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“Mortals sure are weird, lately,” Hypnos drowsily floated in the lounge with Zagreus, a glass of pomegranate wine lazily swirled in one hand.
“What do you mean, mate?” Zagreus asked curiously. They were both on break, Zagreus having just gone on a security run, and Hypnos finally awake for once.
“They have a real love-hate relationship with me, sometimes!” Hypnos laughed airly, “They’ll do anything to ward off sleep in the early morning when they really ought to be dreaming, and then they want nothing more than to go to sleep when it’s convenient to them! They have all sorts of pills and medicines and stuff to knock themselves out, even though it’d be much more effective to just, I dunno, a hard knock to the skull!”
In the modern day, Hypnos’ dozing off had taken an alarming twist to the narcoleptic, more than once he had nearly cracked his skull open by simply dropping off to sleep mid-movement.
Once, while talking to his brother on his balcony, Hypnos had nearly gone right over the ledge into the Styx.
The alarm had not subsided when they realized it had been a function of his domain changing. No longer did humans wake up and go to sleep in soft lulls and patterns with the sun and moon. Now, more often than not, Hypnos was being stretched thinner and thinner as humans created more and more inventive ways to keep themselves awake and go to sleep.
He was still his normal peppy self, but he could no longer man the pool, since his sleep came at random times, and deep enough at times that he could not be roused (the invention of sleep medication that sent mortals into dreamless sleeps had been rough, where not even Mother Nyx could wake him for months. He had woken up fantastically rested, and not at all perturbed).
“Don’t give them any ideas,” Zagreus laughed, “What’s the latest thing they’ve come up with?”
“Oh, energy drinks have to be the worst!” Hypnos waved his hand around vaguely, “All these sudden bursts of energy right to my core! It’s like I ate a bunch of those… Rock candy things?? The fizzy ones!”
“Pop rocks?”
“Those!” Hypnos snapped his fingers, “Horrible for me, really, all that sleepiness washed away!”
“Better than caffeine pills, I’m sure,” Zagreus knew what happened when those were used in abundance. Hypnos shot awake with such energy he rocketed into the rafters!
“Oh, ab-so-lute-ly,” Hypnos shrugged, “Messes up their dreams into crazy things too!”
“I’d think that mortals would want to sleep more not less,” Zagreus mused, “They do so much in their short lives, and they need to rest.”
“They’ve come up with new ways to sleep too!” Hypnos leaned forward as if he was telling Zagreus a secret, “It’s closer to poppies, like they used before. ‘Melatonin’ they call it. It’s a lot more of a gentle calling, I don’t mind that! Mortals can gently drift off to sleep all they want, I’d be more than happy to oblige.”
“What does it even feel like, when mortals try to go to sleep or wake up?”
“Well, it used to feel like… feel like the tides,” Hypnos made a gesture with a flat palm, up and down, “Nice and gentle, since everyone slept when they were tired and woke up when they were rested. But now! Well, that’s all been thrown out of whack! When people try to stay up it's like someone shouting in my ear, and when they force themselves to sleep it makes me fall asleep too. It’s not bad for me, it feels natural! But I know it worries everyone else when I drop off to sleep.”
Zagreus grimaced sympathetically, “That’s really rough, mate. Still nothing you can do?”
“No, not really. Sleep may be my domain, and everyone has to sleep sometimes, but there’s only so much I can do to speed that along!” In reality, Hypnos didn’t like to mess around too much with mortals sleeping. It was inconvenient for others when he fell asleep and woke up at random times, but it felt as natural as breathing for him.
“Speed it along?” Zagreus knew that Hypnos could put people into unnatural sleep, but he didn’t know he could change whole behaviour patterns.
“Oh, you know, that droopy eyes feeling, no energy, hallucinating monsters in your closet-”
Zagreus choked, “Repeat that last part?!”
“Zag, do you not know the symptoms of sleep deprivation??”
“No?? Why would I?? We’re gods??”
Hypnos threw back his head and laughed, “Oh yeah, it’s nasty stuff! Mortals start to feel like they’re going crazy if they don’t sleep for too long. Seeing things that aren’t there, losing track of time. Sleep deprivation is considered torture, and it’s no wonder why!”
“Hypnos, that’s horrifying but impressive.”
Hypnos grinned, “It’s only fitting. My domain is as inescapable as Than’s!”
Zagreus’ eyes were wide as he shook his head, “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
Hypnos laughed again at that, before his face went blank, and he abruptly fell asleep.