Akiko Azaki-Kobayashi (Feral) [student]

THE BASICS

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Feral’s current form is short, scrawny, and frequently assumed to be in possession of shoplifted goods.  Which it may well be... but that is beside the point!  And she doesn’t really do that anymore.  She promised.  She is also assumed to be a boy (especially a boy under 12), which doesn’t bother her in the slightest.  Gender isn’t a priority, and other people spend so much time agonizing over flat chests (Feral beats most of them in that regard anyway; she’s about as flat as a dog) and the like; what’s left for her to bother concerning herself with?

For all that she is small enough to disappear into deceptively small spaces, Feral is visually distinctive in most parts of the city.  Her hair is a faded, sandy sort of ash blonde, hacked into bangs of variable length but otherwise tied back; one of her few first-childhood memories are of her father braiding her hair, and it is a memory that has brightened more than its fair share of soul-crushing nights.  She often twists the bulk of her hair into a a bun or keeps it beneath her clothing, but her hair is actually long enough to blend into the base of her tail if brushed out smoothly.

That tail, along with the sharply pointed ears on top of her head, make the basic nature of Feral’s Quirk painfully obvious, and her painfully identifiable.  Her tail is moderately bushy, with similar texture to the hair on her head except with a second, inner layer of pale, wooly fluff. Her tail, overall, is just long enough to cover her face if she hugs her knees, and has the full range of movement, expression and balance support of the average dog tail.  It often gives away something of her mood, to anyone with experience reading canine body language (and much of her body language overall is more in line with dogs than humans, although she will nod, shake her head, and glare daggers).  If she were taller, her ears would be long enough to cause height trouble, but as she stands... they often don’t even make her visible across a crowd.

In addition to her ears and tail, Feral has a number of other visible animal traits.  She has well-developed canines, and her teeth are more widely spaced than in most humans (she does have fewer teeth as well, and her molars are somewhere between carnassials and the usual human grinding surfaces).  Her nose has well-developed muscles associated with it as well, allowing her canine-grade sniffing... though not canine-grade scent detection.  That’s pretty much just well-practiced human grade.  She has just enough of a tapetum lucidum in her eyes for them to reflect a pale silver, and to see a little bit better in the dark.

The pads of Feral’s hands and feet are tough, both by Quirk and callouses, and the former has turned toe bean regions a darker shade of her natural skin tone.  Her nails are thicker than the typical human’s as well, but still closer to that than to a dog’s nails - and certainly nothing like cat claws.  Also, she often stands on the balls of her feet, and is more comfortable doing so than most humans, but she is not truly digitigrade.

Feral is traditionally not picky about her clothes, prioritizing warmth, protection, and then intimidation, but her changing circumstances have broadened her interest and goals with fashion.  Temperature suitability is still her primary goal, but given the choice she will select thinner, more insulating layers over bulky clothing.  She prefers black over most other colours, but has a soft spot for reds and golds as well.  She usually wears a snug athletic tank and leggings, and will layer over these as appropriate.  In especially wet or muddy weather, she will wrap up her tail to keep it dry.  It is also this sort of weather (and snow) that will convince her to actually wear shoes as well... which tend to vary between rubber boots, lined winter boots, and high heels (but not platforms).

Feral is usually in the company of her pack, or at least some part of it. All three current members are registered as support animals, and bear a collar with GPS, radio, and ID code; these collars look superficially like anti-bark e-collars, with a bulkier section set against the throat to allow the radio to pick up on vocalizations.

Crow
Domestic medium-hair FELINE, black; 14 lbs

Kai
Husky-mix street mutt CANINE, black with grey throat; 80 lbs

Quick
Shepherd-mix street mutt CANINE, white with grey mask and ears; 45 lbs

PERSONALITY

Feral is... complicated.  She is both viciously honest and a brazen thief. She is wise in the ways of assault, sex, and drugs, and also painfully naïve.  She has no real confidence in interacting with humans in social settings, and yet she has both deep emotional bonds with her packmates and a strong intuitive sense for what others are thinking - humans included.

She is a street mutt with a white-knuckled grip on an intense but poorly defined drive for justice.  She will save herself and her pack first, but will take on a moderate amount of risk without second thought where she sees people acting unfairly.  Steal from someone flaunting their wealth in order to feed your kids?  She might even help you out, if she can.  Steal from someone trying to feed their own kids, though, and take that black cat in your path for the warning it is.

Feral has an interesting relationship with rules and other people’s perceptions of justice.  If it comes from a trusted pack member, especially one she considers to be her superior, then she will follow the rule with violently blind devotion... as long as it doesn’t continually conflict with her own values, as such a discrepancy will damage the pack bond and she will lose faith in the source of the rule.  Human laws, with which she has no pack bond, mean about as much to Feral as kanji and the French language.  It isn’t that she tries to break them, just that... they register even less than gender as a priority.

Feral is fiercely protective of her food, shelter, and resources, though she shares freely and enthusiastically with her pack, and especially respectively if they outrank her.  She is physically affectionate when comfortable, with little concern and tons of innocence regarding human notions of propriety, and stiffly standoffish when among strangers.  She can lounge for hours in the warm, fluffy comfort of a dogpile, but try to put her in a classroom and she will at best wander the classroom the whole time, as much as she may be intensely listening.  Sitting in chairs is the worst part of this whole school thing, between her restlessness, discomfort surrounded by strangers, and inexperience fitting her tail into chairs, and she had really been expecting it to be a lot more of a fight club...

Crow
This majestic black tomcat isn’t much of a chatterbox but he does have an intense love for mischief and aggressive pats.  He is especially fond of strolling in front of anyone either he or Feral thinks is likely to, say, get mugged.

Kai
Tough guy Kai is the baby of the pack, being as much of a puppy as he seems to be ferocious wolf dog (he is actually 0% wolf, but grrrrr scary street terror).  He thinks it is hilarious when he scares people, and will give up the act completely if someone rubs his face or above his butt.  Mmm, massages <3

Quick
She might be the fastest to react, but Quick’s real talent lies in not reacting unnecessarily.  She is inquisitive and alert, and very difficult to surprise.  She is exceptionally loyal to Feral, and dotes on her approval. Quick is the one who always seems to be sleeping during the day... because whenever Feral is asleep, Quick is on watch.  Quick is the most likely member of the pack to disobey Feral (for a good cause), and usually still thinks of her as Puppy.

BACKGROUND HISTORY

Feral has had two childhoods.  The first was much shorter than the second, but most people wouldn’t think of the second as a childhood.

The first began when she was born.  She was the intentional child of two men - Akiza held off on a medical transition until she was born - and dearly loved by both fathers even after they split up three years later. John moved to another prefecture, and the girl went with him.  In this childhood, the girl’s name was Akiko.

When the girl was almost seven, John died.  She does not know how, or what the circumstances were.  She simply remembers that he died.  She was not home at the time, but had snuck out of the house after her puppy, Quick.  When she returned, all she could see were flashing lights and tall strangers.  All she could feel was terror, both hers and Quick’s, and she ran.

She will never remember much of the first weeks of her life after that first childhood ended.  She drank water from puddles with Quick, found food but never nearly enough for either, let alone both, and would have frozen to death if it weren’t for the puppy’s body heat.  It was probably less than a week before the wolf found them.

Now, he wasn’t really a wolf.  He looked like one, sure, if wolves stood four feet high at the shoulder, but when they looked at each other she could understand him, and he called her Puppy.  She was cold and tired and scared, and Quick wasn’t as scared of him as she had been of the others who tried to approach them.

The wolf didn’t introduce himself for many years.  She called him Wolfdad, after a time, and eventually he called her Feral, almost respectfully, instead of Puppy.  Wolfdad taught her how to navigate the city, the warning signs to watch for and the safe places to hide.  He had a den in the basement of a not-quite-defunct factory, where they just had to stay out of sight when the furnace was inspected or repaired.  She begged for food and money in neighborhoods where the threats were afraid of Wolfdad, rather than police who might steal her away with their flashing lights.  She learned to bite and kick to defend herself.

She got good at living that life, and generally enjoyed it.  When she came across a kitten in a taped-up box by a dumpster, she warmed it up and fed it until the mess of black fur had the strength to jump and hiss and spit at crows.   When she asked Wolfdad if that was where babies came from, mysterious boxes showing up on the street, he nearly died.

Then he told her about bad people abandoning animals.  And also about sex.  Feral was horrified (mostly about the bad people) and demanded that they find the people who had abandoned Crow like that.  Bemused (and grateful she wasn’t asking about sex or babies anymore), Wolfdad helped her track them down.  He let her challenge them, some small-time thugs.  When they threatened her back, years away from taking the tiny child seriously even if she could show them her fangs, Wolfdad casually showed up behind her.

Feral always assumed that she had scared them away on her own. Wolfdad was entertained by that, so he never enlightened her.  There were other times where he had to intervene more overtly, however.  The man who tried to rob her (Quick let Wolfdad know) and dislocated one of her fingers before Wolfdad dislocated his head.  The “recruiters” from the red light district who lured (and then bullied) her eight blocks before Wolfdad bullied them into being unable to run from the approaching police, while Feral rode away on Wolfdad’s furry back.

The villains who broke into their factory-den, intent on building their own base of operations, and beat her unconscious when they found her and Quick asleep.

Those ones... Wolfdad brought Feral to a new den before she woke up, even though he had to drag her with his jaws, so that she wouldn’t see what he’d done with them.  Or find out about the pro heroes he had to deceive, and hide her from; they recognized him, and knew something of his past, but he couldn’t bear to give Feral up to the world that had wronged him badly enough for him to wrong it back.

So he ran, and smoothed it all over until Feral stopped asking about it. The timing may have coincided with the rescue of a second mutt... and Wolfdad may have simply returned home one day with a feisty black lump flailing by its scruff.  He named this one Kai, but it was Feral who taught Kai his place in their mixed pack.

When Kai was two, villains struck again.  This time, they were all home, tucked together for warmth against the winter cold.  The villains also weren’t rummaging around blindly, but rather seeking a specific target. Someone they had known years before.  Someone with a debt long overdue.

The rest of the night was a blur.  In the aftermath, Wolfdad was dead. Her dad was dead again.  This time, though, she knew how.  Shot seventeen times in the chest, broken ribs, punctured lung.  She had been shot as well, a stray bullet that bounced off her left femur.  She tried to send her pack away, to save themselves, but they wouldn’t leave her; Kai and Quick dragged the girl once called Puppy, once called Akiko, into a hidden corner.  Crow brought police, who brought pro heroes.

Feral had seen heroes before, of course.  They weren’t quite as scary as police, in all their different costumes and generally looking unarmed but for their own abilities.  Wolfdad told her to keep her distance, but that they weren’t necessarily dangerous.  Just part of a different world, and she might not be able to come home if she got too close to them - but if she were desperate, they would help her.

When the heroes arrived, the villains fled, leaving Wolfdad bleeding on the floor.  The heroes spent ages around him, it seemed, doing who-knew-what.  Feral couldn’t hear, could barely see through the gap between the pipes and the darkness in her eyes.  When her eyes finally closed, and her demand that Kai and Quick stay hidden faded, the two set up a racket to bring help to Feral as well.

She woke up in the hospital.

Alone.

Completely and totally alone.

The first person she met in the hospital was one of the heroes, a local agency sidekick called Blue Weaver.  Blue Weaver found Feral trying to break the fourth-floor window with her IV pole (carefully ripped out of her arm) while bracing her injured leg against a chair.  Blue Weaver managed to talk Feral down, bribed her heavily with food, and secured Feral’s temporary interest and respect by responding to the girl’s fear-masked-by-rage demand that her pack be reunited with her.  The hero was empathetic, patient, and genuinely interested in Feral and her relationship with the animals, who were being kept at a nearby city shelter.

Less than two hours later, Blue Weaver (with the eventual support of her boss, the pro hero Lunar Judge) wrangled the three technically feral animals into the very reluctant hospital.  She got to see first-hand when the pack, starting with Quick, caught Feral’s scent.  She also dislocated her shoulder when the two dogs bolted instead of fighting backwards, but kept her cool enough to race after them, one of the other sidekicks carrying Crow in a carrier that was rapidly looking less and less secure.

The sight of that scrawny, bandaged little girl hugging the two dogs validated the fight Blue Weaver had fought to advocate for her, and then years’ more of effort.  It also gave her an in with the girl, and she leveraged the opportunity to get to know her.  Once Feral trusted Blue Weaver (really only another day of reliable food and two rounds of standing up to new nursing shifts who hadn’t quite received the memo about the fur and drool and dirt), she opened up readily about her past and experiences.  She was able to remember enough for Blue Weaver to send the police, to try to identify her as soon as they knew she had been on the streets for so long and under such circumstances.

Blue Weaver also discovered that Feral had no reason now to stay on the streets at all, as long as she wasn’t separated from her pack.  She was also starting to link the girl - unexpectedly looking closer and closer to her actual age, more than the boost in food and rest explained - with stories she had heard around some of the rougher neighbourhood in her agency’s territory.  A kid and animals, including a huge dog or wolf.

A kid who had actually dropped the rate of violence and mugging in the area substantially.

Blue Weaver started to weave an idea.  It had a long way to go, but she started to work out the requirements, the information she needed to gather, the people she would eventually need to convince.  She was already spending a lot of time with Feral, since the girl didn’t trust anyone else, so adding this project meant that she was spending almost no time at all on the streets.  Thus the first person she needed to convince: Lunar Judge.

Before she had that conversation, she needed to make sure that her idea was even remotely possible.  That there was a chance to flex the system’s opportunities.  That Feral would even be interested.

One of those hurdles was unexpectedly easy to cross, once Blue Weaver actually dared approach it.  Was Feral interested?  Sure.  It provided food, shelter, security... everything she and her pack needed.  And she liked the idea of what it would lead her to do.

So Blue Weaver went to Lunar Judge, and she laid out her evidence and the forms she had found, and the programs she was piecing together, and what else she needed to make this able to happen.  Lunar Judge sat with it all for a while, sending Blue Weaver out to patrol for once while he considered it all.  He had agreed to his sidekick’s first plan, but that was much, much smaller than this.  The only toes they had stepped on were some relatively small-time civil servants with minimal ongoing interactions with the hero profession.

Blue Weaver was still out on patrol when Lunar Judge received a call from the police.  It wasn’t a call to action.  Instead, they believed they had identified the girl.  And Lunar Judge had had a hand, unwitting and unintentional though it was, in the start of the entire situation.



At any rate, Lunar Judge was now invested in this girl’s future, and in honouring her heritage.  He made calls, pulled strings, used up favours. He even invested a concerning amount of his own money into the project.

Once the basics were set up, they turned their attention to the girl in question.  First, they tried to get her used to at least hearing her legal name again.  It did not progress as well as planned, and eventually they gave in and just recorded her preferred name as Feral.  She also refused to let anyone try to contact her remaining, theoretically surviving, birth parent.  She has no connection to him beyond blood, and he’d probably disrupt the whole plan, so there were worse things to deal with anyway.

Like working on her literacy.  And numeracy.  And vocabulary.  These were all not-as-bad-as-could-be too, at least, since she had been bright in school before her father’s death and Wolfdad had done his best to educate her using their surroundings.  She especially hates kanji, especially ones that look nothing like what they mean, and is almost guaranteed to mis-pronounce them.  She has an okay head for numbers, and practical math flows just fine.  Wrapping her head around the phrasing of some questions is the biggest challenge.

With rapid progress, and the arrangement of ongoing supplemental tutoring, the last piece of Blue Weaver’s complex plan slipped into place: her father’s alma mater, UA, accepted her as a conditional student.  The conditions were strict, and she would be scrutinized endlessly for her fitness as a hero student, but they agreed.  She was in.

And Feral smiled almost as wide as when Blue Weaver first returned her pack a year before.

THE ARMORY

Feral’s initial hero costume is very basic, with minimal, specific function beyond maximum range of movement and basic protection.  It consists of a fitted black suit, very nearly skintight, with small embedded Kevlar plates along body parts that don’t need to flex (forearms, around the shoulders, outer thighs, shins, and across her back mapped to muscle groups) to protect against knife blades and help absorb impact (an unpowered kick will knock her back, given her size, but won’t even bruise on first impact).

The gloves and boots of her suit have small claws, like a cat’s, of the same material and colour as the spike rope in her hair,  They can cut skin and tear non-combat fabrics, but not leather, denim, or anything with any real laceration protection.  They do provide improved grip when climbing.

A gold emblem at her throat includes her radio’s audio pickup and stores a dog whistle, and a black and gold flower nestled in each ear provides speakers, as well as automatic noise cancelling (volume of painful-threshold sounds is reduced by 50%, calibrated to Feral’s auditory pain thresholds).

Feral also braids a pale gold spiked rope into her hair and tail, effectively the same colour, to prevent opponents from grabbing it without active discomfort.  The spikes are about a half inch long and widen rapidly, keeping them sturdy, but are still sharp enough to draw blood if squeezed.

Each of her packmates bears a solid black collar as well, with a thicker section against their throat.  These collars have a built in radio, with audio pickup at the throat and bone-conduction speakers.  They also have integrated GPS tracking, connected to Feral’s cell phone (still the only part she reliably knows how to use), and an ID code/microchip system to identify them to unenlightened authorities.

QUIRK & SKILLS

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PACKMATE

TYPE: Transformation
RANK/LEVEL: D+
SUMMARY:
Feral’s Quirk draws on the strength of the pack to strengthen the individual.  She physically transforms using the traits of her packmates.

Packmate Criteria
Joining Feral’s pack isn’t as simple as an accepted invitation.  It requires mutual emotional bonding and respect appropriate to the relative roles of the individual.  Packmates are mammalian (or at least originally human, in the case of physical mutation Quirks) and have the capacity for social interaction.  A potential packmate does not need to explicitly agree to join the pack, but both Feral and the potential packmate must become emotionally attached; they have to become family.  An individual will cease to be a member of Feral’s pack if their emotional bond is damaged or neglected; it is possible to repair the bond, but it is just as easy to do that as it is to make up with the best friend you now hate because of Reasons.  Individual packmates do not need to get along with or even know each other; Feral is the link between them.

Benefits to the Packmate
Feral is very loyal.  She will Fight for her packmates... or at least be distracting so you can escape.  And animals in her pack can communicate more with her.  That’s really it, though.  She’s the one who gets stronger.

Packmind
Feral can communicate with members of her pack that are not normally capable of language.  She and they can read each other’s body language and vocalizations clearly enough to discern intent, mood, and other basic information.  Basically, if it can be phrased as a sentence with four words or less (using only Feral’s vocabulary), the point will get across. As a result, Crow can meow to tell Feral that dumb dog did it, and Kai can sulkily confess was fun....  Neither can tell Feral that Blue Weaver is coming to see if she has actually done her homework... and this just eases communication.  It does not increase anyone’s intelligence.

Trait Transformation
Note: Feral does not consciously think of her Quirk in these terms; it just explains things better!

Feral utilizes physical traits from her packmates, either unconsciously or consciously, to transform her own body.  She can only handle so much change at a time, however, and less familiar traits are much more challenging to maintain and use effectively.  Feral can have a maximum of 3 traits points active at a time for each additional member of her pack.  She currently has 4 pack members (Quick, Crow, Kai, and Blue Weaver) for a total of 12 maximum trait points.  Feral cannot currently use traits from human pack members, but does benefit from the increase to her maximum points.

The following traits are very familiar to Feral, and cost 1 trait point each to use; the source pack member is given in (brackets):

• Hearing (Quick) - results in big pointy ears and a sense of hearing between that of a human and average dog; she can hear some supersonic (high pitched) sounds, and can hear a mouse in a room with a calm conversation
• Cold Adaptation (Kai) - courtesy of the husky mutt, Feral’s furry areas are densely furred, and she has improved countercurrent blood flow in her extremities, preserving body heat in cold temperatures; as a result, her hands and feet always feel cold to other people, but fine to her.  Feral is as comfortable at 4c as she is at 22c.
• Balance (Crow) - not as steady as a cat, but the resulting tail, sense of proprioception (she’s good at knowing where her assorted limbs are), and overall flexibility give her an advantage on unsteady and narrow surfaces; she can run on a balance beam, but the top of a chain link fence is out of her league
• Darkvision (Crow) - Feral’s eyes develop so that she can see in dim lighting, though not complete darkness.  If an average person can see a grey haze, she can see clear shapes and edges

Feral requires one post per trait point to add or remove a trait.  Once established, one- and two-point traits can be maintained indefinitely as long as the pack bond remains intact and Feral remains at no more than 25% of her maximum point total [current total = 12 trait points; 25% = 3 points].  Feral can spend up to 6 posts with a point total between 25 and 50% (4-6 points), 4 posts up to 75% (7-9 points), and 2 posts up to 100% (10-12 points).  Higher-point traits also have individual limits: they can be maintained for two posts (5 point traits).  If knocked unconscious or otherwise mentally incapacitated, all traits except default traits will deactivate over the course of one post total. 

Feral’s default traits: Hearing (1); Cold Adaptation (1); Balance (1); total = 3/12

WEAKNESSES/LIMITATIONS:
Feral’s Quirk has a lot of potential... but it’s all over the place rather than concentrating on one amazing strength.  It is an extremely difficult Quirk to learn to use intentionally - what use Feral has, she accesses instinctively - and no individual benefit surpasses the Quirkless animal kingdom.

Feral typically changes trait based on an instinctive assessment of her needs: if she’s trying to see in the dark, then her Quirk helps her see in the dark.  If it’s suddenly bright, Darkvision will fade away... but if someone tells her that it’s going to get bright, she has to try to get the trait to turn off intentionally, which goes something like trying to peel the back layer off your eyeballs using your mind... without being telekinetic.  The more complicated the trait, the harder it is to intentionally turn it on or off, and the harder still to do it under any sort of pressure, never mind combat.  It’s all Feral can do to maintain Agility in combat, if she was fortunate enough for it to kick in when she needed it.

Oh, and trying to forcefully maintain a trait that’s trying to shut down, either from overuse or lack of perceived need?  Go ahead and punch that dragon god in the shin.  It’ll probably go better.

Feral automatically maintains several traits, resulting in her highly identifiable ears (and tail).  These traits each have strengths and weaknesses, and the higher the point value of the traits she uses, the greater the vulnerabilities.  Her default traits - Hearing, Cold Adaptation, and Balance - are so instinctive and ingrained that it requires conscious effort to deactivate them, and to keep them from returning.  If Feral does not pay attention to them, they will return whether or not she has the point space or energy to manage them.  If she goes over her total maximum, she will faint on the spot, waking up in three posts with a crippling headache, body aches, fever and chills, and bruising in the body tissues directly affected by the traits in use at the time.  When Feral faints from Quirk overuse, all traits, including default traits, subside within one post.  Default traits return upon awakening unless local tissue damage is significant; sharp pain prevents Feral from transforming except through extreme willpower.

Maintaining a trait for too long results in physical exhaustion and minor bruising in the associated body tissues.  Pushing the trait for an additional post adds a headache and more serious bruising; two posts adds fever and chills; and the start of the third post sees immediate fainting for the next four posts.

Hearing: Sudden loud noises, including ones too high-pitched for those around her to hear, can be downright painful.  Additionally, it is much easier to be distracted by a noise when everything is more audible.

Cold Adaptation: She might not wear as much fur as Kai, the source of this trait, but warm temperatures and this trait are not a good match.  Feral will be uncomfortably warm at 24c, while using this trait, and is at risk of heat exhaustion or heat stroke above 26c.  This is a default trait for her, so it is difficult to remember to keep it ‘off.’  Additionally, while Feral is comfortable down to 4c, below 5c she rapidly returns to being as susceptible to cold as everyone else.

Balance:  Ever had someone shut a door on your tail?  Or sit on it? Also a certain hygiene aspect, and a lot of contorting the lower back to make sure it’s all organized.  Also modifying clothing to fit.

Darkvision: Bright light is blinding.  If there is enough light to cast a shadow, and Feral still has this trait active, she needs sunglasses to avoid eye pain and a splitting headache.  A flash of light will also dazzle her vision for three posts (two posts if she drops the trait).

Agility:  Feral might be able to dip and dodge all over the place, but she tires quickly and is even worse at staying still than usual.  She can spend up to three consecutive posts in constant movement with this trait active before suffering exhaustion, and she cannot spend more than one post immobile wth this trait active.

Tough Stomach:  Losing her sense of taste might be a blessing when she needs to use this trait, but it is surprisingly disorienting. Additionally, Feral has to maintain this trait until whatever nasty thing she ate is completely through her system - up to two days - to avoid suffering indigestion or worse.  During that time, she remains without a sense of taste.  Additionally, this trait does not protect her from poisons, toxins, or chemical contaminants, or from any substances taken in via any route other than her mouth.

Quadruped: While this trait is active, Feral can stand on her hind legs about as well as the average cat or dog... so not very well.  It is also very tiring to her arms, as they aren’t used to being used for locomotion; Feral can currently travel at full speed (35 km/h) for 3 posts, with a noticeable ache in her arms after 2 posts.  If movement is not consecutive, with at least one post below 10 km/h in between, Feral can theoretically maintain this trait for four posts... however, at this point it isn’t practiced enough to maintain for more than two posts.  Further vulnerabilities of this trait include seriously impaired manual dexterity, mildly painful and very uncomfortable transformation, and showing off her bottom to the world.  Feral cannot move more than five feet while adding or removing this trait.

Retractable Claws: If Feral thought that Quadruped was hard on the hands, she should have waited to compare it to this.  While this trait is active, Feral can only barely hold bulky objects, using her palms, and must carefully poke things with a selected claw: retractable they might be, but only to the point that they shroud her fingertips; they don’t disappear.  Given the curve of the claws, and the sharp point, this is often difficult, and given the nature of phone screens... Feral’s claws do not work with touchscreens.  She can also cut herself quite easily, and can be seriously injured if a claw were to catch on something and be torn off.  It is also very tiring to keep her fingers flexed as needed to keep the claws fully extended: her hands start to cramp after one continuous post of extended claws.