Joanne's conversion had done a lot for her health and her hopes for healing her relationship with her daughter. Things were at times tense between the two Fennec Fox Animalians and Joanne had some measure of issue with her daughter working at the Meat Market. But she remained fully hesitant to get into it too much with Nicole, as that had been part of what had driven her away in the first place. Joanne hoped for a way to get Nicole to look to something where people wouldn't see her as a sex object, but for the moment she'd have other things to look to. That namely related her new home and a "thank you" for those that had saved her life, even if she was too depressed at the time to want to be saved.
The home was fairly easy, as Joanne had found that a fair number of wealthy people had been moving to Animalia to convert, or were at least visiting to convert. Then between this influx of new people and the relatively decent weather, Animalia seemed to manage to do what should be realistically impossible... build homes, and in this case multi-room and floor mansions, that would normally took months to build and hook up to power and plumbing. The only thing that Joanne figured enabled this was that many Animalians were not only willing to do the work but were strong enough to do many of the tasks that Humans needed machinery just to attempt. But as Joanne looked to the mansion that had been built for her and her daughter to try and reconnect in, she couldn't help but smile.
"This looks like it's bigger than your old mansion in New York," came a voice from behind her.
Joanne turned to see a collection of people who she had paid to have brought to Animalia. It wasn't large, about six people and at least their boyfriend or girlfriend, if they had one, but Joanne felt she owed them something. For they were the group of servants that had saved her life, gotten her to the emergency room after they'd found her attempting to commit suicide while suffering from depression over driving Nicole away. Becoming an Animalian had given Joanne an opportunity to reconnect with her daughter and try to recreate a family, as a part of her actually was beginning to feel some of the same old desires she'd felt when she was young build up in her again. All of that, though was a new start, and she was deeply thankful to the staff that had served her rather faithfully for years.
"It is," Joanne answered with a small smile as she looked to them, "there is more land here... or it's at least cheaper than in New York... probably because there is more land. As such, I could expand a little... and that was something that I felt to be a good idea for something."
"A good idea, ma'am?" one of her female staff members wondered, looking to the others as the Fennec Fox Animalian stood in a proper high end set of pants and a blazer with a small smile.
"For a thank you," Joanne nodded, "for... I was in a bad way after my daughter left, and you... ALL of you saved me."
"It was the right thing to do, ma'am," one of her male staff members answered with a small shrug.
"Of course... but I'd been distant and at times looking over things that meant I probably wasn't paying much attention... possibly part of how I lost Nicole in the first place," Joanne answered, "in this... you had no personal need to help me. My estate would have had to pay off your wages and so on, regardless of whether or not I was there... at least for the last pay period."
Joanne's staff members looked to the Fennec Fox Animalian again. A couple of the men found Joanne quite striking, given how her blazer and shirt curved around her curves and her presently more perky step as an Animalian had put a bounce in her step in more ways than one. All the same, none of them had expected to get a call from Joanne with the information of a flight for them and at least one other to Lyre/Animalia for something that was described as a surprise. They were assured that all expenses would be paid and thus went along with it, despite some of the nervousness they had, even with certain areas of the country starting to open up.
And the travel part was really the thing that had them nervous, for while no confirmed cases had come out of Animalia and the handful that reached Lyre had been caught and isolated before it could spread through Lyre and Animalia, that didn't remove the risk. For there were flights, connections, other means of transport, and all sorts of issues where they could be exposed and then bring it in to Animalia. One man was fairly certain that given the level of testing that had been done in the US that Lyre and Animalia could be just as in the dark about the present pandemic as the rest of the country. It took a fair amount of wrangling and time to bring them to Lyre and Animalia, and now it seemed like their former employer had invited them to look at her new mansion.
"But yet you offered me a chance to make things up with my daughter... and that... that will be bumpy for the moment, but still it's getting better," Joanna continued, "and as such, I figured there had to be a way I could repay you for ALL that you've done... Especially with the fact that I will be moving here... to be close to Nicole and moving the executive offices for my company here."
"You called us all the way out here to fire us!" one woman blurted and took an angry step forward as Joanne raised a hand.
"No... I want to keep you all on," Joanne spoke, "but since I'm moving here... that would mean YOU would need to move here too... And I hoped you would... and thus expanded living quarters, extra bathrooms, kitchens, and a whole new mentality have gone into this mansion... As well as payment for Animalian conversion... IF you want it. The architect says the design is adaptable. Thus you could remain Human and be fine or become a large Animalian and be fine. That's all up to you... and there would even be some room for family to come as well."
"That's a lot... would we have to pay rent...?" one man asked as he looked to see that all of Joanne's staff members were in shock.
"No," Joanne answered, "if something breaks... you may have to pay for the repairs individually... but the same would go for me if I broke something. I'd hoped this would be a way to say thank you and an option for you to keep your work, given how much New York and New York City especially has shut down over this pandemic. And with no rent... your living expenses would be cheaper. The biggest cost might be the move... but that would be repaid over time. As I'm sure the fashion industry will survive. And that will mean your paychecks should be secure... and I can say thank you for all that you did for me."
"You'd pay for us all to move here?" a second male servant asked.
"And convert if you wish it," Joanne answered, "something that would be helpful with regard to the move."
That further created more bulging eyes as the group looked at the mansion and then at the Animalian with some look of surprise. However, the group did accept it for the moment. No one said anything about converting or moving to Animalia, but they did ultimately agree to a tour.