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Post by Morgan on Dec 16, 2021 20:58:35 GMT -6
The bespectacled human was pleased with how Kaodie seemed so alert to new commands. It had to be that the creature was just clever for a critter- as malii were often wont to be. He was very driven to please Morgan, be it to that end or just to get another game of tug of war out of them as a treat. Morgan followed this up by giving him the command to use his sticky tongue, but harshly gave him a 'Nah-ah!' whenever he went to remove his tongue from the dummy. He removes it anyway, looking up at Morgan curiously.
"Nope, that's not it boyo, no tug of war f-for you." They said to him. Kaodie tilts his head the other way, and somehow he manages to seem disappointed, even with that blank face. "We need to try again." They gave the whistled command again, the new one for the new technique, and Kaodie looks concerned at his lack of knowledge.
[15]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 17, 2021 19:13:09 GMT -6
Morgan once again pointed to the dummy's leg and gave the whistled command for the malii to use his long tongue in an attack; but this time whenever Kaodie complied and stuck his sticky tongue out to wrap it around the dummy, they moved forward and reluctantly touched the tongue to hold it there. It was very sticky, and made it difficult for Morgan to move away, but it did catch Kaodie's attention enough for him to look at Morgan. Morgan knew that his tongue was fairly stretchy, so they figured that he wouldn't be hurt by them pulling the tongue and wrapping it further around the legs of the dummy to 'tighten' it on the dummy.
Kaodie stared at Morgan with that characteristic 'blank' stare, but Morgan was sure that he was well on the way to getting it now. They let go and though they had a difficult time keeping it from being stuck to them- they did manage to get free.
[16]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 17, 2021 19:26:02 GMT -6
Morgan backs away from the Dummy and back out of the way, where they were before. They stood with their boots firmly on the sand at the bottom of the playground equipment (the monkey bars were directly above their head by about a foot and some odd distance) and they reached once again for their whistle. Kaodie watched them intently as they gave the whistled command once again for the new tactic. Kaodie stuck his tongue out, pretty well catching on (finally- after all of this work with techniques that he could use his tongue for in which Morgan associated the new command whistle with the first one ever each and every time) and wrapped it quickly around the leg of the dummy that Morgan was pointing at. Whenever he does, he wraps it tight and then pulls slightly- dragging the dummy forward but also gripping around the leg quite tightly in the process.
[17]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 17, 2021 19:34:55 GMT -6
Morgan was immediately very pleased. It was progress; and progress they hadn't been entirely certain that they would manage to get out of him after the first couple of failures. "Good boyo, Kaodie!" Morgan called to him, pulling the toy out immediately. With some difficulty, Kaodie unwrapped his tongue from the dummy, and Morgan played a round of tug of war with him as a treat. Now, they knew it was all just a matter of repetition. They gave him another command as soon as they backed up and out of the way, and Kaodie seemed renewed in his determination to work. He wraps his tongue around the dummy's leg with more surety this time, and Morgan is sure to tell him he is doing a good job, and encourage him to keep working as hard as possible- as such he wraps his tongue around the leg as sure as he could and as tightly as he could.
[18]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 17, 2021 19:41:21 GMT -6
They worked like this for a long period of time with him, the same-old same-old that they always did once a breakthrough occurred in the training. Each time Kaodie did the action as requested (and he got quite overzealous with it; getting better and better at his technique of constricting the dummy's leg in his tongue- though Morgan knew he'd always be a little too weak to get ahold of a real enemy 'well') Morgan would play a round of tug of war with him and tell him that he was doing well to make sure that he knew. They had quite a long time to work on this and they wanted to make sure that he got it right, so they kept having him do it again and again until they felt that the training had really sank in for him.
"You're doing good, Kaodie! L-let's move on to something else." Morgan murmurs. But what next? When would the creature get here that they'd hired the owner of that would scare Kaodie?
[19] - [End of 'Constrict']
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Post by Morgan on Dec 17, 2021 20:01:00 GMT -6
They had drawn out that bit of training a little bit, in order to try to make it to the time that the courier would be coming by with the rented 'scary' creature. This time it would most likely be an equillion -nothing like Shy Guy at all- that was trained to be passively frightening but generally not aggressive; that was if they got what they paid for (and they generally did). It didn't seem like they would be here on time, though. So they figured that they'd work with Kaodie on the other thing they didn't really want to have to but they knew needed to be done.
"Kaodie, c'mere." They wave him over. The malii comes running, but Morgan pulls something out of one of their very deep pockets; a small canister of biodegradable round 'beebees' to be used to train a creature to dodge attacks naturally.
Morgan tosses one at Kaodie immediately.
[20] - [Start 'Danger Sense']
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Post by Morgan on Dec 17, 2021 21:17:22 GMT -6
Kaodie did not at all seemed phased by this. He saw it coming; of course he did. Part of it was most certainly due to Morgan being quite obvious with it, but Morgan sensed something else there, too. He really didn't have to 'look at' the piece in order to know it was there- but he had no instinct to dodge out of the way from it. He didn't feel physical stimuli, after all. However, Morgan knew how to give him a sign that they weren't happy with this. They clicked their tongue, perhaps too low for humans to hear it as far away as the malii was, but Kaodie recoiled as if hurt, his ears flopped upwards as he tried to watch for what Morgan did want him to do. Morgan rolled another of the beebees between a forefinger and a thumb, and then tossed it at the malii again. [21]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 17, 2021 21:26:32 GMT -6
The malii had watched as Morgan had rolled the little white beebee in-between their fingers. He knew that he was supposed to do something with them, but what that something was happened to be more of a mystery to him than anything else might have been. Morgan tried to throw it at him again, and his only reaction was to tilt his head to get a better look at it, with any luck he would discern what was to be done. When the small and round thing struck him again, Morgan gave another of those little tongue-clucks that told him that this was not what was wanted out of him. He tilts his head at Morgan again, this time the other direction. Again, the human was rolling the beebee around in their fingers. He watches it with keen interest, and this time whenever it was thrown at him he stops mildly out of the way, glaring at it and its siblings on the ground.
[22]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 22, 2021 21:25:04 GMT -6
Morgan doesn't have time to be quiet on the matter, now that he had finally done well. "G-good job, Kaodie! Y-you're doing very well!" They said, moving towards him with the rainbow rope toy already so that they could give him a moment to realize that he'd done correctly. For once, Kaodie seemed very un-inclined to play; he seemed more curious about something in the distance. They played a single round of tug of war (Morgan was thankful just because their arm was still quite sore from their last training session). However, the human did notice that there had to be something coming this direction, due to Kaodie's odd stiff-legged behavior.
Whenever they turned around, they noticed that the 'scary' equillion was on it's way. The creature was a normal-looking old tainted equillion, and it was passively scaring the heck out of Kaodie. Now they could work on having him dodge the little biodegradable beebees while being under the effects of being scared.
[23] - [Start 'Hardy', Concurrent with Danger Sense]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 22, 2021 22:22:26 GMT -6
From what Morgan had been able to surmise from previous training experiences with different kinds of critters was that hardly anything was naturally inclined to be able to keep themselves from being frightened by aggressive creatures. Kaodie, it would seem, was no different than any of the ones they'd worked with before. He was literally scared stiff, his legs refusing to bend at the knees and hocks to allow him to move freely. His ears were perked as he stared at the oncoming equillion. "N-no, no-" Morgan said to him. "Pay attention to me." Morgan waves a hand at him as they moved to the other side of him. They picked up another of the little biodegradable beebees so that they could resume training him to dodge things.
"Pay attention t-to me. Kaodie!"" Morgan said again. This time, Kaodie turned his head at the sound of his name towards them, but his legs remained gridlocked so the next corrugated paper projectile hits him.
[24]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 22, 2021 22:45:22 GMT -6
Kaodie couldn't really move much. To make it worse; he kept turning his head back in between Morgan throwing the little paper pieces at him and shivering as he tried to get his body to move despite the crippling fear that had befallen him at the sight of the ever closer (hired) tainted equillion (and the handler of the creature of course). Morgan couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of it- and they could barely suppress it. "Come on Kaodie, I n-know the big critter is scary, b-but you have to pay attention." They moved again, to stand between the equillion and Kaodie. Whenever the owner of the equillion got within ten feet of them they went ahead and stopped the tainted from coming any further. Of course, frightening creatures didn't have to be very close to stop opponents in their tracks.
"O-okay, now pay attention." Morgan said to Kaodie, voice calm. They grabbed another handful of the little paper beebees from their pocket and then took one to throw at him again.
[25]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 23, 2021 21:15:11 GMT -6
Kaodie was getting to the point in their relationship as critter and trainer that he really looked to Morgan for emotional support. Though he didn't quite realize that he did so, perhaps. He watches Morgan the best he can, taking note of the fact that they were not nearly as concerned about the entire thing as he was. However, he flicks his gaze back to the equillion and found himself unable to move again- at least not in time to dodge the little piece of paper- and he knew he was supposed to do that.
The malii does try his best, stiff-legged-ly taking one step and ducking but he was still unable to keep himself from being hit by the tiny scrap-let of paper. Morgan tries it again soon after, and this time he makes a more concerted effort, forcing his legs into movement the best he could. He was able to just barely dodge this one. That was what Morgan wanted, right?
[26]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 23, 2021 21:33:16 GMT -6
The human couldn't be sure this go around if the fact that Kaodie had dodged that had been lucky, or if it was a breakthrough. He was struggling to move against the intimidating factor of the tainted equillion's presence, and that was a good sign. He was working on that a little bit harder than most of Morgan's creatures had, but perhaps it was because of their strong bond- Kaodie was fond of Morgan if nothing else. They could tell, having worked with Nico quite closely for so long; he was starting to get a little like that.
"That's it boyo, w-work against the fear." Morgan says, tossing him a treat this time (directly at his mouth so he wouldn't have to move to get it). They really didn't have time to play tug of war at the moment. Then, they got to work through the little biodegradable paper beebees at him one after another to get him to keep working on his dodging prowess at the same time.
[27]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 23, 2021 21:48:26 GMT -6
The idea that Morgan had was to hopefully get him to defeat his fear of the equillion and learn to dodge under duress. Morgan knew enough about how people tended to work on training their beasts (having grown up in the Labs City after all) to know that he would never NOT be doing this under duress anyway, so it was a happy accident that they were working on this at the same time. They worked for a further 15 minutes, with Morgan hitting him about a third of the time due to Kaodie's inability to fight off the effects of the equillion's terrifying appearance. Another fifteen minutes after that though, and Kaodie began to be able to move forward- though the movement was still so shaky. He was able to get away from most of the little biodegradable beebees at this point, now that his joints were not so stiffly locked. He still seemed very worried about the equillion, though.
[28]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 23, 2021 21:56:16 GMT -6
It was hard work, between the two of them. Morgan's arm began to get tired quite easily- and they worried about switching to their right arm (their off arm) since their own accuracy would decrease and reduce the efficiency of the training activity that they were partaking. They decided to power through it- they would have to go home later anyway, so they might as well cut the training short and just use up as much time as they had paid for with the tainted equillion's owner and try to get Kaodie to get used to the added stress of intimidation while dodging attacks.
Morgan did notice that as they continued (fighting through the soreness in their arm to continue throwing the little paper pieces at Kaodie) that the malii was getting quite good at dodging. He would dodge quickly to the left, dodge to the right- and finally (after about thirty more minutes of work in the presence of the scary opponent) they had a breakthrough-
Kaodie was no longer having to see the balls of paper coming before dodging away from them.
[29]
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