Sometimes birthday surprises are good, sometimes they're not so good. These next few surprises could be considered a mixed bag of the two, depending on how you look at them.
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"So, Angie," said one of her friends as she unpacked from her 'vacation' in Florida, "How has Slick been settling in?"
"He's been doing fine." said Angie, matter-of-factly, "The BARA house has taken him in, mainly to help him learn about human society."
"But isn't the BARA House about furry homosexuality?" asked her friend.
"So is the ROSE House, but most Animalians in those houses end up 'comfortably bisexual'." replied Angie, briefly lost in her fantasy. "Besides, the workouts are really doing him good."
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Meanwhile, Oka and Damian (who had better control over his compulsive swearing by this point) were spending time with Annie, Stuart, and their new foal when a Horizon agent asked to speak with Oka in private. A little confused, Oka agreed and went with him, but was even more surprised when the agent said that they had finally got her father.
What had originally started out as a traffic stop for a minor violation over in New Mexico quickly spiraled into a medium-level felony (I'm no cop or law expert) when he fled. As it turned out, after he was arrested, that he wasn't a "gangsta", or anything like that, he was just both rather traditional and conservative when it comes to parenting. Eventually, it was decided to apply Animalia's "four punishment system" to him before reuniting him with her and Damian.
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While Abby and Samson had enjoyed their honeymoon in Aeaea, Abby was clearly anxious about returning to the Brown farm, and not just because it was now like a 'communal farm'.
"Nervous about meeting your new sibling, Abby?" asked Samson, though he was a little less anxious about it than Abby was.
"There is that." replied Abby, "It's just..."
"Is it because Sylvia's still there?" asked Samson, already aware of the texts that Sylvia had sent Abby 'boasting' about some of the new farmhands.
"It's actually because... everything's going to be so different..." said Abby, going back over several of the texts her parents had sent her which talked about several new features that had been added to the farm. Along with the new 'farmhand quarters' (which were more like a cross between a stable and a communal barracks), three of the newest farmhands (who had converted into mammoth donkey Animalians) had also built a home brewery. While most Animalians found most types of beer, wine, and whiskey too bitter to drink, this new homebrew seemed to be alright to drink.
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Meanwhile, Miles was enjoying a break from covering the special event at Renardville and using the moment to talk to Miss Juliet about the upcoming school year, which Miss Juliet confirmed was going to be even larger than before.
Also, Miles had gotten VIP Access to both the coverage of the Olympic Games as well as the human-Animalian comparison, though the official comparison wouldn't be until after their events had finished.