WHEN IT ALL GOES UP IN FLAMES | GATOR TRAINING #1, OPEN

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The day was stagnant and hot, the humidity reaching a record for the month yet only anticipated to rise as they truly got into the depths of summer. Nayru, personally, was dying. Even with her light-colored pelt and her thin fur, she felt as if the sun itself was boiling her alive and thus opted to stay within the shade as much as humanly possible. Chad, on the other hand, enjoyed the perpetual warmth and took every opportunity he had to bask silently within the sun's rays. He was doing so now actually, completely unfazed by his companion and the fresh meat that she was slicing into delicate chunks with the dagger gifted to her by Fenris. She certainly wasn't using it for its intended purpose but she figured that her unofficial dad wouldn't really mind. Besides, she didn't know how to actually use it anyways.

After a suitable amount of meat had sliced and placed into a sealed container, Nayru brandished the next object in her arsenal- a little ball with a bell in it. [b][color=#6b7e99]"Chad!" She called out loudly, placing the ball a little ways away from her. He hissed as his name was spoken before begrudgingly abandoning his place to approach her. Immediately, she rewarded him with a small piece of meat. [color=#6b7e99]"Stay," She ordered, utilizing the authoritative voice she had developed back within Akala. After ensuring that he wasn't going anywhere, she tossed the ball, watching it bounce and jingle until it slowed to a stop quite a distance from them. [color=#6b7e99]"Go to the ball," Nayru continued.

Chad, however, had decided to resume his basking, oblivious now to the ball and his companion who was trying to train him. He was well mannered enough, Nayru knew that, she just needed to ensure that he worked with her and her commands. [color=#6b7e99]"Come on, Chad! Go get it!" She commanded, nudging her alligator and promptly earning a low hiss from him. He snapped his jaws a few time before slowly rising and waddling towards it. Good. That was good. Retrieving another piece of meat, she tossed it to him.

This was going alright so far... now, she just needed to record her results and also see how he reacted when he had an audience. Easy enough, she supposed, it wasn't exactly easy to get any alone time around here.

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i o t a

IF YOU WANT OFF THIS RIDE [abbr="speech; self-reference; thoughts;"]x[/abbr] info [abbr="Oni speech; Oni thoughts"]x[/abbr] NOW'S YOUR CHANCE

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It wasn't very polite for Iota to read the thoughts of her clanmates, but it couldn't be helped. Her telepathic powers had only just begun to blossom, and she had only just begun attempting to train herself to hone them correctly and not to invade the privacy of others. It was such an odd feeling; now Oni wasn't the only voice in her head, but the majority of peers she'd been around for most of her clan days now had a spot in her mind that constantly clouded her own thoughts, almost overshadowing them. It'd be jarring if it weren't a new concept to Iota, since Oni's mischievous antics are quite similar to the sudden influx of thoughts into her mind.
At least she wasn't as lonely anymore.
Having said that, she sensed the presence of Nayru before she even went in her direction; her friend's thoughts in her head were more of a beacon than anything else that could've indicated Iota of her location. Nayru was correct to assume such a thing about alone time; it seemed like anytime anything happened in the tight-knit clan, someone would be around to address the situation. Quite the social bunch, they were. She could then sense the grief in her head, something about... training Chad? The baby alligator that the sawbone took in as her own?
"Now this I gotta see."
Using her newfound telepathic powers, she pinged Nayru through her mind beforehand to alert her of the pastel-pink she-cat's presence so that she didn't feel like Iota'd been spying on her. She strolled towards the young sawbone, hoping she didn't believe that Iota had pervaded her thoughts.
"So, you're trainin' your little friend now?" She stretched and lied down near the tired, heat-beaten Nayru as she attempted to provoke Chad into doing her bidding, tucking her cherry-red paws underneath her chest and flicking her ears towards the irritated baby reptile. "That's kinda cute. Never thought I'd see the day where a gator'd listen to someone like us."

AMUNET GHANA ✧ PROXY — TANGLEWOOD — TAGS

Training an alligator.

Well, it shouldn't be all that difficult she supposed as she limped over feeling the heat kissing her skin in certain places. Amunet liked basking but it was a bit humid to say the least especially with these bandages and the mane around her neck. The jaguaress would lay nearby offering her daughter and Iota a smile only to spread out her only good wing to protect Nayru from the sunlight "You must be hot especially with this weather." She should be resting but she wanted to get out and actually live amongst her clanmates rather than staying in her bed all alone with no one but herself and some visits from her dearest ones. "Chad seems to be progressing pretty well," She added in a light tone but her voice sparked up with reassurement and encouragement, she was sure that the alligator would be well trained by the time Nayru was done with Chad.

© madi

  [font=trebuchet ms]Bakugou may have been used to working with heat and explosions, but this was ridiculous.

  For starters, he was no closer to finding out how he had become a feline than he had been when he arrived several weeks ago; and he had heard nothing about any of the villains that he had struggled with, or any of the pro heroes, or even his classmates. To make matters worse, the swamp was perpetually humid, and full of volatile gases, that could explode at the slightest provocation- so he couldn’t take out his rage on the surroundings without potentially lighting everyone (including himself) up in the process. As tempting as that course of action was at times, even he knew that that was a stupid thing to do, and unheroic to boot (unless it turned out that they were all villains in disguise, but that was unlikely).

  For the moment, however, the sight of an alligator actually obeying the commands of such a pipsqueak as their medic was astonishing enough to snap Bakugou out of his foul mood. Making his way over, the Ragdoll stared at the gator with narrowed eyes. ”How long’ve you been working with this thing?” he asked, glancing over at the medic and raising a paw to shield his eyes from the sunlight. If the gator could fight on command, too, that would be worthy of applause (though he would never say such a thing aloud).

  /blast boi lives

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time to bring this back to life yeet

Admittedly, Nayru didn't think she could ever feel as if Iota was spying on her. At least purposefully anyways. Telepathy was a strange ability and one that she didn't fault her friend for not being completely in control of. If she just so happened to see inside of her mind, then so be it. Besides, she had nothing in there but complex ideas and well repressed trauma. Chad, on the other hand, seemed perpetually occupied by the thought of Nayru herself. Whether it was because he imprinted on the medic or what, she could not say, but his obsession with her certainly made the process of training him a lot easier. As Iota arrived, she casually rolled the ball in her direction, watching with fascination as Chad followed it. She rewarded him, of course. In fact, the small medic was rather proud of him and the progress he had made. [b][color=#6b7e99]"He's quite the willing subject," Nayru explained with a little nod, [color=#6b7e99]"Soon, I'll use vocal commands to get him to move around. The goal is to have both a defense system so that I can go to raids! I want to be able to heal you all if you need it... Oh, and to make sure he doesn't eat any of you. That's an important one too."

As Amunet arrived, she gazed happily in her mother's direction, her excitement obvious in the way her aura suddenly shifted and brightened. [color=#6b7e99]"I'm so proud of him!" She announced, tossing him another piece of meat despite the fact that he didn't do anything. Chad, appeased, gobbled it up without a second thought. [color=#6b7e99]"He's a good friend too- excellent company. Even though he does hiss quite a lot," She continued, even giggling a bit. She had journals upon journals filled with information pertaining to Chad and his strange behaviors. So far, she had confidently deduced that he was an abnormal specimen of alligator.

Bakugou and Vigenere earned her attention next and she once more found herself nodding. As for the former's question, she pursed her lips and thought a moment. This was the first official training session she had had with Chad but she had worked on domesticating him within her home many times before. After all, she didn't want a young alligator destroying her studies. [color=#6b7e99]"A little while," Nayru finally responding, figuring that that would be an appropriate enough response, [color=#6b7e99]"Every day, really, but this is the first time I've officially sat down and trained him with a set method. Right now, I'm using a combination of positive reinforcement and intriguing items to get him to listen to me. It's working too!"