Doctor Schroeder was a very preoccupied man as he stood on the floor of the Hatching Bay, watching the rocking eggs. Though he might've stood in Alpha Bay, his thoughts were over in Bravo Bay, where the many-headed Diamis waited eagerly for his labs to start delivering her eggs--eggs that Schroeder now knew were as close to a mistake as he would admit. Even if the Red Mage, Mystic, had stopped by the ship only briefly, her inner rage had been practically visible, and the scientist, Faust, that she had left behind….
It had been a long time since Schroeder had been so unsettled. Even Dark's catdragons were trivial in the face of the Hathydra eggs and all the troubles their creation had stirred up. At least when the first of the eggs in this Bay started cracking, he was able to distract himself from the future by focusing on the present, at least for now.
He had ample help with him in the Bay today, outside of the usual assistants-turned-ushers, Devika with her record-keeping datapad, and Valentine, his ever-present shadow. One of his technicians, Lir (short for Lirdunglu), had begged the privilege of helping out on the Bay floor, and stood by the feeding tables. His father was one of the Biopool Donors that had been used in this clutch, and he couldn't seem to decide whether he was fascinated or disturbed that his employer had synthed a clutch that would be his "third-siblings". Also present was dual-gendered Ivahn Sangar, who had been sent to the Destiny both as a sort of ambassador and a capable set of hands to add to the labs. Shhee was rather pleasant company, especially in comparison to a certain other geneticist that had been lurking around the labs as of late….
As the hatchlings freed themselves from their shells, physically they all proved nearly identical to their lone father, Niteo Soloculi, who stood among the bonding-candidates looking both excited and immensely happy--they had large paws, short bodies, blunt wings, and only a single, large eye set in the center of their round faces. Anglerfish-like lures dangled off their foreheads, all glowing neon green, just like the rows of round spots that lined their sides. Their tails differed, being thick and tipped with feathers as their Bonder daemon gene-donation, scaly plates lined their bellies, and tiny horns sat behind their flopped-over ears, but otherwise they were physically identical to their father, which was just as Schroeder had intended. They were also very small, and even the largest of them was only the size of a medium-sized dog.
The first to go galumphing towards the candidates on her oversized paws was a dark purple female, marked with large grey blotches in a serpentine manner. Her luminescent patches were as bright as her smile as she ran right up to the amnesic dragoness, Aminy--and right into her leg, as well!
"Oof!" exclaimed Novae Soloculi, her eye wide as she fell back on her rump, and blinked up at Aminy, who lowered her head in concern. But Novae recovered her wits quickly and giggled up at the adult dragoness. "You were closer than I thought!"
A grey male with purple patches on his face and legs trotted over to the man who already had a large, copper dragoness sitting on the moss beside him. Confatis looked up at Elano Eversky with amazement clear in his blue eye.
"Wow, you dreamt an angel told you to come bond me? Cool!" the hatchling grinned. But not a moment later, the expression faltered, and he frowned in confusion instead. "What's an angel?"
Another grey male, this one serpent-spotted with blue, rolled out of his egg and blinked his brown eye dizzily. Shaking his head as he got to his paws, he looked about, and soon his gaze settled on Niteo Soloculi himself. The hatchling frowned thoughtfully for a moment, but then his face lit up with recognition and understanding.
"DADDY!" he squealed, flying over the moss in a bouncy run and flinging himself at the Biolumiclops's leg. "Daddy Daddy Daddy!"
Niteo glowed so brightly and happily he resembled a green traffic light. "Hello Filiolus."
A brown male snickered merrily, watching his exuberant brother out of the corner of his eye as he approached the bonding-candidates, too. "He's pretty funny, innit he?" asked Tolerare, as he sat down at the feet of Riavaloronalka Toxkepni, smiling up at the half-dragon.
But as for her brother standing beside her… it seemed impatient Dihinax would have to learn some patience before any hatchling would chose him.
"Thing! In! Face!" howled a little male, green in color and possessing wings marked with oval spots that called to mind the "half peacock" markings of Biopool addition Ceyri. His eye was focused on the glowing lure that dangled from his forehead, swinging madly this way and that as the green apparently tried to shake it off.
"Fine!" he growled, when the lure--predictably--stayed attached to him. "I'll get you! RAR!"
The green took off in a flat-out run, teeth bared in pursuit of his lure. The candidates' eyes widened in surprise as they realized the hatchling was headed straight for them, and apparently seeing nothing outside of his own green lure. The candidates scattered--except for one.
The little green plunged right into Gred's legs, and had just enough weight and momentum to upset the boy's balance and send him to his rump on the soft, mossy floor.
"Amentio!" he squawked.
The green blinked up from the tangle he'd gotten himself into with Gred's legs, spat out his lure, and grinned broadly. "Hiya!"
"Good grief," murmured a little voice.
Gred's sister, Phaeis, turned away from watching her brother in surprise. While she'd been distracted by the spastic little green, another hatchling had crept up on her--this one was a female, and nearly as white as the ferret she had lost (to a discerning eye, parts of the hatchling's hide were pale grey rather than white).
"He needs help," said Mustela, quite sagely.
A spotted purple female trotted excitedly over to Kiklopi, the one-eyed whorling dragoness. "You look like me!" squealed Murici. "Or do I look like you?"
A pale grey male with darker grey paws and wings carefully approached the vampire John Fairbrell, who had finally returned after his bloodless nature had proved him unable to bond at the clutch of the fiery, undead hatchlings. The little cyclops' red eye looked up at the man thoughtfully, as if pondering the other man's thoughts--
--and then he suddenly darted forward, and sunk his teeth into the fabric of Fairbrell's pants!
"Admordeo!" exclaimed the vampire in dismay. "What are you doing?!"
::Proving it doesn't mean I'm horrible just cuz I like to bite!:: mentally squealed the hatchling, growling and tugging on Fairbrell's pants exactly like a puppy with a pull-toy.
One of the hatchlings, a female with her father's colors set on her in blue-rimmed brown splotches, had discovered something--she could make herself change colors! She sat in the remains of her eggshell until she figured out how to make her hide mirror the greens and browns of the moss floor, and then crept towards the candidates, silently and stealthy.
Except for the fact that her lure and side-spots still glowed bright green, and her yellow eye was as clear as day.
Eolalla smiled when she saw the hatchling coming her way. "Hello Aprica!"
"Shhh!" hissed the hatchling. "You can't see me!"
Aprica wasn't the only one to figure out she had a color-shifting hide! Another female was barely in her own colors long enough for Schroeder note she had blue-rimmed purple spots on a grey base, and then she was dancing across the bay and whirling colors and patterns like a kaleidoscope!
"Look! I'm you!" she cried, falling at the feet of a half-daemon named Begug (who was the brother of Schroeder's assitant Lir) and assuming his black and bright fuchsias in a pattern like her father's. "And now I'm you!" she squealed, looking at Yadtime (Lir's son and Begug's adopted charge) and donning his black and red in serpentine blotches. "And him! And her! And them!" Versicoli cheered, casting her hazel eye about and duplicating the colors she saw in the clothes of the other candidates. "Whee!"
A female of muted blues and blue-greys made her way over to Aoi Sen. "All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind," she stated serenely. Then she blinked. "Or is it, pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work? Oh dear." Vitruae frowned thoughtfully as she dropped her rump to sit. "Which is it?"
And then there were three hatchlings left, milling about indecisively, certain that they did not want to bond, but unsure of who to go with--or one was unsure, and the other two didn't give a damn. So Schroeder stepped forward to help them out, just like he had for the kittens that had had the same trouble back in the catdragon clutch.
A serpentine-spotted purple was directed the way of Sitheil Tieran's Kaere, though the scowl on the female's face showed she didn't think much of the prospect. Her name was Saeva, and her attitude would have done October Bonder proud--if, that is, the daemon ever cared about his offspring, donation-born or otherwise.
A splotched grey male by name of Cassium was sent the way of the drider, Ixin Del'Arammago, though it was with a marked disinterest that he did so.
The last hatchling was a male who had Niteo's pattern and colors, except in much darker shades. His name was Durus, and he was the only one of the three who approached his new caretaker with any sort of friendliness and interest--and that caretaker was the man Hausho.
And then, with those three distributed and cleared out of the cluster they'd been in, Schroeder made a discovery--there was still an egg left! An egg rocking furiously, at that, suggesting the hatchling inside had wound up with a tougher shell than most.
Easily fixed. With a brief psionic touch, Schroeder laced the egg with a few cracks and the occupant was finally able to shatter his prison, rolling to his feet and shaking himself out.
But when the hatchling lifted his green eye, he made a discovery of his own! "No fair!" he exclaimed, looking around and seeing only the hatching attendants--all the newly-bonded and newly-made caretakers had moved to the feeding tables. "There's nobody left!"
"Hmm," Doctor Schroeder rubbed his chin, and turned towards the geneticist from the Kshau Protectorate. "Ivahn, why don't you look after this little one?"
Shhee looked over at the man in surprise, and then looked at the hatchling. "Well… certainly!"
The little male's eye lit up. "Oh! Well, good! I'm Hestor," he said, and walked over to where Ivahn stood.
Schroeder wasn't so preoccupied that he couldn't appreciate another hatching gone well--especially not when Niteo was glowing so happily as he looked around at his children and hugged his son-bond to his side. It was seeing that sort of pleasure that made his work such a joy.
If only the next lined-up clutch had a little joy if its own….