As October began, minds were turning towards Halloween and the myriad ways of celebrating it. Animalia's Spookyville tradition was one that everyone was looking forward to, especially since the pandemic had ebbed a lot since last year. Everyone was thinking of new ways of how to spice Halloween this year to make up for what they missed last year. And perhaps it was because of the recent surge of interest in hermaphrodites, but they seemed to be popping up in recent news as well.
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Americanized holidays like Halloween are still relatively recent in acceptance in the Far East, namely Japan. But Heiya Island was preparing to join in the festivities, especially with the popularity of the Hall of Yokai. The island inhabitants were still in a festive mood from the Moon Festival a few weeks back and they were looking for a reason to party.
Speaking of which, there will be a new arrival on the island who might cause a bit of a stir. One of the people who converted into a herm tanuki during the Bachelor/Bachelorette Auction was moving to Heiya Island to stay. Not a lot of information about this particular tanuki was available, but shi was already getting a reputation as a party animal. Of course, this caused a few tongues to waggle, like the possibility of herm kitsune in the future. It wasn't meant to be taken literally, though the idea of herm todd/vixens did entice a few people. Of course, this was very presumptive all around, as they didn't even know all of the herm tanuki's intentions yet. Though a common comment about their impending arrival was 'hide the sake'.
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Dinosaur City was also getting ready for Halloween, though they were being cautious. While over half the population in Texas is fully vaccinated now, there are still more than enough people for COVID variants to spread around and potentially mutate into deadlier strains. To be fair, this was about average among the states and some states are further behind in their inoculation rates. As such, masks were meant for more than just costumes.
One of the more popular ideas for Dino City's Spookyville is an extensive raptor hunt. That is, raptors hunting people, not people hunting raptors. However, that may require a greater amount of dromaeosaurs than Dinotopia currently has. Fortunately, there were still plenty of people wanting to become raptors. Specifically, they wanted to become herm Dakotaraptors like Dakota and Harper. Though there was some question about dinosaur monogamy, there were plenty enough osprey instincts in both of them that they weren't looking for an open relationship. So any potential new herm raptors would have carefully interviewed to see if they were willing wanting to go herm and then paired up with another new raptor.
Of course, since a herm gene was now available for Dinotopains, there was going to be some demand for other variants. It may come as a surprise that Syntixisaurus rex was one of the common choices. There may be a few reasons behind that. For one, a hybrid dinosaur like Syntixisaurus may make sense to hermaphrodize. Another reason is that people may want the tyrannosaurid look, bu they may want to avoid the feathery look that tyrannosaurus Animalians have. There was little denying that Heather and Jeremy Green's popularity affected the demand for Syntixisaurus herms. Though those two would probably not be heavily involved with new converts of their species, considering Heather and Tyra's eggs had hatched last month and they were busy with their new hatchlings.
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In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, the Abyssus division of Animalia Aquatica was looking to expand its roster. There was a surprisingly large variety of deep-sea fish to potentially uplift. Though some might be unsuitable. For instance, the giant oarfish might simply be too large to make into an Animalian, the same way whales and whale sharks have not been made into Animalians. But such a wide variety made it hard to choose which fish.
A surprising suggestion was the deep-sea lizardfish. It was a bit hard to say this particular fish was suggested. Perhaps part of the reason is its interesting appearance. Another possibility is its strong resemblance to a fish that had a small but significant part in the final episode of a cartoon. Though upon further study, another good reason was found. The deep-sea lizardfish is a natural hermaphrodite, which is an understandable adaptation to living in the dark depths were finding another lizardfish to mate with can be difficult. Finding a lizardfish down in the depths will be difficult, but there is sure to be a new type of Animalian well in time for Spookyville.