Wild-filly: ^_^;; sorry about the delay, Christmas and laziness took
over.... Not very unusual for me I'm afraid -_- In answer to
angelus_2040's question, yes I am currently residing in Perth, Western
Australia; although I am loathed to hand out my residential address, I can
confirm that I do have a vague idea of what I'm talking about ^_^
Kaioshin: Once again, wild-filly thanks all of her reviewers and still doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Western Australia, strangely enough
Wild-filly: by the way, please note that I DO NOT go out of my way to bash ANY characters - everyone is going to have their chance at having their life ruined regardless of whether they are my most hated or favourite character ^_^
*
The Royal Show. An annual exclusively Australian event held in every state. Technically it was an agricultural show combined with a fairground, yet it had still won a place in the hearts of the general Australian public - as well as boasting a number of collapsible rides, there were also highly anticipated competitions for livestock of numerous varieties.
Perhaps it was not on the same level as Universal Studios, Knotts Berry Farm and a myriad of other adventure theme parks offering rides intended to turn your stomach, however the Royal Show has a certain novelty value that is unbeatable.
The ticket prices to enter, at least, are on a similar ground.
Once again, the unruly mob was back in a taxi; a different taxi this time, as unbeknownst to them, their previous taxi driver was recovering in the local drunk tank after attempting to rid himself of the memory of his previous passengers. Much to the relief of Mokuba, still nursing the bruises of his unanticipated meeting with the driveway, this taxi did not have sliding doors. However, it was of considerably smaller dimensions than those of their last taxi, ensuring that once again, Kaiba was quite comfortable in the front seat, whilst the others were all performing a remarkable imitation of a tin of sardines.
'Kaiba, since your wallet has stretched so far as to bring us halfway across the world and put us up in a decent hotel; do you think it would really break the bank to hire a taxi that can actually legally fit us all in?!'
'Who asked you, Taylor?'
'Just a suggestion, since we're running out of oxygen here'
'In that case, keep talking'
Their taxi driver, a pleasant middle-aged man, felt a chill skitter down his spine - there had recently been a rumour floating around about a group of adolescents with weird hairstyles and their equally weird affects on their last driver. This did not bode well...
'Sir, where is it you wanted to go?'
Mokuba's head emerged from where he was lying on the floor of the back of the taxi, pretending he didn't exist in case a police car happened to pass by and query the driver as to just why his licensed 5-seater was currently containing nine.
'The Royal Show!'
The driver relaxed slightly; a perfectly normal destination for this time of year. Maybe he wasn't in trouble after all.
'PHARAOH! YOU ARE IN MY PERSONAL AIR-SPACE!!!!'
'WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR PERSONAL AIR-SPACE?! THERE ISN'T ENOUGH AIR-SPACE IN HERE FOR ANY OF US, YOU IGNORANT TOMB KEEPER!'
The driver unrelaxed. What on earth had he gotten himself into? He almost wished a nearby police officer would glance into the taxi and revoke his license. At least then he'd be free from these freaks; the two referring to each other as "pharaoh" and "tomb keeper" were grasping for each others' throats, despite the fact they were on opposite sides of the vehicle and were making themselves incredibly unpopular with the other passengers. Oh well.. if the police didn't catch on about the broken capacity-limit, then perhaps they would take interest in the attempted murder.
'WOULD YOU TWO LEAVE IT BE FOR ONE MINUTE?!'
'... one elephant, two elephants..'
'I DIDN'T MEAN IT LITERALLY!'
'Yami, no offence, but would you please go away?'
Yami retreated into the Puzzle where he proceeded to sulk and attempt to kick lumps out of the giant stone tablets depicting duel monsters. Yugi resumed control and apologised for whatever the resident pharaoh had done this time. Marik smirked smugly, until Tea whacked him upside the head for causing trouble.
'What do you think you're doing?' yelped Marik in surprise, shielding his head protectively and risking a glare at Tea. Tea, however, glared right back.
'You started that argument, so you should apologise to Yami'.
Marik's jaw dropped slightly. Apologise to the stupid pharaoh? Or his vertically-challenged hikari? She must be joking....
'Let me think', the Egyptian drawled sarcastically 'how about.... no?'
Tea's glare contorted to take on a more terrifying expression; a brightly innocent smile. Marik felt what little courage he had draining away - he did not like that look. It did not bode well for his near future.
'You're going to rethink that lack of apology, if you value a certain item enough to not want it destroyed'.
Yugi looked confused, 'but Tea, how are you going to use the Millennium Rod against Marik? Especially since he has it in his back pocket?'
Tea arched one eyebrow, 'did I mention the Millennium Rod? I was referring to this...'
Reaching into the depths of her forget-me-not blue handbag, Tea drew something from the soft folds of material. Marik's face paled, lavender eyes widening in horror as Tea held the object in questioning threateningly towards the relatively solid driver's armrest.
'How in Ra's name did you get that? You wouldn't dare, you wouldn't...'
Tea's grin widened, 'are you so sure? After all, you did control my mind for a fair amount of time AND you still haven't apologised to Yami for getting him in trouble'.
Marik glared at Tea, expression filled with loathing. Having been eavesdropping on the conversation with a combination of fascination and delight, Yami regained control and adopted his most dignified yet offended pose.
'I believe you have something to say? Tomb Keeper?'
Joey, Tristan and Mokuba exchanged gleeful glances, as Mokuba slowly drew a camera out from his own backpack -ready to capture the humiliating scene forever. Blackmail truly was one of the greatest arts.
Staring determinedly at the floor, Marik muttered something under his breath, before raising his voice sufficiently to be heard, '.. sorry'
Tea's smile relaxed and she handed over the item in question, 'there... was that so very hard?'
Marik didn't answer, snatching the item out of her hand and hugging it close, completely oblivious to the reels of photographs being fired off by Mokuba.
The unfortunate taxi driver glanced backwards to survey his passengers; checking to see whether or not the attempted murder had been successful. He was sadly mistaken. Instead he was met with the scene of a kid with wealth of hair very much like a large black hedgehog taking photos at a furious rate of a blond teenager cradling a Gameboy protectively to his chest, whilst the rest of the passengers bar the one in the front howled with laughter.
Kaiba shut his eyes, trying to zone out the sound. He could only hope that no one would recognise him, or he'd never live this trip down. He could just see the headlines; "KAIBACORP CEO ARRESTED WITH GANG OF MORONS AT AGRICULTURAL SHOW". Perfect. Just what his career needed.
*
Much to the driver's relief, the traffic waned and they finally reached one of the main entrance gates to the Royal Show.
Kaiba forked over the fare, seemingly unaware that the driver had added a substantial additional fee for the amount of stress he had to undergo. However, it was equally likely that he was well aware of the charge increase and was willing to let it slip, since the poor guy had had no idea of just whom he was picking up in the first place.
Mokuba scrambled through the ticket queue, jostling a herd of old people and several suspect grandchildren out of the way, leaving his brother to suffer the wrath of the walking sticks and shrieks about the distinct lack of manners in children these days. Yugi, Ryou, Marik, Tea, Joey and Tristan quietly pretended that they hadn't noticed the CEO's predicament and entered the grounds of this fabled event.
The first thing Yugi noticed, were the snaking lines of open-air markets; brazenly offering a myriad of over-priced plastic, food, plastic pretending to be food and gaudily coloured things called "showbags". From where the duellist was standing, he could see just why the traffic had been so congested - there were hundreds of people gingerly manoeuvring their way through the stalls, entering yet another place proclaimed as sideshow alley, or splitting off into one of the many barns. Further off, Yugi could just distinguish a huge fenced-in paddock, in which there were a number of spirited horses being paraded in front of a panel of judges.
From where he was pouting in the shadows of his Soul Room, Yami received this information with distinct interest. Having been pharaoh of Egypt at one point, Yami was used to travelling in style - either directing a gilded chariot or astride an incredibly expensive and flashy Egyptian Arabian mount. Perhaps his equitation skills could come in useful....
Kaiba finally rejoined them, appearing exceptionally ruffled and slightly bruised where he had been poked with walking aids whilst apologising for his younger brother's disrespectful lack of respect. Glaring contemptuously at the people leaching away his money, Kaiba was about to fill the silence apart from the noise of the crowd with a particularly cutting remark; that was, of course, until he noticed Mokuba.
Yes, dear little Mokuba. The darling child was proudly carrying enough candy floss to put a herd of elephants on a sugar high. Kaiba's face took on a profoundly paler hue. Despite the lack of elephants, this was exactly the effect that Mokuba on a sugar high had.
'Mokuba! Take that back to wherever you found it, WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT SUGAR?!'
It was too late - Mokuba was beyond help and sanity.
A giddy smile fixed on his candy floss-crusted face, the younger Kaiba took off into the swarming crowd, heading straight for one of the main barns containing show livestock. Kaiba dropped his metallic briefcase and bolted after him, mentally despairing over the cost of the repair bill.
The rest of the group stood there in silent horror - Kaiba had let go of the briefcase. This was completely unheard of, as unnatural as Yami Bakura volunteering to join Homicidal Maniacs Anonymous in hope of becoming a nicer person. Joey's eyes lit up and he grabbed the case, throwing it open and seizing the CEO's wallet.
'Let's go!'
'Joey, isn't that called stealing?'
'No... it's a hybrid version of both borrowing and stealing - therefore it is not completely and therefore NOT stealing'
There was a slight pause as everyone tried to figure that one out.
'Sounds good to me' said Tristan
'How on earth did HE manage to come up with THAT?!'
Yami Bakura had emerged and appeared to be in a mixture of both annoyance and surprise, alerted to the news of kleptomania and taken aback at the reasoning provided by one of the people on his "List of Unworthy Mortals that will be Killed by My Oh-So-Worthy Hand for Managing to Thwart One of My Oh-So-Wonderful-Evil-Schemes" . What disturbed the tomb robber most of all, was the fact that it made something almost resembling sense.. why hadn't HE thought of that one?
This all became irrelevant to the thief in a matter of seconds though, as Joey realised this insult had been directed at him and had launched himself at Yami Bakura's throat. Startled by this sudden change in affairs, the tomb robber retreated to the relative safety of his Soul Room, leaving Ryou with a rather nasty wake-up call.
'Ack... Joey.... what are you, doing?!'
Joey blinked in surprise, as did Ryou, whose face was now an interesting shade of purple due to a distinct lack of oxygen.
'Sorry about that Bakura, your insane side insulted me'
Ryou blinked in mild confusion, 'oh well, never mind. Please don't do that again?'
'Sure', Joey backed away in embarrassment. Tea cleared her throat, 'Come on, let's go do something other than try to strangle each other. It's getting more than a little repetitive'.
*
Mokuba was having fun. Unknown amounts of sugar were coursing through his veins and the world was suddenly a much more amusing place. Currently the slightly dazed child was navigating his way through one of the main sheep pens, on board one of the highly confused and irritated said woolly creatures. The sheep was not amused and neither was Kaiba, who was attempting and failing to wade through the woollen mass to retrieve his younger sibling.
The CEO glared at the obstinate line of sheep continuing to bar his way. This was exactly the kind of glare Kaiba specialized in; designed to intimidate his opponents and make them feel lower than dirt. Sadly, it did not have the desired effect on the sheep. If anything, they were glaring back.
As a rule, sheep are not aggressive creatures and will choose to run away from anything that threatens them. In this case, the sheep had been dragged out of their nice relatively green pasture in the lovely fresh air and had been dumped in a dark squashy pen with hardly any room to move. Either way, the sheep were not happy with this turn of events and now some little kid was hopping over their backs whilst laughing insanely and the other one tried to shove them out of the way. It was payback time.
The woolly herd surged forward, carrying Mokuba laughing gleefully with them, straight at Kaiba. Kaiba's eyes widened in horror and he scrambled to reach the gate, however he was outran and then ran over.
All in all, this did not rank among Seto's best days.
Mokuba giggled insanely as his sheep joined the rest of the flock using Kaiba as a carpet
'heybigbrotherwhatareyoudoingonthedirtyfloorhahait'sfunnythesheepkeeprunning overandoverandoverandoverandoverandover..'
It appeared that these sheep were not particularly heavy, as with a roar of fury, Kaiba surged up from the unpleasant depths of the sawdust and lunged for his brother, sending several unsuspecting woolly mammals flying.
Unfortunately Mokuba had become bored of the sheep pen and was already bounding towards the exit, haphazardly bashing into passers-by whilst singing a song about meatballs.
Kaiba groaned, lurching towards the paint-peeled fence and hauling himself up and over to the other side of the pen, into the relatively safer pathway between pens. At least, this was the theory. He had not counted on becoming so disorientated that his exit had been made in order to enter a different pen - this one containing a particularly bad tempered ram. The ram snorted, shaking its impressive curved horns as the CEO growled in disgust as he landed in the feed trough.
The cantankerous roaring of the ram caught Kaiba's attention as he struggled to remove himself from the mass of slushy grain. Staggering to his feet, Seto's eyes blearily reported a large woolly animal beginning to pick up speed and head in his direction.
'Remind me again why holidays are relaxing?'
*
Yugi, Ryou, Tristan, Tea, Marik and Joey were all slowly navigating their way towards the main arena, weaving through stalls and narrowly avoiding being trampled by other visitors.
Tea squinted at the information booklet, 'it say's that there's going to be some sort of horse display thing.... does anyone have a clue what dressage is?'
Joey scratched his head perplexed, 'I dunno... maybe they dress the horses up in costumes or something?'
Nobody seemed to have any better suggestions for the moment, so dressage it was.
At last the newly-painted white fencing surrounding the arena came into plain sight and the group found a nice shady place to collapse on the grass and view the proceedings in comfort. Yugi gazed with slight interest as several glossy warmbloods emerged from the stable blocks and strode elegantly into the field. There seemed to be none of the costumes Joey had predicted, however there still existed the possibility of this being interesting.
Joey however, was most disappointed, 'hey! What's with this, shouldn't they be in costumes or something? I mean, all they're doing is shuffling around in circles!'
A flicker of movement caught Yugi's eye, as one of the people sitting nearby began a violent coughing fit, barely concealing the context, 'moron!' in the huge fake heaves. The young duellist regarded the group stationed next to them with a combination of surprise and amusement - there were four teenaged girls surveying the horses warming up, however what was most unusual about this fact was that they were all dressed up like pirates. The one almost choking herself in exasperation at Joey's lack of understanding was wearing a red bandana, bandolier, badly drawn scars and a red plastic sword.
'Costumes? What kind of an idiot..' Her disgust was cut of abruptly by another of the girls turning around to face the offending group and her brilliantly plumed pirate hat shoved a large ostrich feather into her face. Choking on feather and receiving nothing but unsympathetic laughter from the other three similarly decked out in bandanas, plastic weaponry and that impressive hat, the other group chose to retreat to a better viewpoint.
Joey blinked in confusion, 'did I say something wrong?'
Tea sighed, shaking her head, 'Joey, I get the feeling you should have kept your mouth shut about things you don't understand'.
Joey opened his mouth to complain, but was cut off by Yugi.
'Hey, where'd Ryou go?'
*
Yami Bakura had become bored, quickly realising the lack of opportunity to steal anything worthwhile from the people nearby, especially with the stupid pharaoh keeping his snooty eye on him and the others accusing him of absolutely everything that went missing. Even if he was the culprit. Honestly, they never let him express himself - he truly was an unappreciated artist and master of his craft.
Being such a master, Yami Bakura quietly took control of Ryou and hid behind a large stuffed teddy bear on display in one of the stalls as the other five walked on. The master of disguise and hiding. Once they had safely disappeared behind another stall, the ancient tomb robber was like a small child in a candy store. First stop, the nearest candy store..
However, it would seem that he was losing his edge, as no sooner had he stuffed his face with some form of sticky toffee substance, than someone was referring to him by one of his most popular names.
'Hey! Are you going to pay for that?!'
His fame truly was amazing mused the spirit as he sprinted through the lumbering crowd and into one of the huge barns. After carefully concealing himself behind a stall selling pet crazy crabs, the thief turned his attentions to unsticking his mouth. Perhaps this toffee substance wasn't such a great idea after all; at this rate he would lose a tooth. Not flattering for such a dashing person as himself.
Much to the Yami's relief, he was able to carefully free his precious teeth and was soon sauntering down the uniform rows. There didn't seem to be any valuable jewels or spices or anything really worth stealing. Quite disappointing really. He would have to get Ryou to suggest a trip to a jewellery store or something. The stupid tomb keeper should stand for that option at least.
Then it caught his eye. The hardened criminal's chocolate brown eyes widened in shock and became watery with adoration. Freezing in his tracks, acting like a rock breaking the flow of a river the crowds drifted around him. Yet the people bustling past never broke his entranced gaze. Weaving forward as though drunk, the thief stood in front of the object of his fascination with a dazed expression.
From the depths of his Soul Room, Ryou realised that all was not well with the resident tomb robber.
'What've you done now?'
'Can't... talk.. now'
'What's wrong with you?'
'...'
'If you don't tell me, I'll take control again'
'.... As if you could'
'Fine, I will destroy your sugar stash'
'Hah! As if you could ever find it....'
'We share the same body you moron, I know where you hid it'
'you wouldn't dare!'
'No?'
'fine.... see for yourself'
Yami Bakura gaze Ryou control of their eyes and the hikari blinked, staring at the stall in which his peculiar other side had left them. If was plastered with occult jewellery, symbols and there, right in front of them, was an equally occult curved dagger. It was hung with beads and shiny things and intricately carved, polished to a bright silver. Yami Bakura regained control.
'Isn't it beautiful?'
'It's the gaudiest, most useless thing I've ever seen. Why on earth do you want it?!'
'It's shiny... and sharp'
'You're not spending MY holiday money buying it. Either way, they would never let it through at Customs'
There was no response, only a long silence and then Ryou sensed the pounding heartbeat and heaving breaths that could only mean one thing.
'WHY DID YOU STEAL THAT BLOODY PIECE OF COSTUME JEWELLERY, OR COSTUME WEAPONRY, WHATEVER IT IS?!!!'
'so... pretty'
Yami Bakura was extremely happy. He was easily outrunning the seven security guards, shopkeeper, three random children and fourteen adults sprinting after him. There was no chance they could catch the marvellous thief that was him. But then suddenly he was falling, flying through thin air. Had he run so fast he had left the ground completely?
No. He had failed to comprehend the fact that there was a set of stairs in front of him. The proud thief king went gracefully nose-diving down the stone stairs and splattered into a stall selling dramatically over-priced bath salts.
'No! Where's my knife?!'
Yami Bakura scrambled around the raspberry-scented wreckage, picking through the shattered bottles and odorous crystals in his desperate search for the beautiful shiny knife, oblivious to the crowd of people swarming down on him.
When the thief finally recovered the knife, he was promptly flattened by all seven of the security guards lunging and piling on top of him. Cursing in Japanese, English and in Ancient Egyptian when he exhausted all of the possibilities the other two languages offered, the snowy-haired thief was escorted out of the barn and the precious knife confiscated.
Much to Ryou's relief, they were given a warning and not arrested. His Yami however, was in a huge sulk, plotting in the back of his Soul Room on how to retrieve his lovely oh-so-shiny knife. Ryou sighed patiently, walking carefully through the masses as he attempted to relocate the rest of the group. He was quite surprised they hadn't been waiting for him at the mobile police station when he got there, since they knew what his Yami was like.
As the poor hikari floundered his way towards the main arena once again, he was blissfully unaware that they had been hanging around the police stall for half an hour before splitting up to look for jewellery stalls.
*
wild-filly: And that's Part 1 of the Royal Show experience over! I'll update with Part 2 as soon as I can ^_^
Please review and thanks to everyone who has so far!
(Thanks and cookies to last reviewers)
MoonWraith
Lightning Bolt Fox
Memememememememememememememememe
Saliorstarlight4
TigerTerror
Ani05tersrVIP
Kaioshin: Once again, wild-filly thanks all of her reviewers and still doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Western Australia, strangely enough
Wild-filly: by the way, please note that I DO NOT go out of my way to bash ANY characters - everyone is going to have their chance at having their life ruined regardless of whether they are my most hated or favourite character ^_^
*
The Royal Show. An annual exclusively Australian event held in every state. Technically it was an agricultural show combined with a fairground, yet it had still won a place in the hearts of the general Australian public - as well as boasting a number of collapsible rides, there were also highly anticipated competitions for livestock of numerous varieties.
Perhaps it was not on the same level as Universal Studios, Knotts Berry Farm and a myriad of other adventure theme parks offering rides intended to turn your stomach, however the Royal Show has a certain novelty value that is unbeatable.
The ticket prices to enter, at least, are on a similar ground.
Once again, the unruly mob was back in a taxi; a different taxi this time, as unbeknownst to them, their previous taxi driver was recovering in the local drunk tank after attempting to rid himself of the memory of his previous passengers. Much to the relief of Mokuba, still nursing the bruises of his unanticipated meeting with the driveway, this taxi did not have sliding doors. However, it was of considerably smaller dimensions than those of their last taxi, ensuring that once again, Kaiba was quite comfortable in the front seat, whilst the others were all performing a remarkable imitation of a tin of sardines.
'Kaiba, since your wallet has stretched so far as to bring us halfway across the world and put us up in a decent hotel; do you think it would really break the bank to hire a taxi that can actually legally fit us all in?!'
'Who asked you, Taylor?'
'Just a suggestion, since we're running out of oxygen here'
'In that case, keep talking'
Their taxi driver, a pleasant middle-aged man, felt a chill skitter down his spine - there had recently been a rumour floating around about a group of adolescents with weird hairstyles and their equally weird affects on their last driver. This did not bode well...
'Sir, where is it you wanted to go?'
Mokuba's head emerged from where he was lying on the floor of the back of the taxi, pretending he didn't exist in case a police car happened to pass by and query the driver as to just why his licensed 5-seater was currently containing nine.
'The Royal Show!'
The driver relaxed slightly; a perfectly normal destination for this time of year. Maybe he wasn't in trouble after all.
'PHARAOH! YOU ARE IN MY PERSONAL AIR-SPACE!!!!'
'WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR PERSONAL AIR-SPACE?! THERE ISN'T ENOUGH AIR-SPACE IN HERE FOR ANY OF US, YOU IGNORANT TOMB KEEPER!'
The driver unrelaxed. What on earth had he gotten himself into? He almost wished a nearby police officer would glance into the taxi and revoke his license. At least then he'd be free from these freaks; the two referring to each other as "pharaoh" and "tomb keeper" were grasping for each others' throats, despite the fact they were on opposite sides of the vehicle and were making themselves incredibly unpopular with the other passengers. Oh well.. if the police didn't catch on about the broken capacity-limit, then perhaps they would take interest in the attempted murder.
'WOULD YOU TWO LEAVE IT BE FOR ONE MINUTE?!'
'... one elephant, two elephants..'
'I DIDN'T MEAN IT LITERALLY!'
'Yami, no offence, but would you please go away?'
Yami retreated into the Puzzle where he proceeded to sulk and attempt to kick lumps out of the giant stone tablets depicting duel monsters. Yugi resumed control and apologised for whatever the resident pharaoh had done this time. Marik smirked smugly, until Tea whacked him upside the head for causing trouble.
'What do you think you're doing?' yelped Marik in surprise, shielding his head protectively and risking a glare at Tea. Tea, however, glared right back.
'You started that argument, so you should apologise to Yami'.
Marik's jaw dropped slightly. Apologise to the stupid pharaoh? Or his vertically-challenged hikari? She must be joking....
'Let me think', the Egyptian drawled sarcastically 'how about.... no?'
Tea's glare contorted to take on a more terrifying expression; a brightly innocent smile. Marik felt what little courage he had draining away - he did not like that look. It did not bode well for his near future.
'You're going to rethink that lack of apology, if you value a certain item enough to not want it destroyed'.
Yugi looked confused, 'but Tea, how are you going to use the Millennium Rod against Marik? Especially since he has it in his back pocket?'
Tea arched one eyebrow, 'did I mention the Millennium Rod? I was referring to this...'
Reaching into the depths of her forget-me-not blue handbag, Tea drew something from the soft folds of material. Marik's face paled, lavender eyes widening in horror as Tea held the object in questioning threateningly towards the relatively solid driver's armrest.
'How in Ra's name did you get that? You wouldn't dare, you wouldn't...'
Tea's grin widened, 'are you so sure? After all, you did control my mind for a fair amount of time AND you still haven't apologised to Yami for getting him in trouble'.
Marik glared at Tea, expression filled with loathing. Having been eavesdropping on the conversation with a combination of fascination and delight, Yami regained control and adopted his most dignified yet offended pose.
'I believe you have something to say? Tomb Keeper?'
Joey, Tristan and Mokuba exchanged gleeful glances, as Mokuba slowly drew a camera out from his own backpack -ready to capture the humiliating scene forever. Blackmail truly was one of the greatest arts.
Staring determinedly at the floor, Marik muttered something under his breath, before raising his voice sufficiently to be heard, '.. sorry'
Tea's smile relaxed and she handed over the item in question, 'there... was that so very hard?'
Marik didn't answer, snatching the item out of her hand and hugging it close, completely oblivious to the reels of photographs being fired off by Mokuba.
The unfortunate taxi driver glanced backwards to survey his passengers; checking to see whether or not the attempted murder had been successful. He was sadly mistaken. Instead he was met with the scene of a kid with wealth of hair very much like a large black hedgehog taking photos at a furious rate of a blond teenager cradling a Gameboy protectively to his chest, whilst the rest of the passengers bar the one in the front howled with laughter.
Kaiba shut his eyes, trying to zone out the sound. He could only hope that no one would recognise him, or he'd never live this trip down. He could just see the headlines; "KAIBACORP CEO ARRESTED WITH GANG OF MORONS AT AGRICULTURAL SHOW". Perfect. Just what his career needed.
*
Much to the driver's relief, the traffic waned and they finally reached one of the main entrance gates to the Royal Show.
Kaiba forked over the fare, seemingly unaware that the driver had added a substantial additional fee for the amount of stress he had to undergo. However, it was equally likely that he was well aware of the charge increase and was willing to let it slip, since the poor guy had had no idea of just whom he was picking up in the first place.
Mokuba scrambled through the ticket queue, jostling a herd of old people and several suspect grandchildren out of the way, leaving his brother to suffer the wrath of the walking sticks and shrieks about the distinct lack of manners in children these days. Yugi, Ryou, Marik, Tea, Joey and Tristan quietly pretended that they hadn't noticed the CEO's predicament and entered the grounds of this fabled event.
The first thing Yugi noticed, were the snaking lines of open-air markets; brazenly offering a myriad of over-priced plastic, food, plastic pretending to be food and gaudily coloured things called "showbags". From where the duellist was standing, he could see just why the traffic had been so congested - there were hundreds of people gingerly manoeuvring their way through the stalls, entering yet another place proclaimed as sideshow alley, or splitting off into one of the many barns. Further off, Yugi could just distinguish a huge fenced-in paddock, in which there were a number of spirited horses being paraded in front of a panel of judges.
From where he was pouting in the shadows of his Soul Room, Yami received this information with distinct interest. Having been pharaoh of Egypt at one point, Yami was used to travelling in style - either directing a gilded chariot or astride an incredibly expensive and flashy Egyptian Arabian mount. Perhaps his equitation skills could come in useful....
Kaiba finally rejoined them, appearing exceptionally ruffled and slightly bruised where he had been poked with walking aids whilst apologising for his younger brother's disrespectful lack of respect. Glaring contemptuously at the people leaching away his money, Kaiba was about to fill the silence apart from the noise of the crowd with a particularly cutting remark; that was, of course, until he noticed Mokuba.
Yes, dear little Mokuba. The darling child was proudly carrying enough candy floss to put a herd of elephants on a sugar high. Kaiba's face took on a profoundly paler hue. Despite the lack of elephants, this was exactly the effect that Mokuba on a sugar high had.
'Mokuba! Take that back to wherever you found it, WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT SUGAR?!'
It was too late - Mokuba was beyond help and sanity.
A giddy smile fixed on his candy floss-crusted face, the younger Kaiba took off into the swarming crowd, heading straight for one of the main barns containing show livestock. Kaiba dropped his metallic briefcase and bolted after him, mentally despairing over the cost of the repair bill.
The rest of the group stood there in silent horror - Kaiba had let go of the briefcase. This was completely unheard of, as unnatural as Yami Bakura volunteering to join Homicidal Maniacs Anonymous in hope of becoming a nicer person. Joey's eyes lit up and he grabbed the case, throwing it open and seizing the CEO's wallet.
'Let's go!'
'Joey, isn't that called stealing?'
'No... it's a hybrid version of both borrowing and stealing - therefore it is not completely and therefore NOT stealing'
There was a slight pause as everyone tried to figure that one out.
'Sounds good to me' said Tristan
'How on earth did HE manage to come up with THAT?!'
Yami Bakura had emerged and appeared to be in a mixture of both annoyance and surprise, alerted to the news of kleptomania and taken aback at the reasoning provided by one of the people on his "List of Unworthy Mortals that will be Killed by My Oh-So-Worthy Hand for Managing to Thwart One of My Oh-So-Wonderful-Evil-Schemes" . What disturbed the tomb robber most of all, was the fact that it made something almost resembling sense.. why hadn't HE thought of that one?
This all became irrelevant to the thief in a matter of seconds though, as Joey realised this insult had been directed at him and had launched himself at Yami Bakura's throat. Startled by this sudden change in affairs, the tomb robber retreated to the relative safety of his Soul Room, leaving Ryou with a rather nasty wake-up call.
'Ack... Joey.... what are you, doing?!'
Joey blinked in surprise, as did Ryou, whose face was now an interesting shade of purple due to a distinct lack of oxygen.
'Sorry about that Bakura, your insane side insulted me'
Ryou blinked in mild confusion, 'oh well, never mind. Please don't do that again?'
'Sure', Joey backed away in embarrassment. Tea cleared her throat, 'Come on, let's go do something other than try to strangle each other. It's getting more than a little repetitive'.
*
Mokuba was having fun. Unknown amounts of sugar were coursing through his veins and the world was suddenly a much more amusing place. Currently the slightly dazed child was navigating his way through one of the main sheep pens, on board one of the highly confused and irritated said woolly creatures. The sheep was not amused and neither was Kaiba, who was attempting and failing to wade through the woollen mass to retrieve his younger sibling.
The CEO glared at the obstinate line of sheep continuing to bar his way. This was exactly the kind of glare Kaiba specialized in; designed to intimidate his opponents and make them feel lower than dirt. Sadly, it did not have the desired effect on the sheep. If anything, they were glaring back.
As a rule, sheep are not aggressive creatures and will choose to run away from anything that threatens them. In this case, the sheep had been dragged out of their nice relatively green pasture in the lovely fresh air and had been dumped in a dark squashy pen with hardly any room to move. Either way, the sheep were not happy with this turn of events and now some little kid was hopping over their backs whilst laughing insanely and the other one tried to shove them out of the way. It was payback time.
The woolly herd surged forward, carrying Mokuba laughing gleefully with them, straight at Kaiba. Kaiba's eyes widened in horror and he scrambled to reach the gate, however he was outran and then ran over.
All in all, this did not rank among Seto's best days.
Mokuba giggled insanely as his sheep joined the rest of the flock using Kaiba as a carpet
'heybigbrotherwhatareyoudoingonthedirtyfloorhahait'sfunnythesheepkeeprunning overandoverandoverandoverandoverandover..'
It appeared that these sheep were not particularly heavy, as with a roar of fury, Kaiba surged up from the unpleasant depths of the sawdust and lunged for his brother, sending several unsuspecting woolly mammals flying.
Unfortunately Mokuba had become bored of the sheep pen and was already bounding towards the exit, haphazardly bashing into passers-by whilst singing a song about meatballs.
Kaiba groaned, lurching towards the paint-peeled fence and hauling himself up and over to the other side of the pen, into the relatively safer pathway between pens. At least, this was the theory. He had not counted on becoming so disorientated that his exit had been made in order to enter a different pen - this one containing a particularly bad tempered ram. The ram snorted, shaking its impressive curved horns as the CEO growled in disgust as he landed in the feed trough.
The cantankerous roaring of the ram caught Kaiba's attention as he struggled to remove himself from the mass of slushy grain. Staggering to his feet, Seto's eyes blearily reported a large woolly animal beginning to pick up speed and head in his direction.
'Remind me again why holidays are relaxing?'
*
Yugi, Ryou, Tristan, Tea, Marik and Joey were all slowly navigating their way towards the main arena, weaving through stalls and narrowly avoiding being trampled by other visitors.
Tea squinted at the information booklet, 'it say's that there's going to be some sort of horse display thing.... does anyone have a clue what dressage is?'
Joey scratched his head perplexed, 'I dunno... maybe they dress the horses up in costumes or something?'
Nobody seemed to have any better suggestions for the moment, so dressage it was.
At last the newly-painted white fencing surrounding the arena came into plain sight and the group found a nice shady place to collapse on the grass and view the proceedings in comfort. Yugi gazed with slight interest as several glossy warmbloods emerged from the stable blocks and strode elegantly into the field. There seemed to be none of the costumes Joey had predicted, however there still existed the possibility of this being interesting.
Joey however, was most disappointed, 'hey! What's with this, shouldn't they be in costumes or something? I mean, all they're doing is shuffling around in circles!'
A flicker of movement caught Yugi's eye, as one of the people sitting nearby began a violent coughing fit, barely concealing the context, 'moron!' in the huge fake heaves. The young duellist regarded the group stationed next to them with a combination of surprise and amusement - there were four teenaged girls surveying the horses warming up, however what was most unusual about this fact was that they were all dressed up like pirates. The one almost choking herself in exasperation at Joey's lack of understanding was wearing a red bandana, bandolier, badly drawn scars and a red plastic sword.
'Costumes? What kind of an idiot..' Her disgust was cut of abruptly by another of the girls turning around to face the offending group and her brilliantly plumed pirate hat shoved a large ostrich feather into her face. Choking on feather and receiving nothing but unsympathetic laughter from the other three similarly decked out in bandanas, plastic weaponry and that impressive hat, the other group chose to retreat to a better viewpoint.
Joey blinked in confusion, 'did I say something wrong?'
Tea sighed, shaking her head, 'Joey, I get the feeling you should have kept your mouth shut about things you don't understand'.
Joey opened his mouth to complain, but was cut off by Yugi.
'Hey, where'd Ryou go?'
*
Yami Bakura had become bored, quickly realising the lack of opportunity to steal anything worthwhile from the people nearby, especially with the stupid pharaoh keeping his snooty eye on him and the others accusing him of absolutely everything that went missing. Even if he was the culprit. Honestly, they never let him express himself - he truly was an unappreciated artist and master of his craft.
Being such a master, Yami Bakura quietly took control of Ryou and hid behind a large stuffed teddy bear on display in one of the stalls as the other five walked on. The master of disguise and hiding. Once they had safely disappeared behind another stall, the ancient tomb robber was like a small child in a candy store. First stop, the nearest candy store..
However, it would seem that he was losing his edge, as no sooner had he stuffed his face with some form of sticky toffee substance, than someone was referring to him by one of his most popular names.
'Hey! Are you going to pay for that?!'
His fame truly was amazing mused the spirit as he sprinted through the lumbering crowd and into one of the huge barns. After carefully concealing himself behind a stall selling pet crazy crabs, the thief turned his attentions to unsticking his mouth. Perhaps this toffee substance wasn't such a great idea after all; at this rate he would lose a tooth. Not flattering for such a dashing person as himself.
Much to the Yami's relief, he was able to carefully free his precious teeth and was soon sauntering down the uniform rows. There didn't seem to be any valuable jewels or spices or anything really worth stealing. Quite disappointing really. He would have to get Ryou to suggest a trip to a jewellery store or something. The stupid tomb keeper should stand for that option at least.
Then it caught his eye. The hardened criminal's chocolate brown eyes widened in shock and became watery with adoration. Freezing in his tracks, acting like a rock breaking the flow of a river the crowds drifted around him. Yet the people bustling past never broke his entranced gaze. Weaving forward as though drunk, the thief stood in front of the object of his fascination with a dazed expression.
From the depths of his Soul Room, Ryou realised that all was not well with the resident tomb robber.
'What've you done now?'
'Can't... talk.. now'
'What's wrong with you?'
'...'
'If you don't tell me, I'll take control again'
'.... As if you could'
'Fine, I will destroy your sugar stash'
'Hah! As if you could ever find it....'
'We share the same body you moron, I know where you hid it'
'you wouldn't dare!'
'No?'
'fine.... see for yourself'
Yami Bakura gaze Ryou control of their eyes and the hikari blinked, staring at the stall in which his peculiar other side had left them. If was plastered with occult jewellery, symbols and there, right in front of them, was an equally occult curved dagger. It was hung with beads and shiny things and intricately carved, polished to a bright silver. Yami Bakura regained control.
'Isn't it beautiful?'
'It's the gaudiest, most useless thing I've ever seen. Why on earth do you want it?!'
'It's shiny... and sharp'
'You're not spending MY holiday money buying it. Either way, they would never let it through at Customs'
There was no response, only a long silence and then Ryou sensed the pounding heartbeat and heaving breaths that could only mean one thing.
'WHY DID YOU STEAL THAT BLOODY PIECE OF COSTUME JEWELLERY, OR COSTUME WEAPONRY, WHATEVER IT IS?!!!'
'so... pretty'
Yami Bakura was extremely happy. He was easily outrunning the seven security guards, shopkeeper, three random children and fourteen adults sprinting after him. There was no chance they could catch the marvellous thief that was him. But then suddenly he was falling, flying through thin air. Had he run so fast he had left the ground completely?
No. He had failed to comprehend the fact that there was a set of stairs in front of him. The proud thief king went gracefully nose-diving down the stone stairs and splattered into a stall selling dramatically over-priced bath salts.
'No! Where's my knife?!'
Yami Bakura scrambled around the raspberry-scented wreckage, picking through the shattered bottles and odorous crystals in his desperate search for the beautiful shiny knife, oblivious to the crowd of people swarming down on him.
When the thief finally recovered the knife, he was promptly flattened by all seven of the security guards lunging and piling on top of him. Cursing in Japanese, English and in Ancient Egyptian when he exhausted all of the possibilities the other two languages offered, the snowy-haired thief was escorted out of the barn and the precious knife confiscated.
Much to Ryou's relief, they were given a warning and not arrested. His Yami however, was in a huge sulk, plotting in the back of his Soul Room on how to retrieve his lovely oh-so-shiny knife. Ryou sighed patiently, walking carefully through the masses as he attempted to relocate the rest of the group. He was quite surprised they hadn't been waiting for him at the mobile police station when he got there, since they knew what his Yami was like.
As the poor hikari floundered his way towards the main arena once again, he was blissfully unaware that they had been hanging around the police stall for half an hour before splitting up to look for jewellery stalls.
*
wild-filly: And that's Part 1 of the Royal Show experience over! I'll update with Part 2 as soon as I can ^_^
Please review and thanks to everyone who has so far!
(Thanks and cookies to last reviewers)
MoonWraith
Lightning Bolt Fox
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