Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep (Dream Hatching)

[Zephyr]

As he awaited the hatching of the eggs, Kaius' gaze found casually upon the rest of the candidates. He knew of most of them, just hadn't actually encountered any of them. Except for...and this was when his gaze fell upon Vivano. He remembered the older candidate from before and wasn't sure what he thought of him. Mind whirring, he settled for nodding in acknowledgement of the other candidate, rolling his shoulders before sweeping his gaze back to the eggs.

And caught his breath in his throat.

There, laying next to Eikask, was another adult gold. He caught the wher's gaze for a second, and a prickle of recognition shot up his spine. This was the gold from the jungle. He glanced quickly over to Vivano to see if the man showed signs of realizing the presence of the gold and then looked back to the gold, squeezing Sena slightly tighter before nodding to the gold, sending a surge of recognition towards the gold. He was used to this from being bonded to King, and it wouldn't do to offend her again, now would it?

Afterwards, he glanced to the eggs, realizing belatedly that two had hatched. He watched them conversing, then wandering around. Every time one neared the pair of them, his stomach lurched in anticipation for Sena...but neither of them found her suitable, apparently. The massive brown bonded to some blonde girl who had been there first. Kai squinted at Cassandra, and her new wher, trying to figure out if he knew her. Well, not personally, but he remembered that she had a bitchy attitude. Snorting lightly, he pulled Sena slightly tighter.

" Doesn't mean anything." He said under his breath, yet loud enough for her to hear. He glanced over to the other impressed wher, a blue...to the giant man of the weyr. Another wher with no sense. The boy lowered his head slightly, gaze shifting to the eggs as another one fell apart. " Your wher is still in there. I know." He said softly. King slithered down to wrap himself around Sena's neck, crooning encouragingly. He didn't want his boy impressing, but there was no reason pretty blonde lady couldn't. The nightbeasts certainly weren't as good looking as himself, but they seemed nice enough.

Kaius eyed the hatching recurring egg now, surprised when he saw a glint of...gold scales? He glanced to the biggest egg, confused for a moment. The gold hadn't hatched from it...obviously the biggest egg was still sitting placidly in the sand next to the crooning gold. If...that big egg wasn't a gold, then...what was it? Thoughts of an absolutely massive bronze filled his thoughts, but he ignored them for the moment, turning his attention to the gold and to Sena. " She sure is pretty. I bet she's yours. I wonder what she'll choose as her name? Ssk has a nice ring to it." He joked, jostling the girl slightly, but never letting her come close to falling.

---

The blonde girl watched Phaiden as the girl bounded towards the bronze wher. Normally, a mother wouldn't want her daughter approaching a large and precariously dangerous looking beast. But Pidesk was good with her. He was used to her now that Piden had been keeping her more and more and Saphor trusted the wher, much more than she trusted any other being at the weyr besides her daughter herself. She knew the bronze would keep Phai safe. Brow lifted when Piden came from somewhere behind her to scoop the girl up. Shrugging lightly, Saphor leaned on the wall, eyes grazing the hatching whers.

She wasn't particularly interested in any of them, so she leaned against the outskirts of the gathering, close enough to the wall to lean on it, and far enough away that any of the buggers wouldn't find her unless they were looking for her specifically. So far, a brown and a blue had hatched. They were cute little things, cuter than dragon hatchlings in her opinion. Saphor yawned as the pair of siblings impressed. Another was on its way to hatching when she saw a familiar form coming towards her, even before his voice reached her ears.

She met Piden with a smirk, brushing a bit of hair out of her eyes. " You'd miss me too much if I weren't here, dear Piden." She said softly, her words slightly pointed and her smirk downright dangerous. This Saphor was so much different than the flower Piden had known. She was a blade, and she wasn't afraid of getting dirty. " Well, a little danger can be fun." She purred at Piden, the corner of her mouth jutting upwards. " Better watch out. Another one might find you a likely candidate. With your luck with mindmates, it just might happen." She snorted lightly, still grinning somewhat playfully. " We wouldn't want your head exploding, now would we?"

Now that was an interesting picture indeed.

[Kisha-Ra]

Vivano’s smile grew a little bigger at the ideas the wild queen projected, she certainly was self assured, but then he couldn’t really blame her, it was rather obvious what was going to happen after this hatching. The wild gold was indeed wild, though it seemed from what she “said” to him that her children were bonded, and she’d want to get back to the jungle, and whether a baby chose him or not Vivano would hardly deny her that. He’d have plenty of opinions about the hatchlings by then he was sure.

The interaction between the brown and the blue from the rolling egg was amusing, with the blue seeming to be teasing his larger sibling. Whatever it was it was eventually settled and the two males quickly moved off to the humans who’d caught their attention. He wasn’t certain that the blue was the best choice for Canith, he was clearly going to be walking alongside his new mindmate, or maybe even carrying him, Vivano thought as Canith picked up the blue and looked him over. The girl who was with the brown he barely knew, in fact he only really knew Canith and Kaius, and those two not too well, when there wasn’t a need for wher candidates at a lesson Vivano tended to get on with his own work.

The third egg crumbled around a sight that just took Vivano’s breath away for a moment. The hatchling gold was beautiful and the fact she made the third generation of wher queens in the room was just amazing. On the edge of hearing Vivano heard Kaius whispering to one of his friends that the queen was clearly meant for her. Vivano had no guesses in that direction, he might laugh if she picked Kaius though.

[Ivy]

She hadn't been sleeping, not just yet anyways. So when the image of eggs filled her mind she didn't think it a dream - she knew it wasn't one. Looking around she eyed Eros and then Perses. Neither of them had been the source, but where else would it have come from? She knew about the wher clutch, if only because being a Candidate she was informed of all the clutches she might be eligible to Stand for. She wasn't thrilled in the least bit that the wher clutch was hatching - whers were not dragons and dragons were all she cared about.

Almost all she cared about. Tugging her boots back on she worked her slender fingers quickly to re-lace them. She hadn't yet undressed so once her boots were on she was ready to go. Out into the hallway her steps were quick as she made her way to the boys' portion of the barracks, but Cainith was already gone. Ivy had only wanted to wish him good luck, but apparently he had bolted as soon as the call for the hatching was given. If she really wanted to wish him luck now, she'd have to go to the hatching to find him. Drat.

A deep breath in and out and she closed her eyes. Would he even want her there? They hadn't spoken in a while, it seemed he was cross with her over the incident in the jungle still. He had the right to be of course, but he was over reacting a bit in her opinion. Opening her eyes she looked to Perses, who offered nothing but the best of advice, Butiful no worries about fatsy giant-man. Ugleh man. Vey-vey stay away from darkling uglehs. Soooo uglehs. Butiful only stay with other butifuls, like me! The Blue wrapped around her arm and crawled upward until he got to her shoulder where he rubbed against her neck and cheek crooning softly.

"You know he'll never forgive me if I don't go." She replied softly to the salamandyr and then started walking. She knew the way to the wherhandler apartments, only because she'd attended lessons there a few times. Learning anatomy and the role of whers in the Weyr - as if they could be nearly as important as dragons were. Trying not to let the displeasure of being there show on her face she made her way down the corridors until she heard people talking. Turning a corner she came up to the room and slipped past some others inside. Immediately her eyes fell upon the clutch and those already hatched - a large Brown wher, a small Blue wher, and a... Gold. Even if it was a Gold wher even Ivy could appreciate the female's inheirit beauty. She wasn't here for her though, or any of the others. She was here for...

Ah, she spotted him. Was that little Blue following him? He was at the tables... cutting himself?! At first she was alarmed and Perses' eyes swirled red and orange in response to her emotions, but then she remembered being told something about whers bonding better when they had their rider's blood. Horrid practice if you asked her. Of course no one did. She watched and slowly inched her way behind people until she was next to the tables looking up at him, "I had hoped to come in time to say good luck, it seems instead a congratulations is in order?"

She sounded... unsure of herself. Something definitely not in character for the young fiery redhead. Still the tone was there in her voice, and under it was something else. As if she was asking for his forgiveness without actually asking for it. Perses merely hissed up at the man from his spot on Ivy's shoulder, hiding back in her long hair. She looked down at the Blue and smiled softly to him, "I don't think he'll be able to hold you but you look a good pair. Suited for one another. Will probably be the best wherhandler in the Weyr in short order I'm sure." Again that hint of wanting forgiveness was there and her eyes wandered up to meet his once more.

---------------------

Swithin had been headed out to get breakfast when a mental nudge from Swisk let him know the eggs were hatching. Of course the Blue only knew because he'd heard Eikask's call. So instead of making a bee-line for the dining hall the Bluehandler turned and made his way to where the eggs were. He waited until a group of Candidates trickled in before entering and Swisk slipped in behind him. He was small and frail, wouldn't take up much room. Unless of course Eikask didn't want him there, he added to the Gold with a polite nod in her direction. He would never want to upset Eikask, especially not on the day of her hatching.

Looking around brought back memories of when he had Impressed Swisk. Grinning he reached down and his fingers were met with the leathery flesh of Swisk's head. Giving him a good scratch he looked over the Candidates there to Impress - and then at the baby whers he hadn't noticed. When had they hatched?

Maybe His' mind was slipping in his old age, Swisk gave a mental chuckle and shot his a mental image of a cane. A smirk and playful glare were given to the wraith-like Blue before the handler settled back to lean against one of the walls to watch. If anyone needed help they could ask him for it, otherwise he would sit back and watch quietly.

[jing]

Carefully, quietly, Minlara slipped into the Wherhandler's apartments, staring around wide-eyed. After being searched by an Albino bluerider, well... she was feeling especially curious. A new place, a new start, a completely new world! It was all so amazing, from the wondrous dragons winging through the air outside a few candlemarks before to the now stirring whers hidden within the darkened halls of the apartments. And speaking of whers... She paused a moment down one corridor, an eyebrow rising at the scene before her. People quietly finding their way into a room off to the side, with people standing like guards on the outside. Blinking her mischievously glinting blue eyes, she wandered over to the door and had a look inside.

A hatching?

She peeked in quietly, glancing about. There were already newly impressed Whers on the floor, and it wouldn't do to upset any of them... right? Common sense prevailed over Minlara's actions as nodded to Eikask, the first gold she saw, before she moved into the room and back behind the rest of those gathered there to allow a pair to head out of the room. There was an unbonded queen to one side, it seemed, and that was bound to be the most dangerous of the bunch. The chances of these Whers liking the intrusion of an unofficial... or was she official? She had been searched, right? But she hadn't been... well... documented? Did they even document their candidates? She chuckled to herself, wondering if she was even supposed to be there now. Running a hand through her blonde hair, she took a moment to admire the queen Wher, obviously the mother... and another queen wher, obviously the mother? What? Minlara did a double take. One queen seemed to be visibly older than the other, and the third was obviously a hatchling.

She was momentarily shocked that none of the gold's were... grumpy. Once again her gaze passed over the eggs, and though she was initially interested in seeing them all hatch, whether she impressed or not, she remembered one very, very important thing she had managed to lose somewhere in her curious tour of the Weyr. A timid, sweet girl that she adored like the sister she had never had, hidden beneath a straw hat and a loosely swaying dress. A girl that was supposed to be married very, very soon, but had suddenly had her life turned upside down by the arrival of a strapping young man on an albino blue dragon...

Deirdre.

Shards. Now how was she going to get out without offending anyone?!

[Ember]

Eikask was amused at her mother's response. Unique was certainly a more diplomatic way of putting it. Really, though, she thought them plain old odd. Only an odd wher would go and pick a mountain for a handler, after all. She expressed that last point to her mother as an example of their strangeness. Then again, I suppose Impressing at all automatically makes one strange to you? Sometimes, not often, she wondered what it might be like to be a true wild wher by blood and by nature. Then she remembered that she could barely keep her feet under her and she'd be doomed.

And - oh! Gold baby. She blinked almost owlishly in response to her daughter's appearance, not entirely sure what to make of her. Almost absently she responded to her mother with a Well, yes. The Recurring Gold noticed finally that her brothers had Impressed ahead of her hatching even and she suddenly turned frightful. Her whip-like tail lashed behind her and she bared her teeth. How dare those idiots not wait for her! She barked angrily after them for a few moments before settling down with one final huff. Eikask snorted in amused disbelief at the youngest gold and that brought the Recurring Gold's attention to her.

Oh, hello mother. And...? The youngest gold requested politely. Grandmother, Eikask provided dryly. The Recurring Gold squealed in excitement in response and bounded over to the pair, huge wings held out to avoid tripping on them. Isn't this exciting, then? All three of us here! And oh grandmummy wher you are very lovely to come watch! She touched noses pleasantly with a slightly confused Eikask and reached out to offer a nuzzle to the older gold. It really is a pleasure to meet you!

While the Recurring Gold went about making friends with the older golds in the room the Lucid Egg began shaking in slow side to side motions. It was not the Lucid Egg that broke first, however, because as soon as the first crack appeared on it the Prophetic Egg gave one mighty heave and spilled out a green-blue wher. The Prophetic Wher sat rigidly, shaking off the stun of suddenly being out of the egg. The wher greeted the Recurring Gold, Eikask, and the wild gold pleasantly before greeting the candidates too.

The Prophetic Wher didn't focus long on them though. Instead they got to their feet and marched right on up to the Lucid Egg. What was it doing? Such a lazy attempt at hatching, really. The wher reared up and gave the Lucid Egg a shove and a bark. The egg broke along the crack line and the wher inside made a squawk of complaint. A gorgeous bronze stepped out of the remains of his egg and huffed, leaning forward to nose his impatient sibling only to miss. The Lucid Bronze tittered in annoyance and tried again. The Prophetic Wher seemed to sigh and met him halfway.

The Recurring Gold, noticing something off about her bronze brother, excused herself from the older golds to check on him. She crooned concernedly at him until he turned to look at her head on. Then she saw the problem and her wings drooped to brush the ground. Her poor brother was blind in his left eye! The bronze crooned, brushing off the gold's concern gently. No need to fret, their sibling could be his eyes for now. The bronze nudged the smallest of the three whers and together they walked down towards the candidates. Who to choose, who to choose!

[Avu]

The boy had noticed her. The other one, that was. The wild gold blinked at Kaius, serenely amused at his presence. She made no effort to contact him, though; the acknowledgment pleased her well enough and she had nothing to say to him, particularly when Eikask and her offspring were so near. She cast a brief glance at the late newcomers—one of them a Bonded pair, a couple of girls—before watching the youngest queen’s little fit with a tilted head and curious green eyes. Such a temper, she commented to Eikask, her mind for a brief moment tempered with maternal affection.

And quite the mood swings, apparently. The wild gold crooned in response to her granddaughter at the introduction and brushed her muzzle against the baby wher’s neck in greeting. At least maybe this one wouldn’t Impress to mountains, she added, unless she decided to go find a literal one. No comment on Impression in and of itself; she didn’t like it personally but it seemed to do just fine by her babies (not least because some of them couldn’t keep their feet, apparently), and she was always glad when her children survived.

She dropped her head onto her forepaws to watch the next two Hatchings. One of them was a greenish-blue, and the wild gold whuffed softly at it. Couldn’t even tell which it was. Amusingly inconvenient, her daughter’s babies. The other was a bronze, though, of good size. Except—oh. Blind in one eye. It was not a fatal flaw, even in the wild, at least, but certainly very inconvenient. She blinked silently, appraising the three babies. They seemed to get along well, at the very least.

*

“Hi King,” Sena muttered to the bronze Salamandyr, lifting one hand to rub the bronze’s spine lightly. She was glad he and Kaius were there—not least because she’d probably fall down without one of them, but mostly because she’d never really had people to talk to back when she’d Stood for Benden clutches and that had just been awful and nerve-wracking. At least being able to babble at Kaius meant she neither looked insane for talking to herself nor freaked herself out too badly. Not that she wasn’t getting there anyway.

She wrinkled her nose at Kaius’s assurance that she’d Impress the gold—because there was no way. Sydney would maybe; Sena had utter faith in her bunkmate Impressing a fantastic bondmate. But the mention of Ssk as a name had her rolling her eyes in horror, “There’s a name you can’t yell…but at least I can’t Impress a Bath or Death or Birth or hey, Fifteenth? She’s gotta temper,” added in surprise at the baby gold’s little fit before she seemed to recover dignity and rushed off to greet the other two golds.

The next two babies made her absentminded petting of King cease in favor of watching them intently. Eyes wide, Sena did her best to bounce up on her tiptoes (not an easy task, okay, but it was a valiant attempt). “Oh that poor bronze…at least I suppose he’ll have time to get used to it, y’know? It’d be worse later on, gosh, that’d mess up your depth perception somethin’ awful…that one’s cute too. ‘s it green or blue? I can’t tell, is that bad? It probably is…I guess we’ll find out when s…he…it? Impresses, like, the Bonded’ll know, right?”

[Kisha-Ra]

Vivano was none too sure what had upset the baby queen but she seemed to get over it and go back to being delightfully cute within moments. Vivano’s indulgent smile returned as she bounded over to the adult golds, if only someone could capture that image forever. Maybe when he was rich he could describe it to a famous artist who could paint it for him Vivano mused.

The next to begin shaking and cracking spilled out a smaller wher that was… well… either greenish blue or blueish green, it was sort of hard to tell in the dim light, whichever it was the poor thing seemed somewhat stunned by its hatching. A quicker recovery was never made though, as within a few moments the wher was crooning greetings and marching up to another egg.

It seemed the blue/green wher didn’t much care for the way things were going with that egg. Vivano had to admire the little beast’s determination as it shove and barked at the large egg. As if to answer a complaint rose from inside the breaking shell, swiftly followed by a bronze who seemed to match the size of his egg. The bronze however, did not seem very coordinated as he needed two tries to nose his smaller sibling.

Whatever it was with the bronze seemed to upset or disappoint his golden sister terribly as her wings crumpled to brush the ground. Nevertheless the bronze seemed as determined as his smaller sibling as the two of the walked together toward the humans leaving the gold behind with the single remaining, as yet unmoving, egg. From the sounds around him, he couldn’t bear to tear his eyes from the whers, it seemed a few more people had arrived so all three hatchlings, and the unhatched sibling, should have a good selection of people to choose from.

[jing]

Min pondered. And pondered. And pondered some more. And the only reasons she could come up with to leave the hatching without... well. Being ridiculously rude, would be to either impress a lovely little wher... or as lovely as little whers could get... or wait until the hatching itself was over. In the meantime, she hoped, Dee wouldn't get herself into too much trouble. Maybe that Er'ani fellow would keep a close enough eye on her, since Min... well. Made sure he knew she'd kick his butt if anything happened to her dear Dee.

Resigning herself to her new fate, Minlara turned her attention to the eggs and whers out and about in the sands before the crowd of candidates. The Recurring Gold hatchling bounded playfully over to her mother and... the other gold, some sort of transaction crossing between the three. While she met with the others of her color scheme, another egg cracked and broke, spilling forth a green-blue colored baby. A pretty thing, that one, colored the way... they were. Was that greenish blue or bluish green? She watched the babe while it composed itself, curious. If only there was more light... then she could tell for sure if that hatchling was a male or a female.

She continued to watch with some interest as the small Prophetic Wher made its way over to another, obviously shaking egg, shoving and barking at the creature within until the unhatched wherlet. Sounds and scratching heralded the unhatched babe's reaction, until the egg itself simply split along a crack in the middle. The wherlet, which turned out to be a bronze, finally broke his shell completely, drawing the attention of the baby gold.

The Lucid Bronze was a handsome thing, gorgeous even, especially in his coloration. The siblings interacted a bit, and Minlara stifled a chuckle at the attempted and failed nuzzling. At least they were a friendly bunch. All the rumors of whers being mean, viscious beasts seemed to be utterly debunked as the smallest of the trio started leading their bronzen sibling over to the candidates. Well, things were moving along, to say the least. Five hatchlings, two impressed, two apparently on the move to find their bondeds, one sort of... sitting around, and one egg left to crack and spill forth its baby to the world.

Even if it was a little... silent.

Min blinked a moment and turned her attention to the still unhatched egg. It was dim in the room, needless to say, but from what she could see... was it even moving? She squinted, willing her vision to stay clear despite the dark shadows flickering about in the failing light. She couldn't be sure, but, assuming that was a shadow and not a shake, the last egg didn't seem very intent on hatching. Her expression shifted into one of momentary worry, and then back to the parade of hatchlings. Well... she had heard about duds, as much as she didn't like to think of the possibility... was that last egg a dud? Quietly, she hoped it wasn't.

[Zephyr]

He was glad when the wild gold seemed not to feel like leaving her attention on him. Either she was pleased with his attempts at making peace, or she was so upset that she was now going to ignore his presence. Either way, he didn't get mauled. Hey. That was a win-win for him. He didn't exactly feel like bleeding right now, especially when he was supposed to be holding Sena up.

King crooned happily as Sena stroked his spine, purring lightly and stretching out along her neck, wrapping his tail around her neck and flicking the tip lightly against her collarbone. Whers were much more relaxed than nasty dragons. The giant gold monster wouldn't even tolerate him being on the sands with the babies. The gold wher mother didn't care. King purred again and sent a surge of gratitude and congratulations into Eikask's mind. They were very fine hatchlings. Perhaps not as fine as King's babies when Leviathan finally ran and chose him, but fine all the same.

It wasn't a surprise to Kaius that Sena was worried. But he had no doubt that she would impress. She and Sydney, he grinned at the older girl, grabbing her hand and nudging her playfully. " You're both going to impress." He said matter of factly. " And I'm going to be in your guys' room all the time. You won't be able to keep me out. Unless you do girl stuff." His nose wrinkled in fake disgust as more of the eggs began to break and Sena was rattling off her laundry list of awful names. " Death sounds kinda bad ass though, don'tchya think?" He said before the girl was off on another tangent.

At least this time it had to do with the whers. Craning his neck, Kaius watched the path of the hatchlings as they neared the Candidates. There was a gorgeous bronze, rivaling Pidesk in looks, and a strange bluish green wher. He couldn't tell if it was blue or green and it seemed he wasn't alone as everyone else stared quizzically at the androgynous blue/green and the half blind bronze. For all their faults, however, Kaius found them wonderful and full of personality. He half wished that he could impress to one of them, but the thoughts weren't so loud as to alarm King, who was alarmed by the way Sena stopped petting him. Placidly the salamandyr thrummed and flicked his tail lightly against her collarbone. Silly baby nightbeasts broked.

" I'm sure they'll both be fine." Kaius said at length, eyeing the bronze and the blue/green as they approached them. " I bet that bronze will like you. He's quite awesome, even if he's half blind. It'll just mean he'll be kinda like a super wher when his other senses compensate. Right? Wouldn't you want a super wher?" Kaius eyed Sena seriously.

[Ember]

Eikask didn't acknowledge anything sent her way as far as nods or such went. Really, she had stopped paying attention to the candidates quite some time ago. She did, however, flick a brief appreciation King's way before returning her attention to the hatchlings and her mother. The gold was surprised by the wild gold's maternal tone and crooned softly in response. Temper, indeed. Eikask agreed with her mother about mountains too. A gold with a mountain would be just...yeah, just no. She wasn't entirely surprised her mother didn't say anything about Impressions though.

She eyed the pair moving down towards the candidates, brushing the mind of the smaller one curiously. She rumbled in amusement at the oh-so-polite response she got when asking about her child's gender and shared the knowledge with her mother conspiratorily. Eikask's gaze flicked over to her gold daughter who was still watching the bronze-blue/green pair. She crooned at the gold, encouraging her to pick her own partner but she just shook her head softly. She'd wait a bit just yet, thank you.

The aforementioned pair stumbled amongst the candidates clumsily, the bronze's lack of depth perception making walking a bit more difficult than usual for a baby and his sibling not having enough mass to entirely support him. The pair found themselves forcing their way through the Kaius-Sena-Sydney trifecta accidentally. Sydney was thankfully out of harms way but Kaius and Sena might not have been so lucky. The pair of whers creeled in mutual distress and apology and tried very hard not too cause too much damage with their young claws. They backtracked quickly and were left panting and whining very softly at the humans.

Then, humans abruptly forgotten, the pair turned to each other, clearly amused that their reactions were pretty much the same. The Prophetic Wher nudged the bronze to be on his way (carefully) while she made sure the humans were okay. The Lucid Bronze went ahead with a quiet croon and overly careful steps. He stumbled his way over to the feet of one candidate and sat quietly at his feet. Pleasure to meet you, your stunning Vivask is here! The Prophetic Wher gave a soft whuff of pleasure at the sight.

The Recurring Gold finally turned away from her hatched siblings to eye the Mutual Egg. Sometime during the crashing debacle it had started jerking abruptly from one side to the other. She watched it curiously, wondering if she should help, when it broke clear down the middle and each half went flying the opposite direction. In each half there was a wher and the gold gave a confused croon to each. Two in one egg? One was blue and one was green, at that! They both seemed rather dazed though.

[Ember]

Lucid Bronze
Bonded to: Vivano
Name: Vivask
Color: Bronze #8E6B23 #CFB53B
Physical Appearance: While the Lucid bronze is certainly attractive, that is not the most distinguishing thing about him. Despite his charming colouration and handsome build it is his left eye that usually draws the most attention. From the moment of his birth, his left eye has remained a deadened, green-tinged grey; completely blind. Aside from that one flaw, he is otherwise perfect. He's a long, deceptively muscled wher. The pattern of his hide makes it a little difficult to make out the ripple of muscle underneath. This large wher will have no problems carrying more than just their bonded. His wings are large and long, almost but not quite shaped properly for actual flight.

As mentioned before, he has a lovely colouring that borders slightly more on gold than bronze. A large part of his hide is painted a more subdued combination of brown and gold, with faint green undertones. Mixed with this subdued colour is a brilliant almost-gold colour that seems to originate from his left side, stretch over his upper back, around his left eye, and his right front paw, and down the left side of his tail like flames. Though this leaves most of his right side rather plain, it is a pleasant effect on him. All this plus the metallic sheen his colour is known for makes him quite the stunning bronze.

He has quite the air about him, the Lucid bronze does. Every bit of him exudes an aura of confidence that some scoff at and others admire. His posture is a surprisingly good indicator of the depth of his relationships with those nearby. Friends are allowed to see him relaxing rather ungracefully whenever he's not working while strangers are treated to views of him posing regally to impress. He moves with an unusual grace for one missing an eye. Odd moments of clumsiness, often in moments of real importance, show that this grace is hard earned. Still, he is not as clumsy as his mother while going at high speeds. He holds considerable skill in the air as well should he ever discover it.

Personality: Like most bronzes, this male is certainly arrogant. However, this arrogance is not without valid reason. This bronze is highly intelligent and an expert manipulator. Often times the one he is manipulating won't even realize it until afterwards, if at all. He has a particular fondness for manipulating his Epic clutchsibling since he finds their reactions amusing. He has no boundaries with his schemes either. If he wants something he will get it, almost without fail. To further his goals he is also willing to get his paws dirty, so to speak.

Thankfully, the Lucid bronze's ambitions are pure most of the time. He wants the best for everyone whether they are a dragon, a human, a fellow wher, or even lowly pets. If he must displace someone at the top to protect everyone else below him he will, or die trying. Much to his bonded's and his friends' relief he's intelligent enough to know that sometimes there are other ways to protect everyone without risking so much in the process. While his protectiveness extends to everyone, he is particularly protective of his clutchmates. Threats to any of them will not be tolerated. Ever. For any reason.

The most important aspect of this wher's personality is that he cares. Very much so, in fact. His clutchsiblings, in particular, he loves and is willing to do pretty much anything for them. Sure he may manipulate them on occasion and put on a facade to annoy the Epic clutch sibling (and others) but he genuinely cares for them. Around his clutchsiblings only will he always be relaxed, content to flop near them or (in the case of the female siblings) on them. He is rarely seen without the company of the Prophetic sibling. When he's with that sibling he can be much more serious and work oriented. Without that one around, though, he tends to be lazy and flirtatious with all females. One might say he's the dumbest smart wher they'll ever meet because despite all his intelligence he still makes stupid decisions or jokes around.

[Ruby]

Serissa was staring blankly in to space, focused on the images Daniel was sending back to her rather than what was going on in the hallway. So when something small attached itself to her legs, Serissa reached down and patted Annatolli's shoulder without thinking about it. Only once she realized that there was an unfamiliar child clinging to her legs did she blink, clearing her mind of Daniel's image of M'gnum on the move to look down at the blond girl. "I'm... you go on, the firelizards seem to want you to," she said, forcing a smile and sounding only half absent. And just because the little girl looked so excited and hopeful, Serissa added, "I'll be just a minute, I'm waiting for someone. Go on." Yes. She was waiting for someone.

And all too soon, there he was. Holding out an arm for Daniel, the Healer turned an anguished look on the Bronzerider, terrified and sad and confused all at once. "They're hatching," she said, gesturing in the direction of the closed door that led to the clutch. "Whers. I was going to try, just go and see, so they said they needed a healer on standby for the hatching and I volunteered, but..." Shaking her head, she mad a face, the kind of face old Serissa would have made when someone did something distasteful. "But I can't. I literally can't go in there. I have to, I'm the only healer, and, well, you seemed to think it'd help. If it might, I'll take it, I can't stay like this. But... I can't." And that was that. She was shaking visibly, trembling enough that Daniel had to hold his wings out to keep his balance. Her voice might have been steady (and a bit disappointed, annoyed with herself), but her body betrayed her. "I need you to convince me to go, or to drag me. I have to be there." As if to prove the truth of her statement, a crash sounded from within, the sort of crash made by a few humans being pushed over by some baby whers. Excellent timing.



"True enough," Piden admitted, matching Saphor smirk for smirk. He'd known she'd grown - he had too - but this new Saphor was distinctly more interesting than the old one had been, and he'd like the old one enough to sleep with her (not that that said much). Glancing around briefly to see if anyone was watching them and deciding that no one was, Piden turned towards Saphor, reaching out to lift that jutting chin just slightly. "Well well," he murmured, "You developed quite the sharp tongue, didn't you?" Letting her go, he stuffed his hands back into his pockets, turning towards the hatching again and taking a quick look to make sure Phai was still safely with Pidesk... which she was. "I'm sure plenty of Handlers will tell you I have plenty of ego to go around, I doubt another Wher would do much to change that," he added with a sideways grin.

Just about then, the bronze and the - what color wher was that? Blue-green? Whatever - other wher shoved their way through some candidates, knocking them to the floor. "That said, I'd rather not have another Wher decide I look like fun, as much as I love Pidesk and all." Placing one hand on Saphor's waist, he slid sideways and back in something very like a move from the toss dance, putting her in between him and the hatchlings and anchoring her in place with his second hand. Leaning forward so he could rest his chin on her shoulder, he added, "You can be my shield. Don't worry, I'll get you out of the way of any rogue hatchlings that don't plan on impressing, I promise."

[Avu]

“I think we’ll keep you for the girl stuff too,” Sena answered, and she would’ve stuck her tongue out at Kaius if she hadn’t been worried about it being taken as disrespectful for the Hatching they were at. It would suck if the gold (who seemed spectacularly laid back, or just distracted) got angry at her for something that stupid. “Death is morbid,” she added, still watching the hatchlings, “I like Birth better…” A pause, and then the utter awkwardness of that statement processed and Sena went red. “Uh, the name, I’m less fond of the actual, you know…don’t judge me, shut up—oh hold on—”

She’d registered, belatedly, the proximity of the bronze hatchling and his green-blue sibling, and while it would’ve been nice to hope that one of them intended to Impress their path looked more like an accident than design and she automatically started to pull back to get out of the way. Wher Hatchings didn’t get the same dramatic retellings that dragon ones did but she was pretty sure people got hurt all the same and—right.

And here she had forgotten her leg didn’t work properly sometimes.

Sena didn’t actually fall down, but it was only really because of Kaius; she slipped in her sidestep and that, apparently, was enough. The weight of the wher pushed off her balance and she automatically released Kaius to catch her own fall, stunned by the clumsy baby claws that sliced down her leg, cutting startlingly deep and leaving ragged red slice wounds in their wake. She recoiled, trying to minimize the target she presented and get out of the way simultaneously—at least the whers didn’t seem to want to hurt them, and after a moment they backed off with sounds of apology.

Stupidly, she said, “’s okay, it…” Which was about when the pain hit her and she gasped, tears coming to her eyes as she pressed her shaking hands against the wounds that dragged from thigh to knee, pants going slowly red with the blood. “Ow—Kaius?” There was still a King on her shoulder, and Sena scooted awkwardly over to Kaius, rubbing the heel of one hand over her eyes rapidly. “Oh man shit—Kaius? I’m so so sorry oh shit, hey, King, can you go get a Healer please? Wow, this sucks a lot, hey, at least the Infirmary won’t be boring with both of us in there…”

*

Oh, a she then. The wild gold purred in soft amusement, eyes lidding as she watched their progress. The accidental collision with the pair of humans got her whole attention, certainly, but the queen made no effort to act concerned. It was merely a spectator perspective that studied with casual indifference the bright blood and the distress of the humans, the apologetic sounds of the baby whers. And then the bronze went off and Impressed to—oh, that was nice. She approved of that one, then. Smart bronze, Impressing to a comparatively decent human. The gold brushed faint congratulations across both Vivano and Vivask’s minds.

Wasn’t like she wasn’t allowed to have favorites.

The Hatching of the last egg reclaimed her attention, however, and the wild gold crooned curiously at the not one but two babies that emerged. Interesting, she commented to Eikask—neutrally curious. Was this a normal thing for her Hatchings, the doubles? They were quite unexpected. That said, they were also the last of the clutch, and the queen pushed herself up from her Sphinx position to sit up instead. Since her door-holder was distracted by his bronze she’d wait a little longer, but she didn’t particularly care to watch every last Impression—she expected said Impressions would, after all, happen, and if they didn’t, she’d find out when the babies entered her territory.

But who they Impressed to? She couldn’t care less, even for her granddaughter. Their existence at all was quite enough to please her.

[jing]

Min's gaze stayed on the two wherlets heading for the crowd, and she momentarily gaped as the pair practically crashed through the three candidates standing at the forefront. The bluish-green/greenish-blue hatchling and bronze both apologized and squawked a bit in dismay, before the bronze broke away and impressed to one of the fellows off to the other side. Min blinked in slight surprise, and had to stop herself from moving toward the three possibly injured candidates. She technically wasn't even supposed to be there anyways, so it didn't matter all that much if she broke candidate rules... but the multi-colored babe was still near the trio, and she didn't want to accidentally make the hatchling angry or something.

The gold still was disinclined to move, Min noticed a moment later, at least, until she took a longer look at the baby and not at the three trampled candidates. The little queen was checking out that last egg that the blonde had been wondering about earlier. It was alive after all! The shell split in two suddenly, revealing not one, but two hatchlings, one green and one blue. Well! It seemed they had only needed to get their act together to succeed in shaking and breaking their crinkly prison. Twins! She hadn't known whers could hatch in pairs like that, from the same egg... though it explained the thing's gigantic size.

The dolphineer chuckled a moment, watching them again, glancing now and then at the greenish-blue hatchling. The Prophetic Wher was a little too close for comfort, nice enough as the little thing was seeming to be. But, the largest and closest of the clutch were all impressed... 'cept the baby gold, but that was a different story. For all Minlara knew, it could be a thing with whers that any hatched queens impress last. Could be a thing with dragons too, for all she knew about them. Either way, the journeyman was pleased as punch to have at least experienced this, unofficial as she might be.

Well, things were definitely wrapping up now, even with the sudden surprise of two hatchlings in that last egg instead of just one. At least she had managed to get away without any injury - nothing she had to explain to Dee when she found her again... though, keeping the whole 'attending a wher hatching' without her quiet might be in her best interests anyways. Less chance of being smothered by unnecessary Deirdre worry. That was always nice, avoiding Deirdre worry.

[Aftershock]

Cainith was continuing to feed Cainsk the meat with his self-wounded hand when he heard a voice... a familiar voice. Turning, he saw Ivy approach him, and an awkward half-smile came over his face. Since the incident in the jungles, where Ivy had verbally berated him for defending her and nearly getting killed in the process, and then acted caring towards him after checking on F'ur's condition first as Cainith was nearly bleeding out, causing him to leave her in the clearing to walk all the way back to the Weyr alone, as she did not follow him, he didn't know what to think.

The redheaded Candidate had mostly seemed to avoid him the following weeks, and this was the first time she'd spoken to him more than a couple words since the incident. His physical wounds had healed since then, other than the occasional twinge in his elbow from the dislocation being untreated through his entire jungle trek back to the Weyr, but he wasn't sure about his emotional injuries. Forcing a smile, he replied to Ivy's words with, "Thank you. I never truly imagined it would finally happen... I was so used to disappointment and being left alone, I never truly thought that I would finally find the one for me in this Weyr..." Suddenly realizing that what he said could be taken another way, he averted his gaze and cleared his throat awkwardly, before quickly adding, "Thank you for coming to see me."

He did note the tone of her voice, the underlying awkwardness of someone who did not want to admit their actions were wrong, but still wanted to apologize for any pain their actions caused, and looked back up at Ivy. Cainsk, looking up at his new Bonded, reading the emotions blaring across the surface of His mind, narrowed his jewel-like eyes in thought, then glanced over at Ivy, doing his best to read from her surface thoughts as well. Acting as if he was still concentrating on his meat, Cainsk then discretely sent an image into both Cainith's and Ivy's heads, showing the two floating over a backdrop consisting of a collage of images Cainsk pulled from their surface thoughts, especially from the jungle incident (which was especially prevalent in Cainith's surface thoughts). Over the collage, the images of the pair were split apart and looking unhappy. Then, the collage shattered beneath the representations of the two, and they moved closer to each other, eventually embracing with smiles on their faces and a large, cartoony heart floating above them.

Receiving the image, Cainith's brow furrowed a bit in confusion, then embarrassment. As the image cleared from his mind, he looked up at Ivy again, realizing what the image represented (and suspecting where it came from, though not really understanding why his new bonded would be interested in the two being happy together), and gave a genuine smile this time. "He's not the biggest wher, it's true. But he's definitely the best. I just hope me being a wherhandler won't keep me too much away from you," he concluded, reaching out with his un-wounded hand to take Ivy's hand, and looking into her eyes with a hopeful smile.

Rollhead, for his part, added, "Clutchmommy need to stay near Goddess." His tiny head nodded matter-of-factly with his statement, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

---

M'gnum smiled as he heard Serissa speak, though he tried his best to keep it subtle, as the Healer was obviously distraught and he did not want her to inadvertently think he was mocking her. Reaching out (and watching Daniel, just in case the flit decided he was getting too friendly with the woman), he took Serissa's hands in his, and looked her in the eyes as he said, "M'lady, I am glad you took my words to heart. It took a lot of power to bring yourself even to this point, and you should be proud of yourself. I'm glad that you had Daniel summon me, as I am overjoyed to see this through to the end, and help you as much as I can."

Hearing the crash and the cries of pain, M'gnum held Serissa's hands tighter, and said, "This is it. It shows it was meant to be. Whether you Impress a wher or not, you were MEANT to be here. You have a purpose... you have a use. Someone in there needs you... someone needs your skills, your talents. Perhaps a wher is waiting in there for you, as well. You won't know unless you go, and you must go, because you're needed."

Releasing her hands, he moved his arm around her shoulder (again watching for a negative reaction from Daniel), and tried to turn Serissa to face the doorway, moving to hold her hand with his free hand and helping walk her forward, hoping she would take the initiative and move in without him, but helping walk her along until it happened either way.