Kingdoms
By TwinEnigma
Disclaimer: This fanfic is done for my amusement, therefore I only own the plot. YGO characters and related indica belong to the series creators. Warhammer and all related armies belong to Games Workshop. Star Wars and all related indica belong to George Lucas. Warning! This fic is character abuse-free!
Ryou had an odd life. Plagued by accidents, extended blackouts and a mysterious voice that haunted his waking existence, his concept of normalcy was somewhat skewed. Small wonder, then, that he found solace in the escapism that tabletop role-playing games offered him. His friends weren't that into RPGs, having much more affinity for the relatively uncomplicated Duel Monsters. But the cards weren't for him – admittedly, it was the feeling they gave him that unnerved him and the terrifying pleasure the voice possessed when he held the deck that made him wish he'd never heard of the stupid game in the first place.
His free time was occupied with models and tabletop settings. It was calming, taking his mind off the worries that occupied his life, and he truly enjoyed making worlds come to life with paints, plastics and foamcore. There was always an immense satisfaction that came from laboring over one of these projects to produce something he'd only been able to imagine from gridline paper schematics and hexagonal maps.
Ryou wasn't finicky about the types of tabletop RPGs – each one had different challenges inherent to their designs and he did enjoy a good challenge, as both a gamer and a model maker. Indeed, he had two Warhammer armies that he'd just recently finished painting, Tomb Kings and Vampire Lords. He was particularly proud of the latter, having customized them to resemble some of the cards in his Duel Monsters deck, a feat that required no small amount of epoxy putty, wire, spare parts and superglue.
Something had been bothering him since he'd finished the Tomb Kings army, though, and it was driving him up the walls trying to place it. It wasn't as if he'd done poorly in putting them together, or hadn't painted them to his satisfaction, because he had. In fact, he had something of a fascination for the undead army, as it seemed somewhat ironic to him – pharaohs clinging to a hope of an eternal life and instead becoming horrible monstrous parodies of life, undead armies defending a nation that no longer existed. There just seemed to be something missing.
And so, Ryou found himself in a hobby shop, picking out foamcore, spackling paste, modeling sand, and all manner of paints while his friends horsed around outside the store. Jonouchi and Honda had made a spectacle of themselves earlier, pleading that they head to the food court immediately after Ryou was done in the hobby shop. They were bickering over a soda now with a thoroughly annoyed Anzu desperately attempting to ignore them. Yugi was elsewhere in the store, going over their comparatively sparse Duel Monsters display – "scouting out the competition," the spunky shorter boy had joked. Sometimes, Ryou wondered how he'd come to be a part of this strange group, but it didn't really matter: he could hardly think of a time when they hadn't been friends and it was impossible to think of life without them.
He was paying for his supplies when Yugi popped up next to him again, grinning ear to ear with mischief. "Hey, Bakura-kun! Look at this!"
Ryou stared at the book his shorter friend was holding up. It was a Star Wars novel and, normally, he wouldn't have given it a second thought, except that his name was on the cover. His eyes widened considerably as he plucked the book from his friend's hands. "What?"
Yugi gave him a kitsune's smirk and chuckled, "Seems you've got a planet with your name on it!"
Ryou sputtered and attempted to swat the shorter boy with the book, but Yugi was expecting that and easily ducked, slipping away to go tell the others. Annoyed and vowing swift vengeance involving ice-cubes and bubblegum, the fair haired boy stomped back to the counter to pay for his supplies.
The voice stirred in the back of Ryou's mind then like some sort of poisonous serpent, amused and arrogant. "A planet, hm? I think I could get used to that as my kingdom."
Ryou couldn't suppress his shudder of revulsion as the voice's mad laughter echoed in his ears.
AN: Those freaking tabletop RPGs take a long time to make sets for. So, yes... Bakura must have been putting together the Egypt one for some time before the Dark RPG. A friend sent me the cover of the Star Wars novel, "The Truce at Bakura" while she was on a Bakura fanart hunt and I got to thinking. And then Other Yugi/Atemu/Captain Hair Gel decided to put in his two cents - literally, "Can you imagine a planet of Bakuras? 'Kukuku! We are the evil! Baka Pharaoh-sama' and whatnot." And I looked at the plotbunny and said, "You are cuter than this paper on Akhenaten's poetry. I shall write a one-shot about this Planet of the Bakuras." And there was much rejoicing.
As a note, I did try to keep to the original canon. No yami/hikari nonsense, separate bodies or any of that fandom invented silliness. Bah, that is it, really, beyond my excessive knowledge of modelling and Games Workshop. Why, no... I have not yet attempted to build Kuru Elna. Shame on me. That's my project for the summer, hehe.