Who: Archie narrative What: Watching the news, Archie gets a very unwanted surprise. Where: Archie’s apartment When: After [this] conversation and seeing [this] on the news. Warnings/Rating: Angst, mentioned character death
There were few people Archie could call friend, and even fewer did he tend to keep up with daily. There was his friend from back home in Ireland and of course his family, they were near and dear to his heart, but there was one person specifically that plucked his heart strings most. Tiffani. She’d been a kernel of gold in his world after Arch had returned to Las Vegas, there was no doubt about it. They were close as children, but once Tiff had left, Archie couldn’t find it in himself to stay. When he’d come back it was like a dream come true, finding her again. Which was cliche and some romanticized notion, but Archie was a true romantic at heart and he couldn’t help but thank the gods for the reunion.
In the following months since finding her, Archie had found his world turned upside down, though he couldn’t say it was exactly bad, just different. It surely wasn’t anything he’d ever expected to happen to him, but then again he’d never expected his writings to get published either, so that showed what he knew. There had been the journal and key, then Darcy, and Tiff -- it was all insane, but everything seemed to fall into place and Arch was well... happy. It seemed that Tiffani was as well and that’s all Archie had ever wanted for her. Life was good, oddly simple in its intricacies and there was nothing to really worry about. Or so Archie had thought.
As it turned out, the Alter’s lives on the other side of the Door seemed to be more than they appeared. There were things happening that greatly affected both sides and Archie found himself, along with Tiffani, pulled into them. It wasn’t too awful bad for Darcy, but Jane seemed to get the brunt of the force from SHIELD and Thor -- Arch and Darcy had had a few conversations about it, but he didn’t know everything, only that Jane was important. Important enough to kidnap it seemed.
Like with everything else, Archie didn’t know much about the situation as it happened, only what Darcy did, and it seemed that she was pretty low on the food chain of information, no matter how much she complained and demanded to know. Archie had tried to contact Tiffani for two days and had be-bopped back and forth through the Door, trying to find her, trying to somehow get into the loop and maybe help. It hadn’t worked and those two days had seemed to last for decades.
Tiffani had returned however, and called him as soon as she crossed back over into Vegas. She was tired it seemed, but she informed him that she was no worse for wear. Archie wanted to believe that, but there was a niggling feeling in his gut that wanted to press the issue. ’You should go to the hospital’, ’Please come see me’, ’Just don’t go’ -- thoughts were running through his mind a mile a minute, but Archie let her go to see her boss against every fiber in his being screaming at him to stop her. He was assured that she would be in her apartment in the morning, comforted with the thought of her in his arms as they wasted the day away in bed, just living in each other’s company. It was a nice fantasy and Archie wanted to believe it so badly he convinced himself his gut feeling was just an anxiousness to see her. He went on about his day, trying to forget, trying not to look at his phone every ten seconds to see if Tiffani was on her way to him.
The day went on without a peep and the tight, white-hot knot in Archie’s stomach just seemed to grow and grow. He eventually broke down and texted her once, called twice, texted again -- all the while growing more and more anxious for no apparent reason. That is, until he saw the news that evening, hours after their conversation.
Tiffani’s car had been found on some old back road, in a blaze and with parts of a body charred inside. It was like a switch clicked inside Archie’s brain, a string severed. He knew it -- Tiffani was dead.
Arch didn’t sit in a stupor, he barely made it to the toilet before his dinner was heaved up.