whiterosefoes | ☄ ATTACK OF THE FILLER

[Whack it does, a bit hard for such an "innocent" throw! Harriet casts a disapproving glance - Bakura's lucky she's not inclined to blow his cover - as Peter leans down to rub it soothingly.]

Sheeeesh, you got a lot pent up yourself... You both need a nap if you ask me, mate!

[But he's not too bothered. As the building comes into view, he takes a deep breath and jogs toward it. Harriet doesn't say anything else, but she decides that resetting the barrier is a good enough start as any. ]

Oh, I couldn't! Vaughn-san has done so much for me, I can't just dump it all on her and her friends.

[He smiles innocently, the look changing once Peter is running off. Heheh... looks like he got away with it. This guy would fit in at home...

He feels a faint rush of relief as he sees Harriet setting up the barrier all over again. He gives his host a mental shake and frowns a little to himself as he stays asleep. How annoying... it'd be a lot easier if Ryou was handling anything actually involving effort here.

While Harriet works on that, he goes back to their broken down dorm and hauls out her mattress, dusting it off and dumping it in a relatively empty corner for her. If she refuses to lie down, he will just bind her in place with the Ring until she stops fighting it. He doesn't really want to reveal that power to her, but he will if he has to. Hopefully she's just too tired to argue too much. Either way, she's going on the goddamn mattress once the barrier's done.]

[It's a process in and of itself. Including the 8 white rose cards, she also has to set up a chain of cards in between them to pass their energy across a wider area - magic and monsters alike will do, so she uses the ones from her travels that didn't have a place in her deck. Eventually, there's one second of a shimmer as the barrier forms itself, after which Harriet can be found on the perimeter within. Though, after separating from Peter, she found that her energy had returned. She's alert now... the mental scars bother her more, as she idly rolls the Oricalchos shard around in her pocket. The monster she had guarding her as she set up the barrier sees Bakura first. She takes her hand off of it to wave.]

All set.

Good. This'll make things easier.

[For him, of course, even if it conveniently helps everyone else. He can feel Ryou stirring in the back of his mind by now, but he just shoves him back into sleep as easily as stuffing a kitten in a sack. Harriet looks better too, but... eh. If she's this stressed out, she really needs to step away from it for a while.]

You can rest now, then.

I suppose. I am feeling more awake now...

[She blinks, belatedly.]

You were serious? I thought you were just saying something 'Ryou-like' back then.

[Of course she is. He goes to the effort of helping out and she's more awake. Tch.]

Of course I'm serious. You've been at it nonstop since the tornado hit. Even if you're not exhausted any more, you could use the downtime.

[Great, she's going to think he's being nice or something. He throws his hand out in a dramatic gesture as he speaks, pointing at her abruptly.]

Don't get me wrong! If you collapse again, that'll be a problem for me. I hired you after all!

[...for absolutely no pay, against her will, for a task she has no involvement or stake in and would probably be very heavily against were she to realize it would be considerably worse than what she just went through. But he still hired her!]

'Hired?' You're not my boss...

[Huff. If she thought he was nice, she wouldn't have been surprised in the first place... maybe she has Stockholm syndrome.]

Well, I don't think there's much I can do anymore that the others can't, anyway. I'll try.

[...he's kind of disappointed by how easy that was.]

Good. There's a mattress I dragged out for you. Over here.

[Ignoring that first part, because pft, of course he is. He tucks his hand into one of his jeans pockets, leading her over to where he put it.]

[Surprisingly, she won't fight him on everything he tries to do... she did already promise, more or less. Though she follows him, she's still got doubts on whether she can manage to fall asleep on an outdoor mattress near wreckage. Sigh.]

This is silly. I hope you realize that.

[Oh well, he tried. She'll sit on it at first, looking back at the dorm goings-on like she's already thinking of calling it off.]

[He rolls his eyes at her expression.]

What are you complaining about? Just lie down already!

[He's sooooo sorry he didn't find her a four-star hotel. Jeez, these humans... talk about picky. He could have easily told her to sleep on the bare floor.]

No, it's not exactly a complaint... it just is, all right?

[I mean yeah it was pretty cool that he got this, but sleeping in this situation doesn't feel right. Even though it makes sense. Jeez.]

Fine, I'm going.

[Anyway, she's rolling her eyes in return, but she'll slide onto her back after a brief moment and close them.

It doesn't stop feeling wrong, though, and her brain won't turn off.]

[Hmph. At least she's not trying to leave. He casually flops down on the ground beside the mattress, linking his hands behind his head and relaxing. The gods are probably laughing at him right now. How often do you expect a tornado intervening in something like this? He's going to have to make Ryou work even harder to get everything ready in time.

He stays silent, just closing his eyes and pushing aside all of this. It's all too easy for him. Things drift, like debris on the surface of the ocean. Even without his efforts, they drift away, out of his reach. It doesn't bother him. The important things are held tightly, but those things are merely unnecessary garbage. Past lives, past people, past problems. He's never had problems letting go. A mere tornado isn't going to be more than a flicker in his life... as long as it doesn't destroy his host. It's merely an inconvenience. But that also means that he can't understand her pain... and nor does he want to. That she can't rest isn't a thought that crosses his mind. That it might even be worse for her to rest, with her mind full of these thoughts, doesn't cross it either.

The night air is uncomfortably cool against his skin, sending a chill through him. It's easy enough to ignore it, he's ignored worse sensations while in control of Ryou, but it still irritates him a little. He almost drifts off himself, but jerks himself back to awareness after a couple of moments. His foot rocks idly back and forth against the ground. Maybe he should let Ryou out to help with this crap... then again, all he cares about is recovering what he can from their dorm-room, and he can do that under daylight. It's too dark for that right now anyway.

Though not for long.

Above them, the sky is brightening. A kaleidoscope of iridescent light spreads steadily across the clouds, splitting the sky into two parts on either side of it. It ripples and shimmers brilliantly to illuminate everything beneath them. As it reaches out, the roar of countless monsters fills the air, echoing across the sky in a harsh cacophony. There's something in the sound that's both fearful and respectful. In some, it even sounds pained.

Bakura doesn't open his eyes. The light piercing through his closed eyes only draws one thought. Dawn's come pretty fast, huh? He didn't think he'd been resting that long. Maybe he dozed off again.

As the glow brightens, the Ring starts to chime slowly, softly. It can sense what he can't. This light... sure as hell isn't natural.]

[Her eyes are closed, but no matter how many times she rolls over, it doesn't stop. Wanting to do more, as if that would bring people back. Wanting to go further away, as if she could escape her feelings. The future won't go as planned - that tournament in her schedule, for example, was how she'd initially meant to show Oliver how strong she had become. To explain with dueling, and to have fun doing it. Instead, now everyone knew about her magic, but she showed that she was still powerless to save them. Then it's okay if she sleeps, isn't it? After all, it's over... whether she likes it or not.

And Bakura is still there with her. She can hear him breathing, relaxed - all these men around her are so calm, like oil on top of the deep water she's sinking in. ...She never thought she'd be jealous of him, of all people. She had never been impressed with his boastful emptiness and fleeting attachments. Especially not when he seemed to be plenty attached to Malik and to an extent, her. But letting go, though she'd called it depressing, would be better than feeling like death now. Well, wouldn't it? All she's ever done was destroy the things in her path, like Jack all that time ago. All in the name of freedom to live her life, but in the end, what she chose is becoming the anchor that's pulling her down. She can feel her body growing heavy at last. At the same time, though, her soul stirs...

The sky is aglow, but if that were not enough, the emotional roars invite whispering from her deck and her Oricalchos heats up from within. Opening her tear-laced eyes wide, a magnificent aurora spreads out in front of her. She jumps to her feet, as though afraid the sky itself had also become her enemy to face. It's beautiful, of course, but the timing is eerie, and the monsters' reaction to it doubly so. She's shaking, feeling tiny against the heavens.]

What? What is it now?

[Jeez. Maybe one hug wasn't enough.]

Edited (the icon was too chill ) 2016-08-09 21:10 (UTC)

[Bakura's eyes flash open all at once, without the slow stirring of a normal person. It's as if he's a doll, and someone just pressed the button to activate him. He sits up, staring up at the sky with a baleful sort of interest. What the hell...? He can see the creatures in the sky, flying away somewhere, as if answering a call... or running away from something. He casts a glance in the opposite direction and sees nothing. Flying to something, then... and something too far away to see.

It takes him a minute before he can tear his eyes away to look at her, noticing that trembling and the aghast look on her face. He wonders why she's so affected by it. It's as if it's horrifying her. He shifts to sit closer to her as he peers up at the sky.]

I don't have a clue, but it sure is interesting!

[It stirs the part of him that this idleness has left to lie. At the Campus, much of that chaos had been restrained by necessity, by the strength of those around him and the power of that annoying Voice. Here, he had nothing to fear... and the sight of this only excites him as a result. He wonders what it means. Abruptly, he turns his head towards her, interest glittering in his eyes.]

Oi, Harriet. Can you fly?

[Hey, it's a valid question. He's yet to understand the limits of either her deck or her magic. Though he doesn't know if having her go anywhere near that thing is a good idea.]

Edited 2016-08-11 09:52 (UTC)

[Why it's affecting her so much? There probably isn't a reason. Just grains of sand tipping the scales between her anger and depression stages of grief, and no different from jumping at shadows. Her shoulders sag when it registers that the monsters are flying away.

But of course, Bakura wants to chase them. He's so fickle... she rubs her eyes before turning to look back at him with a wry look.]

Fly? I thought you wanted me to nap.

[But despite that, she does reach for her extra deck. She clearly has something that would allow her to fly.]

Edited 2016-08-11 18:37 (UTC)

Are you telling me you don't want to see what the hell they're so afraid of?

[He hops to his feet, stretching, as he waits. Nothing in his deck is remotely capable of dealing with this sort of thing... all of his monsters walk, except one or two which are too small to carry them. He vaguely muses on the idea that he should add a flying monster to his deck just for this, then decides against it. It's actually tiring for him to summon stronger monsters after all. It's easier to just rely on her.]

Fine, then...

[With the card in her hand (white bordered, a card she obtained from the Campus) she concentrates, but... that rest wasn't enough. Her summoning energy hasn't recovered. She'll hold onto it for now, but she needs to pull another card before she can use this - there it is. She holds it up.]

But if we're to catch them, I'll need to "borrow" something from you.

[It's said matter of factly, but she activates it before he can argue.]

Magic Drain!

[A translucent being bursts out from the card and embraces him, before returning with his summoning energy. The figure disappears into her hand, leaving the magic dancing across her palms.]

Hm! That'll be plenty.

[He observes the card with distant interest, wondering what it is she plans to do. When she doesn't do anything, though, that confuses him. Her words? They do even more than that.]

Borr- OI!

[His question is cut off by a sudden hug from her card and the unpleasant feeling of something being pulled out of him. He recoils too late, shuddering with a wounded expression. Ugh, dammit, did she have to pick such a disgusting way to drain his power?!]

Didn't anyone ever tell you to ask before you borrow things?!

[Pot, meet the depths of outer space.]

[She huffs as though he's being ridiculous. Though, truthfully, she was looking forward to this reaction.]

You're the one that's asking for a ride. Just consider it your bus fare!

[...It is entirely possible that he's rubbing off on her.

Anyway, she'll raise the monster that's still in her hand.]

Now, come forth! Ancient Sacred Wyvern!

[It bursts forth from her summoning radius and soars into the air - a gorgeous fairy of silver and white, it would probably be long enough to qualify as a bus.]

[Clearly, she is spending far too much time around him! He should be proud of her, but he can't help but pout. Jeez...

Also could she find a more conspicuous monster to fly them? ...well, at least it wasn't Happy Lover. They should be able to ride that nicely. He hops up onto it, still pouting.]

Since when do friends charge for things like that? Besides, you didn't ask me to pay, you just took it!

[It can't be helped! This is the only monster she has that can fly... anyway, he has a (hypocritical) point, but... she looks back at him thoughtfully after she's gotten onto the wyvern's back.]

... But I think this is the first time you've called me your friend to my face.

[Didn't he prefer to pretend that he owned her? It figures he'd only say it to complain. She reaches up to weave her hands into the monster's mane.]

Hold on!

[Oh shit. Oh shit. No, nonononono, he did not mean to say that!]

Why are you making it into a big deal?! It's not like it's important!

[Without thinking, he grabs onto it tightly, feeling a jolt in his stomach when it starts to move. Flight is not something he's got much experience with. On the whole, he feels like he preferred it with Karasu. There was more mass, more of a spread to sit comfortably on. It felt less like he was going to go splat if he relaxed for a moment.

Oh well. She'd catch him.

For Ryou's sake, if not his own.]

Don't backpedal after you used it as leverage! Even if it was important, I don't see why you would mind!

[Bakura may hate it when she points it out... but even with his boastful pretenses, he's always been the one that's more forthcoming with his thoughts toward her, while she has remained coy. Teasing him about it was how she showed she cared, and it never occurred to her to treat it seriously anyway. After all, it wouldn't last. Her goals came first. But what were they now? What could they be, after things were falling apart beneath her? ... For now, she would let them stay beneath her. There were beautiful, terrible skies to pursue.

A wyvern is not an easy ride. It's a flying noodle, rushing joyously through the sky like a roller coaster. Fitting with that simile, it's at least twice as fast. It may be sort of difficult to take in one's surroundings like that! Only at first, though. Once they're high enough, it evens out, allowing Harriet to scan the sky for retreating monsters.

Or falling Bakuras, if that were the case.]

It's embarrassing when you say things like that!

[Bakura retorts irritably, but he soon has other things on his mind. Like not falling off. He has to shut his eyes against the dizziness for a moment, feeling that eerie sensation of displacement in his stomach, as if it's been left behind by how fast they're going. He doesn't mind speed normally.

This isn't normal. This is an unsafe, twisting, wiggling creature that he's having to hold onto tightly to prevent falling. Without thinking, once it events out, he hauls himself higher to reach out and grab onto her leg for support.]

You need better flying monsters.

Hm? This kind of flying suits me, though. It's like surfing.

[She says it a bit distantly. Maybe someone among the deceased was a surfing buddy. Maybe she realizes it's not that much like surfing. Maybe she's thinking about standing up on its back, though.

Well, she can't with him hanging on to her leg like that, anyway. And that's kind of awkward. She turns her eyes back at him.]

Erm. This is...

[He can't be planning to hang off her from her leg if he slips, surely? That would just pull them both off!]

☄ ATTACK OF THE FILLER

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