bakerstreet | the i n s o m n i a meme

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the i n s o m n i a meme

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.

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[ gun running is not a job that has anything like steady hours. people have needs and some needs are there to be filled, maintenant, and fuck what anyone's watch happens to read. anyway, serge has never really counted on the light of the sun to keep him on track. that's never been his life. and also anyway, he had been working his way backward into this deal for the better portion of four months; tonight had not been the night to be sleepy.

he paces back and forth. the men have come and gone and it was certainly them, two of the group that he was told about. those two, they were professional. give them the guns, frenchie. that was all he had been told, that is everything he knows except that he knows they're some kind of supes. so he gave them the guns and set the trap neatly and maybe it will go off tomorrow or maybe a year from now. his paycheck is not large enough to to have been told.

serge taps his own gun against his thigh as he makes the trip back and forth from one end of the hotel room to the other. the two left an hour ago and morning is still well below the horizon but there are ants under his skin and eyes on the back of his neck. he's alone. it's an unusual state for serge to be in anymore; now there is always someone. so the lack of company is making him jumpy.

he checks the lock on the doors to the small balcony for the third time and then pats his pockets for his cigarettes. ]

Edited (typo!) 2020-10-03 13:54 (UTC)

[ She tries to shoo him away, him and Yusuf. She would very nearly have succeeded — if they had split up to rest and then come back for a job, but Copley had put them to an urgent requisition right away, and now they're sequestered in a chalet their endless funds pay for, perched on Lake Blausee. Tomorrow, he will take her to eat the salmon. ]

[ Tomorrow, also, a walk. Nicky's taste for boats soured five hundred years ago, and he would prefer to look, not to touch. He doubts Andy would find a boat ride soothing. He'd rather be here, with her. ]

[ Her wound is slow to close — it will always be slow, to his perception, who has seen her come back to life in seconds, minutes. And now death is too close, they are too close to losing her. ]

[ Nicky presses a fresh bandage to her side, smoothing it over, ensuring it stays in place. ]

I will check it again in the morning, [ he murmurs to her softly. Yusuf is asleep, in the bedroom, and Nile too, they long since lost to a power nap that has become far more. ]

[ the way her body heals is strange and foreign. it's too slow even to her, frustratingly slow but there's a comfort in it too. a reminder that her mortality is real and that there's an end in her future. finally.

there's a peace that comes with the realization, a calm in her mind she's never felt before. andy can't reconcile the things she's done. the guilt is still there but she's learned to set it aside now, her time too precious to indulge in the shame and self-hate. she's found a new tenderness, a softening around the edges that allows for more opportunities to hover.

andy smiles gently at nicky as he smooths the gauze against her abdomen. she's tried to keep them at arms length, to insist on her independence but they're all too stubborn. and her body tires easily, especially now as it heals. ]

I can change it myself, you know. [ she says lightly, more teasing than anything else. andy's more or less given into nicky's need to take care of her. it makes him feel better, she can see it and she doesn't mind. not really. ]

That, you could have asked.

[ Remonstratively, but Nicky smiles at her. She tries to keep herself apart too much, but he and Yusuf reach out, leave the hands outstretched for the moments they do feel her fingers brush the tips, Andy's hand clasping with theirs. Nicky never tires of waiting for that. ]

[ He seals the edges and gently tugs down her shirt, pressing gently to ensure it all holds in place. She heals much too slowly. The certainty of her death is a more terrifying and painful prospect than his own. ]

Now I can threaten you with cuddles.

Would you have listened? [ she asks, raising her eyebrows.

andy doesn't mean to pull or push away. she doesn't mean to separate herself from them but before her return to mortality, it seemed the only option. it seemed like the best one. so while it's true that she could have changed it herself, she wouldn't have preferred it. not anymore.

the area is still tender, it still hurts to stand and shift and walk. but it's better. andy readjusts on the couch as best she can. almost no pain. ]

Taking advantage of the wounded? [ she asks quietly, playfully. andy shakes her head. ] Tsk, tsk

[ Heh. He might not have. Nicky smiles at her as the space beside her adjusts, opens, always, for him. Only in the privacy of his own mind does he admit this truth: he is most certainly her favourite. She has always nourished him, always kept him tucked under her wings. ]

I must! You never play fair.

[ — neither does he, really. ]

( Would you rather something early-canon, or AU, orrrrr? )

[ i realize "YES TO ALL" is the least helpful answer possible ~~even though it's true~~ so, maybe some kind of "not everything is the worst" au? wwx made it to jin ling's party? jyl followed him to the burial mounds? or survived nightless city? if none of that sparks joy, early-canon is also More Than Awesome!! ]

[ Fool's gamble, poorly played. Days to her matrimony, jiejiejiejie is better watched than the fenghuang of legend in flight. Whatever their (countless, begrudged, remembered) faults, the Lanling Jin sect is — thorough.

This much, Wei Wuxian can respect, the captive of a moonless night that's stretched and sprawled and fettered the gardens in a miasma of uncertainty. He's travelled where he's weak, the heart of a city that scorns him, and if the talismans and masks and wanderer's hooded robes betray him, Jiang Cheng will have exhausted too much of his diplomatic leverage to intercede again. Wei Wuxian knows. They both know.

The possibility of glimpsing jiejiejiejiejiejie among her wedding rites was — a gracious phantasm, haunting his sleep. By right, the Jin should have collected her from Yunmeng, grovelled before Jiang Cheng and the lumbering altars of dead Wei Wuxian has yet to be allowed to salute in prostration. But there is... danger in long journeys, the threat of abduction, as if they don't all know the name of the rascal they suspect and the likelihood that the Yiling Patriarch would peer his head like a whiskered fox from his borrow and make attempt against his sister. The bride has been delivered, her wedding escort reduced.

Wei Wuxian tries (fails) not to resent the insinuation. Tries (fails) also not to resent the scratch of wood tile and window ledge on his calves and flank, the catch of the sill stabbing his stomach when he rolls into Yanli's quarters, decidedly unannounced, slapping a rushed silence talisman on the floor before breaking his fall. Poorly done — a second sheet, painstakingly plastered, this time behind him, to secure the wall. He's a creature of hate this fine evening, sharpened to purpose — and he tries, but won't fail, to prove discreet.

Another wager: that the servant he flirted with and bribed and coaxed gently surrendered the exact pick of rooms for the Jin's beautiful, soon red-clad guest. That she knew it, easily flattered, to start with. Luck loves its favourites: night claims the room in gentle shroud, but Wei Wuxian knows, will always know, the pale sharp edges and dulled curves of his sister's form, sleep-lulled.

He drifts to her bed, cautious to take the knee gently on the hard floor beside it, coiled and serpentine but waiting to unfold and dart, should Yanli wake with a loud startle. Then, slow-slower-slowest, he fishes from his journey satchel a miniature swell, coppery and well ripened — a tangerine he rolls over the bed cover, until it's sure to tumble into Yanli's dainty nose and wake her. ]

Shhhhhhhhhh. [ Before all else, once she seems to stir. Sleeplessness might have compelled Wei Wuxian to madness, but Yanli is of a different, saner make. She might yet scream, but shouldn't, because: ] Look! [ A nod at the tangerine, feast between them. ] Fresh. Fresh from the season.

[ A little worse for the wear, after climbing and infiltration, but still. A fine pick for an intruder, in a main sect's house. ]

[ooc; but make it shippy]

( one of the things that surprises her most about life away from the 707 is how positively quiet the nights are. can barely remember the last time she heard crickets chirping over the relentless noise and chaos of the bang-a-rang. one might think the peace would help her sleep more soundly, but instead meredith finds the quiet unnerving. after so many years, pounding music and bar fights were practically her own personal lullaby.

so she goes out. finds some little dive bar where the men make perfectly polite conversation while carefully watching each little shift of her skirt.

it's late. cabs are starting to park down the street, just waiting for the drunks to start staggering out, and any minute now the bartender will be offering up last call. time for all good little boys and girls to head home, but meredith doesn't know what home is any more, and she's not quite ready to call it a night.

she's caught him glancing her way more than once; quiet, diminutive. the kind of guy who'd be eaten alive in the 707, and maybe that's why she makes her way over to him. boredom, curiosity and the kind of itch under her skin that can only be scratched by a bump from one of the 22s rattling around in her purse. )

Hey there, sugar. ( perching on the stool beside him, one corner of her crimson lips pulled into a smirk, meredith doesn't wait for a response, positive or negative, before plucking the cigarette from his fingers for a drag. ) You been sitting down here all by yourself for a while now. Seemed awfully lonely to me.

Oh yeah? Is that how I look?

[ he takes the cigarette back from her, touching his mouth to the filter as he brings the pack out to offer her a spare. ( he's certain, though, that a woman like her is just as contented with a one-and-done — wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. ) his eyes appraise her, drinking in the sight of everything she has to offer, as they have been at a distance for the better part of the evening — she's not from around here; that little accent of hers only confirming what he'd suspected all along. one more lost girl out looking for trouble. ]

And you thought you'd come along, and — what, exactly?

[ it isn't said as curtly as it might be in the light of day. there's something weary underneath his words, a sort of stretched exhaustion that he's been feeling tighten around his neck since gaetano's return. ( he doesn't want to be home, but home is where he's most needed — what the fuck sort of ultimatum is that? ) ]

It's a little late for — whatever this is, don't you think? You want money? A place for the night?

[ more brashly now, harsh, on edge. he doesn't mean it. it's a mechanism josto knows better than any other. one that's more intimate, familiar. he needs that, now that his brother's back. he needs to know he's still in some kind of control. but before he can apologize, he crooks his fingers at the bartender who hurries over with a sweaty insistence. ]

Get her whatever she wants then fuck off.

Well I appreciate the offer, doll, but I'm a big girl. Got my own place and everything.

( sure it's been a few months now since she's graced a stage anywhere, but she was once the unspoken queen of the bang-a-rang. used to men falling at her feet and begging for a spare few seconds of her attention. so his words, and moreso his tone, manage to shift the confidence she usually wears so comfortably.

but no one knows better than she that the show must go on, and the unexpected bite from her new companion just made him infinitely more interesting, so she orders her drink without bothering to look at the poor, flustered bartender. )

Are you some kind of big shot around here or what?

( she cocks her head in the direction of the barman for settling her chin into the palm of her hand. )

You say jump and people say how high?

[ cool putting him in either role! not interested in shipping. ]

(well, whichever reason it might be, it's time for some late night tinkering! he's happy to share the coffee if you need some yourself, though)

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Page 8 of 10

the i n s o m n i a meme

😽

ellie | the last of us

Annie January | The Boys

number five | the umbrella academy

andy | the old guard

no subject

03.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

jiang yanli | the untamed

no subject

no subject

09!

jyn erso || rogue one || ota

cassian andor || rogue one || ota

rey || star wars || ota

ben solo || star wars || ota

natasha romanoff | mcu

richard rider | marvel 616

Levi Schmitt | Grey's Anatomy

Alex Manes | Roswell, New Mexico

Adam Parrish | The Raven Cycle/Dreamer Trilogy

A-Yi | Forward Forever

Nie Huaisang | The Untamed

josto fadda | fargo

a little 5, a little 9 and a lot 10?

me realizing this is in my emails a month later

aaayyy i just wanted to join the one month club, okay

Derek Lockwood | Original | OTA

papyrus | undertale

norton campbell | identity v

denys ( oc )

Revenant| Apex Legends| OTA

colress | pokemon b2w2/usum

Remilia Scarlet (aged up) | Touhou Project | OTA