Songkran used to be the Thai New Year, an event that involved pouring water over idols, youths, and elders in a purification ritual. Over the years, the festival became less associated with the New Year as Thailand changed its calendar to match the rest of the world's. Now the water purification ceremony has evolved into a large-scale water fight. Perhaps it was less sanctified than it originally was, but it was fun for everyone.
Heiya Island's Thai community, most of whom had arrived here after being rescued from the slaving ring, brought the Songkran tradition with them. And it wasn't an exaggeration to say that Animalians would look for occasion to celebrate. As such, a huge supply of water balloons and water guns have been procured for a festival in which everyone was going to get very wet.
For some people, the water fight was a lot like a FPS game. Which also included people doing team-ups against other players. For instance, Muxing and Li-Wei were making a rather fine two/three-snake team. Li-Wei were dual-wielding (well, quad-wielding) water pistols which they were using with great effectiveness considering they only had arms for a few weeks now. Muxing was using a more long-distance water gun while occasionally grabbing a water balloon from Li-Wei's double-bandoleer. Between the two/three of them, they had soaked quite a few people.
"We're getting low on ammo," reported Wei, "We need to reload soon."
"Keep your guard up," said Muxing, "There's likely to be an ambush waiting for us."
"I thought reloading stations were supposed to be safe zones," said Li.
"You can never be sure when someone wants to bend the rules," said Muxing.
The vipers approached the reloading station with caution. They should be able to restock on water balloons and refill their water guns without being attacked. It seemed like they were the only ones in the area. However, they hadn't counted for traps that might have been set up near the reloading station. Someone had set up an infrared sensor on the side of a house. And despite being derived from cold-blooded species, reptilian Animalians still produced enough of their own body heat to trigger infrared sensors. When the vipers passed the sensor, the signal was sent up to an automated latch and two buckets were poured down on top of them.
Muxing let out a Cantonese curse as she got soaked. Fortunately, she was just wearing a jade bikini top and a matching sarong so she would be weighed down by soaked clothes. She pulled her wet hair out of her face and wrung it. "I knew there might be an ambush," she growled.
Wei looked at the bucket trap and said, "I'm not sure if it counts as an ambush if there's nobody there. And we're outside of the reloading station."
Muxing took a look at the bucket trap, particularly the infrared sensor. "I wouldn't be surprised if Jinxing set this up," she said, "This seems like the kind of thing she'd do." Then she noticed Li was looking at her, "What?"
"Uh, you look prettier when you're wet," said Li.
Muxing didn't think she could blush, but she felt her face warming up. "Let's stay focused on the fight," she said quickly before looking away. It didn't help that Li-Wei was only wearing that double-bandolier and the sarong. They really needed to design better swimwear for serpents than sarongs. Just because they didn't have legs didn't mean they had to go around half-naked. She self-consciously put an arm over her breasts, hoping her nipples weren't showing through her bikini.
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Though it wasn't active water warfare everywhere on the island. Some people were taking the water pouring ritual in a different direction: a wet T-shirt contest. While Animalians have a higher libido and less modesty than humans, that doesn't make them the sex-driven animals that some people claim they are. Though a wet T-shirt contest was the kind of harmless fun they would go for. It was a bit hard to tell how they would be judged, considering most female Animalians have similarly curvaceous body. But it was the participation they enjoyed more than the rewards. Or in some cases, outdoing a rival.
"You aren't really doing this, are you?" asked Lars.
"Hey, you knew what you were getting into when you proposed to me," said Nicole.
"I'm more concerned that you're competing against your own mother over this," said Philip.
"Why? Do you not think your future wife can't take her?" asked Joanne.
"This is a young woman's game, I've got the edge," said Nicole.
"That's what you said about pole-dancing too," said Joanne.
Nicole thrust out her chest and said, "You don't have a chance, old hag."
Joanne thrust out her own chest so their breasts were pushing against each other. "I'm going to put you in your place, whippersnapper," she said.
Philip and Lars knew there was no real animosity between them anymore. If anything, they were only doing to turn their grooms-to-be on. And it was working. The two foxes hoped no one noticed their trunks bulging.
Morgan scoffed and asked, "How vain and shameless does someone have to be to sign for this stupid contest?"
"Excellent question," said Joanne.
"Let's find out," said Nicole. Before Morgan could respond, the two vixens grabbed her and dragged her off.
"Are you feeling an odd mixture of worry and arousal?" asked Philip.
"Well, she was my wife," said Lars.
"She's also my mother," said Philip.
"Ah, I'm not going to hold anything against you," said Lars.
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Suffice to say, the Great Water Festival was considered a big success and was certainly going to be an annual thing on Heiya Island. It made some people wonder what other Asian celebrations could be incorporated into the Animalian culture here.