The Magicians' Realm Chapter 55: Employing Conversation, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 55, everybody! In which everyone's favorite louse comes a-calling and once again pokes holes in Teana's logic….

"I can't see through you even though you're a pain" seems to be a phrase used by the older people in my life—it works, though. And underwater basket weaving is another joke referenced often by those in my family and my college life. Why anyone would do that is beyond me, but….

Movie this week is the 1994 movie The Shadow—very clearly remember catching it on a movie channel back in '08, thinking "I wonder if this is that Shadow Dad keeps talking about…." It was, and it sparked a very dear love bordering on obsession for the character. Now if only Sam Raimi would get a script he liked so he could go forward with the new movie….Wait, I know how to write scripts. Excuse me….

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Yes, but it's been a while, so….Maybe, but she'd rather not. Yes, Yami M. is going to be stirring up quite a few things soon….

Pegasiger, thanks for the review! Thanks, I love it too—love that movie. :D

Guest (whom I think might be FicReader), thanks for the review! All right! :D Yes, still serious, but in some very silly situations—and if you like that: the actor who plays Larry Finkelstein played a fat-cat elitist lawyer in LA Law. What a difference. Yes indeed! What a show—that I can only watch in small spurts because of the late night wonderings. *~* Yep! Maybe a little of both…and who knows? The Shadow does!—but he doesn't show up in this chapter….

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yes, I highly recommend answering the phone like that if you have caller ID and know it's a telemarketing call coming in—my preferred method is to answer the phone and say, in the exact tone they use: "The number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please hang up and dial again. Thank you." Although there was this one call we got where I stormed that we didn't need what they were selling, already knew who we were voting for, and call us again and I'll track you down, chop you up, and feed you to my animals—we haven't gotten a call from that number since. ;) Ick—I'll do that. I wonder what the shipping costs are for large magical creatures?...Ah, what a pity—but at least there's games! And now you can't be expected to pop up at the least little thing, so success! :D

References:

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

It was Saturday, and Yami had managed to convince Teana to try the barbecue joint again.

"I told you it grows on you," he was saying as they left the woods.

"I'm still reserving judgement," she told him, looking around as she recognized the road as the one her now-defunct morning job was on. "I wonder how that inspection is going?"

"Not well, I hear," Yami said, polishing off his sandwich. "They found a big rat in the office."

"A rat? I never saw any rats in there."

"Well, rat may not be the right word—I might be offending the real rats by making the comparison."

"You must be talking about my boss there."

"I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance, yes."

"And what? Did you turn him into a rat or something? Is that even a thing?"

"Yes it is a thing, and no, I did not turn him into a rat. I wouldn't want a cat or hawk dying from food poisoning."

"Ha! Not funny. Oh great," she moaned, upon nearing the diner and the activity surrounding it. "This is not shaping up to resolving itself nicely."

"It doesn't look that way, no."

"I need that job."

"With that boss?"

"I'm talented at ignoring people."

"I noticed I have to work harder."

"You're harder to ignore, if it makes you feel better."

"It does," Yami said, looking brighter.

And then a poof of displaced air, and Teana sensed her personal space violated just as she heard—

"Say, pal, you don't look so good!"

Teana jumped, spun around—

"Oh great," she spat. "You."

"Me," Maxwell said, hooking his hands in his lapels and rocking back on his heels. "Enjoying the show?"

"Right up until you violated my personal space."

Kineil popped around from behind him.

"Max, we talked about that," she pointed out.

"I have shadow magic," he retorted, looking down at her. "What's your excuse?"

"The fact that I can sneak in tap shoes."

"You do what?" Teana asked flatly.

"I remember that," Maxwell said, looking reminiscent before scowling. "I lost a bet."

"That was a good day for me," Kineil said fondly.

"You fleeced me."

"And your point?"

"I'll pay you another fifty bucks to go with me to the next town over and fleece them."

"Max, you shouldn't fleece people," Yami chided.

"And besides, I've done that shadow-travel thing with you," Kineil pointed out. "I didn't like it."

"Really?" Maxwell asked in a mocking tone. "I couldn't tell."

"I'll make sure to scream in your ear louder next time."

"Please don't."

"Moving on," Teana ordered, gesturing to the diner. "Since this falls under Administrator jurisdiction, and since unfortunately you're the only Administrator in the immediate vicinity—how much longer is this going to take? I have a job on the line here."

Maxwell went quiet and confused, glancing at her, the diner, at Yami minutely shaking his head at him, back to her—

And then his face split into an unpleasant grin—she could practically see the lightbulb going off in his head.

"Well, so that's why you were so desperate to get that hustled through!" Maxwell crowed, addressing Yami. Teana looked at Yami, who looked appropriately chagrined and caught.

"Quick," Yami said to Kineil in an undertone. "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't kill Max right here."

"Too many witnesses," Kineil said promptly.

"Right. Thanks."

"Cheers," Maxwell noised.

"I'd like to hear how we got to this point," Teana said crossly, hands on her hips.

"If I had to guess, your beau fixing your problems."

"I wasn't asking you."

"Ah," Yami coughed. "Well, see…remember how I told you I made your boss' acquaintance? That was on the phone that morning, and…words were had. Pointed ones. With some heat to them."

"Are you kidding?" Kineil asked. "I could have fried an egg over you—you were steaming. I should have fried an egg over you—why didn't I?"

"Yes, why didn't you?" Maxwell asked.

"My only excuse was that I was severely hung over at the time."

"That explains so much."

"And how did that get to here?" Teana pressed.

"I may have mentioned having an inspection conducted…and then I sort of had to follow up on it," Yami hedged.

"And you needed someone to hustle it along and knew I was the one for the job," Maxwell said, sounding like he had just solved the mystery in a dime novel and grinning as he pulled a cigar out. "I must say, this was definitely worth the price of admission."

"Remind me again why I'm not killing Max," Yami said to Kineil.

"Too many witnesses," Kineil said promptly.

"Right, thanks."

"Cheers," Maxwell said, lighting his cigar.

"And the reason you failed to mention this was because?" Teana pressed, a dangerous edge to her voice.

"Because I had the feeling you'd be reacting like you are right now and Kineil could fry an egg over you?" Yami guessed.

"I could," Kineil said, looking Teana over before turning to Maxwell. "I need an egg."

"Do I look like a grocery store?" Maxwell asked, waving his cigar around.

"No, but you don't look like a window either, even though you're a pain."

Teana, meanwhile, was glaring at Yami.

"To be fair, you didn't need a job where the boss would fire you at the drop of a hat," Yami said hastily.

"And what other jobs could I get?" she snapped, knowing full well the job situation at the moment.

Yami gestured in absolute confusion. "Singer, dancer, ticket taker—underwater basket weaving!"

"You could take his job," Maxwell said, pointing at Yami.

"Too many witnesses," Kineil said, before Yami could react.

"Right," Yami muttered, sagging.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I don't take these jobs for my health!" Teana said. "But I doubt you would notice, because you're too busy to actually look down and take note of the Commoner situation!"

"Yeah," Maxwell drawled, tapping the ash off his cigar. "Except for the one standing right in front of him who always shoots down his attempts at helping her—and him calling in a tizzy, too. But obviously his one goal in life is just to torment you by attempting to better your life. Shame on him."

Teana glared at him, absolutely fuming—blinked in surprise when Kineil snapped her fingers in front of her face, redirecting her attention.

"Too many witnesses," Kineil informed her.

"Right," Teana declared, turning on her heel. "I'm leaving. Don't follow me," she added, pointing at Yami. "I need to not be around Magicians for a while."

And with that, she stalked off.

"I don't think witnesses are going to help matters," she heard Yami informing Kineil.

"This is true. Run you fool," Kineil said, probably to Maxwell.

Teana turned a corner, glanced out of the corner of her eye to see Maxwell suddenly vanish from sight, like he simply dropped from view. Good riddance.

It most certainly didn't help that that irritating, smug…jerk had a point, and that every time Yami tried to help, it just rubbed her the wrong way. She had worked hard to get where she was, and she most certainly did not need someone to try to sweep her off her feet and solve all her problems.

Except….Where she was wasn't exactly top of the heap. She barely had any personal time to her life, and she was working so hard at the places she did work at that she had no time for advancement. She wasn't even entirely certain what she had said about the job field was true—she hadn't really had time to check.

And she was trying very hard to remain justified about her reaction, when the fact of the matter was the jerk had a point.

And that irked her more than words could say.

*/*\*

It was early morning, and beneath Yuki's bed Yami could see Scrump using his pin as a toothpick to scrape the dirt out from between the floorboards and deposit it in what looked suspiciously like a thimble. The sun was barely up, and Yami had the feeling the little voodoo doll had not and did not need to sleep.

Yami, meanwhile, had woken up early, unable to get a good night's sleep, and had spent most of the pre-dawn perusing the spellbook from the attic.

And he found what had been worrying him for quite some time: he was nearing the end of the book.

He was running out of spells to learn.

Granted, it had used up a chunk of August and September, but still…he had eleven more months to kill. You know, if the Administrators didn't hold him back another year.

He found himself staring at the little voodoo doll. Now there was his major worry—that he'd be held back again, that he'd never progress, that….

He heaved a sigh, eminently frustrated. And a mite worried about the fact that the answer to his problem had been supplied by the Boogie Mage.

Why, exactly, was that spellbook in his family's attic?...And was there more….

Again, a sigh, and then he stuffed the spellbook beneath his mattress. No need for his family to find it and start asking questions that didn't have good answers.

He laid there for a while, still watching Scrump work, occasionally glancing up at Yuki, sleeping soundly with Owley the stuffed owl hugged tightly to his chest. He would tease him about that, except for the fact that he had a ratty round brown thing with yellow eyes and green feet named Kuri tucked beside his pillow, so he had no room for throwing stones in his glass house.

Yami sighed again, levered himself up, made his bed, and headed for the door.

Might as well get started with his day.