Valentine's Day in Animalia was considered one of the more amusing days to Animalians, mainly because of all the ways that guys and girls trying to impress bondmates and failing, sometimes miserably. But what made it a little different this year was the Animalian-friendly chocolate made out of carob, thereby opening a new world of flavors for Animalians. It also had a side effect of "candy consumption contests", where competitors try to eat as much Valentine's Day candy as possible, which showed how, no matter what was or wasn't in candy, you can still eat too much and throw up.
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There was also a surge in Valentine's Day-themed lingerie, which was also causing some rather amusing photos to appear on the website. While the photos of the lingerie itself weren't showed, they did show the reactions to the person wearing them. For instance, one of the all time best photos was of Henry's reaction to Beatrice wearing a set she preordered before their first date on Mieni. The picture of his jaw-drop, eye-pop reaction would inevitably get made into a meme about surprised reactions, but Beatrice's intention was only about enjoying their date, not internet fame.
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But this year was seemingly about plans that really didn't go, and/or turn out, as expected. Case in point, Nicole's romancing of Philip's father Lars. After his conversion into a "fellow" fennec fox Animalian, his personality had shifted somewhat toward "frat boy". Not only had he bought some new clothes which he said would 'drive Nicole wild', he had also gotten some tattoos as well as nipple piercings and a newly styled hairdo, much to both Philip's and Nicole's surprise, though Philip's reaction was the only reaction of surprise that could be considered reasonable. Some were even considering that Lars might have RHS, so it was decided to keep an eye on him. Of course, Lars had gotten in contact with a few of his "frat bros" from college and some had decided to accept his sponsorship for conversion. This did cause a few side effects.
"Hello, girls." said the PR-MD agent sent to Animalia's 'Mane Six-and-One', as their little club was now unofficially known.
"Yes?" asked Mary-Anne, wearing a bathrobe to answer the door since Valentine's Day-themed lingerie wasn't really something you could wear in public.
"You might have heard that our newest member, Lars, is sponsoring a few men who went to the same fraternity he did while he was in college." said the Agent.
"Yeah, I have heard that." said Mary-Anne, having seen and heard a thing or two.
"Well, one of those has placed a 'preorder' horse Animalian." finished the Agent.
"Wha...?!" gasped Mary-Anne, and everyone else in the group apartment immediately began listening in.
"We don't have enough information on him yet, so we'll let you know when he's converted so you know what to look for." replied the Agent.
"...good to know..." said Mary-Anne, her mixed emotions and rising 'heat' were causing her to sweat quite a bit.
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Another plan that didn't go as expected was actually an attempt at bullying by some high school senior girls from out of town. They had targeted one of the local shy girls in their school, nicknamed 'Becka', and gotten her a conversion for a double-dosed, four-armed, cobra woman as an attempt at a laugh at her expense. But their chortles soon turned to gasps of astonishment as 'Becka' came out with both champion-level bodybuilder muscles, supermodel-level curves, and a previously unheard of level of confidence. While the school 'Becka' went to had disciplined the group of girls for their attempt at bullying, they did allow 'Becka' to get transferred to WSA. Because of her new levels of confidence, she decided to start dancing one every two weeks at the Meat Market and was allowed, since she was officially registered as a double-doser. Miles' interview with her during Animalia Ambassadoria's coverage of Animalia's Lunar New Year showed that he was visibly nervous in her presence, though that was chalked up to a "predator/prey" thing more than anything else.
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Speaking of the Meat Market, Valentine's Day was also the official opening of the newly remodeled Meat Market. While overall it wasn't too different from the original plan, the larger sizes of both the bar, the dancing stage, and the 'Lover's Nests' meant that larger shows overall could be done. What wasn't shown was the official porn video recording studios, which was actually only accessible to Miss Fabina and her "Courtesan's Guild". Miss Fabina was the most pleased for this since it was getting a little more difficult to record actual porn videos for the premium part of the website, not due to cost or restrictions but due to the difficulty in finding available locations. One of the very first porn videos recorded in the new studio was actually Leila showing off what she learned in belly-dancing class for Roger and Dan.
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There were also some Valentine's Day Parties that were quite a bit quieter than the raucous one at the Meat Market. For Example, Milla V. had done an "initiation" (which was more like a 3-girl/2-man orgy) into the Kat's Klub 'inner circle' with Ella and Simone. During which, she was able to talk more about her idea about ending social media addiction as well as her conversion.
Apparently, once the pandemic was over, she was planning on having a party that was about taking the 'media' out of socializing, and thus involved having everyone at the party hand over their internet-connected devices before entering the party, and only having them returned once they left or the party was over. While both Ella and Simone liked the idea, it still needed some refinement. Fortunately, the decision to wait until the pandemic was over was enough time to refine the idea.