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fandomhigh2018-09-27 07:54 am
puppy_fair) wrote in fandomhigh2018-09-27 07:54 am
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Fur, Feathers, and Scales: The Biology of Domestication, Thursday, Period 2
Today, Zack had, alas, asked the students to meet him in the danger shop. Today's animal demonstration was going to be no less fluffy or cuddly, nah, but there was a bit of a dearth on fully-grown versions of today's particular animal on the island, and so Zack was going to make do with that he had.
And what he had, apparently, was a simulation of a ranch, populated by large, yellow birds.
"Hey, guys," Zack said, grinning and waving to the students from where he had settled, sitting on the edge of the fence with one of those big yellow birds nuzzling its beak into his hair. "The vet at the shelter told me that maybe I should take a class to explain a bit of the difference between domestication and taming, today. And since I don't know many tamed Earth animals, I figured I'd use an example from home. These guys are chocobos."
The one that was nuzzling at him made a loud "kweh" sound, quite happily, right into his ear. He just laughed.
"Back home, we use chocobos instead of horses as mount animals and beasts of burden. When you get them in the wild, they'll pretty much always look like these guys. Big, yellow, happy. They can run around open plains faster than some cars can travel. They're pretty great. They're what you'd call tamed animals- their parents were wild once, they were wild once, but they were conditioned to be used to the presence of humans and can be trained to let people ride around on their backs. But we don't just use tamed chocobos back home, either."
He waved a hand, and a few more birds appeared behind the fence. One was blue, one was green, another one had silky black feathers, and another one, though it was almost hard to tell the difference from the yellow ones at a glance, was most certainly gold.
"Some people have taken to domesticating them, that is, selectively breeding them to bring out traits that they would like to see more of. Some traits that might change in the domestication process are things like increased docility, different coat or plumage colors, and more specific physical adaptations that improve their value as whatever it was they were domesticated for in the first place."
He waved a hand at the four new, differently-colored birds.
"When people started breeding chocobos to make for faster racers or better beasts of burden, some interesting stuff started to happen. They noticed that some of them, ones that were bred into specific plumage colors, would and could go places that their wild and tame counterparts couldn't. Blue chocobos started dabbling around in rivers and lakes, something their yellow friends refused to do outright. Green ones liked traversing mountainous, rougher terrain. Black chocobos liked both, taking to the water and to the mountains with ease. And the gold ones?"
Zack glanced at the almost metallic-looking bird in the enclosure, who gave a loud 'Wark' sound and then launched itself into the air, actually flying over the fence to land nearby.
"... Well, a gold chocobo can go anywhere. They're really, really hard to breed, though, in case you're wondering why people bother taming or trying to raise black or green or blue chocobos in the first place. They're the result of multiple generations of very, very selective breeding. I've never actually seen a gold one in person, myself. There are chocobos of other colors, too, bred mostly just to be pretty, like the ones in pink, red, dark blue, white, and purple," as he spoke, a bird in each color appeared in the pen, too, "yet more examples of domestication at work."
He grinned at the class.
"So," he said, "if you want to come meet the chocobos in person, I promise, they're all tame." A pause. "Or domestic! They'll let you pat them, hug them, feed them some greens, or even get up onto their backs and ride them around if you want to. They have very strong backs, and a black or gold one could handle pretty much any rider with ease, especially here in the danger shop."
Yes, even Sidon.
[OOC: Open!]
And what he had, apparently, was a simulation of a ranch, populated by large, yellow birds.
"Hey, guys," Zack said, grinning and waving to the students from where he had settled, sitting on the edge of the fence with one of those big yellow birds nuzzling its beak into his hair. "The vet at the shelter told me that maybe I should take a class to explain a bit of the difference between domestication and taming, today. And since I don't know many tamed Earth animals, I figured I'd use an example from home. These guys are chocobos."
The one that was nuzzling at him made a loud "kweh" sound, quite happily, right into his ear. He just laughed.
"Back home, we use chocobos instead of horses as mount animals and beasts of burden. When you get them in the wild, they'll pretty much always look like these guys. Big, yellow, happy. They can run around open plains faster than some cars can travel. They're pretty great. They're what you'd call tamed animals- their parents were wild once, they were wild once, but they were conditioned to be used to the presence of humans and can be trained to let people ride around on their backs. But we don't just use tamed chocobos back home, either."
He waved a hand, and a few more birds appeared behind the fence. One was blue, one was green, another one had silky black feathers, and another one, though it was almost hard to tell the difference from the yellow ones at a glance, was most certainly gold.
"Some people have taken to domesticating them, that is, selectively breeding them to bring out traits that they would like to see more of. Some traits that might change in the domestication process are things like increased docility, different coat or plumage colors, and more specific physical adaptations that improve their value as whatever it was they were domesticated for in the first place."
He waved a hand at the four new, differently-colored birds.
"When people started breeding chocobos to make for faster racers or better beasts of burden, some interesting stuff started to happen. They noticed that some of them, ones that were bred into specific plumage colors, would and could go places that their wild and tame counterparts couldn't. Blue chocobos started dabbling around in rivers and lakes, something their yellow friends refused to do outright. Green ones liked traversing mountainous, rougher terrain. Black chocobos liked both, taking to the water and to the mountains with ease. And the gold ones?"
Zack glanced at the almost metallic-looking bird in the enclosure, who gave a loud 'Wark' sound and then launched itself into the air, actually flying over the fence to land nearby.
"... Well, a gold chocobo can go anywhere. They're really, really hard to breed, though, in case you're wondering why people bother taming or trying to raise black or green or blue chocobos in the first place. They're the result of multiple generations of very, very selective breeding. I've never actually seen a gold one in person, myself. There are chocobos of other colors, too, bred mostly just to be pretty, like the ones in pink, red, dark blue, white, and purple," as he spoke, a bird in each color appeared in the pen, too, "yet more examples of domestication at work."
He grinned at the class.
"So," he said, "if you want to come meet the chocobos in person, I promise, they're all tame." A pause. "Or domestic! They'll let you pat them, hug them, feed them some greens, or even get up onto their backs and ride them around if you want to. They have very strong backs, and a black or gold one could handle pretty much any rider with ease, especially here in the danger shop."
Yes, even Sidon.
[OOC: Open!]
Sign In!
Re: Sign In!
Re: Sign In!
Re: Sign In!
Lecture!
Re: Lecture!
Giant horse-chickens! Zack's world was awesome.
Also, the difference between 'tamed' and 'domesticated' finally made sense to him, so thank you for that, Zack!
Meet the Chocobos!
But they're friendly! They'll crouch down to let you climb on and they'll happily eat fruits and vegetables from your hand. Fortunately, Zack managed to get the danger shop to give a supply of greens... that looked far more like carrots... for anyone who wanted to try their hand at feeding one!
Re: Meet the Chocobos!
"Who's a good boy?" he cooed at it, grinning wildly. This was definitely his favourite class.
Re: Meet the Chocobos!
"Ohmygod," he gushed at nearly every amazed turn, "you're
way more polygonaleven more beautiful than I could have ever imagined...."And then came the selfies. So, so many selfies. This was literally the greatest day of Prompto's whole damn life.
Talk to Zack!
And totally could have just summoned a real chocobo - he has that materia - or asked Iris to make an appearance with her tiny pet chicobo, but then he wouldn't have been able to talk domestication versus taming, would be?
Re: Talk to Zack!
So gods help anyone who somehow managed to get in his way as he all but launched himself out of his first period class to go crash the second period class today.
"I'm here! I'm here!" he burst into the danger shop, struggling to catch his breath. "I'm he--Ohmygoooood." The two balled up hands clenched over his beaming mouth did absolutely nothing to muffle the slow, high-pitched squeaking that was leaking of him right now, as he bounced from foot to foot in a little dance of barely restrained excitement. "You did chocobos!"
Re: Talk to Zack!
He waved a hand toward them.
"They're very friendly sims, if you want to meet them!"
Re: Talk to Zack!
Apparently, the ability to finish sentences had completely abandoned him, but then Prompto realized that he didn't need sentences right now, why was he even trying at sentences when he was on a real fake chocobo farm and there were literally chocobos, like, ten feet away from him.
"Zack," he stated, looking at him with a face that he miraculously managed to be straight and serious for a brief second, "you are seriously the coolest dude that ever existed right now."
He almost looked for a second like he was going to cry. But it vanished as quickly as it had come as he then chirped out, "Okay, bye!", unable to hold himself back any longer as he charged forward to hop over that fence and meet all of his new chocobo besties.
Talk to the TA!
Re: Talk to the TA!
OOC!