Abby, Malice, and Sarah soon split off from Sophie and Jessica with their boyfriends and headed toward the Meat Market, nicknamed the "Slaughter House" for the more "adult" party that they were holding there. Jessica and Sophie both politely waved and made their way onto the midway with its collection of games and booths, all filling out the various Halloween sorts of themes.
"So... what are you up for doing?" Jessica asked to Sophie felling somewhat relaxed as she held Roger's paw-like hand in her own.
This wasn't an formal date, but in a way it still qualified as a double date of sorts, and that was something that Jessica did like. Especially in the sense that it was with Sophie and Roland. While in many respects, Jessica had found herself quite supportive for things that related their double dosed friends and at times she could even feel her own hormones/instincts having some attraction to that, she didn't mean she didn't like Sophie or didn't feel content with the fact that she didn't get the rapid rush into adulthood that seemed so common with those that were double dosed. There was the issue of aging and at times the recognition that in many ways the issue of "double dosing" seemed to be something was often simply limited for sex, and Jessica, while she did have some slight jealousy over the things that Sarah, Malice, and Abby could get into because they were double dosed, it wasn't as though it was truly that long before she'd grow up naturally.
And at present that made hanging out with Sophie far more enjoyable. While Sophie was probably the deeper thinker of the two of them and was easily the better science student, that didn't mean that they didn't share at least some interests. And these things went beyond just their support for Animalia, and it made walking with Sophie and Roland as sort of a "double date" fun to go through.
"I'd think for right now... let's just look around and see what attractions they have," Roland said slowly, "see what's the funniest things to look into."
"We can get some snacks on the way," Roger commented, "I think they said that they'd have some candies that would be okay for our stomachs."
The others nodded, and the four soon began to walk along and looking to the various booths that were set up. Some were clearly set up as educational for various things that many Animalians that were born as mundane animals often were confused over various manners of human society. Some had the same sorts of games that were often set up for just about any sort of carnival or fair. There were rides and other sites that were set up for spooks and other related things to Halloween. It was fun, and eventually they stopped by one booth offering snacks before continuing on. Sophie and Roland got some caramel apples, though they had to loser their faux beaks to chew on them, while Jessica and Roger got plain apples that had a safe food dye/icing that made it look like it was a jack-o'-lantern.
"These are good," Roger spoke as he chewed on his apple.
"Hopefully nothing scares it out of you," Jessica gave a faux spooky voice, "as it is Halloween."
Sophie and Roland gave a small chuckle while Roger rolled his eyes, but went along with it. By that time they had agreed to go through the "haunted house" first and see if there was anything spooky in it. He'd even watched Jessica, Sophie, and Roland all give some excitement on Halloween's fun with regard to all things scary. At one point he thought he heard Jessica singing, "This is Halloween." As they walked along, they soon came up to another small group gathered together, and one that stood out in a way, mostly for the fact that the largest of the group was a female theropod based Animalian with some of her scales covered in some neon colored paint. With them was a human male in his late twenties or thirties, along with a Polar Bear Animalian dressed up as Elsa. This other group did notice Sophie and responded.
"I thought your parents said they wanted you to finish out the school year before converting?" Jeremy spoke up as he noticed the group and directly noticed Sophie and Roland's costumes.
"They did and we haven't converted," Sophie answered, "Our costumes are based on cartoon characters that would bear some resemblance to the sort of Animalian we'll become."
"Cartoons... you watch cartoons?" Polly asked eagerly as she came forward.
"Who doesn't?" Jessica asked with a smile, thinking on her private collection of many classic cartoons and the movie, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," which she was privately pleased that Roger liked.
"I'm sure everyone watched cartoons as kids," Roland answered to Polly, "Miss..."
"I'm Polly, this is my brother Jeremy, and this is Heather," Polly introduced the others in her group and then raised up a paw to the side of her muzzle and whispered, "They like each other."
Roger heard that clearly and looked over to Heather with some degree of nervousness. There were times when talking with uplifted or converted mammalian predators was enough to get his Lapine instincts for flight on edge fairly easily, Heather being a hybrid of various reptilian predators from the Mesozoic Era did this even more so. This kept him fairly close to Jessica, who he noticed was also a bit nervous, but Sophie and Roland seemed rather calm. Though, of course, since Sophie had been volunteering with some of Heather's rehabilitation, that made sense.
"How have you been fairing, Heather?" Heather asked.
"About as well as I can manage," Heather said slowly, "Adjusting to various things and... making the various apologies where needed."
Heather's eyes glanced down to Polly who stood between the two groups. While she had managed to tell Jeremy that she was interested in him romantically, she wasn't quite interested in being all "lovey-dovey" about it in the way many Animalians were. From what she'd observed, when Animalians found who they wanted to be with, they not only seemed to have some instinct that assured them that they'd found "the one," but they also seemed to go into the most obvious forms of romancing that would make Anakin's courtship of Padme actually look like quality writing.
"Well... it's good to get yourself out there, not stay at home or at Horizon," Sophie commented, "see all the good that goes with Animalia."
"I'd think both of us have been learning that lesson," Jeremy gave a low chuckle, "but... your costumes... what... what cartoon are they based on?"
He recognized the costumes that Jessica and Roger were wearing as some kind of high tech thief/ninja type outfit, but Sophie and Roland booth looked like they'd dressed up as pterosaur Animalians, with some obvious differences. Sophie had stated the preference for the Pterodactylus species, and between the success of Project Thylacine and some of the attraction that "Tyra Wrex" had won at the Meat Market after Heather's last punishment, many museums and facilities were far more open to sharing bones with Horizon, though obviously after having made a synthetic copy of the bones, which was solving some of the shortages that Horizon had faced, which had given the positive look that with Project Mesozoic and other related projects using fossilized DNA samples, would mean that they might not need to mix related pterosaurs for Sophie's transformation. But the costumes that Sophie and Roland wore didn't match the Pterodactylus.
Pterodactylus had a crest on the top of their head, but that was in front of the eyes and wasn't very big in size, which differed from the paired faux horns that Sophie and Roland had. And while some Pterosaurs did have long tails, Pterodactylus wasn't among them, yet their costume included a foam and wire tail that hung between them. It only left Jeremy curious, though he figured he was about to get another thing that he'd failed to notice while growing up and keeping his nose in his science books.
"The cartoon originally aired in the 90s," Roland answered, "The series was called "Gargoyles" and was produced by Disney."
"I've never seen it," Polly said sadly.
"That's understandable," Jessica said to Polly, "the series was limited to the 90s and really isn't in syndication anymore. If you get Disney XD, you might get to see some episodes, but you got to get up super early in order to watch it... In fact a lot of classic cartoons aren't shown anymore."
"Oh... thank you," Polly answered and looked to Jessica with some curiosity.
"My name is Jessica and this my boyfriend/bond-mate, Roger," Jessica introduced herself, "and this is Sophie and her boyfriend Roland. They've been working with your brother."
"Very pleased to meet you!" Polly said happily and shook hands with all of them, "I'm afraid I'm not allowed to stay up late to watch your cartoon."
"It's okay," Sophie answered, "My character is actually from a comic adaption that picks up after the end of the series second season. I'm dressed as Katana."
"The character is named for the sword?" Jeremy wondered.
"A lot of the characters in Gargoyles have had odd names like that," Roland answered, "with the exception of Goliath... the original clan members all took the name of various boroughs/locations in New York City... There was Hudson, an old male, Broadway an overweight male who liked food, Lexington a web-winged male, and Brooklyn a beaked gargoyle, who I'm dressed as. They also had pet... "doggoyle" they named Bronx that sorta looked like the dogs in Ghostbusters."
"But since Brooklyn and Katana sorta look like what Ms. Simus became, we went with it," Sophie added, "It'd be something for a comparison when we get to convert at the end of the present school year."
"I see," Jeremy said slowly. "I can't say that I've seen it, either... probably too distracted with my studies..."
"It's okay," Sophie assured him, "Good to be out and about now. You're all having fun there, right?"
"Pretty much," Heather spoke calmly, "though... bobbing for apples was a digestive mistake..."
That earned a few blinks of surprise. Jessica knew that most converted Animalians had to adjust to very specific diets. Predatory Animalians, like the uplifted tigers and lions were dependent on meat and there wasn't much in the way of plant matter that they could handle, most of what they could were few and far between and often used as a garnish or as a spice. Jessica had found she needed a solely herbivorous diet after she converted and needed a special chewing stone to make sure her incisors didn't end up growing through her skull. And just about every Animalian understood the sort of dietary alterations they needed. She would have figured that by know Heather would have understood that. But she had heard a couple of stories in which some of those lessons were learned the hard way at first, so she let it go.
"So what are you up to?" Jeremy asked curiously.
"We were headed to the attraction they have set up like a Haunted House," Roger answered, "See if anything is scary."
"Oooohhh!" Polly said excitedly, "Marcy and Chilly took me through there! It was fun and it wasn't very scary! You'll have fun!"
"Nice to get an informed review," Roland gave a small smile, which Polly beamed at.
"But we don't want to interrupt your evening," Sophie agreed, "have a good night."
Jessica nodded and so did Roger and their group of four moved on. Polly waved goodbye to them as they moved on before her group prepared to move on to its next activity.