July marked the high point of summer, and Animalia was no exception for this. While the biggest event was still the Animalia Comic Convention, everyone was stocking up on fireworks for 4th of July. Even Animalia was getting in on the act, though in different ways.
"How my sister and I got talked into this I'll never know." said Princess as she and several others were taking part in a PET-sponsored firework sale and car wash... while wearing swimsuits.
"I remember doing this while in college." said Shyra, working a sponge across the car of one of their latest clients, "Back then it was a group of sorority girls doing this during summer as an excuse to cool off when the pools were all out of service while splitting chump change several different ways."
"But for some reason we've been getting a lot more customers than otherwise." said Sarah.
"I think that might have to do with Jessica's new member to their family." said Malice, nodding where Hunni Bunni was holding a cardboard sign advertising their service.
"By the way, how is she?" asked Abby.
"... She's doing fine." said Jessica, after recovering from an inappropriate image that was triggered by 'new member to their family'. "She's still learning English, but she's adapting fine to Animalia. She may have the mentality and language skills of a 'blonde bimbo', as one of our scientists say, but the end result does resemble the 'adorably stupid' that both Daisy and Jioni are known for."
"That reminds me, I need to help out Jioni again." said Beth, going over to where Jioni was freaking out, again, to where someone thought it would be funny to squeeze a plastic water bottle at Jioni, causing her to react like cats will when they suddenly get wet.
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Mieni Atoll was celebrating the 4th with a relatively new creation, Starlight on the Water. What it entailed was launching fireworks from a boat during a relatively calm night as part of a luau. The term actually referred to the effect of the fireworks' light reflecting on the ocean. It was clear that, after the announcement, Ulysses and Blueberry were planning on joining the event, especially since one of the, supposedly, best places to see it was Mieni's 'muscle beach'.
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Since Nate and Shuixing were looking after the farm, the rest of the Five Elements decided to record what was going on at Heiya Island. With the rescue of the 170 girls from the slaving ring, Heiya Island was becoming a kind of middle ground between the various nations of Asia, whether intentionally or not.
The biggest thing they covered was the new wing of the Palace for the rescued girls, which was now down to 135 girls, since family members had been found for some of the girls. But one of them was planning on staying because she had planned to introduce Huoxing to her older brother, and things were progressing quite well between them.
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Probably what was the biggest event for the Summer was Mr. Hyun's match against a would-be suitor for Ling. What many described the match as, both as live coverage and internet coverage, was David (Mr. Hyun) and Goliath (the would-be suitor). There were already bets/donations pouring in on who was going to win. But because of Animalia's reputation, most of the money would be going to funding research into a cure/vaccine for the Coronavirus.
Because this was one of the biggest events at the A.C.C., there would be plenty watching either at the octagon (with necessary distancing) or their hotel room. But this wasn't the only thing going on, nor was it the most exciting.