~~~ Sora's Too Late For Supper Absentminded Blue Catiminith ~~~

Sorana! /Sora/! You've been a darling, both as Assistant Steward and as dragon bait. We love you, Sora, and we're delighted to welcome you into the strange fellowship that is 'Reaches riderhood. And so, we present you with your Catiminith -- keep in mind that this inspiration is only a guideline; he is /your/ dragon, and you may use all, none, or some of it as you choose, as long as you enjoy playing him! Enjoy, Sora, and welcome!
~HRW Apocalypse SearchCo

All Nighter Study Hard Egg
Night cloaks this ovoid in the almost tangible blackness of midnight. The darkness is pierced by a single shaft of light, an illuminating, enlightening streak from top to bottom of the shell. Dreamlike shapes seem to swirl in the murkiness near the light -- an outline of what could be a book, a clock, a bed. Time stops, keeps on flowing in the light of a night that has no end.

Hatching Message
All Nighter Study Hard Egg twitches, sending a spider web of cracks streaking along the blackness of its shell, branching out to leave only the track of illumination intact. All that follows, though, is methodical - one piece chipped away by a talon, and the next, a few more displaced by the emerging tip of a wing. Finally, the superstructure gives way, collapsing to leave its occupant blinking in the sudden light.

Too Late For Supper Absentminded Blue Dragonet
Deep, azure-tinged indigo flows in viscous waves down the sleek gloss of smooth hide, navy and violet intermixing in a thick coat of oily color. A sheen of slick vivacity resonates through this base, a fitting canvas for the shades of color that lay overtop, smeared and streaked in curious layers of visual intensity. Each whirling, faceted eye is circled about by streaks of delicate silver, framing the polychromatic orbs in an endearingly absent manner. A fleeting glimpse of peridot is smudged just below the right headknob, as if paint were accidentally wiped there and promptly forgotten; the knobs themselves are highlighted with wispy periwinkle that suggests the fading of age and its accompanying wisdom. Such smudges bespatter the rest of his lanky form, from the wisps of shimmering orchid along his sinuous neck to the blush of dawn-like hues partly concealed behind the bend of his elbow. Wings, especially, are an explosion of mismatched brilliance -- sprinklings of smooth apricot, spicy cinnamon, and springtime viridian tracing elegant lines across sails and spars alike. The barest spackling of ivory and ebony flick down the length of his dark tail, barely discernable amongst the riot of even thicker hues. Random blotches and smears on the dark purplish background give a haphazard appearance to his strung-out frame, disorganization offset by good intentions.

Impression Message
Too Late For Dinner Absentminded Blue Dragonet halts before an ebon-haired figure, nearly bumping into the candidate's legs. Befuddled, he gazes owlishly up at the white-robed figure, as if puzzling out a particularly perplexing problem. Hesitation is slowly traded for comprehension, though, and he tosses back his head in a delighted bugle. Eureka! Sorana!

Personal Impression Message
A giggle, a chortle resounds in your head, so piercingly clear that it seems to have come from someone nearby, though too childish to belong to any of the other candidates. The mischievous laughter is fleeting, gone in a flash of silver bell-tones as quickly as it came. A momentary lull passes before the laughing child returns with a vengeance, splattering vivid splotches of brilliant fingerpaint gleefully across your mind. << Sorana! >> Your own name drips with the simple, beautiful vibrancy of primary colors. << Sora! And, uh... What was it again? >> Temporary confusion slows the chiming laughter, quickly replaced with realization. << Ah, yes. Catiminith. That's it! >> Curiosity trails through the lingering blobs of color, mixing them into a delighted whorl. << Sora and Catiminith, of course. Come, look, there's too much to see to just /stand/ here! >>

Name Inspiration
Well, you said it yourself. Catiminith, from the French word, "catimini," for on the sly. And, well, who are we to argue with such an apt name? The meaning fits neatly in with one aspect of his personality -- plus, it has a straightforward, honest sound that's refreshing amidst increasingly complex dragon names. Why tamper with perfection? Catiminith it is.

Egg Inspiration
To go along with the cheerfully bemused face that Catiminith can (and often does) put forward, we thought it might be nice to have him at last escaping that eternal bane of students across the world: exams. So, of course, in a bit of symbolism that we didn't really think about at the time, Cati broke his shell and escaped exams for quite a while. Unfortunately for you, there'll still be classes. ;)

Description Inspiration
Catiminith's description is based on the oil paint theme you requested for him -- gotta love that purple-blue base! -- and the dual nature of his personality. The spectacles around his eyes and the almost-fluffy look of his headknobs reflect the absent-minded professor in him; the lithe frame and paint-splattered hide display the mischievous young apprentice lurking inside.

  My dad gave me a dollar
  `Cause I'm his smartest son
  And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
  `Cause two is more than one!

  And then I took the quarters
  And traded them to Lou
  For three dimes --- I guess he don't know
  That three is more than two!
 
  Just then, along came old blind Bates
  And just 'cause he can't see
  He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
  And four is more than three!

  And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
  Down at the feed-seed store,
  And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
  And five is more than four!

  And then I went and showed my dad,
  And he got in the cheeks
  And closed his eyes and shook his head ---
  Too proud of me to speak!

~ "Smart" Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Mind Voice
Catiminith's voice is very enthused -- a childish note is always present, though his mental voice isn't pitched /quite/ so high as that. There's a sort of rippling, bell-like quality to it when he's excited or amused -- small, jingling, silvery bells, though, not sonorous, brassy ones. An earthy "scent" pervades his thoughts, residue of the damp soil and plants that so entrance him.

Mostly, though, he's about /color/. Ever seen a little kid paint? That's Catiminith all over -- color everywhere, haphazardly. The brightest, boldest poster-paint colors that you can imagine are daubed, splattered, smudged, and even poured over every thought, and mixed into one big mess when he makes a particularly pleasing link. And beware any mental images he imparts -- they'll *smack* into you with wonderful clarity, but they often run and drip before your mind has a chance to recover from the sheer suddenness of the colors. Yeah. And did we mention he uses a lot of color?

Physicalities

Catiminith is the most oddly colored dragon most people will ever lay eyes on. His base color is a mix of purple and blue -- sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes an indigo shade in between, but always, always achingly clear. The color spatters, though, are another matter. There's always the blue underneath, but for the most part, he looks like he got caught in the crossfire of a paintball game. Every shade, every tint, every hue imaginable makes an appearance at some point or other.

The largest -- and most interesting -- are the poofy headknob marks and the silver around his eyes. Another special spot is the orangey patch where his left forelimb meets his torso -- tucked away as it is between leg and body, few people but you will ever notice it, but it's really rather sizeable, and quite ticklish.

Body-wise, Catiminith is lean, lithe, flexible -- and long. In fact, he's liable to grow into being one of the longest blues in the Weyr, several feet longer than Mzadith, and that look is accentuated by the fact that he's not a hulk of a dragon. Not the most buff, his strength lies in wiry muscles and a spine as flexible as a cat's. He's a tad gawky, too-not really awkward-adolescent, just somewhere in between the rounded baby and the adult. He can wiggle around and twist in a way that lets him squirm into smaller spaces than most blues his size- just a tad less than average-- and that makes him incredibly acrobatic in the air. Turn on a dime? Simple. Flip? Child's play. His whip-like motions might get a bit uncomfortable for you, though, both on the ground and in the air. It'll do wonders for your reflexes!

Personality

Catiminith is a blend of the mischievous apprentice and the not-quite-all-there professor -- he has elements of each in him. He's not always scatterbrained, he's not always studious, but neither is he always rampant trouble. Mostly, he's just curious, and above all, fun! His more academic side will come out in those classes; he'll sit and listen long after the rest of his clutchmates have dozed off, although you might notice that his attention also tends to wander more than the rest.

But when it comes to resting, he won't be interested. There are /much/ more interesting things to see out there than the insides of his eyelids, and he's bound to remind you of that at least a dozen times a day, if not more. So you'll be plenty tired until he's comfortable with being awake while you're not. And then you'll have to be vigilant, because at that stage he'll try and play pranks. On you, on his fellow-clutchmates, on the weyrfolk, and the riders, and the older dragons... and especially on the new CadgwithSpawn that'll hatch not that long after he did.

But always remember, Sora, that while he may cause you more than a few headaches, he'll never do it on purpose. After all, above even the excitement of ThingsToExplore, he loves you, and he'd do anything to assure you of that. So remember when he gets a little out of hand, or seems just a little too wacky to be sane -- although we're not guaranteeing that he /is/ -- that all you have to do is ask, and he'll stop. At least until he forgets....

  If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman?
  If I'm alive and well, will you be there, holding my hand?
  I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman mind...

      ~ 3 Doors Down, Kryptonite, from The Better Life

Flights
Catiminith is snappy in the air, of course--the ladies will be hard-put to outmaneuver his twisty, sharp-turning aerial acrobatics. The physical isn't where his problems with flights lie--it's the thinking part that gets him. He's prone to getting distracted mid-flight and forget why he's there to begin with.

<< Alymath! Oh, Alymath, how I... Oooo, look at the way the clouds are being swirled around those spires. Isn't that pretty. What was I saying, again? >>

This may not happen all the time, but it's one of the hazards that comes along with an inquisitive nature. The flip side is that he'll be interested in those girls sooner than one would think-innocent curiosity, right? At least at first... But his main love is his love for learning, so fixation isn't an issue--he chases for the exhilaration of it, and because that green really looks interesting when she glows like that and why does she glow like that and if I could just get a closer look...

Sorana's blue Catiminith
Harper's Tale: 28th PC Clutch
High Reaches Weyr
Areiah's gold Ysbryth and M'rin's bronze Rixesith
December 8, 2000

Clutchmates: G'deon and bronze Nylanth, Slippa and green Zizth, Ilare and brown Chanticoth, Cayl and blue Mzadith, Sasha and green Branwyth, Sraine and brown Akilth, Hyzen and green Imbriath, R'ave and bronze Soquilith, Tatia and green Vespurath, V'tor and blue Recounth (NPC), and N'sync and brown Backstreeth (NPC)