2019-12-20 - Cheap Coffee and Stale Donuts

Kass ends up dragging Joe a few blocks away to one of those dingy all night diners that small towns seem infested with. Sliding into the big circular corner booth, she pulls a menu over and flips it open, though she doesn't look at it. She knows what she wants. No, those brown eyes turn to Joseph. "Look, uhm.. I'm sorry for... Everett. He's a friend that's.. trying to be more than a friend? And I'm just not sure that I really want..." She glances aside and flushes lightly, shrugging and fiddling her fingers around the cuff of her shirt. "I missed out on a lot of... life. People. Relationships." Blinking, she realizes she may be giving him more information than he really wants and she clears her throat, "Sorry. Anyways. The omelettes here are the best. And 'Them' being the Dark Men."

He's been padding alongside her, stride easy. He's running his gaze down the menu, idly, but he looks up at that. "No, fair enough," he says, in that mild voice. "You been outta the world a long time, it's hard to find your feet if you all tangled up in someone else's life, someone else's business." Says the man who's half-incognito in a distant city, having cut his past off as neatly as ever he could. "So....They can send messages like that, somehow?"

"Its... its not that I don't... I just. I need to find out who I am these days. I went from teenager to adult in, to me, a day. The last thing I can actually remember? Is the police showing up to drag me away to the asylum. Then.. I was standing in front of my parent's house with some vague memory of being released. Everything was in place, like I'd been discharged from a hospital. I had prescriptions, appointments with a court-appointed therapist, with a case worker..." She shakes her head and looks down at her hands. "Don't see why not. I received a note from Them. An invitation. Written invitation. It self-immolated right after I read it."

Joseph blows out a slow breath, a controlled exhale, not quite a sigh. "What did They invite you to do?" he wonders, tone carefully level. This is a whole other set of dimensions for him...and Kass is subjected to that unwavering blue stare.

"Die? Be punished? I'm still not really certain.. I. I was invited... but then ignored. I don't get it." Kass shakes her head once again and lets out a breath. "It was supposed to be because we'd used our powers too much. They were going to... congratulate us? Kill us? Hard to say. They weren't happy." Her thumb drums against the tabletop as she meets his gaze unflinching. "I don't know if it was a Dream or what. I was coming home from work. There were lights, I opened my front door and walked through... to somewhere else."

"From what I've been given to understand," Joe says, slowly. "They mostly don't want to kill us. Any more than a farmer would want to kill a prize milk cow. Where....where did you end up? And how do you know if it's a Dream or not....can it be told?"

"They only like it when we're creating misery. Pain. Negative emotions they can feed off of. When we heal, when we fix, when we make things better? Not so much. If we stop doing what They want us to do... They don't want us anymore. Have no use for us." Kass lifts a shrug and looks at him. "Its like having a tool that doesn't perform its function... we become useless to Them if we aren't feeding Them." His question is met with a shrug, "My living room. And I don't know. Usually with Dreams I wake up. This time.. I felt more like I got dumped out into my living room."

Joseph's lips have thinned out, the only hint of perturbation he'll permit himself. "And no one knows what They really are, or what the place over There is, do they?" He sounds almost resigned. Almost. "But....so you were in your living room and..."

"Nope. Those of us that go, can't remember after. I don't think there's been anyone that REALLY remembers that place, or Them." Kass gives a small shake of her head and shrugs. "And nothing. That was it. I wasn't hurt, I wasn't left with a message burned into my carpet or anything. It was just.. done." She smiles faintly, "Still haven't stopped healing people though."

Healing. The aspect of the gift he knows the least of. Thoughtful, the way he looks at her across the table. "What's that like for you? You always been able to?" So very obviously wanting to take notes, hand practically twitching for a pen.

Reaching into her messenger bag, Kass fishes out her sketchpad and pencils, sliding them over to him with a faint smile. "Let me know if you need me to repeat anything." Kass lets out a slow breath and leans back, "I'm not sure what you mean by the first question, but yes. Ever since I can remember. The older I got, the stronger it got. When I was thirteen.. I was completely out of control. I -could- heal.. but I didn't. I hurt, I broke things. I lashed out." She pauses and looks towards him, "I try not to do that anymore."

Sheepishly, Joe snakes a little black notebook out of his pocket. And from another, a pen, before he gently nudges her sketchpad and pencils back. "Thanks, but I come prepared," he notes, a little ruefully. "Since you don't mind."

He worries at his lip with a front tooth. "How do you....think about it? How do you describe it to yourself? What you know, how it feels?" He knows he's not getting close to what he wants to express, and there are lines of frustration on his face.

Nodding, Kass takes back the pad and pencils, smiling, "Its alright. I figure, if I can expect people to be okay with no eye contact and no touching and my sketching.. I can handle a little note-taking." Her demeanor is certainly far more relaxed when its just them. Without others around, she almost seems.. normal. His questions have her considering it, shrugging a little, "I honestly haven't really thought about it before. I guess.. it depends on what I'm doing. There's.. warmth, sometimes heat. Sometimes pressure or... you know how sometimes your ears pop? Kinda like that..."

Joseph passes a long hand down his jaw, pursing his lips. A bob of his head in thoughtful agreement. "Yeah," he says, finally. "For me....it does feel like pressure. Almost like a headache buildin', sometimes. But....I'm not a healer, that's not my gift." He is taking note now, rapid strokes of the pen....and not in English.

"You can find out..." Kass states simply. There's no hand-waving or chanting, not even a nose wiggle. The brief flicker of her fingers is enough... Joe will heat the almost itchy warmth spreading across that split lip of his, knitting flesh back together, erasing the cracks and pain. Any aches or minor annoyances, even if he had a nagging cough or some hay fever... its gone. That warmth eclipses it, takes it, and when the warmth leaves, so too does the pain. The hurt. She sits back and watches him for a moment, letting him feel for himself.

Joe touches his lip with open wonder. Runs his teeth over it, removing the last of the scab. "Damn," he says, looking at her, eyes wide. "Now that's a new one on me." A flurry of more notes in that looping foreign script, before he looks back up.

The waitress sweeps by, and he orders himself a burger, but it's only an afterthought, clearly. Too wrapped up to think of eating in any serious way.

Smiling faintly, Kass gives a nod, "Its not bad. Just remember.. I can both break you and heal you. So be nice to me." She grins briefly before looking up at the waitress. "Usual, Mona, thanks." The waitress shuffles off and Kass looks back to Joe, "Want to see what else it encompasses?"

"Yes," he says, without a moment's hesitation. How clearly he's caught by the hook of that curiosity. Making no attempt to play it cool. "So, healers can do damage too, huh? Makes sense, if what you're doing is physical manipulation of the same systems...." Musing aloud.

"More like... two sides of the same coin. Life and death, healing and hurting.. fire and plant." Kass glances around here and there before reaching out and tearing a small corner from his notebook. Just a dot of paper. She holds it on her fingertip and watches him. From the corner of the notebook... grows a whole new notebook. A new, blank, fresh notebook. It even SMELLS new. She sets it on the tabletop and slides it across to him. "Mazel tov."

Kass is treated to the spectacle of Joe simply gaping at her, lips parted. No more sense of cool, of being in control of his curiosity. "What the actual fuck?" he says, with a quizzical lilt to his voice, as he picks it up with shaking hands. Turns it over, opens it.

"Creation. From even the smallest particle, I can make something whole. But. Simple things. Not like.. whole complex machines. One piece at a time. Notebooks are simple, though. Paper, binding clue, cardboard." Kass lifts a shrug and glances at him, "Give me enough time, I could rebuild a car like Christine."

Joe's still groping for words, tone almost outraged. "What you did, that's impossible. Like, in terms of physics, thermodynamics....not possible. This universe is a -" He stops short, and then as something hits him, he stiffens. "No," he says. "It isn't. It isn't a closed system. Or it is, but with more parts than current science knows...."

"Things are only impossible if you don't know how, Joe..." Kass responds softly, watching him with an neutral expression, letting him work through this. She reaches out after a few moments, tentative, not quite touching his hand. "Did I get too weird for you?"

He rubs his face with his hands. Like this is some hallucination brought on by too little sleep or previous brain damage. Then, after a quick gulp of water, he sets it down. Poised to deny it....then he shakes his head and starts to laugh, softly. It has a faintly hysterical edge. "No, but you got close," he says, finally.

Nodding, Kass pulls back and gives him plenty of space, looking down at her hands, "I think... I think sometimes I scare people. I can't really blame them. I know things. Don't know -how-, but like.. I spent a long time.. you know, Over There. I gotta imagine they weren't teaching me Algebra and Economics..." Shrugging lightly, she plays with her coffee cup, spinning it lightly on the tabletop. "It keeps getting stronger. I have more control now but... its still getting stronger."

"That place and its influences are frightening," He doesn't bother to try and deny it. Only now does he set his own coffee cup pointedly at the end of the table, inviting a waitress's attentions. As if he needed more caffeine at this hour. "Sounds like you're one of the bigger powers I've met since I came here. Which reminds me....Rosencrantz. What's your beef there?" His tone gone brisk, businesslike.

Shrugging, Kass continues to stare at the tabletop and murmurs, "Dunno. Probably stronger ones out there. I just don't.. bother to hide it. No point. If They want to find me, They're going to find me." She blinks, and looks up at him in confusion, "Rosencrantz?" It takes a few moments before she remember Itzhak and frowns, "Oh. Him." Kass glances back to her hands, "He's been an asshole to me every time I've met him. Once I tried to help him, once I needed help. Both times he was a dick. Next time I'll just break his nose and keep right on going. Fuck that guy."

He nods at that, a little bob of the head. "I see," he says, simply. The subject of Itz dismissed, he picks a sugar packet out of the holder, starts to toy with it. "What kinna help you need now, if any?" Apparently he deems that sharing knowledge gets something in return...and here she's vastly ahead of him.

Kass lets out a small chuckle and shakes her head, "I don't even know anymore. I kinda hit a point where I'm just... doing what I do until They kill or capture me. I work, I come home, I paint, I sleep. Sometimes I Dream. Rinse, repeat." She glances up at him, a wry smile on her lips, "I stopped asking for help. Nobody wanted to give it. Got tired of being turned down and ignored, so I just... stopped." She shrugs slightly and drops her eyes once more. "Now I leave people alone and they leave me alone."

"I'm here now," he says. No bravado to it, a statement of simple fact. "I dunno much what I can do, but....you can ask. I won't turn you down. Can you....can you enter a Dream of your own will? Seek it out? Or is it only something They do, They control?"

"I was trying to learn how to do things.. without needing to rely on.." Kass motions towards the new notebook that's still just sitting here. "I can fix a car, no clue how I did it. I know what parts are called, no clue how I know. I can quote the Pythagorean Formula.. still don't know how I know it. In.. his... case, I was trying to ask him to, you know, teach me how to fix cars. Just normally. Figured I'd learn something, maybe make a friend or two. Didn't work out that way." She jerks a sharp shrug before glancing towards him, "I mean, I suppose? But.. how would you know? Often Dreams creep up on you, you're just vegging on the couch or reading a book or something.. then bam. Dream."

Joe jerks his chin up at that, nodding. "It's gotta be so strange," he says, softly, still touching the notebook. "To know, but not know how you know...." He rubs at his brow again, take a mouthful of coffee. "I've had it take me sudden or take me slow. I don't ever tried to go there on my own, start the process. It likes to happen on the edge of ordinary sleep, when I'm at anchor. I used...." He glances away, at the smeared plate glass of the windows, "To see if I could divine somethin' from it. Meaning, future....though I don't guess it works that way, though."

"Worse.. if I try to remember? I forget something else... not just for a little while, either. Forever. Stuff I -should- remember. So.. if I try to remember stuff that happened there, I lose one of the few memories I -do- have." Kass murmurs, staring down into her coffee and frowning heavily. "So.. I figured at this point its better to just try to relearn it so at least I know the how behind the what." Running her tongue across her teeth, she gives a small nod, "Can't say that its ever been slow for me. Usually I'm doing something and then its just... something else." Glancing towards Joe, she gives a small nod, "Nope. If there's any sort of meaning or lesson to learn from them, I haven't figured it out yet."

That makes him stiffen again, a dog coming to attention. "....wait, that....I thought the memory loss I was having was old brain damage. I've had a lot of nerve trauma, TBI. You're saying that it's the very nature of that place - you try an' think clearly about it, it erodes other, ordinary memory? It's not physical injury at all, is it?"

Nodding, Kass watches Joe with a hollow expression. "I've lost a lot of my childhood trying to remember that place. Something. Anything that would stand out. That wasn't just... vague feelings." She pulls her cup in closer and mutters, "Its why I hoard my memories so much now... I have so few left that I can't afford to keep forgetting..."

"Shit," he says, in a sudden fit of anger. "Like it ain't fuckin' hard enough to try and pin something down about that place." Joe massages his eyes with the heels of his palms. "I'm not givin' up any memories I don't have to." His tone is bitterly defiant.

"Don't. Its.. its not worth the cost. There's nothing about that place that worth losing something good that you still have." Kass speaks softly but with a core of steel in her voice, her hand gripping the mug tightly. If he looks closely, steam has started to drift up from her coffee again, despite the fact that they haven't had a refill since arriving. After a moment, she looks towards Joe, "Are you staying on the boat tonight?"

Joseph's face has gone tight, drawn. As if he'd thought that mere science, mere method, might really have conquered the oddity that is the Asylum. He glances away again....and then looks back. "I hadn't planned to," he says, quietly. "I'm tryin'a get used to sleeping on land again. Don't wanna be on the boat with all that snow comin' down Why?"

Kass licks her lips, glancing towards Joe, then back to her coffee. "Can I? I want to see if... maybe if I go somewhere They don't expect.. if maybe I can... sleep? Like.. really sleep?" She lifts a shrug and glances back to him, "Just an idea. But I just.. I want to sleep. Like I used to sleep. Without... without the Dreams."

The idea startles him, but he nods. "Sure. I c'n sleep aboard. She's real small, but there're two staterooms - both have doors that can lock." She's trusting a lot to a man she's hardly met - to sleep in a confined space, in what's basically a stranger's home. "I wonder if the sea has somethin' to do with it. Never did have a Dream on the open sea. Maybe I did and didn't realize it."

Letting out a small chuckle, Kass flickers a brief half-smile, "Last thing I'm worried about is you 'taking advantage' of me, Joe. You've seen some of the less... flashy, things I can do. All the good things. You haven't seen the -bad- things I can do yet. Didn't figure you want to." Perhaps reminding him that she's not exactly a helpless young woman. She lets out a breath and murmurs, "I just want to get away from Them for a night. Regular dreams.. or no dreams. I'll take either."

There's a rueful bob of his head to that. "Fair enough," he says. "Heal and harm, and I'm hardly such an animal I can't control myself around a houseguest. Y' need to get some things? There's not a lot of room aboard, but there is a head - bathroom, I mean."

Shaking her head, Kass murmurs, "Don't want to give Them the chance to pick up my trail. I can make do for one night. Always keep a change of clothes in my bag anymore. Sometimes after a night at Plat, I can end up with like.. glitter or similar all over the clothes I came in." She shrugs and offers a faint half smile that's quick to disappear.

He nods again. "All right, then," he says, quietly. "Whenever you're ready." The sailor's clearly bemused by this turn of events...but he offered his help, and she doesn' just need money or help studying for her GED.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Kass gives a quick nod, taking a last mouthful of coffee and rising up. She throws down some crumpled bills to cover the food and tip and glances to Joe with a faint smile, "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone that you spent the night with a girl young enough to be your daughter." A perhaps lame attempt at humor from the redhead.

Joseph barks laughter. "I should hope not. Your big friend back at the coffee shop'd be bustin' my door down like the Koolaid Man, he thought I laid a hand on you....'sides, last thing I need in this town is a rep for goin' after women half my age." He takes care of his own tab and tip in a scatter of bills, rises.

Rolling her eyes, Kass sighs, "I'm going to have to remember to have a talk with him. He can't be doing that. He's not... I get what he -wants-, but that's not what we -are- and he needs to get that." She glances back at him and lifts a brow, a hint of impishness there, "Oh, so you'll chase after girls half your age so long as you don't get the rep for it, huh?" She clucks her tongue lightly and faces forward quickly to try and hide her silent laughter.

HE walked into that. He did. Joe lifts his finger, pauses, sighs. "That came out wrong," he says, that wry note in his voice again. "No, I....prefer women around my own age. And I understand. HE shouldn't assume."

Chuckling, Kass glances back at Joe and takes pity on him, "I kinda figured. But, y'know.. good luck. Don't see many women outside of their thirties around here. Seems like they either get smart and move or they... I dunno.. sail off to that elven island of immortality from Lord of the Rings. Something." She shrugs and falls back to walk with him, glancing up after a few moments, "And you're right. I don't know how or why he latched on so quick but... I don't know. I'll talk with him. Not tonight though."

Joseph's lip curls ruefully. "It's all right. I'm not on the lookout for anything like that," he says, voice light. "I do okay on my own." His stride is long, easy - for once, his joints aren't bothering him, it seems. He's got his hands in his pockets, but hasn't bothered to settle the watch cap back on his head.

"I'm.. not even going to touch that one. You really gotta watch what you say, man..." Kass just swallows a snort and shakes her head, looking terribly amused. She lopes along at his side, having to lengthen her stride a bit to keep up, but thankfully she's not one of those 'fashion over comfort' types. Good old high top sneakers work just fine for her. "You like music, Joe?"

He seems to have missed the second entendre, blinking at her sidelong. "What?" he says, blankly. Then, "Nevermind. I like music okay." An almost tentative answer. "Why d'you ask? What about you?"

Clearing her throat, Kass just looks at him for a long moment, then chuckles and murmurs, "Yeah, I like music. Wouldn't have asked if I didn't. What genres you into? Golden oldies? Classic rock? Alternative? Country?"

"It depends. Classic rock's good. Some alternative....though I suppose the stuff that was alternative when I was young is now lumped in to classic rock. Industrial. Ska. Country not so much, with a few exceptions like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, the real classics. What d'you like?"

"I like a lot of different types of music. I like a lot of classic rock... stuff that I guess technically qualifies as classic for being more than 20 years old but doesn't seem like it should be pushed in with stuff like the Stones or Beatles." Kass smiles faintly and adds, "Anything I can dance to... even if I'm terrible at dancing."

There's one of those shrugs from him, utterly relaxed. Now that they've left the subject of the asylum, he's back to his usual mellow self. "Well, if you ain't tryin' out for the Bolshoi, what kind of terrible is there to be? If it's for fun and you're havin' fun, then it's as good as it ever needs to be. What bands you mean, though? Ever danced to ska?"

Kass lifts a small shrug and mutters, "I do enough to make a fool out of myself, I don't need to embarrass myself dancing. Days of dancing just because its fun are long ago." She shakes her head, "Never really dug into ska. Y'know like.. Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.. Motley Crue.. Guns'n'Roses.. Metallica. They don't seem like they should be 'classic rock'.. but they all started up in the 80's, pretty sure none of them past '85." Kass glances at him, "And I'm the kind of terrible that isn't a dancer at a strip club because that's how bad I am at dancing."

Now is not the time to volunteer what experience he might have with dancers in clubs. "Oh," he says, mildly. "And yeah. I guess they technically are classic rock now. What's the definition? Twenty years? Sheesh. So....what do you do at the Platinum? DJ?"

"Yeah, twenty years. You know Nirvana classifies as classic now? Its so weird. Soundgarden. Greenday. Once New Years passes, Pearl Jam will join them. And Tool. No Doubt already qualifies." Kass shakes her head and shrugs, looking towards Joe with a wry smile. "I'm a cocktail waitress."

Joseph retorts, as he leads the way along the quiet streets, down to the harbor, "You're making me feel old. I mean, honestly, I am old, but....all that stuff was new when I was in my twenties," he confesses. He blows out a breath. "I usedta wait tables when I was a college student, but....not anywhere like the Platinum."

Kass smiles faintly and glances up at him, "Sorry. I'm not old at all and I still feel old sometimes. I think its... I don't know." She lifts a small shrug, then leans in and gives him a small nudge with her shoulder, "Not many places like the Plat. Its not bad, though. Antonio's a good boss, the girls are nice. Bouncers, too. They keep the guys from getting too handsy."

Nothing like hearing a twenty something say she feels old. Joe's lips press together as if he were suppressing a smile. "I'm glad it's not too bad," he says. "The job. And as the saying goes - it's not the years, it's the mileage, right?"

Crunching along - they're coming to the end of the dock, with all the boats veiled ghostly white with snow. The tenor of their steps changes, with the wood beneath. She's eighth in the rank, a little sailboat with 'Surprise' written on her bows in blue. He steps over her to her first, then turns to offer his hand to help Kass. "This is it," he says.

"I know, I know.. I shouldn't complain, all of twenty-three and all... but this place.. this place is strange." Kass comments towards Joe with a half-grin and a single shoulder lifting in a shrug. "I suppose. My miles haven't been many, but it sure feels like its been a lot of rough terrain."

When they reach the boat, she can't help but chuckle at the name, taking his hand to be helped onto the boat. The rocking motion surprises her, she hadn't expected it to be so obvious, and she grabs hold of Joe for a moment to steady herself against him. "Ohhhhhhh.. sea legs. Well.. crap. I can barely navigate dry land. This is going to be interesting." Offering an apologetic glance towards Joe, she mutters, "I apologize in advance for any inappropriate grabbings, I am going to be falling over ALOT."

Surprise is small, a Catalina 36 footer. Not a lot of space on the stern deck. "Hold on to the rail a sec," he says, "let me turn the lights on." Joe opens the hatch, heads down into the cabin, and there's a flood of warm light streaming up and back on to the deck. Then he's reaching up with a long hand to help her down into it. It's a few steps on the ladder, and into the compact interior of the cabin. Right into its tiny kitchen area - looking forward to her bows, there are a couple of bench and chair arrangements, and a pair of closed doors. There's another shut door behind them.

Gripping the rail like its the only thing keeping her upright (it might be!), Kass waits until Joe collects her to take her below. She's pitched first into the ladder, then away from it, letting out a small yelp as she flails and.. falls into Joe again. Wincing, she mutters, "Sorry. Again." Of all the things she could have been, graceful did not end up being one of them. She takes a firmer grip on the ladder to help haul herself upright again and looks around. "Wow. I think this boat is nicer than my place..."

"She's nicer'n a lot of places I've stayed," Joe says, with a chuckle in his voice. He nods his head towards the doors before them. "One on the left is the head - the bathroom. The other door is for the bow berth. It's kinna a weird-shaped bed, you're gonna wanna sleep with your feet up in the point and your head on the broad part, but it's comfortable, and the sheets are clean, my hand to god."

Then he jerks a thumb at the door behind him. "That's my berth. I figure I'm pretty soon for bed, to be honest. I'll let you use the head first, though."

"Oh, um.. okay. I... hm... do you.. have a.. sleep shirt? Maybe? That I could borrow?" Kass offers a sheepish glance and murmurs, "I have clothes for tomorrow but, you know.. either.. either fully clothed or not at all cause I didn't pack anything to sleep in..." She opens the door to 'her' room and sticks her head in, "Wow.. I think that bed is bigger than mine, too..." She sets her messenger bag on the floor inside the door and looks back to Joe. "I really.. really can't thank you enough, Joe. I just.. I just want to sleep, you know? Just sleep."

He's in no wise bemused by the request. "Oh, yeah, sure. Just did laundry the other day, one sec." Then he's ducking in to the little room in the stern, rummaging. He comes out with a very oversized t-shirt depicting Snoopy as an astronaut, planting a flag on the moon. Apparently it's a souvenir of Kennedy Space Center. "I gotta a little nephew who thinks I'm about four sizes larger than I actually am. This was something he picked up for me on a trip."

Kass offers a brief smile and nod as Joe ducks away. The shirt he returns with has her chuckling and smiling warmly, "That may be the most adorable thing I've seen. Thank you." Taking the shirt, she leans in and presses a kiss to his cheek.

Blushing furiously, she mumbles something unintelligible and ducks into the bathroom. SLAM. Because embarrassment knows no boundaries! Its maybe five minutes before she emerges with clothes wadded up in a bundle, her teeth and hair freshly brushed thanks to a little travel kit that will go back into her messenger bag. And she pads out in the oversized Snoopy shirt. Something four sizes too big for him? She's swimming in it. Tossing her clothes inside the room, she turns, tugging up the shoulder that keeps slipping off no matter how many times she resettles it, the hem somewhere around her knees. "I guess.. I'll see you in the morning?"

The kiss makes him blink, bemused. "Yeah. We've been down there a few times as a family, it's always a big hit. Snoopy's been a NASA mascot since the Apollo days, so there's a lotta stuff with him on it for sale there."

She looks like a kid. Like one of his nieces. When she emerges, he's sitting at one of the tables, reading an old novel - Captain Blood. "Yeah. I'm a decently early riser. Just knock on the door if you need anything," he says, amiably, laying aside the book to duck into the minuscule bathroom.

Its not a terribly far leap to make. She's not tall, she's on the thin side, with the shock of brightly colored hair and the oversized t-shirt... yeah, it could easily take those ten years right away from her. She offers a flickering smile as he slips past her into the bathroom. She uses the wall to help keep her steady, making her way into the galley to get herself some water before sleep. Trying to keep her mind off the Dreams, off Them.. trying to just... blank.

He isn't long at all - even showering with the tiny showerhead is made brisk with long practice. He, in turn, emerges back in his clothes. Apparently he only intends to change in his berth. "I'mma go to sleep. Light switch is there." A nod for the switch. "Like I said, you need me, just knock on the door."

Maybe 3am... maybe a little later...

There's a thump, quick footsteps, another thump accompanied by a quiet curse... some slower footsteps.. and then a pause, then a careful knock on the door to Joe's berth.

The boat's dim, in the bitter watches of the night, illuminated by one little nightlight and whatever glow comes dimly from the dock lights, though the portholes and their translucent curtains. Then the rim of yellow light around the door, before he opens it. He's got a dark blue fleece robe on, over pj pants and a t-shirt. Kass gets an owlish blink as he peers at her as if he had no idea who she is. What is this imp doing on his boat, in his clothes. Then his brow clears. "Kass, you okay?" he says, voice thick with sleep.

Kass waits approximately three seconds before launching herself past him and into the room. She has no particular place in mind, just inside the room. Trembling, arms wrapped around herself as she look around unseeingly. "Bad Dream..." she shudders and its as she turns, he might be able to see it, the slash in the shirt, only the edges look almost charred with a stripe of bright pink skin beneath. "Can I.. sit? With you? For a bit..."

The chamber is small enough that there's literally nothing in it but the bed. Square, rather than triangular, like the bow bed. Like a broad bottom bunk with no top bunk. Drawers beneath the edge. "Sure," he says, pulling a face. "Damn, that's bad. Here." And he tugs the upper layer of blanket from the bed and tucks it around her. "Let's go sit out there. Not enough room in here for two 'less you pretty much already married."

Taking the blanket, pulling it around her, she nods and finally seems to realize that she barged into his bedroom. There's a blush to accompany her newest mark and she mutters, "Sorry.. I keep.. I keep... sorry." Then she's hurrying back out into the main space. She moves towards the seating, climbing into the corner and curling up with the blanket around her. And she shakes.

"Same Dream... They keep getting closer.." Kass mutters, only that shock of red hair and her eyes showing above the blanket's edge. "I can't.. I can't fight fire with fire. I hate this Dream."

More like directly into the bed, just about. "Nothin' to be sorry about. You're not used to moving around on shipboard," he says, softly. "Listen, I got milk and cocoa - I could make hot chocolate?" It really is as if she were one of his myriad nieces. Just a kid, huddled up against a nightmare.

She shakes her head and looks at him, "If you've got some bourbon I could use a shot of that, though." She may seem childlike often enough, but she's at least old enough to drink. Huddled up under the blanket, she seems to be watching the shadows, as if she doesn't quite believe that she's out of the Dream yet.

"Happens I do," he admits, without hesitation. "JD okay?" It'd better be, it's all he's got that isn't local beer. "You want it on the rocks?" It's still fairly dim in the little cabin, but homey enough. Joe digs out the bottle, two glasses that look like real glass but turn out to be that crystalline polycarbonate, then he's setting them down before her. Apparently he intends to keep her company on that front, too.

"Yeah, its fine," Kass is not someone who knows good bourbon from bad. Its just bourbon. She shakes her head to the second question, "Neat, please." Its probably a good thing he isn't handing her a real glass. In her current state, God only knows what would happen to it. Her eyes turn towards him and she seems to really SEE him. "Shit. I'm sorry. I'm keeping you up. You weren't.. I'm sorry." She thumps her forehead down onto her forearms and groans.

He pours out a generous measure, air solemn. It should be utterly weird, pouring a drink for a young woman he barely knows, on his boat in the wee hours of the night. But Joe's got his usual aplomb firmly in place. "It's a'right," he says, and he seems to mean it. "I tend to like awake o' nights more often 'n not, these days. You age, you need less sleep....and I've got old injuries and stuff that keep me up." Then he's settling down across from her, nods at the glass. "Have a slug, that'll warm you up."

Kass takes the glass with a grateful look, "Thanks.." She lifts it to her lips and takes a large swallow straight, without so much as a grimace. Either she's far more used to drinking then she's letting on, or she has a GREAT poker face and he probably doesn't want to play cards with her. "Injuries? From the Navy?" Kass looks over to him curiously, not probing, but prompting. There won't be any pushback if he chooses to ignore it.

"Yeah," he says. "Used'a be a carrier pilot, and that's fuckin' hard on a body. Like crashin' cars for a livin'. Wouldn't trade a moment of it, but it's left my spine and skull all jacked up." Joe shrugs, faintly. "You dance long enough, time comes you got to pay the piper."

Kass takes another hefty slug of the liquor, setting the glass down onto the table. She looks at him, sidelong and murmurs, "I could... try... if you want. It might ease some of the pain?" One of her hands appears out from under the blanket, motioning towards his back, his head. "Worst case.. nothing happens."

Joe instantly shakes his head. "Not now," he says. "Not when we're both tired and perturbed and got booze in us already. Maybe sometime, and I'm grateful for the offer." Apparently he is not a believer in that 'worst case, nothing' scenario.

Nodding, Kass instead leans in against his shoulder, her hand withdrawing back in under the blanket, "You let me know if someday ever comes around.. been waiting on it for awhile." She yawns and murmurs, "Thank you for being here, Joe... first time I haven't been alone in... too long... alone sucks.."

Always the human instinct, the urge to huddle together against the cold and the dark....and what might be out there in it, watching. "After today, but before tomorrow," he says, as he lets her lean. "And I hear that. Been a while out here, too...." Like he's still somewhere impossibly remote, rather than next her on the cushioned bench.

"Never, then... mmmkay. That's what I figured... hear it alot.." Kass murmurs gently, much of the 'head on a swivel' paranoia that rules her waking life not bothering her now. She nods and reaches out, curling her arms around him and giving him a hug, brief but tight and warm. "Hugs are good. Scary, but good."

He's all lean muscle and bone, not an ounce of spare flesh on him. "Yeah?" he says, after another swig of the bourbon. She gets patted gently on the shoulder - apparently he's sober enough to keep on the other side of that mental boundary, when it comes to touch.

"Hmm... Cam keeps hugging me, but she's a good person. I'm not good at hugs, though. Keep.. freezing up. Thinking too much..." Kass gives a small nod and looks up at him. "You're a good person too. Next time... next time you can ask me whatever you. Or.. we'll start out somewhere more private. I'll show you the other stuff I can do. Stuff you could do if you wanted..."

He looks at her, blinking sleepily. "I don't know about good. I figure I balance out in the end, just like the rest of us," he says, in a low murmur. "But hell, if it don't hurt you none, I'd be glad to learn."

"Nah, you're good." Kass seems pretty sure of that point, at least. She flicks a glance towards the berth, then mumbles, "Think I'll stay out here rest of the night... you c'n go back to sleep whenever you want, Joe. Thanks for stayin' up with me."