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Post by Morgan on Jan 19, 2022 23:20:23 GMT -6
Morgan frowns at their predicament. It would seem that within a certain distance, they would be able to see wherever they went. But Kaodie could most certainly see regardless (and to no ability of his own; to Morgan's understanding he didn't have anything like nightvision) and he had decided that there was something ahead that needed to be checked on, Morgan's orders quite frankly be damned. He was a clever critter, as all malii were, and Morgan had (reluctant as they were to admit) depended on this before. They had to trust him, for the moment- but they couldn't tell where he was in relation to theirself. They stopped for a moment, and focused minutely on the sensation that there was a crystal around. With any luck, figuring out where that crystal was would also show them where Kaodie was. With any luck, that was what he was looking for, too. Critters could be very delicate when it came to their senses.
[26]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 20, 2022 0:13:48 GMT -6
Kaodie had also found different things like this before, so they hoped that there was not anything dangerous in the dark and that instead, the critter was simply going for something that he knew that Morgan also wanted (and one that he'd been treated handsomely before for helping to secure). They closed their eyes and tried to focus on the sensation of the crystal that they had felt before- when they had been at the bottom of the stairs below this particularly dark landing. It was difficult, now that they were trying to sense it. These sorts of things worked incredibly well when one wasn't trying to, and could be surprisingly difficult to grasp onto when one was trying. It was like trying to grab slick wet soap. However, Morgan had enough experience that with a little extra trying, they could just grasp it. To their right; about twenty degrees off to one side. That had to be where Kaodie was, too!
[27]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 15:44:04 GMT -6
Despite Morgan having thoroughly decided upon their direction of action, it still took quite a bit of time to be able to locate anything. Apparently the 'room' at the top of the landing was quite vast (perhaps even impossibly so; it was not uncommon for the mansion to make no logical spatial or temporal sense from one space to another, as Morgan had already seen even that day with the long hallway that seemed to stretch on forever) and Morgan could only hope to be able to catch up with the rambunctious little malii before anything happened that he'd need direction from Morgan to tackle.
It didn't take too long for Morgan to hear the sound of the malii's prosthetic leg against the stony tile of the floor, he couldn't be too far away at that- "Kaodie!?" Morgan calls out. There is a response just ahead of them; the soft malii 'bwark'- and then they could hear the sound of Kaodie turning around.
[28]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 16:05:11 GMT -6
At least they'd managed to get his attention this time. Morgan follows the sound, their own metallic-toed boot clicking sounds getting closer to the metallic scrape of Kaodie's prosthetic scrabbling for purchase against the tile. Finally, Kaodie enters the circle of light cast by the lantern above Morgan's head, and they both momentarily stop as Morgan catches the malii as he leaps. "Good boyo, g-goodness..." They murmur, giving him a quick hardly-there hug (squishing their forehead to the curl between his ears). "Y-you're a mess. D-don't do that again." They scold him. Then, they continue walking in the direction that both of them had been going; the sensation of the crystal quite strong now.
Kaodie pants a bit, now that he wasn't running. "You must have tired yourself out." Morgan murmurs, still moving forward steadily and at a faster clip now that they didn't have to worry about Kaodie nearly as much.
[29]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 16:26:19 GMT -6
Despite the unique sensation of 'danger' crawling up and down the back of the bespectacled human's neck, they did not find anything out there in the dark. Perhaps whatever was out there was avoiding the light, or perhaps the mansion was playing tricks on them quite handedly. Morgan wouldn't be surprised if it was simply the mansion messing with them, but they weren't going to assume that and drop all pretenses of caution (that sort of thing tended to cause the mansion to take drastic action of some sort or another; Morgan suspected heavily that there was some sort of sensor that could tell slight changes in body temperature or other such tells).
After what felt like quite a long time (walking near aimlessly in the dark tended to make time feel much inflated) they finally caught a glimmer of something just beyond the circle of illumination they were set in. Nearly as soon as Morgan's boot hit the carpet, all of the 'lights' came on. Their own eyes hurt from the flash of light, but Kaodie didn't seem to react at all.
[30]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 18:21:48 GMT -6
The first thing that Morgan did, perhaps due to instinct, was to turn around and look over the room (their eyes squinted against the great increase in light). The room was indeed quite vast; the tiles swapped from black to white like a chessboard. There did not appear to be much of anything in the middle of the room; in fact, the majority of the normal furniture was up against the walls. The walls were so far apart that Morgan had a little bit of difficulty even telling what some of the furniture was far across the way. As soon as they registered most of this, they glanced up above them; scanning the ceiling for any sort of dangerous creature (perhaps they even considered a giant starry-winged bat or wyvern as a possible danger- since they felt that there should be something watching them) but the ceiling seemed to go up infinitely, a starry cosmos seemingly hanging just above their head- but miles away simultaneously.
Kaodie also didn't seem to be bothered, but he did seem to be mesmerized by the starry 'sky' above.
[31]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 18:38:41 GMT -6
It was certainly quite suspect to Morgan that Kaodie wasn't feeling the danger, but that they were. It was generally not a good sign at all. Either Kaodie was being distracted quite well somehow, or the sensation was false and Morgan was completely feeling that they were what few marbles they had left. They kept an extra wary eye out for anything swooping out of that great vastness, and then they turned back towards where they could feel the crystal from. They let Kaodie down onto the floor a little warily. "Dontcha run o-off now." They cautioned him, a half-warning dipping into their voice. They really could not use him running off like that again. Kaodie does move forward and away from Morgan. He seemed to have a good eye for shinies, so they were certain that he'd find something before they did. He usually tended to, at least. They'd been working on teaching him to do it with more efficiency.
[32] |
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 18:52:42 GMT -6
Morgan walked over the carpet (which appeared to be featuring some sort of a map?) and towards the nearest piece of furniture. They run their hand over the black lacquer of the little end table, and they move towards the little brass handle on the front of it to pull it open. The end table's drawer opens up with ease, as if it had been greased and was running on a runner save for the simple drawer and hole system that it was. On the inside, Morgan finds a small rolled up map; a familiar one. Had they found something like this in the past? Perhaps a year ago, when they hardly had the time to even look around? This month they wanted to take advantage of the mansion as much as they could- but time was always running at least a little thin for them with their job.
Morgan pulls the map out, and turns as they hear Kaodie BWARK behind them with some amount of sharpness.
[33]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 19:53:40 GMT -6
Morgan turns around swiftly, sure at first that finally whatever had been 'stalking' them in the dark had finally decided to attack- but they noted that instead, Kaodie had found a shiny for them. He held whatever it was curled in the tip of his tongue. "Good job, boyo." Perhaps they should start working with him on some training, specifically to teach him to only let out the 'alarm' Bwark whenever there was actual danger around. In fact, this would be a great place to start working with him on some of the other behaviors they had been planning for him. At least they'd still be on their guard if anything 'scary' happened.
The bespectacled human bends down to take whatever the item was from Kaodie, and they were quite surprised to find that it was a crystal. This must be the one that they'd found in the area! "Good job, Kaodie!" Morgan is sure to dig around in their pocket to give him a treat for that one!
[34]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 20:18:34 GMT -6
They fished the treat out more easily than they typically were able to, and then they dropped the crystal that they'd taken from him into the pocket as well. They gave the treat to Kaodie and then held the packet of treats in their hand, regarding him curiously. "Whatdya say w-we take a break, Kaodie?" They asked. Immediately the malii perks his ears up and tilts his head, looking at Morgan with those strange eyes of his. They bend down, and then glance behind them another time to make sure that there was no danger. Really, it would make them much more comfortable if the area wasn't so oddly vast!
Their first course of action would be to teach Kaodie how to hide when he needed to. He was so much smaller than most of the creatures that were out there, and it would be good to keep him away from danger. It took them a moment of playing around with their whistle to figure out what command whistle they wanted to use for it.
[35] - [Start 'Cover']
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 21:06:11 GMT -6
Kaodie knew what all of those little whistles meant; he was going to be learning something new! He was always happy to work as hard as he could for Morgan, and now was no different. He curls and uncurls his tail excitedly, shaking it from side to side afterward- this was going to be fun (he just knew it!). Morgan decides on a command whistle- and Kaodie can tell because the last one was repeated whenever Morgan began looking directly at him. The question was; what was he supposed to do? Generally Morgan would give him clues to figure out what he was supposed to do, so he is sure to watch his human carefully.
Morgan gives the command whistle that they chose for the 'covering/hiding' behavior that they wanted to teach, and now it was time to teach it! They gave him the command to follow them, and then they moved him to the little end table, and coaxed him to get underneath it.
[36]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 21:17:09 GMT -6
At this, Morgan gave him the command to stay. Kaodie does, even as Morgan walks away a few feet and then comes back. "Good boyo!" They always made sure to give him praise whenever they guided him through a piece of training, even the first time. They wanted to make sure that he understood that this was what he was supposed to do. At this, they gave him a treat. They had mostly moved him on to using tug of war to get him trained, but treats would make for a much less distracting bit of praise for the moment- since there was a good chance that there was some sort of enemy around. The mansion was always full of surprises.
Morgan stands back up and gives the command on the whistle again, and Kaodie tilts his head a bit warily. He wasn't entirely certain what part of that he was supposed to be doing, but he was going to try!
[37]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 21:19:59 GMT -6
Kaodie glances around to find something to get under, and then turns right back around and gets underneath the end table again. That had been something Morgan had shown him directly, so he figured that it would work out just fine! At this, he sat down underneath it and stayed there. Even when his human walked away, he stayed there. He felt a little bit worried, as he always did, whenever Morgan moved away. Had he done the right thing? However, he does stick there. Morgan would tell him if he didn't; or at least he wouldn't get a treat for it. That was always a good indicator that he wasn't doing the right thing.
Soon enough, Morgan turned around (they'd been looking for danger, hadn't they?) and gave him another treat! That meant he was doing good! Oh, he wished he could play tug of war right now, but a treat was good too!
[38]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 21:30:30 GMT -6
The bespectacled human coaxes the little malii out from underneath the black lacquered end table, and then has him follow them down a little further. They wanted to make sure that he would understand that he could get underneath anywhere to hide, not just the little end table. Morgan was always a little concerned that when put under pressure, their critters wouldn't necessarily understand their training unless Morgan made sure to have them do it under all sorts of circumstances.
This time whenever the bespectacled human gave the malii the command, there wasn't anywhere really easy to run up under. Kaodie felt like that was correct, but where was he supposed to go now? The end table was really far away. He has to decide quickly- he knows. If he doesn't, he won't get the treat. He turns and finds the first thing that he could find that would allow him to get under it, and he scoots beneath it with a little difficulty.
Apparently, it was a couch.
[39]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 31, 2022 21:50:04 GMT -6
Morgan breathes out a sigh of relief whenever they saw the malii dodge beneath a couch to hide. That was relatively quick too- and he stayed there even when Morgan walked away to 'scout' and then returned. This was a good thing; with any luck, if push came to shove they could order Kaodie to hide and he'd be much less of a liability with any luck. It was a double edged sword; that familiars were typically such tiny creatures. Kaodie was fairly quick on his feet though, so Morgan was quite pleased. "Good boyo, Kaodie!" They gave him a treat after coaxing him out of his hiding place. Now to just run him through it a few times...
The pair of them walked around the little perimeter a few feet at a time searching for anything shiny, and every so often Morgan would run him through the command again. Soon enough, they wanted to begin to teach him the next thing they had planned; to use that tongue to do a more 'gentle' sort of attack.
[40] - [Starting 'Lick', continuing with 'Cover']
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