A Subtle Hum

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huruma3_icon.gif kaylee2_icon.gif

Scene Title A Subtle Hum
Synopsis An unlikely pair catch up in the halls of Bannerman's Castle.
Date December 12, 2011

Pollepel Island, Bannerman's Castle


The task that the Ferry has asked Kaylee to undertake is not a simple one. Checking every mind on the island for signs of treasonous and murderous behavior? Not easy. Especially when the island is full of soldiers or those who have experienced great loss. Touching on their minds can’t be easy. One after another they have taken time to be seen. Huruma went in the last batch, and right now she knows that Kaylee is finishing up the next after she had some time to rest.

That is why the dark woman lurks outside of her door. Waiting for her return.

Huruma stands up against the wall, eyes mostly closed as she feels people passing by in the space her field encompasses. She listens, and feels, watching them from afar if they should skirt the hall she has taken up in. Her heavy, long sleeved shirt covers the injury she sustained a month ago in Alaska, both it and her pants bearing newer tears. Her boots seem to be the most maintained, brown leather, worn but resilient.

The last person to step out of the room is the telepath herself, nose in her notebook as she scratches across her current page with a pencil. The light floral, floor length skirt, drifts around her legs as she walk, the sleeves of her blue sweater red sweater pushed up to her elbows. Finger tuck a long lock of blonde hair behind her ear as she looks over what she just wrote again.

Just behind her, a woman follows, most likely today’s volunteer.

The guard spots, Huruma, but Kaylee does not until she is almost on top of her. The mental presence hums against her barriers and startles the telepath. When she sees who it is, she stops in her tracks, her face registering surprised. “Huruma,” the young woman acknowledges the other, offering a small uncertain smile. Then there is the grimace. Memories of Adam always make her stomach twist and sick to her stomach. Not that she considers it a curse anymore.

Huruma is staring off into an abyss between bricks when she feels the two coming. First the guard, then Kaylee, who is first to receive a greeting in the shape of a smile, simple and close-lipped. She takes in the now familiar attire on the younger woman before lifting a hand towards the volunteer guard. It's okay, she's not here for trouble. Hard to believe, huh?

"Hello, Kaylee." Huruma's lips part only once she speaks, Kaylee's surprise giving her a touch more motivation. "I was wondering if you had a moment to spare."

“Uh…” Kaylee glances down at her notebook and closes it, satisfied with the notes within. “Sure.” Her smile brightens on her lips. “Why not? It’s been a while and I am kinda…” She motions to her head, notebook cradled against her chest, part of her thin cross is covered by it. “Well… tired of dealing with people’s heads.”

A hand motions the woman to proceed, “Walk me to me room?” Kaylee leans close and says softly, “Feels like the only place I can get any peace…. Well, when everyone is out.” She realizes suddenly that she is starting to babble like she does when she is nervous.

Huruma’s head tilts as Kaylee takes her time to answer, her eyes alighting on the delicate cross that is now at home around her neck. The smile, eventually, is returned, a pleased sort of expression taking over on the older woman. There is a nod of simple sympathy— Huruma knows all to well how dealing with it feels, after all.

“Sure…” Huruma nods again, lips in a small curl as she falls in beside Kaylee. Her steps are as quiet as they always were. “I can empathize….” Ha, get it? She's not very good at jokes. Still.”You still only hear their thoughts…and memories?”

“Only…” For some reason that word amuses Kaylee, not in a mocking way; but more thoughtful and a little wistful. It has been awhile since the two had truly been together. Her head turns slightly as she looks at Huruma out of the corner of her eye, maybe gaging the older woman’s reaction. “No.”

A small smile touches the corner of her lips, as she adds softly, “But then… it has never really been only. Even with Adam, I could manipulate them… though… now it’s more.” It’s been awhile since she tried to explain her ability. Just thinking about it, she knows her ability has subtle complexities.

However, does she trust the other woman enough to share?

“Difference between him and now,” Eyes forward again, focused on the hall before them, Kaylee is lost a little in her memories, “is I’m not killing people with it.” She could still, she can feel that part of her even now. A vague gesture around her, she adds, “I’m helping them…. Protecting them.”

Huruma's reaction to the negative seems to align with what could be expected; an angling of a smile, a pleased hooding to her eyes. She keeps a relaxed pace with Kaylee, turning the escort to more of a stroll. She remembers when they met— Kaylee was practically budding into her own back then. Just a few long years, right?

Mention of their first connection- Adam- earns a thinner smile, which ebbs to a neutral press of mouth.

“I remember.” Huruma knows how different she is, even just by manner. Things have changed. “And they are all the more fortunate for it.” She hesitates after saying this, gaze thoughtful when she turns it downward to the blonde. “I wanted to say that I am proud to see how far you have come.”

Cheeks color lightly at the compliment, head ducking down a little, but there is a smile there. Fingers replace blonde hair behind her ear, when it falls into her face. “It’s been a journey for sure.” In and out of time… “But… I know who I am now.” There is a small sadness that comes from that revelation. A price she paid for that knowledge. “I’m not that lost little girl that Adam took under his wing anymore.”

Her shoulders lift a little, “I’m…” she doesn’t want to use the word happy… she goes for a word that close as she could be given the circumstances, “…content.” It isn’t quite the word, but it works. Happy would be her and Joseph off the island.

“Though, I doubt I am the only one who has changed,” there is a slightly knowing look, a mischievous glint. Castle rumors no doubt.

“Under his wing… Such as it was.” Huruma murmurs, somewhere between amusement and idle thought. Still she seems content as well with the response, hooking her hands into the pockets of her pants. There is a smile again for her description of her life now. At least it seems to be approval, of a fashion. A light moves behind her gaze, only disturbed when Kaylee turns it all around to her. Huruma looks pointedly aside to the girl, brows lifting.

“Oh? I don't know whatever gave you that idea.” Huruma's mouth tightens, though it is rather clear she is teasing, deep drawl and all. “News to me…”

Mmhmm,” Kaylee clearly does not believe her.

The young woman slows her steps finally coming to a stop, she turns to Huruma and studies her. “No… “ Kaylee starts with some certainty, “…something has changed in you.” Eyes continue to study the darker features of Huruma, unfocusing once or twice, as she tries to figure out what exactly makes her think that. “Your mind… even sounds different.”

There was no pressure, no evidence of intrusion. Whatever, she is seeing she hasn’t had to search for. Only listens to the fluttering of Huruma’s thoughts against her closed mental barriers. “The hum of it is… changed. Subtle, but there.”

When Kaylee comes to a halt, Huruma is half a step ahead. She turns on her heel to face the younger woman, interest piqued when she says ‘no’. No what? Curiosity licks at the edges of her thoughts.

Something has changed. Huruma's pale eyes narrow slightly at Kaylee’s newest assessment, watching in abject silence as she tries now to home in on whatever it may be. Sounds different too? Her own thoughts drift, reminded of how people feel when she senses them under her own ability. How people feel certain ways, like a taste or a smell. How some bring her more positive feelings than others.

“…Is it really? That much? That you see it…?” Huruma’s tentative inquiry plays out on her brow and those surface thoughts, which take on a warmer hue, flitting over familiar faces and the echoes of moods belonging to them.

The blonde telepath can only nod slowly, a smile spreading on her lips, watching the other woman’s reaction. “Even our minds are shaped by the experiences in our lives. Good and bad.” In other word, yes. “You know…” she is confident in this conclusion, “change is often something unseen.” She taps at her temple with a knowing look, “Unless, of course, you are someone like me and you.”

Kaylee glances ahead of them and slowly starts their journey again, with a soft scuff of shoes. “Thank you,” she finally says after a moment of silence. “For… being my teacher all those year ago.” Years? Maybe two in Huruma’s time. “The temptation of my ability…. Its…” She sighs softly, “I’ve learned how to…. Embrace it, but not let it control me.” She gets a small short laugh, “Helps to have a good influence in my life, too.” Namely, the pastor she’s always seen with.

“And I suppose I can’t see it myself. Not really.” Huruma murmurs as Kaylee gives her that first knowing look, eyes hooded. But she does see it— she does know it. She is just being her usual self, complete with the hook of her arms as they cross in front of her once they start walking again. There’s a small sigh on her lips when the girl speaks again, drawing her in once more.

“You make it sound as if it were an eon.” Huruma laughs, the sound of it filling the corridor around them. She contains it beneath a sliver of a toothy smile this time, an unspoken touch of joy in her eyes. “Knowing your temptations is just as important as finding God— or at least a pastor. So… you are welcome. Even if things were not quite as good as they could have been— I am glad. You have earned your power.”

“Time can sometimes move differently for some,” begins the telepath softly. “What was only a few years for one, might have been nearly a decade for another.” There is a touch of sadness when she says that. Thoughts casting back to a small inn, in a very different time. “Or at least it seems that way, at least.”

Cheeks color slightly at the mention of the pastor, but she doesn’t shy away from it. It was true. “Not sure I have completely earned it yet, but…” she murmurs coyly, “I’m working on it.”

The door in question is in view, the relief for the guard trailing behind them, standing there waiting.

Huruma listens with a note of seriousness in her posture, head canted as Kaylee speaks of how time feels. Maybe she is right. There are other things now that feel like far more years than have been.

There’s a playful look when pink lingers on Kaylee’s cheeks, and Huruma just wears her best smug face. “Working on it is more than most can say, isn’t it?” She drops her arms, reaching a hand out to Kaylee’s elbow. The touch is reassuring, in a way— and perhaps a little thanks to the empath herself. “For what it is worth, I have faith in you.”

In light of her duties, the compliment has a positive effect on Kaylee, a true smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. With it, her emotions lighten, “It’s nice to have people that do.”

Reaching for the door handle, Kaylee gives Huruma a little wink, “Next time, you’ll have to tell me all about you and Mr. Ryans.” She pushes the door open before she adds, “The rumors around the castle are so scandalous, they are absolutely hard to believe.” A little of the impish young girl shines through for a moment, smile bright and full of mischief, but then she is gone… before she gets smacked for such things.

Faith is the least that Huruma can give her, after all the grief of the past and present; it doesn’t make up for certain things, but in a way it helps to pave the way for something better.

The wink catches Huruma a touch off-guard, though as soon as Kaylee explains herself, maybe she shouldn’t have been. There’s a flicker of tension and flustering, and Huruma just gives Kaylee a half-smile, half-grimace, scrubbing at her shorn scalp with her palm. “Hard to believe? I bet.” Huruma huffs a little through her nose, though she still basks in the bit of levity and brightness that the young woman gives off.

“Good evening, Kaylee.” Huruma speaks into the closing door before moving off, before long settling into another bit of smugness and saunter, setting off to tend to another duty.


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