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Post by Noa on Feb 25, 2020 20:20:10 GMT -6
"Try to picture it freezing over," Aster said. "Or maybe that there's something real cold sitting inside your gut, and when you breathe, you're breathing out that cold. Keep thinking it until you feel something."
{And if I don't?} said Avander.
"Then we get you to eat sorne ice cubes and see if that helps," Aster said. That was one thing they couldn't try with Grunty and the fire, but ice cubes had been Avander's friend when they were learning how to get him to summon the ice wall too.
{I guess I should have expected that,} Avander said. (Well? You have a catchy name for this one too?}
Aster had to think about that one. "I can't think of anything," he said. "Freeze?"
Avander closed his eyes, and Aster backed away from the dummy, taking his place at Avander's side instead, where he would be out of the way in case Avander had some uncommon success with his first attempt.
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Post by Noa on Apr 17, 2020 17:58:47 GMT -6
Through their link, he could sense a little of what Avander was doing, and mentally he gave the Wiurn a few helpful nudges where he could. The visualizing, or rather, the conceptualizing portion of what Avander was doing, Aster could lend a hand with. But when it came to actually manifesting it, that was all up to Avander.
When Aster felt that Avander had at least a good shot of making a start of it, he eased back on his own mental presence and left Avander to it. A moment later, Avander opened his eyes, parted his jaws, and breathed out.
It wasn't a lot of frost. In fact, there was only the barest bit forming on the shoulder of the dummy, where Avander had been aiming. But Aster could feel the drop in temperature from where he was, a bit of unseasonal coolness. "Not bad for a first attempt," he said.
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Post by Noa on Apr 17, 2020 17:59:12 GMT -6
{It isn't much to look at, is it?} Avander said.
"It'll get better. Try again. Freeze this." Aster indicated the dummy again, while Avander made a low unhappy rumble. "Nothing for it but to keep trying." There was no way he was going to get better at it unless he practiced, even if he felt like it was a futile exercise. And now that he could see that he could do it, hopefully that would give him the confidence to do something bigger.
{Yes, I know,) said Avander. He’d been through this often enough that he was familiar with the process of learning something new, even if he didn’t care for the repetition or the bumbling at the start of it.
"After this, we can call it a day, Aster said. It was only these two skills he really wanted out of the way. As for the rest of it, well.
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Post by Noa on Apr 17, 2020 17:59:51 GMT -6
If Avander suddenly teleported halfway across the property, that was more a problem for Avander than for anyone else. The estate's grounds were expansive enough that Aster wasn't worried about him turning up at a neighbor's. Aster meant to teach him to use all his new abilities soon, but he was definitely prioritizing based on their destructive potential.
"Freeze," Aster prompted again, and again Avander closed his eyes. This time, Aster accompanied him a little more closely. Avander knew what the cold felt like; it had lived in his veins for a long time now. It was just, with the injection, it had always manifested a certain way, and that was the end of it. There was more of it in him now, somehow, in a way he didn’t fully understand. And now he felt it responding in him in a new way, a cold that rested in his chest, which built a little as he concentrated on it.
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Post by Noa on Apr 17, 2020 18:01:05 GMT -6
A deep breath in. Aster helped him imagine that he was breathing in the chill, stoking that cold energy inside him like the wind in winter, all ice and snow and bitter cold. They held on to that sensation for a moment, and then out...
Aster opened his own eyes to see the result of this attempt, and found the dummy quite thoroughly frosted. “Hey, that’s pretty good,” he said. “Just a little more, and… a lot faster… and I’d say you’re done.”
{Great, so we’re going to be here until dinnertime,} said Avander. He didn’t seem heartened at all, if you were only judging based on his words and his mental tone, but Aster knew him better than that. He could see that the Wiurn was pleased in spite of himself, and a little surprised too, even though he’d seen the frost manifest on his first try.
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Post by Noa on Apr 17, 2020 18:01:18 GMT -6
Aster moved on to a different dummy. “Freeze. And this time let’s really try to go all out. I want dead of winter, cold enough to make a Murp keel over freeze, alright?”
{You’d better step away from the dummy then,} Avander replied drily. Aster did just that, the start of a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“I’ll think it with you one more time. Ready?” Aster waited a moment for Avander to prepare himself, then said, “Freeze.”
This time, Aster merely guided Avander’s thoughts, giving him a little encouraging push. Most of it was the Wiurn’s own, and Avander spent a long time on it, seeping into that image of the dead of winter. When he breathed out this time, the dummy froze alright, solid and stiff as it could get. Avander, opening his eyes to inspect his handiwork, nudged it experimentally.
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Post by Noa on Apr 17, 2020 18:01:42 GMT -6
It fell onto its side, still holding the same pose.
“That’s what I wanted to see,” Aster said, satisfied with the result. “Now, let’s try it again. Freeze.” Aster pointed out a different dummy, this time leaving the Wiurn to his own devices. It took him a moment, but Avander was able to freeze this dummy with the same intensity as the last. And then he managed another, and then another.
“You know what, that’s good enough for today,” Aster said. “We’ll work on speed tomorrow. In the meantime, and I’m going to stress this, please don’t practice on your own. I don’t want to wake up to half the property frozen over, alright?”
{Whatever you say,} said Avander. It was a flippant answer, but Aster trusted he wouldn’t. Avander wasn’t the type to practice on his own time anyway, generally speaking.
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Post by Noa on Apr 17, 2020 18:02:21 GMT -6
It was only that Aster thought he might get a little curious and experiment a bit if Aster didn’t warn him against it.
“That’s it for today then,” Aster said. “We’ll pick up again tomorrow.”
The next day, they worked on speed, after a couple of initial warm up attempts just to make sure Avander hadn’t somehow forgotten how to do things in the intervening time. Fortunately he hadn’t, and then it was just a matter of drilling, until Avander was familiar enough with the sensation of it that he could reproduce it without a long imagination sequence beforehand. He got to a speed that Aster liked by the end of that second session, but they had a third one just to be safe, before Aster finally pronounced himself satisfied with it, and decided they ought to move on to something else, maybe something a little simpler.
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Post by Noa on May 29, 2020 18:23:43 GMT -6
“Get down,” Aster said idly, coming up with something else for them to do. Avander did so without even really thinking about it, laying himself down. Sometimes, back when he was still a Sarane drake and if Aster was in the mood to do it, Aster would just vault onto his back without fussing with this… Actually, that might have been most of the time, come to think of it. As such, Avander hadn’t picked up the ‘lay down’ trick until later. But Avander had always been on the smallish side even for a first-tier drake, shorter and rather more lithe than his fellows, so it wasn’t such a difficult thing.
Now he was bigger, and it was more of a hassle. He wasn’t superlatively large for a Wiurn, but he was bigger than Nightshade, and rather bulkier too, despite somehow coming out of it faster as well.
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Post by Noa on May 29, 2020 18:24:04 GMT -6
Now it was a good thing that Avander was used to bending himself, since Aster would have a lot harder a time just hopping on the way he used to.
But when Avander bowed down, it was easy. Aster settled himself in front of Avander’s shoulders, just at the base of his neck. It was a comfortable seat, though it wasn’t what he was used to anymore; the proportions of the creature beneath him now were different, and the addition of a long, silky mane made for some interesting new textures.
Still, there was enough purchase on the scales for Aster to get a good grip with his legs, and he could alway grab onto the mane for extra support if he needed. Aster felt comfortable enough to ride bareback, especially since Avander wouldn’t be trying to throw him off like a drake in a breaking would do.
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Post by Noa on May 29, 2020 18:24:51 GMT -6
It was far from the worst or even the weirdest riding experience he’d ever had.
“Let’s do some flight practice,” Aster said. It had been some time since they had done anything too serious like that, but Aster wanted to help Avander acclimate to the changes in his body as quickly as possible, and this seemed like a good place to start. “Take us up,” he prompted, and Avander obliged, rising to all fours and then launching himself aloft with a leap.
Once they were aloft, something occurred to Aster. “I never did work with you on riding commands for when we fly, have I?”
{Is that what we’re doing today?} Avander asked. It wasn’t an answer, but Aster took it as a yes.
“It is now," Aster replied. "Hmm… Alright, how about this? When I want you to go up, I’ll lean forward, like this.”
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Post by Noa on May 29, 2020 18:25:22 GMT -6
Aster demonstrated this by leaning forward in his seat, so that Avander could have a good sense of what it felt like. “I’ll say ‘higher’ too; maybe sometimes I’ll need you to do it when I’m not sitting on you.”
{Ever the taskmaster,} said Avander. He did, however, take a moment to feel out the signal. {What if you want me to go faster then?}
“How about this?” Aster squeezed with his knees. “Can you feel that?”
{I can feel it. Don’t dig in too hard, that’s enough,} Avander said. Aster eased off immediately. He had no desire to cause discomfort; as long as Avander could feel and understand the signal, then that was all he needed.
“Good. And if I need you to slow down, I’ll lean back, like this.” Aster did just what he had described, until he could feel Avander register the motion.
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Post by Noa on May 29, 2020 18:25:40 GMT -6
“Let’s give it a try. It might take you a bit to remember all the new stuff,” Aster said.
Avander had no objections. He had been flying aimlessly as the two of them worked out their signals, but now Aster directed him to the right. That was a signal that he already knew, so Avander responded to it without even thinking about it. And then Aster squeezed his knees together. “Faster,” he said.
The combination of the motion and verbal signals was enough to prompt Avander into doing as Aster wanted. Without one or the other, it might have taken him a moment, but the both of them together worked well. “Good,” Aster said. Then he leaned back. “Slow,” he said. Avander quickly reined in his speed.
Aster steered him to the right once more, until they were going back the way they had come. Aster didn’t have the intent to go anywhere, so right now he was just steering Avander in lazy circles.
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Post by Noa on May 29, 2020 18:25:58 GMT -6
“Higher,” Aster said, leaning forward. He could feel Avander’s wings heaving, beating to push them higher into the air.
Aster squeezed his knees together again. “Faster,” he said. Avander sped up, and Aster steered him to the right. Then he leaned forward. “Higher.” Again, Avander climbed in the air until Aster eased off. Now Aster leaned back. “Slow.” Avander checked his speed, coming to an easier pace than he had been using before.
The two of them continued to work on the same signals for a little while. Aster made sure to mix the new ones in with the ones Avander was already familiar with, just for variety’s sake if nothing else. Eventually, Aster figured they’d done enough and asked Avander to land, so they could work on something else.
They resumed work on the signals again at the next session, and then the next session after that.
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Post by Noa on May 29, 2020 18:26:26 GMT -6
It was a familiar thing, the repetition required for training. They quickly fell into a pattern of using this as a bit of a warm up exercise, both to get Avander moving and to get him using his mind, even if it was only for something simple.
Once Aster felt that Avander was reacting to the new commands a bit more quickly, he began only using one or the other signal, and not both. Sometimes it would be the verbal direction, and sometimes it would be the one where Aster used his body to indicate what he wanted Avander to do. That was a little trickier, and at first Avander’s responses to these were sometimes a little slow or lacking. But over the course of several practice sessions, he got the hang of these, until they were incorporated into the riding experience about as well as the older, more familiar commands.
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