Logs:Size Doesn't Matter
| |
|---|
| |
| RL Date: 18 February, 2016 |
| Who: Olivya, Ninwayzan, Daemon, Breirande, Catling |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: The Weyrlingmaster stalks candidates while they touch eggs. |
| Where: Hatching Sands, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 19, Month 1, Turn 40 (Interval 10) |
| Weather: From morning straight through until well into the night, large, soft-looking snow falls steadily. |
| Mentions: Dahlia/Mentions, Mirinda/Mentions |
  |
The pale, golden-hued sands occupy nearly the entirety of the Hatching Cavern, with the dam and sire traditionally claiming the north with their eggs scattered throughout. To the right are the Galleries, which stretch up nearly the entire length of the wall and provide the only visual break in what would otherwise be a monotonous tableau. Lighting comes from both the entrance and through glow baskets spaced throughout, ensuring that the place is well-lit at all times. The heat here is tolerable, but only barely, and heat mirages are relatively common. Turns of hatchings have resulted in the sands being littered with fragmentary bits of shells despite thorough cleanings, subtle bits of history being left behind. Taeliyth occupies the sands with a watchful eye, though there is certainly room enough between her and her clutch for candidates to maneuver around those eggs. Dahlia, however, has gotten called away for Weyr business, which leaves this small group in only the hands of that queen and the Weyrlingmaster as the evening begins to set on Fort and the snow makes its way in steady flakes that never make it far into this warmed cavern. Who is more intimidating? Who can say. Olivya is clad still in her bright, red leather jacket to match her bright, red lips, hardly breaking a sweat despite the heat of the sands. Only the slight wilt of wild, blonde curls shows any hint of defeat, certainly not any inch of her proper Lady-like posture. "Ok, children," she calls them all despite relative age, though a subtle smile seems to catch on her lips for Gisele briefly. "Look and touch gently. Spend as much or as little time as you want with each egg before Taeliyth kicks us off the sands. Do not exacerbate that by trying to stare her down or mess with her eggs, please." Then she makes a little gesture to beckon the candidates forward onto the sands. Wasn't he just here not all that long ago? Well, in the galleries, anyhow. Post food, Breirande was grabbed up by the Weyrlingmaster staff, and now is ushered out onto torrid Sands. He looks more put out than anything else as the tall, late-teen listens quietly to Olivya, takes in everything around him. Finally, with a vaguely helpless shrug and an expression of reticent curiosity, the laborer first offers Taeliyth a small and perfunctory bow, then heads off on a more-or-less direct path towards the Fuzzy Wuzzy egg. Why that one? Why not? Ninwayzan looks a bit uncertain as he joins the others making their way onto the sands. Crossing the threshold he hesitates long enough that the person behind him has to give him a bit of a nudge. Tearing his gaze away from the queen the hovers nearby he steps in fully. Attention shifts to listen dutifully to Olivya's instructions. Following Breirande's example he sketches a perfect bow before moving towards the eggs. Drifting really between them he winds up near the first egg to catch his attention, Spirit's Silhouette egg. Uncertainty crosses his expression as he squats down to run his finger tips lightly along the shell, clearly worried about touching it too hard. Daemon lingers in the back, the fingers of his hands tucked into the back pockets of his pants. Rocking on his heels, he considers the eggs, then the other Candidates, and walks in an easy gait towards the eggs (very carefully after giving the dam a somewhat awkward little head bob) and comes to pause at the fire-sculpted egg. At first he hesitates, then lays calloused fingers on the shell, gently testing the texture of the egg's surface. It is with an easy stride across the sands that Olivya walks, making her own rounds to keep an eye on the candidates despite Taeliyth's attentiveness. Never hurts to have a second set, does it? She is even quite quiet at it, given that the sands absorb the majority of the noise and she seems used to them. So it might come as a shock to Ninwayzan when she speaks from behind his shoulder, "You are betting that it isn't a gold, then? Some of the girls will be disappointed." The Fuzzy egg is the smallest of the lot, so Breirande is even more careful of how he 'interacts' with the terra-cotta orb, one larger hand tentatively probing a ghost-swish of calloused fingertips against the shell. Feels pretty hard to him...but he's seen hens' eggs crack under duress. So, his further inspection of the 'little squirt' remains cautious, though one of his somewhat roughened palms opens up, to be placed against the shell in full and drifted lightly over it. Smooth, not fuzzy, is it, and the dichotomy between sight and 'feel' makes the young man grin a little. Still, there's other eggs out here, so 'Rand's soon standing slowly, wiping his brow, and moving off sedately towards that rather 'Unbeweavable' egg. Offered to Ninwayzan along the way is a quiet, not unkind grunt of, "Maybe that Fuzzy one's fer you." Wink. They're both a little undersized, after all. Olivya gets a moment's spare look since she's nearby - those red lips of hers do, at any rate - and he's soon nearing, then crouching before his 'goal,' copping a gentle feel off of it, instead of other things his mind might dwell more upon, this moment. Catling follows behind, having mastered whatever urge to cry she had before. She bows low to the queen, doing her best not to stare, but taking her in in bits and pieces with a glance here and there. For a long moment she stands just looking, tilting her head to look at one and the other. She half-closes her eyes, attentive, as if listening. And then she moves towards one of the eggs. At first she seems like she might go towards the Spirit's Silhouette egg, but since Ninwayzan is already there, she makes her way to the Image Within egg instead. "Hello," she says quietly. "I'm Catling. I don't know what your name is...." She reaches out to touch it, then bites at her lip. "But I wish you very well, all the same. Your shell is looking at me. Well, everyone, but me for the now. Do you already know us?" Ninwayzan's hand jerks away from the egg as Olivya's voice penetrates his awareness. Bright green eyes sparkle brightly with awe and a bit of amusement towards Olivya as he also briefly peers towards those red lips too. "If I were a betting person, I'd bet on this one being a large brown." clearly he doesn't care too terribly much how disappointed the girls will be. As Breirande passes he wrinkles his nose at the other teen. "Size doesn't matter." he calls after the teen whose now copping a feel of a second egg. "That is what all the boys insist on," Olivya remarks in a perfectly timed, dry punctuation to Ninwayzan's called words. She makes her own comment loud enough to carry for anyone to appreciate, apparently not above embarrassing either of the two candidates, if they are easily flustered. But then her iced blue gaze is traveling over the egg thoughtful, before she agrees, "It could be a large brown." Her gaze doesn't miss Catling's almost approach, sweeping briefly over her as she looks back over the candidates and where they've settled, only pausing briefly. But then she's turning away from Ninwayzan without another word and traveling on, to sneak up on Daemon this time, it seems. Or at least, that is where her path is taking her. Daemon isn't going to be talking to an egg, that's for sure, but he does give the shell an awkward little pat. Is this how it's supposed to be done? He chances a look at the others, and then lingers at the fire-glossy egg before moving on to the caged jewel. Something of its caged design holds his attention. With his attention turned away from his fellow Candidates, Olivya is easily able to sneak up on him. Just as he touches his fingertips to the shell, he spies the woman from the corner of his eye and he jumps with an awkward yelp. At least he didn't slap the egg. "Am I doing it wrong?" A brief, panicked moment. Ninwayzan watches Olivya's departure a moment before returning his gaze to the egg. Her remark of size and how boys insist on that draws a brief flush of his face only. His first egg to visit out here he doesn't want the visit interrupted or cut short. Once more he trails his fingers along the egg eventually growing bolder to lay both hands palm down to touch it softly for several minutes. "I do think you'd be a good, large, brown." he murmurs to the egg. Eventually he does get up so that Catling can meander over if she wishes. He picks an egg seemingly at random next, the Charcoal and Graphite Egg. Catling straightens a little as she sees Olivya looking at her, and her hand traces a half-salute. She pats the dark egg and moves over to the Spirit egg next, grinning shyly at Nimwayzan and sheepishly at Breirande. "Did you enjoy eating my buns, Rand?" she asks, her voice piping over the eggs. Then she reaches out her hand to touch the Spirit egg, gently stroking it. "Hi there," she murmurs. Breirande flashes a humored little grin over his shoulder to Ninwayzan at the other's response, Olivya's own riposte making him grin for a moment. No shame, apparently. But now...now there's a mahogany and black-splotched, 'woven' egg to pay attention to, that and Daemon's yelp, which draws 'Rand's slightly surprised and then smirky glance. Oh, and while the laborer touches and even 'listens' to this latest shell and the life inside, this moment of study also gives 'Rand a little time that he needs to get certain, ah, urges back under control. Damn you, Weyrlingmaster with the luscious red lips. And then Catling has to go and say *that*, and the tall teen is jerking his gaze to her, and blushing a bright scarlet before turning his attention right back upon the hapless egg before him. Nope, nothing to see, here. "Well, you shouldn't be making any sudden movements," is Olivya's answer to that, as if she weren't the one to cause that jump. "You'll get Taeliyth riled up; she's already likely tense enough by you being near her eggs." But she brushes her hand over the egg where Daemon has drawn away, a confident drag of her fingers across the shell that lingers in as full of contact as her hand can make despite already having a dragon of her own and not needing this egg to bond to her. "The eggs aren't all that delicate, now. Be gentle, but you can be firm." Her gaze lifts subtly as Catling calls to Breirande, watching them both for a silent moment (and taking some mental note to herself) before she draws away from the egg and gestures to Daemon to go ahead again. Performance anxiety: when Olivya gestures for Daemon to try again, the young man looks more than a little awkward and starts to put a hand out to the shell, before pausing. Drawing back, he thinks better of it before surging forward and boldly laying his hand on the shell. Never-no-mind the tinge to the tips of his ears. "Yes, ma'am." Properness is a shell behind which to hide, though something almost like humor hides behind his blue eyes. "Are we s'posed to, ah," he gestures with his free hand to the others, who seem way more adept. "Do they, uh, talk back?" Because if so, he's totally doing it wrong. (See exhibit A: he'd probably believe anything anyone told him - almost, at any rate). Ninwayzan lets the chatter around him fade away to near nothing as he focuses upon the egg he is inspecting currently. Oh he hears it all even the fact that 'Rand evidently had a snack of Catling's buns but he shows no outward reaction to it. Nope, he's tracing the design of the smudges and charcoal line splitting the white shell into half. "Oh hey.." he murmurs. "No gold in here I bet. A green maybe though?" his head tilts as he regards the egg a bit longer before stepping away to find another egg once more. "What does it mean if we can't decide which egg to touch?" asks Catling, oblivious to why Breirande might be blushing. She sighs, taking in the whole clutch with her gaze. She dips her head to the Spirit egg. "Please don't take that the wrong way, though," she tells it. "I'm sure each one of you is absolutely wonderful. And maybe you're calling to us. I just... well. Can't hear it yet." "Tell me if they do," is what Olivya advises him, her brow curving upwards slightly. "We'll have to report it to the Weyrwoman." And her fingers now brush against the young man's upper arm, the gesture as much confident as touching the egg was before. But then the Weyrlingmaster is again abandoning a candidate to continue her path around the eggs and her group of charges. This time, it is towards Breirande and his hapless egg. Though this time, he might also have warning since she speaks as she does so, rather than moving silently, answering across the sands to Ninwayzan, "I'd put my money on blue, if I were betting." It's time for more wanderings, one that will take him farther away from Catling and Olivya, anyway, and so on-edge 'Rand is standing a little quickly, and shifting a bit faster than usual over towards that Puzzle-y egg. At least it might hold his attention longer than others, and soon the tall teen's squatting before the shell, and peering closely, while careful fingertips lightly prod here and there. Are you a puzzle inside there, too, little dragon with the sharp teeth and claws? Daemon isn't done with awkward just yet, though his eyes come to fall on the caged sense of the egg that rests so still against his fingers. He presses his lips together and clears his throat before stepping back. Perhaps, that cage isn't so much a draw after all. "Right," he murmurs, glancing towards Catling, Ninwayzan, and Breirande before moving away and towards the Windblown Wish Egg. He is drawn, perhaps by something in the pattern. In the essence. A hand is laid upon the delicacy of the shell and for a moment, his expression softens. Maybe the boy does actually fling a wish into the aether. Ninwayzan says, "Blue hmm?" Ninwayzan's gaze shifts briefly from egg to Olivya. "Interesting." that said now he settles before an egg that has quite the conglomeration of tans, lights browns and some yellow thrown in. "Now you seem to be an interesting egg." he informs the egg as if it didn't know already. Still unsure of exactly what to do his attention is somewhat divided between the egg and peering around the sands to really look around from this point of view. "Looks different down here than from the Stands." murmurs the small lad." Catling stands a moment more with the Spirit Egg, then gives it one last pat before drifting away. "I suppose they have to know who we are before they would call to us anyway," she murmurs to herself. "Which.... oh. So they're getting to know us right now, aren't they. Aren't you, hello," she almost-squeaks, finding herself abruptly beside the Midas' Puzzle egg. "Aren't you a wonderful thing. Just aren't you." A glance goes to her fellow candidates, and then back to the egg. "And I wonder what you might be. "Careful. You're not going to get them to react much more than they do now by poking at them, but Taeliyth will," are Olivya's first words to Breirande, once she's in a comfortable conversation range of him, having followed him even when he moved away from the other egg. She curves a brow at him, her gaze sliding pointedly past him towards Catling and then settling back on him in a study. She murmurs lower where her voice won't carry beyond them, "Is there something I should know before weyrlinghood, candidate? If you do Impress." Just minding his own business over here. Nothing to see... doo-be-doo-be-doo. Breirande's making a very solid attempt at inspecting the Puzzle-d egg with all of his senses (well, not *taste*. That's just gross, people.), his nose near the slightly garish surface of the shell, when Catling's joining him on the other side of the egg...followed by Olivya. Gheeze-oh PETES, ladies! Looking like he's caught between Scylla and Charibdys, 'Rand gives an internal groan while even more sweat breaks out upon his brow, and finaly winds up jerking his widened gaze over to the Weyrlingmaster when she circumspectly addresses him. "Huh?" is his first reaction to 'luscious lips,' followed by a youthful oggling *of* those red lips again, then another flush of scarlet across cheeks that makes him stare at the egg again. "Uh..yeah..." is then noted flatly about poking at the egg, the second inquiry meeting with another look of 'Huh?' from the teen. He didn't see Liv's look to Catling. Maybe it is on the encouragement of the Weyrlingmaster to be mindful of the dam or maybe it is the subtle murmur of Candidates voices, but Daemon is drawn a little further away from his fellow Candidates, his eyes upon the Image Within Egg. His hands come to rest there, admiring the surface colors of the egg's shells. "What mysteries are in there..." A soft, whispered murmur captured by the air and taken away. He does not linger overlong, but does get himself used to touching the eggs until it is time to step away and return to life's dream. Ninwayzan lingers at this last egg much like Daemon did with his. The others are forgotten and the watchful gold is forgotten too. Eventually though he'll visit a couple others before it's time to depart. "If there is anything that you remember to tell me before the eggs hatch, about you or your fellow candidates-- Well, my door is always open," Olivya answers dismissively to his confusion, those light eyes sliding over him in a moment's study. Then they lift to mark Catling again as the teenager joins them at the egg. She doesn't move towards the girl, though; instead, when she moves from Breirande her path takes her to Gisele, the older candidate that gossip says is her handpick. It certainly seems that way in the way the two spend the rest of the time lost in some conversation or another, until eventually the Weyrlingmaster has to escort her charges off the sand. Tell her? Breirande looks one third flustered, one third confused, and one third aggravated as he stares at 'hot lips' over there again, Olivya's words only serving to make the guy more confused. All he can groan out is a spare, "Yes ma'am..." before mentally trying to meld himself into one with the occupant of the Puzzle egg before himself and Catling...wishing he'd just disappear. Thank Faranth's butt cheeks that the Weyrlingmaster is moving off. After *she* does so, well, 'Rand does, as well, leaving Catlnig to the dark and goldish egg as he ford off towards the Caged one, then the Jumbled orb....contenting himself with their draw before Olivya escorts them all away. |
Leave A Comment