Difference between revisions of "Clutch:35"

Candidates: Brenoran, Gabrion, Gustav, Inviere, Ivana, Rinna, Saliqa, Shad, Silarra, Taikrin, Teris, Vyshani, Warucori, Xeoshen, Zarenya.

Egg Writers: Ebeny, Chauncey, Gabrion, K'del, K'ndro, Milani, Rorkes, Saliqa, Tiriana, W'chek.

Dragon Writers: K'del, Leova, Milani, Tiriana, W'chek, Z'yi.

Dragon Editors: K'del, Leova, Tiriana.

NPC Emits: K'del, W'chek.

Dragon Puppeteers: K'del, Leova, Milani, W'chek, Z'yi.

Search Committee: K'del, Leova, Milani, Tiriana, W'chek, Z'yi.

What It Takes To Win Egg

It's not a pleasant-looking egg, at all. It's little, downright scrawny-looking, and it's a little squashed, too, like one of the bigger eggs must have sat on it back when it was still inside Iovniath. But this little egg-it's a determined one, its squat shape giving it steadiness and its matte shell not showing the wear of the sands as it slowly hardens. Haphazard splashes of rusty red mar its off-white surface, stained yellowish at some points, while damp-looking streaks of paler shades slide down its sides.

Inspiration: What every athlete gives to be the greatest: blood, sweat, and tears.

Credit: Rorkes

Yellow Monster Egg

Almost completely round this egg is shockingly, brightly yellow. The color is unrelieved by any shifts in hue, solid and unrelenting but for the sudden and startling intrusion of a circular black splotch on each side, high up on the egg's surface. A yawning, gaping maw, likewise dark opens up on one side, eager to snap up the unwary (or so it seems). Often hidden by deep drifts of sand, the yellow side may appear deceptively sunny and benign.

Inspiration: PacMan. I always found his voracious appetite to be vaguely disturbing, though it was one of my favorite arcade games of the 80s.

Credit: Milani

Elegant Figure Eight Egg

A wintry silver color encompasses the smooth oval shape, shimmering and giving the appearance that it will be very cold to the touch. Passing along the top of this, a slightly darker streak: just a thin, precise line that's almost been carved in. This line dances along the entire surface, breaking in places, but always coming back to form tight circles, deep groves, or, along one side, a large figure-eight. The occasional sprinkle of white along the patterns makes it seem all the more like tracings cut in ice.

Inspiration: Watching the Olympics in this particular household always boiled down to watching the figure skating. Beautiful, precise.

Credit: Saliqa

Rainbow Lattice Egg

Coated with an array of mismatching colours, this shell looks as if it has been attacked by some kind of deadly rainbow. Vivid primary colours coat its surface, thin, perfectly straight lines scattered every which way in a never-ending angular web, one always touching or overlapping the next. It's almost impossible to track the journey of one specific trail of colour and discover where it begins and ends for sure. Small and rather round, sadly stripes do nothing for this egg and might even make it a little difficult on the eyes.

Inspiration: Pick Up Sticks.

Credit: Ebeny

Inappropriate Bits of Brown Egg

Round and blunt on both ends, almost-but-not-quite symmetrical, this egg is covered with leafy greens, etched down the shell in a diagonal pattern that's all in even rows like plowed and hand-sown fields of windblown cornstalks or sugarcane. Curiously, it is also peppered with odd brown splotches, round ones. The egg is of middling size, and if it weren't for those splotches it would not appear to be out of ordinary in any way. But for some reason, they just seem more and more inappropriate and out of place the longer one looks. It's kind of disturbing, actually.

Inspiration: So Puerto Rico is a resource management board game in which you manage plantations on Puerto Rico and grow and process corn, sugar, tobacco, etc. You need manpower for your fields and plants, so among the game pieces is a set of small brown tokens called "colonists." Not "slaves" - "colonists." But they're definitely brown.

Credit: Gabrion

Through The Eyes Of Egg

Here is a rounded landscape, complete with towering brown and green arches like trees to either side, a touch in between of blue for sky, and the cobbled tan texture pointing off into the horizon. Despite that the egg is a short oval, it seems to wrap outward as well, extending into periphery when peered at too closely. Of course, it's only an illusion: the egg is an egg. But, just as a last trick, right at average height, there's a few streaks of skin tone spread out as if it were a hand already reaching out to touch this vivid scenery.

Inspiration: The FPS (First-person shooter) is a staple of the computer and video-game systems. Starting with Wolfenstein 3D and continuing on with the Halo series and beyond, first person draws you right into the action through the eyes of the character.

Credit: Saliqa

Quick, Guess What It Is! Egg

The colour of parchment, this egg is not one that stands out amidst a crowd. Average, in shape and in size. Though oddly, the shell does appear at first glance as if it's already been marred by cracks. A closer look will reveal however, that this illusion is brought about merely by a trick of shading. A somewhat crazy and haphazard selection of dark gray lines patterns the egg, looking almost as if they'd been drawn upon it. Drawn in a hurry, too, or perhaps by a child. One can almost pick out shapes and images, but to the last, each random pattern is left looking somehow unfinished, as if once started the desire to finish was lost. Or maybe there just wasn't enough time.

Inspiration: Pictionary

Credit: K'ndro

Improbably Green Egg

It's green! Brilliant, brilliant, unnatural green. Grass doesn't come in this shade, surely? The tiny darker fleckings, though, certainly make it look like a very poor facisimile of stalks and blades. And the top and bottom of it, those are worn smooth and brownish-gray, slick-looking and shiny compared to the matte of the rest of the shell.

Inspiration: When I was twelve, my grandfather finally told me that the lowest score, not the highest, won at miniature golf. Apparently, this was my family's way of keeping super-competitive me from having meltdowns over losing. If my grandfather hadn't been willing to crush me just so he could win, I'd probably still not know better.

Credit: Chauncey

With The Candlestick Egg

It's a dark and gloomy outlook with ragged ridges of black lancing along the edges heralding streaks of menacing white lightning. As black leaks into brown, a fortress is formed away from the dangerous storm of the outside. Dark brown then becomes lighter as it forms patches here and there, six in all, and all occupied by a secondary color. Slinky red in one, upright yellow, then a wide swath of white, sticks of green, a showy feather of blue, and a circle of purple. In the very center of all these, a body of black, echoing the perilous shade of night.

Inspiration: Whodunnit? Was it Professor Plum in the library with the candlestick? Or Miss Scarlet? Only the right clue will tell.

Credit: Saliqa

Cold Approach Egg

This is an attractive, smooth-shelled egg. Yes, perhaps it's a bit bigger than some of the other eggs, perhaps it's tucked in behind several others where it's not likely to get noticed, perhaps it's just a smidge pale, but it's smooth. Its surface is a counterfeit of expensive fabric, the sheen not quite right but still enticing, watered-down wine and withered russet. Where shell meets sand, the underside is shadowed, and best not inspected closely.

Inspiration: The Game is Neil Strauss' book on the seduction community, headlined by pick-up artists with showy stage names. Seminars and online communities offer to teach awkward men how to get hot women into bed-but their methods do tend to be a bit questionable.

Credit: W'chek

Unstable Tower Egg

Predominantly a drab and unremarkable shade of pale brown, this middling-sized egg might be quite easy to overlook. Not quite as simple as it first appears, the shell is marked with subtle patterning in somewhat darker hues, lines that pick out a carefully fitted grid of rectangles. Here and there are squares sandwiched between the rectangles, ranging in shade from mid- to dark brown. There also appears to be odd gaps in the pattern, as if pieces of the grid have been lost, leaving the semblance of the structure upon the shell to appear as if it might tumble down at any moment.

Inspiration: Jenga

Credit: K'ndro

The Second Biggest Ever Egg

The majority of this comically oversized egg is a deep unassuming and unchanging blue, though it begins to lighten, whiten around the edges of a patch of green towards the egg's bottom. The patch is oddly shaped, with a rounded bottom, a hook-like protrusion at the top, and two circular appendages to either side; island shaped, it also has a streak of brownish formation across the middle and left outreach. The green parts are patterned like speckles, little forests of it here and there, while the brown has light and dark ridges to suggest a different texture. The ultimate effect is map-like - but if so, what secret might it lead to?

Inspiration: In the era of point n'click adventure games, "The Secret of Monkey Island" and its sequels will always be classic. How appropriate, you fight like a cow.

Credit: Saliqa

Nothing But A Winner Egg

In comparison to some garishly colored clutchmates, this egg is smooth, slick white-and still no less striking for it. It /sparkles/, myriad tiny flecks of shinier shell catching the light and throwing it back, in stark contrast to its plain matte fellows. The effect makes the thin pale shell seem almost translucent with twinkling, and the movement of shadows across its pure surface could almost be taken for elan: the inauguration of life made visible.

Inspiration: It's not Twilight, I swear! The BSC National Championship trophy, won this year by my alma mater, the University of Alabama. ROLL TIDE!

Credit: Tiriana

One Hundred and Eighty Egg

Tall and slim, this egg seems to be trying to single itself out for attention, its bold vertical stripes of black and white only broken up by the band of alternating green and red around its middle. The same bright colours swirl against simple tones and ring around its top to paint a very obvious target. Its shell is pitted with tiny grey circles of imperfection, their number more concentrated across its top half, as though it's been struck by an army of needles. Not one stripe is free of damage, but no dot dares to land on the line between black and white and sits securely within the domain of one or the other.

Inspiration: Darts.

Credit: Ebeny

Natural Twenty Egg

A section of off-white lays over this egg's darker brown coloring. Curious black lines along the off-white margin cordon off a square shape, and several longer alleys sprouting from it. Inside this crudely drawn floor-plan are a massacre of red flecks spouting from others that are larger and grey. Some of the grey patches have been set aside, lining the edge of the off-white like soldiers waiting their turn. Above it all looms a true white shape at the top of the egg, and inside this white is more black, this time suggesting writing. Perhaps a number, if one squints enough.

Inspiration: A single tabletop. Four players. Someone has just rolled a natural twenty. CRITICAL HIT. NPCs fall brutally left and right. Gain experience.

Credit: Saliqa

Inevitable Failure Egg

This egg, which hovers towards the outskirts of the clutch, is of perfectly average size and shape. It's also a disturbing combination of electric magenta and vomit, the two swirling in and out of one another in mesmerizing loops. One part brain-breaking brightness and another part nauseating blech. It's not something any person in his or her right mind would want to look at, and yet it draws the eye inevitably towards it for exactly that reason.

Inspiration: The Game, and in general all such memes that better serve to aggravate than entertain.

Credit: W'chek

Send Someone Over Egg

Green spotted patches everywhere make up the base, the occasional speckle or hint of color adding flavor, but that's not where the action is. Along one side, a small line of brown, yellow, and red shapes; circles right next to each other, they seem to a form a chain, evenly spaced between each other. Facing them down from the opposite side is another chain: a bigger chain. At least twice the size of the first one, this chain extends the entire length of the egg. And, on this side, although most of the dots are evenly spaced, there are two linked right next to each other towards the middle.

Inspiration: Red Rover. Probably the most popular recess game we were never allowed to play. Perhaps because it got really competitive, or perhaps because once a girl got viciously clothes-lined and went inside with a bloody nose. Whatever the case, memories of it always recall a somewhat lopsided distribution of power, and inevitably somebody cheating by linking arms instead of holding hands.

Credit: Saliqa

The Gold Egg

In size, it's one of the largest; in shape, a perfect ovoid. And in color? It's gold, pure and untarnished. The deep color permeates the shell from one end to the other, at points darker and in others lighter; the hue undulates across the smooth surface in waves like beaten metal. Only a few specks mar the surface otherwise: a smattering of marks encircling its middle, as though its origin and carat were stamped into its shell.

Inspiration: Because we don't do subtlety real well: a gold medal.

Credit: Tiriana

Better Take A Drink Egg

Gaudy in the extreme, there's rather a lot of lurid, garish purple to be found on the shell of this large-sized egg, accented here and there by a sashaying swirl of molten gold. Were these the only hues, perhaps the overall impact might not be so bad, but splashes of colour, as if flicked onto a canvas by an over-eager artist, extend across the egg's surface, a riotous mess of swirls and patterns. Draped about the narrow tip, long curls of red extend downwards, whilst smears of klah-shaded brown dirty the purple upon the lowest curve, set against the sand. Small, black patterns extend around the egg's circumference, like ghostly writing incomprehensible to all.

Inspiration: The PernM* Drinking Game, and specifically, stereotypes of characters and dragons and some truly horrific examples of purple prose.

Credit: K'del

The Morning After Egg

Huge and hard to miss, right there in the middle of the clutch, this egg has got to be one of the most disgusting ever laid. It's that orangey-yellowy color peculiar to vomit, and is splotched all over with hints of other colors: tiny round green dots here, bean-shaped darker reddish spots there. There's something about the texture of the shell that makes the whole thing seem to glisten wetly when the light hits it. Yuck.

Inspiration: Drinking Games.

Credit: Gabrion

Honorable Mentions

There were so many spectacular descriptions submitted that the decisions on which were used or not were very difficult. We'd like to honor and thank everyone who submitted a description in our honorable mentions.

In My Inventory Egg

There's a suggestion of something going on in the background, but that vague outline is blocked by a screen of grey. Over this sits three carefully proportioned rectangles, vertically long. The left-most is further divided into even more, tiny and even sections. It's inside these that the form shows the first sign of color. A yellow oval here, a green oval there. Towards the side, there's a long silver formation that almost looks like a blade. Each box is filled up without any of the colors touching each other or going outside of the main vertical outline. Eventually, it becomes clear that there is only one, tiny even box left empty.

Inspiration: Every good gamer knows you're nothing without your trusty inventory. And has spent an inordinate amount of time shifting items around to try and make room for that two-handed sword of +1000 badassery.

Credit: Saliqa

Count The Pixels Egg

Not a wholly colorful array, this egg is exactly the vague off-white shade of its smaller kin. The white gradates in layers of blocks, and each square inside that block is assigned with an exact color code similar to, but just slightly off from, its neighbor. With the sight of all these blocks, even the edges of the egg appear to only simulate roundness. From far away, it is the perfect representation of an egg; up close, each square can be counted.

Inspiration: The pure and simple joy of graphics where everything was made out of a different number of small colored pixels.

Credit: Saliqa

Myriad Scribbles Egg

From a distance, this pale egg looks to be washed with one tangle of dark, inky lines. Looking closer reveals the rough quality of its surface, its shell seemingly made up of dozens of scraps of paper. Their edges defined by thin sweeps of grey, each leaf contains a scribble, some blurred and others hastily crossed and dashed out. With no consistent quality to the artistry, a number of the squiggles might be recognizable as specific objects and beings - a flower here and a moon there - the images clearest at the egg's widest point to become more muddled towards tip and base.

Inspiration: Pictionary

Credit: Ebeny

Text Based Egg

Blacker than black, this egg's surface reflects light strangely, almost as if lit by an internal incandescents that give the outer layer of the shell a smoky translucence. Striking against this backdrop are abstract shapes, bright lime lines tracing calligraphy on the horizontal and vertical axes as if called forth from another world.

Inspiration: MUSH! The old Vax machine screens in the computer lab had black backgrounds and lime-green lettering that gave off an unholy glow late into the night while exploring the virtual spaces of Pern and more.

Credit: Milani

Criss-Crossed Ropes Egg

On the small side, with one end substantially more narrow than the other, this egg varies from creamy white to faded grey, the color mottled like rough stone. Arcing across the egg is a pattern of large, dark curved lines doubled in pairs that cross one another near both ends.

Inspiration: Jumping Rope

Credit: Gabrion

Lower Caverns Girl and Minty Green

A minty green head pokes free from a small hole within the With The Candlestick Egg, followed rapidly by the rest of her. Once entirely detangled from her former home, she launches herself into the fray, inspecting one candidate after another, then moving on again. With a trail of disappointment left in her wake, she finally finds what she's after in the form of a gangly girl from the lower caverns - and the very first Impression is made.

High Reaches Hold boy and Brown

It's definitely /not/ too soon for some, though: the constant, low-level shuddering performed by the Natural Twenty Egg finally fades away into nothing as pieces begin to break free, followed by the arrival of a tail forcefully pushed straight through. The brown that shakes itself free is almost bronze-sized, though his mahogany-tinted hide is undeniably brown. He finds a High Reaches Hold boy in short order; the boy leads him off with one hand draped possessively over neckridges.

Weyrbred Calarid and Bronze Albranoth

Impossibly tiny, the cracks that begin to spread across the One Hundred and Eighty Egg aren't even visible until - with an almighty /crack/ - the whole thing collapses in on itself, raining shards down on the burnished bronze within. Intent interest carries him directly towards a group of candidates, where weyrbred Calarid drops to his knees as he wraps strong arms about the narrow creature's body.

Former Guard and Brown

After battering his way free from the What It Takes To Win Egg, a small brown darts across the sands, blatantly ignoring the assembled and eager candidates to positively launch himself at the galleries. In his haste, he tips down the stairs, limbs and wings akimbo, and barely manages to crawl - creeling piteously - the rest of the way towards the one he's after, a man who, until now, served as guard to the convict workers. A buzz raises itself through those nearby, and spreads across the sands, but his choice has undeniably been made. Stunned, but no less overjoyed than any other new weyrling, the man has to mostly carry his lifemate out of the galleries and, presumably, towards the infirmary.

Local Boy (S'varis) and Sandy Bronze (Viondeth)

The sandy bronze that rolls out of the Quick, Guess What It Is! Egg spends a few moments examining some beefy convicts - much to the dismay of many of the nearby candidates - before wandering off again. His actual destination is a local boy standing nearby, who spares only a brief look of triumph before he leads his new lifemate off the sands.

Brown, Blue and Green

Such a flurry of action eventuates from the Improbably Green Egg, Cold Approach Egg and Unstable Tower Egg that it's all but impossible to determine which dragon comes from which. The trio - brown, blue and green - even head in the same direction, choosing their lifemates from a cluster of candidates standing close together. They're all helped off together, excitement visible all round. "

Skinny weyrbred Redhead and Green

The Inevitable Failure Egg does eventually fail, the very last to do so, its shell cracking under the strain of an internal assault. For a moment it shudders, and then a curvy little green pushes her head out through one particular patch of magenta. Body follows and from the start, she knows this game and she's gonna play it. She heads straight for a skinny redheaded boy from the Weyr who cries in an improbably deep voice: "No, of course I'm never gonna give you up!" And then... it's all over.