While everyone had been shaken up by the news of Russia invading Ukrane, with some fearing it would lead to a new Cold War (or worse, WWIII), in any time of trouble, life must go on. This was especially true in Animalia and its colonies, since it was generally accepted that it simply wasn't possible to use Animalians as "super soldiers", mainly because of how everything would have to be custom made for Animalians, which would become quite expensive over time. However, there were a few unusual things that were "out-of-the-box", mainly because of what they were and where they happened.
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One of the best examples of this was "Bull" (his nickname on the internet), and the owner of the restaurant he accidently trashed before he was uplifted.
After "Bull" had begun waiting on tables at the restaurant, said restaurant suddenly became a lot more popular/busy, mainly with women who wanted to take pictures with "Bull" for their social media accounts. The end result was that, not only had the restaurant gained enough money to cover "Bull's" damages, but also have plenty left over.
However, it was precisely because of this extra money that the restaurant owner, his family, his restaurant workers, and "Bull" suddenly turned up on Heiya Island. While Ammy was more than willing to let them start over, the reason why wasn't so clear. What Ammy was willing to share with the media (again, as filtered by the PR-MD office) was that, because of his newfound wealth, the restaurant owner had an unfortunate encounter with "organized crime". This led to all kinds of internet rumors and gossip, ranging from an encounter with the Triad Society, to an argument over "protection payment" with the Yakuza, and even (the wildest theory) a Chinese Military "press gang", even though China made it clear that it had done no such thing.
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For something a little less bleak, something new was beginning in Dino City. After an agreement on Dinotopian Porn had finally been reached, Mr. M. had gotten in touch with some of his old friends from his "internet days". Not only were the eight new converts equally divided among male and female, but they were also porn stars from the era of 1990s internet porn. Of course, nowadays they were a lot weaker/smaller due to age (and the females either getting their implants removed or reductions), but Mr. M. was able to get them Dinotopian conversions, with two males and two females being "predator" Dinotopians, and the others being "prey".
While William Tarr made it clear that he wouldn't oppose their conversions, they would have to travel to Lyre/Animalia to do any porn shoots. Mr. M. didn't mind this condition because he'd been working on several scripts for Dinotopian Porn and was finally ready to work on them.
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What was probably the most relevant to what was going on was the coverage of the Year of the Tiger Competition. While everyone who was watching the competition on the website was able to have color commentary from English-speaking commentators, there was also the option to have Japanese commentary. What was probably the most surprising was the simple fact that Shelly and Tuxing had fought to a draw, which would mean that the Mountain of the Zodiac race was going to be the tightest so far.