While questions of reopening and managing anything that might be considered "normal" remained a thing, others will still getting used to the new surroundings that they found themselves in. And for Joanne's servants and their families that had come with them, that was a big thing. They'd known that their employer did a lot of work with Animalia and some various clothing companies, largely in relation to the fashion industry and the fact that a fair number of Animalians seemed to have some interest in it. But before that they'd largely only seen the reports on Animalia on the news or if they were able to access the internet, updates from Animalia Ambassadoria's ads for Animalia. There had never been the expectation that Joanne would ever actually move to Animalia, become an Animalian, or pay for them to come to Animalia so that they could keep the jobs they had.
But that did happen and Joanne's staff soon found that many things had changed with Joanne since her conversion. The Fennec Fox Animalian was still dedicated to her work, but they found her also having a lot more energy. There were times in the past where if she wanted a mid-morning coffee and was at home, she'd summon one of the staff to where she was, make the request for the coffee, and then wait for it to be brought to her. Now the staff found that Joanne would occasionally show up in the kitchen collect her snack, ask on how the staff that were there were doing, thank them for saving her life, and depart with the parting words of, "I didn't even feel this energetic when I was twenty!" That was something of a surprise to many of the staff that went along with some of the other things they'd found at the mansion that Joanne had had built for not just herself, but apparently for them too.
"You're really thinking on this...?" Jasper asked to a few of Joanne's staff that had actually voiced some mild interest in conversion, "no one had ever said anything before..."
"It was too expensive before," said one woman named Louise, "and we were in New York where the areas where Horizon did the conversions was here. Joanne wouldn't have payed for it back then..."
Louise's voice trailed off at the end as she looked to her fourteen year old son, who was part of her personal reasoning for being curious, but she wasn't going to say that out loud. Jasper and a few other members of the staff had made it pretty clear that they would remain Human, there were a few members, like Louise that had given some interest in conversion. Some of it related more to the energy that they'd noticed that Joanne had gained since becoming an Animalian, which they'd never considered before. And while most of the staff were relatively young and Jasper was among the oldest on Joanna's staff, the energetic growth was still a big thing for them and would help with the fact that the mansion they'd been moved to dwarfed the high end apartment they worked in before. The lawn wasn't large, but the mansion was still bigger than Joanne's previous residence.
"I see... well, I'll leave you to it," Jasper commented, "though given that it is pushing nine PM... I would add that you keep in mind that there will still be work to do tomorrow."
"Of course, sir," said one of the male members of the staff that had some interest, named Reggie.
With that Jasper headed off and left the small portion of the staff and a few of their family members that showed interest in the offer of conversion, or at least paying for it that Joanne had made. There was five of them, counting Louise's son and her husband, who weren't part of the staff, but because they were family of staff members they counted. They entered a space in the mansion that was between the wing where the staff's apartments were and some of the areas that was set up for Joanne to potentially entertain guests and it was set up like a sort of home office or den area and would be open to all as there were doors that would allow for easy traffic from the staff's wing to the rest of the mansion. Inside the room was a large central desk that held a good sized computer and screen. Louise's fourteen year old son, Miles, spent some time in there playing computer games during the course of the day. Along the side walls were two sets of fire-proof cabinets with doors on them. Each door had a key that was given to the staff members and Joanne offered they could be used to store computer passwords if members felt they had to write them down and since the cabinet keys were all different, no one could then steal someone else's password.
"So... how would we do this...?" Reggie wondered.
"I'd think we should let Miles work with this and go through Horizon's website," Louise offered, "he's a bit more familiar with computers than we are and Horizon does have records on file for every Animalian Species they have strains of..."
"Joanne said they also have links to information on the specific animals as well," the fifth member of the group, a woman named Melody, spoke as she looked to her fellow staff members in Louise and Reggie, and then to Louise's son Miles and her husband David, "that may help with some of the other things that would relate to instincts and all that..."
"That'd be something to start with," David commented, "though... how would all of this work. Given Animalia's rules on breeding... we can't necessarily become our favorite animal... as I've always liked the Scarlet Macaw and Louise has been more interested in dolphins..."
"You could still be together," Miles corrected, "you just couldn't breed together. And given that your idea was for a single dose... it won't be like you're going to suddenly consider conceiving more kids... are you?"
"No!" David and Louise said together.
"But given that we're so far inland... being a Dolphin Animalian might not be as comfortable as something else..." Louise then added, "pools might be one thing... and since dolphins are mammals, things like chlorine in the water won't be as much of an issue... but they still wouldn't be the same as the ocean or a river..."
"Well that may complicate things for you," Melody commented as she noted that the computer had finished powering up and that Miles was starting to get online, "but Reggie and I are both single... we could go with our favorite animals."
"Okay... we can start with you... what is your favorite animal?" Miles asked.
"Well..." Melody said slowly, "I've kind of always had some interest in lizards... partially because we don't see too many of them in New York, outside of the zoos... but recently... I've kinda gotten interested in Geckos... Though some of that might be just because I think Geico's animated gecko is cute."
There then followed as Miles went about browsing through Horizon's list, which was extensive but well organized. He eventually did come on a list of various gecko species that Horizon had Animalia Virus strains for. The page noted that most of them were from pets that had been uplifted during the initial outbreak or from contributions from various zoos over the years. Based on the description that Melody gave, Miles then began looking for which gecko species would look the most like the Geico Gecko.
"This wasn't about what that teen said about naked sunbathing on the tour, was it?" Louise asked. Animalians might have more relaxed thoughts when it came to things like nudity, but that didn't mean she had to be comfortable with it, even if she was willing to go with the conversion idea.
"No... though I'd also say that laying in the sun is not something limited to reptiles," Melody answered, "though it wouldn't surprise me if that was something more that Nicole has gotten into to try and loosen up her mother..."
The staff was happy to see that Nicole and Joanne had largely "made up" as it were, but there were still some points where it was pretty clear that the two Fennec Fox Animalians didn't fully agree on what to do. They had some regular therapy sessions and the staff had figured that had done a lot to help Joanne improve her outlook but it didn't necessarily curb Nicole's at times rebellious nature and that was going to be something between the two that would go on. The staff, however, had felt it best to stay out of the way of the two, particularly while things did seem better between them.
"But no... I'm not interested in nude sun bathing," Melody answered, "though given many geckos are good at climbing things, including glass, I might end up assigned to do the windows during the summer."
"I think I found it..." Miles spoke up catching Melody's attention, "the Gold Dust Day Gecko..."
Melody looked in at it and noted the picture of a small lizard that was largely green in color but with gold and orange highlights along its back that thickened into striped markings on its head and just before its hips on the top of its body. "Yes! That's it. It looks just like the Geico Gecko!" Miles nodded to that and moved to then print off the information that Horizon had on the species. From there Miles then looked to Reggie who was the only other one that could go by his favorite animal. He actually looked a little bit embarrassed as Miles got around to asking him.
"There's no need to be embarrassed," Louise told him.
"Well... it's not exactly an Animalian that lot of people want to become," Reggie answered, "I mean most people have become animals that would be considered "pure," if you know what I mean."
Louise and David nodded, though they'd also figured that a lot of this related to Animalia's edicts and how they related to breeding. There were enough "mixed couples" in Animalia, but they could only adopt children because of those edicts. The only ones that seemed to get exceptions were with close enough that they could produce viable offspring, such as wolves and dogs, and from some some cases with other animals that man had hybridized, such as ligers or tions from breeding lions and tigers together or mules from horses and donkeys. They guessed that some of this might have related to Reggie being half African American and half Caucasian.
"And well... I've always had some interest in those animals that were hybrids... having a bit of one and some of another," Reggie continued, "playing a bit to my own ancestry..."
"There is nothing wrong with that or to be ashamed in," Louise said to Reggie and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Even if it's a mule?" Reggie asked.
"Nothing wrong with that," David assured him.
"They recently uplifted a pair of mules," Miles spoke up from the chair, "if that's what you'd want to go with... you might get a girlfriend."
"Okay..." Reggie said slowly as he watched Miles pull up and print out the information Horizon had on their Mule Animalians.
That then left Miles with his parents and the things that had gone on their own family discussions that had been part of what had gotten them go along with the idea as they did so. Much of it had come from Miles' interest in Animalia's web-show "Animalia Ambassadoria." Miles knew that all of the Animalians on the program had to have graduated from High School by now and started with the show as freshman. And since it would be likely that the current Animalian members would be going off to college if the mandated "open the economy" demands kept going in the fall and thus wouldn't be present in Lyre/Animalia to keep running the show, and with Miles' interest in journalism, he'd seen it as a window to essentially apprentice with the team when they retooled their cast in the fall. Louise and David had accepted it and that was where they stood.
"And you know where I'd stand," Miles spoke, "with the Black Tailed Jackrabbit. Animalia Ambassadoria will likely go through major changes in the fall... and I'd be able to give the new cast a semi-familiar face..."
"Don't they already have two Jackrabbits?" David wondered.
"Based on what Animalia and Horizon have published, Jessica was converted by a Mountain Cottontail and that Roger was an uplifted Pet Rabbit. Though Roger's breed is never listed... The Jackrabbit, while it is another kind of rabbit, it has a different build and much larger ears."
"So that only leaves us with what to do," Louise said slowly, "I mean... we could still double dose and live as a mixed couple... and any child after Miles could be adopted..."
"And that would be fine," David assured his wife, "after all... if Miles becomes a Jackrabbit... we'll end up a mixed family when it comes to Animalian species."
"But I'd be out of place so far inland as a Dolphin Animalian, even with pools," Louise sighed, "Maybe I should just be a Macaw too..."
"Or you could go to a Dolphin ancestor," Miles commented.
That attracted his parents' attention. Miles then turned on a different tab from the tab that Horizon's page was on and then typed in a search on the history of whale evolution. He then brought them down to the pages that showed the transition of whales from small four legged land animals and transitioned to become the larger and legless sea creatures known today.
"It might mean waiting a while for Horizon to get access to the necessary fossils," Miles commented, "but we know that whales and dolphins evolved from land animals and went back to the sea. Thus if you went to an animal like Pakicetus, which was a land animal but had an ear structure more in line with modern whales..."
"That..." Louise said slowly, "that could work..."