h2no | IC contact

[oh boy. archie checks his comm, too and... yep. some messages from the morning all bounced back. well, fuck. that sucks.]

mine neither she must've been ported out i'm going to be home in about ten minutes

[In the past, Blue might have made a nasty comment about Archie’s absence lately... but hey, maybe things have finally changed.]

ok Red’s w/ me we’ll be ok

[Eventually.]

good i don't need to stay in maurtia falls any longer, anyway the reason i was there is no longer relevant do you want me to pick up anything on the way back?

same thing you mean why is everyone

[Blue hits send, then starts typing more, but doesn't finish it. Man, frolick this.]

no maybe dinner for all of us I don't really feel like cooking

[he almost ignores that comment, but decides he doesn't want silence to be seen as a confirmation.]

no, something else alright

[he doesn't send much more; this is something archie - and he suspects blue - doesn't really want to get into over text. true to his word, he's home around ten minutes (twelve if you want to split hairs) later. he has a big duffel bag over one shoulder and a bunch of shopping bags gripped in his big pirate paws. he dumps the bags off in the kitchen, then the duffel on in the living room. he releases mightyena into the middle of the room, sauntering back to the kitchen.]

Yo! [he calls out.] I hope ya'll like Okonomiyaki!

[it's easy to make and he has a hankering. sue him!]

[When Archie gets home, Red and Blue are on the couch, hands clasped, both red-eyed and sniffling. A depressing mood all around, with their fuzzy boys curled up between them. Blue lifts his head when Archie plunks in, looking weary, but... he's trying. Blue knows he's just trying to help.]

That's fine... [He sighs out, glancing to Red silent beside him, still trying to hold it all in. He twists his mouth, leans in to peck Red on the cheek, and pats the edge of the couch for Mightyena to come jump up with them.]

You're back for good?...

[while archie busies himself in the kitchen, mightyena boofs happily and licks at whichever boy's face is closest, tail wagging madly. he calms down after a few moments-- finding a place between them to lay his ass down, offering a sympathetic whine to pikachu and eevee.

archie's pulling some spring onions out one of the bags, knife out the holder, cutting board off the wall. stifles a yawn.]

Yeah-- they've got a real nice set up over there. The training room can summon up holograms to practice against-- was pretty alright for lettin' my team cut loose. Don't gotta worry about doing expensive damage and such. [crobat and mightyena certainly enjoyed it, at least. he still opts to use sharpedo in normal water instead of simulated water. #notrust for electric currents.] I'll double check with Jacob, but I'm sure you an' Red could use it too.

[he unpacks some pre-made flour for the savory pancake-- he'd usually make it from scratch himself but he's not really in the mood. he's not barely holding it together or anything, he just has.... a lot to do. still gotta deal with crobat, gotta check into sabrina's work, see if she left everything, all the usual shit. the food is put together quickly, and archie leaves it on the stove on low heat so he can join them in the living room. he knew having an armchair in addition to a couch was a good idea! he saw this!]

Have you two called into your work to let them know you'll need a couple days off?

A training room, huh... [Blue sulkily purses his lips. It did sound interesting... Battle simulations, like they used at the nicer Academies and on the Battle Networks. It could be a fun way for their Pokémon to finally get some real training- if they could get the things to work with Pokémon, properly.]

[But he wasn't really in the mood to think about battles, right now...]

[He smells the food starting to cook in the kitchen, and blinks back to Archie with a dumb look at the question. His look drops to the floor, a little guilty.] ...Oh, I... wasn't planning to, really, but... [Would they miss him? Maybe Quatre'd be alright without him for a few days.] ...Maybe....

What about you? Are you gonna be home, hanging around?

[he shrugs when blue looks over to him as he's plonking his ass down.]

You don't have to. Just if you feel you do. [he had... assumed they had, given the duplicate mess he sees before him.] No, I'll be alright.

[is that true? probably. maybe if he stays busy he won't have to think about it too much. he'll just have a cry tonight with mightyena and get it out his system and it'll be fine.]

I gotta sort some stuff out, anyway. She wasn't here for long, but I don't like the idea of leaving her workplace high and dry without letting them know where their manager went, see if she had any roomies, maybe grab anything she left in case she comes back. Maybe see if I can talk to people that'll be expecting her to drop by with Hypno so they know, poor bastards.

Mmm... I dunno. I'll see how I feel in the morning. [Blue sighs, then glances towards Red. Maybe it'd be better for them to go to work, hug it out with their respective animals, rather than mope around at home, but....]

[He nods along- he'll leave all that management stuff to Archie. He didn't really understand how things like that- willed property and such- worked, anyway.]

She didn't have any animals, right? We could always take 'em at work, if they did...

Yeah. Let me know if you need anythin' in the meantime.

[now or later on? he's not sure. he shakes his head.]

Not that I know of. [she was sensible.] If she had any hidden away, I'll let you know.

[sighe.]

Do you want to... talk about it, or anything?

[Blue grunts... then nods...]

[Then...]

[He just sort of depressingly frowns at Archie, and flicks his gaze down to the floor again.]

[And shrugs.] Iunno... Like what?

[Like how one of the only familiar, securing facets of home is gone again? No, he doesn't really have much to say.]

Whatever you want.

[he thinks for a moment.]

I mean, you can just talk about how fucked up it is. I think times like these warrant some complaining.

What's the use? [Blue sighs out, ragged, frustrated.] It's not gonna bring her back!

[He thinks he feels Red flinch beside him, and he pauses himself, cringing internally, and deflates again.]

...May, and Matt, and Maxie... now Sabrina.... Why even bring any of us here? What's the point!?

[His fists ball up, curling into himself despite the solid warmth beside him.] And ...Yusuke... Yusuke's gone too... [He sniffs, unable to hold back the tears.] When I went to call....

[at the mention of the hoenns, archie's eyebrows draw together an absolutely minuscule amount, which is about as close to showing any of his own emotion on the subject as he gets.]

It would be nice to know if there was a reason behind it all, [he agrees, nodding his head.] though I'm not so sure it would make it any better. At least with the ones from our world, we know exactly what they've gone back to and where they'll be. That's something, I guess. For the tiny amount it's worth.

[though... not with maxie, really. they'd talked at length about the universal difference, and archie really doesn't want to think about that right now.]

It's cosmic cruelty, at any rate. [he doesn't even bother to hide his wince at yusuke. he knows him and blue were good friends, even if he never spoke to the guy himself.] Sorry. I had no idea... it feels almost like a joke when multiple people you care about are ported out at the same time. Like you're being targeted specifically, even though that's likely not the case. It's bullshit.

[stop SUPPRESSING YOUR EMOTIONS!!! ARCHIE!!!]

[Blue remains sullen and quiet through all of Archie's..... mental gymnastics, whatever it is he's doing to rationalize the Portouts, the pain. It didn't matter. They were gone.... and there was no knowing if they'd ever come back, but no one else had, had they?]

[He wonders, if he was to leave, would everyone just get over it? The way they've just gotten over everyone else. Who else has left..... he goes through all the names in his mind, people he'd forgotten to this moment, people he'd never forgotten, even those not from his world. Hearth. Pucci. Sabriel. Cisco. Sasuke. Andrew. Now Yusuke.....]

[Blue sighs out. Maybe there was just no point in making friends, here. Everyone would just leave. Like always.]

..........Yeah.

[He clams up, and it doesn't seem like that's going to change much anytime soon. His head hurts. He needs a drink.]

[he feels a tiny bit better about it, especially knowing so many people who have lost loved ones to certain death or suffering. it doesn't make their own port outs back to a peaceful world hurt any less, but archie personally figures it could be worse. he looks over to make sure the food isn't burning or anything, then leans on the arm of the chair.

it's too easy to talk about how shit and pointless everything is here, but he's not really in the mood to enable bad habits like that. in blue and red or himself.]

You ever thought about checking out that memorial centre Jaime set up? It's good, thoughtful. Worth a visit if you feel like puttin' something up for either of them.

Memorial Center...?

[Blue glances up, questioning in his eyes. He'd never heard of the place... At least, he thinks he didn't. But maybe... Maybe that'd be nice...]

Like. A gravesite?

No-- there's no headstones or anything. [though he supposes for some port outs it was a grave. the thought makes him feel sick.] It's just-- a place you can leave something of theirs where it'll be left there instead of moved when we're ported out and someone else is living here.

[he wonders if he should leave some of the stuff he has from people left behind but-- rejects the idea immediately. maybe some of maxwell's art, but he needs to get rid of what they left so he can continue pretending he's moved on. from the strange alternate version of maxie who cared to understand how he felt instead of just waving him off as a complete moron, especially.]

You scan your tattoo so you can get in and have as much time as you need alone. With each other or otherwise. [he shrugs.] Jaime's one of the ones that's been here for ages and he's a good guy. It's clear how he set it up that he's using his own experience with all this in the best way he can.

A place to leave something of theirs... [Blue frowns. Does he have anything from Yusuke or Sabrina that he could leave? Only the paintings he'd commissioned, and it doesn't feel right to bring any of them there, considering how personalized they had been. Maybe something from Fanport. He wonders if he could think of anything else that he could leave in honor of his friends...]

I'll check it out sometime, I guess. What city?

Here. Heropa. Likely the only place it could be done. [he says with an unmistakable note of bitterness, getting up to flip the food.] Anyway, it's something to consider.

[he shakes his head, leaning against the counter.]

I'm sorry. For everything you've lost this week.

[figures they'd still be stuck with him.]

IC contact

enya playing softly in distance

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