Question Learning to Hunt

Learning to Hunt comments
Poor Danny, losing friends because of H1! bigots, only to have Wihanape around to talk to. Cats are always tired enough to nap; including in the most unusual of spots, even in bathtubs and sinks. Bwahahaha! Trying to get Danny to hunt and mouse and suggesting he eat it, Wihanape really doesn't understand humans at all. Ooo, she plays dirty with her taunts to goad Danny into action; guess she understands him or at least the teenage male mindset more than I thought.

Goes hunting for a mouse, only to stumble upon a pink-haired hottie. A bright, cute, and energetic voice, trying to think if I've ever heard a voice like that. D'oh! This girl made me smack my head, she is around Danny's age and hasn't heard of a cow's udder before, how is that possible in this day and age. Must have been raised in this city her whole life and never read about them on the internet who learned about them in school somehow. Pretty excited to see a cow being milked, she seems more than a bit ditzy and a little bit hyper to me. Cassie Veras, wonder what her powers are. And Wihanape is teasing Danny about not asking the girl out who was obviously flirting with him, I doubt she is going to let him go long without clueing him in. After some point it would get painful to watch. Oh course she is a cat, so maybe not.

Now Danny has a crush on another mutant girl and he isn't even at Whateley yet, poor kid is going to be driven crazy. Uh oh, I just thought of something; what if elrod is having Danny be the center of harem anime style antics? And I wonder why Julie is staying with the Franks.

Looking his best for the girl, don't listen to Wihanape's ideas on the outfits, what does she know of clothes. Uh oh, taking advice about girls from Wihanape, not sure if this will backfire in Danny's face or actually help.

Talking to Wihanape when Cassie shows up, not a good start. With how excited about Danny having a spirit Cassie was, I almost thought she would gloss over the fact he said she. More observant than first impressions gave. And Danny is learning to sooth his spirit's hurt feelings when it happens. Cassie is easily impressed by all this, to Danny it is just a part of life and who he is.

Ow, ow, ow. Cassie's ramblings are hurting my head some, especially thinking milk straight from a cow would be cold. With her looks she is an Exemplar, guessing she only got the physical package. Please say she is from somewhere in California, like the Valley. Because she talks like a Valley girl. Ah, that is one thing comedy shows always have people do wrong, tug on the udder. Poor girl has no idea what she is doing to Danny with talk of humans squirting milk.

Oh boy, who is Cassie's father, if he is a big name supervillain and mutant who wants her to follow in his footsteps? And he must have a screw loose to think she would do that after abandoning his wife and daughter. And seeing a girl like Cassie with his son, yeah. That would shut down most fathers pretty fast. And time with Cassie has ended, her heading back to be with mom and Danny going to help his dad. With his dad's approval and Cassie coming back tomorrow, wonder how mom will feel once she meets Cassie. It is her baby boy after all.

Wihanape, are you trying to cause Danny to faint from shock, suggesting that to a young teenager. She may take a human form at times but she is definitely an animal through and through. Cassie is a little too careful and fearless for her own good, going into town with the way things are, with her looks and hair, is a very bad idea. She walks there every day, from the other side of town and going around town; Cassie is more persistent than I realized, to walk that far to visit Danny since they first met. Elderly aunt who rest a lot and leaves Cassie to her own devices, that explains a lot. Danny let a cute girl convince him into doing something he knows isn't safe, oh boy. Cowboy hats everywhere and a shootout, Cassie must learn everything from television and movies.

Oh boy, Danny is right to be worried with how they are being looked at. Cassie is an overly friendly, hyper, and curious girl but because of the color of her hair they hate her. Arrgggh! Malt shop clerk doesn't even ask if the girl dyed her hair or if she is a mutant, he just assumes, wish I could throttle him. Gah! Did not expect Cassie to turn angry face and up in the guy's face like that, scary shift. At least Danny calmed her down, but will this creep send someone out to the Franks' place to mess with them now.

At least Cassie realizes what she was told how everyone in town is acting is true, even if she had to learn it the hard way. That little guy is Cassie's dad!?! Okay, she gets most of her looks from her mom or Exemplar trait. *eyes bug out even more* Her dad is a gadgeteer and so is Cassie!?! Didn't see that coming. And her dad makes attack drones, let the insanity begin!

Cassie trying to protect Danny from her nutbar of a father, who thinks he is big-time but seems more delusional and egotistical to me. And he is trying to force his own daughter into being a villain, this guy needs to be locked up already, in a hospital for the criminally insane. And he plans to brainwash her as well if she doesn't go along with it willingly, from the way he is talking. Even going so far as to use an invention on her to remove what he thinks of as brainwashing. This nutbar seriously needs to be locked up and isolated from any and all technology he could use to escape.

Wihanape's lessons in hunting coming in handy a lot sooner than expected. Stalking and ambushing Cassie's father, Danny is already showing improvement. Disabled the bracer, only to find out Cassie's dad either is wearing something to augment his strength or he is strangely enough an Exemplar, hoping it is the former. Hurt and with spots in his eyes, as Cassie's dad focuses his rage upon him. About to get pounded only to have Cassie KO her own dad with one punch, his strength has to be from some tech he is wearing.

Drones open fire and Danny is safe, while Cassie proves me wrong about her being a ditz, she does have intelligence which we just haven't seen until all this happened. Playing dead when drones are around so they won't open fire with more lethal ordinance, smart. Arrrgggh! Unlabeled buttons and switches, how I hate them. Push the wrong button, flip the wrong switch, and it could be very bad. Why do crazy supervillains never label things?!? It is all up to deductive reasoning and a bit of luck for Danny now.

A dummy switch to slow down anyone who tries to recall his drones, guess crazy doesn't equal lack of common sense or intelligence in this case. And Cassie is back to her perky self, including hugging without realizing how much strength she is putting into it. Though I suspect if she put all her strength into it Danny would be in traction or dead. And she actually blushes pink almost the same shade as her hair, she will get a lot of attention at Whateley. Good news/bad news, with her dad arrested she can go home to mom, but now can't stay around and be with Danny. Please say Cassie is going to Whateley, she would be perfect for Team Wondercute, plus Bunny and Jade would definitely get along well with her.

Gah! Wihanape somehow knew that Cassie was about to show up and was messing with Danny about it. Kissed by Cassie and nearly faints from the blood rushing to his head, Danny has got it bad. And Danny does the perfect thing, telling Cassie about Whateley, can't wait to see more of her and Danny together.

Elrod, I can see why you sponsored the story and made it canon, Light-of-Fury did an excellent job. It was a fun story from start to finish and definately made me question some of my preconceived notions about certain stereotypes through Cassie.

This story was great. Hope we get to see more of Cassie! She reminds me a bit of Bunny, but I think she knows exactly what she's doing, asking Danny to show her how to milk a cow.

And I wonder why Julie is staying with the Franks.

Julie is staying with the Franks because she's a mutant and her parents are <expletive deleted>

Suddenly, I want Wihanape to teach Danny to be a lady killer. As much fun as torturing him with cute girls would be, I think that would be even funnier.

Also, methinks that Cassie has a touch of Deidricks.


This story reminded me of how the number hot girls in the Workshop always seemed disproportionate to their reported scarcity, but it also reminded me that most of our viewpoints into the Workshop come from horny teenage boys, so maybe it's not so surprising after all.


Finally, I refuse to believe that the first switch that Danny flipped actually did nothing.

The story didn't have the feel of what the various threads led me to think it would be.

And the story was all the better for it.

annachie wrote: The story didn't have the feel of what the various threads led me to think it would be.

You talking about the various "Danny" threads? I don't think Light of Fury participated in them.

And the story was all the better for it.

Aww!

I want to see the thread like Danny! I think the thread like Danny would be just as good!

I see your taking the carr... er mouse on a stick approach to Danny's torment I mean education... I wonder if Cassie's bi...

What happens to Danny when Elrod takes over again...

Phoenix Spiritus wrote:

annachie wrote: The story didn't have the feel of what the various threads led me to think it would be.

You talking about the various "Danny" threads? I don't think Light of Fury participated in them.

And the story was all the better for it.

Aww!

I want to see the thread like Danny! I think the thread like Danny would be just as good!

This story was a ray of sunshine for Danny. From here on, he has a bunch of adventures coming his way. Or should I say "misadventures"

Hope you enjoyed this. Though I trust LoF to write my characters, it's unlikely we'll see more Danny (or any other Whateley) from her as she's not interested in more Whateley tales. Which is too bad - her fanfics have all been of high quality.

elrodw wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote:

annachie wrote: The story didn't have the feel of what the various threads led me to think it would be.

You talking about the various "Danny" threads? I don't think Light of Fury participated in them.

And the story was all the better for it.

Aww!

I want to see the thread like Danny! I think the thread like Danny would be just as good!

This story was a ray of sunshine for Danny. From here on, he has a bunch of adventures coming his way. Or should I say "misadventures"

Hope you enjoyed this. Though I trust LoF to write my characters, it's unlikely we'll see more Danny (or any other Whateley) from her as she's not interested in more Whateley tales. Which is too bad - her fanfics have all been of high quality.

So Learning to Hunt is quite litterally "the calm before the storm" for Danny I take it?

I predict that Danny will quickly develop the "I'm Innocent" and "I Meant To Do That" faces that cats are so (in)famous for.

bergy wrote: I predict that Danny will quickly develop the "I'm Innocent" and "I Meant To Do That" faces that cats are so (in)famous for.

He's a puma, not a Siamese Cat.... Then he'd REALLY be in trouble...

Cassie seems smarter than she's letting on, the questions she asks are rather good ones, and her responses to the answers show quite a bit of foreknowledge

"That is so cool! I wish I had a spirit. It would be like having an imaginary friend, but they'd be like totally real, plus then maybe I'd have magic or something. That would be. So. Awesome. Wait, she? Why do you have a girl spirit?"

That question got an involuntary wince from me. "I uhm ... didn't have a choice."

"Hey!" Wihanape protested in my head. "You're making it sound like you don't want me!"

"You see my sister's spirit, which is really important, wanted to make sure that I got a good one, and the best one she could get happened to be a girl," I explained.

"That's better," Wihanape chimed in.

Cassie just looked at me for a moment before responding. "Huh ... so that means you're both avatars then? You're so lucky. I wish I was in your family, so I could be one too. Ooh, then maybe I would've gotten the girl one! I guess that would be kinda like stealing from you, though, since it's the best one. What kind of spirit is it, anyway?"

Reading between the lines there, Cassie clearly picked up on, what a female spirit entails for Danny, and how its effecting him emotionally, especially considering her closing remark about how Danny will "always be [her] knight in shining armor"
I have to presume that the bubbly thing is an act to be more approachable, behind all the "like" and various adjectives, she says some pretty intelligent things, and the rest can be broken down to excitement, curiosity and being very sheltered.

Wihanape is certainly shaping up to giving Danny an interesting ride - I couldn't help but compare her comments to playing with the mouse to some of the comments / statements she makes to Danny.

So we know he stays at home over the summer, and meets Cassie for just under a week. Even if LoF isn't (currently) willing to write more canonical Whateley tales, she'll allow Cassie to be adopted and they meet again in 2½ months time on campus. Heh, maybe they'll end up roommates

But in the meantime, she and her mother are heading to Sioux Falls - assuming she's manifested fairly recently, it's possible she'll be dropping in on a certain super team for testing and possibly MID issuing...

Okay, first off it was a pleasure to read this story. It was cute to the point cotton candy would rot my teeth.

That said, it was nice to read about Danny coming of age. Other than a girl older than him that he had a crush on he finds he gets his first real crush and none to soon in that he has been isolated from his friends. Both by having a sister as a mutant and himself becoming one.

He has fears in that he doesn't care to much for his avatar. Its a she and given how he saw his brother become his sister that fear is regulated in how he see's himself. As a boy. Its a common troupe and its played well here as he's rebellious against his spirit.

He doesn't take kindly to having her and for him the constant teasing he has to endure. In one sense I see his spirit as being mean spirited in that she is taking the teasing to him beyond and in so doing could end up alienating him from her. Resenting her no matter what she thinks. She's not used to dealing with humans it seems and her sense of fun in Danny's view is cruel. And here it seems his avatar doesn't know how to deal with a boys.

Now in comes a girl he is suddenly smitten with. Hormones are still in place for him and the girl has an air of mystery about her. No car, no sounds of approach to the farm. She just shows up.

He finds out she's in hiding. Her father is a villain as her mother is just a normal human with no special abilities and she says she loves the mother more than the father.

I'm not going to go over every detail but she, it seems she is smitten with Danny also. She's shy, then pushy then a tease. It throws Danny off. He doesn't know how to deal with her and his avatar isn't helping much either. He has yet to ask what this new girls ability is even after she said she manifested. From the way she talks about a glen she's probably part Irish but city driven in she's never been on a farm.

Surprisingly he kept from his parents that a visitor came to the farm. Something I'm sure he wouldn't normally do, perhaps he was afraid of the teasing from his parents. Both seemed equally surprised in his wanting to milk the cow. If I was the dad or even the mom I would have kept an eye out on him to see what he was up to that morning.

I'm just going to skip over what happened at home and get onto the action. There really wasn't that much of it here.

We get a quick view (my opinion) of how folks treat Danny and the new girl when they go to town. The girl has a temper and Danny was able to forestall it temporarily only to have a the villain of the dad show up. I'm sorry for all intense and purposes the guys a nerdy jerk in that he comes across as a second class clown. I just can't take him seriously and by all accounts this villain is tame compared to others we read about.

But this is Danny's story and so the encounter is not as harsh, if not somewhat tame. He does handle it well though but that brings me up to what he will encounter when he does go to Whateley.

Nothing like Kayda's I'm sure. But educational in its own respect.

Its early at the ice-cream shop that we learn that Cassy can't be pushed around easily. And I mean that in both respects. And it seems to be neither could the father given how his appearance can fool the uninitiated.

Seems he could use a bit more help in the villain class department. Makes me wonder if there's night courses for those needing refresher both villain and hero's.

Here we do see his avatar give him helpful advice as well as Danny thinking how he could sneak up to his, shall I dare say it -prey.

And the girl Cassy is no slouch either in how she's both reacting to the threat and helping him.

It's also here during the fight scene we find she's a devisor and as stated earlier has no love for her father.

After the win, Danny I believe gets his first kiss. I can't be sure and most likely am wrong.

So we have a nice tale of Danny. Only its the ending that throws me off. Its ambiguous with its meaning as I can interpret it in many ways. Does it mean that the girl is just driving away in the scene or does it mean that the two will never meet again thus not only does he get his first love he gets his first heartache in love.

And in that it reminds me of my first love when I was a becoming a teen. We were both just starting to have feelings for each other only to have her move away and to this day I never heard from her again and just like Danny I did get one kiss from her.

LoF here. I think it's been long enough since this story was posted that I can talk about it without risking ruining anyone's enjoyment of it(presuming anyone actually enjoyed it, and no don't tell me if you did), but just in case I'll put my thoughts in the spoiler tag. Don't click the spoiler tag if you don't want stuff ruined for you.

Light wrote: LoF here. I think it's been long enough since this story was posted that I can talk about it without risking ruining anyone's enjoyment of it(presuming anyone actually enjoyed it, and no don't tell me if you did), but just in case I'll put my thoughts in the spoiler tag. Don't click the spoiler tag if you don't want stuff ruined for you.

Warning: Spoiler! [ Click to expand ] [ Click to hide ]

This story is pointless. It's fanfiction in all but name, and is only canon because Elrod and I were friends. I knew Elrod's plans for Danny when I wrote it, and I know(at least as of the last time I talked to him) that they were not changed in any way by this story. Cassie will never show up again, not just because no one would want to put up with me to get my permission, but because I'm sure that no one would ever want to use her in the first place. They all have their own stories they want to write. In the end, this is just a nice, neat, little package that leaves canon all but completely untouched, just like a fanfiction story would.

On another note, for those that liked this story(again presuming anyone actually did), I don't expect anything like it to be in canon ever again.

Hardly pointless. No story is ever pointless, especially one as good as this one. But besides that, you do yourself a disservice if you think that you haven't changed Danny's story. Perhaps the events planned for Danny haven't changed (and why would they? Events are external things that don't care about what Danny did over the summer), how Danny deals with them will. We've already seen in The Best Days of Our Lives that Danny is starting to get over his crush on Valerie. You gave Danny the foundation for confidence and maturity, and while it will take a while for him to actually get there, I can't imagine a more perfect way to start his character development, and keep him from being stuck as Wondercute's chew toy forever. Even if Cassie never shows up again (which would be a shame, because she was a lot of fun), Danny has grown due to his interactions with her and her father.

I enjoyed it.
A lot.

I also have no trouble with fan fiction stories being elevated to cannon if they're good enough and actually follow the cannon.

Even if they don't continue.

I think most people here would feel the same. Hell, most people here wish they could write well enough to get something into cannon, even a once off.

I agree with Arcanist Lupist. You may not have steered the direction Danny is heading, but you colored in a stage of his journey. That is not pointless.

Ugh, missing the point of my posting. I'm not looking for validation or to hear that the story was interesting or 'colors in' a part of Danny's life or any of that. That ship sailed long before all but a handful of people had even read it, and it went on a truly awful voyage before tearing out its bottom on a reef and sinking into the depths of the sea with all hands.

I posted so that, a year from now, when Elrod is actually writing Danny instead of him just being an annoying little brother that shows up for 2 paragraphs in the occasional Kayda story, people don't come looking at this story to try to guess where he's going or what his story is. It's to save people like that the trouble of thinking "Ooo maybe Cassie will come back" or "Maybe that thing is related to something that happened back here" or "That doesn't make sense because such and such happened in LtH." It's to give people the chance to have reasonable expectations. It's to save any new people that delve into the intimidating, Everest-like mountain of words that is Whateley the trouble of reading this story, because it's eminently skippable. It's net impact on Danny, the character, is that the beautiful, unattainable woman he has a crush on is named Cassie now instead of Valerie(or arguably is both of them). You can find out about that in the first part of Kayda 8, a story that will probably actually be relevant to the future of Danny. In fact, you can see in the start of that story that he hasn't actually changed as a character. He's still weak to beautiful women. He's still has the same reservations about his spirit and changes. He still lacks the confidence to stand up for himself. He's still a whiny, little brat. He's exactly as he was the last time you saw him in an Elrod story. Outside of him, two of the four principle characters will never be seen again, and Wihanape, the only other principle, is not changed, and it's probably a flawed characterization of her to begin with.

Also, I was not referring to the idea that it's 'fanfiction' when I said don't expect stories like this. Obviously, fanfiction stuff can totally end up in canon again. PS just proved that. No, I won't clarify further.

Now I know that this is totally out of the blue and I'm reading stuff into the story that the author never intended, but...

I got this vibe that Cassie is a full on AI android.

From what the author said, it's irrelevant as this was a single passage and she is never to be seen again. Think of it as meeting a stranger who you will never see again leaving you wondering.

Its not irrelevant, just … speculation and wanderlust.

In story its never going to be answered, but you can still imagine and dream of what could have been.