[Becoming nocturnal had been as difficult of a transition for Sparkling as it had been an easy one. He was used to working late hours, and he'd accidentally set himself up well enough with working late shifts at the Lucky. It wasn't too hard to let Horatio know that due to a sudden debilitating weakness to sunlight, he'd need to be working night hours exclusively. It didn't change much as far as the work itself went, of course...
But there was an additional adjustment he hadn't accounted for: utter, crippling insomnia.
He couldn't sleep during the day. He just couldn't. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how tired he was, the sleep simply wouldn't come. He'd maybe pass out for a few moments from sheer exhaustion before his internal clock would rouse him again, his brain briefly panicked over having "slept in" when the daylight hours were supposed to be his night, now. At that point he'd be too awake to drift off again, so he'd just get up. In the past week, he's not sure he's slept more than a single night of hours collectively, if even that, and it had begun to take its toll on his body. The pain of his changes honestly hadn't helped much with the sleeplessness, and in those brief moments he does manage to drift off? They're of course plagued by nightmares. Nightmares about Haftesal, nightmares about monsters, nightmares about witches and humans crumbling and devouring everyone he knows and loves-
He blinks with a start behind the counter mid-shift at work, realizing that the customer across from him had tried to get his attention three times. They were starting to get annoyed, raising their voice at him, which was what finally snapped him out of it.]
Oh, I- I'm so sorry, sir. What would you like?
[Had he just...? No. There's no way.
Sparkling pushes that aside and keeps working. He's at least not alone tonight, since Vicious' shift had overlapped his own, which helped a lot since they were particularly swamped with patrons. Constant moving was the only thing that kept Sparkling even slightly coherent, because the moment he'd ever stop was when his brain would start to try to shut down practically as a defense mechanism against his own stupidity at this point. Any sane person would have stayed home, yet here he is working and barely managing to not spill things on himself or- god forbid- the customers ordering them.
He's...half formed, at the moment. His wings had been growing in agonizingly slowly, meaning that the constant pain made it hard to do anything that required a lot of finesse. He couldn't do tricks or anything but the bare minimum right now since his fingers from the ring to pinky on one hand had become too long to grab anything, leaving just the index and thumb. It almost didn't matter anymore that half of his right hand had been bitten off, because he imagines he couldn't have used those fingers anyway.
Eventually, their break comes. Horatio gives them a full hour to take their break, and tonight Vicious and Sparkling have been afforded the opportunity to take theirs at the same time since a few new hires were able to cover for them in the meantime. The room they had for breaks was nicer than Sparkling ever could have expected, not that he really...uses it for eating much. He's still getting accustomed to his new feeding preferences, and he's not just going to whip out some blood in front of people. That can be done in private until he figures out a better way. He hasn't even discovered what else he can eat yet, since most other things turn to ash in his mouth...
It's fine. He's not even hungry right now. He just...wants to sit down...
When Vicious does come back to join his coworker, he'll find Sparkling just sort of. Sitting there? He's not asleep, not really, but he sure is uh.
Ryslig AU/Game CR | 14/15 + 9 for contact MAYBE?? bats lashes at vicious
But there was an additional adjustment he hadn't accounted for: utter, crippling insomnia.
He couldn't sleep during the day. He just couldn't. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how tired he was, the sleep simply wouldn't come. He'd maybe pass out for a few moments from sheer exhaustion before his internal clock would rouse him again, his brain briefly panicked over having "slept in" when the daylight hours were supposed to be his night, now. At that point he'd be too awake to drift off again, so he'd just get up. In the past week, he's not sure he's slept more than a single night of hours collectively, if even that, and it had begun to take its toll on his body. The pain of his changes honestly hadn't helped much with the sleeplessness, and in those brief moments he does manage to drift off? They're of course plagued by nightmares. Nightmares about Haftesal, nightmares about monsters, nightmares about witches and humans crumbling and devouring everyone he knows and loves-
He blinks with a start behind the counter mid-shift at work, realizing that the customer across from him had tried to get his attention three times. They were starting to get annoyed, raising their voice at him, which was what finally snapped him out of it.]
Oh, I- I'm so sorry, sir. What would you like?
[Had he just...? No. There's no way.
Sparkling pushes that aside and keeps working. He's at least not alone tonight, since Vicious' shift had overlapped his own, which helped a lot since they were particularly swamped with patrons. Constant moving was the only thing that kept Sparkling even slightly coherent, because the moment he'd ever stop was when his brain would start to try to shut down practically as a defense mechanism against his own stupidity at this point. Any sane person would have stayed home, yet here he is working and barely managing to not spill things on himself or- god forbid- the customers ordering them.
He's...half formed, at the moment. His wings had been growing in agonizingly slowly, meaning that the constant pain made it hard to do anything that required a lot of finesse. He couldn't do tricks or anything but the bare minimum right now since his fingers from the ring to pinky on one hand had become too long to grab anything, leaving just the index and thumb. It almost didn't matter anymore that half of his right hand had been bitten off, because he imagines he couldn't have used those fingers anyway.
Eventually, their break comes. Horatio gives them a full hour to take their break, and tonight Vicious and Sparkling have been afforded the opportunity to take theirs at the same time since a few new hires were able to cover for them in the meantime. The room they had for breaks was nicer than Sparkling ever could have expected, not that he really...uses it for eating much. He's still getting accustomed to his new feeding preferences, and he's not just going to whip out some blood in front of people. That can be done in private until he figures out a better way. He hasn't even discovered what else he can eat yet, since most other things turn to ash in his mouth...
It's fine. He's not even hungry right now. He just...wants to sit down...
When Vicious does come back to join his coworker, he'll find Sparkling just sort of. Sitting there? He's not asleep, not really, but he sure is uh.
Disassociating pretty hard, there.]