Living in Dinosaur City comes with its own complications, and not just because of how Dinotopians tended to be much bigger than humans. Some of these complications are perfectly mundane, such as getting things ready for Halloween. The general idea for this year's event was decided upon. Since their first big appearance in movies, raptors and dromaeosaurs have captured the public imagination of the ultimate pack hunters. Like large, reptilian wolves, they hunted in organized groups, one member keeping a prey's attention while another goes in for the kill. This year's Halloween event will be featuring a raptor hunt like this, with visitors being 'hunted' by raptor Animalians.
Of course, considering how many visitors there were likely to be for Halloween, there might not be enough raptor Animalians currently in residence. As such, there was a small recruitment drive going on to secure enough people wanting to become raptors. If necessary, it was possible to reverse-evolve birds into raptor Animalians. Though considering the raptors' popularity, it wouldn't be hard to find people who'd want to join.
This has become a little bit of a hassle for Dinotopia's newest dromaeosaur species. It wasn't that Dakota and Harper wanted to be the only Dakotaraptors. It was more the fact that they were currently the only hermaphrodite Dinotopians. It wasn't much of a secret that the herm Animalians who reside in Lyre live a rather poly-amorous life with other herms of their particular species. Since Dakota had originally been an osprey and carried over hir monogamous mating instincts, neither shi nor Harper were interested in including other people in their mating bond.
Fortunately, there weren't as many people clamoring to become herm Dakotaraptors like they expected. It was possible to make other Dakotaraptors without having them be herms. And people seemed more interested in becoming herm variants of other Dinotopians. That decreased the hassle dramatically. But there were still a few people who were considering. Which meant Dakota and Harper would need to look them over and consider who would make the best pairings.
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"I don't see why we have to be the one to do this," complained Dakota, "Don't they have other people for this kind of thing?"
"It's not about who would make the best Dakotaraptors," said Harper, "It's who would make the best Dakotaraptor herm couple."
"Oh, that's easy. It's us," said Dakota.
"Cute," said Harper, "But we do need to figure out which of these new applicants would be better suited as a couple after a conversion."
"Again, aren't there other people who can handle that?" asked Dakota.
"They seem to think we'd be the best judges for it," said Harper.
"Well, I want to hurry this up so we can go back to making our own clutch of eggs," said Dakota.
Harper raised an eyebrow and asked, "Eager to be a mother already?"
"Perhaps..." said Dakota in a flirty tone. It had certainly been the first thing on hir mind after shi was made into a Dinotopian and while shi was converting Harper. But as shi spent more time as a herm, shi began fantasizing about filling up Harper with hir own eggs. Dakota wanted to be a mother hirself, but shi wouldn't mind being the father of one clutch.
"Work first, play later," said Harper. Dakota could smell some arousal coming off hir mate.
Dakota looked over some of the papers they did about the applicants. At least it didn't take Dakota very long to learn how to read and write. The Animalian virus certainly sped up the basic learning process, though writing with these claws took some effort at first. "Remind me, was Alex a boy or a girl?" asked Dakota. Shi recalled that particular human being rather either a very effeminate boy or an androgynous girl.
"Well, she was preferring to call herself 'Alexia', so I suppose she was a girl," said Harper before sounding uncertain, "Or at least wanting to be one."
"Well, in either case, I think she would be best with Natalie," said Dakota.
"What makes you say that?" asked Harper.
"Because Natalie has the 'take-charge' attitude that someone like Alexia needs," said Dakota, "Sometimes the best way to find confidence is in the confidence of others."
"Where did you pick that up?" asked Harper.
"A little from you," said Dakota, "You still believed in me even though I had crippled wings."
"And what about Natalie?" asked Harper.
"She definitely has the spirit of a raptor," said Dakota, "And she's looking to prove she's more than just a woman. I see good potential in her."
"Well, they may be our most likeliest candidates to become herm raptors," said Harper, "Of course, we'll have to check if they're-"
"We matched them up. Let's convert them and get them over with," said Dakota bluntly.
"Not the patient sort, are you?" asked Harper.
"What do I look like? A vulture?" asked Dakota.