#And how actually RARELY Mario almost KILLS Bowser

[anomander-dragnipurake]

Possessed Chapter Two: E. Gadd

Luigi’s phone started ringing, the tone signified it was E. Gadd. … Possibly calling about King Boo’s escape, too bad it was far too late to be of any warning to Luigi.

‘Oh! E. Gadd!’ King Boo said internally, his grin spreading across Luigi’s face. ‘Let’s see how well I can impersonate you, huh?’ He pulled the pone out of Luigi’s overall pocket. “Howdy.” Unlike the other times he spoke, his voice quivered a bit and well… he did sound a lot more like how Luigi normally talked. Not exactly but… the difference probably wouldn’t be very noticeable over the phone.

“Sonny,” E. Gadd said, apparently fooled. “I got news. First off, King Boo escaped again, whoops.” ‘Whoops’ indeed, if Luigi got out of this alive, he might be tempted to strangle E. Gadd for losing King Boo for a third time. “And your dog is here. He seems agitated about something; he won’t shut up. You know what’s up with him?” He seemed more concerned about Polterpup than he was King Boo’s escape. But at least, Polterpup had gone for help, right? … Too bad he couldn’t actually tell E. Gadd what was going on.

“W-what do you mean King Boo escaped?” King Boo put way too much fake terror into his voice. E. Gadd had to see past it and suspect something, right?

“I mean he’s out and about again, what else would I mean?” Apparently not. “He was there last time I checked but gone this morning, don’t know what happened. Hmm… actually that might be what your dog is trying to tell me. Maybe he knows where King Boo is! You should come over. Maybe we can find him again before he lays his next trap.”

King Boo’s grin widened. “O-kay, if you insist.” More fake fear, poorly disguising evil delight.

Luigi pushed against King Boo, trying with all his might to say something, to warn E. Gadd. … He failed and with an internal laugh, King Boo hung up.

His stride much steadier now after a couple hours of coordination practice, King Boo started for the door as he repocketed the phone. Outside, the sun was starting rise, a testament to the hours Luigi had already spent trapped in his own body. It felt like ages though. He’d never been this tired before, he wanted to lie down and sleep for a year but instead, King Boo piloted his body towards his car.

‘I’ve never driven a car before so this should be fun.’ King Boo said as he got into the driver’s seat. Oh dear…

If you crash, I swear I’m going to kill you. Luigi was having a bad enough time as it was without adding ‘dying in a car crash’ to it.

‘Don’t worry, I won’t. I can’t have you dying on me before we say ‘hi’ to Mario after all.’ Oh right, that was a thing… maybe dying in car crash wouldn’t be so bad after all. King Boo’s only response to that thought was a laugh.

 -

“The longer I spend piloting your stupid meat suit, the more I hate it,” King Boo complained about an hour later. “It’s gross and getting anywhere takes forever even with a car. We’d have been there forever ago if we could travel my usual way. How do you put up with any of this without going mad or wanting to die?”

Leave then if you don’t like it. Did Luigi dare hope that all the inconveniences that came with a body might be enough for King Boo to abandoned this horrid plan of his?

“Nope, not happening. I can endure it to make you miserable, I just don’t understand how or why the living put up with it.” Well, that wasn’t surprising, so much so it wasn’t even really disappointing.

Weren’t you alive once? Boos were a special type of ghost, right? So, even King Boo had to have been alive once upon a time.

“Yep. It was so long ago I don’t remember it though. Which I’m glad for because…” He made a strangled gagging sound, fully emphasizing his annoyance.

With an internal sigh, Luigi did his best to go back to zoning out like he’d been doing ever since King Boo taken a detour to the clothing store. He’d bought a fancy white suit that and purple tie that he said was far more fitting ‘gross overalls’. Which, with how his possession of Luigi affect his appearance, was true. He’d thrown Luigi’s clothes out completely.

 -

E. Gadd’s lab was all the way outside of town and a fair way away from it, thus it was another hour before they finally reached it. King Boo pulled right into the driveway, parking very crookedly and just barely managing to not hit anything. If he had though it might’ve given E. Gadd some warning that something was wrong but… it was too much to hope for.

King Boo didn’t bother ringing the bell or knocking, he barged right in. The front door wasn’t even locked; E. Gadd could really use some lessons on proper security protocols.

Inside, neither E. Gadd or Polterpup were anywhere to be seen. They’d probably be further in, in the lab proper with all of E. Gadd’s experiments. All this room had was his monitoring equipment. None of it was currently turned on which probably explained part of how King Boo managed to escape so easily and not be noticed until it was too late.

King Boo hated the place. His feelings for it were intense enough that he probably couldn’t have kept them from Luigi if he’d tried. He’d been held captive here three times so of course he hated it. It made Luigi even more nervous about this upcoming meeting though.

Please don’t hurt the professor. Luigi begged because there was nothing else he could do.

King Boo ignored him as he strode in and towards the lab proper. His coordination practice was unfortunately very successful even after a long car ride. It meant if things got violent a trip or a stumble probably wouldn’t save anyone.

Polterpup’s furious barking was audible a second before he burst out of the back room and into King Boo’s path, blocking him from entering the lab. King Boo looked down at him, raising an eyebrow in annoyance. Thankfully he made no move to hurt him though.

“What is it dog- … Luigi?”

King Boo looked back up to see that E. Gadd had followed Polterpup out. As always, his large glasses made his expression hard to read but his mouth was set in a confused frown.

“You’re half right,” King Boo said, turning his evil smile onto E. Gadd. He hated him almost as much as he hated Luigi. “But perhaps you might want to call us ‘King Booigi’ instead.” He laughed at his own bad pun.

E. Gadd made a wordless sound of surprise before ducking back into his lab. Hopefully he could flee out the back or… something. King Boo gave chase, stepping over Polterpup with ease because Polterpup wouldn’t attack as long as it would hurt Luigi too.

In the lab, E. Gadd hadn’t gone for the back door but a Poltergust instead. Dammit! … But maybe he could… It didn’t even turn on when he pressed the switch, making an empty clicking sound instead. King Boo reached him before he could sort out whatever the problem was.

Please don’t… Luigi’s desperate plea cut off as King Boo balled up a fist and punched E. Gadd in the face hard enough for it to hurt Luigi’s hand too. The sound of his nose breaking was audible, a wet crunch that sickened Luigi almost as much as feeling it give way beneath his fist did. His glasses broke too, bits of them cutting into his face and Luigi’s hand. He went limp and would’ve collapsed to the floor if King Boo hadn’t caught him by the neck.

No, no, don’t, no! Luigi begged as he started squeezing as hard as he physically could.

‘You know the best part about having hands? You can strangle people!’ King Boo’s glee and satisfaction was sickening but not nearly as much as the far too clear feel of E. Gadd’s pulse in Luigi’s hands.

His weak eyes fluttered open, focusing on nothing. He reached a hand up to paw at Luigi’s hands but there was little strength in it. His face was already starting to turn purple, his eyes bulging.

Stop! Don’t! Please don’t! Luigi strained and pushed against King Boo’s control of him with everything he had. … Tears welled up in his eyes, blurring both their vision before spilling over and his hands twitched, loosening their grip slightly for half a second, allowing E. Gadd to take in a tiny gasp of air before King Boo pushed back, tightening their grip again. Luigi had done something but… it wasn’t enough… he couldn’t…

Something launched itself into Luigi’s side, making King Boo lose his grip on E. Gadd’s neck out of surprise and sudden lack of balance as something bit down hard onto his forearm. They fell over in a heap, the biter on top. It hurt bad enough that it took Luigi a few seconds to realize it was Polterpup. He may be a ghost dog but his teeth, though rarely visible, were sharp enough to punch through the suit sleeve and deep into Luigi’s arm, drawing blood.

Before King Boo could try to push him off or attack him in anyway, he let go and jumped back to stand in front of E. Gadd who lay on the floor, clutching at his throat as he gasped for air. Polterpup placed himself squarely in front him, growling protectively, his teeth dripping with Luigi’s blood.

Even despite the horrible throbbing and spreading warmth in his forearm as blood oozed from it, Luigi couldn’t help but tremble and cry in relief. Until King Boo put a stop to it though with an internal growl as he fully reinserted control.

‘You’re pathetic. I can’t believe I ever lost to you! Crying and whimpering over a foolish old man who doesn’t even respect you.’

Please… please don’t… hurt him… please. Luigi lacked the strength to do anything more than beg. There was nothing he could. He was going to have to watch as King Boo killed Polterpup and then E. Gadd with his hands, meaning in a way, he’d be the one doing it, right? He couldn’t… that wasn’t…

‘First, Polterpup is already dead, I couldn’t kill him again if I wanted to. Second, I don’t kill dogs or any other animals, they’re too precious even if some of them are traitors.’ He glared at Polterpup.

… ‘Precious’? … King Boo had soft spot for animals?! What? … Luigi probably would’ve fallen into a fit of desperate laughter if he had the means to do so.

‘Everyone has a soft spot for animals, you fool! Even Bowser’s got a cat. I heard it had kittens recently too.’

“What do you… want?” E. Gadd said with a cough, his voice horse and barely audible over Polterpup’s continued growling.

With a huff, King Boo stood up. “If you free my boos and destroy all the equipment for containing them maybe I’ll you let live.”

“And Luigi?”

“He’s my puppet for now. You can’t do anything to me as long as he’s mine. Also, might I add, he’s still in here.” He tapped the side of his head. “Watching everything, feeling everything. He was quite distraught when I was choking you. If only you could’ve heard his whimpering and begging. It was everything I dreamed it would be.” He allowed himself a small chuckle. “So, what’s it going to be? You going to cooperate or am I gonna have to kill you.” ‘The only reason I’m letting off for now is because of the dog. I’ll find a way to restrain him if I have to though.’ It was a promise he hoped to keep. ‘Also though, I don’t know where he keeps my boos, he separated me from them this time. Having him release them is faster and easier.’

E. Gadd fumbled and using a nearby machine pull himself up to his feet. He leaned on it as he pawed at his lab coat for a few seconds before pulling out an extra pair of glasses to carefully place on his face with shaking hands and a small wince. “Fine, I’ll… free your boos.” He grimaced, looking away, all his usual jovial energy completely absent. He was obeying though, which hopefully meant he’d make it out of this alive.

“And destroy all your machines meant for capturing and holding them?”

“Yes,” E. Gadd replied through gritted teeth, his knuckles whitening as he clenched his fist.

“Good! I suggest you hurry up before I get impatient.”

E. Gadd glowered at him but moved to do as ordered almost immediately. He was alive though and really that’s all that mattered, hopefully he was smart enough to keep it that way.

#My writing #super mario bros #luigi's mansion #Booigi #King Boo #Luigi #E. Gadd #attempted murder #graphic violence #angst

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

2019 in Retrospect

2019 has been fairly quiet, so I decided to start off this year by looking back on it. I’ll be dividing it by main fandoms/characters/ships because this year there were actually some new ones. That hasn’t been the case since, like, 2013. 

Sonic the Hedgehog

It was an...alright year for Sonic. TSR was fine but too light on content, Mario and Sonic Tokyo felt like a step down from Mario and Sonic Rio but was still alright, and I have not played SEGA Heroes (and haven’t bothered with the Chao in Space short). Lowest spot for me was the IDW comic; the Zombot arc has had one interesting story so far, but the rest has had either bad writing (primarily aimed at Shadow’s turn) or it’s just been wallowing in its bleakness in a way even Shadow the Game didn’t. Then again, I find zombie stories uninteresting to begin with, so no duh I’m not interested in a Sonic take on it. 

Chaotix kind of mirror that. Vector’s managed to get a good showing in, batting 3 for 3 on the game front, and having a key role in two of them. And like I said before, the Chaotix have genuinely had the most interesting stories within the Zombot arc, although with Vector and Charmy turned this may become more limited. Speaking of though, Espio and Charmy have had weaker presences. Espio managed to get into all three games in some form but to a lesser extent (one just by name), and Charmy was really left behind. 

As for Vecpio, it’s been pretty bare for canon material stuff. Espio got mentioned in TSR as contributing the report that reveals Dodon Pa’s true role (with him and Vector being the key to making everyone shut up about him being suspicious, proving they’re best as a team). And Mario and Sonic Tokyo has something if you headcanon some stuff; when Vector talks about the medals, Espio is the first person you’re directed to. Nothing is said by Vector about Espio in text, but you can implicate that Espio was chosen first because of his strong link to Vector, being the first one Vector would trust to compete at a gold level. Other than that? Dry. And with no announcements for Sonic games in 2020, this may just continue. 

Crash Bandicoot

On the reverse side, we have Crash Bandicoot having a really strong year. CTR:NF came out (which is a remake of my favourite Crash game) and has been doing gangbusters. On top of this, it has been going out of its way to revive pretty much every dead character in the franchise, to the point that we have RIlla Roo back in the fold (something I genuinely didn’t think would happen 19 years beforehand). 

Skipping straight to the shipping for this, I wouldn’t have imagined it for Crash ever, but there’s actually some in-game material for me to latch onto for DingodileXKomodo Joe! Dingodile has been pushed into a more jovial character since N-Sane Trilogy, being even more doubled down on in CTR:NF. However, for the past 20 years Komodo Joe has managed to avoid being given traits closer to Espio. This game finally catches up to him, and does it hard. Seriously, his character took a hard turn for the stoic badass Espio did after Heroes, and when did Joe ever use Martial Arts magic ever? Aside from making that dynamic naturally more matching, Slide Coliseum joins in the fun with the visual upgrade. It has holographic projections of a trophy girl repping a couple of racers dancing each, and guess who the devs felt could be paired up for how they go together rhythmically? That’s right, my reptile boys. Man. 

Super Mario Bros

What a weak year for Mario for me. What Mario got for new games this year were Luigi’s Mansion 3 (which I’ve not played), Mario Maker 2 (which isn’t new story content and doesn’t interest me in the slightest), Yoshi’s Crafted World (which I forgot was a thing) and Mario Kart Tour/Dr Mario World (which...um). 

Because of this set-up, Bowser hardly got anything to do so he’s really been on the backburner. Considering how he’s been pushed in the rest of the decade that’s saying something. In fact, the most character stuff he got was in Mario and Sonic Tokyo, and even that was mostly just alright (I think Bowser Jr got the best deal out of that).

Spyro the Dragon

Spyro was alright, but this one’s more understandable. With 2018 being the big year for Spyro’s return, 2019 was a rest for the little guy. That being said it wasn’t completely quiet; Spyro Reignited Trilogy finally got its port on the Switch, and to tie in with that Spyro got an appearance in CTR:NF. 

Because of the latter point, Gnasty Gnorc got a surprisingly strong year. Not only having more people learn about his glow-up in SRT, but bringing over that petty and angry character to CTR:NF. Seriously, his bit in the grand prix intro video is great, and he has more lines in his racing quips than any other game. 

OK KO

I don’t think I made a post about OK KO on Tumblr (or maybe I did one, I can’t remember). But I did manage to get into this just before it got cancelled so there’s that. 

I maintain that the Sonic crossover (aka the first thing I really knew about OK KO) didn’t give me a good impression of the show.It just seemed like “here’s the Sonic and Eggman dynamic but with more cartoon shenanigans*” and it spent more time making endless Sonic references. While some were deeper cuts which actually were impressive, most were references I could see in pretty much any Sonic-referencing material. It wasn’t until I decided to look up more info on Lord Boxman sometime after because I wanted to check if N.Gin was an influence that I found out the plot of the actual show (crossover notwithstanding) was pretty nuts and way more up my alley. 

Speaking of, there’s Voxman. Whereas other ships on here I have to dig through material to construct nuggets from them, this was literally in the text. And why not, they have a good dynamic and are usually the most fun to watch bounce off each other. And I still like the fact that if KO and Lord Boxman were the Sonic and Eggman parallel, the story ends with Eggman becoming Sonic’s stepfather. Let’s see IDW tell a story like that, it’d be better than the Zombot stuff. 

*I think that was the point but still. 

LEGO

Man I wouldn’t have thought they would have remade LEGO Racers but the one they made this year was gre--

Okay no, this year basically reignited another flame that I thought was snuffed out like 16 years ago. For a brief history of me and LEGO, when I was six I had a freestyle box which I used to make an elemental superhero persona. I played with this until I was 11. Before then, my sister got some LEGO Harry Potter sets (which we still have in the loft), I played LEGO Racers a lot (and wasn’t very good at it), and I owned two random other LEGO sets (the trike from Life on Mars and Lava from RoboRIders). 

After that, I only dabbled in LEGO when there was a Sonic set done for LEGO Dimensions. I did try to play more into it, but it was really prone to crashing in certain worlds so I eventually got frustrated enough to stop playing it. Sometime in the interim though my sister started enjoying LEGO films without me knowing, so when February came around I was dragged to see LEGO Movie 2 when all I wanted to see in 2019 was Toy Story 4. Dad insisted on it since we rarely have family outings. In retrospect; 

LEGO Movie 2 hit me in a way a piece of media hasn’t for years, or even decades. It’s shot up to be my third-favourite film of all time. And it’s revealed to me that LEGO is shockingly good at making endearing characters. So much so that breaking it down (pun not intended) has to be done by theme.

LEGO Movie: Part of the reason why I didn’t get into LEGO earlier was because I did see LEGO Movie back in 2014 when my sister was given it on DVD (she wasn’t into LEGO then) and I wasn’t impressed with it. In retrospect, I can appreciate what it did more, and I bring it up because it’s what makes Unikitty, Benny and Metalbeard so endearing when combined with what happened in TLM2. Lucy’s okay (moreso in the sequel), Emmet’s cute, President Business is fun but the MVP is definitely Rex Dangervest, who’s this feral monster but with Emmet buried away deep inside ready to flesh him out. When I make LEGO stories, I just have Rex change his mind on rescuing himself after getting the dinosaurs, and instead wreaking havoc in the present. This kills Emmet off in any story I do but it’s a worthy sacrifice. 

LEGO City Undercover: As a video game person I’m kicking myself for not getting into this before. Frank Honey is the best; he’s adorable and weird yet still feeling very much human and basically the Emmet of his city. Rex Fury has grown on me lots since my initial assessment of him,it’s infectious how much fun he has with being a criminal (while Vinnie is more fun when not doing criminal stuff and Chan seems to be more focused on doing criminal stuff as a job. I also think his calmer side is criminally (no pun intended again) overlooked). Also Ellie is underrated, she is the best straight man you could ask for. 

LEGO City Adventures: As I’ve said before, pretty much everyone in LCA is adorable, especially Duke and Harl. Still hoping for more Daisy time in the second season, she could be a riot if played properly and not just a Fendrich stooge. 

Ninjago: Coming in with the hot take here; I prefer the movie version of Ninjago to the series. I think the problem with the series is that it has so much baggage from before the series started to iron out some of its issues and cliches that it’s kinda hard to get into as a new person, whereas movie Ninjago is a lot more approachable and written better off the bat (although I do see why it wouldn’t go down well with existing Ninjago fans). This all just makes me think of that moment in series 11 where Nya sees her worst fear of being normal in an artefact and it shows her movie self, almost as a take that. It just makes me think the show writers are salty about movie Nya kicking show Nya’s ass in being a better character. Also shout outs to Kai, Cole, Zane and Lloyd for being great characters as well (Jay is cute in the movie, his show self can be punted off a cliff for all I care). And I am with the movement to have Cole come out as gay (or at least bi if they want to keep Tournament of Elements I guess). 

Nexo Knights: This show is regarded as another Ninjago wannabe, but it feels very different to Ninjago to me. So much so, there’s not a single one of the heroes I don’t like and they all need to be cherished. Macy gets props for being the best female character to me, Aaron is probably my favourite now and this is a house of Clance for future reference. 

So, with all that being said, what do I think of the prospects for 2020? I think it’s going to be quieter than 2019 to be honest, since there’s a lot winding down, and on the game side there’s been zero announcements. Crash and Spyro having a rest is understandable, Sonic’s going to have to get past the movie before gearing up for 2021 probably (for the record I have no interest in the movie) and Mario just needs to try harder. And with OK KO dead, only LCA is holding the fort for guaranteed new content I want to engage in right now. 

You know what would be fun though? Series 20 of the minifigures theme is due at the end of this year. Wouldn’t it be awesome to use the occasion to give some phsical minifigures to characters who never got them before? LIke, Rex Fury somehow still has enough demand to be a persistent feature in the customs market, give him an official figure (especially since he’s the only character from LCU that’s not Chase that’s even appeared in merch outside the game). Or let Sky Lane get her LEGO Universe look in physical form to go with her LIXS look. Or heck, finally give Rocket Racer his original look, that’s how I discovered the minifigure world in the first place!

#VEDJ-F talks #a lot #2019 #sonic the hedgehog #Crash Bandicoot #Spyro the Dragon #super mario bros #ok ko #lego #vecpio #tagging the vecpio because this is still a vecpio centric account at heart #but please I do not want lego chaotix that would just look weird

[supercasey]

RvB Character’s SSBU Mains

BGC CREW ---------------- Church: Sonic main. Is convinced that playing as Sonic is "meta" and that somehow it means he's a pro. Sore loser. Swearing and screaming the entire match, even if he's winning. Caboose: Kirby/Incineroar main. People tend to leave him alone during matches because he seems unskilled/too sweet, but if he gets his hands on you you're fucked. Tucker: Classic Link main. Has mastered bombs, up B, and nothing else. He'd be better at the game if he focused on fighting rather than flirting. Sister: Pikachu/Isabelle main. Down B is life as Pikachu. Closest of the BGC to pro other than Tex. You think she'd be flirting but she's here to win. Abuses the Isabelle glitch for as long as she can. Tex: Dark Samus/Falco main. Will backhand you if you mention Zero Suit Samus. Is a pro but also a show off in the most subtle of ways. Is the only one who's beaten Carolina and she's way too proud of it. Sarge: Bowser/Ridley main. Suicides as Bowser and side B's himself to death constantly as Ridley. Will complain that there's "too many fighters" and mutter about how he misses the N64 version (despite not maining any of those characters). 1v1’s Grif and loses every time. Simmons: Chrom/Roy main. "Roy's our boy!" Can't get himself back on the map to save his life. Waits for everyone to thin themselves out before swooping in to finish them off. Gets mad when Grif mistakes which character he is. Grif: Wario/Yoshi main. Plays Wario when he's just goofing around, but he'll switch to Yoshi if you piss him off/challenge him. Used to be pro but hated how competitive it was. Typically takes second or third place in full BGC matches, but almost always first in Red Team matches. Donut: Peach/Kirby main. Can play fairly well on most of the characters but he loves Peach the most. Has mastered charge attacks but rarely uses them. Side B is life as Peach. Endless vore jokes as Kirby. Lopez: ROB main. Would be a lot better if he gave a damn, but he's typically just a stand-in player. If left alone, he'll rewire his controller into something else entirely. Hogs items. Can't land his FS for shit.

Doc: Dr. Mario/Mr. Game & Watch main. Pretends to think that the game is too violent but secretly loves it. An unforgiving monster as G&W. Sucks as Dr. Mario but refuses to give up on him. If he gets an item run away at all costs. FREELANCERS ---------------------- Carolina: Fox/Zero Suit Samus main. Primary plays Fox but will switch to ZS Samus for shits and giggles. Is impossible to get off the map and will bully you into a corner. Hates items. Will get pissed if killed by items. Washington: Villager/Wolf main. Only mained Wolf in PFL, now he plays as the Villager because he finds it fun. Absolute monster if he's put into a small space with someone. Can switch to Random and still get in the top three. York: Duck Hunt/Pit main. Is just here to have a good time/troll. Loves when items are on. Spams his FS and always gets someone with it. Actually not that great with his A moves but he still gets by. Maine: King Dedede/Meta Knight main. Cannot believe no one got the Meta joke until it was too late. Terrible in the air but terrifying on the ground. Hogs all the items. Mad that no one wants to play with Spirits on. North: Ice Climbers main. Never loses his other ice climber. Will throw himself off the map if he loses his other ice climber. Arguably the least aggressive player but he's still fairly good. Misses when his main was OP back in Melee. South: Bayonetta main. You know why she mains her. Fucking incredible with her side attacks but falls off the map a lot. Doesn't pay attention to surroundings. Will deck you irl for spamming items. CT: Sheik/Snake/Greninja main. Loves the "stealth" characters even though there's no stealth. Hides for most of the game before jumping in at the end, only to lose. If she goes down, you're coming with her. Wyoming: Ryu/Snake main. Hates the game but hates sharing a main with CT even more. Spams aerial moves until he accidentally falls off the map. Fairly decent aim, but still can't land a single FS.

Florida: Wii Fit Trainer/Pac-Man main. Terrible at getting back on the map but even worse at melee fighting. Is arguably the worst at this game but the scary shit he says while playing keeps anyone from saying anything about it. CHORUS KIDS --------------------- Felix: Bowser Jr/Shulk main. Insufferable asshole who targets whoever's losing and destroys them. Lands FSs without even trying. Tried going pro but got banned from all the tournaments. Locus: King K Rool/Lucario main. Really fucking good at the game because it's all he plays. Has unlocked all the spirits. Refuses to use spirits. Waits until there’s only one person left so he can 1v1 them. Kimball: Palutena/Samus main. Is here to have a good time. Didn’t grow up with a lot of video games but she’s still fairly good. Enjoys ganging up on Doyle. Can actually take Carolina in a fight but doesn’t want to.

Doyle: Luigi main. Has never once played a video game but is still reasonably okay. Runs away at the first sign of a FS. Spams items out of fear. Humble loser.

Dr. Grey: Jigglypuff main. Acts like a cryptid for a majority of the match (you only see her when she’s grabbing items). Manages to catch everyone- even in an eight player free for all- with her FS. Worryingly quiet.

Palomo: Captain Olimar/Young Link main. Isn’t even good with YL but he wanted to match Tucker’s main (much to Tucker’s annoyance). Terrible at refreshing his Pikmin stock. Brags hardcore when he wins (not that it happens a lot).

Jensen: Daisy/Lucas main. You’d think she’d take it easy on people but she goes for the kill. Unabashedly goes for Palomo out of anger and spite. Do not test her. Forgets to use her FS despite being reminded that she has her’s ready.

Smith: Mario/Pokemon Trainer main. Doesn’t care that Mario’s FS is shit, he’s here to have fun. Will back off if he’s wailing on someone too hard. Cries on the inside when his Pokemon are knocked out as PT.

Bitters: Ness/Mewtwo main. The best out of the Chorus Kids, it isn’t even much of a competition anymore. Loves taking on Grif and/or Carolina because it’s a challenge. Sometimes shows off but he earned it tbh.

Matthews: Kirby/Little Mac main. Just here to have fun. Will hide by Bitters even if it’s not a team match. Side B’s to his death as LM. Really good with items and cries when Bitters won’t turn them on.

BONUS EXTRAS ------------------------

The Director: Mario/Cloud main. Only playing because Carolina guilt-tripped him into it. Gets upset when he can’t figure out where he is in a crowded brawl. Is decent at the game because Allison made him play the older versions back in the day, but still not great. Yells a lot.

The Counselor: Mega Man main. Only plays MM because he recognizes him. Refuses to switch despite sucking as MM. If he lands a FS he gets way too proud about it. Low-key threatens to fire any Freelancer who really gangs up on him.

The Chairman: Ganondorf main. Hates this game more than anything else. Is infuriatingly slow and even when he reaches someone, he forgets to attack/misses. Doesn’t know how to FS and everyone hates him too much to explain it. Rage quits.

Sharkface: Inkling main. Blue Inkling all the way. Keeps forgetting to reload his ink. Stays as a squid and hops around the entire game. Surprisingly wholesome and has more fun than anyone else playing, despite never winning. Paints people blue and laughs.

Vic: ??? Random main. Talks non-stop the entire game and it’s the most infuriating thing. Wonderful at recovery, even on characters with shit recovery. FSs way too much.

((I’m fine with constructive criticism, but this was all made in good fun, so please don’t flip out about who plays who too much. Please note that I’m not caught up. I’ve only seen up to RvB13 and a few RvB14 episodes, but not many. Feel free to add future characters. Hope you all enjoy this!))

#rvb #rvb ssbu au #ssb #ssbu #grif #simmons #sarge #donut #tucker #caboose #church #sister #kaikaina grif #tex #agent tex #agent texas #agent washington #agent carolina #doc #agent york #agent new york #agent wyoming #agent connecticut #agent florida #butch flowers #agent maine #the meta #agent north dakota #agent south dakota #issac gates

[cosmosogler]

ok so i gotta get up at like 6:45 tomorrow morning, so i’m writing in early. 

i’m very tired but i had a VERY PRODUCTIVE DAY!!! my head hurts very badly. the doctor ran some lung tests and stuff and said that my breathing trouble is almost definitely a muscle problem, given that my entire back is sore to the touch. along with my neck and shoulders down to the bottoms of my ribs. like i think there was one spot she poked that didn’t extremely hurt. 

so i gotta get some physical therapy. i quibbled about prices for a while and got really frustrated that the financial person in the infirmary did not know how the school-provided insurance worked with regards to covering a referral within the infirmary departments. then i went down to the office and worked and worked and worked and then i went to club and did some critiques. i went home and finished a page of the scene and did all my chores and finished my bookkeeping project and wrote a synopsis of my story. raul suggested it. so i’ve got a rough script for a 10-minute presentation now. raul is going to go over it with me on thursday and see if it needs any changes but i don’t anticipate too many. might have to change around the plot summary since i only introduce blue and nas. i’ll post it under the cut if you guys wanna read. if not, this is the end of my post for the day. too tired, my back hurts too much to keep typing.

Filling the void

 My comic ‘filling the void’ is a fanfiction based on the Mario spinoff game ‘super paper mario’ for the wii. It follows the life of the villain, who calls himself count bleck. No one else calls him that. He is joined by four others over the course of the story- nastasia the vampire secretary, o’chunks the grizzled war veteran, dimentio the spooky jester, and mimi the baby shapeshifter.

-

              The count’s actual name is blumiere. I think it’s three syllables. He started off life as a member of the tribe of darkness, which is a race of floating blue monster people. When we first meet him he’s in the aftermath of a suicide attempt, in which a girl named timpani found him at the bottom of a cliff and has dragged him to her home. They start seeing each other regularly, and over time timpani decides to shorten blumiere’s name to blue. blue’s life is ruled by prophecies and magic. He shares with timpani that he’s fated to destroy all the humans in the world and timpani tells him he should only do what he wants. They dodge threats from blue’s father and eventually blue decides that he and timpani should leave their world and find a safer one to live in. timpani has always wanted to travel and is enthusiastic about the plan.

              Blue is in the process of preparing to leave when his father sends timpani somewhere else. This sends blue spiraling into a violent depression. After a fight when his father discovers that blue is still planning to leave and find timpani, blue decides to open a book of dark prophecies called the dark prognosticus. The book tells him his name is count bleck, and he will kill his father and then destroy the world. it shows him shortcuts and glitches in his world that will allow him to destroy it before he can stop and have second thoughts.

              Destroying his world rips open a hole in spacetime called the void. Blue flees the scene and begins his search for timpani alone and with no survival skills, only the book.

              Nastasia is from a colony of vampires all working under one boss. She was killed and turned undead when she was a small child. vampires grow until they reach adulthood and then stop, so she was raised in the meantime by her fellow slaves. Most vampires have one super power, and nastasia’s is hypnosis, a rare power that puts her at a high rank in her colony. One night her colony is attacked, and in a desperate bid to save her and a few others, she’s sent away from the castle, which is when she is saved by blue.

              Acting out of self-preservation and a developing crush, nastasia immediately pledges her life to the sick and injured stranger. They travel together for a while and become close friends, which is when blue confides in nastasia that the book has shown him that he’s fated to destroy the universe. Shortly afterward, his mental illness abruptly becomes completely unmanageable. Unable to keep track of time, remember where he is, or recognize nastasia, and unable to recall any details about his life, blue eventually becomes unable to interact with the world around him in any meaningful way and has to depend on the prognosticus to tell him everything he has to say and do.

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              The title ‘filling the void’ refers to two voids. For people who have not played the game- the plot is that a monster called count bleck has summoned an object called the ‘chaos’ heart and ripped open a void in the sky that will shred the entire universe. The only way to stop the destruction of all the worlds is to collect a bunch of ‘pure’ hearts and kill him. Mario is joined by a fairy called tippi as a sidekick, along with peach, bowser, and eventually the weeg himself. The count has convinced some minions to join him with the promise that they are building a perfect world without evil in place of the destroyed universe. When they find out the truth they take it pretty surprisingly well, all things considered. my comic follows the earliest chronological cutscene in the game to a few days after the game’s events, with the large majority spent in a time period the game does not cover except for a few sentences.

              Blue holds a unique place in the Mario rogues gallery in that he’s the only spinoff villain who is not killed as a final boss fight (or at least, strongly implied to be dead). He and his team are a very charming group of characters and I wanted to write a story exploring what goes into a forgivable villain, especially one who forces the highest stakes of any Mario game.

              With this story I wanted to spend time on developing character relationships and the process by which a kid goes from ‘crazy starving hobo’ to ‘most dangerous man in the universe with four goofball friends’. It’s a slow process; my story is about 300 scenes split up into 9 chapters, or ‘arcs’. Most of the arcs are about 20 scenes, but arcs 6 and 8 clock in at 180 scenes put together. during arc 1 I was still working out the major strokes of the story, and during arc 2 I was still ironing out the details, so the beginning is a little sparse and rocky compared to later chapters. I ended up having way too many ideas for this story, so I relegated a large percentage of them to ‘extras’ that only take a little time and I can publish between full scenes. they are canon and can elaborate on things happening in the story, but I made sure that none of them are critical for understanding major plot developments.

              For the vast majority of the story blue is stuck in a void between his incompatible goals; finding his fiancé and destroying everything, both of which he keeps mostly secret from the others. He also has to learn to manage his depression and particularly the strange comorbid symptoms that have developed. On top of that he has to come to terms with finding a family of weirdos out there in the universe and his extreme trepidation in acknowledging and communicating his feelings. Said four weirdos also are making their own journeys alongside blue, and I spent a lot of time in the story looking at how these different parallels and traits and threads would tangle up with each other as they traveled.

              What fell out of all these collisions was a story about the ways we treat each other and how that affects us. Blue struggles and often fails to hold on to his personhood, and this is strongly influenced by the way others- and especially the book- have treated him. This story is largely about growing out of abuse, and how that can tie in with forgiveness and redemption, given a willingness to change.

[kaiserdingus]

Mario Movie Madness - The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach (1986) / Super Mario Bros. (1993)

When it comes to story in video games, Donkey Kong was the originator. The first game to have an actual narrative with characters, Donkey Kong followed the simple plot of an everyman who rescues his love interest from a hot-headed brute. When Super Mario Bros. premiered on the Famicom a few years later there were a lot of changes, but the core story was still there. Mario, who was once a carpenter, must rescue the Princess from Bowser, just like he rescued Pauline from Donkey Kong.

This simple narrative would be the perfect motivation for someone to play through the game from start to finish. Seeing the Princess rescued from Bowser would be a perfect reward for braving through eight dangerous worlds. Would this be enough to hold up a movie, or a tv show, or a comic?

For a time in the late 80’s and early 90’s, Nintendo were more willing to license out their properties to be made into movies and cartoons. Japan saw one anime film, Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, as well as a series of Original Video Animation releases. The United States got several syndicated cartoons produced by DiC (who also produced the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons), as well as a live action Hollywood movie produced by Disney.

It was definitely the most interesting time to be a video game fan.

Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!

Japan in the mid-1980’s was in full on Mario fever after the success of the Famicom and Super Mario Brothers. By 1985 Nintendo was already selling merchandise featuring everyone’s favorite mushroom-gobbling plumber, by now it was only natural to move into film. Being that Nintendo is a Japanese company it was only natural that they test the waters of media adaptations with an anime film.

On July 20th, 1986, Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach was released in Japanese theaters. The film was produced by Grouper Productions in collaboration with Nintendo, and was released on home video by VAP Video. The movie is an oddity in the Super Mario franchise, in that it has never seen any sort of re-release.

The movie had a relatively large marketing campaign, including tie-in merchandise and commercials featuring the Mario characters. Despite this, once the initial release window had closed the film would never be released again. This meant it would never see the light of day outside of Japan, and would lead to the film’s merchandise being among the more rare Mario related collectibles.

What’s interesting about this movie, and what could possibly be the reason behind its suppression, is that it was the first real depiction of the Super Mario characters outside of the video games. Of course, there were commercials and the animated series Saturday Supercade featured Mario characters. At the time things weren’t set in stone regarding Mario. It wasn’t until Super Mario Bros. that establishing canon and lore, as well as defined character designs, would become a priority.

This movie’s production would have occurred alongside the development of Super Mario Bros. 2, known as The Lost Levels in the West, so the designs and characters are almost entirely based on those found in the first Super Mario Bros. This is the first time we see Luigi as being taller than Mario, and this is also the first time he’s presented as a comical sidekick who almost doesn’t want to be there.

Mario is presented as the typical every man hero who wants to save the day. Peach is presented in what would become her final design, going against what the American cartoons would be doing with giving her brown hair. Bowser is shown as having a romantic motivation for kidnapping the Princess, which is something that wouldn’t be shown in the games until later by that point.

One thing that caught my ear was how the video game’s musical cues and sound effects are used comedically here. This is something that later American cartoons would also do, though its not clear if they’ve seen The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach before production or not. There are a lot of similarities between the anime movie and the American tv shows. For example, Mario and Luigi’s love of food, which would also become a staple of the games.

The most charming part of this movie is the soundtrack. While some musical cues come right from the games themselves, there are several montage scenes featuring a bouncy rock and roll soundtrack. The songs are catchy and infectious, one could easily find themselves humming the tunes hours after hearing them.

Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is a great little animated movie that establishes or predicts character elements that would come to define the franchise. It’s a short movie at only an hour long, but it’s worth every minute. It’s a light hearted, tongue-in-cheek cartoon that’s aware of its video game origins and plays it up for laughs.

So, if it’s so good, why haven’t Nintendo re-released it? A couple of reasons, with the most obvious being licensing rights. When the movie was produced Nintendo were still new to success of this scale. It’s possible that the agreements made when the movie was first thought up would have each company involved hold onto some of the rights. The musicians, the production company, the home video distributor, there’s a good chance each of them own a piece of the movie. For Nintendo to wrestle the rights away from them could be a logistical nightmare.

Another reason for its lack of international release: cultural references. At the time the movie came out in Japan anime was just starting out in the West. What little anime was available in the United States was often butchered in the editing room in order to make it appealing to a Western audience. This included any references to Japanese culture, producers wanted to mask the fact that they were importing foreign shows and movies rather than creating new content.

Nintendo in 1986 were more concerned with making sure Western audiences were buying their games, especially after the video game crash of 1983 made video games a tough sell. By the time Nintendo was comfortable enough to start thinking of cartoons, they had decided to make Mario media aimed specifically at a Western audience. This would result in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, based on the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2, as well as a few other shows based on Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

Of course, none of that would compare to what Nintendo were planning for 1993. Hollywood had come a knockin’, and Nintendo gave their blessings for a Disney produced live-action Super Mario Bros. movie.

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

The 1980’s were a true golden age of cinema aimed at young audiences. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, these were the directors who shaped movies at the time. Back to the Future, E.T., The Goonies, Ghostbusters were all hits, but none of them would hold a candle to Tim Burton’s Batman. It was the last great summer blockbuster of the 80’s, and it would set the tone for the 90’s.

After Batman claimed the Summer of ‘89, every studio realized what the next big thing would be: adaptations of comic books and video games. The assumption was always that comic books and video games were the lowest forms of entertainment, but both hit it off big time in the time leading up to and following the release of Batman.

One of the properties picked up in the post-Batman rush was Super Mario Bros., the production company Lightmotive met with Nintendo and an agreement was made. The producers originally wanted Danny DeVito to play Mario, Tom Hanks to play Luigi, and either Arnold Schwarzenegger or Michael Keaton to play Koopa. In the end they would settle on Bob Hoskins as Mario, John Leguizamo as Luigi, and Dennis Hopper as King Koopa. Disney would distribute the movie under their Hollywood Pictures banner.

The movie was released to theaters on May 28th, 1993 to critical and commercial failure. Too dark for kids, too childish for adults, it failed to resonate with any audience during its theatrical run. It was released on home video shortly after and faded away into pop culture obscurity, only to be mentioned at video game trivia nights at dive bars.

Problems with the cast and crew, a poorly organized production shoot, and a pair of directors who made repeated changes to the script well into filming resulted in a movie that’s best described as a mess. Supposedly the original vision was a lot better and stayed true to the spirit of the games. The end result is a movie that tried to imitate what was successful before it without understanding what made those movies successful.

Super Mario Bros isn’t a bad movie, like most things people claim are the “worst ever” it’s never as bad as people make it seem. It follows the Mario Brothers, Mario and Luigi, who are plumbers in Brooklyn just trying to get by. One day they bump into Daisy, who’s an archaeologist digging for dinosaur bones in Brooklyn. While out to dinner with the Mario Brothers, Daisy winds up getting kidnapped by King Koopa’s goons, and it's up to Mario and Luigi to save her.

The Mario Brothers head to “Dino-Hatten”, a parallel cyberpunk dystopia ruled by King Koopa. When the meteor killed out the dinosaurs on Earth it didn’t kill them, but sent them to another world where the dinosaurs would evolve into people. The city is covered in fungus and neon signs, and it feels like a real world with thousands of unique individual stories. Stories that would probably be much more interesting than what this movie ended up as.

The cast is legitimately great, there’s no denying that. Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper are some serious big names in acting, and they delivered solid performances. They’re the definition of “doing the best we can with what we have to work with.” The cast have good chemistry together, possibly due to a mutually shared distaste for the directors. There’s also stories about the cast drinking and partying together when they weren’t on set.

Personally speaking, I always loved Super Mario Bros. I rented the video tape as a kid and watched it every day for a week. It’s not a very good movie, it wont ask the important questions and answer them in under two hours, but it is an enjoyable flick. It’s not very true to the source material, but it references the source material enough for me not to mind. It takes the video game storyline and does it’s own thing with it.

In contrast to The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, Super Mario Bros. doesn’t look so good. The anime film just had so much more to offer in terms of a coherent plot and a cute, self-aware plot, whereas Super Mario Bros. felt like a much bigger film that fell hard. Its funny how widely available the live action Super Mario Bros. movie is when the anime film is so much better. Both movies, however, are great novelty moments in the history of video games, especially the history of Super Mario.

It’s been twenty five years since Nintendo has let anyone adapt their most sacred works, with exceptions for Pokemon and Kirby. This is directly caused by Hollywood’s failure to deliver on a big budget Super Mario Bros. film that would be a critical and commercial success, on the same level or surpassing that of the games. Nintendo’s philosophy has always been to focus on what they do best, and that’s not to say they didn’t try.

In 2015 Nintendo announced a deal with Universal Studios to allow Universal to create a Nintendo themed area in their international theme parks, with an eye on Tokyo and Orlando specifically. This deal opened up speculation as to whether or not Nintendo were trying to get back in bed with Hollywood. In July of 2016 this speculation would be confirmed as it was announced that Universal would be distributing a live action Pokemon movie based on the game Detective Pikachu.

The biggest news to come out of the Nintendo/Universal deal would come in January 2018 with the announcement of Nintendo partnering up with Illumination Entertainment. Illumination is the studio responsible for the Despicable Me series, and now they’re on board to produce a CG animated movie based on the Super Mario Bros franchise. Will it be more successful than the previous attempts? Well, it can’t be any worse at least!

Where to Buy

The Great Mission To Rescue Princess Peach (Not Available)

Super Mario Bros. (DVD/Blu-Ray)

Click Here To Support Y2K Fun Zone On Patreon

#Super Mario #Super Mario Anime #Super Mario Movie #Mario #Nintendo #anime #Hollywood Pictures #Disney #Super Mario Bros Super Show #Super Mario Bros The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach

[fountainpenguin]

P & Q

P: How much do you plan in advance versus letting the story unfold as you go?

Story-wise, ends and general events are always planned early on (All 130 Prompts, most of Identity Theft, Hawthorn Haven, Little Imperfections, No Anesthetic, Factor It In, Devil’s Backbone, and so on are already planned even though I won’t be posting some of these things for years), so it’s just a matter of doing the actual writing. Beginnings come next and middles come last.

For me, writing is a matter of saying, “Here is my destination. Where are we coming from and how do we get there?” Depending on what I’m writing, sometimes where I’m coming from is the previous chapter, sometimes it’s a specific point in my timeline. Chapters don’t require a lot of set-up because readers should more or less remember what’s recently happened to a character, but with one-shots I have to clarify not only the setting, but recent events as best as I can. There’s a different mindset there.

Origin, Knots, and the Prompts are divided into over a hundred different files in Google Docs, so I can’t give an accurate word count, but I probably have 200k words on hand for both Origin and Knots and at least 300k for the Prompts. I wrote scenes I consider significant early on and I’m working my way towards them, correcting inconsistencies along the way.

What I plan worldbuilding-wise for a fantasy series is another topic altogether (Expanded on below the cut).

Sociopolitical Aspects

For my Mario works, for example, the first thing planned was how the Koopa Kingdom is laid out, and where the Koopalings fit into my ideas. Then it was a matter of deciding which parts of canon I want to draw from and what I want to do with it. I didn’t rule out the new kingdoms revealed in Odyssey, but I definitely didn’t erase Sarasaland and the Beanbean Kingdom either. I worked out the political systems of a few countries, what the social norms and big crimes are, and the basics of Bowser’s inclination towards violence.

I have a document noting what the people of each land are called and what their native languages are so I don’t have to worry about contradicting myself later, which has been extremely useful. I even determined populations for different kingdoms, with the Mushroom Kingdom at about 235 million people, the Koopa Kingdom almost twice that, and the Beanbean Kingdom a measly 4 million. Even if this info never comes up in story, it helps me understand how people interact with one another and fit into this system.

In my FOP works, I worked out the history of Fairy/Anti-Fairy conflicts, drawing from aspects of canon such as the known war over human godchildren. The Pixies fit in there too as the neutral party. Then there’s the matter of fitting in the aliens and humans. Deeper yet, the Ghosts and Beasts. Figuring out the international relationships up front works best for me, and then I can later determine how characters with this background interact in this environment.

In my Danny Phantom works, I drew from a comment Butch made once that although King Pariah was a tyrant, he did keep the Ghost Zone organized and it’s fallen to chaos since he was overthrown. I worked out Ghost-Skeleton relations, how the Observants play into things, and what the space within the world might be like.

In my WordGirl works, determining how Hexagon functions was crucial to what I decided to do with Kid Math: In this case, his planet is obsessed with math to the point they only have spoken language, not a written one. They use numbers and mark up blueprints, but written language is for the Lexiconians [Insert snobby scoffing].

When writing Rhyme and Reason backstory, I worked out how common powers are, how those with certain powers are treated by society, what kind of education kids with powers get pushed towards, what laws might exist, how many heroes there might be, and how police involvement works in cities that have heroes. In this alternate world, there are things called charm schools that are “finishing schools” for kids with powers, and Rhyme was almost sent to one until she ran away.

Physical Aspects

I made the Mushroom Kingdom an archipelago and chose Indonesia as my main inspiration country, researching the climate, seasons, plants, and meals typically found there. I know exactly when the dry season ends and the wet season starts and how this affects the Piranha Plants.

In FOP, I understand the landscapes of Fairy World and Anti-Fairy World, what kinds of mountains and water features they can have, and the flora and fauna found in each location. I know ways to move between locations, what travel is possible with magic, and what happens in times there isn’t any magic. I know what the major buildings are, where they are, and what they do.

In my DP works, there are certain stable parts of the Ghost Zone and certain unstable parts. It’s easy to get lost if you’re new there and not used to things moving around, but as you learn the rules of the world, you’re able to identify landmarks. I know which populations live where and what those landscapes are like. I came up with rules for how lairs work and how far things can move about the Zone. I know how things work and which characters know X amount of information about their surroundings.

Cultural Aspects

I pored over a LOT of small details in canon for my Mario works. I took painstaking notes about the Soybean civilization, the ancient Luffs, the fallen Bask Kingdom, and all sorts of historical tidbits and worked those into modern canon. Some stuff didn’t cross my path during my personal gameplay, but I like knowing about it anyhow.

I considered Peach’s pathway to becoming queen and how she fits her role, especially compared to her predecessors. I made stars important in Mushroom Kingdom culture and the moon important in Koopa culture. I created lore for why karting exists, canonizing all locations and the general idea of kart racing even if I’m not going to make every kart track canon or organize each game in a timeline.

FOP worldbuilding involved gathering as much canon from the show as possible, collecting info from folklore, plucking bits and pieces from insect and bat biology, and marrying the three together. It was important to me to give Fairy World a distinct culture different from any on Earth, and really examine how magic affects daily life in this world.

Anthropomorphizing insect behaviors gave me Fairies who lick faces as a form of greeting and who favor those with freckles above those without. Not exactly accurate to show canon, but it works great. Gyne and drone relationships have been fun to build, and I made sure my timeline included points in the past where such relations were different than modern times. Changes in relationships over time is something that really fascinates me.

Anti-Fairy World also gets a unique culture. Since they’re evil antagonists in show canon, I certainly didn’t want to race-code them like any group of people on Earth. I’ve tried to design them their own culture, heavily inspired by bats and a belief in luck above all. Bats aren’t sociosexual, but they are promiscuous, so I don’t stick wholly to bat behaviors either: they’re partially based on bonobos. Most importantly, I made sure everything I did was fun for me to write.

With my particular writing style, it works to have deep, complex culture for the Anti-Fairies. If I wanted to write short, lighthearted pieces, that would impact where my worldbuilding priorities lay (Probably lots of cute holiday traditions and less focus on why Anti-Fairy culture revolves around causing others harm).

General Research

Heights, timelines, food, and clothes are all things I settle as soon as possible, and I keep ref sheets on hand so I can fact check myself at a glance. Fairies and Anti-Fairies, being a species who live in the clouds, have easier access to silkworms than cotton plants. That determines what their clothing is made of, what products are expensive, and what gets worn on certain occasions. 

I draw from canon where possible, using screenshots or known character heights (Mario canonically 5′1″) and comparing them to others. Being of a different height can impact how others view you. Dining etiquette is a fun cultural difference that can create conversation or social awkwardness and really set the mood.

With fanfics, I dig as deep as I can. Did you know Wario canonically doesn’t know how old he is because his mom never threw him a birthday party? Or that he keeps a matchbox of ants in his cabinet and is “waiting until they worship him as a god”? I drink details like this by the gallon.

I prefer nailing this stuff down before getting far in my writing because that’s what works for me personally. I worldbuild further over time as I think up new questions I didn’t already have answers for.

Unique Aspects

Magic systems are complex. They generally take me longest and are more work than play. I like to have an outline of how a magic system works, write the story, figure out what I absolutely need magic to do and what I don’t want it to do, and then tighten the system during the revision process. For example, I weakened shapeshifting in my FOP works so you can’t easily hold another form while aroused- I personally didn’t want age changes to be involved in lovemaking. That expanded to making it hard to hold a form when you’re drunk too.

It was important to me in my Mario works to have 1-Up mushrooms exist and be capable of saving your life, but I also needed a reason why people don’t walk around with 99 lives and consume 1-Ups at all times. After wrestling with plans for a while, I decided to make them time-sensitive. You have to consume them often to have more than one life on a regular basis, and they’re pretty rare. As long as I can justify why someone has access to this rare item, I can utilize a 1-Up’s power, but I can also justify killing someone off if enough time has passed since they last consumed one.

With Fairly OddParents, I’d seen enough episodes to understand the basics of wishes, magical backup, and Da Rules. When I became serious about writing FOP ‘fics, I started noting the times Cosmo and Wanda failed to use magic for reasons other than Da Rules (Not in sync with each other, low battery, lack of belief in magic, Big Wand toppled over, etc.) and built my version of the FOP magic system to accommodate as many of these “inconsistencies” as I could. My take on magic is complex, but I can stretch the system many ways, so it works great for me.

Will I use everything I’ve worldbuilt in story? I might not say it directly, but having a pool of information I can draw from helps me find ways to flesh out a character’s life. Some stuff makes it in, other stuff is only vaguely glimpsed. To me, diving into worldbuilding is fun. Taking what I have and creating something with it is even more fun. I could whip out a bunch of one-shots about basic slice-of-life events without doing all this work, but tying my stories to social, political, or culture aspects of the world is what I really enjoy.

Q: Do you have any discarded scenes/storylines/projects?

//Laughs

I don’t like deleting things, so I move them to scrap docs instead. Origin, Knots, and the 130 Prompts each have a scrap file of 50+ pages (91 pages of scrapped Prompt scenes) and I can usually remember keywords so the deleted scenes are easy to search for if I need them. Some get recycled, even back into the same chapter I originally deleted them from, but a lot stay dead because they were either irrelevant or inconsistent with the final material. 

Fortunately for me, I have a good memory of what I kept vs. what I scrapped. I’ve compiled some favorites in my deviantArt Sta.sh and linked them in my FOP sideblog because they’re my version of sketchdumps. Even if they’re unfinished, I still think they’re interesting to look at.

For some reason I don’t delete much from my standalone one-shots, just my multi-chapter stuff. Most of what enters my standalones survives.

The projects I’m most hurt to have left hanging are my Total Drama stories The Beatin’ Path and Lions Under Palm Trees, keeping with my tradition of writing stories about eliminated contestants at that season’s elimination location from the perspective of the first character eliminated. I have a good 15k words written for the former and 25k for the latter, and I just… let them slip through my fingers in favor of Fairly OddParents years ago.

Arguably letting them go is for the best because I took the “cartoon physics are canon” concept and RAN with it, so I have an entire plot arc about one character coming into puberty and having his ability to utilize cartoon physics switch on for the first time. I personally consider Lions one of my best works in terms of matching my niche interests, but the acknowledgement of cartoon physics does stray from Total Drama canon, and I just couldn’t get over that enough to keep posting it.

Some of my all-time favorite scenes and characterizations are in these stories. I’m glad I have what I do for myself because these works make me smile even all these years later, buuut it’s probably best if I keep most of this nonsense private. This is probably my favorite snippet of the entire Lions draft, though:

“What’s in the box?”

Don’t say the hearts of small animals, don’t say the hearts of small animals.

“Stuff for my girlfriend.” It wasn’t untrue.

The least loved always end up my favorites somehow. I’m still so in love with my delusional wizard. I honestly might love Leonard more than I love any of the FOP characters I write about nowadays; he was the best I ever had. I mean, look at this FREAKING CHILD-

====

“Hand me my dice.”

Beardo dropped the dice in his hand. Leonard rolled them across the grass. Nine. He groaned. But, obediently, he knelt and poked his head inside the damaged zeppelin.

“Roll me an observance check.”

“Snake eyes.”

“Seriously? It’s dark. Try again. Higher this time.”

Beardo gave the dice another toss. “Lucky lucky seven.”

Leonard let out a high whistle between his front teeth. “No response,” he said after a moment. “I don’t think there are any animals down there, except maybe a few rats and some bugs. All right, I’m jumping down. Keep an eye on my back.”

He slid through the gap and dropped out of sight. Beardo heard him say, “Lux up,” and click the penlight on his keychain.

====

“Incriminatus, television.”

No reaction.

“Incriminatus, television.”

No reaction. The Christmas advertisements blared on. Leonard raised his wand to his eye, then slapped the tip a few times against his palm. “Come on, wand. Tammy isn’t here anymore. Why aren’t you working? I still believe in you.”

The door eased open. “Hey, Leonard,” Jen said in a voice of false cheerfulness. “I got your toothbrush out of… the other room.”

Leonard didn’t try to switch off the TV and faced the window instead. “Brushing teeth is for people who can’t do it with magic.”

====

“Wait.” Leonard raised both hands above his head, squeezing his eyelids tight. “Wait. What you’re saying is, Scarlett pulled a Courtney to the extreme and hid her secret identity as an ‘evil’ mastermind supervillain shaman queen this entire time. She played a character so well that even her closest friend – not to mention Chris – couldn’t see through her act until she chose to reveal herself. At which point she then convinced everyone that she was actually said ‘evil’ mastermind supervillain. You’re telling me there was a LARPing goddess in my presence, and I completely missed it.”

“I didn’t put it in those words for a reason,” Jasmine said, “but at its core, yes.”

Leonard pressed his hands to his cheeks and stared into his salad. “Holy flipping plot twist. I am so turned on right now.”

“No,” Jasmine said, jabbing him in the chest with one finger, “No you are not.”

Amy clicked her tongue. “Leonard, you have a girlfriend.”

“Not anymore. That’s it. I’m breaking up with Tammy for real this time.”

Beardo slapped him on the back of the head and made a sound like a police siren.

====

One Lions chapter was named “Baa Baa Blackmail” if that tells you anything. Ah, memories… It’s probably for the best if these projects stay retired, but I love them so very much.

Fanfic Ask Meme

#Zach needs a tag 9 #asks #ridwriting #Mushrooms and more #FAIRIES! #Satirical vocab alien child show #Going ghost! #riddleverse mention #Long post