March was barely underway when the newest members of Animalia came for conversion. It was a little hard to miss them because they arrived in either gaudy limousines or, worse (in some people's opinions) in private jets. While they did eventually sell them off, along with their old mansions and their possessions, it didn't improve their stature in Animalia's eyes overall. It certainly didn't help their image with the fact that Horizon Labs got an "anonymous" bundle of donations that totaled $3.2 billion shortly before their arrival.
But the only people who had outright hostile comments were those internet idiots/trolls who are quick to blame the upper classes for everything from the death of the whales to the depletion of the rainforests. But fortunately, there were those internet detectives who debunked their self-righteous claims with real stories on stupid/dangerous things done to "avenge the whales and trees".
There were a few who did raise a few eyebrows, but there were those who were able to explain them.
---
Doctor Jones was meeting with a Horizon Labs member over one of them, who was also the youngest at 36.
"What I, and pretty much everyone else, want to know is why does she have two, old-school, suicide scars on her wrists?" said the agent, after some discussion.
"Apparently she's the CEO of one of the fashion companies that supply Animalia, but she recently had a falling out with her daughter." said Dr. Jones, reading from her file.
"That doesn't really explain it." said the Horizon agent.
"I'm getting there." said Dr. Jones, a little annoyed, "Apparently her family has a 'tradition' of emotional suppression and repression for the sake of the corporate ladder. But when that falling out happened, twenty-three years of emotional suppression failed and she suffered a total emotional meltdown."
"Okaaaay..." said the agent. "But we still don't understand the scars."
"It can be easily explained with this sentence." said Dr. Jones, "If you try to completely suppress or repress all your undesirable feelings or emotions, they'll build and build, and eventually explode. The one we're talking about just happened to hit the 'eventually explode' stage."
"So who's her daughter?" asked the agent, making the appropriate notes now that he understood.
"Her name is Nicole," answered Dr. Jones, "And she's one of the girls who now dance at the Meat Market."
"So her mother will most likely convert to the same species as her daughter as an attempt to reconnect with her daughter." said the agent, making the appropriate notes.
---
Meanwhile Steven Blair was able to identify another one of the "super-rich" members.
"So who is Simon C-something-or-other?" asked the agent discussing the member with Steven Blair.
"While I was the one that supplied most of the steel for WWII, Simon was the one who supplied the oil." said Steven, remembering well. "But after Enron famously collapsed, Simon managed to grab some 'leftovers'. After that, he had a similar thing to my own, with his heirs clamoring for larger inheritances."
"That may be part of the reason why he's officially shortening his name to 'Sim', after he's getting a Belgian Blue Bull conversion and double dosing." said the Agent, making the appropriate notes.
"But since both his family and mine have similar heirs who are clamoring for more money, we'll be doing similar things to show them how there's more to life than money."
---
Meanwhile, Aida was briefly stopped before reuniting with her fellow conversions by a PR-MD agent.
"I'd thought you'd like to know about the... man who Ammy rescued you from." said the agent, not willing to call him a pimp since she clearly had bad memories of him."
"What about him?" asked Aida, not really expecting anything good.
"Apparently that man was the mastermind of a human trafficking ring that stretched all over Asia, including Southeast Asia. So when he was caught, the ring crumbled." said the Agent. Aida was now visibly glad about that, but became even gladder with the next thing the agent said. "When his hideout was raided by Japanese and Chinese police, accompanied by Ammy, there was discovered to be 30+ girls in the hideout. But what made the public both angrier at the man and happier at his arrest was the fact that some of them were underage ones. Finally, karma made sure that he would never see freedom again because the judge gave him the maximum sentence for such a crime."
Aida was also delighted to hear this, mainly because of what that man had did to her before Ammy rescued her.
"All of the girls are now on Heiya Island." finished the Agent, "and while some of them will be joining Animalia, while others will be reunited with next-of-kin, all of them are calling her their 'beloved mother'.
"I wouldn't mind calling her that..." said Aida dreamily, before remembering and catching up with Tomi.
---
In another case, Ashley, Jennifer and Skippy also encountered another Agent, who had something a little surprising for them.
"I'm sure that you all know about the newest members of Animalia." said the agent.
"We all have," said Skippy, who was now familiar with computers and internet.
"Apparently one of them wants to be a skunk and learned that Jennifer is 'available', so to speak." said the agent.
"As long as he's okay with sharing me with Ashley and Skippy, I won't mind." said Jennifer, who needed a little more information to go on.
"Well, we'll see what happens." said the Agent, making the appropriate notes on the tablet.