Clutching Pose
From the sands, Her energy restored, Chayath's muscles ripple visibly, and in no short order yet another egg is being pushed into position. The third row has begun, with a glistening, fiery addition to the group. Two others soon join it: one shining red, like the first, and the other a clashing pink hue.
Wax On, Wax Off Egg
For an egg, it sure is shiny: like a fast car, like glints off of rolling waters, like a bald man's head in the middle of summer. This one is all racing reds and fiery, brilliant sunsets: a philosophy within itself. Patience is taught by the striplings of faint silver, discipline weaving a counter of vivid, cheddar-sharp yellow-orange. Self-centered, perfection imbued within the glossy melding of shades, it does have an odd mark at the top… sweeps of clockwise white fluttering, as if someone was in the middle of waxing, and suddenly was distracted from the chore. Perhaps perseverance is a quality this one lacks.
Hatching Message
Wax on, Wax off Egg has been patient long enough, it seems. With a few circular movements to the left, and a couple of circular movements to the right, small slivers of silver, red, and the orange of those fiery sunsets start flaking off. The little creature inside the egg has no lack of perseverence, however, and more bits and pieces end up on the sands before the shell is thin enough at the top for a short snout to poke through. A few more practice jabs and a head breaks through, finally shattering the shell and leaving the dragonet ready for the world.
One Hand Clapping Green Dragonet
Rivulets of soft, dark lilypad green pool gently between this dragon's shoulders before trickling down her back and lightening into a fine mist as the color sends drifting whorls under her belly and torso. Her head is a rounded wedge, shortened enough so that she loses the delicacy that plagues most greens, and above her eyes a deeper celedon sweeps up past her 'ridges and headknobs. Her sturdy body has a sleek and balanced beauty; it's an artful tumble of rock-solid female muscles underneath a calming tea-green hide. Gentle ripples of tranquil color soothe her lean limbs and shorter tail and then sink into the into darker eddies that shadow her stone-grey talons. But her full measure is revealed in her broad and strong wings as their symmetry creates a striking harmony that hums through her frame blending sails and shape into one full whole.
Public Impression Pose
Sound of One Hand Clapping Green Dragonet takes a biiiiiiiig step forwards. The fool is regarded, and dismissed, for its Kalaeya she follows. With eyes spinning a future and wings set high for balance, the rocky little garden green drops her muzzle and whuffles cool air across the tops of her Chosen's feet. Tilting her head she looks up at the girl and then nudges her in the knees.
Private Impression Message
The utter chaos of the Sands drops off into stillness. At long last, the silence is broken by a cool voice, which ripples through your mind long after the actual speaking is complete. «You are the one.» Stillness again. Your mind is permeated by the aromatic fragrances of a hundred flowers. Before you have time to react, the whispering returns, bringing with it an interfusion of muted colors. «Maiioth» The name echoes for a bit longer, reaffirming itself over and over again. This time, silence is not permitted to take hold. The words linger and blend into one another, harmonizing. «Kalaeya, you are the one for me. Can I be the one for you?»
*Kalaeya! Laeya! You were just a ton of fun throughout candidacy, and we’re sure you will continue to be so throughout Weyrlinghood and beyond. We hope you like Maiioth, and stay here to play with us for a long time to come!*
Egg Inspiration
Sii’kyn says: Mister Miagi! Good lord, I love the Karate Kid movies. Mmm, mmm. Unforgetable, and too entirely kickin' cool to be anything but a blockbuster in its own right. I think my father found a good concept in it, as well— after I became enamored, he had me wax his car. Four times. In three days. And let me tell you… there is nothing shinier than a quad-waxed car… unless it's a bald man's head. ;)
Theme Inspiration
Maiioth is based off of a Zen garden. Or more precisely, she's based off the pool in a Zen garden that's full of Koi and lily-pads with blooms floating serenely. She's not a slender, delicate, traditionally beautiful green. She's strong, sturdy, and able to take on the work she was born to do. She is, however, 'striking' in the way that is /something/ about her that is just… magnificent and intangibly beautiful.
Name Inspiration
Maiioth is based on the Japanese word "myo", which is the art of creating "strange beauty". In other words, finding beauty in everyday life. It seems rather appropriate for her, doesn't it? We altered it slightly to give you the medium length and double I you wanted. We say "MY-ee-oth" or "MY-oth", but you can pronounce it any way you see fit.
Mindvoice
Her mindvoice is gentle, breathy and comes as a sort of a chant. Each word sounds as if it's been dropped from a height, picking up volume as it comes into your head and plinks into the waters of your mind. From there, each word sends out concentric ripples, carrying other thoughts and ideas as a sort of shifting subtext that blends with the next thoughts in the humming and chanting rhythmic murmur of her voice. Like a deep and still pond, or the shifting sands of a Zen garden, the blend of words, thoughts, and ideas are never the same twice.
But her voice is the only sound that comes through your link. In all other respects her mind is perfectly silent, each word falling from afar with uncanny precision. Only when she’s feeling intense emotion will the slight sound of insects in the trees or the ripple of water from a koi breaking the surface of a pond come through.
The colors that tinge her mind are the muted colors of nature and harmony. There is black and white, green and blue, brown and gray. You'd be hard-pressed to find more than a smidgen of orange or a dollop of red. Those exist as the rare flowers of her internal garden and as the brilliant fireflies that dance over a moonlit mental pond choked with lilies.
The scents that waft through her voice are the soft smell of candle smoke being snuffed out after meditation, as well as the fresh scents of a garden after the rain.
Her voice, above all, is soothing, collected, and implacable. She will speak until she is finished, her words articulated carefully and then left to mingle with those already spoken. When she's angry, or agitated, her words will fall faster, with more force and volume, until she creates a cacophony in the mind she is speaking to. But her point will be made, because every word spoken is easily heard… like picking a single white lily out of a field of dull green.
Physicalities
- "You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you're no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a means to an end but a unique event in itself."
- - Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Just as she lacks the delicacy of other greens, so does Maiioth lack the traditionally feminine gait. No seductive sway for her, nor mincing steps. Instead she moves with the easy grace and poise of an athlete, and that in itself is a beautiful thing to watch. She's not wasteful in her movements, and she has a habit of carrying her gestures through her whole body: when she raises her head, her neck and back angle in a straight (if ridged) line; when she arches her back, her neck and tail curve as well in a glorious, invigorating stretch. This is attractive enough to look at when she's on ground, but when she's in the air? This may seem a redundant thing to say of a dragon, but only to one who's never seen her: Maiioth is a natural-born flyer.
Keeping an aerodynamic shape comes easily to Maiioth. While Celvynath may be startled to find that swinging her head to look at a passing vtol will cause her to wobble quite alarmingly and then, panic, not knowing how to use her wings to compensate, Maiioth will turn her head and the rest of her body will follow in a graceful banking motion that she'll never need to practice. What she will have to learn is how to deal with outside forces. Gusts of wind and thermals will surprise and confuse her, when they suddenly push her out of her intended path; she'll spend long hours memorizing the thermals around High Reaches Weyr, but she'll always be cautious on a windy day.
Personality
- There's moments in your life that make you, that set the course of who you're gonna be. Sometimes they're little, subtle moments.
- – Angelus, “Buffy: Becoming Part I”
Everyone has a time of change, a time in which they become the person – or dragon – they are going to be. For most of us, it’s adolescence. A time of awkward giggles and inept social attempts and some really bad hair days. It creeps past most times without warning, and it’s gone before you realize, leaving your young self behind and morphing into who you are, what you want to be.
For Maiioth, this in-between time, this stage of becoming, is always.
She’s not stuck in adolescence, mind, though her constant state of careful change will inevitably lead to some of its traits. It’s more that she is keenly aware of how every moment, every action, every choice and every word will affect how others see her – and more importantly, who she is. She understands that ‘becoming’ is a never-ending process. You do not wake up one day to find yourself as the person you will always be. Every day you change a little and adapt a little, and every day you are new.
My chakras are unblocking;
I feel the flow of chi;
Spiritual enlightenment is what I seek,
Plus environmental harmony.
I hear my tinkling wind-chimes
As I drink my ginseng tea;
I work night and day in a vaguely Taoist way,
On the crucial well-being of me.
For we're pick-and-mix Orientalists,
Bit of Shinto and a dash of Tai-Chi;
Sprinkle on some Brahma
Add a pinch of good karma
And the one true religion is me.
Well, we flirted with becoming Quakers,
Till we realised they don't drink;
And much as we admire the Jains,
We don't want to ditch the mink.
And who'd want to be a Catholic;
That's for Irish and Belgian peasants
Nor a Jehovah's Witness -
They get no Christmas presents.
We're à la carte now-and-Zen girls,
We pray beneath a willow tree;
We spend our summers
Banging with the Kidi drummers,
'Cause the one true religion is me.
No more the Sunday Times crossword,
We prefer to compose haikus;
And when friends come round for dinner
We make them remove their shoes.
We went up a Himalaya,
Just Brian Blessed and us.
We didn't stop and we got to the top,
But he came down in a truss.
That's 'cause we're lucky-dip lotus blossoms,
Big fans of Bruce Lee;
Our teeth can flex
'Cause of tantric sex,
And the one true religion is me.
We're studying the Kabbalah,
'Cause Madonna says it's cool;
And our pal Koo Stark comes to coo at the Koi carp
In our swimming pool;
We do astral levitation with
George Harrison's pet fakir;
We're cleansed in toto and wearing Yamamoto,
So we're ready for Richard Gere.
Oh yes, we're makey-uppy Eastern dabblers,
With an Ayurvedic potpourri;
Take a bit of Feng Shui
And a bowl of chop suey
And the one true religion is me.
We're occidental tourists
In a yin and yang mystery;
Sing ho for origami
'Cause we're barmy for a swami
And the one true religion is me.
- We're smorgasbord philosophers
Of sushi and kedgeree;
As Vikram Seth saith
"Eatht ith betht"
And the one true religion is me. - - Fascinating Aida, “One True Religion”
Maiioth wants to be the best dragon she can be. The problem is, she’s not sure exactly who that is, or how to get there. Because of this, you’ll find yourself with an insatiably curious dragon who can sit for hours picking someone’s brain with a child’s delight and occasionally a child’s confusion.
« I don’t understand, Morchainth. It doesn’t make sense to say that Wyn is in love with X’ian, because look, she bothers everyone with that little notebook. Start at the beginning and explain it to me again? »
She’s determined and persistent, and she has a way of asking with such profound interest that others find her hard to resist, even when she insists that they explain their philosophy of living over, and over, and over again. Occasionally, she’ll feel too shy, too ignorant, to bother someone of high rank or great respect, and so she’ll beg /you/ to do the work for her.
« Kalaeya. /Please/ just ask Wyn what she writes in her book? Please? She seems so calm, I think she must have it figured out. Get her to explain it to you? I’ll listen. »
The meaning of life is not to be discovered only after death in some hidden, mysterious realm; on the contrary, it can be found by eating the succulent fruit of the Tree of Life and by living in the here and now as fully and creatively as we can. - Paul Kurtz
Maiioth asks questions because she believes, always, that the answer to truly becoming who she wants to be, the answer to herself, lies just around the next corner. She’s a seeker without direction, who picks up bits and pieces of various lifestyles from everyone she meets in an effort to mesh them all together into her perfect self.
She has a few notions about how one ought to live ingrained in her personality from the start. She believes strongly in living a life that is happy, that is fulfilled, and that is honest.
- "The supreme happiness of live is the conviction that we are loved."
- — Victor Hugo.
The happiness comes from a variety of places. She finds happiness in you, Kalaeya. You are her one, her only, her balance that makes the world fall into place. You are her confidant, her supporter, and the team she cheers for no matter what your win-lose record is. You are her zen-like center, her focus, the point where any stress can be directed and so dissipate. When she’s worried or confused or anxious, she’ll instinctively come to you, both mentally and physically, for comfort. Sometimes, just being in your presence will be enough to return her to her default state of cheerful optimism. Other times she’ll need to explain to you, to unload, to express her confusion in the complex and often harsh ways of the world before she can reset and restart. You are also her guide. When she’s confused or seeking, when she feels like no one has the answers, she’ll turn to you, Kalaeya. She’ll expect you to explain what she doesn’t understand and to make the world make sense.
- Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own.
- -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
She also finds happiness in the company of others. She’s a cheerfully social dragon, who enjoys exchanging stories with her clutchmates or teasing good-naturedly. She’ll love playing games with Esryth or passing along interesting tidbits about the weyr to Isamath. She’s generally kind and accepting of others, and she expects everyone else to be the same at heart. It hits her hard when someone’s not. She has trouble understanding it, and with the social awkwardness of a junior high student who’s just been scorned by the popular kids, she may run home crying to you, complaining that she just doesn’t /understand/ why Zveitseith got mad at her when she just wanted to know why D’nik shared a weyr with another /boy/.
Another place Maiioth finds great joy is in the natural world. In her favorite spot - the alpine meadows of High Reaches - she will find a space of peace and serenity. She'll be able to sit for hours watching the grasses sway in the wind or staring into the still waters of a lake or pool. Part of her fascination with nature is her conviction that there is some immense secret locked away in its simple harmony, and she loves watching passing clouds and meditating upon their shapes to draw meaning from them. In all her interactions with nature, she is loathe to disturb her surroundings. She will not splash at the water with her tail or crush wildflowers with her frolicking as some dragons might do, but will sit still, contained by the environment, so tranquil and in synchronicity with it that she virtually becomes part of it.
Her fulfillment is easy to come by. She finds it in so many places that it’s unlikely she’ll ever be lacking. She finds fulfillment in a job well done, whether it’s that you are the first pair to manage stable flight or that you’ve made it through your first fall without a score. She’s dedicated in this, and she finds joy in balance, order, harmony, both in the things she does and the space she lives in. She’ll enjoy feng shui’ing your couch, and later your weyr, to be sure things flow properly. She’ll insist on cleanliness and order – even as she sometimes causes a mess when she’s distracted by big ideas and or a difficult sevenday of sweeps and drills and Fall. Maiioth loves big ideas, see. In ideas and philosophies, she can glean tiny traits from others that will become important to /her/, and she can become a little bit closer to that perfect dragon she wants to be.
- Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.
- —John Milton
And honesty. Oh, Kalaeya, Maiioth’s honesty. She believes first and foremost in being honest with herself. She’ll poke and prod at her flaws with brutal honesty, asking you if you think she should work on this or that, if she should be less nice or if she was maybe a bit snappish with Veriameth when she yelled at Esryth for screwing up during drills. She’ll expect perfect honesty from /you/, too. You’d best tell her what you really think, because if she suspects that you’re sidestepping an issue, or attempting to be nice, or hiding something, she’ll plow right into your mind without so much as a ‘by your leave’ to find out what you’re /really/ thinking. She’d determined, your Maiioth, and when she wants something, she’ll go after it. She’s equally honest about her strengths, and modesty isn’t really a concept she grasps. She’ll note with perfect ease that she smoothed over that rough spot with Morchainth and Isamath quite nicely, don’t you think, and really, her performance in lessons this morning was the best in the class.
She'll most likely avoid those who are prone to lying or misrepresenting the truth, but not before trying to uncover their life’s philosophy and explaining how much better life would be if they’d just be honest. If she's in a social crowd of dragons and Runnerth begins telling some harebrained story about how he's so mistreated, she'll deem the situation sour and quickly beg you to take her leave. And if you ever slips up and tells a white lie, she'll bug and prod and guilt you into ‘fessing up the truth. She thinks, most intensely, that you are /better/ than that, Kalaeya, and that you should be strong enough to be honest, with yourself, with her, and with others.
She’s honest about you, too, Kalaeya. She’ll point out your mistakes with perfect candor, expecting you to willingly learn from them. There’s no point in getting upset about the truth, is there? With your lifemate, you will always know where you stand, for better or worse. If she ever catches you slacking and depressed with the way things are, she'll tell you to get up and make something of it. No use sitting around feeling sorry for life, now is it? She’ll praise you incessantly when praise is due and point out your faults when she thinks the occasion calls for it. And the occasion always calls for it, really, because one should always be ready to become a better person.
- Always do right - this will gratify some and astonish the rest.
- - Mark Twain
And, Kalaeya, Maiioth is honest with others. It may cause her – and you - some problems at times. She’s quick to compliment her clutchmates when it’s due, telling that Isamath has gotten much better at controlling her overly-large wings. She’ll be as quick to offer ‘constructive criticsim’ to others as she is to you, though, and not everyone will be willing to take it. She’s a listener, a philosopher, a seeker, and because of this, she’ll often think that she has the answers. She won’t hesitate to suggest that Esryth calm down a bit and learn something from Morchainth’s stern control, or that Morchainth in turn learn to loosen up and mellow a bit like Celvynath. For all her willingness to listen to others and to learn from them, she’s sometimes slow to accept that not everyone is striving for the perfect balance of all philosophies that she is, and she will have trouble dealing with those who lean toward one extreme or the other with no desire to change.
- I have the necessary lack of tact.
- —Ted Koppel
You may find yourself struggling to explain to Maiioth that she simply /can’t/ tell people some things. Your lifemate has no concept – and no use – for tact, and this could be a problem for you. You might find yourself hiding after she explains to her clutchmates quite frankly that you told her you think Donis is cute. You might have to clean up after her when she complains loudly that:
« Sidramuntalath didn’t explain this lesson very well at all. Are they sure that he should teach this to us? Isn’t there someone else? I was talking to Valedath, and he said that Lylia was much better at this job than Sii’kyn is. Maybe we should see if we can get her to teach us? »
Maiioth isn’t easily embarrassed, and she’s insistent that things can always be made better, so she doesn’t understand /why/ she can’t ask Zveitseith what D’nik thinks of you or /why/ she can’t boast proudly to the weyrling class that you were obviously the best at feeding firestone during your lesson. If things are facts, she ought to be able to share them. As a matter of fact, she /should/ share them, so that others have the opportunity to better themselves as well.
- Even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.
- – Whistler, “Buffy: Becoming Part I”
Maiioth is, in every moment of every day, conscious of how the small and the subtle affect who she is and who she will become in the next moment. The big moments, though – those often sneak up on her, creeping up behind her to shout “BOO!” and send her squeaking in surprise. Even things that she ought to see coming – that /you/ see coming, Kalaeya. She’ll know that graduation is approaching and that you’ll soon be a wingrider – but she’ll have trouble comprehending how this will change your lives, and thus who you are. If you should ever attach yourself to a weyrmate, Kalaeya, Maiioth will be surprised and confused, even though she’s been lurking in your mind and offering her opinion on the subject for sevendays. It’s not that she isn’t aware when change is coming – it’s that she doesn’t quite process how large the change will be, how drastic its affect. She’ll struggle to regain her equilibrium afterwards, swinging violently in both mood and opinion for several days until she can find her balance. Until she can decide what bits of her – and you – are really important, what pieces she should fight to retain in this sudden change, what is essential at the core.
- To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end in life.
- - Robert Louis Stevenson
In the end, Maiioth loves these changes, because it is just after, when she’s pared everything down to its most basic, that she most thoroughly understands. It’s that time when the excess is trimmed away that she best comprehends who she is, where she’s going, what is important to her, and what can be shed away. She’ll be constantly redefining herself: weyrling, lifemate, clutchmate, friend, confidant, sage, uncertain seeker, wingrider, wanderer, wingmate, hero, ordinary, amazing. When the big changes come, she will, for a short time, feel that she finally knows which one fits best. Whic
Flights
It's gotta happen sometime, right? Every flight Maiioth does will always seem like her first. While this can seem like a bad thing, at least she won't remember that dratted brown who caught her several turns ago and the way he kept reciting raunchy lyrics that he overheard from a drunken harper.
Do you remember when you first started liking boys? That's Maiioth's permanent proddy state-of-mind. She has a tendency to crush over certain dragons, drooling mentally to you. It’s the first sign that she’s nearing proddiness – when she starts rapturing about the way Morchainth carries himself or how /nice/ Valedath is. When she starts to glow, she may be more prone to getting nervous as cute Esryth meanders his way from the pen, or you may have to remind her to close her jaw as the buff Dyamith flies down into the bowl. She may send mental images to you about cuddling under the stars with that adorable Istan bronze, or just 'coincidentally' running into that brown from Fort. She's not promiscuous, mind, and she doesn’t crush on all the boys at once. Instead, she’ll pick out a favorite each time, for some reason or another, and watch his every move, giggling nervously in your mind and begging you to go ‘tell him’ something from her. A mental note-passing down the row as she gets her best friend to tell his best friend to tell him that, gosh, he did well in drills today. For the sevenday before she goes up, her mind will be filled with little else. When it comes to crushes, she’s obsessive, whether the object of her affection is the boy next door or the popstar Backstreeth.
As her flight nears, she'll start to worry about not being up to speed, so she'll come up with some bogus idea that /you/ do the flight for her. She'll ask the other greens if they can give her any tips on letting that hunk of a blue catch her, and her curious questioning will turn to matters of love. How can she grab his attention? How should she act, look, sound, move? If only there were Seventeen for proddy dragons.
Of course, the big day will come, and all fantasies and doubts come to an end. She's not big on blooding her beasts, so you'll have to keep her focused. As best as she can, she'll try not to mar her beautiful muzzle with crimson stains, then she'll leap into the sky like a bolt of lightning, trying to prove how fast and efficient she can be and how much work those boys will have to do to get here. Think of a thirteen-year-old girl playing hard to get.
She'll swoop and dip, fly high and low, and taunt the boys at every cost. And she'll do this a little less than graceful. That blasted air thermal may catch her off guard, sending her into a wobbly stall, or she may just fly a little bit too low, and look away from the boys just in time to see that there's a huge tree trunk coming her way. Who put that there, anyway? Her usual collected, refined poise in the air disappears entirely when she goes up in Flight, because her concentration is elsewhere – she just can’t help it.
Her flights won't be excessively long, and she’ll often seem impatient. Sometimes that dratted tree trunk may be her downfall, and she'll find herself entwined with another dragon before she can giggle twice. Other times, she'll see that that handsome brown is tailing on her, and she just may give in to him. It’s a toss-up, really, whether she chooses the winner or he simply proves to be the better flier, but you may find it useful to occasionally direct her affections toward the dragon of a rider /you/ fancy.
Post-flight, Maiioth is surely not the one-night stand type. She likes to hold onto her man for a while, to the point of being a little clingy for a few days afterwards. She’ll get a little jealous when he strays, or maybe worrisome when another green flies within a couple days of her own. Soon enough, though, flights are forgotten and Maiioth will regain her balance, and she may even wonder what came over her and swear that it will never happy again. Until the next time her hormones take over.
*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*
*So there she is, your Maiioth. We hope that you love her, and find this to be a useful guide. But remember that these are only our suggestions, and you are free to play Maiioth however you wish!*
Credits
Name: SearchCo
Egg Desc: Sii'kyn
Dragonet Desc: M'nty, Nuff; Pyrene tweak
Messages: A'ran and M'nty
Puppeteer: Nuff
Inspiration: Tatia, Vaeli, Auri, M'nty, Zai, A'ran, Sunhomme
Clutchmates:
Desba brown Dyamith
Palia green Veriameth
Kalaeya green Maiioth
A'hoy (Atohya) blue Mateyth (NPC)
Rajani (Rajanigandha) green Celvynath
Ryse (Chrysea) blue Paperth (NPC)
Ashli gold Isamath
R'um (Rylum) brown Runnerth (NPC)
X'ian (Axle) bronze Morchainth
D'nik (Dominicke) green Zveitseith
Aislinn blue Esryth
