Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was late but Cecil had grown accustomed to sleepless nights. Not by choice but did anyone ever choose to be awoken by nightmares? He still worried about the people he hadn't seen or heard from since day zero and always seemed to come up with the worse possible outcome for their fate. There was nothing more he could do at this point but hope they were okay but it didn't ease his nerves enough to sleep. It left him restless to the point he had to get up and began to pace his room trying to shake off the nervous energy. When that didn't seem to help he got dressed and left his dorm to stretch his legs a bit more. Maybe a walk would help clear his head enough to sleep or at least make him tired enough to lay down again. Not that he wasn't already tired, the circles under his eyes were enough of an indication of that.

There was no true destination in mind as he began to walk his feet just took him on an aimless journey down the hallways of the dorm. He tried to keep his steps light and quiet so that he didn't wake anyone but when he arrived in the common room to find he wasn't the only one who was up he was hardly surprised. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he moved in to make his presence known. "Can't sleep either?"

There were other voices as Harper shifted from her spot on the floor, knees drawn to her chest as a blanket was wrapped around her shoulders. Ever since her last roommate didn’t come back she refused to sleep in her room, forfeiting it to others who were likely to put it to better use. Instead she had been curled up sleeping in random places she felt like, such as propped against a wall in the corner in the dark. She had heard Liam come in earlier but hadn’t said anything, even still she hesitated for a moment as they were chatting.

Finally a mixture of curiosity, boredom, and knowing that she rather not sleep if people where around, Harper got to her feet waving to the two of them not knowing if they could see.

“Sleep is overrated.” Taking a seat in the other armchair across from Liam’s, she tried to grin but the look of not sleeping for the last two days were on her face. Too much to think about, too much to remember and it was too hard to stay asleep long enough to get much rest anymore when you couldn’t get the faces out of your head and the feeling of guilt.

"Ah," he flushed fainly, but the dimness of the common room made it hard to notice. "My roommate has, um. Company." To put it mildly. He smiled helplessly up at the taller man, hand emerging from the blanket to smooth his hair back from his face. The headband he usually wore was looped around his wrist.

He nodded at Cecil's answer. Restless he certainly understood. Liam spent his fair share of evenings wandering about the dorms. Kept awake by his own thoughts or nightmares he could do nothing about.

Liam startled as Harper seemed to materialize out of the dark. He'd been out there for hours already and he hadn't noticed her there, not once. The fading flush on his cheeks darkened as she stood to join them, dark blues following her. "Over rated, but unfortunately necessary." They could get so much more work done if they didn't need to take time out to sleep. The dorm would always been clean, stalked up, fortified.

Another smile at Cecil's comment, and a soft chuckle as the younger man rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. "What kind of party?"

Smiling softly at Harper, Cecil shook his head hoping to dismiss her need to worry. "I see just well enough to get by so I can easily miss things. No worries." His vision wasn't the greatest but it really had appeared as if she had materialized from the shadows like a ninja. Looking back now that he knew there was nothing trying to get the jump on him it had been rather impressive.

"Company?" Cecil turned his attention back to Liam and it dawned on him what the smaller man meant when Harper mentioned fun and his features reflected that moment of enlightenment as his mouth formed the word 'Oh.' His expression turned sympathetic hoping Liam was at least able to find some means of rest if not in his room. "The offer still stands if you want to rest in my dorm." Cecil didn't mind giving up his bed, he clearly wasn't using it.

Lapsing into the seat so that he could sit in it properly Cecil gave a stretch and a yawn. A clear sign that Harper's words were not being taken to heart though a soft amused chuckle managed to escape him. "I admire your willpower. Coffee and energy drinks were the only thing that kept me going on those long study sessions." And he often found himself passed out in the middle of everything by the third day. It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't pushed off studying until the last minute.

His smile was suddenly sheepish as his idea of a party was called out though even on a normal occasion he was no event planner. "The coffeeless kind I suppose." But his expression brightened a bit. "But if we are already up might as well keep each other company, yeah? I'm sure we can find something to pass the time."

She returned a sheepish grin to Cecil and nodded; as long as he wasn’t bothered by her appearance from the dark then she would let it go. There was a small chuckle though when Cecil finally caught on to the company conversation, it was cute knowing that there was some innocent thoughts left.

Harper groaned just a little as they continued to talk about coffee. “It was the best, I think at some point I had replaced all of my blood with coffee so I could survive. The people at the university’s coffee joint knew me by name and sometimes even had a cup waiting for me when I came in.” It was a terrible sad obsession she had but she was always worried about making sure her projects were the best they could, not doing well meant she failed herself. That meant spending countless hours doing and redoing projects, taking turns sleeping on the floor with the few other dedicated students. If anything it really was her own willpower that had kept her going, willpower and being too stubborn to give in.

“We could play a game? I would suggest cards but I don’t really have a deck unless any of you know where one is at in here.” There were other games that she knew, but most of them involved drinking in some form or fashion.

"I bet Corey has some cards somewhere, but that doesn't really help us right now." He frowned, hand coming up to run at the back of his neck. He had an awful habit of pointing out the obvious. Speaking when he thought he should, even if he had nothing useful to contribute. Hopefully Harper and Cecil wouldn't mind.

Mention of a different game had him tipping his head slightly to one side. "Is that the one where you say three things about yourself, and then everyone else has to guess which is the lie?" He'd played it, he was sure, but like so many games of that nature he was probably drunk and didn't remember much of it.

Truth tevealing games weren't his favorite, especially not when there were things about himself he was lying to himself about, but if Harper and Cecil wanted to play, he'd play.

The smile was all but gone as Cecil focused in on the floor though it returned weakly when Harper apologized. "No, I brought it up. It's okay. Yu was resourceful it's possible...he's still out there." It sounded like straight up denial, even to him. He didn't want to let go but after all this time he found himself doing just that. The only thing that kept him from grieving was the fact that Hitsu was there and certain her brother was fine. Cecil was no longer sure.

Shifting his attention to Liam he thought about the cards trying to let the other topic slip away. "We'll have to ask her so we know for next time." Because Cecil was at least sure of one thing, there were more sleepless nights to come. "And yeah, you tell two truths and one lie about yourself and the others have to guess which one is the lie. If you want I can start?" Because he needed something else to think about.

Slouching back into his chair Cecil gave some thought to what he wanted to say. What did he want to share and what kind of lie did he want to tell? "Okay." He nodded once he had an idea holding up his pointer finger as he listed off his first confession and rose another finger for each one after. "I worked in construction to help pay for school. I was actually featured in a calendar a couple of years ago. And I have a terrible fear of small spaces."

With all their options laid out on the table Cecil waited to see if they would figure out which was the lie.

Harper gave Cecil the most reassuring smile she could come up with. Some how she wanted to tell him it would be ok, that maybe he was out there safe, or looking, that maybe they just haven’t crossed paths yet. Another part of her knew that she couldn’t say it, even though she wanted to believe she couldn’t be sure there was still doubt, there was even doubts that she would never see her own family again. Saying it would almost be lying to him.

When the attention turned back to the game Harper slid forward in her chair eager to start and put the rest of the conversation behind them. “Alright sounds easy enough, but question!” She slapped her hands together before shrinking down at the noise she had made, worried that she had disturbed someone else. “What happens if you lose? Can’t just lose without having some sort of punishment in return then it wouldn’t be any fun.” Of course they couldn’t treat it like a drinking game so they would have to be a little more creative in what they would have to do. Not to mention Cecil’s was starting out pretty hard to guess which one was a lie and which two were the truths.

“Hrm, I could see you featured in a calendar your too tall and cute not to be in one. Could have also easily been for some sort of sports team, like basketball. Small spaces would be hard to fit in… I am going to go with number one being a lie, that you worked in construction to help pay for your school.” It would be really hard for someone so tall to work around low hanging beams and what not right?