Jeyth's Inspiration

Congratulations, Pippa, on impressing your Jeyth here at Ista Weyr! Your enthusiasm, creativity and maturity won us over entirely, and we're thrilled to have you as our newest goldrider. We hope you like your prim and proper gold, and can't wait to see how the two of you develop as weyrlings, and then in your role as jr. weyrwoman and jr. queen.


Pippa's Lies Down Before It Rains Gold Jeyth

Clutching Message

Taking deliberate steps now, Ryazusith moves to the middle of the loosely designed circle she's lain the current eggs in. Tenderly, talons rake back sand, moulding and sculpting. Hovering about the area for a short while, the gold anxiously continues tweaking the arrangement until she is satisfied. Again, as she senses the arrival of yet another of her offspring, she moves in and lingers atop the area she's just readied for it. Easter Egg is the newest addition to the sands, though is markedly different from it's brothers and sisters. Ryazusith dips her muzzle, delicately nudging the egg before her that gleams with metallic brilliance that can only mean one thing.

Easter Egg

Though it is bigger than all the others, this egg is impressive not only for its stature, but also for its features. More blockish than ovoid, its squared top gives way on one side to a stern overhang. Beneath this ledge, a rectangular proboscis slopes down (and slightly outward) along the midline of the shell, ending in a triangular tip twice notched on its underside. Two horizontal folds purse together in a neutral ridge just above the egg's broad base. The shell itself is soot-coloured and pockmarked, but, in the right light, gives off the impressive glimmer that one might expect from a gold egg.


Hatching Message

Easter Egg gives a final shiver and breaks apart, spilling out a dripping, knobby-knee'd gold, who quickly takes up a more dignified pose on all four wobbly legs.

Lies Down Before It Rains Gold Dragonet

Dragonet: Buttercream hide is dappled by rich autumnal gold, a play of light and shadow that brings an air of elegance to her awkward frame. Her skin is luminescent over the ski-slope curve of an upturned muzzle, and though her eyes are wide-set in a broad-jawed face, there is intelligence there. She is not yet proportional, legs too gangly, head too large, and hips and shoulders a mess of protruding angles. But there is hope for the future: already her long, honeyed wings and tail are near to perfect.

Adult: Buttercream hide is dappled by rich autumnal gold, a play of light and shadow that brings an air of elegance to her broad-built carriage. Her skin is luminescent over the ski-slope curve of an upturned muzzle, and though her eyes are wide-set in a broad-jawed face, there is intelligence there. She is solidly built, though not unrefined; like a true lady her shoulders are more narrowly set, and though her broad hips are boxy and angular, the long and honeyed length of her wings and tail are near to perfect.


Impression Message

Lies Down Before it Rains Gold Dragonet fumbles a little, still, but she is quickly gaining confidence on her feet. She moves amongst the sea of white-clad candidates, but none of them are /right/. None of them are hers — this one's too tall, this one's a boy — oh, but what is this? She turns, a little overeager on her feet, moving to investigate a tall, dark-haired girl with green eyes. Oh, /yes/, that's the one; she turns shining eyes to Pippa, getting all up in the very former dolphincrafter's personal space.


Personal Impression Message

The heat of the sands fades away; there's a moment of quiet, of breathless anticipation while something waits— and then, like a sudden light in the darkness, you are illuminated. « Oh, » a breathless voice echoes in your head, « oh, /there/ you are, it took ever so long to find you, it just took /ages/ and look, you were right here all along! » Boundless enthusiasm is tempered, if but for a moment, courtesy asserting itself with an, « Oh, yes, that's right. My name is Jeyth. Jeeeeey-th. And you are Pippa! »


~*~ Inspirations ~*~


Name

The whole team pitched in for this one to give your dragon a soft, one-syllable name. We really liked the 'ey' vowel combination, and when we paired it with the soft-vowel 'j' we were very pleased with it. It's said like 'jay' as in 'blue jay', with a 'th' on the end of course. Once we found the sound we liked, we realised it could even represent Jane from Tarzan, a character you'd listed as a possible inspiration.


Egg

When trying to think of an artifact that would suit the gold egg, the Moai statues of Easter Island seemed like a wonderful fit. They're impressive, well-known, and even made of igneous rock, just like Ista Weyr! Though the statues do actually have bodies, it seemed easier to focus only on the head for the desc.


Description

We tried to give you a bovine sort of dragon, as you asked, but tempered the cow-ness of her with the form of Jane from Tarzan. The result is a bit of a boxy-but-hourglass figure that we hope you like. The colouration is also inspired by Jane. And of course, because of the cow influence on her physicalities (below), we had to give her two descriptions: one to encapsulate the disproportionate 'calf' stage, and one showing the refined final product.


Mindvoice

Jeyth's voice has all the classical qualities of a theatrically trained singer. Her enunciation is impeccable, and her tone and timing are spot on, no matter the situation. A pleasant alto, her voice can carry a huge range of both emotion and expression.

Like any good actress, she will use every aspect of her mindvoice to convey as much as possible. Colors and highlights, patterns or washes, scents, sounds, perhaps even an effective tremor or two. She will hide nothing, especially as a young dragon. When she speaks, it will be in full color. Literally.

Gradually over time, the sheer volume of thought packed into every statement will decrease. She will learn more subtle and mature ways to share her thoughts, and she will eventually catch onto that old saying that sometimes, less is more. Until then, enjoy the show.


Physicalities

Jeyth, as you asked, is based a little bit off of a cow, physically. We thought it only fitting that, when hatched, she should be gangly and strangely proportioned with harsh angles at the hips, and a head that looks a little too big for her body; just like a calf. (This means that Sonhoth, who loves the cute mis-proportions of babies, will be obsessed with her at first.) Her movements, when she's still quite young, will be calf-like as well. Jeyth, once she's got over her wobbly knees (it should take about a sevenday) will run and jump and play, and frolic to and fro, and all that. She will have a certain affection for climbing onto hills and looking down at all the other weyrlings, only to charge playfully at them. If she can start a stampede of baby dragons, all the better.

As she grows, she'll lose those skinny little legs of her, first putting on muscle (at which point she'll look more or less like your average dragon), and then getting a bit broader and heavier - getting a little junk in the trunk, as it were. While she'll never be completely slow and plodding on land, that physical playfulness will definitely wear off, and be replaced simply by a sense of 'I've got to get where I'm going'. By the time she's fully mature, she's really only likely to run and play on land if coerced into it by some excitable baby dragon, whether one of her offspring, or someone else's.

In the air, however, she'll always retain some aspect of that bounding and joyful movement. She won't fly smoothly unless she really focuses on it, instead naturally predisposed to a steady up-and-down motion. Her wings just won't want to beat fast enough at first, and by the time she's worked up to that, she'll enjoy being the bouncing golden ball in the sky too much to give it up. (Don't worry, your neck is bound to get used to it eventually.)

One curious thing, something she'll do all her life and something you might well never be able to explain (unless maybe you talk to a herder), is that whenever Jeyth thinks it's going to rain, she'll lie down - whether inside or outside - and she'll want to stay down until the rain has stopped. This is one of her rituals, which goes with the theme of the clutch. When she's younger, the impulse will even overpower her practicality, and you're probably going to be trying to physically drag your dragon out of her couch for feeding while it's bucketing outside. Once she's older, it will be more a matter of trying to finish whatever it is she's doing so that she can go somewhere dry and stretch out until the rain has passed. If that's not possible, you might notice her getting just a little bit irritable.


Personality

Much like Jane from Disney's Tarzan, your Jeyth is a lady — but one who has an inextinguishable fascination with the world around her. She knows how to be proper, but she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty; she doesn't go looking for adventure, but she rises up to the challenge when it finds her. Now, this doesn't mean that she won't go exploring on her own — were it not for being a gold and therefore likely destined for the diplomacy unit, she'd be a good fit in with Sin's Exploration and Cartography boys.

For the most part, Jeyth is a warm and caring individual who wears her heart on her sleeve; she is prone to daydreams, especially as a weyrling, though as she grows and settles into herself she will frequently find ways to make these dreams into reality.

Professor Porter: Oh, Janie Jane! What an amazing discovery! A man with no language, no human behavior…
Jane Porter: And no respect for personal boundaries.
Professor Porter: How do you mean?
Jane Porter: [gets extremely close to Professor Porter] He was this close to me, daddy, just staring at me.
[Goes back to blackboard and finishes drawing of Tarzan]
Jane Porter: He was confused at first, as if he had never seen another human before. His eyes were intense… and focused, and… I've never seen eyes like those before.
Professor Porter: Oh. Shall I - ahem - leave you and the blackboard alone for a moment?
Jane Porter: Oh, daddy, stop it.

She is genuinely willing to teach, to mold younger minds (and try her hand at bending older ones) and endlessly delighted when one of her pupils finally /gets/ it. Whatever 'it' may be at the time.

Tarzan: Tarzan. Tar-zan.
Jane: Tarzan. Oh, I see!
Tarzan: Oh, I see!
Tarzan: [points at himself] Tarzan.
Tarzan: [points at Jane] Oh, I see.
Jane: No, no, no. No.
Jane: [clears throat, points at herself] I'm Jane.
Tarzan: No, no, no. No.
Tarzan: [clears throat, points at himself] I'm Jane.
Jane: No, no.
Jane: [points at herself] Jane.
Jane: [points at Tarzan] Tarzan.
Jane: [points at herself] Jane.
Tarzan: Jane.
Jane: Exactly!

When Jeyth is terribly excited — this could be anything from the first time she flies to a student's 'aha' moment to a new discovery — she has a tendency to rush her words. While she will never be as bad as her eternally-teenage clutchmate Ikkasanaith, she will still frequently fall over herself in an effort to get all of her words out. She rambles, and though she doesn't need to breathe to speak to you or to other dragons, there is still a desperate, breathless quality to her speech. Were she human, these little moments would be punctuated by grand, sweeping gestures (occasionally edging into arm-flailing), but even so she occasionally forgets herself flipping out a wing or tail for added emphasis.

It is in times of hardship or crisis that Jeyth will really begin to demonstrate her 'Atia' characteristics. She'll see the situation for what it is, and set immediately to figuring out as proper and fitting a solution as is possible, considering the circumstance. This is when she is pragmatic, and ruthlessly so.

Atia: "Here's a mercy: instead of living out our lives in disgrace we're to be raped and beaten and torn limb from limb by a raving mob." (In the next scene, she organises who will kill whom rather than being captured.)

That said, no sooner than the crisis has been averted, Jeyth will slide right back into ordinary life. The civil war is over, and Caesar is Dictator? Fantastic. Let's buy necklaces.

Of course, unlike Atia, Jeyth will not be concerned with herself above the rest, and she certainly won't try to use people for her own benefit and to their detriment. Jeyth's focus won't be so power-hungry or individualistic. She simply does what is right and proper based on an ingrained code of what is right and proper - even if it might mean, to some extent, her own discomfort.


Flights

A proddy dragon won't be the ordeal for you that it so often is for other gold and greenriders. Jeyth won't experience any drastic changes when proddy. She'll know something is up, but that will all be taken in stride in that practical, no-nonsense way of hers, especially by her third or fourth flight. You might notice a slight shift toward the 'prim and proper' aspects of her personality - maybe she'll be more insistent about going to eat at a civilised time of day (certainly not in the full heat of an Istan summer afternoon!), or will be less patient with you if the weyr isn't kept presentable, or if you belch in the living caverns or something - but this won't get in the way of her practicality. If the weyr's a mess, but one of the Search and Rescue blues just got his wing torn up while trying to get someone off the rocks and needs her support while the dragonhealers work on him, she'll be there, dirty undies on the floor be damned. (Just don't go thinking you'll get away from picking those up as soon as the crisis has been averted.)

Jeyth will always have a group of favourites among Ista's browns and bronzes. She may like some over others, but will never think to be exclusive to one male. (Much like Atia, in the beginning of the 'Rome' series.) She won't want to be caught twice in succession by the same male, and, should that happen, she's liable to throw herself to just about anyone else on what would be the third time - after all, it makes sense to spread the blood around, and make alliances with different males for the unity and benefit of the Weyr. (She'll probably try to explain this to Ryazusith at least once, if not every time Ryazusith is on the sands with Nverath.) That said, she won't go beyond her group of favourites except by ill fortune. When she flies, she'll have just enough of that emphasis on what is proper to feel a strong distain for being caught by some brutish stranger, and will almost subconsciously try to find that balance during the chase of staying near her preferred suitors without making it an easy task for them.

On the sands, she will have a firm sense of routine, if not of ritual. It won't be an all-consuming thing, and she won't be constantly in motion. However, Jeyth, like Atia in relation to Octavian, will have set in her head how and when things should be progressing.

She'll have a sort of internal schedule for turning the eggs (which will be adjusted as they get harder), and will require that bronze or brown who caught her to get her meals at regular and predictable times - not whenever he feels he has an extra minute to kill. (This is sort of an extension of her eating behaviour when proddy). When her eggs hatch, you can be assured that if one of her little baby dragons is taking too long finding his lifemate, he'll be reprimanded. Again, there's a right time for everything.

Atia (to Octavian): "You will penetrate someone today, or I will burn your wretched books at the yard."

Jeyth will be relatively easy-going when it comes to egg touchings, provided the candidates mind themselves. Egg touchings are part of the process, and it would go too much against her nature to stand against it. Not that she doesn't feel protective of her children, of course - but her overall brooding will be a sort of 'live and learn' experience for the eggs. It's the 'Atia' style of mothering, only without the self-serving aspects.

Atia, after assuring Octavia that Roman men, and therefore Octavian (being sent to Gaul), are never scared, to Andros: "Bring him back safe, or I'll use the eyes of your children as beads."

The same attitude will apply should Jeyth ever have to share the sands with another gold. While she will have some limits, she won't make all the fuss that Talicanitath and Ryazusith made when Jeyth was growing in her egg. Your gold will know that a shared hatching cavern is, at the moment, necessary, and will simply deal with it as she does every other challenge: with practicality, and all needs clearly set out beforehand.

Following the hatching, Jeyth will of course be proud of her achievement and of her new offspring, but it won't take her at all long to go back to business as usual. She won't miss the sands, but she won't be overly relieved to be off them. Just another day in the life.


Credits

Name: Minka, Sin, D'baji, Lanti
Egg Desc: D'baji, Lanti tweak
Dragonet Desc: Sin, D'baji tweak
Messages: D'baji, Sin
Inspiration: Sin, Lanti, D'baji

Pippa's gold Jeyth
Harper's Tale: 51st PC Clutch
Ista Weyr
August 3, 2008
from Minka's gold Ryazusith and D'baji's bronze Nverath
(clutchmates also from Lendai's gold Talicanitath and R'yn's bronze Azmaioth)

Clutchmates:
Risya's brown Sonhoth
M'yr's blue Gelirumeth
Jana's green Stilith
Kriane's green Ikkasanaith

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