The "remodeling" that was going on in Animalia was progressing well as far as things go. One of the most anticipated renovations was the updated weight room at Claw Coliseum. While the newer, heavier weights were good, the most anticipated thing was the larger sized weight rooms. These larger rooms would allow small groups to use the weights, but there were still restrictions in place on how many Animalians were in these rooms. The Animalians, however, were glad for these new weight rooms. Even if they had to do their workouts in "shifts", it was still a good thing to have their workouts back.
There was still some other things going on, some of which involved new members, others involved other things involving established members.
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"So these two are sponsored by Countess Irena?" asked one Horizon Agent, looking over the two latest applicants.
"Indeed," said a second, "Apparently an internet video of Irena dancing to Shakira's Hips Don't Lie is having unintended consequences, alongside generating more than one million views."
"At least these are the 'unintended' consequences that are mostly harmless." said the first.
"Right." said the second, focusing on the new applicants. "So, Milla V. is joining because she wants to tackle 'social media addiction'?"
"Can't say I blame her for wanting to do that." said the first. "Social media obsession has lead to a rise in utterly idiotic, easily avoidable deaths."
"Though why she's applying with the Kat's Klub I don't know." said the second, turning to the next applicant. "This next one, Gloria von Something-I-can't-pronounce, is apparently a really good theater actor."
"I actually had to look her up." said the first. "She apparently won the highest award an actress can receive in theater."
"But apparently this kind of life took a toll on her sanity, which wasn't helped by her mother's suicide shortly after her winning that award, and she's joining to control her mood swings." said the first, shaking his head.
"We'll put her down as a 'maybe' for Project Phoenix." said the second.
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The official confirmation of a smaller, yet similar to the first one, human trafficking ring involving guys was a bit of a shocker, but not enough due to the more important news in the wider world. Fortunately, the rescue of the guys helped blunt the reputation of Heiya Island as an unofficial "girl's dormitory" colony.
Thanks to the PR-MD, there was some official news that helped debunk some of the wild internet rumors. According to the official reports, there had been fifty guys rescued from the ring and sent to Heiya Island. Tsukuyomi had also taken them under his wing, metaphorically speaking, but there was nothing going on that the internet rumors were suggesting, such as mass orgies, but the influx of "new guys" were encouraging many of the girls to consider conversion.
Probably what was generating the most news, in terms of Animalians, was Mai. Her desire to be more like her personal heroes had turned her into a kind of unofficial "security guard"/"superhero" for Heiya Island, but as one internet influencer commented 'her heart's in the right place, but she needs to work on her execution'. Whether that was an insult or compliment was unknown, since she was having a lot of mixed results with her "crimefighting".
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There was also some minor news from Vilcabamba, mainly from Ollie and Leslie's visit to Vilcabamba. Word of the strange footprints that had been found nearby, and the story of "El Jichi" had circulated quite a bit by this time, and hotel/colony was being swarmed (metaphorically speaking) by a new kind of tourist. Cryptozoologists and conspiracy theorists had begun visiting the hotel alongside the archaeologists who were more interested in the ancient burial ground. The staff of the hotel didn't really mind, since "El Jichi"'s supposed appearance did well as a kind of "advertising" for the hotel/colony, even though some of the people there tended to be quite annoying with their "theories" on what could have created the unusual footprints and who El Jichi was.