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[heyboss]

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[heyboss]

"No," he assures him. "Is there anything you want to clarify?"

[anti_altruisms]

"Not especially, no. But my life has been complicated enough that I thought I'd offer, anyway."

[heyboss]

"It has. You've had a lot of things happen to you, Archer. Things that would test anyone."

He rubs the back of his neck. "So we left off last time talking about your triggers."

[anti_altruisms]

He’s experienced things that would have made anyone else go insane. And sometimes he still wonders about that.

“We did.”

A topic he’s thought about himself more than once.

“I’m sure the file shed light on some of that.”

[heyboss]

"Some of it, but the file doesn't tell me what you can. So tell me?" he wonders, folding his hands together.

[anti_altruisms]

Archer makes a little bit of a face. He offered the file so he could talk less.

Still...after chewing on how he wants to answer for a moment, he does finally say something.

"I'm aware that many - perhaps most - of the...problems I have stem from what happened to me as a child. Most of my memories of my human lifetime are fragmented, but I'm fairly certain I never saw a professional or properly dealt with...any of it. And my afterlife, such as it was, was far from an improvement."

[heyboss]

"Of course. Your childhood trauma formed your brain, Archer. It changed you in ways that you might not understand, but can have consequences even now."

He pulls out his pen and notebook again.

[anti_altruisms]

“Yes, I know that. Now.”

He didn’t have a clear sense of it back then. Or at least, not enough of one to think he actually needed help. He just kept doggedly chasing his dream.

“I am several thousand years past that incident - so what does one do to address that?”

[heyboss]

"Recognizing it is first. So we can look for patterns. We talked about the most recent incident; what was the one before that?"

He flips back in his notebook, where he wrote the details.

[anti_altruisms]

Archer can't quite help how his brow furrows and the obvious grumpy vibe that radiates from him. Still, he doesn't fuss about the question.

"It happened more than a year ago. The Authority - the Admiral's previous employers - captured all of us and sent us to three other ships within their fleet. On the ship I waas sent to - the Brigantine - I was demoted. I did not react well to it at all."

[heyboss]

He knows about the ships; he's heard plenty of people talk about them. So at least he has that context.

"What happened?"

[anti_altruisms]

“I tried to blow it up.”

The entire ship, Archer? Yes, the entire ship.

[heyboss]

"And what were you like, during that time? What do you remember? How did you feel?" he asks.

[anti_altruisms]

There is...a lengthy pause. And for a moment, it seems like he may not answer at all.

Finally, quietly, he asks: "Can I write it instead of saying it?"

He doesn't have a cohesive narrative for what he was thinking and feeling in those moments. So trying to explain it like that...is difficult.

[heyboss]

Sheehan immediately turns around and reaches on his desk for a blank notebook and hands it over to him along with his pen.

"Take your time."

And Sheehan will look to his own notes, giving Archer all the time in the world.

cw: suicidal ideation

[anti_altruisms]

It does take time. Even though he can remember the emotions themselves clearly, putting a name to them has always been difficult.

He doesn’t even try to create any sort of narrative. He just makes notes on the paper, and when he’s done, he hands it back to Sheehan without a word.

anger
despair
loss
confined
empty

And beneath that, a few sentences:

I thought everything I had worked for was for nothing.

I did not think I would see anyone I cared about ever again.

I thought I would be sent back to the place I came from.

I wanted to die, and I didn’t care how many went with me.

[heyboss]

Sheehan takes the paper and reads carefully, handing it back to him. "What do you think of, what do you feel, when you read this back to yourself?" he wonders.

[anti_altruisms]

He feels like he could tilt back into that frame of mind. Like it’s suddenly very, very close, when he can normally keep his own personal pain very far away.

It’s not quite as terrible as saying it- but it’s close.

It takes a moment for him to find the words…but he does answer this time.

“Shame.”

A simple, quiet statement.

“I managed a great deal of damage - and there would have been more had Kiryu not fought me and others had not managed to calm me down. If that had happened here, I would have been demoted - and rightfully so.”

[heyboss]

"Shame. And when you think back on this recent incident? What do you think about? What do you feel?" Sheehan's starting to get a better picture of Archer here, and it extends far beyond these past few incidents.

[anti_altruisms]

Again, there is a pause. He’d never really gotten this far in his talks with Godric. If anything, he’d shown how he felt rather than talked about it.

He hates verbalizing these things, almost as much as he hates himself. But he signed up for this so he isn’t just going to walk out if there is a chance this can help him and possibly Florian.

He looks down at the paper and writes again.

I think that I am broken. Defective.

That my responses to these things are always wrong.

That only a monster could hurt people he care about as easily as I do.

[heyboss]

He glances at the paper and nods, writing down a few notes.

"I can tell this is really occupying a lot of your thoughts. Moreso than the actual events that you've outlined with me." He places his hands in his lap. "Archer, there are thoughts in our head that are unproductive and generally wrong. They're called thought distortions. And - Archer, I see a lot of them with you. You're a clever man. A little cynical, but insightful. But I want you to start to work on the basics with me. Challenging those thoughts that lead to shame and grief. I think that's where we need to begin. What do you think?"

[anti_altruisms]

“It doesn’t usually occupy my thoughts.”

Because he represses the hell out of this shit most of the time. If he doesn’t think about it, it’s not a problem!!

“What does ‘challenging’ them entail?”

[heyboss]

Sheehan doesn't argue the first point. Clearly they have an effect on him, and that's the important takeaway here.

"Challenging means that you are going to examine them and ask if they're actually true or not. So let's start with the first one."

And he deliberately says it aloud as he writes it on a new sheet of paper. "'I think I am defective. Broken.'"

He hands that back to Archer.

"Now you can write the answers down. First thing I want you to do is write down all of the emotions that you feel when you think about that statement."

[anti_altruisms]

Archer just…stares at the paper for a moment. And he tries - honestly tries - to think of how to answer that question.

He’s managed to field Sheehan’s queries thus far, but now, it’s very obvious that he’s hitting a wall.

“…there’s nothing to write down. It’s a statement. And I’ve known it since I was small even though I didn’t have the words for it. If there wasn’t something broken or wrong, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you.”

[heyboss]

Sheehan shakes his head. "That wasn't what I asked, Archer. I want you to write down what you feel. Emotions."