Fall brought many things to Lyre and Animalia, though for Abby and her friends, much of that revolved around school. WSA as a now integrated school district for both Animalia and Lyre kept all of them fairly busy with some school related projects and assignments. Sophie and Roland had a lot to catch up on, since the "Storm from Nowhere" and forced them to miss the first few days of school, but they did manage to catch up. Things were also fairly hectic for Abby and Samson as they not only had school but also working with their parents to put together the end scores from the Mister and Miss Farmhand Competition and not mention harvesting their own crops. In this there was a lot to do.
However, one of the biggest things that came about, as Lyre and Animalia both began to get ready for Halloween and weekly doses of football on television, both college and professional, was with some of the updates that they'd been discussing regarding Animalia Ambassadoria as a show.
"I'm still not sure this is really the best idea," Malice commented as they walked as a group from WSA one afternoon toward Animalia's Great Hall, which was essentially its City Hall building where all of Animalia's governmental business was handled, "I mean... Sophie... you yourself disagreed with her accusation..."
"I disagree with Courtney Hedge's complaint that I "betrayed everything I believe in" by becoming an Animalian," Sophie answered, "but to a certain extent, she did have SOME point to make... After all, we are trying to now show how Animalians and Humans can get along together."
"One could say that the purpose of Animalia Ambassadoria has changed from when you guys started with your broadcasts," Roland commented as he and Sophie walked along with the group, "When the show started... it was simply PR to show the plus sides about Animalia and the good it could do and the benefits of its society. And I'd think we've accomplished that, given how well Horizon has done and how Animalia has survived, in spite of less than ideal political circumstances."
There were a few nods at that. The past two years had had a lot of background political action at the national level that had seemed to strike at Horizon or Animalia... or both for various reasons, usually culturally related, though there were occasional outbursts of actions that were simply anti-Animalian for no real reason. Heather's attack the previous fall had been one of their biggest scares on that issue, especially given how quick some in Lyre had actually turned against Animalia after than incident. Thankfully, however, most of those that had seemed bent on outlawing Animalia ended up tripping over themselves on other issues or had the worst of it watered down by more moderate members in the government that had pretty much limited the "damage" that could be done to Animalia. Though, that didn't mean the bigger threat hadn't really gone away, and for the moment they seemed more interested in calling each other names over their own power plays regarding the Supreme Court. In this, Animalia and Horizon continued to survive and push forward.
"Now... now the situation is going to be more about how well Animalia and Humanity work together," Sophie added, "and that's going to mean that Animalia Ambassadoria is going to need more than just us. Because regardless of the fact that he's an internet troll, "ih8ulibs" is going to keep saying everything we do is a failure because all of us on the show are Animalians and most of the shows we've done focus a lot on Animalian activities and don't show too much in the way of Human/Animalian interaction."
"And you think expanding the cast and showing more on how Humans and Animalians interact will stop him?" Malice asked, "That troll is dumb."
"He is... but he's earned SOME support, which means people ARE agreeing with him," Sophie said with a sigh, "In this... bringing in others who are human and show on how Humans and Animalians interact can be very helpful."
The idea had generally been Sophie's, thinking back on her conversation with Courtney Hedge on her first day at WSA. Sophie didn't change her opinion on her decision to become a Pterodactylus Dinotopian, but that didn't mean that Courtney didn't have a point. And since Animalia Ambassadoria was supposed to help show support for Animalia as a whole, it'd make sense to expand the show and bring in more members, and specifically human members so that there were equal numbers of Animalians and Humans on the broadcast. It'd be the chance to show more cooperation between Animalia and Humanity, which many of Lyre and Animalia's special events often relied on. They'd discussed it over lunch and did come to a general agreement, with Jessica, Roger, JC, and Pauline coming to a fairly quick agreement with Sophie and Roland's idea, Sarah, Travis, and Abby willing to give it a try, while Malice wasn't outright opposed to it, she'd been a bit hesitant going along with it, mostly over the report on what Courtney had said to Sophie. Samson didn't venture an opinion, but seemed content to let it go. That had them on their way to the Great Hall to discuss the idea with Animalia's media department.
"Well... if it shows we can all get along and work well, there's nothing to complain about," Abby said slowly, "It might take a little while for the media department to get things arranged... and we'll probably have to do a special show that would advertising the additional posts for those who would want to be on the show. In the meantime... let's enjoy some things before winter hits."
"Winter can't be that far off," Malice said dismissively, making Sarah chuckle a little bit. Both of them generally did best during the winter months, and even Belle and Bash were starting to grow in their winter coats.
"One can never be too sure," Samson spoke up, "after all, the past winter lasted a longer than normal... with periodic blizzards going pretty late into the year."
"And that's already had an effect on the apple crop," Abby commented in agreement as the Great Hall came into view.
"Speaking of which..." Sarah and Malice began as they both looked to Abby with wagging tails.
"You know we can't state who won the competition until Halloween," Abby answered, "that announcement is supposed to be part of the celebration. In that you'll have to be there... and while you may be there in costume for Halloween... it'll probably be preferred that whatever you wear for a costume not be racy."
"Come on, that's no fun," Malice answered, earning a chuckle from nearly everyone there.
"If I may ask... how would past weather affect the crop you have now?" Pauline wondered, "If the winter didn't kill the trees, wouldn't the fruit then survive?"
"Winter won't necessarily kill the trees," Samson answered, "as deciduous trees naturally lose their leaves in fall and regrow them in the spring. That's natural from them." Samson then gestured to some of the planted trees that were around the Great Hall with their leaves then starting to turn color to their fall shades, green largely being replaced by shades of yellow. "The issue with the length of last "year's" winter was that we had snows and high winds at times that came into the period where the trees were not only putting out new leaves and flowers but new shoots as well. In that the sudden cold snaps and blizzards, while they wouldn't kill the tree, they could negatively affect the flowers and thus limit the number of apples that each tree would produce."
"And in the end that odd season we had last winter has lowered the number of apples we have," Abby added, "it'll make harvesting them easier... but it might not do as well for attempts to then sell the apples. The big thing for the farm as a whole at the moment is that so long as they keep up to date with the vaccines, the uplifted chickens can sell their un-fertilized eggs, which may do well with some restaurants and so on."
"Sounds like a lot of work," JC commented, "both physical and legal."
They then made their way into the Great Hall and made their way to the office area where Animalia's media and public relations department was. When Animalia and Animalia Ambassadoria first started, they would have reported directly to Clara and Robby, but since the Animalia City government evolved to handle the attention that it continued to receive, their group had found Animalia Ambassadoria under that media and public relations depart that supervised all of the reporting that came into Animalia, as the office included various things like press releases, Q&A sessions, and so on. Animalia Ambassadoria fell in with that.
They made their way in, and provided a brief overview to the secretary who then ushered them back to meet with the Squirrel Animalian presently running the office. It was there that the idea was explained in more detail.
"And you think this would work?" the Squirrel Animalian wondered, "Improve your show, I mean... I mean... no one in Animalia or Lyre have anything bad to say about the show."
"It's not so much that there is something wrong with the show," Abbey commented, "It's just a progression. After all, Animalia Ambassadoria's purpose is to put Animalia in the best possible light... serve as an ambassador that can sell the existence of Animalia as a good thing. And what we started with... that did well enough in trying to show how Animalians are more like Humans than our fur, feathers, scales, or features may indicate. And it may have helped with a lot of the conversions to Animalia that weren't from furries or things like that. But now that Animalia is well established and has worked so cooperatively with Lyre, the big thing now may be to show that Humans and Animalians can work together and function well together."
"Having various Human hosts might also share some new opinions," Roger commented as he rubbed his chin for a moment, "and show that when there are differences of opinion... that Animalians can talk and work through them without turning things into a battle of who is physically stronger..."
"Or has sharper claws," JC added, making a fake swiping motion with his arms.
The Squirrel Animalian thought for a moment before answering, "Well... what you say sounds interesting. Though I may have to talk it over with Clara first. It may also mean that what we've paid you for your services on Animalia Ambassadoria will be lower, to cover expenses with regard to the additional hosts."
"Our parents put most of that into savings accounts anyway," Sarah gave a shrug.
"Okay," the Squirrel Animalian actually chuckled, "How will you select the additional hosts?"
"We were thinking that we'd share a sort of sign up sheet around school," Roland commented, "Since it was started with us High School students, even if Sarah, Malice, Abby, and Samson all started as double dosers. It'd then be fair that all the new hosts would be fellow students. People who have, at least partially, grown up with Animalians been around them for a while. We could then hold auditions based on what they'd want to do and what they'd want to do with Animalia Ambassadoria."
"We don't have a schedule for that since we don't know as to whether or not the idea would be accepted," Travis spoke up, "as this has all been something we've been brainstorming over at lunch the past few days."
"Well, I must say you've thought out the idea fairly well," the Squirrel Animalian answered, "I'll give you a call with what Clara will want to go through with."