Sleepytime Junction

## Premise

After finding out the Engineer has not been sleeping for the last several days, Larry and Tobias send him to bed for 8 hours while they take over his duties at the studio. Things become complicated quickly when they realise just how many things the Engineer has to put up with on a daily basis. Can they manage to do them all without waking their boss? Especially when one task in particular puts them in a deadly situation that causes them to reveal more to each other than they ever wanted to. It seems waking their boss is now the least of their fears. And just maybe, they're the ones in need of a wake up call.

## Cast

* Modmad (DM)
	+ Engineer as NPC
* Luis as Tobias O'Chrowelle
* Yuni as Larry Samuel

## Notable NPCs

* Gem-ima and Terrance
* Sidewinder Sam

* Willow

## Plot Summary

Larry Samuel and Tobias O'Chrowelle have both been working at the studio for a while now and have gotten to know each other to at least a marginal amount (Larry thinks Tobias fine if a little high strung and Tobias thinks Larry is nice when he's not being scary). Things have been busy in the studio for a while, with a fair few projects going on at the same time, however, today things are relatively quiet as both Shorts Kid and Snalien are away on a school trip. As the pair are going about their business, the Engineer enters talking to himself and not watching where he is going until he runs into Tobias. As he is apologising, Larry pulls the paper Engineer was holding to have a look at it. He manages to see that it's a list (in indecipherable handwriting) before Engineer realises that it's missing and grabs it back before going to walk away. Both Tobias and Larry realise something is up and Tobias runs in front of the Engineer to try and stop him, only to get knocked on his butt by the force of the still out of it director. At this height, he can see the grey patches in the Engineer's usually vibrant feathers.

As the Engineer grumbles some more and helps Toby up, Larry comes up behind them and picks the Engineer up before asking the toon where he's trying to get to (since he obviously can't do it without running into things at the moment). The Engineer seethes at this treatment and tries to escape Larry's grip before the tall toon tucks him under his arm. Unable to escape and with Tobias pleading that they are just trying to help, the Engineer concedes tells them to take him to his office. Along the way, Larry and Tobias put together that the Engineer hasn't been sleeping so Larry confronts him on the matter. Instead of getting a straight answer, the Engineer just kicks him instead.

At this point, they've reached the office, however, upon opening the door, they are met with a flood of paperwork. It is at this point that the Engineer finally admits defeat and confesses to the concerned pair that, yes, he has been trying to do all this paperwork by himself (since there is no longer anyone to do it). After some strong and logical words from the two, Engineer asks if they can hold down the fort for a few hours while he gets some sleep to which they readily agree. The Engineer tries to give them some pointers on what to do but immediately falls asleep at his desk, so Tobias and Larry quietly leave the room.

Once they close the door however, they are immediately greeted by very loud, dubstep music coming from next door. They quickly make their way over to DJ Mooves' side of the studio to see that the penguins are having a party. Larry tries and fails to find a plug so he and Tobias attempt to dance their way through the crowd of penguins to DJ Mooves' office door. Tobias trips and gets stuck crowd surfing in the middle of the penguins but Larry manages to weave his way stylishly through (picking Toby up on his way past). Now on the other side, they find that the office door is locked, so Larry just kicks the door down. This gets the penguins attention and they mob the doorway, only to get stuck blocking it. Inside the office, no where is there, so Larry tries to ask where DJ Mooves is. He does find out that the penguin's boss is out today but all of his attempts to persuade them to have their party later fail. This makes Tobias angry and he manages to cowl the penguins into having their party later at night like usual (threatening to otherwise break all of their sound equipment).

With that sorted, the two make their way back to their side of the studio. Upon reaching it however, they come across an old lady and her alligator heading towards the Engineer's office. Tobias recognises her but thankfully she doesn't recognise him yet. They manage to get in her way but she is still very loud. Tobias tries to shush her (getting a hard whack on the head for his troubles) before Larry steps in. Using his best customer service voice, he manages to give her a schedule and convince her that auditions are the next day. This is enough to get Gem-ima and Terrace to leave.

However, as they are leaving, another unfamiliar toon makes his way towards them. The otter introduces himself as Mr. Otter Esquire and tells them that he is here to see the Engineer on behalf of his client Sidewinder Sam over the use of his likeness in his upcoming movie. With Larry blocking the doorway, Tobias manages to convince the otter that the Engineer is currently in a meeting with a very important actor and cannot be interrupted at this moment. It is at this moment that Sam himself shows up, wanting to know if the otter has finished up yet. Larry goes outside to talk with him, telling him the same thing Tobias did the otter. Sam takes this a lot less well and the large snake coils himself around Larry, telling him that he wants his compensation for his ruined eye (among other things) and isn't too fussed whether that payback comes in the form of money or flesh. Tobias exits with Mr. Esquire, to threaten the snake to back off. While they are having their stare down, Larry uses the distraction to slip out of the coils to talk to the otter. Pointing out that this is all going to look really bad in court, Mr. Esquire, Larry and Tobias finally manage to talk Sam down. Sidewinder Sam promises them that he will be back for revenge before firing the otter and quickly leaving. Realising that now would be a good time to leave town, Mr. Esquire rushes out and Larry and Tobias get back to work.

Things continue in this manner for the rest of the day, leaving Tobias and Larry barely able to stay on top of everything. They have somehow managed to keep everyone away from the Engineer for almost eight hours of uninterrupted sleep when a delivery for the Engineer turns up. At first the delivery person is unwilling to give them the fuel for Willow since only the Engineer handles it usually. However, he is on a tight schedule, so after getting them to sign off on it, he leaves them with it. The bags are too heavy for Tobias to carry but Larry manages them just fine. They bring the fuel bags back to where Willow is stationed but are unsure what to do from there. After trying to talk to the train, they decide to just put the fuel into the fuel caddy. This works but the dust from the fuel causes both of them to fall unconscious.

Both Larry and Tobias are stuck in individual nightmares. In Larry's a familiar figure is standing near (though his face is hazy). He looks happy but hasn't noticed Larry even as he is moving towards him. Larry's feet fuse into the floor, the fusing continuing to spread up his body as the figure gets closer. Larry tries to call out but no sound emerges, then he is consumed in the figure's shadow. Meanwhile, Tobias is stuck in a room full of doors. As he opens one, however, it just leads to a brick wall and the room shrinks. Panicking, Tobias continues to open doors but the same thing happens until there is almost no room to move and there is only one door left.

A train whistle sounds and suddenly Tobias feels like someone is watching him. He looks around but no one is there. No one, except his shadow. Larry also clues into something not being quite right. The person above him doesn't look right, so he tries to thrash around a bit. Tobias screams as his shadow moves and that is enough for Larry to register who is above him. With a pop, he warps out of Toby's shadow and into the cramped space. This causes Tobias to panic more, his colours swirling in a deep, unhealthy, mottled pattern. Larry looks around, trying to figure out what happened and how they ended up in here. Both he and Tobias notice he doesn't have his mask on but Tobias is too hysterical to notice anything past the darkness in Larry's hood. As Larry begins questioning the logic of the room, it shifts and warps, sending him to the ground. With a bit more breathing room, Tobias begins to calm down, enough for them both to make out a few garbled words reaching them as if through a faulty speaker.

Then Toby feels hands on the back of his neck and shirt before he is falling. He wakes up on a stunt mat next to the train with the Engineer looking down on him. The Engineer is in obvious distress but looks relieved that Tobias is now awake. Toby is still disorientated and panicked so with an apology to someone still on the train, the Engineer jumps down to give Tobias a grounding hug.

In the dream, Larry sees Tobias disappear and calls out to him. No one answers as he is left alone in the room. He hears the sound of rain and begins to walk toward it, trying to get outside. As he moves, it gets lighter and he can see the reflection of water on the ground.

Having reached the top of the train again, Tobias is startled by the sight of the Engineer crouched next to the pile of Larry's clothes. Completely out of ideas on how to wake him up (as Willow's whistle didn't do it), the Engineer reluctantly reveals Larry's secret to Tobias. Pulling back the hood, Toby sees an unconscious shadow without a body. Tobias is surprised by this revelation and begins to piece together how hard it's going to be to wake Larry up. However, he does notice that the flickering light from the Engineer's emotions is causing Larry's shadow to darken under the light. Thinking that light might help wake him, Tobias spots a spotlight high above the train. He begins to climb a ladder but his foot slips while he is halfway up.

Back in the dream, the water approaches Larry and he pauses, uncertain about whether he really should be going forward. The water continues forward and Larry tries to back up but there is suddenly a wall behind him. His heels once more begin to fuse to the wall even as the water presses ever on. He feels the sensation of a warm hand on his cheek and he reaches for it, pleading that he doesn't want to deal with this.

In the real world, the Engineer notices one of Larry's hands overlapping with the one he has on his cheek and calls out to Tobias that he thinks his plan will work. Tobias finally manages to reach the spotlight and shines it down on Larry's face. This is enough and Larry wakes up with a start. His clothes refill around him as he scrambles back into the wall. The Engineer hands him his mask and Larry asks if anyone saw him. Tobias (who has climbed down) confirms that he has, but that he won't tell anyone. Finally satisfied that they're both okay, the Engineer takes them by the collar and shakes them, screaming for them to never handle the fuel by themselves ever again. He then pulls them into a hug, explaining that it's nightmare fuel and that if it gets in your eyes it gives you nightmares. Both of them process this before Larry lets the Engineer know that there's a giant snake after him. With a sigh, the Engineer drags them off to have coffee and talk about everything that happened that day.

## Session Recording

Toonkind DND: Sleepytime Junction

Sleepytime Junction Transcript