ic contact;

[psycholawgy]

You've reached Athena Cykes. I'm currently unavailable, but leave a message and I'll get back to you pronto. Danke! (voice/call → text → video → action)

Comments

[psycholawgy]

Yeah, he did.

[cardboard_journalism]

[sighs...]

[psycholawgy]

What do you plan on doing now? Now that you know this, I mean.

[cardboard_journalism]

What are you talking about? I'm doing it!

...that is, y'know, confronting you. Kahk kahk kahk...

[psycholawgy]

I mean, aside from that.

[cardboard_journalism]

...what, you think I'm going to pester Archer about it?

It's not on my list of things I want to do.

[psycholawgy]

[ athena lets out a sigh of relief. ]

Good to hear. And I'm sorry for lying.

[cardboard_journalism]

...are you really, though? I mean... I'm pretty dumb.

...probably deserved it...

...right?

[psycholawgy]

Don't say you're dumb! It's not right!

[cardboard_journalism]

[deep breaths... she might be on the verge of crying]

Then why did you lie to me...?

[psycholawgy]

What, you think I would've let someone hurt you? I'll pass on that, thanks!

[cardboard_journalism]

And so your only choice was to lie to me about your life being in danger?!

[psycholawgy]

You wouldn't have stopped otherwise!

[cardboard_journalism]

How do you know?! Kahk kahk kahk!

Go ahead and say it, then! Tell me the truth: you don't think of me as a friend, you think I'm just some idiot box girl who needs to be lied to or else she'll mess everything up!

I never lied to you! I thought we were supposed to be beyond that!

[psycholawgy]

Don't put words in my mouth!

[ ughghgh she's so ready to hang up because she doesn't want to deal with this Right Now, and apollo isn't even here to be the straight man and tell her she's in the wrong. ]

I know you hate Archer, and that's why you kept writing about him in your newspaper! And you'll keep doing that about every single person who makes you cross!

[cardboard_journalism]

Ugh... I don't hate him. I just thought what he did wasn't very nice.

[she didn't want to get into the argument about Archer being a good person or not again]

Anyway... that's water under the bridge... I'm done feuding with Archer, I told you.

How do I know I can trust you now, Athena?

I don't want to be lied to again... unless you have a really, really good reason. And I don't think "you won't listen to me if I tell you the truth" is a really good reason.

[psycholawgy]

The answer to that is something you have to figure out on your own.

[cardboard_journalism]

Okay.

...can I trust you now, Athena?

[psycholawgy]

Like I said, you'd have to figure it out on your own.

I won't answer this question for you. But if I had to, of course I'd want to be trusted.

[cardboard_journalism]

...Did I mention I pulled in a lot of favors to investigate your lie?

That wasn't exactly fair, was it?

[psycholawgy]

It wasn't, but nobody asked you to do that, either.

[cardboard_journalism]

Gawd, Athena! Like I could just ignore someone threatening your life either!

[psycholawgy]

If somebody did that in real life, I'd totally fight them!

[ this is a bad idea. please talk her out of this if it ever gets to that. ]

[cardboard_journalism]

...I really hope you mean "in court," or something. Kahk kahk kahk.

... [sighs]

Look... [pause, THIS WAS HARD FOR HER] ...maybe you're right. Maybe I wouldn't have listened to you. --Let's make a deal. You promise you won't lie to me to get me to do something, I promise I'll try to listen if you need to tell me something.

[psycholawgy]

[ that's not a bad idea at all. ]

Alright. I promise.