Audio; UN: evan

[evantuality]

Hey, uh...

[Just Evan's voice comes through the network, and quietly at that. It's some terrible wee hour of the morning, that liminal time when no one should really be awake. The moon has set, not that Evan has his curtains open to let the stars interrupt his small bubble of quiet.

At home he'd pop on a tablet, see if any of his friends from other timezones were online, shoot the shit before sleep took him again. Here, there's no such such luck for an easy distraction, but perhaps the ALASTAIR recruits can make use of the same principles.]

Anyone else awake?

[Insomniacs unite: surely there's got to be one or two other night-birds out there.]

Comments

[sereneflame]

[Serene doesn't take her bracelet off nowadays as she doesn't want to be woken by an emergency and then dash out. Usually she can sleep through the little pings but tonight she's been tossing in her sleep and ended up with her hand jammed under her cheek. The ping sounds right in her ear, rousing her.

She mumbles, her voice hoarse with sleep.]

Hmm? I wasn't. Who is this...?

[She could look at her jewel, but she's gone and closed her eyes again]

[evantuality]

[What he had not been expecting was to have woken someone. He sits up straighter, feeling an immediate stab of shame for that sleepy voice. He doesn't quite recognize it, though he can tell it's someone he'e met.]

Oh, uh, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. [Does this person keep their jewellery on all night?] Don't worry about it, go back to sleep, I'll shut this channel down.

[sereneflame]

Hmm... [There's a familiar note in his apology, one that it takes her a moment to place] Evan?

[She snorts as she startles nearer to wakefulness, jabbed by the curiosity she's been trying to tamp down so she didn't intrude]

Did the magic work? Do you have another eye again?

[evantuality]

[Oh. Oh, that's who this is. Evan's late night quiet relaxation dissipates a little as their last conversation slides back into the fore of his mind. It had been uncomfortable from start to finish, and now he's not sure if he's in for more of the same.]

Uh, yeah, it... worked.

I have to wear the patch for another couple of days, but it's there again.

[sereneflame]

[She sighs, small and and relieved]

I'm so glad for you, that was a dire mutilation you had sustained. May the memory of the experience fade now that you no longer bear the injury.

[evantuality]

[Her relief puzzles him. Actually, everything about her puzzles him -- their first meeting had been so nice while their second had been so awful. This could go any number of directions...

But her words make him grimace, glad for the voice-only communication.]

Well, a body can hope.

[But so far, it hasn't. He's been having nightmares.]

[sereneflame]

Hmmm... [A body can hope indeed. Maybe she shouldn't be giving false hope]

True, it might take years. I still wake sometimes crying. I used to wake up every night, but I do not any more. Sleeping with someone else in the bed helps, I find.

[evantuality]

[If this'd just been after their first meeting, he would have sassed her about volunteering for the position. But as it is, there's just a pause as he waffles and discards the flirt: not only are they on shaky ground, it'd be tonally dissonant.]

Not... not really an approach I've tried. I think I'd end up worrying about being disruptive to whoever volunteered for the position. I mean, it's bad enough I wake myself up, much less anyone else.

[Ugh, he feels another stab of shame at waking her again.]

[sereneflame]

Hmmm... if you warn them beforehand it's fine, or so I've found. You can let them have nights off to recover.

[She yawns deeply]

Or find a parent, they'll have had experience with being woken in the night by crying. My mother slept with me for six months until I could settle down.

[evantuality]

[He wrinkles his nose again and almost cracks a joke about what his mother would do if he asked her to field his midnight wakeups, but then she goes and shares that personal tidbit and he feels awkward again.]

Ahh... that sounds intense, I'm sorry.

Honestly, the waking up isn't so bad, for me. I manage alright.

[sereneflame]

Hmmm, it was what it was. I'm better now.

[She doesn't want to play up what she went though, for now that she's waking further she realises that such admissions smack too much of victimhood. In as an assuring a mumble as she can muster up she murmurs to him]

I came through and you will too.

[And that's true, she's coming through to the other side, but now that she's blinking round her dark room she's not feeling much of that assurance]

...though, I am wondering... does this mean if I have trouble sleeping I can contact you?

[evantuality]

[She sounds so sleepy, so off-guard, and it's so strange after their last conversation. He's glad it's voice-only, very glad, for he can furrow his brow at his jewellery in puzzlement without wondering if she's taking it the wrong way. Except what exactly is the wrong way here?

...oh, and that's a hell of an ask.]

....

Well, I'm not sure I'd be much good for the, uh, sleeping part, but... I'm up often enough. You might as well ping me if you're up.

Do you ever take walks this time of night? That's sort of my go-to if I can't sleep, I guess.

[That's safer territory, too.]

[sereneflame]

Hmmm... to the observatory? I don't want to go outdoors.

[Walking under the night sky is part of too many potent memories, both good and bad, for the experience to be restful. The observatory though... she hums fondly]

The scope of the universe will be enough to put our worries in context

[evantuality]

[Speaking of memories good and bad, the observatory at least has a context for the pair of them. Evan, feeling privately like he badly wants some real company and perhaps a reconciliation to the cheerful new recruit he thought he'd initially met in Serene, decides to take this as an olive branch.]

I bet it's a sight at night, too. Certainly it's less odd than the actual stars here.

I mean, I assume you don't mean tonight? I should let you sleep, shouldn't I?

[sereneflame]

Tonight... [Can she be bothered? Though she's now in the darkness by herself she's still warm, and warmth right now feels more important than nursing new attachments]

You can come here tonight if you want. [She yawns deeply.] We can walk another time.

[evantuality]

[He waffles on that offer pretty deeply, but he knows the answer before he properly comes to it. Invisible over the voice chat feature or not, he shakes his head.]

You know, I think tonight is a staying-in kind of night for me, too.

But, um. Thank you for the offer. [That seems tentative but genuine: he can recognize an olive branch when it's extended.] I'll take you up on that another time.