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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 19:40:45 GMT -6
"See, this one's Albion," Aster said, pointing out the relevant drake. They were still surveying the individuals from afar, so Summer could get used to being around them on a relatively gradual basis. There was no sense in throwing her into the deep end, even if he could talk her through it; the point wasn't to traumatize her, after all. But Albion, ill tempered and snappish though he was, wasn't the reason Aster brought her here. It was another drake, sequestered further from the rest, that tended to make other people and creatures uneasy. "And that one, with the real impressive horns, that's Aurelius. Avander's grandson, though you would barely know it from looking at him." The drake in question was a black and gold creature, his hide streaked through with blue here and there--- a trait he shared with his sister, Arnica, and one that Aster thought might have something to do with the ice abilities that the lineage had been founded upon. His horns, too, had a bluish sheen to them under strong sunlight, though that wasn't really visible now. Hearing his name, even from a distance, he turned his head to look at them. Aster found himself grinning a little, involuntarily.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 19:46:50 GMT -6
Aurelius wasn't Avander, but despite his fearsome appearance, he was more of a mild, playful character. He had some of his grandmother's steadiness too, which made him easier to work with. Not the worst candidate for getting someone acclimated to being around these fearsome looking types.
Beside him, however, Summer wasn't having as good a time as Aster was. She didn't know Aurelius very well, and drakes of this size tended to unnerve those around them. He could feel that coming through their link--- not fear, exactly, and not exactly anxiety either, but something adjacent to both, and distinctly unpleasant. "It's okay," Aster said. "We already went through the breaking process." He wasn't going to lie and say Aurelius couldn't hurt her, since he had enough supernatural abilities that he might be able to strike at her with one of them. But Aurelius wasn't going to lash out like a wild thing, and anyway the point wasn't for them to spar.
The drake's small ears pricked forward in curiosity, but Aster shook his head. "Easy, boy," he said. It wasn't a command; Aurelius had been trained mostly to fight. But he could read Aster's tone, and he was the first to relax, returning to whatever he had been doing before.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 19:51:39 GMT -6
Summer was a harder sell. Her unease hadn't abated in the slightest. "Look, he's relaxed now," Aster said. "He's not going to do anything." He waited, to see if pointing this out would help her feel any more at ease, but it didn't, as far as he could tell.
Aster sighed. Well, there was one more thing he could try, he supposed. It worked for some of the other creatures he had trained, so why not Summer? Idly, he took out a ping pong ball--- he'd been carrying a few of them just in case, and now he was glad he had taken some with him. The movement caught Summer's attention first, so he held it up where she could see.
And then he threw it at her, which was a bit awkward since she was still sitting on his shoulder. Startled, she leaped into the air, then wheeled around to face him.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 19:56:50 GMT -6
He could sense her surprise giving away to irritation, at which point he flashed her a grin. "Good. Looks like you haven't forgotten how to dodge these," he said. Her irritation grew at those words, and he tossed another ping pong ball at her. "Dodge this one too," he said.
She did, but before she could get her bearings and question his purpose, he threw another one, this time with a different command. "Catch," he said.
She really hadn't been expecting that. She dodged this ball too, but she was no longer annoyed, just perplexed. Aster paused there, tossing a ball up and down. "I was thinking," he said. "You can hold onto things with your telekinesis, and you can carry them, so you can probably catch them too, right? You just have to stop them while they're in the air, and hold them there. That's all there is to it."
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 19:59:28 GMT -6
That made it sound easy, but maybe that was easier said than done. Aster didn't have any telekinesis himself, so he wasn't a fair judge of it. And even catching things with a physical body took some effort in terms of hand eye coordination, or mouth eye coordination, depending on the species in question... But then again, maybe it was easier with telekinesis just because there was no body movement involved.
Summer took a moment to parse his explanation, and at first she seemed to be mulling it over, going along with what he was suggesting. But then something else occurred to her, and she glared, first at him and then furtively over at Aurelius, who was no longer paying them any attention.
"Oh," Aster said. "You caught me, huh? I wanted to take your mind off it." That kind of thing was easier to achieve with, well, a creature who didn't think so much.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 20:15:48 GMT -6
But he wasn't above explaining his intent to her either. In her case, it was more likely to help than to harm. "But you see how you forgot about him for a second, and it wasn't so uncomfortable then? And nothing happened, you know?" Aster pointed out. "I thought that would make things easier on you at first, if you had something to help distract you." Thus, the game of catch, such as it was. Well, that and the fact that he did genuinely think it might be something useful for her to learn, but all the things he taught her were useful. Getting used to being around Aurelius was useful too, even if she didn't like it.
Summer glanced from him to Aurelius again, uncertain. Aster gave her some time to think it over. This wasn't the time to push, and if at all possible, he wanted her to agree to work with him.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 22:28:14 GMT -6
At length, Summer turned her attention back to Aster, though it was tentative. "Good," Aster said. He could have offered her further reassurances, but he figured that she wouldn't have liked it pointed out that she was nervous, and he didn't want to draw her attention back to that feeling either. So instead he chose to focus on the trick they were practicing. "Are you ready? I'll toss you an easy one." He took out another ping pong ball and held it up so she could see. When he could see her watching it, he tossed it. "Catch!"
She didn't manage to stop it, but he could see her following the trajectory of it. To be honest, given her way of interacting with objects, he had no way of knowing if she was making an effort, and where that effort fell short. The best he could do was guess, and offer advice based on that.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 22:33:07 GMT -6
But the fundamentals of catching a ball... There were some similarities across their different means, surely. He hoped so, anyway. "Hmm," Aster said. "Don't try and catch it where you think it is right now. Try to be... where it will be. Does that make sense?"
Summer inclined her head, thinking it over. She seemed willing to give it another try, so Aster went and picked up one of the dropped balls, holding it at the ready. "Catch," he said, and threw it again at a gentle arc.
This time, it stopped in the air just before it hit the ground. "Hey, not bad!" Aster said. "You did it." Summer, for her, part, seemed pleased with the result. "Let's try again. Catch!"
Aster threw another ping pong ball, and this time Summer caught it again, a bit higher in the air. It seemed like she was getting the hang of it.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 22:35:47 GMT -6
So Aster tossed her another, a little faster this time. "Catch!" She caught that toss too, though only barely. "Hmm, not ready for a fastball, huh? Alright, I'll toss you a slow one again. Catch!"
They went on like that for a while, and while Summer occasionally missed, she did manage to catch most of the balls that Aster tossed. Granted, he wasn't throwing her anything too fast or tricky, but it was good progress.
Just as important, however, was the fact that Summer hadn't paid Aurelius any attention once they had gotten into their catching practice. Aster waited until after the session was over to point it out. "And see, you didn't even notice that Aurelius was there, did you?" he said.
Only then did she turn to look at the drake, but Aurelius hadn't paid them any more attention. They were too far from his stall to be conveniently interesting anyway.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 22:41:10 GMT -6
Summer felt doubtful, and Aster suspected she misliked his tone, but he shrugged and said, "Nothing happened. And even if something did, being nervous isn't going to do you any good. If you're calm, you can put up a better fight if a drake comes at you."
If she didn't like him being bantering and smug about it, he could be serious too. This was the reason he tried to desensitize his fighting creatures at some point before they get tossed in the ring, preferably sooner rather than later. Intimidation tactics weren't as common as they had been, since they were a lot less effective when most creatures were hardened against them now, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.
Summer's mood turned pensive at that. "We'll get back into it again tomorrow," Aster said. "But let's call it a day for now, and get some rest before then."
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 22:44:13 GMT -6
The next day, they came back, and did more of the same. Aster started them off where they had been before, but over the course of practicing her catching, he slowly and subtly moved them closer to where Aurelius was. Summer was, for the most part, sufficiently distracted that she didn't notice, but Aster thought he saw her sneak a glance a the drake once or twice.
But rather than simply being shaken, this time he could feel her trying to overcome it. She wasn't entirely there yet, but just the fact that she was making an effort was a good sign. As such, he let her be, and didn't draw attention to what she was doing with regards to the drake.
As far as her catching skills, aside from her occasional lapses in focus, she was improving steadily. Now she could catch some of his faster tosses, and he began trying some trickier throws.
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Post by Noa on Apr 21, 2020 23:59:44 GMT -6
She caught those too, for the most part, but it took more of her concentration to do it, so Aster kept it up. Eventually, that session wound down too, and they headed back to the house once again.
Over the next few days, Aster repeated the process with Summer, bringing her closer to Aurelius each time. He kept the progress with their proximity gradual, but in reality it felt as though there was a definitive point where Summer no longer felt tense in Aurelius's presence. He could see her making an effort not to mind him before that point, but afterwards it was more matter of fact, as though the drake wasn't really there.
As for her catching, well, with that much practice, soon there wasn't much Aster could do to challenge her on all fronts. As it turned out, catching things was a lot easier without the limitation of having to get there physically.
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Post by Noa on Apr 22, 2020 0:04:07 GMT -6
A few days after first noticing the change in Summer, Aster decided to just bite the bullet and try having her approach him without the pretext of having something to distract her. He warned her first, since he figured that was only fair, but she didn't seem terribly perturbed by the idea. So they went down to the stables together, and stood there right outside his stall.
"Well?" Aster said. "How does it feel?"
There had been a sense of anticipation emanating from Summer, but now it dissipated, and the general impression Aster had was that it was kind of a letdown. He laughed. "Good for you then. You want to try with Grunty too?"
The derision she felt towards that idea was palpable, but then, she was better acquainted with the Thundergug. Summer didn't dislike him, but evidently she didn't rate him on even Aurelius's level as far as intimidation went.
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Post by Noa on Apr 22, 2020 0:07:49 GMT -6
Nevertheless, just to be sure, Aster did take her around to Azalea, and then to Grunty, to see how she fared with them. But having learned to tolerate the presence of one such big creature, she was unfazed by these other two. To be fair, they both had basic manners and relatively mild tempers, but as far as Aster was concerned, if she didn't feel pressured by their presence, that was good enough. There was a difference between irrational fear and the good sense to have some caution around a potential threat, and it wasn't as though he wanted her to become foolhardy on his behalf. Not that he thought she would do it, if it came to that, but still.
"Let's call it here then," he said. "For now, anyway." It wouldn't be a bad idea to work with Summer again soon though, just as soon as he thought of something else they ought to try together.
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Post by Noa on May 24, 2020 13:05:46 GMT -6
Of all the things Aster thought he would be doing... Taking on three hatchlings at once wasn't really it. But he'd recently come into a few new Sarane eggs, which had hatched not long after he found them, leaving him with a lot more hatchlings than he knew what to do with. And then there were Avander's... what, great-grandkids at this point? Arnica's children, all of them, since Aurelius didn't win enough of his fights to breed. He was a good drake, but not as much as his sire, and not so clever as his grandsire, who anyway was a Wiurn now. Funny how things worked out. With that many hatchlings on his hands, Aster felt he ought to stop putting it off and teach some of them some manners. Gods and angels, but he wasn't looking forward to breaking all of these. Why did the third tier hens have to be like that anyway...? All that in mind though, if that was what he was going to do, then he figured it might be easier to work with them in batches rather than one at a time. That way he could get through the lot of them faster, and in the long run it would be more efficient. That was the theory, anyway. In practical terms he didn't know if he was going to be able to manage that, now that he was outside with three squirming little hatchlings, each of them trying to head off in a different direction.
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