January began with the symbolic ending of the Great Snow War, as it always did. But since the year was 2020, this would be considered the Year of New Beginnings (the unofficial title) in many ways.
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Miss Fabina was getting ready to meet with the girls that she had reviewed the files for. Their files had also included some surprises, such as Alice having a 200+ intelligence score and already having a plan for becoming a corporate executive. Also, Alice was the only American amongst the group, the rest were Japanese with some basic proficiency in English, if not fluency.
Saluti nuovi membri. said Miss Fabina, entering the room where the group of girls were waiting for her. "I am Miss Fabina, head of Animalia's Gilda dei cortigiani." She knew, both from her senses and their reactions, that she had made an important first impression on them. "Soon you will all be part of Animalia, but because some of you are having trouble deciding what species you want to be, I'll be happy to help out with that. But if you have any question before you start, you better ask them now."
"What's Animalia's best... attributes...?" asked Honoka in broken English, intentionally or not hefting her bust in her discomfort. But Miss Fabina seemed to get what she was asking.
"Signorina," she replied, "It's never about what someone else might think as the best attribute. It's about what making whatever you've got already your best attribute."
"Are you only an exotic dancer," asked Alice, "Or are you good at other things."
"Tesoro, I do not just dance at the Meat Market," said Miss Fabina, a little indignantly, while laughing inside at how some flinched at the mention of Meat Market, "I also sing once a week at the Kat's Klub. But that's not my only talent. I'm also a beast at tennis, specifically at solo court. I actually won gold medal at the 1984 Olympics. Still cleaning the rust from my backswing. But let me make this clear from the get go: You don't have to dance at the Meat Market if you don't want to."
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Since Chinese New Year was going to take part on the 25th, all the rat and mice Animalians were doubling down on their training to win the Mister and Miss Year of the Rat title. There was not only going to be a Best of Breed showdown, but also a maze/obstacle course to help narrow down how many competitors there were. Carrie, since she was a capybara, wasn't competing, but instead was going to be one of the announcers. But there was also something else to take into account.
"How are we going to prevent mistakes from happening?" said one event organizer.
"What kind of mistakes?" asked Clara.
"There was a case where a typo caused the wrong person in a Canadian Miss Universe competition to be crowned the winner." said the event organizer, "Then there was the case of the 2017 Academy Awards where the wrong film received the Best Picture Award."
"I saw that." said a PR-MD member, "The cringe that resulted, it was too much for me."
"I might know something." said Jerry, who was passing by at the time. "Since Animalian senses are stronger than human ones, we could rub different brands of perfume onto the cards and have Carrie memorize the scents."
"While we're not discarding that completely," said the agent. "It's probably not going to happen."
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Meanwhile, in the same room where Heather had her punishments, "Jezzie" hung shackled to the ceiling, having finished her own conversion into a cobra Animalian.
"So the first thing you'll do to her is give her a good bath;" said Annie, trying to understand the punishments, "Then you'll show her how snakes dress; followed by her having a 'passion spice' jawbreaker; and finally a themed punishment tied to her crime."
"It did work so well with Heather." said Maggie, "But since she became a similar species of cobra, Bazooka will be the one administering the fourth punishment."
"Don't worry, I've already got something planned out." said Bazooka."
The same Government agent who "helped" with Heather's case then spoke. "We've just finished our background check on her. Apparently both her parents died of HIV before she began infecting lesbians as a kind of 'holy' war. Also, they were both members of a branch of Christianity that were rather harsh on their views of both lust, and homosexuality. While it wasn't as bad as Ed Gein's mother Augusta, it was close."
"But personally," said Maggie, remembering the meeting between 'Jezzie' and Annie, "I think that seeing you and Stuart married and expecting," she said, taking note of Annie's now somewhat protruding middle, "was punishment enough for her. So we won't punish her too much."