Welcome, to The Mole. A game of betrayal, deciet, lies, treachery, and sabotogue. In this game, ten players have been chosen to compete for a large sum of coins. During this game, however, only one of them will win the money, while eight of them will fall to the sabotuer. the Mole.
the Mole is a red mark upon the game. Each and every member except for them are playing to increase the money in the team's pot in hopes that they will win it in the end. However, the Mole's goal? To create chaos and confusion in the team, to hide themselves within, to make it almost impossible for the team to work together to earn money, and to personally sabotauge challenges in hope that the players do not notice.
The players' main quest is simple. Learn who the Mole is, and answer questions about them during the quizzes at the end of each episode, so they can survive the game until the end. The winner? Gets every last coin that has been put into the team pot. The losers all go home with nothing. the Mole goes home with the satisfaction of being a sabotuer.
The players have been brought into the world of the original Paper Mario, from Toad Town, to Koopa Bros Fortress, to Tubba Blubba's Castle and beyond, they will face a multitude of challenges, trying to earn money. But, let's begin shall we? To the first episode of...
The Mole: Mushroom Kingdom.
A woman stood at Toad town's station, tapping her foot gently against the cobblestone below. Her rainbow patterned dress shone in the light as she moved her fingers to her ear, activating the microphone there. "Producer, the train's on its way. Shall I begin?" A muffled noise came from her headset and she nodded, turning to the camera. "Welcome, to The Mole. Today, our contestants shall be arriving by train to begin their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom. As you know, one of them is not who they seem, but that matter is for another time." The woman brushed her white hair behind her ears, before curtsying to the camera.
"I shall be your hostess for this game, Timpani Bleck."
Given name: Timpani
Surname: Bleck
Birthday: 7/13
Occupation: Television Show Host
"I do not know who the Mole is either, so I will not slip up and accidentally reveal too much. So don't ask!" The human pointed at the camera with a glare, before returning to her more serious state. "That was a personal request. So let's begin the game, and try to see if we can't figure out what's going on together." She walked off to the side, standing beside a Green thumb print patterned sign with a few bags below it.
The first car of the train carrying the contestants was a soft shade of blue, and it opened up to show a goomba with a red ascot and miner's hat, looking around quickly with her blond ponytail whipping through the air.
Given name: Goombella
Surname: Goom
Birthday: 12/3
Occupation: Archaeology Student
"Wow, this is so much different that Rogueport! Definitely a good change of pace from our last adventure!" Goombella turned to the car as a very well-known figure left the car. He jumped over the gap between the car and station right before the door closed behind them, and watched as it moved forward for the next car.
He adjusted his red cap, nodding softly. "Agreed. Always nice to be back in Toad Town. Been a long time admittedly since I've seen it like this though..."
Given name: Mario
Surname: Mario
Birthday: 7/30
Occupation: Hero/Plumber
Timpani spoke up and gestured for the two contestants to approach her. "That's due to the constant renovations Toad Town goes through after each of Bowser's attacks. Peach recently found the old plans for this one, so she- GAH!" Mario immediately tackled the host into a hug, a wide grin on his face.
"Tippi! It's so good to see you! After that whole incident with Dimentio I was worried you'd died when you did the thing with your husband and-" The host immediately shoved Mario off, pushing the male to the floor and glaring at him
"Mario! Professionalism! Get it! We're on international television right now!" Mario glanced at the camera and chuckled softly, his face slowly matching his shirt. Tippi moved her hand to her microphone again. "What're the chances of that getting cut out? 0%? I was afraid of that." The host stayed silent, glaring at the Yellow car as it opened up for the next few contestants.
A hoodie wearing koopa stepped off first, rubbing at the bandage on his nose as he whistled slightly. "Oh wow... This place is really nice. A lot different from Petalburg, that's for sure."
Given name: Koops
Surname: Koo
Birthday: 1/5
Occupation: Mayor
"I'll show you around sometime!" Mario held his hand out towards Koops, and they shook hands in greeting before music started to play.
Tippi immediately mumbled something about a stupid clause in a contract as the famous actress floated off of the train, laughing jovially. "Oh how wonderful it is to be in the spotlight as myself! It's been a long time." She gestured at the Boomboxer who was playing her introductory music and he tapped his head to turn it off. "Thank you dear. I know it was an odd request, but I couldn't help the theatrics."
Given name: Flurrie
Surname: Cumula
Birthday: 5/2
Occupation: Actress
The cloud-like woman kissed the aid's cheek and sent him off, before turning to Tippi. "Ah, what a beautiful dress you have. Wherever did you get it?"
"My husband made it for me out of a rainbow. He's a magician." Tippi stayed silent after that though, tapping her foot softly against the pavement as the next car slowly moved. The old friends started speaking with one another energetically, catching up and talking over one another.
"I actually got nominated and elected for Mayor! Koopie is having our first child sometime soon and Dad's so happy about it!"
"I've been busy saving Peach and the world a few more times. I'm here to take a break from all that really since it's just been stressful"
"I'm taking some classes to be a teacher as well! After seeing the Shadow queen's temple I couldn't help but want to share my findings."
"The play based on our adventure did very well, and I got scouted for a television show. I'm not used to it however, so I applied to this."
"GONZALES!" Just as Mario had tackled Tippi, he was soon tackled by a teenage-looking blue Yoshi who slammed into his side in a hug. "Been a long time! How's it goin'?"
Given name: Yoshi
Surname: Gonzales
Birthday: 6/6
Occupation: Fighter
Mario gave the fighter a huge grin. "Going good. How's it been with you? Looks like you've grown a lot." Mario held his hand up to Yoshi's head, eyeballing him about five feet tall now.
"Heh, been doing my best to live up to the Great Gonzalez! Er, well Mario." Yoshi rubbed under his nose carefully. "Still gotta get used to your real name."
A soft twinkling giggle sounded and Yoshi's shadow disappeared from underneath him, before a red hat popped out, followed by a purple figure. "I thought it was cute how you always called him Gonzales. Though it does make sense why you'd change, you'll need to know his real name after all if he's the Mole."
Given name: Vivian
Surname: Darque
Birthday: 4/1
Occupation: Jeweler
Goombella rolled her eyes and stared at Vivian. "Yeah right. Like they'd pick Mario to be the mole. He's way too nice to be it."
The Shadow Siren let out another giggle, putting a hand to her mouth. "You never know, Goombella. Maybe I'm the Mole? Or Koops? or Yoshi? They could pick anyone at all they wanted."
Tippi gestured the conductor to continue along the line of the cars. "Of course. You never know, the most trustworthy of people could have been chosen because they knew people'd believe them."
An older voice called from the White car. "Quite a pickle, I feel. You never know whether your closest friend or your worst enemy in this game is the one lying through their teeth." The ship-wheel-fused bob-omb looked at the gap between the car and the platform. "... Can one of you give me a hand, I don't wish to fall."
Given name: Bobbery
Surname: Shipshape
Birthday: 8/23
Occupation: Ship Navigator
Koops helped Bobbery over the gap and smiled. "You watched the foreign stuff too?"
"Of course! I had to prepare myself some way. I think I have a good strategy for this game."
A soft giggle came from the train as a small white mouse hopped over the gap expertly, glancing to the car and her fellow rider. "Well everyone should. Otherwise, you'll be out as soon as possible."
Given name: Eva
Surname: Mowz
Birthday: 3/8
Occupation: Badge Shop Owner
Mario thought about his own strategy, to basically just play the game and have fun. While not the best for the quizzes, he was happy with it. "Nice to see you again, Ms. Mowz."
"Please call me Eva, my hunk of cheese~" She jumped up and pecked Mario on the cheek for a moment, causing the plumber to laugh.
"Is that everyone?" Koops counted the people there. "This was everyone on our adventure, wasn't it?" He turns to Tippi, who looked towards the last, black car.
"There's two more contestants. You've met them on your adventure. One of them we had to have some... complicated things to include them."
"I do have to thank the producer and the Princess for allowing me to compete with the rest of you." A humanoid figure steps off from the last car, brushing off their white button up shirt and tan dress pants.
Given name: TEC
Surname: Naught
Birthday: 1/3
Occupation: Programmer/Robot
"... Who are you?" All the other contestants stared at him and he shook his head, running a hand through his short black hair.
"TEC. Peach and the producer found someone to create a robot for me to house in after the X-naut base was destroyed. Do not worry however, I'm only as physically capable as the other humans in the Mushroom Kingdom." He holds his hands up once he noticed one of the others glaring at him. "Maybe less so, since they prioritized my mental capacities."
Mario: I honestly don't like judging people immediately, but TEC is a bit suspicious. The producer put so much effort into a realistic robot? I really don't think someone'd just randomly go "Hey, let's do this for a contestant who will possibly get eliminated first." ... Then again he did mention Peach as well, and Peach is the kind of person who would do something like that.
Ema: TEC seems like a lovely character, but too obviously defending himself in my eyes. He could simply be searching for approval... Or he could be preparing to fail a physical challenge soon.
Hopping across the gap, and watching the train head off to the parts unknown, a pink hatted female toad looked around, before nervously glancing at Mario and ducking her head, her cheeks beginning to match her face.
Given name: Toadette
Surname: Mush
Birthday: 10/31
Occupation: Florist
The toad stayed at the back as the others happily spoke to one another, before watching as Timpani coughed quietly. "Now that that is settled, I have a few things to do-" The human pulled out a multitude of colored notebooks, each with a bright green stamp on the cover, and placed them on a table beside the books. Each one had a silver number embroidered on the bottom left corner of it, though the numbers were unusual. Each one had one digit that many times, except for one that was numberless. "Here are your journals. These will be the only writing devices you shall have for the course of the game, unless there are some for the challenges. All information you think is of importance should belong here. Now then-" She passed out every notebook carefully to everyone. Red numberless to Vivian first, yellow 1 to Mario, orange 22 to Goombella, pink 333 to Toadette, blue 4444 to TEC.
55555 was a white notebook to Bobbery, 666666 was a black notebook handed to Flurrie- and Vivian and Mario were both seen in the background scribbling everyone's numbers down. Koops got a purple notebook with 7777777 on it, causing the koopa to laugh. "I need all the luck I can get." The green 88888888 went to the white mouse , leaving 999999999 on indigo to the Yoshi.
Vivian: I had to write that Flurrie got 666 666! It's the number of the beast and the Mole's definitely devilish. Maybe it's one of the "Clues"... I wish I got Toadette's notebook though, 3 is my lucky number...
TEC: 4444. The number 4 signifies death in some cultures, so that number four times is... not a good sign.
Goombella: The way the numbers were I was a bit annoyed. Why not just put it in order? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Why make someone have no number, and someone else have something in the millions?
Bobbery: Heh, these numbers have to have some significance. Admittedly, my personal thoughts go out towards Koops. he was the only one to actually mention it...
Toadette spoke up for the first time after Yoshi began writing in his own notebook. "Um... If you don't mind me asking-" She shied away from the attention that got her and coughed. "May I have my bag? I'm a bit thirsty." She pointed to the pile of bags beside Timpani and the host let out a soft, almost taunting smile.
"You will after your first challenge... or someone else might." That... got everyone a bit nervous, and Tippi held three fingers up. "But first, you must split into three groups. The first group is a loner, who "Knows everyone the most." Everyone waited for her to continue... but the host just gestured them to pick someone. "You can't expect me to give you every last piece of information at once." She put her hands on her hips. "Pick the loner and we'll go to the next group."
Goombella jumped up and down. "I think I do! I mean me and Mario were the two who met everyone on our journey." She glanced at everyone, and Toadette spoke up once again.
"You didn't meet me though." The goomba lightly glared at the girl.
Koops frowned softly, looking the florist over for a bit. "Yeah, we didn't meet any female toads on our journey that looked like her..."
"MAMA MIA!" Mario lept into the air in shock, pointing a finger at the her. "You're the one who taught me about my hammers and shoes!" Toadette smiled softly and nodded... causing the others to look just plain confused. "Well that settles it. I'm the only one who met Toadette, and Toadette here has only met me." Before anyone could say anything, he turned to Tippi. "I know everyone best."
Tippi nodded. "All right then." The aide who had played Flurrie's introduction grabbed Mario by the wrist and led him off to another area. She turned back to the group at large though. "And now for you guys, you have two groups to split into. 3 people who talk too much, and 6 who have a shoddy memory."
Goombella paused for a moment, before seeing everyone staring at her right after the first question. "... What?"
"You're going into the talk to much group." Eva laughed under her breath. "After all, your entire aid to Mario was blabbing about enemies' secrets."
"Hey! At least Mario WANTED me to come with him, you on the other hand would've just been another side character if he hadn't gone through the trouble."
Flurrie stepped between the two, pushing them apart. "I think you two need some time apart. With that said, I'm going to join Eva in the Shoddy Memory group.'
Bobbery was still writing in his notebook as he added his two cents. "Talks too much. After all, I've caused many a sailor to fall asleep telling my tales."
"So... One more person for that group?" Vivian looked around, before seeing the pink capped toad. "How about Toadette? If she taught Mario how to use his weapons, maybe she's good at talking?"
With that, said toad flushed pink and ran her hands over her braid. "T... That's nothing, it was a part-time job. I'm only a florist after all."
"Even better." Vivian nods at that, softly smiling and putting a hand on her back. "You probably have to tell people about those flowers often."
Yoshi grins and looks to Toadette. "Yeah! I think you'll do great. Besides, you probably don't have a *Censor* memory if you remembered talking to mario what, 4 times?"
"Yoshi, language." The host tapped her fingers against her arm, before checking her watch. "Twenty seconds."
"So Toadette it is?" Everyone but her nodded in agreement, and she gulped, waiting for Tippi's explaination.
"All right. This challenge is called Baggage Claim"The host gestured to everyone's bags, the labels on the side plain as day. "Mario is going to use a few items from your bags to try to identify who has what." Tippi crossed her arms. "Your challenge is to help him. For every correct bag, you get 2000 coins, meaning this game is worth 20000." Everyone let out a quiet murmur of excitement at that as she continued. "You all are going to be telling the three who talk to much what is in your bags- but keep in mind: Mario's only going to be getting things that probably won't be too clear at first glance who it belongs to. So for example, there's not going to be any of your normal outfits, or pictures of you or your loved ones. There may be folded papers but Mario won't be told to open them, and you can't tell him that."
"Hoo boy, this is going to be tough. There's nine of us for those three to talk about." Koops rubbed the back of his neck nervously as Bobbery grinned.
"Nonsense my good koopa. If we take our time we can-"
"Sadly, you won't have much time to do it." Tippi smiled a bit gesturing at the three chosen. "For they have ONE breath to tell Mario everything. We will keep an ear out on your microphones and say if something stops. And? If you do use more than one breath, a penalty of 1000 coins will be taken from your winnings."
Yoshi let out a quiet cuss. The rest of the group eyed the three and Tippi quickly looked at her watch.
"Mario is currently being told his role as well by my aide. You have ten minutes to get things together. Starting? Now."
Immediately everyone started talking about their belongings, easily confusing the chosen talkers who tried to take everything in, until Goombella let out a loud whistle. Everyone abruptly came to a stop a minute in and stared at her.
"We're not going to be able to remember our OWN belongings with that, let alone everyone. How about this, we split into 3 groups again. Two memory, one talker. The talker has less people to talk about, and more time to make use of their breath. Maybe we even should move apart from one another too to make it even easier?"
Flurrie spoke up, lightly grabbing Yoshi and Goombella at that time, "That sounds perfect."
"Come on Eva, Bobbery." Vivian gestured for the two of them to follow her and wandered away.
"Koops, Toadette, I guess that means you're with me?" TEC was quiet, tilting his head at the two of them as they started to converse.
"They're going to be telling you about what they've got in their bags. Your job is to identify, from what they say, which items here belong to which person." The aid had led Mario to a few containers, each holding a few items inside. Mario could easily see his own items and understood what the boomboxer was saying. It... was a bit difficult. At first glance, some of the boxes had very similar things. Jewelry, letters, sports drinks, papers. If his companions didn't tell him the right things, or were too vague? He could easily make a mistake. "Each bag you get right gives two thousand coins, but there's a catch that the others don't know."
The boomboxer held up two fingers to Mario, the plumber quirking an eyebrow in curiosity. "You have two chances to earn an exemption in this challenge. An exemption means you have immunity from the execution at the end of the episode."
That... caught the hero's interest, causing to lean forward. "So what're the two chances?"
The boomboxer gestured at all the boxes. "First one, the easier one but more costly. Don't even put one box with one bag. That costs the pot 20,000 coins. The other one is a bit easier, but it still costs money." He points where the others were communicating. "The talkers only have one breath each. It'll only cost three-thousand coins, but you must have each of them speak after their breath is out. If one of them doesn't speak, your only option's to have everyone be bagless for the first episode... Which could be anywhere from a couple of hours, to a couple of days."
The red-wearing plumber slowly turned to the bags, a hand against his chin as he thought over the offer...
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New fanfic, new start! Also remind me never to use the site for spell-checking, even when people were speaking it called out passive voice and gave me a headache. Hope you all enjoy this, I'm having a lot of fun writing this so far.
I'm well aware there's like... twenty people writing these kinds of things, but I love The Mole, love Mario, and love their fics! Soooo yeah, I wrote this.