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Post by Morgan on Apr 17, 2020 3:44:15 GMT -6
Morgan did not at all believe in magic, but it seemed to have worked before, whenever Morgan was trying to teach Millicent to fly. It was also how Morgan tended to teach tat-lungs to fly, so it couldn't be all bad. The point was that the flying individual needed to believe that they could. Morgan was sure that 'believing that she could' was a hundred percent of Millicent's current problem with this 'wing buff' thing.
Morgan and Millicent worked for another thirty minutes, with finally the human taking the meat off of the grill and laying it down on plates. They continued to work on the wing buff idea until finally some headway was made, and the food was cooled. Millicent had managed to knock one of the spent bags of charcoal off of the park table, and Morgan couldn't help but be incredibly excited that she was finally able to manipulate the air a bit.
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 17, 2020 3:54:28 GMT -6
Millicent was tired for the day, so they ate in peace, spoke amicably, and then returned home as soon as the grill had cooled. Morgan resolved that they would go out more often with Millicent, and they returned each day for a week afterward, making leaps and bounds with her ability to manipulate the air using her wings. She was, however, still quite small. Though she had quickly learned the cue word and was now doing at least a bit of a wing buffet, Morgan knew that she would need extra help. After some thought, they decided that Millicent was ready to begin trying to do this while flying. She would have more air at her disposal there, Morgan was sure. Flight did tend to improve flyer's ability to manipulate air currents.
The pair continued to work with on this each day that they returned to the park, until finally, Millicent was buffeting even bottles off of the tables using the wing-buffet while flying.
[6] - [End of 'Wing Buff']
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Post by Morgan on Apr 17, 2020 3:58:18 GMT -6
Morgan was finally convinced that Millicent had the wing buff down (it was quite fun to watch her knock bottles off of the table from flying several feet away) and now Morgan knew that they needed to move on to the 'Dash'. It was the final bit of Millicent's self-defense training for now, and something that Morgan knew she would need to know how to do if they were ever to move on to more advanced self-defense techniques, such as sensing danger or even being able to run away multiple times in a row. Today when they went out to the park, Morgan did not bring any bottles, much to Millicent's chagrin.
"Today, we need to finish the first phase of y-your self defense training." Morgan explained to a pouting Millicent (who also had her arms crossed). "After we get this done, we can work on m-more advanced... Stuff." Morgan said, sort of anti-climatically. Convincing children to do things could sometimes be quite difficult.
[7] - [Start of 'Dash']
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Post by Morgan on Apr 17, 2020 22:20:48 GMT -6
This was something that Morgan was expecting to be relatively easy. Millicent would just have to run at the cue word, after all, and maybe do a few different dodging actions, from one side to the other. A zig-zag movement would allow her to avoid most attacks, which was what this was hopefully never going to be used for, but needed to be prepared for anyway. "We will use the cue word... Dash?" Morgan hated using actual words for this kind of thing, but it was better if Millicent learned the cue words that were words that she understood, and teaching her cue whistles instead would feel like Morgan was mistreating her.
So cue words it was. "Less important than that, y-you will need to run, sprint really, as fast as you can. And z-zig-zag." Morgan explained, giving her a bit of a demonstration while they were at it.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 17, 2020 22:26:42 GMT -6
Millicent slowly faded into a willingness to do this, especially since it looked so athletic, and it wasn't something that they had worked on before. It looked really easy, but she soon learned that it was much more difficult that she had expected. Morgan worked with her, trying to teach her how to zig and zag as fast as possible. She was having to make up for her small size, and Morgan understood that because if that it was going to make it a challenge. This became the new thing that they worked on after breakfast. Each day they'd go out to the park and Morgan and Millicent would do their little routine before getting Millicent started on dashing back and forth.
The main issue that the little harachiu faced was how small she was, and that it was much harder to do this while being bipedal than quadrupedal beings had. Still, she made up for it with her immense enthusiasm.
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 17, 2020 22:32:00 GMT -6
Slowly, after about a week, Millicent was finally dashing quite well to the cue word, without falling all over herself or having to slow up to turn. Morgan knew that another week of work would allow the harachiu to be ready for the continued self-defense lessons that Morgan intended to teach her in the future! Millicent was still getting quite tired between dashes, unable to keep up the speed for long, but her sprinting and zig-zagging to the cue word were top notch. Still, they continued working on it, day in and day out, and each day Millicent got more and more skilled with the dashing techniques. Morgan did more research on how to keep her properly fit for it as well, so they began doing more work by working the dash in-between other attacking and defending techniques that they had worked up to that point.
Finally, Morgan was certain that Millicent had gotten the dash down pat. At least for now- they could take another break again.
[10] - [End of 'Dash'] - (The pair Goes Home)
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 6:25:34 GMT -6
Morgan was happy to be able to get back to working with Millicent again, after having worked with Mink for some time. Truth be told, it was much easier to work with the preteen harachiu than it was to work with a stubborn hound like Mink! Even though teaching children should theoretically be more difficult than training a dog, it seemed that Millicent was especially happy to be self-improving under Morgan's tutelage. The pair went and picked up breakfast at Millicent's choice of an outdoor bistro before getting to their place in the park. Millicent immediately sits down at her usual spot on the park table, and excitedly awaits the lessons of the day to begin.
"Today, we h-have another three things you have a choice to start on. We can work on y-your ability to stand up to scary monsters without being frozen in f-fear, y-your ability to run for longer and further, a-and your ability to dodge incoming attacks."
[1]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 29, 2020 18:42:16 GMT -6
Millicent was always super excited to learn something new, and it did seem to help to give her the choice out of some options on what to work on. All of the things they were going to work on today were things that were going to be challenging, but Morgan was sure that she would do just fine. They did hope, however, that she would choose the most difficult one for last. They didn't want to tire her out for the day with it, first. Millicent seemed to consider, for a moment, and then she hops up. "I'm already not scared of big monsters" She said, grinning.
Morgan couldn't help but smile at her, one of those real, genuine smiles. "Seimei d-doesn't count. He wouldn't hurt a fly." That wasn't entirely true, but he definitely wouldn't hurt Millicent- she was sort of like his little sister. It looked like Millicent had chosen what they were going to work on first, though.
[2] - [Start 'Hardy']
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Post by Morgan on Apr 29, 2020 19:05:45 GMT -6
Millicent laughed at the idea that Seimei wouldn't hurt a fly, and Morgan felt like perhaps, their life had a bit of normalcy to it. They may not be the person with the white-picket-fence and three and a half biological children and a mate, but they did have a family of their own making and that was all that mattered to them. "Alright, we'll h-have to wait for the big scary monster to get here, l-lets do some stretches?" Morgan suggested, and off they went. Millicent was in really great condition, was she any bigger she'd be a great fighter. Hopefully she would never have to, however.
It only took about thirty minutes for Morgan to begin hearing the clopping of hooves- the individual with the tainted equillion that they paid to be the 'scary' creature in training the 'not being afraid of scary creatures' behavior was coming up the footpath.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on May 2, 2020 5:37:22 GMT -6
Morgan was curious to see what was going to occur here. Of course they knew that the tainted equillion would never hurt Millicent or any other of their family or pets, but they also knew that said family and creatures did not know that! Nico had been terrified, but wanted to protect Morgan. The Tat-lungs simply had to master the mind over matter aspect of this particular behavior. However, Millicent was witty and brash, that combination might make this a little more interesting, the human decided. The Tainted Equillion came into view soon enough, and Morgan paid the rider. Millicent stared the creature down with obvious fear on her face, baffled that Morgan was just able to walk up to the creature with no fear whatsoever. However, unlike most beings that Morgan had worked on this with- she had humanoid-like thought on her side, and she realized that if Morgan wasn't afraid, then she really shouldn't be either.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on May 2, 2020 5:46:59 GMT -6
That realization did not come with any magical ability to disregard the frightening nature of the hellhorse. Millicent thought that it would be the case, but when she tried to move her legs, she found them quiet stuck. She wasn't quite shaking though, and she figured that this was certainly some sort of a success. She was completely determined to move out to where Morgan was, and to do that all she needed to do was to be able to fly over to the human- and to do that she had to make her wings work! She struggled to make her legs work, and her wings, but it was like she was stuck? She also found herself sort of spacing out. That wasn't acceptable! She felt her face heat up, and saw Morgan look over to her quizzically.
Morgan wasn't sure what Millicent was doing, obviously she was scared, but there was something else, too...
[5]
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Post by Morgan on May 2, 2020 6:06:19 GMT -6
It didn't shock Morgan that Millicent was scared. She was tiny, and human-like enough to be frail but not enough to be dangerous. However, it DID shock them whenever the tiny fae girl managed to move; a full five minutes before the first of the tat-lungs managed to inch forward! They tried to hide their surprise, but Millicent noticed it pretty much immediately. The human wasn't sure what to think, but it did seem to carry across in a 'good way', making Millicent realize that Morgan was surprised by her and that only served to fuel her determination to do well. She moved her gaze away from the bespectacled human, and focused on that scary tainted equillion. It was horrifying- absolutely disgusting too, but she knew that in order to defeat an enemy, one had to understand their fear. There was no one that didn't feel fear, but overcoming it could be powerful.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on May 2, 2020 6:33:54 GMT -6
The interesting thing about humanoids is that they are smart enough to take mind over matter, but stupid enough to be more brash than any being should ever be; especially in their teenage years (and Millicent was definitely beginning the harachiu equivalent of that). It wasn't that she wasn't scared, it was that she really wanted to impress Morgan, and now that she saw that she had already done a bit of that so-much desired impression, she was absolutely sure that she could get over this, so that she wouldn't be frozen in place against any enemy that tried to harm her. That was what this was really all about, right? Millicent gets that very determined expression on her face and crosses her arms, finally getting her legs to move if only a bit, and wiggling the tips of her butterfly-like wings. She was slowly beginning to defeat the enemy of fear.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on May 2, 2020 6:45:40 GMT -6
It still took some time, between the realization that she could do it, and the actually doing the process aspect of overcoming that fear. It was slow going, over the course of about thirty minutes of prolonged exposure, for Millicent to finally inch her way out into the yard, and then another ten to get her strong enough mentally and emotionally to fly up to Morgan's shoulder. The human hadn't moved, standing relatively close to the tame but still terrifying creature so that Millicent didn't have to stand alone when they got close. Morgan usually just let creatures and their tat-family step around the tainted equillion until they could move freely. But Morgan wanted to demystify it for Millicent a little further; perhaps because she was small and perhaps because someday she'd ride a faeron, or perhaps because she was so human-like in her proportions that it was difficult not to see her as a humanoid child- but Morgan wanted to let her get as close as possible to the tame beast.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on May 2, 2020 6:53:08 GMT -6
Millicent and Morgan moved around to the front of the creature- a dangerous task all things considered, if this had been any other individual with any other tainted, Morgan would have been concerned. However, it was obvious that this individual and the creature were as close as Morgan was with Nico, and Morgan knew that this individual had as much control over the beast as any beastmaster could hope to have with work and dedication.
Morgan stood in front of the creature, and raised a palm, giving the owner a nod, and when they received the a-okay nod-back, They gently reached out, just as the owner told the equillion no-bites, and touched the beast on the muzzle. Millicent gets what she is supposed to do, and flits carefully from Morgan's shoulder to also touch the tip of the creature's muzzle. She was terrified, but had overcome her fear. The fear was demystified in her mind.
[9] - [End of 'Hardy']
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