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 Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:56 am
Welcome to Layla's corner of the dorm
Please don't make any sudden noises, or mysterious noises, or cast any scary shadows.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:58 am
Contents
1. Welcome
2. Contents and rules
3. Layla
4. Friends and scary people
5. Encounters
6. Diary and writings directory
7. Emerald
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:59 am
Layla
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Craft: N/A
Rank: Candidate
History: Layla, like many weyrbrats, is the product of a mating flight; her father was a rider, her mother a drudge, and that is as much as she knows. Raised in the Weyr's creche she has lived an unremarkable life; she sometimes wanted more than she had, but then most children do no matter what their situation in life. Much as she might have liked to have an extra doll or two she didn't want for love, attention, or friendship, and was generally fairly happy. She was, however, always a very nervous little girl needing a lot of encouragement to try anything new, and was very susceptible to any unkindness shown to her. As she grew older she began to show a preference for helping in the kitchen as opposed to any other chores, but never asserted herself firmly enough to be assigned there permanently. Like a lot of people, she also always entertained vague dreams of Impressing a dragon, but once again she was never assertive enough to go onto the sands when there was no gold egg; she couldn't stand the idea of everyone glaring at her like that! With the latest clutch now hardening on the sands containing one however, she has taken the chance to join candidate classes and will take to the sands when the time comes.
Appearance: Faintly wavy black hair falls to just past her shoulders, framing an oval face that is neither especially ugly nor especially lovely. Her complexion is fairly fair, but she is not starkly pale and tans slightly if she spends a lot of time out in the sun. Her eyes are dark brown, pretty enough, but hardly sparkling orbs of unmatched loveliness. So far as height and build go, she is around average; five feet four inches with light curves, but her arms and hands are notably tougher looking than the rest of her from chores such as washing clothes and helping to prepare food.
Personality: Layla is a shy, well-behaved girl; she doesn't put herself forward, respects authority, and she doesn't step out of line. She is also a big worrier; she can always think of how any situation could go wrong, and tends to expect the worst as well as being able to imagine it. She's the sort of girl who, when she hears an odd noise, thinks it might be a wild wher coming to eat her, and who can't sleep after a round of scary stories. She also has the unfortunate habit of sharing her worries with other people, telling them all the ways something could go wrong, which can really bring down the mood in any situation.
Given her anxious nature, taking risks really isn't her thing; no diving off high places into the hot spring for her, no running when it might be slightly slippery, and no messing around in the kitchen where there are a lot of sharp knives! The very idea of the Thread makes her tremble; she always checks the star stones before stepping outside, and the horizon come to that because who knows, the star stones might fail one day. Getting her to face her fears and do something a bit daring is nigh on impossible, and trying too hard to goad her into it will probably make her cry. Crying is another thing she does quite a lot; she is extremely sensitive, and takes any and all unkind words to heart. She also takes to heart unintended unkindness, or sees unkindness where there wasn't any at all; if somebody fails to smile at her as they pass in a corridor she is far more likely to think it's because they hate her than because they're in a hurry or distracted.
All wimpishness aside, she is a very kind person. The idea of hurting anyone on purpose is one she just can't get her head around, as is the idea of not helping somebody in need, or not giving a hug and lending a listening ear to someone who looks sad. Hard-working and efficient, she is usually one of the first to finish up her chores, and once she does she will help the people around her to complete theirs. She isn't utterly selfless: she's not about to give her possessions to someone just because they say 'please', but she will lend her favourite dress to a friend, or share her piece of pie quite happily.
Other: When her vivid imagination isn't conjuring up nightmares for her, she likes to turn it to making up stories, and most of her spare marks are spent on buying skins and ink to scribble down her ideas so that she doesn't forget them.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:01 am
Friends and scary people
Code: Terrifying! Scary. Neutral. Nice. Friend. Love!
Cass - Candidate/Weyrbrat - She's quite a nice girl, but I'm sure I saw a bit of ruthlessness in her... Still, I think we could become friends if I get to know her a bit better.
Tofir - Candidate/Apprentice healer - He's a nice guy, very curious about the world around him. I think I could become friends with him quite easily, even if he is several turns older than me.
Yulu - Candidate/Apprentice healer - I was scared of her before I talked to her, seems funny now. She'd a wonderful friend, she doesn't seem to mind that I'm a wimp, and I think she'd stand up for me if I ever needed her to.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:03 am
Encounters
Title (People involved) - Notes
The world is a big scary place (Yulu) - Layla is mopping the dininghall floor; Yulu tramps mud in. When this is pointed out, she cleans it up. The two girls then go together to look at the eggs. Yulu goes from scary to friend.
Speculation (Tofir) - Tofir comes to sit with Layla at dinner, and the pair ramble on about eggs and dragons for ages. Tofir goes from neutral to nice
Baking and pondering (Cass) - Layla and Cass obsess over the eggs together, and look forward to the hatching. Layla is mildly concerned by a flash of ruthlessness in the other girl's eyes, but likes her all the same. Cass goes from neutral to nice.
The touching - Layla's first touching. She spends a lot of it moving around with Yulu, and is perturbed by Cass' irreverent chattering.
Squishy (Tofir) - In progress
Scurbbing bubbles (Verianne) - In progress
Try not to panic (???) - In progress
The joys of dung (Tala/Kaatan) - In progress
Not your shiny (Leila) - In progress
You weren’t kidding (Yulu)
Rumor spreads like wildfire (Cass)
The hatching - Layla's first hatching as a candidate turns out to be a fairly dramatic one, for the sole reason that the 'queen' egg hatched into a bronze. Layla failed to Impress, and left the sands more upset than she thought possible.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:04 am
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:05 am
Emerald
 Emerald was a gift to Layla from Y'ul. She's a tiny, delicate little green with a heart of gold; she's as devoted to her human as they come. During the day she can be found either perched on Layla's shoulder, or nearby if the weyrbrat needs her out of the way, and at night she sleeps on her pillow. She'd do anything at all to make her human happy, and as her intelligence is rather lacking it's lucky for her that just being around is all Layla wants from her; she's mastered the idea of coming and staying on command, but nothing more complex than that. Her personality changes somewhat however when male flitts are involved; Emerald is nothing short of boy crazy and will try to show off how pretty she is whenever a blue, brown, or bronze happens to be around. When she is close to rising it gets worse, and she even forgets to keep track of Layla when she spots a nice boy-flitt. When the time to rise comes (and she will rise often) she will try to get as many males to chase her a possible.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:20 am
Becoming a candidate
Dear diary
Kaveth has laid her clutch! There aren't very many eggs, just nine, but there's a gold egg so everyone's pleased. I'm pleased too, because this means I can stand without everyone glaring at me! I'm moving into the candidate dormitory tomorrow. I wonder what it'll be like? I'll have fewer chores, but more work to do over all with the lessons as well. I'm scared - this is me of course I'm scared - but I'm excited too. Before too long, I'll be out on the sands watching all of those eggs hatch, hoping one of them will choose me as its lifemate... It'll be hard if a blue or a green chooses me. People will be horrible, but I think I'd rather that than walk away alone. It's terrifying to think about, all those people sneering and hating me but... but maybe I wouldn't care. Maybe Impressing would make me stronger, or at least give me something I care more about than what people think of me, say about me.
In the end I suppose I shouldn't worry myself; what will be will be, dragons choose who they choose and there's nothing to be done about it. I know I shouldn't worry, but I will. What if no dragon chooses me? What if one tries to but I'm too scared to accept it, and it goes between? Shards, what if I get hurt, or killed? It does happen, it might be me, I might be in the way of a dragon thinking it wants me but really it's just trying to get to someone behind me and claws me to pieces on its way past! I remember the last clutch, those four greens, so savage! So many candidates injured, crippled, dead... This hatching will be different, it has to be... This hatching will be different, there will be more of them. Oh shards. I want this, I want it more than anything, to find my dragon, a creature that will always love me no matter what but I'm so frightened that I... I don't know if there will be one that wants me. I don't know if I can even do this.
What if, when the dragons start humming, I just run and hide rather than going to the sands. Could I really be that stupid, could I really let my fears take away the chance of a lifetime? I might. I might just be that much of a stupid coward. Oh shards. I can do this. I have to do this. One day at a time. I'll get to the sands, and then... Then all I can do is hope.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:46 am
A glimpse
Dear diary
I got a look at the eggs along with my new friend Yulu while Kaveth was out feeding! Here are the guesses I made about what might be inside each egg.
Gold egg: Oh, shards, this is a tough one. Maybe it'll be a queen. Hehe.
Orange stripe egg: Brown
Yellow and lime green egg: Blue
Grey egg: Blue
Blue and green egg: Brown
Blue and white egg: Green
Pink and grey egg: Green
Purple egg: Green
Orange and yellow egg: Bronze
I have no idea if I'll be right or not, and I'm not actually making any bets, but it's fun to guess! I can't wait for the touching - I'm pretty sure nothing really bad could go wrong: worst case scenario I fall over and look dumb, the eggs are too tough to harm by then - I might have to revise my guesses afterwards, we'll see. Lessons are going alright, I'm not exactly top of the class - some people have been candidates for turns! - but I'm keeping up, not making too many stupid mistakes. I'm still terrified by the idea of the hatching, but after actually seeing the eggs I'm a bit more excited too, and I didn't think that was possible! My dragon might be out there in one of those lovely eggs. I might become a rider soon. I'm so excited I feel like I might burst but...
But if I don't Impress, then how bad am I going to feel? All this excitement for nothing, and there won't be another gold egg any time soon, I'll never get another chance to stand... Unless I decide to stand when there is no gold egg. I don't know if I'm strong enough to make that decision. Oh shards, dragons, please, choose me! I'd do anything to be a rider, anything. Before I had this chance it was just an idle dream but now I'm desperate. I don't want to fight the Thread, I don't care about power, all I want is to find the other half of me. Do I dare hope, or would it be better not to, so that if I'm not chosen the disappointment isn't as bad? There are nine eggs, and so many candidates... But if you don't keep your heart open, the dragons look away from you, everyone says that. I suppose I'll have to leave myself open to being hurt if I'm to have even a tiny chance of Impressing. Try to hope, to be open, to be myself out there. It's okay for them to know I'm scared, if my dragon is there it'll want me anyway. Just try to keep positive, my chance is as good as anyone else's. I might become a rider soon. My dragon might be out there. Just keep believing.
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:02 am
The Touching
Dear Diary
Well, that could have gone a lot lot worse; as it was I didn't make an idiot of myself or anything! I spent most of the time going around with Yulu, but at one point Cass came up to me and tried to start a conversation. I was happy to see her there but I really, really wasn't happy to chat with her, I'm pretty sure the touching isn't supposed to be a chance to gossip about the eggs!
Still, the eggs, I've seen them up close now, so here are my new thoughts on them.
The golden stag egg: The gold, obviously. I think she's going to be a fine little queen; she gave out such a feeling of calm.
Orange stripe egg: A brown I think, and not a happy brown at all. I'm going to have to watch that one carefully.
New grass egg: A green, I think. I don't know if it was close to the queen for comfort or to get attention, I didn't really get a powerful feeling from it. I hope that's not because it hates me.
Grey speckled egg: A sleepy blue I think, not too fussed by its clutchmates.
Blue earth egg: I thought this was a brown from a distance, but now I think it's a blue, a friendly one it seemed to me, liked the attention I gave it.
Streaked sky egg: A green, and not too impressed by the pink charcoal egg, or by being handled.
Pink charcoal: A sociable green, too much so for the tastes of the streaked sky!
Three spots egg: I'm a bit torn between green and blue here, but I'll say green. A green that sees the fun in life, not one to take things too seriously.
Spicy red egg: An impatient bronze, perhaps not that interested in most of its clutchmates. A proud one? Maybe, certainly it's waiting to burst out and do something.
I'm more excited than ever for the hatching now, but more nervous than ever too. I hope it happens soon, my nerves are only going to get worse from here!
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:59 am
Reasons to panic
Plague! The plague is back! Oh shards. Rumors about it have been getting stronger for a little while, but now it seems it really is! The weyrleader of High Reaches collapsed at a feast that our weyrwomen were invited to and now everyone who was there has been quarantined! What's going to happen? Has it been spread from there to here already, are we all going to get the plague and die? Oh shards, what if I Impress a dragon only to die a few days later from plague? What if I never even get a chance, it could kill all of us, and the eggs would hatch and there would be nobody there and they'd all go between and die!
It might not be plague. It might not come here if it is. I know these things, but I can't seem to think them, to believe it might all be alright. I never can. The plague. I already had nightmares about it coming back before people even started talking about it! I can't even bring myself to be excited about the Hatching right now, why get excited when you're probably going to die soon?... Probably. Not probably. No. It's maybe, the plague might be back, it might come here. I might catch it. I might die... I mustn't panic. So much easier said than done. Oh shells and shards, I have never been so frightened in my life! Please, please, please let it be something other than plague. Let D'astel be alright. He might not be my weyrleader but he's a person, a decent one by all accounts, I hope he comes out alright... I hope we all do. Please let this all just be rumors, all just people jumping to conclusions. Please. I don't want to die.
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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:51 pm
The horizon - Chronicles of Fina the brown rider
Alone, the brown rider took to the skies. Wind streamed her long brown hair out behind her like a tangled pennant, declaring freedom. In the world below there were people who would prefer that she did not exist. In the world below there were people who called her an abomination, who said that she had done something twisted the day she Impressed her lifemate. They were wrong. On the ground she was angry, she shouted back, probably made it worse. Up here she understood, up here she felt more in tune with her ever calm lifemate. Maybe she was wrong, certainly she was not a kind, gentle person, but if she was wrong it was not for the dragon she she Impressed. It had not been her choice, it had been his.
She remembered it like yesterday, that voice inside her mind changing her forever, opening her cold heart to love. He didn't speak much. He didn't need to, his feelings were strong and he shared them with her. Often his feelings were not like hers; down there she could not find the peace that he possessed but up here, staring out at the horizon, they were one.
She knew what she had to do now.
This was no place for them.
It was time to turn their backs on what they knew and face the unknown. Somewhere out there, somewhere beyond that horizon there was a place for them. She had wasted too much time here already, it was time to fly.
Grinning wildly Fina gave a whoop of pure joy and closed her eyes to picture another place entirely.
A moment late woman and dragon were gone.
It would be a long time before they returned to that Weyr.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:11 am
More panic
Dear Diary
The weyrwomen have returned, alive and well apparently. The plague though. It's back, it's at High Reaches. Their weyrleader is dying, and they're sending away their weyrlings. I've heard some of their candidates are leaving too; they're going to a place called Ghenza. I think I've heard the name before, pretty sure I have, but I didn't know anything about it until now. A refuge from the plague, only those who are completely healthy allowed in, death to any who come in sick, or try to help somebody who is sick.
Is it bad that part of me wants to run there right now, even though the hatching is so close? I'd be safe there... but I can't just go, my dragon might be out there, I can't abandon it... It would probably choose somebody else though, if I wasn't there. Or it might go between. I couldn't let that happen, and I can't just give up this chance either. It seems that the sickness isn't here yet, but is it only a matter of time? Maybe it's hear already. Maybe the weyrwomen are carrying it, or maybe the riders who went along to High Reaches with them are. They could hardly have stayed away, but couldn't they have stayed separate from the rest of us for a few days or something? Just to be sure...
I can't sleep, I don't feel like eating, I can't focus. It's all too much, it's like a nightmare and nothing has even happened here yet. Why do I have to be so afraid?
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 7:32 am
The first hatching
Dear Diary
I didn't Impress. What more is there to say? I should move my things back to my foster mother's quarters as soon as possible. Staying here will just make me feel worse. The queen egg was a bronze, I'm sure I'll find that more interesting in a few days when the immediacy of this pain passes. Why should I be so upset? A lot of people didn't Impress today, there were only nine eggs, not everyone could be lucky... Yulu (or Y'ul as she is now) and Cass Impresses greens though, so at least I have a couple of people to be happy for.
What didn't I have that they did? What was I missing? Those are stupid questions, I know it's all down to the dragon's choice based on personality, but it's hard not to feel like there's something wrong with you when you're left standing... Will I get the chance to stand as a candidate again? Will there be a gold egg next time? I wouldn't mind if it hatched into a blue so long as everyone thought it was a queen and so it would be acceptable for girls to stand.
I guess all I can do now is wait for Iva's gold to rise, and hope that her clutch has a gold in it... I have to hope, too, that the plague stays away. I'd nearly managed to forget about that. Somehow, right now, I can't seem to care about it all that much. Probably a good thing, I could use a few nights of decent sleep before fear sinks its claws into me again.
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