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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jun 7, 2020 13:05:42 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 17:32:14 GMT -6
Humanoid kids had the same problem, especially as infants, or so Aster had read somewhere. At that age, they were growing significantly every few days, so it couldn't have been easy. Plus their brains were still figuring out how to make everything go, up to and including their bodies, which only added to the problem. Even as toddlers they weren't what anyone would have called coordinated, but by then it was easier... for them, anyway.
Aster's own memories of early childhood certainly involved a lot of running. Back in those days, if you couldn't keep up, that was it for you. The really young kids who couldn't hack it running away from all the people and things that would bully a little street rat just died, or disappeared and were never heard from again.
Aster had been quick. Some of his contemporaries hadn't been. But he had been so young, and it had been so long ago, that he didn't even remember their faces or names. It was just an awareness--- that this was the fate that was waiting for them, that it had happened to people that had been with them at one point, and so it wasn't just rumors or bogeymen used to scare them into compliance. But then, the concerns of a street rat rarely were. They had no time or energy to spare for things that weren't of an immediate importance.
In the meantime, the hatchlings had apparently somehow managed to run down the thing they'd been chasing.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 17:47:44 GMT -6
Aster had been a little lost in his thoughts there, so he hadn't managed to see exactly how it had happened. But looking at the way the three of them were arranged around their prize, he could pretty much guess. They were arranged in a triangle formation, which was working out pretty well for them today, all told. In all likelihood, one of the hatchlings had gone off to the side and run their quarry into the waiting claws and jaws of the other two. Aster wondered which it was, and whether it was accidental or if it was something they had learned or worked out for themselves. If he did really end up with a little pack of hatchlings, wouldn't that be something?
It was really such a shame that they wouldn't get along as adults.
"Alright, you lot, let's see what you've found," Aster said, wading into the fray to see just what they had pinned down. Alioth was already trying to jam it into his mouth, so Aster's instincts were right on the money when he had decided to follow them here, apparently. "No, Alioth," he said firmly to the hatchling, who stopped but only reluctantly. It took some wresting for Aster to get the pocketpet out of his mouth too, but fortunately Aster was practiced in wrangling Sarane whelps, so it wasn't that hard for him to just grab Alioth's head and press on the hinges of his jaw until he let go of his prize.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:13:26 GMT -6
It wasn't a particularly pleasant experience, but it was brief, and Alioth walked away from it with little more than a bruised ego. Besides, as the largest of the whelps, Alioth could definitely take a little roughhousing. Goodness knows he dealt it just as often to his clutchmates when they played. Just because there wasn't active bullying anymore didn't mean he didn't sometimes play too roughly with Roland, though his own sister would nip him to tell him to knock it off if he got too fresh with her.
With Alioth slinking off, Aster could get a better look at the pocketpet they'd caught. He was a little surprised at what he saw when he opened his hand. It was... What the heck was this, some sort of candle? It had eyes though, and little arms and legs to boot, which Aster supposed was how it had managed to run away from the hatchlings in the first place. And there was a little wick at the top, where he presumed they could be lit, but the fire was out at the moment, and the wax body of the poor pocketpet looked a little... chewed.
"You guys really thought you could eat this?" he said, looking at the three whelps gathered around him. Alioth was eating grass now, maybe even because he needed to get the taste of the wax out of his mouth. Well, wax was organic, right? A little bit probably wouldn't cause him worse than a bit of a stomachache.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:19:23 GMT -6
The other two hatchlings still looked as though they'd like to chase it again. Aster sighed. "Okay, I guess there's no letting you off the hook, is there? You're going to have to come home with us, little buddy." He had nothing in which to store the pocketpet, so he had to just... hold onto it. Yeah, that wasn't going to be a problem with three Sarane whelps in tow. He would have liked to keep use of both of his hands, but he supposed that was a lesson to him about bringing more suitable storage containers when he came out here. There were so many pocketpets running around the place, and though he wasn't particularly interested in doing anything with them, sometimes you did need to detain one for one reason or another... And some of them were worth something to the right buyer. There was a shop in town that took them for money if you brought them in, as incomprehensible as that was to him.
But now that he was thus encumbered, he didn't really want to stay here anymore. He had to go home and drop this guy off before he did anything else. And though he had meant to stay longer out here, well, he did more or less accomplish what he came out to do. The whelps had a good romp, and got out some of their excess energy. That had been his goal when he had set out with the trio of them, after all.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:23:38 GMT -6
"Alright, you lot, we're headed home," he said to the whelps. "Come on." It wasn't a command they knew, but by now they had been around him long enough to get sort of the gist of it when he beckoned them and moved off. The whelps, one by one, fell in line behind him. He could keep them going like this a little ways before they got distracted and headed off again, which was good, since it got them precisely as far as the gate before they huddled up into their customary triangle once again. Aster left them to it, to gossip or catch up or whatever it is they were doing, while he shut the gate behind them. He didn't really have to do that, but it felt like a nice bit of courtesy, and maybe that was why the mansion hadn't messed with him so much lately either. He felt like he remembered it being a lot worse, though it was also true that he knew more about houses now than he used to.
From there, it was just a matter of shepherding the whelps home. And while it wasn't exactly Aster's favorite chore, he had become pretty practiced in it as of late. A fourth hatchling would undo him completely, and his successes here were at least in part because he knew the dynamics and temperaments of these particular three fairly well by now, but it was still a feat in and of itself, to him at least.
25 [collect items and exit]
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 22:41:34 GMT -6
Against his better judgement, Aster had returned to the Mansion for a short walk with the same trio of Sarane whelps that he had had with him in his last visit. They needed some exercise, and the previous trip had gone well enough--- which was to say, harmlessly enough--- that he felt... well, not totally uncomfortable with coming back, let's say. It was a stretch to say he felt that this would be a simple walk in the park, but at least with the mansion's wealth of pocketpets to be had, he didn't have to strain to entertain them.
And that was beginning to become a real problem as of late, if he was being honest. They were starting to hit their growth spurts, but they weren't past the energy that being a young creature gave them, so right now they were inclined to be little hellions if left without entertainments for too long a period of time. It was starting to become like a full time job just to keep them entertained.
"I wonder if this is what parents feel like," Aster said. The whelps looked at him, but they didn't recognize the words, so their attention soon wandered elsewhere. "See, you're not even listening to me now. You're developing a real attitude, you lot," he said, mostly to himself. Well, it wasn't like he could really talk to them. They understood the tone of his voice, and he could teach them certain command words, but that was the extent of it.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 22:48:37 GMT -6
Unlike the Malii, who was at least Schrodinger's speaker, these guys would never be able to carry a real conversation with Aster. Or, well, probably never, anyway. A charm of brilliance and a collar of speech... But no, there was something to be said for the charm of silence, really. He had enough companions, sentient or not, who had a line of communication with him through which they could make any and all complaints readily known. He found that it was enough society for him that he wasn't really looking to add to it anymore.
He threw open the gates, and said, "Have at it, guys. Just don't run too far." They didn't need any more encouragement than that. Evidently they had good memories of this place, since they streamed in right away rather than having to be herded in this time around. That was less work for Aster, though he honestly wondered what appeal they saw in this place. Had they really liked chasing around the pocketpets that much? Admittedly that was why Aster had brought them here in the first place, but still. As he remembered it, Alioth hadn't exactly appreciated the taste of that little... candle guy.
That candle pocketpet had made a full recovery. Apparently wax grew back, if you were a living, panicking candle with limbs. Aster didn't want to think about that any more than he had to, but that was kind of a running theme with the things that he found in the mansion.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 22:54:04 GMT -6
Living or otherwise, if you thought about some of it too hard, you'd just give yourself headaches... or nightmares. It was gratifying to see that the candle pocketpet hadn't, well, died, but past that point, Aster was already wondering if it wouldn't be better to sell that thing to someone else. He wasn't really a collector of pocketpets, and that one in particular sort of gave him ambient anxiety by proxy just looking at it. The Hara didn't like it either, and they were at least sometimes more keen on pocketpets than Aster himself, though it was sort of hit or miss with them too.
Well, he could always decide that later. It wasn't like those things required much care, and as much as it made him sound callous and irresponsible to think it, well... He could always leave their care to Rabbit. She wouldn't be bothered by the twitchiness of the pocketpet in question, so it was a perfect solution. Having a TROD really was handy sometimes, to the point where Aster didn't know what he was going to do if he ever lost Rabbit somehow. Fortunately they were made to be pretty durable, so it wasn't a very likely outcome.
As for the whelps, they were running around pell mell like they had the last time, when they had been chasing the candle. Except this time it was easier to see what they were chasing, since it could fly: one of them had managed to scare up a butterfly from somewhere.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 22:59:14 GMT -6
Fortunately for the butterfly, and unfortunately for the whelps, none of them could fly yet. None of the whelps could, anyway. The butterfly, as all of them could clearly see, had definitely mastered the art by the time the whelps had managed to happen upon it. Honestly, seeing that made Aster feel better too. With any luck, he wasn't going to have to step in and intervene this time, which was just as well. He had no intention of chasing down the whelps if he didn't have to, and since they seemed not to require chasing this time around, he merely followed them at a sedate walk, watching the proceedings with decidedly less concern than last time.
It did help that they were bigger now, so he didn't feel quite so worried that they might run into any real danger. That wasn't to say they couldn't get themselves into trouble, or even seriously injured, but they had more life experience now too. They were starting to get a sense of what was and wasn't dangerous, and what their bodies could and couldn't do. That went a long way in keeping them from doing stupid things like taking a leap they definitely couldn't make, over a drop they couldn't take without injury.
And here, right in the front yard of the mansion, there weren't so many hazards to be had either. Aster kept them here precisely for that reason, and so they could make a quick exit once the whelps had had enough.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:03:38 GMT -6
The butterfly was really doing Aster favors left and right. After giving the hatchlings a real good bout of exercise, it simply drifted off, flying higher and higher until it was well out of the reach of even the tallest of the whelps, jumping as high as he could. Not that Alioth was a very good jumper, but he was the largest, and also the only one to make the attempt. Roland had given up first, and then Abelia had pretended to lose interest as though it was her idea--- little bits of personality starting to emerge from the murk that had been their hatchling identities.
Aster wondered how that would translate once they'd all been broken. He was probably going to find the answer to that sooner than later. They were growing, if not quite like weeds, then at least at a prodigious pace.
With the whelps tired out, they weren't all that hard to shepherd out of the gates once more. They understood enough to know that they were headed for home now, and this seemed like a suitable arrangement, given the fact that they could have used some rest and maybe a meal right about then. They didn't even put up a fuss as Aster ushered them to the gates, and then down the road in the direction they had come. It had been a short trip, but a productive one, and Aster hoped that this would tide them over at least until the evening, if not for the whole day.
30 [collect items and exit]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jun 9, 2020 19:51:37 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Jun 18, 2020 20:01:23 GMT -6
Sometimes... Sometimes you just had to take another three whelps with you to the mansion, again, because you didn't love yourself. Sometimes life was like that. Probably not to anyone else, but for Aster, this was... Well, it wasn't becoming a habit, since he had only done it the once before with a different batch of whelps, but at the rate that he was acquiring these little buggers, it might not be long now before this became the bread and butter of how he spent his time. Gods, angels, and the grace of the Red Queen, but he did not want that. And yet, based on the trajectory he was headed on, he didn't have much prospects of escaping it either.
The three he had with him this time were three that he hadn't worked with at all before, all of them still quite small but doing their best to squirm out of his grasp anyway. At this size and age, he felt comfortable with the idea of managing them, even if they presented other problems, such as a distinct lack of self sufficiency. At that weird teen stage that Abelia and Alioth were sitting at, he could sort of leave them to roam without too much a fear that they would do something stupid that could cause themselves serious harm. These guys though, there was absolutely no guarantee of anything with them. At this age all bets were off, and Aster would have to monitor them very, very carefully.
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Post by Noa on Jun 18, 2020 20:06:07 GMT -6
Was it strange that he missed the last trio of hooligans? Maybe. Probably, actually. Stockholm syndrome... was probably not what was happening with him there, but it still felt like a betrayal of common sense, since it wasn't as though those guys hadn't put him through the wringer either. But near the end he had more or less figured them out, and he'd even managed to train them some. Nothing like a good training session to help you bond with a critter. And since he knew them better, and knew their relationships to each other better, it was easier to manage them even when he didn't have a lot of tools or time or energy at his disposal. For example, if you could get Abelia to do anything, the boys would likely follow her lead. She had been pretty much the de facto head honcho of that lot.
... It made him wonder if something similar would happen with this trio. They were a bit of an odd arrangement, especially since Rici ought to have had other, biological siblings that she would be held with. But she was the largest of Aster's three of Roland's whelps--- which was such a weird thought to have, considering not long ago, Roland had been one of the whelps that Aster had brought with him to the mansion. He had grown like a weed in the intervening time, enough so that Aster was now putting off breaking him proper, though he had certainly sired some whelps already.
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Post by Noa on Jun 18, 2020 20:10:18 GMT -6
Maybe it was because Roland himself had been so young, or maybe Aster was just forgetting what a newborn whelp looked like when he didn't have one in his immediate possession, but all three of Roland's seemed small. It was only that that prevented Aster from labeling one or another as a runt, since they were all in the same state. But it was true that even the next youngest of Aster's collection of whelps had at least a week on them.
Nevertheless, Rici had been the largest, possibly because she had been the earliest born. And if Aster didn't get a move on with the other two soon, he was going to be racing against time to do something with Havoc. Velvet, being a first tier hen, wasn't as much of a concern, but she was about the same age as Havoc was, so it made sense to raise the two of them together, and just get the whole thing over with in regards to teaching them some manners... And he figured, if he was going to take two, then he might as well take three, which was how Rici ended up rounding out the lot of them.
The four of them arrived at the entrance to the mansion. Aster felt like a man carrying an armful of groceries as he backed into the gate to push it open, if groceries could voice their own protests. Gods knew he had no arms to spare for the task, nor hands, for that matter.
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