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Post by Morgan on May 17, 2019 16:18:10 GMT -6
The last little bit of this was going to have to be done. Morgan wanted to make sure that Waar 'understood' the command well enough to be able to combine it with the other commands. That would be a good indicator of both his intelligence as an animal, and his remembering of all of the commands they worked so hard on today. Morgan wiped the sweat from their brow with the back of their clean arm, and then continued the training repetitiously until the creature was carefully ingrained to lay down whenever that hand signal was made. As soon as Morgan was sure that the creature had that down pat, they began to work on combining the 'lay down' with the 'stay' command, that way the creature would stay that way so that Morgan could do other things while the creature was being good. Sarane were not at all dogs, but they still needed to be polite. As soon as Morgan was sure that the creature had these commands down well, Morgan clipped the now much better behaved creature on the chain, and then took everything home, tossing the unclean glove in a nearby trash can.
[5] - [END of Lay Down] - [They both go home]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 15:04:45 GMT -6
When Morgan saw Waar for the first time after his... Resurrection- they threw up. Not until they were well away from that horrific temple, but it was the first thing that happened when their brain whirred to life again after a few minutes of stiff-legged and empty-headed walking. If Waar noticed what was wrong, he didn't show it. The drake was just as curious and loyal as he was before, tilting his head at Morgan and following with a (slightly less snappish) pep in his step. Morgan didn't look at him for a long time, and when they finally did; of course was sick. It took them a while on the way to the estate to actually realize that there was no way that they could actually bring Waar home yet. The estate wasn't ready for... Whatever this was. They needed time to think. The pair found their-selves in the park not long after that, moved as far away from others as possible. [1]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 15:15:01 GMT -6
After making sure that the area was pretty secure, Morgan turned toward the sarane with their hazel eyes closed. A moment passed, and then they opened their eyes, looking straight at him. Breathe in, breathe out. Counting backwards from ten, slowly, ever so slowly. Waar tilted his head, bright green eyes glowing, purple tail brandished high. Finally, Morgan breathed out, swallowed deep, and then slowly began to process this... Whatever this was. Waar was dead. No, he was there. Waar was there, Morgan could see it in those eyes, could sense it. He still acted the same, he was back. But he wasn't... All there. That was fine, Morgan had known to some degree what this was going to be like; had known that a pound of flesh would be taken. But Morgan had not expected this. Perhaps they should have thought this over- No. No, Waar was back, Morgan had paid the cost, and so did Waar. It would be tantamount to make the best out of this.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 15:21:56 GMT -6
Somewhere, deep down in the pit of their stomach, Morgan realized that they had done this. This was their fault. It was their fault, they'd failed Waar; perhaps even caused this, and now they couldn't go back on their word. The human gently runs their fingers over the fireworks shooter that they hadn't really realized was in their hand until this moment, and then holstered it quickly. If Waar noticed what Morgan was about to do, he hadn't done anything about it. His eyes were wide, trusting, despite the glowing, despite the slowly oozing acid drying like tree sap on his flesh. Morgan's eyes filled with tears, and then were quickly blinked to push them back and away. That was Waar, he was still there, Morgan couldn't... Couldn't do that to him.
Finally, Morgan's hands were completely empty. They threw one hand into a deep labcoat pocket and gently ran their fingers along the wooden case there.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 15:29:08 GMT -6
After a moment, a trembling hand opened the wooden case, and the opposite shake-y hand pulled out a lighter (fumbled with, dropped it, caught it midair, and then nearly dropped it again) and after a moment; one lit cigarette was between Morgan's lips, and all of the things were placed back into the deep pockets. Morgan found a place on a clean park bench, and sat down for a moment, thinking. Waar found a nice patch of grass and rolled around in it; just like he used to; only this time delighting at the sizzling that erupted whenever he rolled his corrosive 'blood' onto it. Morgan was thinking, a hollow look behind their glasses.
This was Waar, it was not a trick. Not a true trick, anyway. Morgan could deal with this. They had the funds, they had the desire to. It was all there. Morgan tried to calm theirself as they considered. This could work.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 15:33:53 GMT -6
First things first; Waar was obviously very acid-oriented now. Moreso than he had been before; so Morgan would need to protect theirself accordingly. Morgan was one of those individuals that got sick really, really easily. Perhaps that was ironic; not even the chaos node had remedied that. There would need to be research done on substances that might protect Morgan from Waar's current state. Not to mention, the barn... That was another issue. His current state was luckily not quite as acid-blooded as he possibly could have been, what with it typically sticking on him. Morgan could probably get away with the barn having glass protective layers about chest-high to him, and the floor being dirt. His sleeping area would need renewed constantly...
How was Morgan even going to be able to lead him around? People frowned on drakes (for good reason) that weren't on restraints. Would steel restraints even survive for very long at all?
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 16:14:06 GMT -6
It was a dark, dark day. The sky was overcast, yet the shadows were moving, flitting about almost, draping over the ground like the lengthy shadow-bleeds that occurred during late evening when the sun fled nightly. Morgan had known something was wrong, perhaps it was a side-effect of being an elemental, but Morgan felt like they could feel magic around them, more and more, every day. These shadows were not normal. It was how Morgan knew that Waar was ready; being drawn in, called to the Temple. Even now there was a drip of those shadows, it felt like. Morgan shuddered. Shadows were not like the shocking grip that Chaos had in their head.
Morgan had brought with them a large bag of frozen meat, for some reason they had thought that it might help them bring Waar home more easily. Now, it seemed like Morgan would be using them to train the big (rolling in the green grass still) lug some important lessons before going home.
[6] - [START 'Don't Eat That!']
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 20:44:00 GMT -6
The first thing that needed to be addressed was that the drake needed to be taught not to eat certain things. This drake was going to be a huge nightmare (really he already was) if he tried to eat everything around him, so Morgan was going to address this first. Morgan quickly removed one of the freeze-dried steaks that they had brought, using a glove first. Then, Morgan quickly found a big stick. Fairly quickly, the giant sarane drake found the meat, and then reared back like he was going to eat it. Morgan snapped their fingers, loudly, once, and affixed his eyes with a stern glare. The sarane noticed this; but went after the meat anyway, not quite noting what that meant.
Before the sluggish Waar was able to get to the meat, Morgan snapped their fingers again; the code for 'don't eat that' Morgan had decided upon, and then whacked him over the maw to keep him from eating it with the stick, knowing that there was no way that it hurt him, but it did catch his attention.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 20:48:28 GMT -6
Waar snaps back up, looking 'hurt' emotionally, and it was uncanny how Morgan could just... Tell. Somehow. Morgan affixed him with a firm glare, and then waited again. The sarane whipped his bladed tail around (Morgan was pleased that they managed to save his tail spine) threateningly, but Morgan knew that the broken drake wouldn't dare to brandish it against them. Still, Waar was anything if not very tenacious, he snaked his head forward again to get at the meat, and Morgan once again snapped their fingers again, loudly, a huge crack of a noise; and smacked him across the jaw again. Had Waar not been what he was, Morgan would have trained this with less urgency and most likely differently, but it was very important right now that this be gotten correct and right. Morgan hated the idea of using a stick on him, but it was necessary rather Morgan prefer it or not. [8]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 20:59:37 GMT -6
Waar wasn't physically hurt by the action of being hit by the stick, but he was both annoyed and from what Morgan could tell by looking at his mannerisms 'emotionally hurt' by being denied the food item. His tenacity was not deterred by this, but he did step back, whip his tail slightly, and then affix Morgan with an equally withering glare. A battle of the minds for a moment, it would seem. Waar eventually deferred to Morgan, tilting his head and green eyed gaze away slightly. Morgan wasn't about to take this at face value; the creature was crafty as all get out. Morgan was craftier; however. They took a step back, and pulled a small diagram booklet they had been studying from their pocket. No faster than Morgan had feigned disinterest did Waar snake his neck out to go get the meat slab.
Morgan immediately dropped the booklet, snapped their fingers, and before Morgan could brandish the stick at the creature, Waar took heed of the snap and moved back, eyes gleaming.
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 21:08:40 GMT -6
That was the breakthrough that Morgan had been searching for. He was clever; he wasn't as needy when it came to pleasing Morgan of course, but he did know his place in the pecking order. A real shame; he was from great stock and would be a monstrous creature for the pit. He was a little prince and knew it. Waar stayed back, and finally Morgan stepped up to the steak and picked it up using the glove, tossing it at him. Upon this, Waar took it, and then looked at Morgan was a peculiar stare. Morgan stepped back, and grabbed another freeze dried piece.
Over and over again this was repeated, until they moved on to live grubble instead of just the meat. Each time, Waar was respectful when the snap was given, knowing not to eat those things when it was given. With an amount of patience, he would be given something to eat. This way, each one got what they wanted; and Morgan was eventually convinced after lots of repetition that the creature would not eat things when accompanied with a snap.
[10] - [End of 'Don't Eat That!']
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 22:02:25 GMT -6
After the advent of training 'Don't eat that' as it was colloquially known, Morgan knew that they at least had to train 'No Bites' before doing anything else with him. Now that he had at least an inkling of the not eating that command, Morgan was sure that they could manage to give him the basics of 'not biting stuff'. The idea first was to have to come up with a command for it. Morgan settled upon two snaps; in rapid succession as the command term for it, to keep him from biting critters in public. Since he was caustic and all, Morgan was not going to be able to actually keep the creature held down very often with anything, so it was tantamount that the huge creature was trained not to bite random folks and pets alike unless given permission to do so.
It was going to be a huge mess for sure.
[11] - [START 'No Bites']
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 22:14:29 GMT -6
Morgan had to think about how to train this 'no bites' behavior to the sarane drake. Morgan couldn't really be careful enough when it came to the creature's acidic nature. The human was quite worried about it, even just a drop could spell a painful death to them. As such, Morgan selected a very long stick to pester the drake with. Perhaps in the future Morgan would have to find a better way to do training? An RoT could work, but only if the sarane was intelligent enough to converse through it... Morgan considered this carefully.
The human made their way to Waar. The drake was watching them carefully, eyes slanted towards them. Morgan was silent as they reached out, and poked the sarane with the stick. The sarane looked at the stick first, and then up towards Morgan's arm incredulously. Morgan had to hold back a bit of laughter as they leaned forward to poke at him with the long stick again.
[12]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 22:28:19 GMT -6
This time the desired reaction was given; Waar snapped at the stick. As he reared back to do so, Morgan immediately snapped their fingers loudly, twice. Waar heard this; and associated the first snap with 'don't eat that'. He wasn't going to eat the stick? And what was up with the second snap? The sarane reared back, having just narrowly missed snapping his jaws shut against the stick, and then tilted his head at Morgan, much like Morgan had seen Nico do a couple of times by this point. Morgan tossed him a treat for not biting the stick, and then waited for the creature to eat the snack before continuing.
The bespectacled human prodded the flank of the sarane with the stick, and Waar looked quite aggravated, whipping his head back like he was going to snap the stick with his jaws. Morgan snapped twice, loudly, again, and watched as Waar stared Morgan down, and started to slowly lean down to bite the stick.
[13]
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Post by Morgan on Aug 11, 2019 22:38:03 GMT -6
Morgan knew that Waar was trying his luck, to both see what he could get away with (he probably always would) and also to perhaps see exactly what Morgan was wanting from him. Morgan immediately snapped twice again, affixing him with that 'you better not' glare that he was slowly learning from Morgan's body. Sarane didn't tend to cement their psycho-social bonds the same way that other creatures did, and not near as quickly as some others. Morgan was not surprised to see him stop at that, associating this training with the others from earlier, as a slightly similar but new command to the one they'd just gotten done with.
Morgan tossed Waar a treat for not breaking the stick, and as he began eating it Morgan sighed. They remembered how long ago it had been since they had worked on training last. Waar had went from new hatchling to adult that needed breaking in two weeks; regret ably it was now two weeks since then. He was little more than a whelp of a drake, though technically fully grown bodily.
[14]
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