ulibs was very much still a troll, but he was proving to be smarter than what she'd originally suspected and knew how to use his own hatred or anger to drive the conversation. Sophie had her opinions on WSA's original policy, and had some private sense of triumph as Animalia and the Lyre School District reached an agreement to reintegrate the two districts the next year once some additional buildings could be added to the WSA campus, but she didn't think that Animalia's policy was racist. It may have been the result of faulty reasoning based legitimate concerns that Animalia had over the virus or the physical size of some Animalians, but it wasn't racist. She'd seen enough of her friends as Animalians to know that they weren't racist. In fact they were the same great friends they were before the Animalia outbreak. And that had been a big part of why she wanted to be an Animalian, and specifically a pterodactyl should Project Dinotopia be a success.
Of course, Project Dinotopia would have its own difficulties to get through as well. The incomplete nature of fossilized DNA was problematic and at the same time many museums weren't super keen on giving bones to Horizon in that regard. Right now with the testing focused more on Heather and her family history, the mix of theropods in Heather's present DNA was enough, but Sophie knew that if she were to be a Pterodactylus based Animalian, with Roland as her mate, Horizon would NEED at least some bones that could be broken down and mixed with the Animalia virus, doctored with the "snake-heart" condition. Then of course there was the fact that even if they had the DNA and everything else was ready, there was the fact that her parents and Roland's parents weren't about to sign off on letting them go through with the procedure until they were eighteen, if at all. But that was a different problem that Sophie found herself dwelling on as she walked along Lyre's streets.
"Sophie!" came Jessica's voice from a side making her stop and look back.
She turned to see Jessica and the others standing there on the front porch to Jessica's home. The only one who wasn't there was Roland, but then, he wasn't expected to be released from the hospital for another day or two. They were patiently waiting as part of a sort of rotation of meeting places where Animalia Ambassadoria's members met to discuss ideas for episodes and so on. In this, one day they'd be at Jessica's, then Abby's, then Sarah and Malice's, and then at Sophie's before repeating the process and at each meeting they'd share ideas on what to do and what to cover and so on. Many of their latest episodes had either been updates on Horizon's various projects and education programs to help various Animalians accept the vaccinations to keep the Animalia Virus in their systems from becoming a problem.
"My house is here," Jessica quipped with a small smile.
"Sorry," Sophie gave a sheepish grin and jogged back over to join up with the others, "I had a lot on my mind..."
"Debating the troll in the comments section," Sarah commented.
"He was an annoyance before, but now... with all the ammunition that Heather's attack gave him, he's at the heart of every problem we're trying to stop," Sophie answered, "and... and while you guys know my opinion on WSA's original stance and enrollment policy... I don't think it was racism on Animalia's part. Clara's been too nice to us for it to be that. It may be the result of faulty reasoning, but it wasn't racism, like what he keeps insisting... and he's started coming after us personally... He's just..."
"Stupid," Malice finished as Jessica opened the door.
"Yes," Sophie sighed.
They made their way in and ultimately sat down in the living room. Jessica, Roger, and Malice sat on a couch while Sarah and Travis picked out a couple of chairs near the front windows, while Abby, Samson, and Sophie sat on the floor in a sort of half circle. Each of them set their book bags down beside them and would turn their homework at some point in the afternoon, though Abby and Samson might not be able to stay too long for that part as both of them did have some chores to handle around the farm. Martin and Josephine Brown joining Animalia had lessened a lot of the work that they had to do, but Samson had proved to be a dedicated and honest worker. And wherever Samson went, Abby was sure to follow.
"You may want to avoid arguing with him," Travis commented to Sophie.
"Yeah, he's clearly bothering you if you didn't even notice that you'd passed my house," Jessica added, "He isn't worth it."
"He is when he comes after you," Sophie answered, "Heather's caused all sorts of trouble and he's capitalized on it. He's EXACTLY the kind of person our show is intended to counter... We can't just let him post hateful things in the comments section and just ignore it."
"He is the type guy our show is intended to counter," Sarah agreed, "but ih8ulibs has been a thorn from the beginning generally hasn't changed his opinion in the slightest. Countering him doesn't mean persuading him he's wrong. If we can convince others, than all ih8ulibs will be is a random internet troll with more hate than sense."
Sophie sighed and nodded. What Sarah said made sense, though Sophie couldn't just let him insult her friends and spread lies about Animalia. She may not be able to convince him to change his mind, but she wasn't going to let him spread his hate on Animalia Ambassadoria's comment page.
"So... I guess the big thing is to try and find some way of showing humans that they can still trust Animalians," Abby said slowly, "does anyone have any ideas? I mean... we've showed that Animalia sided with justice and condemned Heather's attack on Sophie and Roland, and at least within Lyre, that LOOKS like its working..."
"Some of that's going to be difficult," Sophie sighed, "So many people were caught by accident by the spread of the virus when it was first spilled and so on. Some had accidents that mirrored yours and Sarah's, leading to them becoming Animalians. Some were caught by accident in scuffles between Animalians as they battled with their new sentience and abilities... like Jamie..."
"Not to mention that there were a lot of people who then became Animalians when it was legalized, like our parents did," Malice commented as she looked to Sarah.
"Yeah... I looked online with Lyre's website, and they have updated a fair number of things," Sophie added, "about 36% of Lyre's population is made up of Animalians, most of them former pets or converted humans... And most of those that aren't are those that were living in the zoo and the aquarium."
"But that would mean that there are still a lot of human/Animalian interactions in Lyre," Jessica commented and noted a family photo on the wall. The picture was old and Jessica was still human in the photo, but she also knew that her parents never became Animalians. In that, she had an idea, "maybe we could get a few short interview or day in the life shots... Sarah, Malice, you could ask your parents to take a camera to where they work and show they work the others there. I can show some stuff from around the house and how my folks and I get along and show that they trust me and they trust Roger. Shoot... we've even had Judy over for dinner a few times and she talks about some of the things that Horizon is working on in relation to Project Phoenix."
"We could show some shots with your uncle," Samson commented to Abby, "he's offered some help to your folks as well... while he's here. He may have been surprised by their transformation, but it's clear he still loves your mom as a brother and respects your father."
"JT always was big on family," Abby mused, "sometimes... sometimes I think he's been a bit jealous that my mom and dad had each other and he never found anything like that..."
"He seemed nice when we met him," Sarah commented, "he might fit Jessica's idea the best. As if he lives in Texas, he wouldn't get as much exposure to Animalia as everyone in Lyre does. The fact that he'd put family love first and still want to be close to your folks... would show something."
The group rapidly agreed on the idea presented. A series of shorts showing Human/Animalian interactions that specifically pointed to how the two groups, be they families that were mixed Human and Animalian, the way Jessica's family was, or Animalians who worked with humans as Sarah and Malice's parents did, or even had outside family still trust them as JT did with Martin and Josephine Brown would do a lot to show just how well Animalians did work with humanity. It might not do everything they needed to do, but it was at least a start.