Difference between revisions of "Clutch:51"

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Candidates: Demedor, Elise, Faye (Nala), Finne, Ingram, Lilah, Morvyn, Trinity, Viephale, Zhivka

Dragon Writers: Ali, Hattie, N'rov

NPC Emits: Ali, Hattie, N'muir, Morvyn, Faye

Dragon Puppeteers: Ali, Hattie, N'rov

Essence Egg

The largest of the clutch, this perfectly smooth egg gives off an enthralling glow not so different to the pale gold of its dam's hide. At first glance, it might seem white, yet to study it is to reveal the glimmer of a bright winter morning's sunshine, the shimmering shade sweeping over its shell in a flawless, untainted wash. Soft as silk to the touch, that it holds its form at all may well feel surprising, and yet there's a sturdiness to it, highlighted by the tiniest flecks of rich, burnished gold that ground it as solid and not ethereal.

Inspiration: The glow Charlaina takes on after becoming queen of her nation and the host of the evil Sabara, and being healed by her sister in the 'Pledge' series by Kimberly Derting.

Credit: Hattie

Face in the Shadows Egg

Dull, non-metallic yellow-bronze shades the shell of this mid-sized egg, touched here and there by a greenish sheen. Although that backdrop itself is relatively unpatterned, there are other shadings, like not-quite-black shadows that hint at an embedded face. There's a narrow nose, here, and unseeing eyes, there, and then a strange horse-shoe like arch that outlines itself like a headband or helmet; and yet, from a different perspective those shapes are nothing so obvious, blending back into that sepia-toned backdrop like the mere random striations they are.

Inspiration: This egg was inspired by Fritz Lang's classic 1927 film, Metropolis. It's pretty much a cornerstone of dystopian future; it's also the first full-length science fiction film ever made. Beware the robot future!

Credit: N'dalis

Treasure in the Trinket Egg

Kind of dull, this egg, at first glance. Sort of brownish, really. But longer looking rewards with a slow reveal of shades, deep bronzes and golds and darker tarnished black in some parts. These colors in their subtle shift on the shell form a shape that at first is just that, something abiguous like a cloud in the sky, but no that's definitely a beak, sharp and pointy, and that's most certainly a feathered wing spread in proud flight.

Inspiration: The Mockingjay pin! I went with the The Hunger Games movie adaptation of it, because I kind of like how Katniss picks it out of a whole lot of other kind of monochromatic things.

Credit: Elise

Selfish and Brave Egg

This egg looks as if it's been left in the embers of a hearth to blacken. Its base is consumed by the darkness of coals, rising up around the shell on all sides, until black fades to smoky grey and then an odd, translucent shade that makes it seem unfinished. Through the smoke, flames dance in ambers and richer, golden tones, burning low over the rocky, rough patches of coal. It looks a little threatening, its final taint the streaks of blood-red that fall from top to bottom.

Inspiration: The moment when Tris holds her hand out over the Dauntless coals in 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth.

Credit: Hattie

Black is the New Black Egg

Dark jet swathes this large egg in velvety folds and layers, depthless ink and ebony pooling in little pockets and creases. Rather than absorb light it almost seems to reflect it in places, a polish here and a gleam there, like well-oiled leather that's had good care. The ghost of a button and the streak of what might be a zipper somewhere on the side suggest this egg might be tailored.

Inspiration: Max from Dark Angel, or rather her leather jacket. I love that show (yes love, present tense)!

Credit: Elise

Caught By the Sun Egg

While shaped the same as any other egg, with a wide curve at the bottom and a narrower one about the top, this egg is patterned differently to most, shaded in what appear to be individual strands of red and gold and brown. It gleams: like a living entity, those shades seem to change from different angles, the warmth of those colors dancing in whatever light they can catch from the glows above.

Inspiration: One of the first bits of color Jonas sees, in Lois Lowry's 'The Giver': the red hair of his friend, Fiona.

Credit: N'dalis

Out of the Ashes Egg

From a distance, this egg appears to be a plain mottled gray, modest if not downright dull next to some of its more vibrant clutchmates. As one moves closer, stark black lines are revealed behind an even veil of gray flecks. These lines stretch vertically up the side of the egg, spreading out at their tips as if stretching out dark fingers to encase the shell. No matter how closely one looks, though, it seems as if these shapes cannot be brought into focus, but remain clouded behind the powdery gray layer, silent and ominous.

Inspiration: The wasteland of dead trees and blowing ash that the man and the boy must journey through to survive in Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Credit: Demedor

Emotional Equilibrium Egg

Of middling size, this murky grey egg is slim and stands upright amongst its fellows. From afar, it looks like it would be smooth to touch, but in reality it is covered in a myriad of subtly different textures, from old, leathery hide to fine grains of pale sand. A thick band of black hugs around its very middle, the smooth edges of the band just that little bit blurry, as though it could be moving, just not perceptively to the human eye. From top to bottom, a dark, jagged line creates the illusion of the shell having already cracked in two.

Inspiration: The levo bracelet permanently attached to 'slated' individuals in Teri Terry's 'Slated' triology of books. The bracelet monitors the status of the person and alerts them and others to any 'unacceptable' move towards negative emotions, and, in extreme cases, renders them unconscious.

Credit: Hattie

Deep Within the Mountain Egg

This egg isn't so oddly shaped as it seems, the colors across its shell giving the suggestion of cragginess where the dark bronzes and light browns play and twine in just the right pattern to produce a rock. Light blues mix with light greens to produce something akin to grey, working in what seems like a net across the entirety of the egg, trapping the other colors in the curve of the egg with the punctuation of odd, small squares spaced evenly apart, in the same mix of blue-green.

Inspiration: NORAD, the place that everyone seems to seek in any dystopian future. A solid place that can end with death, trapped, or with survival, keeping the rest of the world outside. Using this picture as a reference (and my own memories of my sixth grade visit!).

Credit: Lilah

Tears in Rain Egg

A tempest of stormy blues washes across this egg, colors shifting so fluidly and subtly that it's difficult to tell where one shade ends and another begins. From a gently muted sky blue at its crown the color shift to a darker steely gray-blue towards its middle to a thunderhead black at its base. At the center of it all is a gathering of gray almost resembling a human figure, its head bowed. The edges where the two separate colors join are blurred and smeared, as if droplets of water were gently weeping down the egg's sides.

Inspiration: One of my favorite death scenes in any movie is in Blade Runner, when replicant Roy Batty dies in the rain after saving Deckard.

Credit: Demedor

Survivalist Egg

Appearing more circular than oval, this egg is rather disturbing in aspect. From amidst a pitiful smattering of tiny, white dots -- stars that fail to disperse the cold of the surrounding, all-encompassing darkness of boundless space -- stare two large circles of molten silver. Their mirror-surfaces are faintly filigreed here and there with thin lines of silvered-red in random patterns, while the center of each orb shades towards darker gray. When the viewing perspective changes, this egg gives the distinct impression that it's tracking you. Watching. Waiting.

Inspiration: Based off of Riddick, from his quite dystopian future of galactic proportions!

Credit: B'rant

Judgement Egg

This egg carries with it a healthy, rosy glow that speaks well of the prosperous new life within. All too quickly, perfection is ripped from the smooth shell by charred black flakes which fade to reveal a cold, metallic gray. Remnants of that delicate pink cling to the sharp highlights which divide the otherwise healthy egg down its middle. Smudges of contrasting shadow dance along the ruined half, any illusion of normalcy banished by a bright speck of crimson.

Inspiration: You say dystopian fiction, I say... Terminator! A future where machines are able to wear synthetic skin as a disguise, even if it's so they can travel to the past and give Sarah Connor a hard time. Sounds pretty bleak to me!

Credit: Azaylia

Fluffy White Egg

Although white from top to bottom, unlike some of its more colorful brethren, there's a sense of texture to this egg, somehow, perhaps aided by hairline markings, just barely darker than the shell's base hue. From afar, it looks as though it ought to be soft; to the touch, of course, it's the same not-quite-smooth finish of any other egg. Sometimes, 'real' is hard to tell.

Inspiration: Philip K. Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' (which of course inspired 'Blade Runner') deals heavily with 'real' vs 'not real'. Including in the form of electric sheep.

Credit: N'dalis

The Eyes of Rage Egg

This egg is rounder than it is oval, one dark spot in the shadows of the way it lays on the sand. From this dark, worrying spot draws first a ring of the impression of yellow, which blends into darker reds. They blend in a way where it is hard to tell where the yellow ends and the red begins, streaks of red snaking into the yellow and the yellow continuing into the red until finally at the other side of the egg where the dark spot exists, it ends in a pure, dark red.

Inspiration: The red, bloody eyes of rage-induced zombies from 24 Hours Later. Specifically, from this photo here.

Credit: Lilah

Non-Conformist Egg

The sand collects here into an unusual mound, packed hard into an ovoid - wait, no. This is an egg! An egg that is the colour of too much cream and not enough klah, making it is nearly impossible to distinguish the sand from the shell. However this is not an egg that simply fades into the scenery. Instead it juts crudely out at an odd angle as if defying the world that awaits it, a rebellious thumb in a sea of sand.

Inspiration: Tank Girl, the 1995 film (not the British comic-strip is was based off). The plot is set some time after a comet has hit Earth. It hasn't rained in eleven years. Water is controlled by a big corporation. There's a lot of sand. And a lot of one-liners. Ice-T plays a kangaroo-human hybrid. I think that really speaks to the movie's calibre of sophistication.

Credit: N'muir

The Girl in the Glass Room Egg

This egg is slightly odd in the pattern of blues on white, looking as if it is behind glass. Looking closer at the surface and scrutinizing the patterns of colors, a face can be found in the patterns, dark with streaks of seeming silver through it. The face is feminine in the curve of its lines and something infinitely sad exists there, trapped as she is.

Inspiration: The character Meaghan Lee Rose from Jeremiah, drawn loosely into the description of the egg. This is a girl who has been locked into quarantine since puberty, and has lived there for fifteen years.

Credit: Lilah

Plague Egg

A plane of bland, unmitigated gray is the backdrop of this very elliptical, large egg, the soul sucking bleakness of it 'mitigated' only by a myriad of bizarre little shapes that seem to drift over its surface. Many are round or oblong ovals; others are of varying geometric shapes from decehedrons through hexagons; yet others have no true 'shape' at all: simply random blobs littering the shell of the ovoid. All of the shapes, however, are of wildly varying, and somehow disturbing colors: pekid fuschia, sallow yellow, rotting purple, sickly green...every shade of an ill rainbow and even some not within the spectrum. All the motes sport little spikes or knubbly bumps that erupt from their surfaces, and look as though it would be uncomfortable if they impacted flesh.

Inspiration: The Stand,' where one mistake allows a super-plague of virulent virii to wipe out 99 of humanity.

Credit: B'rant

Pale Brown and Candidate / Well-Proportioned Rosemary Green and Candidate

The Treasure in the Trinket Egg falls backwards and shatters with a sharp /crack/, releasing its bronze occupant to the Sands in a tangle of limbs and wings. To add insult to his already undignified entrance to the world, the Emotional Equilibrium Egg that he lands next to promptly implodes, its pale brown occupant sending shards every which way and all over his sibling. The bronze creels squeaky, off-key outrage and darts forward to shove at his brother, who tries to roll out of the way and ends up submitting beneath the threat of teeth and claws. All of this is observed by the quiet arrival of a petite, well-proportioned, rosemary green from The Girl in the Glass Room Egg. She slips away and soon finds her chosen one right at the edge of the Candidate group, while the bronze darts off, determined to beat his brother to the best of the group. In the end, the brown Impresses first, thanks to a Candidate who inches forward to check that he's okay, leaving the bronze still roaming.

Pale Green and Kandan / Dark Blue and Dark-haired Weyrbred Girl

Non-Conformist Egg spills out a pale looking green, moments before its neighbor, the Survivalist Egg cracks apart to reveal a dark shaded blue. The pair wanders around near the eggs for a bit before finally toddling towards the candidates. Kandan, one of the more lecherous candidates whom many expected to impress bronze, finds himself with a wide-eyed stare at the pale green hatchling, while the blue locates the dark-haired weyrbred girl to his left.

Slow Brown and Older Craftbred Boy / Small Green and Holder Girl

Tears in Rain Egg seems to have been taking its sweet time cracking, and the brown that emerges from it isn't in any great hurry, either. In the time it takes him to wind his way towards the semi-circle of candidates, the Plague Egg has hatched and impressed a small-even-for-a-green hatchling to a scared-looking Holder girl. The brown finally chooses an older craftbred boy.

Grimy Brown and Boy

Deep Within the Mountain Egg shatters down its middle, splinters of shell crumbling out from the jagged crack until a grimy brown head emerges from the hole he has made. He chirrups loud and proud, greeting the world with excited tones. Once he has the rest of the egg smashed to bits and pieces, the brown vocalizes his mixed emotions with bright, curious trills and confused mewls as he parades the line of Candidates, a happy bugle announcing to all when he finally finds his chosen boy.

Delicate-Looking Bronze and Young Man

Out of the Ashes Egg doesn't so much as wiggle even once before a delicate-looking bronze comes tumbling out one end. He gathers himself up onto his feet almost immediately, shaking vigorously to free himself of fragments of shell that cling to his lean, dainty body. Wings are hoisted high as he sashays his way out and down the line of Candidates, being sure to make a second pass just for good measure before approaching a young man from the crowd.

Knobby, Homely Blue and Tall Girl

Fluff White Egg explodes quickly into a million scattered shards by its occupant - a rather knobby, homely blue hatchling. But where he lacks beauty he appears to have brains, and centres his focus towards the far end of the line before he has hardly had time to dry his wings in the open air. A few experimental steps are taken and he's off, ambling awkwardly but with a determined pace towards a tall girl at the end of the line.

Blue Belimuth and T'van / Stout Green and Girl

Judgement Egg gets a hole at its top through which one pale, ineffectual blue foot appears flailing desperately. It takes him longer than it takes his green sister in The Eyes of Rage Egg to figure out how all this hatching business is supposed to work, and while the little blue is still shaking off his shell, the stout green is already tromping over to her girl. With his sister leading by example, the blue eventually stumbles halfway to his chosen one before tripping over his own wing. He keens piteously, and a boy emerges from the line to straighten him out and lead him off without further incident.