ukan | IC CONTACT

[ Archer laughs quietly at that. ]

‘Old and tired’ is a fair description, honestly.

What we do most of the time isn’t particularly interesting, either, so I can’t imagine it’d be camera-worthy.

[A wry smile] It's the same for me, honestly. And Alec is too young to have the same excuses I do. [Speaking of arm candy and old men!] There's a lot to be said for just sharing the same space.

...Have you thought about what you'll do when Xigbar does graduate?

It sounds like Alec’s experiences could have contributed to that, no?

[ Archer knows firsthand how living through certain things at a young age can change you. As for the question, he leans back for a moment and just seems...thoughtful. ]

I think about it periodically, but at this point, I think I’ll just stay. Perhaps long enough to give away a deal or two until I’m certain where — and when — I want to end up.

Partly that. He's more adventurous than I am, though. [but it often butts up against the fact that if Alec stood out as a soldier, he'd be killed and carved up for parts.]

I'm glad you'll stick around. Not that I'm biased, of course.

[ Archer smiles wryly at that. ]

Ah. Youth.

[ He takes a sip of coffee. ]

You are biased. [ He says it matter-of-factly. ] What about you? Do you think you'll ever retire from this?

"Yeah. I'm trying to get done everything I came here for, but I think once Pagan is graduated Alec is going to insist we go home." A faint sigh.

"If I don't have someone to get me out I'll never leave. Just between us, I don't know if I remember how to be at home anymore without working twice as hard as I did before the barge."

Archer considers this news quietly. It takes a moment for him to parse how he feels about it too, since he hasn’t had a friend he could actually miss in a very long time. He doesn’t think he likes it, either - the imminent sense of loss.

It doesn’t show on his face, of course - or at least, he tries not to let it. For some reason, he assumed Lark would always be here, but that is simply silliness on his part. He puffs out a soft breath.

“You’ve been here quite a while. You deserve to live your life.” If anyone’s earned it, Lark has. “Are things so much less interesting back home that you want to work that much?”

He chuckles. "I keep very busy. But there were things I wanted to do here, to influence here to the better. I couldn't leave the idea alone." A slow inhale. "And I have a hard time with certain things at home. Telling how much time has passed. Sometimes having trouble remembering that death is permanent, that I have one shot at a lot of things. Being here won't make that any better but it's...familiar. Comforting in a twisted way."

Archer hums softly at that. "Anything can become familiar or comforting if enough time passes." And that isn't necessarily a good thing. "Does Alec have similar difficulties?"

"No. He's a soldier...he's felt all his life that he was only going to last a little while. I don't think he expected to see twenty-five, let alone thirty years." A wistful fondness in his eyes. "So he soaks up life. He's ravenous for it. It's what I first loved about him. I try to change things; he just enjoys them."

Archer’s eyes crinkle a little at that, though he doesn’t quite smile.

“We could both stand to be a little more like him, I think. I never planned to live to a ripe, old age, but I didn’t enjoy my life, either.”

He finds himself feeling happy now sometimes — most often when he’s with Godric, Lark, or doing simple things he likes — but it’s still a foreign feeling.

"Do you wish you hadn't lived such a long life?" Lark wonders. "Wolves don't really get the option. I didn't plan to live past forty, if I was lucky. I had moments where I wondered if I'd run out of things to do if I lived too long, and then I worried I'd leave so much undone that I'd spend my dying moments feeling bitter."

Archer lets out a short, humorless breath of a laugh.

“I didn’t live a long life, Lark. I’ve existed for a long time, but servitude in death isn’t anything like life at all.”

It’s just death. Death stretching on forever in every direction.

“Do you still feel that way?”

"I'm sure I'll be angry when I die," he says, smirking. "But I don't want to die early. I don't want to be resigned to it anymore."

Lark Tennant, when determined, tends to get his way. He isn't sure how to fight death, though.

"If you went home, would you be trapped in servitude again?"

Archer falls silent for a moment. His answer, when it comes, is soft and solemn.

“Yes. If I leave here without my deal, I will return to that.”

A beat, then-

“I don’t think I’ll ever go back to my world, though. Not even with my freedom intact.”

"Is it so bad there?" It sounds complicated to put it mildly. "Where else would you go?"

Archer closes his eyes for a moment and suppresses a sigh.

“It’s not that it’s so bad there. But returning to a place and time where people I know actually live would also mean existing together with…a past version of myself. Apart from the fact that it would be awkward, he should have the freedom to live his life without my presence hanging over him.”

That boy would undoubtedly be a fool in every timeline, but ultimately, the choice should be his.

To the other question, a faint, melancholy smile touches his lips.

“I haven’t decided yet. I doubt it’ll be for a while, though.”

"You're welcome where I am. Even if it's just a visit." Lark loves his city. He's territorial as all hell, but he is also eager to show it off to his friends.

He smiles again, a touch warmer this time.

"I may take you up on that. Not necessarily to stay, but certainly to visit."

"You're about the only person who's welcome to visit me when Alec is around," he says, clearly pleased about it. He might not be capable of attaching as strongly as other wolves, but he still has that natural urge to gather people around him.

He told Godric that he was protective of Archer, simply because Archer is one of a handful of people Lark genuinely considers a close friend, and he's reluctant to lose it when he leaves here.

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