DUEL 003: The Bored Spirit At Play

[fluffydeathdealer]

[To say that Bakura's been in a good mood lately is an understatement.

Thanks to the thief king, he has the eighth key that he needs once he gets out of here. It's frustrating being trapped in this place, but he's spent so long with the Ring's imprisonment that it's easy to cope with this. It's just a waiting game. It always has been.

It's said that the greatest enemy of the immortal is boredom. For Bakura, that's an understatement. There weren't many duelists around, getting rid of people wasn't possible with the curse upon this place bringing them back, and the problem with letting his darker instincts out was that in this place, there was no way to get away with it without word spreading too fast, or his victims recovering. How tedious! Even if he took their souls, this place would probably return them to their bodies before long. He couldn't even pursue the remainder of his collection, with Shadi not being accessible.

So for now, he's sitting on the ground in the courtyard despite the cold, working with a much more mundane hobby. He's making a marionette.

It's not quite finished, but it might look familiar... It looks a surprising amount like a creepier version of a certain young boy with ridiculous hair. It's symbolic! And it isn't the only one there. Hanging over the nearest doorway, waiting to fall down on anyone who opens the door to come outside, is a slightly more intimidating one...]

Comments

[whitescalesbigmouth]

[Saft since her arrival has been making the rounds of this strange new place, there were still many rooms she had to look at, people she still had to meet. But there was one face she had come across that she recognised or at least she thought she did when she walked past a window.

That boy with the white hair in the courtyard? That was Ryou right? It certainly looked like him. But there just seemed to be something slightly off about him.]

Ryou?

What are you up to?

[fluffydeathdealer]

[Damn, those eyes weren't big enough. Ripping one of them off, he glances around at the stranger. Ah... he'd seen this one before. His host's latest little friend. Interesting... she might be good for a laugh.]

'Ryou'?

[The lazily drawled name doesn't sound quite the same when spoken through his harsher tones. Of course, he could have pretended... but why spoil the fun?]

I'm not Ryou.

[Lifting the one-eyed marionette, he shows it to her.]

I'm making a puppet~. Do you like puppets, Saft?

[whitescalesbigmouth]

[Maybe when she was a kid, but these? They;re a little on the creepy side.]

...Uh, I guess so?

Wait, if you're not Ryou - Then how do you know who I am?

[fluffydeathdealer]

[That's the idea. He grins widely at that question, setting the puppet down on his folded legs.]

I'm Bakura. I was watching when you two met.

[A moment to let that kick in...]

I'm the other person who makes use of this body. Think of it as a type of symbiosis... If he experiences something, then I also do.

[whitescalesbigmouth]

[The other person? Well, congrats Bakura, you've managed to confuse her.]

But that doesn't make sense, something like that - it's impossible isn't it?

[Sat, you're a frigging dragon. Why is something like this giving you the heebie-jeebies now when you've encountered much stranger stuff on your own turf.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

Most people would say your existence is impossible, too...

[He wonders faintly if her blood tastes as good as Karasu's. She's less of a dragon than the white-haired girl, so he doubts it.]

If it's impossible, then I'm more unique than I thought... and I'm pretty damn unique.

[whitescalesbigmouth]

[She narrows her eyes at that.]

So where's Ryou?

[fluffydeathdealer]

Ryou's sleeping now. H-heh heh... Fast asleep inside of this body!

[whitescalesbigmouth]

So you're in charge huh?

...Sounds like a raw deal if you ask me.

[Poor Ryou.]

[whiterosefoes]

[Walking into the courtyard when suddenly death from above!! Harriet immediately whips out her sword and stabs away at the small 'monster' that had appeared out of nowhere.

It splinters.] What the fuck-

[oh my god she just stabbed a stupid puppet. That's really embarrassing. She looks around to see if anyone saw that, which they probably did because why else would you rig a puppet to drop on someone. Damn it.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

...

What the hell?!

[Bakura just stares up at her from where he's sitting on the floor, flabbergasted by the sight. Did she really overreact to the point of shanking his Zorc mannequin?]

Snrk.

[Must... not... laugh...]

[whiterosefoes]

[Bakura you just don't understand ok!! Spotting him, Harriet is completely unsurprised. She pulls the sword out of the mannequin, heaving a short, annoyed sigh. He obviously wants to laugh at her. She's giving him a deadpan look.]

No, go ahead. Make this worth it.

[fluffydeathdealer]

HehehehHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[The laughter comes, despite her lack of amusement - or perhaps even because of it. It's sacrilegious, since that's meant to be the guy he's working for, but really - since when has he cared about insults to others than him? Even ones that he subconsciously knows are important?]

What an entirely un-cute reaction, Harriet! To skewer one of my creations, that I put so much effort into creating!

[...he's not actually even remotely bothered about it.]

[whiterosefoes]

[as he's delivering that long, overblown cackle, Harriet strides over and, still deadpanning, swings a swift little kick right to his seated behind. Now that was worth it, and she makes no further comment on the action other than another nonverbal one, to sheathe her sword with a huff.]

Well, what do you expect when you create something as ugly as that! It looks like Satan crossed with ...

[glances back at it.]

Er, with some sort of pervert, I s'pose?

[Shirtless. Weird foreign objects sticking directly out of crotch area. Definitely a pervert.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

Ow-! [You absolute bi-

Glowering at her, he sat back. Maybe he deserved that, but still, that wasn't fair.]

Oi, oi... Pervert? That's my 'employer'... Or at least a close replication, based on human designs.

[Drawing one of his cards out - Dark Master - Zorc - he offers it to her.]

That's the closest thing I have to an idea of what he looks like. He's supposed to strike terror into the hearts of humans! I guess I did a good job, for you to react like that, h-heh...

[whiterosefoes]

[Harriet takes the card to examine it, but rips her eyes from it for a moment to give him another good scowl.] I wasn't terrified.

[Going back to a second look, she reads the card.]

"Dark Master Zorc." You have a dark master?

[every time she thinks he couldn't get any more over-the-top evil, he pulls out some new shit like this. Seriously, how is it that they can talk so casually.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

Maybe. I think so, anyway. I used to roleplay him in Ryou's Monster World games. I didn't realize until later that he was even important. But I started to suspect it after a while. A strange feeling connected to his name... And on a whim, I pretended to remember him when talking with the thief king, and he confirmed he's our Master. So I guess that's good enough.

But I don't remember anything about him. If he even looks like that... his voice, what his goals are... all of that's long gone.

I only recently remembered the second part of his name. "Necrophades." "Zorc Necrophades". Kind of an interesting name, isn't it?

[Connecting the strings to the hand of the Yugi puppet he's working on, he ponders why he's even telling her something he's never told Malik. But at the same time, Malik would becoming back with him if they leave. There's no guarantee she'll ever show up again in his lifetime. So she's not a threat. Malik, on the other hand, would be a problem if he figured this shit out. He still hadn't told him the fact that he knew Malik was lying to him about Yugi.]

[nojusticeonlyme]

[Death merely pauses in momentary confusion, then pushes the marionette aside with his scythe as he leads his white horse into the courtyard. Ah. Yes, there seems to be someone making another puppet there. Curious about why someone would devote their time and energy to such things, he approaches the figure and stands directly behind him, watching him work for a moment before speaking up.]

WHY ARE YOU MAKING THESE...MARIONETTES?

[fluffydeathdealer]

-! Oi! Don't sneak up on me!

[Bakura stares up at him, wide-eyed. The last thing he expected was someone in a halloween costume and a horse.

...is this the start of a bar joke?]

I'm making them because I'm bored.

[nojusticeonlyme]

YOU HAVE ACCESS TO NEARLY LIMITLESS SCENARIOS, AND YET YOU ARE BORED? FASCINATING...

[How did humans do it? Surrounded by one incredible improbability after another, and yet they invented boredom! He nudges the marionnette with the staff of his scythe.]

AND THIS IS INTENDED TO END YOUR BOREDOM?

[fluffydeathdealer]

What? I'd hardly call it limitless!

[Looping his fingers through the strings, he lifts the unfinished... thing and makes it wave at him. He knows the voice, at least; this guy was the same one who claimed to be Santa. Guess he really was lying. Or maybe this was his day job.]

You're one to talk about odd methods, roaming around like that. Halloween was over a few months ago. Anyway, it's just a hobby. I've never made these before, so I wanted to try it out. I've always liked puppets.

[nojusticeonlyme]

SO YOU TELL YOURSELF.

[He cocks his skull slightly, baffled.]

WHAT IS "HALLOWEEN?"

[fluffydeathdealer]

Halloween's a western holiday. People dress up in scary costumes and honor the dead by way of food.

[Sitting back, he stares up at him curiously. If he didn't know what Halloween was, that meant he went around like that normally. Heh. Kinda cute, really... It was a good look. He liked it.]

Is it really that weird?

[nojusticeonlyme]

AH.

[That sounds very much like Soul Cake Day. The whole thing always perplexed him, really.]

WHAT PURPOSE DOES THE FOOD SERVE? THE DEAD CANNOT EAT.

[fluffydeathdealer]

[That makes him grin. It's a good reason to be skeptical... but he's not sure it's entirely true. After all, he's dead. He's just inhabiting a living body. Does that count? ...probably not. Maybe if the dead were zombies...]

In places where they give the dead food, it's supposed to make them feel like they're still one of the family and still being thought of. In other places, people just eat to celebrate their former existences... like a party.

Of course, in a lot of places, they just make a party out of it for no reason and forget the dead side of things anyway.