TM-228: 3am
3 A.M.
Hank had always been fond of Benjamin Franklin. In fact, he felt a certain kinship with the man. Both were eccentric scientists who valued wit, knowledge, and beautiful women above all else, and both often found themselves in the role of adviser, the slightly aloof but always available confidante and mediator. Hank and Ben, though born centuries apart, were two peas in a pod, and, realizing this, Hank spent a good portion of his youth consciously attempting to follow the advice of Franklin’s wittily-phrased maxims.
Of all the aphorisms, the one that spoke the most truth to Hank was a rather simple one: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Hank was an early-riser by nature, and he was happy to believe that his careful discipline would provide physiological, economic, and intellectual benefits further down the road. Or, at the very least, he was willing to use the pithy phrase as a justification when his teammates, stumbling into the kitchen groggy and fumbling for coffee, glared at his chipper smile and the morning paper stretched between his feet on the table.
But cats, of course, are creatures of the night. And though Hank tried, for months after his second transformation, to keep his sleep schedule as it had always been, he soon realized the futility of the attempt. His body naturally stayed awake into the early hours of the morning, however much he tried to persuade it otherwise, and by the time he finally found sleep around 4 a.m. each night, it was nearly time for him to arise for his 8 a.m. classes.
But, once again, Hank turned to his 18th century mentor, and took another pithy phrase to heart: “Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.” If he was going to stay up so late, he was going to use the time wisely, so he could more freely be the happy, fun-loving Hank that everyone loved during the daylight hours. So he stayed in his lab each night, working on projects, solving the X-Men’s problems. And, on some nights, he padded into the common room to comfort some student - or some teammate - startled awake by the nightmares, waking or otherwise, that were standard for the denizens of the Xavier Institute.
Hank likes getting work done. He likes helping others. But sometimes, on nights like tonight, when he stares at the glowing 3:00 on his clock and can find no more projects to work on, can find no friends to help, he can’t help wishing he could simply lay down, pull up his covers, and sleep-to wake up just one more time refreshed and ready to greet the day.
[OOC: RP thread locked to shadeof_grey]
Hank had always been fond of Benjamin Franklin. In fact, he felt a certain kinship with the man. Both were eccentric scientists who valued wit, knowledge, and beautiful women above all else, and both often found themselves in the role of adviser, the slightly aloof but always available confidante and mediator. Hank and Ben, though born centuries apart, were two peas in a pod, and, realizing this, Hank spent a good portion of his youth consciously attempting to follow the advice of Franklin’s wittily-phrased maxims.
Of all the aphorisms, the one that spoke the most truth to Hank was a rather simple one: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Hank was an early-riser by nature, and he was happy to believe that his careful discipline would provide physiological, economic, and intellectual benefits further down the road. Or, at the very least, he was willing to use the pithy phrase as a justification when his teammates, stumbling into the kitchen groggy and fumbling for coffee, glared at his chipper smile and the morning paper stretched between his feet on the table.
But cats, of course, are creatures of the night. And though Hank tried, for months after his second transformation, to keep his sleep schedule as it had always been, he soon realized the futility of the attempt. His body naturally stayed awake into the early hours of the morning, however much he tried to persuade it otherwise, and by the time he finally found sleep around 4 a.m. each night, it was nearly time for him to arise for his 8 a.m. classes.
But, once again, Hank turned to his 18th century mentor, and took another pithy phrase to heart: “Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.” If he was going to stay up so late, he was going to use the time wisely, so he could more freely be the happy, fun-loving Hank that everyone loved during the daylight hours. So he stayed in his lab each night, working on projects, solving the X-Men’s problems. And, on some nights, he padded into the common room to comfort some student - or some teammate - startled awake by the nightmares, waking or otherwise, that were standard for the denizens of the Xavier Institute.
Hank likes getting work done. He likes helping others. But sometimes, on nights like tonight, when he stares at the glowing 3:00 on his clock and can find no more projects to work on, can find no friends to help, he can’t help wishing he could simply lay down, pull up his covers, and sleep-to wake up just one more time refreshed and ready to greet the day.
[OOC: RP thread locked to shadeof_grey]