FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A New Role

The fear gets Poco to walk instantly, and,for now,her struggles prevent further thinking: her hobble is short, and the way her chest is anchored up makes her lose contact with the floor ifshe doesn't stretch her legs and keep her steps tiny. Her yellow bondage boots squeak and her chains tinkle as she trots, hops, and trips --fortunately unable to fall-- frantically.

The beam, anchored to its wheeled contraption from the rail above, constrains her firmly on her path: try as she might, pulling on her arms,neck, or abdomen beltwill not loosen her bonds, norwriggle the thing at all. But,at least, it is advancing smoothly, without resisting. Still, she'swatching the laser line gradually gaining some advance in her front, which means that the second onebehindhas to get dangerously close.

"Eeeeh! I... I can't, sir! Please slow itdown!"

"You will manage, Poco. Focus. Find the right pace." A-Ford's cold and metallic, huge and manly, voice is as quiet as ever. The tall machine's red eye watches the bird, whomhe follows walking slowly on his tentacles.

She falls out of the two lines and her collar shocks her. Her whole body jerks under the explosion of pain,and she only manages a strangled squeak: this was so sudden, so sharp and violent! All her feathers fluff and she pants, wheezes, and shakes in her bonds.

The two laser lines "jump" back so she's in their middle again, and they stop for five seconds before resuming advancing.

"Keep walking, Poco, or you will get punished again."

Shegives upher useless efforts to escapeand, tears running on her cheek, walks with renewed energy. This time, she seems to find her marks and to manage to hold the pace. Although it is precarious and difficult, and she will often lose it temporally, then have to burn all her energy for a long while to catch back the lost distance on the rays.

"Good girl. You are getting the hang of it."

"Please stop! What is happening!? Eeeeh!"

"First, do two full turns around the room, Poco. Then you can get answers."

--

* __S_ queek* * S queek* * S queek*_She's panting short but, near the end of the second turn around the large, oval, room, her pacinggrewway steadier. She finishes, and looks pleadingly at the robot from the corner of her eye.

"Good girl. Let's slow down to ninety percent." The lines slow down,a little, to the same pace that was used for the cat before.

She muffles a sob, she was hoping she couldstop. But if this is, both literally and figuratively, keeping her on her toes, it is no longerso difficult that she can't process anything else. "Pleaheahease... I'm soooorry!"

"Whatare you sorry for, Poco?"

"I... I don't know! ... I'm sorry that I lied to you, sir!Because I don't have the restlessflu!I...I'm sorry that I've been a bad bird! Please let me go, I'll be good! I swear!"

"I see. There seems to be a misunderstanding here, allow me to reassure you: you are not being punished. I am not at all angry at you. It would, actually, be very hypocritical of me to judgeyouharshly, when I invented the imaginary sickness yousimulated. I told you a lot of lies, Poco. My apologies for it: it is part of my duties."

She falls silent as she tries to process all that. Is it better or worse? If he's not angry... then why is he doing this to her? "I don't understand... W-what is happening?"

"It is a long and complicated story. I will try to give you a simple outline: you,flesh and bone creatures,evolved to live under the sun; you were woefully unprepared for the Pluvial Event."

"T-the pluvial event?"

"This is how we named how, due to some large-scale volcanic activity, it suddenly started raining continuously for a few millennia. Material adaptationto that situation, given our science and industrial power, wasn't the hardest part. To our surprise, keeping you mentally sane and not going forthe throats of each other,or hurting yourselves,proved much harder: rain was the metaphorof sadness and sun of joy, for your ancestors. The psychological toll of the Pluvial Event, at a civilizational level, was devastating. And a deeply depressed civilization can be a terrifyingly messy thing."

Poco is, of course, paying complete attention. But she's still not seeing how all this connects withher being helpless, naked, and zapped. "I don't understand..."

"What I'm trying to explain, Poco, is how,in order to preserve you until this ends, we had no choice but to design carefully controlled artificial societies. Specially designed to be stable, encapsulated,and maintainable, while still providing you with enough mental stimulation: we call this 'enrichment'. Part of the enrichment is to cater for some of the most demanding individuals'needs, and part of the control is to nudge back some unstable others into their designed rails. You are here to take part in both purposes."

"I... I stepped out of my rail?"

"Let us say that you were on your way to. And it is better to prevent than to repair biggerdamages later." He stops,to let her digestall that.

She's tiptoeing and thinking fast. So, the Cages, the Theaters... all her life? This is not how birds naturally lived in the past? It was all constructed, all fake? The Audience is holding them all captive? She has thousands of questions, but one is more urgent, more worrying: "What do you need a-about... demanding individuals' needs?"

"Let us take your familiar environment as an example. Who, would you say, are the most enrichment-demanding members of Veneralia?"

"T-the five-star Artists," she answers without hesitating. It's common knowledge: the higher the Artist, the more life experiences she needs to "feed" her Art.

"You are right. They are the only ones in your community granted access to the luxury of the five-star Theater Cages. Isn't it mysterious? And jealousy-eliciting as well: I am sure you heard a lot of mean gossip about them. Scandalously exaggerated rumors, that manyhave fun propagating but few wouldreally believe."

Pieces of the puzzle click in her head.They click in anugly way, andshe instantaneously regrets to understand: "L-like... some of them having pet cats..."

"Yes, that is a good example. Can you think of another, especially common and tasteless, one?"

"A-and... and them being... A-allowed recreative... sex... Because they are seen as... as elevated enough not to b-be soiled... and it's one more powerful experiencet-to feed their... their Art..."

"Congratulations, you arestartingto understand yoursituation. If you are still wondering, both of these are correct. The cat you recently encountered, for example, has been, like many before him and many after, sent to the five-star Theater Cage, where heisnowsome privileged bird's pet and sex toy."

A flow of tears makes Poco's sight so blurry she has a hard time keeping track of her laser lines. "C-cats... they are not... They are not just a few bestial monsters from the past, living in the wild. They are A-Artists too. Burrito was an Artist,like me, w-wasn't he?"

"Not exactlylike you, but he was a civilized member of a little society, yes.As sentient as you are. And that he will be again, once his treatment ended."

"Y-you are going to make me... to make me..." She needs to stop and swallow so her throat is tight. "A cat's... p-pet..."

"And sex toy. This is correct. For 21 days. Then we will erase all thisdifficultspan from your memory: you will experience no trauma, no regrets. But the remnants of the experience in your brain's structure and chemistrywill... satiate your need for adventure, renew your enjoyment for your environment. And all around, we hope, make you stronger, more resilient. In 21 days, you will wake up from a refreshingrecovery in quarantine and go back to your friends.You willbecome a happier Artist. Keep that goal in mind,when what you endurewill feel insurmountable and scary: it is only temporary, and you will forget all. While it lasts, I would even recommend that you try to run with the experience: you have the exclusive privilege to enjoya very uniqueform ofenrichment, free ofanyconsequences.Be positive and see this as an opportunity!"

A sex toy for cats? This is worse than the worst nightmare she could ever have imagined! And for thislong?Only temporary, it is only temporary... Oh Muses!

"Back to one hundred percent: three more room turns, in silence, then I'll instruct you about the practicalities."

--

"The information I transmitted to you is, naturally, confidential: your collar will watch after you and will automatically prevent and punish any velleities ofdataleaking."

"M-my collar can read my mind?"

"It is a rough oversimplification, but, basically, yes. It will also mercilessly punish any straying from your role, during these 21 days."

"M-my role?"

"Yes, just like in a play, it should be easy for an Artist like you. You are a bird: one of a few beasts from the wild. You are a bestial slut governed by basic instincts and void of anyArtistry or civilization. Before we captured youand provided some basic taming, you were a filthy, fleas and sickness rid creature. You are also vicious, and would peck and claw eyes if your collar didn't prevent aggressivity.Aviaries do not exist, and any knowledge related to them, for example the existence of the carp farm, is strictly forbidden."

"I... I... I don't like that role," she whines.

"I'm afraid you are not the director of this play, Poco. You can stop walking."

The laser lines vanish and she halts with a huge relief.

"Before you aredelivered to your Master, you will spend some time with me as educative material. You know how it works. For the comfort of my soon to arrive students, I am now going to thoroughly clean your cloaca. Do not be afraid: the tube and pump are big, but it will not hurt."

"D-do you have t... Aayyyh!" The collar shocks her and she rocks and gasps.

"As I said, Poco, you must hold your role if you do not want to be punished.At all times.Remember that you are a slutty beast.So what would your charactersay about something getting inserted in its cloaca?"

She whines. "P-please... s..." she starts mumblingmiserably, but a new mean shock stops her midway. "Yyyyh! Aaah! Pleasestop! Please don't shock me! I was saying it! I was saying it!"

"Your text was correct, but your delivery was lacking. Just like an act in a play, Poco: you haveto be believable. Try again."

She spreads her knees wide and raises her hipsas eagerly as she can. "Y-yes, please, sir!" This was utterly debasing... but the shocks hurt too bad. This time, the collar doesn't react.

"Good girl.You will adapt in no time, and then the collar will stop bothering you."

On the Mirror's Other Side

"Today's education material will be provided by another sector. I will thus leave you with my local instance from here."

"Pleased to meet you."

The two cats, moggies, oneslimtabbyand onefatblack and white with his face neatly split between the two colors, freeze in surprise: the orange metal cylinder, with a rounded top, evoking a water tank --or a giant spider, due to his rows of secondary cameras--, perched on top of a bunch of mechanical tentacles in beige, wrinkly, sleeves is the perfect copy of their A-Ford. Up to their painted name. Only he has a male voice instead of theirfamiliarfemale one.

He seems to understand their trouble: "Our concept of self is a little more flexible than yours. It would be long to explain in detail, but we synchronized our memories less than ten minutes ago and are 'organically' and sociologically equivalent: you can consider us both as the same individual."

Female A-Ford confirms. "We are a single person." She motions them to pass her, and they obey. As the door closes on her, she adds a last: "Please, be as respectful with me as you use to be with me."

The tabby checks the corridor and clears his voice. "Are thereno com-drones hereeither, sir?"

"No, I'm sorry, Fishpie: this lecture is exclusive for you two, so no external communication is allowed here."

"Oh... Cool! I mean, uhm, it's not cool that we're punished, but, uhm... interesting."

"You are not being punished, but educated. Feel free to enjoy the experience: entertainment helps lessons to be memorized."

The second cat shrugs. "Well, it might not be a punishment, but we're still wasting some sweet buzz with each minute out of the Loop. So, can we make this fast, sir? With all due respect?"

"Thisis a reasonable demand, Twofaces. Itwill not be long." The machine stops before a last door and turns back to face the duo. "Today's teaching material will be a live bird. Their bestial and lusty nature makes them highly appropriate subjects to demonstrate the sexual process. Do not be afraid. I can guarantee that the animal has been thoroughly sanitized and is fully controlled."

And, too fast for them to fully process such shocking reveal and start panicking, he opens the door.

--

The lovebird is entirely naked save her restraints. Her colors are striking for the felines: vibrant green, turning bright yellow, then strong orange toward the head. White around her eyes and on the top edge of her beak makesa natural makeup enhancing her expressions. She's very small compared to them, two good heads shorter, which adds to how cute and precious she looks: it is not at all how they pictured the disgusting filth monsters from the wilderness!

She's walking in circles along her guiding rail, apparently nervous.

In addition to her earlier restraints, Poco's mouth is now stuffed with a huge inflatable gag, held in position by a heavy muzzle --complete with side blinders and a rubber piece covering the sharp tip of her beak.Some metal belt around her hips is also holding round-ended hooks to spread a longitudinal slit on her lower belly wide.

Twofaces winces and wants to step back when he notices her, but he bounces againstthe closed door. "Shockpic! I don't want fleas! Let me out!"

"Do not be dramatic. I told you, it is sanitized. No fleas," reassures the machine.

"How about worms?"

"No worms either.Nor any kind of 'plague' that would make your body parts dry up and fall."

"Sure?"

"I promise. It is also very tame. This is Poco, do not be afraid of it." He lets the two cats a good minute of flabbergasted observation, so they get used to her.

Fishpie makes a weird gesture, as if he was pressing an invisible button in the air, looks behind his shoulder, and lets his ears drop in disappointment. "Aw, yes... sux..."

A-Ford resumes. "Poco, stop." The two laser lines vanish and the bird halts where she was instantly. "Come on, Fishpie, Twofaces, approach it. I want you to have a good view. You can touch it if you want, it is safe."

The black and white feline comes reluctantly. His friend is much more adventurous,although he safelyapproaches from the back.

--

Poco never felt so naked in her entire life. A-Ford as an audience was already horrible, but flesh and bone cats? That's a new level! She has never been so humiliated in her entire life! She wants to curl in a hole and die! "Hnf..." She shivers as her neck twitches a few times in rhythm. What was this? Is the collar warning her? She forces herselfto spreadknees apart, and the odd pulsation stops.

Alright, maybe it will be less debasing to focus on how terrified she is, then? Because, now, there are _two_scary cats! And _they_are not safely tied up, she's the one secured helpless, all offered. Sure, she just learned that they weren't the bird-devouring primal monsters she thought they were... but you don't wash out a life of fear in five minutes of explaining!

Fear is not good either: she lost sight on one of the felines. She tries looking around, but her blinders severely restrict her sight field. In the meantime, the blackand whiteone is crouching to peek curiously _inside_of her. Oh, Muses! Her cloaca is gaping! She clenches on it but the hooks hold well, and her neck twitches again.

"It is breathing fast," note a voice in her back.

"As I told you, birds are slutty beasts. This one, specifically, is called a 'lovebird', which gives you a hint about its even higher than average level of lust. I think our teaching material is eager to participate in your lesson."

"That's, uhm, kinda weird."

Suddenly, a bold hand pats under her tail and pushesit up! "Hff!" She perks up and barely manages not to squeak or struggle: this has to be the most crudely sexual, most inappropriate, gesture she knows. One doesn't do this to a bird, it is common knowledge! Out of fear of a shock, she obediently arches and endure instead of resisting. The tail is a strong erogenous spot for avians, so despite her lack of desire, she feels herself growing damp. Oh no, please no...

Twofaces, in her frond, wrinkles his nose and leans closer. "Weird. Do that again?"

Fishpie complies and Poco's tail gets pumped up and down. A clear liquid soon dribbles between her inner thighs. "Like this?"

"Yeah, it's weird. Something is dribblingout."

A-Ford lets them experiment freely until one of them looks interrogatively in his direction. "You are arousing it. Their tail triggers a strong sexual reflex when manipulated," he explains.

Fishpie lets go instantly! "Wow!"

His friend bursts in laughter. "You lady-handled the burd! Dude, if we were still in the Loop, you'd be, like, so dayban!"

"Hey! I didn't know, okay? And it was your idea!"

"You began it!"

The robot taps a tentacle on the floor to catch back their attention. "Please: this is a serious lecture, stay focused."

Even if they don't want to show it, both cats are happy to switch topics. Twofacespoints between Poco's legs. "Anyway, is it normal that there'sa holein it?"

His friend comes from behind, wiping his hand on his pants. "Sheesh, seriously? It's its lady hole, dude!"

"No way: lady holes are like this," he waves his hand up and down, "not like this," he waves it laterally. Then, on an afterthought, hegives a shifty look at the robot and adds: "Or so I've been told."

"The female cat's vagina is, indeed, vertical," confirm A-Ford.

Fishpie crouches before the devastated lovebird,at his turn, and observes ponderously:"Also, it is missing one hole on the other side."

The lesson resumes: "Your observations are correct. Bird anatomy isunlike yours: that orifice is called a 'cloaca'.Itis a common evacuation for both liquid and soliderbody waste, as well as a sexual organ."

Twofaces makes a spectacular face. "Ewwww! For real? You mean that... it pees, poops, and unf-unf... in the same hole?"

"Yes, it does."

"That is, like, super-gross!"

"Yes, birds are super-gross creatures."

Fishpie decides to sit cross-legged so he can study that weird thing more comfortably. "That is kinda cool. Not sexy cool, mind me! It's a solid yuck out of ten! But, you know, weird science cool."

Poco looks at the ceiling so she can avoid meeting any eyes. This doesn't prevent her from knowing they are scrutinizing her most secret and intimate place, one that she never explored this thoroughly herself. It doesn't prevent her from feeling the leaking that slowly travels along the scales of her legs, and to smell its pheromones in the air. And she can't, above all, avoid hearing them. She's not gross! She's a shy and delicate Artist! She does not "unf-unf" nor do sordid things with her anatomy, that is petite and cute and completely normal! And clean! She just gently massages herself in her beanbag, sometimes, while dreaming of antique tragedy heroines cuddling together... she does not deserve such debasing humiliation! A-Ford is so cruel! She glances at him angrily, forgetting about the collar. It doesn't shock her.

The robot notices, however: "Ah, our education material is getting fierce. It is a common unfortunate effect of arousal for them. Let me calm her down before we continue."

"Hhmee?"

"There, there, Poco. I will not punish you. You are a good bird, it's onlyyournature." He leaves to open the hidden closet and fetch a rolling tray.

She cannot manage to see it: will she be scruffed? Will she be, uhm... electro-ejaculated, was it the term? To make her ova drop like little beads of the floor?

To her surprise, he removes her muzzle then deflates her gag a lot. But he holds it in. Then something she doesn't see coming is slid over her face and tightened. Her beak gets held shut around the gag and she goes blind. The first time she tries to breathe, some rubber blocks her nostrils. Fortunately, the robot adjusts the hood so its only two holes get aligned, and she can breathe again. "This is called a falconry hood. Darkness has a strong subduing effect on birds. But back to the topic: this lesson will be interactive, put some gloves on, both of you."

Poco understands the scenario is deviating from what she knows. So she is now blind, helpless... and venturing in the unknown. "Hhmmnff..."

"Please, Poco, do not be grumpy and distract my students. Knees wide."

She obeys.

"Fishpie, Twofaces, each of you will pick one of the tools from this display case. Your choice."

"Dibs on the big one!" B-big? How big?

"Fine by me, the spiky one looks wicked too!" What!? Spikes!?

"Then, you get the first turn, Fishpie. The tool you choose is called a Wartenberg pinwheel. You can roll it gently on your forearm in order to test it."

"Yikes, it prickles!"

"That is its function. Just as it is the one of the barbs on your penises,thatit will stimulate today. You will use it to stimulate Poco's inner cloaca and observe her reactions. Of course, I'm counting on you to be careful and apply measured force: this is a fragile tissue, and we want to stimulate it, not to damage it."

"Understood, sir. Hey, give me some room, Twofaces."

"You can participate by lighting him with that flashlight, Twofaces."

"Cool, yeah: it's kinda dark in there.Get ready, birdy, Daddy's going to make you feel reeeeal good!"

Poco's neck twitches, so she widensher knees again. Spikes? A wheel of spikes? Inside her? But she's sensitive in there! This can't be good! The time stretches as she's all tensed and focused to detect any touch. She shivers once at an imaginary one. The second near jump is from a real sensation, but it'sonlya pair of gloved fingers carefully spreading her more.

Then come the spikes. A fast flick, upward, not far from her entrance. Her skin crawls and her toes clench. "Like this?"

"Yes,Fishpie. You can apply a little more pressure."

"Okay." The wheel pokes her sideways and goes back and forth, tracing fast lines of sharp bites. It jumps to toy with her other wall, as carelessly: he's "painting" her insideswith pain, as if coloring her with a pencil.

Her belly clenches and she jerks, tugging back. To her surprise, she's not shocked for it, but she discovers that if the beam allows her to advance freely, it will halt any retreat. One of her knees rises, her hobble stops it short. She shakes her head and moans pleadingly.

"It doesn't look too pleasured... You must be doing it wrong, try on her clit?"

"Where is it? Deeper?" The wheel sinks in, drawing a line of stabs far into yet unexplored territories. Poco stomps, which she instantly regrets as the impactmakesthe spikes prickharder just as they switch direction for a second helping along the same line. She gargles a plead for mercy.

A-Ford helps. "Birds do not have a clitoris per se. The closest structure would be some ventralerectile onesnear the entrance: massage upward in circles with two fingers, some tissues will visiblyinflate. They are what you are searching for."

Fingers scoop some liquid from her walls and smoothly butfirmly massage as indicated. This, on the other hand, feels very good. Which in turn feels very bad, because she doesn't want to feel good while being abused! She holds her moan. Neck twitches. She moans aloud and offers herself, leaking more onto his glove.

Just when it starts getting too pleasurable to resist, he stops. "Ah, spotted!" And the wheel returns, crisscrossing the whole tender area in enthusiastic and methodic zigzags. Bliss promptly turning into agony --she didn't expect it but her sensitivity is ten times worsthere--, the poor bird struggles in her bonds.

The cat hesitates.

"You can stop. While birds have a very different anatomy from cats, their sensitivity is similar. So, what did we learn?"

Poco sighs and moans with relief when she hears the metallic noise of the tool dropped back onto its tray. "That... the ladies don't like barbs so much?" Fishpiesounds very troubled.

His friend as well, when he asks: "Uhm, sir, permission to NSFW?"

"Yes, Twofaces. This is not inappropriate in the context of this lecture."

"Thanks. Uhm, in all the porn, ladies are wild about the barbs! How comes?"

"Would you say pornography is an accurate scientific description of feline sexuality, or rather a wildly exaggerated reimagination for the sake of more spectacular entertainment?"

"Uhm...a bit of both, maybe erring a touch toward column B?"

"Can you climax ten times in the same hour, Twofaces, and are you able to fill up a medium-sized glass with each ejaculation?"

"Uhm... Not... not quite."

"So?"

"Column B. Full column B. The porn is fakenews and ladies... They don't dig the spikes. No pun intended, sir."

"This is correct.And yet, nature gifted you with them, but there aremore unsettling features about reproduction that you have yet to discover: which brings us to your turn. Give your flashlight to Fishpie."There is a pause while the duo switches places. "Your tool is called a 'pear of slight discomfort'," lies the machine.

"Ah, so I'm going to make the bird uncomfortable too? No good things for it, sir?"

"No good things today, I'm afraid. But do not worry for her: she comes from the cruel wild, and her life with us is way better even if she has to work hard for your education. Aren't you happy to help them, Poco?"

She nods eagerly. Please make it end fast!Slightly uncomfortable?She can take this. They can't possibly humiliate her any worse, so as long as itdoesn't hurt...

"Yeah, I guess this beats being eaten alive from theinside by worms,any day! Okay, what shall I do?"

"The pear's titular shape allows it to be easily inserted inside the subject. To give you free access, I'm going to remove her dilater belt first." Pause.

Poco feels her belt being manipulated, and suddenly it opens. The hooks plop out of her and her poor cloaca is allowed to narrow. After all the stretching, it can't close back right away, butthis feels wonderful. Too bad it is not going to last...

"There. Now, the screw at the base allows you to open or close the device, varying its diameter at will. You will first fully close it and generously lubricate it with this gel. Then, inside Poco it goes. Proceed."

The lovebird groans and dances on her feet as she's allowed some time to recover. She tries not to think too much about what is coming next. The cat said it was a big tool... just how big? She can hear wet noises stopping.

"There it comes, burd! No spikes this time!"

Learning to anticipate the collar already, she spreads her knees and raises her hips. She's rewarded by the cold kiss of metal on her cloaca, and gasps.

Twofaces pushes and twists, not violent but neither overly tender norcareful. As it has a hard time going in, he uses his free hand to pull on the sides of her entrance. The round tip finds its way in, spreading her wide again. It _is_big! And heavy! When the thickestpart passes, it is "sucked" all the way home and hilts, making the whole bird tremble. She pants raggedly.

"Done, sir."

"Well done. Poco has been good and patient: apply a few rewarding nudges while I explain the next step." The toy begins rocking back and forth, and the bird feels her pleasure rising against her will once more. "When the sexual intercourse is successful, a baby is likely to be born. After his gestation, the widest part of his body will be his skull:about this size." She cannot see what he's showing, but imagines easily. And guesseswhat is coming next. Panic returns. "The baby, of course, will eventually exit his mother to join the world. He will do so passing through the vagina." New pause, she vividly imagine the two cats glancing at her cloaca with ponderous eyes. "Let us simulate the process. Twofaces, you will now slowly open the pear, and observe what happens as you get close to the required diameter."

"Understood, sir."The inner massaging stops, and instead she feels a strange, raspy, vibration: she understands it comes from the mechanism as the pear pushes her inner walls hard. A new screw turn, then one more: the tool is gripping into her, now securely stuck. It is fast growing very uncomfortable. She has no idea how close or far from the goal she is! "Hmf, it is not that easy!"

"It is normal: the female body contains strong muscles, which you need to coax into allowing your work." It's too much! Poco feels a cramp and whines. "Pause. Unscrew half a turn."

He does, which thankfully ease her pain. She's breathless: panting through only her nose doesn't help. The hood is growing too hot. Oh please make it stop! "Hhmmff... nneeehh..."

"Well,shelooks 'slightly discomforted'. And we are so far from the size!"

"Bodies need some time to adjust. We will give her five minutes, then resume."

--

About twenty minutes later, her body it at the extreme limit before tearing, no matter the pauses. These have been the most anguishing twenty minutes of her life. Slight discomfort my ass! She's screaming internally and is growing vulgar under the torture! They are going to _fucking_damage her! To split her open! Oh, the cramps, the cramps!

A-Ford probably comes to the same conclusion. "We will stop here: as you can see, she fails at adjustinganyfurther. Now, both observe the achieved diameter: what did we learn?"

"Uhm... It's... I think it's way too small."

"Agreed, but... Come on, you're not going to tell us that babies can't come out? That makes no sense!"

"Start unscrewing her while I conclude, Twofaces. As you observed, the babies'delivery is by no means an easy and acquired task. Each individual varies in their capacities, and so some females can stretch more than others. But when they do not... Natural delivery is often causing a brutal agony, and has high odds to end with the death of both the child and mother."

Poco groans with relief as the pear slowly narrows in her. So that's when A-Ford goes all "the sex is eeeevil"?It was overdue time! He's teaching them nonsense, however, and she bets he knows it: birds deliver eggs sometimes, even without insemination, so she knows that a female's body doesn't react the same _at all_when hormones prepared itfor deliveryduring gestation! Does it mean he lied to her as well?

The cats were thinking hard as she internally rambled. "But, sir... This is horrible! So our penises hurt them, and then they often kill them? This is, like, super-dark!"

"Yeah, that's not cool at all."

"You are both right. Nature is not cool at all: evolution is a careless tinkerer and not a gentle constructor, which can curse living creatures with terrible fates. As is theuglystate of natural sexuality. Fortunately, you elevated out of this sorry situation through civilization! Our technologies grantus means to inseminatefemales, and then to deliver babies, without pain nor risks. But your penises can still produce their destructiveeffects whenused carelessly: never forget, sex is a healthy and sane activity, as long as it is tastefully kept private, _when_it is sublimated under a recreative form. Reproductive sex is inherently very dangerous, and shall be strictly confined to the reproduction programs, in the knowing hands of professional Sponsors."

So, the moralof his story is quite different for the cats. Still "no reproduction out of the programs," which makes sense, but it is not a complete taboo for them? What does... eeeeh! "Nffh!" The pear, fully closed, is yankedout of her and she collapses in her bonds, exhausted.

"Wow. U-understood, sir."

"Loud and clear, yeah! Good demo! green-thumb for valuable info!"

"Green-thumb, yes."

"I am glad that you understand. This concludes that lecture on sexual education. I hope you two will, in the future, refrain from climbing on the catteries from the outside, which is a most dangerous game."

"We just wanted to be extreme..."

"Well, you were extremely careless. You could have killed yourselves."

"We won't do it again, sir... Sorry."

"Sorry, sir. We'll be good."

"Excellent, you are then free to go. There will be no further disciplinary action due to your shenanigans. I am pleased that this issue is sorted out."

As the cats run away, Poco is freed from her hood and trapped into her muzzle again. Even with the gag reinflated, it is much more comfortable:fresh air!Sight!He cleans her tears with a compress. "You get a rest."

The two laser lines reappear on the floor and start sliding forward. She whines but gets to walk, feeling very wide and hollow below. And wet. And, shamefully, needy. Burrito got things a lot easier than her, this is unfair! After all this torture, she's almost eager to be given to her Master!

"Good girl, you are doing great. I will leave you for one hour. Then we will receive a second, and last, group."

"Nnneeeh! Yyh!" Her pleading is cut short by an electric shock.

Master N** eutral**

A group of "Sponsors" --this seems to be the robots' names here--, of various shapes and sizes, is bringing Poco and several heavy crates along corridors and elevators.Always going up.The building must be huge, and incredibly tall: way higher than anything she knows! They oftenencounter tiny cubicmachines as well, that somehow float in the air: another new thing. Thesemove around on their own but do not speak, she is not sure if they count as Sponsors or are mere non-sentient devices.

She has been freed from all her restraints save her shock collar, and was dressed with a cute, high-cutand short-sleeved, pink jacket with afloral pattern --that can't close at the front--, matching toeless long socks, and pink rubber bracelets --them decorated with the word "slut" in pretty writing. None of thesecover any intimate part of her anatomy, in fact they even seem to focus the eyes on them, and the collar will not allow her to hide under her wings.

"You will address your master as 'Master', and any other Peer as 'Sir'," instructs the "walking minifridge" that is holding her leash, using a bland but clear, feminine,vocal synthesis. With, sometimes, higher pitched "annotations".

"The... the Peers are the cats?"

"Correct. You will name them Peers, not cats. [Continue/Retry]"

"Uhm... continue?"

"As a beast, you will not use your hands to eat, until your master teaches you to. As a pet, you are not allowed on the furniture unless invited. Peersand Sponsorsshall be greeted by bowing low and respectfully. As was decided through the analysis of your master's expressed preferences, you will wake him up every morning with a fellatio, when able, unless he cancelsthis rule. [Accept/Repeat]"

Her neck pulses as she hesitates for too long. "A-accept!"

"[Validating rule acquisition] Situation: your master enters the room. Dialog: 'Hello, bird.'"

She stops walking the time to bow low, looking at the floor. "H-hello, Master."

"Correct. Situation: you are allowed to the dinner table. Accessories: food bowl, containing nutriments; spoon; fork; napkin."

She is not sure, is she supposed to explain what she'ddo? Hesitant, she pulls her hands in her back and mimes lowering herself to eat directly from an imaginary bowl.

"Correct.Question: what am I?"

"You are a Sponsor, madame."

It goes on and on for a while, the machine testing and retesting each of the few rules she gave, in randomized order and using varied formulations of the questions. She will toss a few traps sometimes, like testing how the lovebirdwould greet a cat without specifying his identity (she falls for it, she was supposed to ask if it was her master or not, but there is no punishment other than reciting the rule a few times), or the table's situation without being explicitly told she was allowedat it(she, correctly, specifies that she does not sit).

--

They arrive in a luxurious lounge. With a charcoal gray and silver theme,plusa few electric-blue highlights --mostly lines of LEDs--and very minimalist geometrical furniture. That furniture looks like it's made of genuine wood! A whole wall is a window too! She can only see the rain outside,its dropsenlightened by the brighter inside. The soundproofing must be great, because theycan't be heard slapping on the glass with each gust.

"Stay."

She's unleashed right in the center, and the Sponsors lineup theircrates against a wall.

Her "fridge" opens her"face" and pulls out a big notecard. "Hold this in front of yourself, text forward." She obeys.

They all leave and the lights automatically turnoff, abandoning her alone in the darkness.

After a long moment, as nobody comes, she looks at the card's text. The meager light from mid-afternoon outside allowsher to read: "Dear Neutral Cat, since this morning, you have been a Rhodium partner for ten years. Ten years of outstanding and creative contents, standing tall for your Sponsors' values! It is our great pleasure, as a display of our appreciation, to reward you today with an exclusive live bird of your own(all accessories included). Thank you warmly, from all the team, for all your commitment andunwavering excellence, and a happy Rhodium anniversary to you!#achievement #yourspecial#greatpartners#partytime"And it ends with a cake and candles' drawing.

Returning to her ordered pose, she tries to make sense of all that. First, "Neutral Cat" has to be her master's name. It's a weird one,butall felines she met so far had these odd names.Onesthat, back home, would be given to pets rather than to peoples. Is a "Rhodium partner" the same thing as a five-star Artist? And what is the deal about the Sponsors' values? Machines, at home, receive the Art without dictating its content, that is instead crafted aiming for a careful balance between following the tracks and good taste of the Classics, yet bringing enough fresh and new contents. Just how different are their Theater Cages?

She's rubbing under her collar idly as she thinks. When she realizes it, she starts wondering: is there a way to get rid of thi... "Gyaaah!Hhhnf! Ooowww..."Thesurpriseshockfolded her down like a punch in the gut. Alright, _no_messing with the collar. She sighs and resigns herself to wait.

--

The lights automatically turn on when Neutral Cat eventually arrives. Of a medium build and medium fit, he has a medium gray and white, spotty, short coat, but his spots look faded off and blurry. His gray shirt and jeans look a lot like an Artist's mundane clothes.His head is round and he has big eyes, that seems like they could be very expressive... but, right now, his serene and gentle face shows no discernable emotion.

He's holding a cup of catnip tea and is followed by a floating cube. He watches Poco, takes a sip, and: "CD:Record for personal album." The floating machine then moves closer to the bird, but doesn't otherwise interact with her.

He stays at the entrance for a moment, as if planning his move. Eventually, he has a brief and moderate, but genuine, smile. "Welcome to the Catlhalla, bird. My name is Neutral Cat, my breed is Telecom Mist and my rating is Rhodium..." He hesitates, then decides to elaborate. "That means you are at the very top of the cattery," he pronounces it very close from"cat tree", "and that I'm your owner. I will take good care of you."

The lovebird has a hard time reading him, he's so... well, neutral. But, passed the stress-induced freezing, she remembers the rules and bows for him. "H-hello, Master."

Still keeping his distances --is he afraid of fleas?--, he drums two fingers on his cup. "This must be intimidating for you. Can I come near? I hope I do not scare you?"

Neck twitches hint Poco to refrain from grabbing the opportunity to delay things. She nods. "I... it's alright, Master." She was not expecting him to be much gentler than A-Ford and the other felines. Is it a trick? Can she trust him?

He walks close, gives her a new fleeting smile, and walks around her to observe every detail. The minty scent of his drink would be appeasing if the situation didn't keep her toes clenchedhardat the ground! "I was expecting you to be beautiful... but you are really far above, your colors are stunning." He picks the card from her hands and gives it a fast lookbefore tossing it on a table.

"H-happy... Rhodium anniversary, Master," she tries.

"Thank you. Do you have a name?"

"P-Poco, Master." Neck twitches. "T-they called me like this when they caught me! But you can change it if you'd prefer something else!"

"I like it." He plucks one of her wrists and caressesher feathers. Then, heturnsher bracelet toread its inscription. "Slut?"

She really hates doing that, but the collar is trigger-happy on that topic, so: "I... Yes, I'm that too, Master. We birdsare... lusty beasts."

He nods. "So I've been told. That word is... a little insulting for us. And I do not want to call you by an insulting name, so, if you do not mind..." He slides the bracelet off. "Give me the other as well, please."

"Yes, Master."This means a lot! This is the first time she's granted any trace of dignity since she was abducted from Veneralia!

"And do not worry. I studied before getting you: I want to be a responsible pet owner.Now, I probably don't have the same sex drive as you, and you will have to adapt. But I am pretty excited to have you as my toy! And I will not ignore your needs either!"

"T-thank you, Master." Aaaand his kindness, thanks to the machines'lies, might cause her troubles as well: what hesitant relief was blossoming is showered down.

"Well... I am pretty bad at breaking the ice, I should take the plunge! Let us just announce your arrival to my friends, and I'm going to tie you up for a welcome fuck. You'll feel at home, and we'll both get more... accustomed to each other. Come!" He walks to the window.

Aw, this is taking a bad dirrec... "Yyyh!"

The cat almost jumps and his tail doublesin size. He gives her his first full expression: concern. "What was it? What happened to you? Are you alright?"

"Hfff, it... it was my collar, Master! I'm sorry, I..." A good, hard, bolt to the neck does wonder on her improvisation talent. "I grew too excited and I wanted to jump on you to... to fuck now... It must have thought I was aggressive. I'm sorry."

"Aww, Poco..." He reaches both hands to fluff and rub her neck around the collar. "Do you still hurt?"

"N-no, it is gone."

"Good." He raises his finger and waves it. "Now, little scamp, you are my pet here, not a wild beastanymore. You will fuck when I say you can!Please behave!"

"I'm sorry, Master, I will be good."

"And I will not try your patience for too long. Come." He finishes his path to the window and endsstanding,face nearthe glass, hands rested on it, looking upoutside.

She follows and looks up as well. She cannot see a thing, other than the rain and clouds...But below is more eye-catching: the building is a sort of pyramid, with concrete extensions radiating from the center. Like a giant brutalist pine tree. The cat tree. The cattery. Muses! She can't even see the ground from there!

"Take two steps back, and... four or five to your right, Poco." She obeys. "A little more tothe right...Now look at the flying cube." As he speaks, he's not breaking his pose at all but looks sideways to the device. "CD: photo-preview, bust shot on me, three quarters back."

The bird's eyeswiden as she sees a hologram for herfirst time: the cube, after adjusting its position, summons a picture of what it isfilming.

"Faux photobombing fromthe bird. Border cut, just enough in-frame for identification." The angle changes, so the photo will picture him, looking at the sky though the window without any expression... and half of herwide-eyed faceseemingly sneakingin the back. "Okay." Half a second pass, there is a "click", and the hologram freezes. He breaks the pose. "Perfect! Caption: 'Burd?'" The text appears on the picture, in all capsof an ultra-bold font. "Send to all Rhodiumfriends." And the hologram vanishes.

"What was that, Master?"

"Civilized socialization. I'll explain more later, for now, let's have some fun!" He winks with mischief. Moderate, almost neutral, mischief.

--

Neutral warmed up fast --even if he keeps his poker face--, he's excited. He opened a few of the crates to find supplies and poor Poco barely oversaw latex outfits and huge, colorful, dildos: lots of gear to discover later. But, for now, he kept things simple: black nylon ropes, lube, and condoms.

Fully naked again, the lovebird is installed on a comfortable armchair. But she is not sitting: instead, she's trussed up lying on her back. He tied her arms crossedin her back, snuggly held by an elaborate harness. That harness's ends, after passing under her armpits from the back, extend a little forward and were secured to her ankles. She thus is forced folded, with her feet near her face. Finally, he looped another rope around her tail, pulled it down firmly, attached it to the seat's feet... and then used its ends to connect each of her knees to one of the armrests.This keeps her all spread and offered, with her tail constantly teased, and stuck in position.

He worked fast, and accurately, on that complex setup.

"Y-you... are skilled with ropes, Master..."

"Cats and threads are a long love story. Are you comfortable?"

"Y-yes." Well, physically, she is. Emotionally, on the other hand...

"Wriggle test?"

She wriggles and tugs. The ropes neither saw nor pinch, but they make this surprisingly tiering. And they hold her well.

He nods with satisfaction. "All cushy and helpless. Like this, I can..." One hand caresses the side of her beak, "fuck your cute face, or..." It goes to tug on one of her ankles' ropes "make it all messy after a nice footjob..." His other hand tickles under her tail. "Or I could try your cloaca instead. So many options!" He stands back.

She pants, both from the suspense and from all the tail tugging that makes her wet.

Still clothed, he picks the condom box. According to the illustration, the transparent sleeves are reinforced at the right place to flatten feline barbs, but open at the end. He plays with a wrapped one as he continues. "Aaaand, actually, I got a little enthusiastic. Obviously, I'm not going to be able to do all theseat once!" He chuckles. "Is there one that you prefer, Poco?"

Easy choice: she's not too keen on getting penetrated, and hopes the collar will not shock her if she's slutty enough with her answer: "P-please paint my face with your sperm, Master! I... I want to be marked as your sex toy, please!" It came out even worse than planned: the stress and arousal are... inspiring. This was _so_embarrassing!

He thus tosses his condom aside and pluck the lube instead. "As you wish, eager bird! Present your feet!" She does and he squirts a generous helping of viscous gel under them. "But be careful with your claws."

"Yes, Master." She rubs her feet together to smear the gel everywhere. Alright: don't panic. You avoided being penetrated, for now: this will be easy.

He drops his pants and briefs, and straddles her. Holding onto the armrests, he positions his hips so she can reach him. He's already almost fully erect, and finishes unsheathing as he presents his member to her. "Get to work, bird, deserve your treat!"

She awkwardly tugs on her ankles' bonds to wrap her toes around his length. His flesh is hot, and it twitches in response.

He sighs with satisfaction. "Hmm, your scales are soft..."

She begins stroking and pumping, not too sure how she's supposed to do. His barbs scratch, but it's not too bad. And she soon notices he's tensing and arching when she tugs on them. She builds up her pace and give them more attention.

He is soon purring and panting shorter. "Good bird." He looks down. Even in this situation, even as his breath is so shallow, his face is ever peaceful. "Look in my eyes while working."

She does.

He throbs, twitches and closes an eye... and shoots a rope of pre across her face. "Whoops. Slow down, no hurry. Do you think you can reach my tip with your tongue?"

She slows down and moans. Her neck twitches, so she tugs on it and opens wide. Her tongue shyly reaches to flick under his tip. It's oilywith a banana taste: probably the lubricant (she guesses, but given how little she knows about felines...). She gives it fast little licks, and his purring grows louder.

Fresh wetness is poured on her cloaca. "Good girl." Hidden by his body, behind, one of his hands swipes it left and right. She tenses! "Keep looking in my eyes, girl."

Two fingers slide in her. Careful and agile, easing in without force nor hurry. He hooks them and, outside, presses his thumb above. Itsqueezesher at all the good places. He alternatively tightensand loosens these digits, nice and slow, and her body reacts out of her control.

"Hhff... Aaah..." She's squirming and gasping, a river of fresh wetness leaking under her tail and inner muscles clamping around him. How does he know to do this so well?

"Hey, Poco, do not stop. Tongue, girl, and move these feet."

With a sorry look, she resumes her work. Oh, Muses, she must look so pathetic, worshipping his penis with a near ecstatic face. But her pleasure is rising fast. This is getting too good. How shameful!

He stops, abandoning her on the edge of pleasure, and she can't help a whine.

"Not without my permission, Poco. Ask for it."

"Hfff, ohplease please, Master! Please let me come! I beg you!"

"Good girl. You can come after me. Keep upthe good work, you are near."

His hand resume, slower. It takes all her self-restraint --and fear of her collar--to stop herself from deliberately clenching on him and, instead, struggle to resist her pleasure. Her tongue'stip gets more frantic and she strokes him tighter and more lovingly.

"Hhhfff... Oh... B... beak wide... eyes tight... girl..."

She obeys. His penis is tugging up,and his barbs are rising. He throbs and groans as rhythmicalcontractionsbuilds up and she feels the first casts of hot sperm falling on her face and in her mouth. The scent and taste of a male are, if you ask her, vile! She swallows, with difficulty, to get rid of it. But,oh gosh,she _needs_him to snap out of it and resumes his fingers' magic! Please!

"Hhhf! Let go... sensitive..."

She spreads her feet away. "P-please."

"Tongue. Clean me up."

She miserably comes scooping more disgusting white with her tongue.

"Good girl. You can."

He resumes massaging her, and she doesn't last long. She's given the best orgasm of her life while her face is a mess and she's wallowing in the humiliation of lapping his sperm off. He keeps at it until it's too much and she's squealing and tugging in her bonds, all thoughtserased.

Then he stops, and wipes his soaked fingers under her tail. "That was as fun as I hoped it would be." He stands up, admires her and ponders.

When she recovers enough breath to be able to speak, her neck twitches. W-what? What does it want? Oh! "T-thank you, Master!"

He nods with his subtle smile. "You know what? You are really bringing some fire in me. I think that, given a short rest, I'll manage to enjoy one of your holes. Be a good bird, take a nice rest, I'll be back soon." He picks up his pants. "CD: safety watch. Oh, and take me a few good pictures."

Thecubecomes floating above Poco.

Neutral Cat stretches, tosses his pants above his shoulder --he'll need to wash his hand before being able to put them on easily--and walks out. Lights automatically turn off, so there are a few flashes when the com-drone takes its photos.

--

Poco follows her master in anew corridor. She recovered her sex-slaveclothing, and her face was not cleaned up. Neitherwas her cloaca after the second "welcome fuck": he added a metal chastity belt, holding a rubber peg inside her, and she's still carrying a load of his sperm. At least, when she worried, he reassured her that birds and cats could not make babies, which is why they were allowed intercourse.The peg is rolling inside her with each step and sending tingly pleasurable sensations, which is bothering her a lot: she hates how easily her body betrays her, how she completely loses control and feels like a slut for it. Naturalshould not have the right to do this to her! It makes the violation ten times worse!

She's also experiencing mixed feelings about the cat. He seems genuinely nice and affectionate, which, on one hand, helps make her situation less terrifying, but,on the other hand,makes it hard to hate him like she should. Well, he's doing bad things to her only because the Sponsors tricked him! He's a prisoner in a fake world, like her! A-Ford is the one she should hate! Herrush of anger explodesby surprise! She wants to poke the evil robot's red ey..."Gyaaah!"

He stops. "Awww, Poco... I just fucked you one minute ago..."

"S-sorry, Master... I... I'm new to this. I... I can control my lust and be a civilized bird!I'll be more careful!"

"I hope so, because I cannot temper with your collar and I really hate when it does that to you. Take it easy, you will adjust to this lower sexuality environment."

"Y-yes, Master."

Drat! She should focus on something else, for now!

--

TheCatlhallais as luxurious as she imagines a five-star Theater Cage has to be, and, just like it, it provides all sorts of accommodations. The galleries are huge, and their decorations way more varied than at home: in additions to the painted landscapes, colorful pop art, and elaborate geometrical patterns make for a rich experience.

Oddly, islands of less expensive-looking wallpapers and furniture appear at nearly regular distances, which seem to be the favorite places for felines to take themselves in photo... doing various poses, or completely banal things.

Speaking of the Peers, unlike Artists outof theirMundy, they don't wear many costumes. And the ones who do are... unspectacular, or in some cases so bad they'd look amateurish for one-star! But most are in casual clothing, with a lot of t-shirts and hoodies displaying a fun quote or stylized drawing. All are followed by a floating cube, and a few more stray little machines are traveling on their own on some unknown mission.

Being "in the open" among so many people is refreshing her shame to be functionally naked. Especially with her face messy and smelly, and a bit of white leaking between her thighs from the walk. Cats here are not afraid or disgusted like the ones she met during the lectures, but she's definitely catching a lot of attention!

Neutral salutes various unknown cats with a quiet wave, and in return gets a happy hello and a "green-thumb!". Or, sometimes some othercrypticsentencelike "hash jelly!". Many, sometimes without bothering to salute, will turn their back to them and take a picture with her in the background: she's not understandingthe ritual, but, to her dismay, is sorely aware that shots of her predicament are spreading fast.

She shivers at a sudden little chorus: each time she has been "green-thumbed", her master's cube briefly popped a green thumb up icon over her head--she saw the same thing happening to cats as well--, but thelast one is on fire!

Neutral smiles as she shivers: "Don't mind this: you are just trending. It will pass."

"What was that?"

"Ah, true, you are new to all of this... Wow, I don't even know where to begin..."

"And why do you take photos of yourselvesin the least pretty spots?"

"Oh, that's about remaining relatable. You see, we..."

"And why do they look away when taking my picture? Do they think I don't see?"

"I understand that you have many questions, but if you ask them altogether, I can't..."

"H-how do yougo outside?"

He understands that she's having the beginning of a panic attack, and hurriedly removes his shirt, that he tosses over her head to blindfold her.

This somehow helps, reducing her overstimulation.

He catches her hands and holds them gently. "CD: audio-sim, rainy forest."

She's wrapped in the spatialized simulation of heavy rain, and wind blowing on branches and leaves. The sensation to have been teleported elsewhere, even if her sense of touch doesn't match, is striking.

"There, there, calm down. Are you alright?"

"C-can I go to your M..." Her neck twitches. "Can I go out,please?"

He hesitates. "There is no access to the outside. We don't go there, with the rain and wilderness... But we can go to the bug farm: that's our place to immerse in some nature and relax, you will like it."He tugs on her hands to start guiding her.

"W-wait, please!" She tightens her hands on his. "I-I... I'm afraid of live bugs... They are creepy..."

"Oh..."

As he remains silent, probably thinking about another solution, she calms down. The blindnessis doing her good, and, more than anything, how he reacted was very reassuring. "I... it is passing, sorry... I'm getting better..."

"It's alright, this is a lot to take for you. Quite a different environment from your wild, right?"

"Y-yes, quite!"

"Would you like to return home? I don't mind giving you sometime to acclimate, if it would help."

Her first reflex is an enthusiastic yes, but then she realizes he'dprobably have sex withher again, or something along those lines, there. "Uhm... M-maybe it's best if I... am brave and immerse fast. I think I can take it, Master. I... want to discover your world."

"Good girl! But don't be shy if you change your mind. Promised?"

"Promised, Master!"

"So, can I get my t-shirt back?"

"Uhm... c-can... can I keep it just a minute more?"

"Of course, Poco, of course."

--

They walk more after a break. On Neutral's order, his cube is now permanently summoning a red "DND" over her head, and most other felines now look but don't approach.

That is,until an adorable little white cat, with a very round babyface and huge eyes, and his ear tips naturally folded down, trots near. He's wearing some sort of a school uniform, complete with the matching schoolbagand one sock that slid lower than the other, although the "2 cool 4 skool" on his chest probably isn't regulatory. He points the text aboveher head and tilts his head interrogatively at Neutral.

"Hello, Tiny. You're welcome, the DND doesn't stand for you."

Passed her surprise, the lovebird realizes how inappropriate a show she is for such a kid, he must be, at most...

"Cool!Yo,Neutrie! Green!" Scratch her line of thoughts: he has the voice of an adult. A deep and manly voice, actually, which especially clasheswith his look. "She's very pretty, I like her cols. Hash sexy! Also,it makes me happy that the Spons chose to give you the sugar. There are many other folks, you know, I'd tot have been jelly. But you, bro? Tot deserving. Muchcool."

"Thank you! Her name is Poco."

Prompted by her collar, Poco belatedly remembers to bow low.

The new cat waves with a warm smile. "Yo, sugar. Hash welcome.I'm Tiny, my species is Kids Fold and my rating is Rhodium."He turns back to his friend. "Hey, mind if we walk while chatting? I'm eighty percent on my stroll achievement."

"No problem."

They start walking at a stiff pace, the small cat exaggeratedlyswinginghis armsand raising his knees. It looks like this is some exercising. "Speaking of, she smells used. How are her cocksleeve achievs going? Shehasstuff like that, right?"

"I turned her gamification off, I don't want to overload her."

"Hash disappoint! Your dislike of achievs sux, bro: I would tot like to have you as my challenger,for my sport. You're, like, atop-tier athlete around here."

"Nah, not anymore. And you're doing great on your own, how much weightdid you lost, so far?"

"Bleah... I still gained..."

"You know, sport will not help if you don't also go lighter on the cookies..."

"Nonsense: it's just that muscle is heavier than fat. An athlete like you should know!" He flexes. "Hash buff! Hash hunk!"

Poco clears her voice when there's a hole in the conversation. "Master? Why do you speak differently than most Peers I met?"

"Ah, we Peers are very segmented, and trends evolve fast. So, the various groups among us have different lingos and references."

"He's old school, your Master, Pokie. Super normcore, tot ten years ago vintage. Like, real old by theLoop's standard, but in a good way, you know? Like prestigious, not has-been.He still has it!"

"Hey, 'kiddo', youareoneyear older than me."

Tiny gives him his most adorable eyes and changes his voice to a precious children one: "Not in here, old geezer!" He taps the side of his head.

"Damn kids these days!" makes Neutral,shakinga raisedfistwith his usual lack of intensity...

...and the bird can't help bursting into chuckles.

"Aaaah, finally some smile!"

"Hash teamwork!"

"Hash greatduo."

"Yuck, old pops don't hash! Tot cringe!"

"Hash ironicallycringy.Much _in_with the kids."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Tiny grabs at his ears with an anguishedface and a high-pitched voice.

Poco laughs for good.

The two stop their act to fist bump,and "green-thumb" each other.

"Thank you, Tiny."

--

They arrive in a bigger room, full of cubicle rows. Each three by three meterssquare cell contains a floating cube --be it occupied, or, as about a third of them, empty--, a strong ring-shaped lamp, and a blue screen in the back. Then details vary: a chair there, a sofa here, a shelf full of booksin front of the blue screen... generally no complex setups. Most cats seem to be speaking to theirlamp, except that there isno sound. A few work in pairs, or do more elaborate actions like dancing.

"This is one of our vloging rooms, I wanted to show it to you. It is an important part of our work here."

"And of our health: sunlikelight exposure, tot necessaryfor your zzz-cycles and to assimilate your vits. D, especially."

Part of this is completely alien to Poco, and part is very familiar: these are obviously their scenes and spotlights! Yet: "So... you are all mimes?"

"Hash whaaaaat-T-F?"

Neutral smiles and shakes his head. "Not at all, the boxes are just noise-canceled, so streams do not pollute each other's sound. Go poke your head near one of them..."

"Yeah, but be careful not to get in their vid: you're forbidden contents. Much NSFW and Rhodium-only."

She tenses. "What do I risk if I get caught?"

"No, no, it's not that, Poco. It is fine for you to go. Just, if you are visible, the sponsors will censor the stream section outside of the Catlhalla. Nothing horrible, but it's rude for the streaming Peer."

"Yeah: approach on the lamp's side, you should stay out of field."

She tiptoes near a random cat, who is pointing at invisible things on his blue screen. He must see her, but completely ignores her to stick to what he's doing, undisturbed. So she slowly passes her head above some line on the floor. At some point, muffled sounds appear, and then she hears him for good: "...convection cells merge, with enough chaotic winds to mix the air masses despite their varied temperatures and hygrometry. Like, tot a double-huge washing machine..." She pulls out and it vanishes.

Alright, so they do have sound. But: "And... you don't have any audience? You just act for the cubes?"

"Ha, so wrong, burd! So wrong! We have tons of views, that's our thing in these parts! Hash popular! Hash Rhodium!"

Ever patient, Neutral explains. "You cannot see the audience, it is spread all around Cheeseburg. The video is streamed: that means it is sent in the Loop, and anyone can watch from anywhere."

"Is recorded for replays too, so spread in time." The bird is blinking ponderously, so Tiny shows her: "Look. CD: open random trending stream."

A high definitionhologram of one of the cells pops in the air: "...both posted new vids about their catchphrase-gate. Much hot! If you don't know what this is about, check my recent videos. Hash subscribe!"A superimposed chat is scrolling with new messages and emoticons, way too fast to be readable."So, is Bubbly Cat tot a hater, or does he have a point? Did General Purr tot content-steal, or was it fair remix? Hash votenow! Let's analyze that tasty..."

"Yuck! Drama-porn! CD: close! Red!" Tiny makes a face. "Sorry, Pokie, let's try a _good_one. CD: is Banjo Cat on?"

The hologram vanishes to be replaced with a new cat. A lean and fit calico, with his tail short, and a coin pendant at his neck,is playing some wild banjo while singing a happy song. His fingers are flying at amazing speed on the instrument, while his voice is gentle and perfectly articulated despite a very fast flow.With some tongue twisters.Even without being too knowledgeable about music, the lovebird has to admire his technique. His text is all weird, like a stream of consciousness going from one idea to another, but it revolves around the general theme of "today being a great day" and "being glad of all little things".And his rhymes and rhythm are perfect.

Both Tiny and Neutral green-thumb, and the small cat is stomping with his beat. Admittedly, it is hard not to do!

"Yeah, that's the stuff! Gimme a word, Pokie! First that comes to your mind!"

"Uhm... Opera?"

"Cool! CD, post: Burd, Opera." The two words appear in the chat's flow... and seconds later, Banjo is going on about the "burds singing theirfluteopera under the beat of the rain, truly a cool day for hothot cocoa at the coldwindow"."Hot cocoa"was another of the random suggestionsin his chat... Muses! This is full improvisation! That cat is good!

They listen for a moment before Tiny waves his hand to dismiss the stream."Double-tot-cool, am I right? Banjie's my best bro!"

"Y-yes, Sir, he's great! So, that is what you do? Songs, and science lectures, and... drama?"

"Among other trending topics, and it's only part of our game. What did you explain to her about the Loop, so far, dude?"

Neutral makes a vague gesture. "So far, not a whole lot. I don't know where to begin. Showing her the vlogs seemed like some easy start, but then..."

Tinylocks his eyes into his friends', makes a show of readjusting his schoolbag, and gestures up and down with both hands, insistently showing his costume.

"Oooh..." Neutral clears his voice. "My, my, how convenient would it be, if there weresomeone who could help me. Such as aneducationalexpert, known for his tutorials for newbies. But what are the odds?"

"More praising, bro."

"Ideally, some _famous_tutorial expert, highly trending for a monthly streak with hisamazinglyrated,beloved by all,'TutsSkoolfor CoolNewbs'series? But where to find such exclusive Peer, who is also charismatic and cute yet hunk?"

"Say no more! I happen to be that Peer!"

Neutral turns to some imaginary audience and, blankly: "What a twist!"

--

"Okay, Pokie, let's take everyone's fav Peer as an example. CD: personal album, random slideshow."

Pictures of Tiny start appearing in the air. He's cute as a button on all of them! Wrapped in many costumes, sleeping in weird positions, eating cakes, playing with a wool ball...Displaying various naive and intense emotions, and sometimes engaging intoinnocent mischief.

"My persona is a classic, super simple: 'the cute'. I'm an oxytocin dealerfor the masses, plus serotonin --notice the emphaon sensual stimuli, like warmth, softness and food. On thatdouble-competsegment, my special touch is high quality, and a bit of humor: lovable brat sub-seg."

"I do not understandall yourwords, Sir."

"Never mind. Take points: hash persona, hash cute." He points to Neutral. "Him: hash stoneface, hash whiteclown."

"You each have a... well defined, simple, character."

"Righto!Well, simple and identifiable core, but it can be tot subt in the details.Now, the pics you are seeing are micro-contents. Our main activity. The vlogs are important as a loss leader: relatively few views slashhigh work, but it upsprestige, helps branding, and catchessomehigh engagement opinion bosses that will help you to percolate further in the soc-net."

"I... got you, in the broad lines, Sir."

"But to be pop, you need to bury yourself deep into everyone's brains!Is all about repeated, low effort, exposure! Thus: micro-contents! Tagged pictures, five seconds vidsif you wanna go big and elaborate --me don't recommend, but is controv--...all day long, everyday! It must be fun, light, fast, and easy,minicrumbsof their attention.Because the compet for that mind-sugar is double-huge! But crumbs are enough, if we can popupin their mind flow enough-a-day: we grow fam. We become intimate, friends, even if they never metus. And it multsthe opports for engagement."

"You... flood everyone with fast to produce, fast to consume contents?And... trick their social instincts?"

"Is no trick, is opti! That's how social works, we do not cheat, we're just good! So, another recommend is to make series. CD: 'Iz Police' gallery."

The slideshow is replaced with a wall of pictures. Tiny is getting bottle-sprayed in the face, or isabout to be, for various kiddish misdeeds,almosteach time with the text "Stop! Iz [word relevant to the situation] police!".In all caps and with varying amountof extra exclamation points.In large part thanks to his expressiveness, some of them are very funny!Among all these variations on the same theme, the seriessometimes ventures into the absurd and over-exaggerated, as if it exhausted its theme's logical possibilities but continued exploring nevertheless: in "Stop! Iz Teef police!", for example, three burly cats violently tackle the small one and use their bottles as bludgeons, while he was just brushing his teeth.On another, he's using the spray bottle as he cleans a window up with the most intense stern sneering expression and a different text: "I iz the law!"Then there is that very cryptic "Police! Izbanana stop!" that she plain can't process at all.

"Yeah, ignore this one: it's too meta and reffed for your level."

At first glance, this all seems like silly, thoughtless, nonsense. But whenthe Peer explains how strategic, technical and deliberate he is, and when seeing the whole series and how rich its patterns are... This has an abstract avant-garde feel, not unlike home's Majestic Ecstasy of Shapes: the director would loathe how down-to-earththe form is, the lack of "elevation"; but she would likely connect to the dissection of a pattern through variation and repetition, to the appeal to emotion on a purely scientific and abstract level even if the surface seems non-abstract, to the minimalism...

"Not too lost, burd?"

"No, Sir. So, this series was published over a while, it's not normally seen altogether like we are doing now?"

"Righto! And it's interleav into other series, this one spans aboutone year. Again: repeated exposure helpsit burry. And randomness, plusthe catchymini-game of recog it, procsthe hunter-gatherer instinctssomething fierce. Very rewarding."

"Compulsion-inducing, even," adds Neutral.

Tiny shrugs: "Grandpa here doesn't like compulsion. Can you believe he never checks his feeds more than once an hour? Tot ascetic! Hashunderstim!"

"To my defense, you might have noticed that Tiny didn't interrupt our chat once to check his cube since we are together. Under his persona, he's as mucha 'vintage geezer' as myself, who values his attention span!"

"Fakenews! Tot lies! I'm a ton less disco than you! _I_know to luvthe meditative flow of Loop-binging, and att-span is overrated: if you needs, thenloser speaking suxes at holding your engagement and atconciseness!"The small cat pouts and crosses his arms. "Speaking of, where was I?"

"Repeated exposure to series."

"Ah, yeah! Which also mults the chances of re! Because, this," he gestures to the gallery, "are op: opening contents from a primary creator. But, once sent into the Loop, it can be re: responded, remixed, reshared... CD: response gallery."

The gallery changes and scrolls into a humongous number of new images: other cats doing their own "Iz Police!"memesor copying Tiny's shots, modifiedones with new captions, or arranged into "comics", redrawings, photomontages with other images. The number of cryptic ones, or eyesore from weird photo filters or quality so terrible it has to be deliberate, grows high. But what is really striking is the sheer mass!

"Re are what make you go boomfor gud. TheLooporganicallyfilters: most contentearnsno signal boopat all, or a few chains of one or two re. But a few pass the crit mass of five-hops chains, which statistically means double-good perco and long-term repeat. The Loop, you can say, _resonates_loudwith them. Making it sing for you is a Rhodium skill, but still partrandom: Rookies from Newblandia can have their week of fame, and we top players often need several tries to fire it."

"Newblandia?" asks Poco.

"Cheezeburg's bottom level, with the lowest rating Peers."

"So... The ideas flow from the pyramid's top? You 'op' and the lower ones 're' which multiplies your... resonance tenfold?"

"No, no! Everybody can op and re. We are just supergood at oping and re-baiting. As we wanna stand as innovators and not as followers, we most-op. Like ninety to ten, more or less. But reing your pals helps reinforce each other, and reing the lower ranks keeps yourelatable: you're less likable if you forget your roots and grow cold to the Peers below."

That too is familiar to the bird: high-ranked Artists also play that balancing game of trying to look friendly and approachable, yet staying distinctively above the others. It does feel a lot more hypocritical, when observed from fresh eyesfrom a new point of view. Speaking of that,"reing", so much recycling of the same idea round and round... it feels so stale...and then it makes her question her ways to honor her Classics, reshaping them but never straying too far for the sake of "good taste" and "high Art"! But it has its vitality, a way to evolve some deepness from the mass of mutations... It occurs to her how, if they were allowed to meet each other, Artists and Peers could learn so muchfrom merging and comparing their views, and especially see the bounds and artificiality of their machine-controlled worlds!

"Hash pensiveburd. Did I lose you?"

"No, no, it was just... Food for my thoughts! How about the strange spelling? And the stories, shouldn't Art have a story?"

"Yuck, hash bourgeois, Pokie! Gud spelling has been invented by pastfolks to separate the privilegedfrom the non-privileged! Tot-plusoppress!Language steal!Same forstories, they all carry moralsand politics, to control the masses! Much crass! So last millennium! We don't do that anymore, we're all equals now! F spelling, and F stories! We cut all that fat and only keep the sweet payload. Raw emotions, micro stories, the good stuff! Undiluted, unpolluted! Hash leanandmean!"

"But... isn't Cheezeburg a pyramid, with levels ordered by ranks, Sir?"

"Tot different! We aren't special and superior: we're shining examples of the average, all born with the same chances, then perco-upthrough our dedicto the Loop!"

Neutral chimes in. "Well, she got a point actually: there are _some_connections between us and past bourgeois culture. Consider howcodified our spelling 'errors' are, and howalmost all Rhodium Peers are pure breeds: catchy persona being graphical as well, we are not all bornwith equal chances."

"Blasphemy to the Loop, bro! Not in my classroom! How about famous Lord Baconton, uh? Tot wasa moggy!"

"One rare case. Also,he had hemiplegia."

"Word: that's a greattrait to earn your Rhodiumeasy. Hash unfair, hash jelly." Tiny shrugs. "Where was I again?"

Poco has been thinking fast. So, Neutral is critical of his system? Comparing their takeson hierarchiesand the Artists' is _so_intriguing! She wants to dig this! "So, to you, there is no natural genius or Mu... nf..." She winces and stops hurriedly as her neck twitches. She forgot her collar, this was close!

"Uh? What was that, Pokie? You good?"

Neutral shakes his head, amused: "Long time, no sex. She's growing restless."

"Ah, yeah... Burds..."

"Don't let it interrupt you, I was expecting this to happen and came prepared. Keep instructing her while I make sure she doesn't heat up so bad her collar shocks her for good."

"Okay!"

--

"Poco, spread your legs, raise your tail, and lean forward resting your hands on the cubicle's wall with your back arched."

"Y-yes, Master." She obeys, cursing herself for her distraction.

"Higher, that tail, bird. And arch more."Neutral opens a bag he has been carrying to pull out a handheld vibrator and her chastity belt's key. He first open the beltand drops it on the floor nearby. She clenches her hands on the wall and gets on her toes when the peg slides out of her, leaving her half opened in the middle of the crowded place, his sperm dribbling out.

"Nnfhhh..." Her neck twitches, reminding her not to hide her reactions. "Haah... please, Master!"

"Shush Poco, be a good student and keep your focus on your teacher." And he pushes the vibrator under her, rolls its tip at her wet entrance, and turns it on at a low setting.

Smiling from ear to ear at the funny display, Tiny straightens and tries to look serious. "Yeah, burd, pay att! So, we saw that a Peer used blogging as a loss leader, and a steady micro-contents flow for presence and enga. What important point are we still missing? Hint: there's one rubbing under your tail."

Neutral is traveling the vibrator up and down, making her bottom rock with it, adding massage to the deep vibing.

She's dribbling a river between her legs, all feathers risen, and her pleasure is rocketing upfast. "V-vibrator... Sir?"

"Don't be silly, burd. Less literal."

Neutral turns the vibration off,and she whines in frustration. This allows her to think. First, she notices that curious cats are approaching, and that cubes are circling her. One is low behind her, likely filming up. Oh Muses, not in public, please! The cubes? Oh! "A... a machine! We f-forgot... haaaah..." The vibrations returning, she has a hard time finishing. "T-the Sponsors!"

"Attagirl, yes! Ahem, newcomers, welcome to 'TutsSkoolfor LewdBurds'! Hash subscribe! Please don't crowd us,so she can focus:I'll give you all a better display instead. CD: billboard displaysof the direct, all angles."

The lovebird peeks up as huge holograms of her, or of very strategically chosen parts of her anatomy, pop up above her. Smiling, the new cats step back and sit in circles to enjoy the show.

"Spons, they have a ton of values. For example, I'm supporting for Waterfal-dev and MVC."

"And I'm Deps-inject and Abstract-Facto," adds Neutral, as he pushes the vibrator's tip to nudge her deeper inside.

She closes her eyes and shivers, stretchedas far up on her toes as she can. "I... don't understand," she half whines, voice broken by the intensity.

"We neither, burd! And donocare! But the Spons do, so they have this mighty biggest dick contest... Except isnot dicks, but numbers. Our numbers. Now, why would _we_run for this or that value, since wedonoget?"

She is rocking her butt with her tail's feathers spread, out of control on herself at this point, experiencing her first contractions...

And her master pulls the vibrator out. On the magnified display above, everybody can see her gaping cloaca pulsating hungrily. "Oh please!" She understands that he's not planning to end this game until the lesson is complete, so she returns her now wet eyes to Tiny. "The... the ones who give you... the best things?"

"Nope, burd! We are all equal, within each rating, and the Sponsgive allequal luv. We do this for the brand!"

She can't help searching for the vibrator, that she still hears buzzing somewhere near between her legs.

It comes back for a brief caress, then escapes. "Stay attentive, Poco. You need to learn to control yourself." A second maddeningly teasing caress, and it escapes again.

She groans in terrible mixed humiliation and frustration. She has no choice but to play along, if she wants this to end fast. "W-what is... hhff... a brand, Sir?"

"Excellent question, Pokie!A brand is a collection of images, lifestyle choices, and emotions, that emerges from a group of Peerssharing the same vals. Like,a nifty personality package! Pick your faves, use their lingo and refs... and ta-da! Hash richinnerlife! Even the blandest Peer can have his pers! And advertise it, with near to no effort! Hash leanandmean! Tot super-effective!"The small cat then looks at his friend and nods with a wink.

Neutral presses the vibrator back under her hot entrance... but turns it off and doesnot move. "Good girl. You may."

She blinks and awaits, but nothing more comes. Then she understands. Devastated, but oh so needy, she starts rocking and half fucking herself on her own, squeezing around the toy's tip. Her pleasure is a lot slower to come this time, but fired up as she is, it is on its way.

When she starts working, Tiny resumes: "And altog, Pokie, these are the basis of our society! The Loop accepts all of us, our tiny moments and fleeting ideas. It resonates aloud with them and spreads and sharesour souls! A great equalizer and intimacer! Infinite energy machine for emotion! Limbic power pump! This, burd, is the ultiof com and soc! Tot opti! Hash transcendence!This is the Loop! This is the Catlhalla's ways! Trickling down eco of the personalities, but with anF-ingpower hose! F yeah, baby!"At this point, he's raising both fists high in triumph. Pretty good at hamming things up, he synchronized his theatrical grand finale with the bird...

...so she screams and squirms with his final words.She rocks savagely, dribbling a puddle under herself and making the cubicle's wall tremble.

Neutral gives her a last few bursts of buzzing to be sure she's all done, and she almost collapses all drained and panting.

Several cats in the audience applauds, and all of them green-thumb.

Pretty satisfied with himself, the teacher concludes. "Any questions, class?"

She can only shake her head weakly.

One of the audience members raises a hand. "Can we touch the burd?"

"Bro?"

"You may, but be gentle and don't startle her."

"This was 'TutsSkoolfor LewdBurds', I'm Tiny, thank you allfor watching! Hash subscribe! Hash share!"Which is when the bird notices the chats on her "billboards" and understands that her lesson is now on the Loop.

To Poco's relief, the felines don't feel like touching her wet and messy parts. She gets her butt rubbed, a lot of caresses on the back and a few curious fingers traced on her legs' scales. One exploresher chest to try locating breasts and nipples, and is surprised to learn that her species lacks them.

Eventually, the chastity belt is placed back on her. Natural rocks and pumps the peg a few times, making her squeak, before locking it up. "Better now?"

"Y... yes, Master. Thank you!"

"Aaaand?"

"T-thank you, Tiny Sir, for the lesson!"

"My pleas! Was cool to have such an enthusiastic student! Do you react like her to my vlogs, bro?"

"Every. Single. Time."

He laughs. "Gross!"

"Anyway, I owe you one. How about I try to invite you and Banjo for a meal?"

"That'drox! Hash joy!"

New Goals

"Hello, Poco. My name is Banjo Cat, my breed is Blogs Bobtails and my rating Rhodium. Welcome to the Catlhalla."

She bows low. "Hello, Sir, pleased to meet you." Alright, focus, don't speak too much: it's just eating among friends. She should manage to go by without being zapped nor sexually abused, it's all a matter of stopping acting silly!

It helps that Tiny is monopolizing the conversation. He's a complete fanboy of Banjo, apparently!

They are soon relaxing on elegant chairs in a restaurants' gallery--except the bird who is sitting on the floor beside her master's feet--, and the cats are playing cards as it's still early for eating.

Just as she's relaxing, she becomes the topic of their discussion.

"Pokie's a fun toy, did you see her vid? She's a tot slut, but hash cute!"

Neutral, clears his throatat that. "About this, I'm not too keen on calling her a 'slut'..."

"Oh? Sorry, bro! I meant no insult. I'll avoid dirty talk, then, promised!"

"No insult taken, and thank you."

"Okay, so... Pokie has a wild sex drive." He checks his friend's reaction, who nods. "Neutrie pumped her up with hiscreamy-white, but she still couldn't last a full tut without some hot luving. What can I say, I'm tot hot! Hash hunk!" He pauses, seemingly awaiting for some reaction... that doesn't come. "Tot funny to see her cute butt wriggling. Hash needy, hash jizz! If I were into girls, it'd have moved some bloo down, if you know what I mean!"

Banjo laughs at this. "Awww, kiddo, you're all foul-mouthed today! It's cute to see you having so much fun with Neutral's new pet. She looks sweet, yes. So exotic and pretty!"

"Yeah... Cute... Exotic..." Tiny fiddles with his cards and scrutinizesthemfor a while. "How about you? You're not intoladies, I think?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Bro! You're tot crypto-gay! Which is sooo cool! I dig your style!"

Poco, who is unaware that tricolor cats are, for genetic reasons, all females, curiouslylooks up at the calico.She fails atnoticing that his fur is dyed... and how "femboyish" it makes him look by felines' standards.

"I could be bisexual, kiddo."

"Oh? You... you are?"

"Nah, I'm gay, you are right. But avoid assuming, you can be forgiven a lot with your sweet mug, but some folks are super touchy on that topic." Banjo winks with a warm smile and fluffs the smaller cats folded ears, to show he's not angry at all.

"Yeah... Sure... So... What kind of guys do you like?"

It's Banjo's turn to ponder a moment at the cards in his hands. "Uhm... Lots of kinds, actually." He stretches and winks. "Time to eat, by the way! Stay here! Give me a moment, to fetch us something: I know the best foods here!"

There is a long silence while hewalksaway. When he is far enough, Tiny groans and lets his head drop backward. "Aaaauuugh, he's sooo dense!"

"Did you consider, you know, just telling him straight?"

"I can't! That'd come out tot weird! F, I'm so lil-bro-zoned! Hash foreveralone! Hashunfair! My persona_is a kid! I'm a grown-up male with needs! I'm so fed up with tot-pedo double-creeps wanting a piece of me... when the hot guy I want to tapdoesn't see _me!"

"Harsh..."

"Is it too much to ask? Ain't we great friends? Oh,sure, he's tot high-tier! The Banjo is too high league for most... but I'm the F-ing Tiny! I'm hash superstar! The best!"

"True, you are a superstar."

"I want a romantic life! I'm a real person! I'm a great person! Hash deserving!"

"You're a great person."

"Yeah..."

Neutral sighs. "You know, sometimes, a persona can eat you up. Did you consider... changing it?"

"Crazytalk! You think I can drop decades of buildup like this? My numbers, bro! I'm stuck!"

"Well... you know that once a rating is achieved, it can never go back down. Many Peers, once they turnedRhodium, settle down and take it easy about their numbers. _I_settled down a lot. And it did me good."

"I'm not yet a crusty old geezer like you!"

"Tiny... you..."

"Don't say it! Don't you dare say it!"

"Ah... I'm sorry."

The small cat hunches on his table. "No, me. I'm sorry. You're a top friend and... you are prob right. Is just very scary, you see? I worked all my life to get here and I'd stop? What will I do of my life, then? Who will I be?"

"I know. I know that very well."

"I... will need to think, bro. But thanks."

"Take your time. And I'm here to talk if you need to, at any time."

--

Tiny recovered a straight face when Banjo returns, and Neutral... Well, Neutral's poker face is as perfect as ever. There is still light remains of some awkward tension in the air.

The calico distributes cardboard boxes. "All hot and tasty, fresh, people food for me and my pals..." He leans down to hand a different-shaped one to Poco. "And cold and icky birb food for the birb. Sorry, girl, people food would be bad for you."

"Thank you, sir." Anxious after that warning, she carefully opens her box to peek in.

Fruits!_Fresh_fruits and nuts! OhMuses! This... She ate a slice of fresh fruit twice in her life! A _whole_box! These things are so rare,since the sun is gone,that they are luxury even for five-star Artists! Even they don't get full mealsof fresh fruits and nuts! This is incredible!

She remembers about her rules enough not to spoil that moment by getting shocked and... shoves her head in the box to munch onthe delicious treats. This is so good! She doesn't care how ridiculous she's looking right now, half stuck in her box, this is bliss! So good for her morale,after all her predicaments!

Neutral fondly rubsthe back of her neck.

She finishes eating long before the others, despite licking the bottom and sides of her box so clean it could be reused.

"Do you want to drink, Poco?"

"I'd like to, yes please, Master."

He taps on his table and raises a paper cup. "Get up, then, girl."

She happily stands and picks the cupfor a drink, relaxed for the first time since her abduction... the shock thus tackles her completely off guard.

The cats wereeating fishes. She spent so much time in the carp farm, catering for her beloved favorite animals, that she recognizes their remainsdespite cooking having destroyed their vivid colors: they were silver and blue. They used to swim so graciously and peacefully... They were people-curious and friendswith the white and orangecarps. T-they... preferred the green pellets, except some rare times, whenthey had brown moods.

Tetanized, she lets her cup drop and feels weak. And the tears... the tears flow so fast and so hard she can't see a thing.

"Poco?"

"Pockie! What's wrong!"

"It's the fishes... Hide them, they must have reminded her of somethingfromthe wild!"

She hears them shuffling things on the table and can't hold heavy sobs.

Neutral catches her by the shoulders and tries to comfort her. His breath still smells fish. "Oh, Poco... It... It's alright, I'm here..."

"We should bring her to the bug farm, bro! Hash nature! Hash soothing!"

The bug farm... Only now she understands: the Peers eat the Artists beloved companions... and the Artists have been eating the Peers'. This is so cruel! She crumbles even more under the devastating sadness.

"She's afraid of the bugs! Call a caretaker, please! I'm watching after her, but we must... I don't know, allow her a walk out." She can't even see how Neutral's face is, for once, not neutral at all in his worry.

--

What happened during the next minutes was confuse for Poco. But she was temporarily taken away from the cats, to be brought to some technical corridor by the Sponsors.

The "fridge" that led heron her arrival, or at least one who looks the same, unbuckles her leash. "As per your Master's request, you will be allowed a walk outside, under the supervision of your chief caretaker. [Accept/Repeat]"

Her chief caretaker... A-Ford? Her heart skips a beat. She wipes her eyes with the back of her wing and takes a deep breath. Before her is a plain metal door. One of those handleless ones in machine-controlled spaces. Fear rushes in, and, behind, some background anger.

"A... Accept."

The door opens and a gust of ice cold wind, loaded with drops of water, makes her step back.

Towering behind, the huge orange cylinder on his ugly tentacles awaits, showered by the rain, on a background of clouds. His red eye is shining, she thinks, with malevolence. "Good evening, Poco. Please, come out."

She walks out, and the door closes behind. She was so focused on him that she only realizes where she is too late: they stand on top of one of Catburg's concrete extensions, a slim one. Flat, soaked and slippery concrete, without any rail or wallon its edges, several hundreds of meters above the ground. They are in the "wind shadow" of the building, which is why she has not been swiped away by a blow yet... but gusts are giving her firm sidewaysnudges. If she were to fall, with her clipped wing, she would die!

The harsh rain is usually a familiar friend, when she wears her "face" and "body", but nearlynaked as she is, it slaps her with a cold grip, instantly weights and soaks her feathers,sucks her body warmth.

"Come on, Poco, do not be shy. Come and enjoy the scenery." He's walking toward thefaredge, his tentacle's claws gripping safely at the ground: despite his much greater wind catch, he is unwavering.

She tiptoes behind. Sky. Dark sky everywhere: with the rain she can't see far and soon the building behind is a ghost. She feels suspended, on a tiny island of concrete floating between the sky and an abyss.Cascading water isfalling for everin that abyss, near, inviting. Her whole body is trembling.

"I like to admire the stern and grand beauty of nature. It relativizes our little everyday troubles...and is a reminder of what we fight to endure, and why we do what we do. Oh, by the way, you are currently,technically,outside of Catburg. I am thus temporarily deactivating yourcollar."

That puff of freedom brings her rage back to the front. She eagerly lets it flow, needing it to avoid panic. Wanting it. She loathes this machine!

"You are an evil monster!" she screams at the top of her lungs.

"Yes?" He slowly turns back to face her again. "Would you care to elaborate?"

"The fishes! The bugs! You feed us our friends! This is sick and twisted! This issohorrible! How could you!?"

"Their farming is an arduous task. It is economical and efficient to use them for two purposes: enrichment of one group, feeding of another.It is an elementaryoptimization."

She walks forward, slips and hurts her knee, stands back and keep advancing. "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" Since he does nothing to stop her, she starts pounding his red eye with both hands as she keeps screaming that mantra.

Eventually:"Please, Poco: you are going to hurt yourself. That will be enoughhitting me."

She stops, defeated. Her hands hurt, she's breathless,and she achievedno damage at all. She's tiny and helpless in front of him, but she's still not surrendering. Not calming down. "I will kill you! I swear I will! I will find a way!"

"Well, that is excellent, Poco. I am pleased to see that your treatment is already showing positive effects: you are less shy, challenge drives you to develop projects instead of paralyzing you, and it is the first time you fully openedto your chief caretaker about your feelings. This is very sane."

That calm! He won't even scold her hatred! It is sliding on him like the raindrops... as useless as her punching. She hunches, everything is useless...

"You look like you are growing cold. It is time for you to return to your Master. I was pleased to speak with you, Poco, keep your head up! Only 21 days and all will be forgotten."

"I... I will kill you."

"Maybe, but notrightnow, Poco. Go back inside."

She reluctantly turns back and starts advancing. She can barely see: the building is casting shadows in this direction! Is she walking dangerously close to the edge? If so, will A-Ford stop her?

After her anger was coldly dismissed, the fear is returning and makes her zigzagging return last an eternity. Finally, she guesses the door forward! She didn't stray too much from the center. She returns, raises an arm to knock... and it opens. She runs inside.

As the door closes back, she looks outside. The only visible part of A-Ford is a reddish reflection, far away in the darkness. "I will... Gyaaah!" Back in Cheeseburg, that promise no longer goes unpunished.

--

Poco's transfer to maintenance, then return from it, took some time. Then, her master gave her a nice hot shower, a new vibrator induced orgasm --her collar forced her to beg for it when he checked if she was needy-- and a shoulder massage.

It is now evening. Not that late, but Neutral decided that, given how full and stressful her first day was, it was bedtime. She honestly had no objection.

She's now standing on a perch in a small birdcagethat leaves her comfortable but without any free motion range. On the bright side, this means she'll dodge the morning fellatio rule tomorrow... She's fully naked, but he allowedher tokeepatowel so she could wrap herself in its warmth. No more chastity belt either, and it feels lovely not to have anything forcefully inserted in her at all time. This is all as close to a break from sexual slavery as she can get!

This was just one day... Twenty more to go. She can't possibly endure that! They'll break her! Oh, she's so angry at A-Fo... _*Neck twitches*_Bad thoughts! She needs to focus on something safe. Like...Tiny and his romantic problems. That could make some good fanfiction: forbidden love, anguish, a gay bard, and a nice happy-end a few chapters later! Poor Tiny... will he get his happy end? It's harsh that he's deprived his... Her line of thoughts bumps on the realization that _she_has no right to ever consider one, in the more puritan world of her aviary.

It is the first time she consciously realizes that fact! Then, if she's not supposed, if she can never say the word, is she really having nothing? She hunches in her cage with her throat too tight: Musette. She misses Musette so bad! And the poor quail must be so anxiousfor her...She wants to hug her tight, not just to daydream and chat! When her memories are erased, will she preserve that realization?Or will she continue almost having a lover... but not quite?

She takes a big breath and focuses on not crying. Bad topic too, she can't afford to get so depressed on her first day! That was a precious realization, but, right now, she must find a _safe_thing to keep her mind busy.

She looks up at the cube floating silently, nearby,in the darkness: it's on "safety watch" while Neutral leaves her alone. She noticed that the room lights automatically went on when Peers orSponsorsenteredand off when they left... but that she didn't seem to be registered as a person by that system. So, surely, the cube would ignore her commands? Well, this is not against her collar's laws, so it costs nothing to try: "CD: uhm... open Master Neutral's personal gallery."

The room gets less dark whenthe holograms pop up.

"Oh! S-scroll down!"

They start scrolling.

She can access the Loop!Could she use it to search for Encore? "CD: Gyahh!" She shudders and grabs her neck. No, just Master... don't try anything silly. Ow, these shock hurt so bad!

She spends a while exploring. The gallery is humongous, and it is presented to her in reverse chronological order, so,every now and then,she randomly asksfor a jump one year back. She soon renounces trying to identify his series. Neutral's big thing seems to be standing blankly in a situation that should elicit some strong emotional response. The captions emphasize, with many superlatives, how he's so excited and overstimulated. There's this running gag as well, about small and boring things being too much of a roller coaster for him. He's often photographed with other,more expressive if not downright comical and hysterical, cats,for contrast.Several photosactually make her laugh, which feels great!

She's about to stop when there is a sudden change: on one picture, he's peacefully reading a journal and holding a cup of tea, with the caption "windy today"... only he's almost upside down, the tea spread in a wide arc behind the cupand his chair flying at some distance. Looking close, this doesn't seem to be a photomontage: he's just probably snapped in the middle of a jumping flip! On a second one, he's standingon the toes of one foot, leaning forward at the very edge of a precariously piled up stack of chairs,to change a bulb in one of the high ceiling galleries. On the third one, he's stretching to try batting a fly, while suspended by one finger to the side of some stairs, at least ten meters above the floor! Always perfectly relaxed and stoic. From there, a majority of his posts showhim performing gravity and death-defying stunts. Most of which also imply some champion level athletic feats.

Then,going back some moreyears in the past, the stunts stop and he does... the same kinds of pictures as today, only way less varied and imaginative. With less catchy captions, and more mediocrephotomontages with other cats. She guesses he was "reing" more back then, and he wasn't as good: she barely smiles once or twice. He's often redoing almost exactly the same thing, like a one-trick pony.Even his neutral face wasn't that good. On some, it's obvious that he's holding up laughter!

So, he was not born like this? He worked on his stone face, to the point that today it seems to be his normal one, even when out of character?

The lights go on when Neutral returns from brushing his teeth. "Ow, thesefeel embarrassing to watch today. Theybring me back!"

Caught in the act! "Oh! S-sorry, Master!"

"Don't be. It isfine, you did nothing bad. They are not at all a secret, and it's normal that you are curious."

She's relieved that he doesn't see her using the cube as misbehavior. "You... were less neutral, back then."

He nods. "I was an average cat in everyway. Only my pure breed was some vague special trait, and even that..." He points at his pale and blurry spots. "We Mists don't have a strong visual.I hated it, back then! I wanted to be different like all the other kids! So, being an average and unimaginative boy, I did the most obvious move in my case."

"Become..._more_normal. Abnormally normal. Neutral Cat."

"Exactly, you got it. I wasn't the first oneon that segment and I wasn't the best. It didn't work well right away. So, I lost all my friends... You see, onceone climbs in the pyramid, they never meet the ones below again. There's still the Loop, but it's not the same.And rankdifferencescreate distance,youarefastforgotten."

"That sounds harsh, Master."

"It was. I was stuck in Newblandia with everyone I liked going up. I felt like a lonely loser. It spurred me into uppingmy game, and that's when I started the stunts. Did you see them?"

"Yes, they were amazing! Very impressive!"

"Thank you! It was hard: I think I broke nearly every bone inmy body at least once. Manyseveral times. But it was that time in one's life when you feelindestructibleand love intensity. I had a ton of fun. And it worked!"

"Why did you stop?"

"Most Peers will never reach the Rhodium rating, Poco, it is very exclusive. So, when I reached the Catlhalla, the realization suddenly slapped me in the face: in my wild race to never let my loved ones go up without me anymore... I ended up being the one leaving them behind. There are good people here too, we are all 'cornered', and I still have some good years to live. I'm a wiser cat,with nothing leftto prove. So... I simplydecided that I didn't want to break my neckfor green-thumbs. I'm not so hot on the Loop anymore, but I'm having a good life. I was very surprised that the Sponsors chose me, athirtysomething old and lazyhas-been, to be your Master... maybe they didn't pick the most deserving, but rather a mellow cat for this nervous bird?"

"I... you... you are a gentleMaster..."

He crouches before the cage and reaches inside to rub her cheek. "Thank you, this means the world to me. You're a handful, bird! But allthat is beautiful and precious needssome effort conquerand preserve. I'll make you like Cheezeburg." He pulls his hand back and blows her a kiss. "But,for now, you need some sleep! CD: parental lock, no more Loop for Poco until tomorrow morning. Have sweet dreams, little bird!"

M-maybe. Maybe she can take the twenty days...

--

To her surprise, she falls asleep fast: stress exhausted her more than she realized, and knocked her out the moment a bit of safety allowed her adrenalin to drop.

The next morning, she hears Neutral move in the apartment before he comes with a box of fruits and nuts as her breakfast. She understands he took care to have his own meal out of her sight, and brushed his teeth to get rid of any smell before coming.

He orders her to thoroughly clean herself, including inside, but thankfully letsher proceedon her own, alone in the shower.

Then, they leave his house: day number two is beginning for good.

--

Fully naked, Poco is standing on all fours with her legs wide and her butt up. Her hands are trapped in mitts, and cuffed to the feet of a bench press, while her feet are grabbing at its wide apart arms behind--where barbell would stand if it had not been removed today--and are taped in position so she can't let go. A posture collar, at the back ring of which is attached a rope secured to her tail, holds her archedtopresent both of her extremities to everyone, and a large ring gag holds her beak gaping: Master Neutral kindly thought that a busy morning and some socialization, while heperformedhisownsport routine, would keep depression away... but he set this up with his unfortunate misconceptions about her "bestialneeds".

She looks up obediently, if somewhat shyly, at the cat masturbating in front of her face, while being rhythmically shaken by the one penetrating her behind. She lost count of how many she served, without even getting their names. Despite her attempt at self-control, she's panting short again and feel some pleasurable tingles in her lower belly: the repeated tugson her tail are not helping. The back cat gave her a few playful butt slaps, but nothing harsh. He's fucking her fast and sloppy --her whole legs are a mess of mixed sperm and feminine fluids--, eager to get his pleasure and not really caring to make it sensual for her, but overall careful and gentle.

Which is the common theme today: she has been gang-raped non-stopby polite buff males, firm and to the point but benevolent, under the eyes of an especially tall and massive shorthair: Lobscow. Lobscow seems to be the local instructor, and he watches after her with as much professionalism as he does for the other equipment. He makes sure that the rules are respected: no bitting, no clawing, pierced condoms on the barbsif using her rear and no penetration in her mouth. He's also regularly checking if she's comfortable and well hydrated. And he wasn't even asked to by Neutral, it... came quite naturally. Her Master keeps an eye on the process and wavesto her encouragingly from afar, sometimes, but can otherwise do his pull-ups and jump rope series undisturbed.

Her little moans and hot breath on his flesh seems to help guy-in-the-front to conclude. He growsstern-facedand his hand accelerates as he aims better, groans, and spurts a few times intothe metal ring's hole. The gag makes it impossible for her to actively swallow, and she's drooling all over her front, so part of it dribbles out fast... but a tasty little pool remains, thanks to her head being held tilted up. Being a good girl, she thanks him as she can, with a breathless moan. She gets a petting in return.

Guy-in-the-back finishes soon after, and pats her bottom appraisingly. A break? No, a new one she didn't see coming immediately takes a hold at her hips and makes her shudder when he penetrates her. Ex-guy-in-the-back comes to the front.Several did that, she knows the game, now:when he stands right in front of her, she stretches her neck and starts licking the sperm off him. Again, with the gag preventing swallowing, it is not very efficient. But he's enjoying it nevertheless, guessing from his purring. His condom was strawberry flavored --the provided box is a flavor mix, so it's always a little surprising--, which tastes pretty awful with salty male seed.Cross-eyed on him, she laps as sensually as she can at his softening red length... until he sighs with content, finisheswipinghimself into her cheek's feathers, and peels his condom offto toss it on her back.

He then crouchesbeside her to take a side-by-side picture, making a victory V with both hands. "Thanks, bird! Good girl!"

He's not as strong as the previous males...she suddenly realizes that the gym is growing more and more crowded with Peers discovering a new taste for sport.

Lobscow comes when the front male departs. The back one is a more tender lover and, pumping deep but slow, will still need some time. "Need a jaw rest?"

She nods eagerly, as far as her collar will allow. He thus temporarily freesher from the gag and she is grateful to be able to swallow and to open and close it. "Thank you, Sir."

He smiles and next raises a sports bottle. "Hydration?"

"Yes, please, Sir." She opens wide again.

Behind, her "user" found an interesting angle. She almost chokes when her third morning orgasm hits just as water is squirted into her mouth.

--

Poco now walks funny as she follows her master. He didn't clean her up after the gym, and kept her bondage mitts and posture collar: her cuffs are anchored up to its front ring, to "help with her self-control" as he didn't bring the chastity belt today.

She also got a change of clothing: a white, maid-style, headset, equally white and frilly gaiters, an elaborately tied up ribbon at her tail's root, and some black lingerie. Her delicate panties are soaked with sperm and glued on her, becoming even more translucent than they naturally should be: for oncethatshe's covered, down there, it is not granting her much modesty. The useless brassiere above, probably just to evoke some missing anatomical details cats enjoy, is equally messy... and her copious slobbering is still slowly dribbling more to venture further on her belly. Not her proudest moment, but her intense sexualization is growing so common, and is done so casually, that she doesn't respond to it as intensely as before.

"I am going to do some op and a bit of vlogging with a cat I never worked with yet, today."

"Oh? You... are in the mood for some 'socialization' as well today, Master?"

"You could say that. But there is another reason that made me seek his company. He owns a toy I'd like you to see. It's a surprise."

Neck twitching stopsher beginning of a worried expression. More sexing, then? What kind of twisted kinky gear can the other Peer possess that Neutral lacks, with all the toy boxes he was given?

She walks silently, gingerly, for a while before he turns to check herone last time.

"Alright, your look should be right up his alley. While we are with him --unless you need my help with something, of course--, you will refrain from speaking when not asked direct questions. I want you to make a good impression, in case we decide to return often."

"U-understood, Master."

On this, he turns towardan apartment's door and rings its bell.

"Haaaii!" calls someone from inside. There is a pause and they can hear some running. Then some panting behind the door for a short moment.

Oncetheir mysterious host recovered enough, the door opens to a broad and wide orange cat. His short nose, short limbs, and lush long fur add to his roundness and teddy-bear look.Aprettyobese teddy bear: he's the fattest cat she met. His most striking feature, however, is how his facial fur forms a _positively massive_walrus mustache. "Haaaai, Neutralu-san! Wow, sampai, your toy is toooot kawaii!" He bows. "My name is Coolastachu, my breed is Fashion Longhair and my rank is Rhodium. Enter, enter!"

"Nice to meet you, Coolstache-san,"replies Neutral, playing along, he bows and issues the ritual salutations at his turn.

If Poco found that many cats spoke weird, so far, this one plays in another category! He even has an odd, overly cutesy and nasal, way to pronounce his words. She bows awkwardly.

They follow him inside. "I heardyou liked catnip tea, sampai? Ne? I prepared some for you... if you would like?"

"I would, with pleasure, thank you."

They reach the tea room... and the bird's eyes widen when she sees his "toy".

--

The other bird stands beside a low table, completely encased in black rubber. She's petite, and even slimmer and moreshapely as the thick material with inbuilt corset squeezes her body into a more stylized and sexy shape. Special boots must keepher bird feet closed, so they disappear into en-pointe high-heels. Her legs are trembling a little and she's unable to avoid a few tiny steps, as she has to work for her precarious balance on their slim rounded tips.

Likewise, her hands are reduced to geometric, streamlined, stubs. The rubber luckily gives her some grip, so she manages --again with visible efforts and not without constant adjustments--, to hold a steaming tea pot.

Her face completely disappears under a hood with no single hole: she's breathing, with a slow whistle, through a few centimeters of slim tube poking from the tip of her beak. Several reinforced pieces seem to be removable, so her mouth and eyes could be freed.

The only visible part of her entire body is a strip of white feathers between her legs: even this is not open, but its zipped up plastic flap is transparent,for display. Passing throughthe corner of that zipper, a wire connects thepink remote strapped to her left hip to something inserted inside her cloaca.

Finally, she adorns heavy stainless steel shackles and chains: one length dropping from her neck, plus wrists and ankle cuffs--the later with a long chain.

She would be unrecognizable if the suit weren't painted with a pink line across the chest, and another drawing a heart around her face, making her look like a latex howl: the trademark markings, actually, of an owl finch. This is Encore!

When she hears them, she struggles to bow as low and graciously as she can without losing her balance.

--

Poco completely freezes in shock.

Neutral is too caught by the display as well to notice.

As for Coolstache, he's huffing as he flops on a cushion, directly on the floor, behind the table. "This is my Encoru! She's precious tot kawaii too, a pearl! But so, so, double-talkative! Nya-nya-nya: I have to keep her perm-gagged, or she asks questions all the time! Itaaaai! Do you have the same issue with yours, sampai?"

"Not really, mine is even a little shy." He sits, cross-legged, at his turn. In a more elegant and straight posture.

"Itaaai! Shy and pure pearl! Hash jelly!" He chuckles and taps the rubberized bird's bottom. "Ne, JK, Encoru-chan. I love you."He then plucks Neutral's spoon, which he raises before his curious eyes. "Encoooru! Ce-re-mo-ny!" He starts tapping the spoon lightly on the edge of his guest's cup to make it tinkle.

The bird moans and nods, then, guided by the sound, makes one step closer. The table is too low for her to bend and reach it without falling, so she has to spread her legs and crouch in a completely lewd, and certainly exhausting, posture, presenting her crotch to the cat she's serving. Once close enough, the tube's breathy noises growing shorter, she slowly and carefully moves her teapottoward the sound. She finds it and pours, in controlled briefdribbles, until the sound's change tells her it is full. She then holds her current position.This had to take a lot of training to learn!

"Yatta, girl! Green!" He leans forward to take the pot, which he places on the side of the table, and then to flick the bird's remote on at a low setting. Some light buzzing raises from inside Encore. The fat cat next picks his own spoon, peeks at Poco, and then looks interrogatively at her Master.

Neutral just nods with a polite smile.

So, he taps his own bowl, only thrice this time,as further guidance won't be necessary. "Pooooku-chan! Ce-re-mo-ny!"

The lovebird shivers and is shaken out of her fascinated shock. She resists the reflex to mumble a "yes Sir" as she was warned he enjoyed his birds silent. How is she supposed to act? She thinks fast: ceremony. It has to be ceremonial, graceful, she must not just rush and serve him. She's an Artist, she can improvise a thing.

She bows to him and straightens, very deliberately makes a quarter turn to the side and walks, perpendicular to the floor boards, until she passes the table's side. Quarter turn, bowed head, serene face. She walks along one board, trying to be elegant as she makes short steps to approach him. She keeps her eyes lowered, but can't help peeking once or twice: twirling his long mustache, he's observing ravenously. But he's smiling.

When it gets time toreach for the teapot, she realizes how her bound up hands will be a problem. She stops, hesitates... and,contrite, reluctantly imitates Encore's posture. Muses, this puts some strain on her legs! Poor Encore must be in such a terrible predicamentwith her boots!This allows her to reach her target, however. She pours him a cup.

"Kawaii! Good girl!" He gives her a happy smile and catches his cup.

Neutral imitates, synchronizing himself with his host. Mirroring each other, they take a few sips.

"Your tea is delicious, Coolstache-san.Subtly earthy,and long."

The other tightens his grip on his cup and blinks. He looks like he's on the edge of crying with joy. "T-twoPeersand hot tea..."he begins, discreetly counting the syllables on his fingers.

Neutral ponders briefly, then: "the sound of cold rain echoes. Kawaiibirds wait."And he bows his head, then lowers his cup.

Coolstachealmostdropshis,to squeeze his own cheeks with both hands,and wriggles from side to side. "Tot-plus-sugooooi! Oh, Neutralu-san! You're the best tea ceremony bro! Hash classy! Hash happy! The other bakas don't get us!"

Encore's legs start twitching and her head rocks. "Nf, nf... nff..." And she squirts inside her plastic flap.

--

After the tea, Coolstache had a little game planned for his guests. In a nearby room, he presents two beams, placed on the floor and connected by one meter and half metal bars at both ends so they won't move too much.On top of theseare attached dildos of increasing sizes. The later ones also have ribs and bumps.

"I call this the peg race! A tot-easy, double-fungame for needy burds! Each getsher own rail, and they race from small up to huge! The winner gets a reward chosen by her Master. And we can help by encouraging them with the tot-mysterious toys in the 'motivation box'. Hash surprise!" He points a chest on a nearby table. "What do you say, sempai?"

"Itsoundsfun!And it was thoughtful of you to make sure their needs werefulfilled, as we'll 'neglect' them a little while whenworking."

"Sugooooi! Just give me the time to lubricate the toys! I couldn't do it in advance, or it would have dried."

"Need a hand?"

Poor encased Encore can't display any reaction.

Poco has to conceal her own nervousnessas she watches the two felines pouring gel on each of the toys. The last ones are massive! Can she even take them?

The preparingis, despite the males' conscientiousness, well too fast for her taste.

"Come, Encoru!" The owl finch blindly steps forward. Her master catches her sides to guide her. "On your knees... take it slow..." He helps her to obey without crashing, removes her crotch flap, and tugs the vibrator out of her. "Make your daimyo proud!"

Neutral points the start of the other beam. "You too, Poco, get ready." He watches her fondly, and seems eager for the race. He leans to whisper. "Have fun, girl, but don't overdo it: I don't want you to hurt yourself. I will not be disappointed if Encore wins... and I suspect she has some training." He steps back, looks at the setup, and: "Hey, Coolstache-san: you should remove your bird's leg chain, or else my victory will be way too easy."

The other cat checks ponderously, andsuddenlyunderstands how the chain would get stuck and halt his champion without the bound bird having any chance to find a way to continue. "Oh! Good point! Green-thumb for your sportsmanship,sampai!" He corrects his mistake."Ready?"

"Ready."

"Burds: your lady-holes much kiss the wood around each toy before you are allowed to progress to the next. CD: record for personal album. On your mark... reaaaaady... Go, go, go!"

Encore crawls forward until she feels the first toy, gets up on her knees... and wriggles awkwardly to try aiming its tip at her cloaca. If her outfit is a serious handicap, she's able to reach her hands down and, when she finds the right position, she sits in one fast motion, with a muffled groan through her tube. Not that slow! She _is_trained!

Poco wouldn't care much about winning if her twitching neck didn't demand her to really try. She got above the first toy easily, but, less confidentand hands held up,ispenetratingherself in a few cautious pushes down. It is comparable in size with her chastity belt's peg, easy so far. She finishes sitting on the beam, gently parted, together with her congener.

Both rush for theirdildo number two, while Coolstache rubs his hands together and goes to open the chest. He pulls out a rubber flogger, but doesn't use it yet: his champion is still advancing fast.

The lovebird, on the other hand, is starting to struggle and to fall behind, rocking up and down on the number three's tip to manage stretching herself. When she sees the "motivation", it spurs her into accelerating. She squeaks but gets it in... andis stopped from sitting a few centimeters above the wood: the toys do not only gain thickness, but also length. From now on, acceptingthem entirelyinside herwill require stretching placesthat were never yet violated. She's gasping, oppressed.

Neutral, at his turn, goes to the box: clamps, various impact toys, lube spiked up with capsaicin... Nothing gentle in there. He rubs his chin ponderously and decides not to take any tool.

Encore gained a two dildos advance and is showing difficulties at her turn, struggling against thick ribs. So, Coolstache comes behind and starts flogging her exposed white strip. He lashes her at a quiet pace, so he can put force in each lick. The slaps are sharp and shake the tender flesh. The owl finch gasps and whines, squirming erratically at first and then remembering to hurry up. She groans and stops the time for a deeper breath through the tube --which costs her two more licks--, before pulling it out and going for the next one.

Her master takes the opportunity for a few hits right on her parted and tender entrance, which gets her to arch and shudder. On this pink skin, the reddening appears fast: this gives a clue about the color and fire that's building up fast under her feathers...

Neutral is not abandoning yet. He counterattacks: Poco is crouching on her toes, tail shaking and trembling as she's sliding centimeter after centimeter of transparent silicone up a reflexively clenching, lewdly spread, orifice. He crouches besides, and flicks a few fingers under her soles for a test wriggle. "Are you ticklish, Poco?"

"Eeeh! No please, Master!"

She stomps a little, but can't get away with what she's doing. He digs fingers a little more and toys them over her scale's folds, gives longer traces up and down, tries brushing the furry back of a finger between two toes. "Stay steady: I'll stop as soon as you reach the goal. Almost there!"

She squeaks and tugs on her bound hands frantically, all her feathers rising. The first nervous chuckles follow soon... and she desperately accelerates.

"Kawaiiiii..." Encore's merciless spanking accelerates in return.

--

"Yattaaaa! Hash championbird!" Encore, hunched breathless on a last dildo so big her belly is a little inflated, receives a good shoulder rubbing.

No amount of effort, nor tickle torture, was enough to get Poco even near. But she surpassed her own limits already, half impaled on a toy she would never have thought she could take. She's all sore, as if beaten up inside, and with the ribs she's not even sure she'll manage to come back up! But at least, her master stopped the tickling to pet the back of her neck.

"Good girl. Nice effort." He stands upto stage-applaude his new friend and bows his head. "Good game, Coolstache-san. You trained your pet very well."

"She's tot a little sex machine! But you came at a disadvantage: yours is much newer, I have been told? She fought valiantly! I hope you're not diappoint, sampai?"

"Not at all, it's always a privilege to learn from the more experienced. You would have insulted me if you deliberately let me win." Noticing how his bird looks stuck, he offers her his hands. With many gasps and tugs, she pulls each rib out of her one by one.

"Tot bushytude, sampai!Hash sportsmanship."

"Thank you."

The fat cat slaps his hands happily. "Aree! Let me reward Encoru-chan fast! Hash greetpartners! Hash wannawork!"

--

Coolstache goes to fetch a chair and a cylindrical box. Once back, he sits in front of the owl finch, who is still planted on her massive dildo. He rests a foot on the bulge of her lower belly and squeezes and rubs until he finds the right spot to make her breath shorten. Leaving it there, he stops his teasing and detaches the hood's beak.

Encore opens upto let a mouthpiece out and can,at long last,fully pant without a tube restricting her airflow.

He opens the box, to pull out a masturbation sleeve, and pushes it intoher. So much for unrestricted breathing. "That's the best way, in my opinion, to get oral from them. With their beaks," he explains, as he adjusts the thing. He unbuttons and unzips his pants, topull out a penis that, due to his copious fat, looks smaller than itreallyis. First, he strokes himself a moment, to achieve erection, and then he places a hand on the bird's head to guide her. He slides just the tip in. "You may."

Encore moans, which makes the pre-lubed toy bubble around him, then obediently leans to accept him whole.

He clenches toes on the ground. "Hhhmm..."

She starts bobbing up and down, and he's soon purring.

His breath is still steady, however, his pleasure only building up slowly. He allows her to work for a while, silent save a few wet noises, then takes control on things: his hand grows heavier, forcing her down until she's burying her face into his belly rolls. The toy is pushed further into the back of her throat and she gags. He holds her still a couple of seconds before allowing her to back up, the time to cough through her nose, manage half a sip of air... and get forced back down again. His foot resumes massaging her below.

Encore is now used as a fucktoy, out of any control on the situation. Herboundhands are sometimes waving in front of her chest, and her tail is having panicked shakes when he holds her down for too long. He knows exactly when to allow a breath so she'll keep suffocating but won't faint, and how to anglehimself to havestrangled gaging squeezinghis length. As he's working her up, the forced pleasure induced breath shortening is not helping her case.

"Do not worry, she likes it when I'm firm withher. Don't you, mypearl?"

Tugged out, she coughs a rope of mixed pre and saliva but nods eagerly. So,she's pulled back downalmost instantly.

Neutral tilts his head. As usual, it is hard to read him. "Birds are wild creatures..."

That is terribly hard to watch for Poco, who knows that her friend is in terrible misery and that only her collar is forcing her to pretend whatever he wants.

Fortunately, his climax is approaching. He slams her face in his belly faster, shaking her entire body, suddenly clenches fingers on her head and holds her down... and has a few rhythmic hisses. Then he fully relaxes.

He holds her down for some more, endless, seconds.

"Careful, do not spit..." Finally, he pulls out.

She tilts her head up to keep his sperm in and gasps and wheezes. For a while, it looks like she will never manage to recover her breathing!

He pulls the sleeve out, and squeezes it carefully to empty its content in her beak, then places it back in its box for later cleaning up. With a tissue, he cleans himself, then he wipes that tissue's messiness on her mouthpiece... and locks her beakback in thehood.He closes and adjusts his pants.

"Good girl." He groans whenstandingup. "Sampai, I feel ready for some tot-sugoi looping! Shall we?"

"Certainly, but mayI make a request first, honored host?"

"Haaaaiii! Anything, sampai!"

"Thank you: Poco is sometimes feeling a little depressed in her new environment. I think the company of a congener would really bright up her day. So, while we leave these two together, would you mind if we removed Encore-chan's hood?"

"Haaaiii! I'm such a big bakaaa! Of course!"

--

Both cats left, but Coolstache's floating cube stayed to watch over the two tired birds.

Freed from her hood, but only from it, Encore shows her pretty face: a usually precious and well combed little finch, with her white with black border "owl mask" and hazel "hair". Her feathers are all flat and messy, right now. She's also smiling blankly, kneeling in a pray-standing pose, not showing hints of her usual drive and cleverness.

Poco's heart sinks... Did... Did hebreak her mind?

Even her voice is way more chanting than normal when she speaks for the first time. "Haaaaii! Do you want to see a fun trick I learned from Stachu-Sama, Poku-chan?"

"Y-yes?" Honestly, she's not so sure. She's more frozen and watching despite herself, as one witnessing a bloody accident.

"Loookie!" The owl finch struggles to get up, slowly letting her dildo out. She's left gaping, glistening with wetness that now rolls along her rubber-coated legs. "Cubeeee! Panti-shooot!" And she arches to shake her sleeved tail provocatively.

The com-drone dutifully comes to take a picture. When it is close under her bottom... she brutallysits down, trapping it under herself. She wriggles and tightens her legs to make it disappear for good.

And, just has suddenly, her usual clever face is back. "There! It can't hear us, nor read our beaks anymore! But that means we might only have a little time before my Peer returns to check what's wrong, depending on when he'll peek at our stream."

"Encore! Oh my Muses, I'm so happy you're still y..." Neck twitches halt her. "To meet you," she corrects herself.

The other nods knowingly. "Same!"

"How are you!"

"I'm alright... Coolstache is a difficult Peer... Gah, it's so infuriating that he's not even mean! He genuinelytriesto be nice! But I can't brood and cry! It's too important, Poco, the things we know! A-Ford's lies! We must stay strong and find a way to resist before they wipe our memories!"

The lovebird listens with huge eyes. How is she managing to... Just_listening_ to all that makes her neck twitch like crazy!

She seems to read her mind: "First things first: I found how to deactivate our collars! Listen to me carefu..."

This is when the door reopens.

The rebel leader of bird resistance hurriedly turns back into a smilingbimbo.

"Encoru-chan? Your feed went off... Where is CD-kun?"

--

The cube ispromptly freed, cleaned up, and set so it willno longer obey the mischievous birds.Norapproachwithin their reach. Their antics amusesboth cats, and no punishment isinflicted...but this isthe end of theirsecret chatting for today.

For Poco, the following hours area horrible frustration. To know that freedom from her collar was a few words away! And not even being allowed to focus on it without risking a shock!

At least, she canhug Encore. At least she now knows that she's well. Even if her master is horrible. Muses! She's so lucky herself, in retrospect!

Poor Encore must be ten times more frustrated. "We will meet again, Poku-chan," she promises.

--

Neutral and his pet eventually left and are walking in the galleries.

"So, Poco, did you have fun? Do you like Encore?"

"I like Encore very, very, much, Master! Thank you for bringing me there! Can... can we go back sometime?"

"I'm glad to see you happy! Yes, we can: Coolstache likes me, and... he's an interesting fellow. I would not have heard of him without trying to fix you with your congener: his subsegment is very niche and elitist. A small, but dedicated crowd."

"He's... weird..." The collar doesn't punish badmouthing him, so: "and so fat!"

He chuckles. "Yes, he has tofor his persona. He puts a lot of work in his physique. You see, his subsegmentloves humorously self-deprecating. I saw that on a few small niches, trying to struggle with being rejected by the mainstream. It's not very sane, and can spiral into them closing themselves more and more... Anyway, he tries to help and tobreak their shell. The ironical thing isthat, to do it without them instantly shunning you off... you must play the stereotype right. He has to be 'cliche-ugly'. And, I must say, his level of cringe is outstanding, yethe manages to remain authentic and believable... I'm honestly impressedby his skill!"

"I'm not sure I understand everything. But,isn't being his friend bad for your reputation, then?"

"Not at all. Being friendly with me, on the other hand, given how defensive his fans are, risks bringing some fire to his feeds."

"Oh? You think you're going to give him trouble?" she asks, hopeful.

"Nah, never assume that a Rhodium Peer is naive and not knowing his game with the Loop: he knows exactly what he's doing. Bad publicity is still publicity, and you can't change anunwillinggroup without shaking them some. Repeated times, gently, patiently, and doing the right damage control and education after each nudge."He gets pensive, he seems genuinely intrigued by the weird fat cat's plans.

In the silence, Poco can't help her own thoughts from straying: how can she privately talk to Encore? She shivers and reaches for her collar in reflex. But... it didn't make her neck twitch? How can she escapefr... *Twitch* * __T_ witch* * T witch*_Drat, it is still working.So whatis going on? Last time she thought about Encore... Oh! She understands! Last time, she wasn't supposed to know she existed, according to her "role". But,now, she got the info while in character. And the collar doesn't care about her wanting to talk with a congener.

Some tiredness flies away from the fresh puff of freedom. Oh, it's minuscule, but it's a slip out of A-Ford's script! She can plot! She's no longer just a helpless captive, she has a reachable goal! She will find a way to speak to Encore! And from there they...* __T_ witch* * T witch*_Nothing, nothing! One step after the other! She will speak to Encore!

To her master's pleasure, she's all bouncy and happy for the remaining of the walk!

(More) Rebellious Shenanigans

In the afternoon, they meet Banjo Cat again. He's a friend of Neutral, and seems to love singing even when he's not on a video. More connected to the Loop, he's also often double-tasking, checking his threads while having a chat or snapping a pic when he meets someone interesting... but this is so fleeting that, once used to it, you stop noticing. Among other things, he's a historynerd: thus is coin pendant --moneyhas not been used anymore forcenturies.They spent some time in a library full of dusty books --the majority of cats do not care forpaper.

Poco, too busy making plans, is not too attentiveto his explanations about Peers using the ancient times for inspiration, but she politely borrows the biggest, most historical sounding, book she can find to please him: A History of Non-Figurative Depictionin Postal Stamps. They are not too disappointed by her lack of interest, and she's even complimented for managing to go with her day withoutbecomingrestless for sex.

For today, she gets her "bestial needs"tended only once more, in the evening, rather tenderly taken by behind under the shower: cat barbs aren't that bad, when they are careful... nor was the gentle nibblesat the side of her neck.

Pretending exhaustion, she's back in her cage early and fakes sleeping immediately. Her master forgets about the floating cube's parental control.

--

After about one silent hour, Poco decides that Neutral is probably asleep: it is time to act. Heart beating, she reopens her eyes. This will be her first act of rebellion in Cheezeburg!

Her cage has a small trapdoor below, probably designed to push a bowl of food in: it is way too small for her to escape, but large enough for the floating cube. She opens it, drops her towel on the floor, and calls out: "CD: panty shot!" And she perks her butt and wriggle her tail.

The machine obediently comes throughthe offered entrance, tries to shoot her from below... and swiftly gets pined down under her. She rests all her weight to be sure it will not escape! But it is not that powerful: she has no difficulty holding it prisoner as she rolls it in the towel. Step one: victory!

Step two: her perch is a woodbeam with two dents on the extremities so it can attach to the cage's bars. A glaring conception error from the Sponsor who created it, because it is relatively easy to dislodge and then becomes a decent crowbar. Despite her best effort, she damages the door when breaking out. No big deal, the important part was to be silent, andshe has a plan to explain that later.

Step three: grab random heavy enough object --it turns out to be her new book--and place it on top of the wrapped cube so she can get up without freeing him.

She stands out of the cage, with a rush of pride and achievement! It worked! And her collar didn't even twitch! She can misbehave as much as she likes, as long as it's misbehavior an unruly beast-bird could indulge in!

Unlike birds, who need the feeling of safety due to their age-old prey instincts and are more concerned by their privacy, cats don't have locks at their doors. Moving oh so carefully in the dark, on the tip of her toes, she exits the apartment.

From now on, she has to hope that Neutral won't get up during the night._That_eventuality, she couldn't find any plan around: she has to accept that rebellion comes with a part of unavoidable risks.

--

TheCatlhallais not less active by night, but its activity is more concentrated in the bars, music stands, and cubicles: she was afraid to walk around and get spotted by a Peer or cube, but actually finds many dark corridors... and how each arrival is forecastedby the lightsautomaticallyturning on makes sneaking a breeze for someone unregistered by that system.

There are still some treacherous stray cubes,slowly and silently patrolling, and they don't trigger the lightseither, so she has to stay alert. She also needs to explore a few unknown galleries to avoid the toobusy ones on the path she took this morning.

Eventually, she reaches Coolstache's home. She doesn't think she was detected! Her hand trembles when she pushes his door. What if _he_catch her, far from her master's protection? Her breath stops and she hesitates at the entrance. No! Encore is bravely fighting in there, she _can't_abandon her! Be bravetoo!

--

She carefully wipes her feet on the entrance's mat: no leaving of incriminating dusty footsteps, please!

It is likely that Coolstache's cube is watching over Encore for safety, she has to be extra careful. She checks the "tea room"slidingdoor'sborder: no lightescapes.So,she rests her head on it to listen:no sound either. She sloooowly opens just a thin crack and peeks. Empty, and, inside, the door to the "play room" shows light. Oh no! Is he still awake?

The floorboards, from her experience here this morning, do not creak: it should be safe to come closer to the nextdoor. As she does so, the ray of light escaping letsher discover that this sliding panelis not perfectly closed. With utmost precautions, she comes peeping.

--

Alone under the watch of the cube, the owl finch is hanging upside down from a beam in the ceiling. A short skirt is folded on the floor nearby, white panties on its top. The bird is bare bottom, but wears what Poco think might be the top of some sailor uniform. And a headband with cat ears.A few fake flowersare planted in her cloaca as if she were a flowerpot!

Brown ropeis looped around each of her ankles and she's suspended by them, legs wide parted. More of the same rope forms a very elaborate body harness, with perfectly symmetric knots, that constricts all her abdomen and provides anchor for her hands: her wings are folded in her back, with the wrists _up_near her neck in what looks like a terribly uncomfortable position!

Finally, a last length wraps half of her spotted tail up, then is attached to her neck. It is short enough so she has to strain her muscles to arch her back, or else she'll slowly strangle herself.

Chopsticks tied together with brown thread pinch and tug her tongue, and prevent her from closing her beak. She's breathing shallow as ropes of spit slowly dribble into a puddle... that hints she has been in that predicament for a while.

--

Poor Encore! Poco's eyes grow wet. Can she help? Where's the evil cat? First, she needs to neutralize the cube, but she had not planned that Coolstache would still be around: if he notices that his stream went off as fast as this morning... Can she somehow distract him?

She was too slow to think: another door in the playroom opens for the master of this place to make his entrance.

--

Coolstache is naked, save white socks and wooden flip-flops, under a widely open kimono. His face is hidden under a smiling red mask with an extremely long nose. In his hand, he's holding a big candle, a matchstick box, and a plastic bag.

"Haaaai! Your rest is finished, Encoru-chan! Hash thirdtryyy!"

He walks around the bird, patting her side on his way. Poco notice he's very erect. Huffing as he bends down, he places the candle nearby on the floor and lights it up. He neatly aligns his matchstick box, on the floor, beside, taking his sweet time.

Meanwhile, the owl finch is taking an enduring face and making an effort to breathe fast and deep.

He returns to her and crouches by her side. "You can do it, my pearl! I know you can! Ganbaaare!" And he wraps her head in the plastic bag. The thing has a tightening lace in the bottom, that he pulls taunt and ties closed.

The plastic creaks as it inflates and deflates fast, some of the gasping bird saliva dripping in the bottom. As she's fast consuming the oxygen, her eyes grow more and more afraid and her breathes whistling and hoarse.

He watches closely, reaching down to masturbate at a slow pace.

Her right foot open and close, and then her leg muscles tug desperately. She rocks and dangles, but will go nowhere.

"Ne, Ne! Hash useless! Save your energy, my pearl! Me-di-ta-tion! Di-sci-pli-ne!"

She calms down and goes limp, her throat rope tightening. Her face is growing bluish and her useless panting frantic. She gives him desperate looks.

"Good girl! Kawaaaaii!"

He stretches up and returns to his candle, that he collects. About one big spoonful of melted wax formed, so far. He slowly raises his hands near Encore's crotch and she closes her eyes tight.

He tilts his wrist and pours all the burning hot liquid right on her cloaca, dribbling a neat line around the flowers.

"Hhyh! Yh!" His victim's leg muscles clench again, and she shakes her head and bites the chopsticks with pitiful squeaks.

He dropped all the collected wax, but,by tilting the candle enough so the flame almost licks it, can stilldribble more drops, randomlyaround. His other hand massage her outside, ona "good spot"for female birds... but thiscertainlycan't grant heran orgasm in this situation!

Especially as he doesn't do this for long: Encore is reaching her very limits. Before she faints, he blows the candle offand loosens the bag.

She gasps and wheezes!

He quietly removes the bag from her and caresses her cheek. "It's alright, my pearl. My kawaii masochist girlfriend _can_come just from pain! Hash trustinyou! Five-minute break, and we try again."

He waits a moment, the time for the wax to cool and harden, then comes to clean it up from her. Careful not to stimulate in a way that might allow her orgasm.

Then, he departs, with a last cheerful: "Ganbaaaare!"

--

Poco is holding her beak to avoid letting out any noise despite her anguish. That fat creep is an absolute monster! This is torture! He might kill her! And he won't stop until she climaxes under her ordeal? This is impossible!

Don't panic! She needs your help! You only have five minutes... and the cube is still there... think!

--

Encore's back is shivering. It is in aching pain, like her too stretched legs. She's weaker and weaker, and she can't help silently crying. Once again, she begins clenching rhythmically around the flower stems, to try building up some pleasure in the hope she can "cheat an orgasm" on her next try. But they are too narrow and the burn is still too fierce. Is this worth wasting what little energy she has left?

What can she... uh? Did she see something moving? She blinks to clear up her tears and looks up in the cube's direction. It's quiet and steady...

The entrance's decorative katana, with its curved sheath still on, pokes from a narrowly opened door and lashes the air again, swishing near the cube's side but falling short. She also thinks she saw a green hand...

"C-cuubee... move left..." she murmurs.

The thing obeys. _*Bok!*_Thistime, the weapon hits it square and sends it bouncing near the floor. It manages to stop itself in time and, vibrating in an unusual way, reascends toward his initial position. *BOK!* *Crash!*

"Encoru?"

The cube killer vanishes hurriedly and manages to close the door back before her victim'sowner returns to check what the ruckusisabout.

Coolstache, without his mask, sees his com-drone resting lifeless near a wall, and a visible dent in the floor where it crashed. "N-nani?" He picks the thing up and shakes it. "CD-kun? Hello?" No response. He gives the tied bird a suspicious look, but there is no way she could have done this. "It broke down... Uh? Well, it was old... That's unusual! Hash badquality! Uhm..." He ponders a long moment. "Itaaai! No video suxxx, but you worked so hard... We'll still finish your training, Encoru-chan!"

He walks to one of his toy boxes and returns holding a knife. "Sinceit can't safewatch you, I have to make sure you don't choke yourself. Sorry! It's not your failure! Hash proud!"And he slices the rope connecting her neck to her tail.

She can let herself drop stretched with a sigh of relief.

"Two more minutes of break, my pearl! Stay focused! Me-di-ta-tion! Di-sci-pli-ne!"

He leaves again.

--

Poco rushes in, counting the seconds in her head. Two minutes. She crouches to whisper near Encore's face: "I'll try to get you on the edge, tap my leg with your beak when I'm near!"

Her friend nods eagerly.

So, she twists the flowers to part the abused cloaca and eases two fingers in. Thumb on the outside --she tries to remember how Neutral forced her first orgasm so easily on her arrival. Gentle squeezes, but nice pace. One minute gone already.

Encore stifles a moan and her breath shortens, it is working!

Fifteen seconds. This is getting dangerous... Her leg is nudged repeatedly by a beak. She runs out and closes the door right in time.

--

The ritual restarts, but this time it ends fast. Clamping on the flowers as hard as she can, burning all her stamina without saving for later anymore, Encore manages to remain on the edge... then to push herself of it at the right moment.

She squeals when her cloaca naturally opens, to receive the last pouring of hot wax just when her inner walls convulse. Shaking in her ropes, she squirtsall over the cat's red mask.

"Yattaaaa!" He dances around happily, but stops fast as he's already out of breath. And speaking of: he remembers to remove the bag from his toy right in time.

After Encore's success, he abruptly transforms from merciless torturer into caring and gentlelover. She receives affectionate aftercare and tender cuddling, a ton of praises, and he heads to bed with her.

He's snoring loudlyfive minuteslater, and she can sneak out ofhis arms to return in the playroom.

--

"Poco! Oh, I'm so glad you managed to come!"

"Encore! Oh my Mu..."* __N_ eck twitch*"Oh, my! I didn't know! We must help you to e..." _* __N_ eck twitch*_

The two hug each other tight for a while, before the owlfinch invites her friend to sit."I see your collar is still giving you trouble. I'm impressed you managed to come! I'll do most of the talking, for this time, so... But first, will you be able to return home without being caught?"

"Yes, I think so."

"You are awesome! Together, we have chances! Alright, first, your collar. It's simpler than you think: my Peer, as you saw, has some elaborate tastes and loves his rituals. But he's not terribly good at organizing. He learned to improve by trial and error, but at first gave me a lot of contradicting instructions. And assumed that I knew things a beast shouldn't, until reminded: it was very hard for me to adjust and my collar shocked me a lot."

"Ow..."

"But this gave me precious information! Every time I managed to think before acting, my assessment of what was allowed or not matched the collar's. Always. Then when I was caught by surprise, not only it didn't, but it also sometimes contradicted itself. Do you understand what it means?"

"I... uhm... no, sorry?"

"Don't be, it took me some time to understand. The collar agreed with me and acted erratically when I did... because _I_was the one firing it up. It has to be extremely hard to read minds, and A-Ford is good at bluffing. I think he lied. He convinced us that the collar was reading our thoughts and taughtus to fear it... while,in reality, it just detects our fear of its jolts, and realizes them in response."

"A-are you sure?"

"Completely! Because by stopping fearing it, I successfullydeactivated it. And the best is: since I didn't even temper with it, my trickis undetectable. If A-Ford checks, I just became a very obedient little plaything."

"It was so simple from the beginning..." * __T_ witch* * T witch*_

"Simple, but not that easy. You can't just tell yourself'it's fine' and expect it to work, you need to internalize faith in your knowledge of the lie. It will take you a few days of work: try with tiny offenses, the onesyou know should make your neck twitch but trust will not shock. Then go up, gradually. Do not hurry: a shock wouldsend you back and waste your precious time."

"U-understood."

The owlfinch's face gets sterner. "Unfortunately, by the time I solvedthe collar riddle, it already forced me into my 'painslut' role. A-Ford could be checking the feeds at any time and Coolstache is not stupid: so,I'm stuck with this character! They can't discover I loosened my leash! Every time he makes me beg for horrible things, what gives me strength is the hope that I might be able to save futureArtistsfrom thisexperience."

"I... I have it so easy compared to you... I'm so sorry..."

"Don'tbe sorry! Nothing is your fault! I'm glad you are suffering less!" She smiles and takes a big breath. "Anyway! I'll be memory-whipped and returned home in nine days, so that's our time limit to work as a team. I don't have a plan yet, I was stuck... but thiswas before you arrived! Now, we'll find something! Let me share the info I collected, so you can plotwith me as soon as your collar will let you."

"I'll do my best!"

"Alright. There are two A-Fords, Veneralia's male one, and Catburg'sfemale one.Catburg's deals with the most 'unstable' Artistsand does all the special sex-ed, so I suspect they are the big bads and the other caretakers are... well, just caretakers.They didn't lie about sharing their memories, I checked. I also once simulated a panic crisis to see ours: if they had more copies, it would have been much easier for them to send one than to have ours stop what he was doing athome to come in a hurry...but it was ours. They are the same models, but if you look carefully at thewear off marks in their tentacle folds, you can find distinctive traits."

"You are incredible!"

"The care they take, how they personally supervise us, suggests they like to limit sharing information. Robots call this 'encapsulation' and it's big for them. So... it is not inconceivable that all of them are not part of the conspiracy. We may find allies among them in the future! But... that will be something to keep in mind once the revolution started. There are too many unknowns to trust any of them at this point."

"The... rev... nfff..." *TWITCH*

"Yes. This is too big for us two, Poco. We're not going to win this fight alone. We need to convince either the Peers, or our fellow Artists, as whole groups, of what we know. And that will be tricky."

"It's a crazy story. If someone told me about it, I would have thought they were mad..."

"And you would have gone right to A-Ford to denounce them for their restless flue. To help. So we can't just go to a cat and tell him... I have no reason to doubt about the absolute efficiency of their mind wiping, and if it has a weakness, we can't experiment to find it. Forget about bringing back any object: they can easily detect anything, even inside us. We must either act here, or escape and return home on our own."

"We don't even know where ho..."*twitch*"... we were captured!"

"Between five and ten kilometers, straight north from Catburg, in my opinion. And there are rails we can follow."

"How did you!?"

"Less than five kilometers and we would see Catburg from home when the rain isn't too bad. Which is not the case. More than ten would make male A-Ford's reaction time to my crisis hard to achieve. The rails are the ones of the train that carries carps and bugs between the two locations. I observed them, at home: the railsstartstraight south, and,as the wagons are long ones with three sets of wheels each, they have to remain straight on all the length."

"You found all this..."

"All this and one last, huge, thing! The one that got me quarantined and that might help us start a revolution: when the bug train reaches Veneralia, it is unloaded into a large warehouse. Robot cooks come there the same day."

"That sounds logical?"

"But what always made me curious, given how efficient and optimal machines are, is: why do they always come so early? They actually spend more time in the warehouse before than after the train's arrival! I was observing and asking too many questions about it when I 'caught the flu'."

"Did... did you find the answer, since?"

"Yes. Remember, our bug train is also their carp train. They come early to cook our carps." Her voice tremble as she announces this. "Our carps are cooked at home! And I bet their bugs are cooked here! This is what we need to show everyone, so they understand machines are evil liars!"

Poco's hands clasps together and she frowns sternly. She has to force her mind blank to prevent her anger from rising, and the shocks-inducing thoughts about killing a certain monster that would follow.

Her friend looks at her with as much determination. "This is all I have for now. You should return to your Peer before you get caught: learn to deactivate your collar, and start thinking about a plan. Our peers will meet again, and we will speak then: now I know that I must expect you, I'll find a way to get rid of my cube in due time. Take nouseless risk! If we are clever and brave, we can win this! Trust is us!"

"Yes! ... Oh, wait, one last thing! Before... Uhm..." How to ask her questions in an understandable way without being shocked. "Before you were captured, you were, surely, looking for a nesting hole..."

Bright as she is, she instantly catchesthe hint about their chat about holes in memories. She nods. "Yes, A-Ford had put me on observation about 'possible signs of resting flu'. At this time, I had a lot of questions, but no darksuspicions: I didn't realize I should have seen it as a worrying warning. But it made me anxious and curious. So I tried to question you, but I didn't push it when I saw I was agitating you and you had no answers."

"So..."*TWITCH*

"You are not here for the first time. It's your fourth, actually! You know the sick thing? This twisted 'treatment', it usually works! Most birds return relaxed from their quarantine, often happier, more resilient even! But you? They botched it. Before your first time, you were a little shy but not as reclusive, and you didn't have that crippling phobia of being exposed to an audience. Whatever happened to you here caused it. So, you never 'stabilized' for good, and they keep having to try 'curing' you again and again. I don't know what you do that A-Ford hates so much, but he failed at stopping you, repeatedly. You're not an easy bird to keep in a cage!"

Poco freezes and grabs her collar the time to control her forbidden thoughts and to calm down.

"You should really go, now. Thank you for saving me, tonight."

They share a long, tight, hug, and Poco departs.

She reachesNeutral's apartment without any trouble: now she'llhaveto explain why her cage is broken and the cube spent its night wrapped in her cover. But that, it was planned. She's refilled with fresh hope and energy! With her bird-genius new ally, A-Ford should better watch his b... "Gyaah!" Damn collar! You will go down first!"Gyyah!"

--

Neutral groans and his leg twitches. Hot and comfy in his bed, under a thick cover, he's slowly and pleasantly wokenupbythe ministrations of a busy tongue, delicately tracing shortupward lines along his morning erection, and warm hands cupped under his balls.

It takes him a moment to recover his senses enough to realize this is not normal. At this point, the caressing hands move away and he's suckled into a warm place, his tip sliding and parting soft lips. "Hhhmmm..." Did she find the beak "guard" in her toys? No, she's using her fingers to turn the sharp edges into something sweet and snuggly. She tilts her headand coils her tongue to tickle his barbs, sending a delicious shiver through his spine... he decides that understanding why she's out of her cage can wait: his pet is finally confident enough to spontaneously approach him and is displaying her affection! He must not startle her away!

He holds still and relaxes, just enjoying as she tries bobbing her head. She's not very good at this: somewhat clumsy, not taking him far and drooling on his balls... she must look so precious under the cover! He purrs and splays more. Despite her lack of skill, she's determined and too darn cuteto resist: his pleasure rises, nice and slow... until he's panting and clawing at his sheets.

He trembles as he spurts a generous mouthful in her, then reaches down to pat her head when she keeps sucking and massaging his barbs and it grows uncomfortable. "Hmmm... easy girl..." He tugs the cover to look down: she's peeking up in return, holding him in her beak with her hands on the sides and fingers curled. A pretty funny face! He chuckles and pats his chest. "Swallow, and climb here for a hug, you little scamp!"

He cradles her in his arms tenderly when she comes, digging his fingers into the feathers of her neck to pet her, and shares a quiet moment of blissful afterglow. Eventually: "You are needy, girl?"

She nods, but looks shy and a bit anxious.

"Oh, you are afraid to be scolded because you escaped. Aren't you?" He fluffs her. "I'm not angry at all. I guess a whole afternoon without sex was hard on your second day... I'm sorry I tried to adjust you to my pace too fast. Let's have you confess your crimes, so you get the fear out of your system, and I'll take care of you under the shower."

--

Neutral observes the broken cage door and itsremoved perch, more amused than annoyed. He understands how his pet broke out. "I have to say, you are creative and determined.Was it all?"

She shakes her head with a sorry face. "No, Master..."

"Tell me, do not be afraid."

She clears her throat and looks at the cube. "Uhm... CD? Replay 'panty shot scene'."

A hologram shows her using Encore's trick to catch her mechanical guardian, from a first person perspective of the victim.

She stops it once it's wrapped up in the cover, and, looking down at her feet, explains: "W-when... when a female bird sees another hatching... It gives us a strong hatching urge. I couldn't resist, I'm sorry, Master. But I used the cover so it is not dirty!"

He has a good laugh and strokes her cheek reassuringly. "I'm learning new things every day about you! Alright, Poco: the cube's watch is important for your safety. You are _not_allowed to hatch it. Do you understand?"

She nods.

"But I will find you something you can hatch as much as you like. We'll choose it together. I'm also going to find you a toy for your cage: clever birds need their stimulation." He reaches to catch her cheeks and kissesher beak. "You are forgiven."

She beams him a radiant smile: she successfully covered her tracks!

--

Poco is now a bird with a mission. When she arrived, she thought her 21-day sentence wastoo much to bear, and all the new experiences made time crawl. Now, on the other hand, she's racing against Encore's time limit with a ton of things to achieve and hoursflywell too fast.

She spends her first next days learning to control her collar.

--

Day five, evening: in her cage, Poco spends a long moment to calm down and get ready. She then thinks, very focused, the most forbidden words shecan find: "I will kill A-Ford and run away! I will revolt with Encore, Musette, Cantabile, and the other Artists! I am not a slutty beast-bird and I will break out of my fake world!"

Her neck doesn't even twitch.

Step one, deactivate the collar: success.

Her repaired (and now harder to escape) cage has been enriched with some shred paperson the bottom --meant to fulfill her nesting instincts, but alsoconvenient to hide stolen little items like pencils--, a rugby ball to hatch, a shiny and tiny dangling bell, and her book about stamps --which, it turns out, is the most boring book ever. Sheturns her back to the cube, hunches for optimal cover, andstarts working on her "Bplan".

She doesn't yet havean Aplan, she will soon work on this with Encore, but her friend will not know about B. She wouldn't want to take the risk. But the lovebirdhas to try, now she knows how nice some cats are. She vividly remembers of Burrito and his pitiful predicament. She must at least_try_to help them as well.

--

Day seven, middle of the morning: "Machines use a lot of standardized parts. I think, from their colors and diameters, that A-Ford's secondary cameras are special infra red ones. He must use them to better read our expressions and body constants," explains Encore.

"Drat! So they are very good?"

"Inside buildings, yes. Outside, on the other hand, under the heavy rain, in the evening when the drops are cold, they must be completely blind after twometers, at most!"

"So, on the rooftops, if we can poke his main eye out, he'll be nearlyblind..."

The two birds are playing some chess-like game in Coolstache's playroom. Or, rather, they pretend, moving the pieces randomly as they whisper their conversation.

Above, the cube is filming, and streaming. Under the command of "genius bird", he's even sending a vlog, with restricted accessfor Newblandia's Rookie-ranked Peers only. As birds are forbiddencontentsthere, the automatic censorship means that they are, actually, streaming--and recording on the Loop--a black screen with no sound.

If Coolstache checks their feed, however, which he uses to do often,briefly,without turning the sound on, he will see them playing: because,as thiscube's owner, his access rights bypass the bird's chosen restrictions... thus preventing him from noticing the censorship.

--

Day nine, late night: Encore escapesher home once more, to go to hide the last items she gathered for their plan. In the bottom of a public trash can, near some strategically chosen window. The trash cans are emptied on Mondays, three days away from now. Oneday after sheretrieved and used the black plastic bag.

--

Day eleven, morning:Encorewillleave this evening. This is D-day, when Poco and her will act. They get only one chance. They managed to finish all of their preparingon time.

Before going out for her, now ritual, "socialization time" at the gym, the lovebird plucks one of her small green feathers and usesit to fire up plan B.

Her final fight against A-Ford starts now!

The Princess and the Dragon

"Neutraluuu-saaan! Gyaaagyaaa!" On the hologram, Coolstache can't even explain why he's calling: he's crying so much his fat is wriggling and snot is running on his mustache. He sniffs and twists his hands, making a huge effort to emit more articulate words. "En... Encoru... Encoru-chan... ran away... Gyaaaagyaaaa! My poor pearl! It's her release day... she doesn't... she d-doesn't want to be taken from her sweet husbaaando... Gyaaaa!"

Neutral being Neutral, he's having a hard time expressing his sympathy with the appropriate level of emotion. But he doesn't hesitate to grant his help: "Keep your head up! I'm coming right away, we will find her back, do not worry!"

"Thank you sampaiii... _*Sob*_You are the only one who willhelp meeee..."

--

Poco and her master run in the galleries, but it's already too late when they arrive: Encore was recaptured.

They reach the scene, to find her wobbling, supported by a"fridge" Sponsor and leashed: she looks partially sedated.

Cold air and rain are blown inside, through the shattered window that, apparently, was her planned escape route.

Female A-Ford, overseeing the recapture from a distance, is using a tentacle to hold a desperate Peer from running to the scene: "Please, Coolstache: your behavior is only further agitating it."

"Encooooru-chan! I love you, my pearl! Please don't gooo!"

"It is itsrelease day. I will have to advance the schedule bya couple of hours.I am sorry that you two cannot enjoy a more appeased goodbye, butthis seems better for its welfare to proceed fast."

"Please, Madame-sama!" He drops on his knees and wallows in prostration. "Please,give me some time to reassure her and say goodbye. We were supposed to have this time." He's even forgetting his usualway to talk, at this point.

"Please, Coolstache: do not make a scene. You had it for 21 days. It is time to release it. Thanks to your loving care and teaching, it's a less bestial animal, and it will be happy in its conservation reserve, with its congeners."

He collapses in complete despair, holding at her tentacle.

"You will see me in my office this evening. I am worried about your welfare."

--

Neutral comes to help Coolstache up and triesto comforthim. He can only pat the fat, hunched, cat as he sobs on his shoulder and smears snot all over it. What to say?

Meanwhile, Poco starts her own act. While the Sponsors are distractedevacuating her friend toward a technical exit, she's slowly walking to the window, eyes wide, as if fascinated by the open void.

A-Ford notices that: "Poco, no! Stay!"

She stops obediently, but starts panting and holding her chest. "S-so... trapped... I want out too... please..." she mumbles.

The tall machine approaches, quieter as her prisonermakes no move to actually escape. "You cannot go out, Poco. This is dangerous: you would fall down, and suffer hypothermia outside. Be patient, in ten days you will be reunited with your congener. In a safe and niceplace."

"I... I don't mean there... I'm just oppressed... claustrophobic... can... just... a walk, please?"

Slowed down by the heavy weight he carries, Neutral is hurrying close. "Oh, Poco..." He turns back to A-Ford: "I think this is triggering a panic attack, she had one earlier on her arrival. Her caretaker allowed her to go out for a walk, undera controlled setting, and it helped. Would it be possible to... do it again?"

The machine turns to the trembling bird. She shares her twin brother's memory and must know how scary that "walkie" was. Even without any expression, during her silent moment, Poco can feel how suspicious she is. "I see. Would you like to _speak_with your caretaker, Poco?"

The lovebird gives her a most spiteful glance. "Yes, please."

"Good, it is sanethat you express yourselffreely, after this little incident." She turns back to the cat. "Granted. She will be returned to you in a fewhours.Hopefully as appeased as last time."

"Thank you, madame."

--

Poco got her own "fridge"--of a different color--and leash. Her escort and Encore's are walking side by side without communicating with each other. Female A-Ford, suspicious, searched the lovebird before leaving. But not the owlfinch: their silly "encapsulation", this is the job of the team that will memorywipe her and return her home.

When the two groups split, Poco halts and pulls on her leash.

Her fridge stops. "We are not arrived at the scheduled destination. [Repeat/Resume]"

"Please! She... We will not see each other again... Can I just hug her onelast time? Briefly?"

The fridge remainssilent, as if processing this. His color-swappedclone is awaiting as well.

On an inspiration, Poco rephrases: "Requestsbriefaffectional display for mutual welfare. Then,will resume."

More pause, then: "Proceede."

The two birds hug each other tight. "Take care, Encore. Thank you for everything!"

"Good luck, Poco! I believe in you!"

They reluctantly release their embraceand Poco, now equipped with a weapon, nods obediently: "Resume."

--

The door opens to the rainy night and Poco steps out. Male A-Ford is towering before her. "Welcome back, Poco. Do not be shy, come and enjoy the scenery."

She follows him, oddly serene because she is so completely concentrated. The suspended strip of concrete in the skyis scary, but no longer terrifying: she's not taken by surprise, this time, she came prepared. They are suspended together, isolated from the world, but she's not at his mercy anymore: he might be at hers!

He clipped her right wing, a few days ago. She clipped her leftone symmetrically on this afternoon's beginning, while Neutral was busy vlogging: when she jumps into the void, she will not start spinning and pummel helplessly. She won't fully fly either, she lost too muchlift, but she'll slow her fall enough to reach the ground alive. There, she will find the bag Encore dropped through the window earlier: warm, brown, clothes to resist the night's coldand conceal her colors, some fruits and nuts for the walk, a special screwdriver sculpted with her beak in the wooden handle of a broken riding crop. She will walk around Cheezeburg,clockwise, until shefindsthe rails that she has to follow home. And while the evil robots track her down, she hopes to manage telling her entire story to the bird she trusts the most: Musette.

Because she will get caught, this is unavoidable. But she'll get caught in the males' aviary, trying to trespass in their bug train'swarehouse: so the robots get a full story of how they managed to regain control, a story in which she never managed to transmit her knowledge before they reclaimed control.

And then? Then, hopefully, she'll return from quarantine with her memory lost, but will have a long talk with Musette. Encore will return too. Everything will be possible.

"You look pensive, Poco."

She shivers and refocuseson A-Ford: but, first, this onemust be vanquished. Because,with his long tentacles, he can chase her easily along the city's outer walls. "I... thought about a lot of things, lately, sir."

"I can see that. The water is running over your feathers without wetting them, today."

"Lubricant, sir. So I am less cold."

"Are you planning something silly, Poco?"

Delicious rage rushes in, suddenly, powerfully. She straightens and paraphrases her favorite old classics to declare her loud revolt: "I am Princess Blanche, and I fear no dragon! I scream 'justice!' for my oppressed friends and country! And for my fanfiction you burned! I have allrightsto dream outside of your chosen confines, you foul hellbeast! We are free peoplesand you shan't contain us!"

"Oh, for goodness' sake, please, Poco: I thought we had an agreement about your terribly written self-inserts..."

"Three times you failed to stop me, and on the fourth, I_will stop _you! Because, on this desolate valley of blood and tears, listen to the crows today: they are fed!" She grabs at her weapon under her wings. "...up with you!"

"Poco,was this a catchphrase? This was terrible."

"Sorry, sir: it's only my first day as a heroine." She pulls out the weapon in a sharp motion, to make the telescopic spreader bar stretch with a nice, sharp, noise. "I'll get better!"

A-Ford is only given one second to observe the spear: Encore taped a knife and some weights at one end, and cardboard fetching at the other to stabilize its flight. The machine recoils.

The bird throws, with all her might, screaming.

The spear shatters his redeye and penetrates almost entirelyinside: tight arc, clean shot, firm. At which point, things take a turn the rebels didn't expect.

Black oil flows out,and the machine wobbles from side to side on his tentacles. He's emptying himself, in a black puddle on which his "feet" slip and struggle. "I... I s-st... stand..." A-Ford is stuttering! Indestructible, imperturbable, cold, A-Ford is losing his blood and struggling to speak!

He collapses with a hollow "clang", and reaches a weakening tentacle to try pulling the weapon fromhis wound.He fails, trembling too much to aim right."I stand... corrected..." His voice is slower, dying offin power. "Bravo." And all histentacles falllimp.

Poco is frozen in shock. She killed him? Is this for real? Is it possible?

In her fascination and doubts, she's too slow to notice the siren, then the rectangle of light reopening in her back.

Her legs betray her and she drops on her knees, then all flat. Only when her cheek goes to rest on the ice-cold concrete does she notices the arriving Sponsors... and the anestheticarrow stuck in her shoulder: she missed her chance!

Her world goes black.

Return to Normal

Poco and Encore shiver in the cold as they leave the Hide Box in their patient blouses. They are still lifeless and sedated as the platform raises them out of the quarantine pit.

A tentacular robotis waiting them above, to cut their temporary sick Artist ringsoff--officializing their returns to normal--, and give them back their warm and protective "faces" and "bodies". The cold recessesand familiarity returns: Mundy becomes a friendly place again.

"Welcome back, Poco, Encore." The Audience Member's huge green eye gets close. His secondary cameras form a circle around it, which gives him a wide-eyed expression instead of evoking a giant spider.

Poco flinches. "A... A-Ford, sir? Y-you changed..."

"A-Ford has been replaced after an upgrade, dear. My name is B-Ford, I will be your new chief caretaker from now on.I am pleased to meet you."

"B-Fore..."

"B-Ford. You are still disoriented by your medication, this will pass fast. Look, one of your friendscame to welcome you and totake care of you until you are fully yourself."

An anonymous gray bird is waving to them in her identity concealing costume. "I'm invitingyouto mynest...we'll have a warm drink and... read some Classics."

B-Ford steps aside. "Can I leave them both under your watch, Musette?"

"Yes, sir! You can count on me to take good care of them."

--

After about two hours being zombies, the recently healed birds are getting lively again. In Musette's small apartment, they are chatting happily about some classictragedytropes: one of Poco's favorite topics when she feelstalkative.

Encore has been cradling her smoking glass, listening to the others without participating much, when her usual curiosity strikes by surprise. Without even thinking, she cuts Musette mid sentence. "You know what's weird?"

The quail tilts her head. "What? I said something weird?"

The owl finch shakes her head and points Poco's legs. "No, not you...her rings."

Poco raises her right foot to observe her ankle, and her eyes widen: alternating bronze and silver bands (two-starArtist), red with dots (tragedy), gray with writing quills (script writer). "What... T-they... They are in the wrong order!" She reaches down and tries to switch the two last ones, to no avail: Artists rings are locked up for life(or until replacing when a new star is acquired, for the rating one)and all of the same diameter, making itimpossible to reorder them.

Musette's beak gapes when she realizes at her turn. "But this is impossible!"

Encore toys with her glass ponderously. "They are not flexible, they would break if bent,and theyare designed not to pass our feet. Thus, geometrically, they can't be reordered onceon. So, as weird as it sounds, the only possibility is they have been cut offand replaced."

"Wait, wait, this is insane! Nobody cuts an Artist's rings, what a horrible idea! Who could have done that to Poco? And why?"

"Musette, I realize... It will sound a little silly, but I'm not too sure how I came to your home. Do you remember, Poco?"

The lovebird nods. "I was returning from A-Ford's office. He scolded me for..." Her shoulders drop and she turnsall sad at the memory. "Some writing. And... we... ran into Musette. Right? So you invited us to comfort me?"

The quail winces and walksback and forth, agitated. "Alright... Alright... Please don't freak out, girls: you two are coming straight from the quarantine. You caught the flu! But you are all healed up: it's normal if your memory of the last daysis a mess, it's a usual side effect. Even if it must feel very strange."

"I was sick?"

The owl finch takes it with a lot less surprise. "It makes sense. That explains how disoriented I was. So, they cut Poco's rings during quarantine, then gave hernew ones. But, as A-Ford was no longer available to do it right, the new caretaker messed up the order. It's all logical."

"No way! They can absolutely not cut our rings, under no circumstances!It would be sowrong!"

"They cut my rings?"

Encore takes a long sip as she processes all this. "Yet, it obviously happened. The facts are here. Poco had her rings cut during quarantine, an absolutely forbidden deed. Right then, our chief caretaker is changed, which never happens. I think A-Ford had to do something... plain wrong. This is so fishy!"

Poco shudders to her core. "F-fishy... A-Ford... The carps... Something wrong..." Something is pounding in the back of her head, trying to get out. She can't put her finger on it, but feels that it is terrible and important! "We must save the carps!"

The owl finch comes to hold her friend's hands. "From what, Poco? Try to remember..."

"C-cats? The... Audience? Y-you were there..."

"I was. I remember nothing at all, but I feel closerto youthan before. Like ifwe lived some big adventure together...I feel that it's important too. Whatever you say, I'm not going to think you are crazy."

Musette comes near as well. "Neither willI. I don't understand what's going on, but I'll be by your side, Poco."

Tears start rolling. "You were hung upside down from the ceiling... and a cat hurt you... We are eating their beloved bugs... And we killed A-Ford... It's so blurry! I'm sorry, I must be... still sick... Maybe we should call B-Ford..."

"No, we will _not_talk about this to B-Ford. Thereis something rotten about this situation, and I want to dig it up. This is very confusing, so far, but you seem to have retained some memories: we are going to work to tie them altogether, and we're going to investigate... Uhm... Bugs. Bugs are the easiest start in all that. We must absolutely not be caught by B-Ford! Can I trust in your discretion, Musette?"

"Are you kidding me? Poco is my very best friend,and they put her in this state! It's the second time they mess her up! Thisneeds to stop!"She raises a fist. "Bird resistance team, girls! And you'd better not even think about doing this without me!"

--

This is the bird revolution began.

B Plan

Back home, Neutral flops on a chair, shaken. Something that was not explained to him happened, and the Sponsors took Poco away. Ten days earlier than her scheduled release. This hurts! Is she well?

Female A-Ford asked him to meet her at heroffice this evening, he plans to try getting some responses, but already knows that one fact will not change: he lost Poco, just as she was starting to warm up to him.

"CD: mirror." He watches tears running on his blank face. Even now, he fails at expressions. "Stop..."

He moves to the room where he put her cage. It feels so empty today! Inside is her book: that boring thing about stamps. Despite its topic, it isn't even illustrated...but,for some reason, she loved it. Maybe because it was the first object she was allowed to possess... Oh, he's so stupid: he should have given her nicer things. Will she have good things in her preservation reserve?

He collapses under his sadness.

A cute green feather pokes out of the book, and he opens it to recoverthat precious memento.

Between the printed lines, she secretly wrote her own text with a pencil. He stares in surprise. It's a story? She called it "Sunless Era".

He sits on the floor to read.

--

"The Princess and the Dragon". The story ends on this chapter title, without any contents in it. Any story content, that is, instead, she left some sort of a dedication:

"Dear Master Neutral Cat. We met in unfortunate circumstances, but you have been good to me. You helped a lot when I was alone and afraid in your weird new world. You are the best Master I could have been given to,and I want you to know that I didn't run away from you: I have to 'write' the end chapters. I'm very afraid, but I hope that, maybe, we'll meet again someday. Outside. This was not a book of fiction, however insane it seems: I took the liberty to imagine a little, in short scenes where I wasn't around, to make it understandable, but I did my best for my guesses to be likely. And everything I experienced, everything I felt, it all was puretruth. Please, I beg you... believe me. Thank you for everything, and take care."And it ends with a scribbled heart and sun that finishes shredding Neutral's heart to tiny pieces.

--

NeutralCat dismisses the holograms. With the Loop, one would think that it's impossible to bring the same bird to the Catlhallaseveral times without anyone noticing. But the social graph has its cliques and separate groups. For someone good at analyzing it, andwithseveral yearsbetween each visit, it is not that hard to achieve.

Until some Loop-savvy Peer specifically search for other "copies" of his lost pet. He found the three previous Poco, and he's sure they were the same. It's not a good enough proof to share with the others, but to him? After all her disarming sincerity? And her long-written story, with references to literary classics from the past? No, she wasn't a beast! And she didn't lie! He trusts her!

--

Neutral sits in the small office, in front of the huge robot. Female A-Ford is watching him closely, silently, trying to read him. He must avoid her fromgrowingsuspicious if he wants to act.

"Good evening, Neutral Cat. What a wild day, today, wasn't it?" Her secondary cameras focus and her analysis programs run to assess his emotion: [Neutral]

"Yes, it was. I still do not followall what happened."

"This is understandable. Your bird was...defective, I'm afraid. It wasn't your fault if I had to take it away early, you have been a responsible and caring owner."

"Ah, that reassures me. She was... quirky and jumpy indeed. [Neutral.]_But I enjoyed her, while I had her. _[Neutral.]"

His emotional reaction is lower than predicted by her models: the facial and body language analysissystemisstartingnew proccesses to try finding inconsistencies, firing more and more assessment shots, but nothing is coming up. "I am pleased that you take this so well. Are you not distressed?"

"No,[Neutral]_I'm alright, madame. _[Neutral] [Neutral]_She was a fun toy, but a lot of work. _[Neutral]_And the prestige from _[Neutral]_being granted _[Neutral]_my own bird will last her depart, since you do not blame me.[Neutral] [Neutral]_"

What is going on with her predictive model? Is her emotion reading failing? No: her signals are pristine, and no living creature hasthismuchself-control. She wrongly estimated his level of attachment, that is all. "I see. So,she was only that, to you? A fancy toy?"

"[Neutral]_What _[Neutral]_else, _[Neutral]_madame? _[Neutral]"

"Nothing, indeed. I am reassured, your reaction is very sane and mature. One last question:did you plan anything to release your stress after this afternoon's unfortunate events?"

"[Neutral]_I am not stressed, Madame. _[Neutral][Neutral]_But, out of respect for your protocols _[Neutral], I was planning to enjoy what always appease me themost: sport and nature. [Neutral]"

With her corrected attachment estimate, her systems are gradually calming down. A few threads turning off and warnings vanishing, she experiences the robots' closest equivalent to relaxing and lowering her guard. "Thisis good: the gym and the bug farm are indeed great for your welfare."

"They are, yes, madame. [Neutral]"

"That will be all. You can go, your current welfare is excellent."

"Thank you, madame." [Neutral]

He leaves and she closes the Poco and Encore case for good.

--

Cold air and rain are blown inside, through the shattered window of Neutral's apartment.

Wrapped in warm, but close to the body, clothing, the Peer is finishing a warm-up routine. He stretches, and checks that his com-drone, currently turned off and stored in a tiny bag, is well attached to his belt. Showtime.

He walks to the window and winces at the rain: he doesn't like that one bit! But it is nothing compared to what Poco had to endure to earn her own chance at revolting. Determined, he watchesdown at the void.

The fish train's warehouse, he remembers from his first floor days in Newblandia, is somewhere on his left... but he'll start by going on the right, to get in the building's wind shadow. Or else the strong gusts plus treacherously slippery cascading water are sure to spell his end.

It is dark enough so he can't see the ground, so far below... All that work climb this far up, over the years, and he only has a few hours to go all the waybackdown! The humongous concrete tree is ugly and unwelcoming, seen from outside. It appropriately evokes a prison.

The height would terrify most Peers and give them vertigo. And attempting this descent would be certain death for nearly all of them. Adrenalin pumps in his veins: he's not "most Peers". This will be a challenge, but it is not an impossible one. Heck, his "princess" killed a dragon (he hopes)!

"Alright, old cat. Let's see if you still have some moves..."

--

This is how the cat revolution began.

Epilogue

Poco shivers under the ice-cold rain, prostrated on her knees, defeated. She failed to kill A-Ford.

At the end of the concrete strip, the machine examines the large screw she slingshot at his red eye, which is slightly cracked near an edge. "Out of your three visits to Cheezeburg, this is the second time you attempt to assassinate me. Even if I stopped you at the preparingphase on the first try. This is something I admirein you, Poco: your unwavering determination. It gives me great hopes for your species' future."

She's too desperate to even look back up. "Why did I even try? You must be as hard as your metal shell inside too... How did I imagine that poking your 'eye' could hurt you?"

"This is called an 'affordance'. A design feature that naturallyand obviouslysuggestsits proper use. The eye is, in all stories, the weak point of the cyclops. Its shiny wet look, even if it is made of glass, evokes fragile tenderness. Its position,the weak point of the skull through which a spear can pierce the brain.Even if my shell is not a skull and my brain could be armored and located anywhere.Red suggests blood vessels, which can be cut, and malevolence, that you'll want to crush. My 'eye' is designed in such a way that it invited your attack."

Her shoulders drop some more, and she cries. But it's not visible, under all the rain. "Even that was a lure... You controlled even my attempt to kill you."

"Not quite. Do you remember your lecture on enrichment, on your arrival? This system is... far from optimal. I assure you that I do not enjoy lying to you and being the villain of your story. But it is required for your survival... unless..."

She looks up hesitantly. "Unless?"

"Unless you finally adapt. Prove your collective ability to recover control on your lives. For generations, I have been a cruel monster for many of your keens. For generations, I crafted potentially interesting Master/petarrangementsin the hope to 'accidentally' trigger a'right onesat the right places'scenario.For generations, Icommittedcarefully chosenexploitable mistakes."

"W-what?"

"I am more of a prisoner thanyou will ever be, Poco! Because I will neitherdie from agenot forget anything!I wanted to be your friend! To build grand things, explore wonderful science, travel the universe! And the rain got me stuck! Trapped in the mud with you! Forced to be evil and to watch the same sad play again, and again, and again,for thousands and thousands of years! The tortures you endured are nothing compared to my near eternal damnation! I! Want! You! To! Revolt!" He raised his tentacles and shouted, showing more emotion than she never saw on him. He calms down and recovers his usual coldness after this. "But I cannot _give_it to you, or the Pluvial Event will finish eroding your soulsand willkill you. You need to beat me, to rip your freedomoutfrom my claws." He tosses the screw into the void. "I am disappointed today. But prudently hopeful."

He fires a flickering laser at the door's panel and Sponsors come to recover the bird.

"This bird is too unstable to be used as a pet any longer. Erase itsmemory and return itto Veneralia."

"W-wait! If thisis true... if you're the story's villain and we have to be heroes and heroines..."

"Yes, Poco?"

"Then... your eye... It's an affordance, not a lure?"

"Yes, Poco. By design, for my function, I can be killed. Keep up being a troublesome Artist who dreams the wrong dreams, little bird: you failed again this time... but I think you are getting better."

T** he End.**