Once the tour of Animalia was done, Shyra's former coworkers were thinking a lot about joining Animalia. Of course, that included what kind of animal they would be. "You know, the place that interested me most was the Burrows," said Quarry, "I can't believe that place doesnt' get featured on more of those Animalia webcasts."
"Well, of course you'd be interested in that, Quarry," said Fran teasingly, "So I'm betting you're going to be a resident there. What are you going to be? A mole?"
"Actually, I was thinking a badger," said Quarry.
"Not one of those ridiculously fearless, unstoppable badgers," said Julius with a bit of worry.
"Not a honey badger, an American badger," said Quarry, "They do have those here."
"Well, as long as we're using names to base our animal forms on, I was thinking of either a fire salamander or a fire belly newt," said Timothy.
"Right, cause your last name is Pyre," said Louise, "I'd go with the salamander. They're mostly connected with fire."
"Yes, I'll have to be as red as I can," said Timothy before turning to Julius, "What about you? Not sure what you can be with a name like 'Tire'."
"Easy, I'm gonna be a lion," said Julius, "I don't have to use play on words to select my form. Lions are powerful creatures. And wasn't Julius Caesar associated with lions?"
"Well..." started Quarry.
"Doesn't matter. I'm still going with lion," said Julius.
"And what about you two?" asked Quarry, looking at Fran and Louise.
"Uh...I honestly can't think of anything," said Fran.
"Worst time of my life to have creative block," said Louise.
"I mean, with so many possible choices, how can I pick?" asked Fran.
"I don't even know what Animalians are already here," said Louise.
"Actually, there is something to help with that," said the tour guide.
==========
The tour shuttle swung back towards the Great Hall. They were going there anyways since Quarry, Timothy, and Julius will need to fill out some paperwork before they can convert. While they were taking care of that, the tour guide led Fran and Louise to the computer lab at the Great Hall. It had one not just because of the various digital files here, but because the Great Hall was also the community center.
"Since Animalia has expanded so much, it was thought it would be a good idea to keep track of how many members are in it," said the tour guide, "So an addition was made for the Animalia website. There is an extensive catalogue showing many representatives of each species is a part of Animalia." Using one of the computers to log onto the site, there was one section called the 'Animalian Archive'.
It showed listings of past and upcoming events, as well as showing a list of all the species that were currently members of Animalia. No individuals who hadn't added their own profile were specifically mentioned, though each species showed the number of current members as well as a gallery of photos of individuals. There were some individuals who were easy to identify because of their fame, such as Abby in the Horse section and Sarah and Malice in the Dog section. The sections were also divided into breeds of those species, demonstrating the wide variety of members. The Dinotopian part of the Archive was still under construction as Project Mesozoic hasn't been made publicly available yet.
"There sure are a lot of species to choose from," said Fran.
"It's not going to be easy to narrow it down," said Louise.
"Why don't you start by picking your favorite animals?" suggested the tour guide, "You can look through them to see which one you'd want to be. And if the animal you want isn't on here yet, you can ask them to be converted into something else. It might take a while longer to acquire the DNA, but they can do it. So long as the animal you pick isn't an invertebrate that is. The virus won't work on animals without bones."
It could take a bit of time for them to make their picks, but Fran and Louise were sure to make them before too long. And the others will be able to convert even sooner.