fluffydeathdealer | [CAMPUS/IC] II

[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...

-!

[Bakura freezes up at those words. Malik's soul fragment... might be here. If the other Malik hadn't gotten rid of it too, then he might be able to speak to him again. Though he tries to quell the rising tide of hope, he feels the sudden need to try.]

If he's still alive, he'll be in here. Though I don't know how aware he'll be.

[He hides his face in his hand briefly, trying to focus. If Malik is in here... he wants to see him.]

Then, Harriet, shall we go look for him?

[He's already getting up.

...and without waiting for her answer, he casually scoops her up in his arms like a bride.]

Wah-! [BAKURA. She wants to check on Malik too, but do you have to carry her around like some kind of... bondage princess?!

Well, actually, shit. She can't think of a better way. ]

...Ugh, fine. Maybe if we find him, we can fix this rotten mess.

...

[He'll be happy just seeing him. Though fixing this would be the best option. At the least, Malik might have a clue how to fix Harriet.]

I came from over there, so we might as well go this way...

[Though if Malik gets the wrong idea when he sees them, Bakura's going to be very freaking amused. Either way, he's heading off through the soul forest.]

Be good and stop me if anything catches your attention, won't you?

As if I'd want this to go on any longer than it has to...

[she's a little grumpy. She looks around while he navigates through the forest - even if he's now doing it while holding a person so it should really be harder, it seems to have actually gotten easier to get around now that she's there. Imagine that.

For a while, there's nothing too strange. But then she sees what appears to be another box through the trees.]

Oy, look there!

[Interesting... she's helping him whether she knows it or not. He's glad for it, at least.]

And it's not even Christmas...

[Going over to the box, he sets her down beside it and checks it out. Jeez... what the hell kind of weird mind does she have, sticking people in boxes? One was weird, but if this is Malik, that's even weirder.

Well, time to open it.]

[Just like Harriet, at the bottom of the box lies Malik's semi-transparent form, sleeping deeply and bondage-free as it may be. Although "sleeping" may not be the right word for it. Without Malik's external input, the fragment appears lifeless for the moment.]

[Sitting up, Harriet looks over the side and... oh sweet jesus. dead ghost malik in a box.]

Malik...?

Tch... thought it wouldn't be that easy. The one I had is gone. I'm surprised he let this one live at all.

[Maybe he thought it wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. Bakura reaches out a hand slowly to see if it's tangible. If it is, he can pull the fragment out and maybe shake it awake...]

[When touched, Bakura's hand is able to go through, and while there is some magnet like resistance to the touch, it's not enough to move Malik.]

Um. It is alive though, yeah? It looks kinda...

When souls die, they tend to disappear. The fact that he's here at all means he's alive.

Or as alive as a tiny piece of a man's soul that's been sliced off and stuck in someone else can get.

OI, MALIK! Wake up, already!

[The fragment's eyes shoot open in alarm, but his body remains unmoving. His focus snaps to the two people looking over at him, but he doesn't relax.

Something was missing... His connection to his main soul. Right now all he had were residual thoughts; one last burst of panic before the connection had fallen into silence.]

...How long have I been asleep?!

... Good question. [Harriet's not sure how long she's been asleep either. She looks to Bakura.]

If it's the same as Harriet, then just under a week. That is, if you fell asleep around the time your connection to your 'main self' snapped.

[Despite the look on his face, Bakura's words are serious, holding none of his usual humour.]

...I don't remember.

[He sits up, still seated in the box as he looks over at the other two. This severance from the rest of his soul was certainly disturbing. He felt isolated...alone. After a moment he simply phases out of the box and gravitates to Harriet's side, having grown comfortable being so close to her soul.

It's about then that a thought occurs to him.]

...Wait. What do you mean "the same as Harriet"?

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