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( introduction )
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𝐋𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐎 𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐒 had sleeping problems his whole life.
The funnyies thing for him about going to a doctor on ark for sleeping pills is you can tell them you've had sleeping problems your whole life and all they'll do is hand you a pamphlet. It has advice on it like: Don't get in bed unless you're going to sleep. Don't drink too much caffeine or alcohol. Exercise frequently, but don't do it too late. For Leo advice like this feels like being told to spit on a house fire.
When he was about ten year old, he lived in one of arka's apartments with his father. He woke every morning at five so he could be at work by six. There was a big aquarium with holograms imitating fish in his bedroom, and the room was poorly ventilated, so it was always humid and hot. Consequently, after his dad had gone to bed, he would go to the living room where he left the large door wide open. He liked reading books. Especially those for him - as his father always liked to remind him - forbidden. He also liked to watch old programs, that were broadcast back in the days of the people on earth, which he had stolen from his fathers desk in his office.
He played shows like Cold Case Files and Forensic Files in a seemingly endless loop. So he sat there, watching things about bodies and death and violence.
Years later, he'd smoke cigarettes on the evacuation stairs near their apartment, and he'd hear things - sometimes from the top and sometimes the bottom of the stairs - and think about all the sketchy-looking people who might have been wandering around. He'd go back inside, and think about how the door was right next to his head, and how a knife could cut through the plastic so easily, and how his father slept as soundly as a rock. He'd become drunk and he'd become afraid, and shortly after, He'd fall asleep. No struggle, no turning of gears – the sleep on the couch, in front of the murder shows, came soft and easy. He'd still woke up after a few hours, but at least he could get some to sleep.
After thousands of times, he knew all the episodes by heart. He knew the identities, knew where they had made a mistake, and how they could have avoided it. He started to get bored. So he took it a step further. Under the cover of night, he began to steal the files of criminals who had slipped through the ark one by one and analyze them. After some time, he would do all the proces automatically. Get to know the criminal, look for a problem from his past that could be a motive, browse through photos from the crime scene and - as he did when watching programs - look for mistakes and weaknesses in the committed crimes.
And eventually, his doctor prescribed him Seroquel.
It was taking him an hour or less to fall asleep, because that's how long it took for the Seroquel to kick in, but he still kept going through more and more fresh crime cases every night. Somehow the stories about the worst kinds of crimes have become soothing. He wasn't sure what that said about him, but he'd like to chalk it up to the fact that the voices narrating shows from his childhood were usually soft and therefore soothing, and that he always knew how the story will end so he didn't need to stay awake til it's over.
