Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 11, 2021 20:48:55 GMT -6
Shelly Tundra Thundergug Level: 1 Stamina: 20 Strength: 10 Resistance: 6 Dexterity: 3 Mentality: 1 Special Abilities: Hardy, Tundra-Dwelling, Intimidation Moves: Horn Strike, Thunder, Charge Learning: Bash (3), Roar (3)
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 11, 2021 21:55:14 GMT -6
Well, he had gotten this far. Ramal had just picked up a new creature from the adoption agency, and now he had led it out into the public park in order to see if he could bond with and possibly train her. He had honestly thought that the hardest part was going to be all the paperwork at the agency, but they were surprisingly nice about it. Before he knew it, he was running off with a creature many times larger than himself. She had been chosen because she matched a list of things he was looking for, but also he liked her. She seemed sweet, even if she had like, a lot of horns. She even had butt horns! Who has butt horns? The monsters of this weird land were always a surprise to him. Just when he thought he'd seen it all, along comes butt horns. This was for sure going to be a weird day. [0.7; 1.2]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 11, 2021 22:14:01 GMT -6
Ramal had learned from the friendly attendant at the adoption agency that Thundergugs responded best to offers of snacks. Since it was completely impossible to push them around, one would have to convince them to follow along with a bribe. That was easy enough, Ramal thought. He could spare some grasses and veggies.
It took him a while to get into the rhythm of waving some food in front of her face and letting her follow, but eventually they made it to the public park. He liked to sit out here with his creatures from time to time, but he knew that the space was also used by his fellow creature keepers as a place to teach obedience and train for battle.
That second part was what he was after today. There was a tournament starting shortly, and if he could teach his new creature how to attack, he might just stand a chance. It felt really weird to him, but if that's what people did around here, then that's what he was going to do.
[0.8; 1.4]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 0:38:47 GMT -6
Ramal had done some poking around the arena, and he learned a lot about the tournaments, or at least enough to feel confident participating in one. The monster tamers would come in with their creatures, let them loose, and shout battle commands at them from the stands. At the end, the creatures were whisked away by magical healers so they could come back to the next round without a scratch. It was all so dramatic and thrilling. He was looking forward to giving it a shot, even if he really didn't want anyone to get hurt.
First, he realized that he would have to give his new friend a name. She hadn't come with one. The adoption agency said that they didn't know who her previous owner was. "I guess you need a name, what do you think?" She was simply staring at his empty hands where treats used to be.
[0.9, 1.6]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 0:43:40 GMT -6
It made him want to laugh, thinking about how he came to a new land and got called a new name by the people there. Did she remember her old name? Was it going to be weird to learn a new one? He'd rather not think of the other possibilities, such as her having grown up without one in the first place. That was too sad.
The pattern on her back reminded him of a clamshell and how the folds would cast shadows. He rather liked that imagery and after thinking about it for a moment, he said, "I think I'll call you Shelly. Do you like that name?" She snorted, probably unrelated to his question, but he accepted it as a positive answer.
"Great! Nice to meet you, Shelly. My name's Ramal." Now that he'd spent a bit of time with creatures, he found out that he would have to fill all the silences himself or he would go crazy. Or was introducing himself to a huge monster already crazy?
[1, 1.8]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 5:27:42 GMT -6
Shelly was still staring at his empty hands. He wondered why for a moment, then remembered that he had been feeding her treats all the way here and he had suddenly stopped. "I guess you want some more leaves, huh?" He was happy to give her a few more, but he thought he might run out before they were done at this rate.
"Okay I think we have to focus, okay?" He let her finish the leaves he had on offer, then thought about how he would go about battle training. Whatever happened, he definitely didn't want to get in between her and the target. He was pretty sure he wouldn't survive.
She was so sweet and gentle, though. He giggled as she nibbled the last of the leaves he was holding out, and her nose and mouth snuffled around in his hands to make sure that was the last of it. It was so weird to think such a huge creature with so many spiky protrusions was actually so sweet!
[1.1, 2] [Shelly - Bash - 1]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 5:34:36 GMT -6
"Alright Shelly, I've got a plan, are you ready to hear it?" She flicked her ears at the sound of his voice, and for the first time he realized that she actually had huge ears behind her forward curving horns.
Every part of her was pretty deadly looking, so Ramal reasoned that he could just teach her to smash into things, and the massive weight behind her horns would be enough to knock most things over. He had never taught a creature how to be aggressive before, so he was going to have to be careful.
The first thing he had to do was get her moving. So far the only thing that worked for that was offering her food. That was easy enough, he thought. "Okay Shelly! Let's go! Smash!" Ramal threw a bundle of juicy foliage as far as he could manage and Shelly lazily stomped after it. Well that was uninspiring!
[1.2, 2.2] [Shelly - Bash - 2]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 5:40:07 GMT -6
"That was lame!" he said with a laugh. "You're going to have to try way harder than that if you want to be a winner, Shelly!"
Ramal looked around for something to help him, since he knew his throwing skills alone weren't going to cut it. He found a long stick with some delicious leaves already attached. Perfect! Shelly was snorting around in the grass, looking for something better to eat. She could just eat the grass, but she was too spoiled by the more juicy, nutritious fibers that Ramal had been offering her all day.
"Look Shelly, look what I have," he tapped her gently on the end of the nose with the leafy part of the fallen branch. "You're gonna have to work for it, though! Smash, Shelly, smash!"
He swung the stick as hard as he could and as far away from his body as he could manage. If she wanted to grab the leaves, she'd have to chase them!
[1.3, 2.4] [Shelly - Bash - 3]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 5:44:10 GMT -6
Shelly went to slowly walk over to the leaves, but Ramal snatched them away from her before she could get to him. She continued to lazily chase after the leaves, but he kept pulling them away. "No you have to hustle, I know you can do it!" he said. He continued to play that game with her for a while, until she was good and angry enough to charge down the leaves. The force of her grabbing the end of the stick and ripping the leaves off was enough to send Ramal flying to the ground.
"Oof, good job!" he squeaked through the pain of smashing into the ground. "You did a good job, Shelly!" Ramal got up and tapped her on the shoulder, too afraid to get close to her face and horns after being bowled over by her. She was super tough! He had no doubts at all now that she could absolutely plow through anything.
[1.4, 2.6] [Shelly - Bash - 5]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 5:46:37 GMT -6
"I know you can charge now," he said. "Let's see you really do it, okay?" Ramal ran off to grab a board he had seen on the ground on the way here, and dragged it back to where they were training.
"Smash, Shelly, smash!" he held up the board, but she didn't respond. He sighed. "C'mon I just saw you do it!" he whined. He decided that she needed a little motivating, so he moved over toward the fence with the board in one hand, and a handful of her favorite (so far) grasses in the other.
Ramal didn't let her take the food from him, which was clearly annoying her. He was giving it to her so freely before! Since she was already annoyed, he thought that it would be a good time to work on the smashing. He tied up the treat to a fence, but then leaned the board over it so that it was hidden from view behind it.
[1.5, 2.8] [Shelly - Bash - 6]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 5:50:48 GMT -6
"Alright big girl, Smash!" he called, pointing enthusiastically to the board.
Shelly was pretty annoyed by not being given her treat, so instead of trying to push the board over gently, she tucked her head down and bashed it into a million little pieces. "Yeeees!" Ramal cheered, jumping up and down in place. That hurt his side where he had fallen over, however, so he quickly stopped.
"That was perfect!" Ramal excitedly hugged Shelly around the neck. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, but since she had food in her mouth, she didn't try to hurt him for it. "Let's do that again!"
Ramal spent a few minutes setting up an obstacle course for Shelly to work with. He set up some branches, boards, and even a little stick person around them using scraps of broken fence and tree branches. This place had a lot of tattered old equipment, he realized, but he was glad for it since it was helping him out so much.
[1.6, 3] [Shelly - Bash - 7]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 5:53:48 GMT -6
Ramal grabbed a particularly fragrant herb that Shelly had shown some interest in before, and hid it within one of the little branch set ups. She would have to totally destroy the little branch 'nest' in order to get the treat out. Just what he was expecting!
"Alright Shelly, you know the trick, smash!" he called out, pointing at his strange little creation.
Shelly could smell the food and she saw that he put it in there. She wasn't too dumb to make the connection, but she was feeling a little lazy. "C'mon big girl, smash!" Shelly was starting to associate that word with destroying things for food by now. She had done it a couple of times now, anyway. She let out a disgruntled snort, lowered her head, and trampled over the stick nest. Just in case it wasn't broken enough, she turned around and used her horn to flip the excess sticks out of the way.
[1.7, 3.2] [Shelly - Bash - 8]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 5:58:00 GMT -6
"Great job!" Ramal nodded. She was doing amazing. This was way more productive than he had been expecting! He was so happy that it was working out that he hardly noticed how sweaty he was from moving all of that heavy stuff around.
"Let's go again!" he cheered. His cheerful attitude was contagious and Shelly even stomped her feet excitedly and made a low yet energetic call. Ramal jumped at the sound she made. It was really loud! He would have to remember that for later.
Ramal continued building little stick nests and fortresses for Shelly to smash open for an especially nice treat. He watched his pile of treats dwindle with a grimace. It was working excellently, but he was worried about how expensive this was going to end up being. He hoped that the prize pot from the tournament was enough to cover it. That was how that worked, right? Well, even if it was, it was just a little ambitious to think he'd win.
[1.8, 3.4] [Shelly - Bash - 9]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 6:01:04 GMT -6
The only thing he could be sure of was that he wasn't going to come last. He wouldn't let that happen. He would just have to die of embarrassment and find a new home if that happened! Not to be dramatic or anything.
"Alright Shelly, are you ready for the ultimate test?" he asked. He had set up that stick person before, but they hadn't had a chance to use it. This was going to be the ultimate test of her technique. He wasn't going to put the treat in it this time. He was just going to make the command and hope that she had learned from the all of the previous experiences.
"Shelly! Smash! Smash!" he pointed at the stick person. Shelly didn't see him hide any treats in there, but she had become used to the routine by now. Whenever he did that, he wanted her to run in that direction and destroy whatever was at the other end. She could do that, easy!
[1.9, 3.6] [Shelly - Bash - 10]
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Ramal
Junior Member
Posts: 99
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Post by Ramal on Mar 12, 2021 6:21:49 GMT -6
"Wow Shelly, you're the coolest!" Ramal hugged around her neck again, or at least he put his arms as far around her as he could manage. It wasn't perfect, but both of them were starting to appreciate the other's company more as they got used to each other. They had practically spent the whole day out there in the park destroying scrap. It was a tough job for both of them, but it was bringing them closer together. Ramal could already feel it. Is this why the people here did this stuff? He kind of liked it!
"I think you did a great job," Ramal said. It was time to wind down and take a break, however. They couldn't work themselves too hard or they would burn out before they were even ready to compete! Ramal flopped down and tossed his dirty old rucksack on the ground next to him. He had brought a ton of food for Shelly, but had he brought any for himself?
[2, 3.8] [Shelly - Bash - 11]
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