[sub][h3][center]Archie[/center][/h3][/sub][hr]
[i]"You guys must be pretty unlucky, huh? I mean, in your first week you came across a murder. I've been here for four years now and I've never experienced something like that. I hope your friend is okay. She seemed pretty upset when she left."[/i]

"Unlucky." Archie parroted, giving Eli a disjointed smile. That was certainly one way to put it, all things considered. His life had been exceptionally eventful over the past few months. Developing a superpower, turning on the first day, surviving a breakout, and now they were being involved in a scheme to save The Promise. Archie sighed. He missed the days when the most complicated thing he had to worry about was when a homework assignment was due or he has chores to do.

He glanced over to Natalie and the crux of that issue hit him. Perhaps that's why he liked her. There, he said it. He liked her. She brought some inkling of normalcy back to his life. Six months ago he lived in a small island off the coast of the Carolinas who had never left the country and now he turned into lizards and orbited the planet in a space station that was facing a doomsday level threat. Liking a pretty girl that scared him a little and made him think of things that weren't so oppressive to his life was probably a good thing. It would keep him from lashing out or having a mental break. Trusting someone like that would keep him grounded. He hummed, and didn't have much more to think on that one. Eli had asked him about Lynn, though. "I hope Lynn's okay, too."

He looked from Natalie to Eli and shoved his hand back into his pocket when she mentioned his hand, a little too quickly for it to have been natural. Shit. She had noticed and while he had wasn't particularly worried about telling her given that he was mostly fine, he didn't want to vilify Lynn to her and Natalie. He tried to play it off as best he could. "Oh, yeah, hit it on somethin' on the way back." he lied, then shrugged. "But that's... probably a good idea." In that moment he had the idea to open up a new contacts page and hand his phone to Eli. He gave her a small smile for her benefit. She seemed smart. She'd get what he was wordlessly trying to say. He looked to Natalie for a moment, and then to the last remaining chip. It was between Natalie and Keaton now, since Eli had one and he was far too clumsy to have such a necessary device. He wanted Natalie to have it, if only because it gave him an excuse to stick around her more. He was sure he'd be seeing more of Eli, so it's not like his bases wouldn't be covered in the event that it became necessary, but the idea sounded good in his head nevertheless. Keaton knew things though, maybe she'd find use for it? He was still unsure of how her powers work, just that she could guess things that he never could. Like calculus. Archie hated calculus.

"When uh, when you two figure out who gets the chip I'm gonna head to the bathroom." Archie said, shaking his arm with the damaged hand for emphasis as to why. He looked to Eli when she handed his phone back, and pocketed it. He gave her a lopsided smile and tried to remember her advice. "When you're done, Nat, could you uh-" he faltered for a moment, then resumed. "Could you come with? Not like, into the bathroom or anything. That'd be weird. Just like, over there? I gotta talk to you about something."