307: Feather

ENTRY 307: Feather

"You'll pay to see this bird molt."
- HoloAd for "Let's Pluck"

In the darkened room, a scarlet swan with the grace of a ballerina takes the tage, its wings colored in darker patterns that make out the shapes of tribal stylings from old Earth. It moves with unhurried purpose through a display of acrobatics, captivating its audience as it circles the poll mounted on the center of the stage. As it launches itself into the air, catch the pole in one hand and spinning around, the music kicks in - and she flashes her tits to a ragged cheer from the crowd.

There are transhumans that will have sex with almost anything, but relatively few have the inclination to become aroused by uplifts - and uplifts in turn have limited sexual attraction to the hairless apes that surround them, so sexual entertainers are largely relegated by species to specific audiences. The exception is "crossover artists," who have developed particular routines, techniques, and cosmetic augmentations that allow them appeal to a larger portion of the transhuman population.

Feather is one of the most successful crossover artists, a headline dancer who has originated many of the basic techniques used in interspecies erotic dancing today, using their pseudo-human attributes and skill to titillate mixed audiences, combining aspects of mating dances and traditional pole and grind dancing into an eclectic but electric mix that leaves many transhumans speechless. A few tasteful adult XP recordings bring Feather a comfortable income and maintain their reputation, so nowadays they spend more time teaching than dancing, giving master classes on crossover artist techniques, giving tutorials on interspecies erotica, and occasionally being interviewed by zoologists for a unique perspective on non-human mating behaviors.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
12	15	20	18	12	17	13	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
8	1	26	5	52	20	4	30

Morph: Neo-Avian

Skills: Academics: Anthropology (Dance) 35, Academics: Psychology (Sex) 35, Academics: Sociology (Sex) 35, Art: Dance (Erotic) 60, Art: Writing 50, Climbing 35, Flight 60, Free Fall (Microgravity) 55, Deception (Distraction) 40, Infiltration 35, Interests: Erotica 40, Interests: Neo-Avians 45, Kinesics 50, Language: Native Czech 88, Language: English 60, Medicine: Physical Therapy 24, Networking: Media 25, Perception 25, Persuasion (Seduction) 33, Profession: Dance Instructor 45

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack, Cosmetic Augmentation (mammal sex traits), Endocrine Control, Enhanced Pheromones, Sex Change

Traits: Striking Appearance (1)

Using Feather

Sex sells, but you don't often see wild life documentaries for sale alongside hardcore pornography. As much as transhumanity has changed, basic anatomies and instincts mean that uplifts and humans tend to favor their own when it comes to traditional forms of adult entertainment like erotic dance. Feather is a liminal character that straddles those two worlds, and can be a good contact to help introduce the PCs with dealing with human-uplift relations. As a neutral character, Feather can fill in the typical role of a dancer/entertainer type, letting the PCs get involved with showbusiness (shady bits optional), or even education (and dreaded university politics) through their teaching; as an antagonist Feather is likely only to embroil the PCs in a plot accidentally, unless they have something Feather needs - and when you're being aggressively courted by a six-foot tall anthromorphic goose, you damn well know it.

Seeds

• Unknown to almost anyone, Feather is a Firewall agent, often used as a courier for delivering information under the guise of the neo-avian's touring schedule. At their habitat, Feather makes contact with the PCs, but before they can get the message someone shoots the neo-avian with a laser. The wound isn't fatal, but Feather's cortical stack interface is damaged; the PCs will need to protect Feather and figure out a way to get the neo-avian healed up or access the cortical stack to get the message out, all while under attack from an unknown assailant.
• Feather has fallen in love - but the bride/groom's family is unsupportive of the union of their sex-switching son/daughter to an erotic neo-avian performer. While Feather arranges the wedding and tries to placate their beloved's family, the neo-avian also hires the PCs to find some dirt on the local matriarchs and patriarchs to blackmail them into silence. Unsurprisingly, the clan heads hire the PCs to do the same thing with Feather. Will the PCs play both sides and profit, or force everyone to come clean? And what happens when the bride/groom decides to resleeve into a neo-avian morph?