The Basics of Monsters

It has been an interesting few weeks around the Peko Ranch. Between strange people coming and going at all hours of the day and night, there is also the odd antics of Uta and her Slime Lab that have meant that the usual peace and quiet of the place has been disrupted.

For Rylen, it means that he isn't quite so quick to return to Ninetails. Sure, the undead situation is pressing, but making sure that slimes or other monsters don't absolutely destroy the ranch while he's gone seems to be a bit more important.

"Alright, so..." He starts. "I'm not expecting to make you an expert in one session, but I think there's a few things I can show you that might make things a little easier in the monster department."

The Pooka glances at Uta to make sure they are paying attention.

Uta's attention span was, in fact, captured by the-goddeesses-know-what, face turned away to stare in the distance, but as soon as Rylen started talking, she snapped to listen. One thing that the Pooka might have picked up through continuous exposure to this particular Spriggan is that this little imperceptible frown she's showing at the moment means that she's at least making a honest effort at paying attention. There's hope.

"I'm all ears!", Uta replies, thumbs tucked into her black belt in a sort of 'relaxed yet ready' posture.

Despite her attempts at being all serious and businesslike, the corners of her mouth dart upwards every now and then, and she has to bite her lower lip to drag them back into a resting position.

Someone's excited about getting to handle monsters, but is trying to act all cool and nonchalant.

And failing.

If nothing else, Rylen is a very patient person, and Uta is not the first easily-distracted individual that he's taught over the years. So, at her attempt at attention, he inclines his head.

"So, first thing we want to do is understand what monsters are." Rylen begins. He pulls on a pair of leather gloves that seem to be reinforced at the palms, then reaches in to one of the pens nearby. When he comes back up, he is holding a poring. A basic, low-level slime.

"So, since you've got an affinity for slimes, I figured we'd start with this one." The way he holds it, there is no health loss. "This is a Poring. A low-level, non-agressive monster. Most of the time, you can handle them pretty easily without too much trouble, but if you do any damage to them, they'll attack you just like any other monster."

He continues, "The key thing with monsters is to understand that they aren't animals, or pets. They usually are driven by single-minded goals. They do not care what you want. Only what they want."

Uta stares at Rylen with intensity.

One, two, three seconds pass.

She frowns a little harder. There is a hint of disappointment in the mostly deadpan "oh" she lets out. She was apparently hoping for a pet.

"...so they're like bees," Uta adds, apparently jumping back to the previous sentence as she absent-mindedly scratches her cheek. "Do not annoy them, and they will not annoy you."

More silence.

"...I guess that covers the basics. Monster simple creature. Monster stubborn. Monster do its thing. You do thing to monster, monster do thing to you. Thing monster do to you is ouch. You no bother poring, poring no bother you. I'd say it's pretty simple. Are there any questions?" She looks up, finger tapping on her lips a few times. "No, I don't think I have any questions, you may proceed- wait, no, I do have one question. Do I get a pair of cool monster handling gloves like those?" She looks away once more. "I think I've been doing it wrong this whole time. I should have been focusing on adventuring /gloves/, instead of hats..."

It is a common misconception about monsters, especially as some particularly skilled monster handlers can actually make it seem as if a creature is a 'pet' when they most certainly are not. "I wouldn't say like bees." He hrms to himself, the Poring wiggling a bit. "The best way to look at it is that a monster must always be under the control of a handler, or they will revert back to their default behavior."

He sets the Poring back down into the pen. "In the case of a Poring, the default behavior is to look for food. Their primary motivation is to eat." He motions to one of the pens further down, where a large looking cat is chained. Xander's recently captured mount. "For a creature like that? The default behavior is aggressive, and if it isn't controlled, it will attack you."

He watches as she has an entire conversation with herself, raising his eyebrows. "The most important thing is control, usually by magical means. You can't build loyalty. You can't make them your friend. All you can do is get them to obey." It is probably a harsh-sounding way of putting it, especially with there being more humanoid monsters which may even seem to be sentient.

Rylen looks down at the gloves, then slips them off, offering them out to Uta. "Here, you can borrow these for now. I won't be needing them up in Ninetails." He explains. "You want to get gloves with an enchantment that helps with monster control. It really doesn't matter what type you get, so long as they have the right magical enchantment on them. Same with jackets, aprons, hats..."

Uta's decent at keeping up a relatively noncommittal facade, but someone who knows her well enough like Rylen can tell that her little world of slimes drinking beer and playing skittles gets shattered bit by bit.

That said, Uta herself doesn't seem devastated. She's... taken it reasonably well, it seems.

Until, that is, Xander's mount is revealed. At that point she shivers, stiffens, and takes an instinctive step back. "...yes. The Switchblade Tiger and I have already met." Her hand instinctively darts to rub her neck, where the beast sank its fangs just before Xander captured it.

"That's the fellow you have to thank for me finally deciding to take serious monster handling lessons." She glances at Rylen. "But Xander probably mentioned that already."

After the last part of the discussion, Uta taps her lips again. "...Oh. So, I'm going to need a monster taming outfit, then? Hmm. I guess I'll have to contact Gwen about that..."

It isn't as if Rylen hasn't seen broken dreams before. There were plenty of people he's taught who have had to learn some hard truths in the long run. Still, he tries to be as comforting about it as he can.

Those gray eyes flick between the tiger and Uta, giving a small nod. "Xander did mention it, though he didn't give me the specifics of what happened. Makes me feel like a right asshole for not being there." Alas, the Pooka often has responsibilities to the guild which keep him occupied.

"I think it would help, at least against the lower level monsters. At least enough that you wouldn't take as much damage from them." Rylen explains, "Against higher level ones, you'll need to learn your own control techniques using your own magic." He adds.

Then, stroking at his chin, he seems to think. "Gwen, but also an enchanter if you can find one. I think Xander mentioned Prophylaxis did some enchanting work, but I'm sure there are others out there."

"Don't feel bad about that," Uta says as she removes her white newbie gloves. "Where was I when you needed me? Elsewhere probably. I've been elsewhere a lot. With the notable exception of always being where I myself are, I spend most of my life not being in the same place as most people. And it is fine. If we all were in the same place at once, well, you remember what happened at the Apocalypse, rigth?" She gives a bit of a bittersweet look, which soon turns into a confused one. "...in that case I might need a reminder because the details are escaping me at the moment. But anyway, that wasn't important. The important part is that there were not one, but /three/ monster handlers- okay, two and a half. I'll count Setsuna as half a handler. There were two and a half monster handlers, and there was Goldenblade. There were more than enough people to take care of me, and guess what? They did." She takes one step forward and cants her head slightly. "And as I've said, whatever happened finally pushed me away from the downward spiral of mirthfully letting my stupefied self be consumed by the opium of slime petting so that, awakened by the impact of my impacting face-first against the rocky path of learning, I could push myself to stand and-" A few blinks. She shakes her head. "...I lost track of where I was. Right!" She punches her fist, holding her two now removed white gloves, against her open palm. "Prophylaxis. I have met him during duties. We've been doing some work together, I'm sure we can come to an agreement!" She /finally/ accepts Rylen's gloves, and slips them on. She opens and closes one fist a few times, staring at it. And frowns at the ill fit. She glances towards Rylen again. "Mind if I... you know, menu-equip them to auto-fit?"

There is a point where Rylen just stands there, his arms folded across his chest, watching as Uta rambles. Oh, he can understand most of it just fine, but there doesn't seem to be any point in interrupting her train of thought.

It isn't until she starts to trail off that he speaks up, "I know that there likely wasn't much difference I could have made, but..." He raises a brow, "It's natural to feel a bit concerned when the two most important people you know go into danger and there isn't anything you can do about it." He shrugs once.

"It's probably the overprotective older-brother in me. I just have people other than my sister to worry about, now." Rylen explains.

At her question, he nods, "Feel free. I can probably commission a new set at some point, but I don't imagine I'll be touching many undead. They tend to be squishy in an unsettling sort of way." He pulls a disguised face.

"Oh, actually, knowing Gwen, she'll want to make a pair of gloves exactly the way she likes them, to match the rest of the outfit. So I'll just borrow these and return them once the new pair is enchanted. Just pointing out that two menu-equips might... make their appearance drift away and not return them to the original state? I don't know how it works, honestly, I've never menu equipped something back and forth..." A few swipes through the air, some shimmering, and Rylen's two gloves go from hanging loose on Uta's hands to fitting them like... well... ah... something that... fits very well. The Spriggan flexes her fingers again and admires the result with satisfaction.

"I am... flattered that you think of me that way," Uta says, as she looks down. "Especially since I haven't done much to deserve it."

Probably to hide the embarrassment, she segues into a discussion of the Undead. "I suppose it's a bad idea for you to touch them, but I've been tempted to do it myself. A lot." She turns to Rylen all red in the face. "Because I need physical contact with people in order to medically inspect them!", she blurts out, red in the face in the face. "Don't get the wrong idea!"

She clears her throat, noisily, then resumes talking. "That said, I plan to come help a little with this whole Undead bruhaha myself." She grins. "No matter where I'll be at the time, I'm probably going to end up in trouble, so I might as well be in your general area. That way you won't regret being far away when I get attacked."

"I'm not too worried, either way." Rylen replies in his usual calm voice. "Anything that can help with your monster handling endevours." He smirks, "If you're heading up in that direction, then maybe we can continue the lessons when we're there. There are other monsters than just the undead up there, and it would be good to learn to interact with multiple types."

Then, he gives his most warm, boyish sort of smile. "You're my friend, that's all you need to do to deserve it." He chuckles, "As hard as it might be to believe, I don't have that many in the real world. People... get uncomfortable when things get real bad and only a rare few stick it out."

He shrugs then, probably used to how fickle people can be. "Anyways, I would be more than happy to act as body-guard for your highness."

Uta, once again, tries to keep a straight face but betrays a hint of looking touched.

"I had a lot of acquaintances, no real friends myself," Uta replies with a little shrug. "But I completely understand the part about people being uncomfortable when things start to look bad. One either learns quickly to make things not look as bad as they actually are." She smirks in Rylen's direction. "Good thing it's pretty much a national sport, and we get plenty of training at that."

Lips sucked in, she looks up and away. "...mmmm. One wonders if We can enchant that Royal Robe of Ours as Our Monster Handling getup...", she jokes in that posh accent.

She can't keep the facade up for long, though. A burst of laughter, a shake of her head, and an admission: "That would be the worst monster handling getup ever. More seriously, I'll be glad to try my hand at different type of monsters. I think i'll feel more comfortable establishing control over something not as... adorable."

"Well, now you've got me." Rylen replies. In his past, he might not have always been a good friend, but life has a way of changing a person. He gives a small laugh at the idea that the Japanese are really good at hiding how bad things are. She does have a point.

"Well, don't worry too much. I won't have you trying your hand at anything quite like fluffy over there anytime soon." He motions towards the big cat. Apparently, until Xander comes up with a better name, he is going to be 'fluffy'. That's what he gets for freaking out poor Rylen the other day.

"In any case, at least you understand a bit more about monsters and how they work. We'll have to see about progressing further with some hands-on work, next time."

"Monster do its thing. You do thing to monster, monster do thing to you. Thing monster do to you is ouch," Uta repeats with a nod. "Got the basics down pat." She glances sideways at 'fluffy'. "I don't think either of us is ready for each other. But I think I'm less ready for him than he is for me."

"Looking forward to the hands-on work!", Uta says, then adds, almost blurted out, "...And now you've got me."