[PP-F4] The Mean Kitty <<Training Your Friend>>

[Them 0]

Éli, either heeding Nari's warning about Yuki or simply reacting to the mention of his name, turned around cluelessly. "Better watch it, bud. Don't want you catching Yuki's claws." Cleo teased, playfully ruffling his ears.

"Right. Repetition." She flashed a nod at Nari and then a smile toward Éli. "We'll get there, little man. Ready to give this another shot?" As if she even needed to ask, the cat already poised before the remaining training dummies. "Let's do it just like before; let 'em have it when I say go, okay?"

Attempt number two was swiftly underway. This time, she eyed the dummy on the left; it's armour looked heavier than the first but a lack of helmet meant Éli had a smaller target to hit. Better to make it progressively harder for him, she thought. After clearing her throat, she built up suspense and watched as Éli stood still as a tree, waiting for her next words to pounce. "... Éli, attack the left one!" she commanded, pointing to his target.

...

He turned, pupils dilated as wide as physically possible, staring at her as if she'd asked him to fish out a whale from a small pond. She stared back. "... the bad guy on the left!"

He remained unmoving.

"Left, that one!"

Despite pointing it out, Éli's eyes didn't follow, and Cleo sighed heavily. "Or we can just take a little break, if you want..." Her voice reduced to a dejected whimper, Éli's ears perked up as he bounced away to play with the helmet of the dummy he felled earlier.

"On a scale of one to ten," she started, a look of defeat setting upon her face as she turned to Nari. "How bad was that?"

| ID: 207956 | CD: 3 | Training Fail! Lower CD requirement by 2

| Progress: 1/3
| CD Requirement: 3+

Edited April 2, 2022 by Them

[Nari-Lanreth 0]

Nari settled back as Cleo returned her attention towards training the kitten. At first, it looked as though they were actually going to see some progress, but…that didn’t last very long, at all. As Cleo commanded, the kitten turned to look at the master, with what Nari could only denote as a look of fear. ‘That’s…not good.’

Although she managed to catch the words before they were spoken aloud, she was sure that Cleo would see the look on her face, likely more telling than any actual words – a look of disappointment. Trying to cover it up quickly, she spoke – her voice filled with apprehension as she let loose words that were not nearly as accurate as she would’ve liked them to be.

“Well, it was…certainly an attempt. If nothing else. On a…scale? Uhm…maybe a….two?” She winced as she said the number, wondering if she should’ve softened it a bit more. “But, that’s why we practice, right? To get better at things. No one was ever a master the first time they picked up a sword, it takes practice.”

Spoiler

Word Count: 179

 

[Them 0]

Try as she did to hide it, her eyes blew wide-open when Nari rated the performance a '...two?' It wasn't the number Cleo had hoped to hear, yet knew it to be the one that she deserved. Frustration beginning to build from her own inadequancies, she lashed out in a moment of weakness. "Practice, practice, practice. I get it." Cleo's voice carried a burning sense of sarcasm, her patience tested for the first time in the game and gripping her quite unlike anything else had thus far. Almost immediately, she looked to Nari, regret written in her eyes. "Fuck. Sorry. I didn't mean to..." To what? she asked, unsure herself as to why the situation was getting to her. "I don't know. I'm just sorry."

Every instinct told her to back-out. To insist to Nari that she had enough to go on and run back home to the first-floor. To try again later on. To become stuck in an infinite loop of trying and failing to make headway with Éli. It felt far too easy and far too natural to resist. She eyed the door, ashamed that she would even consider such an exit strategy, yet unable to not at least play with the thought. "If you want me and Éli out of your hair, I'd understand..."

Edited April 2, 2022 by Them

[Nari-Lanreth 0]

“I want you and Éli to succeed, nothing more, nothing less. So, let’s get to it shall we?” She’d seen the look in the eyes of the other. First anger, frustration at being unable to complete the task without barriers, without trouble. Then came the regret after the spoken words – retaliation against a reminder of failure. Nari understood it all. Letting the sarcasm drip heavier into her voice, she decided to prod back at the other. “That is, of course, unless you’re thinking that you’re entirely incapable of training the kitten?”

She stared hard at Cleo, knowing that the other required a mixture of firm touch, and encouragement. She let the words hang for a few seconds, the tone and look a reminder that there was still work to be done, before letting her posture relax. “Besides, I promised you I’d help get this little kitten all trained up – and I don’t plan on rescinding that promise anytime soon. We were bound to run into a resistance or two, it’s the nature of cats, isn’t it? So, let’s not be surprised if there’s some faults along the way, right?”

Spoiler

Word Count: 189

 

[Them 0]

“That is, of course, unless you’re thinking that you’re entirely incapable of training the kitten?”

The words hit her like a slap in the face, igniting a need to speak in defense for herself. "I'm not incapable." Reluctant to make commitments? Yes. Barely able to look after herself, let alone another soul? Possibly. But she couldn't bare to be branded incapable, not even in jest, and knew when to stand her ground on the matter. In the silence that followed, she allowed her thoughts to run amok and dwell on the situation; how silly she'd been to get so worked up, how Nari had been encouraging her the whole way, and how the task—when broken down and made as granular as possible—might not be as insurmountable as she first thought.

"We were bound to run into a resistance or two, it’s the nature of cats, isn’t it?"

She fought with her face muscles to hide a smile, losing the battle when a snort erupted from her nose. Hating that she'd cracked so easily, her eyes traced a circle around the room, landing on Nari as they came to rest. "It is, indeed." The cat owner felt obligated to give it another go, if not to achieve victory, then to at least say that she'd tried her very best. "You're right. Without any faults, how can we be sure we've put in enough work to overcome them?"

---

The set-up remained largely the same, Éli stood in front of the target with Cleo behind him, though, she lowered herself into a crouch, running her fingers through the fur on his back. A calming presence instead of a commanding one, as if she were training alongside the cat. Calmer than before, she spoke with a softer touch, one which Éli would feel more compelled to listen to.

"Okay, go get 'em on three. One, two... three!"

Launching at the training dummy as a cannon ball would to a boat, Éli left no inch of the target unscathed, the flat chestpiece barbed with scratch marks and the top of the armour stand scorched where his tail would have whipped an assailant's face. He landed without the same grace as before, chest heaving as evidence he was beginning to tire.

| ID: 207980 | CD: 8 | Training Success!

| Progress: 2/3
| CD Requirement: 3+

Edited April 3, 2022 by Them

[Nari-Lanreth 0]

The reaction could not have been more perfect if Nari had choreographed the entire scene herself. At first, Cleo had shown anger at the commentary – a resentment towards the idea of being incapable, in any degree. But that had quickly fallen away as she glanced about the room, an almost apologetic – if not shy – look crossing her face. Lastly, the smile broke through.

She was just about to make a comment on overcoming challenges, when Cleo knelt down beside Éli, running a hand through the fur of the kitten. Deciding to instead lean back and watch, she waited as the cat readied itself, before launching forward and denting the armour. A few quick, light claps later, and Nari was beaming at Cleo – trying to instill the confidence that had just crept up onto the other girl.

“You see? Sometimes we just need to grind through the tough spots, to get to where we need to be. If you’d given already, we wouldn’t get to see Éli dented my nicest pieces, would we?” She gave a wink, hoping that the sarcasm would be picked up by the other, but completely unsure if her joke would make its way across the air and be understood, much less acknowledged. “I would say a few more tries, and we may actually make some serious progress here! I’m impressed, honestly.”

She let her smile linger upon the final words, hoping that it would provide the boost in confidence that the other girl seemed to require.

Spoiler

Word Count: 250

 

[Them 0]

To see Nari beam a smile at her brought instant gratification to the cat owner. Cleo and Eli had done something worthy of an applause, and the blue-haired woman, basking in the praise for a change, didn't endeavor to dampen her smile. She needed the win. Good god, did she need the win.

"Nicest pieces?" Cleo stiffled a laugh. "Okay, they're not terrible. But if they're actually your best? I may need to start looking for a new Blacksmith," she replied in jest, patting her friend on the shoulder. "For real, though. Thank you. I'll be surprised if the boy makes it through one more, to be honest with you." She set her eyes on the cat who'd since recovered from his fatique, looking ready to go again. "How about it, one more for good luck?" Eli lashed his tail sideways. Cat-speak for yes, Cleo assumed. "Alright." Sparing a quick glance at Nari, she sent the woman a nod. "Wish us luck."

Edited April 4, 2022 by Them

[Nari-Lanreth 0]

“I will have you know these are the finest pieces…out of my junk pile! Maybe not the finest I’ve ever made. But they’re the best of the worst, so to speak!” She gave a wink at the other, barely able to contain her giggles as she responded to the jest. She spared no glance at the pieces on display, knowing full well that they would’ve just been sold for junk, or destroyed if they hadn’t been repurposed for training today.

 “Alright, all jokes aside, you’re right. Let’s finish this up before little kitty there decides to have his afternoon nap.” She’d meant the comment in jest, but as she looked towards the small ball of fur and fire, she realised that the familiar truly was barely maintaining itself on its feet. For a brief second she felt a moment of concern, wondering if it would collapse entirely. “I would say, that if he manages to land it on this one, he should maybe take the rest of the day to rest – which should give a certain someone a bit of a break as well, hopefully…”

Spoiler

Word Count: 185

 

[Them 0]

"One, two, three!"

 A crash, claws scraping against metal, and a boom echoed through the halls of the estate and out into the courtyard. Once Eli had finished, landing a little way past his trail of destruction, he flopped onto his side, tongue sticking out from his mouth, breathing fast and heavy. His silhouette became enveloped in white before a notification appeared above him; 'Familiar Mastery Unlocked!'

 The dummy's metal chestpiece now more closely resembled a distressed sweatshirt that had more holes than it did fabric, laying flat on the ground alongside the rest of the armour pieces. A series of small dents blotted the floor where the armour stand struck the flooring, a fact which escaped Cleo as she craned her neck backwards and cast her eyes to the ceiling, releasing a resolute, relieved sigh. She whispered just three words, ones which she thought she'd never be able to utter that day.

 "We're finally done."

 | ID: 208106 | CD: 8 | Training Success!

 | Progress: 3/3
 | Training Completed! Unlocked Skill <<Familiar Mastery: Rending>>

 ---

Thread Summary:

 Word Count: 7,683
Base EXP: 1,280

Cleo:
1,280 * 2 = 2,560 EXP (Thread) + 300 EXP (Quest) = 2,860 EXP
200 400 Col (Thread) Giving all the col to Them. :)
Unlocked <<Familiar Master: Rending>>

Nari:
1,280 * 5 = 7,680 6,400 EXP