The thread for the pool party hosted by the Cabot family.

Please allow Tiffany to set the scene before posting.

"No, Mother," sighed Tiff.  "We're not going to have the live string quartet.  This is high school!  We'll bore everyone to death!"

"Dear, they do know the traditional songs, the church songs as well as classical--" her mother started, but Tiffany Cabot was having none of it.

"NO, Mother!" she said, firmly. "They won't even know the church songs!  We're sticking with YouTube, and that's final!"

"If they won't know the church songs, I'm not at all sure that you ought to be associating with them, though," her mother responded.  "I mean, they may not be humans, but there's no getting around the fact that they're really Not Our Ki--"

"Not one more word," Tiffany warned, for she was stubborn even for a girl her age, and was not going to let her mother ruin her social life!  Besides, they'd already hashed all of this out.  Her mother was just trying to make a fuss to get some other concession out of the party.

"Anyway, I'm already going to be going to school with these students," she continued.  "It's not like there's any choice about dealing with them.  Why be fussy about how much of Our Kind, Dear they are?  Any of them might turn out to be an important personal connection in the future, after all.  You've always told me that we have to have a variety of contacts in various positions, and that precludes worrying about whether or not they're members in good standing of the EOD."

"Although, if you'd just have let us invite some of those nice young men from the Esoteric Order--"

"Mother!  They're, like, twice as old as I am!" protested Tiff.  She was exaggerating, but not by too many years.  "I need friends my own age!"

"Well, I suppose that's true," sighed Mrs. Cabot.  "Still, I'm worried about the kind of people you'll get at a party like this.  I know you're a sensible young woman, but I can't help but worry that some unsuitable young man who grows fur every full moon is going to come along and take advantage of your innocence..."

Ah.  There it was.  The thing she wanted-- no boys, or a promise that Tiff wasn't going to go get her lips and hands and worse entangled with some boy who'd never grow into becoming immortal-under-the-sea.  (In the Cabot church, there were only dozens, perhaps hundreds now living who would never die, but they felt that they had a much better claim to the phrase than other churches that hadn't delivered on the promise.)

But it suited Tiffany just fine to accede to the request, in actual fact.  Her mother had, somehow, failed to grasp that it wasn't boys that she wanted to waste her youth with, and cooperating on this point would make the rest easier.  For now.

"All right, Mother," she sighed, amplifying the drama in her voice at least threefold.  "If you insist, I promise, Dagon's Claws to my Heart, that I won't take up with any boys who show up at the party.  No guests, no pizza boys, no groundskeepers, no pool boys, nothing of the kind.  I'll just spend time with the girls."

"Well, as long as you're careful about that," said her mother, and Tiff knew she'd won...

It was a nice party.  Subdued, by some standards-- there was not, for example, a disc jockey playing music.  (Instead, a computer was rotating through a YouTube playlist, projecting the video on a large screen, playing on powerful outdoor speakers, Ublock ensuring that commercials didn't interrupt the flow of music.  Parties needed music, after all.)  There was a table of drinks along one side of the pool, and another of snacks, and the pizza would be arriving shortly.  There was beer with the soft drinks, of course.  This was supposed to be a fun party, after all, and the Cabot connections would stop any police interference.

Tiffany circulated among the guests, guiding people to get changed if they showed up in regular clothes, herself leading the crowd with a bright red two-piece that favored her figure nicely.  (It did, in fact, leave things to the imagination, including the gill slits along her ribcage; she found that it was better that way, both from a discretion standpoint and also for showing off her body.  Tantalization was better than virtual nudity.)

But everything was ready, and she was there to greet her guests, a broad, bright smile on her face.  It wasn't going to be a big party, but no reason to hold back on that account...

 Felicia could smell the party from a mile away, she came up on the house in Panther from moving through the forest fast (speed 6/ 120 MPH) and agile. She would slow down and then carefully come up onto to the Cabot house. She would transform into Hybrid form. She was wearing a black tank top, and black short shorts, no shoes her feet had retractable claws and her tail wagged like it had a mind of it's own.

 She went up to the back and nervously walked into the backyard by the pool, she was very nervous, then she saw Tiffany. She was about to run away when Tiffany would see Felicia in this form for the first time.

Eliza sauntered up to the large estate, their backpack still over one shoulder, having jogged their way from the fair once out of site of most folks. No runner, Eliza was able to make pretty decent speed all the same.

They couldn't quite keep the rising grin off their face, excited at the prospect of proper peer-bonding with proper peers. Moorhaven had seemed like it might have been more a death knell for creativity, more American Gothic than Gothic Americana. Here they were... well, not free, but maybe a little less constrained by social morays. As much as Eliza had studied humans, it was exhausting to be one all the time. They still had to sleep every day!

That bubble of excitement popped when they realized how many other teens had been invited to the party. How many other attractive, popular-looking others had come. Eliza - in one of those rare moments of disunity - found themselves blaming the other half for their awkwardness, teen girl and ancient being realizing, not for the first time, that they were not socially adept for more than just archetypal reasons.

Eliza saw that most everyone was already dressed for the occasion, and gathered where she needed to go from the trio of girls lead by a gorgon coming out of the house in bathing suits. Eliza took the initiative and went to change, coming out in a dark blue and yellow tanktini and deep purple boyshort cut bottoms that didn't look like they originally came together. There was no hiding Eliza's heavier body frame, tantilization need not apply, but it was clear that half her problem was just being broadly-framed in general. Distracting from that was that her hair came out of the bathroom already wet, slicked back, and smelling of coconut oil.

Having left her backpack where everyone else was leaving their clothing, Eliza felt a little naked with nothing in her hands, and little on, so she wandered over to the drink table, pondering the beer before finally picking an orange soda to nurse out of the way and alone while she considered the crowds not far from a boy and a girl who appeared to have ram horns.

"Felicia!  Eliza!" called Tiffany, waving to both of them.  "I'm glad that you made it!  I arranged some special treats for both of you... well, I don't know if they're what you want, Felicia, but you're certainly welcome to try!"

She gestured to a table topped with a large terrarium of some kind; it was filled with a number of specimens of a traditional South American food animal.  Small, furry, not terribly bright... Cuy were well-known as a tasty meat source among international gourmets, or those native to certain nations.  Of course, to Americans, they were regarded as pets, and Tiffany had arranged to get them from a shelter.  It appeared that no one wanted to adopt Guinea Pigs from shelters; if Tiffany's guests ate them, their fate wouldn't actually be very different from what awaited them otherwise.

 Felicia was nervous still but when Tiffany was so nice she smiled and looked at the Cuy and thought she would definitely try one later. " Thank you Tiffany I will try one later. I guess my description was right on for you to recognize me in my Hybrid form." She gave Tiffany a hug and she was soft and warm due to her fur. Her tail was nervously whipping around hopefully it didn't hit anyone.

 Felicia smiles  at Eliza and says, " Hi Eliza how are you doing? Also thank you for the clay Panther it is in my temple."

Eliza was glad to see that Felicia could be more herself here, and it made Eliza strangely less self conscious, knowing she knew someone else here. "Hey, glad to catch back up, and glad it's still together, though it will probably dry out with time. Enjoy the fair? Looks like you made the rounds and some friends as a cat."

Eliza hadn't quite believed the terrarium was for them, asking, "This is quite the effort, Tiffany. I appreciate it, but I hope I'm not the only one for whom its for." Eliza was caught between the sense that she ought to be more nervous about eating in front of people, against the audacity of just being able to be themself rather than eat in the shadows. Well, and Felicia had already seen Eliza eat.

"There are others who prefer their food very fresh, for example," said Tiffany.  "And it's no trouble at all-- I want to be a good hostess.  I hope they'll satisfy you-- I didn't know how many you needed."

She rather liked the affection Felicia was showing her, and returned the hug warmly.  Cold might not bother her particularly, but that didn't mean that she couldn't appreciate this kind of warmth.

Eliza didn't want Tiffany to worry that she was anything other than a supreme host, and motioned, "No no, its more than enough. I've never had guinea pig and novelty is half the nourishment. I truly don't eat that much to sustain myself." More than that, Eliza was a little envious of Felicia's casual friendliness. Eliza had never gotten the hang of friendly touches, and had been more nervous about how much their bathing suit hid than most of the others around, including Tiffany.

They walked over to the terrarium, which had several openings with which to reach into. Setting down their soda and opening the latch, they cooed softly, not loud enough for the usual human to hear over the din of the party, "Hey little guys, any of you have names, or favorite foods? Some secrets you keep?" Eliza reached in and wiggled their fingers around as if tempting one with some attention.

One of the guinea pigs didn't flee their attention obviously, and she got a hand around it and craddled it upwards, as if careful not to hurt it. She held it up as if to meet its eyes, before lowering it down to cradle it near her stomach, its little face outwards.

Which seemed to be all they were going to do until Eliza lifted their tank-top to expose their stomach and belly button up to the bottom of their rib cage. A little bit longer, and Eliza's stomach seemed to open up at the belly button, a vertical seam, formerly hidden, splitting at their belly button and opening wide, revealing a maw of teeth and several tendrils. One tendril struck out, wrapping itself around the little furry animal, drawing it in. The maw closed and the seam vanished, as if never there. There was little noise, but Eliza's eyes closed as if savoring the bite.

This all happened relatively quickly, almost fast enough to not feel real, with Eliza not quite facing the other two, as if not wanting to put them off their own dinner. Felicia had seen the display before, but this was likely the first time in proper light.

"Oh how very. Sort of a cross between a rat and a..." Eliza's eyes opened, glancing at Felicia for a moment, continuing, "-er, a ferret. That's new, and with more verve than I expected from something so small." Eliza smiled, as if a little bashful but not ashamed. "Thank you again, Tiffany. And, ah, sorry if the display was unseemly. I can't quite say I've been taught proper dining manners in mixed company."