Fourth (lack of) sleep note. Video, at a normal time of day.

[11calls]

[Alex looks pretty much like crap. She's got multiple mugs in front of her, and she's sitting at her desk at work. There's dark circles under her eyes, and she's definitely missing some of her normal spark.]

Okay, so the worst thing about being a kid for a few days is that you get to sleep like a kid for a few days. Which was pretty amazing. But now it's just making this whole lack of sleep thing all the more pronounced and I'm definitely not loving this.

So, I'm opening the floor for suggestions. Back home, I actually have a sleep specialist, but honestly she's not all that helpful. I do all the things I'm supposed to: no electronics for two hours before bedtime, progressive muscle relaxation, the "the" game, pot... Basically you name it and I've tried it.

[Alex is going to shrug and not actually list all the things she's tried because well, open channel and all that. But she actually has tried basically everything she can get her hands on, including medication.]

But my world is limited in what it has, so I'm willing to try basically anything within reason at this point. Sleep potions? Spells? Weird tech? Whatever. I have just got to get some sleep, and they don't really have Casper mattresses here. [That's a joke and comes with a thin smile. Casper mattresses are something that her insomniac self plugs on her show all the time.]

Comments

@maverick

[deploy]

I've got an idea.

[11calls]

[Alex is going to just laugh softly.]

Yeah, I bet you do.

[deploy]

Ever tried reading War and Peace in bed?

I guarantee you'll be knocked out in five minutes.

[That's totally not what he was talking about.]

[11calls]

I actually like War and Peace! But then again I am a giant nerd.

[She knows.]

[deploy]

Hey, I like it too. Sometimes I even get through a full chapter before Tolstoy's tranq dart hits.

Course, there are other things you can do in bed. That don't involve Russian politics.

Or so I'm told.

video @frankenstein

[jolting]

I used to have insomnia all the time. Usually I just rode it out and kept myself busy with reading or working in my lab. But it's not really a healthy solution in the long run.

Who's your regular doctor at the Riverview Hospital?

[11calls]

Yeah, it's not a new thing since I've been here. I've been having it for more than two years now. Which is why the sleep therapist. And yeah, I tend to work through it, but I also know that I can't do it forever.

I don't really have one? I mean I've not gotten sick or injured since I've been here or anything.

[jolting]

I just didn't want to prescribe medication without knowing what you're already taking.

If we were in Storybrooke, I could refer you to Doctor Hopper for the therapy, but I don't really know who to suggest to you here.

[11calls]

Yeah, right now I'm not taking anything but back home I did the gambit of sleeping pills. Nothing really worked.

Dr. Bernier, she was my sleep therapist, she did normal therapy stuff too. It didn't help.

[jolting]

All right. We'll scratch that. How about you come in for an appointment?

@a.parrish; text

[antietam]

What do you do for work or exercise?

audio un:pnwsalex

[11calls]

For work, I'm an investigative journalist. For exercise, I'm a member of the running crew. Three miles a day when I can manage it.

[antietam]

You can probably try a few more miles. You're probably at a desk a lot, right?

[ ... not that he's ever experienced insomnia. He assumes it's a symptom of not working yourself to death during the day. ]

[11calls]

[Alex is sideeying Adam just a little bit, because it's not three hours is nothing.]

Yeah, but I'm working then. Hard to interview most people and do research and jog at the same time.

[antietam]

I meant after work. Or before.

Working a desk job, being on an alien planet, it's probably creating a lot of pent-up energy. Might as well wear yourself out.

text → wild.flower

[hasitsthorns]

i'm just gonna camp in this post
look for whatever solutions you get

audio un:pnwsalex

[11calls]

I'm sorry you're a member of the not sleeping club. It's the worst.

[hasitsthorns]

It's alright. I've been a member for a while, honestly, so- Kind of used to it.

But I would prefer to be not used to it.

[11calls]

Yeah, I get that. I've not had a good night's sleep in two years. It's a giant pain in the ass.

[hasitsthorns]

[ A couple of years. Rose wishes she could remember sleeping well even a couple years.

Unnatural longevity sucks sometimes. ]

Isn't it though? Been a while for me, too. We should make an insomniacs club or something.

video; un:sage

[muskeg]

[ it takes him a moment to respond but--]

I have some potions that might help. I mean, I know how to make some potions that might help, I used to use them all the time back home.

[ a pause as he runs his hands through this hair, half smile on his lips. he isn't quite desperate enough for sleep yet here to make them for himself, but if there are others that would benefit from them then he will look into making them.]

It might take me a few days to get a decent batch brewed but, uh, I can if you want? They are non-addictive, and usually guarantee dreamless sleep too.

[11calls]

[Alex looks for a moment like she could kiss him, honestly.]

Dreamless sleep? That may be the best thing I've heard in a while!

[muskeg]

[ there is a snort at that, amusement clear on his face as he leans his chin in his hand.]

Usually, I have to perfect the potion here first, I have been having an interesting time brewing the same way I did back home. Fucking alien moons.

[ a pause. ]

Would you mind, I mean if I manage to make it without melting a table, letting me know how it works? Kinda like a test subject but--

[ no completely like one, who is he kidding. ]

[11calls]

No, of course. I mean, hopefully it won't melt my face off but I definitely don't mind being a test subject if it means that I get some decent and real sleep. Before I was a kid, it was the incense a couple of months ago, and before that? It's been literally a couple of years.

[muskeg]

Uh, yeah I wouldn't give you something that would melt your face off. Nothing in the potion should have that effect, at worst it might just taste horrible.

[ or have the opposite effect and keep you up all night but-- that might not be so bad?]</small. Wait, what? Incense?