The Thanksgiving week had been a fairly hectic one for Medusa and Medea as they adapted to being Animalians and went through the standard process that was applied nearly all uplifted animals with regard to their conversion. Much of this related to some of the various classes that Horizon offered as a quick "catch-up" program for those that were uplifted, and particularly with regard to those that had little to no human contact. And while Medusa and Medea weren't un-intelligent, there were many aspects of human culture that they didn't really understand or grasp, which made some degree of sense. The Boomslang was a rear fanged snake, but its venom was still highly toxic and just because its fangs were further back in its mouth did NOT mean that it could only latch onto something small. Both Medusa and Medea figured that humans that had seen them before recognized their species and deliberately avoided them.
That of course meant that after being uplifted, while there was some talk of her serving as a partial spokesmodel for some company, she still had to catch up on things and then take the test that would amount to a GED. It wasn't too bad, though it was time consuming and had to be followed. That was one of the first things that the uplifted Boomslang had learned, as it related to Animalia's rather fragile relations with much of the world, and with the city of Animalia, the colony of Dinotopia Aquatica, and the planned colony in Texas being on US soil, there were a lot of hoops to jump through just to allow Medusa and Medea to remain in the US. It was one of those things that was potentially confusing and perplexing as to why human society could be so... restrictive at times, but it was the way things were.
Adding in the color days and nights, Medusa and Medea could both feel the effects of winter's approach. And while the apartment she'd been allowed to rent where nearly all of Animalia's other reptile families lived... unless they already had homes in Lyre... was warm, she had found that the special sauna that was built was even more comfortable. It might not be as big as the cavern spa, but she did find it fairly cozy and warm enough that she felt she could almost coil up and nap in there, just to absorb the heat. It was on one of those late afternoons where she got a bit a pleasant surprise. She was coiled up in one corner wearing a soft towel when the door to the room opened and Iphis and Ianthe came in.
"Wow..." Medea let it slip out as Ianthe and Iphis's attention.
It was mostly a comment in awe at the uplifted Anaconda's size. Both Medea and Medusa were impressed by how much bigger they were as an Animalian, but seeing how big Ianthe and Iphis were in comparison to them was striking. Eventually the two headed Boomslang put that under the category that Anacondas as the world's heaviest snake were bigger than the Boomslang. Ianthe and Iphis of course noticed the comment and turned their heads with some curiosity, likely at the fact that Medea and Medusa were not the standard color that the Boomslang normally was.
"Hello," Ianthe said politely as shi shut the door behind hir and held up towel around her to warm up a bit after a good workout session before heading home to check on hir mates and their little ones.
"You're the Boomslang that they uplifted recently, right?" Iphis wondered.
"Yes, I'm Medusa," Medusa introduced herself and then gestured to her other head, "This is my sister Medea."
"We were uplifted just before Thanksgiving," Medea added, "we wanted to meat you when the people at Horizon told us you had two heads like we do... but things came up."
"All the acclimation and GED courses?" Ianthe said slowly, "We went through that too."
"And if not that... it's okay, we've been pretty busy too," Iphis added, "work out sessions and little ones to look after."
"It's mostly the GED courses," Medusa answered, forgetting to ask which was Iphis and which was Ianthe at the moment, "there's a lot of that stuff to follow."
"We tried to see if we could double our time studying the material," Medea commented, "but... we found that we still had to share things with each other."
That gave Ianthe and Iphis a good laugh as they thought back to their own time going through the same materials. Just as with Medea and Medusa, she'd figured that since she had two heads, she could learn twice as fact. However, despite the fact that both of hir heads were part of one body, that didn't mean that they had some telepathic connection between each head. That sort of thing had also lead to plenty of instances where Ianthe and Iphis had to practice certain movements and practices as while in theory each head could control all of their motor functions, that often depended on Ianthe or Iphis to be either asleep or consciously giving the other full control. Otherwise, Ianthe controlled the arm on hir side while Iphis controlled the arm on hir side.
"Memories," Iphis laughed to Ianthe and then looked back to Medusa and Medea, "Ianthe and I went through the same thing... it's just something you'll have to practice at... but in pure theory you'll do okay. All you'll need is practice."
"Thank you..." Medusa gave a small smile.
"I am Iphis," Iphis gestured to hirself and then pointed to the other head on hir shoulders, "this is Ianthe."
"Our names all seem to be drawn from Greek mythology," Medea commented, "The staff at Horizon said I was named for the semi-divine wife of Jason who searched for the Golden Fleece."
"And me for the woman cursed by Athena to become a snake-like monster that could turn men to stone," Medusa commented.
Both Iphis and Ianthe nodded. Horizon had also explained their name's origins and they also noticed Medea and Medusa's names. The name "Medea" wasn't super familiar to the two headed Anaconda, but Medusa was, likely because of Medusa's often association with snakes. Medea and Medusa also recognized the Greek mythology origin in Iphis and Ianthe's name to some degree, and particularly after Horizon some of the hermaphrodite Anaconda's status was explained.
"Yes," Ianthe gave a chuckle, "and we were named for a couple that were from Crete with the same name. Though in the story has Iphis and Ianthe both as women, but with the help of Hera in Greek mythology or Juno in Roman mythology, Iphis became male and the two were able to wed and they supposedly lived happily ever after."
Medusa and Medea both nodded with some interest.
"The people at Horizon suggested that your names were chosen because of you a hermaphrodite... which I think was also something that came out of Greek mythology," Medusa commented.
"We got to borrow a book on Greek myths while we've been going through our GED studies," Medea commented, "It's actually rather interesting."
Ianthe nodded and leaned back against one of the steps behind hir and setting her towel down on the bench beside her. Mythology wasn't necessarily hir strong suit, but shi had to admit it was interesting.
"Do you think they'll name more uplifted Animals after characters from mythology?" Medea wondered.
"Could be... it'd certainly be interesting if they do," Iphis gave a shrug.