Ever since there was a massive influx of new "immigrants" to Animalia, not helped by the fact that there were politicians who were either anti-gay or "anti-hippie", it was decided by the council to help them adjust to their new lives/diets/etc., especially since many of them were either not used to their new bodies or had misconceptions about their abilities due to certain things (which I probably won't mention here). But since Sgt. Grail was an ex-marine Drill Sargent, and just got his personal trainer license, the council decided to let him train the new "recruits", a term that gave Sgt. Grail a rather amusing idea, though not for his recruits. Of course there were those who tried to "escape" him by becoming Dinotopians and moving to Dino City, he knew a fellow ex-marine drill sergeant and got him "sponsorship" to be a Dinotopian. But there was a little confusion about the species he chose.
"What exactly is a 'Giganotosaurus'?" asked Josephine at the meeting discussing it.
"It's basically one of the predatory theropod dinosaurs discovered relatively recently in Argentina." said the horizon scientist working with Project Dinotopia. At that there was much shaking of heads, since a lot of the dinosaurs discovered in Argentina often sparked new debates about things including size and defenses, among other things.
"Mr. M. will continue training Jeremy," decided Harry, "But our newest Drill Sargent will get to train the newer 'recruits' to Dino City."
---
Sgt. Grail (who didn't mind the nickname Sgt. Bash) looked over the newest members, all of whom were newly converted, with some of them, especially some of the females, were from the now notorious "Seven-on-Four" Night. Already he had learned that Mr. M. had gotten hold on one of the reports from that night and was writing a script for one of his "shows".
Wearing a new outfit inspired by his old drill sergeant outfit, with appropriate modifications for his tail and ears, he entered and gave a sharp "snap" to get everyone's attention.
"Alright now!" he barked, in full drill sergeant mode, "You are now all Animalians. Do you know what that means?" he asked. After receiving some answers that were clearly sexual in nature, amongst others, he quickly set them straight.
"While that wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for, being an Animalian means, among other things that there are things you can do, and things you can't eat due to your new species. So I'm here to teach you about all that as well as new health habits that will keep you from going soft."
"Alright," said someone in the back, seemingly resigning himself to his fate, "let's get it over with."
"Gladly." said Sgt. Bash, grinning in a way that would have everyone worried.
---
Pretty soon, everyone was pretty much suffering as Sgt. Bash basically put them all through "boot camp from hell" training, as one member called it. Especially since their first warm-up was the mile run, and they basically hit low energy only 1/5th of the way through. But what wasn't helping was the way that he laughed at their complaints and/or what they said about how tired they were as he continued to push them through it.
"I'm gonna need a Long Island Iced Tea after this." complained one cat Animalian.
"Ouch! My bikini zone is chaffing!" complained a mouse Animalian.
"Energy... depleting... need... sugar!" complained a robin Animalian.
"Must... never... run... again!" complained a bull Animalian.
---
While technically an after-school program, it was seemingly just as, if not more, brutal as standard military training. But it also seemed that Sgt. Bash was capable of making compromises for some people that others found unfair.
"Why does Sylvia get to do the thigh spreading machine only halfway while the rest of us have to do it all the way?" complained one of the newer horse Animalians.
"Sylvia was recently "marked" as the Bavarian Warmblood she is, and she's still a little tender from it." explained Sgt. Bash.
"I saw the video of it on the Animalia Website." said another new bull Animalian, "It's already over one million views, and there were several comments that it was 'cruel and unusual punishment' for her being a chronic flirt."
"And this isn't, private?!" asked Sgt. Bash, going into full drill sergeant mode so fast it frightened said bull Animalian quite a bit.
---
In other cases, however, Sgt. Bash was seemingly incapable of compromise.
"So you're the one that wanted the 'pork loin' during your night?" Sgt. Bash asked Dean when he was seemingly unable to perform a single proper pushup.
"Sir, yes, sir." Dean struggled to say as he struggled to do said proper pushup.
"Then why can't you do this properly?" asked Sgt. Bash, clearly not impressed with Dean's efforts.
"Sir, no real upper body strength until recently, sir." answered Dean.
"Then consider this impetus to get better at it." snapped Sgt. Bash, much to everyone else's amusement.
---
Because this was considered one of the biggest population jumps, there wasn't a lot of open houses or apartments available for everyone, especially in Habitat Homes. Fortunately there was an older hotel in Lyre that could easily be retrofitted into a temporary rooming house. Probably what was the most amusing thing was the result of the newcomers' first day. Almost all of them looked in considerable pain from their first day, most likely due to making rookie mistakes like working the whole body at once and not stretching afterward.