Valentine's Day in Animalia was now expected to be one of the most amusing ones. Especially with the newest members of Animalia being obvious "targets".
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Adi was a little nervous as she stepped into her self-defense class. But she wasn't really complaining, especially with what Maggie told her about guys who wouldn't keep their hands to themselves and wouldn't take no for an answer. Fortunately these classes were in place since Animalia started, so she wouldn't have to worry about being too awkward at classes.
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There were also amusing things going on, mainly with guys competing with each other over who was going to date a certain Animalian. Often these contests either involved food/drink or physical activity. These mess-ups were often recorded and "archived" for later, but there was one that was worthy of mentioning.
One guy from out of town was doing some weightlifting with a barbell that weighed a total of 125 pounds, much to the amazement of some locals. But he was admiring one female Animalian while the barbell was over his head when Jen removed it from his hands.
"That's not safe, for you or others." she said simply, much to the amusement of many spectators. Later in the year it would generate a meme about weightlifting safety.
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While "tradition" stated that many birds would choose their mates on Valentine's day (I don't know when that started), there were many weddings that were set on that day. Milly and Lenny's wedding was quieter than the other weddings, they had still gained some notoriety as "the world's strangest mouse couple". Fortunately there were no novelty themes like General Tom Thumb's wedding, and the PR-MD department made sure that any articles covering the wedding were respectful.
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Probably the biggest laugh was from Heracles, though not in the way that a lot of people expected.
Apparently he had received so many "secret admirer" gifts that the hallway in front of his apartment was almost completely blocked with packages and paperboard boxes. Because Heracles didn't know about how to deal with this many admirers, he was developing a reputation of being the polar opposite of Johnny Bravo. Fortunately, one of his gifts was a copy of the Kama Sutra Animalia, so he was able to learn some more about his restored fertility and what would come with it.
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The most obvious thing about Valentine's day was that Spring Fever was hitting a lot of Animalians, and hitting them hard. Fortunately there was enough countermeasures developed that it wasn't too worrisome. One really surprising thing was that, even with a 25% discount for Valentine's Day, the "treatments" for Spring Fever were selling so quickly that the people who were behind them were getting wealthy so quickly that the IRS was called in for a mandatory "investigation". But this was to be expected now, so it wasn't too much of a problem.
Nelly getting hit with it as much as any "pure" species was seemingly enough to confirm that she was fertile. In fact, many "donations" to Project Chimaera could count on the Spring Fever, Summer Heat, and/or Fall Fever as the "failsafe" to determine whether they would be fertile or not.
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The most "frightingly alluring", as one internet post was Xena, the uplifted black dragonfish. While she didn't have any of the elements of the Xenomorph from the movies, such as the elongated skull or "extra chitinous elements", Xena's uplifted form had some distinct similarities in appearance. Her uplifting, again described as "not to be watched by the faint of heart or stomach", also held some surprises. Because not only did she gain E-cup breasts and hips "to match", but also had a heavyweight build to "balance/match". But because female black dragonfish often traveled at least 500 meters on a regular basis, it seemed fitting to have a musculature capable of traveling 500 meters and dealing with differences in water pressure. One comment on her, which had mixed responses that she was getting ready for a wet t-shirt contest on muscle beach.
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With Valentine's Day, 2019 could be considered one of the funniest years ever.