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Post by Sevyrn on Feb 12, 2021 11:07:02 GMT -6
The living bush didn't seem to interested in checking her out, and Sevyrn accepted defeat rather than pushing herself on to the little thing - perhaps it would still be out here when she was leaving, and then she could try to befriend it again. She did notice a few strange trinkets scattered about on the porch once she climbed to her feet and given that she loved to collect the little oddities she found during each of her trips, she gathered everything up and put it in to her backpack with the crystal she had managed to find first thing this morning. A little heart shaped wreath, a doll, a mirror - even a little jar of candy. She imagined that the doll would quickly become a scratching toy for Ramses after it got home if she wasn't careful, but... Well, the kitten owned her house. Everything became a scratching toy for Ramses whether she liked it or not.
"Alright, let's go," Sevyrn said to Ash and Moony as she moved towards the door, slight anxiety welling in her as she took the plunge and turned the knob. She always felt antsy when she was daring to venture in to the mansion.
23
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Post by Sevyrn on Feb 12, 2021 11:56:25 GMT -6
Sevyrn didn't notice but the strange little bush snuck through the opened door behind her and the pups - her attention was more on Ash and Moony, who dashed in to the entry way as soon as they possibly could. "Stay here," Sevyrn directed as she looked around the main hallway. She'd never been inside of a typical victorian home so she had no way of understanding if the insides of the place looked as expected, but she still found beauty in it - the main hallway seemed longer than she would have expected but the mansion had a way of messing with the laws of reality, and two arches lined opposite sides of the hallways leading to different rooms. At the very end was a fancy stairwell, and looking up towards the raised ceiling Sevyrn could see that the top of it wrapped around both sides of the lower hallway with an ornate white railing protecting those on the upper story from falling down to the ground level. A chandelier flickered overhead, candles flickering as bright sunlight shone in to both of the side rooms from large bay windows in each room. It was quite the wonderful sight, Sevyrn figured.
Where to first?
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Post by Sevyrn on Feb 12, 2021 12:00:50 GMT -6
It only made sense to start on the main level, but which way did she want to go? Sevyrn crouched down between her two houlou pups and looked from one to the other, stopping on Moony. "Where do you guys think we should go?" She asked the pair, supporting the weight of her body on her toes until she could make a decision. "Left or right?" They were too far from the entryways to even see what was behind each of the paths that they could take, so she couldn't even use that to guide her. That was the way that she liked it, though - she wanted the surprise of walking in to the unexpected, and it wasn't like they had closed doors to hide what waited for them right now.
Ash, surprisingly, was the one who made the decision. Sevyrn had not expected Sweet's boy to be the one to run off first, but his little paws pitter pattered at an idle pace towards the entryways, and as he reached the fork in the road the young pup veered left. Sevyrn shook her head, semi-amused, and then nodded to Moony. "It seems we're going left," she said to the pup before climbing back to her full height and starting the trip down the hallway.
25 Pups - Level 5
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Post by Jack on Feb 12, 2021 12:24:53 GMT -6
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 8:04:06 GMT -6
She'd had a good time with the pups, but at the end of the day she'd needed to leave. It had been worth the adventure, though! She'd come home with a new hollow crystal, something that she could potentially put aside if she ever sought out a new node, and some cutesy little items. She'd even had two birds follow her home! Coming back, though, she decided to stick to just one puppy. It was easier to keep track of just one, as she had found out before during her first attempt to bring multiple companions with her. First up was Moony, and she was hoping to come back another day with Ash as well. In an ideal world, she would have the two ready to grow up at about the same time, given that they were born around the same time and grown up around each other. It would be kind of strange to have one still young while the other was an adult. 1
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 14:47:12 GMT -6
It seemed the mansion had chosen a faelot theme for the month of march, warping its visage in to something that screamed new growth. Those soft roses that had lined the path during their previous trip had changed in to beautiful flowers of all varieties, and the sweet scent of pollen wafted in to Sevyrn's nostrils. It was a good thing that she wasn't allergic - it would be hell to try to wander in to the mansion with air like this surrounding it!
Moony was excited to be back, it seemed - she raced around with wild abandon checking everything out, and given that Sev had taught her some basics during their last adventure she felt comfortable letting the pup have the freedom to investigate her surroundings. She was hoping to work on another thing or two, though. Sometimes the mansion was a really good place to train, depending on the theme it had chosen.
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 14:54:24 GMT -6
Sevyrn herself was rather curious, stopping to smell the roses (both figuratively and literally) as she ambled down the path. Autumn may have been her favourite season but spring offered new growth - it offered rain, budding plants, a garden coming back to life... All in all she welcomed the change of seasons, and was happy to leave the harsh winter cold behind. Moony was likely going to love behind able to go outside without freezing her tail off, too.
... Yeah, she was going to like it. All of the pups were.
Sevyrn kept a watchful eye on the black and white little lady as she wandered towards the entrance, letting out a small chuckle as the pup jumped up at the base of a tree, seemingly interested in something that might be up in the branches. Moony quickly abandoned whatever that was and burst towards her owner, though. The pup yipped at Sevyrn's feet.
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 15:00:23 GMT -6
"What's up, buttercup?" Sevyrn asked, crouching down low to the ground to give the houlou pup a good scratch between her ears. Moony seemed pleased with her reward, and barked at the girl once again before placing her paws up on Sevyrn's knees to try to lock at the woman's face. Sevyrn had to pull away from the pats to get between Moony's tongue and her face, not really interested in getting any slobbery kisses right now. Nope, nope, nope.
"Hey! No," Sevyrn said to the pup, and pushed Moony back away from her. The pup had started to learn the meaning of no back when Sev had been trying to teach her to stay where she was... maybe it was time to cement that one - because Moony really did not want to stop trying to lick her. "No," Sevyrn repeated, and then did so once again in a sterner tone,
4 No - 3
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 15:05:20 GMT -6
The pup backed down at the harsher tone in Sevyrn's voice, and Sevyrn was pleased with that result. She didn't like disciplining her pets but correcting poor or in that moment unwanted behavior was a necessary part of caring for them. Once Moony was down on all four paws, Sevyrn grabbed an ear in both hands to praise her for doing as she was supposed to, and for the next little while Sevyrn decided to stay outside of the mansion until she was comfortable that the pup was going to listen when she was told something the first time - it was a good thing to have.
Luckily the morning was still early when they had arrived, and it only took about an hour before Sevyrn felt comfortable with the pup's progress - now she was stopping what she was doing when she was told to, and that was the entire point. Was there anything else she wanted to do before heading inside?
5 No - 4 Moony - 6
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 15:13:09 GMT -6
Follow. Sevyrn wanted to teach the pup to follow her before they headed on in - how could she have forgotten one of her 'main five' basic obedience tricks to teach so easily? Al, well - luckily Moony was pretty well behaved despite her hyper, energetic and curious nature. They still had time to work on that, and then they would be ready to go!
First Sevyrn wanted some more petting, though. Crouched down to the ground, she stayed where she was and didn't get up. Instead she talked to the happy little pup in that sweet, soft voice she saved for her animals. "You are such a good little puppy," Sevyrn said to her. "Yeah - did you know that? I'm so glad that I have you, Moony."
The houlou pup may have not known what she was saying, but that didn't stop her from letting out a cheery bark and pressing her nose to Sevyrn's hand.
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 15:15:28 GMT -6
"Do you want to go inside?" Sevyrn asked, pointing towards the mansion, and Moony barked at her once again as if to say yes. "We can do that soon, I promise. I just got one more thing I want you to be able to do first, okay? It's going to be a little strange because I'm going to tell you to come to me and then walk away, but I want you to keep following after me, okay?"
The pup may have lacked the sentience to understand full sentences like that, but Sevyrn liked to explain to the animals that she was training what she planned to do with them ahead of time anyways. Following through with her statement, she clambered to her feet and walked off. "Alright Moony, come here. Follow me!" She said, and as the pup started to walk towards her she began to walk away. "Follow me," she repeated.
7 Follow - 1
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 15:29:22 GMT -6
Moony didn't seem to understand why Sevyrn was venturing away from her, but when she paused and cocked her head towards Sev the woman encouraged her. "No, come her! Follow me!" Sevyrn encouraged, offering the pup a little treat from her pocket when Moony started to wander after her. Every few steps she repeated the command that they were working on, and offered plenty of treats as long as the pup kept following after her. Sevyrn didn't push the pup too far, though, and stopped after a few repetitions.
"Good girl!" She praised as she crouched down, and Moony enthusiastically pranced until she was right in front of Sevyrn. Moony was so excited to get the pats and praise that her tail was wagging so hard it took her whole rear end with it. Sevyrn had to admit, she loved how enthusiastic the houlou species could be. "Yeah, you did a good job. You did."
8 Follow - 2
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 15:32:31 GMT -6
Repetition was the key to success, so it was time to get back to work. Sevyrn knew that she would likely be spending a decent amount of her morning working in this, but luckily Moony seemed to be picking up the similarities between 'come here' and 'follow me' with relative ease. That was part of the reason that Sev always worked on 'come here' before advancing to follow, as it made life a hell of a lot easier in the long run.
They were making quick progress, though. Since Moony had figured out the similarities, Sevyrn mostly needed to work on getting the pup responding to 'follow me' reliably and consistently, without having to repeat herself over and over again. Because of that, her next step was to start pushing limits and weaning away the snacks. Luckily Moony seemed to be inclined towards obedience even without constant snacks as a reward.
9 Follow - 3
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Post by Sevyrn on Mar 3, 2021 15:35:40 GMT -6
Sevyrn grew more and more comfortable with Moony's capabilities in time, and eventually she was pretty damn happy with the results. She needed to be absolutely positive she knew that Moony would listen to her, though, because there was no way to know what kind of potential chaos waited behind those doors. She had a feeling that this month the mansion would go easy on her, everything seemed too cheery for mayhem, but there was no way to be positive.
For that reason instead of rushing, Sevyrn took her time. In reality, she probably should have given the pup a bit more credit than she was.
"Alright - one more time, and if you're good then we can head in okay?" Sevyrn asked as she clambered to her feet for the final time, and started walking off. "Moony, follow me," she directed, and she oculd hear the pitter patter of paws behind her as she walked from one end of the pathway all the way down towards the porch leading to the mansion's door. Moony followed along flawlessly.
10 Follow - 4 Moony - 7
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Post by Jack on Mar 3, 2021 18:11:08 GMT -6
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