IC: Clan House

[tomaszavenger]

Damn it... I thought she'd say no... I can take advantage of this... but I'm going to be the better person.

"Actually, it doesn't have to be my room, just somewhere private... like your room..." OH FETH!... YOU STUPID GUY... I DIDN'T SAY IT... YES YOU DID YOU IDIOT!... SHUT THE HELL UP! "I mean, like right outside this room..." Tom said, and he walked slowly to the outside of the room, watching Leyla follow him.

(OOC: Iris: Spot the 40k Gaunt's Ghosts reference...)

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla nodded and followed Tom, only tripping once on the way.

"We could go to my room toos I don't really minds...."

Her inner Kat started nagging her again, and she pouted.

Awwwwww but Kaaaaaaat!!! It's just a room!!!!

Surprisingly, the inner Kat stopped talking. She sighed, wondering why she even had an inner Kat in the first place.

TO KEEP YOU IN LINE GIRL!

Oh, so that was why.

Finally, she reached him and smiled.

"Oh hi now tell...."

She had to know before she was forced to fall asleep. She didn't want to go to sleep, mostly because she would forget the question altogether. The other reason, because she had a eerie feeling about it.

I wonder why that is.....

[tomaszavenger]

"Okay then..." Tom said nervously. He checked around to see nobody was looking, except maybe the cameras, and then hit two things on his shoulder. They were clamp releases, and suddenly, with a small puff of smoke, the top of his armour had popped into two parts. Tom lay each part on the ground, so that he was only covered by a vest. He shivered slightly from the cold.

"Do you see it?" Tom asked, pointing to his rib-cage. The deformity was quite obvious, although not too major. His ribs were completely convex rather than a concave breast bone and convex ribs. There was a slight indentation in the middle of the breast bone, so that the right side stuck out more than the left. Tom rubbed them slightly, ashamed...

"There..." he said, sadness in his eyes, "that's where the pain comes from..."

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla blinked, not really understanding what the big deal was. Maybe it was supposed to disgust her? She shook her head, smiling.

"Yeeeeeyyy! No more armors!!!!!"

And then she hugged him cheerfully.

"Yay Tom hug!"

Without the armor though, he felt warm to her. She almost fell asleep right there, but shook herself awake again.

"Tom you're so silly...silly silly Tom....you shouldn't be so sad and scared...you should just enjoy yourself more...."

[upsilon]

-Dylan and The Wombat-

Fashionably late. Well, it wasn't his favorite form of fashion but eh. Dylan trudged in with a happy yet goofy grin on his face, looking around at the crowd, or not so crowd, before seeing Kat sleeping so soundly. "Awwwwwwww...so cuuuuuute." He whined before snapping his fingers and sitting down on a random wooden chair that wasn't there about three seconds ago.

"So sorry I had to miss out on the festivities, I was off watching the final season of Battlestar Galactica from our time...benefits of the future you know." The wombat quickly popped his head out of the bag at this and whacked him upside the head. "BAKA! Why are you always such a geek!?" He disappeared as swiftly as he'd arrived and left Dylan rubbing his head.

"Well. Did I miss anything besides kitten falling asleep? I was spacing out for a while..." Another whack on his head was issued as the wombat annoyingly perched atop his cranium. "No puns either!" It reprimanded, staying there as if expecting him to do something else worthy of a rapping.

"Oh really, how can you not love Captain Adama? He has style man." With a wink of his eye Dylan was now dressed entirely in a regal looking military uniform mirroring that of the beloved Battlestar captain. The wombat just curled up and drifted off to sleep, but not before kicking him in the head for that and snapping his own fingers to make the suit disappear.

"Which way you ought to go...depends on where you want to get to..." Dylan chanted before a purple cat was suddenly and weightlessly sitting on Kat's head. A smiling cat. Smiling from ear to ear and whisker to whisker. Dylan suddenly wished he had some cheshire cheese...Cheshire, England did have the best cheese, or so the dictionary said.

[tomaszavenger]

"You're really optimistic when you're tired..." Tom commented as Leyla hugged him. He felt uncomfortable that she didn't even seem bothered, that wasn't the usual reaction he got.

"Yeah... if I only had something to enjoy that wouldn't disappear" Tom said, recalling all the disappearances.

Every single disappearance, it always had a horrible effect on me, but worst of all, the things he wanted to disappear were usually permenant.

One of those things about life... bloody monoliths never seem to fade...

[TheTimeSweeper]

Evan and Nav-E

Nav-E couldn’t wait any longer and got up from his seated position and made his way into the kitchen to make himself some coffee.

“Damn, I could really use a nice jolt of caffeine. Maybe I can mix some Mountain Dew into my coffee when it’s ready…” Nav-E paused for a moment. “…Naaahhh.”

After he had filled the reservoir full in the coffee pot with water and added several scoops of Folgers to the paper filter, he rummaged around in the freezer for the frozen waffles. Meanwhile, Evan was watching Dylan and his wombat cause mischief until a very familiar pink and purple –striped grinning cat appeared atop Kat’s head.

“…Nav-E, The Cheshire Cat is in the living room sitting on top of Kat’s head,” Evan called into the kitchen.

“Yeah, sure, and the Mad Hatter and March Hare are in the dining room having a tea party,” Nav-E called back from the freezer.

“Nav-E, I’m serious. I think Dylan just made The Cheshire Cat appear by saying one of his quotes from the movie.”

“Who is Dylan again?”

“The guy with the wombat.”

“Oh, yeah… Heh, I guess it makes sense. He does have magical abilities, right?”

“Yeah, I believe so.”

Nav-E paused. “So The Cheshire Cat is really here right now?”

“See for yourself.”

Nav-E removed his head from inside the freezer and looked into the living room. Sure enough, The Cheshire Cat was perched atop Kat’s head, grinning from ear to ear.

“Holy shit…”

“Told you,” replied Evan.

Nav-E then walked back into the living room and sat down on the floor next to Evan, The Cheshire Cat following him with his yellow eyes all the way.

“Uh, the coffee should be ready in ten minutes or so…”

Seeing the cat up close and personal like this made Nav-E feel uneasy. It was like those eyes were staring right into his soul and that grin could peel the wallpaper from the walls. Evan, on the other hand, was enjoying the fact that a cartoon character was in the house right now and sitting atop Kat’s head.

“Damn, I really wish I had a camera right now.”

[Kat]

Kat

Kat stirred in her sleep as the Cheshire cat appeared on her head. She muttered something, frowning into her wings.

Toad opened an eye to glare at the strange creature perched on his mommy's head. He growled, the fur on his back raising. His tail would've puffed up, if he had a tail.

He paced, jumping onto Nav-E's lap, then Evan's, then back to Nav-E.

Kat just slept, restlessly, tossing slightly without ever displacing the strange cat.

[upsilon]

-Dylan and The Wombat-

"Aw, she looks like she's having a nightmare or something..." Dylan stated calmly as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a large teapot. "Hmm...I think I'd like sugar with my tea." With that he removed the lid of the apparently empty teapot and a small mouse popped out and threw a sugar cube at the cat on Kat's head.

The Cheshire Cat disappeared with a poof, as did the sugar cube before he replaced the lid and a cup and saucer slid from his opposite sleeve. He quickly poured some tea from the now full pot into the cup, eventually dropping the entire teapot into the cup, though defying the laws of physics.

He sipped away at it for a minute, watching Kat sleep while the wombat rolled about on his head in his own sleep. Eventually he finished the tea, crumpling up the saucer around the tea cup and throwing nothing but a ball of wrinkled paper into a trash can in the corner. "Nonsense makes so much sense..."

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla blinked, then yawned.

"Nah, not really......an I wanted to hug you Tom. This is fun...."

She released the hug, staring at Tom.

"Whatcha mean by that Tom? What's disappearing?"

She frowned, everything had gone fuzzy for a minute and it confused her. In the haze, she saw Stripes and Polka-Dots. For some reason, this really freaked her out and she shivered. The vision was gone though, and she was staring at Tom again.

That was really weird.......

It never occurred to her that she should be embarrassed right now, she didn't seem to care how foolish she was acting in front of her friends at the moment. Well, now it was just in front of Tom but she still should have been less touchy. Unfortunately, her mind didn't get that memo.

LEYLAAAAAA!!!! STOP IT NOW! HE'S A BOOOOOOY!!!! YOU CAN'T BE ALL HUGGY HUGGY! RRRRRRGHHHHH!!! IMMA KICK HIM IN THE NUTS!!!!

"...no don't do that Kat......."

She mumbled that to herself, then shook her head. The inner Kat was being more forceful now, so she took a step away from Tom to make her be quiet.

[TheTimeSweeper]

Evan and Nav-E

“What…the…hell…?”

Nav-E gaped at what just happened. He stole a glance at Evan who had the same bewildered expression on his face.

“You know, Evan, I think not getting any sleep last night is messing with my head. I’m seeing things I shouldn’t be seeing.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, Nav-E. I think everything that just happened really happened… Uh, why don’t I go get us some coffee seeing as how you are preoccupied with something right now.”

Nav-E looked down at the cat in his lap and stroked its head.

“Yeah, you better go do it.”

Evan then got up from his seat, went into the kitchen, and returned with two mugs of hot, steaming coffee. He handed one to Nav-E before making himself comfortable in the chair again.

“I figured that we would need some nice strong coffee to start the day and after what just happened, I might need more than just one cup,” said Nav-E as he took a sip.

“Mmhmm. Things sure are getting weird around here. I’ve lost track of all the weird stuff that’s happened so far,” replied Evan.

“This is looking less and less like a competition and more like who is going to go completely insane first.”

“Which, in essence, is a competition itself,” noted Evan.

“Yeah, I guess. I’m just glad The Cheshire Cat is gone; he was freaking me out.”

Evan smiled and then grinned wide, tilting his head to one side and staring at Nav-E.

“We’re all mad here, Nav-E.”

Nav-E caught sight of Evan and jumped. “Stop that!”

Evan laughed.

Nav-E glared at him. “Ass…”

[tomaszavenger]

"See... seems you had a delayed reaction, probably from your tiredness, but even you would be repulsed by me..." Tom said, almost with the satisfaction of hitting a QED stamp onto a paper, but also with the sadness of a funeral.

Tom felt inclined to pick up the pieces of armor. He put the pieces into place, all he had to do was activate the electromagnets, but he paused a second, and looked back at Leyla.

"What do you mean hugging me is fun?" he asked in relation to the preceding question Leyla had given him. He delayed his speaking momentarily to think, but then said: "You're really tired... aren't you... you'll probably collapse any second. Better get ready to catch you." Tom said.

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla giggled, Tom was being silly again.

"No no Tom, Kat kept yelling at me to get away from you cause you're a boy. It has nothing to do with you! Hee hee"

She only realized after she said it, how crazy that sounded.

"...uhm......."

She paused, wondering why she even bothered. Oh well.

"I like hugging you Tom! It is fun! And I always wanted to hug you, so I'm really glad I got to do it........don't be so hard on yourself Tom."

As an afterthought, Leyla frowned.

"Whaddaya means catch me! I'm not some.....braindead....doodie......girly girl...thing...."

Alright, she admits it, that sentence definitely got away from her. So what though? She didn't think it really mattered so much. She was FINE. Why were people so worried?

[tomaszavenger]

Tom let the electromagnets seal themselves into place before continuing.

He waved his scanner around Leyla, pointing it all around until a message beeped on it.

"Low synapse transmission detected..." the voice simply said. Nothing else seemed to be in disorder. In other words, she was simply sleep deprivated. But at any rate, she'd get exhausted.

Tom remembered the article he had read about the reasons for sleep:

Sleep is the reconfiguration of existing information by your brain, which helps the build up of long term memory, hence cramming and getting tired before sleeping often results in no memory retrival possible the following day.

Sleepiness due to chronic lack of adequate sleep is a big problem. Most adults should have eight hours of sleep, and children should have roughly ten hours of sleep.

When we get less sleep (even one hour less) then we begin to experience effects of sleep deficiancy. If the deficiancy becomes too great, it can lead to problem sleepiness – sleepiness that occurs when you should be awake and alert, that interferes with daily routine and activities, and reduces your ability to function. Even if you may not feel tired, the deficiancy can have a powerful negative effect on your daytime ability, personality and mood, and eventually your brain will begin emergency sleep protocols, shutting you down even at dangerous times. Many accidents are caused by this emergency act, for example, truck drivers that work overtime often crash moments later.

Inadequate sleep decreases ability, concentration, reactivity, and mental processing (ie, appropriate usage and conversion of information).

Inadequate sleep can cause increases in memory loss, accident probability, social issues and mood issues.

"Leyla... you really need to sleep. Will you sleep for me?" he asked, before realising how dodgy and perverted that sounded.

"Actually... forget I said that." Tom said, before walking behind Leyla.

She's tough if she can keep herself awake for this long. She'll collapse soon though, and I'll catch her...

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla giggled, scanners. Hee hee, that was so funny! Wait a minute......no it wasn't. Still, she couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"I'm fine Tom! Really..I'm fine!"

Leyla blinked, he had just said something to her. What did he say again?

"Forget what?........."

Then she remembered again and frowned.

"B-but....I don't want to sleep......."

She wobbled slightly, but refused to yawn.

Alight.....who turned my legs into noodles.....was it you Kat?

The voice vas silent though, it seemed her inner Kat was catching a few Zs of her own. Leyla sighed, lucky her. She blinked, just a little bit longer than usual, and saw red.

What? Why red?

She was curious to find out exactly what it was she was seeing glimpses of, but something deeper told her she didn't want to know. The same part of her begging not to fall asleep.

Odd.......I guess I just won't sleep.....

[tomaszavenger]

Tom just couldn't take seeing Leyla in this way anymore.

He grabbed her hand lightly.

"Come along with me... okay?" he said with a smile on his face, pulling slightly to urge her to come along. But then he thought it would take a great physical feat for Leyla to do so, after all, her emergency protocols were attempting her to sleep, yet she was resisting them at all odds.

Something is not right...

"Actually, why don't you climb onto my back?" Tom said. The armor's strength would mean he could easily carry Leyla where he wanted her to be in no time.

Tom crouched down in front of her, and waited momentarily.

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla blinked wobbling slightly.

"Eh.....where're we going....?"

She frowned, why was she always out of the loop? It just wasn't fair! But then she realized that there was no loop, and that she was completely overreacting. Sighing, she eyes Tom a bit.

"I'm too heavy......I don't want to burden you Tom....."

But he looked really tempting, awwwwww smiling Tom! She shook her head again, getting rid of the random thoughts. This was becoming a nuisance to her, why couldn't she think clearly?

Because there's blood on the other side....

The thought went away as soon as it came, leaving Leyla with only a shudder for memory. Why did she suddenly feel so uneasy?

"I'm okay.....fine.....no need to hurt you.....where we going....?"

She refused to fall asleep, and she didn't want to burden Tom. Maybe she should try to make it to her room and wait this out alone. She was bothering Tom and possibly worrying him too. This made her feel even worse, and her throat started to burn again.

"...s-sorry...."

She held in the cough that was desperately bubbling to the surface, she may be a bit hazy, but she wasn't going to burden her friends.

[tomaszavenger]

"Trust me, it wouldn't be a burden, and are you saying I'm too weak?" he said with a grin. He had rolled back and then kicked up into normal stance.

"You think you'll be alright to walk then? Well... come on!" Tom said almost urgently, and pointed down the corridor. He had deliberately not said anything about the destination, as he knew she would immediately object.

I feel like the bloody Sandman...

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla blinked, then started to move foreword.

"No......s'not what I meant....."

It took alot of work to move one foot in front of the other without falling, but somehow she was managing. Hooray! She smiled, proud of herself, but then realized that she shouldn't be proud of walking. She frowned, and focused on walking again. She noticed Tom pointing towards a corridor, so she figured she should head there.

"....but where are we going.....?"

He never answers her, it made her a little sad that he always avoided her questions. She figured it would just be more of the same though, even though she asked him again.

This sucks.....I feel like some little kid that nobody takes seriously now....

And even though she thought this was the case, she still allowed herself to be 'led' to wherever they were going.

[tomaszavenger]

"It's a suprise... okay?" Tom said with a smile. He noticed Leyla seemed to be walking far more straight than before.

That's... almost impossible! She's getting better at it... in such a state? Maybe she overstepped the boundary so much that her brain has stopped the emergency shut-down. But if that occurs then she might... *gulp* die.


One of the possible side effects of a sleep deprivation is death. Usually this is the result of the lack of energy remaining with the person, as being more active increases the basal metabolic rate, and eventually, will cause critical functions to shut down. The number of white blood cells in the body also experience a decrease, and are not replenished properly, causing a deficiancy in the immune system. The body also decreases the amount of growth hormone produced, and this is present even in adults, to combat the effects of gravitational shrinking, but in children is exteremly fatal. The ability of the body to metabolize sugar declines, turning sugar into fat, therefore lowering remaining energy supplies, as sugar provides more than double the energetic output of fat. One study stated that people who sleep less than four hours per night are three times more likely to die within the next six years . Although the longest a human has remained awake was eleven days, it has shown that other animals also react adversely, and theories have even emerged of the dinosaur's extinction to be caused by lack of sleep.

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

"I like surprises. Is it a good surprise or a bad one?"

She frowned, narrowing her eyes and straightening up a bit. She wasn't going to be some weak silly little thing anymore, she was going to try her best to fight this thing off. Still, she felt sluggish. She wanted to sleep but something told her she shouldn't. She felt something scratching at her throat and shivered. Now was not the time to be thinking of things like that. She blinked, and saw complete blackness. Then, she heard a dark baritone laughter.

It was enough to jolt her upright again, eyes wider than before.

"So....surprise then?"

[tomaszavenger]

"Yeah... I guess... suprise!" he said, and he pointed where he had taken her... the medical centre. Immediately, small robots had begun taking scans of her.

A wierd human begun to approach them.

"Hello there... since robots haven't been perfected to deal with humans, I am the Clan House Doctor. My robots haven't picked up anything wrong with her apart from lethargy and lack of sleep... what's wrong?" the doctor asked.

"She refuses to sleep..." Tom said with worry, "could you prehaps figure out why?"

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla frowned, more scans. She shot a betrayed look at Tom for a moment, some surprise. The look didn't last long though, she knew he was just looking out for her.

"Hello......."

She didn't want to sleep, what was the big deal?

Well....no.....he may be right. I don't know why I don't want to sleep. Obviously there's something else other than wanting to stay up late this time. Gah I hate it when other people are right at times like this. Stupid stupid merrr.....Why did I have to be brought here though? I could have figured it out myself.......right?

[tomaszavenger]

"Lack of sleep... what's bothering you Leyla?" the doctor asked. The robots had left from him, and only they were in the medical centre now.

"Seems like a psychological problem rather than a physical one... prehaps you should just go to your rooms. If sleep still doesn't come by, visit me again. There's nothing I can really do..." the doctor said, smiling before hurrying them out of the centre.

"Okay... you heard that? I'll walk you to your room. You don't have to sleep, okay?" Tom said. Somehow, he felt the doctor was being lazy, but he knew he'd have to trust the professional's judgement.

Tom looked to his left before clasping Leyla's hand with one of his own.

"Come on..." he said with a rather sad, suppressive smile, and he walked towards the housing quarters.

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

A small smile spread across Leyla's face as she walked along with Tom. Holding hands like this, it felt good.

I never get to hold hands with anyone but Kat back home, it feels nice.

And also, to her dread, relaxing. She felt like she could fall asleep at any moment, but she didn't even dare to blink.

"......yeah....no sleeping then....."

Still, she mused, this felt really nice.

[tomaszavenger]

"Yeah... no sleeping..." Tom echoed. "I'm sorry for being mean and taking you there, if you don't want to sleep, you don't have to, okay? It's morning soon anyway, you'll feel really good then. Would you like some coffee?" Tom offered.

I don't believe it... I'm holding... her hand... and it feels nice.

Tom realised he was staring at Leyla again, and looked forward. He could see the housing quarters right up ahead, and Leyla and his room were close by.

"So... should we go into your room or mine?" he asked.

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla shrugged slightly. She got over it pretty quickly, she did seem a bit out of it anyways.

"Yeah....I guess so......maybe......"

She, personally, hated coffee though. And normally would have outright refused the beverage immediately. However, she still wasn't thinking clearly. Instead, she squeezed his hand a bit tighter and nodded.

"Yeah.....coffee....alright....."

She turned her head to look at him, but paused. She didn't want to make him feel awkward or anything. She thought for a moment, then shrugged.

"I don't really care........."

And she didn't care. Actually, she probably would have agreed to alot of things at this point simply because she couldn't focus enough to realize the consequences. Not that deciding a room had consequences, but still. She realized that things were getting hazy again, so she bit her lip really hard. The pain and little bits of blood snapped her out of the daze. She liked pain, but the blood was suddenly very unwelcome in her mouth. Usually, she didn't care if she drew blood biting, but right now she wanted to gag on the taste.

Why?.....yeck....its leaving a horrible feeling in my chest.....and it tastes so nasty.....what the heck?

[tomaszavenger]

"Well... you can come to my room then! I'll invite you!" Tom said, opening the door, and letting her sit down on his bed.

"I'll get the coffee from the kitchen... be back in a second okay?" Tom said, before sprinting down the hallway, leaving Leyla alone momentarily.

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla stared blankly around the room, sitting in Tom's bed. She blinked once, then shivered. Something was bugging her behind her eyelids, and she didn't want to blink anymore. But she had too, more rapidly now.

Blink

HA

Blink

HAHA

Blink

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

She bolted upright, barely realizing that she had nearly fallen asleep. She breathed sharply, eyes wide and unblinking.

What the fuck was that?

[tomaszavenger]

Tom turned a crank, and soon, coffee had entered a mug that he had placed below the coffee machine. After 10 seconds, the coffee had gone into the cup, and Tom lifted it out, and slowly went back towards his room.

A robot offered to carry it for him, uncloaking itself, but Tom refused, and decided to take it himself. He walked down, before entering his room, to see Leyla resisting sleep again.

"Here's your coffee..." Tom said, before placing it on the end table next to his bed. He sat down on the floor, giving her some space, and kept quiet for a moment.