ID: An illustration of Cassie O’Pia dressed in her beekeeping suit while staring down at the camera with her mask in her hands. She is standing in the woods with pine trees towering over her. The moon in the top left corner of the sky is shining down brightly. End ID.
Hey,@breaker-apart! I am your Secret Santa for the Psychonauts Secret Santa! Here’s a story on Raz teaching the interns how to summon archetypes! Hope you enjoy!
[Story’s under the Read More. Fair warning-it is chonky.]
“Scanning…Access Denied”
Raz groaned as he leaned his head against the dorm room door. The stupid ThinkerPrint scanner for his door had been on the fritz for no good reason for the past couple of days, and it was especially finicky today. He just wanted to work on the flower pot he was painting for Lili while he had a break from his studies, and instead, he’s stuck outside his room like a racecar driver who left his engine keys in his car. He wished someone would fix the scanner, or at the very least he could slip under the door-
An idea popped into his head.
Raz took a deep breath before closing his eyes, putting his hands to his temples. He focused all his thoughts on what he’s looking for until he manifested a pencil in mid-air. He visualized the sketching process in his mind, from the rough shapes down to the details, until he could feel a familiar friend pop back into existence.
“Yippee! Hiya, Clone!”
“Hey Archie,” Raz replied, waving back to his archetype, “Nice to see you! Hey, can you help me open that door, please?”
“Sure thing, buddy!” the paper-thin projection responded in his usual chipper tune before taking a good look under the door. He then quickly slid under the door and into the dorm room.
“Uh oh. No door lock!”
“No problem!” Raz answered, “There should be a button near the door…”
“Like this?” the archetype replied just moments before the doors opened.
“Exactly! Thank you so much-”
“Hi, new friends!”
Raz turned to the direction his archetype was waving to and saw Morris and Sam staring at the both of them.
“Um…” Morris finally broke the silence, “what the heck is that?”
“Hey, it’s Raz’s twin!”
“Not quite, Sam. Guys, this is my Archetype-”
“He’s my clone!” the archetype chimed in, scooting to the two junior psychonauts, “He’s a little confused, but otherwise very bright!”
“Thanks, Archie,” Raz sighed.
“How did you make this?” Morris asked, lightly poking the psychic paper person.
“I simply summoned him from my subconscious via mental projection,” Raz explained, “much like a thought bubble, only-”
“Hey,” Sam interrupted, “if there’s two of me, I could get the diner working in no time at all!”
“Ireally think you should rethink the pancake recipe,” Morris interjected, “but I’d love extra help at KLOB! Not that your brother isn’t helpful—Queepie has great taste in tunes!”
“Hey, how about you teach us your trick?”
“Really?” Raz replied, feeling himself grin with pride.
“Yeah!” Morris responded.
“How does tonight sound?” Raz asked.
“By the campfire in the Questionable Area!” Raz’s doppelganger added, “we could make snacks by the fire!”
“Perfect!” Morris replied
“Yeah, I can have Fur Lancelot watch the diner during your class!”
“We’ll see you at the campfire, then!” Raz said
“See you tonight, guys!” The archetype chimed, waving goodbye to the two teens.
“See you!” Sam replied before she and Morris headed off.
“Woohoo!” Archie cheered, turning into an airplane and doing a loop around Raz before heading inside the dorm room, “we get to hang out with other people!”
“Yeah!” he replied as he followed the airplane inside, “just need to figure out what snacks to serve…”
**********
“…And it’s perfect! Set it down!”
“Thanks, Archie!” Raz replied as he placed the last of the towels near the fireplace. Having his projection see how the layout looked from the stage helped him set up the campfire area just so for his presentation. Near the towels surrounding the fire was a cooler of beverages and a fold-up table with various skewers and plates of grilled corn, bowls of gnocchi, and even the fixings for smores (Raz wanted to make more, but he has yet to figure out any vegetarian campfire meals). He got some electric lanterns set up at opposite ends of the stage to add extra lighting to the area. All that’s left is…
“Hey, I need to set up the fire now-”
“Say no more, clone! Bye-bye for now!”
And with that, the paper version of him poofed himself out of existence.
With nothing to accidentally catch aflame, he focused on projecting his thoughts of Lili’s prowess in pyrokinesis onto the pile of fresh firewood he placed in the center. In a flash, the fire roared to life, burning brightly in the evening. There was something about the glow of the campfire that made him feel like he was back at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. For some reason, being at camp and training his psychic powers for the first time simultaneously felt much longer and much shorter than a few weeks ago. He could still see the opening speech Oleander gave at the start of camp (and his adventure, really).
“The Human Mind,” Raz found himself recreating Oleander’s speech from the first day of camp as he slowly walked up and down the stage, “600 miles of synaptic fiber, five and a half ounces of cranial fluid, 1500 grams of complex neural matter…a three-pound pile of dreams. But I’ll tell you what it really is. It is the ultimate battleground—and, the ultimate weapon. The wars of this modern age—The Psychic Age—are fought somewhere between these damp, curvaceous undulations.”
“Is that Coach Oleander’s speech?”
Raz yelped as he jumped away from Sam.
“When did you come in?” he sheepishly asked.
“At some passage about cranial fluid.”
“Hey, Raz!” Morris shouted, toting a radio in hand, “nice spread!”
“Thanks! I tried to get as much food as I could.”
“Wait, where are the hotdogs?”
“Well, I didn’t know what to serve, since I didn’t know if anyone would get dinner before coming here-”
Raz’s eyes widened when he realized the person he was talking to was neither Sam nor Morris.
“Gisu?!? What are you doing here?”
“Morris invited me,” Gisu replied, grabbing a big ear of corn, “and the rest of us.”
As Raz looked out to the hollow log archway separating the campfire area from the rest of the Questionable Area, he saw Adam come in, with Lizzie and Norma following close by.
“…You even invited Norma?” Raz added quietly, groaning.
“Lizzie’s got an eye on her,” Sam replied, grabbing a bowl of gnocchi.
“Hey, Raz,” Adam greeted, “I heard you’re teaching us Mental Projection, and wanted to see!”
“I heard you got snacks,” Lizzie said, walking up to the table.
“What, no hot dogs?”
“I know already, Norma.”
“Buzz off, sis,” Lizzie responded, “he’s got an obscene amount of smores fixings.”
As the other Junior Psychonauts were chattering, Raz noticed a tall figure with slicked-back hair, followed by a young girl with her hair in two large, ring-like curls
“…Dion? Mirtala?”
“Hi, Pooter!” Mirtala chimed, “I wanted to see your big presentation!”
“And the smores table! I saw you eyeballing the chocolate the entire afternoon,” his older brother added, “As for me, I’m just here for crowd control, and in case we need to restock the table.”
“Are you going to ask her out?” Mirtala asked, leaning in towards Dion.
“Tala!” he replied, turning bright red at his younger sister’s question, “Shush!”
“Okay! You gotta do it sooner or later, though!”
As Mirtala and Dion sat down with the rest of the teens, it sank into Raz that more people had come to this than he thought there would. Not that it was entirely bad—he kind of wanted to hang out with the Junior Psychonauts outside of assignments and missions, and the more, the merrier. Still, the mere idea of screwing it up in front of so many people made his heart race more than he’d like to.
This isn’t the circus, he thought to himself, Nor is this a mission. You’re not going to fall or die if you screw it up.
After a bit, he clapped to get the attention of everyone at the campfire.
“I wanna start by thanking everyone for coming out here!” he started, “I kind of didn’t expect such a turn-out…”
The silence around the campfire scared him more than he’d like to admit.
“…Anyways, as explained in Cassie O’Pia’s book Mindswarm, mental projection is the ability to summon a 2D representation of one of your archetypes to help you on certain tasks, ranging from unlocking doors to helping you recover mental energy. Some can even use it to multi-task on psychic tasks!”
“When are you going to summon the Paper Boy?”
“He was probably going to get to that, Lizzie,” Adam remarked.
“Exactly,” Raz replied.
“Show us the Paper Boy!”
“Tala, he’s getting to that!” Dion shouted
Getting the memo in full, Raz put his hand onto his temple.
“I first visualize my archetype in my mind…”
As he focused, a pencil appeared in mid-air and got to work.
“When I summon him, I usually try and think about literally sketching him out until-”
As if on cue, his archetype popped into existence
“Aww, it’s you!” he replied to Raz, “My best friend! What’s your name again?”
“He really is made of paper!”
“Tala!”
“No Dion, it’s okay!” Raz responded as his archetype waved back to Mirtala, “Though I think I want some of the others to have a chance to speak…”
“…How did you learn this again?” Norma asked.
“I was taught this by Cassie O’Pia herself!”
“What counts as an Archetype?” Adam asks.
“Oh right, forgot that part,” Raz responded, “Basically, it’s a part of your personality you present to others, whether friends or family…”
“What were you thinking about when you summoned Flat You?”
“Simple, Mirtala! I was…”
Raz went quiet as he realized mid-answer that he didn’t honestly know. As he learned the power between finding out what Ford did and helping Nona fight Maligula, he really couldn’t remember what on earth he was thinking of when he summoned his archetype for the first time.
“I like your loops!” The archetype remarked before lightly tugging Mirtala’s curls.
“Archie, careful!”
“It’s okay Raz! He’s gentle!” Mirtala chimed in, giggling. As she spoke, Dion swatted at the paper projection. Before his hand touched him, though, the archetype turned into an airplane once more, making airplane noises as he circled Dion’s head before heading back to the stage.
“I’m sorry,” Raz said, “he’s usually a handful, but he’s never been thisbad…”
“It’s cool,” Sam responded, while Gisu tried to contain her chuckling from Archie’s little stunt.
“Why do you call him Archie?” Morris asked.
“I felt like he needed a name,” Raz said, “Because…you know…calling him ‘my clone’ would be repetitive, and a little dehumanizing…”
“Why does he think you’re the clone?” Lizzie asked.
“…You know, I can’t recall…”
“No offense, Archie, but I think she was talking to me.”
“Rats!” The paper projection exclaimed before wandering to a different point on the stage in an exaggerated huff.
“To be fair,” Raz said, trying to rerail the situation, “I don’t even know either. Enough questions about my archetype, though! Do you think you understand Mental Projection?”
“All set!” Gisu responded, giving the “thumbs up” expression. No one objected.
“Good!” Raz responded, “I want to see what you think up!”
What followed was a bit of semi-quiet chatter as the teens tried to figure out what to summon as their archetype. Sam and Adam stared at the fire, Morris drummed his fingers on his lawn chair, Norma and Lizzie were talking amongst each other, Gisu paced the area while eating the kernels off her ear of corn, and Mirtala got a big bowl of gnocchi. Dion ended up being the first to dive into trying to summon his archetype, but his attempts only went halfway before he either lost focus or change his mind.
“You can do it, Dion!” Tala cheered, her mouth full of gnocchi
“Aw dangit,” Dion muttered as he once again lost focus, “Thanks, Tala, but I need my utmost attention on this.”
“Okie,” she replied before tossing more cheese-stuffed pasta bites into her mouth.
Ultimately, Gisu was the first to successfully summon her archetype, bringing forth a blocky cartoon scientist on a skateboard.
“Glorious progress!” the new archetype shouted.
“Good job, Gisu!” Raz exclaimed.
“Thanks! I think I gave her too thick an accent, though…”
“That’s okay!” he responded, “you’ll get better with practice!”
“Hey, new friend!” Raz’s archetype chimed, leaving the stage area once again to check out the new projection.
“Are you a new assistant?” the archetype asked, leaning towards Archie.
“I think! What do you need me for?”
“A billion ideas, but right now I just need to test out how fast my hoverboard can go.”
“You mean like this?” Archie responded before morphing into a paper airplane. He then zoomed all around the campfire while making plane noises.
“Yes, yes! Perfect!” Gisu’s archetype exclaimed before bolting forward on her hoverboard, chasing the airplane throughout the area.
“Wow, your archetype and mine are hitting it off really well.”
“Yeah,” Raz responded, “So what were you think of when you designed…er…”
“Professor Pragata? Well, I guess I was thinking of my inventions and wanting to finish them…”
“Oh. I see-”
“Gotchya!” Pragata chimed, taking a quick hold of Archie’s plane form before letting it glide to the ground. As he returned to his papery self, he seemed to shake his head.
“You’re crazy fast! Did you have to yank me out of the sky, though?”
“Sorry assistant! Needed to see if I truly reached you!”
Another archetype popped into existence, this time a simplistic figure of a young man in a tux on a lawn chair/thought bubble device similar to Morris’s.
“This is Radio Martinez, brought to you live by yours truly, Captain Ritmo!”
“Awesome sauce!” Mirtala exclaimed, “your paper man is so cool!”
“Glad you think so,” Morris replied, “because I am no visual artist…”
“It’s not about the looks of the archetype,” Raz responded, “it’s about what you put in it!”
“Got it!” Adam said as his archetype, a cloaked figure holding a staff with a yoyo tied to it, came into existence.
“Aw, man!” Morris exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air “I’m surrounded by artists!”
“Speak for yourself,” Dion grumbled, once again discarding his progress on his archetype.
“Perhaps you’re overthinking it,” Adam’s archetype told Dion in a calm voice.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I think he means you’re focusing too much on making it just so!” Raz added, “I mean, Cassie’s archetypes weren’t perfect. Heck, Archie is not perfect-“
"I’m pretty darn close, though!” Archie retorted while standing on his tiptoes in an attempt to poke the staff of Adam’s archetype.
“…What I’m saying is just try and think of what you need for the situation and focus on that…”
“What I need is to get this right! And not screw it up-”
“Be more specific with your hypothesis!”
Dion let out a loud, high-pitched shriek and fell flat on his back after Professor Pragata told him her advice a little too close to his face. From that scene, the group broke into laughter. Even Raz found himself holding back chuckling.
“Sweet Comedy gold!”
“You can say that again!” Morris told his archetype, “Man, I wish I brought a video camera!”
“You don’t have a video camera.”
“Well, Lizzie, I wish I bought one, then!”
“I’m not Lizzie, I’m Datura.”
“Wait, what-”
Morris quickly realized the person he was talking to was a paper version of his classmate wearing a loose sundress and shades.
“Whoa!” Raz exclaimed, “Lizzie, when did you summon your archetype?”
“Shortly before your older brother did a flawless impression of a fainting goat.”
“I did not!”
“It was perfect, Dion!”
"It wasn’t perfect,” Sam responded, “it needed more locked limbs and bleating…”
“Tala, Sam, not helping!”
“Guys,” Raz said, “Let’s allow Dion some time to think.”
“Aww,” Tala muttered.
“Cheer up, Tala!” Archie chimed in, walking up to Mirtala, “We could talk to the others!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Just follow me, Tala!”
“Hey Raz!” Mirtala shouted, “Wanna join Archie and me?”
“Thanks, Tala,” Raz answered, “But I think I want to make certain the others can summon their archetypes.”
“Okay,” Mirtala says, “suit yourself…”
As he watched Mirtala and Archie play with each other, Raz felt he was being watched somehow. He looked behind him and saw a paper cutout of a woman in a 50’s styled trenchcoat and hat looking at him through a magnifying glass.
“Let me guess,” Raz said dryly, “you’re Norma’s archetype.”
“Shh!” the archetype hushed, “I’m not here.”
“Don’t answer him, Lefue!” Norma shouted, bewildered at her archetype’s statement.
“Seems your archetype needs a little work as well,” Raz said, grinning. Norma, grunting in frustration, stormed to a different section of the fireplace area. Raz turned to address Lefue but realized she had disappeared while he was talking to Norma.
“Guess I’m going to have to keep an eye on her,” Raz mumbled to himself as we walked off the stage and into the main area. He couldn’t make out specific conversations through the chatter of both people and archetypes, but he could see Mirtala talking to the others, Ritmo trying to provide commentary with Datura acting as a cohost, Norma talking to Lefue, and Gisu and Pragata trying to help Dion.
“Still having trouble?” Raz said to Dion, tilting his head.
“I really don’t know what to summon…”
“Perhaps think of someone you’d like as an assistant?” Gisu responded, “I know I made Pragata because I wanted a partner I can bounce ideas off of and help make them work.”
“We’re partners in crime and progress!” Pragata chimed.
“You said it, sister!” Archie exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Raz replied, “I’d have to say Gisu has a great approach in it!”
“So,” Dion said, “What’s Archie’s purpose?”
“…To help me open doors and get me through Maligula?”
“Wait,” Dion replied, “are you saying you can’t remember what you were focusing on when you summoned Archie?”
“Well,” Gisu said, “if that night was what I think it was, it was busy…”
“My thoughts exactly!” Pragata chimed in, “sometimes we lose track of stuff on busy days!”
“You know,” Raz said, trying to dodge the conversation, “I should probably check on Sam! I don’t think she has summoned her—What the?!?”
“Sam,” Ritmo shouted, pointing at the paper sheep with ridiculously buff arms attached to its back, “what the hell is that?!?”
“Guys,” Sam said in a matter-of-fact tone, “This is Bernatrice! She’ll help me get the diner into shape!”
“I…” Raz muttered, “I don’t think I’m going to ask further questions on Bernatrice…”
“Look at how swole her arms are!”
“Archie, what does that word even mean?”
Raz’s archetype looked at his creator with wide eyes.
“…You know, I can’t remember now…”
Razputin groaned, holding his head.
“You know what?” Dion said, standing up, “We need more marshmallows! I’m going to go and get more marshmallows…”
“But we have plenty of marshmallows!” Mirtala exclaimed, “we don’t need marshmallows-”
“I don’t think this is about marshmallows,” Lizzie responded as Dion marched out of the campfire area and through the log archway.
“So, how are you feeling today?” Archie asked Bernatrice, who only bleated in response.
“What’s she saying?” Mirtala asked
“That Devon’s robe needs more green in it,” Archie replied,
“…Anyways,” Adam’s archetype replied, “what do we do now?”
“I could try to make an archetype!”
“Are you certain?” Raz told Mirtala, “it’s a pretty advanced psychic ability…”
“I can try!”
“She can most certainly try!” Archie responded, “go ahead, sister!”
“I’m going to make a unicorn!”
“Tala, maybe focus on something you need…”
“Well, I need a unicorn!”
At this point, Raz decided to stop talking and let her focus on “summoning” a unicorn. Best to let her have her fun, after all.
“Hey, clone, what would it be like if I were a horse?”
“I haven’t thought of it,” Raz muttered.
“Hey,” the paper projection expressed, “you okay there buddy?”
“Yeah,” Raz said, “just…I was only expecting one or two people to arrive and teaching all of them at once is a bit draining…”
“Even Bernatrice?”
“Especiallyher.”
A bottle hits Raz’s face, provoking a yelp from him.
“Here’s a cola!” Lizzie shouted before getting one for herself, “for your valiant efforts to herd psychic cats.”
“Thanks, Lizzie,” Raz said as he picked up the bottle.
“So, Professor Pragata,” Ritmo asked “what’ll happen if we touched the fire? Will we go through it?”
“Potentially!” Pragata answered, “We are psychic projections of our creators’ minds and not physical objects, after all. I haven’t tested my hypothesis, though. Wanna assist me in my tests?”
“No, but I can record them! Hey Datura!”
“Let me guess, Ritmo, you want me to help you and Pragata test if we are flammable.”
“Exactly! I’m recording for KLOB!”
“Okay,” Datura replied, “but in turn, if something happens to me, tell Morris to allow Lizzie full reign of music selection for at least an hour.”
“Hey!” Morris shouted.
“What was that about-”
“Let us see for the sake of progress!” Pragata shouted, interrupting Lizzie, “One! Two-”
“STOP!” Raz screamed at the top of his lungs “DON’T TOUCH THE FIRE!”
“Huh?” Pragata asked, tilting her head.
“You’re right in that you are psychic projections, but fire can and will hurt you!”
“Yeah, you’ll burn like twigs!” Archie added to Raz’s warnings, “trust me! That hurts a lot!”
“…Okay, experiment canceled. Back away from the fire immediately.”
“Dammit! Now, what am I going to give Morris for KLOB?”
“How about something less dangerous, Ritmo?”
“Er,” Ritmo stammered at Morris, “Sorry about that…”
“Pragata,” Gisu said, “Don’t do anything as dangerous as that ever again!”
“At least no one got caught on fire,” Lizzie said.
Suddenly, panicked bleating and screaming cut into the night as Bernatrice bounced around, lit up from the fire she poked way too close to. Everyone started scampering away from the burning paper goat, which was made difficult by Bernatrice moving surprisingly fast.
“Quick!” Norma shouted, “someone put out the fire!”
“She’s moving far too fast for me to put her out,” Lizzie yelled, “at least without accidentally freezing something in the process!”
“Sam!” Raz shouted, “recall Bernatrice! Quickly!”
“Alright,” Sam said before putting her head to her temples, “I’ve been thinking of making adjustments on her anyways.” Just like that, the bleating fire just disappeared.
“Thank goodness,” Morris sighed.
“You’re making adjustments to her?” Raz asked.
“Yep,” Sam responded.
And in a poof, Bernatrice was back, only with buffer arms and a bow on her head.
“There! Better.”
“She’s even prettier!” Mirtala chimed.
“She’s so swole!”
“Again, Archie, what the hell does that mean?”
“I still don’t know,” Archie told Raz, “but I’ll find a meaning soon enough!”
Raz just groaned, holding his head. He barely had time to breathe before he heard loud music playing.
“Let’s get this back on track!” Morris said, cranking up the radio. Raz could tell Queepie was DJing for KLOB again because Welcome to My Life started booming in the area. Raz usually didn’t mind the song—heck, it was very catchy—but if there was going to be music, he was hoping to show the others Psychodyssey or some other songs from Helmut. He found his hands instinctively going to his ears.
“Doo dee Doo dee Doo dee Doo!”
Raz looked over to his archetype, who was making random noises while doing a silly dance with Pragata. At one point, he waves at Raz. Raz forces himself a grin and waves back at him.
Raz could see his archetype’s smile drop briefly before returning to his usual goofy grin. Archie then broke out of his dance and shifted into his airplane mode, gliding to the other side of the area while making airplane noises along the way. He then lands near Morris and walks up to his radio.
“Let’s get some new beats into the mix!” Archie announced before channels on the radio.
“Hey!” Morris shouted, “What the-”
“Too chill…” Archie muttered as he continued to switch channels, “Too aggressive…Too sad…Too country…Don’t know what that music style is…They’re just talking sports…”
“Archie,” Raz uttered, “I think that’s enough-”
“Ooo!” Archie chimed as Milla’s favorite song played on the latest channel, “I like this song!”
Archie went back to dancing and making noise…
…Up until Ritmo changed the channel back on the radio.
“Hey man,” Archie spoke, “I liked that song!”
“Fine!” Ritmo retorted, “just don’t touch my radio!”
“Change it back!”
“No! KLOB is the best!”
“We need something new!”
“We need the best!”
“Let’s hear the song again!” Archie shouted as he reached for the dial, only for Ritmo to slap his hand away from the radio. In response, Archie slapped his face. Before long, the two archetypes started slapping themselves with reckless abandon, yelling at each other all at once.
“…Are they fighting?” Norma asked in confusion.
“Dumbest fight I’ve ever seen,” Lizzie responded.
“Alright,” Devon said, walking up to the fighting archetypes, “break it up, you two.”
“He won’t stop touching my radio!”
“Don’t be such a dictator!”
“Archie, stop!”
“But I like that song, clone!” Archie shouted at Raz.
Raz groaned, holding his head again as the argument continued. This was going out of hand far too quickly.
“Hey, brother?”
“Yes, Tala?”
“I can’t summon the unicorn.”
At this point, if Raz didn’t do something, he’d explode.
“Okay, everyone!” Raz shouted, “It’s smores time!”
“But Dion’s not done yet!” Gisu cried out.
“Too bad!” Raz retorted, grabbing the bag of marshmallows, “Smores time!”
“Finally!” Sam said, petting Bernatrice, “I was waiting for smores all evening…”
Raz tugged on the bag, but couldn’t get the bag open.
“That bag looks tough,” Mirtala remarked.
“I know,” he replied, tugging even more.
“Do you need help?” Adam asked.
“I’m fine!” Raz responded, pulling even harder, “I’ve got this!”
“You look like you’re about to pop a vein,” Lizzie commented.
“Let me handle this!”
“Do you need help?” Norma asked.
“I said I got it!!! Just let me-”
Before he knew it, the bag ripped open, spraying marshmallows in all directions.
Everyone stopped talking as the marshmallows hit the floor. A good chunk of them landed into the fire, turning to black goo as the flame claimed them.
Raz heard a snicker. Then another brief one. He swears he could hear an archetype chuckle.
Raz’s heart sank like a rock as he felt the world go silent. He thought he heard someone ask him something, but the words felt too far away. All he could hear was his rapidly-beating heart.
Without thinking, Raz ran out of the campfire area.
As he ran, he heard the muffled voices go quieter, save for one.
“Buddy, come back!” The muffled voice wailed, but he couldn’t return. He didn’t wantto.
Before he knew it, Raz was running through the Forgetful Forest.
**********
“Hey Buddy!” his archetype asserted, flying through the woods to try and catch up to Raz, “Hey, slow down! Wait up!”
While Raz was starting to run out of steam, he still felt the need to keep running. The gathering was a disaster. The whole thing was a disaster. He could barely see through his clouded-over eyes, but he had to keep running.
He suddenly tripped over something he didn’t see, falling straight onto his face.
“There, there,” He heard Archie say as he rubbed his back, “it’s okay, buddy.”
“…It’s not…” Raz whimpered quietly, “It…it’s not…”
His archetype said nothing in response, and instead, he continued the back rubs. Raz once again sniffled, balling up his fists. It wasn’t fair…
“Hey, Cassie!”
Raz lifted his head and realized he was near the beehive where he first encountered Cassie as the “Green Needle Witch”…and nearby was Cassie herself, worry painted all over her face.
“Razputin!” Cassie said, rushing over to Raz’s side to help him up, “Is everything okay? Are you hurt?”
“No…” Razputin mumbled, trying to hold back tears.
“My clone tried to teach mental projection!” Archie stated in his usual chipper tone.
“How sweet! I take it the lesson didn’t go well, though…”
“Not at all!” Raz shouted, “The archetypes all had minds of their own! Some of them nearly got themselves burned! One got burned! I couldn’t keep the gathering on track, and the marshmallows for smores-”
“Raz,” Cassie interrupted, “did anyone get hurt?”
“…Only an Archetype, but she’s more or less better.”
“Ah,Xiètiānxièdì,” Cassie replied, sighing in relief, “so, what’s troubling you?”
“I only planned to teach Sam and Morris tonight. Instead, not only did all the Junior Psychonauts come, but so did Dion and Mirtala. I wanted to hang out with them, but there was just too much happening, and then I made a marshmallow bag explode…”
“Oh dear,” Cassie said, “that sounds like too many things happened at once…”
“…Cassie?”
“Yes, Raz?”
“How do you make certain an event goes as planned?”
Cassie chuckled.
“What was that?” Raz whimpered again.
“Sorry!” Cassie said, “Just…you want to hear something amusing?”
“…Yes?”
“Well, back before Lucy went back to Grulovia and…you know…I’d try to hold meetings and gatherings with the rest of the Psychic 7.”
“You did?”
“Yes! Emphasis on ‘tried’, though. Every time, I’d try to keep whatever I’m doing on track, and every time, it goes sideways in ways I didn’t even think about!”
“Every time?”
“Every single time! Helmut would get distracted over some detail, Bob would be too shy to share something, Ford and Lucy were too busy flirting, Otto would advertise his half-thought-out inventions, some meetings ended in song, Compton accidentally let a bear loose in the Heptadome, my house got flooded twice by accident, Ford thought he was a janitor after accidentally eating psitanium cupcakes, a wild hog ate one of my batches of honey from the table, and the less said about the time Ford and Otto’s brains accidentally got swapped, the better!”
“Wow, that’s bad,” Raz replied, trying to contain his chuckling over the hog incident.
“It was! If there was something I learned from all that, it’s that sometimes, when what we plan goes completely out the window, what’s important is to find your footing and figure out what to do next before you fall on your face.”
“Like perfecting your fall so you don’t break any bones.”
“Or deciding not to fight a hog.”
Raz broke into laughter at Cassie’s comment.
“I like your stories, Cassie!” Archie chimed in.
“Why, thank you!” Cassie said, bowing to Archie.
“See, clone? You just needed to go with the flow! Just like I said!”
“Archie, you didn’t tell me.”
“True. I was trying to help you learn it yourself, though! I know you like to learn through doing…”
“Maybe we try and work on your communication, Archie,” Raz responded.
“Say,” Cassie said, “how about I walk you back to the gathering?”
“Hi, Lefue!” Archie chimed.
“Hey, I found them!” Lefue shouted into the distance, “They’re over here!”
“Thank goodness!” Pragata exclaimed, rolling into view with her creator not too far behind her, “I swear, this forest is like a labyrinth!”
“…I guess the gathering found me,” Raz said.
“It’s just me, Norma, and our archetypes,” Gisu stated, rolling up to Raz, “the rest of us are cleaning up the area from the marshmallow rain—Is that Cassie O’Pia?”
“It is!” She exclaimed, “I’m so glad to meet a fan!”
“Yeah…” Gisu muttered, looking to the side, “he told you everything, didn’t he?”
“Pretty much.”
“Look, Raz…I’m sorry about the snickering,” Gisu said, “It wasn’t cool at all, and even if we thought it was funny, it was clearly not funny on your end…”
“It’s fine,” Raz responded, “I probably should’ve excused myself for a moment before I got overwhelmed. I just…I really wanted to hang out with you guys…”
“Personally, I think you did pretty well with your gathering!”
“Really?” Raz asked.
“Your actual lesson may need a bit of work,” Pragata interrupted, “and you might need to get a bigger variety of food, but you did craft the entire event in less than half a day, so I must ultimately agree!”
“Thanks, Pragata,” Raz responded as Gisu pushed her hand into her face.
“Raz, are archetypes always this…”
“Out of control?” Raz replied, “I think the answer’s a solid ‘Yes’.”
“Archetypes can’t always be controlled, but they can become more cooperative!” Cassie said, “It just takes quite a bit of practice, that’s all.”
“Oh?” Gisu asked.
“You see, while the archetypes summoned for mental projection are often created to help us in certain tasks, they are derived from a facet of our own personality! It means they can be attuned to ourselves, but it means they can suffer from vices we have…”
“Like blurting out things she shouldn’t?”
“Or acting out?”
“Or worrying about what others think?”
“Archie,” Raz groaned.
“Exactly!” Cassie said, “Oftentimes, dealing with an archetype’s vices involves working on our own vices, which is still easier said than done, but way simpler than wrangling an archetype!”
Cassie then paused, thinking a moment.
“…Say, how about I help out in your lesson? Helps to have an expert on there, after all!”
“Sure thing!” Raz responded, “We even got snacks! There was going to be smores, but…you know…”
“Hmm?” Gisu hummed before putting her fingers to her temples.
“What is it?”
“Raz, your brother came back to the site! He actually brought way more marshmallows!”
“Yay!” Archie shouted, “Smores!”
“So,“ Raz asked, "do we head back now, or…?”
“As soon as we find Norma,” Gisu said, “we can head back to the campgrounds.”
Just then, the bushes rustled as a figure covered in twigs landed on her face with a grunt.
“I found her!” Lefue shouted.
“Oh my god,” Norma said, lifting her head, “please shut up—Is that Cassie O’Pia?!?”
“It is!” Cassie exclaimed.
**********
When Raz returned to the campfire area with the rescue party and Cassie, a fair amount of focus went immediately to the member of the Psychic 7. Dion and Mirtala, on the other hand, were more focused on Raz.
“Don’t scare us like that,” Dion shouted, “especially Mirtala!”
“I wasn’t scared! I was worried!” Mirtala added, hugging Raz, “I wanted to come help find you, but Norma said I’d get lost in the forest!”
“There, there, Tala,” Raz responded, hugging back, “sorry for that…”
“It’s okay!”
“Next time, Pooter, tell me if you were getting overwhelmed.”
“Thanks, Dion,” Raz said.
What followed next was a blur, between Cassie’s lessons and Raz’s interactions, all leading up to everyone surrounding the fire as they toasted marshmallows.
“Darnit,” Gisu muttered as her marshmallow caught aflame, “This is the third one in a row!”
“You’re placing the marshmallow a little too close to the flame,” Dion said as he poked his toasting fork through the marshmallow, “Usually, the heat from the fire is enough to toast it. Just keep it above the fire, and you’ll have golden, gooey marshmallows in no time!”
“Dion,” Gisu said in a playful tone, “I didn’t know you were an expert on marshmallows.”
“Well, when you lead smores night countless times for your younger siblings, you get an understanding on marshmallows…”
“Eww!” Archie said from across the way, “they’re flirting in front of my smores!”
“It’s so sweet!” Mirtala responded.
“I’m just happy Dion got a chance to talk to her,” Raz added.
“Tell me about it,” Lizzie said, “She wouldn’t stop talking about Dion since first laying eyes on him…”
“If I can hear you,” Pragata retorted, “so can they!”
“Sorry!” Mirtala shouted.
“Hey, Pooter,” Lizzie said, facing Raz, “Sorry about chuckling at you earlier. I did not mean to do that…”
“Hey,” Raz replied, “it’s water under the bridge.”
Lizzie shot a look at Morris’s direction.
“Yeah,” Morris said, “sorry about me and Ritmo.”
“Water under the bridge,” Raz repeated.
“Got it.”
“Hey Raz,” Adam spoke up, “this was a really good evening! Thanks for hosting!”
“No problem!”
“How about we do it again next Friday?” Sam asked.
“Uh, maybe we take turns hosting this?”
“Sure thing,” Sam replied, “I can show you guys tips on how to handle animals! Who knows, maybe I can bring gramps along as well…”
“Hey, can you also bring Dogen?”
“Of course!”
Bernatrice bleated, holding out a plate with graham crackers and chocolate on them,
“Thanks, girl!” she said as she squished her marshmallow into a gooey sandwich.
Raz looked around and saw his friends and their archetypes socializing amongst each other. Seeing how he had helped them figure out mental projection and their archetypes gave him a sense of pride and even kinship.
And yet a question still burned inside him.
“Aw, this gathering reminds me of the Green Needle Gulch days!” Cassie said, toasting her marshmallow over the fire, “I should try to do more gatherings with my friends now that Helmut and Lucy are back…”
“So…Cassie?”
“Yes, Raz?”
“What do you think my archetype represents?”
“Pardon?” Cassie replied, tilting her head slightly in confusion.
“I noticed the other Junior Psychonauts basically had what they wanted and their purpose figured out. I, on the other hand, can’t remember what I summoned him for, and don’t even know his purpose aside from helping me in puzzles…”
“I’d honestly be surprised if you did have something figured out!”
“What?”
“As I said before in my mental world, important challenges in our lives can cause us to create entirely new identities for ourselves. For example, Counterfeiter was created when I was abandoned by my parents to a printing press, whereas Writer was created when I decided to write Mindswarm to get the money I needed to flee my home.”
“And the Librarian was made after the fight with Maligula?”
“She was made quite a bit of time before that, but it was when she became the dominant archetype. The point is, archetypes often come from life’s experience, and the reason Archie isn’t as focused or developed as the others is that you are still figuring out yourself.”
“Oh…”
“That being said, from my interactions with you and Archie is that he’s most likely based on how you were as a child—very goofy, quite impulsive, a little cheeky, but just as much a good kid as you are. He’s a companion for whenever you need one, whether you’re trying to reach new locations, you need to see new perspectives, or if you’re overstimulated and running through the woods.”
“So he’s basically comic relief?”
“Which isn’t a bad thing! Joy and laughter can be crucial when times turn dark—”
“Hey, buddy!” Archie shouted, “Your marshmallow is burning!”
Raz quickly pulled away his toasting stick to see a blackened marshmallow.
“At least I caught it before it caught on fire,” Raz said as he put the marshmallow between graham crackers and chocolate.
“Yay! It’s edible!”
Raz chuckled at his archetype’s cheers before a bite of the gooey, sweet stack.
