[h1][color=orange]Archie Davis[/color] and [color=gray]Harmon Rottlage[/color][/h1] [b]Oakdell Harbor, White Coast[/b] "I could use, uh... a water, Archie." Harmon piped up, as they were walking. "Alright." Archie replied with his phone, scanning the lines of establishments near them. Archie pointed out a random junk food cart and made his way towards it with Harmon in tow. They approached the clerk, who was looking away. He turned his head to face the two and, understandably, jumped a bit. Mainly, he was focused on Harmon. "Woah! Jesus Christ, are you okay?" "I-I'm sorry?" Harmon replied. "Your head! There's huge pieces of fuckin'- shrapnel in it!" "Oh, oh, no, that's- that's part, o-of me. I'm okay, really." The clerk sighed, half out of relief and half out of confusion. "Freakin' metas, man..." He said, "I mean, no offense but-" "You mind if we just get a water?" Archie interjected, "For him." "Yeah, yeah, sure, okay. Fifty cents." ... Afterwards, the two were seated on a bench facing away from the beach, Harmon enjoying his water sip by sip. Archie was scanning the districts of Baybridge he could see in the distance. "It seems like the best we're gonna get, Harmon." He typed out and sounded, "Last place in the country at least." "Do you really still want to make people leave?" Harmon asked, turning his camera towards Archie. "Don't make it sound so harsh." Archie replied, "I just want everyone to have the best lives they can get. I like having people in the Microcosm, and if they don't want to leave, they don't have to. But some of them don't-" At the moment, a text message notification popped up. From... Oh, boy. [indent][i]FROM: (755) 825-4420 Archie, I'm going to be doing a job. You'll get a cut if you help.[/i][/indent] Archie paused for a moment. Harmon looked at him questioningly. Archie raised his free hand and pointed to Harmon, simultaneously telling him, "Barricade. Right now." Harmon didn't hesitate, and focused his abilities on keeping Archie's phone, for lack of a drawn out and detail-laden description, "secure". And the conversation went on. [indent][i]TO: (755) 825-4420 Ari? FROM: (755) 825-4420 This is her. TO: (755) 825-4420 It's been months. What the hell are you up to? FROM: (755) 825-4420 Planning something, and I need your help. We can talk there. TO: (755) 825-4420 Ari when you say "plan" and "help" in the same sentence, that concerns me. FROM: (755) 825-4420 It's going to be at Jiao-Long Liu's party. Meet me there. TO: (755) 825-4420 I only just got to Baybridge. I don't know where the hell that is. And I haven't even agreed to whatever this is. FROM: (755) 825-4420 You'll figure it out. See you soon. TO: (755) 825-4420 Ari god damn it.[/i][/indent] Archie subsequently deleted the entire conversation from his phone. He motioned his head upward in something of a defeated expression. Harmon asked him, "What's wrong?" He could've very easily read the conversation mentally, but he respected Archie's privacy too much to do so. All he did was keep things classified. "It's Ari." "Oh..." Harmon replied, looking a little disappointed somehow. "Her..." "I know you're not her biggest fan. But I do owe her a favor. Or several. I don't know, the imaginary scoreboard we have confuses me sometimes." He grabbed his backpack and stood up from the bench and continued, "She wants my help with something. I'll at least humor her by showing up to this party she mentioned. If I say yes, okay. If I say no, then hey, you and I can still enjoy a party." "You're not going to say no." Harmon replied, standing up. "You never say no to her." "Yeah. Probably." Archie replied, "Let's just find out where this Jowel-Hong Louie's shindig is. It'll make for a nice tour." And he once again began marching into the unknown. "I don't want to do this..." Harmon said under his breath, getting up and following suit.