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Post by Renathan on Dec 13, 2019 16:22:28 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Feb 23, 2020 22:32:15 GMT -6
Aster wasn't sure he'd ever been to the mansion in February. In fact, he must not have, since he didn't remember ever having seen it look like this.
It wasn't odd that the house had changed, or even odd for him to encounter something he didn't remember, but he had been visiting it on and off for years, and it had never taken on quite this appearance. Individual events and odds and bobs, maybe, but the entire makeover that the house went through? That was hard to forget entirely, right?
True amnesia had never been a quirk of his, though at times he had found himself sorely wishing for it. He doubted it was the case now.
"It wasn't like this the last time you came either, was it?" Aster said to his companion. He had come with Nightshade again, to give the Wiurn a little air and some exercise somewhere out of the way.
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Post by Noa on Feb 23, 2020 22:34:52 GMT -6
The first time they'd come here together, it was because this was, funnily enough, one of the more convenient places to take a large creature that looked like it might be dangerous. Aster took Avander almost anywhere he pleased that was out of doors, since people here were used to large creatures and weren't fussed for the most part so long as your beast seemed to behave itself. A good many of them could even handle themselves if a creature lashed out, though of course not everyone could. That didn't stop fools and the immoral, though courtesy and some loose laws kept the worst from being very common.
But Avander was Avander, and Nightshade was Nightshade. More to the point, Aster barely knew Nightshade, and this far into their acquaintance, Nightshade also barely knew his name. He might listen to a sharp rebuke if Aster delivered it with enough force, but then, he might not.
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Post by Noa on Feb 23, 2020 22:38:27 GMT -6
A creature could understand your tone and still choose to ignore what you want. It would hardly be the first time something like that had happened to Aster himself.
The Wiurn didn't seem as confused as Aster was by the appearance of the mansion, but then, he also didn't seem to be paying it much attention. Maybe he thought this was a different place, or maybe it was just the fact that there had been snow here the last time they had come. Well, snow could theoretically have covered all of this up; that made sense enough, and it might well have been the case if this were a normal place. But not the mansion.
"Let's see if we can find anything interesting," Aster said. "I wonder what kind of thing lives in this place." It was technically still the same place, but the objects and even the population seemed to change from month to month.
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Post by Noa on Feb 23, 2020 22:43:06 GMT -6
You didn't really want to count on anything here, and sometimes there was even a little element of danger... Though not very much of one, at least not in Aster's recent memory. Or maybe his luck or his senses had just gotten better.
For the moment though, it seemed like just a house. It seemed more house-like than most of the months Aster had been here for. There were no strange pools or displaced beaches on the lawn; there were no firecrackers or ghasts decorating the premises. There was only what seemed to be a wealth of one specific type of flower.
Not that this wasn't an issue of its own, in some ways. As they entered, Nightshade sneezed--- and a Wiurn's sneeze was noteworthy due to the size of the creature, if nothing else. If Aster weren't used to handling large creatures like this, he might even have found it alarming.
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Post by Noa on Feb 23, 2020 22:48:48 GMT -6
... Well, maybe it would be alarming anyway. Aster managed to dodge out of the way just as something flew past him, moving before his own thoughts had quite caught up with him--- and he was forced to be relieved for it a moment later when he saw what it was. At a glance, it didn't look like much, just liquid with a faint purplish tint. It might well have been spit, if he didn't know better. But he did know better, and he knew that this particular Wiurn was supposed to be capable of spitting poison, which made it a real close call he'd just had.
But then, the more Aster thought about it, maybe this would prove useful later. If all these flowers could coax a sneeze out of Nightshade, maybe that would be how he would start to teach Nightshade to spit that poison later, once they began training in earnest.
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Post by Noa on Feb 24, 2020 20:05:16 GMT -6
He'd do it here, but he didn't have enough control in the environment to be teaching Nightshade anything potentially dangerous in an area like this, and anyway the house was... Maybe he was crazy for thinking it, but he couldn't help but feel that it was... Alive was maybe not the right word, but he got the sense that it had whims, and also opinions. He was pretty sure that if this was the case, then getting spat on in a repeated, intentional way was a pretty surefire way to get on its shit list.
Not much he could do about the accidents though. Maybe he'd just keep this trip nice and short. And in the meantime, they didn't have to stay right next to the bushes lining the walk, which Aster figured was what was making Nightshade sneeze the way he had just done. "Come on," he said to the Wiurn.
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Post by Noa on Feb 24, 2020 20:08:39 GMT -6
Nightshade wasn't trained to that particular command, but where Aster went, the Wiurn did tend to follow, so Aster set an example by wandering around further into the yard, away from the offending shrubbery. Sure enough, Nightshade followed after, shaking his head occasionally. "Pollen bother you that much?" Aster said, finding a little amusement in the idea of something so trivial bringing low a big beast like this. He'd been fortunate enough to live allergy free all his life, though enough dust or perfume would get a sneeze out of him too. Still, it wasn't enough to elicit much sympathy, so long as the condition stayed harmless and manageable on Nightshade.
The Wiurn couldn't answer him, but Nightshade did incline his head, as though to show Aster that he was listening to what Aster was saying. "What nice manners," Aster said. "Avander could probably learn a thing or two from you."
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Post by Noa on Feb 24, 2020 20:11:29 GMT -6
Lately Avander had been turned into a Wiurn himself, was the funny thing. And Wiurn weren't pack creatures, but they also didn't have the antipathy that drake Sarane felt towards one another--- or even a sufficiently strong female towards Sarane of both sexes, come to that. Eventually he might be training them to work in tandem, which was mind boggling to think about.
But that had also been one of the motivations for the change. Having spent enough time with Aster in his head, Avander had voiced a complaint that it was actually kind of tiring to be on edge among his own kind all the time. And managing several drakes on the same property was tricky, so taking even one out of the equation did make things easier...
"He's new to being a Wiurn," Aster said, "so maybe there's a lot he could learn from you. Seeing as you're a native."
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Post by Noa on Feb 24, 2020 20:25:27 GMT -6
Of course, how well they would actually work together remained to be seen. The funny thing about Nightshade was that Aster wasn't really conscious of the Wiurn having much of a personality yet. He was... amiable, maybe... Easy-going? As easy-going as a creature of his size and food preferences could be, anyway. And yet, there was none of Avander's spark of mischief or Summer's exasperation or even the waspish hostility of that thing that Rabbit had been working with lately.
Maybe he was just not used to a creature taking it easy on him. Boy, that was an unpleasant thought. But it did say something that the sneeze was just about the most noteworthy thing Aster had seen from Nightshade in a while.
Too bad it was something they were going to have to watch out for. Aster eyed the shrubs, then walked out a little further, just for good measure.
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Post by Noa on Feb 24, 2020 20:30:50 GMT -6
Now that they were away from the entrance, Aster was content to let Nightshade roam, in theory, but in practice this was easier said than done. Nightshade didn't seem to be the roaming type, and liked, as far as Aster could tell, to stay fairly close to him. In a crowd or a city area, this made him easy to manage, but on occasions like this, it made exercising him harder.
"You're not going to make me escort you in laps around the grounds, are you?" Aster said, arching a brow at the Wiurn. Nightshade was still watching him, though for what, Aster couldn't say. "Go on. Get. Run around, chase a squirrel or something," Aster said, making a half hearted shooing motion with his hand. But even Nightshade could probably tell that his heart wasn't in it. At the very least, he certainly didn't listen to Aster's entreaty or do as he asked.
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Post by Renathan on Feb 25, 2020 11:04:44 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Feb 25, 2020 19:56:55 GMT -6
After staring at the Wiurn a while, eventually Aster gave up hope of getting an interesting reaction. Sighing, he shook his head. "Saddest excuse for a creature I've ever seen," he said to Nightshade. "Can't you play around a bit?" In reality, however, Aster was beginning to wonder whether he ought to be concerned. Surely this sedate manner couldn't have been the result of a deliberate request on the part of the commissioner, the original one, who had submitted the petition to have him made? There wasn't a way to neuter the soul, was there?
... No, of course there was. Aster didn't care to look too closely into the rumors surrounding the labs at the heart of the city's way of life, but even then, he'd heard things. He wouldn't have put it past someone to try, nor the labs to find a way to make such a thing a reality.
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Post by Noa on Feb 25, 2020 20:05:52 GMT -6
He only hoped that he was being paranoid, or getting ahead of himself, with regards to Nightshade's particular case. Maybe in due time, the Wiurn would show some interesting character. Or maybe he just had a personality that happened to be bland.
But in the absence of any apparent willingness on Nightshade's part to gambol about, it fell to Aster to motivate him to at least move. And if that meant he really had to escort Nightshade on rounds about the yard, then so be it. Aster, having given up, now took an easy and meandering route about the grounds, looking for anything interesting of note. It didn't take long for him to find something either. There, sitting beneath a tree, was a box that looked distinctly... Out of place wasn't the word for it, but it definitely looked like the kind of thing that actually belonged to someone, to put it one way.
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Post by Noa on Feb 25, 2020 20:08:37 GMT -6
Of course, in the mansion and its surrounding grounds, it probably didn't belong to someone--- or at least not someone who expected it back, as far as Aster could tell. He'd brought back all sorts of odds and ends from this place, and usually he managed to do it without being any worse for wear. Sometimes it even felt like the house was inviting him to take stuff, placing it conspicuously in his path like some sort of strange, errant gift.
Kind of like this, actually.
Then again, sometimes something like this was a trap. It hadn't happened for a while, but it never hurt to be careful. Aster crouched down next to the box, examining it, trying to see if he could figure out what it was or what lay within. As he did so, Nightshade approached too, possibly drawn in by the attention that Aster was giving to the object.
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