Participants:
| Scene Title | Play Date |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Three women gather in an attempt to lull the young Kasha to sleep. |
| Date | May 29, 2011 |
Dusk comes day after day without fail, and even in the castle they possess a sense of day and night, and even my the middle of the night most people are asleep. In the late evening, however, it is whatever last minute chores to be allotted, and most children being coaxed to bed. Much of the time it can fail, through no fault but that of the kid- what kid ever wants to go to bed? Bed is boring. Keeping Kasha awake isn't hard, especially if trying to explicitly wear her out so that she falls right to sleep. Restful sleep is so hard to come by, so the less that she wakes either Abby or Huruma, the better.
With the wet spring season slowly turning into summer, the weather has been humid and warm even at night. Evening brings a cooler time, enough so that the mugginess becomes wetness. There is no rain tonight, but there is the distant fog of clouds in the sky, darkening the sunset over castle walls and shrouding the grounds in faded light.
Huruma, her manner and bold appearance aside, can be among those who look silly- more specifically, when she is in shorts and a tank top, crouched in the grass with her hands clamped on the dew. They're in one of the enclosed coves near the castle, trees and brush cloaked in thick summer leaves, crumbling rock walls mossed over, and the peeps of sleepy birds in the air.
"Here, I've got- wh- hss-" The dark woman chokes on her words, suddenly, hands springing in the air as if she were trying to grab onto a sudsy bar of soap. Except that it isn't a bar of soap, it is a bullfrog of fair size. And he is an escape artist.
'ooooh! Oooh!" This from Kasha, who's sitting on a blanket, moving back and forth, rocking in spot, watching huruma attempting to catch a toad. They've all been hunting them - even the baby when she's been crawling around the blanket - bringing them to the fabric and setting them loose by the baby. Abigail is in another corner, crouched, moving her hands in oh so slowly stealthy-like for the around her spot.
"Lynette?" Seeing if the electrokinetic has caught hers yet. It's a game, wear Kasha out, so that they can hopefully sleep through the night. She'll have to ask Kash if she ever ends up afraid of frogs.
She pounces, quick as lightening, hands closing around and slightly squishing the bumpy amphibian in her grasp. 'Got mine! Get ready Kasha!"
All Lynette really wanted to do was smoke a little. But she's been in a good enough mood this weekend to let herself get roped into a bit of silliness. Babies may not be her thing, but sleeping babies, those are always a good thing.
And the really odd thing about it all is that she's not half bad at this, either. But then, her adolescence was not all Christian Louboutins and martinis, as much as she might prefer that image nowadays.
So cigarettes were exchanged for an evening of frog catching, and the blonde is crouched down as well, hands at the ready. "I had one for a second, but it got away from me," she answers Abby's call. But she straightens up some to look toward the other women. "Just what are we doing with these frogs and the baby? Not hunting for a prince in disguise, I hope."
Huruma's hands almost squash the frog- he lets out a distressed squawk at her, and she manages to cup her hands rather than just grab on. She puts on a smug expression, pinning her hands under its arms and cupping its face. Kasha seems to enjoy watching them catch the things as much as the critters themselves, doesn't she? So long as it works.
"Hapa, Kasha." Huruma coms eout of her crouch and pads barefoot to the blanket, where she goes down again and offers out the decidedly different bullfrog for the baby to touch its back. Of course, it's not totally like the toads- for the most part, wetter. "If there is one of those out here, I don'think we'd catch him, Lynette." Huruma sounds pleased, though not at anything the other woman said- just about her actually catching the frog. The little things, man.
"They don't exist" Spoken like someone who did kiss her frog, and the prince she thought it was, turned out instead to be something else. Little by little, people have been calling her Beauchamp in lieu of Caliban, but no explanation given or forthcoming to most. She'a approaching Kasha too, holding the bumpy lumpy frog and crouching beside HUruma, offering it out for Kasha to touch, who has whacked a hand down on one in her baby clumsiness, and then settling into touching one, rocking forward to lean in close and babble to them. She's got less energy than she had earlier and soon, hopefully, she'll start getting the droopy eye'd and cranky that indicates a tired child.
"I used to do t his with my Dah, though we had to watch out for Alligators, not government boats"
"Believe me, I know it," Lynette says; truthfully, but with light humor. Dry. And instead of continuing until she catches her own, she stands up to come join the others. Her jeans are rolled up her leg and her bear feet sink into the grass as she steps closer. It makes her smile in an odd bit of nostalgia. But then, the baby makes her a bit skittish, and she ends up stopping a little bit away and looking longingly toward where her jacket, shoes and abandoned cigarettes sit. But, instead of going for one, she just lets out a gentle sigh. Alas. "Probably not with the same skills one uses for frog catching, one would hope," is what she notes with a crooked smile toward Huruma.
The frogs and toads never have the capacity to answer Kasha when she talks at them, and these ones are just the same. Huruma sets the one in her fingers down on the blanket, and it flattens itself out threateningly. How affronted he must be, obviously. "I didn'have a habit of playing around water when I was younger.
"If something will eat a zebra, it is probably not th'best idea t'go tromping in his home." The dark woman gives a forced little smile, though there is something distressing about talking about it. Perhaps she had to learn from experience. Huruma lowers her voice so that it has a hum to it. "Princes may not exist, but I am sure men turned into frogs do. And w'can catch those, can we not?" She uses Lynette's words to respond as well as talk at the baby, who is still faced with amphibians.
"You can catch those ones with a piece of braised meat." She finally says to Lynette, smirking. Frogmen like a steak as much as any other man should, hm?
"What on earth is a frogman?" Unliek Huruma, she's not relinquishing the toad, helping Kasha's chuhbby fingers stroke along it's dry pebbly back, it's back feet prying at the two toned brunette's hands in an attempt to get free. maybe if they had a big enough aquarium,s he might keep it.
She glances away when there's rustling adn Rhett comes running around a corner with a jingle of his dog tags and to a grinding halt, glancing at the trio of grown woman with a cock of his head.
"If you mean, like a man, man, then.. yes, Good piece of meat"
"Or generous cleavage," Lynette replies to Huruma. She's kidding! Mostly. "I don't often carry braised meat around. Although, next time I go man hunting, I just may try it." Not that any of them are in a position to go hitting up clubs or the like.
When the dog comes running their way, she seems far more comfortable with it than the baby, so she walks over his way to greet him with a scritch behind the ear. "Hello, there," she say to Rhett, in much the same way most people address children.
"I have more chest t'offer than I do cleavage." Which is probably true, when you put together variables. Huruma snorts a little bit, watching Lynette go to the dog, and keeping one of her palms on the back of the frog, examining the curve of its skull and its webby front feet. It stays flattened out, ribcage wide as it sits there, waiting for the palm to give some room to squeeze out. "But I can manage, I should think…" This may be above Abby's comfort zone, though at least it seems that the other women have something in common. Even if it happens to be something slightly vulgar.
"Take a man hunting, however, and you might find yourself a commodity." It hasn't exactly worked for her, but maybe that is because Huruma has always been more like One of the Guys than One of the Girls.
It is, above her comfort zone, which is why she's quiet, turnign the toad loose when Kasha maneuvering onto her hands and knee', getting her face right into that of the bullfrog under Huruma' hand, startling when the frog's throat expands with an impressive display of bravado. And then back in she goes, poking at it.
Rhett himself has frozen, hunched as Lynette comes close, unsure of what to do regarding the other woman, but he knows her and the moment she's close enough, zoom, he's off quick as a flash and then halting, other side of the small area, legs splayed and waiting while Abby divides her attention between both scenes with raised brows.
"But then that requires finding a man you trust holding a loaded gun around you," Lynette points out with a smirk. But as the dog takes off, the blonde looks over to where he stopped, her hands going to her hips. "He's in the mood to play, is he?"
And he's lucky, because today she's in the rare mood to play along. Her more rugged background getting a little work out as she eyes the dog… and then chases after him.
"Don'let him bite your finger…" Huruma warns, more than aware Kasha doesn't understand; it is more the gesture than anything else. She watches the baby with the frog, though she does get a word in edgewise before Lynette takes off. "I have a few." When she does chase Rhett, Huruma glances up with a crease between her brows, watching the dog lead his new pal on a run-around. When she looks back to Kasha, her other hand is at her bent thigh.
"If anything, she won'be scared of bugs an'things, hm?" No ma'am, not Kasha.
Rhett is off, runnign fast around the walls, still in this area, tongue lolling when Lynette attempt to catch up, letting himself come to a stop and at rapt attention again when he does, waiting, baiting. Cautions of biting fingers make Abigail worry for Kasha, but with Huruma there, surely she's safe. "If I go ahead and get her stuff ready, you bring her up in ten? She should be yanwning by then" Looking to the black woman to see if she's willing, then over to Lynette to see what her dog is doing. "Grab his tail lynette, he'll stop, it'll mean you caught him"
"Ah, the insider's secret," Lynette says with a chuckle before she goes for one more chase and grabs onto his tail. "Now will you let me pet you, silly dog?" And that she does before leading the dog over to its rightful owner. At least she's fit enough these days not to be panting too much herself. Not like the Refrain days. "I dare say this animal is very stubborn, Abby."
"Of course. Not a problem." Huruma wraps her fingers around the frog to lift it up, so the baby can see the pale belly and legs that the toads are missing. He wriggles when his belly is exposed, but Huruma is quite gentle with him, considering. "I wish I were more of a dog person." She muses, peering cooly over at Rhett. "Babazo. He shouldn't run away so much." Dogs should stay where they are put, apparently.
"I can bring her. You should- probably take your animal inside, now."
Chastized, by Huruma, Abby snags her hand in Rhett' collar a nod to both women. Rhett is likely food the nubian woman. "yes Huruma" he's young, he doens't get run around like he would back in NY at a dog park, relegated - like mot here - to a more nocturnal or late in teh day existence. 'Come on Rhett" he licks and slurps at Lynette's hands, taking a sniffing interest in the toad who is making leaps for safety while Abigail starts to drag the tawney colored dog off. 'See you all inside"
"Oh, no. Dogs have got to run. It's in the blood," Lynette says, ruffling the dogs fur and giving Abby a quick wink before she looks back to Huruma. "My best friend in the world is a dog telepath. It's cheating, but you learn a thing or two." But again, as the dog is off, the baby sitting there has Lynette folding her arms. "I like animals. They're honest."
Huruma doesn't remark on the canine telepathy- she prefers the old school kind to work for her, even if she herself is the raw matter at the heart of it all. "Animals, yes. They are. Though I have found babies t'be similar, this past year…" Perhaps she did sense Lynette's extended trepidation after all. She lets Kasha touch the frog just for a few moments more, before she puts it down between them to allow it to do what it pleases. It sits still until the girl taps it on the back, at which it takes a couple hobbling steps and hops to the edge of the blanket.
Wiping her palms over her shorts, Huruma watches as Kasha leans after the bullfrog. "At a certain point they are as honest as elephants can tend t'be- and then that is th'time they learn th'deception of mankind. Our- legacy, as you will."
"But they're so… needy," Lynette says, which is certainly a real complaint, but Huruma can tell that isn't the truth as far as explaining her discomfort. "And what a legacy it is. For example, my father is a lawyer," she says in a more familiar wry sense of humor.
But a glance down to the child makes her expression fall again. "What do you think about all this? The children from the future and this war we're apparently running toward. Or were. Or whatever."
"Animals are needy too. They simply learn how not t'be, same as us." Only Huruma doesn't mention that legacy again, picking up Kasha as she stands, letting the girl watch the frog hop away into the grass. "I think it is …bizarre, even if commendable…" She gives Lynette her cat's eye stare, that hooded blink so often seen on bored feline faces. "But, in my day, I have seen things just as strange, and ill-fitting."
"I admire th'strength it must'ave taken, to- come back. But I cannot judge their purpose, as I don'know th'full extent of what that purpose is. Not yet." One arm stays around Kasha, pinning the little girl against the generous angle and curve of a hip; with the other hand, Huruma picks up the blanket and shakes it out against the air.
"All that I do know, is that I will not succumb. Not t'what I know happened t'me, in their world."
"I suppose you have a point," Lynette concedes with a little lift of her shoulder. But she falls silent to listen to the other woman's opinion, and her arms drop to her sides for a moment before she puts her hands on her hips. "You're very sensible, you know." And it almost sounds like she finds that regrettable. But then, something she said sinks in, and she furrows her brow a little. "What happened to you? Something to do with your warning from the higher powers?" She doesn't say God, like admitting he has anything to do with the dreams might lend them some credibility.
"Always sensible, but not always in tandem with common sense." Huruma clarifies, still well aware that at times she can be unpredictable. "Not common among others, at least. I died." The tall woman tips her head, looking down to flip the blanket around in her hand, for the most part folding it up so that she can hold it. "Supposedly from one of my bad habits. One that I have dropped in th'past year. Cold turkey?" This is said with a question, as if she is not absolutely certain of the term.
"I died when Kasha was still rather young, supposedly. Before she comes to …bloom." There isn't a fancy way to say puberty, really, but Huruma tries.
"It's better that way, you'll never be boring." Lynette lifts her eyebrows at the death part, and she lets out a huffed sigh. "Maybe in their version of the future, you never dropped it. Bad habits are a hard thing to lose. And yes, cold turkey's the term." She's familiar with it. "This time around, we can do things right."
She moves to pick up her things, too, sliding the cigarettes into her pocket, hanging her jacket over an arm and letting her shoes dangle from her fingers. "I think we better get the kid inside. Before she decides to be needy. Or before Abby comes to yell at us for lingering." There's a smirk, then a glance to Kasha that erases it before she turns to head back for the castle. She'll at least wait until the kid's away before she finally gets in that smoke.