Cookies · and · Smiles

WHAT: Samiya, Celane, and eventually Quena enjoy the delights of the Igen Weyr storage cavern.
WHERE: Igen Weyr Stores
WHEN: September 11, 2007

Samiya finds two new friends! A stuffed procine she aptly names "Food" and an Assistant Headwoman named "Quena".



Later that day when the nannies took notice of the new addition to the nursery Sami flashed them her golden winning smile to win them over. It must have worked, because "Food" was seen later enjoying tea with some friends.



Sami, Celane, and Quena in the Weyr Stores. Ended on 9-11-07. Started on who knows.

Igen Weyr Stores
Igen's storage rooms are actually a collection of interconnecting carverns, all of which are well organized, well cleaned, and filled with every concieveable item a Weyr might need. The walls, floor and ceilings are tinted black, reminicent of a great fire in some day long past. Each area has a new door which can be closed and locked to prevent the spread of fire, while still allowing for escape should someone get locked in. The sheer volume of supplies, stacked separately or on the tall shelves reaching almost to the cavern's ceiling, seem to be in the perfect place. Regular cleaning is apparent from the exceptionally low level of dust in the air, and the inventory is organized clearly by category. One area has clothing while another is piled high with furniture. There are children's toys, linens, blankets, and tapestries, all made within the last 50 turns. A small plaque by the door clarifies that all weyrfolk are welcome to anything in these stores as long as they sign out the items on the slates hanging in each area.
+view the specific rooms and areas of the stores.
Obvious exits:
Hallway
Things that can be viewed:
Blankets Candidacy Clothes
Dry foods Furniture Leathers
Toys

->-->--->----> Toys
A dark alcove of the storage rooms, between foodstuff and clothing, is lined with deeper shelves. Here, the labels are printed in over-large letters and the contents of the lower shelves are brightly colored bins for toys. There are plush animal toys, wooden boats, spinning tops, and building blocks. Higher up, are sealed cannisters of colored clay, and sticks of colored chalk.

Samiya
Her cherubic alabaster countenance is highlighted by gentle heart-shaped features, a petite pixie nose, and rosy chubby cheeks. A halo of whipped butter-cream curls set off the sweet glistening pools of her innocent aquamarine eyes.
Sammy is diminutive, even for her age of somewhere between 3 and 4 turns, with impetuous little feet and tiny childishly puckish hands. Her small frame is simply clad in a pale blue shift that is made of child-friendly chambray.

Celane
A tall, willowy young woman, no traces remain of the slightly awkward, off-kilter girl Celane used to be. Her naturally pale skin is deeply tanned by exposure to the Igen sun, and her features are elegant and finely boned. Long, wild, wavy light brown hair is a challenge to keep under control, and she finds a different way of doing so every day--braided, pulled back, or clipped in place.
She has a wide, brilliant smile that seems to appear from nowhere, and serious, piercing High-Reaches-Ice blue eyes. A look could catch one off guard, as they sometimes seemed misplaced on the face of this normally mirthful girl-- they always hold a hint of sadness, and when she makes eye contact, she can suddenly seem much older than she really is, though she has only reached 20 Turns, 11 months, and 3 days.
Celane takes pride in the clothing she wears, often donning brightly colored, sometimes embroidered sundresses. Simple sandals cover her feet, with straps of leather that twine around her legs and tie midway to her knees.

The stores are a little overwhelming, even for someone who's used to them. Celane has made her way through a string of caverns, heading towards where the clothing is kept. Is this this way? No-- that one. At least, she's pretty sure. She pauses a couple times to check where she is, and eventually she arrives to the part of the stores she's looking for, a room piled high with garb of every sort. The dresses are kept neatly stored in one corner, and it's to these that she makes her way.

Snickering and sneaking, Samiya does everything she can to hold her glee inside as her childish eyes graze across the plethora of contents, hot on the heals of Celane. Stubby fingers play upon textures and colors that dazzle and delight the little tike, causing her to emit a small unintentional squeak of pleasure. In the dim light of the stores her eyes shine as bright as a fresh basket of glows; her glorious surroundings triggering emotions inside of her usually akin to handfastings and child birthing.

It's taken enough concentration to keep her bearings, so the pitter patter of child feet went completely undetected by Celane. It's the squeak that finally catches her attention. She's picked up a dress, one of the older ones in the stores by the look of it, and turns at the sound in mid-examination of it. "Samiya! You didn't slip away from the nannies without permission, did you?"

Pale eyes growing wide, Samiya breaks to a halt and just /stares/ at Celane for a long moment before avidly shaking her head no, tussling the little dollops of curls with the exaggerated effort. Her expression tells a completely different story, however, with guilt etched so deeply within her brows she almost looks like an old auntie. Hard pressed for words, the child remains steadfastly silent, sure her actions will say everything she cannot.

Celane walks over to the child and bends down to be on her level, clutching the old dress in one hand. "You /sure/ about that?" It isn't hard for Celane to read the girl's expression, apt with children as she is. "Well, I suppose it's okay because you're with me. When I'm done here, I'm going to have to bring you back, okay? But in the meantime... would you like to help me pick out a dress?"

Thrilled by the reprieve Samiya throws her hands in the air and shouts, "Des!" and before Celane can change her mind, she dashes past the young woman to the piles of clothes. Her busy eyes run searchingly across the heaps of clothes and finally come to pause upon neatly folded garment of some sort. What's caught her attention is the /color/ , which is the brightest paprika orange the limits of Pern would allow. Stabbing a finger at the object of her affection, she boldly insists, "Der!"

Celane laughs merrily as Sami runs towards the clothing. Walking at a much more refined pace back to the dresses, she places the first one she had selected back down on a pile. "That one?" She asks, carefully prying the dress from where it is among the others. She lets it unfold as she shakes it loose and holds it up to herself. It's far too short for her lanky frame, and there's a splotch of some sort near the hem-- a roasted wherry dinner landing in the lap, perhaps. "It sure is bright..."

Grinning broadly, Samiya nods with brisk enthusiasm, but her gaze is grabbed by another folded piece of cloth and she dashes to poke at it. It's the absolute drabbest brown. "Sennth!" she cheerfully explains her attachment to this particular item.

"Oh! That looks like him?" Celane considers this one a bit more closely. It fits her far better... maybe just a trim added to the bottom would make it fit. "It's a nice color." Well, for a dragon, maybe. She holds it up to herself, then sets it aside, digging through the dresses for /her/ next choice. The one that catches her eye is a light cream, a sisal affair that's grown very thin over Turns of wear, but still intact. "What do you think of this one?"

Crumpling her nose, Samiya readily shares her distaste. Hunting further, her fingers play up and down the piles of old and new clothes. Crisp and cold like a winter's morn is the next dress she spots. With her tiny fingers she digs and tugs and pulls and grabs, trying to break it loose from the pack. All the while with each inch she manages the clothes piled atop come that much closer to a disastrous spill onto the dirty floor.

Despite the girl's distaste, Celane sets the cream dress off to one side in a new 'maybe' pile. She does so just in time to be able to steady the precarious stack of dresses, holding them still for Samiya to loosen the dress from the pile. "Hmm. That one does look promising," she muses, before the entire dress has even come into sight.

With one final tug the dress suddenly comes loose, catching Samiya off guard and sending her back onto her little rump. A spark of laughter spurts forth as she finds mirth in her own clumsiness. Arms stretching as far as they can, she holds the now crumpled dress up toward Celane. "See?"

Celane's first reaction is a gasp-- is she hurt? Samiya's laughter comes, though, and Celane joins in, mostly out of the relief that she doesn't have to bring an injured child back to the nannies. "I do!" She reaches a hand forward, helping the fallen girl back onto her feet.

Once on her feet Samiya tosses the dress at Celane, finished with this whole 'dress' mission. Spinning on her heels she dashes off down the isle and through a door, the tiny thump of her bare feet echoing faintly back toward the young woman. The sounds suddenly stop and a whoop of triumph and excitement filters back, followed by an exuberant, "Toyeeee!! Toyeeee!! Seeeeee! Toyeee!!!" She's found the shelves of toys, obviously.

At the whirl of motion, all that Celane can do is spin on her own heels and follow after her energetic charge. "Toyeeeee? Oh, toys! -- oh, /no/." A groan as she realizes what mischief she might have to keep under control. She catches up with the girl, reaching the shelf also, and can't help but be a little impressed by the variety the stores has to offer in this area. "Wow. Didn't know the weyr had so many." Blocks and balls and other traditional toys are intermingled with other, more creative items. She picks up a 'wand' from one of the higher shelves-- a stick of some sort that's been decorated with long lengths of ribbon.

Practically on the verge of exploding, Samiya's little feet patter back and forth, up and down the total length of the glorious spectacle upon the shelves. "Oooh!" "Oooh!" "Oooh!" Decisions, decisions, so many, and so few hands. She putters back and forth, repeatedly, muttering manically to herself, naming each item her bright eyes alight upon in her own little language. Once in awhile something /might/ sound familiar. *Babble* *Babble* "Kiddy!" *Babble* *Babble* "Waygun!" *Babble* She comes to a breaking stop before one spot, her head tilting to the side with either curiosity, surprise, or just plain confusion.

Celane waves the ribbon-wand around a bit, in front of her and around her head, laughing as she watches Samiya's giddy joy at being in the presence of so many toys. Her own eyes glance over them as well, looking among the shelves with a much more adult curiosity-- what adult knew how many different toys children enjoyed playing with? When Samiya stops at one point in front of the shelves, she turns to look down, crouching once more to meet her level. "What's that?"

Samiya points a crooked finger at a stuffed pig, her head tilting back and forth as she tries to get a handle on just 'what' it is or 'why' it's amongst the toys. Finally, with a decisive nod, she names it, "Food!"

"Porcine," Celane elaborates on the word 'food' for the child. "You're right, we eat them. Kind of funny-looking creatures, aren't they?" She takes the pig, waving it a bit in the child's face. "What'd you think? Fun to play with?" Her own tone is skeptical, but willing to believe that maybe Samiya /would/ find it so.

Oh you bet she can. Samiya is thrilled to death, but corrects with her childish authority on the subject, "Sennth food!" Look at that, two whole words pronounced correctly. Someone's been practicing. Her stubby hands grab at the pig, both arms raised as she bats at the air before her face in her attempt. She barks, "Food! Food! Food!" in rabid, rampant, rapid fire.

Celane hands the pig over to Samiya, unable to control her laughter. "Yes! Sennth food!" She simply watches for a moment as the child continues her chorus of 'food', then reaches for another stuffed animal, this one of a runner. "Is this one Sennth food?" She asks, holding the toy in front of the girl.

Curling her arms around her prize pig, Sami now turns her attention to Celane. She stares at the runner for a long time, and cocks her head thoughtfully. ''Dunno," the child flippantly informs, and then allows her eyes to once again graze the shelves as if looking for something. Her gaze bounces from item to item until they stop on a pretty tropical bird, mid-flight, carved from wood. Pulling one hand free from the strangle-hold she has on her new stuffed toy, she points, and in an attempt to educate Celane she states, "Der!" It's no wherry, but at least it has wings.

Celane turns her head slightly to one side, incredulous. "/That's/ Sennth food?" she asks. She reaches up for the carved bird, looking over it close-up once it's in her hands and then offering it to the child. "Or do you just like all of the colors?" She gives another look-over of the toys herself, spotting an odd, dusty, misplaced yellow hat somewhere in the recesses of the shelves. She retrieves it and promptly dons it, the brim flopping loosely over her face. "How do I look?"

Samiya scrunches her nose as she tries to rectify calling that pretty bird the same thing as a wherry. Well, it has wings! In classic Sami-style she shrugs it off for a more preferable topic - one she knows how to answer - and grins toothily at Celane. "Goo-D" she struggles to properly pronounce, and then she once hugs both arms tightly around the pig with an uncompromising fierceness. Don't even try and take it from her.

The sound of feet hitting the ground can be heard and within moments, Quena's form appears in the entranceway. She watches the pair interact for a little bit. It seems that Celane donning that hat is enough to make her finally break her silence. "Will you be incorporating that into a new uniform for the cooks?" She asks, eyebrows arches. "Because really, I think you'd look just marvelous. Perhaps a feather or two? And a flower here?" Hands are moved around her own head to demonstrate where these things should go. Samiya is offered a smile and the woman wiggles her fingers at the girl. "Nice toy you've got there."

Quena
Tossled curls of the darkest brown abound all over this young woman's head. Her eyes are a striking light green with sharp and finely defined eyebrows arching over them. Cheekbones are high, causing her to have elegant planes to her features. Her nose is almost straight, were it not for the slight bump along the bridge. Soft and rosy lips are a nice touch, their shape full and flattering to the rest of her face. She sports a slender athletic figure, curvy in the right places.
Her dress is simple, made of a soft and clingy teal fabric. The neckline drops down provacatively low, stopping short of actually showing anything. For footwear she's wearing boots that lack any heel and are a dull black. If the weather is chilly? She'll throw on a heavy furlined jacket and knitted hat.
Quena is 20 Turns, 4 months, and 29 days old.

Celane jokingly strikes a pose, tipping the hat with a pinch of her thumb and forefinger, and as she does so, a little cloud of dust rises from the hat. Celane sneezes just as Quena addresses the cook-and-child pair. "Oh, Quena! I don't know... seems like this sort of thing'd hazard falling into the stew, don't you think?" She turns to look down at Samiya. "But if /you/ think I look good... I'm always one to trust a child's opinion."

Eyeing Quena with stark suspicion, Samiya backs into a shelf, squeezing ever tighter to her prize. "Food," she says to the young woman, though there isn't anything more in the way of explanation as she intently stares at the newcomer. Back sliding down the shelf toward Celane, the child glances sidelong up at her adult-sized friend, a small smile breaking across her puckish features. "Goo," she states (Sorta) once again. Sami then clams up tight and turns her suspicious attention on Quena.

She continues to smile at Samiya, even when the little girl backs away with suspicion. "Not going to take your toy, kiddo. It's all yours." Quena than flashes a broader grin towards Celane. "I don't know. Perhaps if you got some string and tied it underneathe your chin? Then it would stay secured in place. All of you in the kitchen would look quite dashing, I would think."

Celane glances worriedly at Sami, echoing Quena's words of reassurance. "It's okay. I'm sure if Quena wanted a toy of her own, she could pick one out from all the others. Right?" She flashes a smile at the assistant headwoman, then tries pulling the sides of the brim downwards in approximation of how a string would secure it in place. "Maybe. Ooh, maybe a pretty ribbon instead. But then that'd probably get /dipped/ in the stew." Such a conundrum.

Brilliant! Quena hit the nail right on the head. In vast relief, Samiya emits an over-inflated sigh and then with buckets full of gratitude, for no one really ever /confirmed/ the toy was hers until now, she trains one of her brightest ear to ear grins on the young headwoman. Once again light on her feet, the child clumsily skips up and down the isle, dancing the procured porcine as she quietly sings her newest song: The Food song. "Foo', Foo', FOO', Foo, Foo-D!"

"A dilemma if I ever saw one." Quena responds to Celane, lips pulling up into another flash of a smile. "Maybe you'd all be better off wearing those tiara things. That'd be... interesting at the least. And there wouldn't be anything to drag in the stew or brush into. You know?" Her eyes trail away from the other woman and then onto the little girl again. She giggles a little, watching with clear amusement as she plays. "I assume that 'Foo, Foo, Foo-d!' means something?" The question directed more to Celane than the young child at the moment.

"I /think/ it's the name of her new friend," Celane explains for Quena's benefit as she watches the child galavant around the cavern singing her new song. "Food, because it's something Sennth eats. And she's quite fond of Sennth." She takes off the hat, which is really pretty goofy-looking after all, and mimics a tiara with her hand, curving her palm and placing it on the approximate spot on her head. "Something like this? Not /too/ ostentatious. But it might actually be helpful for keeping our hair back." She contemplates the idea as if it's fully feasible. "Hm. Think we could dig up enough in the stores for everybody?"

Hearing Quena, Samiya dances in her direction. Coming to a bouncy stop before the young woman, she dances the pig in an illustrative fashion and continues to sing. "Foo', foo', FOO', Foo'D!" Pausing this action, she turns to Celane and nods vigorously to her explanation, and then triumphantly shoves the toy in the air and shouts, "FOOD!" so loud it echoes off the walls.

Quena bobs her head up and down. "You know, it's entirely possible that you're correct." A giggle turns to a laugh as she shakes her head, attention stolen by the little girl. "She's an interesting kid. I hope she doesn't try to feed it to Sennth." This is added in much lower tones to Celane, obviosly not meant for Samiya to hear. "Oh, I think so. I mean they wouldn't have to be diamond studded or anything. They could have feathers, rocks, sea-shells. Things like that. You could make your own, as long as there were enough headbandy things to go around." She muses, tapping her finger on her lip.

"If she did, I think Sennth'd be smart enough to refuse the offering," Celane muses, low tones to match Quena's, and she, too, watches the child running around in her own little game with her new toy. At the different ideas for tiaras, her imagination starts to run. "Ooh! Seashells. Feathers. I like that idea. What else could we use? Maybe some of those really fine seed-beads from the Weavercraft? Wonder how much they'd cost. Maybe headbands, with some nice hair-combs to help keep them in place, if we could get them."

With the 'dults busy on a subject she has no idea about, Samiya bops off around a corner, and disappears into the bowels of the vast stores. Her position can easily be marked for a good little while by the thumping sound of her dancing footfalls, and the sing-songy play of her voice off the cavern walls.

"Better catch your charge before she gets lost." Quena recommands to Celane. "I have to do some inventory this evening. And I think I'll bring up the idea of tiara-making to the headwoman when I get a chance." She smiles a little and then lifts her hand. "Have fun playing Food, Celane. Make sure he doesn't get eaten." An amused expression and then she winks before heading on her way again.

Celane waves to the assistant as she departs. "I will, Quena. See you later!" She tucks her new floppy yellow hat under her arm and heads off, as well, following the sounds of child's laughter as she attempts to track down the tot. "Sami! Come on, it's time we bring you back to the nannies now. They'll be wondering where you've gotten to." And soon she, too, has disappeared into the caverns, the echo of her voice through the caverns joining the sing-song sound of Sami's.