|
Post by Morgan on Sept 18, 2020 14:12:11 GMT -6
After looting the little pile of stuff, and leaving the rotten leather be, Morgan stands up, brushes theirself off, and then moves outside of the edge of the orchard. Little Whisper seemed incredibly pleased with her new shiny object. She had TWO shinies now! She made a soft, suspiciously happy noise, and then burrowed down into Morgan's pocket. The human chuckled, but finally paid attention forward, and realized that there was a strange, tall, red colored fence in front of them, made up of wooden planks. The human squints quietly, trying to see between the slats, to no avail. The fence is easily two of them high- not impossible to climb of course (at least for the ultra dexterous Morgan) but inscrutable to peer over in a simple way. The human has a displeased expression as they try to decide what to do. A scent of some kind was wafting over, as well.
[82]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 18, 2020 14:18:56 GMT -6
The heavy perfume hit Morgan's nose, and they realized after a moment or two (consisting of Morgan sneezing, wrinkling their nose, and then tentatively sniffing again when the smell threatened to lift away and become undetectable to their weak human sense of smell) that it wasn't actually perfume, but the heady scent of street foods, sweets, and something a bit autumnal. Morgan's mouth suddenly watered. It hadn't been forever since they had last eaten, but it had been breakfast the last time they had eaten. They make the decision to go ahead and walk around the red fence and try to find a way to come in simply and politely instead of climbing up the fence along the slats. It was partially a decision made with Whisper in mind- since it was possible for her to get hurt if Morgan wasn't ultra careful due to her riding in the pocket of their labcoat.
[83]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 18, 2020 14:22:56 GMT -6
The orchard to Morgan's left and the fence to their right; the human walked along a small dirt path made between them. Perhaps it was a natural partition between the more wild and free 'harvest' side, and the more industrial 'festival' side? It could have just as easily been a path made by creatures, or humans using it to get from one place to another. At first, Morgan was afraid that they may not be able to find a gate. However, they soon realized that the red fence became less industrial and useful (ugly, really) to being more ornate as they went along. It was, in their mind, a good sign that they may be able to find their way into the festival. As they went along, the faint sounds of excitement became more loud. It was obvious that they were getting closer and closer to the source! Little Whisper didn't seem to like the noise at all.
[84]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 18, 2020 14:28:24 GMT -6
Morgan didn't really blame the tiny creature for not being too keen on the noise. She was small, and slow-witted at least for now, so it was probably a bit overwhelming for her to be hearing the loud sounds of music and rhythmic banging noises. Morgan wasn't familiar with the kind of instrument, whatever it was. It was not quite like a drum, according to the sound, but had to be some sort of percussion instrument. They continued to walk on in the same direction, and soon enough they came across the gate. It was huge and beautiful, with pillars of what looked to be bronze. They were shiny, as if they had not been bothered by the nature that surrounded them. Perhaps someone would have gone about cleaning them? Of course, the knowledge that the mansion just made stuff like this all the time didn't stop them from questioning it.
[85]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 18, 2020 14:47:22 GMT -6
The human realizes that they probably need to teach Whisper to follow them. It was a sudden thing that they thought of nearly as soon as they got to the gate. They knew that they had worked on her with the 'come' command up to this point, so she wouldn't be able to run away too far before Morgan called her back to them. They quietly took her out of their pocket, sat her on the ground, and then held out a treat while giving a 'hand wave' that they used as the command for 'follow' with other critters. Whisper watched Morgan more intently than she did before (was it all of the omega three they had put in her diet, or was it simply the cementing of the psycho-social bond up to this point?) and the human figured that it was a very good sign that she was paying more attention now.
[86] - [Start 'Follow']
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 18, 2020 15:23:57 GMT -6
Morgan hoped that the treat would be enough to get Whisper to following them. They fully intended on opening and entering the gate, but they wanted Whisper to know how to follow and to be able to follow them. Morgan gives the hand signal again, and then walks about three feet away from the gate. Whisper follows, eyes on the prize the entire time. Morgan knew that the treat would be enough to get Whisper to follow them! (Or at least, that was what they told theirself when it worked, undoubtedly they would have said or thought differently had they been wrong, such was the nature of human confirmation bias...) "Good job, Whisper!" They said to her, giving her the treat after bending down to her level. Whisper just about takes a nip out of Morgan's finger when she grabbed the treat, but Morgan was used to that sort of thing by now.
[87]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 18, 2020 15:31:58 GMT -6
The 'following' behavior was generally one of those ones that was pretty simple to teach. As the psycho-social bond began to cement, creatures generally wanted to be close to their owner, and that combined with the promise of snacks was generally enough for creatures to get the gist. However, the fact that Morgan tended to use three different kinds of ways to deliver the commands for the behaviors sometimes made that incredibly difficult for some creatures to make the leap between verbal, whistled, and then hand sign commands. Some creatures got it fast, some got it slow, and some didn't seem to see the difference.
Whisper was, strangely enough, one of the ones that didn't see the difference. Whenever Morgan makes the hand signal again, she watches it with sunset-colored eyes, and when Morgan pulls another treat out of the pouch and begins to walk away, she followed that treat like she was supposed to.
[88]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 18, 2020 15:44:24 GMT -6
Morgan bent down, praised the little runner with a "Great job Whisper!" before handing her another treat. This time they were able to dodge her little snap with quite a bit of ease. They were going to have to train her out of that, they knew, because if she got any bigger than that she was going to be super dangerous... It was gonna be a mess getting her out of that habit though. Morgan didn't have time to work on that with her right now though. Instead, they gave the hand signal for 'follow' again, and then held another treat out. Whisper followed, Morgan praised her and gave her the treat, and then repeated the action another three times with her in that order. Morgan wanted to make sure that she was going to follow even if the treat wasn't presented though, so they decided to move on to that next.
[89]
|
|
|
Post by Jack on Sept 19, 2020 19:38:55 GMT -6
The scent of alcohol is strong, wafting towards you through the air. Is that cider...? Full of apple aroma that goes straight to your head. Without touching a drop, the world around you starts to spin. Oh dear. You feel the need to steady yourself, or sit down, before you can continue on your adventure.
[The next five posts yield no results.]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 21, 2020 22:46:45 GMT -6
Morgan had to finish up teaching, and to do so, they went ahead and withheld the treat the next time, keeping it hid so that she did not see it at first. The then gave her the signal, and began walking towards the gate. Little Whisper didn't seem to care whether or not the treat could be seen, or perhaps it was that she was simply getting more used to trusting Morgan, but she knew to follow when she saw that hand sign. Morgan turned around, and praised her loudly for doing properly! "Great j-job, Whisper!" At that, they gave her a treat anyway. After this, it was smooth sailing, they simply repeated the training again and again until she seemed to have learned it. Morgan would give the command signal, and then after Whisper would follow them, they would give her a treat. After another twenty minutes, they were sure that she had learned it.
[90] - [End of 'Follow'] - [note to self: concludes the 'nothing for the next 5 posts' thing]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 21, 2020 22:51:23 GMT -6
Now that Morgan was sure that she would follow, they gave Whisper the command signal for 'follow' yet again, and this time, they walked through the gate.
That was when they began to smell, before they could even see anything (they still had to go through a thick, decadently colored maroon carpet-like curtain to see anything beyond), the slight smell of... Apples? The human knew that they had just passed an orchard with a lot of different types of fruit with it, so they didn't quite notice that it would be weird at first. Then, the unmistakable smell of alcohol. After all, they did drink a lot theirself. Perhaps it was a bit of a hand-slap from the mansion for Morgan drinking the last time they were here (and apple cider at that...) but they suddenly felt very, very drowsy. They swayed on their feet, and Whisper squeaks with much alarm.
[91]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 21, 2020 23:00:15 GMT -6
Whisper had no idea what was going on, but the large creature that often gave them food had started walking, after expecting her to have followed, and she had done right, right? She had followed, right? So why was the human standing still, and not giving her the treat that SHE DESERVED?!? She was obviously quite mad about this, but no matter how much she shrieked at the large ambling creature that gave her food, she was not given the treat she deserved. Suddenly, the tall one made a huge lurch, and landed on their hind end (tailless species, how odd!) on the stones that they were standing on. Had something hurt the creature? It was such a large creature that it immediately made her terrified- after all, if it was big enough to hurt the large being, it would certainly be large enough to hurt her! She hid up against the large one's leg.
[92]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 21, 2020 23:05:21 GMT -6
Seconds after the strange but pleasant scent had hit their nose, Morgan felt a strangely nauseating sense of vertigo, and it had promptly dumped them on their hind end quite unceremoniously beneath the gate. The human had been helpless to fight the sensation (it was not uncommon for the mansion to do this kind of thing, though they weren't thinking about that at first... they weren't thinking about anything at all) and it had done quite a bit of hurt to them. Their brain mercifully emptied of all of the racing, cyclical, terrible thoughts would have been much more enjoyable if not for the fact that it had been accompanied by the rather terrible vertigo. The human hardly managed to keep theirself from throwing up. It was like the worst hangover that Morgan had ever (never) had, and they hadn't even drank a single drop! They weren't able to hear the tiny runner cry out.
[93]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 21, 2020 23:10:44 GMT -6
The moment passed, but it felt like forever to the bespectacled human before it did finally and mercifully pass. They found theirself flat on their back on the flat pavestones of the gate, staring up at the red gate above them. They blinked, once or twice, and then turned, coughing suddenly. They felt like they couldn't quite get the disgusting apple cider smell out of their nasal passages. It almost felt like it was coming from their own lungs. Tortuously, they coughed until their throat was sore, but the smell did eventually fade. "I-I-I am never drinking apple cider ever again." They human complains, putting a hand to their throbbing forehead. That was when they remembered Whisper. Where was Whisper? They sure hoped that the mansion had not done anything evil to the little creature, it really didn't deserve it at all. Morgan probably did, but not Whisper.
[94]
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Sept 21, 2020 23:17:57 GMT -6
The human frantically looked around, but didn't move, which wound up being a fortunate thing. They panicked, but soon enough heard a fearful noise- ah, that must have been Whisper? But where was she? The human couldn't figure it out, it sounded like it was coming from... Them? They looked down, and realized that Whisper was with them- in fact, she had curled up in their pocket! Morgan split a grin on their face, but still obviously looked and felt quite bad. "Well, lookit there! You m-must trust me." The human said, a little absent-mindedly. They put the creature on her scaley head, and avoided her little love bites. They were really just glad that she was okay. "Well, I just had the mother of all hangovers from... The air or something. I hope you weren't a-affected." They said, watching her quietly. Whisper made a soft contented noise.
[95]
|
|