|
Post by Ashe on Mar 26, 2020 17:20:31 GMT -6
When he was sure she got the word for that, after repeating ”Purple,” a few times so she could hear how the specific word rolled off Ashe’s tongue. Then he moved on to the next item, a rock with something shiny and red inside it. Garnet? Ruby? Ashe went with Ruby. Either way, it was, ”Red,” Ashe said, gesturing to the shiny crystal inside the rock. ”This is red. And this is purple.” He swapped to the node. He said ”Red” a few more times, then set that down and moved to the next one. A black ball of yarn. He passed it from hand to hand, then held it up. ”This is black. Almost everything I’m wearing is black,” he added with a laugh. He was sure she knew this color, though he repeated the word a couple of times for the association. She was patiently watching him and the items all through this, giving short nods to show she was paying rapt attention. She felt like this was her mission, like she was learning code words for things.
Inyala: 3 2/5 Ashe: 2 1/10
Recognize colors: 4
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Mar 26, 2020 17:27:11 GMT -6
”This is blue,” Ashe said, holding up the ball. He tossed it to her and she caught it, gave it a good look, and tossed it back to him. ”You’re also blue. A different shade of blue, but still blue.” And then he picked up the lantern. He gestured to the center part of the lantern, rather than the red edges, and said, ”This is orange. This is red,” he added, pointing to the edges. ”But this is orange. And then this is yellow.” He held up a yellow ball next to the lantern, for comparison. He held one up, said it’s color, then held the other up. He suspected he might have issues with these two since they were similar, but maybe she would surprise him.
”This is green,” He told her, holding up a coral fan. He fanned Inyala a bit, jokingly, with it and she swatted playfully back at him in return. ”The grass is also green,” he told her, rubbing the soft leafy vegetation around them. So many things in their daily lives were colors that he could use to back this up!
Inyala: 3 3/5 Ashe: 2 2/10
Recognize colors: 5
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Mar 26, 2020 17:31:59 GMT -6
Ah, the last one. At least until Ashe could find more colors. He could probably do stuff like “magenta” or “Violet” or “Aqua” but to be completely honest, Ashe was not a woman and didn’t have an eye for color details like that so he would make a terribly confusing teacher. Better to stick to the basics. He held up this last one, a new item he’d recently found at the mansion. A treasure map of some sort, but he hadn’t had the time to investigate it yet. ”This is brown,” he told her. ”Dirt is also brown.” He dug his hand past the grass, into the earth, and pulled up a clump of it to show her. The top dustier soil was brown; if he went too deep it looked black. Best to avoid that confusion!
He set the items down in a line again and recited their colors for her, pointing to each one. He internally scolded himself for treating Inyala like she was a dumb animal; she was probably bored with all of his babying already. But he didn’t know how else to teach, and she was being patient with him. She nodded at each color, taking note of everything Ashe said.
Inyala: 3 4/5 Ashe: 2 3/10
Recognize colors: 6
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Mar 26, 2020 17:41:23 GMT -6
Now it was her time to shine. Ashe sat back on his ass and stretched out his feet, leaning back on his hands. ”Show me what you got, Y’ala,” He said. He was confident in her skills and her attention to detail. She’d have this done no problem and they’d be moving on. ”Show me… Purple!” He started with what he thought was the easiest; he’d emphasized a little more on that one, he thought, with it being a more difficult word. Inyala looked at the lineup with what Ashe thought was calculating, as if she was deep in thought, but when her gaze landed on it, she grabbed up the orb eagerly to hand to him. ”Good job! Sweet. Now, get me something blue.” As he watched, Inyala went through the items and picked up a ball that was blue. She handed that to him, too, then gestured to herself. Good, good, she’d learned how to associate the word with multiple things. Of course she was smarter than that, but Ashe didn’t often think about how things connected mentally.
Inyala: 4 0/5 Ashe: 2 4/10
Recognize colors: 7
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Mar 26, 2020 17:45:58 GMT -6
Ashe moved on through black, brown, and green. She even gestured to the grass, too, though she did that first instead of bringing Ashe the green item, so he made her repeat the process. But the map was no issue, and the ball of yarn was soft in his hands when she tossed it to him. He was growing in confidence when he called Red, but this one, Inyala had an issue with. She grabbed up the lantern and Ashe could have smacked himself, realizing too late that he’d associated this single item with two colors. He started to shake his head when he realized she had meant to get him the top of the lantern, which he had said was red after all. Well. He couldn’t exactly fault her.
”Show me the red on this,” Ashe told her, holding the lantern out toward her. With the slightest hesitation, which Ashe chalked up to the sudden change in task patterns, she pointed to the top. ”And what’s the middle?” Ashe asked her. She was silent, thinking this answer over. Ashe wasn’t sure she had the words down herself, to speak the words, since the goal was for her to simply know...
Inyala: 4 1/5 Ashe: 2 5/10
Recognize colors: 8
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Mar 26, 2020 18:08:39 GMT -6
But then she did it! She said something in Impish, and Ashe recognized it for what it was; her version of the word Orange. Ashe nodded, pleased with her progress. She got Yellow just fine, and then Ashe swapped everything around and did it again. He repeated this process a few times, with Inyala pointing at the item, or sometimes gesturing at a second option of that color. At first, she stuck with just the ones Ashe said, such as blue (ball) and blue (herself), but with some prompting, she found other colors in nature. The sky was blue. She found some flowers; the stems and leaves were green, the flowers ranged from red to yellow. They found brown rocks by the stream. Black beetles. Purple was difficult, but eventually they found some tiny flowers.
They spent an hour or so exploring and wandering the park, pointing out different colors to each other. Ashe was confident she knew the colors well, but they enjoyed their time together so they continued to walk and explore.
Inyala: 4 2/5 Ashe: 2 6/10
Recognize colors: 9
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Mar 26, 2020 18:35:49 GMT -6
It was oddly difficult for Ashe to wrap his head around teaching sentient beings. Like, did they know what he was saying? He knew in Inyala’s case, yes. If they didn’t, then…well, either way, he felt like a dolt for how he was going about this, acting like they were a baby and not the creature with extensive experience that he knew she was. At least she was patient.
”Next up is something else that’s really easy. But I want to get you used to doing it the specific way. I’m going to ask you some questions, I want you to answer by moving your head. This way for yes, and this way for no,” he told her, demonstrating the head bobs. He watched her try them out, noting how human like the motion appeared on her. It was almost creepy, but in a good way? He knew she could tell him yes or no, but there were others that didn’t understand her language or her mannerisms and might not get it. This would make it easier.
”Is the sky green?”
Inyala: 4 3/5 Ashe: 2 7/10
Recognize colors: 10 Yes Shake: 1 No Shake: 1
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Mar 26, 2020 19:14:28 GMT -6
Inyala looked up at the sky and back down at Ashe. She instinctively wanted to shake her head, because she knew by instinct now that that was what Ashe wanted from her. She would have done it without thinking before, but now after that short chat Ashe had had with her? She was overthinking it and the hesitation made her second guess herself. She started to shake her head no, then nod, then she stopped because she was not made to overthink! She looked to Ashe for guidance, and saw her master had his head in his hands, his fingers curling through his hair.
He sighed heavily, having seen the confusion he caused in her. ”Sorry, sorry. I just…” What had he, just? ”Alright, let’s try again. Just… answer yes or no, let’s not think so much about it, alright?” Out of habit, she nodded her head - then paused mid nod, then continued to nod. Yep. That was the right answer. And Ashe beamed and nodded too. ”Good! Alright, so, is the sky green?”
Inyala: 4 4/5 Ashe: 2 8/10
Recognize colors: 11 Yes Shake: 2 No Shake: 2
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Oct 4, 2020 17:39:45 GMT -6
-----------The above is on pause------------ (Note: 12.1 to start, trained Devour (4) and Name (1)) With the chill of autumn in the air, and the crisp earthy smells of Vai Min Mur approaching, Ashe was feeling 'in the mood' to train his living corpse. Reoz was difficult to train, since he had the smarts of, well, a corpse - but he was Ashe's dumb dumb after all. So he led the beast there with a slab of meat. He was also armed with a Murp prod, a short stock with an electric zapper at the end, and some other training tools - plus a lot of meat! He had a training dummy set up at his special spot in the park, and some steak juice to sort of flavor...whatever he decided to use. The typical was wood chunks. Branches were the best to teach a pet how to bite hard - and you could measure the strength when the stick crunched into pieces! Once they got to the spot, Ashe wasted no time. He set up a large branch and wedged it between two trees, knocked between branches. It was at chest level, and he ducked under it. Reoz slowly plodded after him, looking lost. Ashe laid a slab of meat over the stick. "Crunch, Reoz!" Ashe said. Reoz: 0 1/5 Ashe: 0 1/10 Crunch 1 *Ashe is using Sever bond at the cost of 4 MP
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Oct 4, 2020 17:48:03 GMT -6
Reoz smelled the meat. He had been smelling the meat the whole way here, and now he was closer than ever. He didn't waste time approaching the branch - though the dummy nearly hit his head the first time. The inhale was audible as a death rattle, like wind blowing through dead tree limbs. The corpse was searching for where the food was... Because it didn't see a corpse anywhere, no live food. It saw Ashe, but knew enough not to try anything with the two legged. Dumb he may be, but being jabbed with a prod was not fun. A few more deep breaths and the monster found it - small food, on the branch. A revolting tongue snuck out between glistening fangs and touched it, tasting. Yep, food!
Ashe wiggled the slab of meat to get his attention - careful not to move it too much, or else he might confuse Reoz. The beast followed the movement, at attention.
"Crunch!" Ashe said again, and the beast struck.
Reoz: 0 2/5 Ashe: 0 2/10 Crunch 2
*Ashe is using Sever bond at the cost of 4 MP
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Oct 4, 2020 17:53:04 GMT -6
Reoz opened up those jaws and lunged forward, blinded like a shark. Ashe reacted fast, and pulled the slab of meat away before he made contact. The monster closed his jaws on the branch with a force that shook the trees. At least, thank Mortavos, the branch didn't break. It did have huge gauge marks in it from his effort, though.
"Good job, Reoz!" Ashe said, tossing a smaller piece of meat at the Corpse Construct. It smacked Reoz in the face, but he was able to figure this part out fast enough, ducking down to snatch the treat off the ground. He came back up, sniffing the air for more. Ashe quickly replaced the slab of meat, draping it over the branch. Reoz perked up and shifted his weight, to better attack. Wait wait wait, Ashe needed to say the word!
"Crunch!" Ashe said, his voice loud and firm, commanding. Reoz snapped his jaws, again, over the piece of wood. And again, Ashe robbed him of the full treat. It was an odd balance, reward wise, but if Ashe pulled it away, it might entice Reoz to continue with a higher pressure of a bite.
Reoz: 0 3/5 Ashe: 0 3/10 Crunch 3
*Ashe is using Sever bond at the cost of 4 MP
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Oct 4, 2020 17:59:03 GMT -6
This repetition went on for a while. A good twenty minutes, at least. And during that time, Ashe only lost one slab of meat to Reoz moving too fast, and the Corpse Construct was able to react faster and faster to the treats thrown... Though he never quite got the hang of catching the treats while airborne. Best he could do was get hit, and get super lucky when it bounced into his mouth instead of dropping to the ground.
Ashe wanted to test the command itself, see if it was starting to stick. Reoz wouldn't be smart enough to figure out different command words by word, so they needed to be very different, maybe said in different tones. God knew with this guy. Ashe changed it up by: not saying the command. He replaced the slab and stood, waiting. Reoz was used to this pattern, though, and he went for it, crunching down on the branch. Ashe removed the slab, and didn't reward him.
Reoz: 0 4/5 Ashe: 0 4/10 Crunch 4
*Ashe is using Sever bond at the cost of 4 MP
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Oct 4, 2020 18:03:10 GMT -6
Ashe's new pattern, for the next ten minutes, was to do every other attempt. He would hold still and silent, removing the slab if needed, and not rewarding the Corpse Construct, and then he would say the command next, replace the slab, and let the Corpse Construct do his thing. Then he would be silent and not give the verbal command, then he would give the command. Toward the end of those ten minutes, the Corpse was starting to get the idea; he would only attack when the two legged would say something. It was a word, and the word was starting to get drilled into its head. Less on an understanding level, and more on a habitual reaction level. Almost an instinct.
Eventually, the Corpse Construct seemed to have it down. It might need a little more finessing, but he was certainly on the right track. He would lunge and snap only when Ashe said it, even if there was a piece of meat hanging as temptation. He was learning he would only get fed, when Ashe made the sound.
Reoz: 1 0/5 Ashe: 0 5/10 Crunch 5
*Ashe is using Sever bond at the cost of 4 MP
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Oct 4, 2020 18:08:00 GMT -6
Ashe spent the better part of another hour out here, doing similar things, sometimes rewarding extra, sometimes just normal amounts. Times when Reoz didn't get any reward became more rare, until Ashe went more than ten successes without a slip up. For something like a living corpse, that was huge!
"Crunch!" Ashe said, and stepped out of the way as Reoz snapped at the branch. The wood was showing terrible signs, almost chewed straight through at this point, with those fangs sinking in over and over and over. Ashe let him take the meat he had placed there, then he decided to try a few more things. He had Reoz bite the dummy set up - "Crunch, Reoz!" and the Corpse followed the sound of Ashe's voice, and fresher smell of the meat, and he latched onto the dummy's head. Not the best of aim, but he knew the attack pretty well.
This was repeated on a fallen log, and a fence. Reoz seemed to have Crunch down pretty good now, and Ashe thought they could get started on the next trick!
Reoz: 1 1/5 Ashe: 0 6/10 Crunch 6
*Ashe is using Sever bond at the cost of 4 MP
|
|
|
Post by Ashe on Oct 4, 2020 18:16:27 GMT -6
Oh boy. Ashe had a feeling this was going to be a tough session. Reoz, learning to dodge on his own? Learning to move out of the way? To save himself? Hell no. This beast seemed much more intent on doing what he wanted, and good luck to anything that got in his way... including anything that tried to attack him. Ashe knew from experience of trying to train him, and also seeing how other creatures treated him back home. But Ashe was a decent trainer, or so he thought, and he would find a way around this.
To start things out, he picked up a few smaller rocks and branches and such. Reoz stood still, not sensing any more food being pulled out to be dangled in front of him as motivation. His gaze was strong and steady, penetrating, and his head moved slightly side to side while his eyes never wavered. A predator sizing up his prey.
Despite being full of sin, Ashe cast the first stone.
Reoz: 1 2/5 Ashe: 0 7/10 Danger Sense: 1
*Ashe is using Sever bond at the cost of 4 MP
|
|