Xanadu Weyr - Hatching Sands
The large circular "stage" is surrounded on one half by a towering wall, thin slit windows high overhead letting in some light without truly endangering the objects on the sands, though plenty of lights are spaced at human-level all the way around. The other half is ringed by the dark blue seats of the observation level, rising upwards towards the back wall. The circle itself is filled with a mix of red and white sands, deep enough to cover the largest of dragon eggs with ease. To one side, a small door is visible, hidden away behind a platform meant to provide a place for the clutch parent's lifemates to stand during the on goings.
Kilaueth and Isterreth are settled upon the sands, the gold and bronze pair lingering over the clutch, each looking over the other's shoulders, watching each opposite direction, settled apart from the eggs however. V'dim lingers at the edge of the Sands, checking each candidate as they pass by him, looking them over, and reminding them here and there to mind their manners.
Tecoah has been through all this before and knows what to expect, mostly at least. She files onto the sands with everyone else, her heart still racing at the prospect of being so close to both the clutch and their gold and bronze parents. The petite woman pauses to offer Kilaueth and Isterreth a respectful bow, perhaps practicing for the day of the Hatching, and joins the other candidates in moving among the eggs. One dark green eye kept cautiously on the clutch parents as she approaches the nearest egg.+tlist
Relion thanks V'dim as he passes him for rousing him from his nap, glad he wasn't busy with chores, and able to come to this quickly, to get a visit with the eggs. He's more to the back of the group though, some of the more speedy candidates to the front (and likely being told to NOT RUN on the sands). Relion catches an eager, very young latecomer and helps to slow him up; this isn't a game, after all, but a priviledge. Appropriately cowed, the younger boy falls in with the group, but moves to touch an egg quickly. Relion takes one next to him, reaching to touch the Fuzzy, soft looking egg.
Natali is one of those candidates who is quite readily minding her manners as she moved out onto the sands, mincing a couple of times over the hot sand. While her head bob towards sire and dam is certainly respectful enough, it's not quite a deep bow either. She pauses a moment to get her bearings, and then moves forward, striding towards the egg that probably might easily be mistaken for a rock.
Having experienced this once doesn't appear to have made Ashkeia any more excited about it. She may have lost her skepticism, but it appears to have been replaced with a trepidation bordering on distrust, made clear by the leery way she regards the eggs as she enters with the group. A glance and a nod are given to the Weyrlingmaster as she passes, polite acknowledgement even if a reminder wasn't directed at her specifically. Hesitating and trying to appear casual about it, she watches as candidates begin to move about the eggs, before finally stepping forward herself, to cautiously approach the one that almost, might maybe have a face on it. If one squints.
Relion stays standing, but seems to have to adjust his balance as he touches the Fuzzy egg. Startled, but still solid in his footing, though his expression has marked surprise on it and a stressful pressure between his brows, as if seeing a private, instense thing.
Tecoah blinks and licks her lips slowly, head cocked to one side as though trying to catch something not quite heard. Her eyes drift half closed as she concentrates, but suddenly she gasps and almost jerks her hand away, "I-I… Uh…" She shakes her head once to try to gather her thoughts and presses her hand just a little more firmly against the surface of the egg, her expression determined not to let the hatchling within intimidate her, "I'm twenty-two, my turnday was a little over a month ago…" She shakes her head again as she answers the demands.
Ashkeia looks decidedly relieved as she allows her tentative, light touch upon the shell to settle more surely. Deceptive, indeed. Tilting her head towards her left shoulder, she closes her eyes to better focus upon whatever mental touch she's experiencing.
Relion finds this a strange combination: the heavy, strong visuals from the fuzzy egg, plus… the other candidate (specifically Tecoah) chatting at hers beside him. In a way it enhances the disorientation of it all, though, and Relion frowns some at the egg, but not in annoyance, just in that he's very focused.
Tecoah shakes her head, her other hand coming up to touch the surface of the dark gray egg, the fingers of one hand just barely brushing the red band, the answer to whatever question she was asked a negative. A small smile plays at the corners of her mouth and her voice a soft whisper, "You're a very demanding little thing, aren't you…" The Runner come candidate is likely accustomed to spending long stretches of time alone, and so speaks her thoughts aloud.
Natali's fingers shiver across the shell of the rock-like egg, a brief spasm of a twitchy little hand as she frowns, staring down at the egg beneath her hand. "Did I feel that?" She's not sure, of course, elusive as it was. "There's … " a pause. "Nah." Nonetheless, she does stroke her fingers further along the egg.
Relion finally draws away from the softly furred egg, as if it left him with something that's giving him pause, but not in a negative way. Just a very thoughtful reaction, and keeping his response silent, if there is any. He looks down at his hands and then around, as if surprised to find himself back on the sands, and draws away from the fuzzy egg, to move to the brightly colored Child's Whimsy. He takes a minute or two, waiting for a blonde, teenaged girl to finish with it, and also to steady himself, before reaching in the rest a hand onto one of the colored splashes.
Ashkeia blinks her eyes open with a startled twitch, lifting her hand from the egg to rub at her ears, a crease forming between her brows. "Like to give a body a headache…." she mutters. Fudren, a tow-headed boy from Cove, gives her and everyone else talking at eggs a look like they're a little bonkers, and shuffles off to whisper to one of his mates. Ash pokes her tongue out at his back, and resettles her hand again, though once more with caution, a gentle brush of fingertips.
There's a soft chuckle from Tecoah and she nods, answering with a simple, quiet, "Yes…" The young woman's hands run over the darkly patterned surface of the egg once more before she steps back, her expression highly bemused, "Sleep well, little one…" She ignores the boy that looks at her and the other chatty candidates, moving away to brush her fingers over the colorful, dimpled egg near her.
Ashkeia quirks an odd sort of smile, a little bemused but not unsettled. Slow steps take her away, pausing to allow a fellow more determined to pass. A rather silly detour takes her on an arc to avoid getting too close to the innocuous egg, and brings her within range of one with celestial markings. With a shrug that broadcasts 'why not?' she crouches down slightly to trace the semblance of a star.
Tecoah shivers lightly and looks over her shoulder for a moment as though checking to see exactly who's looking at her right now. There's only Quinton, a very bland looking youngster from the ranks of the Sea Crafters, but he quickly shifts his mud colored eyes back to the egg he's touching. She shakes her head and sighs, her brows drawing together to focus on the presence that's watching her so intently.
Relion can't help but chuckle at the childlike presence from Child's Whimsy Egg, quietly. He shifts in the sand to squat next to it, hand leaving contact while he adjusts, so that he doesn't put his weight on the egg at all. He's conscious of his own size, a careful awareness. He touches the egg again soon enough, expression relaxed, enjoying this small personality, likely.
Ashkeia arches her brows, a wry sort of amusement settling upon her expression. She gives a brief nod, very similar to the one delivered to V'dim earlier, a silent, polite acknowledgement.
Natali is still staring down at the egg beneath her hand, seeking perhaps to find some common ground with it as memories are sifted, and examined. "I hope you know what you're looking for," she tells it, and then goes silent for a long moment. "Uh, you still there?"
Ashkeia straightens up once more, rolling her eyes a little as she takes careful steps around the rainbow egg, letting her hand trail along its surface as she does so.
Relion is drawn out of his chuckling respite by someone passing around him to go to another egg, but the distraction is very brief; the visions in his mind's eye are potent ones, though on the dizzying side, and the egg is a welcome surface to collect himself and his sense of touch against.
Ashkeia snaps her hand up away from the shell with a soft hiss, curling it at her side as whatever amusement she felt vanishes, leaving behind distaste. Scrunching her nose, she reaches up to pinch the bridge, then splays her fingers to rub her eyes. Firmly turning her back, she leaves that one behind, though she doesn't end up moving so far as all that, stopping to contemplate the play of gray upon another, reaching to brush fingers over the red banding that provides such a contrast.
"Whoa!" Natali jerks back away from the egg, the movement not quite a flinch, but it's not a graceful withdrawal either. "That was … abrupt." she draws her hand away from the egg, the quiet of her mind her own again before she removes her hand, and retreats towards another egg.
Relion smiles at the Child's Whimsy Egg as he comes out of his mild trance of visuals, and the personality fades from his mind. He moves a hand over the surface of the colors slowly, before drawing his hands in to his thighs and pushing to his feet with a quiet grunt, pausing to bend and dust sand that's clinging at his ankles from his low squat. He looks over the other candidates, catching snippets of their reactions - some similar, some different from what he remembers. Perhaps the eggs are different to each person, they connect in a different way? He watches the other people, before his eyes settle on the bleak black egg past Tecoah, and he moves around her to touch the Outlook Not So Good.
Ashkeia's chuckle has something of the quality of a snort underlying it, her mouth quirking upwards at one corner. Since this one, too, doesn't seem to be immediately off-putting, she lingers near, her fingers seeking out the darker gray lines, as if following them might help her discern the pattern. Or perhaps direct her thoughts for the nosy presence within.
Relion pauses to study his fingers, and then move them to another location on the egg, the side of the black curve, unsure if the egg will respond again, by his expression, but willing to give it time, to see. His eyes study the blue spot thoughtfully.
Ashkeia's tracing leads her to crouch, her palm actually making contact for a moment as she repositions her arm to continue following that suggestion of pattern. Something causes her to shake her head briefly and sigh, all movement stilling for few seconds as her lips thin together.
Relion doesn't go anywhere, and certainly isn't doing anything of interest; he had his breath held for a time, but lets it out, giving the egg a slightly amused look, his patience smoothing over any other reaction he may have exhibited otherwise. "Keep at it," he encourages the egg.
Ashkeia shakes her head, a quick smile stretching her lips as she pushes back up to stand tall again. "I hope you don't wind up disappointed, little one," she murmurs. With a last, almost tender touch she steps away. Lifting her hand she plucks at her shirt, trying to create a little bit of airflow down the collar in counter to the heat of the sands as she wanders once more through the small clutch. A sharp right turn takes her in another direction as she drifts too close to the fuzzy one, a small hunch of her shoulders as she hurries her steps only a little to put distance between her and it. Ending up beside a dark, bouldery looking thing.
Relion stays with this egg, grinning a bit foolishly at it's black surface, lingering, as if to see if there's anything further; he doesn't move on right away, distracted entirely by the visuals and sounds, to stay to 'chat' with it a bit longer.
Ashkeia doesn't lift her hand from the shell, but she does turn slightly, as if trying to catch sight of something elusive from the corner of her eye, though both of hers are actually closed. Or perhaps she's listening, trying to detect some subtle sound? Her mannerisms make it hard to tell which.
Relion pats the black egg briefly, and then moves away from it. A boy that chose to run slams almost directly into Relion, bouncing off due to weighing less, onto his butt. "Sorry," the boy says immediately, and Relion shrugs a little, offering to help him up, but no help is needed; he gets up on his own to go touch the egg Relion just left available.
Ashkeia's expression goes through a range of shifting, if subtle, emotions, each one lingering through pauses that make it seem if she's waiting. After a particularly long stillness, she opens her eyes and looks down at where her hand rests upon the shell. Carefully, she slides her fingers over the curve, testing. Maybe motion will make it come back?
A rumble, a shuffle, and Kilaueth is shuffling herself across the sands then, away from the bronze that guards the clutch with her, dropping her muzzle to snuff loudly at the candidates in the way, her large form ushering them the best she can away from the eggs and towards the exit, despite Niva's half-hearted attempt to settled her back down. Her actions continue until they all move. Go 'way!