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Post by NPC on Jun 24, 2021 19:25:52 GMT -6
Show Ring EndsIt is safe to assume that there is a field set up for your houluh to do it's work in that is set up for any job you can think of. If something is missing that you need for your demonstration, the staff will go get it for you. Feel free to use anything within reason in your set up to display what your houluh knows how to do for their job. Please remember to repost your houluh's image, loyalty, levels, and stats in your first post, and put all of the moves/abilities/tricks your houluh does in the post in brackets or parenthesis at the end of your post/s. ![](https://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa42/MML_Staff/MML_items/MaestrediMarq.png) The one with the most points will win the Maestre di Marq and become a Salonne Show Champion. Participation prizes are earned points only. Remember that a houluh with a Maestre di Marq can never enter a Salonne Show again.
The people allowed in this thread are follows:
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Post by Lethalia on Jun 24, 2021 22:48:29 GMT -6
One day she might enter with the real intent to compete, but that wasn't going to be today with the training Foggy had available. (Especially when they failed to show up to the last show, and managed to eek into this one late. It was clear neither of them were taking it seriously for now.) Either way it was a valuable experience to be in the hustle of the hall, just like she'd done with Gold. Of course it was always a good idea to case out what future competition may look like, too. Upon entering the arena, Foggy quickly hit the end of her leash, veering this way and that while snorting hurriedly at the scents steeped into the ring floor. So many other houluh smells!! "Foggy! Settl'dn," Lethalia called out curtly, but the pup didn't require it to be loud. "C'mere now." Looking slightly bashful, the matronne loped back to her owner's side, easily leaning on her owner's leg and into the ear scratches she was rewarded with. Her white tail swayed rapidly in the dirt, collecting color as she sat. |Foggy responds to Name, At Ease, and Come, on command|
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Post by Lethalia on Jun 24, 2021 22:49:14 GMT -6
There could have been more intelligent choices of would-be working dog than the primarily white one - Lethalia sighed at her lost grooming efforts, but she'd be continuing with a filthy white dog nonetheless. Lethalia dropped the leash and pointed at the ground, informing Foggy "Sit. Stay'ere." The satyr walked just a few paces away - she didn't really need a boring extended showing for this - Leth looked over her shoulder and called for Foggy to follow her. It was a looser command, one that had a grey dog tailing her in no time, taking advantage of the relatively free reign of movement behind her owner to try and catch up on some of those interesting smells. "Foggy, heel, girlie," Lethalia bid, holding out a hand and obtaining a houluh between it and her hip. Pup back under control to guide outside of the arena, the satyr grinned and waved to the crowd, "Thank ya'll for appreciatin' Foggy!"|Foggy responds to Sit, Stay, Follow, and Heel, on command| done ~
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 19:52:43 GMT -6
Noa felt as if he was spending more and more time at the contest hall as of late. It hadn’t been something he was interested in initially; showing off a creature’s talents for an audience juts didn’t have the same appeal as watching a creature he’d carefully raised triumph over another in love combat. And more importantly, contest performance didn’t really feel as if it measured anything useful. At least when Avander brought down a Thundergug, Noa could feel confident in the knowledge that his Wiurn would be able to replicate that result in a live scenario. But, ah, the prizes certainly were interesting. And they’d only gotten more interesting as of late, and so here he was. Acquiring a Houluh hadn’t been high on his list of plans either, but now that he had one, he figured he may as well start competing in the Houluh-only divisions. To that end, he had done a little more training with Nana, and now he was preparing her to walk out onto the ring. Rhys sat back just on the edge of the ring proper, present but neither participating nor interfering. That was the general place he fell into, when he wasn’t the one competing. 1
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 19:53:26 GMT -6
{You’ll do great out there!} Rhys said cheerfully, though on this occasion Noa wasn’t sure whether the Faeron was speaking to him or his dog. Well, it didn’t matter, Noa supposed; it was an empty platitude all the same. If they won, they won; and if they didn’t, they’d at least earn points, which was all Noa really cared about.
It was their turn now, so Noa walked out onto the stage -- without Nana, so he could give her the signal to come to him once he had taken center stage. “This is GH Ignorance Is Bliss,” he said, rattling off the show name that he’d had to look up thirty minutes before the show began, to remind himself of what he’d picked when putting down the paperwork. It didn’t see much use, so he didn’t bother committing it to memory. Nana trotted right up to him, the way that she had been trained to do, and stopped when she finally reached him.
This was a strength competition, of course, so getting her to show off her attacks would be best… He had even taught her some new ones, just for the occasion.
2 (Nana demonstrates Come on command)
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 19:54:08 GMT -6
But he also didn’t know what exactly the scoring was for this, so he figured he might as well show off everything else she knew first.
“Now, just because it’s a strength competition doesn’t mean I want you to think she’s just an unruly beast,” Noa said. Not that he would have really cared one way or another whether his fighting beasts were biddable, so long as they listened to him, but it was the thinnest possible pretext he could give in this situation as to why he was making Nana demonstrate her basic obedience. Would the judges in such an event be a bloodthirsty, impatient bunch, he wondered? They looked rather staid, and when he glanced in their direction, he didn’t read anything of impatience in their countenance, so he went on. “Let me show you first that she knows her manners.”
He then gave her the signal to look at him. It was a necessity, given that her first teacher had been Briar, who had no way to speak -- or at least not to speak properly, anyway. Briar had taught Nana this in place of an actual name, but considering it served almost the same purpose, Noa hadn’t minded.
3 (Nana demonstrates Watch Me on command)
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 19:54:55 GMT -6
But then again, the Houluh that Noa had raised from a pup himself pretty much only knew how to find mushrooms in the dark, as far as her formal training went, so maybe that wasn’t saying much. Noa really did prefer to spend his time on other things.
Now that he had her attention on him, Noa gave her another hand signal, this time commanding her to stay put. She didn’t move; and as she stayed there, he walked a calm circle around her -- once, and then the other way around. Nana kept her eyes on him, presumably waiting for another signal.
Instead, Noa put a treat down in front of her. This was perhaps a greater temptation than the audience might be able to appreciate, but he didn’t feel like going into a long spiel about just what a food motivated creature Nana actually was. If they couldn’t see for themselves that she was tempted by the way she almost immediately tried to lunge for it, well… But he gave her a firm signal for ‘no’, and Nana backed off, although very reluctantly. And her eyes were locked on the treat this time, rather than on Noa.
4 (Nana demonstrates Stay, No on command)
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 19:55:45 GMT -6
He let this little drama play out for a moment, but watching a Houluh do nothing wasn’t exactly the most interesting demonstration or the best use of his time, so Noa gave her the release command not long after. Nana surged forward just enough to snap up the treat, and it was gone faster than the space between one blink and the next.
While she was eating, Noa glanced at where Rhys had been when he had walked into the ring. The Faeron was still there, watching attentively, and as he caught Noa’s gaze, he waved his paws in the air, presumably in an encouraging gesture. Noa looked back to Nana, who was done eating by this point. He picked up one of her paws, and then another, before tugging at her ears, and generally doing all the things he could think of that might annoy but not actually hurt a Houluh. Nana bore with it with the kind of patience that had to be taught.
The next part was a demonstration that Noa himself didn’t particularly care for, but this was something Nana knew, and for the sake of demonstrating the full breadth of her abilities, he bit back his distaste and went for it.
5 (Nana demonstrates At Ease on command, shows off Tolerance)
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 19:56:32 GMT -6
Grabbing Nana’s jaw, he pried her mouth open. Once she realized what he wanted from her, she opened her jaws for him. He stuck his fingers into the space -- not far enough back to make contact with the tongue, let alone enough to make Nana gag, but his fingers grazed the points of her teeth. He had to suppress a grimace at the sensation of her slobber on his skin. He couldn’t exactly blame her for this one, since he was the one who created this setup, but nevertheless it wasn’t pleasant. It was a moment of tolerance for them both, if you asked him, but the relevant point was how Nana didn’t bite down even as he did this.
Once he felt like the judges had gotten a good eyeful of the demonstration, he retracted his hand, wiping it off on the fabric of his pants. He’d have to wash them properly after, but there wasn’t the time or place to do it now.
Fortunately, that ended the obedience portion of the demonstration, and now he could move onto the meat of the routine, so to speak -- which was to say, the attacks.
6 (Nana shows off No Bites)
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 19:58:06 GMT -6
He glanced at Rhys, this time with more purpose, and the Faeron understood his meaning well enough to bring out the props. Noa had brought several with him, but since Rhys was there, he hadn’t felt the need to bring them out with himself when he entered the ring. Now Rhys floated him a tube of padding, which Noa secured around his own arm.
He wouldn’t have done this with a larger creature like Avander, whose jaws were strong enough to break one of his limbs with or without the added pain of being able to pierce it with his teeth. But this was more than enough for a creature of Nana’s size and scale. She recognized it from their training too, and perked up as if she knew what was coming.
“But that’s quite enough of that,” Noa said. “You’re here to see a Houluh that can bring down a man, right? Well, maybe first you'd like to threaten them a bit. Wouldn't we, Nana?” Noa gave her the signal to growl now, and obligingly, she put her ears back and growled low, the kind of sound that might menace someone who wasn't feeling too confident.
7 (Nana demonstrates Growl on command)
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 19:58:42 GMT -6
After that, Noa held out his arm, and gave her the command to bite. Sure enough, she bit down with what was probably admirable force for a Houluh, before letting go. He fed her a treat, then moved on to the next command.
This time he instructed Nana to claw, and she lashed out with a forelimb and raked her claws in a quick swipe across the padding. Noa didn’t feel anything, of course; that was what the padding was for, and he wasn’t exactly looking for new cuts or bruises just for the sake of winning a few points in a contest. But hopefully it was a good enough demonstration of how Nana might do some damage with her claws, in a less controlled situation.
And finally, he commanded her to headbutt him, and she butted her head into the padding too. This was more for show than for anything else. In terms of practical application, Noa didn’t really think Houluh had the right anatomy to be attacking with their heads like this. Between their slender build and the entire lack of horns, it made much more sense for them to just bite their targets, if anything.
8 (Nana demonstrates Bite, Claw and Headbutt on command)
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Post by Noa on Jul 1, 2021 20:01:12 GMT -6
But this was a contest, and a contest was a show first and foremost, so hopefully the judges would be impressed, at least.
She certainly did put quite a bit of force behind it though, for a creature of her size. Noa also wasn’t very strong himself. If he hadn’t been bracing himself for it, he might really have been knocked over by it.
With that done, he took the padding off, then swept into a bow. “That’s it for us. Hope you enjoyed the show.” He walked off, and Nana followed, to rejoin with Rhys outside of the ring. Now that it was done, all they had to do was wait for the results.
{You did great!} said Rhys. Noa didn't know if he would agree with that assessment, but they hadn't embarrassed themselves, at least. Only time -- and the performance of their competitors -- would tell exactly how good a job they actually did.
But Noa didn't intend to stick around to watch. They would find out the results when they found out, and having done his part, there were other things he needed to attend to. He slipped out with Nana and Rhys, and headed off to the shopping district of the city.
9 (end, exit)
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Post by Flare on Jul 2, 2021 22:14:33 GMT -6
x.20
The next act took Flare's breath away. The silvery colored houlou's fur almost sparkled like the rainbow. He almost forgot he had to go on as well. Finally, the act ended and the entrant and their houlou left. He's not done this much but better late then never. Grendel waits on the edge with note as he enters onto the stage, and then bounds after him. "Wind in the Willows, and I am Flare." he introduces himself, always kind of awkward. So many sets of eyes. "Howl." he instructs. Awwoooo! She loves to make noise and howl. It might cause the rest of the houlou to join in a howl. "Time to be quiet." Flare tells her, and the howl finally ends. Thanking his hearing for that. A small sandbox is wheeled onto the stage for him, and he displays a holey ball, showing Grendel. She sniffs at it with a whine, as he loads a few treats inside. Then buried it when she got distracted. "Dig here." Sand went EVERYWHERE, but the houlou is successful on finding her ball, shaking it so treats fell out. The ball is quickly abandoned and the grooming he did is ruined by sand as she eats sandy treats. Oh dear. Hm. Ok... hwere was oop. Something breaks free from his satchel and the intangible wings of a hamster sized goose takes flight right past Grendels' face. She looks up to watch the bird. "Grendel is used to sudden movements, and her prey drive is more for chasing then catching. Run Grendel." He retrieves the ball, and points upward. Woof! The houlou leaps up into the air. The intangible goose honks in surprise as a dog is chasing it through the air. She makes a few rings around the stage above his head. "Her endurace helps her stay aloft as well." Holding out some treats, the houlou comes back down to his side. "Good. THank you." Flare nods politely and they are done. [Grendel shows howl, quiet, dig, accept sudden movements, run and endurance. Wind avatar is demonstrated.] -fin-
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