2020-03-29 - Casual Shore Stroll

It's clear for the moment - still clouded, but the spring rain has stopped. And the sailor's sitting at one of the picnic areas, under the shelter of its awning. He had been smoking, by the little pocket ashtray that sits on the table beside him, but he's finished one and not begun another, it looks like. No, he's watching the sun peek out at the western horizon, in glorious streaks of scarlet and gold beneath the cloud cover. Daydreaming a bit, by the look of things.

Kailey has come down from the Boardwalk. She is dressed in rugged jeans that have old grass, dirt, and grease stains on them. In one hand is a bucket and the other is a clamming shovel. The young woman's boots are rubber and come to her knees. Hair pulled back tight into a bun.

He grew up on a coast, so he knows what that gear means. "You have much luck with that here?" It's that lazy Southern drawl that fits here not at all. "Water's not so polluted they're unsafe?" Making idle conversation, by he way he's propped against the table, one long leg stretched out before him.

Roxy must have gotten off work recently, because she's still in the "Dance Evolution" branded sweatshirt and yoga pants over a leotard, with running shoes on her feet. The dancer has a gear bag over one shoulder as she strolls along with a drink carrier in hand, and two coffees nestled into it. She'd been looking for someone and, as she spies the trail of smoke and the bright cherry of an unfiltered cigarette under one of the awnings, she's found him. She hesitates for a moment, steeling herself, then takes in a breath and soldiers on towards where the sailor and Kailey are.

"Joseph," she greets quietly. "I was looking for you." She holds out the coffees to offer him one, giving Kailey a small, nervous smile.

"You have to keep an eye on the alerts and where it is safe. But they like to keep this area pretty clean because of all the tourists. And the boats tend to go farther out for fishing. So yeah. Pretty good," Kailey says cheerfully, pausing at the question. She has a cheerful smile that she levels on Joseph and then Roxy. "Buuuut...this is the first time I've done it since fall. Not a native here so..." She shrugs.

That makes Joe look up with that crooked grin. Roxy may be uneasy, but it doesn't seem to have registered with him. "Well, hey there, Roxy," he says, amiably. "C'mon an' sit." The offer of the coffee makes his brows go up, and he straightens to lean up and accept it. "Why, thank you. Lookin' for me? How come? You know all you got to do is call or text, I will answer, don't gotta come huntin',"

Kailey gets a nod. "That makes sense. And no? Not from here m'self, never occurred to me to try." Clearly not, by the way he sounds.

"I was told by my grandmother that an apology should always be made face to face," Roxy explains, taking a seat and uncapping the other coffee for a sip. "So here I am. I owe you an apology, Joseph." She sets her bag down and digs around in it for a little bit, while looking at Kailey's outfit. "What are you digging for?" she asks curiously in her accented, non-native speaker English.

"Clams!" Kailey replies with enthusiasm. "I've a craving for chowder and nothing better than fresh clams. If you want, it's always better with more people. More eyes to spot the little bubbles coming up about now," She glances out at the sun slowly edging to the horizon. "We can keep track of just split as evenly as can at the end, if you like?" The shovel is shifted from under her arm to over her shoulder. It's not a purposeful kind of pose, but she looks ready for adventure and excited for it. "Buuuuut...oh, you two got something to hash out that's cool too." She adds with a finger wiggling between the two.

But do they? Joe's looking thoughtfully at the dancer, brows canted. "Why d'you think you need to apologize?" he wonders of her, even as he pinches out the cigarette and sets it down, before sipping the coffee. "You haven't done me any wrong, so far's I know."

"Some other time," he says to Kailey, "Maybe. Though you are certainly right, nothin' like good fresh-made chowder." She'll have him out there next time for real. "Me, I'm lookin' forward to sea fishin', soon."

"I would not know what to do with a clam if I found one, but I can help you look for a little bit," Roxy notes to Kailey. She blushes a bit at Joseph's words and shakes her head. "I acted a fool, and said things I cannot take back. I am sorry for that. I did not want to make our friendship awkward, and I did." She finally finds what she was digging for, and pulls it out. A battered old copy of Treasure Island. She hands it over to him. "I want you to have this. It isn't the same edition we had Over There, but it is illustrated like that one was."

Kailey leans against the other picnic table. With the wind blowing towards Joseph and thus staying out of the smoke. "Ooooohhh? Hey, I like me some good sea fishing. Though I tend to just toss my pole off the end of the pier," And she jerks her chin in the direction. "I actually caught a salmon the other day," And she looks momentarily pleased. Then something Roxy says catches her attention. She doesn't say anything but does raise a brow and take a closer look at the two people. After a moment she says, "I swear. This whole town is almost entirely made of shine."

"It's all right," His voice is fond. "It really is. Water under the bridge. I'm only sorry I can't give you what you're lookin' for. Don't beat yourself up about it." But the gift of the book - some of the languid good humor fades from his face, expression turning altogether more serious. Even a little somber. "Thank you," he says, setting aside the coffee so he can take it, gently, in hand. Even riffling through it a bit, angling it so he can get light on the colored plates.

Distracted enough that it takes him a moment to respond to Kailey. "Yeah. Haven't really fished the northern Pacific, but we'll see what there is to see." Her comment has him looking over, and his smile is rueful. "It surely is," he agrees. "Thick with it, innit? I've met more here'n I have anywhere else, but then....I haven't made a point of seekin' out the places that are thin. Seems they draw the bright folk."

Roxy seems relieved that her apology has been accepted and she lets out a breath before warming her hands on her paper coffee cup. "Thank you, Joseph, for being kind." She looks over at Kailey and blinks a few times. "It compels. Is that the word? Draws? Brings? I do not think for one moment I came to this place of my own free will."

Kailey's smile has changed to something more pleasant and personal rather than simple cheer. "I've traveled all across the US and some bits of Canada over the last three years. I've not seen this many. Or as bright. Or...yeah...it's been crazy. But you're probably right. Certain places draw you, then find a way to hook you," She smirks wryly. "It makes you think it's your own want though. So at least there is that?"

"Lord knows I owe you more'n just about anyone," Joe points out, bemusedly. "I should be bringin' you whole libraries of books. You're one of the few good memories from that place."

The language of entrapment....it has him pressing his lips together. Hooked, indeed. How can he leave now, with the ties he's formed, the faces he now knows. It's not the first time it's hit him, but...one of the first it's so undeniably clear before him. "All of those are good words," he allows, after another mouthful of coffee.

Roxy sets a hand on Joseph's arm comfortingly. Kailey's words, however, make her grimace a little. "It was not like that for me it was," she looks to the former astronaut, who knows how she got to Gray Harbor. "It felt like a cord, bound to my insides, pulling constantly, not harshly, but constantly. And if I moved away from the direction it was tugging me, It made me uncomfortable, I felt ill, knotted up inside. Does that make sense?"

Kailey cants her head as Roxy explains and gives Joseph an apologetic smile. But her eyes return to the dark-haired woman and she nods. "Totally does. I've had it a time or two. But nothing super big till here. I left for the winter...but that was it," She chuckles a bit ruefully and hopes up to sit on the table's top. The bucket and shovel set down beside her. "Wasn't till I was here that the freaky Labyrinth shit started happening." She wrinkles her nose at that point, but returns to a faint smile. "But...I make what I can of what happens. Sometimes that's all you can do, right? Find yourself in a strange town...well...sink or swim? I dunno. I'm just babbling now. I'm gonna head down to the tide line if you guys feel like a stroll. Best spot to see the bubbles from the clams."

"It makes total sense," he agrees, as he pries himself up from that indolent half-sprawl on the picnic bench, before tucking away the pocket ashtray and snagging coffee and book. "That's how it felt to me. Like a a compass needle, pointing the way. Not a pain, but a pressure...."

"Labyrinth?" he wonders, promptingly. Apparently he is disposed to go for an amble at the water's edge.

Roxy gets up, slinging her bag over one shoulder and sipping her coffee as she joins the other two. "I am guessing she has been dragged into Dreams. Like the one where I met Baba Yaga." She seems amused by that. "She was not so bad, other than the rock I took to the head."

"Yeah, that old old 80s movie with the puppets by Jim Hensen?" Kailey says as she picks up her utensils and hops back to her feet. Giving them both a salute as she turns to amble for the waters edge. "The main character would be walking and expecting to go somewhere and wind up in a completely impossible different place. Worlds within worlds and doors into faerie land," She explains before turning to look at Roxy in surprise. "Baba Yaga? And you're -alive-? Wow...wonder if it was a watered down one. Yeah...lots of, what did you call em? Dreams? Lots of those lately. They're getting rougher...oh, hey...either of you have any plant life make a grab for you lately? Horribly hostile hyacinths or anything?" She kicks a rock so it goes skidding out towards the water.

"You ever see a doctor about it?" Joe wonders, that little furrow of concern between his brows. "No lingering aftereffects? Been readin' those stories I gave you?"

Kailey's explanation makes him laugh. "I remember that one well," he says. "My younger sister had the worst crush on David Bowie and she watched it a lot." A shrug, and he adds, "The Baba's not always entirely monstrous. Dangerous, but not pure evil, not in all the stories." A shake of his head for the comment about plants. "No. You?"

"I was able to trick her, in a sense," Roxy explains to Kailey. "I think she was amused by it. But I do not think I would be so lucky a second time," she admits. She nods to Joseph. "I have been reading them and so far, no effects I can tell." She ponders the plant issue and shakes her head at Kailey. "Not yet. I do not have any house plants at this time. And I do not have any in the studio either. Maybe I have not been close enough to be assaulted by them?" she surmises.

"You heard about the thing at the zoo? Yeah. The plants just went bonkers. Attacking people and moving on their own. It was pretty crazy," She points to a healing scratch under on eye. "Got sucker bunched by a hawthorne," She says before slowing down. Her eyes cast down and she begins to poke her way along the sand/rocky blend at the tide line. Something is seen and she digs the shovel in and pulls out a clam with a smile. "One down..."

There is a figure up the beach that is slowly growing larger. Niall is in jogging gear - which at this time of year with a bite still in the air, means close-fitted but not tight jogging pants, and a top with strategic fleece lining. He's also wearing a thin beanie, but there's no earbuds in his ears. He starts to slow down a little while before he approaches the people on the horizon, slowing to a steady cool-down page.

"You're makin' me glad I don't have any," Joe says. He's not laughing it off. The general insanity that is life in Gray Harbor has really sunk its claws in, in earnest. He nods at Roxy, as he trails after Kailey. Not disposed to get his feet wet. "How many you gonna get?" he asks her. Presumably meaning the clams. Joe lifts the hand holding the book in kind of absent-minded greeting to Niall.

"I think I shall be avoiding the zoo then. And the park. And anywhere else there are a large number of plants," Roxy notes, wide-eyed. She looks to Joseph and follows his wave towards the stranger approaching. "Anyway, I should get home. I have an early ballet class to teach tomorrow. Soon you can take your boat out, yes Joseph?" she asks with a small smile. She applauds one hand against her coffee cup at Kailey's victory.

Kailey considers Joe's question as her eyes scan water and scan in equal measure. Looking for bubbles and faint bumps in the terrain. Again her shovel digs into the gravelly sand and she extricates a clam, this one slightly bigger. "Mmmmm, probably a dozen or so. I'm going to make a huge batch and freeze some for later...so maybe more like 16 if I can manage it. We'll see," She says cheerfully. "If I find more, you want some?" As she spots the jogger she gives Niall a smile and friendly nod. "It was pleasant talking with you," She says and waves a sandy hand at Roxy. "Oh. I'm Kailey, by the by. See ya around I'm sure."

It takes a few more strides of getting closer for the people-shaped blobs to turn into actual people. Niall takes a few steadying breaths, then a pull from his water bottle. He moves away from the water's edge to stop from flooding his sneakers, but not so far up that he hits the rocky strand. "Searching for pirate treasure?" asks the Kiwi as he gets within earshot. "Been looking for years. Bupkis. There goes my retirement plan at this rate."

"Take care, an' thanks for the book," Joe says, lifting at her, in turn. "Yep. We should go sailin' sometime, when the weather's nice." The hand with the coffee cup gestures at Kailey, waving away that idea. "Nah, not this time. I don't need 'em, don't fancy makin' chowder just yet." Niall's comment earns him a low chortle. "Right? Little outta the way for pirates here, alas."

Roxy nods to Kailey, "Roxy, pleased to meet you, and good luck finding your clams." She gives Joseph's arm a small squeeze. "Talk to you soon," she tells the older man with a warm smile. Then she is off, giving Niall a brief flash of a smile as she departs.

Kailey looks up at Niall and grins. "Hey, clams are a treasure all on their own. A culinary one if you've the talent," She says and plunks another clam into her bucket. "Oh...I wouldn't discount pirates here," She says with Joseph with a snort. "I've seen stranger. This -is- Gray Habor."

From up the ways, behind Kailey and Joseph, comes a running lumbering fellow. But unlike Niall, all dressed for the jog, this name is in boots and black jeans and a biker's leather jacket. He's heard approaching, not the least bit stealthy, for he's making one particular sound:

"AaaarrrggGGgghhHHhh!"

For clutched in both his beefy hands he wears a boa made os seaweed, tangled around his neck, flapping behind him in the wind with his approach and, with his trajectory, towards the cluster of three, now two. The expression of terror on his face, while his tongue sticks out as he makes his cry, charging towards the group.

"Not modern pirates. Old school ones. Though I suppose we're a little far north and not on the best coast for that'un," says Niall. "Happy hunting!" And he lifts a salute to the gathered, before getting back into a run again before seaweed man approaches.

For a moment, Joe looks as if he'd desperately like to argue, re: pirates. "You know, considering I've been part of an incident where actual kaiju showed up.....pirates are not beyond the pale," he concedes, heavily. "So yeah."

Then Everett's running up, and Joe's too startled to do more than peer at him. They were just discussing killer plants, but this guy doesn't look like he was in the water - how in the hell did kelp even get to him. "What the hell?" he says, but his tone is no more than mild. That's just kind of surreal.

Kailey turns at that sound in puzzlement and then confusion. She recognizes the figure clearly and her face is frozen. Mouth slightly open and brows lifted towards the middle. "Everett??" She calls out with uncertainty. Is he playing games? Then she realized that, yes, he is. The young woman rolls her eyes and chuckles. She picks up a very small rock and weakly throws it at him. Aiming for his shoes. "Jerk," She tells him fondly. "I was thinking you were busy. What -are- you doing?!" And she walks up to yank a bit of seaweed off and thwap him with it next.

Running to them, Everett slides in the sand to fall on his back, a hand taken off the seaweed to brace his fall before it's returned. His eyes close, save his left, and he says, "Oh no, I'm dying to death," his voice growing fainter, "only a kiss will save me now, oh lordy no." The same paw that braced his fall pats the ground as though counting a wrestler's count. Everett's pink tongue resumes it's lull to the left side of his mouth. The kelp remains lifeless and inert as dead as it was when he picked it up and wrapped it around his neck in the first place. Clenched eyes open and peer at Kailey, lifting his head to do so, then dropping his head again.

Gasp. Twitch.

This show is so very obviously not for his benefit. But that doesn't keep Joe from observing. He's got a kind of bemused pokerface on, as he watches the performance. And then that comment about the kiss has him commenting, in a very dry voice indeed, "You're not my type, but I suppose if I got to jump on that grenade...." Surely he intends nothing of the sort.

Kailey looks down on the flopped biker giant and smirks. Arms crossed and a bit of seaweed hanging from one hand. "Oh no! What a world, laid low by the wicked weeds of the sea," And she comes to stand over him. Placing one foot to eat side of his chest. She is dressed in dirty and greasy jeans and paint-spattered clothes. The sort for clamming. The bucket is set down and she grabs more seaweed to haul Everett up by and kiss him. On the forehead. But at least he's got a view as she bends over to do that much.

"Brat," Again she speaks fondly. "No need to wound yourself on this mountain of madness. I've claimed him for some reason," She's grinning now as she teases, then steps back and picks up her gear so Everett can stand.

Thought the tone should be an indication there's not going to be any attempt, that doesn't stop Everett from giving a peek just to make sure that there's not going to be some hanky-panky switcheroo going on. He smiles broadly when Kailey astrides his chest, his eyes closing again, and lips puckering for his kiss.

His kiss... his... aww, the forehead!?
The look of disappointment on his visage is plain as he opens his eyes one more time, "Aww, hey... oh, hello," he adds to the view. When Kailey lets go, he drops back to the sand, his disappointment drifting to a broad smile for the company or for the view. He's never seen Joseph upside down before.

"Kass' friend?" he asks, pointing a thick finger at Joe.

Joe, for his part, punctuates the offer with a grin like a wolf. Just to add a little doubt to the situation. But he doesn't take even a pace closer. "I see," he says to Kailey, tone studiously mild. That question has him lifting the cup of coffee in salute. "I have the honor to count myself among her friends, yes. Joe, by the way." Belatedly realizing he hasn't introduced himself in either case.

"The grinning fool on the ground is Everett," Kailey says as she offers the giant a hand up off the sand. The bucket and shovel held in her other hand. She glances between the two with a raised brow. "Who's Kass?" There's an innocence to her tone that belies the sideways glance at Everett. One brow quirking upwards. But she's still smiling. Maybe even smirking?

"How dare you, Common Wench," says the giant in the sand. He points a finger up, to challenge her. "For I am King Neptune, Lord of the Sea. Ruler of the Kulp. Conqueror of Clam. Come closer, I'm going to bite your ankles. Aaahhh." He opens his maw, and makes the noise before chomping on thin air. But he accepts the hand, and climbing to his feet, starts brushing his clothes off, trying to get sand off. "Kass is... Kass, um. Hm. She's an artist, like you," Everett says, with his normal deep tones. Seems play time is over. Though he's still wearing his boa. He wipes his hands off together and offers his right to Joseph. There might not even be squeezing this time.

He grins, lazily, watching them. "No, you're not. I've met Davy Jones and you look nothin' at all like him." A sip of his coffee, cooling rapidly, and he adds, "Kass is a friend of mine. She is an artist, waits tables at the Platinum for her day job, as it were," Joe's voice is mild, still. "Real kind young lady." He takes the offered hand, gives it a firm shake - still callused, apparently the winter wasn't enough of a rest to erase a couple years' worth of wear from rope and wheel.

"Oh. Neat," Kailey says with a bob. And only when Everett is getting up does she duck in. Giving him a peck on the lips before he turns to Joe. Reaching up she pulls the rest of the seaweed off his neck, shaking her head. "You know, I've been in two underwater adventures since I came here. I really don't want my love of the sea being ruined," She says and glances at Joseph. "Oh! He invited us out sea fishing sometime soon. Well, me...but hopefully you wouldn't mind the lug? Maybe Kass can join us too and we can spend time between catches drawing mermaids?" She giggles and turns to begin digging for more clams.

"I look something like him. It's around the eyes," weakly protests Everett, widening his when he mentions the eyes. The handshake is firm, without trying to crush. Then points to Joe, while looking at Kailey, "That. She and you have a few things in common. You might get along, actually." He watches his boa being removed, and makes a sad face, "Aww, my decoration, but I'll tell you what," he murmurs, stepping into Kailey's personal space in retaliation, and slipping his arms around her waist, "I'll think of something to do to enchance your love of the brine and you let me carry that bucket?" He lets her go ahead to shovel up more clams, turning his focus to the other man, "You're a sea faring captain fisherman type guy?"

Joseph shakes his head at that, but no more. "I hope it doesn't get to that point for me," he says, with real fervor. "She's workin' real hard for her clams," he adds to Everett, amused. A shrug for the question. "Well, I'm retired Navy," he explains, good-naturedly. "An' that's my boat there, sailed her here from Savannah." A nod for one of the little sailboats riding at her moorings along the dock.

Kailey passes the bucket over to Everett with a flash of a grin. Then she is scanning for more. She walks a few feet away and digs up another two clams. They get plunked into the bucket and then she stands. Putting a hand over her eyes to look at the dock. "Really? On your own? That sounds terribly exciting. And scary. Lots of seafood?" She is back to peering at the sand. Another big of digging, another clam.

Following the gesture, Everett takes a look at the sailboat. Yup. That's a boat alright. The goon even gives the nod, the one that can't help but agree: that there, that's a boat. His bottom lip pushes out, impressed, the way one ought to when being polite. Turning his head back Everett brushes a sanding hand through his black hair and agrees with his internal monologue. "Yup. That's a boat, alright."

To further prove he knows nothing about them, he inquires, "So, ah, that's a fishing boat or a crabbing boat, or ahh. What? Does she have a name too, like Moors Well, or something like that?" He grins toothfully at his own pun while accepting the bucket from Kailey. When the shovel gets stabbed into the sand, the dutiful bucket boy trudges on over to admire the catch, "Niiiice. When you left a note saying you were getting crabs down by the docks this isn't what I thought you meant."

"Sometimes it was both," Joe confirms, still loitering at the water's edge. "I enjoyed it, though. Down around Florida, 'round the curve of the Gulf, through the Canal, and up the west coast, from Panama to here."

A little pokerfaced again. "Name's the Surprise, and no, she's just a little cruiser. Not a workin' boat, I'm no fisherman. Not in a pro sense." A glance at the sunset, and he adds, "And I should be getting along for dinner. Good talkin' to y'all. Good luck with your clam hunt."

"That sounds like an adventure. Wow. Maybe you can tell us some tales later. But yeah, it is getting to chow time. Talk to you later," Kailey says with a wave at Joe. Then she turns back and really focuses. Walking up the beach with Everett slowly. Looking for the next and the next. Eight clams are already in the bucket and she adds another one. "So...I got a couple books the other day," She tells Everett. Glancing up with a smile and then back. "One was a name book."

Everett, too, waves at Joe, taking a paw from the bucket to do so and then returning it. "He's a nice guy," remarks the gorilla. "But, seriously, now that I think about it, you and Kass do have some things alike," and then he taps his temple twice. When she talks about name books, he smiles broadly. "I got a book too. Though mine's just about what I ca-- we can expect. We need you to get a doctor you like, like, right away. And vitamins. And I think they say seafood is a no-no."

"Sushi is a no-no. Seafood is packed with DHA and omega somethings that are -very- good for me. That's the book I'm reading right now. I got a book with a big section on nutrition," Kailey says with a glance up and a smile. Then back to peering for clams. A bubble pops in the sand and her shovel is there and then her hands and pulling the gray shell out. "I been taking vitamins but...doctor. Yeah. We're gonna have to talk about that...me and hospitals are bad," Her voice goes quieter, less enthusiastic for this topic clearly.