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The door flew open as Cori rushed in. The sun was already setting outside, and the common room was already losing its natural light. Dan's bedroom light was on, but he wasn't there. Cori's outfit was laying on the bed, where they had left it that morning, just before classes. They had spent all of last evening modifying the dress into something avian. It wasn't Cori's fault.

"In here," Dan said, already bent over in front of the bathroom mirror. He was carefully applying some adhesive around an outline on his face, where his deer prosthetic was to go. His antlers were already on, firmly in place by some much stiffer adhesive. His left arm was already fully painted, entire fingers painted like hooves, and most of the right arm was painted as well. The rest of his costume -- the robe, the legs, the staff -- was gathered behind him on the hamper, while Dan himself was clad only in boxer briefs and an undershirt.

"Looking good," Cori said, briefly admiring the view of Dan's bare legs. "You need any help?"

"I will, for painting my hand and touching up my muzzle." He gestured to the other room. "Go get yours on, we can just make it if we hurry."

"You're lucky you already had a costume," Cori sighed as they quickly shimmied off their jacket and threw the dress over themself. The tail, hastily added the night before, brushed against the floor.

"I seem to recall you rejecting the Teletubby costume."

"Ew, no. I'm never wearing that again. And this is an ANIMAL party, not a weird alien party." Cori donned the fringed jacket, another makeshift addition to their costume. Unlike the dress, Cori rarely wore this outdated outfit, but it was such a fun jacket that Cori had kept it with them, just to twirl around in.

"You know, if The Hope still has that ugly jacket, you could go as a lion."

"I happen to like birds," Cori said, putting on their headband. The only part missing were some appropriate leggings, but Cori wasn't quite sure about that. This was a party of strangers, after all. And who knew what sort of reaction that would get? "Besides, I'm almost ready. You?"

"Give me a sec." Daniel stopped as he carefully placed the foam muzzle over his nose, letting the edges slide flat against his brow.

"Hold on, let me." Cori walked up and, kneeling, gently lifted the bottom edges to lay against Dan's upper lip. "Shame you're not doing a full muzzle."

Daniel, of course, was too preoccupied with pinning the prosthetic down to reply. This outfit was one that Daniel had already worn for a couple LARPing expeditions. It was very cumbersome to wear -- typically the antlers were added and removed on-site. Daniel swore he didn't have a fursona, and wasn't even a furry, but Cori had suspicions.

"That should do it," they said. "Paint?"

"Over there. Sponge me."

The clock kept ticking. Twenty minutes to go. Cori had brief flashbacks to Face-Off as they both applied paint, Cori blocking out the face, Daniel working details.

"Did you ever look up who's running this party?" Cori asked.

"No idea. There was no name on the invite, remember. And the address... well, I did find out some interesting history."

"Oh?"

"Apparently that block of apartments used to be an actors' colony, fifty years ago. The city was supposed to tear it down, but they never got around to it. It was bought up by some international real estate company, but I can barely find anything about them. Neighborhood seems safe, at least."

"It's only a couple blocks from campus, you realize."

"Of course. Well, it's actually just outside the campus jurisdiction. I actually looked it up, and not a single robbery or carjacking has happened there since they kept records. It's like this big blank spot in a sea of crime reports from twenty years ago."

"Hmmm. What do you think? Neighborwood watch? Or someone deleting records?"

"It's the lack of theft that really gets me. Car robberies happen everywhere, safe neighborhood or not. Very opportunistic. Except here."

"You weren't planning to rob them, were you?"

"I may have been digging a bit too deep for info. I suppose we'll find out who they are when we get there." He set down his brush, and grabbed another sponge. "Right, I'll get started on your nose, if you can clean up my right hand."

"Sure." Daniel stood up from the chair and held out his hand, while Cori sat still in the chair and grabbed the fine-tipped brush.

"You know, Cori, with your curly hair, the black robe, and your nose, all you need is a chin-beard and a wide hat to look like a bad Jewish stereotype."

"Oh come on, it's a dress!" Cori traced their brush across Daniel's knuckles.

"You sure you don't want me to give you a black beak?" Daniel asked.

"I'd look like a bird-dog hybrid."

"As opposed to a luck dragon hybrid?"

"I'm going for more of a Shelley Winters look."

"Oof," Daniel said. "Don't remind me of that movie."

"The outfit was nice."

"Did anyone even believe she was playing a dodo?"

"You know how musicals are."

"She didn't even sing!"

"If I had two more days, I could have gone for a Zoobilee Zoo look."

"Oh great... Now that theme song's gonna be stuck my head all night."

"If I had more head's up..." Cori squirmed as Daniel finished before standing up. "You need help dressing?"

"Sure, get the legs ready." Daniel tossed Cori his legs -- digileg stilts covered with fur and hooves. The tail, stitched onto Dan's trousers, twitched as he shimmied them on. Cori held the legs open as Dan slipped into each one. In a few quick seconds, he threw on his shirt and stole. When he took his staff and stood up, he easily stood two feet taller than Cori, nearly bumping his antlers into the ceiling.

"Maybe next time you can dress as a mouse," Cori said.

"Come on, let's hurry. The bus will be here any second."

"Should we clean up?" Cori motioned to all the brushes and paints, still lying about.

"Leave it. It's just for a couple hours." Dan ducked under the doorframe, as Cori shut the door behind them.

----

What had started as a cacophonous boom had turned into wailing and shrieking on all sides. Their companions had fallen, one by one, under the spell of their hostess. The two women's shrieks seemed to grow quieter as the lights and mists swallowed them up, but Cori could still feel the screams against their skin.

It was only for a moment that Daniel took his hand off of Cori's shoulder to try vainly to pull his staff free from the creeping vines around Brandon. By then, new fissures emerged between them, a blue mist now touching Cori's shoes. Cori felt a prickling as memories resurfaced of birds in flight.

"Wait!" Cori said. "I'll change into something better at home! I..." Cori already knew it was useless. They could feel their skin tingling, as the hairs on their head began to thicken, and those on theirs arms begin to weave into the costume.

"Cori," the voice said pleasantly. "Your suit would make a decent parotia. It just needs less humanity."

Cori felt their lips tightening, and a pressure building up around the seams of their costume. Cori had just seen the turtle woman fail to tear off her costume. It was too late for them. "Am... am I going to change?"

"No. You're going to DANCE."

Cori suddenly felt themself flung forward, preparing for a mating dance. "Wait, but... my friendth..." Cori stammered. They tried to focus on something real and human to hold onto, but all that came to mind were... pretty brown birds, watching him, waiting for him to dance.

"SSSSSHHHHAAAAKE those lovely FFFFEATTTHHHEERRRSS for your MMAAATTTE," she cooed into his brain, as talons poked from his shoes and hit the ground. Cori's thoughts started to dissolve, his willpower leaving him. He... he'd never felt particularly masculine as a human. But, as a bird...

... he DID want to dance for a beautiful female.

Whether the feathers crept up his neck, or down from his hair, he couldn't tell. His fingers were squeezed together into wings, but he hardly noticed. The robe that now formed a second skin seemed to be puffing out more feathers from his chest, fanning out and weaving together into a wide circular black disk. But his most prized feathers, his irridescent neck feathers, were bright and healthy. And the female above him was so looking forward to seeing him dance! She was saying more things he liked, urging him to dance more!

He flicked his crest from side to side, waggling his bright white headpatch, scooting to and fro on the forest floor. There was one tiny bit of commotion off to the side, but what did it matter? He was a parotia, a simple bird-of-paradise, and he felt so happy to be free of all worries, all concerns, no one or nothing to please but his mate.