h2no | IC contact

Yeah, okay. That sounds like a good-- [ wait, wait. wait. two things are wrong here. odin looks at archie like he's fucking insane. ]

You're not sleeping on the floor! I'll sleep on the floor. You can take the bed. Dingus. [ god, what an idiot. ] And - you have nightmares? I wasn't kidding about the spell casting thing. If you want, I can make it so you have good dreams every time you go to bed. Like, I can write scripts for them and everything! THE ONLY LIMIT IS OUR IMAGINATIONS.

We're at an impasse. I ain't lettin' you go on the floor in your own room.

[he crosses his arms.]

An'... I'll pass. I trust you, bro, but last time someone fucked around in my head it didn't end well.

[ okay, well! odin is okay with sharing a bed but he's not going to say that. he's just going to... stare at archie, then at the bed, then at archie, then at the bed. then at mightyena, because hi, buddy.

and then he'll get sad because maybe he made archie uncomfortable by offering the dream stuff. cool! cool cool cool. ]

Okay. I get it. [ he runs his hand over his neck. he's getting a headache. it reaches a point, for him, where he fucks up so many times in one conversation that he feels less anxious about it and more just short-tempered with himself for being so fucking insanely stupid and awkward all the god damn time. that sort of irritable attitude is where he's at now. ] If you change your mind, I'll be here for you. Otherwise, if you have a bad dream, tonight or some point in the future, wake me so we can talk about it. Or - if you don't like talking about it, we can just hug? Or play games or talk about something else or listen to music or... I don't know. These are stupid suggestions based on the idea that you wanna hang out with anyone when you're shaken up by a nightmare, which is stupid, because of course you don't, I never do either. Ugh. [ he shakes his head. ]

Just come to bed. Okay? We'll share. It's fine.

[archie should say thanks; he should say that he's glad odin has said he'll be there, but saying it aloud is admitting it's real. he doesn't want to. but he should. BUT HE DOESN'T WANT TO HRHRNHGNGH.]

--Ah, I'll definitely keep it in mind. U--unless, can you do it with... no dreams? That would be cool. Really cool. [he puts a hand on odin's hand, giving it a squeeze.] Don't beat yourself up so much, bro. You're good.

[and in response he just LAYS DOWN. fuck yeah. mightyena's ears prick up and it gets up from the little nest it had made for itself, laying down with its head on archie's chest.]

I don't... think I can. I'll try to learn how, though. I'm gonna find a way to make you comfortable and help you out and-- whatever else. I'm gonna do it. So.

[ he nods. yeah. okay. between the hand on his and seeing mightyena be adorable, the melodramatic bullshit stirring in his chest calms down a little. once archie gets comfortable in bed, odin flops down next to him, bouncing up the matress a little bit and pulling the covers over both of them. and then it's cuddle time you piece of shit. he rolls onto his side and raises his arm like he's totally about to hug archie and mightyena, but then he reconsiders and wonders if that might be a bit too much. so he tries to turn the motion into a yawn, making exaggerated noises and stretching his arm up to the sky before dropping it to his side. it is very unconvincing. it is very obvious he wanted to cuddle the shit out of both archie and mightyena. ]

Thanks. Again. I know I already said thanks. But thanks. Seriously. [ he stares at archie, eyes wide awake. ] Tell me something really cool or happy that's happened to you since coming here. It can be anything? Even something small. Just something that happened in America that makes you happy to think about.

Don't-- don't strain yourself, yeah? I appreciate it, but I don't want you to hurt yourself on my behalf.

[fortunately for odin, archie is convinced. he just assumed that odin does that over the top the way he does everything else (tragically) over the top.

mightyena repositions under the cover until its head appears between the two of them and it makes a noice that can only be interpreted "fuck yes best spot" and it licks at odin again. good night kisses?? maybe.

archie stays on his back and considers an answer.]

... The people I've met here. We're all in the same ship but it's nice meeting people from other universes... even if they disappear sometimes.

I'm gonna hurt myself on your behalf just to spite you. That's what you get for being all modest and selfless and not just blindly accepting my help, you big ol'... hogweed. [ he's not really, but. choke on his care and love you jackass.

mightyena he can hug without it being weird, so he just slings an arm and a leg around the lil pupper like it's a big ol' teddy bear. it takes a few minutes for him to reply to archie, and when his voice comes out it's about 70% muffled by dog fur. ]

Yeah... that's a good answer. Everyone's really nice. [ he pauses. ] Well, that red-haired kid was a bit of a jerk, but I'll make him like me. Or die trying.

I will have no sympathy if you do that. [he says, wrinkling his nose.] Mightyena would, though, wouldn't ya, boy?

[the dog whines in response. pls don't hurt yourself odin.]

Red... ah. Niko? Yeah... he, uh. Has some mad daddy issues. His dad was, uh. Not good? He kind of overcompensates in every aspect because of it.

[ wow, he feels guilty as fuck! he was only messing around and archie went all nuclear on him by unleashing mightyena. look at those eyes. those sweet eyes. odin hugs the pupper deep. sorry mightyena. odin'll stay alive forever, unless he gets murdered, which will probably happen a lot.

he also wants to get closer to archie so he just sort of rolls over the top of mightyena and squeezes in the tiny, tiny space between it and archie. it takes like three full minutes, but he wriggles until he's mostly comfortable. thats better. ]

I mean, yeah. I kind of figured he had a reason to be angry at me? Nobody's just born mean. I just sort of thought that I was the reason and that I screwed up or something and I've been feeling shitty about it because I told him I wasn't going to apologize for acting the way I act but maybe I should have? Pretending I'm a great hero and insisting everyone goes along with the theatrical garbage gets pretty old, even for me. [ hmm. ] I'll make him like me, still.

[mightyena just lays there like a good puppy and lets odin roll over him. maybe any other dog would've bitten him, but mightyena doesn't. he's a good boy. and also used to muscle babies being babies.

archie also just lets whatever is happening happen, staying on his back.]

I dunno... sometimes people are-- but don't. It's not you, he's been pretty shitty to everyone. He has his own Pokémon he doesn't treat too well, even. [can you imagine having something as cute and perfect as mightyena and treating it bad??] He'll come around eventually.

[ it turns out this isn't actually comfortable after all. odin flops around like a fish for a while until he's on his side facing away from archie. then he flops around until he's on his other side, staring at archie. then he flops around until he's on his back, trying to imitate archie. archie looks cool. he at least wants to look cool, if he's going to be uncomfortable. ]

Oh... well. [ no, it's too uncomfortable. he flops until he's face down and his voice is muffled by the matress. ]

I don't want to force him into being kind to me or anything. That's not what I'm trying to say. But I think if he's hurting, I'd like to try and be friends with him so that maybe, in some small, insignificant way, I could ease that. Maybe I can bring some happiness into his life? I don't know. It's hard helping people be happy.

[archie grins into the darkness; odin is flopping around not unlike a magikarp. he brought a magikarp to bed once when he was a stupid kid and it flopped around, hit him in the face then jumped out the window and into the sea. thank god for pacifidlog floating on the ocean... his kidself hadn't really thought of that. too bad, he always kinda wanted a gyarados.]

Ah-- yeah, I get it. I don't think you could force him to really do anything, anyway. If it helps, he's easy to bribe with good udon, ha!

[for a moment, he's quiet.]

I think you make people happy. I read over some of the other responses to your video and... I know that was you puttin' on your hero face but it still made people happy.

[ udon, okay. udon. archie was just joking, but odin sits up on his knees very seriously, mouths the word udon, grins, then flops back onto the mattress, still face down. looks like, uh. looks like he's got that plan ironed out. niko's gonna get some udon.

but then he's quiet for a little while, and when he speaks again, his voice is pretty small. ]

I hope I do. [ he shrugs into the mattress, rolling over to face Archie again. ] I think acting like a fool and lying about the kind of man I am does more harm than good, but part of why I do it is so I can bring a whirlwind of energy into people's lives. Getting them thinking about adventures and cool heroes and badass stuff like that. But it's definitely an excuse for me to say whatever wild shit I want to say without worrying about the repercussions until they're hitting me in the face, so that's no good. But. Again. Still sort of a coward. Not gonna stop any time soon.

[ he frowns, examining archie's face like he's searching for something. he wished he knew why the poor guy had nightmares, or why he said he'd made his own fair share of mistakes in the past, but odin wasn't going to ask. not tonight, at least. ]

You know you make people happy, too, right? You're such a warm and loving person. I wish I knew how to express to you just how much I appreciate the time we've spent together, however short it may have been before today. I know I've only known you for a few weeks, but you've shown a level of respect and trust for me that I haven't received from many people in my life - at least people who weren't obligated to provide those feelings for me in some way. Kinda overwhelms me how amazing it was that you came over to talk to me like this, which... I don't know. Is that too much to say? I'm definitely reading into a pretty normal act of friendship and assigning a lot of weight and pressure to an innocent decision you made and I really shouldn't do that. I'm definitely talking too much and being pretty being a bit of a clingy messy weight again. I don't mean to be like that. That's not what I'm trying to do. I hope I'm not, like. Pressuring you to... be. Friend. At me. With this. That's not. [ HE'S BROKEN AGAIN HIS STUPID INSECURE MIND IS FUCKING UP AGAIN CTRL ALT DEL CTRL ALT DEL FORCE RESTART ]

[he pokes odin (WITH HIS HAND) in the shoulder.]

Ey-- quit callin' yourself a coward, and quit trying to stop yourself when you're on a roll. You're fine, bro. I came over because I wanted to see if you were okay, not because I thought you were strongarming me into doing it, alright? I think you're smart enough to tell if someone was doing something they felt they had to rather than because they genuinely wanted to.

I know! I know. I don't know why I act like I don't know that kind of stuff when I totally know! [ odin puts his hands up in exasperation. or one hand, at least. he's laying on his other arm.

he goes quiet again, feeling irritated at nothing and miserable and happy and just generally all sorts of things. but then he throws his hand up even higher, in even greater exasperation. archie totally fuckin' dodged him!! ]

You know you make me happy, right?!

Woah, hey-- hey! It's okay!

[jeez he's gotta get this guy a skitty or something. maybe spawn another poochyena. mightyena paws at odin's back, worried.]

You said you do, so I believe you. I'm glad I can help, bro.

[he's not sure he makes anyone happy, but... he won't say that.]

[ Odin stares at Archie, suspicious. was that answer good enough for him? is he satisfied? he can't tell if archie doesn't really believe him or if he's just not the type to talk about his feelings. it's especially hard because when odin really gets going, nobody talks about their feelings as much as he does, which makes it really hard for him to gauge out what the healthy baseline of non-committal responses might be.

well, for now, at least, odin rolls over to pay attention to mightyena, because the poor guy is being adorable and odin loves him very much. he grins and reassuringly rubs the doggo behind its dumb floppy ear, but then childishly magikarp-flops back around to face archie again. fucking sit still OR FUCKING GO TO SLEEP ]

Can you tell me what home was like for you? Or is that kind of an off limits question? It's okay if it is. I know some people don't like talking about it.

[unfortunately, while odin is thinking it's all his fault, archie is thinking about how it's HIS fault for being so bad at affirming other people's feelings. come on, you stupid motherfucker, this is why matt went batshit and almost got himself killed. idiot idiot idiot idiot--]

No, it's fine. There's a bunch of regions where I come from-- Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, Unova, Alola... I come from one called Hoenn. It's a tropical region-- tons of water, tons of beaches, tons of Sharpedo. You'd probably love it.

[ the second archie slips up and reveals a little more of his vulnerability to odin, odin's gonna jump on him like a Friendship Leech and suck those emotions right out of his god damn body. man oh man is he going to bleed archie dry of his bad feelings and replace them all with love and cuddles. for now, though, odin leans back into the mattress and thinks about what hoenn might look like, blissfully unaware that archie is a sad useless old man. ]

We sent Lord Leo on vacation to the beach, once. He wouldn't go in the water. He hated tanning. He wouldn't leave his bungalow, unless it was at night and nobody else was around. I always thought a trip to the beach sounded fun, and that despite showering him with wreaths and fruits when he returned back to the castle in order to congratulate him on defeating the vacation, he totally wasted an opportunity to have fun. Have I talked to you about Lord Leo yet? If not, I basically just summed up his entire personality. "Super scared of fun".

[ he's rambling. he's not gonna apologize though, fuck it. archie's his buddy, they can ramble at each other now. ]

Do you, uh. Miss it? Hoenn, I mean.

[he's a very sad useless old man.]

You haven't... was he part of the royal family?

[a pause.]

Yes. [he almost says 'no place like home' AHHDHahahhahahahAAHAHA]

But to be honest, bein' away from home and the situation there has been more help than I expected.

Ah, no. Not mine, at least. So - me and Lucina, my cousin? When we went back to save our parents, we would have been, um. Jeez. Fourteen, for me? Sixteen, for her. That was nine years ago. A couple of years passed while we were in the, uh, peaceful timeline, and I would have been about sixteen or seventeen when things were wrapped up and the day was saved and stuff, and after it was over and we had prevented everything from going to hell, I had to go away again. I got a new name, which is Odin, and I got a new appearance and stuff, which is who you're seeing now. I couldn't tell anyone I was a prince anymore, but I had to protect this different prince in a new country, and that's Lord Leo, and I'm his retainer, which is a kind of bodyguard/maid/nanny/chewtoy. So... yeah.

[ god, his life sounds stupid when he says it out loud. he hasn't even mentioned the dragons or the Conquest or the curse that'll turn him into water if he speaks of it. life, man. ]

But yeah... I understand. Home is a weird concept, but I think that-- [ HOLD THE PHONE ]

There's a situation there? In Hoenn? Something with you? Personally? Or like - a war? [ IF ARCHIE HAS BEEN THROUGH A WAR ODIN IS GOING TO LOSE HIS SHIT ]

[okay he sits bolt upright for a moment.]

Fuh-- fucking fourteen?! I thoug-- I thought that was recent for ya! Shit!

[he lays down again, this time hugging odin cause ughghrhrhrhghg he feels so bad for this poor good boy.]

Uh... nothing like a war. I just... [he lets go, shifting awkwardly.] I fucked up really bad and hurt a lot of people, because I thought I was right. I was-- mmm, I was the supervillain, I guess. I almost ended the world.

[ wah! odin is startled when archie sits up, holding his hands out ready to karate chop whatever motherfucker has apparently broken into his room. but. then archie flops down and crushes him in another hug, and odin just goes beet red. shit, he fucked up, he made archie sad. when will he fucking learn to shut his fucking mouth. ]

N-No, it was a long time ago. I shouldn't keep talking about something that doesn't matter anymore.

[ A B S O L U T E L Y not want archie meant, but. hey whatever. he doesn't say much when Archie drops the apocalypse bomb, but he does seem a little... not nervous, and certainly not suspicious of archie, but he's definitely, definitely sad. ]

Are you okay...? It's okay if you're not. That must be a lot to carry with you. I know what it's like to have the weight of that many lives on your shoulders.

Of course it matters!! It's awful to have something that big happen so young!!

[wAUAUGUGH]

I-- I'll be honest, I... only really mentioned it 'cause I thought you might get it. It's... it was just a big mistake. I didn't do it because I wanted to end the world...

Y-Yeah, I guess, but-- I mean, it was a long time ago, is all. I'm supposed to be over it. And anyway, I-- [ tch!! odin clicks his tongue impatiently. this doesn't matter!! odin doesn't care about himself right now, he wants to shine the spotlight on archie's issues SO HARD. IT'S TIME TO SHUT THE HECK UP ABOUT ODIN'S DUMB LAME BABY TRAUMA FOR BABIES. ]

I totally get it. I super get it. I literally grew up during the end of the world, man. This is my forte. You made the right choice talking to me about this! And. And! You haven't given me even the smallest, tiniest, babiest little microscopic reason to believe you'd try to hurt anyone on purpose, let alone to that degree. So. Don't be afraid that I'm gonna think of you as a bad guy or whatever. Oh! And I understand mistakes! Man, oh man, do I understand mistakes. So. So. So! I totally believe you. I'm sorry you've gotta carry that with you.

[ he scoots a little closer to archie and drapes an arm over him, resting his chin on his chest. poor archie. ]

D'you wanna talk about what you did? It's totally okay if you don't. Just like it's okay to be sad.

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