The final week before Christmas was when the prep was entering into high gear, though for Lyre/Animalia and its colonies, it wasn't just Christmas goodies and/or presents that people were getting ready for.
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One of the biggest "dramas" that everyone was willing to take part in was the Great Snow War. After a "reenactment" of the infamous assassination that ignited WWI, everyone was soon in 'trench snow warfare'. Since there were snowmaking machines available, it wasn't too hard to create the trenches, as well as "ammunition" for the "machine guns" and "heavy artillery".
There was at least one Animalia Ambassadoria reporter acting as a "war correspondent", which resulted in a few amusing things. One such correspondent was covering one of the skirmishes when they got caught in a spray of "collateral snow" when a large, "mortar", snowball landed a few feet behind them.
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Of course, it wasn't just the Great Snow War that was going on. There were quite a few Animalians who were still dating humans, and they were planning on getting them their conversions (and in some cases, double dosing) as a Christmas gift. This would involve either Christmas-themed lingerie, for girls, or "posing outfits", for guys. In the guys' case, the posing outfits were little less than "festive" leather straps and matching-themed g-strings.
"So, Mercy," said Miss Vivian, as she was checking out. "This is going to be the Christmas Zach 'crosses over', right?"
"It sure is." confirmed Mercy, "I just hope Zach's big brother, Mark, won't make things too embarrassing for him."
"How so?" asked Miss Vivian, getting something ready for her.
"Ever since we started dating, he's been relentlessly teasing him about it." replied Mercy, shaking her head somewhat. "From quoting old sitcoms to the old-fashioned 'Zach's got a girlfriend' chant."
"Don't worry about it." said Miss Vivian, tossing a 'naughty stocking' (basically a stocking-shaped mesh bag filled with genuine anthracite coal) on top of Mercy's purchases, much to Mercy's embarrassment and everyone else's amusement. "This should help deflect some embarrassment away from him."
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Another thing that was going on was the return of college students to be with family. One thing that resulted, that was mainly associated with Animalians, was being introduced to new members of family. While most of the new family members were born the year before, Abby's family was "expanded" by the new stallion Animalian farmhands. While Abby had laughed about her mother being 'tempted', once she got a good look at them, she was also feeling 'tempted', though she was still determined to marry Samson once college was done.
Samson, on the other hand, was taking a more pragmatic interest in the new stallions. While they might have been different breeds of horse, they were all rather well built. In fact, they were only slightly smaller in both height and build. While he had heard that the mares on the farm had been 'tempted', he didn't have to worry about losing Abby, since Animalia's Edicts allowed a small amount of freedom, and they were more focused on helping Sylvia anyway.
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Finally, Polly was getting one last Skype in before flying to Dallas to meet Jeremy, Heather, and their children. While she was still uncertain who was who, she was glad when she learned that she now had a nephew and niece, even if she still felt too young to be an aunt. When they began calling for her flight, she closed the link and made her way over to the gate her flight was at.