The summer heat provided plenty of frustration for those that were in warmer states like Texas. The state and its power grid had been taxed by issues in which the heat was overpowering the power grid, which then left just about everyone sweltering in the heat and looking for ways to stay cool. Some of it was just to stay low key, and to a degree, this was something that Mr. M's friends, Quintus, Victor, Paula, Ulysses, Stella, and Selena enjoyed during their off hours.
"Things seemed to go well for you," Mr. M commented as they sat down for dinner in his home, which was rather varied as he and some of his friends were strict carnivores while the others were herbivores, but they'd all managed.
"It's taken some work," Ulysses admitted, "but some of this heat has offered opportunities get it."
"Go ahead and tell us about it," Stella urged and the male Spinosaurus Dinotopian began to recount...
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The pool at the Dino Dome carried the scent of Chlorine as Ulysses entered, but then, Dino City had no Fish Animalians and with it living close in with the Humans of Glen Rose and the surrounding area. This raised the need to keep the water clean and having some Chlorine in the water was a way to do that. However, with a lot of fierce June heat, Ulysses really didn't care too much about that. A swim would actually do a lot to help with that, and thus his wearing a pair of swim trunks. Though as he looked out across the pool, he noted that he wasn't the only one to have the idea as floating in the deep end of the pool was the female Spinosaurus Dinotopian he'd heard about, Regina. Working up his courage, Ulysses moved down the stairs and feeling a bit more comfortable as he felt water touched his scaly skin.
Regina did note his arrival as he began to swim toward her, but by not deciding to leave the pool, Ulysses figured he might have a shot to at least introduce himself. The swim didn't take long, and Ulysses found that he could still use many of the swimming strokes he'd learned when he first learned to swim. Though, he also noted that in the back of his mind was the idea and desire to simply shake his tail and propel himself forward that way. He wondered if this was actual instinct or just remembering over recent analysis papers that were part of the papers and documents to be studied before converting. Ulysses was quite pleased when he arrived to find that Regina had not left the pool.
"Hey," Ulysses began, "you came to beat the heat too?"
"No, I'm mostly training," Regina said slowly, "and you are..."
"You can call me Ulysses," Ulysses introduced himself and forgetting his last name for the moment as he bobbed in the water in front of Regina, "I'm a friend of Mr. M's and am just here to cool off from the heat."
"Well, it is summer in Texas," Regina gave a chuckling answer, "you say Mr. M's friends... you're not..."
"Well, I am," Ulysses admitted, "but none of this was pull anything stupid. Just to be polite and friendly... and I guess... socialize. If you don't want to do porn... that's perfectly fine."
"Good that's understood," Regina answered.
"So... you said you're here for training," Ulysses began, "I didn't think the Dino Fight Club would have had water matches..."
"Well, they probably won't," Regina replied, "unless some of the aquatic Dinotopians have their matches. This is more to help build endurance by swimming."
"Care to race?" Ulysses offered, "it might help you... and to a degree, I'm a bit eager to see how much the tail can help with swimming given what's been posted on Spinosaurus in the past few years."
"Sure," Regina accepted it, "I might even get you into a better line of work. One that's more exciting."
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"And from there, things worked out rather well," Ulysses said with a smile, "there's no formal boyfriend/girlfriend or bond-mate thing... but she can be remarkably tolerant and friendly in conversation. And I think I owe her for her beating me in the races."
Mr. M laughed a bit at that. While he wasn’t involved in the Dino Fight Club, his work as a personal trainer in Dino City had helped with a lot of that program and some basic strength building and other related classes did come to him and those participating in the combat sports league came to him for it. From there, they would go on to those that helped run the league for actual training and getting matches set up when they had enough contestants for there to be a league. Though given the ratings that the UFC-A got with the regular Animalian bouts in addition to UFC fights between Human fighters, Mr. M figured that the Dino Fight Club would have plenty of ratings as well. That would then give someone like Regina who had been training hard an advantage over Ulysses only just become a Dinotopian.
"Though, it would seem like she wouldn't be interested in being in any films," Paula commented.
"Probably not," Ulysses admitted, "but if things do become romantic... she might be worth not doing films."
There were some nods there. Romance wasn't something that often worked with the adult entertainment industry, but Mr. M also knew that love and romance were things anyone could find, and people could make a lot of changes in its name. Tyra and Andrew had both been involved with the Meat Market before Dino City was established and both had settled into more domestic roles in Dino City. They had their work with the town's "nightclub," but it was more of a high-end club for drinks, dancing, and listening to music. And as with many businesses in Dino City, often adding in some "education" on the prehistoric past in a way that came from firsthand experience. It wasn't like the Meat Market in any way, but it did do decent business and showed on how people could adapt. His friends may have converted as part of ideas that related to certain compromises Dino City's city government had made, but they might have to make the same sorts of compromises that others had made before them. Compromises and changes that even Mister M had made.
"Some seem more curious about things than others," Selena commented, "and in a way it's cute..."
"Tell us about it," Victor urged.
"Okay," Selena began...
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"And people actually earn a living through this?" Compy asked to Selena at the restaurant where he worked.
It was relative nice-looking diner and served sandwiches and meals that Human tourists could eat while things that were more species specific since most Dinotopians weren't going to have that omnivorous diet that Humans did. Selena had also found that some meats weren't necessarily good to order, or at least weren't good here. She'd been thinking of having some chicken for lunch, but then thought better of it when noting the features Compy retained that indicated his past as a mundane chicken, so she'd ordered some of the pork instead. That then let them get to chatting while Compy manned the counter.
"They can... though as with all things in "entertainment" the earnings then depend on how much people buy the videos or subscribe to the web page," Selena gave a small smile, "but it's a way enjoy some of the funner things in life that would go beyond what Lyre's Meat Market has."
"Wouldn't it get boring after a while?" Compy asked, "particularly if it's not with a romantic partner."
"Maybe," Selena shrugged, "but it could go a long way to attracting a romantic partner."
She then winked which caught Compy's attention. He blinked and then nodded.
"Sounds like trying to impress the hens," Compy answered.
"Hens?" Selena wondered and tilted her head.
Compy pointed to the comb on his head, something that Selena lacked, "I was once an ordinary rooster. A mundane chicken. But as Horizon moved into seen whether or not they could "convert" a bird into a Dinotopian, that was where I came in."
"Must have meant a lot of changes," Selena commented.
"It did," Compy replied, "mostly in diet, but things worked out fine. The biggest issue is that many who learn that I am an uplifted chicken to Compsognathus Dinotopian, they ask me about what it was like laying eggs... But I wouldn't know. Only the HENS lay eggs. I was a rooster. I'm not sure what one would call a male Compsognathus."
"Handsome," Selena said without thing.
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"And naturally I was blushing under my feathers as several of the other costumers got interested in the conversation and a guy from the kitchen then reminded Compy that he had work to do," Selena finished.
There were a few chuckles from the others. Selena still wanted to blush at it, as she really hadn't set out to meet Compy or anything like that. It was by pure chance that she'd run into him, and then couldn't help herself but feel attracted. He did look reasonably strong and was closer to her size than the others. It was one of the things that she'd found in becoming a Compsognathus Dinotopian in that in terms of her size she wasn't too different from her Human size. She was a bit taller and a little bit heavier, but that was all due to longer feet and the tail she carried behind her. She didn't "bulk up" in muscle mass in even the way that Paula and Stella had. Though, some of that also played out well in that she could manipulate more things scaled for Humans than the others did.
"Surely I'm not the only one to have run into things that are embarrassing," Selena commented, noting the laughs at her expense.
"Well, we've had some," Quintus admitted, "though, not with regard to admitting to being attracted to someone you just met."
"Well, go ahead," Selena gave a wave of her arm, "You guys had fun laughing at me. It's only fair..."
"Alright," Quintus said slowly, "though mine would relate more to size than anything else. The things in my apartment are all scaled up and they work fine... but there are some places that couldn't be scaled up to Dinotopian sizes..."
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The wheels for the shopping cart squeaked a little bit and Quintus maneuvered through the grocery store in Glen Rose, largely due to the fact that when Dino City was built up, it was built up to provide residential areas and the school buildings for the Dinotopians along with the facilities that Horizon and many of the first Dinotopians moving in said they wanted. That did not include a grocery given the assumption that the grocery in Glen Rose would have enough room for them, and to a great degree, it did in terms of its food stocks, but Quintus had noted that there were things they couldn't do. The grocery had done a lot to make entering and exiting easier for Dinotopians, and Quintus was impressed with that, but they couldn't do the same with the carts or the food packaging.
This in turn left Quintus having use a set of tools that Andrew, Jen, Luke, and Marjorie had all figured out that Sauropod Dinotopians needed. They fit to make up for the reduced dexterity they had as Dinotopians as their enlarged size and muscles made manipulating things sized for humans more difficult. The tools developed did a lot, and Quintus was happy to use them, but the store's clerks always had to check them to make sure they weren't something the store carried themselves. Quintus accepted that and made his way to the bread and vegetable aisles. These then presented its own issues as he went about his shopping as he had to fit his body and tail inside the aisles, which didn't always work, as he found when he went to get some wheat bread from a lower shelf.
"YEEEEOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH!" Quintus gave a pained cry as a cart hit his tail, rolled up it and then crashed onto the ground when he flexed the appendage in pain, nocking his own cart sideways and having hit the wall bakery display making the muffins there bounce a bit from the impact.
The impact was then accompanied by the wails of a screaming child, who when Quintus turned his head was found lying chest down on the floor behind the cart. His mother was rushing up behind him in a Texas Rangers tank top and shorts. There were others looking to them.
"Brandon!" the mother spoke in a voice that sounded like she didn't know whether to comfort the pained child, who'd likely be running to push the cart and likely hit the cart face first when toppled off its wheels. The boy's cries seemed to slow down a bit as his mother reached him. "This is why I said NOT to run!"
"But I wanted donuts!" the boy cried.
The boy, Brandon managed to get to his feet but then looked up in shame at his mother.
"And in your rush, you've made a mess and hit this Brontosaurus," the mother spoke.
"Apatosaurus," Quintus corrected, "and I may have taken up a bit too much of the aisle."
"That wouldn't excuse running ahead with no control," the mother answered, and then sighed, "I can only hope the jelly and jam jars didn't break."
"I didn't see anything spilled," Quintus offered, "let me help..."
He was able to right the cart, and thankfully nothing was broken, which came as a relief to the mother, and even to some of the store's staff as they came to investigate Quintus' cry of pain.
"Thank you," the mother spoke to Quintus and then to the boy, "Brandon, just wait until we get home."
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"I ended up having to head out shortly after that and didn't get all my shopping done," Quintus answered, "I'm not even sure on where the mother and son went."
"I think we've had that sort of thing happen," Paula commented, "I went to grab a plastic container of salad... and the box just seemed to pop. I didn't even think I'd squeezed it that hard."
"Sounds like when I'd skewered the plastic wrapping on some steaks," Stella laughed and held up a clawed hand, "you didn't get in trouble?"
"Not really," Paula answered, "I did have to buy the salad though..."
"It was good right?" Victor asked.
"Yeah," Paula finished.
"Then that's all that matters," Mr. M assured his friends.