Joey tilted his head slightly at hearing Dan’s explanation of what happened when he went to sleep. Things could enter a telepath’s mind when they slept; it was strange how obvious that was and how it had never seemed to be something that he’d fully considered. The unconscious state of sleep was how he and Rose had sensed each other as children even before their father had known. They’d found each other night after night because sleep was when those connections could form stronger. But what else could come in when you slept that wasn’t as welcome as an undiscovered sibling?
“Do you feel it all here too?” He inquired of Dan carefully. He didn’t want to pry past what he wanted to share, but he could see how so many world’s worth of information and emotions being thrust upon someone could begin to make the nights anything but peaceful. “Everything that people put into the ether?”
The way that Dan had phrased things spoke to Joey more deeply than he might have realized. That was the truth of so many different things in life. People were frightened of things that they couldn’t understand, and when they saw something different than what they knew they turned on it like animals trying to tear apart the weak to survive. It didn’t even matter if it wasn’t a weakness; it only mattered that it was different. It could be powers and magic or it could be gender or sexuality. It all came out to the same thing.
Joey’s gaze softened as he looked up at Dan’s face. “I’m not afraid to tell you the truth. I know that you can comprehend what most can’t,” He promised. “It’s worth pushing through discomfort to be known and understood for once.”