Reno was a very different place from Lyre and Animalia. Lyre had been a small town nestled in Nevada's upper NW corner, not too far from Oregon and California, it grew with the birth of Animalia to where the town was now sort of like Minneapolis/St Paul in that it was hard to really tell where the two communities started and stopped, particularly there were several Animalians that lived in Lyre and worked in Animalia or lived in Animalia and worked in Lyre. They had grown together. Reno was different and Sarah and Travis were quick to find that out.
It was a bigger city and one that had more traffic to it, and one that had left Sarah grateful old hand-me-down car that her parents had let her and Malice use while in college and that Travis did take the driver's tests while they'd been in WSA. They had a reasonable apartment, but it wasn't particularly close to the fire station that Travis was assigned. Things like groceries would also require some travel to get too and from their apartment in ways that wasn't there in Lyre/Animalia. But it all worked out well, and the two of them had gotten a small welcome party from their neighbors after moving in, and it came with a surprise knock at the door, which Sarah fondly remembered back on as she looked at a series of family photos on the wall in one of the hallways. One showed her and Malice together at WSA, one was her and Travis at a park at UNLV, and the last showed both Thomas and Julia Wesley standing beside Dallas and Dot Fleck at the wedding from the summer.
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"You don't think dad had to use the bathroom before heading back to Lyre, did he?" Sarah asked as her triangular ears perked at the sound of three soft thumps on the door while Travis was looking to microwave some ham for a quick and easy dinner.
Thomas Wesley had driven down with them as well to help with some of the move. Some of it was to save on mover's fees and some of it was a bit of a formal "goodbye." While Sarah was more than certain that she and Travis could handle the weight of moving things like beds and furniture up to their new apartment, as she had a fair amount of muscle to her as any other female Animalian did, she was thankful for her father's help. It made unloading things a lot easier, and he hugged both Sarah and Travis before he left, with saying that he was proud of both of them and that Travis' parents were proud of him too. It left both of them fairly happy and eased some of Sarah's own sadness at being so far away from Malice now. But she knew that Simon couldn't leave his job in Animalia and that Malice wouldn't abandon Simon, and the fact that they could call and Skype would be something to work with... and Reno was close enough to Lyre/Animalia that when she and Travis would have days off, they could go up and visit her sister and her husband, and their parents.
"I wouldn't think so... I mean... he only just left a little while ago," Travis answered, "if it were someone we know, the only one I would think of it being would be Malice... as I think..."
"My sister didn't want to say goodbye," Sarah nodded, "and a part of me really didn't want to move away from her, either... but we've all had our paths in life. Me with you and Malice with Simon. It's not something either of us could have changed and we both accepted that."
Sarah then made her way quietly to the door. As she opened it, she found a small crowd of people standing there in the hallway. There was one sort of overweight African American man with short hair holding up a big metal pot that smelled like it had roast beef in it. There was another young couple, one being a man with blonde hair while the other was a woman who'd dyed her hair blue. There was also one older woman there who was holding some plates under a moderately sized dish of other sides.
"Surprise!" the African American man said with a smile, "I'm Clint, you're our new neighbor, right?"
"Right," Sarah commented and looked back over to where Travis was and waived him over, "I'm Sarah and this is my husband, my bond-mate, Travis Fleck... We... only just moved in."
"Yes, I saw all the back and forth from my window," the older woman said, "and we wanted to welcome you to our floor here. We heard from the landlord that some Animalians would be moving in, so we wanted to be friendly as you're our first Animalian residents."
"And we brought food and a welcome helping hand," the woman with blue dyed hair added, "it'd be a bit of a party, and you can get to know us and things like that. I'm Irma by the way... Irma Glanz... and because Irma is a boring name, I dye my hair to look snazzy. It works good with the jazz club I play at."
"Jazz club?" Travis wondered as he stepped back with a small bit of a surprise.
"Yeah... a lot of it may be old fashioned in a way," Irma answered, "and not every piece of music actually IS jazz. We do play some other things through a CD player or radio. But we will play jazz and swing music with a live band for the ambiance while people get drinks and socialize. And this is my husband, Martin Glanz."
Martin offered his hand to Sarah, and they did shake hands. His grip wasn't super strong, but it was friendly.
"It's nice to meet you all... but we've only just gotten in, and many things are a mess... and..." Sarah began.
"Nonsense, dear," the older woman spoke, "you must be tired after everything. And coming all the way from Animalia... I'm sure some things must be intimidating for you to be away from other Animalians."
"Plus, we have good food already," Clint added, "it'd save you time on cooking and give you some extra help. We can move things to where you want them, and you'll get to relax sooner."
"You don't have to take up your time..." Travis began, though privately intrigued by the offers of help.
"Oh, it's nothing," Clint answered, "It's nice to meet new people and welcome them in. It's all part of being part of a community."
"And in some ways... your coverage on Animalia Ambassadoria over the years was a bit of an inspiration on all that," Irma added, "we help you... we all become friends... and you'll be welcome here."
"And in my case, I have a lot of spare time," the older woman smiled warmly, "you can call me Alice Smith."
"Thank you... eh... come in," Sarah offered and stepped back.
The group came in and they ended up settling around the small table in a dining area that adjoined the kitchen in the apartment. There was no laundry room in the apartment, but Sarah and Travis had learned that the building actually had a laundry room for the whole apartment building on its basement floor and reminded Sarah and Travis of the set up for some of the dorms in college. It all worked, and it did let them get to know their neighbors better. Alice had brought something that was more of a side dish casserole for the Humans that had come to the party to enjoy, and Clint had brought some roast beef that did smell better than the ham that Travis had been microwaving.
From there they learned more about their new neighbors. Clint was actually a cook at a local diner that wasn't too far away from the apartment. Martin was a school bus driver and Irma played saxophone in a jazz band at the club she mentioned. It meant they often had different work schedules, but both found it fun and were happy with it. Alice had been a teacher but had been able to retire a few years ago and was content now to experiment with photography and enjoy retirement. They also learned that all of them were fans of Animalia Ambassadoria from the beginning and meeting two members of the original cast was special. Though, they also learned some other things on the nature of the show and the response to Animalia.
"It's actually great that you're here," Clint spoke, "it'd provide for a way to avoid some certain... issues."
"What issues?" Travis wondered while trying to raise one ear, which didn't work well as a Dalmatian's ears didn't stand erect.
"Well... showing that you're more than capable of adapting to things outside of safe zones," Clint answered, "don't get me wrong... the establishment of colony cities is good for Animalia, but many of these colonies are often seen as islands where Animalians are essentially in control. About half of Lyre became an Animalian during that initial outbreak and almost of a third that remained became Animalians for other reasons. Within Lyre, the whole cooperation between Human and Animalian is seen and accepted... but it's also seen by a fair number of people outside of these Colony cities that Animalians won't go where they aren't in control."
"Yeah... I saw this in an article somewhere, I think it was the Huffington Post, or maybe it was the AP, but outside of the colony cities that Animalia has, there's much smaller number of Animalians living OUTSIDE their colony cities," Irma nodded, "there are a couple of Giant Ground Sloth Animalians living in Minnesota, as small herd of Dairy Cattle Animalians in Wisconsin, a pair of American Alligator Animalians in the south... I can't remember the state... and I think the female laid eggs this past spring or summer... But it shows that the Animalian population is overwhelmingly concentrated in certain areas."
"Some of that may be for the size of the Animalians in question," Travis commented, "I remember that in freshman year at Lyre High... Abby had certain issues with fitting seats that were designed for Humans and couldn't easily fit her height or support her weight."
"And the American Quarter Horse isn't even the largest Animalian based off of modern animals," Sarah added, "many of the Dinotopians, which are BIGGER than the modern megafauna Animalians will have even greater issues in dealing with the size of things to accommodate them. Moving into more Human developed areas... or areas where Humans would have more "control" would create greater logistical issues for BOTH Humans and Animalians. I think that's been a big part of why the idea for an apartment complex in Tokyo for Animalians has been so slow to progress. Tokyo doesn't have enough open land area to build a whole new apartment building scaled up for Animalians, and potentially at least the mid-sized Dinotopians, and thus in order to build the apartment building, they'd need to tear down some existing ones, which would then require moving a LOT of people, and for a lengthy period of time. There are a lot of logistics and moving parts in that. A couple of our friends' parents, the Albers and Luwries, converted and became Dinotopians earlier in the year and had whole new houses built that would accommodate their new sizes."
"We're not arguing with you on that," Martin commented, "I think that Clint's point is more that while the general support for Animalia and Animalians is a LOT higher than what a certain ex-President thinks, there are general concerns that a great many Animalians are not wanting to interact much with those that aren't Animalians. Thus, questions on why some of the smaller Animalians, who wouldn't have the logistical needs that some of the larger Animalians would need have also had the habit of flocking to Animalia. I mean... a few years ago, a New York fashion design company owner moved her entire "headquarters" from its offices in New York City to a mansion in Animalia and coordination with the lower-level work with that business is done remotely... and that fashion designer CEO is a Fennec Fox Animalian. I'd imagine they're smaller than Huskies and Dalmatians."
Sarah was silent and blinked for a moment. Some of this sounded a bit like the debate that had been had after Heather's initial attack on Roland. That had all been embarrassing, and Sarah did have to admit that ultimately, Sophie did have a fairly decent point back then. They'd all wanted to integrate and support the coexistence between Animalians and Humans that the move build WSA and tailor it to the physical needs that some Animalians had, along with some of the cultural norms that many Animalians embraced had led to the discovery that they'd done the opposite of what they'd originally intended to do. From the way her neighbors were mentioning this, it sounded like some of this was floating around on a much BIGGER scale.
"And it isn't necessarily like anything has necessarily been wrong with those decisions," Clint offered a weak and apologetic smile, "and some of the worst of it may be coming from folks that don't know any better... but there's still the whole image thing. You two succeed here with what you do... maybe save a life or two... and that could help flip that whole image around. That the reasons for many Animalians moving to Lyre/Animalia is about things other than a proverbial "safe space." You know?"
"Generally, a fire fighter doesn't hope to HAVE to save lives," Travis answered, "ideally, there'd never be a fire and most of our work would be more precautionary. It's only when there are emergencies that have come due to accidents where we HAVE to save lives."
"We get that, and we don't want anyone to get in trouble, either," Martin answered, "but... you know... we'd still like you both to succeed. And show people all the good that you did for years on Animalia Ambassadoria."
While neither of them was on the show anymore, neither Sarah nor Travis could stop themselves from wagging their tails in happiness.
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"And so far... a lot of that has worked out," Sarah thought to herself, "Travis has been doing well with the Fire Department, and he did get a call the other day. Apparently, someone set a dumpster on fire somewhere... thankfully no one was hurt. And our neighbors have been friends... So, it's all good."
With that, she then went about her own business to get ready for work. After all, a new home in a new place didn't mean that basic responsibilities went away and at present, Sarah was more than ready to take them on head on.