2019-07-02 - Bennie are you okay? Are you okay Bennie?

Kevin doesn't often eat at the Grizzly Den, because, well, there's such a thing as too much, and the Grizzly Den is that thing. Ducking out of the drizzle in a light windbreaker that isn't quite a rain jacket, Kevin shakes off the hood and then scrubs his hair back up to attention with one hand. Since he doesn't eat here often, it's taken a while to track Bennie down again. Or at least that's his excuse. It might also be because he's not sure he wants to remember that horrible pre-Easter dream of ZomBunnies and he's been delaying as long as possible. But when he does his research, he does it well, and so he slips onto a stool at the end of the bar near the end of Bennie's shift, unzipping the jacket to reveal a loose t-shirt that reads '1984 was NOT an instruction manual.' "Hey Bennie." Totally casual. Much more forward than high-school Kevin. Which is to say he actually said something to a girl that was louder than a mumble, and he even makes eye contact.

"Oh my god, Keviiiin." Comes the near screech of excitement on par with sorority girls everywhere as Bennie sees the aforementioned named man as he comes into the Grizzly. Her beam of a smile could blind a deer if they were caught in it. "Man, it's been ages!" At least since they properly talked. It's a small town so no doubt they've seen each other from time to time, but had little to no reason to exchange words more than a passing greeting. She edges around the counter in her bedazzled apron and plops down on a stool next to him.

"Well, unless you count that wacky dream, you may or may not have shared with me because I'm just learning that's actually a Thing with a capital T and not just random people showing up in my late night snooze dramas. Then there was the whole zombie bunny thing, so it's not like we really got a chance to catch up, right?" She may actually give him a chance to talk here. NOPE, she just needed to take a little breath. Thankfully, no one is really paying attention to them, which is one of the benefits of the Grizzly.

"And look at you! Wow, you must've had some trainer. "Little Kevin Walters got buff. As I live in breath. Seriously, you look photoshopped." As in in awe, Bennie reaches out to feel his bicep and give it a squeeze.

Oh god. Okay, it's still somewhat the same Kevin, because he freezes at the sorority-near-screech, his eyes going wide behind his glasses. It takes him a moment to unfreeze, "Uh... hi." Oh wait, there was more to it, and he winces, "Yeah, that's a thing? Or, a Thing? I thought it was like, really, really bad pizza. Or maybe a test of commercial psychotropics." He... probably shouldn't sound as earnest as he does about that last idea. "I um, thought..." whatever he thought is washed aside by talk of his buffness, and he flushes bright red, then flashes a grin, "Hey, I wasn't that little," he was. "I just..." shrugging a little helplessly, he draws his shoulders in a little, then hesitates a moment and flexes his arm under her hand, "I... um... I didn't really want to get pushed around anymore. I spent some time in the weight room in college. And you, you got, um pretty. I mean, prettier. I mean... wait... you dreamed about the Zombunnies too?"

"I thought that's why you were here!" The dream, not to flex for Bennie, which she continues her groping of his muscle as he does so with appreciation. "Holy biscuits and gravy. If I knew you weren't staunchly against the questionable morality and motivation behind corporate advertising, I'd say you should go down to L.A. and try your hand at being a model." She finally lets her hand drop away with that thousand watt smile. "Aw, you think I'm pretty! Oh, I should ask if you want anything. Because I sort of work here and all, right? Pie? You definitely want pie." She declares and pops back off the stool to skitter behind the counter, already lifting the glass dome over a fresh apple and cinnamon one.

"I mean, it sort of was." Kevin may have gotten distracted by megawatt smiles. "Just, I was going to poke around the corners to make sure I wasn't going crazy first." He waves off one worry, "Morality is way more important than ethics. Morality tells us to do the right thing, ethics just says we should do what other people tell us to do." Which she likely knows already, or at the very least he does not need to tell her. Still, despite the lecture, he blushes, "I mean, of course you're pretty. And not in that corporate-assigned sort of way, like a real way." Oh look, he needs to clean his glasses on his t-shirt, or at least it's a great excuse to look down and away for a moment -- only to have his head snap up again at the suggestion of pie, "Oh yeah! Apple would be..." he puts on his glasses and spots where she's at, "...exactly what you're already getting me. Are you like a mind-reader or something? You guys collecting data on customers now?"

"How do you know mind reading isn't my super power?" Bennie says with a quiet conspiracy as she leans slightly over the counter to imbue the words will all seriousness until she gives a tittering little laugh and slides the plate across the counter. "And you wanna wash it down with...orange soda." Okay, now she's really just grasping and smoke with that one, which further dispels the illusion. "And of course I'm real! I'm not walking talking CGI like you are. Seriously. You're a crime against monogamy."

She lifts a plastic cup from behind the counter and takes a sip of water through a crazy straw that has to make several loops before it gets to her lips, because life is too short to drink through boring non-reusable straws!

Kevin's eyes widen as Bennie leans in to share that super-secret secret with him, but when she laughs, he laughs too -- a little tight and a little forced, "Yeah. Just crazy Easter Dreams, no super powers. Totally." He wasn't finger-gunning Zombunnies to death (or at least distraction), not him. Her guess draws an easier laugh, and he starts to shake his head. And then Bennie gets the privilege of watching someone both shrink in on themselves and try to puff themselves up at the same time. It's a social miracle, and accompanied by a bright blush. He plucks at his sleeves, rolling his shoulders a little more slumped, a little tighter together, then shrugs a little helplessly, "And I don't even work out." That's a lie. A dirty stinking lie. And a clear and obvious one too. Still, he gathers up the plate, spinning it around to attack the point of the slice. "Orange soda is great," he notes, belatedly, "I love it when I'm attacking a deadline," at home, where no one can see and make fun of him, "but I don't know, it kind of feels like, apples and oranges, you know?" There's another brief pause before he looks around, "So was that your first one?"

"Uh-huh." Bennie intones disbelief with those two little syllables as to his work out regime or lack there of. "Oh, apples and oranges, good point. Milk or coffee, those go better with pie. Or both!" She gets more excited about that idea than she did the pie, and she's quickly working to pour him one of each, asking over her shoulder, "First one what?" Clearly the line of conversation with Bennie is more of a squiggle than a straight one, as she bounces around verbally as much as she does physically. The milk is plopped down and then coffee comes next, sliding down cream and sugar from a further seat until it's in front of Kevin.

"Yeah, milk, that'd actually be awesome." Oh, and he's getting coffee too. Kevin's brows twitch a little as he follows the meandering, be-bopping course of the conversation, but he seems to be getting the hang of it now, "I don't drink too much coffee most of the time -- I like to save it for when I really need to stay awake, when I need that mouth-scouring, nerve-shocking action." Yes, he's definitely from the land of Starbucks with an outlook like that. "First Dream. I mean, the crazy kind. It was totally my first time." And then he flushes again, apparently realizing what that sounds like, "We're not still doing phrasing, are we?" Hah! Getting out ahead of it.

"You mean I popped your cherry?" Benny says with a mischievous tilt to her smile as she plants both elbows on the counter again and takes up the cup of coffee between them. If he won't drink it, she'll just help herself to it. "It was the first what I would call 'shared' dream? Where others were actually in it, instead of just figments of my imagination. I've had some crazy ones before, solo, that had some effect on real life that I just chalked up to coincidence before that. It was Easton - you remember him? He was with us in the dream - helped me work some of it out." She takes a sip of coffee, realizing it's still black, and she promptly spits it right back out into the cup before reaching for the container of sugar and upending it over the bowl of the cup and letting it pooooooour.

Whyyyyyyyy must he blush so readily. Kevin turns bright red even as he protests, "Hey! I went to college!" Because he was definitely a virgin when he went. "Easton? Oh, yeah. Right. I think I ran into him at the gym. Totally weird to have him in there." Which he realizes too late suggests that there might be good reason for Bennie to be in his dreams, "I mean, since I didn't know him at all before." Doesn't help much, but nice save, Kevin. The pantomime with the coffee causes him to laugh, nod-nodding rapidly, "Yesssssss... that's the only way to drink it. Plus creamer." Speaking of which, he takes a sip of the milk, nodding his satisfaction as he goes back to the pie, "So he knew what was going on? I don't know, Bennie... he was like... I think he was gonna shoot the little girl right in the face. What does he think was going on?"

Bennie seems to delight in the blush, because it causes her to give another light, melodic laugh. "Well, I mean, he thought it was just a really weird dream until he found out that I shared it, and apparently he's been talking to others about it and shared some of what he discovered with me? But to be far, even if it wasn't a dream, that little levitating hellspawn totally deserved two to the brain pan." Bennie takes his glass of milk instead of the little plastic pots of creamer and doses her coffee with his drink, then gives it a quick stir before she tries it again with a look of satisfaction at the ratio which leaves the coffee a very light caramel color. "Thanks for totally trying to save me though. It was very gallant."

Kevin digs into his pie, shrugging a little helplessly, "I mean... yeah... but we didn't know she was a little levitating hellspawn then." He pauses again, then nods, "But, um... I'm glad that he was able to figure it -- hey!" His milk is stolen, and he reaches out to try to whack the back of her hand with the handle of his fork -- missing badly. "That was my milk." And then he's blushing again, and he shrugs once more, "I mean... um... anybody would do that, right? At least, fail to do it. I came up a bit short, yeah?"

"I was just borrowing it! And...returning it a little less full." Bennie declares with a grin as she slides it back over. Of course, she'll refill him if need be, but stealing it for her coffee instead of getting her own just seemed to make more sense at the time. She cradles it between the steaming cup between two hands again and goes back to her lean, kicking out one sneakered foot behind her to tap the toe on the anti-slip mat behind the counter. "I think we were doomed to fail in that dream. I mean. Practically all of them, I've never actually come out ahead, and most of the times worse for the wear." For a second, a cloud passes over her sunshine. "Have you had any others since then?"

"Thiiiiiief." Kevin doesn't seem particularly broken up about it though, taking a sip himself and then getting back to pie. "Huh. A Kobayashi Maru." Nerd. "I mean, that makes me feel a little better, but it also brings up, like, a bigger problem, doesn't it?" Pulling off his glasses with one hand, he spins them around one earpiece for a moment, "If they're all no-wins..." he slips the glasses back on, "...are they designed to make us used to worse and worse conditions? So as services and infrastructure keep breaking down, we're used to all these 'losses?'"

"Well, I have a theory..." It could be bunnies. "But it's going to sound a little off the wall. Though, I guess I'm not really sure anything is 'off the wall' anymore when it comes to this place. But seriously, have you had any other dreams since that one? Because mine have progressively started getting worse and worse and it seems like the more time I spend with Easton the more he's in them. And not in a pleasant, skipping through the meadows kinda way." Bennie's bottom lip is pulled in between the rows of her teeth and she gnaws on it, quickly making a little raw spot or irritating an already existing one.

Kevin picks up his fork again and gestures toward Bennie with it when she mentions a theory, "If you quote Buffy, I might ask you to marry me." She doesn't. Probably for the best. "Yeah, that's the worst kind. Although I'm not so big on meadows, way better places." Clearing his throat, he hurries onward, "So you think that the more we're around people who can..." he concentrates again, and the plate moves an inch to the left, "...the more we dream about them? Or just the more we're around people in general? Because, yeah, I've had a couple. Nothing as bad as that one, but... ugh."

It's Bennie's turn to go a little pink, but it's just at the tops of her cheeks. "Well, I was going to say, I think Gray Harbor is on a Hellmouth, but if that's going to make you spontaneously propose, I should at least give you the curtesy of letting you finish your pie before we run off to the courthouse." At least that made her smile blossom again, and she takes a tiny sip of coffee until her blush fades. "I think the more we're around a certain person or persons, they get drawn into ...whatever it is, with us. Which means Easton got to meet the family WAY too soon. You know. If they had actually been real. But yours aren't progressing, so...that's good, right?"

He's definitely making his way through the pie, pausing now and then to drink some milk. Kevin pauses, "Okay, partial points. I'll just make an awkward pass at you and you can let me down gently." He waves the fork again, "Especially if you're introducing Easton to your Dream family. I don't want a guy who's willing to gun down little girls coming gunning for me." There's a pause, "Plus he seems okay." And then his smile fades away, and he shrugs a little helplessly, "I'm pretty sure it's good. I don't really feel the need to bring anyone else into my dreams, or to have Dreams with Zombunnies running around trying to maul me. And I definitely don't want to find out what comes after that." This time the pause is almost imperceptible, "What comes after that, Bennie?"

There is a small shrug from Bennie, Kevin having been more successful in making the woman frown than even the stint she went through after breaking things off with Easton. It makes a little 'x' appear on the bridge of her nose, and for a moment she seems small and fragile as her nails toy with a bit of crust that's landed on the counter, cutting it in half again and again until it's obliterated. "Things become personal. Really personal. Reliving the worst moments in your life over and over in grotesque and twisted detail until you begin to wonder the reality of your memories. Logic tells me it's because of things like never knowing how Judd really died, so my imagination is just filling in the gaps, but..." Bennie shrugs again, and when she inhales it sounds dangerously close to a sniffle.

The sudden shift causes Kevin to sit up straight on his stool, "Wait..." He leans forward across the counter, setting down the fork and reaching out toward her forearm, "Shit, really? That's bad. I mean, really bad. You've had to deal with all of that, Bennie? I don't know... how do you stop that thing? Who knows about this sort of thing?" His brows draw together in his own deep frown, "There's always someone who knows about things, how to stop them. It's just a question of finding them and finding out what they know."

Bennie forces a smile back to her features, purely for Kevin's benefit as she pats the hand that sits on her forearm reassuringly. "Yeah, well, do me a favor and don't tell Easton? He's the first guy I've dated since high school," Around when all of this happened in her life and she dropped out senior year, "Who hasn't treated me like I'm going to break. One of the benefits of him being an Outsider." Which was most certainly part of his initial appeal.

She steps back from the counter, fingers drumming on the edge of it. "Well, if you ever figure it out, let me know. I've only just began to accept it that it's a Thing with a capital T. You know I used to think I could read people's auras? Take yours, for example. I can't really see it now, but in our dream, you were like full on Twilight sparkling. But come to find out it's just because we all have what they call 'glimmer'."

He's reassuring her, she's reassuring him. It's a vicious circle. "Outsider. I like that. Too many memories of high school for most people." Shaking his head, Kevin finishes off the pie, "Yeah. I've got no idea about how a Thing does Thing-ie things." He nudges around the plate, then looks up in surprise, "Wait... I was full-on Twilight sparkling? That's... okay, I mean, that's kind of awesome. Wait, what's a glimmer?"

Bennie rescues the plate from his nudging, pulling it behind the counter to clatter into a bus tub before she's wiping off the counter in front of him. "Remember that finger gunning maneuver you were doing in the dream? Go home and practice it on some tin cans. For real. Then come back and we'll talk." Her smile turns to a more lopsided grin. "Pie's on me, sweets. Because something tells me I need to leave you with a sweet thought about me after dropping that bombshell on you. Because I wasn't kidding about that super power thing. Only mine isn't reading minds. And something tells me yours isn't either. Welcome to the comic books." Or the funny pages.

The mention of the finger-gunning causes Kevin to shrug a little helplessly. Everybody's always gotta pick on the finger-gunning. Still, his own smile goes lopsided, "Pie was good, thanks Bennie." He frowns in concentration behind his glasses, and then his voice appears straight inside her head rather than leaving his lips, <<Mine's not the guns, either.>> Even as the words slip into her consciousness, however, he pushes back from the stool, speaking more conventionally, "I'm real glad you're okay, Bennie. Um... lemme know if there's some way I can help. With things getting nasty."

Easton's slipped words into her head once or twice, but when someone else's voice appears inside her head, Bennie startles. Her hand loosens its grip on the plastic diner glass that held Kevin's milk, clattering loudly on the floor as it sends little white droplets flinging off in a multitude of directions. Busy wiping one from her cheek, she gives a little faltering smile, "Glimmer." Bennie repeats the word a bit sheepishly, before she gives a little twiddle of her fingers in a wave good bye. "It was nice to...catch up. And feel you up. Take care!"

Kevin jumps at the clatter of the plastic glass, starting forward, "Sorry!" But she's got it, and he shrugs, "Oh... um... good. To have a word for it." He blushes at 'feel you up,' clearing his throat and joking a little awkwardly, "I feel like I've been taken advantage of. I don't mind." Then he chuckles and gives a wave before turning to head out.