Meetings 03 - Teens at the Shrine Party

  --- After School ---

  Isabelle was busy with Samantha. The wolf clearly had too much energy after sitting in css for so long.

  The pair stopped pying around when they heard Zaria giggle.

  "Nervous and pale shadow cat," Zaria pointed at the younger shadowcat that was approaching them.

  Opposed to her, Catherine bounced towards them after telling her friends goodbye. The normal catgirl had become a celebrity for staying with the unapproachable Zaria.

  "Isn't Yvonna the more powerful one?" Isabelle wondered. "Why is she so worried then?"

  "Because she knows that it doesn't make a difference to me," Zaria replied. "Hello, you two. Anything you all want to eat?"

  "Steak," Samantha replied without hesitation.

  "Sad," Isabelle was trying, and failing, to regute her meat intake. She had added some weight, but it was probably all muscle from following Samantha around and trying to keep up with her wolf. "Maybe some fruit too?"

  "How about fruit sad with some ice cream for dessert?" Zaria asked. "Steak, skewers, and duck?"

  "Duck?"

  "Stuffed duck is delicious," Zaria hummed happily, thinking about a nice duck stuffed with apples and sweet chestnuts. "Seems our ride is here."

  The group turned, and saw a small bus arrive, that was clearly filled with herd members.

  As they boarded the bus, Zaria's phone rang. "It's your mom," she told the only normal human girl.

  "Hello Fionnua," Zaria listened.

  "Sure, where are you?"

  "Wait, he is trying to confiscate a personal magical item? I'll be right over." Zaria disconnected the call, "I'll be back in a moment, your mother is facing a case of stupid at work."

  Then, Zaria was gone.

  Most of the bus was staring at the empty spot. Then everyone looked towards Isabelle.

  "Why are you looking at me?" The human girl wondered. "How about we drive to the store or market as pnned, unless we were meant to drive to the shrine?" The girl had no idea what was pnned.

  "No idea?" The moo behind the steering wheel replied.

  "Let's head to some market or something. Preferably somewhere where we can get good vegetables and meats."

  "Yes!" The driving moo now seemed motivated.

  A few minutes ter, Zaria was back in her seat. "What did I miss?"

  "We are on the way to go shopping," Catherine replied as she pointed towards the other not herd girls. Isabelle was trying to talk to Yvonna who was looking like a nervous cat, while Samantha had attached herself to the redheads side.

  Zaria snorted amused.

  --- Otherside Market ---

  "Uhm?" Isabelle was wondering at the sight. It was a market. It was a market where most sellers and buyers seemed to be nonhuman.

  "Otherside market," A herd member expined with a bounce. "Most of us prefer organic ingredients. A lot of us have race specific taste buds, it makes normal supermarket food taste a bit off."

  "Ohh..."

  Then most groups shifted. Tails, ears, and horns made an appearance. As the group explored, the nervousness from the other people was obvious.

  "It's Zaria?" Isabelle asked Yvonna.

  "It's Zaria," Yvonna confirmed.

  "Four ducks and that half pig." The object of scrutiny had her priorities straight.

  The vegetable stall was being raided by the herd.

  The two cats were debating fish vs chicken.

  Isabelle found herself dragged along by Samantha, who found delicious looking steaks. To the human girl, it just looked like raw meat.

  The shopping was big, causing Zaria to hand out bills that looked so new that Isabelle and Yvonna suspected that the albino had opened one of the bundles she had showed them a few days ago.

  A rge amount of shopping ter, the group loaded the bus and drove to the shrine.

  --- Zaria's Shrine ---

  "This is Yuki, my familiar," Zaria introduced as they arrived at the shrine.

  Isabelle looked at the fox that was looking her up and down. "Hello Yuki, good to see you again," then she saw everyone else warily watching the vixen. "So, is she really a fox?"

  "Arctic fox to be exact," Zaria corrected.

  "Considering that familiars are normally dependent on their masters in anime and manga, and that Sammy is hiding behind me ..."

  "I'm not hiding!" Samantha corrected.

  "... I am guessing that there is a story behind it," Isabelle finished.

  "Mhm~ Familiars gain their powers based on their masters, after all, so normally an arctic fox familiar would be smarter than most people and know some magic."

  "And since you are as removed from normal as can be?" The redhead hinted.

  "Probably can survive a hydrogen bomb, her retaliation would wipe out the country it came from, knows more magic than anything less than arch mages, is fitter than a dragon, and smarter than I am. Meaning, I have yet to meet something that can out think her."

  Isabel pondered, then gave up, there were too many things in there she could not imagine. "And how much stronger than her are you really?" Isabelle asked before her brain reminded her that some things were better left unknown.

  Zaria responded with one word, "Yes."

  Honestly, that alone scared the guests more than any expnation could have.

  However, Zaria dispelled the tension easily. "Now, let’s start cooking, we have bought so many nice things~"

  "How much did we spend?" Yvonna asked ter when everything was unloaded, and she gaped at the amounts they had bought.

  "Around 1 800," Zaria replied without hesitation, as she was butchering half a pig with Samantha.

  """What?"""

  "Don't worry, we bought too much, but it is fine, I won't have to go shopping for a while, and we still need dinner for those staying over."

  The kitsune clearly did not care.

  As preparations were underway, Yvonna's phone rang. "Now, my mate is calling," Yvonna wondered as she picked up the call. "Hello Eri~"

  "You need the penthouse key?"

  "Now you are going shopping? We finished not long ago."

  "I'll fetch it in a moment," the shadowcat hung up.

  Zaria pced a hand on Yvonna's head, "think about the key and the pce it is."

  Yvonna froze but did as ordered.

  Zaria snatched a key that appeared between them, "is that it?"

  "Yes."

  The key faded away.

  "There, delivered."

  "It's Zaria," Isabelle mumbled as she watched Samantha, who was happily marinating steaks with a merrily wagging tail.

  The two cats were preparing chicken skewers, while the herd was all over the pce. A few were preparing various sads, some were preparing chicken strips, some were cutting or grinding cheese, a few were preparing skewers, some were cutting more vegetables.

  "Actually, go all out, I'll keep the leftovers for the goddess night."

  "Goddess night?" a moo asked.

  "All the Goddesses that can drop by."

  "As in the powerful Goddesses?" Someone asked.

  "Like Tamano no Mae, Artemis, Helena, Aria, Sekishi, Satania, Bastet, and so on."

  Now everyone that could imagine it got nervous.

  Samantha continued rubbing the steaks merrily.

  Zaria snickered amused.

  Isabelle decided that she did not understand and greeted the newcomer, "Hello Yuki. Did you sleep well?"

  "Kon kon."

  "Not sleeping then … were you gaming again?"

  "Kon kon~"

  "Long game?"

  "Kon kon kon"

  "I have no idea what you just said."

  "Kon kon"

  "Stop smirking like a fox and text me."

  Yuki turned into a naked Zaria clone with blue eyes, bck ear tips and bck tail tip.

  "If you can do that, then do that from the start!" Isabelle compined. "Zaria, stop ughing!"

  It helped rex most others in return.

  --- Once food is Ready ---

  Isabelle was not a cook. But she knew that the well roasted duck was not supposed to be done at the same time as the blue steak.

  The very healthy herd member next to her reminded her easily, "it's Zaria."

  The group chatted, ate, and generally rexed.

  Isabelle found herself surrounded as everyone insisted on feeding her whatever they had cooked. She also spoke a lot with the rather friendly herd girls, something that once again had Samantha pster herself against the human girl's side.

  For any breast lovers, it would have been heaven.

  "I love the sads," Isabelle admitted.

  Samantha was gnawing on ribs.

  The herd perked up and offered more sads for taste testing.

  The rather stoic Yvonna and friendly Catherine found themselves sitting with Zaria and Yuki watching the amusing courting rituals. Catherine was actually chatting to the older shadowcat without a care. This was something that confused the rather stoic older catgirl since her usually cold and serious manner kept most people at arm's length. Catherine quickly lost her awe at the shadowcat, living with Zaria had made her lose a lot of her awe towards more powerful individuals. The floof breaking common sense and reality on a daily basis helped a lot with rexing her stance on more special or overpowered individuals from the Otherside. Meeting a Vampire Elder was several steps down from Zaria, but then again, even shadowcats were above the level of a normal catgirl.

  Cleaning up was rather quick with everyone pitching in to carry the dirty ptes, boards, cutlery, and sad bowls to the kitchen. They wondered at the ck of a dishwasher, until Zaria came in and flicked a finger. Everything rose, grease, spice, meat juices, sad dressings, and bits of food detached and floated off to a garbage bin. Then the water tap opened, and dish cleaner mixed into it and rose in big water bubbles. Then several more bubbles with water rose. The mostly cleaned dishes started floating through these water balls. Afterwards, once they came out of the st one, the water evaporated and everything floated off towards various cupboards.

  It was a magical spectacle that was not fshy, yet still impressive since there had been over 20 people present.

  Sads, steaks, and other foods packaged themselves and stored themselves in the fridge or faded away.

  It was probably the fastest cleanup any of them had ever seen.

  "How about a break now?" Zaria offered. "I have games, movies, consoles, VR games, full dive virtual reality games, and more."

  "Full dive is fiction, though? Unless you mean something you made with magic," Isabelle countered.

  "I have been to worlds where technology is millennia ahead and took some of the tech with me."

  "Some, she says," Yuki mocked. "More like enough to equip a pnet or two."

  "Hush you," Zaria fired back. "Who is the one that programmed the best software and created the best hardware?" She turned towards her audience. "Hint: she has blue eyes, a fluffy tail and fluffy ears, and there are bck tips on the ears and tail."

  "I needed something to pass the time," Yuki shrugged.

  "Is there a reason you are naked?" Isabelle wanted to know.

  "There is no reason not to be naked," the vixen countered.

  "Is it really like in anime and movies?" An eager member of the herd asked.

  "Yes, there are certain restrictions," Yuki took over, "unless you are of a certain mental type, most have a body disassociation when entering or leaving virtual space if the body form deviates more than 5% for normal people, 10% seems to be the limit for adaptable people. Only abstract, fluid, very adaptable, or crazy minds can do full body changes."

  Everyone gave Zaria and Yuki a look.

  Zaria pointed at Yvonna who then found herself the centre of attention, "she can py house cat, for example. It is close enough to her other form. Well, in my case, I have favoured forms I am simply more familiar with, but I can probably py a slime better than you can py yourself."

  "Tentacle monster," Catherine threw out.

  Zaria smirked and lowered her voice into a more seductive tone as she replied to the catgirl. "That is actually a natural form for me, if you want, I'll show you ter in private~"

  There were awkward giggles as most girls started blushing. Once again, Samantha was the odd one out as she wondered why everyone was blushing.

  "Let's game, who wants to py a shooter? I have been programming one on the side for the next time we visit a high-tech world," Yuki offered. "It is an easy guns and explosions game, there are races you can try. Character creation starts with a rger margin, and it starts going down until it finds your limits. Things like adding tails or fluffy ears are interestingly easier on the mind than removing them. Growing wings is doable too. They can be used as cosmetics, you can try to move them and such, but unless you have a tail in real life, they will never feel like the real thing."

  "I changed Isabelle's mother to a dog, she was totally overwhelmed," Zaria reminded those that had been present.

  Everyone agreed. Especially pying with their races was gathering their interest.

  Isabelle was honestly curious about tails. She really wondered what it was like to have one.

  "I have a test game, and we have enough headsets for everyone. Zaria, I need the VR4F_TG5 server." Yuki ordered.

  She got a bnk look back.

  "The blue one with the TG5 sticker," the vixen expined with a sigh.

  "This one?" Zaria waved her hand, and a blue blocky server appeared.

  "Yes, now the generator. The small bck cube one, with the G04 sticker, and the boxes with HS_T_Res too. The cable box with SF_PCon."

  More boxes and a cube appeared.

  Yuki started setting everything up in a mess of cables. Zaria was ying out futons so everyone could lie down. Pying while sitting was a bad idea for first timers. And she wasn't going to pull out the capsules for a one time game.

  "Now, we are pying a shooter, VR with magic can be a bit hard for those who have never used magic before. Especially considering that aiming spells without a red dot or scope is really hard for beginners." Yuki informed them. "Don't worry, I reduced the pain settings to almost nothing."

  They handed out all the headsets, made so that even fluffy eared and horned species could use them. Everyone id down and waited for the game to start.

  ---

  There was a blur, and they were seated in a bar.

  "Moo?"

  "Everyone, have a drink," Zaria called out.

  "What?"

  There was a lot of confusion.

  "Any decent mercenary group will start their mission with a drink."

  "We are too young to drink," Isabelle pointed out.

  "I am not." "Me neither." "I don't like beer." Some herd members were older.

  "It is virtual. Besides, I promised Fionnua to show everyone how terrible it is to get drunk. Actually, Isabelle already knows how stupid it is to get drunk."

  "Really?"

  "Yes, how did that go? [Administrator Access: Override Status: Set all Status to Drunk] and [Administrator Access: Record]."

  "Uhh?" Isa swayed in her seat.

  "Urgh," Sammy vomited.

  "Moo~" Several Herb members swayed. One started quarrelling with an NPC waiter.

  "No fair!" "Evil!" "Blergh"

  A few had rather interesting reactions. Catherine somehow managed to climb onto the mp and curled up on it. Sammy started whining and biting Isabelle whenever she was distracted by one of the herd. Yvonna started stripping, from what Zaria had heard, it was clear that the two were sisters, public indecency seemed to be a thing, after all.

  "I guess this is enough, some have embarrassed themselves enough, [Administrator Access: Reset Status], [Administrator Access: Rest Equipment]," Zaria ordered.

  Everyone was dressed again, Catherine fell off the mp.

  "And this is what being drunk is like," Zaria announced, "and it was in a completely safe and reversible environment. Plenty got sick, some stripped, a few quarrelled, some got really affectionate, and a cat climbed the mp."

  "Hey!" The cat in question compined.

  She got a lot of other compints and curses directed her way, which was something she completely ignored. "I recorded everything for you, so nobody forgets what happened. You also know now how you might react when drunk. However, naturally, we haven't tested how much you can drink yet. That can wait until most of you are a few years older."

  The floof smirked evilly, "if you want to take revenge, feel free to shoot me."

  The group suddenly felt much more motivated.

  ---

  Two hours ter, most of them were completely exhausted, Yuki and Zaria got killed a combined three times, despite only using pistols, each of the guests died at least five times.

  Since most of them had never fired a gun before, the built-in assists helped a lot there.

  "I'm going to disconnect everything, then it is time for movies, Zaria, the rge screen," Yuki ordered.

  They went and started watching, it started with the clip from getting drunk. The repy was embarrassing for most of them. Getting drunk, embarrassing yourself, and getting sick was not something they were looking forward to. Most decided to stay away from alcohol.

  They watched a nice movie afterwards, one not native to that universe.

  This was followed by a rexing dip in the onsen, it was proven once again that breasts float. The herd members were especially very floaty.

  Finally, they slept, there was a sort of fight over Isabelle's other side. A confused Yvonna was finally forced to sleep beside Isabelle, since she had no interest in the girl. She was the safe choice, and therefore perfect to prevent any jealousy, Samantha was the primary mate, so her spot was basically permanent.

  Yuki turned back into an arctic fox, Zaria turned into an albino arctic fox. Both made themselves comfortable with Catherine.

  The catgirl simply grabbed Zaria to cuddle in her sleep.

  Yuki spent time mocking the caught Zaria.

  Isabelle once again overheated due to a clinging wolf.

  Said wolf managed to strip in a moment of being partially awake.

  Herd members and honorary ones often shifted positions due to their heavy chests. Redistributing weight was something that they did regurly.

  ---

  In the morning, the sleepy crowd filtered into the dining room.

  "Yuki? Why are you cooking?" Catherine blinked sleepily.

  "Because you are hogging and hugging Zaria," The vixen pointed out.

  Everyone looked, it was true, the catgirl had grabbed a fox, that was Zaria.

  Zaria waved with a paw.

  "You took our main cook," the humanoid vixen told her, "so it is my turn to cook." Yuki paused for a moment. "I might not like cooking as much as she does, she is the spoiling one, not me. But I am a supreme css cook as well."

  "Really?" Isabelle looked from the two, who had their usual shapes reversed. "And why are you doing that naked apron thing?"

  "Because I don't want any oil sptter on my skin," Yuki expined, but skipped the important part.

  "Not for protection?" One of the cowgirls asked the follow-up question.

  "I am a lot like Zaria in that regard," Yuki responded, and stuck her hand into the pot of boiling water to fish out an egg.

  Everyone else cringed.

  "Really? You watched Zaria stick her hands into the glowing hot coals of the grill yesterday, but you cringe when I stick mine into hot water?"

  "Both" "Weird" "Scary" "Just looking is painful" "Not doing that" "That scared me" "Goes against my instincts"

  Zaria snickered and changed shape, which caused Catherine's hands to end up on her chest. The catgirl quickly released the vixen with a blush.

  "And why are you naked?" Isabelle asked the other vixen.

  "Why aren't you naked?" she countered, "after all, Sammy still is, as are some others."

  Isabelle looked around, and found that the albino was right. The bare chests of the herd member looked even more intimidating uncovered.

  "Animal races are far more comfortable bare than humans are. They take to it much better as well." Zaria expined, "I think it is our more animalistic nature, and why we rarely shave the fur."

  "Too early for this," the human grumbled.

  "Sure, now I'll help Yuki with the breakfast buffet."

  As odd as it was, with the amount of people and the varying tastes, a breakfast buffet was a good choice. Seeing Samantha, Yvonna, and Catherine working through the roasted meats for breakfast while the herd mostly went for vegetables showed the differences in preferences.

  Isabelle went for eggs sunny side up, bacon, tomatoes, and a roll. She was trying to keep her intake down, she wasn't dieting, but she was very conscious of her changing figure. Even if she suspected that most of it was muscles due to her improving stamina and strength as evident in Physical Education in school. Her P.E. grades were going up.

  "Who has pns, and who is staying longer?" Zaria asked after everyone was fed, hydrated, washed, and dressed.

  "Mom hasn't called yet." "I have a shift at the café." "So do I." "I need to do my homework." "I don't want to, homework makes me sleepy." "I will help you." "Why don't we make a study session with those who want to?" "Good idea." "Zaria, is that fine?"

  "Sure, make yourself comfortable, if anything pops up that nobody knows, feel free to ask me or Yuki."

  "Kon~"

  "Only ask her if you speak fox."

  Naturally, nobody but Zaria spoke fox.

  Homework, studying, and help with projects went easily thanks to older herd members and Zaria, who declined helping with history since that was not something that was universal. And what she knew often diverged from what was taught, but she offered some fun anecdotes.

  It was a calm day as the guests left bit by bit.