the insomnia meme.

[sockerball]

the i n s o m n i a meme
It happens to everyone - sometimes, you have nights where you just can't fall asleep, no matter what you do. It could be for a number of reasons, or no reason at all. And this is what's happened now: you've been laying in bed for what feels like hours, just tossing and turning, and nothing seems to help. So what's left to do? Get out of bed and go wake someone else up, of course. If you're not getting any sleep, then why should they?


i n s t r u c t i o n s
• Post with your character (note the name and fandom in the subject).
• Other people reply to you by generating a number from 1 to 10.
• Have fun!


o p t i o n s

01 • FEAR.

Maybe you're hearing strange, indeterminable noises; maybe there's a severe storm happening outside; maybe you watched a scary movie before bed? Whatever the reason, you're terrified and it's keeping you awake. You just want to wake someone else up so they can protect you from the monster in your closet.

02 • HUNGER.

Your stomach is growling and it just won't stop. Or perhaps your throat is so dry you could cough up a tumbleweed? Well, you've gone to the kitchen to remedy this and hey, that was a pan that just dropped on the floor. It was loud enough to wake the dead! Oops.

03 • PAIN.

Your body is completely worn out, be it from exercise, battle, sickness, or what have you. Either way you're in enough pain to keep you from sleeping, so maybe someone else has a home remedy or something, or can at least help you take your mind off of it.

04 • SOLITUDE.

For some reason, your bed just feels so empty at the moment. You're feeling terribly lonely and really just want someone to keep you company for a while. Maybe it'd be easier to fall asleep if you're with them...

05 • DISCOMFORT.

Your room is an oven. Either that or a freezer. Or maybe this bed is just really uncomfortable? Who knows why you can't get to sleep, it feels like it could be anything. Why even bother trying? Maybe someone else can preoccupy you until you feel tired enough to ignore your discomfort.

06 • PENSIVE.

Something's on your mind, and no matter how hard you try to focus elsewhere, it's just not going to work. Your body may be tired, but your mind is incredibly busy and it's virtually impossible to get to sleep. Surely, talking it out with someone else will help?

07 • SADNESS.

Something terrible has happened that day, perhaps; or you could just be severely depressed. Either way you're trying your hardest not to cry yourself to sleep, and it's not working at all. Better find a way to get it out of your system somehow; you need a shoulder to cry on.

08 • ANGER.

You are just... fuming. Who knows why - that annoying dog is barking again, or maybe the people next door are getting busy and keeping you awake. Whatever the reason for your ire is, you'd better put an end to it so you can get some damn rest already! Go wake up a friend so you can complain to them.

09 • RESTLESS.

You're far too energetic to sleep right now. Maybe you're just trying to do so out of necessity - you have to be up early tomorrow! But you just don't think you'll be able to fall asleep for a while now, so why waste the time trying to sleep when you could be doing something else? Namely bothering someone else - you're totally jealous because they're getting more sleep than you.

10 • WILDCARD.

Choose one of the options above, or make up your own scenario.

Comments

[transmigrate]

[ The outposts of Serenity's system, unexplained to Paul due to her own frail understanding, are a complex web that must be minded with the upmost care. Some guardians cannot leave their stations. Others-

If they did, the results would upturn even Paul's Golden Path, though neither of them know that. Only one knows the ending of the story in its fullest shape - and Pluto is sworn to her silence.

But Paul, for the most part, is correct: Serenity lingers in the periphery of her upbringing and her kinder angels, perhaps as much as slave to her love for everyone she meets as he is to his destiny. For it's love, her own brand, that binds her to this planet, the Fremen, him.

Is she in love with him? Some have started to gossip that the poor girl harbors an unrequited affection for the mahdi. Although the truth is...

Harder to piece, as all things are.

She's not moved her head. Months ago, she'd stopped wearing her golden earrings and the pearl clips in her hair, asleep or otherwise. Arrakis shapes any obstacle put in its path. I'm wasting too much water.

Blue-within-blue. What she's yet to tell anyone (Uranus, Paul, anyone) is that the spice, especially at night, hurts as it widens her senses. The pain the people of Arrakis suffer. Their regrets, their hopes, their devoutness. An ocean of consciousness to fall into. A snare.

Not only from the Fremen. The people of other stars nearby, too.

She feels.

Sometimes, it's more than she can bear. ]

...can I sleep in here?

Get this guy to drink the worm pee already!!

[spicetrance]

Yes.

[ Paul gently shifts then to encourage her to move. A gesture is made for her to get comfortable on the bed--under the covers if she prefers. He has no intentions of sleeping despite how he should. His mind is not racing, but more, coming to terms with the layers upon layers of implications and meanings behind the path he is about to embark on. The Golden Path remains beyond his understanding or even knowledge for the moment.

All he truly knows is the death that will follow this choice. The suffering. The war for their messiah. Yet, somehow, that terrible purpose that fills him gives him the feeling that something could be far worse. Now, he can't run from the choice. He either moves south or they will all die.

His eyes follow as she moves to lay in the bed. A blink, then eyes move downcast once more. Legs swing over the side of the bed, but he makes no move to leave it. Not until she will fall asleep. Even then he does not plan to leave the room.

How long will she be willing to stay with that promise once things change? ]

will that make things better or worse? (related: i've convinced myself she doesn't show up in his*)

[transmigrate]

[ Without a shred of a thought of how this isn't how proper heirs behave, unwed and so close, she floats into his bed like the impropriety doesn't exist. She will take the covers, a nod in thanks, and soon enough she's hunkered down as sure as she'd been tucked in. Warm.

Despite the perspiration that drenches her nightgown, the heat his blanket radiates siphons her in, in, deeper into an embrace she didn't ask for. The fabric cradles her cheeks; for a length, only her eyebrows are visible alongside a tuft of hair.

Then, gentle puffs of air from the fortress.

Has she fallen back to sleep?

A squeak from the padding below them. ]

...you know that I'll do anything to protect as many of us as I can, don't you?

[ Half-question, one you offer up to the night. ]

(* visions because she dies before they get to KH time. )

I mean he'd at least tell her things so... (ALSO WOW NO *sad kw noises* i was going with presience

[spicetrance]

[ He pauses in his step as she speaks. Eyes move towards the ceiling of the room as if he would be able to see the stars above. That terrible purpose fills him once more; the sense that has nearly fully awakened telling him the answer to the declaration.

She won't like the answer, but it's the truth. ]

That's not your purpose here, Serenity. You can't stop what's coming anymore than I can. [ His tone has changed. No just longer Paul Atreides, no just longer Maudi'dib. A tone of knowing. Old yet ageless.

The sleeper has almost awakened. ]

I don't know what yours is yet. I can't see it yet.

( presience blocking presience woops )

IT COULD GO EITHER WAY, who knows? Either explanation, can't wait until he sees some of the...not*

[transmigrate]

[ They've had this conversation. This same argument, too, where she insists that the future won't be set in stone. She'll plead. She'll entreat his softer side. Try, she'd say, and think of another path. We could find one together.

She's tired of this conversation. It never helps.

In lieu of the usual, she holds her tongue. Pulls her arm under her side. Observes his back from her burrow.

There's something else at the tips of her fingers, just beyond her knowing. ]

Tell me what you think. [ Clarification: ] Not what you see, what you think might become of me.

( *great coming her direction. )

definitely let her meet end game paul lmao

[spicetrance]

[ Finding another path would, at this point, require him to see. Gaining the family atomics and using them would lead to a path worse than the one they are headed--breaking the Convention. Simply announcing himself as the returned Duke Paul Atreides would not make the impact needed. Allowing the Harkonnens to continue as they are leads to the death of everyone.

Eyes raise at her question. He glances over ag her. Then, they lower again. Her answer is not as simple as she would believe. Like everything else around him, it is a careful balancing act. ]

I think if you can take how you feel--what you naturally are--and hone it into a way that the Imperium works? You'll survive. If you accept the universe for how it is, not only what you think it could be? You'll be able to find the path you desire.

I think your path can lead either to destruction or restoration. It just depends on how you approach it and act on it. Not only feel.

nooooo but yes, I need some of that good angst

[transmigrate]

[ She settles back into the plush of the bed once she lets free a prolonged exhalation, the remains of what she’d been holding. Short of exasperation, near to an affinity for what she’s told. ]

I thought you might say that. [ And she flips over onto her back so that her head lolls, the watch upon the ceiling now. Her right elbow hooks over her body to allow her forearm to rest at her stomach. ] If I can only save myself, though, I’m not sure what these powers are good for at all.

[ Although he may not see it in the dark, her expression sends her light years away. ]

Maybe I’m selfish, but I don’t want to just survive. I need to do more so I can figure out why I was born into this universe.

he'll get to tell her all the stuff and she'll understand!!

[spicetrance]

You can't save someone else if you don't save yourself first. [ Paul gently states with gaze moving to her once more. ] Trying to save everyone first won't lead to those answers. You have to survive first then carve your place into the Imperium. All we can do on Arrakis right now is survive.

[ A long pause follows. ] You're more than just the abilities you have, Serenity.

I'm sorry if my answer wasn't what you wanted to hear.

They’re aching for the other to Get It so badly, in opposing directions. Shakespeare.

[transmigrate]

[ The silence from her direction indicates that she is, at least, turning over in her head what he’s presented. Thumping of her fingers along her torso second the impression. Wordless melodies. Considerations.

She hums. ]

Don’t ever apologize. I asked you for your truth. You gave it to me, even though it stings so I want to cry. That’s just the kind of person you are.

[ Her tone lacks the slightest whiff of judgment. ]

You’re right. I’m more than the crystal. But I’m not like you, either. I still have to learn what kind of person I am.

classic Shakespeare and also right in canon :')

[spicetrance]

[ While no judgement is in her tone? He feels as if he has disappointed her. She had surely expected a more glowing comment or hopeful disposition. Blue-in-blue eyes simply watch her in silence. It has been quite sometime since he felt as if he had disappointed another.

"Thats the kind of person you are."

A statement of truth that stings. He had always thought he would be someone like his father. Yet, now, he can barely recongize himself as the boy who once left Caladan. He shifts but does not take his gaze off her. ]

My mother belongs to a sisterhood known as the Bene Gesserit. They take to being truthsayers, wives, concubines, counselors. Whatever the Imperium needs, or so they say. They instead have been guiding and manipulating the Imperium for thousands of years. Weaving family lines together to produce a male that could do as they can. Their fighting technique, their self-control, their way of thinking.

[ A quick blink before a discomforting sound comes from him. ] Some are known as Reverend Mothers. They undergo what is called the spice agony. They take in pure unfiltered spice--poison. If they can break down the posion on a molecular level and change it to a substance safe for everyone else? They pass the test. They also unlock memories. Their maternal genetic memories spanning back all of time. Only the female.

Their male Bene Gesserit would be able to look into memories of both paternal and maternal. He could see with his visions the future and the past. The whole of human history open to him in order to guide humanity along their path.

[ And, now, she at least knows some part of it. That he isn't simply a product of love between the Duke and his concubine. He is a walking pedigree--the Shortening of the Way. Fate, it seems, that he can't escape simply because he wishes it.

This is what he was bred to become. ]

That's what I'll need to do when we go south--the agony.

she wants to cuddle him and steal him away.

[transmigrate]

[ Somewhere in his explanation, she arises from her repose, her legs swaddled in covers and nightgown. A sort of desert sage, the image she cuts, though her face is anything but passive. Most of what he says - Bene Gesserit, selective breeding - confuses her at first blush, yet she’s able to patch together the broadest pictures.

Spice agony.

She’s breached the expanse between them to take his hand before they get there.

Anxiety has etched itself onto every inch of her as she blows past protocol she doesn’t even considered. ]

You can’t. Paul, we’re not supposed to be able to handle the scope of time. [ She shakes her head. More - her whole body quakes. What he talks about, plans to do, breaks laws. ] Only Pluto can see the past and future when she looks past the gate, and she says-

[ She bites her lip until the skin adjacent turns white. ]

It’s her burden. You shouldn’t try and take that on. Wh-what if you die? The spice hurts enough already.

[ …you tip your secrets, Serenity. What haven’t you been telling him? ]

😔 if only he could weh.

[spicetrance]

[ His hand gently squeezes hers in return. Eyes find hers. A resignation exists in his gaze as does a recognition and understanding. He already knows the truth of what he speaks. He has felt it since he met the crone of a Reverend Mother that disrespected him and his mother. The Gom Jabbar. The hand that had been in the box shakes slightly at the memory.

His voice remains low. ] Normally, people can't. They only see a part of possibilities--presience.

This is what I was made to become. Their manipulations have led to me.

[ A bitter smile takes his face then. ] It may be her domain in your part of the universe. Which means she most likely knew I was coming. She's probably seen me.

[ He wonders if he will stare back at this mysterious Pluto one day. Does she stand where the Reverend Mothers do? Can she look where they cannot only to see him? He supposes he will know soon enough.

The hand that had been tested in the pain box rests on her head. ]

You still have the choice not to follow me if any of it is too painful.

FINE. No running away. SHE WILL CUDDLE HIM, predetermined doom aside.

[transmigrate]

Her domain [ Terminology she's never used, her mouth folded around the syllables as she rocks the back of his hand against her wrist. ] is time. Time from the beginning to the end, although she's bound to not reveal what she glimpses behind the gate. [ Her eyebrows knit. ] I'd never be able to keep quiet.

[ Were Pluto to spy on them now, what would she see? Two powerful beings with weapons drawn against them in each direction? Certain destruction on a short leash?

Teenagers sitting across from each other, clawing to make sense of what's been handed to them.

The unadulterated chaos sprung from the intergalactic fountainhead. Of the places they could be, they're here, together. Serenity doesn't wax on this; the topic's not at her forefront. She's more keen on absently tracing his palm lines.

Mars had told them what they meant, once upon a time. Slim chances of her recalling a single one.
Some princess she's shaken out to be - not a parlor trick to her name.

That distinctive red hue that accompanies humiliation spreads out from her neck to the tip of her nose. She slumps how Venus always told her she shouldn't. ]

Every planet in my system hold a domain, unique to them. The princess of that star serves as its promised warrior. [ Her head cocks to one side, appearance student rather than teacher. Life line. ] Uranus's domain is wind. [ A smile fights for its appearance. ] That's why she's so free.

[ He'd be equally correct if he wagered she's shedding light on this as much because it seems on trend for the conversation as she doesn't want to dwell on a separation from him. ]

*sad kw noises in children of dune*

[spicetrance]

[ A lonely existence this Pluto must live.

Somehow, he feels that is what will be waiting for him within days. Days, if he is to be lucky. How long it will take this process is unknown to him. All he knows is that this is the path he has to take. Not just for himself, but to keep all those he loves alive from the Harkonnens.

Although, he would imagine that if Pluto should look? He would be simply staring back at her.

Even further she might see another who stares back at her with more sight than even Paul. ]

And you would rather have the freedom that she has?

pluto: "first time?"

[transmigrate]

[ Back on her haunches, Serenity gives it a thought, followed by a shake of her head. ]

To be like her, I'd have to have the carelessness of the skies. And be brave. I'm neither.

[ Sun line. Confidence, clarity, assurance.

She locks her ankles as her knees slide under her skirts. ]

If I could pick from their gifts, oh, how difficult that'd be. The wisdom of Mercury. Jupiter's strength from her storms. Mars [ A name held like a precious thing. ] and her fire's furiosity...maybe you would've been luckier to have been engaged to one of them.

pluto and leto ii friendship is something i need

[spicetrance]

You traveled the stars to the Imperium's dangerous planet. You know something of bravery.

[ He looks down at her as she makes herself comfortable once more. His hand in hers remains where it is, but the other lowers. ]

You want to be anyone but who you are. [ His read on the situation anyways. He imagines he is still wrong on the matter. ] Why?

too powerful

[transmigrate]

Nuh-uh. [ Well, she could understand why he comes to the conclusion he does, she signs the negative with a wag of her shoulder. ] I'm happy with me. Really, I am!

[ See? On the off chance the assumption bothers him, she's smiling (not completely liberated of force). Let's see how long she keeps it up.

Easing forward, she grazes him again. You could almost set music to the sway of her dance. In, out. Up, down. The rhythm of blood pumping through the universe's veins. ]

Only I wish that'd I spent more time learning from them. Do you ever feel that about people from your past?

mark it down as a thread to do one day, worm son needs threads

[spicetrance]

"Nuh-uh", is a very childish remark from a queen. [ A gentle scolding done in jest. However, the note is made in his tone. Private moments need not apply to court decorm, but he would advise she be aware of her mind at all times. ] I wonder how happy you truly are on the path you've set.

[ He hopes that she finds more happiness than he will. ]

I wish for their company more than learning from them. One and been one of the few friends I had... and he gave his life to make certain my mother and I escaped with our lives. [ He very much misses the perspective on reality that Duncan Idaho gave. Not just the call to power Gurney gives, or the worship the Fremen lay at his feet. Friends are now believers. ] Only Gurney remains.

guess that means I need to dust off the Pluto account

[transmigrate]

[ A grimace darkens her features when she hears he gave his life to make certain my mother and I escaped with our lives. The serious graze blunts her reaction to his rebuke; she withers under the weight of awareness.

Shame invades her as her heart plummets to her stomach. ]

You've lost so much. [ More than anything, she wants to wrap him up in her arms, yet even she can reflect upon the boundaries she'd break. Wait for her resolve to crack. ] And here I am, [ A bitter laugh? Is she capable of them? ] complaining about my friends safe on their planets. That's the true disappointment from somebody not fit to be queen.

[ Her throat tightens. ]

Paul, I'm sorry.

hell yeah let's GO (i say, we have 3 threads already...).

[spicetrance]

[ Boundaries.

Which boundaries would he be willing to shatter and tear down once he awakens from the agony? What world will he decide to destroy and build... and why?

Paul gives her a small smile. ] You're not a disappointment. Just someone untrained for the role you've been pushed into. The disappointments are those that didn't prepare you for it.

[ Perhaps unfair and cruel to say, but, Paul finds it the only assessment one can make of the situation. She was unprepared when she should have been prepared--not pampered.

A pause and a sad expression takes his face. ] You may not be sorry when you meet me after the agony. You may not want anything to do with me.

[transmigrate]

[ With the darkness their companion, it's likely that Paul can't fully see her face, but a possibility doesn't exist in this dimension that he doesn't feel the distress built up in her touch. ]

Don't say that! [ She hisses, back teeth ground together tight as mortar in an ancient temple, untouched by the ravages of time. The sound of her voice veers close to...something new. Her voice hasn't made that rough, keening noise before. ] Don't— no.

[ A warsong. A promise, not the fanciful one she'd made that night on the cliffs. ]

I won't abandon you. [ Could that be a harder point in her words? Anger? Not exactly. Not entirely. Yet...

She watches him from behind the bangs that have mussed her field of vision.

Silence. Only the desert has it say, until: ]

I wouldn't have been a good wife for you. But I'm going to be your friend, always. [ No worshipful notes worm into her address. She doesn't direct her insistence towards the Lord Duke, the One, the Chosen. If she must get on hands and knees to dig out the boy she believes cannot be snuffed from existence, she will, if her fingers bleed. ] I won't leave you.

[spicetrance]

[ Eyebrows lift slightly, but, Paul remains silent. She needs to breathe out how she feels. Empathic beings are ones who simply need to "move with the flow", as Hawat had once taught him. There is no stopping it. It's a byproduct of how they are.

Just as his visions are a byproduct of what he was born to become. ]

If I hadn't been on this path? If my family would have never come to Arrakis? You would have. [ Blue-in-blue eyes that almost glow in the dark lower then. ] Maybe I would be a better canidate for husband for what you need.

[transmigrate]

[ The journey shaky, her hand migrates from its guaranteed stronghold at her side to uncertain bearings at his face. A few fingers push a lock of dark hair from his temple before she reaches the spot she'll land on. ]

Maybe. [ The breath that she'd held back rips from her lungs in one overdrawn huff. It must've been propping her up, that air; once gone, she's smaller for it. Her lip quirks into a hint of a...

...not a smile. Not anything if not a distant relation of nostalgia. Or regret. Or ten emotions at once.

Her thumb rubs a circle below his eye. ] Maybe not. Mars always called me a crybaby, which is true. I avoided my lessons when I could. I'm clumsy when it comes to dancing. I eat too much and I'm not a queen in the least.

[ Somehow, admitting up to the faults she's always denied feels like absolution. ]

I guess I really am a silly girl. [ She turns her gaze from him, focusing instead on where she imagines the far expanses of Arrakis would be. How many people are out there? ] The you-from-then couldn't have fallen in love with someone like me. He'd deserve a proper, elegant lady. We're a bad match.

returns after con hiatus wooo

[spicetrance]

[ Paul gives her a gentle smile. He stays still for her to move the dusted curls where she wishes. She insists that she'll stay at his side. That dreadful purpose in him speaks otherwise. She'll be horrified at what he becomes. She may rationalize things, but deep down, she would surely hate what he was bred to become. ]

It sounds like it's time for you to become a queen then.

[ His eyes do not leave her figure in the dark. ] I was different before we came to Arrakis. I hadn't killed with my own two hands... I was naive on how things truly worked in the Imperium. Unknowing of what forces manipulated things behind the scenes.

welcome back. happy easter, btw! (and serenity's ~~~realizing~~~ stuff)

[transmigrate]

[ His expression warms hers. After a long absence, some of the color's returned to her face, the tip of her tongue tracing the bow of her lip for relief from the dryness in her mouth. Crying works its curses on the throat, doesn't it? ]

I've no kingdom. [ Subdued, as close to instrospective as her personality allows. ] Anyway, I'm not sure I'd want that - that I ever wanted it.

[ But before she can dwell too close to the subject, something else embraces her attention: when he smiles, in this light, in this moment...

...he's beautiful. He's a glimpse at a far-off light that her fingertips can never claim.

Her chest constricts with the lowest of gasps. ]

Oh.

[ Disregard that she's still cupping his face. ]