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Post by Morgan on Apr 18, 2019 23:26:06 GMT -6
Morgan looked up at the malii again. Cyrus. Creatures usually began responding to their names after a while of knowing their owners and interacting with them, due simply to body language alone. Morgan knew that it would have to call the creature by it's name to get it to do that, but they had no desire to actually teach her the name. That seemed demeaning, for a sentient creature. Morgan gestured to the creature, causing it to hiss a bit, but it was a half-hearted 'hiss', from what the blond could figure out. "Cyrus." Morgan tested, their smooth voice particularly cold. The malii stared at Morgan, with as many eyes as it could. "Cyrus." The human repeated, this time gently reaching out faster than the malii could react, and gently touching the malii's nose. Thankfully, this malii did not have a horn, or it could have been a different story. Instead, the malii simply sniffed in the direction of the movement, hardly noticing the touch.
[15]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 21:42:41 GMT -6
Morgan can tell that Cyrus was beginning to really calm down some. Soon, it would be time to remove the restraints. Morgan knew that to a degree, the malii could choose which level to float at; this would make it a little hard to completely remove the restraints, until Cyrus was more used to them, anyway. Morgan didn't mind waiting, the Labs creatures were designed to be this way. The creatures were meant to bond with an owner, preferably one owner over any other, but it took time. Morgan had time, for now, despite being busy often. The malii was a neat creature, all things considered. From a scientific point of view, Malii were incredibly volatile creatures, rumored by the populace to use 'magic'. That was what the public pamphlets that were given out stated; malii were magic. Morgan didn't necessarily believe in magic; only that there was some kind of mechanism to everything in the entire world. That meant that malii had to be scientific, surely.
[This is predating Morgan's Node Swallowing until Cyrus is level 5, and also predating Morgan's new glasses]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 21:45:54 GMT -6
Cyrus was staring more and more at Morgan, and spending less and less time trying to get out of the restraints. It was a sign of resignation, Morgan realized, as the creature instead cunningly waited to be released. That was good, but Morgan did not want a dangerous creature with a broken spirit. Instead, Morgan wanted to study sentience in Labs creatures, and Cyrus would be perfect for it. Morgan finally breathed out a quick breath, and took a single step forward. The malii did not attempt anything funny, or even hiss this time. That was a very good sign. Morgan stood there for a moment, well within reach of a good snap by the malii; which would end poorly because of course the malii was much stronger than the slight Morgan, and also because of those many, many wicked teeth. Morgan raised the book up to their face, so that they could read some more. This was going well, so far, very well.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 21:49:45 GMT -6
Cyrus was becoming more curious to the human, as opposed to aggressive, but not because she was somehow not angry. Cyrus was very angry, of course; being tied up was not dignified, and Cyrus was a lot stronger than the human. Had Cyrus wanted to, she would have easily dragged the strange-smelling human anywhere she had wanted, even after being tied up. However, she had allowed the human to bring her here. She wanted to see how the human would react to her aggression, and wanted to put the strange non-furred creature in it's place. However, it was now realizing a few things that would prove useful. One of those, is that if the human liked her, she could get free food forever, without having to waste time. The next, was that she could try to manipulate the human into doing what she wanted. That was good, because she was already realizing that she was being treated like a normal creature, but she wasn't like the rest of them.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 21:52:54 GMT -6
Actually, Cyrus noticed patterns, and memorized them easily. Like any young being, she was learning about the world; and had began to realize, by listening to the human through the glass, that humans made noises in patterns. The patterns meant things, judging by the body language, and the noises they made seemed to have particular tones and uses. Cyrus was beginning to pick up, over all this time, the concept of speech, but hadn't quite put anything together yet. It occurred to her that if she stuck around this human for long enough, Cyrus could also learn to communicate to the humans, and then she would be able to better learn how to deal with this. Morgan glanced up over their book, knowing that the time was coming that she needed to try to actually touch the creature. Nothing that would require temperament training or tolerance training, but something quick, so that she could remove the restraints from the pole.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 21:57:38 GMT -6
Morgan watched as Cyrus began to float closer, and was very ready to jump out of the way if the need arose. Morgan knew that they were not strong enough on their own to fight the creature, and was quite lucky to have gotten it here thus far. Morgan had chocked up their success to luck and also the fact that the creature probably did not know its own strength. The malii, however, knew otherwise. Morgan could see that now, looking up into its many eyes. Morgan stared at all four of the cranial orbs at once, on purpose. "Cyrus. I will be taking off these restraints now. Do not float away." Morgan quickly slipped forward, faster than even the malii could move thanks to the dexterity bracelet they had acquired, and slipped the leash off of the pole, unclipping the weak thing from the collar of the beast. Cyrus began to move away, and Morgan called out, "No." Knowing that creatures that were beginning to start the process tended to understand the urgency of no in their owner's voice, though not the command with others. The malii did stop, but not for the reason Morgan thought.
[20]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 22:13:06 GMT -6
Morgan thought they knew a lot about creatures, but it was really a bunch of distanced, scientific, and thus generalized rules and regulations. The Labs work was hardly ever completely understandable in a logical manner, and that was not something Morgan would have known. Sometimes, creatures were a lot different than the intended type would be, and Morgan would probably take a very long time to learn that. "Cyrus, I know you are intelligent, and can speak. Sometime, I will expect you to try to show me." Morgan was not the most conversational person, but it was still something, at least. "I would demand that you do so now, I am really quite impatient I'll have you know, but I figure that you will not be too keen to attempt it after being tied up. I sure wouldn't." After this little soliloquy, the blond human leaned forward, and attempted to test the collar that was around the malii's neck. It seemed to be part of the creature's being, as many labs creatures had such things.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 22:17:24 GMT -6
Morgan knew that soon, they would need to begin heading back home. Today was productive even if it was indeed quite short. However, Morgan did want to give the creature the customary 'treats', which had been, up to this point, too dangerous to attempt due to the psycho-social aspect not quite taking form yet. The blond looked the malii straight into the four eyes, all white and dead looking, and then reached down into a lab-coat pocket to pull out a plastic baggie of chicken strips. They were grilled, and had no seasonings on them at all, creature-safe and approved, they figured. Immediately, the malii seemed interested, though she did not lean down and try to grab them, or anything. "Cyrus, I am going to give you some extra food for continuing to be reasonable. Do not bite my hand." Sure, the malii probably did not understand the words, but the creature was smart enough to understand that biting the hand that feeds was not a good idea.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 22:21:14 GMT -6
The malii did, however, float in the same space and watch as the blond human pulled the baggie out. The malii was not hungry, but this was her favorite food. The malii knew that it could take them and hide them in her mouth and keep them for later when she was hungry. That was the plan. Morgan pulled out a piece of the grilled chicken strips and leaned forward, holding it out the farthest from their body possible. The Malii leaned forward at this point, locking eyes with the human in a rebellious way, and then took the chicken very speedily but without taking a bit out of Morgan's hands. Morgan was pleased that they had not been bitten, but was still detecting that hint of rebelliousness that the creature still had. That would warrant a written note; that had to be the asked-for personality of the creature from the Labs beginning to show through.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 22:25:09 GMT -6
The pre-set personalities of the creatures were sometimes more of an art than a science, and Morgan too knew that. Sometimes people asked for some really odd things that couldn't quite be made; and Morgan knew that asking for humanoid personalities often caused some conflict. Malii brains were not completely meant to be ready for speech, save for the more experimental attempt with the foxfire that wasn't completely successful in all cases. Cyrus was presumably built on those genes, and with added aggression to boot. Cyrus appeared to have the witt and cunning of the foxfire, with the aggression of the akui malii. That meant that Cyrus was probably also quite unsympathetic to other creatures. That meant that she would probably have to continue to be kept away from the other creatures until Morgan trained her to tone it down a bit and at least not attack or kill the other creatures in the House.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 19, 2019 22:31:41 GMT -6
Well, the time was up for today. It was time for the two of them to get going back home. Morgan was not afraid that the malii would float away or attack them at this point, but they were concerned that the female malii would try to attack someone else's pet or someone else for fun. That seemed to be a personality trait that Morgan can pinpoint right now, that mean-spiritedness that akui tended to have. "Come on Cyrus, we need to get home." At this, the human leaned forward and put the leash back onto the malii's collar. It was a cheap leash, Morgan would have to get a better one, later. Cyrus tolerated this despite the earlier annoyance, because she could now see that this would be a useful partnership to her as well. She would be more docile in front of the yellow-furred human, if only to be given less trouble and less watching so that she could do what she wanted. Yes, that was a good plan.
[25] The two leave for today, and head home.
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