Schroeder couldn't have been happier with the crowd that showed up for the Destiny's first "official" hatching, smiling up at the crowd filing along the elevated catwalk from his place down on the bay floor. Crewmembers, all in easy-to-locate white, were scattered liberally about the bay and the hallway outside, not to mention out in the Deck hangar itself, acting as ushers to help people find their way. Schroeder had heard a complaint or two-dozen from people that wished he'd just put the eggs in a regular bay on Deck Two like he had for the Genesis clutch, but there were only so many privileges he could beg of the station officials, so people would just have to get used to visiting his ship on Deck Eight instead.
He moved about the eggs with a smile on his face, lightly touching the shells as he passed them. They were smaller than the yautjadragon eggs had been and looked more like eggs people expected: mottled white and oval, rather than brown-grey and extended like snake eggs. There were seventeen of them, quivering lightly under his fingers. These hatchlings had not been pre-sentient like the Venators had been, but since Schroeder visited the bay daily, he'd picked up on their little minds soon after they'd awoken and knew exactly when they would want to hatch.
The four mothers of the clutch were present, though it was only the catdragon Frisky that really watched the eggs with motherly attentiveness, having had a clutch of her own before. The Silshar and the two whorlings only seemed curious, leaving the real enthusiasm to Frisky and the weredragon Dark Shadow. The woman had been the mastermind behind their visit to the Destiny in the first place, and was far, far more than she seemed, Schroeder knew. He thought he'd found an immediate friend in the woman: she was curious, friendly, and--once she'd gotten past her apologies that she couldn't deliver the dozens of genetic samples she had at first promised as a sort of payment-gift--was a rather entertaining individual. He had definitely enjoyed being able to meet her, and chuckled to himself as she moved eagerly around the bay, checking the eggs as much as he was.
The hatching bay was equally as large as the bays on the station proper, and there was plenty of room in the elevated viewing stands for every curious individual who had turned up. In the same manner, the bay floor had ample room for the candidates and sponsors who had signed up--a number rather greater than the Genesis clutch had gotten, outnumbering the eggs by a significant margin. He'd decided to make a habit of sending out "preview letters" for exactly that reason. There were more than enough people that looked down on his method of creating life as it was; he didn't need to make them think he'd spring nothing but "monsters" on them all.
"Are they gonna hatch soon?" asked a eager voice at his hip. "Can I pick my sponsor yet?"
Schroeder smiled down at the rainbow-feathered catdragon kitten. "Patience, Amenolo," he chuckled, patting the kitten between his violet ears. "You've waited this long, you can wait a little longer."
Amenolo was the kitten that had been featured in the photograph taken to advertise the clutch, alongside an artist's rendition of what it was thought he would look like as an adult. Schroeder had initially thought the youngster would either want to go with his mothers or stay on the Destiny, but instead he'd declared he wanted to pick out a Sponsor-Candidate for himself, and had been waiting impatiently for his egg-bound siblings to hatch ever since.
Amenolo sighed, turning towards the closest of the eggs. "You done in there yet?" he snorted, rapping on the shell with his leathery white knuckles.
The unseen kitten tapped back--and then a brown foot kicked through the shell, and Amenolo jumped back with a surprised mewl. Schroeder laughed, catching the furry dragonet before he tripped all over himself.
"I guess they are!" he grinned, as all the other eggs picked up on the cue and started to shatter, themselves.
Amenolo blinked, and then flapped his wings with a hoot. "Finally!" he cheered, and took off for the assorted candidates at a run.
The bonders and sponsors were clustered in two groups standing side by side, the latter leaving it to trust that a kitten wouldn't bond them if they didn't want to bond. Some of the sponsors had protested being made "vulnerable" by standing beside the bonder-hopefuls, but the truth of the matter had eventually been boiled down to this: if a dragon really wanted to bond you, it didn't matter where you were standing.
But Amenolo, at least, wasn't about to surprise anybody. Picking out the sponsor-group, he homed in on Elmtur Turun. "Good thing Airi talked you into coming along," he grinned, "cuz I wanna go with you!"
"I thought you were going to hand-assign the sponsors yourself?" asked Schroeder's ever-present shadow, a hint of a smile in his voice.
Schroeder shrugged amusedly, stepping aside as more furry little bodies broke free of their shells. "Well who am I to stop them if they want to make the choice themselves?"
The brown-skinned kitten that had broken shell under Amenolo's nose was the first on her feet. Like Amenolo--and every other kitten hatching around her--she was mostly covered with black fur, but where Amenolo had been accented with a rainbow spectrum on his wings, headfur, and tail tuft, she was a chocolaty brown. The brightest colour on her was her golden yellow Siamese-style points.
She looked between the two candidate-groupings, and after a moment's consideration, trotted towards the smaller bonder group. Faces lit up eagerly at Zantisiri's approach, but she had eyes for only one. "Think I can ride horses, too?" she asked, stopping at Heather Parker's feet. "Until I get too big, at least?"
"We'll have to find a horse that wouldn't be scared of you, first," Heather giggled.
Three more hatchings stepped away from their shells. One, a female whose black fur was pointed first with orange and then with yellow in a very fiery combination, went right for the sponsors.
"Hi Le'iastas!" she grinned, looking up at the businessman. "I'm Lecirera! If you look after me, I'll look after you!"
Le'iastas smiled happily. "Sounds like a fair arrangement to me," he agreed, scratching the kitten under her chin and getting a long purr in return.
The other two males--one of whom stood out from the crowd in having brown fur rather than black--stared indecisively at the sponsors for a moment, before turning about and standing by Schroeder's feet instead.
"Need some help, boys?"
The brown nodded almost frantically. "I just can't decide! But I don't want to be late! Help me out, would you?"
"Late?" Schroeder blinked. What on earth did he have to be late for? "Well, what's your name?"
"Remidali," answered the kit, while his brother beside him just looked cool and casual. "Remidali Friskers."
Schroeder looked over at the sponsor-candidates and dragonry-sent sponsors. "Well, Remidali, why don't you go with Araadan Banior? He's been hoping to sponsor for a long time, now."
"Araadan it is!" the kit sighed in relief, turning in the direction Schroeder pointed and padding towards the young man from Treval. "Alright, you heard the man, I'm going with you. Let's not be late!"
"And who might you be?" Schroeder now asked the second kit at his feet. The kitten's dark blue markings were curly, rune-like structures rather than the points all his other siblings had so far displayed.
"I'm Rustavomi, and you're the guy that always came an' tapped on our eggs an' talked to us! I'm sticking with you!"
"Oh!" the doctor laughed. "Alright then."
Next to approach the candidates was a green-pointed female who drifted towards the bonder-hopefuls, and then picked up the pace to scamper over to Akora Carinae.
"What's so bad about being a cat?" Canorous asked, looking down at the black feline-shifter. "Being a cat is fun! Everybody wants to be a cat! Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at!" she exclaimed, practically singing.
Schroeder heard this clearly and gave the kitten a startled look. "Well, we have a regular aristocat on our hands, don't we?" he smirked.
Then Schroeder found himself surrounded by a swarm of indecisive kittens.
Another rune-marked kitten, with rainbow-fading runes rather than solid-colour ones, was shyly the first to give her name as Inazuko. Schroeder directed her towards Gray, and she all but tiptoed over to the man, looking up at him worriedly. "The doctor says I should go with you... that's alright, isn't it?"
"Well of course it is," Gray smiled.
Next another double-pointed male named Harmonious strolled up to Akora's friend Oraethi Procyon. "So, coming with me, eh?" the shifter grinned, currently in her feline shape so Akora wouldn't feel too out of place.
"No, you think?" the kitten smirked back.
Another rainbow-runed kitten started reluctantly towards the sponsors on Schroeder's direction, but then all of a sudden he paused, and looked towards the bonders instead. Perking up immediately, he headed for one of the young men standing there instead. "Hey there! Singvar, right? I'm Badelanu!"
The last of the indecisive group was also a runed male, but in pure red rather than rainbow, and with bright orange accent-feathers. His name was Ardenon, and the face he padded up to was one that had become very familiar aboard the Abstract Destiny... as had every other part of his anatomy as well. Schroeder hid a smirk as the kitten stopped by Alexi. "Fine, I'll go with you. Just don't bother me."
All the egg cracking was done by now, with seven kittens left finding their feet and grooming bits of eggshell from their fur. The first to finish up needed no help at all to figure out where he wanted to go.
The kitten, brightest of the bunch with both rainbow runes and feathers and accent-fur, pranced right on over to Dark Shadow. "Heh, so you sent my mothers out here, eh?" Jolukeri asked, grinning. "Does that make you my godmother or my grandma?"
Dark blinked, but barely heard the query. She was still a moment, and then suddenly was on her knees and throwing her arms around the kitten's neck with a squeal of: "KITTY!"
"Ack, HEY!"
Schroeder started laughing so hard he almost missed the next couple selections. Another brown kitten took off for the bonding-candidates at a run, nearly crashing into one girl's legs. "Rekiki! Rekiki!" he cheered. "I'm coming with you! I'm Elilos!"
The next kitten wandered away from the remains of her egg without really seeming to have a destination. She wandered left, right, backstepped, did a turn... and seemed to be sight-seeing. "Oh, lookit that!" she gasped, "looking up at the high ceiling. "Lookit her!" she gaped, staring at the draconic sponsor-candidate Airi. "Lookit them!" she squealed, catching sight of her own rainbow-coloured feathers.
Then she blundered right into Alexi, who had already led Ardenon over to the tables where there was food to be had for the kittens, and fell back on her rump, now gaping up at him. "Lookit you!" she exclaimed. And seeing as Errovan didn't seem inclined to leave, nor did it look like Schroeder was going to redirect the kitten, Alexi figured it meant he was sponsoring her for Shy as well.
The last four kittens, having declared themselves groomed enough, proved to be another indecisive batch that turned to Schroeder for guidance.
The orange-runed Ohakadi was pointed towards Airi Turun. "Hiya, Airi!" she greeted the young dragoness pleasantly. "So I'm going with you, am I? What do you think it would be like if we walked on our heads?"
Airi blinked with surprise at the unexpected non sequitur. "Um... very upside-down, I guess," she giggled.
Purple-runed Melodious was directed with a smile towards Lakota, sponsoring on behalf of the place called Splintyr. Schroeder was happy to see the wolf-anthro again, and made a mental note to ask her how her bond was doing, later. Her Zedirn had sadly missed both of the Trials for his clutch, and Schroeder hoped he was doing well, regardless.
Finally, Utalimi, a female with bright pink feathers, was ushered willingly towards the sponsor from Clan Akelara, while the double-pointed Symphonious slunk towards the hybrid catdragon from Draco's Inferno Weyr with a marked lack of enthusiasm. With no kittens left, the remaining candidates were left to sigh and hope they had better luck next time.
Schroeder put his hands on his hips as he surveyed the kittens walking about the bay, and decided things had gone very well indeed. The kittens were all healthy, had all their parts in the right place, and if the four mothers hadn't been present to give testimony to the "unnatural" method behind the kitten's birth, you never would have known the little furballs hadn't been naturally made!
"You do amazing work," Dark smiled as she approached him, having recovered from her earlier outburst.
"Thank you. But it's not just work," he smiled back. "It's a labour of love."