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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 22:56:52 GMT -6
With a decent fighting move out of the way and well practiced, Fiera let Madison have another little break. After all, she didn’t want to overwork the poor thing. Besides, it would appear that she put too many candy corn in that cage during the last trick as well- the bat seemed to have overeaten, currently lying just outside of it, face down. Yikes. Fiera carefully picked up the cage, and folded it back up to put in her bag. She wasn’t expecting Madison to check out again QUITE so fast. She was nearly as fast asleep as when they started out just a little while ago! Fiera nudged her with her foot, but she barely even budged. “Come on…” She groaned, but decided to take this time to figure out what she was going to do next. There were still plenty of things she had to teach Madison, after all.
Fiera 1 Madison 36.1/38.1 Hardy 1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 22:57:14 GMT -6
She tapped her pen against her lip as she reviewed the list. It was actually getting quite small by now! So many of the tricks, moves, and abilities she had in mind were carefully crossed off as she flicked through the booklet. Fiera didn’t have the ‘anything goes’ level of choice she started out with- most of her options were various attacks she wanted Madison to stay up to date with. Fiera weighed her options- the sun was starting to rise, so she’d likely have minimal time. She might even have to end up skipping some of these, much to her disappointment. Still, she’d do her best to get as many out of the way as possible- even if it meant waking Madison up from her nap early. Fiera glanced over at the lazy bones- there had to be some way to get her heart pumping again. Though, that gave her an idea…
Fiera 2 Madison 36.2/38.2 Hardy 2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 22:57:37 GMT -6
One of the abilities she had listed down was called ‘Hardy’, near the end of her list of tricks. It involved toughness both in the body and the mind- whatever that meant. Madison had the body part down already- teaching Madison ‘stone skin’ had handled that well enough. Danger sense worked well for that too, giving her the opportunity to avoid hits before they even made contact. Not to mention all the exercise she was getting- Fiera was doing everything possible to prop up her flimsy body enough to take a hit. By now her skin was thicker, her movements were more nimble, and she had the muscle to perform powerful attacks. Needless to say, toughness of the body wasn’t really something that Madison had to worry about. She was about as tough as a candy corn bat could get, and considering what low stamina they had, that was saying something.
Fiera 3 Madison 36.3/38.3 Hardy 3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 22:58:01 GMT -6
Now strength of the mind… that was something different. According to what Fiera knew about hardy, it involved not getting intimidated by larger foes, and essentially being a little rebel when it came to other creatures with a commanding presence. That… would probably come in handy for Madison. She was a very tiny creature- not exactly anything to write home about. Even though it was a ‘petite’ tournament going on in the fighting pit, Fiera was still pretty sure she’d be one of the smallest competitors there, an absolute pipsqueak in comparison to other beasts she’d seen. She was definitely going to need to learn to abandon all of her fear going in. Being small didn’t mean being weak, after all- it just meant that she had more to prove. And boy howdy, was she going to prove it. At least, so long as Fiera had anything to say about it.
Fiera 4 Madison 36.4/28.4 Hardy 4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 22:58:27 GMT -6
Thankfully, Fiera thought with a small cackle, she had something that work quite well for this. A few Vai Min Murs ago, she had gotten quite a few items from a free contest. It was a scavenger hunt of sorts, and most of what she got was pretty useless, or pretty in an aesthetical sort of way. But one of those items was going to work pretty well for this. She pulled it out- it was a vai min mur mask, designed specifically to scare people. Or pets, in this case. It was a sickly green color, like a corpse. It’s mouth was open wide, in a vigor mortis scream. Jagged edges around it gave the impression of mold and moss- or was it supposed to be green flames? She wasn’t able to really tell. Fiera was uncomfortable just looking at it, to be honest. But that was the whole point- to scare the crap out of Madison.
Fiera 5 Madison 37.0/39.0 Hardy 5
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 22:58:51 GMT -6
She put it on, tying the strap around the back of her head. Ugh, it smelled terrible- Fiera loathed the smell of latex. Hopefully it would make Fiera look intimidating enough for Madison- it was certainly enough for her. She made sure it was secure and on tight, and tried to hunch over to look a bit scarier. This wasn’t something she’d be giving out treats for- it was pure desensitization. She approached Madison, getting closer and closer, trying to give off as many intimidating and spooky vibes as possible. She eventually got down on her hands (quietly loathing the dirt), creeping even closer, putting her ‘face’ right next to Madison. Then, she took a deep breath, summoning her spookiest voice. “Madison… wake up.” She said, breathing as heavily as possible. First, Madison’s ear twitched, picking up on the strange voice. Then, she cracked an eyelid, opening herself to Fiera’s mask.
Fiera 6 Madison 37.1/39.1 Hardy 6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 22:59:20 GMT -6
Then, she flipped out. Madison screeched loudly (thankfully not enough to paralyze Fiera like before). The bat backed away, practically falling over herself in her eagerness to get away. She didn’t stop shrieking the whole time, like a broken fire alarm. Fiera resisted the urge to snicker as the bat backed away. She supposed that this was a bad thing, as amusing as it was. Madison needed to get used to scary things, not run away from them. She waited until Madison had finished backing up and hissing, holding still. Eventually, Madison stood still, every hair on her body pointing straight up into the air. She looked less like a bat and more like an orange and white pom pom, albeit a pom pom that was making a very ominous noise. Fiera appreciated her desire to look scary to an opponent, but didn’t appreciate the fact that she was clearly still scared.
Fiera 7 Madison 37.2/39.2 Hardy 7
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 22:59:47 GMT -6
Fiera was expecting Madison to lash back out, to show some sort of bravery, to do… something, but instead she just stayed still, all poofed up. Fiera sighed, and tossed her some candy corn. “Good girl, Madison. You’re uh.. Very tough.” Madison seemed confused, but her fur slowly went back down as she looked at the candy corn suspiciously. Clearly she thought it was a trick- but she liked candy far too much to run away now. Maybe this was a way of doing it, of teaching the ability- associating scary, intimidating sights with good food, letting Madison figure out that things like her weren’t so scary after all. At the very least, Fiera knew that Madison wouldn’t run away if she knew that it meant leaving behind a treat. The candy corn bat finally started to eat and Fiera let her… for a bit. Then, she prepared her best evil laugh and prepared to swoop down on Madison.
Fiera 8 Madison 37.3/39.3 Hardy 8
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 23:00:18 GMT -6
Madison screeched at that too, at Fiera’s ‘face’ looming out of the darkness toward her, even though she had dealt with it once before. She didn’t bolt this time though and Fiera wondered why, for a moment. Then, the lightbulb flicked on- oh, right. She wasn’t about to abandon her treats. Fiera found it a little depressing that Madison was more loyal to her favorite food than she was to her, but at least it was working out in her favor this time. Fiera continued to try and scare her, making all sorts of terrifying noises. She was glad that she was up early- if anyone else was out here, they’d probably call the police on her for the strange noises she was making. Still, Madison wouldn’t budge- sure, every single one of her limbs was trembling, and she kept making pathetic whimpers, but she still stood protectively over her trove of treats.
Fiera 9 Madison 37.4/39.4 Hardy 9
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 6, 2019 23:00:40 GMT -6
Fiera kept going, trying to scare her, but every time she tried Madison seemed to react less and less. At first, she’d lash back out with terrified screeches and aggressive hisses, sometimes followed up with angry flaps of her wings, but over time Madison’s response became less and less. Fiera even tried different masks, which scared her at first, but overall her reaction to Fiera trying to scare her became deadened. Soon, even Fiera’s loudest screams and longest looming positions only warranted a yawn out of the candy corn bat. Thank goodness- this mask was really starting to smell. Fiera whipped it off, and Madison hardly seemed surprised that it was her owner under it the whole time. Instead, she seemed much more interested in the hoard of treats her owner had given her. Fiera had made her skin tough earlier- it would now appear that her mind was just as hardy.
Fiera 10 Madison 38.0/40.0 Hardy 10
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 7, 2019 11:22:34 GMT -6
They were in the home stretch now. Madison was handling her training incredibly well, despite its difficulty. Fiera was sure that dawn would break soon, as the sky was slowly lightening with shades of pink and orange, but with any luck they would be done and out of here before the sun finally made its appearance. Madison was a fast learner, so long as Fiera had enough candy corn to reward her. They were actually making a decent dent in the bag she had brought, too. It was full of Vai Min Mur candy, put on discount now that the spooky season was over. The moment she saw it sitting in the clearance aisle, Fiera had snapped it up, knowing she would have to train Madison eventually. By this point however, it was half empty despite its initial massive size. Fiera didn’t know where the candy corn bat put it all!
Fiera 1 Madison 38.1/40.1 Echolocation 1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 7, 2019 11:22:54 GMT -6
Madison seemed pretty into training right now too. Before, she had seemed exhausted and overworked, so Fiera let her take a break. Madison had slept for a while, rejuvenating herself from her rough training- specifically danger sense and stone skin, along with a few basics. But when she got up, she had eaten so many treats that she was stuffed silly, finding it difficult to move. It was pretty difficult to teach her anything like that, so Fiera had been forced to work around it and teach her something on the floor. By now though, she seemed to be in a comfortable middle ground. She was in a good mood from the treats from the last trick, but didn’t seem to be too worn out. With any luck, she could keep that cheerful atmosphere up for the last two tricks. It would certainly make things easier for the both of them.
Fiera 2 Madison 38.2/40.2 Echolocation 2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 7, 2019 11:23:19 GMT -6
So that just left the big question- which of the two moves should Fiera teach? She had two on the list- echolocation and sonic waves. Both involved Madison’s prodigious lungs, which she had already trained to great effect using screech. Still, both of these were slightly different from screech, and from each other. Echolocation was a natural thing for bats to do, but despite it being something instinctual, Madison hadn’t figured it out yet. This was most likely because she had no one to learn it from, not having any mother to speak of. Meanwhile, sonic waves was a purely offensive move that involved creating pure waves of sound, but was also tricky for a bat to figure out on her own. It was just a matter of Fiera picking which one would come more in handy, in case they had to leave early. She hummed quietly, musing over her choices.
Fiera 3 Madison 38.3/40.3 Echolocation 3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 7, 2019 11:23:43 GMT -6
Fiera looked up at the sky again, still thinking about it. Then again… it was only going to get lighter and lighter as time went on. They could lose their opportunity to teach echolocation soon! After all, it was a trick that was best taught in the dark, so pets could feel their way around. If the sun came up part way through their training, it would ruin all of the effort spent up until then. Fiera had to strike while the iron was hot. Echolocation it is, then. She stood up, pushing herself off of the bare earth ground, and walked over to her training bag. Just to be safe though, it might help to give this technique a bit of extra oomph. She dug around in a side pocket and found a length of ribbon. Yeah, that’d do. It was only a foot long, but it would be just the right length for her purposes.
Fiera 4 Madison 38.4/40.4 Echolocation 4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Nov 7, 2019 11:24:18 GMT -6
She walked over to Madison, the bat not suspecting a thing. “Madison, come here!” She said cheerily. The bat flapped over in the lamplight, an innocent look on her face. Poor thing. Fiera first distracted her with a piece of candy corn set in front of them, and then she made her move. She gently tied the ribbon around Madison’s head, covering her eyes. Her ears were still free, but her face was completely covered. Madison squeaked angrily and moved to take it off, but Fiera bribed her with a treat until she finally gave up struggling and ate it instead. “That’s it! Good girl!” Fiera said. Then, she stood up and made her way over to the lamps she had set up around the clearing. Until now, she had been using these for her own purposes, to keep the clearing lit up enough that she could see, but it was time to switch them off so Madison could navigate on her own.
Fiera 5 Madison 39.0/41.0 Echolocation 5
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