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Post by Nadia on Sept 9, 2020 7:52:20 GMT -6
That liquid looks... interesting.
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Post by Noa on Sept 9, 2020 20:23:12 GMT -6
{It's like breathing out,} Azalea said, still with a look of intense concentration. Aster supposed that it must have been strange for her, trying out new abilities in a new form. As the crossbreed that she had been, she hadn't had much in the way of unusual powers beyond a poison sting, which he had never actually taught her to use. Now...
... Aster felt that, like Avander, he had best teach her control over the most dangerous or volatile of her abilities sooner rather than later.
But for now, since this was the one that had come up, he figured this was a good starting point. "Breathing out?" Aster said.
{It's similar... but a little different. It comes from somewhere else.} Aster waited to see if Azalea would say any more, but that seemed to be all she had to share with him.
"You think you could do it again if I asked?" Aster said.
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Post by Noa on Sept 9, 2020 20:29:54 GMT -6
{I can try,} Azalea said. She didn't sound terribly confident, but neither did she sound hesitant enough that he thought it was any cause for real concern. She would try, and that was good enough for now.
"Let's work on a signal for this," Aster said. "Are you watching?" He waited until her attention was on him, on his hands. He curled one hand into a fist and held it close to his chest, then spread his fingers and swept that hand out, as if he were scattering seeds. There was an arm movement incorporated just so she could see it at a distance.
{Do it again please,} Azalea said, and Aster obliged her.
After he repeated the hand motion, she concentrated once more, and this time a much steadier stream of mist issued forth from the flowers on her back. The stuff engulfed them both as it filled the air.
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Post by Noa on Sept 9, 2020 20:49:08 GMT -6
Of course, Aster was only engulfed on account of the fact that he was so close to her. But as he found himself in the midst of the mist again, he realized that it was actually pretty thick, and hard to see through.
A defensive mechanism. Not bad.
Then Azalea shifted again, and the disturbance was just enough to drive the mist away. "That was pretty good," Aster said. Azalea brightened at that. "Let's try one more time. Ready?"
He gave her the same hand signal that he had used before, and she tried again, but this time only a little mist came out. "What's wrong?" Aster said.
{I think... it's out,} Azalea said. She looked puzzled herself, and made another attempt, but only a very thin plume of fog came out this time around. {I don't have any left.}
So it couldn't be used in rapid succession, Aster thought.
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Post by Noa on Sept 9, 2020 20:54:27 GMT -6
But many skills couldn't, especially if they were powerful or flashy, so it wasn't a big deal. "That's fine," he said to Azalea. "We'll just wait a while and try again."
She seemed reassured by that, and together they turned their attention back to exploring the mansion grounds.
The two of them set off at a slow, meandering pace, though they didn't walk for long before Azalea startled again. There was no issuance of mist this time, and the start was more of a short jerk of the head, a momentary tension of the body. "It's okay," Aster said, "it's just pocketpets."
{I know, but... it's just hard to feel them coming anymore,} Azalea said.
"It might take some time, but you'll get used to it," Aster reassured her. Desensitization really couldn't be rushed, but even between this time and the last, her reaction to the pocketpets had dulled somewhat.
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Post by Noa on Sept 9, 2020 21:06:49 GMT -6
And it was as if the Mansion was trying to help them out - or maybe it just got a kick out of seeing the big Plith startle, which was entirely possible. To be honest, Aster thought it was at least a little funny himself. Whatever it was, there were pocketpets aplenty to dart in and out of their path, and around them in general, and their slow meandering walk served only to flush more of them from their hiding places.
At first, Azalea startled every time, and sometimes those starts would result in another issuance of mist. But as they happened more and more, she seemed at last to reach some sort of saturation point, and from that point on there were periods where she didn't react at all. If there was a rest period between these occasions, she would sometimes startle again, but less and less as time went on.
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Post by Nadia on Sept 10, 2020 15:52:10 GMT -6
Are these... staring at you?
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Post by Noa on Sept 11, 2020 23:41:49 GMT -6
It was a good start, though Aster knew this wasn't the sort of thing that could be resolved in a day. In the meantime he endeavored to distract her with more practice on a more, well, practical skill: the mist. Once enough time had passed, he said, "Do you think we can try it again? The mist."
{Yes, let's,} Azalea agreed. She didn't seem stressed or daunted by the prospect, which was good, since the last thing Aster wanted would be to push her beyond her means.
He gave her the signal they had practiced, and watched as Azalea sucked air in... and in and in... and then held it. And then, slowly, mist began to engulf the two of them, spilling from the flowers on her back, almost liquid-like, then dissipating and dispersing all around them.
Now that he was seeing the full effect, it really was quite dramatic.
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Post by Noa on Sept 11, 2020 23:44:59 GMT -6
He could see how it would be useful as cover, even in the thick of battle. Too much movement would scatter it away again, but even a moment bought could be enough to make a difference, especially with a creature with as much attack power as Azalea. Avander had his teleportation trick to buy him an easy strike, but he imagined this might be Azalea's equivalent - and both were conducive to making a quick getaway too, if it came to that. Aster was hard pressed to think of anything either of them might need to get away from in a hurry, but you never knew.
"That was good," Aster said, genuinely pleased. Azalea seemed happy to receive the praise, as subdued as it was; she could probably feel his satisfaction, and understood that he meant it.
They wandered the Mansion grounds a little longer after that, doing more of the same.
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Post by Noa on Sept 11, 2020 23:47:57 GMT -6
Azalea ignored the sudden movements of the pocketpets better when she had something else to focus on, so at regular intervals, Aster gave her the command for the mist again. She seemed to have the hang of it after having done it well the once, so this was just a matter of getting her used to the hand signal. It was a bit new for them both, doing this in lieu of vocal commands, but with a little more attention, he felt like she had it memorized after seeing it repeatedly.
And then their walk wrapped up, and they went home, only to come back the next day for more of the same.
Aster continued to practice the command for the mist with her, but began to change it up and incorporate some of the other commands she had already learned as part of his distraction routine, for variety's sake if nothing else.
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Post by Noa on Sept 11, 2020 23:50:51 GMT -6
She had pretty much got the mist command down pat anyway, so there was no need to belabor that point more than any of the other commands at this stage.
It was desensitizing her to the movements that was important now. And to help facilitate that, he made these walks a part of their regular routine. It was good exercise, and also good exposure. And little by little, Azalea acclimated. At first, it was only with something distracting her that she was able to fully ignore the movements of the pocketpets, but more and more Aster let them lapse into just relaxing. Eventually, even without Aster actively trying to hold her attention, Azalea no longer tensed or startled when a pocketpet moved at the edge of her vision.
The transition wasn't an easy thing for her, but she was getting used to being the way she was now, one day at a time.
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Post by Noa on Sept 11, 2020 23:55:00 GMT -6
The walks were helping, even if they weren't always to a specific purpose. Just the act of moving around was helping her acclimate and refine her motor skills again, and it gave her something to do. He didn't know if she was depressed or just disoriented, but he felt that having the activity and the routine was helping with the mental side of things, whatever it was.
And the Mansion wasn't a bad practice ground, come to that. The pocketpets were a pervasive presence, but they knew better, for the most part, than to get in the way of a giant creature for fear of getting crushed. They never ventured inside, since Aster didn't know if he trusted the Mansion that far, but September was a pretty mild month all around.
... More to the point, the way she was now, Aster didn't know if Azalea would even be able to fit through the door.
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Post by Jack on Sept 12, 2020 0:04:41 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Sept 12, 2020 15:23:58 GMT -6
Though with that thought in mind, Aster thought maybe it might be worth trying to acclimate Azalea to some other things, like enclosed spaces. Maybe not inside the house, of course, because he still wasn't sure that she would fit, but surely there was somewhere on these grounds narrow enough for a Pliathor to feel somewhat discomfited. Pliathors were plenty big enough that this didn't seem like a hard requirement to satisfy.
He did feel a little sorry that he was causing her so much discomfort as of late, but once this was over, he didn't imagine there would be much more left. And after a few days meandering around the Mansion's grounds, Aster felt like he finally found a place.
There were apple trees aplenty, but they were spaced too sparsely for Aster's purposes. Fortunately, there were also a few other buildings on the grounds this month, behind the house.
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Post by Noa on Sept 12, 2020 19:36:14 GMT -6
These weren't always there, which he knew because he had been spending more time here as of late. In fact it felt like for the past year or so, he had been coming back more often, and nothing bad had happened in that time, so maybe he was starting to let down his guard a little. On the other hand, it wasn't as though anything was particularly liable to cause a lot of issues for Azalea, so he was a little less worried than he otherwise might have been.
The buildings themselves were all farm work related, from sheds to barns and the like, and some of them were placed together pretty closely, such that the space between them might be a bit of a squeeze for a creature of Azalea's size. That was just the kind of environment Aster needed to expose her to... well, spaces where it was a tight fit for her.
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