Westbrook Academy for Metahumans: Forums

Maybe it was the change of bedroom - maybe it was due to the dorms being smaller than what she was used to. But for whatever reason, Gwen could not get to sleep. The closest she'd gotten to was a brief spell of slumber before being woken up by some horrible, lucid nightmare she was suffering. She wasn't sure if she cried aloud or not when she woke up, but she'd decided that she was not going to get any rest tonight.

So very quietly, she crept out from her room, closing the door behind her, tiptoeing on the floor past the closed doors. She almost considered using her wings in lieu of creaking floorboards, but she worried the unusual noise might wake light sleepers in their wake. And so Gwen made her way downstairs, and did what she usually did when faced with crippling insomnia: Find a nearby computer screen and bug out for unwatched hours!

But by the time she'd gone down the steps of the stairs, Gwen had just barely caught herself from falling over. She cursed her body for its fickleness - hours of refusing to get to sleep and now it was hurting for rest? Stubbornly, she fought it - she was not going back to the nightmare she'd suffered. And she was not going to go all the way up to her dorm now she'd made up her mind to go downstairs!

In almost a brain-dead stupor, the wasp-girl opened a browser window, hoping the site she was looking for wasn't prohibited on the school computers. It wasn't - and as she pored over the articles, trying once more to find details on her case, on what had happened to her, she began to nod off without noticing, until finally, recklessly, she rested her head on the desk next to the keyboard, not even realizing she was dozing off until it was far, far too late.

For anyone coming down the stairs from 5:30 AM onward to 10:00 AM or so, (assuming no one woke her up until that time) they would find Gwendolyn slumped over on the desk, mouth open and eyes closed, with a switched-on computer in front of her. The browser window that had stayed open was a popular underground website called "Creyleaks", where whistle-blowers in the company could anonymously drop off information. The article on the page had something to do with a secret test facility that had been shut down by Longbow, with a long list of "patients"... many of them unaccounted for. Including one "G. Hanks" near the bottom...

((Hrrrrrrm....since I'm not sure when this takes place, just gonna pretend its not the same night as the Arrival. XD ))

Cadence was still having problems sleeping after the attack from the other night. It wasn't the fact that she'd been attacked that bothered her...it was more the nature of the attack. Etienne's body had been hijacked, and forced to do something he would never in a million years want to do. And the Loa had done something to her, somehow dredging up memories that had been locked away thanks to all of Crey's mind wiping. Those memories, and concern for her friend's situation made it impossible to sleep. She shivered a little as she sat up in bed. She was in a different room now, since her body's reaction to the fearful influence of the Loa had resulted in damage to her previous one. Samantha Noelani, her guardian, had come up to the school and said that Dr. Ellis, the head of Ellis Industries, would be handling recompense for the property damage. She'd been surprised at the offer, but probably shouldn't have. Afterall, the doctor had been immensely helpful since her early days in Paragon, to the point of helping provide special material for most of her clothing that would withstand the high temperatures she could produce with her powers. Cadence's former roommate had been pulled from school by her parents amid the concerns of student safety. For the time being, she was in one of the few empty rooms.

She looked over at the clock, saw that it was almost 6am. There was no point in trying to go to sleep now. She pulled on some clothes, since she didn't plan to go to classes today. After talking with the guidance counselor about what had happened, the faculty was aware of what was going on. So long as she worked on whatever assignments were due in her classes, they were willing to give her a few days to get back on her feet. She slipped into a wore out pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and after putting on some slip-on shoes she headed downstairs.

She'd expected the commons to be empty, and she would get a little bit of time to herself before everyone started milling about before classes. What she didn't expect was a certain insect girl passed out in front of one of the computers. Cadence tilted her head curiously and approached. Hopefully none of Gwen's wasp friends were hiding under her clothes, otherwise it could get...well...wierd.

As she came around the desk, her gaze drifted to the monitor. What had Gwen been looking at? At first she assumed maybe she had been looking up something for an assignment, but as she read a bit of the text...yeah...it quickly became apparent that this had nothing to do with schoolwork. She reached over and touched the girl on the shoulder.

"Gwen?"

Though Cadence's touch had gotten a reaction out of her, Gwen's body almost jumping from the sudden touch, she was still out of it, her body finally punishing her for her unusual sleep hours. Letting out a small groan, she mumbled something incomprehensible, and then something that sounded like, "Morning, Mimi..." before her eyes suddenly snapped open. Blinking quickly, she looked around the room, taking in her surroundings before very slowly getting up from the computer table. Her body ached from the uncomfortable position she'd fallen asleep in, but she ignored the physical complaints and fixed her eyes on Cadence.

"Oh--uh, morning Cade," she said, trying to manage a smile. "I guess you... I guess I fell asleep here, huh?" More blinking, and then a glance to the computer--ohcrapitsstillup--and in a moment of panic she almost considered closing the screen as fast as she could. But it was no use, Cadence had probably already seen it, and she had already confided in her background with Crey. With a small smile, the wasp girl looked up at her friend, with whom she'd gone to the D only recently.

"You, uh, you know where we can get some breakfast around her?" Gwen asked her with a small laugh, trying to change the subject from whatever she was snooping on.

Cadence pulled her hand back as Gwen sat up from what had to be a horrible sleeping position. She reached up and tugged at a couple strands of her hair, shrugging in response to the wasp girl's question.

"I don't think the cafeteria is open for breakfast just yet. I was going to hit the vending machines. No idea if the cafeteria's breakfast is any good, but if it looks as bad as the lunches do..." The fiery powered teenager shuddered, clearly indicating through body language that she would much prefer something prepackaged, preservatives filled junk food over Ms. Fandango's concoctions.

Her eyes flicked from Gwen over to the still open website. She fidgeted a little, wanting to ask just what exactly the wasp girl was looking at...but at the same time, not wanting to step on toes, considering how quickly the other girl had tried to change the topic. There was a moment or two of awkward silence, before Cadence's curiousity won out

"So...what is that? I sorta caught a little of what was on there..." she mumbled quietly. "I mean, I wasn't trying to spy or anything. It was just...y'know, there...and open..."

Maybe Gwen should have reasserted that she was homeless for weeks before came to Paragon, but she didn't want to make Cadence uncomfortable. Point of fact being, Gwen was comfortable eating a lot of gross-looking things, so long as she kept alive; but she decided not to comment overmuch on the subject apart from shrugging her shoulders and replying, "Hey, if it's on a plate, I'll eat it. It probably isn't any worse than what I'd make." She regarded Cadence with a grim expression. "I'm a terrible cook, so y'know."

Slowly, she got up from her seat, stretching her back with a small groan. "Stupid seats..." After a moment, she reached over and closed the browser, and then just to be sure, deleted the browser history, just to be thorough. "Just ... stuff I'm interested in," she said quietly. "On a personal level, I mean. Crey stuff. And yeah... I was stupid last night. Couldn't sleep at all, so I went down and... bugged out on the computer. And fell asleep, I guess." She yawned a little, fluttering her eyes.

Another thought occurred to the sleep-deprived wasp girl as she begin to get her bearings. "What time is it, anyway? Seems like it's still kinda dark out..." She glanced out a window as she asked this.

Morgan yawned as she descended the stairs, barely awake.

"I don't know why you keep waking me up so early," she said to the seemingly empty air. "Just because the clock says it's six, doesn't mean my body believes it. I'm still on Winnipeg time. I mean-" she had reached the bottom of the stairs, and noticed that she was not, in fact, the only one awake at this gods-forsaken hour.

"Oh, mornin', there." She wandered over to the two other girls. "What's shakin' at this time of the mornin'?"

"It's just a little past six," Cadence replied. She was looking back at the computer rather than at Gwen. She debated whether or not to say anything about browsing for stuff like that. Two kidnapping attempts had made her a little paranoid when it came to digging into Crey's affairs. Not that just looking at a whistleblower site would just...automatically paint a big shiny arrow over the school to indicate not just one but two of their former guinea pigs were there. Or wait...maybe there was? No...no she was pretty sure that couldn't happen...unless...wait, did Gwen log in? They could maybe do some sort of tracing...tracing thing through her username? Right about now she could've used Tosh, Andie or...as much as she hated to think it, Ar, to explain whether that sort of thing was possible.

She jumped a little when Morgan greeted the two of them. She offered the strange newcomer a smile. "Morning...um..." She fished in her pockets for some spare change. "I was gonna hit the vending machine for something to eat..." She pulled her pocket change out, counted it out in her head. "Do you guys want anything?"

A little past six... by that estimation, she got not much more than... two hours sleep, at the computer? Gwen couldn't help but groan a little at this revelation. "Oh, god... I'm gonna be so screwed up today." She held her aching head with one hand for a moment, then gave Cadence a somber expression. "I can't sleep up there, y'know? They've got me in a private room until they can fit me in with their housing plan, or something... not really used to sleeping by myself in one room." In the corners of her foggy brain, Gwen realized the ambiguity of that last remark... she might have to explain that one later.

But the moment she heard Morgan's voice from the top of the stairs, Gwen had sprung into action. Her hand had already reached the computer by the time she walked down, shutting off the screen and looking up as the necromancer girl made her entrance. She was ready to act like there was nothing going on, no looking through leaked Crey documents here, nosirree... until she listened to Morgan more closely. Wait, the wasp girl thought to herself, Is she... talking to herself? Out loud?

"Uh... morning, Morgan," Gwen mumbled, trying to blink the sleep out of her eyes as she regarded the new arrival... and trying not to look like she was judging her for acting utterly bizarre. "I conked out on the computers last night. Cadence helped me spare myself the indignity of being woken up by anyone else." She gave the redhead a smile, at that, before looking back at the girl on the stairs. "Uh, sleep well?"

"Uh, sleep well?"

"Like the dead." Morgan grinned, but it turned into a yawn.

("The bug was looking at something on the computer," Carrie cautioned, "but she closed it when she noticed you were coming. I think she's hiding something: you should keep an eye on her.")

"Stop being paranoid," Morgan mumbled, and waved her hand through the air behind her, (disrupting the ghost's smoky form. It wouldn't hurt the specter, but it would keep her busy for the next couple of minutes, and most importantly, quiet.) "Breakfast sounds great," she said a little louder, fishing a few coins out of her pocket. "I'm starving."

("You know, you wouldn't be so hungry in the morning if you had a proper dinner the night before," David said, breaking off from his wife's tangent. "A bag of popcorn and an apple is NOT a proper dinner.")

Morgan rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes. I know. Anyway," she turned back to Cadence, "food?"

It took Cadence a moment to get her wits about her to reply. She'd seen a lot over the past year or so, hence her readiness to sort of just accept the weirder things that tended to happen at Westbrook and the even stranger things that happened at Web-Spinner's base. That aside, she wasn't exactly used to seeing someone bicker with invisible people. Morgan had commented that her parents haunted her the first day Lorne had brought her to the commons, as part of his standard welcome tour. Maybe this was the truth...maybe it wasn't...but she wasn't going to say anything negative about it, in the off chance the teenage necromancer was actually telling the truth and she was indeed arguing with her deceased parents.

"Um...yeah. Think there's some sticky buns, some danishes and Pop-tarts in the machine..."