- The Sands
- A Message From Beyond Egg
- Wild Hunt Egg
- By the Werelight Egg
- Mystic Mumbo Jumbo Egg
- The Demon Within Egg
- Bad Moon Rising Egg
- Underneath the Blazing Sky Egg
- Skeptic Egg
- Cross My Palm with Silver Egg
- Of Your Dreams Egg
- Supernatural Causality Egg
- Must Have Shiny Egg
- A Wild Rumpus Egg
- Out-of-Shell Experience Egg
- It's a Gas Egg
- A Forest Grew Egg
- Curse of the Lycan Egg
- Queen of Air and Darkness Egg
- Guardian in the Dark Egg
- Aleph-Mem-Tav Egg
- Decaying Horrors Egg
- Soul for a Song Egg
- Sock Monster Egg
Welcome to Orlaith and Ikaroth's 2012 clutch!
Orlaith and Ikaroth have always been a bit weird, so it's no surprise that their eggs are a bit weird, too.
Our theme for this cycle was: Supernatural.
A Message From Beyond Egg
Instead of the brilliant colors and impressively variegated patterns of other eggs, this one is of a subtler nature, with smooth curves decorated in lightly patterned off-white. It takes a much closer look to reveal the true complexities, here: an endless progression of chicken-scratch markings that circle around and around, from the egg's narrowed tip to the broader end. A cross-eyed glance might encourage the impression of writing, but if there's a message here, it's a mysterious one: a secret that is, at least for now, held out of reach.
Credit: Siyavri
Inspiration: Automatic writing is writing the author claims to have produced from a subconscious source, without conscious effort or knowledge.
Wild Hunt Egg
Dark forest shades this egg, patterned and bumped in oak bark and acorn, all hung round with silvery mist and the greenish glow of a witching moon. Trace the tattered shadows, the whorls of dust, wisps of cloak and glint of dagger, and a horde of black, huge and hideous figures coalesce, tumbling in mad rings around the shell: here a running beast with tail streaming; there a great hound with luminous eyes like saucers; inchoate figures all flung together in a seething stormy morass, hurtling in pursuit of an invisible enemy.
Credit: Iona
Inspiration: The Wild Hunt, a collection of otherworld huntsmen, comes out to ride on dark and stormy nights, driving all before it. If heard, lock your doors, never look out - those who see the Hunt run the risk of it stealing their soul away, or being spirited away with them, only to be left in another time and place entirely.
By the Werelight Egg
Worrisome clouds break asunder the weight of silver glow crowning this middling-sized egg in jeweled glory. So bright, so bright! Belior himself could have been placed within this delicate eggshell setting - Belior, or a captured star; or even Luna from ancient Terra, so bright, so sweetly malicious! For all of shine's vivid strength, only the narrowest of moonbeams cast downwards over the curve of egg's natural shape, cloaking and revealing that which it might in fey grace. Puddles of light cast bright shadows in whispered pools, the patterns below mostly occluded, mostly obscured. Werelight's trickery is such that any one point never appears just the same - an illusion softly tiles the truth away, hidden safely just below the surface.
Credit: Rylsar
Inspiration: So, I was driving home the other day and happened to run across a black cat. That in itself was kinda freaky, until I looked up and realized it was a full moon - and it JUST then decided to come out from under the cloud cover. So this egg is just that: a bright, wicked moon choosing to illuminate what it will: a black cat and bad luck, or just a random shadow? It's never, ever, the same when werelight is involved!
Mystic Mumbo Jumbo Egg
Silvery white rounds from tip to base of this egg, casting a vision of dimensionalism where none truly exists. Caught within layer upon layer are blazing glyphs; these strange characters each and all as innocuous-seeming as the last, were one to ignore the blood-red hue they are cast in. Where silver and white do not touch, and red does not dare venture, shadows gather and pull, seeking not only to capture and hold one's attention but to bring to mind vivid horrors not meant to see the light of day. No matter the angle of light (and even lack thereof), the surface of this egg seems to glisten and shine.
Credit: C'abe
Inspiration: Glyphs! The medium of magic, of curses/hexes/spells/what have you. They are somewhat central in the world of the supernatural and so must obviously make an appearance here! The characters in mind here are really not words so much as pictures and the like - alien (to some of us, at least!) in appearance and meaning, but none the less pretty darn powerful.
The Demon Within Egg
Supernatural sludge slips slowly from the crusty cap, covering the curved coat with a light layer of eerie ectoplasm. A scaled skin of sickly slate and soft salmon stretches o'er the shell's surface, with ridges of revolting red that boldly bleed. Seemingly sub-surface, a glow of gangrenous green emits from the egg with hints of a haunted heritage. A duo of deadly dots of oily olive give a ghastly glare that teem with terror as they seemingly search for souls to steal, a possessed pair of portals from perdition.
Credit: U'rr
Inspiration: First, a Fort Weyr clutch needs to have an egg with some sort of alliteration. It is /very/ important. Second, the actual theme of the egg is from the Exorcism, a possessed face that is covered in slimy green puke. The puke always got to me, disgusting.
Bad Moon Rising Egg
Bad Moon Rising Egg (Eleni)
Phantasmic in form, vagaries of shade and smoke disrupt the pale, washed-out amber that dominates this egg, ghosting across the pocked, pitted surface. Its tawny luminescence is shadowed but not eclipsed, radiating a light both pallid and bloodless, the lambency of a great, unblinking eye. Yet for all its bleached luster, a sliver of darkness winks along the edge and lurks on the edge of sight, sign and portent of things to come.
Credit: Eleni
Inspiration: The full moon. Associated with lycanthropy and lunacy— also known as werewolves and madness.
Underneath the Blazing Sky Egg
Everything is in flames, iridescent licks of blue and violet enveloping the smooth shell of this egg, each one burning bright and distinct, twisting and turning about each other, a neon nimbus coruscant from every angle. The pointier end bears lightning scars in cobalt, the rounder dims to fuzzy mauve, and luminous particles shimmer across the whole in flamed amazement.
Credit: Iona
Inspiration: St Elmo's Fire (We can explain it now, but it was seen as a supernatural occurence for hundreds of years.)
Skeptic Egg
Against a barely-white backdrop, this egg is scattered with detritus of color, from lurid blotches of chemical experimentation to the chicken-scratch markings of mathematical equations. None of the shapes coalesce into anything concrete, though there's a pattern along the top of the egg that looks rather like a collection of circles, connected by thin lines. Substantial in size, and neither perfectly shaped nor notably misshapen, this egg is plainer than many, and seems somehow - perhaps - a little bit more solid.
Credit: Siyavri
Inspiration: Amidst all the supernatural, it seemed only right that there be a skeptic, too, determined not to believe in anything unless it has scientific proof behind it.
Cross My Palm with Silver Egg
Golden filigree decorates the base of this enormous egg, creeping in curling patterns that suggest something different from every angle: here a set of flowers about to bloom, there a whole sky's worth of stars and sunbursts, even sometimes a few delicate feathers whose tips droop gracefully towards the sand. The rest of the egg is so shiny and smooth it looks like glass over a cloudy gray-white interior, promising depth but yielding nothing - yet.
Credit: Imogen
Inspiration: A fortune teller's crystal ball.
Of Your Dreams Egg
Sensual scarlet tantalizes the senses, silk folds beckoning, no, begging to be caressed as they fall haphazardly along this coquettish, egg-shaped object of desire. Smokey black tendrils waft from barely parted lips, serpentine lullaby wrapping its hidden gift in silver tipped promises of pleasures beyond mere mortal comprehension. Hazy dreamscape is penetrated by wisps of featherlight gold which upon scrutiny, upon waking, take on their true form. Smoldering amber eyes paralyze, gaze shedding its heavenly guise to reveal true demonic hunger, eager to please so long as its own wicked needs are met.
Credit: Merci
Inspiration: A sinfully supernatural Incubus and/or Succubus egg, just for Fort. Incubi are demons who prey on people in their sleep, and Succubi have been known to appear in dreams. Old reports of sleep paralysis were said to be caused by visits from such demons, and while modern medicine has found an explanation for these accounts, it's still spooky!
Supernatural Causality Egg
Cracked and jagged, this shell appears to be: rifts and valleys fiery-hot and vivid against the blackened crust of backdrop. For all outward appearances, the shell is soft as well-combed sisal, velveteen where darkness lies and only slightly pebbled where apocalyptic forces bubble over into the here-and-now. Tracery follows where rifts visually crack the shell asunder, painted the very color of mirrored midnight moonlight reflected on fresh-spilled blood - these whispered traces seem to threaten dire consequences should the proper rites not be observed.
Credit: Rylsar
Inspiration: Step on a crack and break your mother's back! Pass a black cat and you're doomed! Break a mirror and receive seven years bad luck! Superstitions - a belief in supernatural causality - are pretty silly… but pretty scary, too, if you think about it. I think I better go toss some salt over my shoulder.
Must Have Shiny Egg
In the midst of all the gloom and doom is this beautiful gem. A near perfect example of what an egg should be. So bright! So beautiful! Swirling with a dizzying myriad of colors: fiery oranges, brilliant reds, streaks of silver and gold and wisps of lilac and emerald all coalescing into a frenzied, hypnotic swirl. It's alluring and near impossible to resist and for good reason. It's not until one is this close to the egg that the seedier shadows lurking in the background can be seen, each and all ghoulish facades of death and doom.
Credit: C'abe
Inspiration: Cursed objects! Those that are so beautiful and tempting as to be impossible to resist. And woe to the one who gives in to temptation.
A Wild Rumpus Egg
A forest has grown and grown and grown across the shell of this egg, shadowed and mossy and broken across one end by the ocean that tumbles by, bluer than blue and frothed with angry whitecaps that keep all but the bravest of sailors away. Almost hidden by swaying branches and hanging vines, terrible teeth and rolling eyes and dagger-like claws flash light against the darker tones of the woods while patches of shaggy fur in yellow and gray and brown peek from between the trees.
Credit: Imogen
Inspiration: Where the Wild Things Are! Monsters totally count as supernatural.
Out-of-Shell Experience Egg
A ghostly affair, the coppery striations that streak up and down the egg's shell are faded and blurred, as if floating, superimposed on some other, once-clearer background that now can't quite show through. This striped apparition hangs eerily just above a small sideways oval at the base, pillowed in a bed of sand, bold and sharply coloured, marked lengthwise with deep orange lines; a smaller, brighter, version of the phantom that makes up its whole, more tangible by far, but maybe not more real.
Credit: Ruchik
Inspiration: This egg is based on the out-of-body experiences that people claim they've had either when near death, or in a deep sleep. I went more for the deep sleep version; the copper/orange lines are sort of a shout-out to classic striped pajamas. There's a twist of philosophizing at the end, because isn't that the whole point of soul and body disjunction?
It's a Gas Egg
Mysterious flames of cobalt float across the midnight shell of the egg's surface. The licks of blue have an almost iridescent sheen to them; flickering brightly at just the right angle, but at a another viewpoint the faerie lights seem to disappear! Bubbles of crimson and violet speckle the base of the spherical ovoid, scattered wildly across the bottom in a ghostly dance. A halo of angelic light hovers at the wide apex, seeming to reflect the light from above… or maybe it is just a Venusian glow?
Credit: U'rr
Inspiration: Swamp gas, phosphine, light from Venus, there are always scientific reasons to explain away the mystical lights we see floating around above the ground. But before the age of reason, these were will'o'wisps, ghostly orbs, or unidentified flying objects, these supernatural emissions that have been reported all over the world, each with their own mysterious stories.
A Forest Grew Egg
Tendrils of ivy and tightly-coiled ferns curve around the dainty shape of this egg, spreading greenery with merry, unrestrained enthusiasm. About the wider curve, dark evergreens lurk in velvety coolness, while the far tip near gleams in the sun-drenched shades of spring. Here and there, amidst those rolling shades of green, bright splashes of color stretch out like abstract flowers: dapples of pale rose, splotches of velvet, and even the yellow warmth of the season's first daffodil, yearning for the sun.
Credit: Siyavri
Inspiration: This egg was inspired by supernatural plants. I admit things like Triffids, mandrake roots, wolfsbane and so on are probably more 'fantasy' than 'supernatural', but there's definitely a trope of spooky plants in the haunted house genre - and there's also 'Plant Empathy', which is a World of Darkness psychic ability that allows the user to make plants grow at several times their usual speed.
Curse of the Lycan Egg
Darkness encompasses the ovoid, witching hour blues rolling amongst the swirling gray mist, silvery wisps hinted within the dull gloom. Gnarled ebony blooms from the ether, twisted branches stretching up in silhouetted worship for the gilded orb which hovers above all, lunar sphere capping the tapered tip of this egg. Predator's crimson gaze twinkles within the fog, circling the expanse of the oval territory, promising the touch of yellowed fangs and black claws. Such savagery has already tainted the honeyed globe above, scarlet wounds torn into a jagged pentagram within the moon's boundaries.
Credit: Merci
Inspiration: Werewolves! Though this egg is inspired by the classic 1941 film 'The Wolfman' and a scene with the mysterious old gypsy woman. Since the theme is 'Supernatural' and not 'Monsters' I focused more on the curse and the eerie woods where one might come in contact with a doomed soul. Hungry for flesh and desperate to bind an unsuspecting victim with a lifelong burden. You know, like dragonets! >:D
Queen of Air and Darkness Egg
If ever so lovely an egg has been clutched before, never has one been so cursed with ageless dichotomy. Garbed in the gilded glamour of sunlight-on-snowfall, the false promise of crown's brightness fails into a frigid expanse of frozen tundra which seems to stretch endless, possessing the equator of eggshell's expanse with thoughtless domain. Only lightly indeed does that scintillating reflection of heavenly beauty touch the apex of egg's curve: only enough for the darkness below to mock without ceasing. For far below the light's domain lies the deepest of velvet violets writhing along the bottom, covering even tundra's sere glory with craven conduct. This darkness is only deepened by the winding ivy which patterns after the very color of frozen mulberries. This elegant kiss traces upwards, faint, so faint, to bless the gradient from light-to-absolute darkness. Below and beyond the ken of mortals lies the truth of the spectre of this egg: the air and the darkness know one mistress, and one alone.
Credit: Rylsar
Inspiration: Who ISN'T scared of Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, queen of the unseelie faerie? Cold and hard, made of the tundra and garbed with the glamour of light-that-doesn't-exist and fundamentally of the darkness below.
Guardian in the Dark Egg
A subtle glow emanates from this egg, casting an ethereal quality to the pale shades of silver and blue that grace its large surface. Each twist of sapphire and curl of iridescent gray brings new dimension to the egg, throwing off light to banish darker shadows that dare not cling to the fragile egg's surface. At the heart of the egg is a concentric burst of bright golden yellow that tapers off into a misty amber. It is a shield in the dark, an overpowering presence of fierce protection against that which goes bump in the night.
Credit: C'abe
Inspiration: What some call guardian angels - the invisible somethings/someone's looking over our shoulders and watching out for us, keeping us from harm. I like the idea of having a brighter/benevolent presence amidst what is likely to be a mix of big bads. Plus, the idea has always kind of fascinated me.
Aleph-Mem-Tav
Uninspiring, easily mistaken for a rock, a large, shapeless egg lies rough-shelled, a muddy hue of half-baked clay, half-finished almost. Irregularly shaped, the cracks that furrow the shell bestow upon it a delicate look, as if like to crumble into dust at the slightest touch. Streaky scratches of inky black are etched across one end, almost, but not quite, forming squarish crossed patterns.
Credit: Iona
Inspiration: The Golem: fashioned out of clay, it could be brought to life by writing the word 'truth' (in Hebrew aleph-mem-tav) across its forehead to do its master's bidding.
Decaying Horrors Egg
It's probably just the way this egg is sitting in the sand, but it seems somehow lopsided, as though its foundations are already crumbling from within. Larger than most, it looms in a way that probably has something to do with the shades of slate-grey and rotting wood that color its curves. Just above the sand-line, a pair of eerily yellow ovals peer out like luminous, watchful eyes, complete with black pupils in their centres; there's something creepy about them, as though they're looking directly at you from wherever you stand.
Credit: Siyavri
Inspiration: Haunted houses! Particularly the creepy, Victorian style with turrets and gables and squeaking floorboards.
Soul for a Song Egg
Eerie, this tiny oval, shrouded in myst and mystery, fog and fey promise. Unwontedly beautiful strands of pearlescent silver curlicues from top to bottom, patterning the entire egg in fanciful filligree, half-obscured from vision and mind. As a melody half-remembered, so does the pattern appear from foggy backdrop - uneasily set upon the surface of the egg, a dance beyond sight or understanding. Forever-changing, never the same, curling vines entice, visually whispering a message of such fundament that one cannot be sure if the egg is a soothing lullabye or soul-stealing seduction: beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder.
Credit: Rylsar
Inspiration: Music. What's more supernatural than music? Robert Johnson went to the crossroads / so the legend goes / he left with his guitar / and the devil took his soul / the devil took his soul. Whether it be a Celtic harp spelling a web of slumber over a crowd or a provocative nymph's sea-song, music can even in our dour reality strike eerie chords within any soul.
Sock Monster Egg
This little egg is a swirl of multicolored dots and dashes, purples and reds and whites all tumbled together willy-nilly and interspersed only with a bit of foamy white that looks like nothing so much as the egg shell below peeking out. Round and round and round they go, drawn inexorably towards a pool of darkness at the egg's rounded middle that promises to devour them all - or half of them, anyway.
Credit: Imogen
Inspiration: The mysterious something that lives in your dryer and eats half your socks so you never have a matching pair.
