fluffydeathdealer | [CAMPUS/IC] II

[Harriet still hadn't woken up. After the place had returned to normal, he'd gone through the trouble of changing the locks and everything to make sure she wasn't caught by Malik again, but he hadn't expected her to still be unconscious. As far as he could tell, her soul was there... so why wasn't she waking up? What the hell did Malik do to her?

The silence of the apartment, quiet save for the sound of Anubis' breathing, was starting to grind on his nerves. With only one working hand, there was no way in hell he could play videogames to fill in the noise, and the tv was just annoying.

Over and over, he flicked back and forth between answers. Books went discarded, unread. He could eat meat all he wanted now, but doing that felt like he was giving in and claiming that Malik wasn't coming back. His guilt over his failure to even save the soul fragment was drowning his mind. Maybe he should go visit Karasu, or just wander around... no, his mood was too frustrated for that. It meant letting people see his vulnerability, because his temper was fraying too obviously.

It was an offhand thought - it's just as boring as being back inside the Ring - that gave him the clue. That's right... He could check up on Harriet that way. She might not like it, but to hell with what she wanted!

He was getting kinda fed up of being alone in here. And maybe he missed her just a little. That was all he'd admit to.

Dragging himself up to the top bunk where she was lying (it being the only way to prevent Anubis trying to annoy her, apart from the obvious factor of Ryou not being happy with the idea of sleeping in the same bed as a chick), he lies on his stomach beside her for a moment, debating how to do this. He could just let Ryou take charge...

But she's warm despite her stillness.

So instead, he just rolls onto his side beside her and rests there, looping the chain of the Ring over her neck as well as his own. It's only for a little while anyway.

He's never tried to enter the soul room of someone who wasn't an Item user before. He hopes this works. If it doesn't, he's going to be even more bored!]

Edited 2014-03-28 20:06 (UTC)

[ It seems to have worked! Harriet's soul room centers in a pavillion of white stone. It's wide and open, the kind used for shelter and entertaining. The stone is weathered, but stands very strong nevertheless. It's a beautiful structure. Underneath it, there are a few large, round tables set up.

One table features a dollhouse that looks like her old home. Inside and around the dollhouse are all kinds of decorative dolls like she had described to collect. This table also has pictures of people that Bakura has never seen before. Along with the other pictures, there's a rather decorative frame that's set up, but completely empty. Behind the frame, there's a particularly large doll with reddish hair that seems a bit chipped, and looks kind of like Harriet but not. Everything on this table is covered with thick dust.

The second table has a vase of flowers, a stack of research books and movies, and pictures of the people she's close to in Campus - the other Rose Duelists, and Malik and Bakura. Jack has a picture too, but its frame has been broken. A sticky residue on the broken part indicates that it may have been taped before, but the tape was ripped off. Weird, but nothing in this table is too surprising.

The third table isn't as decorated, and appears to be for sitting at and talking over a stack of maps. It has enough chairs for three, but underneath the chairs are her sword and her bow and arrows. There's a card on two out of three of the chairs. Apparently this table is where she hangs out with her two main deck leaders and talks strategy. To the side of the pavillion, there's a small clock tower, but its face is broken.

Surrounding the pavillion is a garden of ferns and white roses, encircled rather claustrophobically by a grove of trees. Upon close inspection of the roses, many of them appear to be speckled with blood.

Strangely enough, Harriet is nowhere to be found in this area, even though it's clearly the main part of her soul. If he wants to find her, he'll need to venture onward. Or he could just poke through her shit. Either or. ]

Edited 2014-03-28 20:50 (UTC)

...

[It's interesting, seeing this. The inside of her mind is a beautiful place. He pokes around for a little bit, checking out the things here with interest. It almost distracts him. Almost. If nothing else, his soul is undamaged. Though it's still mimicking Ryou's appearance, it's devoid of injury. Thanks to that, he can rifle through her stuff pretty easily.

The roses take more of his attention than the rest of it, little of which is surprising. They're beautiful. He draws his finger over one of them, smearing the blood over it, and carelessly licks it from his finger.

...soul-blood isn't as nice as real blood. His mind can only replicate the taste from imagination and memory, so it's shallower. How annoying. Oh well. Time to go look for the main inhabitant of this room.]

Harriet?

[Maybe if he goes through the trees?]

[And a good thing too, that the blood wasn't nice. Harriet would probably not be amused if she caught him licking her flowers clean.

But calling her name doesn't seem to have gotten her attention, so with no other paths in sight, into the trees he must go. It's not an easy task - the forest is thick and wild, and many of the trees are covered in thorns. It's a cruel barrier that adds to the claustrophobic feeling.]

Kh... what is this, Sleeping Beauty?

[Even if reality doesn't apply in soul rooms, he's an intruder in this one. He can't manipulate it as he would be able to his own. At least he knows that the feeling of 'pain' isn't real. If he died here, maybe it would destroy his soul, but the chance of that is almost impossibly tiny.

Still, the tightness of this forest is a little unnerving even to him. It makes him feel trapped, and he pushes through it with as much force as he can, just wanting to be past the barrier of the trees.]

[Yes. Yes it is.

Looking out, the forest seems to go on without end. However there is a small clearing up ahead. It's still kind of cramped, but what's in the midst of it seems entirely out of place.

It's a big cardboard box. What??]

. . .

What the hell?

[Scrambling into the clearing with a feeling of relief, he stares at the box suspiciously. It's bigger than he's used to seeing, that's for sure. And weirdly placed.

...his curiosity heightened, he goes to open it.]

[Bakura's curiosity paid off, as inside the box is definitely something interesting: it's a woman! Better yet, it's the one he was looking for! But it gets even more interesting.

At the bottom of the box, Harriet is lying unconscious on her side, bound in several places with thick tape - several strips constrict across her shoulders, arms and upper body, and her hands are tied together behind her back. Her legs are bound together in several places as well, and at the ankle. It doesn't look like she'd be able to move at all.

So that's a thing. Either Harriet's secretly into some really kinky shit, or this has something to do with her coma. But she's fully clothed, so it's probably the latter. She appears to be stirring as the box was opened, at least - there was no tape over her eyes, so it must be the light coming in.]

Edited 2014-04-01 20:28 (UTC)

[He's pretty sure it's the latter. Whatever kinky shit she was into, and as pretty a sight as it is, he's pretty sure it wouldn't involve a cardboard box and clothes.

...still, he was just going to enjoy the view while she stirs.]

Good morning, Harriet. That doesn't look like a comfortable way to sleep!

[He's right. Now that he mentions it, she doesn't feel comfortable at all. But she's been sleeping like this for a while, and having a very long dream while she was at it. There's something unnatural about that, but she can't remember how it started... she opens her eyes, looking sleepily up at Bakura to see that he's staring down at her from the outside of a box. That's weird, so she looks down and sees the position she's in. Once she does, she jerks in surprise and shrieks. The box almost tips. Oh god, this is really humiliating.]

The fuck is this?!

Beats me! This is the weirdest way I've ever found someone's soul.

[Honestly, why the hell does she think he'll know? Still, her reaction is amusing and she's probably not all that aware of the fact that this is her soul room, so he'll let her off.]

I'll explain in a minute. Hold on. I'll try to get you out.

[By which he means "put his foot on the side of the box and make it tip so she falls out.]

Soul?

[She's confused, but never mind that. He's putting his foot on the box? Ack-] Oy, wait! [Nope, she just got unceremoniously dumped on the ground.] You son of a bitch...

This explanation better be good!

[Or what? She can't really do anything right now. But with all this snip, at least he can tell it's really her.

As for Harriet, the ground is cold. And she's still tied up. This sucks!]

Heheh... you're making such a scary face, Harriet!

[He's so scared. So terrified he can't stop grinning. So not scared at all, really.]

But, you really couldn't tell, huh... I guess it really is that way for people who don't get visitors in here.

[Crouching down beside her, he looks her over with a frown, reaching out to tug at the tape curiously. Does this stuff come off?]

[Eh, who cared. Becoming slightly more serious, he speaks in a low and surprisingly calm tone. Though being able to talk to her again is... nice. Now if only he could do the same for Malik.]

To keep it under a millennium long, we're in your soul room right now. I don't know the details, but you're kind of comatose. I thought you might know what happened, so I came to see what I could find out, and found you tied up in that box.

[Like hell he's admitting that he was lonely.]

[The tape barely budges at all when he pulls it. It's extremely tight. Harriet starts struggling more herself after he quickly gives up, but it's futile and awkward, so she resigns soon as well and focuses on what he's saying.]

I thought it was like a dream... [Harriet mutters. She could sort of tell. It's just that she had no frame of reference when it came to Soul things.]

... It must have been Malik's dark side. He challenged me to a shadow game... the rest is fuzzy. It's like those memories are sealed off.

[His chest aches a little at the mention of Malik and he frowns, looking away.]

Tch. I thought so. That guy's nothing but trouble.

[More to hide his ill mood than anything else, he reaches out to ruffle her hair.]

I guess this is less trouble for him than dealing with you reanimating.

....No shit.... [It's sinking in now that she's in a coma. That's the reason why her dream has been going on for so long. Why it's so vivid... her brain is probably doing everything it can to stay awake. And this stupid tape bondage is her soul's representation of that curse. Then they probably won't be able to remove it no matter how much they try. And the possibility that the only reason she's alive is because a coma is more effective in keeping her down than killing her is not particularly reassuring.

She gives Bakura an annoyed look as he ruffles her hair.] You know, if you're going to touch me, you could at least sit me up. This is pretty fucking humiliating.

You could sit yourself up if you wanted. But I guess that's a bit awkward to expect on your first try.

[He looks her over appraisingly for a moment before reaching down to haul her up into a sitting position.]

Can you keep your balance?

[She didn't really want to deal with the flopping around like a fish part of sitting up on her own. Letting him see that would be worse than asking for help in her opinion. She straightens up in the sitting position, feeling better already.]

Yeah, yeah. No problem.

[but as soon as he lets go]

- FUCK!

[she flops over.]

[Whatever snarky comment he was going to make is stopped by the sudden impact of Harriet flopping onto him. He catches her out of instinct. Hah... guess her soul really is helpless like this. Without knowing of the ability most people had to warp the reality of their own soul room when active inside of it, she was enforcing reality upon herself. It was almost cute.]

Oi, oi~. No need to yell that loud. Though if you wanted to be in my arms that badly, you just had to ask.

[...he's a bit grateful that her hands are tied because she would probably beat him up for that joke otherwise. Or try, at least. A little more seriously now:]

You're binding yourself to reality. You just have to trust in yourself not to fall over and you won't. This is the room of your soul. It can't hurt you. It can hurt me, since I'm intruding... but not you.

Oh, shut up.

[She's tempted to headbutt him for that comment... He gets serious before she can, though, and she has no choice but to listen since it seems like he's telling her she doesn't have to lean on him. He's got a point. How could gravity exist inside of her soul, anyway?]

Is that so... Well, I suppose it makes sense. I haven't gotten used to thinking of it as my soul. It doesn't look much like a room either, and it's...

... kind of gloomy, isn't it? It's not pretty at all.

[yeah, she's judging her soul forest. Go figure.]

The pavilion's kind of okay. I could take you there if you want, but you'd have to get through the trees. It was a bitch getting here at all.

[He is also judging her soul forest.]

But, you're the soul, Harriet. This is just the room in which your soul resides.

[By being here he's seen more of her than he's sure she's happy with. Those thorns... are they a protection that everyone must fight through in order to reach her heart? Or was he just special like that? Soul rooms are hard to comprehend...]

Don't worry so much. It's probably... reflecting your state of being. You're in a gloomy situation, after all.

[At first she only knew that the soul room had a big crappy forest, so she was vaguely disturbed but not especially offended by his presence in it. It didn't mean much to her. Her eyebrows raise at his mention of a pavilion though. Just how much stuff is in here, what does it even mean? And how much has he gone through? He'd described himself as intruding before, but it only just started to feel that way. She can't exactly disagree with his motives for coming here, but... it is highly questionable. Harriet makes a face.]

Gloomy is an understatement for the situation. I'm in a bloody coma, you had to come barging into my soul room just to figure it out, and Malik's...

[Gone crackers. Or just gone. It's hard to differentiate, when Dark Malik's out. She simply trails off, before having a realization.

Is he gone? She's suddenly remembered what Bakura had offhandedly said about his presence in Karasu's soul. Harriet looks up at him.]

This is a soul room. Does that mean other soul-y things are awake in here too? Like Malik's fragment inside of me...

21/3/14

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