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Post by Morgan on May 11, 2019 13:43:38 GMT -6
Morgan knew that they were just about done with the entire trip today, seeing as the creature was getting all of this easy stuff really nicely. Morgan wasn't sure if some of these training bits and bobs were going to be useful for a seryn, seeing as they were mostly good-natured and water-bound for the most part. However, hopefully Morgan would be able to use these at least, and train Domino as many of the training challenges that the Training Guild was going to impose. Morgan ran the seryn through all of the commands yet again, mixing them up and seeing how the creature would react if Morgan did not produce a food item. It didn't seem to affect it much, not even when the 'no' command was given periodically over the ball. That was good, at least. Morgan called the seryn over to the land, and used the carefully made object to pick the seryn up swaddled and safely. The bespectacled human placed the seryn back into the travel tank. Yes, next time they would come up with something better for this.
[5] - END of No - Morgan and Domino go home
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2019 23:23:02 GMT -6
The bespectacled human returned to the docks a few days later, this time carting a much, much better travel aquarium for Domino; made in such a way that she could see past her own reflection to see outside. She watched curiously with her little silver eyes as they passed many different types of people and pets. She seemed especially interested in someone's calico-colored estharne kitten, and Morgan had to give theirself a moment's blink to chuckle at the thought that Domino probably wanted to try to eat it, since she was used to eating the little calico-colored feeder fish. It must have looked much smaller than it really was, through the aquarium glass. Once Morgan got to the loch, they gently transferred the creature to the water using a much more comfortable scoop. Domino slid into the water in a pleased manner, and Morgan decided to get to work on training immediately. Morgan gently bent down to look the creature in the eyes, to start.
[1] - [START 'Watch Me']
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2019 23:33:49 GMT -6
Morgan took their middle and forefingers stretched out together and gestured toward their own eyes, and then down toward the seryn's eyes as if to say 'I am watching you.' The spotty fish creature looked up with those silver-blue eyes and blinked silently, staring at Morgan with rapt attention. Morgan waited a few moments, with the creature staring up at them the entire time, and then Morgan threw down one of those calico-colored feeder minnows that the seryn liked so much. Already, the creature's beautiful scales were much more vibrant than they had been, if only because of Morgan's carefully worked diet. Morgan's father had worked on a diet much like it for his own seryn from back in the day. Morgan waited until the seryn was done, and then gently pointed at their own eyes again, and then the creature's eyes yet again. The seryn watched curiously, perhaps not quite understanding it yet.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2019 23:39:37 GMT -6
After a moment or two, Domino continued to look up at Morgan for any indication of what they wanted, and soon they looked away, not understanding. Morgan got her attention again, and did the same hand sign as before, gently pointing at both of their eyes in the precise way from before. Domino seemed to understand something, if not exactly what was needed. Domino stared raptly at the bespectacled human again, quietly. Morgan eventually threw down another of the calico feeder minnows, and Domino snapped it up eagerly. It was to be expected that the creature was slowly getting this, and it continued to baffle Morgan that such a fish could be as intelligent as these were, but it was much harder to think of them as being sentient without them being able to exit the water. Luckily, Morgan already knew about this, and was sure that many others probably didn't know until they made their exits from the water.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2019 23:44:40 GMT -6
Morgan continued to repeat this again and again, making the hand motion and then giving the creature a tiny feeder minnow for each time. This was going to take repetition and practice. Morgan was not sure why they were taking the initiative to do this. Sure, the training guild thing was somewhat of a hobby for now, while Morgan needed more things to do, and of course the creature deserved attention, but the seryn was just as happy being trained as she was swimming around her enclosure or the house. Morgan knew that it probably didn't matter one way or the other for the creature, since they were quite a bit calm naturally. However, Domino reminded Morgan of their father, though they were loathe to admit it, and this made the training a bit more of an enjoyable thing than it would otherwise have been. Morgan wasn't particularly the greatest at training that there ever was, but they took pride in what they could do.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2019 23:52:00 GMT -6
Morgan knew that repetition was required to really cement something in the minds of all creatures, be they humanoid or animalistic, even sentient individuals. As such, Morgan took their time making sure, absolutely sure, that Domino go the idea of looking at Morgan whenever the hand signal was made. They would wait until the creature was doing something else, and then get her attention again by doing the hand signal, and then give them a feeder fish as long as they proceeded to watch Morgan for as long as the sign was held. The creature would watch quite raptly, unperturbed by the surroundings. Domino was such a calm individual, and it was almost infectious. Morgan was quiet after a little while, taking a break to run the creature through some other commands, the ones they had worked on previously, before coming back to it with more repetition. Finally, Morgan felt like the creature had gotten it.
[5] - [END of 'Watch Me']
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2019 23:57:57 GMT -6
Morgan pulled a list from one of their deep lab coat pockets and gently marked it off; 'Watch Me' was done. Morgan looked down the rest of the list; there wasn't much there, but they were tedious things that most people didn't bother training their battle creatures. Luckily for everyone involved in this, Domino was not a battle pet, so Morgan was not going to be tempted to skip these things. Morgan figured that having a nicely trained creature in their little brooklet on the property would be, at the very least, quite fancy and a good indicator that a decent creature-tamer was on the premises. It was one of the best ways of making credits here in the labs, any way. The next thing on the list was Move, meaning, to get the creature to go from one place to another. Morgan gently took off their lab coat and laid it on the dock, before removing their clothes- grabbing a pair of swimming trunks and a thinner swimming shirt, not even concerned about it since the docks were so empty most of the time. Then, Morgan waded into the water a little ways.
[1] - [START 'Move']
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Post by Morgan on May 21, 2019 0:11:11 GMT -6
Morgan knew that the next few things required them to get into the water, so they had already prepared by bringing swimming gear in advance (and extra undergarments). For now, however, Morgan knew that they needed to work on the 'move' command. The idea that Morgan had was that they would tell the creature where to move by moving their arms to one direction or the other. Already, Domino was completely unused to Morgan being -in- the water too, and Morgan honestly wasn't too happy with the cold, theirself. Ah, well, it would be a nice incursion whenever it began to get sweltering in the summer, Morgan reasoned. Morgan waded out to the small creature, holding a clear floating bag of feeder fish close to them, and then gently reached out. Domino swam up close, gently brushing Morgan's arm with it's fins, and the fishy cuddle was surprising and a bit nerve-racking for Morgan. That was not what was expected.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on May 21, 2019 0:19:45 GMT -6
Morgan knew that they needed to get the ball rolling, so to speak. Morgan gently touched the spotty seryn, gently pushing the creature to one side, guiding it to the left. The seryn naturally followed the hand movement since Morgan was gently moving it in that direction, and when the seryn moved so nicely there, Morgan gave it a calico feeder fish. After a moment of allowing the creature to finish the treat item, Morgan 'moved' the creature to the other side, gently suggesting it to Morgan's opposite side. The creature just as easily moved over in that direction as well, guided by Morgan's careful arm. The creature was then given a feeder fish, and gently bumped into Morgan's hand, pleased with the treat. Morgan then waited for the creature to eat the small calico feeder fish before continuing. Morgan knew that they would continue this, but this time Morgan took a step back to increase the distance between them.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on May 21, 2019 0:25:41 GMT -6
Now that the distance was about a foot between them, Morgan would not be able to touch the fish save with the tips of their fingers, so the move command would be more of a suggestion and not Morgan manually moving the animal from side to side. After a moment, Morgan began just as they had before, suggesting with their left hand that the creature move over to the left side, just hardly brushing the creature's side with their finger tips for a second. Domino moved over to that side without any issues. After giving the creature a feeder fish, Morgan waited and then did the same thing using the other arm, carefully suggesting the creature to move over to the right side. The animal immediately moved over to this side this time, not even being touched in the slightest. The creature was beginning to understand that whenever it was suggested to go to one side of Morgan or the other, that it should do so.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on May 21, 2019 0:31:07 GMT -6
After giving the creature another treat, Morgan hauled theirself up out of the loch, dripping, and onto the dock. Morgan shook theirself a little bit, but did not bother removing any of the water from their clothes, instead just staying away from their dry clothing. Morgan made sure that Domino could see them by using the 'watch me' command from earlier, trying to reinforce it as well, and then made the same motion that they had made in the water, only now. Domino moved where indicated, and then Morgan threw them one of the calico feeder minnows for a treat. The creature snapped it up, and then Morgan repeated it in the other direction. The creature moved in the indicated direction again, and once again a treat was thrown. Morgan continued to repeat this with the creature again and again and again, finally mixing it with other commands, until finally Morgan figured that it was fine.
[5] - [END of 'Move']
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Post by Morgan on May 21, 2019 0:43:32 GMT -6
Morgan remembered the next thing on the list; not quite wanting to get their good clothes wet in order to just mark something off of a list. This was the last of the things that would be frustrating to train, Morgan figured. It was a command that wasn't too bad really; 'Follow' from what Morgan could remember. This one was going to have a whistle command, so Morgan leaned over and picked up the whistle from the pocket of their lab coat. It was a deep pocket, but luckily Morgan's hand wasn't all that wet by this point, and Morgan had enough time to dry a tad. Morgan walked out on the dock, and then made the whistle command for follow; a three soft tone whistle that sounded a lot like 'come', but with a sharp whistle at the end to get the creature's attention to how different it was. Domino moved over to the dock, and then Morgan began walking forward. The creature followed in tow, trying to figure out why it hadn't gotten a treat yet.
[1] - [START of 'Follow']
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Post by Morgan on May 21, 2019 0:52:15 GMT -6
As soon as Morgan glanced over their shoulder and realized that the creature was following after them, they stopped and threw down a feeder fish. Morgan then waited for Domino to finish the feeder fish, before Morgan once again decided to work on it again. Morgan knew that at least for a little while, Domino would need to figure out what was going on with it, especially since it was going to be somewhat similar to something they already worked on, despite their being a huge difference. Part of this was something that Morgan could remember working with Waar about... Morgan felt their throat clench, and they forced themselves to think about something else immediately. Morgan had, in fact, trained this before though. So Morgan knew what to expect when changing the idea from simply 'come' to 'follow' instead. Morgan called out the follow command again, and this time walked the other way around the dock, the seryn in tow.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on May 21, 2019 1:48:30 GMT -6
Morgan glanced over their shoulder to make sure that the creature was following at a good pace, and then the bespectacled human turned right around and tossed the creature the prize it was working for; a tiny calico feeder fish. Morgan was sure that the spotted seryn was doing quite well and learning this decently enough. It certainly helped that the creature was sentient, Morgan could definitely tell that it was learning a lot quicker at a clip than other creatures that Morgan had worked with previously. However, Morgan was sure that they were only halfway through with the work that they needed to do on this, if that. The hardest part, after all, was the first leg of the training. Morgan waited until the creature was done with it's treat before continuing. This time, Morgan had thrown the bait out a little further, so that Morgan would have to use the come command first. Morgan wanted to help cement the distinction this time.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on May 21, 2019 1:56:27 GMT -6
The bespectacled human called for the creature to come using that command, and it immediately moved to the dock. Then, Morgan used the 'follow' command, similar but different, and was just able to see what Morgan was sure was understanding pass over the creature's intelligent looking eyes. Morgan walked all the way around the dock from one end to the other, and the creature followed them along, keeping an eye on them as it did so. Morgan was quite pleased at that, this was going quite well so far if they did think so themself! Morgan threw in a calico feeder minnow and was quite happy to see this going down like it was. They would just have to keep working on it to make sure that it stuck, as Morgan knew that they always must. Morgan waited for the feeder minnow to be finished and then whistled the command yet again.
[4]
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