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Post by Noa on Apr 26, 2020 1:28:09 GMT -6
And Azalea’s confidence with moving at the speeds she was managing was important too; raw speed was one thing, but she had to actually be able to make use of it for it to do them any good in a practical situation. But still, the raw numbers helped--- or at least they didn’t hurt any, either. If Aster took everything else into consideration along with them, he would have a pretty good picture of what was happening.
Azalea didn’t seem at all put off by the idea of running the course again, which was a good sign, since she was likely going to be doing this same thing a lot. So long as they were still getting mileage out of this pool with the hoops, Aster was content to stay with it, since it saved him the trouble of formulating any new ideas or exercises for her to try.
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Post by Noa on Apr 26, 2020 1:28:32 GMT -6
Call it lazy, but hey, if it worked, it worked, right?
Fortunately for him, boredom wasn’t one of the big issues he faced when working with Azalea. Some of his more intelligent companions might be a different story, but then, the ones most likely to get bored were also the least likely to need to do this. He couldn’t imagine bringing Damien here for any reason.
… Well. There was Rhys, Aster supposed. There was Summer too, though Summer was a little better in terms of knowing when to put up with something even if she found it distasteful or, as it stood, boring. Rhys was more headstrong, so Aster didn’t know if he would be able to stick with a sufficiently bland regime.
But those were questions for another time. It would be a while yet before Aster seriously thought about bringing Rhys with him to the gym, let alone Summer, who had only recently even learned to dodge attacks at all.
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Post by Noa on Apr 26, 2020 1:28:43 GMT -6
For now, he watched as Azalea readied herself--- which was, by the by, an incredibly odd thing to see, if he thought about it. He had seen plenty of creatures gear up for putting on a burst of speed on land, and knew more or less what to look for, and why they were doing it. The butt wiggles, the crouching, that kind of deal. Aster was someone who walked and ran on land too, so he intrinsically understood the idea of generating more of a pushing force when taking off… But in the water it was a whole different beast. He knew what she was doing because of their telepathic connection, but without that forewarning, he might not have known what he was looking at until she took off.
And she did take off, with powerful movements of her tail, surging through the water as though she had been launched.
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Post by Noa on Apr 26, 2020 1:29:34 GMT -6
Maybe it was just Aster’s imagination, but he felt as though she was already trying harder this time. The first run through felt fast as it was, but it felt like she was going faster now. It was his mistake for not having taken his benchmark time when she had first tested them, but at the time he had thought she might not try very seriously, or maybe very well, since she was just learning their positions and what to do with him.
But then, he was used to pursuing this kind of training with slower creatures, he supposed. This was going to be a new experience for him in all sorts of ways, he could tell now.
Azalea was going for speed, but it became clear pretty quickly as he watched her that her control was still an issue. And now that she was pushing herself to go faster, it became even more apparent.
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Post by Noa on Apr 26, 2020 1:30:06 GMT -6
Sometimes she missed a hoop altogether and had to backtrack, which frankly took even more time than if she had just swam through it properly the first time. Already there was something for them to work on.
Still, he didn’t say anything for now, and let her run her way through the full length of the course and come to a stop. He didn’t want to stop her before he had managed to take a benchmark time, after all. And if he offered any advice in the middle, of course she would have to stop to listen to it, or else fail to absorb it, he thought. No, best to just save his breath, metaphorically speaking.
By the time Azalea wrapped up, Aster thought she might actually have taken longer this second time than she did during her first run, which was an interesting problem that Aster hadn't expected.
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Post by Noa on Apr 26, 2020 1:30:16 GMT -6
Well, as far as getting a benchmark time went, it posed no issues; he had a good frame of reference now. But as for fine tuning her agility skills, there was a lot of work to be done, for sure.
It didn’t bring him any pleasure to tell her how she did though. She seemed so earnest about it too, and didn’t seem to realize that her mistakes had cost her more time than a more precise approach might have.
The two of them breached the water’s surface together. Aster might not have needed to breathe thanks to the amulet around his neck, but Azalea, despite being more of a natural in the water, still had to come up for air once in a while. This was doubly true after having just exerted herself to the extent that she had just done. {How was it?} she said. {Did I do well?}
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Post by Noa on Apr 26, 2020 1:30:30 GMT -6
With her eyes on him, Aster felt even more put on the spot. But sparing her feelings wasn’t their goal in coming here, so he abandoned all such thoughts, and decided to just go with the truth. “It was worse,” he said, “than the first time. You were really fast when you could swim through the hoops, but if you missed one, you had to stop and backtrack… That cost you more time than if you had just taken the extra time to slow down a bit and check where you were going.” If he knew how to do it, he might have sugar coated it a bit more, to ease the blow of it. Unfortunately, Aster didn’t have such skills. And he could see the effects of his words immediately on Azalea’s countenance. The half breed seemed to wilt, the tendrils of her head plate drooping, and the movements of her swimming slowing almost to a stop.
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Post by Noa on Apr 26, 2020 1:31:51 GMT -6
{Was it really that bad?} she said.
“It’s not… bad, exactly,” Aster said, though he didn’t know if he sounded convincing. “You’re clearly fast in the water, and nothing can take that away from you. It’s just a matter of being strategic with how you use your speed.” He wondered if that was too complicated a concept for her. He never did know; he didn’t have to walk her through any of the more esoteric magical abilities that some of his other creatures had.
He tried to explain it in simpler terms. "We came here to work on things you're not great at just yet. You can already go pretty fast, so that's not something we need to work on. But right now it's hard for you to swim through all the hoops at that speed, so that's what we're going to focus on for now."
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Post by Noa on May 13, 2020 0:35:26 GMT -6
Azalea mulled it over for a moment, but she wasn’t the kind of creature who quibbled with Aster. If he said jump, she’d do it, and if he said one, she wouldn’t say two. Her chief concern had been whether he was disappointed in her, whether she had done badly, and Aster had said she hadn’t. Azalea was also not the type to dwell on doubts; if he said she hadn’t, then she hadn’t, and that was the end of that on that point.
As for putting in the work, if he wanted it, she would do it. He said she would get better if she tried, and trying was just a matter of doing it again and again until she got used to it, wasn’t it? {Then,} she said, {should I go again?}
Aster nodded. “Go again,” he said, “and I’ll time you. This time focus on going through the hoops. Don’t worry about being fast; your goal is to get through all of them in one go, no backtracking. Got it?”
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Post by Noa on May 13, 2020 0:35:38 GMT -6
{Got it,} Azalea said. If he didn’t want speed and wanted something different, then that was what she would strive for this time, no sweat off her back. Her good mood had been thoroughly restored by his reassurance, and she dipped into the water without a single gloomy thought. Aster, watching her go, felt a bit bemused; he had grown used to dealing with moodier creatures, and the sudden change of pace was a little too much for him, almost.
He really ought to spend more time with Azalea. It would bring him some measure of reprieve from the likes of Damien and Summer, and even Avander’s antics. Not that he wasn’t fond of all of them, but sometimes it was just nice to have someone who, well, listened to you without making some kind of comeback quip.
Aster hadn’t asked for Azalea to wait for her signal, so she only went so far as to prepare herself before launching herself forward at the hoops again.
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Post by Noa on May 13, 2020 0:35:51 GMT -6
Aster had been watching her carefully, so he had seen her preparing, and hadn’t missed the timing on starting the stopwatch. He watched as she sped through the first hoop, and for a moment, he thought she might have forgotten his instructions, since she wasn’t really going any more slowly than she had been before.
And maybe she had forgotten, in those first few moments. In fact, in all likelihood, she had. But then, after she cleared the first hoop, the memory came back to her, and she slowed down, even going as far as to stop for a moment as she took in where she ought to be going and corrected her course. Aster watched approvingly as she adjusted herself, and picked a much more efficient path through the second hoop and then the third. That had been more in line with what he had been hoping to see when he had asked her to take it slow this time.
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Post by Noa on May 13, 2020 0:36:06 GMT -6
And it was a slow run, to be sure. There could be no mistake about that one. But seeing as he wasn’t telling her to focus on speed, Azalea really didn’t focus on speed this time. It was as if she was learning the course again from scratch, as though the first run had meant absolutely nothing. But then, Aster wasn’t surprised by that kind of development either, since she had been going at her top speed the first time. She probably had no idea where anything even was, based on that initial pass.
True to his word, even though he was timing her, Aster didn’t rush her, and let her go through the entire course at her own pace, feeling it out. When she came to the end of it, he stopped the stopwatch, glanced down, and… Well, it wasn’t like he was expecting anything. This one shouldn’t really have counted anyway.
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Post by Noa on May 13, 2020 0:36:22 GMT -6
{How was it?} he asked her. {Are you getting a feel for it now?}
Azalea swam up to him idly, not at all tired. At least, not physically, anyway. {It’s twistier than I thought,} she said. She swam up again for air, though this time more because of the amount of time that she had spent underwater than from any exertion. Aster, who was wearing his amulet, stayed down where he was.
When Azalea dove back down, he said, {That’s the agility portion of it. Going fast is one thing, but this will be to help you make sure you can control where you’re going too.}
{I haven’t done this kind of swimming before, but I’ll try my best,} Azalea replied.
Aster didn’t doubt it, but he gave her a smile and said, {Hey, who knows, you might have some fun with it too.}
{Maybe,} Azalea agreed.
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Post by Noa on May 13, 2020 0:36:33 GMT -6
{Ready to try again then?} Aster said. Azalea gave him her assent, and then moved up to one of the rings. {Whenever you’re ready,} Aster said. He saw her making her preparations, then watched as she went through the first of the hoops.
She was still not going at her full speed, but this attempt wasn’t so ponderously slow as it had been before. Aster wondered if she had already determined the most efficient path, or if this was her way of experimenting with it, to see which trajectory would suit her needs best. Or maybe she wasn’t thinking that much about it at all. That was always a possibility too. Whatever it was, though, he could see that she was faring better than she had the first time, by virtue of not having to double back, if nothing else. She wasn’t going at full tilt, so obviously it wasn’t a speed that he could clock and say she was making quantifiable progress, but that would come in time.
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Post by Noa on May 13, 2020 0:36:54 GMT -6
Aster wasn’t about to get impatient because of something like this.The kind of body conditioning that gym training involved always took a while to establish. He waited until she was done with that run, then asked, {How was that? Do you feel more confident with it?}
{I think I could run it faster now,} Azalea said, affirming Aster’s guess.
{Good. Well, I’ll time you for real this time,} Aster said. The other two occasions were just to give him a sense of progress, but this was the real deal now. {Unless you’d like another round, just to feel it out?}
{No, I’m ready,} said Azalea.
Well, if she felt that she was ready, Aster wasn’t going to correct her. She would know best about how comfortable she felt with this whole thing. {Alright, this time go on my signal, okay?} Azalea agreed, and then assumed a position in front of the first of the rings, preparing herself to dash through it.
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