I was worried about the end when Cherie would find out...it must have been one fine suit if Tyler could drink while wearing it!

What's the novel's title?

Thanks for reading, Hauke.

Tyler's "fur" is glued directly to his skin, so it moves with him. But since clothing is part of the costume he only needs the face and head, neck and upper chest, hands and wrists, and a tail. His muzzle is made of latex and is kinda short. drinking would be a problem and I really can't say how he accomplishes this, it's classified... well, okay it's not. In truth, I don't know.

Maybe if his latex lips are within an inch of his real lips, and maybe since his mouth extension is made of rubber and glued to his lips and face, he can kinda just poor the drink in and sort of slosh it back. I suspect he's wearing something red over his real teeth so they're not noticeable.

Or maybe he suffered a tragic accident involving bicycle handlebars when he was 13, so he has no teeth in the front of his mouth and wears a dental appliance when he wants to pass as a human.

Never really thought it through.

The novel (it's a novella right now, I'm expanding it) is titled Melpomene's Daughter.

I admit I've never really been into stories that reference both the furry fandom and real anthro characters, because to me, if real anthro characters existed, this fandom would suddenly seem really creepy. (Or maybe I should say "creepier"?) I mean, I guess you could make a parallel and say that the people who would still be involved could be called "transspecies" instead of transgender, and go with more of an Otherkin/therian-inspired idea of being an anthro trapped in a human body, but... I don't know; it just personally doesn't work for me.

Incidentally, regarding the drinking question, you might want to think about this in the revision: for a couple Halloweens, I wore a latex prosthetic made by Lyonshel that's similar to what you're describing, where it covers the forehead, cheeks, and nose and comes down just to the top of the upper lip. You can eat and drink in it, but drinking is far easier through a straw. What I found interesting is that the instructions mentioned to be careful drinking alcohol that way, because apparently when you drink alcohol through a straw, it can affect you more quickly and potently. I don't know if that just has to do with the fact that you probably drink faster, or don't realize how much you're drinking, when you're sucking it down through a straw as opposed to sipping a drink, but there you are.

Thanks for the comments.

In this storyworld Cherie truly is the first of her kind. Maybe her presence will kill the furry fandom? ... Naaa, prolly not.

Tyler's mother is native American and her belief system includes the idea of totem animals, and everyone has a totem animal. But her son has a much stronger connection to the animal-spirit world than typical, which causes his mother to think that in a pre-Colombian society he would have been a shaman or had some other spiritual role. In modern terms Tyler is a spiritual therian. He goes to Anthrocon to hang out with other animal-centric people and specifically to connect with a handful of other spiritual therians.

When I first wrote this in '05 I didn't know about therians. The 7th paragraph of the new rewrite specifically mentions (twice) that Tyler is a therian and that's why his wife Marisa left him. In the final section Tyler will explain to Cherie what theriananthropy means to him and about his connection to totem animals through his mother's side of the family.

My fox characters (other stories) drink using straws. In a human dominated society straws make the most sense and are the simplest. But in a society dominated by morphs with a muzzle, I'd think they'd use drinking bowls and lapping up one's drink would be acceptable. So straws? Somehow straws don't quite seem "cool" with cocktails.

Maybe if Lin served their cocktails in a sipper cup.

Of course, it's worth pointing out that there are also many therians who wouldn't go near AC or the furry fandom in general...

Quite true. Some therians see furries as wanna-bees.

I had a lot of fun reading this. The first two sections were so full of personality, I was immediately drawn to the characters. And I think that is what really sells this story, you're characters. The last part, well...that's where the story felt a little off. It just seemed to be going in fast forward, if that makes any sense. Like too much information was revealed all in one shot, and I felt like it should have be drawn out over a few more sections. Maybe if I read the preceding novella, I would've understood it better. I still enjoyed the heck out of this story though, and I'd love to see where this piece goes if you ever continue it.

"The last part, well...that's where the story felt a little off. It just seemed to be going in fast forward, if that makes any sense."

Thanks. Not only does that make sense, but it fits with the other critique I got on this story. Every section needs reworking. I originally wrote this in '05 and all I did was fix a few small-scale issues before I posted it here. The writing's good, but the storytelling's off.

Currently I have two short stories about Dr. Avant that I'll Web-publish to generate interest in my upcoming novel, which I'll try to sell to a publisher. I can see where I could use Dr. Avant in a second novel that takes place after this short story, but I have only vague ideas for that swirling about in my noggin at this time.