When The Dark Meets The Dawn [EGG TOUCHING]

[Alyx]

Eissan

The Charmer Egg’s literal connection of thoughts and memories being physical things that would take up space in his noggin was enough to keep the smile on the boy’s lips. “Well, I would guess in some ways? If you forget a memory and never remember it, it might not be in your head anymore. But if you remember it, it would be like just… stuffing something in a box and forgetting it, only to open it and find it again.” That might be a little deep for the egg-bound babe, but at the same time, he was learning these little dragons were much brighter and aware then what would be any other infant.

It seemed delighted and lost, overwhelmed and interested all in the same wave of contact. “I’m not sure if its normal for other people, I haven’t been in their heads? But I would guess they would be full of interesting things, yea. Depending on their ages, probably some good old stories too-” At that point, someone shouted; the voice was sharp and loud on the quiet Sands, Eissan’s attention instantly slipping from the egg to the fool. He was about to say something; probably not something very polite, but the Gold lunging to her feet cut him off.

She looked massive on the Sands before, but it wasn’t until now that she was up on her feet did he realize just how ashing big the larger of the two mothers actually was. He cursed under his breath, hutching down a little until the Goldrider seemed to tame the angry Gold enough to pull her back from the candidates. “That… was only a touch terrifying.” His voice was low under his breath, his hand shaking a little against the shell of the Charmer, swallowing down his heartbeat as he refocused on the egg under his palm. “Sorry about that.” He hoped that hadn’t scared the little egg away.

Joia

Any fears she had that the Speckled Egg’s occupant would have been upset vanished in a wave of amusement that washed over her. Relieved, she rocked back a little on her heels, laughing softly at the little being’s understanding. Nova had mentioned his distraction issue? Well, Joia was proud of him for that – it made it easier with this sort of thing happened. The Egg seemed to take it all in stride, seemingly pleased to talk to Joia in the boy’s place. Joia bit her lip a little, unsure she was really ready to talk with another egg, but this one seemed pleasant enough.

Was she having fun? Her own answer surprised her. ‘Actually… yes, I think I am.’ She still wasn’t sure that she wasn’t broken, but she trusted the innocent judgment of the Tiny Egg to at least push past it for the moment? She wasn’t sure how long it would last, but in a way, it felt wonderful to push past the pain and bad memories, if only for a little bit. ‘How about you? Are you enjoying yourself? Meeting all sorts of new people I hope?’

The thought was barely sent when the sharp, single shouted word echoed over the Sands. Joia didn’t notice if the little Speckled Egg pulled back from their contact or not, mostly because she was shifting around to above being in the line of fire as Sularenth surged to her feet. Her heart slammed into her throat, torn between fleeing and worrying for the clutch; her attention darted quickly to Nova and finding him still where she had left him. She waited, holding her breath for the short exchange and watching the larger mother drop back onto the Sands. ‘Ugh, what a flipping dimglow. Just when you think he can’t get stupider…’

Joia took a chance to glance at D’rew. Any moment she expected their acting Candidatemaster to call them away; Joia pressed her hand fully against the Speckled Egg. ‘Pretty sure that’s going to cut this short. Anything I can tell or do for you before we have to go?’

[kevna]

Siorreya - Candidate

Sio chuckled at the praise. Why thank you, I like to think I'm clever and imaginative. The little blonde puffed out her chest proudly, a large smile on her lips. It felt more substantive, more important, coming from the little dragon in embryo. She smiled at the tentative answers, of course it was warm, it was like being in a blanket all the time. Siorreya tilted her head at the fact that she could feel both the golds on the floor.

Well, the other gold is actually your Aunt Sularenth. She is very protective of you, kind of ferocious. But your mother Danovelith is protective too, though just between you and me, your mother is much nicer.   

When she was finished with her last memory of playing in the water she felt the stress that came from the tiny being. Stress? No way! She would have to teach this little one all about what fun was about. That is, if the little one impressed to someone she actually liked. There was very little chance that this sweet and timid little dragonet would become hers. No, she expected an energetic dragonet without fear, ready to adventure and play with her. But she would still teach this one to play-

He thought process was cut off by a shout, which was followed by loud growls, and it caused the small woman to jump, her hands and connection to the capped egg severing suddenly. She looked around, wide eyed, towards the tall young man who had been standing next to her while she had communicated with the wave egg. He had yelled at the Shiny egg. Her shiny egg. Siorreya placed her hands on her hips, and hoped to the great shell of Faranth that Sularenth ate him, or at least ripped something to him. He had no right. 

Suddenly remembering the capped shell, she replaced her hands, and sent a strong apology to the little one within. Sorry about that, I think your aunt is about to eat another candidate. It was a joke, she hoped that the capped egg at least understood a joke.  

[Zen]

D'rew, Novarel

Standing at the edge of what would one day be cut into stone stands for spectators, D'rew's gaze moved slowly over the candidates on the sands as they moved about, stopped for a while to visit with chosen eggs, moved on again. He was only moments from warning Shintagoi off himself, after his shout rang out in the relatively quiet cavern, but Sularenth lurching to her feet had him pausing, his gaze flicking to the gold's rider. She spoke only a short phrase to the boy. Listen? Sularenth must have spoken to him then.

A frown pulled at his lips as the gold finally settled back, but kept her eyes on Shintagoi, clearly still agitated. It wouldn't take much to set her off again, he imagined. Glancing around at the candidates, he sighed lightly. Well, a couple of them had already finished with the eggs, surely the rest were not far behind. It wouldn't be cutting them off too early. Overall they'd had a good amount of time to see to whichever eggs they liked, and better not to tempt fate. He stepped to the edge of the sands and raised his voice only enough to make it clear he was speaking to all of them, wary of speaking too loudly after that incident, “I think that's enough for today, finish up with your current eggs and we'll get you your rides back down.”

Novarel was rather taken in by the presence within the Tiny Egg. It had as many questions as he did! But when the dragonet seemed to pull back in surprise at something, the boy finally looked up from it to see Sularenth on her feet. Oh, shells. Luckily her anger seemed to be focused on someone in particular. Shintagoi? Novarel had been so caught up in the Tiny Egg he hadn't even noticed the older boy's outburst. But it had his attention now. He stood from the egg, both curious as to what had happened and preferring to be on his feet with an angry gold looming. But a few heartbeats later she settled back down, sort of. The gold kept staring at Shintagoi like she wouldn't mind swallowing him whole and Novarel was just glad she wasn't looking at him like that.

Then D'rew was calling for them and he remembered the egg again. “Oops!” He crouched down again, not wanting to leave this one just as rudely as he had the last, “Ah, sorry about that. I've gotta go now though. I look forward to meeting you!” The dragonet seemed understanding at least, if a tad disappointed he was leaving. Novarel was sure it had more questions it wanted to ask, but they would just have to wait until it hatched. Standing again, he started to head off the sands, then remembered Joia and turned back to find her with the Speckled Egg. He made his way over, but stopped a few paces away so she could finish up her conversation.

OOC: This is your queue to wrap up your interactions with the eggs and send your candidates off the sands; I will still be responding to all the posts before this one, but will not be writing any further responses to anything after this post, so don't worry about having your candidates wait for a goodbye, you're free to just play out a farewell based on your interactions with the egg thus far after you get your final egg responses.

[Taxx]

Vitra wished she could have sat there for longer- the little dragonet was fun to talk to, and there was more she could have told it, more she could have talked about. But Sularenth's reaction to Shintagoi's outburst, while understandable, had had an effect on most of the Candidates crouched over the eggs, and even as she got the rush of agreement at her offer, D'rew was calling for the Candidates to wrap up their visits. Disappointment clouded the joy that had been present from the first, but she knew she couldn't refuse.

"I'd love to sit here and tell you more," she replied to the baby, "But I have to go now. Maybe later, if your mother is okay with it, I can come back and talk more. If not, though, thank you for talking to me, and I really hope you find your perfect lifemate." She lingered just a moment longer, her hand rubbing against the shell, before she finally pushed herself back to her feet and turned away, following the rest in leaving the cavern and the clutches behind.

[Alyx]

Eissan

Scary! The little mind in the egg seemed to understand what had just happened on the Sands, totally willing to forgive him pulling back at the moment. He grinned, nodding even though he doubted the egg could see it. “Indeed, super scary. Don’t worry though, I don’t think she’d hurt you – maybe the stupid oaf yelling at your sibling, but not you.” He was just thinking of what stories he knew, what he might be able to say to the little creature to sooth its fear… when D’rew’s voice reached them.

He frowned. Already? But they still had so much to talk about! Eissan took the chance to shoot a dark look at Shintagoi. If he’d have better control over his temper, they probably wouldn’t be being called off the Sands. Sharding Baffoon. Eissan gave a rough sigh. “Looks like I have to go, new friend. I’m sorry to cut this short, but I hope to see you out of that shell in a short time, you hear me?” He smiled, patting the shell once more, hoping the Egg would forgive him leaving so abruptly.

Pushing to his feet, Eissan pulled his hand from the curl of the Charmer Egg’s shell and stepped back, turning to move toward where the others were gathering together to leave. For a first time, he had to say that the experience had been… enlightening.

Joia

Stay? Joia couldn’t help the smile, laughing softly at the Egg’s half-hearted, joking request. ‘I would if I could, little one. But you’ll be out soon, you’ll see. And then yes, if you want, we can play more.’ She was surprised that she actually meant the words; she didn’t think she’d ever say something like that again; Ash, she never thought she’d Touch another egg after the past few months!! Motion caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, and she glanced to see Nova picking his way toward her. She gave the boy a quick smile, then refocused to bid the Speckled Egg a proper farewell. ‘I hope to see you soon.’ Again, she meant it.

Joia shoved to her feet gently, dusting her hands on her leggings as she did. Turning to face Nova, she smirked a little. “Leave it to Shintagoi to get us booted off the Sands and ruin everyone's fun.” Joia tilted her head, giving a little shrug to her friend before leading the way toward the others. “So did you have fun?” She couldn’t help a quick glance at the Tiny Egg as they left, sending all the strength and warm thoughts she could muster to the little dragon inside the too-small shell. Stay strong, little one. I want to see you hatch.

Eissan and Joia are off the Sands. Thank you for the awesome touching, Zen!!!

[Esko]

Shintagoi

All actions came with their consequences, and even Shintagoi was sometimes unable to avoid them. Not when the consequence was an angry queen. Shin's head jerked up as Sularenth reared, seething with anger. He half expected to be swallowed up then and there, which wouldn't do any good; how could he make his mark on Pern as gold-food? But she seemed to be held back by her rider, though her reddened eyes never wavered off her target. He'd make a remark about how females were too sensitive if they reacted badly to one shout...but he knew better. This was a brooding queen. Shin's eyes snapped back to the Shiny Egg, and felt the mocking amusement flowing into the air from its shell. Oh, right. This was why he was angry.

He felt the creature inside consider him. It had never said anything about controlling him, thank you very much, and would like to know who did. Why control when he could just simply take what he wanted?

And, frankly, Shin had to agree with that sentiment. Maybe that would be the one thing that they agreed on. But before he could think anything else, the Shiny Egg suddenly dismissed him before cutting off contact with one statement; you cannot handle me. Shin never wanted to yell at the damn thing more than now. What kind of stupid comment was that?! Shin growled under his breath, feeling the itch to punch through its shell and strangle the last little bits of its sorry existence. Though the shell was rather hard...slamming his full body weight against it should do the trick. Sularenth might eat him, but at least she'd get a nice sauce of her precious baby's remains as well.

But then Shin pulled his sense of control together as he yanked his hand away. Again, he would not suffer such a fate like that, no matter how much he wanted to see the Shiny Egg's life snuffed. He caught a few dirty looks from other Candidates and he returned said looks, including to the goldrider who Sularenth was bonded to. They were probably crying to their eggs about how Shintagoi was such a jerkface, how he was so mean and yelled at a poor widdle egg. They didn't know what Shiny did, circling him and mocking his very existence. They would talk to the soft little eggs like that Fat Egg and whine about how mean he was from their comfortable little spots. None of them would know.

D'rew suddenly called them to end the session, and Shintagoi couldn't be more glad. Already disconnected from his egg, he walked off the sands, keeping his composure enough to not run.

Tselari

It could feel its siblings and mother around it? "Well, that's good. I think I would be driven mad without some sort of contact." Though, she would rather spend her time alone, she'd likely lose her mind if she didn't speak to anyone at all. But the sense of knowing others were there wasn't the same as having a conversation, what the two of them were having right now. The egg shared with her its resolve that it would hatch soon. It could feel it! And when it hatched, it would never be alone again.

"Absolutely not! When you hatch, you'll find your lifemate and be together forever. But I suppose you know that, right?" But before the egg could respond, the air shook with the bellow of Sularenth (Scratched Egg's aunt, perhaps?). Tselari's line of sight was directed to one of the boy Candidates, and she was half afraid that he would be eaten by the angry gold. But luckily, she seemed to have been kept from doing anything so rash, and good thing too- Tselari didn't want to see the man's potential dragon between and experience such raw mourning again. The egg reached back out when the rage subsided. Woah, that was new.

"It was new. And I'd rather not see it again." But it seemed that the man wasn't making any more commotion, so hopefully she wouldn't see any more of Sularenth's wrath. But the Candidatemaster was calling them back. Tselari didn't want to leave the egg conversationless, but the hatchling inside assured her that it was fine. "Perhaps, when you hatch, we could have more conversations?"

Maybe, the egg responded. It didn't want to be shorted of memories, but it would just have to mull over what it had seen so far. But farewell for now! With that, Tselari took her hand off the egg's shell and walked off the sands.

(And that's it for my duo! Thanks for such a fun touching, guys!)

[kevna]

Siorreya - Candidate

A wry smile touched her full lips and an eyebrow rose. Okay... The little one obviously didn't understand a joke when it was told one. Yep, this was definitely not her life-mate. But it was a good little egg, and very sweet. It would find a good little candidate that obeyed all the rules and was perfectly content with staying in after a meal, somber conversation, and finishing all duties in a timely manner as is correct. She gently rubbed the egg, as if to soothe the alarm and fear the emanated towards her from her innocent joke.

It's okay little one, your aunt won't really eat the boy. Siorreya glanced toward the shiny egg and the boy standing by it, watching as the queen slowly backed off and was settled. See? She sent the mental picture through her mind to further comfort the dragonet within. 

Grown up dragons just get angry and let everyone know, but they never actually eat a human, it was just a joke. I'll have to teach you how to joke when you come out of that shell. And whoever impressed to the capped egg embryo, but that she kept to herself. She was starting to feel a little impatient, and decided it was time to scope out another egg, when D'rew called everyone in. 

Sio frowned, a little annoyed at their time being cut short. It was that deadglow tall candidate's fault. She huffed, but made sure to say a hearty goodbye to the gentle being within, and removed her hands. She made her way off the sands, making a clear be-line towards Mazarakru as she did so. 

"That was so amazing," She informed the younger boy, "Mine were amazing, we can tell eachother all about it tonight right? Looks like you had an amazing time with that first egg, how was it??? Wait, no really we can wait till tonight I guess..."

She didn't pay attention as to which dragon they loaded her up on, she was so happy and ready for a new adventure. She would make sure a cool bath was on the list! 

tovaana
Exit Sio 

[tovaana]

Vavithan;

It surely was amusing, but he noticed his sister suddenly stand and back away from the egg she was at. He looked up at her and followed her gaze. He was suddenly a little distracted from the egg’s amusement and how it was glad that no such person had visited it. Vav was about to stand, but remembered the warm egg under his touch at the last moment. ‘Well, you probably won’t be getting any other visitors at this point, everyone is leaving. It’s been… interesting meeting you. Good luck, though – I guess you’d believe you wouldn’t need luck, huh?' Vav grinned at that and then stood, watching his sister make a b-line toward Shin. His lips pursed and he strode quickly and reached out to his sister with a firm grasp.

Muze;

The dragon within the egg stayed withdrawn and Muze stood up and stepped away from the egg so it wouldn’t feel the turmoil that had started again within her. Her eyes moved from the Split Egg to Shintagoi and her eyes narrowed and fists clenched. Her attention was averted as D’rew called for them to wrap it up and her eyes then zeroed again on Shin as he marched away from the sands. Oh no, were none of the candidates going to ‘thank’ the boy? Perhaps the Gold dragon had reprimanded the boy enough, but she didn’t think so.

She started at a quick strut toward the boy, her hands still in tight fists. She was about to call out to him when she felt a strong hand wrap around her wrist and jerk her quick pace into a halt. Her angry glare swung around to find Vavithan hovering over her with a neutral expression. Muze’s gaze flicked from eye to eye, searching to see if he understood what she was feeling. “He-“ But he interrupted her. “I know.”

“No, you don’t. I heard you laughing, laughing Vavi. The eggs I conversed with were gentle and easily frightened, he had no-“ Vavithan gently squeezed her wrist, “It will be okay Muze, whatever happens. I’ll be here, I promise.” Her brown eyes searched with a gulp, blinking away the moisture that was gathering in her eyes. She tugged herself out of his grip and he relented as she twisted and ran off. Vav sighed, and followed at a slower pace behind his sister.

Mazarakru;

Maz listened curiously as the egg explained how it sensed its siblings and Golds, but this had been the first interaction like the communication between the two. Interesting. He was glad the egg had settled down and was thinking of something else to ask it or to show it when he heard D’rew call them. ‘Oh, that’s too bad.’ He thought, showing the egg the retreating candidates. ‘It looks like it’s time to go. Thanks for spending time with me, I’m excited to see you hatch and find your lifemate!’ He said in farewell and waited a moment before standing and brushing his legs of any sand he had gathered. His clear eyes found Sio and waved at her, moving quickly to her, excited to tell her about the two eggs he had encountered.