[Touching] Once Upon A Time

[Zen]

This mound Ever had chosen was small and Ever knew why instantly, for the second she shifted past a little bit of the sand from the top of the egg, the egg sent literal blasts of hatred straight toward her. With a gasp, Ever fell back on her rump; she was slightly confused as to what to do about the egg, and after trying to clear more sand away, Ever felt so overwhelmed by the hatred that she backed off. Let someone else deal with the egg. Ever wasn’t going near it.

She stood and backed away from the red and green egg before walking to the Queen. It was now or never to touch the shiny egg. She bowed again to the Queen. “Are you sure, Semith, that I may have the firelizard in the egg you allowed me to have? I am a prisoner, and I am unable to have two firelizards as per the laws.” And Ever didn’t want to break the laws; she might get Bailey culled. “Also, might I touch your shiny egg?” She asked before stepping forward to lay her hand gently on the (faux) golden egg before her. Her sentiments about Milune were gone, as she was the one holding the firelizard egg, not Milune. It was a horrid world, one Ever didn’t readily adjust to as well as other people did. Perhaps that’s why she was here; or perhaps that’s because she as a thief and stole things.

(( Would like to see the personality for the Spun Gold egg ))

---

Tanyrion kept digging until a blue and green egg was revealed. It was an egg, an actual dragon egg. When he touched it, Tanyrion felt at peace but he felt music surround his brain. As if the egg were singing to him. He sank onto his butt, his hand connected with the shell, as he listened. Just listened. Bitmap would love this egg. If firelizards could feel egg feelings, of course.

Then the man forced himself to clear his mind, forced himself to stray away from the egg. As he looked around, he noticed that all of the other eggs were unearthed, and a few other baskets had been found as well. Or was that one a belt? He didn’t know, he couldn’t tell. Shaking his head from the aftereffects of the egg he’d unearthed, Tanyrion hitched his own belt (and therefore his pants) higher before settling it around his hips again. He turned to look at a startling two-color egg and was drawn to it.

Tentatively, Tanyrion placed his hand on the shell…

(( The Poison Apple egg, please! ))

[lithle]

Ever:

The dragon waiting inside the egg was now 'on stage' so to speak, it continued to project a sort of gleaming superficial happiness. And under that, something else, like a promise. The idea, however impossible, that the dragon inside was a gold. It was if the Spun Gold Egg wanted Ever to believe it. Needed her to.

Tany:

As Tanyrion's fingers brushed the surface of the shell, he'd feel a sort of reserved friendliness; the Poison Apple egg was regal and haughty, but none-the-less welcoming. This egg clearly felt it was too good for the likes of him, but seemed to think he'd make a decent vassal.

[lithle]

I wasn't going to keep it in a basket! Semith responded, the very picture of innocence as she completely misunderstood her mate's question. The boy-- umm. The one! Brown. Him. He said a basket! I thought, no basket. The eggs don't like baskets! The basket made the kitten cry. But he wanted to. And it made him happy!

Somewhere, a kitten was very lucky that Semith hadn't gotten her way.

Semith eyed Ever as she approached, not wary, simply curious. Many had spoken to her, and she'd been too distracted by her new pile of treasures and the joy of the moment to respond to most. But this one seemed worried.

It's for you. her mindvoice was slower this time, the way people sometimes spoke to her when she didn't understand the first time. So it is yours! You may touch this one. It is a touching!

Leshta, at her dragon's side, better understood the girl's problems, even if she was less inclined to be sympathetic. "If Semith wants you to have it, our beloved Warden won't stand in her way." It was true, too. Leshta hated the Warden, but knew he wasn't as heartless as she liked to pretend. "You'll get to keep the creature when it hatches."

[twisting]

Kuriel caressed the smooth surface of the egg. Curiosity she understood. That was more a state of mind than a true emotion, and it was one she felt often. The world intrigued her, and she echoed the feeling back at the egg. The sudden shift to overwhelming confidence had her chuckling. Again, confidence was something Kuriel “felt” often, if confidence could be defined as lack of fear and a certainty that one’s choices where correct. It was the more passionate emotions that evaded her. Love, fear, hatred, joy. They had no place in her dustless life. She liked this egg, it wasn’t all gushy or soft like she had expected them to be.

A movement caught her eye, another one of the prisoners candidates backed away suddenly from one of the eggs. It peaked Kuriel’s interest. She gave the confidence man, as she called the purple and yellow egg, a gentle pat and moved over to peer at the green and red egg nestled in the warm sand. Another candidate was interacting with the egg, and she moved on to one of it’s clutchmates, keeping the red and green egg in the corner of her eyes. Pressing her hand to the surface of the dark red egg she waited for a response.

(ooc: Want to touch the Old Blood Egg next.)

[Lesa]

Gwynell laughed - she'd been doing a lot of laughing on the sands, she hoped it was a good sign. She scooped out the bubbly pie, bouncing it gently from hand to hand, trying to cool it enough to - wait. She pondered the pie, looking at it. She hadn't made it, she didn't think Jora had made it, meant that it was decently made. Perhaps it would be showing favoritism by doing this, but it was Farrox. She didn't want to get him in trouble with any of the other prisoners by doing what she wanted to do... but well, this was more subtle than giving him a hug. It was Farrox, she always wanted to give the poor thing a hug.

Determinedly, she strode across the sand, pie balanced precariously on her palms. Mid-way to Farrox, she turned, going over to L'vey and handing him the pie. It would be perfectly good for their lesson later today, but it would be easier if she didn't have to hold it. She just hoped L'vey would be willing to hold it - that way it wouldn't get sandy, and her pouch was much too small to hold it.
"L'vey, would you mind holding this for me?" She grinned at him, "thanks, if you want I can make you some berry-and-spice biscuits, since the pie's not big enough to split three-ways."
Gwynell walked back towards the eggs, deciding to try to touch them all before she left the sands, if allowed the time. She bowed to Mordanth, whom she was closest to, reaching out to touch the black and white egg at his feet.

((Dwarf's Beard, please!))

[Zen]

Ever was not as surprised the second time Semith spoke into her mind. She was surprised at the queen’s happiness, though she had heard that Semith was just like that. She looked up from touching the Golden egg and continued to talk to the Gold. It felt wrong, weird maybe, talking to someone else’s dragon, but Semith was obviously happy enough with speaking to her, so no harm done, right? “Thank you again, Semith. I will cherish whatever is in my egg forever.” She turned to Leshta and giggled, “Thank you, Weyrwoman, for clearing up the confusion. I’m glad I won’t have the Warden breathing down my back.”

But Ever still felt the nagging in her stomach, the feeling that she felt the first couple times she stole (after she realized that it wasn’t an innocent act). She would still speak to the Warden. It was the only way to relieve her quaking stomach. However, it was the golden egg her fingers caressed that brought her back to the present. The egg was happy, almost like its mother, and it nearly sung happiness—or it would if it, you know, had a mouth. But what surprised Ever even more was the feeling Ever got when she touched the egg. The egg was promising her that it was a Gold. How absurd! Did the dragonet inside her even know the colors of dragonkind, even when one was this young?

However, the conviction was startling, and Ever felt herself speaking to the egg, “I believe you, young one. You are what you are, and only you know the truth.” She said as her lightly touching fingers left the egg. She would see the egg soon—on hatching day—and then she would know if the egg was telling the truth or not. Ha! Eggs telling the truth! Ever skittered past the pink egg, touching its shell only briefly before leaving it. The pink egg was not for her.

The blond stopped at a brownish egg, the Grandmother’s House, and ran her hands across its brown outside.

---

Well this was strange. Tanyrion had not expected anything positive to come from the two-colored egg at all. But what he felt was a sense of acceptance, perhaps friendliness. Maybe it was because he was touching the green side of the egg. What happened if he moved his hand to the red side—oh, no, still the same feeling. The egg, or rather what was inside the egg, felt regal, knew it was better than what Tany was, but allowed him to touch it as if it were a king.

After a bit, in which Tanyrion felt the strangeness for too long, the boy dropped his hand and moved away. It was the blue egg, the Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum egg, that caught his attention next. He strode for it, carefully avoiding the pink egg (which he would not touch), and found his way toward it. It was a large egg, and he wondered what the entity inside it would feel like. With a wary hand, Tanyrion placed his fingertips on the egg…

(( Grandmother's House ;; Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum ))

[nozomi]

For Kuriel:

The Old Blood Egg doesn't change much for Kuriel and her curious absence. The chill remained, the depths of the aggressive void of the egg. Somewhere in there, malice lurked, and the moment the empty girl slid her fingers along the shell of the egg, that dangerous nothing pressed roughly closer. Nothing positive or even very solid came from this egg, not even for Kuriel.



For Gwynell:

Mordanth will glower but quickly quieted by His and Semith's cheer. The little black and white Dwarf's Beard Egg is initially still under Gwyn's fingertips. At the gentle girls continued touch, a hesitative cheer blooms towards the young woman. If one could be giving a little finger-wave, it'd be this egg.


For Ever:

Why hello there, little girl. Grandmothers House Egg responds quickly to Ever's touch and much like that of the Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum Egg, the dragonet inside seems to be a bit... watchful. Behind that there is the pressure of cloying affection, the lure of something protective.


For Tany:

While the Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum Egg has no negative feelings towards Tany, they are indifferent at most. Oh, there was the intense watching, the feeling of being stared at and studied that would not fade so carefully, the large egg was by far uninterested in the nice young man and his mind.

[twisting]

Kuriel pressed her hand against the warm red shell just a touch harder. She contemplated leaning her full weight on the deceptively solid surface. If only she could reach a little farther the tantalizingly out of reach feeling would solidify. When it didn’t change she leaned back pulling her hand off the egg until only her fingertips remained in contact with the egg. Kuriel wondered what would have happen if she’d pressed through the shell. What would the forming dragonet look like? She had seen half formed herdbeasts before, those unlucky enough to be aborted when the dragons spooked the herds. Would the dragon look similar? All slick skin and flippers? Would it survive the intrusion into it’s safe little space? She lifted her hand all the way off the shell still curious about what lay beneath.

She moved on to the bright pink egg that caught her eye, still planning on getting back around to the red and green egg nearby. This strangely color one seemed to call to her though. She touched the surface, her mind emotionally empty and waiting for whatever this loud pink thing had to throw at her. . . maybe.


(True Love egg)

[nozomi]

For Kuriel:

It's big! It's Pink! It's baaaaack! The True Love Egg was almost overly excited to be greeted by yet another pair of hands, the delicate sort of young ladies. For all that there was a burst of 'HELLO!' with a ridiculous happy face at the beginning of the contact, it did not take overlong for the egg to realize that the hands touching it weren't the most ... open of young women. The bright pink shell gave a shudder under her touch and the booming greeting of Awesome faded into cheerful curiosity.

[Lesa]

Gwynell stroked at the separation between black and white on the egg in front of her, relishing the gentle cheer after being around the boisterously happy pink egg and, and well, a bubbly pie that gave off no emotion but made her think of pity and the need to help. It was a lovely little thing, she thought as she ran her hands up and down and in zig-zagging lines across the line on the shell before rubbing soothing circles like she would to give Halbert a massage. Not that the feline stayed still for long when she massaged him, but for the time he was still, he enjoyed it.

Gwynell moved on with regrets - both of the eggs she had touched so far made it so hard to leave them, both seemed so happy in different ways, it was easy to bask in the presence they gave. As it was, she needed to move on, she was curious about all the others, and wondered if she would have the time to visit them all. She resolved to go in as close to a ring as she could manage, running her hands across the Hazel Switch Egg as she stayed under Mordanth's glare.

[Zen]

Ever felt the brown egg watch her. It was a strange feeling to have, especially coming from an egg, but a feeling that she did not ignore. But the egg continued to surprise her as its watchfulness gave way to protectiveness, though over what, Ever was not sure. As a result, Ever felt that the watching feeling she got from the egg was positive, not negative. It felt as if the creature inside this egg was being a hero, something that looked out at the world and tried to make sure everything it looked after was shown justice.

Her green eyes held a sense of wonder behind them as she wondered what exactly this egg was thinking. This eggs thoughts were so much harder to decipher than the Queen (or Shiny) egg’s thoughts were. Slowly, she removed her hand, deciding that this egg might not be for her, and moved on. The egg she came to next was the Old Blood egg, the deep red egg that seemed like it needed attention and yet seemed like it didn’t at all. She laid her hand gently on the egg’s shell…

---

Tanyrion didn’t quite know what he was feeling. Like the egg Ever had felt, this egg was watching him. Unlike Ever’s form of ‘watching,’ this egg was staring at him. How could eggs even stare? It was a horrible sensation to feel, and he felt the skin on his back crawl. This egg was not for him—it watched him (sort of) and was uninterested in him. He let his hand drop from its blue shell and he turned to look around. What egg caught his fancy next?

How about that one? The one in between Mordanth’s legs. It was a small egg but even small eggs had to be brought to justice. So he crossed the Sands and stood before Mordanth, looking at the Blue before smiling and bowing, “These are wonderful eggs you’ve sired, Mordanth. Thank you for allowing us to touch them.” He said before moving in toward the Dwarf’s Beard egg, gently laying his hand on it to feel it.

[twisting]

Kuriel stared in confusion at the pink egg beneath her fingers. Her mind stumbling over the shock of . . .stuff. . . the unhatched dragon threw at her. She couldn’t make heads or tails of what the creature was trying to convey. It felt like she should like the sensation but it really just pushed her away. Kuriel snatched her hand back from the shell. It felt almost like a dust high, but not. Dust was more chaotic, more ethereal, more real than that feeling. Maybe because it was her feelings and not those forced onto her by an egg. Kuriel felt dirty after she pulled her hand away, but she couldn’t say why.

Moving on she hesitated to touch any more of the eggs. What if all the rest were like the last one. Still, this was her chance, and the trickle of uncertainty was quickly fading. Taking a deep breath she stepped to the red and green egg she had been eyeing and pressed her hand to the surface.

(Poison Apple Egg)

[timidity]

There was a clutch on the Sands. Kretyn knew this to be fact, and also knew that a great many individuals found the clutch to be some strange curiosity, or even an abomination. They said that the golden queen was handicapped, and that the blue who 'ran' her oughtn't be considered weyrleader material. She had heard a great many gossips about this topic from various riders and guards alike. It had even spread out amongst the prisoners and the random workers of the Weyr.

In all honesty, Kretyn was beyond caring about what people would say about others when it came to such a ridiculous topic. Eggs were eggs, dragons were dragons, and guards were guards. Gossiping about things didn't really change them, after all. At least, not from her experience while within the Weyr. Semith was still here and considered queen, the eggs that had hatched had indeed been on the smaller and lesser ranking side of dragons, and the Squadmembers were usually sent here as punishment. No matter how many words were spoken on those subjects, they had not been changed.

But that was neither here nor there. Kretyn, being non-violent and always on her 'best behavior' had been given the opportunity to Stand for the broken queen's clutch. There were worse things that she could do with her time, so she shrugged and took the opportunity to see what it was that caused so much gossip.

By the time she reached the Sands, each of the lumps had been dug out and the twelve eggs uncovered. There were several people on the Sands, moving about the eggs, with the silly queen watching them all appearing to be pleased with her clutch. Since no clutch had been expected, Kretyn guessed she had the right to be proud.

She decidedly kept to herself, moving away from the other people on the Sand. Some were prisoners and some were not. It wasn't that she felt she needed to honor the clutch with silence, just that Kretyn was a very silent person in general.

She moved to her first egg, ignoring the shiny golden one that had caught a touch more attention than the others. In her mind, each of the eggs was exactly the same. Inside was a dragon. End of story. Unless, of course, it was empty. In which case, it would no longer be of any use to anyone. Still, within the twelve or so eggs, surely one had something living and growing inside of it.

The simple Dwarf's Beard Egg was the one she moved to. The black and white shell seemed to call to her, simply because the colors were clean and concise, not at all blurred or marred like many of the others.

[Wren]

Sheraz dug, but to his great disconcertion, no smooth shell presented itself to him. Some of the warm sand crept into his gloves, scratching against his skin, and he was on the point of giving up and turning to another egg, when his fingers met with some resistance. He brushed more sand away, and finally what appeared to be dark leather. Frowning, he pulled up a leather pouch, then he just sat back and stared at the thing; was someone playing a joke on him? He looked around, and saw that he was not the only one who had uncovered strange things. Aside from the firelizards that had turned up, there was everything from a kitten to a bubbly pie, and he raised an eyebrow; what on Pern was going on here?

He looked in the pouch and was mollified to see several marks, as well as a less useful pebble. He shrugged and put the pouch in his pocket, then stood up. If someone was playing a trick on the candidates, they’d done well, but there were genuine eggs here too. At least he assumed they were genuine eggs; he couldn’t believe that someone could have convinced a gold, even one as... unusual as Semith, to play nursemaid to a load of fake eggs. Thus the pouch was a surprise, but he got over it quickly.

Standing, he looked for another egg to approach. All of the lumps had been dismantled now, so he wouldn’t have to dig again. One egg caught his eye, a black one close to the two parent dragons, and Sheraz made his way towards it. As he drew nearer, he saw that, close to its base, it had a bright red-orange patch that faded to yellow around the outside. He smiled and squatted next to it, pulling off his gloves as he did so and shoving them into his pocket as well; he wouldn’t be needing them again. He reached out a hand and laid it against the shell, wondering if this egg, like the last, would react with fear, or whether that was specific to the black and white object.

---

Flickering Flame, please :3

[lithle]

Gwynell:

The Dwarf's Beard Egg had been hesitantly cheerful. The Hazel Switch Egg was emphatically so. This was an egg that wanted to go out and do something with all that cheer. And you could bet that anyone in the vicinity would be dragged along for the ride.

Ever:

Something was stirring with all this repeated touching. Oh the egg still projected an endless, aching sort of emptiness. But somewhere in the depths (can an egg have depths?) awareness was dawning. It did not seem happy about doing so.

Tanyrion:

The Dwarf's Beard Egg did not seem to react to Tanyrion's touch. If he remained silent and still, he might begin to sense a gentle consciousness, but beyond that, the egg offered nothing.

Kuriel:

The Poison Apple Egg seemed, if anything, to project a certain condescending amusement at Kuriel. Pity, yes, that was it. But a smirking sort of pity. Oh, little prisoner, you think so small!

Kretyn:

The Dwarf's Beard Egg seemed unsure of what to do about this new hand. For a moment, Kretyn would feel nothing. Then at last, and only very hesitantly, a gentle, fluttering sort of optimism.

Sheraz:

A shiver would run through Sheraz as he laid his hand on the black egg, a sense of cold out of place on such a warm, summer afternoon. Yet, with the cold came a naive sort of hope. It was cold now, yes. But tomorrow, maybe tomorrow would be better.