Adele steps out of the car, breathing in the salty ocean air that carries a bite of cold even in the summer.
In the dark, she looks at the vibrant villa's entrance, then down at the thing Mr. Davison has passed her. It is a rabbit mascot head.
Adele didn't understand why a dress code was mandatory for this event: rabbit for females and a hunter for males, but she simply shrugs her shoulders before pulling the enormous rabbit head over her own.
The mesh holes were the only way for her to see through it, limiting her field of vision. This was the only option available at the shop where Mr. Davison took her when she told him that she was in need of a costume. But at least it hides her completely, which was good at sparing her from the limelight after previous night.
The security at the entrance see a white and pink plush rabbit suit with a giant fluffy tail, oversized paws, and the massive mascot head walking towards them from the dark.
"Ticket," the one with the tablet says, sensing the approach, still engrossed in his device.
Adele fumbles with her hands, pulling them out through the openings at the ends of her paws to retrieve her phone. The oversized paw-gloves made it nearly impossible to navigate the touchscreen, but she managed to pull up the email invitation anyway.
Guards were staring at her, then her phone, then at each other.
After a long pause the tablet guy asked with a neutral expression, overcoming his initial shock after looking up at her, "You're serious?" His eyes traveled slowly from her giant rabbit head down to her fluffy paws and back up again, taking in the full absurdity of her outfit.
"I... yes?" Adele's voice came out through the mascot head. "I have the invitation. See?
"Alright," he finally says, stepping aside. "You're cleared, Miss. Go ahead." Adele released the breath she was holding.
"Excuse me, but where are the refreshments served?" Adele asks, having not eaten since last night.
"Uh… inside the building."
After few seconds in the mind-link, "Seriously?" a newbie gaurd hissed at the tablet guy as Adele moved past them. "We're letting her in dressed like that?"
"She's got a valid invitation, doesn't she? And she's technically in the dress code." The tablet guard shrugs, lowering his voice. "Besides, don't question the guests' preferences. These elite types have… peculiar tastes and fetishes. You'll see them do many bizarre things down the line of your work."
"Yeah but, at this kind of party dressed as a mascot?"
"Not our problem. Just make sure no one without an invitation gets through."
Adele moves toward the villa feeling victorious, along the stone pavement, oblivious to her surroundings. She could hear loud music pulses coming from somewhere from the hidden speakers, vibrating through the ground beneath her feet. As she walks looking down, she fumbles with the carrot-shaped purse that came complimentary along with the suit.
She was struggling to close its zipper after slipping her phone inside; the chain was uncooperative. Finally after giving many tugs at it, it slid shut.
Only then does she realize she has reached the villa's glass doors.
"What's the worse that can happen? You did well till now!" she tried to calm her nerves.
Adele took a deep breath and told herself not to do something stupid. But she already did, by coming here. Soon she will find out how not acting stupid is the least of her problem.
Lifting her oversized paws, she pushed one of the massive doors open and the scene before her shook her to the core.
Dim lights were swirling in purple, pink, and red, casting everything in a hazy, dreamlike glow. Smoke machines were pumping artificial fog across the marble floor. Both factors making it hard to see more than a few feet ahead.
And the people, Oh goddess, the people.
The air that came from inside the villa was thick with scent of intoxications, champagne, and lingering light pheromones of wild werewolves indulging in different activities, that Adele found too hard to digest.
Adele freezes just outside the entrance, her innocent mind was barely adequate for processing what she was seeing.
Bodies were pressing together everywhere she was looking, dancing and grinding against each other. The "dress code" she so carefully tried to follow was... present, but barely concealing anything from her sight.
A woman stumbles past a shocked Adele, wearing nothing but strategically placed rabbit ears and a tiny white miniskirt that does little to hide her lower cheeks. A man helps her walk, clad in leather pants, with a toy bow slung across his naked chest.
"This can't be right," Adele whispers inside her mascot head.
In the car, when she was thinking about this event, Adele saw herself finding suitors under the warm crystal chandeliers, surrounded by soft music. It was always like that in her imaginations and in the descriptions Lyra had shared with her in the past.
This dark lightings and the pleasure of flesh are a far cry from it. It's lewdness.
Just as she was about to turn and bolt, a group of werewolves enters through the door, pushing her further inside. She stumbles forward without control, and suddenly she finds herself in the middle of the dancing crowd.
Bodies jostled her from all sides, pushing and shoving, moving her this way and that. Her bulky costume made her an obstacle in the sea of barely-clothed partygoers. An elbow jabbed into her fluffy side. A drink sloshed across her paw. For Adele, it was pure disaster.
She tries to navigate herself toward... somewhere. Anywhere. A place less packed from where she can think about exit. But it's difficult as she can't see to the sides from inside the mascot head.
Eventually she manages to wriggle her way to a less crowded corner with some seating arrangements. Again, her heart stopped at the sight in front of her and she froze.
A young man was leaning back in the sofa chair with his head tilted up so that he can stare at the ceiling. His chest heaved and she couldn't see if his eyes were open but what she could see was a woman dressed in white pom-pom attached to nothing on her naked bottom, kneeling between the man's leg and .....and...Adele's brain shattered. She closed her eyes shut.
What did she see?
Adele didn't know much about male-female relationships, but she knew about private body parts and their textbook uses from sex-ed. She was not sure why that woman would put that part of a man in her mouth.
She spins away, only to witness another couple against the wall.
The woman was bending forward, hands braced against the wall, wearing nothing but fishnet stockings. The man behind her was in a bandana and unbuttoned jeans, pressing against her back with his hands roaming freely over her.
Adele whimpers and turns again but sees more of the same everywhere she looks. A woman was straddling a man on a chair on the dance floor, both of them barely clothed, moving in ways that can't be called dancing by any stretch of her imagination. Whereas in another booth three people were tangled up together scandalously.
"I need to leave," she said aloud, "I need to leave right now."
This was too much.
She turns toward where she thinks the door is, but the smoke and the lights and the impure scenes disorient her. Which way is the exit? Where did she come from?
Her bulky costume makes it impossible to move quickly. She pushes through the crowd, muttering apologies. Then she collides hard with something solid. A man.
"Whoa there, little Miss.Rabbit," he said, and grabbed her arm to steady her. "Where you're hopping to?"
"Thank you but excuse me, I'm sorry, I need to—"
"Hey, hey, calm down." Another voice said near her ear, sandwiching her from behind.
This sudden intrusion in her space caused her to flinch and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She had no idea when he came up behind her.
"We won't mind if you can thank us another way!" Adele felt uneasy.