The first full week of April was a little unusual because Wednesday greeted Animalia with a heavy rainstorm. While in other places this wasn't too much of a big deal, since Lyre/Animalia was in close proximity to the Mojave Desert, this was considered a big enough deal to warrant a minor celebration, mainly for the amphibian members of Animalia, who did a rain dance to celebrate it. But since spring was a season often associated with growing things and new beginnings, there were a few new things going on, as well as a few things that were considered surprising.
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Miss Fabina was getting a new interview on TV about her "Plastic Recycling" program, though it was a different news station than it was the first time. She seemed alright with answering questions that didn't violate privacy agreements, but when she got three questions in a row about the diet and exercise regime she was implementing with her "girls", she came up with the perfect comeback that "roasted" the interviewer.
"Do you have a specific kind of-" began the interviewer.
"Did you not hear what I said the first few times?" interrupted Miss Fabina, clearly irritated, "Are you planning to spend a few rounds on a stripper pole or what?"
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While the Cherry Blossom Festival on Heiya Island wasn't too different from other places, April 1st marked a more... energetic day during said celebration. Since April Fools Day was associated with pranks, the Japanese decided to show the kinds of pranks they did. While some were interesting variants on common comedy gags, such as cream-loaded cannons being used instead of cream pies, others were considered really unusual, or even cruel at times.
One such prank was the "collective" or "mob prank", where a group of people rush down an alley when the "target" entered said alleyway. One that was worth mentioning that happened during the Cherry Blossom Festival was when someone entered the alley only to find a group of hooligans with bats come walking down the alley. When he turned around to get out of the way, a different group of hooligans had entered the alley from the other end. The prank was that the victim was caught in the middle of a street fight between two gangs who didn't give two hoots about the victim in the middle.
A similar prank was done that involved the themed drinking fountains that appeared to be just naturally occurring springs. Instead of swapping the water with something gross, they just adjusted the water pressure so that the jet of water shot out of the "rock" to a height of seven meters. The best reactions were from those who decided to fight with the jet of water and drink some no matter what happened, leaving them with wet clothes and hair.
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The news that there were a lot more available stallions that originally thought sent a shockwave through Animalia's Mane Eight, since they were too focused on the newest members to notice them. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard to locate them since they all worked at the same location, which was a kind of smithy for creating warfare-grade versions of fictional weapons and armor. Unfortunately, with the 2021 IAC coming up, they were working on weapons for the Comic Convention part, since amateur sports weren't the only thing going on this year this time. Because of that, they were more focused on their work and didn't spend much time socializing with the Mane Eight, much to their frustration, though their level of focus could be considered a kind of prank.
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April also marked the beginning of Mercy's "Criminal Trash Recycling program". Fortunately, most of these were either petty criminals, or saved a guard's life from either different, violent inmates attacking them or severe health problems, so they didn't get Animalia's four-step punishment program. They DID get triple digit hours of community service while being followed around by a vulture Animalian as supervisor, while wearing a GPS tracker anklet, before getting their conversions. While this wasn't directly harmful, it did cause some laughs to those who witnessed them.
One such criminal was doing some weed removal in the grassy fields of Claw Coliseum, while the vulture Animalian maintained a close watch on him, often causing him to turn toward him and yell things like, "Leave me alone! I'm not dead yet!"
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One final funny thing happened during a feminist protest against the Meat Market. After the leader of said protest gave a nearby reporter their reasons for holding their protest, one nearby naturalist was able to debunk her claims with a perfect comeback.
"Some animals put on a display, sometimes females but most of the time males, in order to attract attention from a suitable mate. So why are you so bent out of shape over something that happens in nature all the time?"
That naturalist managed to get the last laugh for this, but someone turned it into a meme where DJ Khalad says, "Congratulations, you played yourself.".
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All together, the first rain of spring marked new beginnings in a lot of ways, both for nature and for Animalia and its colonies.