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[31]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 4:49 PM

Alain had thought that, having had the nightmare, his disturbed dreams would come to an end. He had thought of the dreams like one would think of an abscess: once drained, it would go away. Such was not the case, however. That night, as he drifted off into his usual state of rest, he found that the visions returned. In fact, his adventure the previous night seemed to make them worse. Alain couldn't say for sure what it was, but there was a sinister undercurrent to the experience that hadn't been there before.

Eventually he gave up on the idea of rest for the night, and shuffled into the kitchen to brew himself a cup of coffee. Looking into its murky depths, he sighed. He was used enough to helping others with their mental disturbances, but being on the other end of the relationship was unsettling.
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[32]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 4:52 PM

He toyed with the idea of trying to find someone like himself, who might be qualified to give him some assistance. But where would he find such a person? Alain was not human, or even a demon or a vampire or any number of the more common supernatural beings. A great deal of time had been devoted, in his youth, to trying to determine what he was, all to no avail. Almost everything he knew about himself had been discovered through experience. There was no one more qualified than he himself for this task, and he was finding that he wasn't up to the challenge. Perhaps there was something in his stock of magical trinkets that might have helped, but he was doubtful. Those tended not to work as well if one knew what they did, and as their creator, he knew the full extent of each of the items' powers.
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[33]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:11 PM

He had already tried Blake, and while Alain believed that his accounts of his distress might be enough to force some information out of the baker, he didn't want to do that if he could help it. As much as he disliked Blake's reticence, he disliked the idea of pushing his friend even more.

Taking a sip of the bitter brew, Alain looked out at the scenery outside the cafe. At the moment, the cafe occupied more than one city, but the one that showed was a quaint little town. At this hour, not many of its light were still on. To Alain, this normally would have been a comfort. He found that he disliked the big cities for their unnatural qualities, from the illuminated nights to the way the air tasted of metals and chemicals.
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[34]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:11 PM

On a night like this, however, he understood the comfort that might have been derived from seeing the night lit up. Seeing the darkness of the sky like this, almost untainted, he couldn't deceive himself as to the nearness of the dawn. It made him feel trapped and lonely. He could have woken Blake, of course, but he wouldn't do that either. Humans needed their sleep much more than he did, and in a space like the cafe, Blake's bodily grasp of time was shaky at best anyway. He needed the stabilizing effect that his regular sleep gave him.

Still, Alain could... he could go and watch Blake as the baker slept, couldn't he? If he was quiet, he was sure he wouldn't wake Blake.
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[35][13]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:11 PM

Taking his mug, he walked back into the living area behind the cafe proper, and down the hall that led to Blake's room. Ever-so-carefully, he opened the door. The room was completely dark, but he could just faintly make out the baker's sleeping form on the bed. Creeping in, he closed the door behind him, and stood leaning against the wall. It was absurd, it really was--- his situation was no different from how it was before, and Blake wasn't even awake to keep him company. And yet, almost immediately, he began to feel better. It had taken him a long time to understand why humans sought out companionship so desperately, but Alain suspected that this had something to do with it.
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[36][14]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:12 PM

He prided himself on not needing as much sleep as humans, among other things, but apparently enough of a lack caused problems even for his kind. His eyelids were beginning to droop, and he took another sip of the coffee in an attempt to combat it. He soon found himself draining the entire mug, but in the end, not even that was enough to keep his weariness at bay. He sank down, sitting with his arms around his knees. He would just sit like this for a little bit... He'd get up soon and check on his machines before Blake woke up and discovered him there. He was just going to... close his eyes for a moment...

When Alain next opened his eyes, he found that someone had draped a blanket around his shoulders.
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[37][15]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:12 PM

Coming back to himself with a start, he looked around. Blake was nowhere to be found, and the bed was already made. Blake's room had no windows, so Alain couldn't even tell how long he'd been here like this. Rising to his feet, he crossed the hall in a few long, quick steps. Sounds in the kitchen assured him quickly enough of where Blake had gone off to. He chided himself for being foolish. Where else did he expect Blake to be? He walked the rest of the distance to the kitchen at more of his usual pace.

"How long was I...?" he asked, not quite able to bring himself to say, 'asleep'.
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[38][16]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:30 PM

"I don't know when you came in, but you've been out a while. Don't worry, I've been manning the counter. We've closed up for a lunch break. Crowd's not happy, but they'll understand." Alain made a displeased, petulant noise. To have been asleep there for so long, and not stirred even when Blake had woken up...

"I'm sorry about that," he said. "You could have woken me, I---"

"Don't worry about it," said Blake. "You seemed like you needed it. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen you do more than catnap. I didn't know you could sleep like that."
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[39][17]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:31 PM

He seemed amused by it, which only made matters worse. Loathe as he was to admit it, Alain liked to keep an element of mystique about himself even to his friend, and to be so ungracefully exposed was doing a number on his pride.

"I hope no one has complained, what with you at the counter today," he said sullenly, glaring at a cooling loaf of bread. Blake chuckled.

"A few," he said. Alain didn't quite smile, but he could feel a small bubble of satisfaction at that. It was another sore point with his pride that he couldn't actually cover for Blake when the baker was off on one of his trips.
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[40][18]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:31 PM

He had tried to learn, but eventually Blake had forced him to stop. Alain had to concede that despite his best efforts, even he didn't like the baked goods he'd turned out. Blake had pointed out that half of them would have poisoned their human clients. Since then, Alain kept himself out of the kitchen. It was probably good for business that Blake could operate the coffee machines, since they were a cafe first and a baked goods shop second, but he still couldn't help but feel as if it meant he was replaceable, sometimes.

"Hey... Alain." The barrister looked up with a slight start. Occupied with his thoughts, he hadn't even noticed Blake's approach.
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[41][19]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:31 PM

Now he found himself staring his friend in the face. He inclined his head, a silent query. Blake was frowning again. "Are you okay? Still having strange dreams?"

Alain wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't think it was a good idea to lie to Blake, but he didn't think it waas a good idea to tell him the truth either. "I hardly know," he said instead. "I'll have to see how I fare the next few days." It wasn't a lie, exactly, and it had just enough of the weight of truth that Blake was assured for the moment.

"Well, alright," he said. He still sounded a little dubious, but if he was willing to let it go, he must not have been terribly suspicious. "But tell me if you need anything."
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[42][20]

Postby crow » 10/21/2014 9:35 PM

Alain acquiesced to that easily enough, and Blake returned to his work. With that, Alain moved to the counter to assess the damage that had been wrought by Blake's being forced to take over for him during the morning. Just because Blake could operate the machines didn't mean he was good at it, after all. It wasn't as bad as he was expecting, considering the nature of the usual morning rush. Alain was optimistic that he might even have all the messes and kinks worked out before they reopened for the afternoon crowd.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and the days after that followed in much the same manner. Alain's dreams grew more peaceful, to the point where he had tentatively begun to think of himself as cured of whatever had plagued him before.
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[43]

Postby crow » 10/25/2014 4:26 AM

If only that had really been the end of it, then all would have been well. This, as Alain found out, was not the case; the dreams crept back up on him, slowly but surely. What was worse, he noticed that they were starting to encroach upon him in his waking hours as well. He had thought at first that this was merely the result of him being over-tired from a lack of proper sleep. It seemed plausible enough, given the state of things. However, there were times when he was certain that he was fully awake, and yet he would see cobwebby apparitions at the edge of his vision. Even on nights when he had slept soundly, undisturbed, the daytime hallucinations continued.
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[44]

Postby crow » 10/25/2014 4:26 AM

And neither were they merely things he could dismiss as the result of his own fatigue, for he recognized a few of the figures and scenes. These were the same ones he had seen from the nightmares, less vivid but no less disturbing, if only for what they implied.

In short, Alain was slowly losing his grip on his own sanity.

He attempted to fight it off, as he had done the first time. He tried meditation, a few magical trinkets, and at one point even subjected himself to the sleeping draught again to see if he could make any sort of progress through the dreams. The result was the same as it had been the last time--- a horrific nightmare, and no change in his own state whatsoever. No, even that wasn't completely true--- with the awful sensations of the draught-dream fresh in his mind, his waking visions were that much more difficult to bear.
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[45][21]

Postby crow » 10/25/2014 4:26 AM

The strain wore on him, slowly but surely. There began to be a trembling in his hands, at first only occasionally, but then it became more pervasive. He first noticed it when he was operating the machines one morning, making a drink for a customer. It hadn't led to anything that day, but as it worsened, it became harder to work. At several points, he spilled the drinks that he had been meaning to serve. He apologized profusely each time, but he had never slipped up like this before, and could no longer hide his state from Blake. Even their more regular customers seemed to sense that something had gone awry, though they never did more than glance at Alain and mutter amongst themselves.

"Alain," Blake said one day, pulling him aside as the lunch crowd wound down. "Are you--- no. You're clearly not alright. What's going on?"
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