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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:15:29 GMT -6
Lab-made pets had a few rules.
For example, while they were made for people to own and control, it was usually considered suicidal to run out and try to pet something like a full-grown equillion. It was better to deal with any creature when it was small and young, both so that the owner had little to fear from physical harm, unless it was something like a seeker or a bulldozer, and so that the owner could bond with it before any harm could be done. If an owner did bond with the beast while they were young, they would find themselves without fear of the beast ever purposely attempting to harm them, though she owned more than a few who could do so accidentally.
Alma did not figure she had bonded with the balgor.
Sure, she had raised them from their hatching, an odd thought when it came to beasts that only did live births when not given out directly by the labs, and had played with the cute common breed kittens a bit before they reached their more fatal size. And while Hektor’s custom status might have offered a small amount of protection from a sudden attack, Alma could not trust the temblor or the miasma to remember that she had been there when they were young.
And while she had patted Farida on the head a few times after having spent a good amount of time reinforcing that she was not some prey or toy, she was not about to put her hands anywhere near the acid-drooling miasma balgor.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:16:03 GMT -6
So she talked instead, setting down her book to go to the small closet that always seemed to contain more of the simple toys the balgor liked best. “What’d you like? Got balls of rope, and in every color of the rainbow,” she said, holding out one that was a darker green than the miasma balgor’s mane. She dropped it next to her boots, the heavy ball bouncing an inch back into the air before rolling to rest against the wall. “Got some bone, chewy ones, ain’t got real things inside” she told it, but made no move to pull out one of them. They were strange things, made of some brown, somewhat translucent stuff that reminded her of plastic though the seller swore they were edible. She did not want to waste it on the balgor with acid spit though. “An’ a few other bits ‘n bobs, but most of that’s for trainin’ you later. All of you,” Alma turned to sweep an arm in the direction of Farida and Hektor, surprised to find them also pressed against the bars of their cage.
“You. You lot ain’t gonna suddenly be like them steely liquids, right?” she half pleaded with them, gave flicking back and forth between the two cages. “Cause then I’ve gotta get sum thick glass or plastic, and that’s a bit harder to requisition for kennel stuff, okay? Can’t have you lot sneaking out and bothering the other beasts.” Another thought crossed Alma’s mind, and she winced.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:16:22 GMT -6
“An’ two of yous just so happen to be good ol’ el-ees. If ya get out, ya’ll will just be killed for that. Not worth the hide on yer backs, and no one would think an im-por-tant beastmaster would have a lot of el-ees wandering. They ain’t gonna hesitate.” Alma was not sure which part of such a result would be worse. Would it be the damage the three balgor could do before they could be stopped? Would it be trying to reclaim the custom and haggle over the hides and bones of the LEs so she could get them revived if she had the funds and need for such an expense? She certainly would not enjoy getting chewed out for being one of the irresponsible beastmasters who let their precious critters wander around to destroy and steal.
The balgor did not notice her discomfort.The miasma balgor had finally realized the other two were glaring at her, their mouths opened in a silent snarl that made her cringe. Slowly, ever so slowly, she backed deeper into the cage, nearly tripping over the fluffy mass that was her tail as it was held between her legs. Were they going to try to eat the human, claiming it as their prey? The miasma balgor felt a small anger in her chest, sizzling as her drool did whenever she ate her meaty meals. But that anger was smothered by her fear of the pair, and she only silently hoped for the human to escape before the balgor pair got it.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:16:38 GMT -6
Alma had looked away from the balgor as she had winced at her earlier thought, then shook her head. “Nah, if you lot could fit between the bars, you’d have all been away years ago. Not you, Hektor,” she said, waving a hand at the custom who turned her head just enough that Alma could see the balgor’s blue eyes glance in her direction, “On account of yah being new here. Only bought yah from the post a bit ago, but the trader said yous was a stone and plant sort of custom. Not a melty sort.” Alma shrugged as the balgor resumed staring at the same thing that held Farida’s attention. “Not an insult though. Rather like that a bit more than havin’ a freakish one whose body moves like water. A steel, sure, they don’t got organs and blood in ‘em, but I like my breathin’ critters a bit more solid.”
Alma turned to look back at the toys, ignoring most of them as she dug through the closet. “‘Fraid most of what I got ain’t gonna stand up to yer teeth. The green one said it’s proven to work with an acid elemental, so that oughta work for yah, but the rest will just melt.”
Shaking her head, Alma resolved to pick up a few more acid-resistant toys. If she did not, the miasma balgor would go through the other two’s toys quicker than she could make the credits to replace them. She pushed the toy closet door shut, squatting down to pick up the green ball of rope.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:16:57 GMT -6
Straightening up, an act made a little more difficult with the sheer density of the ball, Alma called out the miasma balgor. “Alright, so, this is yers.” Alma hefted the ball in her hands, noting the waxy shine that covered the rope. The seller had claimed it was not poisonous, just resistant to acid itself, and she hoped she would not have to go back and try for the cost of a refund and medical bills. “As I said, ain’t got much in the way of toys for yah, so try to keep this one intact. All you get for a bit until I can get you and those two idiots,” Alma jerked a thumb back at Farida and Hektor, both standing on the balls of their feet as they stared down the confused miasma balgor, “can safely go in the same box.” She paused as she watched the miasma balgor press itself against the back of the cage, eyes wider than she had ever seen them. Slowly, eyes narrowing, Alma asked it, “What’s wrong with yah?” Balancing the ball on one arm she snapped her fingers. “Ah, not liking the cage? Really sorry about it, but it should go quick. Only one I got small enough to shove in here so y’all can get used to each other. And those other two ain’t half bad.” She was sorry about it, but there had been no way she could fit a cage the size of the miasma balgor’s old one in the same room.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:17:17 GMT -6
And the entire point was for them to all get used to one another. If the miasma was scared of the two idiots back there, two balgor that she had seen slam together and fall while hunting a snorfle because the little thing had been noisier than they expected, the only way to end that fear would be to get them used to each other. Looking at the massive beast cowering before her with a laugh, Alma added, “At least yer back there, Should make this a bit easier.”
Alma still refused to open the cage, knowing all too well how quickly a balgor could move. If the miasma balgor was that scared, or that displeased with the size of the cage, she was not going to give it an opening it could squeeze out of, especially if it would be trampling her in the process. Instead, she began to shove the rope ball against the bars, the ropes sliding as the ball squished and distorted itself under the pressure. It popped free, sending Alma smacking her head against a bar with a yelp as the ball rolled across the ground.
One might have expected that to be the most painful part of her day, but then the temblor and custom balgor decided only they could be the source of a headache, and let loose a roar that made her very glad to have bought a decent set of earplugs, She could feel the roar in her chest, and the miasma balgor shrunk away as the other two balgor launched themselves at the bars of their cage.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:17:31 GMT -6
Confused, annoyed, and her head already aching from its sudden introduction to the metal bars, Alma did not care that the miasma balgor was gnawing on the bars opposite of her in an attempt to escape. She did not even care that two furious balgor were to her back, testing just how well that cage had its joints welded together.
Alma, displaying what she could only later describe as the insanity caused by a bad moment, yelled curses at the two raging balgor as she charged them. It was not completely insane, as she stopped well before reaching the cage and throwing open the doors, but she informed them how little she appreciated their display with deranged shrieking that brought red to her face when she reconsidered it. That moment came a few seconds after she had finished with a question of, “Why did you choose then to roar,” albeit phrased in a much less polite fashion.
The two balgor seemed just as bewildered as her. Snapping their jaws shut and loping away from the bars when Alma had set herself to mimicking a banshee, they stared at her, dropping their bodies to the ground as though they could hide in the scrub. Alma took a deep breath, her head throbbing more from her own stupidity at the bars than the roar, she was sure, and told them, “Look. I know. You lot love making noise. That, meanin’ when I just hit my head,” she rubbed a gloved hand over the spot, pressing down on it, “was not a good time.”
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:17:43 GMT -6
She said other things as well, calm enough to modulate her tone now that she was certain the balgor were not going to compound the pain in her head by trying to tear it off, leading Farida and Hektor to tilt their heads to the side in confusion.
The custom balgor had known their human was in danger. From the moment the tiny one with only a scrap of a mane had come in, she had worried what would happen. The new balgor had challenged them then shown no interest in a fight, but what would it do to the small human? And when the human had stood so near the cage, when she had heard the yelp of pain while the other balgor had been so close, she had thought the human had been attacked. There had only been an instant to protect her from the intruding balgor, and Farida had followed her lead as they sought to protect their human, and yet the human was mad.
She could see now that the human seemed uninjured other than resting a hand on the little bit of mane she had as though it would fly away. And the human had rushed at them when they roared, not for protection against the invading balgor but to stop their attack?
As Farida sat in relative confusion, Hektor figured it out. The new balgor was of the human, some grown kit that the human had chosen to defend. The custom felt bad about the attack, and lowered her head to rest on the ground despite the now soothing tones of the human.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:17:56 GMT -6
“Look, I didn’t want to scare you two, yah know? Jus’-” Alma shrugged, a smile tugging at a corner of her mouth, “Runnin’ away is supposed to make ya’ll wanna eat me. And I ain’t gonna ever be able to take any of you out if that’s all I’m to you.” The balgor yawned at this, and Alma laughed. “Yeah, guess me scaring balgor’s a bit of a stupid idea. I’ll let ya’ll get back to what you were doing. Just wait until I head out before trying to break out, alright?” The balgor yawned again, and Alma turned slowly, stopping once she could see both cages out of the corners of her eyes. She slowly sidestepped her way over to the miasma balgor’s cage, unwilling to set off any of the balgor again.
A quick look over the cage, which left her back to the pair of balgor, though at least she did not hear them trying to claw their way free anymore, revealed the bars were still unmarked. She was grateful for that, having not been sure that the metal would hold up against the acid despite how it had been labeled. The miasma balgor seemed fine as well, though it had remained cowering in the corner as she checked the bars, its gaze jumping between her and the cage in which the two other balgor lived.
Feeling a bit bad, Alma told it, “Don’t worry about those two. Ain’t sticking ya in there if it looks like they’ll hurt you.”
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:18:30 GMT -6
The miasma balgor understood none of what Alma said, being a lab-made beast rather than a person and all, but it seemed to slightly relax at her tone. “That’s right, you know me. I’m the food guy, right? I bring food and toys for you all the time, right?” She kept her tone low and soft, trying to avoid spooking the miasma balgor further. “An’ this new one is better than those. This one ain’t gonna rot or melt super quick” She wanted to smile at the balgor, but she remembered what she had read a while ago about showing teeth to things that were not cats or dogs. And the thing drooling acid in front of her certainty did not fit into either category. She pointed at the ball of rope, once more informing the miasma balgor that it was a toy, then left the room, her book forgotten by the closet.
The miasma balgor was very unhappy to see the human go without her, but she did not dare move. The human had kept the other two away from her somehow, its tiny form clapping its arms like it was trying to fly as it charged the other balgor.
Farida rose once Alma had left, pacing by the bars closest to the miasma balgor as she grumbled threateningly. She did not understand why their human had done what she did, but she did not trust the newcomer, not after it had tried to hurt their human. But the miasma balgor did nothing else that could be construed as a challenge, and eventually she went over to where Hektor had begun to bat at a tumbleweed.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:21:46 GMT -6
It took them three weeks.
Alma had been hopeful for a quicker introduction, remembering how much quicker the custom and the temblor balgor had come to accept each other’s presence. The slow movement of the cage seemed to irritate the miasma balgor and Farida a great deal more than it had the first time, with the temblor balgor often requiring more than a day to stop glaring and randomly roaring at the miasma balgor.
Hektor surprised Alma for both her apparent lack of interest in the miasma balgor and her sudden interest in playing, her tackling or running with a tumbleweed in her mouth like a dog with an oversized ball seeming quicker to distract Farida from the miasma balgor’s ever nearer presence each time the cage was moved. With only a few days left in the second week, Alma had the miasma balgor’s cage placed flat against one of the gates, hoping that the small amount of distance would allow balgor on either side to avoid taking any damaging hits should the other turn violent. Farida did snarl at the caged miasma a few times, holding her defensively behind her when she walked away, but Hektor was quick to touch noses.
And as if Hektor’s acceptance was all that was required, Farida did the same on the final day. Alma waited one more day beyond that, then released the miasma balgor into the cage with the rest. The green maned balgor stood at the back of her cage as the doors opened, unsure of what to do as Farida stepped into the cage, Alma’s hand hovering over the button that would flood the cages with sedatives.
In the end, the temblor balgor had simply grabbed the waxy toy and rumbled at the miasma, running away. After a few seconds, the miasma balgor gave chase.
[Farida-35.0, Hektor-35.0, Balboa-11.0, Alma-254.9]
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Post by Alma on Jul 6, 2021 0:19:46 GMT -6
It was a new day, full of bright new possibilities. The sun was shining painfully as some mage likely tested their spells, jibiji were singing in the park and causing more than one person to pass out, and none of it was Alma’s problem as it was her day off.
She almost preferred that it was not as she keyed in a few commands to the kennel’s main console, figuring that dealing with some knockout birds might have been better than consigning one more beast to death. The rangers would have likely claimed the job, correctly citing that feral beasts fell under their jurisdiction, but she would not have minded dealing with the paperwork.
Alma double checked the instructions one more time, deleting the names of the long gone other beasts she had dragged back to her kennel and dumped into the feeding pods. She wanted to forget about them as soon as possible, even as she confirmed that the last living one was still well.
While Alma finished her last checks and made her way back to the room containing the balgor, the three were fighting to claim the last ball in the cage, the green waxy ball of rope that had somehow not shared the fate of the brittle weeds and their half-melted toys. Hektor had been the first to wake of the three, and she had speared it while the other two had been stretching themselves under the gradually brightening lights. Farida and the miasma balgor, who Alma had taken to calling Balboa, were having a tough time catching up to Hektor.
[Balboa-Pack Instincts Start]
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Post by Alma on Jul 6, 2021 0:20:22 GMT -6
It was not that Farida was bad at chasing her slightly smaller sister. She had plenty of months to make up for growing up without another balgor nearby, and usually found herself snaring the toy with a well-placed snap of her jaws. In fact, she had nearly snagged the toy several times now, so close to her prize that she could almost spear it with her tusk.
The issue was there was more than one balgor to contend with.
The new balgor had originally joined in the games a little too enthusiastically, throwing herself after the toy without any thought to the other balgor chasing it. When Farida had been the one with the ball, losing it with a poorly timed step that sent it flying as she tried to keep from skidding across the stony ground, she had turned just in time to see Hektor leap for the ball with outstretched paws. The custom balgor would have snared it, prompting a new round of chasing, had Balboa not launched herself at the same moment, bashing her shoulder against the smaller balgor as she tried to turn her tusks away. Balboa avoided skewering Hektor by the slightest margin, her tusk catching only the thick hair of her mane, and both balgor fell to the floor in a flurry of limbs as both rumbled and grunted at the other for ruining their leap.
Farida had found it funny then, picking up the toy and fleeing with it. She found it less amusing during one of the meal times that a few live creatures had come through.
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Post by Alma on Jul 6, 2021 0:21:24 GMT -6
Balboa had been excited when the creature had tumbled into the cage, pausing in her run towards it only when it trumpeted in fear at the sight of three massive beasts closing in on it. While Farida and Hektor had ran forwards, the little prey paralyzed by fear at the sight of the balgor closing in on it, Balboa should have continued her run, or at least waited quietly for her sisters to finish the beast. But, as the little creature trumpeted and fought to stand and run from its oncoming death, Balboa had chosen to roar back.
The sudden noise behind them startled Hektor, and she slowed to look behind her in confusion, trying to pick out what threat the miasma balgor had found. The noise also tripped up Farida, the temblor balgor skidding to a halt on the stones at the sudden loud noise. Both glanced at Balboa as the third balgor began her charge, and they turned to find the little prey beast had regained its feet and taken off for the far side of the cage.
The human, Alma, had been there during the hunt, and looked up as the sound of the roar forced its way past her earplugs, dragging her attention away from her book as she watched a snorfle escape from the balgor for the first time since Farida and Hektor had learned to work together. She had hit the button then to forestall the second beast that was meant to come shortly after the first, instead deciding to watch how the hunt went first.
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Post by Alma on Jul 6, 2021 0:22:16 GMT -6
Hektor had resumed running with a grunt, running to catch up to Farida as the temblor balgor began to jog. Farida waited until her sister was near enough and, without a sound Alma could make out, the two of them began to charge at the snorfle. Hektor was still slightly slower as Farida charged at her full speed towards the snorfle’s front. Having seen the tactic before, Alma knew that the snorfle would turn to flee the obvious danger for the open space, and Hektor’s lack of speed would suddenly vanish as she lunged for the snorfle. She looked back down at her book, unwilling to watch as the custom balgor slammed the snorfle to the ground, trying to snap its neck with a jerk of her head.
Since Alma had looked back down at her book, she did not see that Balboa had failed to slow at all. In fact, Balboa had seen the widening gap a moment before the panicked snorfle could turn and dash away, and she lunged for it as Hektor broke out into a complete run to the same spot. Alma did not see the moment Balboa’s lunge crossed Hektor’s carefully chosen path, the custom balgor’s wrists slamming into the miasma balgor’s back an instant before her chest did, sending both balgor sliding to the ground as the trumpeting snorfle fled past them with a squeal.
Alma had looked up at the roar and snarling that followed, crying out in alarm as Hektor kicked at the miasma balgor’s chest in an attempt to dislodge her from where she lay on top of the custom.
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