we're going to have to be everywhere? (oh-lympics part 2)

my special talent agent peter bond has brought me to vancouver for something called the winter Oh-lympics. he thinks that it might be just the way for me and lillian albertosaur to get famous.

i could care less about that. i'm more excited just to get to see the theropod of my dreams once again. last time i saw lillian she'd been devastated by losing her stardom (again!). hopefully all the time with peter (and the money i've spent to fund their expedition) will have put her in better spirits.

there'd been no fallout from peter's stealing an Oh-lympic torch and making me run it... though it'd been a close call.

as the torch relay moved on, every one's attention had left with it. leaving me and peter pretty much alone.

"that didn't go quite the way i'd planned," peter admitted out loud, clearly disappointed. "i'd kind of hoped a tyrannosaur running the torch for a leg of the relay would have been all the rage. oh well. you win some and you lose most. the key is to keep your eye on the gold."

"why gold, and why not steel?" i asked confused. "last i heard steel was stronger than gold anytime."

"i think we need to get you some lessons on this whole olympic thing," peter considered out loud. he then snapped into full fast motion. "not right now though. now we get ready for a busy couple of weeks!"

"how do we do that?" i asked. peter answered with something, but i didn't take notice at all. within a moment of asking my question a most welcome smell filtered through the air (peter's kinda weak human nose wouldn't have picked up on it so he happily talked on).

"so we get together as a 'team', and figure out our game plan," peter concluded whatever his long answer had been. it was at this moment our other team member approached. LILLIAN!

i've never been so happy to say hello to anyone ever! lillian was happy to see me too, which i have to admit was still something new to me. back in the old days lillian hardly acknowledged my existence. who knew spending thousands of dollars on a world tour would pay off like this?

speaking of the world tour, i had to find out how that had been going. fortunately we were conversing in tyrannosaurese so peter couldn't ease drop much (he was only just starting to pick up a few phrases of our language lillian complained, and only if she spoke really slowly. meaning our conversational speed would lose him quick), which was probably a good thing. not everything lillian had to say was nice.

not that lillian disliked peter. quite the contrary. for a human she found him both pleasant, and incredibly supportive. however she also found him incredibly confusing. she had little idea of what she was most of the time. that alone why she was now suddenly in vancouver. they'd both left new york abruptly with no warning.

i thought they'd found a good spot for lillian there. what happened to make these Oh-lympics more important?

interrupting this discussion a tourist spotting me and lillian eagerly requested (of peter of course... we lowly dinosaurs can't choose for ourselves) that she take a picture of us. "they'd be more than delighted!"peter eagerly responded.

as peter forced us into a pose (well okay forced me... lillian was a bit big for him to man handle) i had to ask peter. "why are we in vancouver?"
"that is a good question," peter replied, but paused to put a big smile on for a shot. "the whole world's eyes are on here right now! meaning if we can get into view, everyone will see us, and that will mean we can hit the big time, baby!!!"

"so how do we get 'seen'?" i asked confused on what he meant. i had another picture of me snapped that moment... weren't people seeing me already?

"that is the thing," peter levelled without dropping his smile. "there is no one easy answer to that. we can't just stand around taking pictures like these," me and lillian too this as permission to stop posing, but peter barked. "but we will as long as people want snap shots!" we both got back into position (if you'd worked at a museum as long as the both of us you'd be sick of people taking your picture too).

"no, its not just one tourist shot at a time," peter said building to more. "we must become part of the olympics themselves. no matter how or why. we want tyrannosaurs and/or albertosaurs to be the lasting memory of vancouver 2010 the world takes from these games."

"so you want us to be mascots?" lillian asked slightly unimpressed. her whole life she'd been a mascot, and it wasn't that she hated doing it (rather the opposite in fact). she just didn't like peter talking it up like he'd just done.

peter just blinked at her. he hadn't understood her. i translated into english. "oh good!" peter said relieved. "for a minute i thought she wanted a man sandwich! mascot versus man, i'll have to remember that."

"i suppose if it comes to that my big gal," peter answered lillian. "we're up against some tight competition in that department. they've got some mighty fine mascots already lined up for these events."

"no we need to figure out some way for one or both of you to become the official dinosaur of the olympics," he outlined. "i don't care how or what it takes, but that is our goal. we won't stop for the next 2 weeks until that occurs!"

to be continued... with a makeover