Meet the Egg-Watchers

Log Info

• Title: Meet the Egg-Watchers
• Emitter: Cryosanthia
• Characters: Cryosanthia, Braelnoir
• Place: W02: Mictlan
• Time: Monday, November 29, 2021, 2:41 PM
• Summary: Braelnoir arrives in Mictlan, at the Nesting Grounds. She interrupts some strength training and is challenged by the Egg-Watchers. She's facing Xochi, a Korrite, who seems to want a fight. The grand dame and the other two Korrites talk them both down, explaining a lot of patience is needed. Some of their philosophy is covered, and Cryo discusses tasks she wants to complete as well as ideas she has for making Brael's training more interesting.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-<* W02: Mictlan *>-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

Located within the Deep Woods, and hours past Wilderness Pointe, in the heart of its northern woods, bones frame this hollowed-out space. Massive and heavy, they reach towards the sky, meeting--almost--in the center like great and worn stalagmites. Or giant teeth. After a few seconds--it's quickly evident that this is a space carved from a dragon's bones. A very, very large...dragon's bones. The air smells of ash, brimstone, and earth. Underneath the apex of the bones lie the workings of a central Fire.

The grounds are run by shamans of the sith-makar, and the sacred space dedicated to the Death Singing Dragon, one of their names for the goddess, Vardama. There are always a number of them about, from a mixture of tribes. Formally, the sith use it to sing the souls of their dead back to the land of Wing and Flame, and celebrate the Memory of Blood. It was here that brave heroes stood, and vanquished the ashen warriors of old, thereby freeing the land from Thul's curse. Informally, it is a gathering place.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Appearing in Order  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Cryosanthia  6'9"     291 Lb     Sith-Makar        Female    A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman.                       
Braelnoir    5'11"    146 Lb     Human             Female    A tall, pale Acanian woman, branded in silver.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  NPCs of Note =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Nahuatl                          Sith-Makar        Female    A copper-scaled, elderly, grand dame, Nest-Mother mother.
Xochicotzin                      Sith-Makar        Female    A red-scaled, mesomorphic, Egg-Watcher, gravid.
Tayanna                          Sith-Makar        Female    A green-scaled, muscular, Egg-Watcher, patient.
Yaotl                            Sith-Makar        Female    A black-scaled, sturdy, Egg-Watcher, very patient.
Little Fang, 'Lily'              Kobold            Female    A pinkscale youngling in a leather dress, Cryo's daughter.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

"Lower! Adopt the Swiftclaw riding stance, turn your feet out. Crouch, low as you can, do not let your tail touch. Hold position." An elderly copper-scale sith'makar instructs. While it is a strength training exercise from a martial tradition, there are a few discrepancies. Nahuatl is a sensei of a different sort. She's an overseeing nest-mother. Her students, expectant nest-mothers to be.

Two of her pupils, a whitescale and redscale, take to the exercise. Three others do not, immediately complaining.

"Ow. Oh. Ow. How long do we have to stand like this? There are things to read." A brass-scale says, pushing up to a standing 'rest' position almost immediately.

"This one could build a little stool." A crouching bronze-scale suggests."

"Most generous to offer. This one would buy it." A gold-scale answers.

"No supports are possible," Nahuatl states.

There's a glance her way from the bronze scale, crafter challenge accepted.

The class is taking place outside of the nesting pyramid in a nearby cleared area.

There comes an outsider to the site of the pyramid, her silver hair writhing freely to the breeze.

Her militant accoutrements are ever-present, and her underlying attire is geared more to provide cooling and airflow than worry about the smaller pests that struggle against the draconicly infused hide lurking beneath her mammalian skin.

With the Scythe propped blade down over her shoulder, Brae draws up to watch the venerable copper school the ladies in the new disciplines they need to work on, but doesn't make to interrupt.

Immediately, the outsider is challenged.

There is a palisade surrounding the pyramid, made from living trees with a few fences between larger gaps. The entrance has some big bushes. This foliage conceals two sith'makar, who simply appear. A black-scale and a green-scale.

Immediately, the red-scale pops out of her crawling lunge and moves to join the two. This lures the white-scale into following her. "Xochi, relax," Cryo cautions, "She's expected."

"Oh, can we all stand up now?" The metallics are standing.

"No. Resume."

There's a wall of scales of various colours in front of the silver-haired Merc. The whole range, only blue is missing.

Braelnoir's scythe shoulder bunches as the guards emerge, and her free hand opens at her side, though, aside from giving them a tactical once over, she makes no other provocative action.

No fear, and the symbol of Kor at the back of her fist surely warns the militant what her answer would be if someone gets froggy, as the merc gets met by the watchers.

Cryo's arrival is met with a grin, "'ey, luv. I fashionably late'r what?" she quips.

The two seem all business. The merc is examined with steely eyes, drawn out inhalations which definitely are checking her scent, memorizing it. The green one reacts, as if she smelled something unusual, her head tilts.

It's the red-scale however, who responds further. She's clearly Warrior-caste, from her build and scars. She moves like the other two. Unlike the black and green pair, she's not armoured, doesn't have a weapon and is obviously gravid. All of the nest-mothers are far along, at an awkward and inconvenient size. "Another softskin? Why Cryo? No friends among the people?"

"Xochi..." The whitescale starts.

"Back me up." The red-scale glances at the green and black. There's a marking on the side of her neck, covering an injury to the scales. She's one of Kor's.

"Earlier... might have been better." Cryo says, having an epiphany. So this is what it feels like.

Braelnoir still hates that fucking word, and the human faintly, but visibly bristles at sound of it, but her wolflike eyes lock to those of the red tracking her movement and she growls and hisses, "Cryosanthia is my sister." <Draconic>

There is the flick of a glance to bellies, to spacing, and the mark on the ruby's neck. The scythe is set to freefall beside her, and her fingers splay like talons, though still capped with their flimsy mammalian tips.

Her pupils, however, draw into slits as the alertness to battle starts to join her particular pheremonal cocktail.

"She is sister. She is kin." Cryosanthia emphasizes, holding a hand out towards the red-scale, but not touching. Her hand is splayed in a similar fashion as Braelnoir's.

The black and the green haven't said anything. It clicks, the green is waiting, as is the black-scale, ready to move, step in. One will take the merc, the other the red-scale.

"Xochicotzin," a voice says sternly, the elderly makari that was guiding the others, "You are not Egg-Watcher now. You are Nest-Mother. You do not need to challenge."

"But Tayanna and Yaotl rise. This one rises..." Xochicotzin protests.

"They are Egg-Watchers to you, also, not with you." The copper-scale insists.

Cryo's scents are absent, as they often are when she's stressed or being diplomatic, "Tayanna, Yaotl, this is Braelnoir.." <draconic>

"I would not slay the eggs of a nest-mother needlessly." The mammalian returns in a steady tone. She sees the other two holding ready to break things up, then, "But neither will I let you slay me, Xochicotzin." <draconic>

Brae holds her ready posture, taking the red's name from the copper's words, then Cryosanthia's.

A breath.

Two....

"What's th'word, girls?"

"Xochi, return to your nest, practice your squat." Nahuatl directs, in tones both firm and understanding. The female elder has centuries worth of horns, and scales that have tarnished into deeper versions of copper colours. "Trust your Egg-Watchers to test Cryo's." <draconic>

This order seems enough, the red's spines slowly lower, her ready posture weakening. She slaps the black-scale on the shoulder, "This one will lay, then have your backs again."

The two nod, then wait. Once Xochi has taken a few steps towards the green-scale shakes her head, "not her." The blackscale adds, "you will fight one of us."

Cryosanthia moves around to stand beside Braelnoir, facing the pair, self-consciously straightening in a way that might have disguised her gravid condition, if she was wearing more than a loin-cloth and wasn't near the end. Her curves are too big to hide without magic. "This is for training, yes? This is not some... tail measurement exercise?." <draconic>

The other two look at Braelnoir. Their answer seems to be, it depends...

Braelnoir is steady, though, she straightens into a more relaxed posture as Xochi backs up, and her Kor branded fist rises to clap twice against her cuirass as the woman bows her head, "May your eggs hatch strong and fine." she offers.

Invoking peace between Korites being... well, you know.

There's a slow bow of respect to the elder then, it seems the girls step up to take up her task.

A soft 'hmmm', then, a sidelong glance to Cryo as her sister flanks her, "My strength must meet the measure, sister."

Then, of her would be challenge, she arches an eyebrow, "Shall I shed my armour?" <draconic>

"Good." The green-scale says, "Don't fight the Egg-mothers. Their condition makes them..." She glances at Cryosanthia, looks down, looks up, examines how the whitescale is standing, her weight distribution. "... constipated."

"What!" Cryosanthia jerks more upright, "I am not..."

The other two hiss with amusement, interrupting her protests. The greenscale continues, "Thiss one is Tayanna. Smell her Yaotl, sshe hass the blood." <draconic>

The black-scale moves, first to Braelnoir's side, then around behind her. The merc is flanked now, and sniffed. "Sshe doess."

The pair look at each other, the black-scale tilts her head, "Don't you fight, in armour? You wissh uss to sstrip?." <draconic>

The Korite's been examined plenty of times on the muster, and there's been a few bar brawls that started with the circling, so it doesn't get her hackles up.

"Constipation gets t'us all, now'n then." the human replies with a grin to Cryo. It's... interesting seeing Sith bypass the formalities to take a little piss out of her sister.

It's certainly novel.

Back to the others, "Well met." she offers, then, "I do, but you are not wearing any. Sometimes threats come when we are not prepared." <draconic>

"I am not! This one is not!" Cryo crosses her arms firmly, they're resting on the upper curve of her belly. This emphasizes it more. She shifts her weight from one side, then the other, adjusting the distribution. This is followed by more shifting of her stance, placing her arms down to the side, holding the underswell. Discomforted, she gives up. She's pregnant, there's no hiding it.

"This one still is not." She grumbles.

"Well met." The black-scale says, repeated by the green-scale, "Well met. We need. To see you fight, to fight you, to practice not stepping on the hatchlings."

"To be patient. Very Patient." The black-scale adds.<draconic>

Braelnoir lifts a hand to Cryo's shoulder, "Easy, luv... they's just havin' some fun with ya." she says with a little smile.

As the Egg-Watchers elaborate on how things will go, she looks back their way and nods, "A'ight, that's reasonable enough." She picks up her scythe, then, and sets the butt against the soil, "How patient is 'very patient'?"

Cryo's shoulder is stiff, though she relaxes at her scale-sister's touch. Her tail loosens to sway behind. She looks at Braelnoir, then the two Egg-Watchers.

They both look at her, then heads turn in unison to gaze at Braelnoir. They have the same gem-like eyes as the whitescale. Different colours, but still empty-seeming, emotionless. "Sshe did not tell you?"

The blackscale, Yaotl, rests her hand on Braelnoir's shoulder, "You would not be assked, if you have not sseen your limitss. Sseen herss."

"Mosst Nesst Motherss, they are fine." The green-scale adds, "The oness that are not. They are that bad."

"Very patient." The black-scale hisses again.

Their message: 'you know how crazy she can get? She wouldn't have asked you if you hadn't gotten equally crazy. So you have to be patient enough to handle your or her crazy.'

"All of uss, have losst something." Tayanna adds, "We sspare the Nesst Motherss, losss, undersstand the wild inssinctss." <draconic>

The softening of Cryo's shoulder makes her feel better, and Brae's attention returns to the Watches, "We've had our moments, yeah..."

The hand on her own, though, momentarily surprises her, but her hand lifts to cover it. Her left ear twitches slightly, as the talk of loss elaborates, then, "Yeah..."

A look to Cryo, then, back, "How d'we do this, then...?"

"You musst not hurt them." The blackscale says again, "Musst be patient. Firm. The Hatchlingss, the Nestlings, The Nest-Motherss. They will not lissten."

Both glance back at the pyramid, the greenscale bobs her head. "Very patiencess."

"Well, ah..." Cryo stammers, moving her hands like she's seeking a belt, or pockets, or haversack straps before she leaves them hanging, "This one was hoping Jinks or Faranmidahn, would use some spells to be smaller and faster."

She glances at the pyramid also, "Lily could."

"I've been a Sergeant. Firm I can do." Brae returns, though she seems thoughtful, "With... li'l ones though, I'unno."

The Korite considers the sith around her, then looks to Cryo more lingeringly, "How small we talkin'?"

"Reduce person for a lucht or a gnome, so they would be the size of a cat." Cryo says, "When they first hatch..."

She rocks her weight back and forth, adjusting her hips, swaying her self, "The eggs aren't that big. The nestlings are a foot, maybe? When they first break free.

"With shrinking, haste and grease, they could pretend to be a nestling, very easily." She summarizes, making zig-zag motions with her hands. <draconic>

"I can get down ta Lucht size b'that's it." Brae replies dubiously, "I ain't got th'know how fer the rest o'those."

The mercenary turns to the other sith, then, "So... how we doin' this?"

Both the Egg-Watchers laugh, "One of usss, might." The black-scale says, "You, have to practiss. Catching nestlings, stopping Egg-Snatchers, putting Nest-Motherss back on the nesst."

"It can be done with summoned monsters." Cryo says, "It's usually safer, at first too."

The Egg-Watchers nod. <draconic>

Braelnoir still seems thoughtful, maybe trying to put an image to this in her mind, "Sounds like sortin' a bag full'a cats." she snerks, "This'd be interestin."

"So...Nest Mothers get t'wanderin', huh?"

"Nessting fever." Tayanna, the greenscale, explains. "Want to hunt. Want to go back to daily routiness."

"You're making me sound like we go brainless, completely instinctive." Cryo complains, looking at the other two. Leaning so it doesn't seem she's arguing with her stomach.

"You become, more yoursself. You will want to move." Yaotl says, without compromise, "Ssome, will not leave nessts. At all, they go they other way."

Both nod, then repeat, "Patiencs." <draconic>

"In th'Stride, we called that 'goin' Stir Crazy'... happens if we're stuck'n one place with nothin' changing, or nothin' ta do. That makes it come on faster." Brae answers.

She turns and steps over toward her sister, gently hugging her about the neck, "Ya do get a li'l squirrely sometimes, luv, b'that's just how y'are." she whispers.

The human relaxes and steps back toward the Egg-Watchers, "I.... think I'm ready'n you are...."

"Cryosanthia. Return and practice the stance." The elder-copper scale calls from inside the pyramid.

"It's okay! Thiss one can crouch. It's no harder than holding point on toes." The whitescale calls back.

Black-scale and Green-scale both gaze like lizards at Braelnoir, heads tilted just slightly.

Cryo grins, looking at the three, "What? I can, see?" Now she's up on tip-toes. There's a lot of motion from her tail as she re-balances, but she's holding the pose. <draconic>

Braelnoir turns without a blink as she gets a double dose of The Look from her appraisers, and reaches out a hand for Cryo's shoulder, "Proper trainin's important, luv. C'mon, let's get you situated proper." she croons gently with a light smile.

She applies a very gentle pressure, let the herding begin!

Cryo is guided by her shoulder, a departing wave made to the other two Egg-Watchers, "Peace on your Nests."

She turns back to look at Braelnoir, switching to tradespeak, "They are good. They'll show you what to do. Xochi is good too, she reminds this one of you."

A long exhale, "this one also has to try and get that diplomatic mission in, before I lay, to the Raven Lords. If you're back in town could you find a few, ask... yes, ask Merek. Mikilos or another mage, who can cast Mage's Magical Mansion."

Her voice lowers, "Also, this one has an idea for storing Junior, so maybe we can change that."

Her steps are heavier, from the way her toes press on the ground. Her tail is high in counter-balance. Her eggs are large, there's a weight to them which can't be ignored. Her centre of balance is out front, her belly rocks with each step. She ignores it, pretends everything is normal, that she isn't bobbing towards a life-altering moment.

Very soon, a lot of her concerns aren't going to matter at all, she will have one task. Her nest.

"Tiasss Brraess!" A high-pitched, pink-scaled voice cries, running up and hugging a shin. An earring dances, and the little Kobold looks up at her aunt with a look that's matched by the two makari women the merc just left.

Braelnoir moves with Cryo to the limits afforded her by the elder, subtly offering stabilization as she scans the immediate path for trip hazards with the changes in her sister's gait becoming more apparant.

Eventually, though, she has to relent to let Cryosanthia move on her own.

Just in time, it seems, for the soft 'thmp!' of enthusiasm latching onto her greave, and she turns a warm smile down to her niece before sinking to the opposing knee to give the carnationscale a hug. She draws back then, stroking her headscales before brushing along a horn... to the dancer dangling from it.

"Hey, luv... yer bein' a good girl fer Ssassa?"

In lieu of awaiting the answer, she scoops up the young kobold into her arms, looking to Tayanna and Yaotl briefly, then looking after Cryo walking into a path she wouldn't know how to follow.

This, though...

She can do this.

For her.

For them.

OOC

Yaotl This is one of the more powerful baby names. It means soldier or warrior or defender.
Tayanna One of the most lovely Aztec baby names meaning gift from God.

<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "I was going to do sith'makar females getting ready to nest, sorts of things, so Cryo and some NPCs are obviously pregnant. Is that something you are okay with?"
<OOC> Halani is certainly not uncomfortable with it. Just not sure how much Halani could contribute to such a scene. She's not really part of the sith community. I might struggle with her having a reason to be here.
<OOC> Cryosanthia nods, "Well, she could be asking Cryo about Jinks. It could be when Cryo asks her to go with her to the Ravenlords.
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "might have come with Braelnoir, who was coming... i think."
<OOC> Halani nods. We can see how it plays out! Might have to bow out if it distracts me too much from Jinks's scene though.