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The thin birch strip of wood slowly creaked open, pushed passed clusters of unwashed clothes and breaking the grasp of darkness with warm light forcing itself through.
Iron shoes pressed into the ragged carpet; connected to a pale body encased in a dark suit, small drumsticks hanging from a stringy necklace.
An esca risen from the base of his forehead offered a small, added rinse of cyan glow.
“[C’mon, you gotta get up.]”
Skinny fingers crushed a crumpled sheet of a shaggy pillowcase between their wiry grasp; scrabbling to pull the entire cushion into the id’s face.
“[C’mon,]” Mind spoke, a soft voice of frigid tenderness as he stepped closer into the chamber. “[C’mon. You gotta get up.]”
“(I don't want to.)” Heart pushed the words through locked teeth.
“[I know.]” Mind spoke, now firmly. “[If I let you stay asleep, your cage will think staying asleep is an option. And then, you'll struggle to wake up every morning knowing you can just fall back asleep, knowing that it's allowed on occasion.]”
Heart groaned.
He turned in the clump of blankets awfully formed around his scrawny body, shifting old stuffed animals and unclean sheets with his form’s twists.
His pale body, only hugged by shaggy undergarments and an expensive bra, wrinkled under the weight of his mattress’ belongings.
“[C’mon.]” Mind commanded. “[You need to wake up.]”
“(Mm…)”
“[I know it's hard, but you need to get up.]”
“(Ng…)”
“[Come on. Things have been hard, I know. But you still need to get up.]”
Heart positioned his back into a semblance of a lift, sitting up idly for a moment. He then dipped his body back into his warm covers, closed in a ball as he was then submerged in softness.
“[Heart. I already make breakfast, come on.]”
“(It's not that I'm tired.)”
Heart wriggled, then collapsing onto his side, ducked under toasty blankets.
“[Then what is it?]”
Curses. Now that he shared his feelings, he’d have to expose a bit about how he felt at the moment.
“(It's nothing important.)” Heart had already prepared the first batch of backup excuses if that one hadn't worked.
“[Yes it is. We have work to do, and if you're not going to get up then we can't do it.]”
“(It's not about you taking control.)”
“[It doesn't have to be.]”
“(It’s not about anyone else making me feel like I’m nothing.)”
“[It doesn't have to be.]”
“(My medicine’s working fine.)”
“[Is it?]”
First batch came out sour. Let's try the next.
“(If you just leave me here, then I won't mess up anything. I promise I would end up doing that.)”
“[Then I can supervise you. It's not hard to type emails and do math we learned in high school.]”
“(But I can't talk to anyone right now. I’ll just annoy them.)”
“[Why do you think you’d annoy them?]”
Drats. That one came out undercooked.
“(I’m in a bad mood, you know? It's not that I think I’m bad or anything, I just think that I’d annoy them with my irritability.)”
“[Mhm.]”
“(Sometimes I'm just a little ornery, and I get a little bit hostile in casual discussion.)”
“[Mhm.]”
Is it working?
Maybe it's working.
“[So then you can do housework. You can wash the dishes, do the laundry, clean the living rooms, the bathrooms, organise the books.]”
“(…)”
“[It’s not hard work, it’ll only take you a few hours, maybe a bit longer for all the laundry but that doesn’t require much effort. You only have two brothers and a Host, and one of them has no care for their hygiene. It's not rocket science.]”
“(…Mind…)”
“[Mhm?]”
“(…I… I’m sick.)”
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
“[Oh really?]”
“(Yes… I don't feel well…)”
“[Alright.]” A Harpoon spun into form around his arm; the interior wobbling with a luminescent blue liquid. “[Let’s check your temperature.]”
He pecked the ground with the Harpoon’s bottom in a neat pair of taps, to which a pinch of air inflated into the shape of a thermometer, still lightly touched by blue.
“[Open your mouth, and put it under your tongue.]” This was bad news.
“(I… I-I can't.)”
“[Why not?]”
“(M… I-I’ll get you sick as well.)”
It was difficult clutching for excuses sometimes.
“[Open your mouth. That is an order.]”
Heart felt a slim roar of obedience rush up his body; instinct.
He was the emotional side of Soul. He was a portioned manifestation of his conscience.
Every word Soul laid to his ears was to be followed, without question, without hesitation.
It was something clear to a creature such as himself; he was a creature of circumstance, not a creature of blood, his consciousness hadn't obeyed the same instincts an ordinary animal would.
Commands were clear to his cage; they were to be followed. They were to be obeyed. He did not spawn to be a nuisance, he spawned to cooperate with and understand his Host.
Consciously, he could taste a modicum of lucid thought; he was an anomaly, not a prophet. Whatever cruel trick evolution designed him as believed his purpose should be to follow his Host, and not bend to the wits of survival.
Mind was in-control. Cruel instinct must decide that means he's Host-like enough.
“(Mm…)” Heart dragged his jaw open, his tongue rising to enunciate further instruction.
Mind placed the thermometer beneath his tongue.
Time idled for a moment.
“[Thirty-nine. Perfectly normal.]”
“(Nnn…)” Heart shrivelled under his cot.
“[Sit up. That is an order.]”
Heart sat up. His subconscious cage acted before his conscious cage.
“[I know your instinct will betray you. I’ve been victim myself.]” Mind spoke, his words shallowly mended with empathy. “[And I dislike exploiting it. But I am going to once more.]”
(Just get it over with. I’ll clean the stupid house already.)
“[Tell me why you are so shut-in as of late.]” Mind ordered.
Heart was taken by surprise, if only to an extent, but he felt his subconscious and conscious, to relent and to resist, fall at war.
“(…)”
“[Heart, do not make this difficult. I simply wish to know why your cage is so crowded these days.]”
“(…)”
“[I have no intention to exploit it. I have no intention to weaponise it. Nor an intention to publicise it. I simply wish to hear your pain and manage it.]”
“(…)” Heart ducked his head. “(…It’s… nothing.)”
Heart felt his instincts grab and curl his innards.
What a sick type of animal he has to be.
“[Heart. I am ordering you to tell me what is wrong.]”
“(I… I promise… i-it's nothing, I-I promise…)”
His arteries bent and his capillaries rebelled.
“[Heart. It is an order.]”
“(I’m… I’m fine , Mind, I’m fine– I’m fine, I promise…)” Sticky purple water dispensed from his eyes, slowly drifting down his nose.
“[Heart. I’m just worried for you. Please, humour me. Tell me what's wrong.]”
“(…)”
“[Would you like a reward for your honesty? We could go out to eat. There's a new ice cream place down the street.]”
(Food…)
“(N-… No, it's fine.)”
Mind seemed to catch onto the desperate pit in Heart’s stomach.
“[We could get lots of food. We could get tough, gamey meats, boiled vegetables, creamy pastries…]”
“(Mind…)”
“[Crispy bacon, chewy pastas, gooey bikkies…]”
“(Mind, stop, please…)”
“[I’ll get you an entire cake. An entire chicken. Loaves of bread, full plates of spaghetti.]”
“(Mind…)” Crinkling words bitten between lines of wet sobs.
“[Heart?]” Mind said, his tone now washed with concern, as he made a short sprint over and collected Heart into his arms. “[Was that too far? I’m sorry.]”
His eyes dripped with watery streams of flowing violet; merging with the black hue of Mind’s suit.
“(I… I get really hungry b- because of when I starved , Mind…)” Heart cried. “(M- My cage isn't aware I’m not on the streets with pencil-thin limbs and ribbed sides anymore.)”
“[I’m sorry.]”
“(I became a glutton to survive . Any meal could've been my last, and the next time I woke it could've been with manacles on my wrists and I’d see the world plaided in blue.)”
“[Mhm.]”
“(That kind of fear… that kind of tension … The pain of knowing everything rests on my shoulders. That a single foul mistake, if I couldn't keep up with the pace of my darting legs, if I couldn't hyperventilate fast enough to make it through the chase, if I couldn't gorge my dying stomach with enough rubbish to not be weak enough I couldn't lift my broken bones, if I couldn't run and run from a world that craved nothing more than to see me fail out of resentment for resentment, the horror of knowing I could be draped on a freezing bench and wake to you with the manacle in your hands, rearing it to take away my ability to run and ruin everything …)”
“[Mhm.]”
“(And it would all . Be my . Fault .)”
Silence, only accompanied by lagging breaths and the steady flow of whimpering tears embraced the room.
Mind begun to soften Heart’s back with the rub of his fingers.
“[I’m sorry.]” Mind said, bundling Heart’s body into his arms. “[I took things too far. My hunger for control was too strong. You and I have warred in this world for so many years that it's hard to remember what seems natural to us is in actuality, hateful and mean.]”
“(By how long we’ve touched this plane, I can't doubt I’ve hurt you in vicious ways among the centuries we’ve been trapped here.)”
“[We’re in a world composed of purgatorial consciousness. All of us rent our existence here because of one man’s mind shattering so badly it created a sinkhole for so many from so many different places. They're trapped here too, just as we are. But if our Host is the God of this world, the unintentional creator, and the citizens, once foreign, are but mortals bound to it by varying circumstance, then that makes us holy beasts ourselves.]”
“(I can't disagree. We are not God, but we are not mortal. We are spawn of something great but trapped the same way anyone else must be.)”
“[When Soul slumbers, his mind flips to his initial person, and his life continues to normalise. When we slumber, we lock in deep thought; dreamless, sluggishly moving. We don't know how to see images in our sleep, only twisted memory.]”
“(Yes.)”
“[I have a point to make here.]”
By now, Heart’s body had been woven in Mind’s muscular limbs, connecting him to the warmth of his person and accompanied by soothing back rubs.
“[You and I, along with Two, are not alike Soul nor the unfortunate civilians this world has claimed. But we are special; we are important. Our decisions, ordinary to us, are holy to the others that roam this world. It is effortless for us to implement destruction in the society we’ve helped spin around us, but despite the ease it takes we cannot spend eternity brawling against one another.]”
“(Mm…)”
“[I have control. I am the one with this cold, dark world in his grasp to freely mend at each desire. But I dislike the idea that it is only me who can manipulate society.]”
“(Mm.)”
“[You are my brother. You deserve your place in the limited light this world has. I know it has only been some short weeks since you’ve returned to this home after decades spent freezing and hungry, in a lengthy game of cat and mouse, and I respect your need to rest. But we can shape this morbid society together. We can help all the beasts in this town look towards their painful future with a slightly brighter lens.]”
“(Your thinking is fortunate.)”
“[It has the potential to be empyrean if we work together.]”
The two ids continued to ruminate in each others’ warm arms; quiet wind hitting the side of the window.
Once released, they both eyed each other's broken vision, and slipped from the mattress and onto their feet.
There they stood; and they went on their way.