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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:32:02 GMT -6
Still, there was nothing wrong with getting limber, and the process would put Avander in the right frame of mind for work in general. “Let me wrap your legs first though.”
He didn’t know if wrapping Avander’s legs was going to be helpful either, frankly, but it gave him something to do while he thought. Avander stood patiently while Aster wrapped the lower parts of each of his legs, then tested the foot to make sure it was sound. Then, on Aster’s signal, Avander took a couple of walking laps around the big track, and then another one at a jogging pace. He was already used to this much, and no longer needed anything in the way of monitoring or coaching from Aster for such a simple task in a familiar place.
Aster, meanwhile, had to figure out what it was he was doing with this resistance training, exactly.
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:32:17 GMT -6
By the time Avander finished with his warm-ups, Aster had a preliminary idea that he had been mulling over. “Okay,” he said, leading Avander to stand in front of a thing that shot tennis balls out. He didn’t know if this was meant for use in resistance training, but seeing it gave him the most promising idea that had occurred to him thus far, at least. “This is going to throw balls at you, the way I did when I was teaching you to dodge. This time I want you to take the hit, but take it on an area of your body that’s sturdy, and keep it away from your fragile bits.”
{Tennis balls. The eternal nemesis,} Avander said. Aster cracked a smile despite himself. Avander gave himself a last shake, then assumed more or less a ready position. Aster eyed him, then went to turn on the machine.
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:32:29 GMT -6
It came to life with a clunk and a great deal of rumbling. Avander’s ears went back, but his focus stayed on the place where the balls would emerge. One second, then tw… Aster could hear the balls traveling through the machine, getting loaded into place. And then suddenly, with a loud noise that was almost a pop, one yellow-green projectile went hurtling on toward Avander…
… who sidestepped it neatly, like Aster had taught him to do.
Aster had to resist the urge to smack the palm of his hand into his forehead. Honestly, he ought to have expected this. In fact he didn’t know if he was a fool for thinking anything other than this would be what happened, since he had spent so much time and effort teaching Avander to dodge. In the heat of battle, it didn’t always happen, and Avander did make for such a big target…
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:32:41 GMT -6
But he was also nimble, especially for his size, and his temperament suited it. He naturally preferred to dodge if he could help it, and a tennis ball was not a particularly formidable opponent, even when launched from a machine.
Avander could sense Aster’s… what? Disappointment? Well, at any rate, Avander knew that wasn’t what Aster had been looking for. And on his end, Aster could tell that Avander felt bad for what happened. Not devastated, which was good, because in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that big a deal. But he understood that this wasn’t what was supposed to happen.
“Okay, just try to keep still for the next one,” Aster said. But halfway through the statement, the machine spat out another ball, and again Avander ducked out of the way. Aster could tell that there had been a real effort to stay in place this time, but his instincts had simply won out, yet again.
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:32:51 GMT -6
This time, Aster didn’t bother to say anything. He had already explained what they were doing, and Avander wasn’t stupid. Maybe the extra talking was just distracting him. Instead, Aster stepped back, and watched as the machine shot another ball in Avander’s direction.
Avander didn’t move this time. He took it in the chest, which wasn’t necessarily where Aster might have wanted him to take a hit, but he let the ball hit him. And Aster decided to count that as a win, at least for their initial acclimation process. Once Avander got used to the idea, then they could work on where it was he was actually getting hit.
He watched on as Avander took a few more hits, before finally stepping in to offer some more instruction. “Try moving around now, taking the hit with a different part of your body,” Aster said. “See where it hurts more, and where it hurts less.”
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:33:01 GMT -6
{Usually you just tell me the answer,} Avander said.
“Maybe,” Aster said. And he did have a few hunches, to be honest, just from his general understanding of creature anatomy. “But it’ll stick better if you figure it out yourself. And once you do, start moving so you always take a hit with one of those sections of your body.”
{You just want to see me get hit, I’ll bet,} Avander said. But he did as Aster directed. The tennis balls had a certain rhythm to them that wasn’t at all difficult for Avander to figure out and react to. After all, he had already participated in his share of actual fights, and Aster had trained him to contend with much worse. His countenance was relaxed as he changed his position, allowing the balls to pelt him on his shoulder, his back, his haunches, and the like.
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:33:11 GMT -6
Instinctively he didn’t bother trying to let one hit him in the face, which was smart; taking a blow head on in the literal sense probably wasn’t going to end well. He was a Wiurn now, but his head didn’t have the traditional hard plate on it, and the horns, while sturdy, didn’t have the same shielding integrity.
After a while, he began to favor taking hits to the shoulder. This made sense; it was where his scales were sturdiest and thickest, and there wasn’t anything too delicate beneath, like there would be further along his side, where his ribs and organs were. Of course, a grievous enough cut into the flesh would hurt his mobility, but if that happened, then they had bigger issues to contend with. For the purposes of this exercise, it was a sound conclusion for him to have come to.
It was time to move on.
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:33:39 GMT -6
“Okay, you’ve figured out where it hurts the least. Now you want to make it hurt less. Try to tense up that area just as the hit’s about to come,” Aster said. That was the other aspect of this, learning to prepare for an incoming blow and mitigating it as best you could. “It might feel weird at first, and it’s okay if you don’t get it right away. But you’ll get used to it.”
{Sometimes I think most of what I’m doing is just getting used to things,} Avander replied. But Aster could see him trying to do as Aster had instructed, the next time a tennis ball came hurtling toward him.
From there, progress was slow and a little irregularly paced at times, but it happened. Avander eventually learned the timing of tensing himself up to take the blows, just as Aster had instructed.
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:33:51 GMT -6
That was enough for an initial session, though they had a follow-up one where Aster took a more portable tennis ball launcher, and used it to walk around Avander so the Wiurn could get used to the idea of having to adjust his position.
It always took a couple of tries to work out his ‘jitters’, or more accurately, his penchant for dodging… But it didn’t take very long, so Aster didn’t grumble over it too much. And after each session, there would be a cool down, complete with water and a nice rub down with a soft cloth, just the way he liked. It was a reward for putting up with something that wasn’t terribly pleasant, even if the sessions did get less bothersome as time went on, just because Avander was improving at what he was doing.
“There, that should do it, I think,” Aster pronounced after a particularly good session.
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:35:48 GMT -6
Avander was only breathing a little hard, having had to move around a lot this time around, but he still looked to be in good shape.
{We’re done?} Avander said. {We’re not coming back tomorrow?}
“Yeah, I think that’s it,” Aster said. It really did feel sort of final, like this. They had spent a lot of time at the gym together over the years, working on refining Avander's physique, first when he had been a Sarane, with Aster aspiring to win with him in the Pit, and now... Well, like this.
He had come a long way, to be sure. But Aster knew from long acquaintance too that Avander wouldn't be the least bit sorry to see the last of this place, not even from a place of nostalgia.
Was nostalgia something a Wiurn had to begin with?
"Alright, let's wrap this up, and get you home," Aster said.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 12:59:06 GMT -6
The so called ‘boss battles’ had been an interesting experience for Noa and company. The creatures they fought had been tough, but not entirely beyond their abilities, even witn Azalea and Nightshade only half-developed at best by Noa’s reckoning. But at the same time, it hadn’t gone nearly as quickly and smoothly as it could have, all things considered. Especially not when he knew that at her full strength, Azalea was at least as strong as Avander was, questions of flying aside. And the boss fights had pointed to some pretty obvious gaps in their repertoire, especially Nightshade’s – but also Azalea’s. Since her transformation, she had learned how to navigate a lot of things without her hearing, but her sense for danger was definitely not what it had been. The obvious way to rectify this was with more training... But at the moment, Noa felt it better to go to the gym first. Gym training was something that happened over the course of a long period of time, to make the most use of it anyway, and it was important to get an early start. On this occasion, he was here with Nightshade rather than Azalea, since Azalea had had a little bit of gym training previously, and Nightshade certainly had not. 1
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 12:59:53 GMT -6
Rhys also accompanied them, riding sleepily on Noa’s shoulders as Noa made his way into the gym building with Nightshade in tow. It was early in the morning, but Nightshade was awake, and so was Noa. Normally Noa wouldn’t have been awake so early; with Rabbit around, there was hardly any reason for him to be these days anyway. But sometimes the nightmares came, and despite Rhys’s best efforts, Noa couldn’t quite get himself in the mood to return to sleep.
He figured, if he was going to be awake, then he may as well spend that time doing something useful.
Frankly, Noa had never done this with a creature who did not already have a telepathic connection with him, but there was a first time for everything, he supposed. The reason everyone else he had come here with had been able to speak mind to mind with him was because he rarely bothered with gym training for a pet he didn’t intend to invest seriously in, but he was investing seriously in Nightshade, was he not?
And the reason why Nightshade still didn’t have a ribbon on him...? Well, that was merely a bit of laziness and forgetfulness on Noa’s part.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 13:00:12 GMT -6
The woman at the counter barely batted an eyelash when she saw him. He was a regular here, to the extent that even with his obvious eccentricities, he was allowed to pass without fuss. Another day, another visit from the mage and one of his monsters. Not even worth carding him for.
That was just as well too, since given the state of his morning, Noa had absolutely no desire to talk to anyone. They made their way to the area designated for large creature training, and Noa set about trying to decide what they would do first.
Honestly, agility training seemed like the best place to start. It was what he usually worked on first with his creatures anyway. In the Pit, speed was everything... And even in other combat situations, it was generally better to get the jump on your opponents if you could. Noa himself wasn’t particularly speedy an individual, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make sure his creatures were.
“Set up the poles, will you?” he said to Rhys. “I’m going to get Nightshade warmed up.” Having brought Rhys along, Noa handed off a task to the Faeron almost immediately upon arrival.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 13:00:25 GMT -6
Rhys made a sleepy noise, but opened his wings and fluttered down to the ground, then ambled over to where the poles were and began the task of setting them up.
“Remember to space them out,” Noa said over his shoulder as he led Nightshade over to the track.
{Okay,} Rhys replied. Noa didn’t know if Rhys would actually get the spacing correct, since he hadn’t actually come along to a lot of Noa’s gym training sessions, but even if he didn’t, it was always something they could correct at a later point. He wasn’t concerned about it. Rhys’s telekinesis meant that he could go about it much faster than Noa could, and anyway lifting things wasn’t exactly Noa’s strong suit to begin with.
Once Noa reached the track, he began walking around it with Nightshade. The lack of a telepathic connection meant that he couldn’t really just give Nightshade a regimen and expect him to follow it, so Noa had to actually go through and walk the warm-up with the Wiurn. It wasn’t ideal, since by nature he wasn’t really the type who enjoyed exercise, but since it was just the warm-up, it wasn’t the worst thing.
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2021 13:00:40 GMT -6
Nightshade had already been moving around for a bit from the walk from the property to the gym building, which in and of itself wasn’t a short distance. They wouldn’t be spending a lot of time on the track on top of it.
In fact, they finished just as Rhys finished setting up the poles, after taking two whole circuits of the track. {That was fast!} Rhys said as he watched them walking toward the poles that he’d set up. Having finished the chore that he had been set to, the Faeron was fully awake now, and full of his usual energy. Just listening to him made Noa tired, honestly, but on the other hand maybe it would catch. Gods knew he needed the boost of energy for himself today.
“I got sick of walking,” Noa said simply. He turned his attention to examining Rhys’s handiwork. To his mild surprise, the Faeron had managed to arrange the poles at an acceptable distance from one another, despite never having done this for a Wiurn before.
{Hehe! Are you surprised? I picked up on a rough mental image of how far you’d want them apart,} Rhys announced proudly, puffing out his tiny chest.
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