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Post by Morgan on May 19, 2020 22:15:14 GMT -6
They continued back and forth like this, with Morgan giving the hand signal, and the tat-feesh staying in the desired spot wherever it was at the time in the tank while the human went out to go check things out in the room. Whenever Morgan would return to the tat-lung, they gave it a feeder fish (more like minnow) as a treat for doing well. The human then went back again, giving the hand signal to restart, and the tat-feesh would stay as he was told. He was slowly picking up Morgan's tat-lung conveyance, and understood most of what he was told, it would seem. He knew to stay when he saw the hand signal, and was doing perfectly. After about fifteen minutes, Morgan was convinced that the tat-lung had learned it. They still repeated it two more times for good measure, and then they smiled. "Good job, Kirbie. I reckon y-you've got it."
[65] - [End of 'Stay']
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Post by Morgan on May 19, 2020 22:25:09 GMT -6
Morgan was pleased with Kirbie's process enough to try to move on to the next thing. They praised him, hoping that it wouldn't go to his head but also knowing that young tat-lung often appreciated it, and then explained further, in that glistening mansion room of crystals. "Kirbie, I'd like to move on to another r-really easy thing, if you don't mind. T-this one is more of a concept than anything else." They nodded as they spoke and communicated in triplicate to the blue tat-feesh. The being was quiet for a moment. He seemed to want to convey something, but didn't quite know how. Morgan waited patiently anyway, and Kirbie seemed to give up. No first 'words' yet, it would seem!
"A-alright. The next thing we're gonna work on is the concept of 'No'." The human explained. They always found it important to actually explain no to the tat-feesh, instead of just 'noing' at them like they would with the hounds.
[66] - [Start of 'No']
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Post by Morgan on May 19, 2020 22:39:24 GMT -6
Kirbie looked interested, now. As if all of the learning today had caused him to be even more interested in learning ever more, even if the things he was working on right now were perhaps really easy concepts for such a smart person as Kirbie. Morgan found it much easier to teach these really easy lessons earlier on, when tat-lungs were young enough to be too insulted by them. "So 'No' is something that someone says when an answer is towards a negative, or n-not that case." Morgan started off. "That's No. No." The human repeated, wanting to make sure that Kirbie had gotten it to at least some degree. Kirbie gave a much better 'affirmative' this time, and Morgan flashed him a quick grin. "So when I say 'no', it implies for you not to do what you are currently doing. So if you are trying to eat something and I say no, stop."
[67]
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Post by Morgan on May 19, 2020 22:41:48 GMT -6
Kirbie waited a moment, and then gave a somewhat shakey affirmative. "Do you want to practice?" Morgan asked, voice soothing as they conveyed this in the tat-tongue was well. The blue tat-feesh seemed fine with this, so Morgan decided they would do a few rounds of 'stop and come here', which was how they had taught Millicent both of those things in the past. Working with Millicent really had given them a lot of ideas to work with the tat-lungs with, since she was as smart as Morgan was, at least. "Alright, we'll play 'no' and 'come here'. You should follow me around whenever I tell you to come, and then when I say NO I w-want you to stop." Morgan explained. At this, they began playing. Kirbie was touch and go with it, at first, but he slowly gained confidence as they continued to work through it.
[68]
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Post by Morgan on May 19, 2020 22:48:50 GMT -6
After a few rounds of shakey performance with the game, Kirbie began to get much better. As he grew in confidence, he began getting faster at doing what Morgan asked. It was actually nice, teaching a tat-lung again for once. It was much more difficult to explain these concepts to hounds, since they were creatures of limited intelligence. The human was pleased with Kirbie, and gave him a treat before continuing. After a few more rounds, Kirbie was super confident and doing incredibly well, speedily responding to a 'no' with stopping what he was doing immediately. The human was very pleased with this, but knew that they tended to end the 'no' lesson with an understanding of 'yes' as well, when it came to the tat-lung babies that came under their care. "Alright, let's t-take a break, and I'll explain the opposite of no to you." Morgan said to him.
[69]
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Post by Morgan on May 19, 2020 22:53:59 GMT -6
Morgan started right away. They wanted to get back to exploring, after all! They were in the mansion, and honestly they didn't feel too much like they were in danger right now. Perfect for doing some exploring while figuring out what else to teach the tat-lung. "Alright, So the opposite of no is 'yes'. Yes is usually a positive or affirmative response, as in something is good." The human explained to the tat-feesh. The tat-lung took a moment to consider, and then gave a tat-conveyance affirmative. "Good, good, you've g-got it!" Morgan said, smiling at him. "A-alright, how about a few more games to practice no, and then we'll call it a break for a while?" Morgan said. At this, they continued to work with the tat-feesh with this game until finally, Morgan was convinced that the tat-lung had gotten it properly. They were sure that he understood it, by the end of the work.
[70] - [End of 'No']
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Post by Morgan on May 19, 2020 23:55:56 GMT -6
Morgan whistled, softly, and then nodded to Kirbie. "You did good, Kirbie. Time to do some exploring. Ya let me know w-when you get tired, okay?" Morgan said to him, seriously. They would go home no matter how much they didn't want to as soon as he got tired, so that he could get some shut-eye. Morgan had only been out with him a few times before, and they had never been out at night like this. Morgan looked at Kirbie suspiciously for a moment, wondering if perhaps he wasn't going to let them know, or maybe he was already tired? He looked the same as ever before, though, so Morgan couldn't force him. "Alright, let's do some exploring then!" The blond said excitedly, turning around and then adjusting their glasses. Thank goodness they had worked on the travel tank mechanically. It was much less intrusive than the old method!
[71]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2020 0:02:56 GMT -6
The first room was, of course, of particular interest to the human. They wanted to take samples of the large glowing stones, but did they bring anything of interest to use for that with them? Morgan patted their pockets down, and then dug around in the toolbox on the side of the travel tank. Of course it was mostly filled with things to use for tat-work (treats suitable for tat-lungs and all of that sort of thing) but Morgan finally procured the smallest of things- something they'd normally use to remove a small thorn from a paw. They'd needed to use one once before, and now they tried to take one with them all the time just in case they needed it again. Kirbie watched as Morgan procured a small plastic baggie from the same container, and then used the little tool to scrape off a bit of the strange pink crystal.
[72]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2020 0:10:45 GMT -6
Morgan went from crystal to crystal, taking the smallest amount away and putting them into separate baggies before closing the baggies and putting them, rolled up, into another baggie. Since they didn't have gloves on them, they were going to have to control for the amount of their own DNA they found on them, but it shouldn't be too difficult. Perhaps they could find some use for this at the lab? For now, they planned to take it home to the at-home lab later and do some low-stakes testing. Sounded like a lot of fun, really. They guessed the reason for their glow, but wanted to make sure that the thing that caused it was phosphorescence, like they thought first off. Kirbie watched them as they worked with a lot of interest, the travel-tank following Morgan around the room again with it's simple laser mechanism. Not perfect, but doing fairly well if Morgan did say so theirself.
[73]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2020 0:15:44 GMT -6
After collecting enough samples to have backups for their backup's backups, Morgan pocketed the carefully wrapped bundle and then searched around to see if they could find anything else of interest. There was a severely moth-eaten book on an end-table in front of a fireplace that had crystals super-glued to the mantle (or something else, Morgan wasn't sure!) so that they couldn't grab them, and the fireplace only had cold, dead ashes in it. Certainly old ones, too. The human placed their hands on the book and tried to flip through it, but it was too severely moth eaten to be of use (well, definitely not moths, probably bookworms or something of the like, but Morgan couldn't find any trace of the bugs for now). The human was a little disappointed, with that. They had a pretty nice book collection and wouldn't mind adding to it. The human moved on, with Kirbie's tank following closely.
[74]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2020 0:22:58 GMT -6
After Morgan had exhausted the spectacularly lit (with crystals and all) but otherwise somewhat sparse first room, they decided to move on using the only door ahead into the mansion that they could find. They made sure it wasn't the spectacular front door (which they had been tricked about before, the mansion was a weird chaotic place at best) and then reached for the doorknob. This one, unlike the front door's tricky doorknob, actually slide open easily, revealing what appeared to be a basic hallway. The human was immediately bothered by this. Once they closed this door behind them, whenever they were going to do that, they were going to be caught in a narrow corridor (big enough for the travel tank to turn around in thankfully enough if need be) and the door to progress. The hallway was so nondescript, save for one thing. The wallpaper was gloriously printed in dragons!
[75]
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Post by Jack on May 20, 2020 16:31:23 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2020 17:27:46 GMT -6
The hallway made Morgan more wary than they had been before they let their guard down, but then again, they couldn't progress if they didn't face this possible danger. Kirbie, however, would have to come with them, and that made them very anxious. Of course, the tat-feesh coming with them would be favorable in comparison to leaving him in a room to possibly disappear. Weird things happened quite a bit in the mansion, and Morgan was certainly not about to do that. So the human sighed, and walked past the door and into the narrow corridor, with Kirbie's travel tank following them at a constant distance. As soon as both of them were inside, the hallway stretched and stretched, widening the apparent distance between the human and the travel tank. However, Morgan knew that they had designed the laser on the travel tank to always stay at the same distance away from them when turned on.
[76]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2020 17:36:53 GMT -6
Morgan knew that logically, that meant that this apparently slowing down and stretching of this narrow corridor wasn't real- it was some kind of effect, perhaps like a visual distortion, that was probably not unlike an optical illusion. Morgan wasn't sure how it kept managing to make it feel like they were walking slowly down an ever-lengthening hallway, but it probably had something to do with Morgan's senses being tricked. Perhaps in the inner ear? While the human pondered that, Kirbie was of course seeing everything as it truly was. The human wasn't able to figure out that it had to be something more tangible than a simple trick of the eye until they suddenly saw some stairs spring up at the end of the hallway in front of the other door, and then suddenly it flattened out into an ever-lengthening ramp. What was this? The human frantically pushed forward faster, as fast as possible.
[77]
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Post by Morgan on May 20, 2020 17:52:14 GMT -6
The travel tank followed Morgan as the correct distance the whole time, but it sure didn't feel like it. Just as soon as Morgan's stomach began threatening to flip over (they felt so sick, something was severely wrong with this situation) they managed to reach the top of the ramp all at once, like a rubber band snapping. They felt sick, but reached out for the doorknob anyway. They opened the door without issue, until a huge screeching sound was produced- not like a hinge screech, but like a banshee. They clapped their hands over their ears and stopped abruptly before opening their eyes. Nothing was there. They turned towards Kirbie as the door snicked shut behind them, before even looking ahead. Kirbie didn't even seem bothered at all. It was almost like he had not heard any of the noise at all, or even seen anything 'weird' in the hallway!
[78]
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