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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:05:53 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:18:05 GMT -6
Morgan had a hell of a time getting the malii out of the vivarium, let alone to the park. The process had eventually culminated in a hasty harness being applied to the best of the blond human's abilities, and then the creature all but moved out to the park, where the harness was then tied down to a pole that Morgan found. The human found it somewhat inhumane, to have to do this, but it was absolutely required. The creature had been acquired a bit late, and it did not like Morgan at all. Morgan, however, found it to be the prized jewel of their collection; a beautiful and supposedly intelligent creature that apparently could speak.
The Malii was supposed to be based on the foxfire genetics, meaning that it should follow the general trend of learning to speak and being quite witty; but the human had not seen this yet. The idea was to get the malii used to Morgan enough to be able to move it from the Vivarium to living in the house permanently, since malii tended to be good housepets.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:23:55 GMT -6
As of right now, that idea seemed to be quite far off. The malii was irritated and unhappy, as well as being... Well, dead or something, technically? The extra eyeballs rolled around in the sockets in her haunches in an irritated way, and the facial eyes were turned toward the blond human and practically piercing, despite the pure white coloration. Morgan knew better than to try to get close to the creature right now, especially when it opened it's mouth easily twice as wide as any malii that Morgan had ever seen, and hissed at the human, showing off a double-row of simply vampiric-looking piscivorous teeth.
The general consensus that Morgan had so far was the more technically dangerous the pet was, the better. The Labs continued to make more and more dangerous creatures as the years went on; and sooner or later, this was going to bite them in the ass. As Morgan peered excitedly at the teeth of the malii, they couldn't help but think that literally.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:28:35 GMT -6
Morgan had never really understood as a young person why so many of the Lab's City denizens were so keen on having such dangerous creatures designed. Their father bought a customized izer when Morgan was hardly a pre-teen as a gift for their birthday; and at that moment it was love at first sight for Labs Creatures. They were simply so responsive, so clever, so wondrous in their make and design. Morgan had trained that creature so carefully, and had enjoyed the soft songs that it hummed at night. Perhaps that was the start of it all, a small creature made to comfort, and defend, the young human from the many dangers of the City when daddy was gone.
Had dad known that Morgan would grow up to actively search for, obtain, and then train some of the most dangerous and strange creatures designed by the Labs, he would probably have been quite upset. Morgan finds a nice place to sit nearby, but not close enough for the malii to reach them, and then pulls out a book to read. It was a nice day today. The Malii did not agree.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:31:57 GMT -6
The malii was not foaming mad; and as soon as it realized that there was no real intimidating the human, it instead floated there, pensively. It did not seem, as Morgan glanced up from their book to see, that the floating was a voluntary state of affairs. The malii seemed to float naturally; but it never seemed to fly too far up into the vivarium, from what Morgan had noticed. Morgan spent a large amount of time watching the creature, and the creature had spent a large amount of time staring through the clear glass right back at the human.
Perhaps, after a long while, the two of them would come to some kind of agreement? Morgan looked back down at their book, reading patiently. They had researched all of the abilities of the creature for at least a month before deciding to go along and do this; mostly because the human had wanted to make sure that the malii could not easily escape restraints.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:36:26 GMT -6
This was not Morgan's first attempt at trying to gain the tolerance of the creature, at least to their presence. The idea with the vivariums was to get the creatures used to Morgan being around through the glass, but this had just served to separate them, and make it appear as if Morgan would never interact with them, save for meal time. This did allow for the circumstances that allowed the human to wrangle the malii out to this area; but it had not done the blond any favors when it actually came to loyalty. Obviously, judging by the Malii's cold stare at Morgan, as if trying to figure out exactly how many ways that she could kill the human once they dared to come over there.
The idea had been to sit here until the Malii calmed down, which was expected to be a while, and then slowly begin to move closer. However, the malii was as calm as could be; actually far more calm than it -should- be. The malii was planning something, and Morgan knew it.
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:42:02 GMT -6
Morgan had studied this phenomenon at length; reading the many books their father left behind in his... absence. The Labs creatures were well-oiled machines of biological and genetic makeup; so advanced as to appear magical to the common folk. Morgan remembered reading in the window, and looking out of it to see all of the people outside walking down the street, walking their vulticus or other such things... Sometimes even wiurn. Morgan concluded that the individuals in the Labs City were quite insane from a young age. Sure, walking your dog down the street was one thing; Morgan had been told stories about 'dogs', before they all but disappeared, out competed by Vulticus and later on, Rakai and Felusine. But walking a giant lizard with a jaw full of teeth that flew, and had two legs to boot?
Morgan understood that phenomenon a little more now, since creatures had to be trained, and the Labs had made them so easily available... Was that truly a good thing? The malii was a testament to how dangerous and over-customized creatures could get, and Morgan could see the intelligence behind the malii's eyes as it stared at the human over the book.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:46:56 GMT -6
The malii was exhibiting symptoms of beginning the psychosocial behaviors that most Labs creatures tended to posses; starting with the near immediately calming. Already, the previously aggressive creature was now much more curious than aggressive to the blond. Morgan leaned forward over their book, and looked over their glasses (an old prescription; they had sent someone on an errand to get some in their new prescription) at the dangerous, shadowy creature. Morgan could hardly wait to be able to get close to it and begin checking it over for the biological changes that had been made to it. It was not at all a standard malii.
Morgan could tell that the malii was starting to slowly get used to them, but it would take a long while yet. The creature was just now starting to loosen it's muscles, something that the blond could easily pick up on through years of being very observant and withdrawn. Still, it was not enough to truly know if the creature was ready yet; so Morgan abstained from coming closer yet.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:50:52 GMT -6
The malii had not yet once said any kind of a word to or around Morgan, instead opting for near silence and the occasional hiss or screech. The screeches were ear-piercing and painful, but not commonly at full-power, Morgan decided. Morgan knew that it had to have the ability to learn to speak though, and intended on teaching it eventually just by speaking around it. Then, Morgan figured, they would be able to actually discuss some of the more interesting goings-on, instead of squabbling in a near-animalistic way.
The malii was by no means an animal. A sentient mind was a sentient mind, Morgan had decided that years ago after researching it. So it would be treated like one; as soon as it started acting like one. Morgan pretended to read the book, but watched the malii over their glasses (fuzzily) and through their bangs. The malii was growing bored with Morgan, finally, and began to instead attempt to remove the bindings from the pole.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:53:52 GMT -6
Morgan could have sighed at this. The malii would of course be able to bite her way out of the bindings, but Morgan wasn't ready to deal with that yet. A distraction was certainly in order. Not ready to try to speak to the creature yet, as that would probably cause it to associate the speaking with something bad, Morgan instead stood up and came forward, in the general direction of the malii. True to form, the Malii could not be snuck up on due to the position of it's posterior eyes, and instead turned away from the bindings and toward the human. The four cranial eyes stared in Morgan's direction, but the haunch-eyes were still rolling angrily.
That was to be understood, Morgan would be pissed as well, had someone randomly up and abducted them and then tied them to a pole out in the middle of nowhere... Perhaps this was not the best way to have done this, but it was what Morgan could think of at the time.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 22:56:52 GMT -6
The human stood there for a minute, book held in one hand, observing the malii. Morgan was not in any way close enough for the malii to attack them, but it was still in a situation that provoking the creature could cause dire consequences. The blond was quiet, not trying to provoke, but just trying to keep the malii's attention away from those bindings. They would not be permanent, anyway. For one, Morgan had limited time to spend away from their work, and for two, Morgan had no intention of causing the malii any undue stress.
...The malii needed a name. Sorely. Names had purpose, and that was to add shortcuts in the mind and verbiage when it came to an individual. In that way, names did hold power of a sort. Morgan tried to think of one, and finally looked down at the book, unsure. The first name on the page was the name of the villain; Cyrus. Yes, Cyrus. That fit well enough.
[10]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 23:10:22 GMT -6
The psychosocial effects that Labs creatures had were fascinating to watch unfold. The creatures were designed to become more used to individuals via proximity and interaction. Normal animals did this to a degree, stated the books, but some Labs creatures were much better at this; in fact, most of them. Almost all customized creatures were programmed with a strengthened effect. The general populace regarded this effect with the term 'Loyalty', as in, a species was 'Loyal'. Reading most of the Labs-given information for the creatures was not very enlightening, hardly giving any care advice past the basics, and certainly not explaining why a jibiji was more 'loyal' than an estharne or why.
Perhaps the Labs had thought that the populace was too stupid to understand the higher diction used in the textbooks that it provided to the lowest of the science staffers, and perhaps they were. Morgan however, could literally see the tension melt off of the Malii as it began to ignore them again despite the proximity, as if deciding that suddenly, the human was no threat. Psychosocial effects indeed.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 23:14:27 GMT -6
Morgan had spent a very long time piecing together the small information tidbits that where heard over the radio, through their father's books, or in the pamphlets and other knowledge available to the Lab's Denizens, in order to put together a kind of 'Lore' of the Labs. This originally began as a desperate attempt to find out where their father was. Then an attempt to deny their father's probable death. Then it became a hobby, a passtime. Soon after that, it was a comfort. Scientists had been disappearing for a long time, and a long time before Morgan's father had disappeared. Morgan still ruminated on it, everything still reminded them of that.
In a strange way, even the malii reminded Morgan of that, despite it's technical innocence. Sure, it was a veritable devil of darkness and cunning, but it had no part in that. It was drawn that way, designed that way, built that way, long before it wound up in Morgan's Vivarium, let alone tied to the pole with a restraint. Which it was once again attempting to remove from the pole. Ugh.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 23:17:56 GMT -6
What was any being, but a creation of their own genes, of their upbringing, of their surroundings? Morgan knew this, perhaps better than anyone that they had else-wise spoke to, so they did not blame the malii for being a creature of darkness. Instead, the blond simply stepped forward again, really testing their limits out on this being. The malii once again looked up and at the human; but this time the hiss was much less severe. The teeth were barely shown, and the mouth hardly opened, despite it's wide jaw. Morgan counted that as a success, especially since the creature was distracted from the restraints for just a moment more.
It shouldn't take too much longer, Morgan knew, and the creature would be calm enough to remove the restraints without it actually causing a huge fuss. That was what they were aiming for. Then Morgan would try to come up with a training regiment that would help it to become all it could be. Morgan was in no way cruel; and honestly felt a little sad that this step ended up being taken in the first place.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 23:21:09 GMT -6
The human had been watching the creature for the month before this. They first bought it long distance, using technology to select it based on it's description. However, once it had arrived the human had laughed a bit; the creature had some horrendous markings. Sure, the pink and orange skeletal markings were quite scary along with everything else, but the heart marking was incredibly comical. Who had thought of that? That was stupid looking. Then again, Morgan was not really one to design a creature themself anyway, the closest thing that they had come to that was drawing the picture and giving it to their father that wound up becoming the basis for the izer...
The human did not bring the izer today, and for good reason. The creature was small, and food-sized, and this malii preferred chicken to seafood... Morgan didn't want to have to deal with any of the creatures eating any of the other creatures today.
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