The fact that there were no great fights or disruptions over the cosplay contest made things a bit easier with regard to picking out the winners in the contest. As if things had been highly competitive with people taking things seriously, the judges would have had to break up these sorts of squabbles or call in security to do so. And that was something that actually created the biggest issues in Animalia, as while the Spring Carnival didn't attract a large number of outside visitors, there was still the potential that someone from outside Lyre/Animalia might come in to cause trouble. Some things like that had happened before, but thankfully, the Spring Carnival had remained clean and free of trouble. Most of the things the judges had to "deal" with were occasional and friendly questions, which really weren't a problem.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Picking some of the winners, particularly with some of the younger age groups that decided to enter the contest had difficulty in the fact that not every youngster really got into comics. They could understand the concept of costumes and playing pretend, but some specific themes that the cosplay contest was supposed to cover sort of went over the head of many of the younger entries. In this for the younger age brackets there was more treating the contest like it was Halloween than anything else. Though, it generally did amuse the judges and no one had any real complaint.
"Did you see... I won!" Polly cheered as she hopped up and down with the restaurant coupon in her right hand, "all for knowing al the lyrics to the best song ever!"
The group she'd come to, and essentially were there as "babysitters" smiled and nodded. Jeremy had occasionally glanced over to a spot where Heather was conversing with Regina at a booth that was dedicated to the "Jurassic Park" franchise. He hadn't known they'd ever made comics, though from some of the things he'd heard, most of the questions they'd gotten had surprisingly little to do with comics. It made him chuckle a little as he returned his attention to his younger sister, who was just finishing her hug with Marcy and Chilly before moving on to him.
"I did see," Jeremy gave a smile, "you've gotten a lot of millage out of that costume..."
"It's the bestest costume ever!" Polly declared.
Jeremy gave a small smile and hugged her. Polly liked the costume, mostly because it let her pretend to be her favorite character and that had made her happy. However, he also knew that Polly wouldn't stay "young" forever. He had some worries, as he still wasn't fully sure on how "puberty" would effect her. That would still be years away for Polly, but Jeremy also knew that once Dinosaur City was up and running as the land Dinotopian colony, he was scheduled to be transferred there as the main research scientist with the Dinotopian strains of the Animalia Virus and to partially run the facility. In this, he knew he couldn't stay in Animalia full time. He trusted the Whites, and they had seemed to get along better with him and Heather now, but that didn't remove his worries.
And those worries related heavily to how Polly's conversion had gone. His methods had used an incomplete and unfinished strain of the Animalia Virus back before the accident to cure her. His efforts did cure her, but it essentially left Polly a Polar Bear Animalian, but to sizes and scale that didn't fit her age or mind and contradicted how the Animalia Virus worked. With the main Animalia Virus, it seemed to affect people on not only the physical but the emotional, intelligence, and other aspects that had little real explanation for. It was something that allowed uplifted Animalians to gain a great amount of sentience and understanding some levels of human society, particularly if they were around humans a lot before they were uplifted. It was something that reflected the renewed youth and vigor from the elderly as they were brought back into their physical prime when they were double dosed, and it also showed an amazing amount of maturity in those who were young and advanced into physical adulthood when they were double dosed. A lot of that with the regular Animalia Virus made little sense, and neither Jeremy nor Doctor Stein, nor Judy had any real explanation for how or why it worked the way it did.
But Polly's conversion didn't follow those standards. She became an Animalian, yes, but her age did not advance physically, nor did her level of maturity and mindset. In this, while Polly was about as tall as Marcy, Polly still had the physical build of what one would expect from someone in elementary school but enlarged to the size that Polly was. Compared with Marcy, who was exposed to the standard version of the Animalia Virus, who had the build of an adult woman thanks to her double dosing. And that had left Jeremy with a lot of questions on what would happen when Polly got to the point where she began to mature. Would she stay about the same height and that her body would just shift to fit her age, or would she grow taller in accordance with everything that went along with that. Jeremy had no answers for that and he didn't want the Whites to find themselves swamped if it turned out that Polly would grow to Dinotopian proportions when she got older... Though right now, Jeremy also had to admit there wasn't much that he could do on the subject.
"That may change in a few years," Jeremy commented, managing a smile, "Suppose you get interested in Wonder Woman when you get older. I think she is a princess in the comics."
"You're funny," Polly commented and hugged Jeremy all the same.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Other reunions weren't quite as happy as the winners were posted. Codey seemed a bit bummed that his group didn't win. He'd put a lot of effort, and gotten some help from his mom, to make the costumes that he, Roger, and Jessica were wearing. They'd manage to handle the execution of the lines and poses that their respective characters from Power Rangers took during the series. But among the teams in the teen age group for the contest, they'd lost to another group of students from WSA dressed up as the Fantastic Four. One had been a Weasel Animalian, who had dyed white streaks into his fur to fit the role of Mr. Fantastic, a Cardinal Animalian as the Human Torch, and a couple of Human friends as the Invisible Woman and the Thing. Still, Codey was a bit bummed.
"I really thought we had it," he stated as he approached Sophie, Roland, JC, and Pauline, who had all stayed to cheer them on.
"You put a lot of effort into your costumes, yes," Pauline commented, but didn't really know how to cheer the teen up, as he looked a bit down with a frown and downcast eyes over a technicality in the judge's rulings, "that says a lot."
"And Roger and I had fun," Jessica added, "not exactly a bad thing."
"And that would be the biggest thing of the whole carnival," JC added, "to have fun... and it's been educational too. I think I've learned quite a bit about comics just watching people ask the judges questions and watching everyone go on stage."
"And your group only got docked points for not having the full team," Roland commented, "the original team had five members and the Green Ranger was the sixth and an add on. If you had the black, blue, and yellow rangers, you might have won..."
"I'd asked some of the Green Glacier Clan members about it... but they weren't that into the classic team and my mom didn't have the money or time to help me make three more costumes," Codey sighed.
"But you did have fun, right?" Sophie asked as she looked to Jessica and then to the human teen, "I mean being able to hang out with Roger and Jess all day."
"Us too," JC added.
That managed to lift Codey's spirits a little and he looked up and said, "thanks for being my friends."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Some winners ended up having a great deal of luck on their side. That was really the case for Andre in the single adult category. He really didn't need too much for his costume, as his choice in Animalian to be helped him fit the physical role of the character. The most difficult thing had been engineering fake teeth from football mouth guards in order to give him the fanged look that his character was known for in the comics. Some of a bit of a testament of where comic writers often just made things up because the idea sounded attractive to make the villains seem more threatening. As while many lizard species did have teeth of some kind, they weren't so large that they could be easily seen. And there were only a small handful of species that could regrow their tails, but it wasn't quite something where lizards could regenerate any limb if injured.
"But then Marvel wouldn't been able to sell Curt Connors as a "villain" quite so easily if they made his animal form more accurate," Andre thought to himself as he walked along with his prize, a coupon that offered a free meal at any of Lyre or Animalia's restaurants, "which then would have possibly hurt Marvel's best title."
He made his way along until he came to the doorway that lead out from the arena floor and out into areas in the Claw Coliseum that surrounded it. As he did so, he came across Sudan in full uniform coming in just to stand inside the doors and monitoring a few things. This actually intrigued Andre a bit, as he knew that Sudan was one of the Animalia Police Department's Rhino Guard members, their equivalent of SWAT, just in case there was something that the regular officers, all largely Wolf or Dog Animalians, couldn't handle came in. However, the Spring Carnival didn't quite fit that expectation, as Andre hadn't seen anything that dangerous.
"Hey," Andre spoke conversationally as he approached, "It's Sudan, right?"
Sudan nodded, "Is there something I could help you with?"
"Mostly just to answer a small question," Andre admitted a bit nervously, as the White Rhinoceros Animalian easily towered over him and held way more muscle mass than Andre. He waited for Sudan to nod an affirmative. "Is there anything... big that might be coming?"
"Hmm?" Sudan wondered.
"The Rhino Guard is supposed to be the Animalia PD's main muscle, in case something really goes bad," Andre commented, "So... if you're here... is there something we should know?"
Sudan's only response was laugh and land a pat on the shoulder on Andre, "Oh no, nothing is wrong... But with all the reports about these comics being valuable... all of the Animalia PD has had some shifts to come in, look things over, and make sure no one is causing any trouble. Even the Rhino Guard can't get out of that. We'll still have time to train and stay in shape... and everyone will have their phones and walkie-talkies in case something big does come... but everyone has their role to play in interacting with the people and presenting a friendly face."
"So... I'd imagine that things have probably been hectic then... what with colleges on Spring Break and all," Andre commented.
"I suppose," Sudan shrugged, "though the wolves all say that the IAC will be more hectic than this."
"That'll be something to see," Andre commented, "well... I'll leave you to your work. Have a good day."