Wake Up, Smell the Coffee, and Sleep(TAG)

[Timothy Smith]

It was finally time.

Tim took a deep breath as he looked up at the building in front of him. "Astaria Sleep Institute," was in big bold letters across the front. It was on the hospital campus, but also sort of it's own thing. It was weird.

He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be dealing with this. But really, he had to now.

He realized that it was becoming more and more obvious that he wasn't sleeping. Cassandra had noticed and they'd had a conversation with ghosts and everything. Adara had noticed. And he wasn't sure if it was Cassandra or Alice who had told the Pillars, or if they'd just heard of it on their own, but either way, they had found out. The Phantom and Star Woman delivered the ultimatum in person. He either went to an appointment at the Sleep Institute and got this "no sleeping" thing under control, or he would be suspended without pay indefinitely. And locked out of Aegis HQ. Alice similarly threatened to lock him out of his lab at ARF. Adara had straight up threatened to stop seeing him until he got it under control. So here he was.

He walked in the front door and up to the desk. "Hi. Appointment for Timothy Smith?"

A few moments later he was led back into a room. He sat and waited. He had no idea what to expect. He'd never done this before. And quite honestly, he was terrified. He could feel it. If he let himself, he'd fall asleep right away. But he could also feel what lurked just beneath the surface of that sweet REM sleep. Waiting for him to give in once more. To remind him of all his sins.

His hands shook. Was it caffeine withdrawals, nerves, or a bit of both? He wasn't sure. All he knew was this was going to hurt on an emotional level, no matter what he did.

But he had to. For Adara. For Alice. For everyone at Aegis that depended on him. For everyone that he protected as Surge. He knew he wasn't operating at his best.

It was time to wake up and smell the coffee. He needed to sleep.


@spectre

[Deleted]

Sleep studies were his favorite thing to do, aside from playing with his two daughters. They hated that he had to go to work at night at a second job, but their mother always seemed to manage them well enough to get them into bed and usually, Callum was able to read to them before he gently lulled them to sleep with his gifts. His wife could never figure out how he was so good at getting them to go to sleep for him because they were up for well longer than they should be when it was her turn. He ate the compliments up and before he left, whispered into Cecilia's ear to have sweet dreams since he wasn't there. Lately, she'd been waking with nightmares of some sort and he was never around to help her control them.

He hated when he couldn't help and wished they were still babies when their dreams were nothing but cotton filled and milk drunk stupors. Still, as he entered the sleep study for the second time that week, he placed his briefcase down in his office and began his usual routine to check the rooms before his clients go there. Normally, he ended up with two to watch but tonight, it was but only one and he glanced over the notes and initial application before closing his file and walking to he room labeled with a twelve.

A gentle knock erupted the silence he detected and opened the door to reveal an obviously sleep deprived man. For it to be dark outside, he put on a cheerful face. "Welcome Timothy Smith. My names Callum. I'm the Somnologist here at the Astaria Sleep Institute. I'm glad you can make it in." He brought his hand up to shake with him before motioning to the chair in the room.

"Do you have any questions before I begin and tell you what we are are going to do for the next seven hours while you sleep and I work?" Callum sat down in front of Tim with a slight chuckle in his voice before opening Tim's file again and retrieving a pen. "What brings you in tonight for this? It just states having trouble sleeping or lack of sleep. Want to tell me about it?"

Timothy Smith

[Timothy Smith]

Tim jumped when the knock came at the door. He stood quickly, jumpy, nervous, and shook Callum’s hand with a shaky one of his own. Yeah, yeah it was definitely nerves.

Tim sat back down, and his eyes widened when everything clicked. Sleep study. The appointment being late in the evening. They were going to have him sleep. Like, in the next few minutes. He was going to lay down and be expected to sleep.

“M-maybe this is a bad idea, we should reschedule or something or maybe this is enough I came in I said “Hi Hello I’m Timothy Smith,” does that count I...”

His nervous rambling trailed off as he focused his mind back onto the reason he came in the first place. There were too many people that needed him to be at his best, and he wasn’t right now.

“Well. Questions. Um. Okay. Are... is... Is this bed fireproofed? Is everything electrically insulated well? I have energy powers and I’m pretty sure that... they can get out of hand when I sleep. I think. I’m not sure, I’ve never wanted to find out. I’ve just made sure every place I’ve slept is fireproof and insulated. That- That’s all I have for questions.”

Tim looked down at his hands, clasped together over his knees. “I... I haven’t been sleeping. And people have noticed. And...it’s not insomnia or anything like that. I...”

He took a deep breath again, trying to calm the shaking in his hands. It transformed into a bouncing knee.

“I haven’t been sleeping because I’ve been intentionally avoiding sleep. My powers let me absorb energy from my surroundings. I’ve had more coffee, Red Bull, and Monster than is probably healthy for anyone. The last time I slept was... several weeks ago. And that was unintentional. I was rendered unconscious after a battle. The reason...”

His words caught in the back of his throat again. He raised a shaky fist to his mouth and cleared it.

“The reason I’ve been avoiding it are the nightmares. Every time I sleep. Always the same theme. It... I... I swear I think too much and it will drive me insane. If I have to see those... those nightmares too much.”

He stopped talking. He knew what was going to come next. Callum was going to ask what the nightmares were about. He just needed a second to prepare himself to say it.

Tim looked at Callum, dead in the eyes. “What I’m about to tell you never leaves this room. You don’t talk about it with the nurses or whoever. No one else hears about this. Enough people already know, and people need someone they can believe is like what I pretend to be, and not what you’re about to hear.”

Another deep breath, exhaled through the nose.

“I killed my parents. Officially, it was an accident. Everyone tells me it was. But I caused it. I could have stopped it. I knew it could have happened. I could have probably told you the exact odds of it happening. But there was an explosion caused by something I did, and my parents died, and I didn’t. Instead I got powers. So when I sleep, I see it all happening again. Sometimes exactly like it did. Sometimes it’s different, but the end result is the same. My parents die by my hand. Every time I close my eyes and rest, every time I sleep into sleep, I’ve been forced to relive and rehash it all. That’s why I haven’t been sleeping. I don’t want to go insane from revisiting my trauma for the ten thousandth time.”

@spectre

[Deleted]

Callum's lips thinned when it was time to get down to business. Tim's entire gait shifted once he had found out that he'd be sleeping or at least resting while Callum worked his magic to make sure his client got the rest he required while he himself did some further digging apparently. Though, Timothy began singing like a canary without being prompted at all. Instead, Callum just nodded his head, listening to the man's plight and kept eye contact with him at times, already willing his powers to subdue him to a more relaxed state and hopeful slumber within a decent amount of time.

At the mention of the beds being fireproofed and the walls being insulated he tilted his head in curiosity. He shifted in his chair when the reasons began flooding out. He was powered, as quite a few were in this town and one reason why he loved living in the city, too. Timothy’s powers were a hazard he had never run into before. With a shake of his head, he covered his mouth in order to clear his throat.

"Well, I don't believe they are but we do have a sprinkler system if it's needed. Besides, I'll do my best to make sure and wake you if anything like that starts to occur. I'm determined to help you with whatever it is you're going through."

And the canary sang even more, Callum noted the reasons behind it all. The lack of sleep due to fears, the caffeine intake and the time period since the last time he was able to fully rest. It was a miracle he wasn’t dead. The body can’t cope without sleep and was going to be on the verge of it soon enough.

Callum hesitated.

"Well, first things first, as my friends would say, and they do by the way, lay off the caffeine. The medical professional in me would say to try to wean yourself off of them starting today. Who knows if that might also contribute to the lack of sleep and wild dreams, huh?"

The atmosphere thickened when Tim called for secrecy. That could only go so far unless it was going to cause harm to himself or another, but that would be taken into consideration depending on what was going to be said next. His answer was unscripted though.

"I see." He began, the pen against the paper he'd been using to take notes stopped and this changed immediately into a haunting scenario for his client. It was worse than many others he'd cared for during their sleep studies. "It is a terrible thing to have to go through as a kid. Death of a parent or parents, in your case, is even more so traumatic when you feel it's your fault and you take the blame yourself despite what was ruled. Mr. Smith, Timothy, you have to know that no one blames you for what happened. It was something that was beyond your control. I’m sure you’ve been told that ten fold, but it’s true.”

Callum looked thoughtful for a moment. “So, when you have these dreams, can you not control them even in the slightest? Let’s try that tonight, shall we?” He brought up his hand for Timothy to shake as he stood, gazing into his eyes to further his powers. “I want you to relax. I won’t let anything happen tonight. We’ll have these leads on you to monitor your brainwaves and oxygen levels. If we see anything happening, in relation to your powers, I’ll pull you out of it.” His attention was settled with Tim, urging exhaustion to creep up and he finally dropped his hand. “Sleep well, Timothy.”

Callum exited the room after letting the assistant go in to hook     him up to the machines and took to the room with the cameras in it. In the files he wrote down several notes, including the bit about possible PTSD from childhood trauma. Tonight would definitely prove to be a challenge.

Timothy Smith

[Timothy Smith]

“I’ve already cut off the caffeine completely. I...”

He sighed. “I need to deal with this. I don’t want to. But I need to.”

He was already pretty tired just from that, but as Callum prepared to leave the room, Tim could feel it getting more intense.

“You... you’re wrong, you know.” He yawned as he laid down on the bed. “You’re wrong when you and everyone else says that no one blames me.”

His eyes fluttered shut as the door closed. “I... blame me.”

Dreams are funny things. They’re memories, all mixed up and reorganized and your brain trying to make a coherent narrative out of it.

Tim knew he had to save his parents. Someone was going to sabotage the experiment, turn it into a bomb. He had to get there in time. He had powers, he could fly, that would be no problem, right?

Wrong. His powers weren’t working. So he ran. Where he was running didn’t matter, all that did was he had to run. He had to get there to stop the saboteur. He ran and ran, he could feel the time slipping away. He had to hurry.

Finally, his home. He raced down to the basement, where it happened. He wasn’t too late. They hadn’t started. He had a chance to check the equipment, make sure everything was right.

He didn’t make eye contact with his parents.

He moved over to the reactor, and checked the read outs. Everything was normal. All the safeguards were in place. Everything was fine.

The feeling of relief was shattered when he saw a hand moving to deactivate and disable the safeguards. Disable the emergency pressure release. He wanted to reach up, to stop whoever this was that was doing this, but...

There was no one else there. It was him. It was his own hand, disabling them.

It was happening again. He couldn’t stop it. He was forced to be a passenger, an observer, and watch as it all happened again.

All three of them went behind the blast shield, that they all knew would be ineffectual if anything serious did actually go wrong, just like they had before. Tim hit the ignition for the fusion reaction, just like he had before. The pressure got caught, just like before. There was no emergency release for it, just like before. It failed, just like before. He watched his parents get vaporized, just like before. He reached for them, hoping that he might be able to pull them back, protect them, hide them behind his body, do anything to keep it from all playing out exactly as it had that night, and in his dreams since the nightmares first started several months ago.

There was nothing he could do. Nothing but scream.

@spectre

[Deleted]

Callum walked back to his office, set up with the camera for the sleep study patients. It wasn't always necessary to watch the client during the night unless something about the stats on their health rose for concern. It was usually the normal diagnosis's that would wander into his corridor but Callum could already feel the unease settling from Timothy as he had left. The act of sleep had already started noting the yawn just before he'd left but he wasn't too sure if it was the insomnia that he'd caused himself or the help of his powers to push him over the threshold.

Any direction it took, he was going to get some sleep one way or another tonight but it was going to be dangerous.

Apprehensively, he watched as Timothy slumbered and no sooner did he fall under the vitals seemed to jump. Callum shook his head. "I guess he settled in quickly. Rare." Callum, leaned back into his chair and a moment later, found himself within the confines of his clients dream. It skipped back and forth and the only time that he could see color was in the dreams of others for some reason. Not even in his own could he see the amount of color used, but as he felt the presence of his client. He followed him quickly into the lab where he assumed this all took place of Timothy's unrest.

"Timothy?" Callum's voice hindered a bit as he watched the scene unfold. It seemed daunting to watch knowing that this is what's been keeping him from sleeping. What tragedies were about to occur. He wondered if he should intervene but it was never good to just abruptly stop it. Callum drew up a barrier between himself and the young man in front of him.

He watched as his client's parents, he assumed, as they came together. Something seemed off though when he watched Timothy reach for the button.

They ran behind something, huddled together.

The machine did something off.

In a mix of fire and smoke, Callum jolted back, phasing through the nearest wall, protecting himself. Outside of the house became blank and as he reemerged through the wall, he could see Timothy but his parents were gone. Smoke filled his own lungs. The smell of the collapse.

Instantly, he brought up a hand. The smoke stopped rolling. The flames froze where they were at. Even the heat seemed to dissipate right there at that very moment.

"Timothy? Is this what you see every time you close your eyes?" Callum stepped through the dream, closer to Timothy, who seemed to be just a bit younger than in the office only an hour ago it seemed. "Is this what happened to your parents? or has your conscious brought upon this illusion to tell you something?"

Callum couldn't believe his eyes at the situation. Callum walked closer to him, making a motion with his hands, a reversed circle, as the smoke and the flames began to disappear as if it were reversing in slow motion.

[Timothy Smith]

This moment, this moment in his dream was frozen. Why was it this moment that froze? Why was it always this?

Someone was talking to him. Asking him questions. "Not this. Not specifically." Tears streamed down his face. "This is what happened. It's almost a memory. This isn't the only thing I see. Sometimes it's stranger. Sometimes I'm fighting a monster, a murderer wearing my face. It doesn't stop with my parents, He, I, kill everyone. Everyone I care about. Everyone I love. I destroy everything I touch. That thing lives inside me. It's me. I'm terrified that he will..."

Asleep like he was, Tim wasn't entirely sure who he was talking to, or why he was so open with him, but he felt comfortable telling him. He felt it was necessary somehow.

But he didn't cut off because he wanted to stop talking. He had been interrupted. There was a cackling. A vile laughter that echoed throughout the area. Tim's eyes went wide. "He's here. I can't... He can't... NOOOOOOO!"

Energy burst around him as he jumped up, looking around wildly. "WHERE ARE YOU? I WON'T LET YOU HURT ANYONE ELSE!"

Everything faded except for a mirror that reflected Tim. They mirrored each other for only a moment, before the reflection started cackling, laughing, the source of the laughter heard earlier. Then, the reflection stepped out. "Hahahahaha... Stop me if you can. I'm you. HA! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!"

Fist to fist, the two Tim's clashed in front of Callum.

@spectre