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Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 15:54:37 GMT -6
These training fishing trips pretty inevitably turned out to be busts when it came to the fishing part, but the riverbank was a nice place to do a bit of training next to some nice scenery.
But they came back the next day to do more of the same. Noa repeated what he had done the day before, and then he took it a little further. He began handling their back paws, which they liked less, and found more strange. But Noa simply repeated what he had done the previous day, distracting them with their distraction of choice, until they calmed down and let him handle them without too much fuss.
Noa kept the sessions short at first, so as not to stress them out, and gave them plenty of time to recover. But these were pups who had been raised by people their whole life, and even if they hadn't known him for long, they trusted him relatively easily, especially seeing as he was bribing them. It didn't take them all that long to start more or less resigning themselves to what he was doing with them, and after a few days, he could handle them however he liked without any real issue.
19 (exit)
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Post by Nadia on Apr 27, 2021 2:06:34 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:11:06 GMT -6
(Sever Bond is in effect)
Honestly, this was a weird lineup of creatures if ever there was one. That was what Noa said as he led his latest trio of companions to the edge of the river. The first two weren’t so odd: Azalea and Nightshade had been projects of Noa for a long time, and recently they’d fought some fights at the Pit side by side, taking on those big monsters that were recently debuted as challenges for the plucky trainer to take on.
It was the third member rounding out their party that made it a little more odd. Rather than Rhys, it was a Houluh pup that accompanied them this time. This was the same pup that had gone with Noa on a trip to the mines recently, where they had had the surprising good fortune to find a chaos crystal, of all things. This wasn’t the mines, but Noa had brought her anyway, in hopes that she was good luck, somehow, and would manage to confer her blessings on Noa’s fishing endeavors as well.
It was probably a lost cause, but hey, it was worth a shot, right?
Besides which, he had some plans to teach Nightshade and possibly Azalea some things… And if the pup also learned some things in the process, all the better. You had to train them a certain amount before they’d give you the paperwork for breeding, which was an interesting way to do things, and more regulation than other popular breeding species.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:12:03 GMT -6
And while Noa wasn’t actively working on building an entire kennel of the creatures, there were enough enthusiasts for the pups that he thought he might turn a profit by it as a side thing. And if not, well, he could always give back his dogs to Briar. Briar seemed to like dogs well enough.
But she wasn’t the main priority of this trip, alas. No, the main purpose was to get Nightshade to shape up a bit. At some point he did want to work with Azalea too, to give her a wider breadth of attacks if nothing else, but for now he wanted to focus on Nightshade, who had even less practical combat training.
They got to the edge of the bank, around where Noa would usually set up his equipment, and Noa went about setting up his fishing pole. These days he was actually feeling a bit more optimistic about his chances of catching something while he was training his creatures alongside the riverbank. Before, he had been pretty well prepared for the idea that there would be nothing he could catch if he wasn’t paying attention to the pole at all times, but the last few fishing trips hadn’t actually been too bad. If he could catch a little movement every so often and get to the fishing pole in time, then he could actually come away with some decent catches. Nothing to write home about, of course, but certainly better than nothing.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:13:31 GMT -6
He didn’t have any bait to put on the hook, since it felt like a waste of time to lug around little things that he could lose. Not to mention the fact that the sensation of dealing with worms was hardly his favorite thing to experience, especially when fishing wasn’t even a significantly important hobby of his. He managed to catch fish without that stuff, so he was just not going to bother with it. Once he had his pole in order, he began to cast, swinging the pole back and forth a couple of times to get some good momentum going before casting out into the river. It landed a fair distance into the water, more or less where Noa had intended for it to go, and that was good enough as far as he was concerned.
Azalea and Nightshade didn’t mind this much, since they had been with him a while and had been taken to all sorts of places based on Noa’s whims. Nightshade perhaps looked a little interested in the proceedings, but he probably just wanted some attention, or to be a part of the fun. It was the Houluh pup who seemed both surprised and very interested in what was going on. She jumped up when he first started swinging the pole, then ran back and forth trying to chase it. It was a good thing she didn’t manage to catch it, or it her, since the thing on the end of that line was a hook.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:14:05 GMT -6
Unhooking a metal fish hook from an unlucky pup wasn’t really how Noa wanted to be spending his morning, so it was a good thing nothing went awry. He suspected it probably wouldn't have been the pup's idea of a good time either, and there were better ways to learn that lesson too.
Once it was cast into the water, the pup ran forward to inspect it, but was stopped by both the fall and the water from getting any closer. At this point Noa stood the pole in a little stand for the purpose and went over to collect the pup, before she got any smarter ideas about pursuing the thing. Normally he might not have bothered; it wasn’t the worst idea for a pup to learn how to swim, after all, if they had the pluck to try. But in this case, these shaggy puppies apparently had fur that absorbed water like a sponge, and dragged them down to their watery deaths if they tried to swim. So unfortunately for this pup, there would be no adventures within the river itself.
“Alright, up you go,” Noa said, picking up the pup and setting her down further up the bank. The pup wriggled in his grip so much that he was frankly glad to set it down once he got the desired distance from the water. Once she was set down, she began at once to bark at him. In response to that, Noa crossed his arms, regarded her, and sighed.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:16:10 GMT -6
“You’re not very grateful, you know that? I’m trying to keep you alive, you know. I don’t have to do that. I could just let you get into trouble and die.” It wouldn’t have been without a cost to him, since he had invested some resources in this pup, but if she turned out to be more trouble than she was worth, well…
… He probably still shouldn’t let her die, but it really was a shame she didn’t have more of a sense of self preservation. Though then again, it wouldn’t be much fun if she fled at the first sign of any trouble, or shut down all the time like when she had been in the mines with him a few days ago. So he supposed it wasn’t the worst thing that she had a little pluck either.
Still... Managing babies was definitely the worst part of this whole system if you asked him. Sure, they were small enough that you could manhandle or bully them into doing what you wanted even if other means didn't work out, which he couldn't have done with anything of Nightshade or Azalea's size... But on the whole he still much preferred to deal with fully grown monsters like the ones he usually dealt with, rather than little puppies who got underfoot and caused all sorts of trouble. Even Nana had been sort of half grown when he had taken her over from Briar, actually.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:53:34 GMT -6
The pup only cocked her head at him, and didn’t seem like she had any idea of what he was saying. Well, he did think it would be a bit too much to expect comprehension from her, but all the same, it would have been nice if... No, never mind, he supposed. It wasn't as if he expected much from the likes of a Houluh anyway, given that they were only a side project for him. He sighed again, and decided that his attention was probably better served elsewhere. Or, in other words, it was time for them to get to work.
With regards to Nightshade’s training, it was probably best to start desensitizing him first. All those big beasties from the Pit had had the same oppressive aura that Azalea did, and it hadn’t done Nightshade any good to be cowed by the likes of them. It made him slow, and although Nightshade didn’t have to rely on brute force to attack his foes, it also weakened any blows he could have landed. This, Noa knew from experience, having watched it in action both on his own creatures and on his opponents.
That was the main reason that Azalea was here today. She had already been taught to intimidate opponents - and not to be intimidated by them in turn. Usually Noa used Grunty for this, but since he was planning to work with Azalea soon anyway, he figured he might as well have her along instead.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:54:26 GMT -6
Now that she could move around freely on land too, in some ways she made a better helper than Grunty, who was placid as far as Thundergugs went but was never game to do very much or be helpful if Noa needed him to deliberately menace a subject.
“Azalea,” Noa called. The Pliathor, who had been resting in the shade of a nearby tree, lifted her head. She couldn’t hear him anymore, not in the conventional sense, but she did have a ribbon through which to receive his thoughts. “Come here for a moment.”
The long, shimmering blue coils unraveled, and Azalea slithered over, closer to where Noa stood now. At the sight of her approach, the Houluh pup, who had been thus far romping around without a care, put her ears back and began barking. It was a fine show of bravado from a creature so small and without means to do much, but from the looks of her tail tucked between her legs, it was readily apparent that she was scared.
“You know,” Noa said, digging a treat out from his pocket, “it’s kind of a miracle she didn’t notice before now.” They had walked here, all four of them together, but Azalea had stayed back and kept enough distance that the pup was able to wander blithely forward without being cowed by Azalea’s apparently menacing aura. It brought to mind the show name of the pup's mother; ignorance really was bliss, wasn't it?
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:55:20 GMT -6
Noa, who knew Azalea to be singularly mild in temper, was still amused by the prospect of other creatures being frightened of her at all, but he supposed it wasn’t as unreasonable now, when she was so large and could so easily eat them whole.
Nightshade was also not having a great time. Thus far Azalea had always been more or less ignoring him, or else they were facing down another even bigger threat together, but now she was approaching him, and he was faced with the unpleasant prospect of confronting a creature larger and more powerful than himself. Nightshdae wasn’t usually given over to aggressiveness either, though he could be a bit pushy when he wanted something. But now his head crest was up, the strange tentacles frilling his jaws writhing about in some sort of threat display, and he hissed sharply at Azalea.
{They don’t like me,} Azalea lamented sadly, seeing their reactions. This was, if anything, the one advantage Grunty had over her when being used for this kind of desensitization training. The Gug never took it to heart, and in fact he didn’t much care one way or another whether creatures were frightened of him or not. His priorities in life were simply to eat as much as possible, and expend very little energy otherwise if he could help it, only making an exception if there was the promise of food in exchange for the effort he was expending on Noa's behalf.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:56:14 GMT -6
But Azalea was more sensitive, and while Pliathors were well known to dislike each other’s company by nature, it seemed that Azalea at least preferred to get along with creatures of other species if she could help it.
“They’ll get over it,” Noa said. As he spoke, he coaxed the Houluh pup with a treat, distracting her in the same fashion that he had done down in the mines, except this time it wasn’t the dark but Azalea’s presence that he was distracting the pup from. It worked, and if anything, she seemed more readily distractible with a treat because she had gone through the process before. Things were always a little easier once a creature had gotten used to training a little bit.
But on this occasion, Noa had to manage two different creatures. And Nightshade wasn’t the type who could be easily distracted by food. While Wiurns weren’t without a sense of smell, it also wasn’t the sense they relied on the most. They were aerial hunters who used their sight to spot prey from the air… and Nightshade preferred pets and attention as his main form of reward anyway. So while the Houluh pup was occupied with the treat that Noa let her have, he rose briefly to go to where Nightshade was. “Shhh, it’s okay,” Noa said, getting right up in front of Nightshade and putting himself between the Wiurn and Azalea, breaking Nightshade’s line of sight.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2021 11:58:03 GMT -6
At first, Nightshade tried to jerk his head up and away, but Noa was insistent, speaking in a low tone and holding onto Nightshade’s muzzle when he could. And after a moment, Nightshade allowed himself to be distracted, especially since Noa was offering him scratches under the jaw.
Once Noa had made sure that he was good and calm, he went back to the pup, who had begun looking nervous again without anything to actively hold her attention. It wasn’t a full blown barking panic the way it had been earlier, but she was definitely still uneasy, and it would be some time before she would be able to achieve a reasonable state of calm around Azalea, Noa knew.
Like with acclimating the pup to darkness in the mines, it was important not to let her hit that full blown state of panic again. If she got a little nervous in the beginning, that was fine, but he didn’t want the negative emotional association with Azalea to become too strong. To that end, he had to intervene before she managed to work herself up into that sort of state. Noa left Nightshade for the moment and distracted the pup with another treat, waving it under her nose to make sure that she smelled it. Once he had her attention, he held the treat in his closed fist and had her follow it around for a while, trying to get her moving around a little if she could.
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Post by Nadia on May 15, 2021 12:24:21 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on May 16, 2021 13:33:48 GMT -6
Again, this was made easier by the fact that she had been through something similar before. It had taken longer the first time, when he was acclimating her to the dark, but now she took one hesitant step, and then another, and in this way Noa was able to get her to walk forward just a little bit before he let her have the treat. It really didn’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things to be able to do that, but he knew the way that some creatures froze up at the sight of a particularly intimidating foe, even when their lives were clearly on the line. The fact that the pup was moving at all was a good sign, as far as he was concerned.
Of course, he still had to keep an eye on Nightshade. About the only creature he didn’t have to manage in this case was poor Azalea, who was staying politely out of the way, quiet until Noa gave her some other command or signal. The Wiurn wasn’t as deeply disturbed as the pup, being larger and having at least been in Azalea’s presence before, but rather than freezing up or trying to flee, Nightshade was more likely to react to Azalea as if she was a threat. Even now, though Nightshade didn’t start hissing again, Noa could see that he was staring at the Pliathor again, wary and unable to ignore her presence when he wasn’t actively being distracted.
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Post by Noa on May 16, 2021 13:34:28 GMT -6
Noa stepped away from the pup for a moment, and went to Nightshade again. Slowly he drew the Wiurn’s attention to himself again, and when Nightshade was focused on Noa and acting fairly calm, Noa rewarded him with some more scratching under the jaw. Then he decided to see if he could take it a step further, and gave Nightshade a command.
“Sit,” he said.
Nightshade hesitated, which wouldn’t have happened under any other circumstance, since this was a simple command that he had known for some time. But these were unusual circumstances - or at least they were for now, anyway. Noa was forced to be patient, redirecting Nightshade’s attention once more and repeating the command, until finally Nightshade sat properly, as he had been trained to.
It was funny, actually - that a Wiurn, and such a strange looking one at that, knew a small collection of very mundane tricks. More strange when in the company of a Houluh pup who didn’t know the same command, which was much more common knowledge among the various popular canid species kept by people living in the area. “See how it’s done?” he said to the pup, who twitched an ear at the sound of his voice. But ah, she had that spooky look to her again. It looked as if she needed more distracting.
It continued on in much that manner. Noa would split his time between Nightshade and the pup while Azalea basked in the sun a little ways off.
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