Watching the Lunar New Year celebrations on television, Barb was able to relax and enjoy many of the festivities that went on with it, though this year was different from earlier years. In previous years when she was able to watch the televised events from Animalia she had been Human and often hiding or withdrawn given the amount of "plastic" put in her by her previous employer. Thus despite the claim that it was to be a celebration, Barb hadn't felt much like celebrating back then. Now, though, things were different, for she was Animalian and all the artificial enhancements were gone.
Of course, as an Animalian she was about as curvy as she was in the past, but now it was all natural. Her musculature also seemed to be better adapted to cope with shape and contours of her body, which was a plus, and gave her a bit more confidence to share and show her interest in other things. In this, becoming an Animalian had allowed for a rebirth for her in nearly every way, which made watching the Lunar New Year celebrations more of a celebration than it was in years past. It also let her have added reason to donate for the proceeds that were going into the "bets" being placed on which bovine Animalian would win and that the winnings would help those in Texas after all they'd been through, and Barb was supportive of that.
She knew that Quetzal had moved down to Dino City and became a Quetzalcoatlus Dinotopian and had been training for a flight around the world, though was mostly just learning how to fly at the moment. And from the calls she'd gotten, it appeared that over the course of that cold snap, Quetzal's flying lessons were cancelled/postponed as her teacher was essentially sheltering in her SMU dorm while Quetzal was in Dino City. Neither had had the worst of the problems that had been reported, but power loss and staying warm were issues that troubled the state and there seemed to be a great many efforts to try and raise money for those in Texas that needed the help. From what Quetzal had also reported, one of them had also been a sort of bachelor/bachelorette auction to raise money which Quetzal got into.
"Of course... I may not need that," Barb thought to herself, "though... Amos might still take a bit of work..."
With that her mind drifted back to her first meeting with the male Texas Horned Lizard Animalian...
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It ultimately wasn't too hard to find the apartment that Amos was staying in, as the male Texas Horned Lizard Animalian had gotten a fair amount of attention as part of Project White Lilly and the fact that he was involved in many of the body building competitions that Animalia had supported before the pandemic hit. And programs like Animalia Ambassadoria had also publicized certain apartments that were built in Animalia for those that were based on cold blooded animals and thus keeping them active at times of the year in northern Nevada when it was otherwise cold. Barb had even moved into one of the apartments, and from there it was easy to find the apartment that Amos was staying in and she went to his door at a time she was pretty sure he would be home.
He was home, and when Amos opened the door, Barb had to smile underneath her mask. She had gained a fair bit of muscle in her conversion, but Amos was far more muscular and that added to the sort of defensive impressiveness that came with the spines and spikes that the Texas Horned Lizard was known for. In this, Amos was very much someone that Barb would be interested in, though, since this was their first meeting there was also some measure of nervousness that was also there.
"Hello... is there something I could help you with, miss?" Amos began his voice falling off at the end.
"You can call me Barb," Barb introduced herself and offered her hand, "I'm one of the group of "plastic girls" that Miss Fabina has helped sponsor for conversion and recovery..."
Amos pounded one fist into the palm of his other hand, "Yes... I'd seen about you and your friends on either Animalia Ambassadoria or in one of the other listed publications that Horizon has sponsored. Recovering from all that abuse in the past... it must have been rough."
"Some things weren't too bad," Barb answered, "and as you can see... converting has given me proportions pretty similar to what I'd had before. Only now it's real and not fake. I'm better balanced than before..."
"And you picked a mighty fine Animalian to become," Amos answered with a nod, "tough and has a great natural defense."
"The spines are something," Barb nodded, "though that wasn't something I was thinking of with regard to defense."
"Well... I've yet to run into anything that would require spraying blood at an attack," Amos answered.
"Eww," Barb answered, "I'm not talking about that... more certain preferences that I have..."
This made Amos blink as Barb watched him as they conversed in the doorway to his apartment. Bard stood nervously and wondered if this might have been a slip of the tongue that wasn't going to end well.
"This isn't a sexual thing, is it?" Amos asked.
"Not on a first meeting," Barb promised, "though... maybe when we get to know each other better... that could come into play. But I'd figured that since you're a Texas Horned Lizard Animalian and I've become a Texas Horned Lizard Animalian... we could meet and get to know each other."
"That I can do..." Amos nodded happily and the two shook hands.
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And some of the following dates proved to be fairly effective in letting them learn more about each other. Of course some of that created its own issues, namely in that Barb was into having a more dominant role in sex than what Amos was probably used to. But it wasn't as though she got her kicks out of torturing her partner and to a degree Barb felt some of Amos's surprise was a bit overly dramatic. After all, a lot of his professional career revolved around the phrase "no pain no gain." She figured he could handle what she liked, though it had also seemed fairly clear that would take some work to work.
"But he hasn't run off screaming yet," Barb thought to herself as she watched the races in the final round of the Lunar New Year celebration begin, "So there's progress there..."
Though she also knew that this progress wouldn't easily lead to anything more than that. It was pretty clear that Amos wasn't the sort that was into the sort of things that Barb was into. A part of her knew she might have to make compromises of her own, as if her only choice in a mate was for someone that would be submissive to her and would actually get a kick out of some of her own interests, she might be setting herself up for different problems. But at the same time she was sure that Amos could also afford to make similar compromises and in keeping with the advice that Quetzal and Holly gave her about forcing Amos into anything. How well things progressed from there was yet to be seen.
"Though hopefully by the summer when everything better... Amos and I will be closer, and we can visit Quetzal with Holly," Barb mused as she she watched, "congratulate her on flying around the world... or that she'd found a loving mate in this auction that was being put on to help the people in Texas recover from all the cold they've had recently..."