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Post by Iruka on Apr 8, 2015 21:03:35 GMT
It was one of the rare days when Iruka actually planned to do something. Rather than sit and enjoy the morning sun, and then nap until dinner, Iruka would actually spend his time working. And it wouldn't be easy work, oh no. Iruka was anticipating this to be the most trying and stressful work he'd ever done in his short life. The man sat around in his room, sitting at a table displayed with all sort of pieces of paper, each with large, colourful drawings on them with a few simple words of explanation. Iruka chewed on a boiled fruit sweet. Simple treats that he planned on using, so a box set up to the side was untouched.
He almost fell asleep, his body used to napping at this point of the day, but then there was a knock at the door. It was Sakana. She was going out today for temple visits to her parents, leaving the house empty to Iruka to use. "Come on in." Iruka grunted to the door, leaning on his chair to see his little sister enter. She smiled, hands behind her back awkwardly for some reason. "He thinks he's in trouble, keeps holding onto me like some toddler." She said with a little giggle, before grabbing an arm from behind her back, pulling the owner forwards and forcing him out of shy hiding. Shinda sure was amusing. All of it was probably scary for the little Demon when so different from everyone else, and having no clue what noises everyone kept making around him. To a point when on occasions like today, where he'd been woken up and dragged to Iruka's room, Shinda probably just assumed he'd done something wrong. Smiling slightly to his Demon friend, Iruka decided on getting one of the sweets, holding it low for Shinda to come over and get himself. The treats were to be used for rewards only, but everyone knew the shy Demon was only happy with something in his stomach first, and so the first one could have a different meaning. Today and everyday following would be important. Because Iruka desired to see the end of having a confused, only partly trained Demon running around. He wanted to learn more about them from Shinda, like his family had once done before. And maybe, Demons could be taught speech, something Iruka's parents had once predicted for the rapidly adapting race of below. Leaning back once more on his chair, Iruka smiled to Sakana as she left, before simply leaving Shinda to relax, and get used to what was going on.
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Post by Shinda on Apr 8, 2015 21:19:11 GMT
Just when the weird Angel routines were getting easy to follow, Shinda was woken up from a nap to be egged along to Iruka's room. The Demon only went in there to sleep when Iruka took naps inside, and normally he wasn't allowed in. So to have Sakana drag him along and without a tasty encouragement, Shinda could only assume it was something bad. He'd been in trouble before, far less now that he knew what was the right and wrong thing to do when exploring the house, and always acted the same. He hid behind Sakana, relating her to someone who wasn't messed with, and to the Demon was a good wall to hide behind when Iruka was mad. He shuffled behind her for the entire way up to Iruka's room. Though Iruka sounded gentle as he called the two in, and Shinda completely relaxed when he saw his master smile. Letting go of Sakana completely, Shinda skipped across to grab the sweet, crunching a few times before swallowing, barely able to pick up on flavours nor really caring to. Turning to watch Sakana leave, Shinda simply stood, staring up and Iruka and not finding any situation in his head to explain why he was here. Giving up on trying to guess Iruka's reason for wanting him here, Shinda instead just turned and began exploring. He sniffed around, stopping to stare at the bowl of sweets for a second before continuing. He found a chair near Iruka, beginning to climb it. Once on top, the small Demon could see everything on the table. He sniffed a few pieces of paper before getting bored of their similar smells, instead being drawn by the colours, picking up one to try and taste it.
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Post by Iruka on Apr 8, 2015 21:48:47 GMT
Iruka simply watched the Demon, wondering what kind of things went on in that head. Iruka perhaps expected more of Shinda than the others. He'd worked on discovering more about Demons his entire life, and now he had a little friend that just might be Iruka's link to learning more about them. He didn't know what he'd do with such knowledge. Sell it to others? Write a book? What if through Shinda Iruka discovered that Demons were a threat to Angels? That wouldn't end well for Shinda, or any other Demon like him. But this was all far into the future. Iruka didn't even know if Shinda was even able to learn as much as the Angel believed he could. Time would only tell. Iruka sat up when Shinda hopped up onto a chair of his own, staring down at the notes of paper. Iruka watched the little guy stare everything out, patting down Shinda's fair hair as the Demon settled down. Iruka quickly plucked the paper from Shinda's grasp before the Demon could eat it, fearing something like this might happen. That Demon would eat through anything. He almost consumed the first bed they'd given him and even now had some craving for pillows. No matter the taste, Shinda would eat anything he could get his few little Demon teeth on. Iruka checked the piece of paper, sighing as he placed it back on the table, making sure to keep an eye on Shinda this time.
Iruka picked up one of the notes, decided to go straight in with this experiment. He shuffled closer to Shinda's chair, holding out the paper for the Demon to look at, and not eat. The first test was more of two in one. The piece of paper was simply a blob of red, with the word underneath it. Iruka wanted to know if, Shinda even saw colour, and if he could understand the word. "Alright buddy," Iruka began, scratching near Shinda's ear, "this... is red."
Iruka tapped his finger on the piece of paper, "RED." He said again, slow and clear. He repeat it over and over again, watching exactly how his feral friend reacted.
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Post by Shinda on Apr 8, 2015 22:01:35 GMT
It was a shame Shinda couldn't taste the paper some more, it felt funny for the short period of time it was on his tongue. But then Iruka made it clear to the Demon that this was one of those 'inedible' items. Huffing, Shinda ignored the urge to eat all the paper, instead just turning his head left and right to stare at each different picture, until Iruka moved close. Making some sort of purring noise with his ears, Shinda almost didn't pay attention until Iruka showed the bright colour to Shinda. He wanted to reach forward and take it, but Iruka was ready to move it away should the little Demon monkey try and steal it. So Shinda was forced to sit there and stare at this one colour, wondering what connected it to what Iruka kept repeating over and over again. In the back of Shinda's throat, he made some sort of rumbling sound. On the verge of saying something, that only came out as a growl, Shinda gave up on the possibility of imitating Iru for a second. Instead he hopped down, rushing over to the draws near Iruka's bed, rummaging till he found something. Climbing back up to the table, Shinda placed a red, silky scarf down, poking it violently with a finger, whilst looking at Iruka for signs he'd done it right. Whatever IT was.
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Post by Iruka on Apr 8, 2015 22:28:32 GMT
Iruka understood that he probably wouldn't get a word out of Shinda today. He just wanted some sort of understanding. So it didn't disappoint much when Shinda simply growled in response to the colour, looking rather confused as he gave up on talking. Iruka could see it might be hard to talk. Shinda wasn't exactly the same as Angels, whose lips and tongue were perfect for speech. Shinda was different. If he spoke, it would take a while before the words came out right. Iruka almost put the paper down, before Shinda got down from his chair, on a mission as he scavenged around the drawers. Iruka didn't keep anything important in them, so he seemed only curious as Shinda seemed to be looking for something. Iruka openly chuckled when Shinda seemed to fetch the first thing he could find that was red, certainly proving that Demons could see colours at least. Iruka didn't know how successful on the language front it was, but it certainly deserved a reward. Iruka reached for a sweet, holding it out for his Demon friend to take. Hopefully Shinda would get the idea that doing something right meant being rewarded as well, from there, perhaps the Demon could try different things until rewarded, like perhaps trying to say the word. Iruka picked up the scarf. "Red?" He asked, smiling to Shinda.
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Post by Shinda on Apr 9, 2015 11:45:05 GMT
Shinda really didn't know if this was supposed to be a game, or whether it served some other purpose. What Iruka was trying to get from the Demon, Shinda didn't know. But what he could gather was that finding the scarf was good in some way, as the Demon soon swallowed down his reward. Watching Iruka pick up the scarf, Shinda's interest got pulled more towards finding out how to get more sweets, wondering what his master thought was the right thing to do for Shinda to get that. It was the equivalent of training a pet, but one that was smarter than he looked, and would only improve in time. Shinda stood on his chair, reaching over to look closer at the scarf as Iruka said that word again. It meant the colour, surely. To make sure, Shinda looked down at his own arm, rubbing a claw over the bumpy, scaled skin. The thicker layer of scales was a red colour, and so Shinda pointed at it too. In his throat, he tried again to repeat what Iruka was saying. "Rrrrrrrrrrrrr" Shinda growled, which was as close as the Demon would get. Eagerly after pointing at something else red, Shinda poked Iruka's shoulder, almost pestering the Angel for another treat for doing what the Demon assumed was right.
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Post by Iruka on Apr 12, 2015 20:07:52 GMT
Iruka smiled a bit. He couldn't call this a success, but he understood where Shinda's lack of learning came from. It wasn't that he didn't know how to talk or want to, but that he couldn't. He didn't know how speech worked, only how to make simple noises. It was something the Demon could only train on his own, in his own time. Which meant if Shinda wasn't interested in learning to talk like everyone else, then Iruka's plans were hashed. Sighing, Iruka nodded when Shinda tried and failed again, though he patted the boy's head for picking out another thing of a red colour. Another sweet in the belly of this baby beast, and Iruka decided to continue on, until Shinda got really bored.
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Pushing his seat back and watching Shinda follow him, Iruka look forwards at the nearly empty table. Once full of cards of pictures, colours and words. Now, a exhausting year later, and it was almost empty. The only ones left were complex words, things that weren't physical, but mental, and harder to explain to Shinda. But the Demon boy was doing well, impossibly well, considering how his kind was considered. Insignificant, violent and feral creatures. Without language or interest in anything but killing and eating, Demons really weren't given a chance. But the curiosity of this one Angel, and the determination to learn from his little Demon friend, meant that Iruka was close to proving everyone wrong. Shinda had excelled expectations, considering that Iruka believed in all honestly teaching a Demon speech would take a decade. Shinda's vocabulary was far from perfect, but he'd learnt much more than a baby Angel would in a year. What he couldn't speak, he understood when other said so. Iruka leaned back in his chair, as usual letting Shinda decided for himself when he wanted to actually learn.
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Post by Shinda on Apr 12, 2015 20:32:02 GMT
Sakana no longer needed to bring Shinda to his lessons in talking. Months ago the Demon had made it there himself, remembering certain times that Iruka usually liked the Demon around. Perhaps before those few months ago, Shinda was adamant about not attending. He hated the frustration of each time not being able to understand, even though in his head he knew what to do. It was like his mind was in combat with all natural instincts, and it had taken a while to win that battle. Whilst Shinda wasn't fluent, or even able to form sentences, he understood. Iruka could talk to him, and the Demon would know by gathering together the words he knew from what Iruka said what was being told to him. It was all complicated, and fortunately Shinda wasn't a newborn Demon. He was still young, but his mind didn't collapse into anger and tears when he didn't get something. He was able to think... logically, if Demons ever knew of such a thing as logic. Shinda carefully opened the door and peered inside, making sure Iruka wasn't sleeping before storming inside, making some sort of excited cooing noise with his filter ears. No one, not even Shinda, understood how he made such noises. The Demon only did them naturally, and when the funny noises made others laugh, it only encouraged Shinda to coo and yap and cackle even more. Usually Shinda would go and run around the room, but for once he went straight to the table, heaving the tall chair out from the table to climb on it. He almost ignored Iruka, before remembering he needed to say something. "Herr...herl...hello." Shinda got out, getting his vocals in check. He got better the long he talked for, to begin with, Shinda was always half growling his speech. Smiling slightly to Iruka, Shinda began looking around at the pieces of paper. These lessons were simple, Shinda picked an interesting image, and Iruka would explain what it was. Shinda moved to sit on top of the table, pushing some pictures to reveal one that had been covered by others. Shinda eyed it up for a few moments, before carefully picking it up. An image of three people, holding hands and smiling. Under it was some word Shinda struggled to read. "Frrrrrrr....Fry...fry-ends?"
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