Okay, so I have limited knowledge on technology, but this forum looks promising. I can see from the name that you all struggle with sleep, and, well, I am in the same, miserable boat. As the title says:
If I don’t go to sleep tonight, I will die.
And yes, that sounds very dramatic, right? Maybe you’re wanting to skip down to the bottom of this post and comment:
“Just go to bed then. EZ.”
But before you grace me with that clever piece of advice, listen. I can’t. This is not a simple case of next day jitters keeping me from going to sleep. This isn’t the fault of my overactive mind asking inane questions or replaying my most embarrassing moments over and over like a greatest hits reel. No, I wish it was just that. I wish I could tell you that this was just a particularly bad case of the regular brand of human insomnia, but it’s worse.
I physically cannot sleep. I’ve tried everything from drugs to knocking myself out. None of it is working. My body is incapable of the type of sleep it needs and, apparently, we’re just now learning how vital that is to my survival. It sucks. Majorly.
Anyway, trying to get away from all the bleak imminent death stuff, Dr Pym once told me that ‘The Internet knows everything,’ so. Here I am Internet, asking you to please tell me:
Is there a way to force your body to go to sleep within 24 hours?
Surely at least one of you here has a surefire fall asleep method. Maybe even something so simple that myself or the doctors have completely ignored…? Is that too hopeful? Probably.
I understand that it’s a long shot; especially since my body, and therefore its processes, are different from yours, but I have to try.
Well. I guess I should explain the situation a bit, huh? Just realized I’m this far into the post and I haven’t even introduced myself. Isn’t there a human thing where you’re more likely to care about something after it has a name? …Or is that only if you are the one to name it? Either way, let me introduce myself.
My name is Three and I’m one of the Myriad.
Not that that even means anything to you. You’re a civilian… I hope. It’d blow if I went through all this trouble to sneak onto the Internet, just to immediately get caught. Well. Caught before I can even get some advice.
If you know about me… You know what’s happening to me. I know someone will find this, but please. Odds are it’ll be sooner rather than later but come on. No one can really be mad at me or One, right? Everyone knows I won’t last much longer. I don’t think any of you even managed to look me in the eyes today… not even Dr Pym.
I guess what I’m trying to say is: can you really blame me for trying to reach out? I could have emailed a news station. I could be sending out pictures or releasing the files on this phone to the public. I’m really not trying to hurt operation Myriad. It’d kill me if something happened to One or Two. I just- I’m trying to get some help. Please don’t be too mad at us. I know you’ll believe me when I say: All of this was my idea in the first place.
I guess with that out of the way, I should warn you, I’ve had typing lessons, but I’ve never actually used a phone keyboard. Dr Pym has allowed me to watch TikTok videos and play some games on his phone while running tests on my siblings before, especially on days when I was unable to participate in the tests, but I was explicitly forbidden from trying to message anyone on it. Didn’t stop me from disobeying… from looking through his pictures or conversations with the three people he texts, but it was a pretty toothless act of rebellion.
Then, about a month ago, I sneezed, and, well, I melted his phone in acid. He got a new one, but I kind of felt too guilty to play with it anymore.
Still, I guess that didn’t stop me from stealing it today. At least there’s no way I can melt this one.
Where am I going with this you might be asking? The answer is I don’t know. I think I was going to apologize for typos… or something like that cause this phone keyboard feels infinitely smaller than a real one, but really, I should probably apologize for my rambling. It’s been…. Four days since I last slept. And yeah. Sleep deprivation is definitely affecting me less than it should, less than it would affect a normal human, but I still feel… vague. Not all the way there. Sometimes my mind still feels normal, sharp, but then it feels like I’m wading through a mist, just looking for the point in what I’m doing.
Anyway. Point found. Forgive me for typos and rambling. Please, just read with an open mind and then give me your best advice on how to deal with the situation.
Keeping things short, we, the Myriad, are the products of a government experiment that took place 16 years ago. 25 human embryos were injected with a synthesized genetic material derived from an alien wreckage. Of those 25, only 3 of us came to term.
We were named after our experiment: Project Myriad. We live in a compound, a sterile white building where a team of scientists watch our every move.
This probably sounds pretty horrible, huh? Maybe a little like a violation of human rights? And yeah. It would be. If we were human, but as it stands it is probably not safe for us nor for humanity for The Myriad to leave the compound and try to live normal lives.
The reason being, in the womb, our genetic code was completely rewritten. The alien genes attached themselves in a way that Dr Pym still says is impossible. I’m not sure how to explain exactly how or what happened… even before the sleep stuff started, I wasn’t exactly good with science, but I want to describe the situation with as much detail as possible on the off chance that it could help solve the problem.
I wish Two was here. He would be better at explaining it than me, but he once used an analogy that even I could understand.
Do you know about cowbirds? Brown birds that lay white, speckled eggs? Well, what’s interesting about them (other than their weird name) is that they have a very peculiar parenting method. That method being that they don’t raise their children at all. Cowbirds lay their eggs very quickly into the nests of other birds.
Now, if you think the parental abandonment is bad, know that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree… which is what happens to the unwilling host’s hatchlings… they fall… far from the tree. I could have worded that better. What I’m trying to say is that cute, little freshly hatched cowbirds enter the world and often immediately choose violence. They get rid of their siblings and then receive all of the nourishment from their host parents.
It’s pretty messed up.
So, this is related to me and my siblings not in the fact that we are going to go kill each other or human children. We’re not evil or trying to kill humanity or anything like that. Nothing like the weirdo cowbirds… though I guess our names are weird… so we’re alike in one way?
Sorry, I lost my point again for a second.
What I’m trying to say is, the alien material that we were subjected to; that’s what did the cowbird thing. It ripped away the part of our DNA that would have been passed down from our human father and bonded with that of our birth mother. And yes, if you’re particularly keen eyed. I said ‘mother’ rather than ‘mothers’ in relation to myself and my siblings. That is singular on purpose, not a typo. I said earlier that there were 25 embryos injected and only 3 of us came to term… but I guess, technically only one of the original 25 came to term.
A lot of our past is shrouded in secrecy, even from us. Some things we’ve been told. Other things we were able to conclude through observation and eavesdropping. The original plan was (most likely) for the team that was assigned to us (top scientists from every field, high ranking military personal, and of course those with lots of money and ‘special interest’) to keep us completely in the dark about what we were… how we came to be. It’s safe to say that, in the beginning, at least, the plan was to raise us in a sort of cold, detached way.
But that didn’t work out. To keep us a secret, the same small group of people have been with us since birth. They practically are as confined to the compound as we are. Whether they meant for it to happen or not, we’ve become something of a family. And, while most of what I know about regular human families comes from Pym and what the television have showed me, I think we’re fairly normal in the sense that it’s us, the youngest of the ‘family,’ that everyone revolves around. It was too hard for them to keep everything a secret from of us.
Of course, it is hard to keep a secret from Two anyway.
Back to The Myriad… We are identical as, apparently, we split once and then once again, which should be impossible. They don’t know why our mother was the only one who was able to produce a viable child, but Dr Pym once told us she was the earliest along in terms of her pregnancy. Other than that, we don’t have much information about her.
I’m not even sure if she’s alive or not as we’ve never met her.
Anyway, whoever she was/ is… I find myself thinking about her a lot. I think I would have liked to have met her. To see what it’s like to have an actual parent. There’s Pym and the General, but what would it be like to have a mom? This is probably a pretty stupid thing to be thinking about so close to the end.
Anyway. I don’t know if any of that is helpful, but now you know I’m, biologically speaking, half human. So at least half of your fall asleep advice should be effective, right?
I guess I should tell you a little more about my alien side now…?
Hopefully, I have time.
I can hear One tapping on the metal door. Pretty soon it’ll be time for dinner and if I don’t show up, that’d cause a problem.
I’ll try to keep this short. To the point. Ha, that hasn’t worked well so far.
Okay so, remember how I said the alien material was unstable? That’s because its genetic code was constantly rewriting itself. It made it incredibly difficult to study, apparently. I don’t know why they decided to try to bond it with human DNA. I remember Dr Pym once told me they’d tried a similar experiment but with Orangutan sperm and human eggs, so, I guess it’s just a human thing to try to make babies with whatever you can.
Well, whatever the thought was originally, it resulted in me and my siblings, so, thank you humanity. Thanks for being weird.
Anyway, our DNA is far more stable and fixed than that of the aliens. Dr Pym has a theory that they were most likely able to shapeshift at will, but that isn’t usually within our capabilities. I’ll come back to the “usually” in a moment. But. We do shapeshift… in a way. It’s just not something that we have any control of.
Trying to keep it as simple as possible, each time we go to sleep, as our bodies enter REM, our genetic code completely rewrites itself. We wake up from the cold cots of the compound looking entirely different each morning. Height and weight… race and gender… It varies from day to day.
More than that, each day we develop a different ‘power.’
I know that sounds vague but let me try to clarify.
One, she predominantly reawakens as a female, and even if she doesn’t, she still identifies as she/her. One typically has ‘powers’ that control or emit a physical phenomenon (i.e.: laser eyes, pyrokinesis, and super strength) She’s the only one of us who has ever been able to shapeshift with complete control at will. That’s why I said “usually” earlier.
Two is different. His powers aren’t nearly as flashy as One’s often are, but they usually have to do with his inner mind. He often has telekinesis, mind control, and foresight. It’s the reason why it’s about impossible to keep a secret from him. Thankfully, today he has psychometry. I learned something recently. Something that I’m not exactly eager to share. Not that Two is even paying any attention to me right now.
Well. You already know me. I’m Three and, if you can’t tell I’m the odd ball of the group. I mentioned earlier about accidentally melting Dr Pym’s phone with acid snot. Yeah. My powers are almost always useless and only ever seem to affect me. Once I woke up with the ability to grow my nails long, another time I was given an extra row of eyelashes, and on another memorable occasion I woke up and my only ability was to lie. Like I was physically unable to tell the truth that day.
That day sucked majorly. I made One cry big, ugly tears. Two seemed to nearly hate me. Dr Pym looked at me with this face I’d never seen before. His mouth was drawn into a thin, tight line and his eyes were narrowed somewhere between disgust and disappointment. Eventually the doctors figured out about the lying thing, but that day was a particularly painful one.
But now… lying day is no longer at the top of my ‘Sucky Powers’ list.
One has dubbed my current ability ‘Insomnia.’ The reason being that I am now completely unable to sleep.
Without being able to enter REM, my body isn’t changing anymore. I feel like I’m going crazy and the scientists at the compound are saying that my unstable DNA is breaking down. They aren’t sure how I’m even standing anymore as every piece of me is rapidly collapsing on a molecular level.
I’m so scared.
I really don’t want to die.
The only time I’ve ever been out of the compound was three years ago. Dr Pym got permission to take us to a rented-out ice cream parlor for our birthday. We were escorted by a SWAT team and weren’t even allowed to go to the restroom at the shop, but it was still so fun. So different.
I don’t want to die with that being my only story outside this place.
Nor my siblings…
Two has completely distanced himself from me. He won’t look at me. All he does is spend his days in the lab, analyzing my blood samples that are taken day after day. Now hour after hour. Even my older skin and blood samples, the ones taken before this power ever cursed me are breaking down. I can’t read minds, but I can feel Two’s sense of panic. If his appearance wasn’t changing, I’d think he’s getting less sleep than I am.
One is, as usual, trying to keep positive. She’s the one that tried knocking me out. My chin is still bruised, but nothings working. Stealing Pym’s phone, posting this for help… it was all my idea, but she’s helped me. I feel so weak. I probably wouldn’t have been able to make it up the steps without her.
I haven’t told either of them yet about what I overheard.
Early this morning before the sun had even begun to rise. I was watching reruns George Lopez, (the only thing that was really on tv at the time) looking over every now and then as my siblings slowly changed form, and I thought that I would be okay with dying.
I tried to tell myself it was okay.
I even thought: ‘better me than them.’
Not just because I love One and Two.
Not because it would break me if I lost either of them.
But for the obvious reason: compared to them; I’m pretty useless.
It seemed right that I would die.
By the time they were fully different, I thought I’d made peace with myself.
Maybe that had been a lie all along. I’d just been shoving my regrets and fears down enough to delude myself, but either way… things quickly changed.
I decided since it was most likely my last sunrise, I wanted to watch it. It’s summertime, but dessert nights are chilly even in July. I bundled up, wrapping the blanket around me and started to drag myself up the stairs to the roof.
My chest hurt after just one floor, and I sat down to rest.
I felt so tired, but as you know, couldn’t sleep.
After resting, I forced myself to climb up the second set of stairs, almost halfway to my goal.
At the landing, I could hear voices. Arguing voices. I almost opened the door, but then I heard Dr Pym.
“You don’t know that they won’t die too!”
And I froze.
“That’s how we found the aliens. Only one had been killed on impact. The other two died after.”
I kept listening and I learned about something they’d never told us. I’m fact, they had lied to us. The spaceship that had crash landed here, the one that they said was a flaming pit, that they had to synthesize genetic material from the wreckage because there just wasn’t anything left…
That was a lie.
There were three aliens. One died from the crash and the other two survived. The government took them, probably planning to experiment on them, but they ‘deteriorated’ before they even made it through transport.
Luckily, the scientists managed to preserve just a small part of them. The part that would become myself and my siblings, but the cause of death for the two aliens that survived the impact was never determined.
Apparently, Dr Pym had a theory. He thought that the three were connected. That they could have been like us, three that split from one and that in order for us to continue on, all of us had to survive. He sounded so sure.
They were arguing back and forth. Apparently One and Two were also showing signs of genetic deterioration. Albeit much less than me, but this was the first I’ve heard of it. Additionally, their reformations were taking longer. Admittedly, before I had never actually witnessed it happen, so I had no frame of reference for how fast the process was supposed to be, but they talked like it was previously done in an instant.
I thought back to that morning. To my siblings changing over the course of two or three George Lopez. One’s skin going from paper white to a freckled sand color. Two’s black hair morphing into curly strands of blonde. Had it taken longer than it had yesterday? I wasn’t sure. I’m still not sure.
I heard a door slam, followed by heavy footsteps. They never reached a conclusion. They never agreed nor disagreed on whether or not my stupid ‘power’ was killing not only me but my siblings.
I didn’t know I was crying until I heard myself hiccup a sob.
“Three?”
And then Pym was there. The circles under his eyes looked even darker than mine. I tried to stand up to get away, but I ended up falling. My chin hit the ground and the bruise one had given me ached.
“How much did you hear?”
I couldn’t lie. “All of it.”
He took off his glasses and wiped his hand over his face. Sweat poured off his forehead. I wondered how long they’d been arguing for.
“If they die, it’d be my fault, wouldn’t it?”
And immediately he started saying no, trying to reassure me, but it felt like a lie. After that, Dr Pym begged me not to tell my siblings. That they didn’t even know for sure what had happened to the three aliens that were effectively our biological father.
But he looked sure. He looked as sure as he sounded mere minutes ago.
Still, I promised him I wouldn’t tell. The reason is selfish. Two’s already pushing me away. Maybe he knows that it’s my fault he and One are going to die, but One. She’s never been anything but smiles. If she were to be mad at me, I think it’d be like dying twice. I don’t want either of them to have to spend their last days like I currently am. Knowing what’s coming. Knowing how little of the world we’ve seen. Knowing that we’ve done nothing.
So instead of telling them, I’m telling you.
And I’m hoping against all odds that these don’t have to be our final days.
One of you out there.
On the Internet, the place Dr Pym says knows everything.
Can you help me?
Help us.
Tell me, no matter how stupid you think it is, how can I get to sleep tonight?
It’s time for me to go now. Dinner time, but until Pym notices I’ve stolen his phone… or until my hand’s too weak to hold it… whichever first. I’ll keep checking here. Waiting for your advice.