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You do what you can and you try harder than anyone. That has to count for something.

[... he hadn't wanted to tell odin the other stuff that happened, but archie doesn't see a choice now.]

It was... what happened there wasn't the only time I got my dumb ass killed there. It wasn't the first, either. If I'm honest, there were two rooms I ended up in with my best friend from home and I think what happened in those... kind of overrode anything else, because they were both based off our worst fears based on what we did. I guess the room full of Risen was meant to be your worst fear? I don't know. I guess I find it easier to cope with this because when I first got here and totally shut down, trying to drink until I passed out or died, whichever came first... I know how I'll get if I don't get out of bed and it's not something I want to inflict on the people that live with me. On Matt, especially.

[archie's not sure if this is the right thing to say - that he didn't feel as much because he'd been through something worse, but it's also the [oprah voice] truth.]

Ah - okay.

[ there's a second of silence, but it's not because Odin feels hurt or concerned by Archie's kind of unexpected apathy towards what they went through together. it's because he feels relieved, honestly, to be confronted with the fact that he's been putting too much importance on the room with the Risen. it's maybe a bit of an unhealthy reaction, and a total misintrpretation of what archie's telling him, but odin feels like if he's not super important to archie compared to other people then maybe he hasn't let him down as much as he thought he did. ]

I think - I've been questioning our friendship, or something, the past few days, and, uh. [ hrgggh he roughs his hands through his hair, trying to kickstart his brain into working properly and putting all these thoughts into words that aren't stupid or purple prosey for once in their god damn life. ]

Nevermind. Just-- I'm sorry you went through that. I think you're right, that the narrator targeted our fears and put us with people we cared about so as to properly exploit our heartbreak. I don't-- I hope you're not still doing that. The, drinking until you die, thing. Which I guess is hypocritical after I just said all that stuff about-- you know what? Rambling. Let me just-- here, look.

Can we talk about what you went through? I know you don't want to. But I've been thinking-- with the swords, and the checking in on me, and now with all this talk about getting out of bed so you don't have to inflict your grieving process on the people you're with, that like-- maybe you should? I think you should. I wanna hear about it all. I think you should focus on yourself a bit.

Did you... want me to leave you alone?

[stupidly, he hadn't considered that odin hadn't wanted to see him.]

I don't, no. I'm past that, I like to think. I'm glad you're relatively past it too, because it's a real bad way to be.

[archie sighs; decides there's no point in avoiding it anymore.]

Did I ever even tell you properly what I did back home?

It wasn't... that I didn't want to see you. I always want to see you. But I was very scared about what would happen when we talked, and I had all these horrible worst-case scenarios in my head, where like-- like, I'd talk to you and you wouldn't forgive me for what I'd done, or I'd see you and I'd still just see you as this guy killed by the Risen and I'd stop thinking you as my friend and just start thinking of you as another person I couldn't protect, and just-- I was scared. And then you were right there, worried about me, even though you went through so much worse in our room alone, let alone in another room, and I don't... get it. I don't know.

[ he feels like he's making things worse. ]

... You only told me what you thought I'd understand. I don't know everything.

You're free to think whatever you want of me, but you know how I feel now.

[so does archie! snap.]

I woke up and tried to control a leviathan that was said to be the personification of the sea itself. I wanted to use it to raise the sea levels back to what they once were so nature could reclaim the planet, because I hated seeing how Pokémon were suffering thanks to humanity's callousness. I still feel that way but... not so much world-endy. What I did was unforgivable; I let my anger get the better of me and paid the price for my arrogance.

[he sighs.]

One of the rooms had Kyogre in it. Just seeing it brought back everything I felt after I awoke it, watching the thunderous rainstorm and the beginning of the deluge I thought would save the world actually started to end it. When I was standing in the middle of the storm and realised everything was going to die because of me... that was how I felt when I saw it again in the room, even though the situation was completely different and removed. I was with Maxie, who in my timeline tried to stop me doing what I was doing. In that room, Kyogre killed him. It was floating in the middle and after judging us, lurched forward and ate him.

[archie lets out a shuddering breath, clearly hating even talking about it.]

Then it happened again, only with Maxie's nightmare. The timeline he's from is one where he woke up Kyogre's opposite, Groudon. A behemoth of land. I couldn't tell you the inctricate details of his plan, but I think he wanted to expand landmass so there was more space for people in housing crisis. For him, I was the one that tried to stop him. Y'see all the weird timeline shit going on there? We had no idea about this until he arrived. Anyway, Groudon did the same as Kyogre only it was kind enough to shake it up a bit and hit me with one of its earth bending moves. I got impaled on a spike of rock and-- well, I guess I died pretty quickly because I don't remember anything after that.

[ Odin holds it together until the end, keeping quiet and saying nothing, but the second Archie says how he died against Groudon he lets out a pretty fucking pathetic whine. He can't handle the imagery in his head and has to hold the phone away from his ear and cover his eyes with his hand for a second to block shit out and get himself together. eventually, he's back. ]

I have a lot of thoughts, but they don't matter right now, I think. Can we just--

Can we spend time together? In person? It's been really weird, and I get that most of it is either my fault or just both of us being rattled by what happened, but I don't like this. I miss being, like. Comfortable with you. If you don't want to, though, that's okay, just - before I go to space, or something.

It's fine. I miss you too. I'll come to yours.

[truth be told, he was already on his way. get friendshipped on fool.]

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