Insomnia: It's what's for dinner
Who: Essdara, Penny
Where: Storerooms, HRW
When: Late, late night, day 22, month 10, turn 1, 7th Pass
Commentary: Not sure of my posing in this one, but it's not terrible.
The hour is late, almost impossibly late, most of the Weyr's residents having long since gone off to bed. The store room, never exactly bustling with occupants, nevertheless has one now in the form of the Smith girl, one lonely glowbasket casting a pool of soft light at her feet. She's rummaging through crates on a particular shelf that, to the knowledgeable, would be known to contain tea. Though her back is to the entrance, the tension of her frame betrays the turbulence of her current mood.
Essdara slinks in herself, from the kitchens enterance and looking around. It's with no small amount of suprise that she notices an open glow basket, or that there's someone in it's radiance. She stops, still, for a long moment while she appraises who it is, then moves in the girl's direction. "Penny? Isn't it awefully late to be looking for fresh tea? Are you looking for anything in particular? I know the room pretty well lately, if you need some help?"
Penny practically jumps out of her skin, her feet actually seeming to leave the ground for a second as she whirls around. "D-Dara!" she says, finally, as her heart starts beating again. "Faranth, you scared me." But it takes only a moment for her to find her smile, the sweet expression nicely masking the weariness behind it. "It is late," she agrees, that smile taking on a wry cast as her dark eyes flick back towards the open crate. "There is an infusion of mint and valerian and chamomile that's good for use as a sleep aid... I was hoping there might be some here so I could avoid a trip to the infirmary." With a sigh, she allows the lid of the crate to clatter back down. "I don't believe there is." She turns then, smiling on Essdara with considerably more warmth. "What about you? What brings you in here so late?"
Essdara grins ruefully, "I know just the one you mean, and I am afraid that, no, there's none in the stores. It seems insomnia's been rampant lately. I've more or less stopped trying to fight it, and just sleep where I can." She makes a face, "Just walking, exploring a bit. It's a quiet place, usually don't run into anyone in here, 'specially this time of night! But since I can't run in the bowl, when I get restless and need to walk..."
Penny sadly nudges the crate back into place under the shelf of smaller boxed teas, glancing over the shelf one more time before she stoops to pick up her glow basket. "I don't imagine many sleep well, with all that's been going on around here. And Thread, on top of it all. Do you think it gets easier as time moves on?" Her smile is gentle, almost sympathetic; she remembers Essdara's connection with the rider folk. She moves closer, unshielding her glow a little bit more. "I'll walk with you -- if you don't mind the company, that is." A slight furrow of her brow heralds her next question, "Why're you steering clear of the bowl?"
Essdara says, "Just a bit cold, you know? And you never know who you'll run into. I don't know if it gets easier. I'm not sure it will. Especially with the wings so low, and no replacements in sight... They are all starting to look tired keeping up with low numbers." A sigh. "Have you tried warm milk? That sometimes helps. Or rading records. For me, though, just wearing myself out until I can't not sleep is always best." She doesn't directly say yes or no to the company, but does start moving through the caverns a bit. "What's keeping you up, if I can ask?""
Penny trails alongside her, the glow lifted in one hand to light the way. A faint, delicate grimace meets Essdara's suggestion. "I don't really like milk," she admits. "And as far as reading is concerned, I've grown so accustomed to forcing myself awake while reading dry texts for my caucus classes that it no longer puts me to sleep." She moves along in silence for a moment before she says, "You can ask, but I'm not sure if I can really answer. Perhaps a lot of personal things on my mind, and work-related stress, no doubt. The onset of winter isn't helping much; it's never been my season, after all." And not surprising, considering her Southern Boll origins.
Essdara grins a little. "No, winter isn't easy. Do you have enough blankets? Once you get under them and get them warmed up, it's usually hard to force yourself out." She trails a hand along the shelves as they walk. "Personal things. Yes, that I can sympathise with. Still having trouble with my own, really. Anything I can help you with in yours?"
"So many blankets just feels so suffocating," Penny says, distantly, no doubt thinking of home. "Even after all these months, I still go to bed expecting to have just a light sheet, and the warm night breeze through my open window. Even at the Smith Hall it never got anywhere near this cold." She smiles, turning and glancing over at the younger girl. "I don't think you really want me to go into all that, it'd take ages, and I don't really understand it myself." In other words, she's not willing to discuss it. "Things are still rough with you?" Her voice, always warm, takes on a slightly richer timbre that carries sympathy with it.
Essdara shrugs. "I'm ok, really. Just a bit... Lost, I guess. Nothing to worry you about or anything. As you say, I don't understand it all myself." She pauses to look at a shelf that contains a variety of old plates. "You know, I was looking for something like this a few weeks ago. I swear this place knows what you want, and hides it."
It does seem to have a life of its own, doesn't it?" agrees Penny, stretching her own hand out to run her fingertips lightly over the edge of a shelf. "All the aisles and nooks and crannies, that never seem to be in the same place they were the last time you looked." Her other hand, the one holding the glow, falters a bit and she lowers it. Easier on her arm, though it does lower the ambient light considerably, limiting the pool of radiance to just in front of their feet. "I wish there was a way I could help you through it," she murmurs, eyes on the plates. "You seem to be such a sweet girl, to have such a heavy emotional burden like this so young. I think when I was your age I was sitting happily playing with scrap metal and inventing new bridge-building techniques."
Essdara looks over at her, suprised. "You barely know me, Penny. I'm hardly any of that. I just have had a rough time lately, that's all. It's nothing compared to what the rest of the Weyr goes through every day. I'll be fine." She glances at the basket, "Want me to carry it?"
Penny laughs, the sound echoing a little in the cavern. "I just mean, the few times I have encountered you, you seem very nice." That said, she shakes her head, shifting her grip on the basket to her other hand. "Maybe in a bit." A pause, and then: "But, you see, I've not been talking with the rest of the Weyr. Don't underestimate the power of having a face to put with a rough time, as you say, as opposed to just the general weightiness of the Weyr." She shrugs, smiling, unabashed. "I'm sometimes too familiar for my own good; I don't mean to offend you."
Essdara shakes her head, "You're not offending me, no. Just, I guess, surprising me a bit. But I've not got so many friends I'll turn down one at this point." She resumes walking with a shrug. "You might want to talk more. T'zen's good for that, he'll talk your ear off."
Penny chuckles, tucking her free hand into her pocket. "I did like him, the one time I met him," she admits. "He's got such... personality. He was chasing a weyrbrat," she adds, mildly, expression amused. For a moment, that seems to be all she's going to say, but then she adds thoughtfully, "I don't really have many friends. A thousand and a half acquaintances, yes, but none of them usually turn out as friends."
Essdara smiles a little. "I'm the same. I've spent so much time learning to cook, or reading records, or just being myself... I've never been very outgoing, I guess. T'zen is probably my closest friend, he's really like a brother. One or two others. Her. That's about it." She looks around, "But I've been trying to change that, the last few months. Trying to give more people the chance to like me. It always surprises me when someone does." She confesses.
"I don't see why it should," Penny says briskly, sounding almost motherly for an instant. "You're quite pleasant enough to satisfy anyone, I should think. And you cook like you were born for it," she adds with a dreamy sort of smile. "Outgoing is only a state of mind," she goes on, quietly. "I've been outgoing my entire life, and it's only because I caught on as a child that most of the time, nobody's really paying attention to you. You think people are waiting for you to make some sort of mistake, or that they're judging you based on your words and actions, but the truth is, people are so wrapped up in their own lives that most of the time, no one's even looking." As if snapping herself out of some sort of reverie, she glances aside and grins. "Lonely, perhaps, but freeing as well."
"If noone notices you, then they will never know how bad you really are under it all." The young cook murmers, barely haerd. Louder, "I understand that pretty well. I've always managed to be pleasant enough to get by, but few people have ever found me interesting enough to look past. And most of them, just for the treats." A rare smile.
"And as far as I'm concerned, most are too confused by the prospect of a female smith that they politely dismiss me from their worldviews so that they don't have to process such an anomaly as I." Penny's answering smile is bright, practically lighting the cavern by itself. "You see? I do believe we shall be friends. We have common ground between us after all." The smith's expression has a hint of sympathetic curiosity, the girl's first comment eliciting some concern, but she doesn't raise the issue. Not yet, at any rate.
Essdara smiles, "We do, yes. And I don't think there's anything wrong with a female anything. I get much the same reacion in the kitchens, though, being as young as I am and having the audacity to express my opinions. I fear I'm not very popular there."
"Some day," Penny says archly, "People will realize that youth and gender have nothing to do with intelligence, and everything to do with determination." One shoulder lifts, casting odd shadows for a moment with the glow basket, in a queer sort of shrug. "Your efforts are appreciated by the masses, though," she points out. "At some point, the older cooks are bound to realize that and give you your due credit."
Essdara nods, stopping to look around. "That's what I think. I just ignore the complaints and mutters, and go on with life, and figure when I'm older they'll be so used to hearing me, they'll forget not to listen."
Penny stops as well, a half step ahead of Essdara. "Looking for something?" she asks, glancing around as if trying to see what the girl's looking at. After a few seconds, though, her gaze returns to the young cook. "It's such a shame that they don't seem to recognize your abilities. I wouldn't think people could be so closed-minded toward change."
Essdara grins a little, "It's probably for the best, I think. I've gotten a bit more realistic lately. I know not everything I say is doable, or makes sense, and I guess that's what I really need most, is the experience to know what does and doesn't. So, getting older, working, that will help."
Penny listens in silence, the glow light bobbing along and swinging slightly as she moves. When Essdara has finished, she nods, saying lightly, "I don't doubt that it will." With a sigh, she stops, not far from the exit tunnel to the infirmary. "I think I had better leave you here," she says quietly, regretfully, "and see about that tea. Otherwise my morning tomorrow will be, to say the least, unbearable." She smiles, briefly, tilting her head a little. "I'm glad you ran into me, Dara... I forget sometimes how nice it is to just talk to people."
Essdara smiles lightly at her, and makes a shooing motion. "Go, do what you can to sleep. I'm glad you were here, too, for much the same reason. Amusing, I came here to be alone a while, and quite the opposite helped more."
Penny laughs. "Just goes to show that you never know what you really want until you get it, eh?" She holds out the glow to Essdara, leaving as she is into the well-lit infirmary. "Good night, Essdara; you try to sleep as well, if you can." With that, she offers one last friendly smile before she turns and climbs the ramp-like tunnel into the infirmary.
Where: Storerooms, HRW
When: Late, late night, day 22, month 10, turn 1, 7th Pass
Commentary: Not sure of my posing in this one, but it's not terrible.
The hour is late, almost impossibly late, most of the Weyr's residents having long since gone off to bed. The store room, never exactly bustling with occupants, nevertheless has one now in the form of the Smith girl, one lonely glowbasket casting a pool of soft light at her feet. She's rummaging through crates on a particular shelf that, to the knowledgeable, would be known to contain tea. Though her back is to the entrance, the tension of her frame betrays the turbulence of her current mood.
Essdara slinks in herself, from the kitchens enterance and looking around. It's with no small amount of suprise that she notices an open glow basket, or that there's someone in it's radiance. She stops, still, for a long moment while she appraises who it is, then moves in the girl's direction. "Penny? Isn't it awefully late to be looking for fresh tea? Are you looking for anything in particular? I know the room pretty well lately, if you need some help?"
Penny practically jumps out of her skin, her feet actually seeming to leave the ground for a second as she whirls around. "D-Dara!" she says, finally, as her heart starts beating again. "Faranth, you scared me." But it takes only a moment for her to find her smile, the sweet expression nicely masking the weariness behind it. "It is late," she agrees, that smile taking on a wry cast as her dark eyes flick back towards the open crate. "There is an infusion of mint and valerian and chamomile that's good for use as a sleep aid... I was hoping there might be some here so I could avoid a trip to the infirmary." With a sigh, she allows the lid of the crate to clatter back down. "I don't believe there is." She turns then, smiling on Essdara with considerably more warmth. "What about you? What brings you in here so late?"
Essdara grins ruefully, "I know just the one you mean, and I am afraid that, no, there's none in the stores. It seems insomnia's been rampant lately. I've more or less stopped trying to fight it, and just sleep where I can." She makes a face, "Just walking, exploring a bit. It's a quiet place, usually don't run into anyone in here, 'specially this time of night! But since I can't run in the bowl, when I get restless and need to walk..."
Penny sadly nudges the crate back into place under the shelf of smaller boxed teas, glancing over the shelf one more time before she stoops to pick up her glow basket. "I don't imagine many sleep well, with all that's been going on around here. And Thread, on top of it all. Do you think it gets easier as time moves on?" Her smile is gentle, almost sympathetic; she remembers Essdara's connection with the rider folk. She moves closer, unshielding her glow a little bit more. "I'll walk with you -- if you don't mind the company, that is." A slight furrow of her brow heralds her next question, "Why're you steering clear of the bowl?"
Essdara says, "Just a bit cold, you know? And you never know who you'll run into. I don't know if it gets easier. I'm not sure it will. Especially with the wings so low, and no replacements in sight... They are all starting to look tired keeping up with low numbers." A sigh. "Have you tried warm milk? That sometimes helps. Or rading records. For me, though, just wearing myself out until I can't not sleep is always best." She doesn't directly say yes or no to the company, but does start moving through the caverns a bit. "What's keeping you up, if I can ask?""
Penny trails alongside her, the glow lifted in one hand to light the way. A faint, delicate grimace meets Essdara's suggestion. "I don't really like milk," she admits. "And as far as reading is concerned, I've grown so accustomed to forcing myself awake while reading dry texts for my caucus classes that it no longer puts me to sleep." She moves along in silence for a moment before she says, "You can ask, but I'm not sure if I can really answer. Perhaps a lot of personal things on my mind, and work-related stress, no doubt. The onset of winter isn't helping much; it's never been my season, after all." And not surprising, considering her Southern Boll origins.
Essdara grins a little. "No, winter isn't easy. Do you have enough blankets? Once you get under them and get them warmed up, it's usually hard to force yourself out." She trails a hand along the shelves as they walk. "Personal things. Yes, that I can sympathise with. Still having trouble with my own, really. Anything I can help you with in yours?"
"So many blankets just feels so suffocating," Penny says, distantly, no doubt thinking of home. "Even after all these months, I still go to bed expecting to have just a light sheet, and the warm night breeze through my open window. Even at the Smith Hall it never got anywhere near this cold." She smiles, turning and glancing over at the younger girl. "I don't think you really want me to go into all that, it'd take ages, and I don't really understand it myself." In other words, she's not willing to discuss it. "Things are still rough with you?" Her voice, always warm, takes on a slightly richer timbre that carries sympathy with it.
Essdara shrugs. "I'm ok, really. Just a bit... Lost, I guess. Nothing to worry you about or anything. As you say, I don't understand it all myself." She pauses to look at a shelf that contains a variety of old plates. "You know, I was looking for something like this a few weeks ago. I swear this place knows what you want, and hides it."
It does seem to have a life of its own, doesn't it?" agrees Penny, stretching her own hand out to run her fingertips lightly over the edge of a shelf. "All the aisles and nooks and crannies, that never seem to be in the same place they were the last time you looked." Her other hand, the one holding the glow, falters a bit and she lowers it. Easier on her arm, though it does lower the ambient light considerably, limiting the pool of radiance to just in front of their feet. "I wish there was a way I could help you through it," she murmurs, eyes on the plates. "You seem to be such a sweet girl, to have such a heavy emotional burden like this so young. I think when I was your age I was sitting happily playing with scrap metal and inventing new bridge-building techniques."
Essdara looks over at her, suprised. "You barely know me, Penny. I'm hardly any of that. I just have had a rough time lately, that's all. It's nothing compared to what the rest of the Weyr goes through every day. I'll be fine." She glances at the basket, "Want me to carry it?"
Penny laughs, the sound echoing a little in the cavern. "I just mean, the few times I have encountered you, you seem very nice." That said, she shakes her head, shifting her grip on the basket to her other hand. "Maybe in a bit." A pause, and then: "But, you see, I've not been talking with the rest of the Weyr. Don't underestimate the power of having a face to put with a rough time, as you say, as opposed to just the general weightiness of the Weyr." She shrugs, smiling, unabashed. "I'm sometimes too familiar for my own good; I don't mean to offend you."
Essdara shakes her head, "You're not offending me, no. Just, I guess, surprising me a bit. But I've not got so many friends I'll turn down one at this point." She resumes walking with a shrug. "You might want to talk more. T'zen's good for that, he'll talk your ear off."
Penny chuckles, tucking her free hand into her pocket. "I did like him, the one time I met him," she admits. "He's got such... personality. He was chasing a weyrbrat," she adds, mildly, expression amused. For a moment, that seems to be all she's going to say, but then she adds thoughtfully, "I don't really have many friends. A thousand and a half acquaintances, yes, but none of them usually turn out as friends."
Essdara smiles a little. "I'm the same. I've spent so much time learning to cook, or reading records, or just being myself... I've never been very outgoing, I guess. T'zen is probably my closest friend, he's really like a brother. One or two others. Her. That's about it." She looks around, "But I've been trying to change that, the last few months. Trying to give more people the chance to like me. It always surprises me when someone does." She confesses.
"I don't see why it should," Penny says briskly, sounding almost motherly for an instant. "You're quite pleasant enough to satisfy anyone, I should think. And you cook like you were born for it," she adds with a dreamy sort of smile. "Outgoing is only a state of mind," she goes on, quietly. "I've been outgoing my entire life, and it's only because I caught on as a child that most of the time, nobody's really paying attention to you. You think people are waiting for you to make some sort of mistake, or that they're judging you based on your words and actions, but the truth is, people are so wrapped up in their own lives that most of the time, no one's even looking." As if snapping herself out of some sort of reverie, she glances aside and grins. "Lonely, perhaps, but freeing as well."
"If noone notices you, then they will never know how bad you really are under it all." The young cook murmers, barely haerd. Louder, "I understand that pretty well. I've always managed to be pleasant enough to get by, but few people have ever found me interesting enough to look past. And most of them, just for the treats." A rare smile.
"And as far as I'm concerned, most are too confused by the prospect of a female smith that they politely dismiss me from their worldviews so that they don't have to process such an anomaly as I." Penny's answering smile is bright, practically lighting the cavern by itself. "You see? I do believe we shall be friends. We have common ground between us after all." The smith's expression has a hint of sympathetic curiosity, the girl's first comment eliciting some concern, but she doesn't raise the issue. Not yet, at any rate.
Essdara smiles, "We do, yes. And I don't think there's anything wrong with a female anything. I get much the same reacion in the kitchens, though, being as young as I am and having the audacity to express my opinions. I fear I'm not very popular there."
"Some day," Penny says archly, "People will realize that youth and gender have nothing to do with intelligence, and everything to do with determination." One shoulder lifts, casting odd shadows for a moment with the glow basket, in a queer sort of shrug. "Your efforts are appreciated by the masses, though," she points out. "At some point, the older cooks are bound to realize that and give you your due credit."
Essdara nods, stopping to look around. "That's what I think. I just ignore the complaints and mutters, and go on with life, and figure when I'm older they'll be so used to hearing me, they'll forget not to listen."
Penny stops as well, a half step ahead of Essdara. "Looking for something?" she asks, glancing around as if trying to see what the girl's looking at. After a few seconds, though, her gaze returns to the young cook. "It's such a shame that they don't seem to recognize your abilities. I wouldn't think people could be so closed-minded toward change."
Essdara grins a little, "It's probably for the best, I think. I've gotten a bit more realistic lately. I know not everything I say is doable, or makes sense, and I guess that's what I really need most, is the experience to know what does and doesn't. So, getting older, working, that will help."
Penny listens in silence, the glow light bobbing along and swinging slightly as she moves. When Essdara has finished, she nods, saying lightly, "I don't doubt that it will." With a sigh, she stops, not far from the exit tunnel to the infirmary. "I think I had better leave you here," she says quietly, regretfully, "and see about that tea. Otherwise my morning tomorrow will be, to say the least, unbearable." She smiles, briefly, tilting her head a little. "I'm glad you ran into me, Dara... I forget sometimes how nice it is to just talk to people."
Essdara smiles lightly at her, and makes a shooing motion. "Go, do what you can to sleep. I'm glad you were here, too, for much the same reason. Amusing, I came here to be alone a while, and quite the opposite helped more."
Penny laughs. "Just goes to show that you never know what you really want until you get it, eh?" She holds out the glow to Essdara, leaving as she is into the well-lit infirmary. "Good night, Essdara; you try to sleep as well, if you can." With that, she offers one last friendly smile before she turns and climbs the ramp-like tunnel into the infirmary.