Early August in Animalia had less things than would normally be there for Lyre and Animalia residents to enjoy, though it wasn't for lack of trying. Unlike the previous year where the two put on a "comic convention" shortly after a bunch of collectible comics were found and appraised to be worth a fair amount of money, this year had some planning and time put into it. The hope was that comic fans would come to Animalia and that comic distributors, writers, artists, and so on would come in to help spread the word as it were. And given the characters of Tigra and Cheetah were anthropomorphic animals as well, there had been the hope that with more time and planning, Lyre/Animalia would be a good destination for all that. But events of late 2019 to early 2020 overshadowed all of that and few people wanted to come to the northwest Nevada towns while Covid was going on.
Some did, but not as many as was expected before the pandemic, and reflected just how hard Animalia and all of its colonies were actually taking. They were set up as tourist sites on the basis that people would come for miles to see anthropomorphic animals that were built arouse others. They had other services and some had had some extraordinarily lucky funds that helped their ability to sustain themselves, but it didn't change what the economies of Animalia and its colonies were based around. And that left a small group of Turtle Animalians seated quietly at one of the booths that was set up with a slightly saddened look on their faces as most of the guests that had come in to Kat's Klub for the convention were mostly Lyre/Animalia natives.
"Man... I'd really wished there would have been more that was going on than just sitting here," Jerry sighed to Peter, "at least while the Animalia Ambassadoria crew were here, we had someone to talk to for a little while."
"I suppose that's just part of how things go..." Peter gave a small sigh, "we DID agree to be here for the sets of adventure/monster movies that we'd signed to make with those executives from Japan a few years ago... and some of them weren't necessarily THAT bad."
Peter, Adam, Tom, and Jerry had enjoyed a lot of their own high school experience, of course much of it also came with the fact that Peter had met Lina, Dela, Reva, and his bond-mate Mara during the second part of the outbreak and from there he and his friends had been able to found the Green Glacier Adventure Clan as they balanced many of the things they'd enjoyed in Middle School along with new things they got into as Animalians, and that was besides being with the four former pet turtles. They'd play dungeons and dragons and various board games, set up challenges for fantasy games that would rely on physical action rather than cards or game pieces, and added in a healthy dose of just being good citizens. It was that sort of thing that allowed them to make friends in Animalia, and from some of the contacts they'd made over those four years had included the idea of new chapters of the clan springing up in places like Heiya Island. Peter took that as a bit of a surprise, particularly when most of the Animalians there were mammal based Animalians, he though Muxing was the only reptile Animalian that lived there full time, but if people were into those fun and games, he was quite happy with that.
The course of this had also drawn some attention from various acting companies and studies that had ideas for Animalians as actors or at least as the stunt-men. The biggest ones were with a Japanese film studio that looked at the Green Glacier Adventure Clan as being able to fill some roles for various science-fiction/superhero/monster movies that they had ideas for. They weren't quite the classic monsters that Americans knew of for Halloween but more something that was closer to a combination of Godzilla and Power Rangers in many ways. There would be some giant alien that would invade the planet and would be defeated. The heroes were often the Green Glacier Adventure Clan members or someone else using them as the stunt men for the shot. It eventually lead to other various stunt scenes tat were shot over over several times over the summer and were complicated by the fact that the the company in Japan had to to view things over television and computers while discussing things online before it could be discussed between shots while dealing with the Covid pandemic... which grew harder as the company had to recall their film crews when Japan cut trade over America's insistence that Covid 19 wasn't real.
"At least we'll get paid for being here," Tom sighed as he looked over to the others as they watched some of the people go by, "most people probably weren't paying close attention because of of other things..."
"Yeah... but we were here!" Adam commented with a heavy sigh, "and lots of people enjoyed the movie!"
"Probably not as much as you think," Peter sighed to his friend, "Most of it was shown in Japan... and what a lot of the guys that gotten in contact with us... most of the films were then dubbed in Japanese."
"So they don't even hear our voices?" Jerry gasped.
"In the English ones... yes, but they didn't do as well, as America wasn't really the target audience," Peter answered.
"I think people liked how we looked," Adam commented, "but that's about it. We made all the moves they wanted alright... but not much more than that."
"So much for Hollywood," Tom gave a sigh.
"Hollywood was never the goal," Peter commented, "and besides we've gotten more calls to model designs for creatures from games like the ones we've often played before and to an extent, the movie franchises haven't necessarily run out of ideas for turtle-like characters and creatures... That'll make fairly decent money while working on other projects..."
"Hopefully that's what goes through," Jerry said with a sigh as he looked over the area in which the crowd was largely ignoring them. Occasionally someone did come up and ask a few questions, but there weren't many of them. Some of that may have simply been that while the movies that they had played their roles as either stunt men or "creatures" in didn't quite work with the theme of superheroes, particularly when most of the audience that had seen the movies was in Japan. Add in the fact that the Covid 19 had hit the US hardest and many of the people that might have seen them in the US and came to see the convention couldn't come. But despite some of the biggest things that frustrated them, there was one good moment.
It came toward the end of the day when a young girl walking with her father actually came up to the small booth that had been set up for the Green Glacier Adventure Clan members.
"I remember you," the girl said with small smile.
"Oh?" Peter commented as he looked to his friends and then looked to the girl, "and what was that? Were we awesome in the movie?"
"No... you brought dinner on Easter to my family's home," the girl said, "saved my daddy work on dinner and let me have fun with mom..."
And that brought a smile to Peter, Adam, Tom, and Jerry's beaks. While a lot of their adventures after conversion had focused on ways of having fun and creating adventures for them had been fun... and something they loved, the biggest thing was still in the core values of being kind that their families had tried to teach even before Animalia came along. And Peter and his friends couldn't take pride in that.
"Well... Peter said slowly, "that doesn't really relate to the convention... but I'm glad you had fun. Hopefully the rest of summer goes well for you. And who knows, if you and your dad ever need help in the future... someone from the Green Glacier Adventure Clan will be there."
"As we're always looking for new members," Tom nodded agreement, "games, puzzles, fantasy, adventure, and above all... good deeds."