The Magicians' Realm Chapter 51: We Do Voodoo Hoodoo, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 51, all, which starts the "let's see Skellington's house" arc…I need to get writing on this some more—this one takes a bit more to write out chapters, and I'm getting close to the end of my buffer. D:

Movie this week is The Brothers Grimm, with Heath Ledger and Matt Damon, which I watched with my family and which I do not recommend. It might not be the gore-fest that the Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters movie was, but it was plenty disturbing to me. *~*

On a better note: we have a bitty baby starling that we're taking care of—the little bae fell out of his nest, didn't even have his eyes open yet, and since we couldn't get him back to the nest we brought him in to take care of, not expecting him to last long. That was last week—his eyes are now open, he's got feathers coming in, and he's starting to get antsy enough that we're going to have to move him to a cage soon so he doesn't fall out of the little basket we have for him. ^v^

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Yes, definitely! :D Yes—it came to me, so it had to be done. Eh, I pronounce it "Zo-han," if that helps. Yes indeed, and they're out of the woods (for now…).

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yes, finally! It only took her, what, fifty chapters? That darn login screen….This is true—although I do have some cargo shorts and jean shorts that have pockets, so….Yes, pockets are extremely useful. I was surprised too—and it looks much too fancy to have come from Walmart, too (trains and flowers and filigree and all that). Antique shops or yard sales might be a good place to look too, if you don't mind picking up an older one (and would a two-dollar shop be along the lines of a dollar store?). Yes, this is too terribly true….My issue isn't the end so much as the two-thirds point, where the climax happens and everything goes at once (my one Don't Starve story Outtatime is suffering because of this—and yet I have just about everything after the climax written in an attempt to sneak up on it). Yes, that was my reasoning. This is true—and this is probably also true (I need to get out more, speaking of). Yes! And no. But yes! :D Yes, it's there now—and yay for being logged in! :D

FicReader, thanks for the review! Yes, me too—although I lost my nerve the other night and ended up back on my parents' bedroom floor (I feel it's going to be a while before I can actually sleep in my room worry-free). Ah, thank you—well, most of the novels, including Skulduggery Pleasant and Flowers in the Attic, you can thank my Mom for; for the longest time, when I went to the bookstore, I beelined for the manga section, and while I looked there, Mom looked at the young adult section right next to it and would pick out books and say "doesn't this look like a good book?" She also recommended Flowers in the Attic, as she read the series, and she and Dad both instilled a love of reading into me. Lackadaisy Cats was thanks to a college friend recommending it to me, and I've been looking at webcomics ever since. Yes, he's been knocking around in there for a while (I ought to upload what he looks like next October…). Yes! It pays to have cooking friends! :D And maybe. :)

References:

Original characters, + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

"Mom, can I borrow your sewing kit?"

Jenna's head shot up at this strange request. Was her eldest son seriously inquiring after her sewing kit? "Why?" she asked.

"Yuki and I were thinking of making owlipoppen," Yami replied, coming even with her at the little roll-top desk in the corner.

She examined him for a bit before making her next statement. "Yuki!"

Yuki was in the room like a flash. "Yeah Mom?"

"What were you and Yami planning on doing today?"

"We're going to make owlipoppen," Yuki said, holding up some straw.

Okay, that checked out. "And why do you need the sewing kit? Regular string works just fine."

"Some of the Ga'Hoole owls flew through and mentioned—showed us some owlipoppen they made, and they were refined enough to have been made with a sewing kit."

Jenna narrowed her eyes at her sons, then relented. "It's under the end table," she said, waving them off. "Just make sure you put it back when you're done—I have some patches that need fixing."

"You got it, Mom."

*\*/*

Today was the day. Thursday. Yami Skellington had invited Teana over to his house for the day, and Teana was busy making sure she looked stunning when he picked her up.

This was proving difficult, considering she didn't have too many outfits to begin with. She finally ended up wearing what she normally did: blouse and long skirt, comfy shoes, and her favorite coat.

She walked out of her apartment building just as Yami was walking up. "You look nice," he commented. She made a noncommittal noise. "Nice wasn't the right word?"

"I'm wearing what I normally do," Teana informed him. "No, nice wasn't the right word."

"Ah," Yami said, putting a knuckle in his mouth, something Teana was beginning to realize he did when he realized he flubbed up and needed to fix it. "Um….You look ravishing."

"You're digging a mighty large hole, Mr. Skellington."

Yami's expression was worth the indignation. "Please, I beg you, don't call me Mr. Skellington—you say that—"

"And you look over your shoulder for your father," Teana finished.

"How'd you know?"

"Because nearly every boy I've referred to as mister has said that," Teana said, taking his hand. "I think it's a prerequisite for something."

"Maybe," Yami said, looking down at her hand. "So shall we go, Miss Gardenier?"

"Women don't look over their shoulders for their mothers—they're indelibly etched into their brains. Yes, we shall go, by the way."

*/*\*

Yuki watched as Yami took one of their odd socks (its mate had been stolen by Spooks, they were certain) and cut it to pieces. That done, he followed the pattern in the attic spellbook and began stitching it back together in a crudely humanesque shape.

Yuki reread the instructions as Yami continued to sew. "So this'll be a voodoo doll," Yuki said, reading. "But not the injure-someone-else kind."

"Yes and no."

That was good—the injure-other-people thing had kind of turned Yuki off of this experiment. But according to the fine print, if the doll were given a lock of someone else's hair, then it could do someone harm.

Yuki pointed this out to Yami.

"I know," Yami told him, still carefully stitching. "But think of how hard it'd be to get ahold of someone's hair. Trust me, that won't be what this thing'll be for."

Barber shops occurred to Yuki. "So what are we using it for? I've only ever heard of voodoo dolls being used like that."

"I thought you read that—they can be used as assistants, too." Yami turned it right-side in and held up the empty sock-body. "When this guy's up and running, we'll never have to worry about cleaning our room again."

That made Yuki much happier. "No more scrubbing floorboards?"

"Nope. Now, buttons, please."

Yuki fished through the sewing kit and handed him two mismatched buttons. They were almost the same size, and were pretty nearly the same color.

Yami stitched them in, cut open a mouth, and stitched the mouth back shut.

"Okay," he said, flipping it over. "Stuffing, please."

Yuki handed him some straw and some cotton they had snitched from the fields. Yami stuffed it in the small opening remaining.

"Scissors, please."

Yuki handed him the scissors. Yami took them and snipped a bit off of his bangs, then handed them back to Yuki. "Now you."

"Why me?"

"Don't you want to be able to control this guy too?"

Yuki sighed and snipped a bit off of his bangs, following Yami's example and stuffing the snippet into the doll.

"Okay," Yami said, stitching it up and holding the completed doll up. "According to the instructions, not only does that ensure it listens to us, it also makes sure that no one else could use it against us. Now…."

Yuki listened as Yami read the incantation, watched as he took a pin, and winced as he stabbed the little doll in the chest.

"That should do it," he said when he finished, pulling the pin back out.

They watched with baited breath for a full minute.

Then the doll moved.

It was uncoordinated at first, one limb flopping uselessly at first, followed by another. But then it sat up, looking up at them with beady button eyes.

"Well, I'd say that's a success," Yami said, watching the doll stand up. It held its arms up, prompting Yami to hand it the pin. It twirled it around, transforming the pin into a tiny broom, then proceeded to sweep up the small strands left over from its creation.

"So what do we call him?" Yuki asked.

"I don't know," Yami said, rereading the instructions within the spellbook. "But this says we'd better name him quickly, otherwise he won't listen to anybody."

"His head is too big," Yuki observed. "We could call him Scrump."

"Scrump?"

"It's a great name! See? Even he likes it!"

Indeed, the voodoo doll did seem to enjoy the name. It hopped up and down and twirled in its enthusiasm.

"All right, fine," Yami sighed, not sounding sold. "Scrump it is."