The Magicians' Realm Chapter 108: Be Our Guest, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 108, everybody! In which I really need to take some time and go through everything, smooth it out, excise the really old stuff…find that one chunk of writing I swear I did because I know it's somewhere…not looking forward to rewriting it if I can't find it though. :\

Speaking of rewriting, we've come to part of what got rewritten for this particular story arc (and then that ending there is again several years old oops). In the original draft, it was Bakura Necromancer doing the entertaining and pretty much straight-up reenacting "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. Ended up canning that since it made more sense for Rocky to do the whole song and dance routine…and sorry kids, Rocky's had that bottled up for too long and letting it out had him going just a bit over the top. ^^;

Also, new version still references Beauty and the Beast, but with a side of Amphibia and Kim Possible.

Movie this week is Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs—I am pretty sure the only reason I sat through it a second time was because of Mr. T voicing the cop, just saying.

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! I know, right? Kind of weird what happened to the last decade? :O Oh never that's not even possible. XD Now that—is an excellent question….

References:

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

Yami wasn't sure what was more awkward—being outed in front of a whole collection of dead people (all of which eyed them like they were the weird ones), having his twice-great uncle happily tell the collection oh yes these are my twice-great nephews (which narrowed the eyeballing onto him and Yuki), or being ushered into a dining hall that looked like someone had drained all the life out of it.

"This is it," Jonouchi said, sitting at the table with the rest of them. "This is it, this is how I die, dead people eat me."

"I knew this day would come," Honda said flatly.

"You knew this day would come?" Bakura asked, not able to keep the skepticism out of his tone or off his face.

"Ever since we watched that zombie movie at the Majestic—that was a mistake, by the way."

"That sounds like one," slinky-cat-lady said, coming in with enough grace and verve that Yami doubted it all came from being a cat. "So hullo you lot, my name is Mitzi May, and it pains me to point out that I was the one who remembered first that you poor souls must be starving."

"No thanks, I always make it a point to eat before getting sucked into an alternate dimension," Bakura said, poking Kels with a fork. "Also I think Kels died."

"Well she'll be right at home. And you should probably eat something—"

"And I can provide dinner music!" another cat-person exclaimed, barreling into the room with a violin held up and a manic grin on his face. "Please let me provide dinner music it's been so long."

"Yes, please let Rocky provide dinner music he's been driving the rest of us nuts."

"Yes and after I went to all the trouble to learning how to play with two missing digits—I miss having pinkies," the second cat-person said, looking at his paws and flexing the digits. Spotted Kels. "Is she okay?" he asked, poking her with his bow.

"GyiHHHWHat'd I miss?" Kels blurted, jerking awake. Look at Yami. "I just had the weirdest dream—"

"Before you go too far, you may want to look to your right," he told her.

She did, spotted Rocky, who waved. "Hi there."

She looked back to Yami. "You couldn't let me have this lie."

"That was kind of mean," Rocky said, looking at him—looked back at her, violin at the ready. "But nothing improves the mood like music, right?"

"Oh, music to die by—classy."

"Actually it's music to dine by, which reminds me I must see how that's coming along," Mitzi said, leaving the room with as much grace as she entered. "Play nice, Rocky."

"Always, Miss M!" the other cat-person called.

Jonouchi and Honda definitely seemed more invested in her departure than the rest of them—turned back in their seats once she was gone.

"I finally met my goal in life and she's a dead cat," Honda said, burying his face in his hands.

"She's also a little old for you," Bakura pointed out.

Anzu seemed to finally find herself. "We're trapped in an alternate dimension full of dead people and that's your big problem?" Gesture at Bakura. "How are you even this calm?"

Bakura considered. "I'm pretty sure what it is is I buried the needle on panic so it came swinging all the way around and is now pegged out on calm."

"Well I'm still at freaked out, thank you."

"Ahem," Kels noised. "Do I still have a cat-person playing the violin next to me?" When they nodded. "Then I have you both beat this is a level of surreal that Rod Sterling couldn't even dream of."

Rocky made a pensive noise before playing a different tune on his violin. "'You unlock this door with the key to your imagination—'"

"Please don't."

"Moving on," Mitzi said, leading in a tea tray loaded with dishes and being pushed by Kineil. "The kitchen would like to proudly present: your dinner."

Yami barely had time to wonder where they produced the food—and Kineil and Mitzi barely had time to take something off—when Rocky jumped on it and rode it down the length of the hall, singing and playing right up until he collided with the far wall.

"Wow," Kineil noised drily. "That was almost worth the price of admission."

"Almost," Mitzi sighed. Look at the bottle. "Sparkling cider's appropriate, though—classy without being alcoholic."

Rocky came riding the tea cart back to the table, hopped onto the table and proceeded to dance around, playing frenetically and occasionally sending dishes flying in his eagerness.

"Rocky, honey, dial it back," Mitzi ordered, waving at him. Whether or not he heard her, Rocky certainly didn't heed her, kicking up the cloche that Kineil had taken off the steaming turkey platter and ringing it around his bow before sending it flying. And then accidentally kicking away the plate she was trying to fill.

Despite the fact that there was still a cat-person causing a scene on the table, it was Kineil Yami was watching cautiously—currently the staunch Skellington supporter had her eyes closed, like she was counting to ten and reminding herself that attempting to kill Rocky was redundant.

"I don't know," she said finally, holding the slice of turkey out to Jonouchi. "Would you eat this on a fork?"

"On a fork, on a train, in Spain," Jonouchi said, eyeing the slice of meat—and then looking dismayed when it went flying. "Ah man."

That was Kineil's opinion. "Mitzi, I'm going to kill your violinist."

"I want to tell you you're better than that, but I'm worried you'll just want to prove me wrong," Mitzi sighed. Kineil tried again, mostly focused on throwing several vegetables on the plate before chunking it at Yuki and trying for another plate—managed to snatch a goblet and jabbed it in Mitzi's direction.

"Here, make yourself useful," she ordered.

"Your manners leave something to be desired."

"Mitzi, I'm a little busy dealing with your—listen you if you hit ONE MORE THING on this table—"

Yuki had been eyeing the dish cautiously, finally picked up a fork to sample it—

Yami grabbed his wrist abruptly, stopping him—shook his head minutely when the others looked at him. He just realized—this food, tantalizingly mouthwatering, too perfect to be real—

Because it wasn't. It was magic.

The dead denizens were feeding them magic.

There were so many things wrong with this—sure, it wouldn't kill them, the dead denizens were already dead, and residing in such a magic-less world meant a little less magic wouldn't be noticed.

But as for the rest of them….

Commoners would suddenly be dealing with magic they hadn't grown up with and couldn't easily control. His own magic would have a fit at foreign magic being introduced. Worst-case scenario, the one told in the darkest of rumors, was that conflicting magic was what made the Chaos happen.

That was just rumor though—actual worst-case scenario had the conflicting magic kill the person ingesting it. It was a risk, and he was certain the one risking it was Skellington.

They couldn't eat this.

Couldn't drink anything either, he realized, looking where Mitzi was putting a drink in front of him. This place was rocky and barren, nothing but swirling gray beyond the town and the chunk of rock it was on—nothing could be harvested here. Matter of fact, he was willing to believe that everything here had been magicked up, right down to the chairs they were sitting in.

So now they had two choices: risk eating magic, or starving to death.

Both options had him sick to his stomach.

The issue for now, however, was resolved by Rocky finishing up with a flourish—which sent the rest of the edibles flying.

"Ah," Kineil noised—beckoned to Rocky. "Come here, will you?"

The grin Rocky was currently directing at her had more of a wince to it. "I don't know, you look like you're gonna hurt me."

"Go with that feeling."

And with that, she took the last surviving plate and broke it over Rocky's head.

Kels nodded once—looked away and raised her hand. "Check please."

*\*/*

Teana was trying to get into the movie, she really, really was.

"You seem troubled," Yami observed quietly. "What's eating you?"

"'Nothin', she's at the top of the food chain,'" the viewer in front of them quipped, referencing a line that had appeared earlier in the movie.

"What he said," she decided.

The noise Yami made suggested he didn't believe that. "This isn't about that thing with Skul, is it?"

Yes. "Maybe," she hedged. "Maybe I'm still hung up about the whole magic-eating thing."

"It's weird," he admitted. "If you want to get extra-creepy, there was some mage like, fifteen-hundred years ago that ate the magic of his vanquished enemies."

"That is creepy. What happened to him?"

"Spontaneous combustion."

"Ew."

"If it makes you feel better, some of his court might have been responsible for helping him along to his conflagration."

"No that doesn't make me feel better."

"Fair enough, it creeped me out too."

"And…maybe I'm a little worried about the future," she said, deciding she might risk broaching the topic. Maybe she could lead Yami into it.

"Oh?" Sounded nervous.

"Not like that," she said. "More like…all the myriad ways it could go wrong."

"This is about that dream you had, isn't it?"

"It's a contributing factor."

Yami considered it, watching the colorful moving pictures for a while.

"I won't tell you not to worry about it, because I'm starting to guess that's not in your nature," he said finally. "But…you could worry about it less?"

"I don't see that happening."

"I don't either," he said, putting an arm around her and hugging her tight. "But you'll drive yourself crazy trying to plan for every little contingency. Be here now. The future comes whether we want it to or not, so we might as well enjoy what we have."

Yes, that was the problem. She was enjoying what she had, and she didn't like the thought that all this would be gone in short order, vanished like it never was, future generations not even knowing about them.

She didn't want to lose this.

Sigh, reasoning she'd have to figure this out on her own. "I'll try," she offered, staring at the screen, not really seeing it. Glanced down. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all," the guy in front of them said, munching on his popcorn.

"See, in the movies this is when you two would kiss," his friend offered.

"Technically, we are in the movies."

Teana grimaced at Yami, turned her head so he could kiss her on the cheek.

"Lame."

"You can do better than that," kibitzer number two said. "Go on, proper kiss this time, from the top!"

"Are we going to have to explain your motivations?"

She could feel Yami laughing, whacked him on the chest for it, trying very hard to stay focused on the movie and not the quiet mantra of kiss-kiss-kiss from the two in front of them…finally relented.

She was certain people in the theater were wondering why anyone would be applauding a desolate wasteland, decided after the first second that she didn't really care.

But she would definitely do her best to keep things as they were.

She had to stop those bad futures.

She had no choice.

*/*\*

They were ushered into extravagant bedrooms after dinner, with the excuse that their days must have been very harrowing, and they needed plenty of sleep for the next "day."

Yami rushed towards the door as soon as they were closed, heard a click right before grabbing the handle, realized he was locked in.

He turned around to examine the room. It was huge, but with the same skewed lines that all the buildings here had. Things were warped and sinister, facsimiles of their real selves…he didn't expect to get to sleep tonight.

Yami walked over to a wall and started tapping. "Is anyone over there?"

"Yami!"

"Yuki!"

"What are we going to do?" Yuki mewled through the wall.

"I don't know, but don't worry, I'll think of something." Yami could feel the uncertainty through the wall. "Listen, we can't eat the food here."

"But I'm starving," Yuki complained. "How long are we going to be here?"

Yami froze; he didn't know that either, and he knew that if this went on for too long, they would be facing starvation. But what would happen if they ate the dead men's magic?

Did it even matter, considering they were doomed to stay here until it was time to face their judgment?

"We'll figure it out," Yami told him. "Now go to bed."

Yami listened as Yuki's footsteps receded and his bedsprings creaked, then mirrored the action, sitting down on his own creaking bed. He sat still as a statue for the longest time, wrestling with a new emotion, one he had no idea how to handle.

Guilt.