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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:50:28 GMT -6
Rabbit let him be for some time, so he could do as he pleased, before asking, “Do you see anything?”
He must have seen something, for he did not immediately respond. But whatever it was, eventually it either disappeared or he lost interest. At length, he turned away and began walking once more, stopping a few steps later to look back at Rabbit. Obligingly, she fell into step beside him, and they made their way around a portion of the property’s perimeter before they called the walk to an end and headed back to the barn that had become the creature’s home.
Rabbit was back the next day for more of the same. Something like this wouldn’t be the work of a day. More likely it would take several days, and perhaps several weeks, before the creature had a good grasp on how best to maximize his vision in the dark.
(7)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:50:50 GMT -6
But then, it wasn’t as though there was any particular reason for them to hurry. And the walks were good exercise, especially when the weather was inclined to be pleasant.
“Are you ready?” she said to the creature. He rose from where he had been resting and followed her out, and together they walked through the rambling backwoods of the estate.
He was still easy enough at the beginning of dusk, when there was still enough light to see by. The sun bled slow, golden fingers along the horizon, stretching along the long shadows they cast. But already, the creature had turned away from it, gazing into the darkness of the woods, as if he was preparing himself for what was to come.
As night crept in around them, she could sense the rising tension in the way the creature carried himself. She gently laid a hand on his shoulder, feeling him stiffen slightly beneath her hand.
(8)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:51:56 GMT -6
“Be at ease,” she said. “It’s only me.” The words were perhaps a bit redundant; he must have realized as much himself. Still, she spoke them, in hopes of helping him calm and re-center himself after having startled him so.
She had meant to give him some measure of comfort, but it did not do much. Perhaps he was not tense with nerves, and was only trying too hard at the task of attempting to see in the dark, but even so, she could see he wasn’t comfortable.
“Remember what I said about relaxing,” she reminded him. The hard lines of tension eased from his posture, but she had the sense that he was forcing himself to relax. It didn’t take long for that same tension to return.
Well, this was the point of practice and acclimation, she supposed. As their walk wore on, he might yet get over his nerves.
(9)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:52:10 GMT -6
As they walked, she spoke to him in a low voice. “Seeing in the dark isn’t merely a matter of learning how to make the most of what you can still see. Just as your other senses serve to augment your vision, so too can you augment your other senses. If you cannot see clearly, rely on your hearing, your senses of touch and smell, to fill in the gaps.”
The creature did not answer her, so she did not know if he was following her instructions. But her guess on his acclimating to the darkness as the night wore on did prove to be correct.
As the days repeated, and they tried this exercise again and again, it took less and less time for him to go through that acclimation. It seemed that he was slowly becoming accustomed to moving around in the dark, at least. But as to how well he could really see in the darkness… Ascertaining that was a little more challenging.
(10)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:52:49 GMT -6
Rabbit thought on the matter for a while, and came up with a solution. On one particular evening, she announced her scheme as they left the barn. The two of them had begun departing later and later as well, so that he began with less and less light to see by. They had not yet reached the point where Rabbit took him out starting in full dark, but it was a close thing.
“I have hidden several markers in the stretch of wood we’ll be walking through,” she said to him. “I wish to test how well you can seek something out in the dark. Let me know when you spot one.” She held out a small wooden target, painted in a sharp pattern, for him to see, so he would know what to look for.
The creature regarded her work with a somewhat dismissive air, but he did seem to acquiesce to her request.
(11)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:53:26 GMT -6
(End: Accept Darkness)
He was on alert as they began walking through the woods, but Rabbit was familiar enough with him by now that she could sense the difference in quality between this and his unease when they first began this endeavor. He was only being attentive now, rather than straining with tension out of fear or frustration, or whatever had hindered him before.
They did not, however, come across their first target for quite some time. By this point the creature was beginning to exhaust himself mentally with the effort, which was, in fact, Rabbit’s goal. She didn’t want to test his detection capabilities when he was on high alert; what was important was that he could detect things while only paying a normal amount of attention. Still, it was… interesting, watching him jerk at every movement and rustle through the brush. At least it seemed as though he could see something.
(12)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:54:09 GMT -6
Eventually, they did come across their first marker. Rabbit knew it was there because she had placed it there. The creature, who had no such advantage, failed to notice it entirely, however.
He had better luck with the second. The fact that it was moving helped; it was attached to a small, automated drone, programmed for this occasion to move at irregular intervals. The sound of that movement was what caught his initial attention, but in watching him, Rabbit did ascertain that he had pinpoint its location mostly by sight.
But then, how would he know if it was a marker, and not something else, unless he had seen it?
He nudged her with a shoulder, and indicated a direction with a toss of his head. “Yes, you are right. Very good,” she said.
He preened, and she refrained from telling him that he had in fact missed the first one already.
(13)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:54:44 GMT -6
She did not wish to discourage him by dampening the joy of his first success.
In this fashion, they passed the rest of their walk. By the end of it, Rabbit had some idea of how well the creature was doing. In this regard, the exercise had been pretty effective in achieving its aims. This first day was, as far as she was concerned, a diagnostic. She had not gone in with any real expectations of how well he would do.
He did not, by any means, do perfectly, but there was a pattern to his successes and failures that seemed promising. He found more of the larger targets, as well as the ones that had some element of movement to them. They also took less time for him to detect. This was a good sign; if the distribution of his successes were more random, they might be attributed to luck instead.
(14)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:55:12 GMT -6
Overall, he found more than half of the markers that Rabbit had originally set out for him, which was a good result by Rabbit’s estimates. However, they were hardly good enough for him. When she pronounced the results, he turned back at once, as if meaning to repeat the whole exercise again.
“No,” Rabbit insisted. “You have done enough for the day. Straining yourself too much at once will not improve your condition.”
He snorted at her.
“I will not accompany you,” she said. “You will have no way to confirm it without me.”
He stared her down for a long moment, but Rabbit was resolute. Eventually, he gave in with something of a grumble. Privately, Rabbit suspected he was also tired. He was by and large a diurnal creature, and though he could sleep in through the morning, deviating too much from his regular sleep schedule would still tire him eventually.
(15)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:55:34 GMT -6
(End: Nightvision)
But they did practice the exercise again the next day, and the day after that. Rabbit made sure to rearrange the targets each day, and she often changed the stretch of wood she hid them in, just for good measure. It would hardly be much practice for him to be looking in the same area for the same locations, day after day.
With more practice came the steady improvement that Rabbit wished to see. Within a week and a half, the creature could find even the still, stationary targets. Rabbit contrived to make even smaller goals, and placed them in even trickier locations, but the creature found them all with the same single minded determination with which he had applied himself to learning to swim.
“There is nothing more for me to teach you in this,” said Rabbit one day, after the creature had found all the targets. “Save for the complete absence of light, I dare say you should be able to make out what you need.”
(16)
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Post by Noa on May 20, 2019 19:57:41 GMT -6
The creature looked satisfied until she mentioned this last point, at which his gaze sharpened on her, as though she had introduced a notion that was new to him. And, well, perhaps it was. She withstood this interrogative stare stoically, but she thought on the matter a little.
The occasion upon which he might be called upon to detect something without the use of his primary senses was something Aster generally reserved for those creatures he was raising for combat, but if he was interested, there was theoretically no reason to deny him this. “If that is your concern, there is… something else I can teach you. It will be an unpleasant lesson, however.”
The creature was unmoved by those words, and merely continued to stare at her. A moment passed, and Rabbit said, “Very well. But we will begin tomorrow. You should rest, and… I will need time to prepare.”
(17)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:47:51 GMT -6
The ability to dodge a surprise attack from any angle. Aster considered it a basic combat ability, and perhaps he was not wrong in this; it was exceedingly useful, and as a result, it had become ubiquitous in the fighting scene. This was the account which he had given Rabbit some time ago, in a moment of idle conversation.
It was not foolproof, but it did offer a certain degree of deterrence, and against a foe without the right preparations, it was very effective. But it was also a challenge to learn; and, as with gym training, Aster found that his creatures seldom liked the process of learning it.
She somehow doubted that the halfbreed would be any different in that regard. But she had learned not to underestimate his determination. And he did seem determined to… well, to do this, but in a broader sense, she had a feeling that what he desired was strength.
(18)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:48:20 GMT -6
It was an odd thing to think about. This was not the dynamic she had heretofore seen between a trainer and their creatures. Aster’s companions generally cooperated with his training with various degrees of willingness, but it had always been at his behest, for his aims. Avander, for example, could have had little more aspiration than to be stronger than other drakes, and by Aster’s estimation, likely did not have even that much ambition. Grunty… One could not say little enough of his ambition, to be sure.
But then, the halfbreed was no typical creature. And she was no typical trainer, come to that. A sentient and willful beast, with a robot with no aims of her own. They must have made for an odd pair indeed.
Still, there was something resembling the trainer and creature relationship in that he was still technically learning certain things with her half-instruction, half-assistance.
(19)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:49:28 GMT -6
(Start: Danger Sense)
He was waiting expectantly for her in the field where his barn was situated, having come out of it without her having to let him out after all. He had always been capable, of course, but today was the first occasion where he had done so. Impatience got the best of him, or he was feeling particularly high spirited that day; normally he would have waited for her.
To have called him ‘eager’ would have given him offense, she was sure, but he certainly wasted no time in closing in, and peering at what she had in her hands. If he thought he should see something remarkable there, however, he was disappointed.
All she had to show him was a blindfold and some rubber balls.
As he registered the items, he looked back up at her, ears laid back. “Put this over your eyes,” she said, setting the rubber balls aside and holding up the blindfold in both hands.
(20)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:49:39 GMT -6
At first he reared his head back, but as if remembering he was the one who had asked for this, lowered it again in a moment. Still, she could see the doubt in his countenance. Truth be told, she did not know if this would really work either, but it was the method with which Aster had taught Avander to dodge blows. In fact, it was likely the method with which Avander had instructed all his drakes, and Grunty besides.
With that to back it up, she should have had nothing to doubt except her own abilities. Therein was the problem, however; he had had success with this method many times before, but it was her first time executing it. She would not know whether she could succeed at it until she had made the attempt.
But that was going to be true regardless, so there was no sense in dithering about it either.
(21)
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