rakuen | [round 1, day 3] tried counting sheep

Entry tags:

[round 1, day 3] tried counting sheep

Characters: Gaara, Grenn Atair, YOU.
Format: Any
This log is: open (closed in the case of Grenn's thread, open otherwise)
Location: White dorm's courtyard. Other courtyards.
Summary: Insomnia works out badly when you don't have supernatural energy reserves to feed on. Gaara keels over several times over the course of one day.
Warnings: Mention of blood.

He'd only been in this world three days, and already Gaara was feeling the fatigue of insomnia settling back over his brain. Without chakra, he couldn't bolster his mental reserves - without chakra, he shouldn't be able to suppress the One-Tail at all, which he would have noticed if he was thinking straight - and until he could find someone able to determine whether he was the sole inhabitant of his own body, he definitely wasn't sleeping. The other 'students' would be the victims of that mistake if he allowed himself to make it. Mikoto, Sakura, Enki. The risk was unacceptable.

Unfortunately, without those mental reserves, Gaara was just a sixteen-year-old boy. And this boy had just reached his limit.

In the middle of a courtyard, sixty-five hours after he'd arrived, Gaara swayed, rubbed his eyes, and crumpled like he'd been hit with a metal bat.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She'd been (allowed herself to be) distracted from her self-given mission earlier by Sora, but it was three days since they'd all woken up from a more-or-less shared 'dream', and the muddled whispers from her shadow self had been plagueing her actual dreams since then. She never remembered what the shadow said when she woke up, but computers and scraps of her flight simulation lessons figured heavily.

And there was the thought of 'hacking', which had left it's original context as a comment to Koharu and had now settled in its new context; hack the Exaclan system in this version of the school. But maybe she'd be distracted again from this, as the red-headed boy that had been walking across the courtyard some distance from her crumpled.

She stopped, stared and bit her lip. He didn't get up. What had happened? Was he sick? But if that was so, she'd think the Academy would supply whatever it was he needed... Another few minutes of insecurity, and then Grenn shook her head. She couldn't leave him like that, and no one seemed to be around for the moment, so she steered up next to him.

"Er..." Right. Poor guy face-planted on the ground, but there didn't seem to be any tremors, seizures, unfortunate bodily discharge or anything else. He seemed to be sleeping. That was a relief, if strange... But how to wake him up? Was he safe to touch, or not?

"Um... I... don't think sleeping out here is a good idea..." She knew that was too quiet for him to have heard through sleeping; she'd barely been talking normally; this was so awkward. Finally Grenn just gripped one armrest and leaned down, giving a quick brush to the shoulder closest to her.

If that didn't do it, she'd shake him next.

He twitched. The urge to do nothing - to ignore the voice and just sleep was overwhelming; he obeyed it for just a few blissful seconds longer, before responsibility set in and he forced his eyes open. He stared at the hand hovering above his shoulder as it came into focus, and followed the arm up to the girl it belonged to. A blink. His vision cleared, and he lifted his head. She looked nervous... and rightfully so, though she had no way of knowing that. He pushed himself up, thinking abruptly of Temari's complaints about decorum for no reason at all.

"... I'm sorry," he murmured, "You're right, I misjudged my limits."

Limits? What was he talking about? Why was he apologising? She grimaced, attempted a smile and then shook her head. She hoped he wasn't so extremely suspicious of the place he'd not dared to sleep since he got here...

"I... uh... If it's this place you're worried about, I promise you can---" And here she had to stop, because she couldn't honestly say it was safe to go to sleep, could she? They had woken up (had they?) on the day of Round Zero and been told to go to the lobby... and had then woken up in their own beds, by another announcement telling them to go to the lobby for 'this week's announcements'. There was no reason to trust sleep, but what else was there to do?
"I'm... not gonna say you should feel comfortable sleeping here, but maybe it's a good idea anyway," Grenn finally said with a grimace.

"... Are you all right?" Belatedly, she realized this was probably a pertinent question, no matter the reason for his collapsing, if only because he did collapse publicly.

"I'm fine," it was an automatic response from someone still unused to people asking that and meaning it. "Thank you, but it isn't the place I'm worried about."

He started to stand, but apparently thought better of it and stayed where he was after several aborted attempts to get to his feet without stumbling. "... Not entirely."

It wasn't? Grenn frowned, and tried to think of some way to breach that when his unsteady feet caught her attention. She held out her hand, then briefly indicated the armrest of the wheelchair closest to him.

"If... I mean, er... do you want help? You can grab the armrest if you don't feel like touchi---" Oh wait. Wasn't there...
"Um... Player or Weapon? I... don't think you want a headache along with whatever else," Grenn said with a faint smile, hoping it came across as reassuring and not patronizing. No one liked to be patronized, after all.

Gaara considered it for a long moment, then reached up for the arm of her chair. He hadn't seen her on any of the screens this week, which meant she wasn't one of the students chosen to fight this round.

"The latter." It was as close as he'd go to using that word to reference himself ever again. With the support, he was able to stand with a minimum of swaying, though the headache had begun again, pounding dully behind his eyes. He ignored it, straightening as well he could. "Mikoto is my partner. Again, thank you. Where were you going?"

Grenn gave him a considering look. He looked like he needed a bed, not, presumably, follow her around. Besides, she wasn't sure she wanted anyone to follow her into this. Had she, she'd probably have asked Gino...

"The computer lab. I had a thought about the system..." Then she paused, and felt rather awkward. There she went again, revealing things she hadn't meant to be revealing, especially to a guy who'd just collapsed (and that she didn't know).

Further, Grenn wasn't sure it was clever to talk of her ideas of hacking out loud...
"But, if you need to, we can go to your dorm? I don't mind." Because he really looked like he needed to sit down, sleep, get horizontal, something, and not be standing up.

"The system?" Talking was clearing his head; Gaara resolved privately to make sure he stayed at least near some of the others. She meant the Exaclan system, he decided, the program responsible for the world. He didn't know enough about computers to understand how it was possible, the ones here were obviously far more advanced than the research machines owned by a select few ninja cells, but he thought he could learn to, given time. It hadn't been so difficult when Mikoto had been asking for battles.

He did, however, understand that talking in the open was a bad idea when every square foot of their prison was monitored. With a quiet sigh, he resigned himself to another sleepless day. "The computer lab, if it isn't too much trouble."

"Sorry, I meant Exaclan," she confirmed, but something told her he'd already figured that out. But she should still be more clear when she talked, however reluctant she was about talking about her plan out loud. It may not work. Or worse, it could work, and/or she'd fail, and there'd be a supernova worth of punishment.

Grenn blinked at him when he said he wanted to go to the labs with her, but she wasn't going to question it. If he was younger, probably, but she would assume he knew himself best.
"If you really want..." Grenn said with a nod and steered them slowly towards the labs. "I wouldn't recommend it though. Who knows if it will work. And even if it does... There could be punishment..." And then... With a sigh, Grenn resisted the urge to facepalm.

"I'm Grenn Atair." Why was introducing yourself so easy to forget?

"It's good to meet you, Grenn Atair," he said her name slowly. Deliberately. It was a strange name, but that wasn't rare here. He'd be able to remember it. "My name is Gaara." He walked alongside her as they headed to the labs, only occasionally having to lean against the back of her wheelchair to avoid stumbling. If she was going to try a counterattack on their captors, he wanted to be there to witness it. He hadn't done nearly enough to free everyone up to this point; maybe he could be of use here.

He almost lifted a hand to summon some of his sand when they came to the door, but remembered himself just in time and just reached for the door handle instead. "It's worth the try."

Grenn wasn't sure it was worth the try. Especially with someone else here, because if she got in... But it felt good to do something. Do something instead of sitting around, doing nothing to help others, unlike the last time when... When she hadn't... She gritted her teeth, frustration welling up. There that important thing came again. Something at home she had wanted to fix immediately, but Lyra... Lyra had... She didn't remember.

"Maybe..." Grenn looked up at him in the elevator and frowned. She wasn't sure why she entrusted him with this, but it was something reminicent of Gino, though on a greater level. Responsibility for your actions.

"I was thinking of merely checking things out, but it just ocurred to me... That there might be only one chance..." She hoped there wouldn't be. She wasn't even that amazing at hacking as far as she knew. Competent, yes, but to be good you needed to know what you were getting in to, and here? She didn't.

"You just came here... No reason to," Grenn paused, then fully stopped. It wasn't really her place to decide if someone wanted to stand up against this... whatever. "You sure you want to stay? This is my idea, and if it fails, no reason for you to be punished too," Grenn said finally, just as the elevator doors opened.

If nothing else, the lab was somewhere he could sit down. He nodded again, patiently, and followed her out of the elevator and down the corridor. Mikoto had been here just yesterday and again this morning, so at least he knew the way to the room and had the necessary permission slip. He searched his pockets for that, as he answered.

"If you don't think I'll be in your way, I would like to watch." There it was. He unfolded the note, and glanced back at Grenn. "I won't be of much help, otherwise."

Producing her own, since she'd need it, Grenn looked up and shrugged at Gaara.

"I don't think you'd... be in the way. But... well. As I said, my idea. There's no reason for anyone else to be dragged down with me..." Grenn paused and shook her head, stopped and stared at the closed computer lab door.

"Maybe nothing will happen. The problem is that to be effective... you basically need to have some information already and I don't have that... I've checked out these computers before, but that won't help in this respect." Grenn rubbed her face, feeling lost. She'd do this, yes, but she also realized that even attempting to go past usual access (which she'd need to do to see if it was possible) would probably result in some sort of alert, and then...

"Even if I knew the system..." Grenn looked up at Gaara with a frown, the tips of her fingers pressed together as she thought. "This will probably result in some sort of alert, and if I can't close the trail after me, someone will most probably notice..." She wondered, vaguely, what her punishment would be when they caught up with her. Because people that could steal memories and coat this place in holographic technology would obviously catch up with her.

Then she shook her head and looked back at Gaara.
"... Sure, um, that just watching will be useful?"

"All information is useful. Even if you don't succeed, you'll learn something about this world. Maybe it will be something we can use to help the others."

She seemed sure enough about the attempt, but although Gaara considered an attempt to convince her not to try it - she'd be swayed eventually, if he'd read her correctly - the benefits outweighed the prospect of a penalty. If she was prepared, he wasn't going to let her concern for a stranger halt her efforts. He opened the door to the lab, and stepped inside to hold it open wide enough for the wheelchair. "Is there something I could be doing?"

Just passing through that door made her... well, not feel invincible, but like there wouldn't be a better, or worse, for that matter, time to attempt this. It didn't make a difference as far as her determination to go through with this was concerned, but helped nonetheless. Grenn shook her head and squared herself. The room was empty, and she was relatively sure there'd be no battles, considering most people were either eating dinner, or lazing about.

"Keep an eye on the door I suppose. It's empty now, and it's probably better if it stay that way... Everybody doesn't need to know that I'm even gonna try to do this," Grenn said with a shrug and moved the chair in front of the computer at the door-end of the row out of the way.

Grenn looked around the room, and then to Gaara as she turned the computer on. She'd been half-afraid it wouldn't even do that, that the system was already aware... Of course, maybe it was and she'd be allowed to do this, allowed to attempt and then slammed down.
"Considering..." She paused, frowned. "Considering the technology, I'm not sure how this is going to work. But... Keep an eye on me when I've started? If something seems strange..." Maybe it wouldn't help to pull her away from the computer, but it was a thought worth keeping in mind.

Because considering the holo-tech, anything was possible at this point, really.

"Understood." He took a seat halfway between her and the door and within reach of both, and then finally allowed himself to slump, just a little. Like Grenn, he had his own suspicions about the nature of the world, and whilst they were entirely different to hers, their expectations ended up sounding very similar. "If you're acting strangely, I'll move you. Be careful."

Taking a deep breath, Grenn straightened her back and went through the first basic commands she knew to get beneath the 'first layers' so to speak. Nothing happened, really; the computer reacted as she'd assumed it would, demanding access commands and whatnot...

But then. She frowned. Had her vision just grayed out momentarily? She shook her head and stared at the registers she was suddenly presented with. They were flickering by too fast, though; it felt like she was looking at something that was much more complicated than it looked like, and that this computer couldn't present it to her as it should be seen.

Another flicker, things going black, star-spangled then gray. The only thing she could see were those registers and menues. She had no idea what half of these did, she wasn't even sure where she wanted to go! But trying to disrupt the holo-tech (since that would cripple the battle system) seemed like a good idea... Now just to find---

Another flicker, this time it seemed like her brain stuttered for a moment, a mental grey-out and she had no idea what she'd just entered, but suddenly--- The screen seemed to duplicate, folding out like a folded up paper-crane and there were shimmering screens all around her.

"What the---" She couldn't understand what the text said. Some of it seemed to be actual letters, the rest some sort of symbols and pictograms. She'd just gotten in way over her head. What the frag was this?

"Remember this when you push replay--- It's a game, isn't it? A holographic playg---a prog---"

Gaara was suddenly right beside her, shaking her shoulder just as she reached out, touching one of those incomprehensible screens. If he was saying anything, she couldn't hear it.

The screens flickered, and flushed red.

Oh, frag.

A succinct summary, Grenn. Oh, frag, indeed, the only thing you can think before the entire room warps as the screen did, computers, floors and walls folding and re-folding until there's nothing but Grenn, Gaara, and a million red screens swirling around them in a maelstrom.

--countered an err--

--ency reboo--

--rror and mus--

UNAUTHORISED ACCESS DETECTED

The world snaps back, directions return, gravity is restored. There's suddenly a floor to stand on, if you can stand at all. The computer screen is blank. All screens are, in fact; the entire room is dark.

One by one, the computers reboot around you.

Gaara staggered, his hand falling from Grenn's shoulder as the floor rushed up to meet them. For a few moments, he concentrated on breathing. What kind of illusion was that? Nothing he'd experienced before had been able to remove all senses; was this just the power of technology, or something much greater?

He cleared his throat and elected to stay on the floor for the time being. "Was... that meant to happen?"

"Nn... No, I---" She felt like she was going to puke. A headache had blossomed immediately as the world reboo--- Wait.

We have to do some maintenance first. ---get rid of you, for a little while---

This is a GAME--- Use your HEAD.

This was a...

"Simulation---" Grenn groaned and clutched at her face, trying to keep her dinner where it was supposed to be. Suddenly, she remembered what her shadow had said, what the 'announcer girl' had said, and could connect her confusion as to why it had felt like she'd been trying to change game-files of a computer game that was running when she'd attempted her hacking.

Because it was. A game.

A simulation.

"I'm sorry, Gaara... Frag---" Her hands were shaking, and she felt ill.

"Simulation..?" He didn't feel much better; the only upside of the whole experience was that the lurching shift in reality had woken him up completely and replaced the headache with simple, overpowering nausea.

He, too, forced it back, and concentrated on what had just happened. Grenn had logged on, started working, and then... frozen? He shook his head minutely.

"What did you see?"

He hadn't..? Now she was confused as well as nauseated. And how to explain a simulation to someone who wasn't used to advanced computers and virtual reality..? Well, ironically, kind of what they'd all thought Round Zero was. A shared dream, of course.

"Ugh... I... Well--- The screens all multiplied, were all over the room... What did you see?" Grenn took a few deep breaths and briefly closed her eyes, to still her dizziness and nausea. It didn't work.

Penalty?

"A simulation... you... um, I suppose you could call it a shared dream, or illusion, but made with technology. Your brain... technology convinces your brain you're seeing things and experiencing things that aren't... uh... physically real. If that makes sense..." She wasn't sure it did, personally.

Enki had done a lot wandering around these past three days; partly to distract himself from what was going on here (though, thankfully, only a few battles had even taken place as of yet). The other part? The lack of connection to his master, being too far away, or something else. The lack of familiar faces (even annoying such), and the lack of his shirei. Three days, and already---

Was that someone crumpled over under the shadow of a tree? Enki frowned, and changed direction. That didn't seem like a restful 'I'm lazing about on my back, why are you disturbing me' sort of position... When he came closer, Enki saw whoever it was, was crumpled on their stomach. And had red hair.

"Wh--Gaara!" Running over, Enki kneeled down and shook his shoulder, first after the fact realizing he may be injured. But no, there was no scent of blood, and Gaara, as Enki got a better look at his face, actually looked rather relaxed, if troubled, despite the awkward position.

What was the boy doing sleeping out in the courtyard?

With the added dizziness and nausea of the hacking misfire, Gaara found it a lot more difficult to focus on things like opening his eyes or moving. Even speaking seemed a little beyond him, shoulder shaken or no; he drifted in and out of sleep without any conscious effort. The best he managed was a slight twitch of one hand, before he slid back into sleep.

He'd seen the twitch, but with no other response than that... Well, he could hardly let Gaara stay collapsed out here. With a grunt, he got Gaara on his back, then paused to scratch his scalp.

"I'm not tall enough for this..." Enki muttered and also wondered if he was strong enough to lug/drag around an asleep/half asleep young man who was taller than he was. If Shōryū was here, this would be so much easier...

"Come on, you can't sleep out here," Enki sighed, both annoyed and worried. At least one more try before he attempted to drag Gaara into a sitting/standing position.

"Come on, you can't sleep out here."

Sleep... He couldn't sleep. That was it. Gaara's drifting mind took hold of that idea like a drowning person to a lifebelt, and he managed to open his eyes. He tried to sit up, too, but that was beyond his current physical capacity and he ended up leaning back on his elbows, eyes clouded and staring somewhere in the vicinity of Enki's face.

Gaara looked pretty out of it. On top of that, he'd felt vaguely hot. Was he ill, too? Enki didn't really have that much experience with sick people; it wasn't as if sickness happened to immortals (except to kirin).

"Hey, you okay?" While it may be a slightly stupid question, he needed to know what was wrong, and maybe Gaara would become slightly more coherent if he kept talking to him.

"... Can't sleep," he managed, after he'd focused properly on Enki's worried expression. Had he drifted off? The thought shook him further out of his daze, and his eyes closed once, then opened again, fully alert. Enki must have woken him up. "Thank you."

Shaking his head, Enki frowned at Gaara's still rather fuzzy expression.

"No problem. But you were sleeping, and I saw nothing wrong?" Because when he'd seen Gaara, the teenager had been face-down on the ground for who knows how long.

He looked faintly peaked, but that couldn't be why he couldn't (wasn't supposed to?) sleep, since, well, he had been.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[round 1, day 3] tried counting sheep

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject