[and like when he healed Jesse, when Magnus reaches out to try and "feel" the shape of Archie's mental and emotional pain -- it's like touching something so cold it's hot, like the primordial frost of Niflheim (ice pelted across his face hard enough to cut long slices open in his cheeks, opening a wrong door in the Hotel). he keeps his face impassive (not that Archie would likely notice), and weaves a heavier strand of seidr between them. then another, and another, and another, until it's like a rope, tied firmly around Archie's waist; if he feels like he's sinking into dark and deep oceans, it's pulling him out. it's time to come to the surface and breathe the air; and he pulls the "rope" upwards, towards the light, away from the depths in which a leviathan could swim]
[and like he'd said earlier: it's not the content, really, the words Magnus actually says -- but the feeling that gets pressed into Archie with each slow sentence, of safety and belonging and freedom. he can't drown with Magnus here, and there's no house of horror]
Maxie's safe. You're safe. That shit was illusions, and you're both back in the real world.
[(and in the back of his mind, not focused on increasing the sense of peace in Archie's chest and mind, Magnus wonders: save the world?)]
You're not in danger of something that's just an echo of something else you're always moving forward from. You're both gonna be okay.
[it doesn't have to be true, his seidr, to work, even if he prefers to weave it true when he can. it doesn't have to be true, or some gift of Vanir insight, or anything; it just needs to communicate the sense of it's safe to rest, finally, finally -- which it does, wrapping Archie up in a feeling of protection]
[another time he'd argue, say it was real enough. kyogre was real enough to devour maxie, groudon was real enough to impale him. they were tangible, the pain was all too real but he knows magnus is right. they weren't real, just some weird fucked up manifestation of their regrets. they didn't exist before they entered the room and didn't exist as one of them left.
archie can almost see the sunbeams shining through the water, and he's taken back to playing in the currents near pacifidlog with shelly when they were kids. back to tanabata.]
Jirachi...
[said slowly as he blinks dumbly, mind wandering slightly but not resisting magnus's magic.]
[what Archie will feel is his mind getting right with itself -- so it's not Magnus' magic imposing meaning on what happened, but Archie's own thoughts made easier, simpler. he'll be able to reach peaceable conclusions, about what happened in the house; the illusions were just that. his friends are safe. no one has died, and everything is going to be okay]
[and the beams of light through the surf only get stronger, warmer; the sense that place and that time, Jirachi, bring him will be increasingly he can feel, swathing around him like a familiar blanket. speaking of -- Magnus reaches out, and when his hand falls on Archie's forearm, it's like the seidr slots perfectly into place. the currents wash around Archie like they did when he played as a kid, kind and welcoming, and dependable, like the sea can be. he gives a gentle tug to his wrist]
Hey, why don't you take a rest, Archie? I'll be right here.
[what exists is not terrifying phantoms of regret, but this: a beautiful day, out in nature, with the summer sun (in October, yes) curling around Archie. Magnus shifts to make room for Archie on the sleeping bag, relocating himself to sit crosslegged in the grass. the aura of peace around them pervades, and Magnus will keep weaving it to do so, as long as Archie needs]
[archie blinks a few times as he - for lack of a better phrase - comes to. he looks a little confused, almost like he was so lost in the simplicity of everything going through his mind.
he nods, heavy-lidded, without the mental burden he puts on himself his body is finally reacting the way someone with bone-deep exhaustion would.
he, uh, just flops forward onto the grass, gives magnus a thumbs up, then passes out. rip.]
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[and like he'd said earlier: it's not the content, really, the words Magnus actually says -- but the feeling that gets pressed into Archie with each slow sentence, of safety and belonging and freedom. he can't drown with Magnus here, and there's no house of horror]
Maxie's safe. You're safe. That shit was illusions, and you're both back in the real world.
[(and in the back of his mind, not focused on increasing the sense of peace in Archie's chest and mind, Magnus wonders: save the world?)]
You're not in danger of something that's just an echo of something else you're always moving forward from. You're both gonna be okay.
[it doesn't have to be true, his seidr, to work, even if he prefers to weave it true when he can. it doesn't have to be true, or some gift of Vanir insight, or anything; it just needs to communicate the sense of it's safe to rest, finally, finally -- which it does, wrapping Archie up in a feeling of protection]
no subject
archie can almost see the sunbeams shining through the water, and he's taken back to playing in the currents near pacifidlog with shelly when they were kids. back to tanabata.]
Jirachi...
[said slowly as he blinks dumbly, mind wandering slightly but not resisting magnus's magic.]
no subject
[and the beams of light through the surf only get stronger, warmer; the sense that place and that time, Jirachi, bring him will be increasingly he can feel, swathing around him like a familiar blanket. speaking of -- Magnus reaches out, and when his hand falls on Archie's forearm, it's like the seidr slots perfectly into place. the currents wash around Archie like they did when he played as a kid, kind and welcoming, and dependable, like the sea can be. he gives a gentle tug to his wrist]
Hey, why don't you take a rest, Archie? I'll be right here.
[what exists is not terrifying phantoms of regret, but this: a beautiful day, out in nature, with the summer sun (in October, yes) curling around Archie. Magnus shifts to make room for Archie on the sleeping bag, relocating himself to sit crosslegged in the grass. the aura of peace around them pervades, and Magnus will keep weaving it to do so, as long as Archie needs]
Just for a while.
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he nods, heavy-lidded, without the mental burden he puts on himself his body is finally reacting the way someone with bone-deep exhaustion would.
he, uh, just flops forward onto the grass, gives magnus a thumbs up, then passes out. rip.]