fourhearts: <lj comm=cupcake_graphics> (Default)
♥♥♥♥ ([personal profile] fourhearts) wrote in [community profile] bakerstreet2020-06-10 07:06 pm

no sleep tonight

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.

arcanauniverse: (peaceful)

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-06-12 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
[Ah... So at least he didn't wake him, but the softer expression makes him relax... He's never really talked to His Highness one on one before, tonight is sure to be, uh, interesting. Two insomniacs, Garreg Mach's kitchens, and unsupervised tea making? Minato himself has barely any idea as to how to brew tea, so if Dimitri has some idea... He's not gonna be hard to please, he just needs the distraction.]

[He smiles, a little, and nods at the offer.]
Sure, not like I'm gonna go to sleep either. Midnight tea making should be fun.
azureboar: (soft)

[personal profile] azureboar 2020-06-12 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
[Dimitri has admittedly never spent much time with either Ferdinand or Lorenz, but he has seen Dedue in action and he's good with just about everything, including tea. So...how hard can be it?]

It will be an experience, yes.

[He smiles a little. An experience, a distraction...at least neither of them will be alone.]
arcanauniverse: (pensive)

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-06-12 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
Lemme just go get some shoes on. [Minato gives a half-hearted and definitely not accurate salute, more of a playful "see you in a sec" than anything, and goes to get shoes at the very least, and maybe a slightly warmer shirt on. Even if the kitchens weren't too far, he wasn't in the mood to go walking across cold grass in his bare feet...]

[He returns to Dimitri once he has some soft shoes on and a thicker shirt, ready for their midnight escapade and... Distraction from their sleepless nights. The way his face had changed when Minato said nightmares were the cause of the visit... Well, His Highness had his fair share of trauma, what with the Tragedy and all, a thing Minato really hadn't thought about until he was actually buttoning his shirt in his room.]

[Perhaps they were more alike than he'd originally thought.]
azureboar: (gentle)

[personal profile] azureboar 2020-06-12 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[Dimitri nods, his own feet stuffed into fur-lined bedroom slippers. They make his feet sweat in warmer months, but he's grateful for them nonetheless. He pulls his robe tighter around himself, and they head for the dining hall.]

If you want, you can tell me about your nightmare. That might help.

[Poor Dimitri. Offering his ear to someone while keeping quiet about his own problems.]
arcanauniverse: (serious)

-smacks around some more au-building-

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-06-12 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[Minato gently kicks a rock as they walk, drawing his cloak against the cool air. he digs his teeth into his lower lip as he considers the suggestion... Did he need to tell Dimitri, really?.. Then again tonight was a night that seemed quietly holy, sacrosanct in the lonesomeness of it all that made a damaged, and young part of Minato, still crying in that cold ditch, want to live in the moonlight before he could bury it again beneath classes and discipline and drill to serve his adoptive family and the Kingdom itself.]

I have nightmares about the carriage "accident" that killed my parents. [He tries to make it feel offhand, but the waver in his voice betrays how deep this pain runs.] I... Didn't know at the time that it was part of the... The plot to assassinate Takeharu Kirijo, the- the thing that ended up setting the village of Tatsumi on fire about ten years ago? The assassins saw my parents as possible witnesses and- and destroyed our carriage, killed my parents and sister- I... I faked death in a ditch and laid there for hours, covered in blood and a wheel. I just... I have nightmares about it all the time, the... The screaming, the cracking of wood, the pain... How scared and alone I felt.

[He shuffles as they reach the stone stairs.] Fortunately the... Attempt failed and when I stumbled into the town I was treated with kindness and the Kirijo family eventually adopted me in... So... like here I am, but... Nightmares won't go away. I don't even know what happened to the assassins, nor my parents' and sister's bodies.
azureboar: (broken)

[personal profile] azureboar 2020-06-13 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
[Dimitri vaguely remembers hearing about that as a child, the assassination attempt and the fire...and for a moment he stops in his tracks, hugging himself as his mind goes blank for a moment. Fire, screaming, pain... His father, begging Dimitri to avenge them, the look of horror on Glenn's face, the disappearance of his stepmother...

He swallows, forcing himself back to reality. This is not the time to be wrapped up in yourself, Dimitri. He's confiding in you, and you promised you would listen.]

I'm sorry. Seeing everyone die before your eyes, spending hours in pain, alone...no one deserves that.
arcanauniverse: https://yosukesheadphones.tumblr.com/post/78059008555/minato-arisato-assorted-130-icons (Default)

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-06-13 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
[He glances up at Dimitri when his steps still and he seems stricken, hesitating with his own steps and watching the Prince with a silently concerned expression. They were quite similar, the two of them, losing great swaths of their families and identities so young, to flames, and killers. He lets Dimitri say his comforts and gently touches his arm, small, but steadier.]

it's left marks that haven't healed... But you're sleepless too? You've been through just as much, Dimitri. [he always seemed to insist on people abandoning the titles they were raised to use while in school...] Your pain should be seen too... Even if maybe just for tonight."
azureboar: (broken)

[personal profile] azureboar 2020-06-14 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
Ah...

[He's always thought himself a good actor, not wanting to worry the others with his dark thoughts and memories. But right now...]

I suppose so. At least...I can talk to you about it. I don't want to burden my classmates, especially those hurt just as badly by the tragedy.
arcanauniverse: (peaceful)

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-06-14 03:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Fine by me. I keep secrets well.

[He hopes that's somewhat comforting to him... Sometimes the darkness of others could be a burden, he understands that... But if it's a burden Minato can help Dimitri carry -- even if just a little -- he's happy to.]

[They enter the kitchens together. Tea might help them both now more than ever.]
azureboar: (sweet)

[personal profile] azureboar 2020-06-15 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[Dimitri locates his favorite chamomile tea leaves by their scent easily. Ever since losing his sense of taste his sense of smell is a lot stronger. He finds a pot already full of water.]

Do you like this blend? Or is there another one you prefer?
arcanauniverse: (neutral)

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-06-15 03:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[He glances over and searches the shelf before retrieving a favored mint blend. The clarity and coldness of the taste always centered him] This one's my favorite.
azureboar: (Default)

[personal profile] azureboar 2020-06-23 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, that's a favorite of Ashe's.

[Dimitri likes to try to remember his classmates' preferences, just in case.]

I'm not picky when it comes to tea, as long as it's warm enough.
arcanauniverse: (peaceful)

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-06-25 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
You and I both. [He sets the container on the counter, pulling his cloak a little tighter. He hasn't made tea in a long time, not since he last saw Mitsuru, and that was years ago, before she took over the family and didn't have time for things like tea and long chats.
Still... She was the one who taught him that family was what you made of it, and it was not your blood, but the people who deserved your company that made your true family... A kind of sentiment that made him a true member of the Kirijo house, and a sentiment Minato was comforted to be exposed to.]

Making tea was a quiet affair between them as the pot simmered and began to steam]
azureboar: (Default)

sorry this took forever

[personal profile] azureboar 2020-07-03 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
[When the kettle whistles, signalling that the tea is ready, Dimitri takes the liberty of pouring, mimicking how he's seen Dedue or Mercedes do it in the past. His motions are stiff and awkward as he tries to be careful, always ever conscious of his near-inhuman strength.]
arcanauniverse: (serious)

No prob, you good!

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-07-03 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Minato retrieves cream and sugar, he's always liked his a little sweeter than most, and with a little bit of chocolate melted in for extra flavor... He's not really sure where the chocolate is though, and he's not keen on digging around to find it. He's a bit too tired to make too much mess and have to clean it up later.]
azureboar: (gentle)

[personal profile] azureboar 2020-07-04 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[Dimitri watches him; sometimes he wonders if adding extra sugar to his tea would make him able to taste it, but he's never bothered to try. Instead, he relies on the warmth.]
arcanauniverse: (pensive)

[personal profile] arcanauniverse 2020-07-12 05:28 am (UTC)(link)
[Once the tea is finished, Minato finds somewhere for them both to sit and savor it. There's always something to be said for the liminality of spaces that are meant to be full when you find them and they're empty, a sort of lonesomeness to them, of missing stories and time frozen where it shouldn't be. No past, or future, just an infinite, strange present beneath the flickering of candle-flames.]

[It is just them in the dining hall, after all, a place usually populated by students and cooking staff. The quiet is abnormal, but not unwelcome.]