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

*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. ]

thank you!! i hope you had a good one!

[spicetrance]

[ Paul quiets. The memory of a similar conversation with his father comes to mind. He never wanted to be Duke either. Becoming the Duke meant his father was dead, and the young Atreides hadn't wanted to face that reality yet. Unfortunately, reality had other plans. ]

I never wanted it either. [ His eyes briefly flick down. ] In the end? You're still your mother's daughter. She was most likely happy with that alone.

[ He pauses. ] "Oh"?

how bad is it that Usagi is probably more discreet than Serenity? (Rei needs to bully her.)

[transmigrate]

[ Caught with her hand dipped in treasure, she tucks her arms back to her sides, contrite in awareness that she's been spotted.

Red in her cheeks - this time, not the rush of blood that accompanies sobs nor the first clue of mortification. ]

Ah, nothing. [ She sways away, rocking on the heels she's scuttled back under her skirts. ] Just...

[ At a rare loss for words, she fusses with the gauze of her nightgown. ]

...I was thinking. [ About how you don't have to share each individual musing that comes to mind? ] If we would've met before, or things were different.

[ One word follows the other, hand in hand as lovers. She can't (won't) hide them away. ]

I would've been the one to fall in love with you.

haha it'd be funny to compare with the other thread! 👀

[spicetrance]

[ Eyebrows raise slightly as her hands drop. If there had been an issue then he would have spoken up. He had become deeply aware of how Serenity, for a lack of better term, functions. She feels and moves with the emotions around her. Her body moves with those emotions and moves automatically. Paul finds no need to be discomforted by the motion of how her nature causes her to move. ]

I see. [ He looks to the side and presses his lips together. He wouldn't lie to her, but, he has no way of knowing if such things would change.

ɴᴏᴛ ʏᴇᴛ.

Paul steadies his gaze on her then. A hint of a smile tugs at his face. ] Are you saying that you haven't fallen in love with me?

[ He had suspected that she had. Or course, Paul had wondered if it was a version in her mind of him or how he truly is standing before her. How he will be. ]

well, Usagi would've already pulled a face* at him, for starters. def not played her mushy card.

[transmigrate]

[ EXCUSE YOU, PAUL. She'd hardly come here to be accused — his directed missile strikes, leaving her stammering in its wake, her palm against the bed for support as her forehead skids her knees. ]

O-of course not! [ Not him teasing her now, too. A new planet, same-old, same-old. Just don't let Uranus privately inform him how susceptible she is to that kind of ribbing. Every atom in her body's battling away at the impulse to stick her tongue out at him. ] My heart still belongs to the boy in my dreams, naturally.

[ Who, commentary unwielded, she's vacillated on being him or not. As of late: answer is no, the mysterious stranger must've been someone else. Yet she's...

...it's impossible to describe. ]

That's the thanks that I get for pointing out your good qualities. [ Suffering. INDIGNITIES, even, but.

Er. Pause the melodrama. ] Did you think I was?

( *which one? pick one. also I am so honored to give Paul age-appropriate bullshit to deal with for a change. )

[spicetrance]

Of course not. [ He repeats after her, yet the tone is far more quiet.

A nod to himself. The suspicion had been wrong. He finds comfort in that to some degree. Some things must not be written as how he sees or reduces. It's... human. A trait he finds he struggles with feeling more and more.

He forces a hint of a smile for her. ] I had wondered. Now I know.

[ A part feels alone now that he knows. Chani, the woman he had seen in dreams, had rebuked him as well. Offworlder. ]

I'm sorry I assumed.

[transmigrate]

[ Mollified, Serenity assesses him from her perch. Foot crosses foot. Once more, the carving lost to sand, exposed only under night skies.

She’d given the answer they both wanted. Why, then, does it gut her to do so?

So she speaks. ]

Because you don’t- won’t love me. [ Arrakis has taught her much, though it’s been no doting tutor. She won’t strangle down her emotions but, as compromise, can fold them into manageable shapes. Her gaze drifts forward. ] And the weight of that would crush down too heavy to bear until it’d break my heart.

[ So fragile, she knows. ]

T-that wouldn’t be fair. To either of us. So...I’ll save us, even if I have to sacrifice...

/returns from the crypt bocchi.mp4

[spicetrance]

Hm. [ Paul glances down then returns his gaze to her. Blue-in-blue eyes settle on her figure. ] Would it truly be the best thing for you if I had fallen in love with you? You would be removed of a station by your birthright so I can lay claim to the throne of the Imperium. Your kingdom--what remains of it--would by proxy be apart of the Imperium and lose what autonomy they have.

You would be attached to the man they call the Kwisatz Haderach.

Is that a life you would truly be happy living? With me?

[transmigrate]

[ She shakes her head, though she isn't looking at him; her eyes have found a target far off, points of luminosity blazing in the corners close to her cheeks. ] You don't understand. [ And that, in the end, is alright. He wouldn't be him if he didn't. She wouldn't be... ] Then again, I don't think I did, either.

[ The interior of her elbow braces her ribcage. Her other palm supports her chin. ]

Love [ Her lids flutter closed. ] doesn't always lead to happy endings. [ A startling admission from her. Has the fairy tale crumbled? Her legs tumble out in butterfly pose, her arms behind her. ] But that doesn't matter. It's still enough that it happens at all. Love's what makes us unique in the universe. Our own miracle work - and every person can do it. Karama.

[ A smile that's equally weighed in sorrow. ]

I hope my mother loved my father as much as your parents did each other.

[spicetrance]

I'm certain they did. After all, you exist.

[ He falls quiet once more to consider her words. Love leads to ruin or to wonders. It feels as if everything around him, regardless of love or good intentions, leads to ruin. He would spare her that fate. Yet, he knows she will insist on staying. ]

I would rather you have the freedom to chose a happier ending, Serenity. The chance to find the man in your dreams that would bring you the happiness you seek. Being with me wouldn't give you that.

What would you do if love was purposely kept in check to lead to the best possible outcome for you? Your people? Your Guardians?

[transmigrate]

[ About that, Paul-

Trailed after his question, though, she gives it the respect due before unraveling it with curiosity. ]

‘Love kept in check.’ What do you mean?

[ Is that what I’m trying, some part of me? Almost there; so near, it could be grasped with fingers stretched. But she doesn't fulfill the formula. Her mind, it seems, is still upon the immediate. ]

If I withheld my love...

[ Hm. ]

[spicetrance]

[ What other way to say such a thing? Any phrasing that comes to mind would just further to harm her. They seem to have both agreed that such a thing should not be possible in the current state of affairs. ]

Love kept to an expectation to shield and protect a person. [ A pause as his gaze moves to the side. ] Your feelings weren't the only one that I meant by the statement.

[ It would seem she has already decided who the man in her dreams is not. ]

[transmigrate]

[ Protracted, unexpected silence radiates from her as she slots together what he’s spoken. ]

You mean yours, too?

[ Without a thought, she’d erased him from the equation - and why wouldn’t she? Already, the signs that he wouldn’t (couldn’t?) love her were in place. He was never in doubt.

She was always the weak link.

Between pauses, she’s worked her way closer. ]

I- I didn’t think you’d have to worry about that. Not with me.

[ Her shoulder skims his. ]

[spicetrance]

Yes.

[ Paul hardly finds her "weak." She has a strength unto herself that is unique and separate from the understanding of the more calculated aspects of the Imperium. She was not raised within the system and perhaps could not handle how brutal and cruel they must be. However, that is not weakness. After all, many could say that humanity had lost their "heart" at some point along the way.

He can't fanthom how a Queen would settle for being with him in a romantic sense and not be wed. ]

It seems so. [ Paul glances at their shoulders, but falls quiet in order to watch her reactions. How she might process the information and confession. ]