What were we doing again?, Currently "training": Squishy

[Jazmine]

She tapped the rock with her stick. "C'mon, Squishy! For the eyes! For the eyes!" He stared at her, then the stick, and then the rock, then back at her. "C'moooon, Squish!" She paused to spit at the rock. "For the eyes!"

Tentatively, he reared back, then looked at her again, and then spat a little rocket of saliva towards the rock. It actually wound up going just above it. Yeah, they would definitely work on that "aim" thing before practicing on real people.

"For the eyes! C'mon, for the eyes!" He spat again, and this time managed to hit the rock, but it was more in the "right temple" sort of area then the eyes themselves. "You can do it! For the eyes!" Another spit, this time it right square in the nose. Jaz flinched slightly. Dude, that would seriously hurt. But the eyes would hurt worse.

"For the eyes!" Squishy, who was a this point a combination of frustrated, exasperated, and really freakin' determined, let out another flying spit, which this time, hit square in the right eye.

"Awright Squishy!" Jaz cheered, throwing him a cricket. "Now let's keep trying! For the eyes!" Squishy spat again, but unfortunately, wound up hitting the ground right below the rock. "For the eyes!" And this time the mouth. "For the eyes!" Nooo, that was more of the "left cheek" sort of area...

((Jaz +10 level up!
Squishy +5 level up!
Acid Spit 11))

[Jazmine]

"It's alright, you can do it, Squishy! C'mon, for the eyes! Aim for the eyes!" Spittoie. But unfortunately, it hit the mouth. ...Eeeeew. "For the eyes!" He spat again, and this time it hit the left eye dead on. "Awwright!" Jaz cheered, throwing him another cricket. He'd get the hang of it eventually, with enough practice and positive reinforcement.

"For the eyes!" Hit the nose. "For the eyes!" Close to the eye, but really more in the "forhead" sort of region. "For the eyes!" BAM right in the eye. Ohho, that looked like it would hurt. Another cricket down the hatch of Squishy. Maybe that was the real reason he was so determined... neither of them had eaten breakfast yet, and the sun was almost halfway to peek. Geez.

"For the eyes!" Close to the eye, but not quite. "For the eyes!" Oooh, that one got the eye. Another cricket! "For the eyes!" Nose. That nose sure was taking a beating. In fact, the whole rock was. Poor thing. "For the eyes!" Eyes! Dead on! "Alright, Squishy! You're getting pretty good at this!" Jaz cheered, throwing him another cricket. If she got much hungrier, she might try one herself...

"For the eyes!" Eyes, a direct hit! Ooh, that rock would be screaming in pain if it could and actually had eyes... Yeah... Another cricket down the hatch. About four more direct hits later, Jazmine was certain that Squishy had that much down.

"Alrighty!" she declared, throwing him one more cricket. "Time for phase two of the aiming test!" She dug around in the backpack, and proceeded to pull out like ten poster. What the crap?

((Jaz +1
Squishy +1
Acid Spit 12))

[Jazmine]

Jaz lead Squishy over to a nearby tree with a large grin on her face. She set all but one of the posters near the base, and then deftly climbed up the tree. She was kind of squirrel-like in that aspect, but there was no point in being two feet tall if you weren't at least ninja-fast.

Once she got onto a branch about six feet up, she let the poster unroll. What it revealed was a headshot of about five guys... musicians, probably. But it didn't take a genius to figure out that they weren't here for hero worship.

"See the eyes? Aim for the eyes! FOR THE EYES!" Squishy paused. He could grasp the general concept, but it was a good bit higher up than he'd been spitting, even if it was about average for a human or even the random enemy monster or something.

He reared back, but came a little bit short and wound up burning through someone's neck. He reared a bit further and spit with furor, this time burning straight through one of the smiling guys' noses. Again, and this time, square in the eye of the guy on the right. A cricket was thrown down.

"For the eyes! C'mon, get 'em! For the eyes!" Jaz cheered down, prompting him to send another rain of acidic spit through a few more of the eyes of the poster. Before long, there were only holes where there should have been eyes... although to be fair, there were a lot of holes elsewhere, too.

((Jaz +2
Squishy +2
Acid Spit 13))

[Jazmine]

Jaz scurried down the tree, and back up with a new poster, which she let fall. Another one, this time of a girl who was most likely trying to look erotic but kinda failed. She'd just bought out the "75% off bin," actually, at least all the ones with eyes.

"For the eyes!" The eyes were pretty small targets on this one, and Squishy wound up sizzling straight through a boobie. Well, to be fair, they WERE ridiculously huge targets on this one. "Er... not quite an eye there, Squishy. For the EYES." This time, he got one, and then, after a few more misses, the other one.

Down the tree, up the tree, new poster. This one looked to be another rock band, this time with three wonderful sets of eyes to choose from. Ten misses and six hits later, the poster was retired. It was a good thing they were cheap... although, maybe she should hang them up anyway?

The next poster had only two targets, but they were freaking huge. Squishy sent a shot through each of them, and then another through each for good measure.

And so it continued, with Squishy bringing down his miss-to-hit ratio nicely with each one. He finished off the poster extravaganza with an awesome ten hit, zero miss combo. Yeah, Jaz would definitely hang that one up! The poor band had never know what was coming.

((Jaz +3
Squishy +3
Acid Spit 14))

[Jazmine]

And now it was time for the grand finale. The finisher to finish all. The HUGE EPIC BIG IMPORTANT FINISH. ZEE OH EM GEE. Practice on people time! Well, Jaz didn't have any person other than herself, and didn't really want to get any acid to the face, so she first wrapped her face in bandages around the goggles.

Insane? WHY YES. YES IT WAS.

It probably looked that way, too, to anyone who might walk by.

"Alright, Squishy! It's time for the most important part! If you can get this right, we will be done with spit training! Fin! Finito! The eeeend! So, let's do this!" She paused to make sure the bandages were secure, even though they might not do much in the way of protection. With a grin that couldn't been seen, she pointed to her own eyes.

"Squishy! FOR THE EYES!"

Squishy only hesitated for a second before letting a bit of spit fly. Through the air it soared and...

Directly onto Jaz's goggles!

She quickly threw them and the bandages off and went over to hug Squishy, end-of-movie victory music playing in her own head. "YES! ALRIGHT SQUISHY! You did it, you did it! You have totally passed Spit Ed!"

Squishy, oddly enough, seemed just as excited about this as she did.

((Jaz +4
Squishy +4
Acid Spit 15))

[Jazmine]

--------------------------------




It was a beautiful early morning. Jaz had once taken Squishy out at this hour to train, and he’d looked like he wanted to set her on fire for it. But this time, she was with a different someone, someone who looked like he didn’t mind early mornings at all! Spectacular, really.

His name was Kamal, and he was amazing.

Jaz had found him, or rather, he had found Jaz, one day when her life seemed lowest. And she was absolutely loving spending time with him. And so she’d decided to train with him and stay with him wherever she went. Because he was just that amazing.

She’d also made another decision. She had found a fascinating little ribbon in with her things, already cut in half. It was green and red, and really quite cute. So, she tied one of the ribbons around his front left paw, and the other around her own neck.

“See? And now we match.”

{Yes, I’m glad.} A voice echoed into Jaz’s mind, causing her to yelp with fright. Holy shit, holy f*ck, was it them?! Oh GODS no, how had they…? {Jazmine! Jazmine, calm down!} the voice called, which only caused her to freak out more.

(Jaz +1
Kamal +1)

[Jazmine]

{Jazmine, Jazmine, it’s me!} as the voice echoed, Kamal stepped in front of the panicking Fae, his eyes concerned. Was… what? Was Kamal who she was hearing? {Yes! Jazmine, stop, breathe. It’s alright. I believe it is the ribbons you attached.} Holy shit, could he hear her thoughts? {Well, yes. You can hear mine, can you not?} Oh. Huh. Well, that was a good point.

“S-so…” she said slowly, still getting used to the idea. “The ribbons… Well, that’s the last time I use ribbons that were just lying around!” she gave a shaky laugh, but seemed to roll with it.

“Alright then, we can work with this,” she decided. “Kamal, I took you out here so that we could train ourselves to go traveling together. Do you want to?”

{That sounds like a splendid idea. I only have one question.}

“Yes?”

{What is a “Kamal”?}

(Jaz +2
Kamal +2)

[Jazmine]

“A… Kamal, that’s your name!”
{My name?}
“Yes, that’s what I call you. Like, my name is Jazmine… Jaz. Which you seem to already know. Which is kind of weird, but okay. So, the basic gist of it is, I say your name, and you respond to it.”
{And what was it again?}
“Kamal.”
{Huh.} He paused.
“What, is it a bad name?”
{No, no, I’ll just have to get used to it.} He laid down on the grass, which brought him a bit below eye level with the much smaller Jaz. {Say it a few more times?}
“Kamal.”
{How do you spell that?}
“How do you…. What?”
{You have an alphabet, don’t you? I can’t read it, but I want to see it written down.}
Jaz paused. “Huh. Well, I think I have a notebook with me, hold on.” She sat down on the grass and dug through her bag, then pulled out a notebook and a pencil. "Alrighty, look here." She opened to a random page and wrote his name down. "K-A-M-A-L. Kamal."
{Hmm. So the "kay" is the kuh sound. That makes sense. And the "em" is the mmm sound?}
"Er... yes." Jaz said, wondering momentarily why they were dissecting his name.

((Jaz +3
Kamal +3
Name 1))

[Jazmine]

{Because I’m curious,} he said, startling her again by responding to her thoughts. It was going to take a while to get used to it. {I’m sure it will,} he responded. She paused again.

“All right then. This is a “k” she said, pointing at the letter. It makes the kuh sound. The “a” here makes the ah sound. But it can represent a bunch of different sounds. It’s really confusing, actually. “
{I was going to say, because the first one sounds kind of like ‘uh’ but the first one is more like ‘ah,’ so…}
“Yeah, it always varies. It makes Common a really annoying language, too, let me tell you… Anyway, this is an 'L.' It makes the lll sound at the very end that just sort of sits there. And there you have, Kamal."

There was a moment of silence. Well, now they'd gone over his name... now what?
{So, what's the point?}
"Huh?"
{The name. What do I do with it?}
"Oh, um... well, I guess it's just what people can call you, so they don't always just go 'hey you' when they want your attention," Jaz said, actually having to think about it. "And so when two people are talking about you, they can use your name and know who the other one means."

((Jaz +4
Kamal +4
Name 2))

[Jazmine]

“So, I guess the general point of it is, for us anyway, is that when you want my attention, you can yell my name, and when I want your attention, I can yell your name. It’s basically like saying “hey, look over here, pay attention” except really quickly instead of having to explain it,” Jaz said, actually thinking about the purpose of names for the first time. It had always been one of those things she’d just sort of… never wondered about.

{We should practice,} Kamal stated, and Jaz had to agree. After all, she’d practiced with Squishy, why not with Kamal too? …Of course, Squishy wasn’t psychic. But…
“Kamal!” she called. He looked over.
{Jazmine!} he called. She stared. {What? We’re practicing my name; we should practice yours too.} She blinked at him a few more times, before picking up on the hint of a chuckle from his mind. Slowly, she started grinning, and then laughing.

“Hahaha! I guess this is pretty stupid… We both know our names now… There’s only so much practice we can do with names after we both know them, huh?”

His mind was laughing. It was a pretty odd sensation, in all reality. {Well, if you want us to run around and see how loud we have to shout for the other one to hear us, I suppose we could.}
“The ribbon kind of makes it a moot point, though…" Jaz mused. "Can't we hear each other for a pretty large distance with this?"
{No clue. We should test it out later.}
Jaz nodded in agreement.

((Jaz +5 level up
Kamal +5 level up
Name 3))

[Jazmine]

-------




Aaah, training. The spice of life? No, more like the vegetables of life. No one really WANTED them, but everyone had to deal with them at one point or another. Which was why Jaz was once again out with Kamal and Squishy for purposes of training.

Squishy’s training would actually be fairly easy, so Jaz decided to start with Kamal.

{Okay, Kamal. We’re gonna start out with riding, okay?}
{….Riding.}
{Yes. As in, someone sitting on your back and you running around like that.}
{Joy.}

Jaz merely rolled her eyes and got on with it. {First things first, let’s get you used to someone on your back.} She walked over to him, then paused. {Huh… Okay, can you like… lie down when someone wants to get onto your back? Because you’re, like… huge.} She frowned. {I guess we’ll have to start there, then, in all actuality. Okay, when I say “down,” you lie down, alright?}

(Lie Down 1)

[Jazmine]

{Out loud, or if you just think it?} Kamal asked. It was a good question, even though it threw Jaz for a bit of a loop.
{Umm… either, I guess. I’ll probably throw a physical command in there too, just in case. Let’s start mental. Down.}
Kamal plopped down onto his side.
{Er…}
{What? I got down.}
{Yeah, but the point isn’t for you to be on the ground, convenient as that is. It’s for me to be able to actually scale the mountainside that is YOU.}
With a bit of an exaggerated mental sigh, Kamal rolled onto his stomach, legs tucked underneath him.
{Alright, now get back up so we can keep practicing.} He might have been glaring. He really might have. But chances were, he wasn’t. So, with another exaggerated groan, he got back up.

(Lie Down 2)

[Jazmine]

{Down.} He lay down, this time in the proper position, although not with any shortage of semi-snarky comments. Jaz just rolled her eyes and had him get back up again. And then down again. And up. And down. Until he was about ready to just roll over and be done with it.

{Let’s try out loud now,} Jaz announced. Kamal groaned. {Don’t give me that, fatty. Just get back up again.}
{I don’t see you jumping up and down,} Kamal pointed out as he stood back up.
{Yeah, yeah.} “Down,” Jaz said. Kamal merely stared at her, his tail swishing back and forth. “…DOWN!”
{Oh, that was it?}
“YES!”
{Alright, alright, keep your pants on,} he said as he laid back down. Jaz sighed. He was being difficult on purpose, wasn’t he? {Of course. Otherwise, it would be boring.} Jaz was feeling the need to lie down too.
{Oy… just get back up again so we can keep working on this.}

(Lie Down 3)

[Jazmine]

Kamal stood back up. “Down.”
{Come again?}
“…DOWN.”
{Didn’t quite-}
“DOWN!” she exclaimed. “Down, before I sit on your head!”
His laughter rang in her head, but he lay down. And then stood back up again.
“Down.” Down . And up. “Down.” Down. Aaand up. “Down.” Down again. And back up. {Are you just doing this to-}
“Down.” He lay down again.
{My legs are getting tired.}

{Alright, on to the last thing. When I tug on your tail, lay down.}
{That’s just cruel.}
{It’s in case we’re in a situation in which the ribbons are gone and I can’t say anything out loud.}
{What are the chances of that coming up?}
{If we practice it? Pretty low. If we don’t? Pretty high.}
Kamal began to protest, but paused. {Actually, I think you have a point there.}

(Lie Down 4)

[Jazmine]

Jaz came over and pulled gently on his tail. He twitched it away. She chased after it for a moment, but he kept swishing out of range. It wasn’t too hard… he was quite a bit taller than her. She continued chasing it about for a while, and then a strange thing happened.

She started laughing.

It hadn’t been a good morning, and she’d left the house irritable, panicky, and serious. Kamal, apparently, had picked up on it, and been a total prat about training just to cheer her up. She grabbed onto his tail, which held still, finally, then collapsed to the ground, laughing. Which, incidentally, caused her to pull on said tail. And Kamal lay down.

Which, incidentally, made Jaz laugh even harder. She leaned against his side and let the laughter leave her breathless, until she felt dizzy.

After the gigglefit of epic proportions had passed, she gave Kamal an affectionate hug. How had she ever survived without him?

{I’m sure it was a daily struggle,} he thought, with a completely straight face, causing her to start giggling again.
“Alright, you. Let’s do a quick joint practice to make sure we’ve got it. Down.” He lay down. {Down.} Down. She yanked on his tail.
{OUCH.}
She apologized, then tugged on it gently, and he lay down again. The both of them were still smiling. It was kind of hard to concentrate, because everything seemed funny. Training was going to be interesting at this rate.

(Lie Down 5)