Chapter One: Casting
Yugi shifted slightly in his cushioned red chair, glancing to his left with wide violet eyes. His yami sat beside him with a bored expression playing across his face, staring blankly at the spotlighted stage a few rows in front of them. Across the aisle Ryou and Bakura were slumped in their seats with a similar air of boredom radiating from their features. In fact, as Yugi looked around the room, he could see that almost everyone had that same tired-of-waiting dullness in their eyes. He turned his attention once more to the empty stage, blinking and wondering how long it would take for Kaiba or Bakura to explode.
"Could we hurry up? Some of us have better things to do than wait for the results of a stupid audition!" Kaiba growled. Mokuba poked his big brother in the arm to silence him as the sound of sneakered steps rang out across the stage. A girl emerged from behind the curtain and narrowed her brown eyes from behind wire-framed glasses.
"Terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but you're the one who tried out, so shut it or beat it," she barked, a slightly stressed edge to her voice. Kaiba glared but didn't reply, leaning stiffly against the back of his chair. The girl watched him for a moment before pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose and glancing down at her battered clipboard.
"Okay, people, here's the deal. My name Kanta and I'm in charge of this production. As you know, we're going to be performing a stage rendition of the animated feature The Prince of Egypt, an adaptation of the Moses story."
"You're wasting our time; we already know this," came a cold, arrogant voice. Everyone rolled their eyes at Kaiba's usual antics, grinning simultaneously when Bakura tossed a random object at his head.
"Thank you. Now, if someone wouldn't mind keeping his trap shut, we can get to the casting results." She cleared her throat and brushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear, flipping pages on her clipboard. "Due to the confusing nature of all of your names, I'm not even going to try to mess with your full names. You know who you are. Now. We're going to start with the leads. The role of Moses goes to Yugi, and Rameses to Yami."
Bakura smirked. "The pharaoh gets to play pharaoh. How original."
Kanta glared in his direction and continued reading. "Kaiba will have the role of Seti, Ishizu as his queen. Mokuba is the son of Rameses. Miho gets the very minor role of wife of Rameses."
Yami glanced at Miho and blinked. She blinked right back.
"The part of Aaron goes to Ryou, Miriam to Serenity, and Yocheved to Mai."
Joey looked distinctly ruffled. He had wanted to be Aaron, especially now that Serenity was Miriam. Of course, if Mai was going to play their mother, it might have been a little weird.
"To Anzu, the role of Tzipporah and to Joey...you get to be Jethro, high priest of Midian." Kanta smirked slightly to Joey's puzzlement. "You'll see. Continuing, Rebecca, you are going to play the part of little Miriam at the beginning, with Rex as little Aaron. I haven't decided if I'm going to trust Johji to be anyone yet, so I'll come back to that."
Anzu glanced at the little pervert. Trust him? I think not... Tristan tossed a triumphant grin towards the rather put-out looking child.
"Ah, yes, Tristan...you get to be the random slave driver that dies at the hands of Moses."
The grin disappeared. Random?
"Marik and Duke, you will fill the roles of Hotep and Huy, psycho-priests. I suggest you practice crying out the words, 'by the power of Ra!' several times before rehearsal starts because you have to say it a hell of a lot." Kanta flipped her clipboard back to the first page, looking up at them. "I've decided that I'm going to risk letting Johji play baby Moses, but if he tries anything…oh, I don't know…I suppose Marik has my permission to beat him over the head with that stick. Understood, young pervert?"
Johji nodded, glancing nervously a few seats over to where Marik was sitting. Marik grinned at him.
"Now, if I didn't call your name you will be filling random background roles. Oh, except Bakura, sorry. Bakura will be God."
Everyone stared at Kanta, mouths slightly agape. Bakura himself widened his dark eyes. "Did you just say 'Bakura will be God?' Because I could have sworn that's what you just said."
Kanta leveled her gaze with his. "That's what I just said."
Bakura smirked evilly as Yami smacked his forehead with his hand. Ryou shook his head very slightly with an amused laugh.
Kanta jumped off the stage, eyes glued to her clipboard. "First rehearsal is tomorrow morning at 8:30 sharp. Be here, be here on time, or die. And I'm serious about that. My last play was a production of Wicked by the Teen Titans and it was a disaster. Robin drove me off the deep end entirely from the start and Cyborg was never on time for anything. Including opening night. You pull any of that crap on my fragile psyche and I will decapitate you. Understood? Good. Dismissed!"
