Hello once again! This time, it is time for a Koopalings story to add to my Mario fandom!
I'm reading a good one right now entitled 'I Promised' by Just Call Me J and another good one called 'Koopalings Poems' by Coooool123 (not sure if I got the number of O's right), which got me on the idea of writing my own. If you love the Koopalings and touching sibling moments (like me), then you must give them a read!
Hopefully I don't copy anything from any part of either story... if I do, please let me know and I'll make sure to fix it.
This story will feature the small Lemmy Koopa and his insane partner in crime, Ignatius 'Iggy" Koopa as the two main chracters. It may start off slow, as this is my first time writing about these characters, so please be patient with me. It's also going to contain a lot of angst, attempted suicide and slight torture (nothing crazy), so you have been warned.
In this story, age breakdown for the kids (who are all Bowser's) will be as follows:
1. Eldest/Smartest- Ludwig von Koopa- age 18
2. Second-Eldest- Lemmy Koopa- age 17
3. Third- Eldest/ Strongest- Roy Koopa- age 16
4. Middle Child #1/ Second Smartest- Ignatius 'Iggy' Koopa- age 14
5. Middle Child #2/ Second Strongest- Morton Koopa Jr.- age 12
6. Third Youngest- Wendy O. Koopa- age 10
7. Second-Youngest- Lawrence 'Larry' Koopa- age 8
8. Youngest- Bowser Koopa Jr.- age 6
A/N: In this chapter, bold/italics is Lemmy's "mind" speaking. Plain italics is Lemmy's 'thoughts'.
Um, I think that's about it. If you have any questions, comments, anything, please leave a review or PM me! :)
I hope you enjoy! Oh yeahhhhh... don't own Nintendo... pooey! :P
Threshold
Chapter 1- Dead Inside
Lemmy let out a soft sob as the warm tears continued to make trails down his cheeks. It wasn't fair!
Once again, his father, King Bowser Koopa, had wanted to kidnap Peach and kill Mario. Once again, being that he was the second oldest, yet the weakest, he had been sent into battle- first.
And once again, he had been defeated. Terribly.
Lemmy knew that couldn't be helped. He was the smallest in stature, definitely the weakest- heck, his own younger brother Bower Koopa Jr. could take down an entire fleet of Mushroom soldiers in one fell swoop!- and to top it off, his magic was oddly the most useless, unless it was for defensive purposes, despite the fact that he and Iggy held the two most powerful magic staffs in the entire Elite Force.
Lemmy sighed, slowly uncurling himself from his upright fetal position. He was somewhat glad his younger brother Iggy had made plans with their eldest brother Ludwig to go working on some random bomb experiment.
Lemmy was already humiliated by the fact that he lost against Mario, had been and still was badly hurt in the process, had been yelled at by Bowser nonstop for days on end, had been ignored by Ludwig and Iggy, talked about by Morton Jr. ,hit at least once in the head by Wendy's oversized rings and to top it all off, Roy would not let him hear the end of it and taunted him all day and night for weeks.
Lemmy winced at that thought. 'Weeks... was it really that long since I got into trouble?' he thought to himself. Truth be told, it was almost a full two weeks into his punishment.
During the punishment phase of his life, Lemmy had always made it a thing to hide from everyone. If one of his family members caught him, all hell would certainly break loose. Being the meek soul he was, Lemmy hated having to deal with it, so he preferred not to.
A loud bang snapped him out of whatever thoughts he may of had. He franctically looked around his room, thinking Roy and his other younger brother Morton Jr. might have already taken the next step of torturing poor Lemmy- pranking him. Roy seemed to enjoy that lately, but Lemmy never found it funny.
He heard the bang again. When he listened closely, he realized the banging wasn't coming from his room, but down the hall. He sighed. "Iggy... what on earth are you up to now..."
His lips curled into a tiny smile as he listened to Iggy giggling to himself. Oddly enough, while most of his siblings would prefer not to be within twenty feet of the boy, especially when they were fighting, it was actually the opposite with Lemmy. He loved Iggy more than anyone else in his family, next to his mother.
"Probably because we're one in the same..." Lemmy mused.
But his happiness was short lived as he recalled that even Iggy couldn't help but laugh at seeing Lemmy's latest defeat. Lemmy also noticed that Iggy would try to avoid him whenever possible, and has been doing so for the past couple of months.
Wiping his snout, he looked over to the left and caught sight of his favorite ball, the one everyone hated but they knew that he needed. "I always need help doing the smallest things... but I'm the second- eldest!" he angrily cursed at himself as he crawled over to the ball. Despite being a fairly acrobatic little koopaling, the fact still remained- Lemmy could not move without his ball.
Getting more and more frustrated, his little fists rose to start banging the sides of his head, and it was then Lemmy noticed the small blood- covered cut on his left forearm. Lemmy blinked- he didn't recall seeing that the day before- until memory kicked in and he winced, letting his arms drop.
Roy had given him that cut. Lemmy wondered why he never noticed, but figured that at the time, when he got away from Roy's yelling, he was too busy trying not to break down in front of him and the rest of his family...again.
"I told them... I can't fight. I don't want to fight..." Lemmy muttered sadly, pressing his forehead to his cool plastic ball. His little claws dug just a little tighter into the ball.
"They don't... understand. I just like to play..."
Lemmy was nothing more than the black sheep of the family. He knew that. He always would be, even in Iggy's eyes. Lemmy was physically smaller than average, weak, unable to see out of his left eye, and couldn't even get around without his beloved circus ball.
Lemmy wiped his eyes for the hundredth time and stood up. He looked around his room. Circus theme was clearly evident, from the large, blue tent shaped covering for his bed, to the paint on his wall- bright blue with yellow stars. His circus ball matched the wall. Posters of different acrobats covered at least 95 percent of his walls and door. His magic scepter was in a small closet closest the door.
"I'm a kid... some royal prince I am..." he told himself. He hopped on top of his ball, recalling when his father first found out just how different he really was.
Lemmy seemed to have born a healthy baby koopa, save for his size. But at the age of two, Lemmy was just barely getting past the crawling stage, kept bumping or running into things, and seemed to have a hard time talking.
Bowser realized there was a major problem when he kept finding Lemmy just sitting in odd places that he otherwise shouldn't have been in, staring at stars and colors and sometimes, nothing at all. His mouth was almost always hanging open each and every time, and a odd bruise was always on some part of his body, mostly his right side.
His father, despite his mother's wishes, had Lemmy examined. It was then Bowser found out some interesting things about his second oldest son.
Lemmy's legs were oddly underdeveloped. He couldn't maintain his balance for longer than a minute- literally, and when he could stand upright, he couldn't get past four or five steps before he fell down.
The constant running into something was attributed to his eyesight. Lemmy had poor vision in both eyes, but it was even worse in his right eye, which explained why Lemmy mostly kept hurting the right side of himself.
15 years later, Lemmy was now 17 years old. He was a prince, who may possibly be next to inherit the throne.
Yet he was still weak, couldn't grow past 4 feet, still had a childlike voice, could barely see right, and could hardly walk on his own... without the use of a ball or one of his stronger siblings, who had to carry him if he lost or damaged his ball. He had a semi-thin plastron due to his size, and had to wear armor each time he entered battle.
And naturally, due to his playful and childlike personality, Lemmy never took things seriously and always ended up losing.
Lemmy looked fondly at his ball. He had grown so attached to the thing that he couldn't really recall how he found it. He had only been around five or six.
All he knew was that he found a new way to get around. Lemmy smiled as stood up and began to slowly roll around his room, trying not to make noise. "And I did it. I taught myself how to walk." he said quietly.
It had been painful with all the falling, and took a lot of work, but by age seven, Lemmy could finally move around like his family. He was so happy that he thought of the idea all by himself. He had never felt so proud of himself. He had taught himself how to walk, and he was way faster than that of his siblings.
But learning how to walk by circus ball wasn't exactly something his father would consider an accomplishment. Neither did his brothers and sister. It usually made him the target of constant teasing- because he had to walk on a ball.
'I'm different, that's why they do that...' Lemmy thought bitterly, stopping himself. He bit his lip, slamming his tiny fist against the right side of his head.
He did it again. And again. And again. Until he was certain there was a bruise there and he was getting a headache.
"Why me...? Why was I born so... different from everyone?" he mumbled, getting off the ball and sitting down. He felt slightly dizzy from the sudden headache.
At the end of it all, wondering why wouldn't help anything. It certainly didn't help him defeat Mario and Luigi, or any other enemy of his father's for that matter.
What it did was get him yelled at, picked on by Roy, who was growing a lot more... brutal, for lack of the right word, and in the end, grounded next to his insane brother for another two weeks.
Lemmy sniffed once more, a small hiccup escaping his mouth. He didn't want to keep crying, but what else could he do?
'I need to leave here... I have to, or everything is just going to get worse...'
Lemmy let out a breath to calm himself down. Once he felt a bit more stable and his head wasn't ringing, he got back on top of his ball, quietly opened his door, checked to make sure no one would see him, and then left.
"It's okay. It's not like anyone's going to miss me, anyway." he convinced himself as he closed his door. Looking around once more, he started rolling to his left down a dark, long corridor, heading toward a wooden door.
Lemmy's room was on the fifth floor of Bowser's castle. He took his time and quietly got to the forth floor, then the third. So far, so good.
As he was passing by a large wall on his way to the first floor, Lemmy halted. Something glittery caught in the hallways' light. He tilted his head, but his left eye made it a lot harder to see anything. Curious, he rolled closer to inspect it.
Once he saw what was so shiny, he gasped, his mouth hanging open and eyes wide. "M...Mama..."
Lemmy stood in front of a massive painting of his and his sibling's mother, Queen Clawdia von Koopa III. He had never seen that painting before and wondered how long it had been there. It was clean, so he figured that one of the royal servents must have known about it. Their father would have known about it, too. He had to- it was his castle.
Lemmy reached out and touched the gold frame the painting resided in. He shivered, the cold metal making him a little chilled. "Mama... do you love me as I am? Or do you hate me, too?" he asked softly. He smiled, wondering what his mother would have done in this situation.
Lemmy remembered a fair amount about his mother. His favorite memories were of him playing with her medium-length blue hair.
Ludwig would snap if Lemmy came within a yard of his hair, to the point where he would cry when Ludwig pushed him away. So his mother allowed him to style her hair when she had free time. Even as a baby, her curls had always fascinated Lemmy, mostly because of how blue they were.
Another thing he remembered were her eyes. Hers had been the most beautiful shade of onyx he had ever seen, and he understood where he and most of his siblings got their eye color from. She was always caring about Lemmy and his siblings, and her expression always portrayed it. Lemmy could never recall one instance she never wore a smile on her face.
The last thing he would always remember was a special ruby ring that their father gave her on their wedding day. Lemmy hated that memory more than anything.
It was the day their mother passed away from 'natural causes'. Frankly, Lemmy still had no clue what really happened to their mother. No one except for Bowser knew, and he never explained it to Lemmy, or Ludwig, or any of the children.
All he really remembered was staring extremely hard at the ring. It was a fairly large ruby stone, and the band was gold.
He did remember Morton and Wendy were crying a lot, hugging each other. Bowser hadn't really said anything; he just... stood there, holding two little koopalings, Junior and Lawrence. Larry was asleep, and Junior was sucking his thumb. Lemmy didn't blame him- he didn't understand.
Ludwig had been looking elsewhere, but he had been holding Roy's hand. Roy was shaking a lot, and Lemmy remembered that Ludwig had looked at him and mouthed something that calmed him for a few moments. It was the first time that the larger koopa had removed his pink shades. Iggy was standing closer to the door, twiddling his thumbs. His whole being was tense, and his glasses weren't on. That was another first, as Iggy was virtually blind without them.
Lemmy had been the only one who no one really comforted. He had just kept staring at the ring, wondering when he could let go of his tears.
That night was the first of many crying breakdowns Lemmy suffered. After that night, everything went downhill.
As Lemmy traced the decorative patterns on the frame, he realized that he did take it the hardest. He loved to make her laugh, to play with her when no one else would, to hide behind her when his younger siblings and his older brother made fun of him. It gave him a reason to smile himself.
Lemmy was her little clown, and he enjoyed what he did. Especially if it meant he didn't have to enter into battle.
"But... you're not here anymore, Mama..." Lemmy whispered to himself. He smiled sadly, rolling back to get another good look at the painting.
"I guess it's hard to love someone who will always be the freak of the family. I can't make them laugh; I just make them mad." He sighed as he turned to leave.
"But I love everyone here, and I hope they know that." Lemmy finished, voice lowered to a cracking whisper as the tears threatened to start again. He looked over his shoulder one last time at the painting and waved at it, almost as if he knew his mother would return the gesture. Then he set about his way.
He soon reached the first floor, and carefully rolled along, his mind occupied with thoughts.
As he passed his younger brother Larry's room, he paused, listening to the sounds that he heard drifting through his slightly opened door. It sounded like the latter was playing the Wii again.
'He better be careful. I think training is tomorrow, and he knows how Dad gets if we wake up late. Maybe I...'
Lemmy cut that thought short. Larry was known for being a tad bit hard-headed, especially if Lemmy talked to him. On top of which, he didn't feel like dealing with another round of teasing. He decided to let the matter drop. So he kept rolling.
Lemmy was thankful all his younger siblings loved to sleep. Except for Iggy and Larry, everyone else was still-
Nope. Scratch that. Almost everyone.
Lemmy stood in front of Ludwig's music room. The lights were on, and it sounded like Ludwig was yelling at something. 'Probably can't find any more inspiration again... or maybe that bomb thing didn't work out... but with that racket, he'll wake up Dad...'
"...but Father, it is the thirty- seventh battle this month! He is constantly getting destroyed, and it ruins our plans to attack next! Why do you keep that boy around?! Lemmy is useless!"
Lemmy bit down on his lip. Never mind, Ludwig was talking to Father... and about that loss again. Great.
'I can't catch a break here, can I? It's been nearly three weeks, Ludwig... I wonder why you're still so upset about it.' Lemmy mused as he listened. He heard some more noise- a similar banging like the sound that was coming out of Iggy's room- but he didn't remember hearing Iggy leave his room.
The useless part...that wasn't news to him, although it still stung. 'I don't want to be useless... honest...'
"Ludwig, I understand. And I hate to say this about my own flesh and blood, but you're right. Lemmy isn't exactly one of us, you know that. He's always been different. And that difference is costing me soldiers left and right..."
Lemmy understood the soldier part, but he couldn't figure out where this was going.
"I don't know what to do about him. He's my son, but I can't afford to keep him on battle fronts when he keeps getting beaten. The boy... gah, he's always useless... so weak and pitiful. His mother was nothing like that, so I don't know why he is!" Bowser roared, annoyed.
Lemmy's dark pools filled with more tears. 'Mother... she was strong. Maybe she never ran away after all. Unlike me...'
"Father, I say we throw him out. He is my brother yes, but he is also a being I cannot afford to defend if he cannot even defend himself. Look at him, he cannot even move without that stupid circus thing!"
Lemmy backed away from the door, ready to run as fast as his legs could manage, when he heard another voice coming from the room. He froze, nearly falling off his ball.
"Daddy, Lemmy's broken. I don't think you can fix him, 'cause you can't fix what can never be fixed! Teehee, he's just as blind and useless as a dead lamb!"
As Iggy began to giggle, Lemmy had heard enough.
He needed to leave. NOW.
He rolled as fast as could towards a door. Lemmy knew that had to be the exit, and slammed into it as hard as he could. He didn't care who heard him or if the door would hurt him- he had to leave.
'Why you, Iggy... why do you all... hate me?'
As he rolled, his vision fogged by his tears and his shoulder sore from slamming himself to freedom, his ball ran over something. Lemmy was sent flying off his ball and landed plastron first on the ground. The breath was knocked out of him, and he let out a scream.
"M-My plastron..." he whimpered. Sure enough, he had a small crack on the upper portion of his chest. It hurt a lot more than he thought.
Tears still rapidly falling down his face, he laid there coughing as he tried to catch his breath, covered in dirt, looking just as pitiful as his father said.
Lemmy rest his head on the ground, finally reaching his breaking point for the second time that night. He cried his eyes out, screamed his lungs raw, tried to do anything to make that horrible stinging pain in his chest go away.
'Why would they do something like that? Do they realize that stuff hurts? I don't want to be the weakest, I don't!'
"B-B-But... I am... why can't you just accept me? W-W-why do you all hate me?!" he blubbered sadly to no one in particular.
It was a long, long while before the tears stopped. Lemmy was empty now. He sat himself upright, ignoring his cracked plastron and his beloved ball that was nearby. He didn't know where he wandered too, nor did he care.
He wasn't back there. That's all that mattered.
Lemmy began stumbling through a location he'd never been to. The entire walk, Lemmy stopped thinking about everything, if anything. He couldn't find anything to cry about, to be mad about, nothing. It wasn't peaceful, but it sure helped take away a lot of his heartache.
He cried himself raw- what else could he be upset about now?
Soon, he cam across a small river, and sat down near the water's edge. The location of the stream felt eerily familiar, although Lemmy was certain he had never been here before. Even so, he liked it.
It felt warm here, and the scene looked beautiful. With the full moon out, he could see green, nothing but green and tall trees whose leaves rustled in the breeze. Lemmy looked down, his fingers running through the grass. It felt so prickly, their tips brushing against his skin. Little padded feet fiddled with some rocks that was close the water's edge.
"What is this place?" he asked himself in amazement. He looked at the moon again, then at the river, watching the breeze move the water to and fro. He smiled.
"Maybe there is still something left for me..." he whispered as he took in the scene. He drew his legs closer to his chest and laughed quietly to himself, just amused by the sheer beauty that was here.
"I wonder... why does this place feel so familiar? I've never-"
But his tranquil thoughts stopped when he noticed something just barely floating above the water. He leaned forward and grabbed it, only to wince in pain. He looked at his hand, and saw that a thin line of blood seeped through broken skin. Confused, Lemmy looked at the object he found.
A piece of a sharp rock. It looked like it had been broken.
Lemmy stared a little too hard at it, all his emotions from the last three years bubbling to the surface. His hands shook as he grasped the sharp object.
Not thinking about what he was doing, he made one smooth motion, and sliced into his arm. Red seeped from the wound, landing in heavy drops onto the floor. Lemmy blinked. It wasn't as painful as he thought it would be.
And just like that, Lemmy's reasoning flew out the window. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "I hate it! I hate it, I hate it, I HATE EVERYTHING!" before he sliced into his arm again. That only made his pain inside worse.
"Useless... stupid, worthless... I HATE ALL OF YOU!"
Soon, his legs, left eye, and even his plastron were heavily soaked in his blood. Gashes adored his arms and legs, and his eye was bleeding badly.
The strange thing was, none of it hurt. If anything, it made him feel... relived.
"I-I'm not... u-u-useless... Mama..."
Lemmy was panting heavily, and growing dizzy from the loss of blood. His fingers loosed of it's grip of the blood covered rock, and it fell to the ground.
Lemmy staggered to the water, blearily looking at himself in the reflection. What he saw was no surprise, even though he still didn't understand why this place felt so comforting to him.
A tiny, bloody, koopa with a sad, half-lidded expression and dried tears on his cheeks. Rainbow hair spiked everywhere, a crack in his plastron, and at least, one good eye to see with.
He sighed contently. "I... I can... be use... ful..."
Lemmy collapsed into a heap, letting out a small whimper before he curled into a fetal position. His head was spinning, and he felt sick to his stomach. Bleeding and broken, Lemmy closed his eyes as he tried to calm his spinning, pounding head.
'I... I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was such a failure to everyone... but I will never be here to mess up again.'
A breeze kicked up, causing grass to tickle his snout and cheek. It made him smile, if only for a little while longer.
He opened one eye and tried to focus on the grass, but his vision was slowly darkening. The one strand of grass looked like green and black polka dots.
'Nature... pure...like Junior...'
Lemmy's thoughts became scrambled as he tried to stay awake. His mind was trying to reason with him, to keep him alive, but Lemmy himself just wanted to quit.
'Why... am I staying... awake... again?'
"Because you can't just up and die on your family! Are you insane?!"
Lemmy chuckled weakly. "N-No... Iggy..." he mumbled, eye closing.
"You idiot! Wake up! You know your family needs you!"
'N-no... they don't... need...me. I... I wanna sleep now... please?'
Lemmy started to relax as a numb sensation began to take over him. His limbs felt heavier, his heart... a lot lighter. He let himself be taken away; all the while, his mind tried to reason with him.
"LEMMY! You have to wake up! You need to get home and get help!"
'B-but... why? Who... what are you?'
"Don't worry about that! You are BLEEDING to DEATH! Need I say more?! Now get up and get home before we die out here!"
'W-we...? I don't know... what you are, but... but I'm not going to live that long, anyway.
I don't want to.'
"Why not, you twit!?"
'I... have always been the black sheep in my family. I didn't... I never asked to be like this. No one did...
I can't do anything to make anyone happy anymore. I... I wish I knew why Father hates me... why my family... acts like I'm such... such a burden to them. Maybe it might... make living easier... I don't know.
I'm tired of being useless. I don't like to fight. I can't fight. I can't even protect my little brothers and sister...'
"Lemmy, you are aware that nothing is wrong with you, right?"
'Everything is wrong... can I... sleep now?'
"No. And you're missing the point. Lemmy, you're not a freak, you are who you are. Everything your family may hate about you is what makes you special. You can do things they can never do, act and show emotions in ways they can't understand. That is why they act so cold toward you."
'Yeah... I-I guess...sleep time now?'
Lemmy let his eye close, his entire body completely lax at that point. His breathing started to even out, slow and deep. But his mind and him were still talking... in a sense.
"Lemmy, tell me something. Do you think this is the answer?"
'...I don't know.'
"Then why would you do it? Why hurt yourself this much and risk dying?"
'I...I don't... want to be hurt by them anymore... I guess.'
"Are you sure? Are they really causing you to do this? Or are you just afraid of being alone?"
'... both. Mama is... I don't... have anyone else. They all hate me...'
"What about Iggy? Doesn't he love you? And your brothers and sister? And your father?"
'No...'
"...do you want to know what it feels like? To be dead?"
'I think... I know the feeling already. I've been like that... for some time.'
"Lemmy, this isn't the answer. I'm sorry... but you're not dying today. Sure, you're pretty darn close. But you will not be dying today."
'Huh...? I... thought I was...'
"No, you're not. But you have to understand that running away will not solve anything. Now, I'm gonna ask you again. Do you really want to die alone out here in a place you once cherished?"
'I...cherished? But... I don't...understand. I don't know what I want...'
"Let's start with living, huh? Once you're alright, I'll explain everything."
Okay, and chapter one finished! This one made me actually cry a little. I don't think any of my fanfiction made me THIS sad before... poor Lemmy! I'm sowieeeee! :(
Don't worry- Lemmy's not out of the story this early! :) He's just... out of commission until next chapter... and talking to his mind while in limbo... and Bowser may kill me later, but ANYWAY... :O
Random sidenote- Iggy's name in Greek roughly translates to 'goofy'. I thought that was kind of cute given his personality.
I hope you all enjoy this new story! Again, please leave a review or PM me if you have any questions or concerns.
Until next chapter (when hopefully I don't start with the waterworks again), Sayoonara! :)
ads not by this site
