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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:49:56 GMT -6
As soon as the blindfold was secured, she stepped back. “I will begin to throw these projectiles at you,” she said. “You must do your best to evade them. They will not hurt if they strike you, but you will be able to feel them. Use these as a measure of your success.” In that sense, they were not unlike the markers that she had used to test his ability to see in the dark.
The creature did not acknowledge her words in any overt sense, but she could see that he had assumed something like a ready stance, his feet well apart and his ears pricked. He was trying to make himself more alert. That was a good sign. The eventual goal of the training would be to have him able to do this without any notice, but in the beginning it was too much to expect that. In the beginning, it would be too much to expect that he would be able to dodge either.
(22)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:50:07 GMT -6
Everyone had to start somewhere though. She threw the first ball. Sure enough, it hit his flank--- though that hadn't been where she was aiming. He had moved when she had thrown the ball, so he could sense that there was an attack coming. If it hadn't been pure luck on his part, then even this was more than Rabbit had expected from him. He hadn't known where it would land, or how to evade it, but he had known that it was coming.
Any theory had to be tested, however, and one occasion could very well have been a fluke. Rabbit changed her positioning and threw another ball.
This one also struck, but again, it wasn't quite the place she was aiming for. A few more repetitions produced very similar results. Rabbit grew more and more certain that her theory held true, that the creature was aware of when the attacks were coming.
(23)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:50:31 GMT -6
It was the rest of it that was the issue. Clearly he wasn't able to move well enough to evade the attack when handicapped like this, and she couldn't tell based on his body language whether he could tell where the attacks were coming from locationally either.
It made her wonder what he was sending, exactly, when he sensed that there was an imminent attack. Killing intent? Well, no; she hardly acted with intent to kill, or even to harm. And how capable a robot might be of 'intent' of any kind was still a debatable matter.
But by the end of the session, it was clear that his focus on where the attacks were coming from was sharpening too. Rabbit began to see him using his ears to follow her around, even when she was making every effort to move quietly. A few times, she saw his nose twitch too, the nostrils flaring.
(24)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:51:00 GMT -6
He was taking, perhaps, the advice that she had given him about seeing in the dark, and applying it now, here, when he was deprived of vision entirely. His other senses could compensate, at least somewhat, for the lack of it.
It wasn't perfect, but it was a faster acclimation than she had anticipated, at least in this avenue.
The trouble was that his dodging wasn't showing anywhere near the same improvement. She could register his frustration as well. He felt every rubber ball that hit home, and almost all of them did strike him. The few that didn't happened so infrequently that Rabbit could not have called them anything but a fluke. Near the end, he had been lunging from side to side, and sometimes his movements were wide enough that the ball would miss, but the attempt was clearly exhausting him as he repeated it, and it wasn't always effective even then.
(25)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:51:11 GMT -6
He was aware of his failures in this regard, and when the blindfold finally came off, he shook himself free, tail lashing.
"It is only our first session in learning this," she said. "Improvements will come with time and practice."
He did not look comforted by this. In fact, she had told him similar things before, and he never looked very mollified when she did, even though it almost inevitably proved true, and even though, by this point, he had been through things like this a few times before.
There was nothing for it but to let him cool off, and Rabbit left him to his own devices for the rest of the day. When she returned to him the next day, she found him waiting just as he had been the day before, except instead of seeming eager to begin, there was a sense of… not anger, not exactly, but he could hardly have been said to be calm.
(26)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:51:31 GMT -6
"We cannot begin like this," said Rabbit.
The creature growled at her, a low, slow rumble in his throat.
"I understand that you desire improvement. But unless you are calm, I think you will only make more mistakes. This will not make you happier."
The creature's tail swung wildly, and he glared at her. Rabbit knew she had to suggest something else, provide a solution for his problem. She wished to make him breathe a moment to calm himself, as he had done when she was talking him through how to be at ease in the dark, but in his present state, she wondered if he would even acquiesce to such a request.
Something else, then.
He was hungry for improvement, and Rabbit had had her own private theories about the roadblock that he was currently encountering. She would have liked a little more information before proceeding with what she had thought of, but considering their current method wasn’t working, she may as well make the attempt now.
(27)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:51:48 GMT -6
(Start: Dodge)
“Perhaps I was too hasty,” she said. “Let us forget about the blindfold for now, and focus on the basics of dodging. Once you can do it while watching for where the attacks are coming from, you should be able to react faster and more accurately when we put the blindfold back on.”
This development didn’t much please the creature either. No matter how you looked at it, she was saying he wasn’t ready to do what they had attempted yesterday, and that must have looked to him as though they were taking a step back. He snorted his displeasure, but he didn’t seem as upset as he had a moment ago.
Rabbit thought that her explanation must have gotten through to him, at least a little. And while this may have been a step back to work on a more basic skill, it wasn’t giving up on the whole thing either.
(28)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:52:49 GMT -6
With time, maybe he would come to see it as a better strategy, especially if it managed to produce some success.
“You have recovered very well, but your movements are still a little stiff. You may not be moving as nimbly as you are used to. This will help you re-acclimate to the lighter movements needed to dodge an attack and stay mobile,” said Rabbit. This speech, at last, produced something like real calm in the creature. If it felt as though she were giving him an out, well… If that was what he needed to sate the wound in his pride, then so be it. Words were cheap, especially from a robot.
He did not refuse, and Rabbit took this as encouragement enough. “I will call out a signal for you to dodge, at first. If you find this too easy, consider it a warm-up, and we will increase the difficulty as we progress.”
(29)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:52:59 GMT -6
What she didn’t say was that she felt that he needed all the wins he could get, and that there was some merit, even, to his becoming accustomed to moving at her cue. She didn’t anticipate their being in combat, but if this creature wished to learn these things, then he must not have thought it completely improbable. In a fight, they would likely have two different vantage points, and the time may come for her to point out something he couldn’t have seen himself.
She did hope it never came to that. But one could never be certain.
“We will begin,” she announced. “Dodge.”
With that, she threw the first ball. It was easy, this first one--- she threw it straight at him, from the center of his vision. He sidestepped it neatly, and shot her a withering look, as if to ask her whether this was what she thought of his skills.
(30)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:53:11 GMT -6
Very well. If he wanted a greater challenge, so be it. “Dodge.” Rabbit moved, and the next ball was thrown at a curve. She thought she might catch him off guard, but the creature’s head snapped to where the ball was going to land, teeth bared.
He dodged this one too, but much more narrowly. Rabbit inclined her head slightly. “Dodge,” she said again, and threw a third ball, running around him so that this one came from almost the opposite direction.
Finally, this proved to be too much for the creature. It was not that he did not notice the ball; of course he noticed it. Again she could see his head swinging in that direction. It was only that his body would not follow fast enough, and he could not evade it in time. It struck his shoulder bouncing off.
He bared his teeth in a soundless expression of displeasure.
(31)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:53:22 GMT -6
Rabbit stopped, surveying the situation. After a moment, when the creature began to stare at her, she said, “Correct me if I’m wrong… You have no trouble detecting the projectiles. Even while blindfolded, that wasn’t the primary difficulty for you.” The creature made no noise, but neither did he move. Rabbit felt that this must be a cue for her to go on. If she had been wrong, he would have done something to let her know as much. He was capable of that much.
“Based on what I’ve observed, the primary issue is with moving your body.” She could see his tail beginning to sway back and forth. He did not like being reminded of this. “Your quickness may not be what it was, and there is little remedy for that but time and steady physical therapy. However, even in your current state, there are things that can be done.”
(32)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:53:42 GMT -6
His ears pricked forward. Seeing that she had his attention, she continued. “Your awareness is your strength, and you are held back by your physical limitations. One solution to this issue would be to practice greater economy in your movements.”
The creature inclined his head, the way Rabbit had done when she had first noticed this problem.
“I will remain where I am and throw at you. This time, you are to dodge by as small a margin as possible. The less you move yourself, the better, so long as you are not hit.”
Having explained the rules of the exercise, she began at once. “Dodge,” she said. She threw the first ball. She could see the creature tensing up for a larger movement, but reining himself in at the last second and making a smaller, more calculated sidestep. He still dodged the ball by a fairly wide margin, but he had dodged it, and she could see that he was making an effort.
(33)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:54:22 GMT -6
There was no need to remark to him about whether he did well with this first attempt, or with any others thereafter. He knew the rules just as she did after her explanation, and she was certain he was monitoring his own progress. The best she could do for him now was to continue on. “Dodge,” she said, and threw another ball.
This time he took a greater risk--- a smaller movement. This time, he was not so successful. But the ball only grazed him, and it wasn’t what could be called a proper strike. In Rabbit’s mind, that was still an improvement, even if the creature himself seemed vexed by it.
She would not give him time to dwell on that, however. “Dodge,” she said again, and threw a third ball. And then a fourth, and a fifth, and so on, until eventually she called the training session to an end.
(34)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:54:38 GMT -6
He was still not dodging perfectly well, even when all the attacks came from the front, but he was dodging better. It was taking him less and less movement, and more importantly, she could see that he no longer had to think about it as much either. Sometimes, especially when they first began this exercise, she could see him trying to estimate how much effort to exert, and in overthinking it, missed his timing. It happened less and less as they practiced.
But she could also see him tiring, and she wanted to set him up for success as much as she could. There was no sense in pushing him past his optimal condition for practice for now.
They would have time. And time, as much as anything, was needed for improvement.
They resumed the same training the next day, practicing the same exercise. It was probably not terribly interesting by this point, but the creature threw himself into it without complaint.
(35)
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Post by Noa on May 21, 2019 21:55:06 GMT -6
(End: Dodge)
It took him some time to warm up, but once he had, he was clearly much better than he had been the day before. It seemed that he had retained some of yesterday’s practice, and his body was better remembering how to make smaller, calculated movements.
After the third day, he did so much better that she began changing her angles of assault. This increased the challenge level for him, but it became immediately evident that Rabbit’s simpler exercise had done him some good. He was able to dodge almost all the projectiles, and it was mostly his economy of movement that sometimes suffered. Even so, she could see him working to close that gap.
The days bled into a week, by which point the creature could consistently dodge what she threw at him, using something like the minimum movement required to do it. There was room for further refinement, but she imagined that he would improve as his body recovered, and as they practiced with the blindfold on.
(36)
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