Lucas Archimedes

The man’s shift in demeanor was noticeable enough for Ariel to feel a weight be lifted off her shoulders… perhaps that also was the sugar rush finally kicking in and gifting her with her usual dash of positivity. “Ohdearthankgod.” She breathed out in relief, feeling a smile tug at the corners of her lips as she looked at Archie with what she hoped was a mixed look of surprise and gratitude with a tinge of embarrassment. “Me too. Not as glad as it all making sense.” Ari thought it’d be best for her to close her mouth for a couple seconds, taking another obscenely large gulp of her beverage; her eyes were still fixated on the teacher and what he was saying. “May I now ask you a question?” She mused out loud, trying to convey her genuine interest on the topic. “Is the fight against our egos something we are doomed to consciously go at every day or will there come a time when we’re beyond it? Like, we’ll stop worrying about being at odds with it and that freedom is what allows us to reach objectivity?” Now… all of that she didn’t have the slightest freaking clue as to where it had come from.

Archie had to really focus on his self restraint at the redhead’s answer, the relief in her voice and her words so obvious. He was used to his students reacting like this sometimes, which surprised him, since he thought philosophy should be a subject where you might have to work hard and use critical thinking, but where there couldn’t really be any wrong answers as long as you did. “It did. I think when we dare to ponder on life’s big questions and land on the answers that come to us without judging them, we can always find bits of wisdom we didn’t know we posses.” Archie replied, his eyes going from her to scour the rest of the class, making sure they were all listening to him, or at least pretending to do so. He considered her question for a while, similar ones had popped into his mind more than once. “I do think that humans, by nature, tend to ponder on the reflection they perceive of themselves and how this is perceived in the world. We define ourselves by comparison to others and other things, and we are, at heart, social animals, we need society. Some more than others. So I don’t think we necessarily need to let go of our ego, per se, since it’s no a bad thing, it’s just something we need to take into consecration when trying to make enlightened decisions.”

She sneered at the girl staring at her with wide eyes, occasionally glancing down at the stain. With a roll of her eyes, Diana waved the girl away, only to turn and see Archie with a few napkins. “Thanks.” The word was short, but she quickly reminded herself not to misplace her anger, so she took the napkins and offered a tiny smile in return. “They were nice, actually, but I do have to admit that it’s a little nice to be back.” She finished dabbing at her skirt and looked up at him again. “And how is the shop doing?”

Archie nodded, making sure there were more napkins at hand in case she needed them. His lingered on her, her eyelashes brushing her cheeks while she worked on the stain. “You’re welcome.” He smiled, knowing the feeling. “Yes, it’s always somewhat relieving to be back home, right?” His eyes wandered over the café and the inevitably landed back on hers. “Good! We’ve been tying l get more specials for the rare books section.” He told her excitedly. “Still, you’ve been missed around there. And I’ve missed you.” He admitted. “I’m glad I can now offer to invite you out to dinner some night this week.”

THE MISC CHALLENGE || Archimedes Hazard-Perry

“Don’t look at me like that. I find it hard to say no to a sad face.” which may be surprising for some people, but Clarissa was not that harsh. That’s why she stepped inside his store despite having no plans of doing so. “Your name may have come in one of my conversations but I needed to be sure that you really are him.”, she admitted. “Not bad for a place that is quite quaint.”

Archie chuckled softly, ducking his head for a moment. “Sounds great to me.” He was still smiling as he walked int after her, carefully letting the door close and enjoying the sound of the bell drinking. “Oh, really?” He wondered if she meant his own name or his parent’s last name, which always seemed to overshadow who he was. “Oh, that’s nice. I hope you only hear good things.” Not taking offence, he took a seat in one of the worn leather arm chairs by the shelves, placing his package on the coffee table and gesturing to the other arm chair. “Thank you, I did try to make it look... both comfortable and antique.” 

“I have algebra next… two birds, one stone kind of thing.” Ariel joked with a nervous smile; then, she cleared her throat as best as she could as to have Archie not notice the sound, but shut up the girls that snickered a few seats beside her. “Right! At least you’re prepared for what’s to come.” She replied, her fingers gingerly tapping on the side of her desk; she regretted the sugar that was coursing through her system. “Consciousness means being aware of what’s around us– as objectively as we can be, I mean, we all make the mistake of reflecting our stuff on other stuff.” Ari chuckled and then remembered what she was going on about, she slowed her words down and prayed her mouth would make more sense than her mind was trying to create. “And truth… well, truth is what it is, the facts without us meddling in them. Uh– if we succeed in being actually conscious and see things as they are and not as we want them to be, we can notice that consciousness and truth are one and the same cause they depend on each other to be perceived?”

“Right...” Archie replied softly, not bothering to elaborate on his reply as he stared at the girl with a small, encouraging eyes and narrowed, slightly sardonic eyes. He got this with students sometimes, where they joked and tried to babble to see if this would be enough to put off answering. He understood the impulse, sometimes philosophy made even him feel that way, it’s scary to try to find answers to ages-long questions inside yourself. He leaned closer as the young woman started talking, nodding appreciatively. He ignored the giggles and listened to the rest of her reflection. It was actually quite good, and he was happy she’d pushed herself with the answer. “That is very enlightened of you, Ariel. I’m glad you did get around to answering. I agree, our consciousness and perception is mostly biased because of our wants and needs can affect it, only when we learn to separate ourselves from our ego and try to be as objective as possible can we gain a more honest, albeit perpetually relative, perspective.

Diana spent the last few weeks travelling the world, alternating between vacations and formal dinners meant to make sure the law firm’s clients were happy with how their cases were handled. It was easy work–her mother had always taught her how to twist her words so that people hear what they want to hear. Though, nearly two months away from her apartment was too much, and she was happy to have spent the night in her own bed, not having to speak with anyone. The next morning was another story as she didn’t have anything to eat or any coffee to brew, so she had to set out on the town to buy what she’d need for the week. Diana was leaving the cafe, ready to head to the grocery store when someone bumped into her, causing a little spillover from the top of her cup on to her dress. “You are lucky this dress is dark,” she seethed, looking down at the emerald dress now hiding the coffee stain. “It’s Dior.”

Archie’s eyes had focused on Diana from far away. He knew she was back in town and was planing to give her a call or even drop by her office with some coffee and muffins later, but the chance to talk to her as a way to start his day had seemed heaven sent... Until he saw the incident going down. He quickened his pace and reached her, handing her a couple of napkins he’d been carrying with his breakfast baggie. “It’s barely noticeable.” He assured her. “At least to me, but then again, that might also have to do with how happy I am to see your face again.” He confessed with a small smile. “How was the trip? Or shall I say trips?” 

Clarissa was on her face to lunch when she received a call from her father. Realizing that she called for a serious reason, she stopped walking so that she could better focus. It was also when the exhausting call ended and she heard the man that bumped into her that she realized that she stopped in front of a bookstore. “Oh no, I am not going inside.”, she cleared up for him as he opened the door for her. She peeked inside anyway so she can see what it looked like. “Is this yours?”

“Oh, my bad then.” Archie said, a little disappointed but keeping his smile up. At this time of the day they barely got any costumers, so he’d perked up a little when he’d saw someone standing outside. “Yes.” He replied, an eyebrow going up curiously. “How did you know?” He asked a little curiously, keeping the door open as he talked to her.

“Oh, dear.” She said to herself, cold calling was her worst enemy. “Well–” Ariel smiled at Archie with as much confidence as she could muster as she let her frappuccino down on the desk. “If A, being truth, equals B, being all… and B equals C, cause C is consciousness and it is a part of it all… then A equals C?”

Archie could not hide a slight look of contempt as his eyes followed the large, sugary coffee that looked more like a milkshake to him. He waited for a moment, hoping the girl would say something more but having to admit she would not after a while. “Okay... well that’s a very nice way of repeating the phrase using a mathematical equation, but I would like an interpretation.” He replied, walking to the whiteboard. He wrote the phrase down and turned back to her. “This is about interpretation, it’s not like I’m going to grade you on a wrong answer, Mss Triton.” He assured her. 

@ari-triton​

@clarissagrimhilde​

“Hm?” Charles mumbled over the bite of pecan pie he had just taken. He smiled brightly at Archie, grateful to see a familiar face after a few hours of roaming around like a confused bird trying to peck at any bright thing that captured his attention, in this case, it had been food. “I will do you one better, I happen to have inside information on the best pastry stand this carnival has to offer.” The man offered some of his to Archie. “You look quite light; I take your retreat had a favorable outcome?”

Archie looked at the pie, not sure. Lemon had always been the better option for him, no matter the occasion. He leaned closer and sniffed testily. “Based on whose expert opinion and whose inside information?” He half-joked, finally moving to take a small portion with his fork. “This is pretty good.” He admitted once he’d swallowed. “But lemon is always superior.” He smiled. “I am not sure, maybe it’s the opposite. The writing process was quite taxing but once I was finished and I’d handed it in I slept for ten hours straight.” He gestured around them. “Now here I am.” 

James wasn’t exactly the type to know what pie was what. All he knew was that there was a slice of pie on his plate and Archie had just directed the question at him. ‘’There’s pie left. What kind beats me.’’ He offered his plate of untouched pie to Archie. ‘’Haven’t seen you around since I got back, where have you been hiding?’’

Archie smiled, taking a look. “Oh, I think that’s strawberry? Maybe raspberry...” He stood up. “Thank you, but I’ll go ask if they have lemon pie. And some coffee, want one?” Once he was sitting back down, he took a satisfied sniff. “My study, I basically confined myself there while I worked on some pieces for my publisher. Nothing too interesting for now.” He looked at the other man. “How was the sea?”

Aurora thought it was as good a time of any to crawl out from under her piles of coursework and enjoy the sunshine. Her blush sundress flapped behind her in the spring breeze as she turned to face him. “Oh, I’m not sure. I hope so. Lemon is my favorite.” She tucked a few curls behind her ear. “How are you, professor? I don’t think I’ve seen you since I took your class last year.”

The man smiled, recognising the young woman. “Mine too, my mother used to make it for me as a kid.” He murmured wistfully. No need to mention his adoptive mother had never really liked the idea of cooking for him. “It is lovely to see you, Aurora. And I’m fine, thank you very much. Just finished some pressing work, so excuse me if I look a little messy,” Archie smiled sheepishly. “How about you?”