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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 11:55:41 GMT -6
Currently Training:
Hatori Stats:
Stamina: 2 Strength: 0 Resistance: 0 Dexterity: 5 Mentality: 8 Special Abilities: Ethreal, Empethetic Link, Water Immunity, Fly Moves: Telekenetic Powers, Hydro Shell
To Learn: Basics: [x] Name (1) - [x] No (1) - [x] Come (1) - [x] Stay (1) Attacks [x] Hydro Shell (6) - [x] Dodge (4) - [x] Telekinetic Powers (10)
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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 11:56:23 GMT -6
64.9/34.1 Telekinetic Powers - 13/50
Sitting on a park bench, Touj watched his breath form white puffs in the crisp air with a smile. Even after two years at the Labs, he couldn’t get rid of his childlike wonder around winter, as a time of year, as a very concept: even though he had a low tolerance for the cold, he loved crunching around in the snow and feeling the tingle of freeze on his skin.
“It’s nice isn’t it, Hatori?” he said with a smile, looking to the Shijin floating near his shoulder, shading the human slightly from the sun. “Even if its cold.”
The tortoise gave a noncommittal nod as it looked around the snowy park. Touj couldn’t help but stare at his ethereal companion as the sunlight refracted and dimmed through his form. Laughing, Touj formed a snowball from the ground and tossed it lightly at him.
The snowball stopped, frozen in the air halfway through its track. Touj laughed harder.
“Ah, still remember that, huh? Wanna work on it for a bit?”
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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 11:59:11 GMT -6
65.0/34.2 Telekinetic Powers - 14/50
Sensing the human’s interest, Hatori gave the snowball a twirl in the air before directing it back at Touj’s chest. He felt the dull thud against his chest and looked down to see snow coating the front of his jacket: even though it might be a nuisance when it got wet, he couldn’t help but smile and the action.
“Its not fair—you can’t even get hit in the first place!” He complained.
Another shrug. Touj just shook his head with another chuckle before going to brush off some of the snow still on him. But as he looked around at the snowy expanse, he pondered the abilities and limits of the powers Hatori had. He certainly could control things in the air, or pick things up from the ground around them- but can he form things? Could the shijin perform things that require fine motor skills? It all seemed to unclear.
"Hey, could you repeat this?" Touj asked. With deliberate showmanship, Touj picked up snow and packed it in his hands, forming another crisp snowball, that he then threw up in the air.
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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 12:08:26 GMT -6
65.1/34.3 Telekinetic Powers - 15/50
Hatori once again caught the snowball in the air, let it loat for a few minutes before sending it to zoom off somewhere else. Touj shook his head, slightly frustrated.
"No, I mean form one. Not control one I make. You," he pointed to Hatori, and then down to his other hand holding a fresh scoop of powdery snow, "Do this. Can you make something yourself?"
He made another snowball for demonstration, but destroyed it before the shijin could pick it up. He repeated the action two or three times, trying to convey as best he could to his companion that he wasn't talking about controlling a snowball itself, but the act of making a snowball. At times, the lack of verbal communication got frustrating- but he knew it was just because he was so used to only hanging out and teaching things to Tale after so long. The emotional bond, at the very least, helped: he felt Hatori's confusion and hint of irritation as the human kept trying to convey the task he wanted performed.
Sighing, Touj brushed away another snowball. There had to be a better way to do this.
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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 12:15:27 GMT -6
65.2/34.4 Telekinetic Powers - 16/50
Trying another tactic, Touj walked to a nearby drift and simply threw this hand through the snow, sending it flying in the air. As he pointed to the snow now floating in glittery droves back down to the surface, he looked toward Hatori to pick up the message of doing something with the snow like he had with water earlier. But the message wasn't getting through: Hatori just watched with a bemused expression. The human sighed, putting a glove to his face. Ack, that was cold and full of snow and now on his face.
"I want you to do something with this. The snow," he told his shijin, throwing up a bit of powdery snow again. Hatori looked at the snow falling down around Touj, before back to the human for confirmation. "Yeah, exactly. Can you catch something that's like that?"
The shijin responded with a surge of affirmation, so Touj went ahead and attacked the snowdrift with an arm again, spraying the white powder skyward once again.
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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 12:30:17 GMT -6
65.3/35.0 Telekinetic Powers - 17/50
This time, Hatori caught the snow mid air. It hung like a transparent sheet in the cold, the sunlight shining behind it making it seem like a cascade of small diamonds somehow kept still in the moment. Touj smiled. It was extremely beautiful, and it gave him a bit more insight into how Hatori's powers worked: he knew that the creature had control over non-solid materials, yes, but he wasn't sure if that was a water-only power, as he seemed aligned with that element more than others.
However, he could feel that keeping the snow afloat, captured in the odd standstill moment, was a strain on the shijin. He motioned for his companion to cease, and the snow completed its original arc, spraying back and away from where Touj had thrown.
"Good job!" He said with a beaming smile. It honestly was very lucky for him that Hatori was so smart, otherwise he wasn't sure what he could even do. "Can you do that yourself, do you think? Pick it directly off the ground?"
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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 12:40:45 GMT -6
65.4/35.1 Telekinetic Powers - 18/50
To convey his vision, Touj made a small arc in the snow, and then pointed. When he saw Hatori start to make effort to suspend the snow Touj threw up again, he shook his head.
"No, no, I want you to do this," he tried to explain, pointing to his arm, down to the snow, and pack at Hatori several times, clawing at a good visual representation for his request. He motioned with his arms open eagle over the snow drift, and then raised them up. "I want you to lift some snow from the ground itself. Can you do that?"
Touj felt dawning comprehension coming through his link, and nodded at Hatori with a smile. He thanked the gods once more than Hatori could piece together his vague gestures and rambling. With that, he watched as a thin sheet of snow cracked perfectly off the top of the snowdrift, brought up to Touj's eye level before him. Unlike the human's physical moving of snow, this snow was a block, solid but could be easily disturbed by Touj's hand: 6 inches of the top of the bank.
"Perfect," he breathed.
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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 12:59:32 GMT -6
65.5/35.2 Telekinetic Powers - 19/50
Perhaps because it was a solid or because it was less spread out than the snow Touj made him suspend earlier, Hatori had a much easier time keeping the chunk of snow midair than he had the powder particles. There wasn't the same strain he had felt earlier. Maybe it was easier to keep solid objects, or at least less disparate things in control: he'd have to remember that for the future, but also remember that the shijin was capable of doing such things for short amounts of time. It could be confusing to keep track of, but the important thing was feeling out Hatori's limits, in case they ever needed to use these skills outside of training.
But he had gotten off track, hadn't he? As impressive as lifting a chunk of snow was, Touj's initial question remained unanswered: could Hatori make a snowball?
"You can put that down," Touj said with a wave of his hand, and Hatori telekinetically set the snow back down gently, perfectly slotting back into place from where he picked it up. The human couldn't help but let a little chuckle burst out at that- he was always such a perfectionist. "Okay, I want you to make a snowball yourself, now."
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Post by Touj on Jan 29, 2018 13:19:06 GMT -6
65.6/35.3 Telekinetic Powers - 20/50
To demonstrate, he first made a snowball with his own hands, packing the light, fluffy powder into a formidable, hand-sized ball. He then crushed it in his fist, letting the snow go back down into the drift beneath him, and pointed back to Hatori. Knowing that he had the shijin's attention, he tapped his head in a signal to mean using his powers, and mimed the same sequence of actions: picking up snow from the snowbank and packing it into a round, sphere that can be held.
It took a few rounds of repeating the action and the miming before he was certain Hatori knew what the human wanted him to do. Touj had faith that he knew what he was supposed to be doing, but he wasn't sure whether the Shijin could complete the task: he had no idea about how the telekinetic pressures worked, if you could control how much force was behind each action, or if you could manipulate matter in the same way one could with their hands. It was all new to him, as it was to Hatori, and there was no telling just yet what the limits were on these powers.
"Ready?" Touj finally said. He received a nod back, and a twinge of hesitation, nervousness from Hatori that he might not be able to perform what Touj wanted him to. "It's okay. I know you're trying hard either way. Let's give it a go, okay?'
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Post by Touj on Jan 30, 2018 23:46:17 GMT -6
65.7/35.4 Telekinetic Powers - 21/50
Much to his delight, Hatori understood what he was trying to convey. The shijin picked up a chunk of snow again, watching from a distance of a few feet as it hovered in the air over the snowbank. From there, he sifted the substance making it into a powder, ruining the perfection of the film of snow it once was. The powder he had a considerably harder time keeping control over, Touj noticed: he felt the building pressure and an underlying rise of concentration once this step of the process was completed.
But he held control over the powder, and slowly but surely, pressed the snow into a clump, mashing the white powder into a single, circular clump. It was taking him quite a bit of time and energy, the human could tell, but he wasn't sure if that was exertion or lack of practice. Either way, a significant chunk of that effort was going towards Hatori's need to make everything perfect: he took an extra 15 seconds after he'd successfully made a snowball to make sure that the pressure on all sides made it even and completely spherical.
But it was done: Hatori could form objects.
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Post by Touj on Jan 30, 2018 23:50:14 GMT -6
65.8/36.0 Telekinetic Powers - 22/50
"Great job Hatori," Touj gushed, running over to hug the shijin. "That's so cool!"
Hatori responded with a flush of embarrassed pride and retaliated with throwing the snowball lightly at Touj's turned back. The human didn't let go, though: it wasn't every day that you learn your floating turtle friend had the equivalent of invisible psychic hands at his disposal. The more he thought about it, the more possibilities opened up: technically, Hatori could learn to use tools, or even maneuver objects in ways physically impossible for humans and human-adjacent people to do because of their anatomy.
"You're something special, you know that?" He gave a final reaffirmation to Hatori before backing off. There was a lot of cool things they could do, but he wasn't sure Hatori was quite ready for anything too big yet. "Hey, let's try to do that again, a little quicker this time, okay?"
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Post by Touj on Jan 30, 2018 23:55:53 GMT -6
65.9/36.1 Telekinetic Powers - 23/50
Touj pointed over to the snowdrift and made a balling motion with his hands once more. The shijin shot him a quick nod, now sure of the action they were practicing. This time was a little bit simpler, not needing to break apart the snow before he started forming the snowball. But still, Hatori took much longer than Touj thought strictly necessary to make the object in question.
The snowball was, like the one before it, a truly beautiful creation: completely spherical, symmetrical and well-packed: but Touj wanted to know what he could do on the fly. The Tumai was used to battle training, to needing to respond to things quickly and on instinct: the way Hatori approached this problem would not fly in any dire circumstances, especially not something life-or-death.
But he was getting ahead of himself, wasn't he? Touj shook himself free of his tactical thoughts. Hatori probably wouldn't be using these skills in combat any time soon. However, he reasoned with himself, it was still important to know. Just in case.
"Let's speed it up a little more."
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Post by Touj on Jan 31, 2018 0:13:39 GMT -6
66.0/36.2 Telekinetic Powers - 24/50
After the third time with no more success at getting Hatori to speed up, Touj was growing impatient. He watched Hatori repeat the same, unhurried action of creating a snowball on his fourth request before he finally snapped. He went to the hovering, forming snowball and smacked it back down to the earth.
"There. You're done. You would've gotten taken out far, far before that," he said, mainly to himself, but knowing that the shijin understood his sentiment. "An enemy isn't going to wait for you to move at your own pace."
Compared to the mild pride and deep concentration he had felt as Hatori made his own, perfect snowballs, he balked with indignation and a covered shame at Touj's tone and dismissal of soon-to-be-fourth perfect snowball. But as he saw Touj's glare, he calmed down a bit. While Touj didn't know the exacts of the Genbu's thoughts, he knew that his companion understood where he was coming from. If they were going to use this in any practical setting, he couldn't afford to work things to perfection the way he wanted to. Hatori nodded, and then made a (still fairly perfect) snowball in just 20 seconds, and placed it in Touj's palm.
The human looked at it and back to Hatori. He was trying: it was a good start.
"Good, good. Let's see how fast you can get this."
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Post by Touj on Jan 31, 2018 0:27:02 GMT -6
66.1/36.3 Telekinetic Powers - 25/50
The goal was to get Hatori to do this as quick to instantaneously as possible, and then be able to throw the projectile at a target in that short amount of time, Touj decided. He was fairly sure, given enough practice and a little mindset change from Hatori that this would be possible, especially with smaller scale objects like snow that they were dealing with.
Getting there, as always, was the biggest issue. Repetition was usually key. Touj pulled back the arm of his coat to reveal a watch on his wrist, ticking away softly as the afternoon passed.
"For now, let's have you make," he mimed packing a snowball, and then launching it at a tree, "and throw it in ten seconds." he held up ten fingers at the Shijin. "Ready?"
Hatori understood that it was a countdown, a race to finish and throw- regardless of if he understood how much time he had- so gave a nod. Touj smiled back at him, and gave the countdown.
"Three, two, one... Start."
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Post by Touj on May 15, 2018 18:23:36 GMT -6
66.2/36.4 Telekinetic Powers - 26/50
The next step of training proceeded without much of a delay. From here in out, it was just a matter of building reflexes and strength. Touj knew from his own training these two skills were built through simple, rote practice- there wasn't much they could do to speed up the process.
"Okay, how about we start doing reps of the exercises we've done so far?" Touj suggested, picking up the sticks once more.
Hatori caught into his thought process quickly and gave a short nod. Touj laughed. "Always so serious, huh? Okay then, let's get on with it.”
The pair went through sets of the practices they'd done their last two sessions again. Although Touj could tell the Shijin was starting to tire after an hour into the workout, he could also tell it wasn't exhaustion: Hatori was building the mental capacities, which Touj envisioned as mind muscles, to maintain a workout.
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