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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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 Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:10 am
So, the Touching was over and done with. Tofir was a little disappointed that he hadn't really had any strong reactions to the eggs. He'd some people - like Yulu, oddly enough - come close to tears touching some of them, but he, himself, had felt nothing. He'd written down anything he felt after touching an egg, just to be safe, but reviewing his notes later as he copied them onto a tangible medium he realized that much of what he'd felt was circumstantial. Tired, bored, unimpressed. Those things could have had nothing to do with the eggs at all. All in all, disappointing. And it didn't bode well for his chances of Impression, either. Not that he was here to Impress a dragon.
Well. At least now that it was over he could set about his important work of gathering information from a variety of sources. In other words, interviewing candidates about their individual experiences at the touching. He'd drawn up something like a questionnaire so that he could be sure to ask them all the same questions, but he also wanted to hear anything they told him about the experience. The first person he'd seek out, he decided, would be Layla, the girl he'd seen with Yulu at the Touching. He hadn't realized when he met Layla that the two knew each other.
A few questions to the right authority figures and an authoritative statement of his own later Tofir found himself on his way to where Layla was doing chores about half a candlemark before lunchtime. The timing was deliberate: he thought she might appreciate an approved early reprieve. Of course, he'd said he was on official infirmary business, which wasn't quite the truth, but it was close enough. No one was going to look into it, he was sure. No one ever did, in his case.
"Layla?" he asked, peering around the corner. "You've been excused from the rest of this chore block to help me with some official infirmary business, if you'll just come with me."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:23 am
If there was one kitchen chore she hated it was peeling vegetables; nothing in the world was quite as dull as staring at tubers for hours... Well, actually, things like shoveling dung and washing clothes were just as bad, but when you were surrounded by more interesting jobs that you might have been given to do, peeling vegetables felt pretty bad. At least she had thoughts of the Touching to distract herself with; it had been all she'd hoped for, a lot more than she'd expected. There were things that worried her of course, but over all recalling the experience made her smile.
As such, when she spotted Tofir a wide grin spread across her face; excellent! This was her chance to gush without boring anyone; the kitchen workers really weren't interested in hearing about her experiences with eggs... When the elder candidate spoke, her grin widened. Dropping a boring chore and getting to gush? Brilliant!
"Of course Tofir, I'll be with you in just a moment!" Despite her excitement, she remembered to finish up the tuber she was working on, put her knife to be washed up, and to take off her apron. All of these things were however done very swiftly (fairly swiftly in the case of the peeling, she didn't want to cut herself!) and within a minute or so she was rolling down her sleeves and moving out of the kitchen. "Right then!" she flashed Tofir a smile. "Thanks for rescuing me, where shall we go to talk?"
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:26 am
The grin on Layla's face was an excellent reward, Tofir decided. He liked to make people happy. He particularly liked to make young ladies happy, but he really didn't think of Layla that way. For one thing, he'd seen her twice, and for another she had to be about four turns younger than he was. That was a full fifth of his age, and kind of a significant difference as far as he was concerned. But he did like her as a person.
"Thank you," he said.
He waited and tried to look serious while Layla finished up her task, clearing her workspace and making sure everything was back in its place before leaving. In her position, he would have simply left everything where it was and taken off. Well. Maybe not in the kitchen. Proper hygiene in food preparation was important to him. But basically any other job, he would have been out of there before anyone could even finish saying "goodbye."
Once Layla had finished being conscientious, Tofir set off, away from the kitchens. Being in and near them reminded him how very unsanitary his food was. Mostly he dealt with it by not thinking about it, but being forced to watch it being prepared was not a thing he enjoyed in the least.
"Anytime, Layla. Rescuing fair maidens is much more interesting than my usual activities." He winked. "As for places to go, I vote not my office. It's ridiculous in there right now. How about somewhere outside?"
He really wasn't sure where outside, but he was more comfortable outside than inside. People who knew about his attitude toward contamination sometimes wondered at this, but he could easily point out that the outdoors were generally cleaner than indoors, at least as far as contaminants went. Plain old dirt didn't bother him, after all. Besides, it looked warm outside.
"Maybe by the rocks where the dragons like to sun themselves?" he suggested. "Also, will it bother you if I take notes? You're welcome to read them over if you like, when I've finished."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:03 pm
Layla giggled at the idea of herself as a fair maiden; she was pretty sure you had to be beautiful as opposed to average in appearance. Bigger boobs were called for certainly, and gowns that showed them off to anyone who even happened to glance in your direction. Well, at least she had the screaming at the drop of a hat bit down alright.
"Outside sounds good to me," he agreed with a nod, "and feel free to write down anything you like. If you're asking more than a couple of people about this it would be really hard to just remember it all." She'd already recorded her own experience on one of the many sheets of hide that cluttered up her bunk area. There was one more thing that would be nice about being a ride; a space of your own, even if it was a fairly small one. No doubt if she did become a rider, she would still run out of places to store hides - and rare sheets of paper - but not as quickly as she was running out at the moment.
"Over here then?" Layla said, gesturing to the rocks as they stepped outside. There were some dragons lying about, but not so many that there was no space for a couple of humans to sit down.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:41 pm
Layla's giggle brought a grin to Tofir's face. No doubt, she didn't see herself well-cast as a fair maiden, or perhaps she didn't see him as a likely rescuer. In truth, he didn't really see himself that way, either. As he kept telling people, he really wasn't into all that chivalry nonsense. He treated everyone the same way regardless of sex. His mates laughed at him and said that he was delusional most of the time. He told them all to go ******** themselves.
"Thanks. I remember things better when I write them down." A lot better. As in, perfectly. But he didn't mention that. He'd found that made people nervous most of the time. As if he'd remember everything all the time. No. Just things that he read. Thank goodness. It would be horrible to remember everything.
Shiver, now that they were away from the kitchen and outside, fluttered over to join them. He remembered Layla vaguely and whistled a greeting to her. She gave good ridge rubs, and she was nice. He might even consider letting her rub his eye ridges some more. He'd been oiled just last night with the floral oils he preferred, and it was a good time for others to touch him. He landed on Tofir's knee once his human sat down and watched Layla carefully to make sure she was the same nice person he remembered.
For his part, Tofir pulled out his note-taking supplies - a slate and chalk in this case, so that he wouldn't waste hide or paper with his errors - and sat cross-legged on a lower rock. Then he, too, looked at Layla and smiled reassuringly.
"I don't really plan to ask you a lot of questions, and they won't be difficult, I hope. But since there are nine eggs in the clutch, notes will help. I imagine your answers will probably be longer than my questions."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:09 pm
"Hello there Shiv." Layla smiled at the nervy little blue as he joined them, and sent him some happy thoughts; today was a good day. "I expect they will be," she went on as she chose a place to sit down, "my answers that is. I'll probably ramble a bit, I'm still so excited over it all, that makes me babble about as much as being nervous does, which is quite a lot." Which he probably already knew. Ah well, nevermind, he was probably used to people a lot more peculiar and skittish than she was, it was all part of his job.
"So then," Layla stretched comfortably and then relaxed, "where would you like me to start?"
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:44 pm
Shiv whistled in surprise. She knew his name! Well, fine. He didn't know hers, but he recognized her, and her nice thoughts. She could rub his eye ridges. But she still couldn't touch his belly. That sort of familiarity was limited to no one. Even Tofir got scratched and nibbled for trying. It was a wonder that part of him ever got oiled. He hopped the short distance to Layla and presented himself for rubbings.
"Actually, that's perfect. The more you say, the better idea I get of your experience. I've tried to make my questions really open-ended, with the exception of the truly basic ones: Did you go to the Touching? Which eggs did you touch?" He rolled his eyes. "Obviously you were there, but I noticed not everyone touched every egg, and so if you didn't I want to know why. But I think you touched all of them, so we can skip those?"
Now he picked up his chalk and slate, in preparation for note taking and asked his first real question: "Were there any eggs that you felt strongly about one way or the other?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:14 pm
Layla reached out with one finger to stroke the blue's eyeridges as he approached, remembering Tofir's warning not to touch any other portion of his anatomy; she didn't wish to be bitten in the least. "Yes, I touched all of them," she nodded to the simple question, "even the two that look like they'll be bronze and brown, just in case they're huge blues, and so they know me when they hatch in case that helps with... well... anything." She shrugged easily; boys weren't supposed to touch the gold egg, but girls were supposed to touch all of them, no matter what their size. Odd that girls were still told to do that, even though Telgar would rather they didn't Impress fighters. Maybe it was that familiarity thing, supposed to keep everyone safer.
"Those two large ones," Layla went on, "I got quite negative feelings from them. The spicy red seemed... impatient, yes, impatient; it certainly didn't want anything to do with me. The orange stripe egg seemed angry, not with me I think, but it certainly didn't like me either... Oh, yes, the streaked sky egg felt hostile to me as well, it didn't like me touching it, and I don't think it liked the pink charcoal very much either."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 3:28 pm
Shiv relaxed and his trembling even slowed as Layla rubbed the right spot. She was a good person. He liked her. Yes, he liked her very much. To his dismay, he found that he was crooning softly. His eyes snapped open and the sound cut off at once, but he didn't back away or otherwise indicate that she should stop. Tofir stared. Shiv never crooned at him. He was almost jealous.
Tofir wrote down almost word-for-word what Layla said. Some things he shortened or abbreviated, but he tried not to lose the intent of what she was saying in the content. He had to pause to read what he'd written before wiping the slate clean and writing more.
"That makes sense, touching all of them. It could help. I thought about touching the queen egg, myself, to put in a good word for some of my friends, but I didn't think it would go over too well." He smiled. Layla had been one of the people he'd considered putting a good word in for, actually.
"All right. Got all that," Tofir said when he had. "I admit, I'm a little jealous. I barely felt anything. Nothing as strong or distinct as what you're describing, but hearing your impressions gives me cause to believe that I did feel something, just very, very faintly."
"Here's the boring part. For you, anyway. Could you describe your impressions of each egg for me?" He smiled in a manner that might be considered charming by some.
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:37 am
"Boring?" Layla laughed. "You must be joking! I'd like nothing more than to ramble on about them all day... I guess I'll go in the order I touched them, that seems easiest." Taking a deep breath of the clean air, and feeling that today was a very good day to be alive, Layla cast her mind back to the touching for the umpteenth time since she'd left the sands.
"The first I came to was the pink charcoal egg," she began. "It was a good start for me; it felt... pleasant, like a happy dragon, a friendly one, very involved with the others, or wishing to be. Next I went to the streaked sky the rested against it, and I was shocked by the difference. This one was hostile, I got the impression that my touching it angered the dragon inside, but possibly not as much as the closeness of the pink charcoal. Next I moved to the three spots, feeling more than a little perturbed by my experience with the streaked sky. As I approached I felt sorry for it, I thought it was off balance, maybe scared of the big world around it. Then I touched it and I almost laughed aloud; it was quirky, amused, and though on its side it was perfectly balanced. I think that dragon will see the funny side of anything when it hatches."
Where had she gone next? Layla paused to remember, conjuring up the image of the sands. "Blue earth," she went on after only a slight pause. "This one, right in the middle, was happy to receive my attention. I could almost swear I felt it move at one point, if that's possible for an egg not yet ready to hatch. From there, I went to the spicy red. As I said to you, this one was... impatient, it felt more impatient to me the longer I touched it. Needless to say, I was happy to step back and move on. As I turned, I felt the nerves that encounter had given me wash away; even before I touched it I could feel an aura of calm coming from the gold egg. That feeling only got stronger when I did touch it... it was a feeling of being comforted, looked after I think. She'll be a good little queen if that feelings is anything to go on, she'll make sure everyone is safe... Next for me was the new grass egg. I can't say I felt anything strong from this one, I don't know if that's because it was ignoring me on purpose, or because it was just focused on other things. Placed so close to the queen, I thought that maybe it was either seeking comfort from her, attention from everyone else. From there I went to the orange stripe egg, the other one I felt might be aggressive. I don't know why it was unhappy, but it certainly was; it's one I'll be watching very carefully at the hatching. The last one I went to was the grey speckled egg. I nearly yawned when I touched it; it felt very tired, maybe even lazy and I got the feeling that it wasn't too impressed with the other eggs, maybe that's why it was out by itself a bit..."
Well, that was all of them. Layla called herself back to the real world and offered Tofir a grin. "Was that alright? I hope I didn't go on for too long, or talk too fast or anything."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 7:02 am
Tofir was writing as fast as he was able, occasionally cheating and slipping into the shorthand he used to take notes at the Hall, though much of his shorthand was useless for this sort of note-taking. His frown of concentration turned his grin into a grimace, but he was truly grinning. Tofir continued writing for several long seconds after Layla finished speaking, capturing the last of her impressions, his head bowed over his slate as he wrote, read, and continued to write. He read remarkably quickly, which was fortunate, but the speed with which he could write was limited by the fact that he was only human.
Shiv would have been good indicator for someone who was unsure of Tofir's mood. The blue flit shared in his human's elation at having someone so articulate express their feelings, and his eyes were a brilliant cobalt blue. Of course, they'd already been blue with pleasure at Layla's expert eye ridge rubbing, but they were a deeper shade of blue now that Tofir was similarly cheered.
When Tofir looked up, his eyebrows snapped back to their regular positions and he was no longer frowning. Just grinning broadly. While he spoke to Layla, he absently pared the chalk to a finer point once more. Had he known she would actually be this articulate, he might have brought scraps of paper or hide. His handwriting had always been neater in ink, and much faster. Ah well. He was managing.
"Yeah, you might be a little fast, but I'll get by. I'd rather have you speaking quickly and accurately than trying to slow yourself down and end up re-thinking your words so that they sound better or something," he assured her. "You have no idea how helpful you're being. Truly, I wish everyone I spoke with could express themselves as well as you do."
He stretched and joints popped, a hazard of old age or too much time spent filing. He didn't even notice the sound, really. When he finally did grow old, Tofir had every expectation that his joints would be incredibly painful all the time with some form of rheumatism or arthritis, but because he was young it was hard to make himself worry about it.
"Was there anything you wanted to ask me? I don't want you to feel too put-on-the-spot or anything."
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:02 am
"Good," Layla grinned broadly, "I'm glad I've been helpful! I like describing things... well, when I'm relaxed I do anyway. It's sort of a hobby of mine, though usually I'm making stories up rather than recounting something I've done. Probably because I've never really done anything that interesting before." But now she had, even if she didn't find her dragon she would have the memory of this touching to keep close to her heart. Endless possibility inside those eggs, endless.
"Something to ask you... Now that you've touched the eggs, do you have any favorites?" That was a question to ask herself, too. Which ones had felt the best to her? She could rule out the large pair and the streaked sky right away, but what about all the others. Though she was mainly listening for Tofir's answer, she continued to mull her own, because he'd probably be interested to hear it. All the information he could get hold of, right? Who knew what could turn out to be relevant in the end.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:01 am
Layla made up stories? Tofir grinned. People had so many layers. He'd caught a glimpse of her creative tendencies over dinner, when she made up a purple dragon to go with the purple egg. But he hadn't realized her creativity extended to the invention of stories. He had never been one for fantasizing, other than the usual adolescent male fantasies, but he could appreciate the talent in others.
"I'm sure you've done something interesting," Tofir argued, though he wasn't going to press the point. He knew well enough from his interviews and mindhealing sessions that being born and raised a weyrbrat was just like being born and raised a holder, and could be every bit as dull, even if there were dragons involved. Even being raised in a crafthall could be dull. Anything could become routine.
"Mm...Favorites." Tofir thought about it. He'd tried very hard not to form any attachments to any of them, not wanting to lose his objectivity, but it hadn't worked out very well.
"No matter how clean it looks, I'm pretty sure that the blue and white egg is not meant for me," he answered. "But I actually liked the small green egg that was right up against the queen egg. It really appealed to me. And the pink one was surprisingly nice as well."
He laughed, remembering how they'd discussed earlier how amusing it would be if the pink egg ended up containing a male dragon. It amused him that he'd found himself favoring that egg, and other smaller ones, ones that couldn't possibly contain browns or bronzes, or those other colors typically sought after by young men.
"What about you? Since you mentioned favorites, did you have any?" He'd neglected to put that on his form, though he supposed eggs that gave off strong feelings covered it well enough. That's where he'd put Layla's answer for now, anyway.
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 12:47 pm
"Yes," having now worked out her answer, Layla was able to nod decisively. "I mean, I know it's silly but you can't help doing it... Anyway, yes, I favoured the three spots, the pink charcoal, the blue earth, and the queen. The three spots just felt so happy, jovial, I think a dragon like that could make you laugh even when you were feeling really down. The pink charcoal... friendly, involved, welcoming, maybe it could get me more involved with people beyond my close friends, make me come out of my shell. The blue earth was similar; right in the middle, enjoying whatever attention I could give it, I think it would be a very friendly one. As for the queen," she grinned and shrugged, "what can I say, being protected by something that calm and collected appeals to me."
She was still unsure on the new grass, if it might be the one for her, just distracted from giving out feelings. She didn't want to dismiss it, but given she'd felt something fairly strong from each of the others it worried her that it hadn't seemed to acknowledge her... It could be hers, but just busy thinking its own thoughts in there or something. It might be. She might be lucky.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:49 pm
"What's silly about it? It's natural to have favorites. Expressing opinions is a good thing. It means you have a mind of your own." He raised his eyebrows in a comical expression.
"I think you've made some good choices with your picks, really. I'm impressed that you didn't just favor the eggs you thought might have the most important dragons. Which, believe me, happens." He paused, and then added honestly, "I didn't expect you to be someone who was interested in an important dragon for the sake of its importance, though. I'm glad you didn't surprise me in that respect."
He shook his hands a it to work out the kinks from writing so much so quickly. It had been some time since he'd been called on to do that. Since he was taking classes at the Hall, in fact. His muscles weren't used to that particular activity anymore. "Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions? They're incredibly simple, though you actually inspired them, over dinner that day. I'm interested in knowing whether your guesses for each egg changed after touching them."
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