Dino City was very new and had been built up to accommodate a population of Dinotopians on par with what Lyre/Animalia had when it was first formed. It meant making new roads and running pipes to make sure everyone had running water, and that had been part of what worried some of the people that lived in Glen Rose and the surrounding area at first, as they didn't have the miles of open and largely untouched land that Lyre had when Animalia was first born. But they found that Horizon and those that backed the establishment of Dino City as an Animalian Colony were more than happy to accommodate them and build around them. Thus Dino City's Human residents didn't have their homes demolished and other areas were kept safe from damage during the construction phase.
The only surprise was that when Dino City was ready to accept new residents the number of them were rather few. There were of course the notable Dinotopians that already existed, like Heather, Tyra, Rex, Andrew, Jen, and so on... but there wasn't all that many that came in and some of the existing Dinotopians DIDN'T move to Dino City. One male Stegosaurus Dinotopian stayed in Nevada where he was working with the state's anti-drug counseling programs and using his own experiences as part of the lesson... and from some rumors was romantically involved with a woman he'd had a long standing crush on. Brett Horne was still in Animalia as part of his work as an administrator for the UFC-A and "Dino-Fight Club" that had its headquarters in Animalia. Sherry was employed with the Animalia PD as part of the Rhino Guard, and for the moment Sora, Yuki, Sophie, Roland, JC, and Pauline were in Lyre/Animalia for business or other reasons. But for those that lived outside Glen Rose and were now part of Dino City, they did accept the idea that some of the lack of Dinotopians had more to do with the size that would be required, which Andrew, Jen, Luke, and Marjorie all proved, being large Sauropod Dinotopians. Once Dino City was ready, people would come...
And people did come, though much to the disgruntlement of many of the local Texas, the people that came weren't some paleontologist or Jurassic Park fan. Those people could be tolerated because they played to many of the sort of tropes that many sort of expected out of Animalia, as it were. And Dino City would attract people that had interest in things that came out of the Mesozoic Era, specifically. Instead most turned out to be what they described as "hippies." They weren't necessarily mean or aggressive, but it was pretty clear they weren't the sort that would accept conservative politics all that much and while Norrie was happy to see her own herbal shop get new customers, she did get some requests to try and control them.
"Why are you saying we can't voice our opinion, ma'am?" a young man grumbled, "it's not like I said anything wrong. Just that I think the ranching business has caused more problems than it solves..."
"In a state known for the ranching business," Norrie answered shaking her head.
The man wasn't too bad looked, but he came off pretty hard a pro-vegetarian type that wasn't about to accept a hamburger because of where he lived. In principle that wasn't too bad, and from some of the gossip he'd managed to make a modest impression with Rachel after moving into one of the apartments in Dino City. They'd apparently met the gym and had some conversation that didn't go badly, though there was other gossip that some of his pro-vegetarian views irritated the wrong people, including Heather, Tyra, and Regina. That was ultimately something that was deemed dangerous in angering three Theropod Dinotopians, and one based off of the largest meat eating Dinosaur to ever walk the earth.
"And I have no problem with you wanting to voice your opinion," Norrie told the man, "that's all part of being free... I get that. But you don't want to irritate or insult people either. People... be they Human or Animalian... won't take too kindly to being called dumb for liking meat. And with some Animalians, that's about all they can digest."
"Like who?" the guy asked as he reached over the counter to hand Norrie the money to pay for some of the herbs he was buying.
"Well... like me, for instance," Norrie responded, "I'm an Ornithocheirus Dinotopian... a Pterosaur. And about all I can eat is meat. Fish is the most preferred, but that's not the point. After I became a Dinotopian, I couldn't eat plant matter any more... at least not outside of a select few seasonings and things that would go with the main course."
"Well... I don't intend to be a meat eating Dinotopian," the man said, "I was leaning more toward the only animal known to to have hit another animal in the nuts."
"Hmm?" Norrie wondered.
"There is an Allosaurus skeleton that was found to have a hole in its pelvic bones that isn't a natural part of the bone," the man explained, "when looking at the fossil record, only one natural weapon could have done that... a Stegosaurus's thagomizer. There were others that might have been able to inflict similar injury, but they either lived on different contents or came after Allosaurus went extinct."
"Ah..." Norrie nodded, "Still, better to be nice and not insult people for what they like... you wouldn't want them to insult you, would you?"
"Well, no," the man said slowly, "but a lot of them have done so anyway."
"Does that make calling them dumb in return, right?" Norrie asked calmly.
"Well... no," the man finally admitted and then began to move away, "a nice shop you have here though."
"I am to please and sell things that can help modern medicine," Norrie answered, "as a child of those who were at Woodstock."
"Awesome! My friends and I might come by for some stories!" the guy replied and waived to Norrie as he headed out.
Norrie nodded and accepted the complement and the apparent interest in things the actual hippies of the 1960s did. Of course she also had the sense that many things had moved on from them and wouldn't be easily tolerated. Shoot, even the hippies of the 1960s weren't really tolerated, and her parents had a few arrests on their record for protesting the Vietnam War as well. Hopefully the guy and his friends recognized that there were certain lines not to cross, and that guy in particular had best learn the lesson. For if Dino City's police chief, "Sergeant Slash" or the gym's chief trainer, Mr. M, didn't decide to whip them into shape over things, Rachel could well just pound him if he felt that her interest in boxing and the Dino Fight Club would be a problem. While the guy had his interesting points, but he'd have to manage some things differently. Thankfully, he had plenty of time before August ended and people were worrying about school and other things... Though, Norrie also had to admit she didn't know if the Glen Rose district had plans for in person or remote learning.
"Hopefully he'll do fine," Norrie commented to herself, "him and his friends."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Meanwhile, at Dino City's police station, Police Chief Slash was dealing with one of the particular headaches that came along with the new arrivals. They hadn't converted or done any real property damage in either Glen Rose or Dino City, but that didn't necessarily put an end to some of the irritation that people had with some of the comments and gossip. He was still largely relying on cooperation with the Glen Rose PD for most actions, as they didn't have cars yet for the Dino City force and while he'd gotten a few applications in for the future, he'd also gotten questions as to why the Dino City Police would require conversion as well.
That answer was largely simple, to better cope with the size that most Dinotopians had. When Heather Wilcox had her rampage through Lyre and Animalia, it took a team of converted Rhino Animalians to bring her down, and while that may have been an "isolated occurrence" there was the concern that something like that wouldn't happen again in Dino City. Thus he would need Dinotopian officers to be able respond to any incident where a larger Dinotopian was suspected of causing trouble. It might not be likely, given that Dinotopians did largely behave in the same way the Animalians in Animalia were reported to, but it could never hurt to be prepared. Right now the situation was more with regard to complaints from residents and the Glen Rose officers that were helping him.
"They ain't normal, chief," one of the officers commented, "they come in... go off on their whole mojo and just creep people out. Even in Glen Rose."
The Carcharodontosaurus Dinotopian gave a small chuckle, "technically neither am I or any other Dinotopian... People 'round here will define normal as what things were like before Animalia got started. Now all that is different."
"True, chief, but..." the officer answered with some nervousness in his voice.
"But nothing," Slash gave one low growl, "they may not be quite what was expected... but need I remind you that the state and the city of Glen Rose made the offer to Horizon and Animalia to establish a colony here for Dinotopians. That's what we got now. And while the group we have moving in and settling into town may be "hippies," that isn't a crime in and of itself."
The officers stood by quietly and nodded, though Slash could tell they weren't particularly happy about that. To a certain degree he understood, as he didn't agree with the hippies protesting the Vietnam War and then taking it out on people like him who'd served there and didn't make policy for any of the administrations that were involved in Vietnam, but he had to stay true to his own principles. And if they did damage to property or people, that would warrant action, but voicing opinions, regardless of how uncomfortable they might be wasn't a crime.
"Now... they'll probably have some acclamation classes at the Dino Dome... getting used to new sizes and shapes," Slash then finished, "I'd imagine that Mr. M, Luke, Marjorie, Mario, and Courtney will surely whip them into some shape."
"Working for Horizon teaching civics..." one officer sighed.
"More helping them adjust to the kind of Dinotopian they become," Slash answered, "so that they don't become something big and then find themselves breaking things by accident."
"And your mayor will be doing that too?" the officer asked.
"His will likely be with his wife... whenever they can get around to the wedding," Slash answered, "those details I don't know... 'cuz it ain't my business."