Second Father?
Alright. My first Mario oneshot and my first new fanfiction in general since 2015 thanks to me taking a major hiatus. In spite of that, I have tons of unpublished chapters waiting to be posted when the time comes (Smash and FNAF), but that's beside the point.
This time, this oneshot is going to be all about Ludwig, and as the summary implies, all I have to say that it is simply not being the oldest (yet everyone should know that obviously. lol). But we're just gonna see it from Ludwig's perspective of all people, since it's an absolute nightmare for him. (Poor guy).
We'll see how this one goes and you guys can tell me what I need to work on.
~KF
It was nearing one in the afternoon, and Ludwig Von Koopa found himself to be at the large, black desk in his room, using a rather expensive pen to work on yet another musical composition. Prior to his hobby, he had to pause his session to head downstairs to join his family for lunch. Now that he was by himself once more, he used his time wisely to continue as he dipped the quill pen in ink to write some more.
Despite being at peace initially, a problem would come by and knock on his door in a matter of moments.
"LUDWIG!"
Slamming his writing utensil on the floor to express his sudden anger, he irritatingly stood to answer the problem that was on the other side of the door..
Normally if people answered the door after being bothered, the typical person would have shouted, or at least raised his or her voice slightly in hopes that the botherer would explain the situation rather quickly.
However, that was not the case for Ludwig, as it was the reason why his oldest younger brother, Lemuel Koopa simply stood still on his ball and stared with the occasional blinking of his crossed eyes.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Can you get Roy for me?"
In the playroom on the bottom floor of the castle. Ludwig angrily threw the door open as he entered the area with Lemmy close behind. Constantly shifting his head around in attempt to locate his stronger brother, he glared at Lemmy.
"Where is he?"
"I dunno, I can't find him either." He shrugged.
"You aren't even trying to help me." The blue-haired prince sighed in frustration. "You're the victim in this case, so you should try. Why do you even want that ball back? You're literally standing on one right now."
"I already told you!" Lemmy answered. "I'm using this ball to walk on and the other to play with! But Roy stole it from me and he will never give it back! You on the other hand actually stands a chance!"
"Just help me look for him." Ludwig shook his head, having no desire to process the immaturity of his siblings.
"...Okay." He blinked after a brief moment before he began to yell. "...ROY!? ...ROY!?"
Sighing, Ludwig did an eye roll, deciding to not waste his energy to wander across the play area to search. "He probably left and headed for either the gym or his room, Lemmy…"
"But, he was just here a few minutes ago before I left!"
"And he could have left here while you were gone!" Ludwig shouted back. "We'll check the gym first, but if he's not there, and if he's not his room either, I'm not planning on wasting my time. Besides working on my compositions, there are other things that I need to take care of."
"What do you mean?" Lemmy cocked his head to the side.
"I mean that I'm not going to help you look for Roy all day." Ludwig shook his head again, but this time he did it more slowly. "I have enough on my plate already…"
That was when he suddenly received a tap on the shoulder. Turning his head around swiftly, it turned out to be Iggy who was the culprit.
"What do you want?" The older brother spoke first, realizing that it was just another problem to him that he had to work with.
"Ludwig, you promised me yesterday that you were going to help me on my latest invention today." The most insane Koopaling of the eight confronted his brother with a glare. Folding his arms, he cocked his head to the side. "Did you not?"
He heaved a great sigh knowing exactly where he was going. "Note to self: never make promises with anyone."
"Did you not!?"
His second sigh took a longer time to process, rather than previously. "Look Iggy, I know what I said. That's one of the reasons why I told Lemmy that I don't have a lot of time on my hands. Do you not see me dealing with him?"
"All I know is that I'm not gonna forget."
As one of the middle children of Bowser walked off, Ludwig was left alone with the second born once again. "Do you see what it's like to be the eldest of all of you? I feel like a father of… seven myself! Now I don't blame father for scolding you all half the time. Anyway, you'd better hope that we locate that ball of yours within the next ten minutes or I'm going to call it quits."
"But-"
"But, nothing Lemmy. I am not going to say it again. Ten minutes and that's final. Deal with it." Ludwig glared out of frustration as he threw the door back open. His father had to run some errands that had to take place outside the castle, making Ludwig in charge of the rest of his siblings as usual. Even though Kamek and Kammy were there, Bowser's first child still felt like a nanny every time his father was out, like how it would usually go for anyone who is the oldest. However, obviously nothing is ever easy if the person had seven siblings that were younger.
In Ludwig's point of view, it was always either Lemmy vs Roy, Roy vs Morton, Roy vs Wendy, Wendy vs Morton, Roy vs Larry, or Larry vs Jr. So as one could see, Roy always caused the majority of the problems in the castle, but it clearly did not mean that the rest of his siblings were perfect.
Since the gym closer, it was common sense for Ludwig and Lemmy to head there first. Yet on the way, Wendy and Morton came rushing in their direction, already pointing fingers at each other.
Promptly stopping, they contributed to the sudden noise level of the hallway and the two younger Koopalings began yelling at Ludwig about one another of what the other sibling did according to his or her knowledge.
However, to their surprise, Ludwig simply shook his head and wandered on, with Lemmy glancing his crossed eyes between him and the ones that were younger than he was. Following him shortly after, it left Wendy and Morton to stare at each other, only to begin shouting at each other's face again.
As Ludwig finally opened the door to the gym, he found himself slipping on something and ended up falling right on his shell, with Lemmy gasping loudly in the process with his hands covering his mouth.
While Ludwig was on the ground, he stared in front of him to see a familiar object.
"Oh, there's my other ball!" Lemmy smiled, before looking at Ludwig that was holding yet another glare. "...What?"
"...You don't have any concern for me?" He asked holding his hands out.
"...Um… Well, it seems that you're alright." Lemmy responded with a shrug and innocent grin.
Ludwig sighed and shook it off as he began to help himself back on his feet. However, when the two oldest boys heard laughter, their heads shifted to the right and widened their eyes.
Roy.
"Oh wow, I thought someone like Larry or any other Koopa in this castle would end up falling like that since I left it right in front of the door." The strongest Koopaling of the bunch was laughing so loud, he had a left hand on his chest. "But, you? Of all people? You should have seen the look on your face! Priceless! I should've recorded that myself."
When Lemmy picked the ball he was asking for, Roy quickly dashed forward and snatched it right out of his hands again.
"Hey!" Lemmy shouted staring angrily. "Give that back! ...Again!"
Deciding that it was a basketball, he took advantage of the situation by dribbling on the gym floor to shoot the ball in the basket with little to no trouble at all. To avoid Lemmy grabbing it again, he ran forward and took ahold of it first.
As Ludwig watched as Lemmy chased Roy around the gym, he waited until they were both circling him, where he extended his arm to snatch it from Roy and decided to aim for the basket himself. Fortunately for him, like Roy, it went in the hoop with hardly any problems.
That was when Roy's jaw dropped. "...W-What?"
"You're not the only one who can shoot properly, Roy." Ludwig rolled his eyes. "I can't say that I'm as good as you are, but I've watched you play basketball for quite a while with Morton."
Speaking of his dark-skinned brother, the sound of the gym door caused the oldest three brothers to nimbly rotate their heads as he stepped foot in the gym. By his ticked off look, one could tell that he had enough with Wendy and chose to let the situation go.
"Okay Roy, I'm back…" Morton shook his head. "What are we learning today again?"
"Where's Wendy?" He questioned. "Didn't she say she was coming here?"
"She stormed off to her room to complain to all of her friends on social media."
"...What were you two fighting about?" Ludwig's raised eyebrow showed that he was finally curious.
"She blamed me for stealing her makeup, even though she found out that Larry did it after you ignored us." He explained.
"That girl needs to get over herself. She's more of a princess than Princess Peach." Roy shook his head in annoyance. "She acts like it has never been stolen from her before. Ain't nobody got time for that."
"Well, it's safe to say that no one has time for you to steal my ball all the time." Lemmy butted in.
"..." Roy decided to grab Lemmy's other ball yet again and bounced it around all three of his siblings before shooting it once more. However, unlike last time, he was not successful at the end result, which caused him to kick the ball away in frustration, almost hitting Morton in the process.
While he was complaining, Ludwig chose to repeat the same process as Roy. Only this time, the ball actually made it in the hoop, forcing the surprise of everyone else in the gymnasium.
Roy on the other hand, dropped his surprised expression behind his pink sunglasses as his mood changed to anger and annoyance. "Okay, time out! Since when did you think it was okay to make a basket again?"
"...Since when do you think I would accidentally shoot the ball in the basket?" Ludwig retaliated. "By the way, we already had a mom. She may no longer be with us, but for me personally, I'd rather not have a second one telling me what to do, especially since we're two years apart. Instead, since you love to tell people what to do, how about you make some changes and tell yourself to get rid of that ego of yours."
"OOH!" Lemmy and Morton yelled out.
"..." Roy slowly walked up towards Ludwig with clenched fists. "...What!?"
"Try me." He folded his arms, staring at his taller, younger sibling. "The intimidation trick is not going to work anymore, brother. We can either do this the hard way or the easy way. Take your pick."
Once that was said, Roy waited a few seconds staring him down before promptly grabbing the ball and plan to shoot it for a third time. Although, the plan did not work as Ludwig slapped the ball right from him as he stole it back with fast timing as he barely made another basket. But since it still made it in, it did not even matter
All three of his siblings had their jaws dropped yet again, with Roy obviously being the one that was beyond ticked off.
"Next time don't come for me."
Walking away, when he opened the door to leave everyone, he found himself staring at the youngest of the family, Bowser Jr., who looked as if he was getting ready to go inside.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Hey Ludwig, dad said that he was gonna finish this painting for me." He hold a large piece of paper to reveal an uncompleted Blooper. "But since I hate waiting, can you finish this with me?"
"...Why can't you finish it yourself?"
"Because I wanted dad to finish it with me, but he's not here!" He replied, lowering his arm and the picture. "What else was I supposed to do?"
Ludwig groaned with a facepalm as he began to speak to himself in his own thoughts. "...If I believe in reincarnation, I'll make sure I'm younger than somebody next time…"
Yeah, I wanted to write a oneshot for Ludwig for a long time. It took me forever to come up with something. I didn't want this to be a boring oneshot, so I decided to ask the basketball scene for humor. Hopefully it made up for the boring concept behind this fic. What do you all think?
On a side note, as stated, I decided to start up my 'Bowser's Castle' forum again. If you want to join, PM me and we can go from there. ;-)
Questions:
1. Whether you have a sibling or not, would you rather be older, or younger? Why?
2. If you have multiple siblings, how much do they annoy you if they do? On a scale from 1-10.
Since this is a Mario fanfiction (a Koopaling fanfiction to be specific), check out my multi-chaptered fanfic "No Such Thing" if you want. It's more of an adventure fic for those that are interested.
As stated before, I'm one of those who accepts constructive criticism. What do you like/dislike?
I encourage all Ludwig fans to review!