With things leveling off for the Coronavirus, things were slowly but surely letting up, but there were claims that there was evidence that the virus was created in a lab, while there were also claims that a treatment and/or vaccine had been discovered, so there still was some confusion. But the announcement that the current president had been dropped from the presidential ballot, and thus wouldn't be re-elected, was both good and/or bad, depending on your point of view.
But in Animalia, the rule of the day was maintaining their sense of normalcy while following greater society. A new part was delivering ordered food from restaurants to those who ordered them and weren't able to leave their homes. It was also a chance to talk about things that happened to certain people.
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"So your order is the 'Fish and Chips Lover's Dinner'?" asked Peter, reading off the order.
"That's right." said the female bald eagle.
"So where's your date?" asked Peter, "I need him to confirm payment."
"He's in the shower." She answered. "He said he's washing away a lot of stress."
"What happened?" asked Peter.
"He got attacked by a mongoose Animalian." she replied.
"He didn't get hurt, did he?" asked Peter.
"No, she just yelled at him." the Bald Eagle Animalian answered, "She accused him of things that I had no idea about."
"Oh, that's just Nova." said Peter, understanding now. "She's a self-proclaimed conspiracy theorist who was diagnosed as a paranoid delusional."
"That's good, right?" asked the Bald Eagle Animalian, not really getting it.
"Not really," said Peter, "but as long as she doesn't cause any physical harm, she'll be getting minor fines and community service. But what makes Nova really unusual is the fact that she has a Ph.D. in astrophysics."
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"So how is Ollie, Leslie?" asked Mara, delivering their food order to their apartment.
"She's been doing alright." answered Leslie, "She's been mainly taking Rebecca's online Animalia Art Classes."
"How are those going?" asked Mara.
"She's learning quite well." said Leslie. "But when she's not working on her art pieces, she's been discussing things with Cooper, mainly about 'our' new mansion."
"So what's she wanting?" asked Mara.
"She's basically wanting a new artist studio so she can do her work." answered Leslie.
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"So how is Jioni?" asked Tom, delivering a fish-and-chips meal to Eliza's house.
"She's doing alright," replied Eliza, "Her mentality is increasing."
"Meaning...?" asked Tom.
"She's not as dominated by her feline instincts as she was when she was converted." answered Eliza, "She'll still insist on cleaning herself with her tongue, and gets distracted by laser pointers and balls of yarn."
"So that's a first step, right?" asked Tom.
"But she now has the mental equivalent of a nine-year-old." said Eliza.
"So how is Beth taking it?" asked Tom, in an attempt to change the subject.
"Aside from Jioni hissing at her at their first meeting, pretty well." answered Eliza.
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"So, Mercy," said Jerry, ignoring the federal agent going through the food delivered to Mercy's apartment in an attempt to find anything involved with escaping from prison ("Better safe than sorry" the agent gave as his excuse), "How was your interview with those news people?"
"It was alright." answered Mercy, "I was able to get my sentence reduced, as well as a cut of the overall amount of money gained from that wild west safe."
"So where are most of the treasures going to?" asked Jerry.
"While most of them are going to museums, there are some (such as the firearms) that are going to companies who manufacture replicas." answered Mercy.
"So how much was made from the discovery?" asked Jerry.
"While some are still getting appraised, and marked accordingly with inflation," answered Mercy, doing some mental calculations, "It would be at least $1 million."
"I saw the Inside Edition video." said Jerry, "The claim that the treasures would 'make the Sundance Kid dance with joy' was pretty accurate."
"I'm sure of that." answered Mercy, just as the agent got done searching her food.
---
"So how is Mr. Hyun's training going?" asked Reva, delivering a sushi platter to Ling and Mr. Hyun's apartment.
"He's doing really well." said Ling, "He's actually putting on a lot more pure muscle mass than he originally expected."
"So that's probably the reason why there are many countries interested in Animalians as super soldiers." said Reva, who had heard that kind of thing once or twice.
"But his opponent is also learning a similar thing," said Ling, "The only thing that's different between the two, aside from overall size, is the fact that Mr. Hyun is doubling down on his fighting training while his opponent isn't doing just as much fighting training.
"Just remember," said Reva, "You get extra points for 'aggression' if you do unique insults before the fight actually begins."