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Post by Alma on Dec 3, 2020 14:56:48 GMT -6
Twins Magestorm Voltitan 0.0 | 2.0 Stamina: 2 Strength: 2 Resistance: 4 Dexterity: 1 Mentality: 1 Abilities: Double Headed, Magical Touch Moves: Nip, Electric Burst
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:12:35 GMT -6
“Hm. I think it’s been a decade since I last saw something hatch that shouldn’t. Not like, you know, a sarane. You gonna be something special?” The thing within the egg tapped away, heedless of the human sprawled out on the grass beside it. “The plastic scroll thing” she said with a wave of the rolled up piece of technology in her fist, “Says a lot about you. Well, not you specifically-” The eggs interrupted her clarification with a loud crack, and she pushed herself up on one arm to find a single line running from under the spiked scaled top to the smoother bottom. “Coming out soon then? Can’t imagine there are too many warm days left in the year. Though who knows with the-” More cracks appeared as the thing inside beat against the shell, and Alma pushed herself up into a squat. “You keep this up, and I’m going to start thinking you don’t like-” Crack!
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:12:49 GMT -6
The egg had been a pretty thing, a rich brown color like chocolate making up the base, with scales topping it that might have been mistaken for gemstones if not for the pointy thorns growing out of the uppermost ones. She had touched one of those thorns to check, then had spent a good couple of minutes with her finger on her tongue while she double checked for any mention of the thing inside being poisonous. It was with mild relief and disappointment that her finger made no attempt to rot off.
Alma had almost hoped the egg would not hatch, that somehow the new labs had screwed up and she could hollow it out and keep the pretty little thing as a bauble. Watching the thing that had just rammed one stick-like leg through the side slowly destroy it was oddly saddening. She hoped the, she took her eyes away from it to unroll the scroll and swipe a finger across its surface a few times, Repointe would end up just as pretty as that.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:13:00 GMT -6
A piece of brown shell, embedded with one of the dainty gem-scales, was sent skimming over the grass with another kick from the repointe’s hooves, and Alma picked it up with one gloved hand. The leather prevented her from feeling the porcelain fragility of the shell and the sharp edges, and she could not even feel the weight of it as it rested in her palm. With a sigh, she slid it into one of the many pouches on her belt. She could always go out and snag a new egg, but she doubted any would match this one. She had spent nearly an hour looking over nearly identical eggs, trying to figure out which one was the most unique, which had the best colors or wildly different size. This one had been the best, with scales that she would have swore gleamed just a tiny bit brighter under the sterile lab lighting
Well, this one before it was covered in spiderwebs of cracks and holes as her new pet struggled to hatch.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:13:10 GMT -6
A sarane hatching usually went fairly quickly once the little reptile managed to start breaking the egg, the little horn on their snout tapping away until the whole thing split open. Alma had grown used to watching those as her sarane collection increased in size, sometimes nearly impatient enough at the progress of the little scaled beasts in the eggs that she had been tempted to help them along and reveal what colors they had.
Those waiting times had nothing on the repointe.
Perhaps it was because the species were not meant to hatch from eggs in the wild, at least she thought not from her skimming of the scroll, but the repointe had yet to show her more than a cloven hoof and a bit of a leg that it would shove out into the air for a heartbeat before pulling it back in like it was an inkrum. The frame of the egg stubbornly held together, sometimes the bits that had been shoved up with a forceful kick falling back down to cover the holes.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:13:21 GMT -6
The primary problem seemed to be the thick coat of scales at the top of the egg. She could see them distort as the repointe kicked or butted against them, but they always fell back into place a moment later. “Look, little guy, if you would just push, you’ll get out. No, not kicking through the same hole, you need to push all at once.” She blinked as the leg struck out into open air again. “That-that is exactly wrong. Just kick all at once, not just the one leg, no, not just the one.”
She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes to the sight. She doubted the shell would stand up to a concerted effort to pull it apart, but what if it deformed the creature inside? Made it weaker? It would be a shame to have gone through all the efforts of finding a perfect egg only to get something decidedly less perfect out of it.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:13:41 GMT -6
The leg kicked through several times as she watched, irregularly striking out into the air. The time between kicks seemed to grow longer, the egg twitching as the beast inside tried to move. “Are...are you okay in there, bud? Taking a quick nap, no, there’s the leg again.” She squatted a feet feet away from it as it rolled, the leg flailing out again. “Do you need some help?” she asked it, not moving from her spot as she tried to remember the older, non-egg laying species and if any of them had needed a little help to finish hatching.
The repointe did not give her time to consider it for long, kicking out and pushing with all its limbs to tear away the last flimsy bits of brown shell, revealing an extraordinarily fluffy tail and two thin hindlegs that were twitched and dragged into a more comfortable-looking position. It’s front popped free of the scaled eggshell a moment later.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:13:55 GMT -6
For a few breaths, Alma was entirely silent as she ran her eyes over the delicate beast in front of her, noting the darker fur that swirled in simple patterns across its backside that nearly made up for the disappointingly small scales that peaked out randomly across its fur. It lay there, ears folded downwards and the pattern on its hide shifting as it panted, beautiful gem-like eyes half-closed. It, he, was young and so fragile looking that she could not imagine him being a pit fighter. A contest pet perhaps, something that could stand in her kennel and look pretty.
“Well, aren’t you a pretty little boy.” The phrase was murmured softly, more a thought than something she meant to speak aloud, but it was more than enough to ruin the image of tranquillity. The ears swiveled towards her as smoothly as a spilling wheel, the head and eyes following it a moment later.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:14:06 GMT -6
All in all, he looked like little more than a custom galabex babe, but years in the labs and dealing with the different beasts that were spawned in it kept her from doing more than staring back at its blue-green eyes. When it did little more than stare at her, still as the egg she brought home days ago, she lifted her hand.
Decades ago, far enough back that the description of a great white and black beast known for milk was not of the ring-horned murp species, a tinkerer had briefly visited her town with marvels. They were tawdry things compared to the wonders of the labs, little spring-wound toys and gadgets that relied on magnets to click shut. One of the former had been a little metal dog that had a single piece of metal making up each pair of its legs, and would slide into a bow as the spring wound itself around, then launch itself an inch in the air as the legs snapped back under it.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:14:16 GMT -6
The little dog usually landed on its legs, the grooves at the bottom suggesting paws or claws as it clicked itself back to standing. The repointe, for all his finer construction, struck the ground with a whumph of air, legs as stiff and straight as that of the metal dog’s.
“That’s going to be a problem, ain’t it.” Alma stated flatly, opening up the scroll once more. A quick swipe of her fingers was enough to bring up the information on the creature’s biology. “Nothing here about this thing you’re doing now.” she sighed, wondering if the strain of hatching had been too much for the beast. Wasn’t his chest raising and lowering like normal though?Then, as his limbs began to twitch and kick, another flick of her finger sent her down into the specialized species information. Having skimmed that portion enough to know he seemed to fall under the primal seeker category of ‘not dangerous’, now she took the time to read it carefully, sparing the repointe only a glance from atop the scroll.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:14:26 GMT -6
The labs had made a predator that, when frightened as they said, locked up as though an amulet of submission hung from their necks. She read the few lines on the ‘quirk’ a second time, then a third before lowering the scroll to stare at the struggling repointe. “A predator. That when startled, by prey or hunter or” she lifted her hand slowly into the air, “a gently moving hand, falls over.” The repointe obliged, falling like a branch from a tree mere seconds after managing to stand. That he could stand so quickly after his ‘birth’ was completely ignored as she stared at him with open-mouthed awe, then back to the WATT. “Why?” she asked the scroll. It did not respond.
“Guess that’s why you’re the domestic breed, huh? Otherwise you’d be food for the first predator to wander your way. Imagine,” her tone dropped to one of amazement, “a young COD flappin’ around, then tearing you apart with it’s sharp lil’beak.”
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:14:36 GMT -6
Well, that was one species she would never have to worry about running into on the city borders. She watched the repointe struggle back onto his hooves, careful this time to just keep talking to him as his legs kicked and his body twisted. No movements this time, not even to lift her hand for him to sniff, just a long trail of, “Well, they did say you could be strong-armed into being a hunter, which I hope means that you can be trained for something. Don’t know if you’d ever make a mount, not when you could fall over and break my legs ‘cause a leaf happened to fall in front of you, but the pit did say you’re one of the ones allowed in the next fight. And I’ve trained beasts to be less scared of things, though they usually aren’t sarane-snack sized.”
She continued in that vein for a while, letting the repointe stiffly take his first few steps.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:14:47 GMT -6
He was adorable, with his poofy tail sweeping the air behind him for balance, ears swiveling to focus on Alma, then to random other noises that came from beyond their area. Still, she did not move from her squat, keeping up a running commentary for him to grow a little more used to her voice. “Yes, walking can be hard the first time, but you are doing great. Except for the falling bits, that’s going to be a problem because you’re meant for a place known for intimidating things, and they are a great deal more ‘frightening’ than me lifting a hand and inch into the air.”
She lifted a hand into the air to demonstrate, and the repointe stiffly hopped and fell. “See, we really need to fix that. Guess I’ll have to strong-arm train you. Not sure what that means here,” a waggle of the now rolled WATT, “but I have to have you pit ready in time. Lots of prizes in the pit.”
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:14:59 GMT -6
Alma did not wait for the repointe to kick his way back to his feet before she stood up, stretching her arms to the sky. “Going to have to get used to this some time, little one.” she told him as she swung her arms back down to her sides. “Can’t train you and be completely still the whole time. Though it would make follow a lot quicker, hah.” She walked around him in a circle, as much to get a better look at him as to let him know she was more than a spooky hand. There was no sudden stiffening this time, the young repointe instead curling up almost like a vulticus as he watched her with his big shimmering eyes.
“Better,” she told him with a smile, “should try walking again though. Movement might scare you a little less if you do it too.” With one last circuit of the still repointe, the great big bowls of ears the only things moving as they tracked her walk, she left him to lay there.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:15:09 GMT -6
The great big plastic chest that was currently crushing the grass beneath its stained exterior was the same as the one she usually brought out for her meat-eating pets, and she lifted the lid to see an assortment of meat, ice, and the not quite rare gemstones that the labs handed out for free as treats for the rock eaters. She wasn’t about to waste what rare gems she had on the common pit pet, even if the stationary rocks were just about the one thing she could think of as not scaring him into a faint. “No offense, little pointy, but I’m not wasting perfectly good real gems I can trade and shape with on being a quick meal for you.”
When she turned back to look at him, lid of the cooler resting on her hands, he was still laying in the same tiny ball, squeezed up so tightly that she wondered if he was trying to fit back into the egg he had just freed himself from. And with the thought of the egg came the memory of how it looked.
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