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 Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:52 am
The dining hall wasn't too crowed given the late hour, so she had no difficulty finding herself a place to sit. She couldn't see anyone she knew around though, so that meant sitting alone. Glancing furtively from side to side, the black-haired girl slid onto the bench and placed her bowl of stew down in front of her, her bread roll beside it. This was a fresh batch, still steaming, and so despite how wonderful the stew smelled she started on the bread first, she didn't want to burn her mouth after all...
As she nibbled at the roll, Layla found her mind wandering back to the eggs she'd glimpsed only a couple of days ago. She kept switching her guesses in her mind, dreamed about them all hatching. Sometimes in the dream one of them came to her, sometimes she was mauled to death, and sometimes they all just sat there and stared at her like she was an idiot. Maybe she was an idiot.
Sighing to herself, Layla picked up her spoon and poked distractedly at her stew. She was never going to be chosen, let alone by the queen, and if she was chosen by a dragon other than the queen everyone would hate her... She wanted to Impress more than she wanted people to like her, but that didn't mean the idea of being shunned was one she could contemplate without a shudder. She wanted people to like her, was that so bad? Was it so much to ask? She knew girls weren't supposed to Impress fighting dragons but if she did, it wasn't her fault, it was the dragon's choice and so surely... surely... She wasn't sure where she was even going with that thought.
Sighing again, she scooped up a small amount of stew from the edge of the bowl and blew on it carefully a few times, wishing that somebody would come and sit with her to distract her from her endless worrying.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:16 am
"Oh yeah? Up yours, then," Tofir called across several tables to the one where his mates were sitting. They responded with some friendly invitations for him to get very friendly with a herdbeast and he replied with a rude gesture before turning to find somewhere else to sit.
They'd not bothered to save him a seat. Jerks. See if he helped any of them with chores in the next sevenday. They could just do their menial labor while he got to work indoors in the infirmary or in his own office. It would serve them right. Pricks. He stalked away, his irritated expression fading quickly until he was back in a good humor. At this point he actually cast about for somewhere to sit. He didn't want to inflict his company on others when he was in a bad mood, but now that he wasn't, that wasn't an issue.
Aha! He spotted a table which was nearly unoccupied, but for a dark-haired girl blowing cautiously on her soup. The image made him smile. Usually he didn't have the patience to wait for his food to cool, and just dug into it without concern for his mouth. Moments later he usually found himself gulping water or juice, if he wasn't trying to be polite or manly by not showing he was suffering. He was well aware that he did it to himself, but it wasn't worth the bother of actually waiting for food to cool.
"Hey," he shouted, completely comfortable being the noisy one in the hall as he walked over to her. "Mind if I join you?"
Of course, he was already beginning to sit down as he asked the question, but if she looked like she really would rather be alone, or actually told him she minded, he'd leave. It wasn't fair of him, he knew, since few people told other to move, except his friends had done just that a few moments ago. As he sat down he remembered something...
"Shiv?" he called inquiringly. Moments later a blue firelizard appeared from between and landed on the table beside him. While Shiv looked at his meal and decided which parts of it were of interest, Tofir held out his hand across the table to introduce himself. "I'm Tofir, by the way. I don't think we've met."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:32 am
"Oh!" Layla started, the voice caught her by surprise, but she just about managed not to splash stew everywhere. "Oh, no, I don't mind!" She blushed slightly as she reached out to shake the hand; she'd just met this man and she was already making herself look stupid... He had to be four or so turns older than she was, which made her a bit more nervous because he'd probably think she was a stupid kid for being all jumpy and for blushing. This made her blush a bit more.
"Sorry, you startled me," she felt the need to explain as she hoped against hope her cheeks would cool dow nand stop going so very pink. "I don't think we have met, I'm Layla, just become a candidate here, but I've always lived here, so you might have seen me around?... I think I've seen you around actually... Umm... Hi." Oh great. Now she'd made a total, utter, and complete fool of herself; she had to think of something else to say! "Umm... Your flitt's very sweet." Well that was better than nothing, in the same way the losing a hand was better than losing an arm. Great. "Sorry," she felt herself begin to flush again, "I babble when I'm nervous, and I'm nervous when I'm startled. Ahaha. Ha."
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:30 am
Tofir's eyebrows shot toward his hairline. He supposed he could make his apologies for startling her and use it as an excuse to relocate and sit with someone less inclined to blushing and jumpiness, but there was no way that was going to happen. Apparently he'd decided to sit down with someone even more highly strung than Shiv. Which presented him with a unique opportunity a bit like having an actual, with-words conversation with Shiv. This could be very interesting. Or at least amusing.
His mindhealer training stirred in the back of his mind and tried to point out that the poor girl was nervous and dreadfully uncomfortable and he should actually be helping her, not thinking of her as a human incarnation of his firelizard, but he was very good at ignoring that training at need. It would be almost impossible for him to function normally if he paid attention to every little thing his mind wanted him to notice. For one thing, he would become all sensitive and touchy-feely and he didn't want to be that kind of guy. They'd always put him on edge, even after he completed his training as a mindhealer. No one could possible care that much, all the time.
"Great," he said. "It's nice to meet you, Layla."
As he withdrew his hand he made a mental not to eat only with the hand she hadn't touched. While she babbled, he ate. Another reason he ate quickly was that if he ate the food while it was still hot and without thinking, he could sometimes forget that it wasn't prepared in a perfectly sterile environment and that the people preparing it had only the sketchiest of concepts of what made for hygienic food preparation. Maybe someday he'd ask the headwoman if he could have a morning to enlighten the kitchen staff.
Shiver, on the other hand, was entranced by Layla. He abandoned his perusal of Tofir's food and stared at her. She was making talk sounds very rapidly indeed, and she seemed uncomfortable. Which was odd. Most people felt comfortable around his human. Even he, Shiver the Neurotic, felt comfortable around Tofir. What a fascinating creature this female human was. He made his quaking way over to investigate her up close. She ate slowly, which was good and healthy, but she ate soup, which was foul and disgusting.
"I'm loud. It's a problem," Tofir admitted readily, giving in a little to the mindhealer ranting at the back of his mind. "Don't worry about the babbling. It's cute. And not nearly as messy as how people usually react to me. I'm as bad as tunnelsnakes when it comes to causing people to scream and drop things."
Shiver chirped, reminding Tofir that it wasn't just dinner time for humans, and then put a proprietary claw on a piece of meat. The blue firelizard had learned quickly that Tofir wouldn't eat anything Shiver touched, and he could be shameless in exploiting that, though he tended to pick at his food slowly and leave it unfinished. Tofir sighed and picked the meat up with the same hand Layla had touched and lay it beside his plate for Shiv, who began to nibble at it delicately.
"I'm not sure how sweet Shiv is. Neurotic is more like it."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:40 am
Okay, so far so good... Unless he was just pretending to be nice, and really laughing at her on the inside. She wouldn't be surprised. "Nice to meet you too," Layla managed a somewhat less nervous smile as he assured her he scared people all the time; if this was normal for him then he was less likely to be secretly mocking her. "I think he's cute," she went on as the blue received his dinner, "but then most flitts are. If I had one, though it would probably always be startling me by appearing suddenly behind me, or on my head or something..." She should think of something else to say before the silence went on too long. Taking another mouthful of stew so she didn't look as silly, she tried to think of something. Oh, there was an easy one.
"So, have you managed to have a look at the eggs yet? I saw them a couple of days ago, I can't wait until they hatch! Oh, are you a candidate?" She didn't recall seeing him in lessons, but during lessons she was usually pretty focused on the lesson rather than on her peers. Though she was a naturally sociable sort, she was awlays too concerned with learning whatever it was that was being taught to look around during class.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:08 pm
Shiver wasn't sure how he felt about being talked about. He knew he was being talked about, but he didn't understand all the words, and that made him nervous. He knew he wasn't going to be eaten. That had been a childish thing to worry about. He was much older now. He knew humans didn't eat firelizards. Even when they got mad. Like Tofir did that morning when he threw up on his shoe. But Tofir still fed him. Still loved him. He wasn't sure about this strange new girl, though. Not at all. He projected his concerns to Tofir, who smiled.
"Shiver doesn't know what to make of you. And sadly his little brain is odd enough that I can't understand much more than that, though I'm sure he has lots and lots to say on the subject." He tapped Shiv on the head with one fingertip belonging to the hand he wasn't eating with. Shiv whistled at him.
"I think you'd be all right if it was your firelizard. Just hope you don't end up with one like Shiv. This little bundle of nerves woke me up by throwing up on my boots this morning." He tapped Shiv's head again and the responding whistle was obviously annoyed. He didn't like being disturbed while eating.
Tofir grinned broadly. He'd stolen a peek at the eggs as soon as he could, taking advantage of his friendship with some weyrbrats who knew their way around and could show him where the viewing holes could be found. He'd been struck by the brightness of the eggs. He knew they could be bright, but it always surprised him to see it.
"Yeah, I'm a candidate. At least until my next birthday. Then I'm back to being a full-time mindhealer. And, yeah, I've seen the eggs. Looks like a good clutch. Are you going to stand this time around? I'm pretty sure I didn't patch you up last time."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 4:53 am
She had to admit that having something be sick on your shoes a lot probably wasn't too much fun. She wouldn't want one as scared as Shiver seemed to be her own in general come to that, she'd be worried she was doing something to cause it, passing on her own worries over the mental link your shared with a flitt you'd Impressed. Perhaps it would be better if she avoided getting one no matter how cute they were.
"Well, so long as he doesn't make a new place to be sick on out of me I don't mind," Layla said after a moment with a little grin that was only slightly shy, "I hope he gets used to me soon, I don't want to make him more nervous than usual..."
Ah, the last hatching. She'd been up in the stands - though she had been tempted to stand she'd been too scared of what everyone would say with no gold egg there - but sometimes she dreamed that she hadn't been out of harms way. Out in the searing heat, and all four dragonets rushing at her, the one that had gone between blinking in and out of existence with murder in its eyes. They never actually reached her, their teeth and claws were always inches away and yet somehow they always seemed to be drawing closer...
"No," Layla shuddered and shook her head, "this is the first time I've stood for a clutch. Girls aren't really welcome when there isn't one and... Well I just don't want to cause an upset like that." It was said that if your dragon was there, it would choose you from the stands. Perhaps their wouldn't be her last chance. If she didn't Impress this time, she could just get as close to the front of the stands as possible and hope.
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:13 am
Tofir glanced over at Shiv, who was still nibbling at his cooked meat. The finicky creature alternated between watching Tofir and watching Layla while he swallowed, his gullet working furiously as he swallowed a piece that was larger than he preferred. He would have to teach Tofir to cut his meat up for him sometime soon.
"I don't think he'll be sick on you. It's mostly how he lets me know he's not happy about something. Apparently emotional connections aren't sufficient." He rolled his eyes and Shiv whistled a chastisement. He knew what that expression meant.
"And he's always nervous. I don't think you're really contributing to it. Really, considering the people I usually spend time with, you must be like a breath of fresh air. You don't shout or wave your hands around when you talk, or throw things to shut people up...Not that I've seen, anyway." He grinned. "Though sometimes it really is the only effective way to shut me up."
Tofir went back to eating quickly while Layla explained why she hadn't been on the sands at the last clutch. From what Jasrai had told him, Layla was lucky she hadn't been on the sands or Impressed. He'd observed first hand what just being on the sands was like - in a word, dangerous - and through his sporadic meetings with Jasrai he knew that Impressing a fighting dragon was almost more trouble than it was worth. He didn't know Layla that well, but from what he'd seen, she wouldn't have been happy if she'd Impressed that time around.
"Well, to turn your first question back on you, have you seen the eggs? I assume since you've always lived here you know where some of the spyholes are."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:27 am
"Well, that's good then, so long as I'm not upsetting him." Layla smiled over at the little flitt, trying to think warm happy thoughts to him. She didn't know if the blue could feel them, but if not then there was no harm done, and if it could then maybe it would make the little creature a bit happier.
"I have seen them, yes," she went on, a grin spreading across her face as she recalled the eggs. "They're all so beautiful! I can't wait to see them close up at the Touching. I'll probably be terrified on the day itself, but right now the excitement's carrying me through. I guess I'll just hope it lasts!" And though the hatching, of course. That was going to be the most frightening thing ever. Even if none of the young dragons were angry they might be confused, or scared, or just clumsy enough to maul her.
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 10:14 am
Shiver whistled at Tofir. What was the girl doing? Was she thinking thoughts at him? Was she allowed to think thoughts at him? What was going on? When Tofir, who couldn't tell what Layla was attempting, met his queries with confusion, since they were not very articulately expressed, Shiv was forced to address himself to Layla. Whistle, whrr, whistle, cheep? Tofir watched with raised eyebrows. He had no idea what Shiv was trying to say. At all.
"You're confusing him mostly," Tofir was able to confirm. "He'll live."
Tofir had attended one touching. The one with the four eggs who hatched so violently. For the most part the dragons had not grown up to be violent, in spite of the adversity they faced. That was a testament to their riders' influence, he supposed. He'd spoken with one of them, Roseth, on a few occasions, but by and large his experiences with dragons were limited. Which was incredibly frustrating with regards to his research. Well. Maybe he'd Impress and then he'd have some real inside information. Hah.
"Did you have a favorite, or any guesses which eggs will produce which colors?" At this, Tofir was interested. It was a side part of his research, a person's ability to recognize what an egg contained before it hatched might in some way be linked to their likelihood to Impress, or at least their suitability.
"I'm sure you'll be fine," he added. "They can't do anything to you at the touching, and I sincerely hope the last hatching was an aberration. You'd know better than I on that count, I suppose, having lived here longer."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:10 pm
"Yes, that's true, I don't think I'd ever seen one that bad before..." But that didn't mean it wouldn't happen again. No matter what the odds were, she was stuck fixating on the worst possible outcome. Try to think of something else, something nice, and Tofir had even given her a subject which saved her scrambling to find one.
"I don't think I have a favorite," she said slowly after some moments of thought. "I mean... whatever my lifemate is, it is, I'd rather not think about which shell I like the most in case that would affect my dragon... If I Impress at all of course... Guesses though, I did guess, I just need to remember what I thought..." Closing her eyes for a moment, Layla conjured the image of the nine eggs inside her mind. They glowed with life, shimmered with potential, who could really say for sure what they would be?
"Well, the gold one is obvious," she began with a nod, "the queen egg. Then... There was one behind it from where I was standing with an orange stripe, I think that might be a brown. The yellow and sort of bright green egg I thought was blue, the same for that mottled grey egg. I think the blue and white, pink and grey, and the purple egg will come out green, and the mottled orange and yellow I think might be a bronze. I've no idea if I'm right or not," she smiled and shrugged, "and I might change my guesses when I see them close up at the Touching but I've had fun wondering what they might be and that's the main thing, right?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:47 pm
"I wonder if the people who Impressed feel guilty about the damage their dragons did after hatching," Tofir mused. He knew for a fact that one of them had felt remorseful for about two days - until she realized how others would react to her Impression, that is - but he couldn't resist meddling. "They probably wish they could have Impressed with less violence."
Tofir tried not to sigh. Layla probably couldn't help it, but he did know about the standard procedure involved when a person asked which egg you liked, or what color you hoped to Impress. You first say that you'd be happy with any color, but you always kind of pictured yourself on a _________. Then look sheepish and say it's all up to the dragons, of course, and reiterate how any color would be just wonderful. And yes, obviously the shells didn't have much to do with anything. He just asked if she had a favorite egg. It shouldn't require all the dancing around. But one wouldn't want to give inadvertent offense or seem too proud. Faranth forbid.
"So, none of them had colors that caught your eye more than others? Other than the gold, of course. Hard not to notice that one." And, really, he supposed he was being unfair. She'd already answered the implied question. She'd said she wouldn't want to cause any upset by Impressing a fighting dragon. Or something close to that. "Personally, I like the blue and white one. It looks very clean."
He listened with more interest and wrote her responses invisibly on the table with one fingertip in an effort to cement them in his brain until he could write them down somewhere when she began to cite her predictions. Many of them were similar to his own guesses, which was also interesting. He wondered how that fit into his theory of sensitivity.
"True. Fun is absolutely the most important thing." That, and good hygiene.
"I've heard some people actually feel something when they touch some eggs. I can't wait to see if that's true." He chuckled. "Not that I expect to feel anything. I can barely manage to communicate with Shiver. But other people. That would be fascinating."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 3:49 pm
Did they feel like bad for what their dragons had done? People said such bad things about those three, but she didn't know what they were really like because she'd always tried to avoid them, mostly because of that hatching, and also because how aggressive the greens had apparently remained. They couldn't hurt her physically, she knew that, but they could communicate quite well that they thought she was a little worm who should go get eaten by Thread...
He was getting at her now, she was sure he was, he was implying that he thought she was only interested in the queen! Layla shifted unhappily and looked down at her stew. "Well I noticed the gold egg," she mumbled, "because it's big and so well placed but... I... I don't think many people would call me proper gold rider material. I don't think many people would call me proper rider material at all come to that... The purple one was pretty I suppose, I like purple, and there was a mottled grey one that was out all on its own that I thought... Well it would be nice for it to be part of the group, so I suppose I noticed that one too."
He really was accusing her of only wanting a gold, but it wasn't like that! Any dragon, please, any dragon, she just hadn't been brave enough to try before... But life would be easier if a gold wanted her than any other colour. Did that mean she wanted one more than any other?... She didn't know, it was all too much to think about. Most of all she wanted to be chosen, to find her lifemate. Second to that, it would be nice if people didn't give her a hard time... but there were other girls with fighting dragons, she wouldn't be totally alone. It might be alright... But it would be easier with a gold, but she couldn't imagine herself as a weyrwoman.
Head spinning with conflicting, unhappy thoughts, Layla continued to stare at her stew, biting her lip. "I guess we'll see when the Touching comes along," she mumbled vaguely, "maybe I'll have a proper favorite after that."
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Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:46 pm
Tofir propped his chin on one hand and regarded Layla with raised eyebrows. Speaking dryly, he said, "I don't really think many people are qualified to say who is and who is not proper goldrider material - or rider material of any sort. That's really up to the dragon, and rumour has it they always choose the right person. So it really doesn't matter what anyone thinks." He paused. "Certainly not me. Shells, I'm just some weird mindhealer with a neurotic firelizard."
"But, yeah. I noticed the queen egg, too. As you say, it's hard not to, being all big and centrally located and all. Do you think their position on the sands has anything to do with the personality of the dragons within? I would've thought that was more chance, just the way they were laid - or arranged - by their mother." He shrugged. Those were the sorts of things he spent lots of time considering. Everyone seemed to think you could tell a dragon's personality from how the egg was situated in relation to the other eggs. To Tofir it just seemed like an odd superstition. Other creatures laid eggs and their placement and position had nothing to do with what came out of them. Shiver came out of a pot of sand. What did that make him?
Most of Tofir's vegetables were gone. He had never been one to refuse vegetables, even when he was young. His siblings' vegetables had all miraculously found their way onto his plate and he'd been only too happy to make them miraculously disappear. It had been much the same in his early years at the Hall. For a change, he switched to cutting up his meat while Shiv watched with whirling blue-green eyes. He looked at Shiv and pointed out, "You have some of your own, and you're only going to throw it up later if I give you any more."
Shiv warbled pathetically and looked at Layla in appeal. She had thought nice things at him before. Maybe she could convince Tofir to give him more nice meat to eat. He even went so far as to approach her and put his foreclaws on the edge of her soup bowl so that he could look up at her beseechingly. He tried to convince her that he was starving, sucking in his bulging gut as much as he could and sending feelings of hunger toward her.
"Beggar," Tofir muttered to Shiv. With Layla he agreed: "You're probably right."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:27 pm
As the firelizard approached her Layla giggled, forgetting her worries about what Tofir might or might not think of her for the time being. "Greedy, neurotic, but sweet," she said with a smile, trying to let the flitt know that she had no control over Tofir. He could have some of her stew if he wanted, but it was all vegetables.
"You're right about the dragons of course," she went on, reminding herself that it was so. "It could be a green that has the right personality for me, a gold, a blue... Maybe no dragon, but I won't know until it hatches... or doesn't hatch as the case may be." She was only sixteen turns, if she didn't Impress this time there would be other chances... She'd just make sure she was close to the front of the stands, and welcome ever dragon that ever hatched.
"Their placement though..." Layla frowned and tapped her spoon on the side of her bowl. "They can't move, obviously, so they can't decide where they go... but we were just saying that some people feel things at the Touching. If we humans can get an impression - not that kind - of the dragon before it hatches then surely the queen gets a far stronger one. She arranges the eggs, so she might be influenced by what she knows about her children so... Err... I suppose my answer is that yes, their position might reflect what they'll be like, it's certainly possible." She'd rambled on more than a bit there. Oh dear. Layla blushed again and took another mouthful of stew.
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