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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:10:54 GMT -6
With all of his other tricks out of the way, Yoru only had one left to learn, and boy was it going to be difficult. Fiera had been asked to teaching Yoru how to speak- a difficult task even on a good day. She had only ever done it once before, with the other harachiu she had tutored. Echo had been a sweet girl, but very shy, which made teaching her to speak about as easy as pulling teeth. It had taken months to get her up to a child’s level of speech, though it had stuck eventually. Yoru was, to his credit, a bit easier than that. He was a bit of a ‘class clown’ so to speak, and was always trying to get Fiera’s attention in some way or another. His more gregarious nature meant that hopefully he would pick up on the nuances of speech easier than his fellow student.
Fiera 6
Yoru 14.1/14.1
Speak 1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:11:18 GMT -6
It would give him a lot more opportunities to express himself as well. If Yoru was always trying to get Fiera’s attention, wouldn’t it be much better for him if he could actually say “Hey, over here!” to do so? To be able to explain what he was doing, or to tell jokes, or to get her to play a game with the rules he came up with? Being able to talk would open up a world of opportunities for him, in more ways than one. It would take a while though. Fiera knew that cities weren’t built in a day, and Yoru would need time to get used to each lesson in language and build upon it. To learn how to use it as a tool instead of a simple action to be repeated, to build on it with blocks of new vocabulary and grammar. It would be tiring for both of them.
Fiera 7
Yoru 14.2/14.2
Speak 2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:11:48 GMT -6
But worth it, hopefully. After that, Yoru would be free of Fiera’s overbearing presence, though she hoped they’d meet again someday. Still, first things first- get him to say A Word. Fiera started out by having lunch with Yoru- not exactly a strange event, considering how much time they’d spend together training. Some berries and veggies for Yoru, a sandwich for her. Partway through her meal though, Fiera reached out and took one of Yoru’s berries and popped it in her mouth. The harachiu looked aghast, but Fiera only smiled. “What, no? You don’t want me to do that? Should have said something, then.” She said. Then, she reached out for another one. Yoru tried to slap her hand away, squeaking loudly. “What, no? Fiera no?” She said. He groaned loudly as her fingers kept encroaching, and finally burst out “No!” as loudly as he could. Fiera took her hand away.
Fiera 8
Yoru 14.3/14.3
Speak 3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:12:00 GMT -6
It wasn’t very loud, but it was exactly what she had been looking for. She leaned back in mock surprise. “Oh? No for Fiera? Well ok then!” She said, and went back to eating her sandwich. Yoru blinked at her in awe- had that really just worked? He clung to the sensation immediately, and used it for the rest of the day. Fiera found herself being ordered to not walk so fast, to not use her hands to open a gate (that had been a hard one), to not open her backpack. Yoru was delighted. Suddenly he had so many more options with just one word. Fiera definitely wanted him to know that language was a tool that he could use to get what he wanted, not just a basic trick. Thankfully, he seemed to be getting the hang of it quickly. She also took the opportunity to teach him ‘yes’ while she could.
Fiera 9
Yoru 14.4/14.4
Speak 4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:12:13 GMT -6
She did it by offering him foods that he liked and didn’t like, sweet berries and spicy peppers. She’d offer one to him and say “Do you want this? Yes? No?” And wait for his response. If she tried to shove a pepper in his face, he’d gag and say no, but if she offered a berry, he’d just make little noises of excitement. She repeated yes enough times that soon he was parroting it back to her. As a result, Yoru finally learned to answer yes or no questions, though he didn’t have enough of a vocabulary to answer very complex ones. He seemed to understand a bit more speech than he could say back, though Fiera suspected that that was the case with a lot of children. Still, she spoke clearly and concisely when talking to Yoru, and talking as much as possible so he could be able to pick up more words.
Fiera 10
Yoru 15.0/15.0
Speak 5
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:12:55 GMT -6
After a week or so, he had picked up a few nouns and adjectives too. It mostly consisted of different types of food, or items that were easy to find in the park, such as ‘stick’ and ‘leaf’ and ‘person’, as that was what Fiera had lying around and what he tended to interact with the most. He spoke about what he knew, after all. He knew Fiera’s name as well, which made it easier for Fiera to teach him about pronouns, and the different between “she” and “he” and “it” and “we” and whatnot. She’d always enunciate carefully in clear sentences such as “I want to go to the field with the big tree. Do you want to go to the field with the big tree?” Which was normally met with something along the lines of “Yes yes yes big tree!” because Yoru loved launching himself off of its branches.
Fiera 1
Yoru 15.1/5.1
Speak 6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:13:27 GMT -6
She took him into the city sometimes as well (with Aster’s permission, of course) to teach him words that he wasn’t going to become to too familiar with otherwise, what with only having the park to explore most of the time. Yoru loved making a game out of it. He’d frequently run or fly over to an object, pat it with his hands and ask “What’s this, what’s this?” (It took Fiera a while to get him to use the ‘question’ words, but now that she had he barely ever stopped asking them. It could honestly get pretty exhausting, but she wasn’t about to discourage the young harachiu.) Fiera would follow it up with an answer and occasionally an apology to the person who just got their head patted by a young fairy. It also frequently ended in trips to the ice cream store, but neither of them were particularly upset by that.
Fiera 2
Yoru 15.2/15.2
Speak 7
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:13:42 GMT -6
She managed to teach him body words as well, pointing out parts of him and naming them. Fingers, legs, eyes, wings, all of those got added to Yoru’s vocabulary. In addition, she made sure to point it out when he was obviously feeling some sort of emotion so he could put a name to that as well. If he stubbed his toe, she would go “Oh, does that hurt? Are you in pain?” And pick him up, until he was able to repeat “hurts” back at her. If he was mad about losing a game, she’d point that out as well. It was for his own good that he learned these words, so he could describe how he was feeling as well as describing the world around him. He could now explain if he was suffering, and protest it if possible. However, he could also say when he was happy and enjoying something.
Fiera 3
Yoru 15.3/15.3
Speak 8
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:14:02 GMT -6
She managed to teach him body words as well, pointing out parts of him and naming them. Fingers, legs, eyes, wings, all of those got added to Yoru’s vocabulary. In addition, she made sure to point it out when he was obviously feeling some sort of emotion so he could put a name to that as well. If he stubbed his toe, she would go “Oh, does that hurt? Are you in pain?” And pick him up, until he was able to repeat “hurts” back at her. If he was mad about losing a game, she’d point that out as well. It was for his own good that he learned these words, so he could describe how he was feeling as well as describing the world around him. He could now explain if he was suffering, and protest it if possible. However, he could also say when he was happy and enjoying something.
Fiera 4
Yoru 15.4/15.4
Speak 9
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 10, 2020 14:14:18 GMT -6
She did try to teach him manners next though, emphasizing that he should say “please” and “thank you” when buying something (allowing him to count out his own money and offer it to the worker at the ice cream stand). She hammered this in by being more lenient when he used his manners, allowing him to have ONE more berry when he said please, or letting him stay on the big tree in the field for fifteen minute when he said thank you for bringing him there. Now that he had a pretty large vocabulary, she tried to teach him some better grammar too. Nothing too intense, just politely correcting him when he said something wrong, or interjecting a word where he forgot one. Such as “I wanna blueberry strawberry carrot” would be answered with “You WANT a blueberry, strawberry, AND A carrot?” she’d say with emphasis on the words he had excluded. Several weeks after teaching Yoru his first word, Fiera could barely get the harachiu to shut up. She didn’t mean that in a mean way at all- Fiera was quite the chatterbox herself after all- but it did make it hard to get a word in edgewise. He had even learned to correct himself, saying a sentence over again if he got it wrong. His speech was still a bit rough around the edges, but he had learned how to improve it himself via observation and repetition. By the time Fiera said goodbye, she could do it with only a little bit of sadness, knowing that she had given him the tools to take care of himself.
Fiera 5
Yoru 16.0/16.0
Speak 10
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 14, 2020 16:10:38 GMT -6
Fiera had been training these pets for what felt like months, after having agreed to tutor some of a person named Aster’s pets for a great deal of money. The payment rolling in was sweet, but Fiera would be glad to have time to train her own pets again, especially with so many tournaments and competitions coming up. Thankfully, she was on the last pet, Andante. While before Aster had had Fiera training harachiu, which were rather fun to hang out with and easy to train, this time she had a pure equillion- or at least an offspring equillion that looked a lot like a pure. That breed of equillion was known for being a little snooty and hard to work with, but Fiera hoped that she could get through to him. They had already spent some time bonding at the Eccentric’s Mansion though, so she had a pretty good head start. Fiera 6 Andante 4.1/4.1 Euphoric Vapors 1 |
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 14, 2020 18:05:48 GMT -6
As a result, it was relatively easy to get Andante into the public park, and to find a secluded training area to work in. Fiera closed the gate behind her as they entered the fenced off training ground. The dirt beneath them was packed tight, and the area was bounded with pale wooden fences, tall enough that the equillion couldn’t jump over them. That made things easy for Fiera, as it meant that she could unclip Andante without having to worry about whether or not he’d escape. While he explored the training area, Fiera took the opportunity to set her bag down, a sigh of relief escaping from her lips. It was immensely heavy today- she had to stuff it so full of training equipment she could barely carry it here. Still, at least it had everything she’d need for the day, meaning she wouldn’t have to split this into multiple sessions.
Fiera 7
Andante 4.2/4.2
Euphoric Vapors 2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 14, 2020 18:07:00 GMT -6
The first thing she pulled out of her bag of training supplies was actually an item she had cribbed from the Eccentric’s Mansion while she was there. It was a bottle of… well, Fiera wasn’t actually sure, but when the gasses inside seeped out they had an overly sweet smell and gave Fiera a happy, light feeling. Needless to say she didn’t think it was a good idea to huff the stuff all day, but it would help considering the first trick she had on the list. Fiera had been given a whole list of things to cover with Andante, and she figured that she might as well tackle the hardest thing first while she had the equipment. It was a battle move, and not one that Fiera was particularly familiar with or had taught before. She had done her research though, and had plenty of ideas on how to teach it to Andante. Fiera 8 Andante 4.3/4.3 Euphoric Vapors 3 |
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 14, 2020 18:07:35 GMT -6
The move was called Euphoric Vapors apparently, and she could see why Aster thought Andante would have it. He had a strange, smoky mane that flickered and moved as if it wasn’t all there. He had an interesting scent to him as well, sickly sweet. Fiera was sure that he could learn how to use these traits offensively- she just had to get creative about teaching it to him. Thankfully, where there was a will, there was a way. She also had plenty of carrots- equillion normally ate grains, but veggies like this made a great treat. Hopefully, he would be pretty food driven. Fiera approached the equillion, bottle of dreams in one hand and a carrot in the other. Andante walked over to her, sniffing loudly in the direction of the treat. “Oh, you want this?” Fiera said, raising the carrot and then putting it in her back pocket.
Fiera 9
Andante 4.4/4.4
Euphoric Vapors 4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 14, 2020 18:08:09 GMT -6
“You’ll have to earn it, then.” She said, and held out the bottle instead. She just slightly pulled the cork out, letting the barest wisp of the euphoric, hallucinatory gas inside to escape, right in front of Andante. The equillion breathed it in, and his expression changed slightly. He looked at the bottle, with the gas hissing out, and his own mane began to ripple in response. “Andante, vapors!” Fiera called, setting a command word. ‘Vapors’ was a lot easier to say than the full name of the move, after all. After a moment though, the flaring of his mane and tail faded away and he appeared to return to normal, looking at Fiera. She immediately got the carrot out from her back pocket and broke it in half, offering one of the halves to Andante. “That’s it, Andante! Good vapors!” She said eagerly, holding the carrot to his face.
Fiera 10
Andante 5.0/5.0
Euphoric Vapors 5
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