Courtney Hedge made her way up to the Brown Family farm with some degree of curiosity and interest. The place that had sat at the heart of the initial Animalia Virus Outbreaks had been something that had raised a lot of interest in it. Some things had changed with the homes that had been built nearby for the uplifted horses, cattle, and chickens and essentially formed the core of what the Brown farm had evolved into after the outbreaks. She soon found the group of students of various ages gathered near the barn door, and figured they were most of the ones that had answered the signup sheet that had been put up at school.
"Hey, Court!" another senior girl called to her as Courtney approached, "You're here too."
"I signed up, yes," Courtney said nonchalantly, "it might actually help set a few things right."
The other girl nodded. The two of them had been fairly good friends for years, and while neither had any interest in joining Animalia, they'd found enough about Animalia to be worth tolerating and accepting.
"Yeah... though most of the people who've come are girls and I think most of the boys are here in the hopes of seeing a naked Animalian," the other girl, who's name was Katherine Keuchel, chuckled, which only made Courtney sigh heavily.
Animalia had had a rather interesting history in Lyre. To a great extent the city and the people Lyre had accepted Animalia, but from what Courtney had observed there was an odd nature that many of those who had accepted the Animalians had done so as some of the reports on Animalians having a higher libido than normal humans came out and was furthered by the fact that many of the public facilities in Animalia, be it the Claw Coliseum or WSA had unisex showers and often had a great deal of tolerance for Animalians with bond-mates to engage in those sorts of things. It wasn't bad, and the biggest fear her father had with regard to the unisex showers was that Animalians might go after her in the showers had never happened at all. It showed that while their libidos were higher, it was not as though they had no control over themselves.
The real issue was that many teenage boys that weren't Animalians seemed to get the idea that they could make advances on anyone, Human or Animalian and not have any consequences. A few male Humans at WSA had already gotten detention until November for trying that sort of thing in the shower before a pair of Animalians pulled them apart. It furthered some of the things in Courtney's mind that struck her that Animalia was something of a utopia... or came closer to it than anyone else had and that it was its differences that created the greatest troubles. That was really where Animalia Ambassadoria had done well and why Courtney had supported it, even if many of her more specific opinions didn't change.
"Well, hopefully they'll learn," Courtney answered as the barn doors were soon opened from the inside by Abby and Samson as the group was ushered in.
They slowly made their way in to find all of the main members of the Animalia Ambassadoria cast either sitting on hay bales ore standing in an open area. Courtney noted Sophie seated on one hay bale with Roland by her side and looking over the sign in sheet that had been put up at WSA. She calmly looked over things and then looked to a side door where Abby's mother, Josephine Brown came in through the door.
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Sophie had sat quietly looking over the list of names on the sign in sheet while they waited for those who had signed up earlier in the week to arrive. To some extent, some of this would normally go for a longer warm up period, but with fall break not too terribly far away, Halloween coming after that, and then Thanksgiving coming again after that, there was some sense of wanting to get things done quickly. And so they'd set up a quick process to get new members onto Animalia Ambassadoria. And based on the sign up sheet, they had plenty of names. Twenty students had signed up, and they came from nearly every grade at WSA's High School, and it presented some option for balance and progressing things for the future.
"I'd think from what Courtney said at school, she's probably right that not everyone on the list is interested in journalism," Roland commented as he looked over Sophie's shoulder.
"Yeah... but then none of us were that interested in journalism, either," Sophie commented and noted Abby and Samson nodding at that.
"So, are we ready?" Simon asked from where he stood.
"I think so," Sophie nodded as she looked over to the Wolf Animalian as he leaned against one of the internal posts in the barn, "and with the number of signatures for those that signed up... it'd be best we stick to the plan and rotate through the interviews and test stories."
"Mom can handle that part," Abby answered as she and Samson moved forward to open the main doors to the barn.
The two American Quarter Horse Animalians then turned to the barn and quite easily began to slide the large doors open, with the metal handles and latches having long been replaced with larger models that would suit their hands. Sophie watched as the doors opened to reveal the gathered group of students that were gathered outside the barn. Abby and Samson beckoned the group in, and that gave Sophie the chance to match names to faces. Some she did very well on, as they were students she knew in school the year before as she was often without most of her friends, and a few others not as well, but if things worked out, that would change.
There was Courtney Hedge and another senior class girl with her, Sophie thought her name was Katherine. There was one Senior Class boy named Fred Stairs and another named Johan Eecks, and from what Sophie could remember, Johan occasionally got a bit sensitive with his last name as some people occasionally teased him on it "sounding like a girlish scream." There were three more junior class girls, Jenny Jenkins and her sister Julie, and Rebecca Longshot. There was a junior class boy, Ryan Patricks. There were four sophomore girls, Megan McCola, Vanessa Van Owen, Lara Walkerson, and Ingrid Byrd. There were three Freshman boys, Bruce Banter, Peter Rogers, and Ulysses Simpson, and all of them took a good look at Abby's chest as they walked by. They tried to hide it, but failed, and Sophie thought she heard Abby give a semi irritated snort at the fact that most of the boys who had signed up were freshmen and seemed to have more interest in the physical attributes of some of the Animalia Ambassadoria cast than anything else. The last was a rather quiet looking young girl named Penelope Tellz. There were another four that Sophie wasn't fully sure as to what grade they were in, this included Athena Shepard, a male student named Max, though Sophie had never heard or gotten his last name. All he's written down on the sign up sheet was "of the Tusk Brigade" for his last name. There was also a Ronald Wilson and a Ronnie Anne with Ronald being Caucasian and Ronnie being a female Hispanic.
"Welcome, all of you to the "auditions" for the additional spots on Animalia Ambassadoria," Abby spoke as she and Samson shut the doors for the moment, "we thank you all for coming."
"So this is all to report the news for Animalia?" Ingrid wondered.
"Not so much news as it is highlighting upcoming events, how some new Animalians are adapting to being Animalians, and as mentioned with the add in the sign up sheet moving in to highlighting how well Animalians and Humans have worked together," Samson said slowly, "both here and in the various Animalian Colonies"
"And we'll all get to join?" Ryan asked, "cause it would be neat to get out of school and get payed..."
"Generally speaking things like what happened with the Storm from Nowhere are not a regular event," Roland warned, "If things had gone according to schedule, Sophie and I would have been back in time for the start of the school year."
"But we'd all get to join?" Ryan repeated the initial question.
"We only have twelve open spots," Travis commented, "Mostly to set a balance between those of us that are Animalians and those that are Humans."
"The hope is that having equal numbers and potentially different opinions for the show will present something will show how well all sides work together and deal with some of the political nonsense that have been used to claim that we're either racist against Humans or suffering from uncontrollable lust," Sophie added.
"But there has been the issue with Regressive Hypersexuality," Courtney commented, "the Animalian is still "in control" of themselves... but has things raised to the point where they're a bit forward, even by Animalian standards. Certainly there is some nature of coverage on that... I mean... coverage that would be more than a proverbial band aid."
Roland slowly nodded as that was a potential issue to be handled, as he remembered some of the flirtatious cat calls that he, Jeremy, Rex, his father, and Sophie's father had gotten at the end of Heather's apology dinner at the Cavern Spa. While no harm had been done, there was some element to it that was a bit uncomfortable. And it was something that would have to be addressed.
"While Horizon is working on refining the formula to try and reduce the problems that they think is the central cause for Regressive Hypersexuality," Jessica commented as she leaned over a stall wall from the bale of hay she was standing on, "Most of our coverage there has been to try and show that those with it haven't lost control and can cope with it."
"As well as to provide some assistance that may get it know where to go to get help," Roger added, "From there, we really can only wait until Horizon is confident they've fixed the problem... and that's going to be something that is going to be true for actual reporters too."
"Makes sense," Katherine commented from beside Courtney, "So... how will you be handling all of this? Do we just act like reporters or...?"
"Given the number of you that have signed up to join, we will sort of do this in two parts," Abby spoke and lifted one arm to draw their attention to her mother, "my mom will give half of you a faux assignment that would fit with something that Animalia Ambassadoria would routinely cover as part of its PR campaign while the other half interview with us simultaneously on what you want add and see on Animalia Ambassadoria and what you think will help improve the show."
"Some things may have the potential to be embarrassing or uneasy," Sarah commented, "and we will try to keep things comfortable for everyone... in that any coverage we do that will be assured to involve nudity, like Mieni's nude beaches, will remain with those of us that are Double Dosed or over eighteen and can be mature enough not to make passes at those you may be interviewing."
"There will also be some measure to see how well you can cooperate around us and be respectful," Malice added, "as all of us have our bond-mates that we are quite happy with. And while some things can be fun... we're not trying to advertise sex on Animalia Ambassadoria and we don't want to be a dating service."
The three freshman boys all visibly gulped at that, likely at having realized that the attention they payed to Abby's chest was noticed.
"And once each group is through with each set, we'll switch," Samson commented, "the half that had their faux stories will come back and talk with us while the other half goes on the same faux stories. Now, some may have the potential to be... uncomfortable..."
"But some of that is going to be unavoidable, as there will be the occasional episodes where odd things that might be uncomfortable for some will happen," Pauline picked up, "we'll try to make things as comfortable as possible, but we can't make any assurances."
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From there they set the sets of interviews and the fake report sessions, just to see how they were handled. They all went relatively well, though they also did confirm the suspicion that not all of those that had come out for the session were there because of an interest in journalism. However, that by itself wasn't a major factor, since none of the original cast had any plans on going into journalism when Clara essentially drafted them to be Animalia Ambassadoria.
The biggest thing that was to be considered was more on the control and maturity aspects of things. Particularly as they would be working with Animalians, would have the potential to get into some situations where things couldn't be one hundred percent comfortable, and that working with all of that would be both important and critical. Some were taken fairly well, though when told of it, Jerry's practical joke on Penelope was not taken well. As sports leagues at the Claw Coliseum did not require going into the locker rooms there. Following that, there was the issue that they only had twelve spots that were open, which meant that eight of the recruits would have to be turned away. And that was what Abby and the others had to work out evening.
By this point they were able to move inside the Brown family home and specifically in the front living room. They either sat on the couch, stood in a few areas, sat in one of the other cushioned chairs that were there, or on the floor. It let them then talk among themselves on who would be cut out and who would stay on the list as they all talked out. Some were easier than others, as the three Freshman boys had their names crossed out rather quickly.
"Their pretty obvious stares were obvious," Abby commented, "I mean... I can understand a few casual looks here and there. As that sort of thing has happened from time to time, and in a way it can be flattering... but in many ways, it was like my first day in my freshman year all over again."
"Admittedly, they did get better about it as things went on," JC commented, "though... I think they signed up with the idea that we'd do a lot of coverage of naked Animalians."
"And it didn't look like they really changed," Pauline commented, "a lot of what they wrote in their reports came off more as forced and unnatural. Like they knew they'd gotten caught and were trying to hide it."
"So we can cross out the three freshman boys?" Roland wondered and watched as the others then nodded agreement. Sophie then took her pen and crossed out Bruce, Peter, and Ulysses' names.
"That takes us down from twenty to seventeen," Sophie announced, knowing that they'd have to take off at least five more to get down to twelve Human hosts that would be with them.
They ultimately took Megan, Vanessa, and Ingrid off the list for the same reason. They hadn't been quite as openly "interested" as the three freshman boys had, but they had made some comments that a part of their motivation was in the fact that Animalia Ambassadoria had started with Abby, Sarah, Jessica, Malice and Sophie and that all had brought their respective boyfriends on the show, and in some cases had brought them on or met them after Animalia Ambassadoria had been formed. However, those instances had been more pure chance than anything else and they didn't want to get into any sort of case of deliberate romantic adventure on the show, particularly as the three females also gave the indication that if they did find love with a single Animalian, they might be willing to become an Animalian as well. And since the present expansion of Animalia Ambassadoria was to try and balance the show so that it had equal Human and Animalian representatives, it made for an easy decision not to bring in anyone who was likely to join Animalia at some point.
"That'll bring us down to fourteen," Simon commented, "We need to drop two more."
"And all of the rest have some good points to them," Malice commented, "I mean... Courtney took some shots at Sophie... but a lot of what she commented on and wrote in her report made sense... a way. It's like she was honestly thinking about the points she tried to make and taking all possible sides into account."
Sarah nodded to her adopted sister and former pet, "yeah. Courtney actually played the "devil's advocate" role very well."
"And her friend Katherine was actually one of the two that we interviewed that had an interest in journalism," Sophie commented.
There were a few nods among the others. Even JC nodded in agreement. While he could respect a lot of what Courtney Hedge had as an opinion, he still saw Sophie as his mother, and wasn't immediately keen on Courtney when he'd heard about the "altercation" between Courtney and Sophie when Sophie and Roland returned to Lyre and had their first day at WSA. But the fact that Courtney had managed to make her points well, and checking through the comment sections of a few Animalia Ambassadoria videos had been enough to convince JC that Courtney wasn't against Animalia. In fact Courtney often debated "ih8ulibs" as much as Sophie did, and often with more success than Sophie did.
With that, Sophie then wrote down Courtney Hedge and Katherine Keuchel on a separate notepad of who they would definitely keep on, thankful that the sign up sheet had also included phone numbers. Though they still needed to drop two and there were a few other points to consider. Jenny and Julie Jenkins came under consideration in that they came from the same family. Max came under consideration for the fact that while he was good friends with Dean and Nzinga, he'd only put his first name and included "of the Tusk Brigade" as his last name. Ronald Wilson and Ronnie Anne also came under some potential consideration as that their first names were similar in that Ronnie Annie's full first name was Ronalda, essentially the result of her family essentially feminizing the name "Ronald." Though all of this was not without debate.
"I'm not sure Max's choice of nickname should really count him out," Sarah commented.
"But "Of the Tusk Brigade" isn't a name," Malice commented.
"We could say the same thing of Malice," Sarah reminded her sister, "we named you Mary Alice... mostly because Mom and I could never agree on what to name you. You took on Malice as it shortened the name and sounded "cooler" after you were double dosed."
"I'm not sure it's so much his name as it is his skills," Simon commented as he looked to the stack of papers they'd read through, "it's not that he's against Animalia. Far from it... he's actually quite friendly. A big step up from some of the comments that appeared after Heather's attack... but what he's put down is pretty simple and ultimately comes back to his friendship with Dean. It's nice and would make for a good individual story, but it'd probably come off as needlessly repetitive in the long run and might not convince anyone that is already in the political camp that is likely to go against Animalia."
They paused to look over Max's report again and there were soon nods of agreement. There was much on the line that they had to try and cover and demonstrate that would go beyond simple friendship. Had they done this earlier, while still trying to show Animalia's good side and thus win some base support for Animalia, Max's report would have done well. But as the world changed and Animalia's specific mission changed, the nature of how they covered and reported on things would have to change, which weakened Max's claim to being needed. That left the debate over the Jenkins sisters, Ronald Wilson, and Ronnie Anne. It was eventually agreed that sisterhood was not something wrong and that both Jenny and Julie had done well, especially Julie who they found to be the other student interested in journalism.
That left it down to Ronald Wilson and Ronnie Anne, both of which presented problems as both had done well with their interviews. Ronald had even been among the students that had turned on Animalia pretty quickly in the immediate wake of Heather's attack on Sophie and thus his potential difference of opinion would carry a lot of weight... though as that aftermath was handled in a way to provide assurance that all Animalians would be vaccinated yearly to keep the Animalia Virus from accidentally spreading and further helping to control the influence that animal instincts would have on Animalians had helped him give Animalia a second chance. It was ultimately that element that they decided on. As since they were trying to show how Animalians and Humans cooperated, they had to show how the two groups worked through potential conflicts and differences of opinion.
As they finished, Sophie looked to the notepad in which she had the names of the new members that would join them on Animalia Ambassadoria listed. It read: Courtney Hedge, Katherine Keuchel, Fred Stairs, Johan Eecks, Jenny Jenkins, Julie Jenkins, Rebecca Longshot, Ryan Patricks, Lara Walkerson, Penelope Tellz, Athena Shepard, and Ronald Wilson.